Fwd: APRIL FOOL'S DAY EDITION: Human Spaceflight News - April 1, 2013 and JSC Today

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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: April 1, 2013 6:21:35 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: APRIL FOOL'S DAY EDITION: Human Spaceflight News - April 1, 2013 and JSC Today

Happy April Fool's day everyone.  

 

Hope you can join us this Thursday, April 4^th,   at our monthly NASA Retirees Luncheon at Hibachi Grill at 11:30.  Please bring a family member or friend to visit with your NASA family from the past and present and share your memories of NASA's rich history.

 

Monday, April 1, 2013

 

JSC TODAY HEADLINES

1.            Spring Roundup is Online -- And, There's a Listserv for That

2.            Picture This

3.            JSC Annual Picnic at SplashTown on April 28 -- Tickets on Sale Now

4.            Starport's League Sports -- Summer Registration Open

5.            Beginners Ballroom Dance -- Last Chance for April Class Registration

6.            Women in STEM High School Aerospace Scholars Summer Mentors Needed

7.            Fly Reduced Gravity

8.            White Sands Test Facility: See the Space Station

9.            Job Opportunities

________________________________________     NASA FACT

" Expedition 16 Commander Peggy Whitson of NASA was the first female commander of the International Space Station."

________________________________________

1.            Spring Roundup is Online -- And, There's a Listserv for That

The spring Roundup, now online, is stuffed with interesting stories. Learn more about our very own Thermal Vacuum Chamber A and its evolving cleanroom structure being built for the James Webb Space Telescope. Also in this issue: our record-setting space station; how some astronauts trained in an alien realm on Earth; and how one of our Engineering team members saved the life of a former JSC employee because of his commitment to lifelong lessons in CPR (including a refresher taken at JSC prior to his heroic efforts). Or, learn how an older Apollo algorithm worked just fine--thankyouverymuch--to be used again during Curiosity's mission to Mars. Last, meet Margie Williams, who supports JSC's Office of Emergency Management, and see how Mike Coats and other noteworthy JSC retirees are still making a difference with our space program.

Don't want to wait for JSC Today to tell you when Roundup is online? There's a listserv for that. Get on the listserv to receive the electronic issue in your inbox--no muss, no fuss. If you know of others who may want to read Roundup, share the link and get them started on a journey of discovery: https://lists.nasa.gov/mailman/listinfo/jsc-roundup 

Thanks for your continued support.

JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x33317 http://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/roundup/roundup_toc.html

 

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2.            Picture This

Your JSC Safety Action Team (JSAT) will once again host the "Why I Work Safely" photo-laminating booth at the upcoming JSC Safety, Health and Environmental Fair on Wednesday, April 3, at the Gilruth Center. Start rounding up your favorite photos now so you will have them ready to laminate for display on your lanyard. Show everyone your reason(s) for working safely!

Note: Please trim photos to 2 inches wide by 2.5 inches in length. Scanned photos work well also.

Reese Squires x37776 http://jsat.jsc.nasa.gov/

 

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3.            JSC Annual Picnic at SplashTown on April 28 -- Tickets on Sale Now

SplashTown is closed to the public to allow NASA family and friends to attend a private day at the water park!

Tickets are on sale now through April 19 in the Buildings 3 and 11 Starport Gift Shops and at the Gilruth Center. Tickets will be $33 each for ages 3 and up. After April 19, tickets will be $37.

A ticket includes: private-day admission at SplashTown from noon to 6 p.m., a barbecue lunch, beverages, snow cones, kids' games, Bingo, face painting, moon bounce, balloon artist, DJ, horseshoes, volleyball, basketball and plenty of thrills!

Event Date: Sunday, April 28, 2013   Event Start Time:12:00 PM   Event End Time:6:00 PM

Event Location: Splashtown

 

Add to Calendar

 

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

 

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4.            Starport's League Sports -- Summer Registration Open

Registration is opening for all of Starport's popular league sports!

Registration closing soon:

- Volleyball (Reverse 4s) | Monday evenings | Registration ends April 3

Registration now open:

- Dodgeball (Coed) | Thursday evenings | Registration ends April 22

- Kickabll (Coed) | Monday evenings | Registration ends April 24

- Volleyball (Coed) | Tuesday evenings | Registration ends April 24

Registration opening soon:

- Basketball | Wednesday evenings | Registration April 8 to 26

- Ultimate Frisbee (Coed) | Monday evenings | Registration April 8 to May 1

- Softball (Men's) | Tuesdays and Wednesdays | Registration April 8 to May 2

- Softball (Coed) | Wednesdays and Thursdays | Registration April 8 to May 9

- Soccer (Coed) | Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Saturdays | Registration May 1 to 23

Free-agent registration now open.

All participants must register HERE.

For more information, please contact the Gilruth information desk at 281-483-0304.

Steve Schade x30304 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Fitness/Sports

 

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5.            Beginners Ballroom Dance -- Last Chance for April Class Registration

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.

Registration still open!

o             $110 per couple (ends tomorrow, 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 information desk: 281-483-0304

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

 

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6.            Women in STEM High School Aerospace Scholars Summer Mentors Needed

Women in STEM High School Aerospace Scholars (WISH) is looking for JSC employees and student interns to work the on-site experience this summer. Mentors will have the opportunity to work with a team of students to help facilitate the group to complete research on deep space exploration and team projects. Mentor dates are:

June 23 to 28

July 7 to 12

Please visit the website to complete an application.

Maria Chambers x41496 http://wish.aerospacescholars.org/

 

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7.            Fly Reduced Gravity

The NASA Minority University Research and Education Program has partnered with the NASA Reduced Gravity Flight Program to offer an exciting opportunity for university students to fly and conduct an experiment on a reduced-gravity flight in November 2013! Selected university teams will test and evaluate their experiment aboard a microgravity aircraft located at Ellington Field, which flies about 30 parabolas/rollercoaster-like climbs and dips to produce periods of micro and hyper gravity, ranging from zero Gs to two Gs. Applications are online.

For more information, contact Suzanne Foxworth at 281-483-7185 or via email.

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

 

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8.            White Sands Test Facility: See the Space Station

Viewers in the White Sands Test Facility area will be able to see the International Space Station this week.

Tuesday, April 2, 6:08 a.m. (Duration: 4 minutes)

Path: 11 degrees above NNW to 38 degrees above E

Maximum elevation: 46 degrees

Thursday, April 4, 6:04 a.m. (Duration: 6 minutes)

Path: 10 degrees above WNW to 11 degrees above SSE

Maximum elevation: 49 degrees

Friday, April 5, 5:16 a.m. (Duration: 4 minutes)

Path: 48 degrees above NNW to 10 degrees above SE

Maximum elevation: 73 degrees

The International Space Station Trajectory Operations Group provides updates via JSC Today for visible station passes at least two minutes in duration and 25 degrees in elevation. Other opportunities, including those with shorter durations and lower elevations or from other ground locations, are available at the website below.

Joe Pascucci x31695 http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/view.cgi?country=U...

 

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9.            Job Opportunities

Where do I find job opportunities?

Both internal Competitive Placement Plan (CPPs) and external JSC job announcements are posted on 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:  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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________________________________________

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: 11:20 am Central (12:20 pm EDT) – E35's Chris Cassidy w/WGME-TV, Portland, ME

 

Human Spaceflight News

Monday, April 1, 2013 (No Foolin')

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

Sequestration's effects on commercial crew, and planning for FY14

 

Jeff Foust – SpacePolitics.com

 

At a media telecon Thursday afternoon to talk about the just-completed Dragon mission to the International Space Station, NASA administrator Charles Bolden said that budget sequestration could have an adverse effect on the agency's commercial crew program if it extends beyond the end of this fiscal year. "So far, we don't see any significant impact the rest of this fiscal year, but our projection is that if we're not able to get out of this sequester condition, it may slow down our progress on commercial crew, and that's my big concern," he said.

 

On Space Coast, signs of comeback after end of an era

 

Lizette Alvarez - New York Times

 

The day after the shuttle Atlantis landed for the last time at the Kennedy Space Center on July 21, 2011, Angel Telles, a man with three master's degrees, scooped up his white Mission 101 coffee mug and drove away from NASA after 24 years on the job there. The shuttle era had ended, and with it the jobs of 8,000 NASA and civilian workers who found themselves unemployed in the midst of a harsh economic downturn and a crush of home foreclosures. So great was the blow to the state and NASA's traditional space program that it put politicians, including presidential candidates, on the defensive on the campaign trail.

 

Closing the doors on the shuttle program

Year-and-a-half project nears its end

 

James Dean - Florida Today

 

NASA decommissioned the Merritt Island Launch Annex tracking station a week after the final shuttle landing in July 2011, ceremonially pointing a 30-foot antenna skyward. Just over a year later, the station's control center, two S-band antenna stands and supporting structures were gone. "It looks like a golf course now," said Dan Tweed, associate director for facilities at Kennedy Space Center. The tracking station was among the first shuttle-related facilities razed at KSC, and dozens more – ranging from buildings to small substations and fuel tanks – are slated to come down over the next few years.

 

NASA and TopCoder to issue Robonaut 2 'sight' challenge

 

Emi Kolawole - Washington Post

 

NASA Tournament Lab is launching two new competitions, this time to give Robonaut 2, the humanoid robot aboard the international space station, the gift of improved "sight." The challenges are the latest offered by the Tournament Lab in conjunction with the open innovation platform TopCoder. The first competition calls on participants to figure out how to enable Robonaut 2, or R2, to identify buttons and switches on a console fitted with LED lights. The winning entry would be in the form of an algorithm application that works seamlessly with R2's cameras in different lighting conditions. The second competition will build off the first, calling on competitors to write an algorithm that controls the robot's motions based on the new "sight" capability.

 

Astronaut Celebrates Easter in Space (Easter Eggs, Included)

 

Tariq Malik - Space.com

 

Children around the world aren't the only ones having an Easter egg hunt today. Astronauts in space will get Easter treats, too. Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who commands the International Space Station, made sure that the Easter Bunny would make a special trip to the orbital lab today (March 31) just in time for an Easter celebration in space.

 

NASA stitching Orion components together at Marshall Space Flight Center

 

Jason Rhian - AmericaSpace.com

 

NASA's engineers have been assembling the components for the flight test article that will fly on the Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) mission at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Ala. These elements will now be used to connect the Orion spacecraft to the United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy that will ferry this iteration of Orion to orbit. EFT-1 will be used to validate the heat shield, avionics, and other flight systems that will be used on crewed versions of NASA's newest spacecraft.

 

Ultra-heavy booster needed to prevent Earth from asteroids – Energia head says

 

Itar-Tass

 

An ultra-heavy booster is needed to be created in order to prevent the Earth from asteroids and comets, head of the Russian space rocket corporation, Energia, Vitaly Lopota said on Friday. At the same time, he said, "The ISS [International Space Station] should be used as the base to practice technology and cooperation."

 

China's space station to welcome int'l scientists

 

Xinhua News Service

 

China's planned space station will offer scientists from around the world opportunities for research and experimentation, the lead designer of China's manned space program told Xinhua on Friday. Zhou Jianping said the space station, which is expected to be built by 2020 and is aimed at engaging in space exploration and research on space resources, will include three capsules. It will be capable of docking one freight spacecraft and two manned spacecraft, and the entire system will weigh over 90 tonnes.

 

Group raising money to let 'Star Trek' fans see NASA video

 

Robert Stanton - Houston Chronicle

 

Many lovers of manned space flight can recite William Shatner's words from memory: "Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before." Now, the Aerospace Industries Association wants to place NASA's exciting video "We Are the Explorers" before moviegoers who turn out see Star Trek Into Darkness, which hits the big screen in May.

 

'We Are the Explorers' NASA video may appear as trailer prior to 'Star Trek: Into Darkness'

 

Jason Rhian - AmericaSpace.com

 

It might seem like a silly idea to some, but a 30-second spot derived from a larger NASA video – could be one of the trailers that will appear when the new movie, Star Trek: Into Darkness opens in theaters this May. The effort to have the "We are the Explorers" trailer appear before the movie was started under an Indiegogo campaign that sought to reach a goal of $33,000. It reached that amount in five days.

 

Buzz Aldrin's Vision for Mars Exploration Detailed in New Book

 

Space.com

 

Pioneering astronaut Buzz Aldrin made history as the second man to walk on the moon in 1969, just after Neil Armstrong during the historic Apollo 11 lunar landing mission. More than four decades later, he wants NASA to set its sights on more ambitious destinations, far beyond the moon. Aldrin's target: Mars. In his upcoming book, "Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration" (National Geographic Books), Buzz Aldrin argues that NASA should strive to put humans on the Red Planet by the mid-2030s and he lays out a plan for how to make it happen.

 

Yvonne Brill, a Pioneering Rocket Scientist, Dies at 88

 

Douglas Martin - New York Times

 

She was a brilliant rocket scientist who followed her husband from job to job and took eight years off from work to raise three children. "The world's best mom," her son Matthew said. Yvonne Brill, who died on Wednesday at 88 in Princeton, N.J., in the early 1970s invented a propulsion system to help keep communications satellites from slipping out of their orbits. The system became the industry standard, and it was the achievement President Obama mentioned in 2011 in presenting her with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. From 1981 to 1983, Mrs. Brill worked for NASA developing the rocket motor for the space shuttle.

 

Yvonne Brill, pioneer in spacecraft propulsion, dies at 88

 

Martin Weil - Washington Post

 

Yvonne Brill, a pioneer in spacecraft propulsion who suspended a promising career to raise three children and then returned to work full time to achieve her greatest engineering successes, died March 27 at a hospital in Princeton, N.J. She was 88. She had complications from breast cancer, her son Matthew Brill said.

 

Origin of April Fool's Day

The history of April Fool's Day or All Fool's Day is uncertain, but the current thinking is that it began around 1582 in France with the reform of the calendar under Charles IX. The Gregorian Calendar was introduced, and New Year's Day was moved from March 25 - April 1 (new year's week) to January 1. Communication traveled slowly in those days and some people were only informed of the change several years later. Still others, who were more rebellious refused to acknowledge the change and continued to celebrate on the last day of the former celebration, April 1.

 

Mark Twain on Fools

·         It's better to keep your mouth shut & be thought a fool than to open it & leave no doubt.

·         Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed.

·         The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year.

__________

 

COMPLETE STORIES

 

Sequestration's effects on commercial crew, and planning for FY14

 

Jeff Foust – SpacePolitics.com

 

At a media telecon Thursday afternoon to talk about the just-completed Dragon mission to the International Space Station, NASA administrator Charles Bolden said that budget sequestration could have an adverse effect on the agency's commercial crew program if it extends beyond the end of this fiscal year. "So far, we don't see any significant impact the rest of this fiscal year, but our projection is that if we're not able to get out of this sequester condition, it may slow down our progress on commercial crew, and that's my big concern," he said.

 

Bolden said the final 2013 budget, based on the Senate bill, gave commercial crew more money that it would have received under a continuing resolution (which would have funded the program at the pre-sequestration amount of $406 million versus the $525 million, before rescission and sequestration, the program got in the bill passed last week). This budget, therefore, mitigated the worst of the adverse effects possible to the program NASA warned about in a letter to the Senate last month. But he warned milestones planned beyond the end of this fiscal year could be pushed back. "We're already talking to our partners about delays in milestones that may be necessary if we don't get the funding we want," he said. There could also be modifications to the Commercial Resupply Services contracts NASA has with Orbital Sciences and SpaceX for cargo delivery to the ISS because of sequestration, he added.

 

Meanwhile, the fiscal year 2014 budget finally appears to be on the horizon. The White House confirmed Thursday that the administration will release its 2014 budget proposal on April 10. Budget proposals are supposed to be released on the first Monday in February, but the administration postponed the release, blaming the uncertainty about sequestration and the final FY13 budget.

 

That budget proposal could include advance work on a new asteroid mission. Aviation Week reported Thursday that the budget proposal may include $100 million to start work on a mission to capture a very small asteroid and bring it to cislunar space. That funding would be spread among the human exploration and operations, science, and space technology mission directorates to begin initial planning. A study released last year by the Keck Institute of Space Studies at Caltech estimates that a near Earth asteroid seven meters in diameter could be captured and moved to high lunar orbit for about $2.6 billion.

 

On Space Coast, signs of comeback after end of an era

 

Lizette Alvarez - New York Times

 

The day after the shuttle Atlantis landed for the last time at the Kennedy Space Center on July 21, 2011, Angel Telles, a man with three master's degrees, scooped up his white Mission 101 coffee mug and drove away from NASA after 24 years on the job there. The shuttle era had ended, and with it the jobs of 8,000 NASA and civilian workers who found themselves unemployed in the midst of a harsh economic downturn and a crush of home foreclosures.

 

So great was the blow to the state and NASA's traditional space program that it put politicians, including presidential candidates, on the defensive on the campaign trail.

 

"I mean, it was happening before our very eyeballs," said Mr. Telles, 50, whose most recent job at NASA was developing requirements for new vehicles, as he recalled his last day at the space center. "This is happening to me? Really? You are in shock."

 

"But then," he added, "you say, 'I am moving on.' "

 

He did, and finally, this month, Mr. Telles landed a well-paying engineering job with the Harris Corporation, an international telecommunications equipment company. His hiring is the latest sign that nearly two years after Brevard County was left staggering from the one-two punch of the downturn and the demise of the shuttle program, the Space Coast, while still struggling, has defied the bleak predictions.

 

Private employers on the Space Coast, which includes Cocoa Beach and Merritt Island, have created more than 4,000 jobs since 2010 and have added 1,000 more this year, including jobs in aerospace, aviation, engineering and other high-technology sectors. Companies like Embraer, which makes jets, Northrop Grumman and Rocket Crafters were among those that moved here or expanded. Small businesses are also opening at a faster clip. Housing prices are rising, and the pace of foreclosures is slowing in some areas.

 

The linchpin in Brevard's recovery was a plan to diversify beyond aerospace while maintaining its astronaut aura and capitalizing on its coveted labor force: well-trained, highly educated workers with security clearance who have demonstrated the ability to launch manned spacecraft into orbit.

 

"Everyone said we were going to get hit by a Category 5 storm — board up and get ready," said Robin Fisher, a Brevard County commissioner from Titusville, which has been slower to recover than the rest of the county. "After the national program shut down, there were a lot of reasons to fail. But we didn't."

 

The future after Atlantis was in many ways guided by the lessons of Apollo. More than four decades ago, this county was built on the gold rush that resulted from the Apollo program, back when astronauts were household names and Cocoa Beach was familiar to television viewers as the home of "I Dream of Jeannie." But in 1972, President Richard M. Nixon shut down the program, decimating the communities surrounding the Kennedy Space Center.

 

An estimated 18,000 jobs were lost in 18 months. Some residents walked away from their houses.

 

"The cancellation of Apollo was much more abrupt, and it was a lot bigger," said Dale Ketcham, who is in charge of strategic alliances for Space Florida, the state's port authority for space and its economic development engine. He grew up in Cocoa Beach and was headed to college at that time. "The economy was much less robust and diversified, so there really wasn't anything else to do."

 

This time around, local and state officials had years to plan for the end of the shuttle program, which was announced by President George W. Bush in 2004, after the Columbia shuttle disintegrated on re-entry. A scaled-down program called Constellation was begun, but that was canceled by President Obama after it, too, became expensive.

 

Despite the setbacks, Brevard kept one important project: the building of Orion, a multipurpose deep-space capsule. It was the first time the Kennedy Space Center moved from launching a craft to assembling one.

 

A few months after the shuttle program closed, Boeing stepped in, announcing it would establish a headquarters at the space center for its new spaceship program to fly astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The program would create 550 jobs by 2015, a relatively small number, but one welcomed nonetheless by local and state officials.

 

The larger challenge was drafting a plan to diversify beyond the traditional parameters of government-run deep-space programs and finding a way to recoup the 8,000 lost jobs little by little.

 

But in the past three years, more companies have started to roll into Brevard. They have been enticed, in part, by government tax incentives sprinkled liberally across Florida to court business, a practice that has drawn some criticism.

 

"The problem in the past is that there was no plan of action," said Lynda Weatherman, the president of the Space Coast's Economic Development Commission. "It's as much a psychological promotion story as an economic one. It said there is a Chapter 2 in our lives. Part of the reason we got into this situation is because all we did was launch."

 

But, she cautioned, "We are not out of the woods yet."

 

Inside a state-of-the-art hangar at the Melbourne Airport, Embraer's sleek executive 10-seater jets are being assembled, outfitted and painted. Embraer, a Brazilian company that was voted a top firm to work for in the state by Florida Trend magazine, was courted by 20 states. It moved to Melbourne, a turning point for the area, and opened in February 2011.

 

One reason Embraer chose Melbourne was that it wanted the first chance at hiring laid-off shuttle workers. Forty of the employees working on its jets are former NASA contractors. Others came from an Air Force base nearby. Embraer recently announced it is building an engineering center here, too.

 

"We knew there would be very qualified people that would be valuable to us," said Gary Spulak, the president of Embraer Aircraft Holdings. He added that many of the workers already had experience with aircraft like Cessna, Piper and Gulfstream: "They were all using processes we hold in high regard."

 

The area has also seen an infusion of companies involved in suborbital spaceflight, like Rocket Crafters and Xcor Aerospace. Last month, Northrup said it planned to add 920 jobs to its aviation operation in the county.

 

Still, recovery is far from assured. The unemployment rate in Brevard was 8 percent in February, higher than Florida's average and the country's over all. About half of the laid-off shuttle workers have founds jobs here or somewhere else. The rest retired, moved away or were still looking for work, according to Lisa Rice, the president of Brevard Workforce, which helps them find jobs.

 

Severance packages will soon run out for some, raising new concerns. Underemployment is another worry. Disparities have become more pronounced; recovery has been swifter in the southern part of the county, where Melbourne is located. In Titusville, farther north, empty storefronts and houses sit forlorn. Yet there are subtle signs of recovery: An arts movement is budding, and the town's biggest mall is being redeveloped.

 

"The county has been split in two," Mr. Telles lamented.

 

He said he did what he could to market himself. He went back to school for an undergraduate degree in engineering. He learned new skills, including how to polish his résumé. But often, he said, employers saw only his degrees and former salary — and blanched.

 

"They just said, 'Do I want to pay that guy this much money before he moves on to something else?' " Mr. Telles said. On March 5, though, he started his new job at nearly the same salary he had at NASA.

 

"Things are improving," he said, "and as time goes by, it will continue to improve."

 

Closing the doors on the shuttle program

Year-and-a-half project nears its end

 

James Dean - Florida Today

 

NASA decommissioned the Merritt Island Launch Annex tracking station a week after the final shuttle landing in July 2011, ceremonially pointing a 30-foot antenna skyward.

 

Just over a year later, the station's control center, two S-band antenna stands and supporting structures were gone.

 

"It looks like a golf course now," said Dan Tweed, associate director for facilities at Kennedy Space Center.

 

The tracking station was among the first shuttle-related facilities razed at KSC, and dozens more – ranging from buildings to small substations and fuel tanks – are slated to come down over the next few years.

 

That work, plus final contract closeouts, is what remains to be done after an 18-month effort to shut down the shuttle program across the country.

 

NASA's Shuttle Transition and Retirement program officially disbands Sunday. Since September 2011, it transferred or disposed of a million line items of shuttle program property worth $18 billion, including the orbiters.

 

The fate of some of Kennedy's biggest and best-known shuttle facilities, including two vacant orbiter hangars and a mothballed launch pad, is still to be determined as NASA seeks new commercial or government users for them.

 

But as the T&R process ends, 130 facilities not wanted by NASA's exploration program or commercial partners, or otherwise deemed obsolete, are scheduled to be abandoned and eventually demolished. Another 40 already have been removed.

 

Between last year and 2015, the center expects to demolish 760,000 square feet of space, including offices inside the Vehicle Assembly Building, at an estimated cost of more than $27 million.

 

Targeted for demolition are the gantry that hoisted orbiters on and off their 747 carrier aircraft; some buildings where shuttle thrusters were serviced; a facility that hazardous operations teams used; and some Cape-side hangars.

 

Any could be saved if a partner emerges soon to take on operations and maintenance costs. The last T&R funding support dries up this month.

 

Tweed said most of the facilities are small or located in outlying areas the public rarely sees, so they're unlikely to be missed except by people who once worked in them.

 

"You don't see the orbiter rolling out or launching from them," he said.

 

More significant than the buildings to be razed has been the shuttle shutdown's human impact.

 

This month saw the last big shuttle-related layoff of more than 500 contractors; one more round is expected in early April.

 

KSC's workforce numbered 8,450 at the end of last year, according to NASA's most recent numbers, down 45 percent since mid-2009.

 

The post-shuttle demolition plan fits into a broader strategy to consolidate operations and "right-size" Kennedy into a more modern, efficient and cost-effective operation.

 

The strategy includes construction of a new Central Campus, an office and data center complex planned by 2015 whose $85 million first phase will enable demolition of another 600,000 square feet of outdated buildings, including KSC's headquarters building.

 

"It's a major transformation of the center when you include the Central Campus," said Tweed.

 

Every active facility requires power, air conditioning, water, maintenance and service calls, costs that add up over time.

 

As agency budgets shrink or remain flat in the coming years, there's little room to feel sentimental about knocking down facilities that aren't essential to future missions.

 

"We're saving money because we have to, because the budget's not there, and this helps us preserve the things that we need to keep," said Tweed.

 

NASA and TopCoder to issue Robonaut 2 'sight' challenge

 

Emi Kolawole - Washington Post

 

NASA Tournament Lab is launching two new competitions, this time to give Robonaut 2, the humanoid robot aboard the international space station, the gift of improved "sight." The challenges are the latest offered by the Tournament Lab in conjunction with the open innovation platform TopCoder.

 

The first competition calls on participants to figure out how to enable Robonaut 2, or R2, to identify buttons and switches on a console fitted with LED lights. The winning entry would be in the form of an algorithm application that works seamlessly with R2's cameras in different lighting conditions. The second competition will build off the first, calling on competitors to write an algorithm that controls the robot's motions based on the new "sight" capability.

 

The first phase of the competition officially launches Saturday, with a formal announcement scheduled for Monday, according to a TopCoder spokesman. The winner of the first phase of the competition will receive $10,000.

 

"We're right in the middle of advancing and testing robotics using the space station right now," said Jason Crusan, Director of NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems division during a call Friday. "This is kind of the right time to onramp other solutions to these image processing problems — other than the ones we have come up with."

 

Robonaut 2 was developed and designed to operate as if it were a humanoid, making sight one of its primary tools. The robot currently employs a two-camera view system. "We definitely need the vision piece," said Crusan.

 

The technology participants will be called on to create has wider applications beyond R2, said Crusan. And the innovator who submits a solution will not be barred from being able to use the code elsewhere, including making commercial products. But the winning entry is sent back into open source to guarantee that NASA and others can use it.

 

Past technology to emerge from the Robonaut program, a partnership between NASA and General Motors, has been the K-glove, which GM factory workers use, said Julia Badger, the ISS Applications Lead for the Robonaut 2 project. "That's an immediate very quick thing that has spun off."

 

"It's a pretty exciting time to see how robots and humans now will be working together," said Crusan. "A lot of us dreamed about the future of robotics. … We're given a chance to actually live it."

 

Eventually, the goal is to get R2 to take on even more of the mundane tasks currently undertaken by astronauts, freeing up the astronauts to spend more time with hands-on experimentation. The robot is slated to get an additional set of arms, which the team calls "legs." They should allow R2 to take care of simple cleaning tasks, among other routine responsibilities.

 

The competitions are part of another shift in the way in which the general public relates with NASA. Rather than having all prototyping, development and construction happen within NASA's walls or with contractors, the agency is offering a bit of the glory of working on the nation's space program to anyone with the technological chops. In the wake of the end of the agency's iconic shuttle program, the competitions provide a new way in which to enjoy NASA.

 

"Challenges allow people to feel that they are part of their space program," said Crusan, "It's not insignificant in the big story of what we're doing here."

 

Astronaut Celebrates Easter in Space (Easter Eggs, Included)

 

Tariq Malik - Space.com

 

Children around the world aren't the only ones having an Easter egg hunt today. Astronauts in space will get Easter treats, too.

 

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who commands the International Space Station, made sure that the Easter Bunny would make a special trip to the orbital lab today (March 31) just in time for an Easter celebration in space.

 

"Good Morning, Earth! A fine Easter Sunday morning to you from the crew of the International Space Station," Hadfield wrote in a post on Twitter, where he is chronicling his mission under the name @Cmdr_Hadfield.

 

Hadfield snapped a sunrise photo of Earth on Easter showing the sun glinting off the Great Lakes in North America this morning to mark the occasion. Then he revealed his Easter secret.

 

"Don't tell my crew, but I brought them Easter Eggs :)," Hadfield wrote as he posted a photo of his space Easter treats.

 

In the photo, six large plastic Easter eggs — each a different color —float inside a plastic bag while Hadfield presses a finger to his lips in a "Shh" gesture.

 

 

Easter Sunday is a day off for the space station crew because it falls on a weekend. Hadfield is Canada's first commander of the station and took charge of the orbiting laboratory earlier in March.

 

Hadfield's Expedition 35 crew includes himself, two Americans and three Russians. Three crewmembers, American astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin, just arrived at the station on Thursday (March 28).

 

Astronauts in space have a long tradition of spending holidays in space dating back decades to the early days of human spaceflight, when NASA astronauts celebrated Christmas orbiting the moon during the 1968 Apollo 8 mission.

 

Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Year's Day and other traditional holidays from Russia and other space station partner countries have been celebrated in space since the first crew took up residence in the orbiting laboratory in 2000. The space station has been manned by rotating crews ever since.

 

Hadfield has shown a dedication to marking holidays off the planet. In March, he donned a green shirt and bowtie for St. Patrick's Day, and in February he wore a heart headband for Valentine's Day and a funny hat and necklace for Mardi Gras.

 

Hadfield and two Expedition 35 crewmates — NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko — are due to return to Earth in May. They have been living on the space station in since mid-December.

 

NASA stitching Orion components together at Marshall Space Flight Center

 

Jason Rhian - AmericaSpace.com

 

NASA's engineers have been assembling the components for the flight test article that will fly on the Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) mission at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Ala. These elements will now be used to connect the Orion spacecraft to the United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy that will ferry this iteration of Orion to orbit.

 

EFT-1 will be used to validate the heat shield, avionics, and other flight systems that will be used on crewed versions of NASA's newest spacecraft.

 

NASA plans to use Orion as well as the space agency's new heavy-lift booster, the Space Launch System, or SLS, which is slated to conduct its first test flight in 2017.

 

"While the adapters are identical and are considered flight articles, only one will actually be used for EFT-1," said Brent Gaddes, Spacecraft & Payload Integration Subsystem manager. "The other will undergo strenuous structural testing to ensure quality, while its twin will make the trip to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for integration into the rest of the test vehicle for launch."

 

The work is being conducted at the MSFC's Building 4755, where welders have been using modern friction stir-welding techniques to assemble the conical interstage assembly. The process involves the vertical welding machine stitching panels together to produce this essential piece of flight hardware.

 

"You really don't have the tools and the resources in one place anywhere else in the world," said Justin Littell, a mechanical engineer with the welding group at the Marshall Center. "The work that we do here is exciting, and I get to work with a great team. It's amazing."

 

Various sections for the EFT-1 mission are starting to come together at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This spring, United Launch Alliance is scheduled to deliver the core segment of the Delta IV Heavy that will power the EFT-1 Orion to high-Earth orbit. Engineers there will test the fit of the interstage assembly with the rocket's upper stage.

 

Portions of this article were made using a NASA article detailing the Interstage Assembly.

 

Ultra-heavy booster needed to prevent Earth from asteroids – Energia head says

 

Itar-Tass

 

An ultra-heavy booster is needed to be created in order to prevent the Earth from asteroids and comets, head of the Russian space rocket corporation, Energia, Vitaly Lopota said on Friday.

 

The booster should be designed on the basis of the existing flying components, which have been created within the Energia booster program, Lopota said. "Such booster will be able to carry and deploy detection and tracking system elements [a thermonuclear warhead if it necessary] near dangerous space facilities," the corporation's head explained.

 

He noted that the Energia Corporation considered it necessary to develop Russia's system to monitor asteroids. "We propose to fulfill this task by using three spacecraft deployed in the Langrage points in the Earth-Moon system," Lopota said.

 

At the same time, he said, "The ISS [International Space Station] should be used as the base to practice technology and cooperation."

 

In his view, in order to resolve this issue different organizations and enterprises should maintain cooperation, including on the international arena. "Domestic and foreign space organizations, institutes and companies with which we develop cooperation show interests in our proposals," Lopota stressed.

 

China's space station to welcome int'l scientists

 

Xinhua News Service

 

China's planned space station will offer scientists from around the world opportunities for research and experimentation, the lead designer of China's manned space program told Xinhua on Friday.

 

Zhou Jianping said the space station, which is expected to be built by 2020 and is aimed at engaging in space exploration and research on space resources, will include three capsules. It will be capable of docking one freight spacecraft and two manned spacecraft, and the entire system will weigh over 90 tonnes.

 

The space station has been designed to accommodate three Chinese astronauts who will work in half-year shifts during its operation period, but new capsules can be added as needed for scientific research, Zhou said.

 

"In light of the current demand and cost factors, we are not going to build an international space station, but one of moderate size that meets the demands of scientific experimentation and technological testing, and its flexibility in adding capsules will enable us to adapt to the demands of the most state-of-the-art technological research," Zhou said.

 

Group raising money to let 'Star Trek' fans see NASA video

 

Robert Stanton - Houston Chronicle

 

Many lovers of manned space flight can recite William Shatner's words from memory:

 

"Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before."

 

Now, the Aerospace Industries Association wants to place NASA's exciting video "We Are the Explorers" before moviegoers who turn out see Star Trek Into Darkness, which hits the big screen in May.

 

The NASA-produced video, narrated by actor Peter Cullen of Transformers fame, celebrates humankind's inherent need to explore through the past, present and future.

 

There's a catch: As a federal agency, NASA can't run commercials -- a problem both for rallying broader public support and fostering the next generation of astronauts, according to engadget.com. So the AIA has taken the unusual step of crowdfunding an ad purchase to get the American space program in front of as many eyes as possible, engadget reports.

 

"We Are the Explorers" shows how humanity constantly has reached for new heights, broken new boundaries and taken steps that previously were considered impossible. The video highlights NASA's tradition of exploration, from the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs, to the space shuttle and International Space Station. It looks ahead to vehicles being built now that will take humans farther than they ever have gone, including the new Orion crew vehicle and Space Launch System.

 

"NASA and its missions – historic, present and future – have the ability to inspire," Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations, stated in a press release. "This video celebrates not only the historic steps we have made as an agency, but also the great journeys that await us as we operate the orbiting laboratory that is the International Space Station and build the vehicles necessary to expand human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit."

 

The video is available to view on a variety of NASA and social media Web sites. It also can be freely used by teachers and students for educational purposes.

 

'We Are the Explorers' NASA video may appear as trailer prior to 'Star Trek: Into Darkness'

 

Jason Rhian - AmericaSpace.org

 

It might seem like a silly idea to some, but a 30-second spot derived from a larger NASA video – could be one of the trailers that will appear when the new movie, Star Trek: Into Darkness opens in theaters this May. The effort to have the "We are the Explorers" trailer appear before the movie was started under an Indiegogo campaign that sought to reach a goal of $33,000. It reached that amount in five days.

 

According to an article appearing on the website "The Verge", the effort to place a trailer promoting the efforts of the U.S. space agency was started by the Aerospace Industries Association of America or "AIA."

 

Now, one might ask, why NASA did not conduct this effort and put up the funds for this project itself? Simple – the space agency is forbidden to do so. Federal law will not allow NASA to promote its work in such a fashion.

 

The AIA opted to nullify this problem on their own. They worked to shrink the two-minute 36 second video into a 30-second spot that would be shown prior to what will likely be one of the largest films of the summer. Star Trek: Into Darkness will hit theaters on May. 17.

 

We are the Explorers was produced by NASA last year. The video lasts for about two and a half minutes. It is voiced by Peter Cullen, the voice of the Autobot leader Optimus Prime.

 

Buzz Aldrin's Vision for Mars Exploration Detailed in New Book

 

Space.com

 

Pioneering astronaut Buzz Aldrin made history as the second man to walk on the moon in 1969, just after Neil Armstrong during the historic Apollo 11 lunar landing mission. More than four decades later, he wants NASA to set its sights on more ambitious destinations, far beyond the moon. Aldrin's target: Mars.

 

In his upcoming book, "Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration" (National Geographic Books), Buzz Aldrin argues that NASA should strive to put humans on the Red Planet by the mid-2030s and he lays out a plan for how to make it happen.

 

"Do not put NASA astronauts on the moon. They have other places to go," Aldrin said in the statement.

 

The book will apparently delve into Aldrin's past — including his service as an Air Force pilot during the Korean War, his initial rejection by NASA and his voyage to the moon — but also promises a critique of current space policy, examining the economic, political and technological viability of various options to explore the solar system.

 

In the 1980s, Aldrin adapted his expertise in orbital rendezvous to conceptualize the "Aldrin Mars Cycler," a spacecraft transportation system perpetually cycling between Earth and Mars that would make it possible to ferry astronauts back and forth to the Red Planet.

 

Aldrin has co-authored more than six books and the new one, which will hit stores on May 7, was co-written with space journalist Leonard David, who is a frequent contributor to SPACE.com.

 

Yvonne Brill, a Pioneering Rocket Scientist, Dies at 88

 

Douglas Martin - New York Times

 

She was a brilliant rocket scientist who followed her husband from job to job and took eight years off from work to raise three children. "The world's best mom," her son Matthew said.

 

Yvonne Brill, who died on Wednesday at 88 in Princeton, N.J., in the early 1970s invented a propulsion system to help keep communications satellites from slipping out of their orbits.

 

The system became the industry standard, and it was the achievement President Obama mentioned in 2011 in presenting her with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.

 

Her personal and professional balancing act also won notice. In 1980, Harper's Bazaar magazine and the DeBeers Corporation gave her their Diamond Superwoman award for returning to a successful career after starting a family.

 

Mrs. Brill — she preferred to be called Mrs., her son said — is believed to have been the only woman in the United States who was actually doing rocket science in the mid-1940s, when she worked on the first designs for an American satellite.

 

It was a distinction she earned in the face of obstacles, beginning when the University of Manitoba in Canada refused to let her major in engineering because there were no accommodations for women at an outdoor engineering camp, which students were required to attend.

 

"You just have to be cheerful about it and not get upset when you get insulted," she once said.

 

Mrs. Brill's development of a more efficient rocket thruster to keep orbiting satellites in place allowed satellites to carry less fuel and more equipment and to stay in space longer. The thrusters have the delicate task of maneuvering a weightless satellite that can tip the scales at up to 5,000 pounds on Earth.

 

Mrs. Brill contributed to the propulsion systems of Tiros, the first weather satellite; Nova, a series of rocket designs that were used in American moon missions; the Atmosphere Explorer, the first upper-atmosphere satellite; and the Mars Observer, which in 1992 almost entered a Mars orbit before losing communication with Earth.

 

From 1981 to 1983, Mrs. Brill worked for NASA developing the rocket motor for the space shuttle. In a statement after Mrs. Brill's death, Michael Griffin, president of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, praised her as "a pioneering spirit" who coupled "a clear vision of what the future of an entire area of systems should be with the ingenuity and genius necessary to make that vision a reality."

 

Yvonne Madelaine Claeys was born on Dec. 30, 1924, in St. Vital, a suburb of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her parents had separately immigrated from Flanders, in Belgium. Her father was a carpenter.

 

After the University of Manitoba barred her from the engineering program, she studied mathematics and chemistry instead and graduated at the top of her class. Her lack of an engineering degree did not prevent her from getting a job with Douglas Aircraft in Santa Monica, Calif.

 

"Nobody had the right degrees back then, so it didn't matter," she told The Star-Ledger of Newark in 2010. "I didn't have engineering, but the engineers didn't have the chemistry and math."

 

She never received a professional engineer's license, but did pick up a master's in chemistry at the University of Southern California while working as a saleswoman for a chemical company. Afterward she went to work for Douglas, whose satellite project became the foundation of the RAND Corporation, an early research center. It was at RAND that she worked on the first American satellite designs, remaining there for three years. While still peddling chemicals, she met William Franklin Brill, a research chemist, at a talk by Linus Pauling, who would win one of his Nobel Prizes in chemistry. At one point Mr. Brill told her about his problems making a particular chemical in his lab. She replied that she could sell it to him by the pound at a very low price. Soon, the couple went square-dancing, only to discover that they both hated it. They found other interests, and married in 1951. He died in 2010.

 

They moved to Connecticut in 1952 when Mr. Brill got a job there. She followed him again when he later got a job in New Jersey. She did not mind the moves, her son Matthew said. She would say, "Good husbands are harder to find than good jobs."

 

Still, she managed to find jobs that allowed her to continue to work on rockets. One was at Wright Aeronautical in New Jersey. She left the company in 1958, however, to care for her young children, keeping her hand in the field by working part-time as a consultant for the FMC Corporation. In 1966, she went back to work full time, taking a job at RCA's rocket subsidiary. Soon she doing the work that won international acclaim.

 

Mrs. Brill patented her propulsion system for satellites in 1972, and the first communications satellite using it was launched in 1983. It is still being used by satellites that handle worldwide phone service, long-range television broadcasts and other tasks.

 

Part of Mrs. Brill's rationale for going into rocket engineering was that virtually no other women were doing so. "I reckoned they would not invent rules to discriminate against one person," she said in a 1990 interview.

 

Throughout her career Mrs. Brill encouraged women to become engineers and scientists, starting by telling high school girls to stick with math. In her last week of life, she was still writing letters recommending eminent women in engineering for professional awards.

 

Her own many awards include the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal in 2001 and top honors from several major engineering societies.

 

Matthew Brill said his mother died of complications of breast cancer. She lived in Skillman, N.J. Mrs. Brill is also survived by another son, Joseph; a daughter, Naomi Brill; and four grandchildren.

 

In 2010, when Mrs. Brill was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, The Washington Post began its article about the event by lauding two other honorees, Arthur Fry and Spencer Silver, the inventors of Post-its. The article went on to suggest that it took two men to create an adhesive stationery but only one woman to figure out how to keep satellites in place.

 

Yvonne Brill, pioneer in spacecraft propulsion, dies at 88

 

Martin Weil - Washington Post

 

Yvonne Brill, a pioneer in spacecraft propulsion who suspended a promising career to raise three children and then returned to work full time to achieve her greatest engineering successes, died March 27 at a hospital in Princeton, N.J. She was 88.

 

She had complications from breast cancer, her son Matthew Brill said.

 

At a time of debate over women's prospects for both having a family and reaching the highest career levels, accounts of Mrs. Brill's life suggest that she managed to "have it all." She was internationally respected in her field and spoke openly about the struggles she faced in being devoted to family and work.

 

As a specialist in the chemistry of propulsion, she made vital contributions to the operation of the orbiting space satellites that have become essential to modern life, placing the most remote areas of the globe in virtually instantaneous communication. She held a patent for a widely used propulsion system.

 

She was described by a women's engineering organization in 1945 as being possibly the only woman with a technical job who was involved in rocket propulsion.

 

In 2011, President Obama awarded her the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. In 1987, when scarcely any women were members, she was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

 

Mrs. Brill left full-time engineering work in the late 1950s when pregnant with her first child. She continued to do consulting work and returned to the rigors of a demanding career when she joined RCA Astro Electronics in 1966.

 

"I really wanted to go back to work," she said in an interview with the Society of Women Engineers. Still, she said, it was not easy: "I felt very put upon."

 

But she accepted the difficulties and lack of time for herself because "I was happy in my job, I liked what I was doing." In addition, she said, "I felt that I was making real progress .?.?. introducing all these new ideas."

 

Yvonne Madelaine Claeys was born Dec. 30, 1924, in a suburb of Winnipeg, in the Canadian province of Manitoba, to parents who emigrated from Belgium and who, she once recalled, probably never finished high school.

 

She said she "just sort of didn't really realize that I was relatively intelligent until I got to high school and started to get top marks."

 

Her father, she once said, believed that when she finished her education, she should "open up a small dress shop" or similar enterprise. But, she said, "I just wasn't cut out for that."

 

After graduating from the University of Manitoba in mathematics in 1945, she went to work for the Douglas Aircraft Co. in California and gravitated to the chemistry of propellants.

 

While in the Los Angeles area, she received a master's degree in chemistry from the University of Southern California.

 

While at a chemistry lecture, she met her future husband, Bill Brill, who held a PhD in chemistry. Later they faced a challenge: His job opportunities were in the east, hers in the west.

 

Her decision to follow his career, she said, was based on her belief that "good jobs are easier to find than good husbands." The saying became part of family lore.

 

The couple moved east, eventually settling near Princeton. It was in the year after her 1966 return to full-time work that she created the hydrazine resistojet, which is also known as the electrothermal hydrazine thruster.

 

It provides an effective way of adjusting the positions of communications and monitoring satellites to ensure proper operation. The achievement required Mrs. Brill to work many nights and weekends.

 

From 1981 to 1983, she worked at NASA headquarters in Washington as a manager in a solid rocket motor unit. She had also worked in London for the International Maritime Satellite Organization and was known for fostering the careers of women in technical fields.

 

Mrs. Brill was inducted in 2010 into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, along with the two co-

inventors of Post-it notes, prompting a Washington Post reporter to write that it required two men for the stationery item, but only one woman for the space thruster.

 

Her husband died in 2010 after 58 years of marriage. Survivors include three children, Matthew Brill of Swedesboro, N.J., Joseph Brill of Denver and Naomi Brill of St. Paul, Minn.; and four grandchildren.

 

As described by her son Matthew, Mrs. Brill's idea for the space propulsion system was to reheat the ejected propellant before it left the nozzle. It enhanced efficiency, cut costs, reduced the payload weight and extended the useful life of the satellites.

 

The device was "a very simple idea," her son said. "Mom always felt fortunate that she was lucky enough to think it up."

 

Origin of April Fool's Day

The history of April Fool's Day or All Fool's Day is uncertain, but the current thinking is that it began around 1582 in France with the reform of the calendar under Charles IX. The Gregorian Calendar was introduced, and New Year's Day was moved from March 25 - April 1 (new year's week) to January 1.

 

Communication traveled slowly in those days and some people were only informed of the change several years later. Still others, who were more rebellious refused to acknowledge the change and continued to celebrate on the last day of the former celebration, April 1. 

 

These people were labeled "fools" by the general populace, were subject to ridicule and sent on "fool errands," sent invitations to nonexistent parties and had other practical jokes played upon them. The butts of these pranks became known as a "poisson d'avril" or "April fish" because a young naive fish is easily caught. In addition, one common practice was to hook a paper fish on the back of someone as a joke.

 

This harassment evolved over time and a custom of prank-playing continue on the first day of April. This tradition eventually spread elsewhere like to Britain and Scotland in the 18th century and was introduced to the American colonies by the English and the French. Because of this spread to other countries, April Fool's Day has taken on an international flavor with each country celebrating the holiday in its own way.

 

In Scotland, for instance, April Fool's Day is devoted to spoofs involving the buttocks and as such is called Taily Day. The butts of these jokes are known as April 'Gowk,' another name for cuckoo bird. The origins of the "Kick Me" sign can be traced back to the Scottish observance.

 

In England, jokes are played only in the morning. Fools are called 'gobs' or 'gobby' and the victim of a joke is called a 'noodle.' It was considered back luck to play a practical joke on someone after noon.

 

In Rome, the holiday is known as Festival of Hilaria, celebrating the resurrection of the god Attis, is on March 25 and is also referred to as "Roman Laughing Day."

 

In Portugal, April Fool's Day falls on the Sunday and Monday before lent. In this celebration, many people throw flour at their friends.

 

The Huli Festival is celebrated on March 31 in India. People play jokes on one another and smear colors on one another celebrating the arrival of Spring.

 

So, no matter where you happen to be in the world on April 1, don't be surprised if April fools fall playfully upon you.

 

Mark Twain on Fools

 

·         It's better to keep your mouth shut & be thought a fool than to open it & leave no doubt.

·         Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed.

·         The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year.

 

END