Nov. 14, 2008 Vol. 48, No. 23 Spaceport News John F. Kennedy Space Center - America’s gateway to the universe www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/news/snews/spnews_toc.html Cabana emphasizes importance of safety hope from my comments at the all hands, you were able to I get some sense of the excite- ment I have about being part of this outstanding team during a historic time in our nation’s space program. I can’t think of anywhere I’d rather be as we complete the Inter- national Space Station and prepare to launch the first new human spacecraft the United States has flown in over 25 years. During the months ahead, I’d like to use my column in the Space- port News to discuss topics that are important to me and I think are important to our success as a center. NASA/Jim Grossman For my first column I want Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana NASA to pick a subject dear to my heart answered workers’ questions at the All Hands Bob Cabana, STS-88 mission commander, totes a notebook while checking on the progress of Meeting on Nov. 4 in the Training Auditorium. readiness tasks aboard the International Space Station’s Unity module in 1998. -- safety. I want everyone to un- derstand how important safety is will be ingrained in all that we do. fective safety program until all of to me and how committed I am to WORD ON THE STREET Teamwork will mean looking out us realize that safety is our respon- ensuring a safe work environment for each other and taking care of our sibility, not management’s or safety for all our employees. I will do my “What goals should the teammates by pointing out to them and mission assurance officers’, but very best to use our center resources new director focus on?” when they’re doing something un- ours. We have to own it and take to “buy down” the risk from hazards Page 8 safe or correcting a problem before responsibility for it. It has to be at that are identified in our safety someone gets hurt. walk-throughs and visits to the vari- our very core and part of everything tor/civil service team, are we really We will have the integrity to ous work sites around the center. we do. working together to make our work follow through and make things In our core values of safety, I’d like you also to consider environment at Kennedy safer for right. To ensure mission success, we teamwork, integrity and excellence, that safety doesn’t begin or end as everyone? will be true professionals, conduct- safety ranks first. Nothing we do we pass through the gates on our If we truly believe safety, team- ing our tasks safely, by the book, is so important that we can’t do it way home. If we’re truly committed work, integrity and excellence are without taking short cuts or putting safely. to doing things safely, we’re going our core values, then we are going people at risk and we will be recog- But do you really believe that, to see improvement in our com- nized for our excellence. have you accepted it? As a contrac- See CABANA Page 8 bined incident rate because safety We will never have a truly ef- Blue Angels highlight Heritage: Inside this issue . Space & Air Show Crawlerway built 45 years ago NASA honors worker Ares I-X update Page 2 Page 3 Pages 4-5 Page 7 Page 2 SPACEPORT NEWS Nov. 14, 2008 Whitehead earns NASA Lifetime Achievement Award s a young girl, Vir- with the German rocket sci- ginia Whitehead entists, who used to visit her Acould identify the home where she says she planets and even knew the got to know them well. names of the stars. Little “(Dr. Kurt) Debus, did she know then, that (Wernher) Von Braun and she would end up as one Karl Sendler used to come of NASA’s brightest as running into my office and she received the Lifetime grab the film out of my Achievement Award from hands,” she said. “When NASA Administrator Mike I was out there, it was all Griffin on Oct. 30. optical data. Telemetry was For many, 50 years just getting started. I would seems like a lifetime. But tell them how fast a missile that’s how old Whitehead was moving and if it was was when she started work- rolling or turning.” ing here at Kennedy Space In 2003, Whitehead was Center -- 34 years ago. given NASA’s You Make Whitehead has served a Difference Award, which so many roles with NASA, recognizes employees who from writing to reducing have set examples of high data, to serving as an ISS energy and are team players. payload director. NASA/Kim Shiflett Something that might “I have been given this Virginia Whitehead receives NASA’s Lifetime Achievement Award from NASA Administrator Mike Griffin at a ceremony shortly surprise those who have before the STS-126 Flight Readiness Review at the Operations and Support Building II on Oct. 30. Whitehead has worked at award for just having fun Kennedy Space Center for 34 years. known Whitehead for all all these years,” Whitehead these years -- in 1964, when who need help.” She then applied her based on what I did,” she said. “I just liked working Cocoa Beach Jr./Sr. High with everybody to get stuff Her interest in rocketry knowledge at a California joked. “If I did it, they had opened its doors, Whitehead done.” began at Johns Hopkins’ observatory, in the missile to make a rule against it.” asked them if she could And she’s not done yet, Applied Physics Lab in industry again, and even- Although Whitehead teach math. Of course, she as law school remains in her Maryland. Whitehead’s du- tually at NASA’s White kids that her methods are was hired on the spot. One plans. ties there included interpret- Sands Test Facility in New unconventional, many space of her algebra students also “I still toy with the ing data for Wallops Flight Mexico. pioneers valued her con- rose in the ranks at NASA idea,” she said. “I just want Facility missile launches in “All the rules they tributions. In fact, she says -- former Center Director to be able to help people Virginia. made at White Sands were it was a lot of fun working Jim Kennedy. Disability awareness presentation features stroke survivor By Linda Herridge experiences and the long road to “Working together we can on behalf of the working group. Spaceport News overcoming Locked-in Syndrome, or overcome obstacles,” Adamson said. Gutierrez helped create the new total paralysis, from a double brain- “Don’t think about what you can’t DAAWG logo and was an active ocus on abilities rather than stem stroke at the age of 33. do; instead, focus on what you can committee member for many years. disabilities -- that’s the mes- The mother of two toddlers do.” sage Kate Adamson brought After the presentation, repre- F could see and hear but had no way to Tara Gillam, manager of Ken- sentatives from local organizations to Kennedy Space Center workers communicate or move. She remained nedy’s Office of Diversity and Equal during a National Disability Em- and companies answered questions ployment Awareness Month event. in this condition for 70 days and then Opportunity, said that right now the and provided information about the The presentation, delivered by spent another three months in acute Kennedy work force is diverse, but services and products available for the brain-stem stroke survivor and rehabilitation. When doctors wrote less than one percent are individuals the disabled. national speaker, was sponsored by her off, her husband discovered that with targeted disabilities. Participants included the Bre- the Disability Awareness and Action she could communicate by blinking “We all need to open our hearts vard Achievement Center, Brevard Working Group, or DAAWG. her eyes. and our minds,” Gillam said. “We Drop-in-Center, LifeBridge Diag- Helping to welcome Adamson “A support system is very must look beyond the wheel chair, nostics, National Stroke Association, were Kennedy Deputy Director Janet important,” Adamson said. “Dur- or the leg braces, the cane, or the Kennedy’s Re-hab Works, Kennedy Petro and Chief Financial Officer ing a crisis we find out who our true interpreter, and see the talent that we Adapted Physical Activity Program, and DAAWG Executive Advisor friends are.” have only begun to tap.” Southeastern Guide Dogs Inc., the Susan Kroskey. She challenged Kennedy work- During the presentation, the Tourette Syndrome Association Adamson, author of “Paralyzed ers to think of the good things that DAAWG committee recognized Sam of Florida-Brevard Chapter, and but not Powerless,” described her can come from a disability. Gutierrez for his support and efforts Visioneers. Nov. 14, 2008 SPACEPORT NEWS Page 3 NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis Segments of the Ares I-X upper stage simulator are lined up in the cargo hold of the Delta Mariner, docked at Port Canaveral. The upper stage simulator will be used in the Ares I-X test flight targeted for 2009. The segments will simulate the mass and the outer mold line and will be more than 100 feet of the total vehicle height of 327 feet. The simulator comprises 11 segments that are approximately 18 feet in diameter. Most of the segments will be approximately 10 feet high, ranging in weight from 18,000 to 60,000 pounds, for a total of approximately 450,000 pounds. First rocket parts of new launch system arrive at KSC he first major flight during a two-year period will provide NASA an early hardware of the Ares Want to learn more? at NASA’s Glenn Research opportunity to test hard- ware, facilities and ground I-X rocket has ar- Video of the arrival activities are available on NASA Center in Cleveland.