What I've learned in 100 shuttle missions

June 11, 2009

It was a quiet day at the Kennedy Space Center where NASA is getting ready for the launch of its 127th space shuttle mission, a construction flight to the International Space Station. 

Coming on the heels of last month’s high-profile Hubble Space Telescope repair flight, this mission’s claim to fame, so far anyway, is a story of numbers: with the shuttle’s seven astronauts joining the newly expanded six-member station crew, a record 13 people will be together in orbit. Slated to last 16 days, the mission also will be among NASA’s longest. The primary goal is to attach a new porch outside the station so that experiments can be exposed to the vacuum of space.

I realize some of you may have nodded off after that summary and that’s sort of the problem the United States has been having with its human space flight program. It has finesse -- how else to describe the engineering achievement of putting together that huge laboratory in orbit? -- but lacks pizzazz. And the benefits of the program are nebulous at best.

A bunch of passionate, intelligent, well-intentioned folks will be getting together beginning next week at the behest of President Obama to figure out, once and for all (again), what this country should be doing with its human space program. That’s a topic for another day.  

As a professional reporter, I shy away from offering an opinion about what I cover, but at the request of my new producer and a couple of friends I am going to make an exception and share some personal thoughts about NASA and the space shuttle program.

I’ll begin by divulging a milestone of my own: This flight is my 100th shuttle mission, making me among a handful of reporters whose days on the space beat date back to the Challenger-era. My first launch 

Space Tourism Program Still Ticking

April 03, 2009

Space Adventures, the Virginia-based firm that so far has cornered the market on commercial spaceflight, isn't letting a little thing like no more flight opportunities spoil its business plans.

In a conference call with reporters, company president Eric Anderson said the ongoing flight of space tourist Charles Simonyi (they prefer the term "spaceflight participant") shouldn't be its last. 

Simonyi, who is flying for the second time, is among six wealthy business people who have ventured into orbit thanks to Space Adventures' business ties with Russian space officials. NASA won't fly anyone other than professional astronauts, in case you're wondering.

Space Adventures has been selling spare seats on the Russian Soyuz capsules traveling to the International Space Station to swap out crews. But beginning in May, when the live-aboard crew size doubles to six, there aren't going to be any spare seats available, barring last-minute hiccups. That's one of Space Adventures' business models: Be prepared to pounce if something opens up. Anderson said the company is keeping a close watch on a potential issue that may free a seat on the Soyuz slated to fly on September 30 with a flier from Kazakhstan, which is paying Russia directly for the venture.

Space Adventures also is trying to put together dedicated commercial Soyuz flights, though the capsule manufacturer, which already has to double production to handle the extra flights to ferry the station's larger crews, may find it impossible to crank out more vehicles. Also, there's limited parking space at the station -- assuming that's still the tourist destination of choice. Two of the station's docking ports will be filled with Soyuz craft serving as the crew's lifeboats. The leaves just one port free for either a third Soyuz, a Russian Progress cargo ship, or Europe's ATV cargo ship, which docks at the Russian side of the station. 

Still, there's reason to hope, Anderson said. The world economic situation apparently hasn't hit his clientele (Simonyi paid $35 million for his flight) as much as other industries.

"The kind of person … who has indicated an interest in going to space is a long-term thinker. Someone who has had a life dream of going to space is not going to let an economic downturn -- even if it’s a longer one than we would have hoped -- change their objective," Anderson said.

That's a load off. 

(Caption: Charles Simonyi in space. Courtesy: NASA) 

Carnival of Space - Universe from A to Z

September 04, 2008

Welcome to Carnival of Space No. 69, the Universe from to A-Z. Seatbelts on? Visors down? 3-2-1 blastoff. Have fun!

A is for Aliens and their apparent British invasion,

B is for Breakdown of political persuasion.

C is for Commercial, the new way to space,

D is for Dark Matter, an admittedly acquired taste.

E is for Energy that comes from deep within,

F is for Federation, an alliance of future space kin.

G is for Green, which apparently does exist in space,

H is for History and how to preserve the human race.

I is for Inspirational space art,

J is for Jupiter, where astronomers often start.

K is for Knowledge and some tips to find your way,

L is for Library, which can save a teacher's day.

M is for Mother Star, a collection of solar views,

N is for Next-Generation, a telescope NASA has yet to choose.

O is for Observe and some suggestions to blow your mind,

P is for Party, of the star-watching kind.

Q is for Quantum, though I didn't find anyone writing on this,

R is for Rocky Worlds, as in Earth and her three sis.

S is for Star Trek, and the space show in Las Vegas,

T is for Travels, the Mars probes latest.

U is for Unspotted, which describes our sun in August,

V is for Volcanoes and what that means for Mars rust.

W is for Watch as Cygnus flies above,

X is for eXpedition, a Lewis and Clark tale you'll love.

Y is for Youngsters, their space toys all a'clutter,

and Z is for Zettaflops, carbontubes and exotica I can only mutter.

Happy travels, my friends.

(Did I miss anyone? Please leave comment below. Thanks!)

Guess Who's Coming to Visit?

July 14, 2008

There’s a long list of topics to discuss at the big International Space Station partners meeting in France this week: payloads for the shuttle's last nine flights to the outpost; two mini-research modules Russia wants to attach; bunking arrangements for when the crew size doubles next year -- and my personal favorite: what to do about uninvited guests.

Now I’m being blatantly ethnocentric here and looking at the prospect of visitors solely from NASA’s point of view, which seems a bit like the proverbial housewife putting up with the husband’s relatives. Sure, NASA needs her Russian hubby, particularly since he’s got the only car service running after the shuttle retires, but just how far does this arranged marriage bend?

Russia, which has embraced capitalism as no entity in the U.S. government  has dared, has cut a deal with a Virginia-based firm to supply spaceships and pilots to ferry paying passengers to the station. Russia has been running a small-scale tourist transport service since Dennis Tito forked over $20-plus million for run to the ISS in 2001.

NASA was none-to-pleased with the stunt and begrudgingly “allowed” access to the ISS only when it became apparent that it had no choice. But Tito and the handful of entrepreneurs who followed his footsteps (Skylab astronaut Owen Garriott’s son Richard, millionaire computer game developer, is set to become tourist space flight participant No. 6 in October) hitched rides on Soyuz capsules that were needed to change out resident space station crewmembers. The new gig would add three folks at a time for independent research, educational, commercial or other programs.

Space Adventures CEO Eric Anderson tells me he’d like to fly a commercial Soyuz once a year beginning in 2011. (He declined to reveal a target price for each excursion.)

NASA learned of the plan last month the same way most folks did: from a press conference. The initial response was polite, but muted. One program manager did let slip that he thought commercial Soyuz trips marked “a radically different” way of operating.

I’m sure they’ll work things out though, for in this world of uncertainty, NASA has indeed staked a claim in at least one final frontier: There’s no divorce in space.

Caption: Dennis Tito suiting up to become the first fare-paying passenger in space. (Photo: Space Adventures.)

No Shuttle Left Behind

July 03, 2008

Some folks have been wondering about the prospect of leaving a space shuttle behind at the International Space Station in a sort of semi-retirement. Here's the skinny from Wayne Hale, the former program manager now helping to transition NASA into a new era of human space exploration:

"There are a couple of reasons why this basically wouldn't work," Hale writes in his blog. "First of all the shuttle is primarily water cooled. That is, we use water evaporated (sublimated really) into space to cool the electronics. Water is a precious commodity on the ISS and is mostly recycled. If we can't use the electronics on the shuttle then it is basically a dark cave that is going to get cold in a hurry after the lights go out.

"Secondly, the weight of the shuttle will cause attitude control problems for the ISS over the long term. It's OK for a short term docked mission, but over the long term the control system would have a hard time compensating for it. But the biggest reason is this: how do we get the guys that flew up on the shuttle back? Sending more Soyuzes just to do that is probably cost prohibitive. So, look for a Space Shuttle Orbiter at a museum near you after they retire in 2010."

Send Your Name to the Moon

June 27, 2008

I’m a (recovering) deadline junkie. It’s a product of 25 years of news writing. So even when I don’t have to write on deadline, it’s the fallback position, the environment I’m most accustomed to.

All that is by way of explanation -- and apology -- for giving you exactly one day’s notice to send your name to the moon.

It’s part of an educational outreach program NASA is running as it prepares to send off a new orbiter to map the moon’s surface. A microchip etched with people’s names -- NASA's goal is 1 million -- will be installed on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is scheduled for launch later this year.

LRO is a predecessor mission to NASA’s return to the moon with astronauts. It is designed to map the lunar surface so the space agency can decide where to land its crews and where to set up a base. The last time anyone set foot on the moon was in 1972. I’m not saying you’ll win a cosmic lottery or something, but it’s kind of cool to know that your name will be up there.

Let's Steal the Soyuz

June 11, 2008

Well not “steal” it exactly, just do what Japan has done to our automobile industry, China to textiles and India to tech support. Import it, then re-label ‘Made in America.’ It’d be a neat way around the prohibition against buying Soyuz from the Russians, who are being punished -- not really -- for providing technology and dangerous ideas widely available on the internet to Iran, which is next door to Iraq and probably what the Bush Administration was really aiming for when they got us embroiled in the bruhaha over there.

And the U.S. really needs a spaceship because we can’t afford to fly the shuttles and simultaneously develop safer ships that can transport people to the space station as well as beyond low-Earth orbit, which we’ve been going ‘round and ‘round in since 1972, the last moon landing.

Unfortunately it took a national tragedy to buck up to the fact that the shuttles are too expensive and risky to fly forever, wonderful machines that they are. Problem is, it’s going to take five or six years to get the new crafts flying after the shuttles are retired. NASA has taken to calling this period “the gap.”

Leaving aside the fact that right now NASA is banned from purchasing Soyuz after its current exemption expires in 2011, the United State’s plan for staffing the space station during the gap is to get another exemption to buy more Soyuz. We’ll need twice as many as before, in fact because next year the size of the space station’s crew doubles to six. The Soyuz can hold three people.

Now comes the news today that Google co-founder Sergey Brin has plunked down $5 million for his own Soyuz so that he and another tourist can go visit space. (Apparently the Congressional ban doesn’t apply to private companies.) The firm arranging the jaunt will even hire a full-fledged Russian cosmonaut to pilot the rocketeers.

Which brings me to this: Why not import the Soyuz or get a license to manufacture them here? Florida, which just lost out to Virginia to be the launch site for a proposed commercially developed station cargo hauler, would be game. Might even get our Congressional delegation focused on an issue they need to be concerned with, like trade, economics and foreign affairs, rather than deciding if an Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer dark matter device should fly on the shuttle or not.

Just a thought ….

A Transcendental Moment -- Not

June 10, 2008

Rookie astronaut Garrett Reisman was sort of expecting a transformation of human spirit when he finally got to orbit and took his first look at the majesty of Earth in its global, planetary context. Nice idea, but it never happened.

"My fundamental outlook hasn’t changed," the 40-year-old Reisman told a reporter on Tuesday as he prepared to leave the International Space Station after a three-month mission.

"I don’t mean to rain on anybody’s parade, but I was kind of thinking that when I first saw the Earth out the window it may be a real transcendental moment.

"I got to tell you that it was beautiful -- I’ve never tired of looking at the Earth -- but it was similar to what I’ve seen from high-altitude airplanes. I didn’t have a sudden urge to hold all my crewmembers’ hands and sing Kumbaya, which I thought maybe might happen to me."

Reisman may be a realist, but he's also a romantic. He told the press yesterday he could state in two words what he was most looking forward to about coming home: Simone Francis, his wife.

"I talked to her last night on our IP telephone from up here and she was furious with me for embarrassing her like that," Reisman added today. "But the truth is, when I look out the window at the planet and I look down at all the people down there, I'm usually just thinking about just one of all those billions of people. And that's definitely who I'm looking forward to seeing the most."

Thanks for sharing the love, Garrett.

Caption: He will hug, but apparently not from seeing the Earth. That's Reisman in the middle, his replacement Greg Chamitoff on the left, and Discovery astronaut Mike Fossum on the right.

Stranded in Space

June 06, 2008

That big sparkling new laboratory attached to the International Space Station this week has one short-coming: It's so spacious you can get stuck mid-air, says the commander of the shuttle crew that delivered Kibo.

“You have to be a little extra careful," Kelly explained during an inflight interview. “You can get out in the middle of it and you can’t reach a handrail and you could possibly get stuck there for a little while.”

So, You Want to be an Astronaut?

May 20, 2008

Germany's Hans Schlegel aboard the space shuttle. That's the space station out the window.

It’s been 12 years since the European Space Agency added astronauts to the payroll, but apparently the time has come.

The agency put out a ‘Help Wanted’ call yesterday, citing its increased commitment to the International Space Station and plans to travel to the moon, presumably as part of NASA’s new exploration initiative.

The journey to outer space begins in cyberspace, with a link to fill out an online application.

An ESA press release states that applicants will be asked to enter some personal information and contact details, and to upload a private-pilot medical examination certificate or ESA medical statement. Within a day, candidates will get an email with information to login and fill out a detailed application form.

A few candidates will be interviewed and evaluated, with a final selection expected to be announced next year.

ESA says astronaut-candidates need a high level of education in scientific or technical disciplines, coupled with an outstanding professional background in research, application or education fields, possibly supported by the use of computer systems and applications. Previous experience with aircraft operations is a bonus.

Equally important is excellent physical condition, as astronauts have to undergo intensive periods of training and may participate in spaceflights that last for months. During this time their body will be subject to a great deal of stress and good health and physical endurance are essential.

If you don’t like working with people, move on. ESA writes, “It is a challenge to live in a confined space for long periods with other people. Among the psychological qualities required are the ability to get on well with other members of the crew, and an affinity for teamwork and adaptability… Would-be astronauts also need self-control and an equable temperament to cope with stress and any emergency that may arise.”

Oh, and candidates must be willing to travel long distances, both on Earth and in space, and spend long periods of time away from home.