Two-time space shuttle astronaut Ronald A. Parise passed away last week at his home in Silver Spring, Md., after a three-year battle with brain cancer. He was 56.
The Ohio native flew as a payload specialist aboard the space shuttle Columbia in 1990 and the Endeavour in 1995. He made ultraviolet and x-ray astronomical observations as part of the ASTRO-1 and ASTRO-2 missions. Parise also spoke with hundreds of ham radio operators around the world during his flights.
Frank H. Bauer, chairman of the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station International program, was saddened to hear of Parise’s passing.
“Ron Parise was — and continues to be — an inspiration to countless students, ham radio operators, and friends the world over,” Bauer told Vindy.com. “While he certainly did some truly extraordinary things in his lifetime, Ron Parise is best known and cherished for keeping family and friends first … and for this, we will miss him most.”
Parise is survived by his wife, the former Cecilia Sokol, whom he met while both were students at Youngstown State University. They married in 1973. The couple’s son, Nicholas, is in the U.S. Air Force. Their daughter, Katherine, lives in Silver Spring, Md.
The family requests that contributions be made to the Youngstown State University Foundation, Dr. Ronald A. Parise Scholarship Fund.
Having spent near a quarter century and $100 billion on the International Space Station, NASA may have significant problems completing the orbital outpost by 2010 and supporting it after the agency retires the space shuttle the same year.
That is the rather dour assessment delivered by the Government Accountability Office during a Congressional hearing on Thursday. GAO’s Cristina Chaplain said NASA’s station completion plans”require much to happen and very little to go wrong” over the next two years. Once the agency completes station construction, it will retire the space shuttle.
Chaplain said NASA will have a difficult time replacing the shuttle’s large payload capacity. The significant “shortfall in (NASA’s) ability to provide logistical support to the station … may well impact support for a six-person crew and the quality of the research that can be conducted,” she said.
NASA officials disagreed, expressing confidence that they can finish the station in two years and keep the facility supplied with a mixture of Russian, Japanese and European vehicles. The space agency also is funding development of commercial resupply ships under its COTS program.
There’s more about GAO’s report and NASA’s response below:
GAO Report (PDF Document)
Shuttle’s retirement could leave space station lacking support
Orlando Sentinel
Shuttles’ end may leave space station out in the cold
Houston Chronicle
Report: Supplying ISS will be difficult
Florida Today
Aviation Week’s Frank Morring, Jr. is providing blog updates from the ongoing U.S. Space Symposium in Colorado Springs. Morring’s blog posts:
- review the evolving space policies of the three major U.S. presidential candidates;
- report on a proposal by former shuttle commander turned Boeing executive Brewster Shaw to keep the space shuttle flying beyond its planned retirement date in 2010; and,
- reveal that the U.S. Air Force had been assisting the Chinese human spaceflight program with avoiding orbital debris, at least until the Chinese made the problem much worse last year by blowing up a spacecraft with an anti-satellite missile.
Massive job cuts in space program likely
Associated Press
“More than 8,000 NASA contractor jobs in the nation’s manned space program could be eliminated after the space shuttle program is shut down in 2010, the agency said Tuesday.
“The number of civil servants is expected to remain roughly the same, but dramatic job cuts are possible among private contractors as NASA transitions to the Constellation program, which is developing the next-generation vehicle and rockets to go to the moon and later to Mars.”
NASA faces job flight
Daytona Beach News-Journal
NASA: Michoud’s Employment Future Cloudy
Associated Press via Yahoo News
More than 1,000 jobs may be lost at Michoud
New Orleans Times-Picayune
Marshall jobs ‘pretty stable’
The Huntsville Times
The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that up to 6,400 contractors could lose their jobs at the Kennedy Space Center after the space shuttle is retired in 2010.
In a report due out on Tuesday, the space agency estimates that the contractor staff could fall from about 8,000 today to between 1,600 and 2,300 in 2011. Employment would begin to pick up in subsequent years as NASA prepares to launch its new Ares/Orion system. Far fewer employees will be needed to launch the new system.
The space shuttle Endeavour landed safely at the Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday at 8:39 p.m. EDT after an almost 16-day mission. Commander Dominic Gorie guided the orbiter to a safe landing at Cape Canaveral. The shuttle’s seven-member crew delivered a new Japanese module and a Canadian robot to the International Space Station, where they stayed for a record 12 days.
Having wrapped up a highly successful visit to the International Space Station, the space shuttle Endeavour has departed the orbiting outpost and is headed back for a Wednesday evening landing at Cape Canaveral.
The shuttle attached a Japanese module and the Canadian maintenance robot Dextre to the space station. ISS and shuttle astronauts also conducted a record-tying five spacewalks during the 12-day visit.
The shuttle dropped off Garrett Reisman for an extended stay on the outpost. It is returning with French astronaut Leopold Eyharts.
Andrei Kislyakov has an interesting analysis on the RIA Novosti website about Russia’s future role in the International Space Station project. Although there are fears in the West about the country’s growing role in the program, some in Russia worry their involvement could decline in the future.
The recent launch of Europe’s Automated Transfer Vehicle resupply ship has subtly shifted the balance among the partners. Europe will be playing a larger role in station operations, a role that could eventually expand to flying astronauts to the facility aboard a human-rated ATV.
To date, crew transfers and cargo resupply have been handled by the American space shuttle and the Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecraft. However, America plans to retire the shuttles in 2010, and it could be five years before the successor vehicle, Orion, flies crews to ISS.
Continue reading ‘Russia: Feeling a Tad Slighted?’
NASA Astronaut G. David Low, 52, who flew on three space shuttle missions, died on March 15 of colon cancer in Reston, Virginia. He circled the earth more than 540 times during his 714 hours in space.
Low flew aboard the space shuttle Columbia in 1990, Atlantis in 1991, and Endeavour in 1993. During his last flight, Low and Peter J.K. “Jeff” Wisoff conducted a nearly six-hour spacewalk to retrieve the free-flying European Retrievable Carrier.
Low continued to work for NASA for another three years following that flight. He served on the Russian Integration Team that helped to bring that nation into the space station program. He also worked with NASA Legislative Affairs.
Continue reading ‘G. David Low, 52: Cerebral Astronaut Flew on 3 Shuttles’
Last week, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin sat down the Houston Chronicle’s editorial board and reporter Eric Berger to discuss a range of issues. Some highlights:
Griffin is opposed, for reasons of safety and cost, to efforts by Congressman Dave Weldon and others to extend the shuttle program beyond 2010.
China will “probably” get to the moon before the United States. “They are constructing a very well-crafted space program. They are doing things on a number of fronts — economic, political, military — that seem to have the intent of establishing China as a strategic power in the world.”
Griffin does not want another “space race.” Although the Apollo program was a stunning achievement, America was not able to use it as part of a long-term space exploration effort with sufficient political and public support.