Monday, August 26, 2013

Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - August 26, 2013 and JSC Today



Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: August 26, 2013 5:47:11 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - August 26, 2013 and JSC Today

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Headlines

  1. Save the Date: Center Director All Hands Sept. 5

JSC Director Ellen Ochoa will speak to employees from 9 to 10 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 5, in the Building 2 South Teague Auditorium. All JSC team members are invited to attend. Ochoa will take questions after the All Hands from the audience. If you would like to submit a question for consideration in advance or during the All Hands, please email it to: JSC-Ask-The-Director@mail.nasa.gov.

JSC, Ellington Field, Sonny Carter Training Facility and White Sands Test Facility team members unable to attend in the Teague Auditorium can watch it on RF Channel 2 or Omni 45. Those with wired computer network connections can view the All Hands using the JSC EZTV IP Network TV System on channel 402. Please note: EZTV currently requires using Internet Explorer on a Windows PC connected to the JSC computer network with a wired connection. Mobile devices, Wi-Fi connections and newer MAC computers are currently not supported by EZTV. 

If you are having problems viewing the video using these systems, contact the Information Resources Directorate Customer Support Center at x46367.

Event Date: Thursday, September 5, 2013   Event Start Time:9:00 AM   Event End Time:10:00 AM
Event Location: Bldg. 2S Teague Auditorium

Add to Calendar

Office of Communications and Public Affairs, JSC External Relations x35111

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  1. NASA Ombudsman Survey Coming Soon

Be on the lookout! The agency will be sending a short Ombudsman Program survey to your inbox if you are a NASA civil servant or on-site contractor. Please take a moment to complete the survey. The Ombudsman Office provides confidential, neutral, informal and independent advice and counsel to individuals on a wide range of interpersonal and workplace-related issues. It is one of several resources at JSC that can help an individual with developing options for issue resolution. More information on the program and how to set up a visit with one of the two JSC Ombudsman, Donna Blackshear-Reynolds (281-483-2814) or John Casper (281-792-9364), can be found here.

Donna Blackshear-Reynolds x32814 http://ombuds.jsc.nasa.gov/

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  1. NASA 55th Anniversary T-Shirt - Special Purchase

Starport is excited to offer the latest agency T-shirt in celebration of NASA's 55th anniversary on Oct. 1. This is a special online purchase opportunity, with sizes ranging from youth medium to adult XL (just $7, or $8 for 2X-4X). Pick up your shirts at Starport with the TX-JSC option, or have them shipped to your home address for an additional fee. Order online today!

Cyndi Kibby x47467

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  1. JSC vs. Energy Vampires 2013: Status Update

In 2011, a heated battle waged between JSC employees and energy vampires (electronics that still drain energy even when turned off). Ultimately, the employees were triumphant, but the war against wasteful electricity use continues! Once again, the JSC Green Team is calling on JSC team members to take action against energy vampires in this year's energy competition. Occupants of more than 50 buildings at JSC, Ellington Field and Sonny Carter Training Facility are competing to achieve the greatest percent decrease in overall energy consumption over 10 weeks. So far, Buildings 36 and 260 are in the lead, but several buildings are close on their tails. We still have eight weeks to go, so you still have time to make a difference. Will your building triumph this year, or will the energy vampires win? Visit the JSC Green Team website to find out more.

JSC Green Team x34627 http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/ja/ja13/greenteam.cfm

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  1. Conference Attendance: What Will Be Approved?

If you have ever wondered why it is so hard to gain approval for conference attendance, join the Office of the Chief Financial Officer Policy Office to have all your questions answered. The Policy Office will provide a short presentation and then host a question-and-answer session on Tuesday, Sept. 3, from 10 to 11 a.m. and Thursday, Sept. 5, from 2 to 3 p.m.; both in the Building 30 Auditorium.

There is no need to register, just come on by.

Eameal Holstien x33859

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  1. Recent JSC Announcement

Please visit the JSC Announcements (JSCA) Web page to view the newly posted announcement:

JSCA 13-032: Key Personnel Assignments - Jeff Hanley and Vanessa Wyche

Archived announcements are also available on the JSCA Web page.

Linda Turnbough x36246 http://ird.jsc.nasa.gov/DocumentManagement/announcements/default.aspx

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  1. Today: NASA's Virtual Colloquium Series Webcast

Join Robbie Stokes as he discusses "I TALK TO STRANGERS," a social movement whose philosophy encourages and challenges individuals to create genuine relationships through meeting new people. His motive is to push a new idea, that meeting new people increases personal and professional opportunities, experiences and lessons learned. This Virtual Colloquium Series is sponsored by NASA's Office of Human Capital Management.

Please note: This Adobe Connect session will only hold the first 300 attendees who join, so please join early. To log into the session, click on this link, select "Enter as a Guest," complete the "Name" field and select "Enter Room."

Date/Time/Location: Today, Aug. 26, 1 to 2 p.m. CDT, webcast here    

Krystal Hall, NASA Headquarters 202-358-1297

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   Organizations/Social

  1. JSC Contractor Safety and Health Forum - Sept. 10

Our next JSC Contractor Safety and Health Forum will be Tuesday, Sept. 10, in the Gilruth Alamo Ballroom from 9 to 11 a.m. The guest speaker for this event is Dr. Richard Bunch, Ph.D., P.T., C.B.E.S., CEO of the Industrial Safety & Rehabilitation Institute, Inc., and adjunct professor at Tulane University, School of Public Health. Bunch's presentation, "Advanced Concepts in Office Ergonomics and Wellness," will cover how integrating key ergonomic principles with behavioral modification and wellness interventions have proven to be highly effective for injury prevention and wellness. Robert Martel, Health System specialist in the JSC Occupational Health Branch (JSC/SD), will provide an overview of the JSC Occupational Health Branch services. David Loyd, chief, Safety and Test Operations Division (JSC/NS), will be discussing the "Results of the JSC NASA Safety Culture Survey."

If you have any questions, please contact Pat Farrell at 281-335-2012 or via email.

Event Date: Tuesday, September 10, 2013   Event Start Time:9:00 AM   Event End Time:11:00 AM
Event Location: Gilruth Alamo Ballroom

Add to Calendar

Patricia A. Farrell 281-335-2012

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   Jobs and Training

  1. Financial Wellness September Happenings

Evening financial wellness classes will be offered in September at the Gilruth. This is a great opportunity to bring your spouse or significant other. Enrollment opens today! Seating is limited, so reserve your seat now.

The long-awaited webinar series is starting in September. We apologize for the delay. The webinar system is new. Your feedback is appreciated, so please let us know if you are having any technical difficulties. Different Internet browsers may require adjustment of some settings.

First up are the following two webinars. Please enroll in each webinar online at the link below.

FW105: Debt Free for Life

Includes debt in the United States today, behavioral approaches, debt-elimination case study and introduction to the wealth tree concept.

FW109: Financial Transitions

Empowers employees prior, during and after major life transitions. Covers planning, budgets, benefits, 401(k) options/loan avoiding taxes and more.

Enrollment Details are at this link.

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

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  1. Job Opportunities

Where do I find job opportunities?

Both internal Competitive Placement Plan (CPP) and external JSC job announcements are posted on the Human Resources (HR) portal and USAJOBS website. Through the HR portal, civil servants can view summaries of all the agency jobs that are currently open at: https://hr.nasa.gov/portal/server.pt/community/employees_home/239/job_opportu..

To help you navigate to JSC vacancies, use the filter drop-down menu and select "JSC HR." The "Jobs" link will direct you to the USAJOBS website for the complete announcement and the ability to apply online. If you have questions about any JSC job vacancies, please call your HR representative.

Lisa Pesak x30476

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

Human Spaceflight News

Monday – August 26, 2013

 

Yosemite wild fires taken Saturday by Karen Nyberg aboard the ISS

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

Delays, costs: Faith in NASA rocket's progress stumbles

NASA: Budget's structure makes cost overruns, delays likely

 

James Dean - Florida Today

 

The rocket and spacecraft NASA is developing to carry crews into deep space already face questions about whether they'll be ready, without additional funding, to blast off on a first test flight in late 2017. The programs are proceeding with daunting budget challenges and an above-normal risk of delays or cost increases, according to recent agency reports and statements. Any significant slip in the first, uncrewed flight would delay hiring at Kennedy Space Center that is expected to ramp up ahead of the mission. It also could push back a first crewed flight targeted for 2021, driving up the cost on a program tentatively planning to spend more than $22 billion during the next eight years.

 

When NASA Met Michael Bay, or, How Nic Cage Might Lasso an Asteroid

In a world ... where an astronaut captures a space-rock ...

 

Megan Garber - The Atlantic

 

Here's how things, apparently, will go: NASA will send two of its astronauts into space with the help of the Orion spacecraft and, of course, a rocket. The astronauts will travel in space for nine days, using the moon's gravity to pick up speed for the trip. The astronauts will approach an asteroid that has been captured by a robotic spacecraft. They will use an enormous ladder to travel between the captured asteroid and their own spacecraft. They will walk onto the asteroid, using hundreds of rings affixed to the space-rock's surface, to navigate its bumpy terrain. They will collect samples of the asteroid. They will bring those samples back to Earth. Earth will cheer. If that all sounds like a movie ... it is. Sort of. Only the producer of this particular motion picture will be a government agency. And the plot in question -- coming to a theater near you in 2021 -- won't just be a melodrama of the Armageddon or Deep Impact variety; it will also be a NASA mission. NASA's "Asteroid Redirect Mission," to be precise.

 

Astronaut honors JFK's legacy with medal in space

 

Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com

 

 

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station has paid tribute to John F. Kennedy, flying a medallion to the orbiting outpost that bears the likeness of the 35th President of the United States. NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, who is serving as a flight engineer on board the space station, sent down photos on Wednesday showing the medal floating in front of a window with a view of the Earth below. "As an admirer of President John F. Kennedy and a friend of the Kennedy Library, [U.S. Naval] Commander Cassidy offered to bring a bronze medallion emblazoned with JFK's likeness and a quote from his inaugural address into space to honor President Kennedy's commitment to space exploration," the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum posted to Facebook on Thursday. "Just yesterday, Commander Cassidy sent us these photos of JFK's medallion in space."

 

Waterbury native Rick Mastracchio will orbit Earth for six months on space station

 

Waterbury Observer (Connecticut)

 

Waterbury native Rick Mastracchio is a NASA astronaut and is headed back into space in November for a six month stay on the International Space Station. Mastracchio, Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and veteran cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin of the Russian Federal Space Agency, make up space station Expedition 38. Mastracchio grew up in Waterbury, Conn., and graduated from the University of Connecticut. He holds master's degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Houston-Clear Lake. Mastracchio worked as an engineer in the space industry before joining NASA in 1990 as an engineer in the Flight Crew Operations Directorate. Selected as an astronaut in 1996, he is a veteran of three spaceflights.

 

NASA decides astronaut twin brothers experiment is worthy

 

Todd Halvorson - Florida Today

 

NASA initially rejected a pitch from identical twin astronauts to serve as test subjects for International Space Station experiments, deeming the proposed research scientifically irrelevant. But the scientist who nixed the idea did an about-face when asked by colleagues to reconsider. "I'm embarrassed to say that when it first came up in some discussions we were having late last year, I said, 'Well, that's a funny idea, but it's really not of any rigorous scientific interest, in my opinion,' " NASA scientist John Charles said in a recent interview. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly is training for a 12-month International Space Station mission that will set a new record for the longest single American spaceflight. Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will join him on the expedition, which is set for launch in the spring of 2015. Identical twin brother Mark Kelly is a former NASA astronaut who served as mission commander on the final flight of Endeavour in May 2011.

 

Do You Have the Right Stuff? NASA's New Astronauts Share What It Takes

 

Clara Moskowitz - Space.com

 

The eight newly selected astronauts joining NASA's spaceflying corps revealed some of the details of their grueling application process Tuesday (Aug. 20) in their only news conference before embarking on a rigorous two-year training program. The lucky eight were selected out of a pool of more than 6,000 applicants, and endured a demanding series of interviews and examinations over the course of a year and a half to make it where they are today. NASA first called for applications for the 2013 astronaut class, newly nicknamed the "8 Balls," in November 2011.

 

Canadian could visit moon as part of ambitious space plan

 

Peter Rakobowchuk - Canadian Press

 

Canada could be sending its first astronaut to the moon under an ambitious long-term plan being developed by a group of space agencies around the world. A return to the moon within the next two decades is part of the recently updated Global Exploration Roadmap — a far-reaching plan developed by more than a dozen space agencies. Canada is among the 14 space agencies participating in the International Space Exploration Coordination Group, which first started developing the strategy in 2007. The first roadmap was released in 2011 and the latest update was made public last week. An early phase of the plan would put a new space station into orbit around the moon, and use it as a staging point to ferry astronauts back and forth.

 

California vies for new space industry

 

Mihir Zaveri - Associated Press

 

As several new private ventures to take people on trips to space come closer to becoming reality, California lawmakers are racing other states to woo the new space companies with cushy incentives. They are debating a bill now in Sacramento that would insulate manufacturers of spaceships and parts suppliers from liability should travelers get injured or killed on a voyage, except in cases such as gross negligence or intentional wrongdoing. Last year, the state enacted a law that shields space tourism companies such as Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic from similar lawsuits. "We're still in the fledgling part of space flight and space travel, and we need people to be able to take a risk," said California Republican Sen. Steve Knight, who introduced both state bills.

 

Countdown under way for space travel from N.M.

 

Gary Herron - Rio Rancho Observer

 

En route to Spaceport America last weekend, a passenger on the Follow the Sun Tours bus remembered squatting in front of his parents' TV the morning of May 5, 1961, and using a small reel-to-reel recorder to get the historic moment on tape. That was the dawning of the Space Age for America, as Alan Shepard, one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts — blasted into space. Fifty-two years later, that "kid" was on his way to what is being hailed as the origins of the Second Space Age — Spaceport America, in southern New Mexico.

 

NASA Remembers Neil Armstrong with 'Tranquility Base' Music Video

 

Tariq Malik - Space.com

 

Famed Apollo 11 moonwalker Neil Armstrong died one year ago Sunday and NASA is remembering the iconic astronaut with a touching music video tribute. Neil Armstrong died on Aug. 25, 2012 at age 82. A talented Navy aviator, test pilot and astronaut, Armstrong cemented his place in history on July 20, 1969 when he became the first person to walk on the moon as commander of NASA's Apollo 11 lunar landing mission. To remember Armstrong's legacy, NASA posted a video tribute with the song "Tranquility Base" by songwriter Eric Brace. The video, which NASA posted on YouTube and its website Friday, melds iconic photos from the Apollo 11 moon landing (Armstrong dubbed the site "Tranquility Base" after touchdown) to Brace's lyrics.

(NO FURTHER TEXT)

 

The Truth About Neil Armstrong

 

James Hansen, Auburn University - Space.com (Opinion)

 

(Hansen, a history professor at Auburn University and the trusted biographer of Neil Armstrong in "First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong")

 

One year has passed since the death of Neil Armstrong on Aug. 25, 2012, and people are still struggling to explain the remarkably unique character of the extraordinarily private man who was the First Man on the Moon. A ghostly TV image in a clumsy spacesuit climbing down a ladder a quarter of a million miles away and becoming the first of our species to set foot on another heavenly body was virtually the sum total of who we knew as Neil Armstrong at the time of his historic Apollo 11 mission.

__________

 

COMPLETE STORIES

 

Delays, costs: Faith in NASA rocket's progress stumbles

NASA: Budget's structure makes cost overruns, delays likely

 

James Dean - Florida Today

 

The rocket and spacecraft NASA is developing to carry crews into deep space already face questions about whether they'll be ready, without additional funding, to blast off on a first test flight in late 2017.

 

The programs are proceeding with daunting budget challenges and an above-normal risk of delays or cost increases, according to recent agency reports and statements.

 

Any significant slip in the first, uncrewed flight would delay hiring at Kennedy Space Center that is expected to ramp up ahead of the mission. It also could push back a first crewed flight targeted for 2021, driving up the cost on a program tentatively planning to spend more than $22 billion during the next eight years.

 

NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden recently warned an advisory panel that the 321-foot high Space Launch System rocket was not expected to meet the agency's usual standard for pushing a program forward.

 

NASA strives for at least 70 percent confidence that programs over $250 million will come in on time and budget, but Bolden said he suspected the heavy-lift rocket might fall short "for a variety of reasons, mainly having to do with reserves."

 

"So then, you have to decide, OK, how much risk do you want to accept if you're going to go below this level?" he told the NASA Advisory Council on July 31.

 

Two weeks later, NASA's inspector general cataloged numerous challenges facing development of the Orion crew vehicle, principally that its flat annual budget increased the chance problems may be found late that require more time or money to fix.

 

The SLS rocket has a similarly "flat-lined" budget.

 

For now, managers say the three components of the exploration system — the rocket, Orion and ground systems at Kennedy — are making good progress.

 

"This set of programs has met every single one of its major milestones that were planned out two years ago," said Dan Dumbacher, deputy associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Development at NASA headquarters.

 

NASA expects to formally commit to a development plan this year that will update the rocket's cost and schedule projections and set a so-called Joint Confidence Level, or JCL, quantifying the risks ahead.

 

Agency policy permits a program falling below the 70 percent confidence threshold to proceed as long as the rationale is justified and documented appropriately.

 

But government watchdogs say such an outcome would "raise a red flag," particularly if inadequate reserves were a primary reason for it, as Bolden suggested.

 

"Reserves are one way to address uncertainty," said Cristina Chaplain, director of acquisition and sourcing management at the U.S. Government Accountability Office. "In the past, large programs on the scale of SLS that have not had sufficient reserves have faced funding challenges that invariably drove up costs and/or stretched schedules."

 

Another of NASA's major programs, the James Webb Space Telescope, missed the 70 percent mark, but offset that shortcoming with reserves from NASA headquarters. It's not clear such a cushion will be available for SLS.

 

The Hubble successor's estimated cost has grown by almost nine times, to $8.8 billion, and is targeting a launch in 2018, more than a decade later than initially planned.

 

GAO commends NASA for performing the Joint Confidence Level analysis, a relatively new process that is expected to improve upon the agency's track record of unrealistic projections, especially for human spaceflight programs.

 

NASA is "still working the numbers" for SLS, Dumbacher said.

 

The space agency said the confidence level will be one of several measures of the program's overall health, and it is not well-suited to programs with flat funding profiles. GAO disagrees.

 

Dumbacher acknowledged the flat budget represents the rocket development's biggest overall risk, and said the availability of reserves when you need them is always a concern.

 

"We will always run into problems, particularly when you're building the largest launch vehicle that's ever been built, and you've got integration issues, you've got to figure out how to put all those pieces together," he said.

 

The program ideally would set aside as much as 30 percent of its funding for reserves to address problems as they come up, Dumbacher said, "but that's not today's reality."

 

Complex space hardware typically is developed with a bell-shaped funding curve. Budgets shoot up as multiple systems are worked simultaneously and technical issues are addressed, then taper off ahead of operations.

 

These programs have no curve. NASA's projected funding holds steady every year, with no adjustments for inflation.

 

As a result, work on important systems will be deferred until late in the process. A focus on Orion's life-support systems, for example, will wait until after the unmanned 2017 test launch.

 

According to NASA's inspector general, experience shows "delaying critical development tasks increases the risk of future cost and schedule problems."

 

"We believe it vital that Congress and the public recognize that incremental spacecraft development is not an optimal way to sustain a human space program," the report concluded.

 

That line echoes findings from a White House review panel that in 2009 determined NASA's previous exploration program was on "an unsustainable trajectory," leading to its cancellation.

 

"It is perpetuating the perilous practice of pursuing goals that are often admirable, but which do not match available resources," the Augustine Committee wrote of NASA's Constellation program, which was developing Ares rockets and Orion to return astronauts to the moon.

 

Counting work begun during Constellation, NASA has already spent more than $15.5 billion on SLS and Orion.

 

The White House and Congress are pressing forward with an incremental development approach as a necessity, given pressure to cut federal spending and deficits.

 

The $2.8 billion NASA plans annually for SLS, Orion and the ground systems is more than three times the total being sought for commercial vehicles being designed to fly astronauts from the Space Coast to the International Space Station, also by 2017.

 

Bolden's warning of a low confidence level for SLS came as NASA completed the rocket's preliminary design review.

 

Dumbacher said the review for such a large, complex system was cleaner than others.

 

"The technical issues are fewer, the magnitude of those technical issues are smaller, than what I think we were dealing with back in the Constellation and Ares days," he said.

 

The ground systems and Orion programs should establish their own confidence levels by next spring and fall, respectively.

 

NASA is eager to show off Orion's progress with a test flight just over a year from now. Dumbacher said an unpiloted Orion prototype is on track to launch from Cape Canaveral atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket.

 

When NASA Met Michael Bay, or, How Nic Cage Might Lasso an Asteroid

In a world ... where an astronaut captures a space-rock ...

 

Megan Garber - The Atlantic

 

Here's how things, apparently, will go: NASA will send two of its astronauts into space with the help of the Orion spacecraft and, of course, a rocket. The astronauts will travel in space for nine days, using the moon's gravity to pick up speed for the trip. The astronauts will approach an asteroid that has been captured by a robotic spacecraft. They will use an enormous ladder to travel between the captured asteroid and their own spacecraft. They will walk onto the asteroid, using hundreds of rings affixed to the space-rock's surface, to navigate its bumpy terrain. They will collect samples of the asteroid. They will bring those samples back to Earth. Earth will cheer.

 

If that all sounds like a movie ... it is. Sort of. Only the producer of this particular motion picture will be a government agency. And the plot in question -- coming to a theater near you in 2021 -- won't just be a melodrama of the Armageddon or Deep Impact variety; it will also be a NASA mission. NASA's "Asteroid Redirect Mission," to be precise.

 

The video doesn't reveal, to be clear, NASA's official strategy when it comes to capturing an asteroid: That strategy is still up for review, at technical workshops and elsewhere. The let's-lasso-an-asteroid plan is, NASA points out, a "notional concept." What the video does reveal, however, is NASA's strategy when it comes to capturing attention. NASA (no doubt inspired, at least in part, by Hollywood) has doubled down on the human drama of its upcoming plans for space exploration.

 

It is taking one of the lessons of Curiosity -- that a single, high-drama, viral video could do a lot to make people care about a six-wheeled robot whose official name is the Mars Science Laboratory -- and applying it to future missions. The trailer above might as well have been scored by Hans Zimmer. It might as well have been directed by Michael Bay. It might as well star a puffy-suited Nic Cage. [Note to NASA: Please involve Nic Cage in your upcoming asteroid mission.] It is entertainment, based on a true story, brought to you by NASA.

 

Astronaut honors JFK's legacy with medal in space

 

Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com

 

 

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station has paid tribute to John F. Kennedy, flying a medallion to the orbiting outpost that bears the likeness of the 35th President of the United States.

 

NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, who is serving as a flight engineer on board the space station, sent down photos on Wednesday showing the medal floating in front of a window with a view of the Earth below.

 

"As an admirer of President John F. Kennedy and a friend of the Kennedy Library, [U.S. Naval] Commander Cassidy offered to bring a bronze medallion emblazoned with JFK's likeness and a quote from his inaugural address into space to honor President Kennedy's commitment to space exploration," the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum posted to Facebook on Thursday. "Just yesterday, Commander Cassidy sent us these photos of JFK's medallion in space."

 

Sworn into office in January 1961, Kennedy was president when the United States sent its first astronaut into space, a month after the Soviet Union launched the world's first human into orbit. Just 20 days after Alan Shepard returned from his suborbital mission, JFK responded to the space race by challenging the country to make sending a man to the moon a national priority.

 

"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth," Kennedy said in an address before Congress on May 25, 1961.

 

Despite privately expressing concerns over the costs of a crewed lunar landing, Kennedy publicly celebrated NASA's progress, up until his assassination 50 years ago this fall. On Nov. 16, 1963, just six days before his ill-fated trip to Dallas, Kennedy made his third visit to Cape Canaveral, touring the launch facilities that less than two weeks later would bear his name in memory.

 

The 3-inch (7.6-centimeter) bronze medallion that Cassidy flew to the space station was created as part of the U.S. Mint's presidential medallion series. The commemorative's obverse (or front) features a high-relief bust of Kennedy.

 

The medal's reverse in inscribed with a quote from JFK's 1961 inaugural address, "We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty."

 

Although limited by the size of their spacecraft, astronauts are permitted to carry a small number of mementos with them to the International Space Station (ISS). Dating back to Shepard's first flight, crew members have flown medals and other tokens to space on behalf of the organizations they support and which have supported them.

 

"When he returns to earth this fall, Cassidy will bring the medal back to the JFK Library, where it will become a part of our permanent museum collection," the Library posted on Facebook.

 

The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, located in Boston, has a permanent exhibit devoted to the space race. In addition to displaying related artifacts from the Kennedy Administration and a moon rock on loan from NASA, the museum is currently exhibiting Alan Shepard's Mercury capsule, "Freedom 7," on loan from the National Air and Space Museum until December 2015.

 

Waterbury native Rick Mastracchio will orbit Earth for six months on space station

 

Waterbury Observer (Connecticut)

 

Waterbury native Rick Mastracchio is a NASA astronaut and is headed back into space in November for a six month stay on the International Space Station. Mastracchio, Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and veteran cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin of the Russian Federal Space Agency, make up space station Expedition 38.

 

Mastracchio grew up in Waterbury, Conn., and graduated from the University of Connecticut. He holds master's degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Houston-Clear Lake. Mastracchio worked as an engineer in the space industry before joining NASA in 1990 as an engineer in the Flight Crew Operations Directorate. Selected as an astronaut in 1996, he is a veteran of three spaceflights.

 

This will be Wakata's fourth flight into space and second long-duration mission on the station. In March 2014, he will become the first Japanese commander of the space station. The mission marks Tyurin's third long-duration stay on the space station.

 

Mastracchio has been sharing his mission training and preparations via Twitter. He's encouraged followers to join his training via the "Ride with Rick" monthly trivia question series. Winners will have their photos sent to space and photographed in orbit with Mastracchio.

 

The trio will launch in their Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Nov. 6. They are scheduled to return to Earth in May 2014.

 

NASA decides astronaut twin brothers experiment is worthy

 

Todd Halvorson - Florida Today

 

NASA initially rejected a pitch from identical twin astronauts to serve as test subjects for International Space Station experiments, deeming the proposed research scientifically irrelevant.

 

But the scientist who nixed the idea did an about-face when asked by colleagues to reconsider.

 

"I'm embarrassed to say that when it first came up in some discussions we were having late last year, I said, 'Well, that's a funny idea, but it's really not of any rigorous scientific interest, in my opinion,' " NASA scientist John Charles said in a recent interview.

 

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly is training for a 12-month International Space Station mission that will set a new record for the longest single American spaceflight. Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will join him on the expedition, which is set for launch in the spring of 2015.

 

Identical twin brother Mark Kelly is a former NASA astronaut who served as mission commander on the final flight of Endeavour in May 2011.

 

The Kelly twins offered up their services as human lab rats for research into the genetic impacts of long-duration spaceflight. Scott Kelly would be tested in orbit, and Mark Kelly agreed to travel to Houston from his home in Albuquerque, N.M., several times a year.

 

Charles knows the experiments will lack certain aspects of scientifically valid research. They will not be conducted in a completely controlled environment. The sample size will be exceedingly small. And they almost certainly will be seen in the same scientific light as John Glenn's septuagenarian flight.

 

So what turned him around?

 

"The way I explain it is, what if we didn't do it? What if we had this opportunity and did not pursue it? We would also acquire adverse publicity for being unimaginative, and unable to take risks, and all the usual things people say when they complain about NASA," said Charles, chief of the International Science Office within NASA's Human Research Program.

 

"So given the choice — and we are going to be criticized either way — let's be criticized for doing something instead of not doing something."

 

If the research was being done in an ideal environment, Mark Kelly, who is married to former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, would live and work inside a space station mock-up, eating the same space food as his brother, going through the same exercise regime, maintaining the same sleep cycle. That's not going to happen.

 

Scientifically, he will be in an uncontrolled environment.

 

"He's going to be continuing to live the sweet life in Albuquerque, and doing whatever he does there routinely," Charles said.

 

Mark Kelly will be traveling to Houston a few times a year for physicals, anyway, so researchers will synch up blood draws and measurements for the Astronaut Twins studies.

 

"It's really observational science — the kind of thing we in the Human Research Program normally shrink from," Charles said.

 

But, ironically, Charles is the man for the job. He led the life sciences experiments performed on Project Mercury astronaut John Glenn when he returned to space in 1998, 36 years after becoming the first American to orbit Earth.

 

He is "acutely aware" of the criticism that almost certainly will come as Scott Kelly's launch date approaches.

 

"And whenever anybody criticizes it, they will not be saying anything that we have not, and I have not, thought about first," Charles said.

 

The fact of the matter is that the pitch from the Kelly brothers is an opportunity that ultimately proved too rare to pass up.

 

"I'm cautioning everybody not to have too-high expectations about this. The phenomena we see, the differences between the two, will have to be pretty dramatic and pretty ironclad to be meaningful," he said.

 

"And again, I approach this from the rigorous scientific point of view, and was counseled that, perhaps, a little bit of flexibility is not a bad thing."

living in space

 

living in space

 

Only four people have lived and worked in outer space for a year or more. The top four space flyers, in terms of single-mission duration, are:

·         Valery Polyakov, 438 days.

·         Sergei Avdeyev, 380 days.

·         Vladimir Titov, 366 days.

·         Musa Manarov, 366 days.

 

Canadian could visit moon as part of ambitious space plan

 

Peter Rakobowchuk - Canadian Press

 

Canada could be sending its first astronaut to the moon under an ambitious long-term plan being developed by a group of space agencies around the world.

 

A return to the moon within the next two decades is part of the recently updated Global Exploration Roadmap — a far-reaching plan developed by more than a dozen space agencies.

 

Canada is among the 14 space agencies participating in the International Space Exploration Coordination Group, which first started developing the strategy in 2007. The first roadmap was released in 2011 and the latest update was made public last week.

 

An early phase of the plan would put a new space station into orbit around the moon, and use it as a staging point to ferry astronauts back and forth.

 

It's part of a roadmap that lays out human and robotic missions in the solar system over the next 25 years, with the other components including a moon settlement and a proposal by NASA to capture a near-Earth asteroid.

 

Jean-Claude Piedboeuf, the director of space-exploration development at the Canadian Space Agency, says there's an agreement among space agencies that returning to the moon is a stepping stone to a more distant target: Mars.

 

There would be human missions in the lunar vicinity and on its surface until 2030, at which point sights would be set on the red planet.

 

"You need to master how to land on a planet — and the moon can be a test bed for that and how to live on the surface for a long time," said Piedboeuf, who noted that Canada is chairing the ISECG this year.

 

The CSA official suggested astronauts could again be moon-bound in about 15 years. It would be the first human visit to the shining orb since 1972, when NASA astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmidt spent 75 hours there.

 

This time, there could well be Canadian visitors.

 

Their specialty: robotics.

 

"We're proposing a vision where Canada could have an astronaut, effectively a Canadian who will be in lunar space, either in orbit or on the moon and could operate a Canadian rover in the same way that Canadians operate a Canadarm on the space station," Piedboeuf said.

 

"We can foresee in the future doing the same type of thing on the moon, with the Canadian industry building a rover — and a Canadian astronaut could be the operator of this rover."

 

The first stop on the pathway to Mars — the International Space Station — will continue to be manned until at least 2020.

 

Canada is working to get one of its two active astronauts, David Saint-Jacques or Jeremy Hansen, to visit the space station between 2016 and 2019.

 

"For the next 10 years, we can expect that human space flight will still be in an Earth orbit," Piedboeuf told The Canadian Press.

 

"But then, starting maybe in 2025 — that's really a guess because there's a lot of work — then we can start thinking about human orbit around the moon and basically doing some activity there, then starting back on the surface of the moon."

 

The plan would see a small human settlement established on the moon. Astronauts could use it to mine lunar resources while also learning how to survive away from Earth.

 

The scenario proposes the use of a "Deep Space Habitat," which would serve as a staging post. The habitat, a sort of mini-space station, could be placed at a so-called Lagrange point near the moon.

 

Lagrange points are locations where gravity balances itself out and where a space station could theoretically be stationary.

 

"We think that around the beginning of the '20s," Piedboeuf said, "we will have the capacity to send humans into lunar space."

 

Piedboeuf pointed out that Canada has been working with NASA and other space agencies to develop the next generation of rovers, which would go to the moon and Mars.

 

"In terms of human exploration, we are building the building blocks, the capability that we need to support human exploration," he said.

 

The recent retirement of the U.S. shuttle program was a critical moment — the end of one era, and the start of the next one described in the Global Exploration Roadmap.

 

Now the Americans and Russians are developing long-range rockets and space capsules, like NASA's Orion spacecraft, which will be used to send astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit.

 

But it's unclear whether the way to Mars will actually be led by national space agencies — like NASA, the CSA, the European Space Agency, and the Russian, Japanese, Indian and South Korean agencies.

 

Private ventures are planning to get there first.

 

The Inspiration Mars Foundation, an American non-profit organization founded by multimillionaire Dennis Tito, wants to launch a flyby mission to Mars involving a male-female couple in January 2018. Tito paid about $20 million to visit the International Space Station in 2001 aboard a Russian spacecraft.

 

The flyby mission might even use an inflatable habitat that was developed by a Canadian company based in Chilliwack, B.C., to house the couple on their long journey.

 

Maxim De Jong, the president of B.C.'s Thin Red Line Aerospace, noted in an interview that Tito has already said publicly that he will use a Canadian company to provide the structure.

 

But De Jong is still waiting to sign a deal.

 

"We're not formally under contract at this time," De Jong said.

 

"We've had preliminary discussions and hope to have something a little more formal in place soon."

 

Thin Red Line designed and built the hulls for two inflatable habitats, known as Genesis One and Genesis Two, for U.S.-based Bigelow Aerospace.

 

They were launched in 2006 and 2007 and are still orbiting the Earth.

 

The inflatable habitat is made with Kevlar, which is used in bullet-proof vests and which also provides shielding from radiation — which is one of the main dangers for astronauts in space.

 

The International Space Station will also test an inflatable module that will be attached to the orbiting lab in 2015.

 

And then there's the Mars One project, the brainchild of Dutch entrepreneur Bas Landorp.

 

The plan is to send to send a few willing pioneers on a one-way trip in 2023, with no guarantee they will ever return to Earth.

 

The $6-billion project will use existing technology and be funded through sponsors and private investors. The goal is to establish a permanent settlement on the red planet.

 

Thousands of individuals of all ages and from around the world, including many Canadians, have applied by posting videos online explaining why they want to make what's been described as a suicide mission.

 

The plan includes creating a reality TV show.

 

Do You Have the Right Stuff? NASA's New Astronauts Share What It Takes

 

Clara Moskowitz - Space.com

 

The eight newly selected astronauts joining NASA's spaceflying corps revealed some of the details of their grueling application process Tuesday (Aug. 20) in their only news conference before embarking on a rigorous two-year training program.

 

The lucky eight were selected out of a pool of more than 6,000 applicants, and endured a demanding series of interviews and examinations over the course of a year and a half to make it where they are today.

 

NASA first called for applications for the 2013 astronaut class, newly nicknamed the "8 Balls," in November 2011.

 

"Like all government jobs, you apply on the USAjobs website, and it's really a basic CV from the beginning," said new astronaut candidate Jessica U. Meir, who explained that the base requirements to apply were a bachelor's degree in a hard science and three additional years of experience.

 

From these preliminary applications, NASA selected the top 120 candidates for in-person interviews.

 

"Once we brought those 120 folks in, they did some initial physical evaluations, they did some anthropometric evaluations, and after their initial interviews we down-selected again to 49 candidates, whom we brought back and did even more detailed physical evaluations and some team-building exercises and additional interviews," said former astronaut Janet Kavandi, current director of flight-crew operations at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "The eight people you see here before you are the ones that made it through all the gantlet of those evaluations and tests and interviews. These are the people that NASA needs today."

 

Each of the chosen eight brings extensive experience in science or engineering, and many also have military and flight experience, too. Two members of the new class have doctorates, while two are lieutenant commanders in the U.S. Navy, one is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force, two are majors in the U.S. Army, and another is a major in the U.S. Marine Corps.

 

"We all took very, very different paths to get here," said Anne C. McClain, another new recruit, who shared her advice for astronaut hopefuls:

 

"My advice to young people is to find something that you're passionate about, something that you enjoy doing, something that, if you never get to the step of being an astronaut, you're going to look back and be very satisfied," McClain said. "And then, try to get to the top of your field, but in doing so, don't think so much about what you're accomplishing, but how you accomplish it. Be a good team member. Be a good leader. Be a good follower. Be somebody that if you are selected, people around you are proud. Never take advantage of somebody else in order to get ahead."

 

And new astronaut candidate Tyler "Nick" Hague added one more important piece of advice: "Don't take no for an answer."

Hague, like other members of the new class, applied multiple times before finally being accepted to the astronaut corps.

 

"This has been a lifelong dream of mine," he said. "I submitted my first application a little over 10 years ago, and I am thrilled to be here."

 

California vies for new space industry

 

Mihir Zaveri - Associated Press

 

As several new private ventures to take people on trips to space come closer to becoming reality, California lawmakers are racing other states to woo the new space companies with cushy incentives.

 

They are debating a bill now in Sacramento that would insulate manufacturers of spaceships and parts suppliers from liability should travelers get injured or killed on a voyage, except in cases such as gross negligence or intentional wrongdoing. Last year, the state enacted a law that shields space tourism companies such as Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic from similar lawsuits.

 

"We're still in the fledgling part of space flight and space travel, and we need people to be able to take a risk," said California Republican Sen. Steve Knight, who introduced both state bills.

 

Several other states — including Texas, Florida, Virginia and New Mexico — have passed similar laws, hoping to lure newcomers to the more than $200 billion commercial space flight industry.

 

California's latest bill faces opposition from several lawmakers who say the state should not relax its standards since tourists should expect the ships they use to ascend to the heavens are safe. But space tourism companies say the protection is necessary if the state wants to attract and retain the industry's business.

 

"Someday, something is going to crash and burn," said Kathleen Allen, a professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Southern California who researches and advises new space companies. "The question is: Are we going to be able to say that's a price we pay to stretch and explore and go beyond our current limits?"

 

Edwin Sahakian dreamed of flying in space since he watched Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon almost 45 years ago. Sahakian, 50, a trucking company owner from Glendale, Calif., is one of more than 600 people who have collectively paid about $75 million to embark on a trip in space with Virgin Galactic.

 

Leaving the planet is worth the risk, he said. Without incentives like limiting the ability of customers and family members to sue, he said the opportunity would never be open to him.

 

"I'm not under the impression that it's as safe as flying on an airliner or anything remotely like that," he said. "But I do feel like it's the safest way to go to space right now."

 

In April, Virgin Galactic's space ship completed its first powered flight, as its rocket engine burned for 16 seconds, propelling the ship to an altitude of 55,000 feet as it broke the sound barrier. The company expects to conduct flight testing this year and send people into space soon thereafter.

 

Other companies are also working to launch people beyond the earth's atmosphere. Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's SpaceX is already ferrying cargo to the International Space Station. Last year, SpaceX signed an agreement with Nevada-based Bigelow Aerospace, which is designing inflatable space stations for research and maybe even tourists. SpaceX and other companies will provide the transportation — like airlines — and Bigelow the place to stay.

 

Regulatory and economic incentives play a big role in where companies choose to do business, said Andrew Nelson, the chief operating officer of XCOR, which is pursuing space tourism and hoping to conduct flight tests for its Lynx spaceship this year.

 

Last year, the company — which operates at Mojave Air and Spaceport in Southern California — announced it would place a research and development center and corporate headquarters in Midland, Texas, which offered economic incentives and an attractive regulatory environment, including shielding XCOR's suppliers from lawsuits.

 

Nelson said the company passed over Virginia, Florida, Oklahoma and California. XCOR expects the facility will create jobs and boost the local economy by millions of dollars. He said since California doesn't shield the company's supply chain and could not offer economic incentives, XCOR ruled the state out despite its talented workforce. The company will still have a smaller operation at Mojave and would consider doing more in the state if Knight's bill is enacted.

 

In April, New Mexico enacted a law shielding parts suppliers and manufacturers of space transport companies from liability as an incentive for Virgin Galactic and others to launch spaceships from Spaceport America, which the state had already spent more than $200 million financing.

 

At a California senate committee hearing in May, several senators expressed concern over shielding manufacturers and suppliers from lawsuits, saying customers should assume the equipment functions correctly and should have redress if it doesn't.

 

The bill's opponents say protection against liability is unnecessary because it would be outweighed by California's historical ties to the aerospace industry and its well-educated workforce. Knight said he is trying to work out a compromise with the bill's opponents by January.

 

Both supporters and opponents of Knight's bill agreed developments in the space industry — possibilities include mining asteroids or placing a human colony on Mars — present exciting, uncharted possibilities.

 

"Everybody would like to see a big goal that got the whole country behind like we did when we went to the moon. That was an exciting time, those people who remember it would like to see that again," Allen said.

 

Countdown under way for space travel from N.M.

 

Gary Herron - Rio Rancho Observer

 

En route to Spaceport America last weekend, a passenger on the Follow the Sun Tours bus remembered squatting in front of his parents' TV the morning of May 5, 1961, and using a small reel-to-reel recorder to get the historic moment on tape.

 

That was the dawning of the Space Age for America, as Alan Shepard, one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts — blasted into space.

 

Fifty-two years later, that "kid" was on his way to what is being hailed as the origins of the Second Space Age — Spaceport America, in southern New Mexico.

 

Sitting next to him was the "One-Armed Bandit," a man in his 50s who said he was an engineer despite his handicap — a left arm that ended just below the elbow.

 

"I wanted to get off this rock (Earth) since I was 7," he said, eagerly anticipating his Spaceport America visit. He'd been a volunteer on a couple of the X Prize Cup challenges in Las Cruces and Alamogordo, but that was as close as he'd been.

 

On the ride down Interstate 25, tour guide Mark Bleth, a U.S. Air Force veteran and former Sandia Labs employee, talked about what people were going to see — including a modern marvel in its own time, Elephant Butte Dam — and all that had gone into the planning and construction of the 27-square-mile Spaceport site, which began as a $209 million project a few years ago during the Gov. Bill Richardson administration. More than 1,000 people worked on the project, and only one subcontractor came from outside New Mexico, Bleth said.

 

Bleth noted that lately, not much has been going on in space, at least not enough to capture the fancy of youngsters. Most of the travel has been carrying astronauts and supplies to and from the international space station. But, soon, he said, Spaceport America will be busy with commercial payload flights and astronaut junkets.

 

Nobody on the bus knew how many people had flown into space — defined as 100 kilometers, or 62 miles, above the Earth's surface — since the dawn of the Space Age. That number is 528, he said, and already more than 600 people have begun placing deposits on the $250,000 necessary to book a flight and become an astronaut via Virgin Galactic, the company founded by Richard Branson. (A survey determined more than half of these would-be astronauts have already visited southern New Mexico.)

 

Virgin Galactic has its headquarters in Las Cruces, but the astronauts will be trained and depart from Spaceport America, where there have already been numerous test flights and 20 launches. The almost mile-high altitude, compared to sea-level sites at Cape Canaveral and Mojave, is more cost-effective and fuel efficient, Bleth said.

 

Ultimately, a crew of two will pilot the WhiteKnightTwo rocket ship, with six astronauts within SpaceShipTwo, which will be suspended beneath it. WhiteKnightTwo will make a horizontal takeoff from the 12,000-foot runway at Spaceport America, spiral 10 miles into space, and then release SpaceShipTwo, which will power its way another 57 or so miles higher.

 

Passengers then will be free to move weightlessly around the cabin and view the curvature of the Earth through the portholes, or gaze into the vast blackness of space.

 

Then the pilot will order them to return to their seats and "buckle up," and the SS2 will return much like a badminton birdie until it reaches 50,000 feet. Then, like a space shuttle, it glide back to the Bill Richardson landing strip.

 

Not everyone has the urge to visit the final frontier.

 

"I'm not that interested in flying into space," Mayor Tom Swisstack responded, when asked if he wanted to be an astronaut. "I think some of the stuff that interests me are obviously just doing things on Earth over here."

 

Replied Parks, Recreation and Community Services Director Jay Hart, when asked the same question: "If they paid the $250,000 to get me on the ship, I would probably go.

 

"(But) I do have a policy, a kind of rule of thumb: I don't go into anything that has at least two engines."

 

Some interesting New Mexico space tidbits:

 

·         Valles Caldera National preserve in northwest Sandoval County was the site for Apollo astronauts' training in 1964, '66 and '71.

 

·         New Mexico's "Space Trail," which ties the cultural and historical legacy of the Native Americans and Spanish explorers to the future of space exploration, has 52 sites, although not all are open to the public. Valles Caldera, though, is the lone such site in Sandoval County.

 

·         Rocket sled tests conducted at Holloman Air Force Base near Alamogordo were crucial for space flight and determined the effects of high-G forces. John Paul Stapp endured (barely) as much as 46 Gs — he had two black eyes caused by his eyeballs slamming against his eyelids during the sled's deceleration and numerous bruises; tiny grains of sand had shot through his clothing and left small blood blisters on his skin.

 

·         Mercury 7 astronauts received their grueling physical exams at the Lovelace Clinic in Albuquerque in early 1959. Recalled astronaut John Glenn: "They went into every opening on the human body as far as they could go."

 

·         Geraldine Cobb, a 28-year-old civilian pilot, was tested the same way as the Mercury 7 astronauts in February 1960 and easily passed the rigid requirements and finished in the top 2 percent of all male and female candidates after the psychological results were evaluated.

 

·         The space shuttle "Columbia" landed at White Sands on March 30, 1982, after rains flooded the landing strip at Edwards AFB in California.

 

·         Former U.S. Sen. Harrison "Jack" Schmitt was the last astronaut to have stepped on the moon.

 

·         The 19th launch from Spaceport America, in June, carried some student projects, Department of Defense and Federal Aviation Administration projects, plus "memorial spaceflights" for the cremains of several prominent people, including those of the late mayor of Hatch to an altitude of 74 miles. Celestis Memorial Spaceflights' next "EarthRise" mission (starting at $995) is the Conestoga Flight; its first deep-space "EarthOrbit" mission will launch in late 2014.

 

·         "Out of This World: New Mexico's Contributions to Space Travel" (Rio Grande Books, 2011), by Loretta Hall (nmspacehistory.com), encompasses the timeline of New Mexico's place in the "business of space" and is informative for space enthusiasts.

 

Want to visit Spaceport America?

 

Due to popular demand, the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History and Follow the Sun Tour Inc., the official tour operator, have another special opportunity to host a tour to Spaceport America on Saturday, Sept. 14.

 

Someday, there may be an estimated 200,000 annual visitors to Spaceport America in New Mexico, which would be a great boon for Sierra and Doña Ana counties.

 

This may be the last tour to Spaceport America (spaceportamerica.com) that includes a ride on the runway as well as being unrestricted in other areas of the spaceport. On a tour inside Spaceport America, guests witness history in the making at the future home of the personal and commercial spaceflight industry.

 

The tour departs the museum in Southeast Albuquerque at 6 a.m. Only 50 seats, at $99 each, are available. The Spaceport America Tour not only introduces you to the people and places that make up our past but also culminates in a taste of the future. To book, go to ftstours.com/spaceport.htm, select Sept. 14 on the calendar, choose Nuclear Museum Tour and follow booking instructions, or call 897-2886. (nuclearmuseum.org)

 

The Truth About Neil Armstrong

 

James Hansen, Auburn University - Space.com (Opinion)

 

(Hansen, a history professor at Auburn University and the trusted biographer of Neil Armstrong in "First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong")

 

One year has passed since the death of Neil Armstrong on Aug. 25, 2012, and people are still struggling to explain the remarkably unique character of the extraordinarily private man who was the First Man on the Moon. A ghostly TV image in a clumsy spacesuit climbing down a ladder a quarter of a million miles away and becoming the first of our species to set foot on another heavenly body was virtually the sum total of who we knew as Neil Armstrong at the time of his historic Apollo 11 mission.

 

That iconic astronaut frozen in time, July 20, 1969, remained the sole identity of Armstrong for most people right up to his death 43 years later. Fortunately, thanks to Neil's agreeing back in 2002 to my authoring of what he came to consider his definitive biography, I enjoyed the rare privilege of getting to know Neil Armstrong for who he truly was: a down-to-earth, yet deeply complex and brilliant, three-dimensional human being.

 

Why Armstrong chose me, a university history professor, to write his life story is a question I never dared ask him; yet it's been one of the most asked questions of me ever since "First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong" came out in 2005. As to Neil's reasoning for deciding to participate actively in my project by giving me access to his papers, allowing me some 55 hours for tape-recorded interviews, and sending me more than 600 informative emails, I can only speculate: I came into his life at the right time.

 

We were both Midwesterners, with ways of speaking and manners of socially interacting that were very familiar to one another. We were also both offspring of mothers and fathers whose families had made their livings by farming. Also, it seemed to me crucially important to Neil that I wasn't out to sensationalize his career or personal life and that I appreciated what engineers do (and how they do it) and the technical side of his lifelong — not just his spaceflight — achievements. It certainly didn't hurt that he believed he could trust me. The biggest compliment he gave me after the book came out was that I wrote exactly the type of book that I told him I would write.

 

Getting to know Neil, I never forgot the heroic aspects of who he was and what he had achieved — how could I? But Neil was such a good and honorable person that the icon quickly retreated to the back of my mind, and I appreciated him, and the remarkable life he led, for so many other very good reasons, most of them related to his basic humanity.

 

All his life, in whatever he did, Neil personified the essential qualities and core values of a superlative human being. Don't just ask his fellow astronauts; ask his naval aviator crewmates in Fighter Squadron 51, where as a young man barely 20 years old, he not only flew 78 combat missions over North Korea, but showed extraordinary levels of commitment, dedication, dependability, a thirst for knowledge, self-confidence, toughness, decisiveness, honesty, innovation, loyalty, positive attitude, self-respect, respect for others, integrity, self-reliance, prudence, judiciousness and much more.

 

One story that Neil told me that he never told anyone else concerned a flight he took over North Korea while on a dawn combat patrol in 1951. Passing over a ridge of low mountains in his F9F Panther jet, Neil saw laid out before him rows and rows of North Korean soldiers, unarmed, doing their daily calisthenics outside their field barracks. He could have mowed them down with machine-gun fire, but he chose to take his finger off the trigger and fly on. As Neil told me, "It looked like they were having a rough enough time doing their morning exercises."

 

No one else in his fighter squadron that I interviewed ever heard the story, because Neil never told it, but they accepted it without hesitation as true. They themselves would have all fired their guns, they admitted, but there was something too honorable in Neil for him to kill men who were in no position to defend themselves. Neil was quite adamant that he didn't want the story in his biography, and I tell it now, after his death, with some reluctance.

 

As for the first moon landing 18 years later, no human being could have handled the bright glare of international fame or the instant transformation into a historic and cultural icon better than Neil. It was in Neil's mild and modest personality to avoid publicity and keep to the real business of the engineering and piloting profession he had chosen; he was simply not the sort of man ever to seek what he felt was undeserved profit from his name or reputation.

 

Neil had been a foremost member of the team that achieved humankind's first forays into deep space — and he always emphasized the teamwork of the 400,000 Americans instrumental to Apollo's success. He had been at the top of that pyramid, but there had been nothing foreordained in his becoming the commander of the first moon landing or becoming the first man out onto the lunar surface. As he always explained, that was mostly the luck of the draw, a series of contingent circumstances. Still, he had done what he had done, and he understood what great sacrifice, what awesome commitment, and what extraordinary human creativity it had taken to get it done. He was immensely proud of the role he had played in the first moon landing, but he would not allow it to turn into a circus performance for him or a money-making machine.

 

In major respects, Neil chose to leave that particular stage of his life to the history books. It was like the golfer Bobby Jones never playing competitive golf after winning the Grand Slam or Johnny Carson never again appearing on TV after leaving "The Tonight Show." Not that Neil lived the life of a recluse after Apollo 11 — that is a myth created by journalists frustrated with not getting interviews with him. After the moon, Neil lived a very active life with many more accomplishments to his credit — in teaching, in research, in business and industry, in exploration. And he lived it all with honor and integrity, just as the one with "The Real Right Stuff" should.

 

In the extraordinarily modest, unassuming and private way he lived his life after Apollo 11, it was clear that Neil understood that this glorious feat that he helped achieve for the country back in the summer of 1969 — glorious for the entire planet — would inexorably be diminished by the blatant commercialism, redundant questions and noise of the modern world. The nobility of his character just would not let him take part in any of that. He was a man who could not be bought, at any price.

 

He was never about himself, as the following personal anecdote shows. After word came out in 2002 that I was writing Armstrong's biography, actor/director Clint Eastwood hosted Neil and his wife Carol and me and my wife Peggy for a night's stay at his private golf club, Tehama, up in the hills above Carmel Bay in California; Clint was interested in making a Warner Brothers movie based on the book. The next morning, Eastwood invited Neil and I to play a round of golf with him. As I headed to the golf carts, I saw Neil taking his bag of clubs off of Clint's cart and putting my bag in its place. "What are you doing, Neil?" I said. "I figure Clint will have a lot more to talk to you about with the movie than he does with me," was Neil's reply. "I am sure that is not what Clint has in mind," I explained. "You need to be riding with Clint." Truth was, Neil could have cared less if a movie was ever made about his life. He knew that I cared and that's the only reason he had agreed to visit Eastwood. Not surprisingly, the two men didn't hit it off too well: Neil didn't like the violence in Clint's movies, and Clint apparently appreciated space cowboys more than he did real engineer-astronauts. (Eastwood gave up the film rights to Universal Studios, who last year also gave them up. Telling Neil's life story is just too nuanced for Hollywood, apparently.)

 

Neil was also a man always true to his word. After "First Man" was published in 2005, the institution at which I taught, Auburn University in Alabama, tried very hard to persuade Neil to give our commencement address. Neil said he couldn't. A few years back, he had turned down an invitation from the Sisters of Mercy to give a graduation address at one of their schools in Ohio, telling them he was no longer giving commencement addresses. He couldn't betray the good sisters by speaking at Auburn.

 

He was a very modest man, but in his modesty, he could be tremendously witty or insightful. Once at a pro-am golf tournament, a lady came up to Neil on the putting green and declared to him, "Aren't you somebody that I should know?" The First Man's ingenious and self-effacing answer was, "Probably not."

 

For the opening epigram to "First Man," I selected what I felt was a profound sentence from the book, "On the Art of Living," written by American mythologist Joseph Campbell. The sentence read: "The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are."

 

Neil enjoyed that privilege, and all of us should be delighted that it happened just that way for him — and for us.

 

END

 

 

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