Ares V

ATK Conducts Successful Test of Ares I-X First Stage Separation System

Alliant Techsystems recently conducted a successful full-scale severance test of an Ares I-X first stage. The test is a milestone in the development of NASA's Ares I crew launch vehicle and is another step leading to the flight test of Ares I-X in Spring 2009.

The test consisted of a replicated Ares I-X first stage forward skirt extension and forward skirt stacked and suspended two feet above the ground. A linear-shape charge was detonated, detaching the two pieces of hardware horizontally.

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Know thy launchpad.

Poor SOB came all the way across the pond only to miss the good part.
Here's a hint for future reference, mate. It doesn't take ten seconds for them to clear the tower. They don't have to adjust the rear-view mirror and find a decent radio station before they go.



LOL!

Group 8.

Today would have been the 62nd birthday of Ellison Onizuka, Mission Specialist aboard STS-51L.

Onizuka was a member of NASA Astronaut Group 8, whose moniker was "Thirty-Five New Guys"; however, the existing astronaut corps referred to these competitors as "The F---ing New Guys." (The existing corps, some of whom had been waiting ten years between the end of Apollo and the start of the shuttle program, were generally not happy about having 35 more people to compete with over a spot on the shuttle.)

At any rate, NASA Group 8 was filled with many candidates who would ultimately become some of the most famous astronauts in the history of the space program.

• Guion Bluford would become the first black man in space.
• Shannon Lucid would become the record-holder for time spent in space and number of missions.
• Pinky Nelson was one-half of famed spacewalk partners Pinky and Ox, who grabbed, repaired, and placed back into orbit the SolarMax Satellite on STS-41C.
• Sally Ride would become the first American woman in space.
• Kathy Sullivan would become the first American woman to walk in space.
• Norm Thagard would become the first American to fly on a Russian spacecraft.
• James "Ox" Adrianus repaired SolarMax along with Pinky Nelson.

And Group 8 members Ronald McNair, Judith Resnick, Dick Scobee, and Ellison Onizuka all died in the Challenger disaster.
May they rest in peace.

STS-115

The launch of space shuttle Atlantis* (9 September 2006) as viewed from high-altitude research aircraft WB-57.


(*Without Garrett Reisman aboard.)

Photo Tuesday

Photo Tuesday

Backdropped by New Zealand and Cook Strait in the Pacific Ocean, astronaut Robert L. Curbeam Jr. (left) and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Christer Fuglesang, both STS-116 mission specialists, participate in the mission's first of three planned sessions of extravehicular activity (EVA) as construction continues on the International Space Station. Cook Strait divides New Zealand's North and South Islands.
European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Christer Fuglesang, STS-116 mission specialist, participates in the mission's first of three planned sessions of extravehicular activity (EVA) as construction resumes on the International Space Station. Astronaut Robert L. Curbeam, Jr. (out of frame), mission specialist, also participated in the 6-hour, 36-minute spacewalk.

Scrambled Garrett.

Make a game | Scrambled Garrett | Free games | Pictogame

The Grumpiest Crew in History

Today is the 78th anniversary of the birth of Apollo 7 crewmember Donn Eisele.

The Apollo 7 crew is widely regarded as the crankiest crew to ever fly.
In fact, the crew was so cranky that they became the first astronauts which NASA blacklisted from future flight. The reputation, however, is undeserved, and if it had been me up there, I'd have been worse.

All three of these poor fellows ended up suffering from terrible head colds during their 11-day mission. The waste removal system was so difficult to use that the men went as infrequently as possible - just 12 times total in 11 days. The food was disgusting and too sweet. Schirra needed a coffee fix, but he was more than 200 km higher than the nearest cup. The sleeping arrangements were so poorly planned that the men could never really get comfortable enough.

The transcripts of Apollo 7 illustrate the level of discomfort and dissatisfaction of the crew. Here is one example, where Mission Control requests a TV camera be turned on in the capsule. Schirra said no.

SCHIRRA: You've added two burns to this flight schedule, and you've added a urine water dump; and we have a new vehicle up here, and I can tell you this point TV will be delayed without any further discussion until after the rendezvous.
CAPCOM: Roger. Copy.
SCHIRRA: Roger.
CAPCOM: Apollo 7 This is CAP COM number 1.
SCHIRRA: Roger.
CAPCOM: All we've agreed to do on this is flip it.
SCHIRRA: ... with two commanders, Apollo 7
CAPCOM: All we have agreed to on this particular pass is to flip the switch on. No other activity is associated with TV; I think we are still obligated to do that.
SCHIRRA: We do not have the equipment out; we have not had an opportunity to follow setting; we have not eaten at this point. At this point, I have a cold. I refuse to foul up our time lines this way.

For comparison, here's what the conversation would have been like had I been the commander of Apollo 7:

WARD: You've added two burns to this flight schedule, and you've added a urine water dump; and we have a new vehicle up here, and I can tell you this point TV will be delayed without any further discussion until after the rendezvous.
CAPCOM: Roger. Copy.
WARD: Damn straight, "Roger."
CAPCOM: Apollo 7 This is CAP COM number 1.
WARD: So?
CAPCOM: All we've agreed to do on this is flip it.
WARD: Listen here, Deke Slayton, if that is your real name. Flip this.
CAPCOM: All we have agreed to on this particular pass is to flip the switch on. No other activity is associated with TV; I think we are still obligated to do that.
WARD: I'll tell you what I'm obligated to do. Go without a cup of coffee for 11 days. Crap in a plastic bag and then keep said crap in the same crackerbox where I'm living for 11 days. Eat disgusting cereal bars I wouldn't feed to Hitler's dog for 11 days. Breathe out of my mouth for 11 days because nose-blowing in zero gravity is impossible. Suffer through a headache that feels like a freight train driving through my cerebral cortex. And listen to you blather on about PPO2 checks and water accumulators 24/7. Bite me.

Although Deke Slayton insisted that the crew wear their helmets at re-entry, Schirra flat refused. Their heads were killing them, their sinuses were clogged with mucus, their eardrums hurt and all of them likely needed a toilet and a bran muffin.

Nevertheless, Apollo 7 was a successful mission, accomplishing all its goals.
Schirra, Cunningham, and Eisele never again flew in space.

I think we can all agree that the only human being who could have flown Apollo 7 cheerfully and obediently is G.E. Reisman.

Donn and Wally, rest in peace.
Walter Cunningham, every act of disobedience you displayed on this mission was a victory for the little guy over government bureaucracy. Well done, sir. Well done.

Rose Center for Earth and Space

I love museums. I have been to a bunch of them, including the Louvre, the Chicago Museum of Art, the Field Museum, the Holocaust Museum in DC, MOMA, the Musee D'Orsay and too many science museums to count.

But the Rose Center is, hands down, the best. Every time I go to New York, I make it a point to visit. Home to the Hayden Planetarium, the Rose Center has exhibits devoted to weather, natural disasters and, of course, space.

The Scales of the Universe is a 400-foot-long walkway that spirals around the Hayden Sphere, a 47-foot ball that is used to show the size of various objects in the universe. (If the Hayden Sphere is the known universe, this object is our galaxy. If the Hayden sphere is our galaxy, this object is our solar system... all the way down to: if the Hayden sphere is an atom, this object is a proton.)

Neil deGrasse Tyson, almost as cool an astrophysicist as Garrett Reisman is an astronaut, gets to work there. If I worked there, I would never go home.