Posted on Jul 10, 2015
NASA picks 4 astronauts to fly 1st commercial space mission
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http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/2015/07/09/nasa-picks-4-astronauts-to-fly-1st-commercial-space-mission/29922203/
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA has selected four veteran astronauts to lead the way back into orbit from U.S. soil.
On Thursday, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden named the four who will fly on capsules built by private companies — SpaceX and Boeing. Each astronaut has test pilot experience and has flown twice in space.
The commercial crew astronauts are: Air Force Col. Robert Behnken, until recently head of the astronaut office; Air Force Col. Eric Boe, part of shuttle Discovery's last crew; retired Marine Col. Douglas Hurley, pilot of the final shuttle crew; and Navy Capt. Sunita Williams, a two-time resident of the International Space Station.
"These distinguished, veteran astronauts are blazing a new trail, a trail that will one day land them in the history books and Americans on the surface of Mars," Bolden said on his blog.
SpaceX and Boeing are aiming for test flights to the space station by 2017. It will be the first launch of astronauts from Cape Canaveral, Florida, since the space shuttles retired in 2011.
In the meantime, NASA has been paying Russia tens of millions of dollars per ride on Soyuz spacecraft to ferry astronauts; the latest tab is $76 million.
Bolden noted that the average cost on an American-owned spacecraft will be $58 million per astronaut, and each mission will carry a crew of four versus three, in addition to science experiments.
The four — who will work closely with the companies to develop their spacecraft — range in age from 44 to 50, and have been astronauts for at least 15 years. Each attended test pilot school; Williams specializes in helicopters.
NASA said the four were chosen for their spaceflight experience. They have a combined total of more than 400 days in space, thanks largely to Williams' two station stints, and more than 85 hours of spacewalking time. Williams — the world record-holder for most spacewalking time by a woman — most recently lived on the orbiting lab in 2012.
NASA's contracts with SpaceX and Boeing for crew capsules — totaling nearly $7 billion — require at least one test flight with at least one NASA astronaut on board.
"There are lot more than just the four of us who will be responsible for the safety and the certification of the vehicle," Hurley said in a NASA interview posted online. A "huge team" will work to make the spacecraft as safe as possible, he noted.
The announcement comes just 1½ weeks after SpaceX's failed launch to the space station with cargo. The Dragon capsule lost atop the Falcon 9 rocket that broke up shortly after liftoff on June 28 is a smaller, simpler version of what will be used to carry astronauts to the space station. NASA's other commercial shipper, Orbital Sciences Corp., also is grounded because of a failed launch dating back to last fall.
Boeing's yet-to-fly craft is called the CST-100 for Crew Space Transportation and 100 kilometers, the threshold of space. A real name is forthcoming, according to Boeing officials.
Bolden —himself a former space shuttle commander — noted that July has always been a big month for NASA.
The first manned moon landing, by Apollo 11's Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, occurred on July 20, 1969. NASA got its first close-up pictures of Mars, thanks to Mariner 4, on July 14, 1965, and the robotic Pathfinder landed on Mars on July 4, 1997.
And on Tuesday — the 50th anniversary of Mariner 4's flyby — the New Horizons spacecraft will sweep past Pluto on the first-ever close flyby of the dwarf planet.
John Holdren, director of the White House office of science and technology policy, said Tuesday's commercial crew selection will move America closer to President Barack Obama's goal of sending astronauts to Mars in the 2030s.
NASA has been hiring out supply runs to the space station for the past few years and wants to do the same with crew transport, so it can focus on getting astronauts out of low-Earth orbit and on to Mars and other destinations. NASA is developing its own new spacecraft, the Orion, for those longer journeys.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA has selected four veteran astronauts to lead the way back into orbit from U.S. soil.
On Thursday, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden named the four who will fly on capsules built by private companies — SpaceX and Boeing. Each astronaut has test pilot experience and has flown twice in space.
The commercial crew astronauts are: Air Force Col. Robert Behnken, until recently head of the astronaut office; Air Force Col. Eric Boe, part of shuttle Discovery's last crew; retired Marine Col. Douglas Hurley, pilot of the final shuttle crew; and Navy Capt. Sunita Williams, a two-time resident of the International Space Station.
"These distinguished, veteran astronauts are blazing a new trail, a trail that will one day land them in the history books and Americans on the surface of Mars," Bolden said on his blog.
SpaceX and Boeing are aiming for test flights to the space station by 2017. It will be the first launch of astronauts from Cape Canaveral, Florida, since the space shuttles retired in 2011.
In the meantime, NASA has been paying Russia tens of millions of dollars per ride on Soyuz spacecraft to ferry astronauts; the latest tab is $76 million.
Bolden noted that the average cost on an American-owned spacecraft will be $58 million per astronaut, and each mission will carry a crew of four versus three, in addition to science experiments.
The four — who will work closely with the companies to develop their spacecraft — range in age from 44 to 50, and have been astronauts for at least 15 years. Each attended test pilot school; Williams specializes in helicopters.
NASA said the four were chosen for their spaceflight experience. They have a combined total of more than 400 days in space, thanks largely to Williams' two station stints, and more than 85 hours of spacewalking time. Williams — the world record-holder for most spacewalking time by a woman — most recently lived on the orbiting lab in 2012.
NASA's contracts with SpaceX and Boeing for crew capsules — totaling nearly $7 billion — require at least one test flight with at least one NASA astronaut on board.
"There are lot more than just the four of us who will be responsible for the safety and the certification of the vehicle," Hurley said in a NASA interview posted online. A "huge team" will work to make the spacecraft as safe as possible, he noted.
The announcement comes just 1½ weeks after SpaceX's failed launch to the space station with cargo. The Dragon capsule lost atop the Falcon 9 rocket that broke up shortly after liftoff on June 28 is a smaller, simpler version of what will be used to carry astronauts to the space station. NASA's other commercial shipper, Orbital Sciences Corp., also is grounded because of a failed launch dating back to last fall.
Boeing's yet-to-fly craft is called the CST-100 for Crew Space Transportation and 100 kilometers, the threshold of space. A real name is forthcoming, according to Boeing officials.
Bolden —himself a former space shuttle commander — noted that July has always been a big month for NASA.
The first manned moon landing, by Apollo 11's Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, occurred on July 20, 1969. NASA got its first close-up pictures of Mars, thanks to Mariner 4, on July 14, 1965, and the robotic Pathfinder landed on Mars on July 4, 1997.
And on Tuesday — the 50th anniversary of Mariner 4's flyby — the New Horizons spacecraft will sweep past Pluto on the first-ever close flyby of the dwarf planet.
John Holdren, director of the White House office of science and technology policy, said Tuesday's commercial crew selection will move America closer to President Barack Obama's goal of sending astronauts to Mars in the 2030s.
NASA has been hiring out supply runs to the space station for the past few years and wants to do the same with crew transport, so it can focus on getting astronauts out of low-Earth orbit and on to Mars and other destinations. NASA is developing its own new spacecraft, the Orion, for those longer journeys.
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So reassuring to still see interest in manned space exploration.
Fly Navy, baby, all the way to the stars.
Fly Navy, baby, all the way to the stars.
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So very happy to see the U.S. Back in the space game. It was utterly crazy that we ever 'left'!
On to new frontiers. (And best of luck to the brave folks making the initial flights!)
On to new frontiers. (And best of luck to the brave folks making the initial flights!)
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PO1 John Miller
PO3 Nichalas Enser, could it be the "final frontier?"
I'm a bit of a Trekkie if you couldn't tell! :)
I'm a bit of a Trekkie if you couldn't tell! :)
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PO3 Nichalas Enser
'Final Frontier'.. Doubt it, myself, oh fellow Trekster, PO1 John Miller!
After this, there will, likely be folks traveling to places, in things we can barely imagine. Wormholes, ala Stargate, to new places could, well, be next. After that... who knows!
[TL/DR] There is always something new, around the corner. Let us get together and go see it!
Have thought, a lot, about this... Bear with me.
Think of a village, thousands and thousands of years, ago, say, in the South Pacific. After years of war, they settle down, develop an 'advanced' society, where they have enough food for the year, water for each day, shelter for all citizens, care of the sick, infirmed, and elderly. They have climbed the tallest peaks, scaled the tallest trees, swum to the bottom of the reef, walked the entire shore, and everything in between.
One day, someone is looking out to the ocean and thinks, "Hey, let me swim to that other thing that looks like land, even though our elders tell us that we are divine creations, put here to tend this land and that there are no others and no other places, besides this great paradise!" They swim out, and run into a village, much like their own- Holy Cow! The folks they found were either better or worse-off, so, after a bunch of fighting, they develop trade, via a canoe/raft and the lesser village is brought up to the advanced one's standards. Life is grand and they develop better, faster boats and figure out that you can plant seeds and corral animals, rather than just hoping that particular food pops up or animals run by.
After numerous years, someone, else, is looking around and thinks that they want to see where that ball of light goes each night, so they take a canoe out and find *another* island! They go through the same war process - the two finally work out some compromise, and they adapt and become stronger. Their trade flourishes and life could not be better; there is just no way. Heck, they even figured out that you could use a sail and you would not have to row your boat- what a breakthrough! Faster movement of people, items, wealth, and ideas!
At this point, some person is listening to their history and thinks, "Well, if there was more over the horizon, before... perhaps there is still more out there!" The person and crew depart, using the largest, fastest vessel. Everyone knows that they are heading to certain doom, because their shaman warned them that their deity requires them to stay put.
Low and behold, they found a whole continent! Whoa! There, they ran into even more people - many hundreds. They went through the whole war, peace and compromise,,progress, discovery process hundreds and hundreds of times, until here we are, today, with Space X and others vying to be the primary 'commercial' crafts to transport folks into space.
We are still that tiny village - just with a few million more people to call our brothers and sisters. We are still 'swimming' at this point, but getting better, for the greater part of the time. Who knows what/who/where/(when!?) we will, eventually, find?
Like it or not, we are all in this, together - regardless of families, villages/towns/cities, states/provinces, and countries. Once we, *finally*, get together, put down most of the swords, are one (or many, who are not slaughtering one-another) we will find the next 'island'. (Were it useful, would happily agree to go forth, somewhere, but that is almost-assuredly, not in the cards. Will have to settle for trying to make the world a more decent place for the coming generations.
After this, there will, likely be folks traveling to places, in things we can barely imagine. Wormholes, ala Stargate, to new places could, well, be next. After that... who knows!
[TL/DR] There is always something new, around the corner. Let us get together and go see it!
Have thought, a lot, about this... Bear with me.
Think of a village, thousands and thousands of years, ago, say, in the South Pacific. After years of war, they settle down, develop an 'advanced' society, where they have enough food for the year, water for each day, shelter for all citizens, care of the sick, infirmed, and elderly. They have climbed the tallest peaks, scaled the tallest trees, swum to the bottom of the reef, walked the entire shore, and everything in between.
One day, someone is looking out to the ocean and thinks, "Hey, let me swim to that other thing that looks like land, even though our elders tell us that we are divine creations, put here to tend this land and that there are no others and no other places, besides this great paradise!" They swim out, and run into a village, much like their own- Holy Cow! The folks they found were either better or worse-off, so, after a bunch of fighting, they develop trade, via a canoe/raft and the lesser village is brought up to the advanced one's standards. Life is grand and they develop better, faster boats and figure out that you can plant seeds and corral animals, rather than just hoping that particular food pops up or animals run by.
After numerous years, someone, else, is looking around and thinks that they want to see where that ball of light goes each night, so they take a canoe out and find *another* island! They go through the same war process - the two finally work out some compromise, and they adapt and become stronger. Their trade flourishes and life could not be better; there is just no way. Heck, they even figured out that you could use a sail and you would not have to row your boat- what a breakthrough! Faster movement of people, items, wealth, and ideas!
At this point, some person is listening to their history and thinks, "Well, if there was more over the horizon, before... perhaps there is still more out there!" The person and crew depart, using the largest, fastest vessel. Everyone knows that they are heading to certain doom, because their shaman warned them that their deity requires them to stay put.
Low and behold, they found a whole continent! Whoa! There, they ran into even more people - many hundreds. They went through the whole war, peace and compromise,,progress, discovery process hundreds and hundreds of times, until here we are, today, with Space X and others vying to be the primary 'commercial' crafts to transport folks into space.
We are still that tiny village - just with a few million more people to call our brothers and sisters. We are still 'swimming' at this point, but getting better, for the greater part of the time. Who knows what/who/where/(when!?) we will, eventually, find?
Like it or not, we are all in this, together - regardless of families, villages/towns/cities, states/provinces, and countries. Once we, *finally*, get together, put down most of the swords, are one (or many, who are not slaughtering one-another) we will find the next 'island'. (Were it useful, would happily agree to go forth, somewhere, but that is almost-assuredly, not in the cards. Will have to settle for trying to make the world a more decent place for the coming generations.
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It's about time we get back into US owned manned (and womenned LOL!) space flight, albeit commercially owned. Lets hope they make history for successful missioned flights and not a memorial...
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PO1 John Miller
TSgt David L., commercially owned but the astronauts are on loan from NASA. So our government still has its greedy paws in the mix! :)
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TSgt David L.
PO1 John Miller, my point was more geared towards the fact that we might get out of paying the Soviets for a ride. I would be happy to pay a US firm to haul our astronauts to the Moon and Mars .
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