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Monday, May 7, 2012
5/7/12 news
Monday, May 7, 2012
JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1. Robo-Ops Robotics Competition
2. ISS COnfiguration Status Management Operations System (COSMOS) User Forum
3. It's Week Two of Health and Fitness Month -- Get Healthy and Win Prizes
4. S&MA Innovation Speaker Forum - Professor Liwen Shih - May 9
5. Johnson Space Center Astronomy Society (JSCAS) Meeting
6. Lunarfins JSC SCUBA Club Meeting
7. Parenting for Single Fathers
8. COTR: Basic Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) Training
9. The Project Management Institute (PMI) is Accepting Applications for Scholarship
________________________________________ QUOTE OF THE DAY
“ Let my name stand among those who are willing to bear ridicule and reproach for the truth's sake, and so earn some right to rejoice when the victory is won. ”
-- Louisa May Alcott
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1. Robo-Ops Robotics Competition
The second annual 2012 NASA RASC-AL Exploration Robo-Ops Competition is in need of volunteer judges. In this exciting competition, student teams comprised of both undergraduate and graduate students design and build planetary rovers and demonstrate their capability to perform a series of competitive tasks at the JSC rock yard from May 30 to June 1.
If you have a background or an interest in robotics, then we need you! Consider participating in this competition as a judge, providing insight and support to the next generation of planetary rover designers.
For more information on Robo-Ops, please visit the Robo-Ops website.
Contact:
Stacy Dees: Stacy.dees@nianet.org
or
Shelly Spears: shelly.spears@nianet.org
Lyndon Bridgwater x36625 http://www.nianet.org/RoboOps-2012/index.aspx
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2. ISS COnfiguration Status Management Operations System (COSMOS) User Forum
The International Space Station COSMOS team will hold a forum tomorrow, May 8, at 11:30 a.m. in Building 4S, Conference Room 3419. Please join us to learn about recent COSMOS improvements and to participate in a live demonstration of the electronic Change Request (eCR) submittal process.
If you will not be able to attend in person and require WebEx and/or teleconference services, please send an email request to carey.j.peirsol@nasa.gov for more information.
Carey Peirsol x47803
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3. It's Week Two of Health and Fitness Month -- Get Healthy and Win Prizes
Did you earn random drawing tickets last week? If not, there are many opportunities this week.
Earn multiple tickets for the Online Scavenger Hunt Challenge (open through 5 p.m. on Friday, May 11). Don't miss Dr. Larry Wier's ViTS presentation on "Metabolic Syndrome and Physical Fitness" (TODAY at 1:30 p.m. in Building 17, Room 2026) or the 30-minute wellness class, "Your Brain … Use it or Lose it," with Takis Bogdanos of the JSC Employee Assistance Program (May 9, 12 noon, Building 3 café). Join us for a stroll around the pond during the Poker Walk Challenge (May 10, 11 a.m., outside in front of Building 11) -- prizes, including a dry-fit Health and Fitness Month (HFM) shirt, will be awarded to the top three hands. Additional event details can be found on the interactive HFM calendar on the Starport website: http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/documents/MAY2012-NEW.pdf
Remember, you can also earn tickets all month long from biking to work, attending Starport group exercise classes and completing your Mayo Clinic health assessment online!
Jessica Vos x41383 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/documents/MAY2012-NEW.pdf
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4. S&MA Innovation Speaker Forum - Professor Liwen Shih - May 9
Topic: Future Technology Innovations With a Focus on Adaptive Computer Solution Optimization for Space, Health and Energy
Date: May 9 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Location: Building 1, Room 966
Professor Shih regularly teaches High-Performance Computer (HPC) architecture, Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and Parallel Processing (PP). These unique and innovative approaches aim to expand the knowledge horizon.
Professor Shih has supervised most of University of Houston-Clear Lake's recent computer engineering capstone research projects and several theses. The recent emphasis in vital medical, energy and space applications has resulted in several presentations in worldwide forums.
Joyce Abbey 281-335-2041
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5. Johnson Space Center Astronomy Society (JSCAS) Meeting
THE END OF THE WORLD IS COMING! Or is it?
Discussions and concerns about the 2012 Mayan apocalyptic prediction will take center stage as Carolyn Sumners, astronomer in residence and astronomy curator at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, will join us for the evening. She will provide us an entertaining talk on this currently popular subject.
Additional talks will feature topics like "What's Up in the Sky this Month?" and suggestions for beginner observing, "Astro Oddities," plus the popular novice question-and-answer session. We will kick off a new loaner program and share tales of our recent, highly successful star parties.
Our meetings are held on the second Friday of each month at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the USRA building (3600 Bay Area Blvd. at Middlebrook Drive).
Membership to the JSCAS is open to anyone who wants to learn about astronomy. There are no dues, no-by laws -- you just show up to our meeting.
Jim Wessel x41128 http://www.jscas.net/
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6. Lunarfins JSC SCUBA Club Meeting
The next meeting of the Lunarfins JSC SCUBA Club will be held Wednesday, May 9, at 7 p.m. at the Clear Lake Park building (5001 NASA Parkway). The Clear Lake Park building entrance is at the park traffic light on the lake-side. This month's presenter is Gary Swearingen from the Houston Scuba Academy. He will be presenting on Wakatobi diving. Guests and all are welcome to attend.
Mike Manering x32618 http://www.lunarfins.com
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7. Parenting for Single Fathers
Please join Takis Bogdanos, MA, LPC, of the JSC Employee Assistance Program, to explore different approaches to the challenges of single parenting and identify options for navigating the life stages both you and your kids are going through. We'll discuss lessons learned from participants' experiences as single dads in a productive and judgment-free setting. Bring your questions and success stories to Building 32, Room 142, today, May 7, at 12 noon.
Takis Bogdanos x36130
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8. COTR: Basic Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) Training
When: May 14-18 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Description: This is a class required to obtain a Federal Acquisition Certification as a COR. It is part of a federal government-wide certification program that is required as a prerequisite for all individuals appointed as CORs on agency contracts, including Phase II and III awards made under NASA's Small Business Innovation Research and Technology Transfer Programs. The successful completion of this course places your name on NASA's FAC-COR list, solely based on your response to the prerequisite (questionnaire) PROC-COR-BASIC_Exam01, for the COR training registration. Audience: Learners who do not already have FAC-COR status, will serve as a COR or Alt COR. TMRs, Contracting/Acquisition personnel are welcomed to take the course. Registration cutoff is May 9. Max class size: 30.
Direct link: https://satern.nasa.gov/plateau/user/deeplink.do?linkId=REGISTRATION&schedule..
Florence Ahadzie x34371
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9. The Project Management Institute (PMI) is Accepting Applications for Scholarship
The PMI Clear Lake-Galveston Chapter is sponsoring the Ray Piper Memorial Scholarship, which supports development of the best and brightest future project management professionals. Applications are due by June 1. Applicants must be enrolled in or applying for an accredited academic degree program in project management or a related field benefiting from project management, with the following order of priority.
Candidates must be:
1. Enrolled in an accredited academic institution in an undergraduate or graduate course of study in project management or a related field.
2. One of the following:
- A resident of the area served by the PMI Clear Lake-Galveston Chapter
- Enrolled in an academic institution in the Clear Lake-Galveston area
- Family member of a member in good standing of the PMI Clear Lake-Galveston Chapter
- Enrolled in an accredited U.S. university
For questions, email: pmief@pmi.org
Apply online: http://www.pmi.org/pmief/scholarship/scholarships.asp
Cheyenne McKeegan x31016
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JSC Today is compiled periodically as a service to JSC employees on an as-submitted basis. Any JSC organization or employee may submit articles. To see an archive of previous JSC Today announcements, go to http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/pao/news/jsctoday/archives.
Human Spaceflight News
Monday, May 7, 2012
"It was twenty years ago today..."- The Beatles Endeavour's Maiden Launch: STS-49
HEADLINES AND LEADS
SpaceX launch slips to May 19
William Harwood - CBS News
Eleventh-hour work to validate critical navigation and control software has forced Space Exploration Technologies Corp. to pass up a pair of launch opportunities next week, delaying the first flight of a commercial cargo ship bound for the International Space Station to May 19, company officials said Friday. Already running about three months behind schedule, SpaceX gave up a May 7 launch slot earlier this week and during a late afternoon teleconference with senior NASA managers Friday, company officials decided to pass up a May 10 backup opportunity.
SpaceX again delays historic rocket launch to space station
W.J. Hennigan - Los Angeles Times
SpaceX has delayed its historic rocket launch to the International Space Station yet again. The launch date, which has been pushed back several times already, is now set for May 19. The company, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., was slated to blast off May 7 from Cape Canaveral, Fla., in a demonstration flight for NASA. Three or four days after launch, the company is set to make history if it docks with the space station, marking the first time that a privately built spaceship has done so. But the launch has been delayed more than a week so engineers can make sure all onboard computer software is up to snuff.
SpaceX aims for May 19 lift off of 1st U.S. commercial space station resupply mission
Mark Carreau - Aviation Week
SpaceX is looking to May 19, with May 22 as a backup, for the launch of the first U. S. commercial re-supply mission to the International Space Station. With May 19, the lift off of the Falcon 9/Dragon combination from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., would be 4:55 a.m., EDT. The company announced its intentions late Friday, following the successful launching of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V from Cape Canaveral with a USAF communications satellite.
SpaceX sets May 19 launch for flight to space station
Stephen Clark - SpaceflightNow.com
The need for additional software assurance testing has again delayed the launch of SpaceX's commercial demonstration flight to the International Space Station, the company announced Friday, until at least May 19. "SpaceX and NASA are nearing completion of the software assurance process, and SpaceX is submitting a request to the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for a May 19 launch target with a backup on May 22," the company said in a statement released Friday.
Private Company Delays 1st Launch to Space Station to May 19
Clara Moskowitz - Space.com
The private spaceflight company SpaceX has once again postponed the launch of its first commercial Dragon space capsule bound for the International Space Station, this time to May 19, to allow more time to complete final checks on the spacecraft's rocket. The new launch date, announced Friday, is the latest delay for SpaceX, which initially hoped to loft the Dragon capsule on its debut trip to the space station on April 30. Last week, the Hawthorne, Calif.-based company delayed the launch to May 7 to allow more time for flight software checks. Yesterday, SpaceX officials said the May 7 date was unlikely, but kept open an option for a May 10 liftoff.
SpaceX boss admits sleep elusive before ISS launch
Jean-Louis Santini - Agence France Presse
Elon Musk, the Internet entrepreneur and owner of SpaceX, which aims to be the first private firm to send a cargo craft to the International Space Station, admits he has a case of pre-launch jitters. In an interview with AFP, Musk described the oft-delayed launch of his company's cargo-loaded Dragon spacecraft -- now pushed back to May 19 -- as both "exciting" and "extremely difficult," and expressed confidence in his team.
Is Texas forfeiting the private space race?
SpaceX’s idea to build a launch site isn't gaining traction at the state level
Eric Berger - Houston Chronicle
Later this month, a U.S. company plans to make the first private spaceflight to the International Space Station. Much of the space community views the launch by SpaceX as a watershed moment: the opening of the heavens to private industry and a glimpse of the public-private nature of future spaceflight. The launch also comes as Texas' future in space is increasingly tenuous, with Johnson Space Center's role unclear amid a NASA that won't have its own functional rocket for at least a decade. That's why some Texas space officials are enthused about SpaceX's consideration of building a spaceport in Texas.
Texas officials quiet on space launch site project
Associated Press
Proponents are eagerly pursuing a project to keep Texas at the center of the space exploration efforts, but say they are getting little encouragement from state officials, according to a published report. Leaders of the Texas space industry are anticipating the May 19 test launch of a private cargo ship from Cape Canaveral, Fla., to the International Space Station. They hope to persuade Space Exploration Technologies Corp., better known as SpaceX, to develop a launch site near Brownsville in far South Texas.
A Desert Town on the Way Up ... to Space
Kenneth Chang - New York Times
The sign into town, slightly weathered, says “Gateway to Space!” Beyond it lies the Mojave Air and Space Port, once a Marine auxiliary air station during World War II, now an incubator for the tinkerers and dreamers in the New Space movement. Adherents believe that the next phase of space exploration will be led by nimble, ambitious entrepreneurs — a new generation of people like Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, who helped create the electronics industry in a garage — and that this is their moment to come together and make it happen. “It’s very similar to the Silicon Valley effect,” said Stuart O. Witt, the chief executive of the space port for the past decade, explaining how half a dozen outer space start-ups came to cluster at Mojave, a small desert town about 90 miles north of Los Angeles.
Space hall of famers humbled at honors
Shuttle-era astronauts all spent time on Mir in addition to other missions
Scott Gunnerson - Florida Today
A young man from Costa Rica who followed his heroes into space proclaimed the American dream Saturday as he was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame. “I’m most thankful to this great nation, that in 1968, opened the doors for me, a dreamer that came to the shores of this country, and this country opened the doors to the American dream,” said Franklin Chang Díaz, who spent more than 1,601 hours in space during seven shuttle missions, including 19 hours and 31 minutes on three spacewalks. “I can say that I fulfilled that dream, and the dream is alive in this country.” Chang Díaz, Kevin Chilton and Charles Precourt bring the number of enshrined astronauts to 82. They are the 11th group of shuttle astronauts to join a select group that includes Neil Armstrong, John Glenn, Buzz Aldrin and Sally Ride.
Astronaut Hall of Fame's new inductees humbled by heroes' welcome
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
The U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame welcomed three new space travelers into its ranks Saturday, honoring a spacewalker who tied the record for the most space missions, the military's highest ranking astronaut, and a former chief of the NASA astronaut corps. Franklin Chang Diaz, Kevin Chilton and Charles Precourt, the Hall of Fame's 11th class of space shuttle astronauts and the first to be inducted after the 30 year program had come to its end, were enshrined during a public ceremony held at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, which includes the Hall of Fame.
Students set sights high for their experiments destined for space station
Zahra Ahmed - Houston Chronicle
Science experiments aren't just for classrooms anymore. Four Houston students have earned their projects a trip to outer space on the unmanned SpaceX Dragon capsule, slated to make the first commercial launch to the International Space Station's research laboratory. A group of fifth-graders from Parker Elementary and a Johnston Middle School eighth-grader conducted two out of 15 experiments selected nationally as winners of the Student Spaceflight Experiment Program.
A piece of NASA history lands at Keystone Heights museum
Hannah Winston - Gainesville Sun
Robert Oehl grew up with astronauts for neighbors. In Clear Lake City, Texas, during the Apollo space mission years, Oehl was surrounded by what he calls the pinnacle of human achievement: space flight. Now, Oehl, co-founder and director of the Wings of Dreams Aviation Museum, gets to sit in his own simulator and teach the next generation to appreciate and understand the final frontier. The Space Shuttle Guidance and Navigation Simulator, used to train astronauts for shuttle missions, has found a new home at the Wings of Dreams Aviation Museum at the Keystone Heights Airport.
Former astronaut tells teachers about meeting challenges
Erin Mulvane - Houston Chronicle
Mark Kelly has built an impressive résumé - former American astronaut, commander of the space shuttle Endeavour and a recent best-selling author, but he said Sunday that he was a "directionless kid" and a "classic underachiever" growing up. Kelly told the crowd of educators gathered for the H-E-B Excellence in Education Awards that he managed his great accomplishments by working toward goals and making tough decisions - the same skills strong teachers must use every day.
Measuring success of SpaceX's flight to ISS won't be easy
John Kelly - Florida Today (Commentary)
There is much debate about what would constitute success for Space X’s coming landmark attempt to launch a privately developed spaceship to the International Space Station. The answer is layered and depends on whose measures of success you’re considering. Technical experts in the aerospace industry, whether they’re from SpaceX, NASA or competing commercial space ventures, will say there are so many parts of this program in “testing,” that pulling off a launch, an orbital flight and close-up rendezvous with the space station would represent major progress.
A world class visitor experience at Spaceport America
Christine Anderson - Las Cruces Sun-News
(Anderson is the executive director of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority)
There is no doubt that Spaceport America is well on its way to delivering on the promises made to the state taxpayers. I'm happy to report that 99 percent of the spaceport's Phase One construction is complete, and we should be receiving a certificate of occupancy on the Gateway to Space building and the Spaceport Operations Center shortly. More than 1,000 New Mexicans have worked on the project so far, and more than $12 million in GRT has come back to the state and local counties since the beginning of construction. In addition, more than $5 million has gone to spaceport-related education since 2009 and we have achieved global media coverage promoting the state of New Mexico valued at over $40 million since the facility's groundbreaking.
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COMPLETE STORIES
SpaceX launch slips to May 19
William Harwood - CBS News
Eleventh-hour work to validate critical navigation and control software has forced Space Exploration Technologies Corp. to pass up a pair of launch opportunities next week, delaying the first flight of a commercial cargo ship bound for the International Space Station to May 19, company officials said Friday.
Already running about three months behind schedule, SpaceX gave up a May 7 launch slot earlier this week and during a late afternoon teleconference with senior NASA managers Friday, company officials decided to pass up a May 10 backup opportunity.
"SpaceX and NASA are nearing completion of the software assurance process, and SpaceX is submitting a request to the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for a May 19th launch target with a backup on May 22nd," SpaceX spokeswoman Kirstin Brost Grantham said in a short statement. "Thus far, no issues have been uncovered during this process, but with a mission of this complexity we want to be extremely diligent."
May 10 was the last day the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo capsule could have taken off and still completed a rendezvous and berthing before the planned launch of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying three fresh crew members to the lab complex. The Soyuz TMA-04M spacecraft is scheduled for launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on May 14 U.S. time with docking at the station's upper Poisk module expected two days later.
SpaceX now hopes to launch its Falcon 9/Dragon spacecraft from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station around 4:55 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) on Saturday, May 19. The flight plan calls for a series of test maneuvers during a close approach May 21 before berthing at the Earth-facing port of fhe station's forward Harmony module the next day.
The SpaceX Dragon capsule is the first commercial cargo ship to be cleared for a flight to the space station, a key element in NASA's long-range strategy to use private-sector spacecraft to help keep the lab complex supplied in the wake of the space shuttle's retirement. SpaceX of Hawthorne, Calif., holds a $1.6 billion contract to launch 12 resupply missions while Orbital Sciences of MacLean, Va., holds a contract valued at $1.9 billion for eight flights.
Both companies hold separate contracts for test flights and SpaceX is first to the launch pad with its Falcon 9/Dragon spacecraft. For this initial flight, the Dragon capsule will be carrying 1,150 pounds of non-critical equipment and supplies, including clothing and food for upcoming crews. If all goes well, Dragon will remained docked to the station for at least two weeks, depending on lighting and temperature constraints, before it is released for a splashdown off the coast of California.
"The most important thing about this first attempt is to make sure you get your hardare, your software and your operations down correctly," space station flight engineer Donald Pettit told CBS News in an interview earlier Friday. "They could send an empty vehicle up here from a supply point of view and the important aspect is to show that we can actually do this. The supplies are just frosting on the cake.
"However, we are on a frontier up here and we're always on the verge of (being) supply limited and you can't just run down to the local grocery store," he said. "Just as an example, we're almost out of disinfectant wipes, and without that we can't clean our hands after we go to the bathroom. We're always running low on things like that. We're getting low on garbage bag liners. ... There's always something that we're short on up here, and the more wagons bringing supplies to station, the better we can continue our work."
After a successful test flight of the Falcon 9/Dragon spacecraft in December 2010, SpaceX successfully lobbied NASA to combine a second and third into a single mission that would include the first Dragon berthing with the station. Launch originally was targeted for early February, but the flight has been repeatedly pushed back to give SpaceX additional time to validate its trajectory analysis and command software.
SpaceX again delays historic rocket launch to space station
W.J. Hennigan - Los Angeles Times
SpaceX has delayed its historic rocket launch to the International Space Station yet again.
The launch date, which has been pushed back several times already, is now set for May 19.
The company, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., was slated to blast off May 7 from Cape Canaveral, Fla., in a demonstration flight for NASA. Three or four days after launch, the company is set to make history if it docks with the space station, marking the first time that a privately built spaceship has done so.
But the launch has been delayed more than a week so engineers can make sure all onboard computer software is up to snuff.
"Thus far, no issues have been uncovered during this process, but with a mission of this complexity we want to be extremely diligent," SpaceX spokeswoman Kirstin Brost Grantham said in statement.
On Monday, SpaceX’s launch looked like it was on target when the company performed a successful test of its rocket engines, called a static fire test, at its launch pad in Cape Canaveral.
But "there are a few remaining open items but we are ready to support SpaceX for its new launch date of May 19," William Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations, said in a statement.
The unmanned docking mission to the space station is intended to prove to NASA that SpaceX’s rocket and space capsule are ready to take on the task of hauling cargo for the space agency now that the space shuttle fleet has been retired.
SpaceX aims to do a flyby at the $100-billion space station and then approach it, so the onboard space station crew can snag it with a robotic arm and dock it.
The company already has a $1.6-billion contract to haul cargo in 12 flights to the space station for NASA. If the upcoming mission is successful, SpaceX would start in earnest to fulfill the contract.
SpaceX makes its Dragon capsule and 18-story Falcon 9 rocket at a sprawling facility in Hawthorne that once housed assembly on fuselage sections for Boeing Co.'s 747 jumbo jet. The hardware is put on a big rig and sent to Cape Canaveral for launches.
In December 2010, SpaceX became the first private company to blast a spacecraft into Earth's orbit and have it return intact. The company, whose employment numbers now stand at around 1,800, has been planning the upcoming docking mission ever since.
SpaceX aims for May 19 lift off of 1st U.S. commercial space station resupply mission
Mark Carreau - Aviation Week
SpaceX is looking to May 19, with May 22 as a backup, for the launch of the first U. S. commercial re-supply mission to the International Space Station.
With May 19, the lift off of the Falcon 9/Dragon combination from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., would be 4:55 a.m., EDT.
The company announced its intentions late Friday, following the successful launching of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V from Cape Canaveral with a USAF communications satellite.
The much anticipated SpaceX test flight, conducted under NASA's Commercial Orbital Space Transportation Systems initiative, has skipped from April 30 to May 7.
The planned 18-day test flight will boost a reusable Dragon capsule with a small cargo atop a Falcon 9 launcher.
Following a mission day two rendezvous with the station to assess Dragon navigation and station communications and command capabilities, the unpiloted supply craft would approach close enough on day three for station astronauts to grab the capsule with Canadarm2.
Once the 58-foot-long Canadian robot arm has Dragon within its grasp, the astronauts will maneuver the supply ship to a berthing with the station's U. S. segment Harmony module for a 15 day stay.
The latest mission delays have been associated with NASA monitored flight control software testing of the Dragon by SpaceX.
In Friday's statement, SpaceX said the company and NASA were nearing the end of the software assurance process and it was submitting a request to the U. S. Air Force Eastern Range for a May 19 target launch date.
"Thus far, no issues have been uncovered during this process, but with a mission of this complexity we want to be extremely vigitlant," SpaceX noted in the statement issued by spokeswoman Kirsten Brost Grantham.
NASA was receptive.
"After additional reviews and discussions between the SpaceX and NASA teams, we are in a position to proceed toward this important launch," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations. "There are a few open items, but we are ready to support SpaceX for its new launch date of May 19.
If the departure date holds, it will come within days of the launch and docking of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft with three new U. S. and Russian space station crew members. The Soyuz launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and docking are set for May 15-17.
SpaceX sets May 19 launch for flight to space station
Stephen Clark - SpaceflightNow.com
The need for additional software assurance testing has again delayed the launch of SpaceX's commercial demonstration flight to the International Space Station, the company announced Friday, until at least May 19.
"SpaceX and NASA are nearing completion of the software assurance process, and SpaceX is submitting a request to the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for a May 19 launch target with a backup on May 22," the company said in a statement released Friday.
"Thus far, no issues have been uncovered during this process, but with a mission of this complexity we want to be extremely diligent," the statement said.
Launch of the Falcon 9 rocket on May 19 would occur at approximately 4:55 a.m. EDT (0855 GMT).
The mission can only launch every few days to ensure the Dragon spacecraft has sufficient propellant margins for extra orbital maneuvers planned for the test flight.
The launch slip puts liftoff of the test flight from Cape Canaveral after the docking of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft with three new space station residents - a NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts - to restore the lab to a full six-person crew. NASA and station partners avoid having two visiting spacecraft fly to the space station at the same time.
The Soyuz is due to launch May 14, U.S. time, and dock with the space station May 17.
SpaceX has blamed delays from the beginning of this year on the need to verify flight software can safely accomplish the Dragon spacecraft's final approach to the space station, a sensitive phase of the mission in which the capsule must be capable of recognizing on-board problems and executing an abort out of the vicinity of the crewed outpost.
"After additional reviews and discussions between the SpaceX and NASA teams, we are in a position to proceed toward this important launch," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations. "The teamwork provided by these teams is phenomenal. There are a few remaining open items but we are ready to support SpaceX for its new launch date of May 19."
The last target launch date for the test flight was May 7.
SpaceX completed hardware-in-the-loop testing last week to simulate how the Dragon spacecraft systems and software will work together in space, but changes to the software compelled NASA to rerun another set of integrated software testing, according to a source familiar with the flight.
The software is responsible for the final steps of Dragon's rendezvous with the space station.
Engineers and managers are still checking the results of the tests before approving the flight to proceed to the space station.
The Dragon spacecraft is loaded with cargo and maneuvering fuel inside SpaceX's hangar at Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral. Its Falcon 9 launcher completed an on-pad test firing Monday of its nine Merlin main engines.
The capsule's pressurized cabin contains 1,146 pounds of cargo to be sent to the space station, including food, clothing, laptops, and experiment hardware.
If the Dragon blasts off May 19, it will reach the International Space Station on May 21 for a flyby 1.6 miles below the complex. The test approach will check the craft's guidance, navigation and control systems before NASA allows the vehicle to come closer to the space station.
If all goes according to plan, the Dragon will be in position to rendezvous with the space station again May 22 for berthing with the orbiting lab.
But the mission's primary goal is to demonstrate Dragon's ability to autonomously and safely rendezvous with the complex. SpaceX developed the Dragon spacecraft with private capital and NASA funding to resupply the space station on at least 12 operational robotic cargo missions.
SpaceX will receive $396 million from NASA for development and testing of the commercial cargo system, and the bulk of the money has already been awarded to SpaceX.
If the upcoming flight goes as planned, another Dragon capsule will launch later this year on the first of the dozen resupply flights. SpaceX signed a $1.6 billion contract for the operational missions in 2008.
Private Company Delays 1st Launch to Space Station to May 19
Clara Moskowitz - Space.com
The private spaceflight company SpaceX has once again postponed the launch of its first commercial Dragon space capsule bound for the International Space Station, this time to May 19, to allow more time to complete final checks on the spacecraft's rocket.
The new launch date, announced Friday, is the latest delay for SpaceX, which initially hoped to loft the Dragon capsule on its debut trip to the space station on April 30. Last week, the Hawthorne, Calif.-based company delayed the launch to May 7 to allow more time for flight software checks. Yesterday, SpaceX officials said the May 7 date was unlikely, but kept open an option for a May 10 liftoff.
"SpaceX is requesting a May 19th launch target with a backup on May 22 from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station," SpaceX officials announced in a Twitter update today.
The latest delay pushes the Dragon launch well into May, meaning it will launch on the heels of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying three new crewmembers to the International Space Station. That Soyuz spacecraft will blast off from Kazakhstan on May 14 and arrive at the space station on May 17. NASA astronaut Joe Acaba and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin ride the Soyuz to the station to join three other crewmates already aboard.
The repeated delays to Dragon's liftoff have been prompted by the need for more checkouts of the vehicle and its Falcon 9 rocket. The first private spacecraft's visit to the orbiting laboratory is a milestone event, and neither NASA nor SpaceX wants to risk damaging the $100 billion outpost.
"After additional reviews and discussions between the SpaceX and NASA teams, we are in a position to proceed toward this important launch," said William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations. "The teamwork provided by these teams is phenomenal. There are a few remaining open items but we are ready to support SpaceX for its new launch date of May 19."
Engineers are reportedly doing final tests of Dragon's docking software to iron out the wrinkles in its plan to join up with the space station. Three days after launching, Dragon is due to come within range of the station, then be grabbed by the laboratory's robotic arm, which will be controlled from inside by astronauts Don Pettit of NASA and European Space Agency spaceflyer Andre Kuipers.
SpaceX also conducted a static test firing of the Falcon 9's rocket engines April 30. After an initial hiccup, the test went through successfully on the second try.
"Woohoo, rocket hold down firing completed and all looks good!" SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted after the event.
SpaceX engineers are still reviewing data from the test, company officials said.
SpaceX, officially known as Space Exploration Technologies, has a NASA contract worth $1.6 billion to fly 12 unmanned cargo-delivery missions to the space station, under the agency's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program. The upcoming flight is a demonstration mission to prove out the vehicle before those ferry flights take place.
Eventually, SpaceX plans to outfit Dragon to carry up to seven crewmembers to orbit. NASA hopes to use the vehicle to carry not just cargo, but astronauts, to the station in the wake of the space shuttles' retirement last year.
SpaceX boss admits sleep elusive before ISS launch
Jean-Louis Santini - Agence France Presse
Elon Musk, the Internet entrepreneur and owner of SpaceX, which aims to be the first private firm to send a cargo craft to the International Space Station, admits he has a case of pre-launch jitters.
In an interview with AFP, Musk described the oft-delayed launch of his company's cargo-loaded Dragon spacecraft -- now pushed back to May 19 -- as both "exciting" and "extremely difficult," and expressed confidence in his team.
"It's just taking longer than expected to analyze all the data," Musk told AFP by telephone. "We need to make sure that the software is going to make the right commands and not endanger the space station."
SpaceX made history with its Dragon launch in December 2010, becoming the first commercial outfit to send a spacecraft into orbit and back.
This time, the gumdrop-shaped Dragon capsule will carry 521 kilograms (1,148 pounds) of cargo for the space lab and will also aim to return a 660-kilo load to Earth.
The attempt to send the spacecraft from Cape Canaveral, Florida to the orbiting research lab has been repeatedly delayed, most recently from a planned May 7 launch date, and earlier on April 30.
The latest delay is to ensure that there are no glitches in the craft's software.
"I usually sleep well before a launch... but no, I'm not sleeping well," Musk said with a laugh when asked if he was nervous this time around.
The 40-year-old Musk, who was born in South Africa but is now a US citizen, nevertheless said he believed the mission would be a success.
"NASA does feel pretty good about it and we feel pretty good about it," he said, though cautioning: "You can't simulate the ISS on the ground."
Musk, who is also the co-founder of PayPal and Tesla Motors, refused to lay precise odds on Dragon's success, saying it was "probably more than 50 percent" -- and pledging to try again should the launch fail.
"It's exciting and... it's an extremely difficult task, and we want it to succeed at the first try," he said.
The main goals of SpaceX's cargo flight include a fly-by of the ISS and a berthing operation in which the Dragon will approach the ISS. The crew aboard the orbiting outpost will use its robotic arm to help the Dragon latch on.
Musk, who has invested $100 million of his estimated $2 billion fortune in SpaceX, is clearly proud of how far the firm has come in 10 years despite his lack of space experience, and says he hopes to develop technology to go to Mars.
"I think it is a case where sometimes the little guy wins," he said, referring to others in the private space race including aerospace giant Boeing.
According to the $1.6 billion contract between SpaceX and NASA, his company has been hired to carry out 12 more missions over four years.
The US space agency also signed a $1.9 billion deal with Orbital Sciences Corp. for eight cargo missions to the ISS.
If the Dragon demonstration flight is eventually a success, Musk said the next mission could come as soon as mid-year.
The Dragon spacecraft has also been built to carry humans to space, and the company hopes that a successful cargo trip to the ISS will soon lead to a manned mission.
The end of the 30-year US space shuttle program last year left Russia as the sole nation capable of sending astronauts to the orbiting Space Station.
SpaceX and several other companies including Boeing are competing to be the first to operate a private capsule that could tote astronauts and cargo to the ISS.
Musk credited NASA with some of his company's success, saying: "Without NASA, I would not have been able to create my company in the first place and would definitely not have come this far."
Is Texas forfeiting the private space race?
SpaceX’s idea to build a launch site isn't gaining traction at the state level
Eric Berger - Houston Chronicle
This month, a U.S. company plans to make the first private spaceflight to the International Space Station.
Much of the space community views the launch by SpaceX as a watershed moment: the opening of the heavens to private industry and a glimpse of the public-private nature of future spaceflight.
The launch also comes as Texas' future in space is increasingly tenuous, with Johnson Space Center's role unclear amid a NASA that won't have its own functional rocket for at least a decade.
That's why some Texas space officials are enthused about SpaceX's consideration of building a spaceport in Texas.
"The state of Texas ought to be on it like a duck on a June bug," said Tom Moser, a former NASA space station program director who led an effort to build a Texas spaceport in the 1990s.
But is the state? Apparently not.
In April, SpaceX filed its intent to prepare an environmental impact statement for a proposed launch site in Cameron County, about 3 miles north of the Mexican border on the Gulf Coast. According to the company, the site's operations would consist of up to 12 launches per year.
Lines are blurring
During the last half century, there's been a clear distinction between Florida, which launched rockets, and Texas, which trained astronauts, supervised spacecraft construction and controlled missions.
But that boundary has blurred in recent years with the rise of private spaceflight, such as when Florida obtained management of the office that will oversee astronauts who fly on commercial spacecraft.
Were SpaceX to build the spaceport, it would give Texas a toehold in the launch business and bolster its future in the changing spaceflight business. The Hawthrone, Calif.-based company, which already has a rocket testing facility near Waco, says its interest in a Texas launch site is legitimate. It is considering a new launch site in Florida, Puerto Rico and perhaps other locations in addition to Texas.
"We are pretty interested in the possibility of Texas and building a spaceport there," said Elon Musk, founder and chief executive of SpaceX.
However, Musk says that interest has yet to be reciprocated by Texas officials.
"There's been a lot of good action by the authorities in the Brownsville area; there's not been that much at the state level, and we'd certainly appreciate more from the state level," Musk said.
Texas does have an official, Keith Graf, assigned to promote commercial space development in the state. He works in Gov. Rick Perry's office as director for Aerospace and Aviation within the Governor's Office of Economic Development and Tourism.
He did not respond to a request for comment on state efforts to attract the SpaceX spaceport. Instead he forwarded the query to Lucy Nashed, a Perry spokeswoman.
"Our office policy is not to discuss any potential negotiations, so unfortunately I can't confirm anything for you," Nashed said.
Texas must 'wake up'
Texas must see commercial space as an important part of the future along with NASA and JSC, advocates say.
"The thing is for Texas to wake up, not just embrace it but get ahead of it," said Keith Tumlinson, founder of the Texas Space Alliance.
The organization is pushing for the creation of a quasi-governmental agency like Space Florida, which has a $10 million annual budget, acts as a single point of contact for industry and actively promotes the development of commercial spaceflight. Other states are active as well. New Mexico has provided state support to build a spaceport for Virgin Galactic, and Virginia is also pursuing a launch industry.
A vulnerable state
Tumlinson and his organization's new president, Robert Lancaster, have been meeting with Perry's office and some legislators in advance of the 2013 session to raise awareness of Texas' need to get in the private space game now, or lose out.
The creation of a state space entity would send a clear signal to private companies like SpaceX, Lancaster said, and could negotiate tax breaks, infrastructure and other incentives to make a private spaceport a reality.
The Texas Enterprise Fund, created to help attract jobs and investment to the state, has about $175 million available for fiscal years 2012 and 2013.
Lancaster believes there's not a full realization in Texas of the changing nature of human spaceflight, and how Houston and Texas' historically strong standing in the industry are vulnerable. "We believe there's really a paradigm shift in how human spaceflight will be conducted," Lancaster said.
"The more we show and inform the decision-makers in Texas that things which have historically been in Texas, and should be in Texas, are locating in other states, we believe they will be supportive of this initiative."
Texas officials quiet on space launch site project
Associated Press
Proponents are eagerly pursuing a project to keep Texas at the center of the space exploration efforts, but say they are getting little encouragement from state officials, according to a published report.
Leaders of the Texas space industry are anticipating the May 19 test launch of a private cargo ship from Cape Canaveral, Fla., to the International Space Station. They hope to persuade Space Exploration Technologies Corp., better known as SpaceX, to develop a launch site near Brownsville in far South Texas.
"There's been a lot of good action by the authorities in the Brownsville area," SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk told the Houston Chronicle (http://bit.ly/IOO133) for a story published in Sunday's editions. However, he said, "There's not been that much at the state level, and we'd certainly appreciate more from the state level."
SpaceX notified the state last month that it planned to work up an environmental impact statement for a launch site on the Gulf Coast in Cameron County, three miles north of the Mexico border. The suburban Los Angeles-based company, which already has a testing facility near Waco, said it is serious about the Texas launch site proposal, although it also is considering sites in Florida and Puerto Rico.
But the silence from Gov. Rick Perry's office has been baffling, Texas space advocates said.
"The state of Texas ought to be on it like a duck on a June bug," former NASA space station program director Tom Moser said. He led an effort in the 1990s to build a space port in Texas.
Keith Graf, the aerospace and aviation director for Perry's economic development and tourism office, referred the Chronicle's questions to the governor's office.
"Our office policy is not to discuss any potential negotiations, so unfortunately I can't confirm anything for you," said Perry spokeswoman Lucy Nashed.
SpaceX wants to create a quasi-governmental agency similar to Space Florida. That has a $10 million annual budget, is a go-to contact for industry and promotes commercial spaceflight development. New Mexico has provided such state support for a spaceport for Virgin Galactic, and Virginia also is chasing the launch industry.
New Texas Space Alliance President Robert Lancaster doubts state officials fully realize the shifting shape of human spaceflight activities and how Houston's connection is in jeopardy.
"The more we show and inform the decision-makers in Texas that things which have historically been in Texas — and should be in Texas— are locating in other states, we believe they will be supportive of this initiative," Lancaster told the Chronicle.
A Desert Town on the Way Up ... to Space
Kenneth Chang - New York Times
The sign into town, slightly weathered, says “Gateway to Space!”
Beyond it lies the Mojave Air and Space Port, once a Marine auxiliary air station during World War II, now an incubator for the tinkerers and dreamers in the New Space movement. Adherents believe that the next phase of space exploration will be led by nimble, ambitious entrepreneurs — a new generation of people like Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, who helped create the electronics industry in a garage — and that this is their moment to come together and make it happen.
“It’s very similar to the Silicon Valley effect,” said Stuart O. Witt, the chief executive of the space port for the past decade, explaining how half a dozen outer space start-ups came to cluster at Mojave, a small desert town about 90 miles north of Los Angeles.
This is where the first private, piloted spacecraft, SpaceShipOne, launched in 2004. Virgin Galactic is now conducting flight tests of a larger version, called SpaceShipTwo, that will take tourists on jaunts 62 miles up, giving them a brief bout of weightlessness. Small start-ups here are also developing new rocket fuels and trying to transform a discarded second stage of a rocket into a prototype moon lander.
This month, the headline event for this push of entrepreneurs will take place on the other side of the country, at Cape Canaveral, Fla., where the Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX, plans to launch cargo (but no people) to the International Space Station.
Until now, all spacecraft going to and from the station have been government-operated vehicles like NASA’s space shuttles and Russian Soyuz capsules. SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, perched atop its Falcon 9 rocket, will be the first purely commercial supply ship — albeit one paid for by NASA — to make the trip. The launching, delayed several times, is now scheduled for May 19.
The mélange of small aerospace companies at Mojave shows that the ambitions of the New Space movement go far beyond serving as a delivery service for NASA.
Two of the companies are fronted by famous billionaires: Virgin Galactic is part of Richard Branson’s empire, while Stratolaunch is the brainchild of Paul Allen, a co-founder of Microsoft. Stratolaunch is building two cavernous structures, a factory to build an airplane with the widest wingspan and a hangar to store it in. The airplane will be an airborne launching pad for a rocket.
Then there are the lesser-known start-ups with shallower pockets and grungier work spaces. Masten Space Systems is housed in a one-floor box dating to Mojave’s World War II days. The workshop is essentially a large garage, with pieces of rockets sitting on the concrete floor.
Masten’s specialty is its software, which makes a rocket take off vertically, hover and then land softly on the launching pad.
David Masten, the founder, used to dabble in rockets while running a technology company in the Bay Area. After the company was sold to Cisco, he founded his rocket company and, three years ago, won $1 million in a NASA-sponsored competition to demonstrate precision flying similar to what would be needed for a future lunar lander.
“It’s not a hobby anymore,” said Joel Scotkin, Masten’s chief executive. “We’re essentially self-sufficient in terms of revenue right now as we grow our business and customers.”
The venture has attracted people like Nathan O’Konek. A lawyer by training, he was working in New York putting together finance deals and volunteering at the Intrepid Air and Space Museum to sate his fascination with space. On a visit to Mojave, he learned about Masten and chucked it all to move here, becoming the director of business operations.
With just 15 or so employees — the number changes with the flow of interns — Mr. O’Konek is often out at the launching pad helping load liquid oxygen into a rocket. Masten engineers fly their reusable rockets and conduct engine tests several times a week. “You’re out there all the time,” Mr. O’Konek said. “I like what we’re doing. It’s exciting, but I also like to see the other companies out there pushing the envelope.”
Even smaller is Firestar Technologies, which gets much of its money from federal research contracts. Its main product is an alternative fuel for the thrusters that spacecraft use to maneuver in space. The chemical currently used, hydrazine, is highly toxic, and Greg Mungas, Firestar’s chief executive, has a less toxic kind that could be tested soon on the space station.
Mr. Mungas started Firestar while at the University of Colorado, Boulder, but in 2009 he moved the company to Mojave, where it fit in more easily, adding to the cacophony of sonic booms, explosions and rocket launches that are heard daily. “There are very few experiments that you can’t basically design and run” in Mojave, he said. “It’s a very, very open environment for doing this kind of testing. It’s great.”
Mojave is also the home of Scaled Composites, started by Burt Rutan, an aerospace pioneer. It was he who designed the first plane to fly around the world without refueling: Voyager, which in 1986 took off from Mojave and landed here again nine days later.
The air and space port is in an area replete with aerospace history. Just to the south is Edwards Air Force Base, where many of the Air Force’s early rocket planes flew, including Chuck Yeager’s X-1, the first to break the sound barrier.
While Mr. Rutan’s company continued to thrive after the 1986 flight, the rest of Mojave languished. By the mid-1990s, the port was best known as a parking lot for mothballed jets that airlines could not afford to fly.
The modern history of Mojave as a space capital starts with a business failure: the Rotary Rocket Company. The founders of Rotary wanted to shake up the industry with a low-cost design that merged rocket propulsion with helicopter blades in a vehicle that could get all the way to orbit. A prototype of the vehicle, called the Roton, was built and got off the ground with three test hover flights — but then the company ran out of money and went out of business in 2001.
The Roton now sits in a small park at the port, a testament to the airfield’s philosophy.
“We actually take pride in giving people permission to fail,” said Mr. Witt, the port’s chief executive.
The Rotary people did not go away, but instead founded new space companies. Jeff Greason, Rotary’s propulsion chief, opened XCOR Aerospace, also at Mojave. The company is building a space plane called Lynx that, like SpaceShipTwo, is meant to take tourists on suborbital flights. The Lynx is smaller, with just two seats: one for the pilot, the other for the passenger.
XCOR has almost run out of money a couple of times — employees have gone without paychecks occasionally — but says it is flush with cash right now because of an infusion of investments. Test flights of the Lynx could begin this year.
Like everyone at the Mojave port, Mr. Greason is looking forward to the SpaceX capsule launching, viewing it as just the latest step along the road. “They have much to be proud of,” he said of SpaceX, run by Elon Musk, an Internet entrepreneur. “But I don’t believe they have reached the point where they are independent of NASA for their continued research and development activity.”
For that matter, neither have most of the start-ups here. While they cheer on Mr. Musk’s rocket, they hope the momentum they are building is larger than that flight’s fate.
“It’s ridiculous to condition the success or failure of the industry on any one launch,” Mr. Greason said, but “there is reason for optimism that in the next few years, one or more companies — I certainly hope we’re one of them — will become profitable.”
Space hall of famers humbled at honors
Shuttle-era astronauts all spent time on Mir in addition to other missions
Scott Gunnerson - Florida Today
A young man from Costa Rica who followed his heroes into space proclaimed the American dream Saturday as he was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame.
“I’m most thankful to this great nation, that in 1968, opened the doors for me, a dreamer that came to the shores of this country, and this country opened the doors to the American dream,” said Franklin Chang Díaz, who spent more than 1,601 hours in space during seven shuttle missions, including 19 hours and 31 minutes on three spacewalks.
“I can say that I fulfilled that dream, and the dream is alive in this country.”
Chang Díaz, Kevin Chilton and Charles Precourt bring the number of enshrined astronauts to 82. They are the 11th group of shuttle astronauts to join a select group that includes Neil Armstrong, John Glenn, Buzz Aldrin and Sally Ride.
As a teenager, Chang Díaz came to America with nothing and didn’t speak English. But he was inspired by space exploration and earned a doctorate in applied plasma physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1977.
“This honor has a special meaning to me because it is given by those who have always been heroes,” Chang Díaz said on a stage filled with hall of fame astronauts. “These folks here are the people I looked up to since I was very young.”
In 1989, he was on the Atlantis crew that launched the Galileo spacecraft to explore Jupiter. Chang Díaz was also on Discovery crews in 1994 that docked at Spacehab-2 and 1998 that spent four days at Russian space station Mir.
Along the way, Chang Díaz became a hero to others. A small group loudly cheered and waved Costa Rican flags when he was introduced to more than 500 spectators during the ceremony at the KSC Vistor Complex.
Ileana Montsdeoca, 36, who left Costa Rica when she was 20, has been inspired by Chang Díaz’ accomplishments.
“Since I was very young, we followed his career, the science and achievements, he has always been an inspiration to work hard, study hard and try your best,” said Montsdeoca, who lives in Atlanta.
“We follow him, he is a celebrity, he’s a hero for us.”
Chang Díaz accepts the responsibility of being an example for following generations. “I think this whole thing is like a chain and there are many others kids like I was, looking up to us and following their dreams,” Chang Díaz said.
After retiring from NASA in 2005, Chang Díaz founded Ad Astra Rocket Co., which is trying to develop a rocket capable of carrying a manned mission to Mars in less than 40 days.
The trio of inductees, who each made stops at the Russian space station Mir, are the first group to be inducted following the end of the 30-year space shuttle program.
Precourt spent 932 hours in space during four shuttle missions. He piloted Atlantis in 1995 during the first shuttle-Mir docking and commanded Atlantis in 1997 and Discovery in 1998, the ninth and final shuttle-Mir docking.
He left NASA in 2005 to join ATK Aerospace Systems, where he is general manager and vice president of space launch systems. Precourt is confident the US will return to manned space missions.
“It’s taken a little longer than we like, but there are a lot of creative people in this country, so I think we are going to get it done,” Precourt said.
Chilton made three shuttle trips for more than 704 hours in space. He piloted Endeavour on its maiden flight in 1992, again in 1994 and then commanded Atlantis in 1996.
After an 11-year career with NASA, Chilton returned to the Air Force, where commanded the Air Force Space Command and Air Force Strategic Command. In 2001, he retired as a four-star general and the US military’s highest ranked astronaut.
The 57-year-old Chilton has thoughts of returning to space in the name of science to back up the work NASA did when it sent John Glenn on a shuttle mission to study space flight and geriatrics.
“Well, they taught me a long time ago in engineering school that you can’t draw a graph without two points on it,” he said. “So they’ve got one point for a 77-year-old, maybe they will need another one some day and I will raise my hand.”
Astronaut Hall of Fame's new inductees humbled by heroes' welcome
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
The U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame welcomed three new space travelers into its ranks Saturday, honoring a spacewalker who tied the record for the most space missions, the military's highest ranking astronaut, and a former chief of the NASA astronaut corps.
Franklin Chang Diaz, Kevin Chilton and Charles Precourt, the Hall of Fame's 11th class of space shuttle astronauts and the first to be inducted after the 30 year program had come to its end, were enshrined during a public ceremony held at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, which includes the Hall of Fame.
The shuttle veterans raised the number of honorees in the Hall of Fame to 81 astronauts, including all the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo pioneers. More than two dozen of the previous years' inductees, including Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell, first shuttle pilot Bob Crippen and spacewalker Kathy Thornton filled three rows of seats at the ceremony to celebrate Chang Diaz, Chilton and Precourt.
"It's just such a tremendous honor to be recognized by the folks who are recognizing us today, people who I grew up admiring here in the first two rows and in the back row, folks who I call colleagues and friends," said Chilton, who retired last year from the Air Force as a four-star general, the highest rank ever attained by an astronaut.
To have been eligible for induction in 2012, the astronauts needed to have made their first space mission in 1994 or earlier. They also had to be retired from flight status as a NASA commander, pilot or mission specialist for at least five years, be a U.S. citizen; and have orbited the Earth at least once.
Heroes humbled by heroes
All three new inductees told collectSPACE that the Hall of Fame's earlier honorees were their personal heroes.
"It is just so flattering and humbling. Just looking at a list of folks who have been inducted and you look at that and see yourself on that list and you're like, 'Oh, that doesn't look right,'" Chilton, a veteran of three shuttle flights, said in an interview.
"It's a real thrill, to be a part of such a long string of great American heroes of the space program," said Precourt, who was chief of the astronaut corps as the International Space Station was "born" in 1998. "I find it very humbling to be among them."
"I receive this honor with a great deal of humility because it is given to me by those who were always my heroes," Chang Diaz, a record seven-mission shuttle veteran, said. "To be recognized by those who you admire is even more powerful than to be just recognized at all."
Three of the 2012 honorees' crewmates, each members of the Hall of Fame, inducted their former colleagues during the ceremony. George "Pinky" Nelson, who flew on Chang Diaz's first mission, STS-51C; Daniel Brandenstein, who flew with Chilton on the 1992 maiden mission of shuttle Endeavour; and Robert "Hoot" Gibson, who with Precourt performed the first shuttle docking with the Russian space station Mir in 1995, did the honors.
Done, but not over
As the three new shuttle veterans entered the Astronaut Hall of Fame, the winged spacecraft they flew were being inducted into their own museums.
"We shed a few tears as Discovery, the first of our space shuttles — and yes, we'll always feel like they belong here no matter where their homes are — made her sunrise departure on April 7 on a Boeing 747, circling the rocket garden in its final farewell," Bill Moore, Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex chief operating officer, said during the ceremony. "Soon, Endeavour will follow her."
"But from those difficult goodbyes comes an even bigger welcome home, as we prepare just across the Visitor Complex to give Atlantis the most incredible home, other than space, that an orbiter has ever known," Moore said.
Between them, Chang Diaz, Chilton and Precourt flew 13 space shuttle missions, all but two aboard the remaining orbiters Discovery, Endeavour and Atlantis.
"I don't think the program will ever feel over," Precourt told collectSPACE, reflecting on the end of the 30-year shuttle program last year. "It was such a powerful and emotional part of what we are as a country."
"It will always be a part of us, and yeah, I wish we could keep flying, but the reality is we've got to build something else," Precourt said, adding that he was confident the new vehicle, whatever it will be, would follow soon.
The inductees toured Atlantis and Endeavour the morning before the induction ceremony where the two orbiters were being prepared for their museum displays.
"It is definitely a sense of nostalgia and sadness to see such a wonderful program come to a close," Chang Diaz said. "I always see this as perhaps this wasn't the perfect ending and perhaps this is not the right time to do it, but it has to happen.It means that we need to open a new chapter that ought to be even more exciting, something that we can bring to our young people as a perspective for our future."
"I think the prospects for our future is tremendous," said Chang Diaz, whose company is designing an engine that in theory could propel a crewed rocket to Mars in 39 days.
Hall of Fame astronaut and Kennedy Space Center (KSC) director Bob Cabana agreed.
"In spite of what some of you may have heard, the ending of the shuttle program has not ended human spaceflight," Cabana said during the ceremony.
"It's not going to look like the space shuttle. It's going to look better," Chang Diaz added.
Students set sights high for their experiments destined for space station
Zahra Ahmed - Houston Chronicle
Science experiments aren't just for classrooms anymore.
Four Houston students have earned their projects a trip to outer space on the unmanned SpaceX Dragon capsule, slated to make the first commercial launch to the International Space Station's research laboratory.
A group of fifth-graders from Parker Elementary and a Johnston Middle School eighth-grader conducted two out of 15 experiments selected nationally as winners of the Student Spaceflight Experiment Program.
"It's cool that they picked our experiment," said Maxx Denning, 11. "We're all pretty excited and happy that it's going."
Students spent eight weeks designing and proposing experiments to be tested in micro-gravity. The fifth-graders - also including Michael Prince and Aaron Stuart - tested how well liquid Vitamin C preserves bone density, while middle schooler Emily Soice tested the growth of liver cells in bioscaffolds - structures made in the form of tissues - infused with a growth protein.
"It's one thing to conduct an experiment in class, but it's completely something else to actually conceptualize and follow through with a proposal," said fifth-grade science teacher Becky Mitchell.
Parker Elementary and Johnston Middle School are fine arts magnet schools. Mitchell said the experience was new for her students, who usually enjoy P.E. and band.
"I'm hoping that this experience will solidify that we are there to develop the whole child," she said.
Interest in science
Amber Pinchback, associate principal of Johnston Middle School, directed the partnership between Parker Elementary and Johnston Middle School. She said focusing on academics created another layer of talent among the students.
Emily, 13, was already interested in the subject.
"I definitely love science," she said.
Eighth-grade science teacher Nicole DiLuglio mandated participation in the program. She said the entire class was interested at first, but Emily showed a serious devotion to her experiment.
"I thought it was a really great opportunity," Emily said. "I remember the teacher asked who really wants to do this, and I was one of the few people who raised their hand."
Emily plans on traveling with her mother to Kennedy Space Center in Florida to watch the launch. The oft-delayed mission was planned for Monday but now is tentatively set for May 19.
"I'm looking forward to seeing my experiment blast off and to be a VIP guest," she said.
Six weeks in space
She said she also is excited about meeting NASA employees because she may want to become a researcher.
Michael and Maxx also said they want to become researchers, scientists or engineers.
Mitchell said that Aaron became more and more enthusiastic about the project every day.
"I want to be an astronaut and fly into space one day," said Aaron, 11.
The experiments are expected to be at the International Space Station for six weeks before returning to Earth.
A piece of NASA history lands at Keystone Heights museum
Hannah Winston - Gainesville Sun
Robert Oehl grew up with astronauts for neighbors.
In Clear Lake City, Texas, during the Apollo space mission years, Oehl was surrounded by what he calls the pinnacle of human achievement: space flight.
“To say Neil Armstrong lived here and Buzz Aldrin lived there is amazing,” he said, remembering walking down his block as a teen.
Or even passing Jim Lovell, the Apollo 13 commander, when he walked around town, to this day tickles him.
“It was an exciting time when America was on top of the world,” Oehl said.
His father, Don Oehl, worked for Grumman Aircraft as a senior field representative in the lunar module program. He also worked on the fuel cells for the Apollo 13 mission.
The infamous flight nearly didn't make it home after an oxygen tank exploded and two of the three fuel cells lost power almost 200,000 miles from Earth in 1970, according to NASA.gov.
His father, along with others in the team, sat in the Apollo simulator to figure out the problem and eventually get the three astronauts home alive.
“Those are the real national heroes,” Robert Oehl said of those in the NASA program.
Now, Oehl, co-founder and director of the Wings of Dreams Aviation Museum, gets to sit in his own simulator and teach the next generation to appreciate and understand the final frontier.
The Space Shuttle Guidance and Navigation Simulator, used to train astronauts for shuttle missions, has found a new home at the Wings of Dreams Aviation Museum at the Keystone Heights Airport. Though it is not the same simulator his father used to help bring Apollo 13 safely back to Earth, it still holds significance in the space program. “We hope that the youth get another generation interested,” he said.
The large piece of aviation history completed its 900-mile journey in three semi trucks from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, to the airport in Bradford County on April 24.
On board the three semis: A 38-foot-high, 65-foot-wide, 75,000-pound simulator that the space shuttle astronauts used to prepare for their missions from 1981 until the final mission on July 8, 2011. There were more than 100 shuttle flights during the program.
“It represented the pride of America,” Oehl said. “And now it's gone.”
The museum, located in Keystone Heights, about 25 miles northeast of Gainesville, is at the former Keystone Army Airfield. During World War II, the airfield was used to prepare fighter pilots for the invasion of Normandy. Oehl said with all the history already at the airport, it only seems fitting for the simulator that was born into the shuttle program, and died with it, to be there.
“It leaves a big gap in American pride,” he said of the loss of the shuttle program.
Davis Express, a trucking company in Starke, sponsored the transport of the fixed simulator using three semitrailer trucks. The museum paid $15,000 for the volunteers for travel, hotel and more transportation. Two more shipments are to come.
Oehl, said the arrival is the culmination of 2 ½ years of communication with NASA, and piles of paperwork handled by co-founder Susan King.
“We're the only ones who will have a complete environment where the astronauts trained in,” he said.
The simulator was used to practice guidance software and other maneuvers needed for the shuttle missions by the astronauts.
A media relations member of NASA's Johnson Space Center said the simulator was used for “virtually every space shuttle mission” since it began in 1981.
The trailers brought the cockpit of the simulator, the video system, an instructor station and the computer console, among other things.
NASA also provided the museum with simulator training audio and video recordings from the final space shuttle mission, STS-135, to contribute to the future exhibit.
Oehl said it is the only complete shuttle simulator since only two models were used and the other is in pieces at different museums across the nation.
Oehl said the museum now has about $12.5 million in artifacts and pieces of space history from both Johnson Space Center and Kennedy Space Center. Among those items is a fuel cell from a space shuttle.
The next item coming to the museum, Oehl said, is the last external fuel tank used by the shuttles to power the vehicle through the atmosphere and into space. It's just taking time because of the fuel tank's size. It is taller than a 15-story building. According to NASA.gov, the tank has to make its way on a barge through the canals of Florida, and then highways have to be closed in order for it to travel safely to its new home.
“We're still small and growing, but we're doing amazing things,” Oehl said of the museum.
Oehl said the plan is to have an aerospace education program so future generations can learn about the space program.
“The space shuttle program is considered the pinnacle of human achievement,” Oehl said. “America's manned space exploration program has contributed so much to humankind and has created some of my proudest moments as an American.”
Former astronaut tells teachers about meeting challenges
Erin Mulvane - Houston Chronicle
Mark Kelly has built an impressive résumé - former American astronaut, commander of the space shuttle Endeavour and a recent best-selling author, but he said Sunday that he was a "directionless kid" and a "classic underachiever" growing up.
Kelly told the crowd of educators gathered for the H-E-B Excellence in Education Awards that he managed his great accomplishments by working toward goals and making tough decisions - the same skills strong teachers must use every day.
He remembers a teacher who joined a group of astronauts on a shuttle mission telling a crew member, "You have no idea - being a teacher is much harder than this."
He said his wife, former U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., is a perfect example of how hard work and perseverance can pay off. Unlike himself, he said Giffords was a "classic overachiever" from an early age.
She entered public office because she always wanted more for her state. The family took the international spotlight when Giffords was shot in the head during a public appearance in January 2011.
"One thing she really cared about was education and she saw it falling behind," Kelly said. "She had a plan."
He joked that he also had a plan - to walk on Mars. He never reached that goal, but he did travel to space four times. He stuck with it, even though a pilot instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy asked him after his first test flight, "Are you sure this is for you?"
"I truly believe how good you are at the beginning of anything you try is not a good indicator of what you can become," Kelly said. "Life is a set of challenges."
He spoke about many challenges he faced in his life - the risks he took as a U.S. Navy pilot and the difficult decisions he had to make once he found out his wife had been shot.
Kelly said it is difficult for Giffords to speak because she suffers from aphasia, but Kelly read a message she carefully crafted for the crowd of educators:
"Be passionate, be courageous, be strong, be your best."
Measuring success of SpaceX's flight to ISS won't be easy
John Kelly - Florida Today (Commentary)
There is much debate about what would constitute success for Space X’s coming landmark attempt to launch a privately developed spaceship to the International Space Station.
The answer is layered and depends on whose measures of success you’re considering. Technical experts in the aerospace industry, whether they’re from SpaceX, NASA or competing commercial space ventures, will say there are so many parts of this program in “testing,” that pulling off a launch, an orbital flight and close-up rendezvous with the space station would represent major progress.
If SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, on just its second orbital flight and its first trying to chase and meet up with the space station, docks at the orbiting outpost, the achievement could be the catalyst for a technical and political game-changer.
The only other entities to achieve this complex a mission in space are national governments of the world’s wealthiest countries. They spent many more years and many more billions getting it done than the U.S. has had to invest as a “venture capitalist” of sorts on the SpaceX Falcon and Dragon projects.
The United States spent at least $8 billion in the 1970s developing the space shuttle system. If that were measured in today’s dollars, the development cost would surpass $50 billion.
The Russians spent an undisclosed amount of money developing the Soyuz and Progress spacecraft that regularly dock at the space station, over four decades. Flights of a single Soyuz are estimated, by consultants and Russian space program experts, to cost in the $100 million range.
Europe spent about $1.8 billion developing its automated cargo ship. The price for each flight is about $300 million, not counting the cost of the rocket that gets it off the Earth.
Japan invested $680 million developing its transfer vehicle, and each flight costs $220 million (not counting launch).
So far, the U.S. government has spent well under $300 million seeding the development of SpaceX’s new system under a contract in NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation System program. SpaceX bore the rest of the cost in the hopes of landing a follow-on $1.6 billion deal to regularly fly cargo to the space station, which it did, and with an eye toward proving Dragon could someday ferry astronauts.
So, if they dock on this mission, that’s a remarkable success. If they get to the space station, test out the rendezvous system and then decide together with NASA and Russian engineers that perhaps it’s best to study the data and dock on a future flight, that’s still a big success in my book.
Consider the nature of the project thus far:
The Falcon 9 rocket itself has launched twice, ever. There is data floating around in the space community for decades now that the chances of failure for a new rocket is about one in three. Falcon 9 remains a new rocket.
Dragon has flown once in orbit, a short shake-down cruise. It’s never been flown in the way it will be this time. Getting to orbit with its cargo and reaching space station would be leaps forward in progress on the system, for less money and less time than NASA and many other government space agencies have spent trying to do the same.
Getting this far proves the investment in privatized space development — and operations — can work. Whatever happens on the flight, the progress to date shows that more — not less —investment is needed into this new way of developing space exploration systems.
A world class visitor experience at Spaceport America
Christine Anderson - Las Cruces Sun-News
(Anderson is the executive director of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority)
There is no doubt that Spaceport America is well on its way to delivering on the promises made to the state taxpayers. I'm happy to report that 99 percent of the spaceport's Phase One construction is complete, and we should be receiving a certificate of occupancy on the Gateway to Space building and the Spaceport Operations Center shortly.
More than 1,000 New Mexicans have worked on the project so far, and more than $12 million in GRT has come back to the state and local counties since the beginning of construction. In addition, more than $5 million has gone to spaceport-related education since 2009 and we have achieved global media coverage promoting the state of New Mexico valued at over $40 million since the facility's groundbreaking.
Virgin Galactic has moved into an office in Las Cruces and will begin paying lease fees to the New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) this summer on the Gateway building. So far we've hosted 15 other launches from four other customers, seven of which have occurred on my watch in the last year. We have been busy!
Furthermore, due to shrewd management and a favorable bid climate, the NMSA has actually been able to add to the original scope of the spaceport over the course of the project's development, in order to accommodate new requirements such as: a southern access road; expanded facilities in our vertical launch area; extended safety zones on the main runway; and most significantly, a substantially enhanced public tourism effort, called the spaceport's "Visitor Experience."
As originally planned and promised to voters several years ago, the Visitor Experience consisted of two facilities along I-25 known as Welcome Centers, one in Hatch and one in Sierra County. The centers would be venues for tourists to learn about Spaceport America and the surrounding areas, as well as the official point of entry for all visitors to the spaceport itself.
The plan envisioned that Welcome Centers could be a catalyst for local tourism and economic development if done properly, and to that end, the NMSA committed $500,000 toward the effort in each community.
However, we discovered that $500,000 per Welcome Center was insufficient to design, construct and fit-out two facilities. We all seemed to focus more on where the centers would be located rather than whether or not they would actually be worth visiting.
Since that time, the NMSA has learned a great deal about what it takes to succeed in the tourism business, and the Visitor Experience plan has grown into something I believe will better serve our communities.
Recent comments in the press might lead the casual observer to conclude that the NMSA is robbing the planned Visitor Experience budget to accommodate competing funding objectives and thereby compromising its quality.
This is not the case. Each Welcome Center's budget is more than three times larger than originally proposed. In fact, the budget for the Visitor Experience is now more than 10 times larger than it was at the outset.
When you count our strategy to leverage state dollars with private sector investment (per the governor's call for public-private partnerships), the total investment doubles to nearly $20 million - and we did this while staying within the original $209 million spaceport budget.
In the end, this budget enhancement means that we can build an experience that attracts more guests from around the world; an experience that more strongly showcases our communities; an experience that engages students of all ages with more excitement; an experience we can be proud of.
We now have, for the first time, a credible, exciting Visitor Experience plan developed by world-class experts in the field, that I believe will attract hundreds of thousands of paying guests into our communities. We are now moving forward with implementing that plan. I appreciate the support of so many in moving this project forward, and together, we will ensure that Spaceport America is the big success we all want it to be in terms of economic development for our State, inspiration for our visitors, and educational motivation for our students.
END
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