...THERE IS A SLGT RISK OF SVR TSTMS ACROSS NORTHERN INTERMOUNTAIN REGION...
 
 

News and Comments....
 

Spacewalking Repair Halts Station Leak - For Now
Published May 11, 2013 | Associated Press
 

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. ­  Astronauts making a rare, hastily planned spacewalk
replaced a pump outside the International Space Station on Saturday in hopes
of plugging a serious ammonia leak.
 

The prospects of success grew as the minutes, then hours passed and no
frozen flecks of ammonia appeared. Mission Control said it appeared as
though the leak may have been plugged, although additional monitoring over
the coming weeks will be needed before declaring a victory.
 

"I will tell you that we're happy. We're very happy," said Joel Montalbano,
NASA's deputy space station program manager. "We didn't see any obvious
signs of a leak, but it's going to take some time ... for us to look at the
system, evaluate the system and make sure we did, indeed, stop the leak."
 

Montalbano expects it will take "a good four weeks, five weeks, maybe even a
few weeks longer."
 

"Obviously, the longer you go, the more confidence you get," he told
reporters.
 

Christopher Cassidy and Thomas Marshburn installed the new pump after
removing the old one suspected of spewing flakes of frozen ammonia coolant
two days earlier. They uncovered "no smoking guns" responsible for the leak
and consequently kept a sharp lookout for any icy flecks that might appear
from the massive frame that holds the solar panels on the left side.
 

"Let us know if you see anything," Mission Control urged as the fresh pump
was cranked up. Thirty minutes later, all was still well. "No snow," the
astronauts radioed.
 

"We have our eyes on it and haven't seen a thing," Marshburn said.
 

NASA said the leak, while significant, never jeopardized crew safety. But
managers wanted to deal with the trouble now, while it's fresh and before
Marshburn returns to Earth in just a few days.
 

The space agency never before staged such a fast, impromptu spacewalk for a
station crew. Even during the shuttle program, unplanned spacewalks were
uncommon.
 

The ammonia pump was the chief suspect going into Saturday's spacewalk. So
it was disheartening for NASA, at first, as Cassidy and Marshburn reported
nothing amiss on or around the old pump.
 

"All the pipes look shiny clean, no crud," Cassidy said as he used a long,
dentist-like mirror to peer into tight, deep openings.
 

"I can't give you any good data other than nominal, unfortunately. No
smoking guns."
 

Engineers determined there was nothing to lose by installing a new pump,
despite the lack of visible damage to the old one. The entire team -- weary
and stressed by the frantic pace of the past two days -- gained more and
more confidence as the 5 1/2-hour spacewalk drew to a close with no flecks
of ammonia popping up.
 

"Gloved fingers crossed," space station commander Chris Hadfield said in a
tweet from inside. "No leaks!" he wrote a half-hour later.
 

Flight controllers in Houston worked furiously to get ready for Saturday's
operation, completing all the required preparation in under 48 hours. The
astronauts trained for just such an emergency scenario before they rocketed
into orbit.
 

This area on the space station is prone to leaks.
 

The ammonia coursing through the plumbing is used to cool the space
station's electronic equipment. There are eight of these power channels, and
all seven others are operating normally.
 

Life for the six space station residents has been pretty much unaffected
since Thursday's ammonia shower. The loss of an additional power channel,
however, could threaten science experiments and backup equipment.
 

"We may not have found exactly the smoking gun," Cassidy said, "but to pull
off what this team did yesterday and today, working practically 48 straight
hours, it was a remarkable effort on everybody's behalf."
 

NASA officials remain mystified as to why the leak erupted. Ammonia already
had been seeping ever so slightly from the location, but the flow increased
dramatically Thursday.
 

Montalbano did not know, as of Saturday evening, how much ammonia was lost.
Another spacewalk will be needed to replenish the supply.
 

With the repair work behind them, the astronauts and ground controllers
turned their attention to the impending departure of three of the six
crewmen.
 

Marshburn has been on the space station since December and is set to return
to Earth late Monday, along with Hadfield, a Canadian, and Russian Roman
Romanenko. Cassidy is a new arrival, on board for just 1 1/2 months.
 

By coincidence, the two Americans performed a spacewalk at this troublesome
spot before, during a shuttle visit in 2009.
 

"This type of event is what the years of training were for," Hadfield said
in a tweet Friday. "A happy, busy crew, working hard, loving life in space."
 

Read more:
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/05/11/spacewalking-astronauts-hunt-for-b
ig-station-leak/print#ixzz2T7gUQYgr
 
 

Closing Thoughts...
 

Men are like linoleum floors. Lay 'em right and you can walk all over them
for thirty years.~ Betsy Salkind
 
 

That's it for today, have a good week, and be careful out there,
 

Roger
 
 
 

Cons and Other Events:  (Reminder!  If you have an event please send it in!)
 

Due to the wide variety of Chronicle readers, I have added the following
notations to the name of the event entry:
# Science Fiction or Fantasy Event
^Aviation or Space event.
* Tentative Location.
**Tentative Date(s).
*** Tentative Event.
& Kechi Playhouse Presentations.
+ Events narrated wholly or in part by Plane Talk Airshows.   @ Events where
your humble editor will be a guest.
 

2013-
  May-
    SPECTRUM FANTASTIC ART LIVE 2 (thru 5/19), Bartle Hall Grand Ballroom,
Kansas City, MO.
    www.spectrumfantasticartlive.com  Art-centered convention.  Ticket
prices ­ TBA (check website).  Special
    Guests ­ Peter de Sève, Tara McPherson, Charles Vess,  Michael R.
Whelan, Terryl Whitlatch.
 

    ConQuesT 44 (thru 26), Holiday Inn CoCo Key Water Resort, Kansas City,
MO. http://www.conquestkc.org, 
    Patrick Rothfuss, Christopher J. Garcia, Patricia C. Wrede, John
Picacio, Teresa Nielsen Hayden, John Kovalic
 

  June-
     LIBERYCON 26, (thru 6/30), Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel, Chattanooga,
TN.  http://www.libertycon.org/  
    General science fiction convention.  Memberships ­ TBA.  GoH, Kevin J.
Anderson; AGoH, TBA; Science GoH, 
    Catherine Asaro; SGoHs, Michael & Paul Bielaczyc; MC, Larry Correia.
 

    SOONERCON XXII, “BEYOND THUNDERDOME” (thru 6/30), Reed Conference
Center, Midwest City, OK.
    http://soonercon.com/  General science fiction     convention.
Memberships ­ $25 (thru 1/1/13) check
    website for current rates.  GoHs, C.J. Cherryh, Tim Powers; TM, Selina
Rosen. ­ Midwest City, OK
 

  July-
    INCONJUNCTION XXXIII, “STRANGE NEW WORLD” (thru 7/7), Indianapolis
Marriott East, Indianapolis,
    IN. http://www.inconjunction.org/   General science fiction & fantasy
convention.  Memberships ­ $35 (thru
    1/6/13, $40 thru 5/12/13, $45 thru 6/30/13, then $50 at the door); 6-12
half price.  GoH ­ Cherie Priest.
 

    NORTH AMERICAN DISCWORLD CONVENTION 2013 (thru 7/8), Baltimore Marriott
Waterfront Hotel,
    Baltimore, MD.  http://www.nadwcon.org/  All things Terry Pratchett!
Memberships ­ $99 (thru 12/31, then 
    $111).  Other rates on-line.  GoHs ­ Bernard Pearson, Reb Voyce & Ian
Mitchell, Esther M. Friesner,  Steven
    Baxter.
 

  August-
  
    More Info coming- When Pigs Fly
 

  September-
    
    More Info coming- Fort Scott Airshow
 

  October-
   More Info coming- Chapter 88 Fly-In
 

  November-
    TBD-
 

  December-
    TBD

Copyright 2013 by Roger M. Tener, with individual rights reverting back to
contributors after this one time use.  All opinions and versions of events
expressed by contributors are their own.