Without advance notice, the Atlantis exhibit opened this afternoon for a “sneak peek” to the public.
Based on the signage, it appears that more unannounced openings will happen leading up to the official dedication on June 29.
Below are photos from the first day of public tours, even if unofficial.
As promised, here's the video I shot yesterday during the preview of the Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit.
A lot more is inside the exhibit than what I filmed. This is a taste.
I was invited to join a private “soft opening” tour today of the new Atlantis exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.
I filmed a video which is rendering now, and will be posted on YouTube tomorrow. For now, here are photos.
From time to time, prescribed burns are held at Kennedy Space Center to burn off dead underbrush. This prevents a wildfire from getting out of hand.
Prescribed burns were held the last three days in the general area south of NASA Parkway and east of Kennedy Parkway. Friends who had to make that commute told me that Kennedy Parkway (AKA SR-3, or Courtenay Parkway) was closed at times due to limited visibility.
Here are some photos from the last three days of prescribed burns. Don't inhale.
The Daytona Beach News-Journal published dueling opinion columns today debating the proposed commercial spaceport at Shiloh.
The “Yes” argument is by Laura Seward, who is president of the local National Space Society chapter, recently renamed the Florida Space Development Council. Ms. Seward is identified as a planetary scientist and space industry analyst.
She wrote:
The false choice between protecting the area's diverse wildlife and the progress of aerospace enterprise is disproved by a visit to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. For decades we have successfully built and operated a world-class space hub while protecting our natural treasures ...
Furthermore, the Shiloh property is not pristine. It includes fallow orange groves and housing foundations that were developed decades ago. The land was acquired by NASA at the start of the space program, not merely as a buffer but with an expectation that it might be needed for future space development.
The “No” argument is by Clay Henderson, identified as “a New Smyrna Beach attorney [who] has a long history of environmental advocacy and is a past president of the Florida Audubon Society.”
Henderson wrote that “most real rocket scientists know this is absolutely the wrong place,” apparently unaware that a “real rocket scientist” was writing the affirmative.
The location of the proposed spaceport is within the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, and adjacent to the Canaveral National Seashore. Spaceport Florida still won't tell us the exact location, because they know that every spot is fraught with insurmountable environmental issues. The seashore was established by Congress in 1975, and NASA was given five years to reserve locations for future needs of the space program. That door has long closed. Canaveral has the same legal status as Yellowstone and Yosemite and each of the other crown jewels which make up our national park system.
The name Shiloh derives from scripture as a sacred place. Many of us see the grand mosaic of pristine blue waters, lush maritime hammock, scrub, and historic sites as a place so sacred. It is indeed a place worth fighting for, and we will.A June 12 Orlando Sentinel story featured a video of a January 1997 Delta II explosion at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, suggesting the same could happen at Shiloh and threaten Volusia County residents.
Though no Florida bystander ever has been killed in a rocket accident, the region has seen its share of disasters, including the 1998 explosion of an unmanned Titan IV rocket that resulted in both a miles-wide debris field and a toxic chemical cloud — which floated harmlessly out to sea.
The article claimed that residents in nearby Scottsmoor — “which has about 600 people in 220 homes” — are within three miles of a launch. Space Florida representatives are quoted as saying the paper's analysis is flawed because it tries to compare the SpaceX Brownsville proposal to Shiloh. The Brownsville site, so far unbuilt, would have a different infrastructure.
Last summer, Space Coast Rep. Bill Posey made false claims to Florida Today that China was planning a military colony on the Moon. It's a claim he's made several times since elected to office in 2008.
I wrote a letter to the editor challenging Posey's claim, noting he's never offered any proof to back it up.
Posey responded with his own editorial letter. He wrote:
It is naive to think that Russia and China have no desire to dominate space, or that they lack the capability to reach the moon. A January 2010 report from The Washington Times quotes Chinese officials stating they are developing plans to reach the moon by 2022 and are building three space stations.
I checked the Washington Times archives and found that, once again, Mr. Posey's claim was untrue.
Titled “China Space Program Shoots for Moon,” it was an opinion column — not a news report by a journalist — written by John J. Tkacik, identified as “a retired Foreign Service officer” who was “chief of China analysis in the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research during the Clinton administration.”
Mr. Tkacik's column said nothing about China wanting a Moon colony. This is what he really wrote:
Senior Chinese space officials have told their state media that China could be on the moon by 2022 at the outside. Other authoritative Chinese space engineers see a moon landing as a next step in the Tiangong program that will launch three Chinese space stations into Earth orbit between 2011 and 2015. In 2008, NASA scientists told the Bush White House that, with the technology currently available to the Chinese space program, Chinese cosmonauts could be on the moon by 2017.
No authoritative source and no documented plan to build a moon colony. Just rumor and speculation that China might land on the Moon some day.
I forwarded the article to the Florida Today editors and asked them to follow up, but heard nothing more.
Today's edition, however, might be that response.
John Kelly's Sunday space column directly addresses fantastical claims about the Chinese space program.
Don’t fall prey to the politically-driven hysteria or, in some cases, just sloppy journalism ...
Even with their accelerated and possibly well-funded, military-driven approach to a human space program, all indicators are that the China effort is going to take a decade and probably multiple decades to catch up to where the international station partners are now.
Kelly doesn't mention Rep. Posey by name, but I have to wonder if our local Congressman was who Kelly had in mind when he wrote this:
... [A]ny political and even media buzz about the Chinese being a threat to U.S. space superiority is just jawboning by people trying to prey on the average voter’s lack of geopolitical knowledge, to try to stir up outdated Cold War sentiments that might fuel a budget hike for NASA or our military space projects.
Space policy analyst Marcia Smith wrote June 11 on her blog that Tuesday's Shenzhou 10 launch was only the fifth in the history of the Chinese human spaceflight program. She notes:
The Tiangong-1 space station is a small (8.6 metric ton) module. As first space stations go, it is rather modest — just less than half the mass of the world's first space station, Salyut 1. Launched in 1971, it had a mass of about 18.6 metric tons. The first U.S. space station, Skylab, launched in 1973, had a mass of about 77 metric tons. Today's International Space Station (ISS), a partnership among the United States, Russia, Japan, Europe, and Canada, has a mass of about 400 metric tons and has been permanently occupied by 2-6 person crews rotating on 4-6 month missions since the year 2000.
In the article “An Analysis of the Space Policies of the Major Space Faring Nations and Selected Emerging Space Faring Nations,” Canadian Space Agency policy analyst Graham Gibbs writes:
Contrary to some opinions, China has not had a firm plan for a human landing on the Moon even though studies are reportedly underway. A White Paper, published in late December 2011, mentioned a human mission to the Moon for the first time but only in the context of studies. It states “China will conduct studies on the preliminary plan for a human lunar landing.”
Gibbs cites Lewis Page, a former Royal Navy officer, who comments in a December 30, 2011 article:
Most media have chosen to focus on Beijing's vague aspirations toward deep-space and manned exploration, but in fact the concrete details given all point toward a primary emphasis on strategic advantage for China here on Earth.
This week, Posey's House space subcommittee will begin work on the 2013 NASA authorization bill. A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday. Hopefully Florida Today and Space Coast voters will monitor Rep. Posey's comments to assure he keeps his “facts” factual.
The replica external tank and solid rocket boosters are almost complete at the Atlantis exhibit. Opening Day is June 29, seventeen days away.
Below are images of how the stack looked today.
In September 2012, I wrote a blog article titled, “The New Economy,” That article concluded:
The next generation of engineers, scientists and technicians emerging from today's universities will be the ones who seize this opportunity to take humanity to the stars.
It won't happen because the government flushed billions of dollars into obsolete technology as a monument to a long-faded Cold War memory.
It will happen because of a New Economy that restores America's ability to dream, to be the economic engine that powers the world.
The National Academies' Committee on Human Spaceflight has invited input from the public about its study “to review the long-term goals, core capabilities, and direction of the U.S. human spaceflight program and make recommendations to enable a sustainable U.S. human spaceflight program.”
Never one to pass up an opportunity to bloviate, I've submitted a white paper to the Committee. It's called A New Economy: U.S. Human Spaceflight in the 21st Century. Click on the link to download the .PDF.
You too can play. Click here for submission guidelines.
The Atlantis exhibit is one step closer to completion. The NASA “meatball” went up today. Below are photos.
On the other side, work continues on the orange external tank replica.
