Hope you can join us this Thursday, Dec. 5th at Hibachi Grill at 11:30 for our last monthly NASA Retirees Luncheon of 2013.
It's Not too late to reserve your free breakfast sandwich from Chickfila valid all this week thru Saturday. Use the link below to find the link to sign up!
| | JSC TODAY CATEGORIES - Headlines
- JSC Intern Poster Session - Organizations/Social
- 'Keeping it Real' Event - Dec. 3
- JSC Contractor Safety & Health Forum - Dec. 3
- JSC Weight Watchers at Work Series Begins Today
- Starport's After Thanksgiving Sale - All Week Long
- Starport Holiday Massage Special
- Breakfast With Santa - Still Time to Register - Jobs and Training
- Admin Rights on NASA Computers
- Introduction to I&I - Dec. 11
- Learning From Our Leaders - Dec. 13
- SPACE Midterm Live Lab - Civil Servant Supervisors
- Job Opportunities
- Lockout/Tagout - Dec. 3; Building 20, Room 304 - Community
- December Sustainability Opportunities |  |
| Headlines - JSC Intern Poster Session
Come and join us as our fall 2013 interns showcase their accomplishments during their time at JSC. We have students across many organizations helping NASA advance in human space exploration. Don't miss out on this opportunity to see the work of very talented students at JSC. Have you been interested in having an intern in your organization? This is your chance to learn more about providing meaningful experiences to high school, college and post-graduate students while getting the help your program needs. Event Date: Monday, December 2, 2013 Event Start Time:10:00 AM Event End Time:12:00 PM
Event Location: Teague Lobby
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Carmen Vides x34573
[top] Organizations/Social - 'Keeping it Real' Event - Dec. 3
Back by popular demand and through a collaborative effort between the AAERG, the ASIA ERG and the EMERGE ERG is the second "Keeping it Real" event tomorrow, Dec. 3, from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Gilruth Lone Star Room. This event is designed to encourage interactive discussions that allow participants to pose random questions to senior leaders in an open forum. There will be two microphones passed around to allow the audience to ask their questions; however, we ask that you send in your questions prior to the event. There will also be index cards on each table to allow members of the audience to write their questions down and have them read to the speakers. In an effort to track attendance to ensure there is enough room, we ask that you sign up using the link below. Speakers include: Melanie Saunders, Associate Director (Management), and Bill McArthur, Director, Safety & Mission Assurance. Event Date: Tuesday, December 3, 2013 Event Start Time:4:00 PM Event End Time:6:00 PM
Event Location: Gilruth Lone Star Room
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Kai Harris x40694
[top] - JSC Contractor Safety & Health Forum - Dec. 3
The JSC Contractor Safety and Health Forum will be held tomorrow, Dec. 3, in the Gilruth Center Alamo Ballroom from 9 to 10:30 a.m. Our guest speaker for this event will be Dr. Robert Emery, vice president for Safety, Health, Environment and Risk Management at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. His presentation topic will be "Communicating Risk and Correcting Misinformation in a New Era." In addition, David Loyd, chief, Safety & Test Operations Division (JSC-NS), will be presenting "JSC Safety Metrics Snapshot for 2013." Hope to see everyone there. For questions, please contact Pat Farrell at 281-335-2012 or via email. Event Date: Tuesday, December 3, 2013 Event Start Time:9:00 AM Event End Time:10:30 AM
Event Location: Gilruth Center Alamo Ballroom
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Patricia Farrell 281-335-2012
[top] - JSC Weight Watchers at Work Series Begins Today
The JSC Weight Watchers at Work series starts today and runs through the end of April. Members joining today will get a code for eTools so you can track and plan from your smart phone, as well as use all the tools available for your PC. Meetings are held in Building 12, Room 148/150, every Monday except for holiday weeks and federal holidays. Weigh-in starts at 11:30 a.m., and meetings are from 12 to 12:30 p.m. For weeks there is not an on-site meeting, or anytime, you can attend other local meetings with your membership card. Some changes to the Weight Watchers 360 program will be announced today, so members will get started on the new material right away. Join today and get a head start on your New Year's resolutions! Event Date: Monday, December 2, 2013 Event Start Time:11:30 AM Event End Time:12:30 PM
Event Location: Bldg 12, Rooms 148/150
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Julie Kliesing x31540
[top] - Starport's After Thanksgiving Sale – All Week Long
Starport's After Thanksgiving Sale - All Week Long! The Starport Gift Shops will offer special savings all week long from Monday, Dec. 2, through Friday, Dec. 6, in Buildings 3 and 11. Toddler hoodies - $20; and Sport-Tek polos - $40. And, enjoy 15 percent off toys and select T-shirts and hats; 20 percent off colored NASA glassware; 25 percent off select globes; and many more specially priced items. Starport is the place for your holiday shopping needs, where you will find unique space-themed items for your family and friends. Stop by today and save. - Starport Holiday Massage Special
This year, give the gift that won't be regifted: massage therapy. Treat a friend, loved one or yourself to the benefits of massage by taking advantage of Starport's holiday massage special. For a limited time, schedule a 60-minute massage for a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday throughout the month of December for only $55. Visit the Starport website to book your massage, or stop by the Gilruth Center to purchase a gift certificate. Hurry! This offer is only valid through December. - Breakfast With Santa - Still Time to Register
Santa Claus is coming to town and making a stop at the Gilruth Center! Enjoy breakfast with Santa in the Alamo Ballroom from 9 to 11 a.m. on Dec. 7. Your child will have the opportunity to sit on Santa's lap to give him their wish list, have their picture taken and receive a special gift! Fees are $15/child and $20/adult if purchased this week. Register for this event at the Gilruth Center or online here. Tickets will not be sold at the door. Don't miss out on this special event! More information can be found here. Jobs and Training - Admin Rights on NASA Computers
Previously, users at JSC had admin rights on their government-provided computers. This allowed users to install software and gave considerable control over Information Technology (IT) devices. To improve security and reduce risk to IT devices, NASA is implementing Managed Elevated Privileges (MEP). This means admin rights (elevated privileges) will be removed until they are needed. MEP will be deployed using a phased approach, with organizations receiving advanced notice. MEP deployment begins January 2014. What to do? Complete the SATERN training required for short-term elevated privileges. This training is REQUIRED should you ever need to request short-term elevated privileges. Additional training is required for long-term or special elevated privileges (see link below). SATERN course: Elevated Privileges on NASA Information System For more information about MEP, training requirements and exceptions, click here. - Introduction to I&I - Dec. 11
Space Available - Introduction to Inclusion & Innovation (I&I) on Dec. 11. Join Dr. Steve Robbins for this one-day session as he facilitates discussions around the connections between open mindedness, inclusion, creativity and innovation. Sign up today! Class Time: 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (registration begins at 8 a.m.) Location: Crystal Ballroom (first floor), South Shore Harbour Resort and Conference Center (2500 South Shore Blvd., League City) January I&I sessions available for civil service employee registrations: Intro to I&I Jan. 16 Building 20, Rooms 205-206 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Advanced I&I Jan. 14 to 15 Gilruth Lone Star Room 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. - Learning From Our Leaders - Dec. 13
Date: Dec. 13 Time: 11 a.m. to noon Venue: Building 30 Auditorium Panelists: Yolanda Marshall - Director, Strategic Opportunities & Partnership Development Paul Hill - Director, Mission Operations Natalie Saiz - Director, Human Resources Lon Miller - ESC Senior Vice President, Jacobs Engineering Have you ever asked wondered: - What's the difference between a mentor and a sponsor?
- Why is sponsorship critical to my advancement?
- Are mentors and sponsors the same or different people?
- How do I get a sponsor?
Make plans to attend. Seating will be limited. For more information, contact Sheela Logan at x34214 or John Clayborne at x37077. - SPACE Midterm Live Lab - Civil Servant Supervisors
NASA's Standard Performance Appraisal Communication Environment (SPACE) system is open. Midterm job aids and a self-guided tutorial are available in SPACE under the "Reference Guide" and "Help" tabs. Registration is not required. Come any time within the scheduled offerings. For additional questions, please talk with your Human Resources representative or development representative. The session dates/times are: Tuesday, Dec. 3 - Building 12, Room 144, 1 to 2 p.m.
Thursday, Dec. 5 - Building 12, Room 144, 9 to 10 a.m.
- Job Opportunities
Where do I find job opportunities? 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. - Lockout/Tagout - Dec. 3; Building 20, Room 304
The purpose of this course is to provide employees with the standards, procedures and requirements necessary for the control of hazardous energy through lockout and tagout of energy-isolating devices. Occupational Safety and Health Administration standard 29 CFR 1910.147, "The Control of Hazardous Energy (Lockout/Tagout)," is the basis for this course. A comprehensive test will be offered at the end of the class. Use this direct link for registration: https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_... Event Date: Tuesday, December 3, 2013 Event Start Time:8:30 AM Event End Time:11:30 AM
Event Location: Bldg. 20 Room 304
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Shirley Robinson x41284
[top] Community - December Sustainability Opportunities
Every month, we are providing you opportunities to get involved in efforts related to sustainable living. Click this link to learn about your JSC Sustainability Initiatives, and scroll down to "What's New in Sustainability" to discover opportunities to get involved here and in our greater Houston area. | |
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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. |
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NASA and Human Spaceflight News
Monday – December 2, 2013
HEADLINES AND LEADS
Comet ISON, Presumed Dead, Shows New Life
Kenneth Chang – New York Times
Astronomers are marveling at the death and apparent resurrection of a comet that dove close to the sun on Thanksgiving. Comet ISON passed within a million miles of the sun's surface at 1:37 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday — by which time observers had already glumly concluded that the comet had disintegrated and vaporized.
U.S. Intellectual Property Rules Hinder Space Station Research
Debra Werner – Space News
Zero Gravity Solutions Inc. plans to conduct research in the international space station's U.S. National Laboratory aimed at producing plants that thrive in new environments: rice that grows in brackish water, drought-resistant corn and citrus trees immune to cold snaps. If the company succeeds in developing those new crops on Earth, the U.S. Plant Varieties Protection Act would provide it with exclusive control over discoveries for at least 20 years.
SpaceX targets Monday evening for Falcon 9 launch
James Dean – Florida Today
SpaceX is targeting Monday for a third attempt to launch the SES-8 communications satellite from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the company said today.
From hockey pucks to high tech, Huntsville celebrates its role in building the International Space Station
Lee Roop – Huntsville Times
Alabama's rocket city is joining the world in celebrating the 15th birthday of the International Space Station this month, because thousands of Huntsville hands have been on the station from the start. As one Boeing engineer said in 2002 when a key Huntsville-built piece was launched to orbit, "A big part of this city's going up into space."
China's 1st Moon Rover Launches On Lunar Journey
China's first-ever mission to land a rover on the moon has begun its journey to the lunar frontier.
Long March rocket blasts off with Chinese lunar rover
Stephen Clark – SPACEFLIGHTNOW
A six-wheeled robotic rover named Yutu rode a Long March rocket into space Sunday on China's first lunar landing mission, marking an auspicious start to a four-day journey to the moon.
China launches Chang'e-3 lunar lander
William Harwood – CBS News
A powerful Long March 3B rocket boosted China's first lunar lander into space Sunday, an unmanned mothership that will descend to the surface in mid-December and deploy a rover named Yutu, or "Jade Rabbit," for independent scientific observations.
In Memoriam
Houston Chronicle
Brock "Randy" StoneBrock "Randy" Stone passed away on November 25, 2013 at the age of 69 after a long and courageous battle with cancer. He was born in Brownsville, Texas June 27, 1944. He was a 1967 graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Aerospace Engineering. He enjoyed a long career at NASA, spanning Apollo, Apollo-Soyuz, Skylab, Space Shuttle, and International Space Station. He began his career in Landing and Recovery during the Apollo era, went on to become a flight director during the Apollo-Soyuz, Skylab, and Shuttle Programs, and later became the Director of Mission Operations. At the time of his retirement in 2004, Randy...
Brock "Randy" Stone passed away on November 25, 2013 at the age of 69 after a long and courageous battle with cancer. He was born in Brownsville, Texas June 27, 1944.
He was a 1967 graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Aerospace Engineering. He enjoyed a long career at NASA, spanning Apollo, Apollo-Soyuz, Skylab, Space Shuttle, and International Space Station. He began his career in Landing and Recovery during the Apollo era, went on to become a flight director during the Apollo-Soyuz, Skylab, and Shuttle Programs, and later became the Director of Mission Operations. At the time of his retirement in 2004, Randy held the position of Deputy Center Director of the Johnson Space Center. Following his retirement, he served as Cimarron's President and Chief Operating Officer for several years. During his retirement years he enjoyed traveling with his wife, spending time with his grandchildren, fishing and hunting, and building and flying electric radio-controlled airplanes with his OFFC buddies. Randy also served on the board of JSC Federal Credit Union and was a longtime member of Clear Lake United Methodist Church.
He was preceded in death by his parents Brock and Margaret Stone. Randy is survived by his beloved wife of 42 years, Susan Stone, and his daughters Kari Wilson and husband David, and Allison Campbell and husband Rob, as well as his six grandchildren and a host of family and friends.
Visitation will take place on Monday, December 2nd at Forest Park East Funeral Home from 5-8PM. Funeral Services will be on Tuesday, December 3rd at 10AM at Clear Lake United Methodist Church 16335 El Camino Real in Houston, TX 77062. In Lieu of flowers, donations can be made to MD Anderson Cancer Center for colon cancer research at http://www.mdanderson.org/gifts Former "Voice of NASA" Arthur "Skip" Mackey dies
Florida Today Staff
Arthur J. "Skip" Mackey Jr. died Nov. 19 in Fort Lauderdale after a long illness. He was 80.
His family plans a celebration of his life Sunday at their Cocoa Beach home for family and friends.
Mackey studied engineering at Dartmouth (because they didn't offer training as a forest ranger, according to his longtime friend, Frank Perkins). He worked for NASA at the Cape for many years.
Most famously, during the 1960s and 1970s, he served as the "Voice of NASA" for countdown broadcasts, Perkins said. Once, he warned off an errant fishing boat using a Citizens Band radio.
Mackey was also a skillful recreational angler. In the 1968 national fishing contest sponsored by Field and Stream magazine, he won first place in the fly division for Cobia and dolphin and first place in the open division in Spanish Mackerel, King Mackerel, spotted seatrout and barracuda, Perkins said.
Mackey's wife, M.E., said he requested that his ashes be scattered on the 8-A reef, where he spent considerable time fishing. She also noted that her husband asked that anyone wanting to do something in his honor take a child fishing.
His survivors include his daughters, Paige Mackey Murray of Boulder, Colorado, Jeri Alexander Hall of Atlanta, Georgia, and Donna Alexander Rosen of Los Angeles, as well as his step-children, Paul DePalma of Champaign, Illinois and Pamela Le DePalma of Cocoa Beach.
COMPLETE STORIES
Comet ISON, Presumed Dead, Shows New Life
Kenneth Chang – New York Times
Astronomers are marveling at the death and apparent resurrection of a comet that dove close to the sun on Thanksgiving.
Comet ISON passed within a million miles of the sun's surface at 1:37 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday — by which time observers had already glumly concluded that the comet had disintegrated and vaporized.
NASA posted on Twitter, "It's likely it didn't survive."
ISON, which spent several billion years at the frigid edge of the solar system before starting a long journey toward the sun, had been billed as a possible "comet of the century." Its demise seemed to be an anticlimactic ending to the story.
But "then it appears again," said Karl Battams, an astrophysicist at the Naval Research Laboratory who has been observing the comet from Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. "We see something come out."
Images taken by spacecraft showed an increasingly bright point at the head of the comet. Dr. Battams said that current data could not offer a definitive answer, but it appeared Friday that part of ISON's nucleus was still holding together.
"It's definitely maybe alive," Dr. Battams said. "There's a strong definite chance it might be, may be alive."
Additional observations by spacecraft and ground-based telescopes could provide a clearer picture over the next few days. The Hubble Space Telescope should be able to take a close look in a couple of weeks.
On his Twitter account, Dr. Battams mused, "So, umm ... did I mention that comets are like cats??"
Even more uncertain is whether there will be much to see in the night sky in early December, when ISON is to pass through Earth's neighborhood. (One thing is certain, astronomers say: There is no possibility that it will strike Earth.)
The apparent resurrection raised the question: if ISON is not dead, why did it disappear during its close approach to the sun?
"At this point, we don't have an answer to that," said C. Alex Young, associate director for science in the heliophysics division at NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
The tale has gathered a wide following on the Internet, with Dr. Battams juggling media interviews and Twitter postings while also trying to digest the stream of data.
"We've got spotlights on us, literally," he said in an interview, adding that he had slept only a couple of hours. "It's a lot of pressure because at present we have a lot more questions than answers. But it's fabulous. It's an amazing event we're witnessing."
On Thursday, Dr. Battams and Dr. Young answered questions in a NASA-organized chat room on Google as ISON neared the sun.
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft sent back an image that was expected to show the comet within the corona. It showed nothing, but it was possible the comet was not close enough yet. "We thought maybe we wouldn't see something right away," Dr. Young said.
Half an hour later, another image came back, again with no sign of ISON.
"We didn't see anything — nothing — and we expected we would see at least a little bit," Dr. Young said.
A much smaller comet last year had given an impressive show, and scientists expected that even if ISON started falling apart, there would still be big pieces left for the observatory to detect.
"We were extremely let down by the lack of a show," Dr. Young said.
But a couple of hours later, another NASA spacecraft spotted something emerging from the other side of the sun. At first it seemed to be nothing more than debris from the comet's tail. Dr. Young left for home thinking the day had been a bust.
As he was driving, he heard his cellphone buzzing as text messages poured in. He pulled over to take a look at the data. More images were showing indications of a surviving nucleus. He headed to a diner that was closed for Thanksgiving but whose Wi-Fi network was on. "I pulled out my laptop to see what I could see," he said.
The news that reports of ISON's death were premature ricocheted around Twitter. Richard Branson, the British billionaire who founded the constellation of Virgin companies, posted on Friday: "Our sun melts most of comet #ISON. A little survives to fly on."
Scientists hope that observations of ISON will also provide information about the early solar system when ISON formed.
By now, comet experts are cautious about saying what they expect to happen next.
ISON, Dr. Battams said, "is taking every opportunity to do everything we didn't expect it to do."
U.S. Intellectual Property Rules Hinder Space Station Research
Debra Werner – Space News
Zero Gravity Solutions Inc. plans to conduct research in the international space station's U.S. National Laboratory aimed at producing plants that thrive in new environments: rice that grows in brackish water, drought-resistant corn and citrus trees immune to cold snaps. If the company succeeds in developing those new crops on Earth, the U.S. Plant Varieties Protection Act would provide it with exclusive control over discoveries for at least 20 years.
If the discoveries occur on the space station, however, Zero Gravity Solutions would have exclusive rights to its inventions for only five years.
"It could take five years of research to get to the point where you have something you can patent," said Richard Godwin, director for Boca Raton, Fla.-based Zero Gravity Solutions.
Other commercial researchers eager to explore the potential benefits of microgravity on plants, pharmaceuticals and materials express similar concerns that government rules limiting their intellectual property rights could prevent them from profiting from new discoveries.
People working for the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), the organization selected by NASA to promote and manage commercial research aboard the orbiting outpost, "have come into contact with people, particularly from the pharmaceutical companies, who have a lot of anxieties about their potential loss of rights as a result of involving international space station research in their projects," said Brad Carpenter, acting director of NASA's Space Life and Physical Sciences Research and Applications Division. "We are doing everything we can to make sure they don't have those anxieties."
At the root of the problem is legislation that designated part of the space station a U.S. National Laboratory. In the NASA Authorization Act of 2010, the U.S. Congress directed the space agency to create a cooperative agreement with a nonprofit organization to manage the space station's National Laboratory. Cooperative agreements established by federal agencies include standard, U.S. government-wide terms and conditions, including requirements for intellectual property rights, said Courtney Graham, NASA associate general council for commercial and intellectual property law. "If you look at any of the cooperative agreements from NASA's Science Mission Directorate or any other part of NASA, you'll see the same type of terms and conditions," Graham said.
In addition, since NASA is a title-taking agency, any large contractor that wants to retain title to an invention developed through the use of a NASA facility has to submit a waiver. If not, the space agency automatically acquires a license for government use of the invention.
Organizations routinely submit requests for NASA to waive that title-taking authority. NASA reviews the waiver and "pretty much always says, 'Sure you can have rights to your invention,'" Graham said. That process is required by all NASA cooperative agreements. It is in all NASA contracts and funded Space Act Agreements as well, Graham said.
Although the process of obtaining waivers is routine for NASA contractors, NASA, CASIS and industry officials see these intellectual property rules as a potential stumbling block to widespread use of the international space station for commercial research. NASA and its international partners have agreed to provide funding for the orbiting outpost until 2020. People who would like to see U.S. financial support for the space station continue beyond 2020 say significant commercial research and discovery would make their case stronger.
"We would like to encourage more research on the international space station, especially by people working through CASIS to look for commercial applications," Graham said. "So we've been exploring whether we can create a special intellectual property regime for space station-based research that would provide researchers with an increased amount of intellectual property ownership. There is no downside to the government in doing that. Space station research will be a small part of the overall commercialization effort [for any product]," Graham said.
To create those special intellectual property rules, NASA and CASIS are working with congressional committees. Language was included in a NASA authorization bill the Senate Commerce Committee approved in July. The bill — which stalled on its way to the floor and is not likely to get a vote this year — would give the NASA administrator authority to waive the license to any inventions made during scientific utilization of the national laboratory that is unrelated to NASA work if reservation of the license "would substantially inhibit the commercialization of an invention."
While that provision would help large contractors maintain rights to inventions, it would not assist small businesses and would not help researchers maintain rights to data produced. "NASA would prefer to see something that would cover both inventions and data and that would address both large entity researchers as well as small businesses and nonprofits," Graham said.
NASA is proposing legislation that would direct researchers to provide the space agency with information on inventions and patents stemming from space station research, but would allow the researcher to retain all rights to those inventions and patents as well as data created during the conduct of space station activities.
"Through this proposed legislation, NASA believes that it strikes a balance between the legitimate commercial needs of the International Space Station National Laboratory users who are being asked to make investments in commercial microgravity research and the government's interest in ensuring that inventions developed using government resources and taxpayer-funded facilities are appropriately commercialized," a copy of the proposed legislation states. "This legislation does not impact NASA's research need or the rights of the government in its own research since (1) work for NASA will be conducted outside the ISS National Laboratory and (2) other arrangements between International Space Station National Laboratory users and the Federal Government are not impacted by this proposal."
Traditionally, this type of legislation would be included in an annual appropriations bill. If the House and Senate are not able to agree on 2014 funding levels for NASA and other federal agencies, however, Congress is likely to provide the space agency with funding through a continuing resolution.
"We think we are headed towards a continuing resolution and we are working with our partners on Capitol Hill to identify some other bill or provision in which we can have language inserted," said Duane Ratliff, CASIS chief operating officer. "I'm confident it will be resolved. It's a matter of trying to find the right congressional vehicle."
SpaceX targets Monday evening for Falcon 9 launch
James Dean – Florida Today
SpaceX is targeting Monday for a third attempt to launch the SES-8 communications satellite from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the company said today.
"Rocket engines are healthy, but cleaning turbopump gas generators will take another day," CEO Elon Musk tweeted. "Aiming for Mon eve launch."
The launch window Monday would open at 5:41 p.m. EST, and there's a 60 percent chance of favorable weather conditions.
Technical issues thwarted the first two launch attempts, last Monday and Thursday.
On Thanksgiving, the Falcon 9 booster's nine engines fired briefly, but cut off when computers sensed thrust building more slowly than expected.
In another Twitter message today, Musk said the abort was caused by oxygen in the ground-side igniter system.
Launching Sunday was not an option. As with the two days before Thanksgiving, the Federal Aviation Administration would not close the air space because of the high volume of air traffic around the holiday.
SpaceX is attempting to launch its upgraded Falcon 9 rocket for the first time from Florida. The 224-foot rocket is carrying its first commercial payload, aiming for an orbit more than 22,000 miles over the equator.
The launch would be the first of a commercial communications satellite from the Cape in four years.
From hockey pucks to high tech, Huntsville celebrates its role in building the International Space Station
Lee Roop – Huntsville Times
Alabama's rocket city is joining the world in celebrating the 15th birthday of the International Space Station this month, because thousands of Huntsville hands have been on the station from the start. As one Boeing engineer said in 2002 when a key Huntsville-built piece was launched to orbit, "A big part of this city's going up into space."
NASA and prime contractor Boeing built three station pieces at Marshall Space Flight Center beginning in 1995, including the first American laboratory and the airlock to which other station modules attached. They also built trusses to support station equipment. More than 2,500 engineers and technicians worked on the station from design through assembly, and many more supported them as subcontractors.
After several near-death experiences in Washington's perennial money wars, the station today is an orbiting science lab you can see fly overhead. There's an app for that. Many people believe the technical and geopolitical feat of building and orbiting it tops any engineering accomplishment in human history, and the results it is generating through protein crystal growth and analysis is changing medical science. Already, photos taken from it have changed the way people think about their world.
Today, Marshall controllers manage that science aboard the station via 24/7 via communication with crews from a state-of-the-art control center in Huntsville. Huntsville engineers for Boeing and NASA are working on new equipment for the station's next 15 years.
A big story to tell
It's a big story and everyone has their favorite part. But a good place to start might be Huntsville NASA engineer Brian Mitchell's favorite memory. It adds a touch of that intangible something extra that makes Huntsville love its rocket engineers and the way they think.
The tale starts with the node, the station module to which all early labs and living compartments were connected. It had apple-sized holes drilled beside each portal for electrical, water, and other supply lines.
NASA needed the surface around those holes nickel-plated and smoothly polished so leak-proof seals could be attached. Mitchell took up the story in a conversation this month:
"They had issues with polishing the nickel," he said, "and so I came up with an idea for a sanding tool which was an actual hockey puck."
After thinking about the problem over a weekend, Mitchell drove to Huntsville's hockey arena and bought a puck. "It had Solvokia written on it," he remembered. He asked a Marshall machinist if he could drill a hole in the puck and, a few add-ons later, Mitchell had a tool that could be machine turned with a piece of sand paper glued to its surface.
"They said this couldn't touch flight hardware," Mitchell remembered. "So we made the point that, actually, the sand paper was going to be touching the flight hardware, not the puck."
The hockey puck sander worked so well Boeing wanted a complete set in varying sizes to polish all of the holes on the module. They worked so well Boeing wanted sets for the other components being made in Huntsville. In all, dozens of hockey pucks served America in a way their builders never imagined.
Challenges and solutions like that didn't happen every day, but Mitchell's initiative is an example of how low-tech and high-tech can meet in the long years between design and flight in space. There's never been a problem with that docking module in the 15 years it's been flying, Mitchell said.
"We had our challenges with hardware," Marshall Center Deputy Director Teresa Vanhooser agreed this month. "You test it and you have great confidence you've run it through everything, but then there's that step of, 'I'm shipping it and it's going to be up there for how long?' But I trusted the team putting it together. They had a lot of good experience, and they were very diligent."
Prime contractor Boeing led
Prime contractor Boeing did most of the work. "Our ISS team in Huntsville has had a hand in every major U.S. element on the space station," Boeing space station program manager John Shannon remembered this week in an email, "particularly working with NASA and partner Boeing sites to design and build the pressurized elements, reliable and extensible avionics, and systems for the crew habitat that can extend time on-orbit."
Boeing "developed and delivered all three of the U.S. segment pressurized elements (Unity, Destiny, and Quest)," Boeing ISS Huntsville manager Tim Tripp added. "We also assembled and tested a couple of the trusses here. The Huntsville team was responsible for requirements development, design, analyses, fabrication, assembly, test and delivery, at NASA's MSFC facilities."
Huntsville's role might surprise people who know Marshall mostly as NASA's propulsion center, where Wernher von Braun's "smoke and fire" team learned to make rockets fly. But Vanhooser said there's always been more to Marshall.
"We're very strong in large space systems, the systems needed to support the crew," Vanhooser said. "It gets overshadowed by the propulsion center, because the propulsion center is what people think about. But if you think about it, those big rockets like Saturn are large space systems."
Vanhooser worked on Spacelab, the project project that came before the international commitment to build the station in the 1990s. (The 15th birthday is marked from the first launch of a Russian station component.) Spacelab was a reusable lab that flew on the space shuttle and allowed scientists to experiment in zero gravity. Much of it was managed in Huntsville, too. "We learned how we do operations, how we build hardware and how we work with the crew," Vanhooser said. "The space station is just a longer duration."
What comes next?
Vanhooser and other NASA veterans who built the station like watching the full-time science laboratory it was always meant to be. So much of the first 15 years was dominated by construction and assembly.
"What I see today is pretty exciting," Vanhooser said. "They've literally doubled the amount of hours they are spending on science, and it really has taken a front seat for the country now. It's been fun to watch."
NASA wants to extend the station's life to 2028 to encourage a full return on the investment made in the lab by U.S. taxpayers and world partners. Boeing is working now on a common dock to permit commercial carriers to dock with the station and nitrogen and oxygen resupply systems. Marshall engineers are working on new payloads and racks. Vanhooser sees all that as a great opportunity.
"To me, young engineers cutting their teeth on payloads and small instruments is perfect," she said, "because they learn the whole process from design through operations and can actually see their hardware work on orbit."
China's 1st Moon Rover Launches On Lunar Journey
China's first-ever mission to land a rover on the moon has begun its journey to the lunar frontier.
Riding atop a modified Long March 3B rocket, China's Chang'e 3 moon lander and its rover Yutu toward the moon at 1:30 a.m. Monday (Dec. 2) local time from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the country's Sichuan province. It was 12:30 p.m. EST (1730 GMT) on Dec. 1 at launch time.
If the probe continues on track, Chang'e 3 will land on the lunar surface by mid-December, becoming the first spacecraft to touch down on the moon in more than 37 years. The moon landing mission was the former Soviet Union's robotic Luna 24 sample return mission in 1976.
Long March rocket blasts off with Chinese lunar rover
Stephen Clark – SPACEFLIGHTNOW
A six-wheeled robotic rover named Yutu rode a Long March rocket into space Sunday on China's first lunar landing mission, marking an auspicious start to a four-day journey to the moon.
The Yutu rover, mounted on a stationary rocket-powered landing platform, will touch down on the moon Dec. 14. If it makes it, the Chinese mission will be the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on the moon since 1976.
The lunar landing mission is named Chang'e 3, the third Chinese lunar probe following a pair of orbiters launched in 2007 and 2010.
Packed with a ground-piercing radar, cameras, spectrometers and plutonium-powered heaters, the rover lifted off at 1730 GMT (12:30 p.m. EST) Sunday from the Xichang launching base in southern China's Sichuan province. Launch occurred at 1:30 a.m. Beijing time Monday.
The liftoff was broadcast on Chinese state television.
The 185-foot-tall Long March 3B rocket ignited its eight liquid-fueled first stage and booster engines and climbed away from its mountainous launch pad, shedding the liquid-fueled boosters and first stage a few minutes later.
A hydrazine-fueled second stage and hydrogen-fueled third stage propelled the Chang'e 3 lander on a direct four-day trajectory to the moon, where it will brake into orbit Dec. 6.
The robotic spacecraft separated from the Long March third stage at 1749 GMT (12:49 p.m. EST), drifting away from the rocket in spectacular live video views beamed back to Earth from cameras affixed to the launcher.
The video showed the Chang'e 3 probe firing rocket thrusters. Plumes of exhaust were illuminated by the sun as the craft flew into sunrise over the Pacific Ocean.
The spacecraft deployed its four landing legs and power-generating solar panels a few minutes later, and officials at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center declared the launch a success.
"On behalf of the Xichang Satellite Launch Center and the command headquarters, I would like to extend my gratitude to all those who have been part of the project," said Zhang Zhenzhong, director of the Xichang launch base. "And my thanks also go to all the friends who have been helping us throughout the whole process.
"The Chang'e probe is on the way to the moon. Of course, it's a symbol of China's national power and prowess," Zhang said in post-launch remarks translated into English on China's state-run television.
Over the next few days, Chang'e 3 will adjust its path toward the moon three times to set up for a critical rocket burn to enter lunar orbit Dec. 6.
Landing on the moon is scheduled for Dec. 14 in a region known as Bay of Rainbows, or Sinus Iridum, on the upper-left part of the moon as viewed from Earth.
Many of the mission's specifications and objectives remained secret until the week of launch, when China rolled out details in a press briefing and through official state-owned media outlets.
The lander carries a bipropellant rocket engine designed to adjust its power level and pivot to control the probe's descent from an altitude of 15 kilometers, or about 9 miles, according to China's state-run Xinhua news agency.
The probe is equipped with terrain recognition sensors to feed data into the lander's computer, which can autonomously guide the spacecraft to a flat landing zone clear of boulders, craters and steep inclines. That's a first for an unmanned mission, and all robotic landers up to now had to risk settling on to rock fields or other unwelcoming terrain, including NASA's Curiosity rover when it touched down on Mars.
The four-legged lander will hit the lunar surface at a speed of less than 8.5 mph, and each leg features a device similar to a shock absorber on a car to cushion the impact, according to a paper published in Science China by members of the mission's development team.
Some time after landing, the probe will deploy a ramp for the Yutu rover to drive on to the lunar surface to begin its exploration mission.
The rover has a mass of 140 kilograms, or about 308 pounds, and carries radioisotope heater units to keep the spacecraft warm during the two week-long lunar nights. The heaters are likely powered by small quantities of plutonium-238, the isotope of plutonium preferred for space missions, according to respected space researcher Dwayne Day, who discussed the rover's heaters in a story published in the Space Review.
The Yutu rover carries advanced radars to study the structure of the lunar crust at shallow depths along its path, and it is outfitted with spectrometers to detect the elements making up the moon's soil and rocks, said Pei Zhaoyu, a spokesperson for the Chang'e 3 mission, in a report by Xinhua.
Four navigation and panoramic cameras are mounted on the rover to return high-resolution images from the moon.
The mission also has an optical telescope for astronomical observations from the lunar surface, according to Pei.
China's lunar program is focused on robotic missions for now, with plans for an unmanned mission to return rock samples to Earth by 2020. China's military-run human space program is focused on development of a space station in Earth orbit around the same timeframe, but scientists have studied a manned lunar mission in the next decade.
Chang'e 3 will be China's first mission to test the technologies required for future lunar exploration.
China has installed new deep space tracking antennas comparable to the "world standard" and developed advanced autonomous guidance, navigation and control systems for Chang'e 3, according to Wu Zhijian, a spokesperson for China's State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence, or SASTIND, which is managing the mission.
The European Space Agency is also contributing tracking and communications support to the Chang'e 3 mission.
China launches Chang'e-3 lunar lander
William Harwood – CBS News
A powerful Long March 3B rocket boosted China's first lunar lander into space Sunday, an unmanned mothership that will descend to the surface in mid December and deploy a rover named Yutu, or "Jade Rabbit," for independent scientific observations.
Following a step-by-step approach that builds on lessons learned from earlier missions, the Chang'e-3 spacecraft follows two earlier Chinese lunar orbiters that helped engineers perfect the technology needed for more ambitious missions while mapping the moon's surface and collecting the data needed to identify favorable landing sites.
Chang'e-3, named after a mythical Chinese goddess in a national poll, represents China's first attempt to land on another extraterrestrial body and the first moon lander since the former Soviet Union's Luna 24 sample return mission in 1976.
The launching was carried live on Chinese television and right on time, at 12:30 p.m. EST (GMT-5; 1:30 a.m. Monday local time), the 183-foot-tall Long March roared to life and vaulted away from its pad at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, lighting up the sky with a rush of flame from four strap-on boosters.
The climb to space appeared to go smoothly and after a brief coast in a so-called parking orbit, the Long March 3B's third stage engine re-ignited to boost the Chang'e-3 spacecraft onto the planned trajectory to the moon.
A few moments later, live television shots from a camera mounted on the booster's third stage showed the moon probe moving away on its own, followed by an on-board rocket firing. About 50 minutes after liftoff, the spacecraft's solar arrays deployed to successfully complete the launch phase.
Zhang Zhenzhong, director of the Chinese space center, declared the launching "a complete success."
"On behalf the Xichang Satellite Launch Center ... I would like to extend my gratitude to all those who have been part of this project," he said in translated remarks broadcast live on CCTV.
He said the Chang'e-3 probe "is a symbol of China's national power and prowess," and urged his colleagues to "work together ... to make more effort in space exploration and realize Chinese dream."
According to Chinese news accounts, the flight plan for Chang'e-3 called for a five-day voyage to the moon before braking into an initial 62-mile-high orbit. Four days after arriving, the spacecraft will move into an elliptical orbit and four days after that, it will descend to an altitude of just 9.3 miles above the lunar surface.
From there, the Chang'e-3 spacecraft will descend to the surface using a variable-thrust engine, sophisticated sensors and a flight computer capable of detecting and avoiding obstacles.
The lander is equipped with a radioisotope thermoelectric generator, using the heat produced by the decay of radioactive plutonium 238 to generate electricity. Such nuclear generators have been used in a variety of U.S. and Russian spacecraft, but this is the first use of an RTG aboard a Chinese space probe.
The nuclear generator will be used to keep the lander's systems warm during the cold lunar nights while the spacecraft's solar panels provide additional power during daylight.
Once safely on the moon, Chang'e-3 will deploy two articulating ramps needed by the rover, mounted atop the lander, to get down to the ground.
The 265-pound Yutu rover, named after the pet rabbit of the goddess Chang'e, is a solar-powered six-wheeled mobile research station reminiscent of NASA's Mars rovers. The Chinese rover is equipped with a variety of instruments, including a ground-penetrating radar to study the lunar soil and sub-surface geology along its path.
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