Jan 3 2012

From The Space Library

MEDIA ADVISORY: M12-001 EXPEDITION 31/32 SPACE STATION CREW CONDUCTS BRIEFING, INTERVIEWS

HOUSTON -- Three crew members will discuss their upcoming Expedition 31 and 32 missions in a news conference at 1 p.m. CST Wednesday, Jan. 11, from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA Television and the agency's website will broadcast the briefing live. NASA astronaut Joe Acaba and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin are set to launch to the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz TMA-04M spacecraft March 29 (March 30 local time in Baikonur, Kazakhstan Acaba, Padalka and Revin are three of six crew members comprising Expeditions 31 and 32. Aboard the station, they will join NASA astronaut Don Pettit, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and European Space Agency astronaut AndrT Kuipers

MEDIA ADVISORY: M12-002 MEDIA INVITED TO FINAL ORION SPACECRAFT WATER LANDING TEST

HAMPTON, Va. -- Media representatives are invited to watch as the Orion crew capsule makes its final water landing test on Thursday, Jan. 5, at NASA's Langley Research Center's Hydro Impact Basin in Hampton, Va. Testing began last summer to certify the Orion spacecraft for water landings. Orion will carry astronauts into space, providing emergency abort capability, sustaining the crew during space travel and ensuring safe re-entry and landing. Since July 2011, engineers have conducted eight tests at different angles, heights and pitches to simulate varying sea conditions and impacts that Orion could face upon landing in the Pacific Ocean. The test will simulate deployment of all parachutes at a high impact pitch of 43 degrees. The capsule will travel approximately 47 mph before splashing into the basin, where it will likely flip over after impact. While this type of landing scenario is not likely to occur during actual vehicle operation, the test will validate models of how the spacecraft would respond. Like the Apollo spacecraft, Orion will have an on-board system that allows the spacecraft to up-right itself in the ocean. The Hydro Impact Basin is 115 feet long, 90 feet wide and 20 feet deep. It is located at the west end of Langley's historic Landing and Impact Research Facility, or Gantry, where Apollo astronauts trained for moonwalks.