Expedition 31 Returns to Earth

 

Expedition 31 crew members prepare to close the hatch.

Just after midnight on Sunday July 1st, the three members of the 31st expedition to the International Space Station undocked their Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft and headed for home. Expedition commander Oleg Kononenko, and flight engineers Don Petite and Andre Kuipers had been in space for about 6 months. Later on Sunday, the spacecraft made its final deorbit burn and re-entered the atmosphere. Under parachute, the crew touched down in Kazakhstan on Sunday afternoon.

The Soyuz spacecraft moves away from the ISS.

Great view of the Soyuz from above the Earth.

Russian view of descending crew capsule. Several Mi-8 helicopters circled the capsule as it approached the landing site.

Thrusters fired just before landing to slow the capsule for a softer landing. Touchdown!

With the end of Expedition 31, the remaining crew on the ISS now take over command and begin Expedition 32. Cosmonaut Gennady Pedalka leads the expedition, and marks his 3rd command of the ISS! He is accompanied by Flight engineers Joe Acaba (NASA) and Sergei Revin (Russia). The second half of the crew will arrive on July 17.

Mark Daymont

Space Center Educator

Thursday, and the Super Overnight Camp with The Imaginarium

Flight Director Ben during the Leadership Camp

A Quiet Place in front of the Library Door.

Hello Troops,

It is 11:07 P.M. Thursday night.  We are in the thick of a Super Overnight Camp.  Twelve campers are maneuvering deeper and deeper into the plot of Mercy Strike.  The hallways are darkened and staff and volunteers are spread up and down the length of the school waiting for the crew to beam out of the Voyager and into the alien set - a Romulan prison camp.

The Voyager's Staff during the Leadership Camp.

You see what happens when I turn my back for an instant?

Pandemonium, Anarchy and the Breakdown of Civil Society!

The Space Center was closed Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to celebrate Independence Day.  The Leadership Camp was brutal on the staff.  The break was well deserved.  Supposedly we are rested and ready for the big push to finish the summer season on July 31.  Three Edventure Camps, two Day Camps, several Overnight Camps, one Super Overnight Camp and a slew of private parties can be seen emerging from the dark in the light from our headlights.  Its a tough schedule.  I wonder what I was thinking when I set it up last February.

One of the campers, a Mr. Flynn, just walked by.  I believe he just returned from the Galileo on some side trip - a subplot complimenting the primary storyline.

A real treat!  I saw the Red Blemish, the Space Center's very own failed superhero, in the school's hallway.  His bright red, nearly floor length trench coat gave him away.  What brings The Red Blemish to our humble school this evening?

He just walked by my desk.  My presence wasn't noticed.  He was focused on something.  Perhaps "M, The Destroyer of Worlds" lurks in the darkened halls, waiting to ensnare our campers.  We will know within the next few minutes.  The landing party is about to begin.

It will be a long night.  The campers won't go to bed until 2:00 A.M.

The Red Blemish walked by again.  He looks perplexed.  Maybe his scooter is out of gas.  A black streak runs down his left cheek.
"Black tears?" I asked.
"A scar," he replied.
"M, The Destroyer of Worlds?" I questioned.
He didn't hear me and disappeared through the office's door.

It's 11:38 P.M. Bracken kicked me out of the office so the Voyager's crew could beam down to the Romulan base without seeming me.  It's getting too dangerous to stay here.  I think I'll creep through the hall to the Library and hide out for spell while the brave crew of the Voyager battle the foes of liberty and galactic human rights.

"The funniest thing is happening in the Kindergarten room," Bracken said.  "Andrew is playing the Romulan Ambassador locked in a cell opposite the Voyager's Ambassador.  Andrew is telling the Ambassador Romulan jokes and he isn't getting them.  The Voyager's Ambassador is telling Andrew human jokes and Andrew is pretending not to get them either.  Its the funniest cross cultural exchange and I'm taking full credit for the idea!"

"Great Idea Bracken," I said.

"Thanks, I needed that," he replied as he disappeared through the Voyager's spinning black door leading to the stage.  

Bracken deserves a pat on the back for spearhead this week's Super Overnight Camp.    

There are a few things I'd like to share from the Imaginarium to top off the post...   

 There is a lot to be said for choosing the right time and place to be clueless

OK, a real test of your sweet tooth.  Can you name them all just on appearance?

We try to make our simulators Kid Proof and they keep making better kids.

Maintenance is a real pain with the use and abuse our ships endure.

True imagination means pushing the boundary.

Uncharted water can be dangerous, but therein lies the Joy in Journey.

Now What?

Freedom isn't free.

And what about those inertia dampeners?  

How can they cancel inertia when the ship jumps to hyperspeed but

not cancel the effects of a simple torpedo impact?

Plot Hole?

Neither are Space Center Directors....

Interesting

I'll continue to use plastic cutlery but

Interesting nevertheless.

Amen.

Steampunked Stormtroopers

What caught your eye?

 

What caught your eye?

The same, yet different in both pictures.

You can live in the world and be one of billions and still be yourself.

Stand out for the right reasons.

 I admire the Doctor.

Thank the BBC for catering to the more intelligent of the masses.

(Yes, that means if you like Dr. Who, you must be more intelligent than your 

average human.  I think its a proven fact).

Pay to have Grandma flown home or be creative.

And Finally

The Truth in Name Brands

Rocket Summer and Other Space News

 

Up, up and away for the Delta-4. Credit: ULA.

For rocket lovers, we live in a wonderful time for rocket watching. Every summer is a rocket summer. On July 29 rocket fans watched United Launch Alliance and the US Air Force launch a satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). Blasting off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (adjacent to the Kennedy Space Center), the Delta-4 Heavy lifted a classified NRO satellite (NROL-15) into orbit.

Liftoff from LC-37. Credit: ULA.

The Delta-4 Heavy is the most powerful variant of the Delta family of rockets (scroll down to the article on the Atlas-5 launch for the graphic display of the Delta family of rockets). It's even more powerful now, with this latest launch featuring new versions of the RL-68 rocket engines, the RL-68A's. These new engines feature an additional 36-39,000 pounds of thrust for a total of 797,000 pounds of thrust. The distinguishing feature of the Delta-4 Heavy is the addition of the two side boosters, which are liquid-fueled instead of the commonly-seen solid rocket boosters. 

With this Delta-4 Heavy launch, it means we've seen recently a launch of the Delta-4, the Atlas-5, the Long March variant for Shenzhou-9, with upcoming launches of the Soyuz and another Atlas-5 in July.

Rocket Motor Two tests in the desert. Credit: Virgin Galactic.

And it's not just rocket flights, either. There's plenty of rocket engine testing going on in the race for commercial rocket development. Virgin Galactic is preparing for the first tourists flights into sub-orbit, and continuing testing of the Rocket Two engine at their facilities in the Mojave desert.

ATK fires up in the Utah desert. Credit: ATK

ATK continues working feverishly to advance the Liberty rocket system. In northern Utah at their facility near Brigham City, ATK fired the GEM-60 solid rocket motor which will power the first stage of Liberty. Liberty is expected to fly in 2014.

Liberty rocket and capsule. Art by ATK.

In fact, it's not just rocket engines that fly the machines, it's computers as well. ATK has recently completed a technical review of its program software with NASA, fulfilling another step in the long checklist of items towards launch. ATK expects to have two unmanned launches in 2014 and 2015, with the first crewed launch in 2015. Other companies will have to press onward quickly to match this schedule, should ATK manage to maintain this pace.

China: Shenzhou 9 Returns to Earth

Shenzhou 9 (right) docked with Tiangong 1. China Space Agency art.

After completing several milestones in Chinese space exploration history, the 3-man crew returned to Earth yesterday, landing in Inner Mongolia. The manned spacecraft had docked under automatic controls on June 18. Liu Yang became the first Chinese Woman Taikonaut in their space program. On June 24, the crew boarded the Shenzhou 9 and undocked from the station. They re-docked with the station, performing the first manual docking in their program. On Friday June 29 they undocked for the last time and jettisoned their service and science modules, returning through the atmosphere in the crew module.

View from Tiangong 1 of Shenzhou 9 re-docking with the station on June 24. Credit: CCTV.

Back on Earth, Liu Yang is helped from the hatch of the tipped-over capsule. Credit: Xinhua News Agency.

Posted by Mark Daymont

Space Center Educator

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