Mir Ceased to Exist

2dayNspace: Ten years ago today the Mir Space Station was deorbited and burned up in the atmosphere. The stansi precrasnaya (beautiful station) was designed to last 5 years. When I was on rotation in the TsUP during the 10 year anniversary, we had quite a massive celebration (vodka flowing of course). The pride and accomplishment was evident in the eyes of the Energia engineers in the control center. To ditch it after fifteen, was painful to say the least. But resources needed to be freed up for the new international space station - ISS.

The official statement from the TsUP echoed the sentiment... "Mir ceased to exist" at 05:59:24am GMT (12:59:24am CDT). That's it - not even able to glorify her achievements. The news release from Pravda includes an interesting statement at the end: "the work of the specialists in ballistics received an excellent mark, although there was no applause at the Mission Control Centre (TsUP)."

The very sad video.

Obviuosly a Major Malfunction

25 years ago I was released from class early because my professor had a laryngitis. I headed to the student center and saw everyone crowded around the tv. Assumed Reagan had declared war and kept walking. As I got to the second tv room, I saw the shuttle launch footage on the screen and heard Peter Jennings say, "And here is when it happened." I stopped in my tracks and watched the horrific view. I don't remember much else from that day, only that I watched tv coverage of it ALL day... until I finally had to turn it off to breathe.

As I spoke of yesterday, I allow myself to experience this pain yet not fall into it. You keep it alive in you by whatever method you may use - mine is the first patch on my wall even though I started working at JSC between STS-29 and STS-30. But on these anniversary days, we watch the videos and allow ourselves to get closer to falling into that pit of which we have no control.

Take a minute today and allow yourself to go there in their honor!

Live Footage - extensive coverage of crowd reaction (chills among chills... BEWARE - includes families)
More new footage from someone's yard (they've got trouble of some kind... really? - sobering shot at the end depicting the cold weather)
ABC Newsflash with Steve Bell
NBC Live Aftermath Coverage
Four hours after live coverage clip with an emotional and haggered Peter Jennings
Peter Jennings World News Tonight
NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw
Reagan's words (slip the surly bonds and touch the face of God)

New Challenger Tribute for the 25th Anniversary with song that took 25 years to release! The story behind the "new" tribute song for the 25th Anniversary of Challenger

Slipping the Surly Bonds

I have always grumbled at the fact that NASA wants to group three very distinct tragedies into one Day of Remembrance. Today was the first time I had been to the Astronaut Memorial Grove for an event. And most certainly the first time I had been there since Columbia. As I drove in the gates at NASA, I saw a small gate by the badging office open. I simply thought, oh how nice & convenient. I parked and walked towards the grove. There were three wreaths placed central to their respective crewmembers. As I got closer to the Apollo 1 wreath, I realized there were family and friends in attendance. A lot of effort is put into this Day of Remembrance by NASA to honor the fallen astronauts and comfort the family - blood and the NASA family. I realize Day of Remembrance is the best approach after all.

I stayed back and let families and close friends pay respects. As they would move on, I would follow and pay mine... watching the time so as to be ready for the flyover. Then it covered me up as I was waiting my turn with the Columbia wreath. I was surrounded by the memorial tress when the T-38s screamed by... Looking up, I caught a quick, masked glance at the low-flying jets and saw Charlie's pull up to form the missing man. I have never been able to hold it together for a missing man formation. I just stood there - for the longest time... and finally moved over the Columbia wreath. Realistically, I was still in another place. Because I went back by later as I was walking out and had another "moment" with Columbia.It amazes me this still affects me the way it does. For the most part, my strong nature controls these feelings - allowing myself to experience them but not fall into them. Like my first trip to KSC after Columbia... Totally not even thinking, hurt and pain filed away, I wander on up the the ASF memorial with my parents and see the names of the Columbia crew on the wall. I lost it... like such a shock, seeing it makes it real. And today after already paying my respects, I stop by the Columbia wreath once more - and just stand there. No other activity or people to watch. Everyone is gone and it's just me - me and that pain. When I finally walked away, a photographer stopped me to get my name, asked if I worked here, and if I knew them. Yea, I knew a few of them. But, it is just so more than that.

When I got in the truck, Amazing grace was on. Why did I even put makeup on today?

T-38 pilots for the flyover were:
Astronaut Charlie Hobaugh/Astronaut Pat Forrester ("pull up")
Astronaut Ken Ham/Astronaut Steve Robinson
Ray Heineman/Astronaut David Saint-Jacques
Nebojza Solunak/Astronaut Soichi Noguchi (photo by Soichi)

A fifth T-38 in the air on standby (and likely not seen):
Mike Giles/Astronaut Mike Hopkins

I noticed the clouds several times and thought they seemed to emanate slipping the surly bonds of the Earth.


A fitting end. The poem

Little Piece of History

Found this neat Mercury Capsule bank at an antique mall this week. I have to say, it is pretty rare when I find a manned spaceflight bank I have never seen before (I have far more than on that website...)! It is pretty thick plaster and has the original cork on the bottom. I thought I had found a little piece of NASA history - but instead I find that I found a pretty major piece of Houston history!

Minimal googling revealed that Texas National Bank was in Houston. The building was shared with Conoco and opened in October 17th, 1955. On top of this building was a weather ball - popular in the mid 50s - mid 60s. It could be seen at night from 25 miles.

Most people erroneously think that Conoco sign on Houston's weather ball came later. But from this Aug 22, 1955 Life magazine clipping, the sign had two different sides upon inception in 1955. You can also see the Conoco side peeking through from the backside in this photo.

Weather balls were fairly popular at the time (providing an alternate way to get your forecast) and they all seemed to use the same jingle. When the ball was glowing red warmer weather was just ahead, when shinning white colder weather was in sight, when wearing green no change was foreseen, colors blinking light and day precipitation was on its way.

Houston's was dismantled in 1964 as a result of complaints and found its way to the entry fountain at Astroworld. In 1994 (shortly after Time Warner bought half of Six Flags), the globe was removed from the fountain. In 1995 it had been located in Astroworld storage. I am researching if it was auctioned off during the Astroworld auctions after the park closed in 2005. Stay tuned for an update!

Great video on the fate of the Northwestern Bank weather ball in Minnesota

Do you know where Houston's Weather Ball is???

Today in Space - 2001: Mir Reentry

Mar 23rd - a 143 ton space station falls from grace during a controlled reentry over Fiji and into the South Pacific. Progress M1-5 was launched in January to escort Mir on her final farewell. As expected, six main pieces survived the breakup to give one final show. We had a party that day ... to celebrate her and our opportunity to be a part of her storied history. An attempt was made to save her by private industry - they even sent one last Soyuz mission that spent 70 days there in April, May, and June of 2000.

86,331 orbits... 31 spacecraft, 64 cargo ships, nine shuttle missions... 125 cosmonauts/astronauts from 12 different countries. A five year space station stays in service for 15! But unlike our last party after the Mir Station was left unmanned in August 1999, at least on this sad day there were men living in orbit again.

Mir Reentry FGAN radar Image from above
Website for FGAN radar imaging
Video with simulated reentry, actual reentry footage, and a map
Details on controlled reentry of Mir
Neat website with all kinds of data
Interesting reflections on the reentry and what it meant to TsUP workers

2dayNspace 1962Friendship 7 Launch

John Glenn became the first American in orbit aboard a Mercury Atlas (MA-6) launched from Launch Complex 14. The complex has been dismantled, but some of its structure still sits there today. Fresh off a trip to KSC, I wandered around the complex just a week or so ago. Some new structure has been put in place to secure what is left of the obvious historical treasure. The parking spot nameplates (a newer John Glenn one had been installed) were not original. They were added some time later - I am researching this one (perhaps when they did the monument dedication in 1964?). The 45th Space Wing restored the inside of the blockhouse and turned it into a conference room around 1998 just before John Glenn's shuttle flight.

Hi res photo of Glenn and the capsule artwork
Aerial View of SLC-14
Amazing drawings of the original structures
Photos of the restored blockhouse

2dayNspace 1986Mir Space Station Launched

The first module of the Mir Space Station, known as the Base Block (Core Module), was launched aboard a Proton rocket February 20th Russian time.

The Mere Meaning of Mir
Does Mir REALLY mean peace? Maybe not... Frank Culbertson's extremely well-written letter to Congress in 1996 sheds a different light. Frank's letter also points out something amazing that is very timely in our current space wars of money and direction. The fact is Mir was done when they had NO resources! They cared enough about their foothold on space to make huge sacrifices in the eye of pride and mankind's absolute need to explore the unknown and achieve things some think impossible! At times I heard stories from my Russian counterparts in the NASA-Mir program that they had not been paid in months or often were paid in solid goods - like toilet paper that was found in a warehouse and recognized of value. Did the workers leave? Did they quit, mad about the wages owed to them? No, they did not! They found a way to survive to maintain that foothold. They found a way, utilizing every resource to its maximum - they sent one Soyuz to two different space stations at the beginning of Mir because they did not have enough Soyuz spacecraft! Not only did they do it, they maintained the life of that space station three times longer than intended. I had the fortune to be there for the 10th anniversary and a few proud office celebrations with chilled Zhelka... and they weren't done yet! Mir was not deorbited for another six years!

I strongly recommend Frank's letter, and especially the last paragraph and concluding lines!

Parent Site on Mir Space Station History - with even more moving thoughts!