Celestis to Provide Leary's Final Trip
Ashes from Timothy Leary, the Sixties counterculture guru who passed away Friday, May 31, is the latest addition to the first flight of cremation remains organized by Celestis.
The Houston-based company offers memorial services in which a 7-gram (0.25-oz) sample of cremation ashes is launched in a special carrier attached to the top stage of a Pegasus or Taurus rocket. The ashes remain in orbit for up to several years before reentering.
The first, or Founder's, flight, planned for the end of September, will feature the ashes of a number of space pioneers. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, Princeton University physicist Gerard O'Neill, and SEDS and ISU co-founder Todd Hawley will have remains flown on the launch. People involved with the Apollo program will also be included.
The $4,800 fee for carrying Leary's ashes was reportedly paid for by several celebrity friends of Leary, including actress Susan Sarandon and publisher Bob Guccione Jr.
The flight will use a Pegasus rocket whose primary payload will be the Spanish satellite Minisat-1. A second launch, using the Taurus rocket, is planned for early next year from Vandenberg Air Force Base.
DC-XA Singed During Test Flight
The DC-XA, a modified version of the DC-X SSTO test vehicle, made its first test flight May 18, landing safely after a one-minute flight but suffering some minor damage when a fire broke out during landing.
The fire apparently broke out because the DC-XA was landing at a slower-than-normal speed, exposing itself to the heat of its own exhaust for a longer time than planned. The fire caused some minor damage to the aeroshell of the vehicle, but no serious damage was reported.
"We met the flight objectives. There was external burning but all the internal components were in good shape. It was just superficial damage," said Dan Dumbacher, the manager of the NASA program that oversees the DC-XA.
The flight was the first since the original DC-X vehicle was transferred from BMDO to NASA and renamed the DC-XA last summer. The vehicle underwent a number of modifications including the installation of a hydrogen fuel tank made of lightweight composites and a new oxygen tank.
Safety Panel to Review Shuttle Program
NASA has requested the independent Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel to review the safety of the shuttle program as the space agency makes the transition to space station operations and new project management.
NASA was directed to make the review by Presidential Science Advisor Dr. John Gibbons, who wanted "to ensure that our efforts to improve and streamline the Space Shuttle program do not inadvertently create unacceptable risk."
The Safety Panel has been instructed to examine the proposed shuttle flight rate during the construction of the International Space Station, performance improvements planned for the shuttle, and changes in the management structure of the shuttle as a single contractor, United Space Alliance, takes over shuttle operations.
The ASAP was created by Congress after the 1967 Apollo 1 fire. The panel's final report is due this November.
Faulty Pump Delays Ariane 5 Launch
A failure in a feed pump has delayed the launch of Europe's new Ariane 5 booster until early June.
The problem with the nitrogen peroxide feed pump appeared on May 25, during the final steps of fueling the rocket's storable propellant stage. The fuel pump was replaced and the fueling completed.
The pump failure pushed back a launch readiness review originally slated for May 25 to May 30 and 31. The rocket passed this final review, so the launch will take place on the morning of Tuesday, June 4.
The maiden Ariane 5 launch will carry a set of four satellites that are part of Cluster, a joint ESA/NASA project to study the interaction of the solar wind with the Earth.
The multi-billion dollar Ariane 5 booster is designed to reassert Europe's position in the increasingly-competitive commercial launch market. The booster will be able to place to large communications satellites into geosynchronous orbit with a single launch at a lower price than currently available with Arianespace's workhorse Ariane 4 series.
Hyakutake Observations Suggest a New Class of Comets
Observations of comet Hyakutake using NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, suggest that the comet may be a member of a new class of comets who existence may revise theories of the formation of the solar system.
A team of astronomers led by Michael Mumma of NASA Goddard found levels of ethane in the comet up to 1000 times higher than expected. A large quantity of methane was also discovered in the comet. The two chemicals each make up about one percent of the comet.
"Comets that are rich in ethane must have experienced very different conditions during their birth than comets that do not contain it," Mumma said. Methane and ethane require higher temperatures to form, which meant Hyakutake must have formed closer to Jupiter and Saturn and was later kicked out into the outer solar system. Most comets are believed to have formed farther out in the solar system.
Other explanations for the high ethane and methane content suggest that the comet formed in different layers of the interstellar gas and dust clouds from which the solar system was formed, or that Hyakutake and other comets in the Oort Cloud came from other solar systems.
The observations were performed with the 3-meter (120-in) telescope at the IRTF, using a high-resolution infrared spectrometer that can be used to distinguish the spectral signatures of a variety of elements and compounds.
Tether Mission Forces Revision of Space Physics
Data collected during the TSS-1R tether flight on the STS-75 shuttle mission, which was literally cut short when the tether snapped shortly after deployment, point to a new understanding of space physics and plasma theories."
"Perhaps the most significant finding is that tether currents proved to be up to three times greater than existing theoretical models predicted prior to the mission," said Dr. Nobie Stone, mission scientist for TSS-1R.
These currents could be harnessed as a power source for orbiting spacecraft, Stone said. Since tethers can generate electricity throughout an orbit, they would have an advantage over solar cells.
Scientists also measured the ionization of gas emitted by thrusters on the TSS spacecraft, a factor not previously taken into account in models of the ionosphere. "Even the quick-look made to date reveals that this data harvest is rich in content," Stone said.
Mir Cosmonauts Deploy American Solar Array
Cosmonauts aboard the Russian space station Mir deployed a set of solar cells May 25th provided by NASA in the latest step in U.S./Russian cooperation in space.
The Mir Cooperative Solar Array (MCSA) will provide the station with an additional six kilowatts of power. The power will be used to conduct U.S./Russian life science and microgravity experiments. Engineers will also monitor the performance of the solar cells, which are the same as those that will be used on the international space station.
Cosmonauts Yuri Onufrienko and Yuri Usachev spent six hours outside Mir, deploying the array by hand-cranking a mechanism and watching the solar panel unfold accordion-style. American astronaut Shannon Lucid, currently aboard Mir, stayed inside the station during the spacewalk and monitored the performance of the spacewalkers.
The MCSA was a joint project of NASA's Lewis Research Center and Johnson Space Center as well as Rocketdyne, Lockheed Martin, and RSC-Energia. The project took less than two years from inception to deployment on orbit.
Space Station Survives in Congress (Again)
The House of Representatives approved the Omnibus Civilian Science Authorization Act on Thursday, May 30, after an attempt to cut funding for the International Space Station was handily defeated.
A motion by Rep. Tim Roemer (D-IN) to kill the station was defeated by a large margin, 286-127. "Every way you look at it, the space station does not deserve the support of hard-earned taxpayer dollars," Roemer said before the vote.
"It's his annual rite of spring," Rep. Greg Ganske (R-IA) said of Roemer's latest attempt to kill the station.
Before the vote, each member of the House received a letter from NSS Executive Director Lori Garver urging them to seek stability for NASA's dwindling budget. "NASA no longer can swallow deep cutbacks without curtailing the quality of its science and engineering programs," Garver wrote.
The omnibus bill provided funding for all government science agencies, including NASA, the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. A total of $19.7 billion was approved, $600 million less than last year.
Other News
Cola wars in space? As shuttle astronauts tinkered with their "Fluid Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus" so they could drink Coca-Cola and Powerade, cosmonauts aboard the Russian space station Mir filmed a large replica of a Pepsi can during a spacewalk May 21. No word on whether 7-Up is approaching ESA or NASDA... About 100 protesters staged a demonstration outside the gates of Cape Canaveral May 26 to protest the use of plutonium-fueled RTGs on the Cassini spacecraft, scheduled for launch next October. A NASA study estimates a 1 in 900 chance of a radioactive release during launch. "They have cooked the numbers," claimed physics professor and author Michio Kaku... If SETI conspiracy theories are more your cup of tea, go see "The Arrival", now in theaters in North America. Charlie Sheen ("in a departure role," according to a press release) plays a radio astronomer who discovers an alien signal. When he takes it to his supervisors at JPL, he gets fired. Then there's that weird power plant in Mexico...
Time to duck? On May 19th the asteroid 1996 JA1 passed within 450,000 km (280,000 mi) of the Earth. The asteroid was only about 250 meters in diameter, but a larger asteroid, 1996 JG, passed 3 million km (1.8 million mi) from Earth May 24. 1996 JG is about 500 meters in diameter... Students at Tehachapi High School in California won a trip to the national finals of the Space Settlement Design Competition by designing Bellevistat, a 2.5-km (1.5-mi) diameter ring-shaped space station, home to 15,000 people. The only drawback? A cost estimated by the students of $882 trillion... Why are ESA officials sighing in relief about elections in Suriname? The re-election of President Ronald Venetiaan over former dictator Desi Bouterse means stability for the South American nation, whose western border is just 250 km (150 mi) from the launch facility at Kourou, French Guiana...
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