Refurbished Hubble telescope yields spectacular images

By Carol Gee

It was worth the wait! NASA has posted the first new images released by the Hubble ERO folks, following the refurbishment of the space telescope. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) had the honor of presiding at this long awaited unveiling. With the help of Digsby, Twitter, and NASA's award winning website, I was able to grab one of several wonderful images for your viewing pleasure. The image above is called "Stephan's Quintet -- Galactic wreckage."

STS-128 has completed its mission to the International Space Station, exchanging members of the ISS Expedition 20 team, and resupplying the space station. With good weather in Florida, the crew will land early Thursday evening.

Supplemental links -- Hat tip to my regular contributor, Jon, for the links marked with a (#):

• "Astronauts pack Buzz Lightyear for ride home,"# is from Yahoo! News (9/7/09).
• "Space Sights and Smells Surprise Rookie Astronauts,"# is from Yahoo! News (9/5/09).

Links in boldface are important new elements to the NASA stories to be explored in a subsequent post. The links indicate the Augustine Commission's recommendations to the Obama administration regarding the future of U.S. space flight, jeopardized by a lack of money. I highly recommend the NPR article (below) as a first look at the panel's findings. And here is the intro to the Augustine Commission's Summary Report. To quote:

Summary Report
A summary of the report from the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee was provided to the Director, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), and NASA Administrator on Tuesday, September 8. The summary's text is consistent with presentations made during the committee's final public meeting on Aug. 12. The summary has been posted on this website for the public.

Transmittal Letter for Summary Report (pdf, 32K)

Download a copy of the Summary Report. (pdf, 152K)

For media questions regarding the Summary Report, contact Dr. Edward Crawley at MIT at 617-253-7510.

The full Final Report is still being prepared and will be released when complete. NASA is working with the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and other representatives of the Executive Office of the President to plan the next steps leading to a decision by the President about future U.S. human space flight policy.

Additional news links:

• Panel Tells Obama Moon Return Is A No-Go (npr.org)
• New Look at a Colossal Cosmic Collision (space.com)
• Refurbishments Complete, Astronauts Let Go of Hubble (nytimes.com)

(Cross-posted at Southwest Progressive.)

When the boom is over, what happens then?

By Carol Gee

(image: Wordle)

Many big things have been happening that make the news. We shake our heads and say, "Not again." These headlines, for example, signify big deals, big "booms," so to speak: Russia test fired a old missile. India sent a rocket towards the moon. A U.S. air strike went awry in Afghanistan, killing Afghan soldiers by mistake. Stock markets are crashing all around the world signifying the end of a financial boom. And the McCain presidential campaign is not expected to explode victoriously into the headlines on election day. And still we worry. Roger Simon was able to capture our mood perfectly in his column for Politico today, "Democrats' Gloom Deepens." We are superstitiously afraid that Barack Obama's meteoric track will not bring him the presidency, that there is still a booming October surprise waiting to happen to spoil it. But there is often a bit of good news to counter the bad, if we look for it hard enough:

Space remains mostly peaceful -- "India launched its first unmanned moon mission on Wednesday following in the footsteps of rival China, as the emerging Asian power celebrated its space ambitions and scientific prowess," according to The Financial Times story. This is good news we hope, in step with the recent promulgation of "Keep Space For Peace Week,"* celebrated internationally by activists around the globe.

Military might is not the only force with power -- "Russia test-fired an intercontinental Stilet missile on Wednesday as part of the checks needed to extend the service of the weapon until 2010, the strategic missile forces said. The missile, which belongs to a type commissioned in 1979 . . ," reports Yahoo! News. At the same time there was this positive news from the BBC News: "Western donors have pledged $4.55bn (£2.7bn;3.5bn euros) to help rebuild Georgia, two months after its conflict with Russia."

Some plans go terribly wrong, others work unexpectedly -- "Nine Afghan soldiers have been killed and three others wounded in an air raid by US-led forces in eastern Afghanistan," as reported by Aljazeera. In the meantime, the BBC reports that many of al tQaeda's websites have been down for weeks, fueling speculation that hackers or counterintelligence targeted the key websites.

The way out of the economic crisis depends on the individual efforts of all of us, doing what we can to help. "A fresh batch of downbeat earnings and gloomy outlooks pushed US stocks sharply lower on Wednesday as concerns grew over the difficulties facing corporate America in the wake of banking sector turmoil," The Financial Times writes. In the midst of the turmoil, it seems to me that Barack Obama's brand of "Communitarian Populism" could be just the sort of governance needed. We are going to need all the help we can get to right the listing the ship of state, and we are much of the help we need.

Hat Tip Key: Regular contributors of links to leads are betmo* and Jon#.

(Cross-posted at South by Southwest.)

Here and there from the Southwest USA

By Carol Gee

The southwest region of the United States sometimes makes the national headlines, for good or for ill. Three events captured national attention this past week. A West Texas polygamist sect's compound was raided in order to protects its vulnerable women and children from sexual abuse. Hundreds of passenger flights in the region were canceled in order to do safety inspections on airplane electrical wiring. And NASA in Houston is transitioning their three-person crew aboard the International Space Station.

Texas polygamist sect story: Monday brings a Washington Post story of what will happen next in these troubling events regarding custody of the children, protection of spouses, etc. It will come under the auspices of the state courts, and even the governor could weigh in. To quote:

An investigation of abuse at the private ranch of a polygamous sect is moving to a San Angelo courthouse this week as the state argues to retain custody of 416 children removed from their parents. Texas bar officials say more than 350 attorneys from across the state have volunteered to represent the children for free.

"The size, the scope of this effort is unprecedented," attorney Guy Choate said. "It's terribly important to the State Bar of Texas that everyone have access to justice."

. . . Three mothers have appealed to Gov. Rick Perry for help in a letter the sect said was mailed to him on Saturday.

There is a new twist to the polygamist ranch story. Americans have been subsidizing the group with millions of their tax dollars, according to McClatchy. My Representative, Kay Granger, should probably urge an investigation, although what action might come out of it is unknown. To quote:

American taxpayers have unwittingly helped finance a polygamist sect that is now the focus of a massive child abuse investigation in West Texas, with a business tied to the group receiving a nearly $1 million loan from the federal government and $1.2 million in military contracts.

. . . A large portion of the awards were preferential no-bid or "sole source" contracts because of the company's classification as a small business, according to online databases that track federal government appropriations.

. . . U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, the Fort Worth Republican who sits on the House Appropriations Committee that deals with issues of defense, military and homeland security, said she is surprised that the federal government is doing business with a group accused of mistreating women and children.

"It makes me very uneasy," Granger said. "It needs to be investigated without a doubt."

Is it yet safe to fly? Travelers in the Southwest and elsewhere were affected deeply by the FAA safety inspection problems presented to Southwest and American Airlines. There is plenty of blame to go around in both the FAA and the airline companies. "Safety problems in grounded jets known for years by FAA," was written by Bob Cox at McClatchy Newspapers, April 12, 2008. To quote:

Airline safety regulators have known for years that MD-80 airliners could have a potentially serious electrical wiring problem like the one that led to the sudden grounding of American Airlines planes last week.

But a review of Federal Aviation Administration documents indicates that the agency was in no hurry to force airlines to make fixes.

NASA's Space Program is located in the Southwest region of the United States. Missions are controlled primarily out of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas as well as number of facilities in Europe. The current mission is ISS Expedition 17, now transitioning a new crew to be aboard the Space Station. Two members of the new rookie crew and a visitor from South Korea arrived at the station on April 10. To quote from Space.com:

Crewmembers aboard the International Space Station (ISS) welcomed the arrival of a Russian spacecraft bearing their replacements and South Korea's first astronaut early Thursday.

Russian cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko, and South Korean spaceflyer So-yeon Yi pulled in at the station aboard their Soyuz TMA-12 spacecraft, which docked with the outpost's Earth-facing Pirs module at about 8:57 a.m. EDT (1257 GMT). The two vehicles were flying over northern Kazakhstan when they connected.

. . . Volkov, the first second-generation spaceflyer to reach space, received congratulations in Russian from his father, famed cosmonaut Alexander Volkov.

. . . Whitson, who served as ISS Expedition 16 commander, and Yuri Malenchenko, Expedition 17 flight engineer, will be relieved by Volkov and Kononenko. The third current station inhabitant, U.S. astronaut Garrett Reisman, will stay onboard as a flight engineer for the new Expedition 17.

. . . Yi, Malenchenko and Whitson are slated to land on the steppes of Kazakhstan next week after a 3 ½-hour journey home from the space station.

NASA has launched a beautiful new science web site: NASA SCIENCE . . . for the benefit of all. Researchers, educators, kids and citizen scientists are invited to delve into the sections on Earth, Heliophysics, Planets and Astrophysics. Full featured, it also includes an image of the day, spotlights one of the science missions, and focuses on "NASA Science and Kids."

(Cross-posted at South by Southwest.)

T-minus... and counting

By Carol Gee

Updated today at around 4:00 PM CDT.

This post is dedicated Michael, to recognize Canada's very important contribution to the international space program. This mission will install an amazing new capability on board the International Space Station. Dextre will become a new full time crew member on station."He" is a dream come true to the robotic world. The assembly task will be so much fun to watch. Congratulations to the Canadian Space Agency for this important contribution to the world's space program.

3:00 AM, 3/11/08

Live-blogging at the Cape, via NASA TV -- It is T minus two hours and 39 minutes and 46 seconds and counting until lift-off. The big bird --bathed in the bright spotlights of a night launch --has several small streams of vapor coming out from both top and bottom of the shuttle-rocket-tank assembly.

The 7-member crew of the STS-123 Endeavour Mission, with another important payload is about to launch towards the International Space Station orbiting at 225 miles above the earth. Through multiple camera views we get to sneak on board with the flight crew to wish them bon voyage. To quote from NASA.com:

During the 16-day mission, the crew's two prime objectives are to deliver and attach to the International Space Station the first component of Japan's new laboratory called Kibo, as well as Canada's new robotics system, the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, or Dextre. STS-123 is the 25th shuttle mission to the International Space Station.

Commander Dom Gorie, of Louisiana is first astronaut to be assisted in the tower vestibule with completing his suiting up in standard orange. Zippers, straps, backpacks, gloves and helmets are put in place carefully by the assisting white-clad crew of 6 Space Center worker bees. Gorie crawls with difficulty into his lie-down seat to wait for the bomb to go off. The helper crew tries to make them as comfortable as possible, given the tight quarters, weird positions and bulky safety space suits. I have no idea how they suit up by themselves when it comes time to reverse the process and come home.

Mission Specialist Garrett Reisman will be riding in the mid deck. He will stay on board the Space Station when the rest of the crew comes back to earth. Rookie Pilot Greg Johnson is riding right seat at the front. Mission Specialist Rick Linahan, of Massachusetts who is a Veterinarian , and rookies Bob Behnken, from Missouri will perform 3 space walks each. Flight Engineer Mike Foreman, along with veteran Japanese astronaut Takao Doi , round out another all-male crew. As each gets tightly strapped into his seat, the communications checks clear that all can hear each other and the control room, via little twin mikes at the corners of their smiles. Chatter goes back and forth with the now-familiar phrases, "Cleared for Step 26," "Copy that," etc. Tightly wound Flight Directors and handbooks strapped to fliers' right knees assure the launch will go by the book. They are all very smart and careful daredevils.

This will be the longest shuttle mission ever for the space program -- 16 days, including 5 space walks. They have a lot to do in this race to get the space station completed before all the shuttles are retired. The whole process is now completely and truly international. They risk their lives in this endeavor (pun intended) with people from lots of other countries with strange accents and different ways. Several control rooms all around the world will coordinate with each other in order to manage this incredibly carefully choreographed mission to install Japanese and Canadian components on the station.

12:20 AM-EDT.The ground launch sequencer will automate much of the launch process. Built in holds in the count down allow the machines and men to get in tandem, and check that everything is still "go." The access hatch is now being closed by the crew in the vestibule outside Endeavour. This particular shuttle made its first flight in 1992; it is the newest of the remaining shuttles. The Kennedy Space Center in Florida is in the process of coordinating with Houston Texas Johnson Flight Control Center, who takes over after the shuttle is launched into orbit. T-minus 55 minutes until launch, and the pace of different voices begins to quicken just a bit. Lots of numbers are read off between various consoles, some female voices among the controllers.

Astronaut Steve Lindsey is flying around the Space Center checking winds and weather and generally keeping an eye on things. It looks like a beautiful night for flying. The flight crew has completed a leak check following closure of their hatch. The Commander is ready for step 822. It is now 45 minutes and 52 seconds to launch, give or take a few minutes for holds, or 2:28 AM. Everything is going very smoothly. The voices are now coming from Houston --more coordination with the crew for their numbers for the ascent checklist. The helpers crew is now leaving the white room on the tower. They must get out of harm's way before the bird can take off.

Right now, I recognize the voice of Launch Director Mike Linebaugh, calm and clearly in command. Soon he will go "around the horn" to every console to see if everyone is still in "go" mode. There are now twenty minutes left in the count down, says the briefer. More control now transitions to the on board computers, with the current input added by the commander. I wonder if his palms are sweating. . . probably not, because these guys are pretty cool characters.

Tonight's launch (at 2:28 AM) features a number of new camera views, some just spectacular. The five huge blue-tinged floodlights illuminate a beautiful sight, like a big metal Christmas tree surrounding the white and black bird attached to an orange fuel tank and a couple of solid rocket boosters. All noses point skyward. "SRO copies, cleared for launch." All non-essential chatter is quelled. Now it is T-minus 9 minutes and holding for 45 minutes. This is a built in time-out to the sequence so that the shuttle will be in the correct position to catch up with the space station on Wednesday. The current announcement clarifies a complex communication problem that has just finished a work-around to be able to keep in touch with one of the down range tracking stations. Obviously, it is a vital link. Steve Payne, another one of the honchos, has now gone around the horn again with the latest launch time. Linebaugh did his final of these. There are now 15 minutes remaining in the hold, and the weather still looks good. Astronaut Lindsey will now fly a bit away from the area to observe the launch at a safe distance. Big boss Linebaugh's familiar voice speaks for the agency: "Good luck, Godspeed and we'll see you in 16 days." Commander Dom Gorie responded in kind. "Cleared to launch Endeavour" is the final word.

The final countdown clock has restarted. "Now nine minutes to launch." Auto-sequence has now been initiated; it will hand off to the shuttles computers at 31 seconds left. The crew access arm is retracted. The APU's have started. LOX drainback is started, along with helium reconfiguration. Flight controls checked. Main engine steering checked. "Whoosh Whoosh" sound starts. Vent arm retracted at the top. Crew to start "visors and O2 flow." T minus 1 minute, and counting. Countdown at 20, the water flooding system started. "Where east and west do meet," is the NASA sound bite. Roll complete. Looking through the tank camera on the shuttle -- purple flames. "Go to throttle up." The pilot's voice is shaky.

Progress numbers: 11miles down range. Fuel cells working well. 104% thrust. Staging rocket = burnout separation confirmed. 38 miles downrange, 3900 mph. At three minutes=4300 mph. 48 miles up. "All systems in good shape." 115 mi downrange; 300,000 ft. "Negative return." (Shuttle unable to return to land if an emergency at Kennedy). 214 downrange at 4:45 into the flight. Still 3 good engines. At 5:20, 294 miles downrange, altitude 67 miles. Vehicle rolls to heads up position. 6+ minutes=486 downrange, 65 mi up. At 7:30 (Tank camera view)= 16,000 mph, 780 downrange, altitude 64 mi. Main engines cut off. Separation from external tank. Camera flashed (new). Tank falling into the ocean.

Endeavor is now safely on orbit at about 10 minutes into the flight. We return to the control room at NASA in Houston. "Capcom" is at his console. The boss took a sip of coffee. It is 2:00 AM here in Texas. Another burn will happen in 26 minutes to put Endeavor into operational orbit. This crew is now headed to build "A Third Global Village in Space."

View NASA's Launch blog here.

(Cross-posted at South by Southwest.)

Good landings

By Carol Gee

"Go for the de-orbit burn" -- These dead stick glides to earth of the big old heavy warhorse shuttles remain an absolute miracle to me and other incurably addicted "space junkies." Listening to the NASA channel, it is a tense process. You can hear it in the voices of the people at the consoles and in the pilots' flying the Atlantis shuttle -- voices just a bit rushed report the minute by minute landing sequence. "Copy, good config for the burn," says Commander Steve Frick. The engines will burn for a little over two minutes in a braking maneuver. The shuttle will drop out of orbit at 16,000 miles an hour towards its inevitable fiery 2500 degree reentry into the earth's thin blanket of atmosphere. It has been a 5.1 million mile mission.

The shuttle comes in just west of Cuba, a small country attempting to make a good a landing, itself, after Fidel Castro's resignation from office. We wish them well. Atlantis does a series of "s-turns" to slow its speed. For direction, NASA makes use of the GPS positioning technology, just as if they had "OnStar" and were lost outside of Poughkeepsie. Eighty miles out we get the first dim view of the still upturned shuttle. Twin sonic booms "heralded the arrival of Atlantis." With s-turns to slow their speed, and a big overhead turn towards the field, the shuttle makes an amazing landing at 8:07 CT, with Commander Frick at the controls. We get to see this landing through the same "heads-up display" used the Commander and Pilot in Atlantis -- another one of those "Wow!" things for space junkies.

This was a big trip for the STS-122 crew, and for the cooperating international space community. The 12-day mission completed the installation of ESA's Columbus science module, complete with a French crew member Flight Engineer Leopold Eyharts, deployed to see to the activation of the module and its experiments. It was also a big trip home for Mission Specialist astronaut Dan Tani, who has lived for an extended four-month period at the International Space Station. He lost his mom in a car accident in December and now he is coming home to the arms of his family.

A long convoy of vehicles meets the shuttle crew after the landing. After a period of "safe-ing" the hot, huffing and puffing vehicle, a flight surgeon checks out the crew. There is a private disembarkation, because coming back to earth is a rough experience, particularly for Tani, who will get several weeks of rehab for the after effects of his 120 days of weightlessness. The crew will have lunch with their family members.

"Next stop for Atlantis, the Hubble Space Telescope in late August," says the familiar voice of the NASA announcer. The boys are home and I can breathe again.

(Cross-posted at South by Southwest.)

Europe to deploy into space

By Carol Gee

Columbus to fly and EU to deploy satellite network

Expedition 16 crew at the International Space Station, "Columbus" will soon become its newest part, via NASA's STS-122 mission. To quote NASA:

The real event is targeted for Dec. 6 on a flight to the International Space Station, but astronauts and flight managers and contractors routinely run through a complete practice to get ready for a liftoff.

. . . The Columbus laboratory the crew will ferry to and install on the International Space Station is already bolted into the shuttle's cargo bay. Columbus is ESA's primary contribution to the space station. It will be part of a dedicated suite of science modules at the heart of the station.

That will be the actual beginning of another big dream for ESA, the European Space Agency. ESA astronauts, Hans Schlegel and Leopold Eyharts will be part of the STS-122 crew. Schlegel has not been in space since 1993. To quote from his bio:

Schlegel --

NASA SPACE FLIGHT EXPERIENCE:

04/26/93 -05/06/93 -- Served as payload specialist on STS-55 aboard Space Shuttle Columbia. Nearly 90 experiments were conducted during the German-sponsored Spacelab D-2 mission to investigate life sciences, material sciences, physics, robotics, astronomy, and the Earth and its atmosphere.

LÉOPOLD EYHARTS (General, French Air Force)
ESA Astronaut (Mission Specialist) .

To quote from his bio:

NASA EXPERIENCE:

In August 1998, Léopold Eyharts was assigned by the European Space Agency to train at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. As part of the international astronauts of the 1998 class, he attended Astronaut Candidate Training which included orientation briefings and tours, numerous scientific and technical briefings, intensive instruction in Shuttle and International Space Station systems, physiological training and ground school to prepare for T-38 flight training, as well as learning water and wilderness survival techniques. Initially assigned to the Astronaut Office Space Station Operations Branch. Léopold Eyharts' assignments include serving as a flight engineer to the Expedition-12 and Expedition-13 back-up crews.

According to ESA, Columbus will:

Undertake a European experiment programme

Léopold Eyharts and Hans Schlegel will undertake a number of experiments for the European scientific community, including runs of the first experiments to be carried out in the experiment facilities in Columbus. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko will carry out additional European experiments. Eyharts will also carry out a number of educational activities.

The first experiments to be conducted using the experiment facilities inside Columbus
The experiments requiring the weightless environment inside the ISS are in the areas of human physiology and biology, fluid science and radiation dosimetry. The experiments that need exposure to the open space environment outside the ISS cover a number of scientific areas including exobiology, solar science and material science, in addition to various monitoring and sensor technologies.

(Photo from GPS Daily.)

Space satellite communication

The other big space news from Europe happened just last week. Officials have decided to use unspent public funds to help deploy Eaurope's own "GPS" network. To quote from the story:

"EU agrees public funding for satellite project" By Paul Taylor and Jeff Mason. Fri Nov 23, 5:31 PM ET Yahoo! News (Reuters) -

European Union nations clinched a deal late on Friday to fund an ambitious satellite navigation project to rival the U.S. Global Positioning System using unspent cash from the EU budget, a presidency spokesman said.

The Portuguese spokesman said budget ministers agreed to finance a 2.4 billion euro ($3.55 billion) shortfall in start-up costs of the Galileo system by redeploying unspent money for farm subsidies and competitiveness projects.

The world's continued peaceful use of space is something to give us all comfort and hope in times that are marred by conflict and killing. It is with pleasure that we can take this space news from Europe. To them we can say, "Congratulations!" on many jobs well done.

European Space Agency links of interest:

1. Columbus Mission
2. Arctic ice animation
3. Earth's true colours

(Cross-posted at South by Southwest.)

The bridge so far

By Carol Gee

NASA's space shuttle "Discovery" (Mission STS-120) has backed away from the International Space Station (ISS). It will be back home to earth on Wednesday. Crew members' said their emotional good-byes to each other yesterday, men and women alike expressing great respect and admiration for each other's capacities and dedication to hard work. To quote from MSNBC,

Tearful farewells
The 10 astronauts aboard the station and shuttle bid each other tearful farewells Sunday before closing the hatches to prepare for Discovery’s departure.

It was an especially poignant goodbye for astronaut Clayton Anderson, who is headed home after five months in orbit. He was replaced on the station by Daniel Tani, who is starting a two-month mission.

The two commanders, Whitson and the shuttle’s Pamela Melroy, also were teary-eyed as they hugged one another. They are the first women to simultaneously manage two spacecraft in the 50-year history of spaceflight.

To do the very dangerous and intensely challenging work of space flight takes the best they have to offer, but they have not had long to savor success. Today is Monday and back to work for everybody up there and down here. Incidentally, I totally realize my job as a blogger is child's play compared to those admirable astronauts'.

"Cooperation and teamwork bring success to NASA" was the title of yesterday's post. Today's post will bridge from the enthralling (for me, at least) world some 200+ miles up to the earth-bound tangle of current events. One of my regular blog friends gave me a wonderful opportunity to write it because of his comment. To quote The Future Was Yesterday, who said:

As I've said here before, that program leaves me in awe. But it also leaves me depressed at times. We can do that, in conjunction with so many other countries, and do it so well, but we can't figure out a way out of a meaningless desert war that is sucking our very life blood out of our national body?

"Future's" rhetorical question was thought provoking and very pertinent. Here is part of what I replied:

Future, I have often had that same sadness. You put your finger on it perfectly. . . It is a valid point that I want to explore more at length. Thanks for this opportunity to make a "bridge."

To continue -- think about what the current administration's incredibly inept policies have left behind all over the Middle East and elsewhere in this tiny world of ours. Compare it to the performance of the world's space programs.

• NASA astronauts were chosen from many among competitors. They get the best. George W. Bush emerged from a very competitive election because of arbitrary decisions made by the U.S. Supreme Court. Untrained for the job, his poor performance as Texas governor was not widely enough known for the election to be decisive. We did not get the best for the job.
  


• After becoming astronauts, these men and women prepared and trained to do the well-planned tasks of their mission. Then multiple unexpected crises appeared, which they handled by fact-finding and then changing course with a new plan. Training and massively cooperative teamwork around the world on the ground made the success possible. On the other hand, after becoming our current president (OCP), Mr. Bush had no clue, no plan. However, he had an overly active Vice-President who had a plan, always a secret from the rest of us. The administration's responses to the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01 involved going it alone, though the world was ready to cooperate and help. We are still going it alone and making it up despite the facts.


• NASA's method of operation has been relatively transparent, within a budget and generally accountable. Misbehaving astronauts are let go. The agency has had to make do with what it has in a starved budget. The administrator has to go before an angry Congressional committee to explain a botched airline safety report. Mission program managers are questioned daily (live) by members of the Press. Astronauts are questioned as they orbit, by the press and sometimes by their very tactful and supportive managers. They know how to take direction in public. OCP and the Veep operate behind closed doors, without regard for the budget process or deficits, and few in his administration have been held accountable. Rarely forthcoming before Congress or the Press, this administration uses obfuscation, deception, testimonial filibustering and selective press leaks to communicate with those outside the White House. Their methods do not signify that grown-ups are in charge here.


• The world seems generally committed to the cooperative peaceful occupation of Space. Russia and the U.S. had to admit to each other that they could not get along without each other in pulling off these dicey and dangerous missions. Not only that, but all the cooperating space partners have to put an enormous amount of trust in their foreign partners. They trust their lives to each other as people. They are forced to trust the performance of another's plans, technology and equipment. And they all pitch in together when things go awry. The only reason doors are locked is to keep out the vacuum of space. Translators help with language mix-ups. Items are bartered between national budgets. People are stationed in foreign lands for years at a time, but as workers not occupiers. In stark contrast, however, OCP and the current administration seem generally committed to the perpetual occupation of the Middle East. Iraq and the U.S. cannot admit that things are not working out well between us in a dicey and dangerous war. Mistrust across and within borders is absolutely rife. The U.S. trusts and does not verify in countries like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Israel. The U.S. mistrusts the internal dynamics in Iran and Palestine when the opposite would do better. And we have never but enough attention to engaging Iraq's neighbors as part of the solution, rather that becoming permanent armed occupiers of Iraq and Afghanistan. One would think that we wanted to be more successful with war than with diplomacy.
  

(Cross-posted at South by Southwest.)

Cooperation and teamwork bring success to NASA

By Carol Gee

NASA Makes Space Station Repairs

In A Dangerous Emergency Mission Astronaut Fixes Ripped Solar Panel. NASA Makes Space Station Repairs. From CBS/AP:

Astronauts successfully unfurled a torn solar power wing at the international space station on Saturday after space walker Scott Parazynski cut loose a tangled clump of wires and patched everything up. His emergency surgery saved the solar energy panel — and the space station. In the tense buildup to the spacewalk — one of the most difficult and dangerous ever attempted — NASA repeatedly warned that station construction would have to be halted if the wing could not be fixed.

The prospect was so grave that NASA felt it had no choice but to put Parazynski practically right up against the swaying power grid, which was coursing with more than 100 volts of electricity. No other astronaut had ever been so far away from the safe confines of the cabin.

Even before Parazynski made his way back inside, the radio traffic was full of cheers and congratulations. Shouts of "Yay! All right! Beautiful! Great news!" streamed from the linked shuttle-station complex once the wing was unfurled to its full 115-foot length. Mission Control promptly relayed thanks from NASA's top brass.

Harmony -- Other countries contribute a great deal to the U.S. space programs at NASA. Scott Parazynski rode to the farthest reaches possible to make the repair on a jury-rigged combination of robotic and sensor arms. First developed by the Canadian Space Agency in 1981, this work horse has undergone modification and improvement all along the way and is still the star of orbital space whether outside the shuttle or on the ISS. Canadian astronaut Dave Williams flew recently on STS-118. Sarmad Aziz, loaned from CSA, serves as the lead in the robotics control center at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The International Space Station is a truly international enterprise. Russia and Italy are currently the "accented" voices we hear from the International Space Station in earth orbit. Japan will come on board next year. Yuri Malenchenko is the Russian crew member currently aboard the ISS. He has been an important and integral part of ISS Commander Peggy Whitson's support for the current Shuttle Mission 120, helping to handle space walkers as they went outside and returned inside yesterday. (See S/SW link to biographies of the STS- 120 crew).

Nations around the earth cooperate in a number of ways in space. The European Space Agency, for example, provided ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli and the Node 2 module (named "Harmony," the first European-built module to be permanently attached to the Station) that headed for the International Space Station on 23 October 2007. Nespoli has served during the entire mission as the Inter vehicular Astronaut handling the choreography of the several Mission-120 space walks, as well as major support for egress and ingress to the ISS.

The next module to be joined to the ISS will be the Japanese Space Agency's inside/outside module called KIBO set for the spring of 2008, complete with a crew member, Takao Doi, to go along.

The European Space Agency -- ESA also provided tracking for the new Chinese moon orbiter satellite. Thirty six countries are involved in some form of space exploration. "Space Exploration 3.0 is about to begin," according to Nicolas Peter, a research fellow at the European Space Policy Institute. To quote:

Peter said there had been two phases of space exploration since the first Sputnik satellite was launched 50 years ago. The first phase, up to the early 1990s, was driven by Cold War rivalry between the US and the former USSR with cooperation extended to political allies of the two principal space powers. The second phase, up to the present, has seen the emphasis shift to scientific and practical applications of space with many new countries developing space programmes.

The number of space agencies in the world has been steadily rising since the 1990s and reached 36 in 2005. Bilateral and multilateral agreements between agencies are also growing. The advent of the International Space Station has it made it possible for many countries to take part in long-term, structured programmes of space research.

What Peter described as �Space Exploration 3.0� is about to begin.

He said that while humans will play a major role in space in future it would no longer be in the context of competing states but in cooperation between many parties. �It will involve industry, universities and other non-governmental organisations. This adventure will be driven primarily by a quest for knowledge, involving not only the hard sciences but arts and humanities as well.

Cooperating nationally as well as internationally, NASA consists of ten different centers across the nation, along with several other special facilities, such as the Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Nor could NASA be successful were it not for a broad range of cooperative efforts within the U.S., collaborating with business and education interests in dozens of locations.

Great links for "space junkies":

• MSNBC -- "Human Space Flight News"
• Space.com -- page with link to NASA TV via computer, if you do not have satellite or cable
• NASA -- RSS feed page for breaking news
• CSA -- Canada Space Agency
• Russia's Federal Space Agency - English and Russian language
• EurekAlert -- Space -- international space news
• Xinhua Chang's Project -- China's space exploration
• "Space and Astronomy" at Zyra.org site -- a gazillion links to everything spacey (terrific)
  

(Cross-posted at South by Southwest.)

New Mexico draws spacey folks

By Carol Gee

New Mexico has been the place to view some of the most spectacular thunderstorms you can see. It has been the locale for all things spacey for the past few days. The X-Prize competition took place at Holloman AFB. People interested in personal space flight met at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Museum for a couple of days before the competition. Though I must say that NASA TV's coverage of the Space Shuttle Mission STS-120 has been the locale here at my house. And Roswell, New Mexico is the home of all the UFO space alien stories.

Visitors to space appear - Not long ago, I posted about Malaysia’s first astronaut/participant, Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor who visited on board the International Space Station. And last week the Third International Symposium for Personal Space Flight met October 25-25 in Las Cruces, NM. Guest speakers included another former space flight participant Anousheh Ansari and NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Allegria. The Ansari family has long been a supporter of the X-Prize competition, also held this week in New Mexico.

X-prize Cup - CNET News has the lead story, with a good summary of the latest happenings in that beautiful southwestern state. The headline reads, "X Prize Cup brings outer space to New Mexico;" from which I quote:

Space entrepreneurs plan to exhibit a host of new technologies this weekend at the Wirefly X Prize Cup, in hopes of fueling a new age of rocket tourism and entertainment.

Rocket didn't rock - Dr. Robert Goddard, the father of American space flight, spent years and years living with rocket launch failures before he was able to achieve his ultimate amazing successes. And it is still a very difficult thing for private enterprise to pull off. Space.com had the most recent story, headlined, "Lunar Lander Challenge Ends in Fire, Disappointment." To quote:

The rocketeers at Armadillo Aerospace, thwarted by engine problems and other mechanical failures, left this year's X Prize Cup empty-handed after their spacecraft burst into flames on liftoff Sunday.

Despite the difficulties, NPR's Doug Fine explored the question yesterday, "Is budget space travel just around the corner?" Right now only the richest people such as Ansari and Sheikh Shukor can buy a ride to space from the Russians. But a private company seems well on the way to serving more customers, though still at a steep price.

"Rocketplane Global Overhauls Suborbital Craft," according to a story at Space.com, from which comes this quote describing the potential passenger experience:

Here's the flight plan for suborbital customers: The Rocketplane XP would take off from the runway at the Oklahoma Spaceport, scooting into the air just like a conventional business jet. The craft jets itself into climb mode, flying to a little over 40,000 feet. At this point, the spaceship's pilot ignites the craft's powerful rocket engine, pulling up into a nearly vertical climb for soaring into space.

As the vehicle arcs over, all onboard will experience three to four minutes of weightlessness – along with an incredible view that only a small, select group of people have ever seen.

Within minutes, the descent begins. Under the load of several Gs pushing passengers down into their seat, they are on a unique space roller coaster ride. The XP's specially designed thermal protection system transfers away the heat of re-entry, permitting safe, slow travel toward terra firma.

. . . How much will a flight on the Rocketplane XP slap your wallet or cause you to dig deep into your purse? At present, the standard rate after the first 50 Founder Flights is $200,000 per seat. That up front, right seat next to the pilot, is at a premium ticket price of $250,000 – given the wrap-around windows to gaze through, Lauer said.

The cat's pajamas - Not to be outdone with private space ventures, we now have the first space suit. See it at "The Free-Fall Collection: First Commercial Spacesuit Debuts at X Prize Cup."

(Cross-posted at South by Southwest.)

Oct. 15 -- Blog Action Day

By Carol Gee

(NASA Photo -- "On the Way to Mercury" #5 of the Top Ten Views of Earth from Space*). Caption quote:

MESSENGER's Earth flyby on Aug. 2, 2005, not only adjusted the spacecraft's path to Mercury but allowed the spacecraft team to test several of the onboard instruments by taking some shots of its home planet. The camera, designed to characterize minerals that may have formed in Mercury's crust, took this three band composite image on the left using multiple wavelength imaging, giving the continental areas their red color - a result of the high reflectance of vegetation in the near-infrared part of the spectrum.

Harmony is necessary for space cooperation. Harmony is necessary if the people of the earth are to get ahead of the dangers posed by global warming threats. S/SW is posting today about the environment because not long ago I got a suggestion from betmo about the idea. Today, if all goes well, millions of us will be writing about this crucial subject. This is my contribution to the broader blogosphere's environmental effort:

Today we learned that the recent financial award from Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize will go to "a year-old Palo Alto nonprofit that will receive the $750,000 former Vice President Al Gore received along with his Nobel Prize." The alliance has gotten other support from Gore in the past. It works to provide climate change education. Quoting further from the San Jose Business Journal:

"The Alliance for Climate Protection, which was once lauded by Gore as the planet's "PR agent," is a think tank focused on letting people know about the effects of global warming and helping them become activists against it.

From Nasa.gov. we get this story: "STS-120 Bringing Space Station ‘Harmony.’" What does this have to do with the environment? Plenty! I quote from the story:

Think of the next component set for delivery to the International Space Station as an international crossroads in space. That's the major function of the Italian-built U.S. module that will be ferried to the station aboard space shuttle Discovery during mission STS-120.

The pressurized component was named "Harmony" by U.S. students in a nationwide contest. "This module will allow all international partner pieces of the station to connect together, so it's really wonderful that kids recognize that harmony is necessary for space cooperation," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for space operations, when the six winning schools who submitted the name were announced.

The module will be the connecting point between the U.S. Destiny lab, the European Space Agency's Columbus module and the Japanese Kibo module. Harmony's delivery to the station sets the stage for the following two space shuttle flights that will carry the Columbus and Kibo components to the station.

We will need to find new ways to achieve harmony as humans deplete our precious resources. This chilling (4/17/07) headline gives a sneak peek at what may be to come in the near future. "U.S. and Global Water Wars Loom." To quote,

As the world warms, water -- either too little or too much of it -- is going to be the major problem for the United States, scientists and military experts said Monday. It will be a domestic problem, with states clashing over controls of rivers, and a national security problem as water shortages and floods worsen conflicts and terrorism elsewhere in the world, they said.

At home, especially in the Southwest, regions will need to find new sources of drinking water, the Great Lakes will shrink, fish and other species will be left high and dry, and coastal areas will on occasion be inundated because of sea-level rises and souped-up storms, U.S. scientists said.

The scientists released a 67-page chapter on North American climate effects, which is part of an international report on climate change impact.

Meanwhile, global-warming water problems will make poor, unstable parts of the world -- the Middle East, Africa and South Asia -- even more prone to wars, terrorism and the need for international intervention, a panel of retired military leaders said in a separate report.

Blog Action Day will give us all a chance to find out more about what the blogosphere thinks of environmental issues. My own take on today's news is that there is much about which to be hopeful. The International Space Station and NASA already know how nations can work together. The Nobel awards to Al Gore and the UN's group of scientists give sanction to good works. And the water fight can be deferred because I still have a good stream coming from my own tap.

A good place to start today's further reading might be at "life is a journey." My blog friend "betmo" is a very good blogging activist who maintains that website. I recommend you visit her blog regularly for the latest on environmental activism. I will.

References:

1. "Looking back at 50 Years of Space Flight" - multimedia presentation from Space.com
2. *"The Top Ten Views of Earth from Space" - Countdown list from Space.com
3. "Experts Pick: Top 10 Space Science Photos" - again from Space.com
4. "The Environment" - seen on Live Science.com/blogs

(Cross-posted at South by Southwest.)

Is Mother Nature on the rampage?

By Carol Gee

(NASA Images: Peru earthquake map;
AIRS Weather Snapshot: Hurricane Dean August 16, 2007)

Natural disasters that have already occurred or are in the making are making headlines around the globe today. Peru was hit by a devastating earthquake, hurricanes named Flossie and Dean popped up in both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, and there is major flooding in South Asia, China and North Korea. In every case we see the contrast between advanced space age technology vs. people's powerlessness in the face of their own environmental shortsightedness or poverty, combined with nature's ability to change the course of human events.

Peru quake leaves victims in areas without water - The National Aeronautics and Space Administration map shows the remote areas in Peru hit by the quake, but it cannot show the seismic event's devastation to a country with large impoverished areas void of modern infrastructure. Yahoo! News has full coverage of the Peru quake. The New York Times headlined, "Toll Climbs in Peru; Areas Lack Water and Power."

Today is the end of World Water Week, ironically. With our Texas city to the south, Houston, still soggy from recent tropical storm generated floods, there is definitely too much water to handle. Weather events around the world this week seem perfectly timed to make the points of concerned scientists meeting this week in Sweden. In this case it is not nature alone that impacts the weather. Global climate change has been caused in part by human action. The Raw Story headlined, "World Water Wee to focus on climate change, biofuels." To quote from the story about the big meeting,

. . . with 2,500 international experts expected to attend.

The theme of the annual event's 17th edition will be "Progress and Prospects on Water: Striving for Sustainability in a Changing World."

Organiser Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) noted that water was playing a key role in global warming.

Waters in the Gulf of Mexico may soon be disturbed by Hurricane Dean. Already the potentially dangerous hurricane has disturbed the course of NASA's current mission in space, about to come to a close. Today's NASA astronaut space walk is being shortened as a result of the threat posed by Hurricane Dean, according to Tariq Malik at Space.com. To quote,

Two astronauts will step outside the International Space Station (ISS) Saturday on what will likely be a shortened spacewalk as NASA casts a wary eye toward Hurricane Dean.

. . . Endeavour's STS-118 crew is scheduled to return to Earth Wednesday, but the looming threat of Hurricane Dean to NASA's shuttle and ISS Mission Control centers at JSC prompted the agency to work towards a possible Tuesday landing. The space agency is hoping to preserve the option of landing Endeavour early in case the hurricane forces the evacuation of Mission Control, which would then require NASA to transfer shuttle operations to a backup site at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

A different series of seismic events have caused casualties and left miners trapped. This time in the northern hemisphere, the tremors probably came as a result of humans mining for coal under a now-shaky Utah mountain. According to the New York Times, "Utah Mine Rescuers Halt Search After 3 Deaths."

Mother Nature ironically joined the two stories into a potential coal mine tragedy at a flooded mine in China. Dubai's Aljazeera.net carried the headline,"Floods trap coal miners in China" (8/18/07). Quoting from the story,

More than 170 coal miners have been trapped underground in eastern China after heavy rains brought floods to the area.

The official Xinhua news agency said 584 miners were rescued after Friday's accident at Xintai in Shandong province, but attempts to reach the remaining 172 were being hampered by heavy rain.

. . . Poor safety standards make Chinese coal mines among the most dangerous in the world. About 1,800 coal miners died in accidents during the first half of 2007.

Very vulnerable people lost their lives in Peru and also in North Korea. The latter story is also about too much water. North Koreans are vulnerable to actual famine and starvation. Floods there have devastated the country's already limited food supplies. The flood waters may also derail what could have been a rare and very valuable summit meeting between North and South Korean leaders. Aljazeera.net has the story headline, "Floods postpone August Korea summit," from which I quote,

North Korea has asked that a planned summit with South Korea be delayed, citing recent floods that have devastated the country.

. . . South Korea has offered an emergency aid package of more than $7m to the North after days of flooding wrought havoc across large parts of the country, sparking fears that existing food shortages might worsen. The North says the floods have left at least 80 people dead, many more missing, and about 300,000 others homeless.

. . . An estimated 23 million people or 10 per cent of North Korea's population were killed in a famine in the second half of the 1990s, partly blamed on flood damage to farmland.

Natural disasters can produce breathtaking losses of human life and heart breaking instances of widespread human misery. A related story about the Korean floods from Russia's RIA Novosti today published other statistics,

In a sign of the magnitude of the disaster, the normally secretive North Korean regime has been uncharacteristically forthcoming in describing the extent of the damage.

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that rains in some areas along the Taedong River were the heaviest in the country's history, and said that about 11 percent of its rice and corn fields had been destroyed at the height of the growing season.

KCNA said that about 200,000-300,000 people were now homeless, although international aid officials believe the number is probably far higher.

Statistics are often very hard to come by in natural disasters. In one such example the story is about widespread floods now occurring in India and neighboring nations. From a BBC story comes this South Asia flood statistic: "The number [estimate] of those killed varies widely from 500 to 3,000."

Disaster death toll statistics never put a human face with the numbers. In order to relate to just a few of the actual thousands of people caught up in the current disasters on the ground, I conclude with a link to this great article from the BBC News titled, "Aid worker diary: Indian floods" (August 10-16, 2007). To quote just a bit,

Devastating monsoon rains have submerged thousands of villages in northern India, Bangladesh and Nepal.
In India, as flood waters recede, aid agencies, non-governmental organisations and governments are stepping up their efforts to help the thousands who have lost homes, livestock and livelihoods.

Ian Bray, from Oxfam, has kept a diary of his experiences:

. . . Villagers surround us desperate to tell us their story. It's pandemonium as everybody wants to speak. A chair is brought from somewhere for me to sit down. The vast majority of this village are Dalit - so-called Untouchables. All are landless and all are without a job now. The floods have taken away their chance of working on the land - not their land, someone else's land - and the flood has come at the worse possible time for them.

Link: OneWorld.net

(Cross-posted at South by Southwest.)

Myth busting at NASA

By Carol Gee

(NASA Image: "Comet Buster")

NASA on collision course with scandal - An expose broke last week that breaks the hearts of "space junkies" like me and my friend, Capt. Fogg at The Reaction. Every time a similar NASA story appears another part of the "heroic space astronauts" myth gets peeled away. Details of the story were well-covered by CBS News (on 7/27/07). The lurid headline and associated info laid it all out: "Panel Finds Space Disgrace: Drunk Astros Report Says NASA Officials Twice Knew Crew Members Were Intoxicated, Let Them Fly Anyway." Quoting from the story,

. . . Deputy Administrator Shana Dale said the panel provided no details and did not verify the troubling revelations and promised the space agency would pursue the truth.

"I've covered the space program for over 20 years, and I have to believe these are isolated incidents," says CBS News space analyst Bill Harwood. "I’ve never heard even a whisper of this kind of behavior during a shuttle launch countdown, and certainly not a case of an inebriated astronaut actually getting on a space shuttle."

He adds, "The problem here is that this report is based on unverified allegations, and until NASA can go carry out the kind of extensive review needed to pin this down, it's really impossible to say whether they are widespread or isolated."

Southwest news views - The hometown of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is Houston, Texas. Their paper is the Houston Chronicle. Reading feature stories is a useful way to assess just how much Houston's space community is shaken by the facts of the story. The question is what the leadership of that proud community does to reconcile old myths and current reality. Linked below are a few interesting sidebar pieces probably not found elsewhere:

• July 26, 2007, 11:59PM - How much would being impaired hurt a launch?


• July 27, 2007, 11:02AM - NASA's hangover won't easily go away


• July 27, 2007, 1:14AM - Owner at NASA hangout doubts fliers were drunk

Other bad news about NASA was reported in the Houston Chronicle during the same period. The headline on July 26, 2007, 11:56PM read - "NASA investigates possible sabotage of recorder for lab." In spite of this unsettling revelation, the powers that be have decided "the mission will go on." That is another part of the space program's mythology. Is safety taking a back seat to magical thinking?

Russia is a NASA's partner in space. One wonders what the Russians think about this report. The Russian "official" news view can routinely be found at RIA Novosti. This source reports that, "U.S. space shuttle launch to go ahead as planned - NASA expert" (15:32 27/ 07/ 2007 MOSCOW). I quote news story elements related to both scandal issues,

The launch of space shuttle Endeavour to the International Space Station (ISS) will go ahead as scheduled on August 7, and will not be delayed due to earlier reported sabotage, a NASA expert in Russia said Friday.

. . . The reported act of sabotage is not the only incident that is tainting NASA' image, Aviation Week & Space Technology international aviation weekly said Thursday, that a NASA medical panel had established U.S. astronauts flew while heavily intoxicated on at least two occasions.

The weekly, which obtained the panel's findings, said "flight surgeons and other astronauts warned they were so intoxicated that they posed a flight-safety risk."

The launch of the NASA STS-118 mission is targeted for August 7. It will be the 22nd flight to the International Space Station (ISS) and the first flight for Endeavour since 2002.

Russian space program statement - A few days later, a CBS News (7/29/07) report predictably maintains the myth, "Russia Denies Drunk Astronaut Report. Official Rejects Report That Russian Astronaut Was Drunk Aboard Soyuz Space Flight." To quote,

"We categorically deny the possibility that this could have happened at Baikonur," Igor Panarin, spokesman for the Russian Space Agency, Roskosmos, told The Associated Press. "In the days at Baikonur before the launch, this is absolutely impossible. They are constantly watched by medics and psychiatrists."

Back in the Southwest a possible fix for the problem turned up in the Dallas Morning News. Here is my idea for something that might work in the high tech world of space sobriety, though it does not exactly go with the mythology of gritty space explorers: On Saturday (7/28/07) this headline appeared: "New celeb trend: ankle alcohol monitors . Lohan's bracelet isn't just for show." To quote,

Since then, she had been seen around town and in paparazzi photos wearing the ankle bracelet, a high-tech device known as a Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor. It measures alcohol content emitted through perspiration in the skin and relays the information to authorities or, in this case, her attorney, Blair Berk.

Space Travel is a magnificent human adventure. At its best it is courageous, heroic, selfless and ennobling. At their best people in the space program travel on behalf of humankind. Their discoveries add to the progress of science, and offer inspiration to young and old alike. I conclude this post with the following story. It is much more in line with what I prefer to be blogging about, more like what Mondays should be in Texas. It is from C/Net News (7/30/07), and is titled, "How to land a spacecraft on an asteroid." To quote,

NASA is exploring the possibility of sending astronauts to an asteroid, with hopes of making deep-space exploration more feasible.

. . . according to David Morrison, a senior scientist in NASA's Astrobiology Institute.

"The concept of human flights to near-Earth objects is exciting for science, and it's a logical, technological stepping stone to Mars because it's intermediate in flight length," said Morrison. "It's not literally on the way, but it's on the way for developing the technology for deep space."

The important truth to ascertain is whether it is still safe to fly. That is always the central question for me in the midst of these revelations. The space program is challenged to confront reality while honoring those who have died in the service of space exploration, myths and all.

(Cross-posted at South by Southwest.)

Blast off!

by Capt. Fogg

The most important thing in rocket travel is the blast off. I always take a blast before I take off! Otherwise, I wouldn't go near that thing!

-Jose Jimenez

Old timers like me remember laughing at comedian Bill Dana's comic character Jose Jimenez' astronaut routine that was so popular during the 60's that even the Project Mercury astronauts, if the movie The Right Stuff is to be believed, adopted him as a mascot. Although the comic stereotype may seem a bit questionable to today's sensibilities, it's not hard to identify with the sentiment. Getting into a vintage vehicle with a few million miles on the odometer, built by the lowest bidder and filled with enough high explosives to light up the night sky 200 miles away is something that I couldn't do without a heavy slug of the right stuff either - better make it a triple.

It shouldn't be a surprise that some astronauts are alleged to have had similar feelings and according to Aviation Week & Space Technology's Web site, a special panel studying astronaut health found that on two occasions, astronauts were allowed to fly after flight surgeons and other astronauts warned they were so drunk they posed a safety risk.

There was a time when I viewed NASA as a wonderland; a golden gate leading to a brave new world, but that wonderland has become as shabby to look at as any Motel 6 in rural Alabama. One by one, all the reasons I once had to brag about the United States of America have been tarnished, debauched or sold down the river. This doesn't come lose to the embarrassment I feel at living in a country that has George W. Bush as a president, but it doesn't help.

(Cross posted at Human Voices.)