Capcom 244

your window to space

CapCom Volume 24 Number 4 March/April 2014 Virgin Galactic Reaches New Heights In Third Supersonic Test Flight Chief Pilot Proves Space Systems

On 10th January 2014, Virgin Galactic, the world’s first commercial spaceline, which is owned by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group and Abu Dhabi’s aabar Investments PJS, successfully completed the third rocket-powered supersonic flight of its passenger carrying reusable space vehicle, SpaceShipTwo (SS2). In command on the flight deck of SS2 for the first time under rocket power was Virgin Galactic’s Chief Pilot Dave Mackay. Mackay, along with Scaled Composites’ (Scaled) Test Pilot Mark Stucky, tested the spaceship’s Reaction Control System (RCS) and the newly installed thermal protection coating on the vehicle’s tail booms. All of the test objectives were successfully completed.

The flight departed Mojave Air and Space Port at 7:22 a.m. PST with the first stage consisting of the WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) carrier aircraft lifting SS2 to an altitude around 46,000 ft. At the controls of WK2 were Virgin Galactic Pilot Mike Masucci and Scaled Test Pilot Mike Alsbury. On release, SS2’s rocket motor was ignited, powering the spaceship to a planned altitude of 71,000 ft. – SS2’s highest altitude to date – and at a maximum speed of Mach 1.4. SS2’s unique feather re-entry system was also tested during the flight.

Two important SS2 systems, the RCS and thermal protection coating, were tested during today’s flight in preparation for upcoming full space flights. The spaceship’s RCS will allow its pilots to maneuver the vehicle in space, permitting an optimal viewing experience for those on board and aiding the positioning process for spacecraft re-entry. The new reflective protection coating on SS2’s inner tail boom surfaces is being evaluated to help maintain vehicle skin temperatures while the rocket motor is firing.

SS2’s propulsion system has been developed by Sierra Nevada Corp and is the world’s largest operational hybrid rocket motor.

Although today’s flight saw it burn for a planned 20 seconds, the system has been successfully tested in ground firings to demonstrate performance characteristics and burn time sufficient to take the spaceship and its private astronauts to space.

Virgingalactic http://www.virgingalactic.com

CapCom is published by Midlands Spaceflight Society www.midspace.org.uk Editor: Mike Bryce | President: David J Shayler | Secretary: Dave Evetts Honorary Member: Helen Sharman OBE

Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 24 no 4 March/April 2014

space news roundup A Busy Year Begins for New Horizons With Pluto encounter operations now just a year away, the New Horizons team has brought the spacecraft out of hibernation for the first of several activities planned for 2014.

Mission operators at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, Maryland, “woke” New Horizons on 5 January. Over the follwing two weeks the team tested the spacecraft’s antenna and realigned it toward Earth; commands were sent into the onboard Guidance and Control and Command and Data Handling systems, including a check on the backup inertial measurement unit and update of the spacecraft’s navigational star charts; and the team conducted some navigational tracking, among other routine maintenance duties.

“We’ve had busier wakeup periods, but with long-distance Pluto encounter operations starting only a year from now, every activity is important,” says APL’s Alice Bowman, New Horizons mission operations manager.

The pace of operations picks up significantly later this year. In late June the team will wake New Horizons for two and a half months of work, including optical-navigation (“homing”) activities using the Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) to refine the probe’s course to Pluto. The team will also check out the spacecraft’s backup systems and science instruments; carry out a small course correction to trim up New Horizons’ approach trajectory and closest-approach timing at Pluto; and gather some science data by measuring the variations in Pluto’s and Charon’s brightness as they rotate.

New Horizons is placed back into electronic slumber on Aug. 29, a “rest” that lasts only until Dec. 7. “From there it will stay awake for two years of Pluto encounter preparations, operations and data downlinks,” Bowman says.

Artist concept of New Horizons spacecraft.

Credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute (JHUAPL/SwRI)

Crawler-Transporter Passes Milestone Test at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center The crawler-transporter that will carry NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft to Launch Pad 39B for launch on Exploration Mission-1 in 2017 recently passed the first phase of an important milestone test at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Ground Systems Development and Operations Program completed testing of new traction roller bearings on crawler-transporter 2 (CT-2), on two of the massive vehicle’s truck sections, A and C, in late January. The new roller bearing assemblies that were installed on one side of the crawler are visible in this 31 Jananuary 2014 image (below). CT-2 returned to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at Kennedy Space Center, where work continues to install new roller bearing assemblies on the B and D truck sections.

For more than 45 years the crawler-transporters were used to transport the mobile launcher platform and the Apollo-Saturn V rockets and, later, space shuttles to Launch Pads 39A and B. Upgrades to CT-2 are necessary in order to increase the lifted-load capacity from 12 million to 18 million pounds to support the weight of the mobile launcher and future launch vehicles, including the SLS and Orion.

NASA http://www.nasa.gov

Distant-encounter operations begin 12 January 2015.

“The future has finally arrived,” says New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo. “After all the time and miles in the rearview mirror, the turning of the calendar page last week to 2014 means we’ll be exploring the Pluto system next year!”

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

page 2

Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 24 no 4 March/April 2014

NASA and French Space Agency Sign Agreement for Mars Mission NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Jean-Yves Le Gall, president of the National Center of Space Studies of France (CNES), signed an implementing agreement Monday for cooperation on a future NASA Mars lander called the Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy, and Heat Transport (InSight) mission.

“This new agreement strengthens the partnership between NASA and CNES in planetary science research, and builds on more than 20 years of cooperation with CNES on Mars exploration,” said Bolden. “The research generated by this collaborative mission will give our agencies more information about the early formation of Mars, which will help us understand more about how Earth evolved.”

The InSight mission currently is planned for launch in March 2016 and is scheduled to land on Mars six months later. Designed to study the planet’s deep interior, the lander seeks to understand the evolutionary formation of rocky planets, including Earth, by investigating Mars’ deep interior. InSight also will investigate the dynamics of Martian tectonic activity and meteorite impacts using CNES’s Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure instrument (SEIS).

Dream Chaser to take flight in November 2016 Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Dream Chaser, a shuttle-like spacecraft, is expected to take an orbital flight in November 2016, the company announced.

To make this possible, SNC outlined a plan that will see it take over the former Shuttle Landing Facility runway at the Kennedy Space Center, where it will establish an operations center. Additionally, the company plans to purchase an Atlas V rocket from United Launch Alliance to launch Dream Chaser, and to share an operations and checkout development testing facility with Lockheed Martin Space Systems.

SEIS will measure seismic waves travelling through the interior of Mars to determine its interior structure and composition, which will provide clues about the processes that shaped SNC is one of three companies which the planet during its earliest stages of formation. received funding from NASA in 2012 as part of NASA’s commercial crew program, the Other partners working with CNES on the SEIS instrument include: the German Aerospace other two being SpaceX and Boeing. Since Center, United Kingdom Space Agency, Swiss Space Office (through the European Space the shuttle retired in 2011, NASA and other Agency) and NASA. agencies have relied on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft for trips to the International Space InSight’s international science team is made up of researchers from Austria, Belgium, Station.

Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

SNC had a busy 2013, with the spacecraft NASA/CNES successfully passing a captive-carry test http://insight.jpl.nasa.gov and meeting most goals for a free flight in http://smsc.cnes.fr/INSIGHT/ October (which ended with the prototype skidding off the runway, but with no longterm effect to the schedule, officials said.)

UK industry awarded share of contract to develop Europe’s next generation telecommunications satellite platform

Once Dream Chaser launches, the spacecraft is intended to launch up to seven astronauts.

It would fly aboard the Atlas V into space and land on a runway, which is also what the space shuttle did at the end of its flights. SNC is the only company planning a land-based landing after missions; SpaceX’s Dragon and Boeing’s CST-100 will both use the ocean.

SNC is aso working with the European Space Agency to identify how European hardware, software and expertise can be used to further develop the Dream Chaser with a view to it being used to fly European missions, as recently reported by Sen.

UK industry, led by Airbus Defence and Space and Thales Alenia Space, have been awarded roughly a third share of an €18 million European Space Agency (ESA) contract to develop Europe’s next generation satellite communications platform. The remainder of the €18 million contract will be distributed as the programme develops.

Both Airbus Defence and Space’s and Thales Alenia Space’s share of the Neosat product lines will enable the UK space sector to play a major role in the supply of equipment and platform building blocks. Airbus will play a major role in the satellite design, communications module, service module and propulsion module definition, while Thales Alenia Space UK will contribute to the design and manufacture of the propulsion subsystem via their Neosat product line.

Artist’s impression of Neosat.

NASA further framed the announcement as a way to expand Kennedy’s operations to the private sector. The agreement will bring in money for the cash-strapped agency, which is looking for more streams of income to help maintain facilities at Kennedy and other centers it owns. The amount that SNC will give NASA to rent the facilities at Kennedy was not disclosed in a press release.

Credit: ESA “Today’s announcement is the latest major milestone in the transformation of the The European Space Agency (ESA) projects Kennedy Space Center into a 21st-century that there will be €30 billion worth of launch complex, serving both private telecommunications satellites built before sector and government users,” stated NASA 2030 and anticipate that Neosat will form administrator Charles Bolden.

The new contract follows the UK Space a significant portion of that new market, Agency’s increased investment to over €200 representing a potential return for UK million in the ESA telecommunications companies of billions of Euros.

By Elizabeth Howell | 27 January 2014 programme, ARTES, at the last ESA Council of SEN (Space Exploration Network) UK Space Agency Ministers. http://www.sen.com http://www.bis.gov.uk/ukspaceagency/

page 3

Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 24 no 4 March/April 2014

ISS MISSION REPORT George Spiteri

Expedition Thirty-Eight continues its mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The complex is crewed by Russian commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineers, Russians Sergey Ryazanskiy and Mikhail Tyurin and Americans Mike Hopkins and Rick Mastracchio and Japan’s Koichi Wakata.

Following the failure of the cooling system on 11th December, NASA managers decided to delay the launch of the Cygnus unmanned cargo vehicle and ordered Mastracchio and Hopkins to conduct at least two contingency EVAs to replace the pump module on the S1 Truss.

The first EVA began at 1201 GMT on 21st December, when the astronauts exited the Quest airlock. Mastracchio and Hopkins removed the failed pump module and attached it to a stowage location on the Station’s Payload Orbital Replacement Unit Accommodation (POA) on the Station’s Mobile Base System. The spacewalk ended after 5 hours 28 minutes at 1729 GMT. At the end of the EVA, during the repressurisation of the airlock, Wakata reported that Mastarcchio had inadvertently moved the water switch on his suit to the “on” position and it was quickly returned to “off”. Later the crew expressed concern about water in Mastracchio’s suit sublimator. According to NASA the issue is not related to the problem encountered by Parmitano during his curtailed EVA last July but officials decided to delay the second excursion by one day and give the crew more time to prepare a back up suit.

NASA couldn’t have wished for a better Christmas present when following the second spacewalk by Mastracchio and Hopkins the failed pump was replaced and the new one was successfully installed, restoring the Station’s ailing cooling system early on 25th December. The astronauts exited Quest at 1153 GMT on 24th December and with Hopkins riding the robotic Canadarm2 to the worksite at the S1 truss installed the new pump. The spacewalk ended after 7 hours 30 minutes at 1923 GMT.

cameras that failed to work on their previous spacewalk. This time the high resolution camera worked and was placed outside the Station’s Russian segment, but the medium resolution camera failed to send telemetry. However, UrtheCast Corp,the Vancouver based company that owns the cameras said the following day that both cameras were indeed working. The cosmonauts also retrieved a cassette container attached to Pirs and removed a foot restraint adaptor before ending their EVA at 2008 GMT after six hours eight minutes. It was the 178th EVA dedicated to ISS assembly and maintenance totalling 1121 hours 52 minutes or 46.7 days of EVA time since the first ISS spacewalk in December 1998.

Filled with unwanted items, Progress M-20M/52P was undocked from the Station’s Pirs Module at 1621 GMT on 3rd February and following various engineering tests was sent to a destructive re-entry over the southern Pacific Ocean on 11th February.

That cleared the way for the next cargo vehicle, Progress M-23M/54P to be launched from Baikonur on another four orbit/six hour profile to the Station. Progress docked at the vacated Pirs port at 2222 GMT on 5th February, delivering 2.8 tons of supplies for the crew.

11th February witnessed another orbital anniversary with Mastracchio celebrating his 54th birthday.

A series of CubeSats were deployed from outside the Kibo Module on 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th February. These small satellites contain a variety of experiments such as Earth observations and advanced electronics testing.

The crew had a well deserved off duty day on 25th December and spent the following day cleaning up their US spacesuits, whilst the Russian cosmonauts finalised preparations for their spacewalk.

As of 14th February, Kotov, Hopkins and Ryazanskiy have been in space for 143 days, whilst Wakata, Mastracchio and Tyurin have been in orbit for100 days.

On 27th December it was the Russian’s turn to conduct an EVA when Kotov and Ryazanskiy left the Pirs airlock at 1300 GMT. The cosmonauts installed two high-fidelity cameras to the exterior of Zvezda but had to remove them later because Russian ground controllers were not receiving any telemetry from them. The spacewalk was the longest EVA by Russian/Soviet cosmonauts lasting 8 hours 7 minutes.

The following day Mark Hopkins celebrated his 45th birthday during the crew’s light duty weekend of 28th/29th December, when they planned their next week ahead, talked to their families and conducted housekeeping chores.

The crew sent down New Year’s greetings on 31st December in English, Russian and Japanese whilst conducting science and maintenance tasks and had another light duty day on 1st January and Yurchikhin celebrated his 55th birthday in orbit on 3rd January followed by his Russian colleagues celebrating the Orthodox Christmas on 7th January.

Set of NanoRacks CubeSats Deployed From International Space Station

The Cygnus commercial cargo craft was eventually launched from its Wallops launch pad in Virginia on 9th January on its first operational flight and was grappled by Canadarm2 at 1108 GMT on 12th January and then berthed onto Harmony’s Earth facing port about two hours later at 1305 GMT, delivering 2,780 pounds of cargo to the crew.

Kotov and Ryazanskiy conducted the first spacewalk of 2014 when they exited Pirs at 1400 GMT on 27th January. This was an unscheduled EVA aimed at again attempting to install the two

ISS038-E-045009 (11 February 2014) --- The Small Satellite Orbital Deployer (SSOD), in the grasp of the Kibo laboratory robotic arm, is photographed by an Expedition 38 crew member on the International Space Station as it deploys a set of NanoRacks CubeSats. The CubeSats program contains a variety of experiments such as Earth observations and advanced electronics testing. Station solar array panels, Earth’s horizon and the blackness of space provide the backdrop for the scene.

NASA http://www.nasa.gov

page 4

Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 24 no 4 March/April 2014

ASTRONAUT NEWS Rob Wood

ISS Crewing Update

On 11 February 2014, NASA announced crew members for International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 47/48 scheduled for launch on 30 March 2016 on Soyuz TMA-20M. The Russian Federal Space Agency had previously confirmed the appointments on 27 January 2014 at their Interdepartmental Committee meeting. NASA veteran Jeffrey Williams will be making his third long-duration flight (a record for a NASA astronaut) and will take command of the ISS for the second half of the mission. He will be accompanied by two Russian cosmonauts Alexei Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka.

Ovchinin will command the Soyuz vehicle that will deliver the crew to and from the ISS. Both Russian cosmonauts will occupy flight engineer roles for the space station. Williams and Skripochka are designated as flight engineers for Soyuz. Skripochka will be making his second trip into space but it is a first flight for Ovchinin.

Jeffrey Nels Williams (Colonel, United States Army, Ret.) was born in Superior, Wisconsin on 18 January 1958. He has degrees in Applied Science and Engineering, Aeronautical Engineering, and National Security and Strategic Studies. He graduated from West Point in 1980 and is an Army aviator and test pilot. From 1987 to 1992 he was on assignment to the Johnson Space Center.

He was selected as an astronaut in 1996 (NASA Group 16) and has flown in space three times including two tours on the ISS. He made a short visit to the ISS on STS-101 in 2001 and this was followed by ISS Expedition 13 in 2006 and ISS Expedition 21/22 in 2009/10. He was ISS commander for Expedition 22. He has accumulated 361 days in space and made three spacewalks.

Alexei Nikolaevich Ovchinin (Lieutenant Colonel, Russian Air Force, Ret.) was born in Rybinsk, Yaroslavl Oblast on 28 September 1971.

He was in the Russian Air Force from 1988 to 2012 and is a qualified military engineer-pilot and instructor-pilot.

He was selected as a cosmonaut in 2006 and started two years of basic training in 2007. He successfully completed his training and was given the designation ‘Test Cosmonaut’ on 2 June 2009. He will serve on the back-up crew for ISS Expedition 43/44 prior to making his first flight.

Oleg Ivanovich Skripochka was born in Nevinnomyssk, Stavropol Krai on 24 December 1969. He has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Bauman State Technical University. Whilst studying at Bauman he had work experience at the Energiya design bureau before joining them full time from 1993.

He was selected as a cosmonaut in 1997 and successfully completed basic training in 1999. He was given the designation ‘Test Cosmonaut’ on 1 December 1999. He has completed one tour of duty on the ISS when he flew on Expedition 25/26 in 2010/2011, completing 159 days in space. He made three spacewalks.

Kazakh Cosmonaut Update

Over the years I have run a number of items about Kazakh cosmonauts and their possible future flight opportunities (see note 1). They have unfortunately not led to an actual flight so far. It now appears that one of two Kazakh candidates who were selected in 2002 is to be admitted to the Russian Cosmonaut Team as a full time cosmonaut.

To quickly recap the basic history, in 1991 Toktar Aubakirov became the first ethnic Kazakh in space. His back-up, Talgat Musabayev, was formerly inducted into the Russian Air Force Cosmonaut Squad and made three spaceflights between 1994 and 2001 involving the Mir and ISS space stations.

Although Musabayev was technically a Russian cosmonaut he was also awarded the title of ‘Cosmonaut Number 2’ of the Kazakhstan

Republic. In November 2002, the National Space Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan (KazCosmos) named two further cosmonaut candidates, Aydyn Aimbetov and Mukhtar Aymakhanov, who would train for potential future spaceflight opportunities.

In 2008 discussions took place for the inclusion of a Kazakh cosmonaut on Soyuz TMA-16 for a 10 day flight to the ISS, which was due in the final third of 2009. However, in late March 2009 Kazakhstan’s Budget Commission did not allocate funds for the flight and it was cancelled.

In July 2011, the head of KazCosmos, Talgat Musabayev, said that they still hoped to fly another cosmonaut. In September 2011 he commented that Kazakhstan has the financial means to pay for the flight but the problem was now the lack of available opportunities.

On 12 October 2012 the Government of Kazakhstan conferred the status of Cosmonaut of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Aydyn Aimbetov. Early in 2013, I speculated that the announcement of a year-long flight to the ISS had opened up positions for two possible 10-day visits to the ISS and wondered whether Kazakhstan might get one of them.

To bring things up to date, in the end, one was taken by ‘Spaceflight Participant’ Sarah Brightman and the other by ESA’s Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen.

To take the story back a little, it appears that Aymakhanov, following the loss of the flight opportunity back in 2009, decided to take the Musabayev route to space. He applied to become a full time member of the Russian Cosmonaut Team. The Russian Federal Space Agency was supportive to his request but said he had to be a Russian Citizen.

Aymakhanov applied to join the 2012 cosmonaut selection but he was not amongst the eight finalists named on 8 October 2012. At some point in 2012 he did receive Russian citizenship. Then in midDecember 2013, Novosti related the story that Aymakhanov was soon to be admitted to the Russian Cosmonaut Team.

On 27 January 2014, the Interdepartmental Committee of the Russian Federal Space Agency for the selection of cosmonauts and appointment of crews recommended his inclusion as a cosmonaut candidate. According to reports, he will undergo an individual training programme (this is possibly due to his past basic training) and will sit the cosmonaut examination finals in the summer of 2014 along with the 2012 candidates.

One final consideration for this story is possible co-operation with China. At the International Astronautical Congress in China in September 2013, Talgat Musabayev and Ma Xinrui (a senior official in the China National Space Administration) discussed the subject of human spaceflight. Ma said that co-operation was not a problem and talked about their space station, due in about five years, which would open of the possibility for foreign astronauts. He added that there was no impediment to starting talks immediately.

Mukhtar Rabatovich Aymakhanov was born in Dzhusaly, Kyzylorda Region, Kazakhstan, on 1 January 1967. He qualified as a pilot through the Almaty Flying Club. He then attended the Chernigov Higher Military Aviation School in the Ukraine graduating as a pilot-engineer in 1988. He served in the Soviet Air Force and following independence on 16 December 1991 the Republic of Kazakhstan Air Force.

In 1993 he transferred to the reserves and entered private business, initially in the Kazakhstan Stock Market and later as part of a law consultancy company. In 2002 he graduated from the Adilet Higher School of Law, Almaty, Kazakhstan with a law degree.

In 2002 he was selected as a cosmonaut of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

page 5

Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 24 no 4 March/April 2014 He started his basic training in Russia in 2003. He successfully completed training and was given the designation ‘Test Cosmonaut’ on 5 July 2005. Between 2005 and 2009 he conducted some training for a possible ISS mission.

of Japan’s Kibo laboratory module at the ISS. The results are being used to improve the use and application of proteins in industrial sectors.

JAXA has also taken Malaysian chilli seeds to Kibo. These were returned to Earth in June 2011 for sowing in Malaysia under a joint project with Agensi Angkasa Negara and the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute.

In 2010 he graduated from the Russian Presidential Academy of the National Economy and Public Administration in Moscow. In 2012 he became a research fellow at the S I Vavilov Institute for the History of Science and Technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, where he is working on his thesis for a Candidate of Economic Sciences.

Universities in Malaysia are collaborating on JAXA’s Parabolic Flight Programme which saw experiments flown in parabolic flights in Nagoya, Japan from 26 to 27 December 2012. Amongst the subjects were an experimental device for space mass balance and a study of plant like green algae (Chlamydomonas reinhardtii).

Note 1: See Astronaut News in CapCom’s dated November/December 2008, May/June 2009 and January/February 2013.

China’s Taikonauts Receive Promotions

Malaysian scientists have participated in the Mars-500 project, a Mars analog mission looking at the effects of isolation on humans. Between 2007 and 2011 three groups of subjects spent increasing lengths of time in a mock-up of a Mars spacecraft located at the Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow, Russia. Malaysian involvement has included the study of blood samples from Russian, ESA and Chinese human guinea pigs, the last group having spent 520 days in isolation.

Three taikonauts had previously received the rank of Major-General.

Yang Liwei became China’s first taikonaut in space when he flew on Shenzhou 5 in 2003. He was promoted to Major-General in 2008. Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng flew together on China’s second manned spaceflight, Shenzhou 6 in 2005. They were promoted to MajorGeneral in 2011. Nie later commanded the second manned mission to Tiangong 1.

Talking to the Malaysian Digest in January 2014, Abu Bakar talked further about Malaysia’s hopes for a further astronaut. “In essence, the Government has agreed to continue with the programme.

Continuation of the astronaut programme is essential to ensure the development of capabilities in the space sector and related fields such as microgravity science, space technology, life support systems,” he explained. “International cooperation is very important to make sure that we will be able to send the second astronaut.”

Following the successful completion of the manned portion of the Tiangong 1 programme in 2013, several taikonauts have received military promotions. Tiangong 1 was manned by two crews. Shenzhou 9 in June 2012 with taikonauts Jing Haipeng, Liu Wang and Liu Yang and Shenzhou 10 in June 2013 with Nie Haisheng, Zhang Xiaoguang and Wang Yaping.

Two more taikonauts have now been promoted to Major-General, Zhai Zhigang and Jing Haipeng. They had flown together on Shenzhou 7 in 2008 when Zhai became the first taikonaut to exit a spacecraft and make an EVA. Jing went on to make a second spacefight as commander of the first manned mission to Tiangong 1.

The third taikonaut to receive a promotion was Wang Yaping, who became China’s second female taikonaut in space when she flew on Shenzhou 10. She had backed up the first female taikonaut, Liu Yang, who had flown on Shenzhou 9. Wang was promoted to LieutenantColonel.

A Second Malay Astronaut

In September 2013, the Malay Mail reported that Malaysia expected to launch its second astronaut to the ISS in 2016. At a press conference after opening the Science4u Carnival in Air Keroh on 18 September 2013 the Deputy Minister, Datuk Dr Abu Bakar Mohamad Diah of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI), commented that the agencies under his Ministry were working with partners on the new space mission and direction of the programme.

He talked about the importance of keeping the public informed on space research and that more women should be attracted to the programme. He indicated that co-operation with the Chinese Space Agency was advisable due to its close proximity to Malaysia. He said that young people’s interest in space should be, “supported as it creates a new frontier for the next generation and helps the nation moves forward.”

On 7 February 2014, it was the turn of the Minister for MOSTI to comment further. He was attending the celebrations for the 20th anniversary of the National Planetarium and the launching of the ‘Malaysian Space Odyssey: 20 Years With National Planetarium’ programme. Minister Datuk Dr Ewon Ebin said, “For the Second Astronaut Programme, we already have a candidate, it is just a matter of time.” He did add however that it would depend on the country’s economic situation and talked about the mission taking place in 2017 or 2018.

“We are now studying various matters including sending two astronauts and carrying out experiments that will benefit the nation on the ISS. All these have to be carefully looked into as the programme involves a hefty allocation [of money] and is not merely a space tour. We will submit a proposal to the Cabinet when everything is completed,” he said.

Malaysia has its own name for an astronaut, angkasawan, which is based on the Malaysian word for astronaut. So who will be the second Malaysian angkasawan. Well Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor’s back-up, Major Dr Faiz Khaleed still holds hopes of being the one. On 12 December 2013 he was present at the launch of ‘Driving Aspirations’, an astronaut themed exhibition organised by the ministry and the Malaysian Astronaut Foundation and he was also probably the person Ewon Ebin was referring to in February.

At 19:22hrs (local Kazakh time) on 10 October 2007, Soyuz TMA-11 lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for its two day journey to the ISS. Yuri Malenchenko and Peggy Whitson were on their way to commence a space station residency. With them was the first Malaysian to go into space, Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor spent nearly nine days aboard the ISS carrying out a programme of Malaysian chosen experiments.

There is also another contender for the second slot and that is travel enthusiast Xin Tong Chow. But she is not waiting on the National Programme. On 30 December 2013 Xin successfully moved to round two of Mars One’s astronaut selection process. Mars One is a privately funded Dutch organisation that hopes to establish a human settlement on Mars in 2025. Mars One includes Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor as one of its Ambassadors.

That was not the end of Malaysia’s participation in human spaceflight.

The Agensi Angkasa Negara (or National Space Agency) of Malaysia continued to co-operate with other space agencies on space research related to human matters.

Xin is 26 and was born in Sungai Petani. She loves farming and travelling. She visited remote farms in Australia during her Working Holiday. She is involved in youth development in Kuala Lumpur, doing environmental, community and adventure projects.

During Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor’s flight he produced high-quality protein crystals and the Japan Space Exploration Agency (JAXA) joined forces to continue the project. In collaboration, from 2009 to 2012, 24 samples of protein were crystallized in the microgravity environment

Going to Mars is of course a long shot for Xin. Not only is the Mars One project a long way off (and let us not talk about a lack of funding and usable equipment to make it a success) but there are another 1057 people who have made it to the second stage of Mars One’s selection

page 6

Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 24 no 4 March/April 2014

Please Sir I Want Some More (part three)

process which at the end will see the selection of only 24 to 40 as prospective Mars settlers.

Sadly, I see even less chance of success for Mars One than Inspiration Mars and on simple probability of numbers Xin will fall by the wayside.

If the Malaysian Government does provide sufficient support for a second angkasawan then it is more likely to be Faiz Khaleed in a shorter timescale.

Malaysian representatives have talked about a second flight ever since the first one ended but there has never been a concrete plan. The Russians would probably find a way to fly an angkasawan to the ISS if Malaysia cough up enough money but this is probably too expensive for the Malaysian purse. If SpaceX’s Dragon proves to be a lot cheaper then this might be the route chosen by Malaysia. But, everything looks a little vague at the present time.

Israel Also Wants a Second Astronaut

Media reports out of Israel on 21 January 2014 indicated that the Israel Space Agency (ISA) held talks with four space agencies about the prospect of putting a second Israeli astronaut into space. Professor Isaac Ben-Israel, ISA chairman, told the Jerusalem Post that there are talks with other space agencies but no agreements. “All the flights to the space station are fully booked for at least two years,” he said. “But if we want a second Israeli astronaut, we have to start talking now.”

The Jerusalem Post reported that contact had been made with the space agencies of China, Europe, Russia and USA. Although the newspaper does not explicitly state where the meetings took place, it looks like they are talking about discussions held at the International Astronautical Congress in China that was held in September 2013.

On 22 January 2014, Interfax reported that a Russian space official had told them the flight could happen on a Soyuz but NASA would have to give up one of their seats. He added that all Russian slots were required by Russian cosmonauts. He added that he did not think Israel would want to risk their second astronaut on one of the new US commercial spaceships, adding that the Soyuz was the most reliable spacecraft in the world.

On 1 February 2003, Ilan Ramon, Israel’s first astronaut was returning to Earth at the end of his spaceflight on the US space shuttle Columbia when he and six other crew members died. The shuttle broke up on re-entry. Unbeknown to the astronauts was that the shuttle had been fatally damaged during launch when debris hit the left wing.

On 24 January 2014, Roscosmos’s press service denied there had been any negotiations on the flight of an Israeli astronaut. I suspect this just means there have been no formal minuted discussions.

So, are there any legs to this story? Well, I suspect ISA’s discussions with the four space agencies means informal chats at the International Astronautical Congress. I am also sure Israel would like to have a second astronaut. This is not the first time since 2003 that the subject has been raised. In 2008, Benny Elon, Chairman of the Knesset Science and Technology Committee told a visiting NASA delegation that Israel would like another astronaut to participate in a flight with NASA. I would normally say that Roscosmos are prepared to fly almost anyone who comes up with the money and are reasonably healthy but in this case there are political considerations. Any joint flights with China would not be before 2020 and again there are political considerations to take into account.

Unlike the unnamed Russian space official, I think the most likely journey to the ISS for the second Israeli astronaut will be via a US commercial spacecraft. Not only is this easier politically but also cheaper for ISA who might baulk at the Russian price tag. The downside to the US commercial spacecraft route is that Israel would probably have to wait until at least 2018/2019 for a flight but even if they did go with the Russians the availability of a flight opportunity is unlikely to be much before the commercial route.

The real test that something is likely to happen will be when Israel announces the commencement of an astronaut selection process.

Calling this item part three is a bit of a stretch but is does involve Yuri Lonchakov again. A couple of issues ago I reported that he had left the cosmonaut corps on 13 September 2013 to take up a position with the Russian state-controlled natural gas company Gazprom. This was to achieve a higher salary. Within six weeks the news broke that he was to be appointed as an Assistant Director of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos).

On 20 October 2013, Novosti were reporting that Lonchakov had agreed to accept a position at Roscosmos and the following day Interfax said that he was being considered for a high-ranking post there. On 25 October 2013 his appointment as Assistant Director was confirmed by Roscosmos.

So, what happened to Lonchakov’s new job with Gazprom? Well, I have a theory. The Gazprom job never existed. Isvestia, in a confirming story about Lonchakov’s appointment at Roscosmos, said Lonchakov had been out of work for a month. This suggests he never took up a position at Gazprom.

Going back to part one of this series of stories (November/December 2013 edition of CapCom) I wrote in the opening paragraph “What we have is a story in the true spirit of tabloid reporting.” I ended the first article with, “Or, as in true tabloid tradition, why let the truth get in the way of a good story [allegedly].” I was trying to suggest some personal doubt as to the veracity of parts of the story.

I explicitly said that I struggled to buy into Lonchakov’s resignation having caused serious problems for the space programme. I now do not believe any part of the story I laid out in part one. The question still remains, why did Lonchakov resign? I do not know. I could speculate but I think I should cut my losses and get back to writing about facts.

I said at the beginning that calling this item part three was a bit of a stretch but having completed it there is no stretch. I should put a smiley face here but I do not think the editor would be very keen. I suppose the moral of this story is – if you doubt a story - then there is probably a good reason.

Ex-Astronaut Movements in the Private and Other Public Sector Areas On 13 November 2013, the President of the Czech Republic authorised the appointment of Vladimir Remek to the post of Ambassador to Russia. Remek was the first non-US/USSR citizen to fly in space. He was selected as a Czechoslovakian cosmonaut in 1976 and flew as the flight engineer on Soyuz 28 in 1978 as part of the Intercosmos Programme. The Intercosmos Programme originally started as unmanned International satellite research missions but in 1976 the Soviets opened it up for manned flights involving other communist countries.

On 9 December 2013, World View Enterprises named former NASA astronaut Mark Kelly as Director of Flight Crew Operations for their high-altitude balloon flights. The plan is to fly to just above 100,000 feet. The company is currently in the planning and early development stages. Passengers will occupy a capsule with a shirtsleeve environment and spend several hours at this high altitude. The flights are expected to begin in late 2016 at a cost of $75,000 per passenger.

Kelly flew four space shuttle missions from 2001 to 2011 serving as pilot on the first two and then as commander. He retired from NASA in October 2011.

Further to the recent items in CapCom on Susan Helms, I can now confirm that her official USAF biography shows that she is retiring on 1 April 2014. Lt. Gen. Helms had been Commander, 14th Air Force (Air Forces Strategic), Air Force Space Command; and Commander, Joint Functional Component Command for Space, US Strategic Command, at Vandenberg Air Force Base since January 2011. The ‘Change of Command’ ceremony took place at Vandenberg on 31 January 2014 when she handed over command to Lt. Gen. John W Raymond. She was a NASA astronaut from 1990 to 2002 making five spaceflights including one as a member of ISS Expedition 2.

page 7

Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 24 no 4 March/April 2014

Obituary Notes

out five spacewalks. Before all of that however a very strong solar flare on 30 September 1989 gave cause for concern. Fortunately, Mir’s orbit enabled the Earth’s geomagnetic field to protect the cosmonauts from significant radiation exposure.

Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Serebrov 1944-2013

Aleksandr Serebrov’s first spaceflight was only remarkable for the inclusion of the Soviet Union’s second female cosmonaut but thereafter his career ran like a rollercoaster including a failed docking with a space station and conducting the first test of the Soviet’s Manned Manoeuvring Unit in open space. He died suddenly at home in his Moscow apartment on 12 November 2013.

He was born in Moscow on 15 February 1944. Following school and military service he attended the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) from where he graduated in 1967 with a degree in Aerodynamics and Thermodynamics. He remained at MIPT for his postgraduate studies and then from 1973 as a senior research fellow.

He received a Candidate of Technical Sciences (similar to a Ph., D.) degree in 1974. His thesis was titled ‘Problems of thermal protection for manned spacecraft entering the Earth’s atmosphere after a flyby of Mars.’

In March 1975 he passed his medicals to become a cosmonaut but it was not until December 1978 that he started his basic training. In the meantime he had joined the Energiya design bureau as a senior fellow.

He worked on written instructions for operating scientific instruments on space stations and on the design of spacecraft including Soyuz and Salyut.

He was involved in the interior colour scheme for Salyut 6 and Salyut 7, choosing white for the ceiling, brown for the floors and green for the walls. He later talked about his choices saying it was not as a fashion accessary but it was for practical purposes as the colours indicated to the cosmonaut where they were.

Kvant 2 was now due for launch on 16 October 1989 but technical issues with older microchips caused a further delay. Finally on 26 November 1989 Kvant 2 lifted off, but continuing with Serebrov’s rollercoaster space career there were still problems. A solar array was reluctant to deploy and mission control had to roll the module and rotate the array’s rotary support arm to get it to its correct position.

Then on 2 December 1989 an automatic docking attempt failed. Four days later a second attempt was successful.

The highlight of the flight for Serebrov was the first test of the Soviet’s Manned Manoeuvring Unit. On 1 February 1990 he moved 33 metres away from the Mir complex although he remained tethered to the space station in case of emergency. His commander also tested the suit in a later EVA and it was then stored on the outside of Mir pending future use. Unfortunately, there were no practical uses for the unit at this time and it was not used again. Sadly, on 23 March 2001, when Mir was destroyed on re-entry so was the suit.

Three years later Serebrov would return to Mir for another long duration mission. This was also full of EVA’s together with a few ups and downs. An original five month mission became a seven month flight due to delays in preparing the next Soyuz launch rocket. His final spaceflight took place as Soyuz TM-17/Mir 14 (1 July 1993 – 14 January 1994).

In August 1993 the Perseids meteor shower produced several hits on the space station and there was damage to the solar arrays and some hits on the space station’s windows with craters measuring between 1.5 and 4mm in diameter. None of the damage appeared serious but to be safe the cosmonauts would inspect the exterior of Mir during their upcoming spacewalks.

He completed his initial training in October 1980 and made his first spaceflight as flight engineer for Soyuz T-7 (19-27 August 1982), which visited the Salyut 7 space station. The mission swapped Soyuz spacecraft, leaving Soyuz T-7 for the resident crew and returning to Earth in the descent module of Soyuz T-5. The Soviet’s second female cosmonaut was also on the flight, Svetlana Savitstkaya, who flew 19 years after Valentina Tereshkova’s spaceflight in Vostok 6 in 1963.

For the next Soviet mission it had been decided that a female cosmonaut would fly a long duration mission and Irina Pronina trained as the researcher for Soyuz T-8/Salyut 7. But the use of female cosmonauts was always a controversial subject and according to some sources political pressure was applied. Serebrov had been acting as her back-up when just one month before launch he was told he would be flying.

The flight was due to last for several months but in the event ended after only two days. Soyuz T-8 (20-22 April 1983) was the last time an orbiting Soyuz was unable to dock successfully with a space station due to technical issues. During the second orbit the automatic rendezvous equipment failed. The cosmonauts attempted a manual docking on 21 April 1983.but this was unsuccessful.

In 1986 he trained for the second manned mission to the Mir space station but shortly before the flight was due to commence he was replaced. Most sources state he failed a medical although oddly he is still listed as the back-up flight engineer for the flight which started in February 1987.

He was soon training for another flight and was due to launch in April 1989 when the mission was postponed due to delays with new modules for Mir. His third mission finally got underway on 5 September 1989 when Soyuz TM-8 lifted off the pad at Baikonur.

Again there was a problem with the automatic rendezvous equipment but this time only at the end of the docking sequence. Serebrov and the Soyuz commander Alexander Victorenko were able to successfully dock manually.

The mission flew as Soyuz TM-8/Mir 5 (5 September 1989 – 19 February 1990) and oversaw the arrival of the Kvant 2 module, prepare Mir for the upcoming Kristall module and see the cosmonauts carry

Serebrov was involved in five more EVA’s on this flight and by the end of these he was the World record holder for the number of spacewalks made by an individual. His penultimate walk on 22 October 1993 did not go according to plan and was abandoned after only 38 minutes when the Orlan spacesuit he was wearing encountered problems in its oxygen flow system. At the end of the final EVA the malfunctioning suit was ejected from the station into its own low earth orbit.

Also in October, Serebrov and the mission commander Vasily Tsibliyev were told their return to Earth would be delayed. The Energomash factory in Samara that produced the engines for the Soyuz launcher was close to bankruptcy as a result of reduced and delayed Government spending. They refused to provide any more engines until they had been paid.

Typical for Serebrov his last spaceflight still had had one more scare to come. This was during its final hours. Instead of the normal undocking and return to Earth the Soyuz was to approach the Kristall module to take close-up photographs. These were to help with the training of NASA shuttle pilots who would be flying the space shuttle to Mir as part of the Shuttle/Mir Programme that had been agreed in June 1992.

Nine minutes after undocking on 14 January 1994 Soyuz commander Vasily Tsibliyev reported that the controls were sluggish and Serebrov added that he believed the Soyuz was too close to Mir’s solar arrays.

The new crew on Mir were alerted and made preparations for evacuation but they felt no impact.

Tslibeyev was able to skilfully maneuverer the Soyuz and it only gave Mir two minor glancing blows on a docking adapter. Fortunately, there was no external protruding equipment such as antenna at the points of impact. The two crews checked out their respective spacecraft and reported no damage. A few hours later the descent module of Soyuz TM-17 safely landed in Kazakhstan.

Ten days later the crew on Mir re-positioned their Soyuz and reported seeing some scratches where the collisions had occurred. A later investigation concluded that a thruster switch was in the wrong position but that there was no pilot error involved.

page 8

Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 24 no 4 March/April 2014 Serebrov retired from the cosmonaut team in May 1995. He had accumulated 372 days in space and had spent 31 hours spacewalking.

In 1997 he worked as an Assistant Secretary of Defense. He was also a very active member of the Association of Space Explorers and an enthusiastic promoter of spaceflight amongst the young. He is survived by his wife and one child.

Geraldine ‘Jerri’ Truhill 1928-2013

At the dawn of the space race ‘Human Spaceflight’ was very much a male dominated endeavour. Apart from the politically motivated flight of Valentina Tereshkova in 1963 no other female astronauts were launched until the 1980’s. But, in the early 1960’s, a number of women took the same rigorous physical and psychological tests at the Lovelace Clinic in Albuquerque New Mexico that America’s first astronauts, ‘The Mercury 7’, had endured during their selection process in the late 1950’s.

and Astronautics annual report confirmed NASA’s astronaut selection process was correct but that at some time in the future NASA should look into using female astronauts. With that the Mercury 13’s last hope for spaceflight had ended.

As for Jerri Truhill, she continued to work in aviation. Her company did all the test flying for ‘Texas Instruments Incorporated’. She also worked for ‘Air Freighters International’ flying to South America. It was South America that also saw another interesting chapter in her life.

He husband, Joe, was arrested in Brazil on trumped up charges of smuggling. Everyone knew the charges were false and they were to enable a local tyrant to confiscate the aircraft for his own use. Despite this, he was sentenced to three years imprisonment in 1966. A few months later it seems that Brazilian police lost track of him. He soon arrived back in the US.

The women became known as ‘The Mercury 13’ after the number who passed the tests. ‘Jerri’ Truhill, who at the time was using the surname Sloan from her first marriage, was one of these. She died on 18 November 2013 at a hospice in Irving, Texas.

The US State Department had been of no help so Jerri took things into her own hands. She acquired the services of some people who went to Brazil and as Mercury13.com explains they “secured his release.”

She was born Geraldine Hamilton in Pampa, Texas on 12 November 1928. She was bit by the flying bug at the age of 4 when she sat in a cockpit of an aircraft borrowed by her father from a friend for a business trip. She was invited into the cockpit by the pilot during the flight and was allowed to hold the controls. She had a marvellous time.

1/ On 16 August 2013, Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin’s record for the longest Russian EVA to date of 7 hours 29 minutes on 16 August 2013 did not last for long. On 28 December 2013 (Moscow Time), Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazansky completed an EVA of 8 hours and 7 minutes.

Prior to landing she returned to sit with her father and she told him she had been flying the aircraft. His reply mirrored the attitudes of the time as he told her that if she worked hard at school she could grow up to qualify as a registered nurse and then be an air hostess. At that time you had to be a registered nurse to be an air hostess. She said she wanted to fly the aircraft. He replied that piloting the aircraft was man’s work.

But an air hostess was not what she had in mind. Student pilot licenses were available in the USA when a person reaches 15. She applied and said she was 15. She was not and was actually one year younger. She received a license and began flying lessons after school. Her Mother was unaware of this and when she found out (Jerri arrived home one day in overalls and was spotted) she put a stop to it and packed her off to a Catholic school in San Antonio.

This was only a temporary halt to her flying career and she went on to become one of America’s most experienced female pilots. By the time of the Lovelace tests she had accumulated over 1200 flying hours as a pilot. She held a commercial pilot’s license, a multi-engine rating, took part in air races winning many trophies including the Dallas Dolls Derby and ran her own aviation business, ‘Air Services’ of Dallas.

She contracted her services to ‘Texas Instruments Incorporated’ flying classified projects including tests of ‘Terrain Following Radar’ using a World War Two twin-engine medium bomber, the North American B-25 ‘Mitchell’. This included some pretty hairy low level flying over water at night. The aircraft was low enough for the propellers to churn up the water below.

The idea that led to the Lovelace tests funnily enough came from a senior male medical doctor in the United States Air Force (USAF).

Brigadier-General Donald Flickinger called his idea the Girl Astronaut Program. He had the support of Dr Randolph Lovelace II of the clinic.

They enlisted the help of Jerrie Cobb who was one of the top aviatrix at that time. Initial support from the USAF was withdrawn but the Lovelace Clinic with the tacit support of Flickinger continued the research and this led to the tests which 13 passed.

She was married with two children at the time of the Lovelace tests but her husband, who was also a pilot, was not happy at her involvement and this together with other difficulties led to their separation. She later divorced and in 1964 married another pilot, Joe Truhill, who was a partner in her aviation company.

There was some political support for females being selected by NASA and this led to a Congressional Hearing in July 1962. It did not go well for the Mercury 13. In October 1962 the House Committee on Science

Bits & Pieces

2/ On 8 January 2014, Congress passed a bill re-naming the Hugh L Dryden Flight Research Center in California the Neil A Armstrong Flight Research Center. President Obama signed this into law on 16 January 2014.

3/ Poland’s one and only cosmonaut, Mirosław Hermaszewski, who flew on Soyuz 30 to Salyut 6 in 1978 had been planning to run for the European Parliament as a candidate for the Democratic Left Alliance.

He has now withdrawn his candidature for family reasons.

4/ The Johnson Space Center was closed on 28 January 2013 due to adverse winter weather conditions. There were concerns about staff safely travelling to work on icy roads. This is Houston, Texas for pete’s sake! Whatever happened to global warming? The closure did not apply to the Mission Control Center due to its International Space Station responsibilities.

5/ The opening ceremony of the 22nd Winter Olympic Games took place in Sochi, Russia on 7 February 2014. Helping to raise the Russian and Olympic flags were a number of current and retired cosmonauts, Sergei Krikalev, Roman Romanenko, Svetlana Savitskaya, Elena Serova, Valentina Tereshkova and Fyodor Yurchikhin.

Acknowledgements and sources:

Agensi Angkasa Negara; America Space; Astronaut.ru; CapCom (previous issues); China Vitae; Collect Space; Dallas Observer; Global Security. org; Google; Haaretz Daily Newspaper; Interfax (news agency); Isvestia (newspaper – online version); JAXA; The Jerusalem Post; Johnson Space Center; Ksby.com; Loyarburok.com; The Malay Mail; Malaysiandigest.com; Marie Celeste; Mars One; The Mercury 13 ©2003 by Martha Ackermann; NASA; NASASpaceflight.com; New York Times; Novosti Kosmonavtika; Polska Newsweek; Praxis Manned Spaceflight Log 1961-2006 ©2007 by Tim Furniss and David J Shayler with Michael D Shayler; Radio Prague; RIA Novosti (news agency); Russian Federal Space Agency; Soviet Cosmonaut Detachment ©1998 AIS Publications; Soyuz: A Universal Spacecraft ©2003 by Rex D Hall and David J Shayler; Spacefacts; Spaceflight (magazine publication of the British Interplanetary Society); Ta Kung Pao (newspaper- online version); University of Wisconsin Oshkosh; USAF official website; Who’s Who in Space ©1999 by Michael Cassutt; Wikipedia; Women in Space ©2005 by David J Shayler and Ian Moule; Worldspaceflight.com; World View Enterprises; Jill Wood; Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center; Zenit (magazine publication of Astro Info Service).

page 9

Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 24 no 4 March/April 2014

Gene Cernan, Last Man on the Moon, celebrates 80th birthday Chris Lee

PERSONAL DATA: Born in Chicago, Illinois, on 14 March 1934.

Married - Jan Nanna Cernan. They have three daughters, and one grandchild. His hobbies include love for horses, all competitive sports activities, including hunting, fishing and flying.

EDUCATION: Graduated from Proviso Township High School in Maywood, Illinois; received a bachelor of science degree in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University in 1956 and a master of science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California; recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Law degree from Western State University College of Law in 1969, an Honorary Doctorate of Engineering from Purdue University in 1970, Drexel University in 1977, and Gonzaga University & Comenius University of the Slovak Republic, Petroleum Economics and Management Seminar, Northwestern University, 1978.

ORGANISATIONS: Fellow, American Astronautical Society; member, Society of Experimental Test Pilots; member, Tau Beta Pi (National Engineering Society), Sigma Xi (National Science Research Society), Phi Gamma Delta (National Social Fraternity), and the Explorer’s Club.

SPECIAL HONOURS: Awarded two NASA Distinguished Service Medals, the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, the JSC Superior Achievement Award, two Navy Distinguished Service Medals, the Navy Astronaut Wings, the Navy Distinguished Flying Cross, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Special Trustees Award (1969), the Federation Aeronautique Internationale Gold Space Medal for 1972, the Cities of Houston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York Gold Medals, the VFW National Space Medal in 1973, Daughters of The American Revolution Medal of Honor, Inductioninto the U.S. Space Hall of Fame, the Challenger Center’s “Salute to the U.S. Space Program” Honor, Slovak World Recognition Award and Slovak Presidential Medal of Honor.

EXPERIENCE: Cernan, a retired United States Navy Captain, received his commission through the Navy ROTC Program at Purdue. He entered flight training upon graduation. He was assigned to Attack Squadrons 26 and 112 at the Miramar, California, Naval Air Station, and subsequently attended the Naval Postgraduate School. He has logged more than 5000 hours flying time with more than 4800 hours in jet aircraft and over 200 jet aircraft carrier landings.

NASA EXPERIENCE: Captain Cernan was one of fourteen astronauts selected by NASA in October 1963.

He occupied the pilot seat alongside of command pilot Tom Stafford on the Gemini IX mission. During this 3-day flight which Began on 3 June 3 1966, the spacecraft achieved a circular orbit of 161 statute miles; the crew used three different techniques to effect rendezvous with the previously launched Augmented Target Docking Adapter; and Cernan, the second American to walk in space, logged two hours and ten minutes outside the spacecraft in extravehicular activities. The flight ended after 72 hours and 20 minutes with a perfect re-entry and recovery as Gemini IX landed within 11/2 miles of the prime recovery ship USS WASP and 3/8 of a mile from the predetermined target.

Cernan subsequently served as backup pilot for Gemini 12 and as backup lunar module pilot for Apollo 7.

On his second space flight, he was lunar module pilot of Apollo

10, 18 – 26 May 1969, the first comprehensive lunar-orbital qualification and verification flight test of an Apollo lunar module.

He was accompanied on the 248,000 nautical sojourn to the Moon by Thomas P. Stafford (spacecraft commander) and John W. Young (command module pilot). In accomplishing all of the assigned objectives of this mission, Apollo 10 confirmed the operations performance, stability, and reliability of the command/ service module and lunar module configuration during translunar coast, lunar orbit insertion, and lunar module separation and descent to within 8 nautical miles of the lunar surface. The latter manoeuvre involved employing all but the final minutes of the technique prescribed for use in an actual lunar landing, and allowed critical evaluations of the lunar module propulsions systems and rendezvous of the landing radar devices in subsequent rendezvous and re-docking maneuvers. In addition to demonstrating that man could navigate safely and accurately in the Moon’s gravitational fields, Apollo 10 photographed and mapped tentative landing sites for future missions.

Cernan’s next assignment was backup spacecraft commander for Apollo 14.

He made his third space flight as spacecraft commander of Apollo 17--the last scheduled manned mission to the Moon for the United States--which commenced at 11:33 P.M. (CST) on 6 December 1972, with the first manned night-time launch, and concluded on 19 December 1972. With him on the voyage of the command module “America” and the lunar module “Challenger” were Ronald Evans (command module pilot) and Harrison H. (Jack) Schmitt (lunar module pilot). In maneuvering “Challenger” to a landing at Taurus-Littrow, located on the southeast edge of Mare Serenitatis, Cernan and Schmitt activated a base of operations from which they completed three highly successful excursions to the nearby craters and the Taurus mountains, making the Moon their home for over three days. This last mission to the Moon established several new records for manned space flight that include: longest manned lunar landing flight (301 hours 51 minutes); longest lunar surface extravehicular activities (22 hours 6 minutes); largest lunar sample return (an estimated 115 kg (249 lbs.); and longest time in lunar orbit (147 hours 48 minutes). While Cernan and Schmitt conducted activities on the lunar surface, Evans remained in lunar orbit aboard the “America” completing assigned work tasks requiring geological observations, handheld photography of specific targets, and the control of cameras and other highly sophisticated scientific equipment carried in the command module SIM-bay. Evans also completed a 1-hour, 6-minute extravehicular activity on the transearth coast phase of the return flight, successfully retrieving three camera cassettes and completing a personal inspection of the equipment bay area. Apollo 17 ended with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean approximately 0.4 miles from the target point and 4.3 miles from the prime recovery ship USS TICONDEROGA. Captain Cernan has logged 566 hours and 15 minutes in space, of which more than 73 hours were spent on the surface of the Moon.

In September, 1973, Cernan assumed additional duties as Special Assistant to the Program Manager of the Apollo spacecraft Program at the Johnson Space Center. In this capacity, he assisted in the planning, development, and evaluation of the joint United States/ Soviet Union Apollo-Soyuz mission, and he acted for the program manager as the senior United States negotiator in direct discussions with the USSR on the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.

page 10

Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 24 no 4 March/April 2014

NASA Congratulates ‘Gravity’ on Academy Award Wins NASA congratulates everyone involved with producing the movie “Gravity” for all of the Oscar wins, especially Alfonso Cuarón for winning “Best Director” at the 86th Academy Awards Ceremony held on 2 March 2014.

Aboard the International Space Station, NASA Astronauts Mike Hopkins and Rick Mastracchio and JAXA Astronaut Koichi Wakata congratulated the filmmakers and actors of the Academy Award-winning film “Gravity” on their achievement.

Also NASA Astronauts Mike Massimino and Catherine Cady Coleman xent separate messsages of congratulations to the film-making team.

NASA http://www.nasa.gov

See Martin Dawson’s film review on next page.

Captain Eugene A Cernan poses for an official photo prior to the Apollo 17 mission in 1972 Image: NASA On 1 July 1976, Captain Cernan retired after over 20 years with the U.S. Navy. He concurrently terminated his formal association with NASA. Captain Cernan was the second American to have walked in space having spanned the circumference of the world twice in a little more than 21/2 hours. He was one of the two men to have flown to the Moon on two occasions, and as commander of the last mission to the Moon, Apollo 17, had the privilege and distinction of being the last man to have left his footprints on the surface of the Moon.

BUSINESS: Cernan joined Coral Petroleum, Inc., of Houston, Texas, as Executive Vice President-International. His responsibilities were to enhance Coral’s energy related programs on a worldwide basis In September 1981, Captain Cernan started his own company, The Cernan Corporation, to pursue management and consultant interests in the energy, aerospace, and other related industries.

Additionally he has been actively involved as a co-anchorman on ABC-TV’s presentations of the flight of the shuttle.

In a recent acquisition, Captain Cernan became Chairman of the Board of Johnson Engineering Corporation. Johnson Engineering currently provides the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) with Flight Crew Systems Development with personnel located both on and off site at Johnson Space Center.

Over the last seventeen years, Johnson Engineering has supported NASA in the design of crew stations for Space Shuttle, Spacelab, Space Station, Lunar Base and Mars Outpost. The company is directly involved with the operation of the 1-G trainers in Building 9A and B, as well as the Weightless Environment Training Facility in Building 29.

somewhere out there is a young boy or girl with indomitable will and courage who will lift that dubious distinction from my shoulders and take us back where we belong. Let us give that dream a chance.”

- Captain Eugene A. Cernan During 20 years as a Naval Aviator, including 13 years with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Captain Eugene A. Cernan left his mark on history with three historic missions in space as the Pilot of Gemini IX, the Lunar Module Pilot of Apollo 10, and the Commander of Apollo 17. After flying to the Moon not once, but twice, he also holds the distinction of being the second American to walk in space and the last man to have left his footprints on the lunar surface.

Captain Cernan was awarded NASA’s first Ambassador of Exploration Award, the Federal Aviation Administration’s prestigious Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award, and the 2007 Lindbergh Spirit Award presented only every five years. In December, 2007, The National Aeronautic Association presented Captain Cernan with one of the most prestigious aviation trophies in the world, the Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy, in Washington, DC. Captain Cernan was honored by receiving the 2008 Rotary National Award for Space Achievement, and he received the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) Gold Air Medal, one of the most important international awards, in the Fall of 2008.

Sources: NASA, Gene Cernan official website. http://www.nasa.gov http://www.genecernan.com/

“Too many years have passed for me to still be the last man to have left his footprints on the Moon. I believe with all my heart that

page 11

Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 24 no 4 March/April 2014

Gravity A Film review by Martin ‘Barry Norman/ Mark Kermode’ Dawson, YAS, MSS WARNING: THIS FILM IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED VIEWING AND BEST WATCHED WITHOUT READING ANY REVIEWES BEFOREHAND!

Space Shuttle ‘Explorer’ STS-154 is on orbit, payload doors open on a servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. Outside conducting EVA’s are Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) a medical engineer on her first shuttle mission, veteran astronaut Matt Kowalsky (George Clooney) and Shariff (Phaldut Sharma)…

Ok, I really enjoyed this film, the special effects and music work together really well. Am not sure about 3D in films, yes guess what? you don’t need 3D to tell a good story and this is a good story. A lot of people may see this film and think ‘That can’t happen?’ Oh but it could and guess what? Some of these events portrayed really have happened… Stick with me and let’s follow the plot for good or for bad…

Opening scene shews a beautiful blue Earth and way over to the horizon a small star rises, our camera zooms in. Its Shuttle ‘Explorer’ docked to the Hubble Space Telescope. The name ‘Explorer’ does not work for me, Explorer was the USA’s first satellite and was used on a orbiter mock-up once but as the shuttle fleet were named after sea ships of discovery and science, but I digress. We have three astronauts working out side the shuttle, three? There was only ever two out side at once, only one EVA have had three astronauts outside and just what is Kowalsky doing? Zipping around in his MMU Manned Manoeuvring Unit, what for? Surely he’s squirting pollutants near the HST and that would never do. They are chatting, passing the time while Stone is repairing a set of boards on the HST. There’s also relaxed chatter from mission control played by Ed Harris (The Right Stuff, Apollo 13, Stalingrad) all is nominal. First hint of trouble is a report that the Russians have test fired a missile that has collided with a satellite – uuggghhh, don’t like this premise, why-oh-why would that happen? Oh hum, it has and debris is heading towards Explorer and HST. The voice rises in urgency, and our crew work frantically to get back in the Orbiter, to no avail. The first pieces of debris strikes the Orbiter sending it spinning violently… Spinning violently? A Orbiter has mass of around 100 tons and more with the HST in the Payload Bay, so what was so heavy it could make the Orbiter spin out of control so violently? Oh well, park the brain and forget what you know of orbital dynamics. Upshot? We are in a mess, Shariff is dead, the Orbiter has half a wing missing and god knows what else. Stone and Kowalsky are left stranded in orbit with no way home and all comms with Mission Control severed. We are in a bad state to say the least! Kowalsky manages to get to Stone and attach a tether – as their masses struggle to stabilise any motion they have relative to each other the pulling on each other is captured very well. Remember you may be weightless in space but you are still a fat heavy body with mass! Some how they part company with the Orbiter wreckage but manage to get back. They are not coming home in Explorer, its dead and very heavily damged. Two great scenes reministant of a scene in ‘Jaws’. I won’t spoil it for you, lets say if our two EVA crew had managed to get inside they would have been in a worse position, low on O2 and I suppose electricals in their suits don’t sound good but believe me if your inside a space craft and it gets clobbered you’re in a world of pain or not as the case may be.

They leave the Orbiter and using the MMU head for the ISS… WHAT? Does any one know the orbital elements of these two? It’s a hell of a change in Delta Vee and god knows what else to get from the HST to the ISS and on a MMU… Oh go on then why should I ruin a good story… So we arrive at the ISS, it don’t look good, its battered,

theres a Soyuz (Some one please tell Kowalsky how to pronounce Soyuz, think soya beans…) with its recovery parachute deployed and covering part of the ISS. Solar panels are bashed and theres loads of other problems, like wheres the crew? How many of them were on board? Should be six so if they escaped why is there a Soyuz still docked? Did only three get away in another Soyuz or what? WiH is going on? Oh go on lets carry on then. Our two spacefarers manage to make contact with the ISS, litterally, they seem to be travelling east to west they passed over the middle east going the wrong way… and manage to catch up with the ISS, they grab and scrabble on the modules and get in to allsorts of trouble which ends in Stone’s leg/ foot getting entangled in the parachute shroud lines. Then we really do have to disbelieve, Kowalsky sacrifices himself to save Stone…

NOOOOO… no? Well, she still has momentum; do we really think Kowalsky unclipping his tether from Stone is going to save her? I don’t think so, she is still moving away from the ISS… pah, reminiscent of that scene from ‘Red Planet’ or what ever it was called. Kowalsky now drifts of to oblivion; all the ladies go ‘aaaaawwww’ well don’t fret gurls Gorgeous George is still selling coffee. Actually am been rotten he comes over are A-OK, he is wearing what looks like a Fortis Mir watch and he was in Solaris, that’s the ‘newish’ Solaris, but I digress.

Stone manages to cling on to the outside of the ISS and get inside.

Touch of Dave Bowman getting back inside Discovery in ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ but I digress. Once pressure has equalised – you can still die in a spacesuit from lack of O2 although you’re in a atmosphere that’s breathable. Then we have the homage to Ripley stripping off her spacesuit in Alien – ok boys get over it, its been done before…

Stone has a rest and then makes her way through the modules. Our camera man lingers on a passing experiment, there’s a small fire, this is worrying, fire on spacecraft are a very real danger, in the past Salyut 1 and Mir had some serious fires. The following scenes of fire erupting out on the ISS are pretty much on the ball. Stone manages to get inside the Soyuz and power it up but when she undocks the parachute shroud lines entangled with the ISS prevent her getting away just as a debris cloud comes along. Egh? How big is space?

Ok, I know, the debris cloud is in orbit and 90-odd minutes later should come back to the same point but is the debris in the same orbital inclination and altitude? oh I am so sorry for been boring and digressing… Stone manages to get the Soyuz away from the ISS and head for the Chinese Tiangong and its Shenzhou, WHAT? She has trained for EVA to service the HST, and some how remembers how to drive a Soyuz and do all the calcs to change orbit to get from the ISS to Tiangong, phew, she is good… still don’t let me get in the way of a good tale.

Well we use the Soyuz descent module’s descent rocket’s (hope yer following) to change orbit to get to the Tiangong, by-the-way, it looks more like Mir. Then at the crucial time blow the hatch, make another EVA and use a fire extinguisher as a hand held ad-hoc manoeuvring device and grab hold of the Tiangong… uugghhh… THEN she gets inside just as the Tiangong is entering the Earth’s atmosphere, get in to the docked Shenzhou and COMES HOME… aaahh, well there’s one bit in all this that is similar to Boris Volynov’s re-entry on Soyuz 5, now Google that mission, its true…

Does Stone make it? Well go and see it. Am pleased I have and am pleased I saw the 3D version but really all I can say its good job it

page 12

Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 24 no 4 March/April 2014

NASA Honours Astronaut Neil Armstrong with Center Renaming Two generations of aerospace engineering excellence came together on Saturday, 1 March when NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, was redesignated as NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center.

The agency’s center of excellence for atmospheric flight research is being renamed in honor of the late Neil A. Armstrong, a former research test pilot at the center and the first man to step on the moon during the historic Apollo 11 mission in 1969.

The late Hugh L. Dryden, the center’s namesake since 1976, will continue to be memorialised in the renaming of the center’s 12,000-square-mile Western Aeronautical Test Range as the Dryden Aeronautical Test Range.

Armstrong (pictured on the right) had significant ties to the center, both before and after his days as a NASA astronaut. He served as a research test pilot at the center from 1955 to 1962, amassing more than 2,400 flight hours in 48 different models of aircraft at the center, including seven flights in the rocket-powered hypersonic X-15.

Armstrong was part of a team that conceptualized the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle, a flight test craft that evolved into the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle. Armstrong and the other commanders of Apollo lunar landing missions trained in that vehicle for their descents from lunar orbit down to the surface of the moon.

published in 1924 and after World War II he moved from the Bureau of Standards to take charge of the NACA in 1947. Under his deft leadership, the NACA rapidly pushed the boundaries of high speed flight and organized the research that led to our first steps into space.

Dryden continued with the agency after NACA became NASA in late 1958, serving as deputy administrator of NASA until his death in 1965.

Dryden’s quiet, but visionary leadership of the NACA is what prepared that organization to become NASA in 1958, and to have an achievable plan for a human expedition to the moon when President John F. Kennedy called for it in 1961. The organizational genius of Dryden was at the root of Armstrong’s most spectacular flight achievements, from the X-15 to Tranquility Base.

The renaming of a NASA center is not without precedent. In 1999, the Lewis Research Center in Cleveland was renamed in honor of Sen. John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth in the Friendship 7 Mercury capsule in 1962.

A formal public ceremony to mark the redesignation of the center and its test range is planned for this spring.

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

Following Apollo 11, Armstrong left the astronaut corps and became NASA’s Deputy Associate Administrator for Aeronautics, overseeing aeronautical research programs being conducted at the center, particularly its pioneering work on developing digital electronic flight control systems.

Dryden (left), considered an aeronautical engineering genius, focused on high-speed flight during his tenure as an aeronautical scientist with the National Bureau of Standards. Involved in NACA research from his doctoral research days, Dryden’s first NACA Technical Report was

was dark while I wore two pairs of glasses. 3D does nowt for me and I know a lot of people who don’t care for it or… can’t see in 3D… Its one of those modern impedimenta that went with the whole experience at the Vue. Maybe outside this review but the tills went down and computer/internet connection went up the spout and several people walked out. A bit reminiscent of the computer problems Stone encounters… Park yer brain if you know anything about spaceflight.

Goodness knows when this film takes place as we have so much hardware in space at the same time that is just impossible. It will be around 2020 before the Chinese have a space station like this and the shuttle fleet have been retired since 2011. The orbit of the HST is 590km circular inclined at 28.5 deg while the ISS is 361x437 and inclined at 51.5947 deg. Imagine batting along the A1 at 70mph and you want to get on to the M1 (I know you can just north of Ferrybridge but you get what am saying). I would like to add I read a Lorraine Kelly article recently where she mentions that Sandra Bullock got in touch with NASA astronaut Cady Coleman to get her role right, her work paid off, she’s not the glamorous Hollywood pouting puss, she looks real. I like her and her character. I think I would have chosen another name for the film ‘Gravity’ doesn’t work for me, ‘Stranded’ would have been more appropriate, a homage to ‘Marooned’ but hey ‘Stranded’ is another film! Oh hum…

Oh one last thing, you don’t think orbital debris is a problem? Ask Alexander Alexandrov, he helped design the Salyut space stations and on one of his missions while looking out of a window something struck the outer layer of glass and shattered it. He told us at YAS when he came to Yorkshire to give a lecture…

Go see it, enjoy it and ignore my ramblings but remember although some of this film is pure baloney some of these things could really happen, have happened and well it makes a great story and I like it and would certainly have the DVD in my collection…

What does Mark Kermode say?: http://www.theguardian.com/ film/2013/nov/10/gravity-review Only three person EVA: http://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/14/us/3astronauts-in-space-walk-grab-errant-satellite.html History of EVA’s: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_walk Boris Volynov and Soyuz 5’s terrifying re-entry: http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Soyuz_5 Aleksandr Aleksandrov http://www.astronautix.com/astros/ alendrov.htm First Space Station to Space Station orbital flight http://www. astronautix.com/flights/mireo1.htm Sandra Bullock and Cady Coleman discuss fire on the ISS http:// unifiedpoptheory.com/sandra-bullock-and-astronaut-cadycoleman-talk-about-flying-in-space-and-the-dangers-of-fire-on-theinternational-space-station/ May amuse http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/ index?qid=20121101151131AAvWghE Stats on the ISS http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/pdf/educator-observing_ edu.pdf Stats on the HST http://www.aerospaceguide.net/ hubblespacetelescope.html Finally for a real life, up to the minute nightmare that Hollywood and Sci-Fi writers never dreamed up,

page 13

Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 24 no 4 March/April 2014

ISS Image iss038e042112 ISS038-E-042112 (6 February 2014) --- A fresh apple floating freely near a window in the Cupola of the International Space Station is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 38 crew member. Currently docked to the station, a Russian Progress resupply vehicle (left) and a Soyuz spacecraft along with Earth’s horizon are visible in the background.

NASA/International Space Station http://www.nasa.gov/station

Join the Midlands Spaceflight Society (MSS) to receive CapCom magazine

Midlands Spaceflight Society Contact Dave Evetts, Secretary, Midlands Spaceflight Society 124 Stanhope Rd, Smethwick B67 6HP Tel. 0121 429 8606

Membership of the MSS costs £14 per year and includes six issues

(evenings & weekends only) or

of CapCom magazine and the Newsletter of the Federation of

e-mail mss.shop@midspace.org.uk

Astronomical Societies (FAS).

We can take payment online through PayPal. Visit the MSS website at

Web Site:

www.midspace.org.uk or use our payment email address mss.secure.

www.midspace.org.uk

midspace.org.uk.

----------------------------------------------

Cheques and postal orders can be sent to the MSS Secretary;

Contributions to CapCom

Dave Evetts, 124 Stanhope Road, Smethwick B67 6HP. Enquiries about subscriptions can be emailed to mss.shop@midspace.org.uk.

The MSS Shop We have created a limited number of postal covers to mark anniversaries of the Apollo missions and Helen Sharman’s flight to Mir in 1991.

Images of the latest covers are in the Photos section of the MSS forum at http://uk.groups. yahoo.com/group/midlandspaceflightsociety/ We also have lapel badges with the Apollo CSM logo of the MSS, as seen in CapCom. Press Kits were made available on the internet by NASA through the years of the Space Shuttle programme. You can download these for free. For a very small charge to cover materials and postage MSS can put copies of these fact-laden files on a CD or DVD for you.

Copy Deadline

All copy intended for the May/June 2014 issue should be emailed to the editor by

Contact mss.shop@midspace.org.uk with any inquiries or write to 124 Stanhope Road, Smethwick, B67 6HP. Have you got anything you want to sell through CapCom? Let us know MSS

page 14

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.

Friday 11 April 2014