NASA: Three Space Pioneers Lost in Less Than Six Weeks-Gen.McCartney,Sally Ride,Neil Armstrong



The first to go on July 17 was Lt. Gen. McCartney, 81, a key player initially in military satellites and inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and then in NASA's civil and manned mission programmes.

Sally Ride, 61, an educationist and the first woman astronaut from her country, was the next to go on July 23.Both of them died of cancer.Neil Armstrong, 82, the first man to set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969, died Aug 25 of heart surgery complications.

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The United States lost three space pioneers in about five weeks from mid-July, but each one of them - Forrest McCartney, Sally Ride, and Neil Armstrong - did their country and humanity proud.

All three are known for the grace and dignity with which they lived after retirement and continued to encourage aerospace aviation among youngsters. And each one fulfilled the mission of their lives with distinction.

Although McCartney, as a US Air Force (USAF) officer, was involved in military aerospace and missile programmes, the spinoff from the research in those programmes benefited various aspects of both civil and military sciences. According to a statement by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), he came from the position of commander, Air Force Space Division, and concluded a distinguished 35-year military career on Aug. 31, 1987, with a retirement ceremony at the office of the Secretary of the Air Force in the Pentagon.

Born May 26, 1951, Sally Ride had first gone to space at the age of 32 on board the Challenger June 18, 1983, and then once again. She is the youngest US astronaut yet, man or woman. Significantly, she was part of a review panel that examined the 1986 Challenger and 2003 Columbia disasters and helped formulate some new parameters.

Neil Armstrong, of course, has been the most celebrated of the US astronauts. His famous words when he first set foot on the moon, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," turned that singular US achievement into a world celebration and everybody everywhere, including in India, shared the smiles.

Born Aug 5, 1930, Armstrong was an aerospace engineer, a qualified naval aviator with deck landings, an Air Force test pilot and a distinguished astronaut. He is survived by his second wife Carol, whom he met at a golf course in 1992 and married in 1994.

Apollo 1: Grissom,White,Chaffee, The Death of our First Astronaut Heros

Chaffee  Grissom  White

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On January 27, 1967, tragedy struck the Apollo program when a flash fire occurred in command module 012 during a launch pad test of the Apollo/Saturn space vehicle being prepared for the first piloted flight, the AS-204 mission. Three astronauts, Lt. Col. Virgil I. Grissom, a veteran of Mercury and Gemini missions; Lt. Col. Edward H. White, the astronaut who had performed the first United States extravehicular activity during the Gemini program; and Roger B. Chaffee, an astronaut preparing for his first space flight, died in this tragic accident.

Senate Committee on Apollo1 Tragedy

Roger Chaffee biography, Gus Grissom biography, Ed White biography

The Tragedy

Beginning at 23:31:04.7 GMT (6:31:04.7 P.M. EST), the crew gave the first verbal indication of an emergency -- a fire in the Command Module was reported.

Emergency procedures called for the Senior Pilot, occupying the center couch, to unlatch and remove the hatch while retaining his harness buckled. A number of witnesses who observed the television picture of the Command Module hatch window during this stage of the fire discerned motion that suggests that the Senior Pilot was reaching for the inner hatch handle. The Senior Pilot's harness buckle was found unopened after the fire, indicating that he initiated the standard hatch-opening procedure. Data from the Guidance and Navigation System indicate considerable activity within the Command Module after the fire was discovered. This activity is consistent with movement of the crew prompted by proximity of the fire or with the undertaking of standard emergency egress procedures.

Personnel located on adjustable level 8 (A-8) adjacent to the Command Module responded to the report of the fire. The Pad Leader ordered crew egress procedures to be started and technicians started toward the White Room which surrounds the hatch and into which the crew would step upon egress. Then the Command Module ruptured...

The full story here

Obama the First President to Brew Beer at the White House-Get the Recipe here



Beer has played a role several times in Obama’s presidency.

When Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates was arrested outside his home by Cambridge police Sergeant James Crowley in July of 2009, Obama invited the two men to the White House for a beer summit. The beers consumed that day on the White House patio: Bud Light for Obama, Sam Adams Light for Gates, Blue Moon for Crowley, and nonalcoholic Buckler for Vice President Biden.

Home-brewed beer at the White House, however, is a relatively new development. The first time home-brewed beer is known to have been served at the White House was at a Super Bowl party in February 2011. Schultz said about 100 bottles of the home-brewed beer were served that day.

The president’s enthusiasm for the beverage has been evident, and it coincides with a national trend. There are more than 2,000 breweries in the United States today, the highest number since the end of Prohibition.

President Obama’s fondness for beer has been well documented.

Now the White House has bowed to demand for his recipe for beer that he concocted himself with a little help.

Recipe for White House Honey Ale

INGREDIENTS
2 ( 3.3 lb) cans light malt extract
1 lb light dried malt extract
12 oz crushed amber crystal malt
8 oz Bisquit Malt
1 lbWhite House Honey
1½ oz Kent Goldings Hop Pellets
1 ½ oz Fuggles Hop pellets
2 tsp gypsum
1 pkg Windsor dry ale yeast
¾ cup corn sugar for priming

DIRECTIONS
1. In an 12 qt pot, steep the grains in a hop bag in 1½ gallons of sterile water at 155 degrees for half an hour. Remove the grains.
2. Add the 2 cans of the malt extract and the dried extract and bring to a boil.
3. For the first flavoring, add the 1½ oz Kent Goldings and 2 tsp of gypsum. Boil for 45 minutes.
4. For the second flavoring, add the ½oz Fuggles hop pellets at the last minute of the boil.
5. Add the honey and boil for 5 more minutes.
6. Add 2 gallons chilled sterile water into the primary fermenter and add the hot wort into it. Top with more water to total 5 gallons.
There is no need to strain.
7. Pitch yeast when wort temperature is between 70-80°.
Fill airlock halfway with water.
8. Ferment at 68-72° for about seven days.
9. Rack to a secondary fermenter after five days and ferment for 14 more days.
10. To bottle, dissolve the corn sugar into 2 pints of boiling water for 15 minutes. Pour the mixture into an empty bottling bucket.
Siphon the beer from the fermenter over it. Distribute priming sugar evenly. Siphon into bottles and cap. Let sit for 2 to 3 weeks at 75°

Dawn Asteroid Belt Probe to Leave Asteroid Vesta for Planetoid Ceres

We have probes, rovers, robots, telescopes and satellites exploring everything from the Earths radiation belt all the way out to the edge of the solar system as Pioneer leaves the sun's influence. One of the coolest missions out there is the Dawn Spacecraft exploring the asteroid belt that lies between Mars and Jupiter. After a 14 month probe of the giant asteroid Vesta the Dawn spacecraft is departing for the biggest object in the belt; the planetoid Ceres.

The $466 million Dawn mission launched in 2007 to explore Vesta and Ceres, two huge and ancient objects that have borne witness to most of the solar system's history. Scientists hope Dawn's observations of these two bodies can shed light on our cosmic neighborhood's earliest days.

Dawn traveled about 1.7 billion miles  to reach Vesta, and the trip to the 590-mile-wide Ceres will roll the probe's odometer reading up to 3 billion miles or so, officials said.

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