Keep the shuttle flying: February 2013

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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: February 25, 2013 6:50:10 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - February 25, 2013 and JSC Today

Monday, February 25, 2013

JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1.            Shorter is Better -- Please Help
2.            JSC Black History Month Observance Closing Program -- Tomorrow
3.            Are You a PC or Mac User Who Wants to Learn More About Teleworking?
4.            JSC Advance Manufacturing Working Group
5.            White Sands Test Facility: See the Space Station
6.            Nutrition Class Tomorrow
7.            Innovation Lecture Series -- The TechNowist Video Now Available
8.            Introduction to the Scientific & Technical Information Center
9.            Sixth Annual NASA Golf Tournament -- Early Registration Opens Friday, March 1
10.          NASA@work: Last Chance to Solve
11.          Ever Wonder What Astronauts Eat in Space?
12.          Gary Allen Rodeo Tickets at Starport
________________________________________     QUOTE OF THE DAY
" Everyone has a talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark places where it leads. "

-- Erica Jong
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1.            Shorter is Better -- Please Help
While JSC Today is growing in popularity (and that's a good thing), it can become a bad thing when there are so many submissions that the communications tool becomes "exhausting" to read. If you open up JSC Today and get heart palpitations from all the words swimming in front of your eyes, we have good news for you. We are making a concerted effort to enforce the JSC Today guidelines so that people don't post the same thing more than once per week, as is stated in the guidelines.
For the frequent offenders, if you are alarmed that your submissions may not receive attention, the opposite is, in fact, true. Less behemoth JSC Todays mean that readers may actually open it and read the announcements, rather than open it—get alarmed—and close it back up. Also, there are other avenues you can use to get the message out: Add your events to the calendar on Inside JSC for maximum visibility, and perhaps utilize the Senior Secretaries distribution or other organizational distribution lists.
We're not trying to limit your access -- we're just trying be sure you don't miss an important announcement by enforcing the guidelines. Thanks in advance for your understanding.
JSC Today

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2.            JSC Black History Month Observance Closing Program -- Tomorrow
The African-American Employee Resource Group cordially invites the civil servant and contractor community to the closing activity that will feature Dr. Woodrow Whitlow Jr., associate administrator for the Mission Support Directorate at NASA Headquarters; and Texas Southern University's music department (one of the nation's largest historically black universities), tomorrow, Feb. 26, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Teague Auditorium.
This year's celebration will include a moment of recognition for our veterans who have served this country.
Event Date: Tuesday, February 26, 2013   Event Start Time:11:30 AM   Event End Time:1:00 PM
Event Location: Teague Auditorium

Add to Calendar

Carla Burnett x41044

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3.            Are You a PC or Mac User Who Wants to Learn More About Teleworking?
The Information Resources Directorate (IRD) will be holding a series of collaboration sessions on Feb. 28. Come over to the Building 3 Collaboration Center from 9 to 9:30 a.m. to join a helpful discussion on how to telework for PC users who are just getting started. There is another session for Mac users from 9:30 to 10 a.m. Stay tuned to JSC Today for more information about IRD's upcoming collaboration sessions.
JSC IRD Outreach x41334 http://ird.jsc.nasa.gov/default.aspx

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4.            JSC Advance Manufacturing Working Group
The Manufacturing Services group, ES7, is establishing a JSC Advance Manufacturing Working Group (JAMWG) to develop manufacturing techniques needed to advance systems for the directorate, center and agency, as well as maintaining capabilities within the directorate and center to conduct manufacturing of prototypes, systems or components that are needed by projects and program at the center but are not readily available from industry.
The JAMWG is an inter-directorate, inter-disciplinary team that will define relevant thrust areas and products in the area of the advance manufacturing. Initial discussions will focus on needs, goals and objectives and will translate these into a viable JSC advance manufacturing strategy and roadmap. The working group will focus on opportunities for infusing advance manufacturing techniques and methods into existing and future projects.
If you have any agenda topics you would like to submit, please send them to Joel Sills.
Event Date: Monday, February 25, 2013   Event Start Time:10:00 AM   Event End Time:11:30 AM
Event Location: Building 9E, Room 113

Add to Calendar

Joel Sills x35421

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5.            White Sands Test Facility: See the Space Station
Viewers in the White Sands Test Facility area will be able to see the International Space Station this week.
Today, Feb. 25, 7:28 p.m. (Duration: 3 minutes)
Path: 10 degrees above NW to 69 degrees above N
Maximum elevation: 69 degrees
Tuesday, Feb. 26, 6:38 p.m. (Duration: 6 minutes)
Path: 10 degrees above NNW to 12 degrees above ESE
Maximum elevation: 35 degrees
Wednesday, Feb. 27, 7:26 p.m. (Duration: 3 minutes)
Path: 28 degrees above WSW to 17 degrees above S
Maximum elevation: 31 degrees
The International Space Station Trajectory Operations Group provides updates via JSC Today for visible station passes at least two minutes in duration and 25 degrees in elevation. Other opportunities, including those with shorter durations and lower elevations or from other ground locations, are available at the website below.
Joe Pascucci x31695 http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/view.cgi?country=U...

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6.            Nutrition Class Tomorrow
Understanding Food Labeling and Processing: Are you confused by all the food label claims on products in grocery stores? Have trouble understanding all the information on processed foods and food additives? You are not alone! This class will focus on what all of these claims mean and help you understand what happens to your food before you put it on the table. The class will be held tomorrow, Feb. 26, 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

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7.            Innovation Lecture Series -- The TechNowist Video Now Available
Were you unable to attend the Human Health and Performance Innovation Lecture Series in January featuring Carlos Dominguez? Heard it was fantastic and wish you could check it out? Never fear! The video presentation of that event is now available. Don't miss our next Innovation Lecture Speaker Udaya Patnaik, founder and principal of Jump Associates, during Innovation Day.
Carissa Vidlak 281-212-1409 http://sa.jsc.nasa.gov

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8.            Introduction to the Scientific & Technical Information Center
The Scientific & Technical Information Center (STIC) provides access to over 100 databases, 19,000 e-books and more than 15,000 abstract and full-text journals. It is also the official repository for five-digit JSC documents. Make searching for these resources a lot easier by joining the library for a training session on Feb. 28 from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. in Building 30A, Room 1010. Users can also attend the session online via WebEx.
To register for the WebEx or to attend in person, go here and then click on the Classroom/WebEx schedule.
The STIC is a service provided by the Information Resources Directorate.
Event Date: Thursday, February 28, 2013   Event Start Time:2:30 PM   Event End Time:3:30 PM
Event Location: WebEx & B30A, Room 1010

Add to Calendar

Ebony Fondren x32490 http://library.jsc.nasa.gov

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9.            Sixth Annual NASA Golf Tournament -- Early Registration Opens Friday, March 1
Team and individual registration opens for the Sixth Annual NASA Golf Tournament on Friday, March 1.
Proceeds benefit the Starport (JSC-Exchange) Scholarship Program.
Tournament Information:
o             Date: Thursday, April 25
o             Location: Magnolia Creek Golf Club
o             Time: 8 a.m. shotgun start (driving range and breakfast taco bar open at 7 a.m.)
o             Maximum number of golfers: 200 (50 teams)
Registration Information:
o             Early Registration: March 1 to 15 | $125 (I)/$500 (T)
o             Regular Registration: March 16 to 29 | $135 (I)/$540 (T)
o             Late Registration: March 30 to April 4 | $145 (I)/$580 (T)
Register online or in person at the Gilruth information desk.
Note: There will be NO day-of registration at the course. All golfers and teams must register by April 4.
Get your team ready to go now - this event will fill up!
For more information, please call the Gilruth information desk at 281-483-0304.
Event Date: Thursday, April 25, 2013   Event Start Time:7:00 AM   Event End Time:1:30 PM
Event Location: Magnolia Creek Golf Club

Add to Calendar

Steve Schade x30304 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/golf

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10.          NASA@work: Last Chance to Solve
This is the last week to solve Challenge 1602: Advanced Exercise Concepts for Long-Duration Spaceflight. The deadline is Thursday, Feb. 28. Go here to submit your solution today!
Are you new to NASA@work? NASA@work is an agencywide, collaborative problem-solving platform that connects the collective knowledge of experts (like YOU) from all centers across NASA. Challenge owners post problems, and members of the NASA@work community participate by responding with their solutions to posted problems. Anyone can participate.
Kathryn Keeton 281-204-1519 http://nasa.innocentive.com

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11.          Ever Wonder What Astronauts Eat in Space?
Please join the Human Systems Academy in a lecture featuring "Space Food and Nutrition." This lecture will introduce attendees to the space food system and Nutritional Biochemistry Laboratory. Topics will cover food systems of programs past, present and future, and issues surrounding food systems and food safety. Additionally, nutritional biochemistry changes documented during spaceflight and nutritional concerns for optimizing crew health will also be addressed. Course ID: JSC-HSA-FOODLAB
For registration, please go to: https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...
Event Date: Thursday, February 28, 2013   Event Start Time:9:00 AM   Event End Time:10:00 AM
Event Location: B17/CR 1066

Add to Calendar

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

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12.          Gary Allen Rodeo Tickets at Starport
Tomorrow at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo -- country music star Gary Allen ("Every Storm," "Lovin' You Against My Will," "Best I Ever Had" and many other top songs). Tickets are still available at the Building 11 Starport Gift Shop. Single tickets may be purchased for this performance. Tickets are also available for Styx, Dierks Bentley and Jake Owen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4Hk6qDgQjA
Cynthia Kibby x37467 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/

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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, February 25, 2013

HEADLINES AND LEADS

Antares rocket completes engine hot fire in Virginia

Stephen Clark - SpaceflightNow.com

Orbital Sciences Corp. conducted a successful engine test of its Antares rocket Friday, demonstrating the booster's dual-engine first stage on a Virginia launch pad and clearing a hurdle before the rocket's first flight in April. As light rain fell, the Antares engines ignited at 6 p.m. EST (2300 GMT) on launch pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Va. The booster's two AJ26 engines, built in Russia and modified by Aerojet, fired for 29 seconds. The rocket remained firmly attached to the launch pad as the engines generated 680,000 pounds of thrust, sending a ground-shaking roar across the coasts of Virginia and Maryland.

Orbital Test Fires Antares Core Stage

Dan Leone - Space News

Orbital Sciences Corp. test fired the core stage of its Antares cargo rocket the evening of Feb. 22, marking a long-awaited milestone on the Dulles, Va., company's road to flying cargo to the international space station under a $1.9 billion contract with NASA. The hold-down test took place at Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, part of NASA's Wallops Island Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Va. The rocket's two AJ-26 engines were ignited at 6:00 p.m. and fired for a full 29 seconds as planned.

New Privately Built Rocket Passes Key Engine Test

Tariq Malik - Space.com

A new commercial rocket designed to launch unmanned cargo missions to the International Space Station passed a key engine test Friday night, setting the stage for the booster's debut flight in the months ahead, NASA officials say. The Virginia-based company Orbital Sciences Corp. test-fired the first stage engines of its new Antares rocket at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Va. — the home of NASA's Wallops Flight Facility. The so-called "hot fire" test ignited the Antares rocket's engines for 29 seconds without ever leaving the launch pad.

Commercial crew program threatened by budget cuts

Stephen Clark - SpaceflightNow.com

Automatic spending cuts due to go into effect March 1 would likely extend U.S. reliance on Russia for human spaceflight, delay development of badly-needed next-generation weather satellites, and force a reduction in radar scans searching for space debris, according to Obama administration officials. That's if Congress and the White House don't act to avoid the across-the-board cuts, which will be automatically triggered at the end of next week without a compromise on how to deal with the federal government's budget deficit.

United Space Alliance reaches end of mission
Downsized firm's future in doubt

James Dean - Florida Today

Outside orbiter hangars and a tile processing shop, Mike McCulley gave a guest the lay of the land at Kennedy Space Center. That side of the street is Lockheed, this side Rockwell, he explained. Each protects its turf and information, slowing shuttle work and increasing its cost. "Once we're all under one badge, I guarantee you things are going to be a lot slicker and a lot smoother," McCulley, then Lockheed's KSC site director, remembers telling Rockwell's Kent Black. "And they were. These barriers just fell. One badge, one team, one company." The joint venture that brought the rivals together was United Space Alliance, which in 1996 became the lead operator of NASA's shuttle fleet and immediately one of Brevard County's largest employers. Seventeen years later, most of USA's remaining local team is preparing to turn in its badges and look for new work.

Smith taking bipartisan approach to spare NASA

Stewart Powell - Houston Chronicle

It should be no surprise, but things are so testy on Capitol Hill that a conflict-resolution coach invoked the tale of two sisters bickering over an orange to show Republicans and Democrats on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology the benefits of collaboration. Everyone figured the two girls were locked in a winner-take-all argument over a piece of fruit because each wanted to eat the orange, recalls Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, the committee chairman who arranged the presentation by Wendy Swire, an executive coach. But it turns out, one sister wanted to eat the orange and the other wanted the rind to flavor a cake. "If they'd only talked to each other, both of them would have been happy," Smith recalls. "It was a small point, but I think it resonated with committee members."

'Blunt' NASA boss says sequestration will widen gap with Russian space program

Lee Roop - Huntsville Times

A self-described "blunt" NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr. said in Huntsville Friday that budget sequestration will slow NASA's effort to start a commercial space industry to take astronauts to the International Space Station on American spacecraft. The gap between America and Russia, which can still launch astronauts, will not close, Bolden said. "The gap is going to get bigger," he said. "I'm just being very blunt about. Anybody who thinks this is no big deal - it's a big deal." Bolden said sequestration will affect his center here on issues ranging from small business contracts to getting employees to work.

Space Station-bound ATV Forfeits April Launch Window

Peter de Selding - Space News

A glitch in an avionics box on Europe's fourth ATV unmanned cargo vehicle discovered during testing will force a replacement and retesting of the box, and that will force the 20,000-kilogram vehicle to miss its planned April launch date to the international space station, the ATV-4 mission manager said Feb. 22. In a briefing with journalists, Alberto Novelli said the station's traffic management has openings in May or June, each lasting several days, and that the ATV-4 should be able to make one of these launch windows.

Peter Gabriel hears his song played from the International Space Station

CNN's Light Years

British singer Peter Gabriel got a brief serenade from a member of the International Space Station crew on Wednesday during a visit to Mission Control in Houston. Canadian Chris Hadfield, Expedition 34's flight engineer, strummed a few chords of Gabriel's hit "In Your Eyes" during a nearly 12-minute chat with Gabriel and his family. Hadfield told Gabriel that he recorded two songs in space. The first, co-written with his brother, is a "space Christmas carol" called "Jewel in the Night." The second, a space-to-Earth collaboration with Canadian band Barenaked Ladies, is called "I.S.S. (Is Somebody Singing)." (NO FURTHER TEXT)

What's Going to Happen to the ISS?

David Darling - AmericaSpace.org

The International Space Station is the ninth crewed space station to be built, and with a mass of approximately 450 tons, a width of 354 feet (108 meters), and a pressurized volume of 2746 (837 cubic meters), it is by far the biggest. Construction on the orbiting laboratory started in 1998 and is still ongoing (Russian elements are still being readied for launch)…At some point in the 2020s, it will become necessary to implement End Of Life (EOL) plans for the ISS. A number of proposals have already been put forward explaining how to de-orbit this massive piece of hardware so that whatever pieces of it are not destroyed upon re-entry will splash down safely in the ocean. Fortunately, there are various ways to control the movements of the ISS—for example, using European ATVs or Progress ships so that it can be accurately moved into a disposal corridor. On that day, observers on Earth will be treated to a once-in-a-lifetime, man-made celestial firework display.

Hanging Out Live With Astronauts From the International Space Station

Jenny Marder - Public Broadcasting System

Are dreams affected by microgravity? How do you exercise in space? What's that on Chris Hadfield's forehead? These were among the questions posed to NASA astronauts -- three of whom are orbiting 240 miles above the Earth, from the International Space Station (ISS) -- during NASA's first live Google Hangout.

Super Space Germs Could Threaten Astronauts

Charles Choi - Space.com

The weightlessness of outer space can make germs even nastier, increasing the dangers astronauts face, researchers say. These findings, as well as research to help reduce these risks, are part of the ongoing projects at the International Space Station that use microgravity to reveal secrets about microbes. "We seek to unveil novel cellular and molecular mechanisms related to infectious disease progression that cannot be observed here on Earth, and to translate our findings to novel strategies for treatment and prevention," said microbiologist Cheryl Nickerson at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute.

Stanford fruit flies are headed into space
School of Medicine heart surgeon's astronaut dreams take flight with space experiment

Sue Dremann - Palo Alto Weekly

A Stanford University School of Medicine heart surgeon's fruit-fly experiment could blast off to outer space as early as September, and the effect of weightlessness on the tiny creatures' hearts could reveal how long-term space travel might change an astronaut's heart. The insects' flight in a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral is a dream Dr. Peter H.U. Lee has had since boyhood, he said. Lee, a cardiothoracic surgeon and clinical instructor at the school of medicine, has always had a passion for space travel as well as his chosen profession. And he is one of more than 6,000 applicants for the astronaut program. But for now, he is content with sending his insects-turned-astronauts to orbit the earth in his stead.

Cleveland played key roles in space program, NASA spokesman tells Bay Village audience

Bruce Geiselman - Cleveland Sun News

The NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland and the Plum Brook Station in Sandusky played key roles in the Apollo manned space missions, a NASA spokesman told an audience recently at the Lake Erie Nature & Science Center in Bay Village. NASA exhibits specialist John Oldham brought a slideshow, a space rock and numerous exhibits to the science center for a Feb. 14 presentation about space mission successes and failures. Oldham recounted how the United States raced against the Russians to land a man on the moon, and described how NASA scientists faced and overcame technological challenges. Much of the work was done in Cleveland, according to Oldham.

Commercial crew program is worst possible choice for NASA cuts

John Kelly - Florida Today (Commentary)

If political leaders in Washington are unable to reach a deal this week, NASA could be facing nearly $1 billion less funding than previously planned for during the next seven months or so. That means some emergency, quick-action belt tightening to accommodate forced spending reductions implemented if elected officials can't agree on other steps to reduce the nation's deficit spending. So, what are agency leaders planning to cut? Well, one of the few programs in the space agency's portfolio that seems to be working and on track. The effort to field a privately-operated replacement system for the space shuttle for the purposes of transporting U.S. astronauts back and forth to the International Space Station and, possibly, blazing a trail for more routine private space flight.
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COMPLETE STORIES

Antares rocket completes engine hot fire in Virginia

Stephen Clark - SpaceflightNow.com

Orbital Sciences Corp. conducted a successful engine test of its Antares rocket Friday, demonstrating the booster's dual-engine first stage on a Virginia launch pad and clearing a hurdle before the rocket's first flight in April.

As light rain fell, the Antares engines ignited at 6 p.m. EST (2300 GMT) on launch pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Va.

The booster's two AJ26 engines, built in Russia and modified by Aerojet, fired for 29 seconds. The rocket remained firmly attached to the launch pad as the engines generated 680,000 pounds of thrust, sending a ground-shaking roar across the coasts of Virginia and Maryland.

The hot fire test occurred at the end of a full countdown sequence, including fueling of the first stage with kerosene and cryogenic liquid oxygen.

"Our initial assessment of the test data shows that we were successful in achieving each of the primary objectives we had hoped to accomplish going into the test," said Mike Pinkston, Antares program manager at Orbital Sciences. "We will now turn our attention to the next major milestone for the Antares program, which is the inaugural flight of the rocket. I know that I speak for the entire Antares team when I say we are beyond excited to know that our newest rocket will take to the skies in just a matter of weeks."

Officials said the primary goals of the test were to demonstrate the launch pad's fueling systems, engine ignition and shutdown commands, and the performance of the AJ26 engines in a dual-engine configuration.

The launch pad's water deluge sound suppression system also worked as designed to protect the pad from damage, according to Orbital Sciences.

The Antares rocket is the first liquid-fueled vehicle developed by Orbital Sciences, and the rocket's new launch pad is the first facility at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility designed to handle large quantities of liquid propellants.

The rocket's main engines are tested one-at-a-time at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, but Friday's hot fire was the first time two Russian-built, U.S.-owned AJ26 engines fired at the same time.

Aerojet converted Russian NK-33 engines into an AJ26 engine by removing some harnessing, adding U.S. electronics, qualifying it for U.S. propellants, and modifying the system to gimbal for steering.

Kept in storage for four decades, the NK-33 engines were originally designed and built in the 1960s and 1970s for the ill-fated Soviet N1 moon rocket.

"Aerojet purchased the NK-33 engines from JSC Kuznetsov in the mid-1990s and has been developing design modifications to ensure that the AJ26 is suitable for U.S. commercial launch vehicles," said Pete Cova, Aerojet's executive director of space and launch systems, in a statement. "As teammates, JSC Kuznetsov brings tremendous technical support to our efforts and we are looking forward to supporting Orbital in its cargo resupply contract with NASA."

The Antares first stage core tank was designed and built in Ukraine by Yuzhnoye and Yuzhmash. The Ukrainian contractors modified the 12.8-foot-diameter first stage of the Zenit rocket for Orbital's Antares program.

Orbital Sciences is one of two commercial partners commissioned by NASA to develop private resupply vehicles for the International Space Station.

"This pad test is an important reminder of how strong and diverse the commercial space industry is in our nation," said Phil McAlister, NASA's director of commercial spaceflight development. "A little more than one year after the retirement of the space shuttle, we had a U.S company resupplying the space station, and another is now taking the next critical steps to launch from America's newest gateway to low Earth Orbit. Today marks significant progress for Orbital, MARS and the NASA team."

NASA has an agreement to pay Orbital up to $288 million in a public-private partnership called the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, or COTS, program.

The COTS agreement covers development of the Antares rocket and Cygnus cargo spacecraft. NASA has a separate $1.9 billion contract with Orbital Sciences for eight operational flights.

NASA has a similar arrangement with SpaceX, which completed its COTS obligations last year and began operational resupply services in October.

Orbital Sciences plans to remove the Antares first stage from the launch pad and return the booster to the horizontal integration facility about one mile north of the pad.

"Shortly after completing pad and fueling systems post-test inspections and performing any necessary reconditioning work, Orbital will roll out the first complete two-stage Antares rocket to prepare it for the test flight, which is expected to take place in approximately six weeks," the company said in a statement.

The Antares test flight, which could occur as soon as early April, will launch a dummy payload into orbit. A second Antares mission in June or July will launch the first functional Cygnus spacecraft on a demonstration flight to the International Space Station.

Operational flights could begin before the end of 2013.

Orbital Sciences is also trying to sell Antares rockets to NASA and the U.S. military for satellite launches.

Orbital Test Fires Antares Core Stage

Dan Leone - Space News

Orbital Sciences Corp. test fired the core stage of its Antares cargo rocket the evening of Feb. 22, marking a long-awaited milestone on the Dulles, Va., company's road to flying cargo to the international space station under a $1.9 billion contract with NASA.

The hold-down test took place at Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, part of NASA's Wallops Island Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Va. The rocket's two AJ-26 engines were ignited at 6:00 p.m. and fired for a full 29 seconds as planned.

"Quick-look data review of #Antares hot fire test is positive," Orbital Sciences said via Twitter. "Team will do deeper dive on data over the next week or so."

If the test proves successful it will clear the way for the maiden flight of Antares, which will take place about six weeks. In its first flight Antares will send a dummy payload, equivalent in mass to Orbital's Cygnus space freighter, to orbit.

Orbital Sciences issued the following press release about an hour after the test:

(Dulles, VA 22 February 2013) -- Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE: ORB), one of the world's leading space technology companies, today announced it successfully conducted an extended-duration "hot fire" test of the first stage propulsion system of its new Antares™ medium-class rocket. Developed over a four-plus-year period, Antares will be used to launch cargo supply missions to the International Space Station as part of a $1.9 billion contract with NASA.

The 29-second hot fire test took place at 6:00 p.m. (EST) on February 22, 2013 at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport's (MARS) Pad 0A, which was designed and built over the last several years to accommodate liquid-fuel space launch vehicles. The primary goals of the test were to ensure that the launch complex's fueling systems and the Antares stage one test article functioned properly in a fully operational environment, that engine ignition and shut down commands operated as designed, and that the dual AJ26 first stage engines and their control systems performed to specifications in the twin-engine configuration. The test included a full propellant loading sequence, launch countdown and engine ignition operation. The pad's high-volume water deluge system flowed throughout the entire period of the test to protect the pad from damage and for noise suppression.

"Our initial assessment of the test data shows that we were successful in achieving each of the primary objectives we had hoped to accomplish going into the test," said Mr. Mike Pinkston, Orbital's Antares Program Manager. "We will now turn our attention to the next major milestone for the Antares program, which is the inaugural flight of the rocket. I know that I speak for the entire Antares team when I say we are beyond excited to know that our newest rocket will take to the skies in just a matter of weeks."

With the hot fire test complete, Orbital will purge and clean the engines of residual propellants and return the first stage test unit to the vehicle integration facility for full reconditioning. Shortly after completing pad and fueling systems post-test inspections and performing any necessary reconditioning work, Orbital will roll out the first complete two-stage Antares rocket to prepare it for the test flight, which is expected to take place in approximately six weeks.

Orbital is scheduled to conduct two launches under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) Space Act Agreement with NASA in 2013. In addition, the company will launch eight operational cargo resupply missions to the International Space Station (ISS) using Antares vehicles from late 2013 through 2016 under the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract with NASA. The COTS and CRS flights will launch from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia, which is ideally suited for ISS missions, and can also accommodate launches to other orbits. In addition, Orbital is currently evaluating its options for development of a west coast launch site that would enable the Antares rocket to address an even wider range of customer missions.

The Antares medium-class launch system will provide a significant increase in the payload launch capability that Orbital can provide to NASA, the U.S. Air Force and other customers. The Antares rocket will be able to launch up to 14,000 lbs. into low-Earth orbit, as well as lighter-weight payloads into higher-energy orbits. Orbital's newest launcher is currently on-ramped to both the NASA Launch Services-2 and the U.S. Air Force's Orbital/Suborbital-3 contracts, enabling the two largest U.S. government space launch customers to order Antares for "right-size and right-price" launch services for medium-class spacecraft.

New Privately Built Rocket Passes Key Engine Test

Tariq Malik - Space.com

A new commercial rocket designed to launch unmanned cargo missions to the International Space Station passed a key engine test Friday night, setting the stage for the booster's debut flight in the months ahead, NASA officials say.

The Virginia-based company Orbital Sciences Corp. test-fired the first stage engines of its new Antares rocket at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Va. — the home of NASA's Wallops Flight Facility. The so-called "hot fire" test ignited the Antares rocket's engines for 29 seconds without ever leaving the launch pad.

Friday's engine test was aimed at verifying the fueling systems at the spaceport's launch Pad-0A and Antares rocket first stage would perform as expected during an actual mission, Orbital officials said.

"Initial review of the test data indicate the primary objectives of the test were accomplished," Orbital officials wrote in a status update. "The pad and fueling systems will undergo post-test inspections and any necessary reconditioning work will be performed."

Orbital Sciences is one of two private spaceflight companies with billion-dollar NASA contracts to provide unmanned cargo delivery missions to the International Space Station. Under its $1.9 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract, Orbital will make at least eight delivery flights to the space station using its Antares rocket and robotic Cygnus spacecraft. The first Antares rocket test flight is expected later this year.

The Hawthorne, Calif.-based Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is the other company with a NASA contract for unmanned space station deliveries. SpaceX has a $1.6 billion contract to fly at least 12 missions to the space station using its Dragon space capsules and Falcon 9 rocket. The company launched both a test flight and a bona fide delivery mission to the space station in 2012. The second delivery flight under the contract is slated to launch on March 1.

"This pad test is an important reminder of how strong and diverse the commercial space industry is in our nation," Phil McAlister, director of Commercial Spaceflight Development at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in a statement. "A little more than one year after the retirement of the space shuttle, we had a U.S company resupplying the International Space Station. Now, another is taking the next critical steps to launch from America's newest gateway to low-Earth orbit."

Orbital plans to launch its Antares rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, which is located on Virginia's eastern shore. NASA's Wallops Flight Facility there has launched more than 16,000 rockets in the last 67 years, though Orbital's Antares flights would be the first space station-bound missions launched from Virginia.

With the retirement of NASA's space shuttle fleet in 2011, the space agency is relying on new private rockets and spacecraft to ferry cargo — and eventually astronauts — to and from low-Earth orbit. NASA is currently dependent on Russia, Europe and Japan for cargo deliveries to the space station. Russia's Soyuz spacecraft are the only vehicles currently available to ferry astronauts to and from the station.

Orbital's engine Friday test marked the company's second attempt to check the Antares rocket's dual AJ26 rocket engines, which are designed to provide 680,000 pounds of thrust. A first attempt on Feb. 13 was aborted before engine ignition due to a "low pressurization" detection during a nitrogen purge in the rocket's aft engine compartment, Orbital officials said in an update.

Orbital officials are now working toward test flights of the Antares rocket and its Cygnus spacecraft. The first demonstration flight falls under a separate contract for NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, and is expected to launch later this year.

Commercial crew program threatened by budget cuts

Stephen Clark - SpaceflightNow.com

Automatic spending cuts due to go into effect March 1 would likely extend U.S. reliance on Russia for human spaceflight, delay development of badly-needed next-generation weather satellites, and force a reduction in radar scans searching for space debris, according to Obama administration officials.

That's if Congress and the White House don't act to avoid the across-the-board cuts, which will be automatically triggered at the end of next week without a compromise on how to deal with the federal government's budget deficit.

NASA would lose about $894 million from its current budget outlook in the period between March 1 and Sept. 30, the end of fiscal year 2013.

According to a letter to the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee from NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, the space agency's commercial crew program would suffer the brunt of the budget cuts.

By the second half of 2013, NASA says it will be unable to make payments to companies working on private spaceships under the agency's commercial crew program.

"Overall availability of commercial crew transportation services would be significantly delayed, thereby extending our reliance on foreign providers for crew transportation to the International Space Station," Bolden wrote in a letter to Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

NASA has public-private partnership agreements with Boeing Co., SpaceX and Sierra Nevada Corp. to fund the design and testing of commercial spacecraft designed to carry astronauts to the space station. NASA makes payments to the companies upon completion of predetermined development milestones.

Until a commercial provider becomes operational, which NASA projects by 2017, U.S. astronauts will ride Russian Soyuz spacecraft while voyaging to the space station and back to Earth.

Bolden wrote the automatic cuts, known as sequestration, could cause launch delays for NASA's scientific research satellites and potential cancellations of space technology projects, such as advanced communications, radiation protection, nuclear systems and other fields.

The White House and Congress agreed on the sequestration plan in 2011 as part of a compromise to raise the federal government's debt limit. Sequestration was meant to be a "poison pill" to compel leaders in both parties to reach an agreement to rein in the budget deficit.

But lawmakers could not come to a resolution, and Congress reached a deal Jan. 1 to put off the spending cuts for two months and extend current income tax rates for individuals earning less than $400,000 and households earning less than $450,000.

Sequestration was originally set to go into effect at the beginning of 2013. It impacts all federal discretionary spending, slashing 8.2 percent annually from non-defense government agencies and 9.4 percent from military programs.

Unless Congress and the Obama administration agree on targeted budget cuts - sparing some programs and still hitting others - every corner of the government's military, research and regulatory apparatus will see their funding reduced.

NOAA's next-generation geostationary weather observatories, currently scheduled for launch in 2015 and 2017, would face a delay of two or three years if the automatic budget cuts take effect and stay in place.

"This delay would increase the risk of a gap in satellite coverage and diminish the quality of weather forecasts and warnings," said Rebecca Blank, acting Secretary of Commerce.

Defense Department officials say sequestration would be devastating to the military, predicting thousands of furloughs and decreased combat readiness.

Air Force Space Command announced Feb. 8 it would reduce some missile warning and space surveillance operations.

Gen. Mark Welsh, Air Force chief of staff, told a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee on Feb. 13 that Space Command would curtail observations using secondary radars to monitor for missile attacks and track objects in orbit.

The Air Force uses satellites and a network of ground-based radars for the early warning and surveillance tasks.

"We don't have as much redundancy now in the system and we don't have as much capacity to track objects in orbit," Welsh said.

Even if sequestration takes hold, it could be short-lived. The government's current budget resolution runs out March 27, and Congress must pass another budget by then to avoid a government shutdown. The new budget could include deficit reductions directed at specific programs, instead of across-the-board cuts.

United Space Alliance reaches end of mission
Downsized firm's future in doubt

James Dean - Florida Today

Outside orbiter hangars and a tile processing shop, Mike McCulley gave a guest the lay of the land at Kennedy Space Center.

That side of the street is Lockheed, this side Rockwell, he explained. Each protects its turf and information, slowing shuttle work and increasing its cost.

"Once we're all under one badge, I guarantee you things are going to be a lot slicker and a lot smoother," McCulley, then Lockheed's KSC site director, remembers telling Rockwell's Kent Black. "And they were. These barriers just fell. One badge, one team, one company."

The joint venture that brought the rivals together was United Space Alliance, which in 1996 became the lead operator of NASA's shuttle fleet and immediately one of Brevard County's largest employers.

Seventeen years later, most of USA's remaining local team is preparing to turn in its badges and look for new work.

The Houston-based company, which supported nearly 60 shuttle missions, plans to let go 559 people Friday and another 77 from KSC on April 5. That will leave about 140 employees at a firm that for years boasted as many as 6,600 engineers, technicians and administrative personnel at Kennedy, out of 10,500 nationally.

The layoffs bring to an end shuttle-related downsizing that began in 2009, and close a once-controversial chapter in human spaceflight operations that several former company and NASA executives described as a success, saving taxpayers billions and establishing a legacy that may outlast the company.

USA showed it was possible to streamline complex government programs, and represented a first step toward commercialization of spaceflight that has gained momentum with NASA's post-shuttle plan to fly astronauts on private spacecraft.

Parent companies Lockheed Martin Corp. and The Boeing Co., which acquired Rockwell International Corp.'s 50 percent stake, have been quiet about USA's future. But it's widely considered a matter of time before it ceases daily operations.

"I can't imagine how it stays viable much longer," said McCulley, a former shuttle pilot who served as USA's CEO from 2003 to 2007.

'Extremely proud'

USA represented a major shift in the way NASA ran the shuttle program.

Shuttle operations had been dispersed across 86 contracts held by 56 companies, with the two biggest owned by Lockheed at Kennedy and Rockwell at Johnson Space Center.

But Washington had become open to the idea of consolidation. In the early '90s, the Clinton-Gore White House pushed to "reinvent" a more efficient federal government and NASA Administrator Dan Goldin's "faster, better, cheaper" philosophy sought to cut costs. A 1995 report by Chris Kraft, a legendary NASA flight director and JSC director, endorsed the idea of turning shuttle operations over to a single prime contractor.

Lockheed and Rockwell decided to team up and formed United Space Alliance to bid for the new Space Flight Operations Contract. NASA persuaded Congress it was a good idea to award the contract without competition.

When the deal was signed in September 1996, Kent Black, who became USA's first CEO, said it marked a "revolutionary change in how NASA manages major programs."

The contract offered incentives to reduce costs without sacrificing safety.

Although it had the backing of Goldin and the directors of Johnson and Kennedy, some at NASA saw their roles threatened, particularly within the centers that had traditionally managed shuttle contracts, and questioned if cost-cutting might affect safety.

"It was an earthquake within NASA," said Jim Adamson, a former astronaut who served as USA's first chief operating officer. "The culture shock shook NASA to its core. Many managers resisted the change for fear of losing operational control of their 'baby.' Fortunately, USA also had champions at the top levels of NASA, and without the support of these key individuals this ambitious undertaking could not have happened."

Others saw the transition in less significant terms. Many of the original 9,400 employees simply kept doing their jobs but for a different company.

"It was outsourcing to a new entity work previously outsourced to elements of that entity under different names, so it wasn't all that momentous," said space policy expert John Logsdon.

Jay Honeycutt, who was KSC's director at the time and later joined USA's advisory board, called the company "the right thing to do at the right time."

"The two centers weren't always in complete lockstep, if you will, toward getting things done," he said. "So with one contractor responsible for the activities in both places, it generated not only efficiencies but easier government management."

A model for others

To the former executives, the results have been clear: a strong track record of safe shuttle operations and billions of taxpayer dollars saved — probably extending the shuttle program's longevity.

There's no simple accounting of that record, however.

The Columbia accident shook the shuttle program in 2003.

Investigators did not fault USA personnel, but blamed a broken safety culture within the program overall.

"I think it is fair to say that USA became part of that culture," said Logsdon, a member of the investigative board.

Reviewing the relationship between NASA and its contractors, the Columbia investigation report noted that USA's promised annual savings of $500 million to $1 billion by the early 2000s "have not materialized." But the report also acknowledged that NASA never agreed to consolidate contracts to the extent first contemplated, which was the basis for USA's projections.USA then estimated it had saved NASA more than $1 billion during the contract's first six years.

"It didn't accomplish everything it was envisioned to accomplish, but it did accomplish much more than many people expected," Adamson said. "So it was in the middle."

The series of near-flawless flights that concluded the shuttle program in 2011 has become a testament to the company's expertise and professionalism, even as large numbers of workers were being laid off.

"The vehicles performed flawlessly, the processing was the least expensive and most predictable," McCulley said. "When we shut down the three orbiters, they were at the top of their game."

USA became a model for United Launch Alliance, another Boeing-Lockheed joint venture that launches the nation's most critical national security and science satellites, and which may start to launch people.

And it showed in a broader way that consolidation of a sprawling, complex government program could work.

"We proved you don't have to exchange safety for cost savings," said Chris Holland, a former USA attorney and lobbyist. "We combined all these different contracts into one and still accomplished all the millions of little things that have to occur to get us to T-0. And I'm extremely proud that the United States put up a company that could do that."

Since President George W. Bush announced in 2004 that the shuttle would be retired after completion of the space station, USA executives have sought clarity on the company's future and a potential path forward. In 2008, USA changed its logo from one featuring the shuttle to one aligned with NASA's Constellation program, which was later canceled.

"Our business focus extends beyond one vehicle," then-CEO Richard Covey said at the time. "This aligns our brand with the new directions and future priorities of our customers."

Even as the final shuttle mission landed in July 2011, local executives said USA could stay in business as a smaller company. But the parent companies later reportedly ordered USA to stop pursuing new business. USA was purposefully established as a "one-trick pony" to perform shuttle operations, Adamson said, giving the parent companies comfort that it wouldn't turn into a competitor for other business.

But despite natural competitive tensions between the parents, he said both would have wanted USA to continue its specialty in human spaceflight operations. USA earned $25.7 billion from NASA contracts between 1996 and 2012, agency records show.

"It put a lot of money on the bottom line for both of those corporations," Adamson said. "If the nation were doing human spaceflight operations and had a contract for it, I would be willing to bet that both Boeing and Lockheed Martin would be standing shoulder-to-shoulder behind USA to keep it going, but there just isn't anything out there for it to do."

Now, USA's skilled workforce, and all the training invested in it, is all but gone. After the upcoming layoffs, the company will still have about 800 people in Houston, mostly supporting International Space Station operations. Remaining local staff will handle contract closeouts.

Not all the departing employees will be out of a job. Some will join Jacobs Technology, which won a Kennedy ground operations contract that starts Friday.

Honeycutt said it was never in the shuttle workforce's nature to spend much time fretting about its future or mourning USA's demise.

"People that work out there and have worked out there don't have much 'woe is me' in it," he said. "It's, this is what we did, it was a good run. Now let's go see what's around the corner and how we can be a contributor to that, whether it's as an existing company or in some other capacity."

Smith taking bipartisan approach to spare NASA

Stewart Powell - Houston Chronicle

It should be no surprise, but things are so testy on Capitol Hill that a conflict-resolution coach invoked the tale of two sisters bickering over an orange to show Republicans and Democrats on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology the benefits of collaboration.

Everyone figured the two girls were locked in a winner-take-all argument over a piece of fruit because each wanted to eat the orange, recalls Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, the committee chairman who arranged the presentation by Wendy Swire, an executive coach.

But it turns out, one sister wanted to eat the orange and the other wanted the rind to flavor a cake.

"If they'd only talked to each other, both of them would have been happy," Smith recalls. "It was a small point, but I think it resonated with committee members."

Communication is key

Smith, a savvy, close-to-the-vest lawmaker who has served in Congress since 1987, is the only House committee chairman so far this year to convene a bipartisan off-the-record retreat for committee members in hopes of breaking the partisan gridlock that has stymied so much action in the House and Senate.

"I've learned over the years that 90 percent of the problems we face can be solved by better communication," says Smith, an ally of Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and the House GOP leadership.

Smith said he held the two-hour retreat Feb. 6 in hopes of building the kind of cooperation featured in a favorite book, "Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In."

Bipartisanship 'tough'

In addition to Swire, the retreat's speakers included scientists positioned to tout the benefits of unfettered space exploration by NASA - astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, a veteran of a presidential commission on space and winner of the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, and science educator and engineer Bill Nye, best known for his television program, "Bill Nye the Science Guy."

The breadth of collaboration remains to be seen on a 39-member committee that authorizes $39 billion in annual spending for NASA, the National Science Foundation, the National Weather Service, all nonmilitary national laboratories and exploration of outer space.

Democrats on the panel are adopting a wait-and-see approach.

"I'm pleased that the chairman hosted this retreat and that he hopes to have a bipartisan committee this Congress," says Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Dallas, the ranking Democrat on the panel. "Congress has been a tough environment these past few years."

Texas in general - and Houston and San Antonio in particular - stand to benefit if Smith can mitigate some of the bitter partisan wrangling that has afflicted Congress. Texas lawmakers are bracing for political pressure in the tight budget climate to cut the $17.8 billion-a-year NASA budget that underwrites the Johnson Space Center as well as to reduce research grants that flow to Houston's medical facilities through the $7.4 billion-a-year National Science Foundation.

Yet with bipartisan cooperation, Texas would have unprecedented clout on the panel, where both the chairman and ranking Democrat hail from the Lone Star State, along with six other members of the committee.

'Blunt' NASA boss says sequestration will widen gap with Russian space program

Lee Roop - Huntsville Times

A self-described "blunt" NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr. said in Huntsville Friday that budget sequestration will slow NASA's effort to start a commercial space industry to take astronauts to the International Space Station on American spacecraft. The gap between America and Russia, which can still launch astronauts, will not close, Bolden said. "The gap is going to get bigger," he said. "I'm just being very blunt about. Anybody who thinks this is no big deal - it's a big deal."

Bolden said sequestration will affect his center here on issues ranging from small business contracts to getting employees to work. Because Marshall Space Flight Center is on Redstone Arsenal, Bolden said, Center Director Patrick Scheuermann has to wonder, "How does he get his people to work on the day (the Department of Defense) is furloughing, closed for business?"

The Army has not announced any plans to change gate hours at Redstone Arsenal if the federal budget is cut as expected beginning March 1. Given Redstone's role supporting troops fighting in Afghanistan and deployed in other dangerous places, closing the arsenal on any day would seem highly unlikely. However, furloughs of DOD civilian employees at Redstone could affect daily commutes for 37,000 Arsenal workers if fewer gate guards were on duty or gate access was changed.

"Sequestration was intended to never have to happen," Bolden said. "Well, guess what. The Congress wasn't able to do what they were supposed to do, so we're going to suffer."

Marshall civil servants will not lose their jobs, Bolden said, and the center will feel less pain than some because it is working on a key program, the Space Launch system, and its contractor workforce was downsized when the space shuttle program ended in 2011. "That was pain," Bolden said. "You all knew it, but people around the country may not have known. Other areas of the country are going to have to go through a lot of pain through sequestration."

Bolden said Marshall's partnerships with small businesses will suffer. "I've come here to deliver the administrator's cup for small business," he said. "Some of those companies I used to be able to deliver trophies and awards to, they're probably not going to be able to compete, because we're not going to be able to have them as partners anymore."

An example was given at a small business meeting Friday when Marshall officials said they are holding half of 26 new research contracts and grants for industry and universities until the sequestration threat is past.

Bolden was in Huntsville to tour an advanced manufacturing laboratory at Marshall that uses lasers to "print" parts that will one day go on rockets. The technique, an advancement over so-called "3-D printing" methods that produce plastic and polymer parts, uses lasers to melt and shape powdered metal in a technique one manager likened to a glue gun. When each level of the application is laid down, it cools and another is laid until the part is literally built out of powder. Marshall workers showed Bolden how one laser is producing engine parts without welds and almost ready for engine testing.

"We're trying to find ways to produce components we need more efficiently, quicker ...," Bolden said. "We're also looking at how we take this room, put it on a spacecraft and take it with you, so that when something breaks, you can do what they're doing in here on the way to Mars."

Space Station-bound ATV Forfeits April Launch Window

Peter de Selding - Space News

A glitch in an avionics box on Europe's fourth ATV unmanned cargo vehicle discovered during testing will force a replacement and retesting of the box, and that will force the 20,000-kilogram vehicle to miss its planned April launch date to the international space station, the ATV-4 mission manager said Feb. 22.

In a briefing with journalists, Alberto Novelli said the station's traffic management has openings in May or June, each lasting several days, and that the ATV-4 should be able to make one of these launch windows.

But Novelli said the final tests of the box were still continuing as of Feb. 22 and that a firm launch date would await completion of the tests. An internal NASA launch schedule shows a no-earlier-than date of May 7 for the mission.

ATV-4, dubbed Albert Einstein, arrived at Europe's Guiana Space Center in French Guiana, on the northeast coast of South America, in September. Novelli said the launch campaign for ATV-4 is slightly longer than the previous vehicle because, for the first time, the ATV will be carrying a full complement of water.

Novelli said it was not immediately clear what caused the defect in the avionics box, which had undergone testing in Europe and at the spaceport.

What's Going to Happen to the ISS?

David Darling - AmericaSpace.org

The International Space Station is the ninth crewed space station to be built, and with a mass of approximately 450 tons, a width of 354 feet (108 meters), and a pressurized volume of 2746 (837 cubic meters), it is by far the biggest. Construction on the orbiting laboratory started in 1998 and is still ongoing (Russian elements are still being readied for launch).

With the retirement of the space shuttle fleet, the only way at present to transport astronauts to and from the station is via Soyuz spacecraft. This minuscule vessel only allows three crew members to be launched at any one time. However, by the mid-2010s, the U.S. could regain an independent capability to launch crews into low-Earth orbit using commercial vehicles such as SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft.

Only two more pressurized modules are scheduled to be launched and attached to the existing complex. The Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM), also called Nauku (Russian for "science"), will become the major Russian laboratory at the ISS. Due to arrive in 2014, along with the European Robotic Arm, it will replace the Mini-Research Module 2 (MRM 2). The other addition, also slated for arrival in 2014, is the Uzlovoy Module (UM). This four-ton, ball-shaped component will support the docking of two scientific and power modules during the final stage of the station assembly. It will also furnish the Russian segment of the ISS with extra docking ports to receive Soyuz TMA (crew-carrying) and Progress M (cargo-carrying) spacecraft.

Looking further down the road, all that is certain for now is that the ISS is funded out to 2020. Its operations may continue until 2028 depending on finances and international politics at the time, and, just as crucially, on the recertification of key onboard systems. Eventually, the time will come when the station has to be de-orbited in as controlled and safe a manner as possible. But before that happens, the Russian Federal Space Agency (RSA/RKA) is interested in using the ISS to commission modules for a new space station, called OPSEK (Orbital Piloted Assembly and Experiment Complex).

In the long term, all the major space-faring nations are looking at ways of establishing a permanent presence in space and of how best to accomplish crewed missions to other planets. The Russian concept is to build a third-generation space station using, as a starting point, modules from the Russian segment of the ISS. When complete, OPSEK would be used to assemble interplanetary spacecraft destined for Mars and possibly beyond. Returning crews would also stop off at the station to recover and reacclimatize before landing on Earth.

At some point in the 2020s, it will become necessary to implement End Of Life (EOL) plans for the ISS. A number of proposals have already been put forward explaining how to de-orbit this massive piece of hardware so that whatever pieces of it are not destroyed upon re-entry will splash down safely in the ocean. Fortunately, there are various ways to control the movements of the ISS—for example, using European ATVs or Progress ships so that it can be accurately moved into a disposal corridor. On that day, observers on Earth will be treated to a once-in-a-lifetime, man-made celestial firework display.

Hanging Out Live With Astronauts From the International Space Station

Jenny Marder - Public Broadcasting System

Are dreams affected by microgravity? How do you exercise in space? What's that on Chris Hadfield's forehead?

These were among the questions posed to NASA astronauts -- three of whom are orbiting 240 miles above the Earth, from the International Space Station (ISS) -- during NASA's first live Google Hangout.

Astronauts Kevin Ford, Chris Hadfield and Tom Marshburn answered questions from the International Space Station, while NASA astronaut Ron Garan and Nicole Stott fielded questions from the ground. Questions were submitted live and through social media using the #askastro tag. You can watch the discussion above or on NASA's Google Plus page.

Here are some of the gems delivered by the astronauts during the chat:

In space, astronauts can turn like falling cats by twisting their bodies. They see shooting stars below them from the space station, but no satellites. Space, says Canadian Space Agency's Hadfield, is so deep black "it almost has a texture when you look at it."

And in space, gravity causes blood to shift upward through the body toward the head, resulting in puffy faces and skinny legs. With extended time in space, the heart shrinks, as it pumps less blood. This interesting physiological phenomenon about living in space came from NASA astronaut Nicole Stott.

"For some people, this happens more significantly than others," Stott said. "Some feel congested. That happens and it kind of mellows out after a while."

As for exercise, astronauts aboard the ISS use the on-board treadmill and stationary bikes to do an hour of aerobics and an hour of weightlifting every day to keep their muscles strong.

Coming home and readjusting to gravity is a challenge, Stott said, adding that upon return, she felt like she weighed 500 pounds.

But nothing, Garan added, compares to the feeling of being back home. He recalls landing in Kazakhstan.

"I remember looking out that window and seeing grass and flowers and thinking, 'We're home.' Even if we're in Kazakhstan, home is Earth," he said.

And as for the object seen on Hadfield's forehead: it's a temperature probe that measures his body's circadian rhythm. He has another probe over his heart.

Super Space Germs Could Threaten Astronauts

Charles Choi - Space.com

The weightlessness of outer space can make germs even nastier, increasing the dangers astronauts face, researchers say.

These findings, as well as research to help reduce these risks, are part of the ongoing projects at the International Space Station that use microgravity to reveal secrets about microbes.

"We seek to unveil novel cellular and molecular mechanisms related to infectious disease progression that cannot be observed here on Earth, and to translate our findings to novel strategies for treatment and prevention," said microbiologist Cheryl Nickerson at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute. Nickerson detailed these findings on Monday (Feb. 18) at the annual meeting of the American Association for Advancement of Science in Boston.

In space, researchers encounter greatly reduced levels of gravity, often erroneously referred to as zero gravity. This near-weightlessness can have a number of abnormal effects on astronauts, such as causing muscle and bone loss.

Although microgravity can distort normal biology, conventional procedures for studying microbes on Earth can cause their own distortions.

Experiments on Earth often involve whirling cells around to keep them from settling downward in a clump due to gravity. However, the physical force generated by the movement of fluid over cell surfaces causes great changes to the way cells act. This property, known as fluid shear, influences a broad range of cell behaviors, and the shear that experiments on Earth introduce could twist results.

In microgravity, researchers do not need to constantly disturb cells to keep them from clumping, as gravity is not pulling down on the cells to any significant degree. As such, experiments in microgravity can attain low fluid shear, and thus better reflect what normally happens with germs and cells inside bodies, Nickerson explained.

For example, the most common sites of human infection are the mucosal, gastrointestinal and urogenital tracts, where fluid shear is typically low.

Salmonella in space

In an earlier series of NASA space shuttle and ground-based experiments, Nickerson and her colleagues discovered that spaceflight actually boosted the virulence, or disease-causing potential, of the food-borne germ Salmonella.

"Does microgravity alter how Salmonella behaves? You bet it does, in a profound and novel way," Nickerson said.

This aggressive bacterium infects an estimated 94 million people globally and causes 155,000 deaths each year. In the United States alone, more than 40,000 cases of salmonellosis are reported annually, resulting in at least 500 deaths and health care costs in excess of $50 million, scientists said.

"By studying the effect of spaceflight on the disease-causing potential of major pathogens like Salmonella, we may be able to provide insight into infectious disease mechanisms that cannot be attained using traditional experimental approaches on Earth, where gravity can mask key cellular responses," Nickerson said.

These findings are of special concern for astronaut health during extended spaceflight missions. Space travel already weakens astronaut immunity, and these findings reveal that astronauts may have to further deal with the threat of disease-causing microbes that have boosted infectious abilities.

Microgravity apparently causes many genes linked with Salmonella's virulence to switch on and off in ways not seen in Earth-based labs. The same appears to happen with bacterialgenes linked to resistance against stress and to the formation of fortress-like structures known as biofilms. A better understanding of which genes spaceflight alters could help design therapies to fight or prevent infection, helping protect people both in space and on Earth.

"We need to outpace infectious disease because we're losing the fight to the pathogens," Nickerson told SPACE.com.

Better vaccines

Microgravity research could also help lead to novel vaccines. In a recent spaceflight experiment aboard space shuttle mission STS-135 (the last-ever shuttle flight), researchers brought along a genetically modified Salmonella-based vaccine designed to protect against pneumococcal pneumonia. Analysis of the effects of microgravity on the behavior of the vaccine could help reveal how to genetically modify it to improve it.

"Recognizing that the spaceflight environment imparts a unique signal capable of modifying Salmonella virulence, we will use this same principle in an effort to enhance the protective immune response of the recombinant, attenuated Salmonella vaccine strain," Nickerson said.

Experiments aboard the space station are now permitting microbial studies over prolonged time frames, ones not available during shuttle-based experiments. These studies in space are carried out in conjunction with simultaneous analyses on Earth using the same hardware as those in orbit, so researchers can compare the behavior of bacterial cells under normal Earth gravity.

In addition, researchers hope to simulate microgravity using machines such as rotating wall vessel bioreactors, which grow cells in ways that mimic how cells float in outer space. Such research helped confirm that a protein called Hfq plays a key role in the Salmonella response to spaceflight conditions. Still, these bioreactors can only replicate about 70 percent of the effects seen in spaceflight.

"Seventy percent is good, but we've missed 30 percent," Nickerson said.

Weightless nematodes

Nickerson was first to study the effects of spaceflight on pathogen virulence and the first to profile the infection process in human cells in spaceflight. Her PHOENIX experiment, the capsule will mark the first time a whole, living organism will be infected with a germ, and simultaneously monitored in real time during the infection process under microgravity conditions. PHOENIX will fly on the SpaceX Dragon capsule travelling to the space station later this year, and will infect a nematode worm with Salmonella.

"Nematodes are wonderful for studying Salmonella. Tthey're basically one, long gastrointestinal tract from one end to the other," Nickerson said.

The significance of the results Nickerson and her colleagues have uncovered extends to more than just Salmonella. The researchers' experiments on the protein Hfq show that it apparently serves as a key regulator of gene responses to spaceflight conditions across a number of other bacterial species, including Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a common hospital-acquired infection.

"It is exciting to me that our work to discover how to keep astronauts healthy during spaceflight may translate into novel ways to prevent infectious diseases here on Earth," Nickerson said.

Stanford fruit flies are headed into space
School of Medicine heart surgeon's astronaut dreams take flight with space experiment

Sue Dremann - Palo Alto Weekly

A Stanford University School of Medicine heart surgeon's fruit-fly experiment could blast off to outer space as early as September, and the effect of weightlessness on the tiny creatures' hearts could reveal how long-term space travel might change an astronaut's heart.

The insects' flight in a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral is a dream Dr. Peter H.U. Lee has had since boyhood, he said. Lee, a cardiothoracic surgeon and clinical instructor at the school of medicine, has always had a passion for space travel as well as his chosen profession. And he is one of more than 6,000 applicants for the astronaut program. But for now, he is content with sending his insects-turned-astronauts to orbit the earth in his stead.

The information the insects bring back could not only have implications for astronauts, but it could lead to a better understanding of how the body grows older for the general earth-bound populace as well.

"A lot of what we see in space is an accelerated rate of aging," Lee said.

The fruit flies, a species of Drosophila, will arrive at the U.S. National Laboratory on the International Space Station 240 miles above earth. Hundreds of the insects will travel in a box called a NanoLab. They'll reside in test tubes filled with nutrients to sustain them for their month-long orbit.

"We'll be looking at how well the flies' hearts squeeze and look after being in space -- whether there are more arrhythmias or any changes in gene expression," Lee said.

Researchers have long studied the effects of weightlessness on astronauts' skeletal muscles and bones. They learned that bone loss and muscle atrophy take place in space. Every system in the body appears to be negatively impacted by space flight, Lee said. But little is known about the heart. Astronauts do seem to have increased risk of irregular heart rhythms, some decrease in heart mass and a little decrease in heart function. What the long-term effects might be of prolonged space habitation are not known, he said.

Experiments Lee has done on muscle tissue in space show some direct effect. Weightlessness causes a shift in body fluid. Standing on earth, gravity causes blood to go to the legs. But in space, less flows to the lower extremities, and more flows to the upper body. The body compensates in part through greater excretion, but more fluid still goes to the heart. It appears that there might be small changes because of that fluid buildup, he said.

In Lee's cubicle in Stanford's Falk Building, his computer screensaver has an image of the space shuttle Endeavour atop a 747 airliner. And there is a photo of Lee shaking hands with astronaut Neil Armstrong. Lee said he kept his childhood interest in space in college and searched for ways to stay in the profession. His adviser at Brown University had an experiment on the space shuttle, and Lee did his doctoral research in that project, he said. He was a principal investigator on the study of the effect of weightlessness on muscle tissue, and the experiment traveled on the space shuttle with astronaut-turned-senator John Glenn.

Lee joined a Mars-simulation team for a month-long expedition to an Arctic island that approximated the Martian environment, and he has conducted cardiopulmonary resuscitation experiments on reduced-gravity aircraft designed for astronaut training. He is also a full fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association.

He turned to Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in San Diego, which has heart research on fruit flies, and to NASA Ames Research Center, which has experience sending the insects on space missions, as collaborators for the fruit-fly project. The team was one of eight to win a Space Florida research competition in December for their experiment.

"Drosophila work really well for space-flight experiments. You don't get a lot of 'space' for space experiments. You can't send very heavy or big things up. When you do science in space, you make do with as little resources as possible," said Sharmila Bhattacharya, principal investigator of the Biomodel Performance Lab at NASA Ames, who is part of the team.

Lee said using tiny creatures by the hundreds also has the advantage of producing many live subjects from which to gather data, he said. A human study would be limited to only two or three subjects, since there are few people who fly into space, he said.

Fruit fly and human hearts are not similar in structure -- the insects have a tubular rather than chambered heart -- but the genes are very similar. When the fruit flies are in space, genes will be turned on and off as organs change in response to weightlessness. Changes caused by space travel that might cause defects or arrhythmias could be found and compared to similar gene changes that cause the same defects in humans, he said.

Lee isn't holding out great hope of taking a similar space flight as his insect subjects. Only 10 to 15 human positions will be selected out of the 6,000-plus applicants, he said. But he does have great hopes for the information his proxies will bring upon their return. And there is always that slim hope of a future as a doctor in space. Results will be announced this spring or summer, he said.

Cleveland played key roles in space program, NASA spokesman tells Bay Village audience

Bruce Geiselman - Cleveland Sun News

The NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland and the Plum Brook Station in Sandusky played key roles in the Apollo manned space missions, a NASA spokesman told an audience recently at the Lake Erie Nature & Science Center in Bay Village.

NASA exhibits specialist John Oldham brought a slideshow, a space rock and numerous exhibits to the science center for a Feb. 14 presentation about space mission successes and failures. Oldham recounted how the United States raced against the Russians to land a man on the moon, and described how NASA scientists faced and overcame technological challenges.

Much of the work was done in Cleveland, according to Oldham.

"It played a very big role," he said. "Some of the technology developed at Glenn directly enabled Apollo to be successful."

He credited Glenn scientists with helping work on hydrogen fuel research and rockets used in the space program.

"We did a lot of the development and research for some of the components, and we do a lot of the materials testing out there, as well," Oldham said. "The atmospheric chamber at Plum Brook, the vacuum chamber, was vital in testing a lot of hardware in a big space environment."

In addition, the Glenn Research Center played an integral role in investigating what went wrong with the Apollo 13 space mission, when an explosion onboard nearly led to the crew being stranded in space. Experiments at Glenn helped NASA duplicate the conditions the capsule faced in flight and led investigators to suspect that a short circuit from a malfunctioning component ignited an oxygen tank.

Oldham also discussed the future for the space agency, saying its role is changing, but it will remain an important agency.

"We've only quit flying the shuttle," he said. "We hear that NASA has folded its tent and gone, but it couldn't be further from the truth. We have a multitude of missions, both manned and unmanned."

While commercial companies will play a larger role in developing future spacecraft for lower Earth-orbit missions, such as servicing the International Space Station, NASA continues work on longer-range missions.

"That leaves us and our assets free to do the bigger tasks ahead, to develop spacecraft to go out beyond the moon," Oldham said. "Asteroid missions are on the boards as a possible mission. Of course, the moon is always a possibility, and it probably will play a part in our future explorations.

"Mars certainly is an obvious choice. There are people right now working on the spacesuits, and the hardware and the technology, and certainly the spacecraft to do that mission."

Oldham displayed for the audience a spacesuit sent up with Apollo 8 astronauts and a moon rock returned to Earth by the Apollo 15 mission.

Commercial crew program is worst possible choice for NASA cuts

John Kelly - Florida Today (Commentary)

If political leaders in Washington are unable to reach a deal this week, NASA could be facing nearly $1 billion less funding than previously planned for during the next seven months or so.

That means some emergency, quick-action belt tightening to accommodate forced spending reductions implemented if elected officials can't agree on other steps to reduce the nation's deficit spending. So, what are agency leaders planning to cut? Well, one of the few programs in the space agency's portfolio that seems to be working and on track. The effort to field a privately-operated replacement system for the space shuttle for the purposes of transporting U.S. astronauts back and forth to the International Space Station and, possibly, blazing a trail for more routine private space flight.

It appears from documents the agency is sharing with Congress that NASA plans to mothball its Commercial Crew program to incentivize private companies to provide a human-rated crew ferry for missions to low-Earth orbit. Commercial Crew is a small program in the grand scheme of the NASA budget, but it's one that is showing documented progress and would be most hurt by a sudden interruption in funding. Analyzing the NASA budget, agency leaders surely could find other, less destructive means to cut spending.

NASA officials say that stopping funding for Commercial Crew temporarily would significantly delay their goal of conducting a manned test flight by 2017. That would force the nation to continue relying on foreign space agencies for transport, at an ever- rising price since the Russians understand that NASA has no other option and therefore will have to pay whatever fare they propose.

Instead, perhaps NASA ought to be looking at cutting smaller amounts from big, multi-billion dollar projects that might better be able to absorb less money for a short period rather than cutting off the lifeline to one of its biggest "wins" in a decade. The private operations working to make crew runs to the station a reality are meeting milestones and progressing faster than any of NASA's attempts during the past two decades to develop a similarly-capable crew transport.

Perhaps NASA could take a closer look at its programs in education, computing and other fields that appear off-mission when it comes to the core functions of exploring space and advancing aviation research.

Or, maybe NASA ought to be taking a hard look at cutting back or mothballing programs based on their track records when it comes to meeting deadlines and other metrics, including staying on budget.

NASA and its supporters in Congress can argue that this would be preventable if elected officials would cut a deal. But NASA leaders' job in this instance is to make smart decisions whether a deal is reached or not. If cuts must be made, the blossoming commercial programs so important to NASA's future seem like they ought to be among the last items on the chopping block.

END

Keep the shuttle flying

Thursday, February 28, 2013

The Space Review: essays and commentary about the final frontier

What are they thinking--placing this in museum!!

Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - February 25, 2013 and JSC Today

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