Wednesday, June 16, WKTV will be featuring the first of two scheduled International Space Station U.S. spacewalks.
NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and astronaut Thomas Pesquet, from the European Space Agency, will venture outside the space station Wednesday morning for the Expedition 65 Spacewalk #74 to install the first IRPSA solar array on the P6 Truss fro the 2B Channel Power System.
The new type of Roll Out Solar Array, a lightweight, flexible power source, provides much more energy than traditional solar arrays at much less weight
NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough (NASA.gov)
Cover begins at 6:30 a.m, with the spacewalk scheduled to begin at 8 a.m.. Check the live footage of the astronauts as they continue with the overall upgrade of the space station’s power system. The spacewalk will last approximately six and half hours.
On Sunday, June 20, the second spacewalk to install an additional IROSA solar array will take place at 8 a.m. with coverage starting at 6:30 p.m.
For more information on NASA TV or the International Space Station, visit www.nasa.gov.
NASA TV can be seen on WKTV 26 Government Channel on Comcast and AT&T U-verse 99 Government Channel 99.
The Grand Rapids Public Museum (GRPM) is pleased to announce that it will open a new show in the Chaffee Planetarium on Saturday, June 16. The show, titled Space School, is a new documentary style show that features astronauts training underwater for working in space. The show will begin in conjunction with the Museum’s summer traveling exhibition – Be the Astronaut.
Space School will provide visitors with a rare glimpse of NASA astronauts training for walking and working in space by spending time in underwater environments here on Earth to learn how to manage and work in the microgravity of space. Visitors will see a breathtaking close up view of astronauts training for what promises to be the greatest of human adventures – traveling to distant planets and exploring other worlds – in our continuing effort to discover who we are and where we came from.
Space School will be part of the regular show schedule at the Roger B. Chaffee Planetarium at the Grand Rapids Public Museum, beginning on Saturday, June 16. Space School can also be reserved for school groups and field trips. Planetarium shows are $4 with general admission and $5 for planetarium only. Museum members receive free admission to planetarium shows.
The Making of Space School
Filmmaker Jonathan Bird, host of the syndicated Public Television series Jonathan Bird’s Blue World, shot the film for projection in full dome theaters using the latest technology from RED, the ultra-high-definition 6K RED Dragon. With the cooperation of NASA, Bird and his team filmed astronaut Chris Cassidy training for space walks at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston, and astronaut Jeannette Epps practicing techniques for exploring distant asteroids and planets at the Aquarius Reef Base in Florida.
At the Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston, Cassidy and fellow astronaut Jeff Williams are lowered into a giant pool while wearing a full size space suit, breathing through an umbilical tube, as they would in space. Divers adjust each astronaut’s weight so they achieve neutral buoyancy inside the pool. Here they practice repairs to the International Space Station on life size mockups. Working in this environment, astronauts can practice maneuvering in their awkward space suits using the same tools they would use during an actual spacewalk, anchoring themselves, as they must in space to gain leverage and prevent themselves from floating away.
In Florida, Jeannette Epps spends over a week living with other astronauts in the Aquarius Reef Base. Here astronauts learn to live together in isolation for long periods of time, a requirement of space missions. At Aquarius the astronauts practice going on excursions and use specially designed drills to gather soil and rock samples, practicing methods required to explore distant planets and asteroids.
Aquarius is like a space mission in another important respect. Astronauts cannot simply leave and go home when they want. The reason, in the underwater environment, is a phenomenon called nitrogen saturation. After just a few hours underwater, the astronaut’s blood becomes saturated with nitrogen held there by water pressure. If the astronauts were to suddenly go to the surface where the pressure is less, the nitrogen would come bubbling out of their system to disastrous consequences. To safely make it to the surface, divers must be slowly decompressed to allow the nitrogen to dissipate.
Space School is among the first digitally-filmed live action dome format films. The RED Dragon is the first commercial camera to offer high-resolution images suitable for projection on a dome. The film was also shot at 60 frames per second, more than twice the frame rate of conventional film, creating an amazingly life-like experience. “Live action in the dome format at a high frame rate is just like being there,” says filmmaker Bird. The film is distributed by Sky-Skan, the world’s largest full dome film distributor.T
The Grand Rapids Public Museum (GRPM) announced today tickets are now on sale for the newest traveling exhibit, Be the Astronaut, opening June 16. Visitors will experience what it is like to be an astronaut including the challenges and excitement of spaceflight!
Visitors take command of futuristic space vehicles, chart their course to the Moon, Mars and beyond and land and explore highly detailed digital re-creations of actual places in the solar system built using data from NASA space probes.
Be the Astronaut teaches STEM based content via a fusion of the physical exhibit with state-of-the-art video game technology. Visitors have their own crew of virtual experts throughout every stage of the exhibit. These digital characters will help visitors learn what’s needed to fly a spaceship, pilot a lander, and drive a surface rover — then will be there as visitors climb in the simulators to actually perform these feats, in a thrilling narrative adventure that spans the solar system.
“Through STEM based hands-on activities that are scientifically verified by NASA experts, this exhibit let’s our community travel to space from right here at the Grand Rapids Public Museum,” said Dr. Stephanie Ogren, Director of Science at the GRPM.
Tickets are now on sale for Be the Astronaut, and can be purchased by visiting grpm.org/Astronaut or by calling the Museum’s front desk at 616-929-1700.
Admission to Be the Astronaut is $12 for adults, $7 for children, $9 for Kent County resident adults, $4 for Kent County resident children, and $2 for all Museum members! Tickets include general admission to the Museum.
In each space capsule, a monitor serves as the ‘windshield,’ giving visitors a first-person view of their adventures. Touch-screens and an industrial-quality joystick put visitors in command.
During missions, the entire cockpit comes alive with animated lighting effects, game visuals, and sounds that make visitors believe they are astronauts. Special companion robots will move about the hall and interact with visitors.
The focus of the exhibit is on the concepts common to all space flights and invites visitors into a futuristic storyline as the framework to communicate these ideas.
The experience is scientifically verified by experts at NASA for accuracy and feasibility.
This exhibit will run from June 16 through Sept. 16.
Be the Astronaut was designed and produced by Eureka Exhibits, LLC. – A NASA Space Act Agreement Partner Company.
Be the Astronaut is sponsored by The Steve & Amy Van Andel Foundation, Meijer, David & Carol Van Andel Family Foundation, STAR 105.7, BDO USA, LPP, Chris & Kim Branoff, Cascade Engineering, Jim & Barb Haveman, Lacks Enterprises, Inc., Williams Kitchen & Bath and Holiday Inn Downtown Grand Rapids.
This exhibit is brought to you by the citizens of Kent County and the voter approved millage.
Astronauts (left to right) Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee, pose in front of Launch Complex 34 which is housing their Saturn 1 launch vehicle. The astronauts died ten days later in a fire on the launch pad. (NASA/photographer unknown – NASA [1] Great Images in NASA Description, Public Domain)By Joanne N. Bailey-Borosma
Whether you have traveled the road, visited the planetarium, or seen the American legion post in your travels through Wyoming, there is a good chance you have seen or heard the name Roger B. Chaffee.
And for some the question during those travels may have been who was Roger B. Chaffee?
Chaffee was one of the first NASA astronauts, who tragically never made it to the stars. On Jan. 27, 1967, there was a fire in the Apollo 1 capsule during a training exercise killing Chaffee and his two crew mates, Virgil “Gus” Grisson and Edward H. White II, who was the first person to perform a space walk.
The inside of the Apollo 1 capsule after the fire. (NASA/photographer unknown – NASA [1] Great Images in NASA Description, Public Domain)This Friday, fifty years to the date of the accident, the Wyoming Roger B. Chaffee American Legion Post 154 will host a dinner and memorial ceremony at the post, 2327 Byron Center Ave. SW. The dinner is at 6 p.m. and the ceremony is at 7 pm.
“From what I know, his father was a member of the post and they asked if they would name it after him,” said Jerry Smith, an adjunct with the post. American Legion posts have a tradition of bringing named after a local veteran.
Chaffee was a Navy officer before being accepted to the NASA program, said Glen Swanson, a Grand Valley State University physics professor who worked for NASA in Houston as the Johnson Space Center’s chief historian. Swanson credits some of his love for space from Chaffee’s parents, Donald and Blanche Chaffee. In their later years, the couple had moved to the city of Wyoming and Swanson would bike over to visit them and talk about NASA and the space program.
A photo of Don and Blanche Chaffee with their daughter after the Apollo 1 accident. The photo is in the ‘Roger That!’ exhibit.
“Don and Blanche were huge supporters of the space program even after their son’s death,” Swanson said, adding the couple would visit area schools to talk about NASA and space and Don Chaffee even wrote a book.
The Chaffee family was from Greenville. Due to Don Chaffee having scarlet fever, Blanche Chaffee was forced to stay with relatives in Grand Rapids until Roger was born. The family later moved to Grand Rapids and Roger attended Central High School.
After graduation, Chaffee would attend Purdue to pursue his passion of flying and earned a bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering. He joined the Navy and in 1962 applied for the astronaut training program. He wold be one of 14 out of a pool of more than 1,800 to be chosen for the Astronaut Group 3, all of who would be part of the Apollo program.
In January 1966, Chaffee was selected for the first Apollo mission, which was a surprise, Swanson said, adding that Chaffee had no previous flight experience unlike his crew mates Grissom and White. None would make it into space as the following year, the fire happened.
The accident also happened shortly after the move of the then Kent County Airport, which was located in Wyoming, formerly Paris Township. The landing strip was being paved and it was decided to name the road Roger B. Chaffee Boulevard.
“There was the local connection and since it was the former runway, it probably made sense,” Swanson said, adding that there was some debate on naming the airport after Chaffee but eventually it would be named after the former president and is now called the Gerald R. Ford International Airport.
The ‘Roger That!’ exhibit will be up through Mar. 31 at the GVSU Eberhard Center in downtown Grand Rapids.
Wanting to remember Chaffee’s contributions to the space program, Swanson help put together a photo exhibit, “Roger That!,” on the West Wall Gallery at the GVSU Eberhard Center in downtown Grand Rapids.
“We didn’t want to focus just on the tragedy of what happened, but rather on his life and accomplishments,” Swanson said. The exhibit will be up through Mar. 31.
There was plans to host an event on the actual anniversary, but since family members were booked for the NASA event this week in Florida, GVSU officials instead worked with the Grand Rapids Public Museum to plan a two-day conference and celebration in February, which was Chaffee’s birth month. On Feb. 10, there will be a conference featuring discussions on a variety of space-related topics including science, society, and the arts. The event concludes with a ticketed dinner with Chaffee’s wife and daughter, Martha and Sheryl Chaffee, and the planetarium show “Dark Side: The Light Show.”
On Feb. 11, Brother Guy Consolmagno of the Vatican Observatory and winner of the Carl Sagan Medal for excellence in public communication in planetary sciences will present at 11 a.m. at the Grand Rapids Public Museum, 272 Pearl St. NW. This is a ticketed event. For more on the Roger That! activities, visit www.gvsu.edu/rogerthat.
Swanson said he hopes the activities will not only remind people of who Chaffee was, but encourage others to follow in his footsteps by pursuing their passion whether it be space or something else in the great beyond.
