The Flight Deck for July 2002, Issue 110
From the Bridge:
Yep, it's July, the natural sauna month. I made it through both my
Our next scheduled meeting is Saturday, July 13 at ADM Roseann Packer's
Also, July 20-21 marks the British Isles Festival, taking place at
Hope to see everyone at Inconjunction starting tomorrow.
CAPT Cathy Dailey
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Upcoming Events:
July 5th-7th--Inconjunction convention, Indianapolis, IN
July 13th--Halsey Meeting (and hopefully
July 20th-2st--British Isles Festival,
August 10th (tenative)--Starbase 06 Picnic, Eagle Creek Park
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Beamdown Coordinates:
ADM Rosann Packer
Directions:
1. Take I-70 East to Exit 104 (State Road 9).
Hope to see you there!
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Birthdays & Anniversaries
July 4th--the United States of America (and the Captain's dog Woof)
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>From the "Back in Black" Desk:
"Men in Black II": a Review by CAPT Cathy Dailey
For me, MiB II was the third most anticipated movie of the year
The movie starts off with a hilarious spoof of "Mysteries in History,"
Cut to Will Smith as Agent Jay dealing with aliens and a not-too-
Smith and Jones are easily the highlights of this movie, getting
The script is the main handicap. It doesn't really have the comic
Even though it couldn't measure up to the groundbreaking original,
Then again, I would've paid just to see the Lord of the Rings preview!
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>From the "Who Chases Cars Anymore?" Desk:
Mission Ready: CONTOUR's Tale Of Two Comets
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A four-year mission to send a
"This is pretty exciting. We're on our way," said Joseph Veverka,
If all goes as planned, the spacecraft will fly as near as 62 miles
"It's truly exciting to have the opportunity to fly this close to the
Liftoff of the $159 million Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR)
A Monday launch attempt was called off last week when inspections
Trailing fire and smoke from its single main engine and quartet of
Some 63 minutes later the probe arrived in its parking orbit over
CONTOUR will remain in Earth orbit until 4:46 a.m. EDT (0846 GMT) Aug. 15.
Flying a looping path through the sky, CONTOUR will return to the
CONTOUR's primary targets are comets Encke in November 2003
During the encounters, CONTOUR's four scientific instruments will
"We're about to enter into a golden era of comet
Scientists hope the information CONTOUR sends back to Earth
"Comets are the solar system's smallest bodies, but among its biggest
CONTOUR is one of ten Discovery missions approved by NASA to
Another of the Discovery missions is Stardust, a comet sample
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>From the "Amazing American Know-How" Desk:
When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered
The Russians used a pencil.
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end transmission
Go to this page to view older issues of the Halsey Newsletter.
sojourn in Chicago and the pool party with minimal injuries.
starting at 6:00 p.m. Normally we also have our fireworks blowout as well,
but the ship cannot afford to foot the bill for the ammunition. However,
if you would like to make a contribution to a fireworks fund, contact
ADM Mark Bischoff. Remember to bring munchies and raffle items.
the Renaissance Park in Harveysburg, OH. Prices are $15 for an adult
2-day ticket, $10 for adult 1-day, $5 for child (6-12) 2-day. But
also occurring that weekend is an air show at Wright-Patterson AFB in
Dayton. The USS Adventure is planning an away mission to the air
show and has invited us to join. If you would like more information,
please contact Adventure CO Andy Sams. It would be possible for
those ambitious enough to attend both events--any takers?
fireworks show) at ADM Roseann Packer's
Renaissance Park in Harveysburg, OH
Air Show, Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, OH
2696 North 300 East, Greenfield, IN
2. Turn North onto SR 9 and go to East 300 North.
3. Turn East onto East 300 North and follow that to North 300 East.
4. Turn South onto North 300 East until you get to 2696.
July 26th--Honorary Captain Nana Visitor
(behind "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" and "Star Trek:
Nemesis"), so when it hit theaters on Wed, I was one of the first in
line. Already rather wound up, I literally bounced in my seat at the
preview for "The Two Towers"--December 18th seems like a long ways away.
complete with special effects straight out of the original Star Trek.
Then we cut to the arrival of the nasty alien Serleena, who almost
immediately assumes the form of Lara Flynn Boyle and starts wreaking havoc.
bright partner. And as we all know, Jay winds up tracking down Tommy
Lee Jones, the former Agent Kay, to help stop Serleena from finding a
mysterious "Light" and destroying the world. Rosario Dawson plays a
spunky civilian, and Rip Torn & Tony Shalhoub return as well.
more laughs with well-timed looks and pauses than with the actual
dialogue. The talking & singing dog is pretty darn funny as well.
A tip: watch the background for familiar posters and aliens. It's
always easy to distinguish the real sci-fi fans from the casual
moviegoers....because they get all the in-jokes.
zip of the first movie, and some of the jokes are too familiar to
be as funny as they were intended to be. And please, was it. On
the plus side, we see a lot more character development, especially
of Kay (giving Jones a chance to flex his considerable acting muscles)
and the cast performs very well overall.
MiB II was still fun and, most importantly, worth the price of admission.
By Jim Banke, SPACE.com
probe closely past the heart of at least two comets began
with a perfect launch Wednesday from Florida.
CONTOUR's principal investigator from Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.
(100 kilometers) from the nucleus of a comet, closer than any
previous mission, to obtain detailed data on these diverse objects.
nucleus of a comet for the first time," said Paul Mahaffy, a co-
investigator at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
spacecraft atop a Boeing Delta 2 rocket from pad 17A at Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station came at 2:47:41 a.m. EDT (0647.41 GMT).
showed a fine layer of dust was present on CONTOUR's solar array. The
delay allowed engineers to take care of their concerns.
solid rocket boosters -- and looking itself much like a comet on fire
-- the 13-story rocket climbed out over the Atlantic Ocean toward space.
Earth and separated from the third stage of the 13-story launch vehicle.
That's when a small solid rocket motor attached to the base of the probe
will fire for 50 seconds and boost it out of Earth orbit to circle the sun.
vicinity of Earth four times during the next four years, with the
first swing-by set for Aug. 15, 2003.
and Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 in June 2006. But following up-close
-and-personal probing of those two objects, CONTOUR's mission team
can steer the solar- powered probe to a scientifically attractive
"new" comet should the opportunity arise.
take pictures and measure the chemical makeup of the nuclei while
analyzing the surrounding gases and dust.
investigation," said Colleen Hartman, director of NASA's
solar system exploration division in Washington, D.C.
will offer clues about the origins of our solar system.
mysteries," Veverka said. "We believe they hold the most primitive
materials in the solar system and that they played a role in shaping some
of the planets, but we really have more ideas about comets than facts."
demonstrate a "faster, better, cheaper" approach to space
science missions. Others have included Mars Pathfinder, Near
Earth Asteroid Rendezvous and Genesis.
mission that was launched in February 1999. It is due to encounter
comet Wild 2 on Jan. 2, 2004; scoop up some cometary dust and
return the material to Earth on Jan. 15, 2006.
that ballpoint pens would not work in zero gravity. To combat the problem,
NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 Billion to develop a pen that
writes in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface
including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 300C.
