Elon Musk's $5 Billion in Govt Subsidies Help Make Ends Meet

He is running space x ---- America's shuttle replacement--- was planned on being manned by now---- maybe in a few or so more years, but we keep paying Russia .! Priority not there, but this is going to save our space capabilities! Capabilities not even close to shuttle, but they continue to ignore x37 C boeing proposal. Very disappointed in Charlie bolden, nasa adm. A truly tragic end to America's great space capabilities!!

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/05/31/elon-musks-5-billion-in-govt-subsidies-helps-make-ends-meet/

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Fwd: Astronaut Hall of Fame welcomes 2015 class

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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: May 30, 2015 at 3:25:26 PM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Astronaut Hall of Fame welcomes 2015 class

 

 

 

KSC Visitor Complex introduces 'Heroes and Legends'

James Dean, FLORIDA TODAY 8:15 p.m. EDT May 29, 2015

(Photo: KSC Visitor Complex)

 

As the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame prepared to welcome four new members Saturday, the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex on Friday unveiled plans for a redesigned, high-tech attraction honoring the nation's astronaut heroes.

The multimillion dollar "Heroes and Legends" exhibit, slated to open by late next year, will be most guests' first stop upon entering the Visitor Complex, immersing them in stories of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo astronauts before leading them into a revamped Hall of Fame.

"Heroes and Legends promises to bridge the gap between the trailblazers who brought us to where we are today, and those who will write the next chapter in space exploration," said NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, one of more than two-dozen astronauts on hand for an announcement and ceremonial groundbreaking.

Four more trailblazers — John Grunsfeld, Steve Lindsey, Kent Rominger and Rhea Seddon — will join the Hall of Fame in a 2 p.m. ceremony Saturday at the Visitor Complex's Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit.

The creation of Heroes and Legends means the 25-year-old Hall of Fame will move from its current location on the mainland side of State Road 405 to the Visitor Complex's main campus across the Indian River Lagoon on Merritt Island.

Orlando-based Falcon's Treehouse, which has done work for most of Central Florida's big-name theme parks, designed the attraction, whose budget is not yet final. The project will expand a building that now houses "Early Space Exploration" exhibits and the Debus conference center, next to the Rocket Garden.

Heroes and Legends will be "an immersive storytelling experience about those who first dared to bravely explore humanity's greatest frontier: Space," a promotional video said.

Guests will be greeted by an "inspirational, uplifting architectural facade" featuring an image of Mercury astronauts, then climb a ramp to the cylindrical "Discovery Bay" room, said Cecil Magpuri, president and chief creative officer of Falcon's Treehouse.

As artifacts light up in the dim room, a presentation will pose questions about who and what makes heroes of all kinds: "A hero is someone I respect, like my mom," one child says in the video.

Guests then enter the dark Heroes and Legends Theater and don 3-D glasses to experience a show about the nation's early astronauts, from Mercury through Apollo.

"The darkness is pierced by historic imagery that completely surrounds them, projected directly onto the cylindrical interior walls of the theater," Magpuri said. "As the show rolls to its inspiring, uplifting conclusion, guests will have felt that they have personally accompanied these space age heroes on this mythical quest."

Descending in elevators, visitors next enter a floor with 10 exhibit modules, where the video said "simulated holograms, augmented reality and other ingenious display methods" will show off artifacts and memorabilia.

Therrin Protze, chief operating officer, KSC Visitor Complex, discusses new "Heroes and Legends" attraction. By James Dean, FLORIDA TODAY Posted May 29, 2015

Also on display will be a recreated Mercury Mission Control Center including several historic consoles and control panels, and the Sigma 7 capsule that Mercury astronaut Wally Schirra flew to orbit in 1962.

Finally, a rotunda-like space introduces the new U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame, featuring a media loop montage and an interactive kiosk at the center highlighting the most recent inductees.

Steve Lindsey, one of the new inductees, said the new exhibit "looks really fun."

Like most astronauts, he'd prefer not to draw attention to himself and instead recognize the thousands of NASA and contractor workers across the country, including those on the Space Coast who prepared rockets and spacecraft for launch, who have made human space exploration possible.

"It's all about this huge team," he said.

But Magpuri said astronauts embody a "spirit of service and sacrifice" that have inspired generations. Visitors will leave Heroes and Legends and continue the rest of their KSC tour, he said, with a deeper appreciation of the qualities that make astronauts heroes.

"And having joined vicariously in this historic journey, guests may even find their own heroic potential stirring," he said.

Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 or jdean@floridatoday.com. 

Copyright © 2015 www.floridatoday.com. All rights reserved. 

 

---

 

 

 

New, interactive Astronaut Hall of Fame to open next year at KSC

Cecil D. Magpuri presents NASA's latest exhibit "Heroes and Legends"

By Scott Powers Orlando Sentinel contact the reporter

 

Astronaut Hall of Fame plans new, high-tech home at Kennedy Space Center

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — The U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame will relocate to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, where it will be merged into a high-tech, interactive attraction, officials announced Friday.

The new attraction will be called "Heroes and Legends, Featuring the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame."

Ground was broken Friday on the hall's new home with 25 astronauts on hand, moments after officials announced the project. It's set to open next year.

"Today, we take the dream that was first conceived by America's space pioneers and give it a new life, a new incarnation, befitting the service and sacrifice of all those who dared to follow in their footsteps — many of whom are in the room with us today," said Therrin Protze, KSC Visitor Complex chief operating officer

Heroes and Legends will be built between the KSC Visitor Complex entrance gate and the rocket garden, intended as the park's first experience for most visitors. No cost estimates were announced.

The U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame was first opened 25 years ago, several miles west of the KSC Visitor Complex on State Road 405. The KSC Visitor Complex took over operations in 2000.

The Heroes and Legends building would bring visitors in through a series of rooms designed to immerse them in 360-degree video and audio, 3-D video, hologram and virtual-reality presentations of astronaut experiences, including those of Alan Shepard, John Glenn, Jim Lovell and Neil Armstrong. Attraction designer Cecil Magpuri, president and creative officer of Falcon's Treehouse of Orlando, said the intention is to give visitors the essence of the heroism ascribed to the astronauts. Then visitors would enter the Hall of Fame exhibit floor, filled with artifacts, pictures and more videos featuring inducted astronauts.

The U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame has 87 enshrined members so far, and four more are set to be inducted Saturday for the museum's 25th-anniversary class: John Grunsfeld, Steven Lindsey, Kent Rominger and M. Rhea Seddon.

Copyright © 2015, Orlando Sentinel

 

---

 

 

U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame welcomes 2015 class

May 30, 2015 by Spaceflight Now

Grunsfeld, Lindsey, Rominger and Seddon. Credit: NASA

CAPE CANAVERAL — A proud "Hubble Hugger," the final commander of shuttle Discovery, the first person to fly a docking to the International Space Station and one of the first U.S. women to join the astronaut ranks were inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame on Saturday.

Veteran space shuttle astronauts John Grunsfeld, Steve Lindsey, Kent Rominger and Rhea Seddon were honored in a ceremony held at the Kennedy Space Center's Atlantis attraction.

It is the 25th anniversary of the Astronaut Hall of Fame. The foursome brings the total number of inductees to 91, joining the likes of Alan Shepard, John Glenn, John Young, Neil Armstrong and Sally Ride.

Grunsfeld completed eight spacewalks over the course of his five space shuttle missions (STS-67, STS-81, STS-103, STS-109 and STS-125), including serving on three of the five missions that serviced the Hubble Space Telescope. He is currently the agency Associate Administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

Lindsey was pilot and commander of five space shuttle missions (STS-87, STS-95, STS-104, STS-121 and STS-133). During his last flight, he commanded the 39th and final flight of space shuttle Discovery. Lindsey retired from NASA and joined Sierra Nevada Corp. to lead the Dream Chaser spacecraft flight operations.

Rominger flew aboard five space shuttle missions (STS-73, STS-80, STS-85, STS-96 and STS-100) and was commander of STS-96 Discovery, the first docking of the space shuttle to the International Space Station. He retired from NASA in 2006 to accept a position with ATK Launch Systems.

Seddon was selected by NASA in 1978 as part of the first U.S. astronaut class to include women. A veteran of three space flights (STS-51D, STS-40 and STS-58), Seddon served on both Spacelab Life Sciences flights. Now with LifeWings Partners, LLC, she acts as a consultant to healthcare institutions across the United States.

On Friday, a groundbreaking ceremony was held at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex for the "Heroes and Legends" attraction opening in 2016. It will see the Astronaut Hall of Fame relocated to the main KSCVC museum property from its current location across the river.

An artist's concept of Heroes and Legends theater. Credit: KSCVC

Heroes and Legends will feature a 3D omnidirectional theater, designed to make guests feel as though they are floating in the vastness of space.

"Heroes and Legends promises to speak to the hearts and minds of all generations, from those who bore witness to some of America's first space launches, to those who dream of someday being among the first to set foot on Mars," said Bob Cabana, KSC center director and former astronaut.

"Today, we take the dream that was first conceived by America's space pioneers, and give it a new life, a new incarnation, befitting the service and sacrifice of all those who dared to follow in their footsteps – many of whom are in the room with us today," said Therrin Protze, chief operating officer, Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. "I know I speak for all of those involved when I say, we could not be more proud to create this attraction in your honor."

 

© 2015 Spaceflight Now Inc.

 

---

 

Why China's space program stands out - CNN.com

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/29/opinions/opinion-china-space-business/


Sent from my iPad

Keep the shuttle flying: 6 LOST capabilities with shuttle retirement

http://keeptheshuttleflyingc.blogspot.com/2014/10/6-lost-capabilities-with-shuttle.html


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Fwd: This Week in The Space Review - 2015 May 26

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: jeff@thespacereview.com (Jeff Foust)
Date: May 26, 2015 at 12:41:26 PM CDT
Subject: This Week in The Space Review - 2015 May 26
Reply-To: jeff@thespacereview.com

[ If you no longer wish to receive announcements from The Space Review,
please follow the instructions at the end of this message. ]


Welcome to this week's issue of The Space Review:


A stagecoach to the stars
---
Concepts of interplanetary spacecraft often face challenges with power, propulsion, radiation shielding, and more. Brian McConnell offers a concept for a "spacecoach" spacecraft that overcomes many of those obstacles by making use of water and solar electric propulsion in unique ways.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2760/1

Congress launches commercial space legislation
---
Both the House and Senate are considering legislation to support the US commercial launch industry, including extending key provisions of current law. Jeff Foust reports on those efforts, including the contrast between the partisan debates in the House and the bipartisan effort in the Senate.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2759/1

A quick look at trade secrets in outer space
---
As commercial ventures in outer space grow, so do issues like the protection of trade secrets such companies may obtain from their space activities. Kamil Muzyka explores the issue of trade secrets and offers one approach to protecting them.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2758/1

India's GSLV Mark III: Another step ahead
---
India is making progress, albeit slowly, on the next generation of its GSLV launch vehicle designed to end the country's dependence on foreign launchers. Debalina Ghoshal examines the state of the vehicle's development.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2757/1

Review: Black Hole
---
Black holes are widely accepted today both in astrophysics and in popular culture, even though half a century ago they seemed inconceivable to many scientists. Jeff Foust reviews a book that offers a concise history of our understanding of black holes, and how they redeemed general relativity.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2756/1


If you missed it, here's what we published in our previous issue:


Impatience for Mars
---
NASA says it has a plan for human missions to Mars in the 2030s. Jeff Foust reports that some, though, are pressing NASA for more details about those plans and coming up with alternative concepts that they believe could accelerate those crewed missions to the Red Planet.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2755/1

Two small steps for humankind
---
Getting humans to live beyond Earth in a sustainable manner is a long-term effort with many steps involved. Derek Webber proposes that NASA focus on two initial steps, supporting key technologies that can enable eventual human space settlement.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2754/1

The need for a launch vehicle development organization: Learning from Brazil's experience
---
Brazil is considering terminating its agreement with Ukraine to launch Cyclone 4 rockets from its spaceport, dealing another setback to that country's space access plans. Ajey Lele suggests that Brazil partner with other nations, including India, to jointly develop launchers.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2753/1

Humankind's greatest adventure: A review of The Last Man on the Moon
---
It's been more than 40 years since Gene Cernan was the last human to walk on the Moon. Shane Hannon talks with the director and producer of a documentary about Cernan's life.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2752/1

Review: Elon Musk
---
He is one of the major figures in the space industry today, but Elon Musk remains something of an enigma to people who are puzzled by his way of doing business and his passion for Mars. Jeff Foust reviews a new biography that covers Musk's life and his work at SpaceX.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2751/1


We appreciate any feedback you may have about these articles as well as
any other questions, comments, or suggestions about The Space Review.
We're also actively soliciting articles to publish in future issues, so
if you have an article or article idea that you think would be of
interest, please email me.

Until next week,

Jeff Foust
Editor, The Space Review
jeff@thespacereview.com
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Fwd: Cause of Russian Progress failure still TBD

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: May 28, 2015 at 9:50:14 AM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Cause of Russian Progress failure still TBD

Cause of Russian Progress failure still TBD

05/27/2015 10:51 PM 

 

Editor's note...

• Posted 02:15 PM ET, 05/27/15: Cause of Russian Progress failure still TBD
• Updated at 03:30 PM ET, 05/27/15: NASA orders crew rotation flight from Boeing (3grafsubafter13thgraf: X X X flights to 2017;pickup14thgraf: The current Russian X X X)

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

Four weeks after a Progress space station supply ship spun out of control in a launch mishap, Russian engineers have not yet revealed what might have gone wrong, casting a cloud of uncertainty over downstream flights of unpiloted cargo ships as well as Soyuz crew ferry craft.

The Progress M-27M/59P cargo craft was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on April 28. The ascent appeared to go smoothly but at roughly the moment the supply ship reached orbit, something went wrong, damaging the cargo ship, imparting a rapid spin and boosting the craft to a higher-than-planned altitude.

Despite repeated attempts during passes over Russian ground stations, engineers were never able to regain control of the errant craft and it burned up in the atmosphere above the Pacific Ocean on May 8. It was the second failure in four years for a Progress bound for the International Space Station.

Telemetry apparently did not provide a conclusive indicator of what went wrong with the latest flight and engineers reportedly began focusing on the possible failure of a weld in the liquid oxygen tank of the Soyuz booster's upper stage.

Anatoly Zak, writing on RussianSpaceWeb and quoting unnamed sources in the Russian space industry, said the weld in question had to be re-worked during the tank's fabrication. A failure in flight could have triggered a catastrophic tank rupture and release of propellant that could have damaged the Progress and imparted the rapid spin.

But Zak reported that other engineers concluded the suspect weld was unlikely to fail in such a manner. An alternative theory, he reported, holds that the Progress could have contributed to the failure if separation commands were issued by the spacecraft's flight computer at the wrong time.

Until the failure investigation is complete, the status of the next Progress launch is in doubt as is launch of a Soyuz spacecraft carrying three fresh crew members to the International Space Station.

In the wake of the Progress failure, the Russians delayed the return to Earth of the Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft carrying outgoing space station commander Terry Virts, European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti and Soyuz commander Anton Shkaplerov. Landing had been planned for May 13 but now is expected around June 11.

Launch of their replacements, Soyuz TMA-17M commander Oleg Kononenko, NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, was delayed from May 26 to around July 27. But that assumes engineers get to the bottom of the Progress failure and confirm no similar issues with the Soyuz.

Space station planners typically like to minimize the time between the departure of one three-seat Soyuz and the arrival of the next. During that period, only three crew members are aboard the outpost and the time available for research is limited.

Whenever Shkaplerov, Virts and Cristoforetti depart, station commander Scott Kelly, cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko and Gennady Padalka will have to carry the load until Kononenko and his Soyuz TMA-17M crewmates arrive.

To help clear the way, the Russians said earlier they would launch the next Progress, originally planned for Aug. 6, in late June or early July, after making sure whatever derailed the earlier Progress had been resolved. But it's not yet clear when that launch might be attempted.

The Soyuz delays highlight NASA's dependence on the Russians for crew transportation. The agency is paying for development of new commercial crew capsules being built by Boeing and SpaceX, but earlier funding shortfalls have delayed initial flights to 2017.

On Wednesday, NASA officially ordered its first crew rotation flight from Boeing and said SpaceX would receive a similar order later this year.

In a statement, NASA said orders are placed "two to three years prior to the missions to provide time for each company to manufacture and assemble the launch vehicle and spacecraft."

NASA requested $1.24 billion for the commercial crew program in its fiscal 2016 budget request, but another funding shortfall appears likely. It's not yet clear what impact that might have on eventual launch dates, but NASA said in its statement that without full funding the agency "will have to delay future milestones for both partners proportionally and extend sole reliance on Russia for crew access to the station."

The current Russian launch disruption comes during a particularly busy period aboard the space station as NASA works to reconfigure the lab complex to enable dockings by the Boeing and SpaceX crew capsules.

Earlier this year, multiple spacewalks were carried out to install wiring and antennas needed by new docking mechanisms and navigation gear that will be used by approaching and departing crew ships.

On Wednesday, flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston remotely operated the station's robot arm to move a storage compartment from the Earth-facing port of the central Unity module to the forward port of the Tranquility compartment. The move freed up Unity for future U.S. cargo ship dockings. Cargo ships also use the Earth-facing port of the forward Harmony module.

On June 26, SpaceX plans to launch its seventh station supply mission, carrying up the first of two new international docking adapters, or IDAs, needed by the commercial crew ships. The first IDA will be attached to a pressurized mating adapter on the front end of Harmony where space shuttles used to dock.

This fall, a spare pressurized mating adapter will be moved from the Tranquility module to the forward Harmony compartment and attached to its upper space-facing port. The second IDA, scheduled for launch late this year, then will be attached to the upper PMA.

Four spacewalks will be required along the way to route power and data to the PMAs and docking adapters.

When all the work is done, the station will have two U.S. crew docking ports that can be used by Boeing and SpaceX and two NASA-managed cargo ports that will be used to berth supply ships launched by SpaceX, Orbital Sciences Corp. and the Japanese space agency.​

 

© 2015 William Harwood/CBS News

 

---

 

Fwd: Commercial Crew Milestones Met; Partners on Track for Missions in 2017

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: May 28, 2015 at 10:02:27 AM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Commercial Crew Milestones Met; Partners on Track for Missions in 2017

 

 

May 27, 2015

15-105

 

Commercial Crew Milestones Met; Partners on Track for Missions in 2017

Credits: NASA

NASA has taken another step toward returning America's ability to launch crew missions to the International Space Station from the United States in 2017.

The Commercial Crew Program ordered its first crew rotation mission from The Boeing Company. SpaceX, which successfully performed a pad abort test of its flight vehicle earlier this month, is expected to receive its first order later this year. Determination of which company will fly its mission to the station first will be made at a later time. The contract calls for the orders to take place prior to certification to support the lead time necessary for the first mission in late 2017, provided the contractors meet certain readiness conditions.

Missions flown to the station on Boeing's Crew Space Transportation (CST)-100 and SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft will restore America's human spaceflight capabilities and increase the amount of scientific research that can be conducted aboard the orbiting laboratory.

"Final development and certification are top priority for NASA and our commercial providers, but having an eye on the future is equally important to the commercial crew and station programs," said Kathy Lueders, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. "Our strategy will result in safe, reliable and cost-effective crew missions."

Boeing's crew transportation system, including the CST-100 spacecraft, has advanced through various commercial crew development and certification phases. The company recently completed the fourth milestone in the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) phase of the program, the delta integrated critical design review. This milestone demonstrates the transportation system has reached design maturity appropriate to proceed with assembly, integration and test activities.

"We're on track to fly in 2017, and this critical milestone moves us another step closer in fully maturing the CST-100 design," said John Mulholland, Boeing's vice president of Commercial Programs. "Our integrated and measured approach to spacecraft design ensures quality performance, technical excellence and early risk mitigation."

Orders under the CCtCap contracts are made two to three years prior to the missions to provide time for each company to manufacture and assemble the launch vehicle and spacecraft. In addition, each company must successfully complete the certification process before NASA will give the final approval for flight. If NASA does not receive the full requested funding for CCtCap in fiscal year 2016 and beyond, NASA will have to delay future milestones for both partners proportionally and extend sole reliance on Russia for crew access to the station.

A standard mission to the station will carry four NASA or NASA-sponsored crew members and about 220 pounds of pressurized cargo. The spacecraft will remain at the station for up to 210 days and serve as an emergency lifeboat during that time. Each contract includes a minimum of two and a maximum potential of six missions.

"Commercial Crew launches are critical to the International Space Station Program because it ensures multiple ways of getting crews to orbit," said Julie Robinson, International Space Station chief scientist. "It also will give us crew return capability so we can increase the crew to seven, letting us complete a backlog of hands-on critical research that has been building up due to heavy demand for the National Laboratory."

NASA's Commercial Crew Program manages the CCtCap contracts and is working with each company to ensure commercial transportation system designs and post-certification missions will meet the agency's safety requirements. Activities that follow the award of missions include a series of mission-related reviews and approvals leading to launch. The program also will be involved in all operational phases of missions to ensure crew safety.

For more information about NASA's Commercial Crew Program, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew

For the latest on Commercial Crew progress, bookmark the program's blog at:

http://blogs.nasa.gov/commercialcrew

For more information about the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

-end-

Stephanie Schierholz
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
stephanie.schierholz@nasa.gov

Stephanie Martin
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
321-867-2468
stephanie.a.martin@nasa.gov

Last Updated: May 28, 2015

Editor: Karen Northon

 

---

 

 

Fwd: X-37B spaceplane’s orbit discovered

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: May 28, 2015 at 9:55:42 AM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: X-37B spaceplane's orbit discovered

 

 

X-37B spaceplane's orbit discovered

May 27, 2015 by Justin Ray

Credit: Boeing

CAPE CANAVERAL — Hobbyists who keep track of the skies with remarkable precision have found the U.S. Air Force's mini space shuttle in its no-longer-secret orbit around the Earth.

The X-37B craft, making the program's fourth mission into space, was launched May 20 from Cape Canaveral atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket.

The ascent entered a news blackout about five minutes after liftoff, as the Centaur upper stage began its burn to put the spaceplane into low-Earth orbit.

It wasn't until later that officials confirmed the launch had gone smoothly for the Orbital Test Vehicle mission No. 4. It is believed the Centaur deployed X-37B about 19 minutes into flight.

Observers this week spotted the craft flying overhead in a 194 by 202 mile orbit (312 X 325 km), tilted 38 degrees relative to the equator.

That perch is lower than previous X-37B missions and the inclination is lower, too.

"OTV 4 entered the lowest initial altitude of the program," said Ted Molczan, a respected satellite observing hobbyist.

"The ground track nearly repeats every 2 days. Frequently repeating ground tracks have been a common feature of the program. This could be an indication of a surveillance mission, or it may offer some operational advantage I have yet to figure out."

Although the Air Force revealed two experiments to be conducted on this fourth mission — an electric propulsion thruster test and materials exposure in the space environment — much was classified about the flight, including the orbit, mission duration and even which of the two X-37B spaceplanes is making the trip.

"The X-37B testbed platform is unique because we can tailor to specific user needs and return experiments back to post-flight inspection," said Ken Torok, Boeing's director of experimental systems.

"Reliability, reusability and responsiveness of the X-37B will fundamentally change how we perform future space missions."

OTV 1 (first flight of Vehicle No. 1)
Launch: April 22, 2010
Landing: Dec. 3 2010
Duration: 224 days

OTV 2 (first flight of Vehicle No. 2)
Launch: March 5, 2011
Landing: June 16, 2012
Duration: 469 days

OTV 3 (second flight of Vehicle No. 1)
Launch: Dec. 11, 2012
Landing: Oct. 17, 2014
Duration: 675 days

"These missions have proven the reliability and flexibility of the system to support a variety of experiments," Torok said.

See our earlier launch coverage.

 

© 2015 Spaceflight Now Inc.

 

---

 

Accurate reporting of capabilities

To loudobbs@ foxnews

If you are going to report on space capabilities, please cover the capabilities of space x as compared to the prematurely retired shuttle & the fact that nasa commercial ignores X37C boeing proposal--- a way to regain partial shuttle capabilities & stop paying Russia. Also, space x manning may be several more years coming-- we need to be able to handle our xport to Iss 4 years ago, in 2011---- do not retire shuttle without a replacement------ most experts said -- but muslim loving NASA adm & potus ignored!!!

Sent from my iPad

America's space program severely damaged by inept leaders!

If you read Jeffs & richardson articles on shuttle, one can come to only one conclusion, America's space program has been severely damaged by "leaders" that obviously can not think in a rationale manner.
The shuttle will support exploration & EO operations excellently, & by placing in museum this country has wasted a large amount of money & is compounding this waste by not implementing the Boeing X37C proposal, a way to regain shuttle capabilities utilizing a modified X37B. All citizens should start blogging & urging all citizens to write, tweet & call their Congressmen & Senators!!

Sent from my iPad

Fwd: How ‘Bout A Little Less Muslim Outreach, And A Little More Science, NASA?

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Robert Hooi" <rwlh21@sbcglobal.net>
Date: May 19, 2015 at 12:51:48 PM CDT
To: <Undisclosed-Recipient:;>
Subject: How 'Bout A Little Less Muslim Outreach, And A Little More Science, NASA?
Reply-To: "Robert Hooi" <rwlh21@sbcglobal.net>

A half year old – but still relevant.

 

How 'Bout A Little Less Muslim Outreach, And A Little More Science, NASA?

Photo credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (Flickr)

Now we can add NASA to a long list of incompetent, failed federal government agencies.

L. Todd Wood October 29, 2014 at 10:11am

One by one, they are falling like dominoes under the leadership of King Obama and his Rasputin.

Every well respected federal agency of these United States has been ruined by an agenda of political correctness and anti-American priorities. NASA is the latest agency to show its true cards of incompetence. Never mind that the rocket was using a Russian engine.

The fact that the United States can't make a motor for a rocket is just appalling. We have now seen the dangers of relying on adversaries for our technological capabilities. I wouldn't be surprised if the Russians sabotaged the motor; time will tell.

The real issue is the sad fact that America's greatness has been squandered in an effort to save the world from Obama's dreamed up racial guilt. In his mind, every minority or anti-Christian group is owed a huge debt by the United States for its horrible past of atrocities and greed. Therefore, Obama's priority has been to siphon off the awesome capabilities of this country to redistribute to the rest of the world.

Take Ebola, for instance. Now we hear that King Obama wants to import sick non-US citizens for treatment in the United States. If we want to help people, wouldn't it be better to treat them in their own country?

Doesn't it cost a whole lot of money to fly people here in bio-containment units? Use the money to build a hospital in Africa! I don't think the American people would care.

In their hearts, Americans are generous.  But bringing more Ebola patients into this country and needlessly threatening the American people is just a really bad decision.  It's beyond poor judgement; it's irrational.

In 2010, RealClearPolitics.com reported, President Obama told NASA administrator Charles Bolden (pictured above) that his highest priority should be "to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science … and math and engineering." Well, who knows if they succeeded in this effort?

What we do know is that America can't launch a rocket into space by itself, and we are blowing up rockets on the launchpad. It's obvious NASA hasn't been focusing on putting people and supplies into space and exploring the greatest frontier.

Now we can add NASA to a long list of incompetent, failed federal government agencies.

Photo credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (Flickr)

The views expressed in this opinion article are solely those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by WesternJournalism.com.

John Glenn on shuttle retirement

http://www.scottcarpenter.com/johnglenn.pdf

Early Retirement of the Shuttle

http://www.scottcarpenter.com/shuttle_opinion.htm


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USA needs this vehicle operational

Fwd: Patent for small space debris tracker

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: May 25, 2015 at 12:05:12 PM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Patent for small space debris tracker

 

 

Patent for Navy small space debris tracker

The U.S. Navy has been given a patent for a device to detect and predict the trajectory of small debris in space.

By Richard Tomkins   |   May 22, 2015 at 1:48 PM

WASHINGTON, May 22 (UPI) -- A U.S. Navy device that detects small debris in space and provides data on their trajectory has been granted a U.S. patent.

The Optical Orbital Debris Spotter from the Naval Research Laboratory is compact in size, uses low power and can be integrated into larger satellite designs or flown independently onboard nano-satellite platforms, the Navy said.

The device concept is the creation of a continuous, permanent light sheet by using a collimated light source, such as a low-power laser. All particles intersecting the light sheet will scatter the light from the source, independent of the time of intersection with the plane of the light sheet.

"When the flight path of an orbital debris object intersects the light sheet, the object will scatter the light, and a portion of that scattered light can be detected by a wide angle camera," said Dr. Christoph Englert, research physicist at NRL. "The knowledge of the light sheet geometry and the angles of the scattering event with respect to the camera, derived from the signal location on the sensor, allow the determination of the intersection point, and possibly even size, and shape information about the debris particle.

"Using a dedicated nano-satellite, or CubeSat, the system could also be used for gathering of more comprehensive debris field data. Losing the satellite at some point during the mission by a fatal collision could be considered a justifiable risk in comparison to the odds of getting unprecedented data sets for debris field characterization and modeling."

Data sets collected by the sensor concept could be incorporated into modeling and tracking software for incorporation into a global space tracking tools such as the Space Surveillance Network, NASA's Orbital Debris Engineering Model, and the European Space Agency's Optical Ground Station.

"Man-made debris orbiting the Earth continues to increase at an alarming rate - with objects smaller than one centimeter exceeding 100 million," the Navy said. "The effects of collisions occurring at orbital velocities approaching speeds of several kilometers (miles) per second can range from minor to catastrophic. In Low Earth Orbit, where many space-based assets reside, small debris objects are of concern not only due to their abundance, but because they are often difficult to track or even detect on a routine basis."                    

© 2015 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 

 

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(1) REAL Space Act of 2013

https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn


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Could use expanded X37B -- X37C to get much of shuttle capabilities Back

But, seems almost everybody is Brain dead--- powers that be will not consider that EITHER. Read boeing proposal for x37C.

Go figure, we had in shuttle UNIQUE capabilities, that were the envy of the world.
We could accomplish tasks in EO that had not been accomplished by any other country, & by operating shuttle, we improved the following:
1. Improved designs for various systems & mfg. & test capabilities
2. Created tens of thousands of excellent jobs
3. Supported iss & maintained an improved safety state than is presently being done re Kraft letter on placing Iss in danger w/ o shuttle
4. Provided the option by maintaining a STS to accomplish important EO tasks, & to explore universe by placing exploration modules in EO.
5. Improve Iss research by providing equipment & supplies that can not be done with Soyuz & cargo transportation system.
6. By maintaining a multiplicity of operations & a dynamic program, provided a Dream for our youth to strive for.
7. Developed approaches/techniques for military operations in EO which are critical to the capabilities of national security

But, after spending billions , we scrap the effort, & develop capsule approach that will not be manned for several more years, & when it is will not come CLOSE to shuttle capabilities, meanwhile WE pay Russia.

Whole deal TOTALLY NONSENSICAL--- seem our leaders in Congress have lost their minds!!!!

Sent from my iPad

Sent from my iPad

We had IT ALL in Shuttle !

Go figure, we had in shuttle UNIQUE capabilities, that were the envy of the world.
We could accomplish tasks in EO that had not been accomplished by any other country, & by operating shuttle, we improved the following:
1. Improved designs for various systems & mfg. & test capabilities
2. Created tens of thousands of excellent jobs
3. Supported iss & maintained an improved safety state than is presently being done re Kraft letter on placing Iss in danger w/ o shuttle
4. Provided the option by maintaining a STS to accomplish important EO tasks, & to explore universe by placing exploration modules in EO.
5. Improve Iss research by providing equipment & supplies that can not be done with Soyuz & cargo transportation system.
6. By maintaining a multiplicity of operations & a dynamic program, provided a Dream for our youth to strive for.
7. Developed approaches/techniques for military operations in EO which are critical to the capabilities of national security

But, after spending billions , we scrap the effort, & develop capsule approach that will not be manned for several more years, & when it is will not come CLOSE to shuttle capabilities, meanwhile WE pay Russia.

Whole deal TOTALLY NONSENSICAL--- seem our leaders in Congress have lost their minds!!!!

Sent from my iPad

Fwd: Remembering Gordon Cooper's Faith 7 Mission

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: May 18, 2015 at 7:41:41 PM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Remembering Gordon Cooper's Faith 7 Mission

 

 

AmericaSpace

For a nation that explores
May 16th, 2015

'How About Now?' Remembering Gordon Cooper's Faith 7 Mission (Part 1)

By Ben Evans

 

Gordon Cooper is extracted from the Faith 7 capsule, on the deck of the USS Kearsarge on 16 May 1963. The astronaut's 34-hour, 22-orbit mission proved as colorful as Cooper himself. Photo Credit: NASA

More than a half-century ago, on 15 May 1963, America launched astronaut Gordon Cooper on its longest manned space mission to date. In doing so, NASA began to take strides toward meeting President John F. Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the Moon before the end of the decade. The humiliation of Yuri Gagarin's orbital flight had been met by two suborbital missions and three Earth-circling voyages. When Wally Schirra ended his nine-hour, six-orbit flight in October 1962, it was considered so successful that some voices within NASA advised ending Project Mercury immediately and pressing on with the two-man Project Gemini. Others countered that one of Mercury's goals was to fly an astronaut for more than a day and long-duration experience was highly desirable in the run-up to Gemini. By the end of the year, the space agency was thus hard at work preparing to close out Mercury in style with a "Manned One-Day Mission" (MODM). To history, it would be known as "Faith 7", and around the colorful man who flew it would grow a legend which endures to this very day.

Originally planned for April 1963, the scope of the mission expanded in the wake of Schirra's success from 18 to 22 orbits, producing a flight time of around 34 hours in space. To be fair, the MODM would fly for barely a quarter of the Soviet Union's four-day Vostok 3 mission in August 1962, but its preparations were stupendous. It would demand massive tracking support, including 28 ships, 171 aircraft, 18,000 military personnel, and around-the-clock control operations, headed by veteran flight directors Chris Kraft and John Hodge. Finally, on 14 November 1962, NASA announced that astronaut Gordon Cooper would fly the MODM, with Alan Shepard as his backup.

Yet the months before the flight were marred with difficulty. The military "F-series" version of its Atlas rocket had suffered two inexplicable failures, and when Cooper's "D-series" booster rolled out of the factory in January 1963 it did not pass its initial inspection. After extensive rewiring of its flight controls, NASA reluctantly announced on 12 February that the launch would be delayed from mid-April until mid-May. To support the astronaut for more than a day in orbit, the Mercury capsule carried better batteries, additional oxygen, extra cooling and drinking water, more hydrogen peroxide fuel, a full load of life-support consumables, and an expansive scientific payload. One plan even called for the replacement of Cooper's fiberglass couch with a lightweight hammock, but fears that it might stretch and the astronaut might "bounce" meant that the proposal was never approved.

During training, Gordon Cooper (right) discusses one of the mission's cameras with his backup, Alan Shepard. Photo Credit: NASA

Speaking at a press conference on 8 February, Cooper described his mission as "practically a flying camera". Firstly, a slow-scan television had been installed into the capsule to monitor the astronaut and his instruments and a battery of other cameras would be aboard: a 70 mm Hasselblad, a specially modified 35 mm device to observe the "zodiacal light" and a 16 mm all-purpose motion picture unit. Cooper himself would wear an upgraded space suit, with a mechanical seal for his helmet, together with new gloves and a more mobile torso. His boots were integrated to make them more comfortable and the whole ensemble was much less bulky than earlier suits.

By the middle of March, the mission—officially dubbed "Mercury-Atlas-9"—appeared to be back on track, when the Atlas booster passed its acceptance trials without a single minor discrepancy. Several weeks later, on 22 April, the capsule itself was attached to the top of the rocket. After much consideration, Cooper had named his spacecraft "Faith 7" to symbolize "my trust in God, my country, and my teammates." Within the higher echelons of NASA, concerns were raised about the name. (A mission failure, the Washington Post told its readers, could yield unfortunate headlines, such as "The United States today lost Faith".)

In tandem with Cooper's preparations, there was also consideration given to attempting a "Mercury-Atlas-10" mission, flown by Alan Shepard for up to three days, to slightly close the space-endurance gap with the Soviets. As part of NASA's Project Orbit in February 1963, tests had already demonstrated that the Mercury capsule could theoretically support a four-day mission, although the effects of freezing or sluggishness in its hydrogen peroxide thrusters remained unknown. Shepard, of course, was in favour of a three-day flight, and had already named his spacecraft "Freedom 7-II". Had it gone ahead, it would have launched sometime in October 1963, and Shepard even went so far as to lobby President John F. Kennedy for support, although the president rightly deferred the issue to NASA Administrator Jim Webb. "After Cooper finished his mission," Shepard reflected in a February 1998 NASA Oral History interview, "there was another spacecraft, ready to go. My thought was to put me up there and just let me stay until something ran out—until the batteries ran down, until the oxygen ran out, or until we lost a control or something; just an open-ended kind of a mission."

As history has shown, Freedom 7-II would never fly. On 11 May 1963, Julian Scheer, NASA Deputy Assistant Administrator for Public Affairs, emphatically declared this fact and Jim Webb endorsed it, arguing that Gemini was already primed for long-duration missions. His rationale was that it was pointless to demonstrate a capability just once, with an obsolete system. Moreover, an accident on Shepard's flight could set Project Gemini back in its tracks. In mid-June, the flight officially vanished from consideration and its spacecraft was put into storage. By then, Gordon Cooper had flown his 34-orbit mission, marking an end of the beginning in America's conquest of space.

Cooper was the sixth and final astronaut to fly a Mercury mission. Photo Credit: NASA

Cooper had almost missed out flying in Project Mercury entirely. Since his selection as one of the nation's first seven astronauts in April 1959, he had gained a reputation as something of a hotshot—a daredevil pilot with a passion for fast cars—balanced against criticisms that he was a complainer who pulled dangerous stunts. (On one occasion, his F-106 Delta Dart jet screamed right outside, and below, the office window of Project Mercury Operations Director Walt Williams.) Even fellow astronaut Deke Slayton wrote of his personal surprise that Cooper had even been picked as an astronaut. "My first reaction was, something's wrong," Slayton wrote in his autobiography, Deke, co-authored with Michael Cassutt. "Either he's on the wrong list, or I am." Cooper was an engineer at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and was not even a test pilot.

Still, the man who would fly the final Mercury mission was all but born in a pilot's seat. His father, an Air Force lawyer and county court judge, frequently plopped his young son on his lap in the cockpit of an old Command-Aire biplane and Cooper took the controls for the first time aged only six. By his teens, the boy was taking lessons in a J-3 Piper Cub and soloed, "officially", at 16. The story of Cooper's life was very much a story of his love affair with aviation. Even in his mid-seventies, he told an interviewer that "I get cranky if I don't fly at least three times a month!"

His love of fast cars was also legendary, as flight director Gene Kranz, arriving at Cape Canaveral for his first day at work, related. "After the plane rolled to a stop," Kranz wrote, "a shiny new Chevrolet convertible wheeled to a halt just beyond the wing tip. An Air Force enlisted man popped out, saluted and held open the car's door for a curly-haired guy in civilian clothes, a fellow passenger who deplaned ahead of me." The curly-haired man offered Kranz a lift to the Cape. Quickly, he "peeled into a 180-degree turn and raced along the ramp for a hundred yards, my neck snapping back as he floored the Chevy. I had never driven this fast on a military base in my life!" For a few minutes, Kranz wondered if he had a madman behind the wheel, as the guy seemed to break every rule in the book and had no fear of being pulled over by the Air Police. Hitting the highway, he made a wide turn and took a hard left, burning rubber. After joyfully yelling Eeee-hah at the top of his lungs, he turned and offered his hand to Kranz.

"Hi, I'm Gordo Cooper."

Kranz had not only met his first Mercury astronaut, but perhaps the most controversial Mercury astronaut of them all.

With a background in the Marine Corps, the Army and the Air Force and a wife, Trudy, who was also a qualified pilot, Cooper flew F-84 Thunderjet and F-8 Crusader jets in West Germany and served as a project engineer for the F-102 Delta Dagger and F-106 Delta Dart. On one occasion, several years before they became astronauts, he and another Air Force pilot, Virgil "Gus" Grissom, were aboard a T-33 together when it crashed off the end of the runway at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, Colo. Thankfully, neither man was hurt. In early 1959, both men received mysterious classified orders to attend a briefing in Washington, D.C. After completing a battery of punishing physical and psychological tests for Project Mercury, Cooper was so confident that he would be chosen that he told his boss to start looking for a replacement and requested two weeks' leave to move his family across country to Langley, Va. When NASA called him to ask how soon he could get to Langley, Cooper's response was "How about now?"

In the months before launch, opinion was divided amongst NASA managers over whether Cooper (right) or his backup, Alan Shepard (left), should fly the final Mercury mission. In this training image from February 1963, the pair examine one of the spacecraft's instrument panels. Photo Credit: NASA

As an astronaut, though, his early days were somewhat less illustrious and led several senior managers to consider bypassing him for a space mission. They regarded him as an unpredictable complainer, with a seemingly indifferent stance toward the public image that NASA wanted its astronauts to extol. Cooper protested about the lengthy periods away from his family, about the lack of opportunity to fly fast jets and collect flight pay, and he even threatened to leave the program when Deke Slayton was dropped from his own Mercury mission by a heart murmur. Flying a chase aircraft over the Cape during Gus Grissom's launch in July 1961, Cooper buzzed the launch site, momentarily disrupted communications traffic and earned himself a ticking-off from his boss. On another occasion, flying to Huntsville, Ala., he landed on a runway that was too short and asked to be refueled. When the ground crews told him that it was too dangerous for him to take off again, Cooper shrugged, took off regardless, and made it to his destination with fumes in his tanks!

Even in the weeks preceding Faith 7, there were persistent stories in the press that Cooper might be pushed aside in favour of his backup, Alan Shepard. So shaky was Walt Williams' "faith" in Cooper that he approached Shepard, several months earlier, and strongly hinted that he might be tipped to fly instead. Believing the mission to be his, Shepard trained feverishly, but Deke Slayton—removed from his own flight only months earlier—felt that Faith 7 belonged to Cooper. Others agreed that it would look bad for NASA if the astronauts were swapped so soon before launch. A timely intervention by Wally Schirra (who threatened to raise the roof if Cooper was overlooked) certainly helped matters, but Walt Williams was convinced that Shepard could do a better job.

As partial compensation, Williams half-promised Shepard a three-day Mercury mission, which ultimately never transpired. Shepard later gained his revenge on the operations director, by lending him the keys to his Corvette. As Williams drove away, Shepard phoned the base's security office to tell them that "someone" had just stolen his car…

Despite having finally secured the mission as his own Cooper was possibly reacting to pent-up frustration when he took a flight in an F-106, two days before his scheduled 14 May 1963 liftoff. To the great surprise of Williams and Chris Kraft, the astronaut made a very low pass over the Cape. "We were talking," Kraft recalled of that quiet Sunday afternoon in Williams' office, "and a sudden roar came upon us. The roar was a jet airplane diving onto the Cape at a very high rate of speed, which was forbidden." Glancing out of the window, they saw Cooper in the pilot's seat, as he flew beneath the second-floor office window. Since the Cape was restricted airspace, the switchboard quickly lit up with frantic emergency calls. Williams went berserk and threatened to have Cooper's "ass on a plate".

The furious operations director called Slayton, who was by now in charge of the astronaut corps and Cooper's immediate boss, to demand action. He had to shout to be heard over the din of the F-106. (Williams even phoned Alan Shepard to ask if he was ready for launch.) For his part, Slayton harbored severe reservations about Cooper, but refused to yank him off the mission. Both he and Williams allowed the astronaut to sweat about his flight status for 24 hours, and not until the evening of the 13th did the operations director finally relent and agree to let him fly. Cooper's supporters regarded the incident as the action of a good, smart pilot and a man with a mission "to go a little bit higher and a little bit faster".

On Faith 7, he would fly higher and faster than ever before.

 

Copyright © 2015 AmericaSpace - All Rights Reserved

 

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AmericaSpace

For a nation that explores
May 17th, 2015

'The Right Man': Remembering Gordon Cooper's Faith 7 Mission (Part 2)

By Ben Evans

 

Faith 7 descends to a splashdown on 16 May 1963, after Project Mercury's longest mission of 34 hours. Photo Credit: NASA

Early on 14 May 1963, a hotshot pilot lay on his back in a tiny capsule, atop a converted ballistic missile, and steeled himself to be blasted into space. On Project Mercury's final mission, Gordon Cooper would spend 34 hours in space, circle the globe 22 times, and establish NASA's first real baseline of long-duration experience as the space agency and the nation prepared to land a man on the Moon before the end of the decade. To be fair, the flight would last barely a quarter as long as the Soviet Union's four-day Vostok 3 mission a year earlier, but for NASA it would mark an important step forward. Yet, as described in yesterday's AmericaSpace history article, there were many senior managers who doubted that Cooper was the right man for the job. Two days earlier, he had buzzed the administration building at Cape Canaveral in his F-106 jet, sparking a flurry of frantic emergency calls and maddening Project Mercury Operations Director Walt Williams to the extent that he almost grounded Cooper in favor of his backup, Alan Shepard. Cooper had much ground to make up in order to restore faith in his abilities.

On launch morning, Cooper breakfasted with Shepard. Only hours earlier, Shepard had convinced himself that the mission was his for the taking. He could not believe that Cooper could possibly be so rash as to buzz the very building in which his bosses were holding a meeting and was frustrated at the lost opportunity to fly himself, to the extent that he planned a somewhat mean-spirited joke. Press spokesman John "Shorty" Powers had arrived early that morning with two cameramen, who would shoot behind-the-scenes footage of Cooper as he prepared for launch. To their shock, they discovered that none of the overhead lights were working, nor were the electrical sockets. Someone had cut the wires, removed every light bulb, inserted thick tape into the sockets, and replaced the bulbs. No one pointed any fingers, but Powers recognized Shepard's grin. It was typical of him, said Powers, "when he has a mouse under his hat."

Another gift from Shepard awaited Cooper when he boarded the spacecraft he had named "Faith 7" at 6:36 a.m. EDT: a small suction-cup pump on the seat, labeled Remove Before Flight, in honor of the new urine-collection device. (Cooper would become the first Mercury astronaut to urinate in a manner other than "in his suit.") At this stage, the only indication of doubt that the mission would fly came from meteorologist Ernest Amman, although the trouble increased when a radar at the secondary control center in Bermuda malfunctioned. Next, at 8 a.m. EDT, with an hour remaining in the countdown, a diesel engine stubbornly refused to work. It was supposed to move the gantry away from the Atlas rocket, and two hours were wasted trying to fix a fouled fuel injector pump. The countdown resumed around midday and the gantry was successfully retracted, but a computer converter failed at the Bermuda station and the launch attempt had to be scrubbed.

Cooper departs the transport van for Pad 14 on launch morning. Photo Credit: NASA

Despite having spent six hours on his back, Gordon Cooper was upbeat and managed to summon a wry grin when he was extracted from Faith 7. "I was just getting to the real fun part," he said. "It was a very real simulation!" As the astronaut spent the afternoon fishing, technicians readied the Atlas and the spacecraft for another attempt, early on 15 May.

Arriving at the capsule for the second time, he saluted McDonnell pad leader Guenter Wendt with mock formality, reporting in as "Private Fifth Class Cooper," to which the German pad "fuehrer" responded in kind. The roots of the joke came two years earlier, when Cooper stood in for Alan Shepard in a practice countdown session. His mock terror—begging Wendt not to make him climb aboard the primed rocket—had so annoyed a number of NASA managers that a couple even threatened to bust him to Private Fifth Class. Ironically, Cooper and Wendt liked the idea and ran with it.

Despite a problem with the Atlas' guidance equipment, which necessitated a brief hold, the countdown marched crisply on this second attempt; so crisply, in fact, that Cooper fell asleep. It took fellow astronaut Wally Schirra several efforts to bellow his name over the communications link to awaken him. Then, with just 19 seconds to go, another halt was called in order to allow launch controllers to ascertain that the rocket's systems had properly assumed their automatic sequence. Shortly after 8 a.m. on 15 May 1963, America's sixth man in space thundered off the pad in what Cooper would later describe as "a smooth, but definite push." Within minutes, Faith 7 was inserted into an orbit so good that its heading was 0.0002 degrees from perfect and its velocity "right on the money" at 17,550 mph (28,240 km/h). "Smack-dab in the middle of the plot," an admiring Schirra told him.

So rapid was Cooper's passage across the Atlantic Ocean that he expressed astonishment when called by the tracking stations in the Canaries and Kano in Nigeria. The first day of the mission went extraordinarily well—at one stage, the astronaut's heart rate surged during a sleep period, suggesting that he was experiencing an exciting dream—and he moved swiftly through his many tasks. Earth observations, photography, collection of urine samples, and monitoring his ship's health occupied his time, although he did grab a few moments to chew some brownies, fruit cake, and bacon chunks. Cooper's use of the cabin's oxygen supply was so efficient that Alan Shepard jokingly asked him to "stop holding your breath." The astronaut responded that—as the only non-smoker amongst the Mercury Seven—his lungs were in better shape than those of his comrades. If his oxygen usage was minimal, so too was his fuel expenditure, to such an extent that controllers nicknamed him "The Miser."

Faith 7 thunders into orbit on 15 May 1963. Photo Credit: NASA

One of Cooper's most important experiments was the deployment of a 6-inch (15-cm) sphere, instrumented with xenon strobe lights, part of an effort to track a flashing beacon in space. Three hours after launch, the astronaut clicked a squib switch and felt the experiment separate from Faith 7, but he was only able to see it very occasionally, at orbital sunset, pulsing in the darkness. Another experiment involved the release of a 30-inch (76-cm) Mylar balloon, painted fluorescent orange. Nine hours into the mission, Cooper set cameras, attitude, and switches to deploy the balloon, but it refused to move. Another attempt was also fruitless. The intent was for the balloon to inflate with nitrogen and extend on a 100-foot (30-meter) tether, after which a strain gauge would measure differences in "pull" at Faith 7's 168-mile (270 km) apogee and 99-mile (160 km) perigee. Sadly, the cause of the balloon's failure was never ascertained.

Evaluating an astronaut's ability to make observations from space achieved more success when Cooper spotted a 3-million-candlepower xenon light at Bloemfontein in South Africa. He also made detailed notes as he flew over cities, large oil refineries, roads, rivers, and small villages, and even saw smoke twirling from the chimneys of Himalayan houses. Lighting conditions had to be appropriate for such observations, but in the wake of the mission Cooper's claims were disputed, until two visibility researchers from the University of California at San Diego verified that in one instance the astronaut had seen a Border Patrol vehicle's dust cloud, kicked up on a dirt road near El Centro on the U.S.-Mexican border. The researchers argued that the vehicle and dust cloud were more visible from Cooper's vantage point than from the road itself.

Ten hours after launch, the astronaut was advised that he had exceeded Wally Schirra's endurance record for the longest American manned mission and that his orbital parameters were good enough for at least 17 circuits of the globe. The phenomenal speed of his flight path was amply illustrated when he spoke to fellow astronaut John Glenn, based on the Coastal Sentry tracking ship, near Kyushu, Japan, then swept south-eastwards, over the empty Pacific Ocean, to speak to a controller near Pitcairn Island, more than 6,800 miles (11,000 km) distant, just 10 minutes later.

Sleeping in space was virtually impossible, so spectacular was the view. As Cooper passed over South America, then Africa, northern India, and into Tibet, the photographic opportunities were priceless. Using the direction of chimney smoke from the Himalayan houses, he was even able to make a few rudimentary estimates about his velocity and the ground winds. Despite the difficulty, he pulled Faith 7's window shades around 13 hours after launch to catch some sleep. He dozed intermittently, but found himself having to anchor his thumbs into his helmet restraint strap to keep his arms from floating freely. Every so often, he would lift the shade to take photographs or make status reports or curse quietly to himself when his body-heat exchanger crept too high or too low.

Faith 7 is lowered gently onto the deck of the USS Kearsarge, with Gordon Cooper aboard. Photo Credit: NASA

With the exception of niggling glitches, everything seemed to be going well. Cooper's oxygen supply was plentiful and his fuel gauges for both automatic and manual tanks looked good. During a brief spell of quiet time, he paused for a short prayer. He thanked God for the privileged opportunity to fly the mission, for being in space, and for seeing such wondrous sights. That prayer marked the beginning of Faith 7's troubles. Early on his 19th orbit, around 30 hours after launch, he was over the western Pacific Ocean and out of radio contact with the ground, when his attention was arrested by the eerie green glow of one of his instrument panel lights. It was the "0.05 G" indicator, and it should normally have illuminated after retrofire, as Faith 7 commenced its descent from orbit. Moreover, it should have been quickly followed by the autopilot placing the capsule into a slow roll.

Had Cooper inadvertently "slipped" out of orbit?

This suspicion was quickly refuted by orbital data from the ground, which suggested either that the indicator was at fault or that the autopilot's re-entry circuitry had been tripped out of its normal sequence. An orbit later, Cooper was advised to switch to autopilot and Faith 7 began a slow roll. This presented its own issues. For proper flight, the autopilot had to perform other functions before retrofire, and, since each function was sequentially linked, Mission Control knew that several earlier steps had not been executed. This meant that the astronaut might be forced to control those steps by hand. Worse was to come. On his 20th orbit, Cooper lost all attitude readings and, a revolution later, one of three power inverters went dead. He tried to switch to a second inverter, but it would not respond. The third was needed to run cooling equipment during re-entry, so the astronaut was now left with an autopilot devoid of electrical power.

On the ground, the options centred on bringing Cooper home on batteries alone. The astronaut could not rely on his gyroscope or clock to properly position Faith 7 for re-entry, since both depended on electrical power, and he watched with dismay as carbon dioxide levels began to rise both in the cabin and within his space suit. In true Right Stuff fashion, his comment over the radio to fellow astronaut Scott Carpenter was nonchalant: "Things are beginning to stack up a little!"

Gordon Cooper, the hotshot final pilot of Project Mercury, grins at recovery personnel after his 34-hour mission. Faith 7 would prove one of the high points of his astronaut career. Photo Credit: NASA

At length, on his 22nd orbit, Cooper made his way smoothly through the pre-retrofire checklist, steadying Faith 7 with his hand controller and lining up a horizontal mark on his window with Earth's horizon; this dipped the capsule's nose to the desired 34-degree angle. Next, he lined up a vertical mark with pre-determined stars to acquire his correct heading and astronaut John Glenn counted him down to retrofire. Cooper hit the button once—receiving no light signals, due to his electrical system problems—and verified that he could feel the punch of the three small engines igniting behind him. During the descent from orbit, he periodically damped out unwanted motions with his hand controller and manually deployed both his drogue and main parachutes. Faith 7 hit the Pacific, about 80 miles (130 km) southeast of Midway Island, within sight of the recovery ship USS Kearsarge.

The capsule floundered for an instant, then righted itself. Cooper's 34-hour mission had concluded just as each of the Mercury Seven would have wanted: with a pilot in full control of his craft. Two years later, in August 1965, Cooper would command Gemini V, which seized the space endurance record from the Soviets, and many have speculated that if circumstances played out differently he may have been the first member of the Mercury Seven to walk on the Moon. Certainly, as late as 1968, Cooper was in active training as backup commander for the Apollo 10 mission and, judging by Deke Slayton's crew rotation cycle, some have argued that this would have made him a contender to lead Apollo 13.

Others have cast doubt on this assumption, noting Cooper's strap-it-on-and-go attitude, his aversion to the simulators, and his desire to pursue other interests, including a 24-hour road race. Slayton certainly felt sentimental toward his friend, but admitted that he "didn't feel any obligation, moral or otherwise" to stick to the rotation cycle. Ultimately, command of Apollo 13 went to Jim Lovell and Cooper left NASA in 1970.

Yet all that was in the future on 16 May 1963, as Gordon Cooper basked in the success of his first mission. He had spent more time in space than all of the other members of the Mercury Seven, put together. As for Walt Williams, the disgruntled Project Mercury Operations Director, who had tried to have Cooper removed from Faith 7, it was a case of having been proved wrong. When the pair met at Cape Canaveral, Williams warmly shook Cooper's hand. "Gordo," he said, "you were the right man for the mission!" 

 

Copyright © 2015 AmericaSpace - All Rights Reserved

 

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