SpaceX Falcon 9 lifts-off from Kennedy Space Center with Inmarsat 5 F4

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A high-speed broadband spacecraft designed to increase advanced data services to remote maritime and aviation locations lifted off on Monday from America's Space Coast.

Inmarsat 5 F4 Global Xpress satellite will expand high-speed broadband connectivity across the planet with Ka-Band service. The $240 million spacecraft will soon join a fleet of three fifth-generation telecommunications satellites in geo-stationary orbit.

Built by Boeing in El Segundo, California, the global communications spacecraft has twin solar arrays for a combined 42 meters -- longer than that of a Boeing 737 aircraft. Inmarsat is scheduled to operate on orbit for approximately 15 years.

"It's been a great afternoon and evening out at Kennedy Space Center," stated John Insprucker, SpaceX principal integration engineer, minutes following the craft release into space. "We counted down with excellent weather; launched right on time -- the first stage did great, the second stage went through two burns just as planned. Now, we've topped it off with the separation of Inmarsat 5 F4 for our Inmarsat customer."


A flawless countdown lead the Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) Falcon 9 to ignite it's nine Merlin engines on time, launching from the Kennedy Space Center's historic pad 39-A at 7:21 p.m. EDT. The white candlestick soared straight up and into the light blue clear skies before it began to veer toward the eastern horizon.

Atlas rocket lofts advanced Navy communications satellite

An Atlas rocket lifted off on Wednesday thundering into the predawn sky over Cape Canaveral successfully delivering an advanced U.S. Navy communications satellite into orbit.

The successful United Launch Alliance Atlas mission was delayed two days by the potential track of tropical storm Erika last weekend. ULA mission managers opted to delay the launch based on Saturday's forecast of heavy rain and winds over central Florida on Monday.

ULA Atlas V lifts off on Sept. 2. photo: Lockheed Martin

A beautiful plume and smoke trail left behind in the wake of the predawn launch caught the attention of nearby residents on their way out the door. As sunrise neared, the translucent column grew into space artwork captured by photographers on social media from South Carolina south to Miami. The translucent 'tadpole' plume was created earlier by the five nearly emptied rocket boosters plumes and a single main engine.

The Navy's fourth Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) spacecraft will join a network of satellites providing enhanced military communications across the globe, ULA officials said on Tuesday. The Lockheed Martin-built MUOS system will in partnership give military personal the ability to send and receive high-speed voice, video and data while in remote regions.

The massive 7.5 ton satellite will orbit over a fixed point 22,236 miles high providing military personal a faster response time transmitting and receiving data on their wireless device. The U.S. armed forces will share the communications constellation.

“The most dangerous part of a satellite’s life is launch and getting into orbit," Iris Bombelyn, vice president of Narrowband Communications at Lockheed Martin said following launch."I really want to thank our entire team whose hard work prepared MUOS-4 for this mission-critical event and the Atlas team who ultimately carried us safely to our transfer orbit. We look forward to completing our on-orbit health checks and delivering this important asset to the U.S. Navy and these new capabilities to our mobile forces.”

The four satellite constellation located in geo-stationary orbit will work with four ground stations linked together via a fiber optic network, Lockheed Martin Space Systems spokesperson Chip Eschenfelder stated post-launch. "The warfighter will be able to talk to each other around the world on a secured Navy network. It will be like a cellphone network tower in the sky, whether they are in the middle of the ocean or in the jungle," Eschenfelder added.

As the countdown clock reached zero, the Atlas 5 main engine ignited followed by its five solid fueled boosters at 6:18:01 a.m. EDT, sending the white and bronze rocket skyward. The launch illuminated America's Space Coast for a brief moment as Atlas ascended into the night sky, and quickly became a fast moving star as it gained speed high over the Atlantic waters.

Nearly two minutes later, the now empty boosters were separated as the 205-foot tall rocket continued toward space on the power of its RD-180 main engine. The core booster separated nearly five minutes into the launch, and the Atlas' Centaur upper stage's engine began with a series of three timed burns.

Processed and built at the Decatur, Alabama ULA facility, the Atlas 5 booster and Centaur stages provide the rocket's propulsion throughout the launch profile. The 106-foot strap-on boosters are processed by Aerojet Rocketdyne in Sacramento, California.

MUOS-4 separated on-time from the Centaur at 9:12 a.m. as the craft was orbiting over the eastern Indian Ocean south of Indonesia. The spacecraft is expected to operate for nearly 15 years.

Air Force X37B space plane begins fourth mission

An unmanned U.S. Air Force space plane lifted off from America's Space Coast on Wednesday a top a United Launch Alliance Atlas rocket beginning the programs fourth experimental flight.

This new mission is the second flight of the second autonomous Boeing-built X-37B spacecraft which will spend at least a year soaring around the planet approximately 400 miles above. Today's launch also marks the fourth X-37B mission to test new technologies and spacecraft systems in orbit.

Under an blue skies , the Atlas 5 rocket's core engine ignited as the countdown clock reached zero, lifting off on time at 11:05 a.m. EDT. A second later, nearly 870,000 pounds of thrust pushed the rocket and it's historic military payload off it's seaside launch pad and out over the Atlantic waters.

The delta winged spacecraft later separated from the Atlas' Centaur upper stage nearly twenty minutes into the flight. As the X-37B navigated away  the upper stage, The belly of the vehicle is protected with a black thermal protection system designed by NASA. Aligned with protective black and white thermal tiles, the mini space shuttle has a wing span of 14 feet, 11 inches from tip to tip.

“ULA is honored to launch this unique spacecraft for the U.S Air Force,"said ULA Vice President for Atlas Jim Sponnick on Wednesday. "Congratulations to the Air Force and all of our mission partners on today’s successful launch! The seamless integration between the Air Force, Boeing, and the entire mission team culminated in today’s successful launch of the AFSPC-5 mission."
Riding into Earth orbit with the X-37B was a payload consisting of ten science investigative CubeSats designed by both NASA, U.S. Naval Academy and the California Polytechnic State University. The mini satellite payloads were stored in chambers and attached to the lower section of the Centuar stage near its engine nozzle.

The payloads will look into many fields including the first satellite designed as a UNIX Web server in space using "common TCP/IP Internet protocol accessible to any Internet user," according to the National Reconnaissance Office  "The U.S. Naval Academy will also be comparing the Internet speed of the space-based network versus terrestrial networks."

Following an undisclosed flight time, the space plane is expected to touchdown in late-2016 at its prime landing site in California. Once the Air Force brings the reusable space plane home, it will reenter just like the space shuttle and aim for a touchdown on runway 12 at Vandenberg, AFB, located northeast of Los Angeles.

Lt. Col. Troy Giese, the OTV systems program director said, "Upon being given the command to return to Earth, the X-37B will automatically descend through the atmosphere and land on the designated runway. There is no one on the ground with a joystick flying it." If weather or technical issues arise on landing day, then Edwards, AFB will be called up with it's longer runway.

SpaceX Dragon splashes down with space station equipment for NASA

A commercial resupply spacecraft loaded with science experiments and cargo undocked from the International Space Station on Tuesday and performed a pinpoint splashdown hours later in the Pacific Ocean.

Dragon's return capped a 31-day space voyage of which 29 days were spent docked to the Earth-facing side of the space station's Harmony module. The supply ship delivered nearly 5,100 pounds of fresh oxygen, food, equipment and water to the four man, two woman international crew on Jan. 12.

Grappled by the station's Canadian-built robotic arm, the Space Exploration Corp. Dragon was released into space at 2:10 p.m. EST, as the two spaceships soared 260 miles high over southern Australia. Filled with 3,700 pounds of numerous biological and physical samples, equipment and trash, Dragon then performed a series of burns to place it on course for a deorbit burn.

Once Dragon reached a precise point over Earth, it fired its thrusters to slow down the craft's speed by two hundred miles per hour and drop out of orbit. Forty minutes later, two massive parachutes slowed the charred spacecraft down allowing for a safe water landing at 7:44 p.m. EST, 259 miles southwest of Long Beach, California.

Dragon remains the only American spacecraft which can return science cargo safely to Earth so that scientists and engineers on the ground can analysis the data. This concluded flight was SpaceX fifth supply craft to deliver cargo and supplies to the space station and return successfully to earth.

"The ability to resupply and return this critical research continues to be an invaluable asset for the researchers here on Earth using the International Space Station as their laboratory in orbit," Kirt Costello, NASA deputy chief scientist for the International Space Station Program, said on Tuesday.

A European unmanned cargo craft is also due to depart the space station this week. The Automated Transfer Vehicle 5 will leave the orbital outpost on Saturday morning en route to a fiery re-entry and burn up over the Pacific waters.

U.S. Navy MUOS3 spacecraft successfully launches from Cape Canaveral

A massive U.S. Navy military satellite designed to improve communications and data between troops in remote regions lifted-off on Tuesday from America's Space Coast on a planned decade long mission in geostationary orbit.

The Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) spacecraft is the third in a fleet of five planned satellites designed to replace aging military communications satellites. The MUOS-3 system is expected to expand the military network by ten times the number of users than that of the existing SATCOM system, including voice, video and data.

"Five are planned, four operational and one on-orbit spare," stated Naval Commander Pete Sheehy minutes after launch. CDR Sheehy added MUOS 4 will launch this August, and the fleet of four satellites will be operational tested late this year. He likened MUOS as moving multiple cellular towers on the ground and placing them in geostationary orbit.

As the countdown entered a planned hold at 4 minutes, high upper levels winds and "command interference" with the Atlas V rocket delayed lift-off by 21 minutes. The interference left the range with the inability to send necessary destruct commands to the vehicle if an emergency occurred.

As the two issues cleared and the clock neared zero, the Atlas' RD-180 main engine ignited seconds before its five boosters.

The bronze and white Atlas V rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Tuesday at 7:49 p.m. EST, with its heaviest payload to date. The Atlas V 551, powered by a core main engine and five strap on solid fuel boosters, leapt from the launch pad with 2.6 million pounds of thrust to carry its 7.4 ton payload.

As the rocket rose up and began to dart out over the Atlantic waters, night briefly turned to daylight as Atlas rode a 400-foot golden flame. Nearly two minutes later, the empty boosters were jettisoned two at a time while the lone main engine continued to burn.

Tuesday's launch occurred during President Obama's State of the Union address in which he promoted the use of military operations to stop terrorism foes in the Middle East.

MUOS 3 successfully deployed from the Centuar upper stage on time at 10:57 p.m., and into its planned orbit over an area northwest of Australia. The spacecraft will undergo several months of thruster firings to place MUOS in its proper orbit, and on orbit check outs.

NASA to launch uncrewed Orion on orbital test flight

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The future of NASA crewed spaceflights beyond Earth orbit will be put to the test Thursday as the space agency launches a new spacecraft to qualify it's performance in space and the capability of its heat shield during its return to earth.

Built by Lockheed Martin, the cone-shaped Orion spacecraft will fly uncrewed during this first test flight -- NASA's first step in returning Americans to the Moon in the 2020's and later an asteroid and on to Mars.

"This is special. This is our first step on that journey to Mars," exclaimed Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana on Monday. "This is a huge first step to be able to check out the vehicle on the Delta IV."

The success of this $370 million mission will weigh heavily for NASA as the space agency looks to recapture the glory days of human spaceflight. The end of the space shuttle program in 2011 marked the last time Americans soared into earth orbit from the United States. Orion will allow four astronauts to fly beyond low earth orbit beginning with the first crewed flight in 2021.

Private American companies are moving forward under NASA's leadership to prepare in launching astronauts to the space station a few years earlier, while NASA focuses on launching beyond earth orbit.

"We are going to test the riskier parts of the mission with ascent and entry," said NASA Orion Program Manager Mark Geyer. "Things like the faring separation, heat shield, parachutes, guidance... those kinds of things. As well as flying into deep space and examining the radiation effects on the avionics."

U.S.-Russian space flight lands safely in Kazakhstan

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- An American and two Russians returned to Earth on Thursday completing their 167 day stay aboard the International Space Station with a pinpoint landing on the desert region of central Kazakhstan.

NASA astronaut Steve Swanson and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsuv and Oleg Artemyev guided their Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft to a touchdown at 10:23 p.m. EDT (8:23 a.m. Thursday, local time) on Wednesday.

The smooth landing concluded a spaceflight which began with a Soyuz thruster failure minutes after arriving in orbit forcing the crew to limp into a higher orbit over a two day period which trailed the space station.

Out going station commander Swanson, Skvortsuv and Artemyev said their farewells to fellow crew mates American Reid Wiseman, German Alexander Gerst and Expedition 41 commander Russian Max Suraev before entering their Soyuz and closing the hatches a few hours prior to undocking.

As an orbital sun rise began, the Soyuz craft separated from the station's Poisk module at 7:01 p.m., and slowly began moving out to a distance of a few hundred feet before circling around the station and departing.

"Goodbye ISS and so long station," radioed Soyuz commander Skvortsuv to his former home in space five minutes following the undocking.

Two Earth orbits later, Skvortsuv then maneuvered the Soyuz to a proper attitude to allow a section of the Soyuz to separate prior to leaving orbit with an engine firing at 9:31 p.m.

The crew made 2,704 trips around the Earth and traveled 71.7 million miles since their launch in March.

A new space trio is scheduled to launch to the orbiting laboratory in two weeks. NASA astronaut Barry Wilmore and cosmonauts Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova will lift-off inside their TMA-14M from Baikonur Cosmodrome on September 25 at 4:25 p.m., and will arrive at the station five and one-half hours later for docking.

Serova will become only the fourth Russian female to travel into space and the first to spend a long duration stay aboard the space station.


(Charles Atkeison reports on aerospace, science and technology. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)

Tellus Museum to display space shuttle Columbia's nose cap

Shuttle Columbia's nose cap prepares for it's display near Atlanta. (Atkeison)

ATLANTA -- The nose cap of America's first space shuttle will go on public display next week at the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville.

The gray nose section was flown as part of Columbia during eleven of her twenty-eight missions, and was removed only a few years before her ill-fated 2003 flight which saw the spacecraft break apart during atmospheric re-entry.

The four-foot wide oval nose cap will become the only reflown section of Columbia to be placed on public display.

"It's pretty even grey in color except it does have some black scorch marks on the top of the nose cap as evidence of its re-entry," Tellus Museum's Curator Julian Gray said on Monday during a behind-the-scenes visit of the space flown artifact.

"We are working on the graphics and the base is already made for it as we put it behind acrylic because we want to protect it," Gray added as he peered over the turtle shell-like nose.

The nose cap's light green bulkhead assembly which was attached to the shuttle body is also included in the display.

The NASA Historical Artifacts Program donated Columbia's nose to Tellus, and the museum plans to have it on display in it's expanding space flight section on March 14.

"To have such an important piece of Columbia from her flying days on display is a fitting tribute to this vehicle and all the men and women who worked on her during her illustrious career," said Dr. Don Thomas, a four time shuttle astronaut and author of the new book Orbit of Discovery.

Manufactured by the Vought Corporation in Dallas, the nose cap was installed on Columbia in 1984 during her 18-month long maintenance period in Palmdale, California.

The specially flown nose was part of a NASA experiment known as Shuttle Entry Air Data System (SEADS), and was based out of Langley Research Center. SEADS looked at the air pressure surrounding a space shuttle's nose section from an altitude of 300,000 feet through touchdown.

Fourteen sensor holes in the reinforced carbon carbon coated nose cap lined up in a cross and recorded measurements of Columbia as she plunged through the earth's atmosphere. The NASA experiment was activated minutes prior to the shuttle's deorbit burn.

During reentry, the orbiter's nose reached temperatures of near 2,800 degrees Fahrenheit.

Columbia first flew with her scientific nose in January 1986 during mission STS-61C. Eleven flights later, it was used for the final time during STS-65 in July 1994.

In fact, the 61C mission emblem design was based in part on the SEADS experiment. "It may be the only shuttle patch based on aerodynamics," Columbia's pilot Charles Bolden stated in 2011.

 Thomas, a member of Columbia's crew on that 1994 flight, says he looks forward to visiting Tellus soon to view the display.

"As the first shuttle to fly, and the first on which I rode to space, Columbia will be remembered for all the incredible missions she and her crews successfully accomplished," Thomas stated to this aerospace reporter on Monday.

In all, the displayed shuttle nose section traveled 48.4 million miles through space during it's combined 117 days in earth orbit.

The shuttle program came to an end in 2011, and Columbia's sister ships Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour were placed on public display at museums across the United States.

For many space flight insiders, the artifact will serve as a tribute to her memory.

Columbia, in one small way, has a found a home in a museum.


(Charles Atkeison reports on aerospace, science and technology. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)

Book Review: 'Orbit of Discovery' salutes the Buckeye astronauts

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Ring up one well deserved thumbs up for the Buckeye State.

A new book by NASA astronaut Don A. Thomas chronicles a group of Ohioans who paved the way in aviation and space, and includes an up close look at his own flight aboard space shuttle Discovery.

A four-time space shuttle astronaut, Thomas describes the story first hand as his all-Ohio flight crew overcame a troublesome woodpecker to fly one of the space agency's "more important" missions in Orbit of Discovery: The All-Ohio Space Shuttle Mission.

The 1995 shuttle mission was set to become America's 100th human space flight, however an unexpected delay by nature forced an interesting turn of events resulting in a humorous outcome.

"I wanted to share this story because I always thought STS-70 was a cool story -- it's the woodpecker flight, it's the all-Ohio mission," Thomas recounted to this aerospace journalist at the Smithsonian Air and Space museum in Dulles, Virginia. "It wasn't the sexiest mission in the world. We didn't fix Hubble (Telescope), we didn't build the space station. We deployed a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) that replaced the one lost on Challenger so I thought this was an important mission."

As the astronaut and I stood next to NASA's third space worthy orbiter, Thomas pointed out the symbolism above as he pointed to the massive TDRS mock-up hanging high above Discovery in the Smithsonian hanger and exclaimed, "This was our STS-70 mission -- Discovery with TDRS high above her."

Published by the University of Akron (OH) Ringtaw Books, the 400-page hardbound book takes you into the mind of a veteran astronaut as he describes his time as an astronaut training for the STS-70 mission. Thomas also narrates his flight aboard the space shuttle with interesting details and fun anecdotes.

The Cleveland native discusses his crew's disappointment as their flight to deploy the huge communications satellite is delayed by a Northern Flicker Woodpecker who single handily held up the mission by pecking over 200 holes into their space shuttle's massive external fuel tank.

The book's candid discussion on how a wayward woodpecker forced Discovery back to the assembly building for necessary repairs sets the stage for some comedic flare by mission control once they arrived on orbit and deployed TDRS G.

Co-written by journalist Mike Bartell, Orbit of Discovery gives the average reader an insightful look into Thomas' feelings and thoughts as he describes the dramatic lift-off, and includes the pros and cons on what floating in microgravity feels like.

"When I flew on STS-70, it was my second mission and the first time I launched up on the flight deck," Thomas recalled during our interview. "To be on the flight deck, I had a small mirror on my knee and I could look out the window and into the (launch pad) flame pit."

Thomas continued, "To watch the engines start up, and to watch with such violence the flame and smoke shooting out of the flame pit... here I am about 150-feet above watching it and I think my jaw dropped, and I thought, 'Look at what's going on back there'."

I asked Don if he thought all the woodpecker humor became too cheesy. "Not too cheesy, we all enjoyed it on the crew," he said. "We got a big laugh out of it. We weren't too embarrassed by it and we decided to embrace it. Once we deployed the satellite, it was open season on woodpeckers and the jokes just flowed afterwards."

The book notes with statistics the Ohio astronauts of yesteryear through the current ones flying today. Ohio Senator John Glenn, America's first human to orbit earth, takes to pen to illustrate a beautifully written foreword giving great insight into the state's historic aviators.

Among the 26 notable Ohio astronauts included are: Neil Armstrong, the first human to set foot upon the moon; Dr. Judy Resnik, America's second woman in space and the first female to fly aboard Discovery; and Dr. Sunny Williams who holds the most time in space by an Ohioan, 322 days, and the most time spacewalking by a female, nearly 51 hours.

Orbit of Discovery is set to arrive in book stores in time for the holidays, and just days ahead of the 110th anniversary of the first powered airplane flight.

The book also gives a tip of the hat to the two Ohio brothers, Orville and Wilbur Wright, who left their home in Dayton, Ohio in 1902 for the winds at Kitty Hawk. The pair later soared into the history books on December 17, 1903.

Loaded with thirty-two pages of colorful images, including NASA and private crew photographs, Orbit of Discovery is a treasure chest of incredible memories giving the reader an insiders track on what it took to fly aboard humankind's greatest flying machine ever built.


(Charles Atkeison reports on aerospace, science and technology. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)

U.S. Navy Blue Angels look forward to 2014 season

PENSACOLA, Fla -- As the sunshine and blue sky lay above the warm waves on Pensacola Beach, a pair of high performance jets soar high over the northern gulf waters in a aerobatic display which captures the attention of the sunbathers below.

The twin U.S. Navy jets quickly break away in a planned maneuver and begin to soar higher into the cloudless sky. Suddenly, the jets ignite a white smoke trail which begins to trace their aerobatic flight path of twin circles.

The United States Navy's elite Flight Demonstration Squadron is known to the public as the Blue Angels. The team's blue and gold jets are a familiar sight and sound along the sugar sand beaches along the northern Gulf Coast just a few miles from their home at the Naval Air Station Pensacola.

The team's public demonstration flights is the Navy's most popular recruiting tool to attract interested young adults into a career with the military. One of those young adults is a pilot today with the Angels.

For many on Pensacola Beach, the sight of the unexpected air show above is in reality only a low level practice flight by two of the six Blue Angels.

A typical week may find all six Blue Angels in flight as they practice flying wing tip to wing tip, just eighteen inches apart; and perfecting a stunning performance which has two of the jets speed toward each other before each jet breaks into a left and right hand 180-degree turn.

This year, however, the Blue Angels' F/A-18 Hornet jets were ordered to stay home. Their practice hours limited to only eleven hours a month.

2013 marked a year of major budget cuts in the U.S. military, cuts which grounded the team from performing at any of their planned air shows during their annual March to November season.

For the first time in sixty years, the Blue Angels were not allowed to perform at any of the planned thirty-five airshows across North America.

This aerospace journalist soared with Angels pilot Lt. Mark Tedrow in 2012 in Angel 7 jet, a two seater F/A-18D Hornet, and experienced nearly every maneuver these incredible pilots endure during an air show performance.

This year would have marked Tedrow's first year as Angel 6, one of two solos performing fast paced, highly intense flight demonstrations along with Angel 5.

As the aerobatic pair take center stage over an airshow runway, Angels 1, 2, 3 and 4 are typically lining up in a formation to soar high above as 5 and 6 finish.

As Lt. Tedrow and I stood on the flight line at the Blue Angels home base this week, we began to discuss about this season, and what inspired him to join this elite flight squadron.

Charles Atkeison: Lt. Tedrow, take us in the cockpit with you and explain what it's like to soar with your team.


Lt. Mark Tedrow: "It's really hard to describe for people who have not done it before, luckily you have so you what the feelings and sensations are like... it's pretty incredible being part of the solo routine for the Blue Angels, number five and number six because unlike the one thru four pilots, we demonstrate the maximum performance capabilities of the FA-18. We're the ones that wow the crowd with some of the amazing maneuvers, we fly our jets at just below the speed of sound and pull between 7 and 8 G's, during the demonstration. It's hard to describe to the person who has never felt G-forces before, but actually pretty painful but good at the same time because you know you're max performing the aircraft and it's definitely a crowd pleaser.

It's incredible to go through what we go through."

Atkeison: With the Angels grounded due to the sequester, how do you continue to practice and stay prepared for a hoped 2014 season?

Lt. Tedrow: "We've been flying locally here since we got shutdown. We fly two to three times a week and we do basic maneuvers. We have a local working area out over the (Gulf) water there that we go and practice some of the airshow maneuvers that we do, so that's the way we stay proficient as we're waiting to hear about the 2014 season.

Are we flying as much as we normally would if we were doing a season this year? No. Are we proficient to do a demo tomorrow? No. But, we defiantly are keeping are skills sharp so that we will be able to fly a demo in '14. The knowledge is there all we have to do is sharpen our skill set with a bunch of practicing before we pick-up and fly during the 2014 season."

Atkeison: Blue Angel 1 is your "Boss" and is flown by commander Thomas Frosch. Run through with me a few of his speech techniques he uses to keep your team's mental edge prepared.

Lt. Tedrow: "I would not want to be in his shoes especially this season. He has done a phenomenal job and I do not know how everyday he comes to work - he's so optimistic. And, that is what he has passed on to us.

Throughout the weeks and the months we kinda hear different things, different stories, from 'Hey, we're gonna have a 2014 season' or 'Hey, we're gonna be flying in the Fall.' It's back and forth, up and down, we get different information, but throughout the entire process, he has been nothing but optimistic about what we're going to be doing in the future and the mission of this team in 2014.

The Boss always is optimistic 'Hey, we're still the Blue Angels... we have a mission to accomplish and it's still looking good for 2014". So, he's been great throughout, and without him, I don't what we would've done."

Atkeison: O.K., let's back up a few years... you grew up outside of Pittsburgh. What lead you into a career with the U.S. Navy and later, the Blue Angels?

Lt. Tedrow: "Growing up in Pittsburgh, we didn't have much of a Navy presence, and I didn't have many family members that were in the military. In that area, sports are a big deal - especially high school football - so I grew up playing a lot of football games. In high school, I was luck enough to be recruited by United States Naval Academy.

It kinda sparked my interest... I showed up to the Naval Academy and I started playing football there, and the first year I was there the Blue Angels performed at graduation and I had never seen them before. I said, 'Wow, that is one of the coolest things I've ever seen in my life. I'd love to do that one day'.

I went thru the four years at the academy. I was lucky enough I selected naval aviation, went through flight school and selected jets. I did a few combat deployments to Afghanistan and worked my way through the fleet... I was lucky enough to get picked up, so here I am living that dream that I had since I was eighteen years old, and I'm super lucky to be here, and I'm honored to be a part of the team."

Atkeison: So what's it like to perform a carrier landing? What's the sensation versus maybe an Angels flight?


Lt. Tedrow: "It's a lot different. What sets naval aviators apart from the rest of the aviators throughout the world is the ability to land on aircraft carriers and ships. It's one of the unique skill sets we bring to aviation, it's one of the hardest things that we do. So to learn it is a lot of pressure, it's a lot of stress. It's very hard briefs and debriefs to get to the point where you're ready to land on the aircraft carrier.

I'll tell you first hand, the first time I landed on the aircraft carrier was in one of those jets right there, a T-45, and It was the most terrifying experience of my life. You're coming around the corner and all you see is this ship. Aircraft carriers are huge, but from the sky at 500 to 800 feet, they look tiny, they look like a postage stamp. You're coming around the corner in the landing pattern thinking to yourself, 'There's no way I'm gonna land this thing'.

To land is the most abrupt stop and landing you can ever image going from 140 m.p.h. to 0 m.p.h. in about two seconds, so that's pretty incredible. And the take-off is even more incredible to go from 0 m.p.h. to 140 m.p.h. in a about a second and a half is pretty phenomenal as well. I think I screamed the first time I got launched from the carrier in a T-45 cause their so little and light. It's one of the hardest things we do.

I'm lucky to be apart of naval aviation."

As it stands for now, Tedrow and his Blues team are due to travel out to their winter base at the Naval Air Facility El Centro, California the first week of January for three months of intense training.

(Charles Atkeison reports on aerospace, science and technology. Follow his updates via Twitter and on Instagram @BlueAngels_7.)

NASA confirms Voyager 1 has left the solar system

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- In what NASA calls a historic moment, the space agency announced on Thursday that the first human-made object has officially left our solar system and crossed into interstellar space.

NASA scientists who continue to track the 36 year-old planetary space probe Voyager 1, discovered that new transmissions from the craft indicate it left the "solar bubble" in August 2012.

However, Voyager is still under trace influences of our Sun.

"No one has been to interstellar space before, and it's like traveling with guidebooks that are incomplete," Voyager project scientist Ed Stone of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena said. "Still, uncertainty is part of exploration. We wouldn't go exploring if we knew exactly what we'd find."

Due to the craft's age and older technology, Voyager cannot tell NASA exactly where it is nor does it have an operating plasma sensor to detect recent output from the Sun's Heliosphere.

Instead, scientists used a powerful burst of solar wind from the Sun which occurred in March 2012. Thirteen months later, the the solar burst eventually reached Voyager and the craft detected that it was forty times denser. They compared this data with a similar solar wave during 2012.

"Now that we have new, key data we believe this is mankind's historic leap into interstellar space," Stone explained. "The Voyager team needed time to analyze those observations and make sense of them. But we can now answer the question we've all been asking, 'Are we there yet?' Yes, we are."

Space station astronauts unload Dragon supply craft

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Astronauts aboard the International Space Station spent Saturday unloading fresh supplies from the newly arrived commercial spacecraft Dragon.

Constructed and launched by the private company Space Exploration Technologies or SpaceX, Dragon arrived at the orbiting complex on Friday loaded with nearly 1200 pounds of clothes, food, water and a computer for the crew.

Flight engineer Don Pettit, who used the station's 57-foot robotic arm to pluck Dragon from space and berth it to Harmony, and two astronauts will begin on Monday unloading the craft.

The trio will then reload Dragon with station experiments, trash and equipment for it's return to earth.

Dragon will stay berthed to the station's Harmony node until Thursday.

"May 31st is our planned departure day," NASA lead flight director Holly Ridings explained to this aerospace reporter. "We've got a couple of days after that to work with, and then the Dragon if needed could stay after that."

The station's crew have bagged up most of what will return to earth.

"We're gonna have plenty of time to get Dragon unloaded and loaded back up," Pettit answered when I asked him about the short timeline. "There's about as much stuff in (Dragon) as I can put in the back of my pick-up truck, and I don't think there will be any issue with the three of us working and getting this thing unloaded over the next few days."

The final Dragon mission objective will come with the safe recovery of the payloads the craft returns from the orbital outpost.

Dragon is expected to splashdown in the Pacific waters at about 10:45 a.m. EDT, some 250 miles off the coast of southern California nearly five hours after leaving the space station.


(Charles Atkeison reports on science & technology for Examiner.com. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)

First commercial spacecraft lifts-off on space station supply flight

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A new era in space travel began on Tuesday as the first private spacecraft lifted-off from Florida designed to rendezvous and dock to the International Space Station.

Built and launched by Space Exploration Technologies or SpaceX, a Falcon 9 rocket delivered a spacecraft loaded with nearly fourteen-hundred pounds of food, water, and clothing into earth orbit destined to resupply earth's orbital outpost.

"I think its great commercial enterprise can take us into space," states David Dundee, lead astronomer at Tellus Science Museum near Atlanta. "I was watching the launch with great interest the whole morning."

It is America's first resupply mission to the complex in ten months as the next generation craft grabs a hold of the torch blazed by the space shuttle era.

Lift-off of the Falcon 9 rocket occurred at 3:44:38 a.m. EDT, on Tuesday soaring into the clear dark skies over Cape Canaveral and toward a rising Sun and the dawn of a new era in space technology.

At launch, the space station was orbiting 249 miles high above the north Atlantic waters.

Legendary astronaut criticizes NASA and it's future

ATLANTA, Ga. -- A six time space shuttle astronaut spoke out on the way NASA is operating today and shared his personal feelings on commercial space travel's involvement.

"The whole thing is chaos and a cop out. The whole thing is a Washington failure," former NASA astronaut Dr. Story Musgrave said in a firm voice during a on-on-one interview at the Tellus Science Museum near Atlanta over the weekend.

"When I say Washington, I mean administration, the legislation, congress and NASA, that's what I call Washington," Dr. Musgrave continued. "It's in total failure when it comes to a space program of which COTS is apart of that failure."

The Commercial Orbital Transportation Services or COTS program is an agreement with several U.S. companies to build and launch spacecraft for earth orbital voyages, including to the International Space Station.

"COTS is a default program which spun out of failure," he added.

COTS program member Space X is moving toward a Saturday launch of their Falcon 9 rocket with the Dragon spacecraft atop bound for earth orbit. Two days later, Dragon is expected to rendezvous with the space station 245 miles above earth.

The station's robotic arm will then snag the cargo craft and dock it to earth's orbital outpost in space. It will become the first private spacecraft to dock with a government craft.

Musgrave, now 76, was selected by NASA in 1967 as America's Apollo moon program began. He and fellow astronauts and engineers looked toward leaders within NASA such as rocket pioneer Dr. Wernher Von Braun to lead the space program through a series of goals for landing on the moon before 1970.

Musgrave feels the space agency has no true goals or focus today. This aerospace reporter asked what is the vision of NASA over the next decade.

"What is the space vision today? Where is the visionary? We're not going anywhere... there is no where, there is no what, and there is no when," Musgrave began. "Tell me where... there is no where."

He then firmly stated NASA has no official human moon program nor a Mars program in place for the near future.

Dr. Musgrave also wants to see a great project management team in place to make true goals for returning America back to the moon and later Mars.

"Sir, there is no Mars program, none. There is also no moon program. There is no asteroid program," Dr. Musgrave firmly stated. "There's no what we're gonna do and no when we're gonna do it. I want a what, a when and a where, and then I want a project management and make that what, when and where happen -- on cost, on schedule and meet the performance you laid down."


(Charles Atkeison reports on science and technology. Follow his updates via Twitter @SpaceFlight360.)

Space station astronaut calls iPhone 4 from 240 miles up

(HOUSTON) -- Orbiting 240 miles high above earth, astronauts aboard the International Space Station use huge satellites in orbit to talk with controllers back at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

On July 19, one astronaut aboard the orbiting complex called an iPhone 4 located in Mission Control to chat.

NASA astronaut Ronald Garan called an employee of the space center's iPhone to chat with a group of thirty visiting space tweeps -- those who use Twitter to chat and discuss space and science interests.

Garan, who is known as @Astro_Ron on the social network site, spoke for nearly two minutes to the group who threw questions at comments his way.

This aerospace reporter (@AbsolutSpaceGuy) was among those who spoke with the astronaut who commented at one point that it was past his bedtime.

This space tweep also recorded the conversation via his own iPhone 4, and is attached to this article.

FOX NEWS Video: Atlanta Man Tweets for NASA

Atlanta Man Tweets for NASA: MyFoxATLANTA.com

By MYFOXATLANTA STAFF/myfoxatlanta

ATLANTA - One local man is sharing his view of the historic mission - one tweet at a time.

Charles Atkeison of Atlanta saw the very first space shuttle launch as a boy. It's an experience he says inspired his love of space and science.

He now writes about the shuttle program professionally. But for the shuttle's final voyage Atkeison took on a different title - space "tweep."

NASA selected him from more than 5,000 applicants worldwide to tweet about what he sees and hears to his 881 followers.

Charles Atkeison's tweeting duties aren't over. He'll head to the Johnson Space Center and mission control to detail Atlantis' return to earth.

Apollo 14 at Forty: Crew return America to the moon

Commander Shepard stands upon the lunar surface. (NASA)

America's first man in space, Alan B. Shepard, stood on the dusty soil of the moon. His white space suit made it hard to move freely as he hopped across the plains at Fra Mauro, the landing site for Shepard and fellow moon walker Edgar Mitchell.

As the lunar journey neared its end, Shepard took his handle from a rock collection tool and fastened a six iron wedge at the end of it, dropped a small white ball onto the dry soil and made the first golf shot on another celestial surface.

The ball shot into a nearby crater, and he thought to himself, "A hole in one".

Shepard then perfected his back swing for the second and last golf ball. "There it goes... miles and miles and miles!" he exclaimed as the second ball soared and arced out into the solid black sky.

It had been a long journey for America's fifth human to reach the moon. As NASA worked to return America back to space following the Apollo One fire, the space agency's senior astronaut was loosing his hearing in his left ear and his balance. His equilibrium was gone by autumn of 1968.

A secret ear operation suggested by fellow astronaut Tom Stafford was then performed by a Los Angeles doctor which allowed the astronaut to return to flight status a year later.

He was ready to now aim for a moon flight, particularly Apollo 13 and the Fra Mauro region.

However, crew rotation by chief astronaut Deke Slayton put Shepard on board Apollo 14, and when the preceding flight aborted it's lunar landing due to a blown oxygen tank, Fourteen set it's mission sights on Fra Mauro.

Apollo 14 lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center on January 31, 1971, at 4:03:02 pm EST, forty minutes late due to rain over launch pad 39-A, to begin a nine day voyage upon the ocean of space.

Once the crew reached space and left earth orbit for the moon, they ran into a problem with the docking latches which connect the lunar module Antares with their command module Kitty Hawk.

For one hour, Kitty Hawk's pilot Stuart Roosa brought the command module in slowly to dock it perfectly on four tries, however the capture latches would not latch. Kitty Hawk's fuel was running lower than had been planned at this point in the flight as well.

If the latches could not dock the two craft together, the mission would have to be aborted.

As the crafts moved past a distance of 20,000 miles away from earth, the idea was discussed to go in at a faster rate to awake those latches and dock the module. It worked and the crew sped on toward lunar orbit.

The three day journey to lunar orbit was quiet.

Antares trip down to the lunar surface was not.

Software issues with the lunar module's landing computer, and later with the landing radar caused big concerns for both the crew and in mission control.

Once the control center sent up new commands to the computer, they were given a go for landing.

Antares single engine fired to bring the craft down and land. It was human kinds third landing upon the moon.

Landing at Fra Mauro on the eastern edge of the Ocean of Storms occurred on February 5 at 4:18:11 a.m., just 130 feet shy from the target site.

"Okay, we made a good landing," the 47-year-old Shepard said upon landing Antares.

Hours later, he became the fifth human to set foot upon the moon and radioed to mission control on what it took for him to reach this point, "Al is on the surface. It's been a long way, but we're here."

To which Slayton replied, "Not bad for an old man." Shepard would be the only Mercury astronaut to reach the moon.

Shepard and Mitchell collected nearly ninety-three pounds of lunar rocks during their nearly five hour set of two moon walks.

This week marks the fortieth anniversary of Shepard and his crew's flight aboard Apollo 14, the mission which returned America to the moon following the odyssey of the Apollo 13 flight the following spring.

In October 1995, this aerospace reporter enjoyed a candid conversation with Alan Shepard on his thoughts about the space program of the time. And, although it has been fifteen years, his words echo true in 2011 as it did then.

Charles Atkeison: How does the space program today differ from what you experienced during the 1960's and into the early 1970's? Do we still have a focus for what we want to do at NASA?

Alan Shepard: I think as far as NASA's concerned, yes. The difference as far as the general public's concerned is that the pure excitement of the early days is gone because, "so we've done that. What do we do tomorrow?", kind of routine. The fact that the public in general is excited about exploration made the lunar mission a very well recognized, well appreciated phase.

The folks that are flying today are just as dedicated as we were even knowing ahead of time that they are not going to receive the same kind of appreciation and recognition that those of us did in the early days.

Charles: Do you consider yourself the Christopher Columbus of the modern age?

Alan: I really don't. I consider myself very fortunate to have been allowed to make a couple of space flights for the United States. I recognize a few of us get a lot of attention, but literally hundreds of our close associates are the ones that did all the work. I remember saying in May of 1961 at the White House, when I received a medal from President Kennedy acknowledging that these hundreds, yes thousands of dedicated individuals on the ground are the ones to whom the accolades of the day should go. And I still feel that very strongly.

Charles: I remember the scene, Kennedy drops your medal during the presentation. What went through your head right then?

Alan: Well, we almost banged heads 'cause both of us (Shepard laughs) ... it was kind of cute. 'Cause Jack said, "Here", and Jackie (Kennedy) said, "No. No, Jack, pin it on." So then he recovered and pinned it on. So we had a lot of fun with that.

Charles: Thank-you.

During a visit to the Kennedy Space Center's Saturn V center, guests can walk up to and study Kitty Hawk.

Commander Shepard passed away while at his home in California following a two year bout with leukemia in July 1998. Crew mate Roosa past away three years earlier due to an inflammation of the pancreas; and Mitchell is now eighty and lives near West Palm Beach, Florida.

In May, America will once again recall the Christopher Columbus of the space age in Shepard, as we celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of America's first trip into space, Freedom 7.

NASA's MSFC recognizes SpaceLaunch News story

The public affairs office at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville linked my story, 50 Years of Rocketry to their web page on Facebook today, and gave this author a big thumbs-up with the words "great piece".

I am not one to promote myself, but this was a great personal honor and I thank the Marshall team for their support.

Rick Smith, Marshall's media writer, emailed this journalist with his thoughts on the piece, "Thanks for the great writing! Keep it up!".

You can read my story on the Alabama space center here.

MOVIE: Cape Canaveral

SLN: UTTM -- My 1995 Alan Shepard interview

SLN: Up to the Minute, and Charles Atkeison's interview with Alan Shepard at the Kennedy Space Center in October 1995, and later broadcast on WAMT-AM on the Space Coast.