10/8/12 news

Happy Columbus Day everyone!       Human Spaceflight News Monday – October 8, 2012   Dragon is on its way to ISS. Capture & berthing is Wednesday morning   HEADLINES AND LEADS   Falcon 9 takes off on space station resupply mission   William Harwood – CBS News   An unmanned cargo ship loaded with spare parts, science equipment and crew supplies -- including ice cream treats -- rocketed into orbit Sunday and set off after the International Space Station, kicking off a new era of commercial flights intended to restore a U.S. supply chain that was crippled by the shuttle's retirement. The Dragon capsule and its Falcon 9 rocket, both built by Space Exploration Technologies, took off with a rush of fiery exhaust at 8:35:07 p.m. EDT, quickly climbing away from launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Making its first operational flight under a $1.6 billion NASA contract, the 157-foot-tall Falcon 9 arced away on a northeasterly trajectory paralleling the East Coast of the United States, putting on a spectacular evening sky show for area residents and tourists.   NASA, partners agree to yearlong space station flight   William Harwood – CBS News   An American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut will spend a full year aboard the International Space Station in 2015-16, twice as long as current crews, to collect medical data on long-duration spaceflight that will help pave the way for eventual flights to deep space destinations, NASA said Friday. Assigning two lab crew members to a yearlong flight also is expected to free up seats aboard Russian Soyuz ferry craft for two additional space tourists or representatives of other nations that might not otherwise fit into the normal space station crew rotation. In their latest contract with NASA, the Russians charge more than $60 million a seat for Soyuz flights to and from the space station. While a space tourist presumably would pay less, the money would give the cash-strapped Russian program a welcome boost.   American, Russian Will Fly Year-Long ISS Expedition In 2015   Todd Halvorson - Florida Today   An American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut will embark on a year-long expedition to the International Space Station in 2015, paving the way to long missions to the moon, Mars, asteroids or other celestial destinations. In what likely will be viewed historically as a bold move towards expanding human space exploration, the U.S., Russian, Europe, Japan and Canada approved the voyage on Friday. “In order for us to eventually move beyond low Earth orbit, we need to better understand how humans adapt to long-term spaceflight,” NASA ISS Program Manager Mike Suffredini said in a statement.   Year on ISS planned ahead of manned Mars mission   Russia Today   NASA and the Russian space agency plan to send an international crew to the ISS for a year. The extended mission, if it succeeds, may bring scientists a step closer to manned flights to Mars and beyond. The plan envisages an international crew, made up of an American astronaut and Russian cosmonaut, blasting off on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in March 2015. "A one-year increment on the ISS would be a natural progression as part of preparations for missions beyond low-Earth orbit," NASA spokesman Rob Navias said on Friday.   SpaceX Dragon capsule launched to space station   Marcia Dunn - Associated Press   A commercial cargo ship rocketed into orbit Sunday in pursuit of the International Space Station, the first of a dozen supply runs under a mega-contract with NASA. It was the second launch of a Dragon capsule to the orbiting lab by the California-based SpaceX company. The first was last spring. This time was no test flight, however, and the spacecraft carried 1,000 pounds of key science experiments and other precious gear on this truly operational mission. There was also a personal touch: chocolate-vanilla swirl ice cream tucked in a freezer for the three station residents. The company's unmanned Falcon rocket roared into the night sky right on time, putting SpaceX on track to reach the space station Wednesday. The complex was soaring southwest of Tasmania when the Falcon took flight.   Group sends first rocket under deal with NASA   Kenneth Chang – New York Times   The first commercial cargo flight to the International Space Station lifted off on Sunday evening, inaugurating a new era for NASA in which private companies will take over the transportation of people and supplies to low-Earth orbit. For this launch, only cargo is going; private transportation for astronauts is still several years away. Space Exploration Technologies of Hawthorne, Calif. — SpaceX, for short — launched its Falcon 9 rocket on schedule at 8:35 p.m. Eastern time from Cape Canaveral, Fla.   Successful SpaceX launch starts mission to resupply space station   W.J. Hennigan - Los Angeles Times   A towering white rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla. and sped toward the International Space Station in a resupply mission that heralds a new era for NASA. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched at 5:35 p.m. PDT Sunday from Space Launch Complex 40, carrying a Dragon capsule packed with 1,000 pounds of food, experiments and supplies. The spacecraft is expected to reach the space station Wednesday. Space Exploration Technologies Corp., better known as SpaceX, is aiming to become the first private company to resupply the space station on a contracted mission for NASA.   SpaceX Launches Cargo Flight to Space Station   Andy Pasztor - Wall Street Journal   A private rocket and cargo spacecraft owned by Space Exploration Technologies Corp. blasted off from Florida on Sunday night as the company sought to begin regular commercial shipments to the international space station, a development intended to transform U.S. space flight. The trouble-free countdown followed by liftoff at 8:35 p.m. ET, precisely as scheduled, sent the 227-foot Falcon 9 rocket toward the orbiting space laboratory. Using more than 850,000 pounds of thrust to reach supersonic speed about one minute after ignition, it carried a teardrop-shaped, unmanned Dragon capsule filled with roughly 1,000 pounds of supplies. The spacecraft is expected to dock with the space station Wednesday and return three weeks later.   SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch lights up night sky   James Dean – Florida Today   A private spacecraft is on its way to resupply the International Space Station for the first time, opening a new era for NASA and the commercial spaceflight industry. SpaceX’s Dragon cargo capsule blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station atop a Falcon 9 rocket at 8:35 p.m. tonight, lighting the night sky with an orange glow as it roared northeast over the Atlantic Ocean. The unmanned Dragon spacecraft separated from the rocket in what SpaceX called a "picture-perfect" orbit to start a roughly two-day flight to the station, where three astronauts and cosmonauts await its arrival.   SpaceX Dragon begins Initial ISS mission under $1.6 billion NASA resupply contract   Mark Carreau – Aviation Week   SpaceX's Falcon 9/Dragon Commercial Resupply Services 1 mission lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., late Sunday, signaling the restoration of a regular U. S. International Space Station re-supply and cargo return capability lost with retirement of NASA's long running shuttle program in July 2011. The launch trajectory and a series of maneuvers by the unpiloted Dragon should place the CRS-1 freighter in a position to rendezvous with the station and its three-member crew early Wednesday.   SpaceX rocket blasts off for space station   Irene Klotz - Reuters   An unmanned, privately owned Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo capsule blasted off from Cape Canaveral on Sunday on a mission to restore a U.S. supply line to the International Space Station after the retirement of the space shuttle. Powered by nine oxygen and kerosene-burning engines, the 157-foot (48-meter) tall rocket, built by Space Exploration Technologies, lifted off from its seaside launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 8:35 p.m. EDT. "This was a critical event for NASA and the nation tonight," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. "Just over a year after the retirement of the space shuttle, we have returned space station cargo-resupply missions to U.S. soil."   SpaceX mission, first commercial supply run to space station, lifts off on schedule   Paul Huggins - Huntsville Times   A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on time this evening starting a new era for commercial spaceflight. Carrying a Dragon supply capsule bound for the International Space Station, the SpaceX CRS-1 mission will dock in three days. The mission marks the first of at least 12 SpaceX missions to the space station under the company's cargo resupply contract with NASA.   First commercial cargo flight heading to International Space Station   CNN   The SpaceX rocket, the first commercial flight to the International Space Station, lifted off Sunday night carrying an unmanned cargo capsule. The Falcon 9 rocket with its Dragon capsule launched on schedule at 8:35 p.m. ET from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with an orange blaze against the black night sky. About 10 minutes into the flight, the Dragon separated from the rocket and was on its way to the station. Mission control called it "a picture-perfect launch and a flawless flight of Falcon."   Liftoff! SpaceX Dragon Launches 1st Private Space Station Cargo Mission   Tariq Malik - Space.com   A privately built rocket lit up the night sky over Florida Sunday (Oct. 7) to kick off the first-ever cargo delivery trip to the International Space Station by a robotic, American-made spacecraft. The unmanned Dragon space capsule, built by the commercial spaceflight firm SpaceX, roared into space atop the company's Falcon 9 rocket from a launch pad here at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, beginning a three-day flight to the space station. Liftoff occurred at 8:35 p.m. EDT.   SpaceX Cargo Launch To ISS Is Successful   Alex Knapp - Forbes   SpaceX can now put another milestone in its scrap book – the commercial spaceflight company successfully launched its Dragon space capsule to the International Space Station at 8:35 ET on Sunday. Coming after its first successful docking mission with the International Space Station, this marks the first time that a commercial spacecraft will be docking with the International Space Station with cargo. The capsule is expected to berth with the station at 7:22 am ET on Wednesday.   Musk’s SpaceX Launches Craft to Begin Space Station Deliveries   Brendan McGarry - Bloomberg News   Space Exploration Technologies Corp. launched an unmanned craft to begin regular cargo deliveries to the International Space Station, becoming the first company to provide space supply services to the U.S. government. The company, known as SpaceX and controlled by billionaire Elon Musk, launched its Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon capsule at 8:35 p.m. local time today from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The capsule separated from the rocket and reached orbit about 10 minutes after liftoff. SpaceX, based in Hawthorne, California, has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA for at least a dozen resupply missions. The agency is relying on companies such as SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp., based in Dulles, Virginia, to do the work after retiring its shuttle fleet last year.   Did One of Falcon 9's Engines Explode? Video Shows Debris   Doug Messier - Parabolic Arc   This video shows something serious happening to one of the Falcon 9's engines. Engine 1 seems to have suffered a “rapid unscheduled dis-assembly” — i.e., it blew up. The other 8 engines burned longer than planned to put Dragon into orbit. The anomaly occurred at 1 minute and 20 seconds into the flight. I’m told that the engines have Kevlar around them to prevent the turbine blades, which are spinning at 30,000 RPM, from slicing into the other engines if they fail. That may have saved the flight. In this case, it looks like the entire engine blew up. SpaceX Founder Elon Musk and President Gwynne Shotwell confirmed that an anomaly occurred and the engine was shut down early. But, they did not provide any details.   Reusable Orbital Flight Is Almost Here   Michael Belfiore - Popular Mechanics (Opinion)   (Belfiore is the author of Rocketeers: How a Visionary Band of Business Leaders, Engineers, and Pilots Is Boldly Privatizing Space)   Even as SpaceX becomes the first private company to provide cargo delivery service to the International Space Station—a mission that could be furthered this weekend as the company launches its second trip to the ISS—it’s already at work on its next giant leap: a reusable orbital spaceship. Last month, SpaceX tested a "hopping" Falcon 9 rocket as part of its Grasshopper program. It was a standard first stage with a single Merlin-1D engine in its tail instead of the usual 9, and landing legs added on. The hop was all of six feet, but was the first step in the company’s plan to give its boosters the ability to launch payloads into orbit and then land robotically so they can be refueled and launched again. Instead of plunging back to Earth and being destroyed as it does now after completing its part of the job, each of the Falcon 9’s two stages would fly back to Earth in a controlled maneuver, using reserve propellant to make a gentle touchdown on retractable legs.   Tour a reminder of shuttle workers' feat   John Kelly - Florida Today (Commentary)   You get unique opportunities covering the space industry. This week, I got an up-close-and-inside look at space shuttle Atlantis as the vaunted spaceship was prepped for retirement duty at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. I appreciate the time provided by the NASA and United Space Alliance workers who helped with the tour. Sitting on the flight deck of the last shuttle to have flown in space, there’s a sense of wonder about the accomplishments of the people who worked in that hallowed place on Earth and in orbit. The time inside and around Atlantis, and talking to the people who’ve given their careers to the shuttles, provoked a lot of thoughts about that phase of our space program.   Should Columbus Day Become 'Exploration Day'?   Jason Major - Discovery News   "In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue." And with that benign little mnemonic many people sum up their working knowledge of the endeavors of the Genoan sailor who discovered America (even though he didn't) for the glory of the Spanish crown (which later imprisoned him for his "atrocities"). But regardless if you know the Santa Maria from the Mayflower, if you live in the U.S. there's a good chance that you'll be enjoying a day off work this coming Monday in honor of a man who's traditionally celebrated regardless of his accidental discovery, dubious motivations and more-than-questionable actions across the islands of the Caribbean. There are a few people who'd like to change that. Not the day off of course, because we all like that, but specifically who's being honored -- or, more accurately, who's not specifically being honored. For rather than setting aside a day that exclusively respects Columbus (for better or worse) Tom Diehl, Karl Frank and Dr. Rod Wright are suggesting that Columbus Day -- which wasn't officially recognized federally until 1937 -- be rededicated as "Exploration Day", thus calling attention to the spirit of not only Columbus' exploits but also of all those that came after... and all who are yet to come.   IN 1492   In fourteen hundred ninety-two Columbus sailed the ocean blue…   Origins of Columbus Day A U.S. national holiday since 1937, Columbus Day commemorates the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the New World on October 12, 1492. The Italian-born explorer had set sail two months earlier, backed by the Spanish monarchs King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. He intended to chart a western sea route to China, India and the fabled gold and spice islands of Asia; instead, he landed in the Bahamas, becoming the first European to explore the Americas since the Vikings set up colonies in Greenland and Newfoundland during the 10th century. __________   COMPLETE STORIES   Falcon 9 takes off on space station resupply mission   William Harwood – CBS News   An unmanned cargo ship loaded with spare parts, science equipment and crew supplies -- including ice cream treats -- rocketed into orbit Sunday and set off after the International Space Station, kicking off a new era of commercial flights intended to restore a U.S. supply chain that was crippled by the shuttle's retirement.   The Dragon capsule and its Falcon 9 rocket, both built by Space Exploration Technologies, took off with a rush of fiery exhaust at 8:35:07 p.m. EDT (GMT-4), quickly climbing away from launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.   Making its first operational flight under a $1.6 billion NASA contract, the 157-foot-tall Falcon 9 arced away on a northeasterly trajectory paralleling the East Coast of the United States, putting on a spectacular evening sky show for area residents and tourists.   Liftoff was timed to roughly coincide with the moment Earth's rotation carried the pad into the plane of the space station's orbit, the only way for the spacecraft to catch up with its 5-mile-per-second target.   Generating more than 855,000 pounds of thrust, the Falcon 9 went supersonic one minute and 10 seconds after launch as its nine first stage Merlin engines boosted the spacecraft out of the dense lower atmosphere.   About one minute and 28 seconds into flight, engine No. 1 suffered a dramatic malfunction of some sort, triggering a bright flash in the exhaust plume and what appeared to be debris falling away in the rocket's wake.   The first stage fell away about three-and-a-half minutes after launch, about a half minute later than expected, and the single second stage engine then continued the push to space. Live television views from a camera mounted at the base of the second stage showed the engine nozzle glowing cherry red against the black of space as the rocket climbed toward orbit.   The second stage appeared to operate normally and the Dragon capsule was released about 10 minutes and 24 seconds after liftoff. A few moments later, cameras showed the capsule's two solar arrays unfolding and locking in place.   SpaceX founder Elon Musk said in an email to Spaceflight Now that the rocket "detected an anomaly on one of the nine (first stage) engines and shut it down."   "As designed, the flight computer then recomputed a new ascent profile in realtime to reach the target orbit, which is why the burn times were a bit longer," he said.   "Like Saturn 5, which experienced engine loss on two flights, the Falcon 9 is designed to handle an engine flameout and still complete its mission. I believe F9 is the only rocket flying today that, like a modern airliner, is capable of completing a flight successfully even after losing an engine. There was no effect on Dragon or the space station resupply mission."   The Dragon capsule was launched into an initially elliptical orbit with a high point of 204 miles and a low point of around 126 miles. The spacecraft will carry out a complex computer-orchestrated series of rendezvous rocket firings to catch up with the space station early Wednesday.   Unlike Russian, European and Japanese cargo craft that routinely visit the station, the SpaceX Dragon capsule was designed to make round trips to and from the lab complex, giving it the ability to bring major components and experiment samples back to Earth for the first time since shuttles stopped flying last year.   "Not only is it going to give us a consistent supply chain up, but very critical, particularly to biological research, is the return mass, to be able to have frozen samples returned home," said space station Program Manager Mike Suffredini. "This really is the keystone to what is going to allow space station to do what it was built to do. It's critical to the success of the station."   If all goes well, station commander Sunita Williams and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide will use the lab's robot arm to grapple the Dragon capsule around 7:22 a.m. Wednesday, maneuvering it to a berthing at the Earth-facing port of the forward Harmony module.   Over the next three weeks or so, the station crew will unload a half ton of equipment and supplies, including experiment hardware, a freezer, spare parts, clothing and food. Taking advantage of the freezer, ice cream was included, a rare treat for space crews.   As the capsule is unloaded, the astronauts plan to stow nearly a ton of no-longer needed gear, failed components and experiment samples that, until now, have had no way to get back to Earth. Again using the robot arm, Williams and Hoshide plan to unberth the capsule Oct. 28 for re-entry and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the southern coast of California where recovery crews will be standing by.   The Russian Soyuz spacecraft that ferry crews to and from the space station can only carry a few hundred pounds of small items back to Earth. All other station vehicles -- unmanned Russian Progress supply ships and European and Japanese cargo craft -- burn up during re-entry.   "The SpaceX Dragon is a really important vehicle for us because it supports the laboratory use of ISS, both in bringing cargo up to the space station and in bringing research samples home," said Julie Robinson, the space station program scientist at NASA Headquarters.   "It has a great return capability, it essentially replaces that capacity that we lost when the shuttle retired so that now we'll be able to bring home a wide variety of biological samples, physical sciences samples and we'll be able to bring home research equipment that we need to refurbish and then relaunch again."   Scott Smith, a nutritionist at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, will be eagerly awaiting crew urine samples for on-going medical research on how the body adapts to weightlessness.   "We have not brought any samples back since the last shuttle flight," he told reporters Saturday. "When NASA knew the shuttle was going to retire, we actually flew extra freezers to the space station to hold those samples so the crews could continue to collect samples on orbit knowing we would bring them back when we had the chance.   "The novelty at this point of SpaceX is this is the first real return vehicle for these type of samples. Obviously, we can get the crew home on the Soyuz, but the cargo capability of the Soyuz is extremely limited. So this is our first set of samples that will come back."   Anticipating the shuttle's retirement, NASA announced a new program, Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, or COTS, in 2006 that called for development of new unmanned cargo craft that would be procured by the government on a commercial basis. NASA eventually awarded two major contracts.   Orbital Sciences of MacLean, VA, holds a contract valued at $1.9 billion for eight cargo flights to the station. Another $288 million was budgeted for development and at least one test flight. An initial demonstration mission is expected early next year.   SpaceX holds a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to provide 12 cargo flights to the station for delivery of more than 44,000 pounds of equipment and supplies. The company originally planned three test flights under a separate contract valued at up to $396 million.   After an initial success in December 2010, NASA allowed SpaceX to combine the objectives of the second and third test flights into a single mission, which was successfully carried out last May. That cleared the way for the company's first operational cargo resupply services mission -- CRS-1 -- under the $1.6 billion contract.   "We are required under this contract to fly 20 metric tons up to the International Space Station," Shotwell said Saturday. "With the way it looks, over the 12 flights we'll be taking up and back about 60 metric tons."   Even with a failure, she said, "given the capacity we have on the Falcon 9 and the Dragon flights, I don't believe there's any chance we won't hit our 20-metric ton target."   The Dragon capsule is 14.4 feet tall and 12 feet wide, with trunk section that extends another 9.2 feet below the capsule's heat shield that houses two solar arrays and an unpressurized cargo bay. The spacecraft can carry up to 7,297 pounds of cargo split between the pressurized and unpressurized sections.   Under a $440 million contract with NASA, SpaceX engineers are working on upgrades to convert the Dragon capsule into a manned spacecraft that can ferry crews to and from the station. SpaceX managers believe they will be ready for initial manned test flights in the 2015 timeframe, assuming continued NASA funding. Two other companies, Boeing and Sierra Nevada, are developing their own spacecraft designs under similar contracts.   For the CRS-1 mission, the Dragon capsule is loaded with 882 pounds of hardware, supplies and equipment including:   ·         260 pounds of crew food, clothing, low-sodium food kits and other crew supplies. ·         390 pounds of science gear, including a low-temperature Glacier freezer for experiment samples, fluids and combustion facility hardware, a commercial generic bioprocessing apparatus, cables for the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and research gear for the Japanese and European space agencies. ·         225 pounds of space station hardware, including crew health care system components, life support system parts, filters and electrical components ·         7 pounds of computer gear   For its return to Earth, the Dragon spacecraft will be carrying 1,673 pounds of experiment samples and hardware, including:   ·         163 pounds of crew supplies ·         518 pounds of vehicle hardware ·         123 pounds of computer gear, Russian cargo and spacewalk equipment ·         866 pounds of science gear & experiment samples, including 400 samples of crew urine.   Smith said "it may be urine to you, but it's gold to us. There's a lot of science that comes out of this."   NASA, partners agree to yearlong space station flight   William Harwood – CBS News   An American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut will spend a full year aboard the International Space Station in 2015-16, twice as long as current crews, to collect medical data on long-duration spaceflight that will help pave the way for eventual flights to deep space destinations, NASA said Friday.   Assigning two lab crew members to a yearlong flight also is expected to free up seats aboard Russian Soyuz ferry craft for two additional space tourists or representatives of other nations that might not otherwise fit into the normal space station crew rotation.   In their latest contract with NASA, the Russians charge more than $60 million a seat for Soyuz flights to and from the space station. While a space tourist presumably would pay less, the money would give the cash-strapped Russian program a welcome boost.   The Russians launched eight "spaceflight participants" to the station between 2001 and 2008, including one who flew twice. They paid between $20 million and $50 million per flight.   It is not yet known who will be assigned to the  yearlong station flight, when they will be announced or who might fill the additional Soyuz seats. But Space Adventures, a company that has brokered past tourist visits to the space station, has scheduled a news conference Oct. 10 in Moscow with singer Sarah Brightman.   However that plays out, the astronaut and cosmonaut who will stay up for a year likely will launch in March 2015 aboard the Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft, sources said, accompanied by a Russian spacecraft commander who would stay aboard the lab for a normal six-month tour.   Under that scenario, the next Soyuz in the rotation, TMA-17M, would launch with a normal three-person station crew the following May. The Soyuz after that, TMA-18M, would take off that Fall with a Russian commander and two paying customers, sources said, either tourists, researchers representing nations not normally in the rotation or a combination of the two.   The spaceflight participants would spend about two weeks aboard the lab complex and return to Earth aboard the Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft with the same commander that ferried the long-duration crew to orbit the previous March. The long-duration crew members would return to Earth in March 2016 aboard the Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft with the commander who ferried the commercial fliers to orbit.   Other scenarios are possible. The NASA statement provided no details on how the crew rotation might play out and there was no immediate word from the Russians. However it plays out, senior NASA managers believe the flight is crucial for plans to eventually send astronauts on missions to deep space targets ranging from nearby asteroids to Mars.   "In order for us to eventually move beyond low Earth orbit, we need to better understand how humans adapt to long-term spaceflight," Mike Suffredini, the space station program manager at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, said in a statement late Friday.   "The space station serves as a vital scientific resource for teaching us those lessons, and this yearlong expedition aboard the complex will help us move closer to those journeys."   While the yet-to-be-named long-duration crew members will set a new record for space station crew, it will fall well short of the world record held by cosmonaut Valery Polyakov, who spent 438 days aboard the Russian Mir space station in 1994 and 1995.   The U.S. record for the longest single spaceflight is held by astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, who spent 215 days in space aboard the International Space Station in 2006-07.   "We have gained new knowledge about the effects of spaceflight on the human body from the scientific research conducted on the space station, and it is the perfect time to test a one-year expedition aboard the orbital laboratory," Julie Robinson, space station program scientist, said in the NASA statement. "What we will gain from this expedition will influence the way we structure our human  research plans in the future."   But not everyone is in favor of such missions. Gennady Padalka, one of the most experienced cosmonauts in the world with 711 days in space over flight flights, just returned from the International Space Station.   During a post-flight news conference Padalka was asked how he felt about a yearlong stay aboard the lab complex.   "Today I'm in the negative," he said in translated remarks, "because to do so, you first need to create comfortable living conditions for the crew, especially in the Russian segment."   Veteran cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, now a senior Russian space manager, said he favored longer stays to "give us new data in science."   "With the advent of sophisticated scientific equipment, we can assess what happens to a person who is in space, and what medications to help combat the negative factors of the flight," he said. "This is very important in planning for future long-duration missions."   But he agreed with Padalka that living conditions in the Russian segment of the station should be improved.   Current space station commander Sunita Williams said in a recent interview with CBS News that she would happily stay a year in space if offered the chance.   "I love every minute that I have up here and I think that's the attitude people have to come into it with, that you only have a limited amount of time in space and although a year seems long, it's just one year," she said. "I think people could definitely do it."   Longer missions will "give us a little bit more knowledge about what happens to people and if it's feasible for people to go farther and farther, take the trip to Mars and back," she said.   "I think living in space for a year is feasible and the ISS is a great place to do it. There are always things to do up here, so I don't think people would get bored. I can't imagine getting bored up here."   Asked if she would go if asked, Williams said "absolutely. It's a small amount of your life and if there are science benefits that could come out of that, for sure."   "I think it would be great, I think it would be a lot of fun," she told CBS Radio. "You'd probably see a bunch of different crews coming through, too, and that's always interesting to get a new perspective, new people coming up and see how they're adapting. So that would make it a little exciting as well."   Joseph Acaba was a member of Padalka's crew, returning to Earth Sept. 16. He agreed with Williams, saying a one-year stay on the space station was more than feasible in the U.S. segment of the lab complex.   "It really is very comfortable living up there, the food is good, you have your personal sleep station, you can talk to your family once a week through a video conference, you have a telephone, you have email," he said in another interview with CBS News. "So it's almost like any other expedition we would do here on Earth.   "I only did it four months and I would have been happy to stay a little bit longer. I'm sure that with the resources we have up there those astronauts, if they do a  yearlong mission, would have no problems with that."   American, Russian Will Fly Year-Long ISS Expedition In 2015   Todd Halvorson - Florida Today   An American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut will embark on a year-long expedition to the International Space Station in 2015, paving the way to long missions to the moon, Mars, asteroids or other celestial destinations.   In what likely will be viewed historically as a bold move towards expanding human space exploration, the U.S., Russian, Europe, Japan and Canada approved the voyage on Friday.   “In order for us to eventually move beyond low Earth orbit, we need to better understand how humans adapt to long-term spaceflight,” NASA ISS Program Manager Mike Suffredini said in a statement.   “The space station serves as a vital scientific resource for teaching us those lessons, and this yearlong expedition aboard the complex will help us move closer to those journeys.”   The longest human space expedition to date – 437 days – was carried out by cosmonaut Valery Polyakov aboard Russia’s former space station Mir in 1994 and 1995.   The longest stay on the ISS to date: 215 days by U.S. astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria and cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin in 2006 and 2007.   Lengthy stays in the weightless space environment wreak havoc on human physiology.   Bone density and muscle mass is lost. The cardiovascular, pulmonary, vestibular and immune systems are weakened. Vision is impaired.   Long expeditions beyond Earth orbit also would expose astronauts to high doses or galactic cosmic radiation and solar energetic particles, increasing the likelihood of deadly cancer.   NASA Chief Station Scientist Julie Robinson thinks the orbiting international lab provides the perfect testbed for gauging the effect of long-duration missions on human physiology.     “We have gained new knowledge about the effects of spaceflight on the human body from the scientific research conducted on the space station, and it is the perfect time to test a one-year expedition aboard the orbital laboratory,” Robinson said in a statement.   “What we will gain from this expedition will influence the way we structure our human research plans in the future.”   Year on ISS planned ahead of manned Mars mission   Russia Today   NASA and the Russian space agency plan to send an international crew to the ISS for a year. The extended mission, if it succeeds, may bring scientists a step closer to manned flights to Mars and beyond.   The plan envisages an international crew, made up of an American astronaut and Russian cosmonaut, blasting off on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in March 2015.   "A one-year increment on the ISS would be a natural progression as part of preparations for missions beyond low-Earth orbit," NASA spokesman Rob Navias said on Friday.   The extended expedition aims to gather the scientific data needed to send humans to destinations much farther away from Earth. The mission hopes to prove whether or not missions lasting longer than six months are possible.   NASA says the results will add more understanding to existing assumptions about crew performance and health and will be will helpful in reducing the risks associated with future exploration.  Manned missions to an asteroid or Mars are already in the pipeline, being penned for 2025 and 2035 respectively.   Medical and biological studies provide the basis of research aboard the station, which also serves as a $100 billion “laboratory” for technological demonstartions and scientific examinations.   The mission may improve the understanding of how human beings can tolerate the weightless environment of space for that long.   Doctors are particularly concerned about the affect it will have on bone density, muscle mass, strength, vision and other aspects of human physiology.   The yearlong stay will span the space station's 43rd through to 46th expeditions and will become the first time the ISS will host a mission of that duration.   However, the two will not be the only ones to have left Earth for so long.   So far, only four people have spent a year or longer in orbit during a single mission. All four are Russian cosmonauts who served aboard the Mir space station that operated in low Earth orbit for 15 years, before it was scrapped in 2001.   Back then, in 1988, Soviet cosmonauts Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov spent 365 days in space.   The record set in 1988 was then broken between 1994 and 1995, when Russian, Valery Polyakov stayed on board for 438 days.   It is still to be announced who will take part in the record-breaking 365 day mission on the ISS. There's speculation that Peggy Whitson, NASA's former chief astronaut, might be a potential candidate.   It is expected as many as two additional seats to fly to ISS may be available. Rumors suggest Russia may them to  so-called 'space tourists.'   SpaceX Dragon capsule launched to space station   Marcia Dunn - Associated Press   A commercial cargo ship rocketed into orbit Sunday in pursuit of the International Space Station, the first of a dozen supply runs under a mega-contract with NASA.   It was the second launch of a Dragon capsule to the orbiting lab by the California-based SpaceX company. The first was last spring.   This time was no test flight, however, and the spacecraft carried 1,000 pounds of key science experiments and other precious gear on this truly operational mission. There was also a personal touch: chocolate-vanilla swirl ice cream tucked in a freezer for the three station residents.   The company's unmanned Falcon rocket roared into the night sky right on time, putting SpaceX on track to reach the space station Wednesday. The complex was soaring southwest of Tasmania when the Falcon took flight.   Officials declared the launch a success, despite a problem with one of the nine first-stage engines. The rocket put Dragon in its intended orbit, said the billionaire founder and chief executive officer of SpaceX, Elon Musk.   "It's driving its way to station, so that's just awesome," noted SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell.   In more good news, a piece of space junk was no longer threatening the station, and NASA could focus entirely on the delivery mission.   NASA is counting on private business to restock the space station, now that the shuttles have retired to museums. The space agency has a $1.6 billion contract with SpaceX for 12 resupply missions.   Especially exciting for NASA is the fact that the Dragon will return twice as much cargo as it took up, including a stockpile of astronauts' blood and urine samples. The samples — nearly 500 of them — have been stashed in freezers since Atlantis made the last shuttle flight in July 2011.   The Dragon will spend close to three weeks at the space station before being released and parachuting into the Pacific at the end of October. By then, the space station should be back up to a full crew of six.   None of the Russian, European or Japanese cargo ships can bring anything back; they're destroyed during re-entry. The Russian Soyuz crew capsules have limited room for anything besides people.   Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX — owned by PayPal co-founder Musk — is working to convert its unmanned Dragon capsules into vessels that could carry astronauts to the space station in three years. Other U.S. companies also are vying to carry crews. Americans must ride Russian rockets to orbit in the meantime, for a steep price.   Musk, who monitored the launch from SpaceX Mission Control in Hawthorne, Calif., called the capsules Dragon after the magical Puff to get back at critics who, a decade ago, considered his effort a fantasy. The name Falcon comes from the Millennium Falcon starship of "Star Wars" fame.   An estimated 2,400 guests jammed the launching center to see the Falcon, with its Dragon, come to life for SpaceX's first official, operational supply mission.   Across the country at SpaceX headquarters, about 1,000 employees watched via TV and webcast.   It was no apparition.   "Just over a year after the retirement of the space shuttle, we have returned space station cargo resupply missions to U.S. soil," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr.   SpaceX is shooting for its next supply run in January.   Another company looking to haul space station cargo, Virginia's Orbital Sciences Corp., hopes to launch a solo test flight in December and a demo mission to the station early next year.   Every time SpaceX or a competitor flies successfully, Bolden told reporters, "that gives the nonbelievers one more opportunity to get on board and root for us" and help enable commercial launches for space station astronauts. This will further free NASA up to aim for points beyond low-Earth orbit, like Mars.   "This was a big night," Bolden concluded.   Group sends first rocket under deal with NASA   Kenneth Chang – New York Times   The first commercial cargo flight to the International Space Station lifted off on Sunday evening, inaugurating a new era for NASA in which private companies will take over the transportation of people and supplies to low-Earth orbit.   For this launch, only cargo is going; private transportation for astronauts is still several years away. Space Exploration Technologies of Hawthorne, Calif. — SpaceX, for short — launched its Falcon 9 rocket on schedule at 8:35 p.m. Eastern time from Cape Canaveral, Fla.   The rocket is carrying a capsule called Dragon that contains about 1,000 pounds of food, clothing, equipment and science experiments, including 23 designed and built by students. The cargo also includes a freezer that can store laboratory samples at temperatures as low as 300 degrees below zero. The goods are scheduled to reach the space station on Wednesday, and the capsule will stay docked for a few weeks.   “It actually marks the beginning of true commercial spaceflight to take cargo to the International Space Station for us,” Maj. Gen. Charles F. Bolden Jr., the NASA administrator, said during a video chat on Google Plus on Friday.   SpaceX successfully launched a capsule to the space station in a test flight in May, but Sunday’s launching is the first of a dozen flights under a $1.6 billion contract with NASA.   The student projects come through a program run by NanoRacks, a company that arranges for experiments to fly to the space station, and the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education. They include one from middle school students in Santa Monica, Calif., who want to know whether Silly Putty — a non-Newtonian dilatant fluid, in scientific terms — has different properties in the weightlessness of space than it does on Earth.   Under the plans, the SpaceX spacecraft will return to Earth near the end of October and splash down about 250 miles off the coast of Southern California. A successful mission would restore some of NASA’s ability to bring back items from the space station, which it lost with the termination of the space shuttle program last year.   A second company, the Orbital Sciences Corporation of Vienna, Va., is preparing its rocket for a test flight this year.   Successful SpaceX launch starts mission to resupply space station   W.J. Hennigan - Los Angeles Times   A towering white rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla. and sped toward the International Space Station in a resupply mission that heralds a new era for NASA.   SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched at 5:35 p.m. PDT Sunday from Space Launch Complex 40, carrying a Dragon capsule packed with 1,000 pounds of food, experiments and supplies. The spacecraft is expected to reach the space station Wednesday.   Space Exploration Technologies Corp., better known as SpaceX, is aiming to become the first private company to resupply the space station on a contracted mission for NASA.   “We are right where we need to be at this stage in the mission,” Elon Musk, SpaceX's 41-year-old billionaire founder and chief executive, said in a statement. “We still have a lot of work to do, of course, as we guide Dragon’s approach to the space station. But the launch was an unqualified success.”   With last year's retirement of the space shuttle fleet, NASA is eager to give private industry the job of carrying cargo and crews. Hawthorne-based SpaceX has a $1.6-billion contract to carry out 12 such cargo missions for NASA in the coming years.   SpaceX Launches Cargo Flight to Space Station   Andy Pasztor - Wall Street Journal   A private rocket and cargo spacecraft owned by Space Exploration Technologies Corp. blasted off from Florida on Sunday night as the company sought to begin regular commercial shipments to the international space station, a development intended to transform U.S. space flight.   The trouble-free countdown followed by liftoff at 8:35 p.m. ET, precisely as scheduled, sent the 227-foot Falcon 9 rocket toward the orbiting space laboratory. Using more than 850,000 pounds of thrust to reach supersonic speed about one minute after ignition, it carried a teardrop-shaped, unmanned Dragon capsule filled with roughly 1,000 pounds of supplies. The spacecraft is expected to dock with the space station Wednesday and return three weeks later.   During most of the preparations Sunday, there were nagging concerns that rain and clouds in the vicinity of Florida's Cape Canaveral launch complex potentially could force the mission to be scrubbed. But about an hour before the countdown clock ticked down, meteorologists said conditions had improved significantly, with showers staying far enough away to allow a launch.   Company workers are "all really pumped for this," SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said prior to the launch.   The launch capped a contentious, seven-year federal effort to privatize flights to service the space station, orbiting about 220 miles above the Earth. Since the retirement of its space-shuttle fleet, the U.S. has relied on Russian flights to bring both astronauts and cargo to the $100 billion station. Now, for the first time, the U.S. government will use commercial terms to pay per pound of cargo successfully shipped solely on American vehicles, although proposed astronauts flights are at least three years away.   The flight also marks one more important milestone for Elon Musk, founder and chairman of SpaceX, as the closely held Southern California company is known. Barring major problems in delivering goods into orbit and safely returning items back to Earth, the company stands to receive $1.6 billion in revenue over the next five years.   Sunday's mission—along with a total of at least 20 other cargo flights planned through the end of the decade by SpaceX and rival Orbital Sciences Corp. ORB -1.15%—is part of the effort to replace Russian cargo deliveries with flights conducted by private companies. Orbital hopes to launch its first test flight later this year.   The manifest for the mission included food, gear and replacement parts needed by crews manning the space station, plus some student-designed experiments. A special shipment of ice cream was also part of the cargo.   In what controllers and company officials called a "picture perfect launch," the rocket performed as expected with the capsule attaining orbit about 10 minutes after blastoff. Two minutes later, the capsule began deploying its solar arrays as planned to ensure reliable electric power for onboard systems.   In a release, Mr. Musk, who also serves as SpaceX's chief technical officer, said "we are right where we need to be at this stage in the mission." He said "we still have a lot of work to do, of course, as we guide Dragon's approach to the space station. But the launch was an unqualified success."   At a subsequent news conference, Ms. Shotwell tempered talk of a strictly by-the-book launch by disclosing that one of the rocket's nine main engines suffered some type of "anomaly" or performance issue. Without providing details, she said the data was being reviewed and information would be released Tuesday. A SpaceX spokeswoman declined to elaborate.   Still, the company and NASA officials enjoyed the afterglow of what went right. NASA chief Charles Bolden, who for years has been sharply criticized by lawmakers and others for allegedly unduly favoring commercial space programs, tied the successful launch to the economy. "We have returned space station cargo resupply missions to U.S. soil and are bringing the jobs associated with this work back to America," he said in a statement. Overall, NASA so far has committed more than $900 million to support SpaceX programs.   In an election year where Florida is considered an important swing state, Ms. Shotwell told reporters SpaceX plans to increase employment at the NASA launch complex. She said SpaceX's efforts "would not be where we are today" without strong support from the agency. Asked if she worried about competitors catching up, she replied: "SpaceX tries to stay ahead of everybody."   Dragon is slated to return to earth with a larger load before the end of the month, consisting of old equipment, returning experiments and blood and urine samples of various astronauts.   By 2015, Mr. Musk and SpaceX hope to leverage successful cargo deliveries into potentially larger contracts to transport U.S. astronauts into orbit.   Boeing Co. is the other well-known contender vying to build and operate what essentially would be space taxis back and forth to the station.   The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, however, already has signaled it could lack the money to ultimately support more than one fleet of such private spacecraft.   By itself, the timing of Sunday's liftoff was a significant victory for SpaceX. It made history in May with a demonstration flight of Dragon that docked the first privately built and operated spacecraft with the orbiting station, and then maneuvered the unmanned capsule to a safe splashdown in the Pacific. Despite that success, some critics had questioned how quickly the company could launch another craft.   The roughly four-month turnaround was somewhat faster than SpaceX was able to perform after earlier demonstration launches.   Apart from NASA and Pentagon contracts, some estimates peg SpaceX's current backlog of orders to launch commercial and foreign civilian satellites at close to $1 billion. As part of its aggressive expansion effort, the El Segundo, Calif., company also has plans to build its own launch facility near Brownsville, Texas.   Founded a decade ago by Internet entrepreneur Mr. Musk, SpaceX started with barely a handful of employees and commenced work on its vehicles out of makeshift offices near a strip mall. Mr. Musk, who invested more than $100 million of his own fortune in the company, initially faced opposition and sometimes even ridicule from established aerospace companies and Pentagon space officials.   But now SpaceX, with a big political presence and growing lobbying clout in Washington, D.C., has become the poster child for President Barack Obama's drive to nurture development of private cargo vehicles and manned capsules to travel to the space station. In particular, this year's highly-publicized Dragon demonstration flight highlighted the depth of SpaceX's engineering and management ranks.   That mission featured some last-minute hiccups before the capsule was able to link up with the station's robotic arm. Yet SpaceX officials handled the problems smoothly, largely on their own, winning plaudits from industry and federal experts   NASA hopes to save federal dollars by relying on industry to restock and provide routine crew transportation to the station. Instead of regular trips to low Earth orbit, the agency seeks to target its spending and expertise to develop a separate fleet of heavy-lift rockets and long-distance capsules. They would tackle much longer and more difficult missions to explore asteroids over the next two decades; return astronauts near or to the moon; and ultimately send a manned craft to Mars around 2035.   SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch lights up night sky   James Dean – Florida Today   A private spacecraft is on its way to resupply the International Space Station for the first time, opening a new era for NASA and the commercial spaceflight industry.   SpaceX’s Dragon cargo capsule blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station atop a Falcon 9 rocket at 8:35 p.m. tonight, lighting the night sky with an orange glow as it roared northeast over the Atlantic Ocean.   The unmanned Dragon spacecraft separated from the rocket in what SpaceX called a "picture-perfect" orbit to start a roughly two-day flight to the station, where three astronauts and cosmonauts await its arrival.   "We are right where we need to be at this stage in the mission," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in a statement after the launch. "We still have a lot of work to do, of course, as we guide Dragon’s approach to the space station. But the launch was an unqualified success."   SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said later that one of the rocket’s nine first-stage Merlin engines apparently shut down prematurely, but the anomaly did not affect the flight. A video showed debris falling from the bottom of the rocket 80 seconds into flight, but it wasn't immediately clear if it was related to the engine problem.   The launch made real a concept first proposed in 2004, when NASA announced plans to retire the shuttle after completing the space station and to rely on commercial vehicles to ship cargo to the outpost.   NASA in 2006 picked SpaceX for a program that helped develop and test its new rocket and spacecraft, and in 2008 awarded the company a $1.6 billion contract for 12 commercial resupply missions.   The Dragon’s successful test run to the station in May this year paved the way for contracted missions to begin.   NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden called Sunday’s launch "a historical event in the annals of spaceflight."   "This was a critical event for NASA and the nation tonight," Bolden said at Kennedy. "We are once again launching spacecraft from American soil with the supplies our astronauts need in space."   The Dragon is carrying about 1,000 pounds of food and crew supplies, spare parts and science experiments, and is expected to return late this month with twice as much cargo.   A freezer used to store biological samples won attention for its more palatable payload on the ride up: cups of vanilla and swirled chocolate ice cream for a microgravity treat.   On its way to the station, SpaceX won’t need to repeat many of the communications tests it performed back in May, having proven those systems work.   "This time we’ll be driving right to station," said Shotwell.   The capsule is due to arrive near the station early Wednesday and be grappled by a robotic arm around 7:30 a.m.   NASA reported that the station crew – which passed over Cape Canaveral about an hour before the launch – watched a video feed of the flight.   Said station commander Suni Williams: "We are ready to grab Dragon."   Williams and Aki Hoshide will steer the 58-foot arm that performs the grab and attaches Dragon to a docking port.   The Dragon is tentatively scheduled to depart the station Oct. 28, a few days after three more crew members arrive on a Russian spacecraft.   While beginning its first contracted cargo mission, SpaceX is one of several companies competing to launch NASA astronauts to the station by 2017. The U.S. now relies on Russia to fly its astronauts.   Bolden said Sunday’s launch helped strengthen the case for flying crews commercially, too.   "Every time they have successful mission, then that gives the non-believers one more opportunity to get on board and root for us and help us make this thing happen that we know can happen," he said. "This was a big night."   SpaceX Dragon begins Initial ISS mission under $1.6 billion NASA resupply contract   Mark Carreau – Aviation Week   SpaceX's Falcon 9/Dragon Commercial Resupply Services 1 mission lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., late Sunday, signaling the restoration of a regular U. S. International Space Station re-supply and cargo return capability lost with retirement of NASA's long running shuttle program in July 2011.   The launch trajectory and a series of maneuvers by the unpiloted Dragon should place the CRS-1 freighter in a position to rendezvous with the station and its three-member crew early Wednesday.   The planned three-week flight marks the first of a dozen missions the Hawthorne, Calif., based company plans to carry out under a $1.6 billion NASA Commercial Resupply Services agreement signed in December 2008.  Since the shuttle's retirement, NASA has relied on Russian, European and Japanese spacecraft to keep the station and its astronauts stocked with food, clothing, spare parts and research gear.   Dragon is unique among the international fleet in its ability to return medical specimens and station hardware in need of refurbishment back to Earth.   "It's really critical," said Mike Suffredini, NASA's ISS program manager, as CRS-1 neared lift off. "This is a keystone that will allow the station to do what it’s supposed to do."   The two-stage Falcon 9 booster rose from Launch Complex 40 at 8:35 p.m., EDT, climbing through darkened skies on a northeasterly course. Several days of stormy weather in the region cleared sufficiently earlier in the day with the advance of a slow moving cool front.   However, there was an anomaly on engine 1 of the nine engine first stage that prolonged the ascent briefly while still delivering Dragon close to the target orbit.   "I have no data on it," SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell, told a NASA hosted post launch news briefing. "But the Falcon 9 is design to lose engines and still make mission. So, it did what it was supposed to do.  If you do have an issue with an engine, you end up burning longer."   Dragon and its near 1,000 pound cargo settled into an initial 123 by 205 statue mile orbit as the capsule separated smoothly from the Falcon 9 second stage nearly 10 minutes into flight. Solar array deployment followed on schedule.   Aboard the station, commander Sunita Williams, of NASA, and flight engineer Akihiko Hoshide, of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, will be positioned in the Cupola observation deck at the controls of Canada's robot arm as Dragon approaches.  Once Dragon is within reach of the 58-foot-long mechanical limb, the two astronauts will grapple and berth the capsule to the U. S. segment Harmony module.   The grapple time is scheduled for Wednesday at 7:23 a.m., EDT.   As the CRS-1 freighter is off loaded, the spacecraft will be re-loaded with more than 1,200 pounds of frozen biomedical specimens, research gear and equipment headed back to Earth.   Current scheduling calls for Dragon to depart the orbiting science lab on Oct. 28,  followed by a same day parachute descent into the Pacific Ocean about 250 miles off the Southern California coast. Space X recovery ships will be standing by.   Each of the Dragon mission milestones was successfully demonstrated in May during NASA's final SpaceX Commercial Orbital Transportation Systems program flight.   SpaceX rocket blasts off for space station   Irene Klotz - Reuters   An unmanned, privately owned Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo capsule blasted off from Cape Canaveral on Sunday on a mission to restore a U.S. supply line to the International Space Station after the retirement of the space shuttle.   Powered by nine oxygen and kerosene-burning engines, the 157-foot (48-meter) tall rocket, built by Space Exploration Technologies, lifted off from its seaside launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 8:35 p.m. EDT.   "This was a critical event for NASA and the nation tonight," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. "Just over a year after the retirement of the space shuttle, we have returned space station cargo-resupply missions to U.S. soil."   The Falcon booster, flying for the fourth time, streaked through balmy, partly cloudy skies as it headed east over the Atlantic Ocean toward the station's orbit, some 250 miles above Earth.   Despite a problem with one engine during the 10-minute climb to orbit, the capsule was delivered exactly where it was intended to go, company president Gwynne Shotwell told reporters.   "Falcon 9 was designed to lose engines and still make missions, so it did what it was supposed to do," Shotwell said. "We will learn from our flights and continue to improve the vehicle."   The capsule is scheduled to reach the $100-billion space station - a project of 15 nations - on Wednesday.   The company, also known as SpaceX, made a successful practice run to the station in May, clearing the way for it to begin working off a $1.6 billion, 12-flight contract to deliver cargo for NASA.   The Dragon cargo capsule carries about 882 pounds (400 kg) of food, clothing, science experiments and supplies for the station. The gear includes a freezer to transport medical samples and a rare treat for the station crew - chocolate vanilla swirl ice cream.   With the retirement of the space shuttles last year, NASA turned to the private sector to develop and fly freight to the station and is looking to do the same for crew transportation.   "Every time they have a successful mission, that gives the non-believers one more opportunity to get onboard and root for us and help us make this thing happen," Bolden said.   Unlike the Russian, European and Japanese freighters that service the station, Dragon is designed to return to Earth intact, rather than burn up in the atmosphere, so it can bring back research and equipment from the station. That return capability has been missing since the shuttle's retirement.   Dragon is scheduled to depart the station on October 28 and to splash down into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.   SpaceX has a separate NASA contract to upgrade its Dragon capsule to carry humans as well. Boeing and privately owned Sierra Nevada Corp also have NASA backing for space taxi design work.   In addition to SpaceX, NASA has also hired Orbital Sciences Corp to fly cargo to the station. Orbital's Antares rocket is expected to make a debut flight later this year.   SpaceX mission, first commercial supply run to space station, lifts off on schedule   Paul Huggins - Huntsville Times   A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on time this evening starting a new era for commercial spaceflight.   Carrying a Dragon supply capsule bound for the International Space Station, the SpaceX CRS-1 mission will dock in three days.   The mission marks the first of at least 12 SpaceX missions to the space station under the company's cargo resupply contract with NASA.   On board the Dragon spacecraft are materials to support investigations planned for the station's Expedition 33 crew, as well as crew supplies and space station hardware.   Dragon -- the only space station cargo craft capable of returning a significant amount of supplies back to Earth -- will return with scientific materials and hardware.   The Falcon 9 rocket, powered by nine Merlin engines, performed nominally during every phase of its approach to orbit, including two stage separations, solar array deployment and the final push of Dragon into its intended orbit.   Dragon will now chase the space station before beginning a series of burns that will bring it into close proximity to the station. If all goes well, Dragon will spend more than two weeks there before an expected return to Earth on Oct. 28.   "We are right where we need to be at this stage in the mission," Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO and Chief Technical Officer, said in a SpaceX press release. "We still have a lot of work to do, of course, as we guide Dragon's approach to the space station. But the launch was an unqualified success."   First commercial cargo flight heading to International Space Station   CNN   The SpaceX rocket, the first commercial flight to the International Space Station, lifted off Sunday night carrying an unmanned cargo capsule.   The Falcon 9 rocket with its Dragon capsule launched on schedule at 8:35 p.m. ET from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with an orange blaze against the black night sky. About 10 minutes into the flight, the Dragon separated from the rocket and was on its way to the station.   Mission control called it "a picture-perfect launch and a flawless flight of Falcon."   It is is the first of a dozen NASA-contracted flights to resupply the International Space Station, at a total cost of $1.6 billion.     "It's a great evening," said SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell after the launch. "It's just awesome."   The launch comes nearly five months after a demonstration mission in which a Dragon capsule successfully berthed at the station and returned to Earth. Shotwell said the Sunday mission isn't "substantially different" from that flight, "with the exception that we got there once."   The unmanned capsule is packed with about 1,000 pounds of cargo -- everything from low-sodium food kits to clothing and computer hard drives. It's scheduled to return in late October with about 2,000 pounds of cargo, including scientific experiments and failed equipment that can be repaired and sent back, ISS Program Manager Mike Suffredini said.   "These flights are critical to the space station's sustainment and to begin full utilization of the space station for research and technology development," he said.   The Dragon spacecraft is supposed to catch up with the space station early Wednesday. Station Commander Sunita Williams and Aki Hoshide from the Japanese Space Agency will use the robotic arm to grab Dragon and berth it to the station.   Much of Dragon's cargo is material to support extensive experimentation aboard the space station. One deals with plant growth. Plants on Earth use about 50% of their energy for support to overcome gravity. Researchers want to understand how the genes that control that process would operate in microgravity -- when objects are in free-fall in space. Down the road, that could benefit food supplies here on the planet.   The spacecraft is also carrying nearly two dozen microgravity experiments designed and being flown through the Student Experiment Spaceflight Program.   SpaceX is not the only commercial company in the spacefaring business. Within the next few months, Orbital Sciences is expected to fly its own demonstration flight to the space station. Instead of using Cape Canaveral as its launch site, the company's rocket will take off from Wallops Island off the coast of Virginia.   Orbital has a nearly $2 billion contract with NASA for station resupply missions.   SpaceX founder Elon Musk is looking well beyond just these cargo flights to the station. SpaceX is one of three companies NASA has selected to continue work developing a human-rated spacecraft that would carry astronauts to the International Space Station.   Boeing and Sierra Nevada are the other two companies.   The SpaceX plan is to modify the Dragon capsule to carry people.   NASA Administrator Charles Bolden praised Sunday's launch as an example of private industry's capability. By hiring private companies to conduct the resupply missions, he said, NASA can focus on exploring even deeper in the solar system, including missions to an asteroid and to Mars.   Liftoff! SpaceX Dragon Launches 1st Private Space Station Cargo Mission   Tariq Malik - Space.com   A privately built rocket lit up the night sky over Florida Sunday (Oct. 7) to kick off the first-ever cargo delivery trip to the International Space Station by a robotic, American-made spacecraft.   The unmanned Dragon space capsule, built by the commercial spaceflight firm SpaceX, roared into space atop the company's Falcon 9 rocket from a launch pad here at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, beginning a three-day flight to the space station. Liftoff occurred at 8:35 p.m. EDT (0035 Monday GMT).   The mission is the first of a dozen SpaceX cargo flights under a $1.6 billion deal with NASA for its Commercial Resupply Services program. This flight, being the first mission, is dubbed SpaceX CRS-1 and is expected to arrive at the orbiting lab on Wednesday morning (Oct. 7).   NASA space station program manager Mike Suffredini said Dragon's ability to launch supplies to the station and return cargo back to Earth is a cornerstone of boosting scientific research on the orbiting laboratory, as well as its day-to-day maintenance.   "Not to be overdramatic, but it's critical to the International Space Station," Suffredini said during the countdown to launch.   Sunday night's launch was nearly flawless. One of the Falcon 9 rocket nine engines apparently shut down unexpectedly during the ascent, but the booster's eight other engines compensated for the glitch and delivered the Dragon spacecraft into its intended orbit, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said after the flight. The rocket is designed to do exactly that in the event of an engine anomaly, she added.   An American spaceship rises   When NASA retired its space shuttle fleet in 2011, it marked the first time in 30 years that the United States did not have an American spacecraft capable of flying missions to and from low-Earth orbit. NASA is relying on the availability of new private space taxis to deliver U.S. supplies, and ultimately astronauts, to the International Space Station.   Currently, the U.S. space agency depends on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to ferry crews to the station, and sends cargo on various robotic spacecraft operated by space agencies in Russia, Japan and Europe. But those unmanned space freighters are not designed to return science experiments and other station gear back to Earth. Instead, the spacecraft are disposed of in Earth's atmosphere by burning up during re-entry.   That is where Dragon stands out.   The gumdrop-shaped spacecraft is designed not only to haul cargo to the International Space Station but also to return hardware and experiments back to Earth. Under its terms with NASA, SpaceX has pledged to launch at least 20 metric tons of supplies to the space station during its 12-flight deal.   Dragon in flight   In May, the Hawthorne, Calif.–based SpaceX launched a test flight to the station using a different Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule to prove that it was ready to begin making bona fide supply runs. The demonstration was a success, paving the way for Sunday night's launch.   "Every time we fly, we learn something," Shotwell said before launch. "We're a launch company; I'm excited every time we get to launch."   For the first operational Dragon cargo mission to the station, SpaceX and NASA packed the capsule with more than 1,000 pounds (454 kilograms) of supplies, food and other vital gear for the station's current three-person Expedition 33 crew. Those supplies include a special delivery of ice cream for the astronauts, a late addition packed as a special treat.   The Dragon capsule will pull up to the station on Wednesday and be grappled by astronauts using the outpost's robotic arm so it can be attached to an available docking port. After nearly three weeks at the space station, Dragon will undock for a planned Oct. 28 splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California, where it will be retrieved by a SpaceX recovery crew. [6 Fun Facts About SpaceX's Dragon Spacecraft]   The space station's three-person crew watched SpaceX's smooth Dragon launch live via a video feed beamed up by flight controllers. At the time of launch, the station was sailing 225 miles above Tasmania, NASA officials said.   "We are ready to grab Dragon!" the station's commander, U.S. astronaut Sunita Williams, radioed down to Mission Control at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston along with congratulations for the SpaceX team.   NASA also confirmed today that a piece of space junk that will fly near the station Monday won't interfere with the crew's work preparing for Dragon's arrival, agency officials said.   The Dragon capsule is expected to return more than 2,000 pounds (907 kg) of science experiment results and station hardware so they can be studied or — in the case of the hardware — upgraded or repaired, station managers said.   SpaceX's Dragon capsules are 14.4 feet tall (4.4 meters) and about 12 feet wide (3.6 m). They rely on two solar panels for power, making them the first American solar-powered spacecraft to visit the International Space Station.   SpaceX has also received NASA funding to develop a manned version of Dragon as part of the agency's private space taxi efforts. Building a vehicle capable of carrying astronauts into space has long been a goal of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur who founded the company in 2002.   Shotwell said SpaceX expects to be ready to fly astronauts on Dragon spacecraft by 2015.   SpaceX is one of two companies with a NASA contract to provide unmanned cargo delivery flights to the space station. The other firm is the Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp., which has a $1.9 billion deal for at least eight resupply flights to the station using its new Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft. Unlike Dragon, Orbital's Cygnus is not designed to return supplies to Earth.   The first Antares rocket test flight is expected later this year from a launch site in Virginia.   SpaceX Cargo Launch To ISS Is Successful   Alex Knapp - Forbes   SpaceX can now put another milestone in its scrap book – the commercial spaceflight company successfully launched its Dragon space capsule to the International Space Station at 8:35 ET on Sunday. Coming after its first successful docking mission with the International Space Station, this marks the first time that a commercial spacecraft will be docking with the International Space Station with cargo. The capsule is expected to berth with the station at 7:22 am ET on Wednesday.   The Dragon capsule was launched with SpaceX’s own Falcon 9 rocket, which also sent the Dragon to the space station on its previous mission.  With another successful launch under its belt, and assuming a successful dock on Wednesday, the success of SpaceX means that NASA is no longer solely reliant on the Russian space program to send supplies and cargo to the International Space Station.   “Just over one year after the retirement of the space shuttle, we have returned space station cargo resupply missions to U.S. soil and are bringing the jobs associated with this work back to America,” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a press release. “The SpaceX launch tonight marks the official start of commercial resupply missions by American companies operating out of U.S. spaceports like the one right here in Florida.”   This is the first of 12 missions that Dragon will be making to the Station through 2016 on a $1.6 billion contract from NASA. On this trip, Dragon is taking 882 pounds of supplies, which are primarily intended to support over 166 different scientific investigations taking place on board the station. It also contains supplies for the crew. Dragon will remain berthed with the Station for 18 days, returning to Earth on October 28 with about 1600 pounds of cargo.   “We are right where we need to be at this stage in the mission,” said SpaceX CEO Elon Musk in a statement. “We still have a lot of work to do, of course, as we guide Dragon’s approach to the space station. But the launch was an unqualified success.”   Musk’s SpaceX Launches Craft to Begin Space Station Deliveries   Brendan McGarry - Bloomberg News   Space Exploration Technologies Corp. launched an unmanned craft to begin regular cargo deliveries to the International Space Station, becoming the first company to provide space supply services to the U.S. government.   The company, known as SpaceX and controlled by billionaire Elon Musk, launched its Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon capsule at 8:35 p.m. local time today from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The capsule separated from the rocket and reached orbit about 10 minutes after liftoff.   SpaceX, based in Hawthorne, California, has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA for at least a dozen resupply missions. The agency is relying on companies such as SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp., based in Dulles, Virginia, to do the work after retiring its shuttle fleet last year.   “Falcon 9 rocket booster has delivered Dragon to its target orbit!” Musk tweeted after the launch.   In a test mission, SpaceX on May 25 became the first company to dock a commercial craft at the station.   The supply ship is carrying about 1,000 pounds of cargo, including materials for scientific experiments aboard the station. After a three-day journey through space, it will arrive at the station for a two-week visit.   The bullet-shaped capsule will return to Earth with twice as much gear when it splashes down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of southern California. It’s designed to bring back a significant amount of experiments, unlike others developed by Orbital (ORB) and the governments of Europe, Japan and Russia.   Three Companies   SpaceX is also building a manned version of its Dragon spacecraft with help from NASA. The U.S. depends on Russia for transporting crew to the station at a cost of about $63 million per seat aboard Soyuz spacecraft.   The agency in August awarded three companies $1.11 billion to develop spacecraft capable of carrying astronauts. SpaceX won $440 million, Chicago-based Boeing Co. (BA) received $460 million and Sparks, Nevada-based Sierra Nevada Corp. got $213 million.   SpaceX plans to launch an orbital flight with astronauts “in about three years,” Musk said Oct. 5 during a press conference NASA broadcast on its website, “and to actually take astronauts to the space station in about four years.”   Orbital has delayed the test flight of its new Antares rocket designed for space station missions. The company plans to launch the rocket for the first time in December. The liftoff was previously planned for August.   The delay stems partly from faulty fuel valves found during inspections of the new $125 million launch pad at Wallops Island in Virginia. The company last week rolled out the rocket’s first-stage engine to the pad for tests in preparation of its maiden flight.   Orbital has a $1.9 billion contract with NASA for eight resupply missions scheduled through 2016. A separate demonstration mission to the station is planned for next year, possibly late February or early March.   Did One of Falcon 9's Engines Explode? Video Shows Debris   Doug Messier - Parabolic Arc   This video shows something serious happening to one of the Falcon 9's engines. Engine 1 seems to have suffered a “rapid unscheduled dis-assembly” — i.e., it blew up. The other 8 engines burned longer than planned to put Dragon into orbit. The anomaly occurred at 1 minute and 20 seconds into the flight.   I’m told that the engines have Kevlar around them to prevent the turbine blades, which are spinning at 30,000 RPM, from slicing into the other engines if they fail. That may have saved the flight. In this case, it looks like the entire engine blew up.   SpaceX Founder Elon Musk and President Gwynne Shotwell confirmed that an anomaly occurred and the engine was shut down early. But, they did not provide any details.   SpaceX has released the following statement:   “Falcon 9 detected an anomaly on one of the nine engines and shut it down. As designed, the flight computer then recomputed a new ascent profile in realtime to reach the target orbit, which is why the burn times were a bit longer. Like Saturn V, which experienced engine loss on two flights, the Falcon 9 is designed to handle an engine flameout and still complete its mission. I believe F9 is the only rocket flying today that, like a modern airliner, is capable of completing a flight successfully even after losing an engine. There was no effect on Dragon or the Space Station resupply mission.”   Reusable Orbital Flight Is Almost Here   Michael Belfiore - Popular Mechanics (Opinion)   (Belfiore is the author of Rocketeers: How a Visionary Band of Business Leaders, Engineers, and Pilots Is Boldly Privatizing Space)   Even as SpaceX becomes the first private company to provide cargo delivery service to the International Space Station—a mission that could be furthered this weekend as the company launches its second trip to the ISS—it’s already at work on its next giant leap: a reusable orbital spaceship.   Last month, SpaceX tested a "hopping" Falcon 9 rocket as part of its Grasshopper program. It was a standard first stage with a single Merlin-1D engine in its tail instead of the usual 9, and landing legs added on. The hop was all of six feet, but was the first step in the company’s plan to give its boosters the ability to launch payloads into orbit and then land robotically so they can be refueled and launched again. Instead of plunging back to Earth and being destroyed as it does now after completing its part of the job, each of the Falcon 9’s two stages would fly back to Earth in a controlled maneuver, using reserve propellant to make a gentle touchdown on retractable legs.   Reusable orbital flight could bring airline-style operations beyond Earth. It’s all about reducing the very high cost of leaving the planet. Imagine throwing away an airliner every time you fly across the Atlantic and you get the idea of the current state of orbital transportation. (Spacecraft like the shuttles are reusable, but the rockets that launch them to orbit are not.) Each flight has to pay for an entire vehicle, putting the trip out of reach of all but government programs, big corporations, and the wealthiest individuals.   But if the cost of a vehicle could be spread across multiple flights–the more the better–spaceflight could become much, much cheaper, perhaps opening the door to truly routine, reliable access to space.   "The end point would be the costs of the propellants–and kerosene and liquid oxygen aren’t particularly expensive propellants–plus whatever nominal operational costs it would be to prepare the vehicle and launch it," says Futron Corporation space launch analyst Jeff Foust. "You might be able to get costs down to the low millions of dollars per flight." Compare that to the $50 million to $60 million per flight cost today, says Foust, and we could see all sorts of new business opportunities open up.   "It’s widely excepted that very large reductions in price—orders of magnitude or more—move us into a different regime, where there are a whole lot of new users of space whose business plans become practical," says Jeff Greason, president of XCOR Aerospace and a member of the White House-appointed Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee.   Just what those business plans would be is anyone’s guess, since there’s no sure way to find out until the capability exists. Foust likens the situation to the early days of the personal computer industry. "When people were developing PCs in the ‘70s and ‘80s, they weren’t thinking about a lot of the applications that we use them for now because no one had thought about what happens when computers become low-cost, ubiquitous, and networked," he says.   A hint of what’s possible comes from the realm of suborbital spaceflight, where reusable vehicles in development are already attracting customers in the form of space tourists paying anywhere from $95,000 for a ride on XCOR’s Lynx vehicle, to $200,000 on Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites’ SpaceShipTwo. That market simply didn’t exist before SpaceShipOne proved the feasibility of reusable suborbital vehicles in 2004.   Greason sees a kind of virtuous cycle driving prices down. "If we suddenly have $500-a-pound launch, once the economy got used to that and all the new businesses that would use $500-a-pound launch came into being, a lot of them would be very cost sensitive," he says. "All of a sudden space would be like every other facet of the economy and there’d be a lot of competition to get the prices down, because if you got the price down, you’d make more money."   In the area of unmanned orbital flight, for example, Foust sees lower launch costs bringing an increased market for space-based imagery. "You can imagine putting up a constellation of satellites that could provide basically 24/7 imaging of any particular point on the planet," he says. Currently, commercial providers of such imagery can afford to launch only a couple of satellites each, requiring a days-long wait for one to pass over a spot of interest. "If you’re able to put a constellation up, you could have almost real-time imagery, depending on lighting and clouds and so on."   From a technical standpoint, reusable orbital vehicles should be doable. The Space Shuttle, after all, reused all but the big external fuel tank it needed to get to orbit. But high development costs, extensive maintenance requirements, and months-long turn-around times drove the Shuttle’s per-launch cost to $1.5 billion.   The SpaceX grasshopper may well be on the right track to reusable orbital flight. But to bring about the spaceflight revolution the company seeks, the system will have to cost less to develop and achieve much shorter turn-around times than the Shuttle, Foust says. He figures that turnarounds of several days to one week ought to give it a good start.   Tour a reminder of shuttle workers' feat   John Kelly - Florida Today (Commentary)   You get unique opportunities covering the space industry. This week, I got an up-close-and-inside look at space shuttle Atlantis as the vaunted spaceship was prepped for retirement duty at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. I appreciate the time provided by the NASA and United Space Alliance workers who helped with the tour.   Sitting on the flight deck of the last shuttle to have flown in space, there’s a sense of wonder about the accomplishments of the people who worked in that hallowed place on Earth and in orbit. The time inside and around Atlantis, and talking to the people who’ve given their careers to the shuttles, provoked a lot of thoughts about that phase of our space program.   1. The shuttles could have kept flying. Atlantis and her sister ships were old only in years. The space planes were built for many more flights. They never flew as frequently as envisioned. My impression being close to all three vehicles these last few years is that they had service life left. The workers who showed us around Atlantis on Thursday certainly believed that, and they said so.   That’s not sentimental, wishful thinking by local folks (including me) who are going to miss seeing launches, and missions, and landings. It’s backed up by mountains of engineering documentation outlining how the shuttles could keep flying with proper care and feeding an utmost respect for their intricate nature. The shuttles are not retiring because they’re not flightworthy.   2. The shuttles were too darn expensive to fly. Even in retirement, the number of people required to do detail work to maintain a shuttle is staggering. The $4 billion a year to operate the fleet went mostly to the standing army here and across the country needed to execute perfection. Flying the space shuttle demanded nothing less. It demanded thousands of engineers, technicians, planners and support staff to get every mind-numbing detail right. Missing one detail meant costly delays (at best) and lost lives (at worst).   If NASA were to replace the shuttles, Washington’s leaders’ choices were limited to increasing the agency budget by several billion dollars to develop and test a replacement system while still flying the shuttles or to shut the shuttle program down and divert the fleet’s operations costs to build the replacement. The second choice left a gap in human space launch from American soil, a gap we’re living through now and one that has no firmly defined end point.   3. If the shuttles didn’t excite you, then you weren’t paying attention. The single coolest view of our Atlantis encounter was through the small rear windows on the flight deck. Beyond them, the incredible, empty payload bay of Atlantis loomed. Imagine all the cool stuff that happened back there. Space probes were deployed to explore distant planets. Astronauts snagged the Hubble Space Telescope back there, repaired it and released it back into space to continue its study of the cosmos. Two science labs, among other components, were carried to the International Space Station in that long, and now eerily empty, payload bay.   The space shuttles are the most incredible flying machines that human beings ever dreamed up and then actually got off the ground. Yes, getting people back on the moon, or walking on Mars, or exploring asteroids, all will be exciting. But the space shuttles were not un-exciting. The shuttles and the missions they flew were as astounding a series of adventures as the moon shots. The people here who made the shuttle program happen are equally amazing. Ask them to tell you their stories. And, once Atlantis is in place at the Visitor Complex, go get a look.   Should Columbus Day Become 'Exploration Day'?   Jason Major - Discovery News   "In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue." And with that benign little mnemonic many people sum up their working knowledge of the endeavors of the Genoan sailor who discovered America (even though he didn't) for the glory of the Spanish crown (which later imprisoned him for his "atrocities").   But regardless if you know the Santa Maria from the Mayflower, if you live in the U.S. there's a good chance that you'll be enjoying a day off work this coming Monday in honor of a man who's traditionally celebrated regardless of his accidental discovery, dubious motivations and more-than-questionable actions across the islands of the Caribbean.   There are a few people who'd like to change that.   Not the day off of course, because we all like that, but specifically who's being honored -- or, more accurately, who's not specifically being honored. For rather than setting aside a day that exclusively respects Columbus (for better or worse) Tom Diehl, Karl Frank and Dr. Rod Wright are suggesting that Columbus Day -- which wasn't officially recognized federally until 1937 -- be rededicated as "Exploration Day", thus calling attention to the spirit of not only Columbus' exploits but also of all those that came after... and all who are yet to come.   "Rededicating Columbus Day as Exploration Day will allow those who wish to commemorate his accomplishments to continue doing so," says Frank. "But for those who find Columbus's role in history disquieting, it will enable them to celebrate the day in a very different way. Exploration Day covers the depth and breath of America’s rich history of exploration, research and discovery. Thus, Exploration Day will be something that unites rather than divides."   Frank, Diehl and Wright recognize that this is not a decision to be taken lightly -- but they feel that it is warranted.   "We do not view our federal holidays as trivial matters. They drive our nation. They give us pause. They serve as moments of reflection, as well as celebration. For many Americans Columbus Day no longer fits the litmus test of credibility and relevance. Federal holidays should be a day celebrated by the vast majority of Americans regardless of background or political orientation. When Congress created a federal holiday to honor Christopher Columbus, most of what was widely known about him was a myth -- a myth which Columbus himself helped perpetuate."   The inspiration for the movement? The death of astronaut Neil Armstrong, a reluctant hero yet still a symbol of exploration for America and the world since July 1969.   "Neil Armstrong's triumph was not just in what he as an individual accomplished, but what we as a species have accomplished together. It makes you wonder what this world would be like today if we only had the same kind of attitude that put a human being on the moon in the first place," says Frank. "Inspired by the likes of Armstrong’s generation, we are finished wondering and are ready to make it happen by rekindling that fire of exploratory spirit intrinsic in all of humanity. Like the exploratory fire found in women like Sacajawea, Hedy Lamar, Amelia Earhart, and men like Lewis and Clark, John Fremont, Matthew Henson, Charles Lindbergh, and the more contemporary Elon Musk."   Having a federally-recognized holiday in honor of the spirit of exploration would only serve to inspire young Americans to want to engage in explorations of their own, hopefully in the fields of science, math and engineering.   "I believe it makes sense to take every opportunity to encourage young people to appreciate the importance of exploration and research. Solving the great problems we face will take inquisitive minds and determined souls. Exploration Day would highlight the explorers, scientists and researchers who have made a difference in the world," says Tom Diehl.   In order for this to happen, though, others have to be on board. That's why two petitions have been put up -- one on Change.org, the other on the White House website -- to send the word to Congress and the President, respectively. With enough people who believe in the true nature of discovery and exploration and how it makes us unique as a species, the switch may just become possible. So if you agree, take a moment and sign both petitions (and share with anyone you think would be interested too).   "There is nothing more wondrous about humanity than what we can do when we work together with optimism. That's what Exploration Day would mean to us."   IN 1492   In fourteen hundred ninety-two Columbus sailed the ocean blue.   He had three ships and left from Spain; He sailed through sunshine, wind and rain.   He sailed by night; he sailed by day; He used the stars to find his way.   A compass also helped him know How to find the way to go.   Ninety sailors were on board; Some men worked while others snored.   Then the workers went to sleep; And others watched the ocean deep.   Day after day they looked for land; They dreamed of trees and rocks and sand.   October 12 their dream came true, You never saw a happier crew!   “Indians! Indians!” Columbus cried; His heart was filled with joyful pride.   But “India” the land was not; It was the Bahamas, and it was hot.   The Arakawa natives were very nice; They gave the sailors food and spice.   Columbus sailed on to find some gold To bring back home, as he’d been told.   He made the trip again and again, Trading gold to bring to Spain.   The first American? No, not quite. But Columbus was brave, and he was bright. ___   Origins of Columbus Day A U.S. national holiday since 1937, Columbus Day commemorates the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the New World on October 12, 1492. The Italian-born explorer had set sail two months earlier, backed by the Spanish monarchs King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. He intended to chart a western sea route to China, India and the fabled gold and spice islands of Asia; instead, he landed in the Bahamas, becoming the first European to explore the Americas since the Vikings set up colonies in Greenland and Newfoundland during the 10th century.   Later that month, Columbus sighted Cuba and believed it was mainland China; in December the expedition found Hispaniola, which he though might be Japan. There, he established Spain's first colony in the Americas with 39 of his men. In March 1493, the explorer returned to Spain in triumph, bearing gold, spices and "Indian" captives. He crossed the Atlantic several more times before his death in 1506; by his third journey, he realized that he hadn't reached Asia but instead had stumbled upon a continent previously unknown to Europeans.   Columbus Day in the United States The first Columbus Day celebration took place in 1792, when New York's Columbian Order–better known as Tammany Hall–held an event to commemorate the historic landing's 300th anniversary. Taking pride in Columbus' birthplace and faith, Italian and Catholic communities in various parts of the country began organizing annual religious ceremonies and parades in his honor. In 1892, President Benjamin Harrison issued a proclamation encouraging Americans to mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus' voyage with patriotic festivities, writing, "On that day let the people, so far as possible, cease from toil and devote themselves to such exercises as may best express honor to the discoverer and their appreciation of the great achievements of the four completed centuries of American life."   In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed Columbus Day a national holiday, largely as a result of intense lobbying by the Knights of Columbus, an influential Catholic fraternal benefits organization. Originally observed every October 12, it was fixed to the second Monday in October in 1971.   Columbus Day Traditions In many parts of the United States, Columbus Day has evolved into a celebration of Italian-American heritage. Local groups host parades and street fairs featuring colorful costumes, music and Italian food. In cities and towns that use the day to honor indigenous peoples, activities include pow-wows, traditional dance and lessons about Native American culture.   END