Happy Friday the 13th everyone. Good to see those of you who braved the horrible wet weather to join us at Hibachi Grill yesterday for our monthly luncheon… Hope to see you all again in about 3 weeks for our next monthly Retiree luncheon on Thursday -- August 2nd.
Have a safe and great weekend.
Friday, July 13, 2012
JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1. Watch the Station Crew Expand to Six on NASA TV
2. NASA 'Cribs' With Mike Fincke and Other Great Videos Now Online
3. You, Too, Can Look at Density Differently in Microgravity
4. Starport is Turning 50 -- Help Us Celebrate (Update)
5. Family Space Day at the George Observatory
6. Space Center Houston Hosts 'Curiosity: 7 Minutes of Terror'
7. Career Exploration Program -- Annual Awards and Recognition Ceremony
8. Ticket Sales End MONDAY, July 16, for the Co-op 50th Anniversary
9. Breaking Free of Self-Limiting Male Roles
10. Recent JSC Announcement
11. General Industry Safety and Health: Aug.13-17, Gilruth Longhorn Room
________________________________________ QUOTE OF THE DAY
“ Don't ask of your friends what you yourself can do. ”
-- Quintus Ennius
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1. Watch the Station Crew Expand to Six on NASA TV
Expedition 32 NASA Flight Engineer Sunita Williams, veteran Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency and Flight Engineer Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency are scheduled to launch at 9:40 p.m. CDT on Saturday, July 14 (8:40 a.m. July 15 Baikonur time), from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. They are set to dock to the station's Rassvet module at 11:52 p.m. on July 16.
The trio will join Expedition 32 Commander Gennady Padalka, NASA Flight Engineer Joe Acaba and Russian Flight Engineer Sergei Revin, who have been aboard the station since mid-May.
This can be seen on NASA TV or on the Web.
NASA TV coverage of events begins at the following times:
Today, July 13
1 p.m. - Video File of Expedition 32/33 Russian State Commission meeting and final pre-launch crew news conference in Baikonur, Kazakhstan
Saturday, July 14
8:30 p.m. - Expedition 32/33 Soyuz TMA-05M launch coverage begins (launch at 9:40 p.m.)
11:30 p.m. - Video file of Expedition 32/33 Soyuz TMA-05M pre-launch and launch video B-roll and post-launch Interviews
Monday, July 16
11:15 p.m. - Expedition 32/33 Soyuz TMA-05M docking coverage begins (docking at 11:52 p.m., followed by post-docking news conference from Mission Control in Korolev, Russia)
Tuesday, July 17
2 a.m. - Expedition 32/33 Soyuz TMA-05M hatch opening and welcoming ceremony coverage begins (ceremony scheduled at 2:25 a.m.)
4 a.m. - Video file of Expedition 32/33 Soyuz TMA-05M docking, hatch opening and welcoming ceremony
JSC employees with wired computer network connections can view NASA TV using onsite IPTV on channels 404 (standard definition) or 4541 (HD) at: http://iptv.jsc.nasa.gov/eztv/
If you are having problems using this video system, please contact the Information Resources Directorate Customer Support Center at x46367.
JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111 http://www.nasa.gov/station
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2. NASA 'Cribs' With Mike Fincke and Other Great Videos Now Online
In this video produced by students in NASA's Cooperative Education Program, astronaut Mike Fincke gives a tour of the International Space Station "crib" at JSC. Check it out at:
http://youtu.be/VWeucf-BjSU
An interview with NASA astronaut Mike Fossum, which goes over the upcoming launch of the three newest station residents, is now available at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLXvw-hIpsQ&list=UUmheCYT4HlbFi943lpH009Q&inde...
A new interview with ISS Attitude Determination and Control Officer Ann Esbeck, who explains the job of a station ADCO and the preparations the station is making for arrival of the Soyuz, is now available at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to04NU9eCNg&list=UUmheCYT4HlbFi943lpH009Q&inde...
Video of the Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft and booster during mating at the Integration Facility at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan is now available at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZCtSqx_LXk&list=UUmheCYT4HlbFi943lpH009Q&inde...
Video of Expedition 32 Flight Engineer Joe Acaba speaking via ham radio with high school students participating in a summer program at JSC called Women in STEM High School Aerospace Scholars is now available at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igM-2qegJWo&feature=relmfu
JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111
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3. You, Too, Can Look at Density Differently in Microgravity
The Binary Colloidal Alloy Test-6 - Phase Separation, or BCAT-6, investigation looks at how liquids and gases separate and come together in microgravity. Watch an interview with Peter Lu, co-investigator for the BCAT-6, as he discusses previous investigations of this nature, why the station is a great place for this type of research and what types of results researchers are looking for exactly at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/bcat6_video.html#
JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111
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4. Starport is Turning 50 -- Help Us Celebrate (Update)
The JSC Exchange (Starport) was established July 24, 1962, to promote the welfare and morale of the JSC workforce. To commemorate turning 50, Starport will remember the past, promote our services of the present and look forward to exciting offerings of the future.
Join us!
July 18: Classic Car Show with $1.62 hot dogs and door prizes. Building 1, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
July 19: Ice Cream Social - $1.50 sundaes, thanks to the support of the JSC Federal Credit Union. Building 3, 2 to 3 p.m.
Get Fit '80s Style - Break out those leg warmers and leotards! Join us for a fun aerobics class reminiscent of the '80s era of exercise. Gilruth Center, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. in Studio 1.
July 24: Free cake at the cafés and Gilruth Center.
July 24, 25, 27: Specialty Spin Ride - NASA Ride Through the Decades
July 26: Open house and social hour, with a ribbon cutting for the new mind-body studio. Gilruth Center, 3 to 5 p.m.
Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Events/
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5. Family Space Day at the George Observatory
The Challenger Learning Center at the George Observatory is holding a Family Space Day that is open to the public tomorrow, July 14, from about 3 to 8 p.m.
There will be various types of rockets and robots available to play with, along with other activities.
For purchase are tickets to see "We Choose Space" in the Discovery Dome and a Challenger Center Mission to the Moon!
Challenger Center mission tickets may be purchased for $10 a person online at: http://www.hmns.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=404&Itemid=427
Discovery Dome tickets will be available at the gift shop for $3 a person.
After enjoying the day in space, stay for the evening and look at the night sky through our telescopes.
George Observatory is located in the heart of Brazos Bend State Park. Admission to the park is $7 for adults. Kids under 12 are free.
Megan Hashier 281-226-4179 http://www.hmns.org/observatory
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6. Space Center Houston Hosts 'Curiosity: 7 Minutes of Terror'
Join us for a fun-filled family camp-in to celebrate the landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars at Space Center Houston. There will be edible Mars creations, exciting presentations by Mars experts and even a delicious Mars celebration breakfast following countdown.
When: Sunday, Aug. 5, from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m.
Save $5! Only $4.95 if purchased online at http://www.spacecenter.org/marslanding.html by Aug. 4. Tickets purchased at the gate will be $9.95.
Susan H. Anderson x38630 http://www.spacecenter.org/marslanding.html
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7. Career Exploration Program -- Annual Awards and Recognition Ceremony
The annual Career Exploration Program (CEP) Awards and Recognition Ceremony is Tuesday, July 24, in the Gilruth Center Alamo Ballroom from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. Please join us for a meet-and-greet at 8:30 a.m.; the program begins promptly at 9 a.m. Student participants are recognized for outstanding achievements. The CEP encourages academic achievement and provides project-based tasks for high school and college students to learn about careers in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and business at JSC. Current students, CEP alumni, mentors, co-workers, teachers, family and friends are invited to attend.
Kayla Lechler x35936 http://www.cep.usra.edu
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8. Ticket Sales End MONDAY, July 16, for the Co-op 50th Anniversary
Are you a current or former NASA co-op? Please join us for the 50th Anniversary Celebration for the NASA/JSC Co-op Program in the Gilruth Alamo Ballroom on July 25 from 4:30 to 7 p.m. There will be speakers, refreshments, heavy hors d'oeuvres, fun activities and nostalgia. Tickets are $15 and are NOW ON SALE through Monday, July 16, in the Buildings 3 and 11 Starport Gift Shops, as well as the Gilruth Center front desk. Tell your NASA civil servant (former or current) co-op friends! The event is limited to 250 guests, so buy your tickets TODAY. Please visit http://tinyurl.com/coop50th for a questionnaire about your time as a co-op.
Randy Eckman x48230
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9. Breaking Free of Self-Limiting Male Roles
This is a meeting for the male population at JSC to discuss ideas and suggestions on issues related to male stereotypes. On Thursday, July 19, at 12 noon in Building 32, Room 132, Takis Bogdanos, LPC-S of the JSC Employee Assistance Program, will facilitate the meeting and offer tools. Through conversation and feedback we can expand our view of the male role on how to manage life more resourcefully. Some of the "men's issues" we discuss include work and responsibility, relationships and parenting.
Takis Bogdanos x36130
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10. Recent JSC Announcement
Please visit the JSC Announcements (JSCA) Web page to view the newly posted announcement:
JSCA 12-019: Communications with Industry Procurement Solicitation for the Human Health and Performance at the Johnson Space Center
Archived announcements are also available on the JSCA Web page.
Linda Turnbough x36246 http://ird.jsc.nasa.gov/DocumentManagement/announcements/default.aspx
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11. General Industry Safety and Health: Aug.13-17, Gilruth Longhorn Room
SMA-SAFE-NSTC-501
This course is intended to provide instruction on general industry safety and health topics at the introductory level. Examples of topics include an introduction to Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards, lockout/tagout, confined space electrical safety and hazard communications. CFR 1910, Occupational Safety and Health Standards, is the primary source document for this course. NASA Headquarters-level safety documentation and NASA mishap examples and experience have been integrated into the OSHA-provided course material. A 30-hour general OSHA card will be issued. There will be a final exam associated with this course, which must be passed with a 70 percent minimum score to receive course credit.
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 of Exp 32/33 pre-launch news conf & State Commission mtg
· 8:30 pm Central SATURDAY (9:30 EDT) – Soyuz TMA-05M Launch Coverage
· 9:40 pm Central SATURDAY (10:40 EDT) – LAUNCH
· 11:30 pm Central SATURDAY (12:30 am EDT SUNDAY) – Video highlights of Exp 32/33 Soyuz TMA-05M launch with post-launch interviews
SPECIAL TV:
· 3:30 pm Central SATURDAY (4:30 EDT) – CNN’s Sanjay Gupta MD profiles Expedition 32/33 Flight Engineer Suni Williams. The show focuses on wellness in space through nutrition & exercise. Her on orbit triathlon also will be discussed
· 6:30 am Central SUNDAY (7:30 EDT) – ENCORE presentation of CNN’s Sanjay Gupta MD
Human Spaceflight News
Friday, July 13, 2012
HEADLINES AND LEADS
Soyuz rocket rolls to launch pad for Saturday launch to ISS
Todd Halvorson - Florida Today
A Russian Soyuz rocket rolled out at a central Asian spaceport today, setting the stage for the planned launch Saturday of a multinational crew to the International Space Station. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, U.S. astronaut Sunita “Suni” Williams and Akihiko Hoshide of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency are scheduled to blast off atop the rocket at 10:40 p.m. EDT Saturday. Flying in the Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft, the trio is expected to dock at the station at 12:52 a.m. EDT Tuesday.
Space teams plan next steps
Alan Boyle - MsNBC.com's Cosmic Log
Several space ventures have reported a variety of seemingly small steps that are moving them closer to giant leaps in spaceflight — including the rise of new made-in-the-USA spaceships and commercial missions to the moon. Here's a smorgasbord of space developments…
SpaceX one step closer to crewed flights after passing NASA review
Lee Roop - Huntsville Times
NASA said Thursday that SpaceX has passed "an important design review" on the crewed version of its Dragon spacecraft. The "concept baseline review" took place June 14 at the company's headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif. In the review, SpaceX presented a NASA plane with the primary and secondary design elements of the Dragon capsule it plans to use to ferry astronauts to and from low Earth orbit, including to the International Space Station.
SpaceX Completes Crucial Crewed Milestone
Jason Rhian - AmericaSpace.org
Space Exploration Technologies or “SpaceX” has completed a vital design review of the crewed version of the company’s Dragon spacecraft. Known as the “concept baseline review” – the study was conducted by NASA and reviewed the primary and secondary design elements of SpaceX’s Dragon capsule. The review was held June 14 at SpaceX’s headquarters located in Hawthorne, Calif. Each phase of a possible crewed mission was reviewed. Human-rating spacecraft is a hyper-complex endeavor and one few have mastered. The reason more organizations, to include private firms, have not done so – is that not only does the spacecraft have to obtain a human rating – but so too does the rocket the spacecraft will ride to orbit as well as the launch pad that the rocket will lift off from.
Design for a Long Duration, Deep Space Mission Habitat
Andy Tomaswick - Universe Today
There are all sorts of details to take into consideration when traveling in deep space, such as where to go, what to do, and how to get back. Since starry-eyed dreamers often don’t take into account the practical realities of putting a human into such an environment, steely-eyed engineers are left to decide the gritty details of such a mission, such as how many pairs of socks are needed. Fortunately, NASA employs engineers who are both steely-eyed and starry-eyed, and their work has just produced an interesting report discussing the human side of deep-space exploration. The paper, written by Michelle Rucker and Shelby Thompson of Johnson Space Center, focuses on the requirements of a ship that will take the first wave of deep-space human explorers to a near Earth asteroid (NEA), hopefully in the near future. The team stressed that they were only looking at very basic requirements and the paper only provides a basis to work from for more specialized teams that will design individual sub-systems.
How to Live in Space
Astronaut Don Pettit Answers SPACE.com Reader Questions
Denise Chow - Space.com
NASA astronaut Don Pettit, who recently returned to Earth after a months-long stay at the International Space Station, answered some of your burning questions Thursday in a live satellite interview from the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston. Pettit and his two crewmates, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and Dutch spaceflyer Andre Kuipers, landed on the steppes of Kazakhstan in Central Asia on July 1, after spending more than six months at the orbiting laboratory. The trio made up half of the station's Expedition 30 and 31 crews during their time in orbit. As Pettit readjusts to life on Earth, he took some time Thursday to answer questions posed by SPACE.com readers. Here's what the veteran astronaut had to say about living in space, the most fascinating things he saw from his orbital perch, and what the International Space Station smells like…
Don Pettit: Astronaut, Mr. Science, Space Gardner and Astrophotographer Extraordinaire
Nancy Atkinson - Universe Today
After completing 193 days in space as a member of the Expedition 30 and 31 crews, astronaut Don Pettit returned to Earth on July 1, 2012. Don is not your average, ordinary, fighter-pilot astronaut: he’s got a penchant for science, with a unique way of looking at things. He spent his expedition performing crazy zero-gravity experiments, grappling the first commercial spacecraft to visit the ISS, and blogging as his alter-ego, a zucchini plant, among other things. Universe Today had the chance to talk with Pettit this morning about his experiences:
Bolden going where no man has gone before with plans for Nasa Mars mission
Ronan McGreevy - Irish Times
The head of Nasa, Charles Bolden, promised the gathering of school children there could be no stupid questions when it came to the subject of space exploration. There weren’t any. “When will we go to Mars?” “What is the Big Bang?” “Will the discovery of the Higgs boson aid space travel?” “Could we use anti-matter to power a spacecraft?” The questions came thick and fast for a man who says he works for the best organisation in the world. Some 400 first and second class students turned up yesterday morning in the atrium of Matheson Ormsby Prentice’s Dublin offices to hear a man described as a “real-life Captain America” talk about his past and the future of space exploration.
We Should Send Humans to Mars—but Not Let Them Land
Erin Biba - Popular Mechanics
As humanity’s reach extends into the universe, there’s an ongoing argument among space exploration buffs: Should humans, or robots, explore the solar system and beyond? At the recent SETIcon II science and sci-fi conference, planetary scientists, a commercial space entrepreneur, and a veteran astronaut tackled the question. Surprisingly, they agreed that the best possible option is one that will never be a reality: sending humans to explore planets like Mars but not letting them put their feet on the ground.
Space-related job seekers flood Sierra Nevada event in Brevard
Job prospects depend on Dream Chaser's fate
James Dean - Florida Today
Job hunters hoping for a shot at work on a next-generation human spacecraft resembling a miniature shuttle filled a hotel conference room and lined hallways here Thursday morning. “I’m encouraged there’s so many good and talented people available, but it’s sad that there are so many people that are looking for work that have been helping our nation’s space program in the past,” said Jim Voss, a former astronaut who heads development of Sierra Nevada Corp.’s winged Dream Chaser spacecraft. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to help a little bit.” The Dream Chaser is among the private sector vehicles competing to fly NASA crews to the International Space Station by 2017.
Excellence at every level - Astronaut panel addresses ISU students
Craig Covault - AmericaSpace.org
Appearing before about 140 International Space University (ISU) students from 31 countries, eight astronauts who have flown in space stressed “uncompromised excellence” in diverse fields as the key to participating in new space projects including possible selection as future astronauts. Headquartered in Strasbourg, France, the ISU is conducting its summer program this year in connection with the Florida Institute of Technology and the Kennedy Space Center where the forum was held. The session was moderated by former astronaut. Robert Cabana, KSC director. Among the ISU attendees, who were mostly 20 something’s, were about 20 Chinese “students” who averaged 31 years old. These were known Chinese low or mid-level space program managers like those who have traditionally attended ISU sessions for years.
NASA hosting free event to celebrate astronaut, Cleveland native Sunita Williams launch to space station
Tonya Sams - Cleveland Plain Dealer
Astronaut and Cleveland native Sunita Williams is headed far into the atmosphere and NASA's Glenn Research Center wants you to join in the celebration. NASA is inviting the public to see Williams as she takes off Saturday on the Soyuz spacecraft leaving Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for the International Space Station. The doors will open at 8 p.m. for the free event at St. Mary's Church, 15519 Holmes Avenue in Cleveland. The launch will be broadcast at 10:30 p.m., according to a news release from NASA.
Original 1972 space shuttle mockup moved outdoors for Downey display
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
The original full-scale mockup of the space shuttle, which hasn't seen the light of day since the early 1970s, emerged from a warehouse into the California sun on Thursday (July 12) to be put on outdoor display. The full-size wood and plastic model was transported on a flatbed truck the short distance from the building where it for decades served as a design and demonstration tool to an open-ended tent that was erected in a parking lot near the Columbia Memorial Space Center in Downey, Calif.
Space shuttle model moving slowly in Downey to new home
Los Angeles Times
The city of Downey discovered Thursday their plans to move the immense and much-loved Space Shuttle Mock-Up will have to take place at less than supersonic speed. Originally, the city hoped to move the entire 122-foot-long model from the warehouse where it has been stored to a parking lot a quarter-mile away for public display. But Mayor Roger Brossmer said only the nose was transported Thursday and that a dip in the elevation coming out of the building caused worries about possible damage to the other parts.
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COMPLETE STORIES
Soyuz rocket rolls to launch pad for Saturday launch to ISS
Todd Halvorson - Florida Today
A Russian Soyuz rocket rolled out at a central Asian spaceport today, setting the stage for the planned launch Saturday of a multinational crew to the International Space Station.
Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, U.S. astronaut Sunita “Suni” Williams and Akihiko Hoshide of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency are scheduled to blast off atop the rocket at 10:40 p.m. EDT Saturday. Flying in the Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft, the trio is expected to dock at the station at 12:52 a.m. EDT Tuesday.
A train transported the Soyuz rocket and spacecraft to the launch pad from an integration facility at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The booster and the spacecraft were joined in the facility on Wednesday.
Malenchenko, Williams and Hoshide will join Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin, and U.S. astronaut Joe Acaba, aboard the outpost.
Malenchenko, Williams and Hoshide will spend four months living and working at the research complex, which is circling Earth in an orbit 245 to 250 miles above the planet. The three are scheduled to return to Earth on Nov. 12.
Space teams plan next steps
Alan Boyle - MsNBC.com's Cosmic Log
Several space ventures have reported a variety of seemingly small steps that are moving them closer to giant leaps in spaceflight — including the rise of new made-in-the-USA spaceships and commercial missions to the moon.
Here's a smorgasbord of space developments:
NASA is expected to announce sometime this summer which companies will go on to the next phase of its Commercial Crew Program, which is aimed at supporting the development of U.S.-made spaceships capable of carrying astronauts to the International Space Station. The way things are shaping up right now, two teams would receive about $200 million from the space agency to work on an integrated launch system over the course of 21 months, while a third team would be given about $100 million. Blue Origin, the Boeing Co., Sierra Nevada Corp. and SpaceX are receiving funding during the current phase of the program and are close to finishing up their milestones.
SpaceX has completed a concept baseline review for the crewed version of its Dragon spacecraft, NASA reports. A robotic Dragon had its first hookup with the International Space Station in May, and California-based SpaceX is working to upgrade the craft to fit NASA's safety standards for astronaut flights. SpaceX's billionaire founder, Elon Musk, said the completion of the review places his company "exactly where we want to be — ready to move on to the next phase and on target to fly people into space aboard Dragon by the middle of the decade."
Sierra Nevada Corp. has successfully tested the nose landing gear of its Dream Chaser prototype space plane, NASA says. That leaves one last milestone for the current phase of Sierra Nevada's agreement with NASA: an approach and landing test, which is due to take place later this year at NASA's Dryden Research Center in California.
Excalibur Almaz Inc. has completed its unfunded partnership with NASA's Commercial Crew Program, involving the exchange of technical information but no exchange of money. The Houston-based company is developing a launch system that capitalizes on Russian-legacy space technology and would be capable of transferring astronauts and cargo between Earth and the International Space Station. CCP's manager, Ed Munro, said that during the partnership, "NASA learned valuable information about how the company plans to upgrade the existing capsule with modern flight capabilities."
ATK, the company leading the development of the Liberty launch system, says it intends to offer an expanded crew and cargo capability — in the form of a pressurized pod that could carry up to 5,100 pounds of cargo to the space station. The pod, known as the Liberty Logistics Module, would ride into orbit along with the crew spacecraft, protected by a lightweight shroud. Once the launch vehicle gets beyond the atmosphere, the shroud could be jettisoned, and the LLM could be grappled by the station's robotic arm for a hookup to a docking port. ATK and its partners, including Astrium and Lockheed Martin, are aiming to get in on the next phase of the Commercial Crew Program.
Moon Express says former Google executive Jimi Crawford has joined the company as chief technology officer and software architect. Backed by dot-com entrepreneur Naveen Jain, Moon Express aims to put a lander and rover on the lunar surface by 2015 to win a share of the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize. Crawford has most recently served as Google Books' engineering director. Among the other lines on his resume is a stint as the leader of the robotics program at NASA's Ames Research Center. "With Jimi's combined space mission and software experience, our technical team just took another giant leap forward," Bob Richards, Moon Express co-founder and CEO, said in a news release.
SpaceX one step closer to crewed flights after passing NASA review
Lee Roop - Huntsville Times
NASA said Thursday that SpaceX has passed "an important design review" on the crewed version of its Dragon spacecraft. The "concept baseline review" took place June 14 at the company's headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif.
In the review, SpaceX presented a NASA plane with the primary and secondary design elements of the Dragon capsule it plans to use to ferry astronauts to and from low Earth orbit, including to the International Space Station.
The review included details about each phase of a potential crewed mission, including "how the company plans to modify its launch pads to support such missions, Dragon's docking capabilities, the weight and power requirements for the spacecraft, and prospective ground landing sites and techniques.
The company also outlined crew living arrangements, such as environmental control and life support equipment, displays and controls," NASA said.
SpaceX is one of several companies developing crew-carrying capabilities under Commercial Crew Development Round 2 (CCDev2) agreements with NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP). NASA said Thursday that all of the companies are meeting their established milestones.
"SpaceX has made significant progress on its crew transportation capabilities," NASA CCP Manager Ed Mango said. "We commend the SpaceX team on its diligence in meeting its CCDev2 goals to mature the company's technology as this nation continues to build a real capability for America's commercial spaceflight needs."
"The successful conclusion of the concept baseline review places SpaceX exactly where we want to be -- ready to move on to the next phase and on target to fly people into space aboard Dragon by the middle of the decade," said SpaceX CEO and Chief Designer Elon Musk.
SpaceX Completes Crucial Crewed Milestone
Jason Rhian - AmericaSpace.org
Space Exploration Technologies or “SpaceX” has completed a vital design review of the crewed version of the company’s Dragon spacecraft. Known as the “concept baseline review” – the study was conducted by NASA and reviewed the primary and secondary design elements of SpaceX’s Dragon capsule. The review was held June 14 at SpaceX’s headquarters located in Hawthorne, Calif.
Each phase of a possible crewed mission was reviewed. Human-rating spacecraft is a hyper-complex endeavor and one few have mastered. The reason more organizations, to include private firms, have not done so – is that not only does the spacecraft have to obtain a human rating – but so too does the rocket the spacecraft will ride to orbit as well as the launch pad that the rocket will lift off from.
SpaceX detailed how it plans to modify the launch pads the company would use to support crewed missions. They also described proposed changes to Dragon’s docking capabilities, other various requirements for a human-rated version of the spacecraft and how and where SpaceX plans to land the crewed variant. These were just some of the numerous points that were covered. All aspects of a potential crewed mission to space aboard the Dragon will need to be covered in extreme detail before the first astronauts board the spacecraft for low-Earth-orbit destinations such as the International Space Station.
“SpaceX has made significant progress on its crew transportation capabilities,” NASA CCP Manager Ed Mango said. “We commend the SpaceX team on its diligence in meeting its CCDev2 goals to mature the company’s technology as this nation continues to build a real capability for America’s commercial spaceflight needs.”
SpaceX is competing with a number of new and established aerospace companies under the Commercial Crew Development Round 2 (CCDev2) contract. Managed by NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, CCDev2 is trying to hand off responsibility of providing access to LEO to these commercial firms while NASA focuses on deep space human exploration missions to include a return to the Moon, asteroids and possibly Mars.
The primary focus of NASA’s recent review of Dragon – was safety. SpaceX representatives showed how the company’s SuperDraco launch abort system (LAS) would work if required during both ascent and reentry emergency scenarios. It is planned to utilize SuperDraco to safely ferry astronauts away from danger during various stages of a mission.
SpaceX’s founder, Elon Musk, viewed the completion of the review as a sign that the company is making steady progress toward one day carrying astronauts.
“The successful conclusion of the concept baseline review places SpaceX exactly where we want to be – ready to move on to the next phase and on target to fly people into space aboard Dragon by the middle of the decade,” Musk said.
Design for a Long Duration, Deep Space Mission Habitat
Andy Tomaswick - Universe Today
There are all sorts of details to take into consideration when traveling in deep space, such as where to go, what to do, and how to get back. Since starry-eyed dreamers often don’t take into account the practical realities of putting a human into such an environment, steely-eyed engineers are left to decide the gritty details of such a mission, such as how many pairs of socks are needed. Fortunately, NASA employs engineers who are both steely-eyed and starry-eyed, and their work has just produced an interesting report discussing the human side of deep-space exploration.
The paper, written by Michelle Rucker and Shelby Thompson of Johnson Space Center, focuses on the requirements of a ship that will take the first wave of deep-space human explorers to a near Earth asteroid (NEA), hopefully in the near future. The team stressed that they were only looking at very basic requirements and the paper only provides a basis to work from for more specialized teams that will design individual sub-systems.
To develop the basics, the team had to make some assumptions, and these assumptions are revealing for anyone interested in NASA’s future human exploration plans. The team assumed a 380 day round-trip mission to a NEA, crewed by 4 people, with just 30 days of the mission spent at the asteroid. They assumed the availability of a variety of mission-specific vehicles as well as the ability to perform extra-vehicular activities and dock with the Orion crew module, still under development at NASA. Nevertheless, such assumptions could lead to an exciting mission if they hold throughout the design process.
In addition to the assumptions, the team took advantage of knowledge gained from years of working on the International Space Station, and helped in considering details like how many packets of powdered drinks are needed for the duration of the trip as well as how much toothpaste a person uses daily in space. All of these numbers were crunched to derive overall dimensions for the craft.
Although, the sum of these volumes produced an over-sized spacecraft, the team evaluated activity frequency and duration to identify functions that could share a common volume without conflict, reducing the total volume by 24%. After adding 10% for growth, the resulting functional pressurized volume was calculated to be a minimum of 268 cu m (9,464 cu ft) distributed over the functions.
Those dimensions resulted in a 4 story structure totaling almost 280 cubic meters (10,000 cubic feet) of pressurized space that looks like it could have come right off the set of Prometheus.
The various subsystems can be broken into seven different categories. The largest is the equipment section, which takes up 22% of the spacecraft. This space would include things like the environmental control panel and navigation and communications equipment. However, the designers thought that the propulsion system, most likely a solar electric propulsion system, and all required control equipment would be part of an attachable module and would not make up part of the main living space of the habitat.
Mission Operations and Spacecraft Operations make up the next largest chunks of the habitable space, each clocking in at 20%. These areas are reserved for mission specific tasks that are not yet defined and general tasks that are necessary no matter what type of mission the habitat is launched on, such as basic maintenance and repair.
Much consideration was given to the psychological and privacy needs of the inhabitants of the ship and as such about 30% of the total habitable space is devoted to the care of the people on boar, with 18% going to “individual” care and 12% going to “group” care.
Individual care includes basics such as beds, full body cleansing and toilets. Group care is more for multi-person activities, such as a dining hall, food prep and meeting areas. The last 2% of the area on board was allotted to “contingency” planning. It fits its namesake well, as the design team hopes never to have to use the space whose primary purpose is to deal with cabin depressurization, crew fatality or other unforeseeable disaster. There is also a shielded area in the interior of the habitat for refuge for the crew during a solar radiation event.
With the basics laid out, it is now up to the specialist teams to develop the next set of requirements for the sub-systems. The final design will only be completed after a long and iterative process of calculation and re-calculation, design and re-design. Assuming the teams persevere, and the space agency receives adequate funding for developing a deep space mission to an asteroid, NASA’s detail-oriented engineers will have developed a very flexible habitat module to use on the next step of human space exploration that dreamers everywhere can get excited about.
How to Live in Space
Astronaut Don Pettit Answers SPACE.com Reader Questions
Denise Chow - Space.com
NASA astronaut Don Pettit, who recently returned to Earth after a months-long stay at the International Space Station, answered some of your burning questions Thursday in a live satellite interview from the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Pettit and his two crewmates, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and Dutch spaceflyer Andre Kuipers, landed on the steppes of Kazakhstan in Central Asia on July 1, after spending more than six months at the orbiting laboratory. The trio made up half of the station's Expedition 30 and 31 crews during their time in orbit.
As Pettit readjusts to life on Earth, he took some time Thursday to answer questions posed by SPACE.com readers. Here's what the veteran astronaut had to say about living in space, the most fascinating things he saw from his orbital perch, and what the International Space Station smells like.
SPACE.com: In space, when it’s so often dark outside, does your internal body clock get confused? (Submitted by reader Gillian Finnerty)
Don Pettit: Actually, it does not. Your internal body clock seems to keep its own time. It has its own little mechanism, and you "wake up" in our morning, which is GMT time, and maybe it's sunny outside, maybe it's in the middle of a night pass, and you work through the whole day and you get hungry when it's about lunch time, and then at the end of the day, you start to get a little sleep-eyed. And by the time you're ready for bed, you just fall asleep. And that seems to be independent of the day-night cycles in terms of your orbit around Earth.
SPACE.com: What does the International Space Station smell like? (Submitted by reader Sandy Hawkins)
Pettit: It smells like half machine-shop-engine-room-laboratory, and then when you're cooking dinner and you rip open a pouch of stew or something, you can smell a little roast beef. [Space Food Photos: What Astronauts Eat in Orbit]
SPACE.com: Do you think we can build greenhouses for food to live in space for long duration missions? (Submitted by reader Joshua Michels)
Pettit: We can. And if you look at the energy balance and the volume and mass required to grow food, versus bringing it from Earth, I think for most of the food calories for the next series of explorations, you're better off to bring your major food calories from Earth in highly dense packages. But raising some food products, for just as condiments and as something to perk up the taste buds of the crew, that certainly has value-added. So I can see small aeroponic-type gardens, where crew will be raising things just to perk up their food a little bit.
SPACE.com: What kind of dreams do you have in space? Do they change in the microgravity environment? (Submitted by reader Becky Graham)
Pettit: Well, dreams do change. When I'm on Earth, I dream about being in space, and when you're in space you dream about walking and being on Earth. And maybe it just figures that human beings are never satisfied with wherever they happen to be, which may be one of the reasons why we have the gumption to go off and explore in the first place.
SPACE.com: With over 300 days in space already under your belt, would you consider participating in a long duration mission, say to colonize another planet or moon? And what if there was a chance you couldn't return? (Submitted by readers Tyler Crichton and William Stack)
Pettit: I would go back to space in a nanosecond — that's what I do for a living. Give me another couple of days here to get my feet on the ground, and I'm ready to go again. In terms of immigrating from Earth, I'd be willing to immigrate from Earth — immigrate into space, leaving Earth and never come back — so long as we had the technology so you could survive.
One-way missions to Mars where you go there and then run out of air and die, that's not in the cards. If you went to Mars, like people went from continental Europe to the New World in the 17th century, that model would be something I would do. I'd load my family up on the next rocket and we'd immigrate into space.
SPACE.com: What was the strangest or most fascinating thing you saw from the ISS – either in space or looking back at Earth? (Submitted by readers Jay Lewis and Susan Cady)
Pettit: Well one of the most amazing things is to be able to see something like a comet from space. We saw a solar eclipse, and then the transit of Venus. So, there were a number of fairly rare, natural astronomical phenomenology that you can see from Earth, but when you see it from space, the vantage is slightly different and adds a new twist to it. And it allows you to see the physics of the situation. We see the shadow of the moon as it's cast, when it goes between Earth and the sun, and we call that an eclipse. And to see that shadow as a spot on Earth lets you know that, gosh, these guys that wrote the textbooks figured all of this out without seeing it from this viewpoint.
SPACE.com: How much micrometeoroid damage does the space station sustain on a yearly basis? And what do the astronauts feel or hear when something like that hits the station? (Submitted by reader Joseph Fiet)
Pettit: Well fortunately we haven't been whacked by something big enough to do any real damage. The micrometeorites that do impact station, we can't hear them from the inside. They'll impact little structures and make little tiny divots, and we have micrometeorite shielding to protect the sensitive stuff — pressure halls and things like that.
You can see results of micrometeorite damage hitting things like hand rails and other pieces of equipment on the outside of station, and when we do a spacewalk, if we see something like that, we'll stop and take a picture of it so engineers on the ground can take a look at what's happening. And it's just something that's a continual occurrence. It's like a very small rain, a drizzle. It's just something you have to engineer around when you make a spacecraft.
Editor's note: Thank you to everyone who submitted questions for SPACE.com's interview with Don Pettit. Some of the selected questions were edited slightly for clarify, or to incorporate others that were similar. With so many great questions, we couldn’t fit them all into the time available with Don, but we look forward to asking more reader questions in the future.
Don Pettit: Astronaut, Mr. Science, Space Gardner and Astrophotographer Extraordinaire
Nancy Atkinson - Universe Today
After completing 193 days in space as a member of the Expedition 30 and 31 crews, astronaut Don Pettit returned to Earth on July 1, 2012. Don is not your average, ordinary, fighter-pilot astronaut: he’s got a penchant for science, with a unique way of looking at things. He spent his expedition performing crazy zero-gravity experiments, grappling the first commercial spacecraft to visit the ISS, and blogging as his alter-ego, a zucchini plant, among other things. Universe Today had the chance to talk with Pettit this morning about his experiences:
Nancy: Good morning Don. It’s an honor to talk with you. Congratulations on such a successful expedition.
Don Pettit: It’s great to talk with you!
Nancy: You did a lot of science experiments during your stay in space, both the official ISS program experiments and also your own “Science off the Sphere” experiments. Of the official ones, which was the most interesting and engaging or perhaps what you felt was the most important experiment that you did?
Don Pettit: There were two categories of experiments that really captivated me. One is the human life science experiments that we do on ourselves, where we poke and prod ourselves and take blood and other samples, trying to figure out how this thing called the human being operates in a weightless environment. The other category of experiment that I thought was really fascinating was combustion. That’s a fancy way of saying ‘fire’ which of course is what is required to power our current civilization.
Nancy: What was your favorite Science off the Sphere experiment that you did?
Don Pettit: Oh, probably the one that has to do with the knitting needles and looking at charged droplets in a stable orbit around the knitting needles. That was really fun and simple and a fun demonstration of what you can do when you remove gravitational forces and replace them with small forces like charged forces.
Nancy: I think that was my favorite one too!
I want to say thank you on behalf of everyone, I think, on planet Earth, for the amazing images you took during your mission– the star trails, the aurorae, the transit of Venus are just a few examples — your images were just spectacular. How important is the photography that the astronauts do as far as documenting your expedition and being able to share your experiences with the public?
Don Pettit: If a picture is worth a thousand words and we take thousands of pictures that certainly says something in terms of the magnitude of communication we can have in conveying this amazing environment to people on Earth, who are of course, the ones collectively who makes this happen, and we are the lucky ones that get to go into space.
Part of any explorations, when you are going into the frontier and you come back you need to explain to people what the frontier is like, you need to share the stories and experience. Images now are one of the prime ways of doing that. I think the taking of both still images and video in space is not only an important pastime for the astronauts to do, but important to convey to the public that ultimately funds the space program, what is going on up there and how wonderful an environment this is. And eventually our technology will move to the point where people, wholesale, can jump in their rockets and go into this frontier.
Nancy: We sure hope so!
You were an integral part of the SpaceX Dragon grapple and berth, the first commercial spaceship to visit the ISS. After being a part of that, what are your thoughts about the private industry becoming perhaps a vital part of human spaceflight, and in particular for space station operations?
Don Pettit: The commercial space is a natural flow for going into a frontier environment like space. You can see analogs of the wild west in the United States getting settled with a combination of both government programs and government sponsored commercial programs and I think we are going to see the same thing going into space. It’s an important aspect of opening the frontier so that more than just a few government-born programs can operate in this environment.
Bolden going where no man has gone before with plans for Nasa Mars mission
Ronan McGreevy - Irish Times
The head of Nasa, Charles Bolden, promised the gathering of school children there could be no stupid questions when it came to the subject of space exploration. There weren’t any.
“When will we go to Mars?”
“What is the Big Bang?”
“Will the discovery of the Higgs boson aid space travel?”
“Could we use anti-matter to power a spacecraft?”
The questions came thick and fast for a man who says he works for the best organisation in the world.
Some 400 first and second class students turned up yesterday morning in the atrium of Matheson Ormsby Prentice’s Dublin offices to hear a man described as a “real-life Captain America” talk about his past and the future of space exploration.
Bolden (65) was appointed by President Barack Obama as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration administrator in 2009 with the goal of preparing the organisation for a manned mission to Mars in the mid 2030s. He is the first African-American to hold the position.
Part-autobiography, part-inspirational pep talk, the former Vietnam War pilot and space shuttle commander spoke of a time growing up in the Deep South when there were no astronauts and there was segregation between blacks and whites.
Being an astronaut was beyond his “wildest dreams”, even when a colleague told him to apply for the astronaut corps in 1980. He persisted and became the commander on four space shuttle missions.
He urged the students to study hard especially maths and science, work hard and not to be afraid of failure.
In response to a girl who asked what she had to do to be Ireland’s first astronaut, he told her to study science, technology, engineering and medicine and then write to the director general of the European Space Agency, Jean-Jacques Dordain.
“Tell him that you talked to this guy Bolden who is an American and he said to write to you,” he said.
The best advice he ever received was from a fourth-grader who told him: “We’ll never know if we don’t go”.
Bolden said if young people did not take risks they would not always achieve their dreams.
Later in Trinity College, Dublin he appeared emotional when speaking of the seven astronauts who lost their lives in the Challenger disaster in 1986 when the shuttle blew up on a mission directly after his own.
“I lost seven dear friends,” he said. “I thought for about a nano-second if this was really what I wanted to do.
“Then I realised that failure is a necessary part of doing great things.”
Elaborating on the possibility of a manned mission to Mars, he said it will have to be an international collaboration, unlike the Apollo moon missions which were an all-American affair.
“One, they are expensive and two, no nation has all the expertise that is needed,” he said.
Future space exploration will also involve the private sector, which he pointed out has already sent cargo vessels to the International Space Station.
The key to a successful Mars mission will be a new propulsion system, as the current eight-month journey is “way too slow” for human travel, he said.
Bolden also delivered a talk in the Convention Centre Dublin as part of the Euroscience Open Forum.
We Should Send Humans to Mars—but Not Let Them Land
Erin Biba - Popular Mechanics
As humanity’s reach extends into the universe, there’s an ongoing argument among space exploration buffs: Should humans, or robots, explore the solar system and beyond? At the recent SETIcon II science and sci-fi conference, planetary scientists, a commercial space entrepreneur, and a veteran astronaut tackled the question. Surprisingly, they agreed that the best possible option is one that will never be a reality: sending humans to explore planets like Mars but not letting them put their feet on the ground.
The Case for Robots
Robots clearly rule the day. For now, the only carbon-based life-forms in space are the handful of astronauts who man the International Space Station in shifts, while robots rove all over the surface of Mars, zip around Saturn and its moons, and are on their way out of our solar system.
"Most of what we do in space could be done better with robots," says Cynthia Phillips, a planetary geologist at the SETI Institute. "There are things humans can do more quickly, but there are funding constraints to keep humans alive." Humans need to eat, to sleep, to breathe, and to come home at the end of the mission. They also don’t respond well to extended periods of weightlessness, or away from Earth’s protective magnetic field.
Robots, Phillips says, are just better at doing science in space. They work day and night and can travel to faraway places because they won’t get homesick. "If you took those dollars [from researching manned spaceflight] and spent them on a fleet of robots, sure they’d be slower, but they’d do more science."
And they’ll get better. Bob Richards, co-founder of Google Lunar X Prize teams Odyssey Moon and Moon Express, says: "There’s a danger of thinking linearly and applying what we understand about robots now to the future. The computational capacity of the human race in the future is going to be astounding. The types of robotics we’ll have in the next several years will be indistinguishable from magic."
The Case for Humans
Tom Jones, a planetary scientist, veteran astronaut, and PM contributor, says there will always be a case for humans in space. "Science is one of the great results of exploring the cosmos, but it’s not the only reason we go to space. We send humans as an expression of national will and the superiority of our form of government," he says. "Robots are great proxies for us in initial reconnaissance. With the current level of intelligence they can’t really return results of the depth of human explorers. Humans cost more, but they deliver more."
While humans are not ideal for doing science in zero gravity, he argues that robots can’t hold a candle to people when it comes to marketing, public relations, and politics. Phillips says that the public perception of space travel seems to be that humanity hasn’t truly gone somewhere until humans land and leave their footprints in the dust. "You can’t underestimate the political value of boots on the ground," she says. "There’s a place for sending humans, but don’t call it science. It doesn’t make sense in a science argument. But it does make sense in the exploration and inspiration side of things."
The Case for Everyone
The humans versus robots debate will go on indefinitely; undoubtedly the future of spaceflight will contain both. But the SETIcon panelists proposed a sort of strange hybrid mission: Send humans to get the public excited, but have those astronauts bring along robots to do the actual science once they arrive. Imagine a crew undertaking the voyage to Mars in the next decade or so. When they reached the Red Planet, they would remain in orbit while deploying bots down to the surface.
Why do this? The most expensive and dangerous aspect of space travel is takeoff and landing. Remove that from the mix and you have a much higher likelihood getting a human crew to Mars and back—a huge accomplishment on its own regardless of whether they land. In addition, the Mars surface itself is highly toxic. Perchlorate, basically a form of highly chlorinated salt, is prevalent in Mars dust and not safe for humans to interact with for extended periods.
Eliminating the need to work around the toxicity may be safer and smarter then sending them to the surface, the panelists say, and keeping humans off the surface is the best way to protect the red planet from human contamination. Finally, it’s cheaper and easier to control robots on the surface from orbit rather then all the way from Earth.
Jones says there’s precedent for this kind of mission. "I’ve operated the robot arm on the space shuttle. There’s a place where you pick humans that have the skills and then you let the robot do its job. On the current space station there’s a Robonaut 2 that can relieve the crew so the humans can get on with doing research. Human explorers have their limitations. There’s a great synergy between humans and machines and it’s an artificial construct to separate them."
Of course, there’s one big problem: The public would never accept the idea of going to all the trouble to send humans all the way to Mars and not see them touch the surface—it kills the whole adventure/national pride rationale. Which is why this ideal mission, they panelists agreed, will never be a reality.
Space-related job seekers flood Sierra Nevada event in Brevard
Job prospects depend on Dream Chaser's fate
James Dean - Florida Today
Job hunters hoping for a shot at work on a next-generation human spacecraft resembling a miniature shuttle filled a hotel conference room and lined hallways here Thursday morning.
“I’m encouraged there’s so many good and talented people available, but it’s sad that there are so many people that are looking for work that have been helping our nation’s space program in the past,” said Jim Voss, a former astronaut who heads development of Sierra Nevada Corp.’s winged Dream Chaser spacecraft. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to help a little bit.”
The Dream Chaser is among the private sector vehicles competing to fly NASA crews to the International Space Station by 2017.
With NASA close to naming the winners of a major new round of development funding, Sierra Nevada’s Colorado-based Space Systems division hosted a job fair at the DoubleTree Oceanfront Hotel to line up candidates it will hire if funding materializes.
NASA plans to give two companies “full” awards worth $300 million to $500 million over 21 months, and one company a “half” award. An announcement is expected in late July or early August.
Sierra Nevada’s daylong job fair here was expected to draw hundreds of applicants, two days after several hundred attended another fair the company held in Houston.
It came two months after the company visited Cocoa Beach with state officials to announce its intent to expand Florida operations. If it advances in NASA’s commercial crew development program, Sierra Nevada plans to process the Dream Chaser locally for launches from Cape Canaveral atop Atlas V rockets and landings on Kennedy Space Center’s shuttle runway.
Voss said he was looking for 100 to 150 engineers, technicians and other personnel to help with spacecraft design work, and saw a wealth of talent in the area’s thousands of former shuttle workers.
“Our vehicle is very similar to the space shuttle,” said Voss, a veteran of four shuttle missions and a long-duration station expedition. “A lot of the skills that were necessary for processing the space shuttle and getting it ready for launch are the kind of skills that we’re going to need in the not-too-distant future.”
Sierra Nevada eventually expects to employ about 200 people on the Space Coast, gradually ramping up to that total as two planned test launches approach in 2016.
But most of the positions filled first will be based at the company’s headquarters in Louisville, Colo., at least initially. Offers are contingent on NASA funding.
“It’s a pretty exciting concept,” said Chuck Rake of Titusville, a 52-year-old engineer laid off by United Space Alliance in April after 22 years working at KSC. “The big draw is being a part of space science and exploration.”
“There’s hope now,” said Dan Barnes of Cape Canaveral, a 46-year-old engineer laid off by USA last July after 15 years with the shuttle program. “There’s a glimmer of light that Brevard County is starting to come back, that the space program is starting to be reborn.”
Excellence at every level - Astronaut panel addresses ISU students
Craig Covault - AmericaSpace.org
Appearing before about 140 International Space University (ISU) students from 31 countries, eight astronauts who have flown in space stressed “uncompromised excellence” in diverse fields as the key to participating in new space projects including possible selection as future astronauts.
Headquartered in Strasbourg, France, the ISU is conducting its summer program this year in connection with the Florida Institute of Technology and the Kennedy Space Center where the forum was held. The session was moderated by former astronaut. Robert Cabana, KSC director. The other participants on the panel were:
· Ken Bowersox, former NASA astronaut.
· Chiaki Mukai, Japanese astronaut.
· Garrett Reisman, senior engineer, SpaceX, and former NASA astronaut.
· Kent Rominger, vice president, advanced programs, launch systems, Alliant Techsystems, and former NASA astronaut.
· Winston Scott, dean, College of Aeronautics, Florida Institute of Technology, and former NASA astronaut.
· Nicole Stott, NASA astronaut.
· Jim Voss, director, advanced programs, Sierra Nevada Corp., and former NASA astronaut.
Among the ISU attendees, who were mostly 20 something’s, were about 20 Chinese “students” who averaged 31 years old. These were known Chinese low or mid-level space program managers like those who have traditionally attended ISU sessions for years.
They were undoubtedly soaking up as much American space experience as they could. But at KSC they were not shown any hardware or facilities beyond what an international tourist is allowed to see here daily, although their U. S. guides were more knowledgeable about KSC facilities as well as tech transfer limitations.
The discussion between the group as a whole and the astronauts was at a refreshingly higher level than the “how do you go to the bathroom in space” level of questioning that many public audiences have raised for decades – and still do.
The need for excellence was cited often in the discussion including by an Israeli student who asked how that also applied to family responsibilities during years of training as well as actual flights.
Voss said it was a very important question, while Stott noted “there should not be any compromise” on that score and that “family members should be included whenever possible during training” so they can understand and relate to everything their astronaut family member is faced with.
A European student posed a question about the public’s knowledge and fitness for space tourism, but not about the much discussed Virgin Galactic quick suborbital rides. His question was rather about the guidelines and infrastructure envisioned for tourists going to orbit in larger numbers, beyond the millionaires and billionaires who have traveled to the International Space Station.
Noting that Bigelow Aerospace wants to build space stations specifically for that Rominger said “I think it is great and more power to them.”
“I am with the Liberty project and we want to make it as simple as possible for passengers to get into space, said Rominger. “As pilots some of us are always going to want to do the flying, but the reality is that it’s about the destination which is space, not the going up and down,” he said.
Reisman noted that the analogy to the development of the commercial aviation industry is very appropriate to the topic of larger numbers of people going into space.
And Japanese physician astronaut Mukai noted that we have just ended the first 50 years of human space flight that included the 1998 flight of 77 year old “Original 7” astronaut John Glenn, a mission on which Mukai also flew. She said the highly successful flight of a physically fit elderly person is an important milestone toward flying a larger portion of the population to orbit in the next 50 years of human space development.
Stott agreed and said she believes that beyond ISS there will be dedicated tourist stations and separate dedicated science stations where astronauts will have much more flexibility in managing and modifying research parameters.
One of the Chinese guests noted that “my country is building a new generation of station”, and he asked what would be the single best thing to add to new stations to improve crew comfort. Cabana had very serious answer to that, “A hot shower would be nice.”
A young woman from India asked “what is the most important space experience” that you have all taken from your flights?
Several astronauts, as most always do, said the views of Earth remain with them most as an amazing memory of their flights in addition to the zero-g experience. “Nothing can prepare you for it when looking back at the Earth it is always vibrant and surprising,” said Stott.
Rominger said his biggest surprise was to look out at night and try to perceive how starkly black it is. “That is when the vastness of space really hits you,” he said.
Voss noted it is “the whole crew experience” the deep bonding that takes place starting with formation of a crew then their flight experiences together.
Reisman said “what was most impactful for me was how incredibly thin the atmosphere is. It’s no more than the fuzz on a tennis ball” and yet it makes life on Earth possible.
Mukai had one of the more unusual recollections. She was amazed during her first space shuttle reentry about how gravity gradually overtakes you, the lower you fly.
After about two weeks in space even at only 0.2g she said her head felt so heavy it was hard to lift up and that she kept throwing pens and pencils in the air to watch them first fall back to her lap very slowly then faster and faster. “This gravity is amazing!” she said.
Winston Scott had the most profound memory, while looking at Earth realizing that “Earth is finite, Earth is my home and you want to take care of your home.”
Another person from India asked a similar question about what was the most dangerous episodes of their flights not generally known.
Scott said his manual capture during an unplanned EVA with a rookie Japanese astronaut of a 3,000 lb. reusable science satellite. Scott noted how standing in their space suits out in the payload bay how he had to talk his EVA partner through that, but they pulled it off fine.
Cabana had an especially good tale. It occurred while flying a rendezvous with the Russian FGB module on the first space station assembly mission waiting for a “GO” from the ground to complete a grapple with the shuttle manipulator arm. The orbiter was station keeping very close to the FGB, when it appeared “that this 45,000 lb. mass had started moving into the payload bay.”
What actually happening was that the thrust from the orbiter’s maneuvering jets had introduced some coupling that was moving the orbiter toward the FGB. “For a moment there I thought we were going to collide. It would have been really bad, the end of the space program! Top that!” he implored his fellow astronauts.
Voss tried saying “I was terrified once.” Voss was on the infant ISS as a member of the Expedition 2 crew. After the shuttle crew had departed and just he and two crewmembers were left on board they went to bed looking for a good night’s rest, when in the middle of the night “the fire alarm went off and there were some moments of terror, “said Voss.
But being a brand-new station that was just the start. By the time they had left the ISS the Expedition 2 Crew had been alerted day and night by a total of 947 separate alarms of various types of which virtually all but a few were found to be false, said Voss.
Bowersox noted on his stay on the ISS the crew was at times so busy they would answer queries from either the U. S., Russian, European or Japanese control centers as if they would perform those requests from the ground. Then deliberately ignore the requests to get other more important work done.
During post flight debriefings they fessed up to those occasions and learned that was exactly what the ground controls expected them to do, based on their own best judgment in space, Bowersox said.
Bowersox also noted that he was on board the ISS in 2003 when the space shuttle Columbia and her crew were lost during a non ISS related science mission. This was devastating to the ISS crew because Columbia’s crew were all dear friends. Bowersox noted that in space, the body seemed to be much more sensitive “to a wider swing of emotions.”
And these emotions would especially rise up when ongoing television interviews would force them to confront the situation openly by asking questions like “does it make sense to continue flying people in space when losses like this occur.”
“We hated it, we hated those interviews,” said Bowersox. But he also said the ISS crew realized “we had to do them” for the sake of NASA and all of the teams on the ground and that they also eventually helped the crew face their grief more openly on the ISS.
NASA hosting free event to celebrate astronaut, Cleveland native Sunita Williams launch to space station
Tonya Sams - Cleveland Plain Dealer
Astronaut and Cleveland native Sunita Williams is headed far into the atmosphere and NASA's Glenn Research Center wants you to join in the celebration.
NASA is inviting the public to see Williams as she takes off Saturday on the Soyuz spacecraft leaving Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for the International Space Station.
The doors will open at 8 p.m. for the free event at St. Mary's Church, 15519 Holmes Avenue in Cleveland. The launch will be broadcast at 10:30 p.m., according to a news release from NASA.
The event will also feature Wadsworth native Mike Foreman, an astronaut and former chief of external programs at NASA Glenn Research Center, exhibits, refreshments and T-Shirts for sale.
Williams took her first spacewalk in December 2006. In 2007, Williams spacewalked for 22 hours and 27 minutes, breaking the previous record set by a female astronaut of 21 hours. She also set a record for the longest single spaceflight for women when she spent more than six months in space.
Williams will be joined by Yuri Malenchenko, of the Russian Federation Space Agency and Akihiko Hoshide, of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Their trip has been named Expedition 33.
The Soyuz crew member will meet the crew of Expedition 32 once they arrive at the space station. Expedition 32 will leave the station in September and Williams will become commander.
Original 1972 space shuttle mockup moved outdoors for Downey display
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
The original full-scale mockup of the space shuttle, which hasn't seen the light of day since the early 1970s, emerged from a warehouse into the California sun on Thursday (July 12) to be put on outdoor display.
The full-size wood and plastic model was transported on a flatbed truck the short distance from the building where it for decades served as a design and demonstration tool to an open-ended tent that was erected in a parking lot near the Columbia Memorial Space Center in Downey, Calif.
The city-owned center, which was named for NASA's first space shuttle after it was lost during its re-entry from orbit in 2003, is a hands-on educational facility located on the same historic site where moon-bound Apollo capsules and shuttle orbiters were built.
"Having this exciting shuttle mockup attraction next to the Columbia Memorial Space Center will not only help further the space center's educational programs, but it will provide visitors with a unique experience that will help engage and inspire the next generation of explorers," Downey's mayor, Roger Brossmer, said in a statement.
Wingless flight
The mockup, which was moved Thursday without its one wing and tail section attached, was first created by North American Rockwell (now Boeing) as part of the company's bid to build the space shuttle fleet for NASA. After winning the contract, the company kept the 122 foot long by 35 foot tall (37 by 11 meter) mockup at the Downey assembly facility where it served as a fit check tool for instruments and payloads being built for the real orbiters.
The shuttle sat in Rockwell's design and engineering room for more than 30 years, doubling as a public relations and visual aid during congressional and astronaut visits. After the Downey plant closed in 1999, the model was partially disassembled and moved into a corner of the building for storage.
Thursday's move was to make room for the Tierra Luna Marketplace, a new $500 million retail development soon to begin construction by the Industrial Realty Group (IRG). When IRG acquired the former Downey aerospace design and manufacturing complex, its contract required that it keep the shuttle on site. Instead, the developer agreed to pay the city $100,000 to move the mockup elsewhere.
Temporary tent
IRG is leasing the shuttle's new outdoor lot to the city for $1 for the next two years. Downey officials said they hope to use that time to preserve and restore the space shuttle mockup by building a permanent facility for its display, a project expected to cost between $2 and $5 million.
"We are excited to have this historic shuttle [mockup] on display here in Downey," Mayor Brossmer said. "Our city is proud to have such a rich aerospace history and we hope that this is the first of several steps to getting a permanent home for our mockup."
The shuttle will remain under the temporary tent until the city has the funds needed to construct the building, which will be located adjacent to the Columbia Memorial Space Center. City officials, together with the Aerospace Legacy Foundation, will seek sponsors to underwrite the display.
Space shuttle model moving slowly in Downey to new home
Los Angeles Times
The city of Downey discovered Thursday their plans to move the immense and much-loved Space Shuttle Mock-Up will have to take place at less than supersonic speed.
Originally, the city hoped to move the entire 122-foot-long model from the warehouse where it has been stored to a parking lot a quarter-mile away for public display. But Mayor Roger Brossmer said only the nose was transported Thursday and that a dip in the elevation coming out of the building caused worries about possible damage to the other parts.
So those other sections, including wings and engine, will be brought out more slowly by Friday, he said.
“We'd rather be cautious and take that extra step,” the mayor said, describing how heavy forklifts and trucks were being used to move the 40-year-old largely wood and plastic model.
The mock-up will be housed under a temporary tent for public viewing at the lot at 12214 Lakewood Blvd. The city is planning to raise more than $2 million to build a permanent home next to the Columbia Memorial Space Center, the hands-on learning center dedicated to teaching children about science and space exploration.
The model was built in 1972 by shuttle manufacturer Rockwell to help with marketing it to NASA and working on design. It has been hidden away at a former manufacturing site that was the cradle of the nation's space program. The aerospace plant was closed in 1999 and was later sold to a development firm. Now a shopping center is planned there.
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