Category Archives: Progress

NBCUniversal, Fox Networks Group and ABC are making progress in the early stages of the annual haggling over upfront advertising sales, according to people familiar with the discussions.

The companies have all begun to sell ad inventory during the period in which U.S. TV networks seek to obtain commitments for the bulk of their commercial inventory for the upcoming season. Executives on both sides of the table caution that talks remain in their nascent stages and that buyers and TV networks continue to wrangle over pricing terms.

The major networks made initial requests for rate increases that buyers say they hope to resist. CBS and NBCUniversal initially sought increases in the cost of reaching 1,000 viewers a metric known as a CPM that is central to these annual talks between TV networks and Madison Avenue in the low double-digit percentage range for primetime inventory, according to people familiar with the talks. Fox and ABC have been seeking CPM hikes in the high-single-digit percentage range for primetime, sources said.

CBS and some cable companies have also begun to sell advance advertising commitments for their schedules. CBS has been asking for mid-to-high single-digit percentage increases, with cable networks working to tuck underneath what executives perceive broadcast networks are getting.

The nations five English-language broadcast networks last year secured between $8.41 billion and $9.25 billion in advance commitments for primetime in the upfront, according to Variety estimates the first time in three years they managed to break the $9 billion mark. The figures, of course, represent indications of advertisers intent to spend, not cold, hard cash. The final numbers typically show up in some form in year-end earnings reports.

Among negotiators, its generally understood that everything is flexible until significant deals are struck. The networks sought to force big rate increases that were quickly rejected by buyers. Everyone came out high with rate increases, said one top media buyer. Theres not a buyer who will stand for that.

The industry remains focused on NBCUniversal. As the company that has so many of TVs top-rated properties Sunday Night Football and This Is Us, for example NBC has a lot of the audience advertisers covet most. NBCU is also selling ads for the Super Bowl, the Winter Olympics and Telemundos broadcasts of the World Cup.

As such, the rates NBCU accepts could influence what sorts of CPM hikes rivals are able to negotiate. There is no clarity on NBCU, and the ceiling they may be setting, said another buying executive. Once that matter is resolved, buyers suggested, the market could move more significantly.

Everyone wants to pay less than a year ago, but the question is how much less, this buyer said.

Fox Networks is seeing early interest in its FX cable network, according to one person familiar with talks and in a suite of new ad products the company unveiled at its May presentation. At that time, Joe Marchese, president of ad revenue for the 21st Century Fox-owned unit, called attention to Open A.P., a joint ad sales venture with Viacom and Turner that helps advertisers cut deals based on targeted audience segments sold across the three conglomerates, as well as promoting new commercial formats for programs offered via VOD.

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NBCUniversal, Fox, ABC Make Early Progress in TV's Upfront ... - Variety

New York Times

Kyle Shanahan Heartened by 49ers' Progress, and a Chance to Relax New York Times Kyle Shanahan, center, last week, with John Lynch, right, the 49ers' general manager, and Stanford Coach David Shaw. Credit Jeff Chiu/Associated Press. SANTA CLARA, Calif. Kyle Shanahan barely had a chance to catch his breath during a nearly ... and more »

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Kyle Shanahan Heartened by 49ers' Progress, and a Chance to Relax - New York Times

AP Photo / Susan Walsh

Activists gather outside the White House in Washington, Thursday, June 1, 2017, to protest President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the Unites States from the Paris climate change accord. Some Republican members of congress have joined the Climate Solutions Caucus, and opposed the pull-out.

Citizen lobbyist Jay Butera believes in the power of polite persistence. Nearly every week for the past 10 years, he has taken the Amtrak train down to Washington D.C. from his home in Montgomery County to convince congress members to take action on climate.

There were times when it felt like this is not going to happen, said Butera. This is impossible, this is the most polarized issue in congress.

Butera is a successful entrepreneur, having created and sold two businesses. But instead of courting investors, he now spends all his time volunteering with the Citizens Climate Lobby. Hesays hes had hundreds of conversations with Republican aides and congressmen.

But despite the recent election that had Republicans take control of both houses of Congress and the White House, Butera is suddenly having some success. And its not just with Democrats.

Its not enough to try and advocate for one party or another because nothing substantive can happen unless it has support from both parties, he said. It feels as if the momentum is finally shifting in our favor.

This week, Butera was joined by thousands of climate activists who traveled to Washington, D.C. to visit their Members of Congress to encourage them to do something about warming temperatures, rising seas and melting ice caps. They also want them to join the small but growing Climate Solutions Caucus, a group Butera dreamed up four years ago.

On Monday, about 1,000 citizens joined Butera in D.C. to knock on congressional doors with a group called the Citizens Climate Lobby, which has 400 chapters across the country, and citizen lobbyists in every congressional district. About 1,000 people visited more than 500 congressional offices. Butera says instead of confrontation, they take a friendly, calm approach to an issue that has been mired in partisan roadblocks.

If we could get members together and talk about this in a calm way we could break this log jam, he said.

Butera says the new bi-partisan caucus has the goal of pushing for climate solutions, specifically economic solutions. It wasnt hard to get Democrats on board, but he spent three years looking for a Republican. By design, the caucus is half Republican half Democrat.

Butera started in Florida, a place where rising seas are already causing nuisance flooding in urban areas. He began at the local level, talking to township commissioners and Chambers of Commerce. He spoke their language.

It has definitely helped me to have a background in business, he said. From a business persons point of view, climate impacts and the disruptions they are causing present a big risk to our economy.

He found his first Republican last year. Carlos Curbelo from South Florida represents a district that is already witnessing the impacts of rising seas. Curbelo joined with Democrat Ted Deutch, another South Florida Congressman, to form the Climate Solutions Caucus in April, 2016. Since then the caucus has grown to 42 members.

I see this wall coming down now, he said. Since the beginning of this year 14 Republicans have joined the Climate Solutions Caucus. Thats a startling fact. That gives me a lot of hope.

Once Butera got the caucus formed, he was able to galvanize members of the Citizens Climate Lobby to visit their local representatives in their home offices and lobby their campaigns. Some, like freshman Republican congressman Don Bacon from Nebraska, made it a campaign pledge.

Butera, along with other members of the Citizens Climate Lobby, recently visited Bacon in his new office on Capitol Hill to thank him for joining. Bacon said he would keep an open mind.

I know Im not 100 percent on every one of your issues, Bacon told the group that included Butera and a few of the Congressmans constituents. But I try to look at each one, individually, and weigh it.

So far, Congressman Bacon has voted 100 percent with Trump on environmental issues. Like many in the Climate Solutions Caucus, Bacon is from a swing district and just narrowly beat his Democratic opponent. He said tackling environmental issues associated with military bases helped him make his decision. He didnt support Trump in pulling out of the Paris Agreement.

Twenty-one members of the Climate Solutions Caucus wrote a letter to President Trump urging him to remain in the Paris Accords.

Remaining in the UNFCCC will strengthen American leadership on environmental stewardship and help transform todays low-carbon investments into trillions of dollars of clean energy prosperity, wrote the caucus members. Withdrawing would mean squandering a unique opportunity to promote American research, ingenuity, and innovation.

Citizen Climate Lobby member and Omaha resident Kay Carne helped convince Bacon to join the caucus. Carne says she tells politicians how personal this issue is for her. She has two daughters and her youngest is just 7-weeks old.

My youngest will be Congressman Bacons age in 2070, said Carne speaking outside Bacons office after the meeting. 2070 seems so far away but shell be 53 then and she may even live to see 2100, which is the time a lot of these scientific projections are saying temperatures will increase by 10 degrees Fahrenheit. So just thinking about their lifetime and what they could see makes this issue so much more urgent than some others realize.

One surprising member is Darrell Issa, a California Republican who has denied the scientific consensus on climate change. The League of Conservation Voters once gave him a Climate Change Denier award. Issa narrowly won re-election in November against his Democratic opponent.

In suburban Philadelphia, where Hilary Clinton beat President Trump, all three swing districts have Republican congressmen who have joined the caucus.

Freshman Brian Fitzpatrick says its part of his mission to pursue bipartisan environmental protection.

We really need to get past the antiquated way of thinking of this Hatfields vs. McCoy brand of politics where people are stuck, I dont think thats a good thing, he said. We need to take a fresh look at things like how to grow the economy and protect the environment at the same time. And groups like the Citizens Climate Lobby are all about that.

Fitzpatrick credits his time as an Eagle Scout for his passion for environmental preservation. A former FBI agent, he has not voted lock step with Trump on the environment.

Sixth District Republican Ryan Costello also joined the caucus but is less optimistic about Congress acting on climate. He says he and his climate caucus colleagues will try to push Congress to act on things like carbon capture. But theres little support for climate legislation in the Republican controlled House.

While Democrats are eager to take back seats in the 2018 mid-term elections, its not clear how environmental issues will play out. Terry Madonna, director of the Franklin and Marshall College Poll, says in the past climate and environment were low on the list of priorities for voters.

But I think this is going to be more important in 2018 and I think the Democrats in particular are going to make a big deal of it, he said.

Ultimately, the Citizens Climate Lobby wants Congress to put a fee on carbon, which would then be funneled back to households in a monthly check. Butera says, like air and water, the atmosphere should not be a dumping ground.

I believe in the power of capitalism to move mountains, said Butera. And if we can line that up to move us in the right direction, and have the profit motive drive efficiencies and drive us toward low carbon technologies that is the force that can stop climate change.

House Republicans joining this climate caucus are not committing to this idea of the carbon tax. And so far, the caucus has not proposed any new legislation.

Theres still the issue of the fossil fuel lobby, which has more funds at its disposal than the citizen lobbyists.

The fossil fuel lobby looms large on Capital Hill, Butera said. But I continue to believe the voice of voters is louder than that.

Butera is optimistic. He thinks with Republicans now controlling Washington, many realize its up to them to do something about climate.

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Citizen lobbyists make progress with Republicans on climate - StateImpact Pennsylvania

Facebook researchers say they have made progress in training chatbots to negotiate.

The social networking giant's Facebook AI Research (FAIR) group published a paper to show how bots can be used to plan ahead in a conversation and adapt negotiation strategies.

Facebook's overall goal is to create chatbots that can reason, converse, and negotiate so its personal assistant can compete with rivals such as Google (Google Assistant), Amazon (Alexa), Apple (Siri) and Microsoft (Cortana) to name just a few.

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In a blog post, Facebook noted that chatbots can hold short conversations and carry out simple tasks. But meaningful conversations is a challenge because the chatbot has to combine its knowledge of the world while understanding the conversation.

Facebook, which open sourced its code and published a paper, is hoping the research leads to better negotiations, intelligent compromises and novel sentences. Facebook, which in April rolled out a limited version of its bot, noted:

In order to train negotiation agents and conduct large-scale quantitative evaluations, the FAIR team crowdsourced a collection of negotiations between pairs of people. The individuals were shown a collection of objects and a value for each, and asked to agree how to divide the objects between them. The researchers then trained a recurrent neural network to negotiate by teaching it to imitate people's actions. At any point in a dialog, the model tries to guess what a human would say in that situation.

Unlike previous work on goal-orientated dialog, the models were trained "end to end" purely from the language and decisions that humans made, meaning that the approach can easily be adapted to other tasks.

Read also: MasterCard sees Facebook Messenger as a commerce, bot vehicle for Masterpass

Facebook's chatbot paper lands just as some analysts are questioning whether the company's AI efforts are actually making it into products. For instance, Edison Investment Research analyst Richard Windsor said in a research note that Facebook's digital assistant lacks AI in production. Windsor said:

Facebook M has been in beta for over 18 months and has comprised of a combination of automated responses and human interactions where the vast majority of the tasks have been carried out by humans. The problem with using humans of Digital Life services is that it is very expensive to scale the service for 2 billion users especially when the service will be funded by advertising. This why Facebook is working as quickly as it can to develop its in house expertise and while it remains a laggard in AI, it has shown some progress.

For example, at its developer conference, it showed some good progress on machine vision enabling its apps to recognize the world they can see through the smartphone camera. It also made Facebook M available to US users and most recently in Spanish to users in Mexico and US.

However, what has gone live is only a small part of the grand plans that were announced in 2015 which had an always on, all knowing bot with which the user could do almost anything.

In a nutshell, Facebook's research team is working toward that do-it-all bot, but it has some work to do.

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Facebook researchers progress on teaching AI chatbots to negotiate - ZDNet

June 14, 2017 4:21 PM By Alex Del Barrio

HOUSTON (CBS HOUSTON) Of all the players on the Texans roster DeAndre Hopkins has every right to be cautious on how to approach the offense this season. Despite being considered one of the top wide-outs in the NFL, Hopkins is coming off what most would consider a down season from his previous three years in the league.

Much of that blame could fall onto the lap of exiled former starting quarterback Brock Osweiler, who struggled so profusely in 2016 that he was jettisoned after just one season in Houston. With Hopkins waiting patiently on a contract extension, having a solid season statistically will be extremely important if the Texans decide to take a wait and see approach before locking him into a long-term deal.

Hopkins, who has caught balls from nine different quarterbacks in his first four seasons, could be running routes for his 10th if rookie Deshaun Watson sees the field this season. Despite the constant quarterback turnover, Hopkins is as focused and even-keeled as ever and is supportive of both the incumbent starter Savage and the rookie from his alma-mater Watson.

With Savage, Hopkins looks to him as someone who has grown with him in the OBrien offense as Hopkins was just coming into his own as a top receiver during Savages rookie year and OBriens first with the Texans. Hopkins feels Savage has earned and is ready for the opportunity to start in 2017.

I like his leadership, Hopkins said on Wednesday. From last year when he wasnt playing on the field he was still showing the guys, telling us what we should do, helping us out like he was the starting quarterback. Now that hes in that role its not surprise to anybody on this field that he deserves that role. He has earned it, not just from playing but from the chemistry he has built in the locker room with everybody.

As for Watson, Hopkins knows there is still room for growth but has been impressed with his poise and work ethic in the few week he has been in a Texans uniform.

He has picked it up well, Hopkins said of Watsons ability to learn the offense. Hes been doing a lot of things, not just on the field but off the field as well. Youll see him in there in his notebook. As soon as he gets in there hes on his iPad looking at plays, trying to get better, trying to make his mistakes right. You cant do that on the football field. You have to do that by off the field. Mentally, he has it.

Theres been small indicators throughout mini-camp and OTAs that OBrien is going to test the rookie signal-caller sporadically as hes been running through the same late-game situation drills the other two quarterbacks have. Hopkins knows that the real tests wont be until the team heads to West Virginia for camp at the end of July.

Hes a rookie. He hasnt put on any pads yet, Hopkins said. What you go out there and do on that field, you got to prove it to me.

Alex Del Barrio covers the Houston Texans for Sportsradio610.com and is the color commentator for the Houston Dynamo. He also hosts ADB and Murph with Matt Murphy which can be heard on Saturday afternoons 4-7 pm Follow Alex Del Barrio on Twitter:@alexdelbarrio

Alex Del Barrio What I do for SportsRadio 610: I'm a jack-of-all-trades for 610. I report on the Houston area pro teams, anchor sports flashes, write for Sportsradio610.com and host on the weekends and as a fill-in. Wherever they need me to be, I...

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Hopkins Likes Savage's Leadership; Watson's Progress. - CBS Houston

Last night, the Television Academy sent out a notice to all eligible voters that Phase One balloting for Emmy nominations has begun, with a return deadline of June 26. A lot of people are going to be disappointed on July 13th, one awards pundit predicted to me recently about the morning nominations will be announced.

We were discussing the sheer volume of contenders with big campaigns behind them this year. It seems a lotof people have high hopes. Every year it gets bigger and the odds get longer but this one seems unprecedented in Emmy history. Everywhereyou go there is some For Your Consideration ad for some show staring you in the face. Just yesterday, as I was driving down La Cienega Boulevard, the sheer numbers of banners hanging from every light pole was staggering. On one side were ads for FYC events at Upright Citizens Brigade that NBCUniversal had for the likes ofSuperstore, Master Of None and The Good Placeamong others. On the left side of the street CBS Studios was advertising FYC events taking place in Studio City from 8-10 AM for programs includingLate Late Show With James Corden(8AM? Are they kidding?).

Hulu

But they arent alone with the morning stuff. Netflix offered a waffle breakfast to lure potential voters to their below-the-line soirees forStranger Things crafts artisans Sunday at their rented 29,000-square-foot office space in Beverly Hills where they have been holding daily FYC events for the past few weeks, known as Netflix FYSee. Several women dressed as Handmaids were seen marching around at various L.A. hot spots over the weekend to promote HulusThe Handmaids Tale(unless they were just crazy fans), while FX was busy trying to drum up new Russian paranoia as if we dont have enough in well-placed ads in the New York Times and elsewhere for The Americans, aboutundercover Russian spies in the U.S.

FX

The list goes on and on, and if you are a voting Academy member as I have been for decades, you are inundated constantly with all this stuff. This year has been worse that ever in terms of screeners, which I have piled up everywhere at this point and they keep coming not only by mail and streaming subscriptions but also stuffed in the pages of Emmy Magazine which always balloons in size this time of year.

In the goodie bag at this weekends PGA Produced By event on the Fox lot was a large drug prescription bottle for Vice that was filled with little white candy (I hope) pills. After I got back from my May sojourn to the Cannes Film Festival, I was greeted with a rotting box of Rainbow Bagels and Funfetti Cream Cheese (yuk!) courtesy of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidtthat had obviously been sitting there a few days awaiting my return.

And on top of all this have been endless, and I meanendless, FYC events every night, and sometimes two or three a night coming from unofficial events at the TV Academys Wolf Theatre at its Saban Media Center, duplicate events for members in NYC, the aforementioned UCB, as well as nightly FYC sessions (with an open bar) at the Netflix temporary Emmy headquarters, and earlier in the season for Amazons shows at their makeshift but impressive shrine to themselves at the Hollywood Athletic Club. And they are allpacked.

I moderated a fun and lively session at Netflix on Friday for its innovativeA Series Of Unfortunate Events,with cast including Neil Patrick Harris and executive producer Barry Sonnenfeld, that was SRO even considering NBC was throwing a FYC event forHairspraywith a live concert componentacross town at the TV Academy at the exact same time. Of course, there are now 24,000 Academy members and about 21,500 of them can vote, so that makes for a lot of potential customers for these things. By my count I received 25 slickly produced invites in the mail, times double or triple that on email invites. Atallof these things liquor and food is readily available and schmoozing encouraged. Attendees can often be seen handing out business cards to anyone who looks like they can give them a job.

CBS Studios

In order to compete and get noticed with all of this stuff aimed at voters, some places are getting innovative particularly CBS, which doesnt really seem to want to spend the kind of loot cable competitors, and especially those upstart streamers, are forking over. CBS sitcomMomtook out ads announcing that in lieu of a $250,000 Emmy campaign this year, they will donate the money to Planned Parenthood. And CBS Studios yesterday started handing out FYC reusable tote bags at farmers markets around town.

They also are going green with their Emmy mailer. With the tagline This Emmy race makes the world a better place, our mailer is a contrast to some of the huge heavy screeners piling on desks and stuffing mailboxes this season, a spokesperson tells me. Our mailer is wrapped in a seed-embedded, plantable belly-band and made of 100% recycled material. Who knew you could plantscreeners of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend?An attached card directs voters to their site to stream episodes of their shows.

Nearly everyone offers cards with free access to their shows, including full seasons. The TV Academy itself runs a portal, for a price of course, to studios, where members can see programming year-round.

Netflix

Whereas the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences continually refines its rules of campaigning to curtail or frown upon this kind of volume activity during their high holy season, the Television Academy (where I served on the Board of Governors for six years) has always turned a mostly blind eye to it, although it does have standards and wont allow certain over-the-top practices at their house of TV worship in North Hollywood (all invites for those are coordinated and sent through the Academy, even if at the bottom of each invite there is a disclaimer saying it is not an Academy event).

I am not sure if any of this actually results in hard-core votes (well FYSee), but it actually has turned into a kind of fun time of year in which the TV industry is basically proving they have alotof interest in Emmy season, and the TV Academy, while making money off theater rentals, mailings and Emmy Magazine ads, is also increasing its importance with all this attention paid. (Full disclosure: Deadline also kicks things off in early April each year with a well-attended The Contenders Emmys all-day event at the DGA theater, with videos of the some 50 participating shows published twice daily on Deadline right up to the start of voting.)

Now it is crunch time to see whether all this effort being poured into just Phase One of Emmy season really pays off. For some it will, and that is probably justification enough for all the hoopla that makes the Emmy period a real rival to Oscar season.

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Emmys: Voting In Progress As Shows Make Final Pitches In Biggest Campaign Season Yet - Deadline

June 13, 2017 by Chris Gebhardt

Roscosmos is in final preparations for the launch of the Progress MS-06 resupply mission to the International Space Station. Liftoff is set for 15:20:13 local time (05:20:13 EDT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, 14 June 2017 with docking following on Friday. This mission was tomark the first time a major element of the ISS will be deorbited. However, the Pirs docking compartment removal has been delayed to next year.

Progress MS-06 launch preparations:

Given the launch campaigns of late for Roscosmos to the International Space Station, processing of the MS-06 Progress mission has been relatively uneventful and quite smooth.

In all, Progress MS-06 will be the 158th Progress mission since the program began in 1978 for resupply efforts of the Salyut 6 space station and the 69th Progress mission to the ISS, counting the two Progress flights that were not designated as resupply missions because they delivered module elements to the Station.

One of those two Progress non-resupply flights occurred in 2001, when a modified Progress delivered the Pirs docking compartment to ISS.

Including todays launch, 69 Progress missions will have launched to ISS to date, with Progress MS-06 (or Progress 67 as it is known to NASA) being the 66th attempt of a Progress family vehicle to successfully reach the Station, following the Progress 44 launch failure in August 2011, the Progress 59 launch mishap in April 2015, and the Progress 65 launch failure in December 2016.

Following retirement of the Soyuz-U carry a rocket in February, Progress MS-06 will as a few previous Progress missions have utilize the Soyuz-2.1a rocket for lift off.

Following various construction milestones, system checkouts, and cargo loading, the Progress MS-06 vehicle was fueled with its propellants and compressed gases at the filling station at Baikonur on 31 May 2017.

After fueling operations were complete, technicians transferred the vehicle to the Spacecraft Assembly and Testing Facility (SC ATF), where was installed onto the assembly jig for final pre-launch processing.

In the SC ATF, engineers successfully mated Progress MS-06 to its support structure mount that will allow it to ride safely atop the third stage of the Soyuz 2.1a rocket.

Following the Designers Inspection, which clears the way for final launch processing, Progress was encapsulated into its payload fairing on 7 June.

On 9 June, engineers transported the encapsulated Progress to the Launch Vehicle Integration and Test Facility (LV ITF), where Progress was mated atop its Soyuz rocket.

The entire vehicle rolled out to launch pad 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan via rail transport on 11 June.

Under the current schedule, Progress MS-06 will launch at 09:20:13 GMT (05:20:13 EDT 15:20:13 local time at Baikonur) on Wednesday, 14 June 2017.

After an 8 minute 45 second ascent, the Soyuz-2.1a rocket will deliver Progress MS-06 into its initial orbit to begin a two-day, 34 orbit rendezvous with the ISS.

At the time of writing, NASASpaceflight.com has not been able to confirm why Progress MS-06 is conducting a two-day rendezvous instead of the fast track, four orbit docking profile used again since earlier this year after confirmation that the new ground communications tracking center at the Vostochny Cosmodrome was completed.

Most likely, however, the two-day rendezvous is part of an overall effect of crew compliment reduction on the ISS now that the number of people onboard Station has been reduced to three for the next two months.

MS-06 and the two-day ISS rendezvous:

Once Progress MS-06 is deposited into its initial orbit, the vehicle will perform primary health checks with the Vostochny Cosmodrome in eastern Russia before passing out over the Pacific.

If all is well aboard Progress, the vehicle will perform its first orbit raising maneuver, the DV1 burn, at 08:53:03 EDT (12:53:03 GMT) on 14 June.

The DV2 burn will follow shortly thereafter at 09:31:30 EDT (13:31:30 GMT).

The two burns will cumulatively change Progress MS-06s velocity by 62.03 m/s and raise and circularize Progress orbit to better match that of the International Space Stations.

A third burn, DV3, will follow on Thursday morning at 06:55:09 EDT (10:55:09 GMT) and will finalize Progress orbit via a delta-V shift of 4.00 m/s.

On Friday morning, docking operations will commence when the SCAN S-bd / C2V2 / HTV PROX / Cygnus PROX / Cygnus S-bd GS / Dragon S-bd GS rendezvous systems of the USOS (United States Operating Segment) are taken to inhibit to prevent any interference with Progress automated docking system and its communication with the RS (Russian Segment) of the ISS.

Inhibiting those systems will occur at 01:20 EDT (05:20 GMT) on 16 June while Progress MS-06 is 2,700 km from Station.

Progress will then initiate its automated docking sequence three hours later at 05:19:06 EDT (09:19:06 GMT), with the Impulse 1 burn of 15.147 m/s at 05:42:44 EDT.

Impulse 1 will change Progress trajectory to prepare the craft for proximity ops with ISS and to begin aligning it properly for the flyaround maneuver late in the approach timeline.

Further preparations on Station will continue with the handoff from the USOS Motion Control System (MCS) to the RS MCS at 05:54 EDT.

Impulse 2, delta-V: 1.575 m/s, from Progress will follow at 06:04:13 EDT (10:04:13 GMT).

The ISSs three person crew will then activate the Zvezda Service Modules (SMs) Kurs-P communication system at 06:07 EDT, followed by activation of the Kurs-NA system on Progress at 06:08 EDT.

Progress will then perform the Impulse 3 burn (delta-V: 25.01 m/s) at 06:27:11 EDT (10:27:11 GMT).

The SMs Kurs-P system will begin tracking Progress range from the ISS when the two craft are separated by 45 km which should occur at 06:37 EDT.

A final Kurs system communications check between the ISS and Progress MS-06 will follow at 06:50 EDT once Progress has closed to 15 km.

The SMs VHF-2 transmitter will be activated at 06:55:46 EDT for TORU (Teleoperated Mode of Control) command link when Progress is 9 km from ISS, with Progress VHF receiver turned on at 07:05:56 EDT for TORU command link at a range of 3 km from Station.

TORU is the backup, manual docking system that Fyodor Yurchikhin, Expedition 51 Commander, will use to dock Progress MS-06 to the Station should the crafts or Stations automated Kurs docking system fail.

Progress will then perform the Impulse 4 maneuver, imparting a delta-V shift of 5.396 m/s at 07:07:37 EDT (11:07:37 GMT).

TORU command link test between ISS and Progress will follow seconds later at 07:07:56 EDT.

The ballistic targeting point will be established at 07:09 EDT.

Impulse 5 is scheduled for 07:11:59 EDT, altering Progress speed by 5.633 m/s, followed by Impulse 6 (delta-V: 1.564 m/s) at 07:14:58 EDT.

Progress will then begin its flyaround maneuver of the ISS to align itself with the aft docking port of the Zvezda SM at 07:17:43 EDT (11:17:43 GMT).

The flyaround will end at 07:26:44 EDT, at which point Progress MS-06 will perform stationkeeping (maintaining relative position with Station) as the crew and Mission Control Moscow review all data points from MS-06 and verify its alignment with SMs aft docking port.

Under the pre-established timeline, Progress MS-06 will pulse its thrusters at 07:32:21 EDT (11:32:21 GMT) to begin the final 10 minute 9 second approach sequence.

Using its onboard computers, automated docking systems, and navigational aides, Progress MS-06 will guide itself to a planned docking at 07:42:30 EDT (11:42:30 GMT).

At the moment of docking, the RS of the Station will inhibit ISSs attitude control, placing the Station in free drift to help equalize dispersions between Progress and the ISS created by the energy of Progress contact with the docking mechanism.

Those dispersions should dissipate in time for all the hooks on Progress to drive into the ISS at 07:56 EDT creating a hard dock between the two craft.

The ISS will then be taken out of free drift and will reorient to its nominal attitude before the RS hands back motion control to the USOS at 08:35 EDT.

Eventual farewell to Pirs, preparing for the MLM Nauka lab:

While Progress MS-06 will dock to the International Space Station on the aft end of the Zvezda Service Module, the original plan was for the vehicle not spend all of its time at the ISS at that port.

Once Progress 2,398 kg (5,286 lb) of payload which consists of crew supplies, equipment and several satellites, two of which were built by schoolchildren hadbeen removed and the Stations disposal equipment packed inside, the ISS crew was to close and seal the hatches between Progress MS-06 and the Station and prepare it for undocking.

The original plan called for the vehicle to be undocked from the aft portion of this Zvezda Service Module and re-dock over the course of a couple of hours to the Progress docking port on the Pirs docking compartment.

However, this redock plan has been moved to a later flight, namely Progress MS-09 at the end of 2018.

The maneuverrelates to the plan to remove the Pirs module from ISS in order to make room for the MLM (Multipurpose Laboratory Module) Nauka for Russia, which has been heavily delayed the latest delay relating to a contamination concern.

Nauka Russias primary research lab for the Station requires the docking port Pirs is currently using.

Nauka is tentatively scheduled to launch in 2018 aboard a Proton-M rocket.

Pirs itself was delivered to ISS in 2001 via a modified Progress vehicle and is currently attached to the nadir port of Zvezda.

For its eventual removal, the now-future Progress will begin a process that no other spacecraft has yet performed the removal for destructive deorbit of a permanent module of the International Space Station.

At the end of its mission, the future Progress mission will pulse its thrusters, while keeping its docking clamps firmly latched onto Pirs, and will pull the docking compartment away from the International Space Station.

In this manner, Pirs itself will undock from the Station, with Progress acting more like a tugboat to safely maneuver the module away from the vicinity of the ISS.

Progress will then maneuver, with Pirs still attached, toward a destructive reentry into Earths atmosphere that will see the first major element of the International Space Station deorbited.

The reason Roscosmos has chosen to remove Pirs from the Station has nothing to do with the compartments overall life expectancy, usefulness, or performance.

It was entirely related to making room for the much-delayed MLM.

(Images: Roscosmos, NASA)

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Progress MS-06 ready for launch; mission to remove Pirs module delayed - NASASpaceflight.com

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- The Denver Broncos open their mandatory minicamp Tuesday, and that three-day affair will formally close their offseason program.

When Thursday rolls around there will be the requisite missives tossed around about the good work" that got done or how we got better." That indeed happened in many ways, but the Broncos will still adjourn with questions to answer.

That makes the next three days the last look -- until July -- at some front-burner items like:

Where do things really stand at quarterback? Broncos coaches have kept a keen eye on what Trevor Siemian and Paxton Lynch have done since players returned to work in April, but the real on-field competition for the job will begin in training camp.

Though few inside the team's complex would publicly acknowledge it, Siemian is still ahead. He sees the field better, especially between the numbers, throws on time more consistently and does better work in between the big splash plays folks seem to notice more.

That said, Lynchs arm and athleticism are intriguing to the teams decision-makers and he carries that first-round selection with him. Around the league some competing personnel evaluators wonder if Broncos executive vice president of football operations/general manager John Elway, as well as the Broncos coaching staff, would want to jam Lynch into the lineup to make that first-round selection bear fruit sooner.

However, the Broncos have Lynch potentially signed for five years, if they eventually pick up the fifth-year option, so there is no real hurry there, and Elway has vowed I dont want to play him if hes not ready." Quarterbacks win jobs on trust, and all of the athleticism in the world cannot push a quarterback into the starting lineup if the people making the decisions dont believe that quarterback will make the right choices when its a little more than a middle-of-the-week 7-on-7 drill.

Will rookie Garett Bolles be the starting left tackle? The first-round pick is headed that way and his work in the coming days could even put him in position to open training camp with the starters.

The Broncos opened OTAs with Donald Stephenson at left tackle and then Ty Sambrailo moved in with the starters. In recent weeks the Broncos really like what Bolles has done -- hes has stood up for himself quite nicely against one of the leagues best defenses -- and has shown the expected athleticism in pass protection.

Bolles has also shown the study habits, the wants-to-be-a-pro attitude coaches love to see. If he can show some consistency working out of a three-point stance in the run game, he could edge out Sambrailo for the starting job.

Will the Broncos defense stop the run? Look, they finished 28th last year, so there is almost nowhere to go but up there. That said, opposing offenses were able to essentially mute Von Miller down the stretch last season -- Miller had no sacks in the final four games -- because those offenses could run the ball largely whenever they wished.

The proof will always be in what happens when the pads go on, but Broncos look far more physical up front -- Domata Peko and Zach Kerr were quality additions. That should enable their linebackers, especially Brandon Marshall, to have a little clearer path to the ball-carriers.

Beyond Bolles, what other rookies figure to have impact? Its tough to fool your teammates if youre a rookie, especially in a locker room like the Broncos' that includes plenty of Alpha players. Theyre going to know who has put in the time and who hasnt, and patience will be hard to find for those who are more interested in telling people they're in the NFL rather than staying there.

To that end, second-round pick DeMarcus Walker has come in and quietly gotten down to work. He figures to be in the rotation, especially in some pass-rush situations.

Carlos Henderson and Isaiah McKenzie could well be the teams kickoff and punt returner respectively, while running back De'Angelo Henderson (a sixth-round pick) could have a more difficult time getting opportunities given a crowded depth chart but gives the team real speed and short-area quickness.

Unless there is unexpected progress over the next month or so, Jake Butt and Chad Kelly will open training camp on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list, given both are still recovering from knee surgeries. Kelly has a hand injury hes been getting treatment for as well.

Butt will move into the rotation at tight end as soon as hes healthy.

See the rest here:

Rookie Garett Bolles making progress toward starting lineup - ESPN (blog)

Sammy Watkins continues to make progress in his recovery from foot surgery.

At Tuesday's start of mandatory minicamp and for the first time this offseason, the Buffalo Bills' wide receiver took part in 11-on-11 team drills. He was on the field at New Era Fieldforfour or fiveplays.

During last week's OTA sessions, Watkins only participated on a limited basis, doing individual work.

"It was just really, Sammy was in a position, going into practice, where he felt in a good place," coach Sean McDermott told reporters. "Last week it was individual, and he built anice foundation last week.And the pitch count" Tuesday "was right around four or five reps of team drills, and he did a nice job."

McDermott had said earlier in the day the Bills' focus was to get Watkins ready for training camp, which begins in about six weeks.

"He's worked extremely hard in the training room, attacking the rehab process, and now, these last couple weeks, we've been able to get him back on the field," the coach said.

***

In his return to practice after being sidelined with an ankle injury, John Miller found himself sharing starting reps at right guard with Vladimir Ducasse, who the Bills signed at the start of free agency.

Miller had been a starter since joining the Bills in 2015 as a third-round draft pick from Louisville.

"There's nothing set in stone," McDermottsaid. "We're just rotating those guys. The great part about it is we've got a lot of confidence in John and then Vlad as well, and Richie. We feel good about those guys as well as Ryan inside, so we feel real good about our situation in there."

Asked if Miller was fully recovered, the coach said, "He's working back to that."

***

Running back LeSean McCoy sat out Tuesday's practice for what McDermott described as a "stomach virus."

Asked how much he expected McCoy to practice through the balance of the three-day minicamp, McDermott said, "We'll see. Obviously, like any stomach bug, you're never really sure how long it's going to last. The important thing is that we get him hydrated and in a position where he can perform."

Defensive tackle Kyle Williams also missed Tuesday's workout with "neck stiffness," according to the coach.

Offensive tackle Cordy Glenn, whoMcDermott saidis "week-to-week" with an ankle injury,watched practice while wearing a walking boot.

***

The Bills waived tight end Blake Annen Tuesday. McDermott said the move was not related to the team's interest in free-agent tight end Gary Barnidge, who visited the team last month.

See original here:

Bills notebook: Sammy Watkins makes more progress - Buffalo News

Congress

After steady improvement on previous scorecards, agencies' progress on implementing the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act stalled on the fourth round.

For the first time, more agency grades declined than improved, while 15 agencies' grades remained neutral.

However, there were bright spots. Four agencies improved, including the U.S. Agency for International Development, which recorded the biggest jump in the history of the scorecard, leaping from a D-plus to an A-plus. USAID also has the distinction of securing the first-ever 'A' grade.

The Departments of Housing and Urban Development, State and Transportation each improved by a full letter grade.

The five declining agencies, which each dropped a full letter, were the Departments of Defense, Interior and Labor; the Office of Personnel Management; and the Social Security Administration.

At a June 13 House oversight hearing, Government Accountability Office Director of IT Management Issues Dave Powner attributed the general lack of improvement, in part, to the transitioning administrations and also to the expansion of scoring methodology.

Of the 24 agencies reviewed, eight rely on acting CIOs. Those acting-CIO agencies did not fare notably worse on the scorecard, but Powner said the lack of permanent CIOs across government is hurting agencies FITARA implementation, and that CIOs still lack complete visibility into IT spending.

"Agency CIOs and the federal CIO are critical to carrying out these high-level agendas," he said. "This lack of current leadership will negatively impact the progress were making on FITARA."

Although it was not included in this round of grades, Powner said it "is completely unacceptable" that only three agencies -- USAID, the Department of Education and the General Services Administration have "complete inventories of their software licenses."

House Oversight IT Subcommittee Chairman Will Hurd (R-Texas) expressed frustration that many agencies lack a clear chain of command and that many CIOs still do not report directly to the agency head.

"This isn't complicated This should be standard practice across the government," he said. "If agency heads are supposed to be responsible for the ultimate protection of the digital infrastructure, the person who has the authority to do that should be directly involved."

House Oversight Government Operations Subcommittee Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) threatened lagging agencies with appropriations consequences.

"If our ... CIOs dont take it seriously, they will see other areas that potentially could be impacted because of their inaction," Meadows said.

The Department of Defense, which has consistently registered among the bottom of the pack, dropped from a D-plus to an F-plus. In the subcategories of the scorecard, DOD received a failing grade for its transparency and risk management, drawing the brunt of lawmakers' ire.

Powner explained that the failing transparency grade was due to the Pentagon's reclassification of $15 billion worth of IT spending as national security systems, a category exempt from FITARA review.

"To have $15 billion magically appear under that umbrella doesnt seem right," he said. "DOD is the last organization in the world that should be exempt from FITARA. If any organization needs a private sector-type CIO, its DOD."

About the Author

Chase Gunter is a staff writer covering civilian agencies, workforce issues, health IT, open data and innovation.

Prior to joining FCW, Gunter reported for the C-Ville Weekly in Charlottesville, Va., and served as a college sports beat writer for the South Boston (Va.) News and Record. He started at FCW as an editorial fellow before joining the team full-time as a reporter.

Gunter is a graduate of the University of Virginia, where his emphases were English, history and media studies.

Click here for previous articles by Gunter, or connect with him on Twitter: @WChaseGunter

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FITARA progress stalls on scorecard 4.0 - FCW.com