HSFNEWS Digest - 20 Dec 2011 to 22 Dec 2011 (#2011-147)

From: "[NASA REPORTS]" <list.admin@aus-city.com>

Date: December 22nd 2011

There are 3 messages totalling 154 lines in this issue

Topics of the day:

TRIO HEADS FOR HOLIDAY REUNION WITH SPACE STATION RESIDENTS
NASA SELECTS STUDENT TEAMS FOR MICROGRAVITY RESEARCH FLIGHTS
NASA CONDUCTS ORION PARACHUTE TESTING FOR ORBITAL TEST FLIGHT

Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2011 13:21:27 -0600 From: info@JSC NASA GOV Subject: TRIO HEADS FOR HOLIDAY REUNION WITH SPACE STATION RESIDENTS

Dec 21, 2011

Kelly Humphries Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111

Michael Curie Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1100

Report #H11-425

TRIO HEADS FOR HOLIDAY REUNION WITH SPACE STATION RESIDENTS

HOUSTON -- NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit, Russian Soyuz Commander Oleg Kononenko and European Space Agency Flight Engineer Andre Kuipers of the Netherlands launched to the International Space Station aboard their Soyuz TMA-03M craft at 7:16 a m CST Wednesday, Dec 21 (7:16 p m local time), from Kazakhstan

Pettit, Kononenko and Kuipers are scheduled to dock to the Rassvet module of the station at 9:22 a m Friday, Dec 23 They will receive a holiday welcome from station Commander Dan Burbank of NASA and Russian Flight Engineers Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin, who have been aboard the orbital laboratory since mid-November

NASA Television will provide live docking coverage beginning at 8:45 a m Friday Hatch opening and welcoming ceremonies will occur about three hours later

Upon arrival, Pettit, Kononenko and Kuipers will become members of Expedition 30, restoring the station's crew complement to six They will continue scientific research and christen a new era of commercial resupply services from the United States, greeting the first SpaceX Dragon spaceship in mid-February A Russian spacewalk to continue external assembly and maintenance of the station also is planned during Expedition 30

Burbank, Shkaplerov and Ivanishin are scheduled to return to Earth in March, and Pettit, Kononenko and Kuipers will return home in May For more information about the International Space Station and its crew, visit:

http://www nasa gov/station

To follow Twitter updates from Expedition 30 commander Burbank and flight engineer Pettit, visit:

http://twitter com/AstroCoastie

and

http://twitter com/AstroPettit

For NASA TV streaming video, schedule and downlink information, visit:

http://www nasa gov/ntv

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Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2011 13:24:36 -0600 From: info@JSC NASA GOV Subject: NASA SELECTS STUDENT TEAMS FOR MICROGRAVITY RESEARCH FLIGHTS

Dec 21, 2011

Rachel Kraft Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111

Ann Marie Trotta Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1601

Report #H11-422

NASA SELECTS STUDENT TEAMS FOR MICROGRAVITY RESEARCH FLIGHTS

WASHINGTON -- NASA has selected 24 undergraduate student teams to test science experiments under microgravity conditions The teams will fly during 2012 as part of the agency's Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program (RGEFP)

The teams will design and build their experiments at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston and conduct tests aboard an aircraft modified to mimic a reduced-gravity environment The aircraft will fly approximately 30 parabolas with roller-coaster-like climbs and dips to produce periods of weightlessness and hyper-gravity ranging from 0 to 2g's

"The program provides unique opportunities for students all over the country to experience life as a scientist or engineer in the working world," said Douglas Goforth, RGEFP manager at Johnson "We hope the experience of performing experiments in microgravity will help inspire students to pursue careers in technical fields "

Ten of the teams will participate through the Systems Engineering Education Discovery (SEED) flight week April 20-28 They will work with NASA scientists and engineers as part of ongoing systems engineering projects pertinent to future agency research and missions

The 2012 SEED teams are from Carthage College, Georgia Institute of Technology, Northwest Nazarene University, Oklahoma State University, University of Houston-Clear Lake, San Jacinto College, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Washington University in St Louis and Yale University

The other teams were selected through the Microgravity University program and will conduct their research June 8-16 Those teams are from Arizona State University, University of Southern California, Yale University, University of Florida, Boise State University, Purdue University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Santa Ana Community College, Lamar University, University of Texas-El Paso, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, University of Washington and West Virginia University

The RGEFP experience includes scientific research, experimental design, test operations and outreach activities The program supports NASA's goal of strengthening the nation's future workforce

For more information about the Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program, visit:

http://microgravityuniversity jsc nasa gov

For more information about NASA's education programs, visit:

http://www nasa gov/education

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www nasa gov

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Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2011 13:28:10 -0600 From: info@JSC NASA GOV Subject: NASA CONDUCTS ORION PARACHUTE TESTING FOR ORBITAL TEST FLIGHT

Dec 21, 2011

Josh Byerly Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111

J D Harrington Headquarters, Washington 202-358-5241

Report #H11-423

NASA CONDUCTS ORION PARACHUTE TESTING FOR ORBITAL TEST FLIGHT

HOUSTON -- NASA successfully conducted a drop test of the Orion crew vehicle's parachutes high above the Arizona desert Tuesday in preparation for its orbital flight test in 2014 Orion will carry astronauts deeper into space than ever before, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during space travel and ensure a safe re-entry and landing

A C-130 plane dropped the Orion test article from an altitude of 25,000 feet above the U S Army's Yuma Proving Grounds Orion's drogue chutes were deployed between 15,000 and 20,000 feet, followed by the pilot parachutes, which then deployed two main landing parachutes This particular drop test examined how Orion would land under two possible failure scenarios

Orion's parachutes are designed to open in stages, which is called reefing, to manage the stresses on the parachutes after they are deployed The reefing stages allow the parachutes to sequentially open, first at 54 percent of the parachutes' full diameter, and then at 73 percent This test examined how the parachutes would perform if the second part of the sequence was skipped

The second scenario was a failure to deploy one of Orion's three main parachutes, requiring the spacecraft to land with only two Orion landed on the desert floor at a speed of almost 33 feet per second, which is the maximum designed touchdown speed of the spacecraft Since 2007, the Orion program has conducted a vigorous parachute air and ground test program and provided the chutes for NASA's successful pad abort test in 2010 Lessons learned from this experience have improved Orion's parachute system

For images of the drop test, visit:

http://www nasa gov/exploration/systems/mpcv/gallery/parachute_testing/orion_test_drop html

For more about Orion, visit:

http://www nasa gov/orion

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End of HSFNEWS Digest - 20 Dec 2011 to 22 Dec 2011 (#2011-147)

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