Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - March 7, 2013 and JSC Today

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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: March 7, 2013 6:59:11 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - March 7, 2013 and JSC Today

Hope you can join us today at Hibachi Grill at 11:30 for our monthly NASA Retirees Luncheon. 

 

Hibachi Grill is on Bay Area Blvd between Highway 3 and Interstate 45.  

 

Just tell them at the front you are with the NASA Retirees group and come back to the party room in the left. 

 

Family members and friends are always welcome too.

 

 

 

Thursday, March 7, 2013

 

JSC TODAY HEADLINES

1.            Joint Leadership Team Web Poll

2.            Monthly Test of the JSC Emergency Warning System

3.            Environmental Brown Bag -- Protecting the Prairies Houston Style

4.            Project Management Forum

5.            Starport's Spring Festival -- Get Your Tickets Now

6.            April 3 Spring Fair - 'Safety NASA Style'

7.            JSC's Career Exploration Program is Accepting Requests for 2013-2014

8.            NASA Supervisor Federal Workers' Comp Training

9.            AIAA Latest Issue of Horizons Newsletter

10.          IEEE Section Meeting: Micro-Grid - An Implementation of a Smart Grid Project

11.          Pre-Retirement for Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS)

12.          System Safety Seminar ViTS: April 26, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. - Building 17, Room 2026

13.          ExxonMobil North and South IAAP Chapters Present 'Step Up to Leadership'

________________________________________     NASA FACT

" In Fiscal Year 2012, nearly $23 million was obligated to contracts performed by veteran-owned businesses in Texas."

________________________________________

1.            Joint Leadership Team Web Poll

Over half of us voted last week that we have seen the space station fly over numerous times. That is really good news. Spring break is just around the corner, and I was wondering if you had made any plans. Are you going to the beach? Mountains? Lake? Make sure you drive safely wherever you are going. We seem to have just a few more email accounts than we have TVs. I don't know if that's a good thing or not. This week I need to know what worries you the most. There's a lot to be concerned about, so what keeps you up at night? Meteorite strikes? Zombie invasion? Astros opening day lineup?

Daryl your Merle on over to get this week's poll.

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

 

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2.            Monthly Test of the JSC Emergency Warning System

The Emergency Dispatch Center and Office of Emergency Management will conduct the monthly test of the JSC Emergency Warning System (EWS) on Thursday, March 7th at noon.

The EWS test will consist of a verbal "This is a Test Message" followed by a "short tone" and then followed by the second verbal "This is a Test Message". The warning tone will be the "Wail Tone" which is associated with an "All Clear" message. Please visit the JSC Emergency Awareness website at http://jea.jsc.nasa.gov for EWS tones and definitions. During an actual emergency situation the particular tone and verbal message will provide you with protective information.

Dennis G. Perrin 281-483-4232 http://jea.jsc.nasa.gov

 

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3.            Environmental Brown Bag -- Protecting the Prairies Houston Style

Join us TODAY in Building 45, Room 751, from noon to 1 p.m. to hear Jaime Gonzalez, president of the Coastal Prairie Partnership, discuss regional efforts to curb invasive species and restore native habitat throughout Houston and the surrounding areas. For more information, check out the JSC Environmental Office website.

Event Date: Thursday, March 7, 2013   Event Start Time:12:00 PM   Event End Time:1:00 PM

Event Location: B45 Room 751

 

Add to Calendar

 

JSC Environmental Office x40878 http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/ja/ja13/index.cfm

 

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4.            Project Management Forum

The Project Management Forum will be held today, March 7, in Building 32, Room 142 and 146, at 11:30 a.m. At this forum, Bruce Sauser will discuss Project Management needs within the EA directorate. This forum's agenda also includes the International Space Station external HD camera in the project spotlight and the SEER-H cost-estimating tool. All project managers are invited to attend. Please feel free to bring your lunch; dessert will be provided.

The purpose of the Project Management Forum is to provide an opportunity for our NASA project managers to freely discuss issues, best practices, lessons learned, tools and opportunities, as well as to collaborate with other project managers.

Event Date: Thursday, March 7, 2013   Event Start Time:11:30 AM   Event End Time:1:00 PM

Event Location: Building 32, Room 142 & 146

 

Add to Calendar

 

Danielle Bessard x37238 https://oasis.jsc.nasa.gov/sysapp/athena/Athena%20Team/SitePages/Home.aspx

 

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5.            Starport's Spring Festival -- Get Your Tickets Now

On March 23, Starport will have one big spring event at the Gilruth Center! Bring the kiddos out for our Children's Spring Fling, complete with a bounce house, face-painting, petting zoo, Easter egg hunt and hot dog lunch. Tickets go on sale tomorrow in the Buildings 3 and 11 Starport Gift Shops and Gilruth Center. Tickets are for children 18 months to 12 years of age who will be participating in the Easter egg hunt and other activities and having lunch. Adults do not need a ticket. Tickets are $8/each through March 15, or $10 the day of.

While you are there, do some shopping at our outdoor flea market for some hidden treasure and great finds! Then visit our indoor craft fair for homemade crafts and goodies. Plus, enjoy some tasty mudbugs at our crawfish boil! The cost is $7/pound with corn and potatoes. Hot dogs, chips and drinks will also be available.

Event Date: Saturday, March 23, 2013   Event Start Time:9:00 AM   Event End Time:2:00 PM

Event Location: Gilruth Center

 

Add to Calendar

 

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

 

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6.            April 3 Spring Fair - 'Safety NASA Style'

It's time for "Safety NASA Style!" Don't miss this year's Spring Safety, Health and Environmental Fair on Wednesday, April 3, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Gilruth Center. There will be new exhibitors, old favorites and a few surprises. If you spend your lunch with us, you can grab get a free hot dog and relax to the jazz band playing at the Live Oak Pavilion. Don't miss it! Keep an eye on JSC Today for more details.

Event Date: Wednesday, April 3, 2013   Event Start Time:10:00 AM   Event End Time:1:00 PM

Event Location: JSC Gilruth Center

 

Add to Calendar

 

Rindy Carmichael x45078

 

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7.            JSC's Career Exploration Program is Accepting Requests for 2013-2014

JSC and White Sands Test Facility (WSTF) employees (civil servants and contractors) may post project requests in the online Connect system for a year-long intern. Interns in the Career Exploration Program  (CEP) are assigned to a JSC or WSTF mentor for one year and work part-time on-site while completing their senior year in high school or while enrolled full-time in a local college or university. 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. CEP interns are placed at no cost to the organization. Tentative program dates are Sept. 3, 2013, to July 31, 2014. Students are selected in May. Mentors and administrative officers will be notified of placements in late June/early July. The deadline to post a project request is April 30.

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

 

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8.            NASA Supervisor Federal Workers' Comp Training

Tune in to the next in the Federal Workers' Comp presentation, "Continuation of Pay (COP), Wage Loss, and the Role of Supervisors," today, March 7, at 1 p.m. CST.

o             Dial: 1-888-989-9792 passcode "Supervisor" (If you are with several attendees on one telephone, the operator only needs one name and center affiliation for the group.)

o             Meeting Number: 997 803 378

o             Meeting Password: Supervisor3-7

1. Go to: https://nasa.webex.com/nasa/j.php?ED=192796497&UID=0&PW=NZTE1NjU3NzM4&RT=MiMx...

2. Enter your name and email address on the right-hand side of the screen where it says: "Non-NASA Users Join" (even though you are a NASA employee--this is the easiest way to connect)

Contact L. Hogan, RN, JSC's ICS for further details at x33029.

Lynn Hogan, RN x33029

 

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9.            AIAA Latest Issue of Horizons Newsletter

The January/February edition of Horizons is now available. This issue of Horizons reprints the fourth of eight installments for "Man Will Conquer Space Soon!" The original Collier's cover was dated February 28, 1953. It has been republished in Horizons on Feb. 28, 2013, the 60th anniversary.

Horizons is the first to reprint the Collier's series page by page with high resolution. The Web page has a bulleted list of contents of this issue of Horizons and other recent issues of Horizons.

Eryn Beisner x40212

 

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10.          IEEE Section Meeting: Micro-Grid - An Implementation of a Smart Grid Project

Dr. George Nasser will speak to the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Galveston Bay Section March meeting on "Micro-Grid: An Implementation of a Smart Grid Project." Nasser is an innovative entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience that spans aerospace, power, telecommunications, and oil and gas.

Nasser managed a team of software developers and analysts and was responsible for ensuring Center Point Systems readiness for the transition from a vertically integrated electric utility to a regulated electric delivery operating model within the organized Texas market.

The presentation will run from noon to 12:40 p.m. on March 14 in the Gilruth Center Discovery Room. We will offer lunch at 11:30 a.m. for $8 for the first 10 requestors; there is no charge for the presentation. Please RSVP to Stew O'Dell by Tuesday, March 12, and specify whether you are ordering lunch. Lunch free for unemployed IEEE members; advise when reserving.

Event Date: Thursday, March 14, 2013   Event Start Time:11:30 AM   Event End Time:12:30 PM

Event Location: Gilruth Center, Discovery Room

 

Add to Calendar

 

Stew O'Dell x31855 http://ewh.ieee.org/r5/galveston_bay/events/events.html

 

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11.          Pre-Retirement for Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS)

 

 

Are you prepared to retire?

This Pre-Retirement for FERS Seminar is designed to help you effectively manage today's realities as you begin to explore retirement possibilities.

Retirement is often looked upon as a financially based decision. Although the financial aspects are important, many other concerns need to be addressed. This seminar is designed to help effectively deal with today's realities as you begin to explore retirement possibilities.

Topics covered include lifestyle planning, health maintenance, financial planning, legal affairs planning and more.

Who Should Attend: Federal employees interested in learning more about FERS with five to 10 years or fewer until retirement eligibility.

Course Length: 16 hours

PRE-RETIREMENT FOR FEDERAL EMPLOYEE RETIREMENT SYSTEM (FERS)

Date: May 13 to 14

Time: 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. CST

Location: Teague Auditorium

Register via SATERN: https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=REGISTRATI...

Nicole Kem x37894

 

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12.          System Safety Seminar ViTS: April 26, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. - Building 17, Room 2026

This seminar serves to provide an overview of system safety origins, definitions, principles and practices. It includes a discussion of NASA requirements for both the engineering and management aspects of system safety and answers the questions: Why do we do system safety? What is system safety? How do we do system safety? What does it mean to me?

Engineering aspects will include a brief discussion of three typically used analytical techniques: Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA), Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) and Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA). This course will not prepare attendees to manage or perform system safety, only to introduce them to the concepts. SATERN registration required. https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...

Polly Caison x41279

 

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13.          ExxonMobil North and South IAAP Chapters Present 'Step Up to Leadership'

The International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP)-ExxonMobil North and South Chapters are excited to offer you the opportunity to "Step Up to Leadership" with valuable administrative training on Saturday, April 6. The training includes topics such as: mentoring, organizing and, of course, leadership. You will leave the university recharged and ready to step up to any challenge. The university's address is 233 Benmar Dr., Houston, 77060.

Register by emailing: patty.m.inzaza@exxonmobil.com. The seminar costs $35 before March 6, $40 until March 15 and $50 after March 27. Non-IAAP members can pay $45 before March 27 or $50 after March 27. Cost includes breakfast and lunch, door prizes, vendors and 5.5 recertification points towards your CAP designation. Registration begins at 7 a.m. The program ends promptly at 3 p.m. If you have any questions, please call Cathy Schauffler at 281-654-8677 or Patty Inzana at 281-654-8702.

Event Date: Saturday, April 6, 2013   Event Start Time:7:00 AM   Event End Time:3:00 PM

Event Location: University at the Exxon Mobil Conference Center

 

Add to Calendar

 

Felicia Saenz x32389

 

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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: 2 pm Central (3 EST) – File of E35/36 News Conference at Star City & Red Sq visit

 

Human Spaceflight News

Thursday, March 7, 2013

 

Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit making progress toward its planned June 29 grand opening at KSC (collectSPACE.com)

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

House passes FY 2013 funding measure with $2.1 billion for NASA rocket

 

Lee Roop - Huntsville Times

 

The House has passed a Continuing Resolution funding measure for the second half of fiscal year 2013 that gives NASA $2.119 billion for the Space Launch System. (See the full CR here) NASA is developing the booster part of that rocket system in Huntsville, Alabama. "A Continuing Resolution is a less than perfect way to budget," said Alabama 4th District Congressman Robert Aderholt of Haleyville. "While I'm disappointed we could not complete the normal appropriations process, there is a silver lining in the bill that passed the House today. This CR includes increased funding for a priority of mine, the Space Launch System (SLS). The SLS is important to our nation's work in space and to the economy of our area and I am glad to see these provisions included."

 

Space shuttle Atlantis under wraps as exhibit's boosters begin to rise

 

Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com

  

With just about four months remaining before its public debut, the "Space Shuttle Atlantis" exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida is taking shape — both inside and out. The $100 million exhibit, which is scheduled to open June 29, will bring the public nose-to-nose — and nose-to-wing and nose-to-tail — with NASA's space shuttle Atlantis, the last orbiter to fly in space before the fleet was retired in 2011. collectSPACE recently had the chance to tour the construction site, where even in its still-under-wraps condition, the space shuttle Atlantis is an impressive sight, as these photos capture.

 

NASA Unpacks 'Trunk' of SpaceX Cargo Capsule

 

Miriam Kramer - Space.com

 

NASA engineers used a robotic arm Wednesday to unpack the first exterior cargo ever delivered to the International Space Station by an American-built commercial supply ship. A robotics team at NASA Mission Control in Houston remotely controlled the space station's 58-foot (17 meters) Canadarm2 robotic arm to unload two so-called grapple bars from the unpressurized "trunk" of the privately built unmanned Dragon space capsule. The Dragon's trunk is a cylindrical cargo section beneath the spacecraft's re-entry module.

 

'First Light' Image for Telescope on the International Space Station

 

Nancy Atkinson - Universe Today

 

 

As we reported in January, a new telescope was installed on the International Space Station – not to observe the stars, but instead look back to Earth to acquire imagery of specific areas of the world for disaster analysis and environmental studies. Called ISERV (International Space Station SERVIR Environmental Research and Visualization System), it has now taken its first image. Above is the "first light" from the new ISERV, taken at 1:44 p.m. local time on February 16, 2013. No, this is not a giant tree trunk! It is the Rio San Pablo as it empties into the Golfo de Montijo in Veraguas, Panama.

 

US-Russian Crew Launching to Space Station in Record Time

 

Clara Moskowitz - Space.com

 

The next crew to launch toward the International Space Station will make the trip faster than any astronauts before them, thanks to a new docking plan being tested this month. NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin are set to launch to the space station March 28 at 4:43 p.m. EDT aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule. While it normally takes Soyuz vehicles two days to reach the orbiting laboratory after launch, Cassidy, Vinogradov and Misurkin will make the trip in just six hours.

 

Russia to send woman to space in 2014

 

Agence France Presse

 

Russia will send a female cosmonaut into space for the first time in two decades next year, an official at the space training centre said Wednesday. Yelena Serova, 36 and a professional cosmonaut, "is getting ready for a space flight in the second half of 2014," said Alexei Temerov, an official at Russia's Star City space training centre. Russia will this year celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first woman's trip to space.

 

NASA International Space Station: NASA Tracks it and You Can Too

 

Liam Boylan-Pett - PolicyMic.com

 

"I don't have friends at NASA … bunch of nerds." – Jack Donaghy, 30 Rock

 

NASA may have a ton of nerds, but they're doing some pretty amazing things. The International Space Station is the third brightest object in the sky, only less luminous than the sun and the moon. It is easy to see, but hard to spot. Not now: NASA's Spot the Station will text or email you about two hours before the ISS will pass over your house.

 

Could Houston be getting international spaceport soon?

 

Adela Uchida - KTRK TV (Houston)

 

The space shuttle program may be long gone, but airport officials hope Houston could soon be home to an international spaceport. You may soon be able to get on an aircraft in Houston and be just about anywhere in the world in just a matter of hours. That's what Houston Airport Systems director Mario Diaz believes, and the key to this future, he says, is a spaceport at Ellington Field. In just a matter of months, Ellington Field might be a spaceport.

 

Airport chief: Ellington spaceport 'definitely doable'

 

Kiah Collier - Houston Chronicle

 

With its goal of "going global" all but achieved, the Houston Airport System says it is now time to go extraterrestrial. Director Mario Diaz on Wednesday said the system is officially moving forward with a plan to turn Ellington Airport into one of the nation's first spaceports and is seeking certification from the Federal Aviation Administration. The system completed a feasibility study last year that found it would cost an estimated $48 million to $122 million to equip Ellington for launching small space vehicles full of joyriders out over the Gulf of Mexico, more than 60 miles above Earth.

 

Legislation filed for SpaceX project at Boca Chica Beach

 

Brownsville Herald

 

State Rep. Rene Oliveira filed legislation Wednesday aimed at furthering the SpaceX project at Boca Chica Beach near Brownsville, he said. "We're definitely more optimistic than ever that Cameron County will have SpaceX," Oliveira said. "Obviously, there are still major decisions that need to be made with the federal government. But the fact that we and others are proceeding with legislation, and Mr. Elon Musk is going to be (in Austin) Friday, indicates, I think, a very favorable view on his part," Oliveira added.

 

Beyond NASA: Meet the folks who are planning trips to moon and Mars

 

Note: Sound distortions in first 15 min.

 

Alan Boyle - NBCNews.com's Cosmic Log

 

Selling trips to the moon? Sending astronauts to Mars and back? These sound like 1960s-era science fiction adventures, but they're actually in the works for later this decade. Will these privately backed projects get off the ground? That's the billion-dollar question. The Golden Spike Company says it's in talks with one corporation and more than one space agency about sending a two-person expedition to the moon in the 2020 time frame, at a cost of $1.4 billion per mission. Meanwhile, the Inspiration Mars Foundation is getting ready to launch a man and a woman, preferably a middle-aged married couple, on a round-trip flyby past Mars in 2018.

 

Commercial Spaceflight Industry Drifts Back to Earth

 

John Matson – Scientific American (Opinion)

 

As the brash, stylish new kid on the block, SpaceX was sure to win its share of admirers. But last week's launch hiccup showed that the private space operator, helmed by Elon Musk, has a few issues to work out, just like stodgy old NASA. Don't get me wrong: SpaceX has done unbelievably impressive things. The company's Falcon 9 rocket has gone from its first test launch to making deliveries to the International Space Station in less than two years. SpaceX is the only private operator allowed to dock with the ISS, which, given the station's colossal costs, says something about the faith NASA has in the California upstart. (Imagine if your dad let you park next to his $100-billion sports car.)

 

Neil Tyson Pounds The Table, Demanding A Future, Now!

 

Robert Krulwich - National Public Radio's Krulwich Wonders

 

Neil deGrasse Tyson is stepping up his game, roaring, cajoling, stomping his big, considerable, eloquent self to say we have got to, got to, GOT TO, step off this planet and go places, back to the moon, on to Mars, that we can't afford not to, that if we don't, if we don't support a manned space program, we are robbing ourselves, we are stepping on "the foundations of tomorrow's economies," without which, "we might as well slide back to the cave, because that's where we're headed now, broke!" He's serious. Crazy (as usual), passionate (always), smart (no doubt). Just listen to him in this montage, taken from his speeches, TV appearances, assembled by Evan Shurr, apparently to support more funding for NASA.

__________

 

COMPLETE STORIES

 

House passes FY 2013 funding measure with $2.1 billion for NASA rocket

 

Lee Roop - Huntsville Times

 

The House has passed a Continuing Resolution funding measure for the second half of fiscal year 2013 that gives NASA $2.119 billion for the Space Launch System. (See the full CR here) NASA is developing the booster part of that rocket system in Huntsville, Alabama.

 

"A Continuing Resolution is a less than perfect way to budget," said Alabama 4th District Congressman Robert Aderholt of Haleyville. "While I'm disappointed we could not complete the normal appropriations process, there is a silver lining in the bill that passed the House today. This CR includes increased funding for a priority of mine, the Space Launch System (SLS). The SLS is important to our nation's work in space and to the economy of our area and I am glad to see these provisions included."

 

The bill will also pay for SLS-related ground operations and construction of the SLS B-2 test stand, Aderholt's office said.

 

The House voted on the bill Wednesday shortly before adjourning due to a winter storm hitting the area surrounding Washington. The measure now goes to the Senate for its consideration.

 

Space shuttle Atlantis under wraps as exhibit's boosters begin to rise

 

Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com

  

With just about four months remaining before its public debut, the "Space Shuttle Atlantis" exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida is taking shape — both inside and out.

 

The $100 million exhibit, which is scheduled to open June 29, will bring the public nose-to-nose — and nose-to-wing and nose-to-tail — with NASA's space shuttle Atlantis, the last orbiter to fly in space before the fleet was retired in 2011. Since entering the six-story building in November 2012, Atlantis has been raised off the ground, shrink-wrapped in 16,000 square feet of plastic and tilted 43 degrees, the latter designed to give guests a view of what the shuttle looked like to astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

 

With Atlantis shielded from dirt and dust, work is underway to finish walkways and theaters that will lead visitors through the history of the space shuttle program as they tour around Atlantis and more than 60 related exhibits. Come May, when the shuttle is unwrapped, its payload bay doors will be carefully opened, a replica of its Canadarm robotic arm will be extended and a full-scale model of the Hubble Space Telescope will be installed to span two floors.

 

Meanwhile outside the facility, the finishing touches are being put on the building's glimmering orange facade that was designed to evoke the space shuttle's re-entry into the atmosphere. Nearby, the steel skeleton of what will be two, towering 185-foot-high replica solid rocket boosters have begun to rise off the ground. Visitors will walk between the two rockets — and underneath a massive external fuel tank suspended from them — to enter the exhibit.

 

collectSPACE recently had the chance to tour the construction site, where even in its still-under-wraps condition, the space shuttle Atlantis is an impressive sight, as these photos capture.

 

NASA Unpacks 'Trunk' of SpaceX Cargo Capsule

 

Miriam Kramer - Space.com

 

NASA engineers used a robotic arm Wednesday to unpack the first exterior cargo ever delivered to the International Space Station by an American-built commercial supply ship.

 

A robotics team at NASA Mission Control in Houston remotely controlled the space station's 58-foot (17 meters) Canadarm2 robotic arm to unload two so-called grapple bars from the unpressurized "trunk" of the privately built unmanned Dragon space capsule. The Dragon's trunk is a cylindrical cargo section beneath the spacecraft's re-entry module.

 

The Dragon spacecraft, built by the private spaceflight company SpaceX, launched to the space station on Friday (March 1) and arrived two days later to deliver about 1,200 pounds (544 kilograms) of supplies to the orbiting lab. The mission is SpaceX's second of 12 commercial cargo deliveries for NASA under a $1.6 billion agreement.

 

SpaceX launched a demonstration flight to the space station last May and its first cargo delivery in October. But both of those missions only carried items inside the Dragon's pressurized re-entry capsule, which is accessible to astronauts on the station through a docking hatch.

 

Wednesday's robotic arm work marked the first time SpaceX has ever delivered gear meant for the outside of the space station using the Dragon's trunk, company officials have said. SpaceX built the support hardware holding the grapple bars in place on the Dragon capsule, they added.

 

The six astronauts living aboard the space station unloaded the pressurized cargo section by Monday, leaving only the grapple bars to be retrieved.

 

"These bars, which together weigh about 600 pounds [272 kilograms], can be used to remove failed radiators on the station's S1 and P1 truss segments, should that ever be deemed necessary," NASA officials said in a statement.

 

The grapple bars will be stored in a temporary spot on the International Space Station exterior for now, but will eventually be mounted to a permanent storage point, NASA officials wrote in a statement.

 

With the Dragon capsule empty, the station crew will soon start loading the capsule with 2,668 pounds (1,210 kilograms) of experiments and unneeded items for the spacecraft's return to Earth on March 25. The Dragon is expected to splash down off Baja California in the Pacific Ocean so it can be retrieved by recovery teams.

 

Various space agencies are expecting items to return to Earth on board Dragon. For example, stem cells and hair that are currently being used in experiments on the station will be sent down with Dragon for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

 

Empty food containers will also be delivered back to Earth, according to a NASA manifest. And some science experiments are making a round trip with the capsule.

 

The Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX is one of two companies with billion-dollar contracts to supply cargo missions to the space station for NASA. The other company, Orbital Sciences Corp. of Virginia, has a $1.9 billion contract with the agency for eight resupply missions to the station using the new Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft.

 

NASA is relying on privately built spacecraft to ferry cargo — and ultimately astronaut crews — to and from the International Space Station. With the retirement of its space shuttle fleet in 2011, NASA is currently dependent on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft to launch American astronauts to the space station.

 

'First Light' Image for Telescope on the International Space Station

 

Nancy Atkinson - Universe Today

 

 

As we reported in January, a new telescope was installed on the International Space Station – not to observe the stars, but instead look back to Earth to acquire imagery of specific areas of the world for disaster analysis and environmental studies. Called ISERV (International Space Station SERVIR Environmental Research and Visualization System), it has now taken its first image. Above is the "first light" from the new ISERV, taken at 1:44 p.m. local time on February 16, 2013.

 

No, this is not a giant tree trunk! It is the Rio San Pablo as it empties into the Golfo de Montijo in Veraguas, Panama.

 

The telescope is a modified off-the-shelf Celestron telescope, the Celestron CPC 925, a 9.25? diffraction limited Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and if you were to buy a un-modified version, it would cost $2,500 including the mount.

 

The ISERV version was modified at the Marshall Space Flight Center, which is where it is controlled from, as well. It is installed in the Window Observational Research Facility (WORF) in the station's Destiny laboratory. With a resolution down to 3.2 meters (10 feet), it will be possible to spot fairly small details and objects.

 

This ISERV Pathfinder is intended as an engineering exercise, with the long-term goal of developing a system for providing imagery to developing nations as they monitor natural disasters and environmental concerns.

 

"ISERV's full potential is yet to be seen, but we hope it will really make a difference in people's lives," said principal investigator Burgess Howell of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. "For example, if an earthen dam gives way in Bhutan, we want to be able to show officials where the bridge is out or where a road is washed out or a power substation is inundated. This kind of information is critical to focus and speed rescue efforts."

 

The system will use on positioning software to know where the space station is at each moment and to calculate the next chance to view a particular area on the ground. If there's a good viewing opportunity, the SERVIR team will instruct the camera to take high-resolution photographs at 3 to 7 frames per second, totaling as many as 100 images per pass.

 

The current mission will test the limitations of this ISERV system and identify measures for improvements in a more permanent system. For instance, the engineering team is working to determine how the geometry of the ISS window affects the imagery; how much sunlight is needed to capture clear images; and how the atmosphere affects that clarity. This characterization phase will last several weeks to a few months. Eventually, ISERV should be made available to the natural hazards community and to basic research scientists.

 

US-Russian Crew Launching to Space Station in Record Time

 

Clara Moskowitz - Space.com

 

The next crew to launch toward the International Space Station will make the trip faster than any astronauts before them, thanks to a new docking plan being tested this month.

 

NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin are set to launch to the space station March 28 at 4:43 p.m. EDT (2043 GMT) aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule. While it normally takes Soyuz vehicles two days to reach the orbiting laboratory after launch, Cassidy, Vinogradov and Misurkin will make the trip in just six hours.

 

"I think it's much more interesting when you fly faster," Vinogradov said during a press conference at the crew's Star City, Russia training site. "It's just like in a train," he added, saying he preferred to make quick train trips rather than spend many hours traveling.

 

Vinogradov and his crew are performing their final mission training for the Soyuz launch from the Central Asian spaceport of Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where the local time will be March 29 at liftoff. The six-hour journey will include just four orbits of Earth, officials said.

 

The new travel scheme has been previously successfully tested with unmanned Russian Progress cargo ships, but never before with manned spacecraft. Officials say the time has come to speed up travel to the space station because spacecraft have become more automated, so the strain on ground-based Mission Control teams isn't so great.

 

"Now we have onboard a new machinery and new software so the vehicle is more autonomous right now, so it is the possibility to do a lot onboard the vehicle and to calculate the burns so they are not consuming a lot of fuel," said veteran cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, vice president of Russia's RSC Energia spaceflight company in charge of manned spaceflights.

 

The three new space station crewmembers will join an existing crew trio to complete the Expedition 35 crew aboard the International Space Station. When that mission changes over to Expedition 36 in May, Vinogradov will take over as commander of the station.

 

Cassidy and Vinogradov are veteran spaceflyers, but Misurkin will be making his first trip to orbit. The three will spend about six months in space, returning to Earth in September.

 

"I think it should be the most exciting trip in my life," Misurkin said.

 

Russia to send woman to space in 2014

 

Agence France Presse

 

Russia will send a female cosmonaut into space for the first time in two decades next year, an official at the space training centre said Wednesday.

 

Yelena Serova, 36 and a professional cosmonaut, "is getting ready for a space flight in the second half of 2014," said Alexei Temerov, an official at Russia's Star City space training centre.

 

Russia will this year celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first woman's trip to space.

 

The feat was accomplished by Valentina Tereshkova on June 16, 1963, and was followed by that of another Soviet cosmonaut, Svetlana Savitskaya, who became the first woman to do a space walk.

 

But while NASA regularly sends female astronauts to work at the International Space Station (ISS), there has been only one Russian woman to fly to space since the early 1980s, Yelena Kondakova.

 

Kondakova spent five months in space on the since-retired Mir station in 1994-1995. She also travelled aboard the US Space Shuttle in 1997.

 

Yelena Serova will spend six months at the ISS, Temerov said.

 

"Her work programme at the ISS will not be anything extraordinary. It will be the usual research programme. A space walk is not planned," he added.

 

A second woman currently in training, 28-year-old Anna Kikina, has joined the cosmonaut program after becoming one of eight people selected in last year's recruitment drive.

 

NASA International Space Station: NASA Tracks it and You Can Too

 

Liam Boylan-Pett - PolicyMic.com

 

"I don't have friends at NASA … bunch of nerds." – Jack Donaghy, 30 Rock

 

NASA may have a ton of nerds, but they're doing some pretty amazing things. The International Space Station is the third brightest object in the sky, only less luminous than the sun and the moon. It is easy to see, but hard to spot.

 

Not now: NASA's Spot the Station will text or email you about two hours before the ISS will pass over your house.

 

All you have to do after receiving the alert is look up and catch a glance of the football field sized, 861,804 pound space station that looks like a plane moving through the sky.

 

Anyone one with an email address or SMS capabilities on their phone can sign up. The Mission Control at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas determines sighting opportunities for 4,600 locations worldwide.

 

By November 10, 2010, the ISS had orbited the earth 57,361 times. That is a lot of opportunities for sightings.

 

NASA's Spot the Station program will only alert you of "good" sighting opportunities. The station is 200 miles above ground. NASA says that you could receive alerts "anywhere from once or twice a week to once or twice a month, depending on the space station's orbit." They add, "Don't worry if there are big gaps in between sightings!"

 

I went to Space Camp when I was 11 years old. It wasn't the amazing experience I hoped it would be: the Space Shot was admittedly awesome, the moon-gravity-simulator was so-so, the mission simulator was only alright, and the Space Camp jumpsuit made me feel like one of the nerds Jack Donaghy was talking about on 30 Rock. But the thing I remember most was one kid passing gas — I mean really letting one go—in the middle of a conference room with 200 other kids who were just yelled at to shut up, and us erupting in wild laughter.

 

My best Space Camp memory didn't involve anything involving the final frontier and didn't lead to a career at NASA. It didn't, however, deter my fascination with the galaxy. The universe is an amazing place, and while a glance at the International Space Station may not make me change my mind about Space Camp, it certainly is amazing that NASA can send me a text message telling me to look up at the stars to see the ISS passing by.

 

Could Houston be getting international spaceport soon?

 

Adela Uchida - KTRK TV (Houston)

 

The space shuttle program may be long gone, but airport officials hope Houston could soon be home to an international spaceport.

 

You may soon be able to get on an aircraft in Houston and be just about anywhere in the world in just a matter of hours. That's what Houston Airport Systems director Mario Diaz believes, and the key to this future, he says, is a spaceport at Ellington Field.

 

In just a matter of months, Ellington Field might be a spaceport.

 

"Licensing will probably take between 15 to 18 months," Diaz said. "The community will need to be informed. We'll be going through an environmental impact statement and study."

 

That announcement came Wednesday in the State of the Airports event in the Galleria area. Diaz says they've already applied for the license.

 

If they get that license, there would be no vertical liftoffs from Ellington Field. Instead, spacecrafts would take off and head over the Gulf of Mexico. From there, the craft would lift to the edge of space, about 80,000 to 100,000 feet above Earth.

 

Traveling about Mach 3 or 4, the edge of space travel would make long trips significantly shorter.

 

"Skimming along the top of the world, connecting Houston with places as far and remote as Singapore in under three hours," Diaz said.

 

The price tag, right now, would be hefty.

 

Tickets on the Virgin Galactic are $200,000 a piece -- and that's for space tourism, not destination travel.

 

Passengers flying in an out of Hobby Airport have some thoughts on the idea of a spaceport in Houston.

 

"I think it's wonderful who people who would have to get there. It wouldn't be for me," passenger Kay Kinnard said.

 

"I think it would be kinda cool to do a little travel up near space and be able to take a trip halfway across the world," Adam Hayford said.

 

According to Diaz, it is the beginning of the future.

 

"I say that the 21st Century will be about the evolution of space," Diaz said.

 

There is a licensed spaceport under construction in New Mexico. Licenses have also been issued by the FAA to two sites in Florida, one in California and another in Virginia. The airport authority in Midland is also working to get a commercial space license.

 

Airport chief: Ellington spaceport 'definitely doable'

 

Kiah Collier - Houston Chronicle

 

With its goal of "going global" all but achieved, the Houston Airport System says it is now time to go extraterrestrial.

 

Director Mario Diaz on Wednesday said the system is officially moving forward with a plan to turn Ellington Airport into one of the nation's first spaceports and is seeking certification from the Federal Aviation Administration.

 

The system completed a feasibility study last year that found it would cost an estimated $48 million to $122 million to equip Ellington for launching small space vehicles full of joyriders out over the Gulf of Mexico, more than 60 miles above Earth.

 

"It is definitely doable because, you see, space is not the final frontier, it just happens to be our next destination," Diaz said told business leaders in a State of the Airports speech hosted by the Greater Houston Partnership.

 

3 hours to Singapore?

 

Diaz, who has been talking about the concept since at least 2011, said the system could get Ellington licensed in 15 to 18 months.

 

"And what exactly do we have in mind? Well, I would start off by assuring the community we are not interested in vertical, heavy lift rockets," Diaz said. "What we do mean is to create an environment where a cluster of aviation and aerospace companies can flourish and where Houston can again step forward to lead the nation in the transition from a federal to a commercial space program."

 

He cited not only the establishment of space tourism in Houston, but also manufacturing the "small reusable space vehicles" that companies like Virgin Galactic are planning to use to launch everyday people into outer space.

 

"We will create facilities where companies can integrate all of the new and exciting advances in aeronautical engineering to produce spacecraft" that could feasibly "connect Houston in the future with places like Singapore in under three hours."

 

'A blurring of lines'

 

After his speech, Diaz told reporters that commercial space travel is simply the next step in the evolution of aviation, and that the airport system intends to capitalize on it and is already in talks with some companies.

 

"There will be a blurring of the lines soon between 'What is an airplane?' and 'What is a spacecraft?' because we are destined to move into space," Diaz said. "By the end of the 21st century, I believe that we will be well out into the solar system. It's just a matter of time, it's just a matter of creativity, imagination and I think we'll be there."

 

Consultants say there is substantial interest among cities in commercial space travel as a new means of economic development, although Houston officials expressed some reservations last year when Diaz also mentioned the plan in his State of the Airports speech.

 

Asked about economic viability, Diaz said of the project may not "initially" be profitable, but he believes it would become so - just as airports went from operating in the red to operating in the black with the rise of commercial air travel.

 

"I can assure you most airports today do break even," Diaz said.

 

Legislation filed for SpaceX project at Boca Chica Beach

 

Brownsville Herald

 

State Rep. Rene Oliveira filed legislation Wednesday aimed at furthering the SpaceX project at Boca Chica Beach near Brownsville, he said.

 

"We're definitely more optimistic than ever that Cameron County will have SpaceX," Oliveira said.

 

"Obviously, there are still major decisions that need to be made with the federal government. But the fact that we and others are proceeding with legislation, and Mr. Elon Musk is going to be (in Austin) Friday, indicates, I think, a very favorable view on his part," Oliveira added.

 

Musk is the founder of Space Exploration Technologies Corp., a California-based space exploration firm, which is considering a location near Boca Chica Beach for a rocket launch facility.

 

Oliveira, D-Brownsville, also said in an announcement that the legislation he filed would allow Cameron County to temporarily close a beach area for launches and space flight activities with approval of the General Land Office.

 

Oliveira said that while SpaceX has not made a final decision to relocate to the area, he filed the bill to make certain the necessary legislative measures are in place to move the project forward.

 

The proposed legislation would prohibit a beach closing during the major summer holidays of Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day, and all the summer weekends between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

 

The GLO, Oliveira said, could approve a launch during those dates under special circumstances.

 

Beyond NASA: Meet the folks who are planning trips to moon and Mars

 

Note: Sound distortions in first 15 min.

 

Alan Boyle - NBCNews.com's Cosmic Log

 

Selling trips to the moon? Sending astronauts to Mars and back? These sound like 1960s-era science fiction adventures, but they're actually in the works for later this decade. Will these privately backed projects get off the ground? That's the billion-dollar question.

 

The Golden Spike Company says it's in talks with one corporation and more than one space agency about sending a two-person expedition to the moon in the 2020 time frame, at a cost of $1.4 billion per mission. Meanwhile, the Inspiration Mars Foundation is getting ready to launch a man and a woman, preferably a middle-aged married couple, on a round-trip flyby past Mars in 2018.

 

Both Golden Spike and Inspiration Mars are getting advice and moral support from NASA, but the financial support is coming from elsewhere. The lunar venture expects to bootstrap its way to profitability by selling its services — and initially through an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign aimed at raising $240,000 (one dollar for each mile to the moon) by late April. So far, more than $7,500 has been contributed.

 

To Mars and back

 

Inspiration Mars is relying on seed money from California millionaire Dennis Tito, who became the first tourist to visit the International Space Station in 2001. Tito said his effort to send a spacecraft zooming past Mars during a favorable planetary alignment in 2018 is purely philanthropic, with the goal of inspiring future generations of Americans.

 

MacCallum, who took part in the Biosphere 2 experiment in 1991-1992 and went on to become a co-founder of Paragon Space Development Corp., said he's already noticed the inspirational effect.

 

"I keep hearing people say, 'This is the kind of thing America used to do, and maybe now we can do it again.' It's like we touched on a sore spot, and the reaction has been ... almost too positive," MacCallum said.

 

He said Tito's aim was merely to get some introductory exposure for the concept, in hopes that all the kinks can be worked out in time to make the 2018 deadline. Tito has committed to supporting the venture for its first two years, but he needs to raise the rest of the money for what's rumored to be a billion-dollar mission.

 

The team hasn't yet worked out the procedure for selecting the crew, but MacCallum said more than 100 applications have already been sent in — including some candidates with jaw-dropping credentials. "There are some where you say to yourself, 'Oh, my gosh!'" MacCallum told me. "Hey, listen, it's suddenly cool to be a middle-aged couple."

 

To the moon

 

Unlike Inspiration Mars, Golden Spike is set up as a business, which will ultimately have to be supported by paying customers. The idea is to provide two-person trips to the moon for roughly the same cost as today's robotic missions to the moon. Golden Spike aims to do that by employing high-tech, low-cost hardware as well as a relatively low-risk mission architecture. The company plans to pre-position a lander in lunar orbit, and only then send the crew and their moon-and-back booster on a subsequent pair of launches.

 

"Before it even launches, we know that the lander is working," said Griffith, who is drawing upon years of experience in space and aviation law.

 

Griffith said Golden Spike will serve as the outer-space analog of, say, United Airlines, contracting with other companies for flight hardware. The company is working on design studies for launch vehicles, landers and other equipment. It's also talking with potential customers — and trying to convince the skeptics that it's really possible to put people on the moon, almost half a century after NASA did it in 1969.

 

"The consensus seems to be that it's doable within the prices we're talking about," Griffith said. "All of the skepticism seems to be about whether there are space agencies or billionaires who are willing to pay the price. That is the big unknown. ... I think we'll know in fairly short order whether the skeptics are right or wrong."

 

Griffith said Golden Spike's game plan calls for signing up its first customers for "right of first refusal" deals by the middle of the year, and getting its first flight contract by the end of this year.

 

"Our operating premise is not that we keep sliding things back," Griffith told me. "Our operating premise for now is, it's go time."

 

Commercial Spaceflight Industry Drifts Back to Earth

 

John Matson – Scientific American (Opinion)

 

As the brash, stylish new kid on the block, SpaceX was sure to win its share of admirers. But last week's launch hiccup showed that the private space operator, helmed by Elon Musk, has a few issues to work out, just like stodgy old NASA.

 

Don't get me wrong: SpaceX has done unbelievably impressive things. The company's Falcon 9 rocket has gone from its first test launch to making deliveries to the International Space Station in less than two years. SpaceX is the only private operator allowed to dock with the ISS, which, given the station's colossal costs, says something about the faith NASA has in the California upstart. (Imagine if your dad let you park next to his $100-billion sports car.)

 

But space exploration is hard, no matter who you are, what your business model is, or what engineering innovations you bring to the table. (There's a reason people use "rocket science" as shorthand for something difficult.) And the first two official SpaceX deliveries to the ISS, while successful, have each served as a reality check—a valuable reminder of the enormous complexity and high stakes of spaceflight.

 

During the first commercial resupply mission, in October 2012, one of the nine engines on the Falcon 9 rocket lost pressure and shut down about 80 seconds into flight. The rocket still delivered its primary payload to orbit, and SpaceX touted in a statement that "Falcon 9 did exactly what it was designed to do." The statement went on to boast that "Falcon 9 is designed to handle an engine out situation and still complete its mission. No other rocket currently flying has this ability." But the engine failure caused the Falcon to deposit a secondary payload—a small satellite—in an unstable orbit, lower than had been planned, and the satellite quickly fell back toward Earth and burned up in the atmosphere.

 

The second resupply trip, which began March 1 with a clean liftoff of a Falcon 9, quickly took a turn for the worse when three of the four thruster pods on the Dragon cargo capsule failed to fire up. For a time, it looked as if the Dragon might not be able to reach its intended orbit to rendezvous with the station. By the time the problem had been corrected, six hours into flight, NASA and SpaceX had postponed by a day the Dragon's planned arrival at the ISS. Eventually the Dragon docked successfully on March 3.

 

As a colleague pointed out to me this week, the two anomalies—or, more specifically, the contingency planning and on-the-fly repairs that minimized the impact of the anomalies—might actually bode well for SpaceX. It is one thing to hope for a perfect mission, and quite another to scramble to a quick recovery when something goes wrong. Taken to an extreme, such ingenuity and adaptivity are what made NASA's salvaging of the Apollo 13 mission so impressive.

 

So the question, to my mind, is not whether the launch hiccups are indicative of larger engineering problems. Thus far, SpaceX has a record to be proud of. The question that keeps bothering me is whether the sunnily optimistic view that NASA and the general public have for newcomers such as SpaceX can weather the realities of a dangerous, failure-prone business, especially once the Dragon capsule is outfitted to carry astronauts and not just cargo to the ISS. The history of spaceflight is punctuated by rocket malfunctions, crashed probes, and—tragically—numerous deaths, both of astronauts and of workers and other civilians on the ground.

 

The private spaceflight industry has already tasted tragedy. In 2007 an explosion in California killed three people at a company called Scaled Composites who were working on engines for Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo. That mishap, like so many workplace accidents in the aerospace industry, has largely been forgotten. Virgin soldiers on toward its first commercial launch in the coming years, at which point public scrutiny will increase manyfold. If a mishap involves customers on a suborbital flight rather than workers on the ground, we will hear much more about the accident and its victims. And I suspect that many of the 500-plus people now lining up to fly to space will change their minds.

 

When NASA lost three astronauts in the Apollo 1 launch pad fire in 1967, the U.S. pushed on. There was a space race under way, and the nation's skyward aspirations had no outlet other than NASA. Nowadays, manned space exploration ranks much lower as a national priority (look no further than the NASA budget, which during Apollo was roughly 10 times larger as a share of the nation's total expenditures). And the goals of the human spaceflight program, at least for the near term, are much more mundane. So I have to wonder what kinds of losses the public will tolerate when the primary benefits of NASA's exploration include staffing an orbiting space station and stimulating private companies rather than landing on the moon and winning a space race with a geopolitical foe. Similarly, I wonder what level of risk thrill-seekers will accept when weighing a suborbital spaceflight.

 

I wish nothing but the best for SpaceX, Virgin Galactic and the rest. But I hope their customers (a group that, in the case of SpaceX, includes U.S. taxpayers) and their boosters recognize that the road to the bright new future of commercial spaceflight, which many believe to be just years away, will likely be a rocky one. History shows us that space is a challenging, often dangerous place to operate, and it would be foolish to think that the new kid on the block will be immune to the troubles—both minor and catastrophic—that every space agency in the world has had to contend with.

 

Neil Tyson Pounds The Table, Demanding A Future, Now!

 

Robert Krulwich - National Public Radio's Krulwich Wonders

 

Neil deGrasse Tyson is stepping up his game, roaring, cajoling, stomping his big, considerable, eloquent self to say we have got to, got to, GOT TO, step off this planet and go places, back to the moon, on to Mars, that we can't afford not to, that if we don't, if we don't support a manned space program, we are robbing ourselves, we are stepping on "the foundations of tomorrow's economies," without which, "we might as well slide back to the cave, because that's where we're headed now, broke!"

 

He's serious. Crazy (as usual), passionate (always), smart (no doubt). Just listen to him in this montage, taken from his speeches, TV appearances, assembled by Evan Shurr, apparently to support more funding for NASA.

 

I remember those days, when you could grow up in the "Skyview" apartments (as Neil did in the Bronx) and dream of being up there with Glenn and Aldrin and Armstrong, feel like you were living in an explorer's age, that you could ride with your heroes and cheer from the bleachers (your living room in front of the TV) as your nation tumbled into space. It was amazing. And like Neil, I want those days back.

 

The Question

 

But here's my question: Do we need NASA (or the Chinese, Russian, Japanese, European, Indian space agencies) to get there anymore? Neil seems to think we do. NASA's greatest, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan, went to Congress early in the Obama Administration to say that the new president is wrong to support (and direct NASA to support) private commercial efforts. Business folks won't do it safely, said Cernan. But businesses are doing it anyway. Just last week a commercially-built rocket (from Elon Musk's California company, SpaceX) traveled to the space station, docked, and delivered cargo — so NASA no longer has to rely on Russian rockets to make deliveries. It was a thrilling, entrepreneurial, bootstrap performance (with, yes, a $1.6 billion contract from NASA), but where were the cheers?

 

Hooray?

 

The geeks cheered. But the rest of us — not so much. OK, the ship was delivering clothes, food and equipment. There was no pilot, no crew, nothing to see, really, nobody up there to cheer for. And if SpaceX gets its way, it will soon become a tourist bus, carrying thousands, then tens of thousands of paying customers into orbit, so what they'd like to do is make the extraordinary a little more ordinary for average Earthlings.

 

The Challenge

 

But that's not my question for Neil. My question is: Who's going to lead us back to the Extraordinary? Back to uncharted dangerous, expensive places we've never been, places we dream of? Should that be the President, the Congress, should it be all of us pledging to do it together, or should it be self-nominated, can-do, sometimes obnoxious business people who can inspire a team, who live for the gamble, who think they can do it better?

 

I don't know. I'm not sure how Neil feels. Clearly he thinks we should be exploring. Clearly he thinks America should lead. But which America? All of us or some of us? That, I think, is going to become a very crucial question.

 

END