Happy Flex Friday eve.
| | JSC TODAY CATEGORIES - Headlines
- Joint Leadership Team Web Poll
- National Native American Heritage Month
- NASA Chief Scientist Town Hall
- Congratulations, 2013 Energy Challenge Winners
- More Benefits for Humanity - See Them in Action
- Nominate JSC Exceptional Software by Dec. 20
- November Storytelling Feedback - Organizations/Social
- JSC NMA Holiday Social - Dec. 9
- JSC Office of Education Intern Poster Session
- JSC Weight Watchers at Work Session Starts Dec. 2
- Mindful Eating
- Starport Financial Wellness: Auto-Buying Seminar
- Today is the Day to Quit! Great American Smokeout - Jobs and Training
- Training Required for Admin Rights - MEP |  |
| Headlines - Joint Leadership Team Web Poll
Fooled you twice last week. The Sputnik outdoor meeting vehicle used to be the Shuttle Modal Inspection System, not an astronaut transporter. If you go outside to enjoy it, do it while it's 57 degrees. That's the temperature the AMS says contributes to maximum outdoor happiness. This week we are celebrating 15 years aboard the space station. In the first question, there is an answer that does not belong with the others. It's different. Which answer is that? Question two is looking forward to Thanksgiving and no poll next week (Yay!). I've accumulated a few interesting, little-known facts about Turkey Day. Which one is your favorite? Pumpkin your Pie on over to get this week's poll. - National Native American Heritage Month
Please join the JSC Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity (OEOD) as we recognize the National Native American Heritage Month. The 2013 theme is "Guiding Our Destiny with Heritage and Traditions" as we remember the legacy of the first Americans and celebrate their vibrant culture and heritage. Currently, there are 566 federally recognized Native Americans and Alaska Native tribes and more than 100 state-recognized tribes across the United States. There are 34 fully accredited tribal colleges/universities located on or near Indian reservations, serving more than 30,000 students. These institutions were established to give Native students the opportunity to work toward a college degree while embracing who they are as Native people. About 5.1 million Native Americans and Alaska Natives make up about 1.6 percent of America's population. JSC employees who identified as Native Americans make up 1.4 percent of the JSC workforce. Read the presidential proclamation here. - NASA Chief Scientist Town Hall
NASA Chief Scientist Dr. Ellen Stofan will meet with JSC team members at a Town Hall at 10:45 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 26, in the Building 30 Auditorium. Stofan will give a presentation followed by discussion and Q&A. All are encouraged to attend and meet our Chief Scientist. - Congratulations, 2013 Energy Challenge Winners
The winners of the JSC Green Team's 2013 Energy Challenge are in! The winner for the mall area is Building 56, with a 19.8 percent decrease in energy consumption from the June and July baseline. Building 229 won the challenge in the outlying areas, with a 19.4 percent decrease. Overall, 34 buildings decreased their energy consumption during the contest, with many decreases heading into the double-digit range. Congratulations to everyone for making such great strides in reducing JSC's energy consumption this summer and fall! - More Benefits for Humanity - See Them in Action
A day after the 15th anniversary of station's first element launch, get reacquainted with our orbiting laboratory and learn why it is such an asset to the world. Below are new installments posted about different Benefits for Humanity. Watch them, read about them, and share them far and wide to show the world why we continue to push the boundaries of space! Benefits for Humanity: Water for the World In this chapter of Benefits for Humanity: In Their Own Words, learn how systems on board the International Space Station that provide clean drinking water to the crews are being used right here on Earth in some of the most remote and impoverished areas. Benefits for Humanity: Changing Lives (to be posted Friday, Nov. 22) In this chapter of Benefits for Humanity: In Their Own Words, learn how a life was drastically changed using the same technology that went into the robotics on board the International Space Station. For more information on how science and research is benefitting life here on Earth, click here. - Nominate JSC Exceptional Software by Dec. 20
This is the 2014 call for software award nominations at JSC, including White Sands Test Facility. Nominees will be considered for the following awards: - JSC Exceptional Software Award
- JSC nominee for NASA Software of the Year Award
- JSC software nominees for Space Act Awards
- NASA Exceptional Technology Achievement Medals
The JSC Exceptional Software Award is designed to recognize software that has demonstrated outstanding value to accomplishing the JSC mission. Apply online using the Web nomination form and to find out other information. Directorates and individuals must provide their nominations by close of business Dec. 20 via the form link listed. Questions can be sent to Lynn Vernon or Tondra Allen. - November Storytelling Feedback
For those of you who attended the November storytelling event, "Early Space Shuttle Programmatic Decisions," we want to thank you and solicit your feedback on this session. Just go to the JSC Knowledge Online (JKO) website and click on the "Storytelling Feedback" button to let us know what you think. The video of this event will be posted on JKO as soon as it is available. Organizations/Social - JSC NMA Holiday Social - Dec. 9
The after-Thanksgiving shopping extravaganza is almost here. While you're out trying to get the best deal, don't forget that the entrance fee for everyone to the JSC National Management Association (NMA) Holiday Social is an unwrapped toy for donation to Toys for Tots. Each toy donation will also receive a ticket for our door prize drawings. In addition to the appetizers and mingling, the JSC Child Care Center kids will also be singing Christmas carols. Mark your calendars for Monday, Dec. 9, from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. in the Gilruth Alamo Ballroom for this fun event. Members and non-members are welcome, but we ask that you RSVP by 3 p.m. on Dec. 4 so we can make sure there are enough appetizers and refreshments. - JSC Office of Education Intern Poster Session
Come and join us as our fall 2013 interns showcase their accomplishments during their time at JSC. We have students across many organizations helping NASA advance in human space exploration. Don't miss out on this opportunity to see these very talented students' work at JSC and find out more information on how to obtain an intern. Event Date: Monday, December 2, 2013 Event Start Time:10:00 AM Event End Time:12:00 PM
Event Location: Teague Lobby
Add to Calendar
Carmen Vides x34573
[top] - JSC Weight Watchers at Work Session Starts Dec. 2
We still need a few more members to meet our membership requirements. If you plan to join but missed the Open House, please respond so we can count you in! The planned 17-week session will start Dec. 2 and run through the end of April. Meetings will be in Building 12, Room 148/150, on Mondays, with weigh-in from 11:30 a.m. to noon and meetings from noon to 12:30 p.m. We do not meet on-site during holiday weeks or on federal holidays, but you can attend other local meetings at any time with your membership card. Some changes to the program will be announced on Dec. 2, so members will get started on the new material right away. Members will also receive a code for eTools, so you can track and plan from your smartphone. Join us on Dec. 2 and get a head start on your New Year's resolutions! Event Date: Monday, December 2, 2013 Event Start Time:11:30 AM Event End Time:12:30 PM
Event Location: Bldg 12, 148/150
Add to Calendar
Julie Kliesing x31540
[top] - Mindful Eating
Have you ever had a candy bar and wished you had one more bite? Do you struggle with comfort eating? Please join Takis Bogdanos, MA, LPC-S, CGP, today, Nov. 21, at 12 noon in the Building 30 Auditorium for an introduction to mindful eating and techniques on how to practice it. - Starport Financial Wellness: Auto-Buying Seminar
Purchasing a new car can be a stressful experience. In this informative seminar, you will learn tips and tricks to help purchase your new car with confidence and ease; plus, you'll drive away knowing you got the best deal! Dec. 4 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Building 4S, Room 2507 You will learn: - How to shop hassle-free
- How to negotiate your best price
- Comparing new and used cars
- Determining vehicle value
- Inside tips and mistakes to avoid
- Comparing financing options
- How to be pre-approved before you shop
- Member Auto Center offered through the JSC Federal Credit Union
There is limited seating. A free lunch will be provided. RSVP by Dec. 2 to Shelly Haralson via email or at x39168. More information can be found here. - Today is the Day to Quit! Great American Smokeout
Tobacco use remains the single largest preventable cause of disease and premature death in the United States, yet about 43.8 million Americans still smoke cigarettes -- nearly one in every five adults. In an effort to encourage smokers to quit, today is the American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout. If you're a tobacco-user that's ready to lead a healthier lifestyle, Starport wants to help. Bring your "last pack of cigarettes" to the Gilruth Center and you'll receive a free personal training session. What could be better than replacing an unhealthy habit with a new workout routine? Bring in those cigarettes and get on track to support a new smoke-free you and a healthier JSC! Jobs and Training - Training Required for Admin Rights - MEP
NASA is implementing Managed Elevated Privileges (MEP) on all IT devices to reduce the security risks. Everyone who needs elevated privileges (admin rights) must take training courses via SATERN by searching for "Elevated Privileges on NASA Information Systems" (ITS-002-09). Deployment is beginning the week of Sept. 23 to the first of several pilot groups. This will happen in various stages, and your organizations will be notified in advance before they are scheduled for deployment. Once implemented, NASA end users will not be granted administrative rights to NASA IT resources without training and authorization. Please take appropriate actions to be sure you get your training and testing done before we start to deploy. Additional information can be found here. | |
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| JSC Today is compiled periodically as a service to JSC employees on an as-submitted basis. Any JSC organization or employee may submit articles. Disclaimer: Accuracy and content of these notes are the responsibility of the submitters. |
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NASA and Human Spaceflight News
Thursday – November 21, 2013
International Space Station: 15 Years:
New videos released each day this week highlight ISS benefits to Earth
"Farming from Space":
HEADLINES AND LEADS
On space station's birthday, questions about its future
The movie "Gravity" may have taken some liberties with the physics of outer space, but one thing it nailed was the scope of the International Space Station. In the film, Americans were introduced to a research laboratory that's as large as a football field and has living space comparable to the interior of two Boeing 747 jetliners. Home to six astronauts, the massive space station turns 15 on Wednesday, at a time of both triumph and uncertainty. The triumph comes because the station is beginning to produce tangible scientific results, helping NASA understand the threats posed by long-duration spaceflight and spurring the development of commercial spacecraft to ferry cargo and astronauts to and from orbit.
Bolden: Crew transport project will drive innovation
Mark Rockwell – Federal Computer Week
In releasing a request for proposals for the next phase in commercial space transport capabilities aimed at getting U.S. astronauts to the international space station, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden says he also hopes to spur innovation through his agency's acquisition process. NASA issued the RFP for the next round of its Commercial Orbiter Transportation Services program Nov. 19.
ISS Astronauts Launch U.S., Japanese CubeSats
Mark Carreau – Aviation Week
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station launched three CubeSats early Nov. 19, using a deployment mechanism aboard the orbiting lab's Kibo Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) that was successfully demonstrated last year.
KSC leader of manned spaceflight pleads guilty to federal felony
James Dean – Florida Today
The former head of a key NASA human spaceflight program based at Kennedy Space Center agreed this month to plead guilty to a federal charge that he acted improperly in a personnel matter in which he had a financial interest.
Going to Mars: Billionaire Dennis Tito plans manned mission with possible 2017 launch
Joel Achenbach – The Washington Post
Billionaire Dennis Tito, tired of being told that we can't send humans to Mars just yet, on Wednesday revealed his scheme for launching two astronauts to the red planet as early as December 2017. Dubbed "Inspiration Mars," it would be a 501-day fly-by mission, no landing, and would exploit a rare alignment of Earth and Mars that minimizes the amount of rocket fuel required.
International Space Station Celebrates 15th Birthday in Orbit
The International Space Station celebrates its 15th birthday today (Nov. 20), marking the day in 1998 when a Russian rocket lifted the first piece of what is now the largest manmade structure ever built in space. The launch of the module named Zarya ("Sunrise" in Russian) kicked off an unprecedented international undertaking to build the astronaut outpost one piece at a time. Five different space agencies representing 15 countries contributed to the project, and by 2000, rotating crews of spaceflyers were — and still are — living on the $100 billion International Space Station.
Astronaut Karen Nyberg discusses readjusting to life on Earth
CBS This Morning
Astronaut Karen Nyberg is back on Earth after living and working on the International Space Station since May. The experience, she says, was a dream-come-true, but it meant leaving her husband and young son, Jack, for six months. Michelle Miller reports.
International Space Station hits 15-year mark
William Harwood – CBS News
Fifteen years ago Wednesday, a Russian Proton rocket carrying the first module of what would become the International Space Station roared to life and climbed into orbit, kicking off one of the most complex -- and expensive -- engineering projects ever attempted.
15 Years in Orbit: The International Space Station By the Numbers
After 15 years of construction, harrowing spacewalks and repairs the International Space Station is still going strong in orbit around Earth. The first module for the station — the Russian Zarya module — launched 15 years ago today, on Nov. 20, 1998. Currently, the International Space Station is the largest structure in space ever built by human hands, and international crews have continuously occupied it since 2000.
Mars Meteorite Reveals 1st Look at Ancient Martian Crust
A meteorite found last year in the Sahara Desert is likely the first recognized piece of ancient Martian crust, a new study reports. The Mars meteorite NWA 7533 is 4.4 billion years old and contains evidence of long-ago asteroid strikes, suggesting that the rock came from the Red Planet's ancient and cratered southern highlands, researchers said.
__________
COMPLETE STORIES
On space station's birthday, questions about its future
International lab may orbit until 2028 or meet its end in just 8 years
The movie "Gravity" may have taken some liberties with the physics of outer space, but one thing it nailed was the scope of the International Space Station.
In the film, Americans were introduced to a research laboratory that's as large as a football field and has living space comparable to the interior of two Boeing 747 jetliners.
Home to six astronauts, the massive space station turns 15 on Wednesday, at a time of both triumph and uncertainty. The triumph comes because the station is beginning to produce tangible scientific results, helping NASA understand the threats posed by long-duration spaceflight and spurring the development of commercial spacecraft to ferry cargo and astronauts to and from orbit.
The uncertainty concerns the station's fate, as a decision is likely to come next year about whether to de-orbit the station in 2020 or continue flying it until 2028.
"As the space station turns 15 years old it is a time for reflection - not of our past, but of our future," said Kirk Shireman, the Johnson Space Center's deputy director.
The station came into existence on Nov. 20, 1998, when the Russians launched a 42,600-pound module to a location 240 miles above the Earth's surface. A few weeks later, space shuttle Endeavour, carrying the 25,000-pound Unity module, rendezvoused with the Russian equipment and connected the two modules. Astronauts have inhabited the station continuously since 2000.
With its construction completed in 2011, the station now weighs about 450 tons, equivalent to nearly 300 SUVs.
$3 billion budget
It was designed and operated at the Johnson Space Center, and after the retirement of the space shuttle two years ago the station became the center's principal program. It has a budget of about $3 billion annually, which the Johnson Space Center shares with its primary station contractor, Boeing.
"It was an interesting engineering project for a long time, and it's been an interesting project in international cooperation," said John Shannon, Boeing's program manager for the space station. "But now it's got to prove its worth as a place for scientific research."
New job description
NASA has turned to conducting scientific research on the orbiting platform only during the last couple of years.
U.S. crew members on the station work from about 7:30 in the morning to 7:30 in the evening, said Chris Cassidy, an astronaut who earlier this year returned from a six-month mission. Cassidy and other U.S. astronauts split their time between maintaining the station and conducting scientific research.
"One thing that's hard to capture in time is just managing stuff," he said. "You have to tend things quite carefully in space."
There are signs the station is beginning to produce results.
In 2011, NASA designated the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space to manage the station's scientific research. This has dramatically reduced the time it takes to design experiments to be conducted in a zero-gravity environment, and to have them flown into space. It can take as little as six months, and for researchers there are no launch costs. This has led to a flowering of research projects in space.
Paying off scientifically
In an independent analysis of station science, published in the Washington Post, Indiana University political science professor William Bianco wrote that the station's scientific payoff is both real and increasing.
"There is no guarantee that research on the ISS will cure cancer, end global warming, or earn their investigators a Nobel Prize," Bianco wrote. "However, the data show that ISS research satisfies the basic conditions for good science: attracting outside researchers, engaging disciplinary debates, and generating publishable results."
The station serves a number of scientific aims, by conducting experiments as well as studying the astronauts themselves.
In addition to bone loss, astronauts in space for a long time experience other health-related problems such as eyesight loss and weakened immune systems. Sometimes this research has benefits on Earth.
For example, many astronauts see a decline in their T cells, which are an important part of the body's immune system. Several experiments underway on the station may help pinpoint the genetic causes for this, potentially leading to treatments for people on Earth for diseases which ravage immune systems.
Prep for deep space
On the station, NASA is also working out the kinks of all manner of life-support systems - such as water and oxygen recycling - that will be necessary when the agency attempts to send humans on long-duration spaceflight beyond the orbit of Earth's moon.
Finally, the station provides a destination for private spacecraft being developed in the United States to ferry cargo and, perhaps as early as 2017, astronauts to the station.
"ISS does a lot of things for a lot of different people," Boeing's Shannon said.
Big question: funding
The space agency has indicated it would like to determine the station's fate sometime next year.
Boeing is close to completing an assessment of the station's lifetime, the goal of which is to certify the structure for use for another 15 years.
"I feel extremely confident in saying it can last until 2028," Shannon said.
The question, then, is one of budget.
NASA will be seeking direction from the president and Congress about the future of its space program, and whether its exploration budget can support both continuing the space station and developing the next generation of spacecraft and hardware.
The risk, of course, is that if NASA decides to abandon the station in 2020, it would have nothing left for astronauts to do in space - nowhere to go, and no spacecraft or rockets to take them there.
Bolden: Crew transport project will drive innovation
Mark Rockwell – Federal Computer Week
In releasing a request for proposals for the next phase in commercial space transport capabilities aimed at getting U.S. astronauts to the international space station, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden says he also hopes to spur innovation through his agency's acquisition process.
NASA issued the RFP for the next round of its Commercial Orbiter Transportation Services program Nov. 19.
The same day, in a keynote speech at a National Contract Management Association symposium, Bolden said the next phase of NASA's Commercial Crew Program -- the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCTC) -- will "spur American ingenuity," in addition to establishing a more efficient way to get space crews into low-earth orbit.
Bolden wants an alternative to paying Russia to lift U.S. astronauts to the international space station on their rockets. "I just wrote a $454 million check to Russia for crew access to the space station. We shouldn't be doing that."
The effort to commercialize crew delivery is in the same mold as NASA's commercialization of space cargo delivery. The outspoken ex-Marine said the effort builds on the agency's past success in cargo transportation with Orbital Sciences and SpaceX. Both companies developed their own rockets and control systems to send cargo to the space station under similar agreements with NASA.
"Our American industry partners have already proven they can safely and reliably launch supplies to the space station, and now we're working with them to get our crews there as well," he said.
CCTC proposals are due Jan. 22. NASA said it expects to award one or more contracts by September 2014, although the agency's website warns that the program is "subject to the availability of adequate funding."
CCTC is the second phase of a two-phase effort that began in 2012, building on the Certification Products Contract, which required companies to deliver a range of products to establish a baseline for their integrated system certification. This phase is open to any company with systems at the design maturity level consistent with the first.
Under the program, Bolden said, NASA will assess contractor's progress through a certification process throughout the production and testing of integrated space transportation systems, to include rockets, spacecraft and ground operations. The agency said at least one crewed flight test to the space station will be required before certification will be granted.
Bolden called the Certification Products Contract program, part of NASA's efforts to revolutionize its acquisition process. "More than 80 percent of our budget flows through procurement," he said, adding that in 2012 NASA awarded more than 45,000 contracts, spending $16.5 billion.
ISS Astronauts Launch U.S., Japanese CubeSats
Mark Carreau – Aviation Week
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station launched three CubeSats early Nov. 19, using a deployment mechanism aboard the orbiting lab's Kibo Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) that was successfully demonstrated last year.
A fourth satellite is scheduled for release early Nov. 20.
The first wave, ejected with the Small Satellite Orbital Satellite Deployer (SSOSD) from the Kibo exposed facility at 7:17 a.m. EST, included:
• Pico Dragon, a 1U CubeSat (10 by 10 by 10 cm) developed by the University of Tokyo, the Vietnam National Satellite Center and IHI Aerospace for Earth imaging.
• ArduSat-1 and ArduSat-X, developed by Nanoracks and NanoSatisfi under NASA sponsorship, for the technology validation of reprogramming deployed 1U satellites.
TechEdSat-3 is scheduled for deployment on Nov. 20 at 2:50 a.m. EST. The 3U (30 by 10 by 10 cm) satellite was developed by NASA's Ames Research Center to validate an aero-braking mechanism called Exo Brake.
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata handled the first deployments after working with NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins to prepare the JEM's experiment airlock and the SSOSD for operations.
"From the monitor it looks really beautiful," Wakata advised JAXA flight controllers after the first three CubeSats sped away.
"Congratulations on a successful deployment," the Japanese ground team responded.
The release was delayed several minutes as Wakata and the controllers resolved an issue with a command panel display.
The CubeSats were delivered to the ISS aboard JAXA's HTV-4 resupply mission that docked to the station's U.S. segment on Aug. 9.
Using procedures validated in October 2012, the station astronauts opened the inner hatch of the small experiment airlock in the Kibo module to gain access to a slide table. The CubeSats, pre-packed in two Satellite Install Cases, were placed in the Multi-Purpose Experiment Platform on the slide table. The platform and the SSOSD were moved through the airlock to the JEM exposed facility, a 20- by 16.7- by 13.3-ft. (6 by 5 by 4-meter) external platform with power and data links for science payloads and engineering evaluations.
The spring-loaded deployer was grappled by Japan's 32-ft.-long robot arm and extended a safe distance for the initial release.
In the Oct. 4-5, 2012, demonstration, the JEM launch apparatus deployed five U.S. and Japanese CubeSats.
KSC leader of manned spaceflight pleads guilty to federal felony
James Dean – Florida Today
The former head of a key NASA human spaceflight program based at Kennedy Space Center agreed this month to plead guilty to a federal charge that he acted improperly in a personnel matter in which he had a financial interest.
Ed Mango, who stepped down last month as Commercial Crew Program manager, could face up to five years in prison for trying to limit NASA's discipline of an arrested colleague to whom he had loaned money.
Federal prosecutors plan to recommend a lesser penalty, and his lawyer will ask a judge for a sentence that avoids prison.
"Generally speaking, he's a man who's provided an amazing amount of service to our country via his work at the Cape, among other significant parts of his life that we will present in mitigation," said Mango's lawyer, Kepler Funk. "He's led an exemplary life."
NASA said no decision about Mango's status would be made until the criminal process concludes; he is scheduled to appear in federal court in Orlando on Dec. 2. He is now assigned to the deputy center director's office at KSC.
In a plea agreement signed Nov. 13 and filed with the court this week, Mango admitted loaning an undisclosed sum to a co-worker on the Commercial Crew Program, funds that helped the employee retain "a prestigious law firm" after her arrest last December at Kennedy Space Center.
Court records identify the employee as a single mother with the initials "C.T.," and in one instance as "Thomas."
FLORIDA TODAY reported last December that Candrea Thomas, a NASA public affairs officer who served as a spokeswoman for the Commercial Crew Program and worked closely with Mango, was arrested at her office at the KSC Press Site on felony charges of forging public records.
NASA confirmed that Thomas was the only employee who performed work with the Commercial Crew Program who was arrested at KSC that month.
According to court records:
"C.T." contacted Mango within hours after investigators from NASA's Office of Inspector General confronted her about the alleged forgeries, letting him know she was in trouble.
Mango pressured senior KSC officials — including Center Director Bob Cabana and the director of human resources — to limit the financial consequences of any discipline NASA imposed on "C.T." after her arrest, because she was a single mother.
"C.T." ultimately was suspended without pay for two weeks, but allowed to spread out the lost income over several pay periods instead of only one — something KSC had never done before, one Human Resources employee told investigators.
Another said he felt Mango tried to intimidate him, according to the court records.
Several recipients of Mango's phone or email messages said they did not know Mango had a financial ties to the employee and would have told him not to discuss the case if they had, because it would have been improper.
In March, during an interview with KSC security personnel about the renewal of his security clearance, Mango said he and his wife had borrowed money from his federal retirement plan to pay down the mortgage on their Orlando home.
Bank records showed some of that loan paid for the mortgage, and some was used to pay off a cash advance on a credit card that was the source of his loan to "C.T."
During a June interview with agents from NASA's Office of Inspector General, Mango acknowledged lending money to "C.T.," knowing there was a risk that she could lose her job and not be able to repay the loan, and then advocating on her behalf.
However, according to the records, he "believed his advocacy with others on C.T.'s behalf was appropriate because he was familiar with her work product."
Information filed about the charge against Mango said he received training at work about ethics and specifically about federal regulations concerning financial interests. Mango knew that he could not give "C.T." gifts that exceeded $20, the court documents said.
After "C.T.'s" arrest last December, Mango sent emails trying to determine if she might be arrested again and criticized how she was arrested on NASA property.
In February, Candrea Thomaspleaded no contest to the forgery charges in Brevard Circuit Court, and was placed on three years of felony probation, a sentence that could be cut in half if terms are met satisfactorily.
Records of the investigation show that when investigators interviewed her in October 2012, Thomas initially misled them but later admitted she used a home computer to forge five temporary driving permits she submitted to NASA.
Her license had been suspended as a result of a December 2011 drunken driving incident in which she crashed her car into the wall of a Cocoa Beach condominium. She pleaded guilty in July 2012 to misdemeanor DUI — her second conviction for that offense in five years — and was placed on a year of probation.
The temporary permits, before they were exposed, enabled her to continue escorting media around KSC as her job required — something investigators determined she did 36 times without a valid license.
Thomas blamed her actions on "financial problems and problems in her personal life," records show.
Her admission of felony wrongdoing triggered a violation of her DUI probation, forcing Thomas to spend 10 days in the county jail.
Thomas was defended by the same Melbourne legal firm — Funk, Szachacz & Diamond — now representing Mango in the federal case.
NASA in May reassigned Thomas to the newly created position of "communications integration specialist," at the same salary. Her pay grade has a salary range of $72,032 to $93,641.
Mango gave up his status as a Senior Executive Service employee — the level below presidential appointees — when he left the Commercial Crew Program "to tend to personal matters," NASA said.
His new position has a pay grade ranging from $100,126 to $130,168 and requires no security clearance.
Mango's departure came during a critical phase of the Commercial Crew Program, which is working with several companies to develop rockets and spacecraft to launch crews from Florida to the International Space Station by 2017.
NASA in January will accept proposals from companies competing to win contracts for the first flights, to be awarded next summer.
The deputy program manager is now in charge at Johnson Space Center as NASA prepares to interview candidates to replace Mango full time.
"The position will definitely stay in Florida," Bill Gerstenmaier, the head of NASA human spaceflight programs, told reporters last weekend.
The plea agreement Mango signed is not official until approved by a judge,possible at next month's hearing. Sentencing would likely follow.
Going to Mars: Billionaire Dennis Tito plans manned mission with possible 2017 launch
Joel Achenbach – The Washington Post
Billionaire Dennis Tito, tired of being told that we can't send humans to Mars just yet, on Wednesday revealed his scheme for launching two astronauts to the red planet as early as December 2017.
Dubbed "Inspiration Mars," it would be a 501-day fly-by mission, no landing, and would exploit a rare alignment of Earth and Mars that minimizes the amount of rocket fuel required.
"We propose to send a spacecraft bearing two astronauts, a man and woman, to the far side of Mars and return them to Earth, a voyage of 314 million miles in 501 days, in collaboration with NASA, in the name of America, and for the good of humanity," stated the "Architecture Report Study" released by the Inspiration Mars team Wednesday.
This is a challenging mission. The planetary alignment represents a narrow window. The rocket would have to blast off from Earth sometime between Christmas Day 2017 and Jan. 5, 2018 to take advantage of the congenial orbital dynamics of the planets. This is a difficult task in a business in which delays are common.
The plan has a lot of moving parts and would require cooperation from NASA, which is building a jumbo rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), that is supposed to be ready in 2017 and which Tito thinks should be used in the mission.
Tito's feasibility study, conducted after consultation with NASA, concluded that NASA's new Orion capsule wouldn't meet the mission requirements. Instead, Tito's organization would use the new Cygnus capsule developed by Virginia-based Orbital Corp. (formerly Orbital Sciences), which just recently made a successful trip to the international space station.
The Tito plan also calls for exploiting one of the new rockets under development in the private sector for transporting astronauts to orbit. Two launches would be required for the Inspiration Mars architecture. The big NASA rocket would deliver into orbit the vehicle that would later go on to Mars, and separately, a commercial rocket would carry the astronauts to rendezvous with their Inspiration Mars spaceship.
NASA officials did not immediately respond to Tito's proposal but promised a statement after his testimony Wednesday morning before the House science subcommittee on space.
The Inspiration Mars study emphasizes that this will be a U.S. mission and warns that other nations have similar designs for deep-space adventures.
"For America, this is our last chance to be first, and even the very movement of planets seems to be saying 'Go,' " the report states.
International Space Station Celebrates 15th Birthday in Orbit
The International Space Station celebrates its 15th birthday today (Nov. 20), marking the day in 1998 when a Russian rocket lifted the first piece of what is now the largest manmade structure ever built in space.
The launch of the module named Zarya ("Sunrise" in Russian) kicked off an unprecedented international undertaking to build the astronaut outpost one piece at a time. Five different space agencies representing 15 countries contributed to the project, and by 2000, rotating crews of spaceflyers were — and still are — living on the $100 billion International Space Station.
Today, the space station is about the size of a football field with roughly the same amount of liveable space as a six-bedroom house. It ranks second only to the moon among bright objects in the night sky.
The module that started it all, Zarya, also known as the Functional Cargo Block (FGB), is mostly used for storage now. But initially it was intended to serve as a central node of orientation control, communications and electrical power as other parts of the space station were added, according to NASA.
In light of the launch anniversary, space industry leaders reminisced about Zarya's historic day.
"We were in the control center in Houston that night to watch Zarya launch, along with a good number of people from the program," said Bill Bastedo, who was the launch package manager for the next piece of the space station, the U.S.-built module Unity, in a statement.
"It was actually, for us, exciting to have Zarya on orbit so we could get our chance to execute our mission," Bastedo, now senior vice president of Booz Allen Hamilton, said in a statement.
Two weeks after Zarya was carried into orbit, on Dec. 4, 1998, NASA's space shuttle Endeavour launched Unity, sometimes called Node 1, during the STS-88 mission, and the two modules were linked together.
"I was very confident in our ability to dock the two," Bastedo added in a statement from NASA. "I was most worried about making sure we could verify that Unity, the mating adaptors and Zarya all worked as a system together and we could safely leave it on orbit, because it was going to be about a six-month gap until the next flight. It turns out it was a lot of worry about nothing, because it almost went flawlessly."
Less than two years later, on Oct. 31, 2000, the first crew to live inside the International Space Station launched on a Russian Soyuz capsule. Expedition 1 consisted of NASA astronaut Bill Shepherd and Russian cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko. The three spaceflyers climbed on board the station on Nov. 2, 2000, kicking off humanity's continuous presence in space.
The space station is currently occupied by the six crewmembers of the station's Expedition 38 mission. They are Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata; Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov, Mikhail Tyurin and Sergey Ryazanskiy; and NASA astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Michael Hopkins.
"It's hard to believe it's been 15 years since we joined Unity and Zarya in orbit and laid the cornerstone for the International Space Station,"said Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana, who was the STS-88 mission's commander. He described the outpost as " an engineering marvel and a testament to what we can accomplish when we all work together."
"I think one of the most enduring legacies will be the international cooperation we have achieved in building and operating it," Cabana said in a statement from NASA. "It has provided us the framework for how we will move forward as we explore beyond our home planet, not as explorers from any one country, but as explorers from planet Earth. We have seen great results in areas such as biotechnology, Earth and space sciences, human research, the physical sciences and technology being accomplished in this remarkable laboratory in space."
Astronaut Karen Nyberg discusses readjusting to life on Earth
CBS This Morning
Astronaut Karen Nyberg is back on Earth after living and working on the International Space Station since May. The experience, she says, was a dream-come-true, but it meant leaving her husband and young son, Jack, for six months. Michelle Miller reports.
International Space Station hits 15-year mark
William Harwood – CBS News
Fifteen years ago Wednesday, a Russian Proton rocket carrying the first module of what would become the International Space Station roared to life and climbed into orbit, kicking off one of the most complex -- and expensive -- engineering projects ever attempted.
Two weeks later, on Dec. 4, 1998, the space shuttle Endeavour thundered away with the second module nestled in its cargo bay, a multi-hatch connecting node that, together with the Russian-built, NASA-financed Zarya propulsion module launched by the Proton, would form the cornerstone of the International Space Station.
Endeavour commander Robert Cabana, now director of the Kennedy Space Center, made the first entry in the station's logbook, writing "from small beginnings, great things come."
"I really believe that small beginning set the tone for the entire space station assembly, for how we worked together," he said in an interview with CBS News. "It just went perfectly. What a phenomenal team effort to pull that first mission together."
On the 15th anniversary of the station's first launch, senior managers met Wednesday and approved an engineering review that officially clears the lab complex to fly through 2020 and, with a bit of luck, continued funding and ongoing international support, all the way to 2028, three decades after the program's beginning.
Easily visible from the ground, the space station rivals Venus as one of the brightest "stars" in the sky, a moving point of light that represents what station program manager Michael Suffredini believes is the "largest international peacetime achievement in human history."
"It's something to think about," he said in an interview. "Not only did we build what is by far the largest spacecraft ever assembled in low-Earth orbit, you're making impacts on the world (through ongoing research) that are far larger than what we probably imagined when we were doing this."
The start of station assembly came nearly 15 years after President Ronald Reagan endorsed the project in his 1984 State of the Union address, when he challenged NASA "to develop a permanently manned space station and to do it within a decade."
It ended up taking longer than a decade, undergoing multiple redesigns and a major change of course: in the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse, the Clinton administration brought the Russians into the project as a foreign policy initiative.
Nearly 15 years after Reagan's speech, Cabana and cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev floated from Endeavour into the infant space station together, becoming the first to board the outpost. Later, the crew spent a few minutes "talking about the future, exploration, working together, going beyond our home planet, all it meant at that point in time," Cabana said.
"To see it actually become a reality, to go from a computer graphic, from an animation, to being a real space station up there that is just working so phenomenally well, it's just so very special," he said Wednesday.
After 37 shuttle missions, 92 Russian assembly, logistics and crew ferry flights, after 174 construction and maintenance spacewalks by 113 astronauts and cosmonauts, the space station now stretches the length of a football field across its huge solar array truss and includes a dozen pressurized modules with the habitable volume of a six-bedroom house.
Rotating crews of astronauts and cosmonauts have been living and working aboard the station continuously since November 2, 2000, consuming 25,000 meals in the process and working their way through about seven tons of supplies every six months.
Including the station's current six-member crew, 88 astronauts and cosmonauts have logged long-duration stays aboard the ISS, with more than 120 other visitors, mostly shuttle crew members, during the course of assembly.
Orbiting at an altitude of around 250 miles, the station tips the scales at nearly a million pounds, all of it streaking through the vacuum of space at more than 17,000 mph, or an unimaginable 85 or so football fields per second.
Flying into and out of Earth's shadow every 45 minutes, the station's four sets of 240-foot-long solar arrays rotate like giant paddle wheels to track the sun, generating 84 kilowatts of power. The lab's complex electrical grid routes that direct current power to and from massive nickel-hydrogen batteries, delivering it to converters that step it down to around 123 volts for use inside the lab modules.
With all that power flowing through 8 miles of wiring, the station's electrical components generate an enormous amount of heat, which must be dissipated by ammonia coolant that is pumped through huge radiators in a complex network of pipes, valves and control systems.
More than 50 computers running more than two million lines of code orchestrate station operations and help the crew keep tabs on everything from experiment operation to internet calls to friends and family on Earth. The station's life support system, another marvel of complexity, provides oxygen, carbon dioxide removal and a state-of-the-art waste water treatment system that turns urine into ultra-pure potable water.
Managing a project as complex as the station is a herculean task, requiring flight control centers operated by NASA, the Russian federal space agency Roscosmos, the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, that operate around the clock, working across multiple time zones and languages.
Not counting the cost of components provided by Russia, the European Space Agency, Canada and Japan, the United States spent between $60 billion and $70 billion building the space station, Suffredini said, with about $3 billion a year needed for normal operations. All told, more than 100,000 people working for five space agencies and scores of contractors across more than 16 nations have contributed to the station project.
The space station originally was funded through 2015, but the Obama administration extended its support through 2020 as part of a re-purposed post-shuttle space program focused on eventual flights to deep space and development of private sector manned spacecraft to ferry crews to and from low-Earth orbit.
The structural analysis approved Wednesday showed the station can, in fact, safely operate through the end of the decade and probably all the way to 2028 if Congress and the White House provide continued funding and if NASA's international partners go along -- all open questions in an era of tight budgets and efforts to reduce the federal deficit.
In an earlier interview, Suffredini said extended operations would benefit national security through continued international cooperation; help researchers find out what might be needed to keep astronauts healthy on long-duration missions beyond low-Earth orbit; and give private industry a toe-hold in space.
"As a country, the only clear direction we have from Congress and the administration (of a long-term goal in space) is we want to go to Mars," he said.
"And what we're finding with the human research we're doing on board ISS, that it will take us beyond 2020 to get all the information we think is necessary to make sure we understand how to mitigate the deleterious effects of microgravity and radiation on the human body."
Likewise, extended operations will help open the door to private-sector development of low-Earth orbit.
"We are reducing costs, we're going to allow industry to come to low-Earth orbit and figure out what's beneficial and what is not necessarily beneficial," Suffredini said. "We're just in the infancy of sorting that out, and it's going to take to well beyond 2020 for us to figure out what's really going to be useful."
And so, 50 years after John F. Kennedy committed the nation to sending men to the moon in a bid to win a Cold War space race with the Soviet Union, NASA and its former rival now work hand in hand on the high frontier, each one dependent on the other as they gain the operational experience that will be needed for eventual flights beyond low-Earth orbit.
"Station is truly an engineering marvel and a testament to what we can accomplish when we all work together," Cabana said in a NASA interview. "I think one of the most enduring legacies will be the international cooperation we have achieved in building and operating it. It has provided us the framework for how we will move forward as we explore beyond our home planet, not as explorers from any one country, but as explorers from planet Earth."
15 Years in Orbit: The International Space Station By the Numbers
After 15 years of construction, harrowing spacewalks and repairs the International Space Station is still going strong in orbit around Earth.
The first module for the station — the Russian Zarya module — launched 15 years ago today, on Nov. 20, 1998. Currently, the International Space Station is the largest structure in space ever built by human hands, and international crews have continuously occupied it since 2000.
Here are some interesting NASA facts about the teenage station as it embarks upon its 16th year in orbit:
$100 billion: The estimated total cost of the station.
2001: The year Dennis Tito, an American multimillionaire entrepreneur, became the first person ever to fly to the station as a self-funded space tourist. He reportedly paid $20 million for the flight and stayed on the station for eight days before flying back to Earth.
357: Overall length of the station in feet (109 meters). It's about the length of a U.S. football field, including its backbone-like truss segments and solar wings.
174: Spacewalks taken to assemble and maintain the station to date.
More than 115: Number of spaceflights taken by five kinds of launch vehicles during the station's construction. Russian elements were launched to space by proton rockets, and NASA's space shuttles brought other components into orbit. The space shuttles and Soyuz capsules were both responsible for bringing crews to the station until the shuttle program was retired in 2011.
90 minutes: The time it takes for the station to make a complete orbit of Earth. Observers on the ground can see the station pass by overhead by tracking it using tools provided by NASA: http://spotthestation.nasa.gov/. 38: Current number of expeditions that have launched to the station. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata; Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Tyurin, Kotov and Ryazanskiy; and NASA astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins are currently living and working aboard the space station as the Expedition 38 crew.
6 months: The average length of time a crew spends on board the station. In 2015, a U.S. astronaut and Russian cosmonaut will attempt the first-ever one-year mission to the International Space Station.
5: Number of space agencies that contributed to building the station. NASA, Russia's Roscosmos, the Japanese space agency, the Canadian Space Agency and the European Space Agency all contributed to the construction of the station.
3: The size of the first station-crew in 2000. It is also the number of spaceflyers that can travel to the station on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, currently the only spaceship that can deliver station crewmembers to the orbiting outpost.2: Number of times an Olympic torch has been on board the space station.
2: Number of private American companies that now fly robotic resupply missions to the space station. So far, SpaceX has flown two official cargo missions to the space station using the company's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule, while Orbital Sciences Corp. has flown one mission using its Cygnus spacecraft and Antares rocket. Both companies have contracts with NASA that will keep them flying to the station.
1: Number of times an Olympic torch has been taken on a spacewalk outside the space station. On Nov. 9, 2013, Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy took a torch for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, on a spacewalk.
Mars Meteorite Reveals 1st Look at Ancient Martian Crust
A meteorite found last year in the Sahara Desert is likely the first recognized piece of ancient Martian crust, a new study reports.
The Mars meteorite NWA 7533 is 4.4 billion years old and contains evidence of long-ago asteroid strikes, suggesting that the rock came from the Red Planet's ancient and cratered southern highlands, researchers said.
"We finally have a sample of the Martian highlands, that portion of Mars that holds all the secrets to Mars' birth and early development," lead author Munir Humayun of Florida State University told SPACE.com via email. "It's the part of Mars' history where the oceans and atmosphere developed, and where life would have developed if it ever did on Mars," Humayun added. "I will liken this to opening a treasure chest — it may take a while before we find the best treasures, but treasures aplenty lurk in this meteorite."
Humayun and his colleagues subjected NWA (short for northwest Africa, where the rock was found) 7533 to a series of analyses. The researchers determined the meteorite's age, for example, by determining that crystals within it called zircons formed about 4.4 billion years ago.
"This date is about 100 million years after the first dust condensed in the solar system," Humayun said in a statement. "We now know that Mars had a crust within the first 100 million years of the start of planet-building, and that Mars' crust formed concurrently with the oldest crusts on Earth and the moon."
The team also found high concentrations of normally rare elements such as nickel, osmium and iridium in NWA 7533, indicating that the rock formed in a region that was pummeled by chondritic meteors, which are relatively enriched in these materials.
Further, after measuring the abundances of certain elements within the meteorite, Humayun and his team were able to calculate a thickness for the Red Planet's crust.
"The amount of melting on Mars was low, sufficient to accumulate a 50-kilometer-thickness [31 miles] crust, but Mars evidently escaped the giant impact-style melting that affected the Earth and moon," Humayun told SPACE.com. (Most scientists think the moon formed from material blasted into space when a planet-size body crashed into Earth more than 4 billion years ago.) "This is the first reliable geochemical estimate of the thickness of Mars' crust, and it agrees with geophysical estimates from gravity and topography," he added.
Though researchers believe ancient Mars was relatively warm and wet, the team found no hydrous silicate minerals — which form in the presence of liquid water — within NWA 7533. Scientists will likely unearth more such puzzling details as they study the meteorite further, Humayun said.
"I expect more surprises as we dig deeper into our Martian treasure chest — some we will understand, and others may continue to befuddle us for a while to come," he said.
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