March 20 2009 Vol. 49, No. 6

Spaceport News

John F. Kennedy Space Center America's gateway to the universe
www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/news/snews/spnewstoc.htrnml

STS-119 takes

final US arrays

to orbiting lab

By Linda Herridge
Spaceport News
Lili Villarreal, a
NASA mission op-
erations engineer
in the International Space
Station and Spacecraft
Processing Directorate,
watched with co-workers
as space shuttle Discovery
lofted into orbit atop a bil-
lowy plume of smoke just as
dusk set in along the Space
Coast at 7:43 p.m. EDT
March 15.
The Kennedy Space
Center Space Station
Processing Facility payload
processing team watched
its hard work pay off when
Discovery lifted off Launch
Pad 39A carrying the S6
truss to the International
Space Station.
The team was caretaker
of the fourth and final truss
segment and solar arrays,
which arrived at the center

MMT Lead
Learn more about
Launch Integration
Manager for NASA's
Space Shuttle Program
Mike Moses, Page 2.

in December 2002.
Villarreal, a former
Boeing Co. employee, sup-
ported the S6 truss team .
with Boeing during most off
the assembly operations.
"We are all excited
to see that picture of the
station when the shuttle
departs the ISS," Villar-
real said. "To see the truss
components together and to
see all of the beautiful solar
arrays deployed is some-
thing we have all worked so
hard to achieve."
On flight day 5 of the
NASA/Rusty Backer-George Roberts
See STS-119, Page 2 Space shuttle Discovery takes off March 15, at 7 43 pm EDT from Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center

Inside this issue ...

SKepler launches

Meet

~* :Moses

All-American Picnic

Heritage: Women's
History Month

Page 2 Page 3 Pages 4-5

March 20. 2009

Vol. 49, No. 6

Page 3

Pages 4-5

Page 2

Obstacles no match for management lead

By Linda Herridge
Spaceport News
Michael Moses'
first time as Mis-
sion Management
Team lead came with a few
challenges.
The launch integration
manager for NASA's Space
Shuttle Program was in his
office at Kennedy Space
Center when Discovery's
launch was scrubbed due to a
hydrogen leak during tanking
on March 11, at
2:36 p.m. EDT
Moses received an
update from Launch Director
Mike Leinbach at the Launch
Control Center, or LCC, and
then got busy assembling his
team to assess the problem
and decide how to proceed.
"I want to bring to the
position a fair and balanced
integration of the shuttle
program elements, ultimately
making the decisions and
risk trades to make sure
we're flying safely," Moses
said.
On March 13, crews re-
placed the seven-inch quick
disconnect and two seals,
one on the external tank
side and one on the ground-
equipment side.
Then on launch day, a
crew was sent to Launch Pad
39A to fix a helium pressure

NASA/Kim Shiflett
Launch Integration Manager Mike Moses is all smiles after the successful launch
of Discovery, beginning the STS-119 mission In Firing Room 4 at the Launch
Control Center, Moses undergoes the traditional tie-cutting ceremony

issue giving way to a flaw-
less liftoff.
As Moses sat at the ops
position in the LCC during
Discovery's launch March
15, at 7:43 p.m. EDT, he
said, "It's a whole lot sweeter
being here tonight."
Moses is responsible
for shuttle landing, recov-
ery, processing and launch

activities. He reports directly
to Space Shuttle Program
Manager John Shannon, and
assists with overall manage-
ment, integration and opera-
tions of the program. He sits
at the operations manager
position in the LCC, and pro-
vides shuttle program author-
ity to proceed for launch.
Daily responsibilities in-

"It's a whole
lot sweeter
being here
tonight."

Mike Moses,
Launch Integration
Manager

clude Program Requirements
Control Board meetings,
major milestone reviews
and facilitating program and
agency Flight Readiness
Reviews. Moses also serves
as the program's interface to
the 45th Space Wing range
operations.
Moses began his career
at Johnson Space Center as
a flight controller in the Mis-
sion Operations Directorate
in August 1995. He worked
for United Space Alliance
as a flight controller in the
Space Shuttle Propulsion
Systems Group from August
1995 to August 1998. From
there, he became a NASA
employee, continuing to
work in the propulsion sys-
tems group and supporting
29 shuttle missions.
In November 2003,
Moses transferred to become

the group lead for the Shuttle
Electrical Systems Group.
He was selected to be a
flight director in February
2005, and participated in five
shuttle missions as a shuttle
orbit flight director. He was
the shuttle lead flight director
for the STS-123 mission
in February 2008, prior to
appointment to his current
position.
"I didn't know that
flight control was my calling
until I started working in that
position," Moses said.
He has a Bachelor of
Science in physics from Pur-
due University in Indiana, a
Master of Science in space
sciences from the Florida
Institute of Technology in
Melbourne, and a Master
of Science in aerospace
engineering from Purdue
University.
He is a recipient of
the NASA Exceptional
Leadership Medal, Johnson
Director's Commendation
and several NASA Group
Achievement Awards.
Moses and his wife,
Beth, reside in Cape Ca-
naveral, Fla. They have two
daughters, Sarah, 4, and Lau-
ren, 1. Beth is a private pilot
and also works for NASA
in the EVA Project Office at
Johnson.

From STS-119, Page 1

STS-119 mission, and from inside
the orbiting laboratory, Mission
Specialists John Phillips and Koichi
Wakata will use the station's robotic
arm to put the S6 truss segment into
position.
Spacewalkers Steve Swanson
and Richard Arnold will assist with
the installation of the S6 and unstow
the solar array blanket boxes on the
array structure.
The arrays will be delicately de-
ployed on flight day 6 or 8 depend-
ing on whether a focused inspection
is required, and the astronauts also
will deploy a heat dissipating radia-

tor on the S6 truss.
Villarreal said the S6 truss was
processed by a group of about
30 people called the outboard truss
team. Final assembly and integra-
tion of the truss long spacer and
Integrated Equipment Assembly was
performed by Boeing.
Robby Ashley is NASA's mis-
sion manager for S6 and also serves
as deputy to the station directorate's
Project Integration Division. He
helped process the SO, P1 and P4
truss segments as well.
"It's exciting, but at the same
time it's a little bittersweet. It's the
end of an era," Ashley said. "We've
processed the station's truss seg-

ments over a 10-year period."
Dave Cormack, the Boeing S6
flow manager, and Ashley were in
Firing Room 2 at the Launch Control
Center during Discovery's launch.
"There's a sense of satisfaction
seeing the S6 truss segment and so-
lar arrays finally launch," Cormack
said. "It will be exciting to see the
solar arrays deployed on the station."
Ashley said the team's goal is to
get the payloads processed, out the
door and launched.
"But the true satisfaction comes
once they're on orbit, activated and
fulfilling their intended mission, and
we can see the fruits of all our labor
being realized up there on the space

station," Ashley said.
Two Boeing mechanical engi-
neers and one electrical engineer will
monitor mission activities from the
mission evaluation room at Johnson
Space Center in Houston.
"Our core team will follow mis-
sion activities on the station," Ashley
said.
After 13 days of hard work,
Discovery and crew are to return
home March 28, at 1:43 p.m. EDT.
That hard work will pay off
when the nation and its international
partners see the space station's su-
perstructure complete and operating
at full power to support full science.

SPACEPORT NEWS

March 20 2009

Page 2

Kepler launches, seeks Earth-like planets

Is there anybody out
there? For many gen-
erations, humans have
wondered if there was a
planet similar to Earth
out in space somewhere.
NASA's journey to find
out began when its Kepler
spacecraft took off from
Cape Canaveral Air
Force Station on top of a
Delta II rocket March 6,
at 10:49 p.m. EST.
"It was a stunning
launch," said Kepler Project
Manager Dr. James Fanson
of NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena,
Calif. "Our team is thrilled
to be a part of something so
meaningful to the human
race -- Kepler will help us
understand if our Earth is
unique or if others like it
are out there."
NASA's Launch Ser-
vices Program at Kennedy
Space Center managed
processing and launch, in-
cluding payload integration
and certifying the Delta II
launch vehicle for NASA's
use.
"Very smooth count-
down ... we did work an
item at the end having to
do with data that was a
little bit out of family," said
NASA Launch Manager
Omar Baez. "We quickly
came to resolution on that
and were able to proceed
-- and hit the window right
at the beginning."
About an hour after a
successful launch, applause
erupted in the Mission
Director's Center when
Steve Agid, launch vehicle
telemetry manager, gave
this confirmation:
"Delta flight com-
mentary at 64 minutes,
30 seconds into the flight,
we've just received word of
a positive confirmation of
spacecraft separation."
The spacecraft is
expected to drift away from
Earth at a rate of 10 million

NASA/Regina Mitchell-Ryall, Tom Farrar
United Launch Alliance's Delta II rocket carrying NASA's Kepler spacecraft rises through the exhaust cloud created by the
firing of the rocket's engines on Launch Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on March 6, at 10 49 p m EST
Kepler is a telescope designed to search the nearby region of our galaxy for Earth-size planets orbiting in the habitable zone
of stars like our sun Kepler will survey more than 100,000 stars in our galaxy

miles per year and is mov-
ing at a rate of five miles
per second.
While it took Kepler
about three days to get
past the moon's orbit, it
will spend the next three

and a half years in an orbit
around the sun, where it
will count planets by look-
ing for the tiny blips in
starlight caused by planets
eclipsing their suns.
"Kepler now has the

perfect place to watch more
than 100,000 stars for signs
of planets," said William
Borucki, the mission's sci-
ence principal investigator
at NASA's Ames Research
Center at Moffett Field,

WORD ON THE STREET
"What do you think
Kepler will find
during its mission?"
Page 8

Calif. Borucki has worked
on the mission for 17 years.
"Everyone is very excited
as our dream becomes a re-
ality. We are on the verge of
learning if other Earths are
ubiquitous in the galaxy."
While the spacecraft
is in its initial setup mode,
NASA scientists and en-
gineers will be in contact
with it 24 hours a day.
When it moves into
scientific mode, NASA will
be in communication with
Kepler every four days, and
once a month the ground
will turn the spacecraft so
its antenna points toward
Earth and data can be trans-
mitted down.
"We expect the first
downloads of data to come
in about May and June, by
July we'll have processed
enough of it to look for
stars that actually dim,"
said Dr. Geoff Marcy of the
University of California at
Berkeley. "Then it'll be the
job of ground-based tele-
scopes to verify the Earths
that Kepler has found and
measure their masses.
"And the beauty is that
if you can measure the mass
of an Earth by the Doppler-
shift wobble of the star,
and Kepler can measure the
diameter of the Earths, the
mass divided by the volume
tells you the density. If we
find planets the density of
rock of which, of course,
the Earth, Venus and Mars
are made, you know you've
got a rocky planet close kin
to our Earth."
"Even if we find no
planets like Earth, that by
itself would be profound.
It would indicate that we
are probably alone in the
galaxy," Borucki said.

March 20 2009

SPACEPORT NEWS

Page 3

Page 4SPA C E PO R T NEWS March 20 2009 March 20 2009 SPACEPORT NEWS Page 5

2009 Kennedy All-American Picnic

Face painting was a favorite of the kids attending the picnic The facial art themes included tigers, butterflies, fairies
and clowns Other children events included two large inflatable slides, two jumping tents, fingerprinting provided by
the Brevard County Sheriff's Office, and free cotton candy, popcorn and snow cones

More than 5,000 people attended
the 30th annual Kennedy Space
Center. 11/-. Anierican Picnic.
This year's picnic featured
exciting enlertainmeneriet for the
entire fitmily -- classic children's
games. a chili cook-off,
face painting, rock climbing
(background) and a car show.

Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana walked around the Automobile and Motorcyle Exhibition admiring the hard
work Kennedy employees put into their "rides "There were 23 categories vehicle enthusiasts could enter

Page 4 SPACEPORT NEWS

SPACEPORT NEWS Page 5

March 20, 2009 March 20, 2009

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NASA pholos

Page 6 SPACEPORT NEWS March 20 2009

Scenes Aroundiil Kenned Space Center

NASA/Jack Pfaller
Media gather in the Assembly and Refurbishment Facility at Kennedy Space Center on March 9, to see the aft skirt for the Ares I-X flight test, targeted for launch in July 2009 The Ares I-X flight will provide NASA
an early opportunity to test and prove hardware, facilities and ground operations associated with Ares I, part of the Constellation Program to return humans to the moon and beyond

NASA/Jack Pfaller
An overhead crane lowers NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, at Astrotech
in Titusville, Fla The orbiter will be rotated on the table to provide proper access for
processing Launch of LRO is targeted for May 20

NASA/Kim Shiflett
The top of the shipping container is moved away from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-O, or
GOES-O, wrapped in a protective cover in the Astrotech payload processing facility in Titusville, Fla The weather
satellite is undergoing final testing of the imaging system, instrumentation, communications and power systems
From left
Lillian, Jordan,
,, : -4, and Eric
Jacoby meet
S with the
Kennedy
N Space
Center Visitor
Complex's
Space Man
-. during KSC
S-- Space Day at
Space Coast
Stadium in
S.Viera, Fla
NASA/
I Kim Shiflett

Spaceport News wants to know about your special talent

If you have a hidden talent or an interesting hobby, Spaceport News would like to share it. Send your information to
KSC-Spaceport-News@mail.nasa.gov or mail it to Spaceport News at: IMCS-440, Kennedy Space Center, FL 32988.

SPACEPORT NEWS

Page 6

March 20, 2009

Remembering Our Heritage: Celebrating Women's History Month

Chosen few Apollo trailblazers wore high heels

By Kay Grinter
Reference Librarian
To land a man on the moon
before 1970 was not NASA's
only mission in the Apollo
heyday. Affirmative action was in
its infancy, and NASA scoured the
country for women with the "right
stuff" to succeed in technical ca-
reers.
NASA recruiters courted
female college graduates with
degrees in math or science, as well
as engineering disciplines. "Aero-
space technologist" was the job title
NASA assigned its engineers.
Mathematics major JoAnn
Morgan worked for NASA four
summers during her college studies
and her potential was apparent to
NASA before the employee search
began. She was offered a position
as an instrumentation controller in
1963 before she finished her degree.
Her work with computers took
her into the blockhouses on Cape
Canaveral, as well as into the firing
rooms at Kennedy Space Center.
The blockhouses used for the
early tests of the Saturn I and IB
rockets had only one restroom -- a
men's room. Morgan recalled the
first time she was sent into the field:
"One of the launch officials asked
me to leave, explaining 'we don't
have women in the blockhouse.' My
boss had given me a headset, so I
called him. 'What should I do?' He
told me to plug in my headset, run
the tests, participate in the integrat-
ed test and send him the results."
Just carrying out orders set the stage
for change.
By the time Apollo 11 launched
in 1969, Morgan had five years of
experience. "I worked in the firing
room during the countdown of
several missions, but Apollo 11 was
the first time I was in the room at
liftoff," Morgan said.
Morgan not only was the first
woman in the firing room for a
launch, but also the first woman to
be appointed to the Senior Execu-
tive Service and to be awarded a
NASA medal during her 45-year
career at Kennedy.
Judy Sullivan, formerly Judy

NASA 1969/2009
Judy Sullivan, a math and science teacher, joined NASA in 1966 as the first woman engineer in
Spacecraft Operations, working closely with the astronauts She was lead engineer for the biomedical
system for the Apollo 11 mission Today, Sullivan is a successful model and actress

Shanaberger, was a math and sci-
ence teacher who joined NASA in
1966 as the first woman engineer
in Spacecraft Operations, working
closely with the astronauts. She was
lead engineer for the biomedical
system for the Apollo 11 mission.
Most of her duties were carried out
in the Manned Spacecraft Op-
erations Building, or MSOB, now
called the Operations and Checkout
Building.
Sullivan was in the suit lab as
Neil Armstrong dressed for his his-
toric launch. During the countdown,
she monitored the data returned by
the astronauts' biomedical sensors
from the control room and commu-
nicated with the pad regarding crew
readiness. She was the only woman
in the room and wore a headset.
"Men were careful not to use
questionable language over the loop
when they knew a woman was lis-
tening," Sullivan recalled. "People
asked me what it was like to work
with all those men, but my college
experience had prepared me. Few
women were registered in math and
science classes."

Shortly after the launch of
Apollo 11, Sullivan represented
NASA on the television game show,
"To Tell the Truth." A panel of
celebrities tried to chose the "real"
biomedical space engineer by ask-
ing job-related questions of a group
of three women, all claiming to

work for NASA.
"Miniskirts were in fashion so
they shortened my hemline, and
I wore ruffles. They were totally
fooled," Sullivan recalled. "I won
$500 and had a great time seeing
New York City." Today, she has
a successful acting and modeling
career.
Ann Montgomery, a math
major, joined the Apollo team in
1968 as a crew systems engineer.
Known then as Ann Lavender, she
had oversight for all the equipment
and supplies stowed in the lunar and
command modules. Testing and fit
checks were performed on every-
thing making the trip into orbit or
to the moon, whether it was lunar
tools, books, clothing or Kleenex.
Women engineers were rare.
"I had to fight to get out on the
launch pad. The guard had been
reprimanded for letting a secretary
through, so he wouldn't let me in. I
spent 45 minutes trying to convince
him when he finally realized I had
the right access number on my
badge," Montgomery said. "At that
time, there was no ladies' room on
Pad 39B."
A professional dress code for
men and women was followed for
meetings. "Flat, closed-toe shoes

See HERITAGE, Page 8

NASA 1972/2009
Ruth Ann Strunk was one of a small group of women engineers hired by NASA during the Apollo
Program She was an aerospace technologist working with computers in the Manned Spacecraft
Operations Building in 1972 She returned to Kennedy Space Center in 1998 and is employed in the
energy and water management office by EG&G Technical Services today

SPACEPORT NEWS

March 20, 2009

Page 7

Page 8SPACEPORT NEWS March 20 2009

From HERITAGE, Page 7

and pants were worn in the field,
but dresses and high heels were
expected at meetings, so I changed
clothes a lot -- sometimes four,
five, six times a day," Montgomery
laughed. "If you had a sense of hu-
mor and stuck with it, most people
were great."
Montgomery earned a master's
degree in engineering while work-
ing for NASA and was in the Senior
Executive Service when she retired.
Ruth Ann Strunk, a math major,
also was hired in 1968, but as an
acceptance checkout equipment,
or ACE, software engineer. She
monitored the work of contractors
in the MSOB who wrote the com-
puter programs designed to check
out the command module, lunar
module and the Apollo J mission
experiments. These experiments
were conducted aboard the service

modules on Apollo 15, 16 and 17 by
the command module pilots.
When asked what it was like
working in a man's world, Strunk
reported, "I felt I was an accepted
team member. It was a great experi-
ence and a unique opportunity."
Strunk left NASA's employ in
1973 but returned to Kennedy in
1998 after working 25 years in the
private and government contracting
sectors. In the intervening years, she
earned a Master of Business Admin-
istration degree from Stetson Univer-
sity and currently works in EG&G's
energy and water management office
overseeing the Automated Utility
Data Reporting and Information
System under development.
"I am proud of the advance-
ment and the number of women
who are working and enjoy working
here," Strunk said. "It was a won-
derful opportunity NASA afforded
me during Apollo that I have been
able to use ever since."

Looking up and ahead

No earlier than March 17
No earlier than March 24
Tentatively targeted March 28

No earlier than April 28

No earlier than May 5
Target May 12
No earlier than May 20

June
Target mid-June

No earlier than June 16
No earlier than July 8
Target July 11

Target Aug 6

No earlier than Aug 14
No earlier than Sept 29
No earlier than Oct 1
No earlier than Oct 8

Target November
Target Nov 12

No earlier than Nov 12
December
Target Dec 10

Target Feb 11, 2010
Target April 8, 2010

Launch/CCAFS Atlas V, WGS SV-2, 9 24 p m
Launch/CCAFS Delta II, GPS IIR-20, 4 34 a m
Landing/KSC Discovery, STS-119, 1 43 p m

Launch/CCAFS Delta IV, GOES-O, 6 24 p m

LaunchNAFB Delta II, STSS-ATRR, TBD
Launch/KSC Atlantis, STS-125, 1 11 p m
Launch/CCAFS Atlas V, LRO/LCROSS, TBD
Launch/CCAFS Falcon 9, TBD
Launch/KSC Endeavour, STS-127, TBD

Launch/CCAFS Delta II, STSS Demo, TBD
Launch/CCAFS Delta IV, WGS SV-3, TBD

Launch/KSC Ares I-X flight test/Launch Pad 39B, TBD
Launch/KSC Atlantis, STS-128, TBD

Launch/CCAFS Delta II, GPS IIR-21, TBD
Launch/CCAFS Delta IV, GPS IIF-1, TBD
LaunchNAFB Taurus, Glory, TBD
Launch/CCAFS Atlas V, SDO, TBD

Launch/CCAFS WISE, TBD
Launch/KSC Discovery, STS-129, TBD

Launch/CCAFS Delta IV, GOES-P, TBD
Launch/CCAFS Atlas V, Commercial Payload, TBD
Launch/KSC Endeavour, STS-130, TBD

Launch/KSC Atlantis STS-131 TBD

Launch/KSC Discovery, STS-132, TBD

WORD STREET

What do you think Kepler
will find during its mission ?

"I hope it finds other Earth-like planets.
That's what it's all about."
George Jacobs,
with NASA

"Anything is possible. Who knows
what's out there? We have to explore."
Jael Lamothe,
with NASA

"I don't know what we'll find. But I do know we're
taking a giant step in answering the question."
Jose De La Cruz,
with Deltha-Critique

"I think they will find Earth-like planets. ..
just not sure they will find other life."
Leslie Kelley,
with NASA

"With all that's out there, they should find
something. We can't be the only ones here.
Patrick Smith,
with NASA

John F Kennedy Space Center

-i Spaceport News

Spaceport News is an official publication of the Kennedy Space Center and
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Page 8

March 20, 2009