Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - September 26, 2013 and JSC Today

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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: September 26, 2013 6:11:19 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - September 26, 2013  and JSC Today

Happy Flex Friday eve.   Mark your calendars early as a reminder to join us next Thursday at Hibachi Grill for our monthly NASA retirees luncheon at 11:30.

 

 

 

 

Thursday, September 26, 2013

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JSC TODAY CATEGORIES Headlines -  Who Moved My…More Changes on Inside JSC -  13 Days of Safety - Day 3: We Want Your Number -  Center-Level IR&D Call for Solicitations NOW Open -  Read All About IT! -- IT Labs Annual Report -  Got IT Safety Questions? Ask Oct. 3 in Building 3 -  New NASA@Work Challenge: Check it Out Today -  Recent JSC Announcement Organizations/Social -  Improve Your Speaking and Leadership Skills -  Starport Gift Shops Closed Today, Friday & Monday -  Starport Fright Fest 1st Annual NASA NightMARE Run -  Thriller Dance Class for Halloween - Register Now -  Starport's Spooky Spin - Register Now Community -  School Zone Safety

New Expedition 37 Crew Launches to Space Station

 

Headlines Who Moved My…More Changes on Inside JSC Yes we did listen to your comments! We have made some additional updates to the Inside JSC homepage. The NASA News tile has been replaced with a Starport tile which guides you to all of the Starport services - cafes, the Gilruth Center, SwapShop and more. We've added a function to the NASA meatball at the top of the page. It now goes to www.nasa.gov for easy access to the main NASA home page. Also the Upcoming Events calendar has a new name, JSC Community Calendar, that better highlights the activities around the Center. The good news is that it is still easy to submit your events for the calendar through the new tile. Be on the lookout for more improvements coming soon. JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111 [top] 13 Days of Safety - Day 3: We Want Your Number If you want to know what to do during an emergency when JSC closes, you must include your home phone number, personal cell number and work cell number in your Employee Express profile (civil servants) or your idMax profile (contractors). JSC uses the agencywide Emergency Notification System (ENS) to communicate with employees during disasters, including hurricanes, and the ENS gets these numbers from your profile information. If you want texts, check the "text enabled" box next to your phone number, and then use your phone to text "Join NASASMS" to 34292. Normal texting charges will apply. Find Employee Express (civil servants) and idMax (contractors). For more information, contact Linda Spuler at x34249. Don't delay, update your profile today! Supricia Franklin/Angel Plaza x37817/x37305 http://sthday.jsc.nasa.gov/ [top] Center-Level IR&D Call for Solicitations NOW Open The Fiscal Year 2014 center-level Independent Research & Development (IR&D) Call for Solicitations officially opens today, Sept. 26, to all civil servants at JSC and White Sands Test Facility. Approximately 10 projects will be awarded, with a maximum value of $100,000 each. The focus of the call is the Human Spaceflight Architecture Team's needs performance targets. Guidance may be found  here. Your directorate may levy additional requirements. Project durations are 12 months from funding, with deliverables due per schedule. Please read the guidance carefully to gain a complete understanding of the call process. Submissions are due to your JTWG representative no later than 6:30 p.m. Oct. 7. Good luck! David L. Brown x37426 [top] Read All About IT! -- IT Labs Annual Report Please take a moment to read about concepts for gesture interfaces, 100GB file transfer capability, mobile audio/visual broadcasting from field sites, Wolfram Alpha search overlay integration, real-time meeting and conference captioning and other recent or upcoming projects in the Fiscal Year 2012-2013 IT Labs Annual Report. These innovative projects offer potential enhancements to mission IT, working mobility, social media engagement and collaboration. The NASA IT Labs program was established in 2011. They support the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) and the Information Resources Management Strategic Plan. The mission of NASA IT Labs is to "Engage and empower NASA's IT heroes to develop capabilities that support NASA's needs in a rapidly changing world." This report can be found under the Latest News section of the NASA CIO home page. JSC-IRD-Outreach x34883 [top] Got IT Safety Questions? Ask Oct. 3 in Building 3 You may know how to be safe in the physical aspects of your job, but do you know how to be safe in the virtual world at work and home? If you've ever had questions but weren't sure who to ask, then come meet your organization's computer security official and get some answers during a JSC IT Security team meet-and-greet from noon to 1 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 3, in the Building 3 collaboration area. October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month, and this event is just one of many activities JSC's IT Security Team within the Information Resources Directorate will host next month to help JSC team members become more cyber safe. More information on National Cyber Security Awareness Month can be found at the Department of Homeland Security's website. For more information about this event, contact Sandra Price via email or at x37682. Event Date: Thursday, October 3, 2013   Event Start Time:12:00 PM   Event End Time:1:00 PM Event Location: B. 3 Collaboration Areas Add to Calendar JSC IRD Outreach x37682 http://ird.jsc.nasa.gov/Home.aspx [top] New NASA@Work Challenge: Check it Out Today A new challenge has been posted on NASA@work -- "How You Can Make a Difference: Seeking Solutions to NASA Goddard's Contribution to Climate Change." To read more about this challenge and to submit your solution, click here. Are you new to NASA@work? NASA@work is an agencywide, collaborative problem-solving platform that connects the collective knowledge of experts (like YOU) from all centers across NASA. Challenge owners post problems, and members of the NASA@work community participate by responding with their solutions to posted problems. Anyone can participate! Kathryn Keeton 281-204-1519 https://nasa.innocentive.com [top] Recent JSC Announcement Please visit the JSC Announcements (JSCA) Web page to view the newly posted announcement: JSCA 13-036: Communications with Industry Procurement Solicitation for the Robotics, Vehicle and Graphics Simulation Services (RVGSS) Contract Archived announcements are also available on the JSCA Web page. Linda Turnbough x36246 http://ird.jsc.nasa.gov/DocumentManagement/announcements/default.aspx [top]    Organizations/Social Improve Your Speaking and Leadership Skills Looking to communicate more clearly at work? Toastmasters is a world leader in communications and leadership development. Practice and improve your speaking and leadership skills by attending and participating in Space Explorers Toastmasters (SETM). The SETM club meets every Friday in Building 30A, Room 1010, at 11:45 a.m. Event Date: Thursday, September 26, 2013   Event Start Time:11:45 AM   Event End Time:12:45 PM Event Location: B. 30A/Rm. 1010 Add to Calendar Carolyn Jarrett x37594 http://spaceexplorers.toastmastersclubs.org/ [top] Starport Gift Shops Closed Today, Friday & Monday The Starport Gift Shops in Buildings 3 and 11 will be closed today, Sept. 26; Friday, Sept. 27; and Monday, Sept. 30, for inventory. The gift shops will reopen to normal operating hours on Tuesday, Oct. 1. Cyndi Kibby x35563 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/ [top] Starport Fright Fest 1st Annual NASA NightMARE Run Starport's annual Fright Fest will be Oct. 25, and there are tons of activities for everyone, including a Thriller Dance Class, Spooky Spinning, Kids' Fright Fest Bash and haunted house. New for 2013: The NASA NightMARE Run. Run or walk 2.5 miles while trying to survive this fun, hair-raising fitness challenge with twists and turns and things that go bump in the night! This trail of terror will encompass the Gilruth Center, using trails, fields and open spaces. The NightMARE Run is open to all ages, with winners in each age category, as well as overall men's and women's winners. Registrants will receive an event T-shirt and glow necklace. Proceeds from the run benefit the Starport Scholarship Program. Combine this event with Spooky Spinning for even more of a challenge and receive a discounted price for both. Visit our website for more information and the registration form. Event Date: Friday, October 25, 2013   Event Start Time:7:15 PM   Event End Time:8:15 PM Event Location: Gilruth Center Add to Calendar Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/ [top] Thriller Dance Class for Halloween - Register Now The Thriller Dance is baaaaaaack! Have a blast learning the Thriller Dance routine and then performing it in your best zombie attire at the Gilruth Center as part of our Halloween Fright Fest. Learn the dance on Oct. 18 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. and Oct. 25 from 5:45 to 7 p.m. The big performance is Oct. 25 at about 7:05 p.m. The fee is $25, or $15 just to attend one night. Plus, this year we have added a kids' Thriller Dance class! Ages 6 and up will learn and perform the Thriller dance all in one day. Kids will get to dress like a zombie and perform the dance for their family. Learn and perform the dance on Oct. 19 from 10 to 11:30 a.m., with a performance at about 11:15 a.m. in the Gilruth Center gymnasium. The fee is $15/per child. Register at the Gilruth Center front desk. For more, click here. Event Date: Friday, October 25, 2013   Event Start Time:5:30 PM   Event End Time:7:00 PM Event Location: Gilruth Center Add to Calendar Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/ [top] Starport's Spooky Spin - Register Now Take a Spooky Spin ride for Halloween at Starport's Annual Fright Fest! The spinning studio will be transformed into the "spooky studio" for this frightful workout. Dress in your favorite costume for the spin ride with a Halloween theme, and join in on the fun on Oct. 25 from 6 to 7 p.m. There's a $15 registration fee. Register at the Gilruth Center front desk. For even more fun and an additional challenge, register for our 2.5-mile NightMARE Run taking place immediately after. More information can be found here. Event Date: Friday, October 25, 2013   Event Start Time:6:00 PM   Event End Time:7:00 PM Event Location: Gilruth Center Add to Calendar Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/ [top]    Community School Zone Safety JSC is neighbor to Space Center Intermediate School (located on Saturn Lane), and due to the close proximity, many JSC employees travel through the school zone. Previously the school zone was adjacent to the school campus and was not adequate for the amount of school kids in that area. This year, the school zone has been expanded westward near the intersection of Saturn Lane and Hercules. Please be alert! Additionally, the law prohibiting the use of cell phones in school zones has become stricter. Effective on Sept. 1, the prohibited area has expanded to include no use of cell phones on school property, as well as while you're in a school crossing that is not in a school zone. Their safety is in your hands -- not in your phone. Brandy Ingram x46533 [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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Human Spaceflight News

Thursday – September 26, 2013

 

Wednesday's 3:58:50.411 pm Central liftoff of Soyuz TMA-10M followed by docking 5 hrs, 47 min later (Carla Cioffi)

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

Soyuz docks with space station

 

William Harwood - CBS News

 

A Russian Soyuz rocket carrying two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut blasted off from Kazakhstan Wednesday, climbed smoothly into orbit and docked with the International Space Station after an abbreviated six-hour rendezvous, boosting the lab's crew back to six. The mission kicks off an exceptionally busy few months aboard the space station, with the arrival and departure of multiple cargo ships, a visit by the Olympic torch for a spacewalk photo op in early November and an unusual interlude with an expanded crew of nine astronauts and cosmonauts.

 

Soyuz Mission Delivers Three to Space Station

Opens Door for Resumption of Cygnus Activities

 

Mark Carreau - Aviation Week

 

A U. S. and Russian Soyuz crew docked with the International Space Station late Sept. 25, successfully completing a third consecutive "express." four orbit launch-to-rendezvous transit to restore the orbiting science lab to six astronaut status. The Soyuz TMA-10M delivered Mike Hopkins, Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy, for a six month tour of duty as the capsule carried out an automated docking with the station's Russian segment Poisk module at 10:45 p.m., EDT. The "express" mission opens the door anew for Orbital Sciences' Cygnus re-supply capsule to make a second attempt to rendezvous and berth with the space station as soon as Sept. 28.

 

Spacecraft delivers 3 to orbiting space station

 

Nataliya Vasilyeva - Associated Press

 

A Soyuz capsule carrying three astronauts successfully docked with the International Space Station early Thursday, bringing the size of the crew at the orbiting outpost to six. The new crew's six-month mission will include a spacewalk with the Olympic torch. American Michael Hopkins and Russians Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazansky traveled six hours in the capsule from the Russian-leased launch pad in Kazakhstan before linking up with the space station's Russian Poisk research module at 6.45 a.m. Moscow time (0245GMT). Kotov is the most experienced member of the crew with two previous six-month missions in space under his belt, while Hopkins and Ryazansky are both on their first missions.

 

Joint U.S.-Russian crew reaches space station

 

Irene Klotz - Reuters

 

A Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday to deliver three new crew members to the International Space Station. The Soyuz rocket and capsule lifted off at 4:58 p.m. EDT on an express route to the station, which orbits about 250 miles above Earth. Less than six hours after liftoff, veteran Russian commander Oleg Kotov and rookies Sergey Ryazanskiy of Russia and Michael Hopkins of the United States reached the outpost, a $100 billion project of 15 nations. Only two other crews have made the journey as quickly. Previous Soyuz capsules took two days of orbital maneuvers to reach the station.

 

Soyuz arrives safely at ISS

Crew takes fast lane to station

 

James Dean - Florida Today

 

The International Space Station has doubled its occupancy to six with the safe arrival late Wednesday of NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins and two Russian cosmonauts. Less than six hours after launching from Kazakhstan, the Soyuz spacecraft carrying Hopkins, Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy pulled into the outpost's Poisk docking port at 10:45 p.m. EDT, a few minutes earlier than planned.

 

US-Russian Crew Arrives at Space Station After 6-Hour Flight

 

Mike Wall - Space.com

 

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying an American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts linked up with the International Space Station late Wednesday, doubling the orbiting lab's crew size after an express trip to orbit. A Soyuz capsule carrying two Russian cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut arrived at the station at 10:45 p.m. EDT (0245 GMT Thursday), less than six hours after launching into space from Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan. The two spacecraft were sailing 261 miles (420 kilometers) over the southern Pacific Ocean, just off the coast of Peru, during their rendezvous.

 

Space? It's Just a Commute

Crew reaches International Space Station within six hours of launch from Kazakhstan

 

Sophie Brown - Time

 

It took just under six hours for Soyuz TMA-10M to reach the International Space Station on Thursday, making it the third time a manned vehicle has completed the journey in under 24 hours. Before March, the trip usually took two days, which is long enough for the crew inside the ship's cramped interior to become uncomfortable and make space sickness symptoms worse (and just in case you weren't sure, barfing in space is somewhat more complicated than on earth). The spacecraft left Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome just before 3 a.m. local time, carrying a crew of three: Russia's Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryanzanskiy, and NASA's Michael Hopkins.  The American and two Russians, who were welcomed aboard the station shortly before 9 a.m., are scheduled to stay in the orbital laboratory for about 5 months. (NO FURTHER TEXT)

 

Astronaut on space mission captained Illini football

 

Joe Holleman - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

 

When a Russian spaceship headed to the International Space Station lifted off Wednesday afternoon, both the state of Missouri and the Fighting Illini had cargo on board — in the person of astronaut Michael S. Hopkins. Hopkins was born in Lebanon, Mo., grew up in Richland and attended Osage High School in the Lake of the Ozarks. Then he attend the University of Illinois, where he received a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering and was the captain of the U. of I. football team in 1991. Hopkins, who also has a master's degree from Stanford and is a colonel in the Air Force, will remain on the space station until mid-March. (NO FURTHER TEXT)

 

Olympic Torch one step closer to first spacewalk as the astronauts set to carry it into the void arrive at International Space Station

 

Damien Gayle - London Daily Mail

 

Three astronauts successfully reached the International Space Station this morning, where their six-month mission will include taking the Olympic torch on its first spacewalk. The arrival of American Michael Hopkins and Russians Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazansky after a six-hour journey returns the station to its full, six-member live-aboard crew. Cosmonauts Kotov and Ryazansky will next month carry the Olympic torch into open space as part of the relay of the Olympic flame ahead of February's Winter Games in the Russian resort of Sochi. The torch will be carried up to the space station with another mission next month. But safety concerns mean they will not be able to light it when they carry it into the void. The Olympic torch travels through routes that symbolise human achievement.

 

Oldest ISS Element Cleared Until 2028

 

Frank Morring, Jr. - Aviation Week

 

Engineers in Russia believe the Zarya cargo module, the oldest pressurized module on the International Space Station, can last in orbit until about 2028 – twice its design service life – despite microcracking in the hull during pressure and loads cycling of a test article on the ground. Khrunichev State Research & Production Space Center has conducted two years of tests on the engineering hardware used to qualify the flight-version Zarya for its 15-year guaranteed service life, according to company official Sergey K. Shaevich. The results, he said during a presentation at the International Astronautical Congress here, further validated the original design and demonstrated that the module can continue to function in space.

 

Shutdown means NASA furloughs

Almost all of space agency's workers would feel impact

 

Ledyard King – USA Today (Gannett News Service Washington Bureau)

 

Almost all of NASA's 18,000 employees, including most of Kennedy Space Center's roughly 2,000 civil servants, face unpaid furloughs if the federal government shuts down next week. Contingency plans first drawn up two years ago when NASA and other federal agencies were on the brink of a government shutdown suggest fewer than 3 percent of agency workers would be allowed to stay on the job because they're considered important to protecting lives and property. That's lower than the percentage of workers who would be allowed to continue working at many other federal agencies. At those agencies, most employees would be deemed essential and exempted from furloughs.

 

Musk calls out Blue Origin, ULA for 'phony blocking tactic' on shuttle pad lease

 

Dan Leone - Space News

 

SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk lashed out at Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance Tuesday night, accusing the two companies of trying to stymie SpaceX's expansion plans with a "phony blocking tactic" that has stalled the lease of an old space shuttle launch pad SpaceX wants to take over. Both SpaceX and Blue Origin want to lease Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., from NASA. Blue Origin, a 13-year-old startup backed by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, gave NASA a proposal in July for converting the pad "into a commercial spaceport available to all launch companies," the company's president, Rob Meyerson, told SpaceNews in an email Wednesday. SpaceX, in contrast, proposed an exclusive-use lease for its Falcon family of rockets, but said late last week it would be open to sharing the pad with other users. SpaceX's apparent about-face came three weeks after Blue Origin filed a protest with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), preventing NASA from leasing the pad until the dispute is resolved.

 

Sound Check: Sarah Brightman has her head in space these days

 

Gary Graff - Oakland Press

 

Sarah Brightman is a space cadet. Literally. The classically trained British singer and theater star is going through training in Russia for a proposed 2015 mission to the International Space Station via the private Space Adventures Ltd. She's gone through some physical and psychological training already in Russia and reports that "the journey so far has been absolutely amazing, better than I ever expected I'd do. It's been very inspirational to me as a musician and a creator, and ... just knowing you're a very healthy person at the end of the day is nice."

 

Virgin Galactic: The Hour is Nigh For Tourists in Space

A convention in the desert for hundreds of paying customers ready to leave the Earth

 

Jeffrey Kluger - Time

 

 

The astronauts ate muffins in the Mojave Desert this morning. They needed a whole lot of muffins, mostly because there were a whole lot of astronauts—300 or so, enough that they had to be brought in aboard a caravan of busses. They were here to see their spacecraft—known by the prosaic name SpaceShipTwo—and hear from the man who dreamed it up, known by the far more familiar name Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic, a company built from the ground up for the principle purpose of democratizing space.

 

'Future astronauts' told their time to fly is coming soon

 

Steven Mayer - Bakersfield Californian

 

Some of Virgin Galactic's early customers have waited seven years with the expectation that they would one day take the thrill ride of their lives to suborbital space. More than 600 people have already plunked down thousands of dollars for tickets to board SpaceShipTwo, according to Virgin Galactic's website. On Wednesday, about 400 of the aspiring citizen astronauts visited Virgin's massive hangar in eastern Kern County, where they heard company founder Sir Richard Branson and CEO George Whitesides assure them that their time to fly is drawing near. "Welcome to the world's largest gathering, ever, of future astronauts," Branson said to the crowd gathered in Virgin's massive FAITH facility at Mojave Air and Space Port. FAITH stands for Final Assembly Integration and Test Hangar.

 

Fuel for Georgia's space industry

 

Rick Badie (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

 

Welcome to the great space race. Georgia, Florida and Texas each hope to land SpaceX, a rocketship company that delivers cargo to the International Space Station. That company would be the first tenant of a proposed "spaceport" in coastal Georgia. For now, though, SpaceX founder Elon Musk calls Texas his top choice. Today, an advocate for space industry development in Georgia says we should be more competitive, while a Texan considers his state an ideal fit for the industry…

 

Former NASA astronaut joins Cianbro's board

 

Bangor Daily News

 

Cianbro on Tuesday announced that a former Navy combat pilot, NASA astronaut and former executive at Bechtel, a major defense contractor, had joined its board of directors. James Van Hoften has had an impressive career, one that Peter Vigue, Cianbro's chairman and CEO, said the company will benefit from as it undertakes some initiatives that are new to the company.

 

Apollo astronauts still have a problem - 45 years on

 

Jon White - New Scientist

 

Getting your name immortalised in the official map of celestial objects is something many Earthbound stargazers yearn for. But recent letters to New Scientist from two Apollo astronauts – including Apollo 13 crew member Jim Lovell – show that even blazing a trail into space and setting eyes on off-world features for the first time is no guarantee of success.

 

Al Rossiter Jr., award-winning UPI science writer, editor, dies

 

United Press International

 

Al Rossiter Jr., a longtime UPI science writer who became the wire service's executive editor, died in North Carolina, Duke University announced. He was 77. Rossiter, who later served as director of the Duke News Service and assistant vice president at Duke University's office of public affairs until his retirement in 2001, died Monday at Vidant Beaufort Hospital in Washington, N.C., the university officials said. Rossiter joined United Press International as a staff writer in 1959 and was appointed science editor in 1973. In his more than 33 years with the company, he covered the science beat, becoming a well-respected chronicler of the U.S. space program -- covering the Apollo moon flights, space shuttle flights and unmanned planetary missions. Rossiter received numerous awards for his reporting on space and science, including the Grady-Stack Medal in 1987 from the American Chemical Society. He was a finalist in NASA's Journalist-in-Space program. CBS News space consultant Bill Harwood called Rossiter "a great Unipresser and a helluva newsman. A gentleman journalist and the best mentor a young space reporter could ever have." Former UPI Senior Editor Bruce Cook said Rossiter's UPI byline "was a familiar one around the world. I particularly remember his outstanding coverage of the space missions, including the first moon landing, Apollo 11 in 1969."

__________

 

COMPLETE STORIES

 

Soyuz docks with space station

 

William Harwood - CBS News

 

A Russian Soyuz rocket carrying two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut blasted off from Kazakhstan Wednesday, climbed smoothly into orbit and docked with the International Space Station after an abbreviated six-hour rendezvous, boosting the lab's crew back to six.

 

The mission kicks off an exceptionally busy few months aboard the space station, with the arrival and departure of multiple cargo ships, a visit by the Olympic torch for a spacewalk photo op in early November and an unusual interlude with an expanded crew of nine astronauts and cosmonauts.

 

The station has been staffed by a reduced crew of three -- Expedition 37 commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano and Karen Nyberg -- since mid September when two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut departed after a five-and-a-half-month stay in orbit.

 

But the Soyuz TMA-10M launch Wednesday boosted the lab crew back to six just a few days before the delayed arrival of an Orbital Sciences Corp. Cygnus cargo ship making its maiden flight.

 

Soyuz TMA-10M commander Oleg Kotov, a space station veteran, rookie flight engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy and first-time NASA flier Michael Hopkins lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:58:50 p.m. EDT Wednesday (GMT-4; 2:58 a.m. Thursday local time).

 

Trailing a brilliant plume of flame from its liquid-fueled engines, the Soyuz booster climbed away to the northeast, launching almost directly into the plane of the space station's orbit.

 

Hopkins is the first of his 14-member 2009 astronaut class to win a flight assignment. Raised on a farm in Missouri, captain of his University of Illinois football team and an Air Force flight test engineer, Hopkins made the climb to space strapped into the right seat of the cramped Soyuz command module.

 

Kotov, the veteran commander, monitored cockpit displays from the center seat with Ryazanskiy strapped in to his left.

 

The ascent appeared to go smoothly and live television from inside the cramped Soyuz command module showed all three crew members calmly monitoring their instruments amid routine calls to and from mission control near Moscow.

 

"Vibration, oscillations, within norms," Kotov reported at one point. "Nominal operation of the systems."

 

Eight minutes and 45 seconds after launch, the rocket's third-stage engine shut down and the Soyuz spacecraft was released into its planned preliminary orbit with a high point, or apogee, of 143 miles and a low point, or perigee, of 118 miles. The vehicle's solar arrays and navigation antennas deployed normally a few moments later.

 

"Congratulations," someone radioed from mission control.

 

In keeping with recent practice, Kotov monitored a four-orbit, six-hour rendezvous with the station, overseeing an automated approach and docking at the upper Poisk module at 10:45 p.m. as the two spacecraft sailed 260 miles above the Pacific Ocean just west of Peru.

 

After waiting for residual motion to damp out, hooks and latches engaged, pulling the Soyuz snugly into place. Hatches between the two spacecraft were to be opened after a series of leak checks to verify an airtight, structurally secure seal.

 

Asked what he was looking forward to the most about life aboard the International Space Station, Hopkins said "probably the first thing is just the experience of being able to float around. I just can't imagine what it's really going to be like.

 

"And then, obviously, the other one is to just see the Earth from that vantage point, 250 miles up. We've all seen pictures of it, but to experience it first hand I think just has to be incredible."

 

Yurchikhin and the expanded Expedition 37 crew face a busy month of science operations and work to unload one cargo ship and re-load another with trash and no-longer-needed gear           .

 

Orbital Corp.'s Cygnus cargo craft, part of a commercial initiative to make up for the retirement of the space shuttle, took off on its maiden flight Sept. 18. Berthing originally was planned for Sept. 22, but the rendezvous was put on hold due to a navigation glitch.

 

The spacecraft now is expected to arrive this weekend, pending installation of a software patch to correct the navigation issue.

 

Amid work to unload food and other supplies from the Cygnus, the station crew will prepare a European Space Agency ATV supply craft for undocking from the Zvezda module's aft port on Oct. 28

 

After the ATV's departure, Yurchikhin, Parmitano and Nyberg will strap into their Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft on Nov. 1, undock from the Rassvet module's Earth-facing port and re-dock at the port vacated by the ATV.

 

Yurchikhin's crew is scheduled to head home Nov. 11. They will be replaced by Soyuz TMA-11M commander Mikhail Tyurin, NASA astronaut Richard Mastracchio and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, who will dock at the Rassvet module. Tyurin and Wakata are long-duration station veterans while Mastracchio is a veteran of three station assembly missions aboard the space shuttle.

 

Normally, one three-person crew departs the station before their replacements arrive. But in this case, the Soyuz TMA-11M launch was moved up so the crew could bring an Olympic torch to the lab complex heralding the 2014 winter games in Soichi, Russia.

 

This will be only the second time in station history that three Soyuz spacecraft and nine crew members have been aboard the lab complex at the same time. In a coincidence, Wakata was aboard during the earlier gathering in 2009. He will become the first Japanese station commander in March.

 

Kotov and Ryazanskiy plan to take the torch outside during a spacewalk planned for Nov 9. The torch then will be brought back inside and will return to Earth with Yurchikhin, Parmitano and Nyberg.

 

Between the Tyurin crew's arrival Nov. 7 and the Yurchikhin crew's departure four days later, the space station will host nine crew members, the most since the shuttle program's retirement. The expanded crew will have a busy few days with the torch spacewalk, a change-of-command ceremony, a joint crew news conference and, for three of them, packing for the trip home.

 

In a pre-launch news conference Tuesday, Kotov said he and Ryazanskiy planned to take a moment during their spacewalk to talk about the torch and its significance.

 

"Our goal here is to make it look spectacular, we would like to showcase our Olympic torch in space," he said. "So we will try to do it in a beautiful manner, I think a lot of people, actually millions of people, will be able to see it live on TV. They will see the station, they will see how we work during our spacewalks. But of course, there will be a couple of surprises."

 

Kotov and his crewmates will still be on board when the games begin in March. He said Russian flight controllers promised to uplink events the crew might ask to see.

 

"Of course, we won't have enough time to see everything," he said. "We'll be supporting our national teams and we'll be supporting those athletes who we like most. I'm sure that our colleagues on board the ISS will do the same and during dinners, we will be exchanging our impressions and our feelings about that."

 

Two weeks after Yurchikhin, Parmitano and Nyberg depart aboard their Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft, NASA and Russia will mark the 15th anniversary of the launch of the station's first module, the Russian-built, NASA-financed Functional Cargo Block, also known as Zarya.

 

The supply and propulsion module was launched atop a Proton rocket on Nov. 20, 1998, followed two weeks later by launch of the first U.S. module, the multi-port Unity connecting node, aboard a space shuttle.

 

Five days after the anniversary, on Nov. 25, an unmanned Russian Progress is scheduled for launch to carry supplies to the station and to test new hardware used for automated rendezvous and dockings. As part of the testing, the Progress will carry out a flyby of the station on Nov. 27 before docking at the aft port of the Zvezda command module two days later.

 

NASA plans to close out the year with launch of an Orbital Sciences Corp. Cygnus cargo ship on Dec. 8, followed by a Russian spacewalk on Dec. 16.

 

Hopkins said he looked forward to the busy schedule.

 

"We have over 200 experiments that are going to get executed on the station while we're up there and that's certainly the primary role of the station and that's going to be very exciting to be a part of," Hopkins said. "A lot of the other work we do is just keeping the station running, routine maintenance.

 

"We've got several visiting vehicles that are coming up, those are the supply vehicles, commercial vehicles, that should be arriving. And then, of course, the torch arriving. That's going to be extremely exciting.

 

"We're going to have nine people on board the station at that time and there's going to be an EVA associated with that that's going to take the torch outside," he continued. "So it'll be very, very exciting, it's an honor to be able to participate in such an event."

 

Along with his science and maintenance chores, Hopkins, a devoted weight lifter and physical fitness buff, will participate in NASA's "Train Like an Astronaut" program, posting regular updates and videos of his exercise aboard the station, along with tips from astronaut trainers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

 

"I'm hoping to reach anybody and everybody I can with the physical fitness piece of it," he said. "For me, for my family, fitness, exercise, sports, it all plays a huge role. It's all about balance, too. So the work aspect, the family aspect, the rest, the exercise, it all needs to balance out.

 

"I'd love to reach kids, because kids that start out with a healthy lifestyle, with exercise, with sports, are going to turn into adults that do the same thing. If I can reach adults and get them excited about exercising again ,or get them beyond that second week New Year's resolution to continue, I would love to do that."

 

At the same time, he said, "I'm hoping to get people excited about space and what we're doing up there."

 

Soyuz Mission Delivers Three to Space Station

Opens Door for Resumption of Cygnus Activities

 

Mark Carreau - Aviation Week

 

A U. S. and Russian Soyuz crew docked with the International Space Station late Sept. 25, successfully completing a third consecutive "express." four orbit launch-to-rendezvous transit to restore the orbiting science lab to six astronaut status.

 

The Soyuz TMA-10M delivered Mike Hopkins, Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy, for a six month tour of duty as the capsule carried out an automated docking with the station's Russian segment Poisk module at 10:45 p.m., EDT.

 

The "express" mission opens the door anew for Orbital Sciences' Cygnus re-supply capsule to make a second attempt to rendezvous and berth with the space station as soon as Sept. 28.

 

Orbital launched Cygnus on Sept. 18 with a non critical 1,543 pound cargo of crew Soyuz TMA-10M crew was greeted by ISS Expedition 37 commander Fyodor Yurchikin, NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano.  The TMA-10M fliers replace U. S. and Russian astronauts Chris Cassidy, Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin, who descended to Earth on Sept. 10, following 5 1/2 months in orbit

 

The TMA-10M flight, like Soyuz crew transport missions launched  in late May and March followed the "express" four orbit, six hour launch to docking timeline rather than the traditional two day transit.

 

Kotov, Ryazanskiy and Hopkins lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Sept. 25 at 4:58 p.m., EDT, or Sept. 26 at 2:58 a.m., local time, climbing to orbit under clear but darkened skies. Solar arrays and KURS system navigation antennas deployed normally and four rendezvous maneuvers followed over the next two hours to set up the accelerated final approach and docking.

 

Hopkins, a U. S. Air Force colonel and flight test engineer, is the first of NASA's 2009 class of astronauts to launch. Kotov, a physician and colonel in the Russian Air Force, logged 359 days in orbit during ISS missions in 2010 and 2007. Ryazanskiy, a biochemist who joined Russia's cosmonaut corps in 2003, is also flying for the first time.

 

Their tour of duty is expected to include three Russian spacewalks for the installation of science equipment and external maintenance; visits by a Cygnus cargo craft in December as well as  SpaceX Dragon and Russian Progress freighters early next year.

 

The newly fortified Expedition 37 crew, led by Yurchikhin, has a research agenda that includes nearly 120 experiments in human health, technology demonstrations, biology and the other physical sciences as well as Earth observations

 

One of the spacewalks by Kotov and Ryazanski, tentatively planned for Nov. 9, will expose an Olympic touch to space a few days before it returns to Earth with Yurchikhin, Nyberg and Parmitano.

 

The space  torch will then make its way to the 2014 Winter Game scheduled for Soichi, Russia in February.

 

Spacecraft delivers 3 to orbiting space station

 

Nataliya Vasilyeva - Associated Press

 

A Soyuz capsule carrying three astronauts successfully docked with the International Space Station early Thursday, bringing the size of the crew at the orbiting outpost to six. The new crew's six-month mission will include a spacewalk with the Olympic torch.

 

American Michael Hopkins and Russians Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazansky traveled six hours in the capsule from the Russian-leased launch pad in Kazakhstan before linking up with the space station's Russian Poisk research module at 6.45 a.m. Moscow time (0245GMT).

 

Kotov is the most experienced member of the crew with two previous six-month missions in space under his belt, while Hopkins and Ryazansky are both on their first missions.

 

The incoming crew entered the station nearly two hours after the docking, where they were welcomed by Russia's Fyodor Yurchikhin, NASA's Karen Nyberg and Italy's Luca Parmitano, who have been on the orbiting lab since May and will be returning to Earth in November.

 

Kotov and Ryazansky will have the honor of taking the Olympic torch into open space in November as part of the relay of the Olympic flame ahead of the Winter Games being held in Russia's Sochi in February. The torch will not be lit however, because of safety concerns. It will only arrive at the station in November with the next mission.

 

Shortly after entering the station, Hopkins, Kotov and Ryazansky had a chat via a video-link with their families back at the Baikonur launch pad where they had seen them off more than eight hours before.

 

Radiant but visibly tired, the astronauts were yawning as they were talking to their families. They had been up for about 20 hours.

 

Hopkins' mother described the launch as a "heart-stopping experience."

 

"It was a pretty good ride, mom. It was a lot of fun," Hopkins replied in the live broadcast on NASA TV.

 

Joint U.S.-Russian crew reaches space station

 

Irene Klotz - Reuters

 

A Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday to deliver three new crew members to the International Space Station.

 

The Soyuz rocket and capsule lifted off at 4:58 p.m. EDT on an express route to the station, which orbits about 250 miles above Earth.

 

Less than six hours after liftoff, veteran Russian commander Oleg Kotov and rookies Sergey Ryazanskiy of Russia and Michael Hopkins of the United States reached the outpost, a $100 billion project of 15 nations. Only two other crews have made the journey as quickly. Previous Soyuz capsules took two days of orbital maneuvers to reach the station.

 

The arrival of Kotov, Ryazanskiy and Hopkins returns the station to its full, six-member live-aboard crew. Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano have been running the station on their own since September 10.

 

The skeleton crew was to have overseen the arrival of a commercial cargo ship on a test flight to the station this week.

 

But a software problem left the unmanned Cygnus freighter unable to receive navigation data properly from the station, delaying its arrival until no earlier than Saturday to avoid conflicting with the Soyuz's berthing. Typically, at least 48 hours are needed between spacecraft dockings.

 

The cargo ship, built and launched by Orbital Sciences with backing from NASA, blasted off aboard an Antares rocket on September 18 from a new launch pad on the Virginia coast.

 

"As a crew we're very excited to be up there when Cygnus rendezvous and docks and (we're) looking forward to opening that hatch," Hopkins said on Tuesday during a prelaunch press conference.

 

Hopkins and Ryazanskiy are making their first flights. Kotov, who will take over command of the station when Yurchikhin leaves in November, has made two previous long-duration missions on the station.

 

During their five-month stay, Kotov and Ryazanskiy are scheduled to make three spacewalks, the first of which will include taking an unlighted Olympic torch outside the airlock to promote the Sochi Olympic Games in Russia, which open in February 2014.

 

"Our goal here is to make it look spectacular," Kotov, speaking through a translator, told reporters.

 

"We'd like to showcase our Olympic torch in space. We will try to do it in a beautiful manner. Millions of people will see it live on TV and they will see the station and see how we work," Kotov said.

 

The torch is scheduled to be delivered to the station on November 6 by the next crew launching to the outpost. Yurchikhin, Nyberg and Parmitano will then bring it back to Earth when they return home four days later so the traditional torch relay can continue.

 

"Unfortunately we cannot light it in space so we will simply take it to space and take pictures and some video with the station and the Earth in the background," Ryazanskiy said in a prelaunch NASA interview.

 

An Olympic torch previously flew aboard NASA's now-retired space shuttle Atlantis prior to the 1996 Olympics.

 

Soyuz arrives safely at ISS

Crew takes fast lane to station

 

James Dean - Florida Today

 

The International Space Station has doubled its occupancy to six with the safe arrival late Wednesday of NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins and two Russian cosmonauts.

 

Less than six hours after launching from Kazakhstan, the Soyuz spacecraft carrying Hopkins, Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy pulled into the outpost's Poisk docking port at 10:45 p.m. EDT, a few minutes earlier than planned.

 

"Contact and capture," NASA TV commentator Josh Byerly confirmed, as the two vehicles flew 261 miles above the Pacific Ocean west of Lima, Peru.

 

The docking completed the third express ride by an ISS-bound crew, known as a four-orbit rendezvous. The trip typically used to take two days.

 

After pressurization of a vestibule and leak checks, hatches between the station and Soyuz are scheduled to open around 12:25 a.m. Thursday.

 

The new crew will be welcomed by three Expedition 37 members who have been on the station since May: American Karen Nyberg, Italian Luca Parmitano and Russian Fyodor Yurchikhin.

 

Hopkins, Kotov and Ryazanskiy expect to return home in March.

 

They blasted off at 4:58 p.m. EDT Wednesday atop a Soyuz-FG rocket from the same Baikonur Cosmodrome pad that launched Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin.

 

It was the first launch for rookies Hopkins and Ryazanskiy. Kotov is beginning his third tour on the ISS, which he'll take command of in November.

 

With their safe arrival, ISS managers will now plan a time for a new U.S. resupply ship to berth at the outpost.

 

Orbital Sciences Corp.'s unmanned Cygnus had to postpone a rendezvous last weekend due to a software glitch and wait until after the Soyuz flight to make an approach.

 

That is now possible this weekend.

 

In November, a third Soyuz should arrive, briefly bringing the crew to nine.

 

That will give Russia an opportunity to send an Olympic torch to orbit as part of its build-up to hosting the Winter Games in February.

 

Another Cygnus could arrive in December, followed by a SpaceX Dragon next year.

 

In addition to handling visiting vehicles, the Expedition 37/38 crew hopes to average more than 40 hours a week of science research.

 

US-Russian Crew Arrives at Space Station After 6-Hour Flight

 

Mike Wall - Space.com

 

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying an American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts linked up with the International Space Station late Wednesday, doubling the orbiting lab's crew size after an express trip to orbit.

 

A Soyuz capsule carrying two Russian cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut arrived at the station at 10:45 p.m. EDT (0245 GMT Thursday), less than six hours after launching into space from Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan. The two spacecraft were sailing 261 miles (420 kilometers) over the southern Pacific Ocean, just off the coast of Peru, during their rendezvous.

 

The hatches between the two spacecraft are slated to open at 12:25 a.m. (0425 GMT) Thursday, at which point cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy and NASA's Michael Hopkins can join the three crewmembers of the current Expedition 37 already aboard the $100 billion orbiting lab

 

Tonight's docking marks the third visit to the International Space Station for Kotov, who served as commander of Expedition 23 in 2010. But Ryazanskiy is a spaceflight newbie, as is Hopkins, who is now the first member of NASA's 2009 astronaut class to reach orbit.

 

"I'm certainly very honored and feel very lucky to be the first from my class to launch into space, but I think it's very exciting for my classmates as well because this is the start of our time," Hopkins told SPACE.com before launch. "I look forward to watching the rest of my classmates in the future launch to space as well."

 

Kotov, Ryazanskiy and Hopkins will live aboard the orbiting lab until mid-March. Their three Expedition 37 crewmates — cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg and Italian spaceflyer Luca Parmitano — have been in orbit since late May and are scheduled to return to Earth on Nov. 11.

 

When that happens, Kotov will become commander of the station's new Expedition 38, taking the reins from Yurchikhin.

 

Orbital Sciences holds a $1.9 billion NASA deal to make eight robotic supply runs to the space station using Cygnus and the company's Antares rocket. The duo launched together for the first time on Sept. 18, with the goal of showing that Orbital is ready to begin its contracted cargo missions.

 

The original plan called for Cygnus to arrive at the station on Sept. 22, but a software glitch and tonight's Soyuz docking pushed things back a bit.

 

NASA also signed a $1.6 billion dollar cargo deal with California-based SpaceX, which has already completed two of its expected 12 supply flights using the unmanned Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket.

 

Olympic Torch one step closer to first spacewalk as the astronauts set to carry it into the void arrive at International Space Station

 

Damien Gayle - London Daily Mail

 

Three astronauts successfully reached the International Space Station this morning, where their six-month mission will include taking the Olympic torch on its first spacewalk.

 

The arrival of American Michael Hopkins and Russians Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazansky after a six-hour journey returns the station to its full, six-member live-aboard crew.

 

Cosmonauts Kotov and Ryazansky will next month carry the Olympic torch into open space as part of the relay of the Olympic flame ahead of February's Winter Games in the Russian resort of Sochi.

 

The torch will be carried up to the space station with another mission next month. But safety concerns mean they will not be able to light it when they carry it into the void.

 

The Olympic torch travels through routes that symbolise human achievement.

 

One previously flew aboard NASA's now-retired space shuttle Atlantis prior to the 1996 Olympics, but it has never before been carried outside a spacecraft.

 

Before that passing milestone however, Hopkins, Kotov and Ryazanskiy face more immediate problems.

 

The skeleton crew they are reinforcing was to have overseen the arrival of a commercial cargo ship carrying vital food supplies to the station this week.

 

But a software problem left the unmanned Cygnus freighter unable to receive navigation data properly from the station, delaying the arrival of its 1,300lbs of food and clothes until no earlier than Saturday.

 

The hold up was necessary to avoid a clash with the arrival of the Soyuz capsule carrying the three new crew members. Typically, at least 48 hours are needed between spacecraft dockings.

 

The Cygnus cargo ship, built and launched by Orbital Sciences with backing from NASA, blasted off aboard an Antares rocket on September 18 from a new launch pad on the Virginia coast.

 

Orbital Sciences said the two orbiting vessels established direct contact early on Sunday, but the Cygnus rejected some of the data, which interrupted the entire rendezvous.

 

The problem was traced to a difference in data format in the navigation systems of the two spacecraft, the company said.

 

Hopkins, Kotov and Ryazanskiy blasted in a Soyuz capsule off from a launchpad in Kazakhstan last night, reaching the space station's Russian Poisk research module at 2.45am GMT.

 

They were welcomed by Russia's Fyodor Yurchikhin, NASA's Karen Nyberg and Italy's Luca Parmitano, who have been on the orbiting lab since May.

 

Despite the restocking problems, new arrival Hopkins was upbeat about his mission.

 

During a prelaunch press conference on Tuesday he said: 'As a crew we're very excited to be up there when Cygnus rendezvous and docks and (we're) looking forward to opening that hatch.'

 

He and Ryazanskiy are space rookies making their first flights. Kotov, who will take over command of the station when his compatriot Yurchikhin leaves in November, has made two previous long-duration missions on the station.

 

During their five-month stay, Kotov and Ryazanskiy are scheduled to make three spacewalks, the first of which will include taking the unlit Olympic torch outside the airlock.

 

'Our goal here is to make it look spectacular,' Kotov, speaking through a translator, told reporters.

Kotov added: 'We'd like to showcase our Olympic torch in space. We will try to do it in a beautiful manner. Millions of people will see it live on TV and they will see the station and see how we work.'

 

The torch is scheduled to be delivered to the station on Nov. 6 by the next crew launching to the outpost. Yurchikhin, Nyberg and Parmitano will then bring it back to Earth when they return home four days later so the traditional torch relay can continue.

 

'Unfortunately we cannot light it in space so we will simply take it to space and take pictures and some video with the station and the Earth in the background,' Ryazanskiy said in a prelaunch NASA interview.

 

Shortly after entering the station today, Hopkins, Kotov and Ryazansky had a chat via a video-link with their families back at the Baikonur launch pad where they had seen them off more than eight hours before.

 

Radiant but visibly tired, the astronauts were yawning as they were talking to their families. They had been up for about 20 hours.

 

Hopkins' mother described the launch as a 'heart-stopping experience.'

 

'It was a pretty good ride, mom. It was a lot of fun,' Hopkins replied in the live broadcast on NASA TV.

 

Oldest ISS Element Cleared Until 2028

 

Frank Morring, Jr. - Aviation Week

 

Engineers in Russia believe the Zarya cargo module, the oldest pressurized module on the International Space Station, can last in orbit until about 2028 – twice its design service life – despite microcracking in the hull during pressure and loads cycling of a test article on the ground.

 

Khrunichev State Research & Production Space Center has conducted two years of tests on the engineering hardware used to qualify the flight-version Zarya for its 15-year guaranteed service life, according to company official Sergey K. Shaevich. The results, he said during a presentation at the International Astronautical Congress here, further validated the original design and demonstrated that the module can continue to function in space.

 

That is good news for those who advocate keeping the station's unique research capabilities in operation as long as possible. Zarya was launched on a Proton rocket in November 1998, and formed the basis for the ISS when assembly began with the arrival of the first U.S. node on the space shuttle Endeavour the following month.

 

Zarya was jointly funded by NASA and Russia, and received extensive testing before it was launched. Shaevich said Khrunichev retained all of the test facilities – including electrical, fuel-transfer and a "strength article" for pressure cycling – for troubleshooting once the module was in orbit. That same hardware has been used in the certification tests for the extended flight.

 

Of particular importance was the ground hardware that duplicates equipment on orbit that cannot be replaced easily because it is welded in place or inaccessible. Zarya continues to carry reserve fuel for the station propulsion system in the Zvezda service module, and Khrunichev used a thermal vacuum chamber for "accelerated-aging tests" with propellant to requalify the fuel-handling hardware on orbit, Shaevich said.

 

"All tests and analysis confirmed irreplaceable pneumohydraulic units and rubber and plastic sealants life extension until 2028," he said.

 

After the strength article was subjected to pressure cycling and simulated bending loads around the docking ports at each end, engineers found microcracks in the aluminum hull. The cracks did not grow under additional testing, and the hull was cleared for mechanical loads. However, Shaevich said Khrunichev has some ideas about how to repair the cracks should it become necessary, based on inflight refurbishment done on Soviet-era Salyut stations.

 

Some of the recertification work was based on the Komplast space-exposure experiment removed from Zarya's hull by spacewalking cosmonauts and returned to Earth after 12 years in space. Shaevich said the space data validated predictions of aging effects. The three-layer, debris-protection shields on Zarya suffered some degradation in the glues used to hold it together, but ballistic testing on the ground  and reanalysis of the debris environment the module faces allowed the shielding to be cleared as well.

 

NASA has conducted similar work on the Unity node delivered by Endeavour to become the first U.S. element on the station. Built by Boeing, it was reinforced before launch to address cracking that developed in pressure testing, and has also been certified for extended service in orbit. In general, station planners are working on the  assumption that the facility can be kept in orbit at least until 2028 with appropriate maintenance, repairs and upgrades.

 

Shutdown means NASA furloughs

Almost all of space agency's workers would feel impact

 

Ledyard King – USA Today (Gannett News Service Washington Bureau)

 

Almost all of NASA's 18,000 employees, including most of Kennedy Space Center's roughly 2,000 civil servants, face unpaid furloughs if the federal government shuts down next week.

 

Contingency plans first drawn up two years ago when NASA and other federal agencies were on the brink of a government shutdown suggest fewer than 3 percent of agency workers would be allowed to stay on the job because they're considered important to protecting lives and property.

 

That's lower than the percentage of workers who would be allowed to continue working at many other federal agencies. At those agencies, most employees would be deemed essential and exempted from furloughs.

 

The government will shut down unless Republicans and Democrats can bridge differences on a spending bill that funds government operations into fiscal 2014, which begins Tuesday.

 

A USA Today analysis of contingency plans drawn up by agencies preparing for a shutdown in 2011 found that 59 percent of non-defense federal workers would go to work as usual. In 2011, Congress reached an 11th-hour compromise to keep the government running.

 

The plans, filed with the Office of Management and Budget, showed that workers exempt from a shutdown furlough include political appointees, law enforcement personnel, most overseas foreign service officers and anyone else deemed necessary for health or safety of people or property.

 

That last category can account for a broad cross-section of federal employees, because positions that support a key function — such as information technology, security or even legal help — are also protected.

 

A NASA spokesman said Tuesday the agency is still assessing the potential impact of a shutdown.

 

A shutdown would have broad ramifications nationally: National parks would close, passports would no longer be processed, new applications for Medicare and Social Security would not be accepted, and there would be other interruptions of government services.

 

Hundreds of thousands of federal workers, including NASA employees, would lose income until lawmakers agree at least on a temporary spending bill. The bill is being held up because Republicans insist it include no money to implement the 2010 health care reform law, a condition Democrats adamantly oppose.

 

According to an internal memo NASA Chief Financial Officer Elizabeth Robinson provided budget officials in 2011, the agency directed its centers to "narrowly construe" guidelines on whether to exempt workers from furloughs.

 

Factors they could consider included "the hazardous character of certain NASA operations, the threat to property involved in failure to provide the minimum level of security, safety and reliability, the preservation of government assets (such as) orbiting spacecraft... and the safety of human life," according to Robinson's memo.

 

Exempt workers included those involved in tracking and supporting the International Space Station and operating satellites, conducting research activities where an interruption would cause "serious damage to property," and assisting in space launches such as the shuttle program, which ended later that year.

 

Of NASA's 19,014 workers at the time, only 481 — or about 2.5 percent — would have avoided furloughs. Another 1,823 would have been on call. The agency's most recent head count shows 18,069 employees.

 

Federal agencies appear to have wide latitude in deciding who can be exempted. Many are expected to go as far as they can to keep workers on the job, according to observers and USA Today's analysis.

 

A receptionist responsible for picking up sensitive mail deliveries could be considered essential and exempted from furlough. Meteorologists at the National Weather Service would continue to issue weather forecasts because they're necessary for aviation safety.

 

But while many NASA scientists could be idled, ocean and atmospheric scientists who don't produce daily forecasts also would continue to work in order to maintain "crucial long-term historical climate records," according to the Department of Commerce's plan.

 

The two government agencies responsible for interpreting the law on who's essential and who's not — the Office of Legal Counsel and the Comptroller General — often give inconsistent advice, said Ray Natter, a former deputy chief counsel of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

 

Roy Meyers, a professor at the University of Maryland-Baltimore who teaches federal budgeting, said he's not surprised to see agencies use as much flexibility as they can.

 

"To the extent that agencies are taking advantage of the vague guidance OMB has given them, it doesn't bother me a bit," he said. "What the agencies are being told to do (is) an asinine thing."

 

Musk calls out Blue Origin, ULA for 'phony blocking tactic' on shuttle pad lease

 

Dan Leone - Space News

 

SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk lashed out at Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance Tuesday night, accusing the two companies of trying to stymie SpaceX's expansion plans with a "phony blocking tactic" that has stalled the lease of an old space shuttle launch pad SpaceX wants to take over.

 

Both SpaceX and Blue Origin want to lease Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., from NASA. Blue Origin, a 13-year-old startup backed by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, gave NASA a proposal in July for converting the pad "into a commercial spaceport available to all launch companies," the company's president, Rob Meyerson, told SpaceNews in an email Wednesday. SpaceX, in contrast, proposed an exclusive-use lease for its Falcon family of rockets, but said late last week it would be open to sharing the pad with other users.

 

SpaceX's apparent about-face came three weeks after Blue Origin filed a protest with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), preventing NASA from leasing the pad until the dispute is resolved. The GAO has until Dec. 12 to issue a ruling; NASA — eager to save the $1.2 million annual maintenance cost — had been hoping to lease the pad by Oct. 1, the start of the government's 2014 budget year.

 

Blue Origin's bid to transform Pad 39A into a commercial spaceport has received backing from several U.S. lawmakers — including Washington's Patty Murray, the senior senator from Blue Origin's home state — who have written NASA Administrator Charles Bolden in support of turning the idle shuttle pad into a multi-user facility. United Launch Alliance (ULA), the Denver-based Boeing and Lockheed Martin joint venture that launches the vast majority of U.S. government payloads, also weighed in, telling SpaceNews in July it planned to "continue to share our technical expertise in launch infrastructure with Blue Origin to enable their leadership to manage the asset for multi-user capability, for which ULA could be one of the users."

 

SpaceX's bid for Pad 39A received an implicit assist from Florida's congressional delegation this month when U.S. Sens. Bill Nelson (D) and Marco Rubio (R) and all 27 of the state's House members wrote Bolden following Blue Origin's Sept. 3 GAO protest to encourage the NASA boss to ignore outside pressure in selecting a caretaker.

 

SpaceX currently launches its Falcon 9 rocket from nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., and is preparing to conduct its first launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., as soon as Saturday.

 

On Friday, SpaceX appeared to change its position on Pad 39A exclusivity, emailing reporters to say NASA and other launch providers would be welcome to use the launch complex if SpaceX gets the five-year lease.

 

In an email response Tuesday night to a SpaceNews query, Musk elaborated on the reasons for the pivot while taking a swipe at Blue Origin.

 

"[Blue Origin] has not yet succeeded in creating a reliable suborbital spacecraft, despite spending over 10 years in development," Musk wrote. "If they do somehow show up in the next  5 years with a vehicle qualified to NASA's human rating standards that can dock with the Space Station, which is what Pad 39A is meant to do, we will gladly accommodate their needs. Frankly, I think we are more likely to discover unicorns dancing in the flame duct."

 

In his Wednesday statement to SpaceNews, Meyerson made no mention of Blue Origin using Pad 39A to conduct its own orbital launches.

 

"We have committed significant funds to enable launches by other users beginning as early as 2015 and have garnered interest and support from nearly all U.S. commercial launch providers" Meyerson wrote. "We look forward to working with NASA and the launch community to make fullest commercial use of [Launch Complex] 39A."

 

Blue Origin received two rounds of funding from NASA's Commercial Crew Program to work on a biconic capsule that would launch atop ULA's Atlas 5 rocket. Blue Origin sat out the third round, which split $1.2 billion between SpaceX's Falcon 9-launched Dragon capsule and Atlas 5-launched entries from Boeing and Sierra Nevada.

 

SpaceX began transporting cargo to and from the space station for NASA in 2012 under a 12-flight, $1.6 billion contract awarded in 2008. In addition to its effort to transform Dragon into a U.S. alternative to Russian Soyuz vehicles for ferrying astronauts to the space station, SpaceX is developing a rocket called Falcon Heavy with an eye toward taking Pentagon business away from ULA.

 

In his email to SpaceNews, Musk interpreted ULA's backing of Blue Origin's Pad 39A proposal in the context of the increasingly fierce SpaceX-ULA rivalry.

 

"I can't say for sure whether [Blue Origin's] action stems from malice. No such doubt exists about ULA's motivation," he wrote.

 

ULA declined to comment on Musk's barb, but reiterated the company's stance on the launch pad.

 

"NASA's LC-39 is a great national asset and should be utilized to preserve the most flexibility and accommodate multiple launch providers," ULA spokeswoman Jessica Rye wrote Wednesday in an email. "A multi-user pad should be embraced by all the potential launch providers because it enables our country to be more competitive and better utilize key infrastructure."

 

Musk's email is reproduced below in its entirety.

 

From a SpaceX standpoint, we view [Blue Origin] and [United Launch Alliance's] action as a phony blocking tactic and an obvious one at that. BO has not yet succeeded in creating a reliable suborbital spacecraft, despite spending over 10 years in development. It is therefore unlikely that they will succeed in developing an orbital vehicle that will meet NASA's exacting standards in the next 5 years, which is the length of the lease. That said, I can't say for sure whether [Blue Origin's] action stems from malice. No such doubt exists about ULA's motivation.

 

However, rather than fight this issue, there is an easy way to determine the truth, which is simply to call their bluff. If they do somehow show up in the next  5 years with a vehicle qualified to NASA's human rating standards that can dock with the Space Station, which is what Pad 39A is meant to do, we will gladly accommodate their needs. Frankly, I think we are more likely to discover unicorns dancing in the flame duct.

 

Sound Check: Sarah Brightman has her head in space these days

 

Gary Graff - Oakland Press

 

Sarah Brightman is a space cadet. Literally.

 

The classically trained British singer and theater star is going through training in Russia for a proposed 2015 mission to the International Space Station via the private Space Adventures Ltd.

 

She's gone through some physical and psychological training already in Russia and reports that "the journey so far has been absolutely amazing, better than I ever expected I'd do. It's been very inspirational to me as a musician and a creator, and ... just knowing you're a very healthy person at the end of the day is nice."

 

Brightman, 53, says he has another six months of rigorous training ahead and cautions that "anything can happen between now and then," but she's allowing herself to think about projects she might do while in orbit.

 

"People who go up, especially in the private sector, all do something they're good at or interested in," Brightman says. "Obviously I'm a singer. I've asked astronauts, and they've said it's perfectly possible to sing up there. Everyone's got wonderful ideas about what I could do, but that's something you have to look into very carefully. So I'm not saying much till I know more."

 

Brightman acknowledges that the looming trip into outer space did make an impact on her latest album, "Dreamchaser," which came out earlier this year.

 

"I've always themed my albums, often by what's going on in my life and what I'm inspired by at that time," explains the singer, who co-wrote one of the album's tracks, "B612," as well as covering songs by Elbow, Sigur Ros, Sia Furler and, appropriately, Wings' "Venus and Mars."

 

"Because of my sort of interest in space and in the journey I may be taking, I just got inspired to put this album together, which is space-themed.

 

"I think as human beings, at different times in our lives we look up at the night sky and wonder what's out there, and even more so with the Hubble (space telescope) and everything that is happening at the moment. It helped inspire me to choose various pieces of music I thought were expensive, and some of them had deeper meanings. I just started (recording) and I didn't know where the journey was going to take me, but actually it was very beautiful."

 

Virgin Galactic: The Hour is Nigh For Tourists in Space

A convention in the desert for hundreds of paying customers ready to leave the Earth

 

Jeffrey Kluger - Time

 

 

The astronauts ate muffins in the Mojave Desert this morning. They needed a whole lot of muffins, mostly because there were a whole lot of astronauts—300 or so, enough that they had to be brought in aboard a caravan of busses.

 

They were here to see their spacecraft—known by the prosaic name SpaceShipTwo—and hear from the man who dreamed it up, known by the far more familiar name Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic, a company built from the ground up for the principle purpose of democratizing space.

 

The crowd that gathered to listen to Branson today was an eclectic group: There was John Graves of Bethesda, Md., a 59-year old grandfather and the CEO of Netcom, who wants to go into space for the famed "overview effect"—the ability to see the Earth in a way you never have before and perhaps appreciate it in a new way too.

 

Also here were longtime friends Tom Reuter and John Gardenhire of Denver, both 34, who admit that taking the risk of going to space—especially for a suborbital experience that will last only 15 minutes and set them back a cool $250,000—is not something they can justify rationally, and so they don't try.

 

Gardenhire bought his ticket first and effectively dared Reuter to join him. Reuter accepted the challenge. Here too, improbably, was Zanaib Azim, an 11-year-old Canadian girl of Pakistani descent. Assuming Virgin Galactic actually permits someone so young to fly, she is going up as early as 2015, when she'll be 13—a gift from her father, who brought her here today.

 

"We plan to put more people in space per year than the entire number of people who have ever gone before," says Branson. That existing population of space travelers stood at 530 as of the beginning of 2013—a big number to beat each year, but one Branson believes is in reach.

 

"We're doing this 50 years after NASA did it for the first time. We have much greater knowledge than was available back then."

 

'Future astronauts' told their time to fly is coming soon

 

Steven Mayer - Bakersfield Californian

 

 

 

Some of Virgin Galactic's early customers have waited seven years with the expectation that they would one day take the thrill ride of their lives to suborbital space.

 

More than 600 people have already plunked down thousands of dollars for tickets to board SpaceShipTwo, according to Virgin Galactic's website.

 

On Wednesday, about 400 of the aspiring citizen astronauts visited Virgin's massive hangar in eastern Kern County, where they heard company founder Sir Richard Branson and CEO George Whitesides assure them that their time to fly is drawing near.

 

"Welcome to the world's largest gathering, ever, of future astronauts," Branson said to the crowd gathered in Virgin's massive FAITH facility at Mojave Air and Space Port.

 

FAITH stands for Final Assembly Integration and Test Hangar.

 

"Many of us have been part of this project for several years," Whitesides said, "and today we believe we are truly in the final phase of preparations for commercial service."

 

Billed as the world's first commercial spaceline, Virgin Galactic is owned by Branson's Virgin Group and Abu Dhabi's Aabar Investments PJS.

 

The annual private customer event was dubbed "Your Flight DNA," and Branson said it "could well be the last major gathering of future astronauts before we finally start to make their dreams of space travel a reality."

 

But the dream of establishing commercial operations hasn't come as quickly as many had predicted, with production delays, cost overruns and a fuel tank explosion in 2008 that killed three workers.

 

But 2013 has brought two successful powered test flights and renewed predictions that Virgin could begin commercial operations as early as 2014.

 

On Wednesday, none of the delays seemed to bother the enthusiastic future astronauts, who received information on vehicle and rocket motor development and a showcase of SS2's cabin seat prototypes. They also had the chance to meet and mingle with the Virgin Galactic team.

 

If you want to go, you'd better start saving.

 

The cost of a ticket started at $200,000. But earlier this year, the price rose to $250,000.

 

Fuel for Georgia's space industry

 

Rick Badie (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

 

Welcome to the great space race. Georgia, Florida and Texas each hope to land SpaceX, a rocketship company that delivers cargo to the International Space Station. That company would be the first tenant of a proposed "spaceport" in coastal Georgia. For now, though, SpaceX founder Elon Musk calls Texas his top choice. Today, an advocate for space industry development in Georgia says we should be more competitive, while a Texan considers his state an ideal fit for the industry.

 

Expand Georgia's space business

 

Bob Scaringe (founder of the Georgia Space Working Group)

 

Private-sector space companies like SpaceX are launching commercial satellites and resupplying the International Space Station. SpaceX, a space transport company, is evaluating Georgia, Florida and Texas as the location for a $90 million launch site.

 

The Federal Aviation Administration has licensed 17 spaceports in seven different states, and they all would welcome the SpaceX investment. Yet Georgia state officials do not seem to see the opportunity other states see, despite having what has been described as the "best location for a spaceport in the country" — Camden County, in the southeast part of the state.

 

Georgia today has less than one-half of a percent market share of an $80 billion space industry. According to the Space Foundation, the commercial space industry is growing by 7 to 12 percent a year as part of a $304 billion global space industry. The U.S. space industry employs 250,000 direct employees and 750,000 indirect employees, according to the FAA. That being the case, every additional 1 percent market share of this $80 billion industry would mean $800 million of additional revenue to Georgia each year, as well as 2,500 direct jobs and 7,500 indirect jobs.

 

SpaceX engineers prefer to launch from Spaceport Georgia over water rather than over the heart of the U.S. from Texas. And they do not want to wait in line behind NASA and the Air Force to launch from Florida. Georgia could win the state competition. However, Florida and Texas have submitted economic incentive packages to Space X and have aggressively pursued the company at the executive level. Georgia has not yet submitted an offer, nor is it aggressively pursuing the business.

 

Recently, the One Georgia board turned down a grant request to fund an environmental study required by the FAA for licensing Spaceport Georgia. The state has left Camden County on its own to raise funds, navigate the FAA licensing process and mount a marketing campaign to attract Spaceport tenants. This is not the economic development taxpayers expect.

 

There is still time for state officials to lead the effort. There is still time to submit a competitive incentive package offer to SpaceX. There is still time to assist Camden County. There is still time for the private sector and the university system to encourage state officials to aggressively pursue this opportunity. Spaceport Georgia will create high-paying jobs, attract suppliers to local industrial parks and serve as a shot in the arm for the entertainment and lodging industries.

 

SpaceX would be a catalyst for a commercial space industry in this state and create a powerful Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) program for students. I urge Gov. Nathan Deal to become the first Georgia governor to develop this industry.

 

Our geographic location advantages are significant and can kick-start a fast-growing industry. As a commercial space industry engineer observed, "Spaceport Georgia in Camden County can be the best spaceport in the world, or the biggest mistake Georgia has made in generations if not developed."

 

Texas has the right stuff

 

Wayne Rast (legislative affairs director for the Texas Space Alliance)

 

Our colleagues in Florida and Georgia are enthusiastic, energetic and, in the case of Florida, very well-funded by their state. But in Texas, there are many advantages in the race to partner with exciting space companies, both established and new. They include a recognized home for risk-taking entrepreneurs, available advanced research, top universities and a readily available, world-class spaceflight operations workforce.

 

Florida and Georgia have some of those advantages, but none have them like Texas. Texas also has the trump card of location and geography. More on that later.

 

The first advantage is a second-to-none business climate, one that works with businesses to say "yes," not find ways to say "no." Our jobs and new-business creation during the last decade speaks to this truth. Business owners have been voting with their feet, and they are choosing Texas in record numbers. Texas has no income tax and has a very reasonable, sane regulatory and tort environment. That's coupled with a can-do spirit that supports dreams as big as Texas.

 

Groups like the Texas Space Alliance and others are working to make the environment even more conducive and profitable for space businesses, including space launch. Partners are coming together at all levels, from the governor's office and the Aerospace and Aviation Department. Far-sighted efforts like the recently announced application for spaceport status through the Houston Airport System for Ellington Field, close to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Johnson Space Center, show the wide interest level and vision being developed for Texas' space future. The effort has charged into high gear across Texas. Space businesses are taking note.

 

All space launch businesses are realizing their need for understanding every aspect of human spaceflight and mission control. The Johnson Space Center is the recognized world leader in such expertise, and the wealth of the benefits from close access are becoming evident.

 

However, the main reason why Texas may end up ahead in the launch business is because of the unavoidable rules of orbital mechanics. Increased north latitude requires more energy to reach earth orbit. For the same energy, more payload can be launched from Texas than any of the other proposed sites, which is critical. It is not a coincidence that a Brownsville location, the southernmost point of Texas, is the listed location for a launch site. Current government facilities being used or proposed around the Kennedy Space Center are located in mid-state Florida.

 

So while clearly multiple and varied spaceport launch locations are definitely in our nation's space future, we are proud that our Texas-sized efforts to attract space launch may likely be rewarded in the very near future. Texas is open for space business.

 

Former NASA astronaut joins Cianbro's board

 

Bangor Daily News

 

Cianbro on Tuesday announced that a former Navy combat pilot, NASA astronaut and former executive at Bechtel, a major defense contractor, had joined its board of directors.

 

James Van Hoften has had an impressive career, one that Peter Vigue, Cianbro's chairman and CEO, said the company will benefit from as it undertakes some initiatives that are new to the company.

 

"I believe the advice that we might get, and the awareness and the knowledge through the experiences he's had, can make us a better company," Vigue said in a statement.

 

Van Hoften, who prefers to be called by his NASA nickname "Ox," earned by virtue of his large frame, flew 60 combat missions as a Navy F-4 Phantom carrier pilot during the Vietnam War. After the war, he taught civil engineering at the University of Houston until being selected by NASA for the Space Shuttle program in 1978.

 

He served as a mission specialist on Challenger in 1984 and on Discovery in 1985. During the latter mission, Van Hoften became the first human to launch a satellite by hand, having spun and pushed a repaired communications satellite away from the orbiting space shuttle during a spacewalk.

 

Following his time at NASA, Van Hoften joined the Bechtel Corp., where he helped to establish the new defense and space business as a key component of the company.

 

"I was brought in to help diversify the company and develop new business lines," Van Hoften said of his time at Bechtel. "And we managed to do that. We managed to bring the company back. It's now 55,000 people and does $35 billion a year worth of revenue. It wasn't all me, of course. But it was valuable experience just to be a part of a group that grew out of that. And it's helpful just to have another set of eyes looking at Cianbro. It's valuable to be able to assess some of the opportunities that are out there and discuss it at a board level and decide whether certain opportunities are something we might want to do or not."

 

In a statement, Van Hoften said he was excited to join Cianbro's board.

 

"I think Cianbro looks like a company that's got a very healthy and robust history. And I look forward to being able to contribute what I can from the background that I have."

 

Apollo astronauts still have a problem - 45 years on

 

Jon White - New Scientist

 

Getting your name immortalised in the official map of celestial objects is something many Earthbound stargazers yearn for. But recent letters to New Scientist from two Apollo astronauts – including Apollo 13 crew member Jim Lovell – show that even blazing a trail into space and setting eyes on off-world features for the first time is no guarantee of success.

 

When Apollo 8 carried humans to orbit the moon for the first time in December 1968, crew members hoped they would get to pick the names of various lunar features, the letters reveal.

 

In one, the mission's lunar module pilot William Anders explains how he picked what he thought were appropriate craters. They were visible from their craft as they skimmed around the far side of the moon and it was the first time they had ever been seen.

 

He writes that his hope was they would be named after fellow crew members Frank Borman and Jim Lovell - later credited with the lines "Houston, we have a problem" during the Apollo 13 mission - and himself.

 

But three different craters ended up bearing their names, all out of sight of the flight path. In a follow-up letter, Lovell adds that his own suggested name for a lunar mountain was not officially sanctioned, either.

 

Anders says he made his feelings clear to the International Astronomical Union, responsible for naming celestial objects. "I wrote to the IAU to try to correct this and even included the flight map. I got brushed off by its bureaucracy – and never got my map back," he writes.

 

Both Lovell and Anders got in touch with us in the wake of our recent story on the IAU's decision to consider public input when naming newly discovered exoplanets and other space objects.

 

When contacted by New Scientist, the IAU said it had been unaware of the controversy and that it is hard to comment on the process given the time that has elapsed. It is possible that NASA, rather than the astronauts, communicated with the IAU over the choice of craters, said a spokesperson.

 

The letters are below:

 

From William Anders, Apollo 8 astronaut

 

I am pleased that the International Astronomical Union (IAU) has pledged to pay heed to public opinion when naming celestial bodies (24 August, p 7). I only wish it had done so sooner.

 

I was a member of the first crewed flight around the moon. In training, I chose names for a few of the unnamed craters along our orbital track. These included America, Kennedy and Houston, as well as the names of crew (Borman, Lovell and Anders) and NASA colleagues and leaders.

 

These were recorded on our lunar orbital map and used during the mission. I had picked a small but well-formed crater just over the lunar horizon to be "Anders", since it could not be seen from Earth and thus had not been named by early moon gazers. However, a spacecraft directly above the crater could see Earth and thus communicate with mission control.

 

I thought these names would have some priority, but when the IAU honoured our crew with crater names, it picked three craters that were not only well out of sight of our orbital track, but also in darkness at the time of our mission.

 

I wrote to the IAU to try to correct this and even included the flight map. I got brushed off by its bureaucracy – and never got my map back.

 

East Sound, Washington, US

 

From Jim Lovell, Apollo 8 astronaut

 

I agree with the views of my fellow Apollo 8 crew member William Anders on the naming of lunar landmarks (14 September, p 30). The International Astronomical Union (IAU) disregarded his suggestions, even though we discovered the craters on the far side of the moon.

 

On the near side of the moon, on the shore of the lunar plain known as the Sea of Tranquility, there is a small mountain that had no name. I observed it on Apollo 8 and called it Mount Marilyn, after my wife. It was used as the starting point for the descents of Apollo 10 and 11.

 

Although the IAU does not officially recognise the name, it is embedded in spaceflight history.

 

Lake Forest, Illinois, US

 

Al Rossiter Jr., award-winning UPI science writer, editor, dies

 

United Press International

 

Al Rossiter Jr., a longtime UPI science writer who became the wire service's executive editor, died in North Carolina, Duke University announced. He was 77.

 

Rossiter, who later served as director of the Duke News Service and assistant vice president at Duke University's office of public affairs until his retirement in 2001, died Monday at Vidant Beaufort Hospital in Washington, N.C., the university officials said.

 

Rossiter joined United Press International as a staff writer in 1959 and was appointed science editor in 1973. In his more than 33 years with the company, he covered the science beat, becoming a well-respected chronicler of the U.S. space program -- covering the Apollo moon flights, space shuttle flights and unmanned planetary missions.

 

He handled major stories such as the outbreak of Legionnaire's disease in Pennsylvania, then-pioneering artificial heart transplants and the Three Mile Island, Pa., nuclear accident. His beat took him to the South Pole, West Africa and the wreck site of the USS Monitor in the Atlantic Ocean.

 

He was named executive editor in 1987 after three top UPI editors left the company amid significant staffing cuts. Rossiter was serving as executive vice president, responsible for the company's editorial operations worldwide when he left UPI in 1992 for Duke.

 

Rossiter remained active at Duke after his retirement in 2001, working part-time as an associate dean in the school's Pratt School of Engineering.

 

Following his retirement, the school renamed its annual award for outstanding reporting on higher education in North Carolina, calling it the Green-Rossiter Award, to honor both Rossiter and William Green, who served as director of university relations and vice president at Duke.

 

His office at Duke featured a framed newspaper clipping of his account of the U.S. moon landing in 1969, the university said.

 

"As a NASA-obsessed kid, Al's voice coming over the radio was one I was very familiar with growing up -- and I was proud to work for the same enterprise as he did," fellow Unipresser Dan Rosenbaum said.

 

Rossiter received numerous awards for his reporting on space and science, including the Grady-Stack Medal in 1987 from the American Chemical Society. He was a finalist in NASA's Journalist-in-Space program.

 

"In addition to the many people who read Al Rossiter's reports through decades of the U.S. space program, many more listened to him describe it in radio news reports and his weekly and daily space and science features for [the wire service's] radio network," said Tom Foty, now with CBS Radio and formerly executive editor of UPI Radio in New York and Washington. "Al was a versatile multimedia reporter in the best sense, well before that description was commonly used."

 

"Al was not only a great reporter, Unipresser and person, but a stabilizing force in the waning days in the [Washington bureau]," said Dave Rosso, a former UPI reporter, now city editor with the Eureka (Calif.) Times-Standard.

 

Frank Csongos, former UPI Washington bureau chief and State Department correspondent, said: "Rossiter was a quintessential wire service man. Quick, accurate, no nonsense."

 

CBS News space consultant Bill Harwood called Rossiter "a great Unipresser and a helluva newsman. A gentleman journalist and the best mentor a young space reporter could ever have."

 

Former UPI Senior Editor Bruce Cook said Rossiter's UPI byline "was a familiar one around the world. I particularly remember his outstanding coverage of the space missions, including the first moon landing, Apollo 11 in 1969."

 

Rossiter's reporting earned him the 1987 Grady-Stack Medal from the American Chemical Society.

 

He was a member of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, National Association of Science Writers and the Education Writers Association. He served for five years as a member of the national advisory board of the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism at the University of Maryland and later was a member of the advisory board for the Graduate Medical Journalism Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

 

Born March 2, 1936, in Elmira, N.Y., Rossiter graduated from Rutgers University with a degree in geology in 1958.

 

He is survived by his wife Sylvia, two children and one grandchild.

 

A reception honoring Rossiter will be held Thursday at Hillside Funeral Service & Cremations in Washington, N.C.

 

END