A Pilot’s Blog
A blog about aviation, aviation news, and space.

Last Monday, February 1st, the White House unveiled their 2010-2011 budget request to Congress. Within that request, were some very major changes in NASA’s mission and direction. Among these changes: cancellation of the Constellation Program leaving the United States with no successor to the Space Shuttle after its retirement this year, directing NASA to use commercially built and operated rockets to reach Low Earth Orbit, directing NASA to pursue “new technologies” to be used on a future heavy lift rocket yet to be defined, and extending use of the International Space Station until 2020 – the only one of these changes I’m in full support of.

When I first heard news of this budget, I was devastated. How can the government just cancel the Constellation Program (which had a very successful first flight just a few months ago) and leave our country with no manned space flight capability after the retirement of the Space Shuttle? Yes, they are going to use commercial companies to get to the ISS (which I do support), but with nothing else really in the works, what do we do after that? How do we get back to the Moon? How do we get to Mars? Yes, the plan seems to be that NASA will research and slowly develop some new heavy lift rocket (though not Ares V as the Constellation Program envisioned), but why start over? What’s so wrong with Constellation? We’re just going to throw it all away and set everything back another decade? Ridiculous!

The space program gives us a national prowess, it gives us national pride. This is something that I don’t think we’ll get with just using commercial companies. Don’t get me wrong, I love SpaceX and other companies like them, and I encourage their use for getting cargo and crew to and from the ISS. But NASA still should be working on a new spacecraft in the mean time to take us beyond Low Earth Orbit – to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. They claim that this is still going to happen, but that is nowhere near certain in this budget. I just don’t see the need to completely cancel Constellation and start over. I think this is bad policy and will only serve to set back the US space program for decades. We will be sitting on the sidelines while China, Russia, and others spread out into the cosmos without us.

I may be wrong. I hope I’m wrong. But the current future of NASA and our US space program that I can see is a bleak one. And this leaves me very, very depressed.

Last night, at 11:04pm Central Time, Rebecca Bresnik (wife of STS-129 mission specialist and US Marine Lieutenant Colonel Randy Bresnik) gave birth to a girl – Abigail Mae. Congratulations to the Bresnik family!

The Ares 1-X test flight will launch on Tuesday morning, October 27th. The first new manned (well, not this flight, but eventually) spacecraft to do so in quite some time. I can’t wait!

I came across this video today via NASA’s Twitter. They allowed an ABC news crew to tag along and film the recent STS-128 ferry flight, taking Space Shuttle Discovery back to Cape Canaveral from Edwards Air Force Base. Very cool!

Spaceflight Now is reporting today about an important achievement in pharmaceutical research conducted aboard the International Space Station. A company called Astrogenetix is working on vaccine research utilizing the microgravity of Earth orbit. Through its research with Salmonella bacteria on station, the company realized that something about microgravity made the bacteria stronger. This made it easier for them to isolate those genes that cause the “bad” effects of Salmonella poisoning. With this information, the company believes that it can grow Salmonella bacteria with those genes removed, thus making it harmless. This harmless version could then be made into a vaccine to provide immunity to that bacteria. Such a vaccine could avoid thousands of hospitalizations and save hundreds of lives annually. Astrogenetix believes they can use this same process to create vaccines for other diseases as well.

The next time somebody complains about the cost of human spaceflight and the ISS, just remind them of things like this.

As this entry goes live, exactly forty years have passed since the world changed forever. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin landed in a small spacecraft named “Eagle” on the surface of the moon while Michael Collins orbited above in the Command Module. After them came fifteen other men on Apollo 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17.

The sad thing is that no other person has walked on the moon since Eugene Cernan stepped back onto the LEM at the conclusion of Apollo 17’s moon walks. The moon has been there the whole time, but we haven’t gone back. I wish that we would. The US is beginning to lag behind the rest of the civilized world in our scientific prowess, and this must be righted. I believe that if we were to embark on a new moon “race”, the benefits could be enormous. It would get young people interested in science again. It would invest money in science and engineering and produce untold new “spinoffs” that would be of benefit to all mankind. It would once again inspire the world and show that we can do great things when we put our minds to it.

So this is my challenge to our leaders both political and scientific (with deference to President Kennedy for the wording):

I believe this nation should commit itself, before the year 2025, to returning man to the moon, to establishing a permanent lunar outpost, and to use that lunar outpost as a staging ground for the first manned mission to the planet Mars.

Do we have the ability as a nation to do this? We most certainly do. Do we have the will? I hope so. Happy 40th Anniversary Apollo 11!

Updated (9:56 pm): “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.”

I have to say that the Cosmosphere has been having some very cool speakers lately. On Friday, July 3rd I had yet another amazing opportunity. I went to the Cosmosphere to attend a lecture by Major General Joe Engle, a former X-15 and Space Shuttle pilot. He has the unique distinction of being the only person to have piloted two winged spacecraft. He gave a very interesting talk about the X-15 program in general and his experiences in it. Afterwards he signed autographs in the lobby, so I got a very nice signed picture. Thanks Gen. Engle!

On Friday, June 19th I had the pleasure of attending a lecture at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center by world-renowned Apollo author and historian, Andrew Chaikin. His presentation gave some fascinating glimpses into the personalities and experiences of the Apollo astronauts – having met and interviewed 23 of the 24 of them (Apollo 13 Command Module Pilot Jack Swigert had passed away before he began his research) for his book “Man on the Moon“. His presentation lasted only an hour or so, but I could have sat there and listened all night. One of my favorite stories was him giving partial credit to Neil Armstrong for his then recent engagement to his girlfriend (and fellow space enthusiast) Victoria. He said, “Introducing her to Neil Armstrong on our third date couldn’t have hurt!” After the presentation he was kind enough to autograph his books in the lobby – I got a copy of “Voices from the Moon and he wrote a very nice inscription. He was a very personable and funny gentleman. If you ever have a chance to hear Mr. Chaikin speak, don’t miss it!

A picture from the lecture. It’s a cellphone picture so I apologize for the quality.

From SpaceflightNow comes news of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft that is set to launch on June 17th. It will be able to take high-resolution photographs of the Lunar surface, as well as look for water ice on the Moon’s polar regions. One of the more fascinating aspects of the mission is that its orbit will allow it to take photographs of many of the unmanned probes and rovers sent to the moon over the years and also every Apollo landing site. That alone will be a treasure-trove of information to see how well each of the sites has been preserved over the past 30+ years. It might even finally put an end to all the “moon landing hoax” nonsense, but I sadly doubt it.

I would have to count two events that I experienced today among my life’s highlights so far. Our local space museum hosted NASA’s traveling “Driven to Explore” exhibit today. Though the wind speeds forced them to close most of the outdoor display, they did have the “touch a moon rock” trailer open. So, today, I got to touch a rock brought back from the moon by the crew of Apollo 17! It was highly polished, possibly from lots of use, and felt very much like hematite.

The primary highlight of the day, however, was meeting NASA astronaut Steven G. Bowen who flew to the ISS as part of the STS-126 crew last fall. He gave a very informative talk about his mission and took several interesting questions from the audience. Afterwards, he very generously signed autographs for those in attendance. They had pre-printed lithographs available for him to sign, but anticipating the possibility of autographs, I had printed out a nice picture of him on a spacewalk for him to sign. He said that it was “one of his favorites” and wrote a very nice note.

Thanks Captain Bowen!