Cape Canaveral, U.S.A. — Media are invited to an interview availability and facilities tour with NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden at noon EDT, Thursday, Aug. 23, at various locations in and around the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. During the media tour, Bolden will detail recent progress related to NASA’s commercial spaceflight initiatives.

Media must be at Kennedy’s press site by 11:15 a.m. for transportation to the first location. Media will return to the press site by 3:30 p.m. For media wanting to cover a separate XCOR event at Kennedy’s Visitor Complex, transportation to the Bolden event will be provided and depart the Visitor Complex at1 1:30 a.m.

Bolden and media will tour two locations on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station: SpaceX’s facility at Space Launch Complex 40 and United Launch Alliance’s Space Launch Complex 41, where the Atlas V rocket carrying NASA’s Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) spacecraft is on the launch pad. RBSP is scheduled to launch Friday morning.

Bolden and media then will go to Kennedy’s Operations and Checkout Building to see the latest progress on NASA’s Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, which is being prepared for launch on the Exploration Flight Test-1 in early 2014.

The tour ends at Kennedy, where The Boeing Co. is preparing its CST-100 spacecraft, which is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program work. NASA is working with U.S. companies to eventually provide crew transportation to and from low Earth orbit and the space station.

NASA RBSP media badges will be honored for this event. No new credentials for international media will be issued. U.S. journalists without media credentials must apply online by noon, Aug. 22, at: https://media.ksc.nasa.gov

For more information about NASA’s Orion, Space Launch System, Commercial Crew, Ground Systems Development and Operations and International Space Station programs, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/exploration

Image Courtesy of   eddtoro / Shutterstock.com

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Washington, U.S.A. — NASA has selected a team led by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation of Boulder, Colo., for a technology demonstration of a high performance “green” propellant alternative to the highly toxic fuel hydrazine. With this award, NASA opens a new era of innovative and non-toxic green fuels that are less harmful to our environment, have fewer operational hazards, and decrease the complexity and cost of launch processing.

Today’s use of hydrazine fuel for rockets, satellites and spacecraft is pervasive. Hydrazine is an efficient propellant and can be stored for long periods of time, but it also is highly corrosive and toxic. NASA is seeking new, non-toxic high performance green propellants that could be safely and widely used by rocketeers, ranging from government to industry and academia. Green propellants include liquid, solid, mono-propellant, which use one fuel source, or bi-propellants, which use two, and hybrids that offer safer handling conditions and lower environmental impact than current fuels.

“High performance green propellant has the potential to revolutionize how we travel to, from and in space,” said Michael Gazarik, director of NASA’s Space Technology Program at NASA Headquarters inWashington. “An effective green rocket fuel would dramatically reduce the cost and time for preparing and launching space missions while decreasing pollution and harm to our environment.”

Following a solicitation and peer-review selection process, NASA chose the Green Propellant Infusion Mission proposal and a team led by Ball and co-investigators from the Aerojet Corporation in Redmond, Washington, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory at the Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center at the Kirkland Air Force Base in New Mexico, NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the new mission.

NASA’s Green Propellant Infusion Mission is expected to be developed and flown in approximately three years. The Space Technology Program will provide $45 million for the mission, with some additional cost-sharing by mission co-investigators.

This demonstration will bridge the gap between technology development and use of green propellant. The team will develop and fly a high performance green propellant, demonstrating and characterizing in space the functionality of the integrated propulsion system. Such a demonstration will provide the aerospace community with a new system-level capability for future missions.

Maturing a space technology, such as a revolutionary green propellant, to mission readiness through relevant environment testing and demonstration is a significant challenge from a cost, schedule and risk perspective. NASA’s Technology Demonstration Missions Program performs this function, bridging the gap between laboratory confirmation of a technology and its initial use on an operational mission.

The Technology Demonstration Missions Program is part of the Space Technology Program, which is innovating, developing, testing and flying hardware for use in NASA’s future science and exploration missions.

For more information about NASA’s Space Technology Program and Technology Demonstration Missions, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/oct.

Image Courtesy of  J.C.O.

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The Florida’s Space Coast held a historic event on the morning of July 8. By 11:29 a.m., Atlantis was launched from the Kennedy Space Center as the last mission of the space shuttle program, 30 years and three months after the very first shuttle flight in 1981.

About a million people turned out to watch history unfold before their eyes. Some traveled from different states and even countries as far as Australia to attend to this event. However, the world’s attention was fixed more on what Atlantis’ last mission means than on what it will accomplish in orbit. Their attention was mainly focused on seeing and experiencing the shuttle launch, taking into account that this was the last opportunity ever to see a space shuttle launch.

Like the saying “the early bird catches the worm,” people started arriving to Florida´s Space Coast as early as Wednesday night. They wanted to capture the best pictures so they set up camps in the finest spots. People went as far as sitting as roof tops, including pharmacies, mini vans, even on top of gas stations.

Others just walked in the day of the launch: some with chairs, some with binoculars or others with just phone cameras. The area surrounding the Kennedy Space Center´s was crowded, long lines of cars parking along the motorways, and of course people trying to take advantage of this perfect “marketing situation.” Spontaneously random people started selling pizza, water for one dollar, Atlantis´s souvenirs, and charging for the closest parking lots.

There were some minor complications before the launch. The forecasted 70 percent chance of raining threatened to approach the launch pad. With 31 seconds left, the countdown clock suddenly stopped. NASA said there was a slight delay while retraction of the Gaseous Oxygen Vent Arm, or “Beanie Cap,” was verified.  Despite all of this, everything went as planned and the four astronauts rode Atlantis into orbit on mission STS-135 in perfect conditions.

During the launch you could feel the emotion in the air at the Space Coast Center. People cried, people shouted “U-S-A, U-S-A”, and it was clear that they were proud of their nation. In a matter of seconds the shuttle disappeared among the clouds making a breathtaking sound on its way to space. As the shuttle continued its journey upward, the crowd began to pack up their belongings, with the feeling of had taken part in a historical moment.

Atlantis was the fourth space shuttle orbiter to join NASA’s fleet. NASA is not planning on launching any future shuttle to the space station or to anywhere at all. NASA officials said that this development shouldn’t be seen as the end of an era. Rather, it’s a transition to something new and exciting, they added.

“Some say that this final shuttle mission will mark the end of America’s 50 years of dominance in human spaceflight,” NASA chief Charlie Bolden said in a video released soon after the launch. “I want to make clear that American leadership in space will continue for at least the next half-century, because we laid the foundation for success.”

Shuttle commander Chris Ferguson, pilot oug Hurley and mission specialists Rex Walheim and Sandy Magnus are expected to arrive at the orbiting space station on Sunday morning.

The main mission of the Atlantis, during the 12 days journey, will be dropping off the Raffaello Multipurpose Logistics Module to deliver supplies, logistics and spare parts to the International Space Station. Atlantis is also delivering several different science experiments, one of which (the Robotic Refueling Mission) is an attempt to demonstrate a way to refuel satellites According to NASA, Atlantis is also carrying two iPhone 4 smartphones loaded with apps to help astronauts perform experiments in space; the first time iPhones have ever gone to space.

After this last journey all of the space shuttles will be retired to museums around the country for educational purposes. Until then, weather permitting, Atlantis will return to Kennedy Space Center, July 20, where it will end up on permanent display.

eddtoro / Shutterstock.com

Additional images by Lydia Cerrada

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