Fwd: NASA and Human Spaceflight News - Friday – Feb. 6, 2015 and the passing of Bunny Dean

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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: February 6, 2015 at 12:08:09 PM CST
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: NASA and Human Spaceflight News - Friday – Feb. 6, 2015 and the passing of Bunny Dean

Happy Friday everyone.    Have a good and safe weekend.  

 

Thanks to Brother Bill Moon for letting us know of the passing of Bunny Dean.  I think I last saw Bunny at Milt Heflin's retirement party out at the Gilruth Pavillion couple of years back.   She was a very sweet lady.  Please keep Bunny's family in your thoughts and prayers at this very sad time of loss.  IF I get service details for Bunny  ,,,I will pass them along.

 

 

Bunny Dean, Retired NASA Employee passed away February 1st.  She was the MOD/Systems Division Secretary and later transferred to the PAO.

 

William

 

 

 

NASA and Human Spaceflight News

Friday – Feb. 6, 2015

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

U.S. and Russia Preparing for Mars Seek Harmony Missing on Earth

 

Jonathan Tirone – Bloomberg Business

 

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. and Russia are seeking to achieve a level of agreement in outer space that political leaders of the two countries have found increasingly elusive on the ground. U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko lift off March 27 on a record-breaking yearlong mission aboard the International Space Station. They'll be running experiments to prepare for a future joint mission to Mars, Julie Robinson of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said at the United Nations in Vienna Thursday.

 

 

Will 2015 kick off another 'golden age of space'? Mission to Pluto and record-breaking rocket among upcoming highlights

 

Jonathan O'Callaghan – Mail Online (UK)

 

·         Missions from the US, Europe, Japan and Russia are set to wow a global audience this year

·         Professor Chris Riley said 2015 could be a 'golden age of spaceflight'

·         Dawn's mission to Ceres next month is among the highlights

·         Nasa and Roscosmos are also preparing year-long stays on the ISS

·         In April Hubble will celebrate its 25th birthday, while SpaceX are due to launch their Falcon Heavy rocket around June

·         And at the end of the year Japan will make a dramatic attempt to get a spacecraft into orbit around Venus

 

In 2014 we saw continued missions to the ISS, concepts for new private spacecraft, the first ever landing on a comet and the dawn of a new era that will see humans one day set foot on Mars.

But 2015 is set to be even more awe-inspiring, with multiple missions across the solar system set to reach key milestones and send back unprecedented data to Earth.

 

 

House Science Committee To Take Up NASA and Commercial Launch Bills

 

Jeff Foust – Space News

 

WASHINGTON — The House Science Committee plans to take up a NASA authorization bill once again in February, followed later in the year by an update to commercial launch law, the chairman of the committee's space subcommittee said Feb. 4. In a speech at the Federal Aviation Administration Commercial Space Transportation Conference here, Rep. Steven Palazzo (R-Miss.) said his committee would move quickly on a NASA authorization bill. "It is my hope that we can begin the process by taking up a NASA authorization later this month," he said.

 

 

Hubble Captures Rare Transit of Moons Across Jupiter (IMAGE)

 

Gautam Nail – The Wall Street Journal

 

New images from the Hubble space telescope show three of Jupiter's largest moons moving across the face of the planet at the same time, a rare occurrence that happens only once or twice a decade. The moons of Jupiter are often seen moving across Jupiter's banded face and casting shadows on the layers of clouds below. But on Jan. 23, the Hubble telescope snagged the unusual view of three in the same frame. The moons in the photographs are Europa, Callisto and Io.

 

 

Galactic Gold Rush: Private Spending on Space Is Headed for a New Record

 

Dana Hull and Julie Johnsson – Bloomberg Business

 

Call it Space Race 2.0. Almost a half-century since the Apollo moon flights, entrepreneurs are expanding the boundaries of rocket and satellite technology as the U.S. makes room for private enterprise. The result is a wave of innovation that echoes the leap in computing from key-punch mainframes to hand-held devices, with startups from San Francisco to Sydney pursuing new engines and Earth-orbiting probes as small as softballs.

 

 

Huntsville leads SLS development around the nation

 

Josh Barrett – Space Alabama

 

The Marshall Space Flight Center is coordinating a national effort to build the Space Launch System (SLS).  In the past few weeks, the SLS has taken major steps to becoming a reality at different locations around the country.  As the SLS program's headquarters, Marshall must coordinate assets and testing in locations thousands of miles away.

 

 

The pioneering female astronauts who never saw space

 

Sarah Cruddas – BBC News

 

In April 1959, the newly formed Nasa announced the formation of its first group of astronauts – the Mercury Seven. Over 500 of America's top pilots applied; all had to be under the age of 40 and meet strict height and weight requirements. They also needed the right academic background. Of those, only a fraction were put through a series of elite tests to decide who had the skills needed to become America's first astronauts.

 

COMPLETE STORIES

 

U.S. and Russia Preparing for Mars Seek Harmony Missing on Earth

 

Jonathan Tirone – Bloomberg Business

 

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. and Russia are seeking to achieve a level of agreement in outer space that political leaders of the two countries have found increasingly elusive on the ground.

 

U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko lift off March 27 on a record-breaking yearlong mission aboard the International Space Station. They'll be running experiments to prepare for a future joint mission to Mars, Julie Robinson of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said at the United Nations in Vienna Thursday.

 

"Originally, Russian and U.S. space-development programs developed independently and we each saw different problems," Robinson, who is NASA's chief scientist for the space station, told Bloomberg News. "Now we're bringing that science together. The political sphere and the practical sphere are very separate."

 

U.S.-Russian collaboration in Earth's orbit is one of the few areas unharmed by tit-for-tat accusations that have left relations between the two powers at post-Cold War lows. Some U.S. leaders are considering military solutions to counter Russian influence in eastern Ukraine. Russia sees threats from expanding military bases in its neighborhood, along with U.S. missile-defense plans and cyber attacks.

 

The Russian and American Scientists aboard the space station will conduct experiments aimed at countering bone loss experienced during extended stays in zero-gravity environments, Robinson said. Other experiments will examine vision loss that affects some astronauts as well as the dangers of cosmic radiation.

 

Mars Mission

 

Before embarking on an open-space journey to Mars, which NASA doesn't expect before 2035, scientists need to gain better understanding of how humans adapt to the physical and psychological challenges of an extended period in space.

 

"I've work with my Russian colleagues on a daily basis and as we've worked together over the years we've only gotten closer and more effective in working together," Robinson said. "We'll eventually have a U.S.-Russian consensus about the right way to treat the crews as they go to Mars."

 

Without being able to understand and alleviate the stresses and solitude that the astronauts face "you have the perfect ingredients for murder," Robinson told an audience late yesterday at Vienna's Natural History Museum.

 

 

Will 2015 kick off another 'golden age of space'? Mission to Pluto and record-breaking rocket among upcoming highlights

 

Jonathan O'Callaghan – Mail Online (UK)

 

·         Missions from the US, Europe, Japan and Russia are set to wow a global audience this year

·         Professor Chris Riley said 2015 could be a 'golden age of spaceflight'

·         Dawn's mission to Ceres next month is among the highlights

·         Nasa and Roscosmos are also preparing year-long stays on the ISS

·         In April Hubble will celebrate its 25th birthday, while SpaceX are due to launch their Falcon Heavy rocket around June

·         And at the end of the year Japan will make a dramatic attempt to get a spacecraft into orbit around Venus

 

In 2014 we saw continued missions to the ISS, concepts for new private spacecraft, the first ever landing on a comet and the dawn of a new era that will see humans one day set foot on Mars.

 

But 2015 is set to be even more awe-inspiring, with multiple missions across the solar system set to reach key milestones and send back unprecedented data to Earth.

 

From a groundbreaking mission to Pluto, our first ever visit to a dwarf planet and the launch of the world's biggest rocket, we talk you through some of the major events happening this year.

 

11 February - Europe launches a new space plane

 

IXV: FROM LAUNCH TO RECOVERY

 

IXV will be launched into a suborbital path by a Vega rocket from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana in February 11.

 

It will separate from Vega at an altitude of 200 miles (340 km).

 

IXV will coast to up to 260 miles (420 km) and then begin its re-entry phase, recording a vast amount of data from a large number of conventional and advanced sensors.

 

The entry speed of 4.6 miles per second (7.5 km/s) at an altitude of 75 miles (120km) will create the same conditions as those for a vehicle returning from low orbit.

 

IXV will glide through the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds to test new re-entry technologies before parachutes deploy to slow the descent for a splashdown in the Pacific.

 

The first event of note, just under a week away, will be the launch of Esa's Intermediate Experimental Vehicle (IXV) on 11 February.

 

The unmanned craft will provide Europe with its own shuttle-like, reusable space vehicle. This mission will provide vital flight data that could help Europe develop technology for a sample return mission to Mars, or to return astronauts from the space station.

 

After launching on a Vega rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, the IXV will glide through the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds for 100 minutes to test new European re-entry technologies, before parachutes deploy to slow the vehicle for a safe splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

 

Developed over five years at a cost of €150 million (£112 million/$225 million), the IXV is the testbed for a reusable vehicle that may one day be able to land on a conventional runway on Earth after a mission to space.

 

    Are there 200 BILLION Earth-like worlds in the Milky Way?... IPCC report 'confirmed': Earth's similar CO2 levels 3... Vintage Nasa photos up for auction: Armstrong on the moon... Rare sprites caught red handed: Dazzling images show...

 

6 March - Dawn becomes the first spacecraft to visit a dwarf planet

 

On 6 March the Dawn spacecraft will enter orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres - and it will hopefully solve the mystery of the small world's 'white spot'.

 

Images taken as the spacecraft approaches have shown an odd white spot on the planet, which could be a frozen pool of water in a crater reflecting light.

 

Over the next weeks, Dawn will provide increasingly sharper images of the icy world, leading up to the spacecraft's capture into orbit around Ceres.

 

Ceres is the closest dwarf planet to the sun and is located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, making it the only dwarf planet in the inner solar system.

 

This is the first mission ever to visit a dwarf planet - and the second will follow in quick succession, when New Horizons arrives at Pluto in July (but more on that later).

 

'I'm really looking forward to this March when the Dawn spacecraft will finally arrive at Ceres,' Dr Lewis Dartnell, from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Leicester, told MailOnline.

 

'It's been taking better and better photos of this dwarf planet in the asteroid belt as it approaches, and is due to fall into orbit and will hopefully teach us a lot about the formation of the planets and water on them.'

 

27 March - First one-year trips to the ISS

 

On 27 March, Nasa astronaut Scott Kelly and Roscosmos cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will undertake the first year-long stay aboard the International Space Station, to prepare astronauts for long-duration missions to Mars.

 

The mission is designed to see how astronauts cope with such a prolonged stay in space - previously, crews only spent a maximum of six months aboard the station before returning to Earth.

 

During the mission, experiments will study the effects of long-duration spaceflight on the immune system, in addition to other aspects of human biology such as body chemistry and the heart.

 

They will not break the record for the longest continuous time spent in space - that was 437 days, set by Russian Valeri Polyakov aboard the Mir space station from 1994 to 1995 - but nonetheless, the mission will provide invaluable data for the planned mission to Mars, which could take place in the 2030s.

 

In tandem with this one-year stay, experiments on Earth will also prove useful in preparing a crew for the journey to Mars - which could take a total of nearly three years, including nine months travelling there and nine months back.

 

Kelly and Kornienko will return to Earth in March 2016.

 

April - Messenger's Mercury mission comes to an end

 

MERCURY: A TALE OF TWO WORLDS

 

For all its bland 'dead' appearance, Mercury is a very interesting place. It is the smallest planet in our solar system - only slightly larger than the Earth's moon.

 

On its sun-facing half, the planet sizzles at a temperature of 427°C (800°F) while its night side maintains -173°C (-280°F).

 

This means that while one side is cold enough to freeze water, the other quickly boils anything on the surface.

 

It is the closest planet to the sun at a distance of about 36 million miles (58 million km) or 0.39 AU (one AU is the Earth-sun distance).

 

One day on Mercury takes 58 Earth days and 15 hours. Mercury makes a complete orbit around the sun (a year in Mercury time) in just 88 Earth days.

 

Messenger (Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging) is a Nasa-sponsored scientific investigation of the planet Mercury.

 

It is the first space mission ever to orbit the planet closest to the sun. Among its many discoveries, it found that the planet has significant water ice at its poles.

 

It entered orbit around Mercury on 17 March 2011 but, after more than four successful years, the mission will come to an end in April this year.

 

It was meant to end in March, but a move in late January increased its orbit, prolonging the mission.

 

The spacecraft will meet its end with a high-speed impact into the surface of the planet

 

The crater made by its impact will be a few metres across - and it may be possible to observe it with upcoming spacecraft to understand more about the planet.

 

25 April - 25 years of the Hubble space telescope

 

Aptly, on the 25th day of April, Hubble will celebrate its 25th birthday - a remarkable achievement for a telescope that was once branded one of Nasa's greatest embarrassments.

 

This is because, after being taken into orbit on the Space Shuttle Discovery on 25 April 1990, scientists found that its primary mirror had been ground to the wrong shape, making its images blurry and out of focus.

 

Subsequent servicing missions by Space Shuttles were required - but ultimately the telescope became a huge success, and much of our understanding of the universe to date is thanks to Hubble.

 

In 25 years, Hubble has revealed fantastic views of galaxies and nebulae far into the cosmos, such as this image of the Orion Nebula - and it has also been used to image objects in our own solar system

 

June - World's biggest rocket launches

 

FALCON HEAVY: STATS AND FACTS

 

Height: 224.4ft (68.4 metres)

 

Weight: 3.23 million lbs (1.46 million kg)

 

Total width: 38ft (11.6 metres)

 

Thrust at liftoff: 4 million lbs (1.8 million kg)

 

Engines: 27 Merlin 1D engines

 

Lifting capability to low Earth orbit: 117,000lbs (53,000kg)

 

Lifting capability to geostationary orbit: 47,000lbs (21,200kg)

 

Lifting capability to Mars: 29,000lbs (13,200kg)

 

Expected first launch: Mid-2015

 

By the middle of the year - although the exact date is unknown - it is expected that the private company SpaceX will launch its Falcon Heavy rocket.

 

With a lifting capability of 117,000lbs (53,000kg) to orbit, it will be more than twice as powerful as any other rocket in operation today.

 

The rocket is intended to be part of SpaceX's own plans to get to Mars - which CEO Elon Musk is expected to reveal this year.

 

In March, the company will also perform an abort test of its manned Dragon spacecraft, which is expected to begin flying astronauts to the ISS in 2017.

 

'I'm looking forward to Elon Musk's announcement of the SpaceX mission to Mars at the end of this year,' Ben Biggs, Editor of All About Space magazine, told MailOnline.

 

'We should get some juicy details on what's known as the "Mars Colonial Transporter" and how this private space company plans not just to set foot on the red planet, but make steps towards a human Mars colony.'

 

14 July - New Horizons becomes the first spacecraft to visit Pluto

 

Arguably the biggest moment of this year will come 10 days after the US Independence Day when, after a journey of more than nine years, the New Horizons spacecraft will make it to Pluto.

 

Launched from Cape Canaveral in January 2006 on a £460 million ($700 million) mission, New Horizons awoke from its last hibernation period in early December 2014.

 

When it first launched, Pluto was still classed as a planet - but has since been reclassified as a dwarf planet, when other objects bigger than it were found in similar orbits at the edge of the solar system.

 

'2015 is certainly a new golden age for spaceflight and exploration,' science writer and filmmaker Professor Christopher Riley from the University of Lincoln, told MailOnline.

 

'My personal highlight will be New Horizon's pioneering reconnaissance of the Pluto system.

 

'It's not every year that we make a close flyby of the the last planet in the solar system yet to be visited by a spacecraft.'

The New Horizon's probe, seen above in this artist's impression, will use miniature cameras, radio science experiment, ultraviolet and infrared spectrometers to study the geology of Pluto and its moon Charon

 

The New Horizon's probe, seen above in this artist's impression, will use miniature cameras, radio science experiment, ultraviolet and infrared spectrometers to study the geology of Pluto and its moon Charon

 

He continued: 'It's taken 25 years to pull off this mission, so there's a lot at stake in these last few months of its flight to Pluto. If anything goes wrong we will never see what Pluto looks like in our lifetimes.

 

'I find it miraculous that an object built by humans, that's only the size of a grand piano, is hurtling towards this unexplored world at over 8 miles [13km] a second, and beaming what it sees back to us from over 3 billion miles [4.8 billion km] away.

 

'So far from home it will operate completely alone as it charges past Pluto, making all its observations and then transmitting them back to us.

 

'Even at the speed of light its pictures will take 12 hours to make it back to Earth, by which time it will have sailed right past Pluto because it's going too fast to stop. What a gamble.

 

'July the 14th and 15th will be THE most exciting days of this year bar none!'

 

November - Akatsuki's last-gasp attempt to orbit Venus

 

The year will end with a dramatic attempt to get a spacecraft into orbit around Venus, after a failed attempt on 7 December 2010.

 

The spacecraft missed its first attempt to orbit when its main engine failed.

 

To keep it alive, the Japanese space agency (Jaxa) placed the probe in hibernation, and left it in orbit around the sun.

 

Since 3 October 2013 it has been approaching Venus - and will have one more chance to enter orbit towards the end of 2015.

 

If it is successful, it will conduct scientific research above Venus in an elliptical orbit that brings it just 185 miles (300km) above the surface.

 

Venus is currently devoid of any spacecraft after Esa's Venus Express ran out of fuel on 18 January this year.

 

 

House Science Committee To Take Up NASA and Commercial Launch Bills

 

Jeff Foust – Space News

 

WASHINGTON — The House Science Committee plans to take up a NASA authorization bill once again in February, followed later in the year by an update to commercial launch law, the chairman of the committee's space subcommittee said Feb. 4.

 

In a speech at the Federal Aviation Administration Commercial Space Transportation Conference here, Rep. Steven Palazzo (R-Miss.) said his committee would move quickly on a NASA authorization bill. "It is my hope that we can begin the process by taking up a NASA authorization later this month," he said.

 

Palazzo did not go into details about the bill's contents, but suggested it would not be significantly different from the bill the committee passed last year. The full House passed that bill on a 401-2 vote in June, but the legislation died when the Senate failed to pass either that bill or an alternative version.

 

Palazzo implored the Senate to act this year on a NASA authorization bill. "We can continue to do our work on the House side, but without at least a starting point, we cannot move towards a consensus product for the president's signature," he said.

 

Donna Edwards"What we really want to do is finally get to a bargaining table where we can reach consensus between the House and the Senate," Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) said about the NASA authorization bill. Credit: Women's Policy, Inc.

 

Speaking at the conference Feb. 5, Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.), the ranking member of the space subcommittee, supported that approach, also asking the Senate to pass a bill that can be reconciled with the House's version. "What we really want to do is finally get to a bargaining table where we can reach consensus between the House and the Senate," she said.

 

After her speech, Edwards said that the new NASA authorization bill the committee will consider will not vary much from last year's version on policy issues, citing the work she and Palazzo did to develop that earlier bill.

 

In addition to a NASA authorization bill, Palazzo said the committee will take up later in the year an update to the Commercial Space Launch Act. "There are several areas we will examine closely that have been neglected for some time," he said.

 

Two of those areas, Palazzo said, are third-party indemnification of commercial launches and current restrictions on the FAA's ability to regulate the safety of people flying on commercial spacecraft. "We need to stop kicking the can down the road and work to find long-term solutions to these challenges," he said. "These two issues have been surviving with Band-Aids and temporary fixes for years."

 

Palazzo suggested that he would be open to extending the current restriction on safety regulations, sometimes called by industry a "learning period," which is set to expire in October. "The FAA still has no data for regulations and the commercial space launch industry is still working hard to get off the ground," he said.

 

FAA officials, though, indicated a desire to allow the learning period to expire and work with industry on a new regulatory framework. "My perspective is that we have 50 years of history" in human spaceflight upon which to base future regulations, said George Nield, FAA associate administrator for commercial space transportation, in remarks at the conference Feb. 4.

 

Nield said it was not FAA's intent to impose a "burdensome" set of regulations should the learning period expire, but that he wants the ability to establish them if needed. "I frankly like the flexibility of being able to act quickly if and when there's a need identified for regulations," he said.

 

FAA Administrator Michael Huerta also supported that approach. "We should not take the attitude that 'risk happens,' but adopt the attitude that we will need to address and mitigate risk," he said in a speech at the conference Feb. 4. He said government and industry needed to work together on safety issues whether or not Congress extends the regulatory learning period.

"What we don't want to have is some kind of framework that would be imposed upon us in reaction to something that might happen," he said.

- See more at: http://spacenews.com/house-science-committee-to-take-up-nasa-and-commercial-launch-bills/#sthash.FJ0h15Ky.dpuf

 

 

Hubble Captures Rare Transit of Moons Across Jupiter (IMAGE)

 

Gautam Nail – The Wall Street Journal

 

New images from the Hubble space telescope show three of Jupiter's largest moons moving across the face of the planet at the same time, a rare occurrence that happens only once or twice a decade.

 

The moons of Jupiter are often seen moving across Jupiter's banded face and casting shadows on the layers of clouds below. But on Jan. 23, the Hubble telescope snagged the unusual view of three in the same frame. The moons in the photographs are Europa, Callisto and Io.

 

Jupiter and its moons have long been a source of fascination for astronomers. The planet has 50 moons, though many are small orbs. But one of them, Ganymede, is bigger than the planet Mercury and the largest moon in the solar system.

 

In 1610, Galileo Galilei observed Jupiter's four largest moons through a homemade telescope. His realization that the moons weren't stars but planetary bodies in orbit around Jupiter provided evidence to support the Copernican system, revealing that not every planetary body revolved around the Earth. His findings challenged the Catholic Church's beliefs and led to Galileo being put on trial for heresy and imprisoned.

 

Now astronomers are once again setting their sights on the planet. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is asking for $30 million in its fiscal year 2016 budget request to plan a mission to Jupiter's moon Europa, a planetary body that many astrobiologists believe could have a "habitable zone" and therefore the potential to harbor some form of life.

 

Europa's surface is mostly water ice, and there also appears to be a vast ocean of water or slushy ice beneath it. In all, the moon could have twice the amount of water as Earth. Scientists note that because life has been found in some of Earth's extreme environments—near undersea volcanoes, for example—similar harsh locations on Europa may also harbor life.

 

 

Galactic Gold Rush: Private Spending on Space Is Headed for a New Record

 

Dana Hull and Julie Johnsson – Bloomberg Business

 

Call it Space Race 2.0. Almost a half-century since the Apollo moon flights, entrepreneurs are expanding the boundaries of rocket and satellite technology as the U.S. makes room for private enterprise.

 

The result is a wave of innovation that echoes the leap in computing from key-punch mainframes to hand-held devices, with startups from San Francisco to Sydney pursuing new engines and Earth-orbiting probes as small as softballs.

 

Buoyed by billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX, the industry has surged more than sixfold since 2010 to more than 800 companies, according to market researcher NewSpace Global, with investment in private ventures in that span poised to reach $10 billion by year's end. SpaceX led the way with $1 billion from Google Inc. and Fidelity Investments on Jan. 20 -- a day after satellite maker Planet Labs Inc. announced that it raised $95 million.

 

"It's impossible to overestimate the degree of rock-star engineering talent that has come pouring into the commercial space sector," said Matt Ocko, co-managing partner of venture capital fund Data Collective, an early investor in San Francisco-based Planet Labs. "For great scientists and engineers, this is incredible catnip."

 

The fundraising snaps a years-long investment chill that followed the 1999 bankruptcy of Iridium LLC, the first global satellite-phone network. Interest is being kindled by SpaceX's rocket launches, Virgin Galactic's planned space tourism and efforts by Facebook Inc. and Google to deliver worldwide broadband via small satellites, drones, balloons and lasers.

 

'Childhood Dreams'

 

"A lot of us grew up during the space race, and there was a long lull when a lot of childhood dreams were put on hold," said Steve Jurvetson, a venture capitalist and SpaceX director. "Now investors have the sense that there is money to be made, and there have been a flurry of business plans since SpaceX."

 

The Google-Fidelity transaction with Musk's Space Exploration Technologies Corp. implies a value of about $10 billion for a company with six launches in 2014, its busiest year. Even as Musk says he has no plans for an initial public offering, that payoff prospect has others dreaming of fortunes to be made in a field dominated only a generation ago by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

 

"What's driving everything is SpaceX proving what they could do," said Scott Nolan, an early SpaceX employee who is now a partner at Founders Fund, the San Francisco-based venture capital firm started by PayPal Inc. co-founder Peter Thiel. "It unlocked a lot of interest in commercial space development. SpaceX took this Silicon Valley, startup approach to design and efficiency and applied it to aerospace."

 

'Weekly Basis'

 

From satellites that can be cupped in the palm of a hand to 3-D printers in space, breakthroughs "are coming on almost a weekly basis," said Dick "Rocket" David, chief executive officer of New York-based NewSpace Global. Two of the hottest segments center on Musk's pursuits: small satellites streaming data or images, and boosters to get them cheaply into orbit, David said.

 

Planet Labs has raised more than $160 million and launched 73 global imaging satellites. The growth was hard to imagine three years ago, when co-founder Will Marshall built the first of the miniature satellites nicknamed "doves" in a Silicon Valley garage.

 

"A lot of people were very skeptical, and what we were trying to do seemed ludicrous," said Marshall, a former engineer at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. "But we have assets in orbit, and customers who are very interested in the data. Every time we take a picture, we can see how the world is changing."

 

Space Risks

 

Investing in the new space ventures is still a gamble. When Mountain View, California-based Google paid $500 million in cash last year for Skybox Imaging Inc., the venture had only launched one small imaging satellite at the time of the acquisition.

 

The valuation "was not weighted heavily on the technology, but rather on the notion of a low-cost satellite constellation that can provide persistent imaging" so the data could be used commercially,'' said John Roth, vice president of business development at the space unit of aerospace company Sierra Nevada Corp., which is developing a winged orbiter. "It has yet to be seen if this business model can be sustained and successful."

 

Space exploration also comes with the threat of catastrophic failure. Planet Labs lost 26 satellites in an Orbital Sciences Corp. rocket explosion above a Virginia launch pad in October.

 

"Space is hard," Planet Labs' Marshall said in a blog post at the time. "Planet Labs understands the risks of launch."

 

NASA's Boost

 

NASA provided a boost to commercial space by retiring the shuttle in 2011 and bringing in U.S. contractors. SpaceX has been among the biggest beneficiaries, with contracts for as much as $4.2 billion to ferry cargo and crew to the International Space Station.

 

Musk, 43, is using SpaceX's near-Earth flights to prepare for his more-ambitious project: interplanetary travel that may include establishing a city on Mars -- "a ridiculously long time-frame event," as he put it in a Jan. 12 interview.

 

Musk's SpaceX Launches Falcon 9 Rocket

 

Other startups are focused on the here-and-now.

 

Accion Systems Inc., founded last year by two Massachusetts Institute of Technology students, raised $2 million in seed money from Thiel's fund and others to develop penny-size propulsion systems. San Francisco-based Spire raised $25 million in 2014 and plans later this year to launch 20 micro-satellites dubbed cubesats bristling with sensors to help track shipping and weather. It developed the first crowd-funded satellite.

 

Internet Redux?

 

"Space is going through what the Internet went through in the 1990s," said Stephen Messer, an Internet entrepreneur and Spire's first investor. "What was once government-funded is now privately funded, and you have miniaturization which is bringing the price down. The markets are also huge: weather alone is a multibillion-dollar industry."

 

Venture capitalist Ilya Golubovich is among those looking for early-stage companies poised to take advantage of the imagery, data and analytics being unleashed by so-called nano-satellites.

 

Given the deal flurry, investors are confident of finding "exit windows" within three to five years, said Golubovich, founder and managing partner of New York-based I2BF Global Ventures.

 

"It's one of the more exciting times in space since maybe the moon landing or Sputnik," he said. "The sector has been heating up across the value chain."

 

 

Huntsville leads SLS development around the nation

 

Josh Barrett – Space Alabama

 

The Marshall Space Flight Center is coordinating a national effort to build the Space Launch System (SLS).  In the past few weeks, the SLS has taken major steps to becoming a reality at different locations around the country.  As the SLS program's headquarters, Marshall must coordinate assets and testing in locations thousands of miles away.

 

In Promontory, Utah, Alliant Techsystems (ATK) has been busy preparing for the first qualification test of the five-segment solid rocket boosters, dubbed Qualification Mission-1 (QM-1).  ATK has already tested the leftover four-segment boosters from the Space Shuttle, but this will be the first time flight-equivalent hardware will be fired.  The test is currently scheduled for March 11.

 

"What's impressive about this test is when ignited, the booster will be operating at about 3.6 million pounds of thrust, or 22 million horsepower," said Alex Priskos, manager of the SLS Boosters Office at Marshall. "This test firing is critical to enable validation of our design."

 

A lot is going on in Louisiana.  At NASA's Michaud Assembly Facility, the core stage of the SLS is continuing to take shape as it prepares for structural testing later this year.  The massive Pegasus barge is also receiving some modifications.  The Pegasus was designed for the smaller Space Shuttle external fuel tank, so it is being enlarged to accommodate the larger SLS core stage.

 

In Buffalo, New York, Marshall engineersare working with CUBRC, Inc. to build a 2% scale model of the SLS to test the heating scenarios the bottom of the rocket will face.  They are attempting to accurately predict the stressors the rocket will face during the various phases of flight.

 

The first flight of the SLS, Exploration Mission-1, should happen sometime during 2018.  As the launch vehicle evolves, it will be the most powerful rocket ever built, and could take people to Mars.

 

 

The pioneering female astronauts who never saw space

 

Sarah Cruddas – BBC News

 

In April 1959, the newly formed Nasa announced the formation of its first group of astronauts – the Mercury Seven. Over 500 of America's top pilots applied; all had to be under the age of 40 and meet strict height and weight requirements. They also needed the right academic background. Of those, only a fraction were put through a series of elite tests to decide who had the skills needed to become America's first astronauts.

 

However, it wasn't just men who were summoned to carry out tests to see if they could withstand the unknowns of space. Fifty-five years ago this month, the first of a group of female aviators was invited by private funders to undergo the same challenges – and on some tests, they outperformed the men. These elite women became the Mercury 13. "I was one of the very active women pilots at the time," explains Sarah Ratley, one of the women chosen. "Many of us had dreams of being in the space programme." What happened to these would-be astronauts, and why didn't they make it into orbit?

 

Aviation was very much a man's world at the time, and the female pilots had already needed to push past considerable barriers in their pursuit of flight. "I started flying while in high school. I paid for part of college [by] flight instructing and commercial flying. I continued working in aviation after college while being employed full time in engineering," says Ratley, who also held a degree in mathematics with minors in physics and chemistry.

 

The 13 would-be astronauts also included Jerrie Cobb, Bernice Steadman, Janey Hart, Jerri Truhill, Rhea Woltman, Jan and Marion Dietrich, Myrtle Cagle, Gene Nora Jessen, Jean Hixson, Wally Funk, and Irene Leverton. Some of the group had come from the humblest beginnings to claim their status as elite pilots.

 

Leverton had more flying hours than any other of the candidates, and was a well-known aviator of the time. Now in her late 80s, Leverton is too fragile to talk, but according to her helper and long-term friend Kathi Schmier, she grew up so poor during the Great Depression, that as a child she would often come home to find all her possessions on the street. "The family had a dog, but they had to give it away as they could no longer feed themselves, let alone a dog. As a child she wanted aeroplanes instead of dolls and all she could think about was flying."

 

Private funding

 

Leverton even turned down a scholarship at the Chicago Art Institute to pursue her love of flying, using every bit of money she had to save for flying lessons. According to Schmier "she persevered when others gave up".

 

Nasa had not publicly expressed interest in sending women into space, so testing on the female astronauts began under private funding, spearheaded by Dr William Lovelace, who had been involved in evaluating the Mercury Seven. Some scientists believed that because the average woman was smaller and lighter than a man, their build could make them better potential candidates to travel into space and cope in the cramped conditions.

 

On Valentine's Day, 1960, Jerrie (Geraldyn) Cobb – an accomplished pilot with over 7,000 hours flying and the world record for nonstop long-distance flight – was the first to travel to Lovelace's Foundation in Albuquerque, New Mexico. "The first stage of testing included 75 individual tests for physiology and space-related tasks," explains Al Hallonquist, an aerospace historian who has worked with the Mercury 13. These included swallowing a rubber tube so that stomach acids could be tested, or lying on a tilt table to test circulation.

 

Initial success

 

Cobb then travelled to Nasa's Lewis Research Center in Cleveland to fly the Multi Axis Spin Test Inertia Facility (Mastif), which simulates the kind of tumbling manoeuvres that might be encountered in space. Then she went to Oklahoma City for psychiatric and psychological testing, including being left in an isolation tank. Cobb was bought out the tank after nine hours and 40 minutes ‒ a record at the time, as no man had endured more than six hours and 20 minutes and no woman more than six hours. On top of that, Cobb had not suffered any hallucinations.

 

Cobb's testing finished at the Naval School of Aviation Medicine in Florida. "According to staff working on the test, the results showed she was highly qualified for spaceflight," says Hallonquist.

 

Following the news of Cobb's success, more women were invited to take part in the testing. Ratley's name was submitted to Lovelace and his team. "I received a phone call that was followed by a letter requesting that I participate in the programme," she says. "I was determined to pass as I looked forward to all the new adventures."

 

But of all the women invited for the testing only 13 passed. The youngest was 23-year-old Wally Funk; the eldest Jane Hart a 41-year-old mother of eight, who gained her pilot licence during World War II. The girls then prepared to head to the Naval School of Aviation Medicine in Florida. By then, according to Ratley, many of the girls had dreams of going into space: "We quit our jobs in order to participate." But two days before they arrived the testing was cancelled.

 

'Very disappointed'

 

Despite protests from some of the women and a public hearing in 1962, the answer was still no. At the time Nasa required all astronauts to be test pilots, which was something no woman was allowed to do.

 

"I was very disappointed," says Ratley. "After the programme was cancelled we held on to our hopes. I continued to be active in aviation and hoped the programme would continue." But none of the 13 ever did get a chance at space. Instead, they watched from the sidelines as American men flew, first into space and then, eventually, to the Moon.

 

It would be more than 30 years before Nasa astronaut Eileen Collins would fulfil the dreams of those 13 women, becoming the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle. On 3 February 1995, Collins became the first woman to pilot a spacecraft. As the Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off from Cape Canaveral, the Mercury 13 were watching from the sidelines.

 

'Partially redeemed'

 

"As we followed her (Collin's) progress, we felt partially redeemed," says Ratley.

 

"Irene [Leverton] was truly proud of Eileen" explains Schmier. "She was in contact with her for quite some years and went to several of her Shuttle launches and was honoured to meet several of the women who did succeed."

 

If some of the 13 had made it into space, it would not have made them the first women to venture into the cosmos – that accolade goes to the Russian Valentine Tereshkova who completed 48 solo orbits of our planet in June 1963 – but it would have put female astronauts at the very heart of Nasa's quest for the stars.

 

Instead of flying to space, Ratley became an accountant. But she is not bitter about her experience and never stopped supporting space exploration. "The space programme has brought many new inventions and discoveries that help us in our daily lives. As we continue to explore, our quality of life will continue to improve. I hope the space programme will always continue."

 

 

 

END

 

More at www.spacetoday.net

 

 

 

 

Friday, February 6, 2015

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JSC TODAY CATEGORIES Headlines -  Did You Miss the All Hands? Catch Replays Feb. 10 -  Year of the Dwarves: Exploration of Ceres & Pluto Organizations/Social -  Not All White Light Is The Same! Community -  Passport Fair Feb. 9, 10 and 11 at Building 3 -  Career and Education Day: Volunteers Needed!

Forty-Four Years Ago Today: Apollo 14 Touches Down on the Moon

 

Headlines Did You Miss the All Hands? Catch Replays Feb. 10 If you missed last Monday's All Hands with  JSC Director Ellen Ochoa, you still have opportunities to watch it on Tuesday, Jan. 10 at 2:00 and 4:00 p.m. JSC team members can view the all-hands meeting on JSC cable TV Channel 2 (analog), Channel 51-2 (digital high definition) or Omni 45. JSC, Ellington Field, Sonny Carter Training Facility and White Sands Test Facility employees with wired computer network connections can view the event using the JSC EZTV IP Network TV System on Channel 402 (standard definition). Please note: EZTV currently requires using Internet Explorer on a Windows PC connected to the JSC computer network with a wired connection. Mobile devices, Wi-Fi connections and newer MAC computers are currently not supported by EZTV. If you are having problems viewing the video using these systems, contact the Information Resources Directorate (IRD) Customer Support Center at x46367. JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs, x35111 [top] Year of the Dwarves: Exploration of Ceres & Pluto The Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) invites all inquisitive adults to attend "NASA's Year of the Dwarves: Exploration of Ceres and Pluto," a presentation by Dr. Paul Schenk of the Lunar and Planetary Institute. This free public presentation on Feb. 26 will preview two historic encounters by two NASA missions visiting the dwarf planets Ceres and Pluto over the next several months. Dr. Schenk's presentation begins at 7:30 p.m. and will be followed by a light reception. Registration is not required. LPI is located in the USRA Building at 3600 Bay Area Boulevard in the Clear Lake region of Houston; the entrance is located on Middlebrook Drive. The Lunar and Planetary Institute is part of the Universities Space Research Association (USRA). Please contact Andrew Shaner or call 281-486-2163 for more information. Event Date: Thursday, February 26, 2015   Event Start Time:7:30 PM   Event End Time:9:00 PM Event Location: USRA Building at 3600 Bay Area Boulevard Add to Calendar Andrew Shaner 281-486-2163 http://www.lpi.usra.edu/ [top]    Organizations/Social Not All White Light Is The Same! The United Nations has designated 2015 as the International Year of Light. To celebrate, JSC's Lighting Environment Test Facility will provide lighting facts in JSC Today throughout the year. Light may appear cold, neutral or warm white. White light is produced by a summation of different wavelengths, at varying intensities, within the visible electromagnetic spectrum. This spectral fingerprint, for the same tone of white, can vary for different light source types. Humans see color by observing reflected light off of materials. Materials have their own spectral reflectance fingerprint. This situation can create color matching problems. Color matching errors can generate safety and costly product quality problems. To minimize these problems, when selecting a light source, look for lamps that have color accuracy scores at least 80 for general purpose use and above 90 for critical color matching tasks. Reference: Wikipedia.org (search Metamerism, Color Quality, Color Rendering Index), Light2015.org Toni Clark, P.E. x30857 http://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/slsd/about/divisions/hefd/facilities... [top]    Community Passport Fair Feb. 9, 10 and 11 at Building 3 The JSC International Travel Office will host officials from the U.S. Department of State Houston Passport Office at a special Passport Fair. All persons badged to come onsite at JSC are invited to this special event to either renew or apply for new tourist passport. The Passport Fair will take place on Feb. 9, 10 and 11 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Building 3 Collaboration Space. See flyer here. Grace Ferris x34026 [top] Career and Education Day: Volunteers Needed! JSC will be hosting a booth at the Annual Career & Education Day (CED), on Saturday, Feb. 14 at the George R. Brown Convention Center. CED is a one-day event that gives students from grades 6 through 12, their parents and teachers an opportunity to learn about careers, college, scholarships and more! Last year, the event attracted over 20,000 attendees! There are two ways you can get involved: Staff the NASA booth: Sign-up for a one-hour shift (or several) from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Volunteers are encouraged to share their career stories and engage the public using the hands-on exhibits at the booth. Sign-up here. Then, forward your confirmation e-mail to Mike Ruiz with your information and time(s) you'll volunteer Serve as Panelist/Speaker: Share career advice in the NASA Career Panels. If you would like more information, send an e-mail to Bara Reyna. Hispanic ERG x34589 https://collaboration.ndc.nasa.gov/iierg/hispanic/default.aspx [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.