Capcom 241

your window to space

CapCom Volume 24 Number 1 September/October 13

CapCom is Published by Midlands Spaceflight Society www.midspace.org.uk Dedicated to Andy Salmon (1962 - 2013) Editor: Mike Bryce | President: David J Shayler | Secretary: Dave Evetts Honorary Member: Helen Sharman OBE

Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 24 September/October 2013

space news roundup NASA’s Deep Space Comet Hunter Mission Comes to an End After almost 9 years in space that included an unprecedented 4th July impact and subsequent flyby of a comet, an additional comet flyby, and the return of approximately 500,000 images of celestial objects, NASA’s Deep Impact mission has ended.

The project team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, has reluctantly pronounced the mission at an end after being unable to communicate with the spacecraft for over a month. The last communication with the probe was Aug. 8. Deep Impact was history’s most traveled comet research mission, going about 4.7 billion miles (7.58 billion kilometres).

Deep Impact successfully completed its original bold mission of six months in 2005 to investigate both the surface and interior composition of a comet, and a subsequent extended mission of another comet flyby and observations of planets around other stars that lasted from July 2007 to December 2010.

Since then, the spacecraft has been continually used as a space-borne planetary observatory to capture images and other scientific data on several targets of opportunity with its telescopes and instrumentation.

Launched in January 2005, the spacecraft first traveled about 268 million miles (431 million kilometers) to the vicinity of comet Tempel 1. On 3 July 2005, the spacecraft deployed an impactor into the path of comet to essentially be run over by its nucleus on 4 July. This caused material from below the comet’s surface to be blasted out into space where it could be examined by the telescopes and instrumentation of the flyby spacecraft. Sixteen days after that comet encounter, the Deep Impact team placed the spacecraft on a trajectory to fly back past Earth in late December 2007 to put it on course to encounter another comet, Hartley 2 in November 2010.

The spacecraft’s extended mission culminated in the successful flyby of comet Hartley 2 on 4 November 2010. Along the way, it also observed six different stars to confirm the motion of planets orbiting them, and took images and data of the Earth, the Moon and Mars. These data helped to confirm the existence of water on the Moon, and attempted to confirm the methane signature in the atmosphere of Mars. One sequence of images is a breathtaking view of the Moon transiting across the face of Earth.

In January 2012, Deep Impact performed imaging and accessed the composition of distant comet C/2009 P1 (Garradd). It took

Expedition 36 Soyuz Landing (cover picture) The Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft with Expedition 36 Commander Pavel Vinogradov of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), Flight Engineer Alexander Misurkin of Roscosmos and Flight Engineer Chris Cassidy of NASA aboard, is seen as it lands in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, on Wednesday,11 September 2013. Vinogradov, Misurkin and Cassidy returned to Earth after five and a half months on the International Space Station.

Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

SpaceX Awarded Launch Reservation Contract for Largest Canadian Space Program: Falcon 9 Rocket Will Deliver RADARSAT Constellation to Orbit Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) was awarded a launch reservation contract with MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA) to support the largest space program to date in Canada, carrying the three satellites to orbit that will make up the RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM) on a Falcon 9 rocket in 2018.

“SpaceX appreciates MDA’s confidence in our ability to safely and reliably transport their satellites,” said Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX President and COO. “We hope this agreement is the second of many with MDA.” RCM is a three satellite configuration and will support Canada’s need for maritime surveillance, disaster management and ecosystem monitoring. The mission will build on the successes of RADARSAT-1 and RADARSAT-2.

SpaceX will conduct its first mission for MDA. this year, launching the CASSIOPE satellite on a Falcon 9.

About SpaceX

SpaceX designs, manufactures, and launches the world’s most advanced rockets and spacecraft. The company was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk to revolutionise space transportation, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets. Today, SpaceX is advancing the boundaries of space technology through its Falcon launch vehicles and Dragon spacecraft. SpaceX is a private company owned by management and employees, with minority investments from Founders Fund, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Valor Equity Partners. The company has more than 3,000 employees in California, Texas, Washington, D.C., and Florida. For more information, visit www.spacex.com.

images of comet ISON this year and collected early images of comet ISON in June.

Johnson, the Discovery Program Executive at NASA Headquarters, and the Program Executive for the mission since a year before After losing contact with the spacecraft last it launched. “Deep Impact has completely month, mission controllers spent several overturned what we thought we knew about weeks trying to uplink commands to reactivate comets and also provided a treasure trove of its onboard systems. Although the exact additional planetary science that will be the cause of the loss is not known, analysis has source data of research for years to come.” uncovered a potential problem with computer time tagging that could have led to loss of The mission is part of the Discovery Program control for Deep Impact’s orientation. That managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight would then affect the positioning of its radio Center in Huntsville, Ala. JPL manages the antennas, making communication difficult, Deep Impact mission for NASA’s Science as well as its solar arrays, which would in turn Mission Directorate in Washington. Ball prevent the spacecraft from getting power Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, and allow cold temperatures to ruin onboard Colo., built the spacecraft. equipment, essentially freezing its battery and propulsion systems.

NASA “Despite this unexpected final curtain call, http://go.nasa.gov/19ki9LG Deep Impact already achieved much more http://www.nasa.gov/deepimpact than ever was envisioned,” said Lindley

page 2

Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 24 September/October 2013

Proton Problems Dave Evetts

The Proton rocket has served Russia and the Soviet Union for decades. It’s referred to as a “mature” design; in other words there has been time to work out all the bugs and snags.

In recent years there have been many successful launches and a few, highly visible, failures. The latest came on 2 July 2013 as a trio of satellites for GLONASS (Russia’s global positioning system) were launched on a Proton-M and then destroyed as the rocket crashed to the ground just seconds later. In December 2010 another Proton-M with 3 GLONASS satellites crashed into the Pacific Ocean.

A Russian State Commission started work right away to find the cause. And maybe, blame someone. Russian law makes it a criminal act to cause a rocket failure by breaking launch safety rules, punishable by 3 years in prison.

Observers at the Baikonur launch site saw the rocket was having problems at launch. It was wobbling just four seconds into the flight and it toppled over to crash to earth about 2km away, making a crater 200m across. Debris at the crash site was searched for evidence of what had caused the failure.

The report of the enquiry was released on 4 August. Amongst the wreckage three devices had been recovered which held clues to the problem. They are called angular rate sensors and they tell if the rocket is going straight or drifting. Close examination showed they had been installed upside down. As the rocket lifted into the sky, data from these sensors flowed into the flight computers and falsely told them the rocket was in trouble. The computers tried to correct the phantom fault and pushed the Proton off its correct trajectory and into an unexpected meeting with the ground.

goes faulty, the other two can out-vote it and keep sending good data. They all have to be wrong in exactly the same way to mislead the computers. Obviously they have to be fitted the right way up to work, so they are made with a big arrow on the side to indicate which way is “up”. They also have short pegs on one end that fit into matching holes in the mounting bracket. In principle, if you have to force one of these sensors into place, you’re doing it wrong. Damage on the sensors recovered from the crash site showed all three sensors had indeed been forced into place. Pins had been bent by pushing against a bracket without the matching holes.

Three senior Russian engineers at the Khrunichev factory, including the Deputy Director General for quality control, have been fired.

“Quality Control” is a well-known phrase in manufacturing. It doesn’t matter how good the design is, if you put it together incorrectly it won’t work. And that can cause problems. So you need to do it right and then check it’s right. Russia’s space industry has been losing people who can either do it or check it – as indeed has the US industry. Experienced workers are either retiring or leaving for better paid jobs. Experience and “know-how” is sometimes not appreciated until it’s gone.

References:

www.russianspaceweb.com, RIA Novosti, Pravda.ru, www. spacesafetymagazine.com, Flight International, International Launch Services.

Anatoly Zak’s RussianSpaceWeb website has a detailed look at these sensors. They are fitted as a block of three to do the same job. If one

page 3

Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 24 September/October 2013

APOLLO 7

[Published September/October/November 1988 issues of Spacefight News. Sourced from contemporary press reports and NASA chronologies and flight reports.]

Eddie Pugh

The crew originally came together in a 29th September 1966 announcement which assigned them to fly a second long duration orbital test of the Apollo capsule (Apollo 2) with a back-up crew of Borman, Stafford and Collins. The Apollo 1 crew of Grissom, White and Chaffee had been announced six months earlier. However, by December 1966 it was decided that it seemed pointless to repeat a mission and Apollo 2 was cancelled, the Schirra crew now being assigned as back-ups to Apollo 1.

Interestingly, the names for the crew positions during this time went from Commander Pilot, Navigator Pilot and Engineer Scientist, through Command Pilot, Senior Pilot and Pilot in 1966 as the crews started training, to Commander, Command Module Pilot and Lunar Module Pilot in July 1967.

After the Apollo 1 fire all crew assignments were cancelled and it was not until May 9th 1967 that the Senate Space Committee was told that the Schirra crew would remain intact and fly the first manned Apollo mission to be known as Apollo 7.

In November 1967, for the first time, a support crew was assigned to the flight.

Comprising of Swigert, Evans and Pogue, they had several important responsibilities. Their most important duty was to maintain the Flight Data File that consisted of the Flight Plan, checklists and mission ground rules.

Also, they worked out emergency procedures on the simulators, set up the spacecraft for countdown simulations, i.e. put all the switches in the right positions, and stood by during these tests to aid the crew should an emergency evacuation be needed.

From the time of the May announcement, Schirra, Eisele and Cunningham began a long association with Block 2 spacecraft 101, first at Downey in California and from June 1968 at the Cape.

There was help from other astronauts during this preparation time. John Young attended the final acceptance tests before the capsule left the factory, reporting that there were times when some items of equipment were operated longer than was necessarily good for them – pumps, fans, inverters for example – but that the check lists for time critical sequences were very good. His conclusion was that “… s/c 101 is a pretty clean machine.”

Astronauts Lovell, Roosa and Duke made an extended forty eight hour test of the ability capsule to survive a delayed recovery. This was done in the Gulf of Mexico. Apart from some water splashing in through a post landing air vent, they reported that the craft was seaworthy enough to wait through a prolonged recovery period.

Kerwin, Brand and Engle undertook an eight day simulation from 16th to 24th June 1968 in the Space Environment Laboratory at Houston. This test known as ‘2TV-1’ qualified Apollo for flight though some minor problems reported in the fourteen pages of comments included difficulty in closing the hatch, water lines sweating and drops forming puddles on the cabin deck, headsets that didn’t work, packaging problems with the food and the drinking water. They advised that the water should not be drunk until at least a couple of hours after chlorination.

Meanwhile a great deal of worrying was done by the mission controllers. George Low (Spacecraft Manager) ordered a list of items that might have been overlooked and asked Essex born John Hodge, who was in charge of the Crew Safety Review Board, to look at and question all the decisions made up to the moment. Included in these reviews was a specific look at the 137 changes made to the capsule as a result of the Apollo 1 fire. On September 20th 1968 all reported that CSM101 was “…. a very good spacecraft …” and that everything now rested with the crew to fly it and prove them right.

The 20th September was the date originally scheduled for launch. However, this was

page 4

delayed by the need to find solutions to some of the problems thrown up by the ground testing conducted by Kerwin and his crew.

There remained one more battle to be won before Apollo 7 left the launch pad. None of those directly associated with the flight, the engineers or crews, particularly wanted a TV camera onboard. They couldn’t see the value of it and it was just an unnecessary piece of junk as far as they were concerned. Attempts to fix it in the spacecraft had been going on since September 1963 when NASA had first directed its installation. Since then, it had first been in and then out as the battle raged. The three men who wanted it most were Julian Scheer in Washington, Paul Haney from the Public Affairs Office in Houston and, most importantly, management engineer William Lee. He argued that in order to meet an Apollo objective to show the world American space supremacy, engineering criteria should not be used to justify the exclusion of a TV camera. To satisfy the huge interest of the general public, pictures would be needed and that the climax of the Moon landing could not be adequately conveyed by voice alone. By the Spring of 1968 he had won his argument and the 4.5lb camera designed by RCA was finally placed in the capsule.

Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 24 September/October 2013 While all this was going on, two resignations were announced. The first was that of James E. Webb, NASA Administrator, his place being taken up by Thomas Paine. The other was that of Wally Schirra, saying that at 45 years old he was getting too old to wait another two or three years for further flights, though it was more likely that the pressure of work – only the occasional night off for over a year – was the real reason.

of the crew to additional pressures. If this was indeed the case then Flight Directors Lunney, Kranz and Griffin picked the wrong crew for such psychological exercises. Schirra was well known for what Naval authorities called his ‘non-regulation independence’ and Cunningham was reputed to have a fuse only marginally longer than that of his Commander when faced with officialdom at its blundering worst.

Apollo 7 was an important flight, not only if President Kennedy’s target of a Moon landing by 1970 was to be met, but also in the rehabilitation of NASA and the American space programme as a whole. To this end, Wally Schirra was the right person to command it.

As Mike Collins said, “The spacecraft wouldn’t dare blow up with Wally on board.”

On top of this, Schirra developed a cold, the symptoms appearing after some fifteen hours in space. It was thought that he either picked it up from his fellow crew members who had just recovered from nose sniffles or got himself chilled on a shooting trip in the week before launch. Which ever was the cause, it did nothing to improve his temper.

Neither did the fact that both Eisele and Cunningham began also to display similar symptoms though it is more likely that theirs was a reaction to breathing pure oxygen over an extended period.

Schirra’s determination to make Apollo 7 a successful mission may be best illustrated by two separate incidents that took place before launch day. The ‘Pad Leader’ for all the Mercury and Gemini flights was a man named Guenter Wendt. His responsibility was to make certain that the spacecraft itself was ready for flight. The astronauts knew him affectionately as the ‘Pad Fuehrer’, which is perhaps why Pete Conrad reckoned that provided one agreed with him, he was very easy to get on with. Employed by McDonnell, he did not transfer to North American Rockwell, the builders of the Apollo capsules until a specific request was made

by Deke Slayton. As the time for launch day approached for Apollo 7, Guenter was on the night shift. Schirra made personal representations to the manufacturer’s manager in charge of launch operations and had his shifts changed so that he was there to see the crew into the capsule. Hence the laconic, “I vunder vere Guenter Vendt?” as Apollo 7 left the pad.

The other incident caused fellow member of the crew, Walt Cunningham, to fall foul of Schirra’s determination. Partial to water skiing, in the final days leading up to the launch Walt had taken a couple of nasty falls whilst indulging his passion. When Schirra found out, Cunningham was dissuaded by his Commander from continuing with this particular form of relaxation until after the mission was completed.

Apollo 7 got off Pad 34 just a few seconds before 11.03 local time on 11th October 1968 and about three minutes late, the delay due to the need for additional chilling of the second stage during the final 15 minutes of the countdown. The mission was to fly open-ended up to eleven days, but the main objectives were to be met within the first three days. These were – to demonstrate CSM/crew performance, demonstrate crew/ space vehicle/mission support facilities during a manned CSM mission, demonstrate CSM rendezvous capability.

Therein, perhaps, lay the seeds of what were to become some very fraught times ahead.

With the success of the mission assured early on, there was a suggestion that the remainder of the flight was used not just to gain extra information but also to test the reaction

A couple of other things may well have contributed to the general testiness. First was the sanitary arrangements in Apollo.

The waste management for solids consisted of a plastic bag, albeit one with sticky tape and a blue germicide tablet to preserve the contents for examination by the medical team back on Earth. It was both difficult and time consuming to use, each visit taking anything between 45 and 60 minutes. Not only was it unpleasant for the other crew members, in the confined space the smell tended to spread. Consequently, the crew only used 12 bags over the ten day period. [Note – this is a very mild description of the full horror of a bowel motion in weightless conditions.]

Then there was the back-ache. During the first few days they found that sleeping in the couches caused their bodies to adopt the foetal position which made the wake up with back and abdominal pains. This led to a race for the ‘Exer-Genie’ – a stretching device – to relax the cramped and aching muscles.

Cunningham, after some experimentation, eventually decided that the couch was preferable to the sleeping bag slung under it.

Altogether, it took three days before the crew came upon a routine that allowed all of them to get enough sleep.

was jettisoned, two had problems with condensation and one started to collect moisture between its layers.

Nevertheless, things settled down and after the second day Cunningham was able to report that most of the windows were in fairly good shape and were satisfactory for photography and observation purposes. o Navigation was difficult if done too soon after a urine dump and Eisele reported that at least fifty stars had to be visible if the part of the sky looked at was to be correctly identified. However, the 37 ‘Apollo’ stars were useable. o The food caused problems.

They had some sixty items to choose from, giving them about 2500 calories a day. It was basically the same as they had used on the Gemini flights and despite some fine sounding titles such as shrimp cocktail, pineapple fruitcake, cinnamon toasted breadcubes, salmon salad and spaghetti in meat sauce, it still crumbled leaving stray particles floating round the cabin. Eventually at mealtimes the crew competed to get the more palatable items, trying to avoid those they actively disliked.

Wally Schirra, blessed with previous experience of the diet, did seek to alleviate his distress by making use of the facility of hot water to have some coffee. However, the food remained a long way short of fulfilling normal eating habits.

It was not all despondency though. One major benefit was the extra space afforded by the increase in size of the spacecraft. Now, instead of doing EVA’s the crew, with plenty of room to move about, did IVA’s – intravehicular activity. Schirra reported that apart from becoming “….quite a gymnast”, the spacecraft picked up no motion from crew movements and Cunningham agreed that moving from place to place was very easy with no need for strong handholds.

o At times one of the fuel cells ran a little hot.

“We’re having a ball!” These were the words used to describe the first hours in space as the spacecraft was separated from the launch vehicle and began station keeping exercises as it passed over Cape Kennedy at the end of its second orbit. As Cunningham noticed that the adapter panels had not separated properly, Tom Stafford on duty as Capcom, commented on the resemblance to the ‘Angry Alligator’ of his Gemini 9 flight.

o The fans were noisy, the crew turning them off and finding that the cabin still stayed comfortable though it did cause the coolant lines to sweat, the moisture forming puddles in the cabin. Schirra solved it by using the urine dump hose to vacuum the water out into space.

Later, as the components of Apollo 7 pulled away from each other, Donn Eisele reported that radio interference was allowing them to pick up adverts for hospital insurance.

“Maybe they know something I don’t.” was his comment. Meanwhile, Cunningham was given permission to try to solve the problem with the cooling system.

o The windows gave visibility which ranged from poor to good.

Two sooted up as the escape tower

As their second day in space began came the first of the brushes with the ground.

Schirra cancelled the first of the planned TV

Before going on to give a brief general description of the events of the mission, other general problems that plagued them during the ten days in orbit were –

page 5

Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 24 September/October 2013 transmissions. Two extra burns of the RCS engines and an extra urine dump added to the flight plan were enough to make him tell Mission Control that “…this flight TV will be delayed without further discussion until after the rendezvous.”

The rendezvous referred to was with the S-IVB second stage and followed the first ten second firing of the SPS engine. A Fred Flintstone “Yabadabadoo!” was Schirra’s reaction, whilst Eisele’s comment was that it was more than expected and a real boot in the rear that plastered them to their seats. Despite the surprise at the severity of the jolt, this engine performed as it should throughout all the eight firings made.

There were other smaller problems coming to light as well. They found great difficulty in getting at their supplies of chewing gum.

The packets lacked the ‘pull to open’ strip of the food supplies, an oversight one would not expect when one remembers that it was costing something in the order of £250 a day to feed them.

Cunningham’s difficulty was of a more sartorial nature. Having stripped down to his ‘long johns’ he now had to decide whether or not he should dress for the forthcoming TV show.

However, before this came there arose one problem that caused Schirra to say “…a very traumatic experience.” Over the Red Sea Apollo was lit up by warning lights that were associated with a sudden power loss. The ground controllers decided that this was possibly caused by the periodic turning off of the fans in the oxygen tanks that supplied the fuel cells. Whatever the reason, the problem was solved by leaving one fan turned off, Schirra reporting, “We sound casual now. We weren’t then!”

Seen live by many nations, as far as Britain was concerned it enabled the BBC to break their record for the longest TV link. In all the pictures covered 47,000 miles to reach the sets in people’s homes, beating by some 2000 miles the pictures transmitted from Mexico City during the Olympic Games.

The next day, a second transmission gave viewers a tour of the Apollo capsule or, as Eisele put it, “We bring you the one and only original Apollo orbiting road show, starring two acrobats from outer space – Wally Schirra and Walter Cunningham.”

faced right with the order to ‘about face’ resulting in a triple spin.

But already they were starting to think ahead to re-entry, still a couple of days away. It was now that the first mention of not wearing helmets was made. Despite using most of the 330 paper tissues and 72 asprins they had on board all were congested and concerned that they would need to be able to clear the pressure build up in their ears as they returned to Earth.

And still the crazy tests continued. “I wish you would find out the name of the idiot By the time the mid-point of the mission who thought of this test. I want to talk to was reached there was talk on the ground him personally when I get down.” said Schirra of a flight by an Apollo round the Moon by after one request. He followed this with a the end of the year. Already Apollo 7 had final, “I’ve had it up here and from now on I’m achieved 24 of its planned 36 main objectives, going to be an onboard flight director for the four more were partially completed and six updates.”. This, as one can imagine, did not were not possible to achieve until the re-entry go down well at Houston, though there were phase of the flight. Of the 15 secondary tasks, those who quietly supported Schirra’s stand, ten were done, three partially completed agreeing that officials should listen to the and one awaited re-entry. However, of more opinions of the astronauts. immediate concern was the development and movement of Hurricane Gladys that, looking Before re-entry there was a final TV ahead, might cause a few problems when the transmission, closing with a card that read ‘As time came to recover the capsule at the end the sun sinks slowly in the west, this is Apollo of the mission.

7 cutting out now’.

Nevertheless, the SPS engine was used again to boost Apollo to a higher orbit despite some concern at the Bochum Observatory in Germany that increased solar radiation might expose the crew to dangerous levels.

This though was not what concerned the mission controllers. Three hours after reaching this new orbit data communication with the capsule was lost for fifteen minutes.

Eventually the breakdown was traced to a system failure in the network in the Kansas area of the USA.

By the eighth day hostilities with Mission Control were renewed. They started as Donn As preparations for the postponed TV Eisele removed his bio-medical harness as transmission went ahead there was some there were parts that were running hot. discussion amongst the Flight Directors as to Already the crew had to mend loose and whether the flight should be terminated early, broken wiring several times and, backed by perhaps after six or eight days.

Schirra, Eisele had had enough. They reached the “…bitter end..” and, mindful of the spark Eventually the moment arrived and the that caused the Apollo 1 fire, refused to camera was turned on at the end of the 48th undertake any more repairs. orbit as the spacecraft passed over the Gulf of Mexico. The first shot showed a stubbly Cunningham too was beginning to rebel Donn Eisele that brought forth the comment having had his fill of ‘Mickey Mouse’ from the ground, “You forgot to shave this operations. At one point, when told that a morning!”. Eisele replied, “Yes. I lost my razor.” test might require him to repeat an operation Eisele was seen to be wearing his spacesuit, forty times he replied, “I would like to go on the other two crew members dressed in record here by saying that people who dress their blue flight overalls. Viewers on Earth up procedures like this after lift-off have were unaware of this as the pictures were somehow or other been dropping the ball the in black and white. In all the transmission past three years.”. lasted for about seven minutes. Cards were held up displaying the words ‘Hello from the It was Cunningham also who voiced his lovely Apollo room high atop everything’ and disquiet at the scheduled TV transmission for ‘Keep those cards and letters coming in folks’. the day saying, “I think what they are trying These had been supplied by Michael Kapp, to do is to set this thing up so it will tie into the man whose music tapes were used for somebody’s TV show.” He made his point as it crew entertainment on many of the Gemini was postponed for one orbit. flights and who produced the ‘Jose Jiminez in Orbit’ record beloved by Alan Shepard. It When it came the main feature was the ‘close was obvious that the crew enjoyed doing the order drill’ performed by Cunningham and show, in sharp contrast to some of the earlier Eisele following orders from CSM (Company exchanges.

Sergeant Major) Schirra. They faced left, they

page 6

Re-entry was begun over Hawaii on the 163 revolution of the Earth as Schirra manually fired the SPS engine for the final time, commenting that the separation of the Command Module from its Service Module was “…a real slap in the face …”.

The crew, dosed with decongestion tablets were dressed as Schirra wished, he having won his argument with Deke Slayton who had spent some time trying to persuade them otherwise. As the capsule passed over Houston several people spotted it for about thirty seconds looking like a bright moving speck of light in the sky before it began its fiery plunge back through the atmosphere. “We’re riding a pink cloud,” said the Commander.

The landing in the Atlantic south-east of Bermuda came some distance off target and about 13 kilometres from the recovery carrier Essex. Then it got lost for fifteen minutes.

Upside down in the water – the Stable 2 position – the recovery beacons were unable to operate until the capsule was righted by the inflation of three buoyancy bags in the nose. Even with this done, it was still difficult to find because of the general gloom cast by the rain squalls blowing across the recovery area. Eventually the crew were winched aboard a helicopter and returned safely to the carrier for medical checks. Schirra’s humour returned with the safe landing making comments about his submarine service. Like Gemini before it, the Apollo capsule had proved itself to be a fine space going vehicle but left a lot to be desired as a boat.

The medical checks showed them all to be in fine shape though some of the physical exercises made them easily tired.

Lt. General Sam Phillips – the Apollo Project Manager – claimed the flight was “…101% continued on next page . . .

Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 24 September/October 2013

ISS MISSION REPORT

By George Spiteri Expedition Thirty-Six continues its mission at the International Space Station (ISS). The orbiting complex is commanded by Russian, Pavel Vinogradov together with fellow Russians, Flight Engineers Alexander Misurkin and Fyodor Yurchikhin plus Americans, Chris Cassidy and Karen Nyberg and ESA’s Italian Luca Parmitano.

Mounted to the Harmony Module. minutes at 1909 BST.

Wearing their Russian Orlan EVA suits, Yurchikhin and Misurkin began this mission’s first space walk at 1432 BST on 24th June. During their spacewalk, they replaced an aging fluid flow control panel on the Zarya Module. They also installed clamps for future power cables as an early step toward swapping the Pirs airlock with the new Multi-Purpose Laboratory Module due in late 2013. Yurchikhin and Misurkin finally retrieved two science experiments and installed a new one before ending their EVA after 6 hours 34 minutes at 2106 BST. It was the 169th EVA in support of Space Station assembly and maintenance.

Progress M-18M/50P undocked from the Station’s Pirs Module at 2143 BST on 25th July and later burnt up in the Earth’s atmosphere as planned over the Pacific Ocean. That cleared the way for the next cargo vehicle, Progress M-20M/52P to be launched from Baikonur at 2145 BST on 27th July (0245 28th July local time) and achieve another fast-track four orbit, six hour rendezvous, docking at the Pirs Module at 0326 BST on 28th July. Amongst the 2.8 tons of deliveries carried

by Progress was a hastily put together repair kit for Parmitano’s faulty EVA suit.

The EVA ended after 6 hours 9

Cassidy and Parmitano left Quest again for the next EVA at 1257 BST on 16th July. However, the spacewalk was curtailed after only one and a half hours at 1439 BST due to Parmitano experiencing water ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle-4 (ATV-4) “Albert Einstein” docked at floating inside his suit helmet. Ground controllers spent several days the Station’s Zvezda Module 21 minutes later than planned at 1507 evaluating what had caused his suit to malfunction and decided to BST on 15th June and three days later the crew opened the hatches form a panel that first met on 2nd August to further investigate the and began unloading its supplies. problem.

The second EVA of the mission began at 1302 BST on 9th July when Cassidy and Parmitano exited the Quest airlock. Cassidy removed and replaced a Space-to-Ground Transmitter Receiver Controller on the Z1 Truss and Italy’s first spacewalker retrieved two experiments on the Station’s Starboard Truss. Parmitano also photographed the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-02 (AMS-02) to provide the research team a visual assessment of the condition of the state of the art particle physics detector. Cassidy routed power cables to support the addition of the Russian Multipurpose Laboratory Module, due to arrive later in 2013.

The Japanese Space Agency, JAXA launched HTV-4 “Kounotori” (“White Stork”) from their Tanegashima launch site at 2048 BST on 3rd August (0448 4th August local time) and was grappled by the Station’s Canadarm2 at 1222 BST on 9th August and berthed onto the Station’s Harmony Module about four hours later at 1638 BST. HTV-4 delivered 3.6 tons of equipment to the ISS including the 13.4 inch Japanese “Kirobo” (“Hope robot”) humanoid robot to be used when Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata arrives at the complex later this year.

As of 9th August, Vinogradov, Cassidy and Misurkin have been in space for 135 days whilst Yurchikhin, Nyberg and Parmitano have been in orbit for 74 days.

The two spacewalkers also removed two Radiator Grapple Bars and George A Spiteri Parmitano installed a multi-layer insulation cover to protect the docking interface of the Pressurised Mating Adaptor -2 (PMA-2) from previous page successful …”, the fifty minor malfunctions that had occurred all explained except for two that awaited investigation as the capsule was stripped down back at the factory where it was built.

For the crew came an offer by Howard Koch, a film producer, of parts in his next production ‘On A Clear Day You Can See Forever’ that was to star Barbara Streisand. These he said were to be ‘capsule roles but out of this world’.

There were hints also picked up by the press in Houston that Schirra was to face a full ‘normal’ inquiry on his return to the Manned Spaceflight Centre to settle the recurring theme of the flight as to who had ultimate control.

FEDERATION OF ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETIES 2013 Convention & AGM The 2013 FAS Convention will take place on Saturday 19th October 2013 at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge.

Speaker lineup: Dr Samuel George – University of Birmingham “Magnetic Fields in the Universe” Andrew Robertson “Building a large (600mm) Dobsonian Telescope” Prof. Andrew Coates – Mullard Space Science Laboratory, UCL “Mars exploration – and the ExoMars mission” Tamela Maciel – Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge “Jets from AGN”.

Mark Burke – University of Birmingham “How do we hunt Black Holes” Dr Robin Catchpole – University of Cambridge “Climbing the Distance Scale ladder to the Edge of the Universe” For full details please visit the FAS web site at

http://fedastro.org.uk/fas/convention-2013/ page 7

Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 24 September/October 2013

ASTRONAUT NEWS ROB WOOD

ISS Crewing Updates 1/ NASA press release

Although we were already aware of their assignments, on 10 July 2013 a NASA press release officially confirmed that the ISS partners had appointed three astronauts to round out future expedition crews. Russian Federal Space Agency cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, Japanese Exploration Aerospace Agency (JAXA) astronaut Kimiya Yui and NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren are scheduled to launch to the ISS in June 2015 (other sources give 30 May 2015 as the launch date) to join three Expedition 44 crew members already in orbit.

They will lift-off on Soyuz TMA-17M from the Baikonur Cosmodrome and will dock with the Rassvet mini-research module. At the end of Expedition 44 they will remain aboard as part of Expedition 45. JAXA had announced Yui’s assignment on 5 October 2012.

Oleg Dmitrievich Kononenko was born on 21 June 1964 in Chardzhou, then part of the Soviet Republic of Turkmen. He has a degree in Mechanical Engineering and worked as a design engineer at the TsSKB-Progress Design Bureau in Samara. He was selected as a cosmonaut in 1996 and following basic training received the qualification of testcosmonaut in 1998. He has already flown two missions to the ISS, Expedition 17 in 2008 and Expeditions 30/31 in 2011/2012, accumulating over 390 days in space and making three spacewalks. He was ISS commander for Expedition 31.

Kimiya Yui (Lieutenant Colonel, Japan Air Self-Defense Force, Ret.) was born in 1970 in Nagano Prefecture, Chubu region, Japan. He has a degree in Engineering. He was in the Japanese military from 1992 to 2009, serving as a fighter-pilot, test-pilot and staff officer.

He was selected as an astronaut in 2009 (Japanese Astronaut Group 5) and joined NASA’s Group 20 astronauts the same year for basic training. He was a crew member of NEEMO 16 in 2012. Soyuz TMA-17M will be his first spaceflight.

Kjell Norwood Lindgren (M.D.) was born on 23 January 1973 in Taipei, Taiwan. He has degrees in Biology, Cardiovascular Physiology and Public Health. In 2002 he received a Doctorate of Medicine from the University of Colorado and has completed residencies in emergency medicine and aerospace medicine. In the mid-1990’s he conducted research in cardiovascular countermeasures at NASA’s Ames Research Center and from 2007 was based at the NASA Johnson Space Center as a flightsurgeon supporting ISS training and operations. He was selected as an astronaut

in 2009 (NASA Group 20). Soyuz TMA-17M will be his first spaceflight.

2/ Unofficial crew selections

According to some reports Timothy Kopra is the missing crew member for ISS Expedition 46. As per the last issue of CapCom, we have official confirmation that British astronaut Tim Peake is on this crew and unofficial reports have Sergei Zalyotin as the Russian representative.

Jeffrey Williams, a veteran of two ISS tours already, has been suggested as the astronaut to be named by NASA as the back-up to Scott Kelly for his year-long spaceflight due to start in March 2015. Williams himself told his local radio station that he has agreed to make what will be his fourth spaceflight in 2016. He will become the first NASA astronaut to make three long-duration spaceflights. His first flight was a short one on the Space Shuttle.

Yuri Lonchakov, who was assigned to Expeditions 43/44, due to take place from March to October 2015, has resigned from the Russian cosmonaut squad (more on this story in the next issue). Currently, the word out of Russia is that his replacement will be Gennady Padalka. Padalka has already flown four long-duration spaceflights accumulating over 710 days in space and if he does fly this mission will take the record for the most time spent in space from his boss Sergei Krikalyov.

Astronaut Retirement from NASA A tweet from astronaut Mike Massimino on 22 July 2013 gave advance notice that British born astronaut Michael Foale was leaving NASA. “Went to a going away party tonight for Chris Hadfield and Mike Foale,” he tweeted. “Two good friends and great astronauts. They will be missed.” The following day he added, “Going away party for due Chris Hadfield and Mike Foale was very touching. Good stories were told. Nine spaceflights between the two of them.”

It was more than two weeks later before we had the official word from NASA. Their press release dated 9 August 2013 confirmed that Foale had retired. He had worked for NASA for 30 years, initially as a payload officer at the Johnson Space Center and then three years later as an astronaut. He went on to make six spaceflights including tours of duty on two different space stations logging over 370 days in space.

“We salute Mike and his contributions to NASA as an accomplished member of the astronaut corps,” said NASA Administrator and former astronaut Charles Bolden.

page 8

“Starting with his first flight, shuttle mission STS-45, when we flew together in 1992, Mike has worked tirelessly to support NASA’s quest to explore the unknown. I know Mike will go on to do more great things as he continues to support the aerospace industry in his new endeavour.”

Colin Michael Foale (CBE, Ph.D.) was born on 6 January 1957 in Louth, England. In 1978 he received a first-class honours degree in Natural Sciences Tripos from Queens’ College, University of Cambridge and his doctorate in 1982 from the Department of Physics, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge.

He had wanted to become an astronaut from an early age and was fortunate to have dual nationality as his British father had married a US citizen. This enabled him to move to Houston in 1982 and obtain work with the McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Corporation in their orbital navigation research unit. The following year he joined the Johnson Space Center as a payload officer in the Mission Control Center.

He applied twice to join NASA’s astronaut corps but was turned down. He was later told that this was because he was considered too young. When he was selected in 1987 he was still the youngest in his class. Following his selection as part of NASA’s 12th class of astronauts he successfully completed the then one year basic training course.

Starting in 1992 he has participated in six spaceflights. His first was STS-45, the first of the ATLAS series of missions. In 1993 came STS-56 that carried ATLAS-2 and the SPARTAN retrievable satellite. His third shuttle flight was STS-63, which carried out the first US rendezvous with Russia’s Mir space station as a precursor to the later docking missions. During STS-63, he made his first EVA. Next up was his first space station stay. He launched on STS-84 on 15 May 1997 to join the Mir 23 crew. Whilst aboard the Mir complex a Progress re-supply spacecraft collided with the Spektr module causing a depressurization emergency. He helped keep the space station operational including conducting an EVA in the Russian Orlan spacesuit to inspect damage to Spektr.

During the last few months of the flight he became part of the Mir 24 crew. He returned to Earth on STS-86 on 6 October 1997.

His fifth spaceflight was the third Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission. In December 1999 STS-103 flew a nearly eight day mission to repair and upgrade the telescope. He was part of the EVA team and made an 8-hour spacewalk to replace

Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 24 September/October 2013 the telescope’s main computer and Fine Guidance Sensor.

His final mission was to the ISS space station and was his only flight not using the Space Shuttle for launch and landing. Lift-off was from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Soyuz TMA-3 on 18 October 2003. As commander of ISS Expedition 8 he helped carry out repair and maintenance work and also conducted scientific experiments. He made one further EVA, again using the Russian Orlan space suit. He returned to Earth in the descent module of Soyuz TMA-3 on 30 April 2004.

makes sense to have CASSMAR here.” Olivas was a NASA astronaut between 1998 and 2010 and flew on STS-117 in 2007 and STS128 in 2009.

Obituary Notes John Anthony ‘Tony’ Llewellyn 1933-2013

Adding to Chris Lee’s article in the last CapCom, Tony Llewellyn was recruited to NASA’s Astronaut Corps as part of their In 2005, he was awarded Commander of second scientist group (sixth overall). The the Most Excellent Order of the British group was announced on 4 August 1967.

Empire (CBE) by the British Government for The eleven new astronaut candidates his services to space exploration. During reported for duty at the Manned Spaceflight his later years with NASA he carried out Center (MSC) on Monday, 18 September management roles for the Astronaut Office.

1967 (in 1973 the MSC was renamed the Following his retirement he plans to work Lyndon B Johnson Space Center in honour on advancing green aviation technology by of the late president who had died earlier helping to develop an electric aircraft. He will that year). What awaited the would-be also advise the Inspiration Mars Foundation astronauts was not what they expected. who are planning to launch humans on 5 January 2018 for a flyby of Mars.

They were called into a meeting with Chief Astronaut Alan Shepard and Director of Ex-Astronaut Movements in the Private Flight Crew Operations Donald ‘Deke’ and Other Public Sector Areas Slayton. Brian O’Leary takes up the story in his book ‘The Making of an Ex-Astronaut’.

Lieutenant General Susan Helms who is He writes that Slayton “…began describing currently the Commander, 14th Air Force (Air a surprisingly bleak picture of our future…”

Forces Strategic), Air Force Space Command; and quotes Slayton as saying, “I might as well and Commander, Joint Functional warn you troops that you won’t be seeing Component Command for Space, US any action for quite some time.” Slayton Strategic Command, Vandenberg Air Force explained about severe cuts in the space Base, California, has been nominated for budget and that the post-Apollo missions assignment as Vice-Commander of US Space that they would likely have flown were being Command. This appointment is awaiting scrapped or severely delayed.

Senate approval. Lt Gen Helms was a NASA astronaut from 1990 to 2002 making five Slayton did not mince his words, “…you spaceflights including one as a member of may as well face the prospect of long delays ISS Expedition 2. and perhaps no flights. We don’t need you around here, at least for the time being.

Byron Lichtenberg who retired from I’m saying this, just so you’d understand.”

Southwest Airlines in February 2013 after Slayton offered them all a chance to leave flying the Boeing-737 aircraft for 20 years the Astronaut Office there and then with has accepted a position of visiting scholar nothing held against them. Slayton later at LeTourneau University in Longview, recorded that “I hated like hell to do it to Texas, commencing September 2013. He them, but I had to be honest about it.” was the first US payload specialist when he flew on STS-9 in 1983. Unusually for a In an act of defiance the group gave US payload specialist he went on to make themselves the nickname of the ‘Excess a second spaceflight (STS-45 in 1992). The Eleven, or as it was normally shown ‘XS-11’.

Executive Director of Enrolment Services Carl The nickname reflected both their number Arnold said having a former astronaut at the and their prospects as astronauts.

University has made an impact in recruiting top students and “definitely was a significant None of them took up Slayton’s offer deciding factor for a few of our incoming immediately but the requirement to learn to engineering students.” fly was too much for Llewellyn and O’Leary and they both left the programme in 1968.

On 13 August 2013, the University of Texas, Slayton was correct in his assessment and El Paso (UTEP), released the news that former the group’s nickname was proven somewhat NASA astronaut and UTEP distinguished prophetic as it took 15 years for the first of alumnus John ‘Danny’ Olivas, Ph.D., had them to get into space. That was too long joined them as Director of the Center for the for some but seven of them did hold out and Advancement of Space Safety and Mission flew eventually.

Assurance Research (CASSMAR) and will oversee space initiatives on campus. “The Tony Llewellyn was born on 22 April 1933 US is at the dawn of a new era of space in Cardiff, Wales. Following school he exploration, so I am thrilled about this attended University College, Cardiff, from development,” Olivas said. “UTEP has the where he received Bachelor of Science (1955) right people, and the right facilities and and Doctor of Philosophy (1958) degrees capabilities to do this work. Plus, it sits in in Chemistry. Following his doctorate he close proximity to nearby spaceports. It just immigrated to Canada and worked for

page 9

the National Research Council in Ottawa.

In 1960 he changed his North American country to the United States and took up a position at Florida State University.

He became a US citizen on 17 February 1966 and this was just in time to be eligible to apply to NASA to become an astronaut when applications were called for later that year. Only US citizens could apply and this remains the position today. Dr Llewellyn saw an advert pinned to a university notice board headed ‘Opportunities for Scientists as Astronauts’ and he decided to apply.

His first few months with NASA was taken up with mostly classroom based academic training, familiarisation visits to other NASA sites and survival training. But then came flight school. Dr Llewellyn was sent to Reese Air Force Base in Texas where he started his flight training on 4 April 1968. The training should have lasted for one year. He completed the initial phase of the training and flew solo in the prop-aircraft Cessna T-41A but was increasingly feeling that he was not doing as well as was needed. The jet trainers were far more daunting.

He discussed the position with his instructors and what they told him was not reassuring.

He decided to resign. NASA’s press release of 23 August 1968 reported that Dr Llewellyn “had withdrawn from the astronaut training programme because he was having trouble learning to fly jets.” The release confirmed he had completed about 40 hours of dual flight instruction in the Cessna T-37 jet trainer but had yet to fly solo.

He returned to Florida State University where he worked until 1972 and then moved to the University of South Florida. He retired in 2007 but continued to serve as Professor Emeritus in the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering. Towards the end of his life he was working on gene and cell therapy.

His original NASA biography listed scuba diving as one of his hobbies and he retained this affinity with the sea, serving on several sea projects including as an aquanaut with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 1976. He sailed and also served as a consultant on the marine environment.

He died on 2 July 2013 following a stroke. He is survived by Valerie his wife of 56 years and their three children Ceri, Sian and Gareth.

Charles Gordon Fullerton 19362013 Despite the fact that NASA did not have any flights for them either, two years after the ‘XS-11’ another group of astronauts arrived at Johnson. These were the seven MOL astronauts who joined NASA following the cancellation of an USAF spaceflight project.

Although they did have a long wait all seven did eventually fly in space, starting in 1981 with the first Space Shuttle mission. At least one member of the MOL group was on the shuttle during its first eight spaceflights:

Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 24 September/October 2013 Gordon Fullerton first became involved in spaceflight as part of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) Program. MOL was a USAF military space station project instigated in 1963. The idea was that a series of two-man Gemini spacecraft would be used with a small space station in Polar orbit for periods of up to thirty days. The astronauts were to be involved in military reconnaissance spying using the KH-10 imaging system.

The MOL project was cancelled in 1969 due to the financial strain of the Vietnam War and the increasing sophistication of unmanned spy satellites without a manned mission being flown. But, this was not before three astronaut selections had been made. The second group selected in 1966 included Fullerton. He was one of seven MOL astronauts who transferred to NASA in 1969 (NASA Astronaut Group 7).

Charles Gordon Fullerton was born on 11 October 1936 in Rochester, New York. He earned bachelor and master degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena in 1957 and 1958 respectively. Whilst studying for his masters he worked for Hughes Aircraft Company as a mechanical design engineer in the Flight Test Department.

He joined the USAF in July 1958 and went to flight school at Georgia, Texas. He initially trained as a fighter pilot, qualifying for the North American F-86 Sabre before moving on to multi-engine bombers and flying the Boeing B-47 Stratojet. In 1964 he was selected to attend the Air Force Aerospace Research Pilots School (now the Air Force Test Pilots School) at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Upon graduation he was assigned as a test pilot with the Bomber Operations Division at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base at Dayton, Ohio.

Following his stint with the MOL project his next space assignments were on the Apollo moon landing missions. He served as a support astronaut for Apollo 14 and 17 and was a CapCom for Apollo 14 through to Apollo 17. In conjunction with his Apollo duties he was also one of the first astronauts to be assigned to the Space Shuttle Program where he conducted early development work in 1971, including flying the Lockheed simulator for approach and landing tests.

response of the orbiter in various attitudes to the Sun. The RMS is also known as the Canadarm-1, which was developed and built by Canada as their contribution to the shuttle project.

In the payload bay the shuttle also carried the OSS-1 scientific pallet, the NASA’s Office of Space Science sponsored experiments that obtained data on near-Earth space environment, including contamination (gases, dust, etc.) introduced into space by the shuttle itself. Unfortunately, a problem with the RMS limited the reach of the experiment but NASA considered the information useful.

Because heavy seasonal rains had made the landing site at Edwards too wet to support a landing, STS-3 became the only shuttle mission to land at White Sands, New Mexico.

The runway at Kennedy, which would become the main landing site, was not considered ready to receive the shuttle at this early stage in the programme.

Fullerton’s second and final spaceflight was as Commander of the STS-51F Challenger Spacelab 2 mission (29 July - 6 August 1985).

Launching the mission was not without drama. The launch countdown on 12 July 1985 was halted at T-3 seconds, but after main engine ignition, when a malfunction of the number two Space Shuttle Main Engine coolant valve caused a shutdown of all three main engines. The launch on 29 July 1985 was delayed 1 hour, 37 minutes due to a problem with the table maintenance block update uplink and when it finally got off the ground, the number one main engine shutdown prematurely at 5 minutes, 45 seconds into ascent, resulting in the Space Shuttle’s only abort-to-orbit trajectory.

modified McDonnell-Douglas F-15 Eagle and a McDonnell Douglas MD-11 transport with all control surfaces neutralised using only engine thrust modulation for control.

He also flew the Douglas DC-8 in an airborne science laboratory configuration which was regularly deployed world-wide to support a variety of research studies including atmospheric physics, ground mapping and meteorology. He also led a project that utilised a Convair 990 Corronado modified to test space shuttle landing gear components during many very high speed landings.

The list just goes on. He had more than sixteen thousand hours flight time in one hundred and thirty five types of aircraft including the Russian Tupolev TU-144LL supersonic transport. During two flights in Russia in September 1998 he reached a speed of Mach two and became one of only two non-Russian pilots to fly that aircraft.

Towards the end of his career with NASA he served as Associate Director of Flight Operations and Chief of the Flight Crew Branch at Dryden. He was often referred to as Dryden’s Chief Pilot. He was responsible for a variety of flight research and administrative support activities.

After nearly forty years with NASA, Gordon Fullerton retired on 31 December 2007. His last flight as a NASA Dryden research pilot came on 21 December 2007 in a McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet fighter aircraft in its role as a NASA pilot proficiency/systems research aircraft.

Fullerton and Dryden research pilot Jim Smolka flew a 90-minute pilot proficiency formation aerobatics flight with another Dryden F/A-18 and a Dryden Northrop T-38 The Spacelab 2 payload on STS-51F consisted Talon jet trainer aircraft before concluding of an igloo and three pallets in the payload with two low-level formation flyovers of bay, containing scientific instruments Dryden before landing. As he taxied the dedicated to life sciences, plasma physics, F/A-18 up to the Dryden ramp Fullerton was astronomy, high-energy astrophysics, solar honoured with a water-cannon spray arch physics, atmospheric physics and technology provided by two fire trucks from the Edwards research. Despite the abort-to-orbit, which Air Force Base Fire Department. He was required mission re-planning, the flight was then greeted by his wife Marie and several declared a success. hundred Dryden staff.

In November 1986 he left the Astronaut Office and joined the Flight Crew Branch at Dryden as an aerospace test pilot. In July 1988 he retired from the USAF with the rank In 1976 he was named to one of the two of Colonel having completed thirty years flight crews that piloted the Space Shuttle of service. At Dryden he was involved in prototype Enterprise during the Approach numerous research projects and support and Landing Test Program in 1977. In March activities. He was command pilot on the 1978 he was selected to be the pilot on the NASA Boeing B-52 Stratofortress aircraft fourth Orbital Flight Test (OFT) of the shuttle. which flew the first six air launches of the However, Fred Haise, who had been assigned commercially developed Pegasus satellite to command the third crew, decided to retire launcher. The first Pegasus launch in 1990 from NASA early in 1979 and in the re-shuffle carried a small Navy communications satellite that followed, Fullerton moved to the pilot and a NASA science payload into orbit. position on the third OFT. Other projects he was involved in included The third OFT took place as STS-3 Columbia piloting the heavily modified Boeing 747 (22-30 March 1982). The mission continued Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and developmental the testing of the shuttle’s systems, including air launches of the X-38 Crew Recovery the Remote Manipulator System (RMS) used Vehicle. He was project pilot on the to grapple and manoeuvre payloads in orbit Propulsion Controlled Aircraft Program and taking measurements of the thermal during which he successfully landed both a

page 10

Following his retirement he enjoyed spending time with his grandchildren, hiking, long bike rides and Saturday morning garage sales. In late 2009 he suffered a severe stroke that left him partially paralyzed.

On 21 August 2013 he died as a result of complications resulting from the stroke.

He was interned at Arlington National Cemetery. He is survived by his wife, Marie, their two children Molly and Andy, and five grandchildren.

UK Astronaut Sightings

1/ Autographica 19 will be held at the Hilton Metropole Hotel, Birmingham, over 20 to 22 September 2013. Four ex-NASA astronaut guests have been announced together with an ex-NASA research pilot. Other guests include actors and actresses from stage, TV and movies.

The four astronauts are Joe Allen who flew twice on the Space Shuttle in the 1980’s,

Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 24 September/October 2013 Apollo 7’s Walter Cunningham; Eugene Cernan who was the 11th astronaut to walk on the moon on his third and final spaceflight and Rusty Schweickart who was on the Apollo 9 mission that first tested the lunar module in space. Barbara Morgan who had been previously named has had to cancel due to work commitments.

Terry Pappas was an aerospace engineer and research pilot with NASA from 1998 to 2011. Prior to this he had served in the USAF where he flew amongst others the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress and the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. After he had left the USAF in 1994 he flew Learjets for a few years filming aerial scenes in the movie industry.

2/ Alan Bean, Apollo 12 moonwalker and commander of the second manned Apollo/ Skylab mission, is the next guest of Ken Willoughby with a dinner and lecture on 11 October 2013 and 12 October 2013 respectively. See pages 16 and 17 of the May/June 2013 issue of CapCom for full details or the website at - http://spacelectures.com/ 3/ A veteran of five space shuttle flights, Jeffrey Hoffman, is an ‘Onboard Speaker’ on Cunard’s transatlantic ocean liner Queen Mary 2 for its Southampton to New York cruise from 15 to 22 December 2013 – see http://www.cunard.co.uk/ for more details.

Look up the Westbound Transatlantic Crossing for December 2013.

4/ Chris Hadfield will be undertaking a book tour to promote his first book ‘An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth’ due for release on 29 October 2013. Colonel Hadfield has tweeted that the tour will be from November 2013 to January 2014 and will include Canada, USA, UK and Ireland. Dublin will be a venue but I do not yet have any other details for this side of the pond. I will certainly be moving heaven and earth (pun intended) to get to this sighting 5/ An early announcement from Autographica is that show number 20 is returning to London. Located at the Radisson Edwardian Heathrow Hotel, it will be held over the period 21 to 23 March 2014. On 13 May 2013 the organisers announced two moonwalkers for the show, Apollo 11’s Buzz Aldrin and Apollo 12’s Alan Bean. A third astronaut named later is Bruce McCandless who made the first untethered MMU EVA on the Space Shuttle in 1984.

NB: If anyone wants to know more about these or other sightings and they do not have access to the Collect Space Sightings pages on the Internet please contact me by email at rwbg15158@blueyonder.co.uk. I often find out about visits at too short notice to put in CapCom. But, a word of warning.

It is always best to check in advance of travelling that an event is taking place as planned. I travelled all the way to London a number of years ago to meet a cosmonaut only to discover he had cancelled because of work commitments. I had not phoned before travelling. I have no involvement in the organisation of the above astronaut

events and therefore no liability is accepted for any changes that occur in the details shown.

Bits & Pieces

1/ Remember Lance Bass; the pop singer from the now defunct US boy band N’Sync, who trained with the Russians more than a decade ago to fly to the ISS as a space tourist but then lost his chance when his financial backing went down the tubes.

Well, he has not given up on his dream of going into space. According to reports he has signed up with Virgin Galactic to fly on SpaceShipTwo. It is a lot cheaper so he might not be so reliant on other people funding him but the downside is that he will only get a few minutes of microgravity.

Seriously, I do wish him the best.

2/ Under the grand title of ‘Surface Telerobotic Experiment’ a NASA rover at the Ames Research Center in California was remotely controlled from the ISS by Chris Cassidy on 17 June 2013. This was the first of three planned simulations of controlling a rover on the surface of a moon, a planet or an asteroid from an orbiting or off-surface spacecraft. Cassidy successfully conducted the test and showed for the first time that an astronaut could control a rover in real-time from an orbiting spacecraft.

Announcing Blue Dot mission logo ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst is set for a six-month stay on the International Space Station in 2014. His mission came one step closer today when the mission patch was revealed at the European Astronaut Centre during German Space Day in Cologne, Germany.

Alex is leaving Earth from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan 28 May 2014.

He will fly on a Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station with Russian cosmonaut Maxim Viktorovich Surayev and NASA astronaut Gregory Reid Wiseman.

3/ On 16 August 2013, Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin carried out the longest The mission logo is inspired by an image of Russian EVA to date of 7 hours 29 minutes.

Earth taken by NASA’s Voyager spacecraft as it travelled six billion kilometres from our planet.

Acknowledgements and American astronomer Carl Sagan described our faintly visible planet on the photograph as sources: “a pale blue dot”.

Apollo; The Definitive Sourcebook ©2006

by Richard W Orloff and David M Harland; During his 166-day mission the next ESA Astronaut.ru; Autographica; BBC.co.uk; astronaut to fly to space has an extensive CapCom (previous issues); Collect Space; scientific programme planned running around Deke! US Manned Space From Mercury to the 40 experiments in materials physics, human Shuttle ©1994 by Donald ‘Deke’ Slayton with physiology, radiation biology, solar research, Michael Cassutt; Google; The Lima News; The biotechnology, fluid physics, astrophysics and Making of an Ex-Astronaut ©1970 by Brian technology demonstrations. All experiments O’Leary; NASA (with apologies for missing are designed to improve life on Earth and them out in the last issue); NASASpaceflight. prepare further exploration projects. com; NASA’s Scientist-Astronauts ©2007 by David J Shayler and Colin Burgess; Parabolic A highlight of Expedition 40/41 is the Arc; Russia’s Cosmonauts ©2005 by Rex D Hall, electromagnetic levitator furnace which keeps David J Shayler and Bert Vis; The Shuttlenauts molten metal suspended in microgravity for 1981-1992: The First 50 Missions. Volume 2: measurements. On Earth many readings in STS Flight Crew Assignments ©1992/1993 by furnaces are hampered by the mold holding D J Shayler Astro Info Service Publications; the metal so characteristics cannot be Soviet Cosmonaut Detachment © 1998 AIS analysed without interference. The results of Publications; Spacefacts; The Story of the Space this experiment promise to improve industrial Shuttle ©2004 by David M Harland; Virgin casting processes and might allow for more Galactic; WalesOnline; Waystation to the Stars delicate and fine castings. ©1999 by Colin Foale; Who’s Who in Space ESA ©1999 by Michael Cassutt; Wikipedia; http://www.esa.int Alex during weightlessness training

page 11

Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 24 September/October 2013

VIRGIN GALACTIC’S COMMERCIAL FLIGHT TEAM ROB WOOD

On 8 May 2013 Virgin Galactic announced that they had recruited two more pilots to join their Commercial Flight Team as they ramp-up their preparations for commercial spaceflights aboard their SpaceShipTwo sub-orbital spaceplane. Joining their team were Frederick ‘CJ’ Sturckow and Michael ‘Sooch’ Masucci. Sturckow had only recently left NASA after 18 years as an astronaut.

Masucci is a retired USAF pilot and joins Galactic from a private airline company.

Of joining Virgin Galactic Sturckow said, “Viewing the Earth from space is such a unique and unforgettable experience. I’m excited to be a part of the Virgin Galactic team that is revolutionizing access to space, making this opportunity a possibility for all.”

“Virgin Galactic is truly a world-class organization with unique flight opportunities that you just won’t find anywhere else,” Masucci commented. “I’m proud to be a part of this team and look forward to contributing to this revolutionary programme.”

“I am pleased to have these two incredibly accomplished pilots join us during this important time as we embark on a series of important rocket-powered flight tests for SpaceShipTwo, ultimately testing the vehicle in space,” said Virgin Galactic President and CEO George Whitesides. “Their collective experience and outstanding performance in various demanding environments will make them invaluable assets to the Virgin Galactic team.”

The SpaceShipTwo project started in 2005 and is a follow on to Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne which made three sub-orbital spaceflights in 2004 to win the US$10 million Ansari X-Prize. This was a prize awarded to the first non-government group who put a manned spacecraft into space twice within two weeks. SpaceShipTwo is about twice the size of SpaceShipOne and will carry six paying passengers and be crewed by two pilots.

SpaceShipTwo is 60 foot long with a 90 inch diameter cabin and will reach a height of 68 miles. It will take-off from a runway but not under its own power. It will be carried by WhiteKnightTwo, a jetpowered aircraft that will take the combination to a height of nearly 9½ miles. SpaceShipTwo will then be released and use a hybrid rocket motor to reach sub-orbital velocity. The passengers will enjoy a few minutes of weightlessness before SpaceShipTwo glides back to its airfield making a runway landing.

SpaceShipTwo successfully performed its first powered test flight on 29 April 2013 after three years of unpowered testing. Richard Branson, the founder and chairman of Virgin Group for whom Virgin Galactic is part of said that they hope to fly their first sub-orbital test flight before the end of 2013 with a first passenger flight shortly after.

Considering they originally talked about passenger flights in 2007 which has regularly moved to a later date I was thinking we should add a little to this schedule. However, by early September 2013, they still appear to be on target. The next few months might prove interesting.

Virgin Galactic together with Scaled Composites have a pool of experienced pilots which should see SpaceShipTwo through its test flights and into commercial operations: Alsbury, Binnie, Colmer, Mackay, Masucci, Nicholls, Shane, Siebold, Stucky and Sturckow.

Biographical details follow (information is from various sources but details are quite sketchy on some).

THE PILOTS

Michael T Alsbury is a test-pilot and engineer employed by Scaled Composites who worked on the development of SpaceShipOne and SpaceShipTwo. He has flown as co-pilot for both WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo during the test programme and was the co-pilot

for SpaceShipTwo on its first powered test flight on 29 April 2013.

He was born in 1975 and has worked for Scaled Composites for a number of years. In 2001 he was the co-pilot for Scaled Composites’ Proteus high altitude long flight duration aircraft.

William Brian Binnie (Commander, USN, Ret.) joined Scaled Composites in 2000 as a test pilot for their SpaceShipOne programme. In 2003 he piloted SpaceShipOne on two test flights and on 4 October 2004 flew the third X-Prize winning sub-orbital flight.

He has flown as co-pilot for both WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipOne during the test programme.

He was born in 1953 in West Lafayette, Indiana. He has a bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering and two master degrees in Fluid Mechanics & Thermodynamics and, Aeronautical Engineering. He joined the United States Navy (USN) in 1978 and during a 21-year career as a navy aviator flew many aircraft including the Ling-TemcoVought A-7E Corsair II, Grumman A-6E Intruder, McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet and McDonnell Douglas/British Aerospace AV-8B Harrier II. In 1988 he graduated from the US Navy’s Test Pilot School at Patuxent River, in Maryland. His navy career included the completion of five operational aircraft-carrier tours and in 1991 flew 33 combat missions in the F/A-18 during the Iraq War. He logged over 4,300 flight hours during his service career.

Following retirement from the Navy he joined Rotary Rocket as a test pilot and was the co-pilot for the three hover flights of the atmospheric test vehicle of the Roton single stage to orbit fully reusable manned spacecraft. The third of these reached a maximum altitude of 75 feet. Unfortunately the company ran out of funds and closed down in 2001.

Gerald Keith ‘Coma’ Colmer (Lieutenant Colonel, USAF) was named as a Virgin Galactic astronaut on 27 October 2011. He flew as a pilot and co-pilot for WhiteKnightTwo and as a co-pilot for SpaceShipTwo in 2012 but was recalled to active reserve duty with the Air National Guard in February 2013. He hopes to rejoin Virgin Galactic at the end of his current assignment.

He was born in 1967 in Arizona. He has a bachelor’s degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1989. He also has two masters degrees, firstly in Aerospace Engineering in 1996 and secondly in Telecommunications Engineering in 2001 both from the University of Colorado.

He has served with both the United States Air Force (USAF) and Air National Guard, making a combat deployment to Iraq with the later.

He was the first Air National Guard pilot ever selected to attend the USAF Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base from where he graduated in 2002. In 2003, he was one of 132 candidates submitted by the USAF to NASA for their 2004 19th class of astronauts but was not called to the examination and interview stage.

David Mackay joined Virgin Galactic as Chief Test Pilot in 2009 and was the first member of their Commercial Flight Team. However,

page 12

Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 24 September/October 2013 he had already been working on the project since 2006, liaising with Scaled Composites on the development of SpaceShipTwo. During the test programme he has flown as pilot and co-pilot for WhiteKnightTwo and co-pilot for SpaceShipTwo. He was appointed Chief Commercial Pilot in 2011.

Executive Officer of Virgin Galactic and The Spaceshjp Company.

The Spaceship Company was set up by Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites in 2005 to build SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo vehicles. In 2012 Virgin Galactic took over full ownership of the company.

He was born in 1957 in Scotland and has a degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Glasgow. He joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1979 and graduated flight school in 1982. He served as a Hawker Siddeley GR3 Harrier pilot in Germany, Belize and the Falklands. After graduating from the École du Personnel Navigant d’Essais et de Réception (or EPNER - the French test pilots’ school) in 1988 through an exchange programme with the RAF he became a test pilot for the Fixed Wing Test Squadron. He was involved in test flights for the Hawker Siddeley FA2 Sea Harrier and the British Aerospace GR7 Harrier.

The Spaceship Company’s operations stretch over 150,000 square feet in three separate facilities at the Mojave Air and Space Port and employs over 145. The company has already started building a second set of spaceship and carrier vehicles.

The Fixed Wing Test Squadron was based at the aircraft test centre at Boscombe Down where he would spend the rest of his RAF career. In 1992 he was appointed Officer Commanding of the Fast Jet Test Flight and the following year became an instructor for the Empire Test Pilot School. In 1994 he was named as Principal Fixed Wing Tutor.

He resigned from the RAF in 1995 and joined Virgin Atlantic as a First Officer on the Boeing 747 fleet. He was promoted to Captain on the 747 in 1999 and two years later for the Airbus A340 fleet. On 17 November 2012 the US Federal Aviation Administration issued his licence to enable him to perform test flights for Virgin Galactic.

He has well over 12,000 flight hours on over 100 different types of aircraft.

Michael J ‘Sooch’ Masucci (Lieutenant Colonel, USAF, Ret.) joined Virgin Galactic’s Commercial Flight Team in May 2013 and made his first WhiteKnightTwo flight as co-pilot on 7 May 2013 before flying as pilot the following day. Both flights were pilot training flights. He joins Virgin Galactic from the private airline company, XOJET Inc., where he was a Cessna Citation X (CE750) Captain.

He earned his USAF wings in 1986 before training on the Lockheed U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft. He made his first flight in 1990 and flew combat missions in the U-2 during the Iraq War of the early 1990’s. He graduated from the USAF Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in 1993. He later became the U-2 flight test commander and was instrumental in the development and testing of the aircraft’s glass cockpit and power upgrade programmes. The first of the upgraded U-2’s were delivered for operational use in 2002.

He has also spent time as an instructor at the USAF Test Pilot School on the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, Northrop T-38 Talon and on glider aircraft. In 1997, he was one of the candidates submitted by the USAF to NASA for their 1998 17th class of astronauts but was not called to the examination and interview stage. He has more than 9,000 flight hours in over 70 types of aircraft.

Clint Nichols is a test-pilot and engineer employed by Scaled Composites. He was the co-pilot on WhiteKnightTwo’s maiden test flight on 21 December 2008. He has been the co-pilot on many test flights, flying both WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo. He has been a propulsion designer at Scaled Composites for many years and worked on the propulsion requirements for the Scaled Composites/Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer, a single seat turbofan powered long flight duration airplane. In 2005, it flew around the world non-stop and without refueling, taking just over 67 hours. The pilot was Steve Fossett and Nicholls spent a lot of time in Mission Control during the flight.

“Doug’s unmatched background in the design, build and flight test of new aerospace vehicles, and his deep experience with our Spaceship programme, make him the perfect person to take on this leadership role to manufacture our fleet of spacecraft,” said Whitesides.

He was born on 16 March 1960 and has a bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Kansas in 1982.

The same year he was the first engineer/test pilot hired by Scaled Composites. In 1988 he designed his own aircraft, the Shane Runabout. He is a Fellow and past President of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots and in 1997 was awarded the society’s Iven C Kinchloe Award for ‘outstanding professional accomplishment in flight testing’.

His flight test experience includes the first flights of eight new prototypes, including the Scaled Composites WhiteKnightOne, Adam M-309, VisionAire Vantage, and Williams International V-Jet II. He was part of the astronaut team for SpaceShipOne but did not fly the craft when it made the sub-orbital flights in 2004. In 2008, he was appointed President of Scaled Composites taking over from its founder Bert Rutan. He stood down from this role in January 2013 to take on his special assignment to Virgin Galactic.

With his new role with The Spaceship Company it is not clear if he will continue to fly on test flights. However, since the appointment he has not been part of any flight crew during WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo test flights.

Peter Siebold was one of Scaled Composites test pilots and development engineers for SpaceShipOne. In 2003-2004 he piloted three of the test flights. Although he did not fly on any of the three sub-orbital missions in 2004 he was Director of Operations in Mission Control. He specializes in Avionics and Data Acquisition Design and Development. He was responsible for the development of the Simulator, Avionics/Navigation System and Ground Control System for the SpaceShipOne Programme.

He has a bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from California Polytechnic University and joined Scaled Composites in 1996. He has twice been the recipient of the Iven C Kinchloe Award from the Society of Experimental Test Pilots in 2004 and 2009. He was pilot on WhiteKnightTwo’s maiden test flight on 21 December 2008. He has been pilot and co-pilot on numerous WhiteKnightTwo test flights and similarly as pilot of SpaceShipTwo. Mark Paul ‘Forger’ Stucky (Captain USMC ret) joined Scaled Composites in April 2009 after a career in the military, test flying for NASA and a spell in the private sector. He has flown as pilot and co-pilot on numerous WhiteKnightTwo test flights and similarly as pilot of SpaceShipTwo and was the pilot for SpaceShipTwo on its first powered test flight on 29 April 2013.

Douglas Bennett Shane was recently the Special Projects Officer for Scaled Composites on special assignment to Virgin Galactic to support the SpaceShipTwo test programme and transition to commercial operations. He has been co-pilot for both WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo test flights.

He was born on 9 November 1958 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His flying career began in 1974 when as a fifteen year old he started hang-gliding off the Flint Hills of Kansas. He has a bachelor’s degree in Physical Science from Kansas State University in 1979 and a master’s degree in Aviation Systems from the University of Tennessee in 1992. He joined the United States Marine Corps (USMC) in 1980.

He is a graduate of both the Navy Fighter Weapons School at the former Naval Air Station in Miramar, California and the USAF Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base also in California.

On 3 July 2013 Virgin Galactic announced his appointment as Executive Vice President and General Manager of The Spaceship Company. He will report directly to George Whitesides, Chief

He had assignments at both the California based Naval Air Station, at Point Mugu and the Naval Weapons Center, at China Lake, flying operational and developmental test flights in the McDonnell

page 13

Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 24 September/October 2013 Douglas F-4 Phantom and all models of the same company’s F/A-18 Hornet. He was actively involved in software development for the Hornet as well as testing of the night attack variants. He flew several combat missions during the initial air campaign of the Iraq War in the early 1990’s.

He left the USMC in 1993 to accept a job as a NASA research pilot at the Johnson Space Center where he served as an aerospace research pilot with primary duties as an instructor pilot for NASA astronauts in the Northrop T-38 Talon and the highly modified Grumman Gulfstream-II Shuttle Training Aircraft, which mimics the cockpit configuration and flight characteristics of the space shuttle.

He transferred to NASA’s Dryden Center in 1996 and worked on a number of test programmes, including as the project pilot in the Eclipse project, which involved towing a Convair QF-106 drone behind a Lockheed C-141 Starlifter to test a method of launching spacecraft.

He applied to become a NASA astronaut on four occasions and was a finalist three times for the 1990, 1992 and 1994 groups when he was called for the week long medical and interview assessments.

However, he did not make any of the final cuts.

He left NASA in 1999 to join United Airlines where he flew as a copilot. The airline industry suffered a downturn in business in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 and with United Airlines entering bankruptcy in 2002 he subsequently lost his job. He tried his hand at mortgage brokerage until he returned to test flying with Scaled Composites.

He has links with both space shuttle accidents. In 1989 he was the recipient of his Edwards test pilot class’ Onizuka Prop Wash Award.

The award is named for Ellison Onizuka who lost his life on the Challenger shuttle and is awarded by the students in the class to the pilot who contributed most to class spirit and morale. In 2003, he was one of four pilots who took part in a missing-man formation that flew over Edwards Air Force Base in memory of the seven astronauts who had died when the Columbia shuttle was destroyed on re-entry.

Frederick Wilford ‘CJ’ Sturckow (Colonel USMC ret) is the first NASA astronaut to be hired for Virgin Galactic’s pilot corps after spending nearly 30-years in public service with the military and NASA. He made his maiden flight on WhiteKnightTwo on 9 May 2013 as the co-pilot on what was a pilot training flight (SpaceShipTwo was not carried). Five days later he flew WhiteKnightTwo again but this time as pilot on his second training flight.

He was born on 11 August 1961 in La Mesa, California. He has a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the California Polytechnic State University in 1984 and obtained a master’s in the

same subject in 2000. He joined the USMC in 1984 and earned his wings in 1987. He flew 41 combat missions during the Iraq War of 1990/1991. He is a graduate of both the Navy Fighter Weapons School (1990) and the USAF Test Pilot School (1992).

He was selected as a NASA astronaut in 1994 (NASA Group 15) and flew four shuttle missions, all to the ISS. He was the pilot on STS-88 Endeavour in 1998, the first ISS assembly mission and on STS-105 Discovery in 2001. He then commanded STS-117 Atlantis in 2007 and STS-128 Discovery in 2009. He retired from the USMC while aboard the ISS on his last NASA spaceflight.

He then served as Deputy Chief of the Astronaut Office for the final shuttle missions and also served as back-up commander for STS-134 in case Mark Kelly could not fly the mission as a result of Kelly’s wife’s serious injuries in a shooting incident in January 2011. He left NASA in March 2013.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

In 2006, Virgin Atlantic named four pilot selectees for the commercial flights of SpaceShipTwo. They were Alistair Howe, Steve Johnson, David Mackay and Alex Tai. However, only Mackay was able to obtain the necessary licenses and the other three do not appear to be involved at present.

In 2008, three more pilots were identified as potential members of the Commercial Flight Team, Robert Bendell, Rich Dankaster and Brad Lambert. But none of these appear to have reported for any training at present and their status is unclear.

In 2006, the plan called for any of the Virgin Group’s pilots to be able to apply to join the Commercial Flight Team of Virgin Galactic.

This would involve a 27 month secondment to Virgin Galactic. The pilots would receive nine months of aerobatic, fast jet and executive aircraft for zero gravity flights training. They would then spend the next nine months flying the carrier aircraft, WhiteKnightTwo, and participating in mission control work.

For the final nine months the pilots would fly SpaceShipTwo. Once they had completed their 27 month secondment they would return to normal pilot duties with the Virgin Group. It is not clear if this plan remains in place.

Acknowledgements and sources:

astronautforhire.com; astronaut.ru; BBC.co.uk; CapCom (previous issues); Collect Space; Gathering of Eagles Foundation; Google; Inspiration Mars Foundation; International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight; linkedin.com; Longview News-Journal; militaryaerospace.com; NASA; NASASpaceflight.com; New York Daily News; Parabolic Arc; Scaled Composites; Spacefacts; Spacemultimedia; u2sr71patches.co.uk; Virgin Galactic; Wikipedia

Orbital Successfully Launches Cygnus/Antares on COTS Demonstration Mission to the International Space Station Orbital Sciences Corporation, one of the world’s leading space technology companies, announced on 18 September 2013 that it successfully launched its Antares rocket carrying the company’s Cygnus cargo logistics spacecraft into its intended orbit. The successful launch marked the beginning of a four-day in-orbit capabilities demonstration mission that will culminate in rendezvous and berthing with the International Space Station (ISS) on September 22. Cygnus will deliver approximately 1,500 lbs. of cargo and remain attached to the ISS for 30 days before departing with up to 1,750 lbs. of disposal cargo.

Lift-off of Orbital’s Antares rocket occurred at approximately 10:58 a.m. EDT from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) located at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia. Following a 10-minute ascent, the Cygnus spacecraft was successfully deployed by the Antares upper stage and placed into its intended orbit of about 180 x 160 miles above the Earth, inclined at 51.6 degrees

to the equator. Approximately 20 minutes later, Orbital’s Cygnus engineers confirmed that reliable communications had been established and that the solar arrays were fully deployed, providing the necessary electrical power to command the spacecraft.

This demonstration flight is the final milestone in Orbital’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) joint research and development initiative with NASA. Under COTS, NASA and Orbital developed Cygnus, which meets the stringent human-rated safety requirements for ISS operations. Orbital privately developed the Antares launch vehicle to provide low-cost, reliable access to space for medium-class payloads. Together, these elements are being used for the demonstration flight of Orbital’s commercial resupply capability to the ISS. NASA http://www.nasa.gov/cots

page 14

Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 24 September/October 2013

NASA Commercial Partner Boeing Tests CST-100 Spacecraft Thrusters Boeing’s CST-100 spacecraft (below) is one step closer to liftoff after a gauntlet of test firings of its steering jets at White Sands Space Harbor in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

the service module of the spacecraft, the thrusters could steer the spacecraft in case an emergency calls for it to separate from its rocket during launch or ascent.

Boeing and Aerojet Rocketdyne recently completed the tests, which simulated the demanding environment of space. The tests assessed how the thrusters -- which fire with 1,500 pounds of force -- will speed up, slow down and move the spacecraft while carrying NASA astronauts in Earth’s orbit.

During the tests, the OMAC thrusters were fired in a vacuum chamber that simulated the space-like environment at an altitude of 100,000 feet. These evaluations put the thrusters through the burns and stresses they would encounter during a real flight.

Engineers equipped the jets with a host of instruments to measure changes in the smallest components.

Boeing is developing a fully integrated crew transportation system, which includes the CST-100 spacecraft and the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, in partnership with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP).

New commercial spaceflight capabilities being developed by NASA partners through commercial crew initiatives eventually could provide services to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station, launching from American soil. Boeing is working on development milestones that are part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative.

“Boeing and Aerojet Rocketdyne continue to show a path forward for NASA’s lowEarth orbit crew transportation needs by implementing cutting-edge technologies and showcasing decades of human spaceflight experience,” said Ed Mango, CCP manager.

“The CST-100 OMAC thrusters are an example of leveraging proven flight hardware solutions to ensure mission supportability,” said John Mulholland, Boeing vice president and manager for commercial programs. “We are very pleased with the data collected during this second series of tests and with our overall team performance as we continue to progress through CCiCap milestones on time and on budget.”

the opening and closing of their valves and confirmed continuous combustion and performance. Designers are using the results of these tests to validate or adjust their complex computer models that predict how a thruster and spacecraft will work during a mission.

“The OMAC engines met CCiCap test objectives,” said Terry Lorier, Aerojet Rocketdyne’s CST-100 Service Module Propulsion Program manager. “Aerojet Rocketdyne and Boeing are both pleased with the results and look forward to continuing our partnership.”

With the completion of its ninth milestone, Boeing is on track to meet all 20 of its CCiCap milestones by summer 2014. All of NASA’s industry partners, including Boeing, continue to meet their established milestones in developing commercial crew transportation capabilities.

NASA http://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew

Previous tests of the OMAC thrusters verified their durability in extreme heat, evaluated

The CST-100’s orbital maneuvering and attitude control (OMAC) system has 24 thrusters, giving it the ability to perform critical maneuvers in space such as those required to refine the CST-100’s orbit, as well as the braking maneuver near the end of a mission that slows the spacecraft down before re-entry. The OMAC thrusters will be jettisoned when the service module is released from the capsule just before reentry. Positioned in four clusters of six on

CapCom Subscriptions For just £14, you can join the Midlands Spaceflight Society and receive CapCom magazine for one year, that’s six issues.

There are two ways to pay: Online: go to the MSS website www.midspace.org.uk and follow the links for a secure purchase through PayPal. By post: cheques and postal orders payable to Midlands Spaceflight Society can be posted to the MSS Secretary, Dave Evetts, 124 Stanhope Road, Smethwick B67 6HP. Tel. 0121 429 8606

(evenings & weekends only) or e-mail mss.shop@midspace.org.uk. page 15

Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 24 September/October 2013

Midlands Spaceflight Society Contact Dave Evetts, Secretary, Midlands Spaceflight Society 124 Stanhope Road, Smethwick. B67 6HP Tel. 0121 429 8606 (evenings & weekends only) or e-mail mss.shop@midspace.org.uk

Web Site: www.midspace.org.uk ---------------------------------------------Contributions to CapCom The Editor welcomes contributions for CapCom. Articles on any aspect of space exploration are considered. Articles in Word format or text files should be sent by email to capcom.editor@midspace.org.uk. Material is accepted in any form whether hand written or typed. Editorial Address: Mike Bryce, Editor CapCom, 16 Yellowhammer Court, KIDDERMINSTER. DY10 4RR. The Society is not responsible for individual opinions expressed in articles, reviews or reports of any kind.

Such opinions are solely those of the author.

Material published in CapCom does not necessarily reflect the views of the Society. Any comments directly concerning the magazine should be addressed to the Editor at the address above.

Artist Concept: Space Launch System and Orion Spacecraft Artist concept of the SLS and Orion spacecraft being stacked in the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Modifications of the Vehicle Assembly Building are underway to support the SLS and Orion spacecraft, which also will result in the ability to process multiple types of launch vehicles.

Image credit: NASA (Concept updated 1 August 2013)

page 16

Copy Deadline

All copy intended for the November/December 2013 issue should be emailed to the editor by

Friday 12 October 2013