Labor Secretary Plans "Major" Announcement On Shuttle Workforce, Florida Today

"Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis plans a "major announcement" related to helping the shuttle workforce during a Wednesday morning visit to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. According to a Department of Labor press release, Solis will "make a major announcement to assist NASA workers who will be dislocated as a result of the impending retirement of the Space Shuttle Program."

Kosmas, Secretary of Labor Announce $15 Million Grant to Assist Space Coast Workers

"Today, Congresswoman Suzanne Kosmas (FL-24) joined Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis in announcing a $15 million grant to assist workers on the Space Coast. The grant was awarded to The Brevard Workforce Development Board to aid thousands of workers who will be impacted by the impending retirement of NASA's Space Shuttle Program."

Posey's Statement on Labor Secretary's Announcement of Grant for Space Workers

"None of this would have been necessary if the President had kept his August 2008 promise to the people of the Space Coast - that he would close the gap between Shuttle and Constellation and keep America first in space."

Last Shuttle Booster Segments Arrive at KSC, Ken Kremer

"In another sign that NASA's space shuttle program is winding down to retirement, the very last segments for the shuttles mighty Solid Rocket Boosters arrived by train in Florida on Thursday, May 27. Six railroad cars loaded with the last booster segments traveleled across the country, starting from their production facility at the ATK solid rocket booster plant in Promontory, Utah. An ATK spokesman told me that "over 1500 workers have already been laid off" as the booster production lines have been progressively curtailed and shut down."

International Space Station Expedition 23 Crew Lands Safely

"Expedition 23 Commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineers T.J. Creamer and Soichi Noguchi landed their Soyuz-17 spacecraft in Kazakhstan Tuesday, June 1, wrapping up a five-and-a-half-month stay aboard the International Space Station. Kotov, the Soyuz commander, was at the controls of the spacecraft as it undocked at 8:04 p.m. EDT from the aft port on the station's Zvezda module. The crew landed at 11:25 p.m., east of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan."

Keep the shuttle flying, editorial, Houston Chronicle

"The demise of the shuttle is reminiscent of the last time the U.S. space program reached a technological pinnacle with the Apollo spacecraft and its launch rocket, the Saturn V. Having created the mightiest rocket in history, budgetary considerations brought on by the Vietnam War led to the termination of the moon missions, scattering its work force. The Johnson Space Center wound up with a Saturn for public display, much like various facilities are now vying for one of the decommissioned shuttles."

NASA future still a vast unknown, editorial, Huntsville Times

"Hundreds of jobs could be at stake in Huntsville, and many more nationwide, depending on the outcome. Before the administration can proceed along that track, Congress must formally approve scrapping Constellation, for which $9 billion has already been spent in the early development of Constellation's Ares rocket. Alabama's congressional delegation and congressional representatives from other NASA states are fighting to protect Constellation along with pushing for a more focused space policy."

NASA Langley's building plan in doubt, Daiy Press

"NASA Langley Research Center started modernizing its aging campus, but there's no guarantee it'll finish the job. In fact, a retired Langley administrator said the odds are "pretty darn grim" given the recession and political infighting surrounding President Barack Obama's plan to scrap NASA's return mission to the moon. The plan, dubbed New Town, is a 10-year, $200 million building project that would centralize the campus by replacing sprawling World War II-era structures with a cluster of environmentally friendly offices and laboratories."

KSC role in launches not required in draft plan, Florida Today

"Private companies flying astronauts to the International Space Station won't be required to launch from Kennedy Space Center, NASA said Tuesday. "It's basically up to commercial entities to define what makes sense for them," said Doug Cooke, the associate administrator in charge of exploration programs. Unless one of those companies chooses to fly from KSC, the center's traditional role as the launching point for U.S. missions could be dramatically reduced for years after the shuttle program's retirement."

NASA's mission to nowhere: Big, fat, pointless and expensive describes plan to twiddle our fingers, Paul Spudis and Bob Zubrin, Washington Times

"Although we are known for holding different opinions on the order and importance of specific objectives in space, we are united in our concern over this move to turn away from the Vision for Space Exploration (hereafter referred to as Vision). Vision gave NASA's human spaceflight program a clear direction: to reach the moon and Mars. Congressional authorization bills in 2005 (under Republican leadership) and 2008 (under Democratic leadership) endorsed this goal."

Marc's note: In an effort to help advertisers Google has released a list of their top 1000 sites world wide. The list ranks sites based on category, unique visitors, reach and page views. NASA comes in ranked 604. Interestingly Goddard's web site came out tops for NASA subdomains with JPL a distant second. No other dedicated space site made the list including SpaceRef and NASA Watch, surprisingly 😉

Based on this ranking if NASA decided to allow some advertising on their sites they would be able to cash in on part of the $6.3 billion revenue advertisers spend on internet sites in 2009. In fact they might even be able to fund a Scout or Discovery Class mission each year or better yet start a major scholarship fund and replenish their workforce with new engineers etc. each year.

Lockheed weighs layoffs, other cuts for Orion program", Denver Post

"Lockheed Martin officials have begun looking throughout the Orion crew-capsule program for savings that can be used to cover possible contract termination costs. Those savings could include layoffs of some of the 600 to 650 Lockheed employees in Colorado who are working on the NASA spacecraft."

Save the space program, HBJ readers say, Houston Business Journal

"Houstonians are protective of the region's NASA jobs, according to responses to the latest BusinessPulse survey. Houston Business Journal asked readers if it was a waste of time to save the human space flight program, and 73 percent responded "no - we need space exploration/save jobs."

Work starts on jobs plan, Florida Today

"U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development John Fernandez visited Central Florida Thursday as part of his efforts to develop a plan to invest $40 million to help soon-to-be-jobless space workers by bringing in industries that can put them back to work."

Last of space shuttle segments leaves Utah, Desert News

"Even as the space shuttle program is winding down, ATK is building the five-segment first stage of the "next-generation" rocket, the Ares 1, and has all five segments in the test stand for a ground test planned in September. Due to the phasing out of the space shuttle program, ATK announced a fourth round of layoffs involving 247 workers last week. Since last April, a total of 1,500 workers have been let go."

Bishop asks NASA: Will changes be safer for astronauts?, Standard-Examiner

"In a U.S. House hearing on Capitol Hill, Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, held a photo of an unidentified Utah worker who lost his job last week at ATK, one of the contractors for the Constellation program. "I hope I can tell him he lost his job because the government was going to save money or come up with a program that was safer for astronauts ... not because we are choosing winners or losers in the free market," said Bishop at a hearing of the House Committee on Science and Technology."

NASA Releases First-Ever High-Def Footage Of Shuttle Ice Team, NASA (With video)

"NASA has released the first-ever up close, high-definition video of Kennedy Space Center's Final Inspection Team walkdown in the final hours before a space shuttle launch. The footage was shot on May 14 at Kennedy's Launch Pad 39A during the countdown for shuttle Atlantis' STS-132 mission."

Inaugural Lunabotics Mining Competition Goes Live With NASA EDGE, NASA

"NASA EDGE, an award-winning agency talk show, will host a live webcast from the Lunabotics Mining Competition at 11 a.m. EDT on May 28 from the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex's Astronaut Hall of Fame."

Background: "The Lunabotics Mining Competition is a university level competition designed to engage and retain students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). NASA will directly benefit from the competition by encouraging the development of innovative lunar excavation concepts from universities which may result in clever ideas and solutions that could be applied to an actual lunar excavation device or payload."

Marc's note: Count them, 22 universities competing in this National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program event. Not bad.

Marc's update: Folks, it's not about the moon vs Mars vs asteroids, it's about engaging young people in STEM activities to create a new generation of engineers. If you have time why not watch some of today's competition.

Delta 4 Blast Off with Advanced new GPS Satellite Marks 50th Anniversary of Delta Program, Ken Kremer Special to NASA Watch (with video)

"A Delta 4 rocket roared into space on Thursday night (May 27) at 11:00 PM EDT carrying the first in powerful new series of Global Positioning System satellites for the US Air Force. The GPS IIF SV-1 satellite launched from Pad 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and marked the 349th launch in the Delta program's 50 year history."

NASA Joins Web Consortium to Help Improve Universal Access

"NASA announced Thursday it has joined the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The consortium is an international organization that develops protocols, standards and guidelines to ensure universal Web access. "Standards will play a key role in making NASA's content more accessible on the Internet and in the implementation of our Open Government plan," said Chris Kemp, chief technology officer for Information Technology at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Additionally, standards nurture technology innovation. We are especially interested in participating in those areas where NASA's ongoing technical requirements overlap with the W3C's standardization efforts."

Marc's note: Tonight we're testing out our new live launch mission status center for the Delta IV launch of the Air Force's Global Positioning System (GPS) IIF SV-1 satellite.

Enter Mission Status Center

From Obsolete Technology, New Science, NOVA, PBS

"Today, an engineer named Dennis Wingo is working to resurrect that data. He co-leads the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project--which, as the name implies, is working to pry all that old data off of the tapes. So far, he's been successful, thanks to a combination of skill and pure luck. Wingo's team located one of the only NASA computer tape drives left in existence, and carefully restored it to its former glory in order to digitize the old tapes onto modern hard drives."

Not Quite Rocket Science: 2 Week Underwear, Wall Street Journal

"Underwear you can wear up to two weeks at a time without having to worry about the smell? Andy Jordan's Tech Diary looks into the technological feat, how it works, and who is using the underwear. Yes, there's a smell test."

Keith's note: The video focuses on underwear that can be worn for prolonged periods of time without risk of odor, disease, etc. An anti-microbial barrier in the fabric of the underwear kills odor-causing microorganisms. My two cent's worth about NASA spinoffs is at the end of the video. Having been a climber and participated in a number of expeditions to utterly remote and harsh locations for long periods of time (Devon Island, Everest Base Camp) let me tell you, advances such as this are of critical importance. The relevance to expeditions to other worlds is obvious. Not only is life more pleasant (a big deal when you are far away and under lots of risk and stress) but if you can wear clothing longer you cut down on the energy costs of cleaning garments and the logistics (and upmass) of providing additional new garments. This special underwear has already been tested on ISS.

"We took 40 year old data tapes, tape drives that had been in a garage for 30 years, found elderly engineers, and reverse-engineered ancient technology to provide enhanced imagery from the five Lunar Orbiter missions in a fashion - and resolution - inconceivable at the time that the missions were conducted."

"A view from the ground of Masten Space Systems' first in-air engine relight on May 26, 2010. The test was a complete success and is another step forward in our test program."

"Keith Cowing talks about the kind of hacks made famous by the Apollo 13 mission, instances where the crew had to improvise using materials at hand. He discusses the following: Skylab Rescue - the umbrella used to replace solar insulation and boating tools bought at a local marina; Syncom Rescue - tools made out of plastic and duct tape; Apollo 13 CO2 removal, use of LEM engine, etc.; Apollo lunar rover fender repair; STS-120 EVA solar panel repair, and ISS camera tracker made from a power tool. Cowing also talks about some of his own projects including the greenhouse he designed and built on Devon Island (and some serious hacks) near the North Pole. Currently, he's working in partnership with NASA Ames to restore a 1960's era Titan I ICBM & convert it for educational use."

Keith Cowing: Famous Hacks at NASA (Maker Faire video), Huffington Post

More information: moonviews.com, nasahackspace.org

The dreams of space.

Those dreams that I often don’t let myself contemplate, for fear that it will take my attention away from the practical steps that I am focused on now that may enable me to achieve those dreams in the future.

When I am contemplative, I sit back and consider the current plans of those who struggle along side me in Man’s efforts to escape Earth and what is on her.

SpaceX, Orbital, Blue Origin, Boeing, XCOR. Astronautical Engineering courses. Sweeping arcs showing Launch Vehicle Kilograms to circular orbits or escape velocity. Job postings for dynamic Loads engineer, Avionics Test Engineer, Solar Array Engineer. Rarefied Gas Dynamics, Shock Waves and dynamic pressure, nozzle expansion ratios, Melting points, rotation rates, electric discharge arc voltages, power budgets, star trackers, Nickle hydrogen batteries, redundant wiring harnesses…

This is the swarm of brushes, paints on the palate, media types, artistic methods, and implements by which Man creates the works of art that are space exploration.

These are the building blocks of the dreams of spaceflight.

In Space, Man can reinvent society. Find solitude in a nature never beheld by man, and discover alien lifeforms and landscapes. He can plunge to great depths, explode to ultimate heights, insulate himself from the deepest colds and deflect the searing heat of stars far brighter than the sun. He can blast the new knowledge that he gathers through antenna dishes across light years of space or find complete isolation from any and all who could want to communicate. He can travel at incredible speeds or swing in spiraling arcs betwixt alien moons and super-massive planets.

Finally, Man can find himself and what it is to be man when the circumstances that crowd his home of Earth have fallen away leaving him singularly alone with his consciousness and ambition.

Mankind can roll the dice again on himself, his society, and world in a billion billion different places with as many new sets of rules and society-shaping constraints.

Water Jet Operator, Turbomachinery Engineer, Planetary Scientist, Ground Control operator, Mission director, Astronaut. We are legion.

I am John Wilson Benac. I am in the midst of a structured masters degree program from the University of Southern California to learn a coherent and synergistic set of skills to enable me to shape the machines to carry man’s dreams outward. I work 8 hours a day ensuring that the life support systems hardware that launches and returns from the International Space Station supports the mission requirements. I choose, along with thousands of others, the pursuit of space exploration as my careear’s work. And God willing, I shall move mankind outward into the void in which God placed us, to find the shores of distant lands which he created for his truly ambitions and blessed children to attain.

What paintings will be created with the pallet mankind so painstakingly prepares? The Space Shuttle, Space Station, Delta, Atlas, Proton, Soyuz, GPS, Arienne machines were once concepts alongside hundreds of other ideas which never were realized. As in the 1950s, countless tabletop designs ask for our limited resources to turn them into actual dream machines.

From Konstantin Tsiolkovsky’s 1903 “The Exploration of Cosmic Space by Means of Reaction Devices” to Jules Verne’s 1865 “From the Earth to the Moon” and Hermann Oberth’s 1923 “The Rocket into Planetary Space,” all the way through the countless college students, practicing engineers, and enchanted layman, we dream and imagine together what man may do in the limitless star filled expanse that is outer space.

Perhaps I should indulge in the pleasure and wonder by conceiving of a few paintings of my own rather than focus on the palate from which the paintings are created.

House Committee on Science and Technology Reviews, Questions NASA's Proposed Human Spaceflight Plan

"The task before us today is to determine if the Administration's plan actually is doable under the Administration's proposed budget--that it actually is 'executable' and truly puts NASA on a 'sustainable path'. It does no good to cancel a program that the Administration characterizes as 'unexecutable', if that program is simply replaced with a new plan that can't be executed either," stated Chairman Bart Gordon (D-TN).

Letter from Sen. Nelson to President Obama Regarding An Additional Space Shuttle Mission, (PDF)

"As we begin work on the NASA reauthorization bill for fiscal year 2011, I write to inform you of my intention to include language authorizing an additional space shuttle flight... this new mission. STS-135, would be flown with a minimum crew of four astronauts and would provide critical spare parts and logistics for long-term ISS operations"