Akron Classmates Achieved High Flying Jobs as Astronaut, Blue Angel

AKRON, OHIO -- Two high school classmates driven early by different goals found themselves a decade later working in similar career fields -- one a top naval aviator and one a NASA astronaut.

On June 6, 1966, Stuart Robinson Powrie and Judith Arlene Resnik graduated with their senior class from Firestone High School. Their families and the educators at the Akron, Ohio school had inspired the two to climb higher and travel farther.

Stu (as he liked to called) was a competitive swimmer during high school, a sport he continued during his years at the U.S. Naval Academy. In 1970, Powrie graduated from the academy, but not before he set two Navy records as a competitive swimmer.

Judy loved classical piano, however she loved mathematics even more during high school. She even earned a perfect score on her SAT exam. In 1970, she graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a B.S. degree in electrical engineering.

NASA Pool Prepares Astronauts for Upcoming Space Station Spacewalks

HOUSTON -- Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are scheduled to perform three consecutive spacewalks in October to upgrade and repair critical equipment outside the orbiting laboratory.

NASA astronauts Randy Bresnik and Mark Vande Hei will venture outside through the Quest airlock on Thursday for the first spacewalk beginning at 8:10 a.m. EDT. The duo will to remove and replace a defective latching end-effector on the Canadarm 2 robotic arm.

On October 10, Bresnik and Vande Hei will egress the airlock at about 8:10 a.m. to rotate a pump flow control assembly to prepare it for venting and its relocation in the near future. The astronauts will also replace a station video camera which has a pink discoloration on the lens.

One week later, on October 18, Bresnik and NASA astronaut Joe Acaba will perform a third orbital walk to add a high definition camera, replace another video camera on the Destiny Laboratory, and the two will lube select areas on the station.

Spacewalking preparations began several months ago by Bresnik, Vande Hei, and Acaba, both in the NASA mock-ups, and below the waters of the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory located next to the Johnson Space Center near Houston.

Take a massive swimming pool, fill it with 6.2 million gallons of water, and throw in a large mock up of the space station into that pool. That's the NBL -- a special training pool which allows selected astronauts to suit up in their spacesuit and work submerged with a near feeling of weightlessness.

The NBL is located inside the Sonny Carter Training Facility, and is a critical training tool for many departments within NASA. Flight directors use the pool to refine spacewalk procedures and develop flight procedures. Teams can also verify hardware compatibility first before launching the equipment into space.

"It's a great way to train, and it's an amazing team sport," said NASA astronaut Victor Glover, a Navy commander and F/A-18 pilot, explained to this aerospace reporter. "What you see requires 30 or 40 people just to put two people into a space suit to train. You have a test director, a camera diver, two safety divers per every space suit, and you have a whole team of folks to make sure you're doing these things safely."

An astronaut will spend seven hours of training in the NBL pool for every hour they are scheduled to spend spacewalking.

Glover added that risks are involved with every spacewalk related to time and physics. One example, he discussed, is when astronauts work on the electrical side of the orbital outpost it is performed while the station is over the night side of the planet. Much like replacing a wall socket at home, the Sun is not generating power to the solar arrays for nearly 40 minutes.

Measuring 202-feet long by 102-feet wide, the NBL pool is loaded with strong filters. The pool's water is recycled every 19 hours, according to Glover, and it is chemically treated to stop bacteria growth. The water's temperature remains between 82° to 88° Fahrenheit to keep NASA support divers, who assist the submerged astronauts for long periods of time, warm and comfortable.

NASA-TV will provide live coverage of each spacewalk beginning at 6:30 a.m. each day.

(Charles Atkeison reports on aerospace and technology. Follow his updates via social media @Military_Flight.)

NASA astronaut and American legend John Glenn dies at 95

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Col. John H. Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth and long time senator from Ohio, died on Thursday at the James Cancer Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. He was 95.

John Glenn last week in Washington, D.C. (NASA)

On February 20, 1962, John Herschel Glenn, Jr. became a national treasure as he lifted-off inside his cramped Mercury spacecraft known as Friendship 7 to begin America's first three orbits of manned spaceflight.

“The Ohio State University community deeply mourns the loss of John Glenn, Ohio’s consummate public servant and a true American hero," said Ohio State University President Michael V. Drake. "He leaves an undiminished legacy as one of the great people of our time."

A Marine fighter pilot during World War II, Glenn began his aviation career in 1943 and flew nearly sixty combat flights over the southern Pacific waters. He also served during the Korean War piloting ninety combat flights in both a F9F Panther and a F-86 Sabre jet.

Later at age 77, Glenn became the oldest person to fly in space as "six astronauts and one American legend" launched aboard space shuttle Discovery in October 1998. The senior astronaut had remained active in promoting America's space future through 2016, including speaking out on the "premature" cancellation of the shuttle program.

Born in Cambridge, Ohio on July 18, 1921, Glenn later attended Muskingum College earning a Bachelor of Science degree. He is survived by his childhood sweetheart, Anna M. (nee Castor). The couple were married for seventy-three years, resulting in two children and two grandchildren.

Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex announces new summer highlights

Exploring space with new simulators and witnessing the thundering launch of a rocket are a few of this summer's highlights designed to educate and excite the public as NASA prepares for interplanetary travel, the Kennedy Space Center's Visitor Complex announced on Sunday.

Summer plans are in full swing as families look toward America's Space Coast for the excitement of the beaches, and the educational interest of the Kennedy Space Center. The next generation of space explorers are leaving their princess dresses and superhero outfits behind for flight suits and NASA caps to get an up close presence with the strong core STEM (Science, Technology, engineering and Math) values taught in school.

The warm space coast weather will give visitors chills of excitement as no less than eight major rocket launches are planned between June 1 and Labor Day weekend. The first rocket poised to lift-off is the massive Delta IV-Heavy on June 4 with a military payload on board. Space center visitors will be updated on launch times and given suggested locations to view each flight.

Astronaut poised to break endurance record arrives at space station

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A NASA astronaut destined to become the U.S. record holder for time spent in space and two cosmonauts lifted off from Kazakhstan on Saturday and successfully arrived at their new home aboard the International Space Station.

American Jeff Williams and Russians Oleg Skripochka and Alexey Ovchinin rode the golden flame of a Soyuz rocket into the black skies above the Baikonur Cosmodrome to begin a nearly six hour voyage on the ocean of space to the orbiting laboratory. Launch occurred on time at 5:26:38 p.m. EDT, on Friday (3:26 a.m. local on March 19) as the space station soared 252 miles above Kazakhstan.

As the rocket climbed toward orbit, its spent core booster separated to allow the second stage to carry the crew higher. "Everything's fine on board. We're feeling fine," the crew radioed mission control in Moscow midway through the dynamic launch.

Ten minutes after lift-off the Soyuz was alone in its planned orbit, its solar arrays and antenna deployed. The crew then began it's four orbit trip to the station.

After a series of course correction burns to chase down the football field-size complex, the Russian Soyuz TMA-20M docked automatically to the outpost without issue at 11:09:55 p.m. The last Soyuz-crew docking attempt three months ago was hampered by a failed docking radar which forced the craft's pilot to switch to manual and dock ten minutes late.

That space crew of American Tim Kopra, Briton Tim Peake and Russian Yuri Malenchenko will join the newly arrived crew. Together, the crew of six will prepare for a busy next few weeks of science experiments, and the arrival of two resupply crafts.

This mission will mark a record third long duration flight by an astronaut as Williams prepares to set another long duration record by an American. "Williams will become the new American record holder for cumulative days in space at 534 surpassing commander Scott Kelly, who wrapped up his one-year mission on March 1," NASA spokesperson Mark Garcia said on Friday. Garcia added that Williams will become the new space station commander on June 4.

"Cable Guys" prepare space station for new docking ports

Astronauts spacewalk to prepare the space station for docking ports. (NASA)

The first of three spacewalks to prepare the International Space Station for the arrival of future commercial spacecraft wrapped up on Saturday after astronauts strung new cables in preparation for two new docking ports launching this year.

NASA astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Terry Virts completed a six hour, 41 minute assembly spacewalk at 2:26 p.m. EST, having laid out eight of the 10 electrical and communication cables in preparation for the arrival of the ports.

Nicknamed the "Cable Guys" by NASA controllers, Wilmore and Virts "rigged a series of power and data cables at the forward end of the Harmony module and Pressurized Mating Adapter-2, and routed 340 of 360 feet of cable," NASA spokesperson Mark Garcia stated at the conclusion of the spacewalk.

The astronauts will pick back up in a few days, and plan to finish the necessary tasks with a third orbital stroll next Sunday, March 1. "The duo will venture outside the space station again on Wednesday to deploy two more cables and lubricate the end of the space station’s robotic arm," Garcia added.

Two Boeing-built International Docking Adapters (IDA) are due to arrive to the orbital outpost this summer and fall. The first IDA is at the Kennedy Space Center with the second adapter wrapping up construction near Houston. Each adapter will allow a visiting crewed commercial spacecraft to perform a soft-dock arrival to space station.

Each 1,150-pound adapter will be tucked inside a Dragon cargo craft's trunk launched a top two SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets. The adapters will require several spacewalks to mate each to the station, and then connect the power and communication cables which are being laid out during these three spacewalks.

Wilmore is the current space station commander, and performed one previous spacewalk last October. Saturday's walk in space marked Virts first time outside a spacecraft. Astronauts and cosmonauts have spent a combined 1,159 hours during 185 spacewalks conducting space station assembly and maintenance jobs.

The spacewalk was delayed by one day to give both flight controllers and the astronauts a break following an exhaustive week in troubleshooting the two spacesuits for contamination of its cooling system. Issues with previous spacesuits forced NASA to return them to Earth aboard a Dragon supply craft for analysis and checkout.

NASA schedules spacewalks to repair space station cooling system

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- On the heels of Christmas week NASA on Tuesday decided to delay this weeks launch of a resupply ship to the orbiting International Space Station in hopes to perform three spacewalks to repair a broken cooling system.

A failed valve on a pump module which controls the flow of coolant through lines to keep the space station's electrical systems cool stopped functioning on December 11 prompting NASA and the international partners to troubleshoot the exact cause and how to repair the issue.

"The pump is associated with one of the station's two external cooling loops, which circulate ammonia outside the station to keep both internal and external equipment cool," said Brian Dunbar, a spokesperson at the Johnson Space Center near Houston. 

Three 6 hour space walks by two NASA astronauts will allow the space agency to uninstall the failed cooling pump module with a spare located on the Starboard Truss segment of the station. 

The first spacewalk is planned to start on Saturday at 7:10 a.m. EST, and will see Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins translate over to the external stowage platform to retrieve the replacement pump module.

An American, two Russians lift-off en route to space station

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- An American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts left earth on Tuesday to begin a five month stay aboard the International Space Station.

Soyuz commander Oleg Novitskiy, NASA veteran space flyer Kevin Ford, and Evgeny Tarelkin will live and work 260 miles above earth aboard the orbiting outpost until March 2013.

The white and green Soyuz FG rocket lifted-off on time at 6:51:11 a.m. EDT, today from it's desert launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in western Kazakhstan.

The Russian rocket darted into the clear blue skies and toward the eastern horizon as it pushed it's cramped crew tucked inside the space craft on a chase to rendezvous with it's port-of-call.

A minute into the flight, the crew reported an alarm sounding in the cabin, however ground controllers reported everything was fine on board.

As the rocket soared higher, boosters and stages which pushed the craft higher began to fall away as it emptied it's fuel.

Nine minutes after launch, the Soyuz TMA-06M craft arrived on orbit, and began to deploy it's solar arrays for two days of circling the earth.

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.)

Endeavour Astronaut David Wolf: Aerobatic Flyer

When it comes to being an astronaut or cosmonaut you are careful and selective in the activities you perform so that an injury will not sideline you from your flight assignment.

NASA astronaut David A. Wolf is the exception. When I think of David I liken him to a cross between Peter Fonda's character in Easy Rider and Tom Cruise in Top Gun. Determined in achieving goals, but with a bad boy attitude. Very smart and gifted, David is a mediacal doctor with a passion for aviation, having flown in space on three spaceflights including a four month stay on the Russian Mir space station.

David also has an aeronautical hobby which takes his passion for flight to a new level and it was one in which he shared with his uncle - Aerobatic Flying.
In the 1980's, David and his Uncle Ed Wolf began flying muscle airplanes out of Clover Field near Houston, Texas, which led to competitive flying. Around 1988, David and Ed joined the Houston Aerobatic Club, and flew in several competitions including winning a first place award in 1991. A few months later, David became a full fledged astronaut with NASA.

Throughout the 1990's, while David trained as a mission specialist for a 1993 space shuttle flight, he continued to enjoy his aerobatic stunt flying. David flew a Black Eagle biplane [above], which he had purchased from a fellow astronaut; while his Uncle Ed flew a S2B Pitts biplane.

Although he still privately flies in his spare time, he does not competitive fly as much any more. Due to NASA rules limiting what an astronaut can do regarding physical sports activities that are non-NASA related, he had to tone down his stunt flying.

However...

David has another flight this Saturday morning out of a tiny air strip known as launch pad 39-A here at the Kennedy Space Center. To watch him in his winged craft Endeavour take off just after Sunrise at 7:17:15 am EDT, will be a treat for the aviator spectator - a true air show!

David will be able to once again roll heads down, pull 3G's and climb and continue to climb all the way up to 220 miles above the earth - the dream of every aviator.

My interview with astronaut Chris Hadfield, Max-Q Plays

Just back from a trip to Russia's space station MIR aboard Atlantis, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield talks with Charles Tyler Atkeison of WAMT-AM. Hear the band Hadfield play guitar for, MAX-Q, perform, too.