Oct 21 2010
From The Space Library
MEDIA ADVISORY: M10-013
NASA ASTRONAUTS PRESENTING SPECIAL 'SPACE VETERAN' SUPER BOWL COIN
WASHINGTON -- The crew of the space shuttle Atlantis' STS-129 mission will deliver a specially minted silver medallion to National Football League officials at 10 a.m. EST on Wednesday, Jan. 27, at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. The medallion will be used for the official coin toss prior to the kickoff of Super Bowl XLIV on Sunday, Feb. 7. Shuttle commander Charlie Hobaugh, a graduate of North Ridgeville High School near Cleveland, Pilot Barry Wilmore, Mission Specialists Leland Melvin, Randy Bresnik, Bobby Satcher and Mike Foreman, from Wadsworth, Ohio, returned from their 11-day space mission to the International Space Station on Nov. 27. The crew will present Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys jerseys and a football, inscribed with the name of every member of the Hall of Fame, which also accompanied the crew on their 4.5 million mile space journey last fall. The astronauts will share mission highlights with attendees, which will include local students and community partners. The STS-129 shuttle mission included three spacewalks and the installation of two platforms to the station's truss, or backbone. The platforms hold large spare parts to sustain operations after the shuttles are retired. The crew delivered approximately 30,000 pounds of replacement parts for systems that provide power to the station, keep it from overheating, and maintain a proper orientation in space.
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MEDIA ADVISORY: M10-006
WASHINGTON -- The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, or ASAP, a
congressionally mandated group of independent experts established after the 1967 Apollo 1 fire, has released its 2009 annual report. Following the 2003 space shuttle Columbia accident, Congress directed the ASAP to submit an annual report to Congress and the NASA administrator documenting the panel's observations and recommendations. This year's report advises NASA on issues that have potential to directly or indirectly impact the safety of astronauts, NASA personnel, contractors, programs and missions. "The panel's report provides a summary of key safety-related issues the agency confronts at this time,? ASAP Chairman Joseph W. Dyer said. The most important relate to the future of the nation's human spaceflight program. Critical safety issues the panel reviewed include human rating requirements for potential commercial and international entities, extension of the shuttle beyond the current manifest, the workforce transition from the shuttle to the follow-on program, the need for candid public communications about the risks of human spaceflight, and more aggressive use of robots to reduce the risk of human exploration." Some of the panel's critical safety findings in the 18-page report include: - No manufacturer of Commercial Orbital Transportation Services is currently qualified for human-rating requirements, despite some claims and beliefs to the contrary. -To abandon the program of record as a baseline for an alternative without demonstrated capability or proven superiority is unwise and probably not cost-effective. -Extension of the shuttle program significantly beyond the current manifest would be ill-advised. The panel is concerned about discussions regarding possible extension of shuttle operations.
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RELEASE: 10-145
NASA APPOINTS CONSTELLATION PROGRAM MANAGERS
WASHINGTON -- Lawrence D. Thomas has been appointed manager of NASA's Constellation Program, which manages the effort to take humans beyond low-Earth orbit and develop the next generation launch vehicle and spacecraft. Charles M. Stegemoeller has been appointed as deputy program manager. He and Thomas will be based at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. Thomas most recently served as the deputy program manager of the Constellation Program at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala. He began his NASA career in 1983 as an aerospace systems engineer at Marshall's Science and Engineering Directorate. He served in leadership positions at Marshall including manager of the Systems Engineering and Analysis Office for the Second Generation Reusable Launch Vehicle Program Office, and chief of the Systems Engineering Division, Spacecraft and Vehicle Systems Department. Thomas also spent two years at Johnson as manager of the Vehicle Analysis and Integration Office in the International Space Station Program. He earned a bachelor's degree in industrial and systems engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville; master's degree in industrial engineering from North Carolina State University; and doctorate in systems engineering also from Alabama. Stegemoeller most recently served as director of the program planning and control office for the Constellation Program. He joined NASA in 1985 and served in several leadership positions within the Space Station Freedom and NASA/Mir Programs at Johnson. He was later named associate director for the Office of Bioastronautics within the Space Life Sciences Directorate. Stegemoeller earned his bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from Texas A&M University, College Station.
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