GSC Update

*October 27th- Total Lunar Eclipse visible to nearly the entire Northern Hemisphere.
Total lunar eclipses occur when the moon moves into Earth's shadow (called the "umbra") from the sun and becomes partially obscured for a short period of time. This will be fourth total lunar eclipse since May 15, 2003. This rare series of four total eclipses each under six months apart is called a "tetrad". The next total lunar eclipse occurs March 3rd, 2007.

9:14 p.m.: Moon enters Earth’s dark umbral shadow
10:23 p.m.: Totality begins
11:04 p.m.: Mid-eclipse
11:45 p.m.: Totality ends
12:54 a.m. (Oct. 28): Moon leaves the umbra
(Times are EDT)

*October 10th- Dr. Maxime "Max" Faget, designer of the original Mercury space capsule, died at the age of 83. Patent holder, U.S. Navy Serviceman, and one of the original members who helped transform the NACA "Space Task Group" into NASA in the very infancy of the program, Max was a brilliant engineer whose designs and ideas have found their way into every space program from Mercury all the way to the Space Shuttle. Faget was inducted into the National Space Hall of Fame in 1969.

*Bolstered by the publicity and attention over such sucesses as Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne and the XPrize, commerical space tourism has made great strides as of late. Virgin Galactic and other start-up companies are beginning to market tickets to the fringes out outer space (small sub-orbital rides) for somewhere around $200,000. Celebrities such as Wiliam Shatner and Lance Bass, eager to join the ranks of civillian space tourists such as Dennis Tito and Mark Shuttleworth are willing pave (pay) the way for semi-wealthy thrillseekers and adventurers. Others are looking to greater competitions, including the $50 million "American Space Prize" for an full orbital vehicle and another prize for an orbital structure to be built. Still, experts are quick to point out that the public may not realize that space exploration, much like the early days of aviation, carries a great risk.

"Space is risky, and somewhere, sometime over the next 10 years, we have to expect things are not always going to go well, and we have to ready for that."
-George Whitesides, executive director of the National Space Society.

"Private individuals are willing to take risks that government [agencies] can't take. I think [the X Prize] clearly has a Lindburgh effect that is drawing attention to the field.""
-Howard McCurdy, a space historian and professor of public affairs at American University in Washington, D.C.

On a regular airplane, McCurdy said, the risk of not making it to your destination is about 1 in 10 million, while on a military combat mission the odds are about 1 in 23,000. Military risk levels, rather than the current 1 in 50 for human spaceflight, could be a good target for Rutan's and other spacecraft, he added.

“When you’re in that business and you are professionally trained for it, you really understand what the risks are. This is what test people do. They push the envelope. Certainly with a designer like Burt Rutan, with all the kind of things that he’s done…if they didn’t think they could pull it off, Mike Melvill wouldn’t be sitting in that seat. Test pilots are not the risk takers people think. They do incredible things, but they expect to come back."
-NASA’s Michael Kostelnik, Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Station and Shuttle, retired Air Force Major General and former test pilot.

*The Space Shuttle fleet is still grounded and is expected to return to flight in the summer of 2005. The Russian Soyuz capsule is currently the only vehicle anywhere in the world capable of full orbital flight, and recently returned International Space Station crew Expedition 9 (Gennady Padalka and Michael Fincke), replaced by Expedition 10 (commander Leroy Chiao and flight engineer Salizhan Sharipov).

As always, information from Space.com
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