Friday, June 21, 2013

Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - June 21, 2013 and JSC Today 2.0!



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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: June 21, 2013 6:06:02 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - June 21, 2013 and JSC Today 2.0!

 

 

 

Happy Flex Friday and Have a great weekend everyone. 

 

 

 

 

   Headlines

  1. Engineering Directorate All-Hands Meeting

Mark your calendars for the Engineering Directorate all-hands meeting, "Charting Our Future." It will be held in the Teague Auditorium on Thursday, June 27. In order to accommodate everyone, there are two opportunities to attend. The first session will be from 9:30 to 11 a.m. for all on-site and off-site civil servants and contractors that report to EA1, EA2, ER, ES and EV. Then, from 2:30 to 4 p.m., all on-site and off-site civil servants and contractors that report to EA4, EC, EG, EP and EA3 are requested to attend. If you cannot attend your organization's time slot, please feel free to attend the other session. Please submit all questions that you would like to ask in advance to EA/Dianne Milner via email before the event.

Event Date: Thursday, June 27, 2013   Event Start Time:9:30 AM   Event End Time:4:00 PM
Event Location: JSC Teague Auditorium

Add to Calendar

Dianne Milner x31206

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  1. Make JSC Today Pretty

With the new and improved JSC Today 2.0, we've included some picture features that look really nice when they display properly. However, many default security computer settings prevent JSC Today from automatically displaying the pictures and requires the user to right-click to download them. 

If you want to start enjoying the aesthetics with no extra clicks of a button each morning, you can easily alter your computer's security settings. 

For Outlook 2007 users: Right-click on the JSC Today email and select "Junk Email." Choose "Add Sender to Safe Senders List."

For Outlook 2010 users: Right-click on the JSC Today email and select "Junk." Choose "Never Block Sender." 

From then on, JSC Today will be deemed safe enough to display its photos/icons without any extra effort.

JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111

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   Organizations/Social

  1. HSI ERG Features Newly Developed Tool

The June JSC Human System Integration (HSI) Employee Resource Group (ERG) meeting will feature Dr. Terence Andre of NASA's Small Business Innovative Research contractor TiER1 Performance Solutions. He will provide an overview of their Human Factors Analysis Support Tool (H-FAST), which can provide human factors guidance and support to engineering design teams. Andre will also describe how the tool may be used in the HSI process. We will meet Tuesday, June 25, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Building 1, Room 220. Bring your lunch and join us!

Event Date: Tuesday, June 25, 2013   Event Start Time:11:30 AM   Event End Time:12:30 PM
Event Location: B1/220

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Deb Neubek 281-222-3687 https://collaboration.ndc.nasa.gov/iierg/HSI/SitePages/Home.aspx

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  1. Cancer Support Group

The JSC Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is sponsoring a cancer support group for survivors and/or concerned family members. It will be held on the fourth Tuesday of each month from 4 to 5 p.m. in Building 32, Room 142. Please contact the EAP at x36130 if you have further questions.

Event Date: Tuesday, June 25, 2013   Event Start Time:4:00 PM   Event End Time:5:00 PM
Event Location: Building 32, Room 142

Add to Calendar

Lorrie Bennett, Employee Assistance Program, Clinical Services Branch x36130

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   Jobs and Training

  1. EVA Physiology Human Systems Academy Lecture

Please join us on June 26 from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. for a lecture on Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Physiology. The first half of the session will be an introduction to the risk of decompression sickness (DCS) in astronauts during an EVA. This will include an explanation of Prebreathe Protocols (PB) to affect nitrogen washout as a primary risk mitigation strategy. Symptoms associated with evolved gas in tissues will be addressed. A review of hypobaric research programs over the past 30 years to evaluate potential operational PB protocols will be reviewed, as well as DSC in those subjects participating in those studies. The second half will cover the operational implementation of the various PB for EVA. The treatment plan for potential spaceflight DCS will be reviewed, highlighting the DCS cuff-classification system, on-orbit treatment approaches, Flight Rules and considerations for deorbit of effected crew. Space is limited, so please register in SATERN: https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...

Cynthia Rando x41815 https://sashare.jsc.nasa.gov/hsa/default.aspx

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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.

Disclaimer: Accuracy and content of these notes are the responsibility of the submitters.

 

 

 

 

 

NASA TV: UNDERWAY – Live interviews on the Supermoon phenomenon

 

Human Spaceflight News

Friday, June 21, 2013

 

At JSC's Memorial Grove – Thursday, June 20, 2013

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

Nelson warns of partisan "chaos" regarding NASA authorization

 

Jeff Foust – SpacePolitics.com

 

Immediately after the House Science Committee's space subcommittee wrapped up its hearing on a draft NASA authorization bill Wednesday morning, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) offered his views on the subject at a Space Transportation Association luncheon on the other side of Capitol Hill. Nelson made it clear that the Senate bill would differ in some key ways from the House bill. "I'm not going to approve of keeping it at 16.8 [billion dollars], because it would run the space program and NASA into a ditch," Nelson said, referring to the overall budget authorized for NASA in the draft House bill. "What we're going to try to mark up is a balanced program," he said, citing progress in both commercial crew development and the Space Launch System and Orion programs, as well as science programs, including the James Webb Space Telescope.

 

Annual NASA budget fight begins in Washington with Space Launch System in the crosshairs

 

Lee Roop - Huntsville Times

 

Congress began laying its markers down Wednesday in the annual game of who gets to tell NASA what to do - lawmakers or the White House. Battles appear ahead over the space agency's proposed asteroid retrieval mission, how much money NASA spends studying Earth, how much it will spend on the big new rocket being developed in Huntsville, and whether Congress can keep setting deadlines for NASA and its industry partners while, at the same time, keeping funding at sequestration levels. The answer of who gets to decide all these questions is, of course, both Congress and the White House in a long, winding process that started when the House Science Committee's subcommittee on space released a draft "discussion" version of an NASA spending authorization bill.

 

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell: The Case for Commercial Rockets

 

Kiona Smith-Strickland - Popular Mechanics

 

Popular Mechanics catches up with SpaceX's Shotwell to find out about the company's Grasshopper tests, the way to get to Mars, and how she'd like to see space in person…

 

Armstrong honored by crewmates and co-workers

 

William Harwood - CBS News

 

Neil Armstrong's crewmates and co-workers honored the first man to walk on the moon during a memorial service at the Johnson Space Center Thursday, recalling the extraordinary competence and quiet dignity that have come to represent the "human face and the human spirit of the Apollo program." Armstrong died last August at the age of 82 due to complications following surgery. While his life was honored at the time in services at the National Cathedral in Washington and elsewhere, the gathering at the Johnson Space Center was more of a NASA family affair, attended by scores of current and former astronauts, flight directors, flight controllers and engineers. Also in attendance were his sons Rick and Mark and their mother Janet, Armstrong's wife during the NASA years.

 

Honoring one of America's most beloved space heroes

 

Kevin Quinn - KTRK TV (Houston)

 

Legends of America's space program gathered at the Johnson Space Center today to honor the late Neil Armstrong. It was standing room only inside the Teague Auditorium. About 700 NASA employees, friends and family were on hand to honor Armstrong and his actions.

 

Go to Mars! Neil Armstrong's moonshot crewmates sound the call

 

Alan Boyle - NBCNews.com's Cosmic Log

 

Nearly a year after his death, first moonwalker Neil Armstrong's crewmates declared on Thursday that future missions to Mars should serve as part of the Apollo program's legacy. The other moonwalker on 1969's Apollo 11 mission, Buzz Aldrin, paraphrased President John F. Kennedy after laying out a vision for voyages to Mars and its moons by the 2030s. "In the spirit of Apollo, we choose to do these things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, as we boldly venture into the future — coming, going in peace for all mankind," Aldrin said during an Armstrong memorial service at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

 

Apollo Astronauts Honor Neil Armstrong, 'The Epitome of a Space Man'

 

Clara Moskowitz - Space.com

 

Some legends of spaceflight gathered Thursday to pay tribute to one of the best among them: Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon. Armstrong, who walked on the lunar surface July 20, 1969 during the Apollo 11 mission, died Aug. 25 at the age of 82. NASA honored the first moonwalker today during a memorial service at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "He deserved all the good things that came his way," Armstrong's Apollo 11 crewmate Michael Collins said during the televised NASA ceremony. "He did this agency proud. He did the whole world proud. He was definitely the right choice to be the commander of the first lunar landing — he was the best."

 

Mars Mission candidates success may rely on US-Russian collaboration

 

Andrew Hiller – Voice of Russia

 

Eight men and women have been named as NASA's most recent class of astronauts.  They are being trained for missions that may take them as far as Mars.  In the meantime, scientists are wrestling with problems that include robotics, radiation, and atrophy. Today's astronauts might not be all Naval Test Pilots like Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, but it's still important that they have the right stuff. NASA's current crop possess of mix of skills and expertise ranging from biology and engineering, to physics and aeronautics. Still, Larry Young, the Apollo Professor of Astronautics at MIT says that though may not be the daredevils of spaceflight's dawn, this generation's astronauts still possess that quality of daring do. That's important according to Young because although much has been discovered by rovers like Curiosity, humans still have an important role to play.

 

Atlantis exhibit is 'go' for visitors

Long-anticipated shuttle display opens on June 29

 

Stacey Barchenger - Florida Today

 

Just one week from its grand opening, the Atlantis exhibit at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is nearly ready. The final week will be one of fine-tuning inside the $100 million building, though a few public tours have been given a sneak-peek.

__________

 

COMPLETE STORIES

 

Nelson warns of partisan "chaos" regarding NASA authorization

 

Jeff Foust – SpacePolitics.com

 

Immediately after the House Science Committee's space subcommittee wrapped up its hearing on a draft NASA authorization bill Wednesday morning, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) offered his views on the subject at a Space Transportation Association luncheon on the other side of Capitol Hill.

 

Nelson, chairman of the space subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee, said his committee was working on its own version of a NASA authorization bill that would be ready by mid-July or perhaps sooner, in order to support appropriators.

 

Nelson made it clear that the Senate bill would differ in some key ways from the House bill. "I'm not going to approve of keeping it at 16.8 [billion dollars], because it would run the space program and NASA into a ditch," Nelson said, referring to the overall budget authorized for NASA in the draft House bill. He was specifically critical of the earth sciences funding level in the House bill, saying it was "completely wiped out" in the bill. "You think Barbara Mikulski is going to allow that?" he asked, referring to the chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

 

"What we're going to try to mark up is a balanced program," he said, citing progress in both commercial crew development and the Space Launch System and Orion programs, as well as science programs, including the James Webb Space Telescope.

 

Nelson was particularly concerned that the authorization process would become divided along partisan lines, something that has traditionally not been the case for NASA. "The space program was always not bipartisan, it was nonpartisan," he said. "The question is, are we going to have the ability to mark up a NASA authorization bill other than is it going to be a partisan vote?" Nelson said he was prepared to get a Senate version passed by relying solely on the Senate's Democratic majority, but hoped that wasn't necessary.

 

Even if the Senate is able to approve a NASA authorization in a "nonpartisan/bipartisan" manner, "what plays out over the rest of the year is nothing but chaos." He expects that the House will delay decisions on key bills until a deal is made on increasing the debt ceiling, a point that he thinks may be delayed until late this year because of the improving economy.

 

While Nelson was hoping to find a bipartisan approach to a NASA authorization, he wasn't shy about making some partisan jabs of his own. "If you want to play footsie with the Tea Party, you may as well say 'sayonara' to our manned space program and unmanned space program," he said. He later gave some "homework" to the standing room only audience of space industry professionals. "I want you to get off your duff and stop playing 'nicey nicey' with these people who want to whack NASA because they're wedded to an ideology that doesn't make sense," he sai, referring to sequestration. "It will set back our space program for years, and you all have got to stop being neutral."

 

Annual NASA budget fight begins in Washington with Space Launch System in the crosshairs

 

Lee Roop - Huntsville Times

 

Congress began laying its markers down Wednesday in the annual game of who gets to tell NASA what to do - lawmakers or the White House. Battles appear ahead over the space agency's proposed asteroid retrieval mission, how much money NASA spends studying Earth, how much it will spend on the big new rocket being developed in Huntsville, and whether Congress can keep setting deadlines for NASA and its industry partners while, at the same time, keeping funding at sequestration levels.

 

The answer of who gets to decide all these questions is, of course, both Congress and the White House in a long, winding process that started when the House Science Committee's subcommittee on space released a draft "discussion" version of an NASA spending authorization bill. Authorization bills spell out future priorities and the authorized funding levels for those priorities. Budget bills that appropriate the actual money come later.

 

The process will be repeated in the Senate, where a leading space advocate was quoted Thursday saying the funding level in the House bill "would run the space program and NASA into a ditch." Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) said the bill won't fly in the Senate.

 

The Republican leadership of the House subcommittee wants NASA to skip the asteroid mission, cut back on the Earth science and focus more on human and robot missions into space. In subcommittee Chairman Rep. Steve Palazzo's opening statement, he called the satellite mission "a costly and complex distraction" from NASA's real mission, and he took a swipe at the agency's ongoing satellite studies of Earth.

 

"Over the last five years, five years the Earth Science program has grown by more than 40 percent at the expense of other critical missions within the Science Mission Directorate and elsewhere in NASA," Palazzo said in his prepared statement. "There are 13 agencies throughout the federal government that currently fund over $2.5 billion in climate science research, but only one agency does space exploration and space science."

 

Talking dollars, the subcommittee bill as it now stands would cap NASA spending at $16.8 billion next year and allocate the Space Launch System, NASA's big new rocket being developed in Huntsville, $1.45 billion and the Orion crew capsule program $1.2 billion. The Commercial Crew program is authorized at $700 million, including "a non-negotiable flight readiness deadline of Dec. 31, 2017."

 

Immediate reaction to the draft legislation ran the gamut on the committee, even among Republicans. Democrat committee members issued a statement saying the funding level is inconsistent with the mandates and the commercial crew instructions, specifically, set a deadline "without any mention of safety requirements."

 

Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas), said the bill makes NASA's mission harder. "It doesn't contain funding commensurate with the tasks NASA has been asked to undertake," she said in a statement, "in fact, it gives NASA additional unfunded mandates while maintaining deep sequestration cuts over the life of the bill. It contains policy direction that I fear will do long term damage to the agency."

 

U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville) was unavailable to comment on the bill Thursday. But Brooks was quoted in other reports telling the committee the $1.45 billion for SLS was not enough and was "very disconcerting" for people in Huntsville. "Unless I receive differing expertise that satisfies me that our words in support of human spaceflight match our actions and deeds," Brooks said, according to the website spacepolitics.com, "I will have no choice but to vote against and otherwise oppose this authorization act."

 

NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver called the asteroid prohibition "a disappointment" and said NASA must do a better job explaining the mission. NASA likes the mission because it advances several other long-range goals: giving the big rocket a management early mission, advancing technology for the trip to Mars and learning more about protecting Earth from potentially dangerous asteroids.

 

The authorization bill's proposal to increase spending on planetary science to $1.5 billion did draw praise from the Planetary Society in a letter. To boost planetary science, however, the draft cuts Earth sciences to $1.2 billion from $1.8 billion this year.

 

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell: The Case for Commercial Rockets

 

Kiona Smith-Strickland - Popular Mechanics

 

Popular Mechanics catches up with SpaceX's Shotwell to find out about the company's Grasshopper tests, the way to get to Mars, and how she'd like to see space in person.

 

Why commercial spaceflight, as opposed to government-run programs?

 

After I finished my master's degree, I moved to a company called Aerospace Corporation, a big think tank for the U.S. Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office. I saw what government programs were and how they were executed. In some cases, they were executed beautifully, but in others, there was tremendous waste.

 

I then moved to a smaller company, expecting it to be different. After a few short years there, Elon [Musk] recruited me to SpaceX. I was at a point in my career where I felt like the business of space needed to be fixed, and if it wasn't, I didn't want any part of this industry. It was slow and stodgy. I told myself when I started at SpaceX that this would be my last job in this industry. If we couldn't make it work, I was out.

 

I do want to make something clear: SpaceX does have a lot of government business, but we execute in a commercial fashion. When SpaceX developed the Falcon 9 launcher, we spent about $400 million. NASA did a cost study that showed if the government had built that system, it would have cost $4 billion. The space industry is rife with disconcerting facts for our taxpayers.

 

You said, "I think it's a shame that 40 years ago, we took men to the moon, and now we can't even take our own astronauts to low Earth orbit." What is the importance of a national space exploration program?

 

The U.S. has always been the great innovator. You've heard the term "American ingenuity"—it was coined 200 years ago. You can't be on the cusp of innovation and at the forefront of technology if you're wearing blinders. If you don't have an exploration program where you're exploring your world here on Earth, underwater, and in space, then you're wearing blinders and handicapping yourself.

 

I want Americans to get more engaged on the engineering side. I think we need to get back to that place where American ingenuity is a no-brainer. I feel like we're far behind and it bothers me. It's a personal focus for me to make sure that people understand what engineering is and not be afraid of it, because I think fear is what keeps people from doing things. Engineering is one of the coolest professions on the planet—soon to be one of the coolest professions on other planets.

 

And then there is the economic piece. During these difficult economic times of sequestration and relatively high unemployment, why are we paying the Russians more money than we're paying U.S. companies to develop these capabilities? We're paying the Russians $70 million a seat to carry American astronauts. [That] $70 million is more than 1000 jobs in the U.S. considering an average income of $50,000.

 

Why should NASA use commercial space transport rather than its own rockets?

 

The financial advantage is very straightforward. If NASA is only flying its own rockets, the market is very small. If they're flying my rockets, my market is huge. I'm flying for commercial companies, our own government, and international space agencies for Canada, Taiwan, Argentina, and others. NASA's not responsible for paying all the overhead.

 

The good part about that is that not only are they spending less and getting more, they can take what they've saved and invest in really important things where there isn't an obvious commercial market. NASA has seen the light, and we're starting to turn the Air Force around as well. We're doing missions for NASA, the U.S. Air Force, and the National Reconnaissance Office, and SpaceX alone will be saving the U.S. taxpayers $2 to $3 billion a year.

 

How do you balance being an engineer and a businessperson?

 

I don't have any formal training in business. My business experience is all practical, on-the-job training. An engineer is a tweaker: "we're going to build a product, and it's not going to be good enough, and we're going to continually iterate." Meanwhile, the businessperson is saying, "Let's finish the product, and we'll make improvements as we go forward!" I embody both, so does Elon as he is both CEO and CTO. We have to know when we are ready and then roll the vehicle out, fly, and make some money. I don't feel an MBA is needed. At SpaceX, we're such a tech-focused company that you really need to have a super-engineering mind here, coupled with great common sense.

 

How far is SpaceX from making the Grasshopper reusable launch system a reality?

 

Grasshopper is one of the coolest programs at SpaceX right now. It's just like an airplane; you can imagine how expensive that 747 ticket would be from California to New York if they had to throw the plane out at the end of the flight.

 

The tests are going beautifully, which fundamentally means we're not pushing the envelope hard enough. We should have some failures with Grasshopper. We need to push harder. I think we're a year away from being able to recover stages, then we'll take a look at them and extrapolate how many missions each stage can undergo. I hope to be reflying them a year after that. Rapid reusability, maybe another year. So in total, two to three years from now.

 

What has been the most exciting moment of your time at SpaceX?

 

Every launch is really nerve-racking and exciting. When we were berthing with the International Space Station a year ago, [that] was probably the most exciting. It's a little fuzzy because it was at four in the morning, but it was an incredibly intense, nerve-racking, but really satisfying time. It's so great to be with the teams for those events, like launches or berthings. Employees are crying and screaming and laughing and jumping up and down.

 

Do you dream of going to space yourself?

 

I'd love to go into space. I don't know about going to Mars—I don't like camping. But I would love to go to space for a couple days.

 

What I'd love to have is some sort of inflatable structure that comes out of the top of Dragon—a clear inflatable structure. This is a visionary thing, not an engineering thing, but I can imagine popping out of the Dragon hatch into this clear sphere floating around in space.

 

I don't know if I'll get the chance to go or not. It's unclear now whether SpaceX astronauts will fly or only NASA astronauts will fly, but I will make sure my employees are taken care of before me.

 

When the first manned mission to Mars finally happens, do you expect it to arrive on a government spacecraft or a commercial spacecraft?

 

I think it'll be a partnership spacecraft, just like the cargo and crew versions of Dragon. Both are examples of extraordinary public–private partnership between NASA and SpaceX. I hope the vehicles that go to Mars will be that way, as well. I'd love the SpaceX logo to be on that ship, and I think it will be.

 

Armstrong honored by crewmates and co-workers

 

William Harwood - CBS News

 

Neil Armstrong's crewmates and co-workers honored the first man to walk on the moon during a memorial service at the Johnson Space Center Thursday, recalling the extraordinary competence and quiet dignity that have come to represent the "human face and the human spirit of the Apollo program."

 

Armstrong died last August at the age of 82 due to complications following surgery. While his life was honored at the time in services at the National Cathedral in Washington and elsewhere, the gathering at the Johnson Space Center was more of a NASA family affair, attended by scores of current and former astronauts, flight directors, flight controllers and engineers.

 

Also in attendance were his sons Rick and Mark and their mother Janet, Armstrong's wife during the NASA years.

 

Apollo 11 crewmate Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, told the crowd, "I will be eternally grateful to be so fortunate that my opportunity to fly to the moon and land was under the command of Neil Armstrong, perhaps the best test pilot America's ever seen. And the epitome of a space man."

 

Crewmate Michael Collins, who remained behind in lunar orbit while Armstrong and Aldrin descended to the moon's surface on July 20, 1969, remembered his commander as "a consummate decision maker" who "took all accolades in his stride and never showed a touch of arrogance, although I think he had plenty of things to be arrogant about."

 

"He deserved all the good things that came his way," Collins said. "He did this agency proud, he did the whole country proud. For a short time, he did everyone on the globe proud. The whole world applauded our space program and his prominent part in it.

 

"He was definitely the right choice to be the commander of the first lunar landing," Collins said. "He was the best."

 

Born in Wapakoneta, Ohio, on August 5, 1930, Armstrong was a naval aviator from 1949 to 1952 and later a test pilot, flying the fabled X-15 rocket plane and other high performance aircraft at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

 

He joined NASA's astronaut corp in 1962 and served as commander of the two-man Gemini 8 mission in 1966, calmly working with crewmate David Scott to stop a stuck thruster that threw the spacecraft into a potentially catastrophic tumble.

 

He blasted off a second and final time on July 16, 1969, as commander of Apollo 11, walking into history as the first man on the moon.

 

Glynn Lunney, a legendary Apollo flight director who went on to serve as NASA's space shuttle program manager, said Armstrong would long be remembered as "the human face and the human spirit of the Apollo program."

 

"People are going to look back on it in years to come and they're going to be kind of in awe about what got done in those times, and Neil is probably going to be the human focus of that interest," he said.

 

Lunney said the image many people have of Armstrong today accurately reflects the inner man -- "private, quiet, self disciplined, humble, competent. All those things come to mind. Neil was all that, and he was more."

 

"Fate just managed to get Neil into position where he was the representative for all of us and for all the space program going forward in time," he said. "We are very lucky, we are very well served that that was the case. God bless you, Neil."

 

For Gerry Griffin, an Apollo flight director who went on to serve as director of the Johnson Space Center, Armstrong had a unique, hard-to-define ability to capture the essence of an issue, prompting everyone in the room to pay attention.

 

Griffin said he noticed something different about Armstrong when he first met him in the mid 1960s. Long after the Apollo program ended, Armstrong and Griffin attended a conference at the California Institute of Technology to review the moon program and discuss lessons learned.

 

"Neil, in his own way, sat there and listened. and finally somebody called on him and he stood up and in about five minutes described how it was we were able to pull off Apollo," Griffin said. "And I noticed when he talked, everyone listened.

 

"And then it dawned on me, that's what I had seen in 1964, well before he was even assigned to a flight, he had that quality, people listened to him and he had that unique capability to take tough subjects and make them easily understood. That is a quality Neil is very, very unique in, and you can bet every night on a clear moon, I'm going to look at it and wink at him."

 

Collins briefly addressed Armstrong's post-Apollo life, including his reputation as a recluse and criticism "for being too quiet and not going out and selling the program."

 

"But by holding to his lifelong yardsticks of honesty, humility and grace, I think he accomplished a lot more than any professional PR man or huckster could have done," Collins said.

 

Far from being a recluse, Armstrong supported a wide variety of organizations and made numerous public appearances.

 

"When other Apollo flights were honored, he usually showed up and made very clear that the success of Apollo 11 was due to its predecessors and those that followed," Collins said.

 

"He went on tours sponsored by the USO to Iraq and Afghanistan. And once he even led cheers at his alma mater, Purdue's, football game. If that's a recluse, I think the nation needs more of them, people who don't seek the limelight but can live competently in its glare, who are the very antithesis of some of today's empty-headed celebrities we seem to admire."

 

Following the memorial service, a tree was planted in Armstrong's honor at the Johnson Space Center's Memorial Tree Grove, where 48 other deceased astronauts, including the crews of Challenger and Columbia, are remembered.

 

Honoring one of America's most beloved space heroes

 

Kevin Quinn - KTRK TV (Houston)

 

Legends of America's space program gathered at the Johnson Space Center today to honor the late Neil Armstrong.

 

It was standing room only inside the Teague Auditorium. About 700 NASA employees, friends and family were on hand to honor Armstrong and his actions.

 

He is remembered as the human face of the space program; the first man to walk on the moon. He is lauded as quiet, cool under pressure and intelligent beyond his years. They say he had high expectations for not only others, but himself.

 

They are qualities Johnson Space Center Director Ellen Ochoa says they strive still for at NASA every day.

 

Fellow Apollo 11 Astronaut Michael Collins remembers him fondly.

 

"Neil was just smart as hell, not just about flying. His head was a reservoir of facts, some very useful at times," he said. "People who don't seek the limelight but can live competently in its glare, who are the very antithesis of some of today's empty-headed celebrities that we seem to admire."

 

Buzz Aldrin took the opportunity today to publicly call for President Obama to clarify his stance on the future of human space flight. He says Armstrong likely would have agreed to some degree about the future.

 

Aldrin calls for Obama to not only focus on investigation of Asteroid, but to look at such a mission as a test flight for an interplanetary spaceship. Aldrin calls for the permanent settlement of Mars, led by NASA astronauts, by the 2030s.

 

Go to Mars! Neil Armstrong's moonshot crewmates sound the call

 

Alan Boyle - NBCNews.com's Cosmic Log

 

Nearly a year after his death, first moonwalker Neil Armstrong's crewmates declared on Thursday that future missions to Mars should serve as part of the Apollo program's legacy.

 

The other moonwalker on 1969's Apollo 11 mission, Buzz Aldrin, paraphrased President John F. Kennedy after laying out a vision for voyages to Mars and its moons by the 2030s. "In the spirit of Apollo, we choose to do these things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, as we boldly venture into the future — coming, going in peace for all mankind," Aldrin said during an Armstrong memorial service at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

 

Aldrin recalled that the third crew member on Apollo 11, Michael Collins, boiled his prescription for the space effort's future down to three words: "Go to Mars."

 

"I think I interpreted that as your saying, 'Let's leave the details to Buzz,'" Aldrin told Collins, sparking a wave of laughter from the crowd of 700. "I would like to take this occasion of Neil's commanding Apollo 11 to dedicate a bit to the future."

 

Thursday's service was presented as a Texas tribute to Armstrong, who died last August at the age of 82 after suffering heart problems. It followed up on a series of ceremonies in Armstrong's native Ohio, in Florida and the nation's capital. Glynn Lunney, who was a flight director for Apollo 11, said such ceremonies are important because they teach people about the Apollo legacy as it is being transformed "from contemporary history that we have directly observed into something that's more reported and recorded."

 

Human face of Apollo

 

"Neil will be the human face and the human spirit of the Apollo program," Lunney said. "People are going to look back on it in years to come, and they're going to be in awe of what got done in those times. Neil is probably going to be the human focus of that interest. And what we'd like to do here at this ceremony is introduce more of you to the kind of man he was: private, quiet, self-disciplined, humble, competent. ... Neil was all that, and he was more. Fate just managed to get Neil in the position where he was the representative for all of us and all of the space program, going forward in time, and we're very lucky, we're very well-served that that was the case."

 

Before he took Apollo 11's "one giant leap for mankind" on July 20, 1969, Armstrong served as a combat pilot in the Korean War, a Navy test pilot, and an astronaut who dealt calmly with a wildly spinning space capsule during the Gemini 8 mission in 1966. After Apollo 11, he became an ambassador for the space effort — a public role he wasn't always comfortable with.

 

Collins, who circled the moon while Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the surface below, admitted that Armstrong was sometimes "hard to talk to." But he also recalled a post-Apollo goodwill visit to Yugoslavia, during which Armstrong broke the ice by chatting with President Josip Broz Tito's wife about Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla. Afterward, Armstrong told Collins that he chose the conversation topic because Madame Broz was related to Tesla.

 

"Neil was just smart as hell, and not just about flying. His head was a reservoir of facts, some very useful at times," Collins quipped.

 

Even though Armstrong was famously reserved in public, "he was definitely the right choice to be the commander of the first lunar landing," Collins said.

 

Looking to the future

 

During his talk at the service, Aldrin urged President Barack Obama to bring NASA's vision for future space exploration into sharper focus.

 

"I'd like to see this president clarify and restate [that] a human mission to an asteroid in 2025 is a test of an interplanetary spacecraft primarily, not an investigation of an asteroid," Aldrin told the audience gathered at Johnson Space Center. "And as a test of that spacecraft, we could then look forward in 2030 to humans reaching the moons of Mars."

 

Aldrin said the costs of retracing Apollo's steps to the moon would be "disproportionate to what we would receive." Instead, he advocated robotic lunar exploration, directed from spacecraft in the moon's vicinity. Aldrin said the United States could also contribute to an "international lunar development authority," but should keep its national focus on the exploration and settlement of Mars.

 

After the service in Johnson Space Center's Teague Auditorium, attendees moved outside to dedicate a tree to Armstrong in the center's Memorial Tree Grove. Among those in attendance were Armstrong's sons, Rick and Mark, and his former wife Janet. Armstrong's widow, Carol, was unable to attend, said center director Ellen Ochoa.

 

Ochoa, a former astronaut, said Armstrong's legacy would live on in the next phase of America's space effort. "We set high expectations for ourselves," she said. "We work hard to overcome obstacles. We learn all we can about the systems we need to operate, striving to ask the right questions and being prepared for all situations. We realize it's about accomplishing the mission as a team. And we do that because of the example Neil set."

 

Apollo Astronauts Honor Neil Armstrong, 'The Epitome of a Space Man'

 

Clara Moskowitz - Space.com

 

Some legends of spaceflight gathered Thursday to pay tribute to one of the best among them: Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon.

 

Armstrong, who walked on the lunar surface July 20, 1969 during the Apollo 11 mission, died Aug. 25 at the age of 82. NASA honored the first moonwalker today during a memorial service at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

 

"He deserved all the good things that came his way," Armstrong's Apollo 11 crewmate Michael Collins said during the televised NASA ceremony. "He did this agency proud. He did the whole world proud. He was definitely the right choice to be the commander of the first lunar landing — he was the best."

 

Armstrong's other companion on the Apollo 11 mission, Buzz Aldrin, also spoke in honor of his comrade.

 

"I will be eternally grateful to be so fortunate that my opportunity to fly to the moon and land was under the command of Neil Armstrong — perhaps the best test pilot America's ever seen and the epitome of a space man," Aldrin said.

 

The speakers not only praised Armstrong's exceptional talent as a test pilot and astronaut, but as a person.

 

"In the case of Neil, everybody knows about Neil, but not everybody knows Neil," said Glynn Lunney, who served as a NASA flight director during the Apollo 11 mission. "What we'd like to do here today at this service is to introduce more of you to the kind of man he really was: private, quiet, self-disciplined, humble, competent."

 

Armstrong has often been described by those who knew him as a "reluctant hero" who undertook the challenges of Apollo not for personal glory but for the betterment of his nation and the world. He largely stopped signing autographs in 1994, and made public appearances only rarely in recent years, preferring to live his life as privately as possible.

 

"He was hard to talk to; he was very quiet," Collins said. "If you wanted Neil to break lose, you talked airplanes. He knew more about airplanes than anyone I have ever known."

 

But when Armstrong wanted to be heard, he was.

 

"Well before he was even assigned to a flight he had that quality — people listened to him," recalled Apollo 11 flight director Gerry Griffin. "He had the unique capability to take tough subjects and make them understood. That is a quality that Neil is very unique in."

 

Ultimately, Armstrong's legacy is assured, his friends said.

 

"Neil will be the human face and the human spirit of the Apollo program," Lunney said. "People are going to look back on it in years to come and be kind of in awe of what was done."

 

The memorial service was followed by a dedication ceremony at the Memorial Tree Grove, which was founded at the Johnson Space Center in 1996, on the 10th anniversary of the Challenger space shuttle disaster. Since then, a tree has been planted to honor every astronaut who has died.

 

Mars Mission candidates success may rely on US-Russian collaboration

 

Andrew Hiller – Voice of Russia

 

Eight men and women have been named as NASA's most recent class of astronauts.  They are being trained for missions that may take them as far as Mars.  In the meantime, scientists are wrestling with problems that include robotics, radiation, and atrophy.

 

Today's astronauts might not be all Naval Test Pilots like Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, but it's still important that they have the right stuff. NASA's current crop possess of mix of skills and expertise ranging from biology and engineering, to physics and aeronautics. Still, Larry Young, the Apollo Professor of Astronautics at MIT says that though may not be the daredevils of spaceflight's dawn, this generation's astronauts still possess that quality of daring do. That's important according to Young because although much has been discovered by rovers like Curiosity, humans still have an important role to play.

 

Several factors including artificial intelligence currently limit the usefulness of rovers and robots. Guiding the machines by remote control is also problematic because the lag time between sending and receiving commands from Earth can take as long as twenty minutes. This lag requires robots, rovers, and drones to be as self-sufficient as possible, but also limits the types of operations they can perform. Thus, Young contends in order to answer some questions there must be a human component.

 

However, sending a man to Mars is difficult. Muscle and bone loss as well as heart issues can occur on prolonged space missions. In addition, astronauts must be shielded from sudden bursts of high level radiation. Young says that he and his colleagues at MIT are working closely with various groups in Russia including the Skolkovo Institute and the Moscow Aviation Institute to solve some of these problems. His current work involves radiation protection and in particular, the protection of the central nervous system. He believes the answers are within reach and that because of the pooling of minds devoted to this effort that humans may reach Mars within this generation's lifespan.

 

Atlantis exhibit is 'go' for visitors

Long-anticipated shuttle display opens on June 29

 

Stacey Barchenger - Florida Today

 

Just one week from its grand opening, the Atlantis exhibit at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is nearly ready.

 

The final week will be one of fine-tuning inside the $100 million building, though a few public tours have been given a sneak-peek.

 

"We're ready to go," said Tim Macy, director of project development for Delaware North Companies at the visitor complex. "We're tweaking the sound, and doing color balance" in the theaters.

 

The exhibit features Atlantis, which flew 33 missions, and gives visitors a 360-degree view of the orbiter from just feet away.

 

"The first time I saw it, I had tears in my eyes," astronaut Bob Springer, who flew two shuttle missions, recalled. Springer flew on Discovery in 1989 and Atlantis the following year.

 

The 90,000-square-foot building also features 60 other exhibits, many interactive, which highlight the history of the space program.

 

The exhibit opens to the public June 29.

 

END

 

 

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