posted 08-24-2009 04:37 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
The 2009 ascans will be introduced today (August 24)...

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posted 08-31-2009 03:41 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
The 2009 ascans will be introduced today (August 24)

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posted 08-31-2009 04:23 PM               

Currently there are two photos taken during survival training.

The lack of media can be partially, if not entirely attributed to the timing of the event, which was scheduled for the morning before the first launch attempt for STS-128. Most of the NASA press corps were in Florida as a result.

posted 09-04-2009 01:07 PM               

NASA's newest astronaut class is touring Constellation facilities at JSC in Houston today.

NASA's newest astronauts and some international astronauts learning about the vaccuum chamber where we get things ready to go to space.

New NASA astronaut candidates Serena and Mike preview their new spaceship, Orion, inside a mockup at JSC.

NASA's newest astronauts get a briefing inside an inflatable lunar habitat concept at JSC.

posted 09-24-2009 01:57 PM               

Pictured in the wilderness of western Maine, NASA’s newest astronaut class didn’t take long to get out “in the field” soon after reporting Aug. 24 to Houston’s NASA Johnson Space Center to begin a two-year training program. Shown on Aug. 26 with two new astronaut candidates representing both the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the Canadian Space Agency, and with a few other trainees, are the nine NASA astronaut candidates. The group did four days of Land Survival Training at the Naval Air Station in Brunswick, Maine. They will continue training for the next two years before individually becoming eligible for spaceflight assignments.

posted 09-26-2009 11:10 PM               

Newest Astronauts Walk Where Pioneer Predecessors Did at Langley

Jack Fischer flew F-22 Raptors at Langley Air Force Base but didn't have a clue about what was going on the other side of the fence.

Reid Wiseman flew F-18 Super Hornets at Oceana and had an idea about some of the things done at NASA's Langley Research Center, but had never been to the facility.

"My daughter's really interested in NASA," he said. "She loves the Air and Space Center. I'm not sure whether she liked that best or the ride through the (Hampton Roads) tunnel."

Wiseman's daughter is three.

Fischer, Wiseman and the rest of the Astronaut Candidate Class of '09 -- the first such class in five years -- got an introduction to Langley on Thursday during a tour of the facility, and they were particularly awed while at the Gantry. Once in the class they instantly become part of NASA history and so are aware of those who went before them, beginning on April 9, 1959, when Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, John Glenn, Walter Schirra, Scott Carpenter, Deke Slayton and Gordon Cooper were announced as the first American astronauts.

All of them trained at Langley.

"I wasn't alive for Apollo, but I know about it," Wiseman said, obviously impressed with the Gantry. "Everybody who's ever stepped on the moon trained here."

"I want to be in there," said Fisher after viewing a video of Neil Armstrong and others training on the facility.

It's not likely, at least for a long while, but the candidates are young -- Fischer is 35, Wiseman 33 -- so "who knows?" said Duane Ross, the manager of Astronaut Candidate Selection and Training at Johnson Space Center in Houston. "If they're around long enough, they could be part of Constellation."

For now, they're part of the astronaut crew that's being taught to work on the International Space Station. That training began with a bonding exercise in which they went through the Navy's Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape regimen in northern Maine.

From now until May, 2011, they will receive 39 weeks of space station systems training, plus robotics training, extra-vehicular activity training and some flight time for those who aren't pilots. "Oh, and we're going to teach 'em Russian," Ross said.

The Russian lessons replace the 54 weeks once allowed for space shuttle training, an unnecessary skill with the shuttle being retired. The new language skills will prepare the astronauts to travel in the Russians' Soyuz to the International Space Station.

The nine members of the U.S. contingent in the class were chosen from 3,535 applicants. Like so many other government positions, you could apply through usajobs.gov.

"But that's just us," Ross said. "We have two Canadians and three Japanese. That 14 people out of about 10,000."

On Thursday, the class was introduced to Langley's work in aeronautics, atmospheric science and flight test hardware, along with the National Transonic Facility, structure and materials and the NASA Engineering and Safety Center. Added to that was another walk down the agency's memory lane, to the Hangar, where the Rendezvous Docking Simulator hangs from the ceiling, a reminder of those who trained in it, and of Buzz Aldrin, who joined Armstrong on the moon during Apollo 11, and who used the facility in research for his doctoral thesis.

"That we're able to be a part of all of this is inspiring," said Fischer, an Air Force major who is giving up a pilot's first love -- flying the Raptor -- for "something bigger: being part of helping the entire world."

Wiseman, a lieutenant commander in the Navy, agreed.

"It's a new challenge," said Wiseman, who learned of his selection to the class while flying close-air support to NATO troops in Afghanistan, and who continued to fly sorties until the Navy could separate him for astronaut duty.

"I'm like a kid," he said, laughing. "I wanted to fly, and I've wanted to an astronaut since I was a kid. So I can keep being a kid."

A particularly select kid in a new job that could keep him busy for a long time.

posted 10-08-2009 03:10 PM               

NASA's new astronaut class: call them the 'Chumps'

Since reporting to the Johnson Space Center in mid-August to begin training, NASA's nine new astronaut candidates and five international trainees from Canada and Japan have been referred to collectively as either the 2009 class of astronaut candidates ("ascans") or NASA's 20th group of trainees.

As of earlier this month though, the 14 can be called the "Chumps".

posted 11-05-2011 11:43 AM               

Big day yesterday: grad of the 20th Astro Class! @Astro_Jeremy [(Jeremy R. Hansen)] and I got our Silver pin.