Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - June 25, 2013 and JSC Today



Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: June 25, 2013 6:13:27 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - June 25, 2013 and JSC Today

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Headlines

  1. Update - JSC Remote Access VPN/R2S Upgrade Status

The JSC Remote Access system upgrades have been postponed. A new date will be announced.

The White Sands Test Facility (WSTF) Remote Access system was upgraded on Saturday, June 22.

This upgrade affects all WSTF team members and partners that use the WSTF VPN and WSTF R2S.

The Information Resources Directorate performed upgrades to remove VPN NDC password login requirements, add a PIV (smart card) authentication VPN option and replace the Juniper Network Connect client with Junos Pulse.

The JSC VPN and JSC R2S services were NOT upgraded.

For questions, please contact Michael Patterson.

JSC-IRD-Outreach x41334

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   Organizations/Social

  1. Become an Ally in the Workplace - June 27

As part of Pride Month activities, the Out & Allied Employee Resource Group (ERG) invites you to an informative and empowering half-day seminar on Thursday, June 27, exploring the unique needs and concerns LGBT people face in the workplace. You will build your own knowledge, skills and abilities for creating a more inclusive and affirming community. Participants will also develop an understanding of LGBT terminology and symbols, history, concepts of privilege and identity development and maintaining a work environment that doesn't tolerate oppression based on sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. Sign up in SATERN for either the 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. session or the 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. session -- just search for "Become an Ally" in SATERN.

June 27

Building 12, Room 134

Jennifer Mason x32424 https://collaboration.ndc.nasa.gov/iierg/LGBTA/SitePages/Home.aspx

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  1. HSI ERG Meeting Today Will Feature a New Tool

The June JSC Human System Integration (HSI) Employee Resource Group (ERG) meeting will feature Dr. Terence Andre of NASA 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 today, 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

Add to Calendar

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

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  1. Low-Cost Computing CoLAB

Are you currently working on or interested in starting a project involving Arduino, Raspberry Pi or other low-cost, small-scale computing hardware?

If so, you are invited to the second meeting of the Low-Cost Computing (LCC) CoLAB. CoLABs provide a casual forum to share lessons learned and generate innovative new ideas and uses of technologies. Come make cross-directorate contacts and learn more about what others are doing with these exciting technologies.

The LCC CoLAB will be held today from noon to 1 p.m. in Building 30A, Room 2085A (Armstrong Room). Feel free to bring your lunch and your co-workers.

Event Date: Tuesday, June 25, 2013   Event Start Time:12:00 PM   Event End Time:1:00 PM
Event Location: Bldg 30A/Rm 2085A (Armstrong Room)

Add to Calendar

Brian Schwing x42514

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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 x 36130 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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  1. Youth Sports Camps -- Ultimate Frisbee Next Week

Starport's Ultimate Frisbee Camp starts next week! Register now before it's too late. Plus, check out our other Summer Sports Camps, which are a great way to provide added instruction for all levels of players and prepare participants for competitive play. Let our knowledgeable and experienced coaches give your child the confidence they need to learn and excel in their chosen sport.

Baseball Camp: Focuses on the development of hitting, catching, base running, throwing, pitching and drills.

Dates: July 8 to 12 and July 15 to 19

Times: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Ages: 6 to 12

Price: $200/per session

Basketball Camp: Focuses on the development of shooting, passing, dribbling, guarding and drills.

Dates: Aug. 5 to 9

Times: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Ages: 9 to 14

Price: $200

Ultimate Frisbee: Focuses on development of throwing, catching, offense, defense, zones and drills.

Dates: July 1 to 3

Times: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Ages: 9 to 14

Price: $140

Before and after care is available. Register your child at the Gilruth Center. Visit our website for information.

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

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  1. JSC Praise and Worship Club Meeting

Join with the Praise and Worship band, "Allied with the Lord," for a refreshing set of traditional and contemporary praise and worship songs on Wednesday, June 26, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. in Building 29, Room 237 (also called Creative Sp.ace). Prayer partners will be available for anyone who would like it. All JSC civil servants and contractors are welcome.

Event Date: Wednesday, June 26, 2013   Event Start Time:11:30 AM   Event End Time:12:15 PM
Event Location: Building 29 Room 237 Creative Sp.ace

Add to Calendar

Mike FitzPatrick x30758

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   Jobs and Training

  1. Details to NASA/HQ: Q&A Session - June 26, 11 a.m.

If you are interested in applying for a detail assignment at NASA Headquarters and have questions about the process, come to the Q&A session on Wednesday, June 26, and find out what you need to know.

Ruth McWilliams, executive officer, Office of Strategy Formulation, NASA Headquarters, will be here to answer your questions.

Event Date: Wednesday, June 26, 2013   Event Start Time:11:00 AM   Event End Time:11:30 AM
Event Location: B12/Room 152-154

Add to Calendar

Michele Martin x33033

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  1. RLLS Portal Education Series - WebEx Training

From June through August, TTI is hosting the TTI RLLS Portal Education Series, highlighting different RLLS modules weekly.

The June 17 weekly Education Series:

    • June 27 at 7:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. CDT - ISS Russian Travel
    • June 28 at 7:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. CDT - Meeting Support

The 30-minute training sessions are computer-based WebEx sessions, offering individuals the convenience to join from their own workstation. The RLLS Portal Education Series will cover the following:

    • System login
    • Locating support modules
    • Locating downloadable instructions
    • Creating support requests
    • Submittal requirements
    • Submitting on behalf of another
    • Adding attachments
    • Selecting special requirements
    • Submitting a request
    • Status of a request

Ending each training session, the instructor will answer any questions and remind all users that TTI will no longer accept requests for U.S.-performed services unless they are submitted through the RLLS Portal.

Email James.E.Welty@nasa.gov or call 281-335-8565 to sign up.

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

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  1. Houston Technology Center Senior Liaison Rotation

Throughout the year, JSC provides senior-level leadership and collaboration with economic development entities in the Houston area. As the senior JSC liaison to the Houston Technology Center (HTC), the employee will support the long-term goals of commercialization of JSC's technologies, growth of aerospace and other industries and technologies in our community, share information on future cross-industry collaborations and forge strong and lasting ties both within and outside of the aerospace sector.

This rotational opportunity is one year. If you would like to be considered for the vacancy, please let us know by July 3 by applying for Opportunity Number 72JSC-0614-1322 on the JOBS tool. Mail your half-pager to Stephen Williams addressing the following points:

    • Why are you interested in this type of rotational assignment?
    • Why is this a good time in your career to pursue this type of rotation?
    • What is the benefit to NASA-JSC or your organization of your participation?

Linda Ham x36881

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  1. Upcoming NASA Privacy Training Sessions

Protecting sensitive information at NASA begins and ends with our employees. Several incidents this year resulted in the loss, theft and compromise of sensitive and personal data. 

The agency wants employees, civil servants and contractors, to be knowledgeable about handling and protecting Sensitive But Unclassified (SBU) and Personally Identifiable Information (PII). 

SBU and PII can be anything from names to personnel records to non-classified sensitive material. JSC's Information Resources Directorate is providing the following training sessions open to all JSC employees:  

Thursday, June 27, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Gilruth Center Discovery Room

Thursday, July 18, 1 to 2:30 p.m., Teague Auditorium

Thursday, Aug. 29, 1 to 2:30 p.m., Teague Auditorium

You MUST register for this event in SATERN (search for "ITS-SBUPII-013-W" and select the date you wish to attend).

For more information on SBU/PII, click here or contact JSC's Privacy Manager Ali Montasser (x39798) or JSC's Information Security Officer Mark Fridye (x36660).

IRD Outreach x39798 http://ird.jsc.nasa.gov/Home.aspx

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   Community

  1. JSC Feds Feed Families Theme: Portable Meals

For this week's theme, think about quick or easy meals. For example, Hamburger Helper, ravioli, canned soups or stews, tuna fish or macaroni and cheese. Remember that when you give, you are helping your community.

Brad Stewart x30356

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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:

·         12:30 pm Central (1:30 EDT) – Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph Google+ Hangout

·         2 pm Central (3 EDT) – IRIS Prelaunch News Conference from Vandenberg AFB, Calif.

·         2:45 pm Central (3:45 EDT) – IRIS Mission Science Briefing from Vandenberg

 

Human Spaceflight News

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

Spacewalk ends; all major objectives accomplished

 

William Harwood - CBS News

 

Cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin staged a successful six-hour 34-minute spacewalk Monday, installing cable clamps, attaching handrails and testing rendezvous equipment to help pave the way for installation of a new Russian laboratory module later this year. They also replaced a flow control valve in the coolant system of the Zarya module, retrieved space exposure experiment pallets and installed a new experiment to monitor the station's immediate environment. When all was said and done, they accomplished all of their major objectives with the exception of two pairs of handrails, called gap spanners, that will be installed during an upcoming spacewalk.

 

2 Russian astronauts tackle chores in spacewalk

 

Marcia Dunn - Associated Press

 

Two space station astronauts took care of a little outside maintenance Monday. Russian flight engineers Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin replaced a main valve on the International Space Station and prepared for the arrival of a new lab later this year. "To save the time, I'm embroidering," one of the spacewalkers said in Russian, holding a clump of cord as he worked. "It's not easy to handle all these ropes." Later, he added, "OK, now we're doing beadwork."

 

Cosmonauts tackle equipment installation outside space station

 

Irene Klotz - Reuters

 

A pair of Russian cosmonauts wrapped up a 6-1/2 hour spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Friday, the first of up to eight outings this year to install experiments and prepare the orbital outpost for a new module, officials said. Flight engineers Pavel Vinogradov, 59, a veteran of seven spacewalks and Roman Romanenko, 41, a second-generation cosmonaut on his debut spacewalk, floated outside the station's airlock at 10:03 a.m. EDT/1403 GMT as the station soared 262 miles over the southern Pacific Ocean.

 

Russian spacewalk preps ISS for new lab in Dec.

Pair's work sets up for multi-purpose module

 

Todd Halvorson - Florida Today

 

Crawling hand-over-hand outside the International Space Station on Monday, two cosmonauts did prep work for an expansion late this year of the Russian side of the outpost. Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin also retrieved two scientific research experiments and performed maintenance on the first building block of the orbital complex – a 15-year-old Russian space tug that now serves primarily as a storage unit. The two toiled for six hours and 34 minutes in a hazardous vacuum environment where significant breach in their pressurized spacesuits could lead to their deaths.

 

Spacewalking Cosmonauts Prime Space Station for New Laboratory

 

Miriam Kramer - Space.com

 

Two cosmonauts took a spacewalk outside the International Space Station Monday to prepare the orbiting outpost for the arrival of a new Russian laboratory later this year. Clad in bulky Orlan spacesuits, cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin spent more than six hours outside the space station to test automated docking system cables and install equipment to aid the arrival of the new Russian Multipurpose Laboratory, a science module slated to launch to the orbiting laboratory by the end of 2013. The spacewalk began at 9:32 a.m. EDT.

 

Russian Cosmonauts Complete Spacewalk

 

RIA Novosti

 

Russian cosmonauts, Expedition 36 flight engineers Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin have completed their spacewalk that lasted 6 hours and 34 minutes, the Russian Mission Control and NASA reported. The cosmonauts conducted extravehicular activity to prepare for the addition of a new Russian module later in 2013. Misurkin made his first spacewalk this time, whereas for Yurchikhin, it was his sixth.

 

SLS construction one step closer with friction stir welding machine's ribbon cutting ceremony

 

Jason Rhian - AmericaSpace.com

 

NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility, or "MAF," hosted an event introducing the new Vertical Weld Center, a friction stir welding machine that opens the door for the core stage of the agency's new heavy-lift booster, the Space Launch System (SLS), to be built. Beginning shortly after 9 a.m. CDT on Friday, June 21, spokespersons from NASA and Boeing highlighted how this new instrument will revolutionize how the massive launch vehicle is produced and how it should lower the cost of constructing the boosters as well as shorten the time in which it is constructed.

 

Orbital Sues ULA, Seeks RD-180 Engines, $515 Million in Damages

 

Dan Leone - Space News

 

Orbital Sciences Corp., which wants to buy Russian-made RD-180 engines for its medium-lift Antares rocket, is suing rocket maker United Launch Alliance (ULA) for blocking any such sale, according to court papers dated June 20. Orbital of Dulles, Va., claims Denver-based ULA has not only illegally prevented open-market sale of the RD-180, but also has monopolized the launch-services market for certain satellites in violation of U.S. antitrust laws, according to a complaint filed June 20 with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria.

 

FAA Space Office Cut in House Spending Bill

 

Space News

 

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) office responsible for oversight of the U.S. commercial space transportation industry would sustain a roughly 12 percent budget cut if a spending bill that cleared the House Appropriations transportation, housing and urban development subcommittee June 19 becomes law. The bill would fund the FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation at $14.16 million in 2014, down from the $15.4 million in 2013. The FAA asked Congress for $16 million for the office, which was funded at $16.27 million in 2012. (NO FURTHER TEXT)

 

From Barbie dolls to the 'final frontier'

 

Guy Kovner - Santa Rosa Press Democrat

 

Outer space is the next step for Nicole Aunapu Mann, who grew up playing with Barbie dolls and soccer balls in Sonoma County, graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and Stanford University and got a job in the Marine Corps flying jets at 1,300 miles per hour. Mann, 35, who flew 147 combat missions over Iraq and Afghanistan before becoming a test pilot four years ago, was named last week as one of eight astronaut candidates in NASA's 21st class of four men and four women with the right stuff. "Definitely a dream come true," Mann said from her home next to Naval Air Station Patuxent River on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, 65 miles southeast of Washington, D.C.

 

NASA Astronaut turned Texas Tech student greets area teachers

 

KCBD TV (Lubbock)

 

NASA Astronaut Joe Acaba, who currently is a distance learning graduate student at Texas Tech University, spoke with area middle school math and science teachers Monday at the Fourth Annual (MS)2 Conference at the International Cultural Center. Acaba, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps and taught five years of high school and middle school math and science, was selected as a mission specialist by NASA in 2004 along with several other teachers.

 

NASA taps long-time employee to be new CIO

 

Jason Miller - Federal News Radio

 

NASA tapped a long-time employee from the field to become its new chief information officer. Government sources confirmed that Larry Sweet is moving to NASA headquarters from the Johnson Space Center. Sweet replaces Linda Cureton, who retired in April. Richard Keegan, the associate deputy administrator, has been the acting CIO since Cureton retired.

 

Redirecting an asteroid mission

 

Jeff Foust - The Space Review (Opinion)

 

(Foust is editor and publisher of The Space Review. He also operates the Spacetoday.net web site and the Space Politics and NewSpace Journal weblogs.)

 

When NASA released its fiscal year 2014 budget proposal two and a half months ago, a key element of it was a new "asteroid initiative" that called for $105 million for various asteroid search and technology development efforts. The centerpiece of that plan was a robotic mission to capture a small near Earth asteroid, no more than about ten meters across, and move it into cislunar space, where it could potentially be visited by astronauts on the first crewed Orion mission, slated for 2021. That proposed mission—called at the time the Asteroid Retrieval Mission, or ARM—raised more than a few eyebrows when NASA announced it in April. Some questioned the technical feasibility of the concept (which is based on a 2012 study by the Keck Institute for Space Studies at Caltech) while others wondered how useful it would be for science or human exploration. Now, with some members of Congress making moves to block the effort, NASA is showing signs of subtly shifting the focus of the proposed mission, and the overall initiative, more towards the less controversial role planetary defense.

__________

 

COMPLETE STORIES

 

Spacewalk ends; all major objectives accomplished

 

William Harwood - CBS News

 

Cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin staged a successful six-hour 34-minute spacewalk Monday, installing cable clamps, attaching handrails and testing rendezvous equipment to help pave the way for installation of a new Russian laboratory module later this year.

 

They also replaced a flow control valve in the coolant system of the Zarya module, retrieved space exposure experiment pallets and installed a new experiment to monitor the station's immediate environment.

 

When all was said and done, they accomplished all of their major objectives with the exception of two pairs of handrails, called gap spanners, that will be installed during an upcoming spacewalk.

 

The spacewalk began at 9:32 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) when Yurchikhin, call sign EV-1, and Misurkin, EV-2, opened the hatch of the Pirs airlock compartment as the station sailed 250 miles above the south Pacific Ocean. Misurkin made his way outside a few moments later, followed by Yurchikhin.

 

Along with routine maintenance, much of the work carried out during today's spacewalk includeed installation of cable clamps and other equipment needed to route data and power to and from the Multi-Purpose Laboratory module, also known as Nauka, tentatively scheduled for launch in December.

 

To make way for the new module, the Pirs docking and airlock compartment will be jettisoned this Fall and the MLM will use its own propulsion and guidance system to fly to an automated docking at the Zvezda command module's Earth-facing port.

 

But first, Russian spacewalkers must route power and data lines on Zvezda's hull and make sure docking equipment will work properlhy after Pirs is jettisoned. It will take another three Russian spacewalks and two by NASA astronauts to complete the preparations.

 

"There are quite a (few) tasks that need to be performed by the Russian EVA crew members before MLM arrives," said Lawrence Thomas, NASA's lead spacewalk planner for Expedition 36. "Not only do they need to route power and data cables and reconfigure (rendezvous) equipment for the arrival of the MLM itself, it's part of a larger reconfiguration effort."

 

Because the MLM will replace the Pirs module, which serves as the Russian airlock, the Poisk module must be configured to handle spacewalks.

 

"So there is a lot of hardware we're going to have to move around," Thomas said. "There's EVA hardware on (Pirs) that will have to be removed and re-installed on (Poisk), there are some antennas that will have to be moved around and there's also some science equipment on (Pirs) that's going to have to be relocated before it deorbits."

 

For today's excursion, Yurchikhin and Misurkin began by replacing a cooling system flow control valve on the Zarya module and installing additional power and data cable clamps needed for the MLM.

 

On the Zvezda module, the spacewalkers reconfigured KURS docking gear, used by approaching Soyuz and Progress spacecraft to home in for docking at Pirs, and installed spacewalk handrails needed during upcoming EVAs. They also retrieved  two space exposure pallets and installed the "Indicator" experiment.

 

"The tasks for this EVA in particular, there's not one that's particularly hard in comparison to other things we've done," Thomas said. "One thing that I've always admired about Russian EVA hardware, they always design it to where it's very user friendly, very simple interfaces, very intuitive."

 

The spacewalk ended at 4:06 p.m. when the cosmonauts returned to Pirs and closed the hatch to begin repressurization.

 

This was the 169th spacewalk devoted to station assembly and maintenance since construction began in 1998, the third so far this year, the sixth for Yurchikhin and the first for Misurkin. Four more Russian spacewalks are planned for 2013, along with two U.S. excursions July 9 and 16.

 

With today's EVA, 111 astronauts and cosmonauts representing eight nations have logged 1,067 hours and 43 minutes -- 44.5 days -- of spacewalk time outside the International Space Station. Yurchikins's total now stands at 38 hours and 26 minutes, moving him up to 24th on the list of most experiences spacewalkers, one minute ahead of crewmate Pavel Vinogradov.

 

Misurkin, making his first spaceflight, arrived at the space station March 28, along with Vinogradov, commander of the Soyuz TMA-08M ferry craft, and NASA astronaut Christopher Cassidy. Yurchikhin arrived May 28 aboard the Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft, accompanied by NASA shuttle veteran Karen Nyberg and Luca Parmitano, a European Space Agency astronaut.

 

Yurchikhin first flew to the space station in 2002 as a shuttle astronaut on a mission to attach part of the lab's solar power truss. He then completed two long-duration stays, riding aloft aboard Soyuz spacecraft in 2007 and 2010.

 

He has now logged nearly 400 days in space. When Vinogradov, Misurkin and Cassidy depart in September, Yurchikhin will take over as commander of Expedition 37.

 

2 Russian astronauts tackle chores in spacewalk

 

Marcia Dunn - Associated Press

 

Two space station astronauts took care of a little outside maintenance Monday.

 

Russian flight engineers Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin replaced a main valve on the International Space Station and prepared for the arrival of a new lab later this year.

 

"To save the time, I'm embroidering," one of the spacewalkers said in Russian, holding a clump of cord as he worked. "It's not easy to handle all these ropes." Later, he added, "OK, now we're doing beadwork."

 

Besides the valve swap 250 miles up, the spacewalkers installed clamps and retrieved science experiments, completing most all their chores. The spacewalk ran a little over at 6 1/2 hours. "Thank you for your work," radioed Russian Mission Control outside Moscow.

 

It was the year's third spacewalk. The four other space station residents monitored the action from inside.

 

Yurchikhin arrived at the space station just a few weeks ago. Misurkin has been on board since March.

 

The crew includes three Russians, two Americans and one Italian. The Italian and one American will conduct a pair of spacewalks for NASA in July.

 

Begun in 1998, the space station still is one room short.

 

The Russian Space Agency plans to launch a research lab by year's end to replace the Pirs air lock that has been in place since 2001. An unmanned Proton rocket will hoist the lab, which also will serve as an air lock for spacewalk preparations and a docking port for visiting craft.

 

As for Pirs - Russian for pier - it will be cut loose before the launch of its replacement and burn up upon re-entry as junk.

 

Cosmonauts tackle equipment installation outside space station

 

Irene Klotz - Reuters

 

A pair of Russian cosmonauts wrapped up a 6-1/2 hour spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Friday, the first of up to eight outings this year to install experiments and prepare the orbital outpost for a new module, officials said.

 

Flight engineers Pavel Vinogradov, 59, a veteran of seven spacewalks and Roman Romanenko, 41, a second-generation cosmonaut on his debut spacewalk, floated outside the station's airlock at 10:03 a.m. EDT/1403 GMT as the station soared 262 miles over the southern Pacific Ocean.

 

The primary purpose of the 6-1/2 hour excursion was to set up an experiment that monitors plasma waves in Earth's ionosphere, the outer layer of the planet's atmosphere that extends to about 370 miles into space.

 

Instruments on two boxes attached to handrails on the forward portion of the station's Zvezda module will measure low-frequency electromagnetic radiation, which, among other triggers, has been tied to earthquakes.

 

At the other end of the Zvezda module, Vinogradov and Romanenko replaced a faulty laser retroreflector that is part of an automated docking system used by the European Space Agency's cargo transports. The next ship is due to launch in June.

 

Before heading back into the station, the cosmonauts retrieved another experiment designed to study how microbes affect spacecraft structures and whether microbes are affected by solar activity.

 

The day's only glitch occurred just before the men wrapped up their six-hour, 38-minute spacewalk. Vinogradov lost his grip on a science experiment that was slated to be returned to Earth. It floated away in the gravity-free world of space.

 

The lost aluminum panel, which measured about 18 inches by 12 inches and weighed about 6.5 pounds (3 kg), had been anchored outside the station to test how various metals wear in the harsh space environment.

 

It floated off in the direction of the Zvezda module's solar arrays, but engineers determined it did not hit or threaten the station, NASA mission commentator Rob Navias said.

 

A second panel remains attached to the outside of the station and is slated to be retrieved on a later spacewalk.

 

"So all is not lost," Navias said. "It was a minor fly in the ointment to what has been a successful spaceflight up that moment."

 

While his crewmates worked outside, station commander Chris Hadfield, a Canadian astronaut, had the less glamorous task of replacing a pump separator in one of the station's toilets.

 

Two more spacewalks by Russian cosmonauts are scheduled for June to prepare for the arrival of a Russian laboratory and docking module that is to be launched in December.

 

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

 

Russian spacewalk preps ISS for new lab in Dec.

Pair's work sets up for multi-purpose module

 

Todd Halvorson - Florida Today

 

Crawling hand-over-hand outside the International Space Station on Monday, two cosmonauts did prep work for an expansion late this year of the Russian side of the outpost.

 

Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin also retrieved two scientific research experiments and performed maintenance on the first building block of the orbital complex – a 15-year-old Russian space tug that now serves primarily as a storage unit.

 

The two toiled for six hours and 34 minutes in a hazardous vacuum environment where significant breach in their pressurized spacesuits could lead to their deaths.

 

And they checked off almost every one of the many tasks on their high-flying to-do list.

 

"So, all in all, a very successful spacewalk," NASA flight commentator Brandi Dean said at the U.S. Mission Control Center at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

 

Engineers and flight controllers there watched over the excursion outside the sprawling research facility, which covers an area as big as a football field in an orbit about 250 miles above Earth.

 

"I guess we're flying over South America," Yurchikhin said as the two zoomed high above the planet.

 

"Gorgeous," Misurkin said.

 

During the outing, the two cosmonauts installed clamps that will enable solar power to be routed to a multi-purpose laboratory tentatively set for launch to the station in December.

 

Handrails also were installed on the hull of the station so cosmonauts can route electrical cables to the new module.

 

And they tested parts of the automatic docking system that will guide the new addition to a station berthing port.

 

Yurchikhin and Misurkin also retrieved two scientific research experiments exposed to the vacuum outside the station for months.

 

And they replaced a fluid flow regulator that is part of the cooling system on the Russian side of the station.

 

The spacewalk was the 169th performed in the assembly and maintenance of the space station, which began in late 1998. Added up, 1067 hours and 43 minutes of spacewalking time has been tallied at the station – the equivalent of 44.5 days.

 

Next up: two spacewalks in July. U.S. astronaut Chris Cassidy and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency will continue preparations for the new Russian lab and perform other maintenance work during spacewalks on July 9 and July 16.

 

Spacewalking Cosmonauts Prime Space Station for New Laboratory

 

Miriam Kramer - Space.com

 

Two cosmonauts took a spacewalk outside the International Space Station Monday (June 24) to prepare the orbiting outpost for the arrival of a new Russian laboratory later this year.

 

Clad in bulky Orlan spacesuits, cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin spent more than six hours outside the space station to test automated docking system cables and install equipment to aid the arrival of the new Russian Multipurpose Laboratory, a science module slated to launch to the orbiting laboratory by the end of 2013. The spacewalk began at 9:32 a.m. EDT.

 

Yurchikhin and Misurkin successfully tested the docking system cables that will be used to help the new Multipurpose Laboratory module dock itself at the station when it arrives. The spacewalkers also installed cable clamps to hold the cables that will route power and data from the U.S. segment of the space station to the new laboratory module

 

Still, it wasn't all work and no play for the hard-working cosmonauts.

 

"Can you make the sun not shine so bright?" one of the spacewalkers joked during the orbital work. "It's shining right in my eyes."

 

Yurchikhin and Misurkin are part of the space station's six-person Expedition 36 crew. Their crewmates — fellow cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov, NASA's Chris Cassidy and Karen Nyberg and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano — remained inside the International Space Station during the spacewalk.

 

Misurkin and Yurchikhin were lighthearted during the six hour and 34 minute excursion. They joked with Russian Mission Control about being hungry, paused occasionally for a photo and commented on the beauty of the Earth from space.

 

"I guess we're flying over South America," one of the spacewalkers said at one point. "Gorgeous."

 

Aside from the new module preparation work, the cosmonauts also replaced a fluid control valve panel on the Zarya module, installed a new science experiment on the exterior of the orbiting laboratory, and retrieved two older experiments.

 

They installed tethers between handholds to be used by cosmonauts and astronauts on future spacewalks, however they weren't able to mount all of them in time. The remaining tethers will be installed during a future spacewalk, NASA officials said.

 

Monday's spacewalk marked the sixth excursion for Yurchikhin, a veteran cosmonaut making his fourth spaceflight. It was the first for Misurkin. Before this spacewalk, Yurchikhin logged 31 hours and 52 minutes of spacewalking time.

 

Six more spacewalks are planned for this year, four Russian and two American. The U.S. spacewalks are scheduled to take place on July 2 and 9.

 

Monday's excursion marked the 169th spacewalk for maintenance and assembly performed on the $100 billion orbiting laboratory. The International Space Station was built by 15 countries represented by five space agencies, and construction began in 1998. It has been continuously staffed by rotating crews of astronauts since 2000.

 

Russian Cosmonauts Complete Spacewalk

 

RIA Novosti

 

Russian cosmonauts, Expedition 36 flight engineers Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin have completed their spacewalk that lasted 6 hours and 34 minutes, the Russian Mission Control and NASA reported.

 

The cosmonauts conducted extravehicular activity to prepare for the addition of a new Russian module later in 2013. Misurkin made his first spacewalk this time, whereas for Yurchikhin, it was his sixth.

 

The two men replaced an aging fluid flow control panel on the International Space Station's Zarya module as preventative maintenance on the cooling system for the station's Russian segment.

 

They also installed clamps for future power cables to get ready for swapping the Pirs airlock with a new multipurpose laboratory module. Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos is expected to launch a research facility, airlock and docking port late in 2013 on a Proton rocket.

 

Yurchikhin, who wore the Orlan-MK spacesuit with red stripes, and Misurkin, who wore a suit with blue stripes, also retrieved two science experiments and installed a new one. To provide close-up views of their activity, the spacewalkers were equipped with NASA helmet cameras.

 

The spacewalk was the 169th in support of space station assembly and maintenance, NASA reported.

 

SLS construction one step closer with friction stir welding machine's ribbon cutting ceremony

 

Jason Rhian - AmericaSpace.com

 

NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility, or "MAF," hosted an event introducing the new Vertical Weld Center, a friction stir welding machine that opens the door for the core stage of the agency's new heavy-lift booster, the Space Launch System (SLS), to be built. Beginning shortly after 9 a.m. CDT on Friday, June 21, spokespersons from NASA and Boeing highlighted how this new instrument will revolutionize how the massive launch vehicle is produced and how it should lower the cost of constructing the boosters as well as shorten the time in which it is constructed.

 

Numerous luminaries attended the ceremony. NASA's Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations William Gerstenmaier was joined by the agency's Space Launch System Program Manger Todd May, Boeing's Space Launch Systems Vice President and Program Manager Ginger Barnes, and numerous other officials from both the public and private sectors who were on hand for the event and subsequent tour.

 

"We've had a chance to take a look at the Vertical Weld Facility that has just been assembled; the hardware is now here. This device will be used to actually weld the large barrel sections of both the oxidizer tank and the hydrogen tank for the SLS rocket," Gerstenmaier said. "It's pretty exciting to see this hardware come together, to see the beginnings of this program as we move forward. The teams are doing a tremendous job here; they're making progress. I'm constantly telling them the most important thing we can do is to deliver the product on schedule and on budget and to look for innovative ways to do things, and, as you see here today, these folks are continuing to do that."

 

As part of the ribbon-cutting ceremony, a tour of the expansive MAF was held. The size of the MAF became readily apparent as a tram was employed to ferry the various dignitaries, their attendants, and members of the press around the structure. The focus was clearly not on the past; the tour passed by one of the remaining shuttle external tanks and the equipment that helped produce the iconic rust-colored fuel tanks. Of greater interest this day were the assorted welders and machines that will begin constructing not only the SLS, but the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew vehicle as well.

 

While the Vertical Weld Center was certainly the center of attention during Friday's ceremony, it is but one of a number of high-tech instruments that will be utilized to construct both SLS and Orion. Some of the other tools reviewed on Friday included:

 

  • The Circumferential Dome Weld Tool: Like the Vertical Weld Center, this tool is used to stitch components together for the Space Launch System. In this particular instrument's case it will help produce the dome assemblies for SLS' core stage cryogenic tanks.

 

  • The Gore Weld Tool: While its name might sound a little ominous, this device uses conventional friction stir weld techniques to produce what are known as gore assemblies for the SLS booster (gore assemblies are aluminum dome segments which are comprised of segments that are welded together).

 

The two tools listed above comprise what is known as the Enhanced Robotic Weld Tool, which makes the dome structures used on SLS.

 

  • The Segmented Ring Tool: This particular welding machine produces segmented support rings which both connect and provide necessary stiffness in between SLS' various barrel and domes. Like the welding instruments previously detailed, it too utilizes a friction stir welding process.

 

  • The Vertical Assembly Center, or "VAC": This massive structure/device will assemble the assorted components mentioned above together into the tanks and assemblies which will be used on SLS. It will also validate the other machines' handiwork by conducting nondestructive tests on the components after they are produced. Due to its size, this "tool" is perhaps better described as a structure. It will measure 170 feet tall and some 78 feet wide when it is completed next year.

 

"This was a big day for us at Boeing. It's a real statement about the progress that the program is making; it brings closer to fruition, to reality—both the SLS and the great exploration missions that it can take us on," said Boeing's Vice President and General Manager for Space Exploration John Elbon. "This is the vehicle that will take us to asteroids, the Moon, and then on to Mars. This is just one among many pieces of tangible evidence that prove the program is moving right along."

 

For NASA, these "bleeding-edge" technological instruments, as one attendee referred to them, will serve to improve both the speed and efficiency in which crucial launch vehicle and spacecraft components can be produced.

 

"They've taken advantage of modern manufacturing, state-of-the-art concepts to try and lower our overall operating costs and make this a very affordable rocket," Gerstenmaier said.

 

Orbital Sues ULA, Seeks RD-180 Engines, $515 Million in Damages

 

Dan Leone - Space News

 

Orbital Sciences Corp., which wants to buy Russian-made RD-180 engines for its medium-lift Antares rocket, is suing rocket maker United Launch Alliance (ULA) for blocking any such sale, according to court papers dated June 20.

 

Orbital of Dulles, Va., claims Denver-based ULA has not only illegally prevented open-market sale of the RD-180, but also has monopolized the launch-services market for certain satellites in violation of U.S. antitrust laws, according to a complaint filed June 20 with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria.

 

Orbital wants a federal judge to strike down an exclusivity agreement ULA has with its engine supplier, RD AMROSS, and to force ULA to pay Orbital at least $515 million — and potentially more than $1.5 billion — for damages arising from ULA's alleged monopolization of "launch systems and services used for medium-class payload missions," according to court papers. Orbital wants the case to go before a jury.

 

The suit marks an escalation in Orbital's spat with ULA over the Russian-made RD-180 engine, which is imported to the United States. by a company called RD AMROSS, a joint venture of United Technologies Corp. of Hartford, Conn., and NPO Energomash of Moscow, which manufactures the engine. United Technologies Corp.'s recently divested rocket propulsion division is the original U.S. partner in RD AMROSS, but the joint venture has not yet conveyed as part of that transaction.

 

Because of an exclusivity agreement forged decades ago with Lockheed Martin, one of ULA's two parent companies along with Boeing Co., RD AMROSS is only permitted to sell the RD-180 to ULA. Lockheed Martin, which needed a main engine for its new line of Atlas rockets, helped fund the RD-180's development.

 

The exclusivity arrangement has been the subject of an investigation by the antitrust division of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission since April. That review was prompted by complaints by Orbital, which views the RD-180 as a long-term replacement for the AJ-26 that currentlty powers the Antares rocket's first stage.

 

In its June complaint, Orbital alleged that ULA's exclusivity agreement with RD AMROSS violates the U.S. Sherman Antitrust Act, and that ULA's alleged monopolization of "medium-class payload missions" violates section four of the Clayton Antitrust Act.

 

Orbital's interest in the RD-180 stems from concerns about the long-term supply of the AJ-26, which is based on the NK-33 engine designed for the Soviet Union's failed lunar exploration program, and produced during the 1960s and 1970s. Aerojet Rocketdyne of Sacramento, Calif., purchased and refurbished a limited number of the engines for the Antares and says it has secured an agreement to restart production in Russia. 

 

Orbital is under contract with NASA to use Antares and a cargo capsule dubbed Cygnus for eight cargo-delivery missions to the international space station. To begin executing on that contract, Orbital must first complete two successful demonstration missions: a test launch of Antares that took place in April; and a launch Antares carrying a Cygnus capsule, now scheduled for September. 

 

Orbital says it has enough AJ-26 engines for these missions, but not enough for an expected set of follow-on resupply missions to the space station. Competition for these missions is expected to begin around December, and Orbital would prefer not to include NK-33s in its proposal to NASA, according to one industry source.

 

Aerojet Rocketdyne President Warren Boley said June 17 that Russia's NK Engines Co. — the former Kuznetsov Design Bureau — has agreed to restart NK-33 production provided Orbital signs a contract for more of the engines.

 

Boley would not say what it would cost to restart production, and Orbital, in a June 17 letter to Capitol Hill, said it knew neither "the technical or financial specifics" of what Boley discussed at the Paris Air Show.

 

Aerojet Rocketdyne was officially created June 13 when Aerojet of Sacramento acquired its main U.S. rival in the liquid propulsion business, Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne, for $550 million. Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne was Energomash's original partner in RD AMROSS.

 

Orbital spokesman Barron Beneski declined to comment on the litigation.

 

ULA spokeswoman Jessica Rye said the company is "aware of pending litigaton but we have not been officially served at this time."

 

From Barbie dolls to the 'final frontier'

 

Guy Kovner - Santa Rosa Press Democrat

 

Outer space is the next step for Nicole Aunapu Mann, who grew up playing with Barbie dolls and soccer balls in Sonoma County, graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and Stanford University and got a job in the Marine Corps flying jets at 1,300 miles per hour.

 

Mann, 35, who flew 147 combat missions over Iraq and Afghanistan before becoming a test pilot four years ago, was named last week as one of eight astronaut candidates in NASA's 21st class of four men and four women with the right stuff.

 

"Definitely a dream come true," Mann said from her home next to Naval Air Station Patuxent River on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, 65 miles southeast of Washington, D.C.

 

Mann's life since graduating from Rancho Cotate High School in 1995 has followed a dream-like script of successes since she surprised her family by opting for both a military career and a high-risk occupation.

 

"I liked the idea of being part of something that was bigger than me," Mann said.

 

In two months, the Marine Corps major will change into an astronaut's blue jumpsuit and begin a rigorous two-year training regimen at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

 

Beyond that lies the dark abyss of space, with likely visits to the Earth-orbiting International Space Station and possibly a rendezvous with an asteroid in the 2020s and, on NASA's farthest horizon, a trip to Mars.

 

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, introducing the new astronaut class last week, said the agency was developing missions to "go farther into space than ever before," pretty much echoing the fictional "Star Trek" mantra to "boldly go where no man has gone before."

 

A scuba diver, skier and hiker, Mann, at 5 feet 5 inches tall and 130 pounds, thrives on challenges. She's comfortable pushing a twin-engine F/A 18 Hornet fighter jet through the sound barrier and up to Mach 1.7, which she said is actually a bit less dramatic than it sounds.

 

"You feel nothing; you can't even tell," she said, other than by than watching a digital display of the jet's airspeed.

 

The sonic boom, caused by a compression wave from breaking the speed of sound, may resemble an explosion on the ground, but the jet compensates for the change in aerodynamics, Mann said.

 

It's still pretty cool when you look down and see 1.0 (on the display)," she said.

 

As a test pilot, Mann's job is to push an F/A 18 outfitted with new equipment or weapons as low and slow and as high and fast as it will go.

 

"You fly it at the edge of the envelope," she said.

 

Mann said she jumped at the chance to apply for the astronaut program in January 2012 — even though it meant ignoring her mother's wishes.

 

It was the summer of 1998, after her junior year at the Naval Academy, that Mann flew in the back seat of an F/A 18 — having never been aloft in anything but a commercial airliner — and decided it was her idea of a sweet ride.

 

"It's an incredibly powerful machine," she said. "Like being on a rollercoaster that you design as you go."

 

Her mother, Vicki Aunapu of Penngrove, swallowed the news with a fateful comment. "OK, just don't be an astronaut," she said.

 

While Mann was earning a master's degree in mechanical engineering at Stanford, she gave her mother an update, noting she was "right on track for an astronaut."

 

And last week when she broke the news to her mother that she was following in the footsteps of John Glenn, Neil Armstrong and Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, the old reservation was history.

 

"We laughed about it," Mann said.

 

"I just couldn't stop screaming on the phone," Aunapu said, overjoyed by the prospect of her daughter hurtling through space.

 

"We couldn't be more proud," Aunapu said.

 

Mann also mentioned one of the reasons she opted for Marine aviation. "I really wanted to fly off an aircraft carrier," she said without a trace of bravado in her voice.

 

A carrier landing — in which a 34,000-pound aircraft coming in at 175 mph must touch down and stop on an 800-foot runway that is 60 feet off the water — is among the most difficult maneuvers in military aviation, especially at night.

 

"Before you is a sea of darkness and a few tiny lights guiding your approach," Mann said. "It is terrifying and thrilling at the same time."

 

During combat tours in 2006 and 2007, Mann landed 147 times on the USS Enterprise in the Persian Gulf. She applied for test pilot school because it made use of both her engineering background and flight experience.

 

As an astronaut candidate — an "ascan" in NASA lingo — Mann is part of a pretty exclusive club. Including the first astronaut class selected in 1959, 50,758 people have applied for the position and only 338, fewer than 1 percent, have been accepted.

 

More than 6,300 people applied for this year's class, and eight made the grade.

 

Howard Aunapu said he wasn't surprised by his daughter's latest success. She went to Stanford on an academic scholarship, was among the first Marine combat pilots and was first in her class at test pilot school.

 

"She had what they were looking for, that's for sure," he said.

 

In her youth, Mann played sports and rode bikes with the neighborhood kids in Rohnert Park. She and her older sister, Kirsten, had "every Barbie doll you could imagine" and also did their hair and put on makeup.

 

At school, Mann said she favored math and science over "English and poetry." The family moved from Rohnert Park to Penngrove when she was in elementary school.

 

She started playing youth soccer in Rohnert Park, was a prep star at Rancho Cotate and as captain of the Navy soccer team became one of the most decorated women's soccer players in Patriot League history.

 

Julie Wilson Klingaman, a friend of Mann's since their days with adjacent lockers at Rohnert Park Junior High, said she knew Mann was destined for achievement.

 

"She was always a go-getter," Klingaman said. "I could tell she would make something of herself," thinking of her friend as a future doctor, lawyer or scientist.

 

"I never would have guessed an astronaut," she said.

 

Energetic, intelligent and well-liked, Mann got A's in school and "knew how to have fun, too," Klingaman said, calling Mann "an all-American girl."

 

But she also was humble, never bragging about success, Klingaman said.

 

Barbara Vrankovich, a retired Cotati-Rohnert Park School District principal and administrator, recalled Mann as an "outstanding student and tremendous athlete."

 

"An all-around nice kid," she said.

 

Modesty was always her daughter's style, Vicki Aunapu said, describing her approach as "I do what I do. That's me."

 

Mann's latest distinction is joining three other women in the first astronaut class with an equal number of both genders. Overall, 52 of America's 338 astronauts, including the new class, are women.

 

Women were barred from the fledgling astronaut program by President Dwight Eisenhower's policy in 1958 that required them to qualify as military test pilots at a time when there were no women military pilots of any kind.

 

According to NASA's website, a "hardy group of American women pilots" passed the same medical tests as the original group of astronauts, known as the Mercury 7, selected in 1959.

 

In the mid-60s, the first scientist astronauts were selected, and in 1978, the eighth group — including pilots and mission specialists — included Sally Ride and five other women.

 

Ride, who died last year, was the first woman into space aboard the shuttle Challenger 30 years ago this week, and 42 other American women have followed her into space, including Ellen Ochoa from La Mesa, now director of the Johnson Space Center.

 

Eileen Collins, an Air Force test pilot selected in the same class as Ochoa in 1990, was the first female astronaut pilot and space shuttle commander.

 

Rusty Schweickart, a former astronaut who lives in Sonoma, said that women's presence is the major change in the space program since he joined NASA in the third astronaut class, selected in 1963.

 

The job is "largely the same" as it was 50 years ago, as are the people who apply for it, he said. "They're adventurous types, explorers."

 

One difference, Schweickart said, is that the space station — where today's astronauts serve — is time-tested with nearly 83,000 Earth orbits. The Apollo astronauts of the 1960s "were going up in vehicles that hadn't flown before and doing things that hadn't been done before."

 

But with the advances in education, Schweickart acknowledged that Mann and her contemporaries are "probably a bit smarter than we were; that wouldn't surprise me."

 

Mann will carry an added complication heading into the astronaut training program that starts Aug. 12. She'll temporarily be a single mom.

 

Mann and her husband, Travis Mann, 40, a Navy lieutenant commander and also an F/A 18 pilot, met in flight school in 2002, eventually started dating and married in 2009. Their son, Jackson, is 16 months old.

 

Nicole Mann said they fly jets by day and then "come home and enjoy our evening and play with Jack."

 

To make the transition from her tightly structured life in uniform to her role as a wife and mother, Mann said she falls back on her training.

 

"The military does a good job of teaching you to compartmentalize," she said.

 

It's just like learning, as a school girl, to separate her time studying from her time playing with the neighborhood kids in the cul de sac at her Rohnert Park home, she said.

 

As Nicole Mann heads for Houston, Travis Mann is bound for a yearlong deployment to Bahrain. Nicole's parents will keep Jackson while she manages the move, then her mother will help her settle into an apartment in Houston.

 

Mann took four months off from flying after having her baby. Motherhood, she said, is a bigger thrill than breaking the sound barrier in a jet.

 

"It's the most amazing, incredible experience ever."

 

NASA Astronaut turned Texas Tech student greets area teachers

 

KCBD TV (Lubbock)

 

NASA Astronaut Joe Acaba, who currently is a distance learning graduate student at Texas Tech University, spoke with area middle school math and science teachers today (June 24) at the Fourth Annual (MS)2 Conference at the International Cultural Center.

 

Acaba, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps and taught five years of high school and middle school math and science, was selected as a mission specialist by NASA in 2004 along with several other teachers.

 

He currently is a distance learning student in the College of Education at Texas Tech University, and his talk today involved engaging with teachers and providing them with topics and resources for the classroom.

 

"I always stress the importance of math and science," Acaba said. "Even though we don't necessarily use math in our daily lives as astronauts, we totally rely on the tools built by the NASA engineers. It has to be foolproof."

 

In February 2006, Acaba completed astronaut candidate training that included scientific and technical briefings, intensive instruction in shuttle and International Space Station systems, physiological training, T-38 flight training and water and wilderness survival training.

 

Upon completion, Acaba was assigned to the Hardware Integration Team in the Space Station Branch, working technical issues with the European Space Agency hardware. He was also a member of the Space Shuttle Branch, supporting shuttle launch and landing preparations at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

 

Acaba was on the STS-119 Discovery in March 2009, which was the 125th shuttle flight. The primary objective of the flight was to deliver the final pair of power-generating solar array wings and truss element to the International Space Station.

 

In May 2012, Acaba embarked on Expedition 31/32 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, which lasted until September 2012. During the course of this visit to the International Space Station, he participated in numerous scientific research experiments and performed regular maintenance and operational tasks aboard the orbiting complex.

 

Although Acaba has visited the Texas Tech campus before, this is his first visit in a professional setting.

 

"The campus is just beautiful; I'm so impressed with the faculty and students here," Acaba said. "We work with many engineers that are Texas Tech alumni, and they just love this place."

 

NASA encourages their astronauts to make speaking appointments often, and Acaba said he chooses the educational opportunities so he can share his background as an educator and the challenge of becoming an astronaut.

 

NASA taps long-time employee to be new CIO

 

Jason Miller - Federal News Radio

 

NASA tapped a long-time employee from the field to become its new chief information officer.

 

Government sources confirmed that Larry Sweet is moving to NASA headquarters from the Johnson Space Center.

 

Sweet replaces Linda Cureton, who retired in April. Richard Keegan, the associate deputy administrator, has been the acting CIO since Cureton retired.

 

According to Sweet's Linked-In page, he's been at NASA Johnson Space Center for 26 years.

 

At Johnson Space Center, Sweet oversaw the Information Resources Directorate where he managed the policies, processes, requirements and standards around technology.

 

Cureton praised the choice.

 

"I think it's absolutely wonderful. Larry is a strategist and understands the culture of the agency as a center CIO," said Cureton, who now is president of Muse Technologies. "He will likely focus on increasing collaboration among the centers. In addition, he will be tough on instilling accountability and performance excellence in the contractor community. Enterprise services will be his high priority."

 

Sweet comes to NASA headquarters at a time when the space agency is going through a dramatic technology transformation under the IT Infrastructure Integration Program (I3P) contracts, which are worth more than $4 billion combined.

 

It also is facing continued scrutiny of its cybersecurity program. Most recently, Rep. Frank Wolfe (R-Va.), said the FBI is investigating allegations that NASA Langley Research Center employees had authorized the hiring of a contractor employee connected with an organization within China that federal agencies already had red- flagged as a potential national security threat. Federal authorities arrested the contractor, Bo Jiang, March 19, as he tried to board a flight and leave the country.

 

Redirecting an asteroid mission

 

Jeff Foust - The Space Review (Opinion)

 

(Foust is editor and publisher of The Space Review. He also operates the Spacetoday.net web site and the Space Politics and NewSpace Journal weblogs.)

 

When NASA released its fiscal year 2014 budget proposal two and a half months ago, a key element of it was a new "asteroid initiative" that called for $105 million for various asteroid search and technology development efforts. The centerpiece of that plan was a robotic mission to capture a small near Earth asteroid, no more than about ten meters across, and move it into cislunar space, where it could potentially be visited by astronauts on the first crewed Orion mission, slated for 2021.

 

That proposed mission—called at the time the Asteroid Retrieval Mission, or ARM—raised more than a few eyebrows when NASA announced it in April. Some questioned the technical feasibility of the concept (which is based on a 2012 study by the Keck Institute for Space Studies at Caltech) while others wondered how useful it would be for science or human exploration. Now, with some members of Congress making moves to block the effort, NASA is showing signs of subtly shifting the focus of the proposed mission, and the overall initiative, more towards the less controversial role planetary defense.

 

An asteroid Grand Challenge

 

On June 18, NASA held a half-day "industry and partner day" about its asteroid initiative, with an audience of industry officials and other interested people filling the auditorium at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The expectation from the meeting was that NASA would provide more information about its plans for the initiative, particularly the ARM, and the role the private sector and others could play in supporting it.

 

However, NASA offered a somewhat different emphasis at the meeting. NASA used the event to unveil a "Grand Challenge" related to near Earth asteroids and planetary defense. The language of the challenge, at least, is simple enough: "Find all asteroid threats to human populations and know what to do about them."

 

The Grand Challenge is linked to a White House initiative of the same name, which the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) defines as "ambitious goals on a national or global scale that capture the imagination and demand advances in innovation and breakthroughs in science and technology." Other such challenges announced by various agencies include one to make solar power cost-competitive with coal power, and one to increase access to health care for pregnant women and newborns by 50 percent.

 

"If you look at new knowledge and scientific discovery, asteroids are one of those unique, really current activities" enabled by technological advances, NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver said at the forum. "This is truly a science that is in its renaissance."

 

"This effort is also important because it demonstrates a willingness to tackle a problem that is long term in nature," said Tom Kalil, deputy director for technology and innovation at OSTP. (Officials emphasized this new challenge was not driven by any particular threat posed by a near Earth object, or NEO.) "In a society that is often dominated by the 24-hour news cycle or the quarterly earnings report or getting ready for the next election or responding the next tweet, it's very important that we have an increased capacity to work on long-term problems."

 

What exactly will be involved in this new Grand Challenge wasn't immediately clear from the forum, other than a willingness by NASA to consider new and non-traditional partnerships to support the search for and analysis of NEOs. Jason Kessler, program executive for the Grand Challenge in NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist, suggested roles for new partners in the analysis of lightcurves (the changes in brightness of asteroids as a function of time as they rotate), development of shape models of asteroids from such observations, and even development of new space-based observational capabilities.

 

"Are there ways that we can creatively bring people in to help with this problem?" Kessler asked, citing examples of "citizen science" in other fields, like GalaxyZoo, where people help catalog galaxies, as ways to get more people involved in the analysis of NEO data. His charts showed an interest in involving a wide range of audiences, from the conventional scientific community to amateur astronomers, entrepreneurs, and technological hobbyists known as "makers," in this effort.

 

To that end, NASA announced at the forum that it was releasing a request for information (RFI) to solicit ideas for the Grand Challenge and the broader asteroid initiative. The RFI, whose deadline is July 18, is open to just about anyone, with topics ranging from asteroid searches to technologies needed for future missions. "We expect to hopefully get some good ideas and guidance back on effective ways to move forward," Kessler said, adding that NASA was also planning to hold "digital brainstorming" sessions later this summer and a workshop in the fall to help develop an implementation plan.

 

The RFI also solicits ideas for carrying out the asteroid mission itself, including technologies needed to capture and move an asteroid as well as for a human mission to it. NASA officials at the forum didn't offer many new details about the mission concept in these early phases. NASA associate administrator Robert Lightfoot said an internal mission formulation review is planned for the end of July, followed by a more detailed mission concept review around the first of the year.

 

There were signs last week, though, of a shift of the asteroid mission concept more towards planetary defense. NASA has subtly changed the acronym ARM from the Asteroid Retrieval Mission to the Asteroid Redirect Mission. NASA associate administrator for human exploration and operations Bill Gerstenmaier said the use of "redirect" in the mission concept is deliberate, since they're interested in objects that already would pass close to the Earth. "We take advantage of the fact that it's already coming back so we don't have to change the velocity in that direction," he said. "All we need to do is essentially redirect it" into a lunar orbit, taking advantage of the Moon's gravity. Left unstated was that redirection would also be useful if an object is passing too close to the Earth.

 

Gerstenmaier also revealed that NASA was looking at alternatives to the initial concept of retrieving (or redirecting, if you prefer) a NEO 7–10 meters across. In one alternative, he said, the robotic spacecraft would go to a larger asteroid, 100 meters across or larger, and "push" on it to change its velocity by millimeters per second. "That small velocity, applied early enough, could be the velocity that deflects this object away from the Earth," he said, demonstrating this concept for planetary defense. The spacecraft could then capture a small boulder, 1 to 10 meters across, off the surface of the asteroid and move it back to cislunar space.

 

Congressional opposition to the asteroid initiative

 

The NASA briefing took place a day before the space subcommittee of the House Science Committee held a hearing on a "discussion draft" of a proposed NASA authorization bill yet to be formally introduced. That draft, though, indicated that at least some in Congress remain unconvinced of the initiative's merit.

 

"Consistent with the policy stated in section 201(b), the Administrator shall not fund the development of an asteroid retrieval mission to send a robotic spacecraft to a near-Earth asteroid for rendezvous, retrieval, and redirection of that asteroid to lunar orbit for exploration by astronauts," a provision of the draft bill states. The section cited in that excerpt states that "the development of capabilities and technologies necessary for human missions to lunar orbit, the surface of the Moon, the surface of Mars, and beyond shall be the goals of the Administration's human space flight program."

 

"While the committee support the administration's efforts to study near Earth objects, this proposal lacks in details, a justification, or support from NASA's own advisory bodies," Rep. Steven Palazzo (R-MS), chairman of the space subcommittee, in his statement opening the hearing. "Because the mission appears to be a costly and complex distraction, this bill prohibits NASA from doing any work on the project, and we will work with appropriators to ensure the agency complies with the directive."

 

The hearing's two witnesses also showed little support for the mission. "I have a great worry about what I believe to be a declining trajectory for NASA and the civil space program," said former Lockheed Martin executive Tom Young, blaming it on "diffuse" leadership that lacks technical expertise. "As an example of what results from diffuse leadership, with too much authority in the wrong places, is the proposed asteroid retrieval mission. This is a mission that is not worthy of a world-class space program."

 

"Personally, I agree with the draft authorization act's position on the asteroid retrieval mission and I disagree with its position on a sustained lunar presence," said Cornell University planetary scientist Steve Squyres, who is also chairman of the NASA Advisory Council, referring to another provision in the bill that mandates a program for "a sustained human presence on the Moon and the surface of Mars." He disagreed, though, with the bill's approach. "I believe that it would be unwise for Congress to either prescribe or proscribe any key milestones in NASA's Mars exploration roadmap at this time," he argued, suggesting that NASA, with oversight from Congress and advisory bodies, is better suited to determine what those milestones should be.

 

"I personally don't see a strong connection between the proposed asteroid retrieval mission and sending humans to Mars," Squyres said later in the hearing, when asked by a subcommittee member to explain his skepticism about the mission. "But, I believe that NASA should at least be given the opportunity to try and make that case. I haven't heard it yet."

 

The language in the draft bill may not be relevant for a couple of reasons, though. First, strictly speaking, there is no asteroid retrieval mission in the proposed 2014 budget. Rather than a single line item, the $105 million for the asteroid initiative is spread out across three mission directorates within NASA, focused on specific programs and technologies—increased funding for NEO searches and development of solar electric propulsion technology, for example—that can apply to an asteroid mission but also other science and exploration applications.

 

Second, Wednesday's hearing made clear there was opposition to the draft NASA authorization bill for reasons beyond the asteroid mission language. At the hearing, key Democratic members spoke out against the bill's overall authorized spending level for NASA—$16.865 billion for 2014 and the same for 2015—as well as proposed steep cuts in Earth sciences programs.

 

"This is not a bill ready for markup. This is a flawed draft, starting from its funding assumptions, and I cannot support it in its present form," said Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), ranking member of the full House Science Committee. "I also predict that, if passed by the committee, this bill would be DOA in the Senate."

 

Even one Republican subcommittee member, Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama, spoke out at the hearing about language that he felt underfunded the Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket, authorizing $1.45 billion for the program when he felt it needed at least $1.8 billion. "Unless I receive differing expertise that satisfies me that our words in support of human spaceflight match our actions and deeds," he said, "I will have no choice but to vote against and otherwise oppose this authorization act."

 

As Johnson predicted, a key senator also expressed concerns about the proposed 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," said Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), chairman of the space subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee, at a Space Transportation Association luncheon Wednesday, referring to the overall authorized funding for NASA in the House bill.

 

Nelson said the Senate would come up with its own draft of an authorization bill no later than mid-July, one that would support what he called a "balanced program" of government and commercial human spaceflight as well as science. He did not speak out specifically about the asteroid initiative, but has previously expressed support for the program, making it unlikely language blocking it would make it into the Senate version.

 

NASA deputy administrator Garver, at Tuesday's forum, stated several times that the concept had "bipartisan support," but acknowledged that the agency had work to do to sell it to skeptical members of Congress. Asked about the language in the draft bill, she said there was "a lack of the recognition yet of the importance and value of this mission" among members. "We obviously have not completed our work" in defining the mission and aligning it to key goals, like planetary defense, she said. "I think we really truly are going to be able to show the value of the mission."

 

The $105-million question, though, is, as NASA's thinking about the asteroid initiative evolves, and ideas requested by its RFI pour in, exactly what value does the overall program, and the proposed redirection mission, offer to NASA and the nation in terms of science, technology development, and human exploration?

 

END

 

More detailed space news can be found at:

 

http://spacetoday.net/

http://www.bulletinnews.com/nasa/

 

-KjH

Kyle Herring

NASA Public Affairs

"Well I'm just a lonely acrobat, the live wire is my trade"

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