Документ взят из кэша поисковой машины. Адрес оригинального документа : http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/roundup/online/2004/0604_complete.pdf Дата изменения: Wed Jun 2 19:53:47 2004 Дата индексирования: Tue Oct 2 01:05:43 2012 Кодировка: Поисковые слова: universe

Welcome home, Expedition 8

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SPACE CENTER ROUNDUP Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center

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Astronaut C. Michael Foale, Expedition 8 commander and NASA International Space Station Science Officer, and his crewmates cosmonaut Alexander Y. Kaleri, Soyuz Flight Engineer representing Russia's Federal Space Agency, and European Space Agency (ESA) Astronaut AndrИ Kuipers of the Netherlands, successfully landed in north central Kazakhstan on April 30, in their Soyuz TMA-3 capsule. Foale and Kaleri completed 195 days in space aboard the International Space Station while Kuipers returned after an 11-day research mission as part of a commercial agreement between ESA and Russia's Federal Space Agency.

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Space Cen ter Roun d u p
The Roundup is an official publication of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, and is published by the Public Affairs Office for all Space Center employees. The Roundup office is in Bldg. 2, Rm. 166A. The mail code is AP121. Visit our Web site at: www.jsc.nasa.gov/roundup/weekly/ For distribution questions or to suggest a story idea, please call 281/244-6397 or send an e-mail to roundup@ems.jsc.nasa.gov. Joanne Hale Editor Kendra Phipps Assistant Editor Marshall Mellard Graphic Designer

PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID
WEBSTER, TX Permit No. G27

Saturn unveiled
JPL's next major milestone will be the Cassini spacecraft's arrival at Saturn on July 1. This is an artist's concept of Cassini during the Saturn Orbit Insertion (SOI) maneuver, just after the main engine has begun firing. The spacecraft is moving out of the plane of the page and to the right (firing to reduce its spacecraft velocity with respect to Saturn) and has just crossed the ring plane. The SOI maneuver, which is approximately 90 minutes long, will allow Cassini to be captured by Saturn's gravity into a five-month orbit. Cassini's close proximity to the planet after the maneuver offers a unique opportunity to observe Saturn and its rings at extremely high resolution. Read more about Cassini's arrival on pages 4 and 5.

June 2004
Houston, Texas

Courtesy of JPL


Beak Sends...
A MESSAGE FROM CENTER DIRECTOR L T . GEN. JEFFERSON D. HOWELL JR.

Hurricane
by Robert Gaffney

Awareness
evacuate, you should plan to leave the area as soon as possible. Plan your evacuation route ahead of time. Strong winds and heavy rains can pose a threat to human life and property but the most dangerous element of a hurricane is the storm surge. Tides of 3 feet to 10 feet are common for even moderate storms. Add to that the wind-driven waves and a significantly higher surge is attained. On Sept. 11, 1961, when Hurricane Carla, a Category 4 storm, slammed into Port Lavaca, a 22-foot storm surge resulted in flooding as far inland as 10 miles. Nine out of 10 deaths during a hurricane are a result of the storm surge. The Center has a plan ­ do you?

Heads up!
I need your help. During the past two months we have had a series of incidents at our Center that have resulted in injury and lost workdays for several of our employees. This is not the type of activity that should be occurring at a VPP Star Site. We must turn this trend around. Occurrences such as slipping/stumbling on stairs and walkways, falling from a stool, leaning into a van cab, reaching up to a light fixture, pushing a box, to name a few, have resulted in twisted ankles, broken toes, injured elbows, stiff backs, etc. In almost every case, the victim's actions played a part in the injury. Our attention is diverted and we do something careless, or we aggravate an old injury. We have important work to do, but most important is taking care of ourselves and our coworkers. The simple act of slowing down, watching where one was stepping or not overstressing known strains or weaknesses would have prevented a lot of pain and suffering. I know that we are all very busy as these are stressful times. Frankly, there is nothing we can do about that. The demands of Return-to-Flight, keeping the International Space Station operating and meeting the multitude of "Vision" requirements has all of us "churning and burning." As a matter of fact, I wouldn't have it any other way. Our expertise and core competencies are in great demand and we should be very pleased about that. What we can do about this situation is "play smart." Let's acknowledge that we have a full plate. Let's realize that we are in a stressful situation and that it is easy to be distracted. Let's be mindful of our own physical limitations. With that in mind, let's be careful in everything we do and purposely watch out for each other. Realization of our present environment and adjusting our pace to maintain a high state of awareness will help us return to a safe, efficient, injuryfree workplace. Heads up!

A

s we approach another hurricane season, which began June 1 and lasts until November 30, the Center is once again reviewing and updating plans for preparing for a hurricane. Every year the Hurricane Rideout Team (HRT) conducts an exercise that reinforces critical decision-making skills based on the data presented. After the simulation, the HRT identifies lessons learned and implements any changes needed in the hurricane plan. One rule of thumb that the National Weather Service suggests to use for hurricane response is to plan for one category of storm higher than forecast and landfall 12 hours sooner than expected. Although severe weather forecasts and evaluation methods have improved significantly, hurricanes can still be unpredictable in their path, speed and intensity.

As the hurricane season approaches, all organizations should review their hurricane and severe weather plans and their state of readiness and maintain vigilance throughout the hurricane season. If a storm enters the Gulf of Mexico and could threaten JSC within 72 hours, the Center initiates preparations in phases that enable designated teams to prepare JSC to close down in a timely manner. The decision to release employees or close the Center is reserved to the Center Director. There are more than 800,000 people who may have to evacuate the Coastal areas around Galveston County in the event of a major storm. In order to assure that you have the ability to

Visualization of Remote Sensing Data is a showcase for imagery created by the Laboratory for Atmospheres at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and by other groups. The visualizations are derived from satellite data, which have been color-enhanced or otherwise processed to yield high-impact renderings of hurricanes and other natural phenomena.

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JPL
aids NASA's

Located in Pasadena, Calif., near the site where Caltech professor Theodore von KАrmАn oversaw pioneering work in rocket propulsion in the 1930s, JPL leads NASA's efforts in the robotic exploration of the solar system and the universe beyond.

One Team, One Journey, One NASA ... "Building the Future Together"
by Mark P. Whalen

Courtesy of JPL

exploration efforts
THE
American space age began Jan. 31, 1958, with the launch of the first U.S. satellite, Explorer 1, built and controlled by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a federally funded research and development facility managed by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) for NASA. In the four decades since then, JPL has led the world in exploring all of the solar system's known planets, except Pluto, with robotic spacecraft. The tools developed at JPL for its spacecraft expeditions to other planets have also proved invaluable in providing new insights and discoveries in studies of Earth, its atmosphere, climate, oceans, geology and the biosphere. Today, JPL continues as a world leader in science and technology, breaking new ground in the miniaturization and efficiency of spacecraft components. At the same time, the Laboratory is pushing the sensitivity of space sensors and broadening their applications for a myriad of scientific, medical, industrial and commercial uses on Earth. JPL currently has 17 spacecraft and four major flight instruments in operation throughout the solar system. These range from the twin Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft, launched in 1977, to the Microwave Instrument on the Rosetta orbiter, launched on March 2. JPL's next major milestone will be the Cassini spacecraft's arrival at Saturn on July 1. A joint endeavor of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency, Cassini is sending a sophisticated robotic spacecraft to orbit the ringed planet and study the Saturnian system in detail over a four-year period. Onboard Cassini is a scientific probe called Huygens that will be released from the main spacecraft to parachute through the atmosphere to the surface of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. The Huygens probe will descend to the surface of Titan on Jan. 14, 2005.

To provide tracking and communications for planetary spacecraft, JPL designed, built and operates NASA's Deep Space Network of antenna stations. Communications complexes are located in California's Mojave Desert, in Spain and in Australia. In addition to NASA missions, the network regularly performs tracking for international missions sending spacecraft to deep space. Ground stations also conduct experiments using radar to image planets and asteroids, as well as experiments using the technique of very long baseline interferometry to study extremely distant celestial objects. In the three decades it has led the nation's planetary exploration program, JPL has honed several skills and areas of innovation, including deep space navigation and communication, digital image processing, imaging systems, intelligent automated systems, instrument technology, microelectronics and more. Many of these disciplines found applications outside the planetary spacecraft field, from solar energy to medical imagery. JPL has also applied space-based operational, communication and information processing techniques to the needs of the Department of Defense, Federal Aviation Administration and other federal agencies. Its active technology transfer program with the industrial community dates back to the early days of the missile program. JPL conducts technology development projects both for NASA and non-NASA sponsors. Non-NASA projects have included Firefly, an aircraft-borne infrared fire-mapping system for the U.S. Forest Service; a document-monitoring

This artist's conception of the Cassini orbiter shows the Huygens probe separating to enter Titan's atmosphere. After separation, the probe drifts for about three weeks until reaching its destination, Titan. Equipped with a variety of scientific sensors, the Huygens probe will spend 2-2.5 hours descending through Titan's dense, murky atmosphere of nitrogen and carbon-based molecules, beaming its findings to the distant Cassini orbiter overhead. The probe could continue to relay information for up to 30 minutes once it lands on Titan's frigid surface, after which the orbiter passes beneath the horizon as seen from the probe.

system to help the National Archives safeguard the U.S. Constitution, Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights; medical projects such as robot-assisted microsurgery and medical imaging systems, and Internet-based telemedical systems; and varied projects in such fields as advanced spacecraft and sensor technology, microelectronics, supercomputing and environmental protection. Research and development activities at JPL include an active program of automation and robotics supporting planetary rover missions and NASA's Space Station program. In supercomputing, JPL has pioneered work with new types of computers to support processing of enormous quantities of data to be returned by space missions in years to come. In addition to JPL's main Pasadena site and the three Deep Space Network complexes, JPL also supports an astronomical observatory at Table Mountain, Calif., and a launch operations site at Cape Canaveral, Fla. As of 2003, JPL has a workforce of about 5,500 employees and onsite contractors. Charles Elachi, a scientist with a background in imaging radar and other remote-sensing technologies, became Director of JPL in May 2001. In addition to his JPL post, he serves as a Vice President of Caltech.

An artist's impression of the Rosetta orbiter and lander approaching comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

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O
Thinning Upper Atmosphere
From a vantage point about 225 miles over the Earth, International Space Station crewmembers photographed the crescent Moon through the upper layers of Earth's atmosphere. At the bottom of the image, a closed deck of clouds is probably at about 3 miles. The shades of blue grading to black are caused by the scatter of light as it strikes gas molecules of the very low density upper atmosphere. Models predict that emissions of carbon dioxide are causing the upper atmosphere to cool and contract, and therefore reduce the density of gases in the layer spanning from 60 to 400 miles above the surface ­ known as the thermosphere. According to a study by the Navel Research Lab, the density of the thermosphere has decreased about 10 percent over the last 35 years. These findings are important both for space science and for Earth science. Spacecraft in orbit, such as the International Space Station, experience less drag and need fewer boosts to maintain their orbit. At the same time, space debris also remains in orbit longer, which increases hazards to spacecraft. Most importantly, the study validates models of the "greenhouse effect" of increased carbon dioxide release on the dynamics of the atmosphere. Roundup
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White Sands Test Facility honored for

T
by Mari Pillar

zone protection

he Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced NASA's White Sands Test Facility (WSTF) as a winner of the 2004 Stratospheric Ozone Protection Award. These awards honor individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions to protecting the environment. "This award is considered the highest given in the area of global environmental protection," WSTF Special Projects Manager Harold Beeson said. "The fact that you are judged by your peers for this award makes it especially satisfying." The winners must demonstrate commitment to the environment, actual elimination of ozone-depleting substance emissions, and contributions that help reduce the health and environmental risks of ozone depletion. NASA Headquarters has also taken notice of this achievement. In a congratulatory memo from William Readdy, the Associate Administrator for Space Flight, he wrote: "The exceptional leadership, personal dedication and technical excellence demonstrated by the White Sands team is remarkable and represents a significant contribution to protecting the environment. The positive effects of these process improvements will be felt across NASA, other government agencies and industry in general." For years, NASA has been promoting environmentally friendly processes to improve their efficiency and effectiveness. By eliminating the use of CFC-113 (or Freon-113) in all spacecraft parts and components cleaning, WSTF has drastically reduced the amount of ozone-depleting substances used to prepare the Space Shuttle for flight. "WSTF has been proactive in the replacement of CFC-113 since 1988," Beeson said. "With the ban on production of CFC-113, the ability to clean our hardware was in jeopardy. A small amount of oil in a high-pressure oxygen system can cause that system to ignite and burn, resulting in a catastrophic system failure. The proactive development of alternatives by the WSTF team was essential for our business survival." WSTF has taken a three-fold approach to eliminating CFC-113 ­ development of alternative water-based processes, development of ozonefriendly solvent alternatives, and investigation of advanced processes to reduce solvent usage and conserve supplies. WSTF has also taken an industry lead in development of alternatives for oxygen, where organic contaminants and particulates can pose an ignition hazard. The successful development of new processes and solvent alternatives has virtually eliminated the use of CFC-113 at the facility. Only one gallon was used in 2002, compared to 3,870 gallons in 1990.

WSTF furnishes the technology and expertise gained from its research and development to other NASA centers, industry and governmental agencies to assist in the elimination of CFC-113 in cleaning and cleanliness verification processes industry wide. The award was presented April 13 at the 2004 Earth Technologies Forum in Washington, D.C., which hosted individuals from 50 countries. "This was a team effort," Beeson said. "Combining the expertise of the WSTF chemistry lab with that of our clean room and valve shop, the Materials and Processes Branch of the Structural Engineering Division, Naval Sea Systems Command, Kennedy Space Center, U.S. Air Force, and Orbiter Engineering." Other pollution prevention activities now under way at WSTF include:

q Revegetating 6.5 acres of disturbed land to reduce air
pollution caused by wind erosion.

q Using new sand-blasting equipment to separate and
reuse sand, which resulted in an 80-percent reduction in waste.

q Modifying test profiles for Space Shuttle thrusters to
reduce nitrogen tetroxide and methyl hydrazine use by 36 percent.

q Reclaiming onsite isopropyl alcohol, which saved WSTF
$11,750 in FY 2002. For additional information about NASA's White Sands Test Facility, visit: http://www.wstf.nasa.gov/.

BACK, left to right: Mark Leifeste, HTSI Program Manager; Stephen C. Nunez, Manager of the White Sands Test Facility; Richard McCarson, and Mike Padilla. FRONT, left to right: Harold Beeson, Steve Hornung, Jose Lopez, and Mike Kirsch, Deputy Manager of the White Sands Test Facility.

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Johnson Space Center Resort
ATTRACT
To inspire the next generation, several programs focus on high school level and minority students.

How I spent my summer vacation.
An alternative to the typical summer fare
by Debbie Nguyen

NASA Summer High School Apprenticeship Research Program (SHARP): High school students who excel in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) are partnered with mentors who help develop their skills during the summer months at participating NASA centers ­ as well as select colleges and universities across the country. NASA Scholars: Various programs offer students who attend minority-serving colleges an opportunity to participate in summer internships at JSC in their pursuit of NASA-related majors.

TRAIN
Through the student employment programs, students are able to hone their abilities by working in a hands-on environment. Office Education (OE) Program and Education and Training Cooperative Program (ETC): Both programs are operated by Universities Space Research Association (USRA) and offer high school seniors and college undergraduates the ability to gain experience in the fields of business and accounting, while earning money for college and attending school full time.

S

ummer vacations aren't what they used to be. Instead of sandy beaches, sleeping in late and family road trips, nearly 300 students from around the country chose to spend their summer vacation working at Johnson Space Center.
continued on page 10

These students represent the next generation of explorers who will be needed to fill the shoes of upcoming NASA retirees. At JSC, there are close to two dozen student employment programs that enable NASA to attract, train and retain the brainpower and talent needed to augment the present and future workforce. "Each year we are fortunate to get some of the brightest young individuals to participate in our student employment programs," JSC Center Director Lt. Gen. Jefferson D. Howell Jr. said. "They come because they have an interest, a passion or even a dream. Their experience here often leads to employment either with NASA or one of the many great contractors that supports NASA. They are the next generation of engineers, scientists and leaders and no matter where they work, they will contribute to all of our collective futures." In addition to offering students an opportunity to experience NASA, the student employment programs also contribute to organizational needs.
NASA JSC2003E48891

Julie Len participated in SHARP in the summer of 2002 and 2003 and now attends Stanford University.

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Undergraduate Student Researcher Program (USRP): JSC's White Sands Test Facility located in New Mexico also offers a great learning test ground for student interns. In USRP, the students work 10 to 15 consecutive, 40-hour weeks researching under the supervision of a NASA technical mentor. The students must submit a paper on their NASA-USRP research experience at the end of their term, which they can discuss in public forums and in NASA-sponsored colloquia and workshops.

RETAIN
NASA can use these programs to recruit and strengthen the science and engineering pipeline with already-trained employees. Cooperative Education Program (Co-op): This is the largest student employment program and a path that is used by many students to become a federal employee at JSC. The Co-op Program provides students with practical experience in applying the principles and theories learned in the classroom. The Program benefits JSC by providing the Center with a source of future employees for engineering, science and administrative positions. "Engineering considers the Co-op Program to be an invaluable resource ­ both to the organization and the individuals involved," said Deputy Director of Engineering Lauri Hansen, who started as a co-op in January 1984. "The majority of our new hires are from the Co-op Program, and we find that the individuals' co-op experience provides the background for them to step in and perform jobs that would generally be thought of as too difficult for a new hire, fresh out of school. Send us more!" Participants are full-time students, both graduate and undergraduate. They work alternate semesters or quarters at school with semesters or quarters, also known as "tours," at JSC in a paid, fulltime position directly related to their field of study. As NASA's future missions inspire the next generation, JSC's student employment programs will help prepare the students of today to be a part of it. JSC's Education Office manages all of the JSC student employment programs. More information can be found on their Web site at: http://education.jsc.nasa.gov.
Kenny Armijo, from the University of New Mexico, has been a NASA Scholar since his sophomore year in 2000. Armijo pipelined into the NASA Cooperative Education Program and just completed his third tour in the Thermal Systems Branch of the Structural Engineering Division.

Vacation
By pipelining from OE to ETC, 20-year-old Aracellie Chavera has been a four-year veteran in the Supply and Support Services Branch where she played a major part in the Just-In-Time Program that provides almost 300 users site-wide the ability to order from the Boise Cascade Office Supplies Web site. Astronaut John Herrington presented an award to NASA Scholar student Derrick Barrett at the 2003 JSC Equal Opportunities Program Office summer student award luncheon. During their third and final tour, aerospace engineer majors Chris Tanner, from Georgia Institute of Technology, and David Wiese, from the University of Texas, worked on an Apollo capsule, which did an impact testing in April, for the Advanced Mission Design Branch.

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THINK

of it as the DNA of the solar system. And it's coming to the Johnson Space Center.

When NASA's Genesis spacecraft returns samples of the solar wind to Earth in September, those samples will be brought to JSC. In the JSC Genesis Laboratory, scientists will assess the condition of the sample collector and then remove the samples for curation and distribution to scientists around the world for intensive study. The solar wind samples will be maintained at JSC for use by the international scientific community in much the same way that lunar, meteorite and cosmic dust samples are maintained. Genesis is NASA's first sample return mission since the last Apollo mission in 1972 and the first ever to return material collected beyond the Moon. The Sun contains more than 99 percent of the matter that makes up our solar system. Scientists believe that pieces of the solar wind resemble the gas of the solar nebula from which the various bodies of our solar system evolved. Although the Sun is mostly made up of hydrogen and helium, studies suggest that there are small amounts of more than 60 other elements as well. Although scientists have some idea of how much of these elements there are from other solar missions, the exact composition of the solar wind is yet to be determined. Scientists will be determining the composition in sufficient detail to develop a clear understanding of how that chemical makeup resulted in the formation of our diverse solar system. The scientific motivation of the Genesis mission is that retrieving solar wind particles ­ tiny pieces of the Sun's outer layer ­ and analyzing them will provide increased insight into planetary formation and diversity. "The smidgen of the Sun that will be returned and preserved in our special laboratory will help scientists better understand the composition of the original solar nebula that formed the planets, asteroids, comets and the Sun we know today," Dr. Eileen Stansbery, Assistant Director, Office of Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) at JSC and Genesis mission Contamination Control Lead, said. "The samples will help scientists gain a better understanding of the condition in the distant past before Earth and other planets formed." ARES curation personnel are essential members of the Genesis Science Team. ARES responsibilities are contamination control and curation. Contamination control responsibilities include ensuring the cleanliness of collection surfaces and providing a clean environment for their subsequent handling. Curation duties include storage, division and distribution of sample collectors after they are returned.

Genesis
Searching for Genesis of the solar system
by Bill Jeffs

Solar wind samples coming to JSC may hold clues

Pat Rawlings

continued on page 14

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Genesis

To accomplish these tasks, JSC built two ultra-clean class 10 cleanrooms in 1999. They are NASA's cleanest laboratories, continuously flushed with air that is filtered to remove any particles larger than .12 micrometers ­ 1,000 times smaller in diameter than a human hair. In 2000, the Genesis payload was dismantled, cleaned and reassembled in these special cleanrooms. The Genesis science payload was a collaborative effort between JSC, providing the ultra-clean assembly and sample curation facilities; Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), providing the canister and collector arrays; and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), providing the solar wind concentrator and solar wind detection instruments. The Genesis spacecraft is now on its way back to Earth. The science phase of the mission was completed on April 1 following more than 26 months of collecting samples that began on Dec. 5, 2001. The Genesis solar collector arrays were stowed and the payload canister successfully closed, ending the collection of solar wind particles. The samples will arrive on Earth Sept. 8 in a dramatic helicopter capture. As the sample-return capsule parachutes toward the ground at the U.S. Air Force Utah Testing and Training Range, specially trained helicopter pilots will catch the capsule in midair to prevent the delicate samples from being disturbed by the impact of a landing. The capsule will be recovered with the midair catch by Vertigo, Inc. There will be a minimum of handling of the recovered spacecraft in Utah. Contamination requirements specify attaching a clean nitrogen purge to the science payload after recovery to prevent possible contamination of the precious samples. The science payload and all recovered hardware will come to JSC. The JSC curation team will work with JPL and LANL to remove the sample collectors from the payload. These collectors will then be examined by JSC curation, and micrometeoroid impact features, surface defects and possible contamination haze will be mapped to help in making the samples available to the scientific community. Two additional sample return missions are in space. NASA's Stardust spacecraft collected dust ejected from comet Wild 2 in a dramatic flyby on Jan. 2, 2004, and will return to Earth in two years. The Japanese Hayabusa mission, launched in 2003, will sample the surface of asteroid Itokawa and bring that material to Earth in about 2007. According to Dr. Carlton Allen, JSC's Astromaterials Curator, "Genesis is the first sample return mission in what promises to be a very exciting decade for planetary science." Genesis was launched Aug. 8, 2001, from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. It is a NASA Discovery Mission managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science in Washington, D.C. Lockheed Martin Astronautics in Denver built and designed the flight system and samplereturn capsule. Information on the JSC Genesis Team is available at: http://www-curator.jsc.nasa.gov/curator/genesis/.
Courtesy of JPL NASA KSC-01PP1343

Plaque ceremony honors past, sets tone for future
by Kendra Phipps

J

ohnson Space Center's Mission Control Center (MCC) has a firmly established vocabulary: Discipline. Morale. Tough. Competent. These are words that flight controllers and directors have lived and breathed since the early days of spaceflight.

MCC is also a place of tradition. One of its most honored rituals is the plaque-hanging ceremony, during which the people who made the mission successful place a plaque bearing the mission's patch on a Flight Control Room wall. It is considered an honor to hang the plaque, or even to hold the ladder while a teammate does. The missions of Apollo 1, Challenger (STS-51-L) and Columbia (STS-107), however, called for a different kind of ceremony. On April 12, the MCC team held a special plaque ceremony for all three crews that have been lost in the pursuit of space exploration. The ceremony was a way to remember the crewmembers and reiterate the commitment to tough, competent flight control. "We have chosen, here in Mission Control, to put up these plaques to remind ourselves of the challenge of launching human beings into space from a launch pad and bringing them back again," Milt Heflin, Chief of the Flight Director Office, said. "The business of exploring space will never be free of risk. The emblems we hang today will forever remind us of our pledge" to spaceflight safety and diligence, Heflin said. Four plaques ­ one for each mission, plus a new Spaceflight Memorial plaque ­ were hung in a diamond formation on a wall of the White Flight Control Room. In keeping with tradition, prominent flight directors from each mission were there to hang up the plaques. Also in attendance were members of each crew's families, current and former flight controllers and other JSC employees. Apollo Flight Director Gene Kranz spoke of the earliest days of flight control before hanging the Apollo 1 plaque. "We learned that leaders accept the burden of risk, and that an ego had no place in our business," Kranz said. After the Apollo 1 fire, he said, "we added the words `tough' and `competent' to our vocabulary." Before hanging the plaque for STS-51-L, Lead Flight Director and former JSC Deputy Director Randy Stone spoke of the days leading up to Challenger's launch. Kelly Beck, Lead Flight Director for STS107, acknowledged the Apollo-era flight controllers in attendance and noted that MCC's technology might have changed since their time at the controls, but not its essential principles. "The fundamentals we operate by haven't changed," Beck said. "It's how we work; it's the basis for what we do." Beck also said that the ever-present risks involved in spaceflight have not changed. "In Mission Control, we're always on the razor's edge between success and tragedy," she said. After Beck hung up the STS-107 plaque, Astronaut Office Chief Kent Rominger took the podium. He praised all flight controllers in attendance and said that although "Mission Control is the epitome of professionalism," sometimes humans "learn the boundaries by crossing them." Rominger then invited all crew family members present to hold the ladder for him while he hung the Spaceflight Memorial plaque. The new plaque features elements from all three mission patches, a large Greek "sigma" borrowed from the Mission Operations Directorate emblem, a star for each fallen crewmember and the Latin phrases for "To the stars despite adversity ­ Always exploring." A ceremony was also held on the anniversary of the launch of STS-107 to honor the employees and teams who contributed to the mission. To read more, go to: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/jscfeatures/articles/000000103.html.

After its canister has been removed, the Genesis spacecraft sits in place atop the Boeing Delta II rocket in the tower at Launch Complex 17-A, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Genesis is on a robotic NASA space mission to catch a wisp of the raw material of the Sun and return it to Earth with a spectacular midair helicopter capture.

Here, the Genesis spacecraft opened for collection of solar wind.

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