Keep the shuttle flying: April 2013

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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: April 30, 2013 6:14:16 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - April 30, 2013 and JSC Today

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

Just saw an text message alert from Center Ops yesterday saying Building 4 North would be closed again all day today due to a Sprinkler system flood….must be a mess!

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1.            April's Edition of 'The Greener Side' -- Now Available
2.            Become a Leader Whisperer at the May JSC NMA Chapter Luncheon
3.            This Week at Starport
4.            Sodexo Satisfaction Survey
5.            April Massage Special Ending -- $55 for 60 -- Monday Through Thursday
6.            HAS Program Needs Mentors and Student Mentors for the Summer
7.            Project Management Forum
8.            FedTraveler Live Lab Tomorrow, May 1
9.            The JSC Safety and Health Action Team (JSAT) Says ...
10.          RLLS Interpretation, Flight Arrival Departure and Translation WebEx Training
11.          Payload Safety Review and Analysis: July 9 to 12 - Building 20, Room 205/206
________________________________________     NASA FACT
" NASA's Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) test bed has begun experiments after completing its checkout on the International Space Station. The SCaN test bed is an advanced, integrated communications laboratory facility that uses a new generation of software-defined radio technology to allow researchers to develop, test and demonstrate advanced communications, networking and navigation technologies in space."
________________________________________
1.            April's Edition of 'The Greener Side' -- Now Available
April's edition of the JSC Environmental Office newsletter, The Greener Side, is now available on the JSC Environmental Office website. Learn about the benefits of green roofs and how beautiful features can be useful too. Are you curious to know how JSC's recycling efforts are going? The Greener Side has the scoop and more!
JSC Environmental Office x36207 http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/bbs/scripts/files/367/GreenerSide%20v6n2%20%280...

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2.            Become a Leader Whisperer at the May JSC NMA Chapter Luncheon
You still have a little more than a day left to RSVP, so do it while you can!
Please join us for an enlightening May JSC National Management Association (NMA) chapter luncheon presentation with Natalie Saiz, director, JSC Human Resources, as she speaks about "Dealing with the Human Element of Leadership."
When: Tuesday, May 7
Time: 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Location: Gilruth Alamo Ballroom
o             Cost for members: $0
o             Cost for non-members: $20
There are three great menu options to choose from:
3.            Turkey Scaloppine and Bruschetta Topping
4.            Flounder Piccata
5.            Cheese Manicotti with Two Sauces
Desserts: Carrot cake and double chocolate mousse cake
Please RSVP here by close of business tomorrow, May 1, with your menu selection. For RSVP technical assistance, please contact Amy Kitchen via email or at x35569.
Catherine Williams x33317 http://www.jscnma.com/Events

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3.            This Week at Starport
Masquerade Jewelry will be out on May 23 to showcase $5 jewelry! Stop by Building 3 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and experience the frenzy of $5 jewelry and accessories. Cash, checks and credit cards accepted.
Discount tickets to the Houston Dynamo versus Sporting Kansas City game on May 12 are on sale for $20. Visit our website to order your tickets!
The JSC Federal Credit Union will be in the Starport Cafés tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Stop to chat with representatives about your membership needs.
Sam's Club will be in the Building 3 Starport Café Thursday from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. to discuss membership options. Receive a gift card on new memberships or renewals. Cash or check only for membership purchases.
Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/

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4.            Sodexo Satisfaction Survey
Sodexo Federal Services is committed to exceeding your expectations while working to continually improve your experience.
Our annual survey helps us to understand how we are performing. We value this input and use this feedback to ensure we are bringing the highest level of service to you.
This survey should take no more than seven to 10 minutes to complete. Please complete the questionnaire online by visiting the Starport website and clicking the link to the "Sodexo Customer Satisfaction Survey."
The survey will be available now through May 8. You will receive a confirmation upon completion.
Your feedback is extremely important to us. Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts.
Danial Hornbuckle x30240 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/

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5.            April Massage Special Ending -- $55 for 60 -- Monday Through Thursday
Starport's amazing massage special is ending at midnight tonight! Any one-hour massage booked online in April will be $55 when scheduled on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.
Starport Massage - $55 for 60 | Monday through Thursday
o             $55 for a 60-minute massage
o             Must be booked between Monday through Thursday
o             Must be booked online by the end of the day TODAY
o             Massage must be physically scheduled between April 30 and Aug. 30
Starport's Massage Therapists
Marj Moore, LMT
o             Tuesdays and Thursdays | 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
o             Every other Saturday | 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
o             Click here to book with Marj
Anette Lemon, LMT
o             Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays | 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
o             Every other Saturday | 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
o             Click here to book with Anette
Book your massage today!
Starport Massage x30304 http://www.innerspaceclearlake.com/massage.php

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6.            HAS Program Needs Mentors and Student Mentors for the Summer
High School Aerospace Scholars (HAS) is in full swing and looking for mentors and student mentors for this summer.
Being a mentor includes:
o             Working with outstanding high school students from across Texas
o             The opportunity to represent your division in education outreach without leaving JSC
o             Inspiring the next generation as only NASA can
o             Using your leadership skills to help students build a realistic human mission to Mars
Mentors are needed the following weeks:
o             June 9 to 14
o             June 16 to 21
o             July 14 to 19
o             July 21 to 26
o             July 28 to Aug. 2
The mentor application can be found online.
The deadline to apply: May 1
Stacey Welch 281-792-8100 http://has.aerospacescholars.org/

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7.            Project Management Forum
The Project Management Forum will be held on Wednesday, May 1, in Building 1, Room 966, from noon to 1 p.m. At this forum, Gail Chapline will give an out brief on the results from the failure investigation on the mishap concerning the Active Response Gravity Offload System. In addition, come meet the new Director of Engineering, Lauri Hansen, as she introduces herself and tells you about where the Engineering Directorate is going. All civil servant and contractor project managers are invited to attend. Please feel free to bring your lunch; dessert will be provided.
The purpose of the Project Management Forum is to provide an opportunity for our project managers to freely discuss issues, best practices, lessons learned, tools and opportunities, as well as to collaborate with other project managers.
Event Date: Wednesday, May 1, 2013   Event Start Time:12:00 PM   Event End Time:1:00 PM
Event Location: Building 1, Room 966

Add to Calendar

Danielle Bessard x37238 https://oasis.jsc.nasa.gov/sysapp/athena/Athena%20Team/SitePages/Home.aspx

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8.            FedTraveler Live Lab Tomorrow, May 1
Do you need some hands-on, personal help with FedTraveler.com? Join the Business Systems and Process Improvement Office for a FedTraveler Live Lab tomorrow, May 1, any time between 9 a.m. and noon in Building 12, Room 142. Our help desk representatives will be available to help you work through travel processes and learn more about using FedTraveler during this informal workshop. Bring your current travel documents or specific questions that you have about the system and join us for some hands-on, in-person help with the FedTraveler. If you'd like to sign up for this FedTraveler Live Lab, please log into SATERN and register. For additional information, please contact Brenda Davis at x32773. To register in SATERN, please click on this SATERN direct link: https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...
Gina Clenney x39851

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9.            The JSC Safety and Health Action Team (JSAT) Says ...
"Accident prevention demands your attention."
Congratulations to May 2013 "JSAT Says ..." winner Jeremias Serna, Chenega Security and Support Solutions. Any JSAT member (all JSC contractor and civil servant employees) may submit a slogan for consideration to JSAT Secretary Reese Squires. Submissions for June are due by Friday, May 10. Keep those great submissions coming -- you may be the next "JSAT Says ..." winner!
Reese Squires x37776 http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/ja/apps/news/newsfiles/3270.pptx

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10.          RLLS Interpretation, Flight Arrival Departure and Translation WebEx Training
TechTrans International will provide 30-minute WebEx training May 1, 2 and 3 for RLLS portal modules. The following is a summary of the training dates:
Interpretation Support - May 1 at 10 a.m. CDT
Flight Arrival Departure - May 2 at 2 p.m. CDT
Translation Support - May 3 at 10 a.m. CDT
o             Locating desired support request module
o             Quick view summary page for support request
o             Create new support request
o             Submittal requirements
o             Submitting on behalf of another individual
o             Adding attachment (agenda, references)
o             Selecting special requirements (export control)
o             Submitting a request
o             Status of request records
o             View request records
o             Contacting RLLS support
Please send an email to James.E.Welty@nasa.gov or call 281-335-8565 to sign up for RLLS Support WebEx training courses. Classes are limited to the first 20 individuals registered.
James Welty 281-335-8565 https://www.tti-portal.com

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11.          Payload Safety Review and Analysis: July 9 to 12 - Building 20, Room 205/206
Class is 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. This course is designed as a guide to payload safety review for payload program safety and management personnel. The student will gain an understanding of payload safety as it relates to the overall payload integration process, how the payload safety review process works and the roles and responsibilities of the various players in the payload safety review process. In addition, the student will be instructed in the hands-on fundamentals of payload hazard analysis, hazard documentation and presentation of analyses to the Payload Safety Review Panel. The course will include a mock presentation to the Payload Safety Review Panel. Those with only support or supervisory responsibilities in payload safety should attend course SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0016, Payload Safety Process and Requirements. SATERN registration required. Contractors, note: Please update your SATERN profile with a current email, phone, supervisor and NASA org code your contract supports prior to registering. https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...
Polly Caison x41279

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

NASA TV:
·         9 am Central (10 EDT) – Video file of Expedition 36/37 Qual Training Sim Runs at Star City
·         11:30 am Central (12:30 pm EDT) – E35 CDR Chris Hadfield with…
ü Canadian Minister of Finance James Flaherty
ü Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney
ü Chairman of Board of VIA Rail Canada Paul Smith

Human Spaceflight News
Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Monday over Mojave: Virgin Galactic's historic first supersonic test flight of SpaceShipTwo

HEADLINES AND LEADS

NASA testing America's newest space capsule at Yuma Proving Grounds

Tim Lavigne - KSWT TV (Yuma)

NASA officials are in Yuma to test America's newest spacecraft. The spacecraft is called 'Orion' and it is the first capsule designed to fly astronauts to space since the Apollo era. The capsule will be dropped high above the Yuma Sky on Wednesday to test its parachutes. NASA plans to launch Orion next year in September. But before they do, there's a lot of testing that needs to be done.

ATK solid rocket boosters complete Space Launch System milestone

Lee Roop - Huntsville Times

ATK says its solid rocket booster design has successfully completed a milestone Preliminary Design Review (PDR) with NASA for the new Space Launch System. That means the boosters are on track for use in the first SLS flight in 2017. Two five-segment ATK solid-fuel boosters will supplement liquid-fuel space shuttle main engines to lift the new heavy-lift SLS rocket off the launch pad on its first two flights.

ATK reaches major milestone with SLS rocket boosters

Zach Rosenberg - FlightInternational.com

ATK has reached preliminary design review (PDR) on the solid rocket boosters intended to help launch the Space Launch System (SLS). The solid rocket boosters, direct descendents of those used to power the now-retired Space Shuttle, will be used to get SLS through the thickest part of the atmosphere before detaching. Though not always employed, they are planned for use with some of the heaviest loads.

Houston we have a solution

Delwyn Dickey - North Shore Times (New Zealand)

Printing parts for the wheel of a Mars rover vehicle with a 3D printer has won a group of North Shore Auckland University of Technology's (AUT) students a place in an international space competition. Students Shaun van Riel from Milford and Dan Maayan of Northcote were in the team that designed a moon or Mars rover wheel that could be printed off in pieces and then assembled off-planet. With a future base on Mars or elsewhere in space starting to look more a reality, the cost and time to replace parts and other items would be an issue. It takes months for a part to be sent to the International Space Station (ISS) from Earth, so sending an electronic file which could see some replacement parts whipped up on board by a 3D printer would be more than just handy. These printers build up objects by laying down fine layers of melted plastic to make three dimensional objects. Useful on the space station, they could also be critical for distant mining or space bases, settler colonies or for repairs on board a moving space craft.

Astronaut Finds 'Bullet Hole' in ISS Solar Panel

RIA Novosti

A small object, possibly a meteoroid, has flown through a solar panel on the International Space Station, leaving a "bullet hole," Canadian astronaut and Expedition 35 commander Chris Hadfield has said. "Bullet hole - a small stone from the universe went through our solar array. Glad it missed the hull," Hadfield wrote in his Twitter blog, revealing a photo of the damage he took during a recent EVA or "space walk" around the ISS. However, experts believe the hole was probably caused by a random object, possibly space junk, which would not have been able to penetrate the layers of the station's hull. Jim Scotti, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, said: "It's unlikely this was caused by a meteor, more likely a piece of man-made space debris in low Earth orbit." (NO FURTHER TEXT)

Human mission to Mars is no longer just a sci-fi dream

Marc Kaufman - Washington Post

The notion of landing astronauts on Mars has long been more fantasy than reality: The planet is, on average, 140 million miles from Earth, and its atmosphere isn't hospitable to human life. But a human voyage to the planet is now, for the first time, within the realm of possibility, according to space advocates inside and outside government. As a result, plans for a mission around the planet, and ultimately for lengthier stays, have been sprouting like springtime flowers. The new momentum, some space experts say, comes from the successful landing of the large rover Curiosity in a Martian crater last year, the growing eagerness of space entrepreneurs to mount and fund missions to Mars and encouraging new data about the radiation risks of such an expedition.

Video B-Roll
Virgin Galactic Powered Flight

YouTube

Virgin Galactic, the world's first commercial spaceline owned by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group and Abu Dhabi's aabar Investments PJS, completed the first rocket-powered flight of its space vehicle, SpaceShipTwo (SS2). The test, conducted by teams from Scaled Composites (Scaled) and Virgin Galactic, officially marks Virgin Galactic's entrance into the final phase of vehicle testing prior to commercial service from Spaceport America in New Mexico.
(NO FURTHER TEXT)

Virgin Galactic Reaches Milestone In Space Tourism Industry

Wendy Kaufman - National Public Radio

Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson's space tourism venture, cleared a big hurdle Monday with its first powered test flight. Virgin Galactic plans to start taking "space tourists" for rides early next year. A ticket is expected to cost $200,000. (NO FURTHER TEXT)

Virgin Galactic spaceship makes 1st powered flight

Raquel Maria Dillon - Associated Press

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo made its first powered flight Monday, breaking the sound barrier in a test over the Mojave Desert that moves the company closer to its goal of flying paying passengers on brief hops into space. "It couldn't have gone more smoothly," said Sir Richard Branson, who owns the spaceline with Aabar Investments PJC of Abu Dhabi. A special twin-fuselage jet carrying SpaceShipTwo took off at about 7:00 a.m. PDT, spent 45 minutes climbing to an altitude of 48,000 feet and released the spaceship. Pilot Mark Stucky and co-pilot Mike Alsbury then triggered SpaceShipTwo's rocket engine.

Virgin's passenger spaceship completes first rocket test flight

Irene Klotz - Reuters

A six-passenger spaceship owned by an offshoot of Virgin Group fired its rocket engine in flight for the first time on Monday, a key step toward the start of commercial service in about a year, Virgin owner Richard Branson said. The powered test flight over California's Mojave Desert lasted 16 seconds and broke the sound barrier. "It was stunning," Branson told Reuters. "You could see it very, very clearly. Putting the rocket and the spaceship together and seeing it perform safely, it was a critical day."

Privately Financed Spaceship Roars Closer to Space

Kenneth Chang - New York Times

For the more than 500 space tourists who have signed up for a trip on Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, Monday was a milestone: the day the spaceship that will be carrying them aloft made its first powered flight and broke the sound barrier for its first time. "We will be going to space at the end of this year," Mr. Branson said in a telephone interview after the test flight over Mojave, Calif. Or, he added, possibly in the first quarter of next year. He and his children are to be passengers on that first flight. Mr. Branson founded Virgin Galactic eight and a half years ago, capitalizing on the success of the first privately financed spacecraft, SpaceShipOne, to carry people above an altitude of 62 miles, considered the edge of outer space. SpaceShipOne had only two seats, and, in its flights, carried only the pilot. Mr. Branson hired Burt Rutan, SpaceShipOne's designer, and Mr. Rutan's company, Scaled Composites, to build a larger version called SpaceShipTwo with seats for six passengers, each of whom would pay $200,000 to reach space. He predicted that commercial flights would begin in 2007. (NO FURTHER TEXT)

Virgin Galactic Spacecraft Tests Rocket in Flight

Andy Pasztor - Wall Street Journal

After years of delays and nagging engine problems, Richard Branson's space-tourism venture cleared an important hurdle Monday with the first powered test flight of its SpaceShipTwo craft. Though it lasted only about 16 seconds, the early-morning flight was described as a success and marked a milestone for Virgin Galactic LLC, the high-profile space-tourism company that aims to start commercial operations late this year or early 2014. If future testing goes well and "if my wife allows," Mr. Branson joked after watching the test flight, he and his two children plan to be among the first six voyagers to ride the maiden flight of SpaceShipTwo to the edge of space. The trip would send passengers about 60 miles above the Earth's surface, at a maximum speed of about 2,500 miles per hour.

Supersonic flight brings Virgin Galactic closer to space tourism

W.J. Hennigan - Los Angeles Times

With a sonic boom that resounded above the Mojave Desert, a rocket plane belonging to British billionaire Richard Branson's commercial space venture Virgin Galactic got one step closer to carrying tourists into space. On Monday the company's SpaceShipTwo ignited its rocket motor in mid-flight for the first time and sped to Mach 1.2, faster than sound, reaching about 56,000 feet in altitude. The test flight is the biggest milestone in Virgin Galactic's 8 1/2-year endeavor to be the world's first commercial space liner, which would make several trips a day carrying scores of paying customers into space for a brief journey.

Virgin Galactic rockets past milestone in SpaceShipTwo test flight

James Dean - Florida Today

A supersonic test flight Monday brought Virgin Galactic a step closer to making space tourism a reality. The company's SpaceShipTwo fired its rocket engine for the first time during flight, a 16-second burn above the Mojave Air and Space Port in California that accelerated the ship and its two test pilots past the speed of sound. "We saw history in the making today, and I couldn't be more proud of everyone involved," company founder Sir Richard Branson said in a statement.

SpaceShipTwo's first rocket flight breaks sound barrier

Stephen Clark - SpaceflightNow.com

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo rocket plane lit its engine for the first time in flight Monday, powering through the speed of sound and moving a step closer to spaceflight for the masses. The spaceship fired its hybrid rocket engine for about 16 seconds after dropping from the belly of its WhiteKnightTwo carrier plane, long enough to accelerate past the sound barrier and release a stream of exhaust visible from the ground, delighting throngs of spectators near the test site in Mojave, Calif. Triggered by pilots at the controls of SpaceShipTwo, the rocket firing occurred at about 7:50 a.m. local time (10:50 a.m. EDT; 1450 GMT), about 45 minutes after the mothership and SpaceShipTwo took off from Mojave Air and Space Port.

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo makes history with 1st rocket-powered flight

Clara Moskowitz - Space.com

A private spaceship designed to carry space tourists made its first rocket-powered test flight Monday, reaching supersonic speeds as it paved the way toward commercial flights in the near future. Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo space plane fired its rocket engines for the first time during flight this morning in a test from California's Mojave Air and Spaceport. The vehicle was carried aloft by the mothership WhiteKnightTwo, and then released in midair at an altitude of about 46,000 feet (14,000 meters). At that point, SpaceShipTwo test fired its rocket engine, designed to propel the craft of the rest of the way up to space.

Virgin Galactic
Flame on

Charles Babbage - The Economist

News from the fledgling private space business is coming thick and fast. A few days ago the Antares rocket built by Orbital Sciences Corporation made a successful maiden flight, paving the way for Orbital to provide some competition for SpaceX when it comes to delivering cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). Then, on April 29th, Virgin Galactic, the private space firm with the slickest PR (its name notwithstanding, the firm does not even plan to fly into orbit), conducted a successful, in-flight test-firing of the rocket motor aboard its SpaceShipTwo craft.

Virgin Galactic's Big SpaceShipTwo Rocket Test: Reactions & Celebrations

Tariq Malik - Space.com

The private spaceflight company Virgin Galactic performed a landmark test flight of its SpaceShipTwo space plane Monday, lighting up the craft's rocket motor in flight for the first time. The powered flight test, the first for SpaceShipTwo after a series of captive carry and drop tests, marked a turning point for Virgin Galactic. The company is planning to launch its first suborbital SpaceShipTwo flights by the end of this year, and begin passenger flights in 2014.

Lockheed wins $166.8M NASA contract extension
Agreement brings contract value to $1B for mission control support

Nick Wakeman - Washington Technology

Lockheed Martin has won a $166.8 million contract option for work with NASA on mission control systems and other support work for manned spaceflight missions. The option brings the value of the Facilities Development and Operations Contract to $1 billion and extends the contract through Sept. 30, 2014, NASA said. Lockheed's support includes hardware, software, data and display systems used for training and to executive manned spaceflight missions out of the Johnson Space Center in Houston. The company is doing the work for the Mission Operations Directorate at the center.

Science Seat: Living in space for 159 days

Nana Karikari-apau – CNN

Editor's note: The Science Seat is a feature in which CNN Light Years sits down with movers and shakers from different areas of scientific exploration. This is the ninth installment. NASA astronaut Catherine "Cady" Coleman has logged more than 4,330 hours in space aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia and the International Space Station. Coleman was a flight engineer on a Russian Soyuz rocket that took her to the space station in December 2010, and came back to Earth in May 2011, having spent 159 days in space. CNN followed her on this journey - called Expedition 26/27 - to get ready for the expedition, and showed segments every month of what life was like for her and her family in the year before the launch. This month, CNN Light Years caught up with Coleman to reflect on her spaceflight experiences. Here is an edited transcript…

Space shuttle Enterprise's new home taking shape at NYC's Intrepid

Robert Pearlman – collectSPACE.com

Space shuttle Enterprise, NASA's test orbiter that first arrived in New York City one year ago this month, is soon to have a new home. As aerial photographs taken on Friday show, the construction of a new exhibition pavilion is taking shape above and around and prototype space shuttle on board the flight deck of the Intrepid, Sea, Air & Space Museum, a converted World War II aircraft carrier that is docked on the west side of Manhattan.

X-15 Rocket Plane & Crew Had the Right Stuff

Michelle Evans - Space.com (Opinion)

(Evans is the president of Mach 25 Media and author of "The X-15 Rocket Plane: Flying the First Wings into Space.")

From the Wright brothers to the last flight of the X-15 was a steady progression, moving the barriers back on the unknown. Designed in the mid-1950s, the North American Aviation X-15 was tasked to take pilots into the realm of hypersonic flight, exposing the aircraft to speeds and altitudes Orville and Wilbur could never have imagined. The slick, black stiletto eventually took eight of its 12 pilots into suborbital space and achieved velocities in excess of Mach 6. Much of what was learned during the program's 199 flights was passed on to the space shuttle. When starting research for "The X-15 Rocket Plane," I quickly realized I was not the only one who truly loved this amazing vehicle.
__________

COMPLETE STORIES

NASA testing America's newest space capsule at Yuma Proving Grounds

Tim Lavigne - KSWT TV (Yuma)

NASA officials are in Yuma to test America's newest spacecraft.

The spacecraft is called 'Orion' and it is the first capsule designed to fly astronauts to space since the Apollo era.

The capsule will be dropped high above the Yuma Sky on Wednesday to test its parachutes.

NASA plans to launch Orion next year in September. But before they do, there's a lot of testing that needs to be done.

NASA officials are here at the Yuma Proving Grounds to test the spacecraft's parachutes to figure out how to slow it down from 22,000 miles per hour to a safe landing speed of 22 miles per hour.

Officials plan to load the 32,000 pound capsule onto an Air Force C-17 plane that will take it up and drop it from 25,000 feet.

If the test if successful, it will mark another step towards rating the parachutes for manned re-entry into our atmosphere.

Roy Fox, owner of Fox Parachute Services was able to give us a little more insight on how these new parachutes will help keep our astronauts safe on their trip home.

"A skydiver uses something called a ram air wing," explained Fox. "Each time you apply a parachute to a particular set of circumstances, there are a lot of unknowns."

NASA will test Orion's parachutes on Wednesday. The capsule will land within a landing zone at Yuma Proving Ground.

The testing is closed to the public. NASA would not say what time the test landing will take place.

ATK solid rocket boosters complete Space Launch System milestone

Lee Roop - Huntsville Times

ATK says its solid rocket booster design has successfully completed a milestone Preliminary Design Review (PDR) with NASA for the new Space Launch System. That means the boosters are on track for use in the first SLS flight in 2017.

Two five-segment ATK solid-fuel boosters will supplement liquid-fuel space shuttle main engines to lift the new heavy-lift SLS rocket off the launch pad on its first two flights.

After that, NASA will shift to a design that could include solid boosters or other possibilities being tested. The ATK booster design will now proceed to the next milestone -- Critical Design Review -- and to a ground-firing of a qualification motor later this year.

The bottom line of Monday's announcement is that ATK is moving through the detailed development process and there are no signs so far that the boosters will not be ready when the the rocket is ready to use them.

NASA is developing the new heavy-lift rocket in Huntsville, Alabama, and operating on a tight deadline and budget that needs continued milestone success to secure congressional funding support.

ATK reaches major milestone with SLS rocket boosters

Zach Rosenberg - FlightInternational.com

ATK has reached preliminary design review (PDR) on the solid rocket boosters intended to help launch the Space Launch System (SLS).

The solid rocket boosters, direct descendents of those used to power the now-retired Space Shuttle, will be used to get SLS through the thickest part of the atmosphere before detaching. Though not always employed, they are planned for use with some of the heaviest loads.

Though they will be used for the SLS's 2017 first flight, they will be replaced by an as-yet unselected advanced booster by the second flight in 2021. ATK is among the competitors for the advanced booster with a new solid rocket booster, as are Aerojet and Rocketdyne with liquid-fueled designs.

"With the successful completion of PDR, the SLS booster design can now proceed with the associated activities required to advance the design toward critical design review (CDR)," says the company. "Additionally, a ground static firing of qualification motor-1 is planned for later this year at ATK."

SLS is intended to launch Lockheed's Orion crew capsule on interplanetary missions.

Houston we have a solution

Delwyn Dickey - North Shore Times (New Zealand)

Printing parts for the wheel of a Mars rover vehicle with a 3D printer has won a group of North Shore Auckland University of Technology's (AUT) students a place in an international space competition.

Students Shaun van Riel from Milford and Dan Maayan of Northcote were in the team that designed a moon or Mars rover wheel that could be printed off in pieces and then assembled off-planet.

With a future base on Mars or elsewhere in space starting to look more a reality, the cost and time to replace parts and other items would be an issue.

It takes months for a part to be sent to the International Space Station (ISS) from Earth, so sending an electronic file which could see some replacement parts whipped up on board by a 3D printer would be more than just handy.

These printers build up objects by laying down fine layers of melted plastic to make three dimensional objects. Useful on the space station, they could also be critical for distant mining or space bases, settler colonies or for repairs on board a moving space craft.

The team was one of four from New Zealand taking part in a weekend NASA International Space Apps Challenge featuring teams from 80 cities around the world.

The United States McMurdo research station in Antarctica and the ISS were also involved. Hunkered down at AUT's Auckland campus, an intense weekend for competitors followed with some sleeping on site, and plenty of strong coffee on tap.

This is only the second time the techie brainstorming event has been held, and the first time New Zealand has been involved.

Internationally, competitors number 8000, well up on 2000 last year.

The New Zealand challenge is jointly sponsored by the US Embassy and AUT University, home of the Institute for Radio Astronomy and Space Research.

The Institute's radio telescopes at Warkworth have aleady tracked spacecraft around Mars, and have a contract with private company Space-X to track its Dragon spacecraft as it supplies the ISS.

Not all of the 83 challenges on offer are space orientated.

One this year asked students to come up with a backyard poultry system.

The winning app which also goes through to the final round of the international competition allowed people using their mobile phone to take photos of the ISS, which is visible from the ground, and share them with other app users around the world.

Along with the state of the weather for viewing, they could upload their images on to Google Maps, which would track app users' locations and their images of the ISS as it orbits the Earth.

Designing a deployable greenhouse for use on Mars, able to handle freezing minus 89 degree temperatures while bombarded by high radiation and being punctured by micrometeorites, was another Auckland team challenge.

Designing an app that could show how people were coping emotionally during an education programme was the final Auckland project.

The judges were the US Ambassador David Huebner; New Zealand ICT Group chief executive officer Candace Kinser; and Microsoft New Zealand Tertiary Education Sector manager Matt Bostwick.

The winning projects will be judged with winners from other sites internationally by NASA in May.

Human mission to Mars is no longer just a sci-fi dream

Marc Kaufman - Washington Post

The notion of landing astronauts on Mars has long been more fantasy than reality: The planet is, on average, 140 million miles from Earth, and its atmosphere isn't hospitable to human life.

But a human voyage to the planet is now, for the first time, within the realm of possibility, according to space advocates inside and outside government. As a result, plans for a mission around the planet, and ultimately for lengthier stays, have been sprouting like springtime flowers.

The new momentum, some space experts say, comes from the successful landing of the large rover Curiosity in a Martian crater last year, the growing eagerness of space entrepreneurs to mount and fund missions to Mars and encouraging new data about the radiation risks of such an expedition.

NASA says it hopes to land astronauts on the planet within the next two decades, and the agency is developing a heavy-lift rocket and a new space capsule to achieve this goal. It has even established an optimal time frame for this event — in the early 2030s, when the very different orbits of the two planets brings them closest to each other.

The challenges of space technology — including how to keep astronauts alive en route and on the planet — as well as government support and funding remain daunting, but the goal of landing humans on Mars is seeming less and less like a pipe dream.

"A human mission to Mars is a priority, and our entire exploration program is aligned to support this goal," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

NASA has "overcome the technical challenges of landing and operating spacecraft on Mars" robotically, Bolden said. "We're developing today the technologies needed to send humans to Mars in the 2030s."

'Human destiny'

With both the promise and the obstacles in mind, Bolden and other top NASA planners, rocket developers and scientists, as well as leaders from the commercial space industry and organizations and agencies abroad will meet Monday at a conference at George Washington University. Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon in 1969, will be a keynote speaker at the three-day gathering. He has just written a book that he refers to as a manifesto laying out the reasons humans can and should set their sights on not only landing on Mars but also setting up a permanent settlement there.

It is "human destiny" to explore space and settle on other planets, he writes in "Mission to Mars," which is being released this week. He has his own step-by-step plans on how to accomplish a Mars campaign, but he makes room for others as well.

"Our world isn't just Earth anymore, and we need to get much more serious about that," Aldrin said in an interview, adding that the leaders who take us to Mars and the pioneers who inhabit it "will go down in human history as heroes and be honored for thousands and thousands of years."

A Plymouth or Jamestown colony on Mars is by all accounts a distant goal, but the timetable for sending humans there for a quick orbit and return to Earth, or even a landing on one of its moons, could be considerably faster.

Investment adviser Dennis Tito, who paid $20 million to go to the international space station in 2001, recently announced plans to send two astronauts to Mars for a 2018 flyby; a Dutch group called Mars One is raising funds for a landing in the 2020s. Elon Musk of the rocket and capsule company SpaceX says he will unveil his company's Mars exploration plans in the months ahead.

Unlike the others, Musk has a significant spaceflight track record. His Dragon spacecraft has docked three times at the international space station during NASA-funded cargo runs.

Musk got into the space business with the ambition of sending many people to Mars. The first of these missions is "further off than I would like," he said, "but far closer than many expect."

The successful landing of Curiosity — at one ton, by far the largest vehicle ever flown to Mars — is put forward as one reason a human mission is increasingly conceivable. There's still a long way to go in terms of landing technology, said Michael Gazarik, associate administrator of the NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, because a Mars descent with humans would require a capsule weighing something like 40 tons. Nonetheless, Gazarik said the technology is being developed, and having a Mars lander by the 2030s is "plausible."

Another reason is that the health risks associated with radiation in space and on Mars appear to be somewhat lower than previously believed.

The problem of radiation

Radiation measurements made by an instrument on Curiosity have found high — but not prohibitively high — levels of high-energy cosmic and solar rays both en route to Mars and on the surface of the planet. Extensive shielding of astronauts would be needed, scientists have found, but the risk of later illness due to radiation would not be significantly higher going to Mars than after a long-term stay on the space station, according to Bent Ehresmann, a member of the Curiosity radiation monitoring team.

Long-term isolation is also a significant issue, and astronauts will be staying longer at the international space station in the years ahead to study that concern. And, of course, NASA will have to design spacesuits that can withstand the bitter cold of Mars as well as its thin atmosphere, made up largely of carbon dioxide.

The biggest impediment, though, may be money. President Obama has challenged NASA to send astronauts to Mars in the 2030s, but NASA's budget is now a small fraction of what it was in the years after President John F. Kennedy set a precise timetable for landing on the moon. The agency gets less than 0.5 percent of the federal budget; at the peak of the Apollo program, it was 4 percent. Also, Obama will have left office long before the big decisions about a 2030s mission are made, and his successors might have different priorities.

The funding problem is one reason private companies and space agencies from other nations are expected to play a significant role in any human mission to Mars.

But NASA remains the indispensable player or partner for any human landing on the surface.

John Grunsfeld, NASA's director of the Science Mission Directorate, said that sending humans to Mars would be the ultimate expression of the agency's long-term goal of more intimately combining exploration and science. Having flown on the space shuttle to the Hubble Space Telescope three times to fix and upgrade it, Grunsfeld has firsthand experience with the capabilities that only astronauts can bring.

The same would be true on Mars, he said. "In a matter of a week, astronauts could probably complete the entire [two-year] Curiosity mission."

The upcoming Mars conference — co-sponsored by the nonprofit group Explore Mars and the GWU's Space Policy Institute — is designed to examine the feasibility and rationale for a human mission to Mars and to highlight the public's seeming embrace of the idea.

A recent poll commissioned by Explore Mars and Boeing questioned 1,101 people about sending humans to Mars; the public's views were overwhelmingly positive.

About 75 percent of respondents either "agreed "or "strongly agreed" with the statement that it was worthwhile to increase NASA funding to 1 percent of the federal budget (in other words, to double NASA's share) in order to fund a mission to Mars. More than 84 percent said that if the rover Curiosity found evidence of past or current life on Mars, NASA should send a human crew to try to verify the finding.

Nonetheless, getting past the question of why the United States should some day send astronauts to Mars won't be easy.

The country's support for the Apollo moon program was driven in significant part by the Cold War competition with the Soviet Union, and there are no similar rivals now. Some people are also wary of a human mission to Mars because of the inherent risk and others because they believe robotic missions can answer the important scientific questions at a much lower price.

But NASA has a unique connection with Mars: All seven of the vehicles that have landed on the planet and succeeded in their missions have been sent by the United States.

That will, no doubt, change in the decades ahead, however, as Europe, Russia, India and China expand their Mars programs, with landing a human team as the ultimate goal.

"It will be done, regardless of U.S. leadership," Aldrin said of an eventual manned Mars landing. "The real question is: How long does the exceptionalism of the United States last?"

Virgin Galactic spaceship makes 1st powered flight

Raquel Maria Dillon - Associated Press

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo made its first powered flight Monday, breaking the sound barrier in a test over the Mojave Desert that moves the company closer to its goal of flying paying passengers on brief hops into space.

"It couldn't have gone more smoothly," said Sir Richard Branson, who owns the spaceline with Aabar Investments PJC of Abu Dhabi.

A special twin-fuselage jet carrying SpaceShipTwo took off at about 7:00 a.m. PDT, spent 45 minutes climbing to an altitude of 48,000 feet and released the spaceship. Pilot Mark Stucky and co-pilot Mike Alsbury then triggered SpaceShipTwo's rocket engine.

The engine burned for 16 seconds, propelling the spaceship to an altitude of 55,000 feet and a velocity of Mach 1.2, surpassing the speed of sound. SpaceShipTwo then glided to a safe landing at Mojave Air and Space Port in the desert north of Los Angeles, said George Whitesides, Virgin Galactic's CEO.

The 10-minute test flight was considered a major step for the program.

"Having spaceship and rocket perform together in the air is a long way toward getting into space," said Branson, who watched from the ground. "A few more test flights with slightly bigger burns every time, and then we'll all be back here to watch it go into space."

Until Monday, SpaceShipTwo had only performed unpowered glide flights. Several powered flights are planned this summer, culminating with a dash into space targeted toward the end of the year.

SpaceShipTwo is a prototype commercial version of SpaceShipOne, which in 2004 became the first privately developed manned rocket to reach space. Since the historic flight, more than 500 aspiring space tourists have paid $200,000 or plunked down deposits, patiently waiting for a chance to float in weightlessness and view the Earth's curvature from 62 miles up.

Branson initially predicted commercial flights would begin in 2007, but a deadly explosion during ground testing and longer-than-expected test flights pushed the deadline back.

No date has been set for the first commercial flight from a custom-designed spaceport in New Mexico, but Virgin Galactic executives have said it will come after testing is complete and it secures approval from the government. Branson previously said the maiden passenger flight will carry his family.

SpaceShipTwo was built by Mojave-based aerospace research company Scaled Composites LLC, which was founded by cutting-edge aviation designer Burt Rutan. His SpaceShipOne, funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, made three suborbital flights into space - reaching altitudes of 62 miles (100 kilometers) or greater- and won the $10 million Ansari X Prize.

Virgin's passenger spaceship completes first rocket test flight

Irene Klotz - Reuters

A six-passenger spaceship owned by an offshoot of Virgin Group fired its rocket engine in flight for the first time on Monday, a key step toward the start of commercial service in about a year, Virgin owner Richard Branson said.

The powered test flight over California's Mojave Desert lasted 16 seconds and broke the sound barrier.

"It was stunning," Branson told Reuters. "You could see it very, very clearly. Putting the rocket and the spaceship together and seeing it perform safely, it was a critical day."

The spaceship and its carrier aircraft, WhiteKnightTwo, took off from the Mojave Air and Space Port at 7 a.m. PDT (10.00 a.m. EDT), heading to an altitude of about 46,000 feet, where SpaceShipTwo was released.

Two pilots then ignited the ship's rocket engine and climbed another 10,000 feet, reaching Mach 1.2 in the process. Additional test flights are planned before the spaceship will fly even faster, eventually reaching altitudes that exceed 62 miles.

"Going from Mach 1 to Mach 4 is relatively easy, but obviously we've still got to do it. I think that the big, difficult milestones are all behind us," Branson said.

Virgin Galactic is selling rides aboard SpaceShipTwo for $200,000 per person. More than 500 people have put down deposits.

Branson and his grown children plan to be the first non-test pilots to ride in the spacecraft, about a year from now.

SpaceShipTwo is based on a three-person prototype called SpaceShipOne, which in October 2004 clinched the $10 million Ansari X Prize for the first privately funded human spaceflights. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen bankrolled SpaceShipOne's development, estimated at $25 million.

So far, Virgin Galactic and partner Aabar Investments PJC of Abu Dhabi have spent about $500 million developing SpaceShipTwo, and expect to sink in another $100 million before commercial service starts, Branson said.

The company plans to build four more spaceships and several WhiteKnight carrier jets, which also will be used for a satellite-launching business.

In addition to flying passengers, Virgin Galactic is marketing SpaceShipTwo to research organizations, including NASA, to fly experiments, with or without scientists.

Other companies planning to offer suborbital spaceflight service include privately owned XCOR Aerospace, which expects to begin test flights of its two-person Lynx rocket plane this year.

Virgin Galactic Spacecraft Tests Rocket in Flight

Andy Pasztor - Wall Street Journal

After years of delays and nagging engine problems, Richard Branson's space-tourism venture cleared an important hurdle Monday with the first powered test flight of its SpaceShipTwo craft.

Though it lasted only about 16 seconds, the early-morning flight was described as a success and marked a milestone for Virgin Galactic LLC, the high-profile space-tourism company that aims to start commercial operations late this year or early 2014.

If future testing goes well and "if my wife allows," Mr. Branson joked after watching the test flight, he and his two children plan to be among the first six voyagers to ride the maiden flight of SpaceShipTwo to the edge of space. The trip would send passengers about 60 miles above the Earth's surface, at a maximum speed of about 2,500 miles per hour.

On Monday, the company said a carrier aircraft took off from Southern California's Mojave Air and Space Port, climbed to an altitude of 46,000 feet and then released the rocket-powered SpaceShipTwo.

Piloted by two test pilots from Scaled Composites—the pioneering aerospace company that designed the 60-foot-long craft—the rocket ship then climbed up to 56,000 feet and reached a velocity of 1.2 times the speed of sound, according to Virgin Galactic. Northrop Grumann Corp. owns Scaled Composites.

With an investment of an estimated $350 million, closely held Virgin Galactic hopes to start taking tourists on thrill rides to experience weightlessness perhaps around the end of the year.

Under the original timetable, passenger flights were supposed to commence by 2008. That was subsequently revised to 2010, and again to 2012. Virgin Galactic officials and Mr. Branson recently had declined to predict the date of the first powered flight or when paying passengers would take off.

Mr., Branson, who was on the ground in Mojave to witness the flight, afterward said "it was well worth waiting for."

Virgin Galactic said its craft, the SpaceShipTwo, climbed up to 56,000 feet in its test flight Monday.
.Mr. Branson disclosed that in the wake of Monday's success, "I would like to speed up the program" by increasing to three from two the size of the initial fleet of rocket ships intended to carry passengers.

Virgin Galactic prefers to call them astronauts and expects to charge the first 600 space tourists $200,000 for a suborbital ride. The next 400 thrill seekers will be charged $250,000 per ride, Mr. Branson said.

After that, he said, Virgin envisions lowering the price because "our aim is to enable as many people as possible" to experience space. Mr. Branson declined to elaborate.

But for many space experts, Virgin Galactic still has to prove that it can safely operate its rocket ship at speeds three or four times faster than Monday's brief jaunt. In addition, Mr. Branson and his team also face challenges in predictably producing the cutting-edge spacecraft and operating a spaceport in New Mexico.

Lawmakers in New Mexico gave the fledgling space-tourism industry as well as the state's spaceport a boost in March by passing legislation that effectively shields spacecraft parts-suppliers from liability lawsuits. Federal lawmakers previously passed legislation basically blocking passengers or their families from seeking damages in the event of an accident.

For Mr. Branson, the test flight met its most important goal: validating the rocket ship's design. "This (was) the big milestone today."

Supersonic flight brings Virgin Galactic closer to space tourism

W.J. Hennigan - Los Angeles Times

With a sonic boom that resounded above the Mojave Desert, a rocket plane belonging to British billionaire Richard Branson's commercial space venture Virgin Galactic got one step closer to carrying tourists into space.

On Monday the company's SpaceShipTwo ignited its rocket motor in mid-flight for the first time and sped to Mach 1.2, faster than sound, reaching about 56,000 feet in altitude.

The test flight is the biggest milestone in Virgin Galactic's 8 1/2-year endeavor to be the world's first commercial space liner, which would make several trips a day carrying scores of paying customers into space for a brief journey.

"We never thought it would take this long, but it was worth the wait," Branson said in an interview. "Now that we have accomplished supersonic flight, we feel ready to take the next step. There are an awful lot of exciting things to come."

Virgin Galactic, founded by Branson, hopes to reach space in test flight this year and make its first passenger flight sometime in 2014 from Spaceport America in New Mexico, where the company hopes to eventually offer the frequent tourist trips.

Branson first hoped he would blast tourists into space by 2007, but the date has repeatedly slipped. Space experts wonder whether even 2014 is too ambitious. Virgin Galactic still needs to clear regulatory hurdles, particularly satisfying safety concerns with the Federal Aviation Administration.

Marco A. Caceres, space analyst for the aerospace research firm Teal Group Corp. of Fairfax, Va., said that he wouldn't be surprised if there was a delay beyond 2014, but that the key is not one single launch. He said Virgin Galactic needs to get into a routine of launching multiple times a year.

"What they're doing isn't easy by any stretch," Caceres said. "This is a pioneering business. They can't afford to have a pilot and tourist killed on a flight. That would set the program back years, so they need to make sure they get it right."

The test flight Monday took place at 7:02 a.m. Pacific time beginning on the desert runway at Mojave Air and Space Port, about 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles. There had been some media buzz about the flight, and locals and space aficionados amassed at the spaceport to catch a glimpse.

During the test, SpaceShipTwo was taken to about 47,000 feet by a carrier aircraft, and approximately 45 minutes into the flight, it was dropped like a bomb.

After a short free fall, pilot Mark Stucky and co-pilot Mike Alsbury engaged the hybrid rocket motor — powered by nitrous oxide and a rubber compound — for 16 seconds, at which point SpaceShipTwo's speed reached Mach 1.2.

The entire flight test lasted a little more than 10 minutes, ending in a smooth landing in Mojave around 8 a.m.

The idea of Virgin Galactic routinely taking passengers to space this way was developed by retired maverick aerospace engineer Burt Rutan and his Mojave company Scaled Composites. Rutan, who lives in the lakeside community of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, was on hand to see Monday's test flight.

Until now, astronauts have reached space packed tight in a capsule or shuttle attached to a high-powered rocket.

Instead, Virgin Galactic will use a WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft that will fly with the reusable SpaceShipTwo rocket plane under its wing to 50,000 feet, where the spaceship will separate and blast off.

When the rocket motor engages, it will power the spaceship to nearly 2,500 miles per hour and take the pilots — and up to six passengers — to the edge of space, more than 60 miles above the Earth's surface.

Once they reach that suborbital altitude, passengers will experience weightlessness and see the curvature of the Earth. Then they will reenter the atmosphere and glide back to the runway.

The price for the experience: $200,000.

Virgin Galactic said it has accepted more than $70 million in deposits from about 580 reservations made by people who are interested in the ride.

The WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft, which resembles a flying catamaran because it has two fuselages, and SpaceShipTwo are still in the midst of a test-flight program that will continue in Mojave until Virgin Galactic believes it can begin commercial operations.

Virgin Galactic's commercial space launch system is based on Rutan's SpaceShipOne, the world's first private manned spaceship, which flew a test pilot to space and back three times in 2004 to win a $10-million X-Prize purse.

The prizewinning spacecraft caught the eye of Branson, who wanted to work with Rutan on a much bigger rocket ship that could send not only a pilot into space but also fare-paying passengers.

The enterprise was shrouded in secrecy for years. Then in 2007, during a test of the spaceship's propulsion system, an explosion killed three workers and injured three others. The blast exposed the secret project and reminded the public of the risks of rocketry, which had long been the domain of powerful governments rather than small business.

The project endured and has run into several delays along the way. But Branson has since built a 68,000-square-foot facility at the space port for a joint venture, called Spaceship Co., to mass-produce its rocket ship and carrier aircraft. It was one of the first aircraft assembly plants to be built in the region in decades.

Today, Mojave spaceport is bustling with commercial space test activity. New spacecraft are tested daily by companies at the 3,300-acre site with a 2-mile-long runway.

One of those companies, Xcor Aerospace Inc., hopes to join Virgin Galactic in the space tourism business. It plans to have a test flight of its space plane in the year ahead.

"We applaud their exceptional teams on taking the next step in the greatest journey the human race has ever known," the company said. "We look forward to meeting them there, above the clouds, where the adventure has only just begun."

Virgin Galactic rockets past milestone in SpaceShipTwo test flight

James Dean - Florida Today

A supersonic test flight Monday brought Virgin Galactic a step closer to making space tourism a reality.

The company's SpaceShipTwo fired its rocket engine for the first time during flight, a 16-second burn above the Mojave Air and Space Port in California that accelerated the ship and its two test pilots past the speed of sound.

"We saw history in the making today, and I couldn't be more proud of everyone involved," company founder Sir Richard Branson said in a statement.

The test was the first in a series leading up to SpaceShipTwo's first journey into space, anticipated before the end of the year.

That would put paying customers — up to six per flight at $200,000 per ticket — on track to start flying suborbital trips early next year from Spaceport America in New Mexico.

The reusable SpaceShipTwo took off and climbed to an altitude of 47,000 feet attached to its twin-fuselage carrier aircraft, WhiteKnightTwo, before being dropped.

Pilots Mark Stucky and Mike Alsbury ignited the hybrid rocket engine designed by Sierra Nevada Corp.

The 60-foot long spaceship climbed further to 55,000 feet and achieved a top speed of Mach 1.2, or more than 900 mph, before touching down about 10 minutes later.

Virgin Galactic President and CEO George Whitesides reported "good engine performance and solid vehicle handling qualities throughout."

"The successful outcome of this test marks a pivotal point for our program," Whitesides said. "We will now embark on a handful of similar powered flight tests, and then make our first test flight to space."

The rocket-powered test came more than three years after Branson unveiled SpaceShipTwo and more than eight years after he started Virgin Galactic.

The company now has entered the final phase of testing before commercial spaceline operations can begin.

Owned by Virgin Group and aabar Investments , Virgin Galactic says it has accepted deposits from about 580 people totaling more than $70 million.

SpaceShipTwo is the successor to SpaceShipOne, which reached space twice in 2004 to win the $10 million Ansari X Prize as the world's first privately developed manned spacecraft.

Branson, SpaceShipOne designer Burt Rutan and X Prize Foundation founder Peter Diamandis were among the VIPs on hand in Mojave to witness Monday's important test flight.

One other company, Mojave-based XCOR Aerospace, is working to fly space tourists in a similar timeframe to Virgin Galactic.

XCOR last year announced plans to fly tests of a prototype Lynx space plane from Florida as soon as 2014 and potentially to manufacture new versions of the Lynx here.

SpaceShipTwo's first rocket flight breaks sound barrier

Stephen Clark - SpaceflightNow.com

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo rocket plane lit its engine for the first time in flight Monday, powering through the speed of sound and moving a step closer to spaceflight for the masses.

The spaceship fired its hybrid rocket engine for about 16 seconds after dropping from the belly of its WhiteKnightTwo carrier plane, long enough to accelerate past the sound barrier and release a stream of exhaust visible from the ground, delighting throngs of spectators near the test site in Mojave, Calif.

Triggered by pilots at the controls of SpaceShipTwo, the rocket firing occurred at about 7:50 a.m. local time (10:50 a.m. EDT; 1450 GMT), about 45 minutes after the mothership and SpaceShipTwo took off from Mojave Air and Space Port.

SpaceShipTwo reached a top speed of Mach 1.2 and a peak altitude of 55,000 feet, according to Virgin Galactic.

The 60-foot-long spacecraft, dubbed Virgin Spaceship Enterprise, was piloted by Mark Stucky and Mike Alsbury, who guided the space plane back to Earth like a glider to a runway landing at Mojave Air and Space Port in California's high desert.

"For the first time, we were able to prove the key components of the system, fully integrated and in flight," said Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group and Virgin Galactic. "Today's supersonic success opens the way for a rapid expansion of the spaceship's powered flight envelope, with a very realistic goal of full space flight by the year's end. We saw history in the making today and I couldn't be more proud of everyone involved."

Monday's flight did not reach space, but it was a giant leap toward Virgin Galactic's business objective of flying paying passengers on high-altitude suborbital hops just beyond 100 kilometers, or 62 miles, the accepted threshold of space.

More than 500 people have signed up to fly on SpaceShipTwo. Branson has said he and his family will be on the first passenger flight.

"This is a momentous day and the single most important flight test to date for our Virgin Galactic program," Branson wrote in a blog posting. "What a feeling to be on the ground with all the team in Mojave to witness Virgin Galactic go faster than the speed of sound."

The WhiteKnightTwo carrier plane and SpaceShipTwo were designed and built by Scaled Composites, established in 1982 by legendary aircraft designer Burt Rutan.

SpaceShipTwo's hybrid rocket motor, built by Sierra Nevada Corp., burns rubber-based solid fuel and liquid nitrous oxide.

Branson said Monday's test flight could lead to SpaceShipTwo's first jaunt into space later this year, with commercial service commencing as soon as next year.

"It marks the moment when we put together two key elements of our spaceflight system - the spacecraft and its rocket motor, which have both been tested extensively by themselves over several years - and start the phase of testing that will demonstrate our vehicle's ability to go to space (hopefully later this year)," Branson wrote.

The powered flight, which was not officially announced ahead of time by Virgin Galactic, comes after a three-year flight test program that began with SpaceShipTwo captive flights attached to its mothership. Including Monday's sortie, the space plane has accomplished 26 free flights with pilots at the controls.

"The rocket motor ignition went as planned, with the expected burn duration, good engine performance and solid vehicle handling qualities throughout," said George Whitesides, Virgin Galactic president and CEO. "The successful outcome of this test marks a pivotal point for our program. We will now embark on a handful of similar powered flight tests, and then make our first test flight to space."

SpaceShipTwo is a larger version of the single-pilot craft used to capture the $10 million Ansari X Prize in 2004 after completing two flights of a private reusable manned spacecraft within two weeks.

In a statement released soon after the rocket-powered test flight, the Commercial Spaceflight Federation congratulated Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites on the success.

"Because of their efforts, we are one step closer to achieving safe, routine, and cost-effective access to space that will create abundant opportunities for space-based research and that will inspire the next generation of engineers and scientists," said Michael Lopez-Alegria, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation.

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo makes history with 1st rocket-powered flight

Clara Moskowitz - Space.com

A private spaceship designed to carry space tourists made its first rocket-powered test flight Monday, reaching supersonic speeds as it paved the way toward commercial flights in the near future.

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo space plane fired its rocket engines for the first time during flight this morning in a test from California's Mojave Air and Spaceport. The vehicle was carried aloft by the mothership WhiteKnightTwo, and then released in midair at an altitude of about 46,000 feet (14,000 meters). At that point, SpaceShipTwo test fired its rocket engine, designed to propel the craft of the rest of the way up to space.

After a short 16-second burn, SpaceShipTwo reached a maximum altitude of 56,000 feet (17,000 meters) before flew back to Earth. The trip marked the 26th test flight of the vehicle, and the first "powered flight," which propelled the ship to Mach 1.2, fast enough to beat the speed of sound, which is 761 miles per hour (1224 km/h).

"The rocket motor ignition went as planned, with the expected burn duration, good engine performance and solid vehicle handling qualities throughout," Virgin Galactic president and CEO George Whitesides said in a statement. "The successful outcome of this test marks a pivotal point for our program. We will now embark on a handful of similar powered flight tests, and then make our first test flight to space."

SpaceShipTwo is a suborbital vehicle, designed to carry space tourists on trips to the edge of space and back for $200,000 a ride. Though these flights wouldn't make a full orbit of the planet, they would provide passengers with a brief experience of weightlessness and a view of Earth from the blackness of space.

Virgin Galactic is backed by British billionaire Sir Richard Branson, who was on the ground at Mojave to view the flight today.

"This is a momentous day and the single most important flight test to date for our Virgin Galactic program," Branson wrote in a blog post on Virgin's website. "What a feeling to be on the ground with all the team in Mojave to witness the occasion."

If test flights continue to go well, SpaceShipTwo may carry passengers as soon as this year or 2014, Virgin Galactic officials have said. Already, more than 500 people have signed up for the flights, which will be run out of Spaceport America in New Mexico once testing is complete.

The test flight began this morning at 7 a.m. PDT (10 a.m. EDT, or 1400 GMT). Flying aboard SpaceShipTwo were pilot Mark Stucky and co-pilot Mike Alsbury, both test pilots for the private aerospace firm Scaled Composites, which built SpaceShipTwo for Virgin Galactic. It comes after two recent glide test flights, on April 3 and April 12, that set the stage for today's landmark powered test.

Scaled also built the space plane's predecessor, SpaceShipOne, which won the $10 million Ansari X Prize in 2004 by becoming the first commercial vehicle to fly people to space and back twice in a week.

Virgin Galactic
Flame on

Charles Babbage - The Economist

News from the fledgling private space business is coming thick and fast. A few days ago the Antares rocket built by Orbital Sciences Corporation made a successful maiden flight, paving the way for Orbital to provide some competition for SpaceX when it comes to delivering cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). Then, on April 29th, Virgin Galactic, the private space firm with the slickest PR (its name notwithstanding, the firm does not even plan to fly into orbit), conducted a successful, in-flight test-firing of the rocket motor aboard its SpaceShipTwo craft.

Virgin—which is bankrolled by Richard Branson, an adventurous British billionaire—has pedigree. Its distinctive rocket-plane is a direct descendet of SpaceShipOne, the craft that, on June 21st, 2004, became the first privately-built, crewed spacecraft to make it beyond the Karman Line, the 100km high cutoff that officially marks the beginning of space.

The firm is distinctive in other ways, too. It eschews the traditional long, thin, disposable rocket (the approach adopted by both SpaceX and Orbital) in favour of a reusable aeroplane that is launched in mid-air from a much larger mothership. It is an elegant design that ought to keep costs low, albeit at the price of performance. While SpaceX and Orbital's rockets can launch reasonably large payloads directly into orbit, Virgin's machine is limited to shorter, sub-orbital hops.

As a result, Virgin's business model is different, as well. A significant chunk of SpaceX's revenue comes from a $1.6 billion agreement it has with NASA to fly a dozen cargo-resupply missions to the ISS. It also has satellite-launch contracts with, among others, America's military and Iridium, a firm that makes communications satellites. Orbital is also in the satellite-launch business (it also makes some of its own). But Virgin's focus is primarily on space tourism. For $200,000 a pop, the 500 or so passengers who have already signed up have been promised around six minutes of weightlessness in a flight that lasts a total of two and a half hours. Provided that business proves profitable enough, the company hopes, one day, to begin flying between different points on Earth, providing a sort of super-fast, super-Concorde mode of transport for the wealthy and impatient. With little reliance on public money, Virgin is arguably the most privately-focused of the private space firms.

That, of course, assumes that the firm's subsequent tests continue to go well. The company has suffered plenty of delays, having originally hoped to begin flying passengers in 2007. And while SpaceShipTwo's first rocket-powered flight is a significant milestone, it was far from a dry run for a passenger mission. The rocket burn lasted just 16 seconds. There is still plenty of work to be done before the first tourists get their brief glimpse of space.

Virgin Galactic's Big SpaceShipTwo Rocket Test: Reactions & Celebrations

Tariq Malik - Space.com

The private spaceflight company Virgin Galactic performed a landmark test flight of its SpaceShipTwo space plane Monday, lighting up the craft's rocket motor in flight for the first time.

The powered flight test, the first for SpaceShipTwo after a series of captive carry and drop tests, marked a turning point for Virgin Galactic. The company is planning to launch its first suborbital SpaceShipTwo flights by the end of this year, and begin passenger flights in 2014.

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo is built by the veteran aerospace company Scaled Composites in Mojave, Calif., and designed to launch six passengers and two pilots on trips to suborbital space. Virgin Galactic is selling tickets for the rocket ride at $200,000 per seat. Here's what Virgin Galactic officials and other space industry experts had to say about Monday's milestone rocket-powered flight of SpaceShipTwo:

Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic founder, billionaire

The first powered flight of Virgin Spaceship Enterprise was without any doubt, our single most important flight test to date. For the first time, we were able to prove the key components of the system, fully integrated and in flight. Today's supersonic success opens the way for a rapid expansion of the spaceship's powered flight envelope, with a very realistic goal of full space flight by the year's end. We saw history in the making today and I couldn't be more proud of everyone involved.

Lori Garver, NASA Deputy Administrator, via Twitter

Congratulations Sir Richard! Virgin Galactic just went Mach 1 (first commercial spaceship to do so).

Michael Lopez-Alegria, President, Commercial Spaceflight Federation, and former astronaut

The Commercial Spaceflight Federation congratulates the team at Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites for the first powered test flight of SpaceShipTwo today. This incredible achievement is the direct result of the hard work and dedication by these two companies, as well as by RocketMotorTwo developer Sierra Nevada Corporation. Because of their efforts, we are one step closer to achieving safe, routine, and cost-effective access to space that will create abundant opportunities for space-based research and that will inspire the next generation of engineers and scientists. I applaud the team at Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites for their accomplishment, and the team at Mojave Air & Space Port for their efforts in creating a professional and safe testing environment.

His Excellency Khadem Al Qubaisi, Chairman of aabar Investments PJC.

We partnered with Virgin Galactic several years ago with the aspiration to transform and commercialize access to space for the broader public. Today's test is another key milestone in realizing that aspiration. Our partnership goes from strength to strength, and is an excellent example of aabar's desire to participate in the development of world class technologies that are commercially viable and strategically important, both for the company, its shareholders, and for Abu Dhabi.

Kevin Mickey, President of Scaled Composites (SpaceShipTwo Builder)

I'd like to congratulate the entire team. This milestone has been a long time coming and it's only through the hard work of the team and the tremendous support of Virgin Galactic that we have been able to witness this important milestone. We look forward to all our upcoming tests and successes.

George Whitesides, Virgin Galactic President and CEO

The successful outcome of this test marks a pivotal point for our program. We will now embark on a handful of similar powered flight tests, and then make our first test flight to space.

Kevin McCarthy, Congressman (R-California), representing Calif. 23rd District

I want to congratulate Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites on SpaceShipTwo's momentous success today.

Igniting SpaceShipTwo's rocket motor for the first time and breaking the sound barrier is a major milestone in commercial space travel, bringing us one step closer to offering private commercial space travel and solidifying the Mojave Air and Space Port as our nation's premier aerospace research, development and test flight center for this emerging space industry. The hardworking people at Virgin Galactic and Mojave continue to demonstrate the endless possibilities when entrepreneurship and innovation are combined, and I look forward to more groundbreaking achievements in East Kern this year.

XCOR Aerospace, developer of Lynx space plane based at Mojave Air and Space Port

XCOR Aerospace sends our warmest and heartfelt congratulations to our friends and colleagues at Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites on their successful first powered flight of the Spaceship Two (SS2) suborbital space plane.

We applaud their exceptional team on taking the next step in the greatest journey the human race has ever known. We look forward to meeting them there, above the clouds, where the adventure has only just begun.

Much work is left for the promise of commercial spaceflight to be realized. We look forward to working with our colleagues in the Commercial Spaceflight Federation on advancing industry best practices, working on export licensing reform, and ensuring international regulatory frameworks that enable a new industry and inspire a generation of future innovators.

Today is a day to celebrate and acknowledge a job well done. Not only did Virgin Galactic's SpaceShip Two perform its first powered flight this morning, it also broke the sound barrier. Great job, Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites!

Lockheed wins $166.8M NASA contract extension
Agreement brings contract value to $1B for mission control support

Nick Wakeman - Washington Technology

Lockheed Martin has won a $166.8 million contract option for work with NASA on mission control systems and other support work for manned spaceflight missions.

The option brings the value of the Facilities Development and Operations Contract to $1 billion and extends the contract through Sept. 30, 2014, NASA said.

Lockheed's support includes hardware, software, data and display systems used for training and to executive manned spaceflight missions out of the Johnson Space Center in Houston. The company is doing the work for the Mission Operations Directorate at the center.

The company's team includes Cimarron Software Services Inc. of Houston as its largest subcontractor. Other teammates include GHG Corporation, Honeywell, Barrios Technology, LZ Technology, J&P Technology, University of Texas at El Paso, and Prairie View A&M University, Lockheed said.

Work under the contract will support the Christopher C. Kraft Jr. Mission Control Center and the Jake Garn Mission Simulator and Training Facility, both at the Johnson center. The majority of the work will take place at Johnson.

"For more than 50 years, Lockheed Martin has provided mission operations support to NASA, which includes support for every space shuttle and International Space Station mission," said Rick Hieb, vice president of exploration and mission support for Lockheed Martin's Information Systems & Global Solutions.

The company first won the contract in 2008.

Science Seat: Living in space for 159 days

Nana Karikari-apau – CNN Light Years

Editor's note: The Science Seat is a feature in which CNN Light Years sits down with movers and shakers from different areas of scientific exploration. This is the ninth installment.

NASA astronaut Catherine "Cady" Coleman has logged more than 4,330 hours in space aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia and the International Space Station.

Coleman was a flight engineer on a Russian Soyuz rocket that took her to the space station in December 2010, and came back to Earth in May 2011, having spent 159 days in space. CNN followed her on this journey - called Expedition 26/27 - to get ready for the expedition, and showed segments every month of what life was like for her and her family in the year before the launch.

This month, CNN Light Years caught up with Coleman to reflect on her spaceflight experiences. Here is an edited transcript.

CNN: Tell us about yourself and why we should feature you in CNN Light Years?

Coleman: I am a polymer scientist and NASA Astronaut who had the privilege of living and working on the International Space Station for nearly six months. Although the station orbits only 240 miles above the Earth, it's still a long, long way from home. I am married to glass artist Josh Simpson, and have a 12-year-old-son, Jamey, and a 29-year-old stepson, Josiah. Down here on Earth, we commute between Massachusetts and Texas, but commuting to low Earth orbit adds a whole dimension!

The space station is a national laboratory, and during my time on board, there were nearly 150 experiments performed. It was like doing magic every day! None of our experiments can be done down here on Earth, and the results are often surprising.

CNN: Can you share your favorite experiment from your work on the space station?

Coleman: There are so many to choose from, I don't know where to start. One of my favorites is Capillary Flow Experiment (CFE). I love it when I get to play an active part of making the experiments happen, and we all love CFE.

Up in space, we get to see what liquids really want to do. It's fascinating! Gravity is such a big force down here that it overwhelms many tinier forces, and makes them hard to measure. These tiny forces still have profound effects on every process that involves flow – from how blood courses through our veins to how anything is produced here on the ground involving flow through a pipe, including oil production! To name just a few examples, this research could help us design better groundwater transportation systems or improve in cooling for electronics.

One day the CFE scientists assembled on the ground and I was in space. A voice from Earth said, "OK – shake it and try to make the bubble move suddenly, but don't just shake the heck out of it." From me in space: "What if I poke at it like this?" It turns out that several fluid physicists had flown in from all over the country to watch us do this experiment on orbit that day. We had done it the week before, and the results were apparently so exciting and hard to believe that the principal investigator had invited his colleagues to come and see it with their own eyes. Another good day on the space station!

Space is also an excellent place to study how fires behave, which can help lead to cleaner, safer and more efficient fuels as well as less pollution.

CNN: You spent 159 days in space. What was it like?

Coleman: A day in space always starts with much more on my to-do list than a human could accomplish and never seems to end. There is just too much good work to be done! Every day, I wake up in my little cabin, the size of a phone booth, float out of my sleeping bag, and throw on clothes for the day. Pretty much the same clothes every day … six months – six pairs of pants!! The better news is that in space, we don't have to put our pants on one leg at a time! I pop open the door of my cabin and give myself a gentle nudge to fly down to the lab. Every morning, I think the same thing: "I'm flying! I must still be in space!" It's like waking up in the land of Peter Pan, and realizing that you live there, too!

After tending to the basics in our tiny bathroom and rehydrating a quick bag of cereal with milk, it's time for the Daily Planning Conference. All six of us gather and talk to the Mission Control Centers (MCCs) about the business of the day. That means Houston, Moscow and Munich for all of the European partners and Tsukuba, Japan, for experiments and systems in the Japanese module. Each of us will have already read the daily schedule that runs our lives on a minute-by-minute basis and we are tagging up with the folks on the ground to make sure that we don't miss any important nuances to the day.

On a typical day, I could work on five or six different experiments, ranging from medical research to fluid physics studies, do some maintenance activities and repairs and assess our supplies. Last but not least, I will be scheduled for an hour of resistive exercise and 30 minutes of cardio to maintain my bone and muscle strength. Just like here on Earth, I usually eat lunch "on the fly," hydrating or heating up soup and something that can be wrapped in a tortilla.

A final conference at the end of the day to check in with the various MCCs, and we are off the clock! After eating dinner and maybe watching the news together, my crew mates and I usually go our separate ways. Believe it or not, the space station is so big that we can easily go the rest of the night without seeing each other!

Despite the fact that all of us continue to work unofficially, evening is a special time on the space station. It is time to talk to family, look out of the windows of the Cupola, maybe play my flute for a while, send e-mail to friends and family and read up about the next day's work before turning out the light. Typically we follow "London time" on the space station, so it is always a struggle to find the right time to connect with everyone and still get enough sleep! Still, somehow it all works. Somehow I wake up the next morning, open my cabin door, give myself a push and find that I'm still in the magical land of Peter Pan!

CNN: What do astronauts eat in space and how do you maintain strong bones?

Coleman: I don't think any of us go to station for the food, but you would be amazed at how far space food has come along. We have about 200 different food items we can select from – everything from beef fajitas to shrimp cocktail, which is the most requested food item.

We have learned a lot about food and nutrition by living in space. As astronauts living on the station, we make very good subjects for scientific studies about bone loss. Without countermeasures, we can lose bone and muscle at 10 times the rate of a 70-year-old woman on the ground who has osteoporosis. It is a big problem here on Earth and for us in space, too. Imagine what kind of shape we would be in after the long journey to Mars!

We are doing a number of studies on the space station that are helping to unlock the secrets of how to maintain healthy bones and muscles, such as looking at our vitamin D intake, nutrition and exercise. It happens so fast up there that it is easy for us to measure by taking periodic blood and urine samples.

It takes a long time to study the results, but scientists are already discovering great information. The good news – or maybe the bad news, is that exercise is here to stay! We exercise about 90 minutes a day on the space station, and the results are promising for retaining bone and muscle.

CNN: How are the photos taken from space used?

Coleman: Those photos don't come close to showing you the true view from space!

I like the fact that the pictures we take from space can really make a difference, both in terms of data for people on the ground and the significance of people getting to see what their planet looks like from space.

During Expedition 26/27, and while our Japanese supply ship, Kounotori, was attached to the station, Japan was struck by a terrible tsunami. Our photographs of Japan served as important data for disaster relief efforts because at night, they showed how much of Japan's power grid remained intact, and daytime photos gave further details about the extent of the damage. We also documented the tsunami damage in daylight. It was a difficult time for us on the station, knowing that our friends and colleagues were dealing with the loss of friends and family and damage to their control center. Being able to take those photos was helpful to all of us. We also made origami white cranes, which represented the spirit of hope and rebuilding to the Japanese people.

CNN: Why does NASA continue to send human beings into space when automated technologies are improving?

Coleman: Both humans and robots bring valuable and necessary skills to the exploration business, and we'll need both in the foreseeable future. Some of the tough challenges that we face in our quest to explore our universe demand the flexibility and skills that only human beings bring. Humans can solve unexpected problems and situations that our automated robots and machines are not yet designed to address.

Our work up on the space station is paving the way for using robots for more and more tasks. Not only are we putting Robonaut through his paces up there, but our robotics controllers on the ground have been conducting Robotic Refueling Missions, which demonstrate the ability to operate a remote satellite refueling and repair facility. Satellites are essential for communication as we explore further, and the space station work brings us closer to being able to refuel and repair them while they are still up in orbit.

We had three soccer ball-sized robots on board called SPHERES (Synchronized Position, Hold, Engage and Reorient Experimental Satellites). It was like something out of a sci-fi movie: robotic spheres flying around our space station in formation! They are mini-satellites that we can use to learn about how to program satellites in space to do more and more complex tasks such as mapping asteroids and Mars for exploration.

CNN: How long does it take to get into space after launch?

Coleman: Just 8 minutes and 30 seconds and then life as you know it is different. Everything is floating, anyone can fly, and experiments that can't be done on the Earth are suddenly possible.

CNN: What do you do during your down time in space?

Coleman: Most of us end up working on experiments or maintenance in our spare time, but I also chose to focus on education projects for kids back here on Earth, and I played my flute. I'm just an amateur, but I took my own flute to the station, plus flutes for Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, and Matt Molloy and Paddy Moloney of The Chieftains. On April 12, 2011, the 50th Anniversary of Yuri Gagaran's first flight, Ian and I played the world's first duet between Earth and space.

I also play in a band down here on Earth called Bandella, with some other astronauts. These space station expeditions are tough on the band's performance schedule … our lead singer/guitar player Chris Hadfield is up on the station right now! We still manage to play together thanks to the wonders of technology. Recently, we played "Moondance" with The Chieftains, and later this month we'll be playing with Chris at EG 13, where entertainment and technology meet.

CNN: What are you doing now?

Coleman: Happily, I'm in line to fly again on the space station. However, that line is pretty long, so we'll have to see what happens! In the meantime, I work in the Visiting Vehicles Branch of our Astronaut Office. My main job is to help our new commercial partners like SpaceX and Orbital Sciences understand what it is like to be onboard the space station when we capture one of their supply ships with the robotic arm. Currently, I am the lead for the first flight of the Orbital Science's Cygnus mission, and I will be their CAPCOM, talking to the station crew from MCC on capture day!

CNN: Do you think privately owned companies should be sending ships into space?

Coleman: I will answer whole-heartedly, YES!

CNN: Any final comments about living on the space station?

Coleman: People are made to explore. You just can't stop us. I feel privileged to have a role at "the pointy end" of exploration. I'm one of the few that gets to actually live in space and help us learn the things that we need before we proceed further out into the universe.

By its very nature, space exploration knows no boundaries since we are exploring for all of mankind. With each space venture, we learn more and more – and not just about space, but about our own planet Earth and how to make our lives better – from medical benefits derived from space station research to improved robotics learned from our rovers on Mars. So, come explore with us!

Coleman is on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.

Space shuttle Enterprise's new home taking shape at NYC's Intrepid

Robert Pearlman – collectSPACE.com

Space shuttle Enterprise, NASA's test orbiter that first arrived in New York City one year ago this month, is soon to have a new home.

As aerial photographs taken on Friday show, the construction of a new exhibition pavilion is taking shape above and around and prototype space shuttle on board the flight deck of the Intrepid, Sea, Air & Space Museum, a converted World War II aircraft carrier that is docked on the west side of Manhattan.

"The one-year anniversary of Enterprise's arrival in New York City was an exciting milestone for the museum and everyone whose imagination is captured by manned space flight," a spokesperson for the Intrepid said in a statement provided to collectSPACE. "We are currently completing the framework of the new Space Shuttle Pavilion that will serve as the home to the Enterprise exhibit."

"We will soon be installing the outer skin of the structure, then completing the interior, in time for the opening this summer," the spokesperson said.

Enterprise, which did not fly in space but was used for a piloted approach and landing tests in 1977, touched down on April 27, 2012, at John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport mounted atop a NASA jumbo jet. The orbiter was then transported by barge to the Intrepid just over a month later and opened on public display in July.

A short three months later, Hurricane Sandy tore through New York City, completely destroying the Intrepid's Space Shuttle Pavilion, an air-supported structure that sheltered Enterprise. The superstorm also caused minor damage to the shuttle's vertical stabilizer, or tail.

Repairs to the orbiter were finished last month, when the temporary covered scaffolding surrounding Enterprise was taken down.

As WCBS 880's traffic reporter Tom Kaminski captured in his aerial photographs, the new pavilion relies on a metal skeleton, rather than air pressure, to maintain its shape. When the storm hit last October, the previous pressurized structure deflated as a result of its primary power source and backup generators being flooded.

According to the Intrepid, the same Weeks Marine barge-mounted crane that was used to hoist Enterprise onto the flight deck last year is now being used to construct the new pavilion, which is about the same size as the original display structure.

Since receiving space shuttle Enterprise from NASA and the Smithsonian — the latter had the orbiter on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, the Virginia annex to the National Air and Space Museum, until space shuttle Discovery took its place in April 2012 — the Intrepid has applied for and received National Historic Place status for the test orbiter.

The museum also launched a dedicated artifacts exhibit, "Space Shuttle Enterprise: A Pioneer," to educate visitors about the history of the prototype spacecraft while its new pavilion is still under construction. The exhibition includes a crowd-sourced photo display of Enterprise's journey to New York City and the Intrepid, which documents in part the rise, fall and rise again of the space shuttle's home on board the aircraft carrier.

X-15 Rocket Plane & Crew Had the Right Stuff

Michelle Evans - Space.com (Opinion)

(Evans is the president of Mach 25 Media and author of "The X-15 Rocket Plane: Flying the First Wings into Space.")

From the Wright brothers to the last flight of the X-15 was a steady progression, moving the barriers back on the unknown.

Designed in the mid-1950s, the North American Aviation X-15 was tasked to take pilots into the realm of hypersonic flight, exposing the aircraft to speeds and altitudes Orville and Wilbur could never have imagined. The slick, black stiletto eventually took eight of its 12 pilots into suborbital space and achieved velocities in excess of Mach 6. Much of what was learned during the program's 199 flights was passed on to the space shuttle.

When starting research for "The X-15 Rocket Plane," I quickly realized I was not the only one who truly loved this amazing vehicle. There was a sense of wonder and excitement that permeated the program from its inception. Each person I spoke with — be it the pilots who flew routinely to and from space or the people in the trenches keeping the three X-15s flying — all agreed this was the pinnacle of their careers; they were part of a very special family.

The pilots talked about seeing the Earth from near-orbital altitude, whereas everyone from the mechanics to the guys in the rocket shop all rode along vicariously, knowing what they had made possible. To miss a day of work was to miss being part of history in the making. This was true from the first flight in March 1959 all the way through to the last in October 1968.

An example of this attitude was how Ralph Richardson, the U.S. Air Force specialist responsible for the X-15 pilots' pressure suits, acquired new parts. The suits were the first full-pressure suits for protecting a pilot in space, and ordering parts from the U.S. Air Force, as was required, could take months — not to mention the mounds of paperwork to get it done. Instead, Richardson's staff did it themselves in-house at Edwards Air Force Base. It was completely illegal by military standards, but they would take a lathe and label it as an "Injector Nozzle Sizing Tube" and get on with their work.

As a research aircraft created to push the envelope, the X-15 was often challenging to fly. The flight planners and pilots took their time, moving forward incrementally to make sure they understood where they were going, learning the aircraft's idiosyncrasies and limitations before something unknown could cause fatal problems. For the most part they were successful, but several incidents during the program still placed the X-15 and its pilots at risk.

The first was with NASA pilot Jack McKay in November 1962, when he had an in-flight emergency with multiple system failures soon after launch from the wing of a B-52 mothership. The aircraft rolled over during the crash landing, literally coming to rest on McKay's helmet, compressing his spine. This eventually led to complications that contributed to his death a dozen years later. In June 1967, Pete Knight lost all electrical power and nearly had to eject. His piloting skills saved a valuable research aircraft that the manual said could not be controlled in such a situation. Pete proved the value of having a pilot in the cockpit. But just five months later, Michael Adams was killed when the No. 3 X-15 entered a hypersonic spin on re-entry into the atmosphere, and broke apart high above California's Mojave Desert.

The X-15 was an exciting program that could sometimes be dangerous, but there were also times of a lot of fun and creativity. People played practical jokes, such as a mechanic painting Joe Walker's X-15 instrument panel pink prior to a flight, or team members freaking out North American Aviation's chief test pilot Scott Crossfield by making him think a technician was ripping out the cockpit wiring — as a way to get back at Scott for taking away smoking privileges on duty. Parties at Juanita's bar in Rosamond were the rule of the day after a successful flight, and backyard barbecues with members of the extended X-15 family happened nearly every weekend.

It is the people who make the X-15 story come alive. My favorite anecdote came from NASA's Flight Research Center director, Paul Bikle, who was Neil Armstrong's boss when Neil flew the X-15. Several books have mentioned Neil's tribulations with regard to skipping out of the atmosphere during one re-entry because he fixated on his instruments and not his flight profile, but having the perspective for the first time from Bikle, the guy who knew Neil so well and was also in charge of his career, makes this an especially wonderful tale to tell.

Not many people know that Bikle, even as one of Neil's best friends, was ready to fire him after these incidents. He was very happy when the future First Man on the Moon was accepted by the astronaut office in Houston. None of that ever changed their deep and abiding friendship, but Bikle had to do what was best for the X-15 no matter his personal feelings.

Each chapter of the book is dedicated primarily to one of the 12 pilots, in the order in which they flew the rocket plane. Five were from NASA and another five from the U.S. Air Force, with one each from North American Aviation and the U.S. Navy. Essentially, these chapters are mini-biographies of pilots who, for the most part, are unknown by people in aerospace today. It is their stories that made the book worth writing.

One of those comes from Milt Thompson, who flew for NASA. Besides being a pilot for the X-15, he was also the first pilot to take aloft the flying aluminum bathtubs known as lifting bodies. Milt was the very first interview I did for the book, way back in September 1983. He holds a unique spot as being not only a test pilot, but also served as the technical adviser for the 1961 Charles Bronson film, "X-15." I was able to use Milt's role to take on the whole idea of how the media can promote, but also distort, a project like the X-15 — sometimes creating propaganda that can never be achieved in reality.

In retrospect, the men of the X-15 program thought of this as the best days of their careers. They all had expected to go on to more advanced spaceflight research —programs that would have truly made access to Earth orbit the routine and provided the safe proposition originally promised by the space shuttle. Unfortunately, that was not to be.

If a sea change in our current space program were to take place, to take us back to the way things operated during the X-15 program, we might have people walking the dusty surface of Mars in a few short years rather than the decades now envisioned. The old adage that not knowing the past dooms us to repeat it is not always correct. Sometimes, the past gets lost and we no longer understand how to move forward. The history of the X-15 will hopefully show people what they can accomplish if given the right circumstances.

Understanding our past from the very dawn of the Space Age, with all that was accomplished by the X-15 rocket plane, might be the best kick-start we could ever have for the future of space exploration, and moving humanity out to the stars.

You can learn more about Evans' research into the X-15 rocket plane program in her book "The X-15 Rocket Plane: Flying the First Wings into Space."

END

Keep the shuttle flying

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Keep the shuttle flying: Search results for ISS repair

Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - April 30, 2013 and JSC Today

Space news