Happy Friday everyone. Have a great weekend.
Friday, August 17, 2012
JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1. Expedition Crew Debrief and Awards Ceremony - Thursday, Aug. 23, 7:30 p.m. in the Space Center Houston Theater
2. ISS Update: JAXA Aquatic Habitat Facility
3. Leadership Speaker Series with Engineering Director Steve Altemus
4. Winner of Stay Sharp, Stay Safe Contest Drawing Announced
5. Starport's Fall 2012 Sport Leagues -- Registration Open
6. The Inner Space Yoga and Pilates Studio--Additional Week of Free Demo Classes
7. NASA Night at the Houston Astros
8. JSC Clinic Physical Exam Reminder
________________________________________ QUOTE OF THE DAY
“ There are no secrets to success. Don't waste your time looking for them. Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty to those for whom you work and persistence.”
-- Gen. Colin Powell
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1. Expedition Crew Debrief and Awards Ceremony - Thursday, Aug. 23, 7:30 p.m. in the Space Center Houston Theater
The ISS Expedition Special Event featuring crew members Dan Burbank, Exp. 29 flight engineer and Exp. 30 commander; Anatoly Ivanishin Exp. 29/30 flight engineer; Anton Shkaplerov, Exp. 29/30 flight engineer; Oleg Kononenko, Exp. 30 flight engineer and Exp. 31 Commander; Andre Kuipers, EXP 30/31 flight engineer; Don Pettit, Exp. 30/31 flight engineer; will be held Thursday, Aug. 23, at 7:30 p.m. in the Space Center Houston Theater. The event will consist of awards, slides, video presentation and a question-and-answer session. This event is free and open to JSC employees, contractors, friends, family members and public guests. For more information, contact Jessica Ocampo at x27804.
Jessica Ocampo x27804
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2. ISS Update: JAXA Aquatic Habitat Facility
Check out an interview from Aug. 15 with Associate International Space Station Program Scientist Tara Ruttley about the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Aquatic Habitat facility.
Find the interview at: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=150513291
The Aquatic Habitat facility provides a new option for the study of small, freshwater fish on orbit. Scientists have multiple studies planned to look at the impacts of radiation, bone degradation, muscle atrophy and developmental biology.
Ruttley explains that the facility is located in the Kibo module and is basically a set of two half-liter aquariums that can support about eight to 12 fish at a time. Its systems include a filter, an LED lighting system, automatic feeders and a water oxygenation system.
Click here to read more about the Aquatic Habitat: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/aquatic.html
JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111
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3. Leadership Speaker Series with Engineering Director Steve Altemus
The Office of Chief Financial Officer Leadership Development Working Group (LDWG)is proud to present the Leadership Speaker Series with JSC Director of Engineering Steve Altemus. This is an excellent opportunity for you to get to know your leadership from around the center as they share their experiences, knowledge and tips-n-tricks on how to succeed as an effective leader.
What: Leadership Speaker Series
Who: Steve Altemus
When: Aug. 21 at 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.
Where: Building 30A Auditorium
Please sign up in SATERN using the link below
SATERN sign-up: https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...
Charlie Jones x42493
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4. Winner of Stay Sharp, Stay Safe Contest Drawing Announced
Quite a lot of you proved that you were not "on-the-rocks" but have your facts "straight" about alcohol and its dangers by filling out the Stay Sharp, Stay Safe campaign questionnaire. The entries were shaken, not stirred, and we drew a winner. AND, THE WINNER IS: Dianne Smith/OA.
Thanks to Dianne and all who entered the contest and took part in the campaign to make our JSC family safer on the roadways, the byways and the waterways now and in the future.
Stacey Menard x45660
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5. Starport's Fall 2012 Sport Leagues -- Registration Open
This fall Starport will be offering EIGHT sports leagues for the NASA workforce and surrounding community!
OPEN Fall 2012 League Registration:
- Closes Aug. 22 -- dodgeball and volleyball
- Closes Aug. 30 -- softball (co-ed and men's)
- Closes Aug. 24 -- basketball
- Closes Sept. 6 -- flag football, kickball, and ultimate frisbee
Upcoming Fall Registration Dates:
- Sept. 6 to 27 -- soccer
Free agent registration now open for all leagues. All league participants must register at: http://www.IMLeagues.com/NASA-Starport
For more detailed information about each league, please visit http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Fitness/Sports/ or call the Gilruth information desk at 281-483-0304.
Leagues will fill up fast, so sign your team up today!
Steve Schade x30304 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Fitness/Sports/
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6. The Inner Space Yoga and Pilates Studio--Additional Week of Free Demo Classes
Starport recently announced the newest addition to our fitness program - The Inner Space Yoga and Pilates Studio. We held free Yoga and Pilates demo classes to showcase this program, and since the first week was so popular, we have extended this offer for an additional week! During the week of Aug. 20 to 26, we will hold free demo classes of what will soon be offered at The Inner Space Yoga and Pilates Studio at the Gilruth Center. Anyone may join in on the demo classes, but space is limited so please sign up at the Gilruth Center front desk to participate.
Plus … membership packages can be purchased for half price through the month of August for the mind/body program set to launch on Aug. 27!
Visit http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Fitness/MindBody/ for more information on The Inner Space.
Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/
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7. NASA Night at the Houston Astros
Celebrate NASA Night at the Ballpark with discounted tickets! Game is Friday, Sept. 14 against the Philadelphia Phillies at 7:05 p.m. First 10,000 fans will receive an Astros fleece blanket, plus enjoy a post-game NASA-themed fireworks show. Visit http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Events/ for ticket pricing and purchase information.
Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/
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8. JSC Clinic Physical Exam Reminder
The JSC clinic will begin sending out annual civil servant exam reminders via kryptiq secure messaging. You will receive an email directing you to log in to the kryptiq service to review your appointment reminder. If you have any questions, please contact the JSC clinic at 281-483-4111.
Shmeka Kerney x34111
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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.
WEBCAST (Audio Only)
· 12:30 pm Central (1:30 EDT) - Update on Curiosity's mission to Mars
Audio: http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio
Visuals: http://go.nasa.gov/curiositytelecon
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT...
Aquatic Habitat Facility - A fish-friendly environment for ISS
Tara Ruttley – Associate ISS Program Scientist – about the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Aquatic Habitat facility, which provides a new option for the study of small, freshwater fish on orbit. Scientists have multiple studies planned to look at the impacts of radiation, bone degradation, muscle atrophy and developmental biology. Read more here from Jessica Nimon in the ISS Program Science Office
Human Spaceflight News
Friday – August 17, 2012
The last dance – Endeavour & Atlantis swap VAB/OPF locations Thursday. Endeavour’s Ferry to California is next month
HEADLINES AND LEADS
Space Station Orbit Adjustment 'to Continue on Aug. 22'
RIA Novosti
The European Space Agency's ATV-3 space freighter will carry on with a planned manouver to readjust the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) on August 22, the agency said on Thursday. The regularly planned reboost, by the "Edoardo Amaldi" Automated Transfer Vehicle-3, stopped "prematurely" on Wednesday due to a temperature alarm in the vehicle's propulsion system, the ESA said in a statement.
The tiny robot space bugs developed for space station maintenance that led to a new blood monitoring system
London Daily Mail
Tiny robot space bugs sound like the last thing you would want anywhere near your blood, but they may offer a breakthrough in testing patients being treated for blood clots. The technology behind electro-mechanical creatures designed to work in future space stations has been adapted to develop a simple, home-use testing kit that can detect problems in patients' circulation. Fifteen years ago as a graduate student, Vladislav Djakov started building these robots that mimic the swarms of bugs found in nature. Equipped with a power supply, limited intelligence and monitoring systems, the bugs would be small enough to send en masse to hard-to-reach places, like pipes carrying liquids on space stations. There, monitoring changes in temperature or flow could warn of impending malfunctions.
Houston's Hidden Space Shuttle Opening to Public Tours
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
As NASA has readied its retired space shuttles to set sail for their museum homes, the agency has also been quietly preparing its least-known orbiter vehicle to stay in place. The SAIL — or Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory — is set to become the newest stop on tours of the Johnson Space Center here this fall. The once fully-functional space shuttle simulator, which was used throughout the 30-year program to develop and test the flight software for each of the 135 missions, was designated an honorary part of the fleet with its own orbiter vehicle (OV) number.
Last two shuttles at Kennedy Space Center swap places
James Dean - Florida Today
During another occasion marking a shuttle program “last,” Kennedy Space Center crews on Thursday lightened the mood with a likely first: a shuttle sporting “bling.” Endeavour backed out of its processing hangar for the last time with one wheel covered by a spinning silver hubcap with cutouts of five orbiters, the number that flew in space. “It just kind of shows we’re trying to keep it light,” said NASA’s Stephanie Stilson, who is overseeing the orbiters’ preparations for public display and said it was her first time seeing the accessory she called “a little bit of bling.”
NASA Space Shuttles Meet Nose-to-Nose for Final Time
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
Two space shuttles traded places at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Thursday for what was planned to be the final multiple shuttle shuffle of the retired program. Shuttles Atlantis and Endeavour paused briefly for nose-to-nose photos as they were moved between the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and orbiter processing facility (OPF) at the Florida spaceport.
ASU professor to serve on NASA panel
Boone Mountain Times (N. Carolina)
An Appalachian State University professor has been selected to participate on an expert panel being convened by NASA to help address problems of muscle and bone density loss on long space missions. Dr. N. Travis Triplett, director of the exercise science program in the College of Health Sciences’ Department of Health, Leisure and Exercise Science at Appalachian, will help review research related to currently available exercise equipment that is being used for Earth-based studies of micro-gravity. This is the second NASA panel on which Triplett has served. The first panel helped engineers develop a weight-training machine that is now aboard the International Space Station. The panel will convene in mid-September at Johnson Space Center in Houston.
NASA's 'Mighty Eagle' Planetary Lander Passes Big Test Flight
Megan Gannon - Space.com
NASA's "Mighty Eagle" — a robotic prototype for new landers to explore the moon and beyond — has passed a major test with its first successful free flight, the space agency announced this week. Without using a tether (a first for the vehicle), the lander took off, hovered at about 33 feet (10 meters), flew sideways, and landed safely on its prescribed target, video of the Aug. 8 test flight shows. The entire flight lasted 34 seconds and took place at NASA's Marshal Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The successful untethered flight came one day before another NASA lander prototype's fiery test failure at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In that Aug. 9 test flight, engineers with NASA's Project Morpheus based at the Johnson Space Center in Houston attempted to make the first untethered flight of the Morpheus lander over a mock moonscape. A failure caused the Morpheus lander to flip over and explode shortly after liftoff. Project Morpheus officials are studying the failure and plan to upgrade a second Morpheus lander for future tests.
Bill Belichick wouldn’t be too interested in living in a space station
Boston Herald
Bill Belichick isn’t a big fan of technology, as he discussed yesterday during a tangent about TV remotes. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that he also wouldn’t be excited about the possibility of living in outer space. The question was posed at the end of Thursday’s news conference. NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy was present for the session, which spurred the question from a reporter: Would he be interested in living on a space station for six months? “I don’t like heights,” Belichick laughed. “It would definitely be pretty interesting, floating around there.” Cassidy, sitting in the first row, interjected, “You can throw a football a really long ways from a space station.”
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COMPLETE STORIES
Space Station Orbit Adjustment 'to Continue on Aug. 22'
RIA Novosti
The European Space Agency's ATV-3 space freighter will carry on with a planned manouver to readjust the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) on August 22, the agency said on Thursday.
The regularly planned reboost, by the "Edoardo Amaldi" Automated Transfer Vehicle-3, stopped "prematurely" on Wednesday due to a temperature alarm in the vehicle's propulsion system, the ESA said in a statement.
The ATV-3, docked at the ISS's Zvezda module, was scheduled to raise the station's orbit by 7.7 kilometers to an altitude of 414.42 kilometers.
"It has been jointly agreed with the ISS control centres to perform the remainder of yesterday's reboost during the next scheduled reboost slot, set for 22 August," said ESA's Jean-Michel Bois, head of Mission Operations at ATV-Control Center.
Bois said the decision was taken in order to give engineers on the ground enough time to complete their investigation into Wednesday's incident.
The reboost was intended to ensure the best conditions for the landing of Russia's Soyuz TMA-04M manned spacecraft on its return to Earth and the docking of the Soyuz TMA-06M manned spacecraft with the orbital outpost, slated for October 15.
Adjustments to the station's orbit are carried out regularly to compensate for the Earth's gravity and to facilitate the successful docking and undocking of spacecraft.
The tiny robot space bugs developed for space station maintenance that led to a new blood monitoring system
London Daily Mail
Tiny robot space bugs sound like the last thing you would want anywhere near your blood, but they may offer a breakthrough in testing patients being treated for blood clots.
The technology behind electro-mechanical creatures designed to work in future space stations has been adapted to develop a simple, home-use testing kit that can detect problems in patients' circulation.
Fifteen years ago as a graduate student, Vladislav Djakov started building these robots that mimic the swarms of bugs found in nature.
Equipped with a power supply, limited intelligence and monitoring systems, the bugs would be small enough to send en masse to hard-to-reach places, like pipes carrying liquids on space stations.
There, monitoring changes in temperature or flow could warn of impending malfunctions.
To move the bugs, the scientist hit on using cilia-like motion, much like some deep-sea creatures use to propel themselves. They covered one face of the microchip with tiny cantilever arms.
'They would then move along on these like millipedes,' said Dr Djakov, now Director of Sensor Development at Microvisk Technologies.
In the end, the space bugs were ahead of their time: they haven’t yet progressed past the testing phase.
But the cilia approach – the cantilever arms to propel the bugs – has gone further.
STFC Innovation, ESA’s Technology Transfer Programme partner that operates the agency’s Business Incubation Centre Harwell in the UK, saw the business potential in the medical market and supported start-up company Microvisk to spin off the technology.
At Microvisk, Dr Djakov’s team stripped down the microchips and put the intelligent sensing mechanisms right into the cantilever arms, almost like a cat’s whiskers.
These whiskers turned out to be very good at monitoring liquids. Sweeping through, they note changes in viscosity and register if anything is suspended in the liquid.
'This is very interesting for probing blood, plasma, and other bodily fluids,' said Dr Djakov.
At present, investors are betting on a device to monitor blood coagulation for patients taking blood thinner medication: 'It’s like a diabetes test, but for thrombosis.'
Thanks to this coagulometer, the Microvisk CoagLite, patients will soon be able to test themselves at home with the prick of a finger.
After a small chamber inside the test strip fills with blood, the tiny cantilever sweeps the drop, monitoring how quickly it coagulates.
'You need less blood, which means there is less pain,' said Dr Djakov, who compared its ease-of-use to diabetics’ simple glucose monitors. 'Hematologists are finding it really important.'
Now undergoing clinical testing with U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the coagulometer should be on the market later next year.
But the whisker technology isn’t limited to testing blood.
'It would be good for things like plasma or teardrops,' said Dr Djakov, 'or to test the oil in a car engine, or in the food industry, to test chocolate or ketchup.
'There are literally hundreds of applications, for this innovation which started as a "space bug".'
Houston's Hidden Space Shuttle Opening to Public Tours
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
As NASA has readied its retired space shuttles to set sail for their museum homes, the agency has also been quietly preparing its least-known orbiter vehicle to stay in place.
The SAIL — or Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory — is set to become the newest stop on tours of the Johnson Space Center here this fall.
The once fully-functional space shuttle simulator, which was used throughout the 30-year program to develop and test the flight software for each of the 135 missions, was designated an honorary part of the fleet with its own orbiter vehicle (OV) number.
Space shuttle Discovery, which is now on display at the Smithsonian in Virginia, was also referred to by NASA as OV-103. Enterprise, the original shuttle prototype, which is now exhibited at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City, was similarly OV-101.
Endeavour, which next month will be flown to Los Angeles for the California Science Center, was designated OV-105. And Atlantis, which is scheduled to arrive this November at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, was OV-104.
The SAIL was designated OV-095. Although it was never space-worthy, from the perspective of its flight computers, the simulated missions that it 'flew' might have just as well been in orbit.
Skeleton of a space shuttle
Filling a couple of floors inside Building 16 at the Johnson Space Center, OV-095 doesn't look like its sister ships.
Although it has a fully-accurate flight deck and is laid out to have a payload bay and aft section, the SAIL's lack of wings, tail — and for that matter, walls — leaves exposed the mock space shuttle's wires, switches, crawl spaces, steep stairs and ledges.
That setup worked well for the more than three decades when the SAIL was an operational laboratory, but was not ideal as a bustling tour stop. NASA needed to make the SAIL safe for visitors while keeping the historical integrity of the facility intact.
The team working to transform the SAIL from a simulation of a space shuttle into a simulation of a facility simulating the space shuttle wanted to maintain the feel of the lab so that the tour felt more like a behind-the-scenes look than a museum display.
"We want to do all we can to honor the great work that was done in this facility," Beth LeBlanc, exhibits manager at the Johnson Space Center, told "JSC Features" writer Hayley Mae Fick.
To achieve that sense of authenticity, the team combed through the facility, and former employees were consulted about even the smallest of items. Take for example, the binder clip that was attached to a long, black string that, to an outsider, might have seemed like nothing more than spare office supplies. It was revealed as an essential part of daily operations to the SAIL team.
Referred to as the "Pony Express," the makeshift clip and string device, which will be on display on the tour, was used to quickly and easily transport paperwork and other small items between the SAIL's upper and lower levels.
The attention to detail is aimed at preserving the scene so well that former SAIL employees will "still feel the same pride for SAIL and be proud to bring their families to see where they used to work," LeBlanc told Fick.
SAILing into shuttle history
The public will be able to choose between two paths to tour the SAIL through the options offered by Space Center Houston, the visitor center for the Johnson Space Center. Tourists will be able to view OV-095 as a stop on the tram tour that is included with general admission or go further in the SAIL on the premium "Level 9" tour.
Entering the SAIL on the first floor of the lab, both types of tours will provide visitors with access to a one-of-a-kind viewing area inside the payload bay of OV-095. Within the naked belly of the mockup, guests will be able to gaze at the space shuttle's extensive wiring system, a maze of thousands of multi-colored wires that gave the simulator — and the real space-flown orbiters — flight.
"It's amazing to think each wire had a specific function," Paul Miller, who is leading the SAIL's transformation from a facility into an exhibit, told Fick.
Level 9 participants will have access inside the middeck and cockpit of OV-095, the latter virtually identical to the other orbiters' flight decks. Each of its switches and LCD displays can activate their corresponding flight controls.
For those on the tram tour, two shuttle program cockpit simulators have been relocated to an empty space outside of the payload bay viewing area to give all visitors to the SAIL the chance to get an up-close look at the controls that the astronauts trained and flew with.
Upstairs on the second floor viewing deck, a section of the floor has been removed so visitors can overlook the cargo bay. From this birds-eye view, guests will be able to get a sense of the massive size of the space shuttle — an otherwise hidden feature of OV-095 provided the way it was built into the building.
Beyond the viewing deck, guests will tour a replica of one of the firing rooms inside Kennedy Space Center's Launch Control Center. Every Apollo and shuttle launch since the unmanned Apollo 4 in 1967 was controlled from an almost identical room in Florida, which just opened as a tour stop at Kennedy Space Center this past June.
Flight simulation logs and other artifacts from the SAIL's days as an operational lab have been scattered across the control center consoles assisting with the illusion that the people who worked there just walked out of the door.
As visitors leave the SAIL for the next stops on their tour, the hope is that they'll walk away with a new-found respect for both the physical hardware and procedures that made the shuttle program possible for the 30-years that it flew.
"While we want our visitors to understand the complexities associated with operating the space shuttle, we also want them to leave the tram stop with the understanding that ground-based simulations are critical to all our missions – past, present, and future," said Michael Kincaid, external relations director at Johnson Space Center.
Last two shuttles at Kennedy Space Center swap places
James Dean - Florida Today
During another occasion marking a shuttle program “last,” Kennedy Space Center crews on Thursday lightened the mood with a likely first: a shuttle sporting “bling.”
Endeavour backed out of its processing hangar for the last time with one wheel covered by a spinning silver hubcap with cutouts of five orbiters, the number that flew in space.
“It just kind of shows we’re trying to keep it light,” said NASA’s Stephanie Stilson, who is overseeing the orbiters’ preparations for public display and said it was her first time seeing the accessory she called “a little bit of bling.”
“There’s a lot of negativity in the sense that (shuttle contractors) are losing their jobs, and we’re well aware of that. We live that every day,” she said. “They’re not going to let the negativity of losing jobs affect them enjoying the moment, and that’s what’s really important.”
Endeavour swapped places with Atlantis, pausing for a final meeting before both depart Kennedy for museums — Endeavour across the country to the California Science Center in Los Angeles and Atlantis down the road to the KSC Visitor Complex.
Endeavour is scheduled to take off atop a 747 carrier aircraft one month from today. It will spend its final weeks here inside the Vehicle Assembly Building, before moving to the runway Sept. 14.
Atlantis is targeting a Nov. 2 roll to the Visitor Complex.
“We’ve finished all the work on Endeavour,” Stilson said. “Atlantis is close to being complete.”
Atlantis took Endeavour’s spot in Orbiter Processing Facility-2, the last of three orbiter hangars that is still actively used.
Remaining work includes the installation of mock-up airlock and cameras, and finishing touches in the crew compartment and around a set of replica main engines.
Atlantis is expected to return to the assembly building in mid-October, a move that will mark the end of the orbiters’ involvement in NASA’s Shuttle Transition and Retirement program. The Visitor Complex will handle Atlantis from there.
Back in April, NASA and United Space Alliance teams delivered Discovery to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Va., and the prototype Enterprise to New York, where it recently opened for display at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.
On Thursday, dozens of employees gathered to watch and take pictures of KSC’s two remaining orbiters as they met nose to nose. Between them, the space ships logged 58 of the 135 shuttle missions.
Stilson said she and her team were happy to have reached another milestone in the more-than-yearlong effort to prepare the shuttles for public display.
But it was sad for many to see Endeavour — fitted with a tail cone for its upcoming ferry flight — exit its hangar for the last time, especially for those who had spent entire careers working on that orbiter.
At least they got to see it. Another round of layoffs is expected in September.
Endeavour’s custom hubcap was actually designed before the final shuttle mission, which Atlantis flew last July, and was signed by some of its crew members.
On Thursday, they had a little fun with a little bling, shuttle style.
“It shows you they’re enjoying it up to the very end,” Stilson said.
NASA Space Shuttles Meet Nose-to-Nose for Final Time
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
Two space shuttles traded places at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Thursday for what was planned to be the final multiple shuttle shuffle of the retired program.
Shuttles Atlantis and Endeavour paused briefly for nose-to-nose photos as they were moved between the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and orbiter processing facility (OPF) at the Florida spaceport.
Atlantis, which had been parked inside one of the high bays in the 52-story tall VAB since June 29, was moved into the OPF to complete its transformation from a space-worthy shuttle to a museum-safe display. The last of NASA's orbiters to fly into space, Atlantis is scheduled to be delivered to the nearby Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex for its public exhibit on Nov. 2.
Endeavour made the opposite trip, moving from the processing hangar to the empty assembly building, to await its flight to the West Coast, where it is destined for display at the California Science Center. With its museum modifications now complete and its aerodynamic tail cone attached, Endeavour will be flown atop NASA's modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) next month.
Hangar hops
Although the Kennedy Space Center has more than one orbiter-sized hangar, the shuttle swap on Thursday was necessary as only one OPF is still open in support of the retired winged spacecraft.
The Boeing Company is moving into Orbiter Processing Facility-3 to support its efforts to build a new space capsule, called the CST-100, to potentially fly American astronauts to the International Space Station.
OPF-1 was closed after Atlantis left for the VAB in June, so it too could be leased for use, though it currently remains without a tenant. Atlantis was instead moved into OPF-2, which was vacated by Endeavour on Thursday.
Atlantis and Endeavour are the last two remaining shuttles at the Kennedy Space Center. Their sister ship, Discovery, was delivered to the Smithsonian for display at the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in northern Virginia in April.
Departing for displays
Endeavour will be the next one to depart its launch and landing site for the final time.
Ferry flight preparations are expected to get underway on or around Sept. 14 with the rollout of Endeavour to Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility, where it will be mated atop the SCA jumbo jet. Endeavour is targeted to leave Florida on Sept. 17 and arrive in Los Angeles on Sept. 20.
The shuttle carrier aircraft's refueling stops and ceremonial flyovers along the way to California have yet to be publicly announced.
Once on the ground in Los Angeles, Endeavour will spend two weeks at LAX as it is hoisted off the carrier aircraft by crane and loaded onto an overland transporter. The shuttle will then embark on a slow road trip to the California Science Center (CSC), completing the 12-mile journey through the streets of Inglewood and L.A. on Oct. 12-13.
The CSC's new Samuel Oschin Space Shuttle Endeavour Display Pavilion is set to open to the public on Oct. 30.
Atlantis meanwhile, will forgo the 747 ferry flight and instead leave Kennedy atop a wheeled transporter for its short drive to the spaceport's visitor center, where a new $100 million display building is now under construction. Set to be displayed as if it was flying in space again, Atlantis' move on Thursday was expected to be the last time it would roll on its own landing gear wheels.
The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex's Atlantis Exhibit is slated to open to the public in July 2013.
ASU professor to serve on NASA panel
Boone Mountain Times (N. Carolina)
An Appalachian State University professor has been selected to participate on an expert panel being convened by NASA to help address problems of muscle and bone density loss on long space missions.
Dr. N. Travis Triplett, director of the exercise science program in the College of Health Sciences’ Department of Health, Leisure and Exercise Science at Appalachian, will help review research related to currently available exercise equipment that is being used for Earth-based studies of micro-gravity.
This is the second NASA panel on which Triplett has served. The first panel helped engineers develop a weight-training machine that is now aboard the International Space Station.
The panel will convene in mid-September at Johnson Space Center in Houston.
“This panel will review the findings from researchers who have been involved in using exercise equipment related to NASA’s goal of preserving musculoskeletal strength, conditioning and rehabilitation in astronauts subjected to long-duration spaceflight,” she said.
Earth-based studies mimic the effects of microgravity by confining volunteers to bed for as long as 90 days or more. The test subjects then engage in a variety of upper and lower body exercises to minimize loss of muscle mass and bone density.
“NASA wants to pull together all the research that is available and create a summary of the equipment available and how effective it is in minimizing or reversing muscle and bone loss,” Triplett said. “Space travel is like accelerated aging with a lot of muscle and bone loss. Even a 30-year-old person ends up with the muscles and bones of a much older person following prolonged space exposure.”
Peak bone density occurs around 30 to 35 years of age, and while the average age of astronauts is 34, NASA has no age restriction for the program. When he was 62, Story Musgrove flew the last of his six shuttle missions on the 1996 flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia. At age 77, John Glenn was the oldest astronaut to fly in space during a 1998 flight.
Muscle atrophy following space flight is short term and can be replaced within a few months with weight training, Triplett said. The body constantly replaces old bone with new bone cells, but it’s a much longer process.
“You are looking at probably a year or two before getting most of the lost bone back,” Triplett said. “And the older a person gets, more bone loss than bone rebuilding is also occurring. If I’m age 55 and I go up in space and lose a lot of bone, I’m probably not going to get that back and will be more prone to osteoporosis at an earlier age.”
That bone loss can result in complications, including bone fractures.
The exercise regimens on the early shuttle missions focused on cardiovascular exercise through treadmills, rowing machines and stationery bikes, Triplett said.
“While your heart is a muscle, too, they found the cardiovascular changes with space exposure weren’t as bad as the changes occurring to the major muscle groups and in bone density,” she said. “NASA realized they need to address that more.”
Since it takes weight-bearing exercise, such as resistance training, to build bone, NASA developed the aRED (advanced Resistive Exercise Device) for use on the International Space Station in 2008, based on reports from the first NASA panel on which Triplett served. The aRED is similar to a strength-training machine found in gyms used to exercise the major muscles in the upper and lower body.
“NASA certainly wants astronauts to be able to return to Earth and not be at higher risk of fractures,” Triplett said.
NASA's 'Mighty Eagle' Planetary Lander Passes Big Test Flight
Megan Gannon - Space.com
NASA's "Mighty Eagle" — a robotic prototype for new landers to explore the moon and beyond — has passed a major test with its first successful free flight, the space agency announced this week.
Without using a tether (a first for the vehicle), the lander took off, hovered at about 33 feet (10 meters), flew sideways, and landed safely on its prescribed target, video of the the Aug. 8 test flight shows. The entire flight lasted 34 seconds and took place at NASA's Marshal Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
The three-legged spacecraft is 4 feet (1.2 m) tall and 8 feet (2.4 m) in diameter. It weighs 700 pounds (317 kilograms) when filled with its fuel, which is made up of 90 percent pure hydrogen peroxide, according to NASA.
After the lander's previous round of testing in 2011, engineers upgraded the guidance controls on the lander's camera, improving its autonomous capabilities, NASA officials said. In tests scheduled through September, engineers plan to get the lander flying and hovering autonomously at up to 100 feet (30 m).
"These lander tests provide the data necessary to expand our capabilities to go to other destinations," Greg Chavers, engineering manager at the Marshall Center, said in an Aug. 13 statement. "It also furthers our knowledge of the engineering components needed for future human and robotic missions."
The Mighty Eagle's successful untethered flight came one day before another NASA lander prototype's fiery test failure at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In that Aug. 9 test flight, engineers with NASA's Project Morpheus based at the Johnson Space Center in Houston attempted to make the first untethered flight of the Morpheus lander over a mock moonscape.
A failure caused the Morpheus lander to flip over and explode shortly after liftoff. Project Morpheus officials are studying the failure and plan to upgrade a second Morpheus lander for future tests.
Bill Belichick wouldn’t be too interested in living in a space station
Boston Herald
Bill Belichick isn’t a big fan of technology, as he discussed yesterday during a tangent about TV remotes. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that he also wouldn’t be excited about the possibility of living in outer space.
The question was posed at the end of Thursday’s news conference. NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy was present for the session, which spurred the question from a reporter: Would he be interested in living on a space station for six months?
“I don’t like heights,” Belichick laughed. “It would definitely be pretty interesting, floating around there.”
Cassidy, sitting in the first row, interjected, “You can throw a football a really long ways from a space station.”
It turned into a quick back-and-forth.
Belichick: “You can hit a golf ball a long way, too, right?”
Cassidy: “You wouldn’t have the touchback concerns with kickoffs.”
Belichick: “Drive the green?”
Cassidy: “Drive the green. Pin-high, every one.”
The pair then took a quick photo, and Belichick walked out to practice.
END
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