Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - June 7, 2013 and JSC Today

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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: June 7, 2013 6:05:44 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - June 7, 2013 and JSC Today

Happy Friday and most of all Happy National Donut Day. 

 

Great to see so many of you that were able to join us yesterday for our monthly luncheon.  Special guest included Walter Scott from Grapeland, TX , the Grushes- Gene and Joyce, new retiree Linda Lapradd, Jim Jaax's wife, soon to be retired Don Prevett,  etc.

 

Have a safe and wonderful weekend everyone.

 

Friday, June 7, 2013

 

JSC TODAY HEADLINES

1.            TV Channels Down Today from 2 to 4 p.m. for Maintenance

2.            Add it to Your Summer Reading List

3.            To Do List -- Toastmasters?

4.            Sunday: Society of Women Engineers (SWE) - Texas Space Center (TSC) Movie Matinee

________________________________________     NASA FACT

" The Mars Science Laboratory's Radiation Assessment Detector is the first instrument to measure the radiation environment during a Mars cruise mission from inside a spacecraft that is similar to potential human exploration spacecraft."

________________________________________

1.            TV Channels Down Today from 2 to 4 p.m. for Maintenance

Today, from 2 to 4 p.m. CDT, several channels on the cable TV and IPTV systems will be out due to maintenance activities.

The channels that will be down include:

o             NASA TV

o             ISS FCR Camera 1

o             ISS FCR Camera 2

o             ISS MPC Downlink

The maintenance activities will result in the addition of several new channels for International Space Station high-definition downlinks.

For more on this activity, contact Dan Willett in JSC's Information Resources Directorate at 281-483-7010.

JSC IRD Outreach x37010 http://iptv.jsc.nasa.gov/eztv/

 

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2.            Add it to Your Summer Reading List

New stories have been posted to the JSC home page and JSC Features. Don't miss reading about:

o             the poignant flag-raising ceremony for the Houston Fire Department fallen heroes on-site above Mission Control

o             how JSC team members contributed their stories and memories from the Space Shuttle Program for the Atlantis exhibit opening soon at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex

o             and young interns finishing out the Career Exploration Program's final year

Catch up on these and visit the websites frequently for new stories.

JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111

 

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3.            To Do List -- Toastmasters?

Stop putting it off; come out and give us a visit.

Start developing your communication and leadership skills today.

Space Explorers Toastmasters Club meets on Fridays in Building 30A, Room 1010, at 11:45 a.m.

Duong Nguyen 281-486-6311

 

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4.            Sunday: Society of Women Engineers (SWE) - Texas Space Center (TSC) Movie Matinee

Reminder: This Sunday, bring your favorite movie snacks and join SWE-TSC for "3 Idiots," a blockbuster Bollywood film featuring famous Indian actors, including the "Indian Tom Hanks." The movie "3 Idiots" is about four Indian engineering students' college experiences and where their careers took them 10 years later. We'll introduce the movie by talking about aspects of Indian experience that it accurately depicts. We'll follow up with a discussion about aspects that are "only in India," and what it tells us about how our own engineering instruction could improve. Send an e-mail to get the SWE member's address and to let us know you'll be joining us. Hope to see you there!

Event Date: Sunday, June 9, 2013   Event Start Time:1:00 PM   Event End Time:4:00 PM

Event Location: Private residence of SWE member

 

Add to Calendar

 

Irene Chan x41378

 

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________________________________________

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

 

 

 

NASA TV: 7:35 am Central (8:35 EDT) – E36's Luca Parmitano with Italian news media

 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT...

 

EVA Lessons Learned

 

Have you 30 min, 57 sec to spare? When you see astronauts leave the confines of their pressurized spacecraft, they themselves become small, self-sufficient spacecraft. This is the story of EVA over the years and the lessons that have helped make doing spacewalks safer and successful. (produced by John Streeter with JSC PAO)

 

Human Spaceflight News

Friday, June 7, 2013

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

Orion spacecraft passes critical test at KSC

 

Todd Halvorson - Florida Today

 

NASA's first space-bound Orion crew capsule passed critical tests at Kennedy Space Center this month, clearing key milestones along the way toward launch next year on an inaugural test flight. Ensconced in a 20-foot-tall fixture inside Lockheed Martin's on-site production facility, the Orion capsule was hydraulically pushed and pulled, and also pressurized, to simulate conditions it will encounter in flight. The campaign was carried out to "verify what works on paper will work in space," Charles Lundquist, a NASA manager with the Orion project, said in a statement. "This is how we validate our design."

 

Orion proves tough under pressure

 

T.J. Aulds - Galveston County Daily News

 

NASA's Orion spacecraft passed a key series of tests on Wednesday, 15 months before its scheduled first exploration launch. A month-long series of pressure tests, designed to simulate the stresses of spaceflight, concluded this week with Orion passing. The static load tests are a key part of the initial design of the spacecraft. When it launches in September 2014 on the Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) it will travel farther from Earth than any other spacecraft built for human spaceflight in more than 40 years.

 

Orion doesn't crack under pressure, passes NASA test

 

Greg Avery - Denver Business Journal

 

The test-flight version of the Orion space capsule, being built for NASA by Littleton-based Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., passed a test simulating stresses and pressures the craft will experience on a mission to space. The tests on Wednesday confirmed that brackets added to the Orion rear bulkhead succeeded in reinforcing an area where cracks appeared following an earlier round of tests in November. The Orion capsule is the nation's first vehicle being built to take astronauts into deep space, beyond the moon.

 

Lockheed Martin Orion capsule completes structural testing

 

Zach Rosenberg - FlightInternational.com

 

Lockheed Martin's Orion spacecraft has finished structural testing and is structurally prepared for its first launch in September, 2014. The capsule was tested to 110% of expected loads from such traumatic events as launch, separation and re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. "The static loads campaign is our best method of testing to verify what works on paper will work in space," says Charlie Lundquist, NASA's Orion crew and service module manager. "This is how we validate our design."

 

Welcome to the Space Station Science Garage

 

Nancy Atkinson - UniverseToday.com

 

What do you get when you combine Mike Massimino, Don Pettit, Chris Hadfield, Tom Marshburn and some bean bag chairs? Space geek heaven, perhaps? Here's the premier edition of a new series, and it features a great discussion about what it is like to fly in the cramped Soyuz after living in the expanse of the International Space Station for five months. This looks like a great new series, as any day you can get Don Pettit talking science is a good day! Look for more in this series that will showcases human spaceflight and science aboard the International Space Station.

(NO FURTHER TEXT)

 

China's Next Manned Spaceflight Enters Final Prep Phase

 

Leonard David - Space.com

 

China's Shenzhou 10 piloted mission has entered the final preparation phase, closing in on a mid-June liftoff, according to that country's space officials. The Shenzhou 10 spaceship, atop its Long March 2F rocket booster, has been vertically transferred from a preparation area to the launch pad at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi desert.

 

Maine company's blueberry jam headed for outerspace

Stonewall Kitchen's popular condiment is being shipped to International Space Station

 

Dennis Hoey - Portland Press Herald

 

An astronaut from Maine who is orbiting Earth on the International Space Station is about to get a special delivery direct from his home state - wild blueberry space jam. A spokesman for NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston confirmed Wednesday that several containers of Wild Maine Blueberry Jam produced by Stonewall Kitchen in York will be flown to the space station with a supply delivery in August. Though Bill Jeffs, a spokesman for NASA, would not confirm which astronaut requested the jam, Flight Engineer Christopher J. Cassidy, who graduated from York High School, is a member of the space station crew.

 

Professionals, not tourists, should fly in space - Tereshkova

 

Itar-Tass

 

Professionals, but not tourists, should fly in space, believes Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space. "I belong to professional cosmonauts. I believe specialists should fly into space at the present stage," Tereshkova said at a press conference in Star City on Friday. She noted the first space mission was long ago, and much was done in the space area, but much was not studied yet. Many years will pass before people begin to fly in space on tourist tours, the woman cosmonaut believes. In her view, only specialists, who can be useful, should fly on space missions. (NO FURTHER TEXT)

 

Engineer jettisons her NASA career to pursue comedy

 

Tony Sauro - Stockton Record (CA)

 

For Shayla Rivera, it was rocket science. As an engineer with NASA's space-shuttle and space-station programs, colleagues always told her she was funny. She'd get the same humorous reactions as a motivational speaker. "I was just trying to be enlightening," she said. So, Rivera stopped helping McDonnell-Douglas technicians calculate the trajectories of jettisoned booster rockets falling from outer space, took her friends' advice and became a comedian. "Yeah," she said with a laugh. "I needed a hook. I was the 'Puerto Rican Rocket Scientist.' I went from being a wanna-be astronaut to a wanna-be stand-up comedian. I was a jack of all trades and master of very few."

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COMPLETE STORIES

 

Orion spacecraft passes critical test at KSC

 

Todd Halvorson - Florida Today

 

NASA's first space-bound Orion crew capsule passed critical tests at Kennedy Space Center this month, clearing key milestones along the way toward launch next year on an inaugural test flight.

 

Ensconced in a 20-foot-tall fixture inside Lockheed Martin's on-site production facility, the Orion capsule was hydraulically pushed and pulled, and also pressurized, to simulate conditions it will encounter in flight.

 

The campaign was carried out to "verify what works on paper will work in space," Charles Lundquist, a NASA manager with the Orion project, said in a statement. "This is how we validate our design."

 

The Orion spacecraft, which is scheduled to launch aboard a Delta IV Heavy rocket in September 2014, was instrumented with 1,600 strain gauges that recorded vehicle responses to structural loads from as little as 14,000 pounds to 240,000 pounds. The spacecraft was subjected to 110 percent of eight different types of stresses will experience during flight.

 

Pressure testing also verified that repairs to superficial cracks in the vehicle's rear bulkhead have been properly repaired. The cracks were detected after pressure tests in November.

 

The Orion spacecraft was successfully pressurized to 110 percent of conditions it will be subjected to in flight.

 

Next year's $375 million flight test will blast off from Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

 

The United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket will propel it on a two-orbit mission that will reach an altitude of 3,600 miles. Then the spacecraft will renter the atmosphere at a speed topping 20,000 miles per hour – or about 84 percent of the velocity of a crew capsule returning from a mission beyond Earth orbit.

 

NASA officials say the test will give engineers early data on the performance of 10 of 16 of the spacecraft systems most critical to crew safety. The flight test also will enable designers to identify required changes early in crew capsule development.

 

Orion proves tough under pressure

 

T.J. Aulds - Galveston County Daily News

 

NASA's Orion spacecraft passed a key series of tests on Wednesday, 15 months before its scheduled first exploration launch.

 

A month-long series of pressure tests, designed to simulate the stresses of spaceflight, concluded this week with Orion passing.

 

The static load tests are a key part of the initial design of the spacecraft. When it launches in September 2014 on the Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) it will travel farther from Earth than any other spacecraft built for human spaceflight in more than 40 years.

 

During that test flight Orion is set to fly 3,600 miles above the Earth's surface and when it re-enters reach speeds of about 25,000 mph.

 

That's bound to create a lot of stress on the vehicle.

 

Tests in November found flaws in the Orion bulkhead and its ability to handle the stress loads. So with that data, engineers reinforced the design or the spacecraft and put those new features to the test this past month.

 

Engineers at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida built a 20-foot-tall static loads test fixture for the crew module with hydraulic cylinders that slowly push or pull on the vehicle, depending on the type of load being simulated.

 

The fixture produced 110 percent of the load caused by eight different types of stress Orion will experience during EFT-1. More than 1,600 strain gauges recorded how the vehicle responded.

 

The loads ranged from as little as 14,000 pounds to as much as 240,000 pounds.

 

"The static loads campaign is our best method of testing to verify what works on paper will work in space," said Charlie Lundquist, NASA's Orion crew and service module manager at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "This is how we validate our design."

 

In addition to the various loads it sustained, the Orion crew module also was pressurized to simulate the effect of the vacuum in space.

 

This simulation allowed engineers to confirm it would hold its pressurization in a vacuum and to verify repairs made to superficial cracks in the vehicle's rear bulkhead caused by pressure testing in November.

 

To repair the cracks, engineers designed brackets that spread the stress of being pressurized to other areas of the module that are structurally stronger. During these tests Orion was successfully pressurized to 110 percent of what it would experience in space, demonstrating it is capable of performing as necessary during EFT-1.

 

Orion doesn't crack under pressure, passes NASA test

 

Greg Avery - Denver Business Journal

 

The test-flight version of the Orion space capsule, being built for NASA by Littleton-based Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., passed a test simulating stresses and pressures the craft will experience on a mission to space.

 

The tests on Wednesday confirmed that brackets added to the Orion rear bulkhead succeeded in reinforcing an area where cracks appeared following an earlier round of tests in November.

 

The Orion capsule is the nation's first vehicle being built to take astronauts into deep space, beyond the moon.

 

It's being designed and built by Jefferson County-based Lockheed Martin Space Systems (LMSS) under a $6.4 billion contract NASA awarded in 2006. LMSS is a unit of Bethesda, Md.-based defense and aerospace giant Lockheed Martin Corp.(NYSE: LMT).

 

Orion is scheduled to fly its first, unmanned test flight in September 2014, flying 3,600 miles above the Earth and returning on descent at speeds approaching 25,000 miles per hour, subjecting the capsule to tremendous stresses. The mission will be the farthest a craft designed for human flight has gone in 40 years.

 

The pressure tests, conducted in Houston, simulated 10 percent higher stresses than the maximum expected in Orion's test flight as well as the vacuum pressure Orion will experience in space.

 

"The static loads campaign is our best method of testing to verify what works on paper will work in space," said Charlie Lundquist, NASA's Orion crew and service module manager at the agency's Johnson Space Center. "This is how we validate our design."

 

Lockheed Martin Orion capsule completes structural testing

 

Zach Rosenberg - FlightInternational.com

 

Lockheed Martin's Orion spacecraft has finished structural testing and is structurally prepared for its first launch in September, 2014.

 

The capsule was tested to 110% of expected loads from such traumatic events as launch, separation and re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.

 

"The static loads campaign is our best method of testing to verify what works on paper will work in space," says Charlie Lundquist, NASA's Orion crew and service module manager. "This is how we validate our design."

 

Small cracks discovered in 2012 after limited structural testing raised concerns about the design of the Lockheed spacecraft. Though Lockheed repaired the damage and expressed confidence in its solution, the formal completion of structural tests is a relief to both the company and NASA.

 

Orion is scheduled for a first flight in September, 2014, atop a Boeing Delta IV launch vehicle. Though not capable of reaching the velocity necessary to escape Earth's gravity well using the Delta IV, NASA projects the capsule will re-enter Earth's atmosphere with 84% of the energy required for a lunar flight.

 

Orion will enter orbit propelled by the Space Launch System, a Space Shuttle-derived series of solid rocket motors capable of boosting such payloads as far as the Moon and even Mars. SLS will not fly until 2017 at the earliest, and even then with a temporary upper stage adapted from the Delta IV.

 

Maine company's blueberry jam headed for outerspace

Stonewall Kitchen's popular condiment is being shipped to International Space Station

 

Dennis Hoey - Portland Press Herald

 

An astronaut from Maine who is orbiting Earth on the International Space Station is about to get a special delivery direct from his home state - wild blueberry space jam.

 

A spokesman for NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston confirmed Wednesday that several containers of Wild Maine Blueberry Jam produced by Stonewall Kitchen in York will be flown to the space station with a supply delivery in August.

 

Though Bill Jeffs, a spokesman for NASA, would not confirm which astronaut requested the jam, Flight Engineer Christopher J. Cassidy, who graduated from York High School, is a member of the space station crew.

 

According to his biography posted on NASA's website, Cassidy lists York his hometown. The only other American on the station, Karen Nyberg, is from Minnesota. The remaining crew members are from Russia and Italy.

 

Janine Somers, Stonewall Kitchen's marketing director, issued a statement Wednesday announcing that its jam had been requested.

 

"It's such a wonderful opportunity to have our jam, a delicious taste of Maine, sent to space," Somers said in a statement.

 

Somers said NASA contacted Stonewall Kitchen in November about producing jam for the space station. The immediate response was yes, but then the company realized the task might not be so easy.

 

For safety reasons, glass jars cannot be sent into space so the company's research and development team contracted with another company for a container that would both tolerate the jam's hot fill temperature and seal securely.

 

The spacebound jam will be packaged in a polypropylene container, but still be labeled to look like a typical Stonewall Kitchen label.

 

"Since this is not our standard packaging, we put our label on the front of the package to make it look like it's from home. We loved creating a custom jam for space travel," Somers said.

 

Jeffs, NASA's spokesman for its food lab, said the space agency has been flying special food orders into space for years.

 

Jeffs said crew members often make requests for special favorites, despite having an extensive menu of staples to choose from. American astronauts, for example, can choose from about 200 food and beverage items.

 

In the past, astronauts have requested Swedish dishes including moose pate, candies and cookies, Spanish meats and Japanese foods.

 

"In this case, an astronaut asked for this product (wild blueberry jam)," Jeffs said.

 

Jeffs said any new food item must be tested to make sure it is microbiologically safe to eat and the food must not be too difficult to eat in microgravity conditions.

 

The blueberry jam is scheduled to be flown to the space station on the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle, Jeffs said. The Japanese cargo transporter is scheduled to launch on Aug. 3 from the Yoshinobu Launch Complex on the Japanese island of Tanegashima.

 

"We were honored to be asked to do this," Somers added.

 

Stonewall Kitchen, which was established in 1991, started producing Wild Maine Blueberry Jam in 1995. Somers said the jam is the company's top selling product.

 

Stonewall Kitchen's products are sold wholesale in 6,000 locations and in 11 company stores. Their products are sold in 42 countries.

 

Cassidy flew to the station in March and is scheduled to depart from the space station in September.

 

China's Next Manned Spaceflight Enters Final Prep Phase

 

Leonard David - Space.com

 

China's Shenzhou 10 piloted mission has entered the final preparation phase, closing in on a mid-June liftoff, according to that country's space officials.

 

The Shenzhou 10 spaceship, atop its Long March 2F rocket booster, has been vertically transferred from a preparation area to the launch pad at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi desert.

 

A spokesman from China's space agency, China Manned Space Engineering, announced June 3 that China will soon launch the three-person Shenzhou 10 spaceship to rendezvous and dock with the nation's Tiangong 1 space module, which is already in orbit.

 

Heavenly Palace

 

The 8.5-ton Tiangong 1, or Heavenly Palace 1, has been orbiting Earth since September 2011 and was used in China's first piloted rendezvous-and-docking venture — the three-person Shenzhou 9 space trek — in June 2012.

 

The target module's orbit for the Shenzhou 10 mission was adjusted in late May in preparation for the upcoming linkup.

 

Additional spaceship testing, rocket-function testing and the crew-spaceship-rocket-ground joint testing are being consecutively carried out now — all leading toward a final status check and confirmation of readiness to launch.

 

According to Chinese media reports, the Shenzhou 10 mission will be the last of three planned experiments to master the technologies of space rendezvous and docking to enable China to build and operate a large space station around 2020.

 

Main objectives

 

Chinese space officials have noted that Shenzhou 10 will be the first "operational" flight in the Chinese human spaceflight program, with four main objectives:

 

• To ferry a crew and materials between the ground and the Tiangong 1 module and test the performance of the Shenzhou human capsule and its docking system;
• To further test the crew's ability to fly, live and work in the Shenzhou-Tiangong spacecraft complex;
• To demonstrate the adaptability and efficiency of the crew in the space environment and broadcast a classroom lesson to Chinese students;
• To further test the coordination among different systems in the human spaceflight program.
• Female astronaut candidate

 

Zhou Jianping, chief engineer of China's manned space program, told news media in March that one of the three astronauts onboard Shenzhou 10 will include a woman.

 

While the names of the Shenzhou 10 crew remain unknown, and are typically not released until a few days before the mission, Wang Yaping is being spotlighted by Chinese media as the only female astronaut candidate being considered for the Shenzhou 10 spacecraft.

 

Born in 1980 in the eastern coastal city of Yantai, Shandong Province, Wang is a People's Liberation Army Air Force pilot.

 

In March 2010, China completed the process of selecting a new group of astronauts for its human spaceflight program: Seven Air-Force pilots, including five men and two women, were selected as the astronaut candidates. Wang was one of the two female candidates selected from 15 finalists.

 

Shenzhou 10 will be China's fifth manned space mission. The first Chinese astronaut, Yang Liwei, flew to orbit in 2003. Before this mission, eight Chinese astronauts — including one woman, Liu Yang — have gone into space.

 

Steady progress

 

"As China's human space program continues its steady progress towards the construction of a small space station — scheduled to be completed around the end of the decade — international interest in the program appears to be waning," said Gregory Kulacki, senior analyst and China project manager for the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

 

Kulacki said that, of all the elements of the mission being talked about in the Chinese press prior to the Shenzhou 10 launch, the educational activities planned for the flight are gaining the most attention. The three-person crew plans to broadcast lessons on space science and exploration to Chinese students across the country.

 

"China's human spaceflight program now seems to be less threatening to U.S. observers who originally viewed the program with some suspicion," Kulacki said. "More relaxed U.S. attitudes about the program, combined with the slow but steady pace of Chinese progress in human spaceflight, may create opportunities for U.S.-Chinese cooperation and collaboration in space."

 

However, NASA is currently barred by Congress from collaborating directly with the Chinese space agency.

 

Pizazz-free program

 

"Shenzhou 10 will be another step in China's slow but steady human spaceflight program," said Marcia Smith, editor of SpacePolicyOnline.com. "China's program may not have the pizazz of the early Soviet and U.S. space programs, which were much faster-paced, but [the program] appears to be sustainable as China deals with its own economic challenges."

 

Smith added that while there certainly are those in Congress who do not want to see the United States fall behind China — or any other country — in human spaceflight, he does not "sense that a successful Shenzhou 10 mission will alter decisions about NASA's future."

 

The debate over whether NASA should return humans to the moon, Smith said, "sometimes takes on a 'we need to get back there before China lands' tone. However, "the pro-lunar-return faction sees value in returning to the moon, regardless of China's plans," she added. "They may believe that playing the China card will help them in their quest, but it hasn't helped so far."

 

Engineer jettisons her NASA career to pursue comedy

 

Tony Sauro - Stockton Record (CA)

 

For Shayla Rivera, it was rocket science.

 

As an engineer with NASA's space-shuttle and space-station programs, colleagues always told her she was funny. She'd get the same humorous reactions as a motivational speaker.

 

"I was just trying to be enlightening," she said.

 

So, Rivera stopped helping McDonnell-Douglas technicians calculate the trajectories of jettisoned booster rockets falling from outer space, took her friends' advice and became a comedian.

 

"Yeah," she said with a laugh. "I needed a hook. I was the 'Puerto Rican Rocket Scientist.' I went from being a wanna-be astronaut to a wanna-be stand-up comedian. I was a jack of all trades and master of very few."

 

After 20 years, there's no more wishful thinking. Rivera lifts off tonight at Stockton's Bob Hope Theatre as part of The Latin Comedy Jam - joining Los Angeles' Luke Torres, Dillon Garcia of Whittier and Huntington Park's Jerry Garcia (no relation, though his dad did name him after the late Grateful Dead guitarist on a $100 dare).

 

Coincidentally, one of Rivera's colleagues in Houston - and now a fellow motivational speaker who encourages Latino families to pursue education - was Jose Hernandez, a Franklin High School and University of the Pacific graduate who became a space-shuttle astronaut.

 

"Having joked around with him, he's fun," Rivera said. "A funny guy. Very down-to-earth. What you see is what he is."

 

That description suits Rivera, too. She's managed to fuse her comical and analytical brain waves.

 

"That's been the greatest gift and the biggest curse," said Rivera, 51, a single mother of two daughters who splits time between Burbank and Austin, Texas. "Having both sides work at the same time makes it miserable sometimes. You know, wondering why some people can't pull their heads all the way out of their asses."

 

That sentiment also relates to her status as a Latina comedian.

 

"I never thought it would be an issue," she said. "I thought I was just another comedian. It's always an issue. Whatever you look for, you're gonna find.

 

"I'm a female comedian. I'm a Latino comedian. More than that, I'm a female Latino comedian. For just being funny, you're still not rewarded as much in Hollywood. You have to be super-sexy, super-ugly. They still kind of label you and put you in a pigeon hole. I don't fit anywhere."

 

One of Rivera's initial concepts, a sitcom based on her life story, was rejected by a Hollywood TV executive who said, "A Puerto Rican working for NASA? Not believable."

 

Born in Santurce, Rivera grew up with two sisters, spending summers in a Puerto Rican "paradise." Her dad, Justo, worked at IBM and was the "big, crazy one everybody loved." Her mom, Sofia, was an Eastern Airlines employee. They moved to Houston when Rivera was 17.

 

"Education always was a huge part of our family," she said. " 'You're all going to college.' I always loved oceanography and space."

 

Humor got good grades, too: "Our family laughed a lot. For me, it's the best way to learn. When you laugh, you're lightened up and see things better."

 

Rivera did some serious learning while gaining an aerospace-engineering degree from Texas A&M University. She joined McDonnell-Douglas at Houston's Johnson Space Center in 1982. Rivera helped "blow all up" external rocket fuel tanks: "That was fun."

 

Comedy is "something harder to do," she said. "To talk about truths - the truth - no matter what your color, gender, race, religion, creed or sexual preference."

 

Curious about psychology and the human condition, she became a motivational speaker.

 

"Comedians are pathetic individuals in need of attention," Rivera said. "I probably never thought of myself as funny until I did motivational speaking. People said, 'You should be a comedian.' I was trying to be enlightening. I have a natural propensity for being absurd. I've never said that before, but I guess I do."

 

In 1993, she attended a stand-up comedy seminar in Houston. Rivera's five-minute final-exam routine earned her some job offers: "That was kind of cool. It wasn't long before I got my first $25 gig. That's when I knew I was a pro.

 

"I dove in head first. Since that day, I've done everything in my life to pretty much pursue what I want to do. Twenty years later, I'm ready to be an overnight sensation."

 

That's after appearing with Paul Rodriguez, Roseanne Barr, Martin Short and others, doing TV and club work and recording. Rivera also devotes herself to entertaining and supporting members of the U.S. military.

 

She's writing a book - Rivera hasn't read Hernandez's "Reaching for the Stars" memoir yet - voicing an animated series ("Life of Mikey," a " 'Little Rascals'-type cartoon. All diverse") and "having meetings with ABC (TV producers)" about a "new sitcom based on my life. In Hollywood, it's never an easy thing. Really. They copycat everything. If this happens, then everybody will be doing 'the Latina working for NASA.' "

 

No rocket science required there.

 

END