Fwd: NASA and Human Spaceflight News - Friday – September 12, 2014

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From: "Nakamura, Stacey T. (JSC-NC211)" <stacey.t.nakamura@nasa.gov>
Date: September 12, 2014 5:33:43 PM CDT
To: "Nakamura, Stacey T. (JSC-NC211)" <stacey.t.nakamura@nasa.gov>
Cc: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: NASA and Human Spaceflight News - Friday – September 12, 2014

Since today is a flex Friday at JSC, there was no JSC Today email. 

 

NASA and Human Spaceflight News

Friday – September 12, 2014

 

 

 

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION: Astronaut Reid Wiseman has been taking amazing photos from the ISS and posting them to Twitter. On Sept. 23, @astro_reid will answer YouTube video questions from the public live on NASA TV as he orbits our Earth on the space station. Submit your questions by Sept. 15 on YouTube tagged with #askAstro and share this unique opportunity with your friends and family! For more info, visit: go.nasa.gov/1ADVtCW 

 

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

NASA's newest human spacecraft on the move

 

Marcia Dunn – Associated Press

 

NASA is one step closer to launching its newest spacecraft designed for humans. Workers at Kennedy Space Center gathered to watch as the Orion capsule emerged from its assembly hangar Thursday morning, less than three months from its first test flight.

 

 

NASA's Orion capsule notches another milestone

 

James Dean – Florida Today

 

CAPE CANAVERAL -- As an Orion spacecraft emerged from its Kennedy Space Center high bay Thursday morning, Scott Wilson's thoughts drifted back a decade to then-President George W. Bush's unveiling of a new vision for space exploration.

 

 

'Stepping into the solar system': NASA prepares Orion human spacecraft for liftoff

 

Russia Today

 

NASA's most-advanced spacecraft designed to take humans farther into space than ever before has made it to its fueling depot as its first deep-sea test flight nears. After fueling, the multipurpose Orion capsule will be one step closer to its liftoff. "This is our step to the future, the exploration of establishing a presence in the solar system," said Robert Cabana, a former space shuttle commander and now Kennedy Space Center director, as quoted by the Associated Press. Cabana was speaking as the center's staff gathered to see Orion docking at a 36-wheel platform - its fueling depot.

 

 

Astronaut Reid Wiseman's Tech Essentials

 

Wall Street Journal

 

VIDEO

NASA's Reid Wiseman shows off the gear he can't live without (in zero Gs) in this interview recorded on the International Space Station. Photo: NASA (END)

 

Astronaut Snaps Amazing Picture Of His Crewmates Returning To Earth

 

Elizabeth Howell – Universe Today

 

 

Wow! See that bright streak in the photo above? That's a shot of the Expedition 40 crew making a flawless return from the International Space Station yesterday (Sept. 10) … a shot taken from space itself. "Our view of the picture perfect reentry of TMA-12M," wrote Expedition 41 astronaut Reid Wiseman, who just hours before bid farewell to Steve Swanson (NASA), Alexander Skvortsov (Roscosmos) and Oleg Artemyev (Roscosmos). The re-entry was in fact so perfect that TV cameras caught the parachute immediately after deployment, which doesn't always happen.

 

 

On Instagram Space Station, NASA Astronaut's Earth Photos Shine

 

Miriam Kramer – Space.com

 

Call him the Instagram astronaut. NASA astronaut Steve Swanson, who returned to Earth late Wednesday (Sept. 10), wasn't all work and no play while he commanded the International Space Station. The American spaceflyer was also NASA's first astronaut to post incredible views of Earth from space, as well as daily life in orbit, on Instagram as part of the U.S.  agency's social media space odyssey.

 

 

After a Two-Year Trek, NASA's Mars Rover Reaches Its Mountain Lab

 

Kenneth Chang – The New York Times

 

After two years of Mars enthusiasts asking, "Are we there yet?" the mission managers for NASA's Curiosity rover can finally yell back, "Yes, we're there!" The Curiosity rover has reached the destination where it will begin its main science investigations, the base of a three-mile-high mountain that the science team has named Mount Sharp. As the rover makes it way up the mountain, it will cross layers of rock that contain clues to the early geological and environmental history of Mars when it was warmer and wetter.

 

 

NASA's Mars Rover Curiosity Finally at Mount Sharp

 

Marcia Dunn – Associated Press

 

NASA's Curiosity rover is about to conduct some serious scientific drilling at Mars. The space agency announced Thursday that the rover has reached the base of Mount Sharp, its destination since landing two years ago. Officials say drilling could begin as early as next week at an outcrop of rocks called Pahrump Hills. Mount Sharp, located in ancient Gale Crater, rises nearly 3½ miles. Curiosity began the 5-mile trek over a year ago.

 

Astronaut Frank Culbertson Reflects on Seeing 9/11 Attacks from Space

 

Megan Gannon – Space.com

 

Former NASA astronaut Frank Culbertson has the distinction of being the only American not on the planet when the 9/11 terrorist attacks occurred 13 years ago.

 

Culbertson was about 250 miles (400 km) above Earth — inside the still-under-construction International Space Station with two Russian cosmonauts — when he saw the huge column of smoke streaming from Lower Manhattan where the Twin Towers fell.

 

COMPLETE STORIES

 

NASA's newest human spacecraft on the move

 

Marcia Dunn – Associated Press

 

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. —

 

NASA is one step closer to launching its newest spacecraft designed for humans.

 

Workers at Kennedy Space Center gathered to watch as the Orion capsule emerged from its assembly hangar Thursday morning, less than three months from its first test flight.

 

The capsule -- sealed for protection -- slowly made its way to its fueling depot atop a 36-wheel platform. The capsule and its attached service module and adapter ring stretched 40 feet high.

 

"Isn't this awesome?" said Kennedy's director, Robert Cabana, a former space shuttle commander. "This is our step to the future, the exploration of establishing a presence in the solar system."

 

Space center employees lined up along the rope barricade to snap pictures of Orion, NASA's lofty follow-on to the now-retired space shuttle program.

 

During its Dec. 4 test flight, the unmanned capsule will shoot more than 3,600 miles into space and take two big laps around Earth before re-entering the atmosphere at 20,000 mph and parachuting into the Pacific off the San Diego coast. The entire mission will last 4½ hours.

 

The second Orion flight won't occur until around 2018 when another unmanned capsule soars atop NASA's new megarocket, still under development, called SLS for Space Launch System.

 

NASA intends to put astronauts aboard Orion in 2021 for deep space exploration; each capsule can accommodate up to four.

 

The plan is to use Orion for getting humans to asteroids and Mars -- no space station ferry trips for Orion. A handful of private U.S. companies are competing for these short taxi flights; NASA expects in the next week or so to pick one or two candidates for funding.

 

While Orion may resemble an oversize Apollo capsule on the outside, everything inside and out is modern and top-of-the-line, officials noted Thursday. "I'm as excited as can be," said NASA's Orion production operations manager, Scott Wilson.

 

For Orion's dry run, the Lockheed Martin Corp.-built capsule will have hunks of aluminum in place of seats for ballast, and simulators instead of actual cockpit displays. A Delta IV rocket will do the heavy lifting.

 

When asked by a reporter, Cabana said he wishes Orion's flight pace was quicker.

 

"But it is what it is," he said. "Given the budget that we have, I think we've got the best program that you could imagine."

 

Orion has its roots in the post-Columbia shuttle era; it originated a decade ago as a crew exploration vehicle to get astronauts beyond low Earth orbit and managed to survive the cancellation of the Constellation moon project.

 

 

NASA's Orion capsule notches another milestone

 

James Dean – Florida Today

 

CAPE CANAVERAL -- As an Orion spacecraft emerged from its Kennedy Space Center high bay Thursday morning, Scott Wilson's thoughts drifted back a decade to then-President George W. Bush's unveiling of a new vision for space exploration.

 

The same vision that signaled the shuttle program's eventual end set in motion studies about what NASA's next exploration vehicle should look like, with early ideas outlined in sketches, PowerPoint presentations and late-night meetings, Wilson recalled.

 

"To go from that to having a vehicle roll out, and the first steps of really getting back and leaving low Earth orbit for the first time after all that, for me is personally very, very exciting," said Wilson, NASA's Orion production operations manager at KSC. "And I think the country should be excited, too, that as a nation we're really getting ready to do that again."

 

It will be at least seven more years before NASA astronauts take such a journey beyond low Earth orbit, but the first test flight of their capsule is less than three months away.

 

An early version of Orion, whose development began under a Bush-era program canceled by the Obama administration, rolled Thursday from its assembly building to a fueling facility a mile away, the nearly 30,000-pound load hauled by a 36-wheeled transporter with "Oversize Load" signs on its bumpers.

 

The Orion capsule, designed to take astronauts further than any vehicle since Apollo, was moved from the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building for fueling operations before its test flight. Video by Craig Bailey. Posted Sept 11, 2014

 

The move was the first of several leading up to a planned Dec. 4 launch of the unmanned capsule by a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

 

The two-orbit, four-and-a-half-hour flight will throw Orion as high as 3,600 miles above Earth, then bring it hurtling back through the atmosphere at 20,000 mph, close to the velocity of a return from the moon.

 

"It's really the highest we've gone since the Apollo days," said Wilson.

 

The $375 million Exploration Flight Test-1 mission is primarily a test of Orion's heat shield, but also involves stage separations, avionics and parachutes, culminating in a Pacific Ocean splashdown.

 

After that, "We have tons of work to do to get another capsule ready," said Michael Hawes, Orion program manager for Lockheed Martin, the spacecraft's prime contractor.

 

NASA is targeting a launch by 2018 of a new Orion on the maiden flight of the the agency's Space Launch System rocket. Then a first crewed flight by 2021 or 2022, looping astronauts around the moon.

 

NASA expects to spend up to $15 billion on Orion through its first crewed flight, including spending under the canceled Constellation program.

 

No other exploration missions are confirmed yet, but NASA is studying the possibility of robotically capturing an asteroid and dragging it to an orbit near the moon, which astronauts could then visit in the mid-2020s. NASA says asteroid missions would be a step toward a mission orbiting Mars by the 2030s.

 

On Thursday morning, KSC employees gathered behind ropes to take pictures of Orion rolling out of the Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building, creating an atmosphere reminiscent of shuttle moves to the Vehicle Assembly Building or launch pad, last seen in 2011.

 

KSC Director Bob Cabana said it was an important day for the center, the next step in its post-shuttle journey.

 

"It's a great day," he said. "It's always a morale lift when you see spacecraft leave a facility to go somewhere, absolutely."

 

About two-thirds of the Orion crew capsule was visible at the top of a stack standing 40 feet tall and more than 16 feet around. The capsule was covered in a clear wrap and air conditioned to prevent moisture from building up during the humid ride.

 

The crew module was attached to a mock-up service module covered by several white fairing panels, which sat atop a ring designed to fit the spacecraft on its rocket.

 

Inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, teams will load highly toxic hydrazine fuel into tanks feeding the capsule's 12 orbital thrusters, and ammonia into its coolant system.

 

In about a month Orion will move to another facility for the addition of a launch abort tower that will push the stack's height over 70 feet. A roll to the pad at Launch Complex 37 is anticipated in mid-November.

 

"I'm excited as can be," said Wilson. "For some of us this has been 10 years really in the making."

 

 

'Stepping into the solar system': NASA prepares Orion human spacecraft for liftoff

 

Russia Today

 

NASA's most-advanced spacecraft designed to take humans farther into space than ever before has made it to its fueling depot as its first deep-sea test flight nears. After fueling, the multipurpose Orion capsule will be one step closer to its liftoff.

 

"This is our step to the future, the exploration of establishing a presence in the solar system," said Robert Cabana, a former space shuttle commander and now Kennedy Space Center director, as quoted by the Associated Press. Cabana was speaking as the center's staff gathered to see Orion docking at a 36-wheel platform - its fueling depot.

 

On Thursday morning, the spacecraft was relocated from Kennedy's Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building (O&C) to the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility.

 

Over the next month, the Lockheed Martin-built vehicle will be loaded with ammonia and other hazardous propellants, NASA said in a statement.

 

Orion's first deep-sea test flight is scheduled for December 4, when it will be flown to an altitude of about 3,600 miles (5,800 km) above Earth. This is 14 times farther away than the International Space Station, which flies about 260 miles (418 km) above Earth, and the furthest any spacecraft has ever reached. The test flight is currently scheduled to be carried out without astronauts.

 

The capsule will be launched aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 Heavy from nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

 

Once it reaches its final destination, Orion will take two big laps around Earth before speeding back toward the planet. It will slam into the atmosphere at 20,000 mph (32,000 kph). At that speed, Orion's thermal protection system should heat up to about 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,200 degrees Celsius). This test should prove that the shield can protect astronauts returning from the moon and other deep-space destinations.

 

The entire mission, as it is planned, will take 4.5 hours.

 

The second Orion flight is not expected until 2018, when another unmanned capsule is set to ascend atop NASA's new megarocket, still under development, called the Space Launch System (SLS).

 

If both tests are successful, NASA plans to put astronauts aboard Orion in 2021 for deep-space exploration. Each capsule can accommodate up to four people.

 

The primary plan is to use Orion for getting humans to asteroids and Mars.

 

This would mark NASA's return to the human space launch business, which the space agency left in 2011 when the shuttle program ended.

 

 

Astronaut Reid Wiseman's Tech Essentials

 

Wall Street Journal

 

VIDEO

NASA's Reid Wiseman shows off the gear he can't live without (in zero Gs) in this interview recorded on the International Space Station. Photo: NASA (END)

 

 

Astronaut Snaps Amazing Picture Of His Crewmates Returning To Earth

 

Elizabeth Howell – Universe Today

 

 

Wow! See that bright streak in the photo above? That's a shot of the Expedition 40 crew making a flawless return from the International Space Station yesterday (Sept. 10) … a shot taken from space itself.

 

"Our view of the picture perfect reentry of TMA-12M," wrote Expedition 41 astronaut Reid Wiseman, who just hours before bid farewell to Steve Swanson (NASA), Alexander Skvortsov (Roscosmos) and Oleg Artemyev (Roscosmos). The re-entry was in fact so perfect that TV cameras caught the parachute immediately after deployment, which doesn't always happen.

 

As you can see in the video replay below, the Soyuz made a bulls-eye landing near Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan at 10:23 p.m. EDT (2:23 a.m. UTC). There are now only three people tending to the space station until the rest of the Expedition 41 crew launches, which is expected to happen Sept. 25.

 

 

On Instagram Space Station, NASA Astronaut's Earth Photos Shine

 

Miriam Kramer – Space.com

 

Call him the Instagram astronaut.

 

NASA astronaut Steve Swanson, who returned to Earth late Wednesday (Sept. 10), wasn't all work and no play while he commanded the International Space Station. The American spaceflyer was also NASA's first astronaut to post incredible views of Earth from space, as well as daily life in orbit, on Instagram as part of the U.S.  agency's social media space odyssey.

 

One particularly stunning photo sent down by Swanson shows stunning green curtains of auroras swirling above Earth. Clouds above the surface of the planet and stars in the sky give the image a sense of depth.

 

"One can't help but be awed by the auroras," Swanson said in a caption to the aurora picture that he posted in July.

Swanson's Instagram Photo of Clouds Over the Earth

 

Another photo of Earth from the windows of the space station shows a gorgeous view of clouds casting shadows on the planet's surface with a hint of black sky in the background. The sun makes the planet shine with a golden glow. Swanson also took a stunning photo of a sunrise from orbit. Earth's blue atmosphere shimmers, with the sun appearing as a bright yellow star beyond the space station in the foreground.

 

Not all of Swanson's photos show the glory of Earth from space. He has also given space fans on the ground a pretty good sense of what life is like on the space station.

 

In April, Swanson had to venture out of the space station on a spacewalk to replace a broken computer on the outside of the space laboratory. During that walk in space, Swanson found some time to take a photo of himself. The Earth looms in the background, and the astronaut's American flag patch is visible in the image.

 

"Nice day for a little stroll," Swanson wrote in an Instagram caption.

Astronaut Swanson During Spacewalk

 

The NASA astronaut also posted a photo of the lettuce he has been growing for an experiment called Veggie (short for Vegetable Production System) on the space station.

 

The goal of the mini-greenhouse research is to learn more about how to grow plants in space environments so that astronauts on long-duration missions to places like Mars can grow fresh produce.

 

"Veggie is a newly installed plant growth unit capable of producing salad-type crops to provide the crew with a palatable, nutritious and safe source of fresh food and a tool to support relaxation and recreation," NASA officials wrote on Instagram. "The Veggie provides lighting and nutrient delivery, but utilizes the cabin environment for temperature control and as a source of carbon dioxide to promote growth."

 

Swanson is at the end of his space station mission. He and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortskov and Oleg Artemyev returned to Earth Wednesday aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule. The three men launched to the space station in March, with Swanson posting the first Instagram photo from space a short time later in April. NASA's own Instagram photo feed (http://instagram.com/nasa) went live in September 2013.

 

But if you were worried that the International Space Station Instagram account ends with Swanson, think again. NASA officials have said the photo stream is for the space station crew, and not any one particular astronaut.

 

To follow the International Space Station on Instagram, visit: http://instagram.com/iss

After a Two-Year Trek, NASA's Mars Rover Reaches Its Mountain Lab

 

Kenneth Chang – The New York Times

 

After two years of Mars enthusiasts asking, "Are we there yet?" the mission managers for NASA's Curiosity rover can finally yell back, "Yes, we're there!"

 

The Curiosity rover has reached the destination where it will begin its main science investigations, the base of a three-mile-high mountain that the science team has named Mount Sharp. As the rover makes it way up the mountain, it will cross layers of rock that contain clues to the early geological and environmental history of Mars when it was warmer and wetter.

 

"We are here to tell everyone that the next phase of research on Mars for Curiosity can now begin," James L. Green, the director of NASA's planetary science division, said during a telephone news conference on Thursday.

 

The rover landed in August 2012 within the 96-mile-wide Gale Crater after an eight-month cruise from earth. John P. Grotzinger, the project scientist for the mission, characterized the drive of the past two years as a second cruise phase. "The science is all in front of us," he said. "But for this moment, we should be celebrating the engineering accomplishments of this mission."

 

Curiosity did conduct some science measurements soon after it landed, fulfilling one of its central objectives: showing that the crater was once an ancient lake that could have been habitable for microbes, if any microbes existed. Now, the scientists are hoping to find carbon-based compounds preserved within the rocks that could have served as the building blocks for life.

 

The trip to Mount Sharp has taken longer than expected, partly because of the diversion for scientific measurements and because Curiosity needs to be driven with some care, to avoid sharp rocks of the kind that have damaged its wheels and soft sand dunes that might ensnare it.

 

The mission, and Dr. Grotzinger in particular, came under criticism during a review for its proposal for two years of additional financing beyond its original two-year span. The review panel, composed of outside experts hired by NASA, ranked it the lowest of the seven NASA proposals it looked at. Though the panel ultimately voted to extend Curiosity's mission, its members expressed concern that the mission was underperforming for its $2.5 billion price tag and that the mission team was putting too much emphasis on driving and not enough on conducting scientific research.

 

Dr. Green focused on the panel's overall positive conclusion — that all of the extended missions were cost-effective and productive — and played down the negatives. "To me, the top recommendation is how important these missions are as we move forward," he said. For the 2015 fiscal year, the Curiosity mission will cost $59.4 million to operate.

 

Dr. Grotzinger also presented the results of the rover's most recent attempt at drilling a rock that the scientists call Bonanza King, which after being dusted off was found to be a gray-green color, rather than the usual Mars red. The effort failed, because the rock proved to be not safe to drill. "The rock started to move," he said. "It jumped around."

 

Other instruments found the rock to have a high silicon content, which Dr. Grotzinger said was an indication that it had been altered by water.

 

The rover is now headed to an outcrop called Pahrump Hills at the base of Mount Sharp and should arrive in a week or two. There, the mission scientists expect to find a suitable rock to drill.

 

 

NASA's Mars Rover Curiosity Finally at Mount Sharp

 

Marcia Dunn – Associated Press

 

NASA's Curiosity rover is about to conduct some serious scientific drilling at Mars.

 

The space agency announced Thursday that the rover has reached the base of Mount Sharp, its destination since landing two years ago. Officials say drilling could begin as early as next week at an outcrop of rocks called Pahrump Hills.

 

Mount Sharp, located in ancient Gale Crater, rises nearly 3½ miles. Curiosity began the 5-mile trek over a year ago.

 

A scientific review panel has criticized the Curiosity team for an extended mission that involves too much driving and too little sampling. On Thursday, project scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology promised "we are going to do a lot more drilling" now that the six-wheel Curiosity is at Mount Sharp.

 

NASA says the nuclear-powered Curiosity remains healthy, aside from worn wheels. Curiosity is a roving science laboratory with high-tech instruments to drill into rocks, forecast the weather and track radiation.

 

At $2.5 billion, it's the most expensive mission to the red planet.

 

 

Astronaut Frank Culbertson Reflects on Seeing 9/11 Attacks from Space

 

Megan Gannon – Space.com

 

Former NASA astronaut Frank Culbertson has the distinction of being the only American not on the planet when the 9/11 terrorist attacks occurred 13 years ago.

 

Culbertson was about 250 miles (400 km) above Earth — inside the still-under-construction International Space Station with two Russian cosmonauts — when he saw the huge column of smoke streaming from Lower Manhattan where the Twin Towers fell.

 

Culbertson captured video and photos of the 9/11 site from space for NASA, while satellites also tracked the attack site from orbit.

 

Now, on the 13th anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, the former astronaut is reflecting on that day. In a new video from NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex Culbertson describes his call to the ground that morning, just a month into his stay aboard the station, to give the results of some physical exams to his flight surgeon at Mission Control Houston, Steve Hart. "Frank, we're not having a very good day down here on Earth," Hart told him.

 

At the time, the astronauts did not have live TV or Internet at the space station. But Culbertson saw on the astronauts' map that the orbiting outpost was over southern Canada and about to pass over New England. He grabbed a camera and moved to a window in the Russian portion of the space station, where he had a clear view of the dark smoke over New York. Later, Culbertson could see the gash in the side of the Pentagon. He learned that day that his good friend and U.S. Naval Academy classmate Charles "Chic" Burlingame was the pilot of American Airlines Flight 77, which struck the Pentagon.

 

"Every orbit we kept trying to see more of what was happening," Culbertson said. "One of the most startling effects was that within about two orbits, all of the contrails that are normally crisscrossing the United States has disappeared because they had grounded all the airplanes and there was nobody else flying in U.S. airspace — except for one airplane that was leaving a contrail from the central U.S. toward Washington, and that was Air Force One headed back to D.C. with President Bush. It was a very sobering time for us."

 

A former test pilot, Culbertson was selected as a NASA astronaut candidate in 1984. Over three space shuttle missions, he logged 146 days in space before leaving the space agency. He is now executive vice president of Orbital Sciences, a commercial spaceflight company that has a $1.9 contract with NASA to fly eight unmanned resupply missions to the space station.

 

 

 

END

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