Chicago Tribune: Purdue helps Fla. Space Coast with economy ideas
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.— Purdue University advisers are working with a Florida region near the Kennedy Space Center to help identify new opportunities to build the economy after the end of the nation's space shuttle program.
The Brevard County Workforce and Economic Development Commission enlisted Purdue's help last year as it works to come up with a plan for life after the shuttle. The work became more urgent after President Barack Obama's decision to cancel a program that would have replaced the shuttle with rocketry similar to that used during the Apollo moon program.
"A lot of alarm bells went off then," said Michael Aller, executive director of Space Coast Energy Consortium. "We needed a Plan B, but what is our plan B?"
Purdue's Center for Regional Development, which opened in 2005, has a history of helping communities such as Kokomo and Milwaukee, Wis., rebound after industry losses. The center uses research and analysis to help business, industry and local leaders generate new models of business.
Ed Morrison, an economic adviser with the center, told the Journal & Courier he has visited 23 states in the last 18 months. The center helps communities determine the best growth and development strategies based on economic, transportation and other types of data. It also organizes seminars to bring together business and community leaders and helps them form strategic plans in hours, not months.
"We have to find new ways to collaborate to do it quickly," he said. "No one has any time."
Brevard County has lost 7,000 jobs in the past year, according to the Agency for Workforce Innovation. Another 2,000 space workers are expected be out of work later this month when the Atlantis shuttle mission ends.
Morrison said Purdue's efforts in Florida's Space Coast are focused on building and supporting new companies to absorb some of the talent from NASA.
He said the transition won't occur overnight or replace all 9,000 jobs.
"It is like growing a garden. The first thing you have to do is face facts. ... But most importantly, build a new narrative," he said. "What is the new story? Don't tell me the old story."
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Final Shuttle Launch Portends Bleak Future for U.S. Manned Space Program
eWeek.com: Final Shuttle Launch Portends Bleak Future for U.S. Manned Space Program
I watched the final Space Shuttle launch just as I did the first one–on television. There were differences. When Columbia launched I was watching the television mounted on the bulkhead of the wardroom of a U.S. Navy Perry-class frigate.
Right afterwards, I walked out on deck to see the tiny, bright speck followed by an immense cloud as it reached into the Florida sky miles down the coast from our pier. That was the last time I actually saw a Shuttle launch.
Today, it was a much improved television, and a much clearer view. And after all of these years it’s still hard to believe the magnificence when you see 4.4 million pounds of exquisitely complicated spacecraft ascend into the heavens. But that was the last time I’ll ever see such a flight. For the launch of Atlantis was more than the end of a program. The launch of Atlantis was the end of manned spaceflight in the US. We will never see another craft carrying people launch from the Kennedy Spaceflight Center.
Yes, I know that there are a lot of people who believe the brave words of NASA that we will return in four years; that we will have another spacecraft, perhaps one from Space-X, perhaps one from another contractor. But the fact is this will never happen. The federal bureaucracy, combined with aggressively anti-science members of Congress will ensure that another flight carrying a person never leaves from a NASA facility.
I also know that there are several private efforts underway that promise manned spaceflight. Virgin Galactic will probably provide suborbital rides to space for the very rich. There are other companies that promise to do the same. But these do nothing for the advancement of science. They do nothing for the exploration of space. They are entertainment, pure and simple.
So how is it that the U.S., a once-proud spacefaring nation has given up? It is, in short, because we no longer have the political and intellectual will to do things that are hard. We no longer wish to stir ourselves from our comfort to strive for anything. It wasn’t always that way.
“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard,” said President John F. Kennedy, speaking at Rice University on September 12, 1962. Kennedy was explaining why it was necessary to spend the money and effort to create a real space program and he set forth to inspire the U.S. to do it. I remember every step of the way.
I watched the final Space Shuttle launch just as I did the first one–on television. There were differences. When Columbia launched I was watching the television mounted on the bulkhead of the wardroom of a U.S. Navy Perry-class frigate.
Right afterwards, I walked out on deck to see the tiny, bright speck followed by an immense cloud as it reached into the Florida sky miles down the coast from our pier. That was the last time I actually saw a Shuttle launch.
Today, it was a much improved television, and a much clearer view. And after all of these years it’s still hard to believe the magnificence when you see 4.4 million pounds of exquisitely complicated spacecraft ascend into the heavens. But that was the last time I’ll ever see such a flight. For the launch of Atlantis was more than the end of a program. The launch of Atlantis was the end of manned spaceflight in the US. We will never see another craft carrying people launch from the Kennedy Spaceflight Center.
Yes, I know that there are a lot of people who believe the brave words of NASA that we will return in four years; that we will have another spacecraft, perhaps one from Space-X, perhaps one from another contractor. But the fact is this will never happen. The federal bureaucracy, combined with aggressively anti-science members of Congress will ensure that another flight carrying a person never leaves from a NASA facility.
I also know that there are several private efforts underway that promise manned spaceflight. Virgin Galactic will probably provide suborbital rides to space for the very rich. There are other companies that promise to do the same. But these do nothing for the advancement of science. They do nothing for the exploration of space. They are entertainment, pure and simple.
So how is it that the U.S., a once-proud spacefaring nation has given up? It is, in short, because we no longer have the political and intellectual will to do things that are hard. We no longer wish to stir ourselves from our comfort to strive for anything. It wasn’t always that way.
“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard,” said President John F. Kennedy, speaking at Rice University on September 12, 1962. Kennedy was explaining why it was necessary to spend the money and effort to create a real space program and he set forth to inspire the U.S. to do it. I remember every step of the way.
Friday, July 8, 2011
As Shuttle Program Ends, Final Price Tag Is Elusive
It's interesting that nowhere in this article is the money earned by NASA factored in. All the new inventions that are now bettering mankind that came about either as a direct result of NASA's technological research, or an offshoot of it.
The Wall Street Journal: As Shuttle Program Ends, Final Price Tag Is Elusive
Now that the space shuttle Atlantis has lifted off, NASA is closing the books on its 40-year shuttle program, prompting a final reckoning. One piece of the history is surprisingly elusive: the price tag.
Some media outlets have pegged the total cost of the shuttle program, and its 135 launches, at between $115 billion and nearly twice that amount, demonstrating the challenge of tallying a bill over such a long time span. Among the difficulties are properly accounting for inflation and imprecise budgeting in the program's early years. Furthermore, none of the figures include about $18 billion, in today's dollars, spent by the Defense Department on the shuttle program, by one estimate.
Roger Pielke Jr., a political scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, first estimated the shuttle's cost to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration through the early 1990s. He was surprised to be assigned the project by his master's thesis adviser, Rad Byerly, who had just completed a stint as staff director of a House space and aeronautics subcommittee. "I said, 'Isn't this something you could snap your fingers and find out?' " Prof. Pielke recalls.
It turned out, though, to require "a lot of archival work and budget reconstruction." Prof. Pielke came up with a total of $83.7 billion through fiscal year 1993. Earlier this year, he and Dr. Byerly reported in Nature an updated total of $193 billion in 2010 dollars, including an estimate of this year's shuttle spending.
NASA prefers to count the spending differently, mainly by not adjusting for inflation. That yields a far smaller figure: $115.5 billion—which amounts to $860 million per launch, far more than the $7 million the agency projected in its early days, when it anticipated weekly launches. NASA didn't maintain shuttle-specific spending figures in the early years of the program, which accounts for Prof. Pielke's archival digging, but it has done so for the past quarter-century.
NASA spokesman Joshua Buck says the agency's method, without an inflation adjustment, is preferable because "that's really how much cash we spent."
Prof. Pielke and others who have studied the long-range costs of spending programs argue against such an approach. "In any long-term longitudinal survey of budgetary costs, I think it would be imprudent and misleading not to adjust for the effects of inflation," says Stephen I. Schwartz, editor of the journal Nonproliferation Review and director of a 1998 study by the left-leaning Brookings Institution on long-range nuclear-weapons spending in the U.S.
Adding to the confusion, NASA also has released an inflation-adjusted figure, despite its preference for a figure representing cash outlays. That number is even higher than Prof. Pielke's: about $211 billion.
The space shuttle isn't unique in presenting a nebulous price tag. Loren Thompson, a military analyst at the libertarian-oriented think tank Lexington Institute, says that the U.S. military doesn't have a standard way to adjust costs of long-term weapons programs for inflation.
Dr. Thompson recently wrote a Forbes.com article criticizing the Pentagon for its claim that F-35 Joint Strike Fighters would cost more than $1 trillion over their lifetime just for operating and support costs. He argued that the price tag was excessive, because in 2065, when the program is expected to end, that cost figure is expected to be a much smaller proportion of the economy than it would be today. In an interview, though, Dr. Thompson concedes that there is no easy answer: "One reason they report numbers this way is there is no better way to do it."
A spokeswoman for the Defense Department didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Beyond inflation, there are other wild cards with the space-shuttle cost estimates. As Prof. Pielke noted in his original report on space-shuttle costs at the behest of a journal reviewer, his calculations don't account for the opportunity costs of capital invested that otherwise might have been spent elsewhere, which often is included in estimates of private-sector spending but not government spending. His calculation doesn't include Defense Department spending on the shuttle, which by 1996 had totaled roughly $18 billion, in today's dollars, according to Mr. Schwartz. And it excludes some non-itemized NASA spending in the shuttle program's first two decades.
Prof. Pielke says he is encouraged that the latest estimates he and NASA have produced are both close to $200 billion, once NASA's figures are adjusted for inflation. "I'm not going to quibble about $10 billion more or less."
The Wall Street Journal: As Shuttle Program Ends, Final Price Tag Is Elusive
Now that the space shuttle Atlantis has lifted off, NASA is closing the books on its 40-year shuttle program, prompting a final reckoning. One piece of the history is surprisingly elusive: the price tag.
Some media outlets have pegged the total cost of the shuttle program, and its 135 launches, at between $115 billion and nearly twice that amount, demonstrating the challenge of tallying a bill over such a long time span. Among the difficulties are properly accounting for inflation and imprecise budgeting in the program's early years. Furthermore, none of the figures include about $18 billion, in today's dollars, spent by the Defense Department on the shuttle program, by one estimate.
Roger Pielke Jr., a political scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, first estimated the shuttle's cost to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration through the early 1990s. He was surprised to be assigned the project by his master's thesis adviser, Rad Byerly, who had just completed a stint as staff director of a House space and aeronautics subcommittee. "I said, 'Isn't this something you could snap your fingers and find out?' " Prof. Pielke recalls.
It turned out, though, to require "a lot of archival work and budget reconstruction." Prof. Pielke came up with a total of $83.7 billion through fiscal year 1993. Earlier this year, he and Dr. Byerly reported in Nature an updated total of $193 billion in 2010 dollars, including an estimate of this year's shuttle spending.
NASA prefers to count the spending differently, mainly by not adjusting for inflation. That yields a far smaller figure: $115.5 billion—which amounts to $860 million per launch, far more than the $7 million the agency projected in its early days, when it anticipated weekly launches. NASA didn't maintain shuttle-specific spending figures in the early years of the program, which accounts for Prof. Pielke's archival digging, but it has done so for the past quarter-century.
NASA spokesman Joshua Buck says the agency's method, without an inflation adjustment, is preferable because "that's really how much cash we spent."
Prof. Pielke and others who have studied the long-range costs of spending programs argue against such an approach. "In any long-term longitudinal survey of budgetary costs, I think it would be imprudent and misleading not to adjust for the effects of inflation," says Stephen I. Schwartz, editor of the journal Nonproliferation Review and director of a 1998 study by the left-leaning Brookings Institution on long-range nuclear-weapons spending in the U.S.
Adding to the confusion, NASA also has released an inflation-adjusted figure, despite its preference for a figure representing cash outlays. That number is even higher than Prof. Pielke's: about $211 billion.
The space shuttle isn't unique in presenting a nebulous price tag. Loren Thompson, a military analyst at the libertarian-oriented think tank Lexington Institute, says that the U.S. military doesn't have a standard way to adjust costs of long-term weapons programs for inflation.
Dr. Thompson recently wrote a Forbes.com article criticizing the Pentagon for its claim that F-35 Joint Strike Fighters would cost more than $1 trillion over their lifetime just for operating and support costs. He argued that the price tag was excessive, because in 2065, when the program is expected to end, that cost figure is expected to be a much smaller proportion of the economy than it would be today. In an interview, though, Dr. Thompson concedes that there is no easy answer: "One reason they report numbers this way is there is no better way to do it."
A spokeswoman for the Defense Department didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Beyond inflation, there are other wild cards with the space-shuttle cost estimates. As Prof. Pielke noted in his original report on space-shuttle costs at the behest of a journal reviewer, his calculations don't account for the opportunity costs of capital invested that otherwise might have been spent elsewhere, which often is included in estimates of private-sector spending but not government spending. His calculation doesn't include Defense Department spending on the shuttle, which by 1996 had totaled roughly $18 billion, in today's dollars, according to Mr. Schwartz. And it excludes some non-itemized NASA spending in the shuttle program's first two decades.
Prof. Pielke says he is encouraged that the latest estimates he and NASA have produced are both close to $200 billion, once NASA's figures are adjusted for inflation. "I'm not going to quibble about $10 billion more or less."
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
NASA: Weather Could Delay Space Shuttle Atlantis Launch
PC Magazine: NASA: Weather Could Delay Space Shuttle Atlantis Launch
Weather issues might hamper Friday's planned launch of the space shuttle Atlantis, NASA officials said Wednesday.
Space Shuttle Weather Officer Kathy Winters said today there is a 30 percent change of favorable weather for the scheduled 11:26am liftoff on July 8—meaning there's a 70 percent chance that bad weather will force NASA to scrub the launch. Officials are currently worried about showers and thunderstorms, flight through precipitation, and cumulus clouds.
Winters said the forecast predicts "nuisance weather" more than severe weather, like hail. "It's more of a tropical-type air mass," she said during a Wednesday press briefing.
Even if is raining on Friday, the launch could still happen, said Mike Leinbach, shuttle launch director. "If it's cumulus clouds and rain showers, as long as we get a hold over the pad, that's a go day for us," he said. It could be pouring rain everywhere else in the county, but if there is a break in the cloud coverage, "we can go," he said, and that's what technicians are aiming to do.
The countdown for this final space shuttle launch began yesterday at 1pm Eastern. The possible inclement weather, however, affects a number of procedures going forward, the first of which is tomorrow's planned retraction of the rotating service structure (RSS), which protects the shuttle. Fueling, meanwhile, is scheduled to begin at 2am Friday morning.
Leinbach said officials will keep a close eye on the weather situation, most likely assessing the situation about four hours out. Earlier today, however, the shuttle Mission Management Team voted unanimously to proceed toward Atlantis' planned liftoff, so at this point, it's still a go.
For a Friday launch, meanwhile, there could be anywhere between 500,000 and 750,000 spectators. If the launch is scrubbed and moved to Saturday or Sunday, that number could grow.
Space shuttle launch delays are nothing new, though officials are at least only contending with weather-related issues rather than technical problems with the vehicle. Shuttle Discovery launched in February after a nearly four-month delay due to weather, leaks, and cracks. The shuttle Endeavour, meanwhile, launched in May, but not before NASA had to scrub the initial launch because Endeavour's auxiliary power unit failed.
Given that this is the final launch for NASA's space shuttle program, Mike Moses, Mission Management Team chair, admitted that the mood among the shuttle team is "getting more and more somber [but] that doesn't detract from the professionalism and cohesiveness of the team."
"There are millions of people in this country who have grown up with the shuttle program," Moses continued. "Anyone under the age of 30 has always had the shuttle program as a part of Americana."
The shuttle crew arrived at Kennedy Space Center on Monday, and are still prepping for Friday's launch.
Weather issues might hamper Friday's planned launch of the space shuttle Atlantis, NASA officials said Wednesday.
Space Shuttle Weather Officer Kathy Winters said today there is a 30 percent change of favorable weather for the scheduled 11:26am liftoff on July 8—meaning there's a 70 percent chance that bad weather will force NASA to scrub the launch. Officials are currently worried about showers and thunderstorms, flight through precipitation, and cumulus clouds.
Winters said the forecast predicts "nuisance weather" more than severe weather, like hail. "It's more of a tropical-type air mass," she said during a Wednesday press briefing.
Even if is raining on Friday, the launch could still happen, said Mike Leinbach, shuttle launch director. "If it's cumulus clouds and rain showers, as long as we get a hold over the pad, that's a go day for us," he said. It could be pouring rain everywhere else in the county, but if there is a break in the cloud coverage, "we can go," he said, and that's what technicians are aiming to do.
The countdown for this final space shuttle launch began yesterday at 1pm Eastern. The possible inclement weather, however, affects a number of procedures going forward, the first of which is tomorrow's planned retraction of the rotating service structure (RSS), which protects the shuttle. Fueling, meanwhile, is scheduled to begin at 2am Friday morning.
Leinbach said officials will keep a close eye on the weather situation, most likely assessing the situation about four hours out. Earlier today, however, the shuttle Mission Management Team voted unanimously to proceed toward Atlantis' planned liftoff, so at this point, it's still a go.
For a Friday launch, meanwhile, there could be anywhere between 500,000 and 750,000 spectators. If the launch is scrubbed and moved to Saturday or Sunday, that number could grow.
Space shuttle launch delays are nothing new, though officials are at least only contending with weather-related issues rather than technical problems with the vehicle. Shuttle Discovery launched in February after a nearly four-month delay due to weather, leaks, and cracks. The shuttle Endeavour, meanwhile, launched in May, but not before NASA had to scrub the initial launch because Endeavour's auxiliary power unit failed.
Given that this is the final launch for NASA's space shuttle program, Mike Moses, Mission Management Team chair, admitted that the mood among the shuttle team is "getting more and more somber [but] that doesn't detract from the professionalism and cohesiveness of the team."
"There are millions of people in this country who have grown up with the shuttle program," Moses continued. "Anyone under the age of 30 has always had the shuttle program as a part of Americana."
The shuttle crew arrived at Kennedy Space Center on Monday, and are still prepping for Friday's launch.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Space shuttle watchers: Be on lookout for illegal boat charters
FloridaToday: Space shuttle watchers: Be on lookout for illegal boat charters
PORT CANAVERAL — Boaters unauthorized to run charters might see Space Shuttle Atlantis’ launch as an opportunity to make money fast.
They make promises of a prime ocean view of the lift off to passengers, but what they don’t always offer is proof they’re a legitimate operational charter service.
Like the legal charters, they advertise on Craigslist, on roadside signs and in fliers.
But the Coast Guard, which will be looking out for the illegal operators, warns potential passengers to be wary.
“Hiring someone operating a passenger vessel illegally can be very dangerous,” Chief Warrant Officer Matthew Ricks said. “If someone suspects they may be hiring an illegal passenger vessel the best thing to do is not put their lives in jeopardy and walk away.
There are no known illegal charters operating in Brevard County, but Coast Guard officials expect the temptation and the potential will increase for Friday’s scheduled launch of Atlantis, the final shuttle flight.
Coast Guard crews will be out in force with an increased number of crews and boats during the launch, but said they oftentimes hear from passengers after a problem, complaint or a mishap occurs.
“We rely on the public to let us know,” Ricks said. “Usually it’s the result of an accident or someone reporting that a captain was not operating safely.”
But the public may not know what to look for or what to expect from a boat operator.
Capt. Tim Turley, a licensed captain operator who runs charters on his 55-foot sailing vessel Vantage, said charter operators shouldn’t mind fielding questions from their prospective customers.
“Don’t be afraid to ask questions,” he said. “It’s like anything else in this day and age, if you’re going to have a contractor come to your home, you would ask for their insurance certificate.”
The U.S. Coast Guard web site offers an easy way to verify the status of a captain’s license online.
In addition, captains are required to carry their licenses with them at all times while they have passengers onboard.
“I can pull it out and show it to them at any time,” Turley said. “I wouldn’t be offended. I have to be mindful of the lay person.”
Vantage is advertised on Craigslist for “$850 for approximately four hours of sheer enjoyment.”
Some of those advertised on Craigslist do no give the name of the captain or even a phone contact like Turley and others do. They must be contacted through a reply online.
If a charter is caught illegally carrying passengers for hire, the penalties can be steep.
The operator would be subject to possible civil penalties of up to $35,000 for operating without a license.
There could be other penalties involved if equipment or lifejackets do not meet minimum requirements.
Coast Guard officials said accidents have occurred on charters, which demonstrate the need to know what to do in emergencies, having the right equipment and to make sure passengers know emergency procedures.
A charter boat recently sank off the port. Another had its anchor line wrapped around its propeller while it was under way and drifted into the jetties.
Passengers of charter boats should verify their boat captain is licensed, but they should also be aware of where the fire extinguishers are located, where the life jackets are stored and what to do in the event of an emergency.
There are different classes of licenses, but the general requirements call for documented experience on the water, periodic drug tests, fingerprints, knowledge of first-aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation, references and a physical exam.
There are added requirements for carrying more than six passengers, operating larger boats and going beyond 100 miles.
“The best way for the public to ensure that they have hired a legitimate operator is to ask a few key questions,” Ricks said.
How many passengers is the boat certified to carry?
If the answer is more than six, they should ask to see the vessel’s Certificate of Inspection, which every boat carrying more than six passengers for hire is required to have.
It is evidence of an extensive process that checks the condition, safety equipment and crew competency annually.
If the boat carries fewer than six, then the vessel would qualify as “uninspected passenger vessel.”
At a minimum, potential passengers should ask to see the captain’s Coast Guard license and expect a safety briefing before getting under way.
Ricks said captains must give passengers a safety orientation either by speech or by brochure.
“It’s similar to being on an airplane,” he said.
PORT CANAVERAL — Boaters unauthorized to run charters might see Space Shuttle Atlantis’ launch as an opportunity to make money fast.
They make promises of a prime ocean view of the lift off to passengers, but what they don’t always offer is proof they’re a legitimate operational charter service.
Like the legal charters, they advertise on Craigslist, on roadside signs and in fliers.
But the Coast Guard, which will be looking out for the illegal operators, warns potential passengers to be wary.
“Hiring someone operating a passenger vessel illegally can be very dangerous,” Chief Warrant Officer Matthew Ricks said. “If someone suspects they may be hiring an illegal passenger vessel the best thing to do is not put their lives in jeopardy and walk away.
There are no known illegal charters operating in Brevard County, but Coast Guard officials expect the temptation and the potential will increase for Friday’s scheduled launch of Atlantis, the final shuttle flight.
Coast Guard crews will be out in force with an increased number of crews and boats during the launch, but said they oftentimes hear from passengers after a problem, complaint or a mishap occurs.
“We rely on the public to let us know,” Ricks said. “Usually it’s the result of an accident or someone reporting that a captain was not operating safely.”
But the public may not know what to look for or what to expect from a boat operator.
Capt. Tim Turley, a licensed captain operator who runs charters on his 55-foot sailing vessel Vantage, said charter operators shouldn’t mind fielding questions from their prospective customers.
“Don’t be afraid to ask questions,” he said. “It’s like anything else in this day and age, if you’re going to have a contractor come to your home, you would ask for their insurance certificate.”
The U.S. Coast Guard web site offers an easy way to verify the status of a captain’s license online.
In addition, captains are required to carry their licenses with them at all times while they have passengers onboard.
“I can pull it out and show it to them at any time,” Turley said. “I wouldn’t be offended. I have to be mindful of the lay person.”
Vantage is advertised on Craigslist for “$850 for approximately four hours of sheer enjoyment.”
Some of those advertised on Craigslist do no give the name of the captain or even a phone contact like Turley and others do. They must be contacted through a reply online.
If a charter is caught illegally carrying passengers for hire, the penalties can be steep.
The operator would be subject to possible civil penalties of up to $35,000 for operating without a license.
There could be other penalties involved if equipment or lifejackets do not meet minimum requirements.
Coast Guard officials said accidents have occurred on charters, which demonstrate the need to know what to do in emergencies, having the right equipment and to make sure passengers know emergency procedures.
A charter boat recently sank off the port. Another had its anchor line wrapped around its propeller while it was under way and drifted into the jetties.
Passengers of charter boats should verify their boat captain is licensed, but they should also be aware of where the fire extinguishers are located, where the life jackets are stored and what to do in the event of an emergency.
There are different classes of licenses, but the general requirements call for documented experience on the water, periodic drug tests, fingerprints, knowledge of first-aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation, references and a physical exam.
There are added requirements for carrying more than six passengers, operating larger boats and going beyond 100 miles.
“The best way for the public to ensure that they have hired a legitimate operator is to ask a few key questions,” Ricks said.
How many passengers is the boat certified to carry?
If the answer is more than six, they should ask to see the vessel’s Certificate of Inspection, which every boat carrying more than six passengers for hire is required to have.
It is evidence of an extensive process that checks the condition, safety equipment and crew competency annually.
If the boat carries fewer than six, then the vessel would qualify as “uninspected passenger vessel.”
At a minimum, potential passengers should ask to see the captain’s Coast Guard license and expect a safety briefing before getting under way.
Ricks said captains must give passengers a safety orientation either by speech or by brochure.
“It’s similar to being on an airplane,” he said.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Space Town Bids Long Goodbye
8 WGAL.com: Space Town Bids Long Goodbye
TITUSVILLE, FLORIDA (CNN) -- When the space shuttle blasts off for the last time on July 8, it will leave behind a thirty year legacy of exploration, and the most dedicated cheerleaders the space program has ever known. In Titusville, Florida, a small town just across the river from Cape Canaveral, generations have relied on manned rocket launches to bring the nation to their doorstep.
"We have a population of forty-three thousand, and there'll be several hundred thousand people here, so our population triples or quadruples," Laura Lee Thompson said, the owner of the Dixieland Crossroads restaurant, a favorite for locals and visiting space enthusiasts alike.
Just fifteen miles from the launch pad, no place on Earth has had a better view of the NASA launches. "You take this boardwalk and go straight ahead, that's the launch pad," says resident Bobby Socks, gesturing just off the Titusville shore and across the Indian River. When the shuttle launches, Titusville Mayor James Tulley, Jr. said, "It's spectacular, it really is."
The role of Titusville as the Yankee Stadium of space flight, however, predates the shuttle program. Titusville has been saying good bye to crews of astronauts for nearly half a century, since the days of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions.
When man landed on the moon, no place was prouder. Several monuments have been built in Titusville to honor not only those who have gone into space, but also those who put them there, like City Manager Mark Ryan's parents.
"They're retired IBM'ers. My father worked on the instrument unit for the Apollo rockets, and my mother was in the quality control, records keeping unit for IBM as well," he said.
No other place has shared the space community's grief in quite the same way, either. When tragedy struck in the Apollo 1 fire, or the shuttle disasters years later, the people of Titusville mourned.
"We grieved. The whole city did. It was quite awful. Like some member of the family had died," said Pastor Ray Johnson.
"The Challenger hit us hard for three years," says Socks. "The unemployment rate went up. People were laid off, and it had a dramatic effect here and for people like myself. I was an eyewitness to Challenger; I was standing on the river and watching it. There are times when I look out over the river and I see that same cloud configuration, or the sky is as blue as it was that morning, and I flashback."
They have all shared in the work and triumph, too.
When danger threatened, as it did on Apollo 13, Titusville was there.
Marty Winkle says he was home asleep when the telephone rang. "We had a problem on Apollo 13 on the lunar module, on the command module, and I explained what I though we could do," he said.
More than anything else though, Titusville's people have watched each and every launch and welcomed the thousands who have come to watch with them. David Hamids is a science teacher whose family opened the Moonlight Drive In restaurant when the launches first started.
"We definitely feel the effects, the positive effects of the space shuttle launches, there is no doubt about that," he said.
Even after the last shuttle goes into orbit, there will still be hundreds of NASA employees nearby, still unmanned rocket launches, but everyone knows without astronauts, the crowds will not be as big.
"Our community is going to lose the gift of hundreds of thousands of hotel rooms that we didn't really have to work very hard to fill," said Thompson.
With the last launch, the town's identity will slip a little farther into the past.
"For me, it's probably going to be a lot of joy and a lot of sorrow all at the same time," Socks said, who knows when the tourists depart this time, all that will be left is a suddenly, shockingly empty sky.
TITUSVILLE, FLORIDA (CNN) -- When the space shuttle blasts off for the last time on July 8, it will leave behind a thirty year legacy of exploration, and the most dedicated cheerleaders the space program has ever known. In Titusville, Florida, a small town just across the river from Cape Canaveral, generations have relied on manned rocket launches to bring the nation to their doorstep.
"We have a population of forty-three thousand, and there'll be several hundred thousand people here, so our population triples or quadruples," Laura Lee Thompson said, the owner of the Dixieland Crossroads restaurant, a favorite for locals and visiting space enthusiasts alike.
Just fifteen miles from the launch pad, no place on Earth has had a better view of the NASA launches. "You take this boardwalk and go straight ahead, that's the launch pad," says resident Bobby Socks, gesturing just off the Titusville shore and across the Indian River. When the shuttle launches, Titusville Mayor James Tulley, Jr. said, "It's spectacular, it really is."
The role of Titusville as the Yankee Stadium of space flight, however, predates the shuttle program. Titusville has been saying good bye to crews of astronauts for nearly half a century, since the days of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions.
When man landed on the moon, no place was prouder. Several monuments have been built in Titusville to honor not only those who have gone into space, but also those who put them there, like City Manager Mark Ryan's parents.
"They're retired IBM'ers. My father worked on the instrument unit for the Apollo rockets, and my mother was in the quality control, records keeping unit for IBM as well," he said.
No other place has shared the space community's grief in quite the same way, either. When tragedy struck in the Apollo 1 fire, or the shuttle disasters years later, the people of Titusville mourned.
"We grieved. The whole city did. It was quite awful. Like some member of the family had died," said Pastor Ray Johnson.
"The Challenger hit us hard for three years," says Socks. "The unemployment rate went up. People were laid off, and it had a dramatic effect here and for people like myself. I was an eyewitness to Challenger; I was standing on the river and watching it. There are times when I look out over the river and I see that same cloud configuration, or the sky is as blue as it was that morning, and I flashback."
They have all shared in the work and triumph, too.
When danger threatened, as it did on Apollo 13, Titusville was there.
Marty Winkle says he was home asleep when the telephone rang. "We had a problem on Apollo 13 on the lunar module, on the command module, and I explained what I though we could do," he said.
More than anything else though, Titusville's people have watched each and every launch and welcomed the thousands who have come to watch with them. David Hamids is a science teacher whose family opened the Moonlight Drive In restaurant when the launches first started.
"We definitely feel the effects, the positive effects of the space shuttle launches, there is no doubt about that," he said.
Even after the last shuttle goes into orbit, there will still be hundreds of NASA employees nearby, still unmanned rocket launches, but everyone knows without astronauts, the crowds will not be as big.
"Our community is going to lose the gift of hundreds of thousands of hotel rooms that we didn't really have to work very hard to fill," said Thompson.
With the last launch, the town's identity will slip a little farther into the past.
"For me, it's probably going to be a lot of joy and a lot of sorrow all at the same time," Socks said, who knows when the tourists depart this time, all that will be left is a suddenly, shockingly empty sky.
Space Shuttle trivia: 8 key facts to remember
CBS News: Space Shuttle trivia: 8 key facts to remember
(Space.com) After 30 years of service, NASA's fleet of three space shuttles is standing down for good.
The final shuttle mission planned, the STS-135 launch of Atlantis, is scheduled for July 8. After that, the orbiters will be headed to museums to live out their lives on public display.
As we say goodbye to the iconic reusable space planes, here are eight surprising shuttle facts to keep in mind:
1. Top speed
While in orbit, the space shuttle travels around Earth at a speed of about 17,500 miles (28,000 kilometers) per hour. At this speed, the crew can see a sunrise or sunset every 45 minutes.
2. Well traveled
The combined mileage of all five orbiters is 513.7 million miles (826.7 million km), or 1.3 times the distance between Earth and Jupiter. Each orbiter, except for Challenger, traveled farther than the distance between Earth and the sun.
3. Presidential attention
Only one president has been on hand to witness a space shuttle launch. President Bill Clinton, along with his wife Hillary Clinton, watched Mercury astronaut John Glenn's return to space on the STS-95 flight on Oct. 29, 1998 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
President Obama had planned to watch the shuttle Endeavour lift off on its final mission STS-134, on April 29, 2011, but that launch was delayed. The President and his family did visit the spaceport anyway.
4. Space science
The space shuttle isn't just a mode of transport: It's a laboratory, too. There have been 22 Spacelab missions, or missions where science, astronomy, and physics have been studied inside a special module carried on the space shuttle.
Spacelab, a reusable laboratory built for use on space shuttle flights, allowed scientists to perform experiments in microgravity . Starting in 1983's Challenger missions, animals became a prime component of space science. On the STS-7 mission, the social activities of ant colonies in zero gravity were examined, and during STS-8, six rats were flown in the Animal Enclosure module to study animal behavior in space.
5. Taking the heat
The space shuttle's Thermal Protection System, or heat shield, contains more than 30,000 tiles that are constructed essentially of sand.
All of the tiles are thoroughly inspected before liftoff - they are a crucial tool that allows the space shuttle to endure the intense heat endured when the shuttle re-enters Earth's atmosphere to land. After the tiles are heated to peak temperature, the tiles can cool fast enough to be held in your hand only a minute later.
6. Packing on the pounds
The heaviest space shuttle orbiter, Columbia, weighed 178,000 pounds (80,700 kg), roughly the weight of 13 African Elephants.
Columbia, the first space shuttle to fly, weighed the most because NASA was still searching for lighter materials to use, and integrated some of these into the later orbiters.
7. Official monikers
The space shuttle program is officially known as the Space Transportation System (STS), and so each shuttle mission is designated with the prefix "STS."
Initially, the missions were given sequential numbers indicating their order of launch, from STS-1 through STS-9. However, because the then-NASA administrator James Beggs suffered from triskaidekaphobia (the fear of the number 13) and wanted to avoid associations with the unlucky Apollo 13 mission, the agency drew up a new numbering system for space shuttle missions, according to NASA history accounts by several astronauts at time.
What would have been STS-11 was named STS-41-B, STS-12 became STS-41-C, and STS-13 was STS-41-D. The first number was the last digit in the fiscal year (1984), the second number indicated the launch site (1 for Kennedy Space Center, and 6 for Vandenberg Air Force Base), and the letter indicated the sequence (A was the first launch of the year, and so on).
After the 1986 Challenger shuttle disaster, when that orbiter and its STS-51-L mission crew were lost, the agency resumed the sequential numbering system, starting with STS-26.
8. Tweeting from space
On May 11, 2009, astronaut Michael J. Massimino, a crewmember of the space shuttle Atlantis' STS-125 mission, became the first person to use the microblogging site Twitter in space.
Writing as @Astro_Mike, he tweeted "From orbit: Launch was awesome!! I am feeling great, working hard, & enjoying the magnificent views, the adventure of a lifetime has begun!"
Since then, many astronauts from NASA and other space agencies have posted Twitter messages from space. One, NASA spaceflyer Doug Wheelock, won a Twitter Shorty Award earlier this year for the posts and photos he shared from space using the website during his months-long stay aboard the International Space Station.
For NASA's final space shuttle mission, all four of Atlantis' crewmembers have Twitter alias. They are: commander Chris Ferguson (@Astro_Ferg), pilot Doug Hurley (@Astro_Doug), mission specialist Sandy Magnus (@Astro_Sandy) and mission specialist Rex Walheim (@Astro_Rex).
Atlantis's final mission is STS-135 and will fly a 12-day mission to deliver vital supplies and spare parts to the International Space Station. NASA is retiring all three of its shuttles after 30 years to make way for a new program aimed at sending astronauts on deep space missions to an asteroid and other targets.
(Space.com) After 30 years of service, NASA's fleet of three space shuttles is standing down for good.
The final shuttle mission planned, the STS-135 launch of Atlantis, is scheduled for July 8. After that, the orbiters will be headed to museums to live out their lives on public display.
As we say goodbye to the iconic reusable space planes, here are eight surprising shuttle facts to keep in mind:
1. Top speed
While in orbit, the space shuttle travels around Earth at a speed of about 17,500 miles (28,000 kilometers) per hour. At this speed, the crew can see a sunrise or sunset every 45 minutes.
2. Well traveled
The combined mileage of all five orbiters is 513.7 million miles (826.7 million km), or 1.3 times the distance between Earth and Jupiter. Each orbiter, except for Challenger, traveled farther than the distance between Earth and the sun.
3. Presidential attention
Only one president has been on hand to witness a space shuttle launch. President Bill Clinton, along with his wife Hillary Clinton, watched Mercury astronaut John Glenn's return to space on the STS-95 flight on Oct. 29, 1998 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
President Obama had planned to watch the shuttle Endeavour lift off on its final mission STS-134, on April 29, 2011, but that launch was delayed. The President and his family did visit the spaceport anyway.
4. Space science
The space shuttle isn't just a mode of transport: It's a laboratory, too. There have been 22 Spacelab missions, or missions where science, astronomy, and physics have been studied inside a special module carried on the space shuttle.
Spacelab, a reusable laboratory built for use on space shuttle flights, allowed scientists to perform experiments in microgravity . Starting in 1983's Challenger missions, animals became a prime component of space science. On the STS-7 mission, the social activities of ant colonies in zero gravity were examined, and during STS-8, six rats were flown in the Animal Enclosure module to study animal behavior in space.
5. Taking the heat
The space shuttle's Thermal Protection System, or heat shield, contains more than 30,000 tiles that are constructed essentially of sand.
All of the tiles are thoroughly inspected before liftoff - they are a crucial tool that allows the space shuttle to endure the intense heat endured when the shuttle re-enters Earth's atmosphere to land. After the tiles are heated to peak temperature, the tiles can cool fast enough to be held in your hand only a minute later.
6. Packing on the pounds
The heaviest space shuttle orbiter, Columbia, weighed 178,000 pounds (80,700 kg), roughly the weight of 13 African Elephants.
Columbia, the first space shuttle to fly, weighed the most because NASA was still searching for lighter materials to use, and integrated some of these into the later orbiters.
7. Official monikers
The space shuttle program is officially known as the Space Transportation System (STS), and so each shuttle mission is designated with the prefix "STS."
Initially, the missions were given sequential numbers indicating their order of launch, from STS-1 through STS-9. However, because the then-NASA administrator James Beggs suffered from triskaidekaphobia (the fear of the number 13) and wanted to avoid associations with the unlucky Apollo 13 mission, the agency drew up a new numbering system for space shuttle missions, according to NASA history accounts by several astronauts at time.
What would have been STS-11 was named STS-41-B, STS-12 became STS-41-C, and STS-13 was STS-41-D. The first number was the last digit in the fiscal year (1984), the second number indicated the launch site (1 for Kennedy Space Center, and 6 for Vandenberg Air Force Base), and the letter indicated the sequence (A was the first launch of the year, and so on).
After the 1986 Challenger shuttle disaster, when that orbiter and its STS-51-L mission crew were lost, the agency resumed the sequential numbering system, starting with STS-26.
8. Tweeting from space
On May 11, 2009, astronaut Michael J. Massimino, a crewmember of the space shuttle Atlantis' STS-125 mission, became the first person to use the microblogging site Twitter in space.
Writing as @Astro_Mike, he tweeted "From orbit: Launch was awesome!! I am feeling great, working hard, & enjoying the magnificent views, the adventure of a lifetime has begun!"
Since then, many astronauts from NASA and other space agencies have posted Twitter messages from space. One, NASA spaceflyer Doug Wheelock, won a Twitter Shorty Award earlier this year for the posts and photos he shared from space using the website during his months-long stay aboard the International Space Station.
For NASA's final space shuttle mission, all four of Atlantis' crewmembers have Twitter alias. They are: commander Chris Ferguson (@Astro_Ferg), pilot Doug Hurley (@Astro_Doug), mission specialist Sandy Magnus (@Astro_Sandy) and mission specialist Rex Walheim (@Astro_Rex).
Atlantis's final mission is STS-135 and will fly a 12-day mission to deliver vital supplies and spare parts to the International Space Station. NASA is retiring all three of its shuttles after 30 years to make way for a new program aimed at sending astronauts on deep space missions to an asteroid and other targets.
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