Chamblee graduate to begin five month stay in space Wednesday

ATLANTA -- A graduate from Henderson High School in Chamblee will return to the International Space Station on Wednesday to begin five months of living and working 260 miles above earth.

NASA astronaut and Henderson's class of 1978 graduate Thomas Marshburn will be making his second voyage to the orbiting outpost when he lifts-off atop a Russian rocket from the deserts of western Kazakhstan.

Two days later, he and two fellow crew members will dock their Soyuz spacecraft to a Russian module to begin their long duration stay in space.

Dr. Marshburn is only the second Henderson High student to work aboard the space station.

In 2008, Henderson's class of 1983 grad Col. Eric Boe visited the orbital complex for two weeks on a resupply mission aboard shuttle Endeavour. Boe's flight preceded Marshburn's by eight months.

Boe then returned to the outpost in 2011 as the last person to pilot shuttle Discovery as she made her final flight.

"We moved to Atlanta, my father's work called us to Atlanta, Georgia, so I was raised there near the big city," Dr. Marshburn recalled recently while at the Johnson Space Center near Houston. "We had some family property, a farm in north Georgia, spent a lot of time there fixing fences and spending a lot of time outdoors."

Space station crew to spend a full year in orbit

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A NASA astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut will expand the knowledge base on the effects of long term space travel on the human body beginning in 2015.

Space flight veterans American Scott Kelly and Russian Mikhail Kornienko will begin a full year in space in March 2015, as they live and work aboard the International Space Station.

The flight will also mark the longest space flight by an American.

"The one year increment will expand the bounds of how we live and work in space," NASA's head for human exploration Bill Gerstenmaier said on Monday. "(it) will increase our knowledge regarding the effects of microgravity on humans as we prepare for future missions beyond low earth orbit."

Kelly has spent 180 days in space during two space shuttle flights and aboard the space station, including as station commander in 2011.

Kelly and Kornienko will launch from western Kazakhstan atop a Russian Soyuz rocket, docking six hours later to the orbital outpost 260 miles high. The duo will be visited by four expedition crews arriving and departing during their stay.

The typical time in space for a station crew is five months. NASA and the Russian Space Agency are looking for data on the human body extending out another seven months as the two nations look toward long voyages to the moon or even an asteroid.

A personal voyage aboard a Blue Angels F-18 Hornet

ROBINS, AFB, Ga. -- The thrust. The high G pulls. The beauty of our earth inside an incredible high performance military aircraft.

The feelings of pure excitement as I soared over Georgia aboard a U.S. Navy Blue Angels F/A-18D Hornet on Wednesday.

The images tell only half the story of my exclusive flight inside a majestic Blue Angels jet out of Robins, AFB near Macon.

A blue and yellow special low friction high gloss painted F/A-18 sat on the flight line under blue skies awaiting her crew -- myself and her pilot Lt. Mark Tedrow. 

Her canopy stood open to greet her crew under the blue sky.

Upon each of my jet's twin vertical stabilizers is a painted yellow "7". There are seven Blue Angels jets in service six of which fly in formation during the air show.

Lt. Tedrow pilots the Angels' no. 7 aircraft. He has logged over 1400 flight hours inside military aircraft after earning his wings of gold in 2006.

I was offered this unique flight by Robins, AFB and the Blue Angels staff in February, and now my life's adventure had arrived.

U.S. Navy satellite launched to improve military communications

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- An advanced Lockheed Martin built satellite was launched into orbit today designed to improve communications for the United States military around the globe.

The U.S. Navy's Mobile User Objective System satellite will provide a stronger coverage area for the military in 3G communications related to data, voice and video services as it orbits from a fixed point in geostationary orbit.

The newly launched MUOS-1 will begin a constellation of five using a faster bandwidth as aircraft and submarines communicate with ground forces using a 14-meter parabolic gold mesh antenna.

"The MUOS will greatly enhance the capabilities of the warfighter to communicate on the move," states Lockheed Martin's MUOS program manager Mark Pasquale. "The system will provide military users 16 times the communications capability of existing satellites."

Mounted a top the Atlas' upper stage known as Centaur, the MUOS is the heaviest payload carried by an Atlas rocket. The launch also marked the 200th launch on this flight with the first occurring fifty years ago.

Hallmark movie tells inspirational story of triumph through space education

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- The U.S. Space and Rocket Center is home to a treasure trove of space flight history, including a garden of rocket hardware designed to educate and preserve America's first steps off our fragile oasis.

The north Alabama space center is also home to Space Camp and Aviation Challenge, two programs designed to train and teach both children and adults on what it is like to fly aboard a space shuttle or an F-16 fighter jet.

The programs also teach the importance of teamwork both at school or on the job.

"I love that I was able to experience Space Camp since it was something that I wanted to do every summer growing up," Colleen Cino from Orlando exclaimed adding she looks forward to returning with her daughter in a year.

This weekend, Space Camp is the subject of a made-for-television movie which just may raise your spirits and inspire all children ages 7 to 77 to reach for the brass ring of learning.

"A Smile as Big as the Moon" is the newest movie from Hallmark Hall of Fame productions and centers on a classroom of special needs children who come together with the help of their teacher Mike Kersjes to triumph through education at Space Camp.