Kickstarter

Sorry for the recent silence and thank you all for being patient. I have had an extremely busy shooting schedule lately, mostly involving this project. I want to thank all of you who participated in the successful Kickstarter project which replaced this one, and those of you who didn't will still get another chance along with a chance at an exciting 2013 NASA photo calendar coming out soon. Your generous contributions to this project will help insure the ability to continue covering events here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center for at least the rest of the year. There are many other events and tests happening at other NASA facilities all around the country and a second round funding attempt will launch shortly. 

Since the last update.....

Orion, the Apollo style capsule spacecraft replacing the space shuttle has been in development for several years now. Over the last year I've been around a lot of Orion vehicles from Spincraft spaceframes testing new metal composite compounds and minature models for wind tunnel tests, all the way through to full-sized boiler plate models used for water landing tests and even chicken wire mock-ups to help engineers model the interior to people actually moving around inside. Recently the pressure vessel frame of the first spacebound Orion arrived here at Kennedy Space Center and was shown off to a large crowd inside the Operations & Checkout building (O&C) where construction will continue for the upcoming EFT-1 (Exploration Flight Test 1), the first test flight in space of the Orion program, currently scheduled for 2014. This building, now under lease and totally refurbished for the new millennium by Lockheed Martin, is where all the Apollo program spacecraft were readied for launch.

The International Space University (ISU), a critical post-graduate organization for those who wish to enter space related fields all over the world, holds their conference at somewhere different in the world every year and this year they visited us here at Kennedy Space Center for quite a while. Bill Nye, the scientist behind Disney's Bill Nye the Science Guy and the head of the University, held a great discussion panel on the future of spaceflight on the fifth floor of the Second Operations Support Building (OSB-II), a building most photographers will never see the inside of. Just before the discussion panel begun I had a couple very short minutes to shoot a full 360* panorama from the 5th floor balcony during a beautiful sunset, a view reserved for "VVVVVVVVIPs", meaning celebrities and foreign heads of state. The view was amazing, covering the iconic VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building), SLC-39B which launched Apollo and space shuttle missions and has since been cleared out and upgraded in preparation for the shuttle's replacement, SLS (Space Launch System). The launch pad now features a greatly upgraded lightning suppression system (this is the lightning capitol of the US) as well as featuring universal hookups to be adaptable to just about anyone else who wants to use the pad. Just south of there you can see 39A, which still has the RSS and FSS service structures for shuttle flights intact, and south of there more rocket launch pads in the distance. What an amazing view!
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The joint Canadian (CSA) and American (NASA) lunar drilling rover RESOLVE (Regolith & Environment Science and Oxygen & Lunar Volatile Extraction) drilling rover arrived and was driven by remote contol in a grassy field here at Kennedy. While the other reporters were inside the control room, I got permission to go underneath and on top of RESOLVE and got some really unique shots. RESOLVE will land on the moon, drill a meter below the surface to extract water ice, break it down into hydrogen and oxygen (both well proven rocket fuels) and analyze it with a mass spectrometer. Then, so that no one can say lines on a mass spec reading are false, RESOLVE will reconstitute the steam into a water drop inside it's body, take a picture of the water drop and send it back to Earth!!

As NASA continues to develop inflatable habitat modules for construction of a moon base and talks of crewed deep space exploration get more serious, identifying a plentiful source of rocket fuel and an easy system to convert water ice into the rocket fuel to use the moon as a jump off point is critical. After leaving here RESOLVE went to Hawaii for further environmental suspension testing. Due to the difference in gravity and the weight needed to press the drill down onto the lunar surface VS here on Earth, the rover that will actually fly to the moon will be larger than the test article seen here.
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ISU held their annual student model rocket launch, but this time they launched their model rockets (slightly taller than adult height), from SLC-39A, the intact space shuttle launch pad.

The Project Morpheus lander built at Johnson Space Center in Houston, an extremely minimal landing craft designed to fly autonomously here on Earth, recently arrived here at Kennedy and I got to photograph it. The idea is that NASA simply presses the launch button and it will fly a predetermined path and land in a pre-programmed spot in a very large hazard field of craters and rubble modeled after the lunar surface. It is built from Crawler Way gravel (road the shuttle and Apollo missions rolled out from the VAB to the launch pad) that has been crushed too fine to be used by the weight of the Space Shuttles and Crawler Transporter vehicles along with concrete rubble just at the south end of the Shuttle Landing Facility. The day I was there to photograph a flight test had quite a bit of lightning and the vehilce was moved back indoors where I photographed it before riding out to the shoot the hazard field while it was empty. The lander is also experimenting with liquid oxygen and methane propulsion instead of oxygen and hydrogen. This development of methane as rocket fuel will greatly further green fuel research which will make it into our lives through NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist NASA Spinoff program.
I'm all the way on the left behind the guy in the orange shirt http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=395695107157980&set=a.158127880914705.35542.156555054405321&type=1&relevant_count=1
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Morpheus passed numerous flights tests in which is was tethered to a crane and bungees as well as free flight tests in Texas before moving here. As a precaution because of the cross-country move they began a series of tethered flight tests here at KSC which were to lead to free flight tests once the hardware still proved reliable. On 8/9, during the second untethered flight, just a few feet above the ground, a hardware failure caused the guidance system to malfunction. Not knowing which way was up or down, Morpheus turned itself upside down and flew straight down into the ground rupturing the liquid oxygen and methane tanks and exploded. There was no press coverage of that flight test or any others done here at KSC so the only pictures you will see are screen shots from the NASA TV cameras. The Project Morpheus crew has since packed up and went home to JSC, TX to build a new one, something they planned to do anyway. Their official statement and a video of the catastrophic failure can be seen on the project's blog http://morpheuslander.blogspot.com/2012/08/moving-forward-not-starting-over.html

In September, the new ALHAT (Autonomous precision Landing and Hazard Detection Avoidance Technology) system would have been installed onto Morpheus for testing which will check landing sites, ID debris and locate alternate clear sites nearby. The field has 5 good landing sites, and the system would be programmed to landing in the middle of the field in a blocked area, at which point the system would photograph a roughly 90 sq yd portion of the landing site from above, figure out that the programmed landing site is bad and find another one automatically, all within a fraction of a second using a parallel processing chip on loan from NRO (National Reconnaissance Office) who operates all the US spy satellites.

The NROL-15 top secret spy satellite launched aboard a Delta IV Heavy rocket, the world's most powerful rocket currently operating. While the launch was not much to see (liquid rocket fuel doesn't leave a smoke trail and this one did not use any Solid Rocket Motors), the pre-dawn launch saw numerous technical delays allowing spectacular sunrise photos of a giant red sun coming up behind launch pad.
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Over a period of numerous days, Space Shuttles Atlantis and Endeavour both got their main engine (dummies), dummy FRC (Forward Reaction Control aka the engine in the nose) and dummy OMS (Orbital Maneuvering System) pods installed for the final time in preparation of museum display. All useable flight hardware has already been removed for use in the next generation and these are simply shells for museum display.
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Back up on the balcony of OSB-II, with the gigantic VAB in the background, former astronaut and head of NASA Charlie Bolden made an announcement on which 3 of the 7 private commercial companies involved in the Commercial Crew Development Program (CCDev) were selected to provide NASA with human resupply missions to the International Space Station (ISS.) This will free NASA to concentrate on deep space only missions. To mine and everyone else's excitement there, Sierra Nevada's Dreamchaser, a super-modern winged craft that looks like a mini space shuttle, was selected. I was able to ask Administrator Bolden about Sierra's presence here in Florida and was even more excited to learn that they have been hiring, and will be renting facilities & launching from right here. It is going to make for some amazing launch pictures as well as the usual behind the scenes opportunities we get to photograph.

Space Shuttle Endeavour, completing her Transition & Retirement, had the tail cone installed over the main engines for her upcoming ferry flight to Los Angeles. Ferry flights were pretty rare in the Space Shuttle Program, as most missions landed back here in Florida, and tail cone installs here at KSC were even more rare since the shuttles are usually flying back to here from California for their next launch. With OPF-1 and 3 (Orbiter Processing Facility - the giant maintenance hangars built specially for the shuttles) already leased out, Endeavour, with tail cone installed, was taken out of OPF-2 and switched places with Atlantis inside the VAB. Between the two buildings they were bought nose to nose for the last time. Not many reporters were able to attend, and only 6 reporters were allowed onto the VAB roof 525ft (42 stories) up to shoot the bird's eye view while another small handful shot photos from the ground. Another way of saying that is there were only 6 people in the world allowed to take the pictures I took. Talk about exclusive!! Sometimes it is hard to remember that, but that is the case at every event NASA allows news media to attend. While I was up on the roof I also made sure to get a couple panoramas from the north and west sides.

The new multi-billion dollar, SUV sized robotic Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover named Curiosity, which launched from here in November, successfully arrived at Mars in what was the most complicated landing ever attempted in history. This was known as the 7 minutes of terror, seen here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISmWAyQxqqs . I photographed the aeroshell back shell & heat shield, the rocket powered sky crane and the rover itself; every piece of equipment in the above video, last July and August inside the JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) cleanroom before launch. I also shot the Atlas V rocket which launched it laying vertical on a truck trailer just after arriving here.
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So far everything is working perfectly and MSL is sending back beautiful color pictures of Gale Crater on Mars. National Geographic has been running a program called Martian Mega Rover about many of the technical challenges in development and testing that almost made this mission not happen. I recommend watching it, there is a lot of great information and footage.

On the Air Force side at Cape Canaveral's historic Launch Complex 14, where America's first astronauts launched, General Cotton who runs Cape Canaveral Air Force Station swore in a group of new delayed entry recruits which included his own son. It was amazing being inside the blockhouse and I stopped to get a few shots of the Mercury 7 memorial just outside of the entrance.

I also got a chance to head off site to Astrotech Space Operations who test all spacebound equipment before launch to make sure nothing was damaged during transportation. While there I went into their cleanroom and photographed the twin Radiation Belts Storm Probes (RBSP) satellites and the payload fairing they will be launched inside of.
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While these only sound like a handful of events, each event often requires traveling back and forth several days in a row and expenses add up very quickly at over 100 miles of traveling nearly every day of the week. This Thursday's upcoming launch of the RBSP will require being up there at least Monday through Thursday for news conferences, rollout, launch pad photo ops, launch, etc, and then possibly several more days after that depending weather and technical delays. That is the normal course of operations. As always, if you would like to ask project scientists a question, post it on my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chris-Haber-Photography/126322097409341?ref=ts and then tune in live to NASA TV for the post-launch news conference. I will try to ask all questions as I am permitted. In order to save money I do not attend non-photo op events such as pre-launch news conferences unless I am already there for a photo op.

I am also trying to secure sponsors for camera equipment, custom built sound activated triggers, custom built protective housings, etc. to leave out of the launch pads during launch as the expense is currently out of reach. For now, the money raised so far will guarantee at least the remainder of this year's fuel expenses will be covered.

To help continue to fund this project I am putting together a second round Kickstarter funding project that I hope you will share with everyone, and I am also putting together a series of 2013 Calendars here on Kickstarter which will be available in time for winter. One of those calendars will be all NASA photos and will make great gifts for any age! I will send links when the Kickstarter projects for them launch.

As always I will keep you up to date of Facebook as things happen so I don't bombard you with too many Kickstarter updates. Please follow me at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chris-Haber-Photography/126322097409341?ref=ts and https://twitter.com/#!/ChrisHaber_com

If you haven't backed this project yet, please check out http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/52068849/after-the-shuttlenasa-behind-scenes-photographic-a/

There has been a fury of activity here at Kennedy Space Center recently and the expenses are piling up. Last week saw the OMS pods for Space Shuttle Atlantis reinstalled for display, Space Shuttle Endeavour closed her payload doors for the final time. This week all of Atlantis' main engine nozzles were reinstalled and her cargo bay doors were also closed, but not for the final time.

Last week's launch of the NRO (National Reconnaissance Office) satellite aboard the Atlas V rocket marked a milestone for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program, this was the historic 50th launch in the decade of flight for Atlas V and Delta IV rockets. The next NRO launch is tomorrow morning aboard a Delta IV Heavy rocket, the most powerful rocket in the world currently in service. Later tomorrow morning Atlantis will be moved from the OPF-1 hangar to the VAB for storage until the new building at KSC Visitor's Center is completed.

You can keep up with all the events as they happen on my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Chris-Haber-Photography/126322097409341?ref=ts

Also, NRO recently gifted NASA two spy telescopes more powerful than the Hubble and just as big, including an upgraded version of Hubble's optics. They were already built when NRO decided not to use them.

They’re “space qualified,” as NASA puts it, but they’re a long way from being functioning space telescopes. They have no instruments — there are no cameras, for example. More than that, they lack a funded mission and all that entails, such as a scientific program, support staff, data analysis and office space. They will remain in storage while NASA mulls its options, but Congress cut NASA's budget by more than a billion dollars for 2012, though the House version of the bill would have been another billion less. To get us back into manned flight, Orion and SLS are being fully funded while the other areas suffer such as Earth Science, Medical Technology, Planetary ScienceAstrophysics, Heliophysics, Aeronautics Research, Space Technology, Exploration, Education, Cross Agency Support, Construction and Environmental Compliance and Restoration (NASA's going green in a big way since the 2010 Space Act and passing the new technology down to everyone), etc.

Please write your representatives in Washington and ask them to stop cutting NASA's budget
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
http://house.gov/

If you haven't already, please make a pledge on our new Kickstarter page for this project http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/52068849/after-the-shuttlenasa-behind-scenes-photographic-a

This week has been extremely busy. Tuesday and Wednesday I shot the left OMS (Orbital Maneuvering System) engine being installed back onto Atlantis, Tuesday afternoon I got some close & personal time with RESOLVE, the new Canadian-built drilling lunar rover prototype which will test potential landing sites for oxygen, water and ice. That evening I shot the International Space University's Soffen Memorial Panel, with today's leaders in the planetary science field, met and discussed our future in space. I also squeezed in a beautiful sunset 360 degree HDR panorama from the 5th floor balcony of the Second Operations Support Building, a special view reserved almost exclusively for foreign dignitaries and celebrities. 

This week also marked the successful launch of the NUSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) mission from the Pegasus rocket from California. This mission will unveil secrets of buried black holes and other exotic objects using X-ray observation to see through gas and dust to reveal black holes lurking in our Milky Way galaxy, as well as those hidden in the hearts of faraway galaxies.

My weekend, as most are, will be spent in digital lightroom and darkroom deciding which pictures to use and developing them. Anything not appearing in the book will be posted on the web site. I also shot a 1080p HD walkthrough of OPF-1 (Orbital Processing Facility High Bay 1), giving you a look at Atlantis from all 4 structure levels starting from above looking down into the cargo bay all the way to the underside.This will be uploaded to my Facebook page ASAP. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chris-Haber-Photography/126322097409341

This upcoming week has a busy schedule as well, with the Air Force launching NROL-38, a classified payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office on an Atlas V rocket Monday. Tuesday Atlantis is getting her right OMS pod installed and then Endeavour is closing her payload doors. The rest of next week is likely going to be filled with with similar activities as the main engine nozzles are installed back into Atlantis in preparation for her move to the Visitor's Center in November into what will be one of the best displays a vehicle has ever gotten.

The traveling expenses for these 2 weeks alone are expected to reach over $200 and there is much more behind-the-scenes action constantly happening here and all around the country including another Air Force launch of a Delta IV Heavy on the 28th for the NROL-15 mission's classified spy satellite from right here in Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Please pass the Kickstarter project link through social networks such as your Facebook page, twitter, email, blog, forums, friends, family, work, anywhere else, etc, even possibly posting fliers to emailing book clubs, news organizations and anyone interested in photography, art, spaceflight or technology.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/52068849/after-the-shuttlenasa-behind-scenes-photographic-a

If you wish to pledge via paypal to help more immediately, the address is spazzychalk@hotmail.com and naturally there will be all the same rewards as listed on the page.

I want to thank you all for backing this project. The project didn't meet the funding minimum and all pledges have been automatically cancelled - no one has been charged a penny. Though it didn't meet the funding minimum, I am grateful for your show of support.

I've drastically increased the rewards, which increase even more as we meet funding goals, and posted a new Kickstarter project with an easy to reach goal to begin raising the money to cover the travel expenses associated with the numerous trips needed to visit various NASA facilities all around the country as events happen, keeping the book as up-to-date all the way until it is sent to print.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/52068849/after-the-shuttlenasa-behind-scenes-photographic-a

There is so much going on behind the scenes that there are quite a few press events per month just here at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral. Launches also inherently have delays. Depending on how much we raise we will either stick to Florida or visit the various NASA facilities throughout the country. Because of the nature of the expense, any amount will help, and the minimum has been set accordingly and doesn't mean we want to stop at $300. With your continued support this is going to be a great book.

If you wish to donate via paypal to help more immediately, the address is spazzychalk@hotmail.com and naturally there will be all the same rewards as listed on the page.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chris-Haber-Photography/126322097409341

Today is JFK's birthday and I spent most of it at NASA JFK Space Center photographing the installation of the Forward Reaction Control (dummy) engine into the nose of Space Shuttle Atlantis and running around the Orbiter Processing Facility hangar freely for a couple hours grabbing many interesting shots. Several other shuttle retirement and current mission photo opportunities will be presenting themselves before the book goes to print, and some time next month (tentatively) Atlantis will be powering down for the final time and I will be heading inside her to shoot the powered flight deck. 

Tomorrow I am meeting with the technical editor Edward Von Koenigseck, NASA technical writer on the Apollo Lunar Excursion Module which saved the Apollo 13 crew and author of Technical Writing for Private Industry - The A-Z for O & M Manuals to go over the introduction chapter, acronyms & definitions appendix and the text that is written so far for the pictures as well as getting some special insight into the technical data.

We only have 6 days left before the Kickstarter project expires and we are currently at 25%. I have just learned that you can increase your pledge by clicking the MANAGE PLEDGE button on the project's page http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/52068849/after-the-shutte-photographic-art-history-science

Please continue to share this project and feel free to email me any time.