Minutes of April Meeting
Oklahoma Space Alliance met April 11 at the Norman Public Library. In attendance were Steve and Karen Swift, James and Peggy McBride, Gary, Rachelle and Stephanie Thibedeau, Tim Scott, Russ Davoren, Dennis Wigley, Dave Sheely, Craig Crawford, and Syd Henderson. We also had a guest named Michael.
This was the meeting closest to Yuri’s Night (which is April 12), so we had our annual Celebration of Space Flight as part of the meeting, with a wide variety of food and refreshment. We watched a video on Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space, and also commemorated Alan Shepard, the first American in Space, and John Glenn, the first American (and third human) to orbit the Earth. Steve thinks it was a good thing that the first person in space was a Russian.
Space X’s Dragon capsule is currently the only commercial spacecraft that can bring back a significant amount of material from the Space Station. Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser will be the second.
What’s Happening in Space (more details are in the April Update, which was posted a week after the meeting):
There were eight launches in six days in late March, by various nations. These included a Delta IV launch on March 25, a Russian launch of a South Korean satellite on March 25, a Japanese spy satellite launch on March 26, the Soyuz 13 launch by Russia from Kazakhstan to the Space Station on March 27 (the one-year crew launch), an Ariane launch of a Galileo navigation satellite on March 27, India’s Polar Science Launch vehicle on March 28, China’s Long March 3C on March 30, and a Russian launch of navigation satellites on March 31.
Steve talked about electric propulsion keeping satellites’ orbits from decaying. This lowers the mass of satellites.
A Cosmic Lifestyle Corporation’s Kickstarter has produced a cocktail glass for zero-g. The glass (it actually looks like plastic to me, but it has the shape of a cocktail glass has a grooved surface to which liquid adheres and which direct the liquid to the astronaut’s mouth. The glass can be fabricated with a 3D printer, though the drink (and the astronaut) cannot.
We watched a video, “Wanderers” originally narrated by Carl Sagan.
Dennis showed us amateur photography of the Space Station from the surface of the Earth by his astronomical partners, by processing images from other photographers.
We talked about possible meeting rooms. Room C at the Norman Public Library was quite full at the April meeting. Meeting room B is twice as big, and Steve would like to get it for our talk in May. (We didn’t. This room is in great demand.)
Russ and Steve have had little contact with the Stafford Space Museum. The June event, the Apollo-Soyuz reunion, is quite pricey, with tickets over $100.
--Minutes by OSA Secretary Syd Henderson
Contact person for Oklahoma Space Alliance is Claire McMurray.
PO Box 1003
Norman, OK 73070
Webmaster is Syd Henderson.
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