Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - December 11, 2012 and JSC Today

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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: December 11, 2012 7:23:16 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - December 11, 2012 and JSC Today

Bundle up   its cold outside.

 

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

 

JSC TODAY HEADLINES

1.            A Celebration of 'Coats!' Tickets on Sale Beginning 12/12/12!

2.            Expedition Crew Debrief and Awards Ceremony: Tuesday, Dec. 18, 7:30 p.m., Space Center Houston Theater

3.            Joint Leadership Team (JLT) Early Career Informal Mentoring Workshop -- Dec. 13

4.            Call For JSC Exceptional Software Awards -- Deadline is Friday, Dec. 14

5.            Blood Drive -- Dec. 11, 12 and 13

6.            This Week at Starport

7.            Space Serenity Al-Anon Meeting Today

8.            Society of Reliability Engineers (SRE) Luncheon Meeting

9.            Environmental Brown Bag: Developments in Electrifying Cars

10.          The Teague is Putting Up its Feet for the Holidays

11.          TTI RLLS Portal Telecom Support WebEx Training

12.          JSC Case Study Development

13.          Payload Safety Process and Requirements: Jan. 25

________________________________________     QUOTE OF THE DAY

" Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one. "

 

-- Albert Einstein

________________________________________

1.            A Celebration of 'Coats!' Tickets on Sale Beginning 12/12/12!

Mr. Coats will retire at the end of this month; however, he wants to enjoy one last event with you! Please join him for a retirement celebration at Space Center Houston on Friday, Jan. 11. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. with a program beginning at 6 p.m. Hors d'oeuvres and a cash bar are part of the evening festivities. Tickets are $10 until Dec. 31, then $15 until Jan. 8. Tickets are available in the Starport Gift Shops in Buildings 3 and 11 cafés or at the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership office (17045 Saturn Lane) beginning 12/12/12.

Diana T. Norman x32646

 

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2.            Expedition Crew Debrief and Awards Ceremony: Tuesday, Dec. 18, 7:30 p.m., Space Center Houston Theater

The International Space Station Expedition Special Event featuring Gennady Padalka, Exp. 31 flight engineer and Exp. 32 commander; Sergei Revin, Exp. 31/32 flight engineer; Joe Acaba, Exp. 31/32 flight engineer; Yuri Malenchenko, Exp. 32/33 flight engineer; Sunita Williams, Exp. 32 flight engineer and Exp. 33 commander; and Akihiko Hoshide, Exp. 32/33 flight engineer, will be held Tuesday, Dec. 18, at 7:30 p.m. in the Space Center Houston Theater. The event will consist of awards, slides, a video presentation and question-and-answer session. This event is free and open to JSC employees, contractors, friends, family members and public guests. For more information, contact Jessica Ocampo at x27804.

Jessica Ocampo 281-792-7804

 

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3.            Joint Leadership Team (JLT) Early Career Informal Mentoring Workshop -- Dec. 13

Just a reminder, if you have registered for the JLT Early Career Informal Mentoring Workshop, the event is this Thursday, Dec. 13.

Event Details:

o             Thursday, Dec. 13, from 4 to 6:30 p.m.

o             Building 12

o             Sandwiches and beverages will be provided

Dress is casual. Bring a pen to take notes. Protégés will earn SATERN credit when signed in for the event.

Please visit the event website often for updated information. A full agenda will be available for you to plan ahead and decide which topics to attend at each of the three sessions. A full list of mentors will also be available on the website before the day of the event.

We look forward to seeing you Thursday afternoon!

-The JLT Early Career Informal Mentoring Workshop Implementation Team

Andrea Hanson http://jlt.jsc.nasa.gov/index.cfm?action=mentoring

 

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4.            Call For JSC Exceptional Software Awards -- Deadline is Friday, Dec. 14

This is the 2013 call for software award nominations at JSC. Nominees will be considered for the following awards:

o             JSC Exceptional Software Award: $8,000 total award

o             JSC nominee for NASA Software of the Year Award: Up to $100,000 total award possible

o             JSC software nominees for Space Act Awards: Variable amount up to $100,000

o             NASA Exceptional Technology Achievement Medals

The JSC Exceptional Software Award is designed to recognize software that has demonstrated outstanding value to accomplishing the JSC mission.

Apply online using the Web nomination form and to find out other information.

Directorates and individuals must provide their nominations by close of business Friday, Dec. 14, via the form link listed. Questions can be sent to Lynn Vernon or Tondra Allen.

Lynn R. Vernon x36917 http://jscexceptionalsoftware.jsc.nasa.gov/SOY_nominate/

 

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5.            Blood Drive -- Dec. 11, 12 and 13

Give the "Gift of Life" by donating at our final blood drive for 2012 on Dec. 11, 12 and 13. Your blood donation can help up to three patients.

You can donate at Ellington Field on Dec. 11. A donor coach will be located between Hangars 276 and 135 for donations from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

You can donate at JSC from Dec. 12 to 13 in the Teague Auditorium lobby or at the donor coach located next to the Building 11 Starport Café from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

You can donate in the Gilruth Center Coronado Room on Dec. 13 from 7:30 a.m. to noon.

Criteria for donating can be found at the St. Luke's link on our website. T-shirts, snacks and drinks are available for all donors.

Teresa Gomez x39588 http://jscpeople.jsc.nasa.gov/blooddrv/blooddrv.htm

 

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6.            This Week at Starport

Countdown to Christmas! The Starport Gift Shops are counting down with savings with a sale every day from now until Christmas. Stop by daily to see what is featured for the day. Hint: Today is buy-one-get-one-half-price men's and women's apparel, and tomorrow is 20 percent off toys. Shop every day at the Starport Gift Shops in Buildings 3 and 11 and save money on all of your official NASA gifts.

Want to stay up to date on group exercise schedule additions and adjustments, special programs, classes, exciting opportunities and deals at the Gilruth Center? Subscribe to the Gilruth Center/Starport Fitness Listserv.

Registration for spring 2013 league sports starts on Jan. 2. For more details on each sport, click here.

Sam's Club will be in the Buildings 3 and 11 cafés on Dec. 19 to discuss membership options for the JSC workforce. You may also sign up for membership on this day. 

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

 

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7.            Space Serenity Al-Anon Meeting Today

"Enjoy Every Moment" reminds Al-Anon members to enjoy this holiday season. Our 12-step meeting is for co-workers, families and friends of those who work or live with the family disease of alcoholism. We meet today, Dec. 11, in Building 32, (new) Room 135, from 11 to 11:45 a.m. Visitors are invited to come to listen and learn.

Lorraine Bennett x36130 http://sashare.jsc.nasa.gov/EAP/Pages/default.aspx

 

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8.            Society of Reliability Engineers (SRE) Luncheon Meeting

The Greater Houston Chapter of SRE will hold a general membership meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 12, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Anyone is welcome to come and hear a presentation by Thomas (Van) Keeping on the reliability and maintainability prediction data collected at the start of the International Space Station Program, the efforts to address some of the shortcomings that have been identified over time and the hypothesized sources of those shortcomings.

Note new meeting location: The meeting will be held at Tommy's Restaurant & Oyster Bar (2555 Bay Area Blvd., Houston). Each attendee is responsible for his or her own meal.

For more information, contact one of the officers below:

President - Bob Graber: 281-335-2305, robert.r.graber@nasa.gov

Vice President - Lorenzo Calloway: 832-527-0086, lcallowayii@aol.com

Treasurer - Hung Nguyen: 281-483-3233, hung.x.nguyen@nasa.gov

Secretary - Troy Schwartz: 281-871-7512, troy.schwartz@halliburton.com

Robert Graber 281-335-2305

 

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9.            Environmental Brown Bag: Developments in Electrifying Cars

Have you noticed the increasing number of electric cars on the road recently? Curious about the engineering behind the hype? This month's brown bag will start with the existing state of electrified-car technology, then move into future development and technology. Bring your questions on the Chevy Volt (a plug-in hybrid), Nissan Leaf (a battery electric vehicle) and others. Dave Hanson will be presenting today, Dec. 11, from noon to 1 p.m. The brown bag will be held in Building 45, Room 751.

Michelle Fraser-Page x34237

 

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10.          The Teague is Putting Up its Feet for the Holidays

The Building 2S Teague Auditorium and lobby serves us faithfully by hosting events and meetings all year long. However, the building has cried "Enough!" and will be closed from Dec. 24 to Jan. 1 for the holidays to kick back with some hot apple cider and maybe a good novel. The building, I'm sure, will be restored to its normal good spirits beginning Jan. 2. Thanks for your understanding.

JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111

 

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11.          TTI RLLS Portal Telecom Support WebEx Training

TechTrans International (TTI) will provide a 30-minute WebEx training on Wednesday, Dec. 12, at 2 p.m. for the RLLS Portal Telecom Support Request module. This training will include the following elements:

o             Locating telecom support request module

o             Quick view of telecom support request

o             Create a new telecom support request

o             Telecom submittal requirements

o             Submitting on behalf of another individual

o             Adding operator support

o             Adding an attachment (agenda, references)

o             Selecting export control

o             Adding additional email addresses distribution notices

o             Submitting telecom request

o             Status of telecom request records

o             View a telecom request record

o             Copy a telecom support request record

o             Contact RLLS support for additional help

Please send an email to James.E.Welty@nasa.gov or call 281-335-8565 to sign up for this RLLS Telecom Support WebEx Training course. Class will be limited to the first 25 individuals registered.

James Welty 281-335-8565 https://www.TTI-Portal.com

 

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12.          JSC Case Study Development

Organizational learning takes place when knowledge is shared in usable ways among organizational members. Knowledge is most usable when it is contextual. Case study teaching is a method for sharing contextual project management knowledge that can help make the reapplication of lessons learned meaningful. The JSC Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) will embark on developing our own case studies. Case studies will be written by interviewing the key players on a project, in addition to collecting historical documents and reports. A professional writer will produce a written case story incorporating human elements, technical aspects and lessons learned. The CKO would like to solicit you for potential topics. Potential topics can be technical, administrative, management, science, operations problems and more. Please send your ideas to Brent J. Fontenot.

Brent J. Fontenot x36456

 

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13.          Payload Safety Process and Requirements: Jan. 25

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

Polly Caison x41279

 

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

 

 

 

 

Human Spaceflight News

Tuesday – December 11, 2012

 

Mount Everest from the ISS taken by Expedition 33/34 Flight Engineer Yuri Malenchenko

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

Dordain Hopes ESA's Orion Contribution Will Spur Common Crew Vehicle

 

Peter de Selding - Space News

 

The European Space Agency (ESA) wants to use the recently approved European contribution to NASA's Orion crew transport vehicle as a tool to widen trans-Atlantic collaboration to include a common space exploration vehicle, ESA Director-General Jean-Jacques Dordain said. While Europe and the United States would retain their own launch vehicle capabilities for strategic autonomy, he said, exploration vehicles should be developed as collaborative ventures to avoid duplication.

 

NASA awards $30M worth of commercial crew safety certification contracts

 

Dan Leone – Space News

 

NASA said Dec. 10 it will award $30 million worth of Certification Products Contracts (CPC) to the three companies competing to become the agency's post-shuttle provider of astronaut transportation services. The CPC contracts run from Jan. 22, 2013 through May 30, 2014, NASA said in a press release. The contracts will allow Boeing Space Exploration, Sierra Nevada Space Systems and Space Exploration Technologies Corp., better known as SpaceX,  to work hand-in-hand with government officials to ensure that the crewed transportation these companies are designing meet NASA's human safety standards. Each company's CPC contract is worth about $10 million, NASA said.

 

NASA adds $30 million for space taxi work

 

Irene Klotz - Reuters

 

The U.S. space agency awarded $10 million to privately owned Sierra Nevada Corp, $9.99 million to Boeing and $9.59 million to privately owned Space Exploration Technologies to help the firms get their vehicles certified to fly to the station. Since the retirement of the space shuttles last year, NASA has been dependent on Russia to fly astronauts to the $100 billion orbital outpost, a research laboratory owned and operated by 15 countries that flies about 250 miles above Earth. The companies have separate agreements with NASA to develop space transportation systems, with the aim of breaking Russia's monopoly by 2017.

 

Private Spaceship Builders Split $30 Million in NASA Funds

 

Space.com

 

NASA has awarded $30 million to help three private companies ensure that their astronaut taxis are safe and reliable, agency officials announced Monday. Boeing, SpaceX and Sierra Nevada Corp. will each receive about $10 million to begin certifying that their respective private spaceflight systems meet NASA requirements for ferrying crews to and from the International Space Station. A second and final contract in this process — which is known as the certification products contracts, or CPC — will be awarded in the future, agency officials said.

 

Cosmonaut looks down on Everest

 

Alan Boyle - NBCNews.com's Cosmic Log

 

The highest mountain in the world was far below Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko when he took this picture of Mount Everest amid the Himalayas a month ago from the International Space Station. Now Malenchenko has come back down to Earth, but the picture he took is getting sky-high attention from the Twitterverse. Peter Caltner, a.k.a. @PC0101, put the picture into his Twitpic feed on Saturday, and astronaut Ron Garan — a recent space station resident known on Twitter as @Astro_Ron — picked up on it with a tweet of his own. "I never got a good shot of Mt. Everest from space," he wrote. (NO FURTHER TEXT)

 

NASA chief visits Vietnam to for cooperation in space technology

 

Xinhua News Agency

 

Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States Charles Bolden kicked off a two-day visit to Vietnam on Monday to further promote cooperation in space science and technology development, the local newswire VnExpress reported. During the visit to the Vietnam National Satellite Center, Charles Bolden shared experience in cooperation and development of space technology, stressing the importance of creating favorable conditions for young scientists, especially college students, to access to aerospace science and technology.

 

NASA Needs to Re-Discover its Pioneering Roots

 

Ray Villard - Discovery News

 

Historically, America is a nation of pioneers. Exploring is what we do. It is in our cultural DNA. Therefore, it came as little surprise that a year-long study conducted by the nonprofit advocacy group, the Space Foundation, recommends that NASA should return to its roots by establishing pioneering as its singular, compelling purpose. The study predicts that private space commercialization will follow once NASA has trail-blazed a path to other worlds. The 70-page report, entitled "PIONEERING: Sustaining U.S. Leadership in Space," was assembled from in-depth historical research of 43 years of NASA history since the Apollo moon landings. The researchers interviewed nearly 100 space leaders. The report addresses issues within NASA and makes recommendations on its governance and funding. The Space Foundation study was released last week in a press conference on Capitol Hill.

 

Doll-Like Robot Will Keep Astronauts Company on Space Station

 

Elizabeth Howell - Space.com

 

When Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata arrives in space in 2013 to take command of the International Space Station, he'll have a little robotic helper ready to assist him. A consortium of companies is constructing two doll-like robots that speak Japanese, recognize faces and perform simple experiment tasks. One will fly to the space station next year, while the other will stay on the ground as a backup. The humanoid robot will live in the station's Japanese Kibo module. It doesn't even have a name yet, but the public is being asked for suggestions on a Japanese website.

 

Why we need NASA to fix its problems and lead America to money-making Opportunities in Outer Space

 

Jonathan Salem Baskin - Forbes (Commentary)

 

A bunch of tech wonks and nerds issued a report last week that provided a shockingly accurate conclusion about NASA's Strategic Plan: it's vague, generic, and there's no national consensus for taxpayer support. Now it's time for the agency to look beyond its comfy fishbowl of geeks and contractors to fix its problem. No, it's been time for many years, and the Committee on NASA's Strategic Direction said as much. NASA was hatched from a handful of bureaucracies in the late 1950s to get Americans into space faster than the Soviets, and the first Moon landing in 1969 completed that mission brilliantly. Our eyes have glazed over since then, unless things have gone wrong with its shuttles, the ISS, and various unmanned probes nominally launched in the pursuit of science, but really investments in keeping itself in business. It takes skill to turn the Ultimate Adventure into a bureaucratic afterthought.

 

Obama's free market space exploration success

 

Glenn Harlan Reynolds - USA Today (Commentary)

 

(Reynolds is professor of law at the University of Tennessee)

 

So a while back, I noted here that one of the Obama administration's policy successes involves the increasing commercialization of space. And (some would say in a marked contrast to the Obama administration's approach elsewhere) this has been a considerable success. But one criticism has been that while we've seen some interesting approaches to getting objects, and people, into orbit, we haven't done anything big. Heck, it's been just about 40 years since the last human being walked on the Moon. Now we have a new commercial venture aimed at doing something about that. It's called "Golden Spike" -- after the final spike that connected the Transcontinental Railroad -- and it's a commercial venture aimed at taking missions to the Moon.

 

Make Pioneering NASA's Purpose

 

Elliot Pulham - Space News (Opinion)

 

(Pulham is chief executive of the Space Foundation)

 

On Dec. 4, the Space Foundation released the report "Pioneering: Sustaining U.S. Leadership in Space." Based on a year of research and analysis of the U.S. civil space enterprise, a review of more than 40 years' worth of data and the candid perspectives of more than 100 space leaders, the report's main recommendation is almost startlingly simple: NASA needs a clear, unambiguous purpose. It's the same maxim that every truly successful organization — corporate, military, government or, for that matter, volunteer — follows: Decide on and then be unmistakably clear about what it is that you do. And it's the concept that created NASA's "glory years" when the agency did the impossible and put a man on the Moon.

 

Flight training for Apollo: An interview with astronaut Harrison Schmitt

 

Jason Catanzariti - The Space Review

 

Harrison "Jack" Schmitt was selected by NASA as a scientist-astronaut in 1965. Unlike the Space Shuttle era, all astronauts at that time had to qualify as pilots. Trained as a geologist and having never flown an airplane before, he joined a class of cadets for the year-long Undergraduate Pilot Training program at Williams Air Force Base. The syllabus began with small propeller planes, later moving on to jets, including the supersonic T-38 Talon. Schmitt would have a long relationship with the T-38, as NASA astronauts used them for pilot proficiency and travel. He also received helicopter training that was overseen by the Navy.

__________

 

COMPLETE STORIES

 

Dordain Hopes ESA's Orion Contribution Will Spur Common Crew Vehicle

 

Peter de Selding - Space News

 

The European Space Agency (ESA) wants to use the recently approved European contribution to NASA's Orion crew transport vehicle as a tool to widen trans-Atlantic collaboration to include a common space exploration vehicle, ESA Director-General Jean-Jacques Dordain said.

 

While Europe and the United States would retain their own launch vehicle capabilities for strategic autonomy, he said, exploration vehicles should be developed as collaborative ventures to avoid duplication.

 

"We're basically talking about development of a truck," Dordain said. "Is everyone going to develop his own truck? I have informed NASA that on my next trip to Washington I want to start talking about this."

 

In a Nov. 29 press briefing with the French aerospace journalists association, Dordain said he wanted to avoid repeating what he called the "monumental error" committed by the partners of the international space station in developing separate transport vehicles to serve the station.

 

Given that transport costs account for about 50 percent of the total investment in a space exploration program, he said, the fact that the United States, Russia, Japan and Europe funded separate cargo carriers means none had sufficient funds to build a large-scale experiment-return vehicle.

 

"The only nation in the world now that runs an exploration program on its own is China, and I hope that will change," Dordain said. "It is obvious that this should be done as part of an international effort."

 

ESA governments on Nov. 21 agreed to join NASA in building the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, with ESA to spend some 455 million euros ($592 million) to provide Orion's service module.

 

That money would be owed to NASA in any event as Europe's share of the station's common operating costs between 2018 and 2020. The partners have agreed to operate the facility at least until then.

 

ESA's common operating cost obligation through 2017 is being paid by flights of Europe's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) cargo carrier. The fifth and final ATV is scheduled for launch in 2014.

 

ESA had trouble securing support for the Orion program, with several governments, notably France, saying Europe should be able to find something with a higher public profile to meet its obligation to NASA.

 

But these governments ultimately agreed to spend 255 million euros in the next two years on the Orion work, with the remaining 200 million euros to come in 2014.

 

In accepting to participate in the Orion program, France said it would limit its participation to 20 percent of the total.

 

In what Dordain agreed was the surprise of the Nov. 20-21 ministerial conference, the British government agreed to spend 20 million euros on the Orion work. Britain has remained outside of the space station program, and outside of Europe's launcher efforts as well.

 

The Orion work was bundled into a total space station funding package totaling 1.32 billion euros between 2012 and 2014. Led by Germany, which retained its leadership of Europe's station effort with a commitment to finance 40.7 percent of that sum, ESA collected subscriptions for slightly less than 1.1 billion euros. The missing money will need to be found in the coming months, or ESA will cut back on its discretionary spending on its space station use.

 

While Britain's arrival as a space station supporter was a positive surprise, the substantial drop in Italian participation was a negative. Italy committed to just 9.25 percent of the total package, which is about half its participation in previous space station investments in Europe.

 

Enrico Saggese, president of the Italian Space Agency (ASI), said in a Nov. 21 briefing after the Naples conference that in recent years Italy has received an insufficient amount of ESA space station contracts for Italian industry, and is reducing its participation to account for that.

 

ESA commonly guarantees that its member states' industry will receive contracts equivalent to 90 percent of each nation's contributions to an ESA program.

 

Saggese said Italian industry has received contracts valued at just 60 percent of Italy's contributions.

 

In the briefing, Dordain reiterated that he would force ESA to reduce its internal costs by 25 percent by 2015, through reductions in staff and also through outsourcing of services ESA now provides. He said ESA's annual internal costs total about 500 million euros.

 

NASA awards $30M worth of commercial crew safety certification contracts

 

Dan Leone – Space News

 

NASA said Dec. 10 it will award $30 million worth of Certification Products Contracts (CPC) to the three companies competing to become the agency's post-shuttle provider of astronaut transportation services. The CPC contracts run from Jan. 22, 2013 through May 30, 2014, NASA said in a press release.

 

The contracts will allow Boeing Space Exploration, Sierra Nevada Space Systems and Space Exploration Technologies Corp., better known as SpaceX,  to work hand-in-hand with government officials to ensure that the crewed transportation these companies are designing meet NASA's human safety standards. Each company's CPC contract is worth about $10 million, NASA said.

 

In August, NASA announced these companies would split 21-month Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) Space Act Agreements worth a combined $1.1 billion. The companies are working on astronaut transportation systems that include a rocket and a crew vehicle. NASA wants at least one of these systems to be ready to fly U.S. crews by 2017.

 

Space Act Agreements, NASA's alternative procurement vehicle, are not subject to the extensive Federal Acquisition Regulations that govern traditional government contracts. NASA says it cannot require recipients of Space Act Agreements to meet government design requirements as a condition of accepting federal funding.

 

The performance periods of the CPC contracts announced Dec. 10 and the CCiCap Space Act Agreements announced in August are timed to overlap, giving NASA and its industry partners a legal way to work together on safety ratings requirements during the design process, officials at NASA headquarters here have said.

 

NASA plans to solicit awards for a second phase of CPC funding in "mid-2014," according to the Dec. 10 press release. Phil McAlister, director of the commercial spaceflight development division at NASA headquarters, said in November that only companies that won a first-phase CPC award would be eligible for funding in the next phase.

 

Boeing and SpaceX got larger CCiCap awards than Sierra Nevada. The former companies are proposing capsule-based transportation systems while Sierra Nevada is working on a lifting-body vehicle called Dreamchaser. NASA's human spaceflight chief William Gerstenmaier said the agency kept Dreamchaser in the program as a backup option. Development of that craft could be accelerated quickly if required, Gerstenmaier said.

 

NASA currently pays Russia about $65 million a seat to send U.S. astronauts to the space station.

 

NASA adds $30 million for space taxi work

 

Irene Klotz - Reuters

 

The U.S. space agency awarded $10 million to privately owned Sierra Nevada Corp, $9.99 million to Boeing and $9.59 million to privately owned Space Exploration Technologies to help the firms get their vehicles certified to fly to the station.

 

Since the retirement of the space shuttles last year, NASA has been dependent on Russia to fly astronauts to the $100 billion orbital outpost, a research laboratory owned and operated by 15 countries that flies about 250 miles above Earth.

 

The companies have separate agreements with NASA to develop space transportation systems, with the aim of breaking Russia's monopoly by 2017. Boeing was awarded $460 million for its CST-100 capsule, Space Exploration Technologies received $440 million to upgrade its Dragon cargo capsule to carry people and Sierra Nevada was awarded $212.5 million for work on its winged Dream Chaser.

 

The earlier awards were to help fund the spaceship designs, while the new awards will help fund the process of certifying that they meet NASA safety requirements to carry humans.

 

"These contracts represent important progress in restoring human spaceflight capabilities to the United States," Phil McAlister, who oversees NASA's commercial spaceflight programs, said in a statement.

 

"NASA and its industry partners are committed to the goal of safely and cost-effectively launching astronauts from home within the next five years," he said.

 

The contracts run from January 22, 2013, through May 30, 2014.

 

Private Spaceship Builders Split $30 Million in NASA Funds

 

Space.com

 

NASA has awarded $30 million to help three private companies ensure that their astronaut taxis are safe and reliable, agency officials announced Monday.

 

Boeing, SpaceX and Sierra Nevada Corp. will each receive about $10 million to begin certifying that their respective private spaceflight systems meet NASA requirements for ferrying crews to and from the International Space Station. A second and final contract in this process — which is known as the certification products contracts, or CPC — will be awarded in the future, agency officials said.

 

"I congratulate the three companies for their selection," Ed Mango, Commercial Crew Program manager at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, said in a statement. "This is the program's first major, fixed-price contract. The effort will bring space system designs within NASA's safety and performance expectations for future flights to the International Space Station."

 

Colorado-based Sierra Nevada got an even $10 million to continue work on its Dream Chaser space plane. Texas-based Boeing got $9.99 million for its CST-100 capsule, while SpaceX (headquartered in Hawthorne, Calif.) received $9.59 million to keep upgrading its unmanned Dragon capsule to carry crew.

 

NASA hopes at least one of these vehicles will be ready to carry astronauts to low-Earth orbit by 2017. The United States has lacked a homegrown manned capability since NASA's space shuttle fleet retired in July 2011; it currently relies on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to do the job.

 

"These contracts represent important progress in restoring human spaceflight capabilities to the United States," Phil McAlister, director of NASA's Commercial Spaceflight Development Division, said in a statement. "NASA and its industry partners are committed to the goal of safely and cost-effectively launching astronauts from home within the next five years."

 

The CPC Phase 1 contracts run from Jan. 22, 2013 through May 30, 2014, NASA officials said. During this period, the three companies will work with the Commercial Crew Program to draw up certification plans. These plans will implement NASA's safety and performance requirements across all aspects of the transportation system, from the spacecraft to the launch vehicle and ground operations.

 

CPC Phase 2, which is expected to begin in mid-2014, will include the final development and verifications necessary to allow manned test flights to the space station. This second contract phase will involve a full and open competition, officials said.

 

The newly announced $30 million is just the latest in a series of commercial crew awards granted by NASA over the last few years. In 2010, the agency granted a total of $50 million to five companies, including Boeing and Sierra Nevada. Boeing, Sierra Nevada and SpaceX split $315 million in 2011 and $1.1 billion in another round of awards announced this past August.

 

NASA chief visits Vietnam to for cooperation in space technology

 

Xinhua News Agency

 

Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States Charles Bolden kicked off a two-day visit to Vietnam on Monday to further promote cooperation in space science and technology development, the local newswire VnExpress reported.

 

During the visit to the Vietnam National Satellite Center (VNSC) , Charles Bolden shared experience in cooperation and development of space technology, stressing the importance of creating favorable conditions for young scientists, especially college students, to access to aerospace science and technology.

 

NASA is seeking cooperation with other countries in solar system exploration to find whether extra-terrestrial life exists, Bolden said.

 

Pham Anh Tuan, director of VNSC introduced the project of establishing Vietnam Space Center, which plays a key role in the country's national strategy on research and application of space technology until 2020 approved by prime minister in 2006.

 

Tuan expressed his hope to learn NASA's experience in construction and operation of the space center.

 

As scheduled, the NASA head will meet with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Tuesday.

 

NASA Needs to Re-Discover its Pioneering Roots

 

Ray Villard - Discovery News

 

Historically, America is a nation of pioneers. Exploring is what we do. It is in our cultural DNA.

 

Therefore, it came as little surprise that a year-long study conducted by the nonprofit advocacy group, the Space Foundation, recommends that NASA should return to its roots by establishing pioneering as its singular, compelling purpose. The study predicts that private space commercialization will follow once NASA has trail-blazed a path to other worlds.

 

The 70-page report, entitled "PIONEERING: Sustaining U.S. Leadership in Space," was assembled from in-depth historical research of 43 years of NASA history since the Apollo moon landings. The researchers interviewed nearly 100 space leaders. The report addresses issues within NASA and makes recommendations on its governance and funding.

 

The Space Foundation study was released last week in a press conference on Capitol Hill.

 

Space Foundation CEO Elliot Pulham said that, like the early western pioneers, NASA is the entity that first enters a new region for exploration. These stages would follow: (1) delivering space access, power, people, and hardware, (2) conducting exploration, learning about the destination, and its risks and opportunities, (3) utilizing the destination and (4) transitioning operations to the private sector.

 

He emphasized that the solar system presents a grand landscape for absorbing our pioneering spirit. "We don't know a lot about solar system and there is a limitless supply of exploration for NASA on planetary surfaces," said Pulham.

 

The challenge is how to retool NASA for sustained deep exploration, the Space Foundation reports.

 

Pulham said that NASA suffers from "18 rudders" of conflicting directions, and goes through abrupt starts and stops in its programs. The report emphasizes that there is a need to make NASA more politically stable and more autonomous from the Executive and Congressional branches of U.S. government.

 

He recommended that steps in this direction would be to create stability for NASA leadership in having five-year terms for NASA administrators, rather than appointments that come and go with presidential administrations. Pulham said that the NASA Administrator has to be empowered to make non-political decisions, and bring substantive technical expertise. As a parallel he cited is the military's Chief of Naval Operations, which is a position that does not change with presidential elections.

 

Pulham argued that we simply need a U.S. president who "gets it" regarding NASA's strategic plan, but not provide an executive vision. As an example President Ronald Regan enthusiastically approved the Superconducting Super Collider, but did not have a vision for how to explore the subatomic universe. When briefed by physicists, Regan latched onto the pioneering theme in building such an expensive and complex machine: "I gather you are exploring a new world with the same sense of adventure that all explorers throughout history have experienced," Regan concluded.

 

Ever since John Kennedy's Cold War directive of putting a man on the moon before 1970, U.S. presidents have felt compelled to leave their "legacy" stamp on NASA, said Pulham.

 

Richard Nixon inaugurated the Space Shuttle program in lieu of going back to Kennedy's moon. For the Regan and Clinton administrations it was the International Space Station. Both George Bush 41 and 43 had a "Vision for Exploration" directive with a manned Mars mission as the ultimate goal.

 

Pulham suggested that we need a separate CEO for space within government. Someone who might be called the "Secretary of the Exterior," to work with aerospace industry.

 

The report also recommends a revolving fund for NASA to allow the agency to expand options for multi-year procurements, and to be able to surge and shrink budget by as much as 50 percent to meet programmatic goals.

 

Pulham concluded that its time for a national dialogue to ensure NASA's success and long-term stability, focus, good management, and adequate resources. "NASA doesn't have to sell performance, it needs to perform. If NASA does exciting things the public will follow."

 

Doll-Like Robot Will Keep Astronauts Company on Space Station

Elizabeth Howell - Space.com

 

When Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata arrives in space in 2013 to take command of the International Space Station, he'll have a little robotic helper ready to assist him.

 

A consortium of companies is constructing two doll-like robots that speak Japanese, recognize faces and perform simple experiment tasks. One will fly to the space station next year, while the other will stay on the ground as a backup.

 

The humanoid robot will live in the station's Japanese Kibo module. It doesn't even have a name yet, but the public is being asked for suggestions on a Japanese website.

 

Even at this early stage, lead designer Tomotaka Takahashi said the concept of a humanoid robot in space is capturing the participating companies' imagination.

 

"Only a few people use [iPhone voice recognition software] Siri in Japan because we are uncomfortable to talk to square gadgets. But we sometimes talk to our pets, even if they're a turtle or a fish," said Takahashi, a University of Tokyo researcher who founded the humanoid robot company Robo Garage.

 

"We talk to these animals because we can feel some kind of life to them that we cannot with the iPhone," Takahashi added. "So what we are doing for the Kibo robot is to encourage people to be willing to communicate with such things."

 

Double-checking experiment accuracy

 

When completed in February, the robot will be about 13 inches (34 centimeters) tall and weigh 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram), making it easy to ship up to the station in the summer.

 

The delivery spacecraft hasn't been chosen yet, but Takahashi suspected it will be an unmanned Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Kounotori HTV. The robot will return to Earth at a yet-to-be-determined time.

 

The robot will do simulated, simple experiments with Wakata that could involve tasks such as mixing liquids, Takahashi said. The robot can also send information to scientists back on Earth.

 

If all goes well, future robot generations could work alongside astronauts and improve the humans' accuracy during routine experiments.

 

"We are thinking having a small humanoid, and doing some kind of experiment or a task together, [you can] get information from the robot and double-check each step," he said. "The experiment will be smoother."

 

'More humanity'

 

Takahashi expects other uses for the technology to come out of the robot's trial run. The robot was developed after JAXA requested ideas for "solving social issues" on the space station. As the humanoid improves, it could be used as a companion for lonely astronauts.

 

Aims for the technology include serving as a crew member during isolating deep-space missions, or on Earth, accompanying seniors living alone.

 

"It has more humanity," Takahashi said, wryly adding the robot could stand in for tech support. "It's good at communicating with other machines ... we control so many things with remote controllers."

 

Overall, the robot's development will take more than 18 months. JAXA is providing no money for the concept, Takahashi said; the funding is coming from the consortium of companies, including Toyota, that are working together on the project.

 

"The members are not thinking of earning money directly by this project," said Takahashi, acknowledging there could be spinoffs of the technology on Earth. "But it's a frontier. To create some kind of symbolic robot for space, to realize the future, is a dream."

 

Why we need NASA to fix its problems and lead America to money-making Opportunities in Outer Space

 

Jonathan Salem Baskin - Forbes (Commentary)

 

A bunch of tech wonks and nerds issued a report last week that provided a shockingly accurate conclusion about NASA's Strategic Plan: it's vague, generic, and there's no national consensus for taxpayer support. Now it's time for the agency to look beyond its comfy fishbowl of geeks and contractors to fix its problem.

 

No, it's been time for many years, and the Committee on NASA's Strategic Direction said as much. NASA was hatched from a handful of bureaucracies in the late 1950s to get Americans into space faster than the Soviets, and the first Moon landing in 1969 completed that mission brilliantly. Our eyes have glazed over since then, unless things have gone wrong with its shuttles, the ISS, and various unmanned probes nominally launched in the pursuit of science, but really investments in keeping itself in business.

 

It takes skill to turn the Ultimate Adventure into a bureaucratic afterthought.

 

Exploration didn't used to be so boring. Monarchs and consortia of the rich or foolhardy have been putting up money for voyages of discovery since the beginning of time, though by "discovery" they meant "discover profits." It's how the New World was explored and exploited, and it enabled the Westward expansion of the United States. Sure, scientists tagged along on many of the gigs, but the governments were foremost interested in making money.

 

It's how the exploration business works: governments pave the way (with knowledge gained through building roads, rail, and ships) and then the rest of us literally jump on the, er, bandwagon. This bringing together of national and individual lust for wealth has been the engine of exploration for all of history.

 

It's how it has worked here since President Jefferson sent Lewis & Clark into the wilderness to find a waterway  to ship goods. Eisenhower's national highway system made possible everything from transporting fresh produce to the social mobility of suburban living. The Defense Department gave us what would become the Internet.

 

NASA has given us billions of dollars in expenditure on stuff we either don't know or care about. Satellites help me text and watch VOD, but satellites were getting thrown into orbit before President Kennedy announced we were going to the Moon. Miniaturized electronics are a nice Apollo Program offshoot, but byproducts aren't the same thing as named deliverables.

 

What needs to happen? NASA has to stop talking to itself. The folks on that committee have been drinking the Tang for too long. The agency is the Microsoft of exploration, and it's time for it to start thinking like Apple and declare big, high/risk and high/reward goals like explorers did in the past, such as:

 

·         Start selling rights to develop low orbit commercial opportunities

·         If there's stuff worth doing on the Moon, help make it happen

·         Solve the damn energy problem with solar power from space (duh)

 

Did you know that last year NASA announced that it would land spacecraft on asteroids and figure out how to go to Mars (Curiosity is already trolling there for the best real estate)? I know, the news was kept practically secret, perhaps in part because nobody bothered to explain why it was so incomprehensibly cool and promising. NASA also unveiled a new heavy-lift rocket design to get people there, and named it…wait for it…SLS. Not Andromeda or New Hope or whatever.

 

No wonder virtual reality is more enticing to people these days. NASA gives its rockets acronym names like they're line items in a budget (which they are). Or diseases.

 

Why are well-intentioned bureaucrats narrating these adventures in reality instead of folks who know how to sell stuff? We marketers know how to get people excited about shoes and smartphone apps. Do we really think that America's Ultimate Adventure is inherently doomed to be ignored or misunderstood?

 

The real point isn't that NASA needs a purpose, it's that we need NASA. There are few industries and domains that the United States owns, but we own far more of space exploration than we do, say, entertainment. It's a source of national competitive advantage for us, and no amount of private space tourism shenanigans can take its place. Finding money-making opportunities in outer space is something every American taxpayer could support if we understood why we'd all benefit.

 

We need NASA to become the engine for getting thousands of other companies, institutions, and individuals involved in space exploration and development. Making money should be the literal currency for achieving that purpose, which will spin-off all the science and social benefits that every other exploration initiative has yielded throughout history.

 

Everyone knows the problem. The solution is obvious. No more studies or committees.

 

It's time to launch.

 

Obama's free market space exploration success

 

Glenn Harlan Reynolds - USA Today (Commentary)

 

(Reynolds is professor of law at the University of Tennessee)

 

So a while back, I noted here that one of the Obama administration's policy successes involves the increasing commercialization of space. And (some would say in a marked contrast to the Obama administration's approach elsewhere) this has been a considerable success.

 

But one criticism has been that while we've seen some interesting approaches to getting objects, and people, into orbit, we haven't done anything big. Heck, it's been just about 40 years since the last human being walked on the Moon.

 

Now we have a new commercial venture aimed at doing something about that. It's called "Golden Spike" -- after the final spike that connected the Transcontinental Railroad -- and it's a commercial venture aimed at taking missions to the Moon.

 

As founder Alan Stern told an interviewer:

 

"When [NASA's] Constellation [project] was canceled, I wanted to look at the private sector. We talked to a number of private experts; about 20 accepted, and over a period of four months, we put together proposals. This culminated in a meeting in Telluride, Colorado, where we concluded it really was possible to make Moon travel commercial. . . .

 

Our business line is simple: selling lunar expeditions to any country. In the '80s and '90s, the Soviets were selling countries trips to the Mir space station. Japan, Austria. … France bought six trips! We think that trips to the Moon will be at least as popular. One and a half billion for two people to the surface of the Moon — countries already spend that much on robot exploration."

 

Will this venture work? Maybe. On the one hand, a major reason that countries might want to launch a Moon mission is to demonstrate homegrown technical prowess, something that outsourcing to an American company may not exactly underscore. On the other hand, not that many people have walked on the Moon -- and nobody has for almost 40 years -- so sending your astronauts there, by whatever means, is still pretty cool. And, of course, the science is just as good no matter how you get there.

 

Then there's Elon Musk's plan to take people to Mars, and in large numbers: "For $500,000 each. At a rate of 80,000 a year." Though Elton John says that Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids, if we send that many people to Mars, we'll be colonizing and raising a lot of kids. That would be cool.

 

Will these dreams pan out? Maybe, maybe not. But they are serious efforts, by serious people, at doing the kinds of exciting things in space that NASA hasn't seriously thought about in 40 years. That they're bearing fruit now is a testament to Obama's space policy and its endorsement of free markets.

 

With free markets, you don't have to convince government bureaucrats and Congressional appropriators that your idea is a good one -- you just have to convince customers and investors. And though government bureaucrats and Congressional appropriators are deathly afraid of failure for political reasons, entrepreneurs succeed by courting -- and, sometimes, learning from -- failure. That's something government programs can't do.

 

By endorsing free markets, Obama has created an environment for dramatic innovation in space. It would be nice if he took the lesson and tried the same thing here on Earth.

 

Make Pioneering NASA's Purpose

 

Elliot Pulham - Space News (Opinion)

 

(Pulham is chief executive of the Space Foundation)

 

On Dec. 4, the Space Foundation released the report "Pioneering: Sustaining U.S. Leadership in Space." Based on a year of research and analysis of the U.S. civil space enterprise, a review of more than 40 years' worth of data and the candid perspectives of more than 100 space leaders, the report's main recommendation is almost startlingly simple: NASA needs a clear, unambiguous purpose.

 

It's the same maxim that every truly successful organization — corporate, military, government or, for that matter, volunteer — follows: Decide on and then be unmistakably clear about what it is that you do. And it's the concept that created NASA's "glory years" when the agency did the impossible and put a man on the Moon.

 

Drawing upon what we learned in our research, the Space Foundation also has recommended a purpose for NASA: pioneering.

 

Yes, boldly (and efficiently) going where no one has gone before — so that others may follow. The pioneering doctrine we recommend is a solid process that reaps rewards for our economy, our national pride, our industrial base and our future generations.

 

Simply put, we believe that NASA needs to engage itself with four things, all designed to open up new worlds and new knowledge:

 

·         Access — developing the ability to get to and from targeted destinations.

·         Exploration — learning about those destinations in order to plan for subsequent missions.

·         Utilization — turning theoretical knowledge into technology that justifies continued, longer-term activity at the destinations.

·         Transition — handing off the knowledge and capabilities NASA has developed to other government organizations or the private sector for further long-term engagement.

 

You may note, as you read the report — which you can find at www.spacefoundation.org/research/pioneering — that we have recommended what NASA should do, but not where it should go. Thinking in terms of missions rather than purpose is one of the issues that have impeded NASA. Debates of "Moon vs. Mars" or "human vs. robotic" create factions and obscure the real underlying purpose of having a space program.

 

Pioneering is a purpose for the long term, one that is never finished, one that builds upon its successes, one that continually fuels scientific discovery, inspiration and success. We believe that once you embrace the doctrine, the decisions of where to explore, when to explore and how to explore become so much easier. And each decision doesn't automatically redefine your organization.

 

Within "Pioneering: Sustaining U.S. Leadership in Space," we define the pioneering doctrine in detail and lay out a number of strategic and tactical recommendations to create much-needed budget and management stability and correct underlying structural and cultural issues that constantly put NASA at the mercy of political and administrative change. Some repeat what others have recommended; some give a new nuance that may not have been considered. All are intended to leverage NASA's considerable strengths and remove the obstacles that have plagued the agency for decades.

 

Through our report, we are stimulating discussion. We're pleased at the response so far and are working to keep the dialogue going with the hope that it will lead to meaningful, positive change.

 

Of course, we didn't start this conversation — it's been going on for years. The number of reports and recommendations we reviewed is staggering — and many hinted at some of the same recommendations we have made. But many were focused on a crisis or an issue that needed an immediate fix, thus limiting the scope of the research and the recommendations. Our luxury was that we were able to rise above specific, day-to-day issues and instead look at root causes and big-picture solutions.

 

Plus, because the Space Foundation is an independent organization, we were able to interview a broad range of experts with a promise that their individual comments will not be attributed, resulting in incredible candor. Not everyone we talked with offered the same solutions we recommend, but most pointed in the same general direction.

 

Our recommendations reflect what we heard and gleaned from a rich pool of information and opinion. That research also underscored many beliefs we have long held at the Space Foundation and showed us that many others feel the same way. Among them:

 

å NASA is an extraordinary organization for which many, many people have a burning passion — we want NASA to succeed.

 

å NASA's issues, while not unlike those faced by other government entities, create particular challenges for the type of long-term, groundbreaking work the agency does — while difficult, they should not be insurmountable; if corrected, the agency should be able to flourish as it once did.

 

å The ethos of trailblazing and paving the way for discovery is what America, and NASA, have always really been about — returning to those roots is good for the country and the agency.

 

"Pioneering: Sustaining U.S. Leadership in Space" is an honest, good faith attempt at the broadest and most favorable win-win solution for everyone involved — NASA, the United States, the global space industry and our future generations.

 

As I said, this is a dialogue. We want to engage as many people as possible. We know that the kind of change we are recommending could be a lengthy process, but we'll do all we can to move the discussion along. We invite everyone — especially those who are passionate about space, discovery and NASA — to send thoughts to the Space Foundation at pioneering@spacefoundation.org or via social media. The more voices we hear from, the better.

 

Of all the explorable and interesting places that exist in our solar system and beyond, we have barely begun to imagine the future that awaits us in space. A laser-focused purpose of pioneering can set NASA, the U.S. and the world on a sustainable course of leadership in space.

 

Flight training for Apollo: An interview with astronaut Harrison Schmitt

 

Jason Catanzariti - The Space Review

 

Harrison "Jack" Schmitt was selected by NASA as a scientist-astronaut in 1965. Unlike the Space Shuttle era, all astronauts at that time had to qualify as pilots. Trained as a geologist and having never flown an airplane before, he joined a class of cadets for the year-long Undergraduate Pilot Training program at Williams Air Force Base.

 

The syllabus began with small propeller planes, later moving on to jets, including the supersonic T-38 Talon. Schmitt would have a long relationship with the T-38, as NASA astronauts used them for pilot proficiency and travel. He also received helicopter training that was overseen by the Navy.

 

Schmitt eventually flew as lunar module pilot on the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972. During the liftoff from the Moon there was a communications problem, and it was his job to solve it. I spoke with Dr. Schmitt about his experiences learning to fly, and how they impacted his actions during his flight to the Moon.

 

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

 

Jason Catanzariti: Was this something you wanted to do, or did you view flight training simply as a necessary task?

 

Harrison Schmitt: It was clearly a requirement to qualify for spaceflight assignment as one of the original scientist-astronauts. I certainly understood that going in, as did my colleagues. But being a requirement doesn't mean that you can't enjoy it, and I enjoyed not only the training, but the flying career I had for ten years very much. I was very, very impressed with the professionalism of the air training command that existed at that time, and I hope still exists in the Air Force. They really were consummate professionals.

 

JC: They started you in the T-41, the military version of the Cessna 172…

 

HS: It was hardly worth calling it a military version: they just put a T-41 name on it, but it was still a Cessna 172!

 

JC: Then the T-37 and T-38. How was the transition between those aircraft?

 

HS: Well, I don't recall that it was a major jump. In the T-37 your instructor is side-by-side, which makes some difference rather than behind you [as in the T-38]. You're dealing with a significantly higher performing aircraft in the T-38, but on the other hand the T-37 allowed us to get spin training, which was not possible in the T-38. So all in all I thought the transition went fairly well. Mine was interrupted because in a pickup basketball game I broke my elbow. So I had to sit down for six weeks and then catch up again. Although it was not fun to sit and watch everybody else fly, on the other hand they flew me much more frequently to catch up. That makes it a lot more enjoyable, when you can really go through the syllabus much faster than was planned.

 

JC: Do you have any particular recollections of your first solo flights in any of those aircraft?

 

HS: I do, and also of the helicopter that I flew with the Navy down in Pensacola. In each case, in spite of reservations at the beginning of the training program prior to solo – which I think everybody has – by the time I reached that point I certainly felt ready. And I'm sure that was an outgrowth of a very mature training program that the Air Force had put together. So I felt, as I recall, very comfortable about soloing the four aircraft that I ended up flying. I think I particularly had reservations about flying the helicopter after eight hours of instruction. That seemed to be a bigger jump than changing fixed wing aircraft and soloing in those. But the Navy had an excellent syllabus and a very professional approach.

 

JC: Did your background as a scientist impact your flight training?

 

HS: My guess is that it did. But it's hard to separate that from being ten years older than the other people that were in pilot training, and potentially not having quite as flexible a mind as they did. But I've always had the impression that my scientific experience probably made it more difficult to learn to fly instruments. I don't think it had any effect on flying per se, but flying the instruments requires you to not focus on any one thing more than a second or two. Whereas in science, particularly in the fields of science I've been in, you tend to focus on one item until you've understood it and then you go on to the next. I think that contrast in discipline was probably a negative aspect of learning to fly instruments.

 

I never felt uncomfortable flying instruments, but learning that very rapid scan was a new skill set that I had to master. You can't just ignore one instrument and focus on another.

 

I think being willing to accept whatever risks exist is something you have to be willing to do when you take up flying. But as a field geologist in many out of the way places I guess I had learned to accept the risks of my profession.

 

JC: When you flew the T-38 with other astronauts did you tend to fly back seat or front seat, or did it depend on the person you were flying with?

 

HS: An awful lot of my flying was solo. Whenever we needed to fly together we usually worked out that on the outbound leg one would take the front seat and maybe the other would get instrument time in the back seat, or vice versa. You're always trying to get instrument time because there was never enough weather, actual real weather, to fill the requirement for instrument time every six months. We not only traded off on who flew under the hood [on instruments, with no outside visual references], but I would go out on weekends and look for weather, just to fill that proficiency.

 

JC: During the ascent from the Moon on Apollo 17 there was a temporary loss of communications. You handled that in a businesslike manner, much as one would in an aircraft. Do you have any recollection of how you were feeling at the time?

 

HS: The whole training was focused on being able to operate the spacecraft without communications. We were basically monitoring what the computer was doing versus what the flight instruments were telling us, and comparing that profile with what we expected. So communications were not absolutely necessary. The main thing you wanted them for was in case there was a cabin leak that they could pick up, or that the engine was not performing as they expected, etc. We were not getting that, although they were hearing everything we were saying, as I recall.

 

The planners—including ourselves—missed it, but they had a ground station handover right at the instant of our liftoff. And that handover didn't go well. All we had from the ground was a lot of static. I was continually trying to get the high gain antenna in an optimum position to pick up a signal. Well it turns out there wasn't a signal to pick up.

 

JC: Do you recall any anxiety?

 

HS: It was my job to try to restore communications if I could, and I just kept working the problem. I was also monitoring the abort guidance system, comparing it with what the primary guidance system was telling us was happening. Those were our two main references. They were in continuous agreement, so there was no reason to be concerned about the rendezvous sequence.

 

JC: Do you still fly today, or is that something you've left behind?

 

HS: I left it behind. I was getting involved with management and then I got into politics. I always felt that I needed to be flying a lot in order to maintain proficiency at the level that I wanted to maintain it. So when it became clear that I was not going to be able to do that, and flying was no longer a part of my profession, I decided that discretion was the better part of valor and that I should probably not continue to fly.

 

I am a great advocate of all astronauts—scientists, engineers, what have you—having a base of flight instruction. I really think that there are many, many benefits of having that kind of experience. It carries through to the discipline you need to have in operating in space. As Deke Slayton [Director of Flight Crew Operations during the Apollo program] often said, the airplane is our only dynamic simulator. If you make a mistake you've got to get out of it, or solve the problem. You can't reset the computer.

 

I have, for forty years, tried to convince NASA that they should not have given up pilot training for all astronauts. The new astronauts, if they're not professional pilots, do get a significant amount of back seat time, but it's not the same. You need that command responsibility. I would hope that when we have a more dynamic space program than we have right now and really focus on deep space exploration, that the agency that does that. I hope NASA realizes that it is very important and much more efficient in terms of other training to have that flight experience shared by everyone.

 

JC: You seem to be saying that flight training transfers to other aspects of training. Is that fair to say?

 

HS: It definitely does. The best example I have of that is helicopter training. The more time I was getting in the helicopter, the better I could fly certain aborts that might result from an under-burn while going into orbit around the Moon. In that situation you have all the spacecraft docked, and may have to use the lunar module engine to get out of lunar orbit. And you don't have enough time to do anything more than establish error needles to fly, and with a major offset in the CG [center of gravity] of the combined spacecraft that is a challenge. It's a hand-eye coordination challenge that I felt was significantly enhanced by staying very, very current in the helicopter.

 

JC: I hope it was a bit different for you to talk about flying today rather than just your lunar visit.

 

HS: I enjoyed flying very much. I did a lot of it, and I think it was a very important part of the Apollo program, both from a systems and an operational point of view.

 

END