TO
TRACK GENESIS II IN REAL TIME: Go to www.bigelowaerospace.com,
click on Out There on the Bigelow Aerospace homepage and
then click on Real Time Tracking from the drop down menu.
For additional information, click on the word More on the
Real Time Tracking page and then on Track It Now! and view
the continuously updated data under Real Time Position.
To see when and where Genesis II can be seen in the sky
in coming days, click on the GENESIS II predictions. NOTE:
Due to updates on the tracking site, prompts for accessing
the data often change.
Genesis
II Successfully Launched
(From: www.bigelowaerospace.com)
Bigelow Aerospace Still Awaits Confirmation of Spacecraft
Health and Expansion
Las Vegas, NV 06/28/07 – Genesis II, the second experimental
pathfinder spacecraft by Bigelow Aerospace, has been successfully
launched and inserted into orbit. The privately-funded space
station module was launched atop a Dnepr rocket at 8:02
a.m. PDT from the ISC Kosmotras Yasny Cosmodrome located
in the Orenburg region of Russia.
The flight and stage separation of the Dnepr performed nominally,
with Genesis II separating from its rocket at 8:16 a.m.
PDT into an orbit with an inclination of 64 degrees. Still
remaining is initial first contact with Genesis II and confirmation
of solar panel deployment, outer shell expansion and spacecraft
health. That confirmation is expected sometime after 4:30
p.m. PDT after initial passes over the ground communication
station in Fairfax, Va., operated by Bigelow Aerospace partner
SpaceQuest Ltd.
Genesis II is the second pathfinder space module designed
to test and confirm systems for future manned commercial
space modules to be manufactured by Las Vegas-based Bigelow
Aerospace. Like other BA spacecraft, Genesis II employs
a unique architecture with a flexible outer surface that
is wrapped around a central core at launch and expands into
orbit through air inflation.
Bigelow Aerospace founder Robert T. Bigelow was on site
in Yasny to witness the launch with other BA employees,
while other BA personnel were gathered at Mission Control
in North Las Vegas.
Bigelow Aerospace Program Manager Eric Haakonstad says with
the experience of Genesis I, they were better primed for
the launch of Genesis II. “With Genesis I, it was
our first rodeo. We didn’t know exactly what to expect,”
Haakonstad says. “This time, we were able to perform
rehearsals and were more prepared for the launch phase.”
That said, a brief communications difficulty in Russia increased
nerves in Mission Control, as there was a delay in confirming
Genesis II’s separation from the Dnepr rocket. “Any
deviation from nominal magnifys the anxiety. When it came
in four minutes later, it was a big relief,” Haakonstad
says.
Bigelow Aerospace hopes to provide an update later in the
day concerning the status of first contact with Genesis
II.
About Bigelow Aerospace:
The mission of Bigelow Aerospace is to open the frontier
of space to all of humanity by dramatically reducing the
cost of conducting human spaceflight activities. To this
end, Bigelow Aerospace is developing orbital complexes utilizing
innovative expandable space habitat technology. The Las
Vegas-based firm’s affordable and flexible space complex
architecture can be adapted for virtually any crewed or
autonomous mission requiring a large pressurized volume.
For more information, go to www.bigelowaerospace.com
or call (702) 688-6600.
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Winner!
- Pinnacle Book Achievement Award
"Patricke
Peartree: A Modern-Day Johnny Appleseed" by author
George Michael "Mike" Bourgeois received
the 2006 Pinnacle Book Achievement Award in the category
Inspirational, one of 12 categories in the competition.
There is only one winner per category. The award is
sponsored annually by the North American Bookdealers
Exchange (NABE), headquartered in Cottage Grove, Oregon,
which publishes Book Dealers World (BDW), a quarterly
marketing magazine for independent publishers and
mail order entrepreneurs for nearly 30 years. The
book was featured in the Spring 2007 issue of BDW
and on the NABE web site. |
Patricke
Peartree to Enter Earth Orbit in Early 2007
Award
winning Patricke Peartree’s got a ticket to ride on
a journey that will take him out of this world -- literally.
And he won’t exactly be a day tripper either.
No, this trip will take him on an 8 to 13 year mission in
orbit around the earth where no food procurement advocate
for the needy has gone before.
But who is Patricke Peartree, and just how is he going to
get into orbit anyway, you might ask? Patricke Peartree
is the imaginary twelve year old grandson of George Michael
“Mike” Bourgeois, author of “Patricke
Peartree: A Modern-Day Johnny Appleseed,” an award
winning book targeted primarily to fifth and six graders
which is based on actual events in the author’s life.
Bourgeois, a long-time food bank volunteer and former board
member of the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank (GBRFB), www.brfoodbank.org,
wrote the book in order to encourage individuals and organizations
to enlist their yards and other properties in the fight
against hunger by employing edible landscaping to grow food
and donate all or a portion of their harvests to food banks
as tax deductible, in-kind gifts. In addition to encouraging
others to grow and donate food to food banks, the author
also volunteers a portion of the proceeds from book sales
to the GBRFB. Since demand for GBRFB services tripled in
the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, new avenues of food
procurement are even more important.
For every $1 collected by the GBRFB, more than $10 worth
of food is distributed.
The community minded book won an award in the 2006 Southern
Public Relations Federation Lantern Awards competition based
on such criteria as originality/creativity, planning, effectiveness,
etc. Initially planned as one book, the inclusion of a graphic
of the Patricke Peartree character onboard the flight of
Genesis II, an expandable spacecraft to be launched by Nevada-based
Bigelow Aerospace in late March or early April of 2007,
inspired the author to expand the saga into a three book
series.
Published in 2005 in consultation with the GBRFB, the first
book in the trilogy centers around Patricke Peartree’s
interest in a 75 to 85 year old pear tree his great-great-great
grandfather Antonino Ventrella, a Sicilian immigrant, rooted
from a cutting which still produces fruit on the family
farmland that the author’s generation now owns in
the Atchafalaya River basin area of rural Pointe Coupee
Parish, Louisiana. It also tells of his efforts to get the
fruit tree propagated so that he and other individuals and
organizations can establish donation orchards for food banks.
Organizations can simply and easily integrate such donation
horticulture projects into their “green” community
relations programs. The books can be customized as well.
In addition to information concerning edible landscaping
and the establishment of donation orchards and gardens for
food banks, the book is interspersed throughout with a host
of web site addresses to encourage further study of such
topics as environmentalism, the need to preserve biodiversity,
the problem of hunger in America and its consequences, the
United Way, good corporate citizenship, the life of Johnny
Appleseed, cultural and family heritage, positive extended
family relationships and much, much more. It also contains
a listing of contact information for more than 200 food
banks around the country that come under the umbrella of
America’s Second Harvest, the Nation’s Food
Bank Network.
Bourgeois copyrighted the Patricke Peartree character separately
for licensing purposes in order to donate a portion of licensing
proceeds to the GBRFB, and he has plans for T-shirts and
a host of other Patricke Peartree items. “In short,
I would like to see Patricke Peartree become the same kind
of voice for donation horticulture that Smokey Bear, for
example, has been for forest fire prevention,” he
said. “When you consider that an estimated 20 million
Americans in city, urban and rural areas alike planted Victory
Gardens during World War II which produced approximately
40 per cent of the food consumed at the time, you can get
an idea of the enormous potential there is in utilizing
donation horticulture to address the problem of hunger.”
Three themes will provide the core information for the second
book in the Patricke Peartree trilogy -- how to get a fruit
tree named, how to get a picture, item and eventually yourself
in orbit as a space tourist or businessperson with Bigelow
Aerospace, and efforts to develop ways of growing food in
space. Patricke will recount, for instance, how he got the
family’s heirloom pear tree renamed the Patricke Peartree
Food Bank pear.
Robert
Bigelow, visionary owner of the Budget Suites of America
hotel chain, also owns Bigelow Aerospace, the firm he formed
in order to realize his dream of establishing a commercial
space complex by 2012. It is planned as a destination for
space tourists, companies and others who can benefit from
the use of zero-gravity and the space environment.
The company’s first experimental craft, Genesis I,
successfully lifted off in July for 8 to 13 years in orbit
around the earth. Genesis II is scheduled for lift off in
late March or early April, and Bigelow Aerospace is allowing
members of the public to fly photos and other items onboard
for a small fee. Patricke Peartree, or at least a drawing
of him, already has a reserved place on the flight. More
information and photos from the orbiting Genesis I can be
found at www.bigelowaerospace.com.
The third book in the series will begin with a Halloween
mystery and conclude with success stories of several of
those who have established donation orchards and gardens.
For more information or to set up an interview with the
author or buy a book, please contact Mike Bourgeois at www.patrickepeartree.com
or bourgeoisentrprs@bellsouth.net.
BOOK
TITLE: “Patricke Peartree: A Modern-Day Johnny Appleseed”
BOOK INFO: (Softcover, ISBN: 0-9770296-0-3)
Hollow
Calories Pose Health Risks for the Hungry - Patricke Peartree
Recommends Donation Orchards and Gardens as a Solution
Baton
Rouge, LA (Nov. 2005) - Since photos and videos of the hungry
in third world countries invariably show emaciated victims,
it seems paradoxical that the face of hunger in America
is often one of obesity – the unfortunate and unhealthy
result of subsistence on an inadequate diet of hollow calories.
In his new award winning book, “Patricke Peartree,
a Modern-day Johnny Appleseed,” Mike Bourgeois, an
award winning communications consultant and long-time Food
Bank volunteer, offers a proven approach that individuals,
organizations, youth groups, businesses, etc. can use to
help alleviate this aspect of hunger. The Bourgeois family
itself received food assistance after his stepfather was
paralyzed in a highway accident.
"More
than 200 Food Banks and food-rescue organizations across
the country and their approximately 50,000 hunger relief
member agencies provide emergency assistance day in and
day out to more than 23 million hungry Americans each year,
including 8 million children and 4 million seniors,"
Bourgeois said. "Unfortunately, the children involved
are at risk of nutrient deficiencies that can lead to serious
health problems, including impaired cognitive development,
growth failure, physical weakness, anemia, stunting and
obesity – just a few of the problems of those who
suffer hunger."
The book is based on a true story told by the imaginary
grandchild Bourgeois nicknames "Patricke Peartree,"
his gardening and landscaping partner. In it, he explains
how individuals, groups and organizations can easily grow
highly nutritious foods in low maintenance orchards and
gardens in edible landscaped back yards and properties owned
by businesses and other interests. Harvests are then donated
as tax deductible, in-kind gifts to Food Banks, food-rescue
organizations and their hunger relief member agencies.
"Nearly
20 million Americans planted Victory Gardens during World
War II which accounted for up to 40% of the food supply
then," Bourgeois said. "More recently, the Baton
Rouge Food Bank received 2,000 lbs. (one ton!) of pears
from just two trees in one person's yard. Multiply that
extensively, and the potential for growth is enormous."
The youth oriented, inspirational book, which focuses on
such other topics as family relationships, keeping a positive,
action-oriented attitude in the face of adversity, corporate
citizenship, preserving biodiversity, heirloom plants and
many more is available from Bourgeois Enterprises, 537 Myrtle
Hill Dr., Baton Rouge, La. 70810 for $8 per book and $2.50
for postage and handling. Louisiana residents include 9%
sales tax.
Donation
Orchard Planted at the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank
Commemoration
led by Mayor-President Melvin “Kip” Holden
On
Wednesday, February 8 at noon, the Greater Baton Rouge Food
Bank along with Baton Rouge Mayor-President Melvin “Kip”
Holden led a commemorative fruit tree planting at the Food
Bank facility to mark the organization’s twentieth
anniversary. Initially scheduled to be held last fall, the
planting was postponed due to the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina and the resultant growth it spawned in the number
of people needing food assistance, said Mike Manning, Food
Bank Executive Director.
The
two small pear trees planted were grafted by Dr. Charles
Johnson of the LSU School of Horticulture. The grafts were
taken from a nearly 85 year old heirloom pear tree that
was rooted from a cutting by the late Antonio Ventrella
on the family farm he and his wife Elizabeth owned in Pointe
Coupee Parish. Other saplings to be grafted from the same
pear tree will be added to these in order to establish a
donation orchard at the Food Bank.
The
saplings were donated by George Michael “Mike”
Bourgeois, a great grandson of Ventrella and a long-time
Food Bank volunteer and former board member. Bourgeois is
delighted to help the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank and
was thankful Mayor Kip Holden could be present at such a
wonderful ceremony. In addition to growing up in Baton Rouge
and graduating from the LSU Manship School of Mass Communication,
both Mayor Holden and Bourgeois also have in common the
fact that they are avid supporters of the Greater Baton
Rouge Food Bank having depended upon temporary food assistance
as children.
With
Bourgeois’s passion to establish donation orchards,
he decided to write a children’s book (now an award
winner) entitled Patricke Peartree: A Modern-Day Johnny
Appleseed. The fictional character’s tale is based
on a true story of sowing seeds of hope for others. During
the tree planting at the Food Bank, the part of “Patricke”
was played by Alex Bourgeois, the author’s granddaughter.
Bourgeois
voluntarily donates a portion of the proceeds from sales
of his book to the Food Bank. The book and the program of
donation orchards and gardens have been made available to
the other 208 Food Banks across the country as well. To
have your very own donation orchard, vegetable garden, or
a copy of Patricke Peartree, please call Mike Bourgeois
at (225) 767-7875 or e-mail mike@bourgeoisenterprises.com.
In
its twenty years of service to the Greater Baton Rouge area,
the Food Bank has assisted more that 7,500 people daily
in an 11-parish area, distributing more than 9.5 million
pounds of food annually. Additionally, the Food Bank distributes
more than $11 worth of food for every donated dollar, Bourgeois
said. The Food Bank is grateful to Bourgeois for his support
and dedication to feeding the hungry.
2006
SPRF Conference Honors "Patricke Peartree: A Modern-Day
Johnny Appleseed"
