Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - May 29, 2013 and JSC Today

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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: May 29, 2013 5:59:47 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - May 29, 2013 and JSC Today

 

 

 

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

 

JSC TODAY HEADLINES

1.            ISS Research/Science: Get Up to Speed and in the Know

2.            Speed Coping

3.            Recent JSC Announcement

4.            Starport's Father-Daughter Dance 2013

5.            Zumbatomic Kids Fitness at Starport -- Session Starts This Friday

6.            IEEE Section/Computer Society Meeting: Game-Based Education

7.            Space Available - APPEL - Introduction to Green Engineering

8.            RLLS Flight Arrival Departure, Lodging and Shipping Request WebEx Training

9.            Summer Water-Bots Camp: Beginner Camp Registration Deadline May 31

________________________________________     NASA FACT

" On May 31, 2013, asteroid 1998 QE2 will sail serenely past Earth, getting no closer than about 3.6 million miles, or about 15 times the distance between Earth and the moon."

________________________________________

1.            ISS Research/Science: Get Up to Speed and in the Know

As ambassadors of NASA, we all need to know and understand what is taking place aboard our International Space Station (ISS). Here are six effective ways that you can raise your awareness level and feel more confident in talking to folks inside and outside the agency about your ISS and its ongoing utilization:

1.            Subscribe to the ISS Program Science listserve to receive twice weekly emails with compelling stories about important ISS research conducted each day. Open to everyone (external to NASA, too)!

2.            Read the info-rich ISS Research and Technology Web page and the engaging ISS Research "A Lab Aloft" blog.

3.            Watch the "International Space Station Research 101" video lecture on SATERN (course #JSC-AC-ISSR101).

4.            Know the ISS research Benefits for Humanity.

5.            Follow timely ISS research updates on Twitter and Facebook.

6.            Learn how to get research onto ISS (or refer those interested).

Liz Warren x35548

 

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2.            Speed Coping

With all that is asked or required of us, self-care quickly gets rescheduled due to demands on our time. Come learn some self-care tools and concepts that you can start including in your multi-demanding life. These coping tools can be the groundwork to implementing consistent coping ideas and techniques. Don't be your own afterthought. Commit to taking better care of yourself and you will notice the difference it makes in you and those around you. Please join Anika Isaac, MS, LPC, LMFT, LCDC, CEAP, NCC, of the JSC Employee Assistance Program today, May 29, at 12 noon in the Building 30 Auditorium for a presentation on "Speed Coping."

Event Date: Wednesday, May 29, 2013   Event Start Time:12:00 PM   Event End Time:1:00 PM

Event Location: Building 30 Auditorium

 

Add to Calendar

 

Lorrie Bennett, Employee Assistance Program, Clinical Services Branch x36130

 

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3.            Recent JSC Announcement

Please visit the JSC Announcements (JSCA) Web page to view the newly posted announcement:

JSCA 13-018: Communications with Industry Procurement Solicitation for the International Space Station Common Communications for Visiting Vehicles

Archived announcements are also available on the JSCA Web page.

Linda Turnbough x36246 http://ird.jsc.nasa.gov/DocumentManagement/announcements/default.aspx

 

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4.            Starport's Father-Daughter Dance 2013

Make Father's Day weekend a date your daughter will never forget! Enjoy a night of music, dancing, refreshments, finger foods, dessert, photos and more. Plan to get all dressed up and spend a special evening with the special little lady in your life. The dance is open to girls of all ages, and attire is business casual to semi-formal. A photographer will be on hand to capture this special moment with picture packages for you to purchase. One free 5x7 will be provided.

o             June 14 from 6:30 to 9 p.m. in the Gilruth Center Alamo Ballroom

o             Cost is $45 per couple ($15 per additional child)

Tickets may be purchased at the Gilruth Center information desk. Tickets must be purchased by June 8, and there will be no tickets sold at the door.

Visit our website for more information.

Event Date: Friday, June 14, 2013   Event Start Time:6:30 PM   Event End Time:9:00 PM

Event Location: Gilruth Center Alamo Ballroom

 

Add to Calendar

 

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

 

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5.            Zumbatomic Kids Fitness at Starport -- Session Starts This Friday

Designed exclusively for kids, Zumbatomic classes are rockin', high-energy fitness parties packed with specially choreographed kid-friendly routines. This dance-fitness workout for kids ages 4 to 12 will be set to hip-hop, salsa, reggaeton and more. Sign up at the Gilruth front desk for a free class.

Session: May 31 to June 28

Class meeting day: Friday

Time: 5:30 to 6:15 p.m.

Location: Gilruth Center Studio 1

Fee: $55/child

Register at the Gilruth Center.

Shericka Phillips x35563 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/

 

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6.            IEEE Section/Computer Society Meeting: Game-Based Education

Sami Khaleeq, founder and CEO of CG Studio, will speak on "Game-Based Education." Innovative games provide a creative dimension to the learning process and generate an urge to conceive knowledge in an interactional way.

Khaleeq is an expert in social media marketing, computer security and game-based learning. He is on the leadership committee for the Defcon conference, TEDx Houston, First Robotics and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). Khaleeq is working on implementing game-based learning with charter and private schools in Houston and San Francisco.

The presentation will run from noon to 12:50 p.m. on May 30 in the Gilruth Center Discovery Room. We still have lunches available at 11:30 a.m. for $8; there is no charge for the presentation. Please RSVP to Stew O'Dell and specify whether you are ordering lunch. Lunch is free for unemployed IEEE members; advise when reserving.

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

Event Location: Discovery Room, Gilruth Center

 

Add to Calendar

 

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

 

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7.            Space Available - APPEL - Introduction to Green Engineering

This three-day course provides an introduction to the topic of green engineering, a tool for reducing the environmental impact of products, processes and systems and making them more sustainable. From a NASA perspective, green engineering is an engineering best practice that considers environmental impacts as another design risk for mission success.

This course is designed as graduate-level seminar for engineers, scientists, project managers and others who design products, processes or systems and want to understand, quantify and reduce the associated environmental impacts. Note: This course is not focused on green buildings and facilities, though examples from building systems will be used where relevant.

This course is available for self-registration in SATERN until Tuesday, June 4. Attendance is open to civil servants and contractors.

Dates: Tuesday to Thursday, July 16 to 18

Location: Building 12, Room 152

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

 

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8.            RLLS Flight Arrival Departure, Lodging and Shipping Request WebEx Training

TechTrans International will provide 30-minute WebEx training on May 30 and 31 for RLLS portal modules. The following is a summary of the training dates:

Flight Arrival Departure - May 30 at 7:30 a.m. CDT

Lodging Support - May 30 at 2 p.m. CDT

International Shipping Request - May 31 at 7:30 a.m. CDT

o             Locating desired support request module

o             Quick view summary page for support request

o             Create new support request

o             Submittal requirements

o             Submitting on behalf of another individual

o             Adding attachment (agenda, references)

o             Selecting special requirements (export control)

o             Submitting a request

o             Status of request records

o             View request records

o             Contacting RLLS support

Please send an email to James.E.Welty@nasa.gov or call 281-335-8565 to sign up for RLLS Support WebEx training courses. Classes are limited to the first 20 individuals registered.

James Welty 281-335-8565 https://www.tti-portal.com

 

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9.            Summer Water-Bots Camp: Beginner Camp Registration Deadline May 31

Join us for Water-Bots 2013. The San Jacinto College Aerospace Academy is offering an outstanding opportunity for students to experience the excitement of underwater robotics!

Beginner Camps: June 17 to 20 and June 24 to 27. The camp experience will include basic electronics instruction, an introduction to soldering, tours of JSC, professional speakers and much more.

Intermediate Camps: July 15 to 18 and July 22 to 25. Requires campers with previous robotic experience. The camp experience will include constructing algorithms in scripting languages such as Python/Matlab/Scilab; working with Arduino boards, sensors and shields; methods of making underwater robotics using a tether system; and much more.

Ages: 12 to 16 years old

Cost: $250

Email for more information.

Sara Malloy x46803 http://www.aerospace-academy.org

 

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________________________________________

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

 

 

 

Human Spaceflight News

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

 

Now THIS is what I call the real "Fast & Furious" (Photo by NASA's Bill Ingalls)

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

Soyuz crew enters stations after smooth rendezvous

 

William Harwood - CBS News

 

A Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off and thundered into orbit Tuesday carrying a veteran cosmonaut, a NASA shuttle veteran and a rookie Italian test pilot on a smooth six-hour flight to the International Space Station. With Soyuz TMA-09M commander Fyodor Yurchikhin at the controls, flanked by European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano on his left and shuttle veteran Karen Nyberg on his right, the Russian ferry craft glided to a flawless docking at the station's Russian Rassvet module at 10:10 p.m. EDT (GMT-4), just four orbits after launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. After extensive leak checks to verify an air-tight structural seal, hatches were opened at 12:14 a.m. Wednesday and veteran Expedition 36 commander Pavel Vinogradov, rookie cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin and NASA astronaut Christopher Cassidy welcomed their new crewmates aboard.

 

US, Russian & European crew completes express Soyuz flight to space station

 

Mark Carreau - Aviation Week

 

A  Soyuz crew transport capsule delivered three U. S., Russian and European astronauts to the International Space Station late Tuesday, as it completed a second successful "express" flight to the orbiting science lab. The transport with NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano, of Italy, and cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin carried out an automated docking with the orbiting lab's Russian segment Rassvet module at 10:10 p.m., EDT, less than six hours after lifting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

 

Soyuz capsule docks with space station

 

Associated Press

 

A Soyuz capsule carrying an American, Russian and Italian successfully docked Wednesday with the International Space Station, where the new crew will spend six months conducting a variety of experiments. The docking took place at 8:10 a.m. (0210 GMT, 10:10 p.m. EDT) less than six hours after the Russian spacecraft lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, which Russia leases in Kazakhstan. Live footage provided by NASA TV showed it soaring into the clear night sky. About four minutes later, the announcer said the Soyuz was traveling at 4,700 miles per hour (about 7,500 kilometers per hour).

 

International crew takes short cut to space station

 

Irene Klotz - Reuters

 

A Russian spaceship took a shortcut to the International Space Station on Tuesday, delivering a veteran cosmonaut, a rookie Italian astronaut and an American mother on her second flight to the outpost in less than six hours. The capsule slipped into its berthing port at 10:10 p.m. EDT about 250 miles above the south Pacific Ocean.

 

International trio takes shortcut to space station

 

Kirill Kudryavtsev - Agence France Presse

 

An international trio flying in a Russian capsule docked with the International Space Station on Wednesday with a busy schedule full of space walks and an encounter with a pioneering US cargo craft. The six-month mission of Russian commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and his two flight engineers -- Karen Nyberg of NASA and Italian Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency -- began once their craft sidled up to the orbiting lab six hours after blasting off from the Moscow-owned Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan. The Soyuz took a shortcut that slashed the travel time from the usual 48 hours thanks to a special orbit that catapaults the astronauts directly to their destination.

 

ISS crew launches, arrives in one day

American joined by Russian, Italian

 

Todd Halvorson - Florida Today

 

The International Space Station is fully staffed once again after the arrival late Tuesday of a multinational crew launched on a fast-track mission from a central Asian spaceport. U.S. astronaut Karen Nyberg, Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency docked at the orbiting outpost about 10:15 p.m. – a little less than six hours after they blasted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The express flight was the second to dock at the space station so soon after launch. Up until this year, U.S. shuttle and Russian Soyuz crews always flew a two-day trek to the outpost. But Russian engineers developed new launch trajectories that enable same-day dockings. The shorter trips reduce the amount of time crews spend in cramped Soyuz spacecraft. They also help accelerate adaptation to the weightless environment on the space station.

 

International Astronaut Crew Arrives at Space Station in Record Time

 

Miriam Kramer - Space.com

 

An international trio of astronauts has just become the newest residents of a space station in orbit after a record-setting trip. Five hours and 40 minutes after a successful Soyuz rocket launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan earlier today (May 28), Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, NASA's Karen Nyberg and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency docked their Soyuz spacecraft at the International Space Station at 10:10 p.m. EDT (0210 May 29 GMT). The new crew will remain on the space station for the next six months. "I've never felt better in my life," Yurchikhin said just after the Soyuz docked at the station in record time while sailing high above the South Pacific.

 

Soyuz takes new crew to International Space Station

 

Jonathan Amos - BBC News

 

Three new crew members have arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) after launching from Kazakhstan. The Soyuz rocket carrying Fyodor Yurchikhin, Karen Nyberg and Luca Parmitano lifted away from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 02:31 local time on Wednesday (20:31 GMT Tuesday). Georgian Yurchikhin and American Nyberg have both been into space before. Italian Parmitano is a first-timer. They arrived at the orbiting platform five hours and 46 minutes later.

 

Soyuz Crew Sets Record for Fastest Trip to Space Station

 

Nancy Atkinson - Universe Today

 

The crew of Expedition 36 aboard the Soyuz TMA-09M set a record for the fastest trip ever to the International Space Station. From launch to docking, the trip took 5 hours and 39 minutes. That's six minutes faster than the previous Soyuz that used the new "fast track" four-orbit rendezvous. Soyuz Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Luca Parmitano docked their Soyuz to the station's Rassvet module at 02:16 UTC on May 29 (10:16 p.m. EDT on May 28). "Thank you for the best spacecraft, finer than the best pocket watch!" Yurchikhin radioed to Mission Control in Moscow after docking.

 

Russia's Soyuz Spacecraft Docks with ISS

 

RIA Novosti

 

The Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft, carrying three new crew members to the International Space Station (ISS), docked with the station on Wednesday, a spokesman for the Russian space agency Roscosmos said. "The spacecraft automatically docked with the ISS as scheduled, six hours after the launch. Fortunately, the cosmonauts did not have to switch to the manual docking regime," he said.

 

Minnesota native blasts off for six-month stay aboard space station

 

John Brewer - St. Paul Pioneer Press

 

Minnesota native and astronaut Karen Nyberg went aloft Tuesday afternoon on her second space flight and first long-term stay on the International Space Station. Nyberg, of Vining, a small town in Otter Tail County three hours northwest of the Twin Cities, was joined in the Soyuz rocket by commander Fyodor Yurchikhin of the Russian Federal Space Agency and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano. The group launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and boarded the space station early Wednesday.

 

Otter Tail is celebrating Karen Nyberg's launch into space

 

Kevin Wallevand - WDAY TV (Fargo)

 

The small towns in Otter Tail county that know Karen Nyberg best are celebrating her dramatic launch into space today. The small towns in Otter Tail county that know Karen Nyberg best are celebrating her dramatic launch into space today. In Vining, Minnesota, her parents watched from their home. In nearby Henning, where Karen went to school, the entire town and student body showed up for a "Launch Party."

 

Otter Tail County native, UND grad blasts off for International Space Station

 

Kevin Wallevand - Fargo Forum News Service

 

NASA astronaut and Otter Tail County native Karen Nyberg embarked on her second journey into space Tuesday, blasting off to a six-month stay on the International Space Station. She launched along with other members of the Expedition 36 team from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for the seven-hour trip to the space station, more than 200 miles above the Earth. In her hometown of Vining, Minn., about 30 miles east of Fergus Falls, Nyberg's parents were watching the launch.

 

Commercial Crew Contenders Seek Hybrid Contracting Approach

 

Jeff Foust - Space News

 

Companies involved in NASA's Commercial Crew Program and other supporters of the effort said last week they believe the most effective way for NASA to continue the program is keep as much of the design and development work as possible under current Space Act Agreements versus more conventional contracts. Three companies, Boeing, Sierra Nevada Corp. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), currently have funded agreements under NASA's Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) program. The agreements, announced last August, include both a series of baseline milestones funded under those awards as well as optional, as yet unfunded additional milestones. Speaking at the Space Tech Expo here May 21, Michael Lopez-Alegria, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, said NASA's Commercial Crew Program is hampered by tight budget and schedule constraints, the latter being a 2017 goal to bring the vehicles into service.

 

Space. Is. Awesome.

 

Eric Berger - Houston Chronicle's SciGuy

 

I sometimes get bogged down by the politics of NASA and its Washington, D.C., overlords, and the seemingly futile cycle of human spaceflight program announcements, under-funding of said programs, and cancellation of such programs. But that's losing sight of the forest for the trees — or whatever the heck that saying is. You know what I mean. And what I mean is that space is awesome. Human spaceflight. Robotic spaceflight. All of the above.

 

Is It Time For A Private Space Race?

 

Matthew Stibbe - Forbes (Opinion)

 

(Stibbe is CEO of Turbine and Articulate)

 

With the NASA on Russia for rides to the International Space Station (ISS) at $70.7m a seat until 2017 at the earliest, advocates of space exploration are increasingly looking to the private sector for their jetpack, moonwalk, rocket-powered future. NASA's designs for the Space Launch System and the Orion capsule could play an important part in future space exploration but they have yet to take flight. Meanwhile for-profit companies are busy launching, designing and, yes, dreaming about humanity's future in space.

 

Renting NASA facilities, like Plum Brook, to private entrepreneurs makes perfect sense

 

Cleveland Plain Dealer (Editorial)

 

From the time the first U.S. satellites were launched to the moment Gene Cernan left the last human footprint on the moon, space exploration had been entirely a province of the federal government. Space travel and space industry are opening more opportunities for the private sector: Witness Virgin Galactic's foray into suborbital tourism at $200,000 per ticket and the commercial rocketry of SpaceX, which emerged last year as a prime contractor in the business of getting cargo to and from the International Space Station. The shift toward private activity in space is as inevitable as it is healthy.

__________

 

COMPLETE STORIES

 

Soyuz crew enters stations after smooth rendezvous

 

William Harwood - CBS News

 

A Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off and thundered into orbit Tuesday carrying a veteran cosmonaut, a NASA shuttle veteran and a rookie Italian test pilot on a smooth six-hour flight to the International Space Station.

 

With Soyuz TMA-09M commander Fyodor Yurchikhin at the controls, flanked by European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano on his left and shuttle veteran Karen Nyberg on his right, the Russian ferry craft glided to a flawless docking at the station's Russian Rassvet module at 10:10 p.m. EDT (GMT-4), just four orbits after launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

 

After extensive leak checks to verify an air-tight structural seal, hatches were opened at 12:14 a.m. Wednesday and veteran Expedition 36 commander Pavel Vinogradov, rookie cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin and NASA astronaut Christopher Cassidy welcomed their new crewmates aboard.

 

"I'm so happy that you feel really at home," Yurchikhin's wife, Larisa Anatolievna Yurchikhina, told her husband during a post-docking video conference. "I love you so very much, my dear."

 

Replying from the station's Russian command module, Yurchikhin said: "I'd like to say to you, you're the greatest girl in the world, and I love you so very much. And this is for everybody to hear."

 

Cassidy, a Navy SEAL, surprised the arriving crew members by greeting them with a shaved head, matching Parmitano's bald pate.

 

Nyberg's husband, shuttle pilot Douglas Hurley, said the crew looked good, but "there are way too many bald guys on space station right now. Have a great time up there."

 

"Hey there, I'm glad you enjoyed the launch," Nyberg replied. "It was a pretty cool ride."

 

As for Cassidy's haircut, or lack thereof, "I told Chris he looks awesome like this!" Parmitano said.

 

The combined crew faces a particularly busy summer and fall in space, with up to six spacewalks on tap, the arrival of four cargo ships -- including the maiden visit by a commercial cargo craft built by Orbital Sciences Corp. -- and a full slate of scientific research.

 

Toward the end of the TMA-09M crew's stay, the Olympic torch will be carried aloft by three crew members scheduled to arrive Nov. 7. The torch, heralding the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, will be carried outside during a spacewalk Nov. 9 and returned to Earth Nov. 11 by Yurchikhin, Parmitano and Nyberg.

 

"The International Space Station is a great achievement by many countries around the world," said astronaut Richard Mastracchio, who will help deliver the torch to the lab complex later this year. "The Olympics represents that exact idea, many countries getting together to compete in peaceful times and show how we can get along on this planet.

 

"We're going to carry up the torch, and we're going to hand it off. ... So we'll have our own relay going, around the world."

 

Yurchikhin, Parmitano and Nyberg began their planned 165-day voyage at 4:31:24 p.m. (2:31 a.m. Wednesday local time) when their Soyuz booster roared to life, lighting up the night sky with a burst of fiery exhaust.

 

Vaulting away from its launching pad -- the same pad used by Yuri Gagarin at the dawn of the space age -- the workhorse rocket quickly accelerated as it gulped its load of liquid oxygen and kerosene propellants, arcing away to the east as it climbed into the plane of the space station's orbit.

 

Live television from inside the cramped Soyuz command module showed all three crew members as they monitored the automated ascent, looking relaxed despite the steadily building acceleration pushing them back into their custom seats.

 

The rocket's four liquid-fueled strap-on boosters, which operate collectively as the booster's first stage, shut down and fell away as planned about two minutes after launch, followed by the central second stage core booster three minutes after that.

 

The Soyuz rocket's third stage continued the push to space and eight minutes and 45 seconds after liftoff, the TMA-09M spacecraft was released into its planned preliminary orbit. A few moments later, the craft's two solar panels and navigation antennas deployed as expected.

 

The space station passed over the launch site just four minutes before liftoff at an elevation of about 77 degrees. When the Soyuz was released from its booster, Yurchikhin and company were trailing their target by about 2,550 miles.

 

Soyuz ferry craft flying to the space station have traditionally followed two-day 34-orbit rendezvous trajectories. But in recent months, the Russians have been testing single-day six-orbit rendezvous procedures, including the most recent manned flight to the station in March.

 

Yurchikhin's crew lobbied to follow suit and Russian mission managers agreed, setting up an automated approach and docking to the space station's Rassvet module just five hours and 38 minutes after launch.

 

Yurchikhin first flew to the space station in 2002 as a shuttle astronaut on a mission to attach part of the lab's solar power truss. He then completed two long-duration stays, riding aloft aboard Soyuz spacecraft in 2007 and 2010. When Vinogradov, Misurkin and Cassidy depart in September, Yurchikhin will take over as commander of Expedition 37.

 

Parmitano, an Italian test pilot and European Space Agency astronaut, is making his first flight, serving as flight engineer, or co-pilot, aboard the Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft.

 

Nyberg has a single previous spaceflight to her credit, a 16-day 2008 shuttle mission to deliver and install a Japanese laboratory module. Nyberg and Hurley have one child, 3-year-old Jack.

 

"All of us have children," she told a reporter before launch. "My son is 3 and he's going to do a lot of growing in six months. But I'm going to see a lot of video of him and I think we'll be very well connected. And he'll be home with his Daddy.

 

"But it's a challenge all of us have to deal with. ... So we can support each other, knowing we have families at home that we all miss."

 

Hurley, who piloted two shuttle missions, said his wife was well prepared for an extended stay aboard the station.

 

"Karen is meticulous about everything in her life and I think we've got a good plan to get our family through the next five months," he said in a NASA interview. "She can call us from the space station, we can do video conferences. I think we're wall prepared for this."

 

Nyberg holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering and will play a central role in research conducted in the U.S. segment of the space station. She also hopes to find time to enjoy the view from 250 miles up and to have more time to reflect than she did on her tightly timelined shuttle mission.

 

"There's a lot of that mission that I don't really remember," she said. "I look at pictures and I'm like, 'oh yeah, we did that.' I think with a longer period of time, I'll have time to actually get it ingrained in my brain of where I am and what I'm doing, and I won't need to go back and look at those pictures to remember what it is that I've done."

 

She also hopes to have more time to enjoy her hobbies, drawing and sewing.

 

"I don't watch a lot of movies or things like that," she said. "To relax, I like to sew and draw, do things like that. So I've brought a sketch pad and some pencils that I can hopefully do a little bit of sketching. I brought a little bit of fabric and needle and thread. I have no clue yet what I'm going to do with it, but I'll come up with something!"

 

But her family will never be far from her thoughts. While she isn't sure how much her son understands about his mom's job, "he knows I'm going to the space station and he knows what that is when he sees a picture of it and he knows there is no gravity there and things will float."

 

"I think it'll be very fun for him to see video of me and communicate with me when he sees me in that environment."

 

US, Russian & European crew completes express Soyuz flight to space station

 

Mark Carreau - Aviation Week

 

A  Soyuz crew transport capsule delivered three U. S., Russian and European astronauts to the International Space Station late Tuesday, as it completed a second successful "express" flight to the orbiting science lab.

 

The transport with NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano, of Italy, and cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin carried out an automated docking with the orbiting lab's Russian segment Rassvet module at 10:10 p.m., EDT, less than six hours after lifting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

 

The four orbit launch to docking flight profile is poised to replace the traditional two day, 34 orbit transit for most future Soyuz crew missions. The NASA-led ISS mission management team plans further deliberations on the "lessons learned" from a similar March 28 "express" Soyuz crew mission as well as three prior Progress cargo missions that followed the same rapid trajectory in 2012-13 to pave the way.

 

"In the summer we will step back, based on two flights and our experiences, to make a determination and a recommendation to our Russian colleagues, Mike Suffredini, NASA's ISS space station program manager, told a news briefing earlier this month.  "I suspect there will be some answer that says maybe not in all cases. We hope to sort that all out."

 

The Soyuz spacecraft lifted off from Baikonur on Tuesday at 4:41 p.m., EST, or on Wednesday at 2:31 a.m., local time, climbing through darkened skies. The multinational crew settled into orbit nine minutes later with successful deployments of solar arrays and communications antennas.

 

The only issue en route involved an ISS beta gimbal assembly, a tracking mechanism on one of the station's solar panels, which failed to lock in place well ahead of the crew transport's anticipated docking. The mechanism locked on a second attempt without interrupting the rendezvous and docking activities, said NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries.

 

The newcomers were greeted by ISS Expedition 36 commander Paval Vinogradov, his fellow cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy. The latest arrivals replace Canadian Chris Hadfield, American Tom Marshburn and Russian Roman Romanenko, who departed the ISS for Earth aboard their Soyuz spacecraft on May 13.

 

Nyberg, a 43-year-old mechanical engineer, is making her second trip to orbit; Parmitano, a 36-year-old Italian Air Force major and test pilot is flying for the first time. Yurchikhin, a 54-year-old mechanical engineer, has logged two previous ISS missions as a commander and flight engineer. He launched for the first time as a NASA space shuttle crew member in 2002.

 

Their planned five to six month mission will include five to six spacewalks to prepare for the anticipated arrival of the Russian Nauka multipurpose laboratory module in December, maintenance activities outside the U. S. segment and work with external experiments.

 

Nyberg, Parmitano and Yurchikhin are scheduled to receive unpiloted European, Russian, Japanese and U. S. commercial cargo vessels as well as carry out a demanding agenda of science experiments and technology demonstrations.

 

Soyuz capsule docks with space station

 

Associated Press

 

A Soyuz capsule carrying an American, Russian and Italian successfully docked Wednesday with the International Space Station, where the new crew will spend six months conducting a variety of experiments.

 

The docking took place at 8:10 a.m. (0210 GMT, 10:10 p.m. EDT) less than six hours after the Russian spacecraft lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, which Russia leases in Kazakhstan.

 

Live footage provided by NASA TV showed it soaring into the clear night sky. About four minutes later, the announcer said the Soyuz was traveling at 4,700 miles per hour (about 7,500 kilometers per hour).

 

The cramped capsule carrying NASA's Karen Nyberg, Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and Italy's Luca Parmitano orbited the Earth four times before docking with the space station.

 

After docking, two hours passed before pressure equalized between the capsule and the station, allowing safe entry.

 

The three new arrivals were greeted by NASA's Chris Cassidy and Russians Alexander Misurkin and the station's commander Pavel Vinogradov, who have been aboard the space station since late March.

 

"It was a pretty cool ride," Nyberg said upon arrival.

 

Cassidy had shaved his head clean to match Parmitano's look and got a thumbs-up from the Italian.

 

Yurchikhin, 54, is a veteran of three previous spaceflights, while the 36-year-old Parmitano, a former test pilot, is making his first trip into space. Nyberg, 43, spent two weeks in space in 2008 as part of a U.S. space shuttle crew.

 

Shortly after their arrival, the incoming team spoke via video link with their relatives and officials back in Baikonur. Parmitano's mother wept throughout the chat with her son.

 

Four spacewalks are planned during the expedition, including what NASA said would be the first by an Italian.

 

The International Space Station is the biggest orbiting outpost ever built and can sometimes be seen from Earth with the naked eye. It consists of more than a dozen modules built by the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan and the European Space Agency.

 

International crew takes short cut to space station

 

Irene Klotz - Reuters

 

A Russian spaceship took a shortcut to the International Space Station on Tuesday, delivering a veteran cosmonaut, a rookie Italian astronaut and an American mother on her second flight to the outpost in less than six hours.

 

The capsule slipped into its berthing port at 10:10 p.m. EDT about 250 miles above the south Pacific Ocean.

 

"Everything went very well," NASA mission commentator Kelly Humphries said during a televised broadcast of the docking.

 

Typically, the journey takes two days, but Russian engineers have developed new flight procedures that tweak the steering maneuvers and expedite the trip.

 

One other crew capsule and several cargo ships previously have taken the fast route to the station.

 

The express ride to the station began at 4:31 p.m. EDT when a Russian Soyuz rocket soared off its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and deposited the crew's capsule into orbit. The spaceship circled around the planet less than four times before catching up to the station, a $100 billion project of 15 nations.

 

Overseeing operations from aboard the capsule was veteran cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, 54, who will be living aboard the station for the third time. The former commander also flew on NASA's now-retired space shuttle.

 

He was joined on the Soyuz by first-time astronaut Luca Parmitano, 36, a major in the Italian Air Force. Parmitano, who initially studied political science and international law at the University of Naples, is the first Italian to be assigned to a long-duration mission aboard the station, which is a laboratory for biomedical, materials science and other research.

 

"This is very momentous," Parmitano said in a preflight NASA interview.

 

NASA gave the crew slot to the Italian Space Agency as part of a barter agreement for Italian-made cargo haulers used during the shuttle program.

 

Rounding out the crew is U.S. astronaut Karen Nyberg, a 43-year-old mechanical engineer who has one previous spaceflight on her resume, a two-week shuttle mission. Back on Earth, her astronaut husband, Doug Hurley, is looking after their three-year-old son, Jack.

 

Nyberg, an avid quilter, said she was bringing along sewing supplies, a sketch book and pencils.

 

"I'm really hoping to spend some of my free time drawing," Nyberg said in a preflight interview. "I used to mostly draw portraits, and gave them to friends, but I haven't done it in a long time."

 

Awaiting their arrival were Russian station commander Pavel Vinogradov and flight engineers Alexander Misurkin, also a Russian, and Chris Cassidy, an American. The men are two months into a planned six-month mission.

 

The combined crews will oversee more than 100 research experiments and technology tests under way aboard the station. They also plan to conduct five spacewalks over the next three months, most of which are needed to prepare the station for a new Russian laboratory module due to arrive in December.

 

International trio takes shortcut to space station

 

Kirill Kudryavtsev - Agence France Presse

 

An international trio flying in a Russian capsule docked with the International Space Station on Wednesday with a busy schedule full of space walks and an encounter with a pioneering US cargo craft.

 

The six-month mission of Russian commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and his two flight engineers -- Karen Nyberg of NASA and Italian Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency -- began once their craft sidled up to the orbiting lab six hours after blasting off from the Moscow-owned Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan.

 

The Soyuz took a shortcut that slashed the travel time from the usual 48 hours thanks to a special orbit that catapaults the astronauts directly to their destination.

 

The abridged journey had rarely been tried in the past because it puts greater stress on the astronauts' bodies.

 

But one such trip was successfully completed earlier this year and Russia decided to repeat the experience with a view to making the six-hour journey the norm for future travel to the ISS.

 

"It was a pretty cool ride," Nyberg told her husband on Earth via video linkup after the trio had reached the ISS and floated on board the station.

 

Italy's Parmitano said he was especially excited because this was his first chance to experience space flight after years of gruelling training and practise.

 

"I feel the importance of performing well for all those people who have been working with me through all those years of training to get me to this point," he told reporters shortly before liftoff.

 

"Because of the training, you feel confident that you know you can do the job you've been trained for."

 

Past astronauts have made a habit of chronicling their experience with the help of social media websites such as Twitter -- winning tens of thousands of followers as a result.

 

Canada's Chris Hadfield took that social media experiment to new heights this month by releasing a link to his celestial performance of David Bowie's classic "Space Oddity".

 

The performance earned him nearly a million followers overnight.

 

Hadfield and his two fellow travellers returned safely to Earth on May 14. Left behind are Russian commander Pavel Vinogradov and his own two flight engineers -- Chris Cassidy of NASA and the cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin.

 

Both Parmitano and Nyberg have their own Twitter accounts that were filled with their emotions prior to liftoff.

 

Nyberg has already tweeted a link with a performance of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" for her son back home in the United States.

 

She tweeted Wednesday that she enjoyed a walk along the Avenue of Cosmonauts in Baikonur just hours before she was due to suit up and rumble up to the ISS.

 

The trio's six-month mission will include six space walks and a link-up with a pioneer US spacecraft called Cygnus.

 

The Cygnus is an unmanned resupply ship being designed by the private Orbital Sciences Corporation as part of a broader NASA effort to get commercial firms to fill the void left by the retired US space shuttle programme.

 

The craft that will dock to the ISS some time in June will arrive empty and not deliver any cargo as part of its very first launch.

 

The demo flight is due to be followed later in the year by an actual delivery of cargo using a more powerful upper-stage rocket.

 

ISS crew launches, arrives in one day

American joined by Russian, Italian

 

Todd Halvorson - Florida Today

 

The International Space Station is fully staffed once again after the arrival late Tuesday of a multinational crew launched on a fast-track mission from a central Asian spaceport.

 

U.S. astronaut Karen Nyberg, Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency docked at the orbiting outpost about 10:15 p.m. – a little less than six hours after they blasted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

 

The express flight was the second to dock at the space station so soon after launch. Up until this year, U.S. shuttle and Russian Soyuz crews always flew a two-day trek to the outpost. But Russian engineers developed new launch trajectories that enable same-day dockings.

 

The shorter trips reduce the amount of time crews spend in cramped Soyuz spacecraft. They also help accelerate adaptation to the weightless environment on the space station.

 

"For me, for the crew, it's more easier to do it, more helpful for the crew because it's not two days in the Soyuz spacecraft, which is not so big," Yurchikhin said.

 

"It's enough for three people, but the station is bigger and it's more comfortable and there are three guys on the station who would like to meet us."

 

Already on the outpost: Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin, and U.S. astronaut Chris Cassidy. The trio launched to the station in late March and made the first four-orbit rendezvous with the station. They are scheduled to return to Earth in September.

 

Yurchikhin, Nyberg and Parmitano will live and work on the station through November, performing more than 100 science experiments.

 

Before launch, Nyberg discussed her excitement about the long stay in space, but admitted there was much she'd miss back on Earth: a cup of coffee, her bed and, most of all, her 3-year-old son.

 

Five spacewalks also are planned during the crew's stay. Yurchikhin and Misurkin will head outside the outpost to perform maintenance work in June and then two more times in August.

 

Cassidy and Parmitano will perform two spacewalks in July. Parmitano will become the first Italian astronaut to make a spacewalk.

 

Construction of the space station began in late 1998 with the assembly of the first two building blocks. Now spanning an area larger than a football field, the outpost has been staffed around the clock, 365 days a year, since the first expedition crew boarded the vehicle in November 2000.

 

International Astronaut Crew Arrives at Space Station in Record Time

 

Miriam Kramer - Space.com

 

An international trio of astronauts has just become the newest residents of a space station in orbit after a record-setting trip.

 

Five hours and 40 minutes after a successful Soyuz rocket launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan earlier today (May 28), Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, NASA's Karen Nyberg and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency docked their Soyuz spacecraft at the International Space Station at 10:10 p.m. EDT (0210 May 29 GMT). The new crew will remain on the space station for the next six months.

 

"I've never felt better in my life," Yurchikhin said just after the Soyuz docked at the station in record time while sailing high above the South Pacific.

 

You can watch live coverage of the hatch opening on SPACE.com via NASA TV starting at 11:30 p.m. EDT (0330 May 29 GMT), with hatch opening scheduled for 11:55 p.m. EDT (0355 May 29 GMT).

 

Fast track to space

 

Monday's same-day launch and docking was the second express flight to the International Space Station by an astronaut crew.

 

Unmanned cargo vessels have made this kind of trip many times before, but the one-day missions are a new method of flying for manned Soyuz capsules. Typically, it takes astronauts about two days to reach the space station, but this kind of flying only requires the capsule to orbit the Earth four times, shortening the amount of time the astronauts need to spend in the cramped spaceship.

 

The first Soyuz crew to fly to the station using this expedited technique will greet Nyberg, Parmitano and Yurchikhin once the capsule's hatch is opened tonight. The three newest space station residents will join NASA's Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin and Pavel Vinogradov to round out the Expedition 36 crew.

 

"[Your trip was] even faster than Pavel," a member of Mission Control in Russia joked with Yurchikhin after docking. The Russian Soyuz commander beat Vinogradov's time to the station by six minutes.

 

A special group

 

Parmitano, Nyberg and Yurchikhin are a diverse crew. Nyberg and Yurchikhin are veteran spaceflyers. In total, Yurchikhin has spent more than a year in orbit while Nyberg flew for two weeks in 2008 on the space shuttle Discovery.

 

Parmitano, meanwhile, is making his first trip into space. His expedition has been dubbed the "Volare" mission by ESA officials.

 

"Time to go! Thanks for your support and best wishes, see you from Cupola," Parmitano wrote on Twitter (@astro_luca) before launch, referring to the largest window on the space station.

 

Both Parmitano and Nyberg lead active lives via social media. Before launching into orbit Nyberg started tagging her posts with the hashtag #simplejoysonearth to bring the experiences she had with her family to the world before leaving for the space station.

 

"Sun, birds, smell of grass & fresh air; nice walk w/ family along 'Ave of Cosmonauts' #simplejoysonearth," Nyberg wrote on Twitter (@AstroKarenN) before launch. She plans to continue to use social media to share her life in orbit.

 

The new space station crew has a jam-packed mission ahead. Parmitano and Cassidy are scheduled to perform two spacewalks in July, and Misurkin and Yurchikhin will conduct three spacewalks during the course of their mission. It's also possible that the astronauts will get a chance to carry the Olympic torch onboard the orbiting laboratory.

 

Vinogradov, Misurkin and Cassidy are scheduled to fly back to Earth in September. Parmitano, Nyberg and Yurchikhin will remain on the station until November.

 

Veterans and rookies

 

Nyberg, Yurchikhin and Parmitano represent a mixed international crew of first time and veteran spaceflyers.

 

Yurchikhin has spent more than a year in orbit already, logging 371 days in space. Nyberg flew to space onboard the space shuttle Discovery in 2008, but this marks her first time living on the more complete space station.

 

"When we went up before, we brought up the Japanese laboratory and our main job was helping to build the International Space Station. This time we won't be building anymore," Nyberg told SPACE.com. "We're maintaining it and primarily doing scientific research."

 

This will be Parmitano's first flight to the International Space Station.

 

"Of course, looking out cupola [the space station's largest window], I just know it will be an incredible experience, it will create memories that will be with me forever," Parmitano said in a NASA pre-flight interview. "Certainly the thought of doing extravehicular activity and being outside is also something that really excites me, but in general, I'm really just looking forward to the full experience from launch to re-entry."

 

The astronauts have a busy mission ahead of them once they join Cassidy, Vinogradov and Misurkin to complete the Expedition 36 crew. During the six months that Nyberg, Parmitano and Yurchikhin live onboard the station, the crew will perform five spacewalks as well as receive a handful of unmanned cargo ships at the station.

 

Yurchikhin and Misurkin will conduct three Russian spacewalks focused on maintenance, while Cassidy and Parmitano will venture outside of the space station twice in July.

 

Soyuz takes new crew to International Space Station

 

Jonathan Amos - BBC News

 

Three new crew members have arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) after launching from Kazakhstan.

 

The Soyuz rocket carrying Fyodor Yurchikhin, Karen Nyberg and Luca Parmitano lifted away from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 02:31 local time on Wednesday (20:31 GMT Tuesday).

 

Georgian Yurchikhin and American Nyberg have both been into space before. Italian Parmitano is a first-timer.

 

They arrived at the orbiting platform five hours and 46 minutes later.

 

Their Soyuz capsule was using a new flight profile that dramatically reduces the rendezvous time from the traditional two days.

 

It is technically more difficult and requires some very precise orbital adjustments, but it is deemed to be easier on the crew because it means they do not have to spend so long inside their cramped vehicle.

 

Leak and pressure checks were conducted following docking at the station, with a hatch opening at 04:14 GMT.

 

The trio, whose designation is Expedition 36, were greeted with hugs and smiles by the three individuals already on the ISS - Russians Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin, and American Chris Cassidy.

 

The new crew members will be given a week of light duties in which to acclimatise to their weightless surroundings. Work will then begin in earnest.

 

Luca Parmitano's participation in this expedition is particularly notable.

 

At 36, he is the youngest person to get a long-duration (six months) stay on the station. He is also the first of the European Space Agency's (Esa) new intake of astronauts to get a flight assignment.

 

Selected in 2009, the former fighter pilot has a packed schedule ahead of him.

 

ISS crews are now completing about 70 hours a week of science, conducting experiments that exploit the unique microgravity environment on the platform.

 

Parmitano has a package of specific European activities to work through, which cover fields as diverse as fluid physics and materials science.

 

The Italian will see all of the vehicles now used to service the station come and go during his time in orbit, including possibly the new Cygnus freighter which is made in part in the Italian city of Turin.

 

He is also scheduled to make two spacewalks to work on the exterior of the platform.

 

"I've dreamt of doing that. Being an astronaut is about walking in space. For me, they are one and the same thing," he told BBC News.

 

One of the spacewalks will help prepare the ISS for the arrival of Russia's big science laboratory, which will grow the 420-tonne complex still further.

 

The lab will come up with Europe's major robotic contribution to the platform - a large arm that is able to move around the station to conduct work wherever it is needed.

 

Born in the Sicilian town of Paterno, Parmitano expects to bring a strong Italian flavour to his stay in orbit - literally. Italian chefs have prepared a range of special astronaut foods for him, including lasagne and risotto.

 

These will be delivered to the ISS in the coming weeks on the European robotic freighter Albert Einstein.

 

Fyodor Yurchikhin, Karen Nyberg and Luca Parmitano are due back on Earth on 10 November.

 

Soyuz Crew Sets Record for Fastest Trip to Space Station

 

Nancy Atkinson - Universe Today

 

The crew of Expedition 36 aboard the Soyuz TMA-09M set a record for the fastest trip ever to the International Space Station. From launch to docking, the trip took 5 hours and 39 minutes. That's six minutes faster than the previous Soyuz that used the new "fast track" four-orbit rendezvous.

 

Soyuz Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Luca Parmitano docked their Soyuz to the station's Rassvet module at 02:16 UTC on May 29 (10:16 p.m. EDT on May 28).

 

"Thank you for the best spacecraft, finer than the best pocket watch!" Yurchikhin radioed to Mission Control in Moscow after docking.

 

Launch took place at 20:31 UTC (4:31 p.m. EDT) Tuesday (2:31 a.m. May 29, Baikonur time).

 

The new abbreviated rendezvous with the ISS uses a modified launch and docking profile for the Russian ships. It has been tried successfully with three Progress resupply vehicles, and this is the second Soyuz crew ship that has used it.

 

In the past, Soyuz manned capsules and Progress supply ships were launched on trajectories that required about two days, or 34 orbits, to reach the ISS. The new fast-track trajectory has the rocket launching shortly after the ISS passes overhead. Then, additional firings of the vehicle's thrusters early in its mission expedites the time required for a Russian vehicle to reach the Station.

 

After the hatches open at 11:55 p.m. EDT, the new trio will join Flight Engineer Chris Cassidy of NASA and Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Alexander Misurkin of Roscosmos who have been on board since March 28. All six crew members will then participate in a welcome ceremony with family members and mission officials gathered at the Russian Mission Control Center in Korolev near Moscow.

 

Russia's Soyuz Spacecraft Docks with ISS

 

RIA Novosti

 

The Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft, carrying three new crew members to the International Space Station (ISS), docked with the station on Wednesday, a spokesman for the Russian space agency Roscosmos said.

 

"The spacecraft automatically docked with the ISS as scheduled, six hours after the launch. Fortunately, the cosmonauts did not have to switch to the manual docking regime," he said.

 

"When pressure equalizes, hatches will be opened, and the new crew members will 'float' into the station," the spokesman went on.

 

The flight took approximately six hours. Until March, it had taken two days for crews to go from Earth to the space station.

 

The spacecraft, carrying Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, and astronauts Karen Nyberg of NASA and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency, was launched at 00:31 Wednesday Moscow time (8:31 p.m. Tuesday GMT) and reached orbit some ten minutes later.

 

This is the fourth spaceflight for Yurchikhin, who will assume command of Expedition 37 once US astronaut Christopher Cassidy, and Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin, undock in November. This is flight engineer Nyberg's first flight aboard a Soyuz, though she flew to the ISS on the shuttle Discovery in 2008. Parmitano has no prior spaceflight experience.

 

The planned length of the new ISS expedition is 172 days. Its members will perform 34 experiments and take part in the docking and unloading of four spacecraft - two Russian Progress space freighters, Europe's ATV-4 cargo spacecraft and a US-made commercial unmanned resupply spacecraft Cygnus. Russian cosmonauts are also scheduled to perform several spacewalks.

 

Minnesota native blasts off for six-month stay aboard space station

 

John Brewer - St. Paul Pioneer Press

 

Minnesota native and astronaut Karen Nyberg went aloft Tuesday afternoon on her second space flight and first long-term stay on the International Space Station.

 

Nyberg, of Vining, a small town in Otter Tail County three hours northwest of the Twin Cities, was joined in the Soyuz rocket by commander Fyodor Yurchikhin of the Russian Federal Space Agency and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano. The group launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and boarded the space station early Wednesday.

 

The 43-year-old Nyberg, who attended the University of North Dakota and later earned a doctorate in mechanical engineering at the University of Texas, said she is bringing along knitting and sketching supplies for her six-month stay.

 

"I'm really hoping to spend some of my free time drawing," Nyberg, a mother of one, said in an interview with NASA. "I used to mostly draw portraits and gave them to friends, but I haven't done it in a long time. I am hoping I can get back to some of that while I am in space."

 

Nyberg spent two weeks in space in 2008 as part of a U.S. space shuttle mission to service the International Space Station.

 

Nyberg's high school, in Henning, planned a Tuesday open house where the community could watch the launch together.

 

Yurchikhin, 54, is a veteran of three previous spaceflights, while the 36-year-old Parmitano, a former test pilot, is making his first trip into space.

 

The three will join NASA's Chris Cassidy and Russians Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin, who have been aboard the space station since late March.

 

Four spacewalks are planned during the expedition, including what NASA said would be the first by an Italian.

 

The International Space Station is the biggest orbiting outpost ever built and can sometimes be seen from Earth with the naked eye. It consists of more than a dozen modules built by the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan and the European Space Agency.

 

Otter Tail is celebrating Karen Nyberg's launch into space

 

Kevin Wallevand - WDAY TV (Fargo)

 

The small towns in Otter Tail county that know Karen Nyberg best are celebrating her dramatic launch into space today.

 

The small towns in Otter Tail county that know Karen Nyberg best are celebrating her dramatic launch into space today.

 

In Vining, Minnesota, her parents watched from their home. In nearby Henning, where Karen went to school, the entire town and student body showed up for a "Launch Party."

 

NASA says it does not ever recall hearing about an entire town throwing a launch party.

 

But in Henning, Karen Nyberg's story has captured this part of Otter Tail county and today, support has been overwhelming.

 

Early in the day, Karen Nyberg made the rounds at her hometown school in Henning. Actually, her sister carried her. A NASA cardboard cutout.

 

Room after room, the elementary students got their pictures taken with Astronaut hero. Days of preparing and making artwork, highlighted with a pre-launch picture.

 

And Karen's story has inspired even the youngest of dreamers.

 

"The school moved today's launch party from the old gym to the new, family, classmates, people of the town all showed up to be a part of history. Karen's hometown mayor said what so many quietly thought today."

 

As launch approached, nervous family tried to stay busy.

 

Then, in just seconds Karen Nyberg went from a quiet student in the 80's to a celebrated astronaut about to spend 6 months in space.

 

And Karen's family found this picture. A poster she had up in her room as a child. It reads. "Learn all you can, and who knows how far you will go."

 

And even those who could not make it to the launch party, were able to take part in the event.

 

At the Golden Living Center in Henning, residents of the nursing home, including Karen's aunt and godmother watched the rocket launch.

 

And many plan to follow Karen and her 6month stay by reading updates on the NASA website and emails.

 

And plans are to have Karen Nyberg give the summer commencement addreess at UND in August speaking to the graduates from space.

 

Otter Tail County native, UND grad blasts off for International Space Station

 

Kevin Wallevand - Fargo Forum News Service

 

NASA astronaut and Otter Tail County native Karen Nyberg embarked on her second journey into space Tuesday, blasting off to a six-month stay on the International Space Station.

 

She launched along with other members of the Expedition 36 team from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for the seven-hour trip to the space station, more than 200 miles above the Earth.

 

In her hometown of Vining, Minn., about 30 miles east of Fergus Falls, Nyberg's parents were watching the launch.

 

In nearby Henning, where Nyberg went to school, community members and students gathered at the elementary school for a launch party. Before takeoff, her sister carried a cardboard cutout of the astronaut from classroom to classroom, where students posed for photos.

 

"It makes me so proud. I'm so proud," said her sister, Patti Nyberg West, before the launch. "But I'm nervous and anxious and all that, too."

 

Throughout the 3:31 p.m. takeoff, Nyberg West remained nervous.

 

"Once she was in no-gravity, I was OK," she said.

 

At the launch party in Henning, Vining Mayor Jim Wallevand said Nyberg's career as an astronaut is an example for others who come from rural areas. Vining has a population of fewer than 100 people.

 

"It just goes to show, no matter how small a town a person comes from, and I mean small, and graduates from a small but good school like Henning, you can go out and become anything or anybody you want to," Wallevand said.

 

While in space, Nyberg, a graduate of the University of North Dakota, may deliver the keynote address at UND's summer commencement ceremony Aug. 2, according to Tim O'Keefe, head of the UND Alumni Association and Foundation.

 

O'Keefe traveled with "Team Nyberg" overseas to witness the expedition's launch and document the group's experience in his AreaVoices blog.

 

"I can feel the tension and emotion rising as today moves forward, for me and everyone here," O'Keefe wrote.

 

Continuing a tradition started by Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, Nyberg and her two co-pilots planted saplings along the Avenue of Cosmonauts on Tuesday before their launch.

 

"Sun, birds, smell of grass & fresh air; nice walk w/ family along 'Ave of Cosmonauts' #simplejoysonearth," Nyberg tweeted.

 

After takeoff, the crew of Expedition 36 will not smell grass or fresh air for six months.

 

Nyberg will at least have some of the comfort of Earth. She told space.com in a recent interview that she was bringing supplies aboard the station to do some quilting.

 

O'Keefe wrote of Nyberg's anticipation of the launch.

 

"After spending time with her two days ago and talking to the astronauts here about the level of training and repetition they experience, it's very apparent she is ready to go," he wrote.

 

Before putting away her cellphone, Nyberg composed a final tweet from the ground.

 

"Time for me to 'unplug!' Thanks everyone for well wishes & great interest in what our nations do in space. Will be talking to you from LEO! (Low Earth Orbit)," she tweeted.

 

Commercial Crew Contenders Seek Hybrid Contracting Approach

 

Jeff Foust - Space News

 

Companies involved in NASA's Commercial Crew Program and other supporters of the effort said last week they believe the most effective way for NASA to continue the program is keep as much of the design and development work as possible under current Space Act Agreements versus more conventional contracts.

 

Three companies, Boeing, Sierra Nevada Corp. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), currently have funded agreements under NASA's Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) program. The agreements, announced last August, include both a series of baseline milestones funded under those awards as well as optional, as yet unfunded additional milestones.

 

Speaking at the Space Tech Expo here May 21, Michael Lopez-Alegria, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, said NASA's Commercial Crew Program is hampered by tight budget and schedule constraints, the latter being a 2017 goal to bring the vehicles into service.

 

"The way to solve that problem is to spend the money you have in the most efficient way you can," he said. "I think a way to do that would be to exercise optional milestones that were submitted as part of the companies' CCiCap bids."

 

Executives of the three CCiCap companies speaking at the conference also endorsed what some called a "hybrid" approach that uses Space Act Agreements for vehicle development work and more traditional contracts under Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) for NASA certification of the vehicles.

 

"If we can keep the [NASA] oversight period really focused on certification, and allow the design, development, and test to continue with the decision speed that's possible in private industry, that's how we can get the most out of the taxpayers' money," said Garrett Reisman, the program manager of SpaceX's commercial crew effort.

 

Reisman noted SpaceX's optional milestones include a crewed test flight in mid-2015. "If we're operating under a different set of conditions under the next procurement, that number might not hold," he said.

 

"I think the approach we have right now is an interesting approach," said Mark Sirangelo, head of Sierra Nevada's Space Systems unit. "A potential approach that NASA could take is to expand the certification contract to allow for a more in-depth look at companies and their certification, while continuing to allow development to continue under the existing contract."

 

Use of optional milestones, particularly for crewed test flights, has raised safety concerns. In its 2012 annual report, the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel raised several safety questions about any crewed test flight performed under the CCiCap agreement versus a FAR-based contract. "NASA should be looking for ways to maximize its insight into what will most likely be a short flight-test program, regardless of how it is contracted, incentivized, or facilitated," the NASA-charted safety panel stated in the report.

 

To date, NASA has not indicated any plans to exercise any optional milestones on the companies' CCiCap awards, and is instead working on the next phase of commercial crew procurement, Phase 2 of the Certification Products Contract. In a recorded presentation at the conference, Kathy Lueders, deputy program manager for the Commercial Crew Program at NASA, said a draft request for proposals for Phase 2 should be released this summer, with the final solicitation to be released in early fall. NASA will award the contract in July 2014.

 

Lueders did not state how many awards NASA planned to make under Phase 2 of the Certification Products Contract, and most observers assume this will be a function of the amount of funding available.

 

"I think NASA, with good reason, wants to maintain competition through the next round. I think that would be healthy as long as you have the budget to allow that competition in the next round and still fly in 2017," said John Mulholland, vice president and program manager of commercial programs at Boeing.

 

At current funding levels, he said, NASA could likely afford a single provider, but the increase sought by NASA in its 2014 budget proposal "would allow them to preserve competition into the next round."

 

In his conference presentation, Reisman identified several key principles of the Commercial Crew Program, including the use of pay-for-performance milestones, a pace and flexibility of development similar to other commercial programs, and streamlined NASA oversight.

 

"What we're a little bit concerned about is that, as we go into certification, that we go to a more traditional approach and start compromising some of these key principles," he said. "And that, in my opinion, is the biggest threat to the success of this program."

 

Space. Is. Awesome.

 

Eric Berger - Houston Chronicle's SciGuy

 

I sometimes get bogged down by the politics of NASA and its Washington, D.C., overlords, and the seemingly futile cycle of human spaceflight program announcements, under-funding of said programs, and cancellation of such programs.

 

But that's losing sight of the forest for the trees — or whatever the heck that saying is. You know what I mean.

 

And what I mean is that space is awesome. Human spaceflight. Robotic spaceflight. All of the above.

 

Here are just two examples that I stumbled upon recently.

 

First up is a photo taken from aboard the International Space Station a week ago showing Pavlof Volcano, which is located in Aleutian Arc about 625 miles southwest of Anchorage.

 

 

What's cool is that the height of the station and its oblique perspective afford a unique, three dimensional view of the ash plume. And it's just an awesome image.

 

Next up is a video put together by YouTuber Karl Sanford. It's a time-lapse video created from a stream of images taken by the rover's Front Left Hazcam between August 8th, 2012, and May 21st.

 

So, like, humanity sent this automobile-sized rover 100 million miles across the solar system, dropped it out of the heavens onto the red planet as gentle as you please, and now it's driving around there.

 

The little rover is now merrily sending pictures back every day, and you can sit there and take in all the grandness of the Martian landscape from the comfort of a chair

 

When you think about it that way, well, NASA rocks. Space rocks. And the Internet rocks.

 

Is It Time For A Private Space Race?

 

Matthew Stibbe - Forbes (Opinion)

 

(Stibbe is CEO of Turbine and Articulate)

 

With the NASA on Russia for rides to the International Space Station (ISS) at $70.7m a seat until 2017 at the earliest, advocates of space exploration are increasingly looking to the private sector for their jetpack, moonwalk, rocket-powered future.

 

NASA's designs for the Space Launch System and the Orion capsule could play an important part in future space exploration but they have yet to take flight. Meanwhile for-profit companies are busy launching, designing and, yes, dreaming about humanity's future in space.

 

Going ballistic

 

Richard Branson's VirginGalactic is currently testing its SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle that may make its first commercial flight from Abu Dhabi on Christmas Day this year. Celebrities who have bought $200,000+ tickets to for the first flight include Ashton Kutcher, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

 

Less well known, is the company's LauncherOne, a revolutionary reusable launcher. Launched from The Spaceship Company's WhiteKnightTwo carrier plane at 50,000 feet, it could deliver 500lb payloads to low Earth orbit at a much lower cost than traditional launch options.

 

All the way to orbit

 

Elon Musk's SpaceX has already begun delivering cargo to the ISS with two unmanned missions using its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule.

 

The company is developing a human-rated version with a view to ferrying astronauts to Earth orbit (and beyond). SpaceX is working on reusable rockets with its Grasshopper test bed – it can blast off and then land back at the Launchpad vertically ready for reuse.

 

Commercial space exploration

 

SpaceX and Virgin Galactic aren't the only horses in the new commercial space race. It's a crowded field. Close on SpaceX's heels, Orbital Sciences launched their first Antares rocket on April 21 and their next mission will pave the way for delivery of cargo to the ISS.

 

Sierra Nevada Corporation is developing a reusable mini-Shuttle which they hope to launch on a proven Atlas V rocket.

 

Boeing is developing a manned capsule, prosaically named the CST-100.

 

Lastly, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is heading up a company called Blue Origin that is working, somewhat secretively, on rocket-powered vertical take-off and landing vehicles for suborbital and orbital missions.

 

Commercial moon missions

 

Space Adventures, the company behind several space tourist trips on Russian Soyuz vehicles, has proposed a mission that would take a single private lunar explorer and a professional astronaut on a trip round the moon, echoing the 1968 Apollo 8 mission. It would use tried-and-tested Russian hardware but would not allow an actual landing on the moon.

 

Private space stations and moon bases

 

Bigelow Aerospace licensed NASA designs for inflatable space station modules (they prefer the term 'expandable habitats'). They have launched two prototypes and they're hoping to add one of their modules to the ISS. They're event working on designs that can be landed on the Moon.

 

All the way to Mars?

 

Perhaps the most ambitious of all commercial space mission concepts is a trip to Mars. Space X's founder Elon Musk has announced that he wants to die on Mars, adding 'but not on impact'. His company's Falcon Heavy rocket, currently in development, could be powerful enough to lift the components of a Mars mission into orbit. Even with a 53,000kg payload, it would take multiple launches per mission.

 

Mars is a very long way away. It makes a trip to the moon look like a walk around the corner in your slippers compared to a trip to New Zealand. VASIMIR engine technology, developed by Ad Astra Rocket from initial NASA research, could cut the journey down to a few months rather than several years. Admittedly, the proposed vehicle looks like something out of 2001 A Space Odyssey but Ad Astra shows that innovative science doesn't always require government hand-outs.

 

If you don't want to wait for a nuclear-fuelled, plasma-driven space cruiser to take you to Mars, the Inspiration Mars Foundation is dreaming on a smaller scale with plans for a round-trip to the red planet in just 501 days in 2018 using existing hardware. No landing but what an adventure!

 

Or, if you want to land, you may have to give up the chance of coming back. Mars One is proposing a $6 billion one-way trip for four 'lucky' astronauts.

 

Ready for launch?

 

Even if you can't afford your own private space program or a ticket to Mars, you can get your own launch pad. NASA is offering Launch Complex 39A for lease. Originally built for the Apollo moon missions and refurbished for use by the Space Shuttle, it is now surplus to requirements.

 

Perhaps NASA's future is a list of amazing accomplishments, a ton of know-how and a list of unfulfilled dreams. Like Pad 39A, it's magnificent but non-operational. Personally, I'd prefer to see a reinvigorated NASA pursue challenging goals with proper funding. But if it's going to be grounded by politics, then perhaps it's time to mothball it and let business fly instead.

 

Renting NASA facilities, like Plum Brook, to private entrepreneurs makes perfect sense

 

Cleveland Plain Dealer (Editorial)

 

From the time the first U.S. satellites were launched to the moment Gene Cernan left the last human footprint on the moon, space exploration had been entirely a province of the federal government.

 

Space travel and space industry are opening more opportunities for the private sector: Witness Virgin Galactic's foray into suborbital tourism at $200,000 per ticket and the commercial rocketry of SpaceX, which emerged last year as a prime contractor in the business of getting cargo to and from the International Space Station.

 

The shift toward private activity in space is as inevitable as it is healthy. So is the necessity of making facilities designed and built for the government's space program available to paying customers so they can test and improve their designs.

 

A project currently under way at NASA's Plum Brook Station, involving the fairing -- the protective covering for the payload -- of a SpaceX rocket is a good example. The company is paying NASA $581,296 for the use of its testing facilities.

 

The company gets the use of equipment made specifically for spaceworthiness testing. NASA makes a buck. Expensive and unique structures and equipment are in use and generating income rather than sitting idle.

 

The results are good for taxpayers and entrepreneurs alike.

 

END