| Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: NASA Headline News for 02/05/90 (Forwarded)
Date: 6 Feb 90 20:13:44 GMT
Reply-To: yee@trident.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee)
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Monday, February 5, 1990 Audio: 202/755-1788
-----------------------------------------------------------------
This is NASA Headline News for Monday, February 5:
United Press reports that four U.S. astronauts have accepted an
invitation to witness a manned Soviet space launch, tour cosmonaut
training facilities and observe the Soviet's mission control center.
The visit was arranged by chief Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov and
accepted by astronaut chief Dan Brandenstein. Brandstein will be
accompanied on the visit by JSC'S Deputy Director P. J. Weitz, and
astronauts Ron Grabe and Jerry Ross. The four arrive in Moscow
February 9. They will travel to the Soviet launch facility at
Bakinour to view the Soviet launch February 11 or 12...then go to
the mission control center near Moscow. The quartet leaves Moscow
February 14.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post says U.S. and Soviet officials are
discussing a swap in which a U.S. astronaut would fly aboard the Mir
space station and a cosmonaut would fly aboard the U.S. Space Shuttle.
The post reports that Associate Deputy Administrator Sam Keller
discussed the proposal at a joint space science working group meeting
last December. The story says the exchange flights could come as soon
as mid-1992. The proposal will be reviewed by the National Space Council.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
These reports are filed daily, Monday through Friday, at 12 noon
Eastern time.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
A service of the Internal Communications Branch (LPC), NASA
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
|
| Article: 52948
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: ghasting@vdoe386.vak12ed.edu (George Hastings)
Subject: YOU can do real cosmonaut training
Organization: Virginia's Public Education Network (Richmond)
Date: Tue, 08 Dec 92 13:15:14 GMT
Aerospace Ambassadors of Huntsville, AL has announced a second
opportunity for average citizens for participate in a week of REAL
Cosmonaut Training in Star City, Russia. Those who go on the training
trip will try out the REAL STUFF to see if they have the "Right Stuff"!
The trip in February, 1993 will fly from the U.S.A. to Helsinki,
Finland. The trip from Helsinki to Moscow will be via the Russian
national airline, AEROFLOT.
A day and a half in Moscow will allow tours of the city, Red
Square, the Kremlin, and cultural events while adjusting to
the different time zone, eight hours ahead of Eastern
Standard Time.
Bus transportation will be provided to Zhvuzhdny Gorodok
(Star City), 40 miles north west of Moscow. Star City is
like the Johnson Spaceflight Center in Texas where two
cosmonauts (Titov and Krikalev) are now training as space
shuttle astronauts.
Housing will be in the Orbita Hotel in Star City, and all
meals will be provided. Participants will be given full
spaceflight physical examinations. They will attend lectures
and briefings by top Russian scientists, engineers, and the
cosmonauts who are responsible for guest-cosmonaut training.
There will be numerous opportunities to use the actual training
equipment used to train the cosmonauts for spaceflight. Sessions
will be conducted inside the full-size MIR Space Station training
model, as big as a three-bedroom house.
Participants will ride the centrifuge to experience the
actual G-forces encountered during liftoff into orbit on the
Russian Proton rocket.
There will be rendezvous-and-docking practice of the Soyuz-TM
Spacecraft with the MIR Space Station. Another very
realistic simulator will be used to teach trainees how to
fly the Russian Manned Maneuvering Unit "IKARUS".
There will be opportunities to practice in two different
kinds of space suits: the lightweight Sokol space suit used
during liftoff and reentry in the Soyuz-TM Spacecraft, and
the Orland heavy duty suit used during spacewalks outside
the MIR Space Station. The Russian space agency trains
cosmonauts for EVA (Extra-Vehicular Activities) in a giant
neutral buoyancy tank, three stories tall and a hundred feet
across. Space suited trainees are weighted just enough to
cancel out the tendency to float to the top of the water,
but not enough to make them sink to the bottom. Neutrally
buoyant, not floating or sinking, they can then practice
many of the movements and maneuvers necessary in true
weightlessness.
In preparation for weightlessness training, participants
will be tested in the high-altitude chamber, taken to the
pressure-equivalent of 15,000 meters, and will practice
using oxygen masks. A variety of devices will be used to do
vestibular training. Celestial navigation will be practiced
in the Russian Buran Space Shuttle simulator.
One of the highlights of the training session will be the
opportunity to experience REAL WEIGHTLESSNESS while riding
aboard the IL-76 MDK Cosmonaut Training Aircraft. This large,
windowless cargo plane has had most of the seats removed, and
the floor is covered with thick padding. Trainees sit on the
floor while the plane climbs to an altitude of approximately
20,000 meters. It goes into a slight dive to build up speed,
pulls up sharply under full engine thrust, and then
throttles back the engines to idle while the pilot gently
pushes the nose of the aircraft down. Inside, passengers
float gently off the floor, drifting weightless in the air
for about thirty seconds as the plane falls at the same speed
as everything inside. As the pilot pulls out of the dive,
trainees experience about two to two-and-a-half times the
force of gravity. The plane then climbs to altitude to do
another weightless parabolic arc. By the end of the training
flight, participants will have been weightless for a minimum
or at least five minutes!
The total cost of the round trip transportation to Helsinki,
Moscow, Star City, and return, room and board, city tours,
cultural events, plus use of the Cosmonaut Training
Facilities and equipment, the training personnel, and the
airplane ride on the IL-76 MDK weightlessness training
aircraft, is $2,800.
If you are interested, or know someone else who might be
interested in participating in only the second group of
American citizens ever admitted to this formerly closed
Russian training facility, send E-mail to:
ghasting@vdoe386.vak12ed.edu George Hastings
or Mathematics & Science Center
72407,22@compserve.com 2401 Hartman Street
Richmond, VA 23223
Office: 804-343-6525
FAX: 804-343-6529
|