Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - May 10, 2013 and JSC Today

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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: May 10, 2013 5:53:13 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - May 10, 2013 and JSC Today

Happy Friday everyone.   Have a great weekend and be careful on the rain slick roads.   Happy Mother's Day too.

 

 

Friday, May 10, 2013

 

JSC TODAY HEADLINES

1.            All Hands with NASA Administrator and JSC Director -- May 16

2.            Share Astronaut Karen Nyberg's Special Message of ISS Benefits

3.            Latest International Space Station Research

4.            New Features: Innovation 2013 Kickoff, and SCH Has Another Way to Inspire

5.            When Coping Does More Harm Than Good

6.            INCOSE Texas Gulf Coast Chapter May 17 Event

________________________________________     NASA FACT

" A test version of NASA's Orion spacecraft landed safely during a simulation of two types of parachute failures. In the test, conducted in Yuma, Ariz. on May 1, a mock Orion capsule was traveling about 250 mph when the parachutes were deployed - the highest speed in the test series."

________________________________________

1.            All Hands with NASA Administrator and JSC Director -- May 16

Please plan to join NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden and JSC Director Dr. Ellen Ochoa next Thursday, May 16, from 9 to 10 a.m. for an all-hands meeting in the Building 2 South Teague Auditorium.

JSC employees unable to attend in the Teague Auditorium can view it on RF Channel 2 or Omni 45. Those with wired computer network connections can view the All Hands using onsite IPTV on channel 402 (standard definition). Please note: IPTV works best with Internet Explorer. If you are having problems viewing the video using these systems, contact the Information Resources Directorate Customer Support Center at x46367.

Event Date: Thursday, May 16, 2013   Event Start Time:9:00 AM   Event End Time:10:00 AM

Event Location: Teague Auditorium

 

Add to Calendar

 

JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111

 

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2.            Share Astronaut Karen Nyberg's Special Message of ISS Benefits

NASA astronaut and mom Karen Nyberg, who is headed to the International Space Station on May 28, has a special message just in time for Mother's Day. Nyberg expresses the importance of the space station and the science being done onboard that help improve life on Earth. Please take a minute to check out the new video and share it with your friends, family and social networks.

Learn more about the space station's benefits.

Megan Sumner 281-792-7520

 

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3.            Latest International Space Station Research

Study up on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) for Nobel Laureate Professor Samuel Ting's visit to JSC next week!

In the first 18 months of operations on the International Space Station, AMS-02 recorded 6.8 million positron (an antimatter particle with the mass of an electron but a positive charge) and electron events produced from cosmic ray collisions. These events were used to determine the positron fraction, the ratio of positrons to the total number of electrons and positrons.

The positron fraction increased steadily from 10 GeV to 250 GeV, indicating the existence of a currently unidentified source of positrons.

So far the evidence supports the hypothesis of dark matter, but does not rule out another possibility -- that the positron excess could be from pulsars.

You can read Dr. Ting's recent publication on these findings here.

Liz Warren x35548

 

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4.            New Features: Innovation 2013 Kickoff, and SCH Has Another Way to Inspire

Miss the Innovation 2013 kickoff in the Teague on May 2? Live vicariously through photos taken from the event.

Has the rumor mill got you wondering if Space Center Houston is going to get another shuttle treasure? Wonder no more! Visit JSC Features or the JSC home page to learn more about this exciting expansion to our visitor center.

It's all new and on the Web for your reading enjoyment.

JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x33317

 

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5.            When Coping Does More Harm Than Good

Have you ever found yourself wondering why you can't get back to feeling like your normal self? You try the usual coping and there are hardly any changes. Now, imagine you're a teenager and you're feeling this way -- OMG! Tweens, teens and young adults often use coping techniques that only reduce symptoms while maintaining and strengthening the problem. Learn the maladaptive coping skills of this population, identify the signs of harmful coping and how to support those impacted. Please join Anika Isaac, MS, LPC, LMFT, LCDC, CEAP, NCC, of the JSC Employee Assistance Program on Thursday, May 16, in Building 17, Room 2026, at 12:30 p.m. If you can't make it in person, feel free to dial in to 888-370-7263 - pass code 8811760.

Event Date: Thursday, May 16, 2013   Event Start Time:12:30 PM   Event End Time:1:30 PM

Event Location: Building 17, Room 2026

 

Add to Calendar

 

Lorrie Bennett, Employee Assistance Program, Clinical Services Branch x36130

 

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6.            INCOSE Texas Gulf Coast Chapter May 17 Event

The next International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) Texas Gulf Coast Chapter event is shared with the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Annual Technical Symposium at the Gilruth on May 17.

The symposium will have a Systems Engineering track, including presentations on: Model-Based Systems Engineering with SysML: An Approach for Reducing Cost and Improving Quality; How to Fail at Model-Based Systems Engineering; MBSE without a Process-Based Data Architecture is Just a Set of Random Characters; The NASA Integrated Model-Centric Architecture Team; and Technology Development Environment for Exploration. Registration and the full abstracts are available.

If you have questions, please contact Larry Spratlin at 281-461-5218 or via email.

Larry Spratlin 281-461-5278

 

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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:

·         ~4 pm Central (5 EDT) – ISS Program Status Press Briefing

·         ~8:35 am Central SATURDAY (9:35 EDT) – EVA by Tom Marshburn & Chris Cassidy to investigate the 2B coolant leak (approval pending MMT outcome this morning)

·         2:40 pm Central SUNDAY (3:40 EDT) – E35/36 Chg of Cmd Ceremony (Hadfield to Vinogradov)

 

Human Spaceflight News

Friday, May 10, 2013

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

Pending management approval

Spacewalk on tap Saturday to pin down leak location

 

William Harwood – CBS News

 

Pending final approval, two NASA astronauts are gearing up to venture outside the International Space Station Saturday for a hurriedly planned spacewalk to look for the source of an ammonia coolant leak in the Iab's left-side solar power truss, NASA officials said early Friday. "We are absolutely, 100 percent ready for the EVA," station commander Chris Hadfield told flight controllers shortly after wakeup Friday. "I think it's really smart the way we're all proceeding here, it's the right thing to do and everybody on board is gearing up for it." Astronauts Thomas Marshburn and Christopher Cassidy planned to spend much of the day preparing their spacesuits, charging batteries and reviewing spacewalk procedures. Assuming final clearance by NASA managers later Friday, they will venture out of the Quest airlock module around 9:35 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) Saturday and move out to the far left end of the station's solar array truss to look for the source of the leak.

 

NASA: Space station power system radiator leaking

 

Seth Borenstein - Associated Press

 

The International Space Station has a radiator leak in its power system. The outpost's commander calls the situation serious, but not life-threatening. The six-member crew on Thursday noticed white flakes of ammonia leaking out of the station. Ammonia runs through multiple radiator loops to cool the station's power system. NASA said the leak is increasing from one previously leaking loop that can be bypassed if needed. NASA spokesman Bob Jacobs said engineers are working on rerouting electronics just in case the loop shuts down. The Earth-orbiting station has backup systems. Space station Commander Chris Hadfield of Canada tweeted that the problem, while serious, was stabilized. Officials will know more Friday. The space station always has enough emergency escape ships for the crew, but there are no plans to use them. (NO FURTHER TEXT)

 

NASA Troubleshoots Growing ISS Thermal Control System Leak

 

Mark Carreau - Aviation Week

 

NASA flight control teams began powering down systems aboard the International Space Station late Thursday, after the six man crew spotted a growing ammonia coolant leak from the orbiting science lab's oldest U. S. segment solar power system segment. The seepage from the near 13-year-old thermal cooling loops of the P-6 solar array segment were spotted by ISS commander Chris Hadfield earlier in the day, and confirmed as increasing through telemetry monitored by NASA's Mission Control and video imagery transmitted over external station video cameras.

 

NASA troubleshooting space station coolant leak

 

Todd Halvorson - Florida Today

 

The International Space Station's cooling system sprang a leak outside the outpost Thursday, raising the possibility of a partial system shutdown in the coming days, NASA officials said. The six astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the station are in no danger. But the system is critical to dispelling heat generated during the operation of station systems, so flight controllers immediately began an effort to isolate the leak. A partial shutdown of the cooling system could force the crew to stop some station operations until the problem is fixed. Astronauts spotted small white flakes of frozen ammonia coolant leaking from the end of the station's girder-like central truss.

 

NASA: International Space Station has ammonia leak in cooling system

 

CNN

 

Crew members aboard the International Space Station are awaiting word on how to deal with leaking ammonia from an outside cooling system, NASA said Thursday in a news release. The six-man crew is not in danger, NASA said. The space station crew reported seeing small white flakes floating away from the station, the space agency said. NASA helped locate the leak with external cameras while the crew used hand-held cameras pointed out windows.

 

Ammonia leak detected outside International Space Station

 

Sharon Bernstein - Reuters

 

An ammonia leak was detected in the cooling system outside of the International Space Station on Thursday, but no crew members are in danger and the station is operating normally, the U.S. space agency NASA said on its website. Crew members at the orbital outpost spotted white flakes of ammonia floating away from the space station at about 9:30 a.m. EDT (1330 GMT) on Thursday, NASA said, and fixing the leak might require that a portion of the station's cooling system be shut down for about 48 hours. "The station continues to operate normally otherwise and the crew is in no danger," it said.

 

Space Station Leaking Vital Coolant, NASA Says

 

Clara Moskowitz - Space.com

 

Astronauts on the International Space Station have discovered a leak of ammonia coolant on their orbiting habitat, and NASA is looking into the problem, though it poses no immediate danger to the crew, officials said Thursday. The space station uses chilled liquid ammonia to cool down the power systems on its eight giant solar array panels. A minor leak of this ammonia was first noticed in 2007, and NASA has been studying the issue ever since. In November 2012 two astronauts took a spacewalk to fix the problem, rewiring some coolant lines and installing a spare radiator due to fears the original radiator was damaged by a micrometeorite impact.

 

Space Station Cooling Unit Springs Leak

 

Jason Rhian - AmericaSpace.com

 

According to reports on Space Safety Magazine, The International Space Station (ISS), has sprung a leak in a section of its cooling system in the same vicinity as a leak that required a spacewalk in 2012. NASA is unsure if this most recent leak is related to the one that occurred last November. The space station's crew needs the systems to rein in the heat caused by the systems onboard the orbiting laboratory. The Expedition 35 crew noted white flakes floating outside the station on May 9, using a variety of camera equipment, the leak was discovered.

 

Minnesota astronaut prepares for second mission to ISS

 

KARE TV (Minneapolis)

 

A Minnesota native is preparing for her second mission to space. Astronaut Karen Nyberg, from Vining, Minnesota, is one of three people headed back to the International Space Station for research.

 

Dream Chaser Completes Safety Review

 

Jason Rhian - AmericaSpace.com

 

The Dream Chaser space plane, in development by Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), under NASA's commercial efforts to deliver astronauts to the International Space Station – is one milestone closer to launch. Dream Chaser has wrapped up the Integrated Systems Safety Analysis Review gave NASA reports detailing hazard, safety and reliability plans for the major elements that relate to the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket which will be used to send Dream Chaser to orbit, the integrated crew transportation system and the Dream Chaser space plane itself. Under NASA's Commercial Crew integrated Capability (CCiCap) the Louisville, Colorado-based company is working to have the craft fly crew no-earlier-than 2017.

 

What's coming for NASA's Hangar S?

Lawyer's work prompts NASA to delay facility's demolition

 

James Dean - Florida Today

 

Before NASA's first astronauts rocketed into space, they trained, slept, received medical exams and donned spacesuits in Hangar S. Their Mercury capsules were processed in the same facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, which was built to support the nation's first satellite program. President John F. Kennedy honored John Glenn's pioneering orbital flight there in 1962. Despite a history dating from the space program's origins through the shuttle era, Hangar S has not yet made the cut as one of the nearly 100 local properties NASA recognizes as historically significant. Now an Indiana man's objection to that perceived slight has forced Kennedy Space Center to take another look at its facilities and at least delay the hangar's date with a wrecking ball.

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COMPLETE STORIES

 

Pending management approval

Spacewalk on tap Saturday to pin down leak location

 

William Harwood – CBS News

 

Pending final approval, two NASA astronauts are gearing up to venture outside the International Space Station Saturday for a hurriedly planned spacewalk to look for the source of an ammonia coolant leak in the Iab's left-side solar power truss, NASA officials said early Friday.

 

"We are absolutely, 100 percent ready for the EVA," station commander Chris Hadfield told flight controllers shortly after wakeup Friday. "I think it's really smart the way we're all proceeding here, it's the right thing to do and everybody on board is gearing up for it."

 

Astronauts Thomas Marshburn and Christopher Cassidy planned to spend much of the day preparing their spacesuits, charging batteries and reviewing spacewalk procedures. Assuming final clearance by NASA managers later Friday, they will venture out of the Quest airlock module around 9:35 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) Saturday and move out to the far left end of the station's solar array truss to look for the source of the leak.

 

Located in the outboard port-six (P6) solar array truss segment, the leak was reported by the station crew around 11:30 a.m. Thursday. Hadfield said they could see "a very steady stream of flakes or bits coming out."

 

The leak is in the system used to cool electronics associated with solar array power channel 2B, one of eight fed by the station's huge solar panels, four on each end of the truss. Ammonia flowing through radiators at the base of each set of arrays is used to carry away the heat generated by the power system's batteries and other electronics.

 

The coolant system requires at least 40 pounds of ammonia to operate normally. Based on the observed leak rate, the channel 2B coolant loop was expected to drop below that level sometime Friday. Flight controllers told the crew they would reconfigure the system to provide as much cooling as possible from the channel 2A loop.

 

"We're now expecting the loop to shut down within 24 hours," astronaut Douglas Wheelock radioed the crew Thursday from mission control. "And after the loop shutdown, the loop will continue to leak out and, of course, the rate will slow as the loop pressures decrease.

 

"We're pulling together a plan now, a power plan, where we're going to try to tie as much as we can from the channel two bravo and two alpha together so that we can move some of the 2B loads to the 2A (loop). We plan to do that power reconfiguration (Friday) in advance of the loop shutdown."

 

While the crew will lose redundancy in the cooling system, flight controllers do not believe any major systems will have to be shut down to reduce cooling requirements. But cooling is critical to station operations and late Thursday, mission managers told the crew to begin gearing up for a spacewalk to help pin down the location of the leak.

 

The spacealk timeline is not yet final, but Cassidy and Marshburn presumably will inspect and photograph the area and possibly remove a coolant system flow control valve assembly near the observed location of the leak. If an obvious problem is seen, the module can be replaced with a spare.

 

"Busy night on Orbit 3 as the team prepares for an unscheduled EVA on Saturday," flight controller Bill Foster said in a Twitter posting. "Not a threat to the crew, fortunately."

 

Tweeted Flight Director Ed Van Cise: "This pm just goes to show u never really know how a day will end. Couple hours sleep then spacewalk planning resumes!"

 

The leak occurred at a particularly busy time for the station crew as Marshburn, Hadfield and cosmonaut Roman Romanenko prepare to return to Earth late Monday aboard a Russian Soyuz ferry craft to close out a 146-day stay in space.

 

A NASA spacewalk requires two U.S. crew members and with the Soyuz departure, the lab will be staffed by just one -- Cassidy -- and two cosmonauts, Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin.

 

Three fresh crew members -- NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano and cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin -- are expected to arrive at the end of the month.

 

Flight controllers told the crew late Thursday that the Soyuz departure was expected to remain on track Monday despite the leak and the unplanned spacewalk.

 

"Once it's done the shutdown in anticipation of it bleeding out, are we going to be in a good, stable, long-term config so that we can just undock as planned?" Hadfield asked.

 

"And Chris, we don't have the full plan for the long-range power down, but ... we don't see anything technically that we can't overcome with the undocking," Wheelock replied. "But we are still getting our arms fully around that issue."

 

This is not the first time a leak has been observed in the channel 2B system.

 

A slight 1.5-pound-per-year leak in the channel 2B cooling system was first noticed in 2007. During a 2011 shuttle visit, two spacewalking astronauts added eight pounds of ammonia to the reservoir to boost it back up to a full 55 pounds. The plan at that time was to top off the system every four years or so to "feed the leak," replacing the lost ammonia as required.

 

But over the next few months, engineers saw the leak rate suddenly quadruple, either because something changed at the original leak site or, more likely, because another leak developed elsewhere in the system.

 

On the assumption that the leak was in the solar array 2B coolant radiator, astronauts Sunita Williams and Akihiko Hoshide staged a spacewalk Nov. 1, 2012, to reconfigure coolant lines and to deploy a spare radiator, isolating the section of the loop where the leak was suspected.

 

The system operated normally until Thursday when the crew reported the visible leak. Whether the latest problem is related to the earlier issue is not yet known.

 

The lion's share of the International Space Station's electrical power comes from four sets of dual-panel solar arrays, two on the right side of a 357-foot-long truss and two on the left side.

 

Each set of solar arrays features two 115-foot-long panels that extended in opposite directions. The Russian segment of the station taps into the U.S. power grid to supplement electricity generated by two relatively small solar panels on the Zvezda command module.

 

The two U.S. arrays at the far left end of the station's integrated power truss feed power to electrical channels 2B and 4B. The P6 set of arrays, like its three counterparts, routes power from the solar panels directly into the station's electrical grid during daylight passes, at the same time charging dual sets of batteries that take over during orbital darkness.

 

Each power channel generates between 150 and 160 volts of direct current, but downstream equipment near the center of the power truss -- equipment that uses a separate cooling system -- steps that down to 125 volts DC for use by the station's internal systems.

 

To keep the power generation components cool, each of the four sets of arrays uses two independent coolant loops that circulate ammonia through cold plates to carry heat out to a single shared radiator that extends from each module. The photo-voltaic radiator weighs 1,650 pounds and is made up of seven panels measuring 6 feet by 11 feet.

 

The space station can operate without the full complement of cooling channels, but the total loss of a coolant loop would require a significant reconfiguration to prevent electrical systems on the affected loop from overheating.

 

NASA Troubleshoots Growing ISS Thermal Control System Leak

 

Mark Carreau - Aviation Week

 

NASA flight control teams began powering down systems aboard the International Space Station late Thursday, after the six man crew spotted a growing ammonia coolant leak from the orbiting science lab's oldest U. S. segment solar power system segment.

 

The seepage from the near 13-year-old thermal cooling loops of the P-6 solar array segment were spotted by ISS commander Chris Hadfield earlier in the day, and confirmed as increasing through telemetry monitored by NASA's Mission Control and video imagery transmitted over external station video cameras.

 

Unabated the leak was growing fast enough to trigger an automatic shutdown of the cooling loop on Friday. Port and starboard side external radiators circulate ammonia to remove heat generated by the solar power system and electronics within the station's life support, research labs and other systems. The cooling requirements ease as the power draw is decreased by shutting down equipment that is not essential. Thermal control can be assigned to a second cooling apparatus as well.

 

The leak surfaced just four days before Hadfield, U. S. astronaut Tom Marshburn and cosmonaut Roman Romanenko are scheduled to depart the ISS in their Soyuz TMA-07M capsule and descend into southern Kazakhstan, ending a 146 day mission. As the station crew went to bed late Thursday, flight control teams were working on a leak response plan that did not rule out a postponement of the departure and possible spacewalks.

 

A long running low rate leak in the P-6 thermal radiator prompted a Nov. 1 spacewalk by former ISS crew members Sunita Williams and Akihiko Hoshide, U. S. and Japanese astronauts. During a near seven hour excursion, they installed jumper cables to circumvent the seepage while station experts monitored the cooling apparatus for further trouble.

 

Launched in late 2000, P-6 and its outstretched solar panels began supplying electricity during the early years of the station's staffing and assembly. In late 2007, as construction was nearing completion, shuttle astronauts moved the 35,000 pound P-6 to a permanent place on the station's far port side.

 

Hadfield, Marshburn, Romanenko, NASA's Chris Cassidy and cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin were in no danger, NASA stressed in a status report.

 

The station crew was tipped off by tell tale flakes of frozen ammonia coming from the P-6 truss early Thursday.

 

"All of us agreed they were coming up mainly and repeatedly enough that it looked like it was a point source they are coming from," Hadfield said in an exchange with ISS communications officer Doug Wheelock in Mission Control.

 

"We have folks in the room agreeing with that," Wheelock responded.

 

As the day unfolded, the leak rate doubled and predictions of an automatic shutdown of the P-6 cooling apparatus within 48 hours were cut to 24 hours. The seepage could not be controlled with a valve activated by commands from Mission Control, Wheelock said, raising the significance of the video downlink to indentify the source.

 

As the station crew went to bed, Hadfield asked the flight control team how the situation might impact Monday's undocking plans.

 

"It may be too soon to ask. But does it  look like once we have done a shutdown we will be in a good stable long term configuration so we can undock as planned?" the commander asked Mission Control.

 

"We don't have a long range plan for a full power down," responded Wheelock. "But, of course, we have a team in place that is currently working on the undock thinking and timeline. We don't see anything technically that we cannot over come with the undocking. But we are still getting our arms fully around that issue. You can be sure the team down here is working on all the options. Of course, that is one option. And we would like to stay with that, if we can and feel like we are in a good configuration."

 

If the undocking, unfolds as planned, Cassidy would remain as the only U. S. segment crew member with Vinogradov and Misurkin

 

The departing crew is to be replaced on May 28 with the arrival of Russia's Soyuz TMA-09M with NASA's Karen Nyberg, European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano and cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin

 

Typically U. S. segment spacewalks are carried out by NASA, ESA and Japanese astronauts.

 

NASA troubleshooting space station coolant leak

 

Todd Halvorson - Florida Today

 

The International Space Station's cooling system sprang a leak outside the outpost Thursday, raising the possibility of a partial system shutdown in the coming days, NASA officials said.

 

The six astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the station are in no danger. But the system is critical to dispelling heat generated during the operation of station systems, so flight controllers immediately began an effort to isolate the leak.

 

A partial shutdown of the cooling system could force the crew to stop some station operations until the problem is fixed.

 

Astronauts spotted small white flakes of frozen ammonia coolant leaking from the end of the station's girder-like central truss.

 

The white flakes seeped from the same general area where spacewalkers successfully plugged an ammonia coolant leak in November.

 

In that case, astronauts Sunita "Suni" Williams of the United States and Akihiro Hoshide of Japan rerouted ammonia coolant lines to stop the leak.

 

NASA officials said it was unclear if the leak spotted Thursday is related to the earlier coolant system trouble.

 

The station's 357-foot solar arrays generate electricity to power all outpost systems. Excess heat is built up as a result.

 

The outpost is outfitted with a thermal control system that pumps ammonia through coolant lines and ultimately radiators that shed excess heat.

 

Ammonia is highly toxic and exposure can cause burning of the eyes, nose and throat. High doses can cause coughing or choking and in extreme cases death. Spacewalkers take great caution when working with the outpost's coolant system. Decontamination procedures are taught to all spacewalkers.

 

It was unclear Thursday whether a spacewalk would be required to stop the latest leak. The station crew used handheld cameras, and flight controllers in Mission Control used cameras mounted outside the outpost, in an attempt to pinpoint the location of the leak.

 

The imagery enabled systems engineers to gauge the rate of coolant leakage. They determined the leak could cause a partial cooling system shutdown within 48 hours if undeterred.

 

Plans are being put in place to reroute electrical power channels in an effort to maintain full operation of station systems that currently are cooled by the part of the system that is leaking.

 

NASA: International Space Station has ammonia leak in cooling system

 

CNN

 

Crew members aboard the International Space Station are awaiting word on how to deal with leaking ammonia from an outside cooling system, NASA said Thursday in a news release.

 

The six-man crew is not in danger, NASA said.

 

The space station crew reported seeing small white flakes floating away from the station, the space agency said. NASA helped locate the leak with external cameras while the crew used hand-held cameras pointed out windows.

 

The leak was in a cooling loop in a solar array that has leaked before. NASA said crew members tried to fix the leak in November. It is unclear whether this is the same leak or a new one.

 

The cooling system could shut down within 24 hours, it said. It is devising a plan to reroute other sources of power so that all systems remain fully operational.

 

What happens if you cry in space? Ammonia is used to cool each of the solar arrays that provide electricity to station systems, NASA said.

 

Three crew members -- commander Chris Hadfield of Canada, NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko -- are scheduled to leave the station on Monday at 7:08 p.m. ET.

 

Hadfield asked NASA if the leak will affect the undocking. Capsule Communicator Doug Wheelock said officials at the Mission Control Center in Houston don't see anything that they can't overcome technically, but they would have more information in the morning.

 

Three crew members, NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian counterparts Alexander Misurkin and Pavel Vinogradov, will remain on the space station when the others leave.

 

They will be joined at the end of the month by three new crew members -- NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, Russian cosmonaut Fiyodor Yurchikhin and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano, who are due to launch aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on May 28.

 

The space station is operating normally aside from the leak, NASA said.

 

Ammonia leak detected outside International Space Station

 

Sharon Bernstein - Reuters

 

An ammonia leak was detected in the cooling system outside of the International Space Station on Thursday, but no crew members are in danger and the station is operating normally, the U.S. space agency NASA said on its website.

 

Crew members at the orbital outpost spotted white flakes of ammonia floating away from the space station at about 9:30 a.m. EDT (1330 GMT) on Thursday, NASA said, and fixing the leak might require that a portion of the station's cooling system be shut down for about 48 hours.

 

"The station continues to operate normally otherwise and the crew is in no danger," it said.

 

In an audio exchange posted on the agency's website, Commander Chris Hadfield, who is Canadian, said he could see "a very steady stream of flakes or bits" coming from the area of one of several cooling loops.

 

Officials said the leak appeared to be getting worse.

 

The ammonia flakes were seen floating away from an area of the space station's P6 truss structure, the agency said. It was not clear whether it was related to a previous leak in late 2012.

 

Ammonia is used to cool the equipment that provides power to the station's systems, NASA said. Each array of solar battery cells has its own cooling loop.

 

The space station, which is staffed by rotating crews of six astronauts and cosmonauts, is a $100 billion research outpost owned by the United States and Russia in partnership with Europe, Japan and Canada.

 

Space Station Leaking Vital Coolant, NASA Says

 

Clara Moskowitz - Space.com

 

Astronauts on the International Space Station have discovered a leak of ammonia coolant on their orbiting habitat, and NASA is looking into the problem, though it poses no immediate danger to the crew, officials said Thursday.

 

The space station uses chilled liquid ammonia to cool down the power systems on its eight giant solar array panels. A minor leak of this ammonia was first noticed in 2007, and NASA has been studying the issue ever since. In November 2012 two astronauts took a spacewalk to fix the problem, rewiring some coolant lines and installing a spare radiator due to fears the original radiator was damaged by a micrometeorite impact.

 

At the time, those measures appeared to fix the problem, but today astronauts on the football field-size space station noticed a steady stream of frozen ammonia flakes leaking from the area of the suspect coolant loop in the Photovoltaic Thermal Control System (PVTCS).

 

"It is in the same area, but we don't know whether it's the same leak," NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries of the Johnson Space Center in Houston told SPACE.com. Humphries said the agency was taking the leak seriously because it affects an important system — if they lose the ability to cool that particular solar array, it won't be able to generate power for the station. In fact, the leak has worsened to the point that Mission Control expects that particular loop to shut down within the next 24 hours.

 

However, "the crew is in no danger," Humphries stressed. It's too soon to speculate on a possible spacewalk or other measure to deal with the issue, he added.

 

Mission Control has been discussing the problem with the astronauts on the station throughout the afternoon.

 

"What you guys have provided in the way of imagery and video has been just like gold to us on the ground," astronaut Doug Wheelock from Mission Control radioed to space station commander Chris Hadfield, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut. "We are fairly confident that it's coming from the vicinity of the TCS." However, flight contollers noted they were still unable to pinpoint the leak's exact location.

 

NASA engineers are reviewing plans to potentially move the station's robotic arm over to the area of the port truss, the scaffolding-like backbone of the station (the original leak was traced to the Port 6 truss).

 

"Tomorrow we'll plan to get the arm in the game to see if we can better pinpoint the location of the leak," Wheelock said.

 

Hadfield said he and his crewmates had noticed the rate of the leak varied depending on the orientation of the station with the sun, suggesting particular angles allowed the ammonia coolant to leak more quickly.

 

Hadfield is in charge of the station's Expedition 35 crew, which also includes NASA astronauts Tom Marshburn and Chris Cassidy, and Russian cosmonauts Roman Romanenko, Pavel Vinogradov, and Alexander Misurkin. He asked Mission Control to send the crew a summary of what they know about the problem, and the possible courses to take to address it, before their bedtime.

 

"It would just be good for the six of us to know," Hadfield said.

 

Today had otherwise been a relatively light day for the crew of the International Space Station, which had taken some time off to celebrate the Russian holiday Victory Day. Hadfield, Marshburn and Romanenko are due to depart the space station on Monday (May 13) to return to Earth after a roughly five-month stay. Three new crewmembers plan to launch on May 28 from Kazakhstan on a Russian spacecraft to take up residence on the orbiting outpost.

 

Hadfield asked Wheelock if the leak, and resulting power loss from that solar array, could delay his planned undocking.

 

"We don't see anything technically that we can't overcome with the undocking but we are still getting our arms fully around that issue," Wheelock responded, adding that they should have more information for the astronauts in the morning.

 

Space Station Cooling Unit Springs Leak

 

Jason Rhian - AmericaSpace.com

 

According to reports on Space Safety Magazine, The International Space Station (ISS), has sprung a leak in a section of its cooling system in the same vicinity as a leak that required a spacewalk in 2012. NASA is unsure if this most recent leak is related to the one that occurred last November.

 

The space station's crew needs the systems to rein in the heat caused by the systems onboard the orbiting laboratory. The Expedition 35 crew noted white flakes floating outside the station on May 9, using a variety of camera equipment, the leak was discovered.

 

Upon review it was estimated that the loop could fail in 48 hours. In the meantime, engineers are coming up with contingency plans that would direct power channels away from the affected system. According to Florida Today, engineers are working to isolate the leak and the problem could cause at least a partial system shutdown.

 

The leak is located on the ammonia loop element of the station. This component is used to help cool the excess heat generated by the American solar arrays on the station. Given that the leak is taking place on the exterior of the station, there is no threat to the safety of the crew; however, they will likely be required to stop using certain equipment until the damage can be repaired.

 

If this leak ends up being of a similar nature to the 2012 leak, it could require astronauts to conduct an extra-vehicular activity to repair the damage. This element is located on the station's P6 truss assembly.

 

The International Space Station is comprised of various elements from the 16 different nations that are a part of the project. Some elements of the space station have been on orbit since 1998. Currently only Russia is capable of sending crew to and returning them from the ISS.

 

Minnesota astronaut prepares for second mission to ISS

 

KARE TV (Minneapolis)

 

A Minnesota native is preparing for her second mission to space.

 

Astronaut Karen Nyberg, from Vining, Minnesota, is one of three people headed back to the International Space Station for research.

 

She took time from her training in Star City, Russia to talk to KARE11 Sunrise about the mission.

 

Nyberg is scheduled to liftoff on May 28th from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

 

The mission is expected to last about six months as researchers see how space changes the structure of the astronauts bones and how it affects their eyesight.

 

Nyberg's last space flight was in 2008 aboard the space shuttle Discovery.

 

Another Minnesota girl, Astronaut Abbey, is working to raise funds to go see the launch in Kazakhstan. You can visit Abbey's website for her information.

 

Dream Chaser Completes Safety Review

 

Jason Rhian - AmericaSpace.com

 

The Dream Chaser space plane, in development by Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), under NASA's commercial efforts to deliver astronauts to the International Space Station – is one milestone closer to launch.

 

Dream Chaser has wrapped up the Integrated Systems Safety Analysis Review gave NASA reports detailing hazard, safety and reliability plans for the major elements that relate to the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket which will be used to send Dream Chaser to orbit, the integrated crew transportation system and the Dream Chaser space plane itself.

 

Under NASA's Commercial Crew integrated Capability (CCiCap) the Louisville, Colorado-based company is working to have the craft fly crew no-earlier-than 2017.

 

"Safety review milestones are critical to ensuring safety and reliability techniques and methods are incorporated into space systems design," said NASA's CCP Manager Ed Mango. "NASA's participation in these reviews provides our partners with critical design experiences from past human spaceflight activities."

 

SNC is developing its Dream Chaser Space System under NASA's Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative, which is intended to lead to the availability of commercial human spaceflight services for government and commercial customers.

 

"Dream Chaser is making substantial progress toward flight with the help of our NASA team," said Mark Sirangelo, head of SNC's Space Systems. "The ability to openly exchange information through the work on these CCiCap milestones is invaluable for many reasons, such as communicating Dream Chaser development plans and receiving timely feedback from NASA, all of which help to improve our design and maximize safety and reliability. As we begin our flight test program we have a better and stronger program due to our partnership with NASA."

 

SNC is hoping to conduct the first-ever free flight test of a flight test article of Dream Chaser this month at NASA's Dryden Research Center in California. Currently the test craft is being prepared to be shipped to the center. If all goes according to plan, the test should provide SNC with valuable data about the gliding characteristics of the spacecraft as it conducts an approach and landing at a runway.

 

Dream Chaser is based off of NASA's HL-20 lifting body design. SpaceDev began developing the concept and was one of the initial design's considered under NASA's Vision for Space Exploration which was announced in 2004. It also was submitted in the early rounds of NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services or "COTS" contract. In 2007 SpaceDev and United Launch Alliance announced that they were collaborating to fly this version of Dream Chaser on an ULA Atlas V booster.

 

The very next year SpaceDev was bought by Sierra Nevada Corporation who continued to pursue the project. NASA awarded NASA $20 million under the first phase of the space agency's commercial crew program in 2010. Since that time SNC has continued to develop and test Dream Chaser with NASA approving the winged spacecraft for awards in the second and third rounds of its commercial crewed efforts.

 

What's coming for NASA's Hangar S?

Lawyer's work prompts NASA to delay facility's demolition

 

James Dean - Florida Today

 

Before NASA's first astronauts rocketed into space, they trained, slept, received medical exams and donned spacesuits in Hangar S.

 

Their Mercury capsules were processed in the same facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, which was built to support the nation's first satellite program. President John F. Kennedy honored John Glenn's pioneering orbital flight there in 1962.

 

Despite a history dating from the space program's origins through the shuttle era, Hangar S has not yet made the cut as one of the nearly 100 local properties NASA recognizes as historically significant.

 

Now an Indiana man's objection to that perceived slight has forced Kennedy Space Center to take another look at its facilities and at least delay the hangar's date with a wrecking ball.

 

"I just can't see how one can escape the conclusion that Hangar S is, in fact, historic," said Steven Kovachevich, a 55-year-old lawyer and real estate broker from Gary, Ind.

 

Similar debates are sure to play out as Kennedy continues a massive post-shuttle transition that will see dozens more facilities either repurposed or demolished, some historic.

 

Next week, NASA will begin a survey of 11 of its properties located in the Cape's Industrial Area, including Hangar S.

 

Cultural resource management firm New South Associates of Stone Mountain, Ga., will determine whether they comprise a historic district and if so, which properties contribute to that district.

 

KSC now counts 92 of its properties as eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

 

They range from the center's famous launch pads and Vehicle Assembly Building to electrical equipment buildings, a high pressure gas facility and camera pads.

 

If such little-known structures deserve historic status, why not Hangar S, Kovachevich wonders.

 

Kovachevich has no direct tie to the facility other than one shared by millions of his generation: inspiration from the events that occurred at the Cape when he was young.

 

"Witnessing these events of early space exploration, watching the effort that was made, influenced my life and influenced me in a very positive way," he said. "I understood that setbacks would happen, but that if you would set a goal and you would steer towards that goal and work hard, you could achieve that goal."

 

After reading in FLORIDA TODAY last year about NASA's plan to demolish the hangar, Kovachevich started a "Save Hangar S" Web site and nominated the facility for listing on the historic register managed by the National Park Service.

 

Just in time: The state Division of Historic Preservation, which by law must approve NASA plans for major modifications to potentially historic structures, was reviewing KSC's request to demolish Hangar S.

 

The state recommended further study.

 

NASA officials don't dispute that Hangar S supported historic events.

 

But they say the structure has been modified so much over time that its historic elements and character are long gone, and what's left is simply a shell.

 

"We felt like the integrity was lost," said Barbara Naylor, KSC's historic preservation officer. "It's an empty hangar."

 

NASA no longer has a mission for Hangar S and no one has stepped forward to take it — not the Air Force, not a commercial user, not the KSC Visitor Complex or any outside entity.

 

Under orders to reduce its property footprint and maintenance costs after the shuttle program's retirement, KSC added Hangar S to its demolition list.

 

Supporting its decision, the center cited a 2001 survey of Cape facilities that did not identify the hangar as eligible for listing on the historic register.

 

However, that study's access was limited in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, and it recommended the Industrial Area be re-evaluated once most of the facilities reached 50 years old.

 

Kovachevich appreciates NASA's budget constraints.

 

But he believes the agency should have made more effort to preserve a historic facility before it is lost like the Mercury Mission Control Center, demolished in 2010.

 

"We should impart some respect and reverence to these locations and these events," he said.

 

Various criteria are used to determine a facility's historic status, from its architectural value to associations with historic events and people.

 

To Kovachevich, it's obvious Hangar S meets the latter standards. And even if its interior bears no resemblance to its Mercury program heyday, he says the exterior looks essentially the same and could be maintained at little cost.

 

"They don't want to admit that they're going to tear down an historic structure," he said.

 

That appears to be the inevitable outcome, regardless of what the new survey concludes.

 

The Mercury Mission Control Center, or MCC, was part of a National Historic Landmark designated in 1984 that NASA and the Air Force share at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, for its role in early manned spaceflight.

 

Now, a brown historic marker is the only sign of where it stood.

 

"The MCC is the epitome of a facility that was historic, and it came down," said John Shaffer, head of KSC's environmental planning office, which oversees cultural resources. "There wasn't enough money to refurbish it."

 

No matter how historic, NASA can demolish whatever it wants to as long as it takes certain steps, in consultation with the state and other interested parties, to "mitigate" the loss.

 

That generally means recording the history through photographs and detailed engineering records archived in the Library of Congress, and sometimes preserving selected artifacts.

 

For the MCC, which NASA said deteriorated into an unsafe condition, the agency installed the historic marker, created a Web site featuring its history and removed consoles for display at the Visitor Complex.

 

Total mitigation cost: about $45,000.

 

With Hangar S, NASA says it has simply followed its normal process, required by the National Historic Preservation Act, for altering or disposing of older facilities.

 

If the new Cape survey, which will cost $19,000, does deem Hangar S eligible for the historic register, it's not yet clear what mitigation might be performed before it could be knocked down.

 

That will be determined for other historic structures at KSC, including pad 39A, which the state is reviewing now. NASA hopes to transition it to commercial users.

 

KSC's headquarters building is listed on the historic register. But it's slated to come down when a new central campus is built.

 

Also nearing demolition: the Mate-Demate Device used to hoist orbiters on and off carrier aircraft, one of dozens of facilities a 2007 survey deemed eligible for listing because of their shuttle program importance.

 

From a preservation standpoint, NASA must handle facilities the same way whether they are listed on the historic register or just eligible. So far, Hangar S is neither.

 

Kovachevich's website petition calling for NASA to preserve Hangar S as a "monument to the pioneers of space exploration" has not gone viral, he admits, but has garnered more than 270 supporters.

 

"My gosh, there's not going to be anything left of these old historic sites," he said. "I feel these things are very important. I feel they reflect who we are as a country, as a people, help define the effort that we made."

 

END