The Exceptional Shuttle!

The American space capability has been exceptional over the past 50 years. For the last 30 years we have utilized the amazing shuttle. It has had its problems, most of them send flags up prior to loss of crew events and could have been corrected prior to LOC. The shuttle's capabilities are unique and none of the new designs, SLS, spaceX , etc don't come close to shuttle's capabilities and will not be operational for several years. The USA needs the capabilities of the shuttle NOW. Hubble & ISS are and will suffer without this capability. ISS may be deorbited by 2020. Hubble will need maintenance soon. This fact is obvious to everybody .

We have orbiters going to museums, lot of people seem to enjoy this, many showing their respect for the shuttle. But out of this large number, I would expect to see more with a passion like Cernan, the late Neil Armstrong, Kraft, Krantz, Crippen, and so on to retain this unique capability until we get a replacement. I would expect a capable journalist to ask the question, why are we scrapping this capability with no replacement.

Strangely , I don't see many bring up this issue. Don't see many former NASA /Contractor employees ranting & raving about this which seems strange. You see lots of ranting about free birth control, plus many similar topics.
I can only conclude that people just don't appreciate the significance of space capability. A former major aerospace manager told me it will take fear to stimulate the USA to maintain the required capability. Most do not believe it, China is making significant progress while we have many unrelated things on our minds.

Control of Space is critical to the USA , as Eugene Cernan & Harrison Schmitt have addressed.

The other day on twitter , I ask an Astronaut, why we got rid of our capability & what he thought about our loss. His answer was--- NASA is decommissioning the shuttle.




Sent from my iPad

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STS-93 and the Flight Director Office | Wayne Hale's Blog

http://waynehale.wordpress.com/2013/09/30/sts-93-and-the-flight-director-office/


Sent from my iPad

Fwd: This Week in The Space Review - 2013 September 30

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: jeff@thespacereview.com (Jeff Foust)
Date: September 30, 2013 10:17:11 AM GMT-06:00
Subject: This Week in The Space Review - 2013 September 30
Reply-To: jeff@thespacereview.com

[ If you no longer wish to receive announcements from The Space Review,
please follow the instructions at the end of this message. ]


Welcome to this week's issue of The Space Review:


Super space Sunday
---
In the course of less than 12 hours on Sunday, a commercial spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station and two rockets successfully performed critical launches. Jeff Foust recounts the events of that busy day and their significance for those companies and others.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2375/1

Back to the Moon, commercially
---
Many Apollo-era astronauts have been skeptical of the potential of commercial human spaceflight, but one such astronaut has changed his mind. James Lovell describes why he now supports plans by Golden Spike to develop commercial human missions to the surface of the Moon.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2374/1

NASA tries to keep an asteroid mission in the bag
---
This week, NASA is hosting a workshop to discuss ideas for the agency's proposed Asteroid Redirect Mission submitted this summer. Jeff Foust reports on the progress NASA is making on the mission concept and the obstacles it faces selling the mission to the public and to Congress.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2373/1

Review: Russia in Space
---
More than two decades after the fall of the Soviet Union, is can still be difficult to keep track of Russia's space activities. Jeff Foust reviews a book that gives a detailed, and richly illustrated, look at Russia's past, present, and future human spaceflight plans.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2372/1


If you missed it, here's what we published in our previous issue:


When darkness falls: the future of the US crewed spaceflight program
---
The future of NASA's human spaceflight program remains uncertain as the agency, Congress, and others debate destinations and deadlines. Roger Handberg argues that, if the program is to have a future, it will require much different approaches to cooperation and funding than in the past.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2371/1

Commercial crew prepares for its next phase
---
As three companies continue work on development of commercial crew transportation systems, NASA is preparing to release a call for proposals for the program's next phase. Jeff Foust reports on the status of the companies' work on crew transportation issues and the policy and budget issues the program is facing.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2370/1

Replacing the ISS
---
While NASA has hopes of extending the life of the ISS to as late as 2028, eventually the station will need to be retired. Eric Hedman examines what kind of station, or stations, should replace it, who should build it, and how.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2369/1

Review: My Brief History
---
Stephen Hawking is one of the world's most famous scientists, but someone perhaps better known for his disability than his research. Jeff Foust reviews Hawking's autobiography, where he discusses both his personal and professional lives.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2368/1


We appreciate any feedback you may have about these articles as well as
any other questions, comments, or suggestions about The Space Review.
We're also actively soliciting articles to publish in future issues, so
if you have an article or article idea that you think would be of
interest, please email me.

Until next week,

Jeff Foust
Editor, The Space Review
jeff@thespacereview.com
==
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To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@klx.com with the word
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For more information please visit http://www.thespacereview.com

Fwd: Garbage Trucks in Space? | Slamming an Asteroid into the Moon | SpaceX Launch

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: "SPACE.com" <space@email.techmedianetwork.com>
Date: September 30, 2013 1:03:54 PM GMT-06:00
To: Bobbygmartin1938@gmail.com
Subject: Garbage Trucks in Space? | Slamming an Asteroid into the Moon | SpaceX Launch
Reply-To: "SPACE.com" <space_6567B79F53A333CA949AC9DC3FE51D54@email.techmedianetwork.com>

Incredible Technology: How to Clean Up Dangerous Space Junk Future and current technologies could help engineers devise ways to mitigate possible damage from space junk collisions high above Earth's surface. Read more here.
NASA May Slam Captured Asteroid Into Moon (Eventually) Decades from now, people on Earth may be gearing up for an unprecedented celestial spectacle — the intentional smashing of an asteroid into the moon.
	Private Space Race: 2 Commercial Spaceships Now Available for Space Station Deliveries With the arrival of Orbital Sciences' Cygnus spacecraft Sept. 29, two private American companies are now responsible for hauling cargo to the International Space Station. How SpaceX fits in.
	SpaceX Launches Next-Generation Private Falcon 9 Rocket on Big Test Flight The private spaceflight company SpaceX launched the first of its next-generation Falcon 9 rockets Sunday (Sept. 29) in a major test flight full of space firsts. The launch also carried Canada's CASSIOPE space weather satellite into orbit.
	Private Cygnus Spacecraft Makes Historic 1st Rendezvous with Space Station The first-ever private Cygnus spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday (Sept. 29), capping a major test flight for commercial space company Orbital Sciences. See what it means for NASA and Orbital Sciences.
	How a Potential Government Shutdown Could Affect NASA A government shutdown on Tuesday (Oct. 1) would force NASA to cease most of its operations and furlough the vast majority of its employees, space agency officials say.
You've received this message because you've registered or accepted our invitation to receive email from SPACE.com To unsubscribe, click here Copyright © 2013 TechMediaNetwork.com ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 150 Fifth Avenue, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10011 2425 Lincoln Ave. Ogden, UT 84003

Fwd: Human Spaceflight (and Mars) News - September 30, 2013 and JSC Today

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
> Date: September 30, 2013 5:56:14 AM GMT-06:00
> To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
> Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight (and Mars) News - September 30, 2013 and JSC Today
>

> Hope you can join us this Thursday at Hibachi Grill for our monthly NASA Retirees Luncheon at 11:30.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Monday, September 30, 2013
>
> Read JSC Today in your browser
>
> View Archives
>
> JSC 2.0
>
> JSC External Homepage
>
> Inside JSC
>
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> NASA News
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> Connect
>
> Category Definitions
>
> JSC TODAY CATEGORIES
>
> Headlines
> - 13 Days of Safety - Day 4: Dumb Ways to Die
> - POWER of One Winners Announced
> - October Sustainability Opportunities
> - Center-Level IR&D Call for Solicitations NOW Open
> Jobs and Training
> - Job Opportunities
> - New Financial Wellness Webinars and Counseling
> Community
> - More Opportunities to Share Your Story
> - Astronomy Day
>
>
> Glow with the Flow
>
>
>
> Headlines
>
> 13 Days of Safety - Day 4: Dumb Ways to Die
> In 2011, at least 23 percent of auto collisions involved cell phones -- 1.3 million crashes.
>
> Five seconds is the minimum amount of time your attention is taken away from the road when you're texting and driving. Traveling at 55 mph, this equals driving the length of a football field without looking at the road.
>
> If you text and drive, you're 23 times more likely to crash. Other distracted driving activities: dialing - 2.8 times more likely; talking or listening - 1.3 times; and reaching for the device - 1.4 times.
>
> Of drivers ages 18 to 20 involved in car wrecks, 18 percent admitted to texting or talking at the time.
>
> Seventy-seven percent of young adults are very or somewhat confident that they can safely text while driving, and 55 percent of young adults claim it's easy to text while they drive. But it is a problem ... and adults do it, too.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJNR2EpS0jw
>
> Supricia Franklin/Angel Plaza x37817/x37305 http://sthday.jsc.nasa.gov/
>
> [top]
>
> POWER of One Winners Announced
> Congratulations to JSC's Newest POWER of One winners:
>
> GOLD: Joshua Byerly - AD9
>
> GOLD: Alberto F. Magh - OZ411
>
> SILVER: Daniel H. Garrison - KA
>
> SILVER: Collin Hieger - AO
>
> SILVER: Karon F. Porche - BJ111
>
> BRONZE: Erin P. Carpenter - DO511
>
> BRONZE: Brenda L. Smith - NA
>
> BRONZE: Larona K. Smith - SK
>
> The POWER of One award was established to award and recognize JSC employees for their exemplary performance and direct contributions to either their organization, JSC or NASA at the agency level. Congratulations and thank you for all your hard work! If you would like to nominate someone for POWER of One Award, click here.
>
> Jessica Ocampo 281-792-7804 http://powerofone.jsc.nasa.gov/
>
> [top]
>
> October Sustainability Opportunities
> What really is "sustainability?" Your JSC Sustainability champions can present an overview anytime to your technical or staff meetings. A description of our JSC Sustainability initiatives and October opportunities to get involved can be found on the JSC Sustainability home page. Scroll down to the "What's New in Sustainability" section for the October sustainability opportunities.
>
> Laurie Peterson x39845 http://jsc-web-www6.jsc.nasa.gov/ja/ja13/capp.cfm
>
> [top]
>
> Center-Level IR&D Call for Solicitations NOW Open
> The Fiscal Year 2014 fall Independent Research & Development (IR&D) Call for Solicitations is now open (as of 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 Human Spaceflight Architecture Team's needs performance targets.
>
>
> Guidance may be found at the link below.
>
> 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 \\Jsc-fs01\apo-strategic-investments\FY14_CL_IRD
>
> [top]
>
> Jobs and Training
>
> Job Opportunities
> Where do I find job opportunities?
>
> Both internal Competitive Placement Plan (CPP) and external JSC job announcements are posted on the Human Resources (HR) Portal and USAJOBS website. Through the HR portal, civil servants can view summaries of all the agency jobs that are currently open at: https://hr.nasa.gov/portal/server.pt/community/employees_home/239/job_opportu...
>
> To help you navigate to JSC vacancies, use the filter drop-down menu and select "JSC HR." The "Jobs" link will direct you to the USAJOBS website for the complete announcement and the ability to apply online. If you have questions about any JSC job vacancies, please call your HR representative.
>
> Lisa Pesak x30476
>
> [top]
>
> New Financial Wellness Webinars and Counseling
> New financial webinars and remote counseling are being provided this fall through Exploration Wellness. Sharpen your financial wellness with online education! These offerings are available to you, your family and friends on a variety of days and times. Turn education into action by learning the appropriate steps to follow with an expert. Registration and scheduling details are at the enrollment link below.
>
> All Employees:
>
> Employees who wanted to attend classes but were unable to may take advantage of the webinars and complimentary financial counseling.
>
> Former Students:
>
> Anyone who was able to attend classes but has not scheduled their counseling session may still do so.
>
> Fall Webinars:
>
> FW101: Financial Wellness Foundation
>
> FW102: Budgets, Debt, Insurance and Long-Term Care
>
> FW103: Investing and Retirement - NEW!
>
> FW104: Taxes and Estates - NEW!
>
> FW105: Debt Free For Life
>
> FW109: Financial Transitions
>
> Enrollment details are at this link.
>
> Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/
>
> [top]
>
> Community
>
> More Opportunities to Share Your Story
> V-CORPs needs you! Help us inspire the scientists and engineers of the future by volunteering as a science fair judge at the Ward Elementary Science Fair. The event is on Dec. 11, but we would like to confirm your support this week. Interested? Volunteer directly on the V-CORPs calendar, or by emailing the V-CORPs admin.
>
> Looking for something different? October is full of opportunities needing volunteers. You can sign up to help out at Astronomy Day at the HMNS George Observatory where you will engage with visitors about projects going on at JSC and NASA, or support the Education office for activities they have throughout the Fall semester. To sign up, check out the event page on the V-CORPs website.
>
> Click on the "current volunteer opportunities" tile to see a list of upcoming events. You can sign up right from that list if you're signed in. If you are not yet a V-CORPs volunteer just click on the COUNT ME IN button on the V-CORPs website. Be sure to check back frequently - we are adding events every day.
>
> JSC External Relations, Community Relations Office x35111
>
> [top]
>
> Astronomy Day
> Astronomy Day is Oct. 12 at the George Observatory inside Brazos Bend State Park. Daytime activities for the kids include face painting and learning the phases of the moon by eating Oreo cookies. There are outdoor and indoor speakers on various astronomy-related topics, a how-to-make-a-comet demo and telescopes set up to safely observe the sun. Once nighttime arrives, out come all the telescopes! Up to 35 will be set up for observing the moon, star clusters and nebulae, and there's an opportunity to go inside the observatory's three telescope domes.
>
> The Astronomy Day event starts at 3 p.m. and goes (clouds or shine) until 10:30 p.m., but telescope viewing may be impacted by weather. Concessions are available. Come have a fun-filled day and learn a little astronomy in the process. It's a great time for the whole family!
>
> Normal park entry fees apply, but Astronomy Day is FREE!
>
> Event Date: Saturday, October 12, 2013 Event Start Time:3:00 PM Event End Time:10:30 PM
> Event Location: George Observatory inside Brazos Bend State Park
>
> Add to Calendar
>
> Jim Wessel x41128 http://www.astronomyday.net/
>
> [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.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> NASA TV: www.nasa.gov/ntv
>
> · 9 am Central (10 EDT) – Replay of Orbital Sciences/Cygnus Post-Berthing News Conference
>
> · Noon Central (1 EDT) – Asteroid Initiative Ideas Synthesis Workshop -- Plenary Session
>
> · 1:30 pm Central (2:30 EDT) – Asteroid Workshop -- Asteroid Redirection Systems Session
>
>
>
> Human Spaceflight News
>
> Monday – September 30, 2013
>
>
>
> HEADLINES AND LEADS
>
>
>
> How a Potential Government Shutdown Could Affect NASA
>
>
>
> Mike Wall - Space.com
>
>
>
> A government shutdown on Tuesday would force NASA to cease most of its operations and furlough the vast majority of its workforce, space agency officials say. Fewer than 600 of NASA's 18,000 or so employees would likely keep working through a shutdown, with the aim of ensuring the safety of human life and the protection of property, according to a plan the space agency submitted Friday to the Office of Management and Budget. The International Space Station (ISS) and its six crewmembers would not be hung out to dry.
>
>
>
> U.S. companies help reach milestones for space program
>
>
>
> Jeff Glor - CBS Evening News
>
>
>
> Since the final space shuttle launch in July 2011, you may not know NASA has relied on other countries to get astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station. On Sunday, we witnessed milestones by two American companies designed to change that. An upgraded, more powerful Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base. SpaceX said it's a test flight that should go a long way to prove it can deliver people as well. "It's a major milestone for NASA and the International Space Station Project," said CBS News Space Consultant Bill Harwood. "No question about it."
>
>
>
> Cygnus cargo ship captured by station
>
>
>
> William Harwood - CBS News
>
>
>
> A commercial cargo ship making its maiden flight to the International Space Station completed a complex rendezvous early Sunday, pulling up to within about 30 feet of the lab complex and then standing by while the station's robot arm locked onto a grapple fixture. Running a week late because of a navigation software glitch, the Cygnus supply ship, built and launched as a commercial venture by Orbital Sciences Corp., was captured by Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano at 7 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) as the two spacecraft sailed high above the Indian Ocean. With a successful demonstration flight, Orbital Sciences will be clear to begin executing a $1.9 billion contract to launch at least eight space station resupply missions, part of a major NASA initiative to replace cargo capacity lost with the space shuttle's retirement.
>
>
>
> New commercial supply ship reaches space station
>
>
>
> Marcia Dunn - Associated Press
>
>
>
> NASA's newest delivery service made its first-ever shipment to the International Space Station on Sunday, another triumph for the booming commercial space arena that has its sights set on launching astronauts. Orbital Sciences Corp.'s unmanned cargo ship, the Cygnus, pulled up at the orbiting lab with a half-ton of meals and special treats for the station astronauts who assisted in the high-flying feat. With the smooth linkup, Orbital Sciences of Virginia became only the second company to accomplish such a far-flung shipment. The California-based SpaceX company took the lead last year.
>
>
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> Commercial cargo ship reaches International Space Station
>
>
>
> Irene Klotz - Reuters
>
>
>
> An unmanned U.S. commercial cargo ship flew to the International Space Station on Sunday, completing the primary goal of its test flight before supply runs begin in December. After a series of successful steering maneuvers, the Orbital Sciences Cygnus freighter parked about 39 feet from the station at 6:50 a.m. EDT/1050 GMT as the ships sailed 260 miles above the Southern Ocean south of Africa.
>
>
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> Unmanned cargo ship docks with Space Station
>
>
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> Agence France Presse
>
>
>
> Washington — An unmanned cargo ship successfully berthed with the orbiting International Space Station on Sunday following a one-week delay due to a technical glitch, NASA said. ISS astronauts "successfully captured the Orbital Sciences Cygnus cargo spacecraft with the station's robotic arm" at 1100 GMT, NASA said. "Following its capture, the spacecraft is being maneuvered by Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency and Karen Nyberg of NASA for installation onto the Earth-facing port of the station's Harmony module," the space agency said on its website.
>
>
>
> Orbital Sciences' Cygnus berths at ISS
>
>
>
> James Dean - Florida Today
>
>
>
> A second private cargo spacecraft has arrived at the International Space Station, fully establishing NASA's commercial resupply fleet. Station astronaut Luca Parmitano steered a 58-foot robotic arm to snare Orbital Sciences Corp.'s unmanned Cygnus freighter at 7 a.m. EDT today as the vehicles flew 260 miles above the Indian Ocean. "It was really everything we would have wished for today," said Cady Coleman, an astronaut communicating with the ISS crew from Houston. "Thank you very much to your whole crew."
>
>
>
> First Cygnus Capsule Arrives at Space Station
>
>
>
> Warren Ferster - Space News
>
>
>
> Following a weeklong delay, Orbital Sciences Corp.'s first Cygnus cargo module successfully berthed with the international space station (ISS), marking a critical milestone in the company's efforts to field a commercial logistics system for the orbital outpost. In its first demonstration flight, Cygnus was launched Sept. 18 atop Orbital's Antares rocket, which was making only its second flight, from the Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport on NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, Va. The capsule arrived at the station following a series of orbit-raising maneuvers and tests and was grappled by the outpost's crew-operated robotic arm.
>
>
>
> Orbital Sciences' Cygnus Spacecraft Successfully Berths With The ISS
>
>
>
> Alex Knapp - Forbes
>
>
>
> At around 8:45 Eastern Time this morning, Orbital Sciences' Cygnus cargo spacecraft was successfully berthed at the International Space Station. This successful berthing makes Orbital the second commercial space company to successfully send a cargo ship to the station after Elon Musk's SpaceX. The spacecraft launched on top of Orbital's Antares rocket on September 18th from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The spacecraft made an initial approach to the station on September 22, but that approach was aborted due to a software glitch. The next approach was then postponed to September 29th to accommodate the arrival of three new crew members to the Station on Thursday, September 26.
>
>
>
> SpaceX launches Falcon 9; Orbital's Cygnus docks with space station
>
>
>
> Joel Achenbach - Washington Post
>
>
>
> Sunday was a busy day for the commercial space industry. First, a new spacecraft built by Dulles-based Orbital Sciences docked at the international space station. Hours later, a souped-up rocket built by tech titan Elon Musk's company SpaceX roared off a launch pad in California, a harbinger of grander things to come. Orbital and SpaceX have NASA contracts to supply cargo to the space station. SpaceX had already reached the station three times, and Orbital matched the feat Sunday when its Cygnus spacecraft parked itself at the orbiting laboratory, ready to offload about 1,500 pounds of food, clothing and scientific experiments designed by students.
>
>
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> Giant Leaps for Space Firms Orbital, SpaceX
>
>
>
> Andy Pasztor - Wall Street Journal
>
>
>
> A successful launch and a separate in-orbit rendezvous on Sunday, both funded largely with corporate dollars, are accelerating what amounts to the privatization of NASA's current human spaceflight efforts. Orbital Sciences Corp. became the second commercial entity to send a spacecraft to the international space station, with its Cygnus cargo vehicle executing a series of slow-motion maneuvers to link up with the orbiting laboratory. One week after a computer-software problem delayed the rendezvous 250 miles above the earth, Cygnus moved within about 33 feet of its destination where it was grabbed by a robotic arm overseen by two astronauts aboard the space station at around 7 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
>
>
>
> SpaceX launches upgraded Falcon 9 rocket
>
>
>
> William Harwood - CBS News
>
>
>
> In a dramatic California test flight, SpaceX launched an upgraded, more powerful version of its Falcon 9 rocket Sunday -- a booster the company hopes will someday carry astronauts to the space station -- to place a modest Canadian science satellite into orbit along with five smaller research payloads. The Falcon 9 version 1.1 features more powerful engines, a longer first stage to accommodate larger propellant tanks, a new payload fairing and a triply redundant flight computer system, improvements intended to boost the rocket's payload capability while improving safety and reliability.
>
>
>
> SpaceX launches Canadian satellite from California
>
>
>
> Associated Press
>
>
>
> A SpaceX rocket carrying a Canadian satellite intended to track space weather launched from the California coast Sunday in what was billed as a test flight. Besides launching small satellites, SpaceX - or Space Exploration Technologies Corp. -has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to make a dozen unmanned missions to restock the International Space Station. SpaceX has completed three flights so far to the orbiting laboratory. With NASA's space shuttle fleet retired, SpaceX is also working to modify its capsules to transport astronauts in several years. Until then, NASA astronauts are hitching rides on Russian rockets to zip to and from the space station. A SpaceX competitor, Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp., launched its first-ever cargo ship bound for the space station earlier this month. The arrival of Orbital's Cygnus capsule, bearing chocolate and clothing, had been delayed because of a software problem, but it docked with the space station Sunday.
>
>
>
> New Falcon 9 makes first flight
>
> 224-rocket lifts off from Calif., deploys Canadian satellite in orbit
>
>
>
> James Dean - Florida Today
>
>
>
> SpaceX could launch again from Cape Canaveral within a month after Sunday's successful first flight of an upgraded Falcon 9 rocket from California. The company was unable to recover the rocket's first stage intact, but CEO Elon Musk believes that feat is possible as soon as February, during the launch of an International Space Station cargo mission from the Cape. "That's actually what's got me the most excited about this flight," he told reporters a few hours after Sunday's test launch. "We now have all the pieces of the puzzle necessary to achieve full and rapid reusability of the Falcon 9 boost stage."
>
>
>
> Doubly Historic Day for Private Space:
>
> Cygnus docks at Station & Next Gen Falcon 9 Soars
>
>
>
> Ken Kremer - Universe Today
>
>
>
> Today (Sept. 29) was a doubly historic day for private spaceflight! And a boon to NASA as well! Early this morning the Orbital Sciences Cygnus commercial cargo ship docked at the International Space Station (ISS) speeding along some 250 miles (400 km) overhead in low Earth orbit. Barely a few hours later the Next Generation commercial SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket soared to space on a demonstration test flight from the California coast carrying a Canadian satellite to orbit. These missions involved the dramatic maiden flights for both Cygnus and the upgraded Falcon 9. And both were high stakes endeavors, with literally billions of dollars and the future of commercial spaceflight, as well as the ISS, on the line. Their significance cannot be understated!
>
>
>
> Cygnus berths and Falcon 9 flies on busy day for commercial space
>
>
>
> Paul Sutherland - Space Exploration Network (SEN.com)
>
>
>
> Orbital Sciences' Cygnus cargo freighter finally berthed with the International Space Station yesterday and SpaceX launched the first of a new breed of Falcon 9 in a busy day for commercial space activities. And adding to the list of events, a Russian Proton blasted off from Kazakhstan on the first flight of the heavy-launch rocket since one crashed moments after take-off in July.
>
>
>
> Industry, FAA look to stay one step ahead of Congress with draft safety document
>
>
>
> Dan Leone - Space News
>
>
>
> In an attempt to forestall congressional direction of the process, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Office of Commercial Space Transportation has produced a 50-page list of safety practices that could serve as the cornerstone for future commercial human spaceflight safety regulations. Formally known as "Draft Established Practices for Human Space Flight Occupant Safety," the document is the result of information gathering that began last year when FAA officials started sitting in on monthly conference calls with the agency's industry-led Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC).
>
>
>
> NASA preparing to launch 3-D printer into space
>
>
>
> Martha Mendoza - Associated Press
>
>
>
> NASA is preparing to launch a 3-D printer into space next year, a toaster-sized game changer that greatly reduces the need for astronauts to load up with every tool, spare part or supply they might ever need. The printers would serve as a flying factory of infinite designs, creating objects by extruding layer upon layer of plastic from long strands coiled around large spools. Doctors use them to make replacement joints and artists use them to build exquisite jewelry. In NASA labs, engineers are 3-D printing small satellites that could shoot out of the Space Station and transmit data to earth, as well as replacement parts and rocket pieces that can survive extreme temperatures. "Any time we realize we can 3-D print something in space, it's like Christmas," said inventor Andrew Filo, who is consulting with NASA on the project. "You can get rid of concepts like rationing, scarce or irreplaceable."
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>
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> Secret Messages Left on the International Space Station
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>
>
> Nancy Atkinson - Universe Today
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>
>
> We humans have certain tendencies toward the eternal. We like to leave our mark by somehow saying "I was here!" or send messages to the future about what we've accomplished. We're also intrigued by things like the Voyager record, the Pioneer plaque, and we all love those "send your name on a spacecraft" opportunities NASA has. A recent image posted by astronaut Luca Parmitano on Twitter of a message written on a new piece for the International Space Station's Canadarm 2 is an example of leaving a little message to the future (albeit, one that the majority of us might never get to do) and it prompted me to wonder if there are more "secret messages" like that on the ISS — messages of remembrance or good wishes from the people who built, designed or installed various components, or messages passed down from one crew to the next.
>
>
>
> 'Made in Space!' Astronaut Sews Dinosaur Toy from Space Station Scraps
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>
>
> Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
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>
>
>
>
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>
> There is a dinosaur on board the International Space Station where there wasn't one before. NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, who since May has been working as a flight engineer as a member of the orbiting outpost's resident crew, revealed the toy dinosaur floating on the space station on Thursday. "Made in space!" Nyberg, an Expedition 37 crewmember, exclaimed in her caption for a photo of the toy giant lizard she uploaded to the pinboard-style photo-sharing website Pinterest. "I made this dinosaur for my son last Sunday, September 22." The dinosaur, which resembles a Tyrannosaurus Rex, has an olive green back and a lighter green belly. It is stitched together with white thread.
>
>
>
> IEEE Spectrum Tech Insider Webinar:
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> What NASA & gas & oil industry can teach each other about controlling risk
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>
>
> IEEE Spectrum
>
>
>
> This presentation will begin at 1 pm Central (2 EDT) Monday, Sept. 30. Webinar access will be available 15 minutes prior to start via this free registration link. Some hard and costly lessons have taught the oil and gas industry a lot about anticipating and controlling the risks that come with complex, high-energy systems…and some in the industry think the effort has to go a lot farther. NASA has learned hard lessons of its own, and responded by creating a culture safety and embracing the rapidly expanding disciplines of scientific risk-reduction.
>
> · Speaker: David Kaplan, Safety and Mission Assurance Partnership Development, NASA
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> · Speaker: Peter Swinburne, Architect, Coiled Tubing Segment, Schlumberger
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> · Moderator: Douglas McCormick , IEEE Spectrum "Tech Talk" contributor
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>
>
> 2 years later, NASA workers still mourn end of shuttle
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>
>
> Mark Matthews - Orlando Sentinel
>
>
>
> Few engineers at Kennedy Space Center invested as much in the space-shuttle program as Darrell Gheen, who worked all 135 flights from 1981 to 2011. Though the Cal Ripken-esque achievement earned him a special patch, the streak didn't do much for the 53-year-old's job prospects once the program ended with the final mission of Atlantis in July 2011. Like thousands of other ex-shuttle workers, Gheen — who spent the final 13 years of his shuttle career as a flight-controls engineer — was forced to find work wherever he could. It's a situation that, for many, remains stubbornly true two years later.
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>
>
> Former lawmakers lobby for space ventures
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>
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> Jonathan Salant & Kathleen Miller - Bloomberg News
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>
>
> In a battle of billionaires, space ventures owned by Internet pioneers Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are relying on prominent former lawmakers as they jockey for control over a historic launch pad at Kennedy Space Center. The Florida launch pad was mothballed after the United States retired its shuttle fleet in 2011 and turned to countries such as Russia to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station. It's now coveted by Musk's Space Exploration Technologies, known as SpaceX, and Bezos's Blue Origin, which are trying to fill the void for the U.S.
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>
>
> China Invites Foreign Astronauts to Fly On Future Space Station
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>
>
> Leonard David - Space.com
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>
>
> Chinese space officials are rolling out a welcome mat to other nations eager to gain access to their future space station. The Chinese government has designed a multiphase station program aimed at launching a Tiangong 2 space laboratory around 2015, an experimental space station in 2018, followed by a 60-ton multi-module space station in the 2020 time frame. The invite to countries to participate in China's space station was one aspect of the United Nations/China Workshop on Human Space Technology, jointly hosted by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs and the China Manned Space Agency, held in Beijing on Sept. 16-19.
>
>
>
> Space Race 2013: Who's Up, Who's Down, Who's Going Nowhere
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> Space-travel industry is more competitive than ever — and just as in all industries, there will be winners and losers
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>
>
> Jeffrey Kluger - Time Magazine
>
>
>
> You could be forgiven for thinking that everyone but you is going into space. You could also be forgiven for thinking that no one at all is going into space. Both things, in many ways, are entirely true. NASA's manned space program — not to put too fine a point on it — is a mess. Never mind falling short of the glory of the old Apollo days. We're not even capable of doing what we did back in the Mercury days — in the early 1960s, when we were sending people up in one-person cans for as little as 15 minutes at a time. At least then we had some kind of human access to space. Now, post shuttle, the only way we can get to orbit to visit the International Space Station (which we assembled and largely paid for, never mind its International name) is by thumbing a ride aboard Russia's Soyuz, for which we pay a low, low, low $70 million per seat. And the Soyuz ships are not much to brag about either. Russia's been flying pretty much the same machine for 50 years, and while it does the job, you can forget about going anywhere but low Earth orbit. But then there are all the new players — Elon Musk and his Dragon spacecraft; Richard Branson and his SpaceShipTwo; Paul Allen and his Stratolauncher; Jeff Bezos and his Blue Origin; Sierra Nevada and its Dream Chaser. Oh, and there's that slightly larger outfit known as the People's Republic of China, which is taking on space the way it's taken on pretty much everything else it's turned its attention to in the past 15 years — and that means bigger, better and more ambitiously than anyone else on the block.
>
>
>
> MEANWHILE ON MARS…
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>
>
> At closer look, Mars is not so simple
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>
>
> Amina Khan - Los Angeles Times
>
>
>
> A series of discoveries from NASA's Curiosity rover are giving scientists a picture of Mars that looks increasingly complex, with small bits of water spread around the surface and an interior that could have been more geologically mature than experts had previously thought. Curiosity's formidable arsenal of scientific instruments has detected traces of water chemically bound to the Martian dust that seems to be covering the entire planet. The finding, among several in the five studies published online Thursday by the journal Science, may explain mysterious water signals picked up by satellites in orbit around the Red Planet.
>
>
>
> The dirt on Curiosity: new report card for its first 100 days
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>
>
> Pete Spotts - Christian Science Monitor
>
>
>
> The report card NASA's Mars rover Curiosity compiled during its first 100 Martian days, or sols, would be the envy of any newly elected president. In relatively short order, the Mini Cooper-size rover answered in broad terms the key question the mission's scientists wanted to answer: Was the environment in Gale Crater, the rover's exploration zone, potentially hospitable for life?
>
>
>
> Curiosity Rover Makes Big Water Discovery in Mars Dirt, a 'Wow Moment'
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>
>
> Mike Wall - Space.com
>
>
>
> Future Mars explorers may be able to get all the water they need out of the red dirt beneath their boots, a new study suggests. NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has found that surface soil on the Red Planet contains about 2 percent water by weight. That means astronaut pioneers could extract roughly 2 pints (1 liter) of water out of every cubic foot (0.03 cubic meters) of Martian dirt they dig up, said study lead author Laurie Leshin, of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y.
>
>
>
> Mars water surprise in Curiosity rover soil samples
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>
>
> Jonathan Amos - BBC News
>
>
>
> There is a surprising amount of water bound up in the soil of Mars, according to an analysis done onboard the US space agency's (Nasa) Curiosity rover. When it heated a small pinch of dirt scooped up from the ground, the most abundant vapour detected was H2O. Curiosity researcher Laurie Leshin and colleagues tell Science Magazine that Mars' dusty red covering holds about 2% by weight of water. This could be a useful resource for future astronauts, they say.
>
>
>
> Curiosity Finds Water And Poison In Martian Soil
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>
>
> Francie Diep - Popular Science
>
>
>
> You watched it land, trundle around a bit, and attack innocent rocks. Now you can learn a lot more about the science NASA's Curiosity rover has been beaming back to Earth. Today, teams of scientists from all around the world are publishing six papers about their analyses of some of the first samples scooped up by Curiosity's scientific instruments. The studies tried to determine how friendly Mars would be to any future human visitors. They also looked for clues to Mars' geological history. It turns out the Martian soil has a bit of water that people might extract with heating, as well as small amounts of a toxic chemical that explorers will have to watch out for.
>
> __________
>
>
>
> COMPLETE STORIES
>
>
>
> How a Potential Government Shutdown Could Affect NASA
>
>
>
> Mike Wall - Space.com
>
>
>
> A government shutdown on Tuesday would force NASA to cease most of its operations and furlough the vast majority of its workforce, space agency officials say.
>
>
>
> Fewer than 600 of NASA's 18,000 or so employees would likely keep working through a shutdown, with the aim of ensuring the safety of human life and the protection of property, according to a plan the space agency submitted Friday to the Office of Management and Budget.
>
>
>
> The International Space Station (ISS) and its six crewmembers would not be hung out to dry.
>
>
>
> "To protect the life of the crew as well as the assets themselves, we would continue to support planned operations of the ISS during any funding hiatus," the NASA plan states. "Moreover, NASA will be closely monitoring the impact of an extended shutdown to determine if crew transportation or cargo resupply services are required to mitigate imminent threats to life and property on the ISS or other areas."
>
>
>
> Likewise, currently operating scientific spacecraft would be maintained and the data they return home safeguarded. But the outlook would not be good for future missions.
>
>
>
> "If a satellite mission has not yet been launched, work will generally cease on that project," the shutdown plan states. "The extent of support necessary and the time needed to safely cease project activities will depend on whether any of the activities are of a hazardous nature (e.g., parts of the satellite may need to be cooled)."
>
>
>
> Such contingencies will go into effect if Congress fails to fund the federal government beyond the end of the current fiscal year, which ends Monday.
>
>
>
> The Senate and the House of Representatives so far have not come together on a spending bill, with the major bone of contention being funding for the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. The Republican-controlled House wants any emergency spending bill to strip funding for Obamacare, a move opposed by the Democrat-controlled Senate.
>
>
>
> Other fiscal problems loom on the horizon as well. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has said that if the debt ceiling is not raised by Oct. 17, the federal government will likely have to start defaulting on its debts for the first time in the nation's history.
>
>
>
> U.S. companies help reach milestones for space program
>
>
>
> Jeff Glor - CBS Evening News
>
>
>
> Since the final space shuttle launch in July 2011, you may not know NASA has relied on other countries to get astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station. On Sunday, we witnessed milestones by two American companies designed to change that.
>
>
>
> An upgraded, more powerful Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base. SpaceX said it's a test flight that should go a long way to prove it can deliver people as well.
>
>
>
> "It's a major milestone for NASA and the International Space Station Project," said CBS News Space Consultant Bill Harwood. "No question about it."
>
>
>
> Harwood said that NASA has been paying around $60 million a seat to fly astronauts on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft. But finances weren't the only consideration.
>
>
>
> "It's really not about the money," he said. "It would be cheaper to continue to fly with the Russians. NASA wants a U.S. rocket one way or the other, and a U.S. spacecraft to launch American astronauts to the space station. It's a sign of pride, it's a symbol of superpower status."
>
>
>
> Harwood said the last shuttle mission in July 2011 left the space station overstocked deliberately, so NASA wouldn't need help getting cargo to the space station -- until now.
>
>
>
> On Sunday morning, the Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corporation's cargo ship Cygnus successfully docked at the space station.
>
>
>
> "When NASA knew they were going to retire the shuttle," said Harwood, "they knew they had to replace its ability to carry cargo to the space station. SpaceX is already flying cargo missions to the station. Now with this successful space flight, Orbital joins the game and that is a big deal NASA. They need both of these spacecrafts to keep the station supplied and operational."
>
>
>
> Cygnus cargo ship captured by station
>
>
>
> William Harwood - CBS News
>
>
>
> A commercial cargo ship making its maiden flight to the International Space Station completed a complex rendezvous early Sunday, pulling up to within about 30 feet of the lab complex and then standing by while the station's robot arm locked onto a grapple fixture.
>
>
>
> Running a week late because of a navigation software glitch, the Cygnus supply ship, built and launched as a commercial venture by Orbital Sciences Corp., was captured by Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano at 7 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) as the two spacecraft sailed high above the Indian Ocean.
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>
>
> With a successful demonstration flight, Orbital Sciences will be clear to begin executing a $1.9 billion contract to launch at least eight space station resupply missions, part of a major NASA initiative to replace cargo capacity lost with the space shuttle's retirement.
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>
>
> Named after the late NASA astronaut and Orbital Sciences executive G. David Low, the Cygnus supply ship is carrying about 1,500 pounds of food, clothing and other non-critical supplies.
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>
>
> "We'd like to congratulate you on a great capture today," radioed astronaut Catherine Coleman from mission control in Houston. "Also like to say welcome aboard to the Orbital Sciences G. David Low ... a great human being who bravely explored and had a tremendous vision for the future of spaceflight. We're really proud to have the G. David Low aboard the ISS today. Thanks for all your good work."
>
>
>
> "I would like, first of all, to say that I was honored to be allowed to be part of this day," Parmitano replied. "It was really, really a pleasure and it was a privilege to work with all the teams on the ground, both from Houston, of course, from Orbital and here on the station."
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>
>
> With Cygnus firmly latched to the end of the robot arm, Parmitano and astronaut Karen Nyberg monitored a robotic maneuver to precisely position the spacecraft for berthing at the Earth facing port of the station's forward Harmony module.
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>
>
> If all goes well, the crew will open hatches Monday and begin the process of unloading the spacecraft and re-packing it with trash and no-longer-needed gear. The cargo ship is expected to remain attached to the station for about a month.
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>
>
> The Cygnus was launched Sept. 18 atop a two-stage Orbital Sciences Antares booster that took off from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA's Wallops Island, Va., flight facility.
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>
>
> The flight plan called for a berthing at the space station four days later, on Sept. 22, but the rendezvous was interrupted by suspect navigation data. Orbital engineers quickly identified the problem and came up with a corrective software patch, but program managers opted to wait until after the launch and docking of a Soyuz crew ferry craft on Sept. 25.
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>
>
> The demonstration flight is the final milestone in a $288 million contract managed by NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services -- COTS -- program, which funded development of two commercial cargo carriers to take over U.S. space station logistics in the wake of the shuttle's retirement.
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>
>
> The test flight included a series of engineering exercises to verify the safe operation of the new spacecraft, to test abort procedures and to verify the crew's ability to send commands as needed. After the software patch was uplinked to correct the navigation program, Orbital completed all of the test objectives.
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>
>
> Orbital Sciences now joins Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, as a commercial cargo carrier.
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>
>
> SpaceX holds a $1.6 billion contract to provide at least 12 cargo flights to the station for delivery of more than 44,000 pounds of equipment and supplies. The company completed its own test flights earlier and has now launched two operational resupply missions.
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>
>
> Orbital Sciences' $1.9 billion contract with NASA calls for at least eight resupply missions to deliver 20 tons of cargo. Company officials say they will be ready for their first operational mission later this year.
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>
>
> "It's time for us really to start having flights on a regular basis and expect that the next one will be there," space station Program Manager Mike Suffredini said before the Cygnus launch. "So I'm looking at this next year, 2014, to be the year where we really settle in, where we have regular Orbital flights and regular SpaceX flights, and we actually see them within a few weeks of when we expect to have them there."
>
>
>
> Regularly scheduled flights ultimately will allow NASA "to reduce the amount of up mass we have for logistics, which we can do if we have a consistent supply chain, and really fill these vehicles up with research. That's the big transition we have to make in the next year now that we have Orbital flying as well."
>
>
>
> New commercial supply ship reaches space station
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>
>
> Marcia Dunn - Associated Press
>
>
>
> NASA's newest delivery service made its first-ever shipment to the International Space Station on Sunday, another triumph for the booming commercial space arena that has its sights set on launching astronauts.
>
>
>
> Orbital Sciences Corp.'s unmanned cargo ship, the Cygnus, pulled up at the orbiting lab with a half-ton of meals and special treats for the station astronauts who assisted in the high-flying feat.
>
>
>
> With the smooth linkup, Orbital Sciences of Virginia became only the second company to accomplish such a far-flung shipment. The California-based SpaceX company took the lead last year.
>
>
>
> NASA officials along with White House representatives declared it a historic day.
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>
>
> "It was just a very, very impressive job ... I just couldn't be happier and more proud," said the NASA manager overseeing this commercial effort, Alan Lindenmoyer.
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>
>
> Now that the space station has two U.S. private companies capable of delivering goods, he noted, "it's certainly relief and something we're ready to celebrate."
>
>
>
> All this was a week late in coming.
>
>
>
> The Cygnus - named after the swan constellation - should have arrived last Sunday, four days following its launch from Virginia on Sept. 18. But a discrepancy in navigation data between the capsule and the space station led to a frustrating standoff. A simple software repair was carried out by ground controllers. Then the Cygnus had to wait for a Russian spacecraft to bring three new astronauts.
>
>
>
> The wait involved "some hair-pulling and heartache," said Orbital Sciences executive vice president Frank Culbertson. But in the end, the company's patience was rewarded with a perfect rendezvous demonstration.
>
>
>
> Applause could be heard in Mission Control once Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano grabbed hold of Cygnus with the space station's hulking mechanical arm. The union occurred 260 miles above the Indian Ocean. Before long, the capsule was latched securely to the orbiting lab. Its hatch will remain closed until early Monday; that's when the six station astronauts will enter the capsule and begin unloading the bounty.
>
>
>
> The successful arrival means Orbital Sciences can start making good on a $1.9 billion contract with NASA for more Cygnus deliveries, each one carrying more and more cargo. The next one could fly by Christmas.
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>
>
> "We have a big incentive ahead of us," said Culbertson, a former astronaut who lived on the space station a decade ago.
>
>
>
> John Holdren, assistant to President Barack Obama for science and technology, said Sunday's success validates the president's goal of focusing NASA on deep-space exploration and leaving station cargo and astronaut hauls to private industry.
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>
>
> "Space history was made again today," Holdren said in a statement.
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>
>
> Sunday's operation culminated several years of effort for Orbital Sciences, which was hired by NASA along with SpaceX - formally Space Exploration Technologies Corp. - to keep the space station well stocked in this post-shuttle era.
>
>
>
> SpaceX has been launching its supply ships, called Dragon, from Cape Canaveral for more than a year. It's also working on a possible manned capsule that would ferry U.S. astronauts to the space station, rather than having them hitch rides on Russian rockets. The cargo contract alone, with NASA, is worth $1.6 billion.
>
>
>
> From Southern California on Sunday, as Orbital Sciences celebrated its own victory, SpaceX launched a beefed-up Falcon 9 rocket with a Canadian science satellite. The demo flight appeared to go well.
>
>
>
> Unlike the SpaceX Dragon that can return items to Earth, the Cygnus is designed to burn up upon descent. Once unloaded of its 1,300 pounds worth of food, clothes and other items, it will be filled with trash and cut loose on Oct. 22. That's how the Russian, European and Japanese supply ships end up as well: self-destructing garbage cans.
>
>
>
> The latest Cygnus delivery - also a test flight - included student experiments and, almost certainly, chocolate for the crew. That's what astronaut Karen Nyberg was expecting, anyway, from her astronaut-husband and 3-year-old son.
>
>
>
> Both the station crew and Mission Control paid tribute to the late astronaut for whom the Cygnus is dedicated: G. David Low.
>
>
>
> Low flew three times on space shuttles, then went to work for Orbital Sciences to help in this new commercial space effort. He died of cancer in 2008 at age 52. His family attended the Cygnus launch from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility.
>
>
>
> "To our great friend and colleague G. David Low. ... This one's for you," Orbital Sciences said via Twitter.
>
>
>
> Commercial cargo ship reaches International Space Station
>
>
>
> Irene Klotz - Reuters
>
>
>
> An unmanned U.S. commercial cargo ship flew to the International Space Station on Sunday, completing the primary goal of its test flight before supply runs begin in December.
>
>
>
> After a series of successful steering maneuvers, the Orbital Sciences Cygnus freighter parked about 39 feet from the station at 6:50 a.m. EDT/1050 GMT as the ships sailed 260 miles above the Southern Ocean south of Africa.
>
>
>
> Ten minutes later, Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA's Karen Nyberg used the station's robotic arm to pluck the capsule from orbit and guide it to a berthing slip on the station's Harmony connecting node.
>
>
>
> "That's a long time coming, looks great," radioed astronaut Catherine Coleman from NASA's Mission Control in Houston.
>
>
>
> Cygnus' arrival had been delayed a week - first by a software glitch and then by the higher priority docking of a Russian Soyuz capsule ferrying three new crewmembers to the $100 billion outpost, a project of 15 nations.
>
>
>
> Orbital Sciences' new unmanned Antares rocket blasted off on September 18 from a new launch pad on the Virginia coast to put Cygnus into orbit.
>
>
>
> "We learned a lot on this one," Orbital Sciences executive vice president Frank Culbertson told reporters after launch.
>
>
>
> NASA contributed $288 million toward Antares' and Cygnus' development and awarded Orbital Sciences a $1.9 billion contract for eight station resupply missions, the first of which is targeted for December.
>
>
>
> The U.S. space agency also provided $396 million to privately owned Space Exploration Technologies to help develop the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo ship. The company, known as SpaceX, holds a $1.5 billion NASA contract for 12 cargo runs to the station, two of which already have been completed.
>
>
>
> Unlike SpaceX's Dragon capsule, Cygnus is not designed to return to Earth. After astronauts unload more than 1,500 pounds (680 kg) of food, clothing and supplies that were packed aboard Cygnus, it will be filled with trash, detached from the station and flown into the atmosphere for incineration.
>
>
>
> Thales Alenia Space, a consortium led by Europe's largest defense electronics company, France's Thales, is a prime contractor on the capsule.
>
>
>
> For now, NASA is the only customer for Cygnus, but Orbital Sciences expects additional business as the United States and other countries launch exploration initiatives beyond the space station's orbit.
>
>
>
> Unmanned cargo ship docks with Space Station
>
>
>
> Agence France Presse
>
>
>
> Washington — An unmanned cargo ship successfully berthed with the orbiting International Space Station on Sunday following a one-week delay due to a technical glitch, NASA said.
>
>
>
> ISS astronauts "successfully captured the Orbital Sciences Cygnus cargo spacecraft with the station's robotic arm" at 1100 GMT, NASA said.
>
>
>
> "Following its capture, the spacecraft is being maneuvered by Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency and Karen Nyberg of NASA for installation onto the Earth-facing port of the station's Harmony module," the space agency said on its website.
>
>
>
> The Cygnus capsule, built by Virginia-based Orbital Sciences, launched on September 18 on a demonstration mission meant to show it can successfully deliver cargo to the space station.
>
>
>
> Orbital Sciences has a $1.9 billion contract with NASA that requires the company to deliver freight to the ISS over the course of eight flights by the beginning of 2016.
>
>
>
> However a software problem delayed the Cygnus spacecraft's planned approach to the research outpost. The capsule manufacturers eventually figured out how to fix what they called a data format mismatch.
>
>
>
> Orbital Sciences is one of just two private US firms enlisted by NASA to carry payloads to the ISS.
>
>
>
> California-based SpaceX already showed it could send its reusable Dragon capsule to the ISS bearing cargo in May 2012.
>
>
>
> Cygnus's delay however allowed time for three new ISS crew members -- Michael Hopkins of NASA and Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy of the Russian space agency -- to launch aboard a Russian Soyuz.
>
>
>
> Their Soyuz-TMA-10M capsule blasted off from Kazakhstan and docked successfully with the ISS just six hours later, in a new shortcut route now used by the Russian space agency.
>
>
>
> The capsule orbited the Earth just four times on its way to the ISS as opposed to the usual 30, under a technique originally devised in the Soviet era but only adopted on a regular basis in the past year.
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>
>
> The orbiting space lab is typically staffed by six international astronauts -- traveling in overlapping groups of three -- who live on board for missions that last six months.
>
>
>
> Orbital Sciences' Cygnus berths at ISS
>
>
>
> James Dean - Florida Today
>
>
>
> A second private cargo spacecraft has arrived at the International Space Station, fully establishing NASA's commercial resupply fleet.
>
>
>
> Station astronaut Luca Parmitano steered a 58-foot robotic arm to snare Orbital Sciences Corp.'s unmanned Cygnus freighter at 7 a.m. EDT today as the vehicles flew 260 miles above the Indian Ocean.
>
>
>
> "It was really everything we would have wished for today," said Cady Coleman, an astronaut communicating with the ISS crew from Houston. "Thank you very much to your whole crew."
>
>
>
> Parmitano slowly guided the Cygnus into a docking port on the outpost's Harmony node and bolts secured it in place at 8:44 a.m., completing a voyage that began 11 days ago with a launch from Virginia.
>
>
>
> Though it was delayed a week by a navigation software glitch, the Cygnus made what appeared to be a flawless and uneventful final approach today.
>
>
>
> The station's Expedition 37 crew, which doubled to six with last Wednesday's arrival of three new crew members, is expected to open the Cygnus hatch Monday morning and begin unloading 1,300 pounds of food and clothing and some student science experiments.
>
>
>
> The Cygnus was flying for the first time on a demonstration mission for NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program.
>
>
>
> With the successful first flight, a second Cygnus could be called upon to fly Orbital's first resupply mission under a $1.9 billion contract in December.
>
>
>
> The first Cygnus is expected to stay at the station for about 30 days before departing and burning up in the atmosphere.
>
>
>
> SpaceX's Dragon capsule last year became the first private spacecraft to visit the station and has completed to contracted resupply missions.
>
>
>
> First Cygnus Capsule Arrives at Space Station
>
>
>
> Warren Ferster - Space News
>
>
>
> Following a weeklong delay, Orbital Sciences Corp.'s first Cygnus cargo module successfully berthed with the international space station (ISS), marking a critical milestone in the company's efforts to field a commercial logistics system for the orbital outpost.
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> In its first demonstration flight, Cygnus was launched Sept. 18 atop Orbital's Antares rocket, which was making only its second flight, from the Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport on NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, Va. The capsule arrived at the station following a series of orbit-raising maneuvers and tests and was grappled by the outpost's crew-operated robotic arm.
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> Cygnus was originally supposed to arrive at the station Sept. 22 but was delayed, initially by a communications issue and then to make room for the arrival of an ISS crew aboard a Russian-built Soyuz capsule. The Soyuz capsule docked with the space station Sept. 25.
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> Antares/Cygnus is one of two ISS logistics systems developed with NASA funding aid under the agency's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, or COTS, program. The other, developed by Space Exploration Technologies Corp., has already made two successful cargo deliveries to the station under a follow-on Commercial Resupply Services contract valued at $1.6 billion.
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> With two successful COTS demos under its belt, Orbital appears in position to begin executing on its $1.9 billion Commercial Resupply Services Contract. "We look forward to moving ahead with regularly scheduled ISS cargo delivery missions for NASA as early as the end of the year," Orbital President and Chief Executive David W. Thompson said in a prepared statement Sept. 29.
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> Cygnus carried 700 kilograms of supplies including food, clothing and experimental equipment to the station, Orbital said in a press release. After those supplies are unloaded, the ISS crew will begin filling the freighter with 800 kilograms of ISS refuse, which along with Cygnus will burn up on atmospheric re-entry after the vehicle separates from the station in late October.
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> Cygnus' cargo-carrying capacity currently is 2,000 kilograms, but later versions will be capable of carrying 2,700 kilograms of cargo to the station, Orbital said. The company is under contract to deliver a total of 20,000 kilograms to the ISS through 2016.
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> Orbital Sciences' Cygnus Spacecraft Successfully Berths With The ISS
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> Alex Knapp - Forbes
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> At around 8:45 Eastern Time this morning, Orbital Sciences' Cygnus cargo spacecraft was successfully berthed at the International Space Station. This successful berthing makes Orbital the second commercial space company to successfully send a cargo ship to the station after Elon Musk's SpaceX.
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> The spacecraft launched on top of Orbital's Antares rocket on September 18th from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The spacecraft made an initial approach to the station on September 22, but that approach was aborted due to a software glitch. The next approach was then postponed to September 29th to accommodate the arrival of three new crew members to the Station on Thursday, September 26.
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> During the week's delay, Orbital corrected the software glitch and tested it to ensure that the approach would be successful. No other systems aboard the spacecraft showed any signs of malfunction. I talked to Orbital's Executive VP (and former astronaut) Frank Culbertson, Jr. today about the launch and asked him if the glitch made him nervous about this morning's approach.
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> "I wasn't any more nervous this weekend than if we'd made the approach last weekend," he said. "No matter what, bringing two spacecraft together at speeds over 18,000 miles an hour is challenging. In fact, the work to solve the disagreement between the GPS systems and adjust our software helped build our confidence that our system is robust."
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> At 3:00 am Sunday morning, Cygnus began its final approach toward the International Space Station. At 7:00 am, the craft was then grappled by the space station's robotic arm, operated by ESA Astronaut Luca Parmitano. Cygnus was finally installed to the space station's Harmony module at 8:44 am.
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> Now that the craft is installed on the station, the Astronauts will begin the process of unloading the approximately 1300 pounds of cargo on board, including supplies, science experiments, and perhaps most important, chocolate for the astronauts. Once its unloaded, the astronauts will then begin loading refuse and waste from the station onto the craft. Cygnus will remain attached to the ISS for about 30 days, then it will return to Earth.
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> For his own part, Culbertson is gratified by the success.
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> "We've got a lot invested in this. This mission was done primarily as a NASA and Orbital investment, not as a pay-for-service. The Antares rocket was purely an Orbital investment and we look forward to orders for other satellites as well as future cargo missions. As for the Cygnus spacecraft, we're happy to see it perform well on the mission this week and especially today. It proves our concept works and that it's a reliable vehicle."
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> The successful berthing is a big deal for Orbital Sciences, since it opens up a contract worth $1.9 billion for the company to make several cargo deliveries to the International Space Station. For NASA, this gives it one more way to deliver cargo and other supplies to the ISS, two of which are American commercial space companies.
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> "We really are happy that we have the contract going forward, and we have already built ahead," Culbertson told me. "We're well along the path to future missions. For our first contracted cargo delivery with NASA, the hardware is already built – it just needs to be assembled. For the entire contract of eight spacecraft, we're already 75% complete from a work standpoint."
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> Orbital will be sending another Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station in mid-December, likely before Christmas. The company expects to send up the remaining cargo deliveries in its contract every 3 to 6 months. In the meantime, Culbertson and Orbital are celebrating their successful mission.
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> "After we launched the Pegasus rocket for the first time 30 years ago," Culbertson said. "Someone on the team made a comment that 'We said we would do it, and we did it.' That says it all. Our team has performed superbly and I'm very proud."
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> SpaceX launches Falcon 9; Orbital's Cygnus docks with space station
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> Joel Achenbach - Washington Post
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> Sunday was a busy day for the commercial space industry. First, a new spacecraft built by Dulles-based Orbital Sciences docked at the international space station. Hours later, a souped-up rocket built by tech titan Elon Musk's company SpaceX roared off a launch pad in California, a harbinger of grander things to come.
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> Orbital and SpaceX have NASA contracts to supply cargo to the space station. SpaceX had already reached the station three times, and Orbital matched the feat Sunday when its Cygnus spacecraft parked itself at the orbiting laboratory, ready to offload about 1,500 pounds of food, clothing and scientific experiments designed by students.
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> Orbital launched Cygnus on Sept. 18 atop the company's rocket, Antares, from Wallops Island, Va. Although that launch went off without a hitch, a software glitch delayed Cygnus's rendezvous with the station until Sunday. In the meantime, the company had to demonstrate that the unpiloted Cygnus could make delicate maneuvers in the vicinity of the laboratory, which is currently home to six astronauts.
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> "We had to go through some tough wickets, and we did with flying colors," Orbital spokesman Barron Beneski said. "It was a great day for the whole company."
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> With the hardest part of this demonstration mission a success, Orbital is now on track to carry out eight cargo missions to the station under a $1.9 billion NASA contract. The company hopes to launch again in December. SpaceX, meanwhile, has a $1.6 billion contract for supplying cargo, and it is one of three companies, along with Sierra Nevada and Boeing, hoping to win a contract to taxi astronauts to the station.
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> The 224-foot Falcon 9 "version 1.1.," which ignited Sunday on a pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base, is an upgrade of a SpaceX rocket that has already gone into space five times. This version, with more powerful engines, carried to orbit a small satellite that will study "space weather."
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> The company named its rocket "Falcon" after the Millennium Falcon spaceship from the "Star Wars" movies. The two-stage rocket has nine engines on its first stage, hence "Falcon 9." SpaceX hopes to build a heavy-lift version that will employ three rocket cores strapped together.
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> SpaceX appears to be on a trajectory to compete for heavy-lift military launches, edging into the territory of United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of aerospace behemoths Boeing and Lockheed Martin. And Musk, who runs SpaceX part time when not supervising the electric car company Tesla, has the even more audacious goal of colonizing Mars.
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> In a corporate webcast Sunday, SpaceX employees at the company's Hawthorne, Calif., factory could be seen wearing "Occupy Mars" T-shirts.
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> Giant Leaps for Space Firms Orbital, SpaceX
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> Andy Pasztor - Wall Street Journal
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> A successful launch and a separate in-orbit rendezvous on Sunday, both funded largely with corporate dollars, are accelerating what amounts to the privatization of NASA's current human spaceflight efforts.
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> Orbital Sciences Corp. became the second commercial entity to send a spacecraft to the international space station, with its Cygnus cargo vehicle executing a series of slow-motion maneuvers to link up with the orbiting laboratory. One week after a computer-software problem delayed the rendezvous 250 miles above the earth, Cygnus moved within about 33 feet of its destination where it was grabbed by a robotic arm overseen by two astronauts aboard the space station at around 7 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
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> Five hours later, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. scored its own coup with the maiden flight of its largest, most powerful rocket yet. SpaceX, as the company is called, is betting the design of its revamped Falcon 9 will become the centerpiece of a stepped up mission schedule for the Pentagon, National Aeronautics and Space Administration and a host of commercial customers. The closely held company made history last year by becoming the first nongovernmental spacecraft operator to successfully transport cargo into orbit.
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> The Falcon 9 that blasted off from Southern California's Vandenberg Air Force Base—carrying a small Canadian government research satellite—has engines roughly 50% more powerful than its predecessor. The changes to the rocket are aimed at improving capacity and reliability, while simultaneously accelerating manufacturing.
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> Taken together, the latest accomplishments buoy prospects for further privatization of U.S. civilian space efforts, according to industry officials. "It shows private industry is motivated to succeed in space, when they get paid for results," according to James Muncy, an industry consultant and former House staffer who is an advocate of privatizing many of NASA's core tasks. "The agency no longer can afford to do it the old way" and directly run all major initiatives.
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> Under President Barack Obama, NASA changed course years ago to rely on private industry to design, build and operate the equivalent of space taxis and trucks to reach low-earth orbit. Such expenditures are an integral part of NASA's strategy to husband its resources for more-ambitious missions to explore deeper space.
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> But now that both companies have demonstrated their prowess in carrying cargo into orbit, they confront the same challenge: building enough spacecraft and launching them at a rapid enough clip to fulfill existing contracts and subsequent options with NASA. Even before Sunday's success, NASA had committed to spend a total of more than $3.5 billion on Orbital and SpaceX cargo missions over several years.
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> Orbital has invested about $500 million and NASA an additional $285 million in the 17-feet-long Cygnus and the company's two-stage Antares rocket.
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> Orbital, which is about two years behind its original schedule with NASA, is looking to make up time by blasting Cygnus into orbit again from the same launch complex off the Virginia coast before the end of the year. That would be an unusually fast turnaround. After that, Orbital is scheduled to complete two more supply trips by the fall of 2014 using the same version of its Antares rocket.
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> For Orbital, Sunday's delivery of food, clothing and student experiments was the climax of more than five years of roller-coaster development and testing efforts. Best known for producing smaller satellites and less-powerful rockets, the company struggled to overcome serious engine problems that afflicted Antares, nagging launchpad delays and other technical challenges.
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> SpaceX, for its part, already has completed a pair of regular resupply missions to the station and is slated to send three more of its unmanned Dragon capsules there by next fall.
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> Started with a handful of employees near a strip mall 11 years ago, SpaceX is considered a pioneer of commercial-space endeavors, with more than 1,000 employees, a nearly one million square-foot California manufacturing complex, an engine-testing facility in Texas and an outsize lobbying presence on Capitol Hill.
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> SpaceX maintains that its vertically integrated manufacturing system—which produces and assembles more than 70% of each launch vehicle at the company's Hawthorne, Calif., complex—gives management greater control over quality and schedules than its rivals. According to company documents, it already produces more rocket engines than any other U.S. manufacturer and is set up to eventually achieve a pace of building 40 rocket cores annually.
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> The only portion of the Falcon 9 launch that went awry was the optional effort to try to retrieve the second stage, after it had completed its job and was plunging back to Earth. The recovery system failed to slow down its descent, as part of SpaceX's broader effort to develop techniques to capture, overhaul and ideally reuse portions of the rocket for later missions.
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> SpaceX launches upgraded Falcon 9 rocket
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> William Harwood - CBS News
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> In a dramatic California test flight, SpaceX launched an upgraded, more powerful version of its Falcon 9 rocket Sunday -- a booster the company hopes will someday carry astronauts to the space station -- to place a modest Canadian science satellite into orbit along with five smaller research payloads.
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> The Falcon 9 version 1.1 features more powerful engines, a longer first stage to accommodate larger propellant tanks, a new payload fairing and a triply redundant flight computer system, improvements intended to boost the rocket's payload capability while improving safety and reliability.
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> The 224-foot-tall rocket also featured simplified stage attachment mechanisms, a new circular engine arrangement for the first stage and a beefed up first stage heat shield. The company eventually hopes to recover spent stages for refurbishment and reuse.
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> Given the multiple upgrades involved, Elon Musk, SpaceX's CEO and chief designer, said he considered the launching a test flight. Canada's 1,100-pound Cassiope space weather satellite, provided by MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates, the Canadian Space Agency and the University of Calgary, reportedly got the ride for about $10 million.
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> "We don't consider this to be an operational launch," Musk told Spaceflight Now in a pre-launch interview. "It's a demo or a beta launch. Cassiope understands that. They got a pretty significant discount since this is a new Falcon 9."
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> The towering rocket's nine upgraded Merlin 1D first-stage engines ignited at 12 p.m. EDT, throttled up to a combined 1.3 million pounds of liftoff thrust and quicky pushed the slender booster away from Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg Air Force Base northwest of Los Angeles.
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> Once used by Air Force heavy-lift Titan 4 rockets, the launch pad was extensively modified by SpaceX in a $100 million makeover, providing a launch site for payloads that must be delivered into polar orbits. SpaceX also operates a launch complex at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida for payloads that require more equatorial orbits.
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> The Falcon 9 is designed to achieve orbit even if two of the first-stage engines fail in flight, but all nine Merlin 1Ds appeared to fire normally during the booster's climb away on a southerly trajectory over the Pacific Ocean.
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> The first stage burned out and fell away about two minutes and 50 seconds after liftoff. The rocket's single-engine second stage then continue the drive to space, burning another six minutes before shutting down around eight minutes and 54 seconds after launch.
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> A crowd of SpaceX employees gathered at the company's Hawthorne, Calif., factory burst into cheers and applause.
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> "It was an amazing flight," John Insprucker, Falcon 9 product manager, said in a company webcast. "So far, and there's tons of data coming back, it looks like it was a picture-perfect flight, everything was looking good, right down the middle of the track."
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> The flight plan called for the Cassiope space weather satellite to be released about five minutes later into a planned orbit with a high point of around 930 miles and a low point of about 185 miles.
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> Three small "cubesats" making up the Polar Orbiting Passive Atmospheric Calibration Spheres, or POPACS, then were to be ejected from a dispenser a few minutes later. The mission is sponsored by Utah State University, Planetary Systems Corp. and Drexel University.
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> The rocket's other two satellites were expected to be deployed a few minutes after that. The 51-pound CUsat navigation research satellite was built by students at Cornell University. A 110-pound atmospheric probe known as DANDE, for Drag and Atmospheric Neutral Density Explorer, was provided by the University of Colorado at Boulder. Confirmation of the satellite releases was expected later in the day.
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> SpaceX developed the Falcon 9 as a purely commercial venture to boost civilian and military satellites into space along with company-designed Dragon cargo ships built to carry supplies and equipment to and from the International Space Station.
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> SpaceX holds a $1.6 billion contract with NASA for at least 12 station resupply missions to deliver some 44,000 pounds of cargo and supplies.
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> Prior to Sunday's flight, SpaceX had successfully launched five Falcon 9s using first-stage Merlin 1C engines generating just under 900,000 pounds of sea-level thrust. Two Dragon test flights and two operational space station resupply missions have been launched to date.
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> SpaceX also is participating in a NASA competition, along with Boeing and Sierra Nevada, to develop a commercial manned spacecraft to ferry crews to and from the space station.
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> Musk hopes to use the Falcon 9 v1.1 and an upgraded manned version of the Dragon cargo ship to provide low-cost transportation to low-Earth orbit. The rocket also can be used for heavier commercial and military satellites.
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> The v1.1 modifications start at the base of the rocket where the new engines are arranged in a circular "octaweb" pattern with eight powerplants surrounding a central engine. The earlier version had the engines arranged in a square 3-by-3 arrangement, requiring aerodynamic panels around the base of the rocket.
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> In the new version, protective panels were installed between the engines to prevent a malfunctioning engine from damaging another. The first stage also features longer propellant tanks a heat shield.
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> For the initial test flight, engineers planned to restart the first stage engines as it fell back to Earth to slow it down before plunging back into the thick lower atmosphere. The stage was not designed to be recovered, but Musk plans to collect data on every flight to perfect an eventual recovery system.
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> "I give pretty low odds of this recovery working on this flight," Musk told Spaceflight Now. "The point of this mission is demonstrating the ascent of the crewed version of the Falcon 9."
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> The v1.1 version of the Falcon 9 is the company's first to feature a payload fairing that can encapsulate large satellites. The fairing separated and fell away as planned just after the second stage ignited.
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> Another major upgrade was a triply redundant flight computer running new software. Musk said the new computer system was extremely robust.
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> "You could put a bullet hole in any one of the avionics boxes and it would just keep flying," Musk told Spaceflight Now.
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> Other improvements include a simpler, more reliable mechanisms to connect the rocket's stages, using three connectors in place of nine.
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> The new Merlin 1D engines feature more efficient fuel injectors and weigh in at under 1,000 pounds each. The company said improvements in robotic manufacturing techniques, along with fewer parts make the engines easier to build and improve reliability.
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> SpaceX launches Canadian satellite from California
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> Associated Press
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> A SpaceX rocket carrying a Canadian satellite intended to track space weather launched from the California coast Sunday in what was billed as a test flight.
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> The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base, about 150 miles northwest of Los Angeles, at 9 a.m. under clear skies, eventually reaching its intended orbit.
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> SpaceX launched an older model of Falcon 9 five times from Florida. This was the first time the Southern California-based private rocket maker flew the next-generation version that boasts upgraded engines designed to improve performance and deliver heavier payloads.
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> The rocket carried a satellite dubbed Cassiope, a project of the Canadian Space Agency and other partners.
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> Once in orbit, scientists led by the University of Calgary hope to start powering up instruments after a checkout period, but the actual mission to track space weather won't begin until next month. Cassiope carries instruments to study space storms in the upper atmosphere and their potential effects on GPS navigation and radio communications.
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> SpaceX considered Sunday's launch a demonstration flight to test the capabilities of the improved rocket. It was the third launch from the Vandenberg base this week. Earlier, the Air Force launched back-to-back unarmed Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missiles that traveled 4,200 miles over the Pacific Ocean.
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> Besides launching small satellites, SpaceX - or Space Exploration Technologies Corp. -has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to make a dozen unmanned missions to restock the International Space Station. SpaceX has completed three flights so far to the orbiting laboratory.
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> With NASA's space shuttle fleet retired, SpaceX is also working to modify its capsules to transport astronauts in several years. Until then, NASA astronauts are hitching rides on Russian rockets to zip to and from the space station.
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> A SpaceX competitor, Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp., launched its first-ever cargo ship bound for the space station earlier this month. The arrival of Orbital's Cygnus capsule, bearing chocolate and clothing, had been delayed because of a software problem, but it docked with the space station Sunday.
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> New Falcon 9 makes first flight
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> 224-rocket lifts off from Calif., deploys Canadian satellite in orbit
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> James Dean - Florida Today
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> SpaceX could launch again from Cape Canaveral within a month after Sunday's successful first flight of an upgraded Falcon 9 rocket from California.
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> The company was unable to recover the rocket's first stage intact, but CEO Elon Musk believes that feat is possible as soon as February, during the launch of an International Space Station cargo mission from the Cape.
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> "That's actually what's got me the most excited about this flight," he told reporters a few hours after Sunday's test launch. "We now have all the pieces of the puzzle necessary to achieve full and rapid reusability of the Falcon 9 boost stage."
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> The new Falcon 9, standing 224 feet tall, blasted off with more powerful Merlin engines from Vandenberg Air Force Base at noon Eastern time.
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> A new payload fairing split away and the rocket deployed a Canadian satellite in orbit.
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> The first stage relit three of its nine engines and survived its return through the atmosphere, but rapid spinning prevented a final engine burn from slowing it down before it hit the ocean "relatively hard."
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> Musk said landing legs he hopes to fly on the next ISS mission would help stabilize the booster.
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> It could ultimately land in water or what Musk said was one of several unspecified, remote locations on the Cape being selected with support from the Air Force and Federal Aviation Administration.
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> "We've identified a few," he said. "They're kind of out on the tip of Cape Canaveral, the Eastern-most tip of Cape Canaveral."
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> Before then, SpaceX expects to launch two communications satellites from Florida. No attempts to recover the booster will be made due to commitments to the commercial and international customers, SES and Thaicom.
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> Musk repeated that Texas is the likely site of a commercial launch site SpaceX hopes to establish in addition to its existing pads at Air Force installations in Florida and California.
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> Doubly Historic Day for Private Space:
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> Cygnus docks at Station & Next Gen Falcon 9 Soars
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> Ken Kremer - Universe Today
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> Today (Sept. 29) was a doubly historic day for private spaceflight! And a boon to NASA as well!
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> Early this morning the Orbital Sciences Cygnus commercial cargo ship docked at the International Space Station (ISS) speeding along some 250 miles (400 km) overhead in low Earth orbit.
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> Barely a few hours later the Next Generation commercial SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket soared to space on a demonstration test flight from the California coast carrying a Canadian satellite to orbit.
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> These missions involved the dramatic maiden flights for both Cygnus and the upgraded Falcon 9.
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> And both were high stakes endeavors, with literally billions of dollars and the future of commercial spaceflight, as well as the ISS, on the line. Their significance cannot be understated!
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> Both Cygnus and Falcon 9 were developed with seed money from NASA in a pair of public-private partnerships between NASA and Orbital Sciences and SpaceX.
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> The powerful new Falcon 9 will also be used to send cargo to the ISS.
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> The Cygnus spacecraft put on a spectacular space ballet – and was no worse for the wear after its docking was delayed a week due to an easily fixed communications glitch.
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> Cygnus is a privately developed resupply vessel built by Orbital Sciences Corp and Thales Alenia Space that is a crucial railroad to orbit for keeping the massive orbital lab complex well stocked with everyday essentials and science experiments that are the purpose of the ISS.
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> Cygnus was grappled in free drift by Expedition 37 space station astronauts Luca Parmitano and Karen Nyberg at about 7 a.m. EDT Sunday morning.
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> The pair were working at two robotics work stations from inside the Cupola and Destiny modules. They used the stations 57 foot long Canadarm2 to snare Cygnus at a distance of about 30 feet (10 meters). They gradually motioned the arm closer.
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> Running a bit ahead of schedule they successfully berthed Cygnus at the earth facing port of the Harmony module by about 8:44 a.m. EDT.
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> Cygnus was launched to orbit on its inaugural flight on Sept. 18 atop Orbital's commercial Antares rocket from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on the Eastern shore of Virginia.
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> Sept. 22 had been the initially targeted station docking date for this demonstration mission.
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> Hatches to Cygnus will be opened on Monday, Sept. 30 after completing leak checks.
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> "Today, with the successful berthing of the Orbital Sciences Cygnus cargo module to the ISS, we have expanded America's capability for reliably transporting cargo to low-Earth orbit, " said NASA Admisistrator Charles Bolden in a statement.
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> "It is an historic milestone as this second commercial partner's demonstration mission reaches the ISS, and I congratulate Orbital Sciences and the NASA team that worked alongside them to make it happen."
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> "Orbital joins SpaceX in fulfilling the promise of American innovation to maintain America's leadership in space. As commercial partners demonstrate their new systems for reaching the Station, we at NASA continue to focus on the technologies to reach an asteroid and Mars," said Bolden.
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> The upgraded SpaceX Falcon 9 blasted off from Space Launch Complex 4 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 9 a.m. PDT (12 p.m. EDT).
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> It successfully deployed Canada's 1,060 pound (481 kg) Cascade, Smallsat, and Ionospheric Polar Explorer (CASSIOPE) weather satellite and several additional small satellites.
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> This powerful new version of the Falcon 9 dubbed v1.1 is powered by a cluster of nine of the new Merlin 1D engines that are about 50% more powerful compared to the standard Merlin 1C engines and can therefore boost a much heavier cargo load to the ISS and beyond.
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> The next generation Falcon 9 is a monster. It's much taller than a standard Falcon 9 – some 22 stories vs. 13.
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> It could launch from Cape Canaveral as early as this Fall.
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> Cygnus berths and Falcon 9 flies on busy day for commercial space
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> Paul Sutherland - Space Exploration Network (SEN.com)
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> Orbital Sciences' Cygnus cargo freighter finally berthed with the International Space Station yesterday and SpaceX launched the first of a new breed of Falcon 9 in a busy day for commercial space activities.
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> And adding to the list of events, a Russian Proton blasted off from Kazakhstan on the first flight of the heavy-launch rocket since one crashed moments after take-off in July.
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> The unmanned Cygnus should have mated with the space station last weekend, following launch from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, but suffered a navigation error. While engineers worked on a software fix, it was then decided to delay a rendezvous to allow a Soyuz carrying a new crew to fly on schedule during the week.
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> With that achieved, fresh commands were issued to the freighter, packed with 589 kg (1,300 lb) of food, clothing, experiments and supplies, to send it on its approach to the orbiting outpost. It had to demonstrate that it could successfully perform ten separate manoeuvres before it was allowed to link up.
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> After Cygnus's onboard computer used data from the spacecraft and station to bring it to a distance of about 250 metres (820 ft), a laser guidance system was used to bounce pulses from reflectors on the ISS to bring Cygnus to a distance of about 10 metres (10 ft) below it.
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> European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA's Karen Nyberg then captured Cygnus with the ISS's robotic arm, bringing it in to join the station's Harmony node, where the spacecraft was firmly bolted into position.
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> It will remain attached to Harmony until 22 October when it is planned to send the capsule to a fiery and destructive descent through the atmosphere.
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> The demonstration mission was successfully completed as part of NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) Program which has previously seen rival SpaceX Dragon spacecraft fly to the ISS. Cygnus's success paves the way for Orbital to launch eight more cargo flights to the ISS for NASA.
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> The space agency's Administrator Charles Bolden said: "It is an historic milestone as this second commercial partner's demonstration mission reaches the ISS, and I congratulate Orbital Sciences and the NASA team that worked alongside them to make it happen.
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>
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> "Orbital joins SpaceX in fulfilling the promise of American innovation to maintain America's leadership in space."
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>
>
> Space fans barely had time to catch their breath after the berthing before SpaceX launched an upgraded model of their Falcon 9 rocket, carrying six satellites, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Among them was a Canadian Cassiope satellite to measure the effects of solar radiation on the ionosphere.
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>
> The successful flight by the rocket, which is eventually due to carry astronauts, included the company's first reigniting of the first stage engines to slow its descent so that it could splash down gently in the Pacific. In due course it is intended to soft-land the stage on legs on land.
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>
>
> Final launch of the day was by the Proton on a mission for International Launch Services to place a communications satellite, ASTRA 2E, into geostationary orbit. Proton flights had been placed on hold while a disastrous launch in July was investigated. that failure was found to be due to sensors having been fitted to the rocket the wrong way up.
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> Industry, FAA look to stay one step ahead of Congress with draft safety document
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>
>
> Dan Leone - Space News
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>
>
> In an attempt to forestall congressional direction of the process, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Office of Commercial Space Transportation has produced a 50-page list of safety practices that could serve as the cornerstone for future commercial human spaceflight safety regulations.
>
>
>
> Formally known as "Draft Established Practices for Human Space Flight Occupant Safety," the document is the result of information gathering that began last year when FAA officials started sitting in on monthly conference calls with the agency's industry-led Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC). On these calls, representatives of commercial spaceflight companies discussed areas of their businesses that would be ripe for regulation, once the FAA is allowed to begin rulemaking in about two years.
>
>
>
> Under the Commercial Space Launch Act of 2004, the FAA may set rules to protect the uninvolved public from commercial spaceflight activities, such as launches, but it may not regulate industry participants until October 2015 unless there is a catastrophic accident before then. New Mexico-based Virgin Galactic, which aims to fly paying customers to the edge of space, is now poised to begin operations in 2014. If that schedule holds, the FAA would have about a year to study one commercial human spaceflight operation before it could begin writing rules for the entire industry.
>
>
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> Members of Congress and their staff have made it clear, however, that the FAA and aspiring commercial spaceflight companies should not wait until the last minute to begin a safety dialogue.
>
>
>
> "This is a vital exercise, because if industry doesn't take action to adopt safety procedures, Congress will do it for us," COMSTAC Chairman Mike Gold, director of Washington operations for Bigelow Aerospace, wrote in a Sept. 25 email. Bigelow of North Las Vegas, Nev., is working on inflatable space habitats based on NASA technology.
>
>
>
> In a Sept. 25 email, a Senate aide said the upper chamber's Commerce, Science and Transportation science and space subcommittee is still considering an update to the Commercial Space Launch Act, from which FAA derives its authority to regulate commercial human spaceflight.
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>
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> "While Congress is discussing this issue, industry should continue to work closely with the FAA on making commercial spaceflight as safe as possible for participants," the aide said.
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>
>
> The FAA's draft rules have not been released publicly, but they have been shared with NASA and Capitol Hill, Randy Repcheck, deputy manager for the Regulations and Analysis Division of the Office of Commercial Space Transportation, said during a Sept. 24 COMSTAC conference call.
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>
>
> Industry and government representatives are set to do a deep-dive on the document as part of COMSTAC's autumn meeting, which will take place at the National Housing Center here Oct. 9 and Oct. 10.
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>
>
> The document focuses on suborbital flights and flights to low Earth orbit lasting up to two weeks with the ability to return to Earth within 24 hours in the event of emergency, Repcheck said. Long-duration spaceflight, such as what Bigelow Aerospace would offer aboard the inflatable space stations it is slowly developing, is not covered in the current draft, he said.
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>
>
> For the types of flights that are covered, the FAA split spaceflight participants into two basic categories: those who are "just along for the ride," and those performing crew functions, Repcheck said.
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>
>
> The document discusses safety standards in broad terms, setting only general requirements for each type of spaceflight participant. For passengers, such as space tourists aboard one of Virgin Galactic's air-launched suborbital vehicles, "it's not about comfort, it's about coming back without being dead or with serious injury," Repcheck said. Crew members, on the other hand, should have enough comfort to perform their duties safely.
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>
>
> In an emergency situation, the draft safety document says, commercial spacecraft should provide their occupants with a "reasonable chance of survival," said Repcheck.
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>
>
> One COMSTAC member on the Sept. 24 call wondered whether the broad and general safety practices listed in the new document would be enough to convince Congress that the industry and FAA should be left alone to set the future regulatory environment.
>
>
>
> If the intention of the document is to prevent Congress from stepping in to guide the process, "I think we need to continue to consider whether the contents of the document are sufficient to do that," said Mark Sundahl, associate dean for administration at Cleveland State University's Cleveland-Marshall College of Law.
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>
>
> Sundahl questioned, for example, whether prescribing a reasonable chance for survival in an emergency was "a high enough bar to forestall congressional action."
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>
>
> In February, when the full COMSTAC last met, Ann Zulkosky, a senior professional staffer for the Democratic majority on the Senate Commerce science and space subcommittee, said there was "much interest in updating the Commercial Space Launch Act this year," possibly with an eye toward extending the office's authority into Earth orbit.
>
>
>
> For the rest of the year, however, Congress still has to resolve partisan gridlock around federal spending that has prevented lawmakers from passing a budget for the 2014 spending year that begins Oct. 1. While lawmakers at the subcommittee level may still be interested in strengthening the FAA's hand when it comes to commercial spaceflight regulation, it is not clear that they will even have the chance to try in what remains of 2013.
>
>
>
> NASA preparing to launch 3-D printer into space
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>
>
> Martha Mendoza - Associated Press
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>
>
> NASA is preparing to launch a 3-D printer into space next year, a toaster-sized game changer that greatly reduces the need for astronauts to load up with every tool, spare part or supply they might ever need.
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>
>
> The printers would serve as a flying factory of infinite designs, creating objects by extruding layer upon layer of plastic from long strands coiled around large spools. Doctors use them to make replacement joints and artists use them to build exquisite jewelry.
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>
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> In NASA labs, engineers are 3-D printing small satellites that could shoot out of the Space Station and transmit data to earth, as well as replacement parts and rocket pieces that can survive extreme temperatures.
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>
>
> "Any time we realize we can 3-D print something in space, it's like Christmas," said inventor Andrew Filo, who is consulting with NASA on the project. "You can get rid of concepts like rationing, scarce or irreplaceable."
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>
>
> The spools of plastic could eventually replace racks of extra instruments and hardware, although the upcoming mission is just a demonstration printing job.
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>
>
> "If you want to be adaptable, you have to be able to design and manufacture on the fly, and that's where 3-D printing in space comes in," said Dave Korsmeyer, director of engineering at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, about 35 miles south of San Francisco.
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>
>
> For the first 3-D printer in space test slated for fall 2014, NASA had more than a dozen machines to choose from, ranging from $300 desktop models to $500,000 warehouse builders.
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>
>
> All of them, however, were built for use on Earth, and space travel presented challenges, from the loads and vibrations of launch to the stresses of working in orbit, including microgravity, differing air pressures, limited power and variable temperatures.
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>
>
> As a result, NASA hired Silicon Valley startup Made In Space to build something entirely new.
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>
>
> "Imagine an astronaut needing to make a life-or-death repair on the International Space Station," said Aaron Kemmer, CEO of Made in Space. "Rather than hoping that the necessary parts and tools are on the station already, what if the parts could be 3-D printed when they needed them?"
>
>
>
> When staffing his start up in 2010, Kemmer and his partners warned engineers there would be ups and downs — nauseating ones. In more than a dozen flights in NASA's "vomit comet" reduced-gravity aircraft, Made In Space scientists tested printer after printer.
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>
>
> Last week at their headquarters on NASA's campus, Made In Space engineers in lab coats and hair nets tinkered with a sealed 3-D printer in a dust free cleanroom, preparing the models for further pre-launch tests.
>
>
>
> As proof of its utility, the team revisited the notorious 1970 moon-bound Apollo 13 breakdown, when astronauts were forced to jerry-rig a lifesaving carbon dioxide filter holder with a plastic bag, a manual cover and duct tape. A 3-D printer could have solved the problem in minutes.
>
>
>
> "Safety has been one of our biggest concerns," said strategic officer Michael Chen. Sparks, breakages and electric surges can have grave consequences in the space station. "But when we get it right, we believe these are the only way to manifest living in space," he said.
>
>
>
> Space-bound printers will also, eventually, need to capture gasses emitted from the extruded plastics, be able to print their own parts for self-repairs and have some abilities to recycle printed products into new ones.
>
>
>
> Scott Crump, who helped develop 3-D printing technology in 1988 by making a toy frog for his daughter with a glue gun in his kitchen, said he never conceived how pivotal it could be for space travel. But he said that until metal becomes commonly used in 3-D printers, the applications will be limited.
>
>
>
> "The good news is that you don't have to have this huge amount of inventory in space, but the bad news is now you need materials, in this case filament, and a lot of power," he said.
>
>
>
> NASA and other international space agencies are pressing forward with 3-D printing. Mastering space manufacturing, along with finding and producing water and food on the moon or other planets, could lead to living on space.
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>
>
> Last month, the space agency awarded Bothell, Wash.-based Tethers Unlimited $500,000 toward a project to use 3-D printing and robots to build massive antennas and solar power generators in space by 2020. It replaces the expensive and cumbersome process of building foldable parts on Earth and assembling them in orbit.
>
>
>
> For Made In Space's debut, when it's shuttled up to the space station aboard a spaceflight cargo resupply mission, the initial prints will be tests — different small shapes to be studied for strength and accuracy. They're also discussing with NASA about what the first real piece that they should print will be.
>
>
>
> Whatever it is, it will be a historic and symbolic item sure to end up in a museum someday.
>
>
>
> "It's not something we're discussing publicly right now," said CEO Kemmer. Then, Jason Dunn, the chief technology officer, beckoned, dropping his voice as he grinned.
>
>
>
> "We're going to build a Death Star," he joked softly, referring to the giant space station in the "Star Wars" movies that could blow up planets. "Then it's all going to be over."
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>
>
> Secret Messages Left on the International Space Station
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>
>
> Nancy Atkinson - Universe Today
>
>
>
> We humans have certain tendencies toward the eternal. We like to leave our mark by somehow saying "I was here!" or send messages to the future about what we've accomplished. We're also intrigued by things like the Voyager record, the Pioneer plaque, and we all love those "send your name on a spacecraft" opportunities NASA has.
>
>
>
> A recent image posted by astronaut Luca Parmitano on Twitter of a message written on a new piece for the International Space Station's Canadarm 2 is an example of leaving a little message to the future (albeit, one that the majority of us might never get to do) and it prompted me to wonder if there are more "secret messages" like that on the ISS — messages of remembrance or good wishes from the people who built, designed or installed various components, or messages passed down from one crew to the next.
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>
>
> NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn, who returned from a 5-month stint on the ISS in May of 2013, said there are plenty of memorable messages, signatures and objects left by the station's builders or previous crews.
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>
>
> "We did a lot of maintenance during our flight and rotated out a lot of the experiment racks and we saw many signatures on the internal hull or on the inside parts of the racks," Marshburn told Universe Today via phone from Johnson Space Center. "Things like 'Greetings from the Water Recovery team!' with everyone's signature. That's fairly prevalent on the inside, particularly behind the racks, but not in plain view."
>
>
>
> But he's never seen anything on the external parts of the space station before.
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>
>
> "I have heard that engineers who have built different components and even external structures, like to sign their names to internal pieces that no one can actually see, but the engineers know their name is up in space," he said. "I've done three spacewalks, and I've never seen anything like that on the outside — like in the picture from Luca Parmitano — so that's a rarity to see something like that."
>
>
>
> How about messages that crews leave for the next inhabitants?
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>
>
> Marshburn said there are several "helpful" notes that are left by former crew members to assist or instruct future crews — important 'lessons learned' or little reminders.
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>
>
> "One of the favorite messages left by a former resident of the station is near the resistive exercise machine," Marshburn said. "This machine allows you to lift the equivalent of 600 pounds, so there is a lot of stored energy there and you have to be careful with it, making sure you follow procedures carefully. There is a placard there that someone just wrote with a Sharpie: 'Nothing is as important as what you are doing right now.' That has become a mantra for a lot of people on the ISS, and we quoted quite often. I really like that one."
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>
>
> There's also a nice 'aide-mémoire' in the space station bathroom.
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>
>
> "Everyone has to urinate into a funnel that goes into a hose," Marshburn explained. "We are pretty good about cleaning ourselves up in the bathroom, but some crewmembers have not been so good about cleaning up the equipment because written in Sharpie on the wall in the bathroom is, 'Blessed are those who wipe the funnel.' That's just a good little reminder."
>
>
>
> In addition to messages, there are objects left by previous crews that end up as talismans or things that are used over and over.
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>
>
> "There is a four-inch version of Gort, the robot figure from the movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still" stuck on the wall where we gather in the Destiny Lab for our daily planning conferences," Marshburn said. "He sometimes gets unstuck and floats around the ISS, so whenever we find him wandering around, we stick him back up on the wall. He's kind of ubiquitous."
>
>
>
> There's also a little toy astronaut figure that ends up floating around and showing up in different places.
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>
>
> "We don't know who brought them up, but they have been retained and remain as mascots for the crews," Marshburn said.
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>
>
> The toy left on the ISS that Marshburn enjoyed the most was a ping pong ball.
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>
>
> "That is a wonderful toy," he said. "While you are eating, you can bounce it off the wall and figure out the best angles to have it come right back to you. Or you can spin it around a hatch and the centripetal force will just keep it spinning around and around."
>
>
>
> Also on board are musical instruments — an electric piano, guitar and ukulele – that get a lot of use. Additionally, previous astronauts have left reading material, so by now there is a shoebox-sized library of books to read.
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>
>
> "After working on computers most of the day, it's nice to grab a real book and read during your off time," Marshburn said.
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>
>
> Since Marshburn and his crewmates — Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko — launched to the space station on December 19, 2012, they really enjoyed the bag-full of holiday ornaments that are on board. "There's a 2-foot Christmas tree, stockings, and an elf hat," he said, "which was nice because it was a tiny piece of home, a little bit of Christmas."
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>
>
> There's also Mardi Gras hats, Happy Birthday signs, and flags of each country associated with the International Space Station.
>
>
>
> So, any other secret "just between astronauts" messages up on the space station?
>
>
>
> "There aren't any that I saw or even know about that I couldn't share with you!" Marshburn said with a laugh. "But I don't know how much mission control even knows about some of these things."
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>
>
> 'Made in Space!' Astronaut Sews Dinosaur Toy from Space Station Scraps
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>
>
> Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
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>
>
>
>
>
>
> There is a dinosaur on board the International Space Station where there wasn't one before.
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>
>
> NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, who since May has been working as a flight engineer as a member of the orbiting outpost's resident crew, revealed the toy dinosaur floating on the space station on Thursday.
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>
>
> "Made in space!" Nyberg, an Expedition 37 crewmember, exclaimed in her caption for a photo of the toy giant lizard she uploaded to the pinboard-style photo-sharing website Pinterest. "I made this dinosaur for my son last Sunday, September 22."
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>
>
> The dinosaur, which resembles a Tyrannosaurus Rex, has an olive green back and a lighter green belly. It is stitched together with white thread.
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>
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> Nyberg, a self-described crafter whose hobbies including quilting and sewing, packed threads, sewing needles and small fabric samples for her trip to space. But to make the dinosaur, she scavenged materials that she found around her orbital home.
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>
>
> "It is made out of velcro-like fabric that lines the Russian food containers [that are] found here on the International Space Station," Nyberg wrote about the doll. "It is lightly stuffed with scraps from a used t-shirt."
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>
>
> Astronauts have carried stuffed dolls to space before, and cosmonauts have a tradition of launching with small plush toys as talismans and "zero-g indicators." When the dolls, which are suspended from the Soyuz spacecraft's control panel, begin to float, the crew can tell they have entered orbit.
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>
>
> Nyberg's crew launched with a plush white dog her Soyuz commander, Fyodor Yurchikhin, had received as a gift 30 years ago and had flown into space twice before. A small black cat doll, named "Dimlar," served as the zero-gravity indicator for the crew that arrived Wednesday (Sept. 26), named after cosmonaut Oleg Kotov's children, Dima and Lara.
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>
>
> Nyberg's dinosaur however, may be a new breed of space toy. It may be the first stuffed animal created in space.
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>
>
> In addition to sewing stuffed toys for him, Nyberg keeps in daily contact with her 3-year-old son Jack, sending down short videos for him every day. Nyberg's husband, who is also an astronaut who last flew on the final space shuttle mission in 2011, sends up photos and videos of their son.
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>
>
> A photo Nyberg earlier shared on Pinterest revealed that Jack has his own handiwork in space, too. Hanging on the wall of her quarters is an orange and pink painting labeled "For Mommy."
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> Nyberg is slated to return to Earth on Nov. 11, presumably with the toy dinosaur in tow.
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>
>
> IEEE Spectrum Tech Insider Webinar:
>
> What NASA & gas & oil industry can teach each other about controlling risk
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>
>
> IEEE Spectrum
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>
>
> This presentation will begin at 1 pm Central (2 EDT) Monday, Sept. 30. Webinar access will be available 15 minutes prior to start via this free registration link.
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>
>
> · Speaker: David Kaplan, Safety and Mission Assurance Partnership Development, NASA
>
> · Speaker: Peter Swinburne, Architect, Coiled Tubing Segment, Schlumberger
>
> · Moderator: Douglas McCormick , IEEE Spectrum "Tech Talk" contributor
>
>
>
> Some hard and costly lessons have taught the oil and gas industry a lot about anticipating and controlling the risks that come with complex, high-energy systems…and some in the industry think the effort has to go a lot farther. NASA has learned hard lessons of its own, and responded by creating a culture safety and embracing the rapidly expanding disciplines of scientific risk-reduction.
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>
>
> Deep water drilling, pipeline operation, hydraulic fracturing, well stimulation—oil and gas industry activities on beneath the sea, under the ground, and on the surface offer various combinations of high pressures, harsh environments, potential explosion, and possible environmental contamination that make engineering for safety increasingly important.
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> This summer, the space agency announced a program to make its advanced risk-management services and techniques to oil and gas companies: risk modeling and simulation, precursor analysis, event-occurrence trending, artificial intelligence for remote decision-support systems, and a host of other methods.
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>
>
> This IEEE Spectrum Tech Insider webinar pairs a veteran embedded software designer and oilfield systems architect with one of NASA's experts in improving quality and reducing failures, to discuss what we do now and what we need to do tomorrow to make oil-and-gas rigs and fields safer, driving down the human and financial costs of small failures and major disasters.
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>
>
> 2 years later, NASA workers still mourn end of shuttle
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>
>
> Mark Matthews - Orlando Sentinel
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>
>
> Few engineers at Kennedy Space Center invested as much in the space-shuttle program as Darrell Gheen, who worked all 135 flights from 1981 to 2011.
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>
>
> Though the Cal Ripken-esque achievement earned him a special patch, the streak didn't do much for the 53-year-old's job prospects once the program ended with the final mission of Atlantis in July 2011.
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>
>
> Like thousands of other ex-shuttle workers, Gheen — who spent the final 13 years of his shuttle career as a flight-controls engineer — was forced to find work wherever he could. It's a situation that, for many, remains stubbornly true two years later.
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>
>
> In Gheen's case, the end result isn't all bad. After working for months at a brother's boat-building company, he landed a job last year as a launchpad manager at a spaceport in Virginia at a higher salary, a rarity among ex-shuttle workers. But even that has its drawbacks, as others in his family stayed behind in part because they can't sell their Titusville house.
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>
>
> "It's been months since I've been home," Gheen said.
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>
>
> Up and down the Space Coast, a similar story is playing out for thousands of families. Though the initial shock of the shuttle's retirement has long faded, the grind to find meaningful work — and a comparable paycheck — remains a constant pursuit.
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>
>
> Some, like Gheen, have left Florida so they could keep working in the aerospace business. Others have stuck close to home, often switching fields to find new jobs — from teaching to lawn maintenance to asphalt resurfacing — at a reduced salary. One lucky group has managed to do both: stay local and in the aerospace sector.
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>
>
> But that's not the majority. At least not yet. And maybe not ever.
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>
>
> Precise figures on what's happened to the shuttle work force are unavailable, but this much is known: From 2008 till now, the number of KSC workers was roughly halved to its current figure of about 7,900.
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>
>
> Most of the roughly 7,000 who lost their jobs were not NASA employees but outside contractors, doing jobs such as refurbishing the tiles that protected the shuttle from harm. It was well-paid work. According to one 2008 study, the average shuttle contractor then earned about $77,600 a year — nearly twice the mean salary of Brevard County.
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>
>
> But when the shuttle program ended without an immediate NASA successor, these workers were left with few options. So they scattered.
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>
>
> "It's been quite a roller coaster," said Gregory Cecil, a former tile technician now working as a middle-school science teacher in St. Petersburg.
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>
>
> Cecil took a buyout in 2009 but then spent more than two years trying to find a full-time job.
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>
>
> "I was really, really starting to fear I was never going to work again," he said.
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>
>
> Finally, he decided to switch fields and start teaching. His salary dropped from $50,000 to $30,000.
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>
>
> "I like it. I like where I am now," said Cecil, 49. "But I would rather be working on spaceships."
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>
>
> The current state of the U.S. space industry restricts that career path.
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>
>
> Despite the recent emergence of new players such as SpaceX of California, no one is expecting the industry to hire anything close to the standing armies once needed to put the shuttle into orbit.
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>
>
> And NASA is still years from launching its next human-rated rocket, the Space Launch System. NASA wants a first flight in 2017, but budget problems could push that date back. Any delay would be especially painful for KSC, as its primary role for decades has been preparing NASA spacecraft for launch.
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>
>
> But Brevard business leaders are optimistic. Though not ideal, local job figures have been far from devastating. As of July, the unemployment rate in Brevard County was 7.8 percent — within arm's reach of the 7.1 percent state average that month, according to records from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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>
>
> Former lawmakers lobby for space ventures
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>
>
> Jonathan Salant & Kathleen Miller - Bloomberg News
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>
>
> In a battle of billionaires, space ventures owned by Internet pioneers Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are relying on prominent former lawmakers as they jockey for control over a historic launch pad at Kennedy Space Center.
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>
>
> The Florida launch pad was mothballed after the United States retired its shuttle fleet in 2011 and turned to countries such as Russia to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station. It's now coveted by Musk's Space Exploration Technologies, known as SpaceX, and Bezos's Blue Origin, which are trying to fill the void for the U.S.
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>
>
> SpaceX, already delivering cargo to the station under a $1.6 billion National Aeronautics and Space Administration contract, has former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., on its lobbying team, Senate filings show. Blue Origin hired two ex- lawmakers, including the former House Science Committee chairman, in May to lobby. In Congress, dozens of lawmakers with opposing views on the issue sent letters to NASA.
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>
>
> "It doesn't matter if you're making buggy whips or rockets, the way to get Congress' attention is to hire a lobbyist," said Bill Allison, editorial director at the Sunlight Foundation, a Washington-based research group. "Lobbyists can take comfort in the fact that there will be place for them even beyond the final frontier."
>
>
>
> Bezos, chief executive of Amazon.com, is the bigger of the billionaires. He is No. 17 on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a ranking of the world's wealthiest people, with an estimated net worth of $29.4 billion. Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors and co-founder of PayPal, is No. 135, with an estimated net worth of $8.8 billion.
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>
>
> The competition began after NASA in May began seeking proposals to operate the launch pad, the departure site for the manned Apollo missions to the moon. The agency plans to spend about $8.7 billion on transporting crews and cargo to the station in the next five years, according to budget documents.
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>
>
> SpaceX and Blue Origin applied for the launch site lease.
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>
>
> "There are a limited number of East Coast established launch sites," Chris Quilty, an analyst with Raymond James and Associates in St. Petersburg, Fla., said in a phone interview. "Given the fact that both companies intend to ramp up their launch volume, they need to secure enough launch pads to handle that volume."
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>
>
> Closely held SpaceX, based in Hawthorne, Calif., has spent $540,000 in the first six months of 2013 to lobby, compared with $500,000 during the same period in 2012, Senate filings show. Its team at Washington-based Patton Boggs LLP includes Lott.
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>
>
> Blue Origin, based in Kent, Wash., and also closely held, hired the lobbying firm K&L Gates LLP the same month NASA sought proposals. Its contingent includes former House Science Committee Chairman Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., and former Rep. James Walsh, R-N.Y., who was chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that approved spending for NASA. The company spent $20,000 to lobby Congress in June, its first such expenditures, according to Senate filings.
>
>
>
> Patton Boggs and K&L Gates didn't comment. Lobbying firms rarely speak to the media about their clients.
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>
>
> SpaceX's Musk has outspent Bezos in campaign contributions. He has made $242,200 in donations since Jan. 1, 2009, supporting Democrats twice as much as Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based research group. Bezos contributed $24,800 during the same period.
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>
>
> House space subcommittee member Mo Brooks, R-Ala., said he was troubled by the campaign donations.
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>
>
> "That's not to say they're using political influence to achieve an unfair advantage over competitors at taxpayer expense, but it's a situation that does require close monitoring and aggressive questioning," Brooks said in a Sept. 20 interview outside the subcommittee hearing room.
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>
>
> Blue Origin, whose founder is the incoming owner of The Washington Post, has proposed sharing the site from the start. Blue Origin declined to comment about its interest in the lease, said Brooke Crawford, an account director for Seabrook, Texas- based Griffin Communications Group, which coordinates the space company's media relations.
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>
>
> SpaceX initially sought an exclusive lease. It changed its position after some members of the House space subcommittee and other lawmakers criticized the idea of limiting use of the site to one company.
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>
>
> Seven members of Congress told NASA Administrator Charles Bolden in letters that they wanted many companies to use the launch pad. They include Republican Representative Frank Wolf of Virginia, chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that approves NASA spending, and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., where Blue Origin is based. Murray received $4,800 from Bezos for her 2010 re-election campaign, the only candidate since 2009 to whom he has contributed.
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>
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> "It seems premature to restrict use of this unique asset to one entity, given that the commercial launch market is still in development," Wolf and Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., who serves on the same appropriations subcommittee, wrote on July 22.
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> SpaceX wasn't aware other parties were interested in using the launch pad when it bid, Emily Shanklin, director of marketing and communications, said in a Sept. 20 e-mail. The company would be "more than happy to support other commercial space pioneers" and allow NASA to use the site if needed, she said.
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> The letter from Wolf and Aderholt criticized NASA, saying the agency "appears to be racing" to lease the launch pad "with little transparency and absent congressional consent."
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> In contrast, a Sept. 16 letter from Florida's 27-member, bipartisan U.S. House delegation praised the agency's effort to "quickly and efficiently" lease the site.
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> "We have an opportunity to recapture the commercial space launch business, but unnecessary delays could hamper our ability to do that," they wrote.
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> NASA's spending in Florida — most of it tied to Kennedy Space Center — pumped $4.1 billion into the state's economy during the 12 months ending Sept. 30, 2010, creating 33,049 jobs, according to an agency report.
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> NASA may not be able to award the lease until the U.S. Government Accountability Office weighs in. Blue Origin this month protested NASA's solicitation with the federal arbitrator of contract disputes. The GAO has until Dec. 12 to issue its decision.
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> Even if both companies agree to share the launch pad, the winner of the lease has control.
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> "If you own that lease, then you can decide when you allow somebody else to use it," said Marco Caceres, a senior space analyst for Fairfax, Va.-based Teal Group. "You have control over when you launch instead of taking what is provided by another company when they choose to give it."
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> In private companies' race to space, SpaceX is ahead of Blue Origin. Last year, it became the first company to dock a commercial craft at the station, and it has begun ferrying cargo.
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> Since 2008, it has received NASA contracts valued at about $1.61 billion to transport cargo and to ensure commercial spacecraft will be safe to carry people, according to the agency.
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> Separately, SpaceX has gotten about $930 million in non- contract funding from NASA for its work on vehicles capable of carrying cargo and astronauts, Trent Perrotto, a NASA spokesman, said in an e-mail.
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> Blue Origin hasn't received NASA contracts, he said. It has received $25.7 million in other funding from the agency to design its own spacecraft to carry astronauts.
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> China Invites Foreign Astronauts to Fly On Future Space Station
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> Leonard David - Space.com
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> Chinese space officials are rolling out a welcome mat to other nations eager to gain access to their future space station.
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> The Chinese government has designed a multiphase station program aimed at launching a Tiangong 2 space laboratory around 2015, an experimental space station in 2018, followed by a 60-ton multi-module space station in the 2020 time frame.
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> The invite to countries to participate in China's space station was one aspect of the United Nations/China Workshop on Human Space Technology, jointly hosted by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs and the China Manned Space Agency, held in Beijing on Sept. 16-19.
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> According to Chinese news reports, some 150 participants from more than 20 countries, regions and international organizations took part in the four-day event, exchanging views on space technology cooperation.
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> The workshop covered a wide swath of space topics, ranging from national, regional and international space programs to the role of Asia-Pacific space cooperation in advancing space technology. Other topics included microgravity science, space mineral resources, and the development of manned space science activities for Chinese youth.
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> Human spaceflight players
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> Elliot Pulham, chief executive officer of the Space Foundation in Colorado Springs, Colo., took part in the workshop and branded the gathering as significant. He was the only U.S. citizen to make remarks at the ceremonies commemorating China's 10th anniversary of human spaceflight.
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> "There were many presentations from countries that we are accustomed to viewing as 'space applications' users, and not human spaceflight players," Pulham told SPACE.com. "And yet the degree to which space experts from the various nations have thought through all the benefits and applications of human spaceflight technology was striking," he said.
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> "It is clear that the many, many countries with space programs of varying complexity and maturity have all thought exhaustively about what makes human spaceflight special, and how we can all leverage it to change the world for the better," Pulham said.
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> 'Missing links' of Russia and U.S.
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> The biggest "missing links" in the workshop, Pulham said, were Russia and the United States.
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> "Both countries missed a huge opportunity to engage with the many other space-interested countries that participated in the workshop. This, of course, left China as the major conference participant with actual human spaceflight capability and experience," Pulham said.
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> Pulham observed that, at the moment, China's space station is the focus of the China Manned Space Agency. "They briefed the details of their China Space Station program without ducking any questions," he said.
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> "The configuration looks simple and practical, with an interior layout that relies on standardized payload racks like the International Space Station," Pulham said. "One interesting early technical difference is an emphasis on developing an integrated refueling system, such that a logistics module can easily dock at the station and transfer propellants to the core modules."
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> China's three-step space strategy
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> Niu Hongguang, deputy commander of China Manned Space Program, told workshop participants that China has attached great importance to its manned space program.
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> "The Chinese government prescribed the 'three-step strategy' of development at the beginning of implementing China Manned Space Program," Niu said.
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> "Within 21 years' development, we have sent 10 Chinese astronauts into outer space," Niu said, "and mastered the fundamental technologies of manned flight to and from outer space, extravehicular activities as well as space rendezvous and docking. And China Manned Space Program is entering a new phase of building the Chinese space station."
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> Foreign astronauts
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> During the workshop, Yang Liwei, deputy director of the China Manned Space Agency, said his country is willing to provide training and open the Chinese space station to foreign astronauts.
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> Yang is China's first astronaut and launched into orbit in 2003.
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> "We would like to train astronauts from other countries and organizations that have such a demand, and we would be glad to provide trips to foreign astronauts," Yang said at the meeting, according to the China Daily newspaper. "We will also welcome foreign astronauts who have received our training to work in our future space station."
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> Yang said many countries submitted proposals to the Chinese government during the development of the space station, hoping China would help train their astronauts and then send them to the station to conduct scientific experiments.
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> Capacity and capability
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> "China is now in an appropriate position to assist developing countries in building the capacity and capability of conducting space activities," said Mazlan Othman, director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.
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> Zhou Jianping, designer-in-chief of China's manned space program, said the planned space station can house three astronauts on missions lasting about six months. But new modules could be added as needed for scientific research, he said.
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> Zhou also said that China will be able to rendezvous with other countries' spacecraft at the space station. Furthermore, the country is exploring the possibility of carrying out a joint rescue operation, he said.
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> The workshop commemorated the 10th anniversary of China's first human spaceflight by showing a feature film titled "Space Exploration — Never Stop."
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> Areas of cooperation
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> Wang Zhaoyao, director of the China Manned Space Agency, attended the workshop, and also emphasized cooperative ties to the space station.
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> Wang said that, during the construction of China's space station, he views working with other nations in four areas:
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> · Cooperating in platform technology, which may focus on individual equipment or assemblies, or focus on the development of sub-systems or even capsules.
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> · Cooperating in space application in ways such as joint research and onboard experiments in space science and application, space medicine and other areas.
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> · Conducting exchanges and cooperation in astronauts' selection and training technology with other countries. When appropriate, China may help other countries to select and train astronauts who can fly jointly with Chinese astronauts.
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> · Promoting technological accomplishments using the station, especially in developing countries and regions, so as to achieve common development.
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> A participant in the Beijing workshop was Franklin Chang Díaz, former NASA astronaut and now CEO and chairman of Ad Astra Rocket Co., headquartered in Webster, Texas.
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> "My impression of the U.N./China Workshop was very positive. I was happy to see the presence of developing countries like Costa Rica, Colombia, Mexico, Ghana, Nigeria, Somalia and others who consider space exploration relevant to their future," Díaz told SPACE.com.
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> "I was also encouraged by China's clear overture to open their space station to international participants. Space has to be open to all nations and not just the rich ones. China's position is good news for the developing world," Díaz said.
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> Terrestrial politics
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> "The emphasis on assisting developing countries with their space program highlights how the Chinese are far more adroit in exploiting the diplomatic aspects of their space program than many other countries have been, including the United States," said Dean Cheng, a research fellow on Chinese political and security affairs at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C.
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> Cheng said that the whole purpose of the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO) has been to highlight China's relationship with developing, rather than developed, space powers.
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> "That Pakistan is lobbying to be the first country to visit China's as-yet un-launched space station is emblematic of this, especially given the long-standing Sino-Pakistani relationship," Cheng said. "This also highlights how space is influenced by terrestrial politics. If Pakistan is the first foreign nation to visit China's future space station, that will have repercussions on Sino-Indian, and Indo-Pakistani, relations," he said.
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> America's ill-conceived policy?
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> "This is not the first time China announced its intention to make its space station available to the international community," said Gregory Kulacki, senior analyst and China project manager for the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
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> Kulacki said it will be interesting to see how China selects international partners and projects for its national space station.
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> "China won't complete the station until the early years of the next decade, but it seems as if China will be making an outreach to other developing nations, rather than to the well-established spacefaring nations participating in the ISS, from which China is excluded, largely because of U.S. opposition," Kulacki said.
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> China's willingness, and ability, to provide these kinds of opportunities in the country's space station effort, Kulacki told SPACE.com, "should make it clear that the U.S.-led effort to isolate China in space is an outdated, ineffective and ill-conceived policy that should be changed."
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> Space Race 2013: Who's Up, Who's Down, Who's Going Nowhere
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> Space-travel industry is more competitive than ever — and just as in all industries, there will be winners and losers
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>
> Jeffrey Kluger - Time Magazine
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>
>
> You could be forgiven for thinking that everyone but you is going into space. You could also be forgiven for thinking that no one at all is going into space. Both things, in many ways, are entirely true. NASA's manned space program — not to put too fine a point on it — is a mess. Never mind falling short of the glory of the old Apollo days. We're not even capable of doing what we did back in the Mercury days — in the early 1960s, when we were sending people up in one-person cans for as little as 15 minutes at a time. At least then we had some kind of human access to space.
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> Now, post shuttle, the only way we can get to orbit to visit the International Space Station (which we assembled and largely paid for, never mind its International name) is by thumbing a ride aboard Russia's Soyuz, for which we pay a low, low, low $70 million per seat. And the Soyuz ships are not much to brag about either. Russia's been flying pretty much the same machine for 50 years, and while it does the job, you can forget about going anywhere but low Earth orbit.
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>
>
> But then there are all the new players — Elon Musk and his Dragon spacecraft; Richard Branson and his SpaceShipTwo; Paul Allen and his Stratolauncher; Jeff Bezos and his Blue Origin; Sierra Nevada and its Dream Chaser. Oh, and there's that slightly larger outfit known as the People's Republic of China, which is taking on space the way it's taken on pretty much everything else it's turned its attention to in the past 15 years — and that means bigger, better and more ambitiously than anyone else on the block. Just this week, Branson gathered 300 of his citizen astronauts — folks who have already plunked down deposits for $250,000 suborbital rides set to begin as early as 2014 — for a sort of pep rally in a hangar in the Mojave Desert, with SpaceShipTwo gleaming on the tarmac nearby. The atmosphere was celebratory, and the prospective passengers seemed ready to go that very day. But will they be going at all — next year, the year after that or even later? And what about all the other players, big and small, in what has become nothing short of a cosmic scrum? Here's a look at where they all stand, in rough sequential order — with special emphasis on the rough. In the 21st century space game, things change fast.
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>
>
> 1. China, the Big Dog: Like it or not NASA, the PRC is eating your lunch — and the reason is simple: you're not touching it. At the same time the U.S. decided to mothball its shuttles and replace them with nothing in particular, China has made a commitment to space not seen since the old U.S.-Soviet space race. Over the course of just the past 10 years, China has launched five crewed missions, two robot lunar orbiters and a mini space station and is preparing to launch its first lunar rover. More important, it has openly declared its intention to have people on the moon some time in the next 10 years or so. Even China can't control the vagaries of space travel, and its initial target date of 2020 has slipped some, but barring an unforeseen political or technological setback, make no mistake that they're going. Why? Because they've simply chosen to go — the same reason we went more than 40 years back.
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>
>
> 2. SpaceX, the New Kid: Musk can freak you out up close. There's an otherworldly calm to him, a self-assuredness that he wears less like a boast than a law of physics. I'm going to space because I said I'm going to space — any questions? And while that may grate, it's hard to argue with his success. Musk — who is also the founder and owner of Tesla Motors and one of the founders of PayPal — has already launched two successful unmanned missions to the International Space Station with his Falcon booster and his Dragon spacecraft. And the Dragon that today carries only cargo is even now being retrofitted to carry astronauts. Musk is old school in the best way possible. Not for him are the snazzy winged ships that take off like rockets and land like airplanes; he's gone back to the traditional booster with the traditional Apollo-like crew vehicle perched on top, but improving on both. His rockets are modular: the one-engine Falcon, the nine-engine Falcon-9, the 27-engine Falcon Heavy. The Heavy hasn't flown yet, and getting that many engines to fire just right without blowing themselves up or shaking themselves apart is not easy. But Musk has already done what no other private entity had done before — sending a spacecraft into orbit and recovering it successfully — and it doesn't pay to sniff at his plans to carry people into Earth orbit and later to the moon or Mars. Less realistic: his Grasshopper rocket, designed to take off and land vertically, entirely under rocket power. The thing has made a quick, 300-m demonstration hop, but 300 m is a long, long way from space.
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>
>
> 3. Branson, the Travel Agent: The 300 people who met Sir Richard in the desert this week are fewer than half of the 640 passengers he's already signed up for trips aboard SpaceShipTwo, and that waiting list is growing. The machines Branson is building are impressive. SpaceShipTwo is a little six-passenger space plane with a wingspan of 12.8 m. It's carried aloft under the belly of the much larger — 43-m wingspan — WhiteKnightTwo, to an altitude of 15,000 m. There the mother ship releases the spaceship, which climbs to suborbital altitude under rocket power, spends five minutes in weightless space and then comes home. So far, SpaceShipTwo has not even made a successful test flight to space (nor has it made any unsuccessful ones), but it has flown in the high atmosphere dozens of times and is moving steadily spaceward. Branson claims he could be flying passengers as early as 2014. Maybe, but even if he makes that deadline, it's fair to ask if joyrides for wealthy tourists are the best way for the private sector to be using space. Branson and his believers don't feel that way of course — and his operation is undeniably impressive. He does see more-practical applications for the technology he's developing, including trips to the moon and high-speed point-to-point travel on Earth. (New York City to Tokyo in three hours anyone?) But for now, it's all about the tourists.
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>
>
> 4. NASA, the Faded Star: The fact that America's once towering space program ranks even as high as fourth is a nod not to what it's been doing of late, but what it would be capable of doing if it chose to. Before the grounding of the shuttle, NASA had big plans for its next chapter in manned space travel. It would be returning to the moon and perhaps Mars aboard a much larger Apollo-type spacecraft dubbed Orion, lofted by one of two rockets — the Ares I and the heavy-lift Ares V — depending on the mission. But that program was scrapped, and after floundering around for a while, the space agency decided to revive Orion and launch it with a heavy-lift vehicle called the Space Launch System (SLS). When will this shiny new hardware be ready? Maybe 2016, maybe later; no one is saying with certainty. And what would the mission be? Here NASA is flirting with parody. Forget the moon, forget Mars. We'll be going to an asteroid, but rather than simply send a crew out there to land, we'll be sending a robot ship to scout for one that looks interesting, place it in a gigantic space bag (really) and tow it back to the vicinity of the moon, where we can visit it at our comparative leisure. What could possibly go wrong? The paradoxical good news: if NASA's abysmal history of follow-through indicates anything, it's that this plan, like so many others before it, will be abandoned. The SLS and the Orion could indeed be insanely great machines. If they do get built, here's hoping someone will have the sense to point them in the right direction.
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>
>
> 5. The Ones to Watch: For all Musk's success in space and savvy with the press, SpaceX is actually just one of a handful of big outfits competing to dominate both the manned and unmanned orbital market NASA has abandoned. In anticipation of the shuttles' retirement, the space agency established what it called its Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office (handily nicknamed C3P0). The office opened the door to bidders from the private sector first to take over the unmanned station-resupply portion of its portfolio, and the two biggest competitors in that game are SpaceX and Orbital Sciences, the latter a Dulles, Va., company that already builds and flies a line of rockets for commercial and government launches. Like SpaceX, Orbital is under contract with NASA to resupply the space station, a goal it officially achieved this morning, Sept. 29, when its Cygnus spacecraft successfully docked with the station. The manned portion of that program is more of a scramble at the moment, with SpaceX again in the lead, followed variously by Boeing, United Launch Alliance (ULA, which already flies the well-proven Atlas and Delta boosters) and Sierra Nevada (with its winged Dream Chaser). For now, bet on SpaceX and ULA.
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>
>
> 6. The Dilettantes: Ah, Bezos and Allen, the contributions you've made to the digital age are hard to measure. But the space age? Not so much — at least not yet. Bezos' Blue Origin company is aiming to build a Grasshopper-type takeoff-and-landing spacecraft, but he's secretive about the whens and the hows of this technology and has put no meaningful flight points on the board. It never pays to underestimate Bezos — right, Borders, Barnes & Noble and the Washington Post? But spaceflight ain't beanbag — and it ain't publishing and marketing either. Bezos might, for the first time, be out of his depth. Allen's Stratolauncher is a two-part system like Branson's, though much bigger and with more orbital capability. The major downside: Branson is already flying his machines — albeit not in space yet — and Allen has barely begun cutting metal. His company — located practically across the street from the Mojave spaceport that serves as a sort of branch office for the much larger Spaceport America in Sierra County, N.M., where Branson is the anchor tenant — promises that test flights will begin in 2016, and the first trip to space will happen in 2018. Perhaps it will. And perhaps it won't.
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>
>
> The space industry is, in many ways, like the computer industry was 20 years ago. Remember when Apple was left for dead — until it rose up and ate the world? Remember when Texas Instruments and Dell were the giants that bestrode the landscape? Look at them now. SpaceX could fall, Bezos could rise, and NASA and China can do pretty much whatever they choose to do. We are, surely, going back to space — but things will remain awfully messy for a good while before we get there.
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>
>
> MEANWHILE ON MARS…
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>
>
> At closer look, Mars is not so simple
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>
>
> Amina Khan - Los Angeles Times
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>
> A series of discoveries from NASA's Curiosity rover are giving scientists a picture of Mars that looks increasingly complex, with small bits of water spread around the surface and an interior that could have been more geologically mature than experts had previously thought.
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>
> Curiosity's formidable arsenal of scientific instruments has detected traces of water chemically bound to the Martian dust that seems to be covering the entire planet. The finding, among several in the five studies published online Thursday by the journal Science, may explain mysterious water signals picked up by satellites in orbit around the Red Planet.
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>
>
> The soil that covers Mars' surface in Gale Crater, where Curiosity landed last year, seems to have two major components, according to data from the rover's laser-shooting Chemistry and Camera instrument. One is a coarse soil with millimeter-wide grains that probably came from the rocks around them; the other is very fine, with grains often a few micrometers in size, the ChemCam data show.
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>
>
> The fine-grained soil doesn't really match the rocks around it, said Pierre-Yves Meslin of the University of Toulouse in France, who led one of the studies. But it does seem to match the stuff found at sites where other rovers and landers touched down. That means it's probably distributed over much or all of the planet, kicked up and carried far in the fierce dust storms that can shroud the planet in a reddish haze.
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>
>
> The researchers say they don't know where that soil comes from, whether it's created in many places or has one source that gets picked up and blown all over.
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>
>
> Either way, it's a handy, naturally averaged sample of the Martian surface, said Indiana University mineralogist David Bish, who led a different study.
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>
> Perhaps the most intriguing thing about this fine soil is that ChemCam's readings detected a hydrogen signal, which could explain why satellites orbiting Mars have picked up a mysterious water signal in the past, Meslin said.
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>
> "It's actually kind of exciting because it's water yet again on Mars, but it's in a different material than we had recognized," said Caltech geologist John Grotzinger, the mission's project scientist. "So what Curiosity is doing is just demonstrating that water is present in a number of ways. It just adds to the diversity."
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>
>
> But another study based on data from Curiosity's Chemistry and Mineralogy tool — part of the dirt-digesting lab in the rover's belly — found no sign of water in soil samples taken from Rocknest, a sandy dune of a pit stop on the rover's way to a region dubbed Yellowknife Bay. That's because CheMin uses X-ray diffraction to bounce high-energy light off of a mineral's crystalline structure. If the soil isn't in crystalline form, there's no way for CheMin to see it.
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>
> All this means the hydrogen signal seen by ChemCam must have been coming from the amorphous, or non-crystalline, portion, which makes up a significant minority of the soil, said Bish, who led the CheMin study.
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>
> Sure enough, Curiosity's Sample Analysis at Mars instrument cooked up a tiny sample in its little oven and found that roughly 1.5% to 3% of the soil was made of water. The scientists think this water may have come from the atmosphere, pulled out of the thin air.
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>
>
> Bish said it was interesting that CheMin found no signs of minerals that formed in water, since looking for such clays was "one of the reasons for going to Gale Crater." Inside Gale Crater lies a 3-mile-high mountain called Mt. Sharp, whose layers could be rich in clays that hold answers to whether Mars was hospitable to life.
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>
> It's possible that this fine-grained soil is simply too young to have ever encountered liquid water, he said. If so, it would mean that many years passed between the formation of the water-rich clays locked inside of certain rocks and the dusty grains that currently cover the Martian surface.
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>
>
> Another of the studies focused on the rock known as Jake M, named after NASA engineer Jake Matijevic, who died shortly after the rover landed in 2012. The researchers didn't intend to study the rock — they analyzed it with Curiosity's alpha-particle X-ray spectrometer in order to help put ChemCam's measurements in context, said Caltech geologist Edward Stolper, lead author of that study.
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>
> Jake M is unlike any volcanic rock seen on Mars. It's rich in alkaline magma, which told the researchers that it had been created under high pressure — and perhaps in the presence of water, Stolper said. In fact, it looks something like a relatively uncommon rock on Earth called a mugearite, found on ocean islands and in rift zones.
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> The rock's composition also told scientists that it was clearly made of the leftovers after other minerals had crystallized out. That led them to believe that the heating and cooling and movement of magma that used to occur beneath Mars' mantle were a lot more complicated than they had thought.
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> "We see evidence for a more evolved planet," Grotzinger said, "so it looks like it was headed in more of a direction like Earth."
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>
>
> The dirt on Curiosity: new report card for its first 100 days
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>
>
> Pete Spotts - Christian Science Monitor
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>
>
> The report card NASA's Mars rover Curiosity compiled during its first 100 Martian days, or sols, would be the envy of any newly elected president.
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>
>
> In relatively short order, the Mini Cooper-size rover answered in broad terms the key question the mission's scientists wanted to answer: Was the environment in Gale Crater, the rover's exploration zone, potentially hospitable for life?
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> Curiosity found evidence that liquid water accumulated or flowed across the crater floor for extended periods, and hints contained in minerals and rocks suggest the answer to the mission's overarching question is "yes."
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>
> At this point, Curiosity is now 406 sols into its mission, but researchers are tying a bow around the first phase of the mission by publishing formal reports on the early findings in five papers in Friday's issue of the journal Science, as well as a paper set for publication in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.
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>
> Sol 100 represents a geological turning point in the mission, where Curiosity's focus shifted from looking at soil and loose material on the surface to exposed bedrock, says John Grotzinger, a planetary scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., and the mission's project scientist. The papers "wrap this up very nicely."
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>
>
> One of the most surprising discoveries involved a pyramid-shaped rock some 20 inches tall the team named Jake Matijevic, after an engineer who played a key role in designing Curiosity but who passed away shortly after the craft landed on Mars on Aug. 6, 2012.
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>
> Analysis of the rock, detailed in one of the five Science papers, showed that while it had a volcanic origin, its composition had never been seen before on Mars.
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> If the rock had been found on Earth, "we would have been hard-pressed to tell from its whole-rock chemical composition that it is Martian," wrote Edward Stolper, a CalTech geologist who led the team analyzing the rock. Instead, its composition was comparable to the the basaltic rock found along mid-ocean ridges or on volcanic islands in the ocean, where magma wells up from Earth's mantle and forms fresh crust.
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> Based on its chemistry, the rock would have been right at home among the volcanic rocks found on Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands, the team found.
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> The remaining papers in Science and Journal of Geophysical Research focused on the Martian soil – one of the science team's high-priority targets. Getting a picture of Martian geology is crucial to eventually piecing together Martian history.
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>
> Missions ranging from Viking to the Mars Phoenix Lander have analyzed Martian soil, but not with instruments as capable as those on Curiosity. Understanding the composition of the fine-grained dust at Gale Crater opens a window on the composition of the dust planetwide, since it has been blowing across Mars for hundreds to perhaps a billions years, Dr. Grotzinger says. It's thought to be a good surrogate for the composition of the Martian crust as whole.
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>
>
> Among the discoveries about the Martian soil:
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>
>
> · Teams analyzing the soils found that the coarser material matched the composition of some of the loose rock and rubble Curiosity encountered during its early travels – material that was dominated by lighter elements – while the finer dust was rich in iron and magnesium.
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>
> · From 30 to 45 percent of the particles in the soil samples lacked any structure, compared with the rest, which had high concentrations of minerals in crystalline form.
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> · When some of the finer silts were heated in the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) laboratory inside Curiosity's chassis, they released water vapor, sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, and molecular oxygen. Another instrument, ChemCam, also detected a spike in hydrogen in the soils, leading researchers to estimate that the soil contains between 1.5 percent and 3 percent water by weight.
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>
> As if to add a cautionary note to Curiosity's explorations, the rover's instruments uncovered perchlorate salts, which can destroy the very organic compounds that scientists are looking for as soil samples are being heated and tested.
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>
>
> "The presence of perchlorates isn't good news for some of the techniques we're currently using with Curiosity," said Daniel Galvin, a researcher at the Goddard Space flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., in a prepared statement. "This may change the way we search for organics in the future on Mars."
>
>
>
> It's possible Curiosity's experiments can be tweaked to reduce the impact of perchlorates on the results. Researchers will be exploring such tweaks in the near future, he suggested.
>
>
>
> The team's results also point to Earth as a likely source for some of the chlorine-based hydrocarbons that appeared during efforts to analyze the soil samples. The chlorine was Martian, but there's no definitive evidence that the carbon-based components of those hydrocarbons are native to Mars, Dr. Glavin's team notes. One in particular, benzene, could have hitched a ride from Earth, the team notes.
>
>
>
> Curiosity Rover Makes Big Water Discovery in Mars Dirt, a 'Wow Moment'
>
>
>
> Mike Wall - Space.com
>
>
>
> Future Mars explorers may be able to get all the water they need out of the red dirt beneath their boots, a new study suggests.
>
>
>
> NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has found that surface soil on the Red Planet contains about 2 percent water by weight. That means astronaut pioneers could extract roughly 2 pints (1 liter) of water out of every cubic foot (0.03 cubic meters) of Martian dirt they dig up, said study lead author Laurie Leshin, of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y.
>
>
>
> "For me, that was a big 'wow' moment," Leshin told SPACE.com. "I was really happy when we saw that there's easily accessible water here in the dirt beneath your feet. And it's probably true anywhere you go on Mars."
>
>
>
> The new study is one of five papers published in the journal Science Thursday that report what researchers have learned about Martian surface materials from the work Curiosity did during its first 100 days on the Red Planet.
>
>
>
> Soaking up atmospheric water
>
>
>
> Curiosity touched down inside Mars' huge Gale Crater in August 2012, kicking off a planned two-year surface mission to determine if the Red Planet could ever have supported microbial life. It achieved that goal in March, when it found that a spot near its landing site called Yellowknife Bay was indeed habitable billions of years ago.
>
>
>
> But Curiosity did quite a bit of science work before getting to Yellowknife Bay. Leshin and her colleagues looked at the results of Curiosity's first extensive Mars soil analyses, which the 1-ton rover performed on dirt that it scooped up at a sandy site called Rocknest in November 2012.
>
>
>
> Using its Sample Analysis at Mars instrument, or SAM, Curiosity heated this dirt to a temperature of 1,535 degrees Fahrenheit (835 degrees Celsius), and then identified the gases that boiled off. SAM saw significant amounts of carbon dioxide, oxygen and sulfur compounds — and lots of water on Mars.
>
>
>
> SAM also determined that the soil water is rich in deuterium, a "heavy" isotope of hydrogen that contains one neutron and one proton (as opposed to "normal" hydrogen atoms, which have no neutrons). The water in Mars' thin air sports a similar deuterium ratio, Leshin said.
>
>
>
> "That tells us that the dirt is acting like a bit of a sponge and absorbing water from the atmosphere," she said.
>
>
>
> Some bad news for manned exploration
>
>
>
> SAM detected some organic compounds in the Rocknest sample as well — carbon-containing chemicals that are the building blocks of life here on Earth. But as mission scientists reported late last year, these are simple, chlorinated organics that likely have nothing to do with Martian life.
>
>
>
> Instead, Leshin said, they were probably produced when organics that hitched a ride from Earth reacted with chlorine atoms released by a toxic chemical in the sample called perchlorate.
>
>
>
> Perchlorate is known to exist in Martian dirt; NASA's Phoenix lander spotted it near the planet's north pole in 2008. Curiosity has now found evidence of it near the equator, suggesting that the chemical is common across the planet. (Indeed, observations by a variety of robotic Mars explorers indicate that Red Planet dirt is likely similar from place to place, distributed in a global layer across the surface, Leshin said.)
>
>
>
> The presence of perchlorate is a challenge that architects of future manned Mars missions will have to overcome, Leshin said.
>
>
>
> "Perchlorate is not good for people. We have to figure out, if humans are going to come into contact with the soil, how to deal with that," she said.
>
>
>
> "That's the reason we send robotic explorers before we send humans — to try to really understand both the opportunities and the good stuff, and the challenges we need to work through," Leshin added.
>
>
>
> A wealth of discoveries
>
>
>
> The four other papers published in Science today report exciting results as well.
>
>
>
> For example, Curiosity's laser-firing ChemCam instrument found a strong hydrogen signal in fine-grained Martian soils along the rover's route, reinforcing the SAM data and further suggesting that water is common in dirt across the planet (since such fine soils are globally distributed).
>
>
>
> Another study reveals more intriguing details about a rock Curiosity studied in October 2012. This stone — which scientists dubbed "Jake Matijevic" in honor of a mission team member who died two weeks after the rover touched down — is a type of volcanic rock never before seen on Mars.
>
>
>
> However, rocks similar to Jake Matijevic are commonly observed here on Earth, especially on oceanic islands and in rifts where the planet's crust is thinning out.
>
>
>
> "Of all the Martian rocks, this one is the most Earth-like. It's kind of amazing," said Curiosity lead scientist John Grotzinger, a geologist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "What it indicates is that the planet is more evolved than we thought it was, more differentiated."
>
>
>
> The five new studies showcase the diversity and scientific value of Gale Crater, Grotzinger said. They also highlight how well Curiosity's 10 science instruments have worked together, returning huge amounts of data that will keep the mission team busy for years to come.
>
>
>
> "The amount of information that comes out of this rover just blows me away, all the time," Grotzinger told SPACE.com. "We're getting better at using Curiosity, and she just keeps telling us more and more. One year into the mission, we still feel like we're drinking from a fire hose."
>
>
>
> The road to Mount Sharp
>
>
>
> The pace of discovery could pick up even more. This past July, Curiosity left the Yellowknife Bay area and headed for Mount Sharp, which rises 3.4 miles (5.5 kilometers) into the Martian sky from Gale Crater's center.
>
>
>
> Mount Sharp has been Curiosity's main destination since before the rover's November 2011 launch. Mission scientists want the rover to climb up through the mountain's foothills, reading the terrain's many layers along the way.
>
>
>
> "As we go through the rock layers, we're basically looking at the history of ancient environments and how they may be changing," Grotzinger said. "So what we'll really be able to do for the first time is get a relative chronology of some substantial part of Martian history, which should be pretty cool."
>
>
>
> Curiosity has covered about 20 percent of the planned 5.3-mile (8.5 km) trek to Mount Sharp. The rover, which is doing science work as it goes, may reach the base of the mountain around the middle of next year, Grotzinger said.
>
>
>
> Mars water surprise in Curiosity rover soil samples
>
>
>
> Jonathan Amos - BBC News
>
>
>
> There is a surprising amount of water bound up in the soil of Mars, according to an analysis done onboard the US space agency's (Nasa) Curiosity rover.
>
>
>
> When it heated a small pinch of dirt scooped up from the ground, the most abundant vapour detected was H2O.
>
>
>
> Curiosity researcher Laurie Leshin and colleagues tell Science Magazine that Mars' dusty red covering holds about 2% by weight of water.
>
>
>
> This could be a useful resource for future astronauts, they say.
>
>
>
> "If you think about a cubic foot of this dirt and you just heat it a little bit - a few hundred degrees - you'll actually get off about two pints of water - like two water bottles you'd take to the gym," Dr Leshin explained.
>
>
>
> "And this dirt on Mars is interesting because it seems to be about the same everywhere you go. If you are a human explorer, this is really good news because you can quite easily extract water from almost anywhere."
>
>
>
> The dean of science at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York, has been describing her work with Curiosity in this week's Science In Action programme on the BBC.
>
>
>
> The revelation about the amount of water chemically bound into the fine-grained particles of the soil is just one nugget of information to come from a series of five papers in the respected journal describing the early exploits of the rover.
>
>
>
> Some of this data has been reported previously at science meetings and in Nasa press conferences, but the formal write-up gives an opportunity for the wider research community to examine the detail.
>
>
>
> 'Good and bad'
>
>
>
> Dr Leshin's and colleagues' publication concerns a sample analysis done at "Rocknest", a pile of wind-blown sand and silt about 400m from where Curiosity touched down on the floor of Gale Crater in August 2012.
>
>
>
> The robot used its tools to pick up, sieve and deliver a smidgeon of this Martian dirt to the Sam instrument hidden away inside the belly of the vehicle.
>
>
>
> Sam has the ability to cook samples and to identify any gases that are released. These products are diagnostic of the different components that make up the soil.
>
>
>
> So, for example, Curiosity saw a significant proportion of carbon dioxide - the likely consequence of carbonate minerals being present in the sample. Carbonates form in the presence of water.
>
>
>
> And it saw oxygen and chlorine - a signal many had expected to see following similar studies in Mars' "High Arctic" by Nasa's Phoenix lander in 2008.
>
>
>
> "[We think these] are break-down products from a mineral called perchlorate, and that's there at about a half-a-percent in the soil," said Dr Leshin.
>
>
>
> "If the water was the good news for the astronauts, this is the bad news. Perchlorate actually interferes with thyroid function, so it could be a problem if humans were to ingest some of the fine dust on Mars. It's just something we need to know about now so we can plan for it later."
>
>
>
> Scottish link
>
>
>
> Three of the other Curiosity papers in the Science Magazine release also concern themselves with the nature of the Martian soil.
>
>
>
> The fifth is a report that describes a pyramid-shaped rock found in the vehicle's path. This striking block was dubbed Jake Matijevic, in honour of a recently deceased Nasa engineer.
>
>
>
> The team led by Prof Ed Stolper from Caltech, Pasadena, can now confirm that Jake_M is a rock not seen before on the Red Planet.
>
>
>
> It is most like a mugearite, says the group - a type of rock found on islands and rift zones on Earth.
>
>
>
> "On Earth, we have a pretty good idea how mugearites and rocks like them are formed," said co-worker Prof Martin Fisk from Oregon State University, Corvallis.
>
>
>
> "It starts with magma deep within the Earth that crystallises in the presence of 1-2% water.
>
>
>
> "The crystals settle out of the magma and what doesn't crystallise is the mugearite magma, which can eventually make its way to the surface as a volcanic eruption."
>
>
>
> Mugearite was first identified on Earth by British petrographer/petrologist Alfred Harker. The name references a local croft, Mugeary, on the Isle of Skye, just off the Scottish mainland.
>
>
>
> The Curiosity rover is currently engaged in some hard driving in Gale Crater. Since early July, it has been rolling tens of metres a day.
>
>
>
> The robot is trying to reach the foothills of the large mountain that dominates the centre of the deep, equatorial impact bowl.
>
>
>
> Curiosity Finds Water And Poison In Martian Soil
>
>
>
> Francie Diep - Popular Science
>
>
>
> You watched it land, trundle around a bit, and attack innocent rocks. Now you can learn a lot more about the science NASA's Curiosity rover has been beaming back to Earth. Today, teams of scientists from all around the world are publishing six papers about their analyses of some of the first samples scooped up by Curiosity's scientific instruments.
>
>
>
> The studies tried to determine how friendly Mars would be to any future human visitors. They also looked for clues to Mars' geological history. It turns out the Martian soil has a bit of water that people might extract with heating, as well as small amounts of a toxic chemical that explorers will have to watch out for.
>
>
>
> Here we've highlighted our favorite findings, along with links to all of the papers, in case there's anything you're into that we've missed. Bon voyage, Curiosity.
>
>
>
> In the hot seat
>
>
>
> One of the first things Curiosity did on the red planet was scoop up some stuff from a patch of sand and dust called Rocknest. (Scientists thought it looked like a little nest for rocks, deputy director of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Laurie Leshin, told the Science podcast.) The rover then examined its Martian soil sample using its ChemCam, CheMin and Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instruments.
>
>
>
> In one of its analyses, Curiosity heated a sample of soil, about half the size of a baby aspirin, to about 835 degrees Celsius (about 1,535 degrees Fahrenheit). At that temperature, the minerals in the soil break down and release volatile gases. A team of international scientists found water vapor, sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide and oxygen in the sample, in that order of abundance.
>
>
>
> So a good amount of the sample—about 1.5 percent to 3 percent by weight—was water. "To me, that's interesting because of the good resource for potential human explorers," Leshin says. "Two percent water means that if you had, say, a square foot of this—or, a cubic foot, sorry—of this soil and heated it up, you could get about two pints of water out of it." Earth's dirt has about 10 times as much water as Mars'.
>
>
>
> One recurring theme from this and other soil analyses: Curiosity and its predecessors, including Pathfinder, Spirit and Opportunity, all pretty much found the same soil composition in different Martian locations. This suggests that water-containing soil is available everywhere on Mars. It could also mean some process on Mars is mixing its dirt evenly across its surface, or that the composition of the planet's crust is similar everywhere.
>
>
>
> Killer dirt
>
>
>
> The other gases from the heating analysis told scientists about what minerals appeared in Martian soil. There was some bad news for any future Mars visitors. The oxygen was released with chlorine gas, which indicates a small fraction of the soil contains perchlorate, which is toxic if ingested. "It's good to know now that it's there," Leshin says, "so we can plan for when humans go to Mars and there's dust everywhere. How are we going to deal with that issue?"
>
>
>
> No organics
>
>
>
> Curiosity did not find any so-called organic compounds, a name that doesn't necessarily mean the compounds come from living sources. Instead, organic compounds contain elements, including carbon, that scientists consider to be the building blocks of life. Such compounds may be important to future Mars explorers.
>
>
>
> The surface of Mars is exposed to a lot of radiation and other harsh conditions, Leshin says, so scientists are still holding out hope that the planet has organic compounds tucked away deeper underground. Curiosity is equipped with a drill to find out.
>
>
>
> An unusual rock
>
>
>
> On its 43rd Mars-day, or sol, after landing, Curiosity ran into a pyramid-shaped rock that is unlike any other Martian rock humans have ever found. Scientists named the rock Jake Matijevic, after Curiosity's former lead surface operations systems engineer, who died in 2012.
>
>
>
> An analysis found Jake_M's proportions of minerals is different from other Martian rocks. However, the rock does look a lot mugearites on Earth, which are a rare type of rock that appear on ocean islands and in continental rifts (Glamorous). Jake_M is so similar to Earthly mugearites, the research team wrote in their paper that if they'd found Jake_M on Earth, they wouldn't know it came from Mars. Mugearites—and Jake_M—are igneous rocks, which means they formed from magma. (Other missions have found other igneous rocks on Mars, but not mugearite-like ones.)
>
>
>
> The team used Jake_M's chemistry to hypothesize how it could have formed. It would have required either a high amount of water in the magma, or high pressure, or both. That's evidence that there may be some water under Mars' crust.
>
>
>
> More dirt on Mars
>
>
>
> Eager for more? Here's a paper about the two different types of soils that Curiosity's x-ray and laser instruments found in Rocknest. One was a fine-grained type that other rovers have found in other locations, too. The second was a coarser-grained type that seems more local to Rocknest.
>
>
>
> This paper characterizes the soils in Rocknest, examining dirt both with and without a crystalline structure. The non-crystalline stuff is similar to the soil in… Hawaii.
>
>
>
> This paper examines a patch of sand near Rocknest, on the lee side of some obstruction to the Martian wind.
>
>
>
> Where is Curiosity now?
>
>
>
> The little rover that could is still in the Gale Crater, moving as fast as it can toward Mount Sharp. Mount Sharp has geologic layers that may tell scientists more about Mars' history. The mountain may also contain organic compounds.
>
>
>
> There are five planned rest stops along the way, during which Curiosity will take samples and perform more science. The rover recently passed Waypoint 1.
>
>
>
> END
>
>
>
>

Subject: Fwd: Human Spaceflight (and Mars) News - September 30, 2013 and JSC Today
References: <7F10211CD602224DB7B4BB3E4E6DB4A607B077@NDJSMBX104.ndc.nasa.gov>
From: Bobby Martin <bobbygmartin1938@gmail.com>
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary=Apple-
<html><body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><div><br><br>Sent from my iPad</div><div><br>Begin forwarded message:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><b>From:</b> "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" &lt;<a href="mailto:larry.j.moon@nasa.gov">larry.j.moon@nasa.gov</a>&gt;<br><b>Date:</b> September 30, 2013 5:56:14 AM GMT-06:00<br><b>To:</b> "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" &lt;<a href="mailto:larry.j.moon@nasa.gov">larry.j.moon@nasa.gov</a>&gt;<br><b>Subject:</b> <b>FW: Human Spaceflight (and Mars) News - September 30, 2013&nbsp; and JSC Today</b><br><br></div></blockquote><div><span></span></div><blockquote type="cite"><div>
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<h3 style="margin-left:2.25pt;vertical-align:baseline"><a name="the_top">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;JSC TODAY CATEGORIES</a><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#336699"><o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<ol style="margin-top:0in" start="1" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color:#336699;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo9;vertical-align:baseline">
<b><span style="font-size:10.5pt"><a href="#r1"><span style="color:#336699;text-decoration:none">Headlines</span><span style="color:#336699;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none">
</span></a><br>
-&nbsp;<a href="#r17577"><span style="color:#336699;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none"> 13 Days of Safety - Day 4: Dumb Ways to Die</span></a><br>
-&nbsp;<a href="#r17610"><span style="color:#336699;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none"> POWER of One Winners Announced
</span></a><br>
-&nbsp;<a href="#r17617"><span style="color:#336699;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none"> October Sustainability Opportunities</span></a><br>
-&nbsp;<a href="#r17618"><span style="color:#336699;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none"> Center-Level IR&amp;D Call for Solicitations NOW Open</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></b></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="color:#336699;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo9;vertical-align:baseline">
<b><span style="font-size:10.5pt"><a href="#r3"><span style="color:#336699;text-decoration:none">Jobs and Training</span><span style="color:#336699;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none">
</span></a><br>
-&nbsp;<a href="#r17578"><span style="color:#336699;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none"> Job Opportunities</span></a><br>
-&nbsp;<a href="#r17614"><span style="color:#336699;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none"> New Financial Wellness Webinars and Counseling</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></b></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="color:#336699;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo9;vertical-align:baseline">
<b><span style="font-size:10.5pt"><a href="#r4"><span style="color:#336699;text-decoration:none">Community</span><span style="color:#336699;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none">
</span></a><br>
-&nbsp;<a href="#r17629"><span style="color:#336699;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none"> More Opportunities to Share Your Story</span></a><br>
-&nbsp;<a href="#r17572"><span style="color:#336699;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none"> Astronomy Day</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></b></li></ol>
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<td width="226" valign="top" style="width:169.5pt;padding:1.5pt 0in 0in 7.5pt" id="imageOfTheDay">
<p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right;vertical-align:baseline">
<img border="0" width="226" height="170" id="_x0000_i1028" src="cid:image008.jpg@01CEBDAA.1B7A8F70" alt="Glow with the Flow"><o:p></o:p></p>
<div align="right">
<table class="MsoNormalTable" border="1" cellpadding="0" width="226" style="width:169.5pt;background:#E4E4E4;border:none;border-top:solid white 1.5pt" id="imageOfTheDayTitle">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="border:none;padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;vertical-align:baseline">
<b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/aero/flow_patterns_image.html" target="_blank"><span style="color:#336699;text-decoration:none">Glow with the Flow</span></a>
</b><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
</td>
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</tbody>
</table>
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<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;vertical-align:baseline">
<span style="display:none"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>
<div align="center">
<table class="MsoNormalTable" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="755" style="width:566.25pt" id="announcements">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">
<table class="MsoNormalTable" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="left" width="100%" style="width:100.0%;background:#E4E4E4;border:solid #ACACAC 1.0pt">
<tbody>
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<td style="border:none;padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:baseline"><span style="color:#2338A3"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>
<h2 style="vertical-align:baseline"><a name="r1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Headlines</a><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#336699"><o:p></o:p></span></h2>
<ol start="1" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color:black;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l2 level1 lfo10;vertical-align:baseline">
<a name="r17577"><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;">13 Days of Safety - Day 4: Dumb Ways to Die
</span></b></a><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></li></ol>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">In 2011, at least 23 percent of auto collisions involved cell phones -- 1.3 million crashes.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">Five seconds is the minimum amount of time your attention is taken away from the road when you're texting and driving. Traveling
at 55 mph, this equals driving the length of a football field without looking at the road.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">If you text and drive, you're 23 times more likely to crash. Other distracted driving activities: dialing - 2.8 times more likely;
talking or listening - 1.3 times; and reaching for the device - 1.4 times. <o:p>
</o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">Of drivers ages 18 to 20 involved in car wrecks, 18 percent admitted to texting or talking at the time.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">Seventy-seven percent of young adults are very or somewhat confident that they can safely text while driving, and 55 percent of
young adults claim it's easy to text while they drive. But it is a problem&nbsp;... and adults do it, too.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJNR2EpS0jw"><b><span style="color:#336699;text-decoration:none">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJNR2EpS0jw</span></b></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434"><a href="mailto:surpricia.e.franklin@nasa.gov"><b><span style="color:#336699;text-decoration:none">Supricia Franklin/Angel Plaza</span></b></a>
</span><span class="applelinksblack"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;color:#343434">x37817/x37305</span></span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">
<a href="http://sthday.jsc.nasa.gov/"><b><span style="color:#336699;text-decoration:none">http://sthday.jsc.nasa.gov/</span></b></a>
<br>
<br>
<a href="#the_top"><b><span style="color:#336699;text-decoration:none">[top]</span></b></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<ol start="2" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color:black;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l2 level1 lfo10;vertical-align:baseline">
<a name="r17610"><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;">POWER of One Winners Announced
</span></b></a><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></li></ol>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">Congratulations to JSC's Newest POWER of One winners:
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">GOLD: Joshua Byerly - AD9
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">GOLD: Alberto F. Magh - OZ411
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">SILVER: Daniel H. Garrison - KA
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">SILVER: Collin Hieger - AO
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">SILVER: Karon F. Porche - BJ111
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">BRONZE: Erin P. Carpenter - DO511
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">BRONZE: Brenda L. Smith - NA
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">BRONZE: Larona K. Smith - SK
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">The POWER of One award was established to award and recognize JSC employees for their exemplary performance and direct contributions
to either their organization, JSC or NASA at the agency level. Congratulations and thank you for all your hard work! If you would like to nominate someone for POWER of One Award, click
<a href="http://powerofone.jsc.nasa.gov/"><b><span style="color:#336699;text-decoration:none">here</span></b></a>.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434"><a href="mailto:jessica.ocampo-1@nasa.gov"><b><span style="color:#336699;text-decoration:none">Jessica Ocampo</span></b></a>
</span><span class="applelinksblack"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;color:#343434">281-792-7804</span></span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">
<a href="http://powerofone.jsc.nasa.gov/"><b><span style="color:#336699;text-decoration:none">http://powerofone.jsc.nasa.gov/</span></b></a>
<br>
<br>
<a href="#the_top"><b><span style="color:#336699;text-decoration:none">[top]</span></b></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<ol start="3" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color:black;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l2 level1 lfo10;vertical-align:baseline">
<a name="r17617"><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;">October Sustainability Opportunities
</span></b></a><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></li></ol>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">What really is "sustainability?" Your JSC Sustainability champions can present an overview anytime to your technical or staff meetings.
A description of our JSC Sustainability initiatives and October opportunities to get involved can be found on the JSC Sustainability home page. Scroll down to the "What's New in Sustainability" section for the October sustainability opportunities.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434"><a href="mailto:laurie.j.peterson@nasa.gov"><b><span style="color:#336699;text-decoration:none">Laurie Peterson</span></b></a>
</span><span class="applelinksblack"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;color:#343434">x39845</span></span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">
<a href="http://jsc-web-www6.jsc.nasa.gov/ja/ja13/capp.cfm"><b><span style="color:#336699;text-decoration:none">http://jsc-web-www6.jsc.nasa.gov/ja/ja13/capp.cfm</span></b></a>
<br>
<br>
<a href="#the_top"><b><span style="color:#336699;text-decoration:none">[top]</span></b></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<ol start="4" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color:black;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l2 level1 lfo10;vertical-align:baseline">
<a name="r17618"><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;">Center-Level IR&amp;D Call for Solicitations NOW Open
</span></b></a><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></li></ol>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">The Fiscal Year 2014 fall Independent Research &amp; Development (IR&amp;D) Call for Solicitations is now open (as of Sept. 26) to all
civil servants at JSC and White Sands Test Facility.&nbsp;Approximately 10 projects will be awarded, with a maximum value of $100,000 each. The focus of the call is Human Spaceflight Architecture Team's needs performance targets.&nbsp;
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434"><br>
<b>Guidance may be found at the link below.&nbsp; </b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">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 <br>
understanding of the call process. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">Submissions are due to your JTWG representative no later than 6:30 p.m. Oct. 7.</span></b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">Good luck!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434"><a href="mailto:david.l.brown@nasa.gov"><b><span style="color:#336699;text-decoration:none">David L. Brown</span></b></a>
</span><span class="applelinksblack"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;color:#343434">x37426</span></span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">
<a href="file:///\\Jsc-fs01\apo-strategic-investments\FY14_CL_IRD"><b><span style="color:#336699;text-decoration:none">\\Jsc-fs01\apo-strategic-investments\FY14_CL_IRD</span></b></a>
<br>
<br>
<a href="#the_top"><b><span style="color:#336699;text-decoration:none">[top]</span></b></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<h2 style="vertical-align:baseline"><a name="r3">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Jobs and Training</a><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#336699"><o:p></o:p></span></h2>
<ol start="1" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color:black;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l7 level1 lfo11;vertical-align:baseline">
<a name="r17578"><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;">Job Opportunities
</span></b></a><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></li></ol>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">Where do I find job opportunities?
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">Both internal Competitive Placement Plan (CPP) and external JSC job announcements are posted on the Human Resources (HR) Portal
and <a href="http://www.usajobs.gov/"><b><span style="color:#336699;text-decoration:none">USAJOBS website</span></b></a>. Through the HR portal, civil servants can view summaries of all the agency jobs that are currently open at:
<a href="https://hr.nasa.gov/portal/server.pt/community/employees_home/239/job_opportunities/133142">
<b><span style="color:#336699;text-decoration:none">https://hr.nasa.gov/portal/server.pt/community/employees_home/239/job_opportu...</span></b></a>
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">To help you navigate to JSC vacancies, use the filter drop-down menu and select "JSC HR." The "Jobs" link will direct you to the
USAJOBS website for the complete announcement and the ability to apply online. If you have questions about any JSC job vacancies, please call your HR representative.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434"><a href="mailto:lisa.s.pesak@nasa.gov"><b><span style="color:#336699;text-decoration:none">Lisa Pesak</span></b></a>
</span><span class="applelinksblack"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;color:#343434">x30476</span></span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">
<br>
<br>
<a href="#the_top"><b><span style="color:#336699;text-decoration:none">[top]</span></b></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<ol start="2" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color:black;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l7 level1 lfo11;vertical-align:baseline">
<a name="r17614"><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;">New Financial Wellness Webinars and Counseling
</span></b></a><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></li></ol>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">New financial webinars and remote counseling are being provided this fall through Exploration Wellness. Sharpen your financial
wellness with online education! These offerings are available to you, your family and friends on a variety of days and times. Turn education into action by learning the appropriate steps to follow with an expert. Registration and scheduling details are at
the enrollment link below. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">All Employees:
</span></b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">Employees who wanted to attend classes but were unable to may take advantage of the webinars and complimentary financial counseling.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">Former Students:
</span></b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">Anyone who was able to attend classes but has not scheduled their counseling session may still do so.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><b><i><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">Fall Webinars:
</span></i></b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">FW101: Financial Wellness Foundation
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">FW102: Budgets, Debt, Insurance and Long-Term Care
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">FW103: Investing and Retirement - NEW!
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">FW104: Taxes and Estates - NEW!
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">FW105: Debt Free For Life
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">FW109: Financial Transitions
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">Enrollment details are
<a href="http://www.explorationwellness.com/rd/AE109.aspx?Sept_Signup.pdf"><b><span style="color:#336699;text-decoration:none">at this link</span></b></a>.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434"><a href="mailto:jsc-wellness-program@mail.nasa.gov"><b><span style="color:#336699;text-decoration:none">Shelly Haralson</span></b></a>
</span><span class="applelinksblack"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;color:#343434">x39168</span></span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">
<a href="http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/"><b><span style="color:#336699;text-decoration:none">http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/</span></b></a>
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<br>
<a href="#the_top"><b><span style="color:#336699;text-decoration:none">[top]</span></b></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<h2 style="vertical-align:baseline"><a name="r4">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Community</a><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#336699"><o:p></o:p></span></h2>
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<a name="r17629"><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;">More Opportunities to Share Your Story
</span></b></a><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></li></ol>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">V-CORPs needs you! Help us inspire the scientists and engineers of the future by volunteering as a science fair judge at the Ward
Elementary Science Fair. The event is on Dec. 11, but we would like to confirm your support this week. Interested? Volunteer directly on the V-CORPs calendar, or by emailing the
<a href="mailto:jsc-eduoutre@mail.nasa.gov"><b><span style="color:#336699;text-decoration:none">V-CORPs admin</span></b></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">Looking for something different? October is full of opportunities needing volunteers. You can sign up to help out at Astronomy
Day at the HMNS George Observatory where you will engage with visitors about projects going on at JSC and NASA, or support the Education office for activities they have throughout the Fall semester. To sign up, check out the event page on the
<a href="https://nasajsc.secure.force.com/vcorps"><b><span style="color:#336699;text-decoration:none">V-CORPs website</span></b></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">Click on the "current volunteer opportunities" tile to see a list of upcoming events.&nbsp; You can sign up right from that list if
you're signed in. If you are not yet a V-CORPs volunteer just click on the COUNT ME IN button on the
<a href="https://nasajsc.secure.force.com/vcorps"><b><span style="color:#336699;text-decoration:none">V-CORPs website</span></b></a>. Be sure to check back frequently - we are adding events every day.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">JSC External Relations, Community Relations Office
</span><span class="applelinksblack"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;color:#343434">x35111</span></span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">
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<a href="#the_top"><b><span style="color:#336699;text-decoration:none">[top]</span></b></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<li class="MsoNormal" style="color:black;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l4 level1 lfo12;vertical-align:baseline">
<a name="r17572"><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;">Astronomy Day
</span></b></a><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></li></ol>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">Astronomy Day is Oct. 12 at the George Observatory inside Brazos Bend State Park. Daytime activities for the kids include face
painting and learning the phases of the moon by eating Oreo cookies. There are outdoor and indoor speakers on various astronomy-related topics, a how-to-make-a-comet demo and telescopes set up to safely observe the sun. Once nighttime arrives, out come all
the telescopes! Up to 35 will be set up for observing the moon, star clusters and nebulae, and there's an opportunity to go inside the observatory's three telescope domes.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">The Astronomy Day event starts at 3 p.m. and goes (clouds or shine) until 10:30 p.m., but telescope viewing may be impacted by
weather. Concessions are available. Come have a fun-filled day and learn a little astronomy in the process. It's a great time for the whole family!
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">Normal park entry fees apply, but Astronomy Day is FREE!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">Event Date: Saturday, October 12, 2013 &nbsp; Event Start Time:3:00 PM &nbsp; Event End Time:10:30 PM<br>
Event Location: George Observatory inside Brazos Bend State Park<br>
<br>
<a href="http://events.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCToday/eventInfo.cfm?id=17572"><b><span style="color:#336699;text-decoration:none">Add to Calendar</span></b></a><br>
<br>
<a href="mailto:james.wessel-1@nasa.gov"><b><span style="color:#336699;text-decoration:none">Jim Wessel</span></b></a>
</span><span class="applelinksblack"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;color:#343434">x41128</span></span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">
<a href="http://www.astronomyday.net/%20"><b><span style="color:#336699;text-decoration:none">http://www.astronomyday.net/
</span></b></a><br>
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<a href="#the_top"><b><span style="color:#336699;text-decoration:none">[top]</span></b></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<td style="border:solid #ACACAC 1.0pt;background:#F6F9FE;padding:7.5pt 7.5pt 7.5pt 7.5pt" id="disclaimer">
<p style="text-align:justify;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:8.0pt;font-family:&quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">JSC Today is compiled periodically as a service to JSC employees on an as-submitted basis. Any JSC organization or employee
may submit articles.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:8.0pt;font-family:&quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:#343434">Disclaimer: Accuracy and content of these notes are the responsibility of the submitters.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;">NASA TV:</span></strong><strong><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;font-weight:normal">
</span></strong><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/ntv"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;">www.nasa.gov/ntv</span></a><strong><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;font-weight:normal"><o:p></o:p></span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo2">
<strong><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol;font-weight:normal"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt &quot;Times New Roman&quot;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
</span></span></span></strong><strong><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;font-weight:normal">9 am Central (10 EDT) – Replay of Orbital Sciences/Cygnus Post-Berthing News Conference<o:p></o:p></span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo2">
<span style="font-family:Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt &quot;Times New Roman&quot;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
</span></span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;">Noon Central (1 EDT) – Asteroid Initiative Ideas Synthesis Workshop -- Plenary Session</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo2">
<span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt &quot;Times New Roman&quot;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
</span></span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;">1:30 pm Central (2:30 EDT) – Asteroid Workshop -- Asteroid Redirection Systems Session<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-family:&quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;font-weight:normal"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-size:20.0pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;">Human Spaceflight News</span></strong><span style="font-size:20.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-size:20.0pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;">Monday – September 30, 2013</span></strong><span style="font-size:20.0pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:8.0pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><strong><u><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;">HEADLINES AND LEADS</span></u></strong><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">How a Potential Government Shutdown Could Affect NASA<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Mike Wall - <a href="http://Space.com"><a href="http://Space.com">Space.com</a></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">A government shutdown on Tuesday would force NASA to cease most of its operations and furlough the vast majority of its workforce, space agency officials say. Fewer than 600 of NASA's 18,000 or so employees would likely keep working
through a shutdown, with the aim of ensuring the safety of human life and the protection of property, according to a plan the space agency submitted Friday to the Office of Management and Budget. The International Space Station (ISS) and its six crewmembers
would not be hung out to dry.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57605188/u.s-companies-help-reach-milestones-for-space-program/"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">U.S. companies help reach milestones for space program</span></b></a><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Jeff Glor - CBS Evening News<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Since the final space shuttle launch in July 2011, you may not know NASA has relied on other countries to get astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station. On Sunday, we witnessed milestones by two American companies designed
to change that. An upgraded, more powerful Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base. SpaceX said it's a test flight that should go a long way to prove it can deliver people as well. "It's a major milestone for NASA and the International Space
Station Project," said CBS News Space Consultant Bill Harwood. "No question about it."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Cygnus cargo ship captured by station<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">William Harwood - CBS News<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">A commercial cargo ship making its maiden flight to the International Space Station completed a complex rendezvous early Sunday, pulling up to within about 30 feet of the lab complex and then standing by while the station's robot arm
locked onto a grapple fixture. Running a week late because of a navigation software glitch, the Cygnus supply ship, built and launched as a commercial venture by Orbital Sciences Corp., was captured by Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano at 7 a.m. EDT (GMT-4)
as the two spacecraft sailed high above the Indian Ocean. With a successful demonstration flight, Orbital Sciences will be clear to begin executing a $1.9 billion contract to launch at least eight space station resupply missions, part of a major NASA initiative
to replace cargo capacity lost with the space shuttle's retirement.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">New commercial supply ship reaches space station<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Marcia Dunn - Associated Press<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">NASA's newest delivery service made its first-ever shipment to the International Space Station on Sunday, another triumph for the booming commercial space arena that has its sights set on launching astronauts. Orbital Sciences Corp.'s
unmanned cargo ship, the Cygnus, pulled up at the orbiting lab with a half-ton of meals and special treats for the station astronauts who assisted in the high-flying feat. With the smooth linkup, Orbital Sciences of Virginia became only the second company
to accomplish such a far-flung shipment. The California-based SpaceX company took the lead last year.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Commercial cargo ship reaches International Space Station<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Irene Klotz - Reuters<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">An unmanned U.S. commercial cargo ship flew to the International Space Station on Sunday, completing the primary goal of its test flight before supply runs begin in December. After a series of successful steering maneuvers, the Orbital
Sciences Cygnus freighter parked about 39 feet from the station at 6:50 a.m. EDT/1050 GMT as the ships sailed 260 miles above the Southern Ocean south of Africa.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Unmanned cargo ship docks with Space Station<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Agence France Presse<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Washington — An unmanned cargo ship successfully berthed with the orbiting International Space Station on Sunday following a one-week delay due to a technical glitch, NASA said. ISS astronauts "successfully captured the Orbital Sciences
Cygnus cargo spacecraft with the station's robotic arm" at 1100 GMT, NASA said. "Following its capture, the spacecraft is being maneuvered by Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency and Karen Nyberg of NASA for installation onto the Earth-facing port of
the station's Harmony module," the space agency said on its website.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Orbital Sciences' Cygnus berths at ISS<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">James Dean - Florida Today<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">A second private cargo spacecraft has arrived at the International Space Station, fully establishing NASA's commercial resupply fleet. Station astronaut Luca Parmitano steered a 58-foot robotic arm to snare Orbital Sciences Corp.'s unmanned
Cygnus freighter at 7 a.m. EDT today as the vehicles flew 260 miles above the Indian Ocean. "It was really everything we would have wished for today," said Cady Coleman, an astronaut communicating with the ISS crew from Houston. "Thank you very much to your
whole crew."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">First Cygnus Capsule Arrives at Space Station<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Warren Ferster - Space News<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Following a weeklong delay, Orbital Sciences Corp.'s first Cygnus cargo module successfully berthed with the international space station (ISS), marking a critical milestone in the company's efforts to field a commercial logistics system
for the orbital outpost. In its first demonstration flight, Cygnus was launched Sept. 18 atop Orbital's Antares rocket, which was making only its second flight, from the Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport on NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, Va. The capsule arrived
at the station following a series of orbit-raising maneuvers and tests and was grappled by the outpost's crew-operated robotic arm.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Orbital Sciences' Cygnus Spacecraft Successfully Berths With The ISS<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Alex Knapp - Forbes<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">At around 8:45 Eastern Time this morning, Orbital Sciences' Cygnus cargo spacecraft was successfully berthed at the International Space Station. This successful berthing makes Orbital the second commercial space company to successfully
send a cargo ship to the station after Elon Musk's SpaceX. The spacecraft launched on top of Orbital's Antares rocket on September 18th from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The spacecraft made an initial approach to the station on September 22,
but that approach was aborted due to a software glitch. The next approach was then postponed to September 29th to accommodate the arrival of three new crew members to the Station on Thursday, September 26.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">SpaceX launches Falcon 9; Orbital's Cygnus docks with space station<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Joel Achenbach - Washington Post<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Sunday was a busy day for the commercial space industry. First, a new spacecraft built by Dulles-based Orbital Sciences docked at the international space station. Hours later, a souped-up rocket built by tech titan Elon Musk's company
SpaceX roared off a launch pad in California, a harbinger of grander things to come. Orbital and SpaceX have NASA contracts to supply cargo to the space station. SpaceX had already reached the station three times, and Orbital matched the feat Sunday when its
Cygnus spacecraft parked itself at the orbiting laboratory, ready to offload about 1,500 pounds of food, clothing and scientific experiments designed by students.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Giant Leaps for Space Firms Orbital, SpaceX<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Andy Pasztor - Wall Street Journal<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">A successful launch and a separate in-orbit rendezvous on Sunday, both funded largely with corporate dollars, are accelerating what amounts to the privatization of NASA's current human spaceflight efforts. Orbital Sciences Corp. became
the second commercial entity to send a spacecraft to the international space station, with its Cygnus cargo vehicle executing a series of slow-motion maneuvers to link up with the orbiting laboratory. One week after a computer-software problem delayed the
rendezvous 250 miles above the earth, Cygnus moved within about 33 feet of its destination where it was grabbed by a robotic arm overseen by two astronauts aboard the space station at around 7 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">SpaceX launches upgraded Falcon 9 rocket<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">William Harwood - CBS News<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">In a dramatic California test flight, SpaceX launched an upgraded, more powerful version of its Falcon 9 rocket Sunday -- a booster the company hopes will someday carry astronauts to the space station -- to place a modest Canadian science
satellite into orbit along with five smaller research payloads. The Falcon 9 version 1.1 features more powerful engines, a longer first stage to accommodate larger propellant tanks, a new payload fairing and a triply redundant flight computer system, improvements
intended to boost the rocket's payload capability while improving safety and reliability.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">SpaceX launches Canadian satellite from California<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Associated Press<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">A SpaceX rocket carrying a Canadian satellite intended to track space weather launched from the California coast Sunday in what was billed as a test flight. Besides launching small satellites, SpaceX - or Space Exploration Technologies
Corp. -has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to make a dozen unmanned missions to restock the International Space Station. SpaceX has completed three flights so far to the orbiting laboratory. With NASA's space shuttle fleet retired, SpaceX is also working
to modify its capsules to transport astronauts in several years. Until then, NASA astronauts are hitching rides on Russian rockets to zip to and from the space station. A SpaceX competitor, Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp., launched its first-ever cargo
ship bound for the space station earlier this month. The arrival of Orbital's Cygnus capsule, bearing chocolate and clothing, had been delayed because of a software problem, but it docked with the space station Sunday.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">New Falcon 9 makes first flight<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><i>224-rocket lifts off from Calif., deploys Canadian satellite in orbit<o:p></o:p></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">James Dean - Florida Today<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">SpaceX could launch again from Cape Canaveral within a month after Sunday's successful first flight of an upgraded Falcon 9 rocket from California. The company was unable to recover the rocket's first stage intact, but CEO Elon Musk
believes that feat is possible as soon as February, during the launch of an International Space Station cargo mission from the Cape. "That's actually what's got me the most excited about this flight," he told reporters a few hours after Sunday's test launch.
"We now have all the pieces of the puzzle necessary to achieve full and rapid reusability of the Falcon 9 boost stage."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><i>Doubly Historic Day for Private Space:<o:p></o:p></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Cygnus docks at Station &amp; Next Gen Falcon 9 Soars<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Ken Kremer - Universe Today<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Today (Sept. 29) was a doubly historic day for private spaceflight! And a boon to NASA as well! Early this morning the Orbital Sciences Cygnus commercial cargo ship docked at the International Space Station (ISS) speeding along some
250 miles (400 km) overhead in low Earth orbit. Barely a few hours later the Next Generation commercial SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket soared to space on a demonstration test flight from the California coast carrying a Canadian satellite to orbit. These missions involved
the dramatic maiden flights for both Cygnus and the upgraded Falcon 9. And both were high stakes endeavors, with literally billions of dollars and the future of commercial spaceflight, as well as the ISS, on the line. Their significance cannot be understated!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Cygnus berths and Falcon 9 flies on busy day for commercial space<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Paul Sutherland - Space Exploration Network (<a href="http://SEN.com">SEN.com</a>)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Orbital Sciences' Cygnus cargo freighter finally berthed with the International Space Station yesterday and SpaceX launched the first of a new breed of Falcon 9 in a busy day for commercial space activities. And adding to the list of
events, a Russian Proton blasted off from Kazakhstan on the first flight of the heavy-launch rocket since one crashed moments after take-off in July.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Industry, FAA look to stay one step ahead of Congress with draft safety document<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Dan Leone - Space News<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">In an attempt to forestall congressional direction of the process, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Office of Commercial Space Transportation has produced a 50-page list of safety practices that could serve as the cornerstone
for future commercial human spaceflight safety regulations. Formally known as "Draft Established Practices for Human Space Flight Occupant Safety," the document is the result of information gathering that began last year when FAA officials started sitting
in on monthly conference calls with the agency's industry-led Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">NASA preparing to launch 3-D printer into space<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Martha Mendoza - Associated Press<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">NASA is preparing to launch a 3-D printer into space next year, a toaster-sized game changer that greatly reduces the need for astronauts to load up with every tool, spare part or supply they might ever need. The printers would serve
as a flying factory of infinite designs, creating objects by extruding layer upon layer of plastic from long strands coiled around large spools. Doctors use them to make replacement joints and artists use them to build exquisite jewelry. In NASA labs, engineers
are 3-D printing small satellites that could shoot out of the Space Station and transmit data to earth, as well as replacement parts and rocket pieces that can survive extreme temperatures. "Any time we realize we can 3-D print something in space, it's like
Christmas," said inventor Andrew Filo, who is consulting with NASA on the project. "You can get rid of concepts like rationing, scarce or irreplaceable."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Secret Messages Left on the International Space Station<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Nancy Atkinson - Universe Today<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">We humans have certain tendencies toward the eternal. We like to leave our mark by somehow saying "I was here!" or send messages to the future about what we've accomplished. We're also intrigued by things like the Voyager record, the
Pioneer plaque, and we all love those "send your name on a spacecraft" opportunities NASA has. A recent image posted by astronaut Luca Parmitano on
<a href="https://twitter.com/astro_luca">Twitter</a> of a message written on a new piece for the International Space Station's Canadarm 2 is an example of leaving a little message to the future (albeit, one that the majority of us might never get to do) and
it prompted me to wonder if there are more "secret messages" like that on the ISS — messages of remembrance or good wishes from the people who built, designed or installed various components, or messages passed down from one crew to the next.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">'Made in Space!' Astronaut Sews Dinosaur Toy from Space Station Scraps<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Robert Pearlman - <a href="http://collectSPACE.com"><a href="http://collectSPACE.com">collectSPACE.com</a></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><img border="0" width="197" height="131" id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image004.jpg@01CEBDA8.FC675970" alt="NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg&amp;apos;s stuffed toy dinosaur floats on the International Space Station. She made the doll for her son using materials she found on the orbiting outpost"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">There is a dinosaur on board the International Space Station where there wasn't one before. NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, who since May has been working as a flight engineer as a member of the orbiting outpost's resident crew, revealed
the toy dinosaur floating on the space station on Thursday. "Made in space!" Nyberg, an Expedition 37 crewmember, exclaimed in her caption for a photo of the toy giant lizard she uploaded to the pinboard-style photo-sharing website Pinterest. "I made this
dinosaur for my son last Sunday, September 22." The dinosaur, which resembles a Tyrannosaurus Rex, has an olive green back and a lighter green belly. It is stitched together with white thread.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><i>IEEE Spectrum Tech Insider Webinar:<o:p></o:p></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">What NASA &amp; gas &amp; oil industry can teach each other about controlling risk<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">IEEE Spectrum<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">This presentation will begin at 1 pm Central (2 EDT) Monday, Sept. 30. Webinar access will be available 15 minutes prior to start via this free registration
<a href="http://w.on24.com/r.htm?e=686524&amp;s=1&amp;k=70EFF9DB9CAD857C7398E84D682F1F3E">
link</a>. Some hard and costly lessons have taught the oil and gas industry a lot about anticipating and controlling the risks that come with complex, high-energy systems…and some in the industry think the effort has to go a lot farther. NASA has learned hard
lessons of its own, and responded by creating a culture safety and embracing the rapidly expanding disciplines of scientific risk-reduction.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l6 level1 lfo4">
<span style="font-family:Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt &quot;Times New Roman&quot;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
</span></span></span>Speaker: David Kaplan, Safety and Mission Assurance Partnership Development, NASA<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l6 level1 lfo4">
<span style="font-family:Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt &quot;Times New Roman&quot;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
</span></span></span>Speaker: Peter Swinburne, Architect, Coiled Tubing Segment, Schlumberger<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l6 level1 lfo4">
<span style="font-family:Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt &quot;Times New Roman&quot;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
</span></span></span>Moderator: Douglas McCormick , IEEE Spectrum "Tech Talk" contributor<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">2 years later, NASA workers still mourn end of shuttle<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Mark Matthews - Orlando Sentinel<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Few engineers at Kennedy Space Center invested as much in the space-shuttle program as Darrell Gheen, who worked all 135 flights from 1981 to 2011. Though the Cal Ripken-esque achievement earned him a special patch, the streak didn't
do much for the 53-year-old's job prospects once the program ended with the final mission of Atlantis in July 2011. Like thousands of other ex-shuttle workers, Gheen — who spent the final 13 years of his shuttle career as a flight-controls engineer — was forced
to find work wherever he could. It's a situation that, for many, remains stubbornly true two years later.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Former lawmakers lobby for space ventures<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Jonathan Salant &amp; Kathleen Miller - Bloomberg News<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">In a battle of billionaires, space ventures owned by Internet pioneers Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are relying on prominent former lawmakers as they jockey for control over a historic launch pad at Kennedy Space Center. The Florida launch
pad was mothballed after the United States retired its shuttle fleet in 2011 and turned to countries such as Russia to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station. It's now coveted by Musk's Space Exploration Technologies, known as SpaceX, and Bezos's
Blue Origin, which are trying to fill the void for the U.S.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">China Invites Foreign Astronauts to Fly On Future Space Station<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Leonard David - <a href="http://Space.com"><a href="http://Space.com">Space.com</a></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Chinese space officials are rolling out a welcome mat to other nations eager to gain access to their future space station. The Chinese government has designed a multiphase station program aimed at launching a Tiangong 2 space laboratory
around 2015, an experimental space station in 2018, followed by a 60-ton multi-module space station in the 2020 time frame. The invite to countries to participate in China's space station was one aspect of the United Nations/China Workshop on Human Space Technology,
jointly hosted by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs and the China Manned Space Agency, held in Beijing on Sept. 16-19.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Space Race 2013: Who's Up, Who's Down, Who's Going Nowhere<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><i>Space-travel industry is more competitive than ever — and just as in all industries, there will be winners and losers<o:p></o:p></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Jeffrey Kluger - Time Magazine<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">You could be forgiven for thinking that everyone but you is going into space. You could also be forgiven for thinking that no one at all is going into space. Both things, in many ways, are entirely true. NASA's manned space program —
not to put too fine a point on it — is a mess. Never mind falling short of the glory of the old Apollo days. We're not even capable of doing what we did back in the Mercury days — in the early 1960s, when we were sending people up in one-person cans for as
little as 15 minutes at a time. At least then we had some kind of human access to space. Now, post shuttle, the only way we can get to orbit to visit the International Space Station (which we assembled and largely paid for, never mind its International name)
is by thumbing a ride aboard Russia's Soyuz, for which we pay a low, low, low $70 million per seat. And the Soyuz ships are not much to brag about either. Russia's been flying pretty much the same machine for 50 years, and while it does the job, you can forget
about going anywhere but low Earth orbit. But then there are all the new players — Elon Musk and his Dragon spacecraft; Richard Branson and his SpaceShipTwo; Paul Allen and his Stratolauncher; Jeff Bezos and his Blue Origin; Sierra Nevada and its Dream Chaser.
Oh, and there's that slightly larger outfit known as the People's Republic of China, which is taking on space the way it's taken on pretty much everything else it's turned its attention to in the past 15 years — and that means bigger, better and more ambitiously
than anyone else on the block.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:red">MEANWHILE ON MARS…<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:red">At closer look, Mars is not so simple<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Amina Khan - Los Angeles Times<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">A series of discoveries from NASA's Curiosity rover are giving scientists a picture of Mars that looks increasingly complex, with small bits of water spread around the surface and an interior that could have been more geologically mature
than experts had previously thought. Curiosity's formidable arsenal of scientific instruments has detected traces of water chemically bound to the Martian dust that seems to be covering the entire planet. The finding, among several in the five studies published
online Thursday by the journal Science, may explain mysterious water signals picked up by satellites in orbit around the Red Planet.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:red">The dirt on Curiosity: new report card for its first 100 days<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Pete Spotts - Christian Science Monitor<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The report card NASA's Mars rover Curiosity compiled during its first 100 Martian days, or sols, would be the envy of any newly elected president. In relatively short order, the Mini Cooper-size rover answered in broad terms the key
question the mission's scientists wanted to answer: Was the environment in Gale Crater, the rover's exploration zone, potentially hospitable for life?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:red">Curiosity Rover Makes Big Water Discovery in Mars Dirt, a 'Wow Moment'<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Mike Wall - <a href="http://Space.com"><a href="http://Space.com">Space.com</a></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Future Mars explorers may be able to get all the water they need out of the red dirt beneath their boots, a new study suggests. NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has found that surface soil on the Red Planet contains about 2 percent water
by weight. That means astronaut pioneers could extract roughly 2 pints (1 liter) of water out of every cubic foot (0.03 cubic meters) of Martian dirt they dig up, said study lead author Laurie Leshin, of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:red">Mars water surprise in Curiosity rover soil samples<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Jonathan Amos - BBC News<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">There is a surprising amount of water bound up in the soil of Mars, according to an analysis done onboard the US space agency's (Nasa) Curiosity rover. When it heated a small pinch of dirt scooped up from the ground, the most abundant
vapour detected was H2O. Curiosity researcher Laurie Leshin and colleagues tell Science Magazine that Mars' dusty red covering holds about 2% by weight of water. This could be a useful resource for future astronauts, they say.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:red">Curiosity Finds Water And Poison In Martian Soil<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Francie Diep - Popular Science<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">You watched it land, trundle around a bit, and attack innocent rocks. Now you can learn a lot more about the science NASA's Curiosity rover has been beaming back to Earth. Today, teams of scientists from all around the world are publishing
six papers about their analyses of some of the first samples scooped up by Curiosity's scientific instruments. The studies tried to determine how friendly Mars would be to any future human visitors. They also looked for clues to Mars' geological history. It
turns out the Martian soil has a bit of water that people might extract with heating, as well as small amounts of a toxic chemical that explorers will have to watch out for.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">__________<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="section1"><span style="color:windowtext"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>
<p class="section1"><strong><u><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;">COMPLETE STORIES</span></u></strong><span style="font-size:14.0pt;color:windowtext"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">How a Potential Government Shutdown Could Affect NASA<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Mike Wall - <a href="http://Space.com"><a href="http://Space.com">Space.com</a></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">A government shutdown on Tuesday would force NASA to cease most of its operations and furlough the vast majority of its workforce, space agency officials say.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Fewer than 600 of NASA's 18,000 or so employees would likely keep working through a shutdown, with the aim of ensuring the safety of human life and the protection of property, according to a plan the space agency submitted Friday to
the Office of Management and Budget.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The International Space Station (ISS) and its six crewmembers would not be hung out to dry.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"To protect the life of the crew as well as the assets themselves, we would continue to support planned operations of the ISS during any funding hiatus," the NASA plan states. "Moreover, NASA will be closely monitoring the impact of
an extended shutdown to determine if crew transportation or cargo resupply services are required to mitigate imminent threats to life and property on the ISS or other areas."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Likewise, currently operating scientific spacecraft would be maintained and the data they return home safeguarded. But the outlook would not be good for future missions.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"If a satellite mission has not yet been launched, work will generally cease on that project," the shutdown plan states. "The extent of support necessary and the time needed to safely cease project activities will depend on whether any
of the activities are of a hazardous nature (e.g., parts of the satellite may need to be cooled)."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Such contingencies will go into effect if Congress fails to fund the federal government beyond the end of the current fiscal year, which ends Monday.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The Senate and the House of Representatives so far have not come together on a spending bill, with the major bone of contention being funding for the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. The Republican-controlled House wants
any emergency spending bill to strip funding for Obamacare, a move opposed by the Democrat-controlled Senate.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Other fiscal problems loom on the horizon as well. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has said that if the debt ceiling is not raised by Oct. 17, the federal government will likely have to start defaulting on its debts for the first time in
the nation's history.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57605188/u.s-companies-help-reach-milestones-for-space-program/"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">U.S. companies help reach milestones for space program</span></b></a><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Jeff Glor - CBS Evening News<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Since the final space shuttle launch in July 2011, you may not know NASA has relied on other countries to get astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station. On Sunday, we witnessed milestones by two American companies designed
to change that.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">An upgraded, more powerful Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base. SpaceX said it's a test flight that should go a long way to prove it can deliver people as well.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"It's a major milestone for NASA and the International Space Station Project," said CBS News Space Consultant Bill Harwood. "No question about it."
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Harwood said that NASA has been paying around $60 million a seat to fly astronauts on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft. But finances weren't the only consideration.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"It's really not about the money," he said. "It would be cheaper to continue to fly with the Russians. NASA wants a U.S. rocket one way or the other, and a U.S. spacecraft to launch American astronauts to the space station. It's a sign
of pride, it's a symbol of superpower status." <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Harwood said the last shuttle mission in July 2011 left the space station overstocked deliberately, so NASA wouldn't need help getting cargo to the space station -- until now.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">On Sunday morning, the Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corporation's cargo ship Cygnus successfully docked at the space station.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"When NASA knew they were going to retire the shuttle," said Harwood, "they knew they had to replace its ability to carry cargo to the space station. SpaceX is already flying cargo missions to the station. Now with this successful space
flight, Orbital joins the game and that is a big deal NASA. They need both of these spacecrafts to keep the station supplied and operational."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Cygnus cargo ship captured by station<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">William Harwood - CBS News<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">A commercial cargo ship making its maiden flight to the International Space Station completed a complex rendezvous early Sunday, pulling up to within about 30 feet of the lab complex and then standing by while the station's robot arm
locked onto a grapple fixture.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Running a week late because of a navigation software glitch, the Cygnus supply ship, built and launched as a commercial venture by Orbital Sciences Corp., was captured by Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano at 7 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) as the
two spacecraft sailed high above the Indian Ocean.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">With a successful demonstration flight, Orbital Sciences will be clear to begin executing a $1.9 billion contract to launch at least eight space station resupply missions, part of a major NASA initiative to replace cargo capacity lost
with the space shuttle's retirement.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Named after the late NASA astronaut and Orbital Sciences executive G. David Low, the Cygnus supply ship is carrying about 1,500 pounds of food, clothing and other non-critical supplies.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"We'd like to congratulate you on a great capture today," radioed astronaut Catherine Coleman from mission control in Houston. "Also like to say welcome aboard to the Orbital Sciences G. David Low ... a great human being who bravely
explored and had a tremendous vision for the future of spaceflight. We're really proud to have the G. David Low aboard the ISS today. Thanks for all your good work."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"I would like, first of all, to say that I was honored to be allowed to be part of this day," Parmitano replied. "It was really, really a pleasure and it was a privilege to work with all the teams on the ground, both from Houston, of
course, from Orbital and here on the station."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">With Cygnus firmly latched to the end of the robot arm, Parmitano and astronaut Karen Nyberg monitored a robotic maneuver to precisely position the spacecraft for berthing at the Earth facing port of the station's forward Harmony module.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">If all goes well, the crew will open hatches Monday and begin the process of unloading the spacecraft and re-packing it with trash and no-longer-needed gear. The cargo ship is expected to remain attached to the station for about a month.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The Cygnus was launched Sept. 18 atop a two-stage Orbital Sciences Antares booster that took off from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA's Wallops Island, Va., flight facility.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The flight plan called for a berthing at the space station four days later, on Sept. 22, but the rendezvous was interrupted by suspect navigation data. Orbital engineers quickly identified the problem and came up with a corrective software
patch, but program managers opted to wait until after the launch and docking of a Soyuz crew ferry craft on Sept. 25.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The demonstration flight is the final milestone in a $288 million contract managed by NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services -- COTS -- program, which funded development of two commercial cargo carriers to take over U.S. space
station logistics in the wake of the shuttle's retirement.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The test flight included a series of engineering exercises to verify the safe operation of the new spacecraft, to test abort procedures and to verify the crew's ability to send commands as needed. After the software patch was uplinked
to correct the navigation program, Orbital completed all of the test objectives.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Orbital Sciences now joins Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, as a commercial cargo carrier.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">SpaceX holds a $1.6 billion contract to provide at least 12 cargo flights to the station for delivery of more than 44,000 pounds of equipment and supplies. The company completed its own test flights earlier and has now launched two operational
resupply missions.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Orbital Sciences' $1.9 billion contract with NASA calls for at least eight resupply missions to deliver 20 tons of cargo. Company officials say they will be ready for their first operational mission later this year.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"It's time for us really to start having flights on a regular basis and expect that the next one will be there," space station Program Manager Mike Suffredini said before the Cygnus launch. "So I'm looking at this next year, 2014, to
be the year where we really settle in, where we have regular Orbital flights and regular SpaceX flights, and we actually see them within a few weeks of when we expect to have them there."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Regularly scheduled flights ultimately will allow NASA "to reduce the amount of up mass we have for logistics, which we can do if we have a consistent supply chain, and really fill these vehicles up with research. That's the big transition
we have to make in the next year now that we have Orbital flying as well."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">New commercial supply ship reaches space station<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Marcia Dunn - Associated Press<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">NASA's newest delivery service made its first-ever shipment to the International Space Station on Sunday, another triumph for the booming commercial space arena that has its sights set on launching astronauts.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Orbital Sciences Corp.'s unmanned cargo ship, the Cygnus, pulled up at the orbiting lab with a half-ton of meals and special treats for the station astronauts who assisted in the high-flying feat.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">With the smooth linkup, Orbital Sciences of Virginia became only the second company to accomplish such a far-flung shipment. The California-based SpaceX company took the lead last year.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">NASA officials along with White House representatives declared it a historic day.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"It was just a very, very impressive job ... I just couldn't be happier and more proud," said the NASA manager overseeing this commercial effort, Alan Lindenmoyer.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Now that the space station has two U.S. private companies capable of delivering goods, he noted, "it's certainly relief and something we're ready to celebrate."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">All this was a week late in coming.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The Cygnus - named after the swan constellation - should have arrived last Sunday, four days following its launch from Virginia on Sept. 18. But a discrepancy in navigation data between the capsule and the space station led to a frustrating
standoff. A simple software repair was carried out by ground controllers. Then the Cygnus had to wait for a Russian spacecraft to bring three new astronauts.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The wait involved "some hair-pulling and heartache," said Orbital Sciences executive vice president Frank Culbertson. But in the end, the company's patience was rewarded with a perfect rendezvous demonstration.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Applause could be heard in Mission Control once Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano grabbed hold of Cygnus with the space station's hulking mechanical arm. The union occurred 260 miles above the Indian Ocean. Before long, the capsule was
latched securely to the orbiting lab. Its hatch will remain closed until early Monday; that's when the six station astronauts will enter the capsule and begin unloading the bounty.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The successful arrival means Orbital Sciences can start making good on a $1.9 billion contract with NASA for more Cygnus deliveries, each one carrying more and more cargo. The next one could fly by Christmas.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"We have a big incentive ahead of us," said Culbertson, a former astronaut who lived on the space station a decade ago.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">John Holdren, assistant to President Barack Obama for science and technology, said Sunday's success validates the president's goal of focusing NASA on deep-space exploration and leaving station cargo and astronaut hauls to private industry.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"Space history was made again today," Holdren said in a statement.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Sunday's operation culminated several years of effort for Orbital Sciences, which was hired by NASA along with SpaceX - formally Space Exploration Technologies Corp. - to keep the space station well stocked in this post-shuttle era.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">SpaceX has been launching its supply ships, called Dragon, from Cape Canaveral for more than a year. It's also working on a possible manned capsule that would ferry U.S. astronauts to the space station, rather than having them hitch
rides on Russian rockets. The cargo contract alone, with NASA, is worth $1.6 billion.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">From Southern California on Sunday, as Orbital Sciences celebrated its own victory, SpaceX launched a beefed-up Falcon 9 rocket with a Canadian science satellite. The demo flight appeared to go well.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Unlike the SpaceX Dragon that can return items to Earth, the Cygnus is designed to burn up upon descent. Once unloaded of its 1,300 pounds worth of food, clothes and other items, it will be filled with trash and cut loose on Oct. 22.
That's how the Russian, European and Japanese supply ships end up as well: self-destructing garbage cans.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The latest Cygnus delivery - also a test flight - included student experiments and, almost certainly, chocolate for the crew. That's what astronaut Karen Nyberg was expecting, anyway, from her astronaut-husband and 3-year-old son.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Both the station crew and Mission Control paid tribute to the late astronaut for whom the Cygnus is dedicated: G. David Low.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Low flew three times on space shuttles, then went to work for Orbital Sciences to help in this new commercial space effort. He died of cancer in 2008 at age 52. His family attended the Cygnus launch from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"To our great friend and colleague G. David Low. ... This one's for you," Orbital Sciences said via Twitter.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Commercial cargo ship reaches International Space Station<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Irene Klotz - Reuters<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">An unmanned U.S. commercial cargo ship flew to the International Space Station on Sunday, completing the primary goal of its test flight before supply runs begin in December.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">After a series of successful steering maneuvers, the Orbital Sciences Cygnus freighter parked about 39 feet from the station at 6:50 a.m. EDT/1050 GMT as the ships sailed 260 miles above the Southern Ocean south of Africa.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Ten minutes later, Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA's Karen Nyberg used the station's robotic arm to pluck the capsule from orbit and guide it to a berthing slip on the station's Harmony connecting node.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"That's a long time coming, looks great," radioed astronaut Catherine Coleman from NASA's Mission Control in Houston.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Cygnus' arrival had been delayed a week - first by a software glitch and then by the higher priority docking of a Russian Soyuz capsule ferrying three new crewmembers to the $100 billion outpost, a project of 15 nations.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Orbital Sciences' new unmanned Antares rocket blasted off on September 18 from a new launch pad on the Virginia coast to put Cygnus into orbit.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"We learned a lot on this one," Orbital Sciences executive vice president Frank Culbertson told reporters after launch.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">NASA contributed $288 million toward Antares' and Cygnus' development and awarded Orbital Sciences a $1.9 billion contract for eight station resupply missions, the first of which is targeted for December.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The U.S. space agency also provided $396 million to privately owned Space Exploration Technologies to help develop the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo ship. The company, known as SpaceX, holds a $1.5 billion NASA contract for 12 cargo
runs to the station, two of which already have been completed.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Unlike SpaceX's Dragon capsule, Cygnus is not designed to return to Earth. After astronauts unload more than 1,500 pounds (680 kg) of food, clothing and supplies that were packed aboard Cygnus, it will be filled with trash, detached
from the station and flown into the atmosphere for incineration.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Thales Alenia Space, a consortium led by Europe's largest defense electronics company, France's Thales, is a prime contractor on the capsule.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">For now, NASA is the only customer for Cygnus, but Orbital Sciences expects additional business as the United States and other countries launch exploration initiatives beyond the space station's orbit.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Unmanned cargo ship docks with Space Station<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Agence France Presse<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Washington — An unmanned cargo ship successfully berthed with the orbiting International Space Station on Sunday following a one-week delay due to a technical glitch, NASA said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">ISS astronauts "successfully captured the Orbital Sciences Cygnus cargo spacecraft with the station's robotic arm" at 1100 GMT, NASA said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"Following its capture, the spacecraft is being maneuvered by Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency and Karen Nyberg of NASA for installation onto the Earth-facing port of the station's Harmony module," the space agency said on
its website.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The Cygnus capsule, built by Virginia-based Orbital Sciences, launched on September 18 on a demonstration mission meant to show it can successfully deliver cargo to the space station.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Orbital Sciences has a $1.9 billion contract with NASA that requires the company to deliver freight to the ISS over the course of eight flights by the beginning of 2016.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">However a software problem delayed the Cygnus spacecraft's planned approach to the research outpost. The capsule manufacturers eventually figured out how to fix what they called a data format mismatch.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Orbital Sciences is one of just two private US firms enlisted by NASA to carry payloads to the ISS.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">California-based SpaceX already showed it could send its reusable Dragon capsule to the ISS bearing cargo in May 2012.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Cygnus's delay however allowed time for three new ISS crew members -- Michael Hopkins of NASA and Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy of the Russian space agency -- to launch aboard a Russian Soyuz.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Their Soyuz-TMA-10M capsule blasted off from Kazakhstan and docked successfully with the ISS just six hours later, in a new shortcut route now used by the Russian space agency.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The capsule orbited the Earth just four times on its way to the ISS as opposed to the usual 30, under a technique originally devised in the Soviet era but only adopted on a regular basis in the past year.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The orbiting space lab is typically staffed by six international astronauts -- traveling in overlapping groups of three -- who live on board for missions that last six months.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Orbital Sciences' Cygnus berths at ISS<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">James Dean - Florida Today<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">A second private cargo spacecraft has arrived at the International Space Station, fully establishing NASA's commercial resupply fleet.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Station astronaut Luca Parmitano steered a 58-foot robotic arm to snare Orbital Sciences Corp.'s unmanned Cygnus freighter at 7 a.m. EDT today as the vehicles flew 260 miles above the Indian Ocean.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"It was really everything we would have wished for today," said Cady Coleman, an astronaut communicating with the ISS crew from Houston. "Thank you very much to your whole crew."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Parmitano slowly guided the Cygnus into a docking port on the outpost's Harmony node and bolts secured it in place at 8:44 a.m., completing a voyage that began 11 days ago with a launch from Virginia.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Though it was delayed a week by a navigation software glitch, the Cygnus made what appeared to be a flawless and uneventful final approach today.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The station's Expedition 37 crew, which doubled to six with last Wednesday's arrival of three new crew members, is expected to open the Cygnus hatch Monday morning and begin unloading 1,300 pounds of food and clothing and some student
science experiments.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The Cygnus was flying for the first time on a demonstration mission for NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">With the successful first flight, a second Cygnus could be called upon to fly Orbital's first resupply mission under a $1.9 billion contract in December.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The first Cygnus is expected to stay at the station for about 30 days before departing and burning up in the atmosphere.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">SpaceX's Dragon capsule last year became the first private spacecraft to visit the station and has completed to contracted resupply missions.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">First Cygnus Capsule Arrives at Space Station<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Warren Ferster - Space News<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Following a weeklong delay, Orbital Sciences Corp.'s first Cygnus cargo module successfully berthed with the international space station (ISS), marking a critical milestone in the company's efforts to field a commercial logistics system
for the orbital outpost.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">In its first demonstration flight, Cygnus was launched Sept. 18 atop Orbital's Antares rocket, which was making only its second flight, from the Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport on NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, Va. The capsule arrived
at the station following a series of orbit-raising maneuvers and tests and was grappled by the outpost's crew-operated robotic arm.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Cygnus was originally supposed to arrive at the station Sept. 22 but was delayed, initially by a communications issue and then to make room for the arrival of an ISS crew aboard a Russian-built Soyuz capsule. The Soyuz capsule docked
with the space station Sept. 25.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Antares/Cygnus is one of two ISS logistics systems developed with NASA funding aid under the agency's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, or COTS, program. The other, developed by Space Exploration Technologies Corp., has already
made two successful cargo deliveries to the station under a follow-on Commercial Resupply Services contract valued at $1.6 billion.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">With two successful COTS demos under its belt, Orbital appears in position to begin executing on its $1.9 billion Commercial Resupply Services Contract. "We look forward to moving ahead with regularly scheduled ISS cargo delivery missions
for NASA as early as the end of the year," Orbital President and Chief Executive David W. Thompson said in a prepared statement Sept. 29.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Cygnus carried 700 kilograms of supplies including food, clothing and experimental equipment to the station, Orbital said in a press release. After those supplies are unloaded, the ISS crew will begin filling the freighter with 800 kilograms
of ISS refuse, which along with Cygnus will burn up on atmospheric re-entry after the vehicle separates from the station in late October.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Cygnus' cargo-carrying capacity currently is 2,000 kilograms, but later versions will be capable of carrying 2,700 kilograms of cargo to the station, Orbital said. The company is under contract to deliver a total of 20,000 kilograms
to the ISS through 2016.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Orbital Sciences' Cygnus Spacecraft Successfully Berths With The ISS<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Alex Knapp - Forbes<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">At around 8:45 Eastern Time this morning, Orbital Sciences' Cygnus cargo spacecraft was successfully berthed at the International Space Station. This successful berthing makes Orbital the second commercial space company to successfully
send a cargo ship to the station after Elon Musk's SpaceX.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The spacecraft launched on top of Orbital's Antares rocket on September 18th from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The spacecraft made an initial approach to the station on September 22, but that approach was aborted due to
a software glitch. The next approach was then postponed to September 29th to accommodate the arrival of three new crew members to the Station on Thursday, September 26.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">During the week's delay, Orbital corrected the software glitch and tested it to ensure that the approach would be successful. No other systems aboard the spacecraft showed any signs of malfunction. I talked to Orbital's Executive VP
(and former astronaut) Frank Culbertson, Jr. today about the launch and asked him if the glitch made him nervous about this morning's approach.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"I wasn't any more nervous this weekend than if we'd made the approach last weekend," he said. "No matter what, bringing two spacecraft together at speeds over 18,000 miles an hour is challenging. In fact, the work to solve the disagreement
between the GPS systems and adjust our software helped build our confidence that our system is robust."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">At 3:00 am Sunday morning, Cygnus began its final approach toward the International Space Station. At 7:00 am, the craft was then grappled by the space station's robotic arm, operated by ESA Astronaut Luca Parmitano.&nbsp; Cygnus was finally
installed to the space station's Harmony module at 8:44 am.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Now that the craft is installed on the station, the Astronauts will begin the process of unloading the approximately 1300 pounds of cargo on board, including supplies, science experiments, and perhaps most important, chocolate for the
astronauts. Once its unloaded, the astronauts will then begin loading refuse and waste from the station onto the craft. Cygnus will remain attached to the ISS for about 30 days, then it will return to Earth.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">For his own part, Culbertson is gratified by the success.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"We've got a lot invested in this. This mission was done primarily as a NASA and Orbital investment, not as a pay-for-service. The Antares rocket was purely an Orbital investment and we look forward to orders for other satellites as
well as future cargo missions. As for the Cygnus spacecraft, we're happy to see it perform well on the mission this week and especially today. It proves our concept works and that it's a reliable vehicle."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The successful berthing is a big deal for Orbital Sciences, since it opens up a contract worth $1.9 billion for the company to make several cargo deliveries to the International Space Station. For NASA, this gives it one more way to
deliver cargo and other supplies to the ISS, two of which are American commercial space companies.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"We really are happy that we have the contract going forward, and we have already built ahead," Culbertson told me. "We're well along the path to future missions. For our first contracted cargo delivery with NASA, the hardware is already
built –&nbsp; it just needs to be assembled. For the entire contract of eight spacecraft, we're already 75% complete from a work standpoint."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Orbital will be sending another Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station in mid-December, likely before Christmas. The company expects to send up the remaining cargo deliveries in its contract every 3 to 6 months. In the
meantime, Culbertson and Orbital are celebrating their successful mission.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"After we launched the Pegasus rocket for the first time 30 years ago," Culbertson said. "Someone on the team made a comment that 'We said we would do it, and we did it.'&nbsp; That says it all. Our team has performed superbly and I'm very
proud."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">SpaceX launches Falcon 9; Orbital's Cygnus docks with space station<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Joel Achenbach - Washington Post<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Sunday was a busy day for the commercial space industry. First, a new spacecraft built by Dulles-based Orbital Sciences docked at the international space station. Hours later, a souped-up rocket built by tech titan Elon Musk's company
SpaceX roared off a launch pad in California, a harbinger of grander things to come.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Orbital and SpaceX have NASA contracts to supply cargo to the space station. SpaceX had already reached the station three times, and Orbital matched the feat Sunday when its Cygnus spacecraft parked itself at the orbiting laboratory,
ready to offload about 1,500 pounds of food, clothing and scientific experiments designed by students.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Orbital launched Cygnus on Sept. 18 atop the company's rocket, Antares, from Wallops Island, Va. Although that launch went off without a hitch, a software glitch delayed Cygnus's rendezvous with the station until Sunday. In the meantime,
the company had to demonstrate that the unpiloted Cygnus could make delicate maneuvers in the vicinity of the laboratory, which is currently home to six astronauts.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"We had to go through some tough wickets, and we did with flying colors," Orbital spokesman Barron Beneski said. "It was a great day for the whole company."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">With the hardest part of this demonstration mission a success, Orbital is now on track to carry out eight cargo missions to the station under a $1.9 billion NASA contract. The company hopes to launch again in December. SpaceX, meanwhile,
has a $1.6 billion contract for supplying cargo, and it is one of three companies, along with Sierra Nevada and Boeing, hoping to win a contract to taxi astronauts to the station.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The 224-foot Falcon 9 "version 1.1.," which ignited Sunday on a pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base, is an upgrade of a SpaceX rocket that has already gone into space five times. This version, with more powerful engines, carried to orbit
a small satellite that will study "space weather." <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The company named its rocket "Falcon" after the Millennium Falcon spaceship from the "Star Wars" movies. The two-stage rocket has nine engines on its first stage, hence "Falcon 9." SpaceX hopes to build a heavy-lift version that will
employ three rocket cores strapped together. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">SpaceX appears to be on a trajectory to compete for heavy-lift military launches, edging into the territory of United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of aerospace behemoths Boeing and Lockheed Martin. And Musk, who runs SpaceX part
time when not supervising the electric car company Tesla, has the even more audacious goal of colonizing Mars.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">In a corporate webcast Sunday, SpaceX employees at the company's Hawthorne, Calif., factory could be seen wearing "Occupy Mars" T-shirts.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Giant Leaps for Space Firms Orbital, SpaceX<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Andy Pasztor - Wall Street Journal<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">A successful launch and a separate in-orbit rendezvous on Sunday, both funded largely with corporate dollars, are accelerating what amounts to the privatization of NASA's current human spaceflight efforts.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Orbital Sciences Corp. became the second commercial entity to send a spacecraft to the international space station, with its Cygnus cargo vehicle executing a series of slow-motion maneuvers to link up with the orbiting laboratory. One
week after a computer-software problem delayed the rendezvous 250 miles above the earth, Cygnus moved within about 33 feet of its destination where it was grabbed by a robotic arm overseen by two astronauts aboard the space station at around 7 a.m. Eastern
Daylight Time.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Five hours later, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. scored its own coup with the maiden flight of its largest, most powerful rocket yet. SpaceX, as the company is called, is betting the design of its revamped Falcon 9 will become
the centerpiece of a stepped up mission schedule for the Pentagon, National Aeronautics and Space Administration and a host of commercial customers. The closely held company made history last year by becoming the first nongovernmental spacecraft operator to
successfully transport cargo into orbit.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The Falcon 9 that blasted off from Southern California's Vandenberg Air Force Base—carrying a small Canadian government research satellite—has engines roughly 50% more powerful than its predecessor. The changes to the rocket are aimed
at improving capacity and reliability, while simultaneously accelerating manufacturing.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Taken together, the latest accomplishments buoy prospects for further privatization of U.S. civilian space efforts, according to industry officials. "It shows private industry is motivated to succeed in space, when they get paid for
results," according to James Muncy, an industry consultant and former House staffer who is an advocate of privatizing many of NASA's core tasks. "The agency no longer can afford to do it the old way" and directly run all major initiatives.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Under President Barack Obama, NASA changed course years ago to rely on private industry to design, build and operate the equivalent of space taxis and trucks to reach low-earth orbit. Such expenditures are an integral part of NASA's
strategy to husband its resources for more-ambitious missions to explore deeper space.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">But now that both companies have demonstrated their prowess in carrying cargo into orbit, they confront the same challenge: building enough spacecraft and launching them at a rapid enough clip to fulfill existing contracts and subsequent
options with NASA. Even before Sunday's success, NASA had committed to spend a total of more than $3.5 billion on Orbital and SpaceX cargo missions over several years.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Orbital has invested about $500 million and NASA an additional $285 million in the 17-feet-long Cygnus and the company's two-stage Antares rocket.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Orbital, which is about two years behind its original schedule with NASA, is looking to make up time by blasting Cygnus into orbit again from the same launch complex off the Virginia coast before the end of the year. That would be an
unusually fast turnaround. After that, Orbital is scheduled to complete two more supply trips by the fall of 2014 using the same version of its Antares rocket.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">For Orbital, Sunday's delivery of food, clothing and student experiments was the climax of more than five years of roller-coaster development and testing efforts. Best known for producing smaller satellites and less-powerful rockets,
the company struggled to overcome serious engine problems that afflicted Antares, nagging launchpad delays and other technical challenges.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">SpaceX, for its part, already has completed a pair of regular resupply missions to the station and is slated to send three more of its unmanned Dragon capsules there by next fall.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Started with a handful of employees near a strip mall 11 years ago, SpaceX is considered a pioneer of commercial-space endeavors, with more than 1,000 employees, a nearly one million square-foot California manufacturing complex, an engine-testing
facility in Texas and an outsize lobbying presence on Capitol Hill.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">SpaceX maintains that its vertically integrated manufacturing system—which produces and assembles more than 70% of each launch vehicle at the company's Hawthorne, Calif., complex—gives management greater control over quality and schedules
than its rivals. According to company documents, it already produces more rocket engines than any other U.S. manufacturer and is set up to eventually achieve a pace of building 40 rocket cores annually.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The only portion of the Falcon 9 launch that went awry was the optional effort to try to retrieve the second stage, after it had completed its job and was plunging back to Earth. The recovery system failed to slow down its descent, as
part of SpaceX's broader effort to develop techniques to capture, overhaul and ideally reuse portions of the rocket for later missions.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">SpaceX launches upgraded Falcon 9 rocket<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">William Harwood - CBS News<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">In a dramatic California test flight, SpaceX launched an upgraded, more powerful version of its Falcon 9 rocket Sunday -- a booster the company hopes will someday carry astronauts to the space station -- to place a modest Canadian science
satellite into orbit along with five smaller research payloads.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The Falcon 9 version 1.1 features more powerful engines, a longer first stage to accommodate larger propellant tanks, a new payload fairing and a triply redundant flight computer system, improvements intended to boost the rocket's payload
capability while improving safety and reliability.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The 224-foot-tall rocket also featured simplified stage attachment mechanisms, a new circular engine arrangement for the first stage and a beefed up first stage heat shield. The company eventually hopes to recover spent stages for refurbishment
and reuse.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Given the multiple upgrades involved, Elon Musk, SpaceX's CEO and chief designer, said he considered the launching a test flight. Canada's 1,100-pound Cassiope space weather satellite, provided by MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates,
the Canadian Space Agency and the University of Calgary, reportedly got the ride for about $10 million.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"We don't consider this to be an operational launch," Musk told Spaceflight Now in a pre-launch interview. "It's a demo or a beta launch. Cassiope understands that. They got a pretty significant discount since this is a new Falcon 9."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The towering rocket's nine upgraded Merlin 1D first-stage engines ignited at 12 p.m. EDT, throttled up to a combined 1.3 million pounds of liftoff thrust and quicky pushed the slender booster away from Space Launch Complex 4-East at
Vandenberg Air Force Base northwest of Los Angeles.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Once used by Air Force heavy-lift Titan 4 rockets, the launch pad was extensively modified by SpaceX in a $100 million makeover, providing a launch site for payloads that must be delivered into polar orbits. SpaceX also operates a launch
complex at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida for payloads that require more equatorial orbits.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The Falcon 9 is designed to achieve orbit even if two of the first-stage engines fail in flight, but all nine Merlin 1Ds appeared to fire normally during the booster's climb away on a southerly trajectory over the Pacific Ocean.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The first stage burned out and fell away about two minutes and 50 seconds after liftoff. The rocket's single-engine second stage then continue the drive to space, burning another six minutes before shutting down around eight minutes
and 54 seconds after launch.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">A crowd of SpaceX employees gathered at the company's Hawthorne, Calif., factory burst into cheers and applause.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"It was an amazing flight," John Insprucker, Falcon 9 product manager, said in a company webcast. "So far, and there's tons of data coming back, it looks like it was a picture-perfect flight, everything was looking good, right down the
middle of the track."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The flight plan called for the Cassiope space weather satellite to be released about five minutes later into a planned orbit with a high point of around 930 miles and a low point of about 185 miles.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Three small "cubesats" making up the Polar Orbiting Passive Atmospheric Calibration Spheres, or POPACS, then were to be ejected from a dispenser a few minutes later. The mission is sponsored by Utah State University, Planetary Systems
Corp. and Drexel University.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The rocket's other two satellites were expected to be deployed a few minutes after that. The 51-pound CUsat navigation research satellite was built by students at Cornell University. A 110-pound atmospheric probe known as DANDE, for
Drag and Atmospheric Neutral Density Explorer, was provided by the University of Colorado at Boulder. Confirmation of the satellite releases was expected later in the day.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">SpaceX developed the Falcon 9 as a purely commercial venture to boost civilian and military satellites into space along with company-designed Dragon cargo ships built to carry supplies and equipment to and from the International Space
Station.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">SpaceX holds a $1.6 billion contract with NASA for at least 12 station resupply missions to deliver some 44,000 pounds of cargo and supplies.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Prior to Sunday's flight, SpaceX had successfully launched five Falcon 9s using first-stage Merlin 1C engines generating just under 900,000 pounds of sea-level thrust. Two Dragon test flights and two operational space station resupply
missions have been launched to date.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">SpaceX also is participating in a NASA competition, along with Boeing and Sierra Nevada, to develop a commercial manned spacecraft to ferry crews to and from the space station.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Musk hopes to use the Falcon 9 v1.1 and an upgraded manned version of the Dragon cargo ship to provide low-cost transportation to low-Earth orbit. The rocket also can be used for heavier commercial and military satellites.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The v1.1 modifications start at the base of the rocket where the new engines are arranged in a circular "octaweb" pattern with eight powerplants surrounding a central engine. The earlier version had the engines arranged in a square 3-by-3
arrangement, requiring aerodynamic panels around the base of the rocket.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">In the new version, protective panels were installed between the engines to prevent a malfunctioning engine from damaging another. The first stage also features longer propellant tanks a heat shield.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">For the initial test flight, engineers planned to restart the first stage engines as it fell back to Earth to slow it down before plunging back into the thick lower atmosphere. The stage was not designed to be recovered, but Musk plans
to collect data on every flight to perfect an eventual recovery system.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"I give pretty low odds of this recovery working on this flight," Musk told Spaceflight Now. "The point of this mission is demonstrating the ascent of the crewed version of the Falcon 9."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The v1.1 version of the Falcon 9 is the company's first to feature a payload fairing that can encapsulate large satellites. The fairing separated and fell away as planned just after the second stage ignited.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Another major upgrade was a triply redundant flight computer running new software. Musk said the new computer system was extremely robust.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"You could put a bullet hole in any one of the avionics boxes and it would just keep flying," Musk told Spaceflight Now.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Other improvements include a simpler, more reliable mechanisms to connect the rocket's stages, using three connectors in place of nine.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The new Merlin 1D engines feature more efficient fuel injectors and weigh in at under 1,000 pounds each. The company said improvements in robotic manufacturing techniques, along with fewer parts make the engines easier to build and improve
reliability.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">SpaceX launches Canadian satellite from California<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Associated Press<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">A SpaceX rocket carrying a Canadian satellite intended to track space weather launched from the California coast Sunday in what was billed as a test flight.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base, about 150 miles northwest of Los Angeles, at 9 a.m. under clear skies, eventually reaching its intended orbit.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">SpaceX launched an older model of Falcon 9 five times from Florida. This was the first time the Southern California-based private rocket maker flew the next-generation version that boasts upgraded engines designed to improve performance
and deliver heavier payloads.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The rocket carried a satellite dubbed Cassiope, a project of the Canadian Space Agency and other partners.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Once in orbit, scientists led by the University of Calgary hope to start powering up instruments after a checkout period, but the actual mission to track space weather won't begin until next month. Cassiope carries instruments to study
space storms in the upper atmosphere and their potential effects on GPS navigation and radio communications.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">SpaceX considered Sunday's launch a demonstration flight to test the capabilities of the improved rocket. It was the third launch from the Vandenberg base this week. Earlier, the Air Force launched back-to-back unarmed Minuteman 3 intercontinental
ballistic missiles that traveled 4,200 miles over the Pacific Ocean.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Besides launching small satellites, SpaceX - or Space Exploration Technologies Corp. -has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to make a dozen unmanned missions to restock the International Space Station. SpaceX has completed three flights
so far to the orbiting laboratory.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">With NASA's space shuttle fleet retired, SpaceX is also working to modify its capsules to transport astronauts in several years. Until then, NASA astronauts are hitching rides on Russian rockets to zip to and from the space station.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">A SpaceX competitor, Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp., launched its first-ever cargo ship bound for the space station earlier this month. The arrival of Orbital's Cygnus capsule, bearing chocolate and clothing, had been delayed
because of a software problem, but it docked with the space station Sunday.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">New Falcon 9 makes first flight<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><i>224-rocket lifts off from Calif., deploys Canadian satellite in orbit<o:p></o:p></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">James Dean - Florida Today<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">SpaceX could launch again from Cape Canaveral within a month after Sunday's successful first flight of an upgraded Falcon 9 rocket from California.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The company was unable to recover the rocket's first stage intact, but CEO Elon Musk believes that feat is possible as soon as February, during the launch of an International Space Station cargo mission from the Cape.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"That's actually what's got me the most excited about this flight," he told reporters a few hours after Sunday's test launch. "We now have all the pieces of the puzzle necessary to achieve full and rapid reusability of the Falcon 9 boost
stage."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The new Falcon 9, standing 224 feet tall, blasted off with more powerful Merlin engines from Vandenberg Air Force Base at noon Eastern time.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">A new payload fairing split away and the rocket deployed a Canadian satellite in orbit.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The first stage relit three of its nine engines and survived its return through the atmosphere, but rapid spinning prevented a final engine burn from slowing it down before it hit the ocean "relatively hard."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Musk said landing legs he hopes to fly on the next ISS mission would help stabilize the booster.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">It could ultimately land in water or what Musk said was one of several unspecified, remote locations on the Cape being selected with support from the Air Force and Federal Aviation Administration.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"We've identified a few," he said. "They're kind of out on the tip of Cape Canaveral, the Eastern-most tip of Cape Canaveral."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Before then, SpaceX expects to launch two communications satellites from Florida. No attempts to recover the booster will be made due to commitments to the commercial and international customers, SES and Thaicom.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Musk repeated that Texas is the likely site of a commercial launch site SpaceX hopes to establish in addition to its existing pads at Air Force installations in Florida and California.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><i>Doubly Historic Day for Private Space:<o:p></o:p></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Cygnus docks at Station &amp; Next Gen Falcon 9 Soars<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Ken Kremer - Universe Today<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Today (Sept. 29) was a doubly historic day for private spaceflight! And a boon to NASA as well!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Early this morning the Orbital Sciences Cygnus commercial cargo ship docked at the International Space Station (ISS) speeding along some 250 miles (400 km) overhead in low Earth orbit.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Barely a few hours later the Next Generation commercial SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket soared to space on a demonstration test flight from the California coast carrying a Canadian satellite to orbit.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">These missions involved the dramatic maiden flights for both Cygnus and the upgraded Falcon 9.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">And both were high stakes endeavors, with literally billions of dollars and the future of commercial spaceflight, as well as the ISS, on the line. Their significance cannot be understated!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Both Cygnus and Falcon 9 were developed with seed money from NASA in a pair of public-private partnerships between NASA and Orbital Sciences and SpaceX.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The powerful new Falcon 9 will also be used to send cargo to the ISS.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The Cygnus spacecraft put on a spectacular space ballet – and was no worse for the wear after its docking was delayed a week due to an easily fixed communications glitch.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Cygnus is a privately developed resupply vessel built by Orbital Sciences Corp and Thales Alenia Space that is a crucial railroad to orbit for keeping the massive orbital lab complex well stocked with everyday essentials and science
experiments that are the purpose of the ISS. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Cygnus was grappled in free drift by Expedition 37 space station astronauts Luca Parmitano and Karen Nyberg at about 7 a.m. EDT Sunday morning.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The pair were working at two robotics work stations from inside the Cupola and Destiny modules. They used the stations 57 foot long Canadarm2 to snare Cygnus at a distance of about 30 feet (10 meters). They gradually motioned the arm
closer. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Running a bit ahead of schedule they successfully berthed Cygnus at the earth facing port of the Harmony module by about 8:44 a.m. EDT.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Cygnus was launched to orbit on its inaugural flight on Sept. 18 atop Orbital's commercial Antares rocket from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on the Eastern shore of Virginia.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Sept. 22 had been the initially targeted station docking date for this demonstration mission.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Hatches to Cygnus will be opened on Monday, Sept. 30 after completing leak checks.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"Today, with the successful berthing of the Orbital Sciences Cygnus cargo module to the ISS, we have expanded America's capability for reliably transporting cargo to low-Earth orbit, " said NASA Admisistrator Charles Bolden in a statement.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"It is an historic milestone as this second commercial partner's demonstration mission reaches the ISS, and I congratulate Orbital Sciences and the NASA team that worked alongside them to make it happen."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"Orbital joins SpaceX in fulfilling the promise of American innovation to maintain America's leadership in space. As commercial partners demonstrate their new systems for reaching the Station, we at NASA continue to focus on the technologies
to reach an asteroid and Mars," said Bolden.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The upgraded SpaceX Falcon 9 blasted off from Space Launch Complex 4 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 9 a.m. PDT (12 p.m. EDT).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">It successfully deployed Canada's 1,060 pound (481 kg) Cascade, Smallsat, and Ionospheric Polar Explorer (CASSIOPE) weather satellite and several additional small satellites.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">This powerful new version of the Falcon 9 dubbed v1.1 is powered by a cluster of nine of the new Merlin 1D engines that are about 50% more powerful compared to the standard Merlin 1C engines and can therefore boost a much heavier cargo
load to the ISS and beyond.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The next generation Falcon 9 is a monster. It's much taller than a standard Falcon 9 – some 22 stories vs. 13.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">It could launch from Cape Canaveral as early as this Fall.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Cygnus berths and Falcon 9 flies on busy day for commercial space<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Paul Sutherland - Space Exploration Network (<a href="http://SEN.com">SEN.com</a>)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Orbital Sciences' Cygnus cargo freighter finally berthed with the International Space Station yesterday and SpaceX launched the first of a new breed of Falcon 9 in a busy day for commercial space activities.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">And adding to the list of events, a Russian Proton blasted off from Kazakhstan on the first flight of the heavy-launch rocket since one crashed moments after take-off in July.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The unmanned Cygnus should have mated with the space station last weekend, following launch from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, but suffered a navigation error. While engineers worked on a software fix, it was then decided
to delay a rendezvous to allow a Soyuz carrying a new crew to fly on schedule during the week.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">With that achieved, fresh commands were issued to the freighter, packed with 589 kg (1,300 lb) of food, clothing, experiments and supplies, to send it on its approach to the orbiting outpost. It had to demonstrate that it could successfully
perform ten separate manoeuvres before it was allowed to link up.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">After Cygnus's onboard computer used data from the spacecraft and station to bring it to a distance of about 250 metres (820 ft), a laser guidance system was used to bounce pulses from reflectors on the ISS to bring Cygnus to a distance
of about 10 metres (10 ft) below it.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA's Karen Nyberg then captured Cygnus with the ISS's robotic arm, bringing it in to join the station's Harmony node, where the spacecraft was firmly bolted into position.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">It will remain attached to Harmony until 22 October when it is planned to send the capsule to a fiery and destructive descent through the atmosphere.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The demonstration mission was successfully completed as part of NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) Program which has previously seen rival SpaceX Dragon spacecraft fly to the ISS. Cygnus's success paves the way
for Orbital to launch eight more cargo flights to the ISS for NASA.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The space agency's Administrator Charles Bolden said: "It is an historic milestone as this second commercial partner's demonstration mission reaches the ISS, and I congratulate Orbital Sciences and the NASA team that worked alongside
them to make it happen.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"Orbital joins SpaceX in fulfilling the promise of American innovation to maintain America's leadership in space."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Space fans barely had time to catch their breath after the berthing before SpaceX launched an upgraded model of their Falcon 9 rocket, carrying six satellites, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Among them was a Canadian Cassiope
satellite to measure the effects of solar radiation on the ionosphere.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The successful flight by the rocket, which is eventually due to carry astronauts, included the company's first reigniting of the first stage engines to slow its descent so that it could splash down gently in the Pacific. In due course
it is intended to soft-land the stage on legs on land. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Final launch of the day was by the Proton on a mission for International Launch Services to place a communications satellite, ASTRA 2E, into geostationary orbit. Proton flights had been placed on hold while a disastrous launch in July
was investigated. that failure was found to be due to sensors having been fitted to the rocket the wrong way up.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Industry, FAA look to stay one step ahead of Congress with draft safety document<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Dan Leone - Space News<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">In an attempt to forestall congressional direction of the process, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Office of Commercial Space Transportation has produced a 50-page list of safety practices that could serve as the cornerstone
for future commercial human spaceflight safety regulations.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Formally known as "Draft Established Practices for Human Space Flight Occupant Safety," the document is the result of information gathering that began last year when FAA officials started sitting in on monthly conference calls with the
agency's industry-led Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC). On these calls, representatives of commercial spaceflight companies discussed areas of their businesses that would be ripe for regulation, once the FAA is allowed to begin
rulemaking in about two years. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Under the Commercial Space Launch Act of 2004, the FAA may set rules to protect the uninvolved public from commercial spaceflight activities, such as launches, but it may not regulate industry participants until October 2015 unless there
is a catastrophic accident before then. New Mexico-based Virgin Galactic, which aims to fly paying customers to the edge of space, is now poised to begin operations in 2014. If that schedule holds, the FAA would have about a year to study one commercial human
spaceflight operation before it could begin writing rules for the entire industry.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Members of Congress and their staff have made it clear, however, that the FAA and aspiring commercial spaceflight companies should not wait until the last minute to begin a safety dialogue.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"This is a vital exercise, because if industry doesn't take action to adopt safety procedures, Congress will do it for us," COMSTAC Chairman Mike Gold, director of Washington operations for Bigelow Aerospace, wrote in a Sept. 25 email.
Bigelow of North Las Vegas, Nev., is working on inflatable space habitats based on NASA technology.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">In a Sept. 25 email, a Senate aide said the upper chamber's Commerce, Science and Transportation science and space subcommittee is still considering an update to the Commercial Space Launch Act, from which FAA derives its authority to
regulate commercial human spaceflight. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"While Congress is discussing this issue, industry should continue to work closely with the FAA on making commercial spaceflight as safe as possible for participants," the aide said.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The FAA's draft rules have not been released publicly, but they have been shared with NASA and Capitol Hill, Randy Repcheck, deputy manager for the Regulations and Analysis Division of the Office of Commercial Space Transportation, said
during a Sept. 24 COMSTAC conference call. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Industry and government representatives are set to do a deep-dive on the document as part of COMSTAC's autumn meeting, which will take place at the National Housing Center here Oct. 9 and Oct. 10.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The document focuses on suborbital flights and flights to low Earth orbit lasting up to two weeks with the ability to return to Earth within 24 hours in the event of emergency, Repcheck said. Long-duration spaceflight, such as what Bigelow
Aerospace would offer aboard the inflatable space stations it is slowly developing, is not covered in the current draft, he said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">For the types of flights that are covered, the FAA split spaceflight participants into two basic categories: those who are "just along for the ride," and those performing crew functions, Repcheck said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The document discusses safety standards in broad terms, setting only general requirements for each type of spaceflight participant. For passengers, such as space tourists aboard one of Virgin Galactic's air-launched suborbital vehicles,
"it's not about comfort, it's about coming back without being dead or with serious injury," Repcheck said. Crew members, on the other hand, should have enough comfort to perform their duties safely.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">In an emergency situation, the draft safety document says, commercial spacecraft should provide their occupants with a "reasonable chance of survival," said Repcheck.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">One COMSTAC member on the Sept. 24 call wondered whether the broad and general safety practices listed in the new document would be enough to convince Congress that the industry and FAA should be left alone to set the future regulatory
environment. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">If the intention of the document is to prevent Congress from stepping in to guide the process, "I think we need to continue to consider whether the contents of the document are sufficient to do that," said Mark Sundahl, associate dean
for administration at Cleveland State University's Cleveland-Marshall College of Law.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Sundahl questioned, for example, whether prescribing a reasonable chance for survival in an emergency was "a high enough bar to forestall congressional action."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">In February, when the full COMSTAC last met, Ann Zulkosky, a senior professional staffer for the Democratic majority on the Senate Commerce science and space subcommittee, said there was "much interest in updating the Commercial Space
Launch Act this year," possibly with an eye toward extending the office's authority into Earth orbit.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">For the rest of the year, however, Congress still has to resolve partisan gridlock around federal spending that has prevented lawmakers from passing a budget for the 2014 spending year that begins Oct. 1. While lawmakers at the subcommittee
level may still be interested in strengthening the FAA's hand when it comes to commercial spaceflight regulation, it is not clear that they will even have the chance to try in what remains of 2013.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">NASA preparing to launch 3-D printer into space<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Martha Mendoza - Associated Press<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">NASA is preparing to launch a 3-D printer into space next year, a toaster-sized game changer that greatly reduces the need for astronauts to load up with every tool, spare part or supply they might ever need.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The printers would serve as a flying factory of infinite designs, creating objects by extruding layer upon layer of plastic from long strands coiled around large spools. Doctors use them to make replacement joints and artists use them
to build exquisite jewelry.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">In NASA labs, engineers are 3-D printing small satellites that could shoot out of the Space Station and transmit data to earth, as well as replacement parts and rocket pieces that can survive extreme temperatures.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"Any time we realize we can 3-D print something in space, it's like Christmas," said inventor Andrew Filo, who is consulting with NASA on the project. "You can get rid of concepts like rationing, scarce or irreplaceable."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The spools of plastic could eventually replace racks of extra instruments and hardware, although the upcoming mission is just a demonstration printing job.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"If you want to be adaptable, you have to be able to design and manufacture on the fly, and that's where 3-D printing in space comes in," said Dave Korsmeyer, director of engineering at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, about
35 miles south of San Francisco.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">For the first 3-D printer in space test slated for fall 2014, NASA had more than a dozen machines to choose from, ranging from $300 desktop models to $500,000 warehouse builders.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">All of them, however, were built for use on Earth, and space travel presented challenges, from the loads and vibrations of launch to the stresses of working in orbit, including microgravity, differing air pressures, limited power and
variable temperatures.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">As a result, NASA hired Silicon Valley startup Made In Space to build something entirely new.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"Imagine an astronaut needing to make a life-or-death repair on the International Space Station," said Aaron Kemmer, CEO of Made in Space. "Rather than hoping that the necessary parts and tools are on the station already, what if the
parts could be 3-D printed when they needed them?"<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">When staffing his start up in 2010, Kemmer and his partners warned engineers there would be ups and downs — nauseating ones. In more than a dozen flights in NASA's "vomit comet" reduced-gravity aircraft, Made In Space scientists tested
printer after printer.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Last week at their headquarters on NASA's campus, Made In Space engineers in lab coats and hair nets tinkered with a sealed 3-D printer in a dust free cleanroom, preparing the models for further pre-launch tests.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">As proof of its utility, the team revisited the notorious 1970 moon-bound Apollo 13 breakdown, when astronauts were forced to jerry-rig a lifesaving carbon dioxide filter holder with a plastic bag, a manual cover and duct tape. A 3-D
printer could have solved the problem in minutes.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"Safety has been one of our biggest concerns," said strategic officer Michael Chen. Sparks, breakages and electric surges can have grave consequences in the space station. "But when we get it right, we believe these are the only way
to manifest living in space," he said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Space-bound printers will also, eventually, need to capture gasses emitted from the extruded plastics, be able to print their own parts for self-repairs and have some abilities to recycle printed products into new ones.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Scott Crump, who helped develop 3-D printing technology in 1988 by making a toy frog for his daughter with a glue gun in his kitchen, said he never conceived how pivotal it could be for space travel. But he said that until metal becomes
commonly used in 3-D printers, the applications will be limited.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"The good news is that you don't have to have this huge amount of inventory in space, but the bad news is now you need materials, in this case filament, and a lot of power," he said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">NASA and other international space agencies are pressing forward with 3-D printing. Mastering space manufacturing, along with finding and producing water and food on the moon or other planets, could lead to living on space.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Last month, the space agency awarded Bothell, Wash.-based Tethers Unlimited $500,000 toward a project to use 3-D printing and robots to build massive antennas and solar power generators in space by 2020. It replaces the expensive and
cumbersome process of building foldable parts on Earth and assembling them in orbit.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">For Made In Space's debut, when it's shuttled up to the space station aboard a spaceflight cargo resupply mission, the initial prints will be tests — different small shapes to be studied for strength and accuracy. They're also discussing
with NASA about what the first real piece that they should print will be.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Whatever it is, it will be a historic and symbolic item sure to end up in a museum someday.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"It's not something we're discussing publicly right now," said CEO Kemmer. Then, Jason Dunn, the chief technology officer, beckoned, dropping his voice as he grinned.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"We're going to build a Death Star," he joked softly, referring to the giant space station in the "Star Wars" movies that could blow up planets. "Then it's all going to be over."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Secret Messages Left on the International Space Station<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Nancy Atkinson - Universe Today<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">We humans have certain tendencies toward the eternal. We like to leave our mark by somehow saying "I was here!" or send messages to the future about what we've accomplished. We're also intrigued by things like the Voyager record, the
Pioneer plaque, and we all love those "send your name on a spacecraft" opportunities NASA has.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">A recent image posted by astronaut Luca Parmitano on <a href="https://twitter.com/astro_luca">
Twitter</a> of a message written on a new piece for the International Space Station's Canadarm 2 is an example of leaving a little message to the future (albeit, one that the majority of us might never get to do) and it prompted me to wonder if there are more
"secret messages" like that on the ISS — messages of remembrance or good wishes from the people who built, designed or installed various components, or messages passed down from one crew to the next.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn, who returned from a 5-month stint on the ISS in May of 2013, said there are plenty of memorable messages, signatures and objects left by the station's builders or previous crews.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"We did a lot of maintenance during our flight and rotated out a lot of the experiment racks and we saw many signatures on the internal hull or on the inside parts of the racks," Marshburn told Universe Today via phone from Johnson Space
Center. "Things like 'Greetings from the Water Recovery team!' with everyone's signature. That's fairly prevalent on the inside, particularly behind the racks, but not in plain view."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">But he's never seen anything on the external parts of the space station before.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"I have heard that engineers who have built different components and even external structures, like to sign their names to internal pieces that no one can actually see, but the engineers know their name is up in space," he said. "I've
done three spacewalks, and I've never seen anything like that on the outside — like in the picture from Luca Parmitano — so that's a rarity to see something like that."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">How about messages that crews leave for the next inhabitants?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Marshburn said there are several "helpful" notes that are left by former crew members to assist or instruct future crews — important 'lessons learned' or little reminders.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"One of the favorite messages left by a former resident of the station is near the resistive exercise machine," Marshburn said. "This machine allows you to lift the equivalent of 600 pounds, so there is a lot of stored energy there and
you have to be careful with it, making sure you follow procedures carefully. There is a placard there that someone just wrote with a Sharpie: 'Nothing is as important as what you are doing right now.' That has become a mantra for a lot of people on the ISS,
and we quoted quite often. I really like that one."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">There's also a nice 'aide-mémoire' in the space station bathroom.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"Everyone has to urinate into a funnel that goes into a hose," Marshburn explained. "We are pretty good about cleaning ourselves up in the bathroom, but some crewmembers have not been so good about cleaning up the equipment because written
in Sharpie on the wall in the bathroom is, 'Blessed are those who wipe the funnel.' That's just a good little reminder."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">In addition to messages, there are objects left by previous crews that end up as talismans or things that are used over and over.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"There is a four-inch version of Gort, the robot figure from the movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still" stuck on the wall where we gather in the Destiny Lab for our daily planning conferences," Marshburn said. "He sometimes gets unstuck
and floats around the ISS, so whenever we find him wandering around, we stick him back up on the wall. He's kind of ubiquitous."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">There's also a little toy astronaut figure that ends up floating around and showing up in different places.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"We don't know who brought them up, but they have been retained and remain as mascots for the crews," Marshburn said.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The toy left on the ISS that Marshburn enjoyed the most was a ping pong ball.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"That is a wonderful toy," he said. "While you are eating, you can bounce it off the wall and figure out the best angles to have it come right back to you. Or you can spin it around a hatch and the centripetal force will just keep it
spinning around and around."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Also on board are musical instruments — an electric piano, guitar and ukulele – that get a lot of use. Additionally, previous astronauts have left reading material, so by now there is a shoebox-sized library of books to read.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"After working on computers most of the day, it's nice to grab a real book and read during your off time," Marshburn said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Since Marshburn and his crewmates — Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko — launched to the space station on December 19, 2012, they really enjoyed the bag-full of holiday ornaments that are on board.
"There's a 2-foot Christmas tree, stockings, and an elf hat," he said, "which was nice because it was a tiny piece of home, a little bit of Christmas."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">There's also Mardi Gras hats, Happy Birthday signs, and flags of each country associated with the International Space Station.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">So, any other secret "just between astronauts" messages up on the space station?
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"There aren't any that I saw or even know about that I couldn't share with you!" Marshburn said with a laugh. "But I don't know how much mission control even knows about some of these things."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">'Made in Space!' Astronaut Sews Dinosaur Toy from Space Station Scraps<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Robert Pearlman - <a href="http://collectSPACE.com"><a href="http://collectSPACE.com">collectSPACE.com</a></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><img border="0" width="362" height="240" id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image005.jpg@01CEBDA8.FC675970" alt="NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg&amp;apos;s stuffed toy dinosaur floats on the International Space Station. She made the doll for her son using materials she found on the orbiting outpost"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">There is a dinosaur on board the International Space Station where there wasn't one before.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, who since May has been working as a flight engineer as a member of the orbiting outpost's resident crew, revealed the toy dinosaur floating on the space station on Thursday.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"Made in space!" Nyberg, an Expedition 37 crewmember, exclaimed in her caption for a photo of the toy giant lizard she uploaded to the pinboard-style photo-sharing website Pinterest. "I made this dinosaur for my son last Sunday, September
22."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The dinosaur, which resembles a Tyrannosaurus Rex, has an olive green back and a lighter green belly. It is stitched together with white thread.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Nyberg, a self-described crafter whose hobbies including quilting and sewing, packed threads, sewing needles and small fabric samples for her trip to space. But to make the dinosaur, she scavenged materials that she found around her
orbital home.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"It is made out of velcro-like fabric that lines the Russian food containers [that are] found here on the International Space Station," Nyberg wrote about the doll. "It is lightly stuffed with scraps from a used t-shirt."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Astronauts have carried stuffed dolls to space before, and cosmonauts have a tradition of launching with small plush toys as talismans and "zero-g indicators." When the dolls, which are suspended from the Soyuz spacecraft's control panel,
begin to float, the crew can tell they have entered orbit.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Nyberg's crew launched with a plush white dog her Soyuz commander, Fyodor Yurchikhin, had received as a gift 30 years ago and had flown into space twice before. A small black cat doll, named "Dimlar," served as the zero-gravity indicator
for the crew that arrived Wednesday (Sept. 26), named after cosmonaut Oleg Kotov's children, Dima and Lara.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Nyberg's dinosaur however, may be a new breed of space toy. It may be the first stuffed animal created in space.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">In addition to sewing stuffed toys for him, Nyberg keeps in daily contact with her 3-year-old son Jack, sending down short videos for him every day. Nyberg's husband, who is also an astronaut who last flew on the final space shuttle
mission in 2011, sends up photos and videos of their son.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">A photo Nyberg earlier shared on Pinterest revealed that Jack has his own handiwork in space, too. Hanging on the wall of her quarters is an orange and pink painting labeled "For Mommy."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Nyberg is slated to return to Earth on Nov. 11, presumably with the toy dinosaur in tow.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><i>IEEE Spectrum Tech Insider Webinar:<o:p></o:p></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">What NASA &amp; gas &amp; oil industry can teach each other about controlling risk<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">IEEE Spectrum<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">This presentation will begin at 1 pm Central (2 EDT) Monday, Sept. 30. Webinar access will be available 15 minutes prior to start via this free registration
<a href="http://w.on24.com/r.htm?e=686524&amp;s=1&amp;k=70EFF9DB9CAD857C7398E84D682F1F3E">
link</a>.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l6 level1 lfo4">
<span style="font-family:Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt &quot;Times New Roman&quot;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
</span></span></span>Speaker: David Kaplan, Safety and Mission Assurance Partnership Development, NASA<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l6 level1 lfo4">
<span style="font-family:Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt &quot;Times New Roman&quot;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
</span></span></span>Speaker: Peter Swinburne, Architect, Coiled Tubing Segment, Schlumberger<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l6 level1 lfo4">
<span style="font-family:Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt &quot;Times New Roman&quot;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
</span></span></span>Moderator: Douglas McCormick , IEEE Spectrum "Tech Talk" contributor<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Some hard and costly lessons have taught the oil and gas industry a lot about anticipating and controlling the risks that come with complex, high-energy systems…and some in the industry think the effort has to go a lot farther. NASA
has learned hard lessons of its own, and responded by creating a culture safety and embracing the rapidly expanding disciplines of scientific risk-reduction.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Deep water drilling, pipeline operation, hydraulic fracturing, well stimulation—oil and gas industry activities on beneath the sea, under the ground, and on the surface offer various combinations of high pressures, harsh environments,
potential explosion, and possible environmental contamination that make engineering for safety increasingly important.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">This summer, the space agency announced a program to make its advanced risk-management services and techniques to oil and gas companies: risk modeling and simulation, precursor analysis, event-occurrence trending, artificial intelligence
for remote decision-support systems, and a host of other methods.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">This IEEE Spectrum Tech Insider webinar pairs a veteran embedded software designer and oilfield systems architect with one of NASA's experts in improving quality and reducing failures, to discuss what we do now and what we need to do
tomorrow to make oil-and-gas rigs and fields safer, driving down the human and financial costs of small failures and major disasters.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">2 years later, NASA workers still mourn end of shuttle<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Mark Matthews - Orlando Sentinel<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Few engineers at Kennedy Space Center invested as much in the space-shuttle program as Darrell Gheen, who worked all 135 flights from 1981 to 2011.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Though the Cal Ripken-esque achievement earned him a special patch, the streak didn't do much for the 53-year-old's job prospects once the program ended with the final mission of Atlantis in July 2011.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Like thousands of other ex-shuttle workers, Gheen — who spent the final 13 years of his shuttle career as a flight-controls engineer — was forced to find work wherever he could. It's a situation that, for many, remains stubbornly true
two years later.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">In Gheen's case, the end result isn't all bad. After working for months at a brother's boat-building company, he landed a job last year as a launchpad manager at a spaceport in Virginia at a higher salary, a rarity among ex-shuttle workers.
But even that has its drawbacks, as others in his family stayed behind in part because they can't sell their Titusville house.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"It's been months since I've been home," Gheen said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Up and down the Space Coast, a similar story is playing out for thousands of families. Though the initial shock of the shuttle's retirement has long faded, the grind to find meaningful work — and a comparable paycheck — remains a constant
pursuit.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Some, like Gheen, have left Florida so they could keep working in the aerospace business. Others have stuck close to home, often switching fields to find new jobs — from teaching to lawn maintenance to asphalt resurfacing — at a reduced
salary. One lucky group has managed to do both: stay local and in the aerospace sector.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">But that's not the majority. At least not yet. And maybe not ever.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Precise figures on what's happened to the shuttle work force are unavailable, but this much is known: From 2008 till now, the number of KSC workers was roughly halved to its current figure of about 7,900.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Most of the roughly 7,000 who lost their jobs were not NASA employees but outside contractors, doing jobs such as refurbishing the tiles that protected the shuttle from harm. It was well-paid work. According to one 2008 study, the average
shuttle contractor then earned about $77,600 a year — nearly twice the mean salary of Brevard County.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">But when the shuttle program ended without an immediate NASA successor, these workers were left with few options. So they scattered.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"It's been quite a roller coaster," said Gregory Cecil, a former tile technician now working as a middle-school science teacher in St. Petersburg.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Cecil took a buyout in 2009 but then spent more than two years trying to find a full-time job.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"I was really, really starting to fear I was never going to work again," he said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Finally, he decided to switch fields and start teaching. His salary dropped from $50,000 to $30,000.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"I like it. I like where I am now," said Cecil, 49. "But I would rather be working on spaceships."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The current state of the U.S. space industry restricts that career path.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Despite the recent emergence of new players such as SpaceX of California, no one is expecting the industry to hire anything close to the standing armies once needed to put the shuttle into orbit.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">And NASA is still years from launching its next human-rated rocket, the Space Launch System. NASA wants a first flight in 2017, but budget problems could push that date back. Any delay would be especially painful for KSC, as its primary
role for decades has been preparing NASA spacecraft for launch.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">But Brevard business leaders are optimistic. Though not ideal, local job figures have been far from devastating. As of July, the unemployment rate in Brevard County was 7.8 percent — within arm's reach of the 7.1 percent state average
that month, according to records from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Former lawmakers lobby for space ventures<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Jonathan Salant &amp; Kathleen Miller - Bloomberg News<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">In a battle of billionaires, space ventures owned by Internet pioneers Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are relying on prominent former lawmakers as they jockey for control over a historic launch pad at Kennedy Space Center.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The Florida launch pad was mothballed after the United States retired its shuttle fleet in 2011 and turned to countries such as Russia to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station. It's now coveted by Musk's Space Exploration
Technologies, known as SpaceX, and Bezos's Blue Origin, which are trying to fill the void for the U.S.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">SpaceX, already delivering cargo to the station under a $1.6 billion National Aeronautics and Space Administration contract, has former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., on its lobbying team, Senate filings show. Blue Origin
hired two ex- lawmakers, including the former House Science Committee chairman, in May to lobby. In Congress, dozens of lawmakers with opposing views on the issue sent letters to NASA.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"It doesn't matter if you're making buggy whips or rockets, the way to get Congress' attention is to hire a lobbyist," said Bill Allison, editorial director at the Sunlight Foundation, a Washington-based research group. "Lobbyists can
take comfort in the fact that there will be place for them even beyond the final frontier."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Bezos, chief executive of <a href="http://Amazon.com">Amazon.com</a>, is the bigger of the billionaires. He is No. 17 on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a ranking of the world's wealthiest people, with an estimated net worth of $29.4 billion. Musk, the CEO of Tesla
Motors and co-founder of PayPal, is No. 135, with an estimated net worth of $8.8 billion.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The competition began after NASA in May began seeking proposals to operate the launch pad, the departure site for the manned Apollo missions to the moon. The agency plans to spend about $8.7 billion on transporting crews and cargo to
the station in the next five years, according to budget documents.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">SpaceX and Blue Origin applied for the launch site lease.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"There are a limited number of East Coast established launch sites," Chris Quilty, an analyst with Raymond James and Associates in St. Petersburg, Fla., said in a phone interview. "Given the fact that both companies intend to ramp up
their launch volume, they need to secure enough launch pads to handle that volume."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Closely held SpaceX, based in Hawthorne, Calif., has spent $540,000 in the first six months of 2013 to lobby, compared with $500,000 during the same period in 2012, Senate filings show. Its team at Washington-based Patton Boggs LLP includes
Lott.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Blue Origin, based in Kent, Wash., and also closely held, hired the lobbying firm K&amp;L Gates LLP the same month NASA sought proposals. Its contingent includes former House Science Committee Chairman Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., and former Rep.
James Walsh, R-N.Y., who was chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that approved spending for NASA. The company spent $20,000 to lobby Congress in June, its first such expenditures, according to Senate filings.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Patton Boggs and K&amp;L Gates didn't comment. Lobbying firms rarely speak to the media about their clients.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">SpaceX's Musk has outspent Bezos in campaign contributions. He has made $242,200 in donations since Jan. 1, 2009, supporting Democrats twice as much as Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based
research group. Bezos contributed $24,800 during the same period.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">House space subcommittee member Mo Brooks, R-Ala., said he was troubled by the campaign donations.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"That's not to say they're using political influence to achieve an unfair advantage over competitors at taxpayer expense, but it's a situation that does require close monitoring and aggressive questioning," Brooks said in a Sept. 20
interview outside the subcommittee hearing room.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Blue Origin, whose founder is the incoming owner of The Washington Post, has proposed sharing the site from the start. Blue Origin declined to comment about its interest in the lease, said Brooke Crawford, an account director for Seabrook,
Texas- based Griffin Communications Group, which coordinates the space company's media relations.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">SpaceX initially sought an exclusive lease. It changed its position after some members of the House space subcommittee and other lawmakers criticized the idea of limiting use of the site to one company.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Seven members of Congress told NASA Administrator Charles Bolden in letters that they wanted many companies to use the launch pad. They include Republican Representative Frank Wolf of Virginia, chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee
that approves NASA spending, and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., where Blue Origin is based. Murray received $4,800 from Bezos for her 2010 re-election campaign, the only candidate since 2009 to whom he has contributed.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"It seems premature to restrict use of this unique asset to one entity, given that the commercial launch market is still in development," Wolf and Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., who serves on the same appropriations subcommittee, wrote
on July 22.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">SpaceX wasn't aware other parties were interested in using the launch pad when it bid, Emily Shanklin, director of marketing and communications, said in a Sept. 20 e-mail. The company would be "more than happy to support other commercial
space pioneers" and allow NASA to use the site if needed, she said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The letter from Wolf and Aderholt criticized NASA, saying the agency "appears to be racing" to lease the launch pad "with little transparency and absent congressional consent."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">In contrast, a Sept. 16 letter from Florida's 27-member, bipartisan U.S. House delegation praised the agency's effort to "quickly and efficiently" lease the site.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"We have an opportunity to recapture the commercial space launch business, but unnecessary delays could hamper our ability to do that," they wrote.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">NASA's spending in Florida — most of it tied to Kennedy Space Center — pumped $4.1 billion into the state's economy during the 12 months ending Sept. 30, 2010, creating 33,049 jobs, according to an agency report.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">NASA may not be able to award the lease until the U.S. Government Accountability Office weighs in. Blue Origin this month protested NASA's solicitation with the federal arbitrator of contract disputes. The GAO has until Dec. 12 to issue
its decision.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Even if both companies agree to share the launch pad, the winner of the lease has control.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"If you own that lease, then you can decide when you allow somebody else to use it," said Marco Caceres, a senior space analyst for Fairfax, Va.-based Teal Group. "You have control over when you launch instead of taking what is provided
by another company when they choose to give it."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">In private companies' race to space, SpaceX is ahead of Blue Origin. Last year, it became the first company to dock a commercial craft at the station, and it has begun ferrying cargo.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Since 2008, it has received NASA contracts valued at about $1.61 billion to transport cargo and to ensure commercial spacecraft will be safe to carry people, according to the agency.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Separately, SpaceX has gotten about $930 million in non- contract funding from NASA for its work on vehicles capable of carrying cargo and astronauts, Trent Perrotto, a NASA spokesman, said in an e-mail.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Blue Origin hasn't received NASA contracts, he said. It has received $25.7 million in other funding from the agency to design its own spacecraft to carry astronauts.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">China Invites Foreign Astronauts to Fly On Future Space Station<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Leonard David - <a href="http://Space.com"><a href="http://Space.com">Space.com</a></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Chinese space officials are rolling out a welcome mat to other nations eager to gain access to their future space station.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The Chinese government has designed a multiphase station program aimed at launching a Tiangong 2 space laboratory around 2015, an experimental space station in 2018, followed by a 60-ton multi-module space station in the 2020 time frame.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The invite to countries to participate in China's space station was one aspect of the United Nations/China Workshop on Human Space Technology, jointly hosted by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs and the China Manned Space
Agency, held in Beijing on Sept. 16-19. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">According to Chinese news reports, some 150 participants from more than 20 countries, regions and international organizations took part in the four-day event, exchanging views on space technology cooperation.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The workshop covered a wide swath of space topics, ranging from national, regional and international space programs to the role of Asia-Pacific space cooperation in advancing space technology. Other topics included microgravity science,
space mineral resources, and the development of manned space science activities for Chinese youth.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b>Human spaceflight players<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Elliot Pulham, chief executive officer of the Space Foundation in Colorado Springs, Colo., took part in the workshop and branded the gathering as significant. He was the only U.S. citizen to make remarks at the ceremonies commemorating
China's 10th anniversary of human spaceflight. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"There were many presentations from countries that we are accustomed to viewing as 'space applications' users, and not human spaceflight players," Pulham told <a href="http://SPACE.com">SPACE.com</a>. "And yet the degree to which space experts from the various nations
have thought through all the benefits and applications of human spaceflight technology was striking," he said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"It is clear that the many, many countries with space programs of varying complexity and maturity have all thought exhaustively about what makes human spaceflight special, and how we can all leverage it to change the world for the better,"
Pulham said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b>'Missing links' of Russia and U.S.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The biggest "missing links" in the workshop, Pulham said, were Russia and the United States.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"Both countries missed a huge opportunity to engage with the many other space-interested countries that participated in the workshop. This, of course, left China as the major conference participant with actual human spaceflight capability
and experience," Pulham said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Pulham observed that, at the moment, China's space station is the focus of the China Manned Space Agency. "They briefed the details of their China Space Station program without ducking any questions," he said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"The configuration looks simple and practical, with an interior layout that relies on standardized payload racks like the International Space Station," Pulham said. "One interesting early technical difference is an emphasis on developing
an integrated refueling system, such that a logistics module can easily dock at the station and transfer propellants to the core modules."
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b>China's three-step space strategy<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Niu Hongguang, deputy commander of China Manned Space Program, told workshop participants that China has attached great importance to its manned space program.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"The Chinese government prescribed the 'three-step strategy' of development at the beginning of implementing China Manned Space Program," Niu said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"Within 21 years' development, we have sent 10 Chinese astronauts into outer space," Niu said, "and mastered the fundamental technologies of manned flight to and from outer space, extravehicular activities as well as space rendezvous
and docking. And China Manned Space Program is entering a new phase of building the Chinese space station."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b>Foreign astronauts<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">During the workshop, Yang Liwei, deputy director of the China Manned Space Agency, said his country is willing to provide training and open the Chinese space station to foreign astronauts.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Yang is China's first astronaut and launched into orbit in 2003.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"We would like to train astronauts from other countries and organizations that have such a demand, and we would be glad to provide trips to foreign astronauts," Yang said at the meeting, according to the China Daily newspaper. "We will
also welcome foreign astronauts who have received our training to work in our future space station."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Yang said many countries submitted proposals to the Chinese government during the development of the space station, hoping China would help train their astronauts and then send them to the station to conduct scientific experiments.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b>Capacity and capability<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"China is now in an appropriate position to assist developing countries in building the capacity and capability of conducting space activities," said Mazlan Othman, director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Zhou Jianping, designer-in-chief of China's manned space program, said the planned space station can house three astronauts on missions lasting about six months. But new modules could be added as needed for scientific research, he said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Zhou also said that China will be able to rendezvous with other countries' spacecraft at the space station. Furthermore, the country is exploring the possibility of carrying out a joint rescue operation, he said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The workshop commemorated the 10th anniversary of China's first human spaceflight by showing a feature film titled "Space Exploration — Never Stop."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b>Areas of cooperation<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Wang Zhaoyao, director of the China Manned Space Agency, attended the workshop, and also emphasized cooperative ties to the space station.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Wang said that, during the construction of China's space station, he views working with other nations in four areas:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l5 level1 lfo6">
<span style="font-family:Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt &quot;Times New Roman&quot;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
</span></span></span>Cooperating in platform technology, which may focus on individual equipment or assemblies, or focus on the development of sub-systems or even capsules.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l5 level1 lfo6">
<span style="font-family:Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt &quot;Times New Roman&quot;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
</span></span></span>Cooperating in space application in ways such as joint research and onboard experiments in space science and application, space medicine and other areas.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l5 level1 lfo6">
<span style="font-family:Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt &quot;Times New Roman&quot;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
</span></span></span>Conducting exchanges and cooperation in astronauts' selection and training technology with other countries. When appropriate, China may help other countries to select and train astronauts who can fly jointly with Chinese astronauts.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l5 level1 lfo6">
<span style="font-family:Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt &quot;Times New Roman&quot;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
</span></span></span>Promoting technological accomplishments using the station, especially in developing countries and regions, so as to achieve common development.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">A participant in the Beijing workshop was Franklin Chang Díaz, former NASA astronaut and now CEO and chairman of Ad Astra Rocket Co., headquartered in Webster, Texas.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"My impression of the U.N./China Workshop was very positive. I was happy to see the presence of developing countries like Costa Rica, Colombia, Mexico, Ghana, Nigeria, Somalia and others who consider space exploration relevant to their
future," Díaz told <a href="http://SPACE.com">SPACE.com</a>.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"I was also encouraged by China's clear overture to open their space station to international participants. Space has to be open to all nations and not just the rich ones. China's position is good news for the developing world," Díaz
said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b>Terrestrial politics<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"The emphasis on assisting developing countries with their space program highlights how the Chinese are far more adroit in exploiting the diplomatic aspects of their space program than many other countries have been, including the United
States," said Dean Cheng, a research fellow on Chinese political and security affairs at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Cheng said that the whole purpose of the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO) has been to highlight China's relationship with developing, rather than developed, space powers.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"That Pakistan is lobbying to be the first country to visit China's as-yet un-launched space station is emblematic of this, especially given the long-standing Sino-Pakistani relationship," Cheng said. "This also highlights how space
is influenced by terrestrial politics. If Pakistan is the first foreign nation to visit China's future space station, that will have repercussions on Sino-Indian, and Indo-Pakistani, relations," he said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b>America's ill-conceived policy?<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"This is not the first time China announced its intention to make its space station available to the international community," said Gregory Kulacki, senior analyst and China project manager for the Global Security Program at the Union
of Concerned Scientists.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Kulacki said it will be interesting to see how China selects international partners and projects for its national space station.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"China won't complete the station until the early years of the next decade, but it seems as if China will be making an outreach to other developing nations, rather than to the well-established spacefaring nations participating in the
ISS, from which China is excluded, largely because of U.S. opposition," Kulacki said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">China's willingness, and ability, to provide these kinds of opportunities in the country's space station effort, Kulacki told <a href="http://SPACE.com">SPACE.com</a>, "should make it clear that the U.S.-led effort to isolate China in space is an outdated, ineffective
and ill-conceived policy that should be changed."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Space Race 2013: Who's Up, Who's Down, Who's Going Nowhere<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><i>Space-travel industry is more competitive than ever — and just as in all industries, there will be winners and losers<o:p></o:p></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Jeffrey Kluger - Time Magazine<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">You could be forgiven for thinking that everyone but you is going into space. You could also be forgiven for thinking that no one at all is going into space. Both things, in many ways, are entirely true. NASA's manned space program —
not to put too fine a point on it — is a mess. Never mind falling short of the glory of the old Apollo days. We're not even capable of doing what we did back in the Mercury days — in the early 1960s, when we were sending people up in one-person cans for as
little as 15 minutes at a time. At least then we had some kind of human access to space.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Now, post shuttle, the only way we can get to orbit to visit the International Space Station (which we assembled and largely paid for, never mind its International name) is by thumbing a ride aboard Russia's Soyuz, for which we pay a
low, low, low $70 million per seat. And the Soyuz ships are not much to brag about either. Russia's been flying pretty much the same machine for 50 years, and while it does the job, you can forget about going anywhere but low Earth orbit.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">But then there are all the new players — Elon Musk and his Dragon spacecraft; Richard Branson and his SpaceShipTwo; Paul Allen and his Stratolauncher; Jeff Bezos and his Blue Origin; Sierra Nevada and its Dream Chaser. Oh, and there's
that slightly larger outfit known as the People's Republic of China, which is taking on space the way it's taken on pretty much everything else it's turned its attention to in the past 15 years — and that means bigger, better and more ambitiously than anyone
else on the block. Just this week, Branson gathered 300 of his citizen astronauts — folks who have already plunked down deposits for $250,000 suborbital rides set to begin as early as 2014 — for a sort of pep rally in a hangar in the Mojave Desert, with SpaceShipTwo
gleaming on the tarmac nearby. The atmosphere was celebratory, and the prospective passengers seemed ready to go that very day. But will they be going at all — next year, the year after that or even later? And what about all the other players, big and small,
in what has become nothing short of a cosmic scrum? Here's a look at where they all stand, in rough sequential order — with special emphasis on the rough. In the 21st century space game, things change fast.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b>1. China, the Big Dog:</b> Like it or not NASA, the PRC is eating your lunch — and the reason is simple: you're not touching it. At the same time the U.S. decided to mothball its shuttles and replace them with nothing in particular,
China has made a commitment to space not seen since the old U.S.-Soviet space race. Over the course of just the past 10 years, China has launched five crewed missions, two robot lunar orbiters and a mini space station and is preparing to launch its first lunar
rover. More important, it has openly declared its intention to have people on the moon some time in the next 10 years or so. Even China can't control the vagaries of space travel, and its initial target date of 2020 has slipped some, but barring an unforeseen
political or technological setback, make no mistake that they're going. Why? Because they've simply chosen to go — the same reason we went more than 40 years back.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b>2. SpaceX, the New Kid:</b> Musk can freak you out up close. There's an otherworldly calm to him, a self-assuredness that he wears less like a boast than a law of physics. I'm going to space because I said I'm going to space — any
questions? And while that may grate, it's hard to argue with his success. Musk — who is also the founder and owner of Tesla Motors and one of the founders of PayPal — has already launched two successful unmanned missions to the International Space Station
with his Falcon booster and his Dragon spacecraft. And the Dragon that today carries only cargo is even now being retrofitted to carry astronauts. Musk is old school in the best way possible. Not for him are the snazzy winged ships that take off like rockets
and land like airplanes; he's gone back to the traditional booster with the traditional Apollo-like crew vehicle perched on top, but improving on both. His rockets are modular: the one-engine Falcon, the nine-engine Falcon-9, the 27-engine Falcon Heavy. The
Heavy hasn't flown yet, and getting that many engines to fire just right without blowing themselves up or shaking themselves apart is not easy. But Musk has already done what no other private entity had done before — sending a spacecraft into orbit and recovering
it successfully — and it doesn't pay to sniff at his plans to carry people into Earth orbit and later to the moon or Mars. Less realistic: his Grasshopper rocket, designed to take off and land vertically, entirely under rocket power. The thing has made a quick,
300-m demonstration hop, but 300 m is a long, long way from space.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b>3. Branson, the Travel Agent:</b> The 300 people who met Sir Richard in the desert this week are fewer than half of the 640 passengers he's already signed up for trips aboard SpaceShipTwo, and that waiting list is growing. The machines
Branson is building are impressive. SpaceShipTwo is a little six-passenger space plane with a wingspan of 12.8 m. It's carried aloft under the belly of the much larger — 43-m wingspan — WhiteKnightTwo, to an altitude of 15,000 m. There the mother ship releases
the spaceship, which climbs to suborbital altitude under rocket power, spends five minutes in weightless space and then comes home. So far, SpaceShipTwo has not even made a successful test flight to space (nor has it made any unsuccessful ones), but it has
flown in the high atmosphere dozens of times and is moving steadily spaceward. Branson claims he could be flying passengers as early as 2014. Maybe, but even if he makes that deadline, it's fair to ask if joyrides for wealthy tourists are the best way for
the private sector to be using space. Branson and his believers don't feel that way of course — and his operation is undeniably impressive. He does see more-practical applications for the technology he's developing, including trips to the moon and high-speed
point-to-point travel on Earth. (New York City to Tokyo in three hours anyone?) But for now, it's all about the tourists.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b>4. NASA, the Faded Star:</b> The fact that America's once towering space program ranks even as high as fourth is a nod not to what it's been doing of late, but what it would be capable of doing if it chose to. Before the grounding
of the shuttle, NASA had big plans for its next chapter in manned space travel. It would be returning to the moon and perhaps Mars aboard a much larger Apollo-type spacecraft dubbed Orion, lofted by one of two rockets — the Ares I and the heavy-lift Ares V
— depending on the mission. But that program was scrapped, and after floundering around for a while, the space agency decided to revive Orion and launch it with a heavy-lift vehicle called the Space Launch System (SLS). When will this shiny new hardware be
ready? Maybe 2016, maybe later; no one is saying with certainty. And what would the mission be? Here NASA is flirting with parody. Forget the moon, forget Mars. We'll be going to an asteroid, but rather than simply send a crew out there to land, we'll be sending
a robot ship to scout for one that looks interesting, place it in a gigantic space bag (really) and tow it back to the vicinity of the moon, where we can visit it at our comparative leisure. What could possibly go wrong? The paradoxical good news: if NASA's
abysmal history of follow-through indicates anything, it's that this plan, like so many others before it, will be abandoned. The SLS and the Orion could indeed be insanely great machines. If they do get built, here's hoping someone will have the sense to point
them in the right direction.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b>5. The Ones to Watch:</b> For all Musk's success in space and savvy with the press, SpaceX is actually just one of a handful of big outfits competing to dominate both the manned and unmanned orbital market NASA has abandoned. In anticipation
of the shuttles' retirement, the space agency established what it called its Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office (handily nicknamed C3P0). The office opened the door to bidders from the private sector first to take over the unmanned station-resupply portion
of its portfolio, and the two biggest competitors in that game are SpaceX and Orbital Sciences, the latter a Dulles, Va., company that already builds and flies a line of rockets for commercial and government launches. Like SpaceX, Orbital is under contract
with NASA to resupply the space station, a goal it officially achieved this morning, Sept. 29, when its Cygnus spacecraft successfully docked with the station. The manned portion of that program is more of a scramble at the moment, with SpaceX again in the
lead, followed variously by Boeing, United Launch Alliance (ULA, which already flies the well-proven Atlas and Delta boosters) and Sierra Nevada (with its winged Dream Chaser). For now, bet on SpaceX and ULA.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b>6. The Dilettantes:</b> Ah, Bezos and Allen, the contributions you've made to the digital age are hard to measure. But the space age? Not so much — at least not yet. Bezos' Blue Origin company is aiming to build a Grasshopper-type
takeoff-and-landing spacecraft, but he's secretive about the whens and the hows of this technology and has put no meaningful flight points on the board. It never pays to underestimate Bezos — right, Borders, Barnes &amp; Noble and the Washington Post? But spaceflight
ain't beanbag — and it ain't publishing and marketing either. Bezos might, for the first time, be out of his depth. Allen's Stratolauncher is a two-part system like Branson's, though much bigger and with more orbital capability. The major downside: Branson
is already flying his machines — albeit not in space yet — and Allen has barely begun cutting metal. His company — located practically across the street from the Mojave spaceport that serves as a sort of branch office for the much larger Spaceport America
in Sierra County, N.M., where Branson is the anchor tenant — promises that test flights will begin in 2016, and the first trip to space will happen in 2018. Perhaps it will. And perhaps it won't.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The space industry is, in many ways, like the computer industry was 20 years ago. Remember when Apple was left for dead — until it rose up and ate the world? Remember when Texas Instruments and Dell were the giants that bestrode the
landscape? Look at them now. SpaceX could fall, Bezos could rise, and NASA and China can do pretty much whatever they choose to do. We are, surely, going back to space — but things will remain awfully messy for a good while before we get there.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:red">MEANWHILE ON MARS…<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:red">At closer look, Mars is not so simple<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Amina Khan - Los Angeles Times<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">A series of discoveries from NASA's Curiosity rover are giving scientists a picture of Mars that looks increasingly complex, with small bits of water spread around the surface and an interior that could have been more geologically mature
than experts had previously thought.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Curiosity's formidable arsenal of scientific instruments has detected traces of water chemically bound to the Martian dust that seems to be covering the entire planet. The finding, among several in the five studies published online Thursday
by the journal Science, may explain mysterious water signals picked up by satellites in orbit around the Red Planet.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The soil that covers Mars' surface in Gale Crater, where Curiosity landed last year, seems to have two major components, according to data from the rover's laser-shooting Chemistry and Camera instrument. One is a coarse soil with millimeter-wide
grains that probably came from the rocks around them; the other is very fine, with grains often a few micrometers in size, the ChemCam data show.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The fine-grained soil doesn't really match the rocks around it, said Pierre-Yves Meslin of the University of Toulouse in France, who led one of the studies. But it does seem to match the stuff found at sites where other rovers and landers
touched down. That means it's probably distributed over much or all of the planet, kicked up and carried far in the fierce dust storms that can shroud the planet in a reddish haze.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The researchers say they don't know where that soil comes from, whether it's created in many places or has one source that gets picked up and blown all over.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Either way, it's a handy, naturally averaged sample of the Martian surface, said Indiana University mineralogist David Bish, who led a different study.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Perhaps the most intriguing thing about this fine soil is that ChemCam's readings detected a hydrogen signal, which could explain why satellites orbiting Mars have picked up a mysterious water signal in the past, Meslin said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"It's actually kind of exciting because it's water yet again on Mars, but it's in a different material than we had recognized," said Caltech geologist John Grotzinger, the mission's project scientist. "So what Curiosity is doing is just
demonstrating that water is present in a number of ways. It just adds to the diversity."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">But another study based on data from Curiosity's Chemistry and Mineralogy tool — part of the dirt-digesting lab in the rover's belly — found no sign of water in soil samples taken from Rocknest, a sandy dune of a pit stop on the rover's
way to a region dubbed Yellowknife Bay. That's because CheMin uses X-ray diffraction to bounce high-energy light off of a mineral's crystalline structure. If the soil isn't in crystalline form, there's no way for CheMin to see it.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">All this means the hydrogen signal seen by ChemCam must have been coming from the amorphous, or non-crystalline, portion, which makes up a significant minority of the soil, said Bish, who led the CheMin study.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Sure enough, Curiosity's Sample Analysis at Mars instrument cooked up a tiny sample in its little oven and found that roughly 1.5% to 3% of the soil was made of water. The scientists think this water may have come from the atmosphere,
pulled out of the thin air.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Bish said it was interesting that CheMin found no signs of minerals that formed in water, since looking for such clays was "one of the reasons for going to Gale Crater." Inside Gale Crater lies a 3-mile-high mountain called Mt. Sharp,
whose layers could be rich in clays that hold answers to whether Mars was hospitable to life.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">It's possible that this fine-grained soil is simply too young to have ever encountered liquid water, he said. If so, it would mean that many years passed between the formation of the water-rich clays locked inside of certain rocks and
the dusty grains that currently cover the Martian surface.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Another of the studies focused on the rock known as Jake M, named after NASA engineer Jake Matijevic, who died shortly after the rover landed in 2012. The researchers didn't intend to study the rock — they analyzed it with Curiosity's
alpha-particle X-ray spectrometer in order to help put ChemCam's measurements in context, said Caltech geologist Edward Stolper, lead author of that study.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Jake M is unlike any volcanic rock seen on Mars. It's rich in alkaline magma, which told the researchers that it had been created under high pressure — and perhaps in the presence of water, Stolper said. In fact, it looks something like
a relatively uncommon rock on Earth called a mugearite, found on ocean islands and in rift zones.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The rock's composition also told scientists that it was clearly made of the leftovers after other minerals had crystallized out. That led them to believe that the heating and cooling and movement of magma that used to occur beneath Mars'
mantle were a lot more complicated than they had thought.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"We see evidence for a more evolved planet," Grotzinger said, "so it looks like it was headed in more of a direction like Earth."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:red">The dirt on Curiosity: new report card for its first 100 days<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Pete Spotts - Christian Science Monitor<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The report card NASA's Mars rover Curiosity compiled during its first 100 Martian days, or sols, would be the envy of any newly elected president.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">In relatively short order, the Mini Cooper-size rover answered in broad terms the key question the mission's scientists wanted to answer: Was the environment in Gale Crater, the rover's exploration zone, potentially hospitable for life?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Curiosity found evidence that liquid water accumulated or flowed across the crater floor for extended periods, and hints contained in minerals and rocks suggest the answer to the mission's overarching question is "yes."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">At this point, Curiosity is now 406 sols into its mission, but researchers are tying a bow around the first phase of the mission by publishing formal reports on the early findings in five papers in Friday's issue of the journal Science,
as well as a paper set for publication in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Sol 100 represents a geological turning point in the mission, where Curiosity's focus shifted from looking at soil and loose material on the surface to exposed bedrock, says John Grotzinger, a planetary scientist at the California Institute
of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., and the mission's project scientist. The papers "wrap this up very nicely."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">One of the most surprising discoveries involved a pyramid-shaped rock some 20 inches tall the team named Jake Matijevic, after an engineer who played a key role in designing Curiosity but who passed away shortly after the craft landed
on Mars on Aug. 6, 2012.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Analysis of the rock, detailed in one of the five Science papers, showed that while it had a volcanic origin, its composition had never been seen before on Mars.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">If the rock had been found on Earth, "we would have been hard-pressed to tell from its whole-rock chemical composition that it is Martian," wrote Edward Stolper, a CalTech geologist who led the team analyzing the rock. Instead, its composition
was comparable to the the basaltic rock found along mid-ocean ridges or on volcanic islands in the ocean, where magma wells up from Earth's mantle and forms fresh crust.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Based on its chemistry, the rock would have been right at home among the volcanic rocks found on Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands, the team found.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The remaining papers in Science and Journal of Geophysical Research focused on the Martian soil – one of the science team's high-priority targets. Getting a picture of Martian geology is crucial to eventually piecing together Martian
history.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Missions ranging from Viking to the Mars Phoenix Lander have analyzed Martian soil, but not with instruments as capable as those on Curiosity. Understanding the composition of the fine-grained dust at Gale Crater opens a window on the
composition of the dust planetwide, since it has been blowing across Mars for hundreds to perhaps a billions years, Dr. Grotzinger says. It's thought to be a good surrogate for the composition of the Martian crust as whole.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Among the discoveries about the Martian soil:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l3 level1 lfo8">
<span style="font-family:Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt &quot;Times New Roman&quot;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
</span></span></span>Teams analyzing the soils found that the coarser material matched the composition of some of the loose rock and rubble Curiosity encountered during its early travels – material that was dominated by lighter elements – while the
finer dust was rich in iron and magnesium.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l3 level1 lfo8">
<span style="font-family:Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt &quot;Times New Roman&quot;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
</span></span></span>From 30 to 45 percent of the particles in the soil samples lacked any structure, compared with the rest, which had high concentrations of minerals in crystalline form.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
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</span></span></span>When some of the finer silts were heated in the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) laboratory inside Curiosity's chassis, they released water vapor, sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, and molecular oxygen. Another instrument, ChemCam,
also detected a spike in hydrogen in the soils, leading researchers to estimate that the soil contains between 1.5 percent and 3 percent water by weight.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">As if to add a cautionary note to Curiosity's explorations, the rover's instruments uncovered perchlorate salts, which can destroy the very organic compounds that scientists are looking for as soil samples are being heated and tested.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"The presence of perchlorates isn't good news for some of the techniques we're currently using with Curiosity," said Daniel Galvin, a researcher at the Goddard Space flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., in a prepared statement. "This may
change the way we search for organics in the future on Mars."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">It's possible Curiosity's experiments can be tweaked to reduce the impact of perchlorates on the results. Researchers will be exploring such tweaks in the near future, he suggested.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The team's results also point to Earth as a likely source for some of the chlorine-based hydrocarbons that appeared during efforts to analyze the soil samples. The chlorine was Martian, but there's no definitive evidence that the carbon-based
components of those hydrocarbons are native to Mars, Dr. Glavin's team notes. One in particular, benzene, could have hitched a ride from Earth, the team notes.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:red">Curiosity Rover Makes Big Water Discovery in Mars Dirt, a 'Wow Moment'<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Mike Wall - <a href="http://Space.com"><a href="http://Space.com">Space.com</a></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Future Mars explorers may be able to get all the water they need out of the red dirt beneath their boots, a new study suggests.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has found that surface soil on the Red Planet contains about 2 percent water by weight. That means astronaut pioneers could extract roughly 2 pints (1 liter) of water out of every cubic foot (0.03 cubic meters)
of Martian dirt they dig up, said study lead author Laurie Leshin, of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"For me, that was a big 'wow' moment," Leshin told <a href="http://SPACE.com">SPACE.com</a>. "I was really happy when we saw that there's easily accessible water here in the dirt beneath your feet. And it's probably true anywhere you go on Mars."
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The new study is one of five papers published in the journal Science Thursday that report what researchers have learned about Martian surface materials from the work Curiosity did during its first 100 days on the Red Planet.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="color:red">Soaking up atmospheric water<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Curiosity touched down inside Mars' huge Gale Crater in August 2012, kicking off a planned two-year surface mission to determine if the Red Planet could ever have supported microbial life. It achieved that goal in March, when it found
that a spot near its landing site called Yellowknife Bay was indeed habitable billions of years ago.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">But Curiosity did quite a bit of science work before getting to Yellowknife Bay. Leshin and her colleagues looked at the results of Curiosity's first extensive Mars soil analyses, which the 1-ton rover performed on dirt that it scooped
up at a sandy site called Rocknest in November 2012.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Using its Sample Analysis at Mars instrument, or SAM, Curiosity heated this dirt to a temperature of 1,535 degrees Fahrenheit (835 degrees Celsius), and then identified the gases that boiled off. SAM saw significant amounts of carbon
dioxide, oxygen and sulfur compounds — and lots of water on Mars.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">SAM also determined that the soil water is rich in deuterium, a "heavy" isotope of hydrogen that contains one neutron and one proton (as opposed to "normal" hydrogen atoms, which have no neutrons). The water in Mars' thin air sports
a similar deuterium ratio, Leshin said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"That tells us that the dirt is acting like a bit of a sponge and absorbing water from the atmosphere," she said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="color:red">Some bad news for manned exploration<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">SAM detected some organic compounds in the Rocknest sample as well — carbon-containing chemicals that are the building blocks of life here on Earth. But as mission scientists reported late last year, these are simple, chlorinated organics
that likely have nothing to do with Martian life.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Instead, Leshin said, they were probably produced when organics that hitched a ride from Earth reacted with chlorine atoms released by a toxic chemical in the sample called perchlorate.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Perchlorate is known to exist in Martian dirt; NASA's Phoenix lander spotted it near the planet's north pole in 2008. Curiosity has now found evidence of it near the equator, suggesting that the chemical is common across the planet.
(Indeed, observations by a variety of robotic Mars explorers indicate that Red Planet dirt is likely similar from place to place, distributed in a global layer across the surface, Leshin said.)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The presence of perchlorate is a challenge that architects of future manned Mars missions will have to overcome, Leshin said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"Perchlorate is not good for people. We have to figure out, if humans are going to come into contact with the soil, how to deal with that," she said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"That's the reason we send robotic explorers before we send humans — to try to really understand both the opportunities and the good stuff, and the challenges we need to work through," Leshin added.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="color:red">A wealth of discoveries<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The four other papers published in Science today report exciting results as well.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">For example, Curiosity's laser-firing ChemCam instrument found a strong hydrogen signal in fine-grained Martian soils along the rover's route, reinforcing the SAM data and further suggesting that water is common in dirt across the planet
(since such fine soils are globally distributed).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Another study reveals more intriguing details about a rock Curiosity studied in October 2012. This stone — which scientists dubbed "Jake Matijevic" in honor of a mission team member who died two weeks after the rover touched down — is
a type of volcanic rock never before seen on Mars.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">However, rocks similar to Jake Matijevic are commonly observed here on Earth, especially on oceanic islands and in rifts where the planet's crust is thinning out.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"Of all the Martian rocks, this one is the most Earth-like. It's kind of amazing," said Curiosity lead scientist John Grotzinger, a geologist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "What it indicates is that the planet
is more evolved than we thought it was, more differentiated."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The five new studies showcase the diversity and scientific value of Gale Crater, Grotzinger said. They also highlight how well Curiosity's 10 science instruments have worked together, returning huge amounts of data that will keep the
mission team busy for years to come.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"The amount of information that comes out of this rover just blows me away, all the time," Grotzinger told <a href="http://SPACE.com">SPACE.com</a>. "We're getting better at using Curiosity, and she just keeps telling us more and more. One year into the mission, we
still feel like we're drinking from a fire hose."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The road to Mount Sharp<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The pace of discovery could pick up even more. This past July, Curiosity left the Yellowknife Bay area and headed for Mount Sharp, which rises 3.4 miles (5.5 kilometers) into the Martian sky from Gale Crater's center.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Mount Sharp has been Curiosity's main destination since before the rover's November 2011 launch. Mission scientists want the rover to climb up through the mountain's foothills, reading the terrain's many layers along the way.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"As we go through the rock layers, we're basically looking at the history of ancient environments and how they may be changing," Grotzinger said. "So what we'll really be able to do for the first time is get a relative chronology of
some substantial part of Martian history, which should be pretty cool."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Curiosity has covered about 20 percent of the planned 5.3-mile (8.5 km) trek to Mount Sharp. The rover, which is doing science work as it goes, may reach the base of the mountain around the middle of next year, Grotzinger said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:red">Mars water surprise in Curiosity rover soil samples<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Jonathan Amos - BBC News<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">There is a surprising amount of water bound up in the soil of Mars, according to an analysis done onboard the US space agency's (Nasa) Curiosity rover.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">When it heated a small pinch of dirt scooped up from the ground, the most abundant vapour detected was H2O.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Curiosity researcher Laurie Leshin and colleagues tell Science Magazine that Mars' dusty red covering holds about 2% by weight of water.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">This could be a useful resource for future astronauts, they say.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"If you think about a cubic foot of this dirt and you just heat it a little bit - a few hundred degrees - you'll actually get off about two pints of water - like two water bottles you'd take to the gym," Dr Leshin explained.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"And this dirt on Mars is interesting because it seems to be about the same everywhere you go. If you are a human explorer, this is really good news because you can quite easily extract water from almost anywhere."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The dean of science at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York, has been describing her work with Curiosity in this week's Science In Action programme on the BBC.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The revelation about the amount of water chemically bound into the fine-grained particles of the soil is just one nugget of information to come from a series of five papers in the respected journal describing the early exploits of the
rover.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Some of this data has been reported previously at science meetings and in Nasa press conferences, but the formal write-up gives an opportunity for the wider research community to examine the detail.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="color:red">'Good and bad'<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Dr Leshin's and colleagues' publication concerns a sample analysis done at "Rocknest", a pile of wind-blown sand and silt about 400m from where Curiosity touched down on the floor of Gale Crater in August 2012.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The robot used its tools to pick up, sieve and deliver a smidgeon of this Martian dirt to the Sam instrument hidden away inside the belly of the vehicle.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Sam has the ability to cook samples and to identify any gases that are released. These products are diagnostic of the different components that make up the soil.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">So, for example, Curiosity saw a significant proportion of carbon dioxide - the likely consequence of carbonate minerals being present in the sample. Carbonates form in the presence of water.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">And it saw oxygen and chlorine - a signal many had expected to see following similar studies in Mars' "High Arctic" by Nasa's Phoenix lander in 2008.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"[We think these] are break-down products from a mineral called perchlorate, and that's there at about a half-a-percent in the soil," said Dr Leshin.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"If the water was the good news for the astronauts, this is the bad news. Perchlorate actually interferes with thyroid function, so it could be a problem if humans were to ingest some of the fine dust on Mars. It's just something we
need to know about now so we can plan for it later."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="color:red">Scottish link<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Three of the other Curiosity papers in the Science Magazine release also concern themselves with the nature of the Martian soil.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The fifth is a report that describes a pyramid-shaped rock found in the vehicle's path. This striking block was dubbed Jake Matijevic, in honour of a recently deceased Nasa engineer.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The team led by Prof Ed Stolper from Caltech, Pasadena, can now confirm that Jake_M is a rock not seen before on the Red Planet.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">It is most like a mugearite, says the group - a type of rock found on islands and rift zones on Earth.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"On Earth, we have a pretty good idea how mugearites and rocks like them are formed," said co-worker Prof Martin Fisk from Oregon State University, Corvallis.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"It starts with magma deep within the Earth that crystallises in the presence of 1-2% water.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">"The crystals settle out of the magma and what doesn't crystallise is the mugearite magma, which can eventually make its way to the surface as a volcanic eruption."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Mugearite was first identified on Earth by British petrographer/petrologist Alfred Harker. The name references a local croft, Mugeary, on the Isle of Skye, just off the Scottish mainland.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The Curiosity rover is currently engaged in some hard driving in Gale Crater. Since early July, it has been rolling tens of metres a day.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The robot is trying to reach the foothills of the large mountain that dominates the centre of the deep, equatorial impact bowl.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:red">Curiosity Finds Water And Poison In Martian Soil<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Francie Diep - Popular Science<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">You watched it land, trundle around a bit, and attack innocent rocks. Now you can learn a lot more about the science NASA's Curiosity rover has been beaming back to Earth. Today, teams of scientists from all around the world are publishing
six papers about their analyses of some of the first samples scooped up by Curiosity's scientific instruments.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The studies tried to determine how friendly Mars would be to any future human visitors. They also looked for clues to Mars' geological history. It turns out the Martian soil has a bit of water that people might extract with heating,
as well as small amounts of a toxic chemical that explorers will have to watch out for.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Here we've highlighted our favorite findings, along with links to all of the papers, in case there's anything you're into that we've missed. Bon voyage, Curiosity.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="color:red">In the hot seat<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">One of the first things Curiosity did on the red planet was scoop up some stuff from a patch of sand and dust called Rocknest. (Scientists thought it looked like a little nest for rocks, deputy director of NASA's Goddard Space Flight
Center, Laurie Leshin, told the Science podcast.) The rover then examined its Martian soil sample using its ChemCam, CheMin and Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instruments.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">In one of its analyses, Curiosity heated a sample of soil, about half the size of a baby aspirin, to about 835 degrees Celsius (about 1,535 degrees Fahrenheit). At that temperature, the minerals in the soil break down and release volatile
gases. A team of international scientists found water vapor, sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide and oxygen in the sample, in that order of abundance.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">So a good amount of the sample—about 1.5 percent to 3 percent by weight—was water. "To me, that's interesting because of the good resource for potential human explorers," Leshin says. "Two percent water means that if you had, say, a
square foot of this—or, a cubic foot, sorry—of this soil and heated it up, you could get about two pints of water out of it." Earth's dirt has about 10 times as much water as Mars'.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">One recurring theme from this and other soil analyses: Curiosity and its predecessors, including Pathfinder, Spirit and Opportunity, all pretty much found the same soil composition in different Martian locations. This suggests that water-containing
soil is available everywhere on Mars. It could also mean some process on Mars is mixing its dirt evenly across its surface, or that the composition of the planet's crust is similar everywhere.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="color:red">Killer dirt<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The other gases from the heating analysis told scientists about what minerals appeared in Martian soil. There was some bad news for any future Mars visitors. The oxygen was released with chlorine gas, which indicates a small fraction
of the soil contains perchlorate, which is toxic if ingested. "It's good to know now that it's there," Leshin says, "so we can plan for when humans go to Mars and there's dust everywhere. How are we going to deal with that issue?"<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="color:red">No organics<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Curiosity did not find any so-called organic compounds, a name that doesn't necessarily mean the compounds come from living sources. Instead, organic compounds contain elements, including carbon, that scientists consider to be the building
blocks of life. Such compounds may be important to future Mars explorers.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The surface of Mars is exposed to a lot of radiation and other harsh conditions, Leshin says, so scientists are still holding out hope that the planet has organic compounds tucked away deeper underground. Curiosity is equipped with a
drill to find out.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="color:red">An unusual rock<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">On its 43rd Mars-day, or sol, after landing, Curiosity ran into a pyramid-shaped rock that is unlike any other Martian rock humans have ever found. Scientists named the rock Jake Matijevic, after Curiosity's former lead surface operations
systems engineer, who died in 2012.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">An analysis found Jake_M's proportions of minerals is different from other Martian rocks. However, the rock does look a lot mugearites on Earth, which are a rare type of rock that appear on ocean islands and in continental rifts (Glamorous).
Jake_M is so similar to Earthly mugearites, the research team wrote in their paper that if they'd found Jake_M on Earth, they wouldn't know it came from Mars. Mugearites—and Jake_M—are igneous rocks, which means they formed from magma. (Other missions have
found other igneous rocks on Mars, but not mugearite-like ones.)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The team used Jake_M's chemistry to hypothesize how it could have formed. It would have required either a high amount of water in the magma, or high pressure, or both. That's evidence that there may be some water under Mars' crust.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="color:red">More dirt on Mars<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Eager for more? Here's a paper about the two different types of soils that Curiosity's x-ray and laser instruments found in Rocknest. One was a fine-grained type that other rovers have found in other locations, too. The second was a
coarser-grained type that seems more local to Rocknest. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">This paper characterizes the soils in Rocknest, examining dirt both with and without a crystalline structure. The non-crystalline stuff is similar to the soil in… Hawaii.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">This paper examines a patch of sand near Rocknest, on the lee side of some obstruction to the Martian wind.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="color:red">Where is Curiosity now?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The little rover that could is still in the Gale Crater, moving as fast as it can toward Mount Sharp. Mount Sharp has geologic layers that may tell scientists more about Mars' history. The mountain may also contain organic compounds.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">There are five planned rest stops along the way, during which Curiosity will take samples and perform more science. The rover recently passed Waypoint 1.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt">END<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="section1"><span style="color:windowtext"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;color:red"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></i></p>
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--Apple-Mail-2-659239831--