posted 01-18-2005 07:22 PM               

Seems like a push reminiscent of Apollo days. Wilson starts with an engineer, Steven Holmes, who “...like the astronaut corps & thousands of others, has dedicated his life to getting the shuttle flying again.” She writes that Holmes is from NASA’s Huntsville center but that he’s seen little of his family for 2 years, working at the New Orleans E.T. site. She tells how Holmes helped one by one to eliminate the shuttle’s external tank foam problems allowing NASA’s conclusion that foam will never destroy a shuttle again.
Wilson’s article has a profile of a great, likeable, inspiring role model, Cmdr. Eileen Collins (Weatherbee’s colleague), who grew up with some poverty in upstate NY, using food stamps, with separated parents, while Collins herself worked at a “pizza joint” to pay for flying lessons. Collins will have new flying techniques close to the ISS. Wilson’s article has Collins’ assessment that the shuttle is needed to build the space station, and the station “is needed to PREPARE HUMANS TO WALK ON MARS, WHICH COLLINS HOPES TO SEE IN HER LIFETIME.” And she sees the flight as a tribute to the colleagues who died in the accident. Article & a nice PHOTO: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-01-16-collins-side_x.htm

posted 01-19-2005 11:27 AM               

Reporter Gwyneth K. Shaw writes, "Much has been made of the fact that Bush barely mentioned space exploration last year after his speech at NASA headquarters in January. But...last week, he was emphatic about his support." And she quotes Sean O'Keefe, "What is really different about...this second year now, is there is a very clear strategy that frames [the space initiative].. It's...much more compelling..."

Sen. Bill Nelson's thoughts about how critical Discovery's flight is were summed up in the reporter's words: "Not only would it revive public interest in manned spaceflight, but successful launches would build confidence among lawmakers that NASA can be trusted to take the next step." Shaw gave Rep. Dave Weldon's thoughts: "The wild card, he said, is the economy. If it slows down, and the deficit worsens, he said, funding for NASA is going to be [hard]. 'It was very hard in '05...we came right to the eleventh hour... the biggest driver will be the continued support of Tom DeLay [representative from JSC's district] and the president, but we need some better economic numbers as well.' "

"...REGENERATIVE POWER SYSTEMS THAT COULD BE USED ON OTHER PLANETS... PRELIMINARY CONCEPTS FOR HUMAN LUNAR EXPORATION... AND EARLY IDEAS ABOUT..THE CREW EXPLORATION VEHICLE..." are among the "slew" of contracts that Shaw reports NASA has already put out. She says that this summer NASA will choose two teams to "build demonstration models of the Crew Exploration Vehicle -- a key milestone in the effort to launch an unmanned test of the craft in 2008."

But reporter Shaw, in her Orlando Sentinel article, presents AN ANALOGY THAT SPACE FANS & COLLECTSPACE VISITORS SHOULD LIKE. The thought comes from a spokesman for the Space Foundation, which is part of the Coalition for Space Exploration of the aerospace companies & others. She mentions, "The space arena has been far from quiet in the past year, from the success of the twin Mars rovers to the enthusiasm generated by the successful flights of the privately built rocket SpaceShipOne." [and CS fans would chime in, the landing on Titan]. She goes on with the thoughts of Space Foundation spokesman Jim Banke: "We can't jump from where we're at now directly to flying to the moon... There's this important middle part of it, which is return-to-flight.. If you want to use the historical analogy, this is our Project Gemini," he said, referring to the program that NASA used in the 1960s to bridge the gap between the fledgling efforts of the Mercury flights and the ambitions of the Apollo moon program.

The lengthy, quality article, from the Orlando Sentinel, 1/17/05... http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/custom/space/orl-asecvision17011705jan17,1,1958156.story?ctrack=1&cset=true