9/15/12 news

  NASA TV: ·                     1:30 pm Central (2:30 EDT) – Expedition 32/33 Change of Command ceremony ·                     2:30 pm Central SUNDAY (3:30 EDT) – E32 Farewell/hatch closure coverage (closes 2:55) ·                     5:45 pm Central SUNDAY (6:45 EDT) – Soyuz TMA-04M undock coverage (undocks 6:09) ·                     8:30 pm Central SUNDAY (9:30 EDT) – Soyuz TMA-04M Deorbit & landing coverage ·                     8:56 pm Central SUNDAY (9:56 EDT) – Soyuz TMA-04M Deorbit burn ·                     9:53 pm Central SUNDAY (10:53 EDT) – Kazakhstan Landing (northern zone near Arkalyk)   Human Spaceflight News Saturday – September 15, 2012   Weather permitting, Endeavour’s Ferry to California begins Monday at sunrise East Coast time   HEADLINES AND LEADS   NASA weighs early deep-space tests with Orion   Frank Morring, Jr. - Aviation Week   Planners in NASA’s human exploration and operations (HEO) mission directorate are studying whether it would be possible and worthwhile to expand the first three planned tests of the Orion multipurpose crew vehicle, including the first flight with a crew, to evaluate the capsule’s performance beyond low Earth orbit. Architecture studies of potential deep-space missions using Orion also are being used to consider ways to use the big capsule to collect data on how it would perform beyond low Earth orbit, in lunar flyaround like the Apollo 8 mission, and perhaps early flights to the Earth-Moon lagrangian points under discussion as destinations where human explorers could prepare for missions to asteroids and eventually Mars and its moons, according to HEO Associate Administrator William Gerstenmaier.   House panel questions safety of new spacecraft   Ledyard King - Florida Today   A key panel of House lawmakers Friday sharply questioned NASA's management of the private-sector program to ferry U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station, saying safety could be compromised. NASA's Commercial Crew Program gives seed money to aerospace companies competing to develop a vehicle to take crew between Earth and the International Space Station. But Congress has given NASA hundreds of millions less than the agency wanted, and future funding for the program is uncertain.   NASA's Growing Commercial Contingent   Amy Teitel - AmericaSpace.org   NASA has been working with a number of commercial partners in the name of reestablishing launch capability on US soil; since the end of the shuttle program last July, American astronauts have been relying on the Russian Soyuz for rides up to the International Space Station (ISS). Commercial development programs include the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability program (CCiCap) and a Certification Products Contract program (CPC). It seems like the agency is pursuing a host of vehicles for the same job, but really each company the space agency is funding has a slightly different approach to solving the same problem.   Space Launch System: A year of powering forward   Bill Hubscher - Phys.org   NASA is powering ahead toward new destinations in the solar system. This week marks one year of progress since the formation of the Space Launch System (SLS), the nation's next step in human exploration efforts. On Sept. 14, 2011, NASA announced a new capability for America's space program: a heavy-lift rocket designed to carry the Orion spacecraft and send astronauts farther into space than ever before. And now, one year later, NASA has made swift progress improving on existing hardware, testing and developing new components, and paving the way for a new launch vehicle. The SLS will make human exploration of deep space a reality and create new possibilities for scientific discovery.   Japanese resupply ship ends mission with fiery re-entry   Stephen Clark - SpaceflightNow.com   Japanese engineers remotely guided a space station cargo craft back into the atmosphere Friday, destroying the garbage-filled spaceship as planned after a nearly two-month mission. The HTV resupply freighter fell back into Earth's atmosphere at about 0527 GMT (1:27 a.m. EDT). The spacecraft was expected to break apart and burn up from the heat of re-entry, and any leftover debris fell into a predetermined zone in the southern Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and Chile. The re-entry marked the end of a 55-day mission for the disposable cargo craft, which lifted off July 21 from Tanegashima Space Center in Japan. It was attached to the International Space Station for 47 days.   Why Humanity Needs to Travel to Other Stars   Clara Moskowitz - Space.com   Launching a mission to another star could teach us not just about space, but about Earth as well, experts argued here today at the 100 Year Starship Symposium. "I believe space exploration is a human imperative," said Mae Jemison, the first female African American astronaut. "It didn’t begin in 1957 with Sputnik, it's been a part of us" all along. Jemison is heading the 100 Year Starship initiative, which aims to mount a mission to another star within 100 years. Toward that end, scientists and thinkers from a variety of disciplines gathered for a public symposium here from Sept. 13 to 16 to discuss the motivations, challenges and possible solutions for pursuing interstellar spaceflight.   Will we be the first Martians?   Dan Vergano - USA Today   From ancients who worshiped the Red Planet as a fierce war god in the sky, to scientists like Percival Lowell and fantasists like Ray Bradbury, Mars has taunted Earth's adventurers with the ultimate challenge. Now that the fear of imaginary invaders has been replaced by a frustrating search for chemicals, a more fundamental question is emerging. Could humans walk the sands of Mars, and actually live and work there? That's what NASA's $2.5 billion Mars' Curiosity rover is trying to determine as it rolls heroically across the rugged but achingly desolate Martian landscape.   Space Shuttle Endeavour's final flight excites Los Angeles fans   Kristin Agostoni - Los Angeles Daily News   Michael Ripley wants to be in one of two places Thursday for the space shuttle Endeavour's planned trip to Los Angeles atop a Boeing 747 shuttle aircraft carrier. The semi-retired commercial photographer, who has followed the shuttle throughout its nearly 20-year career, plans to either watch the Endeavour take off from Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert or join a crowd along a hilly El Segundo street overlooking its final destination: Los Angeles International Airport. Needless to say, it's an event the Corona photographer can't miss. And it will only happen once, given that the Endeavour next month will officially retire at the California Science Center.   Go west, young shuttle Endeavour, NASA's 'baby,' will set off for its new home Monday   James Dean - Florida Today   Twenty-five times Endeavour blasted into orbit and survived the searing heat of re-entry, along the way rescuing, repairing and deploying satellites and helping to build and supply the International Space Station. Monday begins “Mission 26,” which will see the retired orbiter embark on the final shuttle ferry flight across the country, then navigate dense urban streets to reach its new home at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.   Space shuttle Endeavour mounted on 747 jet for final flight to L.A.   Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com   For the last time in space shuttle history, a NASA orbiter has been mounted to the top of a jumbo jet to be flown to its next destination. For shuttle Endeavour, now sitting piggyback atop the space agency's modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), its next and final mission is to become a museum exhibit. The spacecraft, flying aboard the aircraft, will leave at sunrise on Monday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for Los Angeles, where it is destined for display at the California Science Center (CSC).   Endeavour Ready For Historic Final Flight Next Monday   Mike Killian - AmericaSpace.org   NASA’s youngest space shuttle orbiter, Endeavour, was rolled out one last time from Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building early Friday morning, beginning the orbiter’s long voyage to the California Science Center in Los Angeles.  Endeavour began its trek to the shuttle landing facility under cover of darkness, arriving for a date with NASA’s 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft just as the sun began to rise around 7:00 a.m. EDT.   Toyota Will Pull Space Shuttle Endeavor with 2012 Toyota Tundra   Ben Timmins - Automobile Magazine   The 2012 Toyota Tundra can tow almost anything you can throw at, especially when equipped with the 5.7-liter V-8 engine. That said, Toyota is about to throw the truck its biggest towing challenge yet: towing the Space Shuttle Endeavor. The Space Shuttle Endeavor is on its way to the California Science Center in Los Angeles, but needs to be towed the 12 miles from Los Angeles International Airport to the Science Center. The first 11 ¾ miles will be executed with some sort of tractor trailer, but Toyota says the shuttle will travel the last ¼ mile behind a Toyota Tundra.   Toyota Tundra truck to tow space shuttle to California Science Center   Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com   Space shuttle Endeavour has been moved by rockets, its own engines and thrusters, tank-like transporters and industrial tows. Now retired and museum- bound, the NASA winged orbiter will add another, perhaps unexpected form of locomotion to its well-travelled history: a Toyota Tundra pickup truck. Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc. announced on Wednesday that its Tundra full-size pickup truck is slated to tow Endeavour during its delivery to the California Science Center (CSC), where both the space shuttle and truck are destined for display. Endeavour will travel the 12 miles (19 kilometers) from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to the science center on city streets, with the Tundra towing the shuttle during the last quarter mile (400 meters).   Space shuttle trainer gets ready for visitors   Aubrey Cohen - Seattle Post-Intelligencer   The first thing you notice about the space shuttle full-fuselage trainer is that it's big. The second is that it bears clear signs of its three-decade career training every astronaut who flew into space aboard a shuttle. Those scratches on the side? They're from astronauts practicing climbing out of the hatch at the top of the flight deck and rappelling down. Everyone had to do it, even John Glenn, who was 77 when he returned to space in 1998 aboard the space shuttle Discovery. "Most of the shuttles look absolutely pristine compared to this," said Ray Fletcher, a former Boeing engineer volunteering at the Seattle Museum of Flight. "The condition we got it in is well used."   'UFO Mothership' Near Space Station a Trick of the Light   Life's Little Mysteries   Has the International Space Station inadvertently caught sight of an "Interstellar" Space Station hovering nearby? Or is a blurry streak that UFO hunters have found in new NASA footage filmed out the window of the space station merely a window reflection? Let the most likely explanation win. On Sept. 11, YouTube user danielofdoriaa posted footage from the ISS's live camera feed, which streams over the Web. In his annotated footage, he points out a faint, elongated white shape with a neat row of faint white dots next to it set against the blackness of space just below the curve of the Earth. It is an "amazing UFO mothership letting out an orb fleet on ISS live feed," the YouTuber explains in the video title.   NEIL ARMSTRONG – 1930 – 2012     Neil Armstrong, 1st to walk on moon, buried at sea   Associated Press   The first man to walk on the moon has been buried at sea. NASA says Neil Armstrong's cremated remains were buried in the Atlantic Ocean on Friday during a ceremony aboard the USS Philippine Sea. Armstrong was a Navy fighter pilot before joining the space program. He died last month in Ohio at age 82. His burial follows a memorial service in Washington on Thursday.   Farewell, Neil Armstrong: 1st Moonwalker Buried at Sea   Space.com   The iconic astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first person to set foot on the moon, was buried at sea Friday. The ashes of the former Navy pilot and Apollo 11 moonwalker, who died Aug. 25 following complications from heart surgery, were committed to the Atlantic Ocean during a ceremony aboard the guided missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea. The exact location of the service was not immediately available, though the USS Philippine Sea shipped out from Mayport, Fla., with Armstrong's family aboard. __________   COMPLETE STORIES   NASA weighs early deep-space tests with Orion   Frank Morring, Jr. - Aviation Week   Planners in NASA’s human exploration and operations (HEO) mission directorate are studying whether it would be possible and worthwhile to expand the first three planned tests of the Orion multipurpose crew vehicle, including the first flight with a crew, to evaluate the capsule’s performance beyond low Earth orbit.   Architecture studies of potential deep-space missions using Orion also are being used to consider ways to use the big capsule to collect data on how it would perform beyond low Earth orbit, in lunar flyaround like the Apollo 8 mission, and perhaps early flights to the Earth-Moon lagrangian points under discussion as destinations where human explorers could prepare for missions to asteroids and eventually Mars and its moons, according to HEO Associate Administrator William Gerstenmaier.   “Could we go around a lagrangian point, and maybe transition from one lagrangian point to another?” Gerstenmaier asked in an interview with Aviation Week. “What’s the advantage to us to do that? Does that help us with anything? So we’re starting to flesh out now are there other objectives that we can add to those flights.   Those objectives could include measuring radiation and acceleration loads in the crew compartment as an aid to future design work. That testing could begin as early as an unmanned re-entry test planned for 2014, and continue with the first two flight tests of the full-up Orion vehicle in 2017 and 2021. The second of those flights is scheduled to carry a crew.   “We have certain objectives that we need to accomplish from a test standpoint,” Gerstenmaier noted. “We have to do certain profiles on certain things. But could we expand those potential test missions to do more?”   'Go pretty high'   The initial test mission will be designed to gauge how well the Orion thermal protection system can withstand the heat of a high-speed return from the Moon or beyond, and will send a test vehicle on a high-apogee trajectory for a faster re-entry into the atmosphere.   “We’re going to go pretty high to reaccelerate back into the Earth’s atmosphere, so we could put radiation monitors inside the capsule,” Gerstenmaier said. “We have some little small ones, they look like USB drives, like thumb drives, and you can put those all around on the inside of the structure of Orion. So then we can actually get Orion’s performance , how much it actually attenuates radiation, because it will actually be above the Van Allen belts.”   Similarly, accelerometers could be added to the crew seats on later flights to measure G-loads, he said. The level of extra instrumentation would have to be balanced against the complexity and cost they would add to a give test.   “We’re saying ‘here’s our standard test objectives, but now if we look at how we’re going to use these vehicles in the future, what data could we capture off these early test flights that would help us advance quicker into operational type missions?” he asked.   House panel questions safety of new spacecraft   Ledyard King - Florida Today   A key panel of House lawmakers Friday sharply questioned NASA's management of the private-sector program to ferry U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station, saying safety could be compromised.   NASA's Commercial Crew Program gives seed money to aerospace companies competing to develop a vehicle to take crew between Earth and the International Space Station.   But Congress has given NASA hundreds of millions less than the agency wanted, and future funding for the program is uncertain.   Last year, NASA entered into Space Act Agreements with the companies to give them more flexibility in developing the systems to deliver astronauts to the outpost. That's supposed to bring down costs and speed delivery.   But the agreements also mean the companies don't need to consult with NASA every step of the way. That worries lawmakers on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, who said Friday they're worried that the lack of control could mean private rockets won't be as safe as the shuttles were.   “It's hard for me to understand why NASA is proceeding this way,” Committee Chairman Ralph Hall, R-Tex., said. “If our nation is going to ask crews to explore space, it is our responsibility to do everything possible to ensure that those astronauts return to Earth safely.”   The chairman of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel echoed that concern.   In written testimony submitted to the committee, Joseph Dyer said that while the Space Act Agreements have stimulated private innovation, the phased-in, flexible approach means the private companies can design certain systems before receiving NASA's requirements.   “NASA is just now undertaking to determine how systems will be certified to transport NASA astronauts to and from the (space station),” Dyer wrote. “This timing increases programmatic risk and has serious potential to impact safety.”   William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations, assured lawmakers the agency retains final approval, despite ceding some day-to-day management.   “With proper support from all of us, the NASA team will deliver a safe U.S crewed transportation system for the (space station),” he said.   This week, NASA released a request for proposals for the first phase of a two-phase plan to certify the safety of the commercial crew systems. Responses are due next month. Contracts worth up to $10 million should start in February.   Last month, the agency announced awards worth up to $1.1 billion to three companies vying for the final contract: Boeing ($460 million), SpaceX ($440 million), and Sierra Nevada Corp. ($212.5 million).   In May, California-based SpaceX became the first private enterprise to navigate a vehicle to the space station when its Dragon spacecraft delivered a small payload of cargo. The company is targeting a launch next month for its first delivery of a full payload of cargo to the ISS under its NASA contract.   NASA is aiming for a crewed test flight in 2017.   Lawmakers on the House science committee said they're troubled that, despite harsh fiscal realities, NASA is proceeding as if it will get the roughly $800 million it says it needs annually to keep the Commercial Crew program adequately funded.   Congress provided about half that amount for fiscal 2012 and is not expected to give NASA more than $525 million in fiscal 2013.   “I strongly suggest that, especially in this environment, to pin an estimate of completion and activity based on a hope is a real challenge for the agency,” Rep. Donna Edwards, D-Md., told Gerstenmaier.   NASA's Growing Commercial Contingent   Amy Teitel - AmericaSpace.org   NASA has been working with a number of commercial partners in the name of reestablishing launch capability on US soil; since the end of the shuttle program last July, American astronauts have been relying on the Russian Soyuz for rides up to the International Space Station (ISS). Commercial development programs include the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability program (CCiCap) and a Certification Products Contract program (CPC). It seems like the agency is pursuing a host of vehicles for the same job, but really each company the space agency is funding has a slightly different approach to solving the same problem.   NASA’s CCiCap program was designed to fund companies’ development of fully integrated crew transportation systems through the Space Act Agreements program. Last month, NASA selected three companies the share the $1.1 billion prize: SpaceX got $440 million, Boeing got $460 million, and Sierra Nevada Corporation got $212.5 million. It’s a 21 month agreement between that should put all three companies on track to develop a spacecraft, launch vehicle, related ground operations, and the necessary flight operations to undertake full missions, including sending NASA astronauts into orbit.   NASA has cited SpaceX’s flight experience with the Dragon spacecraft as a major factor in its decision to fund the company. As per its CCiCap agreement, SpaceX plans to launch up to 25 flights on Falcon 9 rockets,including nine unmanned Dragon spacecraft, before sending a manned mission aloft. And although the Dragon is billed as a reusable capsule, the company has said it will use a new vehicle for every launch under the commercial resupply contract. For now, the company is working on developing Dragon’s new abort system with on-pad and in-flight demonstrations testing, and upgrading its Falcon 9 with more powerful engines. SpaceX’s agreement with NASA includes 14 milestones leading to its first manned Dragon test flight hopefully midway through 2015.   Boeing’s methodical approach to designing a crew capsule, the CST-100, impressed NASA enough to win the biggest piece of the CCiCap funding. Boeing proposal is marked by a comprehensive approach that incorporates incremental design milestones and critical review periods; currently a design freeze is planned for 2014 so the company and space agency can agree on the direction the spacecraft is taking. Boeing’s agreement includes 19 milestones, the first of which it completed on August 23, which include a piloted CST-100 demo mission in late 2016.   The last CCiCap winner is Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Dream Chaser. It’s the one that’s not like the others, including NASA’s own Orion capsule – is a lifting body, a wingless vehicle that has generates enough lift thanks to its aerodynamic design to be pilotable to a runway landing. By contrast, Dragon, CST-100, and Orion are all currently landing by parachutes; CST-100 alone is currently landing on land in tests. Lifting bodies are finicky, and the difficulty and inevitable cost increases associated with these types of vehicles is one reason behind NASA’s decision to award Sierra Nevada less than the other two CCiCap winners.   But Dream Chaser evokes the smooth lines and slick landings of the space shuttle, a factor that appeals to the space agency and that the company is banking on. Corporate Vice President and head of Sierra Nevada’s Space Systems Mark Sirangelo points out, “We are now the only lifting body in the fleet, and it’s our belief – as also noted by NASA people – that the Agency is seeking diversity via the launch vehicles and spacecraft, so having both a lifting body and capsules in the fleet is a very strong way to go.” The winged lifting body would return to Earth for a runway landing, giving crews and science payloads a smoother ride than capsules.   Sierra Nevada’s agreement with NASA has just nine milestones designed to advance the company’s spacecraft, specifically propulsion, attitude control, other subsystems, and an overall reduction of risk. Like SpaceX and Boeing, Sierra Nevada has also completed its first milestone with NASA, a Program Implementation Plan Review with the agency’s Commercial Crew Program management.   But these aren’t the only contracts NASA has ongoing with commercial partners. The space agency has launched a two-stage certification process aimed at ensuring commercial passenger spaceships currently under development meet the agency’s safety standards, schedule, and mission requirements. NASA also expects to award multiple firms 15-month Certification Products Contracts (CPC) worth up to $10 million to develop privately owned systems able to take astronauts to the ISS. This is separate from any CCiCap funding but doesn’t exclude SpaceX, Boeing, or Sierra Nevada. The agency says companies may be eligible for both but NASA is keeping the money separate since one program “is for public purpose and one is for NASA purpose,” said NASA Commercial Crew Program Manager Ed Mango.   It looks complicated but NASA is really pursuing different avenues with the goal of getting a more active manned spaceflight program up and running in the US. While manned launches on any of these systems are years away, it’s still still an exciting future to look forward to.   Space Launch System: A year of powering forward   Bill Hubscher - Phys.org   NASA is powering ahead toward new destinations in the solar system. This week marks one year of progress since the formation of the Space Launch System (SLS), the nation's next step in human exploration efforts.   On Sept. 14, 2011, NASA announced a new capability for America's space program: a heavy-lift rocket designed to carry the Orion spacecraft and send astronauts farther into space than ever before. And now, one year later, NASA has made swift progress improving on existing hardware, testing and developing new components, and paving the way for a new launch vehicle. The SLS will make human exploration of deep space a reality and create new possibilities for scientific discovery.   "The SLS is a national capability and will be the largest rocket ever built, providing the power we need to truly explore beyond our current limits," said Todd May, Space Launch System program manager. "Not only will it take us beyond low Earth orbit, but it will take us there faster."   NASA's SLS team began work immediately after the 2011 announcement, finding new methods of creating designs, conducting reviews and improving scheduling and budget planning.   "Our goal was to become a leaner and more efficient program, based on lessons learned from previous successes by the agency," May said. "But even more important is to build a safe vehicle for our astronauts and one that can sustain exploration for years to come. That takes time and we're off to a great start. We want to inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers and explorers."   The SLS initially will be capable of carrying 70 metric tons to space. A larger, future version of the rocket will launch up to 130 metric tons—equivalent to about 75 sport utility vehicles—to future destinations such as an asteroid, near-lunar space and, eventually, Mars.   NASA is working with partners in industry to construct a robust rocket and build off of existing elements and proven propulsion, including more robust solid rocket booster designs and main engines used during the Space Shuttle Program.   Pratt-Whitney Rocketdyne of Canoga Park, Calif., which manufactured the RS-25 engines used during the shuttle era, is updating flight computer hardware and software to bring the engine technology into the 21st century. A new five-segment booster has been tested three times. ATK, of Promontory, Utah, will test a flight-qualified booster next year.   NASA is relying on the expertise at the Boeing Co. of Huntsville, Ala., to build the SLS core stage at the agency's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, where more than a hundred external tanks were built for the shuttle program. Early welding is paving the way for building the tanks and infrastructure to the SLS's J-2X and RS-25 engines.   Although swift progress is under way on the 70-metric-ton initial configuration, the program created an advanced development team to look for ways to enhance and upgrade future designs of the heavy-lift vehicle, including more powerful advanced boosters.   NASA is performing a battery of tests on the J-2X engine its Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Miss. Some test firings this past year broke duration records and pushed the new engine design to its limits. The J-2X will power the upper stage of the rocket.   The program also reached a critical milestone earlier this summer with agency-level approval of the system requirements and system definition review. Guiding the course of the program, this key step was a pivotal moment. It allowed SLS to move from concept to design and target preliminary design review next year.   As the vehicle comes together, SLS, managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., is working closely with the Orion Program at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston and the Ground Systems Development and Operations Program at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch facilities include a mobile launcher and a new firing room for the SLS.   The Orion Program continues improvements of the spacecraft, using water landing tests and parachute drop tests to expand confidence in the design. Meanwhile, the ground crew at Kennedy is processing an Orion test module for its first flight in 2014—just a few years before SLS will take its place on the launch pad.   When Orion flies for the first time, SLS also will test the spacecraft payload integration adapter ring. Engineers and machinists at Marshall are building this section of the rocket, which will mate the spacecraft to the Delta IV stand-in for SLS during Orion's test flight in 2014 and the rest of the Space Launch System in 2017. The adapter ring was designed for both applications as an example of NASA's commitment to affordable solutions for the human exploration of space.   "Each decision made in support of SLS has been carefully considered," May said. "We're moving forward with our eyes on deep space, contributing critical technology and functional knowledge to meet our nation's exploration goals. At the same time, we realize how lucky we are to write the next chapter in space exploration and hopefully inspire future generations."   Japanese resupply ship ends mission with fiery re-entry   Stephen Clark - SpaceflightNow.com   Japanese engineers remotely guided a space station cargo craft back into the atmosphere Friday, destroying the garbage-filled spaceship as planned after a nearly two-month mission.   The HTV resupply freighter fell back into Earth's atmosphere at about 0527 GMT (1:27 a.m. EDT). The spacecraft was expected to break apart and burn up from the heat of re-entry, and any leftover debris fell into a predetermined zone in the southern Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and Chile.   The re-entry marked the end of a 55-day mission for the disposable cargo craft, which lifted off July 21 from Tanegashima Space Center in Japan. It was attached to the International Space Station for 47 days.   The 33-foot-long H-2 Transfer Vehicle departed the space station Wednesday on an expedited flyaway after on-board software commanded an abort due to a computer dropout.   Controllers in Tsukuba, Japan, overcame the computer glitch and activated a backup system later Wednesday.   Three rocket burns on Thursday and Friday slowed the HTV's velocity and lowered its orbit enough to be captured by Earth's atmosphere.   Two data recorders, one provided by JAXA and another by the Aerospace Corp., will log data on the re-entry conditions, such as position, acceleration, temperature and imagery.   Engineers will incorporate the data in the design and operations of future spacecraft, yielding more accurate re-entry predictions, casualty expectations, and potentially leading to a "black box" for spacecraft similar to devices on airliners.   The HTV is wrapping up a 47-day stay at the space station, in which the craft delivered food and clothing, an aquatic habitat experiment, an Earth observation camera, and other supplies.   The cargo craft also delivered five small CubeSat satellites and a Japanese-built deployer apparatus. The CubeSats will be released outside the space station beginning this fall.   The spacecraft, which is dubbed Kounotori 3, carried two research payloads mounted outside the space station.   A NASA-led communications experiment launched aboard the HTV could lead to more capable and less complex spacecraft radios, and a Japanese experiment package includes a set of investigations probing plasma and lightning in Earth's atmosphere, collecting data on inflatable space structures and robotics systems, and testing commercial off-the-shelf HDTV video equipment in the harsh environment of space.   The Kounotori 3 cargo freighter is the third of at least seven HTVs planned by JAXA to resupply the space station. Japan provides the HTV cargo service to pay for its share of the station's operating costs.   Two previous HTVs successfully flew in 2009 and 2011.   NASA and JAXA expect to negotiate for further HTV missions to cover the lab's supply needs and Japan's cost obligations through 2020, the currently planned end-of-life for the space station.   Why Humanity Needs to Travel to Other Stars   Clara Moskowitz - Space.com   Launching a mission to another star could teach us not just about space, but about Earth as well, experts argued here today at the 100 Year Starship Symposium.   "I believe space exploration is a human imperative," said Mae Jemison, the first female African American astronaut. "It didn’t begin in 1957 with Sputnik, it's been a part of us" all along.   Jemison is heading the 100 Year Starship initiative, which aims to mount a mission to another star within 100 years. Toward that end, scientists and thinkers from a variety of disciplines gathered for a public symposium here from Sept. 13 to 16 to discuss the motivations, challenges and possible solutions for pursuing interstellar spaceflight.   "I'm excited for the opportunity we have to pioneer tomorrow's technology and to reimagine our future," former President Bill Clinton, who is the symposium's honorary chair, said via a video address Friday. "I only wish I could be here 100 years from now to make the trip."   The 100 Year Starship project was founded with seed money from the Defense Advanced Research Projects agency (DARPA), and is now being run by Jemison's Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence. The program's leaders aim to recruit not just scientists and engineers, but psychologists, sociologists, religious leaders and philosophers to help solve the problems posed by interstellar travel.   Because the nearest star is more than 4 light-years away, the fastest spacecraft ever built, Voyager 1, would take 75,000 years to get there. A realistic mission to another star system will require novel propulsion methods, as well as new life support, habitat technology and social structures to support what could be multiple generations of astronauts making the journey.   "We need the full capacity of the people we have on this planet to figure out how to do this," Jemison said. She also stressed the importance of outreach to involve the public in the project. "I know that we would be on the moon right now if we had kept the American public involved. They didn’t leave us, we just left them out. We have to change the idea that space is just for rocket scientists, and nowadays billionaires. It's actually for everybody."   The payoff of such a mission could be felt not just in space but on the ground, she said. For example, one of the leading ideas for how to power a starship is nuclear fusion propulsion. Since fusion is also a potential way to create energy on Earth, the process of inventing such a technology for spaceflight could have applications for our planet, too.   "Just the mere idea of going might transform life on Earth right now," Jemison said   Will we be the first Martians?   Dan Vergano - USA Today   From ancients who worshiped the Red Planet as a fierce war god in the sky, to scientists like Percival Lowell and fantasists like Ray Bradbury, Mars has taunted Earth's adventurers with the ultimate challenge.   Now that the fear of imaginary invaders has been replaced by a frustrating search for chemicals, a more fundamental question is emerging.   Could humans walk the sands of Mars, and actually live and work there?   That's what NASA's $2.5 billion Mars' Curiosity rover is trying to determine as it rolls heroically across the rugged but achingly desolate Martian landscape.   Placing men and women on a cold planet currently 173.5 million miles away is a question not just for poets and philosophers but for planners and policymakers.   When USA TODAY, celebrating its 30th anniversary with a look to the 21st-century future, spoke with NASA chief Charles Bolden, he emphasized "the critical importance of Curiosity, because it's not the first, but it's the most critical, the largest mission, that's a precursor for putting humans on Mars."   The first manned visits, he said, could happen around 2035 as an international endeavor. The first outposts on Mars could come after 2060.   "Mars has captured the human imagination certainly since people started gazing up at the sky," says NASA science chief John Grunsfeld, a former Hubble repair mission astronaut. "There are really very few places that humans could actually go and live some day. Mars is one of those."   Still, as the nation debates its goals for space exploration in a post-space shuttle era marked by an increasingly tight-fisted Congress and endless deficits, how improbable it is that the proposals even are being made.   Consider: John F. Kennedy's ambitious goal, announced 50 years ago this week, to put a man on the moon involved a trip of a mere 239,000 miles. Getting to Mars — even at its closest point to Earth — means a trip more than 140 times farther, lasting 200 days and with the possible bombardment by life-threatening radiation, a risk some scientists see as a deal-killer.   Even if all goes well, what would they find once they arrive?   Standing on the Red Planet   The day the first explorers set foot on Mars, a ruddy dust hanging like a curtain in the sky would tint their every view. If they stood where Curiosity is now, the sun would look less than half as large as it does from Earth. Temperatures would range from merely freezing during the day, to minus-103 degrees Fahrenheit at night.   Trying to take a breath would kill, the faint carbon dioxide atmosphere so thin it would count as a vacuum on Earth. Radiation rakes the surface in doses stronger than the astronauts receive aboard the International Space Station— the equivalent of at least 240 chest X-rays in a six-month stay.   The gravity on Mars is only 38% of Earth's. Walking — or bounding — could be Mars' first challenge, and an eventual Olympic sport.   Phoning home would be rare. The distance from Earth to Mars varies from 33 million to 249 million miles. It would take anywhere from three to 21 minutes to transmit "hello" even at the speed of light, making for stilted conversation. And for two weeks every two years, Mars and Earth are on opposite sides of the sun. Communications might be impossible.   Instead of the towering cities imagined by John Carter of Mars creator Edgar Rice Burroughs, lava caves lining the slopes of the largest volcano in the solar system, Olympus Mons,look safer as houses for future Martian tenants.   More likely, plans call for pre-fabricated Martian habitats to be launched two years before astronauts themselves begin their journey. Once secured on the surface, astronauts would spend their days on Mars brewing methane fuel and oxygen from water and carbon deposits that evidence suggests remain locked under the Martian soil.   For all that, NASA spacecraft have revealed a Red Planet that looks more hospitable — with caves, water and minerals — than the dusty picture painted by the 1970s Viking lander missions, which transmitted images of a sterile desert.   And as NASA's Curiosity rover makes its first tracks — exploring, sniffing and zapping the surface of Mars for signs that life once graced the Red Planet in the past — the panoramas it reveals are of a planet that looks not unlike the high deserts on Earth.   Surviving the rays of Mars   What Curiosity learns about the weather and radiation hazards of Mars will help determine how manned landings play out.   Just getting there would be a triumph. The trip could take 200 days, with Martian stayovers ranging from a month to 500 days.   Such long voyages might seem an eternity for astronauts trapped in a spacecraft. But in 2011, the European Space Agency's "Mars 500" project isolated six men for 520 days in a simulated Mars trip. And several cosmonauts have experienced long stays in space, one of them spending 14 months in microgravity.   "I think there will be good circumstantial evidence that people will be able to tolerate a Mars mission when the time comes," says space psychologist Nick Kanas of the University of California-San Francisco.   Radiation storms — which are known to affect telecommunications even on the atmosphere-shielded Earth — are the more immediate worry, especially in the barely-there atmosphere of Mars.   A radiation detector aboard the rover already has collected months of data about hazards astronauts would face from cosmic rays and solar storm radiation on their trip to Mars.   "Sitting down in the belly of the spacecraft, the rover had about as much radiation shielding as astronauts have on the International Space Station," says Donald Hassler of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo. He heads the rover's radiation instrument team.   Astronauts could hide from solar storm radiation in shielded parts of a spacecraft or lander, Hassler says. Based on readings from Curiosity, "we are finding the radiation from solar events is significant," he concedes.   Even with shielding, Mars travel poses lifetime radiation risks for "cataracts, skin damage, central nervous system damage, and impaired immune systems," as well as fatal cancers, according to a 2008 National Research Council Report. Radiation sickness from solar storms might endanger a mission, the report added.   The rover's radiation measures also tell scientists how deeply microbes on Mars, and astronauts, might have to hide under the surface to escape those effects. Would people from Earth have to burrow below the Martian surface to survive?   Is Mars worth the risk?   "This would be the most exciting adventure I could possibly imagine," SpaceX chief Elon Musk told The Daily Show's Jon Stewart, who asked the space entrepreneur why he wanted to walk on Mars.   "It's not so crazy to talk about astronauts visiting Mars," scientist Hassler says. "It really is a question of when we decide to do it."   "It engages human fascination," says NASA's Grunsfeld.   Where rocket pioneer Werner von Braun once proposed sending fleets of silver-finned rocket ships to Mars on a trip piloted by 70 men, Musk today hopes to send people there on private rockets, eventually making the trip a $500,000 ticket.   A Dutch reality-television-show effort, Mars One, has announced a plan to send colonists on a one-way trip to Mars starting in 2023 (the group's website "frequently asked questions" list begins with, "Is this for real?" — to which it answers, "Yes, it is!").   Whether government-funded, privately financed or some undreamt reality-show adventure, "it is not an unreasonable question to ask whether 30 years from now, will people have been to Mars?" says space policy expert John Logsdon, author of John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon. "It is a possibility, verging on a probability," he says.   Others aren't so sure.   Congress has balked at sending astronauts to Mars for decades, most notably in 1989 after a $500 billion cost estimate killed off one ambitious NASA plan. For that reason, Bolden was emphatic in his remarks to USA TODAY's editorial board that any manned missions to Mars would be international ones that spread the costs around.   The Obama administration recently cut unmanned Martian exploration by $500 million. Republican candidate Mitt Romney has called for "clearer priorities" in space efforts.   Even Roger Launius, a former NASA historian who is curator at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., which is now offering a Mars exhibit, says he is "pessimistic" about Mars travel.   "We wanted to give people a glimpse of the future in the exhibit. I doubt we are going to see (Mars) any other way for the foreseeable future," he says.   "This is just not realistic, even spread out over many years, to think we will spend this kind of money," says Arizona State University historian Stephen Pyne, author of Voyager: Seeking Newer Worlds in the Third Great Age of Discovery. In an age of robotic rovers such as Curiosity, he says, "we don't need people to plant the flag anymore to be explorers."   The Martian dream   A century ago, astronomer Percival Lowell stirred generations with speculation that the deep scars in the planet's surface were canals created by Martians. Author H.G. Wells went a step further, writing that malevolent Martians watched Earth with "envious eyes." And author Bradbury predicted people from Earth would be the first real Martians.   In widely noted remarks in January, physicist Stephen Hawking called for human colonies on Mars in the next century as a safeguard against catastrophe on Earth. We'll need a colony of the Red Planet by the next century, Hawking suggested, given the way things are going on the Blue Planet.   In cosmic terms, Mars is achingly close and the technology seems to be there, at least judging by the remarkable success of rovers like Curiosity.   If and when the call to Mars comes, there will likely be plenty of volunteers, says Bolden, a former space shuttle pilot.   "I'd go myself," he says. "But my wife wouldn't let me."   Space Shuttle Endeavour's final flight excites Los Angeles fans   Kristin Agostoni - Los Angeles Daily News   Michael Ripley wants to be in one of two places Thursday for the space shuttle Endeavour's planned trip to Los Angeles atop a Boeing 747 shuttle aircraft carrier.   The semi-retired commercial photographer, who has followed the shuttle throughout its nearly 20-year career, plans to either watch the Endeavour take off from Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert or join a crowd along a hilly El Segundo street overlooking its final destination: Los Angeles International Airport.   Needless to say, it's an event the Corona photographer can't miss. And it will only happen once, given that the Endeavour next month will officially retire at the California Science Center.   "Once it arrives here and goes up to the Science Center, that's it," Ripley said last week as he and a handful of other aerospace enthusiasts scoped out the best vantage points of LAX's south airfield from Imperial Avenue in El Segundo.   "I think that it's great that L.A. ended up with this because it's such a significant part of the space program and what California represents to the space program."   The Endeavour should get a big welcome both when it arrives in Los Angeles on Thursday and when it makes a 12-mile trek on surface streets starting Oct. 12 from LAX and wrapping up the next day at the Science Center in Exposition Park.   The Endeavour is scheduled to take off Thursday morning from Edwards Air Force Base - the last leg of a trip originating Monday from Florida's Kennedy Space Center. NASA has planned low-level flyovers at about 1,500 feet near Ames Research Center at Moffett Field in Northern California and landmarks in San Francisco and Sacramento.   The shuttle also will sail above "many Los Angeles sites" - although NASA has not offered specific landmarks or a time schedule, saying that depends on weather and operational constraints - before its planned 11 a.m. landing on LAX's southern runway.   In El Segundo - which draws plane-watchers daily to the northern edge of town - the city plans to block off portions of Imperial Avenue to accommodate spectators wanting to see the landing and open up two parking lots at an old school site in anticipation of large crowds.   At the same time, The Proud Bird restaurant on nearby Aviation Boulevard - which sits beneath LAX's flight path - by early last week had sold 300 tickets to a $25-per-plate buffet lunch. Visitors will be invited to drift back and forth between indoor tables and an outdoor viewing area, organizers say.   One of the lunch patrons will be retired Los Alamitos pilot Chuck Scott, part of a group of former Western Airlines employees called the Delta Pioneers. (Their company was headquartered at LAX before it merged with Delta.)   "It just seems like a fantastic thing in that it travels in excess of 14,000 mph once it's in outer space," Scott said of the Endeavour. "The board of the Delta Pioneers ... they want to come to see it because we're all interested in airplanes ... just fascinating tools of mankind."   The shuttle's arrival is a boon for the California Science Center - one of four institutions selected by NASA to receive a retired space shuttle orbiter for permanent display. In addition to the Endeavour, they are: the Atlantis, the Discovery and the test orbiter Enterprise.   "The fact that the Science Center was so honored to receive one is really over the top," said Kenneth Phillips, the center's curator of aerospace programs. "I think this has really catapulted the Science Center into the spotlight.   "It's an incredible teaching tool."   Manufactured by Rockwell International in Palmdale, the Endeavour is the fifth and final NASA shuttle to be built. It replaced the Challenger, which exploded after a 1986 launch, killing all of the astronauts on board.   The Endeavour has a 78-foot wingspan, stands 57 feet tall on the runway and measures 122 feet in length. It has journeyed into space 25 times, and after a final launch in May 2011 had logged 122,883,151 miles.   It's also known for several firsts, including carrying the first married couple and black female into space, along with the first Japanese national to fly on a U.S. spaceship. It also made the first servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.   On Oct. 30, the Science Center will put the Endeavour on display in a pavilion until a new addition called the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center is built. Along with the orbiter, the pavilion will feature video experiences and artifacts that were part of the Endeavour's space missions. A companion exhibit will relate NASA's space shuttle program to California.   Phillips said the center is about halfway toward achieving its $200 million fundraising goal. When the shuttle moves to the permanent exhibition space, expected to open in 2017, visitors will see the massive shuttle displayed vertically.   "We are designing the access to it so people will be able to ascend it through a series of ramps," he said.   Until then, however, the orbiter will rest horizontally on a transporter in the pavilion.   But first, the shuttle needs to get there - a process that has required months of planning and a bevy of logistical challenges.   Once the Endeavour touches down on Thursday, it will spend a few weeks at a United/Continental Airlines hangar at LAX, undergoing preparations for its trip through Los Angeles and Inglewood.   It will leave the airport in the early morning hours on Oct. 12 so as not to disrupt LAX operations, taking Northside Parkway to Lincoln Boulevard into Westchester. The course it will follow meanders east through the streets in Westchester, following Manchester Avenue into Inglewood and Crenshaw Boulevard through South Los Angeles. The shuttle will take Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard into Exposition Park.   At Westchester High - now officially called Westchester Enriched Sciences Magnets - students in the school's aerospace-and-aviation program will line up outside as the shuttle makes its way past the school on Westchester Parkway.   "They are learning all about the space program in class, but this will help them to see it up close and make that personal connection," said Principal Bobby Canosa-Carr.   Recent news reports about the more than 400 trees that will come down to accommodate the massive orbiter drew criticism from some residents along the path, including those in Inglewood. (The California Science Center has pledged to plant two trees for every one removed.)   But trees aren't the only roadway impediments.   Once the shuttle leaves the airport's north side, it will be parked for hours in Westchester's Sepulveda Boulevard business district before it can safely cross four high-voltage transmission lines along the route later that night. Science Center officials have said these lines will need to be individually de-energized, lifted to permit the orbiter to pass beneath and then re-energized.   In Inglewood, the Endeavour will be greeted with fanfare during a morning event on Oct. 13 outside City Hall. Once it reaches the intersection of MLK and Crenshaw boulevards, the space shuttle will be greeted with a celebration produced and directed by actress and choreographer Debbie Allen, featuring artists from the Los Angeles School of Gymnastics and Lula Washington Dance Theatre, taiko drummers, aerialists and more.   It's expected to reach Exposition Park by 7:30 that evening.   Given the magnitude of the journey - dubbed Mission 26 - the Science Center will count on volunteers to help out along the course. It's hoping to get people to assist with ushering, safeguarding shuttle holding areas and controlling crowds.   The shuttle's journey to the Science Center is bound to draw people out of their offices, homes and schools to get a look at the orbiter in flight or on local roads.   One of them, Lawndale resident Allen Hess, has a special connection. A retired engineer who worked for Rockwell International and Boeing, the 66-year-old said he helped design some of the orbiter's parts over the years.   "I wish it was still flying," said Hess, who plans to watch the Endeavour descend into Los Angeles from The Proud Bird.   "My worst nightmare," he said, "is just being in the wrong spot and missing it."   Go west, young shuttle Endeavour, NASA's 'baby,' will set off for its new home Monday   James Dean - Florida Today   Twenty-five times Endeavour blasted into orbit and survived the searing heat of re-entry, along the way rescuing, repairing and deploying satellites and helping to build and supply the International Space Station.   Monday begins “Mission 26,” which will see the retired orbiter embark on the final shuttle ferry flight across the country, then navigate dense urban streets to reach its new home at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.   Hundreds of trees, power and communication lines, traffic lights and utility poles are being cut down, raised or temporarily removed to clear Endeavour’s 12-mile path through downtown L.A. and Inglewood.   The giant spaceship’s unprecedented tour through congested city corridors has required planning and coordination nearly as complex as a shuttle mission’s.   “It’s not exactly launching the shuttle into orbit, but it’s a challenging program,” said Marty Fabrick of the California Science Center Foundation, who is directing Endeavour’s delivery to the museum.   Today, Kennedy Space Center crews will finish bolting the 155,000-pound orbiter to the back of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, a modified Boeing 747.   The joined jumbo jet and spaceship are expected to take off from KSC at sunrise Monday, weather permitting.   They plan to fly low over Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and down the beaches to Patrick Air Force Base, swing across the Pineda Causeway and back up the Indian River Lagoon before a final farewell pass over the KSC Visitor Complex and Shuttle Landing Facility.   “It’s the youngest of our fleet,” Stephanie Stilson, the NASA manager overseeing the shuttles’ preparations for museum display, said of Endeavour. “It’s our baby, and so we’re letting go of our baby and turning her over to California.”   Endeavour’s future display site is not far from the place where shuttle orbiters were born, in a Palmdale, Calif., plant roughly 60 miles north of L.A. Endeavour arrived at Kennedy May 7, 1991.   Over four days, the ferry flight will fly over or stop at the NASA centers and facilities that had the biggest roles supporting the shuttle program, giving them an opportunity to say goodbye. First stop: Ellington Field near Johnson Space Center in Houston.   After detouring as far north as San Francisco, Endeavour is expected to arrive at Los Angeles International Airport on Thursday.   It will be loaded onto the “overland transporter” frame that orbiters (except Endeavour) rode from Palmdale to Edwards Air Force Base for ferry flights to Florida. Four self-propelled modular transporters, which are used to move massive objects, will drive the unique “Endeavour Transport System.”   The two-day urban adventure begins early Oct. 12. After crossing LAX runways, Endeavour will duck under high-voltage power lines and cross above Interstate 405 on its way to a stop at Inglewood City Hall.   “There was really no existing playbook for moving a spaceship through 12 miles of densely populated urban streets, so we had to develop the playbook and learn a lot as we went,” Fabrick said of the project’s biggest challenge.   Officials say the chosen route was the only one of many considered that provided the clearances for Endeavour’s 78-foot wingspan and 58-foot tail height — too tall for highway overpasses.   Crews are in the process of cutting down more than 400 trees along the route, generating some grumbling from residents, according to news reports.   The science center has promised to plant two trees for each one removed, and says the two cities appreciate the chance to replace many non-native or dangerous trees with ones that better fit their master plans.   Continuing Oct. 13, Endeavour’s ride will take it through a mix of commercial and residential streets in culturally diverse neighborhoods, past large venues like the Forum, Hollywood Park racetrack and L.A. Coliseum.   Long stretches of the route will be closed to spectators where wingspan clearance is too tight — sometimes within inches of a tree or utility pole.   There’s a section where the Los Angeles Police Department regularly patrols gang activity, said Lt. Andrew Neiman, though he expects no trouble.   Neiman compared the extensive security preparations for Endeavour’s journey to a cross between planning for the annual Academy Awards and for a 1987 visit by Pope John Paul II.   “We have a tremendous number of resources that are being allocated to this to ensure the safe travel of the shuttle,” he said.   The Endeavour exhibit will open to the public Oct. 30 inside a recently constructed pavilion at the science center. In the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center slated to open in 2017, Endeavour will be featured in a vertical position as if on a launch pad, with the solid rocket boosters long displayed outside the KSC Visitor Complex.   The cost to acquire Endeavour from NASA, ship it west and build the display facilities are all part of a $200 million fund-raising campaign.   “The Endeavour is a national treasure, being one of three space-going orbiters,” said Fabrick. “It’s a tremendous gift to the people of Los Angeles and Southern California to have that here at the science center.”   Space shuttle Endeavour mounted on 747 jet for final flight to L.A.   Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com   For the last time in space shuttle history, a NASA orbiter has been mounted to the top of a jumbo jet to be flown to its next destination.   For shuttle Endeavour, now sitting piggyback atop the space agency's modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), its next and final mission is to become a museum exhibit. The spacecraft, flying aboard the aircraft, will leave at sunrise on Monday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for Los Angeles, where it is destined for display at the California Science Center (CSC).   "It is the youngest of our fleet, it's our baby," said Stephanie Stilson, NASA's flow director for orbiter transition and retirement, as she discussed Endeavour's soon departure. "We are letting go of our baby and turning her over to California."   Endeavour was built in the wake of the loss of space shuttle Challenger in 1986. It flew 25 missions, many to support assembly of the International Space Station, before being retired in June 2011.   Last mate   To prepare Endeavour for its ferry flight to the West Coast, NASA technicians on Friday towed the shuttle from where it was temporarily parked inside its former launch assembly building to the runway where it last returned from space. Arriving at Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility in the pre-dawn hours, Endeavour was moved into a gantry-like steel structure known as the Mate-Demate Device (MDD) to be paired with the 747 SCA.   "We are a little bit sad that this will be the last time that we're doing this," Stilson told reporters covering the mating operations. "There were definitely some tears this morning during the rollover from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the Mate- Demate Device, especially from those who have worked on Endeavour for a long period of time."   Over the course of several hours, the 155,000 pound (70,000 kilogram) shuttle was attached to a metal sling and hoisted 90 feet into the air so that the carrier aircraft, known by its tail number as NASA 905, could be towed in underneath it. Endeavour was then lowered onto the back of the jetliner, such that three ports on its underbelly aligned with the attachment points protruding from the 747's upper fuselage.   The two craft were "soft-mated" by mid-afternoon. On Saturday, technicians will work to "hard mate" the connection, securing bolts that will hold the two vehicles together in flight. The air- and space-craft combo will exit the MDD on Sunday morning in preparation for their final departure on Monday.   Final flight   The shuttle-era's final ferry flight will take Endeavour on a cross-country tour. In addition to performing low passes while flying over several NASA facilities, the carrier aircraft and its orbiter passenger will make planned stops in Houston and El Paso in Texas, and at Edwards Air Force Base in southern California before finally landing at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on Sept. 20.   The journey, and its pre-departure preparations, are subject to both weather and operational constraints and could be delayed or changed, NASA officials advised.   Once on the ground in Los Angeles and without a corresponding Mate-Demate Device at LAX, Endeavour will be hoisted off the SCA using two large cranes and positioned onto a modified NASA overland transporter. On Oct. 12, the shuttle will begin a two day road trip to the California Science Center, moving through the streets of Inglewood and L.A. on a 12-mile (19-kilometer) journey to its new home.   The California Science Center will open the new Samuel Oschin Space Shuttle Endeavour Display Pavilion on Oct. 30.   Endeavour Ready For Historic Final Flight Next Monday   Mike Killian - AmericaSpace.org   NASA’s youngest space shuttle orbiter, Endeavour, was rolled out one last time from Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building early Friday morning, beginning the orbiter’s long voyage to the California Science Center in Los Angeles.  Endeavour began its trek to the shuttle landing facility under cover of darkness, arriving for a date with NASA’s 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft just as the sun began to rise around 7:00 a.m. EDT.   Using a tow vehicle, workers parked Endeavour in the mate-demate device (MDM) and carefully connected a giant sling to the 170,000 pound orbiter.  Endeavour was then raised a few feet off the ground, allowing crews to manually close and lock Endeavour’s landing gear for her upcoming flight.   With the threat of showers and storms looming on the horizon workers wasted no time with the lift operations, raising the orbiter to sixty-feet above the ground in a matter of minutes before parking the 747 underneath it.  Once again demonstrating their unique skills, crews carefully lowered Endeavour to within an arm’s reach of the shuttle carrier aircraft and began the task of attaching the orbiter, what NASA calls a ‘soft mate’.  Workers will continue to secure the two vehicles firmly together, ‘hard-mating’ the SCA/shuttle vehicle on Saturday to accept the aerodynamic forces they will encounter during next week’s 3-day cross-country flight across the southern U.S.   NASA plans on backing the SCA out on the shuttle landing facility tarmac Sunday morning to allow workers, media, and members of the public visiting Kennedy Space Center a chance to say goodbye to Endeavour up close and personal.   Weather permitting, Endeavour will take to the skies on her final flight shortly after 7:00 a.m. EDT Monday morning, conducting a low flyover up and down Florida’s Space Coast and giving residents a final chance to say goodbye to the orbiter they watched launched on 25 missions over nearly 20 years.  Endeavour will then head west towards California, making numerous low-flyovers and stops along the way.   Toyota Will Pull Space Shuttle Endeavor with 2012 Toyota Tundra   Ben Timmins - Automobile Magazine   The 2012 Toyota Tundra can tow almost anything you can throw at, especially when equipped with the 5.7-liter V-8 engine. That said, Toyota is about to throw the truck its biggest towing challenge yet: towing the Space Shuttle Endeavor.   The Space Shuttle Endeavor is on its way to the California Science Center in Los Angeles, but needs to be towed the 12 miles from Los Angeles International Airport to the Science Center. The first 11 ¾ miles will be executed with some sort of tractor trailer, but Toyota says the shuttle will travel the last ¼ mile behind a Toyota Tundra.   The truck in question is a standard 2012 Toyota Tundra 4×4 CrewMax with the 5.7-liter V-8, and has a maximum tow rating of 9000 pounds. The Space Shuttle Endeavor, meanwhile, weighs about 150,000 pounds. All told, the Space Shuttle and the custom transporter upon which it will ride total 292,500 pounds, 32.5 times the Tundra’s tow rating. Toyota claims that the truck in question has no performance modifications (i.e. a TRD supercharger), and no other modifications to augment the truck’s ability.   How will this work? You’ll have to ask a physicist for that one, because we’re still a bit baffled ourselves.   The Toyota Tundra and its V-8 generates 380 horsepower and 401 pound-feet of torque, which should be enough to tow that 9000 pounds up hills and at highway speeds, and the 9000-pound tow rating also reflects the strength of the Tundra’s brakes and its ability to pull all that weight to a stop.   Taking hills or highway speeds out of the picture, it might not be far-fetched to tow nearly 300,000 pounds on a flat road no more than 10 mph. This also considers that the Tundra’s four-wheel-drive system will be in low range, multiplying the engine’s force. This was the key to success during British car show Fifth Gear’s famous 2006 stunt, when one of the hosts used a VW Touareg V10 TDI to tow a Boeing 747.   The stunt will take place October 13th.   Once the Space Shuttle Endeavor arrives at its final resting place, the California Science Center will put it on permanent display beginning October 30, 2012.   Toyota Tundra truck to tow space shuttle to California Science Center   Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com   Space shuttle Endeavour has been moved by rockets, its own engines and thrusters, tank-like transporters and industrial tows. Now retired and museum- bound, the NASA winged orbiter will add another, perhaps unexpected form of locomotion to its well-travelled history: a Toyota Tundra pickup truck.   Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc. announced on Wednesday that its Tundra full-size pickup truck is slated to tow Endeavour during its delivery to the California Science Center (CSC), where both the space shuttle and truck are destined for display. Endeavour will travel the 12 miles (19 kilometers) from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to the science center on city streets, with the Tundra towing the shuttle during the last quarter mile (400 meters).   Beginning Friday, NASA will prepare Endeavour to fly atop its modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to LAX. The three-day ferry flight is scheduled to arrive in L.A. on Sept. 20, weather permitting. NASA and the CSC will then spend a few weeks readying Endeavour for its Oct. 12-13 road trip.   At the end of Endeavour's journey from LAX to the CSC, a "finish-line" celebration at Exposition Park is planned for the evening of Oct. 13. The public will be able to watch as the Toyota Tundra tows the shuttle the final way to its new temporary home, the CSC's Samuel Oschin Space Shuttle Endeavour Display Pavilion, which will mark the finale of the orbiter's cross-country and cross-cities voyage.   Toyota tested   Once on the ground at LAX, Endeavour will be hoisted off its carrier aircraft and then lowered onto a modified NASA overland transporter originally used to move the shuttles from their Palmdale, Calif. assembly plant to the nearby air force base where they were mounted atop the SCA and flown to Florida to be launched.   For the majority of Endeavour's parade through the streets of Inglewood and Los Angeles, its transport will be driven by four self-propelled, multi-axle vehicles. These modular movers are computer controlled; an operator walking with the shuttle will steer all four of the vehicles using a single joystick. Capable of moving sideways or spinning in place, these vehicles will enable precision maneuverability as the shuttle rolls past buildings, utility poles and trees.   But when the Endeavour reaches Bill Robertson Lane and Exposition Park, a quarter of a mile (400 meters) from the science center, the Toyota truck will take over towing duty for the four modular machines.   Endeavour will be towed using a Tundra CrewMax half-ton pickup, identical to 2012 models currently found in Toyota dealerships, with no additions to increase towing capacity or provide more power. The Tundra CrewMax is equipped with Toyota's 5.7L V8 engine, producing a maximum tow capacity of 10,000 pounds.   Toyota Motor Sales (TMS) has done extensive testing to lead up to its announcement and worked with The Sarens Group, a heavy lifting and engineered transport company, to develop a dolly specifically for hauling Endeavour.   "There is no larger or more recognizable icon of the U.S. space program's success than the shuttle, and to have it towed by the Toyota Tundra is not only an incredible example of the capabilities of the truck, but an honor to be part of history," said Ed Laukes, Toyota Motor Sales' vice president of marketing communications, in a release. "The entire journey is something the world will be watching, and gives us a chance to prove that the 'overbuilt' Tundra is built to do any job — even tow the space shuttle."   Tweet drive   Toyota's participation transporting the shuttle continues a partnership between TMS and the CSC to provide support and awareness of the space program and education of the public through exhibits and programs.   Toyota currently has a Tundra truck on display at the CSC in an exhibit demonstrating the physics of leverage. The Tundra used to tow Endeavour will replace the Tundra now on exhibit and will be on display after the shuttle pavilion opens on Oct. 30.   To further support the move, Toyota has developed a host of online resources and activities that provide behind the scenes videos, photos, activities for children, and details about the Tundra Endeavour project. The special website will debut on Monday (Sept. 17), the same day Endeavour is scheduled to depart Florida for Los Angeles.   Visitors to the site can share content, sign up for email alerts and use Twitter to the spread word about the Toyota Tundra's role in Endeavour's delivery. For the first 10,000 "re-tweets" the site registers, Toyota will donate $50 to the California Science Center to support building the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, the permanent home for the space shuttle Endeavour.   Space shuttle trainer gets ready for visitors   Aubrey Cohen - Seattle Post-Intelligencer   The first thing you notice about the space shuttle full-fuselage trainer is that it's big. The second is that it bears clear signs of its three-decade career training every astronaut who flew into space aboard a shuttle.   Those scratches on the side? They're from astronauts practicing climbing out of the hatch at the top of the flight deck and rappelling down. Everyone had to do it, even John Glenn, who was 77 when he returned to space in 1998 aboard the space shuttle Discovery.   "Most of the shuttles look absolutely pristine compared to this," said Ray Fletcher, a former Boeing engineer volunteering at the Seattle Museum of Flight. "The condition we got it in is well used."   During a sneak peak Thursday, workers were busy preparing the trainer for its public debut, scheduled for Nov. 10, as the centerpiece of the museum's new Space Gallery.   The museum had hoped to get a real shuttle, but those went to Washington, D.C., Florida, Los Angeles and New York. Museum officials have since insisted that the trainer is better, because people will be able to go inside.   While impressive, the trainer won't fool anyone into believing it flew into space. It's made mostly of plywood, and even spars inside the cargo bay are wood. In places, it resembles an old sailing ship.   But step through the fiberglass "airlock" into the crew compartment, and the feel of artifice slips away. NASA adjusted the trainer to replicate the exact configuration of the shuttle astronauts would inhabit on each flight, down to the position of blue Velcro strips used to keep stuff from floating away in space. (Added yellow Velcro strips are for extras used in training.)   As big as the shuttle is, that's how small the crew compartment feels, particularly when you imagine adding seven astronauts, plus space suits.   The mid deck is where astronauts ate, slept and did their experiments. It's full of labeled compartments, plus hammocks along one wall, a small galley in the corner and, behind a door, a lavatory with a small hole for one function and a hose for the other.   There's an escape hatch with inflatable slide. It's well scuffed from all the training, although the hatches of actual shuttles never were used.   Climb a ladder to the flight deck and you'll see controls not unlike those found on a big jetliner, with a few notable differences. Face the aft and you'll see controls for docking the shuttle and for the "Canadarm." The trainer's replica Canadarm is not installed yet.   Fletcher's experience with the trainer goes back to the early days of the shuttle program, when he worked on Boeing's Inertial Upper Stage -- a rocket used to boost satellites from the shuttle (or a Titan IV rocket) to their ultimate destinations.   Boeing wanted to put equipment in the trainer's crew compartment so astronauts could learn how to launch the IUS, Fletcher recalled. "We were fighting for space to have a little panel."   On Wednesday, the museum hung a replica IUS over the trainer's cargo bay. A half-scale replica of the Hubble Space Telescope sits on the floor, but will also hang nearby, with a scaled-down astronaut.   Back in the flight deck, it's easy to see why Fletcher was fighting for space. There are panels with dials and switches almost everywhere, although most of them never did anything.   "It's primarily for going through book procedures," Fletcher explained.   The museum is installing fiberglass over the panels, so visitors won't be able to flip the switches. It's also adding smoke detectors, sprinklers and emergency strobes and speakers.   Outside the trainer, new stairways lead in and out of the cargo bay and up to the escape hatch. There will be a lift for wheelchairs, although there's no way to get wheelchairs into the crew compartment.   Actually, most visitors will only be able to peer through a hatch into the crew compartment. Access to the compartment will be limited to special programs.   The museum is painting some areas, such as seams where the trainer came apart. But it's leaving those scuff marks on the side, along with other reminders of the trainer's career, including signatures on a cargo bay wall from NASA training staffers and in the front wheel well from the crew of the final shuttle mission -- Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley, and Mission Specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim.   "They were pretty attached to this," museum public releations manager Ted Huetter said.   'UFO Mothership' Near Space Station a Trick of the Light   Life's Little Mysteries   Has the International Space Station inadvertently caught sight of an "Interstellar" Space Station hovering nearby? Or is a blurry streak that UFO hunters have found in new NASA footage filmed out the window of the space station merely a window reflection? Let the most likely explanation win.   On Sept. 11, YouTube user danielofdoriaa posted footage from the ISS's live camera feed, which streams over the Web. In his annotated footage, he points out a faint, elongated white shape with a neat row of faint white dots next to it set against the blackness of space just below the curve of the Earth. It is an "amazing UFO mothership letting out an orb fleet on ISS live feed," the YouTuber explains in the video title.   That would be amazing indeed. However, ufologist Marc D'Antonio, chief photo and video analyst for an international organization called the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), has analyzed thousands of ISS photos and videos alleged to contain UFOs, and he says the faint white marks in this one are a common sight: They're reflections off of the window of the ISS.   "Basically when you're looking at any object, if there's a window between you and the object, the window is always suspect. Your first move in trying to identify the object is to try to eliminate that it's a reflection," D'Antonio told Life's Little Mysteries.   By his reckoning, this video doesn't make it past that first elimination round. For one thing, the object in question is in a different plane of focus from Earth, he said. A camera set to focus on maximum distance would capture both the Earth and any other faraway object in the same focal plane. This implies the white blur is actually not far away, but instead nearby: a reflection hitting the camera from the window inches in front of it.   Second, the fact that this object raised no alarm bells with the ISS crew or ground control suggests they've seen it all before. "It was simply assumed by the ground control folks that this was a reflection in the window, because most of them are," D'Antonio said.   And third, the use of a low-light camera positioned a few inches back from the window is a setup ripe for "picking up even the most subtle reflections on the window," he said.   So, after perusing countless similar photos and videos that end up having the same mundane explanation, what's the point of looking at yet another? D'Antonio believes in the possibility that UFOs have visited Earth, hence his involvement with MUFON. But in his search for evidence, he aims to separate the sheep from the goats.   "I think it's important to go through these, and to put aside the ones that we can say are very highly likely not the real thing. We need to let ET create the real thing for us," D'Antonio said. "I'm not a debunker, I'm just very hard on the data."   NEIL ARMSTRONG – 1930 - 2012     Neil Armstrong, 1st to walk on moon, buried at sea   Associated Press   The first man to walk on the moon has been buried at sea.   NASA says Neil Armstrong's cremated remains were buried in the Atlantic Ocean on Friday during a ceremony aboard the USS Philippine Sea.   Armstrong was a Navy fighter pilot before joining the space program. He died last month in Ohio at age 82. His burial follows a memorial service in Washington on Thursday.   NASA photographs show Armstrong's widow, Carol Armstrong, accepting a folded American flag during the ceremony, which NASA said included a bugler and a rifle salute.   The space agency didn't give the location of the ceremony. The ship's homeport is Mayport, Fla.   Farewell, Neil Armstrong: 1st Moonwalker Buried at Sea   Space.com   The iconic astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first person to set foot on the moon, was buried at sea Friday.   The ashes of the former Navy pilot and Apollo 11 moonwalker, who died Aug. 25 following complications from heart surgery, were committed to the Atlantic Ocean during a ceremony aboard the guided missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea. The exact location of the service was not immediately available, though the USS Philippine Sea shipped out from Mayport, Fla., with Armstrong's family aboard.   President Barack Obama had ordered flags around the nation to fly at half-mast, to honor Armstrong and mark his ocean interment.   Armstrong's burial at sea came a day after America paid its respects to Armstrong during a public memorial service at Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Family and friends had held a private ceremony for the moonwalker in Cincinnati on Aug. 31.   Armstrong became an international icon on July 20, 1969, when his boot crunched down into the gray lunar dirt. The words Armstrong uttered upon the occasion — "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind" — are among the most famous ever spoken.   Armstrong and fellow Apollo 11 crewmate Buzz Aldrin spent more than 21 hours on the moon during the mission, while Michael Collins orbited above them in the command module Columbia. On July 24, 1969, all three men returned safely to Earth, making good on a pledge President John F. Kennedy had made eight years earlier and notching a huge win in the Cold War space race against the Soviet Union.   Neil Armstrong, who was 82, served as a Navy pilot from 1949 to 1952, and he flew 78 combat missions in the Korean War, according to NASA officials.   The USS Philippine Sea is an active-duty Navy vessel named after the Battle of the Philippine Sea, which the United States and Japan fought from June 19-20, 1944, off the Mariana Islands. The ship was commissioned in March 1989.   END