Space news 5/14/12

 
Monday, May 14, 2012
 
JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1.            OB1 Speed Mentoring
2.            Check Out JSC's Plans for the Future Over Lunch
3.            Change 3 to JPR 1700, Rev J Approved and Posted
4.            JSC Health and Fitness Month is in Full Swing! Get Fit and Win Prizes
5.            Overcoming Weight Loss Barriers
6.            Beginners Ballroom Dance - Summer 2012 Discount
7.            Water-Bots Summer Camp
8.            JSC Risk Management Courses
9.            Electrical Safety Refresher ViTS: July 9
10.          Refresher for Explosives Handlers and Ops. Personnel: June 19 - Building 226N, Room 174
________________________________________     QUOTE OF THE DAY
“ When everything has to be right, something isn't. ”
 
-- Stanislaw Lee
________________________________________
1.            OB1 Speed Mentoring
Back by popular demand ... another OB1 Speed Mentoring event. OB1 is the informal mentoring program developed by the JSC Joint Leadership Team (JLT) to complement JSC's formal mentoring program (YODA). OB1 promotes mentoring opportunities in group and individual settings. OB1 Speed Mentoring is a popular mentoring opportunity that is co-sponsored by the JLT, the JSC National Management Association (NMA) and GeoControls.
 
The OB1 Speed Mentoring event will be held on Wednesday, May 30, from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Gilruth Alamo Ballroom. Protégés will rotate among 15 mentor tables that will be "anchored" by a JSC manager or a JLT member. This event is open to JSC civil servants and contractors. All employees should consult their supervisors about participation in the event.
 
Registration for this event is limited, so register today by sending an email to: jsc-informal-mentoring@mail.nasa.gov
 
Include your name, organization code, email address and phone number.
 
Jeanne Newman 281-433-9731 http://jlt.jsc.nasa.gov/
 
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2.            Check Out JSC's Plans for the Future Over Lunch
Join the JSC Chapter of the National Management Association (NMA) this month to learn about the center's history and plans to lead the next era of space exploration with strategic planning, new business pursuits, technology investments, commercialization and partnership development.
 
Date: May 23
Time: 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Location: Hilton, Discovery Ballroom
Speaker: Dr. Doug Terrier, Deputy Director, Strategic Opportunities and Partnerships Development Office
Topic: "Leading the Next Era of Space Exploration"
 
Cost for members: $0
Cost for non-members: $20
 
RSVP due date and instructions: Close of business on May 17 at http://www.jscnma.com/Events (Click on May 23 event). Guests can register using "Click here to Register as a Guest."
 
For membership information and RSVP assistance, please contact Lorraine Guerra (x34262) or visit: http://www.jscnma.com/Members (Click on "Join NMA")
 
Cassandra Miranda x38618
 
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3.            Change 3 to JPR 1700, Rev J Approved and Posted
Change 3 to JPR 1700.1, Rev K has been approved and posted on the Safety and Health website.
 
Significant changes include:
- Policy for commercial activities
- Improvements to JSC's electrical safety program per NFPA 70E
- Clarifications for lockout/tagout
- Updates to asbestos requirements
 
This also included an administrative change to update the Ellington Field emergency number to x33333.
 
Dan Clem x34272 http://jschandbook.jsc.nasa.gov/
 
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4.            JSC Health and Fitness Month is in Full Swing! Get Fit and Win Prizes
It's now Week 3 of Health and Fitness Month (HFM). How many random drawing tickets have YOU earned? Want to earn more this week? Attend the agencywide Nutrition ViTS "If it Ain't Whole, it Ain't Fiber" TODAY at noon (Building 17, Room 2026). On Tuesday, enjoy a "Your Health Your Way" lunch menu item (Buildings 3 and 11 cafés from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.). Come watch a live demo of the TRX RIP Trainer - a brand new fitness device that you could WIN via the random prize drawing - on Wednesday (noon, Building 3 café). Be a healthy early bird on Thursday by competing in the Prediction Run/Walk Challenge (7 a.m., Gilruth). Predict your finishing time and WIN PRIZES!
 
Remember, you can earn tickets all month long for biking to work, taking Starport GroupX classes, attending educational wellness classes and completing your health assessment. Check the official interactive online HFM calendar for event and prize details: http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/documents/MAY2012-NEW.pdf
 
Jessica Vos x41383 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/documents/MAY2012-NEW.pdf
 
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5.            Overcoming Weight Loss Barriers
Good nutrition plays a very big role in weight loss. If you have tried to lose weight, but have been unsuccessful - don't fret! Dropping those extra pounds is not easy and usually requires a lot of hard work. Just because you were not successful in the past doesn't mean you can't do it. This class will address some of the common barriers to weight loss and nutrition strategies for overcoming them. Class will be held May 22 at 5 p.m. in the Gilruth Center.
 
Glenda Blaskey x41503 http://www.explorationwellness.com/Web/scripts/Nutrition.aspx
 
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6.            Beginners Ballroom Dance - Summer 2012 Discount
Do you feel like you have two left feet? Well, Starport has the perfect summer program for you:
 
Beginners Ballroom Dance!
 
This six-week class introduces you to the various types of ballroom dance. Students will learn the secrets of a good lead and following, as well as the ability to identify the beat of the music. This class is easy, and we have fun as we learn. JSC friends and family are welcome.
 
Discounted registration:
- $65 per couple (May 14 to 18)
 
Regular registration:
- $75 per couple (May 19 to 28)
 
Two class sessions available:
- Tuesdays, 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. -- Starting May 29
- Thursdays, 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. -- Starting May 31
 
All classes are taught in the Gilruth Center's dance studio.
 
To register or for additional information, please contact the Gilruth Center's information desk: 281-483-0304
 
Steve Schade x30304 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Fitness/RecreationClasses/RecreationProgram...
 
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7.            Water-Bots Summer Camp
The Aerospace Academy - San Jacinto College (SJC) offers a week of fun activities including: hands-on instruction in robotics, speakers from various fields that use robots and a tour of JSC and the Sonny Carter Neutral Buoyancy Lab. At the end of camp, participants will compete in an underwater robotics competition. Camp will run from July 16 to 20 and July 23 to 27.
 
Age groups: Students 12 to 13 and 14 to 18
Cost: $250
Time: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (before and after hours available)
Location: SJC Central Campus
 
For additional information or registration contact, Bridget Kramer at 281-244-6803 or bridget.a.kramer@nasa.gov or Angie Hughes at 281-483-7252 or: angela.m.hughes@nasa.gov
 
Bridget Kramer x46803 http://www.aerospace-academy.org
 
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8.            JSC Risk Management Courses
The following courses are available for registration via SATERN. Select ONE of the classes that best suits your work environment.
 
JSC Risk Management Overview (JSC-NA-SAIC-RISK) is a two-and-a-half-hour class that includes risk management concepts, topics regarding the application of risk management at JSC and a demonstration of the risk database. Class participants include personnel interested in understanding the basics of risk management. The overview is offered June 5.
 
JSC Risk Management Workshop (JSC-NA-SAIC-RISKWKSP) includes risk management concepts, a risk-identification workshop tailored for JSC personnel participating in institutional risk management and hands-on JSC-IRMA training. Class participants include managers, leads and risk management focal points. The workshop addresses JSC's requirements for risk identification, tracking, reporting and making risk-informed decisions. Topics include understanding the potential health, safety, environmental, technical, infrastructure or workforce capabilities, as well as schedule and cost risks associated with successfully meeting JSC directorate objectives. The workshop is offered June 6.
 
Ann Plants 281-335-2443 https://satern.nasa.gov/customcontent/splash_page/SATERN_Splash.html
 
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9.            Electrical Safety Refresher ViTS: July 9
This course is designed to provide students with a review of Occupational Safety and Health Administration electrical standards and the hazards associated with electrical installations and equipment. Topics may include single- and three-phase systems, cord- and plug-connected and fixed equipment, grounding, ground-fault circuit interrupters, hazardous locations and safety-related work practices. Emphasis is placed on discussion of those areas most pertinent to the class makeup and needs. This course is designed for those who have either taken the three-day SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0309, Electrical Safety Standards, or those who have a lot of experience working with electrical systems. It may also be used for those who have a need for only electrical safety awareness and do not work with electrical systems on a regular basis. This course does not cover spacecraft or flight electrical systems.
 
Use this direct link to register in SATERN.
https://satern.nasa.gov/plateau/user/deeplink.do?linkId=SCHEDULED_OFFERING_DE...
 
Shirley Robinson x41284
 
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10.          Refresher for Explosives Handlers and Ops. Personnel: June 19 - Building 226N, Room 174
SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0009: This course covers safe practices for handling, storing, shipping and testing explosive systems, components and devices. It is specifically designed for technicians, supervisors, test engineers and managers involved with routine procedures at NASA test sites and operations facilities. The core subjects, which address basic explosives safety, are supplemented by NASA center-specific training material. This course can be tailored to meet local requirements and is ideal for annual refresher training.
 
Target audience: Safety, reliability, quality and maintainability professionals; and technicians, engineers and managers subject to safety requirements at explosives work sites.
 
Use this direct link to register in SATERN. https://satern.nasa.gov/plateau/user/deeplink.do?linkId=SCHEDULED_OFFERING_DE...
 
Shirley Robinson x41284
 
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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.
 
 
 
 
NASA TV:
·         11 am Central (Noon EDT) – File of Exp 31/32 pre-launch news conf. & State Comm Meeting
·         9 pm Central (10 EDT) – Soyuz TMA-04M launch coverage (liftoff at 10:01 pm CDT)
·         Midnight Central (1 am EDT) – File of Soyuz launch video & post-launch interviews
 
Human Spaceflight News
Monday, May 14, 2012
 

Soyuz TMA-04M launch set for 10:01:23 pm CDT/11:01:23 pmj EDT (Photo by Bill Ingalls)
 
HEADLINES AND LEADS
 
More concerns about commercial crew and Congressional language
 
SpacePolitics.com
 
Even before the House took up the Commerce, Justice, and Science appropriations bill last week, the administration warned that it considered the bill unacceptable, citing in a statement of administration policy concerns about the bill’s provisions, including the reduced funding levels and “restrictive report language” for NASA’s commercial crew program. This was widely communicated as a veto threat against the bill based on that language, although that is something of an oversimplification, since the NASA language was just one paragraph in a four-page document outlining the various issues the administration had with the bill.
 
Acaba, former Mel High teacher, ready to rocket to ISS
Ex-science instructor will spend 6 months in orbit
 
Todd Halvorson – Florida Today
 
A U.S. astronaut who once taught science at Melbourne High will rocket up to the International Space Station today on a six-month expedition aboard the orbital laboratory. Veteran shuttle mission specialist Joe Acaba will be the first NASA “educator astronaut” to fly a long-duration mission on the space station, and he is eager to get underway. “I think I’m definitely ready for this mission. We’ve spent a little over two years preparing,” Acaba told Florida Today in an interview before he and two cosmonaut crewmates traveled to Russia for final launch preparations. “So now I’m at the point where the fine-tuning is almost done and I’m ready to get on that Soyuz and get to the space station.”
 
Letting the train take the strain
Russian Soyuz rocket transported by rail to launch pad ahead of mission
 
David Baker - London Daily Mail
 
Final preparations are being made for the launch of the Soyuz TMA-04M spacecraft to the International Space Station as it was transported by train through Kazakhstan. The huge rocket is being moved into position at the Baikonur launch pad in the former Soviet state before the scheduled blast off date on Tuesday. Similarly to its last couple of launches the spacecraft will have an international crew with Soyuz Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Sergei Revin of Russia, as well as U.S. prime Nasa Flight Engineer Joe Acaba.
 
Shuttle Endeavour shut down for good
Power to last orbiter cut off in preparation for museum move
 
Todd Halvorson - Florida Today
 
Rest in peace, shuttle fleet.
 
With a series of cockpit switch throws, United Space Alliance Spacecraft Operator Mike Parrish put the orbiter Endeavour to sleep Friday, executing the final electrical power-down for NASA’s long and storied shuttle program. “I want to thank the entire team, on behalf of the operations group,” Parrish said, his voice cracking over communications loop 132 in Orbiter Processing Facility Bay No. 2 at Kennedy Space Center. “It was a heck of a vehicle. It was a great vehicle.” Let the record show the time of final power-down for the shuttle program was 9:58 a.m. May 11, 2012. A dozen sad people hung at the edge of the Ops Desk in the hangar as Ralph Gregory of United Space Alliance made the call…
 
Space Shuttle Is ‘Demated’ From Plane
 
Patrick McGeehan - New York Times
 

 
The space shuttle Enterprise has passed the point of no return. Just before dawn on Sunday, a crew working for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration lifted the Enterprise off the top of a 747 jet that had carried it to New York City two weeks ago. The eight-hour procedure, which NASA calls “demating,” left the shuttle in a tent at Kennedy International Airport, where it will stay for a few weeks. In early June, the Enterprise is due to take the last leg of its voyage to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in Manhattan. To get it there, the museum’s staff will have the shuttle hoisted onto a barge near the airport and towed through Jamaica Bay and up the Hudson River to the retired aircraft carrier that houses the museum.
 
Crews work through the night to separate Enterprise from 747
 
WCBS TV (New York)
 
Crews at John F. Kennedy Airport were in the middle of a delicate operation on Sunday morning, separating the Space Shuttle Enterprise from the 747 it flew in on a few weeks ago. It’s part of the journey that New York’s space shuttle will take to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, another chapter in the final voyage of the Shuttle Enterprise. On Sunday morning at JFK Airport it was offloaded from the 747 its been piggy-backing on, part of a delicate process that had NASA working through the night.
 
Space Shuttle Enterprise Removed From Transport Plane
 
NY1 TV
 
The space shuttle Enterprise took another step toward its new home in the city. Early Sunday morning at John F. Kennedy International Airport, the shuttle was removed from the 747 aircraft that transported it to New York last month in a process known as "de-mating." The full procedure involving cranes and a lifting sling takes more than 10 hours. Now that it has been removed, the Enterprise will be stored inside Hangar 12 at JFK until next month, when it will be loaded onto a barge and floated to the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum on Manhattan's West Side.
 
Enterprise taken off jumbo jet at Kennedy
 
Emily Ngo - Newsday
 
Awash in high-powered lights, the shuttle Enterprise on Sunday was separated from the jumbo jet that carried it piggyback to Kennedy Airport, marking the end of another stage in the craft's journey to its eventual home at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. Two giant cranes and a specially made sling lifted the 57,000-pound Enterprise, which was built to test NASA's space shuttle design and for test flights in the atmosphere, off the modified Boeing 747 and onto a trailer, moving inch by meticulous inch.
 
Space Shuttle Enterprise Hoisted Off Jumbo Jet in New York City
 
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
 
Space shuttle Enterprise has landed in New York, again. Two weeks after flying into John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport mounted atop a modified Boeing 747, Enterprise — NASA's original prototype space shuttle — was off-loaded by crane from the back of the jumbo jet to the ground overnight on Saturday (May 13). Workers finished hoisting Enterprise off the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) at about 6:30 a.m. EDT (1030 GMT) Sunday. The orbiter, which did not fly in space but was used for a series of approach and landing tests in the late 1970s, was lowered onto a wheeled transporter and then moved to a hangar to wait being barged to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum for public display.
 
XCOR Lynx Mark I Taking Shape In Mojave
 
Guy Norris - Aviation Week
 

 
Four years after the rocket-powered Lynx project was unveiled at the Los Angeles Convention Center, the presence here of a full-scale vehicle mockup at the Spacecraft Technology Expo reveals two fundamental truths about the “new space” market. Firstly, propelling a privately developed spacecraft to suborbit is extremely difficult. When it first announced the project in March 2008, XCOR Aerospace hoped to be flying within two years, yet is only now assembling the first Mark I vehicle at its Mojave, Calif., facility. The company's long journey to suborbit is partly reflected in the many detailed design differences between the mockup and the artist's concept of 2008.
 
Houston lawyer on quest to find missing moon rocks
 
Michael Graczyk - Associated Press
 
The dark suit and tie Joe Gutheinz wore set him apart from other customers inside a Texas eatery where the usual attire is jeans and cowboy hats. An appetite for down-home cooking wasn't what brought the former NASA investigator to the Pitt Grill recently. He was on a quest to identify and maybe recover some of the rarest treasure brought to Earth and then lost: moon rocks.
 
Congress could kill rocket builders' new space race
 
John Kelly - Florida Today (Viewpoint)
 
You should be concerned about a Congressional vote this week for NASA to immediately end its successful competition among multiple contractors vying to deliver a new, privatized system to carry astronauts to and from the space station. So far, a layered approach with multiple companies competing to build a new space transportation system is showing signs of working, with the most obvious evidence being a Falcon 9 rocket set to launch a Dragon spacecraft to the space station as early as Saturday. Private firms are competing against one another, with potentially lucrative contracts as a prize. They are coming up with innovative ways to design and operate a human space transport that would have cost billions more and already be years behind schedule, if it were developed under NASA’s old way of doing business, with one big contractor handed a single multi-billion dollar contract.
 
A terrible vote on spaceflight
Posey, Adams joined move to crush fast-moving private space competition
 
Matt Reed - Florida Today (Commentary)
 
NASA is on budget, on schedule and ready to show us something new and exciting in human spaceflight for the first time since today’s fortysomethings were in grade school. But the U.S. House, including both representatives from Brevard, voted last week to wreck the program — nine days before the high-stakes launch of a “commercial crew” rocket and capsule from the Cape. For those just tuning in, an assortment of privately developed flying machines are scheduled to begin key test launches this week, competing for a contract to carry U.S. astronauts into orbit.
__________
 
COMPLETE STORIES
 
More concerns about commercial crew and Congressional language
 
SpacePolitics.com
 
Even before the House took up the Commerce, Justice, and Science appropriations bill last week, the administration warned that it considered the bill unacceptable, citing in a statement of administration policy concerns about the bill’s provisions, including the reduced funding levels and “restrictive report language” for NASA’s commercial crew program. This was widely communicated as a veto threat against the bill based on that language, although that is something of an oversimplification, since the NASA language was just one paragraph in a four-page document outlining the various issues the administration had with the bill.
 
During the debate of the bill in the House on Wednesday, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) raised his own concerns about the program and the report language regarding it accompanying the bill. “I believe it makes a flawed comparison between commercial crew program partners and the energy firm of Solyndra,” he said, referring to the report, in a colloquy with Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), the chairman of the appropriations CJS subcommittee, during the debate on the bill Wednesday afternoon. “In addition, it requires an immediate downselect to a single program partner, which I do not believe is the best path to move forward.”
 
Rohrabacher went on to say he did share some concerns Wolf has with the program. “NASA has not shared a clear, comprehensive management plan for the program, despite repeated requests,” he said. “Instead, they have made inconsistent and confusing statements abut the program’s purpose, timeline, design, cost, and procurement methods.” He said he hoped there would be the opportunity to discuss “some alternative approaches” that address those concerns while achieving the program’s goals. “With that in mind, I am willing to work with NASA to help come up with a new plan that will do just that.”
 
Wolf offered a sympathetic response. “I believe that despite our differences—and there may not really be that much of a difference—we share a common goal of providing reliable domestic access to the space station in the fastest, most cost-effective manner,” he said, adding that if Rohrabacher believes that he can work with NASA to come up with a improved plan, “we want to work with him.”
 
In a statement issued after the colloquy, Rohrabacher expressed his frustration with both NASA and Congress about the state of the program. “NASA and this Administration have not been able to sell this basic idea” of the benefits of commercial crew, he said. “Congress has embraced a measured approach to this idea; too slowly and timidly from my point of view. It seems NASA is itself confused, or maybe suffers from internal conflicts over the specific goals and approaches. The agency has not told a clear and convincing story to win this initiative the funding and freedom of action it requires.”
 
“As a champion of Commercial Crew, I am no longer willing to give NASA the benefit of every doubt on this program. NASA must do better,” Rohrabacher said later in the statement. “NASA must get behind a more effective and transparent commercial crew strategy and program plan. We’ve made a lot of progress in recent years, but we cannot move forward simply on momentum.”
 
The next day, NASA administrator Charles Bolden spoke out against any effort to limit competition in the commercial crew program. “Despite a bi-partisan agreement to ensure American astronauts are traveling into space on U.S. built spacecraft as soon as possible, some want to short-change this job-creating initiative and limit competition in the commercial space arena,” he said in remarks prepared for a meeting Thursday of the FAA’s Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC) in Washington. (Emphasis in original.)
 
“Ending competition by down-selecting to a sole commercial space company could double the cost of developing a privately built human spaceflight system and it will leave us in the same position we find ourselves today — having only one option for getting our astronauts to the space station,” Bolden said. “We are hopeful we can work to resolve these issues and keep this important initiative on track.”
 
Florida Today, meanwhile, has taken an aggressive stance on the issue, with two of its columnists criticizing the Space Coast’s two members of Congress, Reps. Sandy Adams (R) and Bill Posey (R), for voting in favor of the overall appropriations bill despite the commercial crew funding levels and language. Posey told the newspaper’s John Kelly that limited funds force NASA to make an earlier downselect: “In a perfect world, with unlimited funds, you wouldn’t have to do that, but that is not the world we live in today.”
 
“What I can’t understand is why House members” like Adams and Posey “would vote to halt the only bargain NASA has going,” Florida Today’s Matt Reed said in his own column. “Today, NASA’s budget represents .48 percent of federal spending. The commercial crew competition accounts for 1/18th of that. And Congress is concerned… why?”
 
Updated NASA budget summary
 
The table below summarizes the numbers from the President's budget request; the House bill, HR 5326; and the Senate version, S. 2323, which is awaiting consideration by the full Senate. All dollar amounts are in millions, and rounded to the nearest tenth.
 
Account
PBR
House
Senate
Science
$4,911.2
$5,095.0
$5,021.1
Aeronautics
$551.5
$569.9
$551.5
Space Technology
$699.0
$632.5
$651.0
Exploration
$3,932.8
$3,711.9
$3,908.9
Space Operations
$4,013.2
$3,985.0
$3,961.7
Education
$100.0
$100.0
$125.0
Cross-Agency Support
$2,847.5
$2,717.5
$2,822.5
Construction
$619.2
$598.0
$679.0
Inspector General
$37.0
$38.0
$37.8
SUBTOTAL
$17,711.4
$17,447.8
$17,758.5
Operational Satellite Acquisition
n/a
n/a
$1,641.1
TOTAL
$17,711.4
$17,447.8
$19,399.6
 
Soyuz rocket rolls out for next manned space launch
 
SpaceflightNow.com
 
A booster rocket topped with the next Soyuz crew transporter bound for the International Space Station was rolled by rail to the launch pad Sunday for a Monday night blastoff carrying a NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts.
 
Liftoff of the three-man crew from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan is scheduled for 11:01 p.m. EDT (0301 GMT Tuesday) from the same pad used to send the first human into space a half-century ago.
 
Russia's Gennady Padalka, cosmonaut Sergei Revin and NASA's Joe Acaba are headed to the orbiting outpost for a 125-day mission as part of the Expeditions 31 and 32.
 
They'll join the trio already living up there -- commander Oleg Kononenko of Russian NASA's Don Pettit and Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers.
 
Utilizing the space laboratory and conducting diverse research is the main goal of the mission, as well as receiving the international mix of resupply ships.
 
"Lots of research (is) going on," said Kirk Shireman, the International Space Station's deputy program manager. "They have over 287 different investigations they will be doing (and) over 400 principal investigators who will be involved in all the experiments."
 
The Soyuz rocket and its TMA-04M capsule, mounted horizontally on a railcar, journeyed along a winding route from the integration facility at Site 254 to the same historic pad used by Yuri Gagarin.
 
Hydraulic pistons lifted the rocket upright on the pad and gantry swing arms moved into position to enclose the vehicle. Technicians on four levels hooked up electrical and telemetry cables between the rocket and pad.
 
"A beautiful day to put a rocket up in the vertical. The process went very smoothly and we're ready to go," said Eric Boe, NASA's deputy chief of the astronaut office.
 
State commission approves RF-US crew of Soyuz spaceship
 
Itar-Tass
 
The state commission at a meeting on Monday approved the crew of the Soyuz TMA-04M spacecraft, which will be launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday, May 15.
 
The main crew comprises cosmonauts of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos – RKA) Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin and NASA astronaut Joseph Acaba, and their backups are RKA cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Yevgeny Tarelkin, as well as NASA astronaut Kevin Ford.
 
The launch of the Soyuz FG carrier rocket with the Soyuz TMA-04M manned spacecraft that is to deliver the international crew to the ISS, is scheduled for 06:58 MSK Tuesday from the Gagarin launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The Soyuz spaceship’s docking to the ISS is scheduled for May 17 at 08:39 a.m., Moscow time in an automatic mode.
 
Head of the Russian Cosmonaut Training Centre Sergei Krikalev said at the state commission meeting that both crews have fulfilled the training program.
 
“By the medical commission decision the (main) crew has been found qualified for the space flight,” he said.
 
Head of the Energia Rocket Space Corporation Vitaly Lopota for his part said that all the necessary technical operations with the Soyuz GF carrier rocket and ground-based equipment have been carried out within the framework of the preparation for the launch.
 
“We are fully ready for launch, there are no problems with the equipment,” he said.
 
Commander of the main crew Gennady Padalka told the state commission members that the crewmembers realise the entire responsibility entrusted to them and will work, using their knowledge and skills acquired during the training for the flight.
 
Chairman of the state commission - head of the Federal Space Agency Vladimir Popovkin said that he had no doubts that the crew is ready and that its members will implement the whole flight program.
 
“I am confident in the crew, especially with such an experienced commander as Gennady Ivanovich Padalka. I can now only wish you good luck,” he said.
 
For Padalka this flight will be the fourth in his space career, for Aqaba - the second (he performed his first flight on a space shuttle in 2009). Revin has not flown into space before. 
 
Acaba, former Mel High teacher, ready to rocket to ISS
Ex-science instructor will spend 6 months in orbit
 
Todd Halvorson – Florida Today
 
A U.S. astronaut who once taught science at Melbourne High will rocket up to the International Space Station today on a six-month expedition aboard the orbital laboratory.
 
Veteran shuttle mission specialist Joe Acaba will be the first NASA “educator astronaut” to fly a long-duration mission on the space station, and he is eager to get underway.
 
“I think I’m definitely ready for this mission. We’ve spent a little over two years preparing,” Acaba told Florida Today in an interview before he and two cosmonaut crewmates traveled to Russia for final launch preparations. “So now I’m at the point where the fine-tuning is almost done and I’m ready to get on that Soyuz and get to the space station.”
 
Acaba is slated to blast off on a Russian Soyuz rocket, commanded by veteran Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 11:01 p.m. EDT today. The third seat is being taken by spaceflight rookie Sergei Revin.
 
The trio is scheduled to arrive at the station at 12:39 a.m. EDT Thursday — Acaba’s 45th birthday.
 
“Really, the main reason we are up there is to conduct science...our goal is to get the 35 hours a week of utilization or time working on experiments,” Acaba said. “So we plan on putting a lot of time into that. That’s really the main focus.”
 
A hydro-geologist who once managed a marine research center on a remote Bahamian island, Acaba said he is looking forward to being a subject for human research deemed critical to preparing for future interplanetary expeditions.
 
Among the experiments: Research aimed at gauging the effect of weightlessness on the human heart and how the cardiovascular system reacts during a return to normal gravity on Earth.
 
“It’s really the information that we’re going to need if we want to do longer and longer duration missions,” Acaba said.
 
“So to be a part of that is pretty neat — to become part of that history, knowing that you are contributing a little bit by kind of being that lab rat that helps us get a little bit smarter about what we’re doing in space.”
 
If all goes as planned, Acaba will be onboard the station when SpaceX launches its Dragon spacecraft Saturday on a mission to demonstrate a capability to safely and reliably deliver cargo to the space station.
 
The California company holds a $1.6 billion contract for 12 commercial resupply missions to the station. A success on the upcoming demonstration mission would clear the way for the first of those resupply flights in August.
 
Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., holds a $1.9 billion contract for eight commercial resupply missions. An Antares rocket is slated to launch a Cygnus cargo carrier on a demonstration mission in early September.
 
With the U.S. shuttle fleet now retired, Acaba said the commercial resupply flights are critical to keeping the station fully staffed.
 
“They’re extremely important, and we’re really banking on them to be able to come through and help us get those supplies that we will need to the International Space Station,” Acaba said. “We really need those guys to come through, you know, and we wish them all the best and hope to see them here shortly.”
 
Acaba, Padalka and Revin are slated to live and work on the outpost for four months. Estimated time of arrival back on Earth: Sept. 17. The other half of their 32nd expedition crew is due at the station in mid-July.
 
Letting the train take the strain
Russian Soyuz rocket transported by rail to launch pad ahead of mission
 
David Baker - London Daily Mail
 
Final preparations are being made for the launch of the Soyuz TMA-04M spacecraft to the International Space Station as it was transported by train through Kazakhstan.
 
The huge rocket is being moved into position at the Baikonur launch pad in the former Soviet state before the scheduled blast off date on Tuesday.
 
Similarly to its last couple of launches the spacecraft will have an international crew with Soyuz Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Sergei Revin of Russia, as well as U.S. prime Nasa Flight Engineer Joe Acaba.
 
They make up the crew of Expedition 31.
 
The most recent crew to head out to the habitable artificial satellite in low Earth orbit returned last month and everything now appears to be in place for the latest expedition.
 
 
Nasa, which officially retired its shuttle fleet last year, has relied exclusively on Russian Soyuz craft for space station crew transport since late 2009.
 
According to the organisation more than 1,500 launches have been made with the craft to orbit satellites for telecommunications, Earth observation, weather and scientific missions, as well as for human flights.
 
Today the latest craft underwent the normal preparations which the European Space Agency says always includes the rocket being hauled to the launch pad on a horizontal railcar.
 
Transfer is generally two days before launch, during which time a rehearsal is performed that includes activation of all electrical and mechanical equipment.
 
On launch day, the vehicle is loaded with propellant - liquid oxygen and kerosene - and the final countdown starts three hours before lift off time.
 
A Soyuz space capsule took the first crew to the International Space Station in November 2000 and since that time, at least one Soyuz has always been at the Station, generally to serve as a lifeboat should the crew have to return to Earth unexpectedly.
 
After the Columbia accident in February 2003, the Soyuz TMA became the means of transportation for crew members going to or returning from the orbiting laboratory.
 
The Soyuz spacecraft is always launched to the Space Station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard a Soyuz rocket.
 
Once the Soyuz reaches orbit, it spends two days chasing the Station. The crew performs systems checks and keeps in touch with controllers at the Russian Mission Control Center during that time.
Before the final rendezvous phase, the crew members put on pressurized suits and then monitor the automated docking sequence.
 
A Soyuz trip to the station takes two days from launch to docking, but the return to Earth takes less than 3.5 hours
 
Shuttle Endeavour shut down for good
Power to last orbiter cut off in preparation for museum move
 
Todd Halvorson - Florida Today
 
Rest in peace, shuttle fleet.
 
With a series of cockpit switch throws, United Space Alliance Spacecraft Operator Mike Parrish put the orbiter Endeavour to sleep Friday, executing the final electrical power-down for NASA’s long and storied shuttle program.
 
“I want to thank the entire team, on behalf of the operations group,” Parrish said, his voice cracking over communications loop 132 in Orbiter Processing Facility Bay No. 2 at Kennedy Space Center. “It was a heck of a vehicle. It was a great vehicle.”
 
Let the record show the time of final power-down for the shuttle program was 9:58 a.m. May 11, 2012. A dozen sad people hung at the edge of the Ops Desk in the hangar as Ralph Gregory of United Space Alliance made the call:
 
“Oh nine five eight.”
 
Talk about a tough, emotional day for the technicians, engineers and managers involved. There were bloodshot red, wet eyes, all around. Tears flowed down flushed cheeks. It was hard not to be choked up.
 
“When you work for as long as you have on a particular vehicle, you create a love for them, and they become part of you,” said Buddy McKenzie, a United Space Alliance shop floor manager.
 
And so it was with Endeavour.
 
Built to replace Challenger, NASA’s fifth space-worthy orbiter first flew in May 1992 on a daring mission to rescue a stranded communications satellite, a flight that also featured the first shuttle drag chute landing.
 
A year later, Endeavour carried aloft the astronaut crew that fixed NASA’s myopic Hubble Space Telescope, which was launched with a misshapen main mirror.
 
Mark Lee and Jan Davis became the first married couple to fly in space aboard Endeavour. Their STS-47 crew also included Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman to fly in space.
 
Susan Helms launched on Endeavour in 1993. Years later, she became the first woman to serve on the International Space Station and the commander of the Air Force 45th Space Wing, which is headquartered at Patrick Air Force Base.
 
Twenty-one years after Teacher-In-Space Christa McAuliffe was lost in the Challenger accident, her back-up, Barbara Morgan, launched on Endeavour.
 
And KSC Director Bob Cabana sat in the commander’s seat in 1998, when Endeavour launched on the first International Space Station assembly mission. Cabana already had flown twice on Discovery, and once on Columbia.
 
“I’m kind of partial to Endeavour, though, because that was my last command,” he said earlier this week.
 
Add it all up, and Endeavour tallied 25 missions, 299 days in space and 4,671 orbits of Earth. The vehicle logged 122,883,151 miles.
 
McKenzie said Parrish was the appropriate pick to throw switches during the final power-down. Discovery is already a museum piece, and Atlantis was earlier powered down as preparations continue for its final display at KSC Visitor Complex.
 
Parrish started working at KSC in 1979, two years prior to the first shuttle flight, and he was trained as a Spacecraft Operator — or “SCO” — for STS-2, the second of 135 shuttle flights, back in November 1981.
 
An East Orlando resident, Parrish was the Operations Chief and Vehicle Manager for Endeavour for 11 years. He also worked on “exchange crews” that took control of orbiters on the runway after “wheels stop” on end-of-mission landings.
 
“I hate that it’s over,” Parrish said, his voice catching. “But I’m glad I had the honor to be up there, in Endeavour.”
 
On communications loop 132 just prior to the initiation of the final power down, McKenzie dedicated the effort to thousands of shuttle program workers, who, like his wife, have been laid off, and were not fortunate enough to be huddled around the shuttle as its lights went dark.
 
“We’re lucky enough, and honored enough, to be here to be part of this. But my heart goes to the folks that are not here today,” McKenzie said.
 
“We’ve got the future coming. It’s going to be a few years. I’m sure we’re going to be back in space again. But for today — today is for all the folks that are not here.”
 
Space Shuttle Is ‘Demated’ From Plane
 
Patrick McGeehan - New York Times
 

 
The space shuttle Enterprise has passed the point of no return.
 
Just before dawn on Sunday, a crew working for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration lifted the Enterprise off the top of a 747 jet that had carried it to New York City two weeks ago. The eight-hour procedure, which NASA calls “demating,” left the shuttle in a tent at Kennedy International Airport, where it will stay for a few weeks.
 
In early June, the Enterprise is due to take the last leg of its voyage to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in Manhattan. To get it there, the museum’s staff will have the shuttle hoisted onto a barge near the airport and towed through Jamaica Bay and up the Hudson River to the retired aircraft carrier that houses the museum.
 
The museum’s trustees paid NASA more than $9 million to deliver the Enterprise, which had been on display at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum in Virginia. That museum received the retired space shuttle Discovery earlier this year, making the Enterprise available to the Intrepid.
 
Matt Woods, the museum’s vice president for facilities and operations, said “all went great” in the separation of the two aircraft, which he said started at 10 p.m. Saturday and was completed about 6:30 a.m. Sunday. The Enterprise, which was the prototype for the space shuttles but never flew into space, was lifted by cranes onto a trailer and rolled into a de-icing tent at the airport.
 
The shuttle is scheduled to move on June 6 to the museum, where it will be enclosed in a temporary shelter until a permanent home is built. The museum plans to open the shuttle display to the public on July 19.
 
Crews work through the night to separate Enterprise from 747
 
WCBS TV (New York)
 
Crews at John F. Kennedy Airport were in the middle of a delicate operation on Sunday morning, separating the Space Shuttle Enterprise from the 747 it flew in on a few weeks ago.
 
It’s part of the journey that New York’s space shuttle will take to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, another chapter in the final voyage of the Shuttle Enterprise.
 
On Sunday morning at JFK Airport it was offloaded from the 747 its been piggy-backing on, part of a delicate process that had NASA working through the night.
 
“The process of offloading takes about 12 hours. Now we started at 10 p.m. on Saturday night, so we’re not quite through yet,” Stephanie Stilson of NASA told CBS 2's Dick Brennan early on Sunday morning.
 
The craft that never flew in space made a glorious flight around New York City two weeks ago.  It was a fly-by for the ages, passing city landmarks and providing a surreal moment for countless New Yorkers who caught the show from windows and rooftops.
 
The craft made two passes along the Hudson River before heading for a landing at JFK. Enterprise was once housed at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, but it will soon be heading for a retirement home on the Intrepid.  The craft will be put on a barge for the next phase of the trip.
 
“We need high water to get the barge as close to land as possible so we can get the shuttle onto the barge,” Matt Woods of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum explained. “And we need real low water to get underneath the bridges we need to clear to get it up to the Intrepid.”
 
Military aircraft have been removed one-by-one from the carrier so the spacecraft can be shoehorned in.
 
And now a new generation can learn about an era in space that is fading into history, and the Enterprise, despite its advanced age, will live long and prosper.
 
“NASA does great work,” Stilson concluded. “Although right now it seems that there is a little bit of turmoil, we will have some straight guidance and new programs, and those are already under way. We’ve been focusing on shuttles, but we’re going to jump right into those new programs.”
 
Space Shuttle Enterprise Removed From Transport Plane
 
NY1 TV
 
The space shuttle Enterprise took another step toward its new home in the city.
 
Early Sunday morning at John F. Kennedy International Airport, the shuttle was removed from the 747 aircraft that transported it to New York last month in a process known as "de-mating."
 
The full procedure involving cranes and a lifting sling takes more than 10 hours.
 
Now that it has been removed, the Enterprise will be stored inside Hangar 12 at JFK until next month, when it will be loaded onto a barge and floated to the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum on Manhattan's West Side.
 
A curator at the Intrepid said the de-mating took place overnight because of this week's windy weather forecast.
 
"It's unbolting a lot of fittings and getting the crane hooked up properly and lifting her up. And as you can see now, she's being placed down on her temporary transport trailer that we had made for her," said Intrepid Museum official Eric Boehn.
 
"There were so many places that wanted to have an orbiter, and for New York to get Enterprise, I think, has been a great treat and a great honor for the state," said NASA official Stephanie Stilson.
 
The Enterprise officially goes on public exhibit starting July 19.
 
Enterprise taken off jumbo jet at Kennedy
 
Emily Ngo - Newsday
 
Awash in high-powered lights, the shuttle Enterprise on Sunday was separated from the jumbo jet that carried it piggyback to Kennedy Airport, marking the end of another stage in the craft's journey to its eventual home at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.
 
Two giant cranes and a specially made sling lifted the 57,000-pound Enterprise, which was built to test NASA's space shuttle design and for test flights in the atmosphere, off the modified Boeing 747 and onto a trailer, moving inch by meticulous inch.
 
The process, known as demating, required three weeks of preparation, NASA officials said, and took about 10 hours, beginning Saturday night. NASA and Intrepid experts, with contractors in hard hats and reflective vests, worked under the shuttle that had been used to train astronauts.
 
The separation occurred at about 2:30 a.m., and three hours later Enterprise was lowered onto a trailer operated by Intrepid personnel, marking the official transfer of the shuttle from NASA hands into those of the Manhattan museum.
 
"We will be a little bit sad to walk away from Enterprise. I like to use the analogy of sending a child off to college," said Stephanie Stilson, NASA flow director of orbiter transition and retirement. "Intrepid will do a great job of taking care of it."
 
The Enterprise was rolled back into Hangar 12 at about 6 a.m. as the sun rose. It will sit there until June 4, when it is to be placed on a barge that will carry it to the Intrepid, which is docked at Pier 96 on the Hudson River. The shuttle will be on exhibit beginning July 19.
 
The demating was undertaken at night because winds were expected to be gentler, Stilson said. The operation required winds of less than 10 mph and involved special wind-restraint equipment, she said. To put up the transfer cranes and support the slings, 200 4-inch holes were drilled into the tarmac, she said.
 
Enterprise was flown to New York from Washington, D.C., last month. It is part of NASA's fleet of retired space shuttles that are going to new homes at museums around the country. Enterprise never flew in space.
 
"It proved the concept," said Kevin Templin, NASA transition manager for the space shuttle program. "It proved the shuttles could fly."
 
NASA's Boeing 747 will remain in New York until May 17. Its next mission is to ferry the shuttle Endeavour to Los Angeles in the fall.
 
Matt Woods, Intrepid vice president of facilities and operations, said New York is fortunate to have a piece of history. "We're very excited," he said of taking ownership of Enterprise.
 
Yvonne Williams, an operations planner with NASA contractor United Space Alliance, which is helping to relocate the shuttles, enjoyed a snack of popcorn while she watched the demating.
 
"This is a special event," she said.
 
Space Shuttle Enterprise Hoisted Off Jumbo Jet in New York City
 
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
 
Space shuttle Enterprise has landed in New York, again.
 
Two weeks after flying into John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport mounted atop a modified Boeing 747, Enterprise — NASA's original prototype space shuttle — was off-loaded by crane from the back of the jumbo jet to the ground overnight on Saturday (May 13).
 
Workers finished hoisting Enterprise off the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) at about 6:30 a.m. EDT (1030 GMT) Sunday. The orbiter, which did not fly in space but was used for a series of approach and landing tests in the late 1970s, was lowered onto a wheeled transporter and then moved to a hangar to wait being barged to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum for public display.
 
Enterprise's three-day journey on the Hudson River to the Intrepid, a converted World War II aircraft carrier in Manhattan, is set to begin on June 4.
 
Enterprise touched down in New York from Virginia, where it has been on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum since 2003, on April 27. Still attached to the 747, Enterprise was parked at JFK under an open-ended hangar. NASA then moved and set-up at the New York airport the same two large cranes used to mount the orbiter atop the jetliner for its ferry flight to the Big Apple.
 
All of NASA's space-flown space shuttles and Enterprise are getting new museum homes after the space agency retired the orbiter fleet in 2011. The shuttle Discovery replaced Enterprise at the Smithsonian on April 19.
 
United Space Alliance (USA) workers will begin dismantling the cranes at JFK on Monday. The 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft is expected to depart for NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in California by the end of the week. In September, it will fly to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for its final space shuttle ferry flight, carrying the shuttle Endeavour to Los Angeles for the California Science Center.
 
The only space shuttle not to ride a carrier aircraft to its final museum home is Atlantis, which will be moved by land from the Kennedy Space Center to the nearby its nearby visitor complex in Florida.
 
Enterprise's river journey to the Intrepid will include a stopover in Bayonne, NJ to be moved onto a crane-equipped barge. Once alongside the ship-based museum, the shuttle be hoisted onto the flight deck. A climate-controlled temporary steel and fabric structure will then be erected over the shuttle.
 
The Intrepid's "Space Pavilion" is set to open to the public on Thursday, July 19. The first tickets to view Enterprise went on sale earlier this month.
 
XCOR Lynx Mark I Taking Shape In Mojave
 
Guy Norris - Aviation Week
 

 
Four years after the rocket-powered Lynx project was unveiled at the Los Angeles Convention Center, the presence here of a full-scale vehicle mockup at the Spacecraft Technology Expo reveals two fundamental truths about the “new space” market.
 
Firstly, propelling a privately developed spacecraft to suborbit is extremely difficult. When it first announced the project in March 2008, XCOR Aerospace hoped to be flying within two years, yet is only now assembling the first Mark I vehicle at its Mojave, Calif., facility. The company's long journey to suborbit is partly reflected in the many detailed design differences between the mockup and the artist's concept of 2008.
 
Secondly, the project shows staying power while underscoring XCOR's determination and the resilience of the market. Despite the challenges and the sluggish economy, the company continues to find support and raise funds. XCOR holds more than $60 million in backlog orders and recently closed a $5 million round of equity funding from new and previous investors, including Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and well-known technology “angel” investors such as Esther Dyson.
 
XCOR CEO Jeff Greason also continues to exude confidence in the project and the market as a whole. “It took a while, but we think we're there,” he says, describing the path to Lynx. “We've been through two generations of rocket-powered vehicles so far. Firstly, there was the EZ-Rocket between 2001 and 2005, which was aimed at pushing down the cost of rocket-powered operations. Then there was the X-Racer, between 2006 and 2008, which was all about operational tempo. We got it down to around nine minutes between flights and up to seven flights per day.”
 
Now, with the prospect of long-awaited suborbital flights looming in 2013, Greason says the influence of pioneering operations such as the Lynx will be greater than the sum of its parts. “People talk about the tradeoff between robotic operations and humans—but I don't think a robot has been invented that can enjoy the spaceflight for me, or can do experiments and say, 'Mmmm . . . that looks funny to me.' So it's a game-changer in a way that will impact other uses of human spaceflight.”
 
Assembly of the initial vehicle is underway, with the truss structure that will support the propulsion system currently being attached to the fuselage. The structure will provide a housing for the vehicle's four XR-5K18 liquid oxygen/kerosene (LOX/RP) rocket engines. Initial tests of the LOX piston pump are about to start, paving the way for closed-loop testing of the engine using its own pump-fed fuel, rather than pressure-fed from offboard sources. XCOR has also received the LOX tank and is issuing requests for bids for the aerodynamic strakes, or fairings, which will enclose the fuel tanks between the fuselage and the wing.
 
The mockup at the show indicated the changes made to improve the stability and control of the final configuration, including the broader nose section and extended chine. Other changes—which were made after subsonic wind-tunnel trials in 2009 at the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, and follow-on tests at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center—included larger-chord wingtip-mounted vertical fins with extended ventral sections. A final set of wind-tunnel campaigns in both facilities is scheduled shortly to confirm minor aerodynamic changes.
 
A mockup of the two-person cockpit was also displayed alongside the vehicle. The layout is dominated by two multi-function displays, numerous standby instruments and a camera view of the rocket plume. XCOR says visual checks of the plume from a tail-mounted camera will provide the pilot with instant verification of the stability of the rockets, and will warn of issues before anything is picked up on instruments. The company says avionics provided by L-3 Communications, CMC/Esterline, Aspen, MGL, Avidyne and Garmin “are all being considered,” and a final decision on the suite of avionics suppliers will be made over the summer.
 
XCOR aims to start powered taxi tests later this year with high-speed runs by December, and first flight in 2013.
 
Houston lawyer on quest to find missing moon rocks
 
Michael Graczyk - Associated Press
 
The dark suit and tie Joe Gutheinz wore set him apart from other customers inside a Texas eatery where the usual attire is jeans and cowboy hats.
 
An appetite for down-home cooking wasn't what brought the former NASA investigator to the Pitt Grill recently. He was on a quest to identify and maybe recover some of the rarest treasure brought to Earth and then lost: moon rocks.
 
"We're educating the states and countries of the world about how much they're worth on the black market and we need to increase the security in museums and need to put them back on display," Gutheinz said.
 
The rock samples were collected by the dozen American astronauts who walked on the lunar surface between 1969 and 1972. U.S. states, territories, the United Nations and foreign governments received them as gifts. The samples, which also were loaned to museums and given to scientists for research, range from dust particles to tiny pebbles.
 
"A lot of them are in storage. And we need to put them in an inventory control system. And that's what's really lacking," said Gutheinz, a Houston lawyer who also teaches college classes in investigative techniques.
 
At the Pitt Grill in Buffalo, Texas, Gutheinz was meeting a former toy manufacturer from Colombia who contends his piece of the moon is from the more than 48 pounds of material collected in 1969 by Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the first manned lunar landing mission.
 
Rafael Navarro's asking price on eBay for dust scraped from his rock is $300,000. The dust weighs 0.03 grams, roughly the same as a grain of rice.
 
"Bottom line is, from a common sense perspective, this is a train wreck waiting to happen for him and he's inviting it," Gutheinz said. "He's opening the jail cell door and walking through it. I wish him well but he's really defying everybody by doing this."
 
Navarro, 67, said he didn't fear possible fallout from illegally possessing what could be federal government property or risking fraud charges for selling something as a moon rock when it may not be.
 
"NASA can't prove they ever had this moon rock," he said.
 
That part may be true.
 
The fact that something purporting to be a moon rock even shows up on eBay illustrates the greater problem of no one keeping proper track of the gifted and loaned rocks and the fate of many being unknown.
 
NASA, which keeps its collection of rocks at Johnson Space Center in Houston and a facility in New Mexico, has confirmed the lack of oversight and promised to tighten controls, concurring with a critical audit report last December from its own Office of Inspector General, where Gutheinz worked as a senior agent. He left NASA in 2000 after 10 years.
 
"From time to time, I get a call from somebody that has a moon rock and his father or her father died and was a scientist," Gutheinz said. "And they ask, 'What do I do with it?' I tell them, 'Give it back to NASA.' That's a real problem."
 
In the days of the Apollo space program, the idea of not returning to the moon again and again wasn't a concern. So it was believed that more and more rock samples would come, too.
 
But it's been 40 years since astronaut-geologist Harrison Schmitt and Apollo 17 mission commander Gene Cernan in 1972 became the last men to walk on the moon. The total amount of collected lunar materials has amounted to 842 pounds, including 2,196 individual rock, soil and core samples. Those subsequently have been split into about 140,000 subsamples, according to NASA.
 
Gutheinz was responsible for the 1998 "Operation Lunar Eclipse" sting at NASA and intercepted a $5 million sale of a moon rock President Richard Nixon gave to the government of Honduras after the last Apollo mission.
 
Of the 270 moon rocks given to nations around the world as gifts, Gutheinz said 160 are unaccounted for, stolen or lost. Another 18 moon rocks from Apollo 11 and six from Apollo 17, gifted to U.S. states, also are unaccounted for or missing.
 
Gutheinz and students from his classes are responsible for directly or indirectly recovering 79 moon rocks since 2002, including lunar rocks presented to several governors.
 
A retired dentist had the West Virginia rock, which Sandy Shelton, one of Gutheinz's former students, tracked down. "I am very pleased that I was able to give back to West Virginia what was rightfully theirs, and to know that the young generation will have a piece of history to look at from the moon," said Shelton, who lives in Minneapolis.
 
Bill Clinton's gubernatorial items yielded the Arkansas moon rock. The Alaska rock is now part of a court battle. The Missouri rock was found among boxes of things when former Gov. Kit Bond retired from the U.S. Senate.
 
The late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi's U.S. moon rock remains lost. But there's evidence a grandson of the late Spanish dictator Francisco Franco has tried to sell his grandfather's U.S. gift in Switzerland.
 
A few lunch customers at the Pitt Grill looked up curiously from their chicken fried steaks as Navarro set up a microscope for Gutheinz to inspect his prized possession: a pointy, black metallic pebble an inch or so tall and its crumbs.
 
The scrapings are from the rock that Navarro carries in his pants pocket, wrapped like a tamale in plastic food wrap and aluminum foil. He said he got the rock from a maid, now elderly and in failing health, who worked for a Venezuelan diplomat who told people it was a moon rock.
 
"No way NASA can say the rock is not," he said, showing letters from NASA experts who told him a few years ago it wasn't from the moon.
 
Gutheinz said Navarro reminded him of others who claim to possess a moon rock.
 
"But the difference is they hide it," Gutheinz said. "They squirrel it away and they don't want anybody to know they have it."
 
Congress could kill rocket builders' new space race
 
John Kelly - Florida Today (Viewpoint)
 
You should be concerned about a Congressional vote this week for NASA to immediately end its successful competition among multiple contractors vying to deliver a new, privatized system to carry astronauts to and from the space station.
 
So far, a layered approach with multiple companies competing to build a new space transportation system is showing signs of working, with the most obvious evidence being a Falcon 9 rocket set to launch a Dragon spacecraft to the space station as early as Saturday.
 
Private firms are competing against one another, with potentially lucrative contracts as a prize. They are coming up with innovative ways to design and operate a human space transport that would have cost billions more and already be years behind schedule, if it were developed under NASA’s old way of doing business, with one big contractor handed a single multi-billion dollar contract.
 
The new model of private competition is pushing the companies to:
 
·         Create a system that can be ready sooner than someone else’s offering.
 
·         Develop a spaceship that can be proven to be safer than another company’s contender.
 
·         Find ways to reduce development, launch and operations costs by more than some other innovator might.
 
But the budget passed by the House, which got yes votes from our U.S. Reps. Bill Posey and Sandy Adams, calls for NASA to choose one contractor now in the commercial crew effort and funnel all of the money for that program to that company, to allegedly speed up development.
 
The stated view of some Congressional leaders pushing that approach is that putting more money behind the contractor NASA thinks has the best chance to deliver would result in a functional crew transportation system sooner. Others say it’s a money issue.
 
Posey says he’s not against competition, but funds are limited.
 
“At some point, NASA is going to have to decide to focus on proceeding with one or two launch providers and this bill tells NASA to move to the down select date sooner which ultimately focuses more dollars on these chosen launch vehicles,” Posey said. “In a perfect world, with unlimited funds, you wouldn't have to do that, but that is not the world we live in today.”
 
History shows going with one contractor results in years of delays and billions of dollars in cost overruns. Every past space transportation system development effort has become a cost and schedule boondoggle, often made worse by cost-plus contracting systems that allow the company running the show to simply get more cash if its team delivers the product on time or runs into problems that engineers didn’t anticipate.
 
Why? One reason: There’s no competitor. There’s no risk another company might deliver a better product on time and on budget.
 
The model will spur innovation. NASA would move forward with companies that are motivated to outdo one another, improving the chances that at least one might succeed, and in a system where the companies are risking their own investment capital and other resources to try to make something happen. In the old model, taxpayers held all the risk.
 
So far under the new model, the only entity with a rocket and spacecraft ready to fly to the space station is a private innovator bursting with urgency. SpaceX is striving to meet its obligations under its cargo-delivery deal with the government, all the while knowing that successfully getting its Dragon spacecraft to the space station makes it the leader in any future competition to provide a privatized crew transport.
 
So, the leader in the race so far spawned from a innovation-driven, multi-company competition rather than a closed one without the natural pressures of competition. That’s not coincidental.
 
A terrible vote on spaceflight
Posey, Adams joined move to crush fast-moving private space competition
 
Matt Reed - Florida Today (Commentary)
 
NASA is on budget, on schedule and ready to show us something new and exciting in human spaceflight for the first time since today’s fortysomethings were in grade school.
 
But the U.S. House, including both representatives from Brevard, voted last week to wreck the program — nine days before the high-stakes launch of a “commercial crew” rocket and capsule from the Cape.
 
For those just tuning in, an assortment of privately developed flying machines are scheduled to begin key test launches this week, competing for a contract to carry U.S. astronauts into orbit.
 
Privatization has sparked the aerospace version of a TV season of “The Apprentice,” pitting a capsule designed by a PayPal inventor against a mini-space shuttle and a classic rocket that up to now has launched only satellites. Seven companies, four with NASA seed money, have moved as fast as the early Mercury and Apollo programs, but at a fraction of the cost to taxpayers.
 
Now, Congress wants to cancel the show midseason.
 
The House passed a spending bill Thursday that would force NASA to stop the competition and declare a sole vendor before anyone sees what the competitors can do. Politicians think it looks bad for America to rely on Russia, our partner in the International Space Station, to fly astronauts to the outpost. They think it would speed development to give all the money sooner to one still-unproven vendor, a process that always results in NASA spaceships falling behind, blowing budgets and — like two previous shuttle successors — getting canceled.
 
You thought Solyndra was a waste? Think of the hundreds of millions of dollars in Space Act grants taxpayers have invested in SpaceX, Boeing Co., Sierra Nevada Corp. and Blue Origin. Only if NASA stays the course do taxpayers get a satisfactory return.
 
NASA Administrator and veteran astronaut Charlie Bolden warned against another congressional reboot:
 
“Ending competition by down-selecting to a sole commercial space company could double the cost of developing a privately built human spaceflight system … It will leave us in the same position we find ourselves today — having only one option for getting our astronauts to the space station.”
 
Can't beat these costs
 
What I can’t understand is why House members, including Reps. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, and Sandy Adams, R-Orlando, would vote to halt the only bargain NASA has going.
 
This year, NASA spent $406 million on four companies to build new spacecraft, with another three developing rockets and components for free. Before Thursday’s vote, the House had boosted investment in the privatized rocket program to $830 million.
 
By comparison:
 
·         A single space shuttle launch cost at least $500 million.
·         Congress spent $338 million on the launch tower alone for planned mega-rocket missions to the moon and Mars.
·         It is spending $1.45 billion per year to build that Space Launch Systems rocket.
·         It’s spending another $1.5 billion on its Orion capsule.
 
Looked at another way, the last time we saw this kind of hustle to space, the Mercury and Apollo programs accounted for up to 4.5 percent of all congressional spending. Today, NASA’s budget represents .48 percent of federal spending. The commercial crew competition accounts for 1/18th of that.
 
And Congress is concerned … why?
 
Seeking inspiration
 
Spiritually, America needs the competition to play out.
 
The last time U.S. astronauts blasted off in a new spaceship, the Chevy Chevette was a best-selling car, REO Speedwagon had the month’s No. 1 hit and “Three’s Company” was on prime-time TV.
 
Today, who can name a working astronaut?
 
What our space program needs now is not for a few whiz kids to dream of becoming astronauts. It needs millions of cubicle workers and business majors to discover that spaceflight is as cool as Facebook.
 
And what’s cool today is televised competition — with danger, variety and gadgets. All of which NASA and its competitors are ready to show off.
 
I can’t wait to see if SpaceX can launch its Dragon Capsule from the Cape on Saturday and rendezvous with the space station. Or see Sierra-Nevada’s Dreamcatcher mini-shuttle blast off next year and try the same. Or see an Atlas V saddled up for passengers.
 
Why would Posey and Adams vote to stop that?
 
Posey told Florida Today he would be willing to narrow the contest to two competitors, but voted for the bill because he’s afraid impatience in Congress could lead to cuts.
 
Adams said something about getting “the most efficient use of taxpayer dollars.”
 
But if they want lower costs and a fast track to space, Congress should leave NASA’s competition alone.
 
END
 
 


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