Monday, June 18, 2012
6/18/12 news
Monday, June 18, 2012
JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1. The JSC Library's Move to Building 30A Starts Today: How to Get Services
2. This Week at Starport
3. Feds Feed Families 2012
4. Women in the Workplace: Being an Influence Leader (Panel Discussion)
5. Participate in the NASA IT User Support Survey
6. Call for Abstracts - 2012 Young Professionals Virtual Forum
7. Learn More About UH-Clear Lake's Recent Transformation
8. The Design, Planning and Implementation of the Apollo Lunar Receiving Lab
9. Save the Date: AFGE Lunch-and-Learn on June 21
10. For Parents with College Bound Students
11. Society of Reliability Engineers (SRE) Luncheon Meeting
12. JSC Contractor Safety Forum - June 19
13. Bust Some Misconceptions, Relieve Stress and Increase Your Financial Fitness
14. Russian Language Training (Summer Quarter 2012)
15. Health Related Fitness Course (June 25 to Sept. 12)
16. Electrical Safety Refresher ViTS - July 9
17. Cleanroom Protocol & Contamination Control ViTS - July 13
18. JSC Federal Credit Union Financial Education Seminar
________________________________________ QUOTE OF THE DAY
“ There's a difference between interest and commitment. When you're interested in doing something, you do it only when circumstances permit. When you're committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results.”
-- Anonymous
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1. The JSC Library's Move to Building 30A Starts Today: How to Get Services
This week, June 18 to 22, the JSC Library in Building 45 is preparing for the move to building 30A, Room 1077. As there will be limited availability of staff and services, library users who need immediate assistance locating documents or research can email: https://askalibrarian.nasa.gov
Library staff at the Space Station Library, Bioastronautics Library and Repositories will be available to answer your questions. The Main Library will re-open on July 2 with the same hours, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Contact Information for the libraries and repositories are available at the following link: http://library.jsc.nasa.gov/aboutus/default.aspx
Scientific and Technical Information Center x34245 http://library.jsc.nasa.gov
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2. This Week at Starport
Tomorrow is the last day to purchase Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus tickets. Prices and dates vary; contact the B3 and B11 gift shops for details.
Now that summer is here ... how about some ice cream? Get $2 sundaes in the Building 3 café from 2 to 3 p.m. on Thursday.
Did you know that Starport offers a discount program to NASA employees and contractors for anything from products and services to tickets to events and attractions? Visit http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/EmployeeDiscount/ to view the discounts available.
Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/
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3. Feds Feed Families 2012
We are off and running again this summer with Feds Feed Families for 2012. Our challenge is to beat last year's incredible performance of over 44,000 pounds, so it is only fitting that we target 50,000 pounds in honor of JSC's 50th birthday! We need your help, so please contact Bridget Montgomery at x38082 or Karen Schmalz at x47931 to register your team and request collection bin delivery. Drive will run now through Aug. 31. Proceeds for this worthy cause will support the Clear Lake Food Pantry and the Galveston County Food Bank.
Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/
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4. Women in the Workplace: Being an Influence Leader (Panel Discussion)
As part of the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) Subject Matter Expert (SME) class series, leaders at JSC will share their personal keys to success as well as recommendations for becoming an influence leader at NASA. Areas of discussion will include lessons learned, effective communication techniques, professional dress and helpful tips for men interacting with women in the workplace. Attendees will benefit from the leaders' personal insights gained on their trek to success. Both men and women will benefit from this panel discussion scheduled for Thursday, June 21, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Building 30 Auditorium. Guest panelists will be LA/Dot Swanson, AH/Natalie Saiz, EC/Trish Petete, YA/Vanessa Wyche and LS/Mark Holden. Please register in SATERN via the link below or by searching the SATERN catalog for the course title.
Donna Blackshear-Reynolds x32814 https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHED...
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5. Participate in the NASA IT User Support Survey
NASA's CTO community, the IT Labs Program and the NASA Enterprise Service Desk are working together on a survey of how NASA users locate and utilize IT support resources to resolve issues with their workplace IT tools: software, hardware, networking and related systems.
The information gathered will be used to improve the visibility and usability of existing resources and also to identify promising new approaches that will speed the resolution of IT issues. The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete and is available for your participation at:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PMFLJY6
The survey is anonymous and is available to all NASA contractors and staff. Thanks for taking a few minutes to help us improve user support at NASA!
Jon Welch 510-849-2255 https://labs.nasa.gov/userSupportCommunitiesAndPractices/default.aspx
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6. Call for Abstracts - 2012 Young Professionals Virtual Forum
Do you want to be a part of the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) but can't get to Naples? Then the Virtual Forum events could be the answer.
With a computer and internet connection or just a phone, you can present your paper at the IAC. You don't have to register for the conference, and it's free to attend. Four committees will be co-hosting virtual sessions with the Workforce Development/Young Professionals Program committee:
1. Space Operations
2. Human Space Endeavors
3. Space Communications and Navigation
4. Global Earth Observation System of Systems
We target 35 years old and under for these sessions, but no one is excluded for consideration. Please see http://www.iafastro.org/index.html?title=VF for more information. Abstracts due July 1!
Kat Coderre x34104 http://www.iafastro.org/index.html?title=VF
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7. Learn More About UH-Clear Lake's Recent Transformation
Please join us for this month's JSC National Management Association (NMA) Chapter luncheon presentation, "Lessons Learned from Transformation at UH-Clear Lake." Our guest speaker is Dr. William A. Staples, president, University of Houston-Clear Lake.
Date: June 28
Time: 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Location: Gilruth Alamo Ballroom
Please RSVP by close of business June 22 at: http://www.jscnma.com/Events (Click on June 28 event.)
For RSVP technical assistance and membership information, please contact Lorraine Guerra at lorraine.guerra-1@nasa.gov or 281-483-4262.
Cassandra Miranda x38618
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8. The Design, Planning and Implementation of the Apollo Lunar Receiving Lab
The JSC Chapter of the NASA Alumni League will present an interesting historical program this afternoon, June 18, from 2 to 3 p.m. in the Lonestar Room at the Gilruth Center. The title of the presentation is "Design, Operational Planning, and Implementation of the Apollo Lunar Receiving Lab." The presenters are Dr. Don Bogard, a distinguished lunar scientist who was active in designing the scientific requirements and labs; and Mr. Gary McCollum who played a key role in the medical and isolation requirements for the building. All are welcome to attend. There is no RSVP requirement and no charge to attend. Contact Norman Chaffee at for more information.
Norman Chaffee 713-944-2461
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9. Save the Date: AFGE Lunch-and-Learn on June 21
Save the date for the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Union Lunch-and-Learn on Thursday, June 21.
Open to all non-supervisory JSC civil servants. Come and hear what AFGE representatives have to talk about:
- Know your rights
- Union benefits
- Union representation
Event to be held between the hours of 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. in Building 45, Room 451.
Bridget Broussard-Guidry x34276
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10. For Parents with College Bound Students
Come gain the knowledge to teach your college-bound students how to be safe on their campus as well as at off-campus activities. Heather Kerbow, Violence Prevention Coordinator of the Bay Area Turning Point will present "Safety Information for Parents of College Bound Students" on Monday, June 18, at noon in the Building 30 Auditorium.
JSC Employee Assistance Program x36130
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11. Society of Reliability Engineers (SRE) Luncheon Meeting
The Greater Houston Chapter of the Society of Reliability Engineers will hold a general membership meeting on Wednesday, June 20, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Anyone is welcome to come and hear a presentation by Michael Eisenbise and Raul Valdez about using Barringer Process Reliability (BPR) plotting as a tool to quantify the reliability and stability of a manufacturing process.
The meeting will be held at Perry's Steakhouse & Grille, 487 Bay Area Blvd, Houston, Texas. Each attendee is responsible for his or her own meal.
If you would like to attend the luncheon, please RSVP to one of the officers below:
President -- Bob Graber, 281-335-2305, robert.r.graber@nasa.gov
Vice President -- Lorenzo Calloway, 832-527-0086, lcallowayii@aol.com
Treasurer -- Hung Nguyen, 281-483-3233, hung.x.nguyen@nasa.gov
Secretary -- Troy Schwartz, 281-871-7512, troy.schwartz@halliburton.com
Past president -- Stan LeBlanc, 281-244-7662, stanford.j.leblanc@nasa.go
Bob Graber 281-335-2305
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12. JSC Contractor Safety Forum - June 19
You are invited to attend the JSC Contractor Safety Forum that will be held tomorrow, Tuesday, June 19, from 9 to 11 a.m. in the Gilruth Alamo Ballroom. Our guest speakers for this meeting include Chairman Rafael Moure-Eraso from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board and Mr. Gene Hafele,
Meteorologist in Charge, Houston/Galveston National Weather Service.
You will not want to miss this most informative meeting.
For more information on this event, please contact Pat Farrell at 281-335-2012, or you may go to the JSC Contractor Safety Forum website at: http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/safety/ContractorSafety/
Pat Farrell 281-335-2012
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13. Bust Some Misconceptions, Relieve Stress and Increase Your Financial Fitness
Come join Exploration Wellness as we help you improve your health and wellbeing! A variety of classes are being offered on and off site this week.
Top 10 Nutrition Mistakes
You read all the books and know what phrases to look for on food packages. You're certain your nutrition report card should be filled with straight A's! However, before you paste those gold stars on your refrigerator door, join us for this informative class. Studies show that most people think they are eating much better than they actually are. Learn to identify common nutrition misconceptions and how to avoid them.
Fun Stress Relievers
Update your stress management planning with fun strategies to combat stress this summer. If it is fun, you will have a better outcome!
Evening Financial Classes at Regents Park:
Retire with Confidence, Level I
Introduction to Estate Planning
See schedule details, and enroll at the link below.
Jessica Vos x41383 http://www.explorationwellness.com/rd/AE104.aspx?June_Signup.pdf
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14. Russian Language Training (Summer Quarter 2012)
The JSC Language Education Center announces its summer 2012 quarter (July 2 to Sept. 21) of Russian language training. This quarter is part of a comprehensive program that takes the student from the beginning level through the advanced level of Russian language proficiency. First-time students, JSC contractors and civil servants who have approval of their supervisor and training coordinator can study in three-month-long group classes of Russian language in Building 20. For students with previous language experience, intake interviews are available to determine the best class match for the student. If you have any questions, please contact Natalia Rostova at 281-851-3745 or on global email at natalia.rostova-1@nasa.gov.
Natalia Rostova 281-851-3745
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15. Health Related Fitness Course (June 25 to Sept. 12)
Enroll now in the free 12-week Health Related Fitness Course. The goal is to develop long-term habitual exercise by combining individualized exercise prescriptions with an education component. The exercise prescriptions are based on fitness assessments of aerobic power, body composition, muscle strength and flexibility. Classes meet for an hour at 4:15 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays in the Gilruth Center. Each meeting includes a 15- to 20-minute lecture on various health/fitness topics (training principles, environmental considerations, disease risks, etc.), followed by an exercise session in the Starport exercise room in accordance with your personalized aerobic and strength training program. The program has been in constant operation since 1983 and is led by exercise scientists who are certified by the American College of Sports Medicine. Contact Larry Wier or Greta Ayers (x30301/30302) to schedule your fitness assessments (~30 minutes). You may enroll online with this url: http://www.explorationwellness.com/WellnessCSS/CourseCatalogSelection/
Larry Wier x30301
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16. Electrical Safety Refresher ViTS - July 9
This course is designed to provide the student with a review of OSHA 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 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 who 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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17. Cleanroom Protocol & Contamination Control ViTS - July 13
This course addresses the operation and uses of cleanrooms and the associated cleanroom protocols to minimize contamination. The student will learn how to prevent contamination from spreading to the product or test article in and upon removal from the clean environment. The class will include a discussion of contamination control and cleanroom requirements documents, including SN-C-0005 and ISO 14644. The course discusses the nature and sources of contaminants, monitoring particle and film contamination, cleanroom protocols to prevent the spread of contamination and contamination removal methods. Also included are: NASA requirements for cleanliness levels; identification and monitoring of contamination; description and classifications of cleanrooms; personnel and garment protocols in cleanrooms and clean work areas; other do's and don'ts in cleanrooms and clean work areas; and removal methods. A comprehensive test will be offered at the end of the class. 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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18. JSC Federal Credit Union Financial Education Seminar
JSC FCU's free Financial Education Seminars give you the opportunity to learn everything you should know about two very important topics: Homebuying and Credit. Each seminar is jam-packed with cohesive, up-to-date information that will help get you and your family on the right track.
Understanding and Improving Your Credit Seminar will be held on June 21 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the Discovery Room at the Gilruth Center. This seminar includes everything you should know about your credit, including facts and myths about credit, how your FICO score is determined, how you can get a free copy of your credit report and much more! Visit https://www.jscfcu.org/news/2012-06-21-credit-seminar.php for more information. RSVP to bday@jscfcu.org.
Shelly Harlason x39168
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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: 9:10 am Central (10:10 a.m. - Expedition 31’s Andre Kuipers interview with Euronews
Human Spaceflight News
Monday, June 18, 2012
HEADLINES AND LEADS
SpaceX founder talks Mars with Caltech grads
Alicia Chang - Associated Press
Fresh off SpaceX's historic return from the International Space Station, company founder Elon Musk said Friday that he would like to see humans settle Mars and become a "multi-planet species." The 40-year-old entrepreneur reiterated his vision to graduates at the California Institute of Technology, a private university 10 miles northeast of Los Angeles known for its science and engineering programs.
State ramps up attempt to lure SpaceX to Brownsville
Laura Martinez - Brownsville Herald
Days after a meeting between Gov. Rick Perry and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, the governor’s office is doing all it can to persuade the multimillionaire to build a launch pad near Brownsville. “We are looking at pretty much anything that we can do,” said Lucy Nashed, deputy press secretary for the governor. “Pretty much everything is on the table at this point because we are really interested in the project.” Musk last week said the south coast of Texas had become the leading candidate for the SpaceX company’s third launch site. Florida and Puerto Rico also are in the running. Musk’s comment has people elated, not only in Brownsville but throughout the state.
Olympics in space? Astronauts to hold own 'Summer Games'
Clara Moskowitz - Space.com
To mark the upcoming Olympic Games in London, a crew of astronauts due to launch to the space station this summer is planning an orbital sporting event for the occasion. NASA astronaut Sunita (Suni) Williams, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency spaceflyer Akihiko Hoshide and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko are due to launch July 14 to the International Space Station. Their planned four-month stay in space will overlap with the London 2012 Olympics July 27 to Aug. 12, so the sporty spaceflyers have something up their sleeves to celebrate the event.
Original 1972 space shuttle mock-up to emerge
Associated Press
Just when it seemed all the space shuttles had been doled out to museums for display, it turns out there's one more - sort of. A full-size mock-up built in 1972 by the shuttle contractor Rockwell has for years been under wraps in a dark and empty warehouse in Downey, a southeast Los Angeles County city where the spacecraft were manufactured. Last week, the City Council approved temporarily relocating the mock-up to a tent on a nearby movie studio parking lot while funding is found for a permanent home where it can be displayed in honor of Downey's role in aviation and space, the Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/KH9RSv) reported Friday.
'The original space shuttle' to come out of hiding in Downey
W.J. Hennigan - Los Angeles Times
When NASA officials were mulling over where to send each of four retired space shuttles, no fewer than 21 museums across the country fought to land one in their cities. Some of the most well-known museums in the country put forward elaborate plans on how they could afford the multimillion-dollar undertaking of displaying such an outsized piece of space history. In the end, the winners were largely expected: New York; Washington, D.C.; Cape Canaveral, Fla.; and Los Angeles. This week, officials in the city of Downey turned their attention to another shuttle, long forgotten to most of the world. Sitting in a nondescript warehouse in Downey, under a coat of dust and waves of plastic sheeting, is a full-scale mock-up — largely made of wood and plastic — built in 1972 by shuttle manufacturer Rockwell.
Johnson Space Center preparing ‘shuttle’ for new exhibit
Todd DeFeo - Washington Times
The NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is preparing Space Shuttle Explorer, a replica that for years greeted visitors to the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida, to serve as its newest attraction. The shuttle replica arrived in nearby Clear Lake earlier this month during what the space center termed ”Shuttlebration.” The shuttle was then loaded onto a “mobile transfer vehicle” and moved to Johnson Space Center.
NASA's full-size shuttle trainer hitching a ride to Seattle
Jack Broom - Seattle Times
Over the past three decades, NASA officials have asked a lot of the space-shuttle mock-up they call the FFT — "full-fuselage trainer." In its long career at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, the life-size shuttle replica helped train every crew in the U.S. space-shuttle program, which ended last year after 135 missions. But now, the massive wooden structure is being prepared for something it was never intended to do: Fly. In less than two weeks, the front end of the FFT is scheduled to lift off from Houston's Ellington Field, beginning a three-day journey from Texas that will end, if all goes as planned, in front of dignitaries and cheering spectators at Seattle's Boeing Field shortly before noon Saturday, June 30.
Chinese spacecraft docks with orbiting module
Associated Press
A Chinese spacecraft carrying three astronauts docked with an orbiting module Monday, another first for the country as it strives to match American and Russian exploits in space. The Shenzhou 9 capsule completed the maneuver with the Tiangong 1 module shortly after 2 p.m. (0600 GMT), 343 kilometers (213 miles) above Earth. The docking was shown live on national television. Astronauts will live and work in the module for several days as part of preparations for manning a permanent space station. The crew includes 33-year-old Liu Yang, an air force pilot and China's first female space traveler.
Shenzhou 9 rockets into orbit on Chinese docking mission
William Harwood - CBS News
A Chinese Shenzhou spacecraft carrying a space veteran and two rookies, including China's first female "taikonaut," rocketed into orbit Saturday on a mission to dock with a prototype space station module, an incremental but critical step on the road to building a Mir-class space station later this decade. Broadcast live on Chinese television, the Long March-2F rocket carrying the three-seat Shenzhou 9 spacecraft roared to life on time and quickly climbed away from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in north central China at 6:37 p.m. local time (GMT+8; 6:37 a.m. EDT), arcing to the east through a cloudless blue sky.
“On the Edge”: The Legacy of Valentina Tereshkova
Ben Evans - AmericaSpace.org
When China launched its first female spacefarer Saturday, it was a quirk of historical coincidence that both the Soviet Union and the United States sent their own pioneering women into the heavens at exactly the same time, in mid-June, many years ago. Almost five decades have now passed since Valentina Tereshkova – an ‘ordinary’ cotton mill worker who accomplished something quite ‘extraordinary’ – roared into orbit aboard Vostok 6. For Premier Nikita Khrushchev, her flight was a triumph for Communism: it showed the world that in a socialist state women were equal to men and were encouraged to reach for the stars. The reality, though, was that Tereshkova’s three days in space were nothing more than a political stunt to upstage the Americans and to underline this insincerity, no more Soviet women would enter space until 1982. Yet the greatest achievement of Tereshkova’s mission is that it laid the foundation stone for the dreams of millions of girls and young women who would go on to carve their own niches in the annals of space history.
Unmanned Air Force spaceplane lands after secret mission
William Harwood - CBS News
An unmanned Air Force spaceplane dropped out of orbit and glided to a computer-controlled California landing early Saturday to close out a classified 469-day military mission. The reusable Boeing-built X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle touched down on a runway at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., at 5:48 a.m. PDT (GMT-7). The Air Force did not provide any advance warning of the re-entry and landing time and no technical details about the vehicle's performance were released. But in a statement, the Air Force said the autonomous landing by the nation's "newest and most advanced re-entry spacecraft" was executed "safely and successfully."
Unmanned Air Force space plane lands in Calif.
Alicia Chang - Associated Press
An unmanned Air Force space plane steered itself to a landing early Saturday at a California military base, capping a 15-month clandestine mission. The spacecraft, which was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida in March 2011, conducted in-orbit experiments during the mission, officials said. It was the second such autonomous landing at the Vandenberg Air Force Base, 130 miles northwest of Los Angeles. In 2010, an identical unmanned spacecraft returned to Earth after seven months and 91 million miles in orbit.
NASA Astronauts Brought Playmates to the Moon
Amy Shira Teitel - Discovery News
When NASA sent its Apollo astronauts to the moon, it sent them with "cheat sheets" -- wrist checklists attached to their suits that outlined the main stages of surface activities for each extravehicular activity (EVA). But like all flight hardware, crews didn't train with their real checklists; they trained with a copy and only signed off on the unassembled flight version. Assembling the checklist fell to the backup crew, and also gave them a great opportunity to sneak practical jokes into the mission.
Launch Control Center is more than just a tour stop
John Kelly - Florida Today (Commentary)
Let's hope that the Launch Control Center at Kennedy Space Center doesn't become just another tour stop for visitors. Don't get me wrong. It's super cool that tourists at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex can now get inside one of the control center Firing Rooms to see and sense all of the history made there. The special add-on tour opened this week as part of the new offerings the visitor complex is rolling out for the space center's 50th anniversary. For the good of Brevard County and the United States space program, we want that Firing Room alive again with the exhilarating blend of adrenaline and tension created by a launch countdown. The LCC, if it is to become a museum exhibit, should be a living museum where new history is being made for decades to come.
Where no corporation has gone before
Austin American-Statesman (Editorial)
Space exploration as a national effort for country seems to have become a quaint notion. The future of space exploration is private and for profit. The well-earned congratulations surrounding SpaceX's successful trip last month to the International Space Station reinforce this coming reality. Private enterprise will play a large role, perhaps even the central role, in the further exploration of the final frontier. As these private space companies expand and build assembly and launch facilities, state officials should do what they reasonably can to ensure that Texas continues to be firmly associated with space exploration.
American taxpayers must invest in NASA
Kay Bailey Hutchison - Houston Chronicle (Commentary)
(Hutchison is a U.S. senator from Texas)
Since it first became a possibility for man to reach the stars, America has been the leader in space exploration. We have done so because we are a nation that prizes knowledge and progress. We have done so because we are a nation that imagines what can be and works to realize our vision. And we have done so because it is vital to our economy and national security. Breakthroughs in healthcare, missile defense, even everyday products we use in the home, have all come out of research related to America’s space program. Some of these innovations were planned, others were pure happenstance. But they have all made our lives better.
Houston 11-yr-old becomes 600,000 trainee to graduate from Space Camp
Chris Welch - Huntsville Times
Col. Robert Springer, who flew on NASA Space Shuttle missions in 1989 and 1990, took his pen and autographed a photograph for a young fan Friday at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. "I should be asking you for your autograph," Springer said, smiling. "Congratulations." Jenna Allan of Houston, the newest 11-year-old celebrity at the Space & Rocket Center's Space Camp, just smiled. Minutes earlier, Allan got the surprise of her life when Space Camp officials named her the 600,000th trainer to graduate from Space Camp.
Shuttle-Era Manned Mars Flyby (1985)
David Portree - Wired.com
In the 1960s, NASA expended nearly as much study money and effort on manned Mars and Venus flyby mission planning as it did on its more widely known plans for manned Mars landings. Italian aviation and rocketry pioneer Gaetano Crocco had first described a free-return manned Mars/Venus flyby mission in 1956. Manned flyby studies within NASA began with the EMPIRE study the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Future Projects Office initiated in 1962 and culminated in the NASA-wide Planetary Joint Action Group (JAG) study of 1966-1967. The Planetary JAG, led by the NASA Headquarters Office of Manned Space Flight, brought together engineers from MSFC, Kennedy Space Center, the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC), and Washington, DC-based planning contractor Bellcomm. It issued a Phase I report in Oct. 1966 and continued Phase II study work in Fiscal Year (FY) 1967.
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COMPLETE STORIES
SpaceX founder talks Mars with Caltech grads
Alicia Chang - Associated Press
Fresh off SpaceX's historic return from the International Space Station, company founder Elon Musk said Friday that he would like to see humans settle Mars and become a "multi-planet species."
The 40-year-old entrepreneur reiterated his vision to graduates at the California Institute of Technology, a private university 10 miles northeast of Los Angeles known for its science and engineering programs.
Musk said he hoped some of the newly minted graduates would work toward Mars colonization, either at SpaceX or another outfit.
"You guys are the magicians of the 21st century. Don't let anything hold you back," he said. "Imagination is the limit ... go out there and create some magic."
Musk made headlines last month when SpaceX became the first private company to make a roundtrip supply run to the space station - a task that had been dominated by governments. With NASA's space shuttle fleet retired, the space agency is outsourcing the job to private industry.
SpaceX's unmanned Dragon capsule splashed into the Pacific on May 31 after a virtually flawless nine-day test flight that included docking with the multibillion-dollar orbiting outpost and delivering a load of food, clothing and equipment to the astronauts aboard.
Earlier this week, Musk accompanied NASA Administrator Charles Bolden on a tour of the Dragon capsule that was plucked from the ocean and trucked to SpaceX's factory in Texas. Save for a few scorch marks from the fiery re-entry, the bell-shaped capsule weathered its maiden journey.
Caltech board of trustees chair Kent Kresa called Musk an "inventor, entrepreneur, visionary and relentless dreamer."
Musk jokingly replied: "I'd like to thank you for leaving crazy person out of the description."
The audience cheered when Musk recounted the historic flight, which he called a "white knuckle event."
"It's a huge relief. I still can't quite believe it actually happened," he said.
SpaceX aimed to launch the next supply mission in September under a contract with NASA and has predicted that astronauts could hitch rides to the space station in as little as three or four years. SpaceX planned to test the next version of the Dragon - designed to carry crews - later this year.
The South African-born Musk, who made his fortune at PayPal Inc., founded Space Exploration Technologies Corp. a decade ago and has poured millions of his own wealth into the rocket startup. The company suffered three rocket failures before finally succeeding. Besides SpaceX, Musk also runs the electric car company Tesla Motors.
Musk's ultimate goal is beyond Earth orbit. To achieve that, the company needs a reusable spaceship capable of making the long trip to the red planet and complete with life support systems.
Musk called the feat "right on the borderline of impossible" but one that's on SpaceX's to-do list.
State ramps up attempt to lure SpaceX to Brownsville
Laura Martinez - Brownsville Herald
Days after a meeting between Gov. Rick Perry and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, the governor’s office is doing all it can to persuade the multimillionaire to build a launch pad near Brownsville.
“We are looking at pretty much anything that we can do,” said Lucy Nashed, deputy press secretary for the governor. “Pretty much everything is on the table at this point because we are really interested in the project.”
Musk last week said the south coast of Texas had become the leading candidate for the SpaceX company’s third launch site. Florida and Puerto Rico also are in the running.
Musk’s comment has people elated, not only in Brownsville but throughout the state.
Texas has been working with SpaceX, short for Space Exploration Technologies, for about a year and is working on an incentives package to help lure the company to Cameron County. Because negotiations are still under way, no details are being released, Nashed said.
In a letter dated May 9 to the Federal Aviation Administration, Perry expressed his support for the SpaceX launch site coming to the Brownsville area. He states the project could mean “well-paying jobs and economic development to South Texas.”
“Please know that I strongly support the efforts of SpaceX and the Brownsville community to bring this business to Texas. I ask you to favorably approve their application for a South Texas launch site,” he wrote.
Although Musk has said that Florida and Puerto Rico have made stronger cases than Texas for the new launch site, he also said that things were changing.
SpaceX could not be reached Friday for comment.
Sources have reported after Texas appeared last week to be gaining the top spot in the competition to lure the new SpaceX launch site, Florida is trying to sweeten the deal they offered the company.
“We are no stranger to competition,” Nashed, Perry’s spokeswoman said. “If Florida wants to step up their game, then of course we are certainly open to that. We really want this project to be here and we are committed to doing what we can to get it here.”
The site near Brownsville being considered for the launch pad is at the eastern end of State Highway 4, about 3 miles north of the Mexican border. It is about 5 miles south of Port Isabel and South Padre Island.
According to the Federal Register, SpaceX proposes to build a vertical launch area and a control center to support up to 12 commercial launches per year. The vehicles to be launched include the Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and smaller reusable, suborbital launch vehicles.
Olympics in space? Astronauts to hold own 'Summer Games'
Clara Moskowitz - Space.com
To mark the upcoming Olympic Games in London, a crew of astronauts due to launch to the space station this summer is planning an orbital sporting event for the occasion.
NASA astronaut Sunita (Suni) Williams, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency spaceflyer Akihiko Hoshide and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko are due to launch July 14 to the International Space Station.
Their planned four-month stay in space will overlap with the London 2012 Olympics July 27 to Aug. 12, so the sporty spaceflyers have something up their sleeves to celebrate the event.
"Something unique about our increment is we have a very huge sports event during our increment, so what we're talking about amongst ourselves is, why don't we do some kind of sports event onboard the station too?" Hoshide told reporters during a NASA preview the mission. "We're just tossing around ideas right now, what kind of sport event we can do. That's something I'm looking forward to."
Astronauts have staged orbital sports before. In fact, for the last Olympic Games, the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, the 11 astronauts aboard the space station and the space shuttle Endeavour, which was docked there at the time, recreated the event in orbit. [Video: Sports in Space]
The spaceflyers tried their hand at space skiing, the zero-G luge and weightless figure skating, all the while beaming a video of their orbital Olympics to Mission Control.
"You are officially the only folks who are able to get more hang time than Shaun White," the American gold medal-winning snowboarder, Mission Control radioed to the astronauts.
This time around, the spaceflyers are still working out which orbital events to stage, given their limitations.
"We just thought it would be something fun to do on orbit," Hoshide said."We have limited space and limited equipment."
Williams herself has participated in weightless workouts before, when she ran along with the Boston marathon on the treadmill aboard the International Space Station in 2007. She completed the marathon in four hours, 24 minutes, all while orbiting the Earth at some 17,500 miles (28,163 kilometers) per hour.
"Doing anything to encourage physical fitness would be great," Williams said of the upcoming Olympics plans. "I think we're going to do something a little bit more team-oriented this time around, rather than a marathon. I don't think I'll be in marathon shape, but I will be in good sprinting shape."
Original 1972 space shuttle mock-up to emerge
Associated Press
Just when it seemed all the space shuttles had been doled out to museums for display, it turns out there's one more - sort of.
A full-size mock-up built in 1972 by the shuttle contractor Rockwell has for years been under wraps in a dark and empty warehouse in Downey, a southeast Los Angeles County city where the spacecraft were manufactured.
Last week, the City Council approved temporarily relocating the mock-up to a tent on a nearby movie studio parking lot while funding is found for a permanent home where it can be displayed in honor of Downey's role in aviation and space, the Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/KH9RSv) reported Friday.
The mock-up, made mostly of wood and plastic, is 122 feet by 78 feet. It was built by North American Rockwell - which later became Rockwell International and then part of the Boeing Co. - as part of the proposal to win NASA's contract to build the shuttle.
"It would be used for marketing our design approach to NASA and also be an engineering aid to our designers and manufacturing engineers," said ex-shuttle worker Gerald Blackburn, president of the Aerospace Legacy Foundation, a nonprofit organization of former aerospace employees working to preserve Southern California's aerospace history.
But for years now it has been stored disassembled under dusty sheets of plastic behind three chain-link fences in an unlighted million-square-foot building.
"Except for some school trips years ago, it's never been open to the public," Councilman Mario A. Guerra told the Times.
"We've been dreaming big about displaying it, but we just haven't had the funds," he said. "We plan on restoring it for kids to have the ability to actually get in it and sit at the control room onboard."
The impetus for the move is the sale of the plant site, which was closed down by Boeing in 1999, and plans to build a $500 million shopping center there.
Moving the model will require taking apart a wall. The city and property owner plan on spending about $157,000 for the move to the tent, where it's hope it can be on display within the next three months.
Eventually it is planned to be part of the Columbia Memorial Space Center, which opened in 2009 as an official national memorial to the crew of shuttle Columbia who died when it broke apart on re-entry in 2003.
The center's executive director, Scott K. Pomrehn, estimated it will cost $2 million to put the model on exhibit.
"The bottom line is this is the original shuttle. The one Rockwell sold NASA on. And it has been sitting in the dark," he said.
'The original space shuttle' to come out of hiding in Downey
W.J. Hennigan - Los Angeles Times
When NASA officials were mulling over where to send each of four retired space shuttles, no fewer than 21 museums across the country fought to land one in their cities.
Some of the most well-known museums in the country put forward elaborate plans on how they could afford the multimillion-dollar undertaking of displaying such an outsized piece of space history. In the end, the winners were largely expected: New York; Washington, D.C.; Cape Canaveral, Fla.; and Los Angeles.
This week, officials in the city of Downey turned their attention to another shuttle, long forgotten to most of the world. Sitting in a nondescript warehouse in Downey, under a coat of dust and waves of plastic sheeting, is a full-scale mock-up — largely made of wood and plastic — built in 1972 by shuttle manufacturer Rockwell.
For decades, the 122-foot-by-78-foot model has remained hidden away at the former manufacturing site that was the cradle of the nation's space program. But that's set to change. On Tuesday, the Downey City Council approved the temporary relocation of the mock-up to a large tent on a nearby movie studio parking lot where, starting late this summer, people may be able to catch a glimpse of it.
"Except for some school trips years ago, it's never been open to the public," Downey Councilman Mario A. Guerra said.
In recent years, only a chosen few visitors have seen the model. They were led by flashlight through a vast warehouse that has no water or power. On the way, they stepped through three chain-link fences with padlocks before arriving at the foot of the shuttle enveloped in protective "house wrap."
Against the pitch-black backdrop of a million-square-foot building, the shuttle looks like a giant wrapped-up Christmas gift.
"We've been dreaming big about displaying it, but we just haven't had the funds," Guerra said. "We plan on restoring it for kids to have the ability to actually get in it and sit at the control room onboard."
For Downey, now a sprawling suburb of more than 111,000, the model is a symbol of the city's thriving past as an aerospace center. Aircraft manufacturing boomed there during World War II, with factories churning out P-51 Mustang fighter planes around the clock.
After the World War II work dried up, the nation was caught in the Cold War and set out to put a man on the moon during the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. The country again called on engineers and technicians in Downey to help accomplish its goals. They built the command module that enabled Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to walk on the lunar surface.
In 1972, Downey received the contract that became synonymous with the city itself when North American Rockwell — later Rockwell International and now part of Boeing Co. — was named the primary contractor for the world's first reusable winged orbiting spaceship: the space shuttle. It was here that about 12,000 people, stretched over 120 acres in 40 buildings, worked and manufactured the shuttle at the program's peak.
Boeing closed the plant in Downey in 1999. It was sold to Industrial Realty Group in 2003, with a contract requiring the company to keep the mock-up on site. But now a $500-million shopping center is being planned, and the shuttle mock-up must go.
Officials hope that the public can see the model under the new tent within the next three months, and that eventually it will become part of a new planned exhibit at Downey's nearby two-story Columbia Memorial Space Center. A hands-on learning center on space science that opened in 2009, it is an official national memorial to the crew of the space shuttle Columbia, which broke apart on reentry in 2003, killing all seven on board.
But the model has been sitting for decades already. It's disassembled and locked away in the warehouse without a door big enough to have it moved out — a wall is going to have to be taken apart so it can be relocated.
The city and the current property owner plan on spending about $157,000 for the mock-up to be moved out of the warehouse and into the tent.
It's a temporary fix — just for a year and a half. This should give the city enough time to raise funding for a permanent home, said Guerra, who noted that the five-person City Council voted unanimously for the move.
They need to act soon. The years of indecision have taken a toll. In 2003, Griswold Conservation Associates, an artifact conservation company, was contracted to produce a technical report of the model's condition, and it found that deterioration was already underway.
"The outer skin of the shuttle, made of plywood on a wooden frame, is buckling slightly and showing signs of internal delamination," the report said. "Clear plastic, prismatic ceiling panels have fine crazing cracks, and are starting to become detached at their fasteners."
Scott K. Pomrehn, executive director of the Columbia Memorial Space Center, estimates that it will take $2 million to properly put it on exhibit.
To get the money, the center tried to obtain a Save America's Treasures grant last year from the National Park Service. That didn't work.
The Downey shuttle is a historic gem, Pomrehn said. "The bottom line is this is the original shuttle. The one Rockwell sold NASA on. And it has been sitting in the dark."
In the early 1970s, Rockwell decided to build a full-scale mock-up as part of the proposal effort. At the time, the world had never seen a winged space plane before. Before the shuttle, astronauts reached space by squeezing into a small capsule launched atop a massive rocket.
"It would be used for marketing our design approach to NASA and also be an engineering aid to our designers and manufacturing engineers," said Gerald Blackburn, a former shuttle worker and now president of the Aerospace Legacy Foundation, a nonprofit organization of former aerospace employees who work to preserve Southern California's aerospace history.
"It was made out of wood, but was built with a craftsman's touch," he said. "It served us and NASA well."
Johnson Space Center preparing ‘shuttle’ for new exhibit
Todd DeFeo - Washington Times
The NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is preparing Space Shuttle Explorer, a replica that for years greeted visitors to the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida, to serve as its newest attraction.
The shuttle replica arrived in nearby Clear Lake earlier this month during what the space center termed ”Shuttlebration.” The shuttle was then loaded onto a “mobile transfer vehicle” and moved to Johnson Space Center.
NASA, which retired the space shuttle fleet last year, has given its shuttles and related test vehicles to various museums across the country, including Kennedy Space Center (Atlantis) and the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum Complex in New York (Enterprise).
“The replica will help us remember and commemorate 30 years of shuttle flight,” the Houston Chronicle quoted Houston Mayor Annise Parker as saying at a recent news conference.
Although the Explorer is a replica, it was built from space shuttle blueprints. The shuttle stands 54 feet tall, is 122.7 feet long and has a 78-foot wingspan.
“NASA’s Space Shuttle changed the way we all think about space, making it more accessible, understandable and useful,” Richard Allen, president of Space Center Houston, said in a news release. “It is our intent to continue that legacy with this exciting new attraction, which will offer a one-of-a-kind visitor experience that will engage, educate and inspire the next generation of explorers.”
When finished, visitors will be able to enter the Explorer. The completed exhibit is set to open later this year.
“The arrival of the Space Shuttle attraction is the result of a great community-wide effort,” Michael Coats, director of Johnson Space Center, said in a news release. “Once open, the attraction will carry on the spirit of the Space Shuttle program by inspiring tomorrow’s space pioneers.”
NASA's full-size shuttle trainer hitching a ride to Seattle
Jack Broom - Seattle Times
Over the past three decades, NASA officials have asked a lot of the space-shuttle mock-up they call the FFT — "full-fuselage trainer."
In its long career at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, the life-size shuttle replica helped train every crew in the U.S. space-shuttle program, which ended last year after 135 missions. But now, the massive wooden structure is being prepared for something it was never intended to do:
Fly.
In less than two weeks, the front end of the FFT is scheduled to lift off from Houston's Ellington Field, beginning a three-day journey from Texas that will end, if all goes as planned, in front of dignitaries and cheering spectators at Seattle's Boeing Field shortly before noon Saturday, June 30.
From there it will be moved to a permanent home at Seattle's Museum of Flight where, once its exhibit is complete, visitors will get to step inside it for an astronaut's-eye view.
The shuttle's 28-foot front section — the crew compartment — will be making the flight to Seattle not under its own power but as a passenger, packed and braced inside NASA's swollen-bodied Super Guppy cargo plane. Two more flights, scheduled for August, will carry sections of the trainer's 61-foot-long cargo bay.
Other FFT pieces, such as its stand and tail assembly, are being transported by truck in a dozen shipments that began in April. In all, the Museum of Flight in Seattle is paying NASA $2 million to move the mock-up.
"It's a remarkable piece of craftsmanship," said Allison McIntyre, deputy chief of NASA's Space Vehicle Mock-up Facility in Houston.
The FFT's plywood panels are fixed to a framework of milled wood, sized to match the dimensions of a real shuttle's aluminum frame. Its switches and displays are identical to those of a real shuttle, but are not powered.
Inside, astronauts got a feel for how things fit together in a real shuttle, and they practiced maneuvers such as exiting the shuttle through the top and rappelling down inside, which might be needed in an emergency.
But even as the FFT is warmly welcomed by Gov. Chris Gregoire and other officials, it will be no secret this is not what Museum of Flight backers had first hoped for.
Seattle was among the also-rans last year when NASA Administrator Charles Bolden chose sites from more than 20 museums and visitor centers across the country that sought to host one of the space's programs actual shuttles — the newly retired Enterprise, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour.
Bolden said the museums he chose in New York, Los Angeles, Florida and the Washington, D.C., area would maximize the number of people who would see them.
Instead, Bolden gave Seattle the FFT.
Trainer's role in history
The trainer's history is the history of the shuttle program.
From 1981, the first year of Ronald Reagan's presidency, until the conclusion of the final shuttle flight last July, astronauts who trained on the FFT traveled more than half a billion miles.
Two shuttles, Challenger and Columbia, were destroyed during their missions, disasters that killed their crews and jarred the national psyche. But after each, shuttle flights resumed.
Through it all, the FFT never left the Johnson Space Center — until now.
In the dark hours after midnight April 19, the crew compartment took the first steps on its journey to Seattle.
With crews lifting utility lines and traffic signals out of the way, the FFT section was carried on a flatbed trailer for three hours, moving nine miles from the space center to a building near Ellington Field, where its flight will begin.
It is scheduled to leave Ellington Field on June 27, a departure date that allows a day of downtime if bad weather is encountered.
Moving the mock-up "has been one technical challenge after another," said McIntyre.
The sections shipped by air, she said, need to be packaged as securely as possible — to protect them and the airplane they're riding in — but still remain light enough for the Super Guppy to carry.
Inside the Super Guppy, the FFT's crew compartment will be wrapped in a web of blankets, chains and foam padding. It will sit in a specially made open-topped metal crate, resting on a steel carriage to distribute the weight along the length of the Super Guppy.
By itself, the stripped-down crew compartment weighs about 8 tons, but its weight nearly doubles once the packaging and support structures are added.
That's still well below the Super Guppy's payload capacity of 26 tons, but crews want to keep the total weight low to maximize the amount of fuel they can carry.
Museum of Flight President Doug King said reassembling the FFT is expected to take until September, and he hopes to let museum-goers see the work in progress, whenever it's safe.
Reassembled, the FFT will look like a wingless space shuttle, its nose facing East Marginal Way South.
Some disappointments
King admits he was disappointed Seattle didn't get a shuttle, particularly because the museum had built a $12 million Space Gallery to house one.
Months after the decision, King said NASA analysts had made "some pretty big mistakes," underestimating how many visitors would see a shuttle in Seattle.
And he unsuccessfully urged Bolden to let Seattle host a real shuttle while the winning cities prepared their shuttle exhibits.
Even so, King insists the FFT shouldn't be considered a consolation prize.
He said allowing visitors up close will help promote this museum's aim of being a pre-eminent air and space educational institution.
Museums that got the real shuttles must display them out of reach, to prevent them from wear or harm.
"Our story won't be about the artifact," King said. "It will be about the people who trained on it: What did they learn? Where were they going? How did that make a difference to us here on Earth? And how did it pave the way for what comes next?"
The Seattle area stands to play a key role in the story of what comes next, through the work of entrepreneurs such as Jeff Bezos and Paul Allen. Case in point: the first flying vehicle produced by Bezos' Blue Origin aerospace company arrived at the museum on long-term loan last month.
"We are in the middle of an amazing, history-making moment," King said. "A thousand years from now, people will write that this is when humans first left the Earth."
Chinese spacecraft docks with orbiting module
Associated Press
A Chinese spacecraft carrying three astronauts docked with an orbiting module Monday, another first for the country as it strives to match American and Russian exploits in space.
The Shenzhou 9 capsule completed the maneuver with the Tiangong 1 module shortly after 2 p.m. (0600 GMT), 343 kilometers (213 miles) above Earth. The docking was shown live on national television.
Astronauts will live and work in the module for several days as part of preparations for manning a permanent space station. The crew includes 33-year-old Liu Yang, an air force pilot and China's first female space traveler.
The docking was a first for Chinese manned spaceflight. In November 2011, the unmanned Shenzhou 8 successfully docked twice with Tiangong 1 by remote control.
Monday's docking also was completed by remote control from a ground base in China. A manual docking, to carried out by one of the crew members, is scheduled for later in the mission.
Two crew members plan to conduct medical tests and experiments inside the module, while the third will remain in the spacecraft.
Liu is joined by mission commander and veteran astronaut Jing Haipeng, 45, and crew mate Liu Wang, 43. The three are to spend at least 10 days in space on China's fourth manned mission, which was launched Saturday from the Jiuquan center on the edge of the Gobi desert in northern China.
China is hoping to join the United States and Russia as the only countries to send independently maintained space stations into orbit. It is already one of just three nations to have launched manned spacecraft on their own.
Another manned mission to the module is planned later this year. Possible future missions could include sending a man to the moon.
The Tiangong 1, which was launched last year, is due to be replaced by a permanent space station around 2020. That station is to weigh about 60 tons, slightly smaller than NASA's Skylab of the 1970s and about one-sixth the size of the 16-nation International Space Station.
China has only limited cooperation in space with other nations and is excluded from the ISS, largely on objections from the United States.
China first launched a man into space in 2003 and conducted a two-man mission in 2005. A three-man trip in 2008 featured the country's first spacewalk.
Shenzhou 9 rockets into orbit on Chinese docking mission
William Harwood - CBS News
A Chinese Shenzhou spacecraft carrying a space veteran and two rookies, including China's first female "taikonaut," rocketed into orbit Saturday on a mission to dock with a prototype space station module, an incremental but critical step on the road to building a Mir-class space station later this decade.
Broadcast live on Chinese television, the Long March-2F rocket carrying the three-seat Shenzhou 9 spacecraft roared to life on time and quickly climbed away from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in north central China at 6:37 p.m. local time (GMT+8; 6:37 a.m. EDT), arcing to the east through a cloudless blue sky.
The mission commander is 46-year-old Jing Haipeng, veteran of China's third and most recent manned mission in 2008 and the first Chinese astronaut to make a return trip to space. His crewmates are both making their first flight: Liu Wang, 43, and Liu Yang, 33, the first female Chinese astronaut. She is an air force major in the People's LIberation Army with 1,680 hours of flying time.
Live television from the spacecraft during the climb to space showed Jing, strapped into the capsule's center seat, with Liu Wang seated to his right and Liu Yang to his left. All three appeared relaxed and in good spirits as they monitored cockpit displays, occasionally waving at the camera.
"I am grateful to the motherland and the people," Liu Yang told reporters during a pre-flight news conference. "I feel honored to fly into space on behalf of hundreds of millions of female Chinese citizens."
Along with achieving the technical goals of the mission, "I want to experience the fantastic environment in space and appreciate the beauty of Earth and our homeland," she said in a report from the Xinhua news agency. "I will live up to your expectations and work with my teammates to complete this space mission."
Joan Johnson-Freese, an expert on China's space program, said Liu Yang's selection "will play well domestically. They're always quoting that Mao said women hold up half of heaven. So this is a big nod to half of 1.3 billion people. It plays well domestically and internationally."
The goal of China's fourth manned space mission is to carry out the first manned rendezvous and docking with the orbiting Tiangong 1 module, a prototype of the much larger laboratory components that will be assembled into an operational space station by the end of the decade, a program that was approved by China's leadership in 1992.
Following a deliberate, step-by-step approach to that long-term goal, China became the third nation, after the United States and the Soviet Union/Russia, to launch a manned spacecraft in October 2003 when Yang Liwei blasted off aboard the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft. Shenzhou 6, carrying two crew members, was successfully launched in October 2005 and Shenzhou 7, carrying a three-man crew -- including Jing Haipeng -- flew in September 2008.
The Tiangong 1 -- "Heavenly Palace" -- research module was launched Sept. 29, 2011, to serve as a target for unmanned and then manned docking missions. One month after Tiangong 1 reached orbit, China launched the unmanned Shenzhou 8 spacecraft, which carried out an automated rendezvous and televised docking with the research module two days later.
"Currently, China is still experimenting with docking technology, which is critical to its ability to transfer people and material from the ground to a long-term outpost in space," wrote Gregory Kulacki in a background paper distributed by the Union of Concerned Scientists.
"Docking requires careful and accurate control of the space capsule to allow it to rendezvous with and attach itself to a port on the station. Experience with docking will also allow China to gain valuable information and experience needed for the design and construction of the space station, which will be assembled from a series of large modules joined together with a similar docking mechanism."
The Shenzhou 9 mission "is designed to test the ability to conduct a piloted docking between a Shenzhou capsule occupied by three Chinese astronauts and the same Tiangong 1 experimental space laboratory," Kulacki wrote. "If all goes well there are plans for a third docking mission between a piloted Shenzhou spacecraft and the Tiangong 1 laboratory in 2013."
The solar-powered Tiangong 1 measures 34 feet long, 11 feet wide and weighs about 8.5 tons. It features a pressurized experiment module where visiting crews can live and work and a "resource module" housing electrical power, propulsion and life support systems.
The space station the Chinese hope to build later this decade will consist of four or more modules linked together with a total mass between 60 and 80 tons.
For comparison, the International Space Station operated by the United States, Russia, Europe, Canada and Japan, is the size of a football field, weighs more than 450 tons and has a multi-module pressurized volume comparable to a 747 jumbo jet. It has been staffed with rotating crews of up to six astronauts and cosmonauts for the past 12 years.
“On the Edge”: The Legacy of Valentina Tereshkova
Ben Evans - AmericaSpace.org
When China launched its first female spacefarer Saturday, it was a quirk of historical coincidence that both the Soviet Union and the United States sent their own pioneering women into the heavens at exactly the same time, in mid-June, many years ago. Almost five decades have now passed since Valentina Tereshkova – an ‘ordinary’ cotton mill worker who accomplished something quite ‘extraordinary’ – roared into orbit aboard Vostok 6.
For Premier Nikita Khrushchev, her flight was a triumph for Communism: it showed the world that in a socialist state women were equal to men and were encouraged to reach for the stars. The reality, though, was that Tereshkova’s three days in space were nothing more than a political stunt to upstage the Americans and to underline this insincerity, no more Soviet women would enter space until 1982. Yet the greatest achievement of Tereshkova’s mission is that it laid the foundation stone for the dreams of millions of girls and young women who would go on to carve their own niches in the annals of space history.
‘History’, of course, is frequently at the whim of those who write it. Tereshkova was a staunch Communist with a war-hero father and these two factors certainly played into her selection. Additionally, she proved herself to be a hard worker, an accomplished parachutist and spoke appropriately. “Soviet women have had the same prerogatives and rights as men,” she once said. “They share the same tasks. They are workers, navigators, chemists, aviators, engineers, and now the nation has selected me for the honour of being a cosmonaut.” In the West, many observers agreed. The wife of Philip Hart, the Democratic senator for Michigan, saw Tereshkova’s flight as an opportunity which was barred to American women, whilst anthropologist Margaret Mead remarked that “the Russians treat men and women interchangeably. We treat men and women differently”.
Others were not so easily hoodwinked, but on the morning of 16 June 1963 it was clear to many radio enthusiasts in the West that something extraordinary was about to happen. Tereshkova was launched at 12:29 pm Moscow Time. Her liftoff, she reported, was “excellent” and her adaptation to weightlessness did not seem problematic.
Already in space was a male cosmonaut, Valeri Bykovsky, aboard Vostok 5, and Tereshkova’s orbital parameters were such that the two craft could draw towards each other for a few minutes, twice daily, with a closest approach of about three miles. Within hours of launch, she was in radio communication with Bykovsky…but on the second day of her flight ground controllers experienced difficulties contacting her. It seemed that she was either tuned to the wrong reception channel or there was a problem with her receiver, but on the evening of 17 June the Enköping station in Sweden picked up a message from Tereshkova, in which she said that she felt “fine” and all was well.
In his now-famous diary, Nikolai Kamanin, the commander of the cosmonaut team at the time, wrote that Tereshkova’s communications were good. At one stage, Bykovsky even reported that his female counterpart was singing songs to him. Tereshkova’s televised image was broadcast throughout the Soviet Union and she spoke to Khrushchev and undertook most of her scientific experiments, recording images of land and cloud cover and describing Earth’s horizon as “a light blue, beautiful band”.
Reports soon emerged that the gamble of flying an ‘ordinary’ Russian girl – albeit one with over a hundred parachute jumps to her credit – was not entirely successful. Accounts of the mission indicated that Tereshkova was unwell during the early part of her flight and she appeared tired and weak in her televised images. She reported nagging pains in her right shin, pressure points from the helmet on her shoulder and left ear and irritation from the biomedical sensors on her headband. In fact, both she and Bykovsky recommended that future cosmonauts would be more comfortable if permitted to remove their space suits during missions. This suggestion proved ironic on the next mission, in October 1964, when three men flew without any space suit protection whatsoever.
On a practical level, Tereshkova noted that flannels were too small and not moist enough to wash her face, there was no provision to clean her teeth and she reported that she only ate a little more than half of her food supply. (This could not be confirmed because she she apparently gave away the remainder of her food to onlookers at the landing site.) Conditions aboard Bykovsky’s Vostok 5 were even more unpleasant. He experienced an undisclosed problem with his waste management system – possibly a spillage – and the fan of his space suit’s oxygen supply tended to cut off whenever he released himself from his seat.
After three days aloft, on the morning of 19 June, the retrofire command was sent to Vostok 6 and executed satisfactorily. For some reason, Tereshkova did not call out each event, as required, and she reported neither a successful solar orientation or the progress of the retrofire or even the jettisoning of her craft’s instrument section. In fact, the only data which reached the control centre was downlinked telemetry.
The world’s first female cosmonaut ejected on time, but apparently broke a mission rule by opening her visor and gazing upwards…only to be hit in the face by a small piece of metal. In the violently gusting wind, Tereshkova landed at 11:20 am Moscow Time. Kind locals offered her fermented milk, cheese, flat cakes and bread – a welcome relief from the bland fare of the past three days – but this ruined the flight doctors’ chances of properly analysing her dietary intake. Three hours after Tereshkova’s landing, Bykovsky also touched down safely.
Both were record-holders. Bykovsky had spent nearly five days in orbit and even in 2012 he retains the record for having spent the longest period of time in space alone. Tereshkova’s 48 orbits and 70 hours aloft soundly surpassed all six Project Mercury missions, combined, and Nikita Khrushchev loved it.
He proudly paraded her in Red Square and on 3 November 1963 gave her away at her marriage to fellow cosmonaut Andrian Nikolayev at the Moscow Wedding Palace. The real attitude of many cosmonauts towards the women in space came from Nikolayev himself. “We love our women very much,” he once said. “We spare them as much as possible. In the future, they will surely work on board space stations, but as specialists – as doctors, as geologists, as astronomers, and, of course, as stewardesses!”
Whatever Tereshkova’s own opinions, she became an instant celebrity. Tours of India, Pakistan, Mexico, the United States, Cuba, Poland and Bulgaria opened her eyes to a wider world. She received the coveted Hero of the Soviet Union accolade, together with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star Medal. After her marriage, a daughter – Yelena – was born to the couple in June 1964, becoming the first child whose parents had both flown into space, but Nikolayev and Tereshkova were not even living together by the end of that year. They divorced in 1982. To this day, speculation endures as to whether their union represented a genuine match or a cynical ploy, engineered by Khrushchev.
As for poor performance, Tereshkova has always argued against such allegations. Chief Designer Sergei Korolev had muttered under his breath that he would never deal with “broads” again, but at a private interview with her on 11 July 1963 he expressed severe displeasure with her performance. Korolev’s deputy, Vasili Mishin, shared his sentiment, claiming that Tereshkova had been “on the edge of psychological instability”. Two decades passed before another female cosmonaut, Svetlana Savitskaya, entered space, and even that was partly as a Soviet hedge against the upcoming flight of America’s Sally Ride.
Several years ago, in 2004, it was revealed that an error in Vostok 6’s control software had been identified and corrected by Tereshkova, although this fact went unacknowledged for decades. She remained an ‘honorific’ member of the cosmonaut team and graduated in 1969 from the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy as an engineer, but she never received another mission assignment. For Korolev, the entire programme of putting a woman into space was a means of currying favour with Khrushchev: giving him another propaganda coup to beat the Americans, in exchange for signing off plans for the ‘real’ space programme to continue. That space programme centred on an entirely new space vehicle, the Soyuz, whose descendants continue to transport astronauts and cosmonauts to the International Space Station. Aside from being a historic event in its own right, Valentina Tereshkova’s achievement served two purposes: it inspired a generation of young women and also helped to enable the development of a craft which has outlived Apollo and the Shuttle and upon which the International Space Station and its partners continue to depend for operational access to low-Earth orbit.
Unmanned Air Force spaceplane lands after secret mission
William Harwood - CBS News
An unmanned Air Force spaceplane dropped out of orbit and glided to a computer-controlled California landing early Saturday to close out a classified 469-day military mission.
The reusable Boeing-built X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle touched down on a runway at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., at 5:48 a.m. PDT (GMT-7). The Air Force did not provide any advance warning of the re-entry and landing time and no technical details about the vehicle's performance were released.
But in a statement, the Air Force said the autonomous landing by the nation's "newest and most advanced re-entry spacecraft" was executed "safely and successfully."
"With the retirement of the space shuttle fleet, the X-37B OTV program brings a singular capability to space technology development," Air Force Lt. Col. Tom McIntyre, X-37B program manager, said in the statement. "The return capability allows the Air Force to test new technologies without the same risk commitment faced by other programs. We're proud of the entire team's successful efforts to bring this mission to an outstanding conclusion."
The X-37B was launched atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket that took off March 5, 2011, from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. It was the second flight for the Air Force Orbital Test Vehicle program following a successful 224-day maiden voyage in 2010. The spacecraft used for that mission is expected to be relaunched in October.
As with the initial test flight, details about the program's just-concluded second mission are classified.
Built by Boeing's Experimental Systems Group, the X-37B is equipped with twin tail fins, stubby wings and an advanced heat shield. It is about one quarter the size of NASA's now-retired space shuttle, measuring 29 feet long. It has a wingspan of just 14 feet and weighs about 11,000 pounds when loaded with propellants.
"With OTV-1, we proved that unmanned space vehicles can be sent into orbit and safely recovered," Paul Rusnock, Boeing vice president of Government Space Systems, said in a company statement. "With OTV-2, we tested the vehicle design even further by extending the ... mission duration of the first vehicle and testing additional capabilities.
"We look forward to the second launch of OTV-1 later this year and the opportunity to demonstrate that the X-37B is an affordable space vehicle that can be repeatedly reused."
The spacecraft was originally developed by Boeing for NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, but it eventually was turned over to the Orbital Test Vehicle program operated by the Rapid Capabilities Office of the Air Force.
The unmanned orbiter is based on the same lifting body design used for the space shuttle and flies a similar re-entry trajectory. But the X-37B features more lightweight composite materials, improved wing leading edge insulation and tougher heat-shield tiles that "are significantly more durable than the first generation tiles used by the space shuttle," according to a Boeing website description. "All avionics on the X-37B are designed to automate all de-orbit and landing functions."
The X-37B features a scaled-down 4-foot by 7-foot payload bay. But unlike NASA's manned orbiter, which relied on fuel cells for electrical power, the Air Force spaceplane is equipped with a deployable solar array that permits it to remain in orbit for long-duration missions.
What else might have been carried aloft during the OTV program's second mission is not known. The possibilities include reconnaissance cameras or other spy sensors; test gear to precisely measure the craft's performance over the course of a long-duration mission; and space exposure experiments to help researchers learn more about the long-term effects of the space environment on sensitive materials or instruments.
Unmanned Air Force space plane lands in Calif.
Alicia Chang - Associated Press
An unmanned Air Force space plane steered itself to a landing early Saturday at a California military base, capping a 15-month clandestine mission.
The spacecraft, which was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida in March 2011, conducted in-orbit experiments during the mission, officials said. It was the second such autonomous landing at the Vandenberg Air Force Base, 130 miles northwest of Los Angeles. In 2010, an identical unmanned spacecraft returned to Earth after seven months and 91 million miles in orbit.
The latest homecoming was set in motion when the stubby-winged robotic X-37B fired its engine to slip out of orbit, then pierced through the atmosphere and glided down the runway like an airplane.
"With the retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet, the X-37B OTV program brings a singular capability to space technology development," said Lt. Col. Tom McIntyre, the X-37B's program manager. "The return capability allows the Air Force to test new technologies without the same risk commitment faced by other programs. We're proud of the entire team's successful efforts to bring this mission to an outstanding conclusion."
With the second X-37B on the ground, the Air Force planned to launch the first one again in the fall. An exact date has not been set.
The twin X-37B vehicles are part of a military program testing robotically controlled reusable spacecraft technologies. Though the Air Force has emphasized the goal is to test the space plane itself, there's a classified payload on board - a detail that has led to much speculation about the mission's ultimate purpose.
Some amateur trackers think the craft carried an experimental spy satellite sensor judging by its low orbit and inclination, suggesting reconnaissance or intelligence gathering rather than communications.
Harvard astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, who runs Jonathan's Space Report, which tracks the world's space launches and satellites, said it's possible it was testing some form of new imaging.
The latest X-37B was boosted into orbit atop an Atlas 5 rocket. It was designed to stay aloft for nine months, but the Air Force wanted to test its endurance. After determining the space plane was performing well, the military decided in December to extend the mission.
Little has been said publicly about the second X-37B flight and operations. At a budget hearing before the Senate Armed Services subcommittee in March, William Shelton, head of the Air Force Space Command, made a passing mention.
That the second X-37B has stayed longer in space than the first shows "the flexibility of this unique system," he told lawmakers.
Defense analysts are divided over its usefulness.
Joan Johnson-Freese, professor of national security affairs at the Naval War College, said such a craft could give the U.S. "eyes" over conflict regions faster than a satellite.
"Having a vehicle with a broad range of capabilities that can get into space quickly is a very good thing," she said.
Yousaf Butt, a nuclear physicist and scientific consultant for the Federation of American Scientists, thinks the capabilities of the X-37B could be done more cheaply with a disposable spacecraft.
"I believe one of the reasons that the mission is still around is institutional inertia," he said.
The arc of the X-37 program spans back to 1999 and has changed hands several times. Originally a NASA project, the space agency in 2004 transferred it to the Pentagon's research and development arm, DARPA, and then to the secretive Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been poured into development, but the current total spent remains a secret.
Built by Boeing Government Space Systems, a unit of the company's satellite manufacturing area, the 11,000-pound space plane stands 9 1/2 feet tall and is just over 29 feet long, with a wingspan of less than 15 feet. It possesses two angled tail fins rather than a single vertical stabilizer. Once in orbit, it has solar panels that unfurl to charge batteries for electrical power.
McDowell of the Jonathan's Space Report sees a downside. He noted it'll be tough for the Air Force to send up such planes on short notice if it has to rely on the Atlas V rocket, which requires lengthy preparations.
"The requirement to go on Atlas V is a problem; they may need to look at a new launch vehicle that would be ready to go more quickly," he said.
NASA Astronauts Brought Playmates to the Moon
Amy Shira Teitel - Discovery News
When NASA sent its Apollo astronauts to the moon, it sent them with "cheat sheets" -- wrist checklists attached to their suits that outlined the main stages of surface activities for each extravehicular activity (EVA).
But like all flight hardware, crews didn't train with their real checklists; they trained with a copy and only signed off on the unassembled flight version. Assembling the checklist fell to the backup crew, and also gave them a great opportunity to sneak practical jokes into the mission.
Dave Scott, Jim Irwin, and Al Worden were the Apollo 12 backup crew supporting Pete Conrad as commander, Al Bean as lunar module pilot, and Dick Gordon as command module pilot respectively. For Scott, being in charge of assembling the checklists was too good an opportunity.
Scott, Irwin, and Worden spent a fair bit of time flipping through the Conrad and Bean's checklists figuring out where to put in gags. They added a few cartoons and deliberately misspelled "albedo" as "albeano" in Bean's checklist. But it was the pictures they added that really caught the crew's attention.
A little over two and a half hours into their first EVA on the moon, Bean flipped to the page in his checklist that described the stages for taking a core tube sample. On the facing page was Cynthia Myers, Playboy’s pick for Miss December 1969. Under the picture was the caption "Don't forget – Describe the protuberances."
He stopped in his tracks and beckoned Conrad to come look. The two astronauts, a quarter of a million miles away, stopped what they were doing and started flipping through their checklists to see what other young women's pictures had accompanied them to the lunar surface. Conrad found Angela Dorian, Miss September 1967 over the caption "Seen any interesting hills and valleys?" and Miss October 1967 Reagan Wilson listed as his "Preferred tether partner." Bean found Myers was accompanied by Leslie Bianchini, Miss January 1969. He was instructed to "Survey – her activity."
The backup crew had pulled the pictures from a newsstand magazine, had then shrunk and printed on fireproof plastic coated paper to slip them into the checklists. Gordon, orbiting the moon alone at that point, wasn't left out of the joke. Playboy Playmate DeDe Lind, Miss August 1967 was affixed to the inside of a spacecraft locker prior to launch. Lind’s picture, the sole personal memento Gordon kept from the flight, was put up for auction last year.
Conrad and Bean had the presence of mind not to say anything about the Playmates when they found the pictures. They figured that the American taxpayers listening to their lunar banter across the country wouldn't want to hear that national heroes were girl-watching on the moon.
Pranks on crews have certainly not disappeared from NASA's culture since the Apollo era, though modern jokes might take a different form. It's unclear how much girl watching goes on aboard the International Space Station, however. (As a side note, I feel like female astronauts would be outraged if a backup crew snuck playboy pinups into a spacecraft!)
Launch Control Center is more than just a tour stop
John Kelly - Florida Today (Commentary)
Let's hope that the Launch Control Center at Kennedy Space Center doesn't become just another tour stop for visitors.
Don't get me wrong. It's super cool that tourists at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex can now get inside one of the control center Firing Rooms to see and sense all of the history made there. The special add-on tour opened this week as part of the new offerings the visitor complex is rolling out for the space center's 50th anniversary.
For the good of Brevard County and the United States space program, we want that Firing Room alive again with the exhilarating blend of adrenaline and tension created by a launch countdown. The LCC, if it is to become a museum exhibit, should be a living museum where new history is being made for decades to come.
For tourists, for now, visiting the LCC could be a unique experience especially with the final missions of the space shuttles so fresh in our memory. It promises to be among the most interesting stops on KSC's special tour. No, there are no big pieces of space flight hardware or whiz bang technological displays. It's the soul of the place.
Sitting at one of the stations in a Firing Room from which some of America's brightest men and women brought to fruition their mission to launch people into space is special. All 152 launches of the Apollo and shuttle programs were controlled from that building. It's the kind of place where you take your time, spin yourself ever so slowly around, and absorb every detail. The excellent tour guides at KSC will point out many of them, but it is also partly going to be left to your imagination.
Not long before the shuttles returned to flight from the 2003 Columbia accident, a few journalists got to experience a countdown simulation, with the full shuttle launch team in place. No, it can't possibly match the real thing for goosebumps. But it was easily the most eye-opening experience I've had in all the things that NASA and space industry folks shared with me in the years I've covered the industry.
Inside that crowded room, busting with talent and dedication, you expect to hear a buzz. It's something entirely different. There is activity and conversation, but it's quiet, direct and professional. There is no doubt you're watching people work with the sobering understanding of the stakes. Hearing the conversations over the headset, you get nostalgic thinking about the level of effort invested by every person in the room, beginning for so many of them as a dream to work on the space program.
You get the sense they invest the same kind of dedication of a world class athlete preparing, with laser like focus. And you get the sense that a successful launch must be akin to the feeling of winning an Olympic gold medal or the Super Bowl. What it must feel like to be looking out the towering windows toward the sea and seeing a space shuttle rising off the Earth and thundering into the heavens.
So, enjoy the chance to get inside the place while you can. NASA kept it pretty closed off while the agency was in the midst of the always busy shuttle program. But let's hope this is just a brief respite for the control center and its firing rooms. I know when I get back in there, I'm going to be thinking about what it will be like for neighbors and friends to return to that room someday to launch astronauts on an American rocket on the next leg of the journey deeper into the solar system.
Where no corporation has gone before
Austin American-Statesman (Editorial)
Space exploration as a national effort for country seems to have become a quaint notion. The future of space exploration is private and for profit.
The well-earned congratulations surrounding SpaceX's successful trip last month to the International Space Station reinforce this coming reality. Private enterprise will play a large role, perhaps even the central role, in the further exploration of the final frontier. As these private space companies expand and build assembly and launch facilities, state officials should do what they reasonably can to ensure that Texas continues to be firmly associated with space exploration.
SpaceX — or Space Exploration Technologies Corp., as the California-based company is officially known — wants to build its own launch pad and is looking at sites in South Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico. Last week, the company's founder, Elon Musk, said a proposed site on the Texas coast near Brownsville is the leading candidate for his company's space port. Musk met with Gov. Rick Perry to talk about an incentive package state officials are said to be developing to persuade SpaceX to build its launch site in Texas.
Perry spokeswoman Lucy Nashed told The Associated Press that Texas is "a natural fit" for SpaceX's launch facility. Texas' role with NASA famously has been to train astronauts and control flights; SpaceX's plans give the state an opportunity to add launching rockets to its repertoire and to maintain and secure its presence in space.
SpaceX already has an operation in Texas — a rocket development facility in McGregor near Waco. On Wednesday, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr. visited the McGregor facility to reinforce the space agency's commitment to the commercialization of space.
The Obama administration wants private companies eventually to handle most orbital flights, while NASA focuses its limited resources on overcoming the profound obstacles that make sending astronauts to Mars and asteroids more a matter of science fiction than science fact. As NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver put it recently, the administration wants to "let private industry do what it does best and let NASA tackle the challenging task of pushing the boundary further."
NASA has given hundreds of millions of dollars to private companies to help them develop rockets and capsules. This raises a question of whether private space companies will ever be independent of the federal government for business and survival. But budget realities mean NASA has no choice but to support the privatization of space to lower its costs and develop potential revenue sources.
NASA paid SpaceX about $400 million to send its unmanned Dragon cargo capsule to the space station, according to an AP report. Each space shuttle mission cost about $1.5 billion, if the lifetime cost of the shuttle program is averaged per flight.
SpaceX has a contract with NASA for a dozen supply runs to the space station; the next is scheduled for September. NASA also has a $1.9 billion contract with another company, Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., to send eight cargo flights to the space station. Orbital Sciences hopes to launch its first capsule in November.
SpaceX's proposed Texas launch site is next door to Boca Chica State Park and the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge. Obviously, environmental studies will be done before a launch pad is built, but Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in Florida, which was created hand in hand with the Kennedy Space Center to protect NASA's Cape Canaveral launch site from development, serves as a model for making sure rockets and threatened species can occupy the same area.
Meanwhile, as entrepreneurs and various officials tout the commercial future of space, it's worth considering a relic from a bygone era. Voyager 1, launched almost 35 years ago on Sept. 5, 1977, to explore Jupiter and Saturn, is on its way out of the solar system. The probe, which is still sending data back to Earth, soon will become the first human object to reach interstellar space.
Will private industry pay for purely scientific missions like Voyager? As the historic achievements of NASA's manned space programs pass into legend, and the future passes into commercial hands, it's important to continue to support missions to explore the planets and deep space.
There is money to be made in delivering supplies, crews and satellites (both government and private) to orbit. Maybe, while making money, SpaceX or another company can recapture the romantic appeal of space exploration — and do it from Texas and with the help of Texans' drawing on their decades of space experience.
American taxpayers must invest in NASA
Kay Bailey Hutchison - Houston Chronicle (Commentary)
(Hutchison is a U.S. senator from Texas)
Since it first became a possibility for man to reach the stars, America has been the leader in space exploration. We have done so because we are a nation that prizes knowledge and progress. We have done so because we are a nation that imagines what can be and works to realize our vision. And we have done so because it is vital to our economy and national security.
Breakthroughs in healthcare, missile defense, even everyday products we use in the home, have all come out of research related to America’s space program. Some of these innovations were planned, others were pure happenstance. But they have all made our lives better.
Science and research are engines for both our financial and intellectual economy. NASA is an investment, not an expenditure. I have worked hard throughout my years in the Senate to be sure NASA is recognized for its strategic importance and the value it brings. This is more important than ever in such uncertain times.
Today, the nation is facing out-of-control spending and massive debt. But Washington doesn’t just need to reduce spending, it needs to be smart about how it allocates our resources. To ensure essential funding levels for our most important programs, we must be bold and strategic. We should set a cap on spending at 18 percent of GDP, and within that limit, determine the priorities that will produce economic and long-term rewards.
An example of good strategy is a recent decision by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden to spend funds more efficiently to achieve two important goals.
With the retirement of the Space Shuttles, America must rely on Russian rockets to ferry our astronauts and their equipment to the International Space Station. In the future, however, our Space Station crew members and cargo will be transported to and from low-Earth orbit by a commercial space company, to be selected by NASA through a competitive process.
NASA initially funded four potential contractors to develop the necessary rockets, capsules and know-how. Two years later, it’s become clear to me and others in Congress that NASA should narrow the competition, to stay on budget and on schedule. That’s why I’ve called repeatedly for NASA to reduce the competition to fewer contenders. The recent successful launch of SpaceX’s Falcon rocket, and subsequent test berthing of its Dragon capsule with the Space Station, was a landmark achievement that strengthened my argument. So it was welcome news when Administrator Bolden recently decided to reduce the field of top contenders. His decision means that taxpayer funds will be more effectively used as commercial service to the Space Station is developed.
America should have two goals. First, to ensure manned access to the International Space Station, so we can fully utilize our investment in the research facility, including the Alpha-Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), which was installed last year. Second, to achieve manned space exploration beyond low-Earth orbit, places where no human has ever been.
It is time for America to push forward beyond the frontiers we have already conquered, taking our space program to the next level. Nobel Laureate Dr. Samuel Ting, the Spectrometer’s principal scientist, made a point that reflects the vast promise of space exploration. He noted that while the AMS is trying to identify and understand dark matter and cosmic radiation, we cannot know in advance what we will actually discover.
The door is open to infinite possibilities. Many of our greatest discoveries were either stumbled upon inadvertently or intended for some other purpose altogether – the MRI, penicillin and the pacemaker were all accidents of scientific history. There is so much left to explore and so much we don’t even know we are looking for. As long as NASA’s funding and future are secure, there are no limits to what we might find.
Houston 11-yr-old becomes 600,000 trainee to graduate from Space Camp
Chris Welch - Huntsville Times
Col. Robert Springer, who flew on NASA Space Shuttle missions in 1989 and 1990, took his pen and autographed a photograph for a young fan Friday at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.
"I should be asking you for your autograph," Springer said, smiling. "Congratulations."
Jenna Allan of Houston, the newest 11-year-old celebrity at the Space & Rocket Center's Space Camp, just smiled.
Minutes earlier, Allan got the surprise of her life when Space Camp officials named her the 600,000th trainer to graduate from Space Camp. The honor was in conjunction with Space Camp's year-long 30th anniversary celebration.
"I was excited and surprised," said Allan, a fifth grader in Houston who also enjoys gymnastics, Girl Scouts and playing the violin. Allan earns a free Space Camp week next year.
"My whole team (at Space Camp) was excited when it was announced."
The other Team Jenna -- her family -- was also excited. That included her dad David, mom Jennifer, brother Arran, 4, and sister Sarah 9.
"I came here as a kid just to the museum in 1980 and we came here as a family to visit the museum last year," her dad said. "I told her about Space Camp and we toured around and looked at the exhibits. She was very excited and enthusiastic about coming."
Allan said she saw a presentation featuring Shuttle astronaut Donnie Metcalf-Lindenberger and being an astronaut looked fun. But the question is, will there be an astronaut program in the next 15 or so years when Allan grows up?
"Absolutely," Springer said. "As we go forward I see a huge role in commercial space program. Boeing has hired some retired astronauts to start a program there.
"So yes, I think there will be opportunities for Jenna. In two decades, I would think she could be in a contingent going to Mars."
Shuttle-Era Manned Mars Flyby (1985)
David Portree - Wired.com
In the 1960s, NASA expended nearly as much study money and effort on manned Mars and Venus flyby mission planning as it did on its more widely known plans for manned Mars landings. Italian aviation and rocketry pioneer Gaetano Crocco had first described a free-return manned Mars/Venus flyby mission in 1956. Manned flyby studies within NASA began with the EMPIRE study the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Future Projects Office initiated in 1962 and culminated in the NASA-wide Planetary Joint Action Group (JAG) study of 1966-1967.
The Planetary JAG, led by the NASA Headquarters Office of Manned Space Flight, brought together engineers from MSFC, Kennedy Space Center, the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC), and Washington, DC-based planning contractor Bellcomm. It issued a Phase I report in Oct. 1966 and continued Phase II study work in Fiscal Year (FY) 1967.
The Phase I report emphasized a manned Mars flyby mission in 1975, but included Mars and Venus flyby opportunities through 1980. All would be based on hardware developed for the Apollo Program and for its planned successor, the Apollo Applications Program (AAP). The piloted flyby spacecraft would carry automated probes, including one type that would land on Mars, collect a sample of surface material (containing, it was hoped, evidence of life), and launch it back to the flyby spacecraft for immediate analysis.
According to Edward Clinton Ezell and Linda Neuman Ezell, writing in their 1984 history On Mars, MSC was largely responsible for the demise of 1960s manned flyby mission planning. On Aug. 3, 1967, the Houston-based center, home of the astronaut corps and Mission Control, distributed to 28 aerospace companies a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a manned Mars flyby spacecraft sample-returner design study. By doing this, MSC appeared to disregard warnings from Congress that no new NASA programs would be tolerated.
In the summer of 1967, NASA was preoccupied with recovery from the Jan. 27, 1967 Apollo 1 fire, which had killed astronauts Virgil Grissom, Roger Chaffee, and Ed White. Many in Congress felt that NASA had been lax in maintaining quality and safety standards, so deserved to be punished for the accident.
They did not, however, wish to cut Apollo funding and endanger accomplishment of Apollo’s very public goal of a man on the moon by 1970. In addition, by Aug.1967, the Federal budget deficit for FY 1967 had reached $30 billion. Though negligible by modern standards, this was a shocking sum in 1967. The deficit was driven in large part by the cost of fighting in Indochina, which had reached more than $2 billion a month, or the entire Apollo Program budget of $25 billion every 10 months.
After learning of MSC’s RFP, long-time House Space Committee Chair and NASA supporter Joseph Karth declared angrily that “a manned mission to Mars or Venus by 1975 or 1977 is now and always has been out of the question – and anyone who persists in this kind of misallocation of resources. . .is going to be stopped.” On Aug. 16, the House cut all funding for advanced planning from NASA’s FY 1968 budget bill and slashed the budget for AAP from $455 million to $122 million. Total cuts to President Lyndon Johnson’s Jan. 1967 NASA budget request amounted to more than $500 million, or about 10% of NASA’s FY 1967 budget total.
Though he opposed the cuts, President Johnson bowed to the inevitable and signed the budget into law. The Planetary JAG and Bellcomm tied up loose ends of the manned flyby study during FY 1968, but most work on the concept ended little more than a month after the Houston center issued its ill-timed RFP.
It is ironic, then, that NASA’s next piloted Mars flyby study took place in Houston, at Johnson Space Center (JSC), as MSC had been rechristened following President Johnson’s death in Jan. 1973. Barney Roberts, of JSC’s Engineering Directorate, reported on the study to the joint NASA-Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Manned Mars Missions workshop in June 1985.
Roberts explained that the NASA flyby plan aimed to counter a possible Soviet manned Mars flyby. He cited a 1984 CIA memorandum which suggested (without citing much in the way of proof) that the Soviet Union might attempt such a mission in the late 1990s to garner international prestige.
NASA’s manned Mars flyby would be based on Space Shuttle, Space Station, and Lunar Base hardware expected to be operational in the late 1990s. Space Shuttle Orbiters would deliver to NASA’s low-Earth orbit (LEO) Space Station an 18-ton Mission Module (MM) and a pair of empty expendable propellant tanks with a mass of 11.6 tons each. The MM, derived from a Space Station module, would include a 3000-pound radiation shelter, 7000 pounds of science equipment, and 2300 pounds of food and water.
The MM would be docked to a six-ton Command Module (CM) and two 5.75-ton Orbital Transfer Vehicles (OTVs). The OTVs would each include an aerobrake heat shield and two Shuttle-derived rocket engines. Roberts assumed that the CM and OTVs would be in space already as part of NASA’s Lunar Base Program. The strap-on tanks would be joined to the MM/CM stack by trunion pins similar to those used to anchor payloads in the Shuttle Orbiter payload bay, then Station astronauts would perform spacewalks to link propellant pipes and electricity and control cables.
Shuttle-derived heavy-lift rockets would then deliver a total of 221 tons of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants to the Space Station for loading into the flyby spacecraft’s twin tanks. The propellants would be pumped aboard just prior to departure for Mars to prevent liquid hydrogen loss through boil off. The flyby spacecraft’s mass at the start of its Earth-departure maneuver would total 358 tons.
As the launch window for the Mars flyby opportunity opened, the flyby spacecraft would move away from the LEO Space Station, then the four OTV engines would ignite and burn for about one hour to put the it on course for Mars. The only propulsive maneuver of the baseline mission, it would empty the OTV and strap-on propellant tanks. Roberts advised retaining the empty tanks to help to shield the MM and CM against meteoroids and radiation.
Roberts told the workshop that the flyby spacecraft would spend two-and-a-half hours within about 20,000 miles of Mars. Closest approach would bring it to within 160 miles of Mars’s surface. At closest approach, the spacecraft would be moving at about five miles per second.
The spacecraft would then begin its long return to Earth. Roberts provided few details of the interplanetary phases of the manned flyby mission.
As Earth grew from a bright star to a distant disk, the Mars flyby astronauts would discard the twin strap-on tanks. They would then undock one OTV by remote control and re-dock it to the front of the CM. After entering the CM and sealing the hatch leading to the MM, they would discard the MM and second OTV, then would then strap into their couches to prepare for aerobraking in Earth’s upper atmosphere and capture into Earth orbit. After the OTV/CM combination completed the aerobraking maneuver, the crew would pilot it to a docking with the Space Station.
Roberts told the NASA/LANL workshop that Earth return would be the most problematic phase of the piloted Mars flyby mission. This was because the OTV/CM combination would encounter Earth’s upper atmosphere at a speed of 55,000 feet (10.4 miles) per second, producing reentry heating well beyond the planned capacity of the OTV’s heat shield. In addition, the crew would suffer “exorbitant” deceleration after living for a year in weightlessness.
Roberts proposed a “brute-force” solution: use the OTV’s rocket motors to slow the OTV/CM to lunar-return speed of 35,000 feet (6.6 miles) per second. The braking burn would, however, increase the Mars flyby spacecraft’s total required propellant load to nearly 500 tons. He calculated that, assuming that a Shuttle-derived heavy-lift rocket could be designed to deliver cargo to LEO at a cost of $500 per pound (an optimistic assumption, as it would turn out), then Earth-braking propellant would add $250 million to his mission’s cost.
Roberts briefly considered reducing the Mars flyby spacecraft’s mass by substituting an MM derived from a five-ton Space Station logistics module for the 18-ton MM. This would mean, however, that the crew would have to spend a year in cramped quarters with no exercise or science equipment.
Planners in the 1960s had wrestled with and prevailed over the same problems of propellant mass and Earth-return speed that JSC faced in its 1985 study. Bellcomm, for example, had proposed in June 1967 that the Planetary JAG’s manned Mars flyby save propellants by assembling the flyby spacecraft in an elliptical orbit, not a circular Space Station orbit. The elliptical orbit would mean that, in effect, the flyby spacecraft would begin Earth-orbit departure even before it was assembled. In addition, returning the crew directly to Earth’s surface in a small Apollo-type capsule with a beefed-up heat shield would greatly reduce or eliminate required braking propellants and enable an aerodynamic “skip” maneuver that would reduce deceleration stress on the astronauts.
Neither of these solutions was applicable to JSC’s 1985 plan, however, because the spacecraft and modules proposed for NASA’s 1990s Shuttle/Station/Lunar Base infrastructure would not permit them. Not all of the techniques developed in the 1960s for reducing propellant requirements and Earth-return speed were hardware-dependent, however.
For example, TRW’s Space Technology Laboratory proposed as early as 1964, during EMPIRE follow-on studies, that NASA use a Venus flyby to slow spacecraft returning from Mars. This would limit Earth-Mars free-return opportunities to those that would intersect Venus on the return leg, but would also eliminate the costly end-of-mission braking burn and enable Venus exploration as a bonus. The Planetary JAG’s Oct. 1966 report described Mars-Venus and Venus-Mars-Venus flyby missions. Bellcomm confirmed in late 1966 and 1967 that opportunities for such multi-planet flybys are not rare.
END
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