The House Appropriations Committee restored funding for three NASA centers and several space science projects on July 18 but slashed funding for NASA's environmental studies program, reversing the recommendations made by an appropriations subcommittee earlier in July.
The full House also defeated an effort to transfer money from the space station to housing and health care projects.
The Appropriations Committee, marking up the budget passed July 11 by the subcommittee for Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development, and independent agencies, approved a budget of $13.67 billion for NASA for fiscal year 1996. The budget includes $132 million more than the subcommittee's recommendations, but still falls $589 million short of the Clinton Administration's original request.
The committee voted to restore funds to three NASA centers that were to be closed under the subcommittee's plan. The three centers were the Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, Maryland, outside Washington; the Langley Research Center, in Hampton, Virginia, near Norfolk; and the Marshall Space Flight Center, in Huntsville, Alabama.
The committee also voted to restore $249 million for the Cassini mission, a project to send an unmanned spacecraft to the planet Saturn. Cassini is scheduled for launch in 1997. Two infrared astronomy projects that the subcommittee had planned to delay had their funding partially restored by the committee.
To partially offset the additional spending, the committee voted to cut $332 million from NASA's Mission to Planet Earth, a project that will place advanced satellites in orbit to monitor various aspects of the Earth's environment. The program had been fully funded by the subcommittee, receiving $1.3 billion for 1996.
The committee approved the subcommittee's request for full funding for both the space shuttle and the international space station program, for a combined total of $5.5 billion.
On July 27, the full House of Representatives defeated an amendment that would have killed the space station project and distributed the funds to public housing and health care programs. The amendment, sponsored by Rep. David Obey (D-WI) was defeated by the margin of 299-126.
The original decision to close the three NASA centers may have been rooted in political bickering. The chairman of the House appropriations subcommittee that cut NASA's budget, Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), had been unhappy with NASA's internal efforts to cut costs and NASA officials' unwillingness to discuss those plans with Congress.
In addition, many of jobs currently at the Goddard Space Flight Center would have been moved to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, had the closings been approved. Lewis represents a district in southern California near JPL.
The decision to cut funding for Mission to Planet Earth represents one sign of a new direction Congress is trying to give NASA. On July 17, Representatives James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and Robert Walker (R-PA) introduced an authorization bill for NASA. The bill calls for NASA to move away from expensive operations programs and conduct more basic research.
"The NASA Authorization Act moves NASA out of large, operational programs, such as the space shuttle and Mission to Planet Earth, in order to focus on those things that it does best: learning to live and work in space, space exploration, basic aeronautical research, and space science," Walker said.
The bill calls for NASA to delay some aspects of the Mission to Planet Earth to allow the agency to restructure the program. One option is to privatize some parts of the program by letting commercial interests build and maintain satellites for NASA.
Walker is chairman of the House Science Committee and Sensenbrenner is chairman of the Science Committee's space subcommittee.
[Editor's Note: This article is based on an article written by the author for the July 19 issue of the American Reporter, an Internet-based electronic newspaper. The original article can be read on the World Wide Web at the URL http://newshare.com/Reporter/archives/reporter07-19.2.html ]
Engineers have traced a recent problem with the shuttle's solid rocket booster O-rings to a change in the assembly of the boosters, but a solution to the problem with has grounded the shuttle fleet is still up to a week away.
Air pockets in liquid rubber insulation may allow hot exhaust gases to penetrate the insulation and singe the O-rings. The insulation is used in the nozzle of the boosters to protect the O-rings from the exhaust.
Officials at Thiokol Corporation, makers of the boosters, reported that they had changed the assembly process for the boosters and were injecting more liquid rubber into the nozzle than the procedures had previously called for. The additional insulation may cause air pockets to form.
The invesigation started after O-ring damage was noticed on the last two shuttle flights. O-rings from both the STS-71 Atlantis-Mir docking mission and the STS-70 Discovery mission were damaged, forcing NASA to delay upcoming missions until the problem was corrected.
Engineers are still working on a procedure to correct the problem in already-manufactured boosters. The solution will probably involve the removal and re-injection of the liquid rubber insulation while the shuttle is on the launch pad.
No launch date has been set for Endeavour, although a launch in late August appears likely. The shuttle, which was to have launch in early August, was rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building earlier in the week as Hurricane Erin approached the Florida coast.
Thirty years to the day after the first spacecraft flew by the planet Mars, NASA officials announced that the rover to be carried aboard the Mars Pathfinder mission has been given a name of its own: "Sojourner".
The rover is named after Sojourner Truth, a 19th-century African-American abolitionist and champion of women's rights. Born Isabella Van Wagener, her mission was to "travel up and down the land" advocating the rights of all people.
The 11.5-kg (25-lb) rover will be carried on the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft that will be launched by a Delta rocket in December 1996. The rover will explore an ancient Martian flood plain after the Discovery-class spacecraft lands on the planet on July 4, 1997.
The announcement comes thirty years after the Mariner 4 spacecraft flew within 10,000 km (6,000 mi) of the Martian surface, beaming back the first close-up images of another planet
The name was selected as part of a contest sponsored by NASA and the Planetary Society. Over 3,500 entries were received, 1,700 from children ages 5 to 18. The winning entry came from Valerie Ambrose, a 12-year-old from Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Other popular entries included Curie, after French physicist and chemist Marie Curie; Resnik, after late astronaut Judith Resnik; and Sacajewea, a native American who traveled with Lewis and Clark.
Two key components of the European Ariane 5 booster were successfully test-fired in late July, paving the way for the first launch of the rocket in early 1996.
On July 24, a solid-fuel booster was tested successfully at ESA's facilities in French Guiana. Four days later, the Ariane 5's upper stage underwent its first long-burn test. The upper stage burned for over 17 minutes, the required time to boost a satellite into geosynchronous orbit. The upper stage test took place at a Daimler-Benz facility in Germany.
The Ariane 5 rocket, which has cost France and its European partners an estimated $5 billion to develop, is scheduled for its first launch in January 1996. The rocket will be capable of placing single satellites up to 6.8 tons in mass, or double-satellite payloads of up to 5.9 tons, into geosynchronous orbit.
Where do you turn when you want to know the shuttle's position right now? How about its current velocity? Or the temperature in the cabin? Thousands of people on the Internet know where to turn: the NASA Shuttle Web.
The NASA Shuttle Web is a set of "pages", or screens of information, on the World Wide Web, a popular Internet medium for transferring text, graphics, animations, and sound. Established in time for the historic Atlantis-Mir docking mission in late June, the site quickly became one of the most popular places on the Web as people around the world looked for the latest information about the mission.
"The basic idea is to provide a 'virtual shuttle mission' where internet visitors can come to feel like they are part of the ongoing flight," said Kelly Humphries of the Johnson Space Center. Humphries leads a team of over 50 NASA and contract employees that administer the pages.
Along the theme of a "virtual mission", the page is divided into four sections. The first section, Preflight, provides information on the upcoming mission, including an updated countdown clock and mission status information. The second section, Launch, follows the shuttle into orbit with updated information on its location and speed. The third section, Orbit, allows people to check up on the status of the mission, including its current location in orbit. Finally, the Landing section follows the shuttle from orbit down to a full stop on the runway.
What makes the NASA Shuttle Web more than just a repackaged set of press releases is the continuously-updated stream of information on the flight. Everything from the basic status of the mission to esoterica like the cabin temperature and humidity is available on the pages. "We have a real-time feed of this data from the mission control room," Daniel McCoy, "webmaster" of the pages, explained. Software converts this data feed into Web pages and places them on the server to be accessed by the public. "This is done every 60 seconds normally and every 15 seconds during launch and landing," McCoy said.
The NASA Shuttle Web was born out a "grassroots" effort by employees of the Marshall space Flight Center's Mission Operations Laboratory, according to Humphries. They created a set of Web pages for the STS-67 Astro-2 mission earlier in the year, providing updated information on the status of mission. NASA was so impressed with the success of the pages -- the pages were accessed 2.6 million times during the mission -- that officials decided to create a permanent presence on the Web for shuttle information.
The historic nature of the STS-71 mission generated even more traffic for the NASA Shuttle Web. The pages were accessed nearly 3 million times by users in 68 countries. According to McCoy, besides the United States, the pages were most popular with users in Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
Word about the success of the pages is getting back to the people who created them. "We have received hundreds of notes and letters from visitors, the vast majority of whom are thrilled with this new method of distributing information about the shuttle," Humphries said. Among the most popular aspects of the pages are the real-time data and images grabbed from NASA TV.
Despite the great success of the NASA Shuttle Web, its creators are not resting on their laurels. According to Humphries, future plans for the Web include more information on the basics of space flight, including orbital mechanics and training. Audio clips will be added in the future, as well as an improved digital tracking feed to display the shuttle's current position in orbit.
The NASA Shuttle Web is accessible to anyone on the World Wide Web at the URL http://shuttle.nasa.gov/
Bars and taverns have always been prominent in science fiction, providing the setting for rendezvous, intrigue, trade and smuggling deals, shanghaiing hapless unwilling ship hands, or just providing comic relief. Many of those in media science fiction have become classic: the cantina on Tatooine where young Luke Skywalker and Obi Wan Kenobi gained the services of Han Solo, Chewbacca, and the Millennium Falcon; Ten Forward on the Enterprise D; Quark's on Deep Space 9.
Yes, bars are also places where alcohol is abused, drug deals made, partners picked up for one night stands, prostitutes engaged, and drunk drivers set loose etc. But the shady side of the bar scene can never discredit the legitimate and useful relief valve functions such places serve. Those uncomfortable with the subject because of tragic family situations need not read on.
The bar for many serves a useful function, on an occasional if not a regular basis. It is a "neutral" scene removed from the stresses of workplace and home. When not abused, alcohol is a tension and stress reliever, and often just as importantly, an inhibition and shyness relaxer. The watering hole is a place where one can go "to talk it out", "get things off the chest". Here one can hope to be listened to, however noncommittally. Here one can tell and trade stories, make plans and launch joint endeavors, think bold and uninhibited thoughts. Here one can socialize, mix, make new acquaintances beyond the small circle provided by the workplace or neighborhood.
One comes here to dance perhaps, or at least to flirt or be titillated by a flirtation; to see and be seen. One can find others with which to share a game of dice, of darts, of pool, maybe even of chess. A lunar bar might boast a wide stock of imported games, electronic, and classical, that most settlers might not be able to afford for themselves. And juke boxes!
Besides coin-metered canned music, where else can one go and listen to live music, enjoying entertainment, skits, comedy, song, even staged bar room brawls - for free or for a modest cover charge? Here to settlers and those on assignment can come to dance, enjoying the freedom of one-sixth gravity.
Here amateurs and others can try their hand (or mouth) at expensive establishment-owned terrestrial musical instruments such as the harmonica, flute, guitar, piano, synthesizer. But many securing a gig at the local pub will bring their own home grown lunar musical instruments: steel (pan) drums made from steel shipping barrel ends, bells, cymbals, "saws", xylophones and marimbas - none of them using wood, copper, or brass which would have to be expensively withdrawn from the settlement biosphere or imported.
The Lunar tavern will be a place where one can come to watch special (sports) telecasts from Earth in the company of other rabid fans. On the other end, bar-sponsored teams could play a major role in the development, refinement, and popularization of uniquely lunar team sports, just as some bars nourish local talent in song, dance, music, comedy and acting.
The first bars beyond Low Earth Orbit will be on board cruise excursion ships looping the Moon and Earth-Moon ferries. Once an outpost is established, the first bar on the Moon will be little more than a small liquor cabinet in the ward room. But ultimately real private establishments open to public will appear as the population on the Moon mounts to the point where such enterprise is worth a try.
What will a lunar bar do for atmosphere (not that many terrestrial bars give it more than a passing thought!)? Lunar bar decor will not, save as the exception that proves the rule, sport rich woodwork or paneling, wooden floors, bar tops, tables, stools etc. Nor will plastics and other synthetics be much in evidence. Economics will make lunar-processed materials the standby: iron and steel, aluminum, cast basalt and ceramic, glass, stained glass, glax (fiberglass-glass matrix composite), concrete and lunacrete, etc. Working with this suite of materials will provide ample and rewarding challenges for lunar interior architects and designers.
The decor of most bars is just thrown together, of course, and there is no reason to expect a higher score for lunar tavernkeepers. But somehow I think that at least the first few will have enough sense of history to try to make their places of business truly distinctive and at the same time pioneer rather than follow decorating trends with the new materials. To organize the setting, there may be a focal point provided by some memento or heirloom from back on old Earth, perhaps even supplying the place with its name: a brass spittoon; a large stein; a shark jaw; a stuffed moose head; a nice quilt; the empty shell of a vintage juke box; a ship porthole - the possibilities are endless.
Or a lunar tavern might have on display an interesting item salvaged from an abandoned or crash-landed spacecraft or settler ferry. Or some other piece of surplus frontier museum-ware like a zero-G johnny.
Not all bars will take their names from such prized possessions. There will be simply Ted's Place, and Cal & Sally's. Other taverns will be named after local geographical features (Crater Rim Bar) or allusions to the dayspan/nightspan cycle (The Long Dawn), shielding (Six Feet Under Bar), or typical lunar occupations (Prospector Pete's, The Dusty Boot). Of course, some bar names may make allusion to missed aspects of the terrestrial experience or to spacefaring lore.
Bars in principal lunar (space) port cities will have a different flavor than those at scenic concessions or at sleepy backwater outposts.
What to drink? Well that's the subject of another article. You might not find your favorite brand or brew but imports or no, people have always found a way to provide! Like schools and churches and other familiar institutions, the tavern too will survive lunar transplantation.
Due to problems with postal delivery of the May-June ballot issue of Ad Astra, the deadline for voting in the 1995 NSS Board of Directors election has been extended to September 8, 1995. Any individual member who was a member of NSS during the month of May and who did not receive a ballot may request a replacement ballot from NSS headquarters (replacement ballots are automatically being sent to members in Australia). Only original or official replacement ballots will be accepted (no xeroxes, faxes, or other copies will be valid). Ballots will be screened for duplication and anyone who votes twice will have their vote disqualified. Replacement ballots will be sent via regular first class mail only (not express mail, fax, etc.), so any requests for replacement ballots must be received in time to allow for this. Ballots must be received by the accounting firm by the deadline date to be counted.
June 1, 1995: Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics speaks on quasars and the Shuttle-Mir docking
Jonathan presented two separate discussions, one on the shuttle-Mir docking mission and one on quasars. This lecture summary will focus on quasars.
To astrophysicists, quasars are the most active objects in the universe. They are also so distant in space/time, 15 billion light years, that they must have formed when the universe had just become transparent. As an example, quasar 3C 273 is less than a light year across, but has a luminosity greater than 100,000 of the brightest galaxies. The mass it burns in a year is equivalent to the mass of the sun. The estimated mass of 3C 273 is about a thousand trillion (quadrillion) times greater the sun.
Jonathan mentioned that there may be the remains of a quasar in the elliptical galaxy M87, a mere 65 million light years away, where astronomers have noted that the velocities and motions of the inner stars appear to be responding to the gravity of a massive black hole equivalent to 50 million suns near the galactic center. It is anticipated that the black hole is the remains of a burnt out quasar, and that this is the typical ending for all quasars. After quasars use up their fuel, they collapse to form tremendously massive black holes which then act as the nuclei for the formation of galaxies.
The event horizon for this object would be about 8000 miles in diameter, or about the equivalent of the size of the earth. This object is spinning rapidly and is surrounded by a thin accretion disk several light years across. Viewed by high resolution radio telescopes, large gas jets emerge from the poles, a million light years long and a few light years across. These are energetic electrons traveling close to the speed of light. The jets terminate after penetrating deeply into cold gas clouds where the energy creates gigantic clouds of x-rays as their motion becomes random from collisions with the gas, and slowed down from relativistic velocities to be captured by local ions.
Quasars were originally discovered by radio telescopes, and because of their strangeness they were called quasi-stellar radio sources which became abbreviated to quasars, probably by a dyslexic astronomer. As with most point sources in the universe, if an object radiates at one set of wavelengths you can bet that it radiates on a lot more. So the radio astronomers passed the location to the visible astronomers who found the source, and became confused. The spectrographic data was inconclusive. The object was reddened, but the absorption lines were vague, and badly distributed. No one could tell if these were red stars in our own galaxy, or objects a tremendous distance away. Eventually, someone took a look way down at the end of the spectrographic plate and reasoned out the strange spread of the lines. They were the missing lines all right, and the quasars were monstous luminous objects that existed soon after the Big Bang. But, to divulge this would lead to disbelief and controversy. It was better to keep ones mouth shut, and quietly find one or two friends to check the data and write a joint paper. Otherwise, you could be laughed off the stage by a group of hysterical astrophysicists.
Once the redshift data was accepted, they knew that they were looking so far back in spacetime that they were seeing events before the formation of the galaxies. The magnitudes that began to come out of their observations were greater than the human mind could possibly conceive. They were observing an early stage of the creation of the universe, essentially the "let there be light..." stage in the Old Testament. The acceptance of this discovery led to the realization that the red colors of the quasars were due to the redshift, but they radiated primarily in the X-ray region. The Hubble Telescope made ultraviolet measurements, the German Rosat measured the X-rays, the International EUV Explorer and the Japanese ASCA filled in the short wavelengths. On earth the VLA and other radio and visible telescopes found a few peculiarities in these objects. The luminosity of 3C 273 has two peaks, the first is in the soft X-ray and ultraviolet parts of the spectrum. The second is in the normal ultraviolet band. Then it tails off through the infrared and millimeter spectrums, definitely not black bodies although the attenuated bands may have been absorbed on their way here. The temperature can be assumed from the shortest wavelength emitted in the X-ray region. A peak wavelength of 10.0 angstroms would indicate a radiant temperature 3 million degrees K.
Observations have also shown that there are variable quasars that can change their luminosity, in some instances, by 40% in a year. This also sets a limit to their size which must be less than a light year across. Otherwise, the variation in the luminosity would be damped by the time that it takes light to travel from one side to the other.
It is estimated that there were originally 14 million quasars. Today, there are about 32,000 left. Most have collapsed into massive black holes that have attracted stars, gas, and dust, forming the nuclei for the accretion of the protogalaxies.
July 13, 1995: Andrew LePage speaks on Soviet unmanned lunar exploration efforts in the late 1960s to mid 1970s.
I was impressed by Andy's depth of knowledge, and the rare photos that he had for his presentation.
When we look back on the early days of space flight, it is amazing how unsophisticated the USA and the USSR were in their rocket designs and launching techniques. The Soviets were ahead of us in manufacturing satellites and launchers. They also had more failures. Yet, they were first to orbit the moon, and also made the first soft landings. Poor navigation sometimes caused their spacecraft to smash into the lunar surface, or miss it completely.
They were also overly ambitious in their attempts to place lunar rovers on the surface, and send samples of moon rocks back to earth. This should have been developed step by step instead of having too many system components that were inadequately tested which led to catastrophic failures. Much of this was due to lack of knowledge of the space environment and the pressure of the government to beat the US in the race to the moon.
Their primary launch vehicle was the Proton-D which was launched approximately every four to six weeks through 1969 where only one flight met with complete success. The number of launches was decreased to four in 1970 when they began to improve the reliability of their equipment and their launch pad preflight checkouts.
Of these four launches, three were successful. An unmanned command module circled the moon and returned safely to earth. A lunar sample was picked up after a soft landing and returned to earth, and a lunar rover, Lunakhod-1, explored the lunar terrain for 11 months.
After the Apollo landings the Soviet effort became sporadic with about two launches a year with seven more flights from 1972 through 1976, four of these were successes. Apollo had captured the world's imagination, and there was little enthusiasm for the Russian moon effort, so that too died.
In the meantime the Russians had changed their target and were busy in developing their manned space program. This is a well programmed, scientific effort where they are discovering the effects of weightlessness on the human body and attempting to reduce the long term effects. Already, they have a space station. We are still discussing ours.
Our August meeting has a different date and time!! Join us for a potluck party at Roxanne Warnier's house (5 Driftwood Rd., Acton), rain or shine! Bring your family or guests and your favorite summer picnic food. We'll have badminton, frisbee, a kid's pool and fun. We will also plan a shuttle to the West Concord commuter train station for our commuting picnic-ers. RSVP to Roxanne at (508) 266-2625. See you there!
Look for more information about Chip's talk in next month's issue of SpaceViews.
This is a series of comic tragedies caused by poor communications, lack of knowledge, and the need of firm direction by NASA, which ended in a farce. I will let the audience decide if it was a tragedy, or a comedy. When I worked on it, I found it to be humorous.
Bruce Mattson, the Flight Director at the Challenger Learning Center at Framingham State College, will give a presentation. More information on the subject of his presentation will be provided in a future issue of SpaceViews.
PASA meets regularly for a business luncheon and formal meeting from 1-3 pm, the third Saturday of every month at Smart Alex Restaurant, Sheraton University City, 35th & Chestnut. 2 hours of free parking with validation.
Scheduled activities: Wed., Sept. 6th, informal meeting. Sat., Sept. 16th, formal meeting.
July 8th meeting: Earl Bennett gave a Technical report on Mir-Space Shuttle docking, and use of silicon carbide for semiconductors. Mitch Gordon gave NSS report on Inside NSS, new NSS brochure, and NSS Apollo 13 brochure. Dorothy Kurtz gave Planetary Society report on Steps to Mars in Washington DC: Michelle, Earl, and Dottie going. Michelle gave PSFS report: they are not interested in sharing a table at Super Sunday because the cost has gone up to $150/table, so we will not exhibit for the first time in recent memory. After setting up our display for Space Week at the UA theater at Penns Landing (showing Apollo 13), PASA members will go to the Alan Shepard book signing in King of Prussia.
* indicates a new or updated event
The C.I.S. manned space station Mir with cosmonauts Commander Anatoliy Y. Solovyev and Flight engineer Nikolai M. Budarin, will be appearing in the pre-dawn skies July 24th till August 12th and then re-appearing in the dusk skies August 12 to September 4th.
Amateur radio operators can log into the Mir 'Packet' (R0MIR-1) BBS on 145.550 MHz. The cosmonauts also use this freq. to talk with amateur radio operators on the ground during their off-hours.
For exact times and locations to see the space station over your backyard call MN MIRWATCH Coordinator Ben Huset at (612) 639-9109. This info is also available on the MN SFS computer BBS at (612) 459-0892 (300-14,400 baud). Look for MIRWATCH and other great space stuff on my web page at http://www.skypoint.com/members/benhuset.
Norm Thagard was quick to downplay or deny any negative reports of his stay aboard Mir. He pointed out his 17.5 lb. weight loss was due to a snafu with food packaging and NOT his dislike of the food. They had initially asked for the crew to log, via bar code labels, for just a few weeks, the food they ate. They later upped this requirement to ALL the food they ate during the mission. Yet they forgot to barcode ALL the food. This prevented him from eating as much food as he wanted. The other cosmonauts ignored the logging requirement and ate unbarcoded food but Norm ate just the bar coded food. In hindsight he said he should have eaten unbarcoded food too.
The cultural isolation issue was not an issue for Norm. It didn't bother him and he always had the amateur radio available to him if he wanted to talk to someone 'in English'. He made many amateur radio contacts around the world during his stay aboard Mir. He said that his other comments were 'JUST observations and NOT complaints'.
As mentioned in the June 'MIRWATCH', an on-orbit photo op was conducted with the Soyuz undocking and taking photos of the shuttle as it undocked and then the shuttle photographed the Soyuz re-docking with Mir. All turned out OK. There was concern during the event because the Sun's glare ruined most of the videos shot by the shuttle. The activities of rendezvous took up more of the crew time than they had planned, thus fewer pictures were taken than planned. Only one of the video cameras captured the Soyuz re-docking. The re-docking procedure was shortened by several minutes when the Soyuz was commanded to dock with Mir, ASAP! The computer aboard MIR, which controlled the station's attitude and solar array pointing, stopped working, and the station was VERY slowing tumbling, OUT OF CONTROL. Anatoliy quickly re-docked, re-booted the problem computer and regained control.
Some space program critics said that this event was just for public relations and was an unnecessary risk which almost cost us Mir. I say that it forced the creation of procedures for 3 spacecraft rendezvous and showed once again how people in space can fix unforeseen problems and turn failure into success. Furthermore the unplanned, off axis, shots of Mir are GREAT.
NASA was recently approached by the management of the NBA Houston Rockets basketball team to stage an event on the shuttle to premiere their NEW logo. NASA turned them down, citing their charter and their inability to promote stuff. But where there's a will.... During the closing ceremonies aboard Mir there was a gift exchange and Anatoliy was presented with a gift of a T-shirt with the 'surprise': the NEW Houston Rockets logo on it. Hmmm... He had become a fan of the team during his training in Houston.
During this flight the Mir-18 crew had seen more than most cosmonauts with five EVAs, Progress, Spektr Module and Shuttle docking. The crew spent much time exercising and Norm was able to stand up and walk off the shuttle under his own power. Except for becoming tired easier, Norm has pretty much re-adapted to Earth in five days. The photos of the inside of Mir show a very 'lived in' look with lots cords, wires and ducts running everywhere and stuff held in place with bungee cords. Videos showed life aboard Mir, featuring Gennadiy playing a guitar, hair cuts at the 'low low price' of $1 or 1 beer, Earth observations, medical tests, exercising on the tread mills and bicycle with the arms and legs, progress tankers docking and unloading, EVA activity and the Shuttle docking. Norm said that he did not hear or feel the Progress docking and barely felt the Spektr docking but definitely felt and heard the shuttle docking.
Solovyov and Budarin made 3 space walks or EVAs in July on the 14th, 19th and 21st. They checked the docking port on the -Z axis port for the cause of a leak reported earlier and found nothing. They deployed a jammed solar array on the end of the Spektr module. The cosmonauts chose a NASA built tool to free the stuck array. They also attached a Belgian Spectrometer 'MIRAS' to the outside of Spektr. During the 2nd EVA the thermostat on Solovy's suit was not working properly and he was told to remain in the hatch and just observe Budarin. No further EVAs are scheduled for the crew of Mir-19.
The Kristall module was moved from the forward -X port to the side -Z port on the 17th. The module was moved with the 'lyappa' robot arm. The module and port passed a leak check.
The Progress Tanker M28 was launched on July 20th and docked on the 22nd. It attached to the -x forward port.
The launch of EuroMir '95 (Mir-20) with Gidzenko, Avdeyev and Reiter aboard Soyuz-TM22 is now set for Sept. 1st.
The crews of STS-71 and Mir 18 held a press conference on July 18th showing slides and videos. Some of the images were available on the web at http://shuttle.nasa.gov and displayed at the MN SFS Spaceweek exhibit BEFORE the press conference. Some of the images had been downloaded to the ground even before landing. The docking and hatch opening were not carried live by some of the Mpls TV stations so I was glad I was able to watch it live VIA the internet on MBONE and CUSeeMe NASA TV reflectors that were filled to capacity. Isn't technology GREAT!
Four weeks of Apollo 13 as #1 movie at the box office, tells me that America still likes space. Congrats to Universal Pictures and Ron Howard and Company. If you have not seen it yet, go NOW to see Apollo 13.
Damage to the O-rings in internal nozzle joints in the left hand SRB for STS-71 and another SRB for STS-70 have raised safety concerns. Launch of STS-69 has been postponed pending checks on the sealant in the nozzle joints. It appears the problem can be solved by improvements to the process of applying the sealant, and there will only be a brief delay (less than a month).
The second EVA was carried out on Jul 19 at 0039 UT and lasted 3 hr 8 min.
Solov'yov remained in the airlock hatch due to spacesuit problems, while
Budarin began work on installing the MIRAS infrared spectrometer
experiment. The third EVA was at 0030 on 21 Jul, and lasted 5hr 35 min.
Both cosmonauts completed the installation of MIRAS.
(Info from C. van den Berg's MIRNEWS).
Progress M-28 is docked at the -X port on Mir; Soyuz TM-21 is docked at the +X port on Kvant.
Three Uragan (Hurricane) navigation satellites were launched on Jul 24 and given the names Kosmos-2316, 2317, and 2318. Their GLONASS satellite numbers are 780, 781 and 785 respectively. They will form part of the GLONASS system, in orbital plane 2. On Jul 25 the orbit of Kosmos-2316 was 675.26 min, 19101 x 19134 km x 64.8 deg. The other two satellites were in similar orbits.
The Galileo Orbiter successfully completed the ODM maneuver on Jul 27. This was the first major firing of the main liquid propellant engine which will be used for orbit insertion. The Orbiter is now targeted for its flyby of Io, while the Probe is on a Jovian impact trajectory.
1995-35B, TDRS 7 was at 150W on Jul 27, drifting E at 2.5 deg/d. 1995-29A, DBS 3 appears to be moving from its initial location at 110W. 1995-27A, UHF F/O F5, is on station at 72.6E as of Jul 28. 1994-55A, Optus B3 may have moved from its station at 152.5E 1984-80A, Himawari 3 has moved out of geostationary orbit.
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Jun 8 0443 Kosmos-2313 Tsiklon-2 Baykonur LC90 Recon 28A
Jun 10 0024 DBS 3 Ariane 42P Kourou ELA2 Comsat 29A
Jun 22 1958 STEP 3 Pegasus XL/L1011 PAWA Science FTO
Jun 27 1932 Atlantis Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 30A
Jun 28 1825 Kosmos-2314 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC43 Recon 31A
Jul 5 0309 Kosmos-2315 Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC132 Navigation 32A
Jul 7 1623 Helios 1A ) Ariane 40 Kourou ELA2 Recon 33A
CERISE ) Sigint 33B
UPM LBSAT 1 ) Technology 33C
Jul 10 1238 USA 112 Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC41 Sigint 34A
Jul 13 0530 Galileo Probe - Galileo, Solar orb. 89-84E
Jul 13 1342 Discovery Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 35A
Jul 13 1955 TDRS 7 IUS Discovery,LEO Comsat 35B
Jul 20 0304 Progress M-28 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 36A
Jul 24 1552 Kosmos-2316 ) Proton-K/DM2 Baykonur Navigation 37A
Kosmos-2317 ) Navigation 37B
Kosmos-2318 ) Navigation 37C
Jun 8 Kosmos-2258 Reentered Jul 7 Atlantis Landed at KSC
Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 3 STS-73 Sep 21 OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 1 OMDP OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 2 STS-74 Oct 26 OV-105 Endeavour LC39A STS-69 Aug 5 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/RSRM-48/ET-72/OV-105 LC39A STS-69 ML2/ ML3/