Fwd: JSC Director News, September 2014

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From: JSC Director News <jsc-director-news@lists.nasa.gov>
Date: September 29, 2014 1:18:05 PM CDT
To: null <bobbygmartin1938@gmail.com>
Subject: JSC Director News, September 2014

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September 29, 2014

Hello:

I've just returned from Kazakhstan and the beautiful launch of the Expedition 41/42 crew.  It's always a special experience to share in the pre-launch activities with our joint crew and operations folks, and to see the strong international partnership in action supporting our common goals in space.  

There are lots of other activities to share this month.   In just the past two weeks, NASA has  announced U.S. astronauts will once again travel to and from the International Space Station (ISS) on American spacecraft under groundbreaking contracts for two commercial companies; launched a commercial cargo spacecraft loaded with experiments to the ISS; loaded the Orion spacecraft with fuel for its test flight in December; and had a robotic explorer enter orbit around Mars for an unprecedented study of that planet's atmosphere. Astronaut Steve "Swanny" Swanson and the Expedition 40 crew returned to Earth Sept.  16 and, as mentioned, on Sept. 25, astronaut Barry "Butch" Wilmore, Expedition 41 Soyuz Commander Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova, both of Roscosmos, launched to the ISS. Butch also plans to share his photos on http://instagram.com/iss. Visit there now to see Q&A videos from Swanson talking about his recent landing.

SpaceX-4, launched Sept. 22, delivered, among other payloads, the ISS-Rapid Scatterometer to monitor ocean surface wind speed and direction in support of weather forecasting and hurricane monitoring; new biomedical hardware that will help facilitate prolonged biological studies of rodents in microgravity; and a 3-D printer, the first step toward a working "machine shop" in space.

For information on space station research activities, follow on Twitter @ISS_Research or subscribe to updates from the ISS Program Science Office.

NASA also unveiled its selection of Boeing and SpaceX to transport crews to and from the space station using their CST-100 and Crew Dragon spacecraft, respectively, with a goal of certifying to launch from the U.S. in 2017. JSC will play a significant role in facilitating the development and flight planning of these crew transports as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program.

Congratulations to the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) team on the recent insertion of the spacecraft into Mars orbit where it will study the Red Planet's upper atmosphere. Such studies inform future missions that will send humans to Mars.

I also want to extend congratulations to JSC's own Alan Lindenmoyer, who received the prestigious Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal for his significant work to stimulate efforts within the private sector to develop and demonstrate commercial cargo and human spaceflight services.

Plus, NASA is making steady progress towards the first flight of Orion, having recently finished building and fueling the crew module at Kennedy Space Center and practicing splashdown recovery techniques in the Pacific Ocean. We are just a little over two months out until launch on Dec. 4. You can follow the progress on social media @NASA_Johnson or @NASA_Orion.

See you next month,

Ellen Ochoa
JSC Director

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