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Thursday, July 18, 2013

Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - July 18, 2013 and JSC Today



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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: July 18, 2013 6:08:13 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - July 18, 2013 and JSC Today

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Headlines

  1. Expedition 34 Welcome Home Ceremony

Expedition 34 Crew Welcome Home Awards Ceremony Wednesday, July 24, from 3 to 5 p.m.

All NASA civil servants, contractors and International Partners are invited on Wednesday, July 24, to welcome home our International Space Station Expedition 34 crew members: Kevin Ford, Oleg Novitskiy, Evgeny Tarelkin, Chris Hadfield, Thomas Marshburn and Roman Romanenko. The event will be held in the Gilruth Center Alamo Ballroom. The doors will open at 3 p.m., and the program runs until 5 p.m. There will not be an opportunity for autographs at this event. Come share in the welcome, highlights and stories with the crew and Expedition 34 support teams, and pick up your Expedition 34 posters. For more information, contact Jennifer McCarter at x47885.

Event Date: Wednesday, July 24, 2013   Event Start Time:3:00 PM   Event End Time:5:00 PM
Event Location: Gilruth Alamo Ballroom

Add to Calendar

Jennifer McCarter x47885

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  1. Joint Leadership Team Web Poll

Seventy-five percent of respondents were clearly happy that Gate 2 re-opened this month. It seems to be helping the early morning congestion and making our commute a little safer. I should have figured that question two would bring out the tinkerers since we have an abundance of engineers here. Looks like we have a pretty sizable maker community. This week's first question is a pop quiz. Can you guess where we are on our electricity use this year? Are we using a little less than last year? A lot more? About the same? Inspiration for question two comes from the survival shows that keep popping up on TV. If we plopped you down on a deserted island for three weeks, what is the one survival item you'd like to take along? Shelter? Fire? Cooking utensils? Robinson your Crusoe on over to get this week's poll.

Joel Walker x30541 http://jlt.jsc.nasa.gov/

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   Organizations/Social

  1. Relaxation Techniques

Do you find it hard to relax? Does your mind have its own plan when you try to sleep? Being able to relax is essential for sleep and healing promotion. Relaxation works best when involving the mind and body due to the significance of that connection. We will be learning and applying mindfulness as a stress relief. Workshop participants will have a chance to experience multiple relaxation exercises as well. Come and discover which relaxation technique works best with your type of stress response. Please join Anika Isaac MS, LPC, LMFT, LCDC, CEAP, NCC, of the JSC Employee Assistance Program on July 24 at 12 noon in the Building 30 Auditorium as she presents "Relaxation Techniques."

Event Date: Wednesday, July 24, 2013   Event Start Time:12:00 PM   Event End Time:1:00 PM
Event Location: Building 30 Auditorium

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Lorrie Bennett, Employee Assistance Program, Occupational Health Branch x36130

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  1. Men's Mental Health

When it comes to health care, many men are uncomfortable discussing mental health. Yet statistics show that men are affected by mental health problems at rates equal to women. What puts men more at risk of serious consequences is that they often put off seeking help until their symptoms reach a crisis level. The result is needless suffering and a delay in potentially lifesaving care. Education is key to reducing stigma and encouraging men to seek help sooner. Learn what contributes to reluctance and what you can do to make a positive difference. Join Takis Bogdanos, MA, LPC-S, of the JSC Employee Assistance Program, on July 18 at 12:30 p.m. for a presentation on "Men's Mental Health." This is a ViTS (#97666) in Building 17, Room 2026, as well as WebEx/telephone:

1-888-370-7263, pass code 8811760#

Meeting number: 393 701 340

Password: Menshealth7-18

For WebEx, click here.

Enter your name, email address, and password: Menshealth7-18

Click: "Join Now"

Event Date: Thursday, July 18, 2013   Event Start Time:12:30 PM   Event End Time:1:30 PM
Event Location: Building 17, Room 2026

Add to Calendar

Lorrie Bennett, Employee Assistance Program, Occupational Health Branch x36130

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  1. Starport Book Fair - Building 3 Cafe

Come and enjoy the Books Are Fun book fair held in the Building 3 café on Wednesday, Aug. 14, and Thursday, Aug. 15, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Search through more than 250 great titles in children's books, cookbooks, general-interest books, New York Times bestsellers, stationary and scrapbooking, music collections and more -- all at unbelievable prices. Click here for more information.

Event Date: Wednesday, August 14, 2013   Event Start Time:9:00 AM   Event End Time:2:00 PM
Event Location: Building 3 Cafe

Add to Calendar

Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/

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   Jobs and Training

  1. Escape Your Silo: Spacesuits Tour

Please join the Human Systems Academy in collaboration with the Engineering Directorate on July 26 from 1:30 to 3 p.m. for a tour and discussion of past, present and future spacesuit designs. The tour will include the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle/International Space Station suits on display in the Building 7 lobby, as well as future suit design concepts in the Advanced Spacesuit Lab.

Space is limited, please register today!

https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_... or ID #69671

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

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  1. Correction on Upcoming IT Security Training

The Information Resources Directorate recently announced two upcoming PII/SBU IT Security Training sessions. If you tried to register in SATERN for either of these events and have received a message saying that the event was FULL, you can STILL COME TO THE EVENT. We will have paper sign-in sheets at the event and will record your participation in SATERN after the training session. The times for the training sessions are listed below.

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

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

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

Event Date: Thursday, July 18, 2013   Event Start Time:1:00 PM   Event End Time:2:30 PM
Event Location: B2, Teague Auditorium

Add to Calendar

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

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JSC Today is compiled periodically as a service to JSC employees on an as-submitted basis. Any JSC organization or employee may submit articles.

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

 

 

 

NASA TV:

·         Noon Central (1 EDT) – 2013 Agency Honor Awards – HQ (Public Channel)

·         12:15 pm Central (1:15 EDT) – E36 with KGO-TV, San Francisco & WDAY-TV, Fargo

 

Human Spaceflight News

Thursday – July 18, 2013

 

Happy 92nd Birthday John Glenn

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

NASA still perplexed by astronaut's flooded helmet

 

Marcia Dunn - Associated Press

 

The spacewalking astronaut who came close to drowning in a flooded helmet searched for clues in his spacesuit Wednesday, in hopes of understanding the unprecedented water leak. Engineers in Houston, meanwhile, conducted their own investigation into what should have been a routine, yet still risky, maintenance job outside the International Space Station. But a day after one of NASA's most harrowing spacewalks in decades, answers eluded the experts.

 

For scare in space, Mainer had right stuff

Astronaut Chris Cassidy, who grew up in Bath and York, assists a colleague in distress during a walk outside the space station

 

Eric Russell - Portland Press Herald (Maine)

 

Astronauts Chris Cassidy and Luca Parmitano were about an hour into their 6½-hour spacewalk Tuesday when something went wrong. Parmitano was setting up an Internet cable when he noticed water accumulating in the helmet of his spacesuit. At first, he thought it was sweat, but the water kept accumulating. It threatened his hearing and his sight -- two things you need when you're walking in space. Cassidy calmly helped Parmitano back to the safety of the space station so his helmet could be removed before the liquid suffocated him. The Maine astronaut then cleaned up any work materials left behind before ducking back inside the space station himself.

 

3D-Printed Rocket Engine Part Passes Key NASA Test

 

Miriam Kramer - Space.com

 

A 3D-printed rocket engine injector has passed a major NASA test, potentially heralding a new age of propulsion-system manufacturing, space agency officials say. NASA and Florida-based company Aerojet Rocketdyne put the injector — which was built using 3D printing (also called "additive manufacturing") technology — through a series of hot-fire trials, agency officials announced last week. "Hot-fire-testing the injector as part of a rocket engine is a significant accomplishment in maturing additive manufacturing for use in rocket engines," Carol Tolbert, manager of the Manufacturing Innovation Project at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, where the tests were conducted, said in a statement.

 

NASA Amendment Would Weigh Marshall Closure

 

Brian Berger - Space News

 

U.S. Rep. Donna Edwards of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House Science space subcommittee, is expected to introduce an amendment to the NASA authorization bill July 18 calling for a commission to consider closing NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The amendment would establish a Center Realignment and Closure Commission that would be given six months to evaluate "[c]onsolidating all rocket development and test activities of the Marshall Space Flight Center and Stennis Space Center in one location" and recommend a location promising the greatest cost savings.

 

NASA spokesman slams House funding proposal in rare attack on NASA's website

 

Lee Roop - Huntsville Times

 

David Weaver, NASA's associate administrator for communications, used the agency's website Wednesday for a rare jab at the House Appropriations Committee considering NASA's 2014 budget. Weaver said the proposed $16.6 billion budget before the committee "would challenge America's preeminence in space exploration, technology, innovation, and scientific discovery." Weaver said in a blog post on NASA's website that the agency is "deeply concerned" about cuts to space technology and commercial crew development in the House budget. Space technology investments are the "seed corn that allows the nation to conduct ever more capable and affordable space missions," Weaver said. Cutting funding for commercial crew will "ensure we continue to outsource jobs to Russia," the sole source now for launching American astronauts.

 

With Time Running Out, House and Senate Still $1.4 Billion Apart on NASA

 

Dan Leone – Space News

 

The U.S. Congress has less than a month of legislative working days left before the federal government's new budget year begins Oct. 1, and the House and Senate still have more than $1.4 billion worth of differences to settle, when it comes to NASA. The two chambers' efforts to craft NASA's 2014 budget are almost moving in lockstep. The House Appropriations Committee on July 17 approved a $47.4 billion commerce, justice, science spending bill that included $16.6 billion for NASA — 6.3 percent below what the White House requested for the agency, and 6.6 percent below 2012. The bill, which assumes across-the-board sequestration cuts will continue at least through 2014, has not been scheduled for a floor vote.

 

House panel approves cutting NASA spending by $1.1 billion

 

Ledyard King – Florida Today

 

A key House committee approved a bill Wednesday that would chop more than $1 billion from NASA's budget next year, despite the agency's warnings the cuts could compromise the nation's global edge in space and science. The spending bill approved by the Appropriations Committee, which now heads to the full GOP-led House, would give NASA $16.6 billion in fiscal 2014. That's a decrease of $1.1 billion from the current budget and about $1.4 billion less than contained in the bill Democrats are moving through the Senate.

 

Nelson calls House bills "absolutely lethal" to balanced space program

 

Brian Berger - Space News

 

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) intends to introduce a NASA authorization bill July 17 that will recommend spending $18 billion on the U.S. space agency next year — a level that mirrors the amount Senate appropriators included in a spending bill headed for full committee markup July 18. Speaking at the Future Space Leaders' Future Space 2013 conference here, the chairman of the Senate Commerce science and space subcommittee blasted his House counterparts for advancing a NASA authorization bill that would be "absolutely lethal" to a balanced space program. The House Science, Space and Technology Committee is slated to mark up a NASA authorization bill July 18 that would hold the agency's budget to $16.86 billion — the lowest level since 2007. The House Appropriations Committee, meanwhile, approved a commerce, justice, science spending bill July 17 that would fund NASA at $16.6 billion for the 2014 budget year that begins Oct. 1. (NO FURTHER TEXT)

 

Russian experts developing orbital base for servicing & testing spacecraft

 

Itar-Tass

 

Russian experts are developing an orbital base that will help service and test spacecraft, Vladimir Solovyov, the head of operations at the Russian segment of the International Space Station told a news conference Wednesday. "Bases of this kind should have a serving and testing functionality," Solovyov said. "This should be a base where we could test and load fuel to space vehicles heading for the Moon and the Mars." "Works in that area are underway and we don't confine our efforts to the ISS, Solovyov said. "When we start planning missions to the Moon and the Mars, some bases suitable for those projects should already be in place." (NO FURTHER TEXT)

 

NASA, lawmakers at odds on cooperation with China

 

Mark Matthews - Orlando Sentinel

 

Most Americans know how the space race began: with the 1957 launch of Sputnik by the U.S.S.R. But fewer remember how it all but ended: a 1975 mission in which an Apollo spacecraft docked with its Soviet counterpart in low Earth orbit. Historians view that flight as a turning point, paving the way for the U.S. and Russia to team up decades later to build the International Space Station. It's also an example cited — almost religiously — by space activists nowadays who want to see the United States work more closely with China, another global rival. Yet flying a similar U.S.-China mission today could be a tougher sell than even the 1975 flight, which launched near the height of the Cold War. Not only is there a wide gulf of distrust between the U.S. and China, but NASA is barred — under a 2011 law — from partnering with the Asian superpower on space projects.

 

Elon Musk's mission to Mars

 

Rory Carroll - The Guardian (UK)

 

Elon Musk has flown so high, so fast, it is hard not to wonder when, and how, he will crash to earth. How could he not? Musk is so many things – inventor, entrepreneur, billionaire, space pioneer, inspiration for Iron Man's playboy superhero Tony Stark – and he has pushed the boundaries of science and business, doing what others declare impossible. At some point, surely, he will fall victim to sod's law, or gravity. He is only 41, but so far Musk shows no sign of tumbling earthwards. Nasa and other clients are queuing up to use his rockets, part of the rapid commercialisation of space. His other company, electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors, is powering ahead. Such success would satisfy many tycoons, but for Musk they are merely means to ends: minimising climate change and colonising Mars. And not in some distant future – he wants to accomplish both within our lifetimes. Musk has a reputation for being prickly but when I meet him at SpaceX, his headquarters west of Los Angeles, he is affable and chatty, cheerfully expounding on space exploration, climate change, Richard Branson and Hollywood. Oh, and what he would like written on his Martian tombstone: "Holy shit, I'm on Mars, can you believe it?"

 

City Council takes next step toward Ellington 'Spaceport'

 

Houston Chronicle

 

Houston City Council on Wednesday approved $718,900 for consultants to help obtain a spaceport license for city-run Ellington Airport. Reynolds, Smith and Hills, Inc. will help the city submit an application to the Federal Aviation Administration's commercial space division to obtain a Spaceport Launch Site Operator's License for Ellington. Houston Airport System director Mario Diaz has said the license could be obtained sometime next year. The preparation work, most of which will be done in the first year of the three-year contract, will includes an environmental assessment and plans for where to put launch sites and how to operate them, according to an explanatory document attached to the council agenda.

 

Ellington Airport commercial spaceport moves one step closer to reality

 

Molly Ryan - Houston Business Journal

 

Houston City Council is officially on board with bringing commercial spaceflight to Houston's Ellington Airport. On Wednesday, council approved a $718,900 contract with Reynolds, Smith and Hills Inc., a consulting service, to study how Houston can obtain a spaceport launch site operator's license. The consulting firm will also conduct an environmental assessment at Ellington. According to city council documents, Reynolds, Smith and Hills will have a three-year contract with the city, and the majority of the firm's work to get a spaceport license and assess conditions at Ellington Airport will be completed in the first year of the contract.

 

Starbucks in space? Scientists help astronauts drink coffee

 

Brad Balukjian - Los Angeles Times

 

How do you take your coffee? In a cup? That's the dilemma facing astronauts needing their caffeine fix in space. The almost-zero-gravity environment makes pouring hot coffee into a cup a dangerous task, said Mark Weislogel, who studies fluid dynamics at Portland State University (and whose faculty profile photo bears an uncanny resemblance to another college professor). It may be hard to get the coffee to move, let alone go into your cup.

 

With Neil Armstrong gone, how will moonshots be remembered?

 

Alan Boyle - NBC News

 

It's been 44 years since humans first set foot on the moon, but less than one year since the first human to do so died. The passing of Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong, the best-known moonwalker, could herald a shift in how the past and the future of moon exploration is viewed. "Actuarially, it's getting more likely that we're returning to a situation I never thought I'd see, with no living people on Earth who have ever been to the moon," said NBC News space analyst James Oberg.

 

Alameda's USS Hornet to mark Apollo mission anniversary

 

Peter Hegarty - Bay Area News Group

 

Neil Armstrong and his fellow astronauts were back on Earth following the first Moon landing in July 1969, but they were still far from safe as their space capsule bobbed on the Pacific Ocean swells. But the aircraft carrier USS Hornet was nearby and hovering just above them was a Sea King helicopter piloted by the U.S. Navy's Don Jones, who was ready to pluck the astronauts from the ocean and carry each to a hero's welcome. On Saturday, the staff and volunteers of the USS Hornet, now a floating museum, will mark the 44th anniversary of that first lunar landing and the ship's role in the recovery of the astronauts with an all-day event called "Blades of Majesty," which will focus on its own Sikorsky Sea King helicopter.

 

The inspiring story of the astronaut rejected by NASA 15 times before finally reaching the skies

 

Vivian Giang - San Francisco Chronicle

 

In 1998, Clayton Anderson was a 29-year-old aerospace engineer who wanted to fulfill his childhood dream of going to space. One agency was stopping him from getting there: NASA. The government agency had rejected Anderson's application for its astronaut training program 15 times. But Anderson is one of those people whose dogged perseverance is inspiring. But so many rejections after so many years can wear on a man, and Anderson decided that his 16th attempt would be his last one. Fortunately, that last attempt was all he needed.

__________

 

COMPLETE STORIES

 

NASA still perplexed by astronaut's flooded helmet

 

Marcia Dunn - Associated Press

 

The spacewalking astronaut who came close to drowning in a flooded helmet searched for clues in his spacesuit Wednesday, in hopes of understanding the unprecedented water leak.

 

Engineers in Houston, meanwhile, conducted their own investigation into what should have been a routine, yet still risky, maintenance job outside the International Space Station.

 

But a day after one of NASA's most harrowing spacewalks in decades, answers eluded the experts.

 

"There still is no smoking gun or definite cause of what happened or why that water ended up" inside Luca Parmitano's spacesuit, said NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries.

 

Parmitano, Italy's first and only spacewalker, could not hear or speak by the time he re-entered the space station on Tuesday, 1 1/2 hours after stepping out. He also had difficulty seeing because of the big globs of water in his helmet and elsewhere in his suit.

 

He'd worn the same suit on a spacewalk a week earlier, without mishap.

 

NASA aborted the second spacewalk because of the deluge and later acknowledged it was a serious situation in which Parmitano could have choked or even drowned. He looked all right, although wet, when his crewmates pulled off his helmet, and was reported to be in fine shape.

 

"Back to normality on the ISS - Cupola is still a fantastic sight, even after a (very short) EVA," Parmitano wrote Wednesday in a tweet. EVA is NASA shorthand for spacewalk: extravehicular activity. He followed with photos of Italy's Lake Como, the Italian Alps and the Rimini sea resort that he snapped from the station's cupola, or observation deck.

 

NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, a crewmate, added via Twitter: "Just happy Luca's safe!"

 

On Wednesday, Parmitano shined a long flashlight through the ring collar of his suit, while his colleague, American Christopher Cassidy, examined other equipment used Tuesday.

 

Nothing suspicious popped up, Humphries said.

 

There are only two sources of water in the suit: a 32-ounce drink bag and a 1-gallon cooling system embedded in long underwear.

 

NASA has pretty much ruled out the drink pouch. That leaves the cooling system. Specialists detected a higher than normal usage of water from the system's tanks, which could be consistent with Tuesday's leakage, Humphries said.

 

"No real theory yet on exactly where this water came from or why, but they are doing a very deliberate step by step process of troubleshooting to try to identify what's going on," he said.

 

Tuesday's close call points out the ever-present dangers of spacewalking, Mission Control managers acknowledged to reporters following the episode.

 

The next NASA astronaut set to fly to the space station, Michael Hopkins, said the important thing is that the spacewalkers got back in safe, thanks to everyone's quick, appropriate reactions. While "certainly concerned" by Tuesday's events, he said he's confident the mystery will be solved before NASA sends anyone else out the hatch.

 

"We still don't know what happened, and so in terms of how that's going to impact our flight, we still don't know," Hopkins told reporters. But he added: "We're ready for whatever might get thrown our way."

 

NASA plans no spacewalks during Hopkins' half-year mission, scheduled to begin in September. Hopkins' two Russian crewmates, on the other hand, are aiming for seven spacewalks before and after December's launch of a new Russian lab.

 

Russian spacesuits are entirely different than their American counterparts.

 

Barring an emergency, no further NASA spacewalks are planned anytime soon. The work left undone Tuesday involved a variety of minor chores that had piled up over the past couple of years. Officials said there's no hurry to finish the job.

 

Spare U.S. spacesuits are on board and could be used in an emergency. The leak problem appears to be limited to Parmitano's suit since Cassidy's outfit worked fine, Humphries said.

 

Parmitano, 36, a major in the Italian Air Force and a former test pilot, arrived at the space station at the end of May. NASA praised his calm, cool demeanor during Tuesday's crisis. He's supposed to remain aboard the orbiting outpost until November.

 

For scare in space, Mainer had right stuff

Astronaut Chris Cassidy, who grew up in Bath and York, assists a colleague in distress during a walk outside the space station

 

Eric Russell - Portland Press Herald (Maine)

 

Astronauts Chris Cassidy and Luca Parmitano were about an hour into their 6½-hour spacewalk Tuesday when something went wrong.

 

Cassidy, who grew up in Maine, and Parmitano, who is from Italy, had to do a series of routine maintenance tasks and infrastructure improvements, working on the cables outside the International Space Station to prepare the station for a Russian research lab that will arrive later this year. It was their second spacewalk in eight days.

 

Parmitano was setting up an Internet cable when he noticed water accumulating in the helmet of his spacesuit. At first, he thought it was sweat, but the water kept accumulating. It threatened his hearing and his sight -- two things you need when you're walking in space.

 

NASA was alerted to the problem. Astronauts go through countless simulations and what-if scenarios long before they leave Earth's atmosphere, so they are trained to handle just about anything. But this was something NASA hadn't seen. The spacewalk was aborted about 25 minutes after Parmitano first reported the leak.

 

Cassidy calmly helped Parmitano back to the safety of the space station so his helmet could be removed before the liquid suffocated him. The Maine astronaut then cleaned up any work materials left behind before ducking back inside the space station himself.

 

It was the first time since NASA's Gemini program in the 1960s that a spacewalker was so incapacitated.

 

Cassidy, 43, who was born in Salem, Mass., and grew up in Bath and then York, is no stranger to spacewalks – Tuesday's was his sixth – or to stressful situations.

 

Before becoming an astronaut, the U.S. Naval Academy graduate spent 10 years as a Navy SEAL, including four six-month deployments, two of which took him to Afghanistan.

 

"Chris always tells people he's an ordinary guy, but clearly he's more than just ordinary," said York High School Principal Robert Stevens, who knows Cassidy well. "(Astronauts) either have no nerves or nerves of steel. I'm not sure which fits Chris."

 

Cassidy has been on the International Space Station since April. Recently, he dealt with a situation in which he and fellow astronaut Tom Marshburn made a hastily planned spacewalk to fix an ammonia leak.

 

NASA officials described the problem as a "serious situation," but not a critical one.

 

NASA is still trying to figure out how water leaked into Parmitano's helmet. The most likely scenario is that it came from his spacesuit's cooling system.

 

"The team had a good plan going in; sometimes you have to adjust. This is one of those times," Kenneth Todd, chairman of the mission management team, said in a media briefing Tuesday. "The number one objective is to get crew back safely ... so from that standpoint, we can all breathe a sigh of relief.

 

"Clearly, we have a problem at this point that we don't understand," he said.

 

Joshua Byerly, public affairs officer for NASA, said Wednesday that the incident showed why NASA always deploys two-person teams on spacewalks. "It's the buddy system," he said.

 

Cassidy and Parmitano survived the scare unscathed, but NASA officials said it was a reminder that all spacewalks carry some risks for astronauts. In 2009, Cassidy had to cut short a spacewalk because of a potentially dangerous buildup of carbon dioxide in his suit.

 

Cassidy is in the middle of a six-month stay on the space station. He is due to return in mid-September.

 

Cassidy no longer lives in Maine, but his mother still lives in York and he returns periodically. A few years ago, he spoke at graduation at York High School, where he was a football star in the late 1980s.

 

Two weeks ago, Cassidy even participated in York's Four on the 4th race, though he did it from space, not in person.

 

3D-Printed Rocket Engine Part Passes Key NASA Test

 

Miriam Kramer - Space.com

 

A 3D-printed rocket engine injector has passed a major NASA test, potentially heralding a new age of propulsion-system manufacturing, space agency officials say.

 

NASA and Florida-based company Aerojet Rocketdyne put the injector — which was built using 3D printing (also called "additive manufacturing") technology — through a series of hot-fire trials, agency officials announced last week.

 

"Hot-fire-testing the injector as part of a rocket engine is a significant accomplishment in maturing additive manufacturing for use in rocket engines," Carol Tolbert, manager of the Manufacturing Innovation Project at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, where the tests were conducted, said in a statement.

 

"These successful tests let us know that we are ready to move on to demonstrate the feasibility of developing full-size, additively manufactured parts," Tolbert added.

 

Aerojet Rocketdyne crafted the engine injector using high-powered lasers that liquefied and fused metallic powders into the proper structure.

 

Rocket engine injectors typically take a year or more to build. Employing 3D printing technology can reduce this to less than four months while also cutting costs by 70 percent, NASA officials said.

 

"NASA recognizes that on Earth and potentially in space, additive manufacturing can be game-changing for new mission opportunities, significantly reducing production time and cost by 'printing' tools, engine parts or even entire spacecraft," Michael Gazarik, NASA's associate administrator for space technology in Washington, D.C., said in a statement.

 

"3D manufacturing offers opportunities to optimize the fit, form and delivery systems of materials that will enable our space missions while directly benefiting American businesses here on Earth," he added.

 

NASA's interest in 3D printing appears to be strong and growing. For example, the space agency is partnering with California company Made in Space to send a 3D printer to the International Space Station next year.

 

And NASA recently funded the development of a prototype "3D pizza printer" that could help feed astronauts on long space journeys, such as the 500-day trek to Mars.

 

3D printing has been used to craft certain rocket parts before, but usually this form of manufacturing is employed to build less critical components of the complex machines, Aerojet Rocketdyne additive manufacturing program manager Jeff Haynes said.

 

"The injector is the heart of a rocket engine and represents a large portion of the resulting cost of these systems," Haynes said in a statement. "Today, we have the results of a fully additive manufactured rocket injector with a demonstration in a relevant environment."

 

NASA Amendment Would Weigh Marshall Closure

 

Brian Berger - Space News

 

U.S. Rep. Donna Edwards of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House Science space subcommittee, is expected to introduce an amendment to the NASA authorization bill July 18 calling for a commission to consider closing NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

 

The amendment would establish a Center Realignment and Closure Commission that would be given six months to evaluate "[c]onsolidating all rocket development and test activities of the Marshall Space Flight Center and Stennis Space Center in one location" and recommend a location promising the greatest cost savings.

 

The commission would also be asked to look at "[r]elocating all operations of the Marshall Space Flight Center to both the Stennis Space Center and Johnson Space Center."

 

While the possibility of consolidating all NASA rocket development and testing activity in Mississippi might appeal to subcommittee's chairman, Rep. Steve Palazzo (R-Miss.), the amendment is likely to encounter opposition from the committee's lone Huntsville-area member, Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.).

 

NASA spokesman slams House funding proposal in rare attack on NASA's website

 

Lee Roop - Huntsville Times

 

David Weaver, NASA's associate administrator for communications, used the agency's website Wednesday for a rare jab at the House Appropriations Committee considering NASA's 2014 budget. Weaver said the proposed $16.6 billion budget before the committee "would challenge America's preeminence in space exploration, technology, innovation, and scientific discovery."

 

Weaver said in a blog post on NASA's website that the agency is "deeply concerned" about cuts to space technology and commercial crew development in the House budget. Space technology investments are the "seed corn that allows the nation to conduct ever more capable and affordable space missions," Weaver said. Cutting funding for commercial crew will "ensure we continue to outsource jobs to Russia," the sole source now for launching American astronauts.

 

Weaver's post breaks NASA's tradition of not commenting on spending bills, the website spacenews.com noted today. But the website also noted that the proposed House budget rolls back NASA spending to the 2007 level or - if adjusted for inflation - to the 1986 funding level.

 

Weaver said NASA appreciates the committee's support, but it will work with Congress to try to change the bottom line. That will likely mean lobbying the Senate to keep the $18 billion appropriation for NASA now moving forward in that body. The White House asked for $17.7 billion for NASA next year.

 

With Time Running Out, House and Senate Still $1.4 Billion Apart on NASA

 

Dan Leone – Space News

 

The U.S. Congress has less than a month of legislative working days left before the federal government's new budget year begins Oct. 1, and the House and Senate still have more than $1.4 billion worth of differences to settle, when it comes to NASA.

 

The two chambers' efforts to craft NASA's 2014 budget are almost moving in lockstep. The House Appropriations Committee on July 17 approved a $47.4 billion commerce, justice, science spending bill that included $16.6 billion for NASA — 6.3 percent below what the White House requested for the agency, and 6.6 percent below 2012. The bill, which assumes across-the-board sequestration cuts will continue at least through 2014, has not been scheduled for a floor vote.

 

Meanwhile, the Senate Appropriations commerce, justice, science subcommittee has approved $18 billion for NASA for 2014 as part of a $52.3 billion bill the full committee is set to take up July 18. The Senate legislation ignores sequestration, which in 2013 left NASA with a $16.9 billion top line — about a 5 percent cut, compared with 2012.

 

If the Senate Committee approves the bill before it on July 18, the upper chamber would have 26 legislative work days to pass the dozen spending bills that set the government's 2014 budget. Money provided by the current appropriations law, The Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act of 2013 (H.R. 933), runs out Oct. 1.

 

The House, meanwhile, has just 18 legislative sessions scheduled between July 19 and Oct. 1, according to the schedule posted on majority leader Rep. Eric Cantor's (R-Va.) website.

 

As of July 17, the full House had passed three of its 12 spending bills. Another four had cleared the House Appropriations Committee and were awaiting floor votes. In the Senate, meanwhile, six of 12 spending bills were ready to move to the floor. If Congress cannot clear its plate before Oct. 1, lawmakers could be forced to pass another temporary spending measure, known as a continuing resolution that likely would freeze appropriations at the 2013 level.

 

"I'd be shocked if we don't get a continuing resolution, starting Oct. 1, for some length of time," Jim Green, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, told the Outer Planets Assessment Group during its July 15 meeting in Arlington, Va.

 

Meanwhile, NASA broke from its usual policy of not commenting publicly on pending legislation in a July 17 blog by David Weaver, NASA associate administrator for communications.

 

"We are deeply concerned that the bill under consideration would set our funding level significantly below the President's request," Weaver wrote in the blog. "This proposal would challenge America's preeminence in space exploration, technology, innovation, and scientific discovery."

 

Weaver said NASA was especially concerned that the House bill slashed funding for NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, which is dedicated to getting new and untested technologies ready for use in the agency's space missions.

 

Relative to the White House's request, Space Technology took the one of the biggest hits in the bill just approved by the House Appropriations Committee. The administration asked for $742.6 million, and the Committee approved $573.7 million.

 

House panel approves cutting NASA spending by $1.1 billion

 

Ledyard King – Florida Today

 

A key House committee approved a bill Wednesday that would chop more than $1 billion from NASA's budget next year, despite the agency's warnings the cuts could compromise the nation's global edge in space and science.

 

The spending bill approved by the Appropriations Committee, which now heads to the full GOP-led House, would give NASA $16.6 billion in fiscal 2014. That's a decrease of $1.1 billion from the current budget and about $1.4 billion less than contained in the bill Democrats are moving through the Senate.

 

GOP leaders on the committee said they wanted to provide more money but couldn't due to sequestration budget cuts. Appropriators had flexibility in determining which programs to fund but no wiggle room in the overall amount.

 

Rep. Frank Wolf, who chairs the Commerce, Justice and Science subcommittee handling the NASA bill, said NASA should be happy under the circumstances.

 

"With the allocation that we have, everything is a trade-off," the Virginia Republican said after the vote. "They've been treated very, very fair."

 

Even if the House bill passes later this year, it will have to be reconciled with a Senate version that's expected to call for providing NASA with $18 billion.

 

Unlike the Republicans that run the House, the Democrats in charge of the Senate aren't factoring sequestration into their spending bills because they say they're optimistic Congress will end the automatic cuts.

 

Under the House plan, key sectors of NASA's budget, including science, exploration and space operations, would see a decrease of at least $200 million each.

 

The plan would give NASA nearly $100 million more than it's seeking to continue development of a deep-space mission designed to take astronauts to Mars by the 2030s — a top priority for GOP lawmakers.

 

But it also would slash $321 million from NASA's request for the "commercial crew program" that partners with private aerospace firms to transport astronauts to the International Space Station. Currently, astronauts have to hitch rides on Russian rockets at a cost of more than $70 million for each seat.

 

The House bill would provide no money for an asteroid retrieval mission the agency says is an important stepping-stone to reach Mars. Lawmakers said more planning and study need to be done first.

 

"This proposal would challenge America's preeminence in space exploration, technology, innovation, and scientific discovery," according to a statement issued by NASA Wednesday. "We are especially concerned the bill cuts funding for space technology — the "seed corn" that allows the nation to conduct ever more capable and affordable space missions — and the innovative and cost-effective commercial crew program, which will break our sole dependence on foreign partners to get to the space station."

 

Also Wednesday, Democratic Sens. Bill Nelson of Florida and Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia filed legislation authorizing $18.1 billion for NASA in fiscal 2014.

 

The measure is similar to the $18 billion spending bill the Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to pass Thursday, which would provide about $300 million more than the agency is seeking.

 

"While our spending plan this year is not as much we'd like NASA to have, it should provide the agency with the resources it needs to continue its mission to deep space and eventually Mars, and to bring farther along some of the new commercial space ventures," Nelson said.

 

NASA, lawmakers at odds on cooperation with China

 

Mark Matthews - Orlando Sentinel

 

Most Americans know how the space race began: with the 1957 launch of Sputnik by the U.S.S.R. But fewer remember how it all but ended: a 1975 mission in which an Apollo spacecraft docked with its Soviet counterpart in low Earth orbit.

 

Historians view that flight as a turning point, paving the way for the U.S. and Russia to team up decades later to build the International Space Station.

 

It's also an example cited — almost religiously — by space activists nowadays who want to see the United States work more closely with China, another global rival. Yet flying a similar U.S.-China mission today could be a tougher sell than even the 1975 flight, which launched near the height of the Cold War.

 

Not only is there a wide gulf of distrust between the U.S. and China, but NASA is barred — under a 2011 law — from partnering with the Asian superpower on space projects.

 

Supporters of the ban, up for renewal this year, say it's a sensible precaution that helps safeguard NASA secrets from prying eyes. Critics counter it's a roadblock to awe-inspiring missions, such as a human trip to Mars.

 

The one thing each side agrees on is that the thorny issue is unlikely to be resolved soon.

 

"The advantages of international cooperation really have to outweigh the technical losses," said Howard McCurdy, a space-policy expert at American University.

 

Though the Chinese have made significant strides in recent years, he said the U.S. still holds the advantage in aerospace development and that Washington policymakers must decide whether they want to share — willingly or not — those advances.

 

If it's going to be a "strictly one-way relationship," then there has to be a "pressing reason" to do it, McCurdy said. Among the possibilities: using space as a tie-in to help broker deals on climate change or arms control, he said. "The one [reason] that makes sense is geopolitical," he said.

 

A minor space power for decades, China only recently has started to flex its orbital muscles.

 

In 2003, China become only the third country (behind the U.S. and Russia) to independently launch a human into space. It also shocked the world in 2007 when it used a missile to destroy one of its own probes during an anti-satellite test.

 

Now China is working to build a major space station by 2020 with the eventual goal of sending its space-farers — sometimes called "taikonauts" — to points beyond, although details are hazy.

 

This rapid rise, however, has raised suspicions on Capitol Hill.

 

"We know that China is an active, aggressive espionage threat," said U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., who championed the 2011 ban on NASA cooperation with China.

 

"I suspect that this focus on stealing space- and flight-based technology explains at least some of the major advances that the Chinese space program has made over the past few years," said Wolf in March during a hearing on NASA's budget.

 

He added that any collaboration with Beijing only would worsen the problem.

 

Wolf's assertion, however, is not without its critics — including NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden.

 

The NASA chief has tangled with Wolf several times over the ban, and Bolden, along with Deputy Administrator Lori Garver, plans to visit China in September for a meeting of the world's space leaders — which is allowed under the ban because other countries will be there.

 

"We can work with countries and keep them from stealing our technology," Bolden said.

 

A prime reason to seek China's help is cost. Going to space is expensive, and mounting a historic Mars landing might require every superpower help cover the untold billions it would cost to accomplish.

 

There's little chance NASA will get more than the $17.7 billion that President Barack Obama requested for NASA in 2014 — and a strong possibility it gets less.

 

With that in mind, one foreign-policy expert said it's in NASA's interest to work with China as a way to save money in the short term and enable ambitious missions in the future.

 

"We don't start with Mars. We start with space science and build our way up from that," said Michael Krepon, co-founder of the Stimson Center, a Washington-based think tank that examines global peace and security issues.

 

Elon Musk's mission to Mars

 

Rory Carroll - The Guardian (UK)

 

Elon Musk has flown so high, so fast, it is hard not to wonder when, and how, he will crash to earth. How could he not? Musk is so many things – inventor, entrepreneur, billionaire, space pioneer, inspiration for Iron Man's playboy superhero Tony Stark – and he has pushed the boundaries of science and business, doing what others declare impossible. At some point, surely, he will fall victim to sod's law, or gravity.

 

He is only 41, but so far Musk shows no sign of tumbling earthwards. Nasa and other clients are queuing up to use his rockets, part of the rapid commercialisation of space. His other company, electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors, is powering ahead. Such success would satisfy many tycoons, but for Musk they are merely means to ends: minimising climate change and colonising Mars. And not in some distant future – he wants to accomplish both within our lifetimes.

 

Musk has a reputation for being prickly but when I meet him at SpaceX, his headquarters west of Los Angeles, he is affable and chatty, cheerfully expounding on space exploration, climate change, Richard Branson and Hollywood. Oh, and what he would like written on his Martian tombstone.

 

"The key thing for me," he begins, "is to develop the technology to transport large numbers of people and cargo to Mars. That's the ultimate awesome thing." Musk envisages a colony with 80,000 people on the red planet. "But of course we must pay the bills along the way. So that means serving important customers like Nasa, launching commercial broadcasting communication satellites, GPS satellites, mapping, science experiments. "There's no rush in the sense that humanity's doom is imminent; I don't think the end is nigh. But I do think we face some small risk of calamitous events. It's sort of like why you buy car or life insurance. It's not because you think you'll die tomorrow, but because you might."

 

Musk does not look the stereotypical plutocrat. He wears jeans and a T-shirt and sits behind a rather ordinary desk overlooking a car park, beyond which is Hawthorne, California's answer to Slough. He occupies the corner of a ground-floor, open-plan office that barely constitutes a cubicle. Walk just 40 metres, however, and there is a sight to quicken the pulse: SpaceX's factory, a 1m sq ft sprawl where engineers and technicians work on rockets, propulsion systems and casings for satellites. Suspended over the entrance is the cone-shaped capsule of Dragon, which last year became the first commercial vehicle in history to successfully dock with the International Space Station. SpaceX's next step is to fly humans, up to seven per Dragon, starting between 2015-17.

 

The final frontier has fascinated Musk since he was a boy. Growing up in Pretoria, the son of a Canadian mother and South African father, he taught himself coding and software, mixing geek talent with business nous: he designed and sold a video game, Blastar, by the age of 12. He later studied economics and physics in Canada and the US and moved to Silicon Valley, resolving to focus on three areas: the internet, clean energy, space.

 

Musk made his mark by co-founding PayPal, which transformed e-commerce, in 1999. He sold it three years later to eBay for $1.5bn. When, armed with this fortune, he turned to space exploration, the consensus said he was nuts. Building and launching rockets was the preserve of states – big states, because small states tended to spend a fortune trying and still fail.

 

He was influenced, he says, by Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, a science fiction saga in which a galactic empire falls and ushers in a dark age. "It's sort of a futuristic version of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Let's say you were at the peak of the Roman empire, what would you do, what action could you take, to minimise decline?"

 

It takes me a moment to realise it's not a rhetorical question. Um, poison the barbarians' water supply, I joke. Musk smiles and shakes his head. The answer is in technology. "The lessons of history would suggest that civilisations move in cycles. You can track that back quite far – the Babylonians, the Sumerians, followed by the Egyptians, the Romans, China. We're obviously in a very upward cycle right now and hopefully that remains the case. But it may not. There could be some series of events that cause that technology level to decline. Given that this is the first time in 4.5bn years where it's been possible for humanity to extend life beyond Earth, it seems like we'd be wise to act while the window was open and not count on the fact it will be open a long time."

 

The SpaceX factory is vast and employs 3,000 people but is remarkably clean, bright and quiet. Technicians are casually dressed in shorts or jeans, sneakers or sandals. One group checks on a Falcon 9 launch system; across the corridor another works on protective fairings to encase cargo; a few yards from that a guy with goggles produces spare parts from a 3D printer; in a sealed lab next door colleagues with hairnets and blue coats inspect equipment for a launch later this year, the company's third supply mission for Nasa.

 

The factory exudes Silicon Valley's no-fuss ethos, a streamlined contrast to Nasa bureaucracy and bloat. The space agency, having retired its shuttle fleet, increasingly outsources launch services to Musk. SpaceX's focus on reusable technology has slashed costs – the company says it can get an astronaut to the space station for $20m, versus $70m charged by Russia for a seat on a Soyuz rocket. SpaceX is testing reusable prototype rockets that can return to Earth intact, rather than burn up in the atmosphere. If successful, rockets could be reused like aeroplanes, cutting the price of a space mission to just $200,000, for fuel.

 

Offering cheap, reliable delivery services to Nasa and commercial clients such as broadcasters is for Musk a means to perfect the technology that can get humans to Mars. He believes it could happen within decades – giving him a chance to live his last days there. "It'd be pretty cool to die on Mars, just not on impact," he jokes. Turning serious, he adds: "It's a non-zero possibility. I wouldn't say I'm counting on it but it could happen."

 

Other private companies are filling the void left by diminished, budget-squeezed state programmes, but Musk doesn't seem to worry about the competition. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is making "relatively slow" progress with his company Blue Origin, he says. When I ask about Virgin Galactic, which is due to start commercial flights later this year, Musk chuckles, then turns diplomatic. "We're not really in the same ..." he pauses, looking for the right word, "the same area. What Richard [Branson] is doing is creating a sort of fun sub-orbital ride which lasts five minutes. [He's] trying to create something that's entertaining and exciting ... which is fine. But I wouldn't say we're competitors."

 

After a decade Musk's other company, Tesla Motors, is now also reaping success: booming sales of the all-electric model S have put it into profit and driven the share price to over $100. Last month Consumer Reports, an independent testing group, rated the car 99 out of a 100, saying it performed better than any other car – electric or conventional – it had tested. Tesla is now investing in supercharger stations across the US, and speeding up battery swaps, so drivers can travel coast to coast without worrying about losing power. The same will happen in other countries. A diminished band of sceptics warns that technical and distribution challenges may yet dull Telsa's sheen, and they could be right, but there is no denying Musk's feat in breaking the auto industry's paralysis to make a profitable, zero-emissions car. He plans to celebrate its coming of age by driving his children from Los Angeles to New York in a Tesla later this year.

 

Musk is evangelical about weaning us off fossil fuels. He is chairman of SolarCity, which provides solar power to California, and this week he revealed more detail on perhaps his most intriguing business idea yet, something some consider one of history's craziest-sounding transportation fancies: the Hyperloop, an 800mph self-powered ground-based system that could zip between LA and San Francisco in half-an-hour. On Monday he promised to reveal an "alpha design" by August 12. The project has geeks and transport wonks buzzing – Musk, after all, is Tony Stark, minus the goatee.

 

He squirms a bit when asked about the comparison. "It's kind of cool, I suppose. Obviously there are some important differences between me and Tony Stark, like I have five kids, so I spend more time going to Disneyland than parties. I feel a bit like Tony Stark's dad. I do like parties though." (Musk, twice divorced, has denied rumours he is dating Cameron Diaz.)

 

He made a cameo in Iron Man 2, playing himself, but prefers the latest film. ("It was quite a bit better. I liked it. The Mandarin could have been a better villain, maybe.") Musk laments that there has yet to be a great Mars movie (Arnold Schwarzenegger's Total Recall was "fun, but ridiculous") and says he has urged James Cameron to make one. "Does the world need Avatar 3? The world could use a good movie about establishing a base on Mars."

 

The world could also do with a wake–up call about climate change, he says. "Most people don't really appreciate the magnitude of the danger. The glacier melts are very stark. As you heat the planet up it's just like boiling a pot." The single most important counter-measure is to tax carbon, he says. That would, of course, benefit SolarCity but he denies commercial self-interest. SpaceX rockets use jet fuel and Tesla cars rely on carbon since fossil fuels produce about half of US electricity. "The reason we should do a carbon tax is because it's the right thing to do." Carbon dioxide's production of greenhouse gas is not factored into its price – in the jargon, an unpriced externality, he says. "It's economics 101, elementary stuff."

 

Musk acknowledges limited progress by the Obama administration but avoids criticising the president, which may or may not be related to a $465m federal loan guarantee which helped Tesla make the model S. He already funds environmental groups, and battles by proxy; would he consider setting up his own? He looks thoughtful. "I may need to do something like that."

 

One reason for caution, however, is the fiasco over Fwd.us, an immigration reform lobby group set up by Mark Zuckerberg, the objectives of which include "securing the borders" and "attracting the world's best and brightest workers". Musk signed up, along with other Silicon Valley luminaries, only to quit over the group's tactics.

 

"In order to get support they compromised and agreed to pay for essentially anti-environmental ads for a couple of key conservative senators. And that was not right. You should fight on the merits of the cause, not play some Machiavellian game where you agree to support things that are bad in order to get some things that are good passed."

 

The interview time is over and a queue of SpaceX managers and engineers has formed behind me, waiting to speak to the boss. Some clutch odd-looking tools and instruments, widgets in Musk's plan to fly humans 33.9m miles through space and land, safely, on the red planet. If all goes well he will be able to go himself, an elderly man taking a one-way trip. If he dies there, what should be engraved on his tombstone? Musk frowns a moment, then grins. "Holy shit, I'm on Mars, can you believe it?"

 

City Council takes next step toward Ellington 'Spaceport'

 

Houston Chronicle

 

Houston City Council on Wednesday approved $718,900 for consultants to help obtain a spaceport license for city-run Ellington Airport.

 

Reynolds, Smith and Hills, Inc. will help the city submit an application to the Federal Aviation Administration's commercial space division to obtain a Spaceport Launch Site Operator's License for Ellington. Houston Airport System director Mario Diaz has said the license could be obtained sometime next year.

 

The preparation work, most of which will be done in the first year of the three-year contract, will includes an environmental assessment and plans for where to put launch sites and how to operate them, according to an explanatory document attached to the council agenda.

 

According to an airport system press release, FAA has thusfar licensed eight commercial spaceports.

 

"Houston is in a perfect position to establish itself as a focal point city within the commercial aerospace industry," Diaz said in the release. "The infrastructure at Ellington Airport is ideal for this type of activity. The surrounding area is already populated with highly-educated, trained professionals and (Ellington) is well-positioned geographically to accommodate the types of launches under consideration."

 

The activities hosted at Ellington, Diaz has said, could range from space tourism to the engineering and assembly of space-bound vehicles.

 

As Houston is the only large metropolitan region with an aerospace presence, Diaz and others have said, they envision Ellington as a hub of commercial space activity, most notably for the horizontal launches of reusable vessels. Officials do not anticipate vertical launches being carried out at Ellington.

 

A 2012 study found it would cost the Houston Airport System about $48 million to $122 million to equip Ellington for launching small space vehicles.

 

"Houston was the first word ever spoken from the surface of the moon, so our city already enjoys a unique place in aerospace history," Mayor Annise Parker said in the release. "But we need to take the steps necessary to ensure that Houston remains at the forefront of this exciting industry throughout the 21st Century and this initiative at Ellington Airport goes a long way in accomplishing that goal."

 

Ellington Airport commercial spaceport moves one step closer to reality

 

Molly Ryan - Houston Business Journal

 

Houston City Council is officially on board with bringing commercial spaceflight to Houston's Ellington Airport.

 

On Wednesday, council approved a $718,900 contract with Reynolds, Smith and Hills Inc., a consulting service, to study how Houston can obtain a spaceport launch site operator's license. The consulting firm will also conduct an environmental assessment at Ellington.

 

According to city council documents, Reynolds, Smith and Hills will have a three-year contract with the city, and the majority of the firm's work to get a spaceport license and assess conditions at Ellington Airport will be completed in the first year of the contract.

 

The main force behind bringing a spaceport to Ellington has been the Houston Airport System, which has separately supported studies about the feasibility of building a spaceport.

 

In March, Mario Diaz, HAS' director, explained that the organization was working on creating a launch site for commercial spaceships at Ellington.

 

Also, earlier this month, HAS made a presentation to Houston City Council displaying the potential benefit of building a commercial spaceport at Ellington.

 

In the presentation, HAS cited that there are more than 25 vehicles being developed for commercial spaceflight, there are currently eight licensed commercial spaceports and the first commercial space flights are expected to take off in 2014.

 

If a spaceport is developed, HAS plans for it to support horizontally launched reusable vehicles that can carry micro-satellites, experiments, tourists and astronauts. Also, HAS intends for facilities adjacent to the spaceport at Ellington to conduct research, provide aerospace engineering work and even put together some of the space vehicles.

 

One of Diaz, HAS and the city's main arguments as to why Houston needs a spaceport is that they believe it is necessary for the city to sustain the space legacy created by NASA's Johnson Space Center.

 

"Houston was the first word ever spoken from the surface of the moon, so our city already enjoys a unique place in aerospace history," Mayor Annise Parker said in a statement. "But we need to take the steps necessary to ensure that Houston remains at the forefront of this exciting industry throughout the 21st century, and this initiative at Ellington Airport goes a long way in accomplishing that goal."

 

Starbucks in space? Scientists help astronauts drink coffee

 

Brad Balukjian - Los Angeles Times

 

How do you take your coffee? In a cup?

 

That's the dilemma facing astronauts needing their caffeine fix in space. The almost-zero-gravity environment makes pouring hot coffee into a cup a dangerous task, said Mark Weislogel, who studies fluid dynamics at Portland State University (and whose faculty profile photo bears an uncanny resemblance to another college professor). It may be hard to get the coffee to move, let alone go into your cup.

 

Working with much more important fluids, such as fuel and water, is essential to establishing a permanent human presence in space. But fluids behave in a very different way outside of Earth's atmosphere.

 

"There's no top, no bottom, no up and down, no sideways," Weislogel said in between communication with the astronauts at the International Space Station, who carry out his various experiments.

 

One of those experiments was to design a coffee cup for astronauts. The key to dealing with minimal gravity is capillary action, in which liquids move through a confined space against gravity (or in the absence of it). Think of water moving between the hairs of a paintbrush. The liquid's surface tension and the adhesive forces between the solid and liquid provide the mechanism for capillary action.

 

Drawing on this principle, Weislogel and colleagues, including a team of mathematicians, designed a cup with a sharply angled interior corner. Positioned correctly with your lips, the coffee travels along the corner via capillary action and into your mouth. Weislogel got astronaut Don Pettit to try it out aboard the space station, making it the first patent brought to practice in orbit, he said.

 

Now to add sugar…

 

With Neil Armstrong gone, how will moonshots be remembered?

 

Alan Boyle - NBC News

 

It's been 44 years since humans first set foot on the moon, but less than one year since the first human to do so died. The passing of Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong, the best-known moonwalker, could herald a shift in how the past and the future of moon exploration is viewed.

 

"Actuarially, it's getting more likely that we're returning to a situation I never thought I'd see, with no living people on Earth who have ever been to the moon," said NBC News space analyst James Oberg.

 

The age of the moonwalkers began on July 20, 1969, when Armstrong and crewmate Buzz Aldrin took humanity's first small steps on the lunar surface. Since then, four of the 12 men who walked on the moon have passed away. The youngest of those who remain — Apollo 16's Charlie Duke — is 77.

 

Some of the Apollo astronauts have become outspoken advocates for specific visions of space exploration. Like Armstrong, Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan has spoken repeatedly in favor of going back to the moon. Earlier this year, Armstrong's Apollo 11 crewmate, Buzz Aldrin, came out with "Mission to Mars," a book laying out his vision for Red Planet exploration. Meanwhile, Apollo 9's Rusty Schweickart is a leading proponent of asteroid missions.

 

Does all that advocacy have an effect? And will it be missed when it's gone?

 

"None of those policy questions, I think, are decided on the basis of the advocacy of one group of people, the astronauts or anybody else," Roger Launius, a space historian at the Smithsonian Institution, told NBC News. "The astronauts have a strong voice, there's no doubt about that. And when they speak, they have a credibility that the average person just doesn't have. But in the end, they don't make the decision."

 

Launius said the eventual fading of the moon generation is likely to bring a subtler change in historical perspective, just as the passage of the last World War I veterans shifted our view of that conflict.

 

"They have this ability to speak with authority about the eyewitness aspects of this effort, and no one else can do that," he said. "It's not that the event is less significant because there are no eyewitnesses, but our perspectives obviously shift a bit."

 

Moon-hoax theories fading

 

Today, fresh perspectives on the moon are coming from robotic probes such as NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which captured images of the Apollo landing sites. Such images, released over the past couple of years, have put claims that the moon landings were faked to rest for all but the most hard-core conspiracy theorists.

 

 

In retrospect, it's understandable that some people would have doubts about the TV broadcasts and pictures from the moon. Some of the phenomena seen on the screen — such as the seemingly starless sky, or the flag that waved in the vacuum of outer space — really did look otherworldly, Oberg said.

 

"The lighting and the shadowing were wrong ... for Earth," he said. "They weren't flaky objections. You just have to realize that the astronauts 'weren't in Kansas anymore.'"

 

Going back to the moon

 

When will humans go back to the moon? NASA's current policy focuses on sending astronauts to study a piece of an asteroid, and eventually explore Mars and its moons. The exploration of Earth's moon would be left primarily to the private sector and international efforts.

 

There's a good chance that the first humans to fly around the moon will be commercial customers — perhaps a couple of clients paying $150 million each to Space Adventures or Excalibur Almaz.

 

The Golden Spike Company is working on a launch system that could get two spacefliers to the moon and back in the 2020s for an estimated $1.4 billion. The company has scheduled a workshop in October to lay out the opportunities for potential customers.

 

Oberg is betting that someone will eventually find a way to take advantage of a "secret back door" to the moon's surface: a space elevator system that could grab a payload or a passenger spaceship from lunar orbit and pull it down on a skyhook. Experts have been kicking around the idea for decades, and Oberg himself referred to the skyhook system almost four years ago. He's just waiting for someone to pick up on the idea.

 

"The moon is the ideal place in the solar system for a rotating skyhook," Oberg said.

 

Alameda's USS Hornet to mark Apollo mission anniversary

 

Peter Hegarty - Bay Area News Group

 

Neil Armstrong and his fellow astronauts were back on Earth following the first Moon landing in July 1969, but they were still far from safe as their space capsule bobbed on the Pacific Ocean swells.

 

But the aircraft carrier USS Hornet was nearby and hovering just above them was a Sea King helicopter piloted by the U.S. Navy's Don Jones, who was ready to pluck the astronauts from the ocean and carry each to a hero's welcome.

 

On Saturday, the staff and volunteers of the USS Hornet, now a floating museum, will mark the 44th anniversary of that first lunar landing and the ship's role in the recovery of the astronauts with an all-day event called "Blades of Majesty," which will focus on its own Sikorsky Sea King helicopter.

 

While the museum's Sea King is not the one that picked up Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins and landed them aboard the Hornet, where President Richard Nixon was among those waiting to greet the men, the helicopter still played a role in space exploration history.

 

The Hornet's Sea King was the recovery aircraft for the crew of Gemini 4 in June 1965, the mission when Astronaut Ed White carried out the first spacewalk by an American, plus the helicopter was used in the Ron Howard film Apollo 13.

 

Joe Martinez, a retired Navy First Class Petty Officer and the Hornet's helicopter restoration specialist, will lead a dedication ceremony at the Sea King at 1 p.m.

 

Bob Fish, a Hornet trustee and the author of "Hornet Plus Three -- The Story of Apollo 11 Recovery," will take part, as well as Mike Arrowsmith, a Navy helicopter pilot with two tours in Vietnam.

 

Rob Blickle, who became a pilot in 1973 and was commander of Squadron HS-85 in Alameda, will also be on hand.

 

The day's other activities will include a performance by the Hornet Band beginning at noon and guided Apollo 11 recovery tours at 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. There will also be an interactive robot exhibit courtesy of the NASA Ames Research Center

 

Along with recovering the astronauts who carried out the first Moon landing, the Hornet recovered the crew of Apollo 12 after the second lunar landing in November 1969.

 

A registered state and national historic landmark, the USS Hornet is open to the public daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and permanently berthed at 707 W. Hornet Ave., Pier 3 in Alameda.

 

The inspiring story of the astronaut rejected by NASA 15 times before finally reaching the skies

 

Vivian Giang - San Francisco Chronicle

 

In 1998, Clayton Anderson was a 29-year-old aerospace engineer who wanted to fulfill his childhood dream of going to space.

 

One agency was stopping him from getting there: NASA.

 

The government agency had rejected Anderson's application for its astronaut training program 15 times.

 

But Anderson is one of those people whose dogged perseverance is inspiring.

 

Anderson didn't feel depressed after getting yet another rejection letter from NASA. He said he actually felt "hope" whenever he received one: "Most applicants receive postcards; a letter sent on stationary meant something."

 

But so many rejections after so many years can wear on a man, and Anderson decided that his 16th attempt would be his last one. Fortunately, that last attempt was all he needed.

 

In August of 1998, Anderson reported for training, which included "numerous scientific and technical briefings, intensive instruction in Shuttle and International Space Station (ISS) systems, physiological training, ground school to prepare for T-38 flight training, as well as learning water and wilderness survival techniques."

 

In 2007, Anderson boarded the Space Shuttle Atlantis for a trip to the International Space Station as a flight engineer on his father's birthday and returned to earth five months later on his wedding anniversary. Three years later, he went to space a second time as a mission specialist on STS-131.

 

Anderson is the first and only astronaut from Nebraska and has logged 167 days in space, including more than 38 hours in spacewalks. You can read his expedition journals.

 

In January of 2013, the 54-year-old retired from NASA and is now turning his attention to education. David Hendee writes at the World-Herald that Anderson has opportunities at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Iowa State University's aerospace engineering program.

 

If this story doesn't embody the "never give up" motto, we're not sure what does.

 

Below is one of Anderson's rejection letters featured in the book "Other People's Rejection Letters":

 

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