Feb 15 2012

From The Space Library

RELEASE: 12-052 NASA TO DELIVER COMMERCIAL RESEARCH EQUIPMENT TO STATION

HOUSTON -- NASA, Astrium Space Transportation and NanoRacks LLC are teaming up to expand the research capability of the International Space Station through delivery of a small commercial centrifuge facility that will conduct molecular and cellular investigations on plant and animal tissue. The centrifuge enhances NanoRacks' existing suite of lab equipment aboard the space station, which includes microscopes and a plate reader used to detect biological, chemical or physical activity in samples. Astrium Space Transportation handed over the research centrifuge to NanoRacks LL, during a ceremony Tuesday, Feb. 14 in Houston. Astrium North America adapted the centrifuge -- originally built for use on space shuttle missions -- for use in the station's NanoRacks Platform-3. The commercial research team funded the centrifuge. NASA will deliver the centrifuge as part of its responsibility to provide transportation for U.S. National Laboratory research and facilities to the space station. Under its partnership with Astrium, NanoRacks will add the centrifuge to the two racks of laboratory support equipment already on the station. The centrifuge is sized to fit the standard NanoRacks architecture, which can fly on any launch vehicle. "This is an important step in the expansion of National Lab facilities aboard the space station," said Marybeth Edeen, U.S. National Laboratory manager at NASA's Johnson Space Center. "Having companies develop research and facilities for the National Lab with their own funding demonstrates the beginnings of the commercial space marketplace that the National Lab was created to serve." The platform and centrifuge were produced in a short time at low cost. Both NanoRacks and Astrium expect announcements in the near future about more joint projects. NASA has manifested the NanoRacks-3 platform and the Astrium centrifuge on a Russian Progress cargo ship scheduled for launch in summer 2012 under its cargo agreements with the Russian Federal Space Agency.

RELEASE: 12-054 NASA COMPLETES PUBLICATION OF BORIS CHERTOK'S ROCKETS AND PEOPLE MEMOIR SERIES

WASHINGTON -- NASA's History Program Office has released the fourth volume of the English translation of Russian space pioneer Boris Chertok's highly acclaimed memoirs, Rockets and People: The Moon Race. Much has been written in the West on the history of the Soviet space program but few Westerners have read direct first-hand accounts of the men and women who were behind the many Russian accomplishments in exploring space. The memoirs of academician Chertok, who worked under the legendary Sergey Korolev, fill that gap. Covering the dramatic years of the Soviet human space program from 1968-1974, this fourth volume addresses the development of the mammoth N-1 booster -- the Soviet competitor to the U.S. Saturn V moon rocket. Chertok also discusses the origins of the Soviet space station program, from Salyut to Mir. In addition, he examines the tragic Soyuz 11 mission and provides an overview of the birth of the Energiya-Buran space shuttle program. His account provides a fascinating inside look at the political, technological, and personal conflicts at a time when the Soviet space program was at its zenith. From 2001 until his death in December 2011 at age 99, Chertok worked with translators and series editor professor Asif Siddiqi, who is associate professor of history at Fordham University, N.Y., and a leading expert on the Soviet space program. Chertok re-organized the material, and made substantial additions and corrections, with the goal of making the NASA-published English language edition the definitive version of his memoirs. Siddiqi annotated all four volumes to make the complexities of the Soviet space program and the intricacies of Russian culture clear to an English-speaking audience. "This book is not merely the culmination of a decade of work by the author and editorial team, it is a fascinating and highly readable insight into the Soviet space program and the all too human people who brought us the space race," said NASA Chief Historian Bill Barry.