Every year, April 12 is a day set aside to celebrate the wonders of having access to outer space. On this date in 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human being to reach space. The date got a boost when a lucky launch delay put the first Space Shuttle launch on the same day in 1981. Yuri’s Night itself [...]
Post Tagged with: “Space Shuttle”
Former NASA Employees Bring Safety to Oil Rigs
What does a NASA safety engineer do when his shuttle’s been retired and his agency’s downsizing? He signs up with the oil industry. It turns out that many of the risk assessment methodologies and safety culture elements that NASA employees have honed over the the past decades translate quite nicely to the oil industry, according to recent reporting by Fuelfix‘s [...]
Shuttle’s Remaining Boosters to Burn at Kennedy Space Center
At the end of February 2013, NASA will detonate the last Shuttle Booster Separating Motors (SBSMs) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, concluding Shuttle Transition and Retirement Program activities. “It’s not going to make a big boom,” said Anthony Tripp, a professional engineer with Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection. “Just like a shuttle launch, all that’s going to [...]
Dennis Tito Plans To Launch Manned Mission to Mars in 2018
Dennis Tito, best known for being the first space tourist, is planning to launch a manned mission to Mars in January 2018. The announcement was issued by the newly formed Inspiration Mars Foundation, in a press release stating that “[the mission] will generate new knowledge, experience and momentum for the next great era of space exploration.” The new organization, led [...]
Timeline of Columbia’s Final Flight
February 1 will be the tenth anniversary of the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia. Following a full 16 day mission, the crew of STS-107 were doomed when the effects of a foam impact on the shuttle’s right wing manifested following atmospheric reentry. Review the timeline of Columbia’s final moments below. Source SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer [...]
Can “UFO Sightings” Help ISS?
Unidentified flying objects (UFO) are always tickling the imaginations of many people. Now, alleged sightings are taking place not only on Earth, but also on the International Space Station (ISS). “Spacecraft-generated ‘dandruff’ has been seen since the very first human spaceflights,” said James Oberg, former NASA engineer specialized in Space Shuttle operations, “when the non-intuitive relative motions and impossible-to-judge distances [...]
Preventing a Repeat of Columbia
The disintegration of Space Shuttle Columbia following reentry of STS-107 on February 1, 2003 was a disaster and a tragedy. But it is important to remember that this tragedy did not stand on its own; it followed 17 years after another Shuttle disaster, the explosion of Challenger moments after its launch. Although the direct technical causes of the two accidents [...]
Learning from Columbia
In the lead up to the tenth anniversary of the disintegration of Columbia and loss of all its crew on February 1, Space Safety Magazine spoke with someone who remains intimately connected with Columbia to this day. NASA’s Mike Ciannilli now serves as Project Manager of the Columbia Research and Preservation Office; on February 1, 2003, he was Columbia’s test [...]
Study Suggests Enhanced Alzheimer’s Risk for Spacefarers
A study published in PLOS One on December 31 suggests that there may be unforeseen long term effects on spacefarers’ health. Long term exposure to heavily charged Galactic Cosmic Radiation (GCR) could increase the chances of incurring Alzheimers. The study, which was conducted at the University of Rochester and Harvard Medical School with funding from NASA’s Space Radiobiology Research Program, [...]
Canadian Experiment to Focus on the Deadliest Radiation
High energy neutron particles cause the most dangerous type of space radiation. Representing approximately 30 percent of all radiation the astronauts aboard the ISS receive, it has the ability to damage biological cells and tissues. Created when charged particles collide with physical matter, such as the space station walls or equipment, the neutrons can penetrate organic tissues, harm the DNA, [...]
