The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project: An Orbital Partnership Is Born

On July 17, 1975, something momentous happened: two Cold War-rivals met in space. When their respective spacecraft rendezvoused and docked, a new era of cooperative ventures in space began.

For more than a decade, American astronauts and Russian cosmonauts have been regularly living and working together in Earth orbit, first in the Shuttle-Mir program, and now on the International Space Station. But, before the two Cold War-rivals first met in orbit in 1975, such a partnership seemed unlikely. Since Sputnik bleeped into orbit in 1957, there had been a Space Race, with the U.S. and then-Soviet Union driven more by competition than cooperation. When President Kennedy called for a manned moon landing in 1961, he spoke of "battle that is now going on around the world between freedom and tyranny" and referred to the "head start obtained by the Soviets with their large rocket engines."

But by the mid-70s things had changed. The U.S. had "won" the race to the moon, with six Apollo landings between 1969 and 1972. Both nations had launched space stations, the Russian Salyut and American Skylab. With the space shuttle still a few years off and the diplomatic chill thawing, the time was right for a joint mission.

The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project would send NASA astronauts Tom Stafford, Donald K. "Deke" Slayton and Vance Brand in an Apollo Command and Service Module to meet Russian cosmonauts Aleksey Leonov and Valeriy Kubasov in a Soyuz capsule. A jointly designed, U.S.-built docking module fulfilled the main technical goal of the mission, demonstrating that two dissimilar craft could dock in orbit. But the human side of the mission went far beyond that.

Image Credit: NASA

Remote Siberian Lake Holds Clues to Arctic--and Antarctic--Climate Change

Fates of polar ice sheets appear to be linked

Intense warm climate intervals--warmer than scientists thought possible--have occurred in the Arctic over the past 2.8 million years.

That result comes from the first analyses of the longest sediment cores ever retrieved on land. They were obtained from beneath remote, ice-covered Lake El'gygytgyn (pronounced El'gee-git-gin) ("Lake E") in the northeastern Russian Arctic.

The journal Science published the findings this week.

They show that the extreme warm periods in the Arctic correspond closely with times when parts of Antarctica were also ice-free and warm, suggesting a strong connection between Northern and Southern Hemisphere climate.

The polar regions are much more vulnerable to climate change than researchers thought, say the National Science Foundation-(NSF) funded Lake E project's co-chief scientists: Martin Melles of the University of Cologne, Germany; Julie Brigham-Grette of the University of Massachusetts Amherst; and Pavel Minyuk of Russia's North-East Interdisciplinary Scientific Research Institute in Magadan.

The exceptional climate warming in the Arctic, and the inter-hemispheric interdependencies, weren't known before the Lake E studies, the scientists say.

Lake E was formed 3.6 million years ago when a huge meteorite hit Earth, leaving an 11-mile-wide crater. It's been collecting layers of sediment ever since.

The lake is of interest to scientists because it has never been covered by glaciers. That has allowed the uninterrupted build-up of sediment at the bottom of the lake, recording hitherto undiscovered information on climate change.

Cores from Lake E go far back in time, almost 30 times farther than Greenland ice cores covering the past 110,000 years.

The sediment cores from Lake El'gygytgyn reflect the climate and environmental history of the Arctic with great sensitivity, say Brigham-Grette and colleagues.

The physical, chemical and biological properties of Lake E's sediments match the known global glacial/interglacial pattern of the ice ages.

Some warm phases are exceptional, however, marked by extraordinarily high biological activity in the lake, well above that of "regular" climate cycles.

To quantify the climate differences, the scientists studied four warm phases in detail: the two youngest, called "normal" interglacials, from 12,000 years and 125,000 years ago; and two older phases, called "super" interglacials, from 400,000 and 1.1 million years ago.

According to climate reconstructions based on pollen found in sediment cores, summer temperatures and annual precipitation during the super interglacials were about 4 to 5 degrees C warmer, and about 12 inches wetter, than during normal interglacials.

The super interglacial climates suggest that it's nearly impossible for Greenland's ice sheet to have existed in its present form at those times.

Simulations using a state-of-the-art climate model show that the high temperature and precipitation during the super interglacials can't be explained by Earth's orbital parameters or variations in atmospheric greenhouse gases alone, which geologists usually see as driving the glacial/interglacial pattern during ice ages.

That suggests that additional climate feedbacks are at work.

"Improving climate models means that they will better match the data that has been collected," says Paul Filmer, program director in NSF's Division of Earth Sciences, which funded the "Lake E" project along with NSF's Office of Polar Programs.

"The results of this collaboration among scientists in the U.S., Austria, Germany and Russia are providing a challenge for researchers working on climate models: they now need to match results from Antarctica, Greenland--and Lake El'gygytgyn."

Adds Simon Stephenson, director of the Division of Arctic Sciences in NSF's Office of Polar Programs, "This is a significant result from NSF's investment in frontier research during the recent International Polar Year.

"'Lake E' has been a successful partnership in very challenging conditions.  These results make a significant contribution to our understanding of how Earth's climate system works, and improve our understanding of what future climate might be like."

The scientists suspect the trigger for intense interglacials might lie in Antarctica.

Earlier work by the international ANDRILL program discovered recurring intervals when the West Antarctic Ice Sheet melted. (ANDRILL, or the ANtarctic geological DRILLing project, is a collaboration of scientists from five nations--Germany, Italy, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States--to recover geologic records from the Antarctic margin.)

The current Lake E study shows that some of these events match with the super interglacials in the Arctic.

The results are of global significance, they believe, demonstrating strong indications of an ongoing collapse of ice shelves around the Antarctic Peninsula and at the margins of the West Antarctica Ice Sheet--and a potential acceleration in the near future.

The Science paper co-authors discuss two scenarios for future testing that could explain the Northern Hemisphere-Southern Hemisphere climate coupling.

First, they say, reduced glacial ice cover and loss of ice shelves in Antarctica could have limited formation of cold bottom water masses that flow into the North Pacific Ocean and upwell to the surface, resulting in warmer surface waters, higher temperatures and increased precipitation on land.

Alternatively, disintegration of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet may have led to significant global sea level rise and allowed more warm surface water to reach the Arctic Ocean through the Bering Strait.

Lake E's past, say the researchers, could be the key to our global climate future.

The El'gygytgyn Drilling Project also was funded by the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP), the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research, Alfred Wegener Institute, GeoForschungsZentrum-Potsdam, the Russian Academy of Sciences Far East Branch, the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, and the Austrian Ministry for Science and Research.

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NSF Director and Russian Science Minister Sign Historic Agreement for Bilateral Collaboration

Today, National Science Foundation (NSF) Director Subra Suresh signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Russian Education and Science Minister Andrei Fursenko to foster the continued growth of U.S.-Russian science and technology cooperation.

Noting the historic significance of this, the first time that NSF and the Russian Ministry of Education have agreed to jointly support each nation's scientists, Suresh discussed the importance of cooperation in nanoscience, energy and information technology in addressing the global challenges of adapting to environmental, social and cultural changes associated with the growth and development of human populations and attaining a sustainable energy future.

"This agreement between the National Science Foundation and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation opens up a vast possibility for advancing research collaborations between USA and Russian scientists in all NSF supported disciplines," said Machi Dilworth, director of NSF's Office of International Science and Engineering.

Fursenko was first appointed Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation on March 9, 2004, by a Presidential Decree and was re-appointed to this post following the re-election of President Vladimir Putin to his second term in May 2004.

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Astronaut, Food Scientist To Discuss Thanksgiving In Space

Michael Curie
Headquarters, Washington

Jay Bolden

Johnson Space Center, Houston

HOUSTON – Please pass the irradiated smoked turkey, thermostable yams and freeze-dried green beans. The International Space Station is stocked and ready for an out-of-this-world Thanksgiving feast.

The three station crew members, one American and two Russians, will enjoy a holiday dinner floating 220 miles above Earth. In addition to the traditional holiday favorites, albeit with a space-food flair, their menu will include NASA's own cornbread dressing, as well as home style potatoes and cranberries. And, along with the best view from any Thanksgiving table, cherry-blueberry cobbler is available for dessert.

Vickie Kloeris, NASA food scientist and manager of the space station food system, and astronaut Clay Anderson are available for live satellite interviews on Wednesday, Nov. 23, from 6-7:30 a.m. CST to discuss the station's Thanksgiving menu. A veteran of two space flights, Anderson spent 152 days living aboard the station in 2007 and returned to the outpost in 2010 as a member of space shuttle mission STS-131. Related b-roll will precede the interviews at 5:30 a.m.

To arrange an interview, news media representatives must contact the Johnson Space Center newsroom at 281-483-5111 no later than 3 p.m. on Nov. 22.

Participating media must tune into NASA Television's Live Interview Media Outlet channel. The channel is a digital satellite C-band downlink by uplink provider Americom. It is on satellite SES 2, transponder 9C, located at 87 degrees west, downlink frequency 3865.5 MHz based on a standard C-band, horizontal downlink polarity. FEC is 3/4, data rate is 6.0 Mbps, symbol rate is 4.3404 Msps, transmission DVB-S, 4:2:0.

NASA astronaut Dan Burbank and Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin arrived at the station Tuesday and will spend this holiday season aboard the orbiting laboratory. They are scheduled to live and work aboard the station until March, conducting dozens of experiments and preparing for the arrival of new commercial resupply spacecraft.

Burbank recently described the station crew's plans for celebrating Thanksgiving. For footage of his description, which includes displays of food that will make up their holiday feast, visit http://go.nasa.gov/tk7dHj.

For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

For more information about the space station and its crew, visit http://www.nasa.gov/station.

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Sputnik 1

Check out some of the best NASA books written by military heroes who became NASA astronauts.

On Oct. 4, 1957, Sputnik 1 successfully launched and entered Earth's orbit. Thus, began the space age. The successful launch shocked the world, giving the former Soviet Union the distinction of putting the first human-made object into space. The word 'Sputnik' originally meant 'fellow traveler,' but has become synonymous with 'satellite' in modern Russian.

This historic image shows a technician putting the finishing touches on Sputnik 1, humanity's first artificial satellite. The pressurized sphere made of aluminum alloy had five primary scientific objectives: Test the method of placing an artificial satellite into Earth orbit; provide information on the density of the atmosphere by calculating its lifetime in orbit; test radio and optical methods of orbital tracking; determine the effects of radio wave propagation though the atmosphere; and, check principles of pressurization used on the satellites.

Image Credit: NASA/Asif A. Siddiqi

Spacewalkers Progressing Through Tasks

Spacewalker Mike Fossum fixed a grounding wire protruding from a Zarya module payload data grapple fixture (PDGF) that was installed on STS-134. The PDGF is a mounting position that the station’s robotic arm can attach to for access to the Russian segment.

The multi-layer insulation (MLI) grounding wire was stuck in a latch door, and Fossum tucked it under Velcro tabs and put the MLI back in place. Fossum performed the same operation on a second latch door and checked the remaining two latch doors.

Defense Department, Services Monitor Arctic Melting

By Lisa Daniel

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 27, 2011 – With the number of geopolitical hotspots in the world today, the Arctic is not an area that comes quickly to mind for possible defense operations. But it is a place of great national security and strategic importance that the Defense Department and services are monitoring closely.

In a report sent to Congress earlier this month, DOD officials say the Arctic is a place they and the services are paying attention to because of rapid climate change there that likely will open the area to greater human inhabitation and possible threats to U.S. interests.

The polar icecap and harsh Arctic environment have long enhanced U.S. security by acting as a northern barrier to the United States, the report says. The melting of the icecap already is causing increased human activity, such as with oil and gas exploration and tourism, that could affect U.S. interests there and raise issues about maritime travel, it says.

Navy Adm. Gary Roughead, chief of naval operations, explained the level of U.S. interests in the Arctic during a June 16 Arctic seminar here. The region is “extraordinarily important for our Navy, for our military, and for our nation,” he said.

“There is a phenomenal event taking place on the planet today,” Roughead said, referring to the opening up of the Arctic Ocean from melting polar ice caps. “We haven’t had an ocean open on this planet since the end of the Ice Age. So, if this is not a significant change that requires new, and I would submit, brave thinking on the topic, I don’t know what other sort of physical event could produce that.”

Roughead established a task force to consider climate change’s impact on the Navy and how it should respond. Some things to consider is how melting ice and warming oceans will cause fish to travel north, opening up a fishing industry in the Arctic, as well as create more maritime traffic, in general. Within 25 years, he said, the Arctic could become a profitable sea route from Asia to Europe.

Besides the occasional battle at sea, the admiral said, “navies exist to grease the intercourse of commerce globally.”

The Army also is taking steps to reassess its Arctic capabilities and plan for changing conditions in the region, the report says. The renewed military interest follows years of drawdown in the Arctic that followed the end of the Cold War with Russia.

According to the report, the Arctic is warming at twice the rate of the rest of planet, resulting in increased human activity in the area, and presenting the opportunity for multilateral cooperation in shaping the future there.

The report stops short of advising a renewed military buildup in the Arctic, citing the lack of scientific consensus on long-term environmental changes there, the expectation that growth will be gradual and uneven, and the long lead time needed to develop capabilities there -- all of which occur at a time of strict budget constraints.

Despite the warming, the Arctic still is an inhospitable climate, making defense capabilities difficult, the report says. Also, it notes, communications and the performance global positioning systems are limited in the area by magnetic and solar phenomena and poor satellite geometry and ionospheric effects, respectively.

The report notes there is low risk of military hostilities in the Arctic. The United States is part of the eight-member Arctic Council, along with Russia, Canada, Iceland, Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. All are publically committed to working within a common framework of international laws and diplomacies, and have demonstrated that commitment for 50 years, it says.

Still, DOD officials say the report and the department’s careful monitoring of the Arctic is important so the United States can be on the leading edge of protecting its interests there. Because the changes are slow-onset, one DOD official told American Forces Press Service, “We have the ability to shape how that happens and ensure it happens in a cooperative fashion. It gives us the ability to move forward in a measured and strategic way.”

As the department assesses the situation, officials are mindful of the national interests of its partner nations in the Arctic, namely Russia, which has some 4,350 miles of Arctic coastline, and garners 12 percent of its gross domestic product from the region, the report says.

New Strategy Shows Importance of Space Domain, Lynn Says

By Lisa Daniel

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16, 2011 – The Defense Department’s release last month of the first U.S. National Security Space Strategy underscores the importance of the domain and the need to properly develop it, Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III said today.

More than 60 years after the U.S.-Russian space race began, the space domain has become crowded and competitive, with at least 60 nations having objects in space, Lynn said during a discussion at the Center for Strategic and International Security here.

Lynn was joined by Marine Corps Gen. James E. Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former commander of U.S. Strategic Command, and Air Force Secretary Michael B. Donley. John J. Hamre, CSIS president and CEO and a former deputy secretary of defense, moderated the discussion.

“Space is no longer the private preserve of the U.S. and Soviet Union,” Lynn said. Twenty-five years ago, the United States controlled two-thirds of the space market; today, that presence has slipped to below 40 percent, he said.

“We needed a strategy to protect space itself, and we needed a strategy to protect the space industrial base,” Lynn said.

Hamre noted that 37 U.S. senators signed a letter of concern to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Feb. 2 stating their concern that the European Union is developing a space “code of conduct” that could undermine the U.S. space presence and harm security.

To the contrary, Lynn said, proposals for the code are consistent with U.S. space strategy to promote freedom of access and require timely notification of problems in space. It also retains countries’ rights of self-defense in space, he added.

“We think this kind of voluntary code of conduct that promotes responsible behavior … should be viewed positively,” he said.

The military has used the space domain for decades for important missions with missiles, communications and weather, Donley said, but only recently came to appreciate the importance of surveying space itself and understanding what’s going on there.

“We need to improve our capacity to understand what’s going on in space,” Donley said. To do that, he explained, the United States has developed a “space fence” over the southern part of the country to catch space debris, and last year, the Air Force launched the first space-based surveillance system.

Cartwright outlined several ways to develop the space domain, such as requiring rules, or “norms,” on things such as how close spacecraft can be to others, and requiring notification of new spacecraft and any potential problems in space.

Countries “have been operating in space like no one knows it’s there,” the general said, suggesting that space could be governed similarly to the sea and air.

“Just like we did in the air, and just like we did in the oceans, you have to acknowledge what’s there,” he said.

Maintaining situational awareness in space is critical, Cartwright said. “Absent that, you’re in a very large state of ambiguity,” he added.

Also, the government has to help in improving the commercial space industry to allow for better equipment that delivers information more quickly, Cartwright said. “We have a good idea of what’s out there,” he said, “as long as you give us days to figure it out.”

As for defenses in space, Cartwright said the main thing to remember is that “if there’s going to be contested activity in space, it doesn’t mean we have to respond in space.” A large amount of U.S. space capabilities are run through ground systems, he explained.

The panelists agreed that the government needs to help the U.S. space industry by changing export laws and amending acquisition policies. Also, they said, the United States must partner with other countries in space.

“We still have the attitude that we’re going to go it alone,” Cartwright said. “We can’t afford it. We don’t fight as a single nation any more; we fight as multiple constructs. We’ve got to fight in a combined way, whether it’s sea, air or space.”

Spacewalk From International Space Station Will Air On NASA TV

Stephanie Schierholz

Headquarters, Washington                                   

 

Kelly Humphries

Johnson Space Center, Houston

HOUSTON -- Two Russian cosmonauts will step outside the International Space Station on Wednesday, Feb. 16. They will install and retrieve experiments on the Russian segment of the complex and deploy a small ham radio satellite. NASA Television coverage of the spacewalk will begin at 6:45 a.m. CST.

Expedition 26 Flight Engineers Dmitry Kondratyev and Oleg Skripochka, wearing their Russian Orlan spacesuits, will emerge from the Pirs Docking Compartment airlock for the second time in four weeks at about 7:15 a.m.

During the nearly six-hour spacewalk, they will install two experiments. One will collect information useful in seismic forecasts and earthquake predictions, and the second will look at gamma splashes and optical radiation during terrestrial lightning and thunderstorms. The spacewalkers also will retrieve a pair of panels exposed to space as part of an experiment to identify the best materials for building long-duration spacecraft.

The cosmonauts also will deploy an experiment called ARISSat-1, or Radioskaf-V, a boxy 57-pound nanosatellite that houses congratulatory messages commemorating the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's launch to become the first human in space. The ham radio transmitter will enable communications with amateur radio operators around the world for three to six months. It is the first of a series of educational satellites being developed in a partnership with the Radio Amateur Satellite Corp.; the NASA Office of Education International Space Station National Lab Project; the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station working group; and RSC-Energia.

The spacewalk will be the second for Kondratyev, who will wear the spacesuit marked with red stripes, and the third for Skripochka, who will wear the suit with blue stripes.

For more information about the International Space Station and its crew members, visit http://www.nasa.gov/station.

For NASA TV downlink, schedule and streaming video information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

For more information about ham radio on the space station, visit http://www.spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/reference/radio.

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NASA TV to Show Russian Space Station Cargo Ship Arrival

Stephanie Schierholz

Headquarters, Washington                                        

 

Kelly Humphries

Johnson Space Center, Houston

HOUSTON -- The residents of the International Space Station will receive a second shipment of food, fuel and supplies this week. NASA Television will provide a live broadcast of the Russian cargo ship's arrival Saturday, Jan. 29.

Expedition 26 Commander Scott Kelly and Flight Engineers Cady Coleman, Páolo Néspoli, Alexander Kaleri, Oleg Skripochka and Dmitry Kondratyev will be standing by as the 41st unpiloted Russian Progress resupply craft automatically berths to the Pirs docking compartment at 8:40 p.m. CST. NASA TV coverage of the new Progress' arrival at the station will begin at 8 p.m.

The cargo ship is carrying three tons of supplies for the six crew members. It is scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 7:31 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 27 (7:31 a.m. Baikonur time on Jan. 28). NASA TV will not provide coverage of the launch.

The shipment is set to arrive on the heels of the Jan. 27 rendezvous and arrival of the Kounotori2 H-II Transfer Vehicle 2 developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The European Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle, Johannes Kepler, that is carrying additional supplies for the station is set to launch Feb. 15 on an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana.

For more information about these three upcoming cargo missions for the space station, visit http://www.nasa.gov/station.

For NASA TV downlink, schedule and streaming video information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

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Next International Space Station Crew Holds News Conference

Joshua Buck

Headquarters, Washington     

 

Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters

Johnson Space Center, Houston

 

HOUSTON -- The next three crew members to live and work aboard the International Space Station will hold a news conference at 1 p.m. CST on Wednesday, Jan. 26 at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. The news conference will be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency's website. Questions will be taken from participating NASA centers.

NASA astronaut Ron Garan and crewmates, Russian cosmonauts Alexander Samokutyaev and Andrey Borisenko, will participate in individual round-robin interviews, in person or by phone, following the news conference. The crew also will participate in a photo opportunity for reporters at Johnson.

U.S. and foreign media representatives planning to attend the briefing or participate in the round-robin interviews must contact the Johnson newsroom at 281-483-5111 by 4 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 24.

Garan, Samokutyaev and Borisenko are three of the six crew members for Expedition 27 and 28. The trio is scheduled to launch to the station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on March 29 (March 30 Kazakhstan time). They will join Expedition 27 NASA astronaut Cady Coleman, European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli and Russian cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev who will stay aboard the station until mid-May.

On June 1, NASA's Mike Fossum, Japan's Satoshi Furukawa and Russia's Sergei Volkov will join Garan, Samokutyaev and Borisenko to complete the Expedition 28 crew.

For the astronaut and cosmonaut biographical information, visit http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/.

For NASA TV streaming video, schedules and downlink information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

 

For more information about the crew members and their mission, visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition27.

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NASA Television To Air Space Station Spacewalk

Michael Curie

Headquarters, Washington

 

Kelly Humphries

Johnson Space Center, Houston

HOUSTON -- Two Russian cosmonauts on the International Space Station will conduct a spacewalk Friday, Jan. 21, to prepare the complex for future assembly and experiment work. The spacewalk will air live on NASA Television beginning at 8 a.m. CST.

Expedition 26 Flight Engineers Dmitry Kondratyev and Oleg Skripochka will perform the six-hour spacewalk.They will install an experimental Russian radio transmission system, retrieve existing experiments and install a TV camera on the Rassvet mini-research module that will assist in future dockings of vehicles to that port.

The Russian cosmonauts will exit the Pirs docking compartment airlock around 8:20 a.m. in their Russian Orlan spacesuits. The spacewalk will be the first for Kondratyev, who will wear the spacesuit marked with red stripes, and the second for Skripochka, who will wear the suit with blue stripes. Skripochka's first spacewalk was Nov. 15, 2010, and lasted six hours and 27 minutes.

For more information about the International Space Station visit http://www.nasa.gov/station.

For NASA TV downlink, schedule and streaming video information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

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