Transcript: This Week at NASA, April 29 - May 5
04.14.06
SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH – JPL
Launch Announcer SOT: “…We have ignition and we have lift off of NASA’s Calipso CloudSat Spacecraft.”
Two NASA satellites were successfully launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Their mission: to reveal the inner secrets of clouds and aerosols, tiny particles suspended in the air. CloudSat and CALIPSO, Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations, will give us new, 3-dimensional perspectives on Earth’s clouds and aerosols and will answer questions about how they form, evolve and affect our weather, climate, water supply and air quality.
COLLINS RETIRES - JSC
Astronaut Eileen Collins, the first woman to command a space shuttle and the leader of the shuttle's Return to Flight mission last year, is leaving NASA. Collins became the first woman selected as a pilot astronaut and flew on four shuttle missions. Collins served as the pilot on two missions to the Russian Mir Space station. She also commanded two missions, one that launched the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and last year's flight of STS-114, the first space shuttle flight since the Columbia accident.
Eileen Collins SOT: "...Houston -- Discovery, Roll program!"
Mission Control SOT: "...Roger, Roll Discovery."
SWEET SIXTEEN! - STSci
To celebrate the Hubble Space Telescope's 16 years of success, the two space agencies involved in the project, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), released this image of the magnificent starburst galaxy, Messier 82. This mosaic image is the sharpest wide-angle view ever obtained of M82. The galaxy is remarkable for its fiery-looking plumes of glowing hydrogen blasting out of the central nucleus.
PUBLIC PORTAL - DFRC
Dryden Flight Research Center opened its new Aerospace Exploration Gallery in Palmdale, California. The center offers visitors a portal into NASA's science and engineering world using a variety of exhibits including: NASA research aircraft, space artifacts, an historical diorama, active displays and several temporary displays. On display is a replica of the Mars Rover provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The new gallery is open to the public each Tuesday through Thursday.
BRUCE PETERSON DIES - DFRC
Former NASA Dryden Flight Research Center pilot and engineer Bruce Peterson died May 1 in Laguna Niguel, California following a long illness. He was 72. Peterson, who retired in 1981 after a 21-year career at Dryden, is best known for his pioneering work with the wingless lifting body vehicles that helped pave the way for a reusable space shuttle. Peterson survived the crash of the M2-F2 lifting body in 1967 and gained a small measure of fame when his accident and subsequent recovery inspired the 19-70s television series,"The Six-Million Dollar Man." Film footage of the M2-F2 accident was used in the show's opening credits.
GALLOWAY TURNS 100 - HQ
Eilene Marie Galloway, a pioneer in outer space law and legislation, celebrated her 100th birthday May 4, 2006. Galloway created and edited numerous House and Senate documents, including “Guided Missiles in Foreign Countries,” released just prior to the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik. Galloway also organized congressional hearings in 1958 for then-U.S. Senator Lyndon B. Johnson that set the foundation for the nation’s entry to the Space Race.
Eilene Galloway SOT: "...Outer space could be used for peaceful purposes. And there were a variety of peaceful purposes: communication, weather, medicine. And we then saw that, instead of fear of war, we could be motivated by hope for peace."
Eilene Galloway went on to assist in formulating the legislation that created NASA as an independent agency. She's authored more than 90 works and has received scores of national and international awards for her work in space policy, space law and the use of outer space for peaceful purposes.
FIRST AMERICAN IN SPACE - HQ
45 years ago Astronaut Alan B. Shepard piloted his Mercury spacecraft to become the first American in space on May 5, 1961. During this suborbital mission, which lasted just over 15 minutes, NASA's first astronaut reached an altitude of 116 miles. Shepard and his capsule Freedom 7, were recovered just over 300 miles from the Kennedy Space Center in the Atlantic Ocean.
Alan Shepard SOT: “…I remember saying to myself well, I’m not going to see this Redstone again. And you know pilots love to go out and kick the tires and it was sort of like reaching out and kicking the tires on the Redstone and I stopped and looked back and up at this beautiful rocket and said well okay buster let’s go and let’s get the job done.”
Shepard, who would later command Apollo 14 in February 19-71 and walk on the moon, died in 19-98 at age 74.
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