Rise & Roll of Shuttle Atlantis

The United Space Alliance (USA) built six space shuttle OVs, or "Orbital Vehicles": Enterprise (1976), Columbia (1981), Challenger (1983), Discovery (1984), Atlantis (1985), and Endeavour (1992).

Space Shuttle Atlantis, or OV-104, was constructed by Rockwell in California. Atlantis was the only vehicle which provided it's own internal power through fuel cells, and thus was not required to draw power from the ISS while docked in orbit. She flew 33 missions total.

Me at the last Shuttle launch. With ATLANTIS!
Dream. Come. True.

In 1989, Space Shuttle Atlantis deployed the planetary proves Magellan to Venus (on STS-30) and Galileo to Jupiter (STS-34). In 1991, she deployed the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (STS-37).

Dependable Atlantis was our first fleet lady to dock to Space Station Mir in 1995. STS-71 also marked the 100th manned launch by the USA and the 5-day dock created the largest craft in orbit at the time (225 metric tons). Over the next few years, she would make 6 more flights to Mir.

The fifth and final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope was performed by Atlantis STS-125 in May 2009. In a marathon upgrade, Atlantis captured Hubble to replace gyroscopes, computers, and scientific instruments over a whopping 37 hours of space walks – making the telescope 100 times more powerful than when it launched!

My favorite portrait of Atlantis

Yelena Kondakova was the first Russian female to complete a long-duration mission on Mir in 1994, and then in 1997 she was the first, and now forever only, Russian woman to fly on the Space Shuttle (STS-84)... and the orbiter who flew the only Russian woman Cosmonaut? You guessed it! Atlantis.

The last flight of Space Shuttle Atlantis was the final mission of the entire Space Shuttle program, which began service in 1981. She delivered a Multi-Purpose Logistics Module and Lightweight Multi-Purpose Carrier to the ISS on STS-135. On July 10, 2011, her docking in orbit marked the last time an American Space Shuttle rendezvoused with the International Space Station.

NASA Archives: One of the many bridges
full of space fans watching STS-135 lift off!

This 135th flight of the Space Shuttle Orbiter was the 37th Shuttle trip to the ISS, and the 166th American manned launch. Crowds in Florida gathered in parks, along beaches, across bridges and along the highways were estimated in the MILLIONS. I was there, and I can tell you there was not a hotel room to be found within hundreds of miles of Cape Canaveral!

Actor Seth Green introduced "The Atlantis Fanfare" by musical composer Bear McCreary, known for composing the television themes for Battlestar Galactic and Eureka. So our STS-135 launch had her very own theme song!

RTFM

And now, out in paperback...

Seems the hardbacks are getting harder to come by, but it's also being released on Kindle today. I'm beginning to think people have too much time on their hands. But then, if it inspires space buffs, I'm all for it.

As Stephen Hawking said, it's odd that at the pinnacle of scientific achievement in many fields, fewer and fewer youngsters aim to be scientists. Why is that, exactly? It cannot possibly be a shortage of reading material... I lost track of all the space-related materials released this month to coincide with the Apollo anniversary.


Do kids still do this? Do we need them to? Laugh if you like, but the boys in that picture probably thought we'd have an entire colony on Mars now. Why don't we? And what will kick start the next wave? Will civilians be routinely launched into orbit? Are private sector billionaires poised to spur interest in new rocket science technologies where once only space agencies ruled?

If we plan to get to Mars by the 2030s or 2040s, and the average age of a spacefaring explorer is about 37 years old, take a look around you at the age range that will be in training when we finally have the technology to make a Mars landing a reality.

Laugh again, but you're looking at the future -- I hope. They're either about to take Driver's Ed class... or downloading Jonas Brothers tunes to their iPods. That's right, the ones with the toe rings and the spiky haircuts who won't pull up their pants... right down to the ones having Disney princess parties and water pistol wars.

They're going to Mars. Around the time I'm finally dipping into my IRA and learning how to knit. Food for thought. And it makes me want to buy every kid alive under the age of 15 a book about space travel... a Buzz Aldrin action figure... tickets to a planetarium... a toy rocket... a week at Space Camp...

Giving to Lunar GoodWill

So I'm treadmilling in my gym, going through my routine with the TV console: avoiding commercials. Luckily, our slate of channels has news providers in a group: MSNBC, CNN, HLN, FOX, Bloomberg, all in a row. When one breaks to ads, I flip to the next one... unless talking heads on FOX start interrupting and shouting, in which case I give up and go lift weights.

And speaking of Moon Rocks...

Just kidding, I smirk at the bickering and consider myself fortunate not to be in politics. Anyway, I caught the end of a story about a bunch of folks looking in a garbage dump for a missing moon rock, and had to keep running until they cycled around again so I could hear the whole thing.

Get this! A former NASA Special Investigator named Joseph Gutheinz decided he would try to recover all the "Goodwill Moon Rocks" that were presented to all 50 states and over 100 nations by the Nixon Administration in 1973.

Each state received plaques with glittery lunar material encased in plexiglas orbs, just tiny samples of the 842 total pounds brought back by the Apollo explorers – but each is now worth about $5 million apiece. Imagine NASA’s surprise when some of them turned up on the black market!

Nevada's Goodwill Moon Rock

Upper Inscription: "This fragment is a portion of a rock from the Taurus Littrow Valley of the Moon. It was part of a larger rock composed of many particles of different shapes and sizes, a symbol of the unity of human endeavor and mankind's hope for the future of peace and harmony."

Lower Inscription: "This flag of your state was carried to the moon aboard the Apollo XVII Mission; December 7-19, 1972. Presented to the people of the State of Nevada by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration."

In 1998, Gutheinz went undercover in Operation Lunar Eclipse, to find people selling fake moon rocks… but in 1998, they actually found someone trying to sell a real one – which turned out to be the Honduras Goodwill Moon Rock.

DO NOT PASS JOE.
DO NOT COLLECT 5 MILLION DOLLARS.

Of the estimated 270 rocks presented as gifts, fully 215 were missing when they began searching. "Only" 91 are still missing now, and the search continues.

How did they pull that off? A college professor at the University of Phoenix, Arizona, Gutheinz assigned his students to track down various samples; they have discovered people and facilities who unknowingly had moon rocks stashed in all kinds of creative places.

One was even found in the possession of a former governor of Colorado, John Vanderhoof, who simply took the plaque home upon ending his term!  Vanderhoof, in 2010, stated he tried  to offer it to various museums, but no one was terribly excited about it, so he kept it in a display case in his home for years. It has since been moved to the Colorado School of the Mines Museum.

I've actually seen two of these up close: Georgia's rock at the Fernbank Museum in Atlanta, and Texas' rock at the State Capitol in Austin.. but I was shocked to peruse the list of moon rocks that are still unaccounted for. CollectSpace notes those found, and those documented as gifts but still categorized as missing.  And we may never trust Ireland again, sheesh.

Do you know the current status of a fragment of any lunar sample? Write to moonrocks@collectspace.com!

The 10 Most Bizarre Space Experiments

My first appearance in a textbook! After numerous turns on the internet, radio and television, I'm truly proud that I've been able to contribute to an educational resource for children. Hopefully it will serve to initiate a fascination with space research for some young minds.

Rubicon Publishing has recently released "The 10 Most Bizarre Space Experiments", a fun and fascinating look into various space projects around the world... and off the world!

TheCanadian company who writes "The 10" series of books contacted me with a request for personal photographs insights into my personal experience with bedrest studies. These programs are used to simulate spaceflight so scientists and doctors can study changes in human bodies in prolonged weightlessness.

It was refreshing to talk about the details of the studies again, since of course it's been quite awhile now since I did extended quarantine with spaceflight protocols. Happily, however, these studies are still going strong, and many new studies are also developed each year for new participants.  Johnson Space Center is still seeking healthy paid volunteers for studies like the one I shared here with Rubicon, and new programs involving the newest space station treadmill.

Ah, memories... but, I was not the star of the tiny tome by any means. A complete list of all the featured stories include:

1. LEGO on ISS
2. Six-legged Astronauts
3. Newts in Space
4. Cola Wars
5. Mars500
6. The Bedrest Experiment
7. Balloon Jump From Space
8. Moon Bricks
9. Space Underwear
10. Telepathy From Space

One of my favorite simulations, performed as a joint project by the European and Russian space agencies, is the Mars500. I followed all three of their missions for years! My feature ends on page 5, and the Mars500 feature begins on page 6! What an absolute honor to be in the same pages of a book with them. Of course, perhaps they would also consider it an honor to be included with a book of long-term space experiments and yeeeeeeears of comparable NASA studies.

I sure wish I could give a link to where the book can be purchased that would work for everyone! However, the target audience is Canadian educators, so it won't be made widely available.  However, if anyone has connections to any of the experiments and would like a look at the particular pages, please let me know!