Keep the shuttle flying: Fwd: Human Spaceflight News

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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: January 14, 2013 8:00:48 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - January 14, 2013 and JSC Today

Monday, January 14, 2013

JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1.            Hear About a Major Orion Milestone at an All Hands -- Jan. 16
2.            2012-2013 Influenza Season
3.            Reminder: Global Communication Sponsored by ASIA ERG *** Room Change ***
4.            Technology Transfer Strategies: Increasing the Impact of YOUR R&D Efforts
5.            RLLS Translation Support WebEx Training Jan. 17
6.            JSC Contractor Safety Forum: 'Safety & Health Excellence Awards' Application
7.            JSC Academic Fellowship Info Sessions
8.            Teamwork Makes the Dream Work' -- William A. Lawson to Speak Jan. 17
9.            Payload Safety Process & Requirements: Feb. 1 - Building 20, Room 205/206
10.          Society of Women Engineers (SWE)-Texas Space Center (TSC) New Year Meeting
11.          Nutrition Class Tomorrow -- Meal Planning for Busy Families
12.          Save the Date -- April 13 -- Chili Cook-off
________________________________________     QUOTE OF THE DAY
" There's no labor a man can do that's undignified, if he does it right. "

-- Bill Cosby
________________________________________
1.            Hear About a Major Orion Milestone at an All Hands -- Jan. 16
NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) recently signed an agreement to provide a service module for the Orion spacecraft's Exploration Mission-1 in 2017.
Join the Orion team to learn more the new partnership from NASA and ESA managers at an all-hands meeting Wednesday, Jan. 16, at 9 a.m. in the Teague Auditorium.
If you can't make it to the event, employees can catch it on RF Channel 2 or by using onsite IPTV on channels 202 and 402. If you are having problems viewing the video using these systems, contact the Information Resources Directorate Customer Support Center at x46367.
JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111

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2.            2012-2013 Influenza Season
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the news media have been reporting that seasonal influenza activity continues to increase in the United States, with most of the country now experiencing high levels of influenza-like illness.
The best way to prevent influenza illness is by getting the influenza vaccine. Unfortunately, we do not have any vaccine left after vaccinating more than 3,400 personnel by the end of October. Seasonal flu vaccine may still be available at local drug stores, supermarkets, physician's offices or public health clinics in the Houston area.
The Occupational Health Branch website listed below contains information on other vaccine resources and recommendations.
Bob Martel x38581 http://sd.jsc.nasa.gov/omoh/scripts/OccupationalMedicine/Fluprogram.aspx

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3.            Reminder: Global Communication Sponsored by ASIA ERG *** Room Change ***
George Bernard Shaw aptly said, "The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place."
In our global world, the English language has acted as a unifying bridge, allowing people from around the world to work together. However, there is a specific set of challenges that have emerged with the use of varied English in our global working environment: How we say what we say, how we listen, what we hear and how we respond. While the diversity between each individual on a global team adds richness and greater results, the differences between our hearing expectations can act as the very barrier to the creation of synergy, effective interactions and quality outcomes.
This lunch-and-learn will focus on equipping the learner with new perspectives to evaluate what areas need to be worked on in order to improve the quality and results of spoken interactions in global teams.
Event Date: Tuesday, January 15, 2013   Event Start Time:11:30 AM   Event End Time:12:30 PM
Event Location: Building 35, Room 108A

Add to Calendar

Krystine Bui x34186

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4.            Technology Transfer Strategies: Increasing the Impact of YOUR R&D Efforts
The Human Systems Academy is pleased to announce a panel discussion entitled, "Technology Transfer Strategies: Increasing the Impact of YOUR R&D Efforts." Through this campfire-style discussion, the panelists will convey their experiences with the technology-transfer process, important technology transfer considerations, application to research and development at the agency, application of collaborations and commercialization while safe guarding Intellectual Property, and real-world examples, including potential benefits to society. Space is limited, so register today!
For registration, please go to: https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...
Event Date: Tuesday, January 29, 2013   Event Start Time:1:00 PM   Event End Time:3:00 PM
Event Location: B30 Auditorium

Add to Calendar

Cynthia Rando 281-461-2620 http://sa.jsc.nasa.gov/

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5.            RLLS Translation Support WebEx Training Jan. 17
TechTrans International (TTI) will provide a 30-minute Translation WebEx training on Jan. 17 at 2 p.m. for the RLLS portal Translation support request module. This training will include the following elements:
o             Locating Translation support request module
o             Quick view of Translation support request
o             Create a new Translation support request
o             Translation submittal requirements
o             Adding an attachment and reference documents
o             Selecting document restrictions (export control, PII, confidential)
o             Adding additional email addresses distribution notices
o             Submitting Translation request
o             Status of Translation request records
o             View a Translation request record
o             Searching for documents in the archive
o             Contact RLLS support for additional help
Please send an email or call 281-335-8565 to sign up for this RLLS Translation Support WebEx Training course. Class will be limited to the first 20 individuals registered.
James Welty 281-335-8565 https://www.tti-portal.com

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6.            JSC Contractor Safety Forum: 'Safety & Health Excellence Awards' Application
It is time to start planning for the JSC Contractor Safety Forum, "Safety and Health Excellence Awards." The 2012 awards application and the 2012 CSF, CASC and JSAT meeting attendance lists are now posted on the JSC Safety and Health website here. The awards application must be completed by Friday, Feb. 8. The JSC CSF Safety & Health Excellence Awards Ceremony is scheduled for Tuesday, March 19, at 9 a.m. in the Gilruth Center Alamo Ballroom.
Please contact Pat Farrell at 281-335-2012 with any questions or if you need additional information.
Patricia Farrell 281-335-2012

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7.            JSC Academic Fellowship Info Sessions
Are you a JSC civil service employee interested in or already pursuing a master's or doctorate degree?
If so, the JSC Academic Fellowship Program may be for you. We are now accepting program applications for the 2013-14 academic year.
To learn more about this development opportunity and to access the application, click here.
Contact your organization's training coordinator for directorate-specific deadlines.
Want more information about the program before submitting your application?
Join us for an informational overview on the application format, eligibility, funding expectations and more. No need to register.
Event title: Information and Q & A Session
Date: Jan. 17
Time: 2 to 3 p.m.
Date: Jan. 18
Time: 9 to 10 a.m.
Date: Jan. 31
Time: 9 to 10 a.m.
Date: Feb. 7
Time: 11 a.m. to noon
Location: Building 12, Room 136
Target Audience: JSC civil servants
Aaron Blevins x33111 http://jscpeople.jsc.nasa.gov/Training/ind_dev/academicprogram.htm

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8.            Teamwork Makes the Dream Work' -- William A. Lawson to Speak Jan. 17
William A. Lawson, a civil rights icon who worked with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the early days of the civil rights movement, will speak to JSC team members about King's legacy, teamwork and inclusiveness on Thursday, Jan. 17, at 11 a.m. in the Teague Auditorium. The event is sponsored by the center's African-American Employee Resource Group to commemorate JSC's diverse workforce during the months of January and February for the Martin Luther King Jr. and black history observances, respectively. Civil servant and contractor employees are invited to attend.
Event Date: Thursday, January 17, 2013   Event Start Time:11:00 AM   Event End Time:1:00 PM
Event Location: Teague Auditorium

Add to Calendar

Carla Burnett x41044

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9.            Payload Safety Process & Requirements: Feb. 1 - Building 20, Room 205/206
Class is from 8 a.m. - 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 assure 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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10.          Society of Women Engineers (SWE)-Texas Space Center (TSC) New Year Meeting
Start the new year right by reconnecting with other engineers, SWE-TSC members and friends over some:
o             Engineering games
o             A leadership development webinar
o             Potluck fare - please bring a side/sweet/drinks to share, too
Please RSVP to tsc-secretary@swe.org and tsc-president@swe.org the item you would like to bring for the potluck. The location address will be provided in response to your RSVP.
This event is open to all -- please feel free to invite your family and colleagues.
We hope to see you there!
Event Date: Sunday, January 27, 2013   Event Start Time:12:30 PM   Event End Time:3:30 PM
Event Location: Private residence of SWE member

Add to Calendar

Irene Chan 713-933-6892 http://www.swe.org/swe/regionc/sections/c008/

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11.          Nutrition Class Tomorrow -- Meal Planning for Busy Families
Do you know what you are having for dinner tonight? Planning meals for the family can be time consuming and stressful. This class will present ideas for quick and easy meal planning that can be done in advance to help take the stress out of your evenings. We will discuss ways to prepare meals that everyone will like and ways to make sure they are well-balanced and nutritious! Class will be held tomorrow, Jan. 15, at 5 p.m. in the Gilruth Center Discovery Room.
Email Glenda Blaskey to sign up for this class today!
If you're working on improving your approach to healthy nutrition but can't attend a class, we offer free one-on-one consultations with Glenda Blaskey, the JSC Registered Dietitian.
Glenda Blaskey x41503 http://www.explorationwellness.com/Web/scripts/Nutrition.aspx

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12.          Save the Date -- April 13 -- Chili Cook-off
The 35th Annual JSC FOD Chili Cook-off will be held on April 13! More details to follow.
Event Date: Saturday, April 13, 2013   Event Start Time:7:00 AM   Event End Time:5:00 PM
Event Location: Gilruth Center

Add to Calendar

Jeff Bauer 281-226-5132 https://external.jsc.nasa.gov/events/chili/index.cfm

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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
Monday – January 14, 2013

HEADLINES AND LEADS

International Space Station will get first inflatable addition
Las Vegas co. set to fly module to space station

James Dean - Florida Today

NASA will add an inflatable module to the International Space Station developed by Bigelow Aerospace, a company that hopes to deploy the first privately operated space stations. The space agency on Friday announced it has awarded Bigelow a $17.8 million contract to fly a Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM, to the station. The module's specifications and capabilities, and the timing of the mission, were not immediately disclosed. More detail is expected during a press conference Wednesday at Bigelow's North Las Vegas headquarters.

NASA hires Bigelow Aerospace to put inflatable module on Space Station

Lee Roop - Huntsville Times

NASA has awarded a $17.8 million contract to Bigelow Aerospace to add one of its expandable modules to the International Space Station. The plan is to demonstrate the inflatable modules for future exploration and commercial use, NASA said Friday. "The International Space Station is a unique laboratory that enables important discoveries that benefit humanity and vastly increase understanding of how humans can live and work in space for long periods," NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver said.

NASA Buys Private Inflatable Room for Space Station

Mike Wall - Space.com

NASA has officially signed a deal to attach an inflatable private module to the International Space Station, space agency officials confirmed Friday. Under the new deal, NASA will pay $17.8 million to the Nevada-based private spaceflight firm Bigelow Aerospace for the company's Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), which will be affixed to the orbiting lab as a technology demonstration.

Space Station to test Bigelow inflatable module

Irene Klotz - Discovery News

A prototype inflatable space module, developed by Bigelow Aerospace, will be tested aboard the International Space Station. NASA will pay Bigelow $17.8 million for the experimental habitat, known as the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM.

Bigelow Inflatable Module Will be Added to Space Station

Nancy Atkinson - UniverseToday.com

The next addition to the International Space Station will likely be an inflatable module from Bigelow Aerospace. NASA announced today they have awarded a $17.8 million contract to Bigelow to provide a new module for the ISS. "The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module will demonstrate the benefits of this space habitat technology for future exploration and commercial space endeavors," NASA said in a press release. This would be the first privately built module to be added to the space station.

NASA Awards $17.8M Contract For Inflatable Addition To Space Station

Alex Knapp - Forbes

NASA has announced that it has awarded a $17.8 million contract to Bigelow Aerospace to build an expandable module for the International Space Station. This marks a big step forward for the commercial space company, which aims to build inexpensive commercial space stations for low Earth orbit. Bigelow has been working on developing expandable spacecraft since its founding in 1998.

NASA considers adding Bigelow to International Space Station

Zach Rosenberg - FlightInternational.com

NASA has announced a deal with Bigelow Aerospace to explore adding one of Bigelow's inflatable modules to the International Space Station (ISS). The ISS is the world's only continually-habitated space station, maintained by a coalition of several nations. While the modules are mainly aimed at nations without their own space stations - those who do not participate in the ISS programme - NASA has long held an interest in a relatively inexpensive addition to the ISS. Bigelow has been building and testing inflatable space modules, which can be linked together into a habitable space station. The company has launched two prototype habitats, in which nobody has yet set foot. Bigelow has signed a number of agreements with established launch providers, including Boeing and SpaceX. Neither NASA nor Bigelow were available for immediate comment. (NO FURTHER TEXT)

SpaceX Aims for March 1 Dragon Launch

Irene Klotz - Discovery News

Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, has requested a March 1 launch date from the Eastern Range, which operates the Cape Canaveral, Fla., spaceport from where the company's Falcon rockets fly. Like the company's two previous flights, the rocket will carry a Dragon cargo capsule loaded with food, supplies and science experiments for the International Space Station, a permanently staffed research laboratory that flies about 250 miles above Earth.

NASA Safety Panel Worried About Budget Constraints

Mark Carreau - Aviation Week

NASA's parallel human spaceflight initiatives are struggling with budget uncertainties that increase risk as the agency alters oversight and acquisition strategies to lower costs, according to the latest annual assessment from its independent Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP). The agency's declining annual budget, $17.7 billion and facing further erosion from a looming March 1 sequester, is the "elephant in the room," according to the nine-member panel's 2012 appraisal.

Russia plans to create systems for flights to Moon

Interfax

The Russian state program Space Activities of Russia for 2013 - 2020 envisions the development of interplanet flight technologies and technologies used for human activities on other planets. Specifically, the program envisages "the creation of a promising manned transport system capable of ensuring manned flights to the Moon," the document posted on the Roscosmos website says.

Kazakhstan Foreign Ministry commented on the situation around Baikonur

Tengri News

Kazakhstan Foreign Ministry has commented on the situation around Baikonur cosmodrome, Tengrinews.kz reports citing the Ministry's press-service. "Just as before, Kazakhstan counts on expansion of its participation in the space activities of Baikonur cosmodrone, development of its space potential. In this view it would have been unwise for us to lose the opportunity of close cooperation with such an important space country as Russia, especially at our own cosmodrome," press-secretary Ilyas Omarov said.

Superconducting Magnets Could Block Space Radiation

Frank Morring, Jr. - Aviation Week

Astronauts on deep-space missions may one day deploy protective magnetic fields similar to those that shelter us from deadly space radiation on Earth, just as they will carry the necessary food and atmosphere. NASA and its industrial and academic partners are studying ways to use superconducting magnets to generate magnetic fields around deep-space habitats. A promising approach would use coils that "inflate" with their own magnetism to deflect solar-flare protons and galactic cosmic rays that otherwise would restrict human travel time in space.

From EKU, middle school students chat with astronaut on space station

Frank Kourt - Richmond Register (KY)

A group of Kentucky middle school students had what can only be described as an out-of-this-world experience Friday as they got to ask questions of an astronaut aboard the International Space Station. Using a video/audio downlink with the space station, orbiting about 220 miles above Earth, the selected students from middle schools got to ask questions of Tom Marshburn, M.D., ranging from what it's like to experience microgravity to whether he would be willing to go deeper into space, should the opportunity present itself.

High Schoolers Control Satellites Aboard Space Station

TechNewsDaily.com

Would you trust a 16-year-old in space? NASA evidently does. Just after the sun rose on the East Coast Friday, astronauts aboard the International Space Station ran computer instructions, written by high school students, in bowling ball-size satellites floating inside the ISS cabin. The students' code told the satellites exactly where to go to complete challenges such as spitting out dust clouds and avoiding obstacles. Ceding control of small satellites to students is part of an annual competition called the Zero Robotics SPHERES Challenge, which is hosted by NASA, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Weightlessness no cure for "morning clumsies," astronaut says

Irene Klotz - Reuters

Like many people, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield confesses that he's sometimes clumsy in the morning just after waking up. The three-time astronaut, now living aboard the International Space Station, was surprised to learn that did not change in the weightless environment of space. "When I come out of my sleeping berth to go into our galley and our bathroom, I bump into things even though I'm floating weightless," the 53-year-old pilot told reporters during an in-flight press conference on Thursday.

Space Station Astronaut Calls for Peace on Earth

Elizabeth Howell - Space.com

From high above Earth, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield is broadcasting a message of peace for the people of Earth, with a little help from 200,000 Twitter fans. The three-time spaceflyer, a flight engineer and prolific Twitter user on the International Space Station, spoke solemnly Thursday (Jan. 10) about a picture he recently took of war-torn Syria. The picture had special poignancy given that the Earth appears as "one place" from orbit, Hadfield told reporters in a press conference at the Canadian Space Agency's headquarters near Montreal, Quebec.

Mrs. Hadfield is also flying high

Tom Spears - Ottawa Citizen

(You might think the wife of an astronaut would spend a lot of time worrying. Well, not Helene Hadfield. As Tom Spears writes, she couldn't be happier her husband is doing what he loves — soaring in space.)

The least stressed person watching Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield launch on a fiery and explosive ride into space last month was probably his wife, Helene. Worried? "Oh, nooooo!" she said emphatically in an interview with the Citizen. The only stress she experienced came in the months before the launch. And that was just her feeling very afraid something simple would prevent her husband from flying. A car accident, or slipping on some ice.

Astronaut Hall of Fame to Add 3 Shuttle Veterans in April

Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com

A trailblazing commander, the commander of a trailblazer, and a payload commander will be inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame this April. Eileen Collins, the first woman to lead a shuttle mission, Curtis Brown, who commanded John Glenn's triumphant return to space and Bonnie Dunbar, who managed life and science experiments on Spacelab and Mir space station missions, were confirmed as this year's honorees by the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF), which oversees the Hall of Fame's annual selections. The three veteran space shuttle crew members will be added to the 81 astronauts enshrined in the Astronaut Hall of Fame since 1990, including NASA's Mercury, Gemini and Apollo program pioneers.

Panel: Private space exploration could make it easier to reach for the stars

James Figueroa - Pasadena Star-News

Small and cheap could become the new normal for space exploration with the advent of U.S. orbital and suborbital missions managed by private companies, according to panelists at a free Caltech lecture on Thursday examining the impact of space commercialization. As the government hands off mission duties to contractors, such as Hawthorne's Space Exploration Technologies, the transition could drive new technology that would benefit scientific work even as astronauts broaden their job description to include giving tours, NASA administrator John Grunsfeld said.

White House: Thumbs down on Death Star, thumbs up on space

Alan Boyle - NBCNews.com's Cosmic Log

The White House says building a Death Star would be an out-of-this-galaxy waste of money — not only because it's against government policy to blow up planets, but also because the United States already has access to a space station as well as a laser-wielding space robot. Friday's official statement on the Death Star issue, titled "This Isn't the Petition Response You're Looking For," was written by Paul Shawcross, chief of the science and space branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget. It comes in response to a "We the People" petition that called on the federal government to start building a "Star Wars"-style Death Star battle station by 2016.

White House on 'Death Star' petition: No

David Jackson - USA Today

The White House has provided a detailed response to petitions calling for construction of a "Death Star" for national defense, but it boils down to one word: No. For one thing, a Death Star is estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000, writes White House official Paul Shawcross. "We're working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it," adds Shawcross, chief of the Science and Space Branch with the White House Office of Management and Budget.

SpaceX takes hops toward a lofty goal

John Kelly - Florida Today (Commentary)

Here's something to keep an eye on if you're interested in the long-term sustainability of space flight: Grasshopper. Grasshopper is a vertical take-off and vertical landing launch vehicle being developed, and test flown, by SpaceX in Texas. In December, Grasshopper blasted off on a what might seem like a short flight a little more than 130 feet above ground. Then, the vehicle returned to the ground intact. The 29-second flight is a big deal because it's the beginning of a nascent effort by the groundbreaking space-launch venture to go after one of the holy grails of more affordable space launch: reusability.

Former NASA manned spaceflight director dies

Associated Press

Family members say that Dyer Brainerd Holmes, director of manned space flight for NASA when Americans were making their early forays into space in the early 1960s, has died. According to the NASA History Office, he joined the agency as director of manned space flight in October 1961. He resigned in June 1963. During Holmes' time at NASA, John Glenn became the first U.S. astronaut in orbit on Feb. 20, 1962, on Mercury-Atlas 6.

NASA 'Space Planner' Brainerd Holmes Dies

Ben Evans - AmericaSpace.org

In spite of a relatively short career within NASA's senior leadership, D. Brainerd Holmes – who died on Friday, aged 91, from complications of pneumonia – established himself as a shining star in the Apollo era, to such an extent that he found himself on the cover of Time magazine in August 1962 as the agency's 'Space Planner'. This brilliant electrical engineer saw military service in World War II and later forged an engineering and industrial career with Western Electric, Bell Laboratories, RCA and Raytheon and, as NASA's Director of the Office of Manned Space Flight from September 1961 until August 1963, was instrumental in tackling the practicalities of President John F. Kennedy's thorny goal of putting a man on the Moon.

NASCAR tests at Space Center

Lee Spencer - FoxSports.com

NASCAR teams are always searching for new places to test, and apparently Daytona International Speedway isn't the only facility on Florida's Sun Coast where competitors can shake down their latest and greatest efforts. Research and development teams from Richard Childress Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing have discovered the NASA Shuttle Landing Facility just south of Daytona on Merritt Island in Brevard County — part of the Kennedy Space Center.
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COMPLETE STORIES

International Space Station will get first inflatable addition
Las Vegas co. set to fly module to space station

James Dean - Florida Today

NASA will add an inflatable module to the International Space Station developed by Bigelow Aerospace, a company that hopes to deploy the first privately operated space stations.

The space agency on Friday announced it has awarded Bigelow a $17.8 million contract to fly a Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM, to the station.

The module's specifications and capabilities, and the timing of the mission, were not immediately disclosed. More detail is expected during a press conference Wednesday at Bigelow's North Las Vegas headquarters.

NASA said the module would demonstrate its benefits for commercial space endeavors and future exploration missions.

"This partnership agreement for the use of expandable habitats represents a step forward in cutting-edge technology that can allow humans to thrive in space safely and affordably, and heralds important progress in U.S. commercial space innovation," NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver said in a statement.

Bigelow habitats are seen as potentially helping to open a market for commercial human spaceflight by providing destinations for private crews beyond the ISS.

Founded by Robert Bigelow, owner of Budget Suites of America hotels, Bigelow Aerospace says its expandable habitats could exceed the usable space of the ISS at a fraction of the cost. The company launched two prototypes in 2006 and 2007.

NASA hires Bigelow Aerospace to put inflatable module on Space Station

Lee Roop - Huntsville Times

NASA has awarded a $17.8 million contract to Bigelow Aerospace to add one of its expandable modules to the International Space Station. The plan is to demonstrate the inflatable modules for future exploration and commercial use, NASA said Friday.

"The International Space Station is a unique laboratory that enables important discoveries that benefit humanity and vastly increase understanding of how humans can live and work in space for long periods," NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver said. "This partnership agreement for the use of expandable habitats represents a step forward in cutting-edge technology that can allow humans to thrive in space safely and affordably, and heralds important progress in U.S. commercial space innovation."

Garver and Bigelow Aerospace founder and President Robert Bigelow will discuss the plan at a press conference Wednesday, Jan. 16, at 12:30 CST at the company's facilities in Las Vegas.

Entrepreneur Robert Bigelow, who owns the Budget Suites of America hotel chain, founded his company in 1999 to use new materials as the inflatable shells for working and living places in space. He has launched two such craft -- Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 -- that are still orbiting the Earth. This story from 2012 details why Bigelow believes his technology will not only benefit NASA but lead to private space stations and a base on the moon. He calls what he is developing "next generation commercial space stations."

The module to be added to the station would be for storage similar to the current Japanese Logistics Platform already attached to the station, according to reports. It would remain on the station for two years. The deal is described as a win-win for NASA and the company with NASA gaining valuable insight into a technology that could figure heavily in future space exploration and Bigelow gaining valuable experience and credibility for his future commercial space plans.

A one-third scale model of a Bigelow commercial space station is on display at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville. It was added in 2011 after Bigelow toured the museum. The model is about 10-feet tall and is in two parts - a habitat module and a docking node and propulsion "bus" or system - making it about 30 feet long.

NASA Buys Private Inflatable Room for Space Station

Mike Wall - Space.com

NASA has officially signed a deal to attach an inflatable private module to the International Space Station, space agency officials confirmed Friday.

Under the new deal, NASA will pay $17.8 million to the Nevada-based private spaceflight firm Bigelow Aerospace for the company's Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), which will be affixed to the orbiting lab as a technology demonstration.

"This partnership agreement for the use of expandable habitats represents a step forward in cutting-edge technology that can allow humans to thrive in space safely and affordably, and heralds important progress in U.S. commercial space innovation," NASA deputy chief Lori Garver said in a statement.

Friday's announcement confirms reports that surfaced earlier this week. Garver and Bigelow founder and president Robert Bigelow will discuss the BEAM program at a media event Jan. 16 at Bigelow Aerospace facilities in North Las Vegas, NASA officials said.

BEAM is likely to be similar to Bigelow's Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 prototypes, which the company launched to orbit in 2006 and 2007, respectively. Both Genesis modules are 14.4 feet long by 8.3 feet wide (4.4 by 2.5 meters), with about 406 cubic feet (11.5 cubic m) of pressurized volume.

NASA officials have said that BEAM could be on orbit about two years after getting an official go-ahead. The module will likely be launched by one of the agency's commerical cargo suppliers, California-based SpaceX or Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp.

Bigelow's dreams don't stop at the International Space Station. The company wants to launch and link up several of its larger expandable modules to create private space stations, which could be used by a variety of clients.

Tenants could get to orbiting Bigelow habitats in several different ways. The company has set up a partnership with SpaceX for use of its Dragon spacecraft and another one with Boeing, to use the aerospace giant's CST-100 capsule.

Bigelow is also eyeing a possible outpost on the moon, for which the company envisions using its BA-330 modules (so named because they offer 330 cubic meters of usable internal volume). Several BA-330 habitats, along with propulsion tanks and power units, would be joined together in space and then flown down to the lunar surface.

Lunar dirt would be piled over the modules to protect against radiation, thermal extremes and micrometeorite strikes. Then clients — be they explorers, scientists or tourists — could move in and set up shop on the moon.

This is not the first time NASA has teamed up with a commercial spaceflight company for work on the International Space Station. The agency currently has billion-dollar contracts with SpaceX and Orbital Sciences to fly unmanned cargo missions to the station.

SpaceX, which holds a $1.6 billion deal for 12 flights, launched its Dragon capsule on its first contracted cargo run last October. Orbital Sciences signed a $1.9 billion contract for eight missions; it's expected to launch test flights of its new robotic Cygnus cargo ship and Antares rocket this year.

NASA is also helping private spaceflight companies develop new vehicles to ferry astronauts to and from low-Earth orbit. In 2010, the agency granted a total of $50 million to five firms, including Boeing and Colorado-based 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.

The space agency hopes at least one of these companies has a manned spaceship up and running by 2017.

Space Station to test Bigelow inflatable module

Irene Klotz - Discovery News

A prototype inflatable space module, developed by Bigelow Aerospace, will be tested aboard the International Space Station.

NASA will pay Bigelow $17.8 million for the experimental habitat, known as the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM.

It would be the company's third orbital prototype, but the first to be tested as part of a crewed spacecraft. The demonstration not only is expected to help Bigelow lease space to paying customers aboard its planned free-flying Earth-orbiting outposts. NASA also is interested in the technology for future deep space missions, such as to an asteroid, the moon, or Mars.

"This partnership agreement … represents a step forward in cutting-edge technology that can allow humans to thrive in space safely and affordably," NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver said in a statement.

Details of the project will be announced Wednesday at Bigelow's headquarters in Las Vegas.

Bigelow Inflatable Module Will be Added to Space Station

Nancy Atkinson - UniverseToday.com

The next addition to the International Space Station will likely be an inflatable module from Bigelow Aerospace. NASA announced today they have awarded a $17.8 million contract to Bigelow to provide a new module for the ISS. "The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module will demonstrate the benefits of this space habitat technology for future exploration and commercial space endeavors," NASA said in a press release. This would be the first privately built module to be added to the space station.

"The International Space Station is a unique laboratory that enables important discoveries that benefit humanity and vastly increase understanding of how humans can live and work in space for long periods," NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver said. "This partnership agreement for the use of expandable habitats represents a step forward in cutting-edge technology that can allow humans to thrive in space safely and affordably, and heralds important progress in U.S. commercial space innovation."

NASA will release more information about the agreement and the module next week, but previous reports have indicated the inflatable module would be used for adding additional storage and workspace, and the module would be certified to remain on-orbit for two years.
NASA has been in discussions with Bigelow for several years about using their inflatable technology.

In 2006 Bigelow launched their Genesis I inflatable test module into orbit and according to their website, it is still functioning and "continuing to produce invaluable images, videos and data for Bigelow Aerospace. It is now demonstrating the long-term viability of expandable habitat technology in an actual orbital environment."

A second Genesis module was launched in 2007 and it, too, is still functioning in orbit.
Bigelow has said that even though the outer shell of their module is soft, as opposed to the rigid outer shell of current modules at the ISS, Bigelow's inflatable modules are more resistant to micrometeoroid or orbital debris strikes. Bigelow uses multiple layers of Vectran, a material which is twice as strong as Kevlar. In ground tests, according to NASASpacefight.com, objects that would penetrate ISS modules only penetrated half-way through the skin of Bigelow's modules.

NASA Awards $17.8M Contract For Inflatable Addition To Space Station

Alex Knapp - Forbes

NASA has announced that it has awarded a $17.8 million contract to Bigelow Aerospace to build an expandable module for the International Space Station. This marks a big step forward for the commercial space company, which aims to build inexpensive commercial space stations for low Earth orbit.

Bigelow has been working on developing expandable spacecraft since its founding in 1998. In 2006 and 2007, it put its first prototypes into orbit. Bigelow's eventual goal is to build stations for customers, with its expandable modules being able to stand alone or be combined with others to build a bigger station.

"This partnership agreement for the use of expandable habitats represents a step forward in cutting-edge technology that can allow humans to thrive in space safely and affordably, and heralds important progress in U.S. commercial space innovation," NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver said in a statement.

Details about the module, and a schedule for its addition to the station, will be released in a press event on Wednesday. There may be one tantalizing hint, though – Bigelow Aerospace does have a launch scheduled with SpaceX for 2015. However, there's no indication from either company as to what the payload on that launch may be. Looks like we'll just have to wait a couple of days to learn more.

SpaceX Aims for March 1 Dragon Launch

Irene Klotz - Discovery News

Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, has requested a March 1 launch date from the Eastern Range, which operates the Cape Canaveral, Fla., spaceport from where the company's Falcon rockets fly.

Like the company's two previous flights, the rocket will carry a Dragon cargo capsule loaded with food, supplies and science experiments for the International Space Station, a permanently staffed research laboratory that flies about 250 miles above Earth.

SpaceX has completed an investigation into why one of the Falcon rocket's nine engines shut down early during the last launch on Oct. 7, 2012. The primary mission — a cargo run to the station — was not impacted, as the rocket's other motors compensated for the power loss. Nevertheless, the issue needs to be understood and any corrective actions taken before the next mission is cleared to launch.

"We've gotten to root cause and we've briefed that to our customer (NASA)," said Garrett Reisman, SpaceX's Commercial Crew project manager.

"Right now we're just making sure that all of our i's are dotted and our t's are crossed. We do intend to make that information more widely disseminated very, very soon," he said.

In all, the Eastern Range's 2013 launch calendar includes six Falcon flights — three for NASA and three for commercial customers. SpaceX also plans to start flying from its new west coast launch site at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base this year.

NASA Safety Panel Worried About Budget Constraints

Mark Carreau - Aviation Week

NASA's parallel human spaceflight initiatives are struggling with budget uncertainties that increase risk as the agency alters oversight and acquisition strategies to lower costs, according to the latest annual assessment from its independent Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP).

The agency's declining annual budget, $17.7 billion and facing further erosion from a looming March 1 sequester, is the "elephant in the room," according to the nine-member panel's 2012 appraisal.

"It is time for all stakeholders to reach a consensus on what the nation is attempting to accomplish in human spaceflight and then fund that effort adequately and consistently," concludes the 44-page report delivered to the House and Senate leadership as well as NASA Administrator Charles Bolden on Jan. 9. "This disconnect is seen by the ASAP as a major risk driver in human spaceflight."

The safety panel, established by Congress in 1968 in the aftermath of the Apollo 1 fire that claimed the lives of three astronauts, focused much of its anxiety on the rapidly unfolding Commercial Crew Program (CCP), initiated in 2010 to develop competing services to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station by 2017. Skeptical lawmakers have appropriated just more than half of the funding requested by the White House — $769 million versus $1.401 billion — prompting NASA to embrace flexible Space Act Agreements to manage the effort instead of traditional Federal Acquisition Regulation contracts.

Now in its third round of development, the CCP has initiated a complex certification process, so far involving SpaceX, Boeing and Sierra Nevada, which briefed plans this week to use their own pilots for early test flights. The ASAP finds the option troubling because of the potential to mask hardware and operational risks that may surface later as the private operators transition into station missions and orbital flights with commercial passengers.

"Separating the level of safety demanded in the system from the unique and hard-earned knowledge that NASA possesses introduces new risks and unique challenges to the normal precepts of public safety and mission responsibility," according to the report. The panel — chaired by retired Navy Vice Adm. Joseph Dyer and comprising former astronauts, military aviators and safety experts — pledged further inquiry.

The ASAP was also troubled by budget pressures on the traditionally contracted development of the Orion/Multipurpose Crew Vehicle, its Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket and associated ground systems at the Johnson, Marshall and Kennedy space centers. The Obama administration has directed NASA to prepare for the human exploration of a yet-to-be-selected asteroid by 2025 with the new spacecraft and eventual human missions to Mars.

The panel found NASA's Washington headquarters shouldering the integrator role but prepared to share the responsibilities with the field centers and even delegate lower-level risk management back to its contractor team. The responsibility is traditionally held by a NASA "lead center" and supported by an integration contractor.

The in-house approach violates a traditional check-and-balance system of oversight and management, and "therefore, opens a path for considerable unanticipated and unknown risk to enter the system," according to the ASAP.

Russia plans to create systems for flights to Moon

Interfax

The Russian state program Space Activities of Russia for 2013 - 2020 envisions the development of interplanet flight technologies and technologies used for human activities on other planets.

Specifically, the program envisages "the creation of a promising manned transport system capable of ensuring manned flights to the Moon," the document posted on the Roscosmos website says.

"Projects will be implemented in the sphere of fundamental space research that will help overcome the current lag from the leading space powers in this sphere and ensure that Russian science takes leading positions in the main areas of space sciences and become a global leader in the studies of the Universe in the long-term perspective," the program says.

Specifically, there are plans to create "three space observatories Spektr-UF, Spektr-M (Millemetron), and Gamma-400 for studying astrophysical objects in various electromagnetic and gamma-radiation ranges in the high energy range."

A program for "in-depth study of the Moon, which will include missions of the orbital spacecraft Moon-Resource (stages 1 and 2) and missions for delivering lunar soil samples to Earth for detailed study."

Kazakhstan Foreign Ministry commented on the situation around Baikonur

Tengri News

Kazakhstan Foreign Ministry has commented on the situation around Baikonur cosmodrome, Tengrinews.kz reports citing the Ministry's press-service.

"Just as before, Kazakhstan counts on expansion of its participation in the space activities of Baikonur cosmodrone, development of its space potential. In this view it would have been unwise for us to lose the opportunity of close cooperation with such an important space country as Russia, especially at our own cosmodrome," press-secretary Ilyas Omarov said.

He noted that Kazakhstan plans to fully use the existing potential to cover the needs of its economy. "We suppose the cooperation in space will be even more effective and productive both for Kazakhstan and Russia. On December 19 presidents of Kazakhstan and Russia once again certified the importance of cooperation in space: the leaders of our countries realize the importance of saving Baikonur as a symbol of our successful bilateral interaction," Ilyas Omarov said.

Earlier Russian government sent an official note to Kazakhstan government with a request to explain the statements made by the head of KazKosmos Talgat Mussabayev about the future of the Cosmodrome.

On December 10 Talgat Mussabayev, Head of KazKosmos National Space Agency, announced that Kazakhstan and Russian are working out a new agreement to gradually edge away from lease-based relations over Baikonur cosmodrome. He also added that Baikonur town may be transferred under Kazakhstan's jurisdiction.

Superconducting Magnets Could Block Space Radiation

Frank Morring, Jr. - Aviation Week

Astronauts on deep-space missions may one day deploy protective magnetic fields similar to those that shelter us from deadly space radiation on Earth, just as they will carry the necessary food and atmosphere.

NASA and its industrial and academic partners are studying ways to use superconducting magnets to generate magnetic fields around deep-space habitats. A promising approach would use coils that "inflate" with their own magnetism to deflect solar-flare protons and galactic cosmic rays that otherwise would restrict human travel time in space.

"The concept of shielding astronauts with magnetic fields has been studied for over 40 years, and it remains an intractable engineering problem," says Shayne Westover of Johnson Space Center (JSC). "Superconducting magnet technology has made great strides in the past decade."

Westover is principal investigator on a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) grant to study high-temperature superconductor technology as an approach to active radiation shielding for astronauts. Under the grant, JSC is working with a company that has expertise in superconducting magnets to gain some definition on just how effective they can be in protecting spaceflight crews.

"Radiation shielding, if it is not at the top of the list, is No. 2," says Palm Bay, Fla.-based Advanced Magnet Lab President Mark Senti. "They have propulsion figured out, and I'm not trivializing anything. They have solar protection and energy, but if you don't solve radiation shielding, there's no sense in doing engineering everywhere else."

That was essentially the conclusion of the panel headed by former Lockheed Martin CEO Norman Augustine that studied the future of human spaceflight, at the beginning of President Barack Obama's first term. Since then, NASA has increased its focus on "enabling technology" for deep-space human exploration. The two-year, $500,000 NIAC grant headed by Westover is examining an AML concept that would launch superconducting-magnet coils and then expand them to provide the diameter necessary to produce enough magnetic shielding to protect a crew.

AML Chief Scientist Rainer Meinke conceived of attaching superconducting magnetic tape to a flexible material such as Kevlar. The perpendicular expansion provided by the Lorentz force when current is passed through the tape opens it from a collapsed configuration maintained during launch into large coils that can encircle a habitat. The current concept would launch six collapsed coils and the habitat separately, and then set up the active shielding in space.

"In a superconducting magnet, because you're able to transmit electricity with zero resistance, [you can] pass very high currents, which means very strong magnetic fields," Senti says.

AML plans to conduct a subscale demonstration of the coil expansion at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Fla. However, most of the work under the NIAC grant will be analytical. Westover and his colleagues at JSC, AML, NASA's Ames Research Center and Italy's University of Perugia plan to move beyond the Phase 1 concept definition already funded into more detailed engineering.

Among the issues to be considered, says Westover, is gaining a "total spacecraft" understanding of the radiation dose a crew would receive inside the magnetic shield surrounding a 6-meter-dia. X 10-meter-long (19.6 X 32.8-ft.) cylindrical habitat. Because the shielding does not cover the cylinder's end caps, Westover and his team will calculate the passive shielding that would be provided at one end by a propulsion module and at the other, by a docking mechanism for the planned Orion multipurpose crew vehicle. Scientists in Perugia will conduct Monte Carlo simulations of radiation traces through the notional hab, which will include a compensation coil to protect crew and electronics from prolonged exposure to the strong magnetic "fringe fields" that would otherwise enter the living space.

Also on the agenda is a search for ways to expand manufacture of superconducting magnetic tape from hundreds of meters to the "kilometers" that would be needed in the concept. While the tape exerts almost zero resistance on an electrical current—allowing it to maintain its magnetic field with only a "trickle current" from the habitat's solar arrays—splices in the tape add resistance and increase power requirements, says Westover.

For years, engineers also have studied toroidal coils as a way to shield space habitats. But the structure needed to hold the magnets in place—and the power necessary to produce a magnetic field strong enough to protect the crew—creates "very large forces on the hab." In concept at least, that problem would be mitigated by the expandable-coil approach. The NIAC study should help refine the understanding of just how much better that setup will be at lowering the lifetime radiation doses for deep-space crews.

As a practical matter, the shielding can be expressed as the number of space launches needed to deliver enough of it to protect a crew for a mission lasting a year or more. Compared to passive shielding, the effectiveness of active shielding "might be as high as two to five launches," Westover says.

From EKU, middle school students chat with astronaut on space station

Frank Kourt - Richmond Register (KY)

A group of Kentucky middle school students had what can only be described as an out-of-this-world experience Friday as they got to ask questions of an astronaut aboard the International Space Station.

Using a video/audio downlink with the space station, orbiting about 220 miles above Earth, the selected students from middle schools got to ask questions of Tom Marshburn, M.D., ranging from what it's like to experience microgravity to whether he would be willing to go deeper into space, should the opportunity present itself.

Virginia Deaver, a student at Berea Community Middle School, who asked the question about microgravity, said she's thinking about entering the field of astrophysics and found Friday's experience fascinating.

"I'm so honored to have been part of this," said Deaver. Marshburn answered that while experiencing microgravity is interesting, he looks forward to the day when he can again set down a coffee cup without having it float away.

Triston Fitzpatrick and Maria Hoover, both of B. Michael Caudill Middle School in Richmond, asked a question about what it's like to work with fellow astronauts and cosmonauts.

"Absolutely wonderful," replied Marshburn, who added that one of the best things about the venture is getting to know and work with personnel from other countries and cultures.

Fitzpatrick said the experience made him a bit nervous, but both students agreed that it was impressive to be able to look at and talk directly to an astronaut while he was orbiting in space.

Sam House, of Berea Community Middle School, who is contemplating a career as an architect, called the experience "very interesting," a reaction that was obviously common to all who participated.

Bryden Allen, of Clark-Moores Middle School, was the fifth Madison County student who was chosen to ask a question.

The five Madison County students who participated in the downlink were among 23 students chosen to ask questions during the 15-minute downlink, which was made possible

by a partnership among EKU and Kentucky Educational Television and NASA.

The students who got to ask questions were chosen on the basis of essays and their submitted questions. Those who were unable to get their questions in because of time constraints were able to pose their questions to a panel of experts at the planetarium following the downlink.

EKU was selected by NASA as one of only six downlink sites nationwide where students were able to converse with space station astronauts. The event was broadcast live by KET, allowing students in classrooms throughout the state to tune in during the downlink.

The event took place in EKU's Hummel Planetarium. Following the downlink, the students adjourned to the adjacent Perkins Building for more activities, including the judging of science projects, breakout sessions and lunch.

The event included 160 seventh- and eighth-grade students from 45 area schools, including seven in Madison County, who were identified as gifted or talented in science and/or mathematics.

The program was coordinated for EKU by the university's Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Health (STEM-H) Institute, whose goals include supporting and expanding partnerships between EKU, schools and communities; advancing the public understanding of the needs and opportunities in the STEM-H disciplines; and increasing learning opportunities and levels of achievement in students in the stated disciplines.

Jaleh Rezale, Ph.D., associate dean of graduate education and research, and interim director of the STEM-H Institute, said the project fulfilled all three goals of the institute.

"We are focusing on middle school students, since research has shown this age group is the most vulnerable," she said.

"This is the time they decide about their educational interests. Often it is the time they lose interest in math and science. What excites me is the opportunity to inspire and excite the students and teachers about mathematics, science and technology."

High Schoolers Control Satellites Aboard Space Station

TechNewsDaily.com

Would you trust a 16-year-old in space? NASA evidently does. Just after the sun rose on the East Coast Friday, astronauts aboard the International Space Station ran computer instructions, written by high school students, in bowling ball-size satellites floating inside the ISS cabin. The students' code told the satellites exactly where to go to complete challenges such as spitting out dust clouds and avoiding obstacles.

Ceding control of small satellites to students is part of an annual competition called the Zero Robotics SPHERES Challenge, which is hosted by NASA, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Friday's run is the Zero Robotics finals. Those interested can watch a live broadcast of the event. Fifteen teams from the United States and Europe are competing to get their satellites to perform tasks related to cleaning up space junk.

"SPHERES" stands for Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites. MIT, NASA and DARPA researchers use SPHERES to test spacecraft maneuvers, such as docking and flying in formation.

This year the students had to program their SPHERES to deploy dust clouds that could remove space junk from orbit, dock with another satellite to harvest its parts, and maneuver through an unknown field full of debris. The SPHERES had to perform all of those tasks autonomously, just as spacecraft would, once an ISS astronaut activated their code.

In the U.S., participating students watched their code at work over a direct transmission from the International Space Station, shown at the MIT campus. The European students watched from the European Space Research and Technology Center in the Netherlands.

Weightlessness no cure for "morning clumsies," astronaut says

Irene Klotz - Reuters

Like many people, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield confesses that he's sometimes clumsy in the morning just after waking up.

The three-time astronaut, now living aboard the International Space Station, was surprised to learn that did not change in the weightless environment of space.

"When I come out of my sleeping berth to go into our galley and our bathroom, I bump into things even though I'm floating weightless," the 53-year-old pilot told reporters during an in-flight press conference on Thursday.

"You can still have the morning clumsies up here and that surprised me," said Hadfield, who is in line to become the first Canadian commander of the orbital outpost in March.

Hadfield has been sharing his experiences in orbit with a growing flock of Twitter followers. His "Cmdr_Hadfield" Twitter account has added more than 130,000 new subscribers since the astronaut blasted off on December 19 for a six-month stay on the station.

"What we're doing on the space station is fundamentally fascinating ... It encapsulates where we are in history, with people permanently living off Earth. With these new technologies and communications, we can directly give people the human side of that," said Hadfield, who now has more than 163,000 followers.

In between Twitter posts about false fire alarms and fixing the station's toilet, Hadfield has been sharing photographs taken from his unique vantage point 250 miles above Earth.

His favorite subject so far has been so-called noctilucent, or "night shining" clouds that form at the outermost edge of Earth's atmosphere.

These tenuous patches of ice crystals are barely visible from the planet's surface, but sparkle clearly in orbit, Hadfield said.

"The light bounces off of those clouds directly into our eyes," he said.

In addition to the beautiful colors, textures and ripples, Hadfield said the clouds also are a way to monitor changes in the atmosphere and learn more about how the atmosphere interacts with space.

That vantage point from orbit extends beyond visual perception, he added.

"The world just unrolls itself for you, and you see it absolutely discretely as one place. It's hard to reconcile the inherent patience and beauty of the world with the terrible things that we can do to each other as people and can do to the Earth itself," Hadfield said.

"With increased communication, with increased understanding comes a more global perspective and it's one that we feel incredibly honored to see directly and one that we do our best to try to pass on to everybody," he said.

Space Station Astronaut Calls for Peace on Earth

Elizabeth Howell - Space.com

From high above Earth, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield is broadcasting a message of peace for the people of Earth, with a little help from 200,000 Twitter fans.

The three-time spaceflyer, a flight engineer and prolific Twitter user on the International Space Station, spoke solemnly Thursday (Jan. 10) about a picture he recently took of war-torn Syria.

The picture had special poignancy given that the Earth appears as "one place" from orbit, Hadfield told reporters in a press conference at the Canadian Space Agency's headquarters near Montreal, Quebec.

"When we do look down on a place that is in great turmoil or strife, it's hard to reconcile the inherent patience and beauty of the world with the terrible things that we can do to each other as people, and can do to the Earth itself, locally," Hadfield said from space.

Hadfield, 53, spent his first three weeks in orbit sending dozens of pictures of his view on Earth. That, plus a Twitter chat with Star Trek actor William Shatner and other celebrities, propelled his social media account @Cmdr_Hadfield on to the world stageafter his launch Dec. 19.

This weekend, Hadfield's Twitter feed surpassed 200,000 followers. As of Sunday (Jan. 13), the count was at 204,630 fans.

"That's probably the reason we work so hard to communicate what we're doing up here, as an international team ... to just try to give people just a little glimpse of that global perspective, of that understanding that we're all in this together, and that this is a spaceship, but so is the world."

'A lot of the world's territory'

Chris Hadfield, who will be Canada's first space station commander in March when he takes charge, played down his sudden celebrity on Twitter, saying that he is "just a member of the rest of the team here". He attributed his popularity to the "fundamentally fascinating" work that he and the rest of the station's six-man Expedition 34 creware performing in space.

"With these new technologies in communications, we can directly give people the human side of that. The fact that now, gosh, more than 150,000 people are directly following us every day – I think it's just a direct measure of how important and useful this is in the human experience."

Hadfield is a veteran shuttle astronaut who previously flew to Russia's Mir Space Station in 1995 and performed the first Canadian spacewalk on station in 2001. He said that an important part of his personal experience is sharing what it means to be Canadian with his Russian and U.S. crewmates.

"I, here, represent Canada. So I talk about how I grew up, and what values are important in Canada," said Hadfield, who was raised in small-town Ontario and flew military CF-18s for the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) before joining the astronaut program in 1992.

"Between Canada and Russia and the U.S., we cover a lot of the world's dirt. A lot of the world's territory. So there's lots of opportunity, while you're looking out the window together, to share the experience," Hadfield said.

'A measured, thoughtful existence'

With more than three weeks in space on this mission, Hadfield has now surpassed the 20 days of experience he accumulated in two decades as a Canadian Space Agency astronaut.

Living on station for long periods of time allows people not to rush, and to savour the experience a bit more than during jam-packed shuttle missions, he said.

"[I am] able to have a measured, thoughtful existence to absorb what it is like," he said.

Hadfield also took time to relax in between questions. He playfully spun a roll of duct tape in front of the camera. At times, he squatted on a wall of the U.S. Destiny laboratory where he was slated to do fluid experiments directly after the press conference.

In his limited spare time, Hadfield pledged he will continue to record guitar songs in space such as "Jewel in the Night", which was written by his brother, Dave.

By the time his five-month mission is over, Hadfield quipped, he may have enough material to release an album.

Mrs. Hadfield is also flying high

Tom Spears - Ottawa Citizen

(You might think the wife of an astronaut would spend a lot of time worrying. Well, not Helene Hadfield. As Tom Spears writes, she couldn't be happier her husband is doing what he loves — soaring in space.)

The least stressed person watching Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield launch on a fiery and explosive ride into space last month was probably his wife, Helene.

Worried? "Oh, nooooo!" she said emphatically in an interview with the Citizen.

The only stress she experienced came in the months before the launch. And that was just her feeling very afraid something simple would prevent her husband from flying. A car accident, or slipping on some ice.

"I know it's so important to him. I know how happy he could be. I know how happy I'm going to be that he's so happy. And so when I think: What if he falls down the stairs by accident and breaks something (before launch)? To me, that's the threat," she said in an interview from California.

One NASA person at the Russian training site at Baikonur did break his ankle playing badminton. Hadfield and the other two crew members who flew with him the Soyuz craft up to the International Space Station gave up running as the weather turned icy.

"So as launch gets closer and closer, I'm pretty happy, and then when launch happens, it's, 'Oh, thank goodness, I can live less stressed' because I know he's the happiest person ever," she explained.

"It (a chance) would never come again. If Chris hadn't launched he wouldn't get another chance, that's it. And he's getting older." (He's 53.)

Like an astronaut or the crowds at Cape Canaveral, Helene Hadfield rates launches by their esthetic side: The lighting, the clarity, the patterns in the sky.

"It was the most perfect launch imaginable! You could see every stage completely. It's because it was just at dusk. You could see ... even the final little burst where it just sort of puffed out and it blinked away and it was gone. It was like a David Copperfield magic act," she said.

"And then, not only did we see the most beautiful, perfect launch with all the stages, but then 20 minutes later the station flew over. It was so clear we could even see the solar arrays."

(The station is visible from the ground just after sunset and just before sunrise, when it's dark on the ground but still sunny 400 kilometres up.)

Chris Hadfield and Helene Walter (now Hadfield) met in high school in Milton, west of Toronto. She worked as a "computer geek" for 20 years while he was a fighter pilot, then a test pilot and finally an astronaut.

The couple moved to Russia in 2001 and stayed two years while Chris Hadfield represented NASA there, and on returning to Houston Helene decided to train as a chef. Her main focus is baking and making pastries, though beyond that calls herself "an everything-chef."

And she has first-hand experience of space food. Astronauts get to sample different space foods before they fly and choose their favourites, subject to what a nutritionist allows. Helene did some of the tasting with her husband.

"I sent up heart-chocolates and things for Valentine's Day, so Chris can do that. And little plastic Easter eggs with chocolate things (inside) so he can do Easter egg hunts for the guys. Things like that."

But the chef says space food itself doesn't let people improvise much. It's pre-cooked, loaded into packages for warming up, and it doesn't change.

"Maybe you might put up some posters or that type of thing. I sent up some things you can put up on the wall, or there are garlands you can create. That's how you jazz it up. You can't do much with the food."

She's not surprised by her husband's enormous popularity in Twitter, saying this builds on something he has always enjoyed.

"Chris loves passing on information. That's why he loves speaking so much. He loves speaking to students. He just loves the information transference, so and he likes being liked. So the more people like what he does, the more he wants to do it. So when he gets more Twitter (followers) he's like a little kid, so then he wants to do more.

"And he feels that's a big part of his job — which it is."

She goes on: "He just thinks everything is so great and cool and wonderful and he wants people to feel it, too. One of his gifts (is) being able to take something and make it where you don't have to be science-geeky or mechanical to go, 'Oh yeah, I get that.'"

The Hadfield's children are scattered, a son in Germany and another in China and a daughter working on her PhD and lecturing in Ireland. None is in the space or flying business.

Helene gets a laugh out of the perception that her husband is a steely-eyed, serious fighter pilot.

"It's so funny because he looks like that guy that's just work. People are so surprised often — yes, absolutely, he is targeted and serious when he needs to be. But then he's got this really funny (side)," she says. "He loves limericks."

That often surprises people, she says.

"You think of an astronaut in a certain way or perhaps he comes across in a certain way. But he's a people person. He's a real social butterfly.

"They wanted him to write a blog. He's not a blog kind of guy. The amount of time he's Twittering during the day is probably the amount of time it would take to write a decent blog. Luckily, he's conscientious and professional enough to know what time he can do it" and get the work done and still eat and exercise.

One further improvement from past flights: He can phone home, and he's been calling nearly every day. She says it sounds as if he's right here, on Earth.

"Amazing. It's so different than it was."

Astronaut Hall of Fame to Add 3 Shuttle Veterans in April

Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com

A trailblazing commander, the commander of a trailblazer, and a payload commander will be inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame this April.

Eileen Collins, the first woman to lead a shuttle mission, Curtis Brown, who commanded John Glenn's triumphant return to space and Bonnie Dunbar, who managed life and science experiments on Spacelab and Mir space station missions, were confirmed as this year's honorees by the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF), which oversees the Hall of Fame's annual selections.

The three veteran space shuttle crew members will be added to the 81 astronauts enshrined in the Astronaut Hall of Fame since 1990, including NASA's Mercury, Gemini and Apollo program pioneers.

An induction ceremony will be held on Saturday, April 20, at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, where the Astronaut Hall of Fame is located.

The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation will host a gala in the three astronauts' honor on Friday, April 19, with many of the Hall's earlier inductees expected to attend

Trailblazing commander

Twenty-seven women proceeded Eileen Collins into space, but it was on her first spaceflight in February 1995 that she became the first female astronaut to take control of a spacecraft. As pilot of space shuttle Discovery on the STS-63 mission, Collins helped her commander (and 2009 Hall of Fame inductee) James Wetherbee perform the first shuttle rendezvous with the Russian space station Mir.

Two years later, Collins revisited Mir, this time docking at the outpost, as pilot of Atlantis' STS-84 mission. She then was assigned her first command and, as the first female mission commander, led the STS-93 crew flying Columbia to deploy the Chandra X-ray Observatory in July 1999.

It was the tragic loss of Columbia, 10 years ago this Feb. 1, that led to Collins leading the fleet's second "return to flight" mission. As commander of the STS-114 mission in 2005, Collins and her crew visited the International Space Station (ISS) and tested new safety procedures.

Collins left NASA in 2006 after logging nearly 40 days in space. A former test pilot, Collins retired from the U.S. Air Force with the rank of colonel.

Commanding a trailblazer

Curtis Brown flew six times to space, including leading a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope, but his most high profile flight came in 1998 when he commanded a crew of five "astronaut heroes and an American legend."

Selected as an astronaut in 1987, Brown's first flight was as pilot of NASA's 50th space shuttle mission, STS-47 in Sept. 1992. He followed that with two more flights as pilot: STS-66, dedicated to studying how the energy of the sun affects Earth's climate and its environment, and STS-77, devoted to commercial science experiments.

Brown's first command was of the STS-85 mission, which deployed and retrieved a satellite to study Earth's middle atmosphere. The flight also tested a Japanese robotic arm before its design was to be used on board the International Space Station.

It was a crew member, rather than a payload, that grabbed the spotlight on Brown's next flight. Launching on the 25th mission for space shuttle Discovery, Brown's six member STS-95 crew included John Glenn, who 36 years earlier became the first American to orbit the Earth. The mission was dedicated in part to studying the effects microgravity had on the aging process as Glenn, at 77, was the oldest person to ever fly into space.

Brown's final flight was as commander of the third mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. Flying on board Discovery, the STS-103 mission broke the record for the highest orbit ever achieved by the space shuttle. At their apogee, Brown and his crewmates were 378 miles (609 kilometers) above the Earth.

Brown retired from the astronaut corps soon after returning to Earth, having logged over his career a total of nearly 60 days in space. A retired U.S. Air Force colonel, he went on to fly for American Airlines.

Payload commander

Bonnie Dunbar was working as a guidance and navigation officer (GUIDO) in Mission Control when she was chosen as an astronaut in August 1981, just four months after the space shuttle began flying.

The ninth woman to fly in space, Dunbar's maiden launch in 1985 was on board Challenger's final complete mission before it was lost in flight in January 1986. Dunbar and her seven STS-61A crewmates set the record for the largest contingent on any single spacecraft for the entire mission from launch to landing.

Dunbar's second mission, STS-32, saw her take control of the shuttle's robotic arm to grab hold of the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF), a school bus-sized cylindrical experiment module, for its return to the Earth. Her third spaceflight, STS-50, set a new duration record of 13 days as the first Extended Duration Orbiter (EDO) mission.

Dunbar's fourth trip to space marked the first time a space shuttle docked with Russia's Mir space station, as well as the 100th crewed mission for the United States. Prior to flying on STS-71, Dunbar trained for 13 months at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, located outside of Moscow, where she qualified for a long duration flight aboard Mir (a mission that never came to be).

For her final flight, Dunbar served as payload commander on STS-89, the second to last shuttle-Mir docking, making her responsible for all payload activities including over 20 technology and science experiments. In total, she logged more than 50 days in orbit in the course of her flying five missions.

Before resigning from NASA in 2005, Dunbar was named assistant director of the Missions Operations Directorate at Johnson Space Center in Houston and served as the deputy associate administrator for the Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences at NASA Headquarters. Following her departure, she served as president and CEO of The Museum of Flight in Seattle until April 2010.

Joining the ranks

Brown, Collins and Dunbar comprise the 12th class of astronauts from the space shuttle program chosen for the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame. They are the second group of space shuttle veterans to be selected since the 30-year program came to its end in 2011.

They were chosen by a committee of more than 80 retired NASA officials, historians, journalists and all the members of the Hall of Fame, as organized and managed by the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation.

To have been eligible for consideration in 2013, astronauts needed to have made their first space mission in 1995 or earlier. They also had to be retired from flight status as a NASA commander, pilot or mission specialist for at least five years, be a U.S. citizen; and have orbited the Earth at least once.

Panel: Private space exploration could make it easier to reach for the stars

James Figueroa - Pasadena Star-News

Small and cheap could become the new normal for space exploration with the advent of U.S. orbital and suborbital missions managed by private companies, according to panelists at a free Caltech lecture on Thursday examining the impact of space commercialization.

As the government hands off mission duties to contractors, such as Hawthorne's Space Exploration Technologies, the transition could drive new technology that would benefit scientific work even as astronauts broaden their job description to include giving tours, NASA administrator John Grunsfeld said.

"Technology for technology's sake rarely ends up being all that useful," Grunsfeld told a crowd of Caltech students, science professionals and others. "But if you have a need, which would be smaller payloads which match technology, then you get true innovation."

The panel also included SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell, Virgin Galactic chief technology officer Steve Isakowitz, Space Policy Institute founder John Logsdon and Caltech professor Paul Wennberg. Moderating the panel was Fiona Harrison, a Caltech professor who also serves as principal investigator of NASA's X-ray orbiter NuStar.

Isakowitz, a former NASA administrator, said that regular space tourism could open the doors for foundations and nonprofits such as Caltech to launch their own low-cost missions for academic purposes.

"Why is this one of the few industries that doesn't have a Moore's Law?" Isakowitz asked, referring to the idea that computer chips fit twice as many transistors every two years. "We're sort of stuck in this conundrum of prices are either the same or going up. I think for the first time we have a change ... there's nothing inherently that says a payload has to be a billion dollars."
Wennberg, however, wasn't so sure that costs would reach affordable levels any time soon, in comparison to safer projects such as ground-based telescopes.

"You come up with numbers for an orbiter around Mars, just to send a toaster, something that would say I'm still here, in the neighborhood of $2 (million), $3 (million) $400 million, depending on how much risk you're willing to accept," he said. "So it's a large amount of money."

The risks associated with spaceflight was a major part of the panel's discussion, particularly because of previous space shuttle tragedies that killed the crews of Challenger and Columbia.

"No one ever wants to lose a life," Shotwell said. "Each of the commercial crew companies are hoping and praying that the other doesn't do something flippant and stupid. That would really cast a doubt on the need to pursue this."

Logsdon commented that NASA's record of two losses in 135 crashes is hardly ideal, but Grunsfeld and Isakowitz defended the space shuttle program.

"I think the government's record is incredibly excellent given how difficult it is to be excellent in the government," Isakowitz said. "It was really a terrible time after the Columbia accident. I felt for a while there we would never return to flight."

In the private sector, he added, there is greater flexibility to move past major incidents because the companies don't have to report to Congress and other government offices.

SpaceX has already demonstrated that private companies can be successful when it sent its unmanned Dragon capsule to the International Space Station last year, bringing supplies on a second trip and returning with cargo and scientific material.

The company has already begun discussions about building a colony on Mars, and Grunsfeld believes NASA can lend its experience to help the company develop technologies to do that.

"The scientific community needs to have missions on timescales that are comparable to professional lifetimes, to graduate student lifetimes," he said.

Logsdon added some historical perspective by noting that U.S. plans in the Apollo days were also ambitious.

"The shuttle was going to revolutionize space by routinizing it," he said. "That didn't work either. So here we are in another experiment. I think all the indications in these first few years of the experiment are pretty positive. But we'll see."

White House: Thumbs down on Death Star, thumbs up on space

Alan Boyle - NBCNews.com's Cosmic Log

The White House says building a Death Star would be an out-of-this-galaxy waste of money — not only because it's against government policy to blow up planets, but also because the United States already has access to a space station as well as a laser-wielding space robot.

Friday's official statement on the Death Star issue, titled "This Isn't the Petition Response You're Looking For," was written by Paul Shawcross, chief of the science and space branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget. It comes in response to a "We the People" petition that called on the federal government to start building a "Star Wars"-style Death Star battle station by 2016.

"By focusing our defense resources into a space-superiority platform and weapon system such as a Death Star, the government can spur job creation in the fields of construction, engineering, space exploration, and more, and strengthen our national defense," the petition read.

The petition garnered more than 25,000 online signatures within a month, partly due to a signing campaign that went viral on 4chan, Reddit and Twitter. Under the Obama administration's rules for the "We the People" program, that required the White House to come up with a reply.

Shawcross and his colleagues clearly rose to the challenge, with an essay that should satisfy the policy geeks as well as the "Star Wars" geeks. Here's the full text:

This Isn't the Petition Response You're Looking For

"The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn't on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:

The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We're working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.
The Administration does not support blowing up planets.
Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?

"However, look carefully (here's how) and you'll notice something already floating in the sky — that's no Moon, it's a Space Station! Yes, we already have a giant, football field-sized International Space Station in orbit around the Earth that's helping us learn how humans can live and thrive in space for long durations. The Space Station has six astronauts — American, Russian, and Canadian — living in it right now, conducting research, learning how to live and work in space over long periods of time, routinely welcoming visiting spacecraft and repairing onboard garbage mashers, etc. We've also got two robot science labs — one wielding a laser — roving around Mars, looking at whether life ever existed on the Red Planet.

"Keep in mind, space is no longer just government-only. Private American companies, through NASA's Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office (C3PO), are ferrying cargo — and soon, crew — to space for NASA, and are pursuing human missions to the Moon this decade.

"Even though the United States doesn't have anything that can do the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, we've got two spacecraft leaving the Solar System and we're building a probe that will fly to the exterior layers of the Sun. We are discovering hundreds of new planets in other star systems and building a much more powerful successor to the Hubble Space Telescope that will see back to the early days of the universe.

"We don't have a Death Star, but we do have floating robot assistants on the Space Station, a President who knows his way around a light saber and advanced (marshmallow) cannon, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is supporting research on building Luke's arm, floating droids, and quadruped walkers.

"We are living in the future! Enjoy it. Or better yet, help build it by pursuing a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field. The President has held the first-ever White House science fairs and Astronomy Night on the South Lawn because he knows these domains are critical to our country's future, and to ensuring the United States continues leading the world in doing big things.

"If you do pursue a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field, the Force will be with us! Remember, the Death Star's power to destroy a planet, or even a whole star system, is insignificant next to the power of the Force."

The White House statement quickly sparked a Twitter response from Darth Vader himself: "A serious mistake, Mr. President. You can never have enough planet-sized lasers."

NASA may brag about the space station and its laser-equipped Curiosity rover, but that's not enough, Death Star PR says in a Twitter update: "Until you put the laser and the space station together and start blowing up planets, you're not doing enough Science."

White House on 'Death Star' petition: No

David Jackson - USA Today

The White House has provided a detailed response to petitions calling for construction of a "Death Star" for national defense, but it boils down to one word: No.

For one thing, a Death Star is estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000, writes White House official Paul Shawcross.

"We're working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it," adds Shawcross, chief of the Science and Space Branch with the White House Office of Management and Budget.

When the White House set up its petition website, it pledged to respond to any requests that received more than 25,000 signatures.

More than 34,000 people seconded a Star Wars-themed petition to construct a Death Star by 2016, so that "the government can spur job creation in the fields of construction, engineering, space exploration, and more, and strengthen our national defense."

In a somewhat tongue-in-cheek response -- entitled "This Isn't the Petition Response You're Looking For" -- Shawcross writes:

"The administration does not support blowing up planets.

"Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?"

Shawcross also noted that the United States already finances a space station:

"Yes, we already have a giant, football field-sized International Space Station in orbit around the Earth that's helping us learn how humans can live and thrive in space for long durations.

"The Space Station has six astronauts -- American, Russian, and Canadian -- living in it right now, conducting research, learning how to live and work in space over long periods of time, routinely welcoming visiting spacecraft and repairing onboard garbage mashers, etc.

"We've also got two robot science labs -- one wielding a laser -- roving around Mars, looking at whether life ever existed on the Red Planet."

SpaceX takes hops toward a lofty goal

John Kelly - Florida Today (Commentary)

Here's something to keep an eye on if you're interested in the long-term sustainability of space flight: Grasshopper.

Grasshopper is a vertical take-off and vertical landing launch vehicle being developed, and test flown, by SpaceX in Texas.

In December, Grasshopper blasted off on a what might seem like a short flight a little more than 130 feet above ground. Then, the vehicle returned to the ground intact. The 29-second flight is a big deal because it's the beginning of a nascent effort by the groundbreaking space-launch venture to go after one of the holy grails of more affordable space launch: reusability.

The components of Grasshopper look familiar because they are. The 10-story launcher is comprised mostly of the first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket, which is the launch vehicle SpaceX uses to get its Dragon spacecraft to orbit from its launch complex here at Cape Canaveral.

Two earlier test flights last year resulted in "hops" of six feet and almost 18 feet off the ground. This year, the flights tests will get longer and involve more complex hovering and other maneuvers.

These are, admittedly, baby steps on the road to SpaceX's ultimate goal. That's the ability to develop a rocket that could blast a payload into orbit and return back to the Earth fully intact, rather than burning up during re-entry. For obvious reasons, being able to refly the same rocket over and over again is a significant advantage for a company competing for launch contracts.

Elon Musk, the company's founder, has long said that his primary reason for getting into the space business is to overcome an obstacle to pushing human beings further into space. The obstacle is the high cost of the first leg of the trip off the Earth.

You can see, in the early development and testing, many of the same patterns seen in SpaceX's early development of a Falcon rocket that — once scoffed at by some establishment space companies and organizations — is now making regular flights and is currently NASA's only way of delivering cargo to and from the International Space Station.

A rapid development phase with a small but dedicated team of innovators, increasingly more complex test flights and a brazen willingness to fail and try again are hallmarks of the SpaceX model. Remember, the initial version of the Falcon rocket featured some spectacular failures in initial launches from a remote island in the South Pacific, prompting some to predict bigger failures to come. They were mistaken.

In a relatively short existence, Musk's company is showing that feats many people long deemed impossible or very expensive are, in fact, possible and don't have to cost hundreds of millions of dollars. In several conversations with Musk over the years, I get the idea that what makes his team different might be something as simple as deciding not to give up on doing hard stuff.

Former NASA manned spaceflight director dies

Associated Press

Family members say that Dyer Brainerd Holmes, director of manned space flight for NASA when Americans were making their early forays into space in the early 1960s, has died.

Holmes' stepson, Pierce Ledbetter, says Holmes died at Baptist Memorial Hospital East in Memphis on Friday at age 91. Ledbetter says Holmes died from complications from pneumonia.

Holmes was born in New York in 1921. He was an influential figure in the aeronautics and aerospace industries during a career that lasted more than 40 years.

According to the NASA History Office, he joined the agency as director of manned space flight in October 1961. He resigned in June 1963.

During Holmes' time at NASA, John Glenn became the first U.S. astronaut in orbit on Feb. 20, 1962, on Mercury-Atlas 6.

NASA 'Space Planner' Brainerd Holmes Dies

Ben Evans - AmericaSpace.org

In spite of a relatively short career within NASA's senior leadership, D. Brainerd Holmes – who died on Friday, aged 91, from complications of pneumonia – established himself as a shining star in the Apollo era, to such an extent that he found himself on the cover of Time magazine in August 1962 as the agency's 'Space Planner'. This brilliant electrical engineer saw military service in World War II and later forged an engineering and industrial career with Western Electric, Bell Laboratories, RCA and Raytheon and, as NASA's Director of the Office of Manned Space Flight from September 1961 until August 1963, was instrumental in tackling the practicalities of President John F. Kennedy's thorny goal of putting a man on the Moon. Several years later, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin accomplished that goal, Holmes told the New York Times that "we should remember such endeavors as these and know that when given a challenge Americans today can be as hard, as aggressive and as brave as the men who founded this land".

Dyer Brainerd Holmes was born on 24 May 1921 in Brooklyn, N.Y., but grew up in East Orange, N.J. After graduating from Cornell University with a degree in electrical engineering, he entered the Navy and served throughout the final years of World War II. Returning to civilian life, Holmes worked at Bell Telephone Labs from 1945-53 and at RCA from 1953-61, where he rose to become general manager of the Major Defense Systems Division. Within this role, he oversaw the development of the Talos anti-aircraft missile and electronic systems for the Atlas missile. During this period, he also project managed a federally-sponsored effort to design and implement the Air Force's Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS), with radar installations in Alaska, Greenland and the United Kingdom, whose intent was to detect Soviet missile launches.

In September 1961, Holmes joined NASA as Director of the Office of Manned Space Flight (OMSF). According to an announcement on the 24th from Administrator James Webb, the assignment – one of several directorial positions created across various NASA centers and institutions – was effective from 1 November and reported to Associate Administrator Robert Seamans. In his new position, Holmes wasted no time in getting down to the business of exploring options for a new heavy-lift launch vehicle to achieve Kennedy's target of boots on the Moon before 1970. This included the establishment of a working group in early November to recommend such a vehicle, evaluate the problems of orbital rendezvous, intermediate vehicles, the future development of large solid-fuelled rocket motors and the realism of spacecraft development programs, with specific emphasis on their schedules, weights and performance.

Within weeks, Milton Rosen, head of Launch Vehicles and Propulsion within OMSF, submitted the group's report to Holmes. It underlined the urgency of manned orbital rendezvous as a critical stepping-stone toward achieving the lunar landing. Furthermore, it established baselines for the engine configuration of what would later become the Saturn V; noting that the first stage would boast five F-1 engines, the second stage would be equipped with four or five J-2 engines and the third stage a single J-2. However, the report also emphasised the importance of the 'direct flight mode' to the Moon as a means of achieving the lunar landing and declared that "the United States should place primary emphasis" upon this mode, which offered a better chance of accomplishment within the decade. Rosen's report focused attention upon cryogenic – rather than solid – propellants and recommended the early development of what would become the S-IVB stage.

Writing to Seamans in early December 1961, Brainerd Holmes raised the issue of orbital rendezvous in his outline of what was being dubbed 'Mercury Mark II'. This expanded version of the Mercury capsule – formally named 'Project Gemini' early the following month – was tasked with mastering orbital rendezvous and docking, long-duration flight, controlled land recoveries and astronaut training. Holmes felt that rendezvous in some shape or form was essential and actually offered America greater scope to plant boots on the Moon earlier than could be achieved by direct ascent; regardless, he felt that even in a direct ascent scenario, the lunar landing craft would still need to possess rendezvous techniques as part of its operational capability.

Seamans approved Holmes' plan and the process got underway with a vigor and rapid financial injection of the like unseen in the U.S. civilian space program since the 1960s. Funds from NASA's 1962 fiscal allocation, totalling $75.8 million, would be immediately released to the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) in Houston, TX, to begin the effort to negotiate contracts and launch vehicle hardware modifications and procurements. Shortly before Christmas, Holmes set up a Manned Space Flight Management Council – whose members included himself as chair, together with Bob Gilruth and Walt Williams from MSC, Wernher von Braun and Eberhard Rees from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, and George Low, Joe Shea, William Lilly, Milton Rosen and Charles Roadman from NASA Headquarters – to identify and resolve difficulties on the path ahead. It cannot be underestimated that Brainerd Holmes was a real mover and shaker in this most exciting time of NASA's early existence.

By the middle of 1962, the technique of 'lunar-orbital rendezvous', whereby command and landing vehicles would execute intricate maneuvers in the vicinity of the Moon, had begun to gain precedence and by the end of October Holmes took on new duties as NASA Deputy Associate Administrator, in addition to his directorial responsibility to the OMSF. In this more senior role, all NASA field installations dealing with manned space flight issues – including MSC, Marshall and the Launch Operations Center at Cape Canaveral – reported directly to Holmes. Within months, he had assembled a formidable team, including Joe Shea as his deputy director for systems and George Low as deputy director for OMSF Programs. Early in April 1963, Holmes testified before the Subcommittee on Manned Space Flight of the House Committee on Science and Astronautics, seeking to justify a $42.6 million increase in Project Gemini's 1963 fiscal allocation.

He reported that that the increases were needed to develop a system which represented far more than a simple expansion of the earlier Mercury capsule. "Original estimates, made in December 1961 by NASA and McDonnell," Holmes explained, "were based on minimum changes from Mercury technology." He stressed that Gemini would require new transmission equipment to handle higher data rates, a more reliable rendezvous radar and a heavily modified environmental control system. Then, abruptly, on 12 June 1963, Holmes announced his impending departure from NASA to return to industry. In late July, George Mueller was selected as his replacement as Deputy Associate Administrator, effective from 1 September. Over the years, it has been speculated that Holmes was unhappy with interference from the higher echelons of NASA, including Administrator James Webb himself. During Holmes' time in the top manned space flight post, he had overseen the Mercury flights of John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra and – barely a month before his departure – the Faith 7 mission of Gordon Cooper.

Following his departure from NASA, Brainerd Holmes joined Raytheon Corporation to manage the aerospace company's military business and rose swiftly through its executive ranks. He was President at the time of his retirement in May 1986. By that time, Raytheon had acquired Beech Aircraft, for which Holmes served as chairman. Thrice married, his union with Dorothy Bonnet Holmes ended in divorce and his second wife, Roberta Donohue 'Bobbie' Holmes, died in 1999. Three years after Bobbie's death, Holmes married Mary Margaret England Wilkes Holmes, who survives him. He also leaves behind two daughters, three stepchildren, 11 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

Brainerd Holmes may not be one of the first names that springs to mind when one considers the audacious achievement of landing a man on the Moon in the 1960s. His tenure with NASA was short, but came at a singularly critical juncture; the point at which the launch vehicle architecture and the means and methodology for getting to the Moon was being wrought. He faced criticism from congressmen and even former President Dwight D. Eisenhower – who believed sending men to the Moon was foolhardy – but Holmes rose above it all. He once famously remarked that there were always sceptics in the world, but it made no sense for the head of the project to also be a sceptic. "When a great nation is faced with a technological challenge, it has to accept or go backward," he told Time magazine in August 1962. "Space is the future of man…and the U.S. must keep ahead in space."

NASCAR tests at Space Center

Lee Spencer - FoxSports.com

NASCAR teams are always searching for new places to test, and apparently Daytona International Speedway isn't the only facility on Florida's Sun Coast where competitors can shake down their latest and greatest efforts.

Research and development teams from Richard Childress Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing have discovered the NASA Shuttle Landing Facility just south of Daytona on Merritt Island in Brevard County — part of the Kennedy Space Center.

The 15,000-foot concrete runway, built for the Space Shuttle landing in 1984, is ideal for straight-line testing — where teams gather aerodynamic data. It's also more economically feasible than transporting cars from North Carolina to the proving grounds in Arizona.

"We use the landing strip at Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral just because it's a long, smooth straightaway, and it's warm, so in the wintertime you can test there with pretty controlled conditions," Richard Childress Racing director of competition Dr. Eric Warren said. "You work out a relationship with those guys and pay for the use of the facilities — like any other testing facility. They have their own on-site emergency crews, so the safety side of it is really nice.

"It's closer (than Arizona). The weather is warmer, and it's a great wintertime alternative to going to places out West. Most of them are ovals and the straight-line facilities are up north — around Michigan and the OEMs (original equipment manufacturers). We can do two straight-line segments there — as far as coast down. This place has plenty of distance."

END

Keep the shuttle flying

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