Hope you can join us this Thursday at our monthly “First Thursday of every month” NASA Retirees Luncheon at Hibachi Grill at 11:30, on Bay Area Blvd. between Highway 3 and I45. It an opportunity to see ex Coworkers and share your retirement lessons learned and fun excursions you may have taken around the World. And don’t be shy, introduce your selves and make new retiree friends while you are enjoying the monthly fellowship with Aerospace colleagues to network or whatever your pleasure.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1. Watch the Launch and Docking of Russia's Progress Cargo Spacecraft on NASA
2. Space Center Houston hosts 'Curiosity: 7 Minutes of Terror'
3. The JSC Safety Action Team (JSAT) Says ...
4. Senior Drug Interaction
5. Interested in the State of the Center? RSVP for Aug. NMA Luncheon
6. Lean Six Sigma - Overview Training
7. Shuttle Knowledge Console
8. FedTraveler Live Lab Tomorrow, Aug. 1
9. Deadline For Contest Entries
10. This Week at Starport
11. Project Asset and Lifecycle Management System (PALMS) Training Available
12. JSC Library's Introductory Training is Tomorrow
________________________________________ QUOTE OF THE DAY
“ The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.”
-- Dolly Parton
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1. Watch the Launch and Docking of Russia's Progress Cargo Spacecraft on NASA
NASA TV will broadcast the launch and, for the first time, the same-day rendezvous and docking of a Progress cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS). Coverage begins at 2:15 p.m. CDT Wednesday, Aug. 1.
ISS Progress 48 is scheduled to launch at 2:35 p.m. from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It will dock later that day at 8:24 p.m. in a test of an abbreviated launch-to-rendezvous schedule designed to reduce the typical two-day flight between a launch and docking. The goal would be to use this new approach for future Soyuz crew member flights.
NASA TV coverage of the Progress' arrival at the station will begin at 7:45 p.m.
Russian flight controllers retain the option to revert to a normal two-day rendezvous if developments require. If that occurs, the craft will dock Friday, Aug. 3, and NASA TV will provide live coverage.
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 viewing the video using these systems, contact the Information Resources Directorate Customer Support Center at x46367.
For more information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station
JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111 http://www.nasa.gov/station
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2. Space Center Houston hosts 'Curiosity: 7 Minutes of Terror'
Come join a fun-filled family camp-in to celebrate the landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars. There will be edible Mars creations, exciting presentations by Mars experts and even a delicious Mars celebration breakfast following countdown.
Date: 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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3. The JSC Safety Action Team (JSAT) Says ...
The rain has come and the grass is growing. Wear protective equipment when you're mowing. Congratulations to August 2012 "JSAT Says…" winner Sharon Kemp, Barrios Technology. Any JSAT member (all JSC contractor and civil servant employees) may submit a slogan for consideration to JSAT Secretary Reese Squires. Submissions for September are due by Friday, Aug. 10. Keep those great submissions coming. You may be the next JSAT Says Winner!
Reese Squires x37776 \\jsc-ia-na01b\JIMMS_Share\Share\JSAT\JSAT Says\JSAT Says 08-2012.pptx
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4. Senior Drug Interaction
Senior citizens have increased risk for potentially dangerous drug interactions due to physiological changes, poor coordination of services and the sheer volume of medications that are taken. The Employee Assistance Program Caregivers Resource Group is happy to present Simone Willingham, MD of the JSC Clinic on Tuesday, July 31, 2012 at 12:00 noon in the Building 30 Auditorium. Dr. Willingham will answer questions and provide information on common medications, drug interactions and side effects.
Lorrie Bennett, Employee Assistance Program, Clinical Services Branch 281-483-6130
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5. Interested in the State of the Center? RSVP for Aug. NMA Luncheon
Please join us for August's JSC National Management Association Chapter luncheon presentation, "State of the Center", with guest speaker Mike Coats.
Date: August 28, 2012
Time: 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Location: Gilruth Center, Alamo Ballroom
Seats will fill up fast. Please RSVP by close of business Aug. 21 at http://www.jscnma.com/Events
For RSVP technical assistance and membership information, please contact Lorraine Guerra at lorraine.guerra-1@nasa.gov or 281-483-4262.
Cassandra Miranda 1-281-483-8618
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6. Lean Six Sigma - Overview Training
The principles of Lean and Six Sigma have become an industry standard practice in continual improvement over the last couple of decades. They are frequently combined using complementary approaches to both improve efficiency and reduce variation and defects. NASA began its Lean Six Sigma program in early 2000 by benchmarking the training and implementation methods of its contractors and industry partners, resulting in a NASA Lean Six Sigma approach of rapid process improvement. JSC began training civil servants as process improvement facilitators in 2009 and offers periodic training provided by the agency's Master Black Belt. Civil servants and contractors are invited to attend a one-hour overview training session provided by the agency's expert in an informal question-answer format. This one-hour overview also serves as a pre-requisite for the NASA Green Belt training class (offered in SATERN). Monday, Aug. 6: Building 1, Room 360, from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m./Tuesday, Aug. 7: Building 30 Auditorium, from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.
No registration is required.
Cheryl Andrews x35979
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7. Shuttle Knowledge Console
Hard to believe a year has passed since the final launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis, the final mission of the Space Shuttle Program. As part of JSC's ongoing Space Shuttle Knowledge capture process, the JSC Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) and the JSC Engineering Directorate are pleased to announce that many of the systems and subsystems developed and utilized during the program have been captured and retained for JSC users at the new Shuttle Knowledge Console. (https://skc.jsc.nasa.gov) Systems such as the Shuttle Drawing System, Subsystem Manager, Space Shuttle Flight Software, SSPWeb and many more can be accessed from the console. Questions about the new website can be directed to Howard Wagner in the JSC Engineering Directorate or Brent Fontenot in the CKO office. We would love your feedback on this new site. Click the "Submit Feedback" button located on the top of the site navigation, and give us your comments.
Brent J Fontenot x36456 https://skc.jsc.nasa.gov/Home.aspx
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8. FedTraveler Live Lab Tomorrow, Aug. 1
Do you need some hands-on, personal help with FedTraveler.com? Join the Business Systems, Innovation and Process Improvement Office for a FedTraveler Live Lab tomorrow, August 1, 2012, any time between 9 a.m. and noon in Building 20, Room 204. Our help desk representatives will be available to help you work through travel processes and learn more about using FedTraveler during this informal workshop. Bring your current travel documents or specific questions that you have about the system and join us for some hands-on, in-person help with the FedTraveler. If you'd like to sign up for this FedTraveler Live Lab please log into SATERN and register. For additional information, please contact Judy Seier at x32771.
Gina Glenney x39851
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9. Deadline For Contest Entries
You still have time to enter the Stay Sharp, Stay Safe campaign contest. But, hurry! The drawing for a fabulous prize will be held this Friday, Aug. 3.
Go to the link below this message, and click on "Contest." Just answer 10 questions, and you're in!
For a sneak peak at the choice of what you might win, visit https://powerofone.jsc.nasa.gov/experience/?awardLevel=GOLD
Now, there's a prize worth going for!
Stacey Menard x45660 http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/safety/WhatsNew/AAC/
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10. This Week at Starport
Mars mania is coming! On Sunday, Aug. 5, the next Mars rover, Curiosity, will land on Mars. Special Mars products will be offered this week at discounted prices in Starport Gift Shops to honor this spectacular event. Plus both Building 3 and 11 Cafes will have commemorative Curiosity Cups in place of the regular dine-in tumblers. These special cups are free with the purchase of a fountain drink or $0.50 each.
Visit the JSC Federal Credit Union booth in the Starport Cafes on Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.. to chat with representatives regarding you checking, savings, and other accounts.
Plus ... Are you ready to cut loose?? Learn the Footloose dance in one amazing night - Aug. 10 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Gilruth Center. Register by Aug. 1, and the fee is only $10/person. Visit http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Fitness/RecreationClasses/RecreationPrograms.cfm for more details.
Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/
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11. Project Asset and Lifecycle Management System (PALMS) Training Available
PALMS is the Engineering Directorate's new Project Management tool for online project planning, scheduling and tracking. Closely integrated with Oasis, PALMS enables Web-based project collaboration, management and publishing of project schedules, resources and associated data products. To register for one of the monthly PALMS classroom training sessions, simply access SATERN and select one of these available courses:
PALMS Project Server Training for Team Members and Project Managers
SATERN Course ID: PALMS-01
The next session is available for self registration in SATERN until Monday, Aug. 13, for all EA civil-servants and contractors.
Date: Tuesday Aug. 14
Location: Building 20, Room 204
Stacey Zapatka x34749
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12. JSC Library's Introductory Training is Tomorrow
Don't miss your chance to learn about the resources and services available at the Scientific & Technical Information Center (STIC). The STIC consists of the Main Library, Bioastronautics Library, the International Space Station Library and the Still Imagery Repository and Video Repository.
You can attend via WebEx from 9 to 10 a.m. To register click on the "Classroom/WebEx" schedule on the following website: http://library.jsc.nasa.gov/training/default.aspx
Provided by the Information Resources Directorate http://ird.jsc.nasa.gov/default.aspx
Ebony Fondren x32490 http://library.nasa.gov
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________________________________________
JSC Today is compiled periodically as a service to JSC employees on an as-submitted basis. Any JSC organization or employee may submit articles. To see an archive of previous JSC Today announcements, go to http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/pao/news/jsctoday/archives.
NASA TV:
· 9:40 am Central (10:40 EDT) – E32’s Suni Williams w/WCAI Radio, Woods Hole, MA & CNN’s Sanjay Gupta
NEWS NOTE: Distribution may be delayed through Thursday as I am on West Coast time
Human Spaceflight News
Tuesday – July 31, 2012
HEADLINES AND LEADS
Russia's Progress 47 Cargo Craft Departs Space Station for Final Time
Mark Carreau - Aviation Week
Russia’s much traveled Progress 47 cargo capsule has departed the International Space Station for good, freeing the Russian segment Pirs docking port for the arrival of the Progress 48 later this week, following a first time, four orbit launch to docking transit. Progress 47, which arrived at the six man orbiting lab initially on April 22, undocked for the final time on Monday at 5:19 p.m., EDT, filled with trash and headed for several weeks of orbital engineering tests and a destructive re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.
Shuttle contractor USA to lay off 148 at Kennedy Space Center
Patrick Peterson - Florida Today
United Space Alliance plans to lay off 148 workers at Kennedy Space Center in September, according to a notice filed last week with the state Department of Economic Opportunity. The notice said employees working in administrative and support, waste management and remediation services would be affected.
NASA's historic Hangar S faces bitter end
Aging facility played big part in space program
Todd Halvorson - Florida Today
For Jack King, it was a magical day. Fifty years ago, on Feb. 23, 1962, President John F. Kennedy traveled to Florida to honor Mercury astronaut John Glenn at historic Hangar S on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Three days earlier, Glenn made history, becoming the first American to orbit Earth — a feat that put the fledgling U.S. space program on equal footing with the Soviet Union in a Cold War battle for technological and ideological supremacy. “So it was a very special occasion,” said King, a longtime Cocoa Beach resident and the first public affairs director at what now is Kennedy Space Center. Memories like that make it hard for King to see Hangar S, which served as crew quarters for the Mercury astronauts, show up on NASA’s demolition list.
Report: NASA Essential to American National Security
Mark Whittington - Yahoo News
A new white paper released by TASC, a company that provides engineering and other services to the military, the intelligence community, and other government agencies, says NASA is vital to the national security of the United States. The white paper suggests that NASA, more than the United States military, is positioned to foster international cooperation in space. The space agency does this by providing technical expertise for international space projects. In such a way, trust and interdependence is built up among nations which in turn lowers the possibility of international conflict. NASA can interface with the civil space agencies of other countries in a way that neither the military nor the State Department are able to.
NASA conducts mission simulations in Hawaii
Marlene Morgan - AmericaSpace.org
Astronaut Eugene Cernan, the commander of Apollo 17, was the last man who walked on the Moon in December 1972. NASA is currently conducting a nine-day field test outside Hilo, Hawaii, so they can evaluate new exploration techniques for the surface of the Moon. These mission simulations, known as analog missions, are performed at extreme and often remote locations here on Earth to prepare for robotic and human missions to extraterrestrial destinations. The In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) analog mission is collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), with help from the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES).
New engine passes test and revs up space hopes
Xin Dingding - China Daily
A next-generation engine, that will pave the way for lunar exploration, was successfully tested on Sunday. The engine, with a 120-ton-thrust using liquid oxygen (LOX) and kerosene, will enable the Long March 5 carrier rocket - which is expected to make its maiden voyage in 2014 - to place a 25-ton payload into near-Earth orbit, or place a 14-ton payload into geostationary orbit, experts said. The tests, which included seeing how the engine would respond to rotational speeds of nearly 20,000 revolutions per minute and temperatures of 3,000 C for 200 seconds, were held in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province.
Why SpaceX is setting the pace in the commercial space race
Innovations blaze a new trail for NASA spaceflight in the 20-teens
Stewart Money - NBC News (Commentary)
(This is a response to a series by NBC News' Jay Barbree on U.S. human spaceflight. Money is a freelance writer focusing on space transportation issues. He is currently working on a book about SpaceX and the development of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft.)
NASA is about to make a critical decision regarding a new chapter in American space exploration. At issue is which two entrants among a field of highly qualified contestants will move ahead as the primary winners into the next phase of the commercial crew competition to replace the space shuttle as America’s means of access to Earth orbit. This decision is about much more than whose brand name will be emblazoned on the side of a spacecraft. With serious differences between the leading contenders, it is also a referendum on the merits of a new approach to developing and conducting spaceflight operations, one which recently resulted in the first-ever private commercial flight to the International Space Station.
Giants in glass houses
Dwayne Day - The Space Review (Commentary)
In the past month I have had the opportunity to visit all three locations that have a Saturn V rocket on display: the Kennedy Space Center Visitor’s Complex, the Huntsville Space and Rocket Center, and Space Center Houston. Both the Kennedy and Huntsville locations have outstanding facilities and exhibits for displaying their Saturn V rockets. They are both obviously proud of what they have and how they represent their communities. They both followed different paths toward funding their facilities, but the end results are impressive and demonstrate a commitment both to honoring the objects and their designers and builders, as well as educating current and future generations of the public. Houston is another story. The building includes wall displays, but no other artifacts or media like at the other two sites. Unfortunately, although intended as a temporary structure, and erected in the middle of the last decade, such buildings often have a tendency to become permanent. What is more dismaying is that the building containing the Saturn V is starting to deteriorate. This simply reinforces the impression that the Saturn V is being stored in a big garage. Houston has had the Saturn V for decades. It has housed it indoors for almost seven years, and yet the city has not improved the presentation or shown any indication that it intends to display the Saturn V with any of the affection and intelligence that the Kennedy and Huntsville communities have given to their Saturn Vs. If you look at what Houston has done it is hard not to wonder if they would have treated a shuttle orbiter with the same indifference. Maybe being overlooked for a shuttle will be a wakeup call for Space Center Houston to get their act together and start aspiring to be like the better space museums.
FAA Deserves Extra Credit for Safety Dialog
Space News (Editorial)
When Paul Allen and Burt Rutan’s SpaceShipOne snagged the $10 million Ansari X Prize in the fall of 2004 by flying to suborbital space twice within a week, many reasonably assumed that more such jaunts — with paying passengers on board — would soon follow. Few would have imagined that eight years would fly by without another flight. But that’s what has happened. Virgin Galactic, the suborbital spaceflight industry’s well-financed frontrunner, says it is on track to begin powered test flights of the six-passenger SpaceShipTwo by year’s end with ticketed flights to follow in 2013. If the New Mexico-based company holds to this schedule, it still stands to benefit from a regulatory amnesty period the United States enacted in late 2004 to nurture the still nascent commercial human spaceflight sector. But just barely.
House to take up bill protecting astronauts’ rights to space artifacts
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
The U.S. House of Representatives will begin this week considering a bill to confirm the ownership of astronauts' mission mementos. The lawmakers' meeting comes 41 years after astronauts landed on the moon with souvenirs that raised congressional concerns. The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology is scheduled to meet Thursday (Aug. 2) to markup the bill aimed at establishing clear title to the space artifacts that astronauts have kept since flying to the moon.
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COMPLETE STORIES
Russia's Progress 47 Cargo Craft Departs Space Station for Final Time
Mark Carreau - Aviation Week
Russia’s much traveled Progress 47 cargo capsule has departed the International Space Station for good, freeing the Russian segment Pirs docking port for the arrival of the Progress 48 later this week, following a first time, four orbit launch to docking transit.
Progress 47, which arrived at the six man orbiting lab initially on April 22, undocked for the final time on Monday at 5:19 p.m., EDT, filled with trash and headed for several weeks of orbital engineering tests and a destructive re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.
The freighter, also designated M-15M, departed the station for the first time on July 22 for what was to be an overnight flight test of the new KURS-NA automated rendezvous system. However, the return was postponed after the upgraded avionics failed an activation self test.
After Russian troubleshooting and a warm up of the avionics, the Progress 47 re-docked late Saturday without difficulty, completing a successful test of the KURS-NA. The upgraded rendezvous system is projected to become a fixture aboard future Soyuz crew transport and Progress re-supply craft, possibly by 2014.
Cosmonaut Gennady Padalka removed and stowed the KURS-NA aboard the ISS to await a future trip back to Earth and some further engineering review.
On Monday, the NASA-led ISS mission management team approved plans for the one day Progress 48 mission. The lift off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan is set for Wednesday at 3:35 p.m., EDT. The four orbit transit would lead to an automated docking of the new resupply ship with the space station at 9:24 p.m., EDT.
The normal 34 orbit, two plus day launch to docking timeline remains a Russian option for the Progress 48. If exercised, the latest supply ship would reach the orbiting science lab on Friday at 6:15 p.m., EDT.
Shuttle contractor USA to lay off 148 at Kennedy Space Center
Patrick Peterson - Florida Today
United Space Alliance plans to lay off 148 workers at Kennedy Space Center in September, according to a notice filed last week with the state Department of Economic Opportunity.
The notice said employees working in administrative and support, waste management and remediation services would be affected.
“It’s a continuation of the ramp-down following the end of the space shuttle program, so there’s not one particular group of people targeted,” USA spokeswoman Kari Fluegel in Houston said.
The last shuttle mission ended July 21, 2011. About 8,000 space industry workers have lost their jobs as the 30-year-old shuttle program came to an end. The latest layoff will take place on Sept. 28.
“We expect additional layoffs as we continue to complete the transition and retirement work (on the space shuttles,)” Fluegel said.
Just over 2,500 remain at work for USA in Alabama, Houston and Florida, with nearly 1,300 in Florida.
NASA's historic Hangar S faces bitter end
Aging facility played big part in space program
Todd Halvorson - Florida Today
For Jack King, it was a magical day.
Fifty years ago, on Feb. 23, 1962, President John F. Kennedy traveled to Florida to honor Mercury astronaut John Glenn at historic Hangar S on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
Three days earlier, Glenn made history, becoming the first American to orbit Earth — a feat that put the fledgling U.S. space program on equal footing with the Soviet Union in a Cold War battle for technological and ideological supremacy.
“So it was a very special occasion,” said King, a longtime Cocoa Beach resident and the first public affairs director at what now is Kennedy Space Center.
Memories like that make it hard for King to see Hangar S, which served as crew quarters for the Mercury astronauts, show up on NASA’s demolition list.
The space agency is in the midst of a post-shuttle era examination of all its facilities at KSC and Cape Canaveral. The goal: Determine which facilities will be needed to move ahead with the development of new rockets and spacecraft for deep space missions; which facilities might entice commercial space taxi companies, and which facilities no longer have a reason for being.
“Unfortunately, there are some buildings that aren’t sustainable anymore, some that we can’t really afford to maintain,” said Tom Engler, deputy manager of the Center Planning and Development Office at KSC.
“This is a 60-plus-year-old building. It has a lot of maintenance issues, and it’s actually beneficial to the center to put them on the abandon list and then eventually demolish them because they are too expensive for us to maintain.”
The annual operating cost at Hangar S: $148,000.
“It breaks my heart. I realize there are all kinds of circumstances involved, but there were two facilities I remember so much in the very early days,” King said.
One is the old Mercury Mission Control building, which was razed in 2010. “Hangar S is the other one,” King said.
Take a walk down memory lane with King and you’ll see Hangar S was the nexus of NASA’s nascent operation at Cape Canaveral in the early 1960s.
It’s located a block from the western gate of the air force base, just east of the Banana River.
In the E&L (Engineering and Laboratory) building just across the street, Kurt Debus, the German rocket scientist, directed the design, development and construction of NASA’s Saturn V launch site on North Merritt Island.
In between is the E&O (Engineering & Operations) building, where unsung heroes launched early American satellites.
“That was ‘Unmanned Launch Operations’ — a very humble name for a very fine organization,” King said.
“Communications satellites, weather satellites, lunar probes, planetary probes —all of those exciting missions that were really in the shadow of manned spaceflight,” he said. “Those guys really never got the credit they deserved.”
Next door: Hangar S.
That’s where engineers checked out Mercury spacecraft.
That’s where NASA set up crew quarters for Mercury astronauts.
That’s where Dr. William Douglas, the personal physician of the astronauts, performed preflight medical tests; where Joe Schmitt suited up the astronauts; where the astronauts walked out the north door, boarded a step van, and headed to the launch pad.
And that’s where NASA housed Enos and Ham and others in its chimp colony. The chimps flew before NASA put astronauts at risk.
“You had about five or six chimpanzees, and just like a back-up to the prime pilot, you’d have back-ups to the ‘chosen chimp,’ ’’ King said.
The astronauts successfully lobbied for less aromatic quarters, and that’s when they started staying at the Holiday Inn in Cocoa Beach. Later, the astronauts and innkeeper Henri Landwirth built the Cape Colony Inn on State Route A1A. The La Quinta Inn is there now.
Today, Hangar S is a gutted shadow of its former self.
There’s a wide-open concrete slab floor where Mercury and Gemini capsules were checked out.
Behind that lies an area NASA turned into a training facility, where engineers and technicians learned to operate and maintain the shuttle’s twin maneuvering engines and steering jets.
Climb the stairs on the south end of the building to the old Mercury crew quarters. NASA transformed the area into offices. Now it’s an abandoned mess.
There’s no telling where the astronaut’s sleeping quarters were located; where the kitchen and dining area were; where the medical facilities were or the suit-up room.
The only thing of historical value seems to be the memories.
NASA this summer will request proposals for a demolition design contract, and then select a company to develop the ways and means to bring the building down. It’s unclear exactly when the demolition contractor will be selected, but the entire process is likely to take a year.
King said it’s hard to imagine Hangar S gone.
It’s “like a shrine to me,” he said.
Report: NASA Essential to American National Security
Mark Whittington - Yahoo News
A new white paper released by TASC, a company that provides engineering and other services to the military, the intelligence community, and other government agencies, says NASA is vital to the national security of the United States.
NASA as a vehicle for fostering international cooperation
The white paper suggests that NASA, more than the United States military, is positioned to foster international cooperation in space. The space agency does this by providing technical expertise for international space projects. In such a way, trust and interdependence is built up among nations which in turn lowers the possibility of international conflict. NASA can interface with the civil space agencies of other countries in a way that neither the military nor the State Department are able to.
NASA enables technological innovation
The white paper also suggests that NASA can enhance the national security of the United States by fostering technological innovation that reduces the cost of space operations. This in turn provides the United States an edge in any conflict that does ensue. The report does go on to say that the era of constrained budgets poses a threat to continuing innovation.
NASA as a source of soft power
The meme of NASA's engaging in international space projects as a source of soft power was touched on in an article in Space News by Taylor Dinerman, currently affiliated with the Gatestone institute. Soft power seeks to influence world events and other countries by means other than military strength, such as diplomacy or economic cooperation. Dinerman cited the International Space Station as an example of such soft power generating space projects that NASA is engaged in. He also suggested that a lunar base could serve such a purpose as well, bringing in other, friendly countries to help to administer such a facility and providing a means for international astronauts to visit the moon that they otherwise would not have the opportunity to.
NASA and technological innovation
A year ago, MSNBC published an article about NASA as a source of technological innovation. The piece came to several conclusions.
Some claims about NASA produced technology are overblown. Tang, Velcro, and Teflon, sometimes ascribed to NASA, actually were invented before they were used in the space program.
The path from a technology developed by NASA to a commercially useful product is often indirect and hard to track. Such "spin-offs" can be hard also to predict and developed serendipitously. One effect, not often cited, is the development of a knowledge base just by solving the difficult problems of space flight that can prove useful in other areas.
Studies about the economic return from NASA range from three dollars for every one spent to as much as 21 dollars for everyone spent.
NASA and the commercial sector
While NASA's commercial crew program has had its share of controversy, the fact of the matter is that the space agency as a potential customer and as a source of subsidies has provided a growth of the commercial space sector and a certain degree of technology innovation. This collaborative effort recently featured a mission by the Dragon cargo ship built and operated by SpaceX to the International Space Station. It is hoped that this sort of commercial operation will lower the cost of space travel by fostering private competition for space markets such as the ISS.
NASA conducts mission simulations in Hawaii
Marlene Morgan - AmericaSpace.org
Astronaut Eugene Cernan, the commander of Apollo 17, was the last man who walked on the Moon in December 1972. NASA is currently conducting a nine-day field test outside Hilo, Hawaii, so they can evaluate new exploration techniques for the surface of the Moon. These mission simulations, known as analog missions, are performed at extreme and often remote locations here on Earth to prepare for robotic and human missions to extraterrestrial destinations.
The In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) analog mission is collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), with help from the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES).
The Apollo Astronauts did not have the sophisticated tools, machines or technology of today. Mercury, Gemini and Apollo training have been surpassed by steady technological advancement. The ISRU analog mission will demonstrate techniques to prospect for lunar ice. The testing site near Hilo features lava-covered mountain soil similar to the ancient volcanic plains on the moon. The two main tests under way are the Regolith and Environment Science and Oxygen and Lunar Volatile Extraction (RESOLVE) and the Moon Mars Analog Mission Activities (MMAMA).
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) located in California, has designed a unique mechanical geologist to seek out possible evidence of life on Mars for approximately 18 days. The spacecraft would search for favorable possible habitat conditions that would indicate evidence that life could exist on the freeze-dried Martian surface.
One of the most productive methods that scientists have used to learn how to search for the existence of life on other planets – has been to seek it out in isolate fields on planet Earth.
The rovers being tested out are not as elaborate as the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity (scheduled to land on the Red Planet in August). The drilling demonstration in Hawaii includes CSA’s Artemis Jr. rover and a drill. These devices support the RESOLVE payload.
RESOLVE is designed to prospect for water, ice and other lunar resources. It will also demonstrate how potential future explorers can take advantage of resources at possible landing sites. The rover and its onboard instrumentation are about as tall as a human and weigh about 660 pounds, three times heavier than the equipment that would be used on an actual mission.
MMAMA is a group of small projects and tests that will define the requirements for navigation, mobility, communications, sample processing, curating and other critical elements that could be used in future science and exploration missions. Using another CSA rover, Juno, and payload interfaces, the MMAMA suite of tests includes analysis of regolith using pryolysis (breaking down the samples by heating them), robotic resource mapping, a miniaturized Mossbauer spectrometer, and a combined miniaturized Mossbauer and X-Ray fluorescence spectrometer. A team of engineers and researchers will monitor all of the tests from a mission control center in Hawaii.
Lessons learned from the ISRU project become increasingly important as NASA embarks on deep-space missions. Instead of having to launch all of the resources needed for these missions from Earth (a heavy and therefore expensive affair), a human crew could go into space knowing that natural resources already there waiting for them.
New engine passes test and revs up space hopes
Xin Dingding - China Daily
A next-generation engine, that will pave the way for lunar exploration, was successfully tested on Sunday.
The engine, with a 120-ton-thrust using liquid oxygen (LOX) and kerosene, will enable the Long March 5 carrier rocket - which is expected to make its maiden voyage in 2014 - to place a 25-ton payload into near-Earth orbit, or place a 14-ton payload into geostationary orbit, experts said.
The tests, which included seeing how the engine would respond to rotational speeds of nearly 20,000 revolutions per minute and temperatures of 3,000 C for 200 seconds, were held in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province.
"The successful tests confirm the reliability of China's LOX/kerosene engine," said Lai Daichu, test commander.
Tan Yonghua, head of Xi'an Aerospace Propulsion Institute under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, which developed the engine, said that the single engine currently used by Long March carrier rockets only has a 75-ton thrust, much less than the 120-ton thrust of the new engine.
Luan Xiting, deputy head of the institute, said that the new engine's extra thrust will enable China to assemble a space station and also help with the third stage of the lunar exploration program.
The three stages involve orbit, landing and return.
Earlier reports said that the Chang'e-5 lunar explorer will bring about 2 kg of lunar samples to Earth.
Ouyang Ziyuan, a senior consultant in the lunar exploration program and a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that Chang'e-5 will be launched atop the Long March 5 carrier rocket from the new space launch center in Wenchang, Hainan province, which is under construction.
The space program is in the second stage, with three lunar exploration spacecraft, Chang'e 2, Chang'e 3 and Chang'e 4.
Ouyang said in a recent e-mail reply to China Daily that China will launch its third lunar explorer, Chang'e 3, next year to land on the moon.
A rover will explore its surroundings.
The landing is expected to be the most challenging part of the mission, he said.
Chang'e 3 will hover about 4 meters above the lunar surface.
Then the engine will cut out, and the Chang'e 3 will drop onto the surface.
As for the rover, the leading scientist in lunar exploration said it is "China's most advanced robot".
The rover carries a lunar "radar" and while it is operating on the surface it can scan several hundred meters under the surface.
The rover also carries instruments that can detect minerals.
To combat nighttime temperatures, -180 C, scientists have developed nuclear-powered batteries that can help the lander and rover function.
They will conserve energy by "hibernating" and when the sun rises the solar energy will "wake" the lander and the rover, he said.
Ouyang said the second lunar orbiter, Chang'e 2, has traveled to explore an asteroid.
The asteroid, 4179 Toutatis, is listed as a potentially hazardous object by scientists because it makes frequent Earth fly pasts.
Prior to traveling into deep space, Chang'e 2, launched in October 2010, completed its six-month mission and spent 235 days some 1.5 million km from Earth, where it gathered a large amount of scientific data about solar activity, he said.
It started its quest for the asteroid on April 15, and is expected to observe the asteroid close up, he said.
Why SpaceX is setting the pace in the commercial space race
Innovations blaze a new trail for NASA spaceflight in the 20-teens
Stewart Money - NBC News (Commentary)
(This is a response to a series by NBC News' Jay Barbree on U.S. human spaceflight. Money is a freelance writer focusing on space transportation issues. He is currently working on a book about SpaceX and the development of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft.)
NASA is about to make a critical decision regarding a new chapter in American space exploration.
At issue is which two entrants among a field of highly qualified contestants will move ahead as the primary winners into the next phase of the commercial crew competition to replace the space shuttle as America’s means of access to Earth orbit.
This decision is about much more than whose brand name will be emblazoned on the side of a spacecraft. With serious differences between the leading contenders, it is also a referendum on the merits of a new approach to developing and conducting spaceflight operations, one which recently resulted in the first-ever private commercial flight to the International Space Station.
This approach stands in contrast to a traditional aerospace establishment which is already firmly in control of NASA’s separate, much larger, slower and vastly more expensive program, the Space Launch System. As a consequence, it holds the potential to shape the future of American space exploration.
With so much at stake, veteran astronauts, industry insiders, lawmakers and even journalists have been weighing in with their opinions as to who should emerge as a winner. There’s been a late push by the aerospace giant Alliant Techsystems, also known as ATK. The company hasn’t won funding for its Liberty launch vehicle in the current phase of the spaceship competition, but it received several billion dollars of funding in a prior life for the now-canceled Ares 1 rocket development program.
The push for Liberty has reinvigorated a long-running debate over the relative merits of “experienced” aerospace companies such as ATK, versus newer entrants such as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX.
The line of reasoning is that as a younger company, founded only a decade ago, SpaceX simply lacks the history to compete with more experienced aerospace contractors. Liberty’s backers argue that human spaceflight is something best left to the grand old names from a better, bolder era, who have seen it all before and know how to get us back.
A different model for space travel
Experience however, can be a two-edged sword — a sword that cuts sharpest when wielded not just for auld lang syne, but instead with skill acquired by applying lessons learned across the broad spectrum of the space era. The most important lesson is that if our ultimate purpose is to explore a solar system that is more diverse and interesting than we once thought, we need a different model for doing so.
Dec. 7, 2012, will mark the 40th anniversary of the flight of Apollo 17. That was the last time the United States ever launched an astronaut beyond Earth orbit. The reason why the operational era of human exploration beyond Earth orbit lasted a mere three and a half years, from July 1969 to December 1972, is that early in the Space Age, and continuing with the space shuttle, the nation tied itself to an infrastructure and a way of doing business that was too expensive to sustain.
NASA acknowledged this reality in 2006, even as it was pursuing its plan to send astronauts back to the moon — known as Project Constellation or “Apollo on Steroids” — by establishing the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program. The purpose of the COTS program was to see if there was a better, more sustainable model for achieving access to space by forgoing the traditional approach of top-down, sole-source , cost-plus contracting — and instead harnessing the innovation and drive of private industry while still maintaining a close partnership with NASA.
After plowing nearly $8 billion into the Ares 1 booster program, Project Constellation did in fact prove too expensive to sustain. Instead, it was the COTS approach for cargo delivery to the space station that became the basis for NASA’s commercial crew program.
Success for SpaceX
SpaceX’s first demonstration cargo flight to the space station was accomplished in May as part of the COTS program. That flight took longer than expected, but the results were well worth NASA’s time and money. Thanks to its investment of $396 million, plus a great deal of advice, NASA has made it possible for SpaceX to produce not just a new launch vehicle but something much more profound: a new space transportation system consisting of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle, the recoverable and reusable Dragon spacecraft, and the infrastructure to support those spacecraft.
For comparison’s sake, the cost to NASA for doing this was less than what the space agency spent on one suborbital test launch of the Ares 1-X booster in 2009. It was less than NASA has spent on the development of its deep-space Orion crew capsule in the first half of this year alone.
Now SpaceX has a contract to launch 12 cargo flights to the space station at a cost to the American taxpayer of about $133 million per flight — putting America back in the orbital transport business. The SpaceX Falcon-Dragon transportation system arguably represents the best investment NASA has ever made. In light of that success, a failure to include the company in the top two for NASA’s commercial crew program would signal an almost unfathomable retreat, unworthy of the best of American ingenuity.
The stunningly low-cost and expansive nature of the Falcon-Dragon system represents much more than a rare bargain for taxpayers, in an era when most such stories have a very different ending. It offers indisputable proof that a new approach to space transportation can work far more effectively than the old ways. It’s absolutely vital to keep the company and the space transport system which has pioneered this path in the vanguard.
Safety first
There are other reasons to support the SpaceX approach, with safety foremost among them. The launch vehicle was designed from the outset to exceed NASA’s crew safety standards. For instance, the spacecraft systems are tested to 140 percent of the maximum expected loads, rather than the 125 percent that NASA calls for. SpaceX has developed a launch pad release system that keeps the rocket safely on the ground until all first-stage engines are at full power and trending safely. Once released, the Falcon 9 can suffer a first-stage engine failure and still make it safely to orbit.
Sitting atop the Falcon 9 booster, the crewed version of SpaceX’s flight-proven Dragon spacecraft incorporates a launch escape system built into sidewall of the crew vessel itself, allowing for a safe escape path at any point in flight.
The ATK Liberty proposal, by contrast, is based on the 40-year-old solid rocket architecture which doomed Challenger and offers none of these critical features. No amount of marketing can obscure the fact that once ignition occurs, solid rocket boosters — unlike liquid-fueled rockets — cannot be turned off. Any launch vehicle can have a bad day; the problem with solid boosters is the tendency to turn a bad day into something much worse.
Another argument focuses on experience. SpaceX is the only entrant in the competition that has already flown to the space station with the complete system being offered. Furthermore, SpaceX is contractually obligated to conduct 12 more flights in the coming years as part of its separate, commercial resupply contract. Consequently, by the time NASA astronauts begin boarding any new American launch system for a trip to the orbiting outpost, SpaceX will already have flown the rout many times over. That means the entire system — including Falcon 9, Dragon, ground operations, tracking, space station rendezvous and berthing, as well as the interplay between the NASA and SpaceX flight control teams — will be well proven. It will be, dare we say, an experienced system.
American competitiveness
Yet another issue for consideration has to do with promoting American industrial competitiveness. In spite of the “experience” that veteran aerospace companies bring to the table for commercial crew, one of the items sadly missing from the menu is a strictly American launch vehicle. United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket, though built in Decatur, Ala., is in fact powered by a single Russian main engine, the RD-180, built in a factory outside Moscow. Outsourcing the heart of the rocket, the engine which drives it, may have saved a great deal of money. But it has also contributed to a gaping hole in the U.S. launch industrial base, only now being countered by SpaceX and its Merlin main engine, which is 100 percent designed and built in the U.S.
While the ATK Liberty does employ an American first stage, albeit based on a solid rocket booster, the second stage is entirely European. If the Falcon 9 is left out of the mix, the United States will still lack a truly indigenous crew launch capacity to low Earth orbit.
The Falcon 9 represents the only all-American launch solution on the table, designed and built in California, tested in Texas and launched in Florida. For a U.S. workforce desperate for jobs, and a country looking for something to celebrate, it doesn’t get much better than that.
It may be tempting to cast the decision regarding the next era in American spaceflight in terms of the glory days of American space exploration, and advocate a return to the waiting arms of companies that helped make those glory days. But there’s a reason that the only "Glory Days" we hear about today are coming from Bruce Springsteen: The cost basis for those past-generation launch systems is unsustainable. NASA understands this, and that’s why the agency has resisted recent pressure to "down select" to a single winner.
Speaking at a news conference in May, former shuttle astronaut Brent Jett, who is now deputy manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said the program was set up to reduce costs by fostering competition. The lack of competition, he said, explains “why a system costs $8 billion to build.”
The past and the future
Although SpaceX has plenty of under-30 employees, the company also employs lots of talented aerospace veterans who have seen it all before and know how to eliminate waste to produce a system that’s safe, yet cost-effective. In this, SpaceX has received wise counsel from NASA, who after years of circling in low Earth orbit yearns to begin exploring again. To assert that SpaceX is not up to the task of extending the same lessons to crewed spaceflight is to suggest that neither is the agency doing the advising.
The exploration of space, more so than almost any human endeavor, is an inherently forward-looking enterprise. While the immediate issue is access to low Earth orbit, the implications reach much farther. The fundamental challenge of space exploration is as much financial as it is technological. Substantially reducing the cost of reaching orbit, a goal unsuccessfully pursued by the shuttle program, remains the key to unlocking the solar system.
Even as NASA officials weigh their decision, one company at the forefront of the space frontier is investing its own resources to build what all parties agree is necessary to establishing a permanent future in space: a fully reusable space transportation system. That company is SpaceX. Soon it will begin testing the Grasshopper, a reusable first stage based on the same Falcon 9 launch vehicle that is at the core of company’s commercial crew proposal. While it is too early to tell if the test program will be successful, the effort itself is representative of what space exploration should be about.
If the accomplishments of the Apollo program are to have lasting significance, then somebody, somewhere is going to have to politely bypass the “experienced” wisdom that says it can’t be done — and develop the technology to make fully reusable launch vehicles a reality. For the moment, at least, that company is SpaceX, the launch vehicle is the Falcon 9, and NASA’s commercial crew competition represents an important step along the way.
Giants in glass houses
Dwayne Day - The Space Review (Commentary)
In April 2011, NASA announced the locations where the retired space shuttle orbiters would be located. The Smithsonian received Discovery, Kennedy Space Center’s Visitor Complex received Atlantis, and Endeavour was allocated to Los Angeles’s California Science Center. Enterprise, previously hosted by the Smithsonian, would head to New York City’s Intrepid Air and Space Museum. Naturally, communities that did not receive an orbiter, but felt that they deserved one, were outraged—outrage being the default response to perceived slights these days.
Congressional delegations in both Texas and Ohio called for investigations of NASA’s site selection process. A NASA Inspector General investigation found some errors in NASA’s rating of the various locations, but no evidence of negligence or political influence. Nevertheless, some grumbling still persists, and when Enterprise was recently damaged during transport to its museum location, some crowed that this was proof that New York City didn’t deserve her, and Houston would have treated her better.
Although the museum proposals stood (and fell) on their own merits, there is a relatively simple rule of thumb that could be applied to the institutions that wanted an orbiter: how well do they do displaying the major artifacts already in their collections? In the past month I have had the opportunity to visit all three locations that have a Saturn V rocket on display: the Kennedy Space Center Visitor’s Complex, the Huntsville Space and Rocket Center, and Space Center Houston.
Both the Kennedy and Huntsville locations have outstanding facilities and exhibits for displaying their Saturn V rockets. They are both obviously proud of what they have and how they represent their communities. They both followed different paths toward funding their facilities, but the end results are impressive and demonstrate a commitment both to honoring the objects and their designers and builders, as well as educating current and future generations of the public.
Houston is another story.
Space Center Houston’s Saturn V is located in a temporary building that is not on the actual museum grounds. The building looks like a large shed, and lacks the dramatic windows of the other two facilities. Unlike the other Saturn V rockets, the public can see it for free, if they know how to reach it and are not intimidated by the fact that they have to go through the Johnson Space Center security gate in order to pull into the parking lot.
The building is well-lit, but relatively simply outfitted on the inside, without much room either in front of or behind the vehicle. The building includes wall displays, but no other artifacts or media like at the other two sites. Unfortunately, although intended as a temporary structure, and erected in the middle of the last decade, such buildings often have a tendency to become permanent.
What is more dismaying is that the building containing the Saturn V is starting to deteriorate. Interior insulation is starting to crack and peel, showing considerable degradation from my last visit a year ago. This simply reinforces the impression that the Saturn V is being stored in a big garage.
Houston has had the Saturn V for decades. It has housed it indoors for almost seven years, and yet the city has not improved the presentation or shown any indication that it intends to display the Saturn V with any of the affection and intelligence that the Kennedy and Huntsville communities have given to their Saturn Vs. If you look at what Houston has done it is hard not to wonder if they would have treated a shuttle orbiter with the same indifference.
Maybe being overlooked for a shuttle will be a wakeup call for Space Center Houston to get their act together and start aspiring to be like the better space museums. Houston has been swimming in petrodollars for a long time now, so money is not an issue; a good fundraising effort should be able to gather more than enough money from the local community. What matters is organization and leadership, and based upon the degradation of the Saturn V building, and Space Center Houston’s unenthusiastic display of a rare piece of space history, those requirements appear to be in short supply.
FAA Deserves Extra Credit for Safety Dialog
Space News (Editorial)
When Paul Allen and Burt Rutan’s SpaceShipOne snagged the $10 million Ansari X Prize in the fall of 2004 by flying to suborbital space twice within a week, many reasonably assumed that more such jaunts — with paying passengers on board — would soon follow. Few would have imagined that eight years would fly by without another flight. But that’s what has happened.
Virgin Galactic, the suborbital spaceflight industry’s well-financed frontrunner, says it is on track to begin powered test flights of the six-passenger SpaceShipTwo by year’s end with ticketed flights to follow in 2013. If the New Mexico-based company holds to this schedule, it still stands to benefit from a regulatory amnesty period the United States enacted in late 2004 to nurture the still nascent commercial human spaceflight sector.
But just barely.
A key provision of the 2004 Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act that Congress sent to the president’s desk within two months of SpaceShipOne’s prize-winning flight is set to expire on Oct. 1, 2015. It would have expired this December if lawmakers had not passed a bare-minimum extension in February.
The Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act did three important things: First, it gave the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) clear jurisdiction over private human spaceflight; second, it established an experimental-permit regime meant to fast track flight tests; and third, it barred the FAA for eight years from writing rules designed solely for the protection of passengers and crew flying aboard these brand-new vehicles.
Only this last provision, meant to prevent the FAA from snarling operators in a jumble of best-guess dos and don’ts, is subject to an expiration date.
Proponents cast the partial ban on rule making as a “learning period” meant to allow human spaceflight regulatory standards to evolve without stifling innovation or subjecting passengers and crew to undue risk.
The FAA, of course, remains free to act during the amnesty period to protect public safety — by dictating through the licensing process, for example, where and when these vehicles can fly. Lawmakers back in 2004 also carved out an important exception to the rule-making moratorium that allows the FAA to ban vehicle design features or operating practices that kill or seriously injure crew or passengers, or contribute to a close call that could easily have done so.
However, the underlying notion of letting early passengers fly at their own risk — these are people, after all, who can afford to pay $200,000 for a 90-minute joyride — is essential for allowing the industry to take flight without being weighed down by overregulation.
It has taken longer than many imagined, but the suborbital human spaceflight industry finally appears ready for takeoff. And thanks to NASA, the FAA already finds itself licensing one commercial operator — Space Exploration Technologies — that’s now flown its first quasi-commercial cargo mission to the international space station and is champing at the bit to launch astronauts.
The last thing commercial human spaceflight operators need during the early going is a shelf full of rules approximating those the FAA imposes on an airline industry that carries millions of passengers every day.
But just because the FAA doesn’t have free rein to regulate doesn’t mean it has no responsibility to promote crew and passenger safety.
Congress made this fairly plain in February when it passed the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012. “Nothing in this provision is intended to prohibit the FAA and industry stakeholders from entering into discussions intended to prepare the FAA for its role in appropriately regulating the commercial space flight industry when the provision expires,” lawmakers wrote in a report accompanying the bill.
What’s more, industry is eager to engage the FAA in a safety dialog.
Yet FAA lawyers took a heap of persuading to allow the agency’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation to begin these discussions. Only part of the concern, FAA officials have said, was running afoul of the spirit of the rule-making moratorium. The broader objection pertained to a longstanding federal law that governs the federal rule-making process. The Administrative Procedures Act, which dates back to 1946, is very strict about when and how federal officials may share their thinking about future regulations. Violators can go to jail.
It was no small matter, therefore, for the Office of Commercial Space Transportation to organize a series of monthly public telephone calls, starting in August, to give industry a forum for sharing its views on improving safety while avoiding imprudent regulations.
It’s a good start, but more can be done.
For starters, Congress should extend the learning period beyond 2015. House lawmakers were on the right track when they voted to restart the clock at eight years from the time of the first licensed flight. House and Senate conferees, unfortunately, limited the extension to the three-year duration of the authorization bill itself.
Next, Congress should give the Office of Commercial Space Transportation a small funding boost, focusing the additional money on fielding experts, not putting more bureaucrats in Washington. Currently budgeted at $16 million, the 70-person organization needs to staff up its field offices so that its technical experts can work alongside operators as this industry evolves. A lessons-learned database, maintained with industry’s cooperation and structured to protect proprietary information, would help ensure little problems don’t become big problems; any mistake could be very costly to the whole industry, not just the company that made it.
Finally, the Office of Commercial Space Transportation needs to remember its dual mandate to regulate and promote the U.S. commercial spaceflight industry. The FAA can and should use this promotional mandate to issue safety advisories aimed at heading off accidents.
Because one mishap could be all it takes to bring the hopes of an entire industry tumbling back to Earth.
House to take up bill protecting astronauts’ rights to space artifacts
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
The U.S. House of Representatives will begin this week considering a bill to confirm the ownership of astronauts' mission mementos. The lawmakers' meeting comes 41 years after astronauts landed on the moon with souvenirs that raised congressional concerns.
The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology is scheduled to meet Thursday (Aug. 2) to markup the bill aimed at establishing clear title to the space artifacts that astronauts have kept since flying to the moon.
The bill (H.R. 4158) takes an almost opposite approach to the outcome of a congressional investigation held after the Apollo 15 mission, which accomplished the fourth manned moon landing in July 1971. Four decades ago, NASA — in response to pressure by Congress — formalized rules that restricted the types of souvenirs that space-bound crews could fly and keep from their missions.
The current bill, which was first introduced last March by committee chair Ralph Hall (R-TX) and ranking member Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), came after NASA stepped in to halt the sales of moon-flown equipment that some of the Apollo astronauts had tried to auction. The astronauts maintained that they had the space agency's permission to keep the well-traveled lunar artifacts, but didn't have the ironclad paperwork to prove their claim.
"From the beginning of our nation's space program through the Apollo era, NASA astronauts were permitted to retain mementos from their spaceflights," Hall and Johnson said in a March 2 letter sent to committee's members. "Without statutory clarification, some astronauts may be forced to make reparations."
The bill, titled "To confirm full ownership rights for certain United States astronauts to artifacts from the astronauts' space missions," is, in its current form, only 264 words, or about one-fourth the length of this article.
Thursday morning's markup is expected to be brief, as 32 out of the committee's 36 members are co-sponsors.
Astronauts and their artifacts
In 1971, the Apollo 15 mission launched with what NASA later identified as "unauthorized" articles, including nearly 400 collectible postmarked envelopes, or postal "covers." The post-flight overseas sale of some of these mementos resulted in a congressional investigation and the Apollo 15 crew never flew in space again.
The astronauts' moon-flown mementos were confiscated, and were only returned a decade later when the astronauts filed suit against the government, citing NASA's entrance into an agreement with the U.S. Postal Service to market covers to the public that were flown on the space shuttle.
The astronauts' rights to expendable space equipment — including checklists, personal hygiene kits, and items that if had been left aboard the Apollo lunar module would have been crashed into the moon — went largely uncontested by NASA until last year.
In July 2011, the government filed a lawsuit against Apollo 14 moonwalker Edgar Mitchell to have the motion picture camera he returned from the moon declared government property. After holding onto the camera for more than 40 years, Mitchell consigned it to an auction house in New York to be sold for an estimated $60,000 to $80,000.
In court documents, Mitchell argued that he and his fellow Apollo astronauts had been given permission by NASA to save equipment as souvenirs if they were not intended to return to Earth. According to the Apollo 14 flight plan, had Mitchell not kept the camera, it would crashed with the no longer needed lunar lander at the end of the mission.
But those early policies went mostly unwritten. It was not until decades later that NASA began to document its rules over the use of space shuttle equipment as mementos.
Last October, Mitchell settled out of court, turning over the camera for its display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. In return, he was only responsible for his own legal fees.
Then, this past January, NASA's General Counsel raised new questions over the title to artifacts offered by a Dallas auction house on behalf of Apollo 13 commander James Lovell and Apollo 9 spacewalker Rusty Schweickart. One item in particular, a lunar module activation checklist that had been used to reconfigure the lander into a lifeboat on the periled Apollo 13 mission, made headlines after it sold for a record-setting $388,375.
NASA's inquiry halted that sale. Lovell, Schweickart and other Apollo astronauts came to Washington, D.C. to meet with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, a former space shuttle astronaut, to try to resolve what the NASA chief described as "fundamental misunderstandings and unclear policies" regarding artifacts from the agency's Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs.
"We'll explore all policy, legislative, and other legal means to resolve these questions expeditiously," Bolden said at the time.
Loaned, gifted, donated or sold
"The agency will support whatever legislation comes from Congress," NASA spokesman Bob Jacobs said, reacting to the introduction of the House bill last March. "This is in line with the discussion that the astronauts had with the administrator back in January."
The bill applies only to artifacts held by U.S. astronauts "who participated in any of the Mercury, Gemini, or Apollo programs through the completion of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project" in 1975. An artifact is defined as "any expendable item... not expressly required to be returned to [NASA] at the completion of the mission and other expendable, disposable, or personal-use items."
The bill, if left as is by the committee and then passed by both the full House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, would extend rights to more than just the artifacts that are currently in the astronauts' possession.
"The federal government shall have no claim or right to ownership, control or use of any artifact that subsequently was transferred, sold, or assigned to a third party by an astronaut," the bill reads.
"Many of the astronauts have loaned, gifted, donated or sold artifacts to universities, museums, family members and private collectors during the intervening years," wrote Hall and Johnson.
END
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