| | JSC TODAY CATEGORIES - Headlines
- Required! IT Security Training Due July 15
- Orion Monthly Trivia
- Say Bon Voyage to FedTraveler - Organizations/Social
- JSC Joint Leadership Team Action Teams
- AIAA Houston Section Awards Dinner Meeting
- JSC Space Riders Photo at Space Center Houston
- Are You Searching for Senior Living Arrangements?
- Parenting Series - Summer Transition
- Men's Mental Health
- Parent's Night Out at Starport - June 20 |  |
| Headlines - Required! IT Security Training Due July 15
All personnel with access to NASA Information Technology (IT) systems must complete the annual Information Security Training Course titled: ITS-014-001 ANNUAL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SECURITY AND PRIVACY AWARENESS TRAINING. This training is mandatory and available in SATERN. If the course is not on your Learning Plan and you are unable to locate it under the Learning History section as being completed, contact the SATERN Help Desk at 1-877-677-2123. Please email JSC-ITSEC-TRAINING for further information. - Orion Monthly Trivia
It's trivia time! Answer the trivia question correctly about the Orion spacecraft and you are automatically entered into the drawing for a prize. The prize winner will be announced in the JSC Today on Tuesday, June 17. Email your answers here. June Trivia Question: Name one of the two radiation sensors flying on the Exploration Flight Test-1 mission. (You can name both of them if you know them!) Join the monthly trivia and discover more about Orion! Visit NASA's Orion page to read and learn more about the spacecraft. - Say Bon Voyage to FedTraveler
As the June 30 go-live date for the new CGE travel system gets closer, the Office of the Chief Financial Officer CGE implementation team would like to pass on some helpful information. Keep working on closing out your outstanding travel expense reports! Everyone's recent efforts have resulted in a substantial reduction in the number of outstanding JSC travel expense reports. Thank you! June 16 is the last day to submit travel authorizations in FedTraveler (trip start date must be no later than July 9, and the trip end date must be no later than July 18). Emergency travel outside these dates will be processed into FedTraveler by the LF/Travel Office. Visit our CGE SharePoint site or email us. Organizations/Social - JSC Joint Leadership Team Action Teams
Please join us for this month's JSC National Management Association (NMA) chapter luncheon with our own JSC Joint Leadership Team action teams. You're invited to hear David Cazes discussing JSC Expected Behaviors, Mike Kincaid presenting on Communications and Jose Garcia speaking on the importance of the Civil Servant/Contractor Relationship. Date: June 25 Time: 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. (Lunch) Location: Gilruth Center Alamo Ballroom Speakers: David Cazes, Mike Kincaid and Jose Garcia Topic: JSC Joint Leadership Team Action Teams Members: FREE Cost for non-members: $20 Attendees can select from three great menu options: - Herb chicken with asparagus
- Turkey scaloppini and bruschetta topping
- Vegetable lasagna
Dessert: Key lime pie - AIAA Houston Section Awards Dinner Meeting
Please join the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Houston Section for the final dinner meeting of the 2013-2014 year. Our keynote speaker is astronaut Clay Anderson, who will discuss his experiences on the space shuttle and International Space Station. We will also present the Yuri's 5K fundraising results, the Spirit of Apollo scholarship and our annual section awards. Music will be performed by Dwayne O'Brien, formerly of the band Little Texas. The cost for this event is $15 for AIAA members; $20 for non-member students; and $25 for all other non-members. Please RSVP at the event page by June 18 to ensure your choice of meal. - JSC Space Riders Photo at Space Center Houston
Monday, June 16, is the 23nd Annual International Ride to Work Day. As in previous years, Dave's JSC Space Riders will gather for the annual group photo at 9 a.m. This year we have permission to take the photo at Space Center Houston in front of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA). We will park the motorcycles in front of the SCA for the photo. Here is the schedule: - 8:30 a.m. - Photographers will begin setting up equipment, and bikes will begin showing up for photos
- 9 to 9:15 a.m. - Photos will be taken
- 9:30 a.m. - Bikes will leave Space Center Houston
We hope to see you there on your motorcycle! Event Date: Monday, June 16, 2014 Event Start Time:8:30 AM Event End Time:9:30 AM
Event Location: Space Center Houston
Add to Calendar
Trent Mills x42338
[top] - Are You Searching for Senior Living Arrangements?
Are you searching for the right living arrangements for an aging parent or loved one? The JSC Employee Assistance Program is happy to present guest speaker Diana Jones from Brookdale Plaza at Clear Lake (formerly The Terrace), who will speak to us about senior living. Jones is the Sales and Marketing director with Brookdale Plaza at Clear Lake, and will discuss various senior living options such as 55 and up apartment living, independent retirement community living, licensed assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing and continuing care retirement communities. - Parenting Series - Summer Transition
Kids often see the summer months as a time to do whatever they please, with no responsibilities or academic pressures. The change in routine alone can be sufficient to throw some kids off track. Having structure in the summer can also help kids make a more seamless transition back into school come fall. Developing a plan for summer transition helps both parents and children adjust to a new routine. You are invited to learn ideas to aid in the summer transition process, which include: exploring ways to engage children in the process; ideas for summer activities; and summer routines. Please join Anika Isaac, LPC, LMFT, LCDC, NCC, CEAP, for "Summer Transition Parenting." - Men's Mental Health
When it comes to health care, many men are very uncomfortable discussing mental health—yet statistics show that men are affected by mental health problems at rates equal to those of women. What puts men more at risk of serious consequences is that they often put off seeking help until their symptoms have reached a crisis level. The result is needless suffering and a delay in potentially lifesaving care. Education is key to reducing stigma and encouraging men to seek help sooner. Please join Takis Bogdanos, MA, LPC-S, CGP, with the JSC Employee Assistance Program, and learn what contributes to reluctance and what you can do to make a positive difference. - Parent's Night Out at Starport – June 20
Enjoy a night out on the town while your kids enjoy a night with Starport. We will entertain your children with a night of games, crafts, a bounce house, pizza, a movie, dessert and loads of fun! When: Friday, June 20, from 6 to 10 p.m. Where: Gilruth Center Ages: 5 to 12 Cost: $20/first child and $10/each additional sibling if registered by the Wednesday prior to event. If registered after Wednesday, the fee is $25/first child and $15/additional sibling. | |
| |
| JSC Today is compiled periodically as a service to JSC employees on an as-submitted basis. Any JSC organization or employee may submit articles. Disclaimer: Accuracy and content of these notes are the responsibility of the submitters. |
NASA and Human Spaceflight News
Thursday – June 12, 2014
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION: ISS astronauts Steve Swanson, Reid Wiseman and Alexander Gerst wish World Cup athletes good luck and show off their own soccer skills in this video. The video was featured in USA Today's blog "For the Win" reaching a total potential audience of more than 5 million. HEADLINES AND LEADS
Mars flying saucer test postponed by NASA
Associated Press
NASA has postponed its plan to send a "flying saucer" into Earth's atmosphere to test technology that could be used to land on Mars.
NASA postpones Mars 'flying saucer' test on Earth
Traci Watson – Florida Today
There won't be any little green men. But there really will be a flying saucer hurtling through the skies above Hawaii soon, just not today.
No, NASA Is Not Launching a Flying Saucer
Jeffrey Kluger – TIME
Simplified science is not always good science, and NASA's planned test flight of an updated system for landing on Mars doesn't have to be sold as something it's not
Never mind what you've been hearing, NASA is not launching a flying saucer in Hawaii soon. You could be forgiven for thinking that, because NASA has been busy telling anyone who will listen that yes, it is launching a flying saucer in Hawaii soon. That's a shame, because what's really going on is deeply cool without the oversimplifying hype.
DeGrasse Tyson: 'Can't say no to the president'
Mario Trujillo – The Hill
When the White House asked if President Obama could introduce the first episode of the documentary series "Cosmos" earlier this year, host and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson concluded, "you can't say no to the president."
Congressman presses federal agencies to answer for lapses in reporting luxury travel
Agencies failed to disclose trips dating to 2009
Mark Greenblatt - Scripps News
Congressman Walter B. Jones (R- NC) is calling on three federal agencies to disclose their taxpayer-funded luxury travel expenses.
NASA Spinoffs Brings Space Tech Down to Earth
You would expect to find NASA-created technology on the surface of Mars, but what about in water bottles and baseball stadiums?
Astronaut John Glenn, 92, has heart procedure
Associated Press
Former astronaut and U.S. senator John Glenn has had a heart valve replacement as he approaches his 93rd birthday.
Rubio meets with KSC officials; discusses 'master plan'
Central Florida News 13-TV
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, a member of the Senate Subcommittee on Science and Space, met with Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana today.
NASA Holding Firm on First SLS/Orion Flight for 2017, But Challenges Remain
Marcia S. Smith and Len Ly – Space Policy Online
NASA officials provided an update today on the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft. They conveyed optimism about the progress of SLS, Orion and associated ground systems and the ability to meet the goal of a 2017 first SLS/Orion launch. Under questioning, however, it became clear that achieving that schedule will be a challenge.
Smoke on space station traced to water heater
Marcia Dunn – Associated Press
A galley water heater is being blamed for smoke aboard the International Space Station.
NASA, CASIS Present NIH-Funded Medical Research Conducted on the ISS
Anna Forrester - ExecutiveGov
NASA has presented some of the medical research conducted aboard the International Space Station through a partnership with the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space and in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health.
Legends of the sky stories live on
Carol Lutsinger - Rio Grande Valley (TX) Morning Star
Carol Lutsinger, American Astonomical Society Special to the Star Newspaper in Education Valley Morning Star
Legends of the sky abound in the sky this month. Hercules, Cygnus, Scorpius, Sagittarius, Centaurus, and Virgo each have splendid stories related to them. This would be a great time to visit your neighborhood library to locate a book filled with imaginative tales to intrigue and pique your curiosity about the ancient cultures whose stories live on in enchanted paper pages.
Greenland Glacier Sheds Another Big Chunk
Patrick J. Kiger - Discovery News
Those of us who aren't in the Arctic often think of ice as rigid, but glaciers actually move and break off pieces of themselves — now, even more so, thanks to climate change. One of the world's most dynamic glaciers is Greenland's Jakobshavn Isbrae, which in recent years has been speeding up to a record pace and adding more and more ice to the ocean, contributing about a millimeter to global sea-level rise by itself from 2000 to 2011.
Russia's space agency names cause of Proton rocket crash
ITAR-TASS
A Proton-M rocket that blasted off from the Baikonur space site in Kazakhkstan with an Express-AM4R satellite burned down in the thick layers of the atmosphere
The May 16 crash of the Proton space rocket was due to a failed bearing in the steering engine's turbo pump, the chief of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Oleg Ostapenko, told ITAR-TASS.
NOAA retires NOAA-16 polar satellite
NOAA
Spacecraft exceeds expected lifespan by 10 years
After more than 13 years of helping predict weather and climate patterns and save lives in search and rescue operations, NOAA announced today it has turned off the NOAA-16 Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellite (POES). It was one of NOAA's longest operating spacecraft, which have a planned lifespan of three to five years.
COMPLETE STORIES
Mars flying saucer test postponed by NASA
Associated Press
NASA has postponed its plan to send a "flying saucer" into Earth's atmosphere to test technology that could be used to land on Mars.
Spokeswoman Shannon Ridinger says weather conditions caused Wednesday's launch of the saucer-shaped vehicle to be scrubbed. The next potential launch date is June 14.
For decades, NASA has depended on the same parachute design to slow spacecraft after they enter the Martian atmosphere. But it needs a larger and stronger parachute if it wants to land heavier objects and astronauts.
After being launched via balloon from Hawaii, the new vehicle will ignite its rocket engine and climb to 34 miles. It will slow itself down from supersonic speeds and unfurl a parachute for a water landing.
Engineers will analyze the data to determine if the test was successful.
NASA postpones Mars 'flying saucer' test on Earth
Traci Watson – Florida Today
There won't be any little green men. But there really will be a flying saucer hurtling through the skies above Hawaii soon, just not today.
The test has been postponed several times since June 2 because of winds. The next opportunity for a launch will be June 14.
It may seem straight out of a B-movie, but the space agency says the launch has a serious purpose: to test technology that will help land spacecraft and someday humans on Mars.
NASA still relies on some of the basic designs developed more than 40 years ago to land the Viking spacecraft on Mars, principal investigator Ian Clark of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said earlier this month.
"We've been using the same parachutes for several decades now," he said. "If we want to eventually land a human on the surface of Mars, we realized we need to develop new technologies."
The low-density supersonic decelerator, as it's officially known, will ascend into the skies dangling from a gargantuan balloon filled with helium. At 34 million cubic feet, the balloon would fill the Rose Bowl, encasing the helium in a skin made of a high-tech film as thin as sandwich wrap. It will be launched from the Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.
After the balloon and its load soar to roughly 23 miles high, the balloon will break away from the vehicle and drop to Earth, the cue for a rocket attached to the saucer to fire. The rocket will propel the saucer to four times the speed of sound, duplicating the rapid clip of a spacecraft bound for Mars.
If all goes according to plan, the saucer's inflatable ring, made of the same material as bulletproof vests, will pop up, expanding to some 3 feet high in a fraction of a second. The ring is designed to brake the vehicle as it speeds through the atmosphere. Finally a parachute much bigger than anything of its kind will cushion the saucer as it drifts down to an ocean landing.
NASA's latest rover on Mars, the Mars Science Laboratory, weighed about a ton. The new technology being tested would allow the landing of a load twice as heavy, and the use of multiple parachutes could mean even spacecraft of 20 to 30 tons could make a soft landing, Clark said.
At the test location high above the Earth, the air will be as thin as the wispy atmosphere around Mars, but it will be a lot easier to recover the saucer if things go wrong. The balloon could fail or the vehicle itself may prove balky, Clark said.
"We want to test them here — where it's a lot cheaper — before we send them to Mars," said project manager Mark Adler, also of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Contributing: Associated Press
No, NASA Is Not Launching a Flying Saucer
Jeffrey Kluger – TIME
Simplified science is not always good science, and NASA's planned test flight of an updated system for landing on Mars doesn't have to be sold as something it's not
Never mind what you've been hearing, NASA is not launching a flying saucer in Hawaii soon. You could be forgiven for thinking that, because NASA has been busy telling anyone who will listen that yes, it is launching a flying saucer in Hawaii soon. That's a shame, because what's really going on is deeply cool without the oversimplifying hype.
The mission, which was set for Wednesday but was scrubbed due to weather, will take off from the Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai and is all about figuring out new ways to land on Mars—which is not easy. If you're trying to land on an alien planet, you want either a big fat quilt of atmosphere—think Earth or Venus or the Saturnian moon Titan—which means you can just dive-bomb on in, throw out a parachute and down you come. The best alternative is to have no atmosphere at all—think the moon—which means you don't have to deal with problems of atmospheric friction and aerodynamics and can simply use rocket power all the way down. Mars is—literally—the worst of both worlds. Its atmosphere is only about 1% as dense as Earth's, which is more than enough to cause all sorts of drag and heating problems but not nearly dense enough to support a full parachute landing.
That's part of the reason the Mars landings that have taken place so far have been such an improbable mix of hard science and whimsy: Remember the airbags that swaddled the first three rovers as they bounced down—rather than touched down—in the Martian soil? Remember the Curiosity rover being lowered to the surface on cables from a hovering "sky crane," a sort of cosmic marionette that seemed like madness until it turned out to be genius?
Nice stuff, but it would be nicer still of we could do things a little more easily. And so engineers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have developed what they've dubbed the Low Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD).
The LDSD, in fairness, does look flying saucer-ish. It's a 20 ft. (6 m) diameter dish that is part hard shell and part inflatable bladder. A massive balloon ("big enough to fill the Rose Bowl," says project manager Mark Adler) will lift the vehicle to an altitude of almost 23 miles (37 km). At that point the balloon will be jettisoned and a rocket motor will kick in, carrying the LDSD to a peak altitude of 34 miles up (54 km), or about the upper limit of the stratosphere.
"The thickness of the air up there simulates the atmosphere of Mars," says Adler. And that's the whole point.
Once the rocket burns out, the vehicle will arc over and begin plunging toward the ground. At that point it will be moving at Mach 4, or about 3,000 mph. As it enters thicker air, its speed will slow slightly. Until that point, the inflatable bladder will have been empty, but at Mach 3.8 it will fill with gas, creating a sort of doughnut surrounding the hard shell which will increase its overall diameter from about 13 ft. (4 m) to its full 20 ft. That drag will cut the descent speed nearly in half, slow enough for a massive parachute—110 ft (33.5 m) across—to open safely. About 45 minutes later, the vehicle will splash down in the Pacific—an elegant dress rehearsal for a real Mars landing except, of course, for the landing in water part.
JPL scientists have been keen to get the LDSD flying for a long time, especially since NASA's long-term Mars plans include a robot sample return mission and, further down the line, crewed missions. All of that requires much bigger spacecraft and much more robust landing systems. "We've been using the same parachute design for 40 years," says Adler. "The last time we did a test like this was 1972." There is already a larger, 26 ft. (8 m) version of the LDSD that will push the limits even further.
All of this is what makes NASA's insistence on using the flying saucer rubric (even if they hedge and put the term in quotes) and the media's happy parroting of it, here, here, here and elsewhere so unnecessary. Yes, it's hard to sell science to a taxpaying public, especially when it's expensive science. But simplifying it, candifying it—turning it into a little sweetie that goes down easy—does nobody any long term good. What NASA is actually doing in Hawaii is test-flying a very early version of a Mars vehicle that will climb dozens of miles in the sky, auger in at 3,000 mph and safely parachute into the ocean—using a balloon the size of a stadium to get the job done.
The facts, in this case as in so many other cases, seem nifty enough. So let's stick to them.
DeGrasse Tyson: 'Can't say no to the president'
Mario Trujillo – The Hill
When the White House asked if President Obama could introduce the first episode of the documentary series "Cosmos" earlier this year, host and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson concluded, "you can't say no to the president."
Tyson said the show did not ask him to do it, but he concluded the White House was probably trying to ride the media attention the 13-episode series was garnering before its debut on Fox in March.
"That was their choice. We didn't ask them," he told Grantland earlier this week. "We didn't have anything to say about it. They asked us, 'Do you mind if we intro your show?' Can't say no to the president. So he did. He may have been riding the very high media attention that Cosmos had been getting on the ramp-up."
DeGrasse Tyson also speculated the intro could have been a way to curry favor with the scientific community after the White House released its budget.
"That same week, by the way, Obama — the White House — released its budget, which included a reduction in the science spending in NASA," he said. "So if you look at it politically, rather than gesturally, it's easy to think of that as a way for him to try to gain points back in the science community, immediately after dropping the science budget for NASA."
In the short introduction, Obama called the United States "a nation of fearless explorers."
"Open your eyes and open you imagination because the next great discovery could be yours," Obama said at the time.
Before the series aired the White House showed a preview of the series at the White House Student Film Festival. At the March event Obama, deGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye snapped a selfie together.
Congressman presses federal agencies to answer for lapses in reporting luxury travel
Agencies failed to disclose trips dating to 2009
Mark Greenblatt - Scripps News
Congressman Walter B. Jones (R- NC) is calling on three federal agencies to disclose their taxpayer-funded luxury travel expenses.
Federal regulations require executive branch agencies to report annually to the General Services Administration any upgraded business or first class air travel, since those tickets often cost thousands of dollars more than coach fares.
However, records released to Scripps News show dozens of federal agencies failed to file the disclosures -- in some cases for years.
GSA's annual reports on premium travel reflect the ticket upgrades of 75 agencies from fiscal years 2009 to 2013, and indicate that 54 failed to file reports at least once during that period.
This week, Jones wrote letters to the inspectors general at three of the agencies that appeared to have more egregious problems when it comes to disclosing their upgrades: The Department of Agriculture, Small Business Administration, and NASA.
"The taxpayer has a right to know the cost of the trips," Jones said. "When you have agencies that are so arrogant that they do not meet the law and the requirements to file the expenses, it is unacceptable."
GSA records show the Small Business Administration has failed to file the required reports for the past five years. The SBA did not respond to requests for comment in March or a follow up request made this week.
In 2007, the Government Accountability Office took the Department of Agriculture to task after it found 140 of 145 upgraded trips it audited to be, "not properly authorized, justified, or both."
More recent records show the Department failed to disclose any upgrades to the GSA for the four most recent fiscal years. The Department of Agriculture has not responded to repeated requests for comment.
NASA did not file a report in 2012. When asked about the missing report in early March, NASA officials said they were previously unaware of the problem but would complete a filing within a few weeks.
Three months later the agency, which had previously acknowledged widespread accounting errors in four other recent years of disclosures, has yet to publicly release the 2012 report. The space agency reported more than 1,000 upgrades over four fiscal years.
On a one-way trip flown by Administrator Charles Bolden and executive Michael O'Brien from Beijing to Washington D.C., NASA agreed to pay $16,515 for each business class ticket. The average coach fare cost just $958, according to NASA.
The agency reported it additionally authorized more than 500 other taxpayer funded luxury upgrades costing above $3,000 a piece, over just four fiscal years.
In response, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill late last month that included language requiring NASA to report back to Congress on how it will reduce spending on premium travel in fiscal year 2014 and beyond, while also filing corrected reports for its accounting errors over the last five fiscal years.
Wednesday afternoon, NASA spokesperson Karen Northon said, "NASA plans to complete the Fiscal Year 2012 premium travel report by the end of the month, and the agency intends to fully comply with the House language."
Congressman Jones' letters asked the inspectors general for the three agencies when they had last audited records of luxury upgrades, and when they would be reporting any undisclosed premium travel costs.
"Tax dollars pay for the travel of all federal agencies, and the government should spend that money wisely – especially at a time when our nation is over $17 trillion in debt," he said. "The luxury travel reporting requirement improves accountability and transparency and should be strictly followed."
To read the letters Congressman Jones sent to the inspectors general, click here. NASA Spinoffs Brings Space Tech Down to Earth
You would expect to find NASA-created technology on the surface of Mars, but what about in water bottles and baseball stadiums?
The products that the space agency develops have filtered into everyday life for decades, and for decades the NASA publication "Spinoff" has chronicled their progress. The latest issue is now available for free online, and what's inside may surprise you. For instance, technology created by Johnson Space Center's Advanced Refrigeration Technology Team is now being used to save lives in parts of the world that have little access to electricity. The engineer who used to lead the team founded SunDanzer Refrigeration Inc., a company whose solar-powered refrigerators have been used in rural areas to preserve vaccines. SunDanzer's biggest customer is the United Nations Children's Fund, which buys 40 percent of all the units sold worldwide, NASA officials said.
NASA technology has also made its way into baseball. The panoramic cameras on the agency's Mars rovers have been translated into devices that capture gorgeous panoramic photographs at Major League Baseball stadiums. High-resolution cameras take 360-degree photos of a stadium during the game, and afterward fans can go online, find themselves in the shot and tag themselves on social media. And the next time you bring a water bottle on a bike ride or a hike, consider that you may be holding material first developed in conjunction with Johnson Space Center, which is in Houston. A new, two-level filtration system originally developed to recycle water on the International Space Station has made its way into commercial application, helping world travelers avoid ingesting nasty bugs such as E. coli and Cryptosporidium.
NASA also publishes "Spinoff Tomorrow," which describes current technology not yet licensed for commercial use.
Astronaut John Glenn, 92, has heart procedure
Associated Press
Former astronaut and U.S. senator John Glenn has had a heart valve replacement as he approaches his 93rd birthday.
Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, was recuperating, a spokesman at Ohio State University said Wednesday. Glenn is strong and healthy ahead of his birthday on July 18, John Glenn School of Public Affairs spokesman Hank Wilson said.
Glenn had a minimally invasive version of the valve replacement procedure at the Cleveland Clinic in May and is recovering well, Wilson said.
"It was fine, and he's fine," Wilson said. "I just talked to him today. He's strong and healthy. ... It really wasn't that big of a deal in that regard."
In 1962, Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth as a member of the Mercury 7 program.
"Godspeed, John Glenn," fellow astronaut Scott Carpenter radioed just before Glenn thundered off a launch pad in an Atlas rocket.
With the all-business phrase, "Roger, the clock is operating, we're underway," Glenn radioed to Earth as he started his nearly 5 hours in space. Later he uttered a phrase he has repeated throughout life: "Zero G, and I feel fine."
Glenn, a Democrat, later spent more than two decades as a U.S. senator and returned to space at age 77 aboard the space shuttle Discovery.
Before he orbited the world, he fought in two wars as a fighter pilot and set a transcontinental speed record as a test pilot.
Rubio meets with KSC officials; discusses 'master plan'
Central Florida News 13-TV
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, a member of the Senate Subcommittee on Science and Space, met with Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana today.
The two discussed the center's current activities and the recently released 20 year "master plan."
Rubio stressed the importance of expanding space exploration opportunities in Florida, citing job creation as a major factor.
After the meeting, Rubio issued the following statement:
"Since our space program began, Florida has been America's spaceport, and we must continue playing a central role in 21st century space exploration. Of course, space exploration in this century must look significantly different than it did in the last one, with innovators in the commercial space industry carrying more of the load.
"I appreciated Director Cabana's time today to discuss the center's future. It's important that NASA and the commercial space industry coexist in a way that benefits our nation's space and science goals, as well as Florida's long-standing role as a hub of space-related job creation.
"The main concern I raised with Director Cabana is how we can get commercial space companies to launch from Florida so they can utilize the infrastructure and workforce that make Florida a unique, and ideal, place to conduct launches. My hope is that NASA's management plans for Kennedy do not put Florida at a competitive disadvantage, or deter or hamper commercial space entities from making full use of the facility and other potential launch sites in Florida. He assured me that would not be the case, but this is something I'll continue exploring in consultations with the different stakeholders.
"The competition for commercial space industry activity is furious among states like Florida, Texas and Georgia. Florida has many decades of proven experience as a space launch hub, but we must keep working aggressively to keep it that way."
NASA Holding Firm on First SLS/Orion Flight for 2017, But Challenges Remain
Marcia S. Smith and Len Ly – Space Policy Online
NASA officials provided an update today on the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft. They conveyed optimism about the progress of SLS, Orion and associated ground systems and the ability to meet the goal of a 2017 first SLS/Orion launch. Under questioning, however, it became clear that achieving that schedule will be a challenge.
SLS and Orion are being designed primarily to take astronauts beyond low Earth orbit (LEO) – to an asteroid by 2025 and to orbit (but not land on) Mars in the 2030s. By law, they must also be able to service the International Space Station (ISS), which is located in LEO.
The first launch of a test version of Orion, called EFT-1, is scheduled for December 4, 2014. It will launch on a Delta IV rocket and make two orbits of the Earth to test heat shield technology. The first Orion launch aboard an SLS, designated EM-1, is scheduled for 2017. Neither the 2014 nor 2017 flights will carry crews. The first crewed flight of Orion aboard an SLS, EM-2, is anticipated in 2021.
NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations Dan Dumbacher, who has announced his retirement, told a meeting of the Space Transportation Association (STA) that EFT-1 remains on schedule. NASA does not want the test to slip much beyond that date to ensure there is adequate time to factor resulting data into the final design of Orion.
He also said that EM-1 remains on track for 2017 and a slide presented by SLS program manager Todd May had a caption "ready to launch in 2017." Nonetheless, there have been rumors that it may slip to 2018. At a Senate Appropriations hearing in May, for example, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said that the launch will be in fiscal year 2018, which runs from October 1, 2017-September 30, 2018. Only the first three months of that window are in calendar year 2017.
Apparently the potential delays are due to Orion, not SLS. In response to questions, Dumbacher said things were going well with SLS and ground systems, but there are "challenges" with Orion. He cited "standard" hardware development and supply chain challenges coupled with budget issues in FY2013 that required the program to "power back" because of sequestration and furloughs during the government shutdown last year as all impacting the Orion hardware development schedule. The Orion team is "working that," he said, along with integration with the European service module that the European Space Agency is providing. The bottom line was that all three elements – SLS, Orion and ground systems – need to be ready at the same time and that is when EM-1 will take place.
Separately, Dumbacher refuted rumors that EM-2, like EM-1, may not carry a crew: "Despite what some people might want to say in the blogosphere [EM-2] will be crewed. There's word out there we're not going to fly crew until EM-3. Don't believe it."
Smoke on space station traced to water heater
Marcia Dunn – Associated Press
A galley water heater is being blamed for smoke aboard the International Space Station.
Russian astronauts reported smoke and a burning smell in their main compartment Tuesday. There wasn't enough smoke to activate the alarms or to warrant the use of masks by the six-man crew. The smoke came from a vent and dissipated within a half-hour or so.
Commander Steven Swanson says there was only a small amount of smoke and everyone was fine.
The astronauts quickly disconnected the electric water-heating unit and activated air purifiers in the Zvezda (zuh-VEZ-duh) compartment, Russian for star.
On Wednesday, the astronauts installed a spare unit. NASA says it's working normally.
A similar problem occurred in 2009.
The astronauts say they didn't see anything unusual with the removed device.
NASA, CASIS Present NIH-Funded Medical Research Conducted on the ISS
Anna Forrester - ExecutiveGov
NASA has presented some of the medical research conducted aboard the International Space Station through a partnership with the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space and in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health.
The space agency said Tuesday that astronaut Michael Hopkins discussed that research with NIH employees and the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases' Stephen Katz in order to highlight ISS' microgravity laboratory.
The ISS crew has been performing scientific experiments, including NIH-funded health and medicine projects such as the research payload on aging and T cell activation with potential implications for disease prevention.
Future medical research that CASIS and NASA are bringing to the space station includes an osteocytes and mechano-transduction study and an investigation into the gravitational regulation of osteoblast genomics and metabolism.
CASIS, who has managed the ISS National Laboratory since 2011, and NASA intend to acquire new knowledge on bone loss.
Legends of the sky stories live on
Carol Lutsinger - Rio Grande Valley (TX) Morning Star
Carol Lutsinger, American Astonomical Society Special to the Star Newspaper in Education Valley Morning Star
Legends of the sky abound in the sky this month. Hercules, Cygnus, Scorpius, Sagittarius, Centaurus, and Virgo each have splendid stories related to them. This would be a great time to visit your neighborhood library to locate a book filled with imaginative tales to intrigue and pique your curiosity about the ancient cultures whose stories live on in enchanted paper pages.
Downloading a map of the locations of the constellations may increase your reading pleasure. Skymaps.com has a free printable map. Uncle Al's Sky Wheel has a free printable planisphere that is useful year-round from almost any sky in the United States. Why not anywhere? The observer's latitude affects how many stars can be seen from their location. Most commercial planispheres are latitude specific. For our local area you would need one for twenty to thirty degrees latitude. I have seen them sold in Valley bookstores for forty degrees latitude and that means missing many of the constellations we are fortunate to be able to see this far south. Once you have a sky map or planisphere in hand, locate the four cardinal directions. Mentally divide the map into quarters and examine the patterns of stars on the page. Facing east and looking almost directly overhead if you have clear skies and decent eyesight, and a modicum of darkness, then Hercules will be almost at the middle of the sky. The distinctive keystone shape marked by the most visible stars will identify the hero. This ancient constellation harbors M13, a beautiful star cluster containing several hundred thousand stars. A second Messier Object, M92 is also in Hercules.
Just beneath Hercules will be a very bright blue-white star, Vega that is part of the Summer Triangle, Lyra the Lyre. Vega is the brightest star in the summer sky and marks one vertex of the Summer Triangle asterism. The other two stars are Deneb in Cygnus the swan and Altair in Aquila the eagle.
Cygnus will be beneath Vega and to the northeast, midway up from the horizon. Cygnus looks like a cross more than it resembles a swan. The constellation is sometimes called the Northern Cross.
The International Space Station passed overhead several nights this past week. If you want to see our most ambitious space project for yourself, the scheduled flyover times and locations are available online at or < spaceweather.com>. Although Congress and the President have hung the space program out to dry by scuttling the space shuttle transport system, it is truly an inspiring sight to watch the ISS drift across the dark night sky looking like a large bright star in motion and realize there are at least six earthlings onboard, living their lives together, building our understanding of our planet, and conducting experiments that will benefit the rest of us some way. Proponents of the US space program frequently ponder the issue of depending on the Russians for transportation to "our" space station. Especially when the two countries are at odds politically.
In the meantime we keep looking up, pondering the imponderable; what is out there?
Greenland Glacier Sheds Another Big Chunk
Patrick J. Kiger - Discovery News
Those of us who aren't in the Arctic often think of ice as rigid, but glaciers actually move and break off pieces of themselves — now, even more so, thanks to climate change. One of the world's most dynamic glaciers is Greenland's Jakobshavn Isbrae, which in recent years has been speeding up to a record pace and adding more and more ice to the ocean, contributing about a millimeter to global sea-level rise by itself from 2000 to 2011.
These images taken in May (above) and June by NASA's Landsat 8 satellite show Jakobshavn in the process of cracking and "calving" a huge piece of ice, somewhere between 3.1 and 6.2 square miles in size, according to the Arctic Sea Ice Blog. In the June image, below, a big area of the glacier's southern branch and a smaller section of its northern branch have been altered, and ice has crumbled from the glacier's front into the mélange, an accumulation of pieces that are floating downstream from it.
Jakobshavn has moved 25 miles since 1850. The glacier's tongue-shaped edge sits in a deep valley about 4,260 feet above sea level, which doesn't provide much resistance to slow the glacier's slide into the ocean.
Since 2000, Greenland has lost some 739 gigatons of ice, and approximately 30 percent of that loss came from Jakobshavn and four other glaciers, according to NASA.
The glacier has another disturbing historical distinction. According to Richard Brown's book Voyage of the Iceberg, an iceberg calved by Jakobsavn in 1910 — one of 10,000 that broke away from the glacier that summer — eventually drifted into the path of the Titanic on April 14, 1912. That iceberg may be depicted in this photo taken by the captain of another ship, the Etonian, two days earlier. Photo: Credit: NASA
Russia's space agency names cause of Proton rocket crash
ITAR-TASS
A Proton-M rocket that blasted off from the Baikonur space site in Kazakhkstan with an Express-AM4R satellite burned down in the thick layers of the atmosphere
The May 16 crash of the Proton space rocket was due to a failed bearing in the steering engine's turbo pump, the chief of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Oleg Ostapenko, told ITAR-TASS.
"The final version agrees with the preliminary findings made at the first stage of the inter-departmental probe. Telemetry and analytical information indicate that apparently a bearing in the turbo pump failed. We proceed from this in our further work to identify and localize problems that may occur at the moment of the next launch."
Asked when another Proton rocket may be launched, Ostapenko said the date remained unclear yet.
"When we are through with the checks, we shall decide on a launch date," he said.
The Roscosmos chief's press-secretary Irina Zubareva has said that "all findings of the inter-departmental inquiry have been submitted to the government already."
A Proton-M rocket that blasted off from the Baikonur space site in Kazakhkstan with an Express-AM4R satellite burned down in the thick layers of the atmosphere. The satellite and the Briz-M booster filed to separate from the rocket. The satellite was lost. Earlier versions blamed the crash on problems in the third stage's steering engine.
Earlier, a source at the Baikonur space site told TASS a scheduled launch of the Proton-M rocket with the Russian re-broadcasting satellite Luch, due on June 20, was postponed till July 8.
NOAA retires NOAA-16 polar satellite
NOAA
Spacecraft exceeds expected lifespan by 10 years
Hurricane Katrina image taken by NOAA-16 on August 28, 2005. (Credit: NOAA)
After more than 13 years of helping predict weather and climate patterns and save lives in search and rescue operations, NOAA announced today it has turned off the NOAA-16 Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellite (POES). It was one of NOAA's longest operating spacecraft, which have a planned lifespan of three to five years.
NOAA-16 was launched in 2000 and replaced by NOAA-18 as the primary POES satellite in 2005. The shutdown will result in no data gap, as NOAA-16 was being used as a back-up satellite.
NOAA will continue operating multiple POES spacecraft – NOAA-15, NOAA-18 and NOAA-19 – in addition to Suomi NPP, which is now NOAA's primary operational polar satellite. NOAA's POES spacecraft fly a lower, pole-to-pole orbit, capturing atmospheric data from space that feed NOAA's weather and climate prediction models.
The deactivation process of NOAA-16 started this morning, with the final shut down occurring today at 10:20 a.m. EDT. Launched in September 2000, NOAA-16 made 70,655 successful orbits of the globe, traveling more than 2.1 billion miles, while collecting huge amounts of valuable temperature, moisture and image data.
"NOAA-16 helped our forecasters detect the early stages of severe weather from tornadoes and snow storms to hurricanes, including the busiest hurricane season on record – 2005," said Mary Kicza, assistant administrator of NOAA's Satellite and Information Service. "NOAA-16's long life is a credit to the engineers, who built and operated it and the technology that sustained it. Although NOAA-16 is retired, we still operate a dependable, robust fleet of satellites that continue to provide crucial data."
NOAA-16 was also part of the international Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking (SARSAT) network of satellites. SARSAT, which began in 1982, has rescued more than 37,000 people worldwide, including more than 7,300 in the United States and its surrounding waters by detecting distress signals from emergency beacons.
NOAA exclusively operates afternoon polar orbit spacecraft, while its key international partner, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), flies mid-morning orbit spacecraft. This teamwork results in significant savings for U.S. taxpayers, because sharing data helps produce more accurate and uniform data for forecasters. Through the Initial Joint Polar System agreement, NOAA and EUMETSAT established a shared satellite system by exchanging instruments and coordinating the operations of their polar-orbiting satellites to provide operational meteorological and environmental forecasting and global climate monitoring services worldwide.
NOAA and its partners at NASA are continuing to build the next generation of polar-orbiting satellites, the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS), which is scheduled to launch the JPSS-1 satellite in 2017.
NOAA's JPSS represents significant technological and scientific advances for more accurate weather forecasting, helping build a Weather Ready Nation — saving lives and property, while promoting economic prosperity. JPSS provides continuity for critical observations of our vast atmosphere, oceans, land, and cryosphere — the frozen areas of the above planet. NOAA, working in partnership with NASA, ensures an unbroken series of global data for monitoring and forecasting environmental phenomena and understanding our Earth.
END
Jakobshavn has moved 25 miles since 1850. The glacier's tongue-shaped edge sits in a deep valley about 4,260 feet above sea level, which doesn't provide much resistance to slow the glacier's slide into the ocean.Since 2000, Greenland has lost some 739 gigatons of ice, and approximately 30 percent of that loss came from Jakobshavn and four other glaciers, according to NASA.The glacier has another disturbing historical distinction. According to Richard Brown's book Voyage of the Iceberg, an iceberg calved by Jakobsavn in 1910 — one of 10,000 that broke away from the glacier that summer — eventually drifted into the path of the Titanic on April 14, 1912. That iceberg may be depicted in this photo taken by the captain of another ship, the Etonian, two days earlier.Photo: Credit: NASARussia's space agency names cause of Proton rocket crashITAR-TASSA Proton-M rocket that blasted off from the Baikonur space site in Kazakhkstan with an Express-AM4R satellite burned down in the thick layers of the atmosphereThe May 16 crash of the Proton space rocket was due to a failed bearing in the steering engine's turbo pump, the chief of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Oleg Ostapenko, told ITAR-TASS."The final version agrees with the preliminary findings made at the first stage of the inter-departmental probe. Telemetry and analytical information indicate that apparently a bearing in the turbo pump failed. We proceed from this in our further work to identify and localize problems that may occur at the moment of the next launch."Asked when another Proton rocket may be launched, Ostapenko said the date remained unclear yet."When we are through with the checks, we shall decide on a launch date," he said.The Roscosmos chief's press-secretary Irina Zubareva has said that "all findings of the inter-departmental inquiry have been submitted to the government already."A Proton-M rocket that blasted off from the Baikonur space site in Kazakhkstan with an Express-AM4R satellite burned down in the thick layers of the atmosphere. The satellite and the Briz-M booster filed to separate from the rocket. The satellite was lost. Earlier versions blamed the crash on problems in the third stage's steering engine.Earlier, a source at the Baikonur space site told TASS a scheduled launch of the Proton-M rocket with the Russian re-broadcasting satellite Luch, due on June 20, was postponed till July 8.NOAA retires NOAA-16 polar satelliteNOAASpacecraft exceeds expected lifespan by 10 yearsHurricane Katrina image taken by NOAA-16 on August 28, 2005. (Credit: NOAA)After more than 13 years of helping predict weather and climate patterns and save lives in search and rescue operations, NOAA announced today it has turned off the NOAA-16 Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellite (POES). It was one of NOAA's longest operating spacecraft, which have a planned lifespan of three to five years.NOAA-16 was launched in 2000 and replaced by NOAA-18 as the primary POES satellite in 2005. The shutdown will result in no data gap, as NOAA-16 was being used as a back-up satellite.NOAA will continue operating multiple POES spacecraft – NOAA-15, NOAA-18 and NOAA-19 – in addition to Suomi NPP, which is now NOAA's primary operational polar satellite. NOAA's POES spacecraft fly a lower, pole-to-pole orbit, capturing atmospheric data from space that feed NOAA's weather and climate prediction models.The deactivation process of NOAA-16 started this morning, with the final shut down occurring today at 10:20 a.m. EDT. Launched in September 2000, NOAA-16 made 70,655 successful orbits of the globe, traveling more than 2.1 billion miles, while collecting huge amounts of valuable temperature, moisture and image data."NOAA-16 helped our forecasters detect the early stages of severe weather from tornadoes and snow storms to hurricanes, including the busiest hurricane season on record – 2005," said Mary Kicza, assistant administrator of NOAA's Satellite and Information Service. "NOAA-16's long life is a credit to the engineers, who built and operated it and the technology that sustained it. Although NOAA-16 is retired, we still operate a dependable, robust fleet of satellites that continue to provide crucial data."NOAA-16 was also part of the international Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking (SARSAT) network of satellites. SARSAT, which began in 1982, has rescued more than 37,000 people worldwide, including more than 7,300 in the United States and its surrounding waters by detecting distress signals from emergency beacons.NOAA exclusively operates afternoon polar orbit spacecraft, while its key international partner, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), flies mid-morning orbit spacecraft. This teamwork results in significant savings for U.S. taxpayers, because sharing data helps produce more accurate and uniform data for forecasters. Through the Initial Joint Polar System agreement, NOAA and EUMETSAT established a shared satellite system by exchanging instruments and coordinating the operations of their polar-orbiting satellites to provide operational meteorological and environmental forecasting and global climate monitoring services worldwide.NOAA and its partners at NASA are continuing to build the next generation of polar-orbiting satellites, the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS), which is scheduled to launch the JPSS-1 satellite in 2017.NOAA's JPSS represents significant technological and scientific advances for more accurate weather forecasting, helping build a Weather Ready Nation — saving lives and property, while promoting economic prosperity. JPSS provides continuity for critical observations of our vast atmosphere, oceans, land, and cryosphere — the frozen areas of the above planet. NOAA, working in partnership with NASA, ensures an unbroken series of global data for monitoring and forecasting environmental phenomena and understanding our Earth.END
No comments:
Post a Comment