Ford: Consider me Your Personal, Hometown Astronaut
12/3/2009
Courtesy of the Hartford City News Times.
View the article here.
By Danny K Careins
NT Managing Editor
NT Managing Editor
Published:
Tuesday, December 1, 2009 5:37 PM CST
A hometown hero returned to Blackford County on Monday, Nov. 30, full of thrilling adventures about recently going to space which he shared with students at the very buildings where he obtained his education while in elementary, junior high and high school.
From August 28 to September 11 of this year, Colonel Kevin A. Ford, who is a NASA astronaut and is retired from the United States Air Force, widened his learning horizons as pilot for Space Shuttle Mission STS-128 to the International Space Station (Construction Mission 17A).
Ford spoke earlier in the day to students at Blackford High School, from where he graduated in 1978. He also made a presentation in a public forum in Montpelier during the evening.
The audience members were able to view slides and actual video footage of the mission upon which Discovery carried the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module “Leonardo” filled with 15,000 pounds of science and storage racks to the International Space Station. In addition, the mission’s purpose was to deliver a new Ammonia Tank Assembly and return a depleted one along with the ISS EuTEF and MISSE experiments.
According to Ford, the mission also was for exchanging ISS Expedition crew members. He added that Discovery and the crew upon board completed 217 Earth orbits in 13 days, 21 hours.
Ford, who is married to the former Kelly Bennett, will again serve as a capcom and will join the ISS Operation Branch to work training, mission preparation and mission execution issues for ISS crews. He served from January 2005 to July 2008 as a Space Shuttle and ISS capcom in the Mission Control Center.
Capcom is a term that originated in the days of the Mercury space program when spacecraft were little more than capsules. Originally named for “capsule communicator,” the capcom position is traditionally a U.S. astronaut or a member of the U.S. astronaut corps, who serves in the Mission Operations Control Center as liaison with the astronauts in space.
While at Montpelier School Ford, who was born on July 7, 1960, in Portland to Clayton and Barbara Ford, told students the International Space Station is out in space because it is a special place to do science and research.
“It is some place that we don’t have on all of the planet,” noted Ford. “We have a lot of laboratories all around the world where we spend a lot of money for research on how fluids behave and how materials form and all of these sorts of things.”
Ford, the father of two, Anthony and Heidi, pointed out that the space station enables the crew members to do research on zero G-Force (zero Gravity) and weightlessness experiments. He indicated that the space station is the only place where this can be done.
Curious students at Montpelier School asked questions about things ranging from what types of food are taken on the space shuttle to how light do heavy objects actually feel in space.
Ford noted that dried fruits are better than those such as bananas which have moisture in them. He added that bananas would not make the trip because “they would really be toast before we got there”.
See the rest of the story in the Wednesday, Dec. 2 print edition of the News Times
From August 28 to September 11 of this year, Colonel Kevin A. Ford, who is a NASA astronaut and is retired from the United States Air Force, widened his learning horizons as pilot for Space Shuttle Mission STS-128 to the International Space Station (Construction Mission 17A).
Ford spoke earlier in the day to students at Blackford High School, from where he graduated in 1978. He also made a presentation in a public forum in Montpelier during the evening.
The audience members were able to view slides and actual video footage of the mission upon which Discovery carried the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module “Leonardo” filled with 15,000 pounds of science and storage racks to the International Space Station. In addition, the mission’s purpose was to deliver a new Ammonia Tank Assembly and return a depleted one along with the ISS EuTEF and MISSE experiments.
According to Ford, the mission also was for exchanging ISS Expedition crew members. He added that Discovery and the crew upon board completed 217 Earth orbits in 13 days, 21 hours.
Ford, who is married to the former Kelly Bennett, will again serve as a capcom and will join the ISS Operation Branch to work training, mission preparation and mission execution issues for ISS crews. He served from January 2005 to July 2008 as a Space Shuttle and ISS capcom in the Mission Control Center.
Capcom is a term that originated in the days of the Mercury space program when spacecraft were little more than capsules. Originally named for “capsule communicator,” the capcom position is traditionally a U.S. astronaut or a member of the U.S. astronaut corps, who serves in the Mission Operations Control Center as liaison with the astronauts in space.
While at Montpelier School Ford, who was born on July 7, 1960, in Portland to Clayton and Barbara Ford, told students the International Space Station is out in space because it is a special place to do science and research.
“It is some place that we don’t have on all of the planet,” noted Ford. “We have a lot of laboratories all around the world where we spend a lot of money for research on how fluids behave and how materials form and all of these sorts of things.”
Ford, the father of two, Anthony and Heidi, pointed out that the space station enables the crew members to do research on zero G-Force (zero Gravity) and weightlessness experiments. He indicated that the space station is the only place where this can be done.
Curious students at Montpelier School asked questions about things ranging from what types of food are taken on the space shuttle to how light do heavy objects actually feel in space.
Ford noted that dried fruits are better than those such as bananas which have moisture in them. He added that bananas would not make the trip because “they would really be toast before we got there”.
See the rest of the story in the Wednesday, Dec. 2 print edition of the News Times
Courtesy of the Hartford City News Times.
View the article here.
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