Hope you can join us at Hibachi Grill today for our monthly NASA Retirees Luncheon at 11:30. Please be careful driving around today as we deal with our daily rain downpours throughout the Metro Houston area.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1. Joint Leadership Team Web Poll
2. Read the Latest Profile of the Orion Team
3. Friday, 7:30 a.m. - Entrepreneurship: Its Implication in Transforming a Community
4. Building 1 Café on the First Floor Lobby is Now Open
5. NASA iBook on iTunes
6. Starport Gift Shop Specials
7. Amp Up Your Weight Loss, Get Positive and Financially Fit
8. Nominate Your Peer for the POWER of One Award
9. JSC Radio Control Club Meeting
10. Confined Space Entry - July 24, 8:30 a.m. - Building 226N, Room 174
11. Crane Operations and Rigging Safety Refresher ViTS - Aug. 10, 7:30 a.m.
12. Scaffold Users Seminar ViTS - Aug. 10, Noon
________________________________________ QUOTE OF THE DAY
“ We flatter those we scarcely know, We please the fleeting guest; And deal full many a thoughtless blow To those who love us best. ”
-- Ella Wheeler Wilcox
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1. Joint Leadership Team Web Poll
The Pledge of Allegiance was recognized by Congress in 1942, not 1802. Some of the other July 4th questions might have been partially incorrect also. This week I'll make it a little easier. The first question is about impaired driving (since we are into the summer vacation driving season). One of the questions is really, really false. Can you pick it out? Modern pentathlon, not ancient pentathlon, was the Olympic sport in question two. Two-person dinghy was not the caption on my wedding photo, either. Congrats to Astro Jose Altuve, who made the all-star team this year. He's the smallest guy in the major leagues. I'm giving you five more fun-size people that you could hang out with. Which one do you think would be the most fun? Dolly? Prince?
Napoleon your Bonaparte on over to get this week's poll.
Joel Walker x30541 http://jlt.jsc.nasa.gov/
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2. Read the Latest Profile of the Orion Team
The first space-bound Orion vehicle recently arrived to the launch site at Kennedy Space Center in preparation for Exploration Flight Test-1, planned for 2014. Get to know the JSC team behind Orion. This week, read about Mike Sarafin, Lead Flight Director for EFT-1, at:
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/home/sarafin_profile.html
The profile continues a series to introduce the people behind the development of the spacecraft.
JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111
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3. Friday, 7:30 a.m. - Entrepreneurship: Its Implication in Transforming a Community
Tomorrow at 7:30 a.m.!
The Houston Technology Center will host the first Tech Link meeting featuring Jim "Mack" McIngvale, owner of Gallery Furniture.
Come learn and give your expert input about the innovative energy, life sciences, Information Technology and NASA/aerospace technology companies that are currently in the Houston Technology Center's Incubation and Acceleration Program.
This forum provides professionals with the opportunity to see, be involved with and influence the evolution of emerging technology from within the JSC community.
Date: Friday, July 13
Time: 7:15 to 9 a.m.
Location: Aerospace Transition Center (16921 El Camino Real)
Please register TODAY before noon at:
http://houstontech.org/events/1025/
Steven Gonzalez x36314 http://houstontech.org/events/1025/
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4. Building 1 Café on the First Floor Lobby is Now Open
The small café in the Building 1 lobby is now back open between 7 a.m. and 2 p.m. Monday through Friday. The main café is located in the lobby of Building 4S.
Janet Ross 281-487-9378
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5. NASA iBook on iTunes
NASA's Nutritional Biochemistry Laboratory has an iBook for the iPad!
"Space Nutrition" is now available for free download on iTunes and is suitable for grades 5 to 8. In this book, the reader can get an overview of space programs in chronology from the earliest human spaceflight up to the current gem, the International Space Station. The book also covers the role of nutrition in the space program, describes how space nutrition research is conducted, highlights ongoing and completed NASA research and reviews many facets of Space Life Sciences.
This is a valuable resource for students with a topic that will engage interest while reinforcing both STEM and basic educational principles.
Sara Zwart x33753
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6. Starport Gift Shop Specials
Friday, July 13, is "Embrace Your Inner Geekness Day!" All novelty T-shirts will be 20 percent off at the Starport Gift Shops. New arrivals are included in the sale.
In honor of Starport's 50th birthday, stop by the gift shops on July 18 to buy one item and get one 50 percent off. The offer is good on selected merchandise and may be mixed and matched. Also, stop by either location to enter our prize drawing between July 18 and 26. The winner will be announced during the open house activities at the Gilruth Center on July 26.
Be sure to check out all the fun events and activities Starport has going on in celebration of its 50th birthday at our website: http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Events/
Shelly Harlason x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/
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7. Amp Up Your Weight Loss, Get Positive and Financially Fit
Join Exploration Wellness this week for a variety of wellness lunchtime classes in a conference room near you!
Overcoming Weight-Loss Barriers
If you have tried to lose weight but have been unsuccessful, don't fret. Dropping those extra pounds is not often easy and usually requires hard work. Just because you were not successful in the past doesn't mean you can't do it. This class will address some of the common barriers to weight loss and strategies for overcoming them.
Positive Behavior: How to Make Changes Last
Over 40 percent of our actions are habits. How do you get the positive changes you know you want in your life to stick? Join Gay Yarbrough, LCSW from the JSC Employee Assistance Program, to learn more about positive behavior approaches.
Introductory Financial Classes
Investing and Retirement Planning
Taxes and Estate Planning
See the link for class details and online enrollment.
Jessica Vos x41383 http://www.explorationwellness.com/rd/AE107.aspx?July_Signup.pdf
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8. Nominate Your Peer for the POWER of One Award
The POWER of One Awards have been a great success, but we still need your nominations. We're looking for standouts with specific examples of exceptional or superior performance. Our award criteria below will help guide you in writing the short write-up needed for submittal.
- Single Achievement: Truly went above and beyond on a single project or initiative
- Affect and Impact: How many were impacted? Who was impacted?
- Category: Which category should nominee be in?
- Gold: Agency impact award level
- Silver: Center impact award level
- Bronze: Organization impact award level
- Effort and Time: Was additional time and effort in place?
- Mission and Goals: Were goals met?
- Standout: What stands out?
If chosen, the recipient can choose from a list of JSC experiences and have their name and recognition shared on InsideJSC.
Jessica Ocampo 281-792-7804 http://powerofone.jsc.nasa.gov
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9. JSC Radio Control Club Meeting
The JSC Radio Control Club (RCC) will have its monthly meeting at the Clear Lake Park building (5001 NASA Parkway, lake side) tomorrow, July 12, at 7 p.m. The JSC RCC is a radio control model aviation club that flies behind Building 14. Come and enjoy some fellowship with like-minded aviation buffs.
Mike Laible 281-226-4192 http://www.jscrcc.com/
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10. Confined Space Entry - July 24, 8:30 a.m. - Building 226N, Room 174
SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0806, Confined Space Entry
The purpose of this course is to provide employees with the standards, procedures and requirements necessary for safe entry to and operations in confined spaces. Occupational Safety and Health Administration standard 29 CFR 1910.146, "Confined Space," is the basis for this course. The course covers the hazards of working in or around a confined space and the precautions one should take to control these hazards. A comprehensive test will be offered at the end of the class.
Registration in SATERN required.
Shirley Robinson x41284
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11. Crane Operations and Rigging Safety Refresher ViTS - Aug. 10, 7:30 a.m.
SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0028
This course serves as a refresher in overhead crane safety and awareness for operators, riggers, signalmen, supervisors and safety personnel. It also updates their understanding of existing federal and NASA standards and regulations related to such cranes. Areas of concentration include: general safety in crane operations, testing, inspections, pre-lift plans and safe rigging. This course is intended to provide the classroom training for re-certification of already qualified crane operators, or for those who have only a limited need for overhead crane safety knowledge.
Registration in SATERN is required.
Shirley Robinson x41284
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12. Scaffold Users Seminar ViTS - Aug. 10, Noon
SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0316
This four-hour course is based on Occupational Safety and Health Administration CFR 1910.28 and 1926.451, requirements for scaffolding safety in the general and construction industries. During the course, the student will receive an overview of those topics needed to work safely on scaffolds, including standards; terminology and inspection of scaffold components; uses of scaffolds; fall-protection requirements; signs and barricades; and more. Those individuals desiring to become "competent persons" for scaffolds should take the three-day Scaffold Safety Course, SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0312. This course will be primarily presented via the NASA target audience: Safety, Reliability, Quality and Maintainability professionals, or anyone working on operations requiring the use of scaffolds.
Registration in SATERN is required.
Shirley Robinson x41284
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JSC Today is compiled periodically as a service to JSC employees on an as-submitted basis. Any JSC organization or employee may submit articles. To see an archive of previous JSC Today announcements, go to http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/pao/news/jsctoday/archives.
NASA TV:
· 1 pm Central (2 EDT) - Video File of Exp 32/33 crew activities and Soyuz rollout in Baikonur
Human Spaceflight News
Thursday, July 12, 2012
HEADLINES AND LEADS
Investigation underway of problems with ISS experiments
Mark Carreau - Aerospace Daily
NanoRacks LLC says difficulties discovered with the activation of recently returned experiments flown aboard the International Space Station will not affect upcoming company research endeavors planned for the orbiting science laboratory, including the ongoing operations of two NanoLab platforms and a soon-to-launch variable gravity centrifuge facility. The company began an inquiry following the return of the 29 Soyuz mission on July 1 with three U.S., Russian and European station crewmembers and 15 student experiments housed in MixStix containers that were launched to the station aboard the successful SpaceX/Dragon commercial resupply mission in late May. A yet-to-be-determined number of investigations had not been activated. “We’re investigating what happened. It could be a hardware problem, but I kind of doubt it,” said Michael Johnson, NanoRacks chief technology officer, on July 10.
Virginia Spaceport Poised To Turn Pad Over to Orbital This Month
Dan Leone - Space News
The outgoing head of the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority said the group is on track to hand off a launch pad at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) in Wallops Island, Va., to Orbital Sciences Corp. this month. Handing the pad over to Orbital would finally enable the Dulles, Va.-based rocket and satellite builder to begin flight demonstrations of its Antares rocket and Cygnus cargo module, the vehicles Orbital will use to fulfill a $1.9 billion NASA contract to fly cargo to the international space station.
NASA scientist spreading the word about ISS research
Mike Kelley - Huntsville Times
The director of NASA's International Space Station science experiments program said more Americans need to be aware of the significance of research taking place aboard the space station, and is trying to get the word out. Dr. Julie Robinson, International Space Station Program Scientist at NASA's Johnson Space Center, told a media briefing this morning at Marshall's Payload Operations Center that ISS research has not only scientific but economic benefits. The Payload Operation Center at Marshall coordinates all research activities aboard the space station. "People just don't recognize what we're doing up there and how it affects the economy, she said. "As these discoveries come to market we'll see that the space station has really affected our quality of life."
Space station science chief talks up orbiting lab in Huntsville
Lee Roop - Huntsville Times
NASA's chief space station scientist came to Huntsville today to talk up the orbiting laboratory now facing a possible use-it-or-lose-it future. It's the same future facing all of NASA's human space exploration, associate administrator William Gerstenmaier said recently. "We are in a position in space research and space exploration where we have to push the ball and advance forward or we're about ready to retreat from space," Gerstenmaier told researchers at a station development conference in Denver last month, according to published reports. He is NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations.
Checking in on NASA's Space Launch System
Jason Davis - Planetary Society
When SpaceX's Dragon capsule returned from its historic trip to the International Space Station this May, it proved that -- in theory -- the idea of having private spaceflight companies relieve NASA of its low-Earth orbit taxi duties can succeed. Meanwhile, work continues on the Space Launch System, the next-generation deep space vehicle slated to take humans beyond Earth for the first time since 1972.
Reusable rocket prototype almost ready for first liftoff
Stephen Clark - SpaceflightNow.com
SpaceX's Grasshopper testbed for a reusable rocket booster could fly soon from the company's Texas test facility on a short hop designed to demonstrate its ability to take off and land under thrust on a launch pad. The Grasshopper test vehicle stands 106 feet tall, and its initial flights will reach 240 feet and last about 45 seconds to check the design of the rocket's landing system. SpaceX technicians added four steel landing legs and a support structure to a qualified Falcon 9 rocket first stage. The Grasshopper program is the first step in achieving SpaceX's goal of developing a reusable booster, which would require the rocket's first stage to fly back to a landing pad at or near the launch site.
California Science Center lines up hangars to house shuttle Endeavour
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
When NASA's space shuttle Endeavour arrives in Los Angeles in September, it will call an airline's hangar home before being paraded through the city streets to the California Science Center for display. Endeavour, once it is moved into the center's new shuttle dedicated hangar, will be reunited with one its missions' larger payloads, the commercial logistics module that flew with NASA's first educator astronaut to the International Space Station.
Rocket Crafters' arrival propels Titusville back to the future
Officials see innovative rocket company as new employment engine for Titusville
Wayne Price - Florida Today
Brevard County is back in the space race. That was the reaction from lawmakers, economic development officials and the founders of a Utah-based company called Rocket Crafters Inc., which on Tuesday announced plans to move its fledgling high-tech aerospace operation to Titusville. A soon-to-be-manufacturer of suborbital space planes and developer of innovative propulsion systems, Rocket Crafters laid out an ambitious program to create hundreds of jobs for the area over the next several years while dramatically advancing the concept of point-to-point transportation.
Apollo astronauts, SpaceX, and a special photo
SpacePolitics.com
The re-airing of a 60 Minutes segment last month about SpaceX generated some criticism from Apollo-era officials that they were unfairly portrayed as being negative about SpaceX, which led a few weeks later to a clarification from 60 Minutes host Scott Pelley that Neil Armstrong in particular had not testified against commercial space. All this, as previously noted, came only after the second airing of the segment, shortly after SpaceX’s successful flight to the ISS, and not after CBS originally broadcast the piece in March. This story does have a happy ending of sorts, though. Earlier this week venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson, whose investments include SpaceX, posted a photo of a gift he was sending SpaceX founder Elon Musk: a picture of a Falcon 9 launch signed by nine Apollo astronauts.
Richard Branson: Galactic spaceship to blast off in 2013
Barry Neild - CNN
Virgin chief Richard Branson has put a time frame on his plan to launch tourists into space, claiming he and his family will blaze a trail for hundreds of fare-paying passengers by blasting off in December 2013. Branson also announced that Virgin Galactic, his fledgling commercial space company, was expanding to include a satellite-launching service that would use a low-cost rocket system to propel payloads into orbit.
Sir Richard Branson will fly into space next year – along with Angelina Jolie and 529 other passengers paying £128,000 each
Rob Waugh - London Daily Mail
Sir Richard Branson Wednesday announced that he and his children will be the first passengers when the Virgin Galactic space tourism programme begins. Virgin boss Sir Richard and son Sam and daughter Holly are expected to be flying 60 miles up into space on the SpaceShipTwo (SS2) aircraft by the end of next year. Today, Sir Richard joined around 120 other tourists who have signed up for the two-hour flights, at £128,000 a trip - a total of 529 guests have already signed up.
Branson's spaceship steals the spotlight at airshow
Ben Perry - Agence France Presse
British tycoon Richard Branson stole the show here Wednesday, announcing that he and his family would be on Virgin Galactic's first trip into space, as Airbus and Boeing eked out more plane orders. Branson was showcasing a full size mock-up of his SpaceShipTwo (SS2) aircraft at the biennial Farnborough airshow near London -- a key event in the aviation sector calendar that typically sees planemakers Airbus and Boeing battle for orders. "Obviously this is the most exciting adventure I have ever undertaken," Branson, founder of the Virgin Galactic space programme, told AFP.
Two more space shuttle-era astronauts leave NASA
SpaceflightNow.com
NASA has announced the departure of two veteran space shuttle astronauts with seven combined missions to their credit as Mark Polansky and Steve Robinson have left the agency. Polansky flew three shuttle missions. He initially served as the pilot of STS-98 in 2001 and as commander for STS-116 in 2006 and STS-127 in 2009, logging more than 41 days in space. Robinson served as a mission specialist on four spaceflights, including space shuttle missions STS-85 in 1997, STS-95 in 1998, STS-114 in 2005 and STS-130 in 2010.
Mae Jemison always knew she would go to space
Annalee Newitz - io9.com
Mae Jemison is nothing short of a scientific visionary. In the 1990s, when she was working as a medical doctor, she decided to try out for the Space Shuttle program. A few years later, she was an astronaut, doing medical experiments on the Space Shuttle and making history. After leaving NASA, she worked on developing new medical technologies, while also running her own philanthropic organization, the Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence, which offers science camps for kids in developing countries, among other activities. Now she's gotten seed money from the US government to run The 100 Year Starship, a program devoted to making interstellar flight a reality in the next century.
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COMPLETE STORIES
Investigation underway of problems with ISS experiments
Mark Carreau - Aerospace Daily
NanoRacks LLC says difficulties discovered with the activation of recently returned experiments flown aboard the International Space Station will not affect upcoming company research endeavors planned for the orbiting science laboratory, including the ongoing operations of two NanoLab platforms and a soon-to-launch variable gravity centrifuge facility.
The company began an inquiry following the return of the 29 Soyuz mission on July 1 with three U.S., Russian and European station crewmembers and 15 student experiments housed in MixStix containers that were launched to the station aboard the successful SpaceX/Dragon commercial resupply mission in late May. A yet-to-be-determined number of investigations had not been activated. “We’re investigating what happened. It could be a hardware problem, but I kind of doubt it,” said Michael Johnson, NanoRacks chief technology officer, on July 10.
One avenue of inquiry is the video training provided to the astronauts while they are on the station and just prior to activation. The 7-in.-long, 0.5-in.-wide, Teflon-coated MixStix containers are activated like chemical glow sticks, by bending them until a crack is heard. Activation instructions to the station crews are provided by video uplink. The cracking sound of a successful activation can be drowned out by the station’s air circulation fans and electronic gear, Johnson said.
The MixStix contents are obscured by the Teflon exterior and double safety bagging.
NanoRacks disclosed the problem late July 9. The 15 competitively selected National Center for Earth and Space Science Education experiments were not designed to be powered or monitored during flight.
NanoRacks plans to refly them at no additional charge.
The three-year-old company has flown 48 previous MixStix experiments successfully, Johnson said.
NanoRacks developed the small containers for crystal growth experiments but markets them to academia and commercial customers for a range of investigations that do not require active monitoring at costs between $10,000 and $20,000 for 30 to 45 days of activation.
The company currently maintains two NanoRacks platforms, each capable of holding 16 of the 10-cm. NanoLab cubes that provide power and data collection for a range of compact research activities associated with the station’s U.S. National Lab designation. The platforms, which are currently half occupied, are housed in the Japanese Experiment Module, as were the MixStix tubes.
Virginia Spaceport Poised To Turn Pad Over to Orbital This Month
Dan Leone - Space News
The outgoing head of the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority said the group is on track to hand off a launch pad at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) in Wallops Island, Va., to Orbital Sciences Corp. this month.
Handing the pad over to Orbital would finally enable the Dulles, Va.-based rocket and satellite builder to begin flight demonstrations of its Antares rocket and Cygnus cargo module, the vehicles Orbital will use to fulfill a $1.9 billion NASA contract to fly cargo to the international space station.
“The last big test, and we hope to do that this week as soon as we get authorization to proceed from the range, is a flow test for the liquid oxygen,” Billie Reed, the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority’s executive director, said July 10. “That’s the last thing on our list [before pad turnover] besides doing the final tweaks and the punch-list items for the things you find during testing.”
In the flow test, tanks and fuel lines at MARS’s Pad 0-A will be flooded with liquid oxygen, the oxidizer that will be used by Antares, to ensure that they can contain and transfer the supercooled liquid. Reed said some liquid-oxygen tests have already started. “Our storage tank is pretty much almost full” of the cryogenic fluid, he said.
Besides finishing these fluid tests, the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority also needs a safety certification from NASA, which operates the Wallops Flight Facility where MARS and its three launch pads are located.
Reed, who is stepping down July 31, said the certification “should be wrapping up as well, if not this week then certainly early in the next.”
That schedule tracks with NASA’s plans, which call for pad turnover “later this month,” agency spokesman Keith Koehler said July 11.
Orbital is more than a year and a half behind schedule in flying its first cargo resupply mission for NASA and has blamed the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority for pad construction and certification delays at MARS.
Antares’ first cargo run to the space station, a demonstration flight Orbital has to complete before it can begin flying off the eight resupply missions NASA awarded in 2008, is scheduled for December. That demo, similar to the mission Space Exploration Technologies Corp., completed in May, will be preceded by Antares’ maiden flight in September and a hold-down test of the Antares first stage in August, Orbital spokesman Barron Beneski said.
Orbital will update its flight schedule July 19 as part of its second-quarter earnings report, Beneski said July 9.
By the time Antares flies, Reed will no longer be running the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority. State officials announced in June that he will be replaced come August by Dale Nash, the current chief executive officer of the Alaska Aerospace Corp., which oversees the Kodiak Launch Complex that Orbital has used twice for Minotaur 4 launches. Reed said Nash beat out a field of 40 candidates for the job.
Reed will remain involved with the authority, which he has led since its establishment in 1995, as a consultant.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Reed said. “I’m not ready to walk out the door.”
Restructured Authority
Replacing Reed with Nash is only one of the changes the authority will make this year.
Per legislation signed by Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) in April, the authority’s board of directors will be trimmed down to nine members from the current 13. The legislation also removed a requirement that the aerospace industry have a vote on the board. Currently, Jeffrey Windland, an Orbital vice president and assistant treasurer, holds a seat.
Technically, Windland’s term, and the terms of other board members, ran out July 2. However, McDonnell has yet to appoint a new board. Until he does, the old board will remain in place, Reed said.
Reed said he expects a new board to be appointed “in the next month or so.”
The Virginia Department of Aviation referred requests for comment about the status of the authority’s board to Matt Strader, Virginia’s Assistant Secretary of Transportation. Strader could not immediately be reached for comment.
NASA scientist spreading the word about ISS research
Mike Kelley - Huntsville Times
The director of NASA's International Space Station science experiments program said more Americans need to be aware of the significance of research taking place aboard the space station, and is trying to get the word out.
Dr. Julie Robinson, International Space Station Program Scientist at NASA's Johnson Space Center, told a media briefing this morning at Marshall's Payload Operations Center that ISS research has not only scientific but economic benefits. The Payload Operation Center at Marshall coordinates all research activities aboard the space station.
"People just don't recognize what we're doing up there and how it affects the economy, she said. "As these discoveries come to market we'll see that the space station has really affected our quality of life."
Many Americans, she said, have little understanding of the importance of space station research on the economy and quality of life. "It's all too easy to get focused on the launches, but people don't seem to realize the importance of these scientific discoveries."
The public, she says, has focused more on the Hubble Space Telescope, which has provided stunning images of the universe but has had relatively little economic impact.
With her recently-announced ISS Ambassador training program, Robinson is trying to educate NASA employees across the board in the work and accomplishments of the space station in the hopes they'll spread the word. She was at Marshall to update Marshall employees, as she has already done at Johnson Space Center, Kennedy Space Center, and the Ames Research Center.
"Too often, our people are good at talking about engineering developments, but not about scientific developments," she said.
With construction of the space station now complete, Robinson said her office is busy "spreading the word" about the research accomplishments to date as well as upcoming opportunities.
She said utilization of space station research capacity has jumped from 50% to about 75% at present, with much of current efforts focused on biotechnology and physics experiments.
"There's been a surge in biotechnology interest. We've uncovered new knowledge about how bacteria cause disease," Robinson said, noting the large amount of cell biology and life sciences-based research taking place.
In the area of astronomy and astrophysics, Robinson said the ISS has been instrumental in the recent observation of a black hole devouring a star.
Transportation to and from the space station has so far not been a problem. She said NASA is looking forward to using private companies such as Space Exploration Technologies (Space X) to carry cargo and supplies to the space station, but said NASA "is not having trouble right now getting our equipment up there."
For years, the space station has carried a crew of six, but NASA is making efforts to increase that to seven. A larger crew, Robinson said, would free up more crew time for research instead of running the space station.
"There really are certain things that need crew intervention," she said.
Commenting on NASA's current plans to use and maintain the international space station until at least 2020, Robinson said the station has the mechanical ability to perform well beyond that time, and the agency is "planning for 2020 and beyond.
"We are making sure that there are no technical issues in the way of our functioning past that time," she said.
Space station science chief talks up orbiting lab in Huntsville
Lee Roop - Huntsville Times
NASA's chief space station scientist came to Huntsville today to talk up the orbiting laboratory now facing a possible use-it-or-lose-it future. It's the same future facing all of NASA's human space exploration, associate administrator William Gerstenmaier said recently.
"We are in a position in space research and space exploration where we have to push the ball and advance forward or we're about ready to retreat from space," Gerstenmaier told researchers at a station development conference in Denver last month, according to published reports. He is NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations.
Julie Robinson, the station's chief scientist, came to Marshall Space Flight Center to teach a class in what NASA is calling the station Ambassadors Program. Marshall is the NASA center that handles science experiments on the station and communicates with astronauts 24/7 from a control room here.
The classes, already taught at NASA centers in Houston and Cape Canaveral, give science managers new talking points for when they speak to groups, appear at conferences or interact with the public, Robinson said. "They're not always comfortable talking about science experiments," Robinson said.
Robinson said the station is moving into a new phase of science now with its construction complete. "There are a few different ways you can measure the capacity of the laboratory," Robinson said. "One is just in terms of the real estate for putting in research equipment. In that real estate, we've grown from about 50 percent occupied a few years back to almost 75 percent today. Our demand is increasing enough we're starting to make plans to increase our capacity."
The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), a nonprofit organization created to coordinate the national laboratory aboard the station, issued its first solicitation for research proposals June 29. It is seeking proposals in the area of advancing protein crystal growth studies in microgravity.
Checking in on NASA's Space Launch System
Jason Davis - Planetary Society
When SpaceX's Dragon capsule returned from its historic trip to the International Space Station this May, it proved that -- in theory -- the idea of having private spaceflight companies relieve NASA of its low-Earth orbit taxi duties can succeed. Meanwhile, work continues on the Space Launch System, the next-generation deep space vehicle slated to take humans beyond Earth for the first time since 1972.
Orion arrives at KSC
Amid much pomp and circumstance, the first space-bound Orion capsule arrived at Kennedy Space Center at the end of June. Orion sat naked during its official unveiling, baring its sea foam-green hull that was constructed using friction stir welding, a process in which metal is 'mixed' at the joint rather than melted (other space vehicles have used this technique, including SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket). NASA officials, astronauts and politicians attended the official unveiling, including U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, who is fond of referring to the SLS by a different moniker: the "Monster Rocket."
The Monster Rocket won't be ready for Orion's maiden voyage in 2014. Instead, NASA will rely on a Delta IV Heavy to hoist the heavy capsule into space. Orion's mass is about twenty metric tons, and the D4H is capable of lofting twenty-three into low-Earth orbit (this won't be a typical LEO flight, but the numbers give you an idea of why such a large launch vehicle is required). During Exploration Flight Test 1, Orion will fly an elliptical orbit 5800 kilometers above the Earth -- fifteen times higher than the ISS's orbit -- before reentering the atmosphere at speeds similar to those encountered by spacecraft returning from lunar orbit.
Orion adapter being fabricated, Delta to provide upper SLS stage
Also debuting on EFT-1 will be the first piece of SLS hardware to fly: the adapter that will connect Orion to the upper stage of its launch vehicle. The connector -- constructed by engineers at NASA's Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, AL -- has been designed to be compatible with the upper stages of the Delta IV Heavy and the Space Launch System, thus saving on costs.
The Monster Rocket will send Orion on an uncrewed lap around the moon in 2017, and an astronaut crew will take it to lunar orbit in 2021. However, Orion won't be riding an SLS upper stage for either of those flights. Both will likely employ a Delta Cryogenic Second Stage, or DCSS, rather than the SLS's J-2X-powered hardware, meaning Orion will ride the DCSS a total of three times. Bonus fact: the correct term for the DCSS when it's being used with the Space Launch System is "Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage."
J-2X testing continues
Eventually, Orion will ride an upper stage powered by the J-2X, a liquid-fueled engine that builds on the heritage of the J-2, which powered America's Saturn rockets. As NASA engineer William Greene explains on his J-2X blog, although the engine shares a name with the J-2, it has been re-designed almost entirely from scratch, offering significant improvements over the legacy engine. In another post, Greene lays out a spread of details from recent J-2X testing efforts. Test fires are currently taking place on two stands at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.
On the A1 stand, J-2X powerpack testing is progressing. The powerpack is the top portion of the engine and excludes the thrust chamber and nozzle system. Testing with a limited set of components allows engineers the flexibility to 'play games' (as Greene describes it) with the engine, varying operations and conditions more than might be possible with the entire assembly, achieving a wider spread of test data. Here are some recent powerpack test results:
· May 10 / test A1J015: Fired powerpack 340 of 655 planned seconds, meeting most testing objectives.
· May 24 / test A1J016: Fired powerpack 32 seconds. The test was cut short due to a hydrogen leak in the facility (not related to the powerpack).
· June 8 / test A1J017: Fired powerpack for full duration, 1150-second test. The test set a duration record for stand A (stand B has a slightly longer record set by Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) tests.
At the A2 stand, the full J-2X development engine is being tested:
· April 26 / test A2J011: Fired engine 3 of 7 planned seconds. A seal in the apparatus used to simulate low pressure in the engine nozzle was damaged.
· May 16 / test A2J012: Fired engine 7 seconds (full duration).
· May 25 / test A2J013: Fired engine 40 seconds (full duration). First switch of the entire engine to secondary (throttled) mode.
· June 13 / test A2J014: Fired engine 260 seconds (full duration). Test started in secondary (throttled) mode and switched to primary mode.
Core stage moves from concept to design
Finally, the core stage of The Monster Rocket has moved from design requirements to blueprints, as NASA announced it had completed a major technical review last month. The stage will debut with four RS-25D engines pilfered from retired space shuttle orbiters. When those engines run out, they will be replaced with RS-25E engines -- 'E' for 'expendable' -- cheaper, non-reusable versions.
Reusable rocket prototype almost ready for first liftoff
Stephen Clark - SpaceflightNow.com
SpaceX's Grasshopper testbed for a reusable rocket booster could fly soon from the company's Texas test facility on a short hop designed to demonstrate its ability to take off and land under thrust on a launch pad.
The Grasshopper test vehicle stands 106 feet tall, and its initial flights will reach 240 feet and last about 45 seconds to check the design of the rocket's landing system.
SpaceX technicians added four steel landing legs and a support structure to a qualified Falcon 9 rocket first stage. The Grasshopper program is the first step in achieving SpaceX's goal of developing a reusable booster, which would require the rocket's first stage to fly back to a landing pad at or near the launch site.
SpaceX's concept calls for the first stage to descend and land vertically, using rocket thrust to settle to a soft touchdown.
Speaking in June at the company's test facility in McGregor, Texas, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said the Grasshopper program was on the verge of its first flight.
"We're hoping to do short hops at some point in the next couple of months, and then in terms of higher flights, I'm hopefully we can go supersonic before the end of the year," Musk said. "That's not a prediction. That's an aspiration."
SpaceX has constructed a half-acre concrete launch facility in McGregor, and the Grasshopper rocket is already standing on the pad, outfitted with four insect-like silver landing legs.
The Grasshopper's test flights will be powered by a single Merlin 1D engine, burning kerosene and liquid oxygen to generate a maximum thrust of 122,000 pounds.
Subsequent flights will climb higher and travel faster than the first launch, reaching up to 11,500 feet and lasting approximately 160 seconds, according to a draft environmental assessment document released by the Federal Aviation Administration in September 2011.
SpaceX has not disclosed other details on the Grasshopper launch plans, but Musk said some high-altitude tests may be staged from White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.
The company has not said when a vertical landing attempt could be made on a real space launch, but Musk believes offering a viable reusable rocket, coupled with simple operations and quick turnaround, will bring on drastic reductions in launch prices.
"If one can figure out how to effectively reuse the rockets just like an airplane, the cost of access to space will be reduced by as much as a factor of a hundred," Musk said. "A fully reusable vehicle has never been done before. That really is the fundamental breakthrough that is needed to revolutionize access to space."
California Science Center lines up hangars to house shuttle Endeavour
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
When NASA's space shuttle Endeavour arrives in Los Angeles in September, it will call an airline's hangar home before being paraded through the city streets to the California Science Center for display.
Endeavour, once it is moved into the center's new shuttle dedicated hangar, will be reunited with one its missions' larger payloads, the commercial logistics module that flew with NASA's first educator astronaut to the International Space Station.
The "Samuel Oschin Space Shuttle Endeavour Display Pavilion" at the California Science Center is set to open to this fall to showcase the youngest of NASA's now-retired orbiters, as well as the Spacehab module that it flew. The climate-controlled hangar, which since March has been rising from a plot of land northwest of the museum's main facility, is named for the late entrepreneur, explorer, and philanthropist whose family foundation made a significant donation toward Endeavour's display this past May.
Endeavour will flown from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the west coast on top of the space agency's Boeing 747 shuttle carrier aircraft (SCA). The dates of that flight are still being worked out.
"We are working with NASA to finalize target dates in late September," Jeffrey Rudolph, president and CEO of the California Science Center (CSC), told collectSPACE.
Temporarily on the tarmac
After its cross-country trip, Endeavour will touch down at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), the landing strip closest to the science center with a runway long enough to accommodate NASA's jumbo jet and space shuttle duo.
From there, it will be brought over to its temporary home, an aircraft hangar on loan from United Airlines.
"United Airlines has generously donated use of a hangar and their ramp space outside the hangar for NASA's use in the removal of Endeavour from the SCA [747] and other necessary work to prepare for transport to the Science Center," Rudolph said.
Outside the hangar, NASA will use two large cranes to hoist Endeavour off its 747 carrier jet and onto a wheeled transporter, the same device used to move space shuttles overland from the Palmdale, Calif. plant where they were first assembled and underwent periodic upgrades to the Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base for ferrying back to Florida.
A couple of weeks later in mid-October, Endeavour will be slowly towed through the streets of Los Angeles, crossing the 13 miles (21 kilometers) separating the airport and the science center. The route has been carefully planned to take into account the need to temporarily remove trees, traffic signals and other obstacles to the shuttle's 78-foot (24-meter) wingspan.
Only way to go is up
Endeavour, inside the Oschin Pavilion, will be displayed on its overland transporter. The horizontal exhibit will be enhanced by photos and other artifacts to help share the orbiter's story.
The Spacehab Logistics Single Module that flew inside Endeavour's payload bay will be among those displays. The 10 foot long by 14 foot wide by 11 foot high (3 by 4.3 by 3.4 meters) pressurized aluminum habitat launched on Endeavour's STS-118 mission in August 2007.
The space station-bound flight was led by Scott Kelly, the twin brother of Endeavour's final commander, Mark Kelly. The STS-118 crew included Barbara Morgan, NASA's first educator astronaut and the original backup to "Teacher in Space" Christa McAuliffe who was lost during the space shuttle Challenger tragedy in January 1986.
"Astrotech has generously donated the Spacehab module for display," Rudolph told collectSPACE. "It will initially be displayed adjacent to Endeavour in the Samuel Oschin Space Shuttle Endeavour Display Pavilion."
The module, together with another Spacehab extension, will later be integrated into the CSC's permanent home for Endeavour, the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, to be developed over the next five years. That exhibition will display the shuttle vertically.
To complete the launch pad diorama, Endeavour will be paired with solid rocket boosters (SRBs) and an external tank (ET). Originally, both components were to come from the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, but the CSC ultimately chose to take only the twin side rockets.
"After our engineers' review of the ET, it was determined that its current condition was not suitable for supporting the orbiter safely," Rudolph explained. "We will fabricate a replica for the vertical display."
The tank at Kennedy, an original test article, won't go to waste. NASA has awarded the ET for display to the Wings of Dreams Aviation Museum located at Keystone Heights Airport in central Florida.
Rocket Crafters' arrival propels Titusville back to the future
Officials see innovative rocket company as new employment engine for Titusville
Wayne Price - Florida Today
Brevard County is back in the space race.
That was the reaction from lawmakers, economic development officials and the founders of a Utah-based company called Rocket Crafters Inc., which on Tuesday announced plans to move its fledgling high-tech aerospace operation to Titusville.
A soon-to-be-manufacturer of suborbital space planes and developer of innovative propulsion systems, Rocket Crafters laid out an ambitious program to create hundreds of jobs for the area over the next several years while dramatically advancing the concept of point-to-point transportation.
Filling those jobs would be aerospace engineers, designers, pilots, program managers, administrators and others. According to its ambitious production schedule, the company would have about 1,300 employees by 2017-18.
“The past is now behind us,” said Jim Tulley, the mayor of Titusville. “And the future of Titusville and Brevard County is as bright as I can imagine. We are on the brink of becoming the kind of community that many of us have envisioned for quite a while.”
“This is a game-changer,” said Robin Fisher, chairman of the Brevard County Commission, whose District 1 includes Titusville.
Rocket Crafters’ plan is to build aircraft that would take off like traditional jets, fly into sub-orbit and then land like a jet thousands of miles away, completing a journey that would take about one-sixth the time it would take a traditional airliner.
The company selected Titusville over sites in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Texas mainly because of its space resources — including experienced aerospace workers and knowledgeable officials — and an incentive package that included the city of Titusville providing the company a temporary, 23,000-square-foot hangar, testing facility and headquarters on the edge of Space Coast Regional Airport. The state and county also agreed to several performance-based incentives.
In two years, Rocket Crafters hopes to complete a 400,000-square-foot facility on 33 acres of airport land that it would fill with equipment. Total cost: More than $70 million.
“This was the best place for us to do our work,” said Ron Jones, president of Rocket Crafters and the company’s chief technology officer.
The airport also is applying to the Federal Aviation Administration to be designated a “spaceport.” Spaceports allow for the creation of operations that allow tourism, travel and cargo transport to space and point-to-point transportation on Earth. That designation should come sometime next year, at which time the name of Space Coast Regional Airport might be changed to reflect that status.
A hybrid airport featuring traditional and more advanced aviation would be an appropriate base for Rocket Crafters, given its stance in both worlds.
The private company, founded in November 2010 in Eden, Utah, holds licenses for advanced hybrid rocket and aerospace composite technologies, as well as proprietary hybrid rocket design and analysis software. It hopes to develop and commercialize a new hybrid rocket propulsion technology that uses both liquid and sold fuel and leverage an ultra-lightweight, advanced composite material to manufacture dual-propulsion — jet and rocket — suborbital space planes.
Ultimately, if the technology is successful and the market is willing, Rocket Crafters could be a major player in this new form of air travel. Imagine cargo and passengers being able to travel from Melbourne, Fla., to London Heathrow Airport in 90 minutes instead of the nine hours it takes in a traditional jetliner.
“The intercontinental transport market is believed by groups like the FAA and many other space industry organizations that we are members of to be the next multi-billion dollar industry,” Jones said. “We intend to be one of the leaders in that industry.”
First, of course, there must be an industry to lead, and some experts believe that is a long way from happening.
The suborbital flight concept has been dreamed of, but no one has been able to pull it off completely or make it profitable, said Don Nelson, a retired NASA engineer who runs Nelson Aerospace Consulting in Alvin, Texas.
“That’s a big-dollar item and a lot of the technology simply isn’t there, mainly for the re-entry,” said Nelson.
At least two companies, Virgin Galactic and XCOR Aerospace, are developing spacecraft to take passengers on brief rides to the edge of space, but a transcontinental trip would require enormous scientific work.
“That’s a real challenge,” Nelson said. “That’s not like what Virgin Galactic is doing with SpaceShipTwo. That’s just a little ol’ shot into suborbital space.”
A supersonic transatlantic aircraft fleet operated profitably for 27 years, but finally stopped flying due to financial problems and a crash in 2000. The Concorde carried a third as many passengers as a Boeing 747 but used the same amount of fuel and made the trip in about half the time.
The Rocket Crafters’ vehicle would travel six times supersonic speeds.
“A lot of stuff has to be thought out to get there,” said Paul Fischbeck, an engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pa. “They’re pushing the envelope in multiple dimensions, which makes it a very exciting project.”
He warned that the company must have deep pockets. The B-2 bomber cost at least $1 billion to build, many advanced military aircraft cost $100 million each, and the recent launch of an electric car cost $500 million.
“This is a hard problem to solve and it’s going to require a lot of talented engineers,” Fischbeck said. “It could be great for the community.”
Apollo astronauts, SpaceX, and a special photo
SpacePolitics.com
The re-airing of a 60 Minutes segment last month about SpaceX generated some criticism from Apollo-era officials that they were unfairly portrayed as being negative about SpaceX, which led a few weeks later to a clarification from 60 Minutes host Scott Pelley that Neil Armstrong in particular had not testified against commercial space. All this, as previously noted, came only after the second airing of the segment, shortly after SpaceX’s successful flight to the ISS, and not after CBS originally broadcast the piece in March.
This story does have a happy ending of sorts, though. Earlier this week venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson, whose investments include SpaceX, posted a photo of a gift he was sending SpaceX founder Elon Musk: a picture of a Falcon 9 launch signed by nine Apollo astronauts. The astronauts offered congratulations to Musk and SpaceX for their recent achievement. “A real breakthrough – much success on many flights to come!” signed Fred Haise of Apollo 13 fame. Even Gene Cernan, who had been critical of commercial spaceflight providers in the past—he legendarily said in Senate testimony in 2010 that such companies “do not yet know what they don’t know”—offered his congratulations and advice to the company: “Congratulations on a job well done – now the challenge begins.”
Jurvetson writes that he originally sought to get Cernan to tour SpaceX’s facility, but had no luck. He finally approached Cernan about signing the photo after getting other astronauts to sign it, eventually winning over the astronaut with how SpaceX and Musk persevered through early failures to achieve their recent success. “As I told him these stories of heroic entrepreneurship, I could see his mind turning,” Jurvetson wrote. “He found a reconciliation: ‘I never read any of this in the news. Why doesn’t the press report on this?’”
Richard Branson: Galactic spaceship to blast off in 2013
Barry Neild - CNN
Virgin chief Richard Branson has put a time frame on his plan to launch tourists into space, claiming he and his family will blaze a trail for hundreds of fare-paying passengers by blasting off in December 2013.
Branson also announced that Virgin Galactic, his fledgling commercial space company, was expanding to include a satellite-launching service that would use a low-cost rocket system to propel payloads into orbit.
Speaking at the UK's Farnborough International Airshow, the British entrepreneur said his adult children, Holly and Sam, would accompany him on board the SpaceShipTwo on its pioneering two-hour voyage into sub-orbital space.
"It'll certainly be the most momentous moment of my life and my children's lives," Branson told CNN. "It'll be very difficult to ever cap it I think. Anyone who has ever been into space says the same thing."
Some 529 would-be astronauts, including celebrities such as Ashton Kutcher, have so far signed up for $200,000-a-seat flights which will last two hours.
Virgin executives said the figure was a milestone as it exceeds the existing number of space veterans. Six hundred are expected to fly in the first two years of service.
Launched from a carrier vessel known as WhiteKnightTwo, Virgin Galactic's space ship can carry two pilots and six passengers. SpaceShipTwo is currently undergoing testing in the Mojave Desert in California, although a replica was on display at Farnborough.
Branson acknowledged the existing price tag means that his goal of opening space travel up to ordinary people was some way off. He insisted, however, that it would drop over the next few decades as Virgin's space ambitions went further.
"The initial flights will be sub-orbital, which will give people a taste of space," he said. "From there we'll go into orbital flights and maybe one day hotels in space."
Outlining details of his new satellite service, LauncherOne, Branson said the two-stage rocket would also be carried into launching position by WhiteKnightTwo.
He said the service, capable of launching 500-pound payloads, would drastically reduce the cost of putting satellites into orbit. This, he said would open up the market to researchers, small businesses and even schools.
Several clients have already signed up for the service including Earth observation company GeoOptics and Planetary Resources, an asteroid mining company which counts Google founders Eric Schmidt and Larry Page, and movie director James Cameron as investors.
Virgin Galactic's commercial director Stephen Attenborough told CNN that the goal was to be able to offer a reliable satellite launch system for $10 million, a price tag he says undercuts existing services by up to 50%.
George Whitesides, the company's chief executive and president, said: "This will radically revolutionize the small satellite business in the way we have the space tourism business."
But Branson insisted his chief aim was to open space to researchers studying the "global crisis" of climate change.
"In America you've got a lot of skeptics about global warming, what you need is the scientific evidence that it is there one way or the other," he said.
"The majority of scientists believe we have a problem, we need to know that conclusively and we need to work towards resolving it and I think LauncherOne will make it clear one way or the other, and sadly I think it'll be the other."
On the sidelines of Wednesday's announcement, Virgin Galactic officials offered more details of what customers can expect for their money.
Whitesides said astronauts on board SpaceShipTwo would experience a little less than five minutes of weightlessness, during which time they will be free to unclip their seat harnesses and float within the cabin.
"Some people will want to focus their time looking out of the vehicle, looking down at the planet or Milky Way, whereas others may want to do spins or tricks," Whitesides told CNN.
"There's one guy who wants to assume a neutral position, close his eyes and get back to the womb.
"My big concern is getting people back to their seats. This is one of the central design considerations. My guess is it will be as simple as saying 'OK everybody; get back in your seats. Then gravity will kick in."
Branson, meanwhile, confessed he hadn't yet planned his time in space. "I'm sure we will do something but we haven't got that far thinking about it. If we're allowed to put up a flag up there... who knows?"
Quiz: Are you a plane geek? Test your aviation knowledge
Adam Wells, Virgin Galactic's head of design, said the cabin's interior was being kept as minimal as possible to reduce weight and maximize space for floating. There are unlikely to be comforts familiar to airline passengers. Television screens will probably be too heavy -- and there will be no toilet.
"The intent is to keep the volume as uncluttered as possible," he told CNN. "From an ideal standpoint we want everything, including the seats to disappear, which is a fascinating design challenge."
Among would-be astronauts attending Wednesday's announcement was Portuguese diplomat Angelo Araujo.
Araujo, 62, described his journey into space as a "spiritual journey" during which he would pay homage to his late father, a poet and composer also called Angelo Araujo.
"As we age and we approach the end, we are part of the universe and I think it's wonderful to see it from another angle.
"I want to read some poetry from my father. He will be the first Portuguese poet to be read in space.
Perry Sporn, a jeweler from Burlington, Vermont, who will be among the first 500 to fly said the $200,000 price tag was money well spent.
"I was a poor kid but I had an amazing opportunity to be productive and make a good living, so to me it's a ridiculously small sum."
As Virgin Galactic's chief pilot, David Mackay is likely to helm the first flights and may even break records for space travel as he clocks up at least one voyage per week when the service is up and running.
"I'm not on some ego trip to enjoy the greatest number of space flights," he told CNN. "If it's successful, it will eventually become much more common and whatever record I set will quickly be broken."
Sir Richard Branson will fly into space next year – along with Angelina Jolie and 529 other passengers paying £128,000 each
Rob Waugh - London Daily Mail
Sir Richard Branson Wednesday announced that he and his children will be the first passengers when the Virgin Galactic space tourism programme begins.
Virgin boss Sir Richard and son Sam and daughter Holly are expected to be flying 60 miles up into space on the SpaceShipTwo (SS2) aircraft by the end of next year.
Today, Sir Richard joined around 120 other tourists who have signed up for the two-hour flights, at £128,000 a trip - a total of 529 guests have already signed up.
As the travelers and Sir Richard posed at Farnborough Air Show beside a replica of SS2, Sir Richard also announced that the WhiteKnightTwo aircraft that will help launch SS2 into space will also be used for a new launch vehicle - LauncherOne - which will take small satellites into space for around a tenth of the present cost.
The Virgin Galactic team said a number of companies were keen to use LauncherOne.
From a spaceport built in New Mexico, USA, by UK architect Lord Foster, WhiteKnightTwo will take the SS2, with six passengers and two pilots, to a point about 50,000ft (up before the SST rockets into space.
Sir Richard and other passengers will be able to float around the cabin due to weightlessness before the SS2 effectively becomes a glider for its return to the spaceport.
Virgin Galactic announced Wednesday that a total of 529 people - including, it is believed, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie - have signed up for an SS2 trip.
This number now outstrips the 528 who have gone into space since Yuri Gagarin’s first trip in 1961.
‘Next year Holly and Sam will be joining me for a first voyage into space,’ Sir Richard told a packed media conference at Farnborough today.
He went on: ‘Going into space is a hard business. It keeps my mind buzzing.’
He added that he would have loved to have taken WhiteKnightTwo and SS2 to Farnborough.
And in a jokey remark concerning Virgin’s big airline rival, Sir Richard said: ‘It would have been nice to have flown over the Olympic Games, especially as British Airways is one of the (Games) sponsors.’
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A number of the space tourists posed for pictures beside SS2 replica.
They included Irish businessman and author Bill Cullen, 70, who was the first to sign up for a trip into space, paying his 200,000 dollars in 2004.
Accompanied by his partner, Jackie Lavin, today, he said: ‘I wanted to be the first Irishman in space and I’m really looking forward to it.
‘I’ve been interested in space ever since I followed comic hero Dan Dare when I was a kid.’
Another space tourist at Farnborough today was businessman Grant Roberts, 36, formerly from Lewes in East Sussex but now based in Dubai.
He was with his father, Michael, 65, and his grandfather Frank Roberts, 90, who was an RAF pilot who flew on missions over Germany in the Second World War.
‘I was inspired by the exploits of my grandfather, as was my father,’ said Grant Roberts, who paid for his space trip in 2007.
He went on: ‘I can’t wait to go up. The whole family plans to travel out to New Mexico with me.’
Branson's spaceship steals the spotlight at airshow
Ben Perry - Agence France Presse
British tycoon Richard Branson stole the show here Wednesday, announcing that he and his family would be on Virgin Galactic's first trip into space, as Airbus and Boeing eked out more plane orders.
Branson was showcasing a full size mock-up of his SpaceShipTwo (SS2) aircraft at the biennial Farnborough airshow near London -- a key event in the aviation sector calendar that typically sees planemakers Airbus and Boeing battle for orders.
"Obviously this is the most exciting adventure I have ever undertaken," Branson, founder of the Virgin Galactic space programme, told AFP.
"It's both an entrepreneurial and personal adventure in being able to build a spaceship and ask my (two adult) children to come along."
In all, 529 people have signed up for the 60-mile (96-kilometre), two-hour ride into space, at a cost of £128,000 ($200,000, 162,000 euros) each. Around 120 of them were at the Branson event in Farnborough.
Actor Ashton Kutcher and scientist Stephen Hawking are among the aspiring astronauts who have signed up to the programme that gets under way in late 2013 to early 2014, according to the Virgin empire head.
Irish businessman and author Bill Cullen, 70, was the first to sign up for a trip, in 2004.
"I wanted to be the first Irishman in space and I'm really looking forward to it," he said. "I've been interested in space ever since I followed comic hero Dan Dare when I was a kid."
The WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) aircraft that will help launch SS2 into space will also be used for a new launch vehicle, LauncherOne, which will take small satellites into space for around one tenth of the present cost, Branson said.
He addressed media on the third day of the week-long Farnborough show which has featured contract announcements for civilian and military planes alongside fly-pasts.
Amid a weak global economy and government cutbacks, the 2012 event has been more subdued compared with recent years.
The "level of orders represents a notable fall-off in the eyes of more optimistic aerospace investors, and makes the show unlikely to serve as a positive catalyst for the industry," said analysts at Barclays Capital.
"Worth noting is that the show isn't over yet, and it represents just one week in a year that is expected to see good, albeit lower, growth in (plane) backlogs."
European planemaker Airbus came out on top for a second day running at Farnborough, announcing firm orders for its aircraft versus a sizeable number of commitments for Boeing products.
US giant Boeing had upstaged its arch-rival on Monday -- the show's first day.
France-based Airbus on Wednesday announced deals for its planes worth up to $5.4 billion (4.4 billion euros) -- including a firm order from US leasing company CIT for 10 of its long-haul A330 planes worth $2.3 billion.
"When a leading leasing company like CIT, places a repeat order for our aircraft, we take that as a strong sign of customer satisfaction," said Airbus chief executive Fabrice Bregier.
Airbus added that Hong Kong-based China Aircraft Leasing Company had committed to buy 36 of its A320 single-aisle planes together worth $3.1 billion.
"This is an important milestone for CALC," said the Chinese group's chief executive Mike Poon.
"We have a long-term commitment to the aviation industry and are very pleased to establish a relationship with Airbus."
The deal includes a commitment to buy eight A321s, the largest member of the A320 family, but none of the manufacturer's future A320neos.
Boeing separately announced that Irish leasing company Avolon planned to buy 25 of its short-haul aircraft, including 15 of its new fuel-efficient 737 MAX jets.
Boeing said the deal was worth $2.3 billion at list prices, as it looked to firm up the commitment.
Two more space shuttle-era astronauts leave NASA
SpaceflightNow.com
NASA has announced the departure of two veteran space shuttle astronauts with seven combined missions to their credit as Mark Polansky and Steve Robinson have left the agency.
Polansky flew three shuttle missions. He initially served as the pilot of STS-98 in 2001 and as commander for STS-116 in 2006 and STS-127 in 2009, logging more than 41 days in space.
"Mark is a remarkably talented individual," said Peggy Whitson, chief of the Astronaut Office. "His skills as an aviator coupled with his engineering expertise were a valuable contribution to our team. We wish him well in his future endeavors."
A former U.S. Air Force officer, Polansky joined NASA as a research pilot in 1992 and was selected for the astronaut corps in 1996. Before flying in space, Polansky served in multiple technical roles including space shuttle capsule communicator and chief instructor astronaut. His most recent NASA assignment included duties as director of operations at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia.
Polansky earned a Bachelor of Science in aeronautical and astronautical engineering and a Master of Science in aeronautics and astronautics from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind.
Robinson ended his 36-year NASA career as a veteran of three spacewalks with more than 48 days of spaceflight experience. NASA said he will become a professor at the University of California at Davis in the fall of 2012.
Robinson began work with NASA as a cooperative education student in 1975 at the agency's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. He was selected for the astronaut corps in 1995.
Robinson served as a mission specialist on four spaceflights, including space shuttle missions STS-85 in 1997, STS-95 in 1998, STS-114 in 2005 and STS-130 in 2010. On his second spaceflight, Robinson was one of Sen. John Glenn's crewmates during Glenn's historic return to space after 36 years.
His third flight was NASA's 2005 return to flight mission after the loss of shuttle Columbia in February 2003. During STS-114, Robinson performed the only in-flight spacewalk to repair of a shuttle's heat-shield. During his final spaceflight, Robinson orchestrated the spacewalks and the complex robotic installation of the Tranquility node and cupola onto the International Space Station.
"Steve will be sorely missed by the Astronaut Office," said Janet Kavandi, director of Flight Crew Operations. "He was a fellow classmate, and I will personally miss his ever-positive attitude and smiling face. We wish him the best in his future endeavors, and we are confident that he will be a positive influence and wonderful mentor to inquisitive minds at the University of California at Davis."
Robinson holds a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering and aeronautical engineering from the University of California at Davis and a master of science and doctorate in mechanical engineering from Stanford University.
Mae Jemison always knew she would go to space
Annalee Newitz - io9.com
Mae Jemison is nothing short of a scientific visionary. In the 1990s, when she was working as a medical doctor, she decided to try out for the Space Shuttle program. A few years later, she was an astronaut, doing medical experiments on the Space Shuttle and making history.
After leaving NASA, she worked on developing new medical technologies, while also running her own philanthropic organization, the Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence, which offers science camps for kids in developing countries, among other activities.
Now she's gotten seed money from the US government to run The 100 Year Starship, a program devoted to making interstellar flight a reality in the next century.
Jemison is also the first real astronaut to appear on Star Trek. She had a cameo on a Star Trek: TNG episode called "Second Chances." She's a huge fan of science fiction, and often talks about how Star Trek inspired her when she was young.
io9 had a chance to sit down with Jemison at SETICon last month, where she was a featured guest, and asked her a few questions about her inspirations.
io9: What first got you interested in science?
Mae Jemison: I always knew I would go to space, and I always assumed I would be a scientist. I wanted to be a professional dancer for a period of time, and I did a lot of dancing and choreography and got paid for it. I also wanted to be a fashion designer, and I wanted to do a lot of other things. But I always assumed that I'd be involved in science. I remember as a little girl I was pissed that there were no women astronauts. People tried to tell me why, and I said, "That's baloney."
io9: How does science fiction help us imagine the future?
Mae Jemison: I think science fiction helps us think about possibilities, to speculate — it helps us look at our society from a different perspective. It lets us look at our mores, using science as the backdrop, as the game changer. With Star Trek, for example, obviously these stories influence and inform us, but sometimes you say, "Come hell or high water, that's not going to happen." Influence doesn't mean you're taking it on board necessarily.
One interesting work of science fiction is Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow. That's brings a kind of cultural anthropology perspective to our encounters [with aliens]. Clearly I'm one of those kids who grew up reading Asimov and Clarke. I also read Octavia Butler and Anne McCaffrey.
Sometimes space was a backdrop that allowed me to think about what the world might be like. Then there's Marion Zimmer Bradley. You wouldn't think a fantasy novel like The Mists of Avalon would fit here, but she talks about [the witch] Morgana from a different perspective, and shows you that if you shift around everything looks very different.
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