Monday, July 8, 2013

Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - July 8, 2013 and JSC Today



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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: July 8, 2013 6:23:10 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - July 8, 2013 and JSC Today

Hope you can join us this Thursday at Hibachi Grill in Webster on Bay Area Blvd. at 11:30 for our monthly NASA Retirees Luncheon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Headlines

  1. What Do You Know About 2.0?

With JSC 2.0, the center is mobilizing to meet spaceflight demands of the future. To make this initiative successful, we need to hear from you, and often. 

Visit the JSC 2.0 website's interactive comment section to spark discussion between fellow JSC team members and leaders. Go there and answer three simple questions that you're probably already familiar with:

    • What can we do to make collaboration across JSC easier and more likely to occur?
    • What incentives would keep the momentum going forward?
    • What can you do to enable JSC to affordably and effectively advance human spaceflight? 

For Innovation Day, you were asked to answer these questions on a rolling whiteboard or sticky note. This time, make the discussion and the impetus for change permanent. 

The feature works similarly to blog comments, where a user can reply to other comments, and each comment has an upvote button to track popularity (similar to a Facebook "like"). Keep us moving forward--and let your comments and ideas be heard.

Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111 http://strategicplan.jsc.nasa.gov/questions.aspx

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   Organizations/Social

  1. Space Serenity Al-Anon Meeting July 9

"Easy does it" reminds Al-Anon members to chill out and adapt to change. Our 12-step meeting is for co-workers, families and friends of those who work or live with the family disease of alcoholism. We meet Tuesday, July 9, in Building 32, Room 146, from 11 to 11:45 a.m. Visitors are welcome.

Event Date: Tuesday, July 9, 2013   Event Start Time:11:00 AM   Event End Time:11:55 AM
Event Location: B. 32, room 146

Add to Calendar

Employee Assistance Program x36130 http://sashare.jsc.nasa.gov/EAP/Pages/default.aspx

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  1. NASA Lunarfins Dive Club Meeting

At this month's meeting, Ted Daniels will present the amenities of 288 Lake Scuba Park located on Cullen, just north of the Sam Houston Tollway.

Daniels holds a degree from Birmingham University UK in geology and applied geophysics. He is a seasoned diver and longtime supporter of 288 Lake.

Owner/operator of 288 Lake, Jimmy Lombardo, will also be on hand.

The club is organizing a dive trip to 288 Lake in August, so come hear about this local dive destination and plan on joining the club next month.

Event Date: Wednesday, July 10, 2013   Event Start Time:6:30 PM   Event End Time:8:30 PM
Event Location: Clear Lake Park meeting room, 5010 Nasa Road 1

Add to Calendar

Barbara Corbin x36215 http://www.lunarfins.com

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  1. Out & Allied @ JSC ERG Monthly Meeting

All JSC team members (government, contractor, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender [LGBT] and non-LGBT allies) are invited to the Out & Allied @ JSC Employee Resource Group (ERG) monthly meeting on Wednesday from noon to 1 p.m. in Building 4S, Room 1200. The Out & Allied @ JSC team consists of LGBT employees and their allies (supporters).

This month, we will have a representative from Human Resources discuss changes to benefits as a result of the Defense of Marriage Act repeal and debrief our pride month activities with a focus on lessons learned for next year's events. Please join us, meet others and network!

For more information about our group, including how to become involved, contact any listed Out & Allied member on our SharePoint site.

Event Date: Wednesday, July 10, 2013   Event Start Time:12:00 PM   Event End Time:1:00 PM
Event Location: Building 4S, Room 1200

Add to Calendar

Steve Riley x37019 https://collaboration.ndc.nasa.gov/iierg/LGBTA/SitePages/Home.aspx

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   Jobs and Training

  1. Human Risks of Spaceflight Lecture

Please join us for a lecture on the Human Risks of Spaceflight, presented by the Human Systems Academy, on July 10 from 9 to 11 a.m. in the Building 30 Auditorium.

Please register today!

https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...

Cynthia Rando x41815 https://sashare.jsc.nasa.gov/hsa/default.aspx

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  1. Job Opportunities

Where do I find job opportunities?

Both internal Competitive Placement Plan (CPP) and external JSC job announcements are posted on the Human Resources (HR) Portal and USAJOBS website. Through the HR portal, civil servants can view summaries of all the agency jobs that are currently open at: https://hr.nasa.gov/portal/server.pt/community/employees_home/239/job_opportu...

To help you navigate to JSC vacancies, use the filter drop-down menu and select "JSC HR." The "Jobs" link will direct you to the USAJOBS website for the complete announcement and the ability to apply online. If you have questions about any JSC job vacancies, please call your HR representative.

Lisa Pesak x30476

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  1. Learning to Manage My Finances One Step at a Time

It's easy to get caught up over thinking how we "should" accomplish tasks. Thinking traps such as "doing it the right way" can create barriers to properly managing our finances. The truth is, it doesn't take a rocket scientist! For many, it may feel like getting started is the most difficult part of the journey. In reality, a great first step is to start with something you're good at and go from there.

Simply having money does not end financial concerns. Reducing financial stress starts with learning how to effectively manage the money you have. This week's Financial Wellness classes include a variety of financial topics we encounter over our lifetime. Attending some of these classes is one simple way to get organized and design your path to financial success.

Details are available at this link.

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

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  1. JSC Imagery Online Training Tomorrow

Want to find that "perfect" picture or video? Learn how during a webinar tomorrow, July 9, from 2 to 3:15 p.m. CDT. Mary Wilkerson, Still Imagery lead, will show users how to find NASA mission images in Imagery Online (IO) and the Digital Imagery Management System (DIMS). Leslie Richards, Video Imagery lead, will show employees the video functionality in IO. This training is open to any JSC/White Sands Test Facility employee. To register for the WebEx, click here.

This training is provided by the Information Resources Directorate.

Event Date: Tuesday, July 9, 2013   Event Start Time:2:00 PM   Event End Time:3:15 PM
Event Location: WebEx

Add to Calendar

Scientific and Technical Information Center x34245 http://library.jsc.nasa.gov

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JSC Today is compiled periodically as a service to JSC employees on an as-submitted basis. Any JSC organization or employee may submit articles.

Disclaimer: Accuracy and content of these notes are the responsibility of the submitters.

 

 

 

 

 

NASA TV:

·         6 am Central TUESDAY (7 EDT) – Expedition 36 spacewalk coverage begins

·         ~7:10 am Central TUESDAY (8:10 EDT) – EVA begins with EMU switch to battery power

ü  Chris Cassidy – EV1 (sixth EVA)

ü  Luca Parmitano – EV2 (first)

 

Human Spaceflight News

Monday – July 8, 2013

 

Two yrs ago at 11:29 am Eastern, Atlantis took wing on the final Shuttle mission

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

Astronauts prepare for strolls in space

Pair of spacewalks planned for next two weeks

 

Todd Halvorson - Florida Today

 

Two astronauts will venture outside the International Space Station twice in the next two weeks, aiming to accomplish a mishmash of maintenance to-dos and to retrieve science experiments. Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency will become the first Italian to walk in space during the first excursion on Tuesday. He and U.S. astronaut Chris Cassidy, his spacewalking partner, also will perform the second outing on July 16. The spacewalks will be the fifth and sixth for Cassidy, a veteran shuttle flier. "I know both of them are excited and ready to go," said David Korth, NASA's U.S. spacewalk flight director.

 

Italy's First Spacewalker Ready for Ambitious Space Station EVA

 

Ben Evans - AmericaSpace.com

 

Two astronauts, including Italy's first spacewalker, will venture outside the International Space Station at 8:10 a.m. EDT Tuesday, 9 July on the first EVA from the U.S. Operating Segment (USOS) during the current Expedition 36. Chris Cassidy (EV1), a veteran of four previous spacewalks, and first-timer Luca Parmitano (EV2) will spend 6.5 hours outside the orbital outpost replacing a failed component of one of two space-to-ground antennas, installing two new radiator grapple bars, retrieving two materials exposure experiments, and tending to several other tasks. Tuesday's spacewalk will be followed, on 16 July, by a second excursion, also featuring Cassidy and Parmitano, as this year's "hot EVA summer" heats up. During both excursions, the astronauts will lay the groundwork for the arrival of Russia's long-delayed Nauka module, scheduled for early 2014.

 

Russia Will Launch Space Freighter on Schedule – Roscosmos

 

RIA Novosti

 

Russia will launch the next cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) on schedule, despite a recent accident with a Proton-M carrier rocket, a senior Russian space official said Friday. The Progress M-20M space freighter is slated for lift off on July 28 from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan where a Proton rocket carrying three Glonass navigation satellites exploded shortly after launch on Tuesday.

 

What NASA wants in an authorization bill

 

Jeff Foust - SpacePolitics.com

 

With the House considering a draft authorization bill that contains provisions the space agency and the White House are unlikely to agree with, NASA is offering some helpful suggestions to those working on a Senate version of such legislation. Space News reports NASA provided Senate staffers with a 35-page "legislative proposal" that features a number of provisions the agency is hoping the Senate will include in its bill, expected to be introduced later this month.

 

House committees to take up NASA authorization, appropriations bills this week

 

Jeff Foust - SpacePolitics.com

 

Wednesday will be a big day for NASA in the House, and two key subcommittees markup legislation to both authorize and fund the space agency. At 10 am Wednesday, the space subcommittee of the House Science Committee will hold a hearing to markup the NASA Authorization Act of 2013. Meanwhile, at 11 am Wednesday, the Commerce, Justice, and Science subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee will markup its appropriations bill for fiscal year 2014, which includes NASA as well as NOAA.

 

Lawmakers looking to kill NASA asteroid mission

 

Jerry Hume - Central Florida News 13

 

Lawmakers in Washington are returning from their holiday break this week and may kill a big NASA mission. Some House Republicans are working to stop funding for an asteroid retrieval mission that is in the infant stages. The mission itself sounds like it could have come from a movie. In eight years NASA wants to, capture an asteroid with a robotic spacecraft, tow it back toward Earth and place it in a stable orbit around the moon for astronauts to study. "The asteroid retrieval mission is kind of quirky, but it's also kind of intriguing, and it's cheap as opposed to, it's not as exciting as going back to the moon or on to Mars, but I don't think we're going to pay for that," said University of Central Florida Space Expert Dale Ketcham.

 

Int'l ministerial confab on space exploration to convene in Jan

 

Kyodo News International

 

The United States will host an international conference on future space exploration with ministerial-level delegates from some 40 countries plus the European Union on Jan. 9 in Washington, a source close to Japan-U.S. relations said Saturday. The multilateral conference, the first of this kind hosted by the U.S. government, will be held at the State Department. A second session of the confab will likely be convened in Japan in 2016, the source said. The confab, which will also be attended by the Paris-based European Space Agency, will discuss international cooperation in future space exploration, including possible voyages to Mars and other planets.

 

NASA scientists in Huntsville use ISERV cameras aboard International Space Station to help Calgary flood response

 

Lee Roop - Huntsville Times

 

 

When major flooding hit Calgary, Alberta, Canada on and after June 22, a NASA camera aboard the International Space Station was watching. Operated by scientists in Huntsville, the camera took 24 near-real-time pictures of the city's flooded areas and sent them to Canadian response officials. About 100,000 residents had to evacuate after the flooding of the Bow and Elbow rivers that run through the city. Included in the evacuation was the area where Calgary holds its annual Calgary Stampede celebration. The city just ended its official flood emergency on July 4.

 

Precision Jump for the Grasshopper

 

Phil Plait - Slate Magazine

 

SpaceX is a privately owned company making a lot of headway into making travel into space easier, cheaper, and, honestly, cooler. They have two flights to the space station under their belts, and have very ambitious plans for the future. They're testing a very old idea with a new type of rocket: a Vertical Takeoff/Vertical Landing (VTVL) prototype they've nicknamed Grasshopper. It's already undergone a series of test flights, and the latest, done on June 14, 2013, reached a height of 325 meters—over a thousand feet. SpaceX just posted a video of the flight taken from a remotely-controlled hexacopter. It will help to set the video to high-definition, make it full screen, and to turn your volume up for the full effect.

 

Even if he's on Mars, astronaut candidate will call Pa. home

 

Megan Harris - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

 

Sunlight streamed into an airy blue and white sitting room in New Castle where Janice Morgan flipped through loose photographs of her oldest son. "I said to my husband, 'Honey, did you know when you snapped those pictures NASA would want them someday?' " she said. Dr. Andrew "Drew" Morgan, 37, put those pictures in demand and catapulted his family into the spotlight in the summer when NASA announced his acceptance into its newest recruiting class, set to report to Houston's Johnson Space Center in August. A blend of scientists, physicians and military pilots, the eight-member group, four of whom are women, could be among the first to set foot on Mars.

 

Russian rocket explosion reminds us that vigilance is key

 

John Kelly - Florida Today (Commentary)

 

The imagery is haunting and sobering. A rocket in flight, its tail beginning to waggle, a telltale sign something is very wrong. Then, a more pronounced swaying and then tumbling. Disaster inevitable. A burst of flame. The rocket coming apart. Careening sideways, back to Earth, engulfed in fire. A gigantic red, gray and black mix of fire and toxic cloud as its remnants slam into the ground. This time around, it was a Russian Proton rocket. The crash site was a remote area near the launch complex. But, people on the Space Coast, veterans in an unforgiving industry, watch warily knowing that, but for extreme diligence and good luck, it could have happened here.

 

Is the US Spending Enough on Space Exploration?

 

Jim Siegel - AmericaSpace.com (Opinion)

 

With the United States in a transition phase in space exploration, there has recently been lively debate in Congress regarding NASA's 2014 budget (though massively overshadowed by Benghazi, the IRS, and the George Zimmerman trial).  The budget was released in April as part of the Administration's overall 2014 budget request to Congress. Is it enough? Consider today's environment, in which on one hand American astronauts suddenly have to humbly thumb rides on old-technology Soyuz rockets to get to the International Space Station (ISS) that the U.S. spearheaded … while on the other hand, many Americans continue to reel from the continuing economic slump. So is the United States spending enough or too much on space exploration?

 

Space Center Houston wants us to name the shuttle mock-up and the names pour in

 

Craig Hlavaty - Houston Chronicle

 

For some, Space Center Houston's new contest to rename the space shuttle replica parked at the facility is adding insult to injury for a community still smarting from not getting the actual, space-worn shuttle they wanted, and rightfully so. Politics and personalities being what they were, it didn't happen. But wait, didn't the replica already have a name? It's called the Space Shuttle Explorer, according to reports. Even that bastion of intelligence Wikipedia says so. What gives? According to Nina Fuhrman, a mission briefing officer at Johnson Space Center, the Explorer name was, in a sense, just a nickname. "It was not named by NASA officially, but by the visitor center at Kennedy Space Center," says Fuhrman.

__________

 

COMPLETE STORIES

 

Astronauts prepare for strolls in space

Pair of spacewalks planned for next two weeks

 

Todd Halvorson - Florida Today

 

Two astronauts will venture outside the International Space Station twice in the next two weeks, aiming to accomplish a mishmash of maintenance to-dos and to retrieve science experiments.

 

Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency will become the first Italian to walk in space during the first excursion on Tuesday.

 

He and U.S. astronaut Chris Cassidy, his spacewalking partner, also will perform the second outing on July 16. The spacewalks will be the fifth and sixth for Cassidy, a veteran shuttle flier.

 

"I know both of them are excited and ready to go," said David Korth, NASA's U.S. spacewalk flight director.

 

The hodgepodge of work represents tasks that have accumulated over the past couple of years — jobs that range from replacing a broken electronic box to prepping the outpost for the arrival in December of a new Russian multipurpose lab module.

 

"Why the spacewalks now?" Korth said. Spacewalks "cost a lot of crew time, and in an era of science and utilization, we try to minimize the perturbations to the overall operations in the U.S. (Destiny) laboratory and all the other laboratories on the ISS."

 

On Tuesday, Cassidy will set out to remove and replace a failed controller that enables video signals and data to be transmitted and received through the station's high-gain communications system.

 

Parmitano will try to move hand-over-hand toward the portside end of the station's girder-like central truss to retrieve two research experiments. The science experiments exposed materials, computer components and optical reflectors to the harsh space environment.

 

The two astronauts also will move recently delivered grapple bars to a stowage area on the starboard side of the station's truss.

 

The grapple bars would be used to remove and replace 40-foot-long radiators if need be. They'll also remove a faulty camera pan-and-tilt assembly from the mobile rail system that runs to work sites along the truss. And they'll route power cables that will feed electricity to the new Russian multipurpose lab module.

 

Part 2 of the cable routing work will pick up during the second spacewalk on July 16. But this time, Parmitano and Cassidy will be routing Ethernet cables for the new Russian lab.

 

They'll also finish work with jumper cables that would enable astronauts inside the station to restore power with the flip of a switch in the event of a generator failure. As it stands now, a spacewalk would have to be conducted in that failure scenario.

 

The two astronauts also will replace a failed wireless video transceiver, move alignment guides for the radiator grapple bars and link U.S. and Russian power and data cables. Both excursions are expected to take about 6½ hours, and both will start at 8:10 a.m. EDT.

 

The spacewalks will be the 170th and 171st conducted in the assembly and maintenance of the station since its first two building blocks were linked in late 1998.

 

In that time, 111 astronauts and cosmonauts from eight nations have logged 1,067 hours and 43 minutes of spacewalking work outside the outpost. That's the equivalent of 44½ days.

 

Italy's First Spacewalker Ready for Ambitious Space Station EVA

 

Ben Evans - AmericaSpace.com

 

Two astronauts, including Italy's first spacewalker, will venture outside the International Space Station at 8:10 a.m. EDT Tuesday, 9 July on the first EVA from the U.S. Operating Segment (USOS) during the current Expedition 36. Chris Cassidy (EV1), a veteran of four previous spacewalks, and first-timer Luca Parmitano (EV2) will spend 6.5 hours outside the orbital outpost replacing a failed component of one of two space-to-ground antennas, installing two new radiator grapple bars, retrieving two materials exposure experiments, and tending to several other tasks. Tuesday's spacewalk will be followed, on 16 July, by a second excursion, also featuring Cassidy and Parmitano, as this year's "hot EVA summer" heats up. During both excursions, the astronauts will lay the groundwork for the arrival of Russia's long-delayed Nauka module, scheduled for early 2014.

 

Last week, Cassidy and Parmitano performed standard "fit checks" of their space suits inside the station's two-part Quest airlock. They were joined in this work by Expedition 36 crewmate Karen Nyberg, who will be at the controls of the 57-foot-long Canadarm2 during both EVAs. The spacewalkers checked their suits' glove heaters and rechargeable batteries and participated in training on the Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue (SAFER) backpacks, which they would use to "save" themselves in the unlikely event of becoming physically separated from the space station.

 

Final preparations for Tuesday's EVA will commence about five hours before the two men depart the airlock. Cassidy and Parmitano will follow a well-trodden path of "pre-breathing" on masks, during which time extensive communications and other checks will be performed and biomedical data verified. About an hour later, the pressure of Quest's inner "equipment lock" will steadily be reduced from its normal 14.7 psi down to 10.2 psi, as the astronauts run through the suit-up procedure. When Cassidy and Parmitano are in their suits, the pressure will be returned to 14.7 psi and they will perform a nominal "pre-breathing" period, lasting about 50 minutes, followed by a further 50 minutes of In-Suit Light Exercise (ISLE). This protocol—first debuted on the STS-134 mission in May 2011—will involve the two spacewalkers flexing their knees for four minutes, resting for one minute, and repeating over and over until the 50 minutes have passed. ISLE serves to remove nitrogen from their blood in a much shorter time period.

 

By about 7 a.m. EDT, an hour before the EVA is due to start, the fully-suited pair will have transferred into Quest's outer "crew lock" and Mission Control will issue a "Go" to begin depressurization. In the next few minutes, the last pieces of equipment will be passed through from the equipment lock to the crew lock and hatches between the two will be closed. Depressurization of the crew lock should commence at about 7:30 a.m., based on the timelines of previous EVAs. As the pressure slowly drops, a brief pause is scheduled at about 5 psi for standard leak checks, after which the process will resume and should be reduced almost to vacuum for the scheduled EVA start time of 8:10 a.m. The spacewalk, which marks the 22nd station-based EVA from the USOS, will officially begin when Cassidy and Parmitano transfer their suits' life-support utilities to internal battery power.

 

Opening the outer hatch of the crew lock, Cassidy will push his helmeted head into the void for the second time on his current mission. He previously led a contingency spacewalk with Expedition 35's Tom Marshburn, back on 11 May, to identify and resolve an ammonia leak from the P-6 truss. Cassidy also performed three EVAs to install and outfit Japan's Exposed Facility on the STS-127 mission in July 2009. For Parmitano, it will be his first experience of EVA, and television viewers will glimpse for the first time the red, white, and green stripes of the Italian flag on the arm of a spacewalker. The astronauts' helmets are also equipped with lights and cameras, to enable terrestrial observers to follow their every move. "This will allow us here at the Columbus Control Centre, near Munich, to 'see' through Luca's eyes," ESA noted on its blog, "and follow what he is doing during the several hours of his spacewalk. The cameras use wireless video, so we are able to record the entire spacewalk for later view and assessment."

 

Although several Italians have flown into space—the first being Franco Malerba, back in July 1992—none to date have ever made an EVA. Parmitano's achievement may soon be matched by the first female Italian spacefarer, Samantha Cristoforetti, who is scheduled for her own six-month ISS expedition, beginning in December 2014. Although it remains to be seen if Cristoforetti will bag a spacewalk of her own, she has undergone extensive training, including work to support the contingency EVA on 11 May.

 

Upon leaving the airlock, there will be little time for Cassidy and Parmitano to admire their surroundings. Cassidy will carry a replacement Space-to-Ground Transmitter Receiver Controller (SGTRC), part of the Space-to-Ground Antenna (SGANT) hardware which funnels data between the station and Mission Control through NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite network. There are two SGANTs aboard the ISS, one of which suffered a failure of its SGTRC in December 2012 and was effectively put out of action. This left the station in a "non-fault-tolerant position," which is highly undesirable because a single failure could cause significant problems. Cassidy will translate to the top of the Z-1 truss, replace the SGTRC, and transfer the failed unit back to the crew lock.

 

Whilst Cassidy completes his first task, Parmitano will move over to the ExPRESS Logistics Carrier (ELC)-2 on the starboard S-1 truss to begin the retrieval of two scientific experiments: the Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE)-8 and the Optical Reflector Materials Experiment (ORMatE). They form the latest in a line of payloads to expose new and affordable materials and computing elements to the ultra-vacuum, unfiltered sunlight, swinging temperature extremes, and harsh atomic oxygen environment of low-Earth orbit. MISSE-8 was launched aboard STS-134 in May 2011, and ORMatE followed aboard STS-135—the final flight of the space shuttle program—in July. They are housed within a suitcase-like Passive Experiment Container (PEC) and are due to be returned to Earth aboard SpaceX's CRS-3 Dragon cargo ship in December 2013.

 

Upon reaching ELC-2, Parmitano will photograph the experiments and remove them for transfer back to Quest. "We will bring these experiments back inside the station," explained Parmitano in his pre-launch NASA interview, "and then with one of the commercial cargo ships they will come back to Earth, where scientists and engineers will be able to recover those experiments and study them and come back with some results." The two spacewalkers should arrive back at the airlock about 90 minutes into the EVA.

 

Their next task—and one which Cassidy expects to consume around half of their 6.5 hours outside—will be the installation of a pair of radiator grapple bars onto the port (P-1) and starboard (S-1) trusses. The bars are properly known as the Heat Rejection Subsystem Grapple Fixtures (HRSGFs) and were delivered to the station aboard SpaceX's CRS-2 Dragon cargo ship in March. Cassidy and Parmitano will move them from their present home on the Mobile Base System to the outboard trusses. The purpose of the bars is to provide a capability for Canadarm2 to interface with the station's radiator elements, should the need arise to repair or replace them. The two spacewalkers will disconnect the bars from their Payload Orbital Replacement Unit Accommodation (POA) on the Mobile Base System (MBS) and transfer them to their final P-1 and S-1 locations.

 

Additionally, the astronauts will retrieve a Mast Camera from the MBS—with Cassidy scheduled to set up a handling fixture (or "scoop") and Parmitano assigned the task of physically disconnecting and removing the device—and will install a pair of "jumper" cables onto the box-like Z-1 truss. They are also expected to begin laying the groundwork for the arrival of Russia's Nauka module, whose launch has been delayed from December 2013 and is now unlikely to occur before the spring of next year, by installing power and data cables across the Unity node and Pressurized Mating Adaptor (PMA)-1.

 

Whilst working, the risk of either Parmitano or Cassidy becoming physically separated from the space station is low, but nevertheless always present, and thus all ISS spacewalkers benefit from the SAFER backpack. This was first tested on STS-64 in September 1994 by astronauts Mark Lee and Carl Meade. Unlike the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU)—famously trialed by Bruce McCandless in February 1984—the $7 million SAFER was never intended for satellite repairs, but as a design solution for the shuttle program's requirement for a means of astronaut "self-rescue." Its mandate centered on the fact that a tether failure during an EVA would render it immensely difficult to undock the shuttle, rendezvous and retrieve a "lost" spacewalker, and re-dock in a safe manner.

 

Developed by the Automation and Robotics Division at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, SAFER carries 24 fixed-position compressed nitrogen thrusters and is attached to six "hard-points" at the base of the life-sustaining backpacks of Cassidy and Parmitano. Powered by a 28-volt battery pack, SAFER's attitude-control system includes an automatic attitude-hold and six degrees of freedom. Unlike the MMU, it has no bulky arms for hand controllers, instead being equipped with thruster "towers" extending up the sides of the backpack, and on STS-64 Lee and Meade operated it from controls hard-secured to their suit torsos. (In the current ISS configuration, the SAFER's controller is embedded within one of the thruster towers and is swung out by the simple pulling of a lanyard.)

 

Returning to the airlock at the end of their first EVA together, Cassidy and Parmitano can look forward to their second spacewalk on Tuesday, 16 July. On that occasion, the pair will also depart Quest at 8:10 a.m. EDT and spend 6.5 hours outside. USOS EVA-23 will continue the work of its predecessor. According to NASA's Expedition 36 press kit, the EVA will involve the removal of the grapple bars' alignment guides, the routing of networking cables for the Nauka module, and the removal of insulation from one of the space station's Main Bus Switching Units. A number of other activities, including "get-ahead" tasks, are also planned.

 

Russia Will Launch Space Freighter on Schedule – Roscosmos

 

RIA Novosti

 

Russia will launch the next cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) on schedule, despite a recent accident with a Proton-M carrier rocket, a senior Russian space official said Friday.

 

The Progress M-20M space freighter is slated for lift off on July 28 from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan where a Proton rocket carrying three Glonass navigation satellites exploded shortly after launch on Tuesday.

 

"Preparations for the Progress launch are running according to schedule. It is still planned for July 28," Popovkin told reporters after meeting of the state commission on reforming the space industry.

 

Popovkin also said that Tuesday's accident would not affect the launch of a Russian laboratory module on board a Proton-M to the ISS in December.

 

"We will certainly sort this thing out by December. What's important is that the module is ready by December," he said.

 

Popovkin confirmed that an investigation into the Proton rocket's failed launch is currently considering three possible causes, including malfunctioning launch equipment, faulty control systems or problems with the first stage of the rocket engine.

 

"It is hard to set any deadlines, but I think the preliminary investigation will be completed by the end of July," he said.

 

Russia's space program has suffered a slew of setbacks in recent years, most of them blamed on faulty hardware.

 

House committees to take up NASA authorization, appropriations bills this week

 

Jeff Foust - SpacePolitics.com

 

Wednesday will be a big day for NASA in the House, and two key subcommittees markup legislation to both authorize and fund the space agency. At 10 am Wednesday, the space subcommittee of the House Science Committee will hold a hearing to markup the NASA Authorization Act of 2013.

 

It's not clear if this "committee print" of the authorization legislation differs in any significant way from the "discussion draft" that was the subject of a hearing last month; the link to the legislation in the hearing announcement goes to that original draft.

 

Meanwhile, at 11 am Wednesday, the Commerce, Justice, and Science subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee will markup its appropriations bill for fiscal year 2014, which includes NASA as well as NOAA.

 

The corresponding committees in the Senate don't have hearings scheduled on similar authorization or appropriations bills this coming week, although they may act soon thereafter.

 

At a Space Transportation Association luncheon last month, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), chairman of the space subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee, said he expected a Senate version of a NASA authorization bill by mid-July in order to support work on an appropriations bill.

 

What NASA wants in an authorization bill

 

Jeff Foust - SpacePolitics.com

 

With the House considering a draft authorization bill that contains provisions the space agency and the White House are unlikely to agree with, NASA is offering some helpful suggestions to those working on a Senate version of such legislation. Space News reports NASA provided Senate staffers with a 35-page "legislative proposal" that features a number of provisions the agency is hoping the Senate will include in its bill, expected to be introduced later this month.

 

None of the items in that proposal highlighted in the report is particularly major or surprising. One would put NASA on equal footing with the Defense Department in its ability to accept funds from commercial providers to pay for spaceport infrastructure maintenance and upgrades; the fiscal year 2013 defense authorization bill included similar language for the Defense Department, a provision backed by Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL), whose district includes Cape Canaveral. Other provisions in the NASA proposal would treat as confidential technical details of spaceflight mishap investigations and would make NASA contractors more responsible in ensuring they do not use counterfeit parts.

 

Whether there will be an authorization bill signed into law, though, is another issue. If the Senate version is significantly different than the draft discussed at last month's House Science Committee hearing—and Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) suggested recently it would be quite different, at least in terms of authorized funding levels—then reconciling the two may be impossible.

 

Lawmakers looking to kill NASA asteroid mission

 

Jerry Hume - Central Florida News 13

 

Lawmakers in Washington are returning from their holiday break this week and may kill a big NASA mission. Some House Republicans are working to stop funding for an asteroid retrieval mission that is in the infant stages.

 

The mission itself sounds like it could have come from a movie. In eight years NASA wants to, capture an asteroid with a robotic spacecraft, tow it back toward Earth and place it in a stable orbit around the moon for astronauts to study.

 

"The asteroid retrieval mission is kind of quirky, but it's also kind of intriguing, and it's cheap as opposed to, it's not as exciting as going back to the moon or on to Mars, but I don't think we're going to pay for that," said University of Central Florida Space Expert Dale Ketcham.

 

Some members of Congress want to kill the estimated $2.6 billion mission saying it won't help that ultimate goal of returning to Mars.

 

They also don't believe it will help us learn how to protect earth from other asteroids potentially hurling towards earth.

 

Republican Congressman Bill Posey, who worked on the Apollo program at Kennedy Space Center, is supporting draft legislation that blocks funding for the asteroid program. "Clearly this is not a part of planetary defense; it's just a scientific mission. And I'm not sure that what we achieve, and how we achieve it is worth the cost, and isn't a natural stepping stone getting to Mars, most experts have said no."

 

Instead, Posey would like NASA to focus on a return to the moon using the lunar surface as a stepping stone to an eventual human mission to Mars.

 

But NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden is defending the asteroid retrieval plan, as a key part in getting us to Mars. "An asteroid mission that's going to help us demonstrate the capabilities, some of the technical capabilities we don't currently have that are going to proceed on to Mars. Also give us some an opportunity to see if some of our theories about potentially protecting the earth are true, or good, or valid," said Bolden.

 

Bolden may have some support in the Senate, including from Florida's Senator Bill Nelson. "These folks that are saying no to the asteroid mission just simply do not know what they're talking about," said Nelson.

 

Lawmakers will continue to argue over the issue this summer but any prolonged debate could slow down NASA's efforts of sending humans to any celestial body an asteroid, the moon or Mars.

 

The House plan calls for a $16.8 billion, two year budget for NASA, with more funding for the heavy lift rocket and Orion crew capsule, currently in development.

 

Int'l ministerial confab on space exploration to convene in Jan

 

Kyodo News International

 

The United States will host an international conference on future space exploration with ministerial-level delegates from some 40 countries plus the European Union on Jan. 9 in Washington, a source close to Japan-U.S. relations said Saturday.

 

The multilateral conference, the first of this kind hosted by the U.S. government, will be held at the State Department. A second session of the confab will likely be convened in Japan in 2016, the source said.

 

The confab, which will also be attended by the Paris-based European Space Agency, will discuss international cooperation in future space exploration, including possible voyages to Mars and other planets.

 

The United States is keen on leading international efforts in the field, including participation by Japan, in light of the Chinese government's plans to build its own space station in the not-so-distant future, the source said.

 

The United States will invite China, Russia and the European Union to send ministerial-level representatives to the conference, the source also said.

 

The conference will highlight the importance of expediting international cooperation in manned and unmanned space exploration.

 

Delegates are expected to discuss how to push multilateral collaboration by building on the current cooperation over the International Space Station among Japan, Canada, Russia, the European Union and the United States. They will also discuss how to optimize use of the ISS, which is to be operated at least until 2020, the source said.

 

NASA scientists in Huntsville use ISERV cameras aboard International Space Station to help Calgary flood response

 

Lee Roop - Huntsville Times

 

 

When major flooding hit Calgary, Alberta, Canada on and after June 22, a NASA camera aboard the International Space Station was watching. Operated by scientists in Huntsville, the camera took 24 near-real-time pictures of the city's flooded areas and sent them to Canadian response officials.

 

About 100,000 residents had to evacuate after the flooding of the Bow and Elbow rivers that run through the city. Included in the evacuation was the area where Calgary holds its annual Calgary Stampede celebration. The city just ended its official flood emergency on July 4.

 

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield helped install the down-looking camera in January aboard the station before returning from his six-month space mission in May. He talked about the program called ISERV (ISS SERVIR Environmental Research and Visualization System.) "My heart goes out to my fellow Canadians affected by the disaster," Hadfield said in a NASA statement this week. "I am also proud that we are using the unique view from the space station with ISERV to help make response efforts more effective. "

 

Canadian officials said the pictures help confirm the findings of their own radar-based flood mapping tools. "The station imagery captured over Calgary is a great example of the importance on high-resolution optical images for flood mapping in urban environments, weather permitting," Canadian Earth observations program leader Alice Deschamps said.

 

ISERV is part of a joint project between NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development called SERVIR, named after the Spanish verb "to serve." SERVIR and ISERV were developed and are operated by NASA scientists in Huntsville. ISERV itself is a modified commercial telescope driven by custom software. It can obtain near real-time images and data on nearly all of the world's populated areas.

 

Precision Jump for the Grasshopper

 

Phil Plait - Slate Magazine

 

SpaceX is a privately owned company making a lot of headway into making travel into space easier, cheaper, and, honestly, cooler. They have two flights to the space station under their belts, and have very ambitious plans for the future.

 

They're testing a very old idea with a new type of rocket: a Vertical Takeoff/Vertical Landing (VTVL) prototype they've nicknamed Grasshopper. It's already undergone a series of test flights, and the latest, done on June 14, 2013, reached a height of 325 meters—over a thousand feet.

 

SpaceX just posted a video of the flight taken from a remotely-controlled hexacopter. It will help to set the video to high-definition, make it full screen, and to turn your volume up for the full effect.

 

Mind you, this is an uncrewed rocket! It uses a guidance system that can change the pointing of the engine and the amount of thrust to keep the flight steady and true. This test flight had even more sensors than previous tests, so there was more control and accuracy in the landing.

 

The idea here is that instead of dumping boosters into the ocean or letting them burn up on re-entry, this technology can allow a precision vertical landing back at the launch site. The booster can then be refurbished and reused.

 

I'll be very interested to see if this tech will pay off; it's a difficult engineering problem but could prove to be very beneficial in the exploration of space.

 

…and another part of me just wants to see this work because I was raised on Chesley Bonestell paintings of tapered silver rockets reflecting the Sun as they sat vertically on alien worlds. To me, that is the very icon of imagination, and of the human exploration of space.

 

Even if he's on Mars, astronaut candidate will call Pa. home

 

Megan Harris - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

 

Sunlight streamed into an airy blue and white sitting room in New Castle where Janice Morgan flipped through loose photographs of her oldest son.

 

"I said to my husband, 'Honey, did you know when you snapped those pictures NASA would want them someday?' " she said.

 

Dr. Andrew "Drew" Morgan, 37, put those pictures in demand and catapulted his family into the spotlight in the summer when NASA announced his acceptance into its newest recruiting class, set to report to Houston's Johnson Space Center in August. A blend of scientists, physicians and military pilots, the eight-member group, four of whom are women, could be among the first to set foot on Mars.

 

Drew Morgan, an Army major and physician, said he thought the news "would go totally undetected."

 

"That's what's so exciting about all this," he said from Texas. "People are talking about space again. Of course, we have an astronaut program, and we're going to go so much further.

 

"The space shuttle used to just orbit the Earth. We're talking about something bigger and bolder than ever before."

 

His father, Rick Morgan, still has the posture of an officer at 62. A small-town dentist and retired Air Force colonel, he brought up his three boys near military bases across America and Europe. His high school sweetheart, Janice, helped him make a new home everywhere they went.

 

"But our parents, their grandparents, they all lived here, so for Christmases and summers — anytime, really — we'd bring them back to New Castle," she said. "Now we're the grandparents, and he brings his children here. Andrew never had a hometown, exactly, but this is still our home."

 

Her boys were close to their extended family, she said, picnicking in Pearson Park for the Fourth of July and making frequent trips to Neshannock Creek. Today, the bulk of their clan lives within minutes of downtown New Castle in a series of homes lovingly dubbed "The Compound."

 

"When you grow up a military brat, having a place to call home is important," Drew Morgan said. "New Castle filled that void. I always knew the military was the path for me, and I saw a lot of the world that I wouldn't have. Even now, with the move to Houston, we'll probably be there for 10 years or more, but Pennsylvania will remain our home."

 

He and his fellow trainees will join 48 active astronauts in Houston, where director Ellen Ochoa said American crews are scheduled to launch aboard Russian rockets to the International Space Station through at least 2020.

 

Missions could include commercial space flights as early as 2017 and adventures beyond Earth's orbit, including the development and launch of a multipurpose vehicle dubbed Orion, Ochoa said. It would coincide with research that aims to capture an asteroid and put it on a stable orbit around the moon.

 

The day after NASA broke their big news, Drew Morgan was in Texas attending modest dinner parties and house hunting. The home he and his wife, Stacey, chose — one large enough to accommodate his son, 9, and three girls ages 7, 4 and 2 — is in Friendswood, a stone's throw from his soon-to-be co-workers.

 

"This was the first time we've shopped for a house with the idea that we get to live here awhile," he said. "The current astronaut corps immediately reached out to us. We had dinner at someone's house every night, and everyone campaigned for this or that neighborhood. It's nice to be a part of this club so quickly."

 

Before his selection, the family was preparing for a three-year stint in Stuttgart, Germany. The kids expected a move, he said, but he and Stacey have not broached any larger implications of space travel.

 

His son Daniel took a road trip with his dad in 2011 to watch the last space shuttle mission take off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The duo camped in the back of their rental vehicle, fighting off mosquitoes the whole time.

 

"We thought it would be the last time; we had to go," Drew Morgan said. "It was such an emotional, awesome experience. Then a couple months later, (NASA) called for new applicants. Now I'm an astronaut candidate. It's so surreal."

 

By the time Morgan makes his first flight, Daniel will likely be in high school. The conversation will be radically different, Drew Morgan said. His parents said they'll focus solely on his accomplishments, not the danger.

 

"He's always been so driven, so determined to push himself as far as he can," Janice Morgan said, citing West Point, medical school, Army Rangers school, three deployments and special forces training. "If he wants to go into space, we'll love him there, too."

 

Russian rocket explosion reminds us that vigilance is key

 

John Kelly - Florida Today (Commentary)

 

The imagery is haunting and sobering.

 

A rocket in flight, its tail beginning to waggle, a telltale sign something is very wrong. Then, a more pronounced swaying and then tumbling. Disaster inevitable. A burst of flame. The rocket coming apart. Careening sideways, back to Earth, engulfed in fire. A gigantic red, gray and black mix of fire and toxic cloud as its remnants slam into the ground.

 

This time around, it was a Russian Proton rocket. The crash site was a remote area near the launch complex. But, people on the Space Coast, veterans in an unforgiving industry, watch warily knowing that, but for extreme diligence and good luck, it could have happened here.

 

The fiery loss of the Proton rocket Tuesday prompted conversation around here about the small margins in which the space-launch industry operates, about the run of launch successes that we've experienced at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral in this millenium, and about an ever-present need to remain vigilant.

 

It was the late 1990s when the Space Coast last experienced this kind of frightening, fiery loss of a launch vehicle and its payload. Florida Today's veteran aerospace reporter Todd Halvorson recalled a string of launch failures around that time.

 

The scariest perhaps was the low-altitude explosion of a Delta II rocket carrying a Global Positioning Satellite in January 1997, raining chunks of flaming debris over Complex 17 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station as nearby reporters darted for cover. Video of that incident makes it look like an overdone movie war scene, with fiery rain and secondary explosions all around.

 

There was also the explosive failure of a monstrous Titan IV rocket in August 1998 about 40 seconds into flight, resulting in the loss of a top-secret spy satellite and one of the largest space accident recovery incidents ever. That same month, a Delta III was lost on the model's maiden flight. The military and private contractor launch teams at the Cape spent considerable time in the years after reflecting on the safety procedures, understanding what went wrong in each case, and trying to institute lessons learned.

 

In the unmanned launch business, though, Halvorson and I were talking this week about how remarkable it is that the Space Coast and the U.S. industry overall have had such a long streak of launch successes this past decade.

 

We wondered whether this recent string of problems with Russian launch vehicles might not be indicative of some broader cultural issue or process problem within their industry that's worthy of the kind of exhaustive review that happens after U.S. space accidents. A weakness in the Russian space program now can ripple through our own, because of our reliance on their rockets and vehicles to keep the International Space Station operational.

 

But, more than anything, the accident this week is a sobering reminder that space is hard and it requires a special kind of attention to detail unseen in most industries. Hats off to the men and women who keep our rockets flying safely. May they remain ever vigilant.

 

Is the US Spending Enough on Space Exploration?

 

Jim Siegel - AmericaSpace.com (Opinion)

 

With the United States in a transition phase in space exploration, there has recently been lively debate in Congress regarding NASA's 2014 budget (though massively overshadowed by Benghazi, the IRS, and the George Zimmerman trial).  The budget was released in April as part of the Administration's overall 2014 budget request to Congress.

 

Is it enough?

 

Consider today's environment, in which on one hand American astronauts suddenly have to humbly thumb rides on old-technology Soyuz rockets to get to the International Space Station (ISS) that the U.S. spearheaded … while on the other hand, many Americans continue to reel from the continuing economic slump. So is the United States spending enough or too much on space exploration?

 

Reviewing the 2014 NASA budget is the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology (chaired by Lamar Smith, R-TX) and its Space Subcommittee on Space (chaired by Steven Palazzo, R-MS). Perhaps following political instincts, they expressed initial concern about the $55 million cut in the proposed 2014 NASA budget compared to 2013. Of course, they and their follow committee members are all from districts in which there are NASA and space supplier facilities.

 

But, really, that cut is a rather infinitesimal three-tenths of 1 percent of the proposed $17.7 billion spending proposal.

 

What's more intriguing to me are two issues: First, how does the Administration's recent NASA budgets compare with those of the past, and second, what interesting nuggets lay buried in the 2014 proposal?

 

Not surprisingly, NASA's largest budgets by far were in the mid-1960s, when America was locked in a Cold War struggle with the Soviets, a conflict that propelled the space race into a critical issue of national security. On an adjusted basis of constant 2007 dollars, NASA's annual budget then was roughly $33 billion—nearly twice what NASA is spending today. The 1960s' spending was about 4 percent of the federal budget, compared to about 0.5 percent today (OK, the federal budget is nearly 4 times as big today, in constant dollars).

 

Again in constant 2007 dollars, NASA spending declined from its mid-1960s highs to about $11 billion in the mid-1970s, then nearly doubled to about $20 billion in 1991, and has since oscillated in the $15-$18 billion range. The 2012 budget was $16 billion in constant 2007 dollars.

 

But what are quite difficult to evaluate strictly from NASA and government data are the amounts actually spent on space-related exploration, compared to Earth-related projects.  For example, about a half billion dollars is spent on aeronautics research.

 

Don't get me wrong—when I take my family to Chicago next month, I'll probably be glad that NASA is making our skies safer.

 

Personally, I am eagerly awaiting the upcoming House Committee hearings regarding one of the surprising twists that was revealed in the NASA 2014 budget: that NASA intends to not only land on an asteroid as a stepping stone to Mars, but to attempt to "capture" and alter its trajectory.

 

To quote the NASA budget presentation, "To protect our planet, … send astronauts to an asteroid by 2025 and to Mars by 2035."  A later, more detailed explanation implied that the Earth may someday be in danger of being struck by an asteroid and that we need to be prepared to launch a heroic mission to dramatically save mankind.

 

Are they kidding?  The last time I was out at the NASA Press Site at the Kennedy Space Center, I don't recall any briefing about asteroids headed for Earth.  Had the NASA execs just returned from an offsite conference at which the featured entertainment was a 3D/HD version of Armageddon?

 

I understand and support the rationale for landing on either an asteroid or the Moon before attempting a mission to Mars. But the asteroid capture/toss idea struck me as a cheap and unnecessary attempt to justify an asteroid landing.

 

So is America spending enough on space exploration?

 

Those who are still smarting from paying the Russians $50 million for a one-way ticket to the ISS are shouting a resounding no.

 

Those who believe that history will validate their belief that the Space Shuttle Program's only accomplishment was to employ 20,000 people are shouting an equally adamant yes.

 

Where's the truth?  It depends on whom you ask.

 

In my view, I find it astounding and discouraging that 44 years ago we sent men to the Moon (a distance of about 238,000 miles) with 1960s technology, and since then humans have ventured only about 250 miles from Earth's surly bonds.

 

I have closely followed, admired, and reported on the Space Shuttle Program and the ISS initiative.  But in 1969, we could send man 1000 times as far into space as we can today!

 

That doesn't sound like progress to me.

 

Space Center Houston wants us to name the shuttle mock-up and the names pour in

 

Craig Hlavaty - Houston Chronicle

 

For some, Space Center Houston's new contest to rename the space shuttle replica parked at the facility is adding insult to injury for a community still smarting from not getting the actual, space-worn shuttle they wanted, and rightfully so.

 

Politics and personalities being what they were, it didn't happen.

 

But wait, didn't the replica already have a name? It's called the Space Shuttle Explorer, according to reports. Even that bastion of intelligence Wikipedia says so. What gives?

 

According to Nina Fuhrman, a mission briefing officer at Johnson Space Center, the Explorer name was, in a sense, just a nickname.

 

"It was not named by NASA officially, but by the visitor center at Kennedy Space Center," says Fuhrman.

 

This mock-up had been at Kennedy for years. I remember walking through it over the summer of 1994 on a family vacation. If I had a picture I would post it here, but suffice it to say, it would include a fifth-grader with a glorious mullet.

 

Right now it's out by the front door at Space Center Houston. You can drive up and look at it for free.

 

Where are the four surviving space shuttles now? Space.com has a cool slideshow here.

 

Remember Chuck Schumer's healing, consoling comments when us Texans balked at New York getting a shuttle? What a great guy, and playing right into the evil Yankee stereotype that the South always responds positively and rationally to.

 

As Ted Poe told the Houston Chronicle's Texas On the Potomac blog back in 2011, "The first word spoken on the moon was 'Houston' not 'New York City.' Whether Sen. Schumer likes it or not, the Big Apple had nothing to do with NASA or the space shuttle program …"

 

The fun part is that the shuttle that Schumer was gloating about, the Enterprise, never went into space. Little victories.

 

"We can take some trucks up to NYC and drag that thing back down here. Who's in?" a friend of mine asked. Something tells me that we would be found out.

 

New York City did a great job protecting the space shuttle Enterprise that they just had to have, placing it on the deck of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, a converted aircraft carrier. Last October it was damaged by Hurricane Sandy.

 

That exhibit re-opens next week after months of repairs.

 

"Please name the fake shuttle we got you" is like asking your kids to name the stuffed dog you got them instead of the real dog they wanted.

 

But at the same time, I don't remember everyone in Houston being overtly gaga about the shuttles before we weren't given one. A lot of us were incredibly angry about something we didn't care about until we saw someone else with it.

 

As the saying goes, "Kids love their toys most just before you sell them."

 

I have friends who work at NASA who tell me that having a shuttle at the Johnson Space Center wouldn't make them flip their wigs anyway.

 

For them, the hardware already there — the Mercury 9 capsule, Gemini 5 capsule, Apollo 17 command module (the last one that went to the Moon), and the Saturn V rocket — are the real deal when comes to the history of manned space travel and lunar exploration.

 

Some are still out for blood.

 

"I still say Houston should have accepted the fake shuttle, dragged it out to a vacant field, and set it ablaze," said a colleague.

 

"This is what we think of your balsa wood consolation prize!"

 

Oh dear.

 

According to Roger Bornstein, director of marketing at Space Center Houston, the former Explorer is in fact not made of wood, but steel and fiberglass.

 

He says they've received over 3,500 names so far in the contest since it opened on Thursday.

 

"I would say 99 percent of them are well-thought suggestions," he said. Some also voice their displeasure at not getting a "real" shuttle.

 

At least when the shuttle exhibit is completed  in 2015, visitors will actually be able to climb aboard it and the attached 747 carrier, and not just gawk at it from a distance.

 

We'll know on Sept. 10 what we'll be calling the shuttle from then on out. Bornstein says he's hopeful that the new name will be great.

 

"We want to create a genuine Texas landmark here," he says.

 

Since it will be named by a Texan, I suggested J.J. Watt would make a good name for the shuttle.

 

Even better, maybe something relating back to the Texas fight for independence from Mexico would work.

 

Space Shuttle Sam?

 

———–

 

I asked some friends what they would name the mock-up if they had the chance. Of course, their derision was palpable.

 

"The Constellation Prize"

 

"The orbiters have traditionally been named after sea-going exploration ships of the past. With that history, I suggest 'Pourquoi Pas,' a French exploration ship. The fact that it translates to 'Why not?' is merely a happy coincidence."

 

"The Schumer"

 

"The Cassowary. It's a flightless bird."

 

"Screwed Over"

 

"Massive Disappointment"

 

Of course the comments on the Chron Facebook page had great submissions too. Such as…

 

"Spacejunk"

 

"Space Scuttle"

 

"McShuttle" (not bad, considering there is a decent McD's down the way from the JSC)

 

"The Obamaprise" (It just wouldn't be an Interest post without mentioning him at least once)

 

END

 

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