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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: February 27, 2015 at 10:51:38 AM CST
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: NASA and Human Spaceflight News - Friday – Feb. 27, 2015
Happy flex Friday everyone have a great and safe weekend. This is the AMF edition of the PAOs version of NASA News …from now on I will supply my version extracted from the Bulletin News I receive in my inbox daily.Hope you can join us next Thursday for our monthly NASA Retirees luncheon at Hibachi Grill!NASA and Human Spaceflight NewsFriday – Feb. 27, 2015We've realized that the Human Space Flight news distribution is duplicating efforts when there are so many sources of virtually the same material made available to you quickly and easily these days. We'd like to point you to some of the resources we're aware of and discontinue collecting and distributing this edition after today. We appreciate your attention to the news summaries over the years, and we will continue to focus our efforts on getting NASA's missions and your stories into the media.NASA employees can subscribe to the Bulletin Intelligence NASA News Summary for daily, relevant news updates via email: http://nasa.bulletinintelligence.com/subscribe.aspxMany external sources provide email distribution and/or website collection of stories, including:Space CoalitionSpace TodaySpace PoliticsSpace DailySpaceflight NowFAA News UpdatesJSC External RelationsPublic Affairs OfficeHEADLINES AND LEADSEVA 186: Two down, one to goJoe Latrell - Spaceflight InsiderOn Wednesday, Barry Wilmore and Terry Virts completed their second of three spacewalks to install cabling on the outside of the International Space Station (ISS).Russia Will Spin-Off ISS Parts for New Space StationIrene Klotz - Discovery NewsThe Russian space agency Roscosmos says it will support U.S. plans to keep the International Space Station (ISS) operating through 2024, but then wants to split off three still-to-be launched modules to form a new, independent orbital outpost.US Needs a Mars Colony, Buzz Aldrin Tells SenatorsMike Wall - Space.comThe United States must do more than just plant a flag on Mars if it wants to continue as a leader in the field of space exploration, Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin told senators this week.Why Astronaut Ron Garan Thinks We Should Colonize The Moon Before MarsEmily Tess Katz - Huffington PostAs the Dutch-based Mars One venture continues to narrow down candidates for its one-way mission to the red planet, the idea of a permanent human settlement in space is seeming less far-fetched.NASA, Orbital ATK to Debut 'Flight-Like Avionics' During Upcoming SLS Booster FiringEmily Carney - AmericaSpaceWhile its first test flight may be 3.5 years out, NASA is hard at work developing its successor to the Apollo era's mighty Saturn V, which launched a generation of astronauts beyond Earth's confines to the Moon.NASA's Earth Sciences Division to celebrate busiest year in more than a decadeZen Vuong - Pasadena Star-NewsFriday marks the most active year NASA's Earth Sciences Division has had in more than a decade thanks to the launching of five orbiters in the past 12 months.The Father of SETI: Q&A with Astronomer Frank DrakeLeonard David - Space.comDetecting signals from intelligent aliens is a lifelong quest of noted astronomer Frank Drake. He conducted the first modern search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) experiment in 1960. More than five decades later, the hunt remains front-and-center for the scientist.Pete Worden Leaving NASA To Pursue Private Sector DreamsBrian Berger and Dan Leone – Space NewsSimon "Pete" Worden, the retired U.S. Air Force brigadier general who transformed NASA Ames Research Center into an incubator for innovative public and private space projects, is stepping down as the director of the Silicon Valley facility "to pursue some long-held dreams in the private sector," he announced Feb. 25 via email.U.S. rocket launch pad repair set to halt in funding spatIrene Klotz - ReutersWork to repair a Virginia-owned launch pad damaged by an Orbital ATK rocket explosion is about to halt amid a debate about who should pick up the bill, according to officials in the dispute.Would you take a balloon to the edge of space?The Arizona-based World View is developing a potential alternative to Virgin Galactic's pricey jaunts beyond the atmosphere.Rowena Lindsay - Christian Science MonitorThe idea of extending the tourist industry into space is not new, but it has picked up steam in the last few years. It is no longer seen as an impossibility that, someday, a human could go to space without needing a science degree or tens of millions of dollars.COMPLETE STORIESEVA 186: Two down, one to goJoe Latrell - Spaceflight InsiderOn Wednesday, Barry Wilmore and Terry Virts completed their second of three spacewalks to install cabling on the outside of the International Space Station (ISS).Both astronauts started at 6:52 a.m. EST. The primary focus was the continued preparation for the arrival of a set of docking adapters for commercial crew vehicles. Both Boeing and SpaceX are targeting commercial crew missions to the ISS some time in 2017. In addition to the running of power cables, Wilmore and Virts also lubricated the Latching End Effector on the Canadarm2—the robotic arm on board the station. Virts spent more than two hours lubricating the intricate capture mechanisms on the end of the station's Canadian-built robot arm. The team also prepared the Tranquility module for the upcoming reconfiguration of the docking adapters. While they did have issues with a protective cover during the walk, all the planned work was completed successfully.Even with minor difficulties, the duo finished early enough that they were able to perform some get-ahead work in advance of Sunday's third and final spacewalk. The spacewalk officially ended at 1:34 p.m. EST when Wilmore and Virts closed the hatch leading inside the station.The mission was not without its mishaps, however. Virts' spacesuit developed a water leak. He reported a small amount of water in his helmet when he returned to the station's airlock. European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti told flight controllers in Houston, "Terry was saying he's got some water in his helmet, he just noticed it a minute ago. It's about 3 inches in diameter, it's kind of pooling on the front side of the helmet above his eye level, and he does feel a little bit of squishiness in the back of the HAP (helmet absorption pad)." The fact that the pad was only moist and not saturated indicated the leak occurred late in the spacewalk.NASA engineers have determined that the leak was not from the drinking water supply system. The leak may to be similar to the one experienced by Luca Parmitano during his spacewalk in 2013. The engineers will be troubleshooting the issue to see if a resolution is possible before the next spacewalk on Sunday.This marks the 186th spacewalk performed by astronauts, though it is also being called EVA-30.Wilmore and Virts will start the third and final spacewalk on Sunday, March 1 at 7:10 a.m. NASA TV coverage begins at 6:00 a.m.Russia Will Spin-Off ISS Parts for New Space StationIrene Klotz - Discovery NewsThe Russian space agency Roscosmos says it will support U.S. plans to keep the International Space Station (ISS) operating through 2024, but then wants to split off three still-to-be launched modules to form a new, independent orbital outpost.The announcement this week by a senior planning board reverses previous statements by Russian officials that Russia would end involvement in the 15-nation program in 2020 when current agreements expire.Despite occasional rhetoric, the Russian-U.S. space marriage has been largely left out of growing economic and political tensions stemming from Russia's invasion of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula last year.The new Russian commitment puts pressure on station partners Europe, Japan and Canada, to fund a four-year extension as well, but those decisions are pending."This is excellent news, especially when read between the rhetoric. ISS is a key global symbol," former station commander and Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield wrote on Twitter.Once it pulls out of the international outpost, Russia plans to reposition three of its modules, none of which have yet been launched, to form the base of a new, Russian-owned and operated orbital outpost. In part, Russia plans to use its station as a steppingstone and proving ground for human expeditions to the moon, a translation of a statement posted on Roscosmos' website shows."Detailed study and the final decisions are planned after the synthesis of reports of heads of rocket and space industry in subsequent meetings," Yuri Koptev, chairman of the Roscosmos' Scientific and Technical Council and former head of the Russian space agency, said in the statement."Most importantly … there was a general coordinated point of view. (The council) approved the basic concept of the Russian manned space flight until 2025. We will take into account possible changes in funding, and the program will be updated," he said.The Moscow Times reports that under President Vladimir Putin, "the space program has seen a measurable increase in funding, with a large 1.8 trillion ruble ($29 billion) boost pledged last year to cover Russia's space activities through 2020."An overall budget for Russia's space program through 2025 has not been announced, the paper added, noting that the value of the ruble has declined dramatically relative to the dollar since the start of 2014.Russia's Zarya module, launched in 1998, was the building block of the International Space Station. Zvezda was launched two years later and serves as the outpost's control module. NASA built the station's exterior truss along with power, cooling and communications systems and installed laboratory modules owned by the United States, Europe and Japan. Canada owns the station's robotic arm.The partners have been dependent on Russia to fly crews to the station since NASA retired its space shuttle fleet in 2011. A reconfiguration of the station is underway to prepare for new commercially owned space taxis that are slated to begin flying astronauts from Florida again in 2017.US Needs a Mars Colony, Buzz Aldrin Tells SenatorsMike Wall - Space.comThe United States must do more than just plant a flag on Mars if it wants to continue as a leader in the field of space exploration, Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin told senators this week."In my opinion, there is no more convincing way to demonstrate American leadership for the remainder of this century than to commit to a permanent presence on Mars," Aldrin told members of the U.S. Senate's Subcommittee on Space, Science and Competitiveness during a hearing Tuesday (Feb. 24).Going to Mars without setting up a colony — launching only round-trip manned missions, in other words — would not be enough, nor would setting up human outposts on the moon, Aldrin said."Lunar settlements will only require a small step for the other nations to catch up," he said.Buzz Aldrin, who set foot on the moon just after Neil Armstrong in July 1969, has developed an architecture to establish a Mars colony, with the first manned Red Planet landings envisioned in 2038. He sketched out the basics for the senators."It's an integrated plan that knits together return[ing] to the moon on a commercial and international basis, leveraging asteroid rendezvous, and settling Mars on a carefully developed risk-mitigation architecture," Aldrin said. "It includes the use of a robotic cycler between Mars and Earth that will revolutionize the economics and safety aspects of human missions to Mars."Two other former NASA astronauts, Walt Cunningham and Mike Massimino, also spoke to the subcommittee Tuesday, and both were bullish on manned Mars exploration.Indeed, Massimino said the benefits of human missions to Mars would probably be extensive and long-lasting. He cited the many life-improving spinoffs that came out of the Apollo and space shuttle programs, and the likelihood that humanity will need to find a second home in the solar system at some point, to ensure its survival in case something catastrophic should happen here on Earth."Mars might be that place. So if we decide to go there, it's giving us another option," said Massimino, who flew on two space shuttle missions that serviced NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, in 2002 and 2009."I really see it as an investment in our future, to inspire our young kids — and also, I think, to help our country and our economy for many years to come," he added. "I think it would be a glorious thing to do."Cunningham, the lunar module pilot on the Apollo 7 mission to Earth orbit in 1968, told the senators that Mars is the next frontier in human spaceflight, and if the United States doesn't lead a Red Planet effort, someone else will.But getting people to Mars will be difficult and expensive, Cunningham said, estimating that a manned Red Planet project could cost up to three times as much as the Apollo moon program. (Apollo's price tag was about $110 billion in today's dollars.)That's too expensive for NASA to pull off at its current budget level, Cunningham said. These days, the space agency gets about a 0.5 percent share of the federal budget, compared to 4.5 percent at the height of the Apollo program."The budget has got to go up for NASA," Cunningham said. "NASA's budget is way too low to do the things that we talked about doing here this afternoon."Why Astronaut Ron Garan Thinks We Should Colonize The Moon Before MarsEmily Tess Katz - Huffington PostAs the Dutch-based Mars One venture continues to narrow down candidates for its one-way mission to the red planet, the idea of a permanent human settlement in space is seeming less far-fetched.But in a conversation with HuffPost Live on Wednesday, NASA astronaut Ron Garan, whose space travels include a six-month stay on Expedition 27 to the International Space Station in 2011, revealed that he thinks there's a better option than Mars for a first attempt at interplanetary colonization: the moon."I think we have a long, long way to go both figuratively and literally to get to Mars," Garan told host Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani. "There's many steps, I think, and I think personally what makes sense as a next step in space exploration is to establish a transportation infrastructure between the Earth and the moon and to determine a permanent human presence on the moon."Providing routine missions to the moon and creating a base for humans there will offer a means of exploring "the entire solar system, including Mars," Garan said. For instance, with a natural supply of water, spaceships could refuel on the moon. He explained:"There's water on the moon and water equals rocket fuel, because that's hydrogen and oxygen. It is really hard to launch anything from the surface of the Earth because of the gravitational pull of the Earth. There's one-sixth gravitational pull on the moon, so if we're launching anything from the moon, we have to expend a lot less energy which is a lot less resources, a lot less money, to get to where we want to go.Not too shabby!NASA, Orbital ATK to Debut 'Flight-Like Avionics' During Upcoming SLS Booster FiringEmily Carney - AmericaSpaceWhile its first test flight may be 3.5 years out, NASA is hard at work developing its successor to the Apollo era's mighty Saturn V, which launched a generation of astronauts beyond Earth's confines to the Moon.NASA's newest launch vehicle, which will take the next generation of astronauts and space explorers to destinations such as Mars, asteroids, and deep space, continues to come together. On Wednesday, March 11, Orbital ATK will conduct a a full-scale test fire of the company's Space Launch System (SLS) booster test article, Qualification Motor-1 (QM-1), at its facilities in Promontory, Utah. The company announced last week that a "flight-like" set of avionics will be part of the QM-1 test article, which will mark the first time in spaceflight history that this kind of system will be included in a booster firing test.During this upcoming booster test, the avionics system will be as close to flight conditions as possible in order to sort out any unknowns that may occur during ascent, and, according to NASA, "further validate the design and test the system performance in the conditions the boosters will experience on the pad and during flight." NASA and Orbital ATK engineers discussed the motivation behind this rigorous kind of testing.Eric Corder, avionics system manager for the SLS Booster Element at Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Ala., stated: "We are designing a system for a human-rated vehicle that has to be at a minimum single-fault tolerant, which means no one failure on a critical system can result in a big problem for the mission. We don't want the rocket to just operate the way it's supposed to. Our team intentionally implements failure scenarios to the electronics to make sure, for example, a shorted circuit or faulty box doesn't compromise mission success. That's even an issue that may have a one-in-10,000 chance of occurring."We're going through millions of possible failure scenarios all the way down to the individual circuits within the boxes. It's not easy to do. We may think we have everything right in the design, and then a failure occurs during testing that we weren't expecting at all. We have to go back and figure those things out. That's why it takes so long to develop and test a human-rated avionics system."Jennifer Graham, Orbital ATK systems integration test engineer, added, "We are really starting to look through the microscope, so to speak, at the parts that make up this system to ensure they function properly."The avionics system, which according to NASA is "responsible for igniting, steering and jettison of the solid rocket boosters for SLS," was delivered to Marshall (where SLS is being developed) in early February from Orbital ATK's Avionics Lab in Clearfield, Utah. The system was developed by NASA, Orbital ATK, and L-3 Cincinnati Electronics of Mason, Ohio.A previous AmericaSpace article detailed the history of SLS's booster development. Mike Killian wrote:" … Booster avionics and control tests were complete in December 2013. Booster avionics testing was completed in April 2014, and completion of a significant structural test of the booster's main attachment mechanism, the forward skirt, was completed in May 2014. Final validation testing of the booster aft skirt avionics command and control system was successfully completed in August 2014 with an off-motor aft skirt hot-fire test, which represented the last phase of testing for the final validation that planning, engineering, scripts, equipment, and people are all ready for the upcoming QM-1 static test fire."Killian added, "[Orbital] ATK expects to conduct a second QM booster test fire, QM-2, a year after QM-1, and booster avionics qualification efforts are in work and will be incorporated into the vehicle qualification effort, the Design Certification Review, which is scheduled for completion in 2016."The SLS launch vehicle will be powered by two of the boosters and four RS-25 engines—the same kind of engines used during the space shuttle program (albeit with several modifications). In January, the first successful static test fire of a development RS-25 engine took place at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.The first test flight of SLS integrated with the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV), and the European Space Agency's Service Module (ESM), Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), is slated to take place in late 2018. This flight, which will be powered in part by two of the world's largest boosters, measuring at 177 feet long, will take an Orion capsule beyond low-Earth orbit to a trans-lunar trajectory. It will be the first time a spacecraft meant for humans has been to the Moon since the Apollo 17 mission, which launched and returned to Earth in December 1972. NASA's recent Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) mission, which took place on Dec. 5 last year, has been described as a nearly "flawless" test of the Orion capsule's systems.NASA's next "big shot" will certainly be one for the history books, and March's booster test will aid in further propelling SLS to space.NASA's Earth Sciences Division to celebrate busiest year in more than a decadeZen Vuong - Pasadena Star-NewsFriday marks the most active year NASA's Earth Sciences Division has had in more than a decade thanks to the launching of five orbiters in the past 12 months.NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) orbiter blasted off from Japan exactly a year ago today. The pioneering international satellite constellation produces revolutionary new data that will answer questions about the life-sustaining water cycle and improve weather forecasting and water resource management."What the view from space has given us is an ability to see the entire globe in multiple dimensions and multiple ways," said Peg Luce, deputy director of the Earth Science Division in NASA's Science Mission Directorate Headquarters in D.C. "It's completely transformed our understanding of the Earth, yet we have a high regard for the accuracy of our data, so there's always an extensive calibration program and that can often include ground-based, ship-based or airborne campaigns or sensors."So they work together, but certainly the ground-based can't possibly give the type of global understanding that you could get from a suite of measurements."A group of five NASA panelists participated in a teleconference Thursday to brief about early results derived from the GPM Core Observatory, Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2, International Space Station RapidScat, Cloud-Aerosol Transport System, and recently launched Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite.Three of the five missions are managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge.Although some of the data is available online for the public, all of the information is free and available to the international scientific community and world-wide decision makers."This isthe beginning of a really strong replenishment of the current fleet we have in orbit," Luce said. "We are anticipating launches of over a dozen new missions in the next eight years or so."Including two instruments mounted on the International Space Station, NASA now has 20 operational Earth-observing space missions."This has been a phenomenally productive year for NASA in our mission to explore our complex planet from the unique vantage point of space," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in a statement. "Combined with data from our other Earth-observing spacecraft, these new missions give us new insights into how Earth works as a system."Last month, NASA released data from a dozen-strong international satellite network and the Core Observatory, providing the agency's most comprehensive global rain and snowfall analysis since the GPM mission began. Its first visualization of rain and snow was released Thursday."Precipitation is one of the phases (of Earth's cycles) where climate change is going to be noticed by most humans," said Gail Skofronick-Jackson, GPM project scientist.As California enters what could be a fourth year of record-breaking drought, satellites such as SMAP, which looks at soil moisture, could help determine how much rainfall is needed before rainwater begins to replenish depleted reservoirs and aquifers.Launched on Jan. 31, SMAP completed a key milestone Tuesday when it deployed its 20-foot-wide reflector antenna, which, in a month, will begin rotating at 15 revolutions per minute. The satellite will map the entire globe's soil moisture every two to three days.Initial data from the SMAP mission will be available in April, Luce said.The Father of SETI: Q&A with Astronomer Frank DrakeLeonard David - Space.comDetecting signals from intelligent aliens is a lifelong quest of noted astronomer Frank Drake. He conducted the first modern search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) experiment in 1960. More than five decades later, the hunt remains front-and-center for the scientist.Drake also devised a thought experiment in 1961 to identify specific factors believed to play a role in the development of civilizations in our galaxy. This experiment took the form of an equation that researchers have used to estimate the possible number of alien civilizations — the famous Drake Equation.Drake constructed the "Arecibo Message" of 1974 — the first interstellar message transmitted via radio waves from Earth for the benefit of any extraterrestrial civilization that may be listening.Space.com caught up with Drake to discuss the current state of SETI during an exclusive interview at the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) 2015 symposium, which was held here from Jan. 27 to Jan. 29.Drake serves on the NASA NIAC External Council and is chairman emeritus of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif. and director of the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe.Space.com: What's your view today concerning the status of SETI?Frank Drake: The situation with SETI is not good. The enterprise is falling apart for lack of funding. While NASA talks about "Are we alone?" as a number one question, they are putting zero money into searching for intelligent life. There's a big disconnect there.We're on the precipice. The other thing is that there are actually negative events on the horizon that are being considered.Space.com: And those are?Drake: There are two instruments, really the powerful ones for answering the "are we alone" question … the Arecibo telescope and the Green Bank Telescope. They are the world's two largest radio telescopes, and both of them are in jeopardy. There are movements afoot to close them down … dismantle them. They are both under the National Science Foundation and they are desperate to cut down the amount of money they are putting into them. And their choice is to just shut them down or to find some arrangement where somebody else steps in and provides funding.So this is the worst moment for SETI. And if they really pull the rug out from under the Green Bank Telescope and Arecibo … it's suicide.Space.com: What happens if they close those down?Drake: We're all then sitting in our living rooms and watching science fiction movies.Space.com: How about the international scene?Drake: The international scene has gone down too because all the relevant countries are cash-strapped also.There is a major effort in China, a 500-meter [1,640 feet] aperture spherical radio telescope. The entire reflector is under computer control with actuators. They change the shape of the reflector depending on what direction they are trying to look. The technology is very complicated and challenging. The Russians tried it and it never worked right. But … there are serious resources there.Space.com: Why isn't SETI lively and bouncing along fine given all the exoplanet detections?Drake: You would think. All those planetary detections are the greatest motivator to do SETI that we ever had. But it hasn't had any impact, at least yet.Space.com: How do you reconcile the fact that exoplanet discoveries are on the upswing, yet mum's the word from ET?Drake: People say that all the time … saying that you've been searching for years and now you've searched thousands of stars and found nothing. Why don't you just give up … isn't that the sensible thing?There's a good answer to all that. Use the well-known equation and put in the parameters as we know them. A reasonable lifetime of civilizations is like 10,000 years, which is actually much more than we can justify with our own experience. It works out one in every 10 million stars will have a detectable signal. That's the actual number. That means, to have a good chance to succeed, you have to look at a million stars at least — and not for 10 minutes — for at least days because the signal may vary in intensity. We haven't come close to doing that. We just haven't searched enough.Space.com: What are we learning about habitable zones?Drake: Actually the case is very much stronger for a huge abundance of life. The story seems to be that almost every star has a planetary system … and also the definition of "habitable zone" has expanded. In our system, it used to be that only Mars and Earth were potentially habitable. Now we've got an ocean on Europa … Titan.The habitable zone goes out. A habitable zone is not governed just by how far you are from the star, but what your atmosphere is. If you've got a lot of atmosphere, you've got a greenhouse effect. And that means the planet can be much farther out and be habitable.Space.com: What is your view on the debate regarding active SETI — purposely broadcasting signals to extraterrestrials?Drake: There is controversy. I'm very against sending, by the way. I think it's crazy because we're sending all the time. We have a huge leak rate. It has been going on for years. There is benefit in eavesdropping, and you would have learned everything you can learn through successful SETI searches. There's all kinds of reasons why sending makes no sense.That reminds me of something else. We have learned, in fact, that gravitational lensing works. If they [aliens] use their star as a gravitational lens, they get this free, gigantic, super-Arecibo free of charge. They are not only picking up our radio signals, but they have been seeing the bonfires of the ancient Egyptians. They can probably tell us more about ourselves than we know … they've been watching all these years.Space.com: Can you discuss the new optical SETI efforts that you are involved with? You want to search for very brief bursts of optical light possibly sent our way by an extraterrestrial civilization to indicate their presence to us.Drake: It's alive and well. We've gotten a couple of people who are actually giving major gifts. There's no funding problem. There is a new instrument that has been built, and it's going to be installed at the Lick Observatory [in California] in early March.The whole thing is designed to look for laser flashes. The assumption is — and this is where it gets to be tenuous — the extraterrestrials are doing us a favor. It does depend on extraterrestrials helping you by targeting you. These stellar beams are so narrow that you've got to know the geometry of the solar system that you're pointing it at. They want to communicate. They have to be intent on an intentional signal specifically aimed at us. That's a big order. So there are required actions on the part of the extraterrestrials for this to work. The big plus is that it's cheap and relatively easy to do.Pete Worden Leaving NASA To Pursue Private Sector DreamsBrian Berger and Dan Leone – Space NewsSimon "Pete" Worden, the retired U.S. Air Force brigadier general who transformed NASA Ames Research Center into an incubator for innovative public and private space projects, is stepping down as the director of the Silicon Valley facility "to pursue some long-held dreams in the private sector," he announced Feb. 25 via email.In response to a SpaceNews query, Worden said he does not have a job lined up, but that he has his eye on academia. "I've just started discussions but I will likely focus on the educational area," Worden said.Long before fellow Strategic Defense Initiative Office alumnus Mike Griffin tapped Worden in 2006 to run Ames, Worden had already earned a reputation as space maverick through is involvement with the Pentagon-funded Clementine lunar orbiter — which Worden once described as "basically a sneaky space weapon test" — and the Delta Clipper reusable launch vehicle program.Worden took over the Strategic Defense Initiative's technology portfolio when Griffin — who would eventually become NASA administrator — left the the Pentagon post in 1989 to run NASA's stillborn Space Exploration Initiative."I took his old job as the head of technology in the missile defense program. I was only there two years, but it was a neat job," Worden said in a 2007 interview for the NASA oral history project "I was the world's second richest colonel after [Muammar al-] Qaddafi. I had $2 billion a year to spend."Still, Worden told SpaceNews that the nine years he spent at Ames were the most enjoyable of his 40 years of public service."In the last nine years we have launched dozens of small, low-cost satellites – and helped ignite a major new industry in this area. Ames people have revitalized space biology and begun to apply the new field of synthetic biology," Worden said via email Feb. 26. "Ames has provided entry technology for the emerging commercial space launch sector. We have helped launch small satellites working with a number of nations. And we've hosted and inspired thousands of students."Worden, in his email to Ames employees, said he will hold an all-hands meeting Feb. 27 "to answer your questions and to share with you as much information as I'm able to provide."NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a Feb. 26 memo of his own that Worden informed him that day of his decision to retire. "He is an innovative leader, and a tireless advocate for change who has well-positioned Ames and its people for the future exploration opportunities facing this agency," Bolden wrote.U.S. rocket launch pad repair set to halt in funding spatIrene Klotz - ReutersWork to repair a Virginia-owned launch pad damaged by an Orbital ATK rocket explosion is about to halt amid a debate about who should pick up the bill, according to officials in the dispute.The Oct. 28, 2014 accident at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS), located on Wallops Island, Virginia, caused about $20 million in damages to the state-owned launch pad. Orbital was launching its third Antares rocket for NASA under a $1.9 billion contract to fly cargo to the International Space Station.Orbital had insurance to cover its losses at Wallops, as well as damage to federal property and other entities as required by the Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees commercial launches in the United States. That insurance, however, does not cover the MARS pad owned by Virginia, according to spokespeople for the company and the FAA."We looked at insurance for the pad, but the coverage was inadequate to our needs, and to the extent it was available, was exorbitantly costly," MARS Executive Director Dale Nash wrote in an email.To cover the repair costs, Virginia has turned to U.S. taxpayers, successfully lobbying for a $20 million addition to NASA's 2015 budget as part of the Omnibus spending bill Congress passed and President Obama signed in December.Those funds, however, have not yet been released, said NASA spokesman Allard Beutel.Nash confirmed reports that the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, which oversees the spaceport, will be out of money by the end of the month for repair work."Cleanup and repairs have continued within the limits of the operating budget," Nash said. "Major purchases and reconstruction tasks are ready to proceed once the monies appropriated by Congress are released."Virginia spent about $100 million to build its launch site, which is located on land leased from NASA.Meanwhile, Orbital said it is working with NASA and Virginia to come to an agreement on funding launch pad repairs."We are optimistic that we are nearing a path forward that is agreeable to all parties and will enable work to continue without disruption," said Orbital spokesman Barry Beneski.Would you take a balloon to the edge of space?The Arizona-based World View is developing a potential alternative to Virgin Galactic's pricey jaunts beyond the atmosphere.Rowena Lindsay - Christian Science MonitorThe idea of extending the tourist industry into space is not new, but it has picked up steam in the last few years. It is no longer seen as an impossibility that, someday, a human could go to space without needing a science degree or tens of millions of dollars.There remains, however, the matter of hurtling oneself out of the stratosphere in a rocket at thousands of miles per hour, which is not for everyone.For those seeking a gentler ascent, an Arizona-based company called World View is developing an alternative form of travel, namely, lofting passengers more than 100,000 feet up in a huge balloon.Recommended: Are you a space whiz? Take our quiz!World View's passengers would not actually be going into space: The internationally recognized Kármán Line lies at 62 miles above sea level, or about 328,000 feet. But this is at least high up enough to view the curve of the Earth and the black expanse above.Now floating aimlessly in Earth's upper atmosphere may seem lackluster compared to Virgin Galactic's flashy SpaceShipTwo, which is designed to go just over the Kármán Line, but the price is attractive: A flight aboard SpaceShipTwo will set you back $250,000, a ticket on a World View balloon is just $75,000, a price that is still admittedly not cheap.On Feb. 20, World View successfully completed a test flight, sending its balloon 102,200 feet into the atmosphere. The balloon itself was attached to a parafoil, an aerodynamic parachute designed for high-altitude travel, and no such device has traveled as high into the atmosphere before.During the upward flight the balloon would do the work, before detaching and allowing the parafoil to guide the crew capsule back to earth."The successful flight of the parafoil at this altitude brings us closer to flying private citizens safely to the edge of space and also allows us to continue our research and education program by providing safe access to the near-space environment," Taber MacCallum, World View's Chief Technology Officer, said in a press release.While World View has not yet tested the balloon with passengers, Popular Science reported that this last test included a computer system and high-definition video link from Montana State University and a technology that measures ozone gas the University of North Florida. The data gathered will help inform future development of the balloon.The company hopes to begin allowing tourists onto commercial flights beginning in 2016."Part of our goal with World View is to provide a perspective-changing view of our world," World View CEO Jane Poynter said in a press release. "Our Voyagers will witness our Earth suspended in the inky blackness of space, then see it illuminated by a spectacular sunrise. So many astronauts have gone to space to see infinity, but when they turn around and see Earth they fall in love with it. It shifts the way they think about things and we want to give that experience to as many people as possible."ENDMore at www.spacetoday.net
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