May 2014 Vol. 1 No. 2 National Aeronautics and Space Administration SPACEX-3 DELIVERS CARGO TO ISS PAGE 4 ANCIENT CREATURES ON THE PROWL PAGE 37 ORIGINAL SEVEN CHOSEN BY NASA 55 YEARS AGO PAGE 48 NASA’S KENNEDY SPACE CENTER LAUNCH SPACEPORT MAGAZINE SCHEDULE Date: May 28, 2014 Mission: Expedition 40/41 Launch to International Space CONTENTS Station Description: Reid Wiseman, Maxim Suraev, Alexander 4 ...................SPACEX-3 delivers cargo to ISS Gerst launch on Soyuz 39 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in 8 ...................NASA, SpaceX sign lease agreement for Launch Kazakhstan. Pad 39A Date: June 6, 2014 12 ................Firing Room 4 to feature multi-user concept layout Mission: SpaceX-4 Commercial Resupply Services flight with ISS-RapidScat 18 ................Satellites play vital roles in everyday life Description: Launching from Cape Canaveral Air Force FREE to the public with 24 ................NASA’s Path To Mars Station, Fla., on a Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX-4 will deliver paid admission to the 29 ................Forum focuses on NASA partnerships, plans for cargo and crew supplies Kennedy Space Center multi-user spaceport to the International Space Visitor Complex. Station. It will also carry the 32 ................Engineering’s four lines of business focus on ISS-RapidScat instrument, Event hours problem-solving a replacement for NASA’s QuikScat Earth satellite to May 21-22 8 a.m. – 6 p.m. online more monitor ocean winds for May 23 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. 36 ................GSDO engineer realizes dream of working at climate research, weather Kennedy Space Center predictions, and hurricane monitoring. 39 ................Alligators thrive amid rockets, space-age facilities Date: No Earlier Than 43 ................Equipped with new sensors, Morpheus preps to June 9, 2014 handle landing on its own Mission: Orbital 2 Commercial Resupply Services Mission to International Space Station 48 ................Mission to map Venus began 25 years ago with Description: Launching from STS-30 the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA’s Wallops 52 ................Pioneering Mercury astronauts eager to launch 55 Flight Facility, Orbital 2 will years ago deliver cargo and crew supplies to the International Space Station. THE Editorial Writers Group Graphics Group SPACEPORT Managing Editor ........... Chris Hummel Anna Heiney Bob Granath Richard Beard Greg Lee MAGAZINE Editor ............................ Frank Ochoa-Gonzales Linda Herridge Kay Grinter Lynda Brammer Matthew Young TEAM Assistant Editor ............. Linda Herridge Steven Siceloff Frank Ochoa-Gonzales Amy Lombardo Copy Editor ................... Kay Grinter www.nasa.gov Join our Facebook community and take part in the discussion, or check out Flickr to keep photos from this issue. A SpaceX Dragon spacecraft full of cargo, with heavy clouds and occasional rain at the experiments and equipment blazed into orbit launch site at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Friday, April 18, on the strength of one of the in Florida. The launch preparation teams from company’s Falcon 9 boosters. Two days later, SpaceX and payload teams for NASA had to the Dragon arrived at the International Space work inside tight schedules to safely set up for Station where it was grappled by the Canadarm2 launch between the bouts of poor weather. and locked into place so astronauts could later “They did a lot of good work,” Gerstenmaier retrieve almost 5,000 pounds of equipment, said. SPACEX-3 delivers experiments and supplies. The weather was on the front of everyone’s Launching without a crew, cargo resupply mind throughout the morning, but cleared up cargo to ISS flight such as SpaceX-3 are critical to the enough about two and half hours before the 3:25 BY STEVEN SICELOFF operation of the orbiting laboratory and the six p.m. launch time to allow a liftoff. people living and working there. “Weather was our primary concern,” said “SpaceX is delivering important research Hans Koenigsmann, vice president of Mission experiments and cargo to the space station,” Assurance for SpaceX. “It’s a really good day.” said William Gerstenmaier, NASA associate Musk also reported success in SpaceX’s test administrator for human exploration and to have the first stage of the Falcon 9 reignite its operations. “The diversity and number of new engines and slow the stage to a soft landing on experiments is phenomenal. The investigations the ocean’s surface a few minutes after liftoff. aboard Dragon will help us improve our All data is not in yet, he said, but the slowdown understanding of how humans adapt to living seemed to go well. He did not expect to be able in space for long periods of time and help us to pick the first stage out of the water, however, develop technologies that will enable because the ocean waves were substantial deep-space exploration.” having been roiled up by days of rough weather. The manifest for the flight included a He said the flight encourages him to continue its spacewalking suit for astronauts plus related pursuit of recovering a first stage intact. hardware and supplies for more than 150 science “I think we have a decent chance of investigations to be conducted by the space bringing a stage back this year, which would be station crews. wonderful,” Musk said. The Dragon spacecraft, making the “It looked great, it looked like it was doing company’s third operational cargo mission to the what it was supposed to do,” Koenigsmann said. station, separated from its Falcon 9 second stage The science-related equipment includes the as planned and deployed its twin solar arrays VEGGIE system that is designed to grow leafy on time. An issue with one of the thruster sets vegetables in orbit. A system called OPALS will was dealt with quickly soon after the spacecraft test whether lasers can be used to carry data achieved orbit. from space to Earth. The T-cell Activation in “Looks like everything’s good on Dragon,” Aging unit will seek the cause of the depression SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said during of the human immune system in astronauts in a news conference following the launch. “I’m microgravity. feeling pretty excited, this is a happy day,” Musk The Dragon also carries four commercially said. available high-definition video cameras that The launch took place on a day that started will be mounted to the outside of the station to The SpaceX Dragon was captured and photographed by the Expedition 39 crew members onboard the International Space Station and successfully berthed, following the April 20 arrival. Photo credit: NASA SPACEPORT Magazine 5 This snapshot of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft docked to the International Space Station was photographed by one of two spacewalking astronauts on April 22, 2014. NASA astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Steve Swanson, Expediton 39 flight engineers, replaced a failed backup computer relay box in the S0 truss on the orbital outpost. Photo credit: NASA see how they handle the conditions of space. Although they will be inside temperature-controlled enclosures, the cameras will experience the radiation of orbit. Online viewers will be able to watch the footage from the cameras. online more A pair of legs for Robonaut 2 are now on the station as well, thanks to the supply flight. The humanoid robot has been going through testing inside the space station since 2011. The robot is designed to perform repetitive tasks Image Credit: NASA/Daniel Casper and free up astronauts’ time for science experiments and other research. Its head and torso now are supported Inside the Operations and Checkout Building on a moveable post in the station’s pressurized module. high bay at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in The legs and their special fittings would allow the robot Florida, the Orion crew module is positioned to move around inside the station. Later additions to the on a special portable test chamber and robot would allow it also to work on the outside of the station as an assistant to spacewalkers. prepared for a multi-point random vibration The Dragon will remain docked to the station about a test. --LINDA HERRIDGE month before it is released and guides itself back through a look online the atmosphere to a parachute landing off the coast of California. It will return more than 3,000 pounds of http://go.nasa.gov/1rFHcRF completed experiments from the station along with other equipment and unneeded materials. 6 SPACEPORT Magazine SPACEPORT Magazine 7 Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana announces that on April 14, 2014 NASA signed a lease agreement with SpaceX for use and operation of Launch Complex 39A. NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, left, and Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, look on. Photo credit: NASA/Dan Casper activities,” he said during a news briefing at the The historic site where American astronauts pad. “SpaceX and our other commercial partners first launched to the moon was the location of are a critical part of our exploration strategy. a recent landmark agreement, part of NASA’s This includes the (International Space Station), continuing process to transform the Kennedy proving technologies in deep space, the asteroid Space Center in Florida into a 21st century initiative that brings an asteroid closer to Earth spaceport. During ceremonies on April 14, so astronauts can visit it and a mission to Mars agency officials announced they signed a in the 2030s.” property agreement with SpaceX of Hawthorne, Bob Cabana, Kennedy’s director, noted Calif., for use and operation of Launch Complex that permitting the pad’s use and operation (LC) 39A for the next 20 years. by a commercial space partner will ensure its NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden stated continued viability and allow for its ongoing use that pad A is beginning a new mission as a in support of the nation’s space activities.