ET-134 Arrives at Kennedy Space Center


This video montage shows space shuttle external tank ET-134’s arrival at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

 


Watch this video (Windows, streaming)


At approximately 8:00 a.m. EDT on Oct. 24, NASA ship Liberty Star transferred Pegasus and ET-134 to tug boats Lou Anne Guidry and WP Scott in Port Canaveral. After a four-hour trip along the calm waters of Port Canaveral channel and the Banana River, Pegasus and ET-134 arrived on dock at the turn basin in front of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), where it was prepped and off-loaded.

 


Public affairs officer/blogger Steve Roy surveys the ocean ahead during the voyage of
Liberty Star, Pegasus and ET-134 from Gulfport, Miss. to Kennedy Space Center.
Aarg!

Exploration: It's a Matter of Timing


As we prepare to say farewell to ET-134 at the dock at Kennedy Space Center, I think back on what an amazing opportunity it was to meet the ships’ crew and two of the most important seafaring vessels that have served the space program. The chance to sail with Pegasus and Liberty Star across some of the most historical waters in the western hemisphere has been something of a personal exploration, like roaming the mountains and forest of the Appalachian Trail or the Pacific Crest Trail, albeit a little less physically strenuous.

To hop onboard a ship and sail across bodies of water that have served as the same pathways of exploration to the farthest reaches of North and South America; served explorers for centuries; setting the stage for building a new world; has been nothing short of an honor and special privilege. It makes me giddy to think about what is to follow in the years, decades, and centuries ahead; space journeys to unknown places with immense unknown possibilities.


This artist’s concept illustrates the idea that rocky, terrestrial worlds like the inner
planets in our solar system, may be plentiful and diverse in the universe.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech 
View all blog images in this Flickr gallery

The time is coming for an explosion of human exploration across the solar system; a tide of exploration the like of which we have not seen in recent history. New technologies, materials, navigation and communication devices, foods, fuels, operational techniques, SpaceLogistics, SpaceEngineering, strategies and ideas are coalescing to form the dynamo to inspire and drive the next biggest step yet in human history, the human exploration of the solar system and beyond.

Sources of water are abundant, even on our moon, but especially on ice capped moons and the polar regions of planets.
Thanks to NASA’s orbiting “Great Observatories” telescopes — Spitzer in infrared, Hubble in visible light, the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory and Chandra in X-ray — and thanks to many government and university operated ground based observatories, we now know of the existence of almost 300 planets; at least one with tantalizing Earth-like characteristics; 430 light years away.


The Crab Nebula, the result of a supernova seen in 1054 AD. Credit: NASA, ESA,
J. Hester, A. Loll (ASU); Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin (Skyfactory)

Unfortunately, timing is not always on the side of the explorer. For instance, by the early 1700s the American frontier had been defined by the Appalachian Mountains; a useful geographical border for a hundred years and defined by policies of the home government in England 2,500 miles away across the Atlantic Ocean. The home government forbade general exploration beyond the Appalachians in order to prevent hostilities with the Native American tribes and thus implemented the most important element of home rule policy; insure fur trading went east to England via American ports.

While American explorers were prevented from a general advance to the west, aggressive and highly motivated Spanish explorers had long since explored the southwestern reaches of America and French trappers and traders had pushed well beyond the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River and already knew well the Indians of the Great Plains, particularly the great Sioux nation. 

It wasn’t until the early 1800s that American “Mountain Men” trickled west of St. Louis. But when America finally got going west, it got going with great abandonment and enthusiasm. The 1804-1806 Lewis and Clarke expedition sponsored by President Jefferson finally found the Northwest Passage and set the stage for the great treks west by the millions that would follow the wastage of the Civil War.
In 1838 President Martin Van Buren sent a small, inexpensive but adventurous six-vessel American fleet, known as the Exploring Expedition, to explore the Pacific in relatively tiny ships; learning firsthand the perils of sailing in Polynesia and along the way made a very minor side trip from those warm waters to discover the coast of Antarctica. Of course, English whalers and Spanish galleons had already passed through these waters for over a hundred years.


Antarctica, a frozen desert. Credit: NASA/Carnegie-Mellon University

By 1840 the dream to go west was gaining momentum and the Conestoga wagons were being built, but they wouldn’t be called by that name for many more years. What a great name for a future space ship designed to carry cargo, the Conestoga Maru.

It is now 2009 and the clock of exploration is ticking again. Timing is everything. In the 1960s we went to the moon because the timing of competition on the international scene was right. In 1998 we started building our first big space station, the International Space Station, because the timing for partnering was right. Building the station was hardly an end game, it was costly and hard work — worthwhile as our first long term way station in space; a place to test ourselves and to hone our operational procedures like automated rendezvous and docking; to analyze, to study, to engineer, to use, break and fix things that keep spacefarers healthy like the COLBERT treadmill and to keep them alive; a stepping stone of exploration and simultaneously a place of scientific study for exploration and to better life on Earth.

The pathways and signal lights have been lit; ignited by every human in human experience carrying a torch that ventured to the next valley in search of a better life or simply because another valley might be there, over the mountains; lit by every settler who never made it to across the prairies to Oregon or California and by those that did; lit by every lost explorer smashed on the rocks at La Tierra del Fuego; lit by Magellan and Cook and lit by every astronaut spacefarer who took the risk to fly into space.

The clock is ticking. Humanity has arrived very close to the opening of the new path, a new era of exploration. The pathways of seafarers defined by compass bearings across the oceans, guided by the sun and the stars, will be replaced with computer-generated interplanetary (eventually interstellar) trajectories, some coasting in the gravity field, some using gravity assist from planets to increase their energy, some thrusting during most of the journey, to far distant planets and moons. 


Earthrise, as seen from the moon during the Apollo 8 mission. Credit: NASA

Way stations for stock piling fuels, food, water, supplies, and all forms of hardware for spaceflight will be established along the path to sustain these deep space missions. However, settlers coming to stay will have to learn to live off the land using local planetary resources for developing energy sources, building habitats and constructing a support infrastructure. 

It would be fitting if at least some of the way stations be named Detroit, Michilimackinac, Laramie or Oswego. Search and rescue spacecraft will patrol the frontier to bring back exhausted and depleted survivors or damaged space ships; just like U.S. Coast Guard does for us. Perhaps our future life guards will be named the Space Guards. An infrastructure of colonies will grow up around launch pads, landing pads, watering holes, logistics bases, drilling and mining operations, way stations, and science exploration sites — and who knows, maybe even archeology sites. Wouldn’t that be something. How about excavating a giant, shinny, black monolith on Europa!

John F. Ross writes today in his recent book about Robert Rogers, of Rogers Rangers fame. Speaking of the days of early exploration of the American continent, he says, “Certainly British colonists in Boston and Philadelphia could imagine vast stretches of forest, but understanding America was like understanding the solar system before spaceflight. People had a sense of the solar system as an immense place, punctuated by planets and stars, but not until ships blasted off into space and probes raced to its outer edges did humans look at the cosmos in new, revolutionary ways, most notably gaining the insight that the fragile orb of Earth is a finite place. And only when Europeans gained purchase on vast North America — through descriptions and explorations — could their perceptions change from dread to eager embrace of the immense possibilities.”

NASA scientist Peter Curreri of my own Marshall Space Flight Center says it this way: “The first astronauts plant the flag, like Columbus. Then settlers begin to live in the solar system as in early America, permanently (like Jamestown), except now it’s a space station, an asteroid base or a lunar base. They live off the land, and become more independent. They find riches and resources beyond the expectations of robotic surveys. They make use of unlimited energy from space solar power, and begin to develop large habitats on their new home. They develop a solar system economy that would astound us in the same way that the eventual richness of the United States astounded the old world.  Eventually this new rich solar system society has the financial wealth to boldly push into interstellar space to the new solar systems beyond like when America boldly put men on the moon.”


Apollo astronaut on the moon. Credit: NASA

Whatever the immense possibilities are, in the early years it will certainly be rough; like camping without any amenities; tougher than cresting the Appalachians or crossing the Mississippi; journeying into a very unforgiving unknown; a journey for the stoutest, stalwart, creative, innovative, independent, and curious.

I might mention one final note about exploration. When people do venture in large numbers into space, no one in space will have to worry about finding a job because the most sought after person in the solar system will be your neighborhood mechanic.

Good luck to all of us — all 6.8 billion of us.

Remaining Shuttle Missions


As “Sailing with NASA” winds down, I’d like to remind everyone of the remaining space shuttle launches and their respective missions, all headed for International Space Station. Check it out and go see a launch. It’s good for you!

Remaining 2009 Launch

Date: Nov. 16 +
Mission: STS-129
Launch Vehicle: Space Shuttle Atlantis
Launch Site: Kennedy Space Center – Launch Pad 39A
Description: Space shuttle Atlantis will deliver components including two spare gyroscopes, two nitrogen tank assemblies, two pump modules, an ammonia tank assembly and a spare latching end effect or for the station’s robotic arm to the International Space Station.

2010 Launches
Date: Feb. 4 +
Mission: STS-130
Launch Vehicle: Space Shuttle Endeavour
Launch Site: Kennedy Space Center – Launch Pad 39A
Description: Space shuttle Endeavour will deliver the final connecting node, Node 3, and the Cupola, a robotic control station with six windows around its sides and another in the center that provides a 360-degree view around the International Space Station.

Date: March 18 +
Mission: STS-131
Launch Vehicle: Space Shuttle Discovery
Launch Site: Kennedy Space Center – Launch Pad 39A
Description: Space shuttle Discovery will carry a Multi-Purpose Logistics Module filled with science racks that will be transferred to laboratories of the International Space Station.

Date: May 14 +
Mission: STS-132
Launch Vehicle: Space Shuttle Atlantis
Launch Site: Kennedy Space Center – Launch Pad 39A
Description: Space shuttle Atlantis mission will carry an integrated cargo carrier to deliver maintenance and assembly hardware, including spare parts for space station systems. In addition, the second in a series of new pressurized components for Russia, a Mini Research Module, will be permanently attached to the bottom port of the Zarya module.

Date: July 29 +
Mission: STS-134
Launch Vehicle: Space Shuttle Endeavour
Launch Site: Kennedy Space Center – Launch Pad 39A
Description: Space shuttle Discovery will deliver an EXPRESS Logistics Carrier-3 (ELC-3) and the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) to the International Space Station.

Date: Sept. 16 +
Mission: STS-133
Launch Vehicle: Space Shuttle Discovery
Launch Site: Kennedy Space Center – Launch Pad 39A
Description: Space shuttle Endeavour will deliver the Express Logistics Carrier 4 (ELC4), a Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MLPM) and critical spare components to the International Space Station.

ET-134 Rolls Off Pegasus on to Kennedy Space Center


2:11 p.m., Eastern, Oct. 24
ET-134 Rolls Off Pegasus on to Kennedy Space Center

Following arrival of Pegasus on dock at Kennedy Space Center, the Pegasus crew leveled the barge with the dock and opened the cargo doors, readying the vessel for an invasion of a small army of Kennedy-based technicians. These teams of United Space Alliance technicians from External Tank and Integration, Launch and Recovery Operations swarmed around ET-134, removing support stanchions, hydraulic lifts, and lowering ET’s transporter on to its four massive wheel assemblies.  


In the images above: ET-134 journeys into the Vehicle Assembly
Facility, where it will be readied for a February flight into space. Credit: NASA

ET-134, looking handsome and ready to fly, rolled on to Kennedy Space Center at exactly 2:11 p.m., continuing on to the distant Vehicle Assembly Building. Pegasus, its day not quite done, was towed back into the turn basin by the Lou Anna Guidry and WP Scott and began its final journey of the day to docks at Port Canaveral. Like Liberty Star, Pegasus will be pressed back into service to sail again very soon.
 
It’s been an amazing journey for all of us; hard-charging Liberty Star; obedient and protective Pegasus; eager to fly ET-134; and television producer Mick Speer and public affairs blogging Steve Roy, both proud to have served with the crew of Liberty Star and  Pegasus. 

The watch is now reporting … all is well.

Pegasus Arrives on Dock at KSC


12:41 p.m., Eastern Time
Pegasus Arrives on Dock at KSC

After a four hour trip from Port Canaveral to Kennedy Space Center (under observation by numerous alligators, dolphins, manatees and pelicans), Pegasus has arrived on dock at the turn basin in front of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). ET-134 is being prepared for immediate off load and move to the VAB. More later…

In the meantime, check out this this awesome video that just became available this morning. It shows Liberty Star on Day Two and day Three of the journey, under way in the central Gulf of Mexico after leaving Gulfport, Miss. The seas were rough, swelling to 12 feet, with high northeasterly winds with gusts up to 30 knots.

Meet John C. Fischbeck III,Master Mariner


John C. Fischbeck III, Master Mariner
 
John Fischbeck III, 59, is a native of Honolulu, Hawaii, a graduate of Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, in business administration and a Navy veteran of the Vietnam War. His entire Navy service, 1965-1971, was spent aboard the aircraft carrier Yorktown.

In 1979, he completed training as a Merchant Marine Officer and today has achieved the highest rank in the commercial maritime industry, Master Mariner. At NASA/USA, he serves as solid rocket booster retrieval operations supervisor.

Let’s ask John what achieving Master Mariner means. John says, “Achieving Master Mariner is one of the most important goals in my life.” The term Master Mariner was introduced in the United States in the mid-19th century; earlier in England. Currently, a U.S. Master Mariner License is reserved for those few who have attained the level of Unlimited Master, as well as Unlimited Chief EngineerSenior. Traditionally, a person holding an unrestricted master’s license is called a Master Mariner.  The term unrestricted indicates that there is no restriction of size, power or geographic location of the vessel on the license.

It is the highest level of professional qualification amongst mariners.

John has served as Master on all three booster recovery ships including the Liberty Star, Freedom Star and Independence. He has served on 125 booster recovery missions, more than any other member USA Marine Operations.
 
John’s current responsibilities include onboard Marine Operations Manager for the Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) Retrieval Operations and External Tank (ET) Ocean Transportation Operations.
 
What does John like most about the job at sea? In his own words, “supporting America’s spaceflight program, the great team of people I work with, and the ever-changing conditions that confront us everyday. Challenge, Adjustment, Success!”
 
What does John like to do when not sailing with NASA?  He ships out again…on ocean yacht racing, sail cruising and studying the  guitar/banjo.

Liberty Star Transfers Pegasus and ET-134 to Tug Boats Lou Anne Guidry and WP Scott in Port Canaveral


8:00 a.m. Eastern, Oct. 24
Liberty Star Transfers Pegasus and ET-134 to Tug Boats Lou Anne Guidry and WP Scott in Port Canaveral

Pegasus is now under way in the calm waters of Port Canaveral channel enroute to the Banana River and eventually, the turn basin at the Kennedy Space Center near the Vehicle Assembly Building. Television producer Mick Speer and public affairs blogger Steve Roy negotiated, with excellent help from the crew on the tug boat WP Scott, the transfer to Pegasus without incident and without getting wet. The transit from Port Canaveral to the Vehicle Assembly Building will take approximately four hours. 


In the Port Canaveral channel crews of Pegasus and Liberty Star complete the
break of the tow in preparation for tug boats Lou Anne Guidry and WP Scott to
move into position and begin the final leg of the trip to Kennedy Space Center.
Credit: NASA

As planned, after dropping the tow to the tugs, Liberty Star sailed off ahead of Pegasus, eager to prepare for the next mission.

The weather is beautiful this morning in the Cocoa Beach area as we progress thru the Port Canaveral locks. ET-134 looks sharp and ready to unload, perhaps even chomping at the bit.

The watch reports…all is well.

Liberty Star is in the Home Stretch


6:15 p.m., Eastern Time, Oct. 23
Captain’s Corner, Liberty Star

This evening Liberty is under way for home waters, currently just north of Ft. Pierce, Fla., making about 5 knots with quartering winds from the southeast. This speed permits arrival off Port Canaveral early tomorrow morning, at approximately 7 a.m., for a daylight transfer of the barge Pegasus and ET-134 to two commercial tugboats.

The tugs will tow/push Pegasus through the Port Canaveral channel to the Banana River, then north to the turn basin at the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center. Meanwhile, Liberty Star will proceed on her own through the Port Canaveral channel to the Banana River and on to her dock at Hangar AF, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Today, we’ve shortened the tow cable from 1,800 feet to 300 feet, permitting safer transit in shallow waters along the remainder of the route.

The ship is in great shape, but has a lot of work to accomplish before getting under way on Monday to support the Ares 1-X Test Flight scheduled for Tuesday.

The crew of Liberty Star is eager to close home port and get ready for the next mission.

Mike Nicholas
Captain
M/V Liberty Star

Life On Board Liberty Star: A Typical Day


9 am Eastern Time, Central Gulf of Mexico, Bearing south for the Dry Tortugas

From the point of view of sailing on a ship, everything at sea seems to be integrated into one experience; the sea and the weather as one, the crew and the ship.  I could be wrong, but that’s what it seems.

The Weather and the Sea
The weather is clearing but still partly cloudy, giving the sea an unqualified, but pleasing, purple color. Swells are rising from 4-6 feet and north northeasterly winds at 20-27 knots are continuing to roll the Liberty Star from port to starboard rather unpleasantly for land lubbers — but certainly not dangerously. Some rolls to starboard are up to slightly over 20 degrees; these you really notice, throwing you off your feet, if not prepared. Winds are expected to continue unabated throughout the voyage. 

Pegasus’ bow plunges majestically a few feet, throwing white sea spray onto and over its bow. Reports from Pegasus say ET-134 is doing fine, its black beak occasionally lifting skyward, as if doing its part; lunging forward to reach Kennedy Space Center. 

A few rain squalls are passing on all sides of Liberty Star, but don’t pose any problems. Hundreds of white caps top the sea’s surface. 
In other words the weather is fine, posing no problems for Liberty Star or crew, except anticipating that side-to-side roll, which is absolutely relentless and perfectly normal.

The Crew
The ten-person, well-trained and highly-experienced crew of Liberty Star is in constant movement throughout the ship. Captain Mike Nicholas roams the vessel keeping his own schedule, checking the tow, the engines, the sea and weather, and questioning the status of operations. 

The cook, Dragan Jurkovic, is in constant motion in the galley preparing meals as he is hurtled from starboard to port, saved by grabbing on to galley furniture and other fixtures. Dragan sustains the crew with wonderful full comfort meals of pork chops grilled to perfection with browned potatoes, peeled by the blogger public affairs officer — well, it’s what he does at home for his wife! — tasty stewed vegetables, crisp baked fish, savory chicken marsala, grilled New York strip steaks, cups of piping hot café latte, spreads of luncheon meat and six kinds of bread, chicken salad wraps and this afternoon…BBQ pork ribs…and tonight, filet mignon and sea scallops.

In the main deck engineers Trish Hershock and Danny Dugan share tough six hour shifts monitoring the status of the two Electric Motor Division (EMD) engines and drive shafts, generators, status of fuel and all other machinery necessary to push the ship forward. In addition to keeping up with Liberty Star’s current operations, the engineers are also planning for future operations: Trish ordering fuel for the sailing the next Monday for support of the Ares 1-X launch and booster  recovery operations, and Danny, who normally serves as Maritime Operations Port Engineer, also making plans for future operations and upgrades for port facilities.

The rest of the crew performs their primary functions as well as the vital function of standing watch on the bridge. A two-person team is always on watch: Cody Gordon and Al Grivina stand the watch together; John Jacobs and Clint Small another watch; and finally, John Bensen and Todd Rose stand watch.  Each team stands watch four hours and is off duty, roughly speaking, eight hours. 

Oddly, when moving around the ship in the middle of the day, one encounters few members of the crew, as many crew are resting for the next shift. At night, the bridge watch stands vigilant in near total darkness preferring to use radar imagery and personal vision conditioned for darkness rather than spotlights to view the ocean ahead.

The crew knows what to do, when to do it and how to do it.  Orders don’t seem to be issued per say; just quiet conversations, heads nodding agreement, crew moving off to work on some tasks.

It reminds me of a passage in one of the Patrick O’Brien books in the Master and Commander series. HMS Surprise under Jack Aubrey is under full sail heading south with the trade winds toward Brazil for his own rendezvous with destiny. The ship plows on, steadily, easily over one hundred miles a day, the watch changes with little fanfare, the cook serves up meals in the galley three times a day, the crew lounges on deck, rigging is adjusted with hardly an order; sailing on in this routine day after day for weeks on end; like sailors for thousands of years; like spacefarers in the centuries ahead, beautiful.

The Ship
Liberty Star yaws and pitches, rolls starboard to port and back to starboard; engines humming continuously; vibration is constant.  Frothy seas follow Liberty Star and 1,800 feet to our aft, the Pegasus as well. 

Constantly rotating radars in the masts high above the living and working decks of the ship point out crossing vessels to the watch as the sea sloshes by and occasionally sprays the upper weather decks.

The American flag stands straight out in the 27 knot wind, as Liberty Star sails on with little fanfare.  Freighters pass in the distance; identified well in advance.

During the day, you don’t notice the creaks and bangs you will notice later during the night in your bunk; as cabinets and minor loose storage in your stateroom rolls around the floor. In the staterooms of the second deck living quarters are stuffed with personal possessions, clothing and carrying bags. The RV-like-equipped staterooms are more than sufficient for these relatively short voyages and at night you have little problem hearing the sea rush pass the bow and sides of the ship.

The ship bends like the crew; to the routine of sea and weather; all seemingly working together; rolling, pitching, sleeping, standing watch, cooking, eating, quietly passing each other in the ship.

Liberty Star and Pegasus are under way over the sea; weather and sea; crew; ship; timeless; relentless; beautiful.

When You’re Hot,You’re Hot: Engine Room of Liberty Star


Assistant Engineer Danny Dugan takes us on a tour of the engine room as he checks and services the all-important propulsion system.

Starting aft of the engine room is the very end of the ship, a very cramped area called the lazarette. Here the hydraulic actuated rudder posts and steering gear are located.

Forward of the lazerette a few feet, we find the main engine room. A lot of very warm (hot) physical work goes on here in the engine room, where now we are below the water line. The all-important engine room houses the main propulsion system for Liberty Star, two main engines made by General Motors, providing a total of 2,900 horsepower turning two-six-foot propellers with controllable pitch. Controllable pitch provides greater response time and maneuverability. The engines generate 900 revolutions per minute (rpm) at full speed and at idle about 400 rpm. The Chief Engineer, Trish Hershock, and the Assistant Engineer, Danny Dugan, share continuous six-hour watches monitoring the engines.