Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - December 21, 2012

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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: December 21, 2012 7:21:55 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - December 21, 2012

Happy Friday everyone and   have a great weekend!

 

 

Friday, December 21, 2012

 

JSC TODAY HEADLINES

1.            Don't Be a Stranger to the JSC Home Page -- New Articles Posted

2.            Building 1 and Building 4S Snack Bar Closures

3.            The 'Do Not Disturb' Sign for the Teague is Poised and Ready

4.            Engineers to Entrepreneurs: The Business of Commercializing Technology

5.            Human Health & Performance Directorate Welcomes Carlos Dominguez

6.            Control Team/Crew Resource Management: Jan. 23-25, Building 20, Room 205/206

7.            Payload Safety Process and Requirements: Jan. 25, Building 20, Room 205/206

________________________________________     QUOTE OF THE DAY

" Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love! "

 

-- Hamilton Wright Mabie

________________________________________

1.            Don't Be a Stranger to the JSC Home Page -- New Articles Posted

New articles have been posted to the JSC home page that may add some cheer to your holidays.

Have you witnessed the metamorphosis of the Building 9 Space Vehicle Mockup Facility into the shining training ground for space missions that it is today? Whether you have or haven't, get the scoop on this "extreme makeover" and see some photos here.

The latest viral sensation (no, not the flu) sweeping JSC and the world is the educational music video highlighting JSC dubbed "NASA Johnson Style." A play on the hit song "Gangnam Style" by pop sensation PSY, JSC Pathway interns did their own parody, complete with a dancing astronaut and more. If you haven't seen the video or read the story behind it, click here.

Happy belated anniversary to the Aircraft Operations Division (AOD), who celebrated 50 years of support and services back in October. You'll be able to read more about AOD in the January Roundup, but until then, look at a storybook of sorts through the magic of old and new photos.

JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111

 

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2.            Building 1 and Building 4S Snack Bar Closures

The snack bars in Building 1 and Building 4S will be closed from now until Jan. 6 due to renovations. Both are scheduled to re-open on Jan. 7.

Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/

 

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3.            The 'Do Not Disturb' Sign for the Teague is Poised and Ready

Give your Outlook calendar a break for the holidays, and the Teague will thank you. Effective Monday, the Building 2S Teague Auditorium will be closed until Jan. 2 to kick back with some hot apple cider and maybe a good novel. The building, I'm sure, will be restored to its normal good spirits beginning Jan. 2. Thanks for your understanding.

JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111

 

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4.            Engineers to Entrepreneurs: The Business of Commercializing Technology

This is a new SATERN offering.

Learn the basic building blocks for creating your own business. Topics include the essentials of the business plan, marketing, financing, legal aspects and other necessary criteria for a successful business startup.

Taught by the Houston Technology Center staff, this is the same course attended by entrepreneurs and business startups at the Houston Technology Center's Midtown facility in Houston. It is structured for the JSC community as a series of 10 weekly one-hour brown-bag lunches.

The Houston Technology Center operates a satellite campus at JSC in the JSC Acceleration Center, Building 35, to harness the technical know-how and provide business advice, incubation and acceleration services. The goal is to commercialize the incredible technologies found in the NASA/JSC community.

To self-register in SATERN, go to: https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=REGISTRATI...

Pat Kidwell x37156 http://www.houstontech.org/

 

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5.            Human Health & Performance Directorate Welcomes Carlos Dominguez

The Human Health & Performance Directorate is pleased to welcome Carlos Dominguez, senior vice president at Cisco Systems and technology evangelist, as our next Innovation Lecture Series speaker! Dominguez speaks to and motivates audiences worldwide about how technology is changing how we communicate, collaborate, and especially, how we work. He gives humorous, highly animated presentations full of deep insight into how technology and the right culture can create winning companies.

When: Jan. 11, 2 p.m.

Where: Teague Auditorium (NEW)

All are encouraged to attend! Register now in SATERN at https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_... to receive Human Systems Academy credit.

Event Date: Friday, January 11, 2013   Event Start Time:2:00 PM   Event End Time:3:30 PM

Event Location: Teague Auditorium

 

Add to Calendar

 

Carissa Vidlak 281-212-1409 http://sa.jsc.nasa.gov/

 

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6.            Control Team/Crew Resource Management: Jan. 23-25, Building 20, Room 205/206

Two-and-a-half days. This training directly addresses human factors issues that most often cause problems in team and crew interaction. No one working on a team or a crew, especially in high-stress activities, is immune to these effects. The Control Team/Crew Resource Management course deals with interpersonal relations, but doesn't advocate democratic rule or hugging fellow team members to improve personal relations. Rather, this course provides awareness of human factors problems that too often result in mishaps and offers recommendations and procedures for eliminating these problems. It emphasizes safety risk assessment, crew/team coordination and decision-making in crisis situations. This course is applicable both to those in aircrew-type operations and also to personnel operating consoles for hazardous testing or on-orbit mission operations, or any operation involving teamwork and critical communication. It is preferable that "teams" experience course as a group, if possible. SATERN Registration Required. https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...

Polly Caison x41279

 

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7.            Payload Safety Process and Requirements: Jan. 25, Building 20, Room 205/206

Class is from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. This course is intended as an overview of the requirements and will merely introduce the payload safety and hazard analysis process. It is intended for those who may be monitoring, supervising or assisting those who have the responsibility of identifying, controlling and documenting payload hazards. It will provide an understanding of the relationship between safety and the payload integration process, with an orientation to the payload safety review process. It will also describe payload safety requirements (both technical and procedural) and discuss their application throughout the payload safety process: analysis, review, certification and follow-up to ensure implementation. System safety concepts and hazard recognition will be briefly discussed and documentation requirements explained in general terms. Those with primary responsibilities in payload safety should attend Payload Safety Review and Analysis (SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0011). Contractors need to update their SATERN profile before registering. SATERN Registration Required. Approval Required. https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...

Polly Caison x41279

 

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________________________________________

JSC Today is compiled periodically as a service to JSC employees on an as-submitted basis. Any JSC organization or employee may submit articles. To see an archive of previous JSC Today announcements, go to http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/pao/news/jsctoday/archives.

 

 

 

NASA TV:

·         7:30 am Central (8:30 EST) - Expedition 34/35 Soyuz TMA-07M Docking Coverage

·         8:12 am Central (9:12 EST) - Docking (followed by post-docking news conf)

·         10:15 am Central (11:15 EST) - Hatch Opening & Welcome Ceremony Coverage

·         ~10:40 am Central (11:45 EST) - Hatch Opening and Welcome Ceremony

·         1 pm Central (2 EST) -  Video File of E34/35 Soyuz Docking, Hatch Opening & Welcome

 

Human Spaceflight News

Friday – December 21, 2012

 

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

3 New Crewmembers to Arrive at Space Station Friday

 

Miriam Kramer - Space.com

 

The Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying the three newest residents of the International Space Station is set to dock with the high-flying laboratory on Friday morning. Set to arrive at the space station at 9:12 a.m. EST (1412 GMT), the capsule will deliver Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield — who will become the station's first Canadian commander — as well as Russian Federal Space Agency cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn. The spaceflyers' journey started yesterday (Dec. 19) when they launched from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome at 7:12 a.m. EST (1212 GMT).

 

Soyuz TMA-07M to bring new resident crew to ISS Dec 21

 

Itar-Tass

 

The spaceship Soyuz TMA-07M will take a new resident crew to the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, December 21. The ship, which blasted off from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on December 19, is carrying a crew of Roman Romanenko of Russia, Chris Hadfield of Canada and Thomas Marshburn of the United States. The ship is scheduled to dock with the ISS automatically at 08:12 Moscow time. The new crew will be welcomed aboard the ISS by Oleg Novitsky, Yevgeny Tarelkin and Kevin Ford of NASA, who will work with them until March.

(NO FURTHER TEXT)

 

Study aims to make lightning launch delays less frequent

 

Dan Billow - WESH TV (Orlando)

 

A study is underway at Cape Canaveral to make future launches less likely to be delayed by lightning. (NO FURTHER TEXT)

 

Brevard family watches nephew fly to ISS

 

Todd Halvorson - Florida Today

 

An American with family in Brevard County is en route to the International Space Station today after rocketing away from a central Asian spaceport in the bitter cold. Temperatures dipped below zero degrees Fahrenheit and the wind chill at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan hovered around minus 30 degrees when NASA astronaut Thomas Marshburn, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency blasted off Wednesday aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket.

 

Bolden: Don't Have to Travel Far to Asteroid to Meet President's Goal

 

Marcia Smith - SpacePolicyOnline.com

 

NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden told a National Research Council (NRC) committee Wednesday that meeting President Obama's goal of sending astronauts to an asteroid by 2025 does not necessarily mean they have to travel a great distance.  Although he did not raise the topic of capturing an asteroid and bringing it to the Earth-Moon vicinity as recently proposed by former astronaut Tom Jones, Bolden's interpretation of the President's directive could allow for that possibility. President Obama announced that an asteroid would be the next destination for the U.S. human spaceflight program beyond low Earth orbit (LEO) on April 15, 2010 as an intermediate destination on the way to sending astronauts to orbit Mars in the 2030s.

 

Administration says furloughs are possible, but not immediately

 

Joe Davidson – Washington Post

 

They don't want it to happen. They don't necessarily think it is going to happen. But Obama administration officials want federal employees to be ready if it does happen. "It" is sequestration, the process of across-the-board budget cuts that are scheduled to begin taking effect in January unless the White House and Congress come to an agreement to prevent "it." To get folks ready, federal agencies sent messages to their employees Thursday to explain what sequestration is and is not and how it would, and would not, affect operations, albeit in general terms. "Under sequestration, we would still have funds available after January 2, but our overall funding for the remainder of the year would be reduced," said a message from "Charlie B," also known as NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. Nearly identical language, supplied by the Office of Management and Budget, was in messages sent by agencies.

 

Shuttle Enterprise being repaired as museum home reopens after storm

 

Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com

 

The New York City museum home of NASA's retired space shuttle Enterprise is set to reopen to the public Friday, following its closure in late October due to Hurricane Sandy and the damage that the "superstorm" caused to the facility. Visitors to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, which is located at Pier 86 on Manhattan's west side, will once again be able to board the converted World War II aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Intrepid, and tour many of its maritime and aviation exhibits.

__________

 

COMPLETE STORIES

 

3 New Crewmembers to Arrive at Space Station Friday

 

Miriam Kramer - Space.com

 

The Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying the three newest residents of the International Space Station is set to dock with the high-flying laboratory on Friday morning.

 

Set to arrive at the space station at 9:12 a.m. EST (1412 GMT), the capsule will deliver Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield — who will become the station's first Canadian commander — as well as Russian Federal Space Agency cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn. The spaceflyers' journey started yesterday (Dec. 19) when they launched from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome at 7:12 a.m. EST (1212 GMT).

 

After they reach the space station, the astronauts will perform leak checks on the seal between their Soyuz TMA-07M capsule and the space station's docking port on the Rassvet module. These checks should take about two hours, clearing the way for the hatches between the two vehicles to be opened at around 11:45 a.m. EST (1645 GMT).

 

You can watch the docking of the Soyuz live via NASA TV feed. The broadcast begins at 8:30 a.m. EST (1330 GMT), followed by live hatch opening coverage at 11:15 a.m. EST (1615 GMT).

 

Complete crew

 

Three crewmembers are already living onboard the space station awaiting the new arrivals: commander Kevin Ford of NASA, and cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin, both flight engineers for the station's Expedition 34 mission. Once the new trio joins them, the Expedition 34 team will be complete, bringing the orbiting laboratory back up to its usual six-person crew complement.

 

Romanenko, who has flown to the space station once before, said that a six-person team is key for the kind of work they want to do in the lab.

 

"I think we need to continue as we've been doing, six people per increment," Romanenko, a veteran of one previous trip to space, said in a preflight interview with NASA. "I think this will again maximize the number of experiments that we do on station. Also, this will facilitate the process of adapting to space. It will help us develop skills that we'll be able to use when flying people to other planets."

 

While working and living in orbit, the spaceflyers will be responsible for monitoring the 110 experiments onboard, as well as keeping their bodies in shape, and performing maintenance to keep the station running smoothly.

 

First Canadian commander

 

In March 2013, Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin will head back to Earth, leaving Marshburn, Romanenko and Hadfield alone on the space station to begin the Expedition 35 mission. At this point, Hadfield will take over for Ford as mission commander, making him the first Canadian astronaut to hold that position on the orbiting complex.

 

"It's a big deal for me, but also it's a big deal for my country, for my space agency and for where I'm from, and I'm happy that people are interested in it," Hadfield said in a preflight NASA interview.

 

This flight will mark Hadfield's third trip to space, and second visit to the International Space Station.

 

"I'm really looking forward to not just visiting space but moving to Earth orbit and having all of the internal changes, the understanding and the revelation that comes with that," Hadfield said during a preflight interview with NASA. "I'm really looking forward to it."

 

Before joining the astronaut corps in 2004, Marshburn worked as a flight surgeon for NASA. He flew to the space station once before, in 2009, on the STS-127 space shuttle mission.

 

"I've experienced 11 days docked at the space station, 16 days in space on my last flight, so getting back to life in zero gravity, that is never boring, everything from putting on your clothes to brushing your teeth to working to transfer of hardware, all of its fun in zero-g," Marshburn told NASA before the launch. "I can't wait to do that again."

 

Brevard family watches nephew fly to ISS

 

Todd Halvorson - Florida Today

 

An American with family in Brevard County is en route to the International Space Station today after rocketing away from a central Asian spaceport in the bitter cold.

 

Temperatures dipped below zero degrees Fahrenheit and the wind chill at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan hovered around minus 30 degrees when NASA astronaut Thomas Marshburn, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency blasted off Wednesday aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket.

 

Riding atop a brilliant orange pillar of flame, the rocket rumbled off its launch pad and streaked through clear skies. Video feeds showed its four liquid-fueled first-stage boosters peeling away from the rocket and twinkling in the sky as they fell earthward.

 

"Pretty exciting launch," said William Gerstenmaier, NASA's Associate Administrator for Human Space Exploration and Operations.

 

The excitement spanned an ocean.

 

"Oh, my gosh, we had everybody across the nation watching. We're all texting back-and-forth," said Marshburn's aunt, Leslie Redrup, who lives with her husband in Melbourne. "It was absolutely amazing."

 

Marshburn's brother-in-law, John David Sanders, reflected before the launch on the anticipation and excitement of watching a family member rocket into space. "This is almost unfathomable to me. Tom is, well, Tom," Sanders, a Broadway actor, wrote. "We've snowboarded together, flown together, he's traveled to Chicago to hang out and see me act."

 

And Tuesday, Marshburn again becomes "one of six representatives of our species not bound by the planet's gravity or sheltered by its native gasses."

 

The trio are due to dock at the space station at 9:12 a.m. EST Friday.

 

Awaiting their arrival: Current station commander Kevin Ford, a U.S. astronaut, and two Russian flight engineers: Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin.

 

The six comprise the crew of the 34th expedition to the station, construction of which began in 1998. Rotating crews have continuously staffed the outpost since the first expedition began in November 2000.

 

Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin will return to Earth in March. At that time, Hadfield will take the helm of the station.

 

Hadfield, Marshburn and Romanenko are scheduled to return to Earth in May.

 

Bolden: Don't Have to Travel Far to Asteroid to Meet President's Goal

 

Marcia Smith - SpacePolicyOnline.com

 

NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden told a National Research Council (NRC) committee Wednesday that meeting President Obama's goal of sending astronauts to an asteroid by 2025 does not necessarily mean they have to travel a great distance.  Although he did not raise the topic of capturing an asteroid and bringing it to the Earth-Moon vicinity as recently proposed by former astronaut Tom Jones, Bolden's interpretation of the President's directive could allow for that possibility.

 

President Obama announced that an asteroid would be the next destination for the U.S. human spaceflight program beyond low Earth orbit (LEO) on April 15, 2010 as an intermediate destination on the way to sending astronauts to orbit Mars in the 2030s.  The mission would allow NASA to study the effects of a long duration mission in space on astronauts for a duration greater than what astronauts experienced in the Apollo lunar program, but less than the time required to journey to Mars.   A human journey to Mars is expected to take about 6 months each way.  The Apollo lunar missions lasted less than 2 weeks. 

 

Bolden's comments were made to an NRC committee that is charged with making recommendations on the future of the U.S. human spaceflight program.  The Committee on Human Spaceflight, co-chaired by former Secretary of Defense Bill Perry and Cornell space scientist Jonathan Lunine, held its first meeting today.  Bolden read a statement to the committee (the text is not yet posted on the NASA website) and then answered questions posed by committee members.

 

Last week, former astronaut Tom Jones spoke to the Space Policy and History Forum outlining a proposal for a public-private partnership to send a robotic spacecraft to an asteroid, capture it, and move it to cis-lunar space (the Earth-Moon system).  He is a consultant to NASA and an advisor to Planetary Resources, Inc., an organization that wants to mine asteroids, but said he was speaking only for himself.  Jones outlined how astronauts could then visit the asteroid, study it, and possibly extract resources from it.  His theme was that there is no need to send astronauts out to the asteroid when the asteroid could be brought to the astronauts.   Indeed, he said it would be the only way that astronauts could visit an asteroid by 2025 as the President directed.

 

The obvious question is what purpose would be served by astronauts visiting an asteroid that was relocated to cis-lunar space since Obama's directive has been understood to mean sending astronauts on a multi-month expedition into deep space to test systems and assess human reactions to the space environment in preparation for a longer trip to Mars.

 

Bolden's comment today came in response to a question about the rationale for a human trip to an asteroid.  It was not linked to Jones's proposal, but supports the possibility that it could satisfy the President's directive.   Bolden said that when the President announced that an asteroid would be the next destination for NASA's human spaceflight program, he did not say NASA had to fly all the way to an asteroid.  What matters is the "ability to put humans with an asteroid," Bolden said.

 

An NRC report released earlier this month concluded that sending people to an asteroid has not won wide support in NASA or the nation.  Bolden did not criticize that report directly, but said that NRC committee had only a short time to complete its study and it was done at a time of "relative silence" from NASA because of the election and did not have the benefit of the information he was presenting this morning.  The only new material he presented this morning was this information about the asteroid mission and the news that NASA will soon stand up a Space Technology Mission Directorate.

 

NASA's plans for cis-lunar space became a topic of interest in September when the Orlando Sentinel published an article that NASA was considering building a small "gateway" space station at the L2 Lagrange point in the Earth-Moon system.  Bolden emphasized today that he was not suggesting that NASA was planning any human mission to a Lagrange point.  He stressed that the agency is on a "flexible path" and might have to alter its plans based on what it finds along the way.   The concept of a flexible path was first outlined in the 2009 Augustine Committee report.

 

The Orlando Sentinel article and the asteroid relocation mission proposed by Jones could be trial balloons or simply unrelated events.  The juxtaposition of those with Bolden's comments today, however, underscores the fact that confusion remains about what exactly NASA is planning in the relative near term about the future of human spaceflight beyond LEO.  The NRC Committee on Human Spaceflight is tasked with making recommendations on that very topic.  Its report is expected in 2014.

 

Administration says furloughs are possible, but not immediately

 

Joe Davidson – Washington Post

 

They don't want it to happen.

 

They don't necessarily think it is going to happen.

 

But Obama administration officials want federal employees to be ready if it does happen.

 

"It" is sequestration, the process of across-the-board budget cuts that are scheduled to begin taking effect in January unless the White House and Congress come to an agreement to prevent "it."

 

To get folks ready, federal agencies sent messages to their employees Thursday to explain what sequestration is and is not and how it would, and would not, affect operations, albeit in general terms.

 

"Under sequestration, we would still have funds available after January 2, but our overall funding for the remainder of the year would be reduced," said a message from "Charlie B," also known as NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr.

 

Nearly identical language, supplied by the Office of Management and Budget, was in messages sent by agencies.

 

Explaining that sequestration — which was put into place by the Budget Control Act of 2011 — is different from a government shutdown in which agency appropriations have lapsed, the message from Bolden and others added: "For these reasons, I do not expect our day-to-day operations to change dramatically on or immediately after January 2, should sequestration occur. This means that we will not be executing any immediate personnel actions, such as furloughs, on that date. Should we have to operate under reduced funding levels for an extended period of time, we may have to consider furloughs or other actions in the future."

 

William R. Dougan, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, who was among the labor leaders on a 6 p.m. Wednesday conference call with Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry and Danny Werfel, controller of the Office of Management and Budget, said the notice to employees would help prevent them from being alarmed during this period of great uncertainty in government.

 

"Let me assure you," the messages to employees said, "that we will carefully examine other options to reduce costs within the agency before taking such [personnel] action, taking into consideration our obligation to execute our core mission."

 

Layoffs, or reductions in force, were not mentioned in the messages or predicted by administration officials during the call, but the possibility of "other actions in the future" clearly makes labor leaders wary.

 

"Sequestration would very likely lead to furloughs and RIFs," said J. David Cox, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, "so will the spending caps which are also part of the Budget Control Act — the law whose terrible provisions will undermine federal employees and agencies for an entire decade."

 

Despite that prediction, Rep. James Moran (D-Va.), whose northern Virginia district is home to about 165,000 current and former federal employees, said he worries they still don't understand the real possibility of furloughs and layoffs.

 

"They really are taking this with kind of as casual an attitude as Wall Street is taking it," he said. "But by the time we get to next week, between Christmas and New Year's, all of a sudden they're going to realize how serious this is. This OMB notice may alert them that this is real. I don't think most of them accept that this is real yet, even though they've been reading about it. They think Congress has been doing its normal thing. I'm very much worried, it's going to be chaos if we go over the cliff, and I think there's at least a 50-50 chance that we'll go over."

 

Cox said he's "glad the administration seems to be taking a 'hope for the best, but prepare for the worst' approach, because as awful as sequestration would be, some of the items in these 'grand deals' are outrageously bad for federal employees. We're doing our own preparation to make sure that if sequestration does occur, agencies spread the pain to their larger and more costly contractor workforce and don't put it all on us."

 

The International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers, which reported on the conference call in a "sequestration update" e-mail to its members Thursday morning, said this:

 

"First and foremost, it is becoming more and more likely that there will be a deal that includes significant revenue increases so that there will be less of a need for cuts. Even if it doesn't happen by December 31st, it will likely happen by early January at the absolute latest.

 

"Second, regardless of the final deal, there will be large cuts to most federal agencies so there will be pain although much less than if the Budget Control Act (sequestration) were allowed to kick in.

 

"Third, sequestration or any deal to avoid it is not a shutdown. All federal agencies will be open on January 2nd, and all federal employees should report to work as scheduled. Any cuts will be gradually implemented and so there should not be any real disruptions in January (i.e., no furloughs)."

 

That's about as optimistic an outlook of the current situation as you'll find. But even it clearly indicates there will be pain.

 

The question is how much pain, how soon.

 

Shuttle Enterprise being repaired as museum home reopens after storm

 

Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com

 

The New York City museum home of NASA's retired space shuttle Enterprise is set to reopen to the public Friday, following its closure in late October due to Hurricane Sandy and the damage that the "superstorm" caused to the facility.

 

Visitors to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, which is located at Pier 86 on Manhattan's west side, will once again be able to board the converted World War II aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Intrepid, and tour many of its maritime and aviation exhibits.

 

Enterprise's exhibit however, won't be restored until next spring. Guests this week will be able to see the prototype space shuttle from the museum's flight deck and along the pier. Enterprise, which never flew in space, was used for a series of piloted approach and landing tests in the 1970s.

 

The Intrepid's Space Shuttle Pavilion, which was housed inside a pressurized fabric structure, first opened in July. Severe flooding from the tropical-cyclone-force storm and strong winds resulted in the Enterprise's climate-controlled housing coming down.

 

"Once the power coming from the generator and backup generators failed, the inflation on the support structure for the Space Shuttle Pavilion also failed and it started to deflate the tent," Al Barto, Intrepid's director of operations, said in a video statement. "The tent was then caught on one of our light towers, which produced a small tear, that ended up being a larger tear because of the winds."

 

Typical airplane repairs, atypical airplane

 

As the 60-foot-high (18 meters) pavilion came down, some of its fabric got snagged on Enterprise's vertical stabilizer, which caused the top of the black and white tail to break off.

 

The damage, although visually striking, was fairly small, said Intrepid's aviation curator Eric Boehm, who oversees aircraft restoration for the museum.

 

"The shuttle damage from the storm was relatively minor," Boehm said. "We are in the middle of the repairs. We're going to have it repaired pretty quickly."

 

"We have actually discussed this with NASA," he added. "Very straightforward, typical airplane repairs. Nothing out of the ordinary for us. We've made parts like this before. Just another challenge."

 

Easing Enterprise's restoration was the recovery of the tip of its tail.

 

"It was luckily recovered," said Dina Ingersole, an aircraft restoration and space shuttle Enterprise specialist at the Intrepid. "We are fixing it and working to repair it to put it back in place."

 

"We've straightened out the metal that was all bent, and we're cleaning out all the rivets so we can put fresh rivets in and put it all back together and then put it back in situ on top of the orbiter," she said.

 

Weathering the winter

 

The Intrepid plans to raise a new Space Shuttle Pavilion to envelop Enterprise in the spring. How the new display will differ from the previous design is still to be seen.

 

In the meantime, Enterprise is exposed to the elements, though not for the first time in its nearly 40 year history.

 

"The Enterprise is built to withstand the elements and in the past has been exposed for lengthy periods of time," the Intrepid wrote on its website. "However we are working diligently on covering her during the winter months as we redesign and re-erect a pavilion experience."

 

"In the coming weeks, [the] Intrepid will be constructing scaffolding around Enterprise that will allow us to drape a protective cover over her to protect her from the winter elements including snow, rain and winds," a spokesman further told collectSPACE.com.

 

A new temporary exhibit about space shuttle Enterprise's history will open on the Intrepid's interior Gallery Deck on Jan. 17, 2013.

 

END