May 8 2013
From The Space Library
RELEASE: C13-023 - NASA AWARDS CONTRACT TO MODIFY MOBILE LAUNCHER --WASHINGTON -- NASA has awarded a contract to J.P. Donovan Construction Inc. of Rockledge, Fla., to modify the mobile launcher that will enable the agency's Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket to send humans to an asteroid, Mars and other new destinations in the solar system. The work under this firm fixed-price $20.7 million contract will begin in June and be completed in 18 months. The mobile launcher is located at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Kennedy is expanding its capabilities to support the SLS rocket and ground support infrastructure. The modifications will enable the mobile launcher to meet vehicle processing deadlines and the launch manifest for SLS. SLS' first launch is scheduled for 2017. It will be a flight test to send an uncrewed Orion spacecraft into lunar orbit. NASA's asteroid initiative, proposed in the agency's budget request for fiscal year 2014, would use SLS and Orion to send astronauts to study a small asteroid that will have been redirected robotically to a stable orbit near the moon. Midwest Steel Inc. of Detroit will be a major subcontractor to J.P. Donovan Construction.
MEDIA ADVISORY: M13-071 - NASA TELEVISION TO AIR SPACE STATION SOYUZ LANDING --WASHINGTON -- NASA Television will provide live coverage May 12-14 as three crew members aboard the International Space Station end five months in orbit and return to Earth for a scheduled landing May 13. Expedition 35 Commander Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency, Tom Marshburn of NASA and Roman Romanenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) will undock their Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft from the station at 7:08 p.m. EDT May 13, heading for a landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan southeast of Dzhezkazgan at 10:31 p.m. (8:31 a.m. Kazakh time, May 14). They will have spent 146 days in space since their Dec. 19 launch from Kazakhstan. Undocking will mark the official start of Expedition 36 under the command of Pavel Vinogradov of Roscosmos. Vinogradov and his crewmates, Chris Cassidy of NASA and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin, will tend to the station as a three-person crew for two weeks until the arrival of three new crew members, NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency. NASA TV coverage will begin Sunday, May 12, with the change of command ceremony between Hadfield and Vinogradov. Coverage will continue May 13 and 14 with Expedition 35 landing and post-landing activities. Sunday, May 12: 3:40 p.m. -- Expedition 35/36 change of command ceremony Monday, May 13: 3:30 p.m. -- Farewells and hatch closure (hatch closure scheduled at 3:50 p.m.) 6:45 p.m. -- Undocking (undocking scheduled at 7:08 p.m.) 9:15 p.m. -- Deorbit burn and landing (deorbit burn scheduled at 9:37 p.m., landing scheduled at 10:31 p.m.) Midnight --Video file of hatch closure, undocking and landing activities Tuesday, May 14: Noon -- Video file of post-landing activities and interviews
