Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - November 5, 2013 and JSC Today

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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: November 5, 2013 7:25:22 AM CST
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - November 5, 2013 and JSC Today

Hope you can join us for our monthly Retirees Luncheon at Hibachi Grill this Thursday @11:30.

 

 

 

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

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JSC TODAY CATEGORIES Headlines -  Tree-Planting Ceremony Today: Alan G. Poindexter -  Flu Shots for Nov. 6 Rescheduled to Nov. 7 -  ACES Mobile Technology Day - Tomorrow, Nov. 6 -  IT Labs FY14 Project Call Q&A Session 1: Nov. 6 -  America Recycles Day is Nov. 15 -  Correction to Recent JSC Announcement (JSCA) Organizations/Social -  AIAA Houston Section - Networking Event -  JSC Contractor Safety & Health Forum: Dec. 3 -  Home for the Holidays - Order Your Holiday Meal -  Non-Traditional Cooking Class -  Starport Fall Break Camp - Register Now -  New Client Massage Special Extended -  Space Explorers Toastmasters is Here for You Jobs and Training -  FedTraveler Live Lab - Nov. 6 Community -  CFC Kickoff: Make it Possible -  Honor Houston's Veterans on Monday -  Volunteers Needed to Mentor Reduced-Gravity Flight -  High School Aerospace Scholars (HAS)

Upsala Glacier Retreat

 

Headlines Tree-Planting Ceremony Today: Alan G. Poindexter JSC team members are invited to attend the tree-planting ceremony in honor of Captain Alan G. Poindexter, USN, today, Nov. 5, in the Memorial Tree Grove at 10 a.m.  Captain Poindexter was a veteran of two spaceflights: STS-122 aboard Atlantis and STS-131 aboard Discovery. He logged more than 669 hours in space before he retired from NASA in December 2010 to return to the Navy. As an aviator, Poindexter amassed more than 4,000 hours in more than 30 aircraft types and logged more than 450 carrier landings. Event Date: Tuesday, November 5, 2013   Event Start Time:10:00 AM   Event End Time:11:00 AM Event Location: Memorial Tree Grove Add to Calendar Stephanie Castillo x33341 [top] Flu Shots for Nov. 6 Rescheduled to Nov. 7 Due to the threat of rain and thunderstorms on Nov. 6, the flu shot clinic has been rescheduled to Nov. 7. The clinic will be held in the Building 30 lobby from 8:30 a.m. until noon. Free flu shots are available to all JSC civil servants and contractors who are housed on-site. To expedite the process, PLEASE visit the website below, read the Influenza Vaccine Information Statement and complete the consent form prior to arrival. Also wear clothing that allows easy to access your upper arm (short sleeves or sleeveless). Bob Martel x38581 http://sd.jsc.nasa.gov/omoh/scripts/OccupationalMedicine/Fluprogram.aspx [top] ACES Mobile Technology Day - Tomorrow, Nov. 6 From 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. today, JSC employees are invited to attend the JSC ACES Mobile Technology event in the Building 3 Collaboration Center. ACES mobile carriers (AT&T and Verizon) will showcase mobile devices available on the ACES contract and invite feedback on devices that are under consideration for future offerings. In addition, a Samsung representative will preview the Galaxy S4 Android smartphone, which is gradually being incorporated into the NASA environment, and an Apple representative will showcase the iPhone 5s and discuss the new iOS. If you currently use an ACES-provided device, here is your chance to learn more about the technology and how to maximize the features of your device to increase productivity. For technology information sessions times and topics, go to wIReD in. This event will help the end users become aware of these options as they coordinate their needs through their organization's IT points of contact. Event Date: Wednesday, November 6, 2013   Event Start Time:10:00 AM   Event End Time:1:30 PM Event Location: JSC/Building 3 Collaboration Center Add to Calendar JSC-IRD-Outreach x34883 [top] IT Labs FY14 Project Call Q&A Session 1: Nov. 6 The NASA IT Labs Fiscal Year 2014 (FY14) Project Call runs from Nov. 4 through Dec 12. Four Q&A sessions are scheduled to provide information about the project call and application process. Q&A session 1 is scheduled for 1 to 2 p.m. (CST) tomorrow, Nov. 6. JSC may attend the session at the local satellite location in Building 30, Room 2085B  (The Watson Room), or via WebEx. Meeting: Meeting Number: 993 151 980 Meeting Password: ITLabs2014! To join the online meeting: Go to meeting Audio conference: (866) 756-6093 Passcode: 2652872 For assistance: Go to NASA WebEx and click "Support" (left). Go to NASA WebEx system diagnosis to confirm you have the appropriate players installed for Universal Communications Format rich media files. IMPORTANT NOTICE: Inform all meeting attendees prior to recording if you intend to record the meeting. Please note that any such recordings may be subject to discovery in the event of litigation. Event Date: Wednesday, November 6, 2013   Event Start Time:1:00 PM   Event End Time:2:00 PM Event Location: Building 30, Room 2085B (The Watson Room) Add to Calendar JSC-IRD-Outreach x34883 [top] America Recycles Day is Nov. 15 Every year organizations honor America Recycles Day by hosting events in an effort to increase reuse and recycling awareness. This year, JSC will participate by hosting an on-site book and magazine "swap-it" event on Friday, Nov. 15, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Bring your gently used books and magazines by the Building 3 café to swap them out for different reading material. You can also drop off your unwanted books early in drop boxes in both cafés from Nov. 12 through Nov. 14. The remainder of the books and magazines will be donated to nearby charities. How will you reuse/recycle this Nov. 15? Event Date: Friday, November 15, 2013   Event Start Time:11:00 AM   Event End Time:1:00 PM Event Location: B3 Cafe Collaboration Area Add to Calendar JSC Environmental Office x36207 http://americarecyclesday.org/ [top] Correction to Recent JSC Announcement (JSCA) A JSCA was incorrectly posted in Monday's edition. Here is the correction: JSCA 13-038: Communications with Industry Procurement Solicitation for the JSC Administrative Support Services II (JASS II) Contract Please visit the JSCA Web page to view this announcement. Archived announcements are also available on the JSCA Web page. Linda Turnbough x36246 http://ird.jsc.nasa.gov/DocumentManagement/announcements/default.aspx [top]    Organizations/Social AIAA Houston Section - Networking Event Please join us for a dinner meet-and-greet event where we will discuss social media as a networking avenue. We will also discuss ideas for future professional development events. Please RSVP for this event here. For additional information, please see the event page and flyer. Event Date: Thursday, November 7, 2013   Event Start Time:6:30 PM   Event End Time:8:30 PM Event Location: Fuddruckers - 2040 NASA Pkwy Houston,TX 77058 Add to Calendar Annie Wargetz 202-524-0142 http://www.aiaahouston.org/event/aiaa-professional-development-event/ [top] JSC Contractor Safety & Health Forum: Dec. 3   Mark your calendars! Our next JSC Contractor Safety & Health Forum will be held Tuesday, Dec. 3, in the Gilruth Center Alamo Ballroom from 9 to 10:30 a.m. Our guest speaker for this event will be Dr. Robert Emery, vice president for Safety, Health, Environment & Risk Management at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. His presentation topic will be "Communicating Risk and Correcting Misinformation in a New Era." In addition, David Loyd, chief of the Safety & Test Operations Division (JSC-NS) will be presenting the "JSC Safety Metrics Snapshot for 2013." Hope to see everyone there. For questions, please contact Pat Farrell at 281-335-2012 or via email. Event Date: Tuesday, December 3, 2013   Event Start Time:9:00 AM   Event End Time:10:30 AM Event Location: Gilruth Center Alamo Ballroom Add to Calendar Patricia Farrell 281-335-2012 [top] Home for the Holidays - Order Your Holiday Meal Leave the cooking to us and order your Thanksgiving meal from your on-site café! We have everything you'll need to make your holiday meal perfect. Order your oven-roasted turkey, all the sides and dessert right here at JSC! All orders must be turned in and paid for by Tuesday, Nov. 19. Orders may be picked up from the Building 3 café on Monday, Nov. 25; Tuesday, Nov. 26; or Wednesday, Nov. 27. Items and the order form can be found on the Starport website. Danial Hornbuckle x30240 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/ [top] Non-Traditional Cooking Class Tired of cooking the same old turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and green bean casserole? Sign up for a "non-traditional holiday cooking class" and learn how to make a holiday sushi tree. Class is Tuesday, Nov. 12, at the Gilruth Center from 5 p.m. until we get finished. The cost is $49.95 and includes: wine, a sushi roller, course book and serving plate. Please call Danial Hornbuckle at x30240 for reservations. Reservations are required and must be made by today, Nov. 5. Danial Hornbuckle x30240 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/ [top] Starport Fall Break Camp - Register Now Starport Fall Break Camp is three weeks away! If you're looking for a fun, convenient and familiar place for your children to go for the school break, look no further. NASA Starport camps at the Gilruth Center are the perfect place. We plan to keep your children active and entertained with games, crafts, sports and all types of fun activities! Dates: Nov. 25 to 27 Time: 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Ages: 6 to 12 Cost: $90 all days|$40 per day Registration is now open at the Gilruth Center. Shericka Phillips x35563 https://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/en/programs/familyyouth-programs/youth-day... [top] New Client Massage Special Extended Did you know? Getting a massage can: Boost energy, alertness and productivity Increase circulation Reduce muscle tension and pain Help prevent repetitive stress injuries Provide relaxation and rejuvenation Relieve emotional stress Take some time for yourself and receive the benefits of massage therapy at the Gilruth Center. Extended through November! All new clients can schedule a one-hour massage for only $50. Appointments must be for a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, and is only valid for new clients. Not a new client? Starport's massages are still convenient and affordable. Go online to book your massage today! Joseph Callahan x42769 https://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/en/programs/massage-therapy [top] Space Explorers Toastmasters is Here for You Space Explorers Toastmasters (SETM) provides a friendly and supportive community to practice communicating more clearly at work. We practice humor, too, which enhances personal effectiveness. Visit and participate in Toastmasters, a world leader in communications and leadership development. The SETM club meets every Friday in Building 30A, Room 1010, at 11:45 a.m. Event Date: Friday, November 8, 2013   Event Start Time:11:45 AM   Event End Time:12:45 PM Event Location: B. 30A, Rm 1010 Add to Calendar Carolyn Jarrett x37594 http://spaceexplorers.toastmastersclubs.org/ [top]    Jobs and Training FedTraveler Live Lab - Nov. 6 Do you need some hands-on, personal help with FedTraveler.com? Join the Business Systems and Process Improvement Office for a FedTraveler Live Lab tomorrow, Nov. 6, any time between 9 a.m. and noon in Building 12, Room 142. Our help desk representatives will be available to help you work through travel processes and learn more about using FedTraveler during this informal workshop. Bring your current travel documents or specific questions that you have about the system and join us for some hands-on, in-person help with the FedTraveler. If you'd like to sign up for this FedTraveler Live Lab, please log into SATERN and register. For additional information, please contact Judy Seier at x32771. To register in SATERN, please click on this SATERN direct link: https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_... Gina Clenney x39851 [top]    Community CFC Kickoff: Make it Possible The Combined Federal Campaign (CFC), the world's largest and most successful annual workplace charity campaign, kicked off yesterday, Nov. 4, and will run until Jan. 15. Our JSC campaign goal is $680,000 and we, the "NASA family," have the opportunity to help those in our community and our country who are less fortunate than we are. This may include some of our own NASA family who recently suffered job losses or financial uncertainty or hardship during the government shutdown. Each individual can make a difference in our community and all gifts, large and small, are important and supports those in need. We need YOUR HELP to reach our goal! Every dollar makes a difference. Your donation of just $5 a week buys: Two months of meals for a homebound person. Five wigs for children with cancer undergoing chemotherapy. Two nights of shelter for a troubled or neglected youth. After school care (food, health, recreation, and homework help) for one child for a year. Clothing, shoes and a winter coat for one individual who has lost everything in a home fire. Temporary shelter for a family of four for three nights following a disaster, or shelter for 10 people for one night. To contribute, visit Employee Express. With the option of payroll deduction, we can choose which charities we would like to support and give generously and with ease. If you have personally benefitted from the CFC, please share your story so that we can more effectively communicate the importance of this campaign. Contact Megan Sumner to share how you have been affected. Carolyn Woolverton x30314 [top] Honor Houston's Veterans on Monday The City of Houston is hosting a Veteran's Day Parade on Monday, Nov. 11, to honor those who have served in the armed forces to ensure our basic freedoms. The parade organizers could use some help with making the event run more smoothly. Volunteers are needed to serve as marshals in the Veteran's Day Parade. Parade marshals assist with staging and ordering the various performers and groups who will be marching in the parade. We could use at least six or eight people, so grab your co-workers and support this great event! In addition to helping the parade get off to a great start, you'll be showing our veterans how important they really are.  To sign up, check out the event page on the V-CORPs website. Looking for a different type of volunteer opportunity? Click on the "current volunteer opportunities" tile to see a list of upcoming events. You can sign up right from that list if you're signed in. Not yet a V-CORPs volunteer? It's easy to sign up -- just click on the COUNT ME IN button on the V-CORPs website. Be sure to check back frequently -- we are adding events every day. JSC External Relations, Community Relations Office x25859 [top] Volunteers Needed to Mentor Reduced-Gravity Flight The Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program is looking for JSC scientists, engineers and technical experts of all levels who would like to advise and mentor flight teams for our 2014 program. Teams can be comprised of college undergraduate students or K-12 teachers. Preference will be given to individuals who are currently working as scientists and engineers and are familiar with the type of experiments appropriate for reduced-gravity flight. Interested in learning more? We will offer an optional information session to interested mentors; feel free to attend one of the two available sessions. Note that the sessions are offered in different locations. Tuesday, Nov. 19, from 10 to 11 a.m. (Building 30, Auditorium) Wednesday, Nov. 20, from 3 to 4 p.m. (Building 12, Room 200) Please feel free to attend. Already know you want to participate? Please visit our website for more details and to apply. The deadline is Nov. 27. James Semple 281-792-7872 https://microgravityuniversity.jsc.nasa.gov/ [top] High School Aerospace Scholars (HAS)     HAS needs Texas high school juniors. The deadline to apply is Thursday, Nov. 21, at 5 p.m. CST. HAS is an interactive, online experience highlighted by a six-day residential summer experience at JSC. Students will explore science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) concepts and space exploration during the online experience. Students who are selected to come to JSC will continue their STEM studies with hands-on team activities while mentored by NASA engineers and scientists. HAS is a great STEM opportunity for Texas high school juniors. For additional details, please visit the HAS website. Stacey Welch 281-792-8223 https://has.aerospacescholars.org/ [top]

 

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: www.nasa.gov/ntv

·         8:15 am Central (9:15 EST) – E37's K Nyberg & M Hopkins w/Wx Ch & KSDK-TV, St Louis

·         11 am Central (Noon EST) –File of Soyuz TMA-11M Spacecraft pad rollout & interviews

 

Human Spaceflight News

Tuesday – November 5, 2013

 

Soyuz decorated in Sochi Winter Olympics theme ahead of Wednesday's launch

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

Space Station Crew Faces Orbital Traffic Jam This Week

 

Elizabeth Howell - Space.com

 

It's a busy week in orbit at the International Space Station. With nine astronauts set to crowd the station this week, part of its crew moved a Russian transport vehicle to a different dock to make room for the new arrivals. The move cleared the way for three new crewmembers to arrive Nov. 7. Soyuz TMA-11M Russian commander Mikhail Tyurin, NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata, of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, will dock at the Rassvet port six hours after launching from Kazakhstan. Nine people in the space station will make for crowded quarters. According to NASA, this month will mark the first time since October 2009 that so many people were on the station without the presence of a space shuttle.

 

Torch & go! Olympic spacecraft preparing for launch

 

Russia Today

 

Space engineers have set up the rocket which will carry the Olympic flame to the International Space Station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The launch of Soyuz TMA-11M is scheduled for Thursday. The Soyuz spacecraft will be boosted by a Soyuz-FG rocket from the first launch pad of the Cosmodrome, the so-called Gagarin's Start. It will be the first-ever delivery of an Olympic flame into space.

 

Manned Soyuz Craft Readied Ahead of Olympic Torch Spacewalk

 

RIA Novosti

 

A Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft was hoisted into place at a launch pad in Kazakhstan's Baikonur cosmodrome Tuesday morning ahead of a mission to take three astronauts to the manned International Space Station. The crew, consisting of Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, NASA's Richard Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata of Japan, is set to blast off Thursday from the Russian-leased facility. The Soyuz will be carrying an unlit Olympic torch, making for the most eye-catching, albeit unofficial, part of a grand relay taking place ahead of the Winter Games in and around the southern Russian resort town of Sochi in February.

 

Astronaut returns to York to share space stories with students

 

Gillian Graham - Portland Press Herald

 

Astronaut Chris Cassidy, who recently returned from a six-month stint on the International Space Station, made his way back to familiar territory Monday morning. Cassidy grew up in York and spoke to the senior class here on Monday about his experiences on the space station, including a spacewalk that had to be aborted because of problems with a fellow astronaut's spacesuit. Cassidy returned to earth in September after a six-month stay on the International Space Station, his second trip to space since being selected by NASA in 2006.

 

L-3 CE Set To Deliver SLS Avionics for Further Tests

 

Space News

 

L-3 Cincinnati Electronics (L-3 CE) is preparing to deliver to ATK Aerospace Group of Magna, Utah, a set of booster avionics units that will be used on the first two flights of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket, the Mason, Ohio-based company announced Oct. 29. The avionics control units, which recently completed qualification testing at L-3 CE, will fly on the twin solid-rocket boosters ATK is building for an unmanned SLS test flight currently planned for 2017 and a crewed test flight targeted for 2021. Once at ATK, the avionics units will be used to support system integration testing, a prerequisite to flight. L-3 CE is under contract to provide avionics for the SLS solid boosters and hydrogen-fueled core stage. (NO FURTHER TEXT)

 

China Sets Ambitious Agenda In 'Asian Space Race'

 

Anthony Kuhn - National Public Radio

 

It's been just a decade since China became the third nation to put up a manned spacecraft. And China is now leading what some see as a space race among Asian countries: It has worked on a lunar rover, a space station and an unmanned mission to Mars. I recently visited China's National Space Science Center, which is spearheading much of the research behind these programs. The center aims to be China's answer to NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab and Goddard Space Flight Center.

 

FAA's Spaceflight Occupant Safety Practices Leave a Few Things Out

 

Doug Messier - Parabolic Arc

 

I've been taking a look at the FAA's "Draft Established Practices for Human Space Flight Occupant Safety" document since it was released, and I have to confess it has left me a bit puzzled. It's not the content that's confusing; it's actually very easy to understand. The problem has been figuring out how to make the material interesting. The document is drier than the Mojave in July. I finally realized that the most interesting aspects are probably the things the FAA has decided are not established practices to safeguard space travelers. Like pressure suits. And launch escape systems. And defined standards to make sure occupants are healthy enough to fly. In other words, the very things that have been baked into national space programs for more than 50 years. Welcome to the NewSpace Age. It sure ain't your father's space program.

 

Virgin Galactic gears up for SpaceShipTwo's next blastoff

 

Alan Boyle - NBC News

 

Virgin Galactic says it's getting ready to send its SpaceShipTwo rocket plane higher and faster sometime in the next month, to take the next step toward commercial space tourism. "We hope to go into commercial operations next year," George T. Whitesides, Virgin Galactic's chief executive officer, said here Sunday. Whitesides' presentation, delivered during the ScienceWriters2013 conference, was webcast live via Google+. Company executives have said "wait till next year" several times before, but SpaceShipTwo has made it past a succession of ever-higher hurdles over the past few months. Its most recent test came at California's Mojave Air and Space Port in September, when the piloted craft went supersonic and demonstrated its tilted-wing re-entry system for the first time during a rocket-powered flight.

 

SpaceShipTwo Slated For Next Test Flight

 

Irene Klotz - Discovery News

 

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, a six-passenger, two-pilot suborbital spacecraft, is expected to make its third powered test flight within a month, said the company's chief executive George Whitesides. So far, about 650 customers have put down deposits or paid in full for rides aboard SpaceShipTwo, which now cost $250,000. SpaceShipTwo's  last powered flight was in September when it fired its engine for about 20 seconds. To reach suborbital space, the engine will need to burn for about one minute. Speaking at a science writers conference in Gainesville, Fla., on Sunday, Whitesides said the company is on track to begin its commercial space flight services next year. The first passengers include company founder Richard Branson and family. (NO FURTHER TEXT)

 

NASA Is Not Out of Business

 

Bob Crippen - Huffington Post (Commentary)

 

(Crippen is a former astronaut who served as pilot of first space shuttle mission (STS-1); commander of three other space shuttle missions (STS-7, STS-41C, STS-41G). He also is a former director of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and current member of the Coalition for Space Exploration Board of Advisors.)

 

Since the end of the Space Shuttle program the questions have grown louder and louder. Many Americans I speak to, and articles covering the space program, ask, "What happened to NASA?" Those questions are understandable because there has been an on-going debate on what NASA should do for the next major human spaceflight initiative. The debate has revolved around whether NASA should go to an asteroid, to Mars or one of its moons, or back to the Moon as a stepping stone. These, and more, are all options for "deep space" missions.

 

Space Leadership for a Difficult Time

 

Wayne Hale -Space News (Opinion)

 

(Hale is a former NASA space shuttle program manager)

 

I spent most of my career on the space shuttle. Today, however, I want to concentrate on the future. The real difficulty with NASA's exploration plans is not in building rockets or spacecraft or picking destinations, but in keeping our national leadership focused on the importance of space exploration. That is what I would like to spend my time on today. I am very interested in the history and technology so it is probably no surprise this includes the building of the Transcontinental Railroad a century and a half ago. It was a great national project that literally transformed our nation. After witnessing tests of the shuttle solid-rocket boosters in Utah, I kidnapped several shuttle managers and took them over the ridge line seven miles from the rocket test to the National Historic Site commemorating the Transcontinental Railroad — the Golden Spike.

__________

 

COMPLETE STORIES

 

Space Station Crew Faces Orbital Traffic Jam This Week

 

Elizabeth Howell - Space.com

 

It's a busy week in orbit at the International Space Station. With nine astronauts set to crowd the station this week, part of its crew moved a Russian transport vehicle to a different dock to make room for the new arrivals.

 

Three members of the six-person Expedition 37 climbed into the Soyuz TMA-09 spacecraft Friday to bring the vehicle from the Rassvet cargo and docking module to the Zvezda service module, which has another Russian docking port on the other side of the station. The maneuver began at 4:33 a.m. EDT (0833 GMT) and lasted 21 minutes.

 

Russia's Fyodor Yurchikhin commanded the vehicle, which also had NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano inside. Three people must go inside the Soyuz during these kinds of transfers because if something goes wrong, NASA wants to preserve the option of making an early return to Earth with a full crew on board.

 

The move cleared the way for three new crewmembers to arrive Nov. 7. Soyuz TMA-11M Russian commander Mikhail Tyurin, NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata, of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, will dock at the Rassvet port six hours after launching from Kazakhstan.

 

Nine people in the space station will make for crowded quarters. According to NASA, this month will mark the first time since October 2009 that so many people were on the station without the presence of a space shuttle. That vehicle used to routinely dump crews of an extra six to seven astronauts on board the station for a few days. Typical space station crew numbers range between three to six people at a time.

 

Besides carrying the astronauts, the Soyuz will also have the Olympic torch onboard as part of a cosmic torch relay. On Nov. 9, just two days after the torch arrives on station, Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy will take it outside the station as part of a spacewalk.

 

The torch will come back to Earth Nov. 10 when Yurchikhin, Nyberg and Parmitano fly home to cap a five-month mission in space.

 

Coincidentally, Yurchikhin was at the helm the last time a Soyuz moved ports on the station. The June 2010 flight went off flawlessly, but was delayed after a last-minute circuit breaker power failure in one of the space station's solar arrays. NASA usually moves these arrays out of the way to make sure that emissions from the Soyuz's thrusters don't damage the solar panels.

 

Yurchikhin and NASA astronauts Douglas Wheelock and Shannon Walker waited an extra orbit (about 90 minutes) inside their Sokol spacesuits. Russian mission controllers invited the crew to take off their gloves if they wanted to get more comfortable, but Yurchikhin said everyone could wait it out.

 

Torch & go! Olympic spacecraft preparing for launch

 

Russia Today

 

Space engineers have set up the rocket which will carry the Olympic flame to the International Space Station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The launch of Soyuz TMA-11M is scheduled for Thursday.

 

The Soyuz spacecraft will be boosted by a Soyuz-FG rocket from the first launch pad of the Cosmodrome, the so-called Gagarin's Start. It will be the first-ever delivery of an Olympic flame into space.

 

To mark its unusual cargo, both the manned Soyuz and the rocket are decorated in Sochi Winter Olympics theme. The capsule carries the logo of the games, while the rocket was painted with a patchwork design, featuring traditional Russian images and patterns like the firebird and Gzhel designs. A torch flame is also shown on the mission patch.

 

The three members of the ISS Expedition 38 who man the spaceship are Russia's Mikhail Turin, NASA's Richard Mastracchio and Japan's Koichi Wakata. They all are veteran space explorers doing their third or fourth flights.

 

The spacemen are to take part in the ongoing Olympic torch relay. They will carry a burning Sochi Games torch from their hotel to the bus which will carry them to the launch site.

 

The zero-G environment and safety measures required some compromises for the space leg of the torch relay. The flame will not be kept burning on the ISS as it would be prone to self-extinguishing, consume extra oxygen and pose a potential threat to the structure. But the torch will be carried all over the station modules and will be taken into open space during a spacewalk on Saturday.

 

The space station has prepared for the arrival of the torch mission. Last Friday the current ISS crew undocked the Soyuz TMA-09M capsule from the Rassvet dock module and relocated it to the Zvezda service module. The dock is now free to receive the Soyuz TMA-11M.

 

The Olympic torch is to spend five days in orbit. The Soyuz TMA-09M is to return it back home next week along with Fyodor Yurchikhin, Karen Nyberg and Luca Parmitano, who are currently working on the ISS.

 

Manned Soyuz Craft Readied Ahead of Olympic Torch Spacewalk

 

RIA Novosti

 

A Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft was hoisted into place at a launch pad in Kazakhstan's Baikonur cosmodrome Tuesday morning ahead of a mission to take three astronauts to the manned International Space Station.

 

The crew, consisting of Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, NASA's Richard Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata of Japan, is set to blast off Thursday from the Russian-leased facility.

 

The Soyuz will be carrying an unlit Olympic torch, making for the most eye-catching, albeit unofficial, part of a grand relay taking place ahead of the Winter Games in and around the southern Russian resort town of Sochi in February.

 

The torch will be taken on a brief spacewalk Saturday by Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy, who are one of the six people currently aboard the space station.

 

The arrival of the Soyuz TMA-11M will take the number of people on the ISS to nine for the first time since October 2009 without the US shuttle, which was definitively retired in the middle of 2011.

 

The main purpose of the spacewalk will be to prepare the station for the arrival of a Russian Multi-Purpose Laboratory Module.

 

The outbound trio will remain on the International Space Station until May. Wakata,of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, is set to take the helm of the station for the final two months. That will mark the first time in history that the ISS has had a Japanese commander.

 

Luca Parmitano, an Italian astronaut with European Space Agency, Russia's Fyodor Yurchikhin and NASA's Karen Nyberg are set to return to earth on Sunday.

 

Astronaut returns to York to share space stories with students

Chris Cassidy just spent six months on the International Space State and came home to reconnect and to visit his old high school

 

Gillian Graham - Portland Press Herald

 

Astronaut Chris Cassidy, who recently returned from a six-month stint on the International Space Station, made his way back to familiar territory Monday morning.

 

Cassidy grew up in York and spoke to the senior class here on Monday about his experiences on the space station, including a spacewalk that had to be aborted because of problems with a fellow astronaut's spacesuit.

 

Cassidy returned to earth in September after a six-month stay on the International Space Station, his second trip to space since being selected by NASA in 2006.

 

Cassidy conducted three spacewalks during his most recent stint in space, including a July 16 walk that grabbed headlines when Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano's helmet began to collect water.

 

In a July interview with the Press Herald from aboard the International Space Station, Cassidy said he and Parmitano had to cut the spacewalk short and rush back inside.

 

Cassidy, a 43-year-old former Navy SEAL, has done a total of six spacewalks, for a total of 31 hours and 14 minutes outside of the space station.

 

During his presentation, Cassidy described the experiments he did during his mission, the sensation of leaving the space station for spacewalks and how urine is recycled into drinking water. That fact about life in space drew gasps and giggles from students.

 

After his vacation in Maine, Cassidy will return to Houston for a "9-to-5" job with NASA. He said it could be four or five years before his next opportunity to go to space.

 

"I'd go back in a heartbeat," Cassidy said.

 

China Sets Ambitious Agenda In 'Asian Space Race'

 

Anthony Kuhn - National Public Radio

 

It's been just a decade since China became the third nation to put up a manned spacecraft. And China is now leading what some see as a space race among Asian countries: It has worked on a lunar rover, a space station and an unmanned mission to Mars.

 

I recently visited China's National Space Science Center, which is spearheading much of the research behind these programs. The center aims to be China's answer to NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab and Goddard Space Flight Center.

 

The center's director, Wu Ji, got his start as an engineer making microwave antennas. He remembers working in Europe in 1986 when he was stunned by the deadly explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, just after takeoff.

 

"To a young man who was in love with space flight and exploration, it was extremely painful to see this kind of failure," he says. "I felt that exploring space was a massive challenge for which people must sacrifice, and a common cause for mankind."

 

The center helped to design China's first satellite in 1970. Today, it has a budget of about $80 million, a staff of around 650, and has gone from more commercial projects such as weather satellites to purely scientific research, such as studying dark matter and quantum teleportation.

 

Two years ago, China put its first Mars probe on a Russian rocket, but the rocket failed and probe was lost. Both the U.S. and India are trying to launch Mars probes this year, while the planets are suitably aligned. After that, there won't be another window of opportunity for a couple of years.

 

Wu says it's likely to be five to seven years before China makes it to Mars. You can't discover the same things twice, he points out, so China will then pick up where the U.S. and India left off.

 

"If China launches its own Mars probe, we will certainly choose new scientific goals based on what others have done before," he says. "We will definitely not repeat the scientific objectives of our first Mars probe."

 

Joan Johnson-Freese, an expert on China's space program's at the U.S. Naval War College in Rhode Island, says India is hoping to beat China to the red planet.

 

"There's this geostrategic space race in Asia, where China has the clear lead, and India has been more or less desperately searching for what can it be the first to discover or the first to accomplish," Johnson-Freese said.

 

Wu says China's space programs welcome cooperation with any country. But he's frustrated that two years ago Congress approved a spending bill that bans NASA from using federal funds to cooperate with China.

 

Opponents of U.S.-China cooperation argue that China's military helps run its space programs, and China really has nothing to teach us about space science. But Johnson-Freese says that even during the Cold War, the U.S. worked with the Soviet Union on some space programs.

 

"I think this is a counterproductive policy," she says. "If we consider China our competitor, well, there's the expression, 'Keep your enemies close.' So you would want to keep them close to know what they're doing. If we don't consider them our enemy or competitor, why aren't we working with them?"

 

NASA recently banned Chinese scientists from a meeting about planets outside our solar system, but they changed their mind after U.S. scientists threatened to boycott the conference.

 

Wu says he is dismayed by the recent changes in the U.S., whose space programs have long been the envy of the world.

 

"I don't know if your listeners or people living in the U.S. understand these changes," he says. "But as I observe them from the outside, I feel that America is gradually contracting and closing itself off. It's a very strange thing."

 

Wu says he prefers to cooperate with other countries. If not, China undoubtedly has the ability to go it alone, even if it takes a bit longer.

 

FAA's Spaceflight Occupant Safety Practices Leave a Few Things Out

 

Doug Messier - Parabolic Arc

 

I've been taking a look at the FAA's "Draft Established Practices for Human Space Flight Occupant Safety" document since it was released, and I have to confess it has left me a bit puzzled.

 

It's not the content that's confusing; it's actually very easy to understand. The problem has been figuring out how to make the material interesting. The document is drier than the Mojave in July.

 

I finally realized that the most interesting aspects are probably the things the FAA has decided are not established practices to safeguard space travelers. Like pressure suits. And launch escape systems. And defined standards to make sure occupants are healthy enough to fly.

 

In other words, the very things that have been baked into national space programs for more than 50 years.

 

Welcome to the NewSpace Age. It sure ain't your father's space program.

 

The practices — developed after a series of eight telecons between the FAA, commercial space industry and other stakeholders — cover both suborbital and orbital spaceflight. The agency, which is approaching commercial spaceflight on an informed consent basis, does not lay down any hard and fast rules. However, the practices could form the basis for future rule making.

 

"AST has developed this document to share our thoughts about established practices for human space flight occupant safety. Ultimately, our goal is to gain the consensus of government, industry, and academia on established practices as part of our mandate to encourage, facilitate, and promote the continuous improvement of the safety of launch and reentry vehicles designed to carry humans. The outcome of this effort may also serve as a starting point for a future rulemaking project, although AST has no plans to start a rulemaking project in the near term."

 

The document identifies two "levels of care" for those involved in commercial space flights.

 

"First, the occupants of commercial human spacecraft should not experience an environment during flight that would cause death or serious injury. This is a low bar, below the level of comfort that most space flight participants would want to experience."

 

OK, so don't kill your high net worth passengers. That's good thinking.

 

"Second, the level of care for flight crew when performing safety critical operations is increased to the level necessary to perform those operations. For example, if planned translational forces will not result in serious injuries, but the flight crew needs lower forces in order to move their arms to perform a safety critical operation, then an increased level of care is reflected in this document. Note that we have assumed for purposes of this document that each member of the flight crew is safety critical."

 

Don't incapacitate the crew members who are flying the ship. More good advice.

 

The document goes on for dozens of pages about how to achieve these levels of safety. Protect occupants against excessive noise, acceleration and radiation. Check. Separating redundant systems so the failure of one doesn't disable the other. Got it. Design failure tolerance into a vehicle. Absolutely.

 

"Failure Tolerance to Catastrophic Events

 

"a. The system should control hazards that can lead to catastrophic events with no less than single failure tolerance, except when redundancy adds complexity that results in a decrease in overall system safety, or when fault tolerance is not practicable as a system safety solution.

 

"b. When failure tolerance is not practical, such as for primary structure, pressure vessels, and thermal protection systems, an equivalent level of safety should be achieved through other means such as factors of safety, high reliability, and other design margin techniques."

 

Most of the practices seem to be fairly commonsensical. Some, I'm guessing, are not.

 

But, as I mentioned, some of the things AST left out are the most interesting. Take spacesuits, the absence of which caused the deaths of three Soviet cosmonauts when their Soyuz 11 spacecraft suddenly depressurized prior to re-entry in 1971.

 

"Government human space flight experience has demonstrated that the ascent and reentry timeframes are the highest risk period for catastrophic failures. Given the hazard time to effect, having occupants wear pressure suits during ascent and reentry is beneficial to protect the occupants from a potential low pressure cabin environment."

 

OK, the evidence is pretty strong that you would want pressure suits. So, what exactly is the problem?

 

"However, integrating pressure suits into a spacecraft design is not trivial, nor inexpensive. Because it may not be an ideal design trade in all cases, AST has not included pressure suits as an established practice. The conduct of an occupant survivability analysis is included in the document in order to identify measures, such as pressure suits, that may increase the occupants' chance of survival in an emergency."

 

So, it would be costly — especially if you've already designed your craft for a short sleeve environment and would have to perform an expensive retrofit. In that case, an operator might argue that the safety design of the vehicle is a better protection against sudden decompression, i.e., the "ideal design trade" explanation.

 

It is likely that the spacesuit optional approach will apply more to suborbital vehicles than orbital ones. NASA will almost certainly require the wearing of pressure suits for at least the launch and re-entry phases for any commercial crew services that it purchases.

 

Although protecting spaceflight participants and crew members from sudden pressure loss is not included in the practices, the FAA wants operators to protect them from bad air.

 

"Response to Contaminated Atmosphere

 

"In order to respond to a contaminated atmosphere, the vehicle should provide equipment and provisions to limit occupant exposure to the contaminated atmosphere such that occupants are protected from serious injuries, and safety critical operations can be performed successfully. The vehicle should:

 

"a. Provide breathable air and eye protection for each occupant;

 

"b. Provide voice communication between the flight crew and the ground crew; and

 

"c. Provide voice communication from the flight crew to the space flight participants.

 

"Rationale: Fire, toxic out gassing, and chemical leaks can degrade a spacecraft's atmosphere such that occupants become casualties due to asphyxiation, chemical burns, or eye injury. In addition, such emergencies are difficult to manage by the flight crew due to the hazard of inhalation or eye injuries. The use of a self-contained breathing apparatus, for example, can protect occupants from the hazard, and allow the flight crew to manage the emergency. The ability to communicate orally with the ground and within the spacecraft while wearing emergency gear is important to respond to the event."

 

So, the FAA wants everyone to be able to breath safely, but if the pressure drops suddenly and their blood begins to boil, they're on their own. That level of protection is more akin to flying in an airliner at 30,000 feet than in a space plane soaring above the Karman line.

 

My best guess is this approach will last until there is a fatal accident resulting spacecraft decompression. The Soviets redesigned the Soyuz after their accident, reducing the crew size from three to two for many years afterward. NASA also mandated full pressure suits after the Challenger accident.

 

The FAA also is leaving it up to spaceflight operators to do their own screening of spaceflight participants to determine if they are healthy enough to safely fly. The reason: a lack of data.

 

"This document does not include any medical criteria that would limit who should fly in space due to medical conditions. There is little clear statistical evidence on the actual impact of space flight on the health of an occupant with pre-existing conditions. Medical screening of space flight participants is included as a practice to inform them of risks and to ensure they will not be a danger to other occupants."

 

The FAA's most logical omission involves launch escape systems, which it says are a significant enhancement to safety on orbital systems but are not practical for all vehicle designs. That is certainly true, particularly when it comes to suborbital space planes now under development. All the orbital systems being funded by NASA under the Commercial Crew Program incorporate launch escape systems for the crew vehicles.

 

The other really interesting part of the document involves the established practice for flight demonstrations before taking a passenger.

 

"Prior to any flight with a space flight participant, the integrated performance of a vehicle's hardware, any software, and operational procedures should be demonstrated by successfully executing a flight of the vehicle's design reference mission," the document states. "Further flight demonstration should be conducted for any subsequent modifications that cannot be tested at the integrated system level on the ground."

 

Now, note the language there: "successfully executing a flight of the vehicle's design reference mission." As in a single flight. One. Un. Uno. Ein. Odin. Ichi.

 

NASA is taking this approach with its Commercial Crew Program. Each of the companies competing in the program has planned a single demonstration flight to the International Space Station. Providing the flight goes well, a company would be in a position to provide commercial transport services to the space agency.

 

The single demonstration flight makes sense in this situation. The companies are working extremely closely with NASA, with the space agency endeavoring to transfer as much of its human spaceflight expertise to the private sector. Procurement of flight services will also be done under strict Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) procedures.

 

Private reusable suborbital vehicles are being developed in a very different manner. It is almost certain that these providers will conduct more than one test flight with the profile they will use to fly paying customers. They will want to fully test out all the systems on a repeated basis before launching commercial service. Yet, the FAA is not recommending any set number of flights beyond one.

 

This approach illustrates the informed consent regime in which passengers acknowledge the risks they are taking in climbing aboard these new vehicles. It is a significant departure from the FAA's approach to commercial aviation. The agency certifies commercial aircraft, a costly and time consuming process that requires thousands of hours of flight time before passengers can fly. However, the FAA will license manned commercial space vehicles, which is a much looser standard.

 

So, that's my review of the FAA's draft document on established practices. It turned out to be a bit more interesting than I thought. I hope you found it informative as well.

 

Virgin Galactic gears up for SpaceShipTwo's next blastoff

 

Alan Boyle - NBC News

 

Virgin Galactic says it's getting ready to send its SpaceShipTwo rocket plane higher and faster sometime in the next month, to take the next step toward commercial space tourism.

 

"We hope to go into commercial operations next year," George T. Whitesides, Virgin Galactic's chief executive officer, said here Sunday. Whitesides' presentation, delivered during the ScienceWriters2013 conference, was webcast live via Google+.

 

Company executives have said "wait till next year" several times before, but SpaceShipTwo has made it past a succession of ever-higher hurdles over the past few months. Its most recent test came at California's Mojave Air and Space Port in September, when the piloted craft went supersonic and demonstrated its tilted-wing re-entry system for the first time during a rocket-powered flight.

 

September's flight sent SpaceShipTwo to a height of 69,000 feet (21 kilometers), at a maximum speed of Mach 1.43, thanks to a rocket blast that lasted 20 seconds. Virgin Galactic and its development partners at Mojave-based Scaled Composites eventually plan to send test flights beyond the internationally accepted boundary of outer space of 62 miles (100 kilometers), but to do so the rocket engine would have to fire for an entire minute.

 

SpaceShipTwo begins each flight hooked beneath a carrier airplane called WhiteKnightTwo. The rocket plane drops from an altitude of roughly 50,000 feet, fires its hybrid engine, blasts its way upward, then glides back down for a landing at Mojave. It's roughly the same flight profile that was followed by SpaceShipTwo's significantly smaller predecessor, SpaceShipOne, during its prize-winning flights in 2004.

 

Next month's test flight would be part of a step-by-step schedule aimed at opening the way for the world's first suborbital space passengers, Whitesides said. The company's customers would be able to get out of their seats, experience a few minutes of weightlessness, ooh and ahh over the view, then strap in for the tail end of a high-acceleration roller coaster ride.

 

About 650 customers already have put their money down, and the company is continuing to sell tickets at $250,000 apiece. That amounts to more than $130 million committed for spaceflights so far. Whitesides noted that sales went up when Virgin Galactic announced a one-time price rise from $200,000 due to inflation.

 

"Some of our marketing team said, 'This is great, let's just keep raising the price every six months,'" he joked. Whitesides expects the price to come down eventually due to economies of scale.

 

Although the plane is being tested at Mojave, commercial flights are expected to originate from the recently constructed Spaceport America facility in New Mexico. Virgin Galactic's billionaire founder, Richard Branson, is committed to going on the first passenger flight. However, Whitesides told NBC News that research flights may precede Branson's inaugural ride.

 

Other nuggets from the Gainesville talk:

 

·         In response to a journalist's question, Whitesides said "there may well be an opportunity for certain media to come along" for a free, publicity-generating space ride — if a paying passenger had to bow out at the last minute due to illness or other reasons. Such "short-notice tickets" for open seats could be made available for free to Virgin Galactic employees as well, he said.

 

·         Whitesides said Virgin Galactic was committed to making SpaceShipTwo far safer than NASA's space shuttle fleet, which had two catastrophic failures out of 135 flights. However, he acknowledged that SpaceShipTwo may not be as safe as a Boeing 737 jet, and that accidents could happen. "I have no doubt that if there's an accident, the industry would continue. ... A big accident would have an impact on a company, and the degree to which that company would be affected would be a function of how much capital that company has, primarily, and how quickly they could get a new vehicle into service," he said.

 

·         Eventually, Virgin Galactic aims to use rocket planes for supersonic point-to-point travel. "Nobody's attacking that problem. It's crazy, right? ... If we can put a man on the moon, we can go to Japan for lunch and come back for dinner," Whitesides said. Experts have said point-to-point rocket flights are challenging because the engineering requirements are close to the requirements for orbital flight.

 

NASA Is Not Out of Business

 

Bob Crippen - Huffington Post (Commentary)

 

(Crippen is a former astronaut who served as pilot of first space shuttle mission (STS-1); commander of three other space shuttle missions (STS-7, STS-41C, STS-41G). He also is a former director of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and current member of the Coalition for Space Exploration Board of Advisors.)

 

Since the end of the Space Shuttle program the questions have grown louder and louder. Many Americans I speak to, and articles covering the space program, ask, "What happened to NASA?"

 

Those questions are understandable because there has been an on-going debate on what NASA should do for the next major human spaceflight initiative. The debate has revolved around whether NASA should go to an asteroid, to Mars or one of its moons, or back to the Moon as a stepping stone. These, and more, are all options for "deep space" missions.

 

At the same time, NASA has "outsourced" the more routine low Earth orbit flights to the International Space Station to commercial companies for cargo, and relies on the Russians for crewed flights until commercial companies can take over those duties in 2017.

 

I'm glad to report that the rumors of NASA's demise are wrong. NASA has been focused on the longer-term. They have been working on the spacecraft and launch vehicle that will enable deep space missions, and we will see the results of those efforts in 2014. Throughout the year we will see the first test flight of the new Orion crew exploration spacecraft, and engine and booster tests on the new Space Launch System (SLS) -- the most powerful rocket ever built.

 

Orion is designed for the months-long and years-long missions required to reach deep space destinations. The SLS is designed to launch crews and cargo on direct trajectories that will shorten the missions to deep space destinations. To put its power into perspective, consider that the Saturn V that carried the Apollo crews to the Moon and the Space Shuttle each generated seven million pounds of thrust. The SLS will provide 10 million pounds of thrust. Furthermore, this power will deliver 3-4 times more lift capability than all current launch vehicles.

 

The combination of SLS and Orion will effectively establish a highway to the entire solar system. And as the Nation assesses what destinations we should explore next, the spacecraft and rocket will continue to progress through their development tests so they are ready when those decisions are made.

 

In addition to the growing excitement about crewed missions to deep space, SLS is also an absolute game-changer for ambitious robotic missions to the outer planets and large unprecedented astronomical observatories. Those missions will build on the discoveries of Curiosity on Mars, the Hubble Space Telescope and its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope that will replace it in 2018, and multiple robotic missions in the years ahead.

 

One of the challenges of robotic missions and space-based observatories is their designs have been limited by the size of existing rockets. This has constrained designers to very complex, size-limited approaches that drive up the costs of reaching for technologies that don't exist and must be developed to the nth degree.

 

Also, for robotic missions to the outer planets, current rockets are often forced to launch spacecraft around other planets to gain a "sling-shot boost" because they don't have enough thrust to launch directly. The effect is that those missions take 6-8 years to reach their destinations, where SLS can get them there in half that time.

 

As 2014 unfolds, we will all see the fruits of what NASA has been working on the last few years to develop SLS and Orion. At the same time, we should also see the early steps of a maturing "commercial space industry" as the flights to the space station pick up steam. Many will highlight those flights as the beginning of a new era in space. In fact, we have been flying to low Earth orbit since the early 1960s and it's appropriate that we outsource those routine flights to commercial companies. Longer-term I believe commercial companies will take a larger role in space, even eventually going to deep space. But they must first prove that they can handle low Earth orbit flights on a regular, sustained basis for both cargo and crew.

 

However, when we debate NASA's future I'll restate what President Kennedy said on May 25, 1961 when he set the goal of landing a man on the moon:

 

"Future generations will say that the real significance in our space program lay in the fact that it took the 'lid off' the limitations posed by the finite size and finite resources of the planet earth."

 

Today, NASA stands at a position that we've seen before in our history where the government must lead, and industry and the rest of our citizens benefit such as we did with the building of the railroads and the interstate highway.

 

Better yet, NASA has learned many lessons in the last few years to streamline the design and development of SLS and Orion to make it more affordable than past efforts of new space systems. For the early missions it is using leftover space shuttle hardware for the liquid engines and solid rocket boosters, and it also has a raft of cost-saving initiatives underway ranging from production streamlining to advanced, but cheaper, manufacturing methods for follow-on production of these next-generation space vehicles.

 

Incredibly, we haven't sent crews beyond low Earth orbit since the last crew walked on the Moon in 1972. With Orion and SLS, America will have the fundamental capabilities to support future missions and take the next significant steps into deep space.

 

So the next time you are asked what happened to NASA, you can rightfully say NASA is NOT out of business. NASA has been vigorously preparing for the future, "retooling" for the next great era of space exploration.

 

Space Leadership for a Difficult Time

 

Wayne Hale -Space News (Opinion)

 

(Hale is a former NASA space shuttle program manager)

 

I spent most of my career on the space shuttle. Today, however, I want to concentrate on the future.

 

The real difficulty with NASA's exploration plans is not in building rockets or spacecraft or picking destinations, but in keeping our national leadership focused on the importance of space exploration. 

 

That is what I would like to spend my time on today.

 

I am very interested in the history and technology so it is probably no surprise this includes the building of the Transcontinental Railroad a century and a half ago. It was a great national project that literally transformed our nation. 

 

After witnessing tests of the shuttle solid-rocket boosters in Utah, I kidnapped several shuttle managers and took them over the ridge line seven miles from the rocket test to the National Historic Site commemorating the Transcontinental Railroad — the Golden Spike.  

 

Some years earlier, I had read the great historian Stephen E. Ambrose's "Nothing Like It in the World" about the building of the railroad. I had expected that book to be about blasting tunnels through the Sierra Nevadas or building trestles across the Platte and the Snake rivers or even about the encounters with Native Americans. There was some of that in the book, but Ambrose concentrated on what was really important in constructing the railroad: How did they get the money? 

 

That was a fascinating story of creativity in the extreme, risk taking, influencing, and skirting the boundaries of ethics. While the conventional wisdom of all the well-established railroad builders was that building the Pacific Railroad would take two or more decades and would never turn a profit, upstart non-railroad entrepreneurs got approval, raised the money, built it in less than five years and walked away rich men.

 

Historical analogies are tricky, but there are lessons to be learned here. 

 

Remember the great scene in "The Right Stuff" where the test pilots are asked by the newspaper reporter, "What makes an airplane fly?" — the correct answer to that question is "funding."

 

For more than a quarter of a century, dreamers and schemers had written, talked and lobbied about a railroad to the Pacific; a young lawyer named Abraham Lincoln was exposed to the idea when he represented the railroads. He was so sold on the idea he bought land in Council Bluffs, Iowa, where the railroad might start. It didn't hurt that the Iowa delegation was critical to his presidential nomination shortly afterward. 

 

Private industry — mostly upstart newcomers, not the traditional railroad builders — got the approval to build it. Their financing was extremely creative, even to the point of providing stock shares to congressmen — which led a few years later to the Credit Mobilier scandal. But the original investors became wealthy men, including a grocery store clerk named Stanford who became governor and had a university named for him.

 

The government gave the railroads land that they could sell and in return was guaranteed free passage for Army troops on the railroad — which turned out to be one of the best taxpayer investments in the history of the nation.

 

What creative ideas can we use today?

 

NASA has an ambitious plan to replace low Earth orbit transportation with commercial vehicles, keep using the international space station as a research platform, build a new deep-space exploration vehicle in Orion, and build the large rocket necessary to enable deep-space exploration in the Space Launch System (SLS). Initially, these assets will be used for a very interesting Asteroid Retrieval Mission — a great engineering and operations test of the new capabilities, but not a true scientific goal or a long-term strategy. 

 

I have a great deal of confidence that NASA and industry can build the large rocket and the deep-space exploration vehicle. I know the people and the organizations, and they are credible and capable and can accomplish the technical feat.

 

The central problem remains: Where does the money come from? Are we really down to counting on Congress to save the space program? 

 

The current plan is fragile in the political and financial maelstrom that is Washington. 

 

Planning to fly once every three or four years does not make a viable program.

 

Continuing to develop programs in the same old ways almost certainly will lead to cancellation yet again.

 

It is time to try new strategies.

 

Necessity is the mother of invention.

 

How motivated are we to make this latest attempt a success? Is it all about short-term corporate profits or is it about building a new exploration system that our country needs?

 

It is clear that NASA is getting the message. All the senior officials now talk about keeping costs contained to make the program sustainable. An excellent briefing last fall on the SLS program showed that significant steps are being taken to keep the costs down. In recent weeks, interviews were published with NASA's Todd May and Mike Kynard in which they emphasized the steps the SLS program is taking to cut development costs. The head of mission operations just reported that over the last three years the operating costs for international space station mission control had been reduced to one-third of what they were previously. Yesterday I toured the United Launch Alliance facility in Decatur, Ala. — an impressive model of modern industrial efficiency.

 

These are outstanding efforts.

 

Will they be enough to see these systems through development and into operations? In today's federal budget environment, I fear they will not.

 

So what is required? I have no succinct answers except to redouble our efforts.

 

If we truly believe that space exploration is an endeavor worthy of our passion, we must strive for higher efforts.

 

We must redouble our efforts to be innovative and creative. We can start by adopting some of the energy and creativity shown by new players in our industry.

 

Consider the suborbital spaceflight field. Not that the problem is as hard, but how are they creatively financing new craft with no government money? 

 

A serious group is proposing a privately funded Moon mission. Is it credible? Possibly. Will they succeed? It's a long shot. Is there a lesson for us there? Absolutely.

 

True profit-making business has proved to be far more sustainable than depending on the government. There is much talk about "the business case" — how can that be made to work for exploration initiatives?

 

Look at the commercial resupply program. With a taxpayer investment of less than $1.5 billion, two new launch vehicles and cargo spacecraft are flying to the international space station. That is an economy unheard of in today's space industry. How did those two companies do it?

 

I will fully admit that I am not a fan of Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX). I expected to be joining the chorus of "I told you so" when they crashed and burned. But even though they had their difficulties, they are succeeding. It would behoove us to learn what new tricks are making them effective and apply them to exploration activities. 

 

A different model is Orbital Sciences Corp. with its Antares rocket and Cygnus capsule. Operating on a shoestring budget, they brought a new vehicle and spacecraft on line. How were they successful? Are we paying attention?

 

It is a time for revolutionary action. The fundamental goals for deep-space exploration have not changed, but we must be as innovative in our business practices as we are in our engineering to advance in this field. 

 

We must examine all our processes and practices — the very things that have made us successful — and see which are truly value-added. Then we should jettison those that are not and consider jettisoning those that are marginal contributors.

 

This is not a call to build a program that leads to accidents — we were foolish in both Challenger and Columbia — rather, this is a call to learn from the mistakes of the past and work really hard to be creative and innovative to make the future sustainable.

 

What is our choice? If we abandon the dream, our children will pay the price.

 

Or do we take a page from our history and make deep-space exploration a reality through hard work, determination and creativity? It really will "serve to organize and measure the best in us," as President John F. Kennedy said in his 1962 Moon speech.

 

History waits on no one. We choose our destiny; it is not foreordained that America will lead in space or in any other endeavor.  Whether we lead or follow is a choice that we will make — and pay the consequences.

 

Actions by other nations may not catch the popular imagination today, but they will pass us and reap the rewards if we turn back.

 

Many of you have heard me speak about the choices that nations made 500 years ago; about China's choosing to turn inward and Europe's choosing to go forward. The history of the last 500 years has been the history of the West. Are we going to continue that legacy, or let others make the history of coming years?

 

We stand at a unique place in our history. It is not for the faint of heart. It is easy to despair, it would be easy to give up, and it would be easy to daydream of other days. But this is the place that history has chosen for us. We might have wished to live in simpler times, or easier times, but this is the time we have been given. 

 

What will we choose? 

 

I suggest we go forward even though it is hard, even though the future is uncertain.

 

Would you really rather have it any other way?

 

END