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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: June 3, 2014 10:41:43 AM CDT
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: NASA and Human Spaceflight News - Tuesday – June 3, 2014
The JSC Today has not been published yet,,,so if it comes in later I will forward to all of you Retirees!Don't forget to join the NASA retirees this Thursday at Hibachi Grill for our monthly luncheon at 11:30! Followed by the NASA Alumni League special talk by Wayne Hale at 2:30pm at the Gilruth Alamo Room (I think) followed by the Keg of the Month gathering out at the Gilruth Pavillion…at 4pmNASA and Human Spaceflight NewsTuesday – June 3, 2014HEADLINES AND LEADSWith out-of-this-world tweets, Cockeysville astronaut an online hitReid Wiseman's unabashed enthusiasm from aboard the International Space Station is making him a lot of friendsChris Kaltenbach - The Baltimore Sun
- Monday night at 10:41 p.m., look to the southwest horizon. The space station will pass by the "Big Dipper" around 10:45 as it reaches its highest point in the sky, and it will set in the northeast about 10:49 p.m.
- Tuesday night, the space station will pass directly overhead, rising in the southwest at 9:52 p.m., reaching the center of the sky about 9:56, and setting in the northeast at 10 p.m.
- Wednesday morning it will again pass directly overhead, but this time from northwest to southeast, from 4:22 a.m. to 4:30 a.m.
- If that's a bit early for you, it will appear again Wednesday night, rising in the southwest about 9:03 p.m., passing the reddish-tinted planet Mars before reaching its highest point, toward the southeastern sky, about 9:07 p.m. and setting in the northeast about 9:11 p.m.
- Friday night, look to the southwest at 9:02 p.m. The space station will pass the "Big Dipper" a few minutes later and set in the northeast about 9:10 p.m.
It should be bright enough to see even in the city, though it's always best to look somewhere away from urban light pollution.Cockeysville native Reid Wiseman launched to the space station Wednesday for a six-month stay there. Follow him on Twitter for photos of his view of Earth and space at @astro_reid.An American just docked at the International Space Station, and his Twitter photos are amazingAbby Phillip – The Washington PostThis is astronaut Reid Wiseman's first time in space and it shows.The Maryland native has been tweeting with abandon from aboard the International Space Station since docking early Thursday morning.According to the Baltimore Sun, Wiseman's prolific tweeting, from the handle @astro_reid, has rocketed him from 16,000 Twitter followers on May 1 to more than 37,000 by Monday. His space photos are remarkable — and so is his selfie-taking optimism, despite the "frequent" frustration of his new zero-gravity workspace.Wiseman will be in space for another six months, and judging from his tweets so far, he appears to be a must-follow — and, perhaps, the long-awaited American answer to Canada's rock star astronaut Chris HadfieldDecision time for commercial crewJeff Foust – The Space ReviewLate last week, it was hard to escape the news that SpaceX had unveiled a new version of its Dragon spacecraft that can carry people. That coverage was largely positive and sometimes even a little hyperbolic, with headlines like "This Is What the Future of Manned Space Flight Looks Like" and "Video and pictures of SpaceX's new spaceship. It looks like the future."The new version of Dragon may look like the future, but there is no guarantee that it is the future. SpaceX is just one of three competitors for the next phase of NASA's commercial crew program, with a decision in the form of contracts to be made late this summer. With funding available for no more than two contracts, and perhaps only one, both NASA and the companies involved in the program will be faced with some hard decisions in the coming months.Unveiling a "21st century spaceship"It had been no secret, of course, that SpaceX was developing a crewed version of Dragon. Even one of the key attributes of this version of Dragon, its ability to land under rocket power, versus splashing down in the ocean as the current cargo version of Dragon does, was something the company had indicated for some time it was pursuing. In that respect, there was very little news to come out of the media event SpaceX held last Thursday evening at its Hawthorne, California, headquarters.However, what SpaceX had previously shown was primarily animations and illustrations of its crewed version of Dragon. Thursday night, before a standing room only audience of media, invited guests, and cheering company employees, SpaceX raised the curtain (actually, they dropped it, after a countdown) on the Dragon itself.This version of Dragon, which SpaceX calls "V2" as in version 2, appears somewhat longer and more tapered than the cargo version (a flight model of which, flown on a December 2010 test flight, hung from the ceiling above the audience at the event.) Recesses in the base of the capsule accommodate the SuperDraco thrusters used as both the spacecraft's launch escape system and for landing, while four stubby legs protrude from the bottom.The inside of the capsule was, at least for the event, relatively spare. The capsule has seven seats, arranged in two rows, featuring leather-like upholstery branded with the SpaceX logo. The controls, a combination of large touchscreens and manual buttons, swing down into position above one row of seats. The interior looks relatively roomy, although once completely outfitted and filled with a full complement of seven people, it might seem a little cramped.Besides the seats, controls, and life support systems that can accommodate a seven-person crew for several days, the biggest difference between the crewed Dragon and the cargo version is the landing system. Dragon V2 carries four pairs of SuperDraco thrusters, each thruster capable of producing 71,000 newtons (16,000 pounds-force) of thrust. Those thrusters would allow the spacecraft, in a normal mission scenario, to land without the need of parachutes, airbags, or other aids, and with redundancy should one or more of the thrusters fail."We wanted to create something that was a step change in spacecraft technology," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said during the relatively brief unveiling event. "Some of the characteristics of that are the ability to land anywhere on land propulsively… You'll be able to land anywhere on Earth with the accuracy of a helicopter, which is something that I think a modern spaceship should be able to do."Those thrusters would also serve as the Dragon's launch escape system should there be a problem with its Falcon 9 launch vehicle. In that case, or in situations where multiple thrusters fail, the spacecraft will have parachutes to allow for a safe, if unpowered, landing.At the event, Musk showed a video illustrating a typical mission, which also highlighted some other differences of the Dragon V2 from its cargo variant. The trunk below the base of the capsule, used to store unpressurized cargo, appears longer and is equipped with fins. That trunk is also covered with solar cells, rather than using deployable solar panels as the current Dragon does for on-orbit power. Dragon V2 will also be able to dock directly with the International Space Station without the need for the station's robotic arm to grapple and berth the spacecraft, as it does today.However, the key enabling technology for Dragon V2, by SpaceX's account, is the SuperDraco thrusters that allow it to make a powered landing. "That is how a 21st century spaceship should land," Musk said after the end of the video, which showed the Dragon making a powered landing on a circular pad at Cape Canaveral.Developing that thruster, Musk indicated in the presentation and a Q&A session with media that followed, was not an easy task. "It's an engine that has to produce a tremendous amount of thrust and yet be very light," he said. It also had to be very throttable, and react quickly. "It was a very tricky thing to develop."Building such an engine was enough of a challenge that SpaceX discarded conventional production techniques for a new approach called direct metal laser sintering, a form of 3-D printing. "It's a very complex engine, and it was very difficult to form all the cooling channels, the injector head, and the throttling mechanism," he said. "Being able to print very high strength advanced alloys, I think, was crucial to being able to create the SuperDraco engine as it is."Earlier in the week, SpaceX announced that the SuperDraco engine had completed qualification tests at the company's test site in McGregor, Texas. SpaceX is now gearing up for a pad abort test, where a SuperDraco-equipped Dragon will fly off the pad at SpaceX's Florida launch site, later this summer. That will be followed by an in-flight abort test, where a Dragon escapes from a Falcon 9 in flight. Both of those tests are milestones in the company's current Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) award from NASA.Musk said that if those tests go well, an orbital test of an uncrewed Dragon V2 could take place as soon as late 2015. A crewed test flight in mid-2016 "is very achievable," he said.Boeing and Sierra Nevada keep upFrom much of the media coverage of last week's event, you might think that SpaceX is alone in developing a crewed spacecraft. It is, of course, one of three companies that have funded CCiCap awards from NASA, and one of three competing for a NASA contract due to be awarded in late summer to fund actual development of that spacecraft and initial flights of it.One of those other two, Boeing, is planning to wrap up the work on its CCiCap award this summer. "We're moving towards our critical design review that happens in July," said John Elbon, vice president and general manager for space exploration at Boeing, in a media roundtable at the 30th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on May 21. "It's a significant milestone."Elbon suggested Boeing's design approach for its CST-100 capsule is more rigorous than that of SpaceX and the third competitor, Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC). "More than the other players in the game, we go through a disciplined design process," he said. "Others have a philosophy of 'build it, test it, see what's wrong, fix it, test it, see what's wrong, fix it.' That can work when the risk is not as significant as it is for flying crew. I don't think we can afford to learn lessons about the problems in our design when we're flying humans."While Boeing officials have repeatedly said that their business case for commercial crew closes solely on serving NASA, they have been actively courting additional commercial business. In late April, the company held a media event at the headquarters of Bigelow Aerospace in Las Vegas to unveil a new interior design of the CST-100. That design, developed in conjunction with Boeing Commercial Airplanes, would not be used for NASA missions but for future commercial missions, and could accommodate as many as nine people plus a pilot."We started to realize the potential to develop for commercial customers a premium spacecraft interior architecture," said Rachelle Ornan, regional director of sales and marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, at the Las Vegas event. "It's leaps and bounds different from interiors of the past. It's less government-issue looking, it's a lot cleaner, simpler, and more cheerful."The sleek design is a far cry from the more utilitarian interior previously shown for the CST-100 for NASA missions, or the interiors of many other spacecraft. "This is like taking a C-17 military cargo airplane and seeing how you can turn it into a luxurious passenger aircraft," said Chris Ferguson, director of crew and mission operations for Boeing's commercial crew program and a former astronaut.The location of the event and Boeing's existing partnership with Bigelow Aerospace made it clear that Boeing sees Bigelow's plans for commercial space stations as a potentially lucrative market. But Bigelow is also hedging its bets: one of the guests at last week's SpaceX Dragon V2 unveiling was Robert Bigelow, who toured the interior of the capsule with SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell as Musk answered questions from the media.The third CCiCap company, Sierra Nevada, is continuing work on maturing the design of its Dream Chaser spaceplane under its CCiCap award. Last month the company announced it completed another milestone in that award, wind tunnel tests of the Dream Chaser design, netting the company $20 million."This was a pretty important milestone," said Mark Sirangelo, corporate vice president and head of SNC's Space Systems, in an interview at the Space Symposium on May 22. "The entire Dream Chaser vehicle and connection to the Atlas and the whole launch stack all met or exceeded the NASA criteria." NASA also considered it a major milestone, hence the size of the award, he added. "This is really one of the final validations before you go to orbit with it."Sirangelo said SNC has completed more than 80% of the milestones on its CCiCap award, with another milestone slated to be completed this month. The company is also preparing to return its Engineering Test Article (ETA), a full-scale prototype of Dream Chaser, to flight later this year. The ETA performed a glide test in October at Edwards Air Force Base, which the company and NASA judged to be a success although a landing gear failed to deploy upon landing, causing the vehicle to skid off the runway.Upcoming tests of the ETA will incorporate an upgrade of the flight software that is the same version of that planned for the orbital vehicle. Those flight tests, scheduled to begin later this year, will initially in automated mode, but later flights in the test program, which could last 6–12 months, will have a pilot on board.Sirangelo said that while SNC works on getting the ETA ready for upcoming test flights, it is also working on the orbital flight model in cooperation with Lockheed Martin at its Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The composite structure for that vehicle will be done in a "number of months," he said, at which point work with shift to another Lockheed Martin facility in Fort Worth, Texas, that also produces the F-35. The first vehicle is on track for a first orbital test flight in November 2016.That test flight will be on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V, under a previously-announced contract. However, that, plus Boeing's use of the Atlas V for CST-100, have come under scrutiny in recent weeks given Russian threats to restrict or even block the exports of RD-180 engines that power the rocket's first stage (see "Replacing the RD-180", The Space Review, May 12, 2014).However, executives of both Boeing and SNC have indicated they remain confident that they Atlas V will be there when their vehicles are ready to fly. "We're confident that by the time ULA needs to procure additional engines to support the Atlas V, the political differences will be resolved," Boeing's Ferguson said in a panel session at the International Space Development Conference in Los Angeles on May 18."For what we need to do to get certified by NASA, it's not going to have an impact," Sirangelo said in his Space Symposium interview. He added that even the news of the ban by Russian deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin only restricted the use of the RD-180 for launching military payloads, and thus, even if it did go into effect, would still allow the use of the engine for launching vehicles like the Dream Chaser.Funding and futuresNASA is currently evaluating the proposals by Boeing, SNC, and SpaceX for the next phase of the commercial crew program, called Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) that were submitted in January. (Other companies may have submitted proposals, but would be at a severe disadvantage given that they did not participate in the CCiCap program.) Sirangelo said last month this has company has been busy responding to NASA questions to its proposal, including from a two-day oral presentation to NASA officials earlier in the month.A final decision on who will win the CCtCap contracts—unlike previous rounds of the competition, NASA will used contracts and not Space Act Agreements—is expected in August or September. What isn't clear, though, is how many contracts will be awarded. While NASA is unlikely to give all three companies CCtCap contracts, it's still open whether one or two companies will get contracts, and, if there is a second contract, if it will be a full-sized award or a smaller amount.The House has weighed in on that issue in its version of the Commerce, Justice, and Science (CJS) appropriations bill that the full House passed late Thursday night. The bill provided the program with $785 million, $63 million below the administration's request but higher than the program has been funded in previous years. Language in the report accompanying the bill, though, directed NASA to fund only one company in the CCtCap phase of the program. "The Committee believes that this recommendation strikes the appropriate balance between support for the program's underlying goal and caution against management approaches that many in the Congress do not endorse," the report stated.The White House, in a Statement of Administration Policy (SAP) issued last week as debate on the CJS appropriations bill began, objected to both the funding level and the report language. "The lower funding level for the program jeopardizes the goal of sending astronauts to the International Space Station on American spacecraft by 2017 and will likely extend the period of time NASA needs to rely on Russia for transport to and from the Station," the SAP stated. "The Administration also encourages the Congress to support competition in the program, which is important to lowering risk and reducing prices in the long term."The Senate is expected to take up its version of the CJS appropriations bill this week in the Senate Appropriations Committee. With both the House and Senate working unusually rapidly on their appropriations bill, a final version that will come out of a House-Senate conference may be ready for the President before the current fiscal year ends on September 30.Even in the most optimistic funding scenario, though, it's likely one, and perhaps two, commercial crew companies will come out of the CCtCap competition without a NASA contract to funding continued development of their vehicles. Does that mean the end of the line for the CST-100, Dragon V2, or Dream Chaser?For someone with long-term ambitions of retiring on Mars, it's not surprising that SpaceX's Musk believes that there's a future for Dragon should SpaceX miss out on a contract. "We'll do our best to continue the development and still make it happen," he said last week when asked about the prospects of losing the CCtCap competition.Sirangelo said that SNC has been planning for Dream Chaser's future development should it not win a NASA contract. "For the last year, we have been quietly standing up a commercial and international outreach effort to look at other missions for Dream Chaser," he said. That's included partnerships announced earlier this year with ESA and the German space agency DLR, with more in the works. "We've always seen Dream Chaser as having more than ISS applicability."Boeing, by far the largest of the three companies competing for CCtCap, is also perhaps the most conservative. Asked about CST-100's future without NASA at the Las Vegas event, Ferguson hedged. "Boeing has not made a decision yet on what will happen if we're not a part of the commercial crew program," he said. "It will clearly be a very dynamic time, and there will be a lot of factors to consider."That sentiment—about this being a dynamic time for commercial crew—is likely true for all the players involved.Fourth in history Russian female astronaut to travel to ISS in SeptemberThe Voice of RussiaPreparations for the Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft flight, which will carry the new crew to the International Space Station (ISS), including Russian female member Yelena Serova, have started at Baikonur. "Launch of Soyuz TMA-14M is planned for September 25, 2014. Three crew members of Expedition ISS-41/42 will travel to ISS.There will be two Russian crew members - Aleksandr Samokutyayev and Yelena Serova, and an American Barry E. Wilmore," reported Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos. Yelena Serova will become the first female astronaut after a long pause and the fourth in history Russian female astronaut. Yelena Serova was born in the Russian Far East in 1976 and is married to a former astronaut Mark Serov.She was selected for a future mission in 2006. Among the current candidates to become astronauts there's another woman, Anna Kikina. During more than half a century of human space exploration three female Russians managed to become astronauts. Valentina Tereshkova became the first in the world female astronaut. Svetlana Savitskaya flew to the orbit twice and became the first woman in the world to perform a spacewalk. Yelena Kondakova also made two trips to space and spent 178 days in zero G.Russia is currently the only ISS participant that provides change of crews on the station and carries most deliveries to ISS. Every Soyuz can get a crew of three members to ISS. After docking Soyuz spacecraft is used as emergency escape vehicle at ISS, then Soyuz undocks and its reentry vehicle brings astronauts back to Earth. Cargo spacecraft provides ISS with fuel, delivers scientific equipment and shipments for astronauts. Each cargo spacecraft carries more than 2.5 tons.Rocket to the stars at Kennedy Space CenterTerry Ward – USA TodayOne of Florida's most popular attractions, the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex draws over 55 million people a year for an experience that's equal parts fascinating outer space education and adrenalin-charged thrills. A 45-minute drive east from downtown Orlando, the complex is dedicated to the epic story of the U.S. space program's evolution. This is the place to see real rockets and working space flight operations during a two-hour guided bus tour of the complex, learn about the pioneering space explorers who made history through their trials and tribulations at the adjacent U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame (included with your admission), go for thrilling rides on simulators and experience IMAX films that get you as close to being out of this universe as you can get without physically launching into space yourself.The skies above the nearby Kennedy Space Center, NASA's base of operations located about 7 miles away, are the backdrop for several space launches every year (with more than 20 slated for 2014), and it's precisely this reality that you're so close to space exploration's ground zero that makes a visit here so thrilling. Plan to spend a full day to make the most of everything there is to offer and save time, too, for a drive around Kennedy Space Center's backdrop, the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge – a 140,000 ecological sanctuary that balances all that technological wonder with exquisite natural beauty.Biggest Thrills: There are almost too many highlights to mention here, but one of the biggest thrills at KSCVC is the Lunch With an Astronaut program, an add-on experience that gives you the chance to meet a bonafide space hero and learn about the daily life of an astronaut over a hot, sit-down lunch at the complex. Another excellent add-on is the half-day Astronaut Training Experience during which you'll be put through realistic training simulator exercises and experience a space shuttle mission simulation aboard a full-scale orbiter mock up.It's worth splurging on the extra cost of behind the scenes tours here, too, especially the KSC Up-Close Launch Control Center Tour that takes you deep into the complex and rooms where all 21 Space Shuttle launches have been controlled since 2006. And included in the regular admission price, the biggest news of late is the launch of the new $100 million Space Shuttle Atlantis attraction – peer into the payload doors of the space craft that flew 33 missions and spent 307 days in space in an immersive attraction (the more than 60 interactive experiences here include simulators and touch-screen exhibits) that allows fascinating insight into what it's like to live and work in space. And finally, thrill your senses with "Space Station 3D," an IMAX movie filmed by 25 astronauts and cosmonauts that takes you from Earth to well beyond in the setting of the world's only back-to-back 3D IMAX theaters, which loom more than five stories overhead.Iconic Experiences: Part of the Space Shuttle Atlantis attraction, the Shuttle Launch Experience ride which opened in 2007 is a perennial favorite. Step aboard the crew cabin, strap in, and prefer to get vertical and travel at simulated speeds of upward of 17,500 miles per hour for a thrilling ride that culminates with the opening of the payload bay doors and a view of Earth from space. The Apollo/Saturn V Center is the highlight of the Kennedy Space Center Tour, giving you close-up views of the most powerful rocket ever built and letting you relive the launch of the Apollo 8 and watch the adrenalin-filled moments before man landed on the moon in the Lunar Theater.The Hubble 3D IMAX film, narrated by Leonardo Dicaprio, is another iconic experience not to miss, and takes you to distant galaxies to get a glimpse of what deep space must look like. And everyone loves the chance to have a photo snapped alongside a real astronaut during Astronaut Encounter, a half-hour interactive program and Q&A session with an astronaut that's held every day in the Astronaut Encounter Theater. Head to the Rocket Garden to feel dwarfed in the shadows of historic Atlas and Titan Rockets that were used in real launches. Finally, the Astronaut Hall of Fame is the world's largest collection of astronaut memorabilia and is the place to see exhibits and tributes to the people who made history with the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle programs.Special Events: The most exciting ongoing event related to Kennedy Space Center is the ongoing schedule of rocket launches that visitors can witness live. The best seats in the house are onsite at Kennedy Space Center and must be reserved in advance through the KSC Visitor Complex, but there are many other excellent viewing areas nearby that let you experience the sounds and sights, including along the shores of the Indian River, at the Astronaut Hall of Fame (7 miles from the launch site), along Playalinda Beach and even on the pier in Cocoa Beach, to the south.Nature Nearby: The spectacularly wild Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge is an ecological sanctuary that surrounds Kennedy Space Center, and is one of the best places for wildlife-viewing in Florida. The 140,000-acre habitat counts among its wild spaces estuaries, marshes and coastal dune areas that are home to more than 500 species including sea turtles, manatees, alligators, ospreys, roseate spoonbills, bald eagles and many other bird species. The best way to experience the area is with a self-guided drive along the seven-mile-long Black Point Wildlife Drive loop, along which you're pretty much guaranteed to see gators and many other wild animals.Where to Dine: There are three main spots for grabbing a quick feed between explorations at the KSC Visitor Complex, including the Rocket Garden Café and Orbit Café, quick-meal options in the main Visitor Complex. The most popular restaurant is the Moon Rock Café, where you can dine under the Saturn V Rocket in the Apollo/Saturn V Center. All of the onsite restaurants include classic theme park eats designed to appeal to the masses such as chicken strips, French fries, pizza, chicken sandwiches, hamburgers and the like. If you can stave off the bulk of your appetite for after your visit, head into nearby Titusville for a lunch or dinner of rock shrimp and other tasty seafood at Dixie Crossroads restaurant. For good and inexpensive Cuban and Mexican food, try El Leoncito in Titusville. And in nearby Port Canaveral, enjoy oysters and seafood platters alongside the water at Rusty's Seafood & Oyster Bar.Where to Stay: To stay as close as possible to the KSC Visitor Complex you'll want to book a room at one of the handful of hotels in the nearby town of Titusville, such as the Fairfield Inn & Suites Titusville Kennedy Space Center or the Hampton Inn Titusville. If you're intent on pairing a visit here with some beach time, head just south to Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach, where you'll find many great hotel options on the oceanfront including the Hampton Inn Cocoa Beach/Cape Canaveral and the Ron Jon Cape Caribe Resort, which has an onsite water park.New ISS Conference facility hosts open houseY.C. Orozco – Bay Area (TX) CitizenThe new International Space Station Conference facility had its official open house on Thursday, allowing visitors to get a look at its nine conference rooms.The 10,000-square foot facility is equipped with nine conferences rooms with a capacity of approximately 350 personnel and is housed in the newly built Griffin building at 1800 Space Park Drive.The open house was hosted by Barrios Technology, which operates the facility under NASA's Mission and Program Integration (MAPI) contract, awarded to Barrios in 2012 in order to provide ISS Program support relating to strategic and tactical planning, engineering analysis, manifest development and hardware certification, safety and mission assurance, risk management, information, technology, payload integration and program science and research.The new facility, adjacent to Johnson Space Center, will support NASA's International Station Program by hosting domestic and international partners meetings and conferences.Relocating out of the building the program had been utilizing for 20 years, the new facility will offer easier accessibility for visiting partners, according to Robert McAfoos, Barrios director and program manager for International Space Station (ISS) program, MAPI contract."Access to NASA can be difficult depending on how many international partners are involved in the meeting, so the ISS program keeps a conference facility outside of NASA so that it makes it easier to have meetings," he said.Its use will be for much of the technical interchange meetings, safety review panels, where all the partners and organizations together to make decisions, said Sandy Johnson, president and CEO of Barrios Technology.The facility has been open for about a month, Johnson said, and the response has been positive."Everyone likes the layout and the fact that it's easy to get to," she said.The proximity to Johnson Space Center, with restaurants and a hotel nearby, provides out-of-town partners convenience that former conference facility did not afford."The location has been ideal, and for those people that come from NASA to the meetings, it's just across the street," Johnson said.In the MAPI grant, one of the requirements was to provide conference facilities and facilitation of meetings, McAfoos said."Our contract supports all that planning and integration of data that make all that come together," he said.Much of that integration, McAfoos continued, involves the international partners, coordinating agreements and information."This conference facility is part of allowing them to meet and facility that coordination," he said.The conference rooms utilize new video projection capabilities with the larger rooms equipped with dual projectors and screens with each supporting multi-computer display.The open house comes a day after three crew members representing the United States, Russia and Germany began a six-hour journey to the ISS after launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday.Their photo adorns the entry of the facility."Whatever crew is on board the ISS will always have their photo there so that (the facility) relates to the people side of things as well," said Johnson.NASA's Rocket-Powered Saucer Set for LaunchAt the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii, a flying disc called the Low Density Supersonic Decelerator will dropped from 120,000 feet. Just after drop, a solid-fueled rocket engine will shoot the flying saucer to the edge of the stratosphere.Joe Pappalardo – Popular MechanicsIt's a staple of science fiction: Saucer-shaped spacecraft flying over the surface of Mars. Now, if a group of NASA scientists have their way, that weird fiction will become a reality. And it will start with a test flight at a military facility this week.
At the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii, a flying disc called the Low Density Supersonic Decelerator will be lofted under a helium balloon the size of the Rose Bowl stadium and dropped from 120,000 feet. Just after drop, a solid-fueled rocket engine will fire, shooting the flying saucer to the edge of the stratosphere. Four rocket motors will fire to spin the disc, keeping it stable.
"Our goal is to get to an altitude and velocity which simulates the kind of environment one of our vehicles would encounter when it would fly in the Martian atmosphere," said Ian Clark, principal investigator of the project at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab. "We top out at about 180,000 feet and Mach 4."
The goal here is not really to fly fast, but to decelerate fast. The saucer contains an inflatable doughnut that inflates to increase drag, slowing the dropping craft from Mach 3.8 to Mach 2.5. The saucer also carries a hypersonic parachute, the largest ever tested. These are two new atmospheric braking systems that NASA may use on future Mars missions.
Flying saucers have advantages when it comes to supersonic flight. Readers of Popular Mechanics may recall coverage of a 1950s flying saucer, the Avro Aerocar, that was built for high speeds. It never flew, but scientists of the era were onto something. Blunt fuselages are ideal for reentry craft that go from hypersonic speeds to a halt.Robert Braun, a Georgia Tech professor of space technology who served as NASA's chief technologist from 2010 to 2011, says saucer configurations provide two main benefits to high-speed craft. "If you wanted to go at supersonic speeds, heat is something you're going to have to deal with," he says. "Bowl-like shapes dissipate heat. And this same shape provides predictable aerodynamics through all of those [speed] regimes." Braun cites the saucer shape on the rounded bottoms of space capsules. "From below," he says, "the Apollo capsule looks like a flying saucer."
The first launch opportunity for the test vehicle is June 3, when the launch window opens at 8:30 a.m. Hawaii Standard Time (11:30 a.m. PDT/2:30 p.m. EDT). The test will be carried live on NASA TV and streamed on the Web.NASA and astronomy community looking for ways to keep Spitzer goingJeff Foust – Space PoliticsAlthough NASA accepted last month a recommendation by a senior review panel not to continue the Spitzer Space Telescope, NASA and the astronomy community are working on ways to continue the mission at a reduced funding level by freeing up funds elsewhere in the astrophysics program."We have invited the Spitzer program to submit a reclama—that's an appeal—to us as an overguide as part of our budget formulation process" for fiscal year 2016, said Paul Hertz, director of NASA's astrophysics division, at a NASA town hall during the 224th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in Boston on Monday. That proposal will be considered this summer as the agency prepares to submit a budget request to the White House.Hertz indicated that any proposal to continue Spitzer operations, even at a reduced funding level (NASA requested $14.2 million for the program for fiscal year 2015) would have to be paid for from elsewhere in the astrophysics budget. "Asking for new money is not part of my phase space," he said. "In order to consider Spitzer, we have to spend less money on something else we were planning to do."Hertz said he has asked the various scientific advisory committees involved in the astrophysics program for suggestions on what could potentially be reduced in order to free up funds for Spitzer. "I've received a lot of input on that," he said, adding that process of soliciting ideas was continuing. "There's a relatively small number of places where NASA astrophysics is spending money and where we could spend less to continue Spitzer.""It doesn't make me happy to be here talking to you about these kinds of decisions," he said, "but unfortunately, in an era where our budget is constrained, we can only continue some fraction of the things we would like to be doing. We have to prioritize in some manner."The news is perhaps a little more optimistic for SOFIA, the airborne observatory whose future was placed in doubt in the administration's 2015 budget request. The Commerce, Justice, and Science (CJS) appropriations bill passed by the House last week includes $70 million for SOFIA, about 80 percent of the program's current budget but far above the $12 million requested to mothball the observatory. Hertz said after the town hall meeting that NASA is looking at what implications the House figure would have on SOFIA operations in terms of flight rates and other activities.END
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