May 7 News Items

The Last Schirra: Looming Extinction of The Right Stuff (Source: MND.com)
Last week, Wally Schirra, Jr., a member of a shrinking and nearly extinct daredevil brotherhood, died of a heart attack. Schirra was the only astronaut to fly in all three of NASA’s original manned spaceflight programs: Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. Of the original Mercury Seven, only Scott Carpenter and John Glenn are still alive. As a matter of fact, John Glenn was still cheating death as late as last year. Last summer, Glenn and his wife were injured in a traffic accident near Columbus. Several years ago, Chuck Yeager was severely injured after falling from a ladder. In April of 2006, Yeager’s colleague and competitor in the halcyon days of the space race, Scott Crossfield, was killed when his single-engine plane crashed in the Georgia mountains. This was a little closer to a “fitting” death (if there is such a thing) for a risk-taking pilot, but it is still like a NASCAR driver dying in a lawn mower accident. We still have Neil Armstrong, John Glenn, and many, many others with us, but as time goes by, it takes many of our heroes with it. What makes the aging and passing of a generation of true American heroes that much harder to take is that it seems they’re not being replaced.

Sea Launch's Odyssey Heading to Vancouver (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
In what is a key stage of Sea Launch's return to flight plans, the refurbished Odyssey Launch Platform will head to Vancouver, where special engineering work will be carried out on replacing the flame deflector that was blown off during January's launch failure. The explosion of the Zenit 3SL was caused by a small foreign object - believed to be a loose bolt in the LOX tank - which was sucked into the RD-171 engine's turbomachinery...likely the result of 'improper assembly' at a Ukraine factory. The lack of blame associated with the RD-171 has been known for some months, and played a part in allowing the United Launch Alliance to press ahead with their Atlas V launch in March. Atlas was stood down in the aftermath of the Sea Launch failure due to commonality between Atlas' RD-180 and the Zenit 3SL's RD-171.

Hall of Fame Inducts Astronauts (Source: Florida Today)
Growing up, Steven Hawley never imagined he would ever meet any of the great pioneer astronauts he considered his heroes. But Saturday, Hawley, along with Michael Coats and Jeffrey Hoffman, joined their ranks as they were inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame. "Today is a day I will never forget," he said. The addition of Hawley, Coats and Hoffman bring the total of hall of fame inductees to 66. About two dozen of those elite members were on hand to welcome in the trio. The hall of fame honor is awarded based not only on their flight accomplishments, but also to what they've contributed to the space program since then.