Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - March 18, 2013 and JSC Today

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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: March 18, 2013 6:04:25 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - March 18, 2013 and JSC Today

 

 

 

Monday, March 18, 2013

 

JSC TODAY HEADLINES

1.            JSC Contractor Safety Forum - Safety and Health Excellence Awards Presentation

2.            NASA Night at the Houston Aeros

3.            NASA JSC: 'Engineering and Beyond' With Mike Hess

4.            CoLab: Wireless Display Sharing Technologies

5.            Leadership Enrichment and Development Program (LEaD)

6.            JSC's Year-Long Career Exploration Program Internship Application Now Open

7.            Fly Reduced Gravity

8.            Starport's Sunrise Spinning -- Register by Friday for Discounted Price

9.            Beginners Ballroom Dance -- March 2013 Discount

10.          Job Opportunities

11.          Reassignment Opportunities Available at JSC

12.          Registration Deadline - APPEL - Risk Management II

13.          Scaffold Users Seminar ViTS: May 24

14.          General Industry (CFR 1910) Safety and Health Provisions ViTS: May 31

________________________________________     NASA FACT

" Scientists identified sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon -- some of the key chemical ingredients for life -- in the powder Curiosity drilled out of a sedimentary rock near an ancient stream bed in Gale Crater on the Red Planet."

________________________________________

1.            JSC Contractor Safety Forum - Safety and Health Excellence Awards Presentation

Just a reminder! The JSC Contractor Safety and Health Forum (CSF) will be held tomorrow, March 19, in the Gilruth Alamo Ballroom from 9 to 11 a.m. At this meeting, the CSF Safety and Health Excellence Awards and Innovation Awards for 2012 will be presented. Refreshments, sponsored by Jacobs Technology, will be provided after the presentations.

For more information on this event, please contact Pat Farrell at 281-335-2012, or go to the CSF website.

Event Date: Tuesday, March 19, 2013   Event Start Time:9:00 AM   Event End Time:11:00 AM

Event Location: Gilruth Alamo Ballroom

 

Add to Calendar

 

Pat Farrell 281-335-2012

 

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2.            NASA Night at the Houston Aeros

The Houston Aeros invite NASA employees and guests to Toyota Center to watch the Aeros take on the Grand Rapids Griffins on Friday, March 29.

Families can get autographs from hockey-playing astronauts Lee Archambault and Mario Runco, who will drop the puck for the ceremonial opening faceoff at 7:05 p.m. Mascots Chilly and Cosmo will be on hand for pictures, too.

Employees and their guests can purchase discounted Corner tickets for only $20 (normally $32 the day of the game). Discounted parking is also available in the Toyota Tundra parking garage attached to Toyota Center for only $7.

To order tickets, go here or call/email Josh Young, Aeros director of Special Events, at 713-361-7937.

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

 

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3.            NASA JSC: 'Engineering and Beyond' With Mike Hess

On Tuesday, March 19, the South Western Professional Representatives Association will host Mike Hess, JSC associate director of Engineering. The event will be held at the Bay Oaks Country Club from 11:30 to 1 p.m. Hess' presentation will include an update on the Engineering Directorate's current projects, plans and future initiatives post-shuttle, including ongoing studies and engineering assignments. He will also address the new Engineering Directorate's JETS contract.

The luncheon cost for non-members is $35 at the door, or $30 if you bring a copy of this JSC Today announcement with you. For more information, please contact David L. Brown.

David L. Brown x37426 http://www.linkedin.com/groups/South-Western-Aerospace-Professional-Repr...

 

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4.            CoLab: Wireless Display Sharing Technologies

Are you working with Apple TV, WiDi or any other technologies that allow you to share your display wirelessly?

If so, you are invited to the new Collaborative Lab, or CoLab. CoLabs are collaborative lunches that are held once a month to bring people and projects together. The goal of these lunches is to help individuals create a network of relationships and contacts centerwide with people who are working with similar technologies. CoLabs provide a casual forum to share lessons learned, generate innovative new ideas and find new uses of technologies.

This meeting will be held Thursday, March 21, from noon to 1 p.m. in Building 30A, Room 2085A. Feel free to bring your lunch.

Event Date: Thursday, March 21, 2013   Event Start Time:12:00 PM   Event End Time:1:00 PM

Event Location: Bldg 30A/Rm 2085A

 

Add to Calendar

 

Elena Buhay 281-792-7976

 

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5.            Leadership Enrichment and Development Program (LEaD)

Leadership Enrichment and Development (LEaD) is designed to provide GS-11 and GS-12 individual contributors and influence leaders with the opportunity to develop foundational leadership skills. Participants will take part in a year-long program consisting of four modules designed around the core competencies of: leading change; leading people and coalitions; results driven; and business acumen. Elements include: online and classroom training; subject-matter expert events; book clubs with senior management; 360 feedback tool; and mentorship.

If you are interested in applying for any of these programs, talk to your supervisor. Applications should be worked through your management and submitted to your directorate-level training coordinator by your organization's due date. The training coordinators should submit their organization's priority list and all scanned application packages via email no later than Friday, April 19.

To learn more about LEaD, click here.

If you have any questions, please contact your Human Resources development representative.

Christine Eagleton 281-792-7838

 

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6.            JSC's Year-Long Career Exploration Program Internship Application Now Open

The CEP is accepting high school and college student applications for the 2013-2014 internship program. Students interested in science, technology, engineering, math or business fields should apply. High school students should apply through their school's Cooperative and Technical Education teacher, and college students should apply online. Selected students will work 20 hours a week at JSC during their senior year in high school or while enrolled full-time in college. Internship dates are Sept. 3, 2013, through July 31, 2014. The application deadline is March 29. Click here for additional program details and eligibility requirements.

The CEP is JSC's renowned internship program that seeks to meet NASA's mission by developing the critical pool of talented and diverse individuals who will make up the future leaders of our nation's and NASA's workforce.

The callout for JSC mentors to submit intern requests for year-long interns will follow shortly.

Carolyn Snyder x34719 http://www.cep.usra.edu

 

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7.            Fly Reduced Gravity

Reduced Gravity and the Minority University Research and Education Program at JSC are looking for mentors at ALL NASA centers to submit projects. This is a fantastic opportunity for mentors to develop an experiment for reduced-gravity flight, and then fly with the experiment and the minority-serving university team they will work with. University teams will apply to each of the projects collected from your center's mentors, and 14 teams will be selected. We are hoping to spread the selected projects out across all of the mission directorates, so we need proposals from ALL centers.

The deadline to submit a project has been extended to close of business tomorrow, March 19.

To submit a project for the program, click here.

For more information, contact Suzanne Foxworth.

Visit our website.

Suzanne Foxworth x37185 https://microgravityuniversity.jsc.nasa.gov/murep/index.cfm

 

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8.            Starport's Sunrise Spinning -- Register by Friday for Discounted Price

Renew your senses and invigorate your mind and body with a 60-minute outdoor Spinning class that will conclude as the sun rises. This motivational endurance ride is great for all levels. Light refreshments will be provided after class. Reserve your spot now, because this class will fill up!

Starport's Sunrise Spinning

o             March 31

o             6 to 7 a.m.

o             Early Registration | $10 per person (March 8 to 22)

o             Regular Registration | $15 per person (March 23 to 30)

For more information about this Spinning class, or for those interested in biking or running in to the Gilruth that morning, please contract Kerri Knotts.

Event Date: Sunday, March 31, 2013   Event Start Time:5:45 AM   Event End Time:7:15 AM

Event Location: Gilruth Live Oak Pavillion

 

Add to Calendar

 

Steve Schade x30317 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/

 

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9.            Beginners Ballroom Dance -- March 2013 Discount

Do you feel like you have two left feet? Well, Starport has the perfect spring program for you:

Beginners Ballroom Dance!

This eight-week class introduces you to the various types of ballroom dance. Students will learn the secrets of a good lead and following, as well as the ability to identify the beat of the music. This class is easy, and we have fun as we learn. JSC friends and family are welcome.

Discounted registration:

o             $90 per couple (ends March 27)

Regular registration:

o             $110 per couple (March 28 to April 2)

Two class sessions available:

o             Tuesdays from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. -- Starting April 2

o             Thursdays from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. -- Starting April 4

All classes are taught in the Gilruth Center's dance studio.

To register or for additional information, please contact the Gilruth Center's information desk: 281-483-0304

Shericka Phillips x30304 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Fitness/RecreationClasses/RecreationProgram...

 

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10.          Job Opportunities

Where do I find job opportunities?

Both internal Competitive Placement Plan (CPPs) and external JSC job announcements are posted on both the Human Resources (HR) portal and USAJOBS website. Through the HR portal, civil servants can view summaries of all the agency jobs that are currently open at: https://hr.nasa.gov/portal/server.pt/community/employees_home/239/job_opportu...

To help you navigate to JSC vacancies, use the filter drop-down menu and select "JSC HR." The "Jobs" link will direct you to the USAJOBS website for the complete announcement and the ability to apply online. If you have questions about any JSC job vacancies, please call your HR representative.

Lisa Pesak x30476

 

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11.          Reassignment Opportunities Available at JSC

The Workforce Transition Tool is still the best place to find lateral reassignment and rotational opportunities available around the center. There are currently several positions posted:

o             AD/Strategic Social Media Manager

o             LA/Program Analyst

o             NC/Vehicle Systems Engineer

o             NE/Commercial/Visiting Vehicle Engineer

o             NE/ISS Reliability and Maintainability Engineer

o             NE/ISS Vehicle Subsystem Engineer (C&DH)

o             NS/Pressure Systems Engineer

o             NS/Test Safety Officer

o             NT/Software Assurance Engineer

o             OB/Deputy Manager, ISS Vehicle Office

o             OC/ATV-HTV Lead

o             OC/Deputy Manager, Mission Integration and Ops

o             VA/Commercial Crew Systems Engineer

Check back at the Workforce Transition Tool frequently to see what new opportunities have been posted. Interested parties can visit the Human Resources (HR) portal and follow the path: Employees - Workforce Transition - Workforce Transition Tool. Or, find your HR rep.

David Kelley x27811 http://jscpeople.jsc.nasa.gov/contacts.html

 

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12.          Registration Deadline - APPEL - Risk Management II

This two-day course builds on the knowledge of NASA's approach to managing risk provided in Risk Management I (scheduled for April 4 at JSC). It provides an opportunity to evaluate and practice application of the Risk Informed Decision Making and Continuous Risk Management in the context of NASA projects and programs.

This course is designed for NASA's technical workforce, including systems engineers and project personnel who seek to develop the competencies required to succeed as a leader of a project team, functional team or small project.

This course is available for self-registration in SATERN until tomorrow, March 19. Attendance is open to civil servants and contractors.

Dates: Thursday to Friday, April 5 to 6

Location: Building 12, Room 152

Zeeaa Quadri x39723 https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHED...

 

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13.          Scaffold Users Seminar ViTS: May 24

SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0316: This four-hour course is based on Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) CFR 1910.28 and 1926.451, requirements for scaffolding safety in the general and construction industries. During the course, the student will receive an overview of those topics needed to work safely on scaffolds, including: standards, terminology and inspection of scaffold components; uses of scaffolds; fall protection requirements; signs and barricades; and more. Those individuals desiring to become "competent persons" for scaffolds should take the three-day Scaffold Safety course, SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0312. This course will be primarily presented via the NASA target audience: Safety, Reliability, Quality and Maintainability professionals; or anyone working on operations requiring the use of scaffolds. There will be a final exam associated with this course, which must be passed with a 70 percent minimum score to receive course credit.

Use this direct link for registration.

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

Shirley Robinson x41284

 

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14.          General Industry (CFR 1910) Safety and Health Provisions ViTS: May 31

SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0066A: This three-hour course is based on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration CFR 1910 course, Requirements for General Safety and Health Provisions. It will provide a general overview of OSHA 1910 safety requirements. During the course, the student will receive an overview of those topics needed to work safely in general industry. There will be a final exam associated with this course, which must be passed with a 70 percent minimum score to receive course credit.

Use this direct link for registration.

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

Shirley Robinson x41284

 

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

 

 

 

NASA TV:

·         10:10 am Central (11:10 EDT) – Expedition 35 CDR Chris Hadfield with Canadian Media

·         11 am Central (Noon EDT) – Video File of Expedition 35/36 Crew Departure for Baikonur

·         12:10 pm Central (1:10 EDT) – Expedition 35 In-Flight Event with "30 Seconds to Mars"

·         1 pm Central (2 EDT) – Interpreted Replay of Hadfield's interview with Canadian Media

 

Human Spaceflight News

Monday, March 18, 2013

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

Soyuz lands in Kazakhstan

 

William Harwood - CBS News

 

Running a day late because of freezing rain and low clouds in Kazakhstan, three space station crewmen strapped into their Soyuz ferry craft and dropped out of orbit Friday, plunging to a jarring touchdown on the fog-shrouded Kazakh steppe to close out a 144-day mission. Low clouds and fog reduced visibility as the descent began and Russian helicopters carrying recovery crews were not able to immediately reach the landing site.

 

U.S., Russian Space Station Crew Descends to Earth, Leaving First Canadian in Command

 

Mark Carreau – Aviation Week

 

Veteran astronaut Chris Hadfield formally assumed command of the International Space Station late Friday, the first Canadian to shoulder responsibility for the 15 nation orbiting laboratory, as three U. S. and Russian colleagues departed for a weather delayed parachute descent into northern Kazakhstan aboard their Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft. Previous Expedition 34 station commander Kevin Ford, of NASA, Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin undocked from the space station at 7:43 p.m., EDT, orbiting the Earth in their Soyuz capsule until a 10:13 p.m., EDT,  braking maneuver initiated their descent. Their TMA-06M Soyuz capsule touched down at 11:11 p.m., EDT, or on March 16 at 9:11 a.m., Kazakh time, ending a 144-day flight that established new research milestones for the ISS.

 

Astronaut, cosmonauts safely return to Earth

 

Todd Halvorson - Florida Today

 

An American and two Russians made a safe return to Earth from the International Space Station late Friday, flying a Soyuz spacecraft into fog for a day-late, weather-delayed landing in Kazakhstan. With Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitzskiy at the controls, the Soyuz departed the space station at 7:43 p.m. EDT and backed off to a point 7.5 miles away. Also onboard: U.S. astronaut Kevin Ford and cosmonaut Evgeny Tarelkin.

 

3 astronauts return to Earth from space station

 

Lynn Berry - Associated Press

 

A Soyuz space capsule carrying an American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts landed Saturday morning on the foggy steppes of Kazakhstan, safely returning the three men to Earth after a 144-day mission to the International Space Station. NASA's Kevin Ford and Russians Oleg Novitsky and Yevgeny Tarelkin had been scheduled to return on Friday, but the landing was postponed by a day because of bad weather.

 

Space trio lands in Kazakhstan after bad weather delay

 

Dmitry Solovyov - Reuters

 

A Russian Soyuz capsule made a "bull's eye" landing in the steppes of Kazakhstan on Saturday, delivering a Russian-American trio from the International Space Station, a day after its originally scheduled touchdown was delayed by foul weather. NASA's Kevin Ford and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin, who had manned the $100 billion orbital outpost since October as Expedition 34, landed in cloudy weather at 7:06 a.m. Moscow time (0306 GMT) northeast of the town of Arkalyk.

 

ISS Crew Lands Safely in Kazakhstan

 

RIA Novosti

 

The Soyuz TMA-06M manned spacecraft touched down on Saturday ending its three-and-a-half hour voyage to bring three International Space Station (ISS) crew members to Earth after 142 days in orbit. The Soyuz spacecraft, carrying Expedition 34 members - Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky, Yevgeny Tarelkin, and NASA astronaut Kevin Ford - landed at 7:06 a.m. Moscow time (3:06 a.m. GMT) 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the town of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, according to Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency Rosaviatsia.

 

Soyuz Space Capsule Makes Foggy Landing with US-Russian Crew

 

Miriam Kramer - Space.com

 

A Soyuz spacecraft has safely landed on the frigid steppes of Kazakhstan, returning an American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts to Earth after a nearly five-month mission to the International Space Station. The Soyuz space capsule touched down at about 11:11 p.m. EDT (0311 March 16 GMT) on Friday, though it was early Saturday local time at the landing site. The spacecraft returned NASA astronaut Kevin Ford and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin home after 142 days in space. The trio was greeted by freezing temperatures after exiting the spacecraft.

 

Touchdown in icy Kazakhstan for International Space Station astronauts was 'energetic and exciting'

 

Jacqui Goddard - London Telegraph

 

After 144 days in space, orbiting the earth 2,304 times and travelling almost 61 million miles, a change of clothes was always going to be a welcome move for the returning crew of the International Space Station's Expedition 34. Even so, a traditional Kazakh felt hat and coat was possibly just not quite what US astronaut Kevin Ford, 52, had in mind after he and his Russian crewmates landed in the sub-zero temperatures of the Kazakh steppes on Saturday. A raging ice storm had delayed the crew's scheduled touchdown by 24 hours.

 

Sara Brightman's space trip under question – Roscosmos

 

RIA Novosti

 

Russia's space agency Roscosmos and NASA may opt against sending music star Sarah Brightman to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2015, Russian agency's head Vladimir Popovkin said on Saturday. Brightman's trip to orbit depends on the duration of the 2015 visiting flight to the ISS, Popovkin told journalists.

 

ISS commander is a station sensation

Hadfield shares space trek on social media

 

Todd Halvorson – Florida Today

 

He's a social media superstar with a half-million people following his voyage aboard the International Space Station, a renaissance man who is raising space exploration to an art form. Military pilot. Mechanical engineer. Aquanaut. Astronaut. Retired Canadian Air Force Col. Chris Hadfield also is a guitarist who fronts for two bands, and a lyrical poet whose striking images of Earth from space are wildly popular in the Twittersphere. Hadfield is one of those rare engineers whose eloquence matches mechanical aptitude. On Wednesday, he became the first Canadian commander of the ISS, and for hundreds of thousands of people, he's making space exploration wondrous once again.

 

Astronaut celebrates St. Patrick's Day in space

 

Tariq Malik - Space.com

 

You don't need gravity to have a great St. Patrick's Day, just ask astronaut Chris Hadfield on the International Space Station. Hadfield, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut, is celebrating the Irish holiday in orbit by wearing a green shirt and a bright green bow tie Sunday while photographing Ireland from space.

 

Orbital Sets Mid-April Date for Antares Maiden Launch

 

Space News

 

The maiden flight of Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Antares cargo rocket is targeted for mid-April, a company spokesman said. Antares' official launch date is "[n]o earlier than April 16, with a targeted date range of April 16-18," Orbital spokesman Barron Beneski wrote in a March 15 email. Foul weather the week of March 4 helped push Antares' debut from early to mid-April, Beneski said. An Antares core stage was test fired Feb. 22 at the company's Wallops Island, Va., launch pad. Orbital needs to complete post-test inspections before clearing the pad to receive the flight-ready Antares.

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First launch of Antares rocket set for April

 

Stephen Clark - SpaceflightNow.com

 

Officials have set April 16 as the earliest possible launch date for the first launch of the privately-developed Antares rocket from Wallops Island, Va. Orbital Sciences Corp., operator of the two-stage Antares launcher, announced the target launch date Friday, officially aiming for a three-day period from April 16 to April 18. The launch time will be 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT) from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, a facility owned by the governments of Virginia and Maryland. The spaceport lies on the property of NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia's Eastern Shore.

 

Space threats double feature in Congress this week

 

Jeff Foust - SpacePolitics.com

 

The House Science Committee has rescheduled the hearing on "Threats from Space: A Review of U.S. Government Efforts to Track and Mitigate Asteroids and Meteors, Part 1" for Tuesday, March 19, at 10 am. The hearing was planned for March 6 but postponed because of a threatened snowstorm that, as it turned out, failed to drop significant snow on Washington. The Senate Commerce Committee's space subcommittee is following suit with a hearing of its own on the topic of "space threats" at 10 am on Wednesday, March 20, titled "Assessing the Risks, Impacts, and Solutions for Space Threats".

 

The tragic story of the Challenger Space Shuttle is told in a gripping drama

It was one of those momentous public events almost too awful to contemplate

 

Vicki Power - London Express

 

When the NASA space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after take-off on January 28, 1986, the world looked on aghast at the footage of the rocket as it exploded in mid-air. Figuring out what caused this catastrophe was the job of the Rogers Commission, a group of 12 experts convened by President Ronald Reagan immediately after the disaster. In a casting coup for the BBC, Oscar-winning actor William Hurt agreed to take on the lead role of Richard Feynman, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist who was pivotal in finding out what went wrong. The Challenger, Monday, 9 pm, BBC2.

 

Taxpayers sour on space during the budget crisis

 

John Kelly - Florida Today (Commentary)

 

If the American people were asked to cut spending to solve today's budget crisis, it could be bad news for the space exploration program. A newly released survey, measuring what programs Americans would spend more on and what programs they would spend less on, ranks space near the very bottom.

 

NASA rockets into social space, but lacks a clear mission

Aspiring to awe in the age of the selfie

 

Adrianne Jeffries - TheVerge.com

 

It was dark and chilly in Austin on Sunday, March 10th, the night that NASA planned to break the Guinness World Record for "largest outdoor astronomy lesson." The cold front had cleared the clouds, leaving the stars bright and stark in the sky, and the 526 space geeks in NASA ball caps and T-shirts didn't mind the temperature – they were happy to participate, even though the talk was just a basic demonstration on light and color. Some even lugged their own telescopes. At 8:35PM, Dr. Frank Summers, the master of ceremonies and a Hubble astrophysicist, stopped abruptly to make an announcement. "Those of you with smartphones," he said, with a triumphant pause, "You can tweet that we have just finished the world's largest outdoor astronomy lesson!" The world record attempt was just one hour out of NASA's multi-day programming at South by Southwest Interactive, the infamous digital conference. Twitter hit its tipping point here, the legend goes, and so many big brands have started to make the trek. This is NASA's first year among them, part of a larger effort to cultivate a "hipper, more accessible" image and reach new audiences. But it may be missing the mark on both counts. NASA's social strategy draws some people in, but there are signs that things need to change — much like NASA itself.

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COMPLETE STORIES

 

Soyuz lands in Kazakhstan

 

William Harwood - CBS News

 

Running a day late because of freezing rain and low clouds in Kazakhstan, three space station crewmen strapped into their Soyuz ferry craft and dropped out of orbit Friday, plunging to a jarring touchdown on the fog-shrouded Kazakh steppe to close out a 144-day mission.

 

Low clouds and fog reduced visibility as the descent began and Russian helicopters carrying recovery crews were not able to immediately reach the landing site.

 

But Russian mission managers reported the Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft safely touched down as planned around 11:10 p.m. EDT (GMT-4; 9:10 a.m. Saturday local time). A few minutes later, commander Oleg Novitskiy reported the crew was in good shape as they awaited ground crews.

 

A reduced Russian recovery team finally reached the Soyuz spacecraft about a half hour after landing. Television views showed the team helping Novitskiy, flight engineer Evgeny Tarelkin and outgoing station commander Kevin Ford out of the cramped crew module as they begin their initial re-adaptation to gravity after nearly five months in weightlessness.

 

Carried to nearby recliners, all three appeared relaxed and in good spirits, smiling and chatting with flight surgeons.

 

The trio blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Oct. 23. With landing Friday, Novitskiy and Tarelkin had logged 144 days off planet during their first spaceflight, a voyage covering nearly 61 million miles over 2,304 orbits.

 

Ford's time aloft now stands at 158 days, including two weeks aboard the shuttle Discovery in 2009.

 

Flight surgeons carried out initial medical checks at the landing site before the crew members were carried to helicopters for an expedited flight to either Arkalyk or Kostanai, depending on the weather. A NASA jet was standing by in Kostanai to carry Ford back to Houston. Novitskiy and Tarelkin planned to head for Star City near Moscow for rehabilitation and debriefing.

 

With the departure of the Soyuz TMA-06M crew, the International Space Station  will be in the hands of Expedition 35 commander Chris Hadfield and his crewmates, cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and Thomas Marshburn, a NASA shuttle veteran. Hadfield, a veteran of two space shuttle flights, took over from Ford to become the first Canadian astronaut to command a spacecraft.

 

Hadfield, Marshburn and Romanenko will have the space station to themselves until March 28 when three fresh crew members -- Soyuz TMA-08M commander Pavel Vinogradov, flight engineer Alexander Misurkin and Chris Cassidy -- blast off from Baikonur.

 

In a departure from past practice, the crew is expected to carry out an abbreviated four-orbit rendezvous, docking with the station about five hours and 48 minutes after launch. All past Soyuz flights to the space station followed two-day rendezvous plans.

 

For the Soyuz TMA-06M crew, undocking and re-entry went off without a hitch, one day after freezing rain and low clouds at the landing site Thursday prevented recovery crews from reaching their staging areas.

 

The weather improved overnight, but as dawn approached fog and low clouds blanketed the area. Despite limited visibility, mission managers cleared Novitskiy and his crewmates to undock from the space station's upper Poisk module at 7:43 p.m. as the two spacecraft sailed 250 miles above northeastern Mongolia.

 

Moving to a point about 7.5 miles from the outpost, Novitskiy and Tarelkin executed a four-minute 44-second deorbit rocket firing starting at 10:13 p.m., slowing the ship by about 286 mph to begin the long fall back to Earth.

 

The three modules making up the Soyuz spacecraft separated around 10:40 p.m. and the central crew module plunged back into the discernible atmosphere less than three minutes later at an altitude of about 64 miles.

 

Using atmospheric friction to slow down from orbital velocity, the crew module's fiery descent went smoothly and the craft's main parachute deployed on time at an altitude of just under 7 miles to lower the capsule to the ground.

 

U.S., Russian Space Station Crew Descends to Earth, Leaving First Canadian in Command

 

Mark Carreau – Aviation Week

 

Veteran astronaut Chris Hadfield formally assumed command of the International Space Station late Friday, the first Canadian to shoulder responsibility for the 15 nation orbiting laboratory, as three U. S. and Russian colleagues departed for a weather delayed parachute descent into northern Kazakhstan aboard their Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft.

 

Previous Expedition 34 station commander Kevin Ford, of NASA, Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin undocked from the space station at 7:43 p.m., EDT, orbiting the Earth in their Soyuz capsule until a 10:13 p.m., EDT,  braking maneuver initiated their descent. Their TMA-06M Soyuz capsule touched down at 11:11 p.m., EDT, or on March 16 at 9:11 a.m., Kazakh time, ending a 144-day flight that established new research milestones for the ISS.

 

Plans for a March 14 descent were postponed by wintry conditions in the northern Kazkh landing zone that prevented staging of Russian helicopters with recovery forces. Conditions improved Friday, though frigid temperatures and a building cloud and fog mass returned, restricting visibility for the recovery teams.

 

Hadfield, a 53-year-old three flight veteran and retired Canadian Air Force colonel, will remain in charge of Expedition 35 through mid-May, when he descends to Earth with crew mates Tom Marshburn, of NASA, and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko.

 

Hadfield joins the European Space Agency's Frank De Winne, of Belgium as the only non-American and non Russian to command the six person orbiting science laboratory.

 

"It will be fantastic for the whole program, as a community, to have him as the commander," said Ford, Expedition 34 commander, in a brief ceremony on Wednesday marking the transition of supervision to Hadfield. "He's well deserving of the honor."

 

The formal transition of command awaited the actual departure of the Soyuz TMA-06M.

 

"The space station is humming with hundreds of experments. It's  a very healthy  space ship because of the work you all put in," said Hadfield, the new Expedition 35 skipper. "It's a huge honor and privelege not only for me but also for all the the people at the Canadian Space Agency and my entire country."

 

Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin were joined quickly at their landing site northeast of Arkalyk by helicopter born Russian recovery forces with NASA flight surgeons. The three men were helped from their capsule and flown by helicopter to Kostanay following post landing medical checks. Ford was to board a NASA jet for the Johnson Space Center in Houston, while Novitskiy and Tarelkin were flown to their training center at Star City, Russia.

 

Ford's crew became the station's most prolific at scientific research and technology demonstrations since U. S. segment assembly drew to a close in mid-2011, carrying out, participating in or monitoring 166 experiments in the U. S. segment, another 30 to 35 in the Russian wing. The astronauts pushed the average of 30 to 35 hours per week of science activity to records of 63, 68 and 71 hours as their mission came to an end.

 

"This shows how the station program is maturing," said NASA's Chris Edelin, who served at lead flight director for Expedition 34.

 

"We have gone from a focus on assembly and operaton to utilization. We are learning how to more effectively and efficiently operate the station system to free up more time for research."

 

Hadfield, Marshburn and Romanenko are scheduled to be joined on March 28 by NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin. Their Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft will be the first crewed vessel  to attempt a same day launch and docking with the space station. Docking is scheduled for 10:31 p.m.,  EDT, or six hours and four orbits after lifting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The journey typically spans two days and 34 orbits.

 

Meanwhile, Hadfield and Marshburn will handle the dispatching of the unpiloted SpaceX  Dragon cargo re-supply craft that Ford and Marshburn berthed on March 3. The Dragon departure and Pacific Ocean recovery are set for March 25.

 

Astronaut, cosmonauts safely return to Earth

 

Todd Halvorson - Florida Today

 

An American and two Russians made a safe return to Earth from the International Space Station late Friday, flying a Soyuz spacecraft into fog for a day-late, weather-delayed landing in Kazakhstan.

 

With Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitzskiy at the controls, the Soyuz departed the space station at 7:43 p.m. EDT and backed off to a point 7.5 miles away. Also onboard: U.S. astronaut Kevin Ford and cosmonaut Evgeny Tarelkin.

 

Fog and frozen rain prevented a planned landing Thursday. Ideal conditions prevail most of the day Friday, but an hour before the 11:05 p.m. EDT return, thick clouds and fog rolled into the landing zone north of Arkalyk again.

 

Some Russian search and rescue helicopters were unable to make it to the landing area and were recalled to Arakalyk or the central Asian city of Kustanai.

 

The spacecraft blazed through the atmosphere – its heat shield protecting the crew protected from temperatures of about 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit -- as some rescuers rushed to the landing zone in all-terrain vehicles.

 

Winds were relatively light – about seven miles per hour. Temperatures will be extremely cold: 15 degrees Fahrenheit with a wind chill factor of four degrees Fahrenheit.

 

But in the end, the Soyuz spacecraft landed safely. Recovery forces descended on the crew capsule and began work to extract the returning space explorers.

 

The landing took place at 9:05 a.m. Saturday local time in Kazakhstan, or about one-hour and 23 minutes after sunrise there.

 

Outgoing station skipper Ford and his two cosmonaut colleagues blasted off at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Oct. 23. They arrived at the space station on Oct. 25.

 

They lived and worked aboard the complex for 142 days, and chalked up 144 days in space on the 34th expedition to the station, which has been continuously staffed since a first crew boarded in November 2000.

 

Still onboard the station: Chris Hadfield, the first Canadian to command the station, U.S. astronaut Tom Marshburn and second-generation cosmonaut Roman Romanenko. His father, Yuri Romanenko, tallied 430 days in space during his career as a cosmonaut.

 

An American and two Russians are scheduled to blast off for the station on March 28, making the first single-day trip to the complex. Normally it takes two days to reach the outpost, but Russian flight controllers have developed new trajectories that will make single-day trips a reality.

 

The crew coming up includes U.S. astronaut Chris Cassidy, veteran cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov, and first-time space flier Alexander Misurkin.

 

Cassidy, who served as a mission specialist on a 2009 shuttle mission to the station, is only the second former Navy SEAL to fly in space. The first, William Shepherd, was the commander of the first expedition to the international outpost.

 

3 astronauts return to Earth from space station

 

Lynn Berry - Associated Press

 

A Soyuz space capsule carrying an American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts landed Saturday morning on the foggy steppes of Kazakhstan, safely returning the three men to Earth after a 144-day mission to the International Space Station.

 

NASA's Kevin Ford and Russians Oleg Novitsky and Yevgeny Tarelkin had been scheduled to return on Friday, but the landing was postponed by a day because of bad weather.

 

Live footage on NASA TV showed all three men smiling as they were helped out of the capsule and into reclining chairs to begin their acclimatization to Earth's gravity after nearly five months in space.

 

A NASA TV commentator said only two of 12 search and rescue helicopters were allowed to land at the touchdown site because of heavy clouds and fog. So instead of being placed in an inflatable medical tent for checks, the astronauts were taken fairly quickly to one of the helicopters. The temperature at the time was well below freezing.

 

The crew was then flown to Kostanai, the staging site in Kazakhstan, where they posed for more photographs. Ford put on a traditional felt Kazakh hat and draped a matching coat over his flight suit, while holding up a matryoshka nesting doll of himself — all souvenirs of the mission that began and ended in the Central Asian country.

 

The three men blasted off on Oct. 23 from the Baikonur cosmodrome, which Russia leases from Kazakhstan.

 

Vladimir Popovkin, the head of the Russian space agency, described the crew as "giving off good vibes, that they are a united and friendly team," the Interfax news agency reported.

 

Space officials said Ford would be flown to Houston, while the Russians would return to the space training facility outside Moscow.

 

Their return voyage to Earth began with the Russian-made capsule undocking from the space station at 5:43 a.m. local time (6:43 p.m. Friday Central time) and beginning its slow drift away. The craft made a "flawless entry" back into the Earth's atmosphere, descended through heavy cloud cover and landed perfectly in an upright position at around 9:10 a.m. (10:10 p.m. CDT), the NASA commentator said.

 

Three other astronauts — from Russia, the U.S. and Canada — remain at the space station. The next three-man crew — two Russians and an American — is scheduled to launch from the Baikonur cosmodrome on March 29.

 

Space trio lands in Kazakhstan after bad weather delay

 

Dmitry Solovyov - Reuters

 

A Russian Soyuz capsule made a "bull's eye" landing in the steppes of Kazakhstan on Saturday, delivering a Russian-American trio from the International Space Station, a day after its originally scheduled touchdown was delayed by foul weather.

 

NASA's Kevin Ford and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin, who had manned the $100 billion orbital outpost since October as Expedition 34, landed in cloudy weather at 7:06 a.m. Moscow time (0306 GMT) northeast of the town of Arkalyk.

 

They had spent 144 days aboard the multinational ISS on their space journey of almost 61 million miles (98 million km).

 

"The landing was energetic and exciting," Russian TV showed Novitskiy as saying.

 

NASA television said the deorbit burn and other events during the descent had gone flawlessly. It said the capsule had landed upright, almost hitting its bull's eye target in thick fog.

 

"Oleg Novitskiy reported to search and recovery teams that the crew is feeling good," NASA television said. "Everything seems to be in order."

 

Due to hampered visibility, it took a few minutes before helicopters with Russian search and recovery teams could locate the Soyuz capsule after its landing.

 

The first images shown by Russia's Vesti-24 television featured rescue workers standing in a snow-covered steppe opening the hatch of the capsule.

 

The three smiling astronauts were seated on semi-reclined chairs and covered with blue thermal blankets. They were then carried to a nearby inflatable medical tent.

 

On Friday, fog and freezing rain at the landing site in Kazakhstan prevented helicopters from setting up for the crew's return to Earth.

 

In preparation for their departure, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield took the helm of the space station on Wednesday, becoming the first Canadian to take command of the outpost.

 

It is only the second time in the 12-year history of the station, a project of 15 nations that has been permanently staffed since November 2000, that command has been turned over to someone who is not American or Russian.

 

Hadfield will be part of a three-man skeleton crew until NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin arrive later this month.

 

ISS Crew Lands Safely in Kazakhstan

 

RIA Novosti

 

The Soyuz TMA-06M manned spacecraft touched down on Saturday ending its three-and-a-half hour voyage to bring three International Space Station (ISS) crew members to Earth after 142 days in orbit.

 

The Soyuz spacecraft, carrying Expedition 34 members - Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky, Yevgeny Tarelkin, and NASA astronaut Kevin Ford - landed at 7:06 a.m. Moscow time (3:06 a.m. GMT) 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the town of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, according to Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency Rosaviatsia.

 

Three planes, 14 Mi-8 helicopters and seven rescue vehicles were involved in a quick search for the landing capsule.

 

Preliminary reports indicate that the landing was safe and the crew is in a good shape.

 

Bad weather conditions forced the Russian space agency Roscosmos to postpone the Soyuz undocking and landing by one day.

 

Novitsky, Tarelkin and Ford arrived at the ISS in October 2012.

 

Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, and US astronaut Thomas Marshburn remain on board the orbital station. Hadfield took over command of the ISS from Ford on Wednesday.

 

In late March, three members of Expedition 35 - Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov, Alexander Misurkin and NASA astronaut Christopher Cassidy - are expected to arrive at the ISS on board a Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft.

 

Soyuz Space Capsule Makes Foggy Landing with US-Russian Crew

 

Miriam Kramer - Space.com

 

A Soyuz spacecraft has safely landed on the frigid steppes of Kazakhstan, returning an American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts to Earth after a nearly five-month mission to the International Space Station.

 

The Soyuz space capsule touched down at about 11:11 p.m. EDT (0311 March 16 GMT) on Friday, though it was early Saturday local time at the landing site. The spacecraft returned NASA astronaut Kevin Ford and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin home after 142 days in space. The trio was greeted by freezing temperatures after exiting the spacecraft.

 

"They've landed. Expedition 34 is back on Earth," NASA spokesperson Rob Navias said during live commentary.

 

Originally, the international crew was set to depart from the laboratory on Thursday (March 14), but freezing rain and foggy weather on the ground prevented them from returning home. Weather conditions improved today, leading to a smooth undocking, however a bank of clouds greatly hampered visibility in the landing zone. The foggy conditions caused some last-minute alterations to the original search plan after landing, however, the Soyuz crew was still recovered successfully.

 

View full size imageDuring their almost five month stay on board the station, the two cosmonauts and the astronaut orbited the Earth 2,304 times, travelling nearly 61 million miles (98,169,984 kilometers). This was Novitskiy and Tarelkin's first trip to space, the second for Ford.

 

The three crewmembers were on board to see the docking of the unmanned Dragon capsule — owned and operated by private spaceflight firm SpaceX — at the beginning of March. A month before, the crew participated in the docking and undocking of another supply capsule, the Progress 50.

 

Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin leave three other international crewmembers on board the space station. Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn remained on board the station after saying goodbye to the three spaceflyers that boarded the space capsule earlier today.

 

Hadfield, Romanenko and Marshburn will not be the sole residents of the station for long. Cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov, Alexander Misurkin and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy are expected to arrive at the station on the same day of their launch from Earth on March 28.

 

If all goes as planned, it will mark the first time a Soyuz capsule has delivered a station crew to the International Space Station in one day. Russia's Federal Space Agency has proven the one-day flight profile during unmanned Progress cargo ship deliveries to the space station.

 

NASA has relied on Russia's Soyuz crafts to transport astronauts to and from low-Earth orbit since the retirement of the agency's shuttle program in 2011. NASA officials hope to eventually depend on privately built, unmanned and crewed spacecraft to bring people and cargo to and from the space station.

 

The $100 billion laboratory was built by space agencies representing Japan, Canada, the United States and Russia. International crews of astronauts have continually occupied the station since 2000.

 

Touchdown in icy Kazakhstan for International Space Station astronauts was 'energetic and exciting'

 

Jacqui Goddard - London Telegraph

 

After 144 days in space, orbiting the earth 2,304 times and travelling almost 61 million miles, a change of clothes was always going to be a welcome move for the returning crew of the International Space Station's Expedition 34.

 

Even so, a traditional Kazakh felt hat and coat was possibly just not quite what US astronaut Kevin Ford, 52, had in mind after he and his Russian crewmates landed in the sub-zero temperatures of the Kazakh steppes on Saturday. A raging ice storm had delayed the crew's scheduled touchdown by 24 hours.

 

The retired US Air Force colonel, along with Evgeny Tarelkin, 38, and Oleg Novitskiy, 41, made a fiery re-entry through Earth's atmosphere squeezed into a Soyuz capsule, which reached its target north of the city of Arkalyk "like a bullseye", said Nasa, despite thick fog, snow, freezing rain and near-zero visibility in wintry Kazakhstan.

 

Two of the 12 search-and-rescue helicopters sent to locate and retrieve them were unable to land due to the extreme conditions.

 

"The landing was energetic and exciting," said Lt Col Novitskiy, the commander of the Soyuz. "The crew were feeling good."

 

The team were carried to helicopters on semi-reclined chairs, a measure adopted to help them adjust to Earth's gravity after four months in near-weightless conditions.

 

Since the retirement of Nasa's shuttle fleet in 2011, all space station crew members have travelled to and from the $100 billion laboratory, orbiting 220 miles above Earth, aboard Soyuz vehicles built and operated by the US space agency's Russian equivalent, Roscosmos.

 

America pays its former Cold War foe up to $45 million per astronaut for each round trip - an expense that it hopes ultimately to eliminate with the introduction of commercial space taxis now are under development by US firms including SpaceX, owned by the Paypal and Tesla Motors tycoon Elon Musk.

 

Cdr Ford's crew were involved in nearly 200 scientific research and technology projects aboard the ISS - more than any crew since the laboratory's construction was completed in mid-2011.

 

A new three-strong crew will take their place on the ISS later this month, joining the remaining two astronauts - from Canada and the US - and one cosmonaut currently on board. "Seems a quite station with just us three," tweeted Nasa astronaut Thomas Marshburn, 52.

 

Sara Brightman's space trip under question – Roscosmos

 

RIA Novosti

 

Russia's space agency Roscosmos and NASA may opt against sending music star Sarah Brightman to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2015, Russian agency's head Vladimir Popovkin said on Saturday.

 

Brightman's trip to orbit depends on the duration of the 2015 visiting flight to the ISS, Popovkin told journalists.

 

The British soprano was set to go on an eight-day trip to the station, but NASA and Roskosmos are considering extending the visiting flight to one month, in which case she would have to give up her seat to a professional spaceman, Popovkin said.

 

"If it's a monthly shift, then it will be staff cosmonauts and astronauts who will be performing some short-term scientific research," the official said.

 

Popovkin did not say when the decision will be made or whether Brightman's flight could be rescheduled for a later date. Neither did he name Brightman's potential replacement, saying only that the candidate will be fielded by the European Space Agency.

 

Sara Brightman, 52, UNESCO Artist for Peace ambassador and the world's best-selling soprano singer with 30 million CDs sold, announced her plans to go into space in August 2012.

 

In case she makes it to the ISS, the superstar of classical crossover would become the world's eighth space tourist. The first was US entrepreneur Dennis Tito in 2011, and the last, so far, is Cirque du Soleil co-founder Guy Laliberte, who paid $40 million to spend 12 days at the station in 2009.

 

Two ISS crew members who would arrive to the ISS in 2015 will stay in orbit for a year, up from a mission's current standard duration of six months. This would not be enough, however, to beat the current record of longest uninterrupted stay in orbit, held by Russian Valery Polyakov who spend 439 days in space in 1994-1995.

 

ISS commander is a station sensation

Hadfield shares space trek on social media

 

Todd Halvorson – Florida Today

 

He's a social media superstar with a half-million people following his voyage aboard the International Space Station, a renaissance man who is raising space exploration to an art form.

 

Military pilot. Mechanical engineer. Aquanaut. Astronaut. Retired Canadian Air Force Col. Chris Hadfield also is a guitarist who fronts for two bands, and a lyrical poet whose striking images of Earth from space are wildly popular in the Twittersphere.

 

Hadfield is one of those rare engineers whose eloquence matches mechanical aptitude. On Wednesday, he became the first Canadian commander of the ISS, and for hundreds of thousands of people, he's making space exploration wondrous once again.

 

"If you don't know who Chris Hadfield is by now, especially if you are Canadian, then you've probably been studying in a monastery somewhere, cut off from the rest of the world," Canadian artist Patrick Lamontagne said in a blog post.

 

Hadfield's daily tweets and a space-to-ground national television performance with Canadian alternative rock band Barenaked Ladies inspired a Lamontagne portrait of the astronaut.

 

"I'm 42 and often kind of cynical about our species," Lamontagne said. "But when I see the images and video being sent back from the ISS each day, I feel like a 10-year-old kid again, excited about the possibilities."

 

A native of Ontario who is married to his high school sweetheart, Hadfield launched to the station in December with U.S. astronaut Tom Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko. Two days later, they joined U.S. astronaut Kevin Ford and two Russian cosmonauts — Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin — on the outpost.

 

Outgoing station skipper Ford handed the helm to Hadfield during a change-of-command ceremony on Wednesday. Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin were set to return to Earth late Friday.

 

Hadfield, 53, now is in charge of the daily operation of the station, which spans an area in space as large as an American football field. He also is conducting science experiments, and he might already hold the world record for outreach, for sharing his spaceflight experience with the Earthbound.

 

Follow Hadfield on Twitter and instantly you are in a community of 500,000 people. A prolific tweeter, Hadfield posts awe-inspiring images of Earthly features along with captions that are quite lyrical.

 

"The sea playing with the sand, in Pakistan."

 

"A fan of sand in Oman. From space you can see which way the Omani wind blows."

 

Follow him on SoundCloud and listen to ambient noise on the outpost. Hear the industrial hum of whirling air-circulation fans; the rhythmic pulsing of an exercise machine; the scaled, upward pitch during start-up of the station's toilet.

 

Or listen to "Jewel In The Night," the first musical recording from the International Space Station. Hadfield converted the station's cupola into a recording studio to deliver the Christmas ballad.

 

Or you can see what station life is like on Hadfield's YouTube channel. Watch how to slap together a peanut butter and honey sandwich. Or how a Guitar Hero in outer space trims his nails. Or how astronauts wash their hands, or clean up messes, in zero G.

 

There's also video of the space-to-ground network television premiere of "I.S.S. (Is Somebody Singing)", a song written and produced by Hadfield and Ed Robertson of Barenaked Ladies.

 

"He's just a really cool dude," Robertson wrote in a blog post. "He's technically proficient and unfathomably knowledgeable, and yet he comes across as the folksy guy who works at the marina, so we stayed in touch."

 

Simply said, Hadfield is embracing the opportunity to share the wonders of human space exploration, and social media is enabling him to reach people quickly. "The favorite pastime of astronauts is looking at the world out the window. It is so fundamentally beautiful and mesmerizing, and now, I can directly, as I see beautiful things, send those pictures to the ground," Hadfield said. "And you can see the reaction. It has captured the eyes, and therefore the minds and imaginations, of so many people."

 

Some 500,000 and counting on Twitter alone.

 

"What we're doing on space station is fundamentally fascinating, and I think the evidence shows in a measure like Twitter," he said. "I think it's just a direct measure of how important and useful this is in the human experience."

 

Astronaut celebrates St. Patrick's Day in space

 

Tariq Malik - Space.com

 

You don't need gravity to have a great St. Patrick's Day, just ask astronaut Chris Hadfield on the International Space Station.

 

Hadfield, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut, is celebrating the Irish holiday in orbit by wearing a green shirt and a bright green bow tie Sunday while photographing Ireland from space.

 

"Maidin mhaith from the International Space Station! Happy Saint Patrick's Day to the Irish all around the globe. Good morning!" Hadfield wrote in one of several Irish-themed Twitter posts today. Maidin mhaith is Gaelic for "Good Morning."

 

Hadfield also snapped a photo of Tralee, Ireland, as the space station passed over the region this morning and even recorded a cosmic version of the traditional Irish song "Danny Boy." Tralee was the first patch of green land Hadfield saw as the space station soared over the Atlantic Ocean today.

 

 

"Danny Boy strikes home with me now more than ever. I've recorded a version for today in orbit," Hadfield wrote. He posted his version of Danny Boy on the Soundcloud.com audio website.

 

Hadfield is an accomplished guitarist and is the first astronaut to record an original song in space. Last month, he was one of several astronauts to perform with the Irish band The Chieftains during a Feb. 15 concert in Houston. NASA astronauts Cady Coleman and Dan Burbank joined the Chieftains live on stage during the concert, with Hadfield prerecording his portion for the show.

 

Coleman also performed with the Chieftains from space during a mission to the International Space Station that ran from December 2010 to May 2011. She took five different flutes to the space station and also performed an Irish song in space for St. Patrick's Day.

 

Hadfield commands the Expedition 35 mission on the International Space Station and took charge the orbiting lab last week when the previous Expedition 34 crew returned to Earth. He is the first Canadian ever to command the space station.

 

The space station's Expedition 35 crew consists of Hadfield, NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko. The three men launched to the space station in December and are due to return to Earth in May.

 

Hadfield and his crew will welcome three more crewmembers on March 28, bringing the space station back up to its full six-person crew size.

 

First launch of Antares rocket set for April

 

Stephen Clark - SpaceflightNow.com

 

Officials have set April 16 as the earliest possible launch date for the first launch of the privately-developed Antares rocket from Wallops Island, Va.

 

Orbital Sciences Corp., operator of the two-stage Antares launcher, announced the target launch date Friday, officially aiming for a three-day period from April 16 to April 18.

 

The launch time will be 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT) from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, a facility owned by the governments of Virginia and Maryland. The spaceport lies on the property of NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia's Eastern Shore.

 

The launch is a demonstration mission for Orbital Sciences, which designed the Antares booster to launch supplies to the International Space Station.

 

Orbital has a $1.9 billion contract with NASA for eight cargo deliveries to the complex with the Antares rocket and the Cygnus resupply freighter.

 

The 133-foot-tall rocket will launch southeast from Wallops with an instrumented dummy payload mimicking the mass characteristics of the Cygnus spacecraft.

 

Powered by a dual-engine first stage and a solid-fueled second stage, the Antares rocket will reach orbit in about 8 minutes.

 

Space threats double feature in Congress this week

 

Jeff Foust - SpacePolitics.com

 

The House Science Committee has rescheduled the hearing on "Threats from Space: A Review of U.S. Government Efforts to Track and Mitigate Asteroids and Meteors, Part 1" for Tuesday, March 19, at 10 am. The hearing was planned for March 6 but postponed because of a threatened snowstorm that, as it turned out, failed to drop significant snow on Washington.

 

The same roster of witnesses as originally announced—Office of Science and Technology Policy director John Holdren, Air Force Space Command commander Gen. William Shelton, and NASA administrator Charles Bolden—will testify on Tuesday.

 

The Senate Commerce Committee's space subcommittee is following suit with a hearing of its own on the topic of "space threats" at 10 am on Wednesday, March 20, titled "Assessing the Risks, Impacts, and Solutions for Space Threats".

 

This hearing features a different set of witnesses, including Jim Green, head of NASA's planetary sciences division; Ed Lu, chairman and CEO of the B612 Foundation; Richard DalBello, vice president of Intelsat General; and Joan Johnson-Freese, professor of national security affairs at the Naval War College.

 

The tragic story of the Challenger Space Shuttle is told in a gripping drama

It was one of those momentous public events almost too awful to contemplate

 

Vicki Power - London Express

 

When the NASA space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after take-off on January 28, 1986, the world looked on aghast at the footage of the rocket as it exploded in mid-air.

 

All seven crew members died, including Christa McAulife, a 37-year-old teacher who was intended to be the frst US civilian in space.

 

Figuring out what caused this catastrophe was the job of the Rogers Commission, a group of 12 experts convened by President Ronald Reagan immediately after the disaster.

 

The work - to analyse the millions of shuttle components to come up with a reason for mission failure - is dramatised in this week's one-off BBC2 drama, The Challenger.

 

In a casting coup for the BBC, Oscar-winning actor William Hurt agreed to take on the lead role of Richard Feynman, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist who was pivotal in finding out what went wrong.

 

Hurt, the 62-year-old star of movies such as Kiss Of The Spider Woman, Body Heat, The Accidental Tourist and more recently the TV series Damages, took the job because he's a qualifed pilot whose interests extend to science and space travel as well.

 

"I was 19 when we landed on the moon," says William. "I remember watching it backstage at a theatre in Michigan. So everything about NASA, I lived and breathed right through Challenger.

 

"Just to raise two million pounds of rocket off that platform and accelerate to those speeds is incredible. Anybody who knows about this stuff is in awe of the complexity of it."

 

Physicist Feynman had worked alongside astronauts Neil Armstrong and Sally Ride and eight others to try to discern the cause of the tragedy.

 

But The Challenger dramatises how Feynman, working independently, figured out what had gone wrong. He discovered that the disaster was caused by the failure of a rocket component called an O-ring. Made of a rubber-like material, it cracked due to the low temperatures on launch day in Florida.

 

"Feynman was an amazing guy," says William. "He happened to be a genius, but he knew it didn't make him better than anybody. He deserves a movie of his own, about the nature of his lifelong audacious courage and visionary ability."

 

Science is a subject that clearly gets William fired up. "I read science fiction avidly when I was young. I knew it wasn't fiction," says William, alluding to the fact that many developments mentioned in science fiction have now been realised.

 

Despite the Challenger disaster, space travel has forged ahead, with setbacks but many triumphs. "Hope does spring eternal," says William. "Now we've got a machine taking a look at Mars. The Challenger disaster hasn't stopped us. This is such an exciting time to be alive."

 

The Challenger, Monday, 9 pm, BBC2.

 

Taxpayers sour on space during the budget crisis

 

John Kelly - Florida Today (Commentary)

 

If the American people were asked to cut spending to solve today's budget crisis, it could be bad news for the space exploration program.

 

A newly released survey, measuring what programs Americans would spend more on and what programs they would spend less on, ranks space near the very bottom.

 

In fact, of all the programs measured, the General Social Survey found only aid to foreign countries, aid to large American cities and welfare fared worse than space exploration. The survey is by a longstanding, respected organization at the University of Chicago and the latest update came from data gathered over several months in 2012.

 

People tended to favor increasing spending on education, social programs for older Americans, improving health care and protecting the environment.

 

But, not space exploration. So, why is that?

 

While Americans seem interested and engaged in exploring space and they celebrate great achievements such as landing a man on the moon or a robot on Mars, there is some sense that the country is spending a lot of money on the space program.

 

When shuttles or rockets blast off, crowds gather to look up in wonder. We chatter about what's next after the shuttles. We ask when might people go to Mars.

 

But even among supporters over the years, I've heard gripes about gold-plated spending and excess within the space program. People have a sense, right of wrong, that NASA is a big government program overspending on something that is maybe a luxury.

 

To be sure, the space program used to get a lot of resources. In the race to the moon, space exploration was getting about six cents of every American tax dollar. Now, it is a fraction of one cent.

 

Perhaps people are disturbed by stories of cost overruns and schedule delays, a problem that's long plagued the space industry just as it has the defense sector. Maybe they just see space as a luxury item in tough times, when problems on Earth may feel more pressing.

 

The bottom line is this: Regardless of the reasons why, NASA and its advocates need to be aware that the people may not be as in love with space exploration as they would hope. They need to be cognizant of the need for credibility and transparency when it comes to budgeting and stewardship when it comes to spending money.

 

More than anything, as good as the space agency may be at telling its story, there must be some room for improvement if more people in the country would spend less on what NASA does than would spend more on it. Politicians controlling the purse strings read surveys, and rest assured they know where the public is leaning on spending priorities.

 

NASA rockets into social space, but lacks a clear mission

Aspiring to awe in the age of the selfie

 

Adrianne Jeffries - TheVerge.com

 

It was dark and chilly in Austin on Sunday, March 10th, the night that NASA planned to break the Guinness World Record for "largest outdoor astronomy lesson." The cold front had cleared the clouds, leaving the stars bright and stark in the sky, and the 526 space geeks in NASA ball caps and T-shirts didn't mind the temperature – they were happy to participate, even though the talk was just a basic demonstration on light and color. Some even lugged their own telescopes.

 

At 8:35PM, Dr. Frank Summers, the master of ceremonies and a Hubble astrophysicist, stopped abruptly to make an announcement. "Those of you with smartphones," he said, with a triumphant pause, "You can tweet that we have just finished the world's largest outdoor astronomy lesson!"

 

The world record attempt was just one hour out of NASA's multi-day programming at South by Southwest Interactive, the infamous digital conference. Twitter hit its tipping point here, the legend goes, and so many big brands have started to make the trek. This is NASA's first year among them, part of a larger effort to cultivate a "hipper, more accessible" image and reach new audiences. But it may be missing the mark on both counts. NASA's social strategy draws some people in, but there are signs that things need to change — much like NASA itself.

 

Arousing Curiosity

 

NASA has been using social media since 2008, more than a year before Mike Massimino became the first astronaut to tweet from space. NASA has 487 social media accounts, including 161 Twitter accounts and 36 YouTube channels. The rest are spread across eight other platforms including Facebook, Ustream, and Google+. The agency has also hosted more than 50 "tweetups," or "space socials," for which online fans have traveled from as far as Spain to watch a launch or spend a few hours with NASA engineers.

 

But nobody outside the space community really noticed NASA's social media presence until August, when the Mars Curiosity landing became a case study for the art of viral marketing.

 

Historically, NASA has carefully curated its image. "NASA in the Apollo era was completely buttoned down," said Dr. Phil Plait, who writes the "Bad Astronomy" column at Slate. "NASA maniacally controlled the astronauts, trained them on how to talk to the public, how to do press conferences, how to dress, how to act, how to speak. Clearly, things are different now."

 

The Curiosity rover takes selfies, makes GIFs, and uses the hashtag #PewPew

 

These days, NASA's communiques are more Bill Nye the Science Guy than "giant leap for mankind," a shift that accelerated after the success of @MarsCuriosity. The Curiosity rover is chatty and irreverent, the cool high school science teacher kind of nerd. It takes selfies, makes GIFs, and uses the hashtag #PewPew when it tweets about its laser.

 

@MarsCuriosity's fresh voice, backed by a dramatic animation, "Seven Minutes of Terror," surprised and delighted the public out of its usual apathy toward unmanned space missions. Today, the rover has 1.3 million Twitter followers, making it about three percent as popular as Lady Gaga, about half as popular as an NBA star, and roughly on par with Newark mayor and super-tweeter Cory Booker. Its unofficial parody alter-ego, @SarcasticRover, has 108,254 followers.

 

Curiosity's Twitter presence is controlled by three people: social media manager Veronica McGregor and social media specialists Stephanie Smith and Courtney O'Connor. Curiosity is the biggest rover NASA has ever sent to Mars, hence its brash personality. Its sense of humor comes from the three intelligent, funny, and outgoing women who write its tweets and call themselves "the hive mind." "We'll try to bounce them off each other," O'Connor said. "If one of us laughs, then we know we've got a good tweet on our hands."

 

Social science

 

Levity plays well on social media, but critics say it undermines NASA's reputation. When the co-anchor of NASA's in-house TV show started using slang in his blog posts in 2009, fans took offense. "If the younger generation isn't interested in NASA, I doubt a presenter saying 'hai' all the time is going to change that," wrote science blogger Ian O'Neill.

 

But after the success of @MarsCuriosity, NASA seems to be sidelining its hard-earned reputation as a bastion of science and innovation. Instead, it's catering to the Twitter demographic with glibness and gimmicks.

 

Science writer Graham Templeton recently reflected on @MarsCuriosity's decision to tweet its first blurry picture, a test shot of its own wheel, instead of waiting a day so it could capture an inspiring sunset. "NASA used to be in the business of awe," he said. "Every step away from that has been a mistake."

 

The medium is the message

 

NASA's shift in tone coincides with the overall rise of social media, but it also happened around the same time budget cuts ended plans for human space flight in the near future. Hardcore science fans can get excited about probes and rovers, but it's difficult to keep the general public interested unless you're talking about aliens or astronauts – and that's what NASA is trying to do with social media.

 

Stephanie Schierholz, who now works for Raytheon, was one of the first people to take charge of @NASA. "I was a public affairs specialist, and all 15 of us were instructed by our boss that we had to figure out this social media thing," she told The Verge, referring to NASA Deputy Associate Administrator Bob Jacobs. "We definitely couldn't have done it without his support. There were plenty of naysayers, plenty of people who thought we shouldn't be wasting our time on Twitter."'

 

Schierholz scheduled calendar appointments three times a day to remind herself to check Twitter. There were only a couple thousand followers, so it was relatively low-risk. When she noticed that people were asking NASA a lot of questions, she started replying. Seeing the thrilled reactions was "where it actually got interesting," she said.

 

NASA hasn't quite figured out how to talk about rocket science to the average person"People have an overall fondness for NASA in general. The majority of people think NASA's cool, it has cachet," she said. "But if you ask them any in-depth level question about what NASA is doing, they don't know how long the space shuttle has been operating, they don't know when the last moon mission was. Social media connects the public to the cool people doing cool things at NASA."

 

However, NASA hasn't quite figured out the right way to talk about rocket science to the average person.

 

NASA rightly points out that its social media communiques, while cute, are still dense with facts. But esoteric science jargon wrapped in pop culture references really only appeals to the kind of people who already love NASA. To the drive-by Twitter follower, most of @MarsCuriosity's tweets are gibberish.

 

To bridge that gap, NASA would have to do something much tougher than cracking jokes or even explaining what a RAD instrument is in 140 characters. Most Twitter users don't understand why NASA is taking radiation readings on Mars in the first place, or why anyone would care. @MarsCuriosity, for all its entertainment value, doesn't answer those questions.

 

It's also unclear how much the agency's new fans are worth. When Justin Bieber retweeted @NASA, the account gained 17,000 followers, mostly teenaged girls. That would be a nice new demographic for the space agency – if it weren't for the more likely explanation that thousands of girls clicked on something Justin Bieber implied he liked.

 

Next phase

The space program has always been a target of budget hawks who say it's a waste of taxpayer money to play around in space when there are more tangible problems on earth. As NASA cedes human space flight to private companies like SpaceX, it could become even harder to justify the roughly half of one percent of the US budget it receives.

 

Meanwhile, goofy hijinks like this "Gangnam Style" parody music video, produced by summer interns at NASA's Johnson Center and released on a NASA YouTube Channel, seem destined to end up on the Congressional floor as part of some politician's rant.

 

NASA's findings do benefit average Americans, seeding countless technologies that improve our lives: real-time GPS, more accurate weather data, invisible braces, scratch-resistant lenses, and so on. NASA could use its Twitter accounts to remind people where their satellite communications and memory foam mattresses came from – or at least point out how its current projects will eventually trickle down to earthlings.

 

A report by the National Research Council released in December concluded that NASA is underfunded and a bit lost, stretching its limited resources over too many projects because it lacks "a national consensus on strategic goals and objectives."

 

NASA's goofy hijinks seem destined to end up as part of some politician's rantPerhaps that's why NASA's social media strategy, largely propelled by the medium's instant feedback mechanism and a few savvy individuals, seems to lack an end game. Still, NASA's charter includes a mandate to widely publicize its findings, and its audience wants it to be on social media. Keri Bean was a freshman at Texas A&M and a major space geek when she created a Facebook profile for Mars Exploration Rovers and designated it as her spouse. "My roommate was like, 'if you love the Mars rover so much, why don't you marry it?' So I did." The profile quickly hit the 5,000-friend limit and was converted to an official fan page. Bean, now a meteorologist on the Curiosity mission, handed it over to NASA.

 

"Back when NASA was first starting up, a kid could write a letter and NASA would send them materials and send them information," said Laura Burns, a space geek who follows the agency on social media and also happens to work as a NASA contractor. "But I mean, how many ways can you reach more than a million people in one fell swoop? I think it's pretty cool. But I'm kind of biased."

 

Correction: An earlier version of this story said Stephanie Schierholz was the first person to take charge of @NASA; in fact it was her boss, Bob Jacobs. "While Stephanie was a terrific initial social media manager, she was not the first to manage @NASA. That was (and continues to be) me," he wrote in a message.

 

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