Shuttle/Shuttle Concept Restart: August 2015

Monday, August 31, 2015

China's moon base control of USA -- USA must control space but libs can't figure it out!

Kurt Miller Really? Let China build a permanent colony on the Moon, and the first thing they will do is turn it into a military base. From there, China will use mass drivers to launch boulders at Earth, transforming them into artificial meteorites capable of vaporizing entire cities. Let China have the Moon, and we'll all be speaking Mandarin within a generation.
China has always dreamed of a world empire, and a military base on the Moon would give it to them.

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Re unfinished business piece---- Getting shuttle like capabilities BACK--- hell seems everybody has given up!!!

I can not believe the large number of people who don't get it------ we need shuttle like capabilities------ you can do all the rest exploration, etc WITH SHUTTLE like capabilities!

From space review---

With less than 18 months left in the current Presidential administration, some argue there's little chance of major new space initiatives from the White House in that time. However, Vid Beldavs, in an open letter to the President, asks him to support a new emphasis on lunar exploration in cooperation with international and commercial partners.

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Sunday, August 30, 2015

Fwd: 30 Years Since the Dramatic Rescue of Mission 51I

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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: August 30, 2015 at 7:35:04 PM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: 30 Years Since the Dramatic Rescue of Mission 51I

AmericaSpace
For a nation that explores
August 29th, 2015
'Winging It': 30 Years Since the Dramatic Rescue of Mission 51I (Part 1)
By Ben Evans

In a triumphant ending to a triumphant space salvage, James "Ox" van Hoften strikes a Charles Atlas pose on the end of the shuttle's RMS mechanical arm, seemingly hoisting the world on his shoulders. Photo Credit: NASA
When Discovery touched down at the Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida on 19 April 1985—suffering seized brakes and a burst tire in the process—she left a spot of unfinished business in low-Earth orbit. A few days earlier, her 51D crew had deployed an important U.S. Navy communications satellite, called Leasat-3, whose antenna had stubbornly refused to unfurl and whose Perigee Kick Motor (PKM) had failed to ignite. Despite sterling efforts on the part of the crew and Mission Control to fashion a makeshift "flyswatter" and sending astronauts Jeff Hoffman and Dave Griggs on a contingency EVA, the crippled satellite lingered in an orbit far lower than its intended 22,600 miles (35,700 km). Within days of the incident, NASA's bulletproof, pre-Challenger attitude prompted mutterings of a shuttle mission to recover, repair, and reboost Leasat-3 to its operational geostationary location. Thirty years ago, this week, Mission 51I succeeded spectacularly and amply demonstrated the shuttle's myriad capabilities.
For Mission Specialist James "Ox" van Hoften, however, it did not begin with much excitement. When the crew—Commander Joe Engle, Pilot Dick Covey, and Mission Specialists Jim Buchli, Mike Lounge, and Bill Fisher—were named to Mission 51C in December 1983, they were slated to deploy a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) in the late fall of the following year. Later, as the shuttle manifest writhed and contorted over the following year, they ended up training to retrieve a NASA payload known as the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF). In the meantime, Buchli was named to another mission and van Hoften took his place on 51I. "Stale, pale, and male," was Lounge's summary of the crew and its cargo, "but we had a great time."
Lounge and van Hoften shared similar backgrounds. They had both served as reservists in the Air National Guard after periods of active military duty, and one night in April 1985, whilst training for 51I, they were on alert status at Ellington Field in Houston, Texas. Midway through their duty, the two men heard about the Leasat-3 malfunction and started exchanging ideas about how to resolve it. They even roped in Engle for his opinion. "Back then," van Hoften said in his NASA oral history, "there was a much more can-do spirit at NASA and everyone felt like, hey, you can do anything." Armed with the relevant data on Leasat-3—its size, mass properties, and angular momentum—the men sat down with Engle and Covey, accompanied by a few pieces of paper and some push-button calculator watches, to hash out a plan.
For Joe Engle (front left), James "Ox" van Hoften (back left), and Bill Fisher (back right), 51I would be their final space mission. For the other two crew members, Mike Lounge (centre) and Dick Covey (front right), their next voyage together would be aboard Discovery's very next flight … but after the destruction of Challenger the shuttle as a vehicle would have changed beyond recognition. Photo Credit: NASA
Their first idea, to bring the satellite back to Earth, quickly became unrealistic, since it was filled with volatile hydrazine station-keeping fuel. At length, the plan crystallized into a complex affair, whereby Leasat-3 would be recovered and redeployed into space using the shuttle's Canadian-built Remote Manipulator System (RMS) mechanical arm. A method was devised to bypass the satellite's faulty deploy switch and provide power to the electrical buses from the batteries using external test ports and NASA management was sufficiently enthused to send the astronauts to Hughes Aerospace—Leasat-3's prime contractor—in Los Angeles, Calif. In the auditorium, despite a bout of laryngitis which had left him almost hoarse, van Hoften outlined the plan to around a thousand engineers and managers.
After van Hoften's speech came the questions:
"Can we stop the rotation of the spacecraft?"
"Oh, yeah," replied the astronaut. "It's only going to take … ", and he demonstrated, "this much force to stop the rotation. That's not an issue."
"Did anybody think that we could have a person stop the rotation?"
"Well," van Hoften replied, with a twinkle in his eye, "here's me!"
He sketched himself next to Leasat-3 and reminded the gathered engineers that a few months earlier, in November 1984, "Little Joe" Allen had managed to grab the errant Palapa-B2 communications satellite. It should therefore be equally possible for the much larger van Hoften to grab the much larger Leasat-3. In all seriousness, though, van Hoften had already performed two EVAs in April 1984 to retrieve and repair NASA's Solar Max observatory, and he knew his own capabilities and those of the RMS.
Hughes' president was so impressed that he took van Hoften to one side and immediately called NASA Administrator James Beggs to invest $5 million in the Leasat-3 salvage effort. When the go-ahead finally came from NASA management, Engle, Covey, and Space Shuttle Program Manager Glynn Lunney were at the home of 51I Lead Flight Director Jay Greene. The four men promptly drained a bottle of Old Overholt, Greene's favourite whisky. "We drank that bottle," Covey related in NASA oral history, "celebrating the fact that we had hoodwinked the whole system into letting us think that we could go do this. It would not happen today!"
Despite the seat-of-the-pants approach to the salvage effort, as the crew plunged into training, there were many aspects for which they could not effectively prepare. Instead, they had to hone their skills, rather than specific tasks, because there were no assurances for how well or badly the mission would go. The Solar Max repair had been choreographed down to the finest detail, but Leasat-3 was different: by their own admission, the 51I astronauts were "winging it."
At one stage, it seemed likely that Joe Engle might launch on his 53rd birthday, as launch slipped into the third week of August 1985. The first attempt on the 24th was scrubbed due to local rain showers; although there were no thunderstorms in the area, the conditions were sufficiently poor to violate Launch Commit Criteria (LCC). Discovery had only a couple of days available in which to achieve her rendezvous "window" with Leasat-3, and launch was quickly recycled for the 25th. That attempt also came to nothing when a failure in the shuttle's backup flight software was experienced. A two-day delay pushed the next attempt past Engle's birthday and on to the 27th. (To celebrate, the astronauts unstowed his birthday cake from a middeck locker and presented it to him in crew quarters.)
Dick Covey was not alone in his frustration. "I can't believe we scrubbed for those two little showers out there," he remarked. "Anybody with half a lick of sense would have said: Let's go. This could be a lot worse." However, Chief Astronaut John Young told them bluntly that they could not make calls on the weather, as their knowledge was limited to the view from inside the orbiter. They should focus on the mission, he said, and leave others to worry about the weather.
The official crew patch for the astronauts of Mission 51I: Commander Joe Engle, Pilot Dick Covey, and Mission Specialists Mike Lounge, James "Ox" van Hoften, and Bill Fisher. Image Credit: NASA
The morning of the third launch attempt, 27 August, was even more dismal, and the astronauts were clad in yellow raincoats over their flight suits as KSC suffered a torrential downpour. After being strapped into their seats, Lounge and van Hoften—certain that the weather was too appalling for NASA to give them the green light to go—released their harnesses and took a nap. From his perch on the right-hand side of the cabin, Covey was amazed as they moved smoothly and crisply through the built-in holds and was even more amazed when he was given the go-ahead to start Discovery's Auxiliary Power Units (APUs), with five minutes to go in the countdown. As he flipped the switches, he could see sprinkles of rain on the forward flight deck windows. "The reason," Joe Engle explained, "was that they had one more day delay before they had to de-tank [the External Tank] and that would have been two more days and the weather forecast was not good for the next day, anyway." Downstairs, on the middeck, the hum of the APUs startled Bill Fisher.
"What's that noise?"
"We're crankin' APUs," came the response from the pilots. "Let's go."
"Yeah, sure. We're not going anywhere today. Why are you starting APUs?"
"Damn it, Fisher, we're going! We're going to launch! Get back in your seat and get strapped in."
The final seconds progressed, as the NASA commentator reeled off the milestones and Discovery's internal systems rumbled to life, in harmony, it seemed, with the rumble of the inclement weather.
"And we have a Go for autosequence start," came the call at T-31 seconds, as Discovery's flight computers assumed primary command of vehicle critical functions. "T-15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, nine … we have a Go for Main Engine Start … " as Discovery's three liquid-fueled engines flared to life, displaying a trio of Mach diamonds in the gloom of a pre-dawn darkness, " … four, three, two, one … ignition … and LIFTOFF … Liftoff of the 51I and the commercial deploy and repair mission … and it has cleared the tower!" Launch occurred on the very cusp of daybreak, at 6:58 a.m. EDT, with the shuttle's engines and the twin Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) blazing brilliantly as the 20th mission of the reusable fleet of orbiters spread its wings and took flight.
It is interesting to view launches from this era, particularly the images from within Mission Control, and understand the "Go" fever associated with each event. "It turned out we launched right through the eye of a hurricane," van Hoften told the NASA oral historian. "It coalesced into a hurricane and then we spent the whole time looking down at this major hurricane, going around wiping out Florida." He was referring to what became Hurricane Elena, which originated as a gigantic tropical wave off the coast of East Africa on 23 August and progressed weakly westwards, running parallel to northern Cuba, becoming a tropical storm on the 28th and a hurricane on the 29th. From orbit, the crew took several stunning images, which showed it expanding across the entire Gulf of Mexico and with winds peaking at more than 100 mph (160 km/h) on 1 September. It steadily weakened as it headed north and finally made landfall in Biloxi, Miss. In its few days of mayhem, Elena wreaked $1.2 billion of damage, but, miraculously, caused no direct fatalities.
From the flight engineer's seat, Mike Lounge had crafted himself a small Mylar "mirror" and fixed it to the back of his checklist, hoping to watch the reflected launch through the overhead window, just over his left shoulder. "If you hold this mirror, right in your lap," he said, "you get this great view as the orbiter lifts up and rolls. You're looking through that window, right down at the pad and this huge billow of smoke and flame…and the pad gets smaller and smaller." There was little time to be a spectator, of course, as Lounge paged through his checklist, mentally ticking off each of the major milestones: Negative return, Single-engine TAL, and the call which had caused his predecessors, the crew of Mission 51F, great anxiety: Abort to Orbit. After what seemed like an age, the moment of Main Engine Cutoff (MECO) occurred and the sensation of weightlessness was felt through a gentle rising against the straps and the quirkiness of the checklist, floating, in front of his eyes. That comical sight was arrested very soon by a sight of unimaginable grandeur: Africa, looming large and spectacular in Discovery's windows.
They were in orbit.
Ahead of them lay three satellite deployments … and then Leasat.

Copyright © 2015 AmericaSpace - All Rights Reserved

AmericaSpace
For a nation that explores
August 30th, 2015
'A Heck of a Push': 30 Years Since the Dramatic Rescue of Mission 51I (Part 2)
By Ben Evans
The sheer size of the 15,000-pound (6,800-kg) Leasat-3 satellite is illustrated in this view of James "Ox" van Hoften manhandling it into space on Mission 51I. Photo Credit: NASA
For Dick Covey, the instant Space Shuttle Discovery broke the shackles of Earth on the cusp of daybreak on 27 August 1985 had been a long time coming. In fact, he was the last of his 35-strong astronaut class, chosen seven years earlier, to reach space. "I got that distinction," he told the NASA oral historian, "and that was hard to take." At the time of his assignment to what was then listed as "Mission 51C" in December 1983, Covey knew that he would not fly until at least the end of the following year. "At the time, I didn't realize I was going to be the very last one," he said, "but I knew I was going to be somewhere down there." However, it was not to be a disappointing mission. As described in yesterday's AmericaSpace history article, the flight which morphed into Mission 51I was tasked with three satellite deployments and the rescue, repair, and reboost of the crippled Leasat-3 communications satellite for the U.S. Navy. Thirty years ago, this week, the five astronauts of Mission 51I—Commander Joe Engle, Pilot Dick Covey, and Mission Specialists James "Ox" van Hoften, Mike Lounge, and Bill Fisher—accomplished one of the most spectacular satellite rescues ever completed in the shuttle program's history.
For Discovery's astronauts, their first day in orbit turned out to be particularly busy, because they were the first shuttle mission to perform two satellite deployments in those first few hours in orbit. Originally, the first satellite, the American Satellite Company's ASC-1, was to be deployed 9.5 hours after launch, followed by Australia's Aussat-1 exactly a day into the mission and Leasat-4 early on 29 August.
However, a little more than two hours after launch, Aussat's Pacman-like sunshield was commanded open to perform routine health checks … and its port-side clamshell door only partially unfurled. "It was believed," read NASA's post-flight mission report, "that the clamshell structure had been deformed and was believed to be binding on the omni antenna bracket, located on the top of the Aussat." Years later, Mike Lounge would blame himself, and a last-minute change to the flight plan, for how this deformation to the sunshield happened. A couple of weeks before launch, he had been assigned the task to activate a payload bay camera to inspect the sunshield. "I did that," he explained, "then I commanded the sunshield open and I had failed to stow the camera. If it had been Day Two, instead of Day One, I would have been more aware of it. On Day One, you're just kind of overwhelmed and you're just down doing the steps … but that was an example of why you don't change things at the last minute and why you don't do things you haven't simulated—because we'd never simulated that."
The crew was advised to uncradle the shuttle's Remote Manipulator System (RMS) in an effort to push the sunshield door open, but unfortunately the Canadian-built mechanical arm was suffering its own problems: a failure of its elbow joint meant that Lounge had to command it in a "single-joint" mode. "Instead of some co-ordinated motion," he said, it was "a little awkward and took a while." Joe Engle remembered Lounge having the incredibly difficult and intricate job of manually operating electrical switches, selecting each RMS joint in turn, then moving them one at a time to position the arm correctly. "That became a concern," Engle reflected in his NASA oral history, "as to how much that was going to slow us down in the grapple and the capture and then the redeployment of the failed [Leasat] that we were going to go repair."
The American Satellite Company's ASC-1 communications satellite spins out of Discovery's payload bay, early in the 51I mission. Note the Pacman-like jaws of the satellite's protective sunshield. Photo Credit: NASA
The RMS was uncradled from the port-side sill, and, at 11:15 a.m. EDT—barely four hours into the flight—Lounge successfully pushed Aussat's clamshell door fully open. Due to fears of imposing excessive thermal stress on both Aussat and its attached booster, NASA decided not to wait until Day Two to deploy it. Under the supervision of Bill Fisher, Aussat-1 was duly released at 1:33 p.m. EDT on the descending node of Discovery's fifth orbit, whilst ASC-1's deployment was delayed by a couple of hours from the seventh to the eighth orbit. It was sent spinning out of the payload bay by Lounge at 6:07 p.m. "We scrambled to get that done," remembered Dick Covey, "so we could get that one that didn't have the protection done, plus the one that we had already planned on. It made for a very, very busy first day for a bunch of new guys up there!" The third payload, the U.S. Navy's Leasat-4, was deployed under the supervision of van Hoften at 6:48 a.m. EDT on 29 August.
Unlike its ill-fated predecessor, Leasat-3, launched in April 1985, the omni-directional antenna unfolded without incident, the spacecraft spun-up without incident, and its integral Perigee Kick Motor (PKM) ignited without incident, transferring it perfectly into a 22,600-mile (35,700-km) geosynchronous orbit. Testing got underway on 4 September, but trouble was in store, for Leasat-4 suffered a failure of a transmission cable between its Ultra-High-Frequency (UHF) multiplexer and transmitter and ground controllers lost contact with it. Unlike Leasat-3, nothing could be done to save Leasat-4, since it was far beyond the reach of even the shuttle.
When Dick Covey was named to fly at Joe Engle's side on Mission 51I, it was an excitement and an honor, for Engle's experience spanned several decades and encompassed not only the shuttle, but the Apollo Lunar Module (LM) and the X-15 rocket-propelled aircraft. More than that, however, he was delighted when Engle assigned him the task of performing the rendezvous with Leasat-3. This was completed in spectacular fashion on 31 August. Early in training, they agreed that Covey would perform the "phasing" maneuvers and precise Reaction Control System (RCS) thruster firings to approach to about 1,000 feet (330 meters), whereupon Engle would take over and maneuver to position the fully-suited van Hoften, his feet secured in a restraint on the end of the RMS, close enough to the satellite to manually grapple it. "When he had completed the rendezvous maneuver and had stabilized," said Engle, "I looked up and kind of expected to see [Leasat] somewhere in the field of view in the window, but he had flown that rendezvous and perfectly nailed it, so the satellite was right … in the centre of the [crosshairs]."
In addition to serving as the primary RMS operator, Mike Lounge was responsible for helping van Hoften and Fisher into their space suits and into the airlock. It was then time for him to head up to the flight deck, whilst the two spacewalkers ventured outside for an EVA that would last seven hours and 20 minutes. Van Hoften installed a foot restraint on the end of the arm and secured himself. By his own admission, the biggest challenge was that "I had to go literally up there and get hold of this thing, somehow, until we could get hold of it and get the arm on it, because I had to attach a [capture] bar to it … It was every bit as tricky as I thought it would be." The massive Leasat, which weighed over 15,000 pounds (6,800 kg), was rotating very slowly. He fell behind schedule when the capture bar refused to fit, but he persevered. The situation was hampered by a lack of continuous communication with Mission Control, since in 1985 the full network of geosynchronous-orbiting Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS) had yet to be established, and Lounge found that the RMS difficulties meant he had to be very deliberate with each motion.
His feet secured in a portable restraint, Bill Fisher is photographed by crewmate James "Ox" van Hoften during the Leasat-3 salvage effort. Note the open external airlock hatch, leading into the payload bay. Photo Credit: NASA
Eventually, after the installation of the capture bar, Lounge was able to maneuver van Hoften and Leasat toward Fisher in the payload bay, who fitted a second "handling" mechanism. Van Hoften then attached an RMS grapple fixture. The two men safed the satellite with grounding plugs, then fitted a bypass cable harness to work around the faulty deploy switch. Leasat-3's batteries had not frozen, and the repair showed its first sign of success when the omni-directional antenna popped open. For Fisher, a physician with a background in emergency medicine, it represented something totally new: microsurgery on perhaps the biggest patient he had even worked upon.
Van Hoften has described his relationship with Fisher as not nearly as good as George "Pinky" Nelson, with whom he had done two EVAs a year earlier to repair Solar Max. "Bill's very competent," he admitted in his NASA oral history, "but he was obsessed with strength. He had gone out and done lots and lots of bodybuilding before we went on this. For some reason, he thought this was important in a spacewalk and I kept telling him that it wasn't." As Fisher built mass and muscle, van Hoften worried that he might outgrow his carefully sized space suit.
The second EVA, which occurred on 1 September and lasted 4.5 hours, involved the two men installing an instrumented cover over Leasat's apogee kick motor nozzle and arming it. The enormous size of the satellite almost caused it to collide with the orbiter—the spacewalkers could not see each other from their positions on opposing sides of the payload bay—and van Hoften resolved that, "if something happens and I'm about to lose it," he would give it "a heck of a push and bail out!" At length, they managed to control its motions and van Hoften manually spun it up to three revolutions per minute and released it. The satellite went on to perform its maneuvers just as planned.
With the successful deployment of Leasat-3, the mission had effectively completed its objectives. From time to time, over the next day or so, the sounds of Willie Nelson echoed through Discovery, thanks to Mike Lounge's penchant for country music. On 3 September the astronauts prepared for their return to Earth. Re-entry was mostly in darkness, as Discovery headed across the slumbering Pacific toward the California coastline and, further inland, deep in the Mojave Desert toward Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.
From the flight engineer's seat, Lounge took a handful of photographs of the dazzling plasma wake trailing behind the shuttle, whilst Dick Covey remembered that it "crawled," like fiery fingers, along the bottom of his window. "Then, as you get into the thickest, hottest regions," he continued, it turned "into this complete sheath of white over the windows." Touchdown on Runway 23 at 6:16 a.m. PDT (9:16 a.m. EDT) concluded a mission of just over seven days. Rising from his seat, Lounge felt heavy—he could feel his weight and it required a conscious effort to keep his head up—and he remembered that walking and taking corners was awkward, tentative even, at first. It did not last. Just as he had adapted to weightlessness, within a day Lounge was once more adapted to life on Earth.
Mission 51I had been spectacularly successful, but would represent the last shuttle spectacular of its kind in the pre-Challenger era. Only one other commercial satellite salvage operation would be performed, on the maiden voyage of Endeavour in May 1992, a mission which one senior NASA manager described harking back to "the good ol' days." Some observers have looked back on those days long ago as times of foolhardiness, in which a mistaken sense of being bulletproof prevailed and a protective hand of God forever sheltered the shuttle and her astronauts. Others have regarded them for what they were: a spectacular demonstration of human beings accomplishing tasks of profound complexity, against all the odds. Yet the loss of Challenger, just a few months after Mission 51I, provided a healthy dose of the reality that space exploration carried extreme risk. When Dick Covey and Mike Lounge next flew into orbit together, in September 1988, the "picnic" atmosphere of launch parties would be gone, friends would have been lost, a sense of innocence destroyed, and the shuttle would never be the same again.

Copyright © 2015 AmericaSpace - All Rights Reserved

Obama chose not to keep shuttle

Regardless of what you read, Bho chose to retire shuttle over the recommendations of most experts.

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Obama Trashes Space Program, Blames Congress | Frontpage Mag

http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/259956/obama-trashes-space-program-blames-congress-daniel-greenfield

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Saturday, August 29, 2015

USA in danger without shuttle like capabilities!

This site has hundreds of posts re the shuttle's unique capabilities. The need for these should be obvious just as the need for strong police forces, controlling border, energy independence, strong military, & controlling the national debt.

Both parties can not see the obvious. People better wake up before it is too late!

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Fwd: Self-healing material could plug life-threatening holes in spacecraft

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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: August 27, 2015 at 6:39:28 PM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Self-healing material could plug life-threatening holes in spacecraft

26-Aug-2015
Self-healing material could plug life-threatening holes in spacecraft (video)
American Chemical Society

For astronauts living in space with objects zooming around them at 22,000 miles per hour like rogue super-bullets, it's good to have a backup plan. Although shields and fancy maneuvers could help protect space structures, scientists have to prepare for the possibility that debris could pierce a vessel. In the journal ACS Macro Letters, one team reports on a new material that heals itself within seconds and could prevent structural penetration from being catastrophic.
ACS Macro Letters

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ACS News Service Weekly PressPac: August 26, 2015
Self-healing material could plug life-threatening holes in spacecraft (video)
"Rapid, Puncture-Initiated Healing via Oxygen-Mediated Polymerization"
ACS Macro Letters
For astronauts living in space with objects zooming around them at 22,000 miles per hour like rogue super-bullets, it's good to have a backup plan. Although shields and fancy maneuvers could help protect space structures, scientists have to prepare for the possibility that debris could pierce a vessel. In the journal ACS Macro Letters, one team reports on a new material that heals itself within seconds and could prevent structural penetration from being catastrophic.
It's hard to imagine a place more inhospitable to life than space. Yet humans have managed to travel and live there thanks to meticulous engineering. The International Space Station, equipped with "bumpers" that vaporize debris before it can hit the station walls, is the most heavily-shielded spacecraft ever flown, according to NASA. But should the bumpers fail, a wall breach would allow life-sustaining air to gush out of astronauts' living quarters. Timothy F. Scott and colleagues wanted to develop a backup defense.
The researchers made a new kind of self-healing material by sandwiching a reactive liquid in between two layers of a solid polymer. When they shot a bullet through it, the liquid quickly reacted with oxygen from the air to form a solid plug in under a second. The researchers say the technology could also apply to other more earthly structures including automobiles.
The authors acknowledge funding from NASA.
Watch the material heal itself following a bullet puncture.
Youtube ID: JVWFvKxrcLg
In case debris penetrates a spacecraft or station, a new material that can quickly repair itself could save astronauts' lives.

Copyright © 2015 American Chemical Society

Thursday, August 27, 2015

So if the Country has " The Greatest Vehicle ever Made" per fmr KSC Director, & you spent Billions & thousands of man-years & most experts tell you to keep it until you had a replacement!

Now , wouldn't you think a three time shuttle cmdr & a decorated Marine Pilot rather than saying "time to move on" , you would expect him to speak to Congress strongly recommending the vehicle be kept operational until a replacement operational!

Hell, the Russians were very surprised & now there is talk they may get their shuttle flying.

The whole deal is totally lacking of any logic. As time passes without manned operations , the bigger the price the USA will pay!

Sent from my iPad

TIME to MOVE ON, this is the Bolden comment when asked about flying shuttle commercially!!

So here we are, still years from flying the inadequate capsules which are inadequately funded by a liberal congress who is anti manned spaceflight. Most all experts said keep one shuttle, but we threw it all away & WILL not even consider the Boeing X37C which as x37 B is operational & could put the USA back in the business of manned spaceflight.

But the Liberal Congress is not interested. We need a change of leadership in nasa & congress.!

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So you think our three time shuttle cmdr, NASA adm DOES NOT understand the loss of this capability!!! Better THINK AGAIN!!!

Fwd: Orion Parachute System Withstands Failure Test

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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: August 27, 2015 at 9:16:53 AM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Orion Parachute System Withstands Failure Test

Aug. 26, 2015
Orion Parachute System Withstands Failure Test
A test version of NASA's Orion spacecraft successfully landed under two main parachutes in the Arizona desert Aug. 26. At the U.S. Army's Yuma Proving Ground, engineers tested a failure scenario in which one of the spacecraft's two drogue parachutes and one of its three main parachutes did not deploy. The test is helping to ensure the parachute system can safely land future astronauts returning from deep space missions even if something with the parachute does not go as planned.
NASA successfully completed a dramatic test of the Orion spacecraft's parachute system and its ability to perform in the event of a partial deployment on re-entry. On Wednesday, Aug. 26, a test version of Orion touched down in the Arizona desert after engineers intentionally failed two different parachutes used in the sequence that stabilizes and slows the spacecraft for landing.
During the test, a C-17 aircraft dropped a representative Orion capsule from its cargo bay at an altitude of 35,000 feet, or more than 6.5 miles, in the skies above the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in Yuma, Arizona. The engineering model capsule then began its parachute deployment sequence. The model has a mass similar to that of the Orion capsule being developed for deep space missions, and similar interfaces with its parachute system. Engineers purposefully simulated a failure scenario in which one of the two drogue parachutes, used to slow and stabilize Orion at high altitude, and one of its three main parachutes, used to slow the crew module to landing speed, did not deploy.
"We test Orion's parachutes to the extremes to ensure we have a safe system for bringing crews back to Earth on future flights, even if something goes wrong," says CJ Johnson, project manager for Orion's parachute system. "Orion's parachute performance is difficult to model with computers, so putting them to the test in the air helps us better evaluate and predict how the system works."
As part of the test, engineers also evaluated a change to the risers, which connect the parachutes to the vehicle from steel to a textile material as well as the use of lighter weight suspension lines for several of the parachutes. Both changes reduce overall mass and volume of the system.
Orion's parachute system is a critical part of returning future crews who will travel to an asteroid, on toward Mars and return to Earth in the spacecraft. The first parachutes deploy when the crew module is traveling more than 300 mph, and in a matter of minutes, the entire parachute system enables it to touch down in the ocean at about 20 mph.
That system is composed of 11 total parachutes that deploy in a precise sequence. Three parachutes pull off Orion's forward bay cover, which protects the top of the crew module -- where the packed parachutes reside -- from the heat of reentry through Earth's atmosphere. Two drogues then deploy to slow the capsule and steady it. Three pilot parachutes then pull out the three orange and white mains, on which Orion rides for the final approximately 8,000 feet of its descent. Orion's main parachutes are densely packed and sit on the top part of the spacecraft. Once fully inflated, they could cover almost an entire football field.
During Orion's flight test in space in 2014, the parachute system performed flawlessly, enabling the spacecraft to descend through the Earth's atmosphere and splash down in the Pacific Ocean after traveling about 3,600 miles into space.
Wednesday's airdrop test was the penultimate evaluation as part of an engineering series before tests begin next year to qualify the parachute system for crewed flights. The qualification series will include eight airdrops over a three- year period that will put the final design through extreme conditions to ensure a safe return for the astronauts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad9UW_oVq9Y
NASA's successfully completed Aug. 26 a risky test of the Orion spacecraft's parachute system. A test version of Orion touched down in the Arizona desert after a planned failure of two of its parachutes used to stabilize and slow the spacecraft for landing. During the test, a C-17 aircraft dropped a representative Orion capsule from its cargo bay at an altitude of 35,000 feet, or more than 6.5 miles, in the skies above the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in Yuma, Arizona. The engineering model, which has a similar mass and interfaces with the parachute system as the Orion being developed for deep space missions, then began its parachute deployment sequence. Engineers purposefully simulated the failure of one of its two drogue parachutes, used to slow stabilize Orion in the air, and one of its three main parachutes, used to slow the crew module to landing speed, did not deploy. The airdrop test was the penultimate evaluation as part of an engineering series before tests begin next year to qualify the parachute system for crewed flights.
Last Updated: Aug. 26, 2015
Editor: Mark Garcia

Orion parachutes pass failure test
Orion's parachute system passed the test, landing safely on the desert soil of the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground.
By Brooks Hays | Aug. 26, 2015 at 2:35 PM
YUMA, Ariz., Aug. 26 (UPI) -- The Orion space capsule's parachute system passed its latest test on Wednesday, in which engineers simulated a mechanical failure.
Similar to previous tests, the Orion prototype was dropped from the upper reaches of the atmosphere -- by a C-17 aircraft instead of a balloon -- and allowed to free fall toward Earth's surface. Only this time, the craft's parachutes were programmed by NASA engineers to only partially deploy.
Orion's braking system boasts two sets of parachutes. The initial two "drogue" parachutes are deployed at high altitude to stabilize the craft upon re-entry. A few second later in the approach, three main parachutes are inflated to slow the capsule to a safe landing speed.
During the most recent test, one of the two drogue parachutes was engineered to fail, as well one of the three main chutes. Orion's parachute system passed the test, landing safely on the desert soil of the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in Yuma, Ariz., after 6.5-mile trip through the atmosphere.
"We test Orion's parachutes to the extremes to ensure we have a safe system for bringing crews back to Earth on future flights, even if something goes wrong," C.J. Johnson, project manager for Orion's parachute system, said in a press release. "Orion's parachute performance is difficult to model with computers, so putting them to the test in the air helps us better evaluate and predict how the system works."
The test didn't feature the Orion capsule itself, but a model with the crew-carrying spacecraft's dimensions, weight and aerodynamics.
The real Orion craft and its now tried-and-tested parachute system will be reunited for a series of tests early next year. Beginning in 2016, the craft will undergo eight airdrops over a three-year period. If it passes those tests, it will be qualified for crewed flights.
NASA's Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, called Orion or Orion MPCV, for short, is being designed with long-distance space travel in mind. Though the four-man capsule may initially ferry astronauts to and from the space station, NASA hopes the craft will eventually spearhead missions to explore asteroids and, ultimately, Mars.
© 2015 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Fwd: Chinese spy payload fired into orbit

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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: August 27, 2015 at 9:15:19 AM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Chinese spy payload fired into orbit

Chinese spy payload fired into orbit
August 27, 2015 by Stephen Clark
The Long March 4C rocket and Yaogan 27 satellite lifted off at 0231 GMT Thursday (10:31 p.m. EDT Wednesday). Credit: Xinhua
China sent the next in a series of military-operated spy satellites into orbit Thursday aboard a Long March 4C rocket in an unannounced launch from the country's northeastern space center.
Fueled by a mixture of liquid hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide, the three-stage Long March 4C rocket lifted off at 0231 GMT Thursday (10:31 p.m. EDT) from the Taiyuan launch base in northeastern China's Shanxi province, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.
The blastoff occurred at 10:31 a.m. Beijing time and was not announced in advance by Chinese authorities, keeping with standard practice for Chinese military launches.
Xinhua reported the satellite will be used "for experiments, land surveys, crop yield estimates and disaster prevention."
But analysts believe the spacecraft is intended to operate as a military spy satellite.
Tracking data from the U.S. military's Space Surveillance Network shows the Long March rocket placed its payload, named Yaogan 27, into an orbit about 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) above Earth at an inclination of approximately 100 degrees.
Details of Thursday's launch match several previous flights with the same launch site, the same configuration of China's Long March rocket family and nearly identical orbits. The commonalities likely mean Yaogan 27 is the next in a sequence of optical reconnaissance satellites designed to supply high-resolution imagery to the Chinese military and intelligence agencies.
The launch of Yaogan 27 comes after similar flights to the same type of orbit in December 2009, May 2012, November 2013 and October 2014.
Other satellites under the Yaogan name may carry radar payloads for all-weather reconnaissance and maritime surveillance sensors to track ships around the world.
Thursday's launch was China's fourth space launch of the year, and the 17th flight of a Long March 4C rocket.
© 2015 Spaceflight Now Inc.

Fwd: HTV supply ship glistens on approach to ISS

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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: August 27, 2015 at 9:14:30 AM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: HTV supply ship glistens on approach to ISS

Photos: HTV supply ship glistens on approach to ISS
August 26, 2015 by Stephen Clark
Photos captured by astronauts on the International Space Station show a Japanese cargo freighter, covered with reflective solar panels and golden insulation, on final approach to the 250-mile-high outpost.
The fifth HTV supply ship delivered more than 9,500 pounds of cargo to the space station Monday after a five-day trip from a Japanese launch pad, restocking the orbiting research lab's pantry after back-to-back cargo mission failures in April and June.
Space station crew members later began unpacking the HTV's pressurized cargo cabin, posing for photos with fresh fruit stowed aboard the supply
Photo credit: NASA
Photo credit: NASA
Photo credit: NASA
Photo credit: NASA
Photo credit: NASA
Photo credit: NASA
Photo credit: NASA
Photo credit: NASA

© 2015 Spaceflight Now Inc.

Fwd: Soyuz Countdown and Launch-to-Docking Timeline

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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: August 27, 2015 at 9:13:28 AM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Soyuz Countdown and Launch-to-Docking Timeline

By William Harwood CBS News August 26, 2015, 9:20 PM
Soyuz Countdown and Launch-to-Docking Timeline
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Launch of the Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft, carrying veteran cosmonaut Sergey Volkov, European Space Agency astronaut/flight engineer Andreas Mogensen and Kazakh cosmonaut Aidyn Aimbetov, is scheduled for launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12:37:43 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) on Sept. 2. Docking at the International Space Station's upper Poisk module is expected around 3:42 a.m. on Sept. 4. Here is the latest launch-to-docking timeline (in U.S. Eastern Time and mission elapsed time):
Changes and additions:
08/26/15: Adding Soyuz TMA-18M ascent timeline

By William Harwood CBS News August 25, 2015, 4:41 PM
Space Station Personnel
The ISS-43/44 crew (left to right): Soyuz TMA-17M flight engineer Kjell Lindgren, Soyuz-17M commander Oleg Kononenko, Soyuz TMA-17M flight engineer Kimiya Yui, Soyuz TMA-16M flight engineer Scott Kelly, Soyuz TMA-16M commander Gennady Padalka, Soyuz TMA-16M flight engineer Mikhail Kornienko.
NASA
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The International Space Station relies on three-seat Soyuz spacecraft to ferry astronauts and cosmonauts to and from the lab complex. Once in orbit, crews are members of one or more expeditions, or increments, but their individual Soyuz vehicle/seat assignments typically do not change; they launch and return to Earth (either for a normal end-of-mission landing or an emergency evacuation) aboard the same spacecraft that carried them into orbit.
Soyuz ferry ships are certified for 200 days in space, up to 210 days in some cases. Soyuz launches are staggered and the station's crew typically drops from six to three when one ferry craft departs and then moves back to six after the next Soyuz in the sequence is launched a few weeks later.
In September 2015, however, this launch strategy will change. Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko were launched last March, along with spacecraft commander Gennady Padalka, aboard the Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft. Because Kelly and Kornienko are spending nearly a full year aboard the station, Russia has to launch an additional Soyuz to replace TMA-16M.
As such, the Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft will be launched Sept. 2 carrying commander Sergey Volkov, European Space Agency flight engineer Andreas Mogensen and Kazakh cosmonaut Aidyn Aimbetov. Padalka will return to Earth on Sept. 12 with Mogensen and Aimbetov aboard the TMA-16M spacecraft while Volkov will remain in orbit to bring Kelly and Kornienko home in March 2016 aboard the TMA-18M spacecraft.
Crew thumbnails, Soyuz launch/landing dates/mission durations are provided below, followed by detailed crew biographies from NASA, Roscosmos, the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (abbreviations: CDR: commander; FE: flight engineer; TIS: time in space; DOB: date of birth). Updates will be posted as warranted. Comments and corrections welcome.
SOYUZ TMA-16M CREW BIOS (detailed)
LAUNCH: 03/27/15
SOURCE: NASA/Roscosmos
GENNADY PADALKA (Colonel, Russian Air Force)
Test-Cosmonaut of Yu.A. Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center
Soyuz TMA-16M CDR (center seat)/ISS-43 FE/44 CDR
PERSONAL DATA: Born June 21, 1958, in Krasnodar, Russia. Married to Irina Anatolievna Padalka (Ponomareva). They have three daughters, Yulia, Ekaterina and Sonya. Gennady enjoys the theater, parachute sport and diving.
Gennady Padalka
NASA
EDUCATION: Graduated from Eisk Military Aviation College in 1979; in 1994 he left UNESCO International Center of Instruction Systems, where he was an engineer-ecologist.
SPECIAL HONORS: Awarded the Star of Russian Federation Hero, and the title of Russian Federation Test-Cosmonaut.
EXPERIENCE: After graduation from the Military College in 1979, Gennady Padalka served as a pilot and a senior pilot in the Air Force.
He was selected as a cosmonaut candidate to start training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in 1989. From June 1989 to January 1991 he attended basic space training. In 1991 Padalka was qualified as a test-cosmonaut.
Gennady Padalka is a First Class Pilot, has flown 6 types of aircraft, and has logged 1500 hours. He is an Instructor of General Parachute Training, and has performed more than 300 parachute jumps.
From August 28, 1996 to July 30, 1997, he trained for space flight on the Soyuz-TM transport vehicle/Mir orbital complex as a commander of the back up crew for Mir 24/NASA-5, 6 Russian-American program of the 24th primary Expedition, Pegasus Russian-French program and Euro-Mir program).
October 1997 to August 1998 Padalka attended training for a space a flight aboard the Soyuz-TM/Mir orbital complex as a primary crew commander (Expedition 26 Program).
August 13, 1998, to February 28, 1999, he served aboard the Soyuz-TM-28/Mir orbital complex as the Expedition 26 crew commander, and logged 198 days in space.
June 1999 through July 2000, Padalka attended training for a space flight on "Soyuz-TM" transport vehicle as an ISS contingency crew commander.
August 2000 to November 2001, Gennady Padalka attended training for a space flight as the ISS-4 back-up crew commander.
In March 2002, Padalka was assigned as station commander of the ISS Expedition-9 crew. Expedition-9 was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan aboard a Soyuz TMA-4 spacecraft, docking with the International Space Station on April 21, 2004. Following a week of joint operations and handover briefings, they replaced the Expedition-8 crew who returned to Earth. In a six-month tour of duty aboard the station Padalka continued ISS science operations, maintained Station systems, and performed four spacewalks. The Expedition-9 mission concluded after undocking and landing back in Kazakhstan on October 23, 2004. In completing this mission, Padalka logged an additional 187 days, 21 minutes and 17 seconds in space, and 15 hours, 45 minutes and 22 seconds of EVA time.
Padalka then served as commander of the Expedition-19 mission aboard the International Space Station. On March 26, 2009, he commanded the Soyuz spacecraft that launched him and astronaut Michael Barratt to the station. They were joined by Nicole Stott, who arrived with the crew of STS-128.
MARCH 2009
MIKHAIL KORNIENKO
Roscosmos Test-Cosmonaut
Soyuz TMA-16M FE (left seat)/ISS-44/45/46 FE
BIRTHPLACE AND DATE: Born 15 April, 1960, in Syzran, Kuibyshev region, Russia.
PERSONAL DATA: Married to Irina Anatolievna Kornienko (Savostina); daughter Natalia.
EDUCATION: Graduated from a secondary school in Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 1977; served in paratroops in 1978 - 1980; in 1981 to 1987 he studied at the Moscow Aviation Institute and graduated with an engineering degree (aircraft engine mechanical engineer).
Mikhail Kornienko
NASA
EXPERIENCE: In 1980 Kornienko completed his military service and worked for the Moscow law enforcement agencies from 1980 to 1986. In 1986 started working for a mechanical engineering design bureau as a test engineer. In 1991-1995 he worked for commercial companies. In April 1995 Kornienko started working at the Energia Rocket/Space Corporation (RSC) as an engineer. He was responsible for technical documentation and software for testing and crew EVA training.
SPACEFLIGHT TRAINING: In February, 1998 Kornienko was selected as an Energia test cosmonaut candidate, and in 1999, following basic training at the Yu. Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, was qualified as a test cosmonaut.
From August 2001 to February 2003 Kornienko was assigned to the ISS 8 backup crew as an ISS flight engineer and Soyuz TM commander (for a launch on the Shuttle). Due to the Columbia tragedy the crew was reassigned.
From March 2003 to August 2005 participated in RS ISS advanced training. From September 2005 to January 2006 participated in ISS advanced training.
From February 2006 trained as ISS 15 bu engineer and Soyuz TMA bu flight engineer.
From March 2007 to August 2008 participated in RS ISS advanced training.
From August 2008 to April 2010 trained as an ISS 23/24 flight engineer and Soyuz TMA flight engineer.
SPACEFLIGHT EXPERIENCE: From April 2, 2010 to September 25, 2010 completed his first spaceflight as a Soyuz TMA-18 and ISS-23 flight engineer with cosmonaut A. Skvortsov and astronaut T. Caldwell-Dyson (NASA). Performed a spacewalk that lasted for 6 hours and 43 minutes. Kornienko has logged 176 days 1 hour and 18 minutes in space.
AWARDS: Golden Star of the Hero of the Russian Federation (April 12, 2011), Gagarin medal, Honorary citizen of Syzran (2010).
DECEMBER 2012
SCOTT J. KELLY (CAPTAIN, USN, RET.)
NASA Astronaut
Soyuz TMA-16M/18M FE (right seat)/ISS-43/44 FE/45 CDR
PERSONAL DATA: Born February 21, 1964 in Orange, New Jersey. He has two children.
EDUCATION: Graduated from Mountain High School, West Orange, New Jersey, in 1982; received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the State University of New York Maritime College in 1987 and a Master of Science degree in Aviation Systems from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 1996.
ORGANIZATIONS: Associate Fellow, Society of Experimental Test Pilots; Member, Association of Space Explorers National Aeronautics and Space Administration April 2015
Scott Kelly
NASA
SPECIAL HONORS: Two Defense Superior Service Medals, Distinguished Flying Cross, Navy Commendation Medal, Navy Achievement Medal, two Navy Unit Commendations, National Defense Service Medal, Southwest Asia Service Medal, Kuwait Liberation Medal, Sea Service Deployment Ribbon, NASA Distinguished Service Medal, NASA Exceptional Service Medal, NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, two NASA Space Flight Medals, Russian Federation Medal for merit in Space Exploration. Korolev Diploma from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale, 1999. Honorary Doctorate of Science degree from the State University of New York, 2008.
EXPERIENCE: Kelly received his commission from the State University of New York Maritime College in May 1987 and was designated a naval aviator in July 1989 at Naval Air Station (NAS) in Beeville, Texas. He then reported to Fighter Squadron 101 at NAS Oceana, Virginia Beach, Virginia, for initial F-14 Tomcat training. Upon completion of this training, he was assigned to Fighter Squadron 143 and made overseas deployments to the North Atlantic, Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea and Persian Gulf aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69). Kelly was selected to attend the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in January 1993 and completed training in June 1994. After graduation, he worked as a test pilot at the Strike Aircraft Test Squadron, Naval Air Warfare Center, Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Maryland, flying the F-14 Tomcat and F/A-18 Hornet. Kelly was the first pilot to fly an F-14 with an experimental digital flight control system installed and performed subsequent high angle of attack and departure testing. He has logged over 8,000 hours in more than 40 different aircraft and spacecraft and has over 250 carrier landings. Kelly holds a United States Coast Guard Third Mate's license. Kelly retired from the U.S. Navy in June of 2012.
NASA EXPERIENCE: Selected by NASA in April 1996, Kelly reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1996. Following completion of training, he was assigned technical duties in the Astronaut Office Spacecraft Systems/Operations branch. A veteran of three space flights, Kelly has logged more than 180 days in space. He served as pilot on STS-103 in 1999 and was the Mission Commander on STS-118 in 2007. Following STS-103, Kelly served as NASA's Director of Operations in Star City, Russia. He served as a backup crewmember for ISS Expedition 5 and as the Astronaut Office Space Station Branch Chief. Kelly also served as a Flight Engineer for ISS Expedition 25 and as the Commander of ISS Expedition 26. He currently serves as the International Space Station Operations Branch Chief within the Astronaut Office.
Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko have been selected to serve a one-year mission aboard the International Space Station in 2015. The goal of the mission is to understand how the human body reacts and adapts to the harsh environment of space. Data from the expedition will be used to reduce risks to the health of crewmembers as NASA prepares to advance space travel beyond low Earth orbit.
SPACEFLIGHT EXPERIENCE: STS-103 (December 19 to December 27, 1999) was an 8-day mission, during which the crew successfully installed new instruments and upgraded systems on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Enhancing HST scientific capabilities required three spacewalks (EVAs). The STS-103 mission was accomplished in 120 Earth orbits, traveling 3.2 million miles in 191 hours and 11 minutes.
STS-118 (August 8 to August 21, 2007) was the 119th space shuttle flight, the 22nd flight to the International Space Station (ISS), and the 20th flight for Endeavour. During the mission, Endeavour's crew successfully added another truss segment, a new gyroscope and an external spare parts platform to the ISS. A new system that enables docked shuttles to draw electrical power from the station to extend visits to the outpost was successfully activated. A total of four EVAs were performed by three crewmembers. Endeavour carried approximately 5,000 pounds of equipment and supplies to the station and returned to Earth with approximately 4,000 pounds of hardware and equipment. Traveling 5.3 million miles in space, the STS-118 mission was completed in 12 days, 17 hours, 55 minutes and 34 seconds.
On October 7, 2010, Kelly launched aboard the Soyuz TMA-M spacecraft to serve a tour of duty on the ISS. He assumed command of Expedition 26 once the Soyuz TMA-19 undocked on November 24, 2010. After a 159 day stay aboard the ISS, Commander Kelly and Russian Flight Engineers Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka safely landed their Soyuz spacecraft on the Kazakhstan Steppe on March 16, 2011.
On March 27, Kelly, Kornienko and cosmonaut Padalka lauched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to stay aboard the ISS for one year, which is twice as long as typical U.S. missions. This one year mission is critical to understanding how the human body reacts to long duration of spaceflight. The science gathered will be used to determine ways to reduce risks on future deep space missions such as the journey to Mars.
SOYUZ TMA-17M CREW BIOS (detailed)
LAUNCH: 07/22/15
SOURCE: NASA/Roscosmos
OLEG KONONENKO
Roscosmos cosmonaut
Soyuz TMA-17M CDR (center seat)/ISS-44/45 FE
PERSONAL DATA: Born 21 June, 1964, in Chardzhow, Turkmenia. Married to Tatiana Mikhailovna Kononenko, they have two children, daughter Alisa and son Andrey, born in 2003. Oleg enjoys reading books, sport games, and spending time with the family.
Oleg Kononenko
NASA
EDUCATION: Graduated from the N.E. Zhukovksy Kharkov Aviation Institute in 1988 as a mechanical engineer.
AWARDS: Hero of the Russian Federation (2009), Gagarin and Korolyov pins from the Federal Space Agency, "Prezidentiň ýyldyzy" Order of Turkmenistan, NASA Distinguished Public Service and Space Flight medals.
EXPERIENCE: After graduation from the Kharkov Aviation Institute he worked at the Central Design Bureau in Samara as an engineer, design engineer and leading design engineer.
SPACEFLIGHT TRAINING: In 1996 Oleg Kononenko was selected as a test cosmonaut candidate to the Cosmonaut Corps of the Samara Central Design Bureau. From June 1996 to March 1998, he underwent basic cosmonaut training at Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center and on March 20, 1998, was awarded the title of test cosmonaut by the Interagency Qualification Committee.
In October 1998 he began training as part of the group of cosmonauts selected for the International Space Station (ISS) Program. In January 1999 he was assigned to the RSC Energia Cosmonaut Corps as a test cosmonaut.
From December 2001, through April 2002 Kononenko trained as a backup flight engineer for the Soyuz TM-34 vehicle for the third ISS visiting crew. From April 2002 through February 2004, he trained as the flight engineer for the Soyuz TMA vehicle and the Expedition-9 and Expedition-11 prime crews. Due to the changes in the ISS program, the ISS crews were reassigned.
From March 2004 through March 2006 he trained as part of the group of cosmonauts selected for the ISS Program. From March 2006 to April 2008 Volkov trained as an ISS 17 prime crew commander and Soyuz TMA commander.
From December 2009 he has been training as a Soyuz TMA-M flight engineer and ISS flight engineer in the ISS-25/26 backup crew.
SPACEFLIGHT EXPERIENCE: Kononenko performed his first spaceflight April 8 - October 24, 2008 as Soyuz TMA-12 flight engineer and ISS flight engineer. During this flight JEM PM of the Kibo module and the JEMRMS manipulator were installed, and ATV-001 "Jules Verne" operations took place for the first time. Kononenko logged 12 hours 15 minutes of EVA time in two spacewalks and logged a total of 199 days in space.
ROSCOSMOS: SEPTEMBER 2010
KJELL N. LINDGREN, MD
NASA Astronaut
Soyuz TMA-17M FE (right seat)/ISS-44/45 FE
PERSONAL DATA: Born in Taipei, Taiwan. Lived in the midwestern U.S., but spent most of his childhood overseas living in England. Married to the former Kristiana Jones. They have three children. His parents, Randahl and Anita Lindgren, reside in Burke, Virginia. His sister, Niki Lindgren, lives in Los Angeles, California. Interests include spending time with his family, running, reading, movies, photography, amateur astronomy and church activities.
Kjell Lindgren
NASA
EDUCATION: Completed his freshman year at Lakenheath High School in the United Kingdom. Participated in Virginia's Governor's School at William and Mary College during the summer of 1990. Graduated from James W. Robinson Secondary School Fairfax, Virginia in 1991. Received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology (minor in Mandarin Chinese) from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1995; a Master of Science degree in Cardiovascular Physiology from Colorado State University (CSU) in 1996; and a Doctorate of Medicine from the University of Colorado in 2002.
Completed a three-year residency in emergency medicine, including a chief resident year at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 2005. Completed a National Library of Medicine Post-Doctoral Fellowship and Master of Health Informatics at the University of Minnesota in 2006. Completed a two-year residency in aerospace medicine (2008) and a Master of Public Health (2007) at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston, Texas. Dr. Lindgren is board certified in emergency medicine and aerospace medicine.
ORGANIZATIONS: Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association; Fellow of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine; American Medical Informatics Association; Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society; Space Medicine Association; Christian Medical and Dental Associations and National Eagle Scout Association.
SPECIAL HONORS: UTMB Outstanding Resident Award (2008); Distinguished Graduate, U.S. Air Force Primary Flight Surgeon Course (2007); William K. Douglas Aerospace Medicine Scholarship (2007); Hippocrates Award, University of Colorado School of Medicine (2002); Richard C. Hardin Award, University of Colorado School of Medicine (2001); Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society (2001); Edgar and Marion Adler Scholar, University of Colorado School of Medicine (2001, 2002); U.S. Air Force Achievement Medal (1998).
EXPERIENCE: At the U.S. Air Force Academy, Dr. Lindgren was a member of the "Wings of Blue" parachute team, where he served as an instructor, a jumpmaster and a member of the academy's intercollegiate national championship team. As a part of his masters studies at CSU, Dr. Lindgren conducted cardiovascular countermeasure research in the Space Physiology Lab at NASA Ames Research Center in Sunnyvale, California. He conducted high-altitude physiology research during medical school. Dr. Lindgren began working at Johnson Space Center in 2007. As a Wyle-University of Texas Medical Branch flight surgeon, he supported International Space Station (ISS) training and operations in Star City, Russia and water survival training in the Ukraine. At the time of his selection to the astronaut corps, he was serving as the deputy crew surgeon for STS-130 and Expedition 24.
NASA EXPERIENCE: Dr. Lindgren was selected in June 2009 as one of 14 members of the 20th NASA astronaut class. Following the completion of two years of training and evaluation, he was assigned technical duties in the Spacecraft Communicator (CAPCOM) branch and Extravehicular Activity (EVA) branch. Dr. Lindgren served as lead CAPCOM for ISS Expedition 30.
Dr. Lindgren is currently assigned to Expedition 44/45 as a flight engineer and is scheduled to fly to the International Space Station aboard Soyuz 43 in May 2015.
NASA: MAY 2013
KIMIYA YUI
Japan; JAXA astronaut
Soyuz TMA-17M FE (left seat)/ISS-44/45 FE
Kimiya Yui
NASA
Kimiya Yui was born in 1970, in Nagano. He graduated from Graduate School of Science and Engineering, National Defense Academy of Japan in March 1992. He joined Japan Air Self Defense Force, Ministry of Defense in April 1992. From December 2008 until his retirement, he worked as a Lieutenant Colonel at the Air Staff Office, JASDF.
He was selected to be an astronaut candidate by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in February 2009 and joined JAXA in April 2009.
Since April 2009, he has participated in about two years of Astronaut Candidate (ASCAN) Training at NASA, which includes scientific and technical briefings, intensive instruction on the ISS systems, Extravehicular Activity (EVA), Robotics, physiological taining, flight training using the T-38 jet trainer, and water and wilderness survival training.
He was certified as an ISS astronaut in July, 2011.
He participated in the 16th NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO 16) in June, 2012.
In October 2012, he was assigned as a crewmember for the ISS Expedition 44/45 mission.
JAXA: JULY 2015

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