Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - December 6, 2012 and JSC Today

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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: December 6, 2012 7:00:22 AM CST
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - December 6, 2012 and JSC Today

Hope you can join us today for our monthly NASA Retirees Luncheon at Hibachi Grill on Bay Area Blvd. at 11:30.   It's our final get together of the year before celebrating Christmas and New Years with our family and friends.  

 

 

 

Thursday, December 6, 2012

 

JSC TODAY HEADLINES

1.            Joint Leadership Team Web Poll

2.            Submissions for ICA Fall Call Due TODAY by 6:30 p.m. CST

3.            Attend Our WebEx TODAY, Dec. 6, to Learn More About the CFC

4.            CoLAB: Microsoft Kinects and Gestural/Spatial Tracking

5.            Today: Aging Gracefully

6.            Don't Deck the Halls ... or Anyone Else

7.            Space Serenity Al-Anon Meeting -- Dec. 11

8.            Monthly Test of the JSC Emergency Warning System (EWS)

9.            It's Time for That Other JSC Today Holiday Hiatus -- Submit Early

10.          JSC Case Study Development

11.          Confined Space Entry - 8:30 a.m.; Lockout/Tagout - 1 p.m. -- Dec. 13, Building 226N, Room 174

12.          Material Handling, Storage, Use and Disposal ViTS: Jan. 18

13.          Payload Safety Process and Requirements: Jan. 25

14.          Aerial Platform ViTS: Jan. 25 - 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

________________________________________     QUOTE OF THE DAY

" Labels are for filing. Labels are for clothing. Labels are not for people. "

 

-- Martina Navratilova

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1.            Joint Leadership Team Web Poll

Although we are planning on a yearlong International Space Station mission in 2015, most of us would prefer something shorter, like a month or so. Don't worry, I doubt most of us will get asked to really consider it. I wasn't shocked that you think Johnny Manziel will win the Heisman. We'll know for sure this Saturday.

This week the Voyager spacecraft reached a significant milestone. Do you know a lot about Voyager? Can you pick out the false statement in question one? Question two is about safety. If you got hit by lightning and had to live out your days as a "Saturday Night Live" character, which one would it be? Gumby? A conehead? A Spartan cheerleader?

Ed your Grimley on over to get this week's poll.

Joel Walker x30541 http://jlt.jsc.nasa.gov/

 

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2.            Submissions for ICA Fall Call Due TODAY by 6:30 p.m. CST

The window for submitting Fall JSC Innovation Charge Account (ICA) for Fiscal Year 2013 proposals closes tonight at 6:30 p.m. This unique program allows contractors and civil servants to propose the development and/or advancement of technologies for the benefit of the human spaceflight program and society. This ICA call focuses on dual-use technologies that have the potential to result in economic and/or societal benefits. Dual-use projects must also map to one or more JSC-specific human spaceflight needs/performance criteria. Detailed guidance on this and other documents are available here. Project durations are 16 weeks, with at least 20 projects to be awarded up to $10,000 each. Individuals or teams can submit more than one proposal.

Submissions are due no later than today, Dec. 6, at 6:30 p.m.

Steve Prejean x48022

 

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3.            Attend Our WebEx TODAY, Dec. 6, to Learn More About the CFC

Are you interested in giving to or learning more about the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC)? Your JSC CFC team will be hosting a WebEx today, Dec. 6, from 11 to 11:30 a.m. on just that! Learn about the history of the CFC, the charities it supports and the lives it has changed. We'll also talk about how you can donate.

Email Philip Harris for all the details. Remember to make your CFC pledge by Dec. 15.

Philip Harris x40699

 

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4.            CoLAB: Microsoft Kinects and Gestural/Spatial Tracking

Are you working on or starting a project using Kinects or any other type of gestural/spatial tracking hardware?

If so, you are invited to the very first JSC CoLAB. CoLABs are collaborative brown-bag lunches that will be held once a month in order to bring people and projects together. The goal of these lunches is to help individuals create a network of relationships and contacts centerwide with people who are working with similar technologies. CoLABs will provide a casual forum to share lessons learned and generate innovative new ideas and uses of technologies.

The first CoLAB will focus on gestural/spatial tracking technologies and will be held today from noon to 1 p.m. in Building 30A, Room 2090. Please bring your own lunch.

Is gestural/spatial tracking hardware not your cup of tea? Keep an eye on JSC today, because more CoLABs will be starting up soon.

Brian Schwing x36554

 

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5.            Today: Aging Gracefully

Are you ready to retire, or do you have a family member that recently retired? Please join the JSC Employee Assistance Program as we proudly host Angela Sarafin, M.A., LMFT, LPC, and Stacey Dunn, M.A., LPC, who will present "Aging Gracefully" today, Dec. 6, at 12 noon in the Building 30 Auditorium. They will discuss the challenges that people face in adjusting to retirement, including family dynamics and family lifecycle issues. They will also explore various ways to deal with anxiety and depression and provide some tools and tips for finding new purpose.

Lorrie Bennett, Employee Assistance Program, Clinical Services Branch x36130

 

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6.            Don't Deck the Halls ... or Anyone Else

The holidays are fast approaching, and with that comes the stress of time management, family challenges, finances and spending. Fill your toolbox early with strategies and tips for having positive, memorable holidays. The JSC Employee Assistance Program will present "Don't Deck the Halls … or Anyone Else" on Thursday, Dec. 13, at 12 noon in the Building 30 Auditorium.

Lorrie Bennett, Employee Assistance Program, Clinical Services Branch x36130

 

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7.            Space Serenity Al-Anon Meeting -- Dec. 11

"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 Tuesday, 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.            Monthly Test of the JSC Emergency Warning System (EWS)

The Emergency Dispatch Center and Office of Emergency Management will conduct the monthly test of the JSC EWS today, Dec. 6, at noon.

The EWS test will consist of a verbal "This is a test" message, followed by a short tone and a second verbal "This is a test" message. The warning tone will be the wail tone, which is associated with an "all clear" message. Please visit the JSC Emergency Awareness website for EWS tones and definitions. During an actual emergency situation, the particular tone and verbal message will provide you with protective information.

Yolanda Bejarano x31285 http://jea.jsc.nasa.gov

 

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9.            It's Time for That Other JSC Today Holiday Hiatus -- Submit Early

As many JSC team members take time off to be with their families during the holidays and the center limits operations, so will JSC Today from Dec. 24 to Jan. 1. During that time, the regular edition of JSC Today will not be delivered to your inbox. If any special announcements are warranted, those will be sent out on an as-needed basis. JSC Today will resume normal distribution Wednesday, Jan. 2.

Plan accordingly so you can get your submission in for Friday, Dec. 21 (submit by noon on Thursday, Dec. 20). Or, submit your announcement in time for Wednesday, Jan. 2 (deadline is noon Friday, Dec. 21).

To submit an announcement, click here.

We thank you for your understanding.

JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111

 

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10.          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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11.          Confined Space Entry - 8:30 a.m.; Lockout/Tagout - 1 p.m. -- Dec. 13, Building 226N, Room 174

SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0806: Confined Space Entry

The purpose of this course is to provide employees with the standards, procedures and requirements necessary for safe entry to and operations in confined spaces. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standard 29 CFR 1910.146, "Confined Space," is the basis for this course. The course covers the hazards of working in or around a confined space and the precautions one should take to control these hazards. A comprehensive test will be offered at the end of the class.

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

SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0814: Lockout/Tagout

The purpose of this course is to provide employees with the standards, procedures and requirements necessary for the control of hazardous energy through lockout and tagout of energy-isolating devices. OSHA standard 29 CFR 1910.147, "The Control of Hazardous Energy (Lockout/Tagout)," is the basis for this course. A comprehensive test will be offered at the end of the class.

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

Use these direct links for registration.

Shirley Robinson x41284

 

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12.          Material Handling, Storage, Use and Disposal ViTS: Jan. 18

SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0063: This three-hour course is based on Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) CFR 1926.250 - General Requirements for Storage; OSHA CFR 1926.251 - Rigging Equipment for Material Handling; and OSHA CFR 1926.252 - Disposal of Waste Materials for the Construction Industry. During the course, the student will receive an overview of these topics, which are needed in handling materials to meet the requirements of the OSHA 200 Construction Safety and Health Standards.

Use this direct link for registration.

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

Shirley Robinson x41284

 

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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 their 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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14.          Aerial Platform ViTS: Jan. 25 - 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0030: This three-hour course provides classroom training as required by OSHA 29 CFR 1910.67(C)(2)(ii). Classroom training allows employees to have on-site, hands-on field training and testing that will qualify them for approval to use aerial lifts on a NASA site. Discussions will cover hazard awareness and how to gain from lessons learned. Target audience: Supervisors of aerial lift operations and aerial lift operators.

Use this direct link for registration.

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

Shirley Robinson x41284

 

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

 

 

 

NASA TV:

·         8:10 am Central (9:10 EST) – E34's Kevin Ford with CBS News & CNN

·         11:30 am Central (12:30 pm EST) – Video File of E34/35 Crew Departure for Baikonur

 

Human Spaceflight News

Thursday – December 6, 2012

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

Expert panel: NASA seems lost in space, needs goal

 

Seth Borenstein - Associated Press

 

NASA is adrift without a coherent vision for where it should be going, an independent panel of space, science and engineering experts said in a stinging report issued Wednesday. The report by the National Academy of Sciences doesn't blame the space agency; it faults the president, Congress and the nation for not giving NASA clear direction. At the same time, it said NASA is doing little to further the White House's goal of sending astronauts to an asteroid. Panel member Bob Crippen, a retired NASA manager and astronaut who piloted the first space shuttle mission, said he has never seen the space agency so adrift. He said that includes the decade between the end of the Apollo moon landings and the beginning of the shuttle program.

 

NASA on verge of losing its edge, report says

 

Amina Khan & Rosie Mestel - Los Angeles Times

 

Years of trying to do too many things with too little money have put NASA at risk of ceding leadership in space exploration to other nations, according to a new report that calls on the space agency to make wrenching decisions about its long-term strategy and future scope. As other countries — including some potential adversaries — are investing heavily in space, federal funding for NASA is essentially flat and under constant threat of being cut. Without a clear vision, that fiscal uncertainty makes it all the more difficult for the agency to make progress on ambitious goals like sending astronauts to an asteroid or Mars while executing big-ticket science missions, such as the $8.8-billion James Webb Space Telescope, says the analysis released Wednesday by the National Research Council.

 

Is NASA lost in space?

Report: Agency needs an inspiring, Apollo-like goal to recapture nation's flagging imagination

 

Ledyard King – Florida Today

 

NASA's much-touted mission to land astronauts on an asteroid by 2025 as part of a trip to Mars is being undermined largely because most agency workers don't enthusiastically support the mission, a new report says. That finding reflects the space program's broader struggles to chart a long-term course that can inspire and win broad support, but is also affordable, given tight budgets and political turf wars.

 

NASA says program lost in space without a national agreement on its mission

 

Lee Roop - Huntsville Times

 

Like an astronaut trainee in one of those weightless airplanes, NASA is floating aimlessly until it bumps up against a demand created by its political masters or its creaking infrastructure, a new report from the National Academy of Sciences says. It isn't NASA's fault, the report says, but rather the fault of Congress, the president and even the nation for not giving the space agency a clear and consistent mission. "There is no national consensus on strategic goals and objectives for NASA," said the report released Wednesday. Without a consensus, it said NASA can't be expected to implement a strategic plan.

 

Political peril follows downsizing talk

 

Ledyard King - Florida Today

 

A new report examining ways to improve NASA's efficiency offers a simple but politically volatile suggestion: Think about downsizing the agency's 10 field centers, including Kennedy Space Center. The report, requested by Congress and released Wednesday by the National Research Council, acknowledges the benefits of spreading facilities around the country, "where they can tap into localized talent." But that decentralized system also makes it harder for NASA to redeploy workers and missions where they make the most sense, the report says. In addition, civil service protections and other constraints complicate broad workforce reductions and disposal of excess property.

 

A long, long time

N.J. astronaut set for 2 years of training, then a year in space

 

Lisa Rose - Star-Ledger (NJ)

 

Astronaut Scott Kelly has several concerns as he prepares to set an American record by spending a year in orbit aboard the International Space Station. The West Orange native said he is thinking about the isolation, the confinement, the physical rigors of a microgravity environment and the coffee. "It's not like the coffee you get in Jersey," Kelly, 48, said Wednesday via phone from the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "It's like instant coffee and I drink a lot of it up there. I drink more of it up there than here on Earth."

 

Kelly prepared for yearlong station flight

 

William Harwood - CBS News

 

When astronaut Scott Kelly told his nine-year-old daughter he was going to spend a full year aboard the International Space Station, she exclaimed "awesome!" When cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko told his wife the same thing, "she started crying." But both men said Wednesday they were looking forward to blasting off in March 2015 and spending a full year in orbit, serving as medical guinea pigs to help scientists learn more about the long-term physical and psychological impacts of extended, confined flights in the weightless environment of space.

 

US twin astronaut, Russian to spend year in orbit

 

Marcia Dunn - Associated Press

 

A former space shuttle commander whose twin brother is married to former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will attempt the longest spaceflight ever by an American. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will spend an entire year aboard the International Space Station beginning in 2015. Both countries' space agencies announced the names of the two veteran spacefliers on Monday. The extended mission was approved almost two months ago to provide a medical foundation for future missions around the moon, as well as far-flung trips to asteroids and Mars. Both men already have lived aboard the space station for six months. NASA wanted experienced space station astronauts to streamline the amount of training necessary for a one-year stint. Officials had said the list of candidates was very short. They will begin training next year.

 

Yearlong mission to ISS 'grew on' astronaut Kelly

Riskier stay on ISS meant to gather data

 

James Dean – Florida Today

 

Scott Kelly's 9-year-old daughter thought the idea was "awesome!" Mikhail Kornienko's wife cried. The NASA astronaut and Russian cosmonaut know their yearlong expedition together aboard the International Space Station will present risks and challenges, but both look forward to advancing knowledge that could enable trips to more distant destinations. "We'll hopefully set the stage for sending humans beyond low Earth orbit some day, and one day to Mars," Kelly said during a news conference Wednesday.

 

Astronauts Excited For First Yearlong Trip to International Space Station

 

Stephanie Pappas - Space.com

 

The two men preparing for the first-ever yearlong mission to the International Space Station are looking forward to the challenge, they said Wednesday. Friends and family are supportive of the mission, said astronaut Scott Kelly, though perhaps none more so than his 9-year-old daughter. "When I told her on the phone that I was going to spend a year on the space station, she screamed out, 'Awesome!'" Kelly said today during a press conference at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

 

Astronaut, Cosmonaut Plan for a Year in Orbit

 

Suzanne Presto - Voice of America

 

Think of where you were and what you were doing six months ago. Now think about where you were and what you were doing 12 months ago. Veteran NASA astronaut Scott Kelly said that might give you a better idea of what is in store for him and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko. They are the two space travelers selected for a one-year stay aboard the International Space Station - more than twice as long as the usual mission.

 

Russia, U.S. pick astronauts for year-long ISS mission

 

Gabriela Baczynska - Reuters

 

Russia and the United States have chosen two International Space Station (ISS) veterans for the first year-long mission to the orbiting laboratory, a test of endurance that will help prepare for missions deeper into space. Russian Mikhail Korniyenko and American Scott Kelly will ride a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the station in the spring of 2015, Russian space agency Roskosmos said on Monday. It would be the longest space flight by an American. Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov holds the record for the longest spell in orbit, a 438-day mission aboard Russia's Mir space station in 1994 and 1995.

 

Statesville native Tom Marshburn prepares to visit Space Station

 

Meghan Packer - WFMY TV (Greensboro)

 

A North Carolina native is preparing for a visit to space. Tom Marshburn is a NASA astronaut from Statesville. He spoke with News 2 during the Good Morning Show Tuesday from his training center in Russia. Marshburn and two others are preparing to travel to the International Space Station on board Soyuz TMA-07M December 19th. They'll leave from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Statesville native first traveled to space in 2009 on Space Shuttle Endeavour.

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Canadian astronaut packs new wedding ring in luggage for space trip

 

Peter Rakobowchuk - Canadian Press

 

So what exactly does an astronaut bring with him on a visit to the International Space Station that could last up to six months? If you're Chris Hadfield, a newly minted wedding band is at the top of the list. When he blasts off on Dec. 19, the Canadian astronaut will have the ring as a constant reminder of his wife Helene.

 

British singer finalizes formalities for space trip

 

Xinhua News Service

 

British singer Sarah Brightman has finalized all formalities for a trip to the International Space Station (ISS), said head of the Russian Cosmonauts Training Center on Wednesday. Moscow's office of the U.S. Space Adventures company said it has finalized formalities with the 52-year-old singer for a 10-day space trip, Sergei Krikalyov told Interfax news agency, adding her intention to go to the ISS could be a part of her new album promotion. Brightman has received an approval from a medical commission for training at Russia's Cosmonaut Training Center in July.

 

New milestones for astronaut/educator Bonnie Dunbar

 

Patti Payne - Puget Sound Business Journal

 

NASA astronaut Bonnie Dunbar is in the process of making a big change, moving to Texas for a new job. Word of that job will be released in the near future. Currently Dunbar, a Washington native, is based in the Seattle area, consulting around the country and internationally on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education and space flight technology. Her life is devoted to furthering education. Though she will be employed elsewhere, she says she will continue to work to create STEM partnerships in Washington and other states. She will keep her home in Issaquah.

__________

 

COMPLETE STORIES

 

Expert panel: NASA seems lost in space, needs goal

 

Seth Borenstein - Associated Press

 

NASA is adrift without a coherent vision for where it should be going, an independent panel of space, science and engineering experts said in a stinging report issued Wednesday.

 

The report by the National Academy of Sciences doesn't blame the space agency; it faults the president, Congress and the nation for not giving NASA clear direction. At the same time, it said NASA is doing little to further the White House's goal of sending astronauts to an asteroid.

 

Panel member Bob Crippen, a retired NASA manager and astronaut who piloted the first space shuttle mission, said he has never seen the space agency so adrift. He said that includes the decade between the end of the Apollo moon landings and the beginning of the shuttle program.

 

"I think people (at NASA) want to be focused a little more and know where they are going," Crippen told The Associated Press.

 

NASA spokesman David Weaver said in an emailed statement that the agency has clear and challenging goals. He listed several projects, including continued use of the International Space Station and efforts to develop a heavy-lift rocket and crew capsule capable of taking astronauts into deep space.

 

President Barack Obama in 2010 told the space agency to plan to send astronauts to an asteroid by 2025 as a training ground for an eventual Mars landing.

 

But the 80-page report from the national academy and its authors said that there is little support for that idea within NASA and the international space community. Also, NASA hasn't allocated much money for it. Nor has it done much to locate an asteroid target. The agency's vague strategic plan avoids mention of an asteroid mission.

 

After the 2003 space shuttle Columbia accident, the independent board investigating what wrong said NASA needed a bigger long-term plan for human exploration. Then-President George W. Bush announced that the shuttle would be retired and that NASA's new goal would be to return astronauts to the moon with a permanent base there as a stepping stone to Mars.

 

When Obama took office, he appointed an outside committee that said the moon plan wasn't properly funded and wasn't sustainable. The panel offered a list of several options, including an asteroid mission as a possible stepping stone to Mars. Obama chose that path.

 

Crippen said an asteroid mission just doesn't make sense technically or politically and may just be too tough.

 

"I hate to use the word credible, but people don't buy it," said academy panel member Marcia Smith, president of Space and Technology Policy Group. "They don't feel that the asteroid mission is the right one."

 

The reason people aren't buying it is that they don't see money budgeted for it and they don't see the choice of target, said panel chairman Albert Carnesale, former chancellor of the University of California at Los Angeles. Inside NASA, "people were wondering: What are we doing to actually accomplish this?" Carnesale said at a news conference.

 

Carnesale said he wouldn't use the word "adrift" to describe where NASA is, but three other panel members said it was an apt description. And the report said NASA's strategic plan "is vague and avoids stating any clear prioritization of the goals"

 

University of Chicago physicist Michael Turner, another panel member, said in an interview: "What we're trying to say if you read between the lines is, `Yeah, they are adrift, but it took a village to get adrift because they don't set their agenda.'"

 

Syracuse University public policy professor W. Henry Lambright, who wasn't part of the study but has written about space policy, said Obama has not sold NASA, Congress and the country on his plan.

 

"I really think it's Obama's fault," Lambright said. NASA "is suffering from benign neglect."

 

NASA was also adrift after Apollo, but once then-President Richard Nixon decided to build a space shuttle, the agency had direction and that's not happening now, Lambright said.

 

American University policy professor Howard McCurdy, who also wasn't on the panel, said he sees the problem more as a lack of money than a lack of goals. NASA has seemed adrift for decades, he said.

 

The report said NASA does not have enough money for its too many projects and has difficulty managing its 10 centers efficiently.

 

In his statement, NASA's Weaver said: "We're fully utilizing the International Space Station; developing a heavy-lift rocket and multi-purpose crew vehicle capable of taking American astronauts into deep space; facilitating development of commercial capabilities for cargo and crew transport to low Earth orbit; expanding our technological capabilities for the human and robotic missions of today and tomorrow; pursuing a robust portfolio of science missions such as the James Webb Space Telescope; developing faster and cleaner aircraft and inspiring the next generation of exploration leaders."

 

Smith said that statement itself shows the problem: "If it takes you that many phrases to explain it, then you do not have a crisp, clear strategic vision."

 

NASA on verge of losing its edge, report says

Given an undefined vision and financial uncertainty, NASA could lose its leadership role in space exploration to other nations, a National Research Council analysis concludes

 

Amina Khan & Rosie Mestel - Los Angeles Times

 

Years of trying to do too many things with too little money have put NASA at risk of ceding leadership in space exploration to other nations, according to a new report that calls on the space agency to make wrenching decisions about its long-term strategy and future scope.

 

As other countries — including some potential adversaries — are investing heavily in space, federal funding for NASA is essentially flat and under constant threat of being cut. Without a clear vision, that fiscal uncertainty makes it all the more difficult for the agency to make progress on ambitious goals like sending astronauts to an asteroid or Mars while executing big-ticket science missions, such as the $8.8-billion James Webb Space Telescope, says the analysis released Wednesday by the National Research Council.

 

"These problems are not primarily of NASA's doing, but the agency could craft a better response to the uncertainty," wrote the report's authors, a group of 12 independent experts led by former UCLA Chancellor Albert Carnesale. "If the United States is to continue to maintain international leadership in space, it must have a steady, bold, scientifically justifiable space program in which other countries want to participate, and, moreover, it must behave as a reliable partner. Despite decades of U.S. leadership and technical accomplishment, many of these elements are missing today."

 

The report, commissioned by NASA at the behest of Congress, said the agency lacked a long-range agenda that enjoyed widespread support from government and the public. The authors also made plain that many of the problems boiled down to money.

 

"NASA cannot execute a robust, balanced aeronautics and space program given the current budget constraints," it warns. "There is a significant mismatch between the programs to which NASA is committed and the budgets that have been provided or anticipated. ... This mismatch needs to be addressed if NASA is to efficiently and effectively develop enduring strategic directions of any sort."

 

To that end, the committee laid out four options for getting NASA's goals in line with its resources. It acknowledged that the most appealing plan — getting more money from Congress — was "unlikely given the current outlook for the federal budget." Other possibilities include relying more on partnerships with other countries and private companies; undertaking an "aggressive restructuring program" that eliminates jobs and facilities; or giving up one of its main focus areas, such as the astronaut program or its studies of deep space.

 

The report's authors did not weigh in on which course NASA should choose. But they emphasized that Congress and the White House couldn't afford to ignore an uncomfortable truth: "NASA's distribution of resources may be out of sync with what it can achieve relative to what it has been asked to do."

 

Close watchers of the space agency said the report summarized NASA's predicament well.

 

"I thought it was rather grim reading, but accurate," said Scott Pace, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, who worked at NASA during the George W. Bush administration.

 

The report comes a year after the space shuttle fleet's retirement, leaving the agency with no clear agenda for its flagship human spaceflight division. The current objectives — to send astronauts to an asteroid by 2025 and a manned mission to Mars in the 2030s — have been criticized by some experts as risky and remote possibilities. Even within NASA, there is no widespread consensus that these goals make sense, the report said.

 

In preparing their report, committee members visited NASA's 10 field centers around the country, including the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge, which is managed by Caltech. They also ran an online survey that drew nearly 800 responses.

 

What they found was little interest in a manned asteroid mission, either inside or outside the agency, Carnesale said.

 

And in spite of President Obama's call for a manned mission to Mars in the next 20 to 30 years, there's more of an international appetite for revisiting the moon, Pace said.

 

That opinion will matter a great deal if the agency chooses to reduce costs by forging more international partnerships. Gone are the Cold War days when NASA was flush and the United States could set its own agenda without significant input from foreign partners, the report said.

 

But some worried that ceding more control of such missions to other nations could ultimately sap support for NASA.

 

"The national space program is really a nationalist kind of thing," said Alden Munson, senior fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, a science and technology think tank based in Arlington, Va. By making such missions international collaborations, "you kind of lose political support."

 

By stretching itself so thin, NASA has often wound up with missions that take much longer than planned, which drives up the price.

 

"They cost more, they take longer, and they're riskier," Carnesale said. "And we're dragging them out because NASA plays with the one variable that it has control over: time."

 

NASA officials should also take more initiative in managing the 10 centers as a more efficient, integrated system, he said. But at the moment, the agency doesn't have much flexibility to make changes to its structure or its personnel. For example, the law forbids NASA from cutting any civil servant jobs, but Congress could change that, he said.

 

But making changes to NASA's infrastructure is easier said than done, said Scott Hubbard, former director of NASA's Mars program, who is now a professor at Stanford University. He pulled out an easy example.

 

"Attempting to close a NASA center has been tried over and over again," he said. "It's never worked."

 

Is NASA lost in space?

Report: Agency needs an inspiring, Apollo-like goal to recapture nation's flagging imagination

 

Ledyard King – Florida Today

 

NASA's much-touted mission to land astronauts on an asteroid by 2025 as part of a trip to Mars is being undermined largely because most agency workers don't enthusiastically support the mission, a new report says.

 

That finding reflects the space program's broader struggles to chart a long-term course that can inspire and win broad support, but is also affordable, given tight budgets and political turf wars.

 

"We've seen limited evidence that (an asteroid) has been widely accepted as a compelling destination by NASA's own work force, by the nation as a whole, or by the international community," says the report, completed by 12 experts chosen by the National Research Council, a division of the National Academies of Sciences.

 

Wednesday's report, requested by Congress, is the second in two days to question the trajectory of the U.S. space program, which critics say needs a goal that the nation can rally around like NASA had during the Apollo era. It called NASA "an agency at a transitional point" and noted it faced challenges in nearly all of its endeavours.

 

The study put the blame on "a lack of consensus on the scope of NASA's broad missions for the nation's future."

 

On Tuesday, an industry-funded study echoed those concerns, saying NASA was being asked to do too much without adequate support. It urged the space agency to shed some of its science and research functions and focus again on exploring space.

 

Among the findings by the National Research Council in its report, "NASA's Strategic Direction and the Need for a National Consensus:"

 

• Aside from a trip to Mars, NASA has had trouble getting its workforce to agree on the next deep-space destination for its astronauts. Many employees and a number of congressional lawmakers would prefer to return to the moon, a mission that President Barack Obama scrapped, rather than fly to an asteroid on the way to Mars, as the president and NASA leaders have recommended.

 

"There is no national consensus on strategic goals and objectives, which helps to explain why NASA does not have a real strategic plan," said Albert Carnesale, who chaired the panel of experts who produced the report. "If you look at what the administration says and look at what Congress says and look at the strategic plan, it is not clear what the priorities are."

 

NASA says program lost in space without a national agreement on its mission

 

Lee Roop - Huntsville Times

 

Like an astronaut trainee in one of those weightless airplanes, NASA is floating aimlessly until it bumps up against a demand created by its political masters or its creaking infrastructure, a new report from the National Academy of Sciences says. It isn't NASA's fault, the report says, but rather the fault of Congress, the president and even the nation for not giving the space agency a clear and consistent mission.

 

"There is no national consensus on strategic goals and objectives for NASA," said the report released Wednesday. Without a consensus, it said NASA can't be expected to implement a strategic plan.

 

The report, commissioned in 2011 by the NASA Office of the Inspector General after a congressional directive, is drawing national media interest. Reporters have seized upon a variety of metaphors -- adrift, lost in space -- to describe the agency.

 

The study committee headed by University of California chancellor emeritus Albert Carnesale noted that it was charged to recommend a way for NASA to establish and communicate a mission for itself in the public square. The charge itself "is based on a flawed premise," the report said, "because NASA does not set its own mission." It implements the vision set forward by Congress in law and by the White House. Conventional wisdom says the president sets that vision in a major speech, the report says, and then Congress goes along. In fact, the committee says, that only happened during the Apollo mission and there was plenty of skepticism about it. 

 

While calling for creation of some way for NASA to set and move forward on a strategic plan, the committee notes that this isn't a meaningless debate. NASA occupies a "unique role" in the nation's research communities, technology development and national security, the committee says.

 

Political peril follows downsizing talk

 

Ledyard King - Florida Today

 

A new report examining ways to improve NASA's efficiency offers a simple but politically volatile suggestion: Think about downsizing the agency's 10 field centers, including Kennedy Space Center.

 

The report, requested by Congress and released Wednesday by the National Research Council, acknowledges the benefits of spreading facilities around the country, "where they can tap into localized talent."

 

But that decentralized system also makes it harder for NASA to redeploy workers and missions where they make the most sense, the report says. In addition, civil service protections and other constraints complicate broad workforce reductions and disposal of excess property.

 

As a result, NASA has underutilized facilities, significant deferred maintenance and modernization costs, and workforce skill-maintenance issues.

 

Albert Carnesale, who chaired the commission that authored the report, told reporters the panel is not recommending that centers be closed or downsized.

 

"But we do know if you're tight on resources, that you've got to look at everything," he said.

 

Carnesale noted that NASA spends only about 3 percent of its budget on the aeronautics program yet the four centers established for aeronautics projects employ nearly 25 percent of the agency's workforce.

 

It suggests NASA might not be using those workers efficiently, he said.

 

The report notes that multiple field centers were established during the early years of the space race, including supporting regional economic development and increasing political support for NASA.

 

And that's precisely why it's unlikely any centers would close.

 

Past NASA administrators have shied away from taking such steps because of the "high political price," Carenesale said.

 

Republican Rep. Frank Wolf of Virginia, chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees NASA's spending, agreed.

 

"You've had centers growing up in different places and you can't shut down anything," Wolf said. "It becomes so political in some respects."

 

A long, long time

N.J. astronaut set for 2 years of training, then a year in space

 

Lisa Rose - Star-Ledger (NJ)

 

Astronaut Scott Kelly has several concerns as he prepares to set an American record by spending a year in orbit aboard the International Space Station.

 

The West Orange native said he is thinking about the isolation, the confinement, the physical rigors of a microgravity environment and the coffee.

 

"It's not like the coffee you get in Jersey," Kelly, 48, said Wednesday via phone from the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "It's like instant coffee and I drink a lot of it up there. I drink more of it up there than here on Earth."

 

Kelly is going to train for two years before he blasts off on a Soyuz rocket with a Russian counterpart, cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, in 2015. They will hover in the heavens to test the impact of prolonged spaceflight on the human body.

 

Russia set the precedent for extended stays in orbit during the 1990s, as four cosmonauts dwelled aboard the Mir space station for missions that lasted as long as 14 months.

 

If all goes well with Kelly and Kornienko, it increases the possibility of a manned flight to Mars.

 

The quality of coffee in the floating laboratory may be lacking, but the space station offers certain creature comforts, according to Kelly. It is equipped with a high-tech treadmill named after satirist Stephen Colbert, and NASA transmits the "NBC Nightly News" for Kelly to watch during his workouts. He usually gets a decent night's sleep suspended in air and strapped to a wall.

 

"The best thing is when you get a resupply vehicle from Russia and it has some fresh fruit and vegetables in there," said Kelly, whose twin, Mark, is a retired astronaut and the husband of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

 

"As far as the food is concerned, some of it's pretty good. The barbecue beef is good. There's granola with milk that I never have here on Earth, but for some reason the space version of it is pretty good," said Kelly. "The water's good, even though it's your recycled urine. It tastes better than what comes out of the faucet."

 

During a joint news conference Wednesday, Kornienko told reporters he anticipates this journey will be as challenging as his experience climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.

 

"You cannot climb it and conquer it," Kornienko said. "It can let you in and let you out, so I was let in and let out. As for the flight, I think it's a unique opportunity for me. It's an opportunity to participate in a scientific program that cannot be done during the six-month flight."

 

The loneliness of the extended space station stint will be somewhat mitigated by weekly videoconferences with friends and loved ones.

 

A divorced father of two daughters, Kelly said his family has been supportive of him embarking on long, risky trips into space.

 

Kornienko said his wife wept when he said he'd be gone for a year. Kelly quipped that the people close to him had a different reaction.

 

"No one cried for me, so that's telling you something," said Kelly, who spent six months aboard a space station in 2010. "Everyone is excited about the idea of me doing it because they know it's something I want to do even if they recognize it's not going to be easy."

 

It helps, of course, that Kelly's twin knows what it's like to live in orbit. Mark Kelly's NASA résumé includes the final flight of the space shuttle Endeavour in 2011.

 

Mark Kelly retired to spend time with Giffords, who was severely injured in a mass shooting in Arizona two years ago.

 

The expedition will be bittersweet for Scott Kelly. His mother, Patricia, died this year. He didn't get a chance to tell her that he'd been tapped to become the first American to spend a year in space. During previous space station jaunts, he said he had long phone conversations with his mom, who was the first female police officer in West Orange.

 

"It will be different this time," said Kelly. "The other way it will be different is my dad had my mom before and now he doesn't, so it will be different for him, too."

 

In addition to monitoring Kelly's physical health during the flight, NASA will also be observing his psychological condition. A key component will be developing a good rapport with Kornienko.

 

Kelly and Kornienko have crossed paths several times over the past decade. They trained together in Russia when Kelly was a backup crew member for a 2010 Soyuz mission. Part of the process was spending 10 days in quarantine.

 

"We were eating three meals a day together and socializing," said Kelly. "It was like being in a hotel room with a bunch of people that are all isolated together. It's not like I'm going with someone I've never met before. I feel like I know him pretty well, but we'll have plenty of time to get to know one another better on the space station."

 

Kelly prepared for yearlong station flight

 

William Harwood - CBS News

 

When astronaut Scott Kelly told his nine-year-old daughter he was going to spend a full year aboard the International Space Station, she exclaimed "awesome!"

 

When cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko told his wife the same thing, "she started crying."

 

But both men said Wednesday they were looking forward to blasting off in March 2015 and spending a full year in orbit, serving as medical guinea pigs to help scientists learn more about the long-term physical and psychological impacts of extended, confined flights in the weightless environment of space.

 

"I personally think our ultimate destination, at least for a long time in our planet's future, is getting to Mars," Kelly told CBS News. "And I look at this as a step towards that."

 

Alexey Krasnov, director of manned space operations for Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency, agreed, saying through a translator "I hope this one-year duration expedition will help us achieve these tasks."

 

A flight to Mars, possibly in the 2030s, is expected to take seven to 10 months, followed by a lengthy stay in the reduced gravity of the red planet and then an equally long trip back to Earth.

 

Space station astronauts and cosmonauts typically spend up to six months aboard the international lab complex and researchers are eager to find out how the adaptation process might change -- and what might need to be done about it -- for longer-duration missions.

 

The spaceflight duration record holder is cosmonaut Valery Polyakov, who spent 438 days aboard the Russian Mir space station in 1994 and 1995. The U.S. record for the longest single spaceflight is held by astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, who spent 215 days in space aboard the International Space Station in 2006-07.

 

But the upcoming flight with Kelly and Kornienko will set a new record for NASA and it will be the first to employ the full range of modern medical protocols and research procedures over a 12-month period.

 

Igor Ushakov, a senior medical researcher with the Russian space program, said astronauts and cosmonauts already run a 7 percent risk of having a problem that requires medical care after a six-month flight.

 

"So the risk will double, so for at least one of the two it will be 14 percent for the yearlong expedition," he said. "I would like to knock on wood that it won't happen, the worst scenario. But the risk is increased, that's for sure."

 

Even so, he reassured reporters, "the cosmonauts who were in space for a year or more, they all are alive and well today."

 

"There's a legend among cosmonauts," he said through a translator. "When one of the cosmonauts was asked how he was feeling, he showed his thumb. And when they asked what do you want, he said 'I want to have a smoke and to kiss my wife.' So you can tell by this answer that the guy who came from a long-duration flight is in a good mood!"

 

Kelly said was up to the challenge, but he acknowledged it won't be easy.

 

"My greatest concern is just missing the people, your loved ones, your family, your friends on a personal level that you're attached to on the ground," he said.

 

Another issue: the sheer routine of life in a confined space.

 

"You know, in the morning you wake up, you're at work. When you go to sleep, you're also at work," Kelly said. "Imagine being in your office for a whole year and you never get to leave. That is a challenge, it presents its own set of issues, but I think I'm up for it and I look forward to it."

 

Like all space station crews, Kelly and Kornienko will enjoy regular video chats with friends and family. They will be able to send and receive email and make phone calls via the internet when the station is within range of a NASA communications satellite. The station boasts an extensive video collection and books, along with a variety of musical instruments and players.

 

But Kelly said mission "fatigue" may set in at some point

 

"I think in a lot of ways it'll be similar to those challenges that people do that are kind of considered type-two fun, you know, it's fun when you're done with it, not while you're doing it. Like climbing Mount Everest, or something like that," he said. "Not the type fun you have riding a roller coaster.

 

"I think in a lot of ways it'll be like that. I suspect, when you have like a third (of your time) left of something of a certain duration ... is when that fatigue level people generally see will be building up. I suspect I won't see that after six months, I'll kind of see that towards the end, hopefully not at all."

 

Kelly spent 180 days in space during three earlier flights. He served as pilot of a shuttle mission in 1999 and as commander of another in 2007. He then served as a flight engineer aboard the space station during Expedition 25 in 2010 and as commander of Expedition 26 in 2011.

 

Kelly is divorced and has two daughters. His twin brother Mark, married to former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, also is a veteran shuttle commander. He retired from NASA last year.

 

"They were all very supportive," Scott Kelly said of his family. "As far as like a specific reaction, the only one that comes to mind is my 9-year-old daughter, when I told her on the phone that I was going to spend a year on the space station, she screamed out 'awesome!'"

 

Kornienko also is a space station veteran, logging more than 176 days in orbit as a flight engineer during Expeditions 23 and 24 in 2010.

 

"I had some doubts, because, you know, a year is a serious time," he said. "My wife, of course, she started to cry. That was her reaction."

 

From his perspective, "it's a unique opportunity for us," he said. "Before, only four Russian cosmonauts did that. ... I'm a professional, it's my job. And of course, I'm very eager to do this. I understand it won't be easy."

 

Before, during and after their marathon stint in space, both men will be subjected to a battery of tests to measure their adaptation to weightlessness and what, if any, long-term effects might emerge.

 

Space station Program Scientist Julie Robinson said U.S. and Russian researchers are focusing on seven general areas of interest:

 

·         How weightlessness triggers post-flight vision problems for some astronauts

·         Assessing exercise and nutrition in combating bone loss and muscle atrophy

·         How the immune system responds to long-duration exposure to microgravity

·         Assessing neurovestibular system changes that can affect balance and perception

·         Possible changes in crew behavior, performance and inter-personal relations

·         The effects of radiation exposure

·         Assessing crew training procedures and possible changes

 

"I would frame it as a pilot study or a spot check," Robinson said in an interview. "So we are building from ISS a significant body of understanding, on both what the effects are on the human body and also how to prevent those effects.

 

"For many areas, we think what we've developed for six months is enough. But it's those pieces that aren't that way -- radiation is one, vision could be one, behavioral health issues could be another -- if there are areas where even a little bit longer than six months is a challenge, that becomes an important risk as we start looking towards Mars missions."

 

US twin astronaut, Russian to spend year in orbit

 

Marcia Dunn - Associated Press

 

A former space shuttle commander whose twin brother is married to former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will attempt the longest spaceflight ever by an American.

 

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will spend an entire year aboard the International Space Station beginning in 2015.

 

Both countries' space agencies announced the names of the two veteran spacefliers on Monday. The extended mission was approved almost two months ago to provide a medical foundation for future missions around the moon, as well as far-flung trips to asteroids and Mars.

 

Both men already have lived aboard the space station for six months. NASA wanted experienced space station astronauts to streamline the amount of training necessary for a one-year stint. Officials had said the list of candidates was very short. They will begin training next year.

 

"Their skills and previous experience aboard the space station align with the mission's requirements," Bill Gerstenmaier, head of human exploration for NASA, said in a statement. "The one-year increment will expand the bounds of how we live and work in space and will increase our knowledge regarding the effects of microgravity on humans as we prepare for future missions beyond low-Earth orbit."

 

Kelly's identical twin brother, Mark Kelly, retired from the astronaut corps last year and moved to Tucson, Ariz., his wife's hometown. The former congresswoman was critically wounded in an assassination attempt in January 2011, while Scott Kelly was living aboard the space station.

 

NASA said neither crew member was available Monday to comment and that news conferences would be held next week to outline the mission.

 

Astronauts normally spend about four to six months aboard the space station. The longest an American lived there was seven months, several years back.

 

Russia, though, will continue to hold the world space endurance record.

 

Four cosmonauts spent at least a year aboard the old Mir space station. A Russian physician, Valery Polyakov, logged nearly 15 continuous months there in the mid-1990s.

 

Boris Morukov, head of the Moscow-based Institute for Medical and Biological Problems, Russia's main space medicine research center, told the Interfax news agency that communications and food rations for Kelly and Kornienko may be limited during their yearlong mission to better simulate interplanetary travel.

 

Kelly and Kornienko will launch aboard a Russian rocket from Kazakhstan. Americans must buy seats on Russian spacecraft now that NASA's shuttles have retired to museums, until private U.S. companies have vessels capable of carrying human passengers. That's still four or five years off.

 

Kelly is a 48-year-old, divorced Navy captain with two daughters. Kornienko, 52, a rocket engineer, is married with a daughter.

 

"We have chosen the most responsible, skilled and enthusiastic crew members to expand space exploration, and we have full confidence in them," Russian Space Agency chief Vladimir Popovkin said in the announcement.

 

Yearlong mission to ISS 'grew on' astronaut Kelly

Riskier stay on ISS meant to gather data

 

James Dean – Florida Today

 

Scott Kelly's 9-year-old daughter thought the idea was "awesome!"

 

Mikhail Kornienko's wife cried.

 

The NASA astronaut and Russian cosmonaut know their yearlong expedition together aboard the International Space Station will present risks and challenges, but both look forward to advancing knowledge that could enable trips to more distant destinations.

 

"We'll hopefully set the stage for sending humans beyond low Earth orbit some day, and one day to Mars," Kelly said during a news conference Wednesday.

 

Expected to launch in the spring of 2015, the mission will be twice as long as typical "long-duration" stays on the station, though not record-setting.

 

Four cosmonauts spent between 12 and 14 months on Russia's Mir station, and two more just under a year.

 

But those flights were a long time ago, the most recent in 1999.

 

Scientists say an equivalent mission on ISS, employing the latest technologies and protocols for counteracting microgravity's effects, will update their base of knowledge.

 

"We saw significant value in doing sort of a spot check," said Julie Robinson, NASA's ISS program scientist.

 

The yearlong mission will perform experiments in seven areas, including impacts to the astronauts' vision, immune system and bone mass, plus behavioral issues and challenges readapting to Earth's gravity.

 

Igor Ushakov, director of the Institute for Biomedical Problems in Russia, said the cosmonauts who have flown the longest missions "all are alive and well today."

 

But he said Kelly, 48, and Kornienko, 52, would face double the 7 percent average risk of encountering an illness that required medical intervention during their mission.

 

"The risk is increased for this flight, that's for sure," said Ushakov.

 

Kelly and Kornienko, both veterans of prior station expeditions who know each other from their training, thought long about committing to a one-year mission.

 

"The whole notion of it kind of slowly grew on me, over probably about a three- or four-month period," said Kelly, until he became "very excited about the opportunity."

 

Astronauts Excited For First Yearlong Trip to International Space Station

 

Stephanie Pappas - Space.com

 

The two men preparing for the first-ever yearlong mission to the International Space Station are looking forward to the challenge, they said Wednesday.

 

Friends and family are supportive of the mission, said astronaut Scott Kelly, though perhaps none more so than his 9-year-old daughter.

 

"When I told her on the phone that I was going to spend a year on the space station, she screamed out, 'Awesome!'" Kelly said today during a press conference at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

 

Kelly and Russian Federal Space Agency cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko are due to launch on the yearlong mission in 2015.

 

The flight is designed to help scientists understand how the human body adapts to spaceflight longer than six months, the usual length of stints aboard the space station.

 

No one has ever spent a continuous year on the International Space Station (ISS), though four Russian cosmonauts have experienced nearly year-long or longer missions in low-Earth orbit. One, Valery Polyakov, stayed aboard the Russian space station Mir for 428 consecutive days in 1994 and 1995.

 

All of these cosmonauts flew in the early era of spaceflight, said ISS program scientist Julie Robinson. The last long-duration mission ended in 1999. Kelly Kornienko will become the first people since then to spend a year in orbit.

 

Testing the human body

 

NASA and other space agencies know a lot about how the body responds to six months in space, Robinson told reporters, but little about what happens next — though that sort of knowledge is crucial as agencies contemplate sending humans back to the moon, to an asteroid, or to Mars.

 

NASA has several major concerns about the health effects of long-duration spaceflight. One of the most pressing is a recently discovered side effect: vision problems created by increased pressure in the skull in microgravity. Researchers aren't yet sure if some of those vision changes might be permanent, Robinson said.

 

Kelly and Kornienko will also act as guinea pigs in studies to see how a year in space affects immune system function, bone loss, radiation exposure and psychological functioning, as well as difficulties adapting back to Earth's gravity when they return. These issues are well-understood in the six-month timeframe, Robinson said, but there are questions about whether some effects will worsen over time.

 

The yearlong mission will also require a shift in training for Kelly and Kornienko, who will be part of six consecutive crews during their time away from Earth. They'll first be a part of a three-member crew in the Soyuz spacecraft that takes them up to the space station, said Robert Behnken, NASA's chief astronaut. When that Soyuz craft leaves, Kelly and Kornienko will remain on the station as four different ISS crews arrive and leave. Finally, they'll join a third person to end the mission on their return to Earth.

 

The two men will participate in the daily activities of the orbiting laboratory, including spacewalks, making them "no different than anyone else who flies on the International Space Station," Kelly said.

 

Far from home

 

Both Kelly and Kornienko said they looked forward to their yearlong voyage, though neither was naïve to the challenges ahead.

 

"It's definitely a challenge," Kelly said. "I think in a lot of ways it will be similar to those challenges that people do that are kind of considered type-two fun. It's fun when you're done with it, not while you're doing it, like climbing Mount Everest."

 

The rigors of preparing for the mission will keep both Kelly and Kornienko busy even before their launch, scheduled for March 2015. Kornienko is beginning a six-month training stint in Houston, putting him far from his family long before he heads to space.

 

"My wife, of course, she started to cry. That was her reaction," to hearing Kornienko would be taking the yearlong assignment, he said.

 

Kornienko and Kelly will have the ability to chat with friends and family on the ground from the station, an opportunity that would be available with less frequency for astronauts headed to Mars or another far-flung location. Kelly, who lived on the ISS for a six-month mission between 2010 and 2011, said he'll spend more time on this mission planning out entertainment and coping mechanisms.

 

Kelly also said his previous six-month mission gave him an unwelcome look at how he'd respond if something tragic were to happen on the ground to friends or family while he is in space. On Jan. 8, 2011, Kelly's sister-in-law, then-congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (wife of Kelly's twin brother, Mark Kelly, who is also an astronaut, now retired), was shot in the head in Tucson. It was two months before Kelly returned to Earth and was able to see his family and the recovering Giffords.

 

"For me, it was a pretty significant event when my sister-in-law was shot along with all those other folks who were killed," Kelly said. "And you know, there is certainly nothing good comes out of anything like this, but as a result I do know how I respond to something along those lines. I don't know if it's helpful but if something, God forbid, something tragic was to occur I kind of know how I would react."

 

Astronaut, Cosmonaut Plan for a Year in Orbit

 

Suzanne Presto - Voice of America

 

Think of where you were and what you were doing six months ago. Now think about where you were and what you were doing 12 months ago.

 

Veteran NASA astronaut Scott Kelly said that might give you a better idea of what is in store for him and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko. They are the two space travelers selected for a one-year stay aboard the International Space Station - more than twice as long as the usual mission.  

 

"People have referred to this as a long-duration ISS mission, and I want to clear something up: that six months is a long-duration mission. Six months is a very long time," Kelly emphasized. "If you think back to what you were doing six months ago, you know, it might be hard for you to remember."

 

Year in Orbit

 

The planned 12-month mission will be the longest ever aboard the ISS. This joint U.S.-Russian mission is being developed as the space agencies explore plans for longer manned flights into deep space.

 

Kelly and Russia's Kornienko are no strangers to space - they each have logged about six months in orbit. The two men have trained together in the past and both say they are looking forward to their partnership. 

 

Russia's space agency has more experience than its U.S. partner with longer duration flights. Four cosmonauts spent a year or more aboard Mir, the Russian space station that was retired in 2001. 

 

Science and the space station

 

NASA scientist Julie Robinson said researchers know a lot about the ways human beings react during six months in microgravity conditions, when the pull of Earth's gravity is weak and things seem weightless. 

 

Robinson says there is much to be gained from this planned longer mission, adding that the last 12-month Mir mission was in 1999.  

 

"All the lessons of Mir have been incorporated into the International Space Station, and we've even moved on from our sort of International Space Station starting conditions in terms of how we maintain astronaut health and gone to sort of [version] 2.0, if you will, for the exercise hardware, our exercise protocols, our nutrition protocols," said Robinson. "Also, medical technologies have advanced significantly since 1999." 

 

Robinson said one of the goals of this longer mission is to learn whether physiological changes plateau or continue as people spend more time in space.

 

Bodies in orbit

 

Scientists have studied the effects of microgravity on muscle mass, strength, vision and bone density. They are hoping to learn more about the effects microgravity has on vein systems in the brain, as some crew members have reported changes to their vision. Researchers also want to figure out how best to train astronauts when there will be a long gap between the time they learn activities and the time they have to carry them out.    

 

Kelly and Kornienko will take a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the space station in 2015 to begin their year in orbit.

 

Russia, U.S. pick astronauts for year-long ISS mission

 

Gabriela Baczynska - Reuters

 

Russia and the United States have chosen two International Space Station (ISS) veterans for the first year-long mission to the orbiting laboratory, a test of endurance that will help prepare for missions deeper into space.

 

Russian Mikhail Korniyenko and American Scott Kelly will ride a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the station in the spring of 2015, Russian space agency Roskosmos said on Monday.

 

It would be the longest space flight by an American. Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov holds the record for the longest spell in orbit, a 438-day mission aboard Russia's Mir space station in 1994 and 1995.

 

The record for an American is held by Michael Lopez-Alegria, who completed a 215-day mission aboard the International Space Station in 2006-2007.

 

Most stints on the station, a $100 billion, permanently staffed laboratory that orbits about 250 miles above Earth, have lasted no more than six months.

 

Doctors are particularly concerned about the effect of long spells in space on bones, vision and the cardiovascular system.

 

"The goal of the year-long expedition aboard the orbital laboratory is testing human body reactions to the harsh conditions of space and the ability to adapt to them," Roskosmos said in a statement on its website.

 

It would help reduce risks on future missions to the Moon's orbit, the asteroids and eventually Mars, it said.

 

"The choice of participants in the year-long flight was hard because there were many worthy candidates, but we chose the most responsible," said Roskosmos head Vladimir Popovkin.

 

He said Kelly and Korniyenko, who were in separate ISS crews in 2010-2011, were "selflessly loyal to the business of space".

 

Since the United States ended its space shuttle program last year, it has relied solely on Russia to fly astronauts to the ISS at a cost of more than $60 million per seat.

 

But Russia's pioneering space industry has suffered embarrassing and costly failures in the past two years. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev met Popovkin and other senior officials on Monday to discuss ways to improve the performance of Roskosmos.

 

Canadian astronaut packs new wedding ring in luggage for space trip

 

Peter Rakobowchuk - Canadian Press

 

So what exactly does an astronaut bring with him on a visit to the International Space Station that could last up to six months?

 

If you're Chris Hadfield, a newly minted wedding band is at the top of the list.

 

When he blasts off on Dec. 19, the Canadian astronaut will have the ring as a constant reminder of his wife Helene.

 

The 53-year-old Hadfield said in an interview from Russia on Wednesday that he and Helene decided he should take something small and light given that space aboard the Soyuz capsule is limited.

 

"Something that can remind you on a daily basis, something that is both personal and also that is not just a collector's item," he told The Canadian Press.

 

"We thought about jewelry, earrings and a necklace, but it just seemed to make sense — so I'm flying a ring for my wife."

 

The couple will celebrate its 31st wedding anniversary four days after Hadfield soars into space aboard a Russian spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

 

The veteran astronaut is also taking up a watch belonging to his 26 year-old daughter Kristin.

 

"On my first flight I flew a watch from my first son, on my second flight I flew a watch from my other son and so on this one, I'm flying a watch for my daughter that she chose," he said.

 

Hadfield's first space trip was in November 1995 when he visited the Russian Space Station Mir. His second voyage was a visit to the International Space Station in April 2001, when he also performed two space walks.

 

During his upcoming visit, he will become the first Canadian to command the space station. That will happen during the second half of his mission.

 

No other Canadian astronauts are scheduled to fly after Hadfield, who will be accompanied by NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko.

 

In the past, the fleet of U.S. space shuttles bused Canadian astronauts up to the orbiting space lab. But the final space shuttle mission ended July 21, 2011, when the shuttle Atlantis returned to Earth.

 

As for the future, Hadfield says more opportunities may arise for Canadians to fly with astronauts from other countries.

 

"The Chinese have a very successful program," he noted. "Who knows! We may co-operate with them.

 

"The European Space Agency has a co-operative effort between their astronaut corps and the Chinese astronaut corps and there are European astronauts studying Chinese."

 

Hadfield also pointed out that India is working hard to have a manned space program over the next decade, with the Japanese doing the same thing.

 

He added that a number of private companies in the United States are also competing to provide the next manned American space vehicle.

 

British singer finalizes formalities for space trip

 

Xinhua News Service

 

British singer Sarah Brightman has finalized all formalities for a trip to the International Space Station (ISS), said head of the Russian Cosmonauts Training Center on Wednesday.

 

Moscow's office of the U.S. Space Adventures company said it has finalized formalities with the 52-year-old singer for a 10-day space trip, Sergei Krikalyov told Interfax news agency, adding her intention to go to the ISS could be a part of her new album promotion.

 

Brightman has received an approval from a medical commission for training at Russia's Cosmonaut Training Center in July.

 

In October, Russian federal space agency Roscosmos said Brightman was fit for space travel and her flight would likely be carried out in October or November 2015.

 

"Many years ago we considered an option to send to space another singer, he has even passed the medical tests. This is possible," Krikalyov said.

 

So far, seven paying space tourists have been sent to the ISS, including a female tourist. Each of them paid at least 20 million U.S. dollars for an adventure.

 

In October 2009, Russia stopped taking space tourists due to lack of room in its three-person Soyuz spacecraft, when NASA canceled its shuttles, leaving Russian rockets the only ones capable of carrying crews into the orbit.

 

New milestones for astronaut/educator Bonnie Dunbar

 

Patti Payne - Puget Sound Business Journal

 

NASA astronaut Bonnie Dunbar is in the process of making a big change, moving to Texas for a new job. Word of that job will be released in the near future.

 

Currently Dunbar, a Washington native, is based in the Seattle area, consulting around the country and internationally on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education and space flight technology. Her life is devoted to furthering education.

 

Though she will be employed elsewhere, she says she will continue to work to create STEM partnerships in Washington and other states. She will keep her home in Issaquah.

 

Dunbar, former head of the Museum of Flight, is a much beloved figure, inspiring legions of young girls and women wherever she goes. She is the first woman from Washington state to become an astronaut, rocketing into space five times.

 

Most recently, Dunbar was elected to the august Executive Committee of the International Association of Space Explorers (ASE) at the XXV Planetary Congress of the ASE, held this year in Saudi Arabia. She is the first women space flier in that committee's 25 year history.

 

"I am deeply appreciative because I have had the opportunity to train both in Russia and Germany, and so, to be part of this international group is really an honor for me," she tells me.

 

The ASE was hosted by "Prince Sultan (HRH Sultan bin Salman al-Saud), who flew on the Space Shuttle in 1985 (STS-51G) along with a Saudi Arabian communications satellite (ARABSAT). He and I trained at the same time at the NASA Johnson Space Center," says Dunbar.

 

Although the meeting was in Riyadh, Dunbar says they visited schools throughout the country for one day. "Saudi Arabia's goal is to be able to transform from an oil-based economy to one of knowledge-based. The theme of the Congress was 'Space Technology for a Knowledge Society'."

 

Dunbar hosted the ASE in Seattle in 2008 when she was head of the Museum of Flight. Next year it will be held in Cologne, Germany.

 

END