Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - November 12, 2013 and JSC Today

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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: November 12, 2013 7:30:25 AM CST
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - November 12, 2013 and JSC Today

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

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JSC TODAY CATEGORIES Headlines -  Join Us for Our Third Mini-Innovation Event! -  New. Bold. Innovative. Safety & Health Day 2.0.13 -  IT Labs FY14 Project Call Q&A Session 2 - Nov. 15 -  'Swap-It' Books and Magazine Drop-off Starts Today -  Recent JSC Announcement -  Calibrated Imaging of Lights and Displays Organizations/Social -  Emerge: Networking After Work -  Autographed Chris Hadfield Books Now Available -  Environmental Brown Bag: Houston's Green Building -  NASA 55th Anniversary & Shuttle Program T-Shirts -  Welcome to Outer Space: The Gilruth's New Box Gym -  Emerge ERG Lunch & Learn: Communication Styles -  Space Serenity Al-Anon Meeting Today -  Home for the Holidays - Order Your Holiday Meal -  Bring Your Photos to the Fair Jobs and Training -  Training Required for Admin Rights - MEP -  Job Opportunities Community -  Come Support Team Morpheus at CANstruction Houston -  MUREP Reduced Gravity Flight Alumni Meet and Greet -  Volunteers Needed to Mentor Reduced Gravity Flight

Expedition 37 Lands, Brings Olympic Torch Back to Earth

 

Headlines Join Us for Our Third Mini-Innovation Event! Date/Time: Nov. 13 from noon to 1 p.m. Theme: Innovation 2013 Part III: "Create" The Innovation 2013 committee rounds up our eventful year with five forums to showcase successful innovative strategies. C3 Forums: Human Systems Integration (HSI) Employee Resource Group as a [Fledgling] JSC 2.0 Success Story, Jennifer Rochlis/SF (Building 30, Room 2085) Successful Innovations in Lighting, Toni Clark/SF (Building 30, Room 2085) Microsoft Office Automation as Innovation, Robert Delwood/OP (Building 30, Room 2085) A Successful New Approach to ISS International Partner Access, Jennifer Mason/OX, (Building 30, Room 2085) Disability 2.0: Promoting an Environment Inclusive of All Abilities, Janelle Holt/AJ (Building 1, Room 340) Registration in SATERN is encouraged to receive training credit, but not required. The links are included in our Innovation websites at https://innovation2013.jsc.nasa.gov/ (internal to JSC) and http://i2013.jsc.nasa.gov/ (external to JSC). Our websites have a full description of each forum. This event is open to the JSC community. Event Date: Wednesday, November 13, 2013   Event Start Time:12:00 PM   Event End Time:1:00 PM Event Location: Building 30/Room 2085 and Building 1/Room 340 Add to Calendar Suzan P. Thomas x48772 [top] New. Bold. Innovative. Safety & Health Day 2.0.13 Thursday, Nov. 14, the JSC team will focus on safety and health. In addition to our special guest speaker, Dr. Michael Manser of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute and his presentation on distracted driving, we have: A forklift relay Blood-sugar screening Flu shots in the Building 30 lobby A distracted driving simulator Screening of the "Team Everest: A Himalayan Journey" film A drunk driving simulation A drug take-back program A bone marrow registration drive The health run and walk Numerous informative booths and exhibits And much, much more! Visit http://sthday.jsc.nasa.gov/ to plan your day! Event Date: Thursday, November 14, 2013   Event Start Time:9:00 AM   Event End Time:5:00 PM Event Location: Teague Auditorium, JSC mall area, Bldg 30, Gilruth Add to Calendar Suprecia Franklin/Angel Plaza x37817/x37305 http://sthday.jsc.nasa.gov/ [top] IT Labs FY14 Project Call Q&A Session 2 - Nov. 15 The NASA IT Labs Fiscal Year 2014 (FY14) Project Call runs through Dec 12. Four Q&A sessions were scheduled to provide information about the project call and application process. Q&A session 2 is scheduled from 11 a.m. to noon (CST) Friday, Nov. 15. JSC may attend the session at the local satellite location in Building 30, Room 2085B (The Watson Room), or via WebEx. Meeting: Meeting Number: 999 607 252 Meeting Password: ITLabs2014! To join the online meeting: Go to meeting Audio conference: (866) 756-6093 Passcode: 2652872 For assistance: Go to NASA WebEx and click "Support" (left). Go to NASA WebEx system diagnosis to confirm you have the appropriate players installed for Universal Communications Format rich media files. IMPORTANT NOTICE: Inform all meeting attendees prior to recording if you intend to record the meeting. Please note that any such recordings may be subject to discovery in the event of litigation. Event Date: Friday, November 15, 2013   Event Start Time:11:00 AM   Event End Time:12:00 PM Event Location: JSC B30/2085B (The Waston Room) Add to Calendar JSC-IRD-Outreach x34883 https://labs.nasa.gov/SitePages/Project Call.aspx [top] 'Swap-It' Books and Magazine Drop-off Starts Today To help us get our "Swap It" event started, the Environmental Office will be collecting book and magazine donations in the Buildings 3 and 11 cafés starting today, Nov. 12, through Thursday, Nov. 14. Your donations will help seed the Book/Magazine Swap-It event on Friday, Nov. 15. If you drop something in the donation box, be sure to come by the Building 3 café on Friday to pick up some new (to you) reading material. If you have any questions, please email the Environmental Office. JSC Environmental Office x36207 http://americarecyclesday.org/ [top] Recent JSC Announcement Please visit the JSC Announcements (JSCA) Web page to view the newly posted announcement: JSCA 13-039: Communications with Industry Procurement Solicitation for the Center Safety and Fire Operations (CSFO) Contract Archived announcements are also available on the JSCA Web page. Linda Turnbough x36246 http://ird.jsc.nasa.gov/DocumentManagement/announcements/default.aspx [top] Calibrated Imaging of Lights and Displays Is your team currently developing/verifying display systems or LED/OLED light sources? The Lighting Environment Test Facility at JSC maintains a high-end imaging system that can provide calibrated photometric and colorimetric performance data in the form of a flat-field image scan of the light-emitting device. Each pixel point in the image data provides a measurement in photometric and colorimetric units. This system is extremely useful during the engineering development process of solid-state light sources and provides a quick assessment of performance factors such as uniformity and contrast. The imaging system can measure a wide range of device sizes. A functional demonstration of this system will be on display at the JSC innovation event in Building 30's Collaboration Center on Nov. 13 at noon. Please contact our team to learn more. Toni A. Clark, P.E. x30857 http://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/slsd/about/divisions/hefd/facilities... [top]    Organizations/Social Emerge: Networking After Work Emerge invites JSC's next generation to "Network After Work." In contrast to the location's name, participants will have the opportunity to expand their business network while collaborating with individuals across the center. No reservation is required, and don't forget to bring a friend! Emerge's Mission: To leverage the unique perspectives of the next generation to evolve the JSC onboarding experience, foster cross-center collaboration, engage the community in JSC's mission and develop the leaders of tomorrow. Event Date: Thursday, November 14, 2013   Event Start Time:4:30 PM   Event End Time:6:00 PM Event Location: Boondoggles @ 4106 NASA Rd. One Add to Calendar Elena Buhay 281-792-7976 [top] Autographed Chris Hadfield Books Now Available Miss the Chris Hadfield book signing this week? Autographed copies of Hadfield's book, "An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth," are now available in the Buildings 3 and 11 Starport Gift Shops for just $28. Or, order your book online. Limited supply available. cyndi kibby x47467 [top] Environmental Brown Bag: Houston's Green Building Would you like to save money on your home energy bill? Are you planning an upgrade and want to learn about green or less-toxic building materials? Houston's Green Building Resource Center (GBRC) has a showroom and classroom with samples of recycled or refurbished materials; more than 50 displays, many interactive; and a library of information providing additional strategies for "going green." The GBRC program director offers plan reviews for cost-effective green options. This could lead to energy and water savings that create a healthier living environment, reduce wasted materials and save money. GBRC Director Steve Stelzer will be at JSC today to talk about the various ways that Houstonians can save money by retrofitting or upgrading their home systems. Bring your lunch to Building 45, Room 751, from noon to 1 p.m. today, Nov. 12. Event Date: Tuesday, November 12, 2013   Event Start Time:12:00 PM   Event End Time:1:00 PM Event Location: B45 room 751 Add to Calendar Laurie Peterson x39845 [top] NASA 55th Anniversary & Shuttle Program T-Shirts The NASA 55th Anniversary T-shirt and Shuttle Program shirts are once again available as a special online purchase for just $7 (youth medium to XL) and $8 (2X to 4X). See this website for details. Orders must be received by Nov. 17. Shirts will be available for pickup mid-December. Cyndi Kibby [top] Welcome to Outer Space: The Gilruth's New Box Gym ** Grand Opening TODAY, Nov. 12 ** Ready to shift your workout routine into warp speed? Join the Outer Space, Starport's new box gym at the Gilruth Center. The Outer Space features a versatile area that allows members to push their fitness to the next level by performing functional, high-intensity workouts. Members of the Outer Space can use the equipment on their own during open gym time, or enjoy the pain with a group in OSFx. Outer Space amenities include: Open space to perform Olympic lifts with barbells and bumper plates Concept two indoor rowers Multi-stationed pull-up rig TRX suspension trainers (group training sessions available!) Mobility equipment such as foam rollers and bands Kettlebells to swing, medicine balls to throw and boxes to jump on Memberships to the Outer Space are $250/annually, $150/semi-annually or $10 for a daily pass. For more information, including class and open gym schedules, please visit Starport's website. Joseph Callahan x42769 https://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/en/facilities/gilruth-fitness-center/outer... [top] Emerge ERG Lunch & Learn: Communication Styles Please join the Emerge Employee Resource Group (ERG) for its initial lunch-and-learn event, "The Power of Introverts." It's based on Susan Cain's acclaimed TED book, Quiet, where we'll be demonstrating and discussing perceptions of different communication styles and how we can leverage the qualities of both introverts and extroverts. Please feel free to bring your lunch and invite a friend. You are invited to stick around immediately afterward and find out more about our Emerge during a short monthly Emerge meeting! Event Date: Wednesday, November 13, 2013   Event Start Time:12:00 PM   Event End Time:12:45 PM Event Location: 12/146 Add to Calendar David Kelley x27811 [top] Space Serenity Al-Anon Meeting Today "Principles Above Personalities" is a reminder to focus on the quality of the message or idea and not be distracted by a personality we may not relish. Our 12-step meeting is for co-workers, families and friends of those who work or live with the family disease of alcoholism. We meet Tuesday, Nov. 12, in Building 32, Room 142 (room change), from 11 to 11:45 a.m. Visitors are welcome. Event Date: Tuesday, November 12, 2013   Event Start Time:11:00 AM   Event End Time:11:45 AM Event Location: Building 32, room 142 (Room Change) Add to Calendar Employee Assistance Program x36130 http://sashare.jsc.nasa.gov/EAP/Pages/default.aspx [top] Home for the Holidays - Order Your Holiday Meal Leave the cooking to us and order your Thanksgiving meal from your onsite café. We have everything you need to make your holiday meal perfect. Order your oven-roasted turkey, all the sides and dessert right here at JSC! All orders must be turned in and paid for by Tuesday, Nov. 19. Orders may be picked up from the Building 3 café on Monday, Nov. 25; Tuesday, Nov. 26; or Wednesday, Nov. 27. Items and the order form can be found on the Starport website. Danial Hornbuckle x30240 https://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/ [top] Bring Your Photos to the Fair Your JSC Safety and Health Action Team (JSAT) will once again host the "Why I Work Safely" photo-laminating booth at the upcoming JSC Safety Fair on Thursday, Nov. 14. Round up your favorite photos now so you will have them ready to laminate for display on your lanyard. Show everyone your reason(s) for working safely! Note: Please trim photos to two inches wide by two-and-a-half inches in length. Scanned photos work well also. Event Date: Thursday, November 14, 2013   Event Start Time:10:00 AM   Event End Time:12:30 PM Event Location: Teague Lobby Add to Calendar Reese Squires x37776 http://jsat.jsc.nasa.gov [top]    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 September 23rd 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. Heather Thomas x30901 [top] Job Opportunities Where do I find job opportunities? Both internal Competitive Placement Plan (CPP) and external JSC job announcements are posted on the Human Resources (HR) portal and USAJOBS website. Through the HR portal, civil servants can view summaries of all the agency jobs that are currently open at: https://hr.nasa.gov/portal/server.pt/community/employees_home/239/job_opportu... To help you navigate to JSC vacancies, use the filter drop-down menu and select "JSC HR." The "Jobs" link will direct you to the USAJOBS website for the complete announcement and the ability to apply online. If you have questions about any JSC job vacancies, please call your HR representative. Lisa Pesak x30476 [top]    Community Come Support Team Morpheus at CANstruction Houston As winners of the JSC CANstruction event during the JSC Feeds Families Drive, Team Morpheus is now competing in CANStruction Houston. For millions, each day begins and ends with the anguish of hunger. Canstruction, a charity sponsored by the design and construction industry, is determined to end this suffering. Canstruction is a design/build competition showcasing the talents of the design and construction industry and the students they mentor. All food used in CANstruction Houston is donated to the Houston Food Bank. JSC is participating in CANstruction Houston for the very first time! Build Day is Nov. 16, and YOU are invited to come see all the competing structures on Nov. 17 and 23 from 3 to 6 p.m. at CITYCENTRE (800 Town and Country Blvd., Houston, 77024). Judging takes place on Nov. 20. Bring your family and friends and show your support for our JSC Team Morpheus! Event Date: Sunday, November 17, 2013   Event Start Time:12:00 PM   Event End Time:6:00 PM Event Location: CityCentre, 800 Town & Country Blvd., Houston Add to Calendar Joyce Abbey 281-335-2041 http://canstruction-houston.com/events [top] MUREP Reduced Gravity Flight Alumni Meet and Greet An Alumni Meet and Greet welcoming the 14 MUREP Reduced Gravity Flight Week university teams will be held Thursday, Nov. 14, from 1 to 2:30 p.m. in the Gilruth Alamo Ballroom. All NASA employees that are alumni or supporters of the student and faculty teams chosen for this prestigious opportunity are invited to come share your NASA story with these outstanding students and SHOW YOUR SCHOOL SPIRIT! Teams are as follows: Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University; California State Polytechnic University; Gadsden State Community College; Howard University; Morehouse College; Prairie View A&M University; San Antonio College; San Antonio College (Hephaestus Engineering); San Jacinto College North/University of Houston-Clear Lake; Texas Southern University; The University of Texas Pan American; Tuskegee University; University of Houston; and University of Texas at El Paso. If you are interested in participating, please contact Sarah Gonzales via email or at x38623. Event Date: Thursday, November 14, 2013   Event Start Time:1:00 PM   Event End Time:2:30 PM Event Location: Gilruth Center Alamo Ballroom Add to Calendar Sarah Gonzales x38623 [top] Volunteers Needed to Mentor Reduced Gravity Flight The Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program is looking for JSC scientists, engineers and technical experts of all levels who would like to advise and mentor flight teams for our 2014 program. Teams can be composed of college undergraduate students or K-12 teachers. Preference will be given to individuals who are currently working as scientists and engineers and are familiar with the type of experiments appropriate for reduced-gravity flight. Interested in learning more? We will offer an optional information session to interested mentors, feel free to attend one of the two available sessions. Note that the sessions are offered in different locations. Tuesday, November 19th from 10 to 11 a.m. (Building 30, Auditorium) and Wednesday, November 20th from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. (Building 12, Room 200). Please feel free to attend. Already know you want to participate? Please visit http://microgravityuniversity.jsc.nasa.gov/security/mentors/app/ for more details and to apply. Deadline is November 27th. James Semple 281-792-7872 https://microgravityuniversity.jsc.nasa.gov/ [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.

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NASA TV: www.nasa.gov/ntv

·      8 am Central (9 EST) –          Beyond Earth: Removing the Barriers to Deep Space Exploration

Presentation by Bill Gerstenmaier Live from the Newseum

·      9:20 am Central (10:20 EST) – Exp 38 interview with WCIA-TV, Champaign, IL

 

Human Spaceflight News

Tuesday – November 12, 2013

 

Under chute & on the ground: Exp 37 returns safely after 166 days on the station (Photos: Carla Cioffi)

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

NASA facility cutbacks stall in Washington

 

Stewart Powell – Houston Chronicle

 

Politics played a part in choosing the locations for many of NASA's most crucial facilities at the outset of the race to the moon in the 1960s, including Lyndon B. Johnson steering mission control for manned missions to Houston. Now, politics appears to be playing an even bigger part in preventing NASA from downsizing a costly and sprawling infrastructure that dates back to the spare-no-expense days of the Apollo era. In several recent instances, NASA thought it had a good way to cut costs. Until it didn't.

 

Soyuz lands in Kazakhstan; crew in good spirits; commander waves Olympic torch

 

William Harwood - CBS News

 

Three station fliers strapped into their Soyuz TMA-09M ferry craft, undocked from the International Space Station and plunged back to Earth Sunday, settling to a jarring rocket-assisted landing on the frigid steppe of Kazakhstan to close out a 166-day stay in space. Packed safely away in the Soyuz spacecraft was an Olympic torch that was launched last Wednesday with another three-person crew and carried outside the station Saturday for a dramatic spacewalk photo op. Olympic organizers plan to use the torch in the opening ceremonies of the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

 

Olympic torch returns home from space station

 

Jim Heintz - Associated Press

 

A Russian space capsule carrying the Sochi Olympic torch and three astronauts returned to Earth on Monday from the International Space Station in a flawless landing on the steppes of Kazakhstan. The Soyuz capsule landed at 8:49 local time (0249 GMT), about three and a half hours after undocking from the station with Russian Fyodor Yurchikhin, American Karen Nyberg and Luca Parmitano of Italy aboard. The unlit Olympic torch was brought to the ISS on Thursday when three new crew members arrived. Two Russian crew members took it on a spacewalk Saturday.

 

Olympics-International space crew return Olympic torch to Earth

 

Shamil Zhumatov - Reuters

 

A Russian spacecraft brought three astronauts and the Olympic torch back to Earth on Monday after the torch was taken on its first spacewalk in the run-up to the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi. Russia's Fyodor Yurchikhin beamed as he held up the silver-and-grey torch alongside American Karen Nyberg and Italian Luca Parmitano on the Kazakh steppe after returning from the International Space Station after a 166-day mission. Slowed by parachutes and braking rockets fired to soften the impact, their Soyuz TMA-09M capsule landed on schedule at 8:49 a.m. (0249 GMT) after a three-and-half-hour descent.

 

Soyuz TMA-09M Descends Safety into Kazakhstan with Three Space Station Crew Members

 

Mark Carreau - Aviation Week

 

Russian, U. S. and European astronauts, strapped in the Soyuz TMA-09M crew transport, departed the International Space Station late Sunday and descended safely to Earth, landing under parachute in southern Kazakhstan after 5 1/2 months in orbit. Cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, NASA's Karen Nyberg and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano were greeted within minutes of their touchdown at 9:49 p.m., EST, or Monday at 8:49 a.m., local time, by Russian helicopter borne recovery personnel.

 

Olympic Torch Back on Earth After Space Odyssey

 

Moscow Times

 

A Soyuz TMA-09M capsule brought three crew-members and the Sochi-2014 Winter Olympics torch back to Earth on Monday, after a four-day showcasing of the torch at the International Space Station. The capsule landed in the Kazakh Steppe, slowed by parachutes and braking rockets, and all the space travelers were feeling well on landing, a mission control spokesman said, Itar-Tass reported. Russian personnel pulled cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin from the capsule, carried him to a folding chair, and handed him the torch from the Soyuz so that he could hold it aloft for the cameras, Reuters reported.

 

Space Station Crew Returns with Olympic Torch

 

Agence France Presse

 

Two astronauts and a cosmonaut returned to Earth on Monday after a 166-day mission, bringing the Olympic torch back from the International Space Station after a historic spacewalk. The trip completed the most ambitious leg of Russia's unparalleled torch relay in the run-up to the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi in February. The Soyuz capsule carrying Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg and Italian colleague Luca Parmitano touched down on the frosty steppes of Kazakhstan at 0249 GMT.

 

Space station crew returns to Earth toting Olympic torch and toy dinosaur

 

Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com

 

Three crew members, a Russian, an American and a European, returned to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) Sunday night (Nov. 10), accompanied by a toy dinosaur created in space and the Olympic torch that will begin the 2014 Winter Games. Roscosmos cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, Karen Nyberg of NASA and the European Space Agency's (ESA) Luca Parmitano landed aboard the Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft in the steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of Dzhezkazgan, at 8:49 p.m. CST (1449 GMT or 8:49 a.m. local time, Nov. 11). The parachute- and retro-thruster-assisted "soft landing," which ended with the capsule lying on its side, was met by Russian recovery forces and NASA teams to attend to the crew.

 

Astronaut Karen Nyberg returns to earth with first hockey puck in space

 

Brad Schlossman - Grand Forks Herald

 

NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg returned home to earth Sunday with a unique possession — the first hockey puck in space. Nyberg brought an official UND hockey game puck with her to the International Space Station, where she has spent the last six months. Nyberg, a 1994 UND graduate, launched into space on May 28 from Kazakhstan. Tim O'Keefe, the executive vice president and CEO of the UND Foundation, attended the launch along with his wife, Becky. Nyberg returned to earth, landing in Kazakhstan on Sunday, soon before the hockey team snapped a four-game losing streak with a win at Nebraska Omaha. Nyberg attended UND at the same time as UND head coach Dave Hakstol and assistant coach Dane Jackson.

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Olympic torch taken on first spacewalk

 

Associated Press

 

An Olympic torch took a spacewalk for the first time Saturday, carefully held by two Russian cosmonauts outside the International Space Station as it orbited some 260 miles above Earth. Video streamed by NASA showed Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazanskiy carrying the unlit torch of the Sochi games, which bobbed weightlessly at the end of a tether in a darkness dotted by stars. The two gingerly maneuvered to take photos of the torch against the background of the planet, the orb's edge glowing with sunrise.

 

Spacewalking cosmonauts exchange Olympic torch, wrestle with external hardware

 

Mark Carreau - Aviation Week

 

Spacewalking cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy carried out the first Olympic torch exchange in the vacuum of space Saturday. The ceremonial gesture outside the International Space Station kicked off a near six hour spacewalk devoted primarily to the outfitting of an external work station on the orbiting lab's Russian segment. The ceremonial activities went well, but other tasks proved problematic and went unfinished. Installation of the work station began with a late August spacewalk. On Saturday, the spacewalkers added handrails and a camera mount on the platform outside the Zvezda service module. The installation of high resolution optical cameras on the platform is scheduled for a December excursion by Kotov and cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin.

 

Olympic torch goes on first spacewalk

 

Alex Macon - Galveston County Daily News

 

The Olympic torch relay for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, took an out-of-this-world detour Saturday. The torch, which was launched to the International Space Station on Thursday, was taken on its first spacewalk by Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazanskiy early Saturday morning. The torch remained unlit to preserve oxygen on the space station and prevent any fire threat to the crew.

 

Cosmonauts wore special space patch for Olympic torch spacewalk

 

Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com

 

 

The two cosmonauts who took an Olympic torch on a spacewalk outside of the International Space Station Saturday (Nov. 9) carried out the symbolic relay wearing a surprise space mission patch depicting the icon of the 2014 Winter Games.  Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy with Russia's federal space agency Roscosmos each donned Orlan spacesuits adorned with the previously unseen embroidered emblem, which, like the Olympic Games, came as the result of an international effort.

 

Russian Cosmonauts Occasionally Infect the ISS with Malware

 

Connor Simpson - The Atlantic

 

Russian security expert Eugene Kaspersky says the International Space Station was infected by malware installed through a USB stick carried on board by a Russian cosmonaut. Kaspersky refused to provide details or elaborate on how badly the virus affected ISS operations or how engineering crews cleaned up the mess left behind. Space can be scary enough when the system protecting you isn't infected with malware. This situation was probably even worse. "The space guys from time-to-time are coming with USBs, which are infected. I'm not kidding. I was talking to Russian space guys and they said, 'yeah, from time-to-time there are viruses on the space station,'" Kaspersky told reporters in Australia.

 

SLS Budget 'Reasonable,' ATK Boss Assures Investors

 

Dan Leone - Space News

 

NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) program appears to be in good shape both politically and financially, ATK Chief Executive Officer Mark DeYoung told investors and analysts on a Nov. 7 earnings call. "The SLS program is very well supported with bipartisan support and a reasonable budget level," he said. The Arlington, Va., company, whose Magna, Utah-based Aerospace Group saw year-to-year operating profits rise 9.4 percent to $40.6 million on nearly flat sales of $319 million for the three-month period ended Sept. 29, is the prime contractor for the heavy-lift launcher's twin solid-rocket boosters.

 

Lockheed Tests Orion Protective Fairing Panels

 

Space News

 

Testing at Lockheed Martin's Sunnyvale, Calif., facility showed that NASA's Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle will be able to successfully jettison its protective fairing panels when it launches unmanned next September atop a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket, Orion prime contractor Lockheed Martin Space Systems announced Nov 7. A series of precisely timed explosive charges and mechanisms performed as intended, separating all three protective panels at the expected velocity and trajectory. In a similar test Lockheed Martin conducted in June, all pyrotechnic mechanisms and bolts separated as planned, but one of the three protective panels did not fully detach.

 

NASA's biggest astronaut:

Robonaut to take giant leap into space with new legs

 

Gina Sunseri - ABC News

 

Think of Robonaut as the strong, silent type. He wasn't programmed to talk but he's diligently working his sign language. He offered on Twitter to play the role of George Clooney's sidekick if there is a "Gravity" prequel. And his tweets show a sense of humor -- in one he told the Mars Curiosity rover that he wasn't into long-distance relationships. Robonaut is poised to take on a bigger role on the International Space Station when he gets legs early next year. ABC News got a sneak preview of Robonaut with his legs, and he is a big guy. He is now eight feet tall and weighs about 500 pounds.

 

Houston Technology Center Seeks Talent At Johnson Space Center

 

Florian Martin - KUHF Radio (Houston)

 

The end of the Space Shuttle program is two years past. But many of those who lost their jobs because of it are still looking for something new. The Houston Technology Center last year opened a branch at the Johnson Space Center to lead prospective new entrepreneurs to success. Since 1999, the Houston Technology Center in Midtown has helped Houstonians start businesses. The nonprofit organization's president Walter Ullrich explains the basic requirements for those wanting to take advantage of HTC's services.

 

Will China's space program surpass NASA in a decade?

 

Eric Berger - Houston Chronicle's SciGuy

 

To date China has flown just five human spaceflight missions. NASA has flown more than 150. China has a single module in orbit. NASA has a huge, international space station. China hopes to send its astronauts to the moon in 10 to 15 years. NASA's been there, done that. Nevertheless, China's space program is in ascendance. And U.S. policy and space officials would do well to take notice, says Leroy Chiao, a former International Space Station commander…

 

Sending Olympic Torch to Space, Russia Flaunts Inspiration Superiority

 

Leroy Chiao - Space.com (Opinion)

 

(Chiao is a former NASA astronaut and commander of the International Space Station. Chiao is the special adviser for human spaceflight to the Space Foundation, and holds appointments at Baylor College of Medicine and Rice University.)

 

Soyuz 11M roared into space just a few days ago, carrying the latest crew to the International Space Station. Normally, such an event doesn't rate mentions in the mainstream news media — but, this one got a few. Why? The crew carried the Olympic torch with them, and the rocket was painted in a theme to commemorate the upcoming Sochi games. During the mission, two cosmonauts will take the torch out on a spacewalk, to further generate publicity for the games, and for human spaceflight.

__________

 

COMPLETE STORIES

 

NASA facility cutbacks stall in Washington

 

Stewart Powell – Houston Chronicle

 

Politics played a part in choosing the locations for many of NASA's most crucial facilities at the outset of the race to the moon in the 1960s, including Lyndon B. Johnson steering mission control for manned missions to Houston.

 

Now, politics appears to be playing an even bigger part in preventing NASA from downsizing a costly and sprawling infrastructure that dates back to the spare-no-expense days of the Apollo era.

 

In several recent instances, NASA thought it had a good way to cut costs. Until it didn't.

 

• In Florida, the space agency prepared to lease one of the Kennedy Space Center's legendary launch pads to a commercial space-flight firm before powerful members of Congress raised questions and the losing firm filed a bid protest.

 

• In Texas, NASA thought it could cut duplication by moving a heat-shield testing complex from Houston's Johnson Space Center to the Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif. But that was before dogged intervention by the Texas congressional delegation.

 

• And in California, a senior NASA official thought he'd found a way to save taxpayers $175 million before Rep. Julia Brownley, D-Calif., said lawmakers would fight any scheme to spend only $25 million to reduce but not eliminate toxic chemicals from decades of rocket engine tests at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Simi Valley.

 

• "The political context in which NASA operates often impedes its efforts to reduce agency infrastructure," laments NASA Inspector General Paul Martin.

 

Big-time landowner

 

The $18-billion-a-year agency maintains a far-flung fiefdom of 4,900 structures on 124,000 acres, with an estimated value of $30 billion. That makes NASA the ninth-largest federal landowner. Eight out of 10 facilities date back to the golden age of space flight, when the United States was racing the Soviet Union to the moon.

 

Today, the cash-strapped agency needlessly pours tens of millions of dollars a year into maintaining outdated or underutilized facilities - in addition to deferring another $2.6 billion in annual maintenance.

 

"The surplus of NASA facilities is a legacy of the Apollo buildup and NASA's resistance to adjusting its ambitions to fiscal realities," explains John Logsdon, a former director of George Washington University's space policy institute.

 

NASA's leadership has repeatedly abandoned cutback efforts "due to the combination of local pushback and congressional resistance," says Logsdon, author of "The Decision to Go to the Moon: Project Apollo and the National Interest."

 

For too long, political pressure, shifting missions, inadequate transition funding and the practice of "keep it in case you need it" have handcuffed NASA to the point that it has "repeatedly failed to meet its own reduction goals," says the agency's inspector general.

 

NASA generated internal recommendations as long ago as 2005 to close or consolidate three NASA flight centers and three component sites once the shuttle program ended in 2011.

 

It didn't happen.

 

Now, with fresh budget cuts bearing down and NASA's goals in space becoming grist for partisan debate, frustrated members of Congress are raising the possibility of an across-the-board realignment of civilian federal facilities akin to Pentagon base closings that shuttered or consolidated more than 350 facilities since 1989, saving $7 billion a year.

 

"Ideally, one would like to be able to shift funds from fixed costs that are underutilized to higher-payoff costs," says Scott Pace, a NASA official during the Bush administration. "This is easier said than done."

 

Surplus, underutilized

 

One recent NASA study identified 865 surplus facilities costing $24 million a year to maintain. Another identified 33 underutilized facilities costing the agency $43 million a year, including 14 of 35 rocket engine test stands, two out of three airfields and seven launch-related facilities at Florida's KSC.

 

"Over the last 55 years, NASA has built a strong and capable workforce and developed the facilities and equipment to maintain and grow our nation's space program," NASA spokeswoman Karen Northon said in a statement to the Houston Chronicle. "However, as we prepare for the next 50 years of exploration - in a constrained budget environment - we need to ensure we have the right skills, facilities and equipment to execute our missions and keep America the world leader in space."

 

Experts say it should come as no surprise that members of Congress who are demanding federal budget cuts in Washington simultaneously try to prevent NASA from closing facilities back home in their congressional districts.

 

"That's what people in Congress do - they protect their constituents rather than serve broader national interests," says Logsdon, a historian of NASA's space program.

 

Lawmakers routinely downplay political intervention as the reason for NASA's failure to realign its network of facilities.

 

Sen. John Cornyn points to a fitful, partisan budgeting process that has left NASA lurching from one budget to the next, as well as the Obama administration shifting NASA's mission from returning astronauts to the moon by 2020 to limited manned exploration for a retrieved asteroid by 2025 and Mars orbits by 2035.

 

"NASA has been under siege for some time now," laments Cornyn. "It's almost impossible for these organizations to plan."

 

NASA's plan to lease part of KSC's storied space launching facility to Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX led by PayPal founder Elon Musk prompted some lawmakers to raise concerns that a single enterprise should not control such a key facility, thwarting access by rival commercial firms including Blue Origin. A bid protest by Blue Origin, founded by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, is scheduled to be decided by the Government Accountability Office by Dec. 12.

 

Houston-area members of Congress successfully intervened to delay NASA's consolidation of heat shield testing in California for at least 15 months.

 

NASA had "unduly fast tracked" a 2011 decision to move the Arc-Jet facility to the Ames Research Laboratory in Silicon Valley, Calif., insisted Rep. Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land, whose congressional district then included JSC. The agency had "overlooked safety and mission concerns, cost issues and program testing needs" that justified maintaining two heat-shield testing facilities, Olson said.

 

New approaches

 

NASA operations in Houston alone employ 3,200 NASA civil servants and 11,000 NASA contractors, pumping an estimated $4.5 billion a year into the local economy in payrolls and contracts.

 

The perennial roadblocks are leading some members of Congress to pursue far more comprehensive approaches to cut surplus facilities operated by NASA and other civilian federal agencies.

 

Second-term Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Calif., has reintroduced legislation that cleared the House last year to create a nine-member civilian property realignment commission that would pare down some of the 361,318 buildings and 44 million acres of property owned by civilian federal agencies, including NASA. Annual operation of underutilized federally owned buildings alone costs taxpayers an estimated $1.7 billion a year, according to Congress' watchdog Government Accountability Office.

 

The measure would "take politics out of the process" by limiting congressional action to a single up or down vote on commission recommendations - a feature modeled after the five rounds of the Pentagon's Base Realignment and Closure Commission, Denham says.

 

Soyuz lands in Kazakhstan; crew in good spirits; commander waves Olympic torch

 

William Harwood - CBS News

 

Three station fliers strapped into their Soyuz TMA-09M ferry craft, undocked from the International Space Station and plunged back to Earth Sunday, settling to a jarring rocket-assisted landing on the frigid steppe of Kazakhstan to close out a 166-day stay in space.

 

Packed safely away in the Soyuz spacecraft was an Olympic torch that was launched last Wednesday with another three-person crew and carried outside the station Saturday for a dramatic spacewalk photo op. Olympic organizers plan to use the torch in the opening ceremonies of the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

 

Within minutes of touchdown, Russian recovery crews converged on the spacecraft to help the returning station crew out of the cramped descent module for initial medical checks and satellite phone calls to friends and family back home. The Olympic torch also was pulled from the capsule and shown on live television from the landing site.

 

The Soyuz descent module ended up on its side, but commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, European Space Agency flight engineer Luca Parmitano and NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg appeared in good health as they relaxed in nearby recliners, covered by blankets to ward off sub-freezing temperatures.

 

Yurchikhin held the Olympic torch throughout the initial recovery operation, posing for photographers and carefully waving it about.

 

The trip home began at 6:26 p.m. EST (GMT-5) when the Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft undocked from the aft port of the space station's Zvezda command module. Yurchikhin  monitored the undocking from the cockpit's center seat, flanked on the left by Parmitano and on the right by Nyberg.

 

"We are feeling the separation," Yurchikhin radioed as springs in the docking mechanism pushed the Soyuz away.

 

"Have a good flight," someone called.

 

"Thank you, thank you all."

 

After moving about 12 miles away from the lab complex, Yurchikhin monitored an automated four-minute 45-second rocket firing starting at 8:55 p.m., slowing the craft by about 286 mph, just enough to drop the far side of its orbit deep into the atmosphere.

 

About three minutes before atmospheric entry at 9:26 p.m., the three modules making up the Soyuz spacecraft separated with the central crew module lining up heat shield first as the crew prepared for the most dynamic phases of re-entry.

 

The descent module's braking parachutes deployed at an altitude of about six-and-a-half miles, 14 minutes or so before a jarring rocket-assisted touchdown at 9:49 p.m. to close out a flight spanning 2,656 orbits and 70.3 million miles since launch on May 28.

 

Asked what he was looking forward to the most with his return to Earth, Parmitano, a father of two young girls making his first flight, told reporters Friday his priorities included "family, then espresso, pizza and everything else."

 

"Even though I'm ready to come back and it's great to think about seeing my family again and feeling the warmth of people and human contact, I think I will very much miss this environment," he said during an orbital news conference. "It's hard to identify one thing. I will miss everything, really, because station was my home for the past six months (and) there's never a time to get bored. And the most beautiful view you can think of.

 

"What I'm going to miss about everything is the idea of being here, living weightless in this extraordinary world. The view, obviously, is something that I will always bring with me. The physical sensation of being weightless is something I think I will miss immediately."

 

Nyberg, a shuttle veteran, said she was looking forward to a "wild ride" home aboard the Soyuz.

 

"More than anything, of course, I'm looking forward to seeing my husband and my son," she said.

 

About 90 minutes after landing, after more detailed medical checks in an inflatable tent, Yurchikhin, Parmitano and Nyberg were to be flown by helicopter to Karaganda, about 236 miles from the landing site, for a brief welcome home ceremony. From there, Nyberg and Parmitano planned to fly back to Houston aboard a NASA jet while Yurchikhin headed back to Star City near Moscow aboard a Russian aircraft.

 

With the completion of the Soyuz TMA-09M mission, Yurchikhin's time in space stands at 537 days over four missions while Nyberg's two-flight total comes to 180 days.

 

Left behind in orbit were Soyuz TMA-10M commander Oleg Kotov, flight engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy and Michael Hopkins, along with Soyuz TMA-11M commander Mikhail Tyurin, flight engineer Rick Mastracchio and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata.

 

Tyurin's Soyuz TMA-11M crew was launched last Wednesday, ahead of schedule, in order to get the Olympic torch up to the space station for a spacewalk photo op and a quick return to Earth with Yurchikhin's crew. Kotov and Ryazanskiy took the torch outside Saturday and posed for publicity shots, staging a symbolic torch relay, before bringing it back inside.

 

The torch now will be turned over to Olympic organizers who say it will be used to light the Olympic flame during opening ceremonies in February.

 

A few hours before Yurchikhin's crew departed, the combined nine-member crew held a change-of-command ceremony, with Yurchikhin, commander of Expedition 37, handing the station over to Kotov, who now leads Expedition 38, which is made up of the Soyuz TMA-10M and TMA-11M crews.

 

"It's a great day for us because we have the road to home," Yurchikhin said, speaking in English. "But each day, maybe each night, we will have a dream to return here again, to see our guys, our friends. ... We know the station is now in great, strong hands, and very smart, very international."

 

For his part, Kotov thanked flight controllers around the world for their support and reported the "station is in really good shape and everything is just awesome."

 

"I'm really glad to assume command of the station and looking forward to working with you ... and all MCCs (mission control centers)," he said. "Thank you for your support, and Expedition 38 now (is) on the station."

 

This was only the third time in station history that the lab has hosted nine crew members in the absence of a space shuttle.

 

Olympic torch returns home from space station

 

Jim Heintz - Associated Press

 

A Russian space capsule carrying the Sochi Olympic torch and three astronauts returned to Earth on Monday from the International Space Station in a flawless landing on the steppes of Kazakhstan.

 

The Soyuz capsule landed at 8:49 local time (0249 GMT), about three and a half hours after undocking from the station with Russian Fyodor Yurchikhin, American Karen Nyberg and Luca Parmitano of Italy aboard.

 

The unlit Olympic torch was brought to the ISS on Thursday when three new crew members arrived. Two Russian crew members took it on a spacewalk Saturday.

 

The capsule descended through brilliantly clear skies under a parachute.

 

Yurchikhin, the mission commander, was extracted from the capsule within about 10 minutes of touchdown and carried to a reclining chair, where he was put under a blanket against the minus-4 (25 F) chill and began adjusting to the pull of gravity after 166 days of weightlessness.

 

The torch, in a protective bag, was brought out and given to Yurchikhin to hold after it was unwrapped. He waved it a little and smiled.

 

Nyberg was quickly given dark glasses to protect her eyes against the intense sunlight. Parmitano, the last out, appeared thrilled, grinning broadly and pumping his fists.

 

All three were to be taken for tests at a medical tent at the landing site, then flown to the city of Karaganda for a welcome ceremony.

 

Six people remain aboard the space station: Russians Oleg Kotov, Sergei Ryazansky and Mikhail Tyurin; NASA's Michael Hopkins and Rick Mastracchio; and Koichi Wakata of Japan.

 

Olympics-International space crew return Olympic torch to Earth

 

Shamil Zhumatov - Reuters

 

A Russian spacecraft brought three astronauts and the Olympic torch back to Earth on Monday after the torch was taken on its first spacewalk in the run-up to the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi.

 

Russia's Fyodor Yurchikhin beamed as he held up the silver-and-grey torch alongside American Karen Nyberg and Italian Luca Parmitano on the Kazakh steppe after returning from the International Space Station after a 166-day mission.

 

Slowed by parachutes and braking rockets fired to soften the impact, their Soyuz TMA-09M capsule landed on schedule at 8:49 a.m. (0249 GMT) after a three-and-half-hour descent.

 

"The Olympic torch is home after a four-day journey," a NASA TV announcer said after the flawless descent through a cloudless sky and a "bulls-eye touchdown" in the tall tawny brush of central Kazakhstan, near the remote town of Zhezkazgan.

 

President Vladimir Putin, who has been in power since 2000, has staked his reputation on a successful Olympics. His image abroad has been damaged by what critics say is a clampdown on dissent, and a law banning homosexual "propaganda" among minors.

 

The torch was unlit throughout the space voyage, for safety reasons. That also precluded the possibility that the flame could fail - a problem that has occurred dozens of times, including an incident captured live on national television in which the torch went out in the Kremlin minutes after Putin presided over the start of the relay.

 

Cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazansky took it with them on a spacewalk on Saturday, posing outside the orbiting station with the first Olympic torch taken into the vacuum of space.

 

After their return to Earth, Yurchikhin, Nyberg and Parmitano were pulled through the hatch of the cramped capsule, carried to chairs and covered with thick blankets against the minus 4 Centigrade (25 Fahrenheit) cold outside.

 

The torch was then handed to a Sochi 2014 official and flown by helicopter - separately from the three space travelers - to the provincial capital Karaganda.

 

Record-breaking relay

 

The torch taken on the spacewalk will be used to light the flame at the Olympics in February in Sochi, a Russian resort city on the Black Sea. The torch was taken into space in 1996 and 2000 but had not previously been outside the space station.

 

In Karaganda, Yurchikhin, Nyberg and Parmitano were given traditional Kazakh robes and chocolates with their pictures on the boxes. Nyberg felt unwell and skipped a news conference.

 

"Space is a serious thing," Yurchikhin said. "It affects different bodies and different people in different ways."

 

Russia cast the spacewalk as part of its pre-Sochi torch relay, a record-breaking trek meant to show off the country's size, diversity and post-Soviet achievements, but the 65,000 km (40,000 mile) relay continued separately on the ground.

 

Since Putin held a torch aloft in Red Square on Oct. 6, bearers have taken the Olympic flame to the North Pole and will bring it to Europe's highest peak, Mount Elbrus, in the longest torch relay before any Winter Games.

 

The torch was taken on Thursday to the space station, a $100 billion project of 15 nations, by Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, American Rick Mastracchio and Russian Mikhail Tyurin.

 

Torches have been brought on space missions before the 1996 and 2000 Games, but had never been taken out into space.

 

The returning crew also brought back a piece of a spacesuit worn by Parmitano that may have been responsible for a leak that caused his helmet to fill with water, forcing an emergency end to NASA's last spacewalk on July 16.

 

The torch display was a success, but other tasks on the nearly six-hour spacewalk on Saturday did not go as well.

 

The cosmonauts were unable to fold up an antenna from an experiment involving predicting seismic events such as earthquakes, or to reposition a platform designed to anchor astronauts' legs when they work outside the station.

 

 

Soyuz TMA-09M Descends Safety into Kazakhstan with Three Space Station Crew Members

 

Mark Carreau - Aviation Week

 

Russian, U. S. and European astronauts, strapped in the Soyuz TMA-09M crew transport, departed the International Space Station late Sunday and descended safely to Earth, landing under parachute in southern Kazakhstan after 5 1/2 months in orbit.

 

Cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, NASA's Karen Nyberg and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano were greeted within minutes of their touchdown at 9:49 p.m., EST, or Monday at 8:49 a.m., local time, by Russian helicopter borne recovery personnel.

 

"It was a flawless descent for the Soyuz and its three crew members," said NASA spokesman Rob Navias, from NASA's Mission Control Center, where the landing operations were monitored.

 

Yurchikhin, Nyberg and Parmitano appeared weary but in otherwise good shape as they were assisted from their capsule for a round of medical checks. The Soyuz crew also returned with a symbolic Olympic torch, which was displayed outside the ISS during a spacewalk by cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy on Saturday.

 

The Soyuz crew was to be flown by helicopter to Karaganda, Kazakhstan for a brief welcoming ceremony. Nyberg and Parmitano were to board a NASA jet for Houston, Tex., and NASA's Johnson Space Center. Yurchikhin was to fly on to Star City, Russia to rejoin his family.

 

The torch will continue on to Moscow then Sochi, Russia, where it will be used to ignite the Olympic flame at the start of the 2014 Winter Games on Feb. 7.

 

The torch arrived early last Thursday with the Soyuz TMA-11M crew that included Russian Mikhail Tyurin, NASA's Rick Mastracchio and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata. They are starting a six month tour of duty on the ISS.

 

The returning ISS astronauts also departed with components from the NASA space suit worn by Parmitano on July 16 that leaked 1 to 1 1/2 liters of water into his helmet. The fan pump separator and contaminants removed from the garment's life support system assembly on Oct. 24 will be examined by NASA engineers who hope to soon reach a conclusion on the cause of the leak, contributing factors and a recovery strategy.

 

U. S. spacewalks were suspended after the incident in which water leaked into an air vent in the helmet at the back of Parmitano's head. The water flowed over his communications cap to gather around Parmitano's eyes, ears and nose, as the former Italian Air Force test pilot made his way to the safety of the station's U. S. airlock.

 

With the departure of the TMA-09M crew on Sunday at 6:29 p.m., EST, command of the space station transferred from Yurchikhin to fellow cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, who will lead Expedition 38. The capsule's re-entry burn followed at 8:55 p.m., EST.

 

Sunday's ISS departure also marked a return of the ISS to six crew operations. The population of the orbital outpost grew to nine temporarily on Thursday with the arrival of the TMA-11M fliers.

 

Olympic Torch Back on Earth After Space Odyssey

 

Moscow Times

 

A Soyuz TMA-09M capsule brought three crew-members and the Sochi-2014 Winter Olympics torch back to Earth on Monday, after a four-day showcasing of the torch at the International Space Station.

 

The capsule landed in the Kazakh Steppe, slowed by parachutes and braking rockets, and all the space travelers were feeling well on landing, a mission control spokesman said, Itar-Tass reported.

 

Russian personnel pulled cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin from the capsule, carried him to a folding chair, and handed him the torch from the Soyuz so that he could hold it aloft for the cameras, Reuters reported.

 

The torch had remained unlit throughout its space journey.

 

U.S. astronaut Karen Nyberg and Italian Luca Parmitano from the European Space Agency were lifted from the capsule before all three were taken to a heated tent. The temperature outside was minus 4 degrees Celsius.

 

The torch traveled to the International Space Station on Thursday, carried by cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, U.S. astronaut Richard Mastracchio and their Japanese colleague Koichi Wakata aboard another Soyuz ship.

 

Cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazansky took the torch on a spacewalk on Saturday, the first time an Olympic torch has been in open space. Torches were brought on space missions before the 1996 and 2000 Games.

 

Dmitry Chernyshenko, head of the Sochi 2014 organizing committee, has said that the torch taken to the International Space Station will be used to light the Olympic cauldron in Sochi on the opening day of the Games in February.

 

Space Station Crew Returns with Olympic Torch

 

Agence France Presse

 

Two astronauts and a cosmonaut returned to Earth on Monday after a 166-day mission, bringing the Olympic torch back from the International Space Station after a historic spacewalk.

 

The trip completed the most ambitious leg of Russia's unparalleled torch relay in the run-up to the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi in February.

 

The Soyuz capsule carrying Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg and Italian colleague Luca Parmitano touched down on the frosty steppes of Kazakhstan at 0249 GMT.

 

The torch, kept unlit throughout its space journey due to safety precautions on the space station, was securely wrapped during the descent, and an employee of Russia's space agency Roscosmos took it out of the packaging.

 

"Here's the torch!" he said, presenting it to the cameras before handing it to veteran space traveler and Soyuz captain Yurchikhin, who sat smiling wrapped up in a blue blanket near the Soyuz.

 

Yurchikhin took off his gloves and posed for pictures with the 1.8-kilogram (4 lb) and nearly meter-long torch.

 

After a few minutes, Nyberg and Parmitano, who had completed his first space voyage, were also extricated from the craft, which had landed on its side -- something that frequently happens due to the drag of the parachute.

 

The trio sat briefly in the sunshine surrounded by support staff as well as the flags of Russia and the Sochi Olympic Games before being carried to a heated medical tent to change out of their launch suits and undergo initial medical tests.

 

The capsule completed a "flawless descent" and touched down exactly on time in a "bulls-eye landing," a NASA TV commentator said.

 

"The crew is feeling well," Roscosmos said in a statement.

 

Space station crew returns to Earth toting Olympic torch and toy dinosaur

 

Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com

 

Three crew members, a Russian, an American and a European, returned to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) Sunday night (Nov. 10), accompanied by a toy dinosaur created in space and the Olympic torch that will begin the 2014 Winter Games.

 

Roscosmos cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, Karen Nyberg of NASA and the European Space Agency's (ESA) Luca Parmitano landed aboard the Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft in the steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of Dzhezkazgan, at 8:49 p.m. CST (1449 GMT or 8:49 a.m. local time, Nov. 11).

 

The parachute- and retro-thruster-assisted "soft landing," which ended with the capsule lying on its side, was met by Russian recovery forces and NASA teams to attend to the crew.

 

Yurchikhin, Nyberg and Parmitano departed their home of five and a half months in space at 5:26 p.m. CST (2326 GMT), leaving six crew members to continue staffing the space station. Their Soyuz undocking from the aft end of the Zvezda service module marked an official end of the station's Expedition 37 and beginning of Expedition 38.

 

The Soyuz TMA-09M crew spent 166 days in orbit, having launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on May 28. The trio first served as flight engineers on the Expedition 36 crew before transitioning to Expedition 37 in September with Yurchikhin in command.

 

Returning with them from space was the torch that will be used to light the Olympic flame at the opening ceremonies of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia.

 

The icon of the international sports competition arrived at the orbital complex four days earlier with the Soyuz TMA-11M crew. Their docking on Thursday (Nov. 7) marked the first time since October 2009 that nine people had served aboard the space station without the presence of a space shuttle.

 

Cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, who now commands the station's Expedition 38 crew, together with flight engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy carried the unlit torch out on a spacewalk on Saturday (Nov. 9), extending into orbit the traditional torch relay, which is now underway in Russia.

 

n addition to the Olympic torch and former space station residents, the Soyuz TMA-09M "passenger list" included a small green dinosaur born in space.

 

Nyberg, a self-described crafter, fabricated the stuffed toy dino for her 3-year-old son Jack using a velcro-like fabric that she scavenged from Russian space food containers. Although dolls have been sent into orbit before, the hand-sewn dinosaur is believed to be the first stuffed toy made in space.

 

Nyberg also stitched a small Texas flag for her astronaut-husband Doug Hurley and sewed a star-theme quilt block, which she said she was bringing back to Earth to combine with other quilters' starry squares to celebrate her flight.

 

This was Nyberg's second trip into space. She now has a career total 180 days off the planet.

 

Parmitano completed his first mission. An astronaut with the European Space Agency, he flew to the space station under an agreement between NASA and the Italian Space Agency (ASI). During his stay on orbit, Parmitano became the first Italian to walk in space.

 

Yurchikhin is now a veteran of four spaceflights, bringing his total time to 537 days. He now ranks 12th in the world for the most time in orbit.

 

Flying together, the TMA-09M crewmates traveled a total of 70.3 million miles circling the Earth 2,656 times.

 

The trio spent hundreds of hours conducting fundamental research in areas such as biology, life sciences, physical sciences, Earth sciences, astrophysics and technological research.

 

The studied how plants grow in space, which may lead to more efficient crops on Earth and improve understanding of how future crews could grow their own food in space. They tested a new portable gas monitor designed to help analyze the environment inside the station and continued fuel and combustion experiments initiated by past crews.

 

They also collected data and samples that will be used to help scientists understand ocular health issues of station residents and understand changes to body measurements during spaceflight.

 

With their shared mission over, Nyberg and Parmitano will be flown to the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, while Yurchikhin returns to Star City, outside of Moscow, for rehabilitation.

 

Olympic torch taken on first spacewalk

 

Associated Press

 

An Olympic torch took a spacewalk for the first time Saturday, carefully held by two Russian cosmonauts outside the International Space Station as it orbited some 260 miles above Earth.

 

Video streamed by NASA showed Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazanskiy carrying the unlit torch of the Sochi games, which bobbed weightlessly at the end of a tether in a darkness dotted by stars.

 

The two gingerly maneuvered to take photos of the torch against the background of the planet, the orb's edge glowing with sunrise.

 

They then returned it to the space station before continuing with other tasks on a spacewalk that was to last about six hours, including attaching a footrest and a camera platform to the exterior of the orbiting laboratory.

 

The torch was launched into space from the Russian-operated Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Thursday morning. It will return to Earth with a three-man crew on Monday.

 

The torch will not burn aboard the space outpost because lighting it would consume precious oxygen and pose a threat to the crew.

 

The Olympic torch was taken aboard the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis in 1996 for the Atlanta Summer Olympics, but this is the first it time it has been taken outside a spacecraft.

 

The Sochi Olympic flame started its relay on Oct. 7, four months ahead of the Winter Games, and it is to cover some 65,000 kilometers (39,000 miles). Most of the time the flame will be safely encased in a lantern.

 

On Saturday, the flame was somewhere nearly as cold and remote as the torch's temporary residence in outer space - the Siberian city of Yakutsk.

 

Spacewalking cosmonauts exchange Olympic torch, wrestle with external hardware

 

Mark Carreau - Aviation Week

 

Spacewalking cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy carried out the first Olympic torch exchange in the vacuum of space Saturday. The ceremonial gesture outside the International Space Station kicked off a near six hour spacewalk devoted primarily to the outfitting of an external work station on the orbiting lab's Russian segment.

 

The ceremonial activities went well, but other tasks proved problematic and went unfinished.

 

Installation of the work station began with a late August spacewalk. On Saturday, the spacewalkers added handrails and a camera mount on the platform outside the Zvezda service module. The installation of high resolution optical cameras on the platform is scheduled for a December excursion by Kotov and cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin.

 

The outfitting of the camera mount required the removal of a restraint used to secure the multi-axis pointing mechanism as it was launched. The last of three bolts holding the restraint offered unexpected resistance but finally yielded to the spacewalkers.

 

The two men labored to position the foot restraint and were ultimately instructed by Russia's Mission Control to return the spacewalking aid to the Pirs airlock for installation on a future spacewalk.

 

Kotov and Ryazanskiy also attempted to deactivate an external radiometric antenna, the RK-21, installed outside the station in 2011 to remotely monitor seismic activities on the Earth for the forecasting of earthquakes. When they encountered a balky latch that prevented them from folding up the antenna, Russian controllers told them to re-deploy the device so it can be retracted on another outing. The spacewalkers, however, managed to disconnect and stow utility cables associated with the antenna.

 

The photo session with the unlit torch consumed just over two hours of Saturday's excursion, which got under way at 9:34 a.m., EST. Kotov and Ryazanskiy characterized the ceremonial exchange as a symbol of cooperation, friendship and competition as they sailed 258 miles over the Atlantic Ocean toward the coast of Africa. The ISS major partners include Canada, Japan and the European Space Agency as well as the United States and Russia -- or 15 countries in all, and all of them Olympic competitors.

 

"Do not be in a hurry. Take your time," Russia's Mission Control coached the spacewalkers as they began the elaborately choreographed Olympic activities. It was a request flight controllers would repeat throughout the spacewalk as Kotov and Ryazanskiy worked to overcome the obstacles.

 

The torch, which reached the ISS early Thursday aboard the Soyuz TMA-11M capsule with Tyurin, Rick Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata, is to return to Earth late Sunday aboard the Soyuz TMA-09M crew transport with Fyodor Yurchikhin, Karen Nyberg and Luca Parmitano. The Russian, U. S. and European trio is ending a 5 1/2 month tour of duty aboard the orbiting science lab with a descent into Kazakhstan.

 

The space torch will then make its way to Sochi for the Feb. 7 opening of the Russian hosted Winter Games. It will be used to light the Olympic flame, concluding a long journey for a collection of Olympic torches that began in Olympia, Greece.

 

With the departure of Yurchikhin, Nyberg and Parmitano, ISS staffing will return to its normal six personnel. Command will transfer from Yurchikhin to Kotov as well for Expedition 38.

 

Olympic torch goes on first spacewalk

 

Alex Macon - Galveston County Daily News

 

The Olympic torch relay for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, took an out-of-this-world detour Saturday.

 

The torch, which was launched to the International Space Station on Thursday, was taken on its first spacewalk by Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazanskiy early Saturday morning.

 

The torch remained unlit to preserve oxygen on the space station and prevent any fire threat to the crew.

 

Video broadcast on NASA TV showed Kotov and Ryazanskiy carrying the torch through a hatch and into space. Tied to a line attached to the station, the torch floated weightlessly as the orbiting laboratory passed over Earth.

 

Kotov and Ryazanskiy performed maintenance work to the station's exterior during the five-hour-plus spacewalk.

 

The astronauts and cosmonauts currently on board the station are from the U.S., Italy, Japan and Russia. When the torch arrived at the orbiting laboratory on Thursday, the nine crew members on the station each got to hold the Olympic symbol in zero gravity.

 

The Russian cosmonauts on the station got to take the torch on its historic spacewalk, but the spirit of international cooperation embodied by the Olympics is on fully display at the International Space Station, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata said in a crew news conference Friday.

 

"Space exploration is very similar," he said.

 

 

U.S. astronaut Karen Nyberg, the European Space Agency's Luca Parmitano and cosmonaut Yurchikhin will bring the Olympic torch back to earth tonight when the crew members are set to depart the station on a Soyuz space capsule.

 

The torch still has a long way to go before it is delivered to Sochi for the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony on Feb. 7. It is on the longest relay in the history of the Games, crossing all across Russia along with the brief journey into space.

 

In 1996, the torch took a ride on the Atlantis space shuttle for the Atlanta Summer Olympics. However, Saturday's spacewalk marked the first time the torch left the environs of a spacecraft.

 

Cosmonauts wore special space patch for Olympic torch spacewalk

 

Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com

 

 

The two cosmonauts who took an Olympic torch on a spacewalk outside of the International Space Station Saturday (Nov. 9) carried out the symbolic relay wearing a surprise space mission patch depicting the icon of the 2014 Winter Games.

 

Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy with Russia's federal space agency Roscosmos each donned Orlan spacesuits adorned with the previously unseen embroidered emblem, which, like the Olympic Games, came as the result of an international effort.

 

"The patch is done in bold colors and in a bit of a 'comic book' style," wrote Dutch artist Luc van den Abeelen, who designed the patch together with space patch enthusiast Jacques van Oene, in an e-mail to collectSPACE.com. "It shows a cosmonaut on a spacewalk in heavy perspective, with the Olympic torch prominently sticking out toward the viewer."

 

The orbital Olympic torch relay served as an extension of the traditional Olympic flame relay now a month underway in Russia. Kotov and Ryazanskiy took turns posing with the unlit torch, which will be returned to Earth on Sunday night (Nov. 10) to be used during the opening ceremonies for the 22nd Winter Games on Feb. 7 in Sochi, Russia.

 

According to van den Abeelen, he designed the spacewalk patch to include a simplified depiction of the space station and nine stars for the nine Expedition 37 crew members who were at the orbiting outpost at the time of the time of the extravehicular activity. Included in that count were the two spacewalkers, the three flight engineers who launched with the torch Wednesday (Nov. 6) and the three departing crewmates who will land with the torch on Sunday night.

 

"The stars are shaped like snow crystals — a reference to the Winter Olympics," van den Abeelen added.

 

As for the red and silver torch, the insignia represents the Olympic flame with a celestial object.

 

"The Sochi 2014 torch is topped by a flame shaped like a comet, for ISON (C/2012 S1)," van den Abeelen said. The sun-grazing comet was at one time predicted to be one of the brightest ever seen, "though it now seems this will not look as spectacular as depicted in the patch," he said.

 

As the torch is an official symbol of the Olympic Games, the patch needed the approval of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Organizing Committee before it could be cleared to fly.

 

"I also sketched a version [of the emblem] with a classic Greek torch, but in the end, Roscosmos got the okay from the Russian Olympic Committee for using the Sochi torch in the design," van den Abeelen wrote.

 

As it happened, another surprise patch featuring the torch was also launched to the station, though in a less official capacity.

 

Artist Blake Dumesnil collaborated with NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins and Rick Mastracchio to create a patch commemorating the brief period when the torch — and its nine supporting crew members — were at the orbiting lab. The "Expedition 37.5" emblem, which Dumesnil described as "official unofficial," was not worn during the outer space torch relay but was hung inside the space station, affixed above a hatchway.

 

"It's not an official [patch], but more an acknowledgement of a unique handover between crews," Dumesnil described on Facebook.

 

The Sochi 2014 torch is the third Olympic torch to fly in space. Space shuttle missions in 1996 and 2000 also took unlit torches to space, although they remained inside their spacecraft for the entire flight. The Sochi 2014 torch was the first to be taken outside on a spacewalk.

 

Russian Cosmonauts Occasionally Infect the ISS with Malware

 

Connor Simpson - The Atlantic

 

Russian security expert Eugene Kaspersky says the International Space Station was infected by malware installed through a USB stick carried on board by a Russian cosmonaut.

 

Speaking to reporters at a National Press Club event in Canberra, Australia, last week, Kaspersky also said the infamous Stuxnet virus infected a nuclear power plant in Russia and "badly damaged" their internal infrastructure. Kaspersky refused to provide details or elaborate on how badly the virus affected ISS operations or how engineering crews cleaned up the mess left behind. Space can be scary enough when the system protecting you isn't infected with malware. This situation was probably even worse.

 

"The space guys from time-to-time are coming with USBs, which are infected. I'm not kidding. I was talking to Russian space guys and they said, 'yeah, from time-to-time there are viruses on the space station,'" Kaspersky told reporters in Australia.

 

Stuxnet was allegedly jointly created by U.S. and Israeli military forces to seriously damage Iran's nuclear program. (Coincidentally, that relationship is very complicated right now.) Stuxnet became public knowledge after it malfunctioned — or worked a little too well — and infected millions of computers worldwide.

 

An interesting thing to note about the Russian cases is how neither system was connected to the internet when the infections occurred, suggesting the viruses were deliberately planted by a foreign agent. Normally systems disconnected from the Internet's wild west are considered secure since a hacker would need direct, physical access to the system in order to install a virus. (Or they would need to trick someone with access into doing it for them.) Stuxnet was meant for a specific target, but once it spread across the world, the code was available for anyone — including malicious independent hackers or cyber terrorists — to manipulate at will. It could have been anyone who attacked the Russian systems.

 

Kaspersky has warned of the repercussions for releasing Stuxnet into the wild. "What goes around comes around," he said. "Everything you do will boomerang." He again stated that no one is safe now that the virus is widely available. Anyone can become infected, including Stuxnet's creators; a concern that has existed since its origin story was first reported. "There are no borders," in cyberspace, Kaspersky said. Clearly there are no borders in space, either.

 

SLS Budget 'Reasonable,' ATK Boss Assures Investors

 

Dan Leone - Space News

 

NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) program appears to be in good shape both politically and financially, ATK Chief Executive Officer Mark DeYoung told investors and analysts on a Nov. 7 earnings call.

 

"The SLS program is very well supported with bipartisan support and a reasonable budget level," he said. The Arlington, Va., company, whose Magna, Utah-based Aerospace Group saw year-to-year operating profits rise 9.4 percent to $40.6 million on nearly flat sales of $319 million for the three-month period ended Sept. 29, is the prime contractor for the heavy-lift launcher's twin solid-rocket boosters.

 

NASA spent $1.4 billion of its $1.8 billion SLS budget for 2013 on vehicle development, down from the $1.5 billion it spent in 2012. A stopgap spending measure funding NASA and the rest of the federal government through Jan. 15 freezes programs at 2013 levels.

 

Meanwhile, ATK clinched a contract during the quarter to deliver large-diameter solid-rocket motors to Orbital Sciences Corp. for the air-launched vehicle the company is developing for Stratolaunch Systems Group of Huntsville, Ala. The value of this contract, which covers a small number of demonstration flights Stratolaunch hopes to conduct in 2018 and 2019, was not disclosed.

 

ATK also delivered the two-piece backplane for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville in September for thermal vacuum testing.

 

ATK's overall quarterly operating profit rose about 34 percent to about $148 million on sales of $1.14 billion as a booming Sports Group, which includes the company's small arms and ammunition business, offset declines at the Defense Group, whose sales were down 9 percent to $472 million despite improved missile-related sales.

 

Lockheed Tests Orion Protective Fairing Panels

 

Space News

 

Testing at Lockheed Martin's Sunnyvale, Calif., facility showed that NASA's Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle will be able to successfully jettison its protective fairing panels when it launches unmanned next September atop a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket, Orion prime contractor Lockheed Martin Space Systems announced Nov 7.

 

A series of precisely timed explosive charges and mechanisms performed as intended, separating all three protective panels at the expected velocity and trajectory. In a similar test Lockheed Martin conducted in June, all pyrotechnic mechanisms and bolts separated as planned, but one of the three protective panels did not fully detach.

 

In the latest test, the second of three Lockheed Martin plans to conduct to provide Orion's fairing design, engineers used strip heaters to heat one of the fairings to 93 degrees Celsius, simulating the temperature the spacecraft will experience during its climb to orbit.

 

"This successful test provides the Orion team with the needed data to certify this new fairing design for Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) next year. The test also provides significant risk reduction for the fairing separation on future Orion manned missions," said Lance Lininger, engineering lead for Lockheed Martin's Orion mechanism systems.

 

Orion's fairings are designed to support half the weight of the spacecraft and the launch abort system during launch and ascent. Lockheed said the novel fairing design "improves performance, saves mass, and maximizes the size and capability of the spacecraft."

 

NASA's biggest astronaut:

Robonaut to take giant leap into space with new legs

 

Gina Sunseri - ABC News

 

Think of Robonaut as the strong, silent type.

 

He wasn't programmed to talk but he's diligently working his sign language. He offered on Twitter to play the role of George Clooney's sidekick if there is a "Gravity" prequel. And his tweets show a sense of humor -- in one he told the Mars Curiosity rover that he wasn't into long-distance relationships.

 

Robonaut is poised to take on a bigger role on the International Space Station when he gets legs early next year. ABC News got a sneak preview of Robonaut with his legs, and he is a big guy. He is now eight feet tall and weighs about 500 pounds.

 

Astronaut Cady Coleman unpacked Robonaut when he arrived onboard the ISS in 2011. Engineers at NASA jokingly call her Robonaut's big sister. But what arrived then was a torso with a head and arms. Coleman said she's now excited about the expanded potential of robots in orbit.

 

"There is no question in my mind that bringing robots outside and having them do spacewalks would be a great use of robots in space. A spacewalk takes a lot of consumables, we breathe, we have to check out the spacesuits," Coleman told ABC News. "We have to be triple sure that everything is right because we don't want to lose anyone on a spacewalk."

 

Robonaut's legs will allow him to move around the space station by himself, but Coleman said his size does concern astronauts.

 

"When he is floating free around the cabin, what if someone kicks him? That is still several hundred pounds, kaboom, slamming into some experiment, some person, some piece of the space station," she explained. "That is dangerous, so we need Robonaut to move around safely by himself, so he can work by himself."

 

Rob Ambrose heads the robotics program at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. He envisions just this scenario for Robonaut -- a member of the crew who can hold his breath indefinitely outside.

 

"It can go outside for a long time, and even stay outside. If we asked that crew member to stay outside for a couple of weeks that is not an option for a human, but totally reasonable for the robot," Ambrose told ABC News.

 

But don't expect Robonaut to be walking on the moon anytime soon. NASA moves slowly with new technology. Robonaut is a 50-year project and designers are 17 years into Robonaut's development. When his legs arrive and are attached, he won't immediately leap into action. The crew will follow a careful process of attaching them and testing them before Robonaut starts moving around the space station.

 

What will Robonaut do with his new legs? Like a toddler taking his first steps, Coleman said Robonaut will need to learn how to move first. "His legs are going to be really, really long. He has to be able to stretch through the hatches on the space station between modules," she said. "He is going to walk more like an antelope than take little steps."

 

Robonaut won't be the only bot in space. He has a little friend, the Japanese robot Kirobo, which will be springing into action more often now that Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata has arrived at the ISS. Kirobo is chatty compared to Robonaut, saying things like "Good morning to everyone on Earth."

 

A chatty robot has a place in space, said Coleman. "Our job is to figure out how to interact with robots to get the most out of them," she explained. "I tend to think you are going to do that if you like them. ... I think it is better to get inside its head and give it a little personality."

 

But that might not be Robonaut's future if Ambrose has his way. Ambrose said he hopes robots of the future won't be a smarty-pants like Star Trek's Commander Data.

 

"The first science fiction movie I really remember was 'Silent Running,'" he said. "It was about a set of robots that helped tend gardens in space and they had a little personality -- Huey and Dewey."

 

Houston Technology Center Seeks Talent At Johnson Space Center

 

Florian Martin - KUHF Radio (Houston)

 

The end of the Space Shuttle program is two years past. But many of those who lost their jobs because of it are still looking for something new. The Houston Technology Center last year opened a branch at the Johnson Space Center to lead prospective new entrepreneurs to success.

 

Since 1999, the Houston Technology Center in Midtown has helped Houstonians start businesses. The nonprofit organization's president Walter Ullrich explains the basic requirements for those wanting to take advantage of HTC's services.

 

"They gotta have a great idea, you bet, and it has to be in one of the areas of Houston's strengths. Energy; life-science; information technology; nanotechnology; and aerospace."

 

If you think about it, those are exactly the kinds of skill sets found at NASA and the aerospace industry in around the Johnson Space Center.

 

Tim Budzik is the managing director of the organization's JSC campus.

 

"The benefit of what we're doing in here is, we have access to utilizing the facilities at JSC. We have access to the scientists and the technologies as well as the knowledge reservoir that this represents to help solve some of the difficult problems that are out there."

 

So how does it work? Clients come to HTC with their idea and at least a business plan. Some of the organization's 250 volunteers then help them fill in some of the details of the plan.

 

"We'll work with them to get the entity formed, kind of start working with them on a business strategy. Where do you want to be in five years? Do you want this to be big or large. We don't really assess the technology as to whether or not there's a value, but we leave them to convince us that there's a market to that technology."

 

Then, when they decide the client is ready and his or her company will drive a lot of business and create jobs in the community, the client is asked to present the idea in front of a committee of experts in the corresponding field.

 

Stevan Gilmore is a physician at the space center. Together with a partner, he wants to develop a system to transfer licenses and certifications doctors accumulate over the course of their careers electronically.

 

"A lot of the licenses you have have an expiration date on them, so you have to retake them and then many places, including the state medical board, require that you do a certain numbers of hours of training on an annual or every two-year basis, so you have to go out and get all that stuff as well and keep that organized so that you can show people that you're compliant with all the requirements."

 

Gilmore is part of HTC's incubation program. For him, the next step will be to move into the acceleration program where the organization will help him with the execution of his business model.

 

Although the Houston Technology Center also targets former NASA workers who are interested in starting their own businesses, Gilmore is lucky enough to still have his secure job at JSC.

 

That also means he has to work on his business in his free time.

 

Will China's space program surpass NASA in a decade?

 

Eric Berger - Houston Chronicle's SciGuy

 

To date China has flown just five human spaceflight missions. NASA has flown more than 150.

 

China has a single module in orbit. NASA has a huge, international space station.

 

China hopes to send its astronauts to the moon in 10 to 15 years. NASA's been there, done that.

 

Nevertheless, China's space program is in ascendance. And U.S. policy and space officials would do well to take notice, says Leroy Chiao, a former International Space Station commander:

 

"It really makes me cringe when you have people dismiss what they're doing by saying they're only doing what we did 50 years ago," Chiao said. "We can't go to the moon right now. We can't even launch our own astronauts right now. We do have plans, but everyone knows the budgets we have in this country don't support those spaceflight plans."

 

As I reported recently, some experts predict China will surpass what NASA is capable of doing in space during the next decade.

 

While this may sound ridiculous, consider the following plausible scenario:

 

·         To save $3 billion a year, or in the event of a serious structural issue, NASA decides not to extend the ISS past 2020

·         Due to cost overruns NASA's Space Launch System program is significantly delayed, or even canceled

·         China continues with its plans to construct a space station by 2020

 

Were this to happen where would SpaceX fly? Resupply missions to the Chinese space station?

 

The bottom line is that NASA has done, and is doing, a lot of great stuff. But this treasured national institution is in a more perilous position, financially and politically, than I think a lot of people realize.

 

We should not fear China's space ambitions, but we should respect them. And we should either take the political steps necessary to allow NASA to work together with China, or fund its activities such that we can compete with them a decade hence.

 

Sending Olympic Torch to Space, Russia Flaunts Inspiration Superiority

 

Leroy Chiao - Space.com (Opinion)

 

(Chiao is a former NASA astronaut and commander of the International Space Station. Chiao is the special adviser for human spaceflight to the Space Foundation, and holds appointments at Baylor College of Medicine and Rice University.)

 

Soyuz 11M roared into space just a few days ago, carrying the latest crew to the International Space Station. Normally, such an event doesn't rate mentions in the mainstream news media — but, this one got a few.

 

Why? The crew carried the Olympic torch with them, and the rocket was painted in a theme to commemorate the upcoming Sochi games. During the mission, two cosmonauts will take the torch out on a spacewalk, to further generate publicity for the games, and for human spaceflight.

 

The Russians have always been more advanced than we Americans in this area. They've had advertising placards in their mission control center — with many Western clients, by the way — and during space station Mir, they actually filmed a Pepsi commercial by having spacewalking cosmonauts inflate a large replica Pepsi can in space (the video turned out to be too grainy for use). In years past, Pizza Hut bought advertising space on the side of one of their rockets, as did a motion picture company (for an Arnold Schwarzenegger film). Isn't it interesting, that we are talking about American companies here, yet we Americans are not the ones soliciting the advertising?

 

Over the last month, the blockbuster films "Gravity " and "Ender's Game " have generated more popular interest in spaceflight than actual missions currently flying. There are many reasons for this, and Americans should not lament those reasons, but understand and embrace them, and create strategies to exploit them.

 

Strictly speaking, as part of the federal government, NASA is not allowed to advertise, but one wonders if the envelope could be stretched a bit. After all, the U.S. Military and the U.S. Postal Service are allowed to advertise. Surely, there would be some leeway and interpretation in the laws that could be tested?

 

But, NASA and entities that support space exploration could encourage commercial companies and others to advertise on space vehicles and missions. Could the up and coming commercial providers in the U.S. advertise on their rockets and spacecraft?

 

It is time to really think about ways to leverage the public's interest in space pop-culture, into support for actual space exploration. Who's got some good ideas?

 

END