New space station crew to launch and dock today in cosmic first

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At the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, Expedition 35/36 Flight Engineer Chris Cassidy (right), Soyuz Commander Pavel Vinogradov (center) and Flight Engineer Alexander Misurkin clasp hands for photographers prior to the sNASA

Large gantry mechanisms on either side of the Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft are raised into position to secure the rocket at the launch pad on Tuesday, March 26, 2013 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Liftoff is set for March 28 EDT (March 2NASA/Carla Cioffi

After blasting off on a Russian rocket ride Thursday, March 28, three men are poised to make history by reaching the International Space Station faster than any astronauts to fly there before.

NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin and Pavel Vinogradov launched at 4:43 p.m. EDT (2043 GMT), beginning a months-long mission in orbit for the three men. They are due to arrive at the orbiting laboratory just six hours after launch.

The trio blasted off from the Central Asian spaceport of Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The mission's Soyuz rocket rolled out to the launch pad on Tuesday, March 26, to prepare for today's liftoff.

- NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy

In the nearly 13 years since crews first began launching to the International Space Station, it has taken Russian Soyuz capsules and U.S. space shuttles about two days to reach the orbiting lab after liftoff. Now, NASA and Russia's Federal Space Agency are testing out a new, accelerated schedule. [Soyuz's 1-Day Trip to Space Station Explained (Infographic)]

The quick journey, which takes just four orbits of Earth, has been carried out by recent unmanned cargo spacecraft visiting the space station, but never by a crew.

"The four-orbit rendezvous has the advantage of a very short period of time from launch to docking," Mike Suffredini, NASA's International Space Station program manager, said of the mission. "It reduces the amount of time the crew has to spend in a small environment before they get to ISS."

Cassidy, Misurkin and Vinogradov are planning to join the station's Expedition 35 mission for a roughly six-month stay. The current residents of the outpost are commander Chris Hadfield of Canada, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, and NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn.

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New space station crew to launch and dock today in cosmic first

US-Russian crew blasts off for space station

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BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (AP) A Russian spacecraft carrying a three-man crew blasted off from a launch pad in the steppes of Kazakhstan, for the first time taking a shorter path to the International Space Station.

Instead of the two-day approach maneuver used by Soyuz spacecraft in the past, this journey to the station would take NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russians Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin just under six hours.

The Soyuz TMA-08M lifted off on time from the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome at 2:43 a.m. Friday (2043 GMT; 4:43 p.m. EDT Thursday). It's set to dock at the space outpost at 10:32 p.m. EDT Thursday (0232 GMT Friday).

The trio are "on a fast track to the international space station," NASA spokesman Josh Byerly said, adding moments after the launch that all was going well.

The new maneuver has been tested successfully by three Russian Progress cargo ships, an unmanned version of the Soyuz used to ferry supplies to the space station.

Vinogradov joked at a pre-launch news conference at Baikonur that the journey to the station would be so quick that it could allow the crew to even carry ice cream as a present to the three men currently manning the orbiting outpost.

"It wouldn't melt in such a short time," he said.

On a more serious note, Vinogradov added that the shorter flight path would reduce the crew's fatigue and allow astronauts to be in top shape for the docking. He said that it takes about five hours for the human body to start feeling the impact of zero gravity, so the quicker flight would allow the crew to more easily adapt to weightlessness in much roomier space station interiors.

The downside of the accelerated rendezvous is that the crew will have to stay in their spacesuits, which they don hours before the launch, through the entire approach maneuver.

Other Russian cosmonauts in the past have described the two-day approach maneuver in the cramped Soyuz as one of the most grueling parts of missions to the orbiting station. The spheroid orbiting capsule allows the crew to take off their bulky spacesuits, change into more comfortable clothes and use a toilet, but its interior is extremely confined.

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US-Russian crew blasts off for space station

Space station shifts its orbit to make speedy crew rendezvous possible

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Shamil Zhumatov / Reuters

A police helicopter flies next to the Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft as it is transported to its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on March 26. The Soyuz will carry NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy along with Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin to the International Space Station.

By James Oberg, NBC News Space Analyst

For more than 30 years, Russian spaceships have taken two days to dock with their target but on Thursday, the travel time for a Soyuz capsule carrying three spacefliers to the International Space Station is being trimmed to six hours.

Has the Soyuz suddenly become speedier? Not really.

The Soyuz itself won't fly any faster when it's sent into space at 4:43 p.m. ET from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It won't have any fundamentally new or improved guidance and navigation system. "All the systems of the vehicle are the same, but the work is more intense," Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov, the Soyuz's commander, said last week during a news briefing. "There are no new systems or modes in the vehicle, but the coordination work of the crew should be better."

This faster flight plan is possible only because someone else is doing the real work. The space station itself has shifted its position to be nearer to the Soyuz when that spacecraft goes into orbit. It is quite literally moving itself right in front of the speeding Soyuz.

The rapid rendezvous procedure has already been tested twice with robotic supply flights, but this is the first time it's been used with a crewed spacecraft. If it works, the crew should be docking with the station at 10:31 p.m. ET Thursday, taking the fastest ride to an orbital destination since NASA's Skylab missions, 40 years ago.

Hunter and hunted Chasing down a target in the trackless void of space is not as simple as merely catching sight of it and thrusting towards it. The inflexible rules of orbital mechanics motion along orbital paths demand precise timing of critical course changes on the part of the vehicle that's doing the chasing.

For any space rendezvous, the first critical time is the moment when the chasers launch pad passes below the targets circular orbit. If the chaser is launched during this moment and heads in a direction parallel to the target's orbital course, it winds up more or less in the same orbital plane as the target. That's the "planar window" for a launch.

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Space station shifts its orbit to make speedy crew rendezvous possible

HBFF Announces PROJECT STARGAZER in Partnership with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

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*The Hollywood Black Film Festival (HBFF) and NASAs Goddard Space Flight Centers recently announced partnership has spawned its first initiative, PROJECT STARGAZER: Developing Diverse Sci Fi Movies for the 21st Century.

With a mission to encourage and support creative, multicultural works in the science fiction genre, PROJECT STARGAZER is a competition for screenwriters and filmmakers to create a sci-fi filmed entertainment project featuring NASA technology. It will provide writers and filmmakers from diverse communities with new resources to tell science fiction stories that capture science facts resulting from NASA science missions. The announcement was made by Tanya Kersey, Founder and Executive Director, HBFF.

The goal of PROJECT STARGAZER is to identify great science fiction story ideas and encourage emerging visionary screenwriting talent from diverse communities. The program seeks to identify strong and thoughtful stories that incorporate NASA science facts and technology; stories that force the viewer to question reality; that explore reality and our perception of it; and that challenge us with the mystery of the mind and the universe.

Were looking for ideas and stories that can be developed into scripts, and ultimately films that captivate broad audiences as well as inspire future generations of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) enthusiasts, says Ms. Kersey. We want to nurture and celebrate the next generation of diverse sci-fi storytellers.

Projects may incorporate future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, paranormal abilities, infinity, immortality, what is human, time, space, consciousness, etc. Its up to you, added Tony Chamblee, Program Director, PROJECT STARGAZER. You can find out about NASA technology at: http://www.nasa.gov/, http://www.youtube.com/user/NASAexplorer or http://ipp.gsfc.nasa.gov/featured_tech.shtm.

Anyone from first-time screenwriters and filmmakers to seasoned professionals can submit their story idea to PROJECT STARGAZER. Applicants must integrate at least one NASA technology into their submission. Submissions must include a logline, synopsis, treatment and an artistic statement describing your creative vision for the project. Submissions must also clearly feature one or more NASA technologies. The main characters should reflect the multi-cultural panorama of the 21st century. A panel of industry and NASA judges will score each submission based on originality, story idea, characters, tone, visual style, marketability, and use of NASA technology. Ten (10) semi-finalist Stargazers will be selected.

At HBFF 2013, the semi-finalist Stargazers will participate in an intensive workshop that includes individual one-on-one meetings and master classes with top industry writers, directors, producers and science/technology consultants to assist in the further development of the Stargazer projects. Each Stargazer will have the opportunity to pitch their projects to a panel of judges who will select three Stargazer finalists to participate in the 2014 PROJECT STARGAZER Lab. Finalists will be announced at the HBFF 2013 Closing Night Ceremony.

For complete details including submissions guidelines and entry dates for PROJECT STARGAZER, http://www.hbff.org/hbff-2013-project-stargazer-faqs/.

To submit your story idea to PROJECT STARGAZER visit http://www.hbff.org/submit-to-hbff-2013-project-stargazer/.

The 13th Annual Hollywood Black Film Festival runs October 2-6, 2013 in Hollywood, CA. For more information: http://www.hbff.org. Like HBFF on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/hollywoodblackfilmfestival. Follow HBFF on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/hbff.

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HBFF Announces PROJECT STARGAZER in Partnership with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Angry Birds Invade NASA ‘s Kennedy Space Center

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The Angry Birds have landed at NASA's gateway to space.

Rovio's wildly popular game franchise is hosting an interactive exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Cape Canaveral, Fla. the public face of NASA's spaceport that launched moon rockets and space shuttles.

"Angry Birds Space Encounter is both a fun and education experience," Bill Moore, chief operating officer of the space center's visitor complex for Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts, said in a statement. [Photos of Angry Birds Space in Space]

The exhibition, which opened at the Kennedy Space Center on March 22, has six different Angry Birds experiences for visitors to choose from, according to an exhibit description from the space center:

This isn't the first time Angry Birds has partnered with NASA. Rovio, the game's parent company, collaborated with the space agency when they released "Angry Birds Space" for a variety of computer and mobile devices. They teamed up again for "Angry Birds Space: Red Planet," which saw NASA's Mars rover Curiosity join the game franchise.

A message on Twitter from NASA to the game company set the idea for making a space-themed Angry Birds in motion.

"Hey @RovioMobile, our computers are a bit better than they were in '69," NASA officials wrote on the social media website. "We might be able to help you launch birds if you find pigs in space."

At the end of June, the space center will hold a grand opening event in honor of the Space Shuttle Atlantis' new home at Kennedy.

Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

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NASA astronaut to make historic trip to space station

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Three men are preparing to make an historic trip to the International Space Station this afternoon.

One NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts are set to blast off in a Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:43 p.m. ET today. If all goes as planned, the three men will become the first to make an expedited trip to the space station.

Historically, it has taken NASA's space shuttle fleet, as well as Russian Soyuz capsules, two days after launch to rendezvous with the space station. It will only take four Earth orbits for this capsule and crew to reach their destination.

Flight Engineer Alexander Misurkin (left), Soyuz Commander Pavel Vinogradov (center) and Flight Engineer Chris Cassidy of NASA pose for pictures in front of the ISS Progress 51 cargo ship being prepared for launch to the International Space Station on Friday. (Photo: Victor Zelentsov/NASA)

The trip should take just six hours, meaning the Soyuz is scheduled to arrive at the station at 10:32 p.m.

The faster trip is using new rendezvous techniques that have been tested out with three recent unpiloted Russian cargo spacecrafts, according to NASA.

Hatches on both the Soyuz and the space station are set to open at 12:10 a.m. ET Friday.

NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, along with Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin of the Russian Federal Space Agency, are riding the Soyuz to the orbiter today. They will join Commander Chris Hadfield and Flight Engineers Tom Marshburn and Roman Romanenko, who already are living on the station.

Hadfield, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut living on the space station, tweeted about the arrival of his new crew mates. "Good Morning, Earth! A long & big day ahead as 3 friends launch in their Soyuz rocket from Baikonur to dock with us ~03:00. Godspeed!" he wrote early today.

Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld. Follow Sharon on Twitter at @sgaudin, on Google+ or subscribe to Sharon's RSS feed. Her email address is sgaudin@computerworld.com.

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Nasa Wants To Build A Holo-Deck To Explore Other Worlds From Earth

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Nasa wants to build a way for people to explore the surface of distant worlds from their living rooms.

In a speech at the Games Developers Conference in San Francisco, the space agency said it imagined a 'holo deck' into which people could step and explore the universe.

"We all desperately want Star Trek," said Nasa's Jeff Norris, according to The Verge, in a version of a presentation given last year at the PAX Conference, which you can watch above.

"I do believe that humanity's destiny is to climb aboard starships and explore the universe. I think at last we finally have in our grasp the technology necessary to build a very important room on this vessel."

It's not the first time Nasa's imagined - or even built a Holo Deck. Back in 1998 it showed off an 'immersive' meeting room which allowed engineers to work with virtual reality.

But the new vision is far grander -- allowing everyone to explore space, on their own terms, as if they were really there.

Norris's fanciful - but inspiring - idea is based on the interesting experiments Nasa is already able to do with Leap Motion interfaces, which allow users to control devices and simulations with their hands, without touching a computer.

In the demonstration at GDC, Nasa was able to control a robotic rover miles from the conference centre with the innovative third-party control system.

Nasa's aim is to return to the living room, with games and experiments, where families once gathered to watch the Moon landings and Space Shuttle missions.

Part of its current work involves teaming up with Leap and companies like Microsoft to develop new systems to easily explore other worlds and asteroids with intuitive interfaces.

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NASA : Sequester could delay U.S. plan to launch astronauts by 2017

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NASA and its commercial allies are on track to launch astronauts into space from U.S. soil by 2017, unless the government's sequester delays their efforts.

"We're still marching along on our 2017 initial flight for a crewed vehicle," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden in a teleconference Thursday about the recent SpaceX resupply mission to the International Space Station.

"So far, we don't see any significant impact with the rest of this fiscal year, but if we can't get out of this sequester condition, it could slow down our progress on a commercial crew... We already are talking to our partners about delays in milestones if we don't get the funding that we want," Bolden said.

The sequester did not affect the SpaceX mission, which ended with a successful splashdown of the Dragon capsule on Tuesday, Bolden said.

The Dragon ferried about 1,200 pounds of supplies and scientific experiments to the International Space Station earlier this month. After 23 days docked with the orbiter, the spacecraft returned to Earth, carrying finished experiments and space station trash.

Bolden said he doesn't foresee any delays or problems for NASA caused by the sequester, a set of automatic spending cuts that are set to last until 2021, for this year. However, he said that could change if the sequester goes on longer than this year.

"It could have downstream impact on everything we do," he added.

Bolden also used the teleconference as a reminder about the importance of a commercial cargo program.

He noted that Orbital Sciences Corp., a Dulles, Va.-based company that specializes in the manufacture and launch of satellites, is building and testing a new rocket and cargo spacecraft for its own resupply missions to the space station.

Orbital Sciences is scheduled to launch its first test flight in mid-April. A demonstration mission is planned for this summer and its first official resupply mission is set for the fall.

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NASA provides a super-speed look at Webb Telescope progress

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Mar. 27, 2013 NASA released a new sped-up, 32-second video that shows engineers working on some of the James Webb Space Telescope's flight components to integrate them together to ensure they will work perfectly together in space.

The "NASA Webb Clean Room at Super-speed" video was filmed in the giant clean room at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and produced at Goddard. The video is available on a NASA website in HD at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?11220 . Testing of the two flight instruments that have been delivered to Goddard has been ongoing in the past several months.

Larger image Engineers and scientists at Goddard have begun assembling the four science instruments together. In a recently released video from NASA clean room personnel are shown installing the Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS) instrument into a larger structure called the Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) structure. The ISIM structure is the larger skeletal structure in the video, and the FGS is the object on the end of a balance beam being moved by a crane.

"This is the integration of the FGS/NIRISS instrument onto the ISIM structure," said Scott Lambros, Webb Instrument systems manager at Goddard. "This is the first of the four instruments to be integrated on the structure and is a very exciting time. It clearly shows we are moving into a new phase, from development, into the integration and then testing phase."

The FGS is actually one half of a combination instrument with the Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) science instrument. The FGS will enable the telescope to accurately and precisely point at the correct, intended objects for it to observe.

"The Webb telescope fine guidance sensor which provides pointing stability, or image stabilizer control, has been installed and being readied for testing together with other instruments in the ISIM," said Ray Lundquist, ISIM systems engineer at Goddard.

The FGS is packaged together as a single unit with the NIRISS science instrument and is developed and provided by the Canadian Space Agency and its prime contractor, COM DEV.

The ISIM is the whole integrated system of instruments on the Webb. It's one of four major elements that comprise the Webb Observatory flight system. It contains the four science instruments that will detect light from distant stars and galaxies, and planets orbiting other stars. The ISIM itself provides electrical, computational and heat management services for the science instruments.

"The MIRI instrument will be the next to be integrated onto the structure within the next month, with the NIRCam and NIRSpec instruments to follow later this year," Lambros said.

Another video was released last year produced by the Space Science Telescope Institute of Baltimore, Md., in the "Behind the Webb" series. That video, called "Canada's Dynamic Duo," took viewers behind the scenes where the instruments were created, and is on-line.

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NASA provides a super-speed look at Webb Telescope progress

NASA OIG: Review of NASA ‘s Explosives Safety Program

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Full Report

NASA Inspector General Paul Martin today released a report that assesses the Agency's efforts to protect its people, property, and the general public from the potentially catastrophic effects of explosives, propellants, and pyrotechnics - collectively known as energetic materials. From launching vehicles into space to the successful landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars, energetic materials are an integral part of many NASA missions. This Office of Inspector General (OIG) review found that NASA's Explosives Safety Program was poorly managed and exposed personnel and facilities to unnecessary risk. Specifically, we identified 155 violations of regulations, policies, procedures, and processes involving unsafe conditions and practices - some of which could have resulted in significant damage, injury, or death to NASA personnel, contractors, and the public. For example, we found incompatible explosive materials stored in the same location, unsafe distances between occupied buildings and storage facilities containing energetic materials, inaccurate or incomplete inventories of energetic materials, and improper inspection procedures for vehicles used to transport these materials. In our judgment, a lack of oversight, resources, and training at both the local and Headquarters level contributed to the deficiencies we identified. At Stennis Space Center, we identified a building that did not meet the basic requirements for storing explosive materials - namely, it lacked adequate firewalls, operational shields, a blast-resistant roof, and containment structures. Moreover, the building was being used to store incompatible energetic materials. Because personnel did not appropriately account for the combined effects of these materials, the safe separation distance between the energetic materials and an adjoining building was miscalculated. According to OIG estimates, if the stored materials had detonated more than 40 percent of the occupied building would have sustained structural damage and 15 percent of the personnel inside could have sustained fatal injuries. At the Wallops Flight Facility, which stores approximately 100,000 pounds of high-order, mass detonating explosive materials, we observed hundreds of rockets containing potentially explosive propellant stacked in close proximity to each other in bunkers. NASA personnel we spoke with had never assessed the physical condition of these rockets, all of which were manufactured between the late 1950s and early 1970s. The stacked placement, coupled with the unknown condition of the propellant, increased the probability of a catastrophic event because a single rocket igniting or exploding could have set off a chain-reaction of detonations. At NASA's White Sands Test Facility the OIG observed two shipping crates containing lead azide that appeared to be decomposing and therefore had potentially become highly unstable and sensitive to any sudden movement. To NASA's credit, personnel at each site quickly addressed the issues we uncovered that presented an immediate threat to personnel and facilities. To improve NASA's Explosives Safety Program and better ensure the safety and protection of personnel, property and the environment the OIG made seven recommendations, including that NASA initiate a review of management, storage, and handling procedures at all Centers and Facilities to identify deficiencies, take corrective actions, and share best practices; immediately conduct an Agency-wide inventory of energetic materials and initiate an investigation of any missing materials; and correct deficiencies regarding the qualifications and training of personnel who work in the Program. NASA concurred with the recommendations. The full report can be found on the OIG's website at http://oig.nasa.gov/ under "Reading Room" or at the following link: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/oig/hq/audits/reports/FY13/IG-13-013.pdf Please contact Renee Juhans at (202) 358-1220 if you have questions.

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NASA OIG: Review of NASA 's Explosives Safety Program

Petition Asks White House to Reverse NASA Outreach Sequester Cuts

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A new online petition asks the White House to repeal budget cuts that have spurred NASA to suspend many of its education and public-outreach efforts.

The petition was created on Friday (March 22), the same day that NASA issued two internal memos outlining how outreach activities are being scaled back as a result of sequestration, the set of across-the-board federal cuts that took effect March 1. The memos began circulating outside the agency Friday as well.

"The sequester's recent cuts on NASA's spending in public outreach and its STEM [science, technology, engineering and math] programs must not be allowed," the petition states. "These cuts would end the many programs NASA has for educating the children of our society, as well as many other forms of public outreach held by NASA."

NASA officials have stressed that the agency is suspending rather than terminating many of its outreach programs. And some activities are exempt from the suspension, including websites and social media accounts that are already up and running, such as the Mars rover Curiosity's award-winning Twitter feed. [Curiosity Rover's Latest Amazing Mars Photos]

The petition was submitted through the White House's official "We the People" site, which promises an administration response to any petition that garners at least 100,000 signatures within 30 days. As of today (March 27), the NASA education petition has gotten about 5,800 people to sign on.

Some organizations are already taking steps to help fill the education and public outreach (EPO) gap that NASA's suspension has created.

Space-funding company Uwingu, for example, announced Monday (March 25) that money raised by its public contest to name Alpha Centauri Bb the closest known exoplanet to our own solar system will be put toward grants for EPO projects and personnel affected by NASA's cutback.

"At Uwingu, we believe that private and commercial funding of space-based initiatives including research and EPO is more important now than ever," company CEO Alan Stern, a former NASA science chief and head of the agency's New Horizons mission to Pluto, said in a statement.

Sequestration is imposing budget cuts across many federal agencies and institutions. NASA's budget is taking nearly a billion-dollar hit, dropping to $16.9 billion from the $17.8 billion that Congress approved last year.

All of the space agency's activities are being cut by the same amount (5 percent), as NBC News' Alan Boyle points out.So we may see other petitions pop up when people learn exactly how the sequester is going to affect NASA's science and exploration plans.

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Petition Asks White House to Reverse NASA Outreach Sequester Cuts

Grace Potter

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Grace Potter the Nocturnals "Paris (Ooh La La) Medicine" - Manchester Ritz 16th March 2013
Grace Potter the Nocturnals supporting The Avett Brothers in the UK.

By: yankeejim33

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Grace Potter