[Spacetalk] http://www.nasa.gov/index.html

Fri Jul 24 06:36:15 CDT 2015

Good morning all,
 I hope you have had a wonderful week, gosh they go by fast....I can't believe some of the teachers head back to school on Aug 3rd!!! It has been a successful week with the launch and docking of the crew with the ISS and last night we has such a beautiful launch of a Delta IV rocket from the Cape as well as still getting  great pictures from Pluto.  I was able to do something very special yesterday as we often have interns in the gym who are fascinated at the opportunity to be at KSC, as are so many of us...the problem is they don't always get to see  KSC...Katrina is so enthusiastic, has such a wonderful attitude, and wanted to "see it all" so I managed to take her on a tour of all of KSC and Cape Canaveral Air Station...she mentioned she loves convertibles so we toured in mine...it was great, her enthusiasm and  excitement never stopped, so wonderful to share as I love the magic of this environment, and her smile never faded.  Everything is kind of strange right now as our contract with NASA has been seriously reduced so it looks as if about 25% of us will no longer have a position.....we should know soon...either way I will continue with the group email, still be able to stay assigned to NASA's Speakers' Bureau, and continue the school visits. You can go to the subject link for all the latest as well info an upcoming missions. Wishing you all a wonderful day....we have to remember to always do our best, enjoy everything we do, live in the present, make each day special, smile and have fun....gabe

Launch, Docking Returns International Space Station Crew to Full Strength
[http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/thumbnails/image/15-155g.jpg]<http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/15-155g.jpg>
The Soyuz TMA-17M rocket launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, July 22, 2015 EDT (Thursday, July 23, 2015 in Baikonur) carrying Expedition 44 Soyuz Commander Oleg Kononenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), Flight Engineer Kjell Lindgren of NASA, and Flight Engineer Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) into orbit to begin their five month mission on the International Space Station.
Credits: NASA/A. Gemignani
[http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/side_image/public/thumbnails/image/15-155b.jpg]
Expedition 44 Flight Engineer Kimiya Yui, of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, top; Flight Engineer Kjell Lindgren of NASA, center, and Soyuz Commander Oleg Kononenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency, bottom, wave farewell prior to boarding the Soyuz TMA-17M spacecraft for launch, Wednesday, July 22, 2015 EDT (Thursday, July 23, 2015 in Baikonur) at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Kononenko, Lindgren, and Yui will spend the next five months aboard the International Space Station.
Credits: NASA/A. Gemignani

[http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/side_image/public/thumbnails/image/15-155a.png]
NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren aboard the Soyuz spacecraft Wednesday, July 22, 2015 EDT (Thursday, July 23, 2015 in Baikonur) on his way to a five-month stay on the International Space Station after launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Credits: NASA TV
Three crew members representing the United States, Russia and Japan have arrived at the International Space Station to continue important research<http://go.nasa.gov/1HPhPpz> that advances NASA's journey to Mars while making discoveries that can benefit all of humanity.
NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren<http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/lindgren-kn.html>, Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Kimiya Yui launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 5:02 p.m. EDT Wednesday (3:02 a.m., Thursday, July 23 in Baikonur) and docked at the station at 10:45 p.m., after orbiting Earth four times. Hatches between the two spacecraft will open at about 12:25 a.m. Thursday, July 23.
The arrival of Lindgren, Kononenko and Yui returns the station's crew complement to six. The three join Expedition 44 commander Gennady Padalka of Roscosmos and flight engineers Scott Kelly of NASA and Mikhail Kornienko of Roscosmos, who have been aboard the complex since March 27. During more than five months on humanity's only microgravity laboratory, the Expedition 44<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition44/index.html> crew members will conduct more than 250 science investigations in fields such as biology, Earth science, human research, physical sciences, and technology development.
Lindgren, Kononenko and Yui will remain aboard the station until late December. The station will host nine crew members for 10 days in September during a Soyuz taxi flight that includes Russian cosmonaut Sergey Volkov and Denmark's first astronaut Andreas Mogensen of the European Space Agency. At the end of the handover, Mogensen and Padalka will return to Earth in the Soyuz launched in March, leaving Kelly in command of Expedition 45.
Shortly thereafter on Sept. 15, Kelly and Kornienko will reach the halfway point of their one-year mission<http://www.nasa.gov/content/one-year-crew> to advance understanding of the medical and psychological challenges astronauts face during long duration spaceflight, in addition to developing countermeasures that would reverse those effects. The pair will return to Earth in March 2016 after 342 cumulative days living in space.
Expedition 44 crew members are expected to be the first to harvest and eat crops grown aboard the station, another necessary advance for astronauts traveling on deep space missions. Astronauts will be allowed to eat half of the second crop of lettuce in the Veggie<https://www.nasa.gov/content/veggie-plant-growth-system-activated-on-international-space-station> investigation, freezing the other half for a return to Earth where scientists will analyze the plants and compare them to a control set grown at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
While a favorite pastime for astronauts aboard the station is photography, these crew members will take moon imagery<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/2056.html> that also will help calibrate navigation software on the Orion spacecraft<http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/orion/index.html>. Crew members will photograph the moon's phases during one 29-day cycle, providing images of varying brightness to calibrate Orion's camera software to guide the spacecraft in case its transponder-based navigation capability is lost.
Ongoing research on the station also includes the Observation and Analysis of Smectic Islands in Space (OASIS) study to examine the behavior of liquid crystals in microgravity. This investigation may shine light on how microgravity affects the ability of liquid crystals to act like both a liquid and a solid. Liquid crystals are used in television and laptop screens, watches and clocks, and a variety of other electronics with flat panel displays. Studying them in microgravity may help researchers design better liquid crystal display devices on Earth. Engineers also could use certain types of liquid crystals in small screens applied directly to the face shields in future space helmets, enabling astronauts to easily view the small screens and read important information during a spacewalk.
The crew members also are scheduled to receive several cargo spacecraft - including the fifth Japanese HTV resupply flight and two Russian Progress resupply missions - each delivering tons of food, fuel, supplies and research. Russian crew members are scheduled to conduct a spacewalk for station maintenance and upgrades in August.
The International Space Station is a convergence of science, technology and human innovation that enables us to demonstrate new technologies and make research breakthroughs not possible on Earth. It has been continuously occupied since November 2000 and, since then, has been visited by more than 200 people and a variety of international and commercial spacecraft. The space station remains the springboard to NASA's next giant leap in exploration, including future missions to an asteroid and Mars.
For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv
To follow activities on orbit, visit the space station Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/ISS
Follow the crew members and the station on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/nasa_astronauts
And http://www.twitter.com/Space_Station Follow the station on Instagram at: https://instagram.com/iss/

Delta IV rocket delivers powerful military satellite into orbit
By Emilee Speck<http://www.orlandosentinel.com/os-emilee-speck-bio-20140904-staff.html> contact the reporter<mailto:especk at tribune.com?subject=Regarding%20Delta%20IV%20rocket%20delivers%20powerful%20military%20satellite%20into%20orbit>
 <http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/go-for-launch/os-delta-rocket-launches-military-satellite-20150723-post.html>
Delta IV launches with military satellite
A United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket, carrying the seventh Wideband Global SATCOM military communications satellite launched at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Thursday, July 23, 2015, in Cape Canaveral.(Video by FOX35)

Kat on her tour :)

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