Sep 1 2010
From The Space Library
RELEASE: 10-205
NASA RANKED FIFTH IN BEST PLACES TO WORK IN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
WASHINGTON -- NASA has been ranked fifth in the Partnership for Public Service 2010 ratings for the Best Places to Work in the Federal Government. The 2010 survey is the fifth conducted by the partnership since 2003. NASA has been rated in the top five in the federal government in four of the surveys and sixth in the other. An award was accepted by Associate Deputy Administrator Charles Scales on behalf of the agency at a special briefing held by the partnership on Wednesday, Sept. 1. The partnership is a nonprofit organization that works to revitalize and transform the federal government by inspiring a new generation to serve. The Best Places program is one of many the Partnership sponsors to encourage government service. The data used to develop these rankings were based on the Office of Personnel Management's Employee Viewpoint Survey. Approximately 260,000 employees at 290 departments, agencies and sub-components were surveyed. NASA's workforce continues to score well on the survey among the 32 large federal agencies. The best places to work index is based on employee responses to questions about whether they are satisfied with their jobs and organization. A key factor is also whether employees would recommend their organization to others as a good place to work. In addition to this overall index, agencies and subcomponents also were scored in workplace environment categories such as effective leadership, employee skills/mission match and work/life balance. NASA was among the leaders in several categories, including effective leadership, support for diversity, teamwork, training and performance based rewards. The complete listing of the rankings and scores for federal components is available at: http://www.bestplacestowork.org
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RELEASE: 10-312
SOYUZ LANDING CAPS SPACE STATION'S FIRST DECADE OF EXPEDITIONS
WASHINGTON -- Expedition 25 Commander Doug Wheelock and Flight Engineers Shannon Walker and Fyodor Yurchikhin safely landed their Soyuz spacecraft on the Kazakhstan steppe Thursday, wrapping up a five-month stay aboard the International Space Station. Russian cosmonaut Yurchikhin, the Soyuz commander, was at the controls of the spacecraft as it undocked at 8:23 p.m. EST from the station's Rassvet module. The trio landed at 11:46 p.m. (10:46 a.m. on Nov. 26 local time) at a site northeast of the town of Arkalyk. Working in frigid temperatures, Russian recovery teams were on hand to help the crew exit the Soyuz vehicle and re-adjust to gravity. Yurchikhin will return to the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, outside of Moscow, while Wheelock and Walker will fly directly home to Houston. The trio launched aboard the Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on June 15. As members of the Expedition 24 and 25 crews, they spent 163 days in space, 161 of them aboard the station, and celebrated the 10th anniversary of continuous human life, work and research by international crews aboard the station on Nov. 2. During their mission, the Expedition 24 and 25 crew members worked on more than 120 microgravity experiments in human research; biology and biotechnology; physical and materials sciences; technology development; and Earth and space sciences. The astronauts also responded to an emergency shutdown of half of the station's external cooling system and supported three unplanned spacewalks by Wheelock and Expedition 24 Flight Engineer Tracy Caldwell Dyson to replace the faulty pump module that caused the shutdown. Their efforts restored the station's critical cooling system to full function. Yurchikhin has logged 371 total days in space, Wheelock 178 days and Walker 163 days. The station is occupied by Expedition 26 Commander Scott Kelly and Flight Engineers Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka of the Russian Federal Space Agency. A new trio of Expedition 26 flight engineers, NASA astronaut Catherine Coleman, Russian cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev and Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency, will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Dec. 15. They will dock with the station and join its crew on Dec. 17. To send holiday greetings to the crew and get more information about the space station, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station Wheelock and Kelly both post updates about their missions to their Twitter pages at: http://www.twitter.com/Astro_Wheels http://www.twitter.com/StationCDRKelly
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CONTRACT RELEASE: C10-023
NASA EXTENDS CONTRACT WITH RUSSIAN FEDERAL SPACE AGENCY
WASHINGTON -- NASA has signed a $335 million modification to the current International Space Station contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency for crew transportation, rescue and related services in 2013 and 2014. The firm-fixed price modification covers comprehensive Soyuz support, including all necessary training and preparation for launch, crew rescue, and landing of a long-duration mission for six individual station crew members. In this contract modification, space station crew members will launch on four Soyuz vehicles in 2013 and return on two vehicles in 2013 and two in 2014. Under the contract modification, the Soyuz flights will carry limited cargo associated with crew transportation to and from the station, and disposal of trash. The cargo allowed per person is approximately 110 pounds (50 kilograms) launched to the station, approximately 37 pounds (17 kilograms) returned to Earth, and trash disposal of approximately 66 pounds (30 kilograms).
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