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Victor Ochoa...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on October 2, 2014 at 7:26am
Images Source: Smithsonian Education

The Ochoa Plane



Ochoa's machine is made of a framework of steel spring and steel tubing which he has contrived to put together in such a manner that it can be folded by working a lever. Over the framework is stretched a canvas covering. The plane is about twenty-six feet wide and the machine measures from front to back only six feet. The rear rudder is similar to a bird's tail.



The whole arrangement is mounted upon two bicycle frames whose wheels form the groundwork of the aeroplane. Between the bicycle frames, the inventor has mounted a six-horse power motor, below which he has placed a seat for the operator. The whole machine weighs about 250 pounds.



The inventor has been working upon this aeroplane more than twenty years, and during that time has succeeded in putting together several machines that operated successfully for short distances. The first fruit of his labors was a marvelously accurate reproduction of a bird with six wings. With this he believed he had solved the problem of aerial flight. His earliest models, propelled by clockwork, flew with remarkable stability.



He also invented an adjustable wrench, electric brake, pen and pencil clip, reversible motor and windmill. He apparently also was a revolutionary with a $50,000 dead-or-alive price on his head. Quite a guy!



 Smithsonian Education: Victor Ochoa Mexican inventor

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60 Years Young...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on October 2, 2014 at 7:23am
From Planet X - kind of reminded me of "The Time Tunnel" (dating myself)

CERN, Europe’s particle-physics laboratory and the place famous most recently for the discovery of the Higgs boson, is celebrating its sixtieth birthday today (actually 29 September).



The name CERN originally was the French acronym for Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire, or European Council for Nuclear Research, and its convention officially came into force on 29 September 1954. In the wake of a war that had torn the continent apart, a small group of scientists and policy-makers created CERN in an attempt to use fundamental research to reunite Europe.



From 12 founding members, the organization has today grown to 21 states, with scientists at the lab hailing from almost 100 countries around the globe.



While CERN hosts a celebration at its home near Geneva, Switzerland, Nature looks back at some of the lab’s most significant moments from the past six decades.



Some excerpts from the timeline:



1983: CERN’s 6.9-kilometre-long Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) discovers the particle carriers of the weak force, the W and Z bosons.



1989: CERN computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee’s drafts a paper outlining plans for an information-management system, which at the time he termed “the mesh” but which later becomes known as the World Wide Web. Berners-Lee’s boss, Mike Sendall, famously replies that the proposal was “vague, but exciting”, giving Berners-Lee the green light for development. The world’s first web page address is born the following year (this copy is from 1992).



2012: On 4 July scientists at the LHC’s ATLAS and CMS experiments announce that they have found a clear signal of the Higgs boson, and reporter Geoff Brumfiel records the moment in a live blog (and later in an article). The announcement, made by the ATLAS and CMS experiments, causes waves around the world, and in 2013 earns theoretical physicists François Englert and Peter Higgs the Nobel Prize in Physics for their prediction of the mechanism.



 Nature News Blog: CERN at 60: Biggest moments at flagship physics lab, Elizabeth Gibney

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The Dark God's Gift continues in 'A Tangled Web' Pt. II

Posted by H. Wolfgang Porter on October 1, 2014 at 2:02pm

The Dark God's Gift continues in 'A Tangled Web' Pt. II. Agent Thia Wayan's cover as an Asian Mobster's wife is holding well, too well! As she goes deep into the Triad's inner-circle the Big Boss of the Dragon Triad has taken an 'interest' in the lovely agent. If she didn't have enough problems, the Boss receives a strange jeweled gift Agent Wayan believes could be far more dangerous than the gang themselves!

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Guillermo González Camarena...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on October 1, 2014 at 7:57am
Source: Antonio Toriz's blog

Guillermo González Camarena invented an early color television system. He received US patent 2296019 on September 15, 1942 for his "chromscopic adapter for television equipment". [1]



He was born on February 17, 1917 in Guadalajara, Jalisco. At two years of age, his family moved to Mexico City. Ever since he was young, he liked building electric toys, for which he established a laboratory in the basement of his house.



In 1930 he enrolled in the School of Mechanical and Electric Engineers and two years later was given license as radio operator. While he experimented in his laboratory, he worked at the radio station of the Ministry of Education. In 1934 he built his own television camera, he was 17 years old.



With the goal of giving color to television, he developed and patented a Trichromatic Sequential Fields System from primary colors, which could be adapted to the black and white system. This last patent was granted to him when he was 23 years of age. [2]



1. Inventors.com: Top List of Mexican Inventors, Mary Bellis
2. Explore and do Mexico: Guillermo González Camarena...

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Carving Tunnels...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on October 1, 2014 at 7:30am
Source: Link for Technology Review follows

TECHNOLOGY REVIEW: A new technique for creating pipes and tunnels deep inside silicon chips could change the way engineers make microfluidic machines and optoelectronic devices.



One of the enabling technologies of the modern world is the ability to construct ever smaller devices out of silicon. At first, these devices were purely electronic—diodes, transistors, capacitors and the like. But more recently, engineers have carved light pipes, fluid-pumping networks, and entire chemistry laboratories out of silicon.



The technique that makes all this possible is photolithography, which allows engineers to build on or etch the surface of silicon in very precise patterns. The devices—whether electronic, fluidic, or optical—are built up layer by layer. Everything is done in two dimensions on the surface of silicon and then added together to create 3-D shapes.



But what if it were possible to carve out structures beneath the surface of silicon, to create 3-D caves of almost any shape? Today, Onur Tokel at Bilkent University in Turkey and a few pals say they have developed just such a technique that can create networks of pipes and tunnels beneath the surface without any discernable change to the silicon surface.



The new technique relies on the fact that silicon is transparent to infrared light, which passes through silicon like sunlight through glass, at least at low intensities. When the light gets stronger, it can interact with electrons inside the material, generating currents and shaking the very crystal structure of the material. These effects are hard to predict and control but Tokel and co have found a way to use them to their advantage.



Abstract

Micromachining of silicon with lasers is being investigated since the 1970s. So far generating subsurface modifications buried inside the bulk of the silicon without damaging the surface has not resulted in success. Here, we report a method for photo-inducing buried structures in doped silicon wafers with pulsed infrared lasers without modifying the wafer surface. We demonstrate large aspect-ratio, continuous multilevel subsurface structures, with lengths on the millimetre scale, while having sub-micron widths. We further demonstrate spatial information encoding capabilities embedded in subsurface silicon barcodes based on an optical coherence tomography (OCT) readout. The demonstrated silicon processing technology can be used for the realization of multilayered silicon chips, optofluidics and on-chip quantum optics experiments.



 Physics arXiv: Laser-Writing in Silicon for 3D Information Processing
O. Tokel, A. Turnali, I. Pavlov, S. Tozburun, I. Akca, F. O. Ilday

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Dr. Fe del Mundo...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on September 30, 2014 at 6:15pm
Source: Amazing Women of History link below

Fe del Mundo (1911–2011) was a Filipino pediatrician who was the first woman to be admitted to Harvard Medical School in 1936 — over ten years before the school officially began admitting women. She was also the first woman to be named National Scientist of the Philippines in 1980, and founded the first pediatric hospital in the Philippines.

Born in Manila in the Philippines in 1911, Fe decided to become a doctor when her older sister died from appendicitis at the age of 11. She enrolled in the University of the Philippines in 1926. While earning her medical degree, she decided to pursue pediatrics. *

Fe del Mundo, OLD ONS OGH, (November 27, 1911 – August 6, 2011) was a Filipino pediatrician. The first woman admitted as a student of the Harvard Medical School,[1][2] she founded the first pediatric hospital in the Philippines.[3] Her pioneering work in pediatrics in the Philippines in an active medical practice that spanned 8 decades[2][4] won her international recognition, including the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service in 1977. In 1980, she was conferred the rank and title of National Scientist of the Philippines while in 2010, she was conferred the Order of Lakandula.




Del Mundo was noted for her pioneering work on infectious diseases in Philippine communities. Undeterred by the lack of well-equipped laboratories in post-war Philippines, she would not hesitate to send specimens or blood samples for analysis abroad.[12] In the 1950s, she pursued studies on dengue fever, a common malady in the Philippines of which little was then yet known.[12] Her clinical observations on dengue, and the findings of research she later undertook on the disease are said to "have led to a fuller understanding of dengue fever as it afflicts the young".[5] She authored over a hundred articles, reviews and reports in medical journals[5] on such diseases as dengue, polio and measles.[16] She also authored "Textbook of Pediatrics", a fundamental medical text used in Philippine medical schools.[17]



Del Mundo was active in the field of public health, with special concerns towards rural communities. She organized rural extension teams to advise mothers on breastfeeding and child care.[11] and promoted the idea of linking hospitals to the community through the public immersion of physicians and other medical personnel to allow for greater coordination among health workers and the public for common health programs such as immunization and nutrition.[17] She called for the greater integration of midwives into the medical community, considering their more visible presence within rural communities. Notwithstanding her own devout Catholicism,[2][5][11] she is an advocate of family planning and population control.[11]



Del Mundo was also known for having devised an incubator made out of bamboo,[17] designed for use in rural communities without electrical power.[11] Wikipedia

* Amazing Women in History: Dr. Fe del Mundo

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Quantum Data Compression...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on September 30, 2014 at 6:12pm
Artistic impression of quantum information. (Courtesy: iStockphoto/tusumaru)

A quantum analogue of data compression has been demonstrated for the first time in the lab. Physicists working in Canada and Japan have squeezed quantum information contained in three quantum bits (qubits) into two qubits. The technique could pave the way for a more effective use of quantum memories and offers a new method of testing quantum logic devices.






Compression of classical data is a simple procedure that allows a string of information to take up less space in a computer's memory. Given an unadulterated string of, for example, 1000 binary values, a computer could simply record the frequency of the 1s and 0s, which might require just a dozen or so binary values. Recording the information about the order of those 1s and 0s would require a slightly longer string, but it would probably still be shorter than the original sequence.





Quantum data are rather different, and it is not possible to simply determine the frequencies of 1s and 0s in a string of quantum information. The problem comes down to the peculiar nature of qubits, which, unlike classical bits, can be a 1, a 0 or some "superposition" of both values. A user can indeed perform a measurement to record the "one-ness" of a qubit, but such a measurement would destroy any information about that qubit's "zero-ness". What is more, if a user then measures a second qubit prepared in an identical way, he or she might find a different value for its "one-ness" – because qubits do not specify unique values but only the probability of measurement outcomes. This latter trait would seem to preclude the possibility of compressing even identical qubits, because there is no way of predicting what classical values they will ultimately manifest as.

 




Note: I know that was difficult to follow, but don't go all "new age" here. Although I've noticed the popularity of relating quantum physics to metaphysics, the two are mutually exclusive - quantum only applies to phenomena going at or approaching the speed of light. Ahem: we humans are rather slow in comparison.



 Physics World: Quantum data are compressed for the first time
Jon Cartwright, Bristol, UK

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K. Ceres Wright's 'Dark God's Gift: A Tangled Web' begins!

Posted by H. Wolfgang Porter on September 30, 2014 at 3:39pm

K. Ceres Wright's Tech Noir tale takes us to the streets of futuristic Shanghai where the dangerous nightlife is ruled by ruthless Chinese Triads!

Freelance undercover operative Thia Wayan is transformed into the guise of a Chinese National in order to infiltrate the Drug Trade. As she makes her way through the ranks, her already dangerous assignment runs into an unintended snag when a powerful Gang Boss acquires an intriguing jeweled artifact.

Despite the situation beginning to unravel around her, Agent Wayan must maintain her cool and not succumb to the growing madness surrounding her!

The intrigue and danger begins in 'Dark God's Gift: A Tangled Web' part I!

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Interview with Winston Blakely

Posted by Winston Blakely on September 29, 2014 at 3:30pm

 

                   Just in time before the release of Aura - The art of Winston Blakely

                    comes what I consider a very introspective , positive and personal

                     interview on myself.

                      Please take a moment and read this... I am sure you will enjoy it.

        

                           Thanks

     http://cedpharaoh.com/360BEYOND/creator-spotlight-winston-blakely-conceptual-and-comic-book-artist/

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Christopher J. “Gus” Loria...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on September 29, 2014 at 7:49am
Baltimore Sun - Christopher J. "Gus" Loria

CHRISTOPHER J. GUS LORIA (COLONEL, USMC, RET.)

NASA ASTRONAUT (FORMER)



PERSONAL DATA: Born July 9, 1960 in Belmont, Massachusetts, he considers League City, Texas, his hometown. He is married to the former Jamie Ann Fraser, and he has three children. His mother, Joan Loria, resides in Belmont, Massachusetts. His father, Robert L. Loria, is deceased.



EDUCATION: Graduate of Belmont High School (1978), and the US Naval Academy Preparatory School (1979). Bachelor of Science degree in General Engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy (1983). Master in Public Administration from John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University (2004).



ORGANIZATIONS: Harvard Alumni Association, Society of Experimental Test Pilots, U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association, Marine Corps Aviation Association, National Rifle Association.



SPECIAL HONORS: NASA Fellow, NASA Acquisition Improvement Award, NASA Group Achievement Award, Naval Test Wing Atlantic Test Pilot of the Year 1995-1996. Personal awards include the Defense Superior Service Medal, 3 Meritorious Service Medals, 2 Navy Commendation Medals (1 with V), 2 Air Medals (both with V), 4 Strike Flight Air Medals, Navy Achievement Medal.



EXPERIENCE: Loria received his commission from the Naval Academy in 1983, and was designated a Naval Aviator in July 1988. He transitioned to the F/A-18 Hornet with Strike Fighter Squadron 125 (VFA-125) at Naval Air Station Lemoore, California, during August 1988 through August 1989. His next assignments were with Marine Fighter Attack Squadrons 314 and 101 (VMFA-314 the Black Knights and VMFAT-101 the Sharpshooters) at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, California. While assigned to the Black Knights he deployed to Bahrain for Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm where he flew 42 combat missions in support of allied operations. He graduated with Class 93A from the United States Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, California in December of 1993. January 1994 to July 1996, he was assigned to VX-23, the Strike Aircraft Test Squadron, Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, as an experimental test pilot. Loria distinguished himself in the areas of high angle of attack flight test, ordnance, flight controls and aircraft flying qualities testing for the F/A-18 Hornet, and aircraft departure and spin testing for the F/A-18A-D models and the NASA Dryden F/A-18 HARV thrust vectoring aircraft.



He has 3,079 hours of flight time and has flown 32 different aircraft.



 NASA: Christopher J. "Gus" Loria, Colonel, USMC, Astronaut - retired

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Graphene Almost There...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on September 29, 2014 at 7:44am
Controlling magnetic clouds in graphene.
Condensed Matter Physics Group, University of Manchester, UK

A new way to grow high-quality, wafer-scale graphene measuring between 100 and 300 mm across has been developed by researchers in the US and UK. The feat is a major advance since a size of 300 mm represents the silicon wafer-scale standard and means that the carbon material might now be easily integrated with silicon – a major goal for graphene research.



Graphene, a sheet of carbon just one atom thick, is a promising material for making molecular electronic devices of the future thanks to its unique electronic and mechanical properties, which include extremely high electrical conductivity and exceptional strength. The first real-world applications of graphene devices will most likely involve combining the carbon material with silicon complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology. However, integrating graphene with Si CMOS has proved to be more difficult than first imagined since there is no reliable process capable of producing large-area graphene films that have the same high performance as chip-scale ones.



Researchers have already tried out several methods for growing wafer-scale graphene, including epitaxially growing the material on SiC wafers, reducing graphene oxide, chemical vapour deposition (CVD) on metal thin films (such as copper) and recently CVD on hydrogen-terminated single-crystalline germanium surfaces. Among these techniques, CVD is probably the best in terms of compatibility with Si very large-scale integrated (VLSI) technology. However, there is a problem in that the graphene produced can be quite defective and so suffers from lower charge carrier mobilities.
The aixtron 300 mm growth system. Courtesy: K Teo



Now, a team of researchers led by Deji Akinwande of the University of Texas at Austin and Ken Teo of Aixtron Ltd in Cambridge, have grown CVD graphene films that measure between 100 and 300 mm across on polycrystalline copper films. The as-made polycrystalline graphene appears to have better charge carrier transport characteristics compared to previously synthesized poly- or single-crystalline wafers. What is more, the graphene covers over 96% of the substrates and has few defects – something that the researchers confirmed using a technique called Raman mapping.



 Nano Tech Web: Graphene almost there for silicon wafer-scale standard
Belle Dumé, contributing editor at nanotechweb.org

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As a baseball fan, I'm saddened right now...

Posted by Clifton McMillan Jr. on September 28, 2014 at 8:40pm

I know that despite the fact that baseball isn't as popular as it used to be, it's still a robust sport and an American tradition. And every so often you see something special in sports that you don't see every day. As a Yankees fan and a fan of baseball, I'm going to really miss Captain Derek Jeter. He was that special something in baseball.

I'm still wrapping my mind around the fact that he's not going to be at Yankee Stadium at the position of shortstop opening day 2015. Today, I actually witnessed his last at bat on TV against the Red Sox. But he's earned his retirement. I can relate to him. Nope, I'm not a millionare. Nope, I still haven't been drafted by any sports team (but you never know what the future holds. Nope, I never won any World Series rings. However I can appreciate Jeter's path to being the best.

Jeter wasn't the strongest guy or the fastest runner in baseball. Jeter wasn't the flashiest player for the most part (except when he just happened to make these awesome plays that seemed to come out of thin air). Jeter didn't thump his chest and boast of his greatness. Jeter didn't bash baseball rivals, and he did his best to not speak ill of his teammates either. Jeter didn't embarrass himself and the Yankees by acting stupid in public.

Let's be honest about Jeter. He got overlooked by a lot of the baseball experts when he was first drafted. He didn't always have the highest baseball stats from season to season. There were guys around him who hit way more home runs than he did.

However Jeter worked hard to improve himself as a student of the game. He sought to make his teammates feel comfortable in the clubhouse and confident enough in their own abilities to play at their best. It didn't matter if you were a nervous and eager rookie who just got called up from the minors or a high paid veteran free agent. Jeter didn't care. He'd strive to make sure you were comfortable and ready to play.

Jeter's leadership style was that of leading by example. He tried to do whatever he could to help the Yankees win that was within the rules. If he was asked to make a humble sacrifice bunt so somebody else could get on base, he would do it without complaining. This leadership helped to subconsciously elevate the play of the entire team. I respect that a lot and try to do the same at my job, in my community and in my church. I try to do that in my writing and other projects. Thanks for the memories and wisdom shared, Captain Jeter.


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The Dark God's Gift arrives tomorrow!

Posted by H. Wolfgang Porter on September 28, 2014 at 3:22pm

The Dark God's Gift starts Tomorrow with an introduction by H. Wolfgang Porter. Then on Tuesday, September 30th K. Ceres Wright's 'A Tangled Web' starts and will be featured in four parts concluding on Friday October 3rd! Get ready for Dark Tales of Action, Lust and Horror to be told in the Dark God's Gift season 2!

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Manuel Corominas...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on September 28, 2014 at 9:00am
Manuel Corominas - see link below

El ingeniero Manuel Jalón Corominas, inventor de la fregona, ha fallecido esta madrugada en Zaragoza, a los 86 años, tras sufrir una parada cardiorrespiratoria.



Así lo ha confirmado uno de sus nietos, Alejandro, quien ha informado de que falleció en el hospital Miguel Servet de la capital aragonesa, de forma rápida y sin sufrir.



Manuel Jalón es el inventor de la fregona, pero en su currículum tiene además otras patentes muy importantes, como innovaciones en la jeringuilla desechable y otras de uso industrial.



Natural de Logroño (La Rioja), pasó la mayor parte de su vida en Zaragoza, ciudad de la que fue nombrado hijo adoptivo en 1992, aunque previamente vivió en Estados Unidos o en Finlandia, donde trabajó después de obtener el título de Ingeniería Aeronáutica -en Madrid- y de escribir su tesis doctoral sobre accidentes aeronáuticos.



*****



Manuel Jalon Corominas engineer, inventor of the mop, died this morning in Zaragoza, to 86 years , after suffering a cardiac arrest.



Manuel Jalon is the inventor of the mop on your resume but also has other important patents, such innovations in the disposable syringe and other industrial use.



Born in Logroño (La Rioja), spent most of his life in Zaragoza city that was named adoptive son in 1992, but previously lived in the United States or Finland, where he worked after earning the title of Aeronautical Engineering - in Madrid and writing his doctoral thesis on aviation accidents.



 Spanish Inventor: Manuel Corominas

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How It Works...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on September 28, 2014 at 8:55am
Source: The Economist



I have four previous posts about BICEP2 and how the initial roll out (i.e. announcement) was heady for some; aggrandizement for others.



This next to the last paragraph at the bottom of The Economist sums it succinctly:



Rowing back on a triumphant announcement about the first instants of creation may be a little embarrassing, but the saga is a useful reminder of how science works. There is no suggestion that anyone has behaved dishonourably. Admittedly, the BICEP team’s original press conference looks, with hindsight, seriously overconfident. More information-sharing between the various gravitational wave-hunters, all of whom guard their data jealously, might have helped tone down the triumphalism. But science, ideally, proceeds by exactly this sort of good-faith argument and honourable squabbling—until the weight of evidence forces one side to admit defeat.



Now, the last paragraph points to a joint paper that's coming from the European Planck Telescope & BICEP2, (open adversaries to) the BICEP2 team. This seems confusing to those that would use this to point to scientific findings as "just theory," and if the scientists were so sure, they wouldn't change their minds on it. It atomizes the academy and politicizes reported results.



This however, is the nature of science and how it works.



There has to be an understood release to public scrutiny - not at all like (emphasis: unequal to) opinions trolled on Social Media - but peer review, which can be brutal for the uninitiated.



Whatever your findings are, become vetted by like-trained professionals who will first attempt to: 1. Read and understand your report and its results; 2. Using the conditions you've described in your paper, attempt to simulate and/or duplicate or get statistically close to your reported results within an acceptable percent error range.



The pseudosciences are not apt to subject themselves to this kind of scrutiny, often becoming openly hostile to any challenge to their veracity. The projected accusation is usually the scientific community is close-minded, reactionary and projecting a "religion of secular humanism."




All scientists are not humanists, that is a generalization. However, for a field to call itself a "science," it must be willing to allow this kind of public scrutiny, and if proven wrong: acquiescence to the prevailing evidence. Otherwise, it is mere notion and political canard for manipulation of a public that wishes to hear it for their own comfort at the sacrifice of their advancement and empowerment.



 How Stuff Works:

 How The Scientific Method Works
Scientific Method Steps
Scientific Method Videos
History of the Scientific Method

 #P4TC: Ibn al-Haytham

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Michael E. Lopez-Alegria...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on September 27, 2014 at 11:00am
International Space Station Imagery

MICHAEL E. LOPEZ-ALEGRIA (CAPTAIN, USN, RET.)

NASA ASTRONAUT (FORMER)

PERSONAL DATA: Born May 30, 1958, in Madrid, Spain, and grew up in Mission Viejo, California. Lopez-Alegria enjoys sports, traveling and cooking and is interested in national and international political, economic and security affairs.



EDUCATION: Graduated from Mission Viejo High School, Mission Viejo, California, in 1976; received a bachelor of science degree in systems engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1980 and a master of science degree in aeronautical engineering from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in 1988. Graduate of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government Program for Senior Executives in National and International Security. Speaks Spanish, French and Russian.



EXPERIENCE: Following flight training and designation as a Naval Aviator in 1981, Lopez-Alegria served as a flight instructor and then as a pilot and mission commander of EP-3E aircraft. In 1986, he was assigned to a 2-year cooperative program between the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, and the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in Patuxent River, Maryland. His final tour before being assigned to NASA was at the Naval Air Test Center as an engineering test pilot and program manager. He has accumulated more than 5,700 pilot hours in over 30 different aircraft types.



NASA EXPERIENCE: Lopez-Alegria reported for training to the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in August 1992. Following a year of training and designation as an astronaut, he was first assigned to be the Astronaut Office technical point of contact to various space shuttle project elements. Lopez-Alegria was then assigned to Kennedy Space Center (KSC), where he provided crew representation on orbiter processing issues and support during launches and landings. Following his first spaceflight, he served as NASA Director of Operations at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia. After his second mission, he led the International Space Station (ISS) Operations branch of the Astronaut Office. Following his third spaceflight, he was assigned as the technical liaison to JSC’s Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Office. A veteran of four space flights, Lopez-Alegria has logged more than 257 days in space and performed 10 spacewalks totaling 67 hours and 40 minutes of EVA. He retired from the Navy in June 2008 and left NASA in March 2012. Lopez-Alegria currently serves as President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation in Washington, D.C.



 NASA: Michael E. Lopez-Alegria, Captain, US Navy (retired, former astronaut)

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