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Fourteenth Edition: March 24, 2011 Missile, Space and Range Pioneers Past, Present and Future Today’s Explorers Tomorrow’s Pioneers MSRP President’s Message Dear MSRP Members, In November, the Pioneers board asked me to assume the President’s duties in an acting capacity until the official election in the Spring of 2012. I cannot be more happy to accept this challenge as I have had the honor and privilege of serving on the Pioneers board and seeing the exiting direction the MSRP has taken in their partnership with the Florida Institute of Technology, their plans for making the papers of our members available for use by future generations, and our terrific joint events held with the National Space Club Florida Committee. This upcoming year will bring even more exiting events as the FIT students teams’ hardware competes here on the Space Coast. MSRP will also host our Spring Pioneers banquet once again at FIT. Keeping with our organization’s theme of “Pioneering the Future”, Boeing will present their future manned spacecraft, the CST-100. Additionally, MSRP has the honor of accepting some fantastic new faces to the Board of Directors. Many thanks to Greg Peebles from FIT, Jon Melzer from Loyal Source Government Services, and Daniel Gruenbaum from Delaware North for joining our current fantastic board members to help MSRP pioneer the future! I can’t wait for the existing year ahead for us. Bill Allen, President The Pioneers Spring Gathering will be held on April 27, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. in the Hartley Room at Florida Tech’s Denius Student Center in Melbourne, Florida. Our Keynote speaker is Mr. Danom Buck, The Boeing Company’s Senior Engineer for Production & Ground Systems for the Commercial Crew Program. Boeing is one of four contractors developing a Commercial Human Spacecraft whose primary purpose is to ferry astronauts, scientists and researchers to the International Space Station. Their CST-100 spacecraft will carry 7 astronauts to and from ISS or other LEO destinations. If selected, Boeing will build the CST-100 Command and service modules in KSC facilities made excess by the conclusion of the Shuttle program. Mr. Buck leads a team readying the KSCinfrastructure and developing equipment and systems to perform manufacturing, final assembly, launch integration, and mission and recovery operations. The spacecraft will be launched on an Atlas V and land in the California desert. Danom joined Boeing at the Kennedy Space Center working on the International Space Station (ISS) Program in 2000. Danom held positions with increasing responsibility in systems and project engineering roles starting as a systems engineer for spacecraft and payload handling systems and later as a flight systems engineer for ISS Truss Elements. As the lead mechanical systems engineer for the ISS truss cargo elements, Danom was responsible for leading the end-to-end integration of all major components, sub-systems, and acceptance test conductance ensuring vehicle on-orbit performance. Danom received a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Florida. 
Spring Keynote Speaker: Danom Buck, Boeing Commercial Crew Program Danom Buck The Boeing CST-100 Crew Vehicle   
Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser The CST-100 (Crew Space Transportation) crew capsule is a spacecraft designed by the Boeing Co. as their entry for NASA’s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program. Its primary mission will be to transport crew to the International Space Station, and to private space stations such as the proposed Bigelow Aerospace Commercial Space Station. The CST-100 spacecraft will be larger than the Apollo command module and will be able to support larger crews of up to 7 people as the result of greater habitable interior volume and the reduced weight of equipment needed to support an exclusively low-Earth-orbit configuration. It is designed to be able to remain on-orbit for up to seven months and for reusability for up to ten missions. The design draws upon Boeing’s experience with NASA’s Apollo, Space Shuttle, ISS programs as well as the Orbital Express project sponsored by the Department of Defense. It will use the NASA Docking System (NDS) for docking and use the Boeing Lightweight Ablator (BLA) for its heatshield. For its launch escape system it will use the RS-88 (Bantam) engine. In the first phase of its CCDev program NASA awarded Boeing $18 million for preliminary development of the spacecraft. In the second phase Boeing was awarded $93 million for further development. The CST-100 will be compatible with multiple launch vehicles, including the Atlas V, Delta IV, and Falcon 9. The initial launch vehicle would be the Atlas V. Boeing will perform production and testing of the CST-100 in the OPF-3 at the Kennedy Space Center.
On December 7th at 4 p.m., the Missile Space and Range Pioneers co-sponsored an afternoon social at Fish Lips at Port Canaveral with the National Space Club of Florida. Many MSRP members were in attendance and we enrolled a number of new members to the MSRP. We plan to continue participating in additional events in addition to our own semi-annual banquets. Watch your email for invitations to additional events this year. 
Book About the Gemini VIII Mission Being Planned Author Bill Pohnan, Jr. is currently working on a book about the Gemini VIII mission. This will be a “behind the scenes” book as much as the more typical “in the cockpit” book. Jim would like to “hear” from anyone who participated in the Gemini VIII mission in any way. This includes test conductors, blockhouse personnel, suit technicians, White Room crewmembers and those who had anything to do with the preparation, testing, fueling of the Titan II and Atlas launch vehicles used for that mission. Any interested parties may contact Bill via e-mail at: boldr308@att.net please have the e-mail’s subject read: Gemini VIII. Space Pioneers – The Next Generation 
The Missile Space and Range Pioneers partnered with the National Space Club Florida Committee to provide a forum for the two student project teams supported by MSRP to present their projects to industry at the Space Club’s March lunch in Cape Canaveral. This event hosted 36 of Florida Tech’s engineering students. 17 local aerospace companies donated seats at their corporate tables for the students and Delaware North and NASA provided transportation for the students. 
The two student projects supported by the Missile Space and Range Pioneers are in full swing as both teams have competitions fast approaching and which will really get to show off their teams’ hardware performance. As reported in the last newsletter, MSRP has provided $4,000 to the FIT student engineering team Lunabotics Project. This team is engineering a wireless Lunabot, capable of excavating 10 kilograms of lunar simulate during a 15-minute time frame by applying theory learned in the classroom. By utilizing Pro/E, ANSYS and machine shop skills, they are building a functioning chassis then design and build electronics, and programming the robot to collect lunar simulate. The team will compete in NASA’s third annual Lunabotics Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center on May 21 – 26. MSRP has also donated $1,000 to FIT’s Student Rocket Research Society to help support their design and launch of two Hybrid Rocket and Motor Systems – one to achieve a precise altitude of 2,000 feet and the other to achieve the maximum altitude with a specific hybrid motor thrust. This team with use these launch vehicles to compete in a in a competition sponsored by the Florida Space Grant Consortium and the North East Florida Association of Rocketry (NEFAR). The flight competition will be held on April 14, 2012 at Clegg Sod Farm in Bunnell, Florida. Both of the student team leads will provide project status updates at our Spring Pioneers banquet on April 27th. In addition, the general public is invited to view both these competitions in person. We hope to see some of our Pioneer members out there cheering on our student teams.
Missile, Space and Range Pioneers Spring BanQuet 2012 SPOT LIGHTING Boeing’s CST-100 Crew Vehicle and FIT’s Engineering Student Project Updates RESERVATIONS REQUIRED! INVITE YOUR FRIENDS! – Reservation Form below – Friday, 27 April 2012, 6:00 PM Social 7:00 PM Dinner Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Florida Hartley Room (Second Floor of the The Homer Denius Student Center) Map of FIT is located on the back of this form. Address Questions to: billallen@allenctw.com or call Bill Allen at (407) 456-3139
Make reservations and pay online now at www.missileers.org with Buy Tickets for the "2012 Spring Banquet"
Banquet Reservation Form Sign In/Social 6:00PM – Dinner 7:00PM, Friday November 18, Florida Tech, Melbourne ______________Reservations at $40.00 each Check enclosed for $____________ Full Name of Attendees: _______________________________________________________ Telephone __________________________ Email _________________________ Clip and mail check to: Missile, Space & Range Pioneers, P.O. Box 254034 Patrick AFB, FL 32925-0034 
15 Denius Student Center and Panther Plaza |
