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This undated photo, taken from NASA's Web site, shows astronaut Jose Hernandez. Hernandez and the crew of the space shuttle Discovery are due to lift off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., tonight. (Photo courtesy of NASA)
Lodi-area astronaut Jose Hernandez due to blast off tonight
The University of the Pacific will hold a party to celebrate the space shuttle's flight
Jose Hernandez, who grew up as a migrant farmworker in the Lodi and Stockton areas, is due to join six other astronauts as they blast off tonight from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
NASA has cleared space shuttle Discovery for liftoff today, and the weather looks promising as long as thunderstorms stay away during fueling.
Hernandez is due to lift off at 10:36 p.m. today, and his alma mater, the University of the Pacific, has scheduled a party from 9:30 to 11 p.m. to watch the liftoff. The party is open to the public.
"We definitely want to honor our hometown hero," said Pov Chin, director of Pacific's community involvement program, who is coordinating tonight's party.
After meeting Sunday afternoon, NASA managers decided that Discovery is in good shape to fly to the International Space Station. A power controller issue — one had to be replaced a week ago in the shuttle — did not stand in the way of the launch.
The chairman of the mission management team, Mike Moses, said there is no way of knowing with certainty whether the new power controller in Discovery might break like the old one did. To minimize the risk of a power failure, some equipment will be left on longer than usual — rather than shutting it down and then turning it back on, he said.
Two other power controllers failed in the lab at Johnson Space Center earlier this summer, adding to NASA's concern. Engineers are comfortable with the workaround for Discovery, Moses said.
Forecasters, meanwhile, said there is an 80 percent chance the weather will cooperate for Discovery's 10:36 p.m. liftoff. That's better than previous forecasts.
But there is a 40 percent chance that thunderstorms could interfere with Monday afternoon's fueling. A fueling delay of more than three hours would bump the flight into the next day.
Discovery and seven astronauts will deliver about 17,000 pounds of space station supplies and equipment. Three spacewalks are planned during the 13-day flight, though Hernandez won't be among the spacewalkers.
Hernandez, a Franklin High School graduate in Stockton, was scheduled to lift off on Aug. 7, his 47th birthday, but his flight was postponed due to a hydrogen leak in another shuttle, the Endeavor, which lifted off in July.
Hernandez and his three siblings succeeded in life without understanding English until he was 12, as his parents, Salvador and Julia Hernandez, picked crops in the Lodi area in the 1960s and '70s.
The family grew up mostly in east Stockton, but also lived on Coral Post Road, a rural area in southeast Lodi. His parents still live there. Hernandez lives in Houston with his wife, Adela, and their five children.
Hernandez said in a News-Sentinel interview in June that he will be a robotics operator, and will be in charge of dressing the astronauts up and making sure space suits are working.
He will be involved in cargo transfer operations and the operation of the shuttle's robotic arm, according to NASA officials.
The crew will also conduct several experiments, including one on nutrition, which NASA officials say is the most comprehensive inflight study done to date of human physiologic changes during long space flights. The crew will measure bone metabolism, oxidative damage, nutritional assessments and hormonal changes.
The study will affect the definition of nutritional requirements and development of food systems for future space exploration missions to the moon and Mars, according to NASA.
The experiment will also help people understand the effects exercise and pharmaceutical drugs on nutritional status and nutrient requirements for astronauts.
Another experiment will be conducted to see if Bisphosphonates along with exercise will help reduce bone loss and protect station crew members from decreases in bone mineral density documented on previous station missions, according to NASA.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Contact reporter Ross Farrow at rossf@lodinews.com.
Today's schedule (Pacific Daylight Time)
Noon: Crew wakes up.12:06 p.m.: Weather briefing (commander, pilot and mission specialist 2).
12:16 p.m.: Astronauts don flight suits.
6:46 p.m.: Depart for launch pad.
7:16 p.m.: Arrive at White Room and begin ingress.
8:21 p.m.: Close crew hatch.
10:36 p.m.: Launch.
— News-Sentinel staff
Jose Hernandez to 'Tweet' from space
Jose Hernandez, the Lodi-area astronaut who is due to begin his 13-day space mission tonight, will give daily reports through Twitter, a social networking service. He has given updates since July in English and Spanish.Here is a sampling of Hernandez's "Tweets" (times are Eastern Daylight Time):
Aug. 14, 9:12 p.m.: Shift sleeping (ugh!), going into quarantine on Sun night. Fly out to Florida on Tues. Launch probable on August 24th!
Aug. 17, 12:45 a.m.: Entered quarantine today Aug 17 at 1:00 am! Sleep shifting and watching Moonshot. Will sleep at 600am
Aug. 17, 5:14 p.m.: Completing first day of quarantine! Plenty of time to exercise today. Our bedtime is at 6:00 am and we wake up at 1:00 p.m. Not banking hrs!
Wednesday, 11:07 a.m.: Getting ready to leave JSC quarantine and fly to Kennedy Space Center. Will continue quarantine until our August 25th, 1:38 a.m EDT Launch!
Sunday, about 1:20 a.m.: In crew quarters at L-2. Went to astro beach house. Big waves due to Bill. Saw 50 baby turtles head for the water from their nest @ sunset.
Sunday, about 2:20 a.m.: Had a nice phone conversation with President Felipe Calderon of Mexico. He wished me good luck on our launch schedule for this Tuesday am (Monday night Paciific time).
To follow Hernandez's daily comments, visit www.twitter.com/Astro_Jose.
The Lodi News-Sentinel also provides Twitter updates daily at www.twitter.com/lodinews.
Twitter is a micro-blogging site where users display updates of no more than 140 characters. To create your own Twitter account, go to www.twitter.com/signup. You will be asked to create a username and password, and to type in your e-mail.
Additionally, the public will be able to interact with Hernandez during his space flight. NASA has announced that it will accept videos of questions from people about the flight that will be answered by the crew while they are on their mission. Videos can be submitted online at www.youtube.com/user/ReelNASA.
— News-Sentinel staff
Jose Hernandez at a glance
Born: Aug. 7, 1962, in French Camp.Education: 1980 graduate of Franklin High School in Stockton; 1985 graduate of University of the Pacific with a degree in electrical engineering; master's degree in electrical and computer engineering in 1986 at University of California, Santa Barbara.
Pre-NASA employment: Helped develop a full-field digital mammography imaging system at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he worked from 1987 to 2001. Also worked with U.S. Department of Energy, where he was part of a negotiating team with Russia to dispose of nuclear material after the U.S.S.R. fell. Going to Russia 20 times in a four-year period, he helped ensure that Soviet materials were not sold on the black market.
Aerospace career: Joined NASA in 2001 and was selected for the space program in 2004 as an astronaut-candidate. Was named a full-fledged astronaut in 2006 and learned in 2008 of his selection for the Discovery space shuttle.
Source: Jose Hernandez, NASA
Space shuttle at a glance
Name: Discovery STS-128.How many flights? This is the 128th space shuttle flight, the 30th to the space station, the 37th for Discovery and the fourth in 2009. Six flights to the station remain before the shuttles retire in 2010.
Weight: 4.5 million pounds. It will carry 15,200 pounds of cargo. Using the station's robotic arm, it will be installed to the station on the fourth day and returned to the shuttle's cargo bay on the 11th day for its return to earth.
Experiments: How materials mix and solidify or how crystals grow, outside the confines of the earth's gravity; life science experiments by preserving biological samples (blood, saliva, urine, microbial or plant) collected at the station for later return and analysis on earth; vibration tests to help engineers on the ground understand how astronauts experience launch. They'll use the information to help design the crew seats for future NASA spacecraft.
Source: NASA
Launch party tonight in Stockton
A party celebrating Jose Hernandez's launch into space will be held tonight at his alma mater, University of the Pacific, 3601 Pacific Ave., Stockton.The party will be held from 9:30 to 11 p.m. at the DeRosa University Center at the north end of campus west of Pacific Avenue. Besides free food and drinks, the university will show some video clips about Hernandez and then will switch over to the live feed of the launch, scheduled for 10:36 p.m.
The date and time of the liftoff can change due to weather or technical difficulties, university spokesman Patrick Giblin said. If liftoff is postponed, the party will be postponed as well. Check web.pacific.edu or www.nasa.gov for updates.
Giblin reports that the San Joaquin County Office of Education will bring students from migrant families to the celebration, where students will show off their science projects.
Source: University of the Pacific
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sooziesdad wrote on Aug 24, 2009 9:12 PM:
jramagic wrote on Aug 24, 2009 3:31 PM:
Lodian wrote on Aug 24, 2009 1:04 PM:
weezer wrote on Aug 24, 2009 8:33 AM:
Congratulations to you and your parents! "
Journey wrote on Aug 24, 2009 7:32 AM:
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