Keep the shuttle flying: Fwd: Human Spaceflight News

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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: June 11, 2013 5:56:09 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - June 11, 2013 and JSC Today

Congratulations to John Whalen --- who will be receiving his 50 Year Length of Service award this afternoon at the Teague Auditorium from Ellen Ochoa !

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1.            SAVE The Date! June 20 Neil Armstrong Memorial Service and Tree Dedication
2.            Today: Watch the 51 Progress Russian Supply Ship Depart Station
3.            Last Chance to Influence Change! 2013 Employee Viewpoint Survey closing
4.            Out & Allied @ JSC Employee Resource Group Monthly Meeting
5.            Space Serenity Al-Anon Meeting Today
6.            Environmental Brown Bag: Net-Zero Home Built from Shipping Containers
7.            How to Access NASA Human Spaceflight Imagery AND Videos Online
8.            African American Employee Resource Group (AAERG) Juneteenth Event
9.            Starport Presents: Buzz Aldrin Book Signing - June 21st
10.          Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus Tickets Available at Starport
11.          IEEE Seminar: Games People Play
12.          NASA GIRLS and NASA BOYS are looking for virtual mentors!
13.          ISS EDMS Changes
________________________________________     NASA FACT
" Astronomers at NASA and Pennsylvania State University have used NASA's Swift satellite to create the most detailed ultraviolet light surveys ever of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, the two closest major galaxies."
________________________________________
1.            SAVE The Date! June 20 Neil Armstrong Memorial Service and Tree Dedication
JSC employees are invited to honor the memory of Astronaut Neil Armstrong at a Memorial Service in Teague auditorium Thursday, June 20 from 10:00-10:30 A.M. Doors to the auditorium will open at 9:00 A.M. Tributes from JSC Center Director Ellen Ochoa among others, are planned for the service. At 10:40 A.M., employees are invited to the Astronaut grove for the dedication of a tree in Armstrong's memory.
JSC External Relations, Office oF Communications and Public Affairs x35111

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2.            Today: Watch the 51 Progress Russian Supply Ship Depart Station
NASA TV will provide live coverage on June 11 of the departure of a Russian cargo spacecraft from the International Space Station. The Russian ISS Progress 51 cargo spacecraft will undock from the Zvezda port at 8:59 a.m. CDT today, June 11. NASA TV coverage of the undocking will begin at 8:30 a.m.
As the Progress cargo craft departs, the ship's external cameras will focus on navigational sensors on the Zvezda docking port to gather imagery and confirm the sensors were not damaged April 26 when Progress docked to the station with one of its navigational antennas folded against its side. Those sensors are required for the ATV-4 to dock properly June 15.
JSC, Ellington Field, Sonny Carter Training Facility and White Sands Test Facility team members with wired computer network connections can view NASA TV using the JSC EZTV IP Network TV System on channels 404 (standard definition) or 4541 (HD). Please note: EZTV currently requires using Internet Explorer on a Windows PC connected to the JSC computer network with a wired connection. Mobile devices, Wi-Fi connections and newer MAC computers are currently not supported by EZTV.
If you are having problems viewing the video using these systems, contact the Information Resources Directorate Customer Support Center at x46367.
JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111 http://www.nasa.gov/station

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3.            Last Chance to Influence Change! 2013 Employee Viewpoint Survey closing
If you have not yet completed the 2013 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, now is the time to do so. The survey closes June 14th. You will have already received an email from "Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey" with a link to the survey. The ultimate goal of the survey is to provide agencies with a true perspective of current strengths and challenge areas. We encourage your voluntary participation in this survey and hope you view this as an opportunity to influence positive change in our agency. Prior to taking the survey, we encourage you to visit the newly updated Employee Viewpoint and Resources Web page (https://hr.nasa.gov/portal/server.pt/community/jsc_human_capital/294/employee... posted on the JSC Human Resources portal. This site provides information regarding 2012 survey results, how our center has used past results, and quick reference links to other employee resources.
Jennifer Rodriguez x46386

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4.            Out & Allied @ JSC Employee Resource Group Monthly Meeting
All JSC team members (government, contractor, LGBT, and non-LGBT allies) are invited to the Out & Allied @ JSC Employee Resource Group monthly meeting tomorrow from 11:30 A.M.-12:30 P.M. in the Building 30 Auditorium. The Out & Allied @ JSC team consists of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender employees and their allies (supporters).
This month, we'll continue celebrating June Pride month with a special discussion topic on Same-Sex Adoption. Please join us, meet others, and network!
This week marks the 30th anniversary of STS-7, which was Sally Ride's first spaceflight. She is the first acknowledged LGBT Astronaut and is Out & Allied's LGBT of the week! We think she'd be proud of our It Gets Better video, which you can view and share: http://tinyurl.com/BetterNASA
For more information about our group, including how to become involved, contact any listed Out & Allied member on our SharePoint site.
Event Date: Wednesday, June 12, 2013   Event Start Time:11:30 AM   Event End Time:12:30 PM
Event Location: Building 30 Auditorium (Room 1093)

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Steve Riley x37019 https://collaboration.ndc.nasa.gov/iierg/LGBTA/SitePages/Home.aspx

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5.            Space Serenity Al-Anon Meeting Today
"Progress, Not Perfection" reminds Al-Anon members to recognize positive, incremental improvements and change. Our 12-step meeting is for coworkers, families, and friends of those who work or live with the family disease of alcoholism. We meet today, June 11, in Building 32, room 146, from 11 to 11:50 A.M. Visitors are welcome.
Event Date: Tuesday, June 11, 2013   Event Start Time:11:00 AM   Event End Time:11:50 AM
Event Location: B. 32/Rm. 146

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Employee Assistance Program x36130 http://sashare.jsc.nasa.gov/EAP/Pages/default.aspx

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6.            Environmental Brown Bag: Net-Zero Home Built from Shipping Containers
Come learn about the design and construction of a small home, on- and off-grid, as a nucleus for a demonstration/research facility for options and possibilities for high-efficiency, low-operating-cost sustainable constructing and living. The use of two shipping containers, made from re-purposed and recycled materials, solar cooling and power, rainwater capture and use, helical pile foundation, high-efficiency materials and systems for a low footprint, make a relocatable, environmentally smart and fun home. Presented by Paul Vanderwal, architect, LEED AP from the Texas Gulf Coast Chapter of the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). Bring your lunches and your questions to Building 45, Room 751, from noon to 1 P.M. today.
Event Date: Tuesday, June 11, 2013   Event Start Time:12:00 PM   Event End Time:1:00 PM
Event Location: B 45, room 751

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Kim Reppa X42798

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7.            How to Access NASA Human Spaceflight Imagery AND Videos Online
All NASA human spaceflight images and videos can now be found in one place: on JSC's Imagery Online (IO) portal. The Video Asset Management Systems (VAMS) has been decommissioned and replaced by IO, an improved video and imagery application that continues to evolve. IO contains imagery from Mercury through what is being downlinked from the International Space Station today. It is available within the gates of any NASA Center. Images and videos also contain the associated metadata, making it easier to search for the right clip or image.
For questions and support on IO and other related services such as photographer/videographer requests, go to: http://io.jsc.nasa.gov/app/support.cfm
Brought to you by JSC's Information Resources Directorate.
JSC IRD Outreach 832.864.1793 http://io.jsc.nasa.gov/app/index.cfm

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8.            African American Employee Resource Group (AAERG) Juneteenth Event
The JSC AAERG invites the civil servant and contractor community to the 2013 Juneteenth Celebration on Wednesday, June 19,from 11:00 A.M. to 12:30 P.M. at the Building 30 Auditorium. The program will feature Dr. Thomas Franklin Freeman, Lead Debate Coach/Professor of Texas Southern University. Come spend your lunch hour with this inspirational and motivational speaker.
Carla Burnett x4-1044

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9.            Starport Presents: Buzz Aldrin Book Signing - June 21st
Starport is proud to bring you this unique opportunity - legendary astronaut and space explorer, BUZZ ALDRIN Book Signing on June 21st in the Building 3 cafeteria at 11:00 am. We are still accepting PRE-SALE orders for Buzz's new book, "Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration" only - $26.00 at Starport Gift Shop, buildings 3 and 11.
Please note that Dr. Aldrin will only sign books purchased at Starport during this event. No other memorabilia or books purchased elsewhere will be autographed. Don't miss this opportunity to get a piece of American history from this legendary American Hero. Presale books will be delivered at the book signing. Limited supply available - Reserve your copy today.
Cynthia Kibby 35352 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/

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10.          Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus Tickets Available at Starport
Purchase your Pre-Sale tickets now for Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus coming to Reliant Stadium in July. Various price levels and seating options available to fit any budget: Saturday July 13th & Sunday July 14th - $12; Saturday July 20th & Sunday July 21st - $21; and Saturday July 27th & Sunday July 28th - $28. Purchase your tickets for the "Greatest Show On Earth" at Starport Gift Shops , Buildings 3 and 11. Last day to purchase ticket sis June 19th; pick up date is July 9th.
Cynthia Kibby 35352 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/

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11.          IEEE Seminar: Games People Play
The IEEE Galveston Bay Section sponsors a seminar on applications of games in education, health and industry. Presenters include Yvonne Klisch and Kristi Bowling, Science Education Project Managers at Rice University, on games in education; Tony Elam, Electrical and Computer Engineering Research Director at Rice University, on games in industry; and Ross Shegog, Associate Professor of Behavioral Sciences at UT School of Public Health, on games for health. Interested non-IEEE engineers, technicians, scientists, IEEE Members and guests alike are welcome!
The seminar will run from 11:30 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. on June 14 in the Discovery Room of the Gilruth Center. There will be an informal networking session afterwards. We offer lunch at 11:30 A.M. for $8 for the first 15 requestors. Please RSVP to Stew O'Dell at stewart.odell@ieee.org; specify whether you are ordering lunch. No-shows for lunch will be billed.
Event Date: Friday, June 14, 2013   Event Start Time:11:30 AM   Event End Time:4:30 PM
Event Location: Discovery Room, Gilruth Center

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Stew O'Dell 281-483-1855

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12.          NASA GIRLS and NASA BOYS are looking for virtual mentors!
NASA wants to inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers and innovators! We need YOU to help these young middle school students see how science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) are FUN!
Women@NASA has created NASA Giving Initiative and Relevance to Learning Science (GIRLS) and NASA Building Outstanding Young Scientists (BOYS) to cultivate excitement in the STEM fields. Each participant will complete online lessons with his/her assigned mentor while virtually connected through Skype or Google Chat over a five-week period this summer from July 8-August 11. You will meet with your student one time per week and will be provided suggested lessons or you can create something on your own. Volunteer to be a mentor by sending an email to the POC listed below. There is no application or other requirement. Contractors and civil servants are eligible to be mentors.
Mamta Patel Nagaraja 202-358-2014 http://women.nasa.gov/nasagirls

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13.          ISS EDMS Changes
On Friday, June 21, the ISS EDMS Homepage will be updated to make the ISS EDMS Search Interface the primary entrance to ISS EDMS. The "Enter EDMS" button will be changed to "Search EDMS" and will take you to the ISS EDMS Search Interface.
You may still enter ISS EDMS to upload documents, participate in workflows and use advanced search by clicking on the "Enter EDMS" tab now relocated at the top of the page.
For questions, the EDMS team will be conducting several Webex demonstration sessions before and after the change. The demonstrations are scheduled: June 12, 18, 25, and 27. We will also have our regularly scheduled monthly User Forum on June 21 at 9:30 AM CT which will also include a demonstration. Click here for more information https://iss-www.jsc.nasa.gov/nwo/apps/edms/web/EDMS_Changes.shtml .
For assistance with ISS EDMS contact MAPI ISS IT Customer Service at jsc-iss-it-customer-service@mail.nasa.gov or 281-244-8999, option 2.
Event Date: Friday, June 21, 2013   Event Start Time:5:00 PM   Event End Time:6:00 PM
Event Location: ISS EDMS Interface Change

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MAPI ISS IT Customer Service 281-244-8999, option 2 https://iss-www.jsc.nasa.gov/nwo/apps/edms/web/

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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: 8:30 am Central (9:30 EDT) – 51 Progress departure coverage (undocks at 8:59 CDT)

Human Spaceflight News
Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Long March-2F delivers Shenzhou-10 and three to space early Tuesday

HEADLINES AND LEADS

China launches fifth manned space mission

William Harwood - CBS News

A Shenzhou spacecraft carrying a crew of three, including China's second female astronaut, streaked into orbit Tuesday and set off after a prototype space station module for a planned two-week mission. China's fifth manned spaceflight got underway at 5:38 a.m. EDT (GMT-4; 5:38 p.m. local time) when a Long March-2F rocket thundered away from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the north central region of the country. Strapped into the Shenzhou 10 command module were mission commander Nie Haisheng, 48, veteran of a 2005 flight; Zhang Xiaoguang, a 47-year-old Air Force pilot making his first space mission; and Wang Yaping, 33, a transport pilot and the second female astronaut in China's space corps.

Chinese spacecraft blasts off with 3 astronauts

Andy Wong - Associated Press

China's latest manned spacecraft successfully blasted off Tuesday on a 15-day mission to dock with a space lab and to educate young people about science. The Shenzhou 10 capsule carrying three astronauts lifted off as scheduled at 5:38 p.m. (0938 GMT) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert. It is China's fifth manned space mission and its longest. The spacecraft was launched aboard a Long March 2F rocket and will transport the crew to the Tiangong 1, which functions as an experimental prototype for a much larger Chinese space station to be launched in 2020. The craft will spend 12 days docked with the Tiangong.

China's latest 'sacred' manned space mission blasts off

Ben Blanchard - Reuters

A Chinese manned spacecraft blasted off with three astronauts on board on Tuesday on a 15-day mission to an experimental space lab in the latest step towards the development of a space station. The Shenzhou 10 spacecraft was launched from a remote site in the Gobi desert in China's far west at 5:38 p.m. (0938 GMT) under warm, clear blue skies, in images carried live on state television. Once in orbit, the craft will dock with the Tiangong (Heavenly Palace) 1, a trial space laboratory module, and the two male and one female astronauts will carry out various experiments and test the module's systems.

Blast Off! Chinese Astronauts Launch Into Orbit

Miriam Kramer - Space.com

A Chinese rocket roared into space Tuesday carrying a crew of three is on its way to the nation's space module orbiting Earth. The trio of astronauts — two men and a woman — blasted off aboard their Shenzhou 10 spacecraft toward the Tiangong 1 module from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi desert at 5:38 a.m. EDT (9:38 GMT) — 5:38 p.m. local time. Shenzhou 10's astronauts Nie Haisheng, Zhang Xiaoguang and Wang Yaping — the second female Chinese spaceflyer — are the fifth Chinese crew to launch into space. The Long March 2F rocket carrying the three spaceflyers is the heaviest ever launched by the nation.

Russian Space Freighter to Depart From Orbital Station

RIA Novosti

Russian Progress M-19M cargo spacecraft will be undocked on Tuesday from the International Space Station (ISS) and depart on a week-long orbital flight to conduct a series of experiments, Russia's Mission Control said. "The undocking has been scheduled for 05.59 pm Moscow time [13:59 GMT] on June 11," a Mission Control spokesman told RIA Novosti on Monday.

OSTP's John Olson Leaves Government for Sierra Nevada

Dan Leone - Space News

A senior White House space policy expert has left government to take a position with Sierra Nevada Space Systems, one of three companies angling for a NASA contract to deliver crews to and from the international space station. John Olson left his job as assistant director for space and aeronautics at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) June 7, an administration official confirmed June 10. Sierra Nevada spokeswoman Krystal Scordo did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment about Olson's new job and his responsibilities at the Louisville, Colo.-based space company.

F-1 Gas Generator at MSFC

Jason Rhian - AmericaSpace.com

Last January we detailed how engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) were testing the venerable F-1 engine's gas generator to see if it could be used for the space agency's new heavy-lift booster, the Space Launch System. A total of five F-1 engines powered each Saturn V rocket into its place in history. These massive engines were instrumental in allowing NASA to win the race to the Moon and are now poised to make a comeback—in a major way. A team of engineers working at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., studied the venerable F-1 for possible use in NASA's new heavy-lift Space Launch System, or "SLS."

Douglas students get portal to space station

Paula Owen - Worcester Telegram

It wasn't a typical Monday afternoon at Douglas Intermediate Elementary School — it was actually a pretty extraordinary day by most schools' standards. In the school's auditorium, kids in Grades 6-8 were talking in real time with astronauts over 200 miles above the Earth's surface on the international space station and launching rockets with a Raytheon engineer in the parking lot afterward. That was following a visit by students Friday to Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where they got a chance to meet astronaut Stephen G. Bowen, who was visiting for an event there.

Reusable rockets? The future of spaceflight may be now, in Texas

Eric Berger - Houston Chronicle's SciGuy

SpaceX is changing the rocket game in a lot of ways — lowering costs, showing that the private sector can get it done, etc. One of the cooler, and less discussed ways they're also changing things up is by trying to develop the world's first reusable rocket. To that end the company recently test-fired the first stage of if Falcon 9-Reusable rocket at its development facility in MacGregor, Texas. It released the video this weekend. Behold the awesomeness.

Star Canadian spaceman Chris Hadfield retiring

Agence France Presse

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield announced Monday his retirement after a five-month mission to space that captivated the world with his Twitter microblog. "It has been an incredible adventure," Hadfield, 53, said of his 35 years of service as a Cold War fighter pilot and astronaut with the Canadian Space Agency. Describing his recent mission to the International Space Station as "a kind of pinnacle of my entire career... since I was a little dreaming kid of nine years old thinking of flying in space," he said it was "time now for me to do something else."

Astronaut Chris Hadfield to retire from Canadian Space Agency

Canadian Press

Chris Hadfield is moving back to Canada after decades away from home. The famous astronaut announced Monday that he is retiring from the Canadian Space Agency next month. He made the announcement at a news conference at the agency headquarters, near Montreal, in his first such event in Canada since his return from space. Hadfield has been living in the U.S. since his days as a fighter pilot in the 1980s.

Chris Hadfield to retire

Nicole Mortillaro - Global News

After spending five months aboard the International Space Station, Chris Hadfield announced his retirement from public service at Canadian Space Agency (CSA) in Longueuil, Quebec. "I've decided to retire from government service," Hadfield said. On Monday Hadfield joined Chris Alexander, Minister of Parliament of Ajax-Pickering and Gilles Leclerc, CSA's acting president, where he spoke about his life in space.

The Final Frontier. Does Copyright Apply In Space?

Matthew Stibbe - Forbes

Wernher Von Braun once said 'going to the moon is easy but the paperwork is very difficult'. The same might be said about copyright in space. When Commander Chris Hadfield covered a David Bowie song on the International Space Station did he break any copyright laws? Which jurisdiction was he in? In fact, according to The Economist, he and his son got permission from NASA, ROSCOSMOS, the CSA and David Bowie's people. It took several months but the legal eagle has landed. But, like pirate radio stations in international waters and offshore data centres, doing things in space raises some interesting intellectual property questions. Like anything in space, copyright law gets complicated and a little weird, according to a paper which was written before Hadfield's performance.

Research & Education: An Interview With John Glenn

Brian Riley - MoonandBack.com

(Riley is the science journalist for the Univ of California, Davis newspaper, The California Aggie.)

RILEY: I was reading up on some of the things that were written starting in 1974, when it became a popular topic — colonizing space — putting space stations up. What's your take on humans colonizing space?

GLENN: Well, I think it's good to do research first. I think we're a long ways from really putting colonies of people out there who would live their whole lives out there in space. I don't see that happening for quite some time. I think that it's good for us to be able to travel in space and do research in space, and I emphasize the research, because space travel to me is far more than just seeing how far we can go…

"We don't take girls": Hillary Clinton and her NASA letter

James Oberg – Space News

(Oberg is a 22-yr veteran of NASA mission control. He is now a writer and consultant in Houston.)

The fiftieth anniversary of the first woman in space is a fitting hook to look back over the long process of enabling gender-independent access to the final frontier. One of the interesting secondary tales associated with this theme is the campaign story offered by Hillary Clinton that, in 1961–2, she wrote to NASA about her interest on becoming an astronaut, and they dismayed and angered her by replying, "We don't take girls."

The wife stuff
Astronauts' spouses endured unpleasant heat of publicity, lack of privacy and pressure to conform

Celia McGee - Chicago Tribune

They were hounded by reporters sicced on them by NASA. Forced to lay their lives open to Life magazine. Panted after by every newspaper in the country. It got so bad that the vaunted wives of the astronauts in the American space program — which pervaded the national consciousness from Project Mercury in 1959 to the Apollo program ending in 1972 — had holes carved into the fences between their houses so they could visit each other without having to face television crews. Finally, a fair and accomplished reporter has written a book about these patient, resourceful and increasingly unwilling representatives of the homefront in America's race to the moon. In "The Astronaut Wives Club: A True Story," Lily Koppel offers a grounded, irresistible and sociable social history that sets out to right their story.

Making Lemonade Out of Lemons

Joseph Pelton - Space News (Opinion)

(Pelton is the former dean of the International Space University and the author of some 40 books about space and technology in modern society, including the recently released "Space Debris and Other Threats from Outer Space")

Most thoughtful people believe that the across-the-board U.S. budget cuts known as sequestration are bad public policy. If there is a will to make cuts in public expenditures — including in space programs — they should be made selectively rather than cutting everything by a fixed amount. Otherwise, vital programs can be damaged, public safety put in peril, and obsolete or redundant programs continued when they should be halted. Yet sequestration-related cuts do, in fact, help open the door to reviewing all of the U.S. space programs critically. This could start a new process to define the key goals and objectives for the future.

The Myopia Problem

Nelson Bridwell - Space News (Opinion)

(Bridwell is a senior machine vision engineer working in manufacturing automation)

It is the year 3013, one thousand years into the future. Looking up into the night sky, you see a crescent Moon that is crisscrossed by a sparkling web of city lights. Millions of people are routinely working, living, and playing on the Moon. Billions live on Mars. Many would agree that such a bright, promising future is probable. Some would contend that it is inevitable. What cannot be argued is that it is impossible, for we have already slipped the surly bonds of Earth. The question is "when," rather than "if." We don't need to wait a millennium in order to get started. Fundamental new breakthroughs in physics are not required. Just as the hang glider and sailplane could have been developed and refined hundreds or thousands of years ago, we already have the needed technology to begin pioneering exploration of the Moon and Mars.
__________

COMPLETE STORIES

China launches fifth manned space mission

William Harwood - CBS News

A Shenzhou spacecraft carrying a crew of three, including China's second female astronaut, streaked into orbit Tuesday and set off after a prototype space station module for a planned two-week mission.

China's fifth manned spaceflight got underway at 5:38 a.m. EDT (GMT-4; 5:38 p.m. local time) when a Long March-2F rocket thundered away from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the north central region of the country.

Strapped into the Shenzhou 10 command module were mission commander Nie Haisheng, 48, veteran of a 2005 flight; Zhang Xiaoguang, a 47-year-old Air Force pilot making his first space mission; and Wang Yaping, 33, a transport pilot and the second female astronaut in China's space corps.

The climb to space appeared to go smoothly, with live television from inside the command module showing all three crew members smiling and occasionally waving at the camera.

A bit less than 10 minutes after liftoff, the Shenzhou 10 spacecraft was released into its planned preliminary orbit and a few moments after that, live television from a camera mounted on the hull of the spacecraft showed solar array deployment.

"The Shenzhou 10 spacecraft has entered its orbit," Zhang Youxia, chief commander of China's manned space engineering project, said through a translator. "Its crew is in a fine state. Now I announce the launch of the Shenzhou 10 spacecraft successful."

If all goes well, the ship will dock with the Tiangong 1 -- "Heavenly Palace" -- habitation module later this week.

The Shenzhou 10 mission "carries the space dream of the Chinese nation," President Xi Jinping told the crew before launch. "It will also show the Chinese passion to reach for the stars and reach into space. You have made all of us very proud."

Wu Ping, official spokeswoman for China's manned space program, said the crew planned to carry out two dockings with Tiangong 1, using both manual and automatic procedures.

"So far, we only conducted three automatic docking tests and a manual one," Wu told reporters before launch. "More tests are needed. We also need to further prove that our astronauts are fit for a longer stay in space and the orbiters are able to support their life and work."

Nie and his crewmates also plan to carry out a battery of experiments and Wang will host a live broadcast from the Tiangong 1 module to show Chinese students what life is like in orbit.

"I'll demonstrate some physics experiments done in the space environment, Wang told CCTV. "As an astronaut, I'm also a learner, like those students. I think we'll learn together and have a great time in space."

Wu said the goal is to "bring the space program closer to the young generation, improve their understanding and attract their interests in our work."

The crew also hopes to enjoy a bit of down time in orbit, a luxury given the busy timelines and rigid safety policies followed by earlier crews.

"After finishing our daily duties, we'll have time to relax and do things, like appreciate the beautiful view of space and listen to some music," said Nie.

Added Zhang: "I will look at our beautiful planet, our beautiful homeland. I can find out whether it is possible to see the Yangtze River and Yellow River. I can take a look at the deep universe and shining stars. I feel very excited."

For her part, Wang said she was "very honored to have this chance to represent China in space and realize the Chinese dream. I'm confident that we can complete this mission successfully."

The Shenzhou 10 flight is the latest in a series of incremental steps laying the groundwork for assembly of a much larger Mir-class space station around the end of the decade, the stated goal of China's manned space program.

Following a deliberate, step-by-step approach to that long-term objective, China became the third nation, after the United States and the Soviet Union/Russia, to launch a manned spacecraft in October 2003 when Yang Liwei blasted off aboard the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft.

Shenzhou 6, carrying two crew members, was successfully launched in October 2005 and Shenzhou 7, carrying a three-man crew, flew in September 2008.

In September 2011, Tiangong 1 was launched to serve as a target for rendezvous and docking missions. One month after the solar-powered module reached orbit, China launched the unmanned Shenzhou 8 spacecraft, which carried out an automated rendezvous and televised docking with the research module two days later.

China followed that flight by launching two men and a woman on the Shenzhou 9 mission in June 2012. They carried out the program's first manned rendezvous and docking.

Joan Johnson-Freese, an expert on China's space program, said the latest mission will continue "the plan," gathering the experience needed to build the larger station later this decade.

"After this, they supposedly will move on to Tiangong 2, which will allow them to keep a crew of three in orbit for 20 days," she told CBS News. "It's all building to part three, which is the 20-ton space station they will launch when they have the capability to launch it on the Long March 5 (rocket)."

Tiangong 1 measures 34 feet long, 11 feet wide and weighs about 8.5 tons. It features a pressurized experiment module where visiting crews can live and work and a "resource module" housing electrical, propulsion and life support systems.

The space station the Chinese hope to build later this decade will consist of four or more modules linked together.

For comparison, the International Space Station operated by the United States, Russia, Europe, Canada and Japan, would cover a football field, weighs more than 450 tons and has a multi-module pressurized volume comparable to a 747 jumbo jet. It has been staffed with rotating crews of up to six astronauts and cosmonauts for the past 13 years.

Chinese spacecraft blasts off with 3 astronauts

Andy Wong - Associated Press

China's latest manned spacecraft successfully blasted off Tuesday on a 15-day mission to dock with a space lab and to educate young people about science.

The Shenzhou 10 capsule carrying three astronauts lifted off as scheduled at 5:38 p.m. (0938 GMT) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert.

It is China's fifth manned space mission and its longest. The spacecraft was launched aboard a Long March 2F rocket and will transport the crew to the Tiangong 1, which functions as an experimental prototype for a much larger Chinese space station to be launched in 2020. The craft will spend 12 days docked with the Tiangong.

On the heels of Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield's wildly popular YouTube videos from the International Space Station, the Chinese crew plans to deliver a series of talks to students from aboard the Tiangong.

The craft carried two men, mission commander Nie Haisheng and Zhang Xiaoguang, and China's second female astronaut, Wang Yaping.

Earlier in the afternoon, President Xi Jinping was shown live on television wishing them well at the launch center.

"You have made Chinese people feel proud of ourselves," Xi told the three astronauts. "You have trained and prepared yourselves carefully and thoroughly, so I am confident in your completing the mission successfully.

"I wish you success and look forward to your triumphant return."

State television showed Xi watching the launch, as well as Premier Li Keqiang who was at the space command center in Beijing.

The space program is a source of enormous national pride for China, reflecting its rapid economic and technological progress and ambition to rank among the world's leading nations.

China is hoping to join the United States and Russia as the only countries to send independently maintained space stations into orbit. It is already one of just three nations to have launched manned spacecraft on its own.

The space classrooms mark the boldest step so far to bring the military-backed program into the lives of ordinary Chinese and follows in the footsteps of NASA, which uses student outreach to inspire interest in space exploration and sustain support for its budgets.

At a news conference Monday, Wang said she was "eager to explore and feel the magic and splendor of space with young friends."

Her fellow astronaut Zhang told reporters they would conduct dozens of space science experiments and would "enjoy personalized space foods especially designed by our nutritionists."

China's latest 'sacred' manned space mission blasts off

Ben Blanchard - Reuters

A Chinese manned spacecraft blasted off with three astronauts on board on Tuesday on a 15-day mission to an experimental space lab in the latest step towards the development of a space station.

The Shenzhou 10 spacecraft was launched from a remote site in the Gobi desert in China's far west at 5:38 p.m. (0938 GMT) under warm, clear blue skies, in images carried live on state television.

Once in orbit, the craft will dock with the Tiangong (Heavenly Palace) 1, a trial space laboratory module, and the two male and one female astronauts will carry out various experiments and test the module's systems.

They will also give a lecture to students back on Earth.

China successfully carried out its first manned docking exercise with Tiangong 1 last June, a milestone in an effort to acquire the technological and logistical skills to run a full space station that can house people for long periods.

President Xi Jinping oversaw Tuesday's launch personally, addressing the astronauts before they blasted off to wish them success, saying he was "enormously happy" to be there.

"You are the pride of the Chinese people, and this mission is both glorious and sacred," Xi said, according to state media.

This mission will be the longest time Chinese astronauts have spent in space, and marks the second mission for lead astronaut Nie Haisheng.

It is China's fifth manned space mission since 2003, and was accompanied by the usual outpouring of national pride and Communist Party propaganda, including children dressed as happy ethnic minorities waving off the three at the space centre.

However, some wondered why China was spending so much money exploring space when it was still a developing country with a plethora of more pressing issues, from food safety and pollution to the prevalence of workplace fire disasters.

"Why don't they spend this money solving China's real problems instead of wasting it like this?" wrote one user on China's popular Twitter-like service, Sina Weibo.

China's space program has come a long way since late leader Mao Zedong, founder of Communist China in 1949, lamented that the country could not even launch a potato into space.

But China is still far from catching up with the established space superpowers, the United States and Russia.

Rendezvous and docking techniques such as those which China is only testing now were mastered by the United States and the former Soviet Union decades ago, and the 10.5 meter-long Tiangong 1 is a trial module, not a fully fledged space station.

Still, the Shenzhou 10 mission will be the latest show of China's growing prowess in space and comes while budget restraints and shifting priorities have held back U.S. manned space launches.

China also plans an unmanned moon landing and deployment of a moon rover. Scientists have raised the possibility of sending a man to the moon, but not before 2020.

While Beijing insists its space program is for peaceful purposes, a Pentagon report last month highlighted China's increasing space capabilities and said Beijing was pursuing a variety of activities aimed at preventing its adversaries from using space-based assets during a crisis.

Fears of a space arms race with the United States and other powers mounted after China blew up one of its own weather satellites with a ground-based missile in January 2007.

Blast Off! Chinese Astronauts Launch Into Orbit

Miriam Kramer - Space.com

A Chinese rocket roared into space Tuesday carrying a crew of three is on its way to the nation's space module orbiting Earth.

The trio of astronauts — two men and a woman — blasted off aboard their Shenzhou 10 spacecraft toward the Tiangong 1 module from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi desert at 5:38 a.m. EDT (9:38 GMT) — 5:38 p.m. local time.

Shenzhou 10's astronauts Nie Haisheng, Zhang Xiaoguang and Wang Yaping — the second female Chinese spaceflyer — are the fifth Chinese crew to launch into space. The Long March 2F rocket carrying the three spaceflyers is the heaviest ever launched by the nation.

The Shenzhou 10 crew is set to dock with the Tiangong 1 module (also called the Heavenly Palace 1) twice during the course of its 15 day mission, Wu Ping, a spokeswoman for China's manned space program said during a briefing on Monday. One docking will be manual, the other automatic, Wu added.

"So far we only conducted three automatic docking tests and a manual one," Wu said, according to state-run Chinese news agency Xinhua. "More tests are needed. We also need to further prove that our astronauts are fit for a longer stay in space and the orbiters are able to support their life and work."

During their time in space, Nie, Zhang and Wang are scheduled to beam a science lesson down to students on Earth from orbit, and test the performance and efficiency of humans and technology in space.

The relatively small Tiangong 1 module has been in Earth's orbit since September 2011. The 8.5-ton structure is about half of the mass of the world's first space station — the Soviet Union's Salyut 1 — and the International Space Station is about 400 metric tons by comparison, Marcia Smith, editor of SpacePolicyOnline.com, wrote in a recent posting.
The first Chinese three-person crew docked to the Tiangong 1 module in June 2012. Before the Shenzhou 10 mission, eight other Chinese astronauts made the trip to space. The first Chinese astronaut, Yang Liwei, launched into orbit in 2003.

Chinese media is reporting that this latest journey marks the last of three planned missions to master space rendezvous and docking. Shenzhou 10 is part of China's plan to gain the experience necessary to build and operate a large space station by around 2020, officials have said.

Xinhua has reported that the larger station will be composed of three capsules: Two laboratories and a core unit. The orbiting habitat is expected to weigh more than 90 tons.
Both Zhang and Wang have never flown to space before, but Nie flew for just under five days during the Shenzhou 6 mission in 2005.

After the United States and Russia, China is the third country to launch astronauts into space on its own vehicles.

Russian Space Freighter to Depart From Orbital Station

RIA Novosti

Russian Progress M-19M cargo spacecraft will be undocked on Tuesday from the International Space Station (ISS) and depart on a week-long orbital flight to conduct a series of experiments, Russia's Mission Control said.

"The undocking has been scheduled for 05.59 pm Moscow time [13:59 GMT] on June 11," a Mission Control spokesman told RIA Novosti on Monday.

"The Progress space freighter will carry out a series of experiments as part of the Radar-Progress project to study the physical characteristics of the ionosphere environment around the spacecraft caused by the work of its liquid-propellant engines," the official said.

The spacecraft will be de-orbited on June 19 and "buried" in the Pacific Ocean, he added.

The Progress-M19 arrived at the orbital station on April 26, over 2.5 tons of cargo to the ISS, including food, water and oxygen for the crew, along with parcels from their families.

The departure of Progress space freighter clears a docking port on the Zvezda module for the European ATV-4 resupply spacecraft, which blasted off from the Kourou space center in French Guiana on June 5 and is expected to arrive at the ISS on June 15.

The launch of the next Russian cargo spacecraft, Progress M-20M, is scheduled for July 28 from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, according to sources in the Russian space industry.

OSTP's John Olson Leaves Government for Sierra Nevada

Dan Leone - Space News

A senior White House space policy expert has left government to take a position with Sierra Nevada Space Systems, one of three companies angling for a NASA contract to deliver crews to and from the international space station.

John Olson left his job as assistant director for space and aeronautics at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) June 7, an administration official confirmed June 10.

Sierra Nevada spokeswoman Krystal Scordo did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment about Olson's new job and his responsibilities at the Louisville, Colo.-based space company.

Olson joined OSTP in May 2012 after about eight years with NASA, where he focused on human spaceflight operations, according to his online LinkedIn profile. Olson came to the space agency in 2004 after 13 years with the U.S. Air Force.

News of his departure from government service was first reported June 6 by the online news and rumors site NASAwatch.com.

Olson joins Sierra Nevada as NASA prepares to unveil new details about the next round of competition in the agency's Commercial Crew Program, an effort to fund the private design and development of a crew-carrying space transportation system that could help fill the logistical void left by the end of the space shuttle program.

Sierra Nevada is one of three companies competing for funding in the Commercial Crew Program, which NASA has funded since 2009. The space agency wants at least one company to be ready to carry astronauts to the international space station by 2017.

F-1 Gas Generator at MSFC

Jason Rhian - AmericaSpace.com

Last January we detailed how engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) were testing the venerable F-1 engine's gas generator to see if it could be used for the space agency's new heavy-lift booster, the Space Launch System.

A total of five F-1 engines powered each Saturn V rocket into its place in history. These massive engines were instrumental in allowing NASA to win the race to the Moon and are now poised to make a comeback—in a major way.

A team of engineers working at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., studied the venerable F-1 for possible use in NASA's new heavy-lift Space Launch System, or "SLS."

Engineers from a wide range of disciplines have broken down components of the monster engine and refurbished them. The secrets gleaned from the engineers' efforts will be put to use in NASA's plans to send crews far beyond the orbit of Earth. It is hoped that lessons learned from the F-1 will give rise to advanced and innovative designs.

Researchers dismantled the F-1's gas generator, which supplies power to the F-1's turbopump. The gas generator is one of the first components of a rocket's engine that is designed. The size of the gas generator often dictates the general size of the engine itself.

NASA's requirements are hefty ones. The space agency's SLS rocket will need to be capable of hefting 130-metric-ton (143-ton) payloads into orbit.

Two generators were "liberated" from F-1s located at Marshall and at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum located in Washington, D.C. The parts were cleaned and then scanned to create three-dimensional renderings of the components.

What researchers found was most enlightening: similar components can be more affordably produced using modern machining techniques. Given the poor state of the U.S. economy, this is very welcome news.

Test Stand 116, located at MSFC East Test Area, has roared to fiery life under the refurbished fury of the gas generators.

Dynetics, Inc. and Pratt Whitney Rocketdyne have submitted a proposal to have two F-1 engines used in the SLS Block II design. These are fueled by liquid oxygen and rocket-fuel grade kerosene—not something engineers that worked on the space shuttle's SSMEs (Space Shuttle Main Engine) are too familiar with, as the SSMEs ran off of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen.

A final determination of whether or not SLS will use these systems has yet to be made. Given the history and record of the F-1, a 21st variant could prove to be beneficial for NASA's new heavy-lift booster.

Douglas students get portal to space station

Paula Owen - Worcester Telegram

It wasn't a typical Monday afternoon at Douglas Intermediate Elementary School — it was actually a pretty extraordinary day by most schools' standards.

In the school's auditorium, kids in Grades 6-8 were talking in real time with astronauts over 200 miles above the Earth's surface on the international space station and launching rockets with a Raytheon engineer in the parking lot afterward.

That was following a visit by students Friday to Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where they got a chance to meet astronaut Stephen G. Bowen, who was visiting for an event there.

Eighth-grader Kylie M. Blake's question for one of the space station's astronauts was one of 20 chosen by teachers out of 450 questions gathered from students to ask the astronauts live. The transmission was possible via a live downlink hooked up to a satellite set up in the parking area in front of the school.

"It was the best thing that ever happened in my life," the 14-year-old aspiring astronomer said. "Getting that close at this age in my life was beyond my dreams."

Kylie got to ask Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano, how he became Minnesota teen Abigail Harrison's mentor and what it was like to have her act as his earthbound liaison.

"It motivates me that I can go as far as her," Kylie said.

She said she also liked seeing American astronaut Karen Nyberg's long hair float freely in zero-gravity on the video stream. (One student asked her how she washed it on the space station.) Astronaut Chris Cassidy from Salem also chatted with students from the space station.

Principal Beverly Bachelder said the event was part of Space Week at the school, an effort to get kids more excited about STEM fields.

"There is a particular push in Douglas," Ms. Bachelder said. "Estimates indicate that there will be 2.4 million jobs created in STEM fields in the U.S. by 2018, but only 25 percent of high school students today complete basic math and engineering work. It is a real issue if we're going to stay competitive as a nation."

"It was just so exciting to see the kids' excitement," physical science teacher Kelly M. Graveson said. She and Grade 6 math teacher Jessica Findlay — who were chosen three years ago to go to NASA and participate in a professional development program with 14 others teachers in the country — helped obtain a grant from the Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce for Space Week, in its second year, along with Ms. Bachelder and Grade 6 science teacher Karen Christian.

"It gave kids the opportunity to talk with people in space and realize that it is a possibility for them," Ms. Graveson said

Benjamin J. Zidelis, 14, also in Grade 8, got to ask Mr. Parmitano what type of workouts they do in space.

"I thought it was mind-blowing," the hopeful National Basketball Association player said. "I would go up in space if I had the chance."

Even the teachers were excited about talking live with astronauts in space.

"This is one of the most exciting events in my life," seventh-grade science teacher Rachel L. Usher said. "It was motivating for students. When they found out they'd be talking to them, they started jumping up and down and asked, 'Are they really going to be floating?' "

Grade 6 student Daniella M. Damasio, 11, who won a $1,000 Raytheon Math Moves You scholarship with a matching $1,000 for the school, said the event was cool.

"It was pretty cool and a once-in-a-lifetime experience," Daniella said.

Ms. Graveson smiled.

"If we can get kids to call anything we do at school cool, we're pretty happy," she said.

After chatting with astronauts for about 20 minutes, the kids headed outdoors to launch 20 student-made rockets with Raytheon senior principal electrical engineer Macdonald J. Andrews, who volunteers in schools and elsewhere to help get kids excited about STEM studies.

The kids will use the Pythagorean theorem to calculate the how high each rocket flew, he said.

"I give teachers all the credit in the world bringing up the next generation of engineers," he said.

As far as talking with astronauts, he said he was pretty impressed, too.

"The quality of the video was incredible," Mr. Andrews said. "It was like they were right with us."

He explained the downlink was possible with at three-way link from the ground station, up to a commercial satellite, back down to Houston, and back up to the space station.

"Each time somebody spoke, it went through three links," he said.

For more information on the project, go to: http://1.usa.gov/11HO17i

Reusable rockets? The future of spaceflight may be now, in Texas

Eric Berger - Houston Chronicle's SciGuy

SpaceX is changing the rocket game in a lot of ways — lowering costs, showing that the private sector can get it done, etc.

One of the cooler, and less discussed ways they're also changing things up is by trying to develop the world's first reusable rocket. To that end the company recently test-fired the first stage of if Falcon 9-Reusable rocket at its development facility in MacGregor, Texas. It released the video this weekend.

Behold the awesomeness.

The company is trying to develop a rocket with which the first stage can be returned to the launch site within a few minutes, and the second stage returned within a day. Both stages would then be usable within about a day after their return. Test flights could begin within a couple of years.

The cool thing is that such rockets would probably be launched from the private spaceport that SpaceX is planning to build in Texas, Florida or Georgia.

How cool would it be to launch the future of spaceflight from the coast of Texas?

Star Canadian spaceman Chris Hadfield retiring

Agence France Presse

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield announced Monday his retirement after a five-month mission to space that captivated the world with his Twitter microblog.

"It has been an incredible adventure," Hadfield, 53, said of his 35 years of service as a Cold War fighter pilot and astronaut with the Canadian Space Agency.

Describing his recent mission to the International Space Station as "a kind of pinnacle of my entire career... since I was a little dreaming kid of nine years old thinking of flying in space," he said it was "time now for me to do something else."

"In about a month I'll be retiring from the Canadian Space Agency and just pursuing private interests," Hadfield told a press conference, "and getting my feet planted on the soil and seeing where the future takes me."

Hadfield returned to Earth last month with American astronaut Tom Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko.

From space, Hadfield captured the public imagination with regular updates on Twitter that gave an unprecedented insight into daily life in space and access to spectacular images taken from the ISS.

Tweeting under the Star Trek-like name @Cmdr_Hadfield, the astronaut posted spectacular pictures of the Earth seen from the sky and also insights on the mundane aspects of things like eating and washing in space.

He and his team held the first live news conference from space, recorded the first music video in space -- a cover of David Bowie's classic "Space Oddity" -- conducted a record number of scientific experiments on the ISS and more.

Using the power of social networks more effectively than anyone in the history of manned space flight, Hadfield has arguably become the world's most prominent astronaut since the days of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.

He inspired the public at a time when some scientists question the need for manned space flight to the ISS amid constant budget pressures.

Hadfield said he is still re-adapting to gravity since landing -- his heart shrank and he has lost skeletal mass. But he said he should be "almost back to normal" by Labor Day.

He will retire on July 3.

Astronaut Chris Hadfield to retire from Canadian Space Agency

Canadian Press

Chris Hadfield is moving back to Canada after decades away from home.

The famous astronaut announced Monday that he is retiring from the Canadian Space Agency next month.

He made the announcement at a news conference at the agency headquarters, near Montreal, in his first such event in Canada since his return from space.

Hadfield has been living in the U.S. since his days as a fighter pilot in the 1980s.

"(I'll be) making good on a promise I made my wife nearly 30 years ago — that yes, eventually, we would be moving back to Canada," Hadfield said.

"I'm looking forward to the next phase of life."

He says he's ready to pursue private interests, outside government. Hadfield says he hasn't decided what he will do next, but says he plans to do presentations on space while reflecting over the coming year on his next move.

Hadfield gained international prominence during his recent six-month trip to the International Space Station, where he posted experiments, photographs and even a music video on social media.

He says he's recovering his physical strength while readjusting to gravity and he expects to be back to normal by around Labour Day.

Hadfield says he's lost up to five per cent of his bone density in some areas. On the other hand, he says, because he exercised two hours a day while in space he's able to bench-press more than he used to.

Chris Hadfield to retire

Nicole Mortillaro - Global News

After spending five months aboard the International Space Station, Chris Hadfield announced his retirement from public service at Canadian Space Agency (CSA) in Longueuil, Quebec.

"I've decided to retire from government service," Hadfield said.

On Monday Hadfield joined Chris Alexander, Minister of Parliament of Ajax-Pickering and Gilles Leclerc, CSA's acting president, where he spoke about his life in space.

Hadfield took the stage Monday afternoon and thanked the CSA.

"I owe an eternal and enormous debt to the people who made this possible…and to allow the public to share in this," Hadfield said of the mission.

Hadfield showed a video presentation of his mission where he chronicled the entire mission from training to landing. He described his training, which, he says, was 20 years, the length of his career as an astronaut.

Speaking about his life aboard the station, he said, "The real special place is the cupola," he said. "When you go down into the cupola, suddenly the world explodes in front of you. The visual impact is overwhelming."

"I think I took 45,000 pictures."

Hadfield thanked the CSA for helping him post 140 videos, which he said is believed to have been viewed 130 million times. "To see the world in a different perspective."

Hadfield became an international celebrity while on the ISS, using various forms of social media to share his views and musing from space. He continues to post those photos on Twitter.

"It's been an incredible adventure…it's been the pinnacle of my career," Hadfield said.

"I'm finally moving back to Canada, keeping my feet on the ground…And I'm looking forward for the next phase of life."

The Final Frontier. Does Copyright Apply In Space?

Matthew Stibbe - Forbes

Wernher Von Braun once said 'going to the moon is easy but the paperwork is very difficult'. The same might be said about copyright in space. When Commander Chris Hadfield covered a David Bowie song on the International Space Station did he break any copyright laws? Which jurisdiction was he in?

In fact, according to The Economist, he and his son got permission from NASA, ROSCOSMOS, the CSA and David Bowie's people. It took several months but the legal eagle has landed.

But, like pirate radio stations in international waters and offshore data centres, doing things in space raises some interesting intellectual property questions.

Like anything in space, copyright law gets complicated and a little weird, according to a paper which was written before Hadfield's performance. J.A.L. Sterling, a London-based copyright expert, discusses some interesting scenarios:

"A member of a Lunar expedition performs on the Moon a copyright work and the performance is broadcast throughout the World by the Government entity in charge of the mission – all without the permission of the copyright owner. Does an action for infringement lie against the performer or the Government entity, and if so, on what grounds and in which countries?

What legal remedies are available when unauthorized copies of a copyright work are made on the Moon or other celestial body in Space, or when an unauthorized performance of a copyright work is given in such location before a sufficient number of persons to constitute a public?

Without authorization someone on the International Space Station feeds copyright material into a file-sharing website, so that persons on Earth can get free downloads. What action can be taken by the copyright owner, and how does the fact that some 15 different countries are Parties to the Space Station project affect the situation?

Back in the nineties, when I used to make computer games, I used to have the scope of copyright defined in contracts to include 'anywhere in the universe' to make sure that we retained our intellectual property even if it was transmitted via satellite or (with more wishful thinking) enjoyed on a moon mission by paying tourists. People mocked me for this but now I feel like I was very forward-looking.

As commercial space ventures become more common the legal issues may become pressing. For now, though, as Tom Lehrer might have said 'once the IP goes up, who cares where it comes down, that's not my department says Wernher von Braun.'

Research & Education: An Interview With John Glenn

Brian Riley - MoonandBack.com

(Riley is the science journalist for the Univ of California, Davis newspaper, The California Aggie.)

RILEY: I was reading up on some of the things that were written starting in 1974, when it became a popular topic — colonizing space — putting space stations up. What's your take on humans colonizing space?

GLENN: Well, I think it's good to do research first. I think we're a long ways from really putting colonies of people out there who would live their whole lives out there in space. I don't see that happening for quite some time. I think that it's good for us to be able to travel in space and do research in space, and I emphasize the research, because space travel to me is far more than just seeing how far we can go. Exploration, of course, is going to new places, but I don't think we go to new places just solely to say: "Well, we've been there," and come back, interesting though it may be. To me, each time we go farther into space we should use that to do basic research—basic research that can't be done before you go there. That's the reason I think the Space Station is so important right now. I think there's a lot of research to be done there that we have not even touched yet, largely because we've been very limited with the cut of the shuttle system—the ending of the shuttle system that President George W. Bush decreed. That has left us without a way of getting back and forth to do some of the research we would like to have done.

GLENN (cont.): But I think no matter where we go in space to me the important thing is not only getting there and getting back, but it's also doing research, because that opens up as a possibility with that new distance of travel in space. As far as actually setting up colonies of people who would live their whole lives in space, I think we're a long ways from doing that yet, and I think we have many, many decades before we could be able to even consider something like that.

RILEY: I think President Obama mentioned a goal of sending a human being or human beings to Mars in the decade of the 2030s?

GLENN: Well, I think the flight to Mars has been talked about many times, and some planning has gone on. And of course, a precursor to people going is to do the robotic research that we're doing right now with the new robot that we have on Mars right now and it will be sending back a lot of information. I think sometime we will go to Mars and I think we'll explore it with humans sometime, but I think it's really wise to do all the robotic exploration ahead of time and learn as much as possible. Once we have learned as much as possible with the robots, then that's the time to send people, and let them then continue the research that the robots have started.

RILEY: What's the next step in studying the topic of the aging process of humans in space? Are you saying the next step is to study more people?

GLENN: Yes, I would like to see us have more people in the age bracket I was in, between 75 and 80, when many of these changes that occur in the human body on Earth have already started, or have been progressive, and then you go into space and compare that with younger people, and maybe we get some clues for things like turning the body's immune system on and off—What can enhance that?—Or enhancing protein return to the muscle, "PTO" as it's called, protein turnover. Things like that are things that I think are what we should be looking into right now particularly on the Station. That's the reason we built the International Space Station and spent over $100 billion on getting it up there, and it's too bad we don't have our own means of traveling back and forth.

GLENN (cont.): I think President Bush's decision to cancel the shuttle was just flat wrong. I just disagree with that, and I think that limited the research we can do, but we're getting back to it as much as we can, and we're in the process of developing new means of—where we will have our own means of transportation back and forth to the Space Station. Right now, of course, we have no means of getting to our own Space Station. We have to pay the Russians to put our people up there to send them into space—rendezvous with the Station and bring them back at the end of their stay, and that to me is just wrong. We're supposed to be the world's greatest space-faring nation, and to cancel our own means of getting there I thought was a mistake, even though it would save some money, but President Bush made the decision that we're—he re-directed NASA toward going back to a base on the moon, but with no budget to get there, and said it had to be done on the existing NASA budget. That budget then—What they had to do, or what he had to do, what he did was say we'll end the Space Shuttle, because it is expensive. It's about $400 million per launch. And they're going to cancel the Space Shuttle and use that money to plan a mission to the Moon, and in the meantime we have to depend on the Russians to put our people into space and bring them back, and I just don't think that was a very bright decision, or a right decision, so anyway that's behind us now and we're developing new means of getting to the Station, and I hope those come along as fast as possible.

RILEY: Do you think private industry can pick up the slack and produce launch vehicles?

GLENN: Well, I'm sure they can, but you know it's called "the commercialization of space," which I thought was a misnomer, because we've always depended on private industry to do the building of our space equipment anyway under NASA direction, and that was fine, and that's basically what we're still doing now, except the manufacturers are putting a little bit of their own money into it compared to the government money, and we have three different basic competitor groups: SpaceX — They're the one that sent up the Dragon spacecraft a short time ago; then we have the Sierra Nevada Corporation in Colorado — They're working on a different idea for transportation back and forth; and then Boeing is also involved. So I'm sure that one of those companies will come up with what will be selected as a primary transportation system back and forth to our Space Station.

RILEY: You remember President Kennedy's famous speech when he said we should go to the Moon. Do you think that a president should say something similar to that today or somebody should say something—set a goal like that?

GLENN: I'm sure we'll get back to something like that. I see this in a little bigger context, perhaps. It's not just a stunt. I think if you go back and look at the philosophy of the United States since our founding days, there are two things that have probably been more important in moving us ahead than any other things that we could have done. Number one, this nation had an emphasis on the individual and so education became available for everyone, and that was number one. That was important. The second element was that we did more research. We put more money into research, into the new and the unknown than any nation in history, and the same thing with education, and those two things led us into a worldwide preeminence in a very short period of time. I think those two things are just as applicable today, in our competitive position around the world, than they have ever been in the past.

GLENN (cont.): We need the best education system in the world. We have it in higher education. We do not have it in general education for all of our people—the K-12 education. Other nations are far, far outdoing the United States in that area. We still have the lead in research, but once again, other nations are pouring more into research also. We still have a lead, but to me it's just very, very important that we keep that lead in basic research, and that's where this idea of the Station and what Steve Robinson's going to be doing there at UC Davis, things like that, that expand our knowledge and continue research in keeping us in the lead in research in the world. We're in a newly competitive position around the world, and unless we keep our lead in education for all of our people and do the research along with that, other nations will start outdoing us and they will be leaders in the world, and so I see this as being very, very important—the kinds of things that we're doing, and the kinds of things that Steve will be doing there at UC Davis, also.

RILEY: How about after Sputnik. I wasn't alive, so I don't remember, but there was a big emphasis on education after Sputnik. Do you think we need something like that again?

GLENN: Absolutely. On K-12 education this country has gone down, down, down compared to the other nations. It doesn't mean that we have gotten dumber. It just means that we have not advanced as fast in those areas as other nations have done, and we're way down right now. I headed up—some years ago, though; it's been over 10 years ago now—I headed a national commission sponsored by the Department of Education to look into that very area of K-12 education, because we had some studies, international studies, of 41 nations around the world over a three-year period that showed that other nations were beginning to outdo us in K-12 education and that our kids up to about the fourth grade have a good concept of science and technology. By the time they get out of high school they rank way, way down. We're one of the last of the 41 nations by the time our kids get out of high school, compared to other nations, in math and science and technology. Now in higher education we're still the envy of the rest of the world. But for all of our people we need to upgrade that educational level and get more emphasis on it, and so local, state or federal cuts in education, I think, are a big mistake, and I think we have to get back to being the best educated general citizenry in the world and make sure we do not lose our lead in research, if we're to have a leadership position in the world.

RILEY: Do you have any ideas what might be causing our K-12 problems? Is it perhaps because of a lack of funding or a lack of focus?

GLENN: The teaching level—we found that at that time, if it's not gotten better in the last 10 years, but at that time the math teachers in high school, for instance, twenty-five percent of the math teachers never had any training in teaching math. They were graduates of teacher schools, but they did not have any special training in teaching math as a subject. Twenty percent of the science teachers were in the same category, and even more importantly, there was in both categories in math and in science, about thirty percent of the teachers left the profession within three years and fifty percent were gone to other things and to other locations within five years. So there is not a stable teaching cadre there. In other words, if a math teacher is good, or a science teacher is good, a fair percentage of them will be hired out of that profession to work for AOL or Apple or one of the technical companies. We have not had the same stability that some other nations in the world have had with their teachers.

GLENN (cont.): Another big difference, too, was that most of our competitor nations around the world have a national education system and we're the only major nation in the world that operates off of local school boards. They receive very little direction from state boards of education or from the nation. So local school boards direct basically what happens and too often they're not willing to track or to do the supervision of the education system that will make it world competitive. In other nations they have nationwide education systems where the money is put out more equitably across all of these different areas of the country. In this country, just for example, at the time of our study back ten years ago, the number of schools boards in the United States was at 14,700. I think it's a few less than that now. But at that time that means that we had 14,700 different school board entities setting largely the curriculum and the money and the local taxation that determine how the education system went in their particular area. And so I think that's a big holdback for progress in that area also. So those are just some things that I think our study ten years ago showed, and if anything has become worse today.

BRIAN RILEY: Do you have any thoughts about your flight on the space shuttle with Steve Robinson and him becoming a university professor?

JOHN GLENN: I think it's great he's doing that and using his background, his experience, his education to help pass it on to other people who I hope will be inspired by his like. Steve is really an outstanding person. I tell you, NASA's loss is UC Davis' gain, because he's truly one of the outstanding astronauts, and I didn't know where he was going to go after his astronaut days, but UC Davis is fortunate in getting him. Steve is really top-notch material.

RILEY: He plans to set up a new research center to study the interaction between humans and vehicles, and it could be any vehicles in hazardous environments. It could be space vehicles. It could be underwater vehicles, or whatever kind, and he calls this "extending the human presence in hazardous environments."

GLENN: Yeah, I know about that. I've talked to him a little bit about that, not a whole lot, but a little bit.

RILEY: Do you have any thoughts on that kind of research?

GLENN: I think it's excellent research. We're getting so dependent on machines and computers, and yet the human element of this, I think, and how you integrate this and what the relationship is and what you can depend on computers to do and what you have to still depend on people to do is a great field to be studying. There has not been as much work done in that area as there should be and that's what Steve will be looking into, as I understand it. The astronauts are very highly selected, obviously, and there's competition to get a slot, and Steve was selected, of course, after stiff competition. But then within the astronaut group, there's some just regular—I won't say "run-of-the-mill astronauts," because that would be an overstatement, but some of them are outstanding within the group, once they've been in NASA for a while and have flown and had some experience, and Steve was in that group that really excelled within the astronaut group in NASA. So he's an outstanding person and very well qualified to look into this area and I'm sure he'll be a great benefit to UC Davis.

RILEY: Do you have any particular memories that stand out from your 1998 space shuttle flight with Steve and the other astronauts?

GLENN: Oh, lots of 'em. We had seven people on that flight and that was something very different to me, since the other flight I was on was the first US orbital flight back in 1962. And that was one in which I was alone on, of course, so it was very different to fly with a total of seven people on board on Discovery/STS-95. Steve was one of the more outstanding crew members and supervised all the research that we were doing on that mission, and I was involved with some of that research. So I worked very closely with Steve. He's a good friend.

RILEY: Is there anything you would have done differently on that flight, if you had a chance to do it again?

GLENN: Oh… No, I don't know that there is. Each one of us had our assigned duties on that flight on a timeline that covered the whole flight all nine days, and we had the experiments put up so that each one—We had 83 different research experiments on that one flight, and so it was a very busy time and each one of the seven crew members had a number of things that each one of us was doing in the research area we were assigned to. Doing it differently? I suppose there might be something different. I don't remember anything I would in particular have done differently. But I'm sure there were—You make a mistake once in a while, so I wouldn't say that it was a hundred percent perfect, but I don't think of anything offhand that I would have done any differently, no.

RILEY: UC Davis also has two other alumni astronauts. One is Robert Phillips who received his PhD in physiology/nutrition. You might have heard of him, because he had a role as Chief Scientist in NASA, involved with preparations for the space station for a few years in designing the International Space Station.

GLENN: Yeah, I know the name. I don't know him personally.

RILEY: He almost got to go up in space. He was trained as a payload specialist, but then we had the 1986 Challenger disaster and they put off his flight and then the next time he had an issue with a heart condition, so they grounded him, so he didn't get to go up, but he's an expert on studying things like the human aging process in space, so I was going to interview him again after I interview you and maybe see if I could quote him in the article, too.

GLENN: Yeah. The aging in space—that's the reason I was up on that second flight. That's what I was studying. In fact, I was on that flight because when I was in the Senate in Washington, one year when we were preparing for debate on the Senate floor about the NASA budget, I was looking at some of the things that had been discovered in space about the human body, and NASA had charted some 52 changes in the human body that occurred during long term space flights, and a number of them are very similar to things that occur in the natural process of aging right here on earth. When I went up on that second flight I was 77. Now, here on Earth your body's immune system changes somewhat when you get older and you become less resistant to disease and infection. The same thing happens to younger astronauts in space over a period of time. Another one is, as you get older, your body's ability to replace protein in the muscles becomes less, and the same thing happens to younger astronauts during long-term space flight. There are several other things like that.

GLENN (continued): But what I was looking into, since I was 77, what I proposed was that we look into some of these things and see if we could find out what within the human body turns these systems on and off. In other words, if we could do something that enhances the body's immune system here on Earth, it would be a tremendous step forward in the fight against disease and [inaudible] and cancer and other things. So that's what my purpose in being up there was, to make measurements and do research on me at the age of 77 to see if we could find out by comparing the results on me in space with the younger people and maybe get answers to some of those things on the immune system or protein turnover or vestibular functions and other things—heart changes. So that's the reason I was up there was to do research on aging and that has not been followed through on. I was the only person of that age who's been in space, and I've always thought that if NASA followed up getting some other people up in that age bracket so that we have a base of half-a-dozen people or so, then it starts meaning something scientifically. So far in that age bracket I'm the only one that old that's been up there. So we need more examples of that, and I hope that that kind of research on aging is continued one of these days.

RILEY: That kind of echoes what Robert Phillips told me. He said that it's difficult to draw a lot of conclusions from one person on one flight like that.

GLENN: That's exactly right. My comparison with the younger people came out pretty good. We didn't make any big breakthrough discoveries, but that doesn't mean they're not there to be made, and I still think we need to do more. I talked to the people in NASA about the possibility of putting some older folks on board and maybe even one of these days when we get our own means of transportation back and forth to the Space Station again—putting some of the older people up there for a longer period of time and see what the response is. They're interested in doing that. They just haven't been able to do it so far.

GLENN (cont.): Before we finish let me just put a word—I think UC Davis is very fortunate to have gotten somebody like Steve Robinson. He's highly interested in it. He's looking forward to it very much. I talked to him just a short time ago. He's really looking forward to getting going out there and helping establish this new area, and I say it's a loss to NASA to lose somebody like Steve, but it's UC's gain.

"We don't take girls": Hillary Clinton and her NASA letter

James Oberg – Space News

(Oberg is a 22-yr veteran of NASA mission control. He is now a writer and consultant in Houston.)

The fiftieth anniversary of the first woman in space is a fitting hook to look back over the long process of enabling gender-independent access to the final frontier. One of the interesting secondary tales associated with this theme is the campaign story offered by Hillary Clinton that, in 1961–2, she wrote to NASA about her interest on becoming an astronaut, and they dismayed and angered her by replying, "We don't take girls."

In 2009, Hilary Clinton made an appearance at the Women's Museum in Dallas, where she revealed interesting bits and pieces about her childhood, including a "tomboy" phase in her early teens. "I think I was 13 or so, and so I wrote to NASA to ask how I could become an astronaut. And I got a response back which was, 'We're not interested in women astronauts,'" she recalled. She told the women attending her speech that at her time it was quite hard for a woman to go for a career she wanted. But with today's standards, things have changed so much that women can now finally get a job that they desire, even in NASA.

In a speech held in Washington, DC, on March 20, 2012, to praise the legacy of female aviator Amelia Earhart, Clinton revealed she wanted to be an astronaut as a girl, but NASA told her she couldn't because she was a woman. "When I was about 13, I wrote to NASA and asked what I needed to do to try to be an astronaut," she explained. "And of course, there weren't any women astronauts, and NASA wrote me back and said there would not be any women astronauts. And I was just crestfallen." She added: "NASA may have said I couldn't go into space, but nobody was there to tell Amelia Earhart she couldn't do what she chose to do."

The story is clearly politically useful, and comments on its actual authenticity have predictably split along partisan lines. Clinton herself never indicated she kept the letter, so there's no documentation at her end.

NASA has no records

Nor is there any at NASA's end, I was told by NASA Headquatrers spokesman Bob Jacobs in a recent email exchange. "As you might imagine," Jacobs wrote, "NASA received thousands of letters from young and old alike asking about how to become an astronaut."

"As a matter of policy," he explained, "correspondence with the public is not retained as a permanent record." Consequently, he added, "NASA has no record of the letter", elaborating that "it's just not the kind of thing the agency would have tracked in '61 or '62."

"We do, however, have some examples of other letters and public statements by NASA officials that suggest in the early 1960s the guidelines and requirements for astronauts would have likely precluded women," he added, "although they were not gender specific."

One sample letter that was retained, in 1966, followed that format. Written to a girl in Michigan who wanted to become a space veterinarian, the letter from William O'Donnell referenced a "list of prerequisites" to provided guidance for her selection of school subjects. The letter also advised her that by the time she became old enough to formally apply, the list "may have changed substantially." It did not say she would never be picked because she was female.

Clearly the letter was written as an encouragement to the girl, not a flat rejection that she shouldn't even bother thinking about applying because she was female. The fact that she was a girl never came up in the letter, and actually the tone was sympathetic and supportive.

Jacobs also sent a copy of a 1962 letter to a young male college student. It made the point that "in the foreseeable future, flight crews for manned space flight missions will consist of scientific personnel with aircraft flight experience. We feel that aircraft flight experience is mandatory because all crew members must be capable of performing emergency escape, navigation, reentry, and landing maneuvers."

"Neither of these letters hints that gender was a NASA astronaut selection criteria," Jacobs noted.

A third letter, written by chief astronaut "Deke" Slayton in 1970 to an 18-year-old girl who actually would become an astronaut, was also far from discouraging. "I do not envision needing additional astronauts for a number of years," Slayton wrote (and, in fact, the next selection did not occur until 1978, and did include women.) "The exact time when we would seriously consider women is indefinite, but I am sure it is inevitable," he wrote, and added that when the next selection was announced, "if you meet the criteria you should apply at that time."

Clinton's letter

Without any documentation of the claimed 1962-era NASA "no girls" letter, how likely could it be that it ever existed? Or is it a run-of-the-mill political construct to seek sympathy for prejudicial treatment?

The letters that Jacobs did provide show a consistent message. While they made clear that women were not being admitted to the current astronaut corps in the 1960s, young women who wrote were being encouraged to pursue studies to prepare them for applying later, when they were old enough, and when standards were expected to have changed.

For the first two "scientist-astronaut" classes, in 1965 and 1967, gender was not a criterion, but all selectees were informed they would be expected to complete the US Air Force jet pilot school. Although some women did submit applications, the pre-screening by the National Academy of Sciences left none of their names on the shortlists forwarded to NASA for final consideration. Had any been picked, NASA and the USAF would have had to work out the issue of jet pilot training, since women would not be admitted to the regular program until 1976.

But for women in the 1960s of Hillary Rodham's age, that wasn't an issue. They still had a decade or more of growing up to do—and so did the military flight schools. And both matured nearly simultaneously in the years after the last Apollo-era astronaut class in 1969.

The women accepted in NASA's next astronaut class, 1978, had been born between 1943 and 1951. Their average birthdate was just a year later than Clinton's birthday (October 26, 1947.) Had Clinton, as a young girl, set her career goal on being an astronaut, by the time she got old enough—and the Space Shuttle program made previous constraints obsolete—she would have been completely able to compete on a level playing field against all the men and against the dozens of women, including Ride, who wanted to go into space. This was what NASA officials expected at the time of her letter, and this, as these letters show, was what they were telling young women writing to them about becoming astronauts.

Whence the story?

The range of stupid and thoughtless comments that government public affairs workers can make is pretty unlimited, so there's no way to verify that one of them could not have written such a slap-in-the-face letter. But the spotty record now available strongly suggests that if any of them had, it would have been out of step with standard NASA advice even in the early 1960s.

It's also possible there was such a letter and it was ambiguous and misremembered. "No girls allowed" might have reflected the same thought in one of the remaining letters, that children would not be accepted.

Another piece of evidence related to the existence of such a NASA letter is in negative form. With thousands of people writing to NASA about becoming astronauts in the 1961–2 period, and presumably many of them being females, not one other written example of an official "we-don't-take-girls" put-down response has ever surfaced, to the best of my knowledge and that of other space historians with whom I've conferred.

It's not just a question of nobody, forty years later, recalling getting such a letter and then, long afterwards, going public with corroboration of Clinton's highly-publicized story. The issue of women as astronauts was a hot topic in the American news media at the time (1962–3, especially after Tereshkova's flight), with major newspaper and magazine coverage of medical screenings and of Congressional hearings. NASA was being lambasted for not taking women into the current astronaut corps.

It defies the imagination—at least, my imagination—to require that dozens or more of we-don't-take-girls letters (assuming that such was the standard NASA response) were out there in the hands of disappointed and angry young aspiring female space fliers, and not a single one of these misogynistic missives got into the hands of some journalist or campaigner or politician to fuel the ongoing public debate and embarrass NASA. Yet in all the public debate, which I personally followed as a teenager and then more recently researched in hindsight in archives, both hardcopy and Internet, did I come across any "smoking gun" of NASA's proclaiming girls should not dream of flying in space.

Instead, the official advisories seemed to describe current selection standards as they existed for current reasons, that were subject to change as technology evolved, And had Sally Ride (or any of her fellow female candidates) written such an inquiry to NASA in that period, the answer would not have been "no" but "not yet," along with advice, "do what you can to prepare yourself for that time." And many of them did exactly that.

Whatever young women were being told in such letters, the realities were catching up with their aspirations. The US was moving towards genuine gender neutrality in astronaut selection, even as Russia—trapped in its gimmicky lone-stunt approach—has even now failed to reach it.

The degree to which the US has led the way to a new reality of space access is remarkable, compared to the abysmal Russian propaganda approach. Perhaps the tale of the NASA "no-girls-need-apply" letter is also only a relic of the political passions of the last century, and can now be quietly left to fade into the fog of history and myth.

The wife stuff
Astronauts' spouses endured unpleasant heat of publicity, lack of privacy and pressure to conform

Celia McGee - Chicago Tribune

They were hounded by reporters sicced on them by NASA. Forced to lay their lives open to Life magazine. Panted after by every newspaper in the country. It got so bad that the vaunted wives of the astronauts in the American space program — which pervaded the national consciousness from Project Mercury in 1959 to the Apollo program ending in 1972 — had holes carved into the fences between their houses so they could visit each other without having to face television crews.

Finally, a fair and accomplished reporter has written a book about these patient, resourceful and increasingly unwilling representatives of the homefront in America's race to the moon. In "The Astronaut Wives Club: A True Story," Lily Koppel offers a grounded, irresistible and sociable social history that sets out to right their story. Named after a loosely coordinated organization of astro spouses first formed after a fatal crash connected to Gemini 9 — and still holding reunions to this day — Koppel's book deftly delivers The Wife Stuff.

And yet, as she reports, there were times when even the wives' nearest and not quite dearest — like the press agents assigned to wrangle them — couldn't tell them all apart. How could they? There were shared lines these women were expected to toe, a definite image they were supposed to project with their nonliberated domesticity, an undifferentiated aura of support for their husbands and NASA that they had to maintain. But Koppel does an excellent job of capturing a group portrait with enough highlights, low points, sunny spots and shadows for individual features to emerge.

This doesn't mean that her heroines didn't present her with that same group-identity problem. For starters, Koppel has subjects named Pat White and Pat Collins; Joan Aldrin, Joan Glancy and Jo Schirra; Susan Borman and Sue Bean; and Annie, Rene (pronounced Rie-nie) and Betty. History has made these women's husbands so famous that just their surnames would suffice. Their wives, on the other hand, blur more than a bit due to the rapidly first-name basis Koppel puts herself — and us — on with them.

Living as the astronaut families did in and around Houston in what they liked to refer to as "Togethersville," the cookie-cutter effect of that generation of American womanhood soon started to chafe. Feminism, with a few understated and almost unconscious exceptions — Rene Carpenter became a columnist and broadcast personality, Jo Schirra became an outspoken socialite, Annie Glenn eventually became an active senator's wife — was not for them. Nor was psychiatry — word came down from NASA — despite the enormous pressures they were under.

When Koppel reveals that Pat White committed suicide in 1991, it is confirmed for us that the path the author has vividly been tracing got pretty rocky. Life was generally not tea at the White House with Jackie, VIP treatment at the country club or rose-colored martinis by the grill. In fact, there were too many cocktails and tranquilizers; alcoholism was the serpent in the sprinkler-dotted gardens.

But good times have a way of glossing over problems. The wives' husbands were American heroes, celebrity had its privileges, and anything was better than their earlier grim existences as midlevel military families — scrimping, scrambling and constantly moving from one dreary base to the next. Koppel gets at the wives' flaws and weaknesses as well as their resilience (like the hours or days glued to the NASA feed while their men tested space, called "death watches"). It also shows how painful secrets could be closely guarded by the sisterhood: Annie Glenn hid her severe stutter by turning down interviews, and the other wives, sometimes speaking for her, rallied round.

Once the astronauts went to train and blast off from Cape Canaveral, marital strains and macho infidelities came into stronger relief — the mistresses many quite openly kept there were known as "Cape Cookies." Instead wives had to settle for Togetherville's community swimming pool in the shape of a space capsule, which matched the towering beehive hairdos that help make the photographs in this book such a gawker's delight. The divorces mounted up.

A car-crazy, ritual-craving America also treated the astronaut couples to motorcades — a grand but strangely silent one in Houston gives an eerie premonition of John F. Kennedy's demise — as official trips abroad helped broadcast the U.S. space program's implicit message that "Nobody wanted to sleep by the light of a Communist Moon." The program, however, had a definite life cycle. Soon enough, the country was mired in the Vietnam War, and a desperate President Lyndon B. Johnson unsuccessfully tried to use astronautical exploits as a diversion from growing disaffection. Thirteen years and $25 billion later, it was over.

The answer you've been waiting for: Yes, Koppel does take on Tom Wolfe's reporting, for Rolling Stone and in "The Right Stuff," for inaccuracy and sexism. She gives it to Norman Mailer even worse. But at all times she remembers the ladies and brings them forward from their tight-lipped team players' role in history, doing her best to give each her say. Not that this book is one long "she said" with a bunch of footnotes. "The Astronaut Wives Club" is wholly and consistently in Koppel's voice: smart, evocative, informed and warm — an electric fireside chat with the women who put men on the moon.

The Astronaut Wives Club
By Lily Koppel, Grand Central, 272 pages, $28

Making Lemonade Out of Lemons

Joseph Pelton - Space News (Opinion)

(Pelton is the former dean of the International Space University and the author of some 40 books about space and technology in modern society, including the recently released "Space Debris and Other Threats from Outer Space")

Most thoughtful people believe that the across-the-board U.S. budget cuts known as sequestration are bad public policy. If there is a will to make cuts in public expenditures — including in space programs — they should be made selectively rather than cutting everything by a fixed amount. Otherwise, vital programs can be damaged, public safety put in peril, and obsolete or redundant programs continued when they should be halted.

Yet sequestration-related cuts do, in fact, help open the door to reviewing all of the U.S. space programs critically. This could start a new process to define the key goals and objectives for the future.

Neither NASA nor the Defense Department has asked for advice on how to identify the most essential programs or which projects might be terminated with minimal damage, but here goes anyway. At least, here are five basic question areas that might help set some space priorities:

Space and Combating Climate Change

In light of the fact that the Earth's global atmosphere reached a new danger point in May with over 400 parts per million of carbon dioxide concentration — something that has not happened in the last 3 million years — a key question is whether critical new space programs are needed to address climate change, global warming and rapid energy build-up in the atmosphere. This increased energy now gives rise to violent weather and billions in storm damage. Should not human survival be at the top of the list in all governmental programs, including space activities?

Crashing ISS into the Pacific

Is serious consideration being given to the ultimate disposal of the international space station (ISS) after 2020? In light of the nearly $200 billion of global investment in the ISS so far, could not the ISS be — at least in part — intelligently reused?

Planetary Defense

Should there not be a global game plan related to a variety of cosmic hazards? Should not the world's space agencies and defense ministries devise and back such a plan? Could a globally brokered, longer-term plan be achieved among the space agencies? Sub-questions here include the following:

Why did the B612 Foundation have to embark on the $400 million Sentinel spacecraft program on its own in order to create a space capability to warn us of potentially hazardous asteroids? Only after the recent Siberian explosion have people begun to pay heed to this very real threat.

Why is the problem of space debris actually continuing to get worse?

Are we prepared for a coronal mass ejection like the 1859 Carrington Event, or could such a catastrophe wipe out our satellites, our computers and our modern telecommunications and bring us back to the Stone Age?

Are there actually "cracks" appearing in the world's protective magnetosphere and if so what can be done about it?

Shifting the Load to Commercial Space

In light of the fast-evolving new commercial space capabilities, could not more projects, activities and space transport systems be further privatized or streamlined and shifted from NASA, the Defense Department, the European Space Agency, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, etc., to be done by private enterprise? Could this achieve lower costs with program results being achieved faster? A sub-question is: Does competition from Space Exploration Technologies and Sierra Nevada also make Boeing, Lockheed Martin and EADS more efficient?

Global Space Initiatives

Could not some of the most ambitious and expensive space exploration programs, such as the James Webb Space Telescope or solar research spacecraft programs, have been better achieved as global space projects? Could not smaller satellites such as three-unit and six-unit cubesats be effectively integrated into global space research initiatives related to space weather research, for instance? Also, why not explore opportunities related to small satellites and hosted payloads to allow more global space cooperation involving Argentina, Brazil, Israel, South Korea, Pakistan and Turkey as well as commercial and university initiatives such as the Surrey Space Technology Centre and Utah State University?

One could go on to ask a number of other questions about priorities related to the Defense Department, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other space agencies around the world, but the larger issue here is: Why is there not better strategic planning, better methods of setting top space priorities and creating more effective international space cooperative programs? Would not such a strategic review and new goal-setting activity better leverage space investments and remove redundancies? The fact that there are at least six satellite navigation systems now in place or planned that are highly overlapping and economically inefficient represents but one clear example of needless space redundancy.

NASA and the Defense Department could ask an honest broker such as the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics or a leading university to host a workshop to come up with not only a list of 20 critical questions, but perhaps a list of recommendations that would make U.S. and perhaps international space programs more productive, less redundant, more commercially leveraged and better targeted to strategic goals.

The final question is, what would be the harm in trying to make our space programs more productive and more cost-efficient?

The Myopia Problem

Nelson Bridwell - Space News (Opinion)

(Bridwell is a senior machine vision engineer working in manufacturing automation)

It is the year 3013, one thousand years into the future. Looking up into the night sky, you see a crescent Moon that is crisscrossed by a sparkling web of city lights. Millions of people are routinely working, living, and playing on the Moon. Billions live on Mars.

Many would agree that such a bright, promising future is probable. Some would contend that it is inevitable. What cannot be argued is that it is impossible, for we have already slipped the surly bonds of Earth.

The question is "when," rather than "if."

We don't need to wait a millennium in order to get started. Fundamental new breakthroughs in physics are not required. Just as the hang glider and sailplane could have been developed and refined hundreds or thousands of years ago, we already have the needed technology to begin pioneering exploration of the Moon and Mars.

Currently, the most significant barrier holding us back is the astronomical price of space exploration. If you think that the cost of living in Tokyo is insane, how would you feel if the living expenses for your family came to $3 billion per year? That is what NASA currently pays to keep a half-dozen people alive in low Earth orbit. Amortize in the $100 billion construction price tag for the international space station and the true cost of living comes to something like $8 billion per year.

Want to keep a team of explorers alive on the Moon? You can safely multiply those costs by a factor of 10 or more. Want them to explore Mars? How can NASA afford a manned mission to Mars if it cannot even afford a robotic sample return that would bring back less than a kilogram of sand and gravel? In the financial sense, at this time Mars is genuinely the red planet.

How can we pay for the high price of space exploration? Perhaps a century from now there might be a viable market for lunar helium-3. Perhaps in 50 years there might be a demand for water from near-Earth objects and the Moon in order to fuel an orbital debris cleanup program. But for the immediate future, the enormous cost of access to space precludes profitable commercial space enterprises beyond geostationary orbit.

The good news, however, is that space exploration does not need to be profitable. The most important spinoff of the space race has been NASA's substantial budget, which has remained fairly stable since the end of the Apollo program, and is likely to remain that way. NASA has about $17 billion to spend on space each year with not one risk-adverse, profit-limited stockholder to hold it back.

Although some dreamers would like to see NASA's budget doubled, not everyone thinks that spending even more money on space is a great idea. At either end of the political spectrum there are politicians who would gladly score points by diverting NASA dollars into the hands of the under-affluent or by returning them to the pockets of taxpayers. And in the current fiscal climate, asking for a significant increase in NASA's budget would be nothing less than political suicide.

However, total liquidation of NASA would not significantly reduce the federal deficit, so as long as NASA's budget continues to fly below the radar at one-half of 1 percent of the federal budget, it should be safe. Instead of enlarging its target cross-section by requesting more funding, NASA should secure its position by offering to responsibly match any percentage across-the-board federal spending cuts. Even with 85 percent of its current budget there is a phenomenal amount of exploration that NASA could accomplish.

So, the simple reality is that NASA must live within its means. Given that constraint, then, what can NASA do to make "when" happen sooner rather than later?

NASA can employ the same ruthless engineering discipline that put Apollo astronauts on the Moon. When Grumman Corp. engineers grappled with performance requirements for the lunar module they made the lunar landing possible by throwing overboard heavy seats and picture windows. Today, NASA needs to throw overboard empty gestures and political distractions. Instead, it needs to define realistic objectives for a century or more into the future and then focus exclusively on concrete steps that will move us forward toward those objectives.

For instance, one of NASA's main objectives for a century from now could be the establishment of a self-sufficient research base on the Moon that would support a sustainable population of 1,000 scientists and engineers, providing electric power, air, water, food and shelter almost entirely from lunar materials.

NASA could then define a sequence of milestones that would support this objective, such as:

Exploring the mineral resources of the Moon.
Generating electric power on the Moon.
Extracting oxygen and water from lunar materials.
Growing food on the Moon.
Testing the physiological effects of long-term human exposure to one-sixth Earth's gravity.
Closing the life-support loop to reduce costs.
Manufacturing structural components for shelters and vehicles from lunar materials.
Lowering the cost per pound of deliveries to the lunar surface.

Some of the initial development and testing could be accomplished on the ground. We know enough about the lunar environment and regolith composition to be able to test power generation, thermal management and oxygen generation concepts in the laboratory. Human life-support systems could also be extensively tested in the lab before deployment to space.

The first space milestone might not necessarily be returning Americans to the lunar surface. Instead, the first few objectives might be accomplished more expeditiously with a team of remote-controlled lunar rovers that could access almost the entire lunar surface. The best time for a human return to the lunar surface might be at a later stage, when lunar power, air and water resources are already online. The initial team of astronauts could then construct and service lunar manufacturing and agricultural facilities while investigating the long-term effects of lunar gravity.

It is these very long-term objectives that must be the true justification for our space program. Without them, space exploration becomes nothing more than a myopic exercise in flags and footprints. All in all, NASA needs to be less about reaching destinations and more about what we want to accomplish after we arrive. Until we know, we shouldn't go.

END

2 comments:

UnknownJuly 2, 2013 at 6:47 AM
After reading some nice stuff in your article I really feel speechless, because it is quit pretty article. Beside this it is also a long lasting article. Thanks for giving me such type of useful information..
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keeptheshuttleflying.comJuly 2, 2013 at 3:03 PM
Thanks, if interested in USA space capability, need you & friends to set up blogs highlighting the shuttle capabilities & the fact it should not be in a museum!

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Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - June 11, 2013 and JSC Today

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