Friday, June 28, 2013

Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - June 28, 2013 and JSC Today



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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: June 28, 2013 6:47:25 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - June 28, 2013 and JSC Today

Happy Friday everyone.   It was great to see some of you yesterday at Milt Heflin's retirement celebration at the Gilruth.   Have a safe and great weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Headlines

  1. JSC Tech Briefs Webinar Recording Featuring R2

If you missed the June 20 live webinar presentation with Dr. Ron Diftler, Robonaut project lead, and astronaut Dave Leestma, JSC Technology Transfer and Commercialization Office (TTO) manager, you still have a chance to view the recorded presentation by clicking on the link below. The JSC TTO partnered with NASA Tech Briefs to host this webinar where the Robonaut 2 (R2) system, R2 commercial applications and innovative work done at this center were discussed.

View the recording of the presentation.

Sonia Hernandez-Moya x31752 http://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/techtransfer/technology/robonaut2_li...

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   Organizations/Social

  1. Tomorrow: SWE-TSC Brunch & Learn - CPAS

Join us tomorrow for a brunch and learn with Capsule Parachute Assembly System (CPAS) Analysis team members Leah M. Romero and Kristin Bledsoe! The CPAS for the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle "Orion" spacecraft is engaged in a multi-year design and test campaign to qualify a parachute recovery system for human use on Orion. Test and simulation techniques have evolved concurrently to keep up with the demands of a complex system.

Event Date: Saturday, June 29, 2013   Event Start Time:10:00 AM   Event End Time:12:00 PM
Event Location: La Brisa 501 N. Wesley League City, TX 77573

Add to Calendar

Irene Chan x41378

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  1. The JSC Safety and Health Action Team (JSAT) Says

"Ever safe, never sorry." Congratulations to July 2013 "JSAT Says ..." winner Charles Beckworth, ITAMS/DB Consulting Group. Any JSAT member (all JSC contractor and civil servant employees) may submit a slogan for consideration to JSAT Secretary Reese Squires. Submissions for August are due by Friday, July 12. Keep those great submissions coming - you may be the next "JSAT Says ..." winner!

Reese Squires x37776 http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/ja/apps/news/newsfiles/3280.pptx

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  1. Who is Always Safe, Not Sorry?

Bill Bowers, Boeing, has proven he is consistently Safe, Not Sorry (SNS). He received an SNS pin for always watching out for potential hazards. He has helped identify numerous close calls, such as stairwell doorway issues, slippery stairs and impractical parking areas that could cause blind spots. He not only brings risky practices to the attention of the person doing it, but he has readily assisted others when their unsafe actions, such as not holding onto hand rails, has almost resulted in a fall. Boeing employees consider Bowers an asset to the safety of their team.

To obtain SNS pins for your area, call the Safety Office at x45078.

Rindy Carmichael x45078

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   Community

  1. JSC Feed Families Weekly Theme: School Supplies

July 2 through 5: Did you know that the food pantry also gives out school supplies? Think about it for a minute, as it only makes sense that those in need of food are also the ones that need help with school supplies. Let's get a jump on school and provide them with backpacks, notebooks, paper, pens, pencils, crayons, tissue paper or anything else you can think of that is needed for school. Look for the collection boxes in your building or in the cafés and drop off your donation.

Brad Stewart or Bridget Montgomery x30356 or x32335

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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.

 

 

 

 

 

Human Spaceflight News

Friday, June 28, 2013

 

ATLANTIS ON DISPLAY: Official grand opening of this 900,000 sq ft facility at KSC is Saturday

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

Houston company aims to build 'hotel for experiments' on Space Station

 

Molly Ryan - Houston Business Journal

 

NanoRacks LLC has big plans for the future of commercial space research. The Houston-based company just closed a $2.6 million Series A funding round led by E-Merge, a Belgium-based venture capital fund. With access to the new funds, NanoRacks not only plans to increase its services, but also up its staff number. The company, which was formed in 2009, has a Space Act Agreement with NASA in which it can send projects and experiments from other companies and organizations to be tested aboard the International Space Station.

 

NASA's Orion mission on course for manned launches in 2021

 

WFTV TV (Orlando)

 

The Orion mission, and other manned flights, are close to lifting off into deep space. The Orion crew module will take U.S. astronauts farther into space than ever before. Orion passed a critical pressure test that mimicked the stresses of space flight in June. Thursday, program managers told Channel 9 there's still work to do to reach another major milestone.

 

NASA tests fit of Orion adapter ring and ULA Delta IV rocket in Huntsville

 

Lee Roop - Huntsville Times

 

It looked like a good fit Wednesday as technicians lowered an aluminum adapter ring onto the top of a United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket at Marshall Space Flight Center. That means NASA stays on track to launch an Orion crew capsule into space in September 2014 atop a Delta IV for critical tests on the way to returning crews to deep space. Because their diameters are different, Marshall center is making aluminum adapter rings to mate the Orion to both the Delta IV and eventually to the Space Launch System booster itself. The ring tested Wednesday weighs almost 1,000 pounds and is attached to a ring around the top of the rocket by 360 hand-torqued screws.

 

CCiCAP: Capsule Countdown

 

Rupa Haria - Aviation Week

 

In the July 1 edition of Aviation Week & Space Technology, Guy Norris reports on the mounting pressure the budget squeeze has added to commercial crew tests. With Boeing and Space X both competing for NASA's Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCAP), the race is heating up. Meanwhile, the Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser engineering test article (ETA), which was awarded $212.5 million as part of the CCiCAP program, recently began tow tests at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB, California. The vehicle, which will conduct glide tests later this summer after being dropped from a hovering helicopter, began the buildup to flight tests with a series of very low speed tow runs to check the wear of its nose skid on the paved taxiways at Dryden.

 

Former shuttle runway to launch 'space plane'

 

Mark Matthews - Orlando Sentinel

 

new breed of vacationers — space tourists — could launch from Central Florida as early as 2015 thanks to a new agreement that would put Florida officials in charge of the 3-mile runway at Kennedy Space Center that once was used by the space shuttle. The preliminary deal, to be announced at KSC on Friday by NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, would give Space Florida control of one of the largest landing strips in the world and one that's enshrined in space history: Nearly 80 shuttle crews landed there before NASA ended the 30-year program in 2011.

 

Overprotection may be hampering hunt for Mars life

 

Lisa Grossman - New Scientist

 

There are aliens on Mars – and they came from Earth. That's the reasoning behind a controversial new push to relax the current planetary protection rules, a set of sterilization procedures that every Mars-bound spacecraft must undergo to avoid contaminating the Red Planet with terrestrial microbes. Since 1967, the restrictive rules have made missions that would probe for life on Mars costly and inefficient, a pair of Mars scientists argues. What's more, no sterilization system is perfect, and so chances are we have already contaminated Mars with trace amounts of earthly microbes carried by our rovers and landers. Instead, governments could be sending rovers that dig deeper and try more complex experiments, or they could save the money spent on protection efforts to fund a more diverse array of spacecraft.

 

The final frontier: what a 50 years it's been for women in space

I was born into a world before women astronauts, but I was very fortunate to have been at the right place and time to go to space

 

Pamela Melroy - The UK Guardian (Opinion)

 

(Melroy is a former astronaut)

 

Last week the world celebrated the 50th anniversary of the first woman in space, Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova. In addition, 30 years ago Sally Ride became the first American woman in space. If you're keeping track, a year ago, Liu Yang became the first Chinese woman in space. These anniversaries have evoked many reflections on female space explorers. I am one of the 57 women who have flown in space. It's interesting to note that all but nine were on the space shuttle. I believe one of the great achievements of the space shuttle was increasing the diversity of human experience in space. The large capacity (seven seats) of the shuttle threw open the door to people with a much broader variety of technical backgrounds, not just military test pilots. I'm proud to say that 75% of the women who have flown in space were Americans. It may have taken the US two decades to catch up to Tereshkova, but once the door was open, it stayed open and steadily widened. As one of the few women mission commanders, I am often asked about the significance of women in space. I think we're ready to stop counting the number of women in space and ask the real question, which is about the significance of humans in space.

 

OIL & GAS, MEET NASA S&MA

 

NASA offers oil industry better risk management strategies

 

Emily Pickrell - Houston Chronicle

 

The oil industry may have its chance to influence space safety, thanks to an agreement signed Thursday afternoon between NASA and Deloitte. The space agency had a signing ceremony with Deloitte for a strategic partnership that will offer advanced risk-management services to oil and gas companies. NASA and Deloitte plan to offer a range of risk-management capabilities to oil and gas companies, based on their collaborative experience. The partnership will focus on how to prevent risk scenarios that have a low probability of occurring but devastating consequences, such as the Deepwater Horizon accident or the Challenger explosion. Specific risk management areas that the partnership will offer to potential clients include ways of accurately predicting increased risk, preventing the deterioration of a risk-aware culture, modeling potential risks in various scenarios and staying abreast of emerging trends in risk management.

 

NASA Drafted to Help Oil Industry Reduce 'Black Swan' Type Risk

 

David Wethe - Bloomberg News

 

Deloitte LLP and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced a joint partnership to help oil and natural gas companies reduce the risk of so-called black swan disasters such as BP Plc's Macondo spill. Exploration in the oilfield and in outer space share similar risks, including harsh environments, remote operations, complex engineering and a heavy reliance on contractors, David Traylor, principal at Deloitte, said today in a signing ceremony at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

 

NASA, Deloitte offer Space Age risk management services to oil, gas industry

 

Starr Spencer - Platts Commodity News

 

US space agency NASA and global consultant Deloitte inked a strategic partnership Thursday to offer advanced risk-management services to oil and gas companies whose aim is averting potentially catastrophic accidents. At a time when industry has placed increasing emphasis on safety and prevention of system and equipment failures, the partnership, which has been in the works since October, aims to offer Deloitte clients modeling, analysis and simulation. One large focus is identifying processes or systems that are low risk per se, but which could have a large impact down the road. The services are based on sophisticated models developed by NASA, Deloitte principal David Traylor said at a press conference at Johnson Space Center.

 

Nasa, Deloitte target oil & gas risk

 

Kathrine Schmidt - Upstream (International oil & gas newspaper)

 

Nasa and Deloitte are teaming up to foster collaboration on risk management and safety between the oil and gas industry and the US space agency, officials and executives said Thursday in a kickoff event. Specifically, both industries have knowledge to share in preventing so-called "black swan" events, essentially low-probability but catastrophic occurrences that can set the industry back years, the partners said at a signing ceremony and news conference held at Houston's Johnson Space Centre. Both industries work in harsh conditions and remote environments, deal with complex engineered systems, possess a culturally diverse workforce and rely heavily on contractors, said David Traylor, a principal at Deloitte's risk strategy division, which wanted to expand its services to oil and gas industry.

 

Deloitte and NASA bring space-age risk management to oil and gas industry

 

Jeffrey Newpher - Bay Area Citizen (Houston Community Newspapers)

 

In a move designed to bring advanced risk-management capabilities to America's energy industry, the Deloitte Center for Energy Solutions and the NASA Johnson Space Center have entered into a strategic alliance to offer services to oil and gas companies. These services, which include several operational risk-management offerings, are aimed at companies looking to minimize the risk of catastrophic failures – the kinds of dramatic mishaps that, while highly unlikely, can occur in remote and harsh environments. "Activities like deep-water drilling, undersea production and pipeline operations all face the same kind of 'black swan' events that pose a threat to space exploration," said David Traylor, a principal at Deloitte & Touche LLP.

 

NASA offers oil industry better risk management strategies

 

Emily Pickrell – for FuelFix.com (in Offshore, Safety/Security)

 

After one small ceremony Thursday, NASA and Deloitte hope to make a giant leap in improving oil field safety. The space agency and the consulting firm signed off on a partnership to provide advanced risk-management services to oil and gas companies. It will focus on preventing risk scenarios that have a low probability of occurring but devastating consequences, such as the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil well disaster or the in-flight destruction of the space shuttles Challenger and Columbia. Specific risk management areas that the partnership will offer potential clients include predicting risk, maintaining a risk-aware culture, modeling risk scenarios and staying abreast of emerging trends in risk management.

 

SPACE SHUTTLE ATLANTIS EXHIBIT GRAND OPENING

 

Space shuttle Atlantis 'go' for public viewing

 

Marcia Dunn - Associated Press

 

The last space shuttle to soar makes its museum debut this weekend, and it's the belle of NASA's retirement ball. The Atlantis exhibit opens to the public Saturday at Kennedy Space Center, the centerpiece of a $100 million attraction dedicated to the entire 30-year shuttle program. For the first time ever, ordinary Earthlings get to see a space shuttle in a pose previously beheld only by a select few astronauts. Tilted at a deliberate angle of 43.21 degrees — as in 4-3-2-1, liftoff — Atlantis is raised in feigned flight with its payload bay doors wide open and a replicated robot arm outstretched.

 

New shuttle Atlantis exhibit gives close-up look at space flight

 

Irene Klotz - Reuters

 

In deciding how to exhibit the space shuttle Atlantis, which goes on display next week, the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida opted for a perspective that would allow the public a rare view. "One of the ideas that developed very early was to show the orbiter as only astronauts had seen it - in space," said Bill Moore, chief operating officer with Delaware North Companies Parks and Resorts, which operates the visitors center for NASA at Cape Canaveral. The developers of the exhibit raised the 150,000-pound (68,000-kg) spaceship 30 feet into the air and tilted it 43 degrees over on its left side, simulating the vehicle in flight.

 

Getting up close and personal with Space Shuttle Atlantis

 

Dewayne Bevil - Orlando Sentinel

 

Atlantis is ready for its close-up. The orbiter that made the final flight of NASA's shuttle program now is in a new $100-million home created for it at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. The 90,000-square foot attraction — called Space Shuttle Atlantis — opens Saturday. Folks literally come nose-to-nose with the shuttle in dramatic fashion. It's so close you can almost touch it. And it's tilted at a 43-degree angle so guests can see it from multiple viewpoints — including looking down into its cargo bays and looking up at its underbelly, complete with scorched tiles. The attraction spotlights the ship in the condition it landed on Earth after its last mission in July 2011.

 

Space Shuttle Atlantis attraction is green for launch

Financial stakes of the long-awaited Atlantis exhibit are huge for Brevard's tourism industry, KSC Visitor Complex

 

Wayne Price - Florida Today

 

The space shuttle Atlantis flew 126 million miles on 33 missions in its illustrious career before NASA retired the fleet nearly two years ago. While Atlantis' new job is not as dangerous as roaring into space strapped to a humongous fuel tank and two booster rockets, its retirement mission is not going to be free of challenges. The famed shuttle, the country's last to fly, is charged with attracting tens of thousands of new guests to Kennedy Space Center's Visitor Complex and sharing in — if not siphoning off — a bigger portion of the time and money spent by millions of tourists flowing into Central Florida theme parks and other attractions. The stakes are huge — for Brevard County, for Florida and for the private company that operates the growing KSC tourist complex.

 

Shuttle display a national treasure

Atlantis stands ready for a mission it was never designed for, leaning in for close views like 'a wild animal in its native habitat'

 

Stacey Barchenger - Florida Today

 

True to life, down to the hundredth-degree. That's just the way they wanted it, the engineers and designers and builders who put a national treasure — space shuttle Atlantis — into its new home at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Don't call it a retirement home. "We say this is her next mission," said Tim Macy, the director of project development and construction, who headed the project for Delaware North Companies Parks and Resorts. "She's in full mission right now, and the mission is to tell the story. Not only about the fact that it's an incredible piece of machinery — 2.5 million handmade parts — and the people that were involved . . . but her mission is also to inspire the next generation to continue on with future exploration of space."

 

Shuttle Atlantis exhibit grand opening is Saturday at KSC Visitor Complex

 

Jennifer Sangalang - Florida Today

 

For more than 30 years, watching the bright flame of a space shuttle rocketing toward space until it was no more than a blip in the sky was one of the joys of living in Brevard. Starting Saturday, you can get an up-close and personal view of space shuttle Atlantis at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in a setting that shows off just how magnificent that blip really is. The newest attraction at KSC, joining its already popular Shuttle Launch Experience and Angry Birds Space Encounter, opens with great fanfare. Friday, as part of the VIP experience, there will be refreshments and music with guest speakers. The same goes for Saturday morning. Close to 50 astronauts are on the guest list with at least one from each of Atlantis' 33 missions. Apollo astronauts also are expected to attend.

 

Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit draws cheers and tears

 

Allison Walker - Central Florida News 13

 

When was the last time you went to an attraction or theme park and cried? OK, you may have been 6 and got spooked by Disney's Haunted Mansion. Or, you welled up inside the American Adventure show, "We, The People" (it is just me?) When a real-life astronaut wipes away a tear next to you, it only exaggerates the attraction's 'wow' moment. And that moment happens inside the brand new "Space Shuttle Atlantis" attraction inside the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

 

Space Shuttle Atlantis Exhibit Set to Launch This Week

 

Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com

 

There is a moment in the new Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex when a fantasy becomes reality and the experience is nothing short of magical. Unlike the theme parks in nearby Orlando, Fla., the attraction here is not the make believe, but the recognition that what you are looking at is in fact real. "Space Shuttle Atlantis," which debuts on Saturday, showcases the retired winged spacecraft as part of a $100 million exhibit that has been more than a year in the making. It succeeds in bringing the public nose-to-nose — and nose-to-wing and nose-to-tail — with Atlantis in a way that is unique to every other museum display of a shuttle orbiter.

 

Shuttle Atlantis hoisted upon the shoulders of America

 

Charles Atkeison - The Examiner

 

Nearly two years following her final space flight, she now takes center ring of a new $100 million facility for admirers to view up close. Nestled inside the Atlantis Exhibit on America's Space Coast, NASA's fourth space worthy orbiter now rests in a 90,000 square-foot attraction, raised and tilted 43.21 degrees to the floor. The unusual tilt is in countdown fashion, "4, 3, 2, 1 Lift-off", and allows visitors to view her belly as well as look deep inside her payload bay as a 50-foot robotic arm extends outward just as she looked as she soared through space.

 

Did you know? 33 fascinating things about space shuttle Atlantis

 

Todd Halvorson - Florida Today

 

Here are some things you should know about Atlantis, which goes on public display Saturday at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Why 33? Atlantis flew 33 missions…

__________

 

COMPLETE STORIES

 

Houston company aims to build 'hotel for experiments' on Space Station

 

Molly Ryan - Houston Business Journal

 

NanoRacks LLC has big plans for the future of commercial space research.

 

The Houston-based company just closed a $2.6 million Series A funding round led by E-Merge, a Belgium-based venture capital fund.

 

With access to the new funds, NanoRacks not only plans to increase its services, but also up its staff number.

 

The company, which was formed in 2009, has a Space Act Agreement with NASA in which it can send projects and experiments from other companies and organizations to be tested aboard the International Space Station. Essentially, companies and organizations pay NanoRacks to arrange to send their experiments to space.

 

Currently, NanoRacks has four facilities inside the ISS. However, Chris Cummin, NanoRack's CFO, said that with the new funding, the company hopes to build an external platform on the ISS on which it can conduct experiments.

 

"It will allow customers' experiments to fly up to the space station on any of the visiting vehicles and get exposed to (the station's) exterior environment," Cummin said. "It's like a hotel for experiments — it provides data, power and structural support."

 

Furthermore, NanoRacks plans to increase its staff from eight employees to up to 12 employees to help with the new project.

 

NanoRacks is just one of a number of new businesses looking to commercialize space activity since NASA has faced budget cuts and ended the Space Shuttle Program. In fact, the Houston Business Journal reported in 2011 that NanoRacks planned to benefit from NASA budget cuts since it has the ability to help companies that previously were not able to secure space for experiments on the ISS with NASA.

 

NASA's Orion mission on course for manned launches in 2021

 

WFTV TV (Orlando)

 

The Orion mission, and other manned flights, are close to lifting off into deep space.

 

The Orion crew module will take U.S. astronauts farther into space than ever before.

 

Orion passed a critical pressure test that mimicked the stresses of space flight in June.

 

Thursday, program managers told Channel 9 there's still work to do to reach another major milestone.

 

"We've got it here doing the next level of assembly, which is really putting in all the propulsion tubing, all the things that support the cooling system. Then we'll go on to put our avionics in and the rest of the systems," said Scott Wilson, Orion production operations manager at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

 

If all goes according to plan, the first startup for Orion will be late this summer.

 

"Congress is very interested in flying sooner rather than later, and I think you can tell by the accomplishments we have here, we're very far along," Laurence Price, deputy program manager for the Orion program at Lockheed Martin said.

 

The project is far enough along that the first test flight of the spacecraft is still on target for next year. The first unmanned mission is scheduled for 2017.

 

Orion's first crew should be on board by 2021.

 

"The vehicle is [a] multipurpose crew vehicle designed to do all of these different missions. Asteroid is just one of them. And we're trying to get the science community excited about all the possibilities," Price said.

 

WFTV also got an update on NASA's low-orbit missions and its commercial crew program.

 

NASA hopes its commercial partners will be ready for manned launches by 2021.

 

NASA tests fit of Orion adapter ring and ULA Delta IV rocket in Huntsville

 

Lee Roop - Huntsville Times

 

It looked like a good fit Wednesday as technicians lowered an aluminum adapter ring onto the top of a United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket at Marshall Space Flight Center. That means NASA stays on track to launch an Orion crew capsule into space in September 2014 atop a Delta IV for critical tests on the way to returning crews to deep space.

 

Because their diameters are different, Marshall center is making aluminum adapter rings to mate the Orion to both the Delta IV and eventually to the Space Launch System booster itself. The ring tested Wednesday weighs almost 1,000 pounds and is attached to a ring around the top of the rocket by 360 hand-torqued screws.

 

NASA and aerospace industry executives watched closely as ULA and NASA technicians maneuvered the ring using a giant crane to a position where it could be lowered onto the rocket. Afterward, everyone was feeling good.

 

"Oh, yeah, absolutely," Orion program manager Mark Geyer of Houston's Johnson Space Flight Center said when asked afterward if he feels good about putting his crew capsule on top of the adapter. "I'm sure it's well-built. It's a very important piece. It looks fairly simple but there's a lot that goes into designing a piece like that to handle the loads. It's got a very heavy spacecraft on the top and a very energetic rocket below it, so it's got to interface and make it all work. These guys did a terrific job."

 

The actual flight ring, which was also on display in Marshall's 7-axis welding facility, will be completed after engineers make sure the screw holes align properly on the test ring.

 

NASA will launch an uncrewed Orion in September, 2014 on a flight to test many of its components before the first crewed flight aboard SLS in 2017. The capsule will make two Earth orbits eventually reaching 3,000 miles out in space - the highest a human-rated capsule has flown since Apollo - before re-entering the atmosphere and splashing down in the ocean.

 

CCiCAP: Capsule Countdown

 

Rupa Haria - Aviation Week

 

In the July 1 edition of Aviation Week & Space Technology, Guy Norris reports on the mounting pressure the budget squeeze has added to commercial crew tests. With Boeing and Space X both competing for NASA's Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCAP), the race is heating up. Meanwhile, the Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser engineering test article (ETA), which was awarded $212.5 million as part of the CCiCAP program, recently began tow tests at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB, California.

 

CCiCAP: Capsule Countdown

 

Rupa Haria - Aviation Week

 

In the July 1 edition of Aviation Week & Space Technology, Guy Norris reports on the mounting pressure the budget squeeze has added to commercial crew tests. With Boeing and Space X both competing for NASA's Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCAP), the race is heating up.

 

Meanwhile, the Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser engineering test article (ETA), which was awarded $212.5 million as part of the CCiCAP program, recently began tow tests at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB, California.

 

The vehicle, which will conduct glide tests later this summer after being dropped from a hovering helicopter, began the buildup to flight tests with a series of very low speed tow runs to check the wear of its nose skid on the paved taxiways at Dryden.

 

Sierra Nevada also recently successfully completed tests of the pyrotechnically-actuated flight termination system.

 

During its unveiling at Dryden in late May, the Dream Chaser was presented in company with the original NASA M2-F1 lifting body which first flew at the desert base in 1963.

 

The modified half-cone shaped vehicle was built from plywood and tubular steel by glider designer Gus Briegleb, and towed into the air behind a souped-up Pontiac convertible driven at up to 120 mph across Rogers Dry Lake.

 

With NASA research pilot Milt Thompson at the controls, the flimsy craft later flew to an altitude of 12,000 ft towed behind a U.S. Navy R4D. The M2-F1 was released from the tow and returned to the lakebed at speeds up to 120 mph.

 

The M2-F1 was eventually flown 77 times before being retired and paved the way for a series of increasingly sophisticated vehicles like the M2-F2/F3, HL-10, X-24A and X-24B.

 

The Dream Chaser is evolved from the HL-20, a proposed spaceplane concept from the late 1980s-early 1990s which leveraged both the original U.S. lifting body designs and the Soviet-era BOR-4 vehicle.

 

Former shuttle runway to launch 'space plane'

 

Mark Matthews - Orlando Sentinel

 

new breed of vacationers — space tourists — could launch from Central Florida as early as 2015 thanks to a new agreement that would put Florida officials in charge of the 3-mile runway at Kennedy Space Center that once was used by the space shuttle.

 

The preliminary deal, to be announced at KSC on Friday by NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, would give Space Florida control of one of the largest landing strips in the world and one that's enshrined in space history: Nearly 80 shuttle crews landed there before NASA ended the 30-year program in 2011.

 

Now it looks likely that the shuttle runway will host a new different type of space traveler: tourists and scientists making suborbital trips on new "space planes" that can launch and land from the massive landing strip.

 

A top executive with the California company XCOR Aerospace, a space-plane builder that has expressed interest in the runway for months, said the preliminary agreement makes it all but certain that it would establish a base at the strip for "participant flights" — beginning as soon as 2015.

 

"It's always been our hope to fly from the shuttle-landing facility, and it looks like that's starting to materialize," said Andrew Nelson, chief operating officer of XCOR. A deal to locate at KSC was "99 percent of the way there," he said, with only paperwork remaining.

 

A new XCOR base at KSC could bring as many as 150 jobs by late 2018 — as well as some wealthy tourists. It costs $95,000 for one seat aboard an XCOR space plane, which is designed to blast a pilot and a tourist as high as 330,000 feet for a five-minute stay in the weightless environment of suborbital space.

 

No tourists yet have flown, but XCOR hopes to begin test flights with a pilot by the end of this year. The company already has sold 22 seats to the parent company of Axe body spray, which will award them in a global marketing contest that has attracted more than 500,000 entrants.

 

"Our flight participants will be ecstatic in flying from Florida," Nelson said.

 

Neither NASA nor Space Florida, the state's public-private promoter of the space industry, would say much publicly before the announcement.

 

The shuttle-landing facility "provides a unique capability for new and expanding suborbital launch providers … and other aerospace-related businesses," said Frank DiBello, the president of Space Florida, in a statement.

 

Sources close to the negotiations said a few wrinkles were still being worked out, including when Space Florida would take control of the runway and other nearby buildings such as a control tower. It's not certain whether Space Florida would pay NASA to use the facility, though it would remain under NASA ownership.

 

Even if there's no "rent" or transfer fee, there's still a clear benefit for NASA. The agency has been under pressure from Washington to cut expenses, and transferring control could save NASA an estimated $2.1 million in operations and maintenance costs, according to NASA documents.

 

Once in charge, Space Florida would assume these expenses, with the intent of recouping the money from the new tenants it hopes to attract.

 

In addition to XCOR, another potential customer is Stratolaunch Systems. The Alabama-based company, which counts former NASA chief Mike Griffin on its board, is looking to build a massive aircraft — about twice the size of a 747 — to enable the launch of crew and cargo into space.

 

The plane would carry a space vehicle high into the atmosphere before releasing it to fly the rest of the way on its own. Stratolaunch officials have said that KSC is one option for a launch site.

 

A bigger prize, however, could be in the growing business of unmanned aerial vehicles, better known as drones.

 

After years of use overseas by the U.S. military, drones are poised to go into widespread domestic use — according to one estimate, there could be as many as 30,000 drones in U.S. skies by 2030 — and Space Florida wants to make the state a leader in the fledgling industry.

 

Space Florida has applied to become one of six sites that the Federal Aviation Administration plans to use to test the integration of drones into U.S. airspace. A key part of Space Florida's bid is using the shuttle-landing facility as a base of operations, with the long-term goal of making the area a hub of drone flights and testing.

 

Any added activity at KSC also could be a boon for NASA, which is doing what it can to prove its worth in Florida in the aftermath of the shuttle's retirement. Indeed, the announcement comes just a day before Bolden is scheduled to appear at the KSC visitor complex for the opening of its shuttle Atlantis exhibit.

 

Overprotection may be hampering hunt for Mars life

 

Lisa Grossman - New Scientist

 

There are aliens on Mars – and they came from Earth. That's the reasoning behind a controversial new push to relax the current planetary protection rules, a set of sterilization procedures that every Mars-bound spacecraft must undergo to avoid contaminating the Red Planet with terrestrial microbes.

 

Since 1967, the restrictive rules have made missions that would probe for life on Mars costly and inefficient, a pair of Mars scientists argues. What's more, no sterilization system is perfect, and so chances are we have already contaminated Mars with trace amounts of earthly microbes carried by our rovers and landers.

 

Instead, governments could be sending rovers that dig deeper and try more complex experiments, or they could save the money spent on protection efforts to fund a more diverse array of spacecraft.

 

"Right now it has this bad effect," says Dirk Schulze-Makuch, an astrobiologist at Washington State University in Pullman. "It hampers missions – especially the interesting missions." That includes the types of missions that would search for signs of life, he adds.

 

Striking back

 

Proponents of sterilization are striking back, arguing that the protection measures keep us from wasting time and resources on false detections and from irrevocably altering any Martian ecosystems, if they exist.

 

"One of the purposes of planetary protection is to help keep us from suffering the consequences of our own ignorance," says NASA planetary protection officer Catherine Conley.

 

Space explorers have worried about Earth organisms hitchhiking on spacecraft since the 1950s, well before we began launching craft to Mars. So a 1967 United Nations treaty laid out guidelines for protecting other planets from forward contamination, as well as for protecting Earth from anything space missions might bring back.

 

Most space-faring nations today abide by the UN treaty, with specific procedures set by a Paris-based group called the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR). The rules include heating all spacecraft components to 125 °C to kill most microbes aboard, and sometimes keeping sterilized spacecraft parts in protective wrappings until after landing on a cosmic body.

 

Redundant rules

 

In 1976 the Viking missions were sent to Mars with the explicit aim of searching for life. The cost was $1 billion, with over $100 million of that spent on planetary protection measures – more than 10 per cent of the total budget.

 

Schulze-Makuch and planetary scientist Alberto Fairen of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, argue that the rules today are redundant and wasteful. Either Earth life cannot survive on Mars, in which case there is no fear of it contaminating any existing biospheres. Or it can survive, and therefore it is already thriving there.

 

It is even possible organisms from Earth got to Mars with no help from humans, the pair says. Meteorites tossed back and forth between the two planets early in the solar system's history may have brought microbes with them, which could have survived the journey.

 

"Our point is that, if those things can actually happen, they will happen naturally, with or without our spacecraft," Fairen says.

 

He estimates that upwards of $100 million could be saved on blockbuster missions by scrapping the protection measures. "If we'd relax planetary protection concerns in a Viking-like mission today, we could add another low-budget mission to the space programme," he says.

 

Shrinking costs

Conley counters that including planetary protection measures adds little to the overall budget of a modern big-ticket mission, such as NASA's Curiosity rover. In part due to technology advances, the $2.5 billion price tag for Curiosity included less than $10 million for planetary protection.

 

The sterilisation procedures also force better design and more rigorous testing, Conley says. "In the cost-benefit analysis, planetary protection either comes out in the wash, or makes the mission better."

 

"Many of the requirements pre-landing also overlapped with those necessary for Curiosity to make sensitive and robust detections of Mars's chemistry, particularly any organic materials," says Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity's deputy-principal investigator. "NASA's planetary protection policies, supplemented with our own contamination-control requirements, ensured our ability to learn about life-relevant chemistry."

 

Eaten the evidence

 

Conley also notes that the current rules acknowledge the fact that earthly microbes may already be on Mars. COSPAR simply sets limits for how many microbes per square metre of the spacecraft are acceptable. Such measures are crucial not only for correctly identifying any potential modern Martian bugs, but for studying the origins of life, which could have been preserved on the cold, dry inactive planet.

 

"On Earth we cannot study the origin of life, because all of our descendants have eaten our ancestors. We have destroyed the evidence," says Conley. "If we leave organisms on Mars, their dead bodies are tasty food. This has the potential to have a significant level of interference, and this was recognized in the 1950s."

 

One thing is for sure: planetary protection will be a moot point when humans arrive on Mars, with all their attendant bacteria. Once that happens, it may be impossible to tell whether life ever arose on the Red Planet on its own.

 

"There are opportunities to study life on Mars now, and when humans do get there, there are certain questions we will no longer be able to answer," says Conley. "It's going to be a race against time."

 

The final frontier: what a 50 years it's been for women in space

I was born into a world before women astronauts, but I was very fortunate to have been at the right place and time to go to space

 

Pamela Melroy - The UK Guardian (Opinion)

 

(Melroy is a former astronaut)

 

Last week the world celebrated the 50th anniversary of the first woman in space, Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova. In addition, 30 years ago Sally Ride became the first American woman in space. If you're keeping track, a year ago, Liu Yang became the first Chinese woman in space. These anniversaries have evoked many reflections on female space explorers.

 

I am one of the 57 women who have flown in space. It's interesting to note that all but nine were on the space shuttle. I believe one of the great achievements of the space shuttle was increasing the diversity of human experience in space. The large capacity (seven seats) of the shuttle threw open the door to people with a much broader variety of technical backgrounds, not just military test pilots. I'm proud to say that 75% of the women who have flown in space were Americans. It may have taken the US two decades to catch up to Tereshkova, but once the door was open, it stayed open and steadily widened.

 

I was born into a world before women astronauts, but I was very fortunate to have been at the right place and time to take advantage of these trailblazers. As one of the women who followed Tereshkova and Sally Ride into space, I am forever grateful to our country and Nasa for the opportunity to have my childhood dreams come true. And I am also forever grateful to Sally for her tremendous competence. It is never fun to be the first of a minority to do something because the reputation of everyone who comes after you depends on how well you do. Sally smoothed the path for all women because she was good at what she did, and she earned the respect of her peers for all women.

 

As one of the few women mission commanders, I am often asked about the significance of women in space. I think we're ready to stop counting the number of women in space and ask the real question, which is about the significance of humans in space. Society didn't add up the number of women who "went West" under the Homestead Act in the United States. Instead, we counted farms, ranches and cities – places where men and women labored side by side in a world none of them had seen before, making a new home for all people, not just men or women.

 

The question of significance is not how many women there are in space, but how many space stations and space colonies we have. Exploring is best accomplished with a full range of diverse viewpoints, personalities and disciplines because you are entering unknown territory. The technical and societal implications are too important to be left to one perspective.

 

Young women of today can't imagine a time when women couldn't be astronauts, and I'm just fine with that. In fact, I hope to see many more young women, and men, listening to their inner voices, following the leaps of their own imaginations and forging new paths here on Earth and beyond. Last week, I was in Beijing for the launch of a new global initiative aimed at educating young women for leadership. Wellesley College, my alma mater and the driving force behind this exciting program, asked me to reflect on my own leadership journey. I told these talented young women what I have learned – that knowing yourself is the first step to leadership. Once you show that you know yourself and can envision a path ahead, you will earn the trust of your team — not as not as a woman leader, not as a man leader, but the unique leader that you are as a person.

 

I am watching the commercial space industry with great excitement for the potential to have thousands of people appreciate our precious spaceship, Earth, from space. I am totally certain that the more of us who see that view of the one planet that we all share, the safer the world will be for all of us. And yet there is still plenty of room for the true explorers, the professional astronauts, such as the eight highly qualified new astronaut candidates announced last week at Nasa. I noted with pleasure that half were women, but their resumes make it clear that Nasa did not select them for gender or race, but rather because they were the best.

 

The current Astronaut Corps has a lot of doors still left to kick down, including returning to the moon, visiting an asteroid and visiting the ultimate scientific destination: Mars. Women – and men – will be there when they do.

 

OIL & GAS, MEET NASA S&MA

 

NASA offers oil industry better risk management strategies

 

Emily Pickrell - Houston Chronicle

 

The oil industry may have its chance to influence space safety, thanks to an agreement signed Thursday afternoon between NASA and Deloitte.

 

The space agency had a signing ceremony with Deloitte for a strategic partnership that will offer advanced risk-management services to oil and gas companies.

 

NASA and Deloitte plan to offer a range of risk-management capabilities to oil and gas companies, based on their collaborative experience. The partnership will focus on how to prevent risk scenarios that have a low probability of occurring but devastating consequences, such as the Deepwater Horizon accident or the Challenger explosion. Specific risk management areas that the partnership will offer to potential clients include ways of accurately predicting increased risk, preventing the deterioration of a risk-aware culture, modeling potential risks in various scenarios and staying abreast of emerging trends in risk management.

 

"This is an incredibly strategic partnership for us," said Bill McArthur, a former astronaut and the director of safety and mission assurance for NASA. "We are transforming the Johnson Space Center into its next phase of its life, recognizing the geopolitical environment we are in, shifting from a Cold War era to a more collaborative era. Our strengthening of partnerships locally, nationally and internationally is something that will help us move forward in the human endeavors for space flight."

 

The partnership is intended to be a way for both NASA and Deloitte benefit from each other's knowledge and share their skills with other companies in oil and gas on how to reduce risk.

 

"We have had this idea for quite some time," McArthur said. "The similarities between exploring space and exploring for oil and gas in remote locations have extraordinary similarities. We are both dealing in hostile environments, we are dealing with complex technologies at the edge of the envelope. we think that this partnership makes a lot of sense."

 

McArthur said that NASA has learned many invaluable lessons about managing risk as a result of both its successes and devastating disasters in managing the shuttle programs.

 

"We learned some painful lessons along the way," McArthur said. "In the final years, we had the most remarkable process for making decisions based on doing our best to understand the risk. We had a number of tools and processes that we adhere to very rigorously to try to be able to characterize risk in clear and uniform terms."

 

A wide range of energy companies, both international and independent, have expressed interest in contracting services with the Deloitte and NASA partnership, said John England, a partner with Deloitte.

 

NASA hopes to eventually expand into other fields where its knowledge of risk could be valuable, but does not expect the new agreement to immediately increase its staff.

 

"It depends on whether there is a sufficient volume of work," McArthur said. "We will have to see how this develops - we are determining what the playing field looks like as we go along. We have to ensure that we are providing a capability that is not commercially available otherwise."

 

NASA Drafted to Help Oil Industry Reduce 'Black Swan' Type Risk

 

David Wethe - Bloomberg News

 

Deloitte LLP and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced a joint partnership to help oil and natural gas companies reduce the risk of so-called black swan disasters such as BP Plc's Macondo spill.

 

Exploration in the oilfield and in outer space share similar risks, including harsh environments, remote operations, complex engineering and a heavy reliance on contractors, David Traylor, principal at Deloitte, said today in a signing ceremony at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

 

"How often has there been a Macondo?" William McArthur, a former astronaut now in charge of NASA's safety and mission assurance program, told reporters after the announcement. "That's the primary thing we'll look at."

 

Deloitte's Houston-based Center for Energy Solutions has talked with super majors, independent producers and midstream companies about the new service with NASA, John England, head of Deloitte's oil and gas practice, said.

 

In addition to improved risk modeling from NASA, Deloitte will offer its oil and gas customers the space agency's experience in operating with its rigorous safety checks, Traylor said.

 

NASA acknowledged its safety experience has come the hard way.

 

"A smart person learns from his mistake," said McArthur, a retired U.S. Army colonel who flew on three space shuttle missions and lived for about six months on the International Space Station. "We're pretty smart here at NASA because we made a lot of mistakes."

 

NASA, Deloitte offer Space Age risk management services to oil, gas industry

 

Starr Spencer - Platts Commodity News

 

US space agency NASA and global consultant Deloitte inked a strategic partnership Thursday to offer advanced risk-management services to oil and gas companies whose aim is averting potentially catastrophic accidents.

 

At a time when industry has placed increasing emphasis on safety and prevention of system and equipment failures, the partnership, which has been in the works since October, aims to offer Deloitte clients modeling, analysis and simulation. One large focus is identifying processes or systems that are low risk per se, but which could have a large impact down the road.

 

The services are based on sophisticated models developed by NASA, Deloitte principal David Traylor said at a press conference at Johnson Space Center.

 

"The services are essentially predictive analytics -- a fancy word for looking into the future," Traylor said. As he said one CEO put it: "I need ... a vision of what's around the corner before we get there."

 

Bill McArthur, the JSC's director of safety and mission assurance, said the oil and gas industry, including refineries, exploration and production, drilling and pipelines, shares many "extraordinary similarities" with NASA. Both operate under harsh, remote conditions that require complex engineering systems, rely heavily on contractors and operate "equipment at the edge of the envelope" where it is crucial to respond to emergencies quickly.

 

"We think this type of partnership makes a lot of sense ... we think we'll see more types of these agreements," potentially in other industries that could even include medicine, McArthur said.

 

Under the partnership, Deloitte will reimburse NASA out of client fees for its expenses, he said. But NASA is "not in the business to make a profit," he said.

 

"We think we have the experience to identify and mitigate low-risk, high-consequence events and we think we have the obligation to share that with society," he said. "And we think it's good for the economy."

 

John England, who heads up Deloitte's oil and gas practice, said conversations have been ongoing with large integrated and small independent oil producers and midstream companies and "we expect to have more in-depth discussions soon."

 

England said he could not provide any financial estimates or timelines on when contracts would be signed, or how long projects would take, saying they will vary according to the type of service required and the complexity and breadth of the project.

 

One useful application of the partnership's services may be in refineries, which often need to upgrade to meet new product specifications. By addressing the risk involved for that, a refiner "can keep the [plant] safe as it transitions into new products," he said.

 

Another application might be a pipeline that stretches for thousands of miles, where an overlooked glitch "might be systemic" across the line, he added.

 

Also, NASA and Deloitte will supply emerging risk management where multiple, interrelated factors may be involved, Traylor said.

 

"Many studies have found 70% of all major accidents are the result of multiple causes," he said.

 

For example, if an upstream company is drilling a well, it may have used up 70% of its budget to complete 40% of the well's work -- perhaps because of issues in fabrication and design of critical equipment pieces, he said.

 

In such a scenario, "there may have been authorized exceptions to standard features," he said. "I don't know what the cumulative effect of all these exceptions is. But with precursor analysis, we can start connecting those dots, to understand if it's a new risk we've identified or a known risk that is increasing in probability."

 

One other large need shared by NASA and the oil industry is for quick responses during crises.

 

"When something is going wrong, you can't have astronauts waiting for a response on what to do," Traylor said. "When an operator needs answers, he needs answers now."

 

As a result, one critical component NASA and Deloitte will tackle is automated predictive capabilities, "taking the human factor out of it and getting speed much quicker," he said. NASA has already developed this capability in its robotics lab, enabled by artificial intelligence.

 

That is the "next frontier we'll be addressing" and the partners will work on this further in the next year, he said.

 

While the oil and gas industry is the initial focus of the alliance, the partners have already been approached by mining, aerospace, and chemical companies that have similar risk profiles, Traylor said.

 

With the partnership now in place, "we can start having detailed conversations with oil and gas executives," he said. "This is an alliance that will survive over time."

 

Nasa, Deloitte target oil & gas risk

 

Kathrine Schmidt - Upstream (International oil & gas newspaper)

 

Nasa and Deloitte are teaming up to foster collaboration on risk management and safety between the oil and gas industry and the US space agency, officials and executives said Thursday in a kickoff event.

 

Specifically, both industries have knowledge to share in preventing so-called "black swan" events, essentially low-probability but catastrophic occurrences that can set the industry back years, the partners said at a signing ceremony and news conference held at Houston's Johnson Space Centre.

 

Both industries work in harsh conditions and remote environments, deal with complex engineered systems, possess a culturally diverse workforce and rely heavily on contractors, said David Traylor, a principal at Deloitte's risk strategy division, which wanted to expand its services to oil and gas industry.

 

"We couldn't find anybody else who had operated an International Space Station," Traylor told reporters to laughs in a news conference after the launch. "Nasa was uniquely qualified to help us."

 

Both the energy business and Nasa are in transition. Oil and gas companies, as ever, are looking improve safety and refine deep-water drilling practices following the 2010 Macondo blowout, which killed 11 men and caused the worst US offshore oil spill in US history.

 

Nasa spent decades as a determined powerhouse of operating lunar missions and US space shuttles. But changing economics and federal budget cuts have led to the end of the shuttle programme, deep layoffs and a recalibration towards partnerships with other countries and the private sector for commercial spaceflight.

 

What Deloitte sought specifically - on requests from energy companies - was modelling techniques that could help quantify risks from various factors in complex systems, and see how various costs and improvements applied would affect or minimise those risks.

 

The precise size or monetary value of the deal has not been established and will depend on how many companies sign on, England explained. Nasa will be reimbursed for its expenses but does not set out to make a profit with the work, or keep the operations "cost neutral."

 

The space agency, despite its waning resources and personnel cuts, does have decades of deep experience and technology in managing risk, said Bill McArthur, a veteran astronaut of three space shuttle missions and commander of one mission to the International Space Station.

 

"We have an obligation to share that with society," said McArthur, currently Nasa's director of safety and mission assurance.

 

Deloitte and NASA bring space-age risk management to oil and gas industry

 

Jeffrey Newpher - Bay Area Citizen (Houston Community Newspapers)

 

In a move designed to bring advanced risk-management capabilities to America's energy industry, the Deloitte Center for Energy Solutions and the NASA Johnson Space Center have entered into a strategic alliance to offer services to oil and gas companies.

 

These services, which include several operational risk-management offerings, are aimed at companies looking to minimize the risk of catastrophic failures – the kinds of dramatic mishaps that, while highly unlikely, can occur in remote and harsh environments.

 

"Activities like deep-water drilling, undersea production and pipeline operations all face the same kind of 'black swan' events that pose a threat to space exploration," said David Traylor, a principal at Deloitte & Touche LLP. "Our strategic alliance with NASA will integrate the space agency's 50-plus years of experience preventing and recovering from catastrophic accidents in human space flight into Deloitte's advanced-risk strategies – applying state-of-science capabilities to oil and gas companies back here on earth.

 

"Ultimately, proactively identifying and mitigating low-probability yet high-impact events can save lives, resources, money, reputation and environmental disruption," he added.

 

As part of the alliance, Deloitte and NASA will jointly offer a range of services in the quickly evolving risk-sciences arena, such as risk modeling and simulation, to help oil and gas companies eliminate blind spots in their decision making.

 

Such services apply sophisticated risk-modeling and simulation tools and techniques like Bayesian networks and agent-based modeling to reduce uncertainties in engineering and operations at oil and gas companies – in much the same way NASA has done with its space program.

 

As part of NASA's 135th and final space shuttle mission, for example, it used risk-modeling and simulation techniques to evaluate the potential risk scenarios of using a Soyuz spacecraft to rescue a stranded crew from the International Space Station – with no backup shuttle capability. This process identified risks linked with the Russian vehicle and helped drive a decision to extend crew time on the space station.

 

Deloitte and NASA also expect that oil and gas companies will find Deloitte's risk-sensing services valuable in emerging risk identification – a set of complex tools and techniques, like precursor analysis and event-occurrence trending, to highlight changes in risk likelihood.

 

NASA used these techniques when it was having problems with the space shuttle's attitude-control thrusters, which could limit the ability to control the position of the shuttle while in orbit. Because the thrusters could not be tested on the ground, precursor analysis was used to determine leading indicators and surrounding events preceding thruster usage – allowing the space agency to resolve the problems before future missions.

 

Deloitte and NASA's offerings will also include what Traylor calls "dynamically improving risk-management techniques," such as artificial-intelligence tools applied to remote decision-support systems.

 

In addition, Deloitte and NASA will offer services aimed at helping oil and gas companies measure and monitor the effectiveness of their risk culture among their employees and contractors – enabling them to detect whether their work environments and processes are increasing the likelihood of a risk occurring.

 

NASA regularly measures its own safety culture using these same techniques, including assessment reviews to identify warning signs of "cultural deterioration" that could lead to poor risk decisions.

 

"NASA is a leader in applying risk strategy to highly complex systems that operate in extremely demanding environments, while Deloitte is a leader in providing valuable professional services to oil and gas companies," said veteran astronaut William "Bill" McArthur, Jr., director of Safety and Mission Assurance at the Johnson Space Center.

 

"Energy companies facing catastrophic consequences from low probability risks will now have a range of tools and techniques to minimize the probability of these risks and improve their overall safety culture," he added.

 

NASA also feels that its strategic alliance with Deloitte has the potential for expanding beyond the oil and gas industry – potentially advancing NASA's mission to commercialize its scientific capabilities.

 

"Deloitte's risk intelligence strength in industries like healthcare and government align with our own Directorates at the Johnson Space Center and represent a fertile opportunity to bring new analytics and modeling services to additional industries," said McArthur.

 

He also stressed that one of NASA's core values is safety, which serves as a cornerstone of mission success. NASA's collaboration with Deloitte will enforce constant attention to safety as a cornerstone upon which NASA operates. Through the collaboration, NASA will gain knowledge to help prepare for future missions and to enhance current safety and risk mitigation technologies to address the dynamic, harsh, and remote requirements of emergent programs.

 

NASA offers oil industry better risk management strategies

 

Emily Pickrell – for FuelFix.com (in Offshore, Safety/Security)

 

After one small ceremony Thursday, NASA and Deloitte hope to make a giant leap in improving oil field safety.

 

The space agency and the consulting firm signed off on a partnership to provide advanced risk-management services to oil and gas companies.

 

It will focus on preventing risk scenarios that have a low probability of occurring but devastating consequences, such as the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil well disaster or the in-flight destruction of the space shuttles Challenger and Columbia.

 

Specific risk management areas that the partnership will offer potential clients include predicting risk, maintaining a risk-aware culture, modeling risk scenarios and staying abreast of emerging trends in risk management.

 

A wide range of energy companies have expressed interest in contracting for services from the Deloitte-NASA partnership, said John England, a partner with Deloitte.

 

NASA and Deloitte say they can benefit from each other's knowledge and share the combined understanding of risk management with oil and gas companies.

 

"We have had this idea for quite some time," said Steve McArthur, a former astronaut and the director of safety and mission assurance for NASA.

 

"The similarities between exploring space and exploring for oil and gas in remote locations have extraordinary similarities. We are both dealing in hostile environments, we are dealing with complex technologies at the edge of the envelope. We think that this partnership makes a lot of sense."

 

SPACE SHUTTLE ATLANTIS EXHIBIT GRAND OPENING

 

Space shuttle Atlantis 'go' for public viewing

 

Marcia Dunn - Associated Press

 

The last space shuttle to soar makes its museum debut this weekend, and it's the belle of NASA's retirement ball.

 

The Atlantis exhibit opens to the public Saturday at Kennedy Space Center, the centerpiece of a $100 million attraction dedicated to the entire 30-year shuttle program.

 

For the first time ever, ordinary Earthlings get to see a space shuttle in a pose previously beheld only by a select few astronauts.

 

Tilted at a deliberate angle of 43.21 degrees — as in 4-3-2-1, liftoff — Atlantis is raised in feigned flight with its payload bay doors wide open and a replicated robot arm outstretched.

 

Toss in a life-size replica of the Hubble Space Telescope and astronaut-captured images of the International Space Station beamed on the wall, and the impact is out-of-this-world.

 

More than 40 astronauts who flew on Atlantis planned to take part in Saturday's grand opening at the visitor complex, a popular tourist attraction an hour's drive due east of Orlando.

 

Retired astronaut Bob Springer got a sneak preview last week and liked what he saw. He rode Atlantis into orbit in 1990 — one of its 33 missions from 1985 to 2011.

 

"It's awesome what they've been able to do," Springer said.

 

So many museum displays are static and cold, he noted.

 

"This is exactly the opposite. It's like seeing a wild animal in its native habitat. It really looks like you're looking at Atlantis from an astronaut's vantage point in space."

 

Only a small group of astronauts have seen Atlantis like this in orbit — those out on a spacewalk or those aboard a space station watching Atlantis come and go.

 

It makes this perspective — in flight in orbit — all the more riveting.

 

A family visiting from Karlskrona, Sweden, lucked out last week, among a limited number of tourists granted early access as part of a trial run for the exhibit.

 

"Amazing," said Peter Trossing, accompanied by his wife and two young daughters.

 

"Pretty cool," added Cincinnati's Amanda Cook as her two sons tried out the space station toilet display. Children lined up to pose for pictures on the space potty mock-up.

 

Another hands-on draw for the younger set: two main landing gear tires used on Atlantis' final touchdown on July 21, 2011. One after another, children spun the tires, which were mounted on a low pedestal.

 

Retired for two years, Atlantis is the last of NASA's three space shuttles to go on public display.

 

Discovery is parked at a Smithsonian Institution hangar in Chantilly, Va. Endeavour is also horizontal at the California Science Center in Los Angeles; it will be displayed upright in launch position once its permanent exhibition hall is completed in 2018.

 

And the prototype Enterprise rests atop the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York City. The exhibit was closed following damage caused by Superstorm Sandy last fall; the new pavilion opens in two weeks.

 

Unlike its sister ships, the 155,000-pound Atlantis — tilting to the port, or left, side — has its nose 30 feet off the floor, its right wing 62 feet up and its left wing 7 feet up. Visitors can walk underneath and gaze up at its belly and the thousands of thermal tiles, and all the way around.

 

Towering over the outside entrance is a full-scale model of a shuttle external fuel tank paired with two booster rockets, 184 feet tall just like for launch. Inside are an authentic shuttle main engine (the three engines on Atlantis are facsimiles), astronauts' spacewalking tools, the so-called beanie cap that covered the tops of space shuttles on the launch pad, as well as numerous interactive exhibits showcasing the phases of flight.

 

The display does not ignore the NASA's two lost shuttles — Challenger, destroyed during liftoff in 1986, and Columbia, shattered during descent in 2003. In fact, the short movie viewed before entering the Atlantis gallery pays special homage to NASA's first shuttle flight, by Columbia, in 1981.

 

The so-called "reveal theater" ends with Atlantis appearing right before the guests.

 

"You want an emotional connection and you want that wow factor, and it delivers on both of those," said Tim Macy, director of project development and construction for Delaware North Co., which operates Kennedy's visitor complex for NASA.

 

Delaware North nabbed Atlantis in a high-stakes national competition two years ago. Kennedy was considered a shoo-in by many, given all 135 shuttle flights began here and most ended here as well.

 

A six-story structure was built to accommodate Atlantis. The fourth and final wall was erected once the shuttle was towed inside last November.

 

"It's a doggone big building, and it really tells the shuttle story in an amazing way," said William Moore, chief operating officer of the visitor complex.

 

Delaware North hopes to recoup some of its $100 million outlay through increased ticket sales. The Atlantis exhibit is included in the ticket price for the visitor center: $50 for adults; $40 for children ages 3-11.

 

New shuttle Atlantis exhibit gives close-up look at space flight

 

Irene Klotz - Reuters

 

In deciding how to exhibit the space shuttle Atlantis, which goes on display next week, the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida opted for a perspective that would allow the public a rare view.

 

"One of the ideas that developed very early was to show the orbiter as only astronauts had seen it - in space," said Bill Moore, chief operating officer with Delaware North Companies Parks and Resorts, which operates the visitors center for NASA at Cape Canaveral.

 

The developers of the exhibit raised the 150,000-pound (68,000-kg) spaceship 30 feet into the air and tilted it 43 degrees over on its left side, simulating the vehicle in flight.

 

The shuttle's 60-foot-long cargo bay doors were also opened, a gutsy move since the 2.5-ton panels were designed for the weightless environment of space, and a mock-up robotic arm was added - the real one could not support its weight in Earth's gravity.

 

Then a viewing ramp was built to bring visitors almost within arm's reach of the ship that flew NASA's 135th and final shuttle mission in 2011, closing a 30-year chapter in U.S. space history.

 

"About half our country now is past the age of being around when we walked on the moon," Moore said. "We want to keep a balance between telling the history of how we got here and inspiring people for what the future of space is all about."

 

The shuttle is accompanied by a high-fidelity mockup of the Hubble Space Telescope. The real telescope's 1990 launch, its repair three years later and four life-extending servicing missions comprise one of the shuttle program's success stories.

 

Positioned throughout the 90,000-square-foot (8,361-square-meter) building housing Atlantis are interactive exhibits, shuttle hardware, films and other displays that include darker tales, including the shuttle's tortured 12-year development program and the two ships lost in accidents that claimed 14 lives.

 

"You have to talk about all five shuttles, you can't talk about just three," Moore said. "We don't hide behind those facts. We don't not talk about them."

 

Before arriving at the Atlantis exhibit, visitors are routed beneath an eye-popping, full-size replica shuttle external fuel tank and twin rocket boosters. The stack stretches 184 feet into the sky.

 

Sister ships

 

Atlantis followed sister ships Discovery and Endeavour into retirement. They, along with the prototype Enterprise, which was used for atmospheric testing before the shuttle's 1981 debut, now draw huge crowds to their respective museums.

 

Discovery is at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va.; Endeavour is at the California Science Center in Los Angeles; and Enterprise is at the Intrepid Sea-Air Space Museum in New York.

 

All 135 shuttle missions were launched from the Kennedy Space Center, which also housed and prepared the ships and their cargo for flight.

 

The new $100-million Atlantis facility is focused on three main themes. The first is about the engineering and operation of the shuttle, a machine comprising more than 2.5 million hand-made parts.

 

The second is about the thousands of people who worked on the program over more than 30 years, while the last has to do with the future, perhaps the most challenging part of the exhibit.

 

NASA is working on a new capsule and rocket to carry astronauts to destinations beyond the International Space Station, a permanently staffed, $100-billion research outpost that flies about 250 miles in space.

 

The station was pieced together by U.S. space shuttle crews over more than a decade.

 

But where that rocket and capsule will go and when it will arrive is an ongoing debate. Meanwhile, NASA is hoping to buy rides for its space station crews from private industry by 2017.

 

The exhibit opens June 29. Ticket prices are $50 for adults and $40 for children aged 3-11, plus tax.

 

Getting up close and personal with Space Shuttle Atlantis

 

Dewayne Bevil - Orlando Sentinel

 

Atlantis is ready for its close-up.

 

The orbiter that made the final flight of NASA's shuttle program now is in a new $100-million home created for it at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. The 90,000-square foot attraction — called Space Shuttle Atlantis — opens Saturday.

 

Folks literally come nose-to-nose with the shuttle in dramatic fashion. It's so close you can almost touch it. And it's tilted at a 43-degree angle so guests can see it from multiple viewpoints — including looking down into its cargo bays and looking up at its underbelly, complete with scorched tiles.

 

The attraction spotlights the ship in the condition it landed on Earth after its last mission in July 2011.

 

"It still has its space dust on it. It still has the nicks in the bottom of it. It still has all those things that make it so unique," says Tim Macy, the Brevard County attraction's director of project development and construction.

 

Atlantis, which flew 33 missions, is the centerpiece of the building. The ship is surrounded by 60 hands-on kiosks and activities that enlighten about the entire shuttle fleet and other outer-space matters such as the Hubble Space Telescope and the International Space Station.

 

Before shuttle

 

The attraction's entrance is fronted by a replica of the shuttle's external fuel tank and the two solid rocket boosters that propelled the fleet into space. The 184-foot structure is identical to the real thing "down to the bolt," officials say, but without the fuel.

 

The building sports an orange "swoosh" architectural feature of shiny tiles, and it's designed to represent the glow of the launches and re-entries. The color also coordinates with the look of the rocket boosters. The building's gray tiles tie in with the color of the underside of Atlantis.

 

Guests enter the building and immediately walk up ramps to the second level of the attraction. The glass front looks out onto the rest of the complex, including the picturesque Rocket Garden.

 

The first stop is an 11-minute film recapping the planning of the space shuttle, dating back to 1969.

 

The United States "actually started planning for the shuttle program before we set foot on the moon," Macy says.

 

The movie is a dramatization of events, including the announcement that NASA would create a vehicle that would launch like a rocket, land like an airplane and be reusable.

 

After the film, guests walk into a smaller space with a screen on one end and four arched screens overhead and along the sides of the room. This arrangement creates a three-dimensional feel, Macy says.

 

The second film begins with the first launch — space shuttle Columbia on April 12, 1981 — and is followed by footage of other liftoffs and space activities.

 

"At one point, we have 13 launches going off at the same time all around you," Macy says.

 

The narration includes a reference to John Young, the astronaut who grew up in Orlando, and the soaring soundtrack incorporates the twin sonic booms associated with shuttle landings.

 

Amid the special effects, an image of the shuttle appears. It looks real. Is it?

 

Introducing Atlantis

 

A scrim rises to reveal Atlantis, and that serves as the entry to the attraction. The effect has been a crowd-pleaser during rehearsals, Macy says.

 

"People are coming out cheering and crying. The wow factor works," Macy says. "There's no doubt about it, it's memorable."

 

Behind Atlantis is a LED screen showing an orbital sunrise, which furthers the illusion. Guests exit the theater at eye level with Atlantis, slanted to represent the angle at which it undocked from the International Space Station. A ramp near the back of the room leads to viewing areas beneath the shuttle. The tiles of the underside resemble snake skin and the shape of the backlit orbiter looks like a stingray.

 

Cool, dark tones — think night sky — dominate the interior of the new attraction. It gives the space a museum-style feel. There are 1,700 theatrical lighting fixtures aimed at Atlantis, scorch marks and all.

 

"I used to say, 'She's ugly, but she's pretty,' you know? But she's just pretty," Macy says.

 

'A lot of pizazz'

 

On all levels, there are spots to delve into space exploration. The attraction includes a film about the Hubble Space Telescope, which was hauled by space shuttle Discovery in 1990. A replica of the telescope looms nearby.

 

Monitors running the length of Atlantis show an "X-ray" of its control systems, while simulators challenge guests to perform a spacewalk. Simulators also present virtual missions of exploring the payload bay, or repairing the Hubble and the space station's ESP2 platform.

 

Hands-on, high-tech attractions are a lure for kids, who learn differently than their parents did, Macy says.

 

"You have to have a lot of interactivity, a lot of pizazz to make it work," he says.

 

More low-tech but still educational is a giant slide leading to the ground floor. It's designed to represent a landing space shuttle, including the high-banked "S" curves.

 

The attraction also includes a multilevel version of the International Space Station, which includes the Microgravity Theater and shows how astronauts live, eat and work in space today.

 

Coming home

 

No tax dollars were used to create the Space Shuttle Atlantis attraction. The development and operation of the complex, operated by Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts, is funded through ticket, food and merchandise sales.

 

Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex was one of 40 organizations that wanted to house a shuttle after the fleet was retired.

 

"We had to start building a home and thinking about a home before we knew we had a shuttle," says Bill Moore, chief operating officer of the complex. "The hardest part was not knowing if we were getting one," he says.

 

Eventually, space shuttle Endeavour was awarded to the California Science Center in Los Angeles, Discovery to Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Va., and Atlantis to Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

 

Atlantis retires where its career began and where all 135 space shuttle missions took off from.

 

"This is home," Moore says. "And for the last one to fly to be home? Perfect."

 

Space Shuttle Atlantis attraction is green for launch

Financial stakes of the long-awaited Atlantis exhibit are huge for Brevard's tourism industry, KSC Visitor Complex

 

Wayne Price - Florida Today

 

The space shuttle Atlantis flew 126 million miles on 33 missions in its illustrious career before NASA retired the fleet nearly two years ago.

 

While Atlantis' new job is not as dangerous as roaring into space strapped to a humongous fuel tank and two booster rockets, its retirement mission is not going to be free of challenges.

 

The famed shuttle, the country's last to fly, is charged with attracting tens of thousands of new guests to Kennedy Space Center's Visitor Complex and sharing in — if not siphoning off — a bigger portion of the time and money spent by millions of tourists flowing into Central Florida theme parks and other attractions.

 

The stakes are huge — for Brevard County, for Florida and for the private company that operates the growing KSC tourist complex.

 

More than $100 million has been invested in the sprawling Atlantis exhibit, a long dreamed of centerpiece of the visitor complex that officials expect to boost annual attendance by 12 percent, or more. That's close to 180,000 new visits a year, and it means tens of thousands more tourists from around the world buying meals, gasoline, souvenirs and, possibly, hotel rooms in Brevard.

There is no plan to increase ticket prices from the current $50 per adult, for now, but officials said that decision will be reviewed annually.

 

"Atlantis is really unique, and it fits into a special category," said William Moore, the chief operating officer of Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, a property managed for NASA by Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts. "I think this will stand apart from all the other attractions in the area."

 

Big loan

 

Atlantis' new mission isn't without some calculated financial risk.

 

Building the $100 million exhibit, which opens to the public on Saturday, was made possible by a $62.5 million "conduit loan" from Bank of America to Space Florida, the Sunshine State's publicly funded space and aerospace development agency.

 

But Delaware North is the party really getting the loan. The company, charged with making the exhibit successful, chipped in more than $30 million of its own money for the project. The benefit of having Space Florida technically receive the loan takes some of the debt off Delaware North's books.

 

"Basically the building is on our balance sheet until it's paid off," Space Florida's top executive, Frank DiBello, said.

 

However, Space Florida is adamant that in no way is the agency, or Florida taxpayers, on the hook. If the worst happened, gate proceeds that normally would go to Delaware North would then go to Bank of America.

 

"Delaware North ticket and concession sales percentages are the only place where the paybacks come from," DiBello said. "The risk is Bank of America's ultimately, not Space Florida's or the taxpayer."

 

Richard Lehman, president of Income Securities Advisors Inc. in Miami Lakes, reviewed the funding mechanism for the Atlantis exhibit for FLORIDA TODAY and said it is probably safe. Lehman has been critical of some conduit loans, particularly ones involving sports teams and new stadiums.

 

"There are good reasons to ask the questions," Lehman said, "but in this case it doesn't look like there is much liability to the taxpayer."

 

Bank of America representatives would not disclose many details about the loan, citing client confidentiality with Space Florida. The bank also provided $40 million of this kind of conduit debt, through Space Florida, for the Visitor Complex's "Shuttle Launch Experience," a shuttle themed simulator ride that opened in 2007.

 

In that loan, just like the one funding the new Atlantis exhibit, the debt is being repaid from a percentage of Delaware North's ticket sales revenues.

 

"We see this latest transaction really as serving two primary functions," said Doug Davidson, Bank of America's global commercial banking market executive for North and Central Florida.

 

"One, it's an opportunity for us to continue to support Space Florida," Davidson said.

 

The other function, he noted, is to help rebuild a section of Central Florida, specifically North Brevard, that suffered economically when the shuttle program ended.

 

"And we support Space Florida because they are very well-positioned to bring economic development to that part of Florida."

 

Creating a niche

 

The Atlantis exhibit is probably the most ambitious project in the Visitor Complex's 46-year-old history. It's meant to draw Central Florida's self-proclaimed "space geeks" as well as casual tourists.

 

But as impressive as the exhibit is — consider, for example, that tourists will be able to stand just a few feet from the "space dust" that collected on the shuttle's wings during its 33 missions — Atlantis faces fierce competition for tourism dollars from the major Orlando-area theme parks that bring in millions of people each year to see Cinderella's castle, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and Shamu leaping out of a pool of frigid water.

 

"It's great to be here because you have this place where everybody wants to go," Moore said of Central Florida's market. "It's also probably the most competitive marketplace in the world in terms of trying to gain people's time, because that's really the value."

 

Moore, who's been involved in theme parks and attractions since he was a teenager, said Atlantis stands apart from competitors because it attracts brainier tourists, the kind who go to science centers or museums or historical sites for vacations. These are the same tourists that are making other shuttle exhibits successful.

 

"It's a real, space-flown artifact," Moore said of the orbiter. "I think that makes it a standalone. And it gets added to the list of 'We have to go see this.' It's a pretty amazing view of the shuttle, and as word gets out, people are going to want to come see this."

 

According to Visit Orlando, about 43 million leisure travelers are expected to visit the Orlando area this year, up about 3.2 percent from last year. KSC's Visitor Complex brings in about 1.5 million tourists annually. By comparison, Disney's Magic Kingdom theme park brought in about 17 million visitors in 2011, says Visit Orlando.

 

Abraham Pizam, dean of the Rosen College of Hospitality Management at the University of Central Florida, said the KSC complex has an impressive exhibit with Atlantis, but it will have its work cut out trying to squeeze more visitors from a crowded market like Central Florida.

 

Also not helping: there are no active manned space launches from the Kennedy Space Center or Cape Canaveral, which Pizam said takes away some of the allure of visiting the area.

 

"There is a niche market and an interest," Pizam said of Atlantis. "Maybe with new ventures in space, that will increase attendance. There are still a number of diehard aficionados who are interested in space and all it has to offer. Some will come great distances to see Atlantis, but it's a much smaller market than the one coming to the theme parks."

 

The 70-acre Visitor Complex includes exhibits, live shows, IMAX films and opportunities to meet astronauts.

 

Moore isn't ready to predict the Visitor Complex would follow the lead of Universal Orlando Resort and Walt Disney World Resort, which raised adult ticket prices in the past month.

 

"We haven't raised ticket prices this year," Moore said. "We certainly know what's going on in the marketplace and we're watching that. But I'm not going to say we're not going to raise ticket prices in 2014."

 

Shuttle display a national treasure

Atlantis stands ready for a mission it was never designed for, leaning in for close views like 'a wild animal in its native habitat'

 

Stacey Barchenger - Florida Today

 

True to life, down to the hundredth-degree.

 

That's just the way they wanted it, the engineers and designers and builders who put a national treasure — space shuttle Atlantis — into its new home at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Don't call it a retirement home.

 

"We say this is her next mission," said Tim Macy, the director of project development and construction, who headed the project for Delaware North Companies Parks and Resorts. "She's in full mission right now, and the mission is to tell the story. Not only about the fact that it's an incredible piece of machinery — 2.5 million handmade parts — and the people that were involved . . . but her mission is also to inspire the next generation to continue on with future exploration of space."

 

To do Atlantis justice, the team did something that's never been done. It took sweat. And hand-wringing. Lots of steel, support cables, and months of calculations before any hardware went into place. It also took nerves, and required overcoming some moments of doubt.

 

For the first time, when the exhibit officially opens Saturday, the public will see a shuttle orbiter as astronauts did when watching it depart the International Space Station. The about 155,000-pound Atlantis is propped 30 feet up in the air and tilted 43.21 degrees to the left, which Macy said was its best side and which engineers agreed worked best in the building design.

 

And yes, the angle was chosen on purpose: 4-3-2-1.

 

"This is our girl, Atlantis," Macy said on a recent tour, standing underneath the shuttle close enough to see the outline of each protective tile.

 

It's taken about five years of planning and research, three years of continuous work, and numerous consultations with NASA.

 

Despite months of engineering brainpower, even Macy and senior project manager Doug Wohlert had brief moments of shock. One came during a test lift — they'd hired Ivey's Construction and Beyel Bros., both Brevard-based companies, to build a replica of Atlantis — to make sure their paper planning was foolproof.

 

"(The test lift) was like a half-million dollar science experiment to make sure there were no surprises when they did it with the orbiter," Wohlert said.

 

The spaceship valued at $1.66 billion was raised two inches at a time initially and later up to 10 inches at a time up to 30 feet. Then, Atlantis was rotated at an equally slow pace. Tilting the orbiter took three-and-a-half days.

 

"We knew the biggest challenge would be the 43.2-degree angle, and then you find out it's supposed to rest on two columns and hinge pins," said Steve Sergis, vice president of Ivey's, who oversaw the company's role in the Atlantis exhibit. "We thought it would be resting on more than that."

 

Throughout the entire process, Sergis kept one thing in the back of his mind: "this is a national treasure, and it's not replaceable."

 

With each turn, the impressiveness increased.

 

"When we tilted it to 15 degrees, I said, 'Oh my, that's great.' " Macy recalled. "I thought we were finished. And it was only at 15 degrees, and we were going to go 43. So it got a little nerve-wracking, even on the model."

 

Wohlert agreed. "We stopped one day, and we looked and we said 'holy cripe.' I thought we should have been done 15 degrees earlier," he said. "We thought we shouldn't go farther. But then we did."

 

Wohlert has devoted himself to the Atlantis project for about two years. He's an engineer by trade who spent half of that time planning and calculating just how to make this vision happen, and the other half carrying it out.

 

"It really wasn't ever meant to be on display like this," Wohlert said.

 

"We had to do a lot of work to find out if we could do what we wanted to do."

 

Finally, in consultation with NASA, they decided they could. Crews in hardhats used the orbiter's existing ferry fittings to fasten the massive machine to the steel frame underneath. Atlantis dwarfs the steel supports, but the engineers have no doubt it's secure.

 

"This is nothing close to the stress the orbiter feels during takeoff," Wohlert said.

 

So, how have the designers done?

 

Ask astronaut Tom Jones, who flew four missions and walked in space three times on his final trip with Atlantis in 2001. He had a space shuttle poster on his bulletin board in college, and he knew that someday he wanted to fly that machine.

 

"I saw this last fall, Atlantis was over in the Vehicle Assembly Building, sitting rather forlornly by itself in this sort of giant, cavernous hangar," he said. "When I walked in (to the finished exhibit) and saw it, payload bay doors open, this close so you can almost touch it, it's really something. It's really a reunion with me and my spaceship."

 

Bob Springer said seeing the reveal of Atlantis' new home was like soaring into space, as he did on shuttle Discovery in 1989 and Atlantis the following year.

 

"Until you actually strap in the cockpit, no amount of imagination can get you there," he said. The presentation of Atlantis is so much like what Springer saw in orbit, "it's like seeing a wild animal in its native habitat," he said.

 

Engineers told Macy there was no way Atlantis' payload bay doors — together weighing in at 5,000 pounds — could be opened in the particular banked position inside the attraction.

 

The hinges were so fragile, engineers worried they might snap. It took weeks to open the doors.

 

"That was very satisfying, because people told us we weren't going to be able to make these doors open like this. That it had never been done before, and there's no way it could work," Macy said. "We worked on it for 18 months and we came up with a solution and it's open right now. ... The payoff is amazing."

 

Every detail here, in the $100 million exhibit, underwent the scrutiny of the team of engineers and designers.

 

"There's a lot of significance to the design," Macy said. "When you get into designing something that is so big, sometimes you tend to overlook some of the neat pieces to it."

 

For example, most aspects of the LEED-Silver certified building are made with reusable materials, like the reusable orbiters themselves. The sloping architecture of the building is covered in shimmering gray panels, meant to evoke those on the underside of Atlantis. Orange detailing throughout looks like the external tank, and even the gray-and-white tiling is similar to the solid rocket boosters.

 

On tours, Macy stops to point out the polished concrete floor. It's dark with silver flecks — meant to look like the night sky. The orbiter is illuminated by thousands of lights to inspire "wow" moments. It's backed by a 140-by-20-foot screen showing the Earth from orbit.

 

"You are so close to this thing you can almost touch it," Macy said, quickly adding with a grin: "We're not going to let you touch it, but you almost can.'"

 

There are a few pieces of artistic license: Canadarm, a robotic arm that was re-created inch-by-inch because the real thing is too fragile for gravity, is extended from the payload bay. That wouldn't be the case if Atlantis was leaving the International Space Station.

 

And, of course, the fuel that held the rocket boosters rigid is too dangerous to leave in the soaring, 184-foot-tall replicas that flank the entrance to the exhibit.

 

Atlantis was a workhorse, Macy said, and its work is not done.

 

"I get to tell a story here that really happened," said Macy, who worked for more than 30 years on events including Olympic Games and in theme parks.

 

"I get to show you a piece of equipment that's traveled 125 million miles in space. Nobody else has got that. You know, Transformers are cool, but this is real. This is the real Transformers. This thing opens up and transforms itself from a rocket into a glider. That's a pretty cool transformation, I think."

 

Shuttle Atlantis exhibit grand opening is Saturday at KSC Visitor Complex

 

Jennifer Sangalang - Florida Today

 

For more than 30 years, watching the bright flame of a space shuttle rocketing toward space until it was no more than a blip in the sky was one of the joys of living in Brevard.

 

Starting Saturday, you can get an up-close and personal view of space shuttle Atlantis at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in a setting that shows off just how magnificent that blip really is.

 

The newest attraction at KSC, joining its already popular Shuttle Launch Experience and Angry Birds Space Encounter, opens with great fanfare. Friday, as part of the VIP experience, there will be refreshments and music with guest speakers. The same goes for Saturday morning. Close to 50 astronauts are on the guest list with at least one from each of Atlantis' 33 missions. Apollo astronauts also are expected to attend.

 

"Atlantis is on display as she would be normally in flight. It's the first time ever that a lot of people are going to see her this close," said Tim Macy, director of project development and construction for Delaware North Companies Parks and Resorts.

 

"Here we are dealing with a national treasure," Macy said. With a price tag of $1.66 billion, "it's a priceless artifact."

 

Through logistical and engineering feats, the shuttle was tilted at a 43-degree angle with her payload doors open. Visitors can walk under, around or "nose level" to the massive craft. During the planning phase, thousands of pictures were taken. Those images later helped organizers choose the blueprint for how Atlantis would be displayed.

 

The result displays the view an astronaut would get as he or she looked out the International Space Station window as Atlantis was pulling away.

 

How it began

 

Although KSC wasn't officially announced as Atlantis' permanent home until April 2011, the idea for the Atlantis exhibit came about five years ago, with development starting a couple years later and construction going on for the past 17 months. Delaware North worked with engineers from NASA, a design team and technical adviser.

 

The $100 million project was funded through money borrowed from Space Florida, money generated from KSC Visitor Complex admission fees and money made from food and merchandise, Macy said. No government funds or tax dollars were used.

 

Atlantis was wrapped in plastic before her big move from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the state-of-the-art exhibit facility last fall. That 90,000-square-foot building boasts an impressive theater, giant LED screens and 1,700 light fixtures. Quotes from people who played a role in the Atlantis program line the walls along with breathtaking photography of the shuttle and its glory.

 

"This building was huge, then on Nov. 2, the building got very small very quick," said Macy. "The bird itself, everyone thinks it's slick and going to be pretty. But we're showing you what it looked like when it landed after STS-135. It went straight from the landing strip, over to the orbiter processing facility, and then in November, we rolled it over here and lifted it up 30 feet and tipped it at 43 degrees."

 

NASA offered to clean it up and make it pristine, Macy said, but the team wanted the space dust to remain.

 

The exhibit originally was set to open May 2014, but opening date was accelerated to December 2013, then mid-July.

 

What to expect

 

Along with Atlantis, the exhibit features more than 60 interactive displays, continuous films in a theater and in the display area. An impressive mockup of the Hubble Space Telescope hangs near the gift shop. Videos show the history of Hubble and the role Atlantis played in fixing the telescope.

 

Just past Hubble is an exit from the Shuttle Launch Experience.

 

A 1983 airstream used by astronauts for various events is on display, as well as an astrovan, the vehicle used to ferry astronauts to and from launches and landings. The gift shop features space-themed artwork by children and an area where guests can dress up like astronauts for photo opps.

 

The play zone features a giant slide and "astronaut training" exercises.

 

Pop culture phenomenon Stephen Colbert of "The Colbert Report" on Comedy Central makes a special appearance in the exhibit — via a NASA treadmill. In 2009 during a NASA contest, the political pundit lobbied to name one of the rooms at the ISS after him. "Colbert" beat out NASA suggestions Serenity, Legacy, Earthrise and Venture. As a compromise, NASA introduced the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill. The treadmill is used for exercising in space. You can see Colbert's "mission patch" at KSC.

 

Her 'next mission'"We say this is her next mission," Macy said. "Her mission is to tell the story.

 

"We don't know really what's next in terms of manned space flight," he said. "Nobody's absolutely sure, but what we do know is that this shuttle and this shuttle program got us to where we are today."

 

Today's opening offers KSC visitors a unique experience and a chance to learn about a real mechanical superhero.

 

"Transformers are cool, but this is real," Macy said. "This is the real Transformer. This thing opens up and transforms itself from a rocket into a glider. That's a pretty cool transformation, I think.

 

"We have an opportunity to teach people, and that's kind of an added bonus."

 

Other fun at KSC

 

·         Angry Birds Space Encounter: This interactive exhibit opened March 21. NASA collaborated with KSC, calling the project an opportunity to encourage young people in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects. Exhibits include the Eggsteroids Slingshot target game, Red Planet Lazer Challenge, and Danger Zone, a mirror maze. Included with general admission.

·         Shuttle Launch Experience: Guests get to feel like an astronaut, checking out the sights, sounds and sensations in the shuttle launch simulator. Included with general admission.

·         U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame: The museum features exhibits, artifacts, space memorabilia and various displays from space missions through the years. You can learn about our nation's history in the space program and who played an important part leading the missions. Open from noon to 5 p.m. daily. Included with general admission, allows for a second day at the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame

·         Astronaut Training Experience: KSC's ATX program takes you through a shuttle mission simulation, astronaut training exercises and hands-on space exploration activities at the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame. Reservations required for the half-day program. Cost is $145 for those 14 and older. ATX family prices are $175 for those 12 and older, $165 for kids ages 7 to 11.

 

Documentary

 

Space Shuttle Atlantis' final mission is right here on the Space Coast. A documentary set to air at 8 p.m. July 8 on WBCC looks at what the orbiter has gone through to make it to its new home since touching down for the final time in July 2011.

 

Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit draws cheers and tears

 

Allison Walker - Central Florida News 13

 

When was the last time you went to an attraction or theme park and cried?

 

OK, you may have been 6 and got spooked by Disney's Haunted Mansion. Or, you welled up inside the American Adventure show, "We, The People" (it is just me?)

 

When a real-life astronaut wipes away a tear next to you, it only exaggerates the attraction's 'wow' moment. And that moment happens inside the brand new "Space Shuttle Atlantis" attraction inside the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

 

Maybe it's the fact that the experience is devoted to NASA's 30-year Space Shuttle Program. Or perhaps it's that we're so darn proud of our smarty-pants rocket scientists for building some of the most complex things ever and launching them into space -- with people in them!

 

Whatever it is, seeing Atlantis -- nose-to-nose -- for the very first time is indeed an emotional moment. But imagine being retired astronaut Wendy Lawrence who lived in that thing for 11 days up in space.

 

"I think a lot of my emotions are the fact that, wow, I got to be a part of that," she told me.

 

I spent several hours with Captain Lawrence, a veteran of 4 space flights, during our sneak peek of Space Shuttle Atlantis. The tour began outside at an 18-story, full-length replica of the shuttle's external tank and solid rocket boosters.

 

Lawrence remembers looking up at the real deal back in '97, one day before she lifted-off.

 

"I never stopped thinking, 'Oh, my gosh, this thing is so incredibly huge,'" she said. "I cannot believe we were able to build a spacecraft that is this big and launch it in space."

 

The pre-show involves multimedia and cinematic presentations meant to build anticipation. They illustrate how the 30-year Space Shuttle Program evolved and the thousands of people who helped get five shuttles into space - Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavor.

 

And then - you enter the "reveal" theater. It's like a cinedome, except it's not circular.

 

"It gives us 13 difference areas that we can actually project against," said Project Development & Construction Director, Tim Macy. "That gives you a different view from wherever you are in the [theater]. Plus it also allows us to work with the sound and bounce the sound around a little bit different. Those domes typically are a little more difficult in terms of getting the great experience."

 

As the musical score climaxes, shuttle Atlantis is revealed from behind a screen. People cheered. Then they gulped, tears running down their cheeks.

 

"Unbelievable. I just loved it," smiled Beverly Gosling, visiting from Colorado. "Awesome. Awesome! I just can't say enough about it."

 

When you exit the theater, you get so close to Atlantis that you can almost touch it. The payload bay doors are open and the robotic arm is extended, as they would be during a mission.

 

After catching your breath and snapping a zillion pictures, you still have 167 exhibits to check out. About one-third are interactive.

 

One of those is something you know you've thought about: How do astronauts, er, "go?" Yep, you can sit on the space toilet. And those other potty questions you're too embarrassed to ask also get answered.

 

Space Shuttle Atlantis celebrates its grand opening this Saturday, June 29. Nearly 40 NASA astronauts are expected to be there. You'll find out so much cool stuff from them, like what's on their iPod up in space. (Lawrence tells me she played Melissa Etheridge, Enya, and KD Lang while looking out the window at planet Earth).

 

If you're heading out to the KSCVC Saturday, festivities are open to guests with regular paid admission.

 

Space Shuttle Atlantis Exhibit Set to Launch This Week

 

Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com

 

There is a moment in the new Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex when a fantasy becomes reality and the experience is nothing short of magical.

 

Unlike the theme parks in nearby Orlando, Fla., the attraction here is not the make believe, but the recognition that what you are looking at is in fact real.

 

"Space Shuttle Atlantis," which debuts on Saturday, showcases the retired winged spacecraft as part of a $100 million exhibit that has been more than a year in the making. It succeeds in bringing the public nose-to-nose — and nose-to-wing and nose-to-tail — with Atlantis in a way that is unique to every other museum display of a shuttle orbiter.

 

In California, New York and Virginia, NASA's other retired shuttles are all displayed, at least for now, on or near the ground in a horizontal orientation. Atlantis has been raised 30 feet (9 meters) into the air and angled 43.21 degrees to one side. The effect is that the bird is back in flight, or so it appears, yielding views that only a handful of astronauts in orbit were lucky enough to see.

 

"Only from up on the space station could you look down and see the vehicle like this," said astronaut Tom Jones, who made his fourth and final spaceflight aboard Atlantis in 2001. "And that is the last time I saw Atlantis, in this kind of configuration, so that's really a treat! [I'm] being carried back to my three spacewalks on Atlantis."

 

With its payload bay open and a replica of its Canadarm robotic arm extended, Atlantis looks less like a museum's static display than it does a still active vehicle, somehow frozen in place, as if it could soar back into orbit at any time. What's more, thanks to theatrical lighting and a 40-foot-long (12 meters) animated digital backdrop, the orbiter comes alive as the changing hues and resulting shadows stretch across its surface.

 

"This is anything but static," said astronaut Bob Springer, who lifted off on Atlantis in 1990. "Granted, it is not moving, [but] I consider this to be very dynamic."

 

"It is striking to be able to see it from this perspective," he told collectSPACE.com.

 

The exhibit, however, is more than just a space shuttle inside a five-story building — as if that isn't enough — but a well-crafted, interactive tribute to the vehicle's storied 30 years of service.

 

Dream into reality

 

The gateway into the Atlantis exhibit, a 184-foot-tall (56 m) replica of the shuttle's solid rocket boosters and external tank, establishes the scale for the display waiting inside. The "stack" and the sweeping wings of the exhibit building can be seen rising from the horizon as guests travel to the visitor complex.

 

A plaque outside the exhibit's main entrance dedicates the display inside to the space shuttle's workforce: "To all the individuals whose years of dedicated service turned the dream of the space shuttle program into a reality."

 

That theme, a dream turning into reality, and the role that those who worked on the shuttle program had in shaping that legacy, continues as guests proceed along a winding, mural-lined ramp. Iconic photos of the orbiter in flight and detailed close-ups of Atlantis serve as the backdrops for a collection of inspirational quotes from the varied engineers and managers who made the space shuttle possible.

 

At the top of the ramp, visitors enter the first of a series of theaters that help introduce and build an appreciation for the shuttle's history.

 

The initial film introduces the concept that a simple idea can lead to a machine as complex as the space shuttle. On the screen, actors bring to life some of the meetings and decisions that helped shape the orbiter into the icon it became. Featured, though not explicitly named, is the role that the late NASA engineer Maxime "Max" Fagetplayed in bringing a lifting body spacecraft to flight.

 

This story, which is assisted by the use of state-of-the-art projectors and visual effects, delivers guests to their first encounter with Atlantis. That reveal, the moment when a fantasy becomes reality, is best left to be experienced in-person.

 

Sliding through history

 

As the title of the exhibit implies, space shuttle Atlantis is the star attraction of "Space Shuttle Atlantis." Visitors can walk around, underneath and at times, above, parts of the orbiter, affording a clear view into the payload bay, as well as the thousands of thermal tiles that line the underbelly of the vehicle.

 

Just about the only thing guests can't do is climb aboard. But not to worry, there's an app for that.

 

Or more accurately, there are augmented reality displays, touch screens and interactive simulators for that. Multiple screens enable spectators to virtually peel back the outer walls of the orbiter and look inside. A nearby replica of the shuttle's flight deck offers guests the chance to sit in the commander and pilot seats for a photo opportunity. And a super-stretched "iPad," a 24-foot-long (7 m) touchscreen, puts the facts and figures about the shuttle's 135 missions and 335 crew members at visitors' fingertips.

 

Next to a full-size detailed replica of the Hubble Space Telescope are spacewalk simulators. Using camera-outfitted displays that track guests' hand movements, visitors can try their virtually-gloved hands at upgrading the orbiting observatory or working "outside" a digital International Space Station.

 

Like the Hubble Space Telescope replica though, not all of the experiences inside the Atlantis exhibit are virtual. On the opposite side of the orbiter, guests will find a one-fifth scale mockup of the space station featuring crawl-through modules. Visitors can even go on a "spacewalk," crawling through a 22-foot-long, 32-inch-diameter (6.7 m by 81 cm) clear tube connected to one of the space station's rooms. The transparent pathway is suspended 26 feet (8 meters) in the air.

 

To reach the lower level of the exhibit, guests can either proceed down a ramp that visually evokes re-entering the Earth's atmosphere, or they can choose to "land like the shuttle," using their bodies as spacecraft as they walk or run through four high-banked S-turns and then, lining up with the "runway," glide to a touchdown. The steep slide is at a 22-degree angle, the same as the shuttle followed as it made its final approach to Earth.

 

Once "on the ground," guests will find additional exhibits including full-size station modules featuring the COLBERT treadmill (named for comedian Stephen Colbert), the food galley, crew members' sleep stations, and a sit-on space station toilet.

 

Elsewhere on the lower floor, guests can try to "Assemble Atlantis" using a simulator that gives visitors control of the 325-ton crane that was used to stack the rocket boosters and fuel tank with the orbiter for launch. Also on display is the real "beanie cap," or gaseous oxygen vent hood, that topped the external tank on the launch pad.

 

Integrated into the exhibit hall is also the Shuttle Launch Experience, a motion simulator that since 2007 has taken guests through the liftoff of an orbiter and its ascent into space. The ride, which is built into in a separate, but now seamless facility is entered from and exits into the Space Shuttle Atlantis building.

 

Launching Saturday

 

The Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit, which has been open for technical rehearsals and sneak previews over the past week, debuts to the public-at-large on Saturday (June 29). Access to Space Shuttle Atlantis is included with general admission to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, which runs $50 for adults and $40 for children ages 3-11.

 

A public opening ceremony is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT), with participation by more than 30 shuttle astronauts — at least one for each of Atlantis' 33 missions into space. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Kennedy Space Center director Robert Cabana, both former shuttle commanders themselves, are scheduled to deliver remarks at the event.

 

On Friday and Saturday, astronauts will take part in meet-and-greet question and answer sessions, help lead guests on bus tours of the NASA center and walking tours of the complex's rocket garden, sign autographs and have meals with visitors who make reservations for the premium "Lunch with an Astronaut" program in advance.

 

Shuttle Atlantis hoisted upon the shoulders of America

 

Charles Atkeison - The Examiner

 

Nearly two years following her final space flight, she now takes center ring of a new $100 million facility for admirers to view up close.

 

Nestled inside the Atlantis Exhibit on America's Space Coast, NASA's fourth space worthy orbiter now rests in a 90,000 square-foot attraction, raised and tilted 43.21 degrees to the floor.

 

The unusual tilt is in countdown fashion, "4, 3, 2, 1 Lift-off", and allows visitors to view her belly as well as look deep inside her payload bay as a 50-foot robotic arm extends outward just as she looked as she soared through space.

 

For nearly three decades, the space shuttle Atlantis hoisted astronauts upon the shoulders of giants allowing Americans to live and work in earth orbit.

 

This weekend, the nation returns the favor as the Kennedy Space Center Visitor's Center hoists Atlantis upon America's shoulders to celebrate her countless achievements in advancing humankind in space.

 

"The space shuttle Atlantis attraction not only gives visitors the chance to get nose to nose with Atlantis, it gives them a chance to see what it's like to be an astronaut," states the chief operating officer of the Visitor's Center Bill Moore. "We're proud to launch Atlantis on its new mission, to educate and inspire a future generation of space explorers."

 

Outside the building stands two full size solid rocket boosters mated on either side of an external tank greeting visitors as they arrive. During a shuttle launch, it was the twin boosters which pushed the shuttle higher and faster toward orbit combined by the orbiter's three liquid fueled main engines.

 

Atlantis' celebratory grand opening on June 29 marks the final chapter of America's space shuttle fleet.

 

Atlantis joins surviving sister ships Discovery (Air and Space in Dulles, VA), Endeavour (California Science Museum in Los Angeles) and NASA's air flown test orbiter Enterprise (Intrepid Museum in New York City) on display inside public museums.

 

A unique treat for most, Atlantis is the only displayed orbiter to have an open payload bay.

 

During her storied career, Atlantis carried inside her 60-foot long bay laboratory modules, military satellites, sections of the International Space Station and the platform and equipment to dock and repair the Hubble Space Telescope.

 

Orbiter Vehicle 104, NASA's internal model number for Atlantis, lifted-off on her first space flight in October 1985 on a very secretive military mission STS-51J. Nine minutes after launch, the entire mission went into a news black out as her crew prepared to release a spy satellite into a high orbit.

 

After four days in space, she returned for a landing at Edwards, AFB in California. She was then quickly turned around for her second flight just six weeks later.

 

In fact, five of her first first ten missions were dedicated military flights for the Department of Defense, and she was labeled "Battlestar Atlantis" around the space center.

 

She was the first shuttle to dock to a space station during STS-71, marking the first time that a space shuttle actually went somewhere.

 

Atlantis docked to Russia's space station Mir in summer of 1995 to deliver supplies to the aging outpost, and bring home NASA astronaut Dr. Norman Thagard who had spent three months aboard.

 

In all, Atlantis flew 33 of NASA's 135 space shuttle missions, including the last ever shuttle mission STS-135 in July 2011.

 

"Kennedy Space Center is more than just a final destination for Atlantis, it is, and always has been, home," Moore adds as he reflects on the shuttle's history.

 

The new exhibit also features a mock-up of the Hubble telescope, and includes interactive computer screens to allow visitors to "experience what it's like to perform tasks on a spacewalk", states the visitor's center.

 

Twenty-one computer consoles throughout the building will simulate a space station docking by the shuttle; use of her robotic arm to retrieve a payload from Atlantis' bay; and to land Atlantis back at America's Spaceport - the Kennedy Space Center.

 

"When word spreads about just how compelling and how unique this attraction is, folks from all over the globe are going to be adding space shuttle Atlantis to their bucket lists," Moore adds.

 

Did you know? 33 fascinating things about space shuttle Atlantis

 

Todd Halvorson - Florida Today

 

Here are some things you should know about Atlantis, which goes on public display Saturday at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

 

Why 33? Atlantis flew 33 missions.

 

1 What's In A Name, Part 1: Atlantis was not named for the mythical Lost Continent but for RV Atlantis, a two-masted sailing ship that operated as the primary research vessel for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution from 1930 to 1966.

 

2 What's In A Name, Part 2: Atlantis also was known as OV-104, or Orbiter Vehicle-104, its official NASA shuttle orbiter designation, or, more colloquially, its tail number.

 

3 Lightweight: Atlantis rolled out of its California assembly plant weighing 151,315 pounds, or about 3.5 tons lighter than heavyweight Columbia.

 

4 Half-Time: Atlantis was built in about half the time it took to complete Columbia, NASA's first shuttle orbiter. Why so much faster? Thermal protection blankets were used on the orbiter's upper body rather than small individual tiles custom-made to fit.

 

5 Workhorse Warfighter: Five of 10 Department of Defense shuttle missions were flown aboard Atlantis; Discovery flew four, Columbia flew one.

 

6 First glass cockpit: Astronauts launching aboard Atlantis in May 2000 flew with the shuttle fleet's first "glass cockpit," which featured digital instrument displays rather than mechanical dials and gauges. Eleven full-color, flat-panel electronic displays replaced 32 dials and gauges and four cathode ray tubes.

 

7 Hubble Helper: A telescope repair crew flew Atlantis in May 2009 on the last of five servicing missions to NASA's flagship observatory, swapping out scientific instruments and fixing spacecraft systems. The rejuvenated telescope still is in operation.

 

8 One Hundred And Counting: Atlantis launched in July 1995 on the 100th U.S. human space flight, a full 34 years after Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American to fly in space.

 

9 Shuttle's Destiny: Five astronauts flying aboard Atlantis delivered the U.S. Destiny science laboratory to the International Space Station in February 2000.

 

10 Unlikely Couple: Cold War rivals joined forces in orbit in July 1995 when Atlantis linked up with the Russian space station Mir. It was the first of nine shuttle-Mir dockings.

 

11 Ssshhhh! Two top-secret military communications satellites were launched aboard Atlantis on its inaugural flight in October 1985. On other missions, the orbiter reportedly deployed a radar reconnaissance satellite, a photo reconnaissance satellite, an electronic eavesdropping spacecraft and a missile-warning satellite.

 

12 Quick Turnaround: Atlantis blasted off Oct. 3, 1985, on its maiden voyage, landed four days later, and then launched again on Nov. 26, 1985. The 54-day span between flights was the quickest launch-to-launch turnaround for an orbiter in shuttle history.

 

13 Quick Turnaround Take II: Atlantis also was involved in the shortest mission-to-mission turnaround. It landed July 7, 1995, after the first shuttle-Mir docking mission. Six days later, Discovery blasted off on a

satellite-delivery mission.

 

14 Golden Age Of Planetary Science: In 1989 and 1990, Atlantis hauled up NASA's Galileo and Magellan interplanetary explorers. Galileo shed new light on Jupiter and its icy moons. Equipped with a powerful radar system, Magellan mapped the surface of Venus.

 

15 Some Like It Hot: Atlantis in 1991 launched NASA's Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, which trained four telescopes on solar flares, gamma ray bursts, pulsars, quasars and

supernova explosions — some of the hottest and most cataclysmic events in the universe.

 

16 Humans In The Loop: The value of humans in space exploration became clear during the 1991 Gamma Ray Observatory flight. The spacecraft's communications antenna failed to deploy, making it unable to send data back to Earth. In that condition, it was a $670 million piece of space junk. So astronauts Jerry Ross and Jay Apt suited up, and ventured out into Atlantis' cargo bay. Careful not to puncture the observatory's thin-skinned propellant tanks, Ross jostled the jammed antenna, and after a few good shakes, it sprang free from its cradle. He and Apt then manually deployed the antenna, a significant scientific save.

 

17 Alien Encounter: Atlantis and five astronauts launched in August 1991 on a mission to deploy a NASA Tracking and Data Relay System (TDRS) satellite, a switchboard in the sky that enables orbiting astronauts to keep in near-constant contact with Mission Control. After Atlantis landed, the World Weekly News, a supermarket tabloid, published a fake, front-page photo of an alien exiting Atlantis with the rest of the STS-43 crew.

 

18 Frequent Flyer Part 1: Retired NASA astronaut Jerry Ross flew five of his seven spaceflights aboard Atlantis. He and Franklin Chang-Diaz co-hold the world record for the most spaceflights.

 

19 Close Call: More than 700 of Atlantis' heat shield tiles were damaged during the December 1988 launch of STS-27, NASA's second post-Challenger mission. "Had one of those been penetrated? If so, we were dead men floating," Mike Mullane wrote in "Riding Rockets: The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut." Hot gasses could have breached the heat shield during atmospheric re-entry, when the orbiter was exposed to temperatures of up to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The ship and its crew could have been lost. Mullane and four crewmates landed safely. Fifteen years later, severe heat shield damage led to the loss of Columbia and its crew during atmospheric re-entry on Feb. 1, 2003.

 

20 Frequent Flyer Part 2: Atlantis flew seven consecutive round trips to the Russian space station Mir between June 1995 and October 1997.

 

21 No. 4: Atlantis was the fourth operational space shuttle orbiter to be built. The ship arrived at Kennedy Space Center on April 13, 1985.

 

22 Special Delivery: In February 2008, Atlantis hauled the European Columbus laboratory to the International Space Station, opening up a new era of scientific research in low Earth orbit.

23 Record-Setter's Ride, Part 1: In 1996, U.S. astronaut Shannon Lucid flew to Russia's Mir space station aboard Atlantis and returned to Earth aboard the same spaceship six months later, setting what then was a world record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman — 188 days.

 

24 Record-Setter's Ride, Part II: Sunita "Suni" Williams established a new record — 196 days — launching to the International Space Station on Dec. 9, 2006 and returning to Earth on June 22, 2007. Her ride home: Atlantis.

 

25 Size Does Matter: 6-foot-2 Scott Parazynski and 5-foot-3 Wendy Lawrence both trained to fly on Russia's space station Mir in the mid-1990s. But height restrictions proved problematic. Parazynski exceeded the maximum height restriction for Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Lawrence didn't measure up to the minimum requirement. So both "Russian Rejects" were removed from Mir missions. And both picked up apt nicknames. Parazynski was "Too Tall." Lawrence was "Too Short." Nametag patches on their blue astronaut jumpsuits said so. Their consolation prize: Flying aboard Atlantis in September 1997 on an 11-day Mir crew exchange mission. A backup, NASA astronaut David Wolf, rode up with them for a 128-day stay on Mir. That, Wolf said, must have meant he was "Just Right."

 

26 Hail Atlantis: A hailstorm swept over Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center on Feb. 26, 2007, where Atlantis was being readied for flight. Hailstones as large as golf balls dinged 26 heat-shield tiles on Atlantis' left wing. More than 2,600 dents and divots were gouged in

orange insulation on the shuttle's external tank. Technicians executed a near-superhuman effort to repair and save the battered tank. Atlantis launched 133 days later.

 

27 Tweet, Tweet: U.S. astronaut Michael Massimino became the first person to use Twitter in space during the May 2009 Atlantis mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. Known as Astro_Mike in the Twittersphere, the veteran spacewalker had 300,000 followers at the time. That number now is more than 1.2 million.

 

28 Oh, Baby! Mission specialist Randy Bresnik was flying aboard Atlantis in November 2009 when he coached his wife, Rebecca, through labor during the birth of their daughter in a Houston hospital. Abigail Mae Bresnik weighed 6 pounds, 13 ounces and was born after her father completed his first spacewalk — a six-hour, eight-minute assembly and maintenance job outside the International Space Station.

 

29 What Goes Up…: A 4-inch-long piece of the apple tree that inspired Sir Isaac Newton's law of universal gravitation flew aboard Atlantis in May 2010. British-born astronaut Piers Sellers took the artifact into orbit along with a picture of Newton.

 

30 Uniting Nations: The first Mexican (Rodolfo Neri Vela), Belgian (Dirk Frimout), Italian (Franco Malerba) and Swiss (Claude Nicollier) to fly in space all rode aboard Atlantis.

 

31 Ticket To Ride: 156 individuals flew aboard Atlantis during 26 years of mission operations.

 

32 Problem Free: Shuttle orbiters typically racked up dozens, even hundreds, of "Interim Problem Reports," during launch preparations. Atlantis set a record for the fewest so-called "IPRs" — 54 — when the ship was readied for the May 2009 STS-125 mission. Atlantis beat that record during preparations for the STS-132 launch a year later. Only 46 problem reports were written up during the lead-up to that launch.

 

33 Grand Finale: Atlantis flew NASA's 135th and final shuttle mission (STS-135) in July 2011. It was the orbiter's 33rd flight. Atlantis spent 307 days in space; orbited Earth 4,848 times. Total miles flown: 125,935,769.

 

END

 

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