|
Engineer designs 'flip' to return Space Shuttle to action
A decade in Mission Control for Texas native Steve Walker has seen him help steer the Space Shuttle to historic destinations, including the Russian Mir Space Station, the Hubble Space Telescope and the International Space Station. But today he's developing some unprecedented orbital gymnastics critical to safely returning the Shuttle to flight.
Walker and a team of specialists in rendezvous techniques have developed a nose-over-tail flip that the Shuttle will perform when it approaches the Station on its return to flight mission, STS-114. The flip will allow cameras aboard the Station to survey the Shuttle's surfaces as one of many measures being put in place to check for damage to the spacecraft. The flip is a first, and it has been a challenge for pilots and rendezvous specialists. For a brief period, it prevents the crew from seeing the Station they are approaching. Previously, the Shuttle has always flown with its windows facing the Station at all times, affording the astronauts onboard the best possible view of their destination as they close in. The flight technique, called the RBAR Pitch Maneuver in rendezvous language, was designed by Walker and two other engineers at NASA, Mark Schrock and Jessica LoPresti.
"The unique thing is that we knew from the beginning we could do this maneuver," said Walker. "We already knew how to fly the Shuttle. It's flexible enough, since there's no new hardware, that we could fly this procedure next month."
Walker has been a lead Rendezvous Guidance and Procedures Officer for six past Shuttle flights, including the last three missions to service the Hubble Telescope.
"Hubble is one of the real shining stars of NASA, pushing back the frontiers of astronomy," said Walker. "You have to be in space to get that kind of quality. Hubble was upgraded many times and, after those missions, became better than it was originally built."
As a rendezvous officer, Walker makes sure the Shuttle reaches its target, whether that is a satellite, the Hubble Telescope or the Station, and then docks properly. Walker started out working on trajectory design for the Shuttle, especially the close-range approaches the crew flies manually.
The Texas A&M alumnus graduated with bachelor's and master's degrees in aerospace engineering. He spent a memorable summer traveling the length of Britain and studying English, history and geography. Love led Walker to NASA, but it was not necessarily a love of space.
"When my future wife got a job in Mission Control in the Flight Activities Office, that clinched the deal," said Walker. He is now married to Cindy Walker and has three children. When the excitement of gently bringing together two spacecraft traveling at 17,000 miles per hour is not enough, Walker finds adventure with the YMCA. He enjoys a campfire rendezvous with his three children through the YMCA Adventure Guides. Other off-the-job activities include carpentry, a skill he says was discovered by his wife. Since then, he has since been put to work gutting and remodeling the kitchen.
When he is in Mission Control and the Shuttle Discovery is beginning its flip closing in on the station, Walker won't have time to celebrate the accomplishment, he said.
"I'll be watching the Station very closely to make sure everything goes as planned," he explained. "Hopefully we'll get good pictures from the Station with the cameras. If it goes well, it'll feel really good that a small team of us worked together over a long period of time to make it successful."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Jumping for the stars
Jaime Strandmark has been working hard in the Shuttle/Station Flight Planning Department at Johnson Space Center, but even harder at balancing her time between her job and her favorite pastime: trampoline. Strandmark, 25, was chosen in June to be the Olympic Alternate for the U.S. Women's Trampoline Team.
Strandmark, a graduate of the University on Minnesota with a degree in aerospace engineering and mechanics, trains every Tuesday through Thursday for three hours -- not including the two hours she spends driving to the nearest gym in Crosby that has a performance trampoline and all of the equipment that is required for this sport.
On Fridays, Strandmark leaves her job as a Flight Controller and travels four hours to Lafayette, La. to train for 11 hours with her coach, Dmitri Poliaroush, who will compete in the Olympics this year for Belarus. Then Strandmark leaves late Sunday night to come back to Houston and begin this strenuous schedule again.
She also attends one international competition every month, traveling to different countries and showing off her talents while also trying to put her face in front of the Trampoline Selection Committee. She has been following this busy schedule for the past three years.
In trampoline, the goal is to perform two 20-second routines that include 10 different "tricks." They also are graded on maintaining the same height of about 20 feet throughout the whole routine.
The first routine is a compulsory routine, where the athlete has to perform 10 tricks and include one body landing.
"Body landing is where you have the option of choosing to either land on your back or stomach following a trick from 20 feet in the air," said Strandmark. The second routine, the optional routine, is different in that the performer gets to choose what kind of tricks to do and is graded on performance difficulty.
The Olympics first recognized trampoline in 2000, making this the second year to be able to qualify for this sport. Sixteen countries are able to qualify with only one position per qualifying country. Even though Strandmark is not sitting on the sidelines in Athens, she is designated to compete if Jennifer Parilla, the U.S. Women's Trampoline Olympian, is unable to for some reason.
After 18 years of literally jumping towards the stars, Strandmark has decided to retire after the Olympics in Athens this year. Her decision to retire comes after a long decision to dedicate more of her time to planning her upcoming wedding to her fiancŽ and longtime motivator, Charlie Marshik, who is currently in Iraq.
"Money has also played a big part in my decision, because I am expected to pay for everything from gym fees to traveling once a month to a foreign country to compete," said Strandmark. "Because trampoline is not a really well known sport, it is hard to get a lot of sponsors."
"All of the support has really kept me going, especially when I do not feel like driving all of those hours to practice," she said.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
JSC team earns Telly Award for safety production
The efforts of a creative Johnson Space Center team recently earned a prestigious Telly Award.
The Telly recognized a production entitled "T-38 Fire, Crash and Rescue," which is an instructional device to be viewed by personnel at airports where NASA T-38 aircraft might land.
"Since the T-38 is a non-civilian aircraft, handling it is not something that is a trivial matter for ground personnel," said Charles Boehl, IMPASS Television Services Manager.
Founded in 1978, the Telly Awards honor outstanding local, regional and cable TV commercials and programs, as well as video and film productions. JSC teams have consistently earned Telly Awards several years running.
The following IMPASS personnel contributed to the award-winning project and were presented with an award on August 9:
Producer, Director, Editor and Graphics: Jason Clemons
Videographer: Jason Fennelly
Still Photographers: Robert Markowitz, Bill Stafford
Production Assistant: Steven Channing Knarr
Narrator: Pat Ryan • Creative Input: Mitch Youts
|
