A  DAY THAT WILL LIVE INFAMY!

IN QUEST OF JUSTICE!

 REMEMBER: MURDER HAS NO STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS

 OUR 35th and YOUNGEST PRESIDENT IS GUNNED DOWN IN DALLAS TEXAS

 

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Shuttle Undamaged, Cleared for Landing

More Mysterious Objects Found Floating Outside Atlantis

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP HOUSTON (Sept. 20) - NASA gave space shuttle Atlantis the all-clear to come home Thursday after a stem-to-stern inspection prompted by a mysterious flurry of orbital litter found no damage to the ship.NASA could not say for certain what the five floating pieces of junk were - perhaps a plastic filler strip, maybe a garbage bag. But shuttle program manager Wayne Hale said there was no reason to worry."We are cleared for entry. Nothing was found to be missing or damaged on the thermal protection system, the heat shield of the space shuttle Atlantis or in fact any other part of the space shuttle Atlantis," Hale said after two inspections lasting a total of 71/2 hours. "So we feel we're very confident that we're in good shape for a landing opportunity."Even the weather forecast was good for a 6:21 a.m. EDT landing attempt at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.Atlantis' 11-day mission was extended an extra day Tuesday after NASA spotted two mysterious objects in orbit and became worried that something vital broke off the shuttle or damaged the ship's heat shield or other systems when it came loose.So Atlantis' six astronauts spent Wednesday using the shuttle's robot arm and a 50-foot extension boom to give the shuttle the twice-over. During the inspections, astronauts spotted three additional mystery objects that probably escaped from the shuttle harmlessly, Hale said.For Atlantis, the crucial cosmic math is this: a 171/2-ton addition connected to the international space station; three spacewalks; five mysterious pieces of space junk; two last-minute inspections; one extra day in space and "zero defects on the heat shield," Hale said. "That is really the bottom line."Damage to Columbia's heat shield led to its 2003 disintegration during its return to Earth, so NASA is now more cautious about any damage to the shuttle's tiles or leading edges."We've seen a new standard in NASA vigilance," Hale said.John Logsdon, a member of the independent board that investigated the Columbia accident, praised NASA for being "prudent" in taking the extra day to make sure everything was safe.While Atlantis' crew of six slept, engineers on the ground operated cameras on the robot arm to check out the cargo bay and flight control systems. Then, when the astronauts woke up, they used the shuttle's arm for a 41/2-hour inspection and then the arm-and-boom for a two-hour examination of harder-to-see places."It was a long day, especially for Fergie and Dan," Atlantis commander Brent Jett radioed Mission Control, referring to pilot Chris Ferguson and astronaut Dan Burbank, who operated the robotic arm. "But you do what you need to do. ... We understand everybody's doing the right thing, so we're happy to do what it takes."The astronauts were so tired they went to sleep early.Atlantis' complex mission - resuming construction on the international space station after a nearly four-year delay - sputtered to get off the ground with four technical and weather delays. But the mission itself was nearly flawless.Hale said that the mysterious objects all probably came from the shuttle, and that his best guess is that one piece was probably an orange plastic filler placed in between the tiles that protect the shuttle from the blasting heat of re-entry. He said another object appeared to be a garbage bag.The other pieces were described by Jett as two rings and a piece of foil.Hale said they were nothing to worry about: "Sorry, we're being a litterbug here."AP-ES-09-20-06 1603EDt 

 

Thursday September 21, 2006 

Space Shuttle Lands Safely in Florida

Atlantis Completes Mission After Work at Space Station

By MIKE SCHNEIDER, AP   CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Sept. 21) - Space shuttle Atlantis and its six astronauts glided to a safe landing in darkness early Thursday, ending a 12-day mission whose smooth success was briefly upstaged by the high drama caused by mysterious floating debris."Nice to be back. It was a great team effort," said commander Brent Jett immediately after touchdown at Kennedy Space Center at 6:21 a.m. EDT.More than 1 1/2 hours after landing, the astronauts, all wearing broad grins, left the shuttle to greet NASA administrator Michael Griffin and other agency officials. Then they walked under Atlantis to inspect the shuttle's heat shield."It's really a beautiful day in Florida, a great way to end a mission," said Jett. "It was a pretty tough few days for us, a lot of hard work, a great team effort to get the station assembly restarted on a good note."Jett and his crew did the first construction work on the international space station since the Columbia disaster 3 1/2 years ago. The astronauts performed three grueling spacewalks and took on other heavy-lifting tasks in one of the most challenging missions ever, adding a 17 1/2-ton truss addition with giant solar wings that will help power the orbiting lab.The landing 48 minutes before sunrise was a day later than planned because NASA ordered up extra inspections of the spacecraft's delicate skin to make sure it was safe to come home. The fear was that a mysterious piece of debris spotted floating nearby on Tuesday might have hit the spacecraft. Astronauts later saw other debris.It was a flying piece of foam insulation that knocked a hole in Columbia causing its demise in 2003, killing seven astronauts. Since then, NASA has developed new equipment and practices to guard against and watch out for similar damage to the sensitive space shuttle.Those new techniques were used to make sure Atlantis was safe to return. After numerous cameras took pictures above and below Atlantis, some of them maneuvered robotically by the shuttle astronauts, NASA proclaimed the spacecraft damage-free."We've seen a new standard in NASA vigilance," said shuttle program manager Wayne Hale.NASA officials said their best guess was that the most worrisome debris was a plastic filler from the thermal tiles which protect the shuttle from blasting heat. Four other unidentified objects, including a possible garbage bag, floated near the shuttle over the next day.In a news conference, Griffin downplayed the litter in space, saying debris can slip out of the shuttle cargo bay because people are not perfect. He and launch director Mike Leinbach said Atlantis came back as clean, if not cleaner, than Discovery in its two previous landings.The unplanned drama threatened to overshadow what had been a nearly flawless mission filled with strenuous spacewalks and rigorous robotics work that placed the space station back on a path to completion after its long hiatus. The crew of five men and one woman were the longest-trained in NASA history, because they were originally supposed to fly to the space station in 2003. But the Columbia accident kept them grounded.The mission was the first of 15 tightly scheduled flights needed to finish constructing the half-built space lab by 2010."We are rebuilding the kind of momentum that we have had in the past and that we need if we're going to finish the space station," said Griffin.NASA and its international partners of Russia, Europe, Canada and Japan must finish building the space station before the U.S. space agency ends the shuttle program in 2010 with plans to return to the moon in a new vehicle. The massive, 25-year-old shuttles are the only spaceships large enough to haul construction parts to the space lab.The next flight in the construction sequence is set for December.The mission was bookended by delays. The launch was scrubbed four times in two weeks because of a launch pad lightning bolt, Tropical Storm Ernesto and problems with the electrical system and a fuel gauge. Griffin called those snags "just routine life in the space business."With all the postponements, NASA negotiated with the Russians to squeeze out one last chance in its launch window. The Russians were worried the trip would interfere with their Soyuz trip to the space station with a paying customer, Iranian-born space tourist Anousheh Ansari, a Dallas businesswoman. The Soyuz lifted off Monday, just hours after Atlantis had undocked from the space station.Less than 24 hours after Atlantis undocked, an oxygen generator on the space station overheated and spilled a toxic irritant, forcing the three-man crew to don masks and gloves in the first emergency ever declared aboard the 8-year-old orbiting outpost.9/21/2006 09:36:34

 

Madonna Denied Blast-Off in '08

by Natalie Finn
Sep 13, 2006, 5:15 PM PT

It looks as if the Material Girl isn't going to be leaving this material world anytime soon.

Russia's Duma legislative body nixed the idea of sending Madonna into space in 2008, a notion brought forth by Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Alexei Mitrofanov after the 48-year-old hit maker supposedly said during her tour stop in Moscow this week that she would like to visit the International Space Station.

"It would be a serious event, considering the TV coverage and the fact that it will coincide with [presidential] elections in the United States and Russia," Mitrofanov, who proposed that an official inquiry be sent to the Russian Federal Space Agency, told the information service RIA Novosti.

Space agency spokesman Igor Panarin explained that there were no seats available on the Soyuz spacecraft until 2009.

"Taking into account her good physical preparedness and financial capabilities, the dream of [Madonna] Louise Ciccone on a space flight could be realized in 2009," Panarin said, using most of the "Like a Virgin" singer's full name--but not all, perhaps acknowledging the objections some of his countrymen have to her onstage biblical imagery. ("The pop star calling herself Madonna is abusing the Cross," Valentin Lebedev, head of the Union of Orthodox Citizens, said during a protest in central Moscow last week.)

So maybe there will be some vogue-ing at zero gravity at a later date. (And maybe Lance Bass will be able to pony up enough cash by then.)

The first female space tourist, Iranian-American entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari, reportedly paid $20 million for the privilege to leave Earth Sept. 18. Three other individuals are said to have paid similar prices for a 10-day jaunt above-and-beyond the globe.

Madonna, who's well on her way to having the highest grossing tour ever for a female music artist, hasn't really needed to leave the planet to have out of this world success, however.

She performed in front of approximately 50,000 fans Tuesday night at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium and, despite the opposition mounting in recent weeks over the mock-crucifixion she has staged at the end of each of her performances on the Confessions tour, disruptions were at a minimum.

According to authorities, a total of 23 people--some intoxicated--were detained and only seven of them had been trying to protest the shenanigans going on inside the stadium. More than 7,000 police officers were on duty throughout the evening, including 45 dog handlers and 600 riot cops.

This was Madonna's first concert in Russia. Next it's off to Osaka and Tokyo to see what sort of religious ire the pop icon can stir up in Asia.

 

Monday October 2, 2006

 

To the Moon, Mars and Beyond

From NASA.gov

The Vision for Space Exploration calls for humans to return to the moon by the end of the next decade, paving the way for eventual journeys to Mars and beyond.

President Bush announced the new course for America's space program in January 2004, saying it would give NASA a new focus and clear objectives for the future. "We do not know where this journey will end," said the President, "yet we know this: Human beings are headed into the cosmos."

After completing the International Space Station and retiring the shuttle fleet by 2010, the Vision calls for human and robotic explorers to work together on new journeys to worlds beyond.

NASA's Constellation Program is already hard at work on the next generation of human spacecraft. The Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles will provide the thrust, while the Orion crew capsule will be the future astronauts' home in space. Both Ares and Orion draw on the best elements of the Apollo and Shuttle programs to create safe, reliable systems.


The first in the wave of robotic probes is the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, slated to launch in 2008. Its mission is to create high-resolution maps, seek landing sites, and continue to search for water ice and other useful resources. The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, will launch with LRO, then travel independently of the orbiter and crash into the lunar surface to search for water ice.
 

NASA is also making an unprecedented investment in commercial space transportation services with the hope of creating a competitive market for supply flights to the International Space Station. Two industry partners will receive a combined total of approximately $500 million to help fund the development of reliable, cost-effective access to low-Earth orbit.

 

Wednesday, October 4, 2006

From Space.com

First Female Space Tourist Says Hello to ISS Crew By Tariq Malik Staff Writer posted: 19 September 2006 09:24 am ET

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – A U.S. entrepreneur making history as the world’s first female space tourist said hello to astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) early Tuesday while she and two professional spaceflyers continued their trek towards the orbital laboratory.

“Hello everyone, I look forward to seeing you on the station,” said Anousheh Ansari, who is riding aboard a Russian-built Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft with the station’s next crew.

“We look forward to welcoming you all onboard,” ISS Expedition 13 flight engineer Jeffrey Williams replied.

The call came during a rare conference call between three manned spacecraft circling the Earth. In addition to the Soyuz ferrying Ansari and two Expedition 14 astronauts to the ISS, three astronauts currently live aboard the space station itself while six others are on their way back to Earth aboard NASA’s Atlantis shuttle.

“I know we have a lot to learn from all of them, and we look forward to our time together especially having Anousheh onboard,” Expedition 14 commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, who is riding aboard the Soyuz with Ansari and flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin, told the Atlantis crew of Expedition 13. “It’s too bad the Atlantis crew won’t get to meet her, but maybe some time in the future.”

Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin are relieving Williams and Expedition 13 commander Pavel Vinogradov, who have lived aboard the ISS since their April arrival. The two Expedition 14 astronauts will welcome current Expedition 13 flight engineer Thomas Reiter, of the European Space Agency, into their ranks, though Williams, Vinogradov and Ansari are scheduled to return to Earth on Sept. 28.

Ansari is the fourth paying visitor to the ISS and will spend nine days in space on a trip brokered with Russia’s Federal Space Agency by the Virginia-based firm Space Adventures. A long-time advocate of private spaceflight, Ansari served as a backup for Japanese businessman Daisuke Enomoto, who was paying an estimated $20 million for a trek to the ISS before failing a final preflight medical check.

“I think it’s great,” said Atlantis astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, the only female member of the shuttle’s STS-115 crew, of Ansari’s spaceflight in a space-to-ground television interview after the spacecraft conference call. “I don’t think there’s anything, you know, about being a space tourist or astronaut. If the guys can do it, we can do it too.”

 

Monday, December 4, 2006

Launch Countdown Underway for NASA's Shuttle Discovery By Ker Than Staff Writer posted: 4 December 2006 11:15 p.m. ET

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – The clock is ticking for NASA’s shuttle Discovery as launch controllers began counting down towards the spacecraft’s planned Dec. 7 launch late Thursday.

NASA controllers reported to their consoles in Firing Room 4 at the Launch Control Center here at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) at 10:30 p.m. EST (0330 Dec. 5 GMT) today and countdown clock began ticking towards liftoff 30 minutes later.

"Five, four, three, two, one, and the clock is rolling," said NASA commentator Bruce Buckingham. "Countdown has begun for NASA's first night time launch in four years."

Discovery is slated to blast off on Thursday, Dec. 7 at 9:35:47 p.m. EST (0235:47 Dec. 8 GMT). The T-43 hour countdown includes 27 hours, 36 minutes of built-in hold time.

Current weather forecasts predict a 80 percent chance that launch will proceed as scheduled, although there are some concerns of low clouds and isolated showers.

The five-man, two-woman STS-116 crew flew into KSC from Houston yesterday afternoon. In these final days leading up to the launch, they will be performing final inspection of the hardware and tools they will use during their 12-day construction mission on the International Space Station (ISS).

Discovery commander Mark Polansky and pilot William Oefelein are also practicing shuttle landing, said NASA spokesperson Kylie Clem.

"The rest of the time is studying the mission and free time," Clem told SPACE.com.

Riding with Polansky and Oefelein will be mission specialists Nicholas Patrick, Robert Curbeam, Joan Higginbotham, Sunita Williams and Christer Fuglesang, a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut who is also the first Swede to fly in space.

The STS-116 crew is tasked with rewiring the electrical grid of the ISS and delivering a new $11 million portside piece of the orbital laboratory. Williams will also relieve ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter who has been aboard the station since July.

ISS flight controllers also successfully performed a 23-minute rocket burn to boost the orbital laboratory to a higher orbit Monday afternoon in preparation for docking with the shuttle on Dec. 9. Attempts to do so last week were cut short due to an unexpected shift in the station's orientation caused by the installation of new ISS components in September.

A failure to raise the station's orbit would have cut into the shuttle's launch window, which currently runs from Dec. 7 to 17 and possibly later if shuttle mission managers approve Discovery for flight over the end-of-year rollover.

 

Tuesday, December 5, 2006

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NASA Unveils Strategy for Return to the Moon By Leonard David Senior Space Writer posted: 04 December 2006 05:08 pm ET

HOUSTON, Texas – NASA has decided to pursue a base on the Moon. The space agency rolled out today a strategy and rationale for robotic and human exploration of the Moon—determining that a lunar outpost is the best approach to achieve a sustained, human presence on the Moon.

The base would be built in incremental steps, starting with four-person crews making several seven-day visits. The first mission would begin by 2020, with the base growing over time, beefed up with more power, mobility rovers and living quarters.

The Moon base would eventually support 180-day lunar stays, a stretch of time seen as the best avenue to establish a permanent presence there, as well as prepare for future human exploration of Mars.

Here at the NASA Johnson Space Center, space agency planners detailed a global exploration strategy, outlining the themes and objectives of 21st century lunar exploration and the hardware needed to regain a foothold on the Moon.

NASA’s lunar plan also encourages participation by other nations, as well as non-governmental organizations and commercial groups.

Location, location, location

“We’re going to go after a lunar base,” said Scott Horowitz, NASA associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. The lunar base will be the central theme in NASA’s going back to the Moon effort, he said, in preparation to go to Mars and beyond.

As to where on the Moon such a post might be positioned—like real estate here on Earth—it’s location, location, location.

“What we’re looking at are polar locations…both the north pole and south pole,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale. Picking between the two poles will be done once NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter begins surveying the Moon after its launch in October 2008.

One particular area that’s already receiving high marks by NASA’s lunar architecture team is at the South Pole—a spot on the rim of Shackleton Crater that’s almost permanently sunlit.

“It’s also adjacent to a permanently dark region in which there are potentially volatiles that we can extract and use,” said NASA’s Doug Cooke, Deputy Associate Administrator of the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate.

Sphere of economic value

A key technology yet to be defined is a lunar lander—hardware that can be used in piloted or unpiloted mode to develop a capability on the Moon more rapidly. “The more you can land the better it is,” Cooke added.

The lander will be designed to touchdown anywhere on the Moon…likened to a lunar pickup truck, Horowitz said.

“The door is wide open in terms of participation by internationals,” Dale noted, and that includes providing power, habitats, mobility on the lunar surface, as well as technology to use the resources on the Moon to life off the land.

Dale said that 2007 will feature “extensive dialogue with other countries” about the ways in which they want to participate in exploration activities. “I wouldn’t see it evolving as the same way as the International Space Station,” she told SPACE.com.

NASA’s lunar strategy is evolving from dialogue that has already taken place with 13 other space agencies, Dale explained. The framework for moving forward with other nations will be put in place next year, she said.

A Moon outpost would yield tangible science benefits, as well as enlarge the sphere of economic activity beyond low Earth orbit, Horowitz suggested.

International participation

The role of international cooperation in bringing the vision into sharper focus is also being advanced by NASA chief, Mike Griffin.

For example, on December 1, Griffin spoke to the British Royal Society in London, England and pointed to the need for navigation infrastructure on the Moon for future explorers and scientists.

Griffin spotlighted the scheduled launch in 2008 of NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter with its laser altimeter and other instruments that can produce an accurate global map of the Moon for upcoming expeditions there.

“We’re still formulating our plans for providing communication and navigation for future explorers on the Moon, but I can foresee NASA collaborating with other spacefaring nations like the United Kingdom in providing such infrastructure,” Griffin told the British Royal Society.

NASA has nearly 60 on-going space and Earth science missions, Griffin observed, and over half of these missions have some form of international participation.

“Two-thirds of all NASA missions currently under development incorporate international partners. And of course, NASA’s premier human spaceflight program, the development of the International Space Station, is an effort involving some 15 nations,” Griffin said.

 

December 9, 2006

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Night Lights: Shuttle Discovery Rockets Toward Space Station By Ker Than Staff Writer posted: 9 December 2006 8:56 p.m. ET

This story was updated at 9:19 p.m. EST.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - For a few brief moments, night turned to day at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) as the shuttle Discovery climbed into space atop twin columns of fire and smoke in the agency's first evening launch in four years.

Discovery lifted off at 8:47:35 p.m. EST (0147:35 Dec. 10 GMT) from Pad 39B here, arcing skyward like a brilliant flare. The white, pulsating glow of the shuttle's boosters was expected to be visible along the entire Eastern Seaboard as the craft made its way towards the International Space Station (ISS).

"We look forward to lighting up the night sky and rewiring the ISS," Discovery's STS-116 commander Mark Polansky told launch controllers. "You're all going to be with us going into orbit."

Discovery's flight comes two days after low clouds forced NASA launch controllers to scrub a planned Thursday liftoff just minutes before launch. Saturday's forecast was initially gloomy as well, at only 30 percent for Go, but the outlook reversed dramatically late in the day to 70 percent. Shuttle engineers and pad workers were also able to get launch preparations back on track after a series of delays.

Flying onboard Discovery with Polansky were shuttle pilot William Oefelein and mission specialists Robert Curbeam, Nicholas Patrick, Joan Higginbotham, Sunita Williams and Christer Fuglesang, a representative of the European Space Agency (ESA) and Sweden's first astronaut. All of the astronauts, with the exception of Polansky and Curbeam, are flying in space for the first time.

"I think we have five people just haven't stopped smiling yet," Polansky after Discovery reached orbit.

The successful launch of Discovery marked the beginning of the U.S. space plane's 33^rd flight--more than any other orbiter in NASA's fleet. The mission is NASA's 117^th shuttle flight and the 20^th bound for the ISS. It is also NASA's third shuttle flight this year and the agency's first liftoff in darkness since 2002.

"I've always told people, 'If you see a day launch, you gotta come back and see a night launch,'" Stephanie Stilson, Discovery's vehicle flow manager, told SPACE.com. "It's a completely different perspective. One minute it's pitch dark, next minute you can turn around and see the people in the crowd that you couldn't see before when you're standing outside watching it."

A welcome return to night launches

Discovery's STS-116 launch is NASA's fourth space shuttle mission to fly after the 2003 Columbia tragedy that claimed the lives of seven astronauts.

Following that disaster, daylight restrictions were placed on shuttle launches so cameras could track any potentially harmful debris shed during liftoff. But emboldened by two successful test flights that evaluated post-Columbia safety modifications and the addition of now standard in-orbit inspection techniques to scan for heat shield damage, NASA officials decided it was time to reinstate night launches.

The move is a welcome one, and necessary if the agency is to fulfill international obligations to help complete ISS construction by September 2010, after which NASA's three-orbiter shuttle fleet will be retired.

"At this point we are as confident as we are likely to get that it's safe to return to the kind of operations that we simply must adapt if we are to complete the ISS by 2010," said NASA shuttle chief Wayne Hale.

Three radar systems and more than 100 cameras were trained on Discovery during its ascent to detect and track debris falling from its external tank.

Challenging space station construction

During their 12-day mission, the STS-116 crew will participate in three spacewalks to install a new $11 million Port 5 (P5) spacer segment to the ISS, switch on a thermal cooling system and rewire the orbital laboratory's electrical grid so it can draw power from a new set of solar panels arrays installed last month.

"I think we're just going to see the station moving more and more towards completion," Polansky told reporters in prelaunch interview, adding that each ISS construction mission relies on the success of the previous one. "We just hope that we're going to be just one of many that are going to be doing similar things."

The challenging rewiring tasks will involve heavily choreographed power-downs of different sections of the ISS at a time to allow spacewalkers to unplug and then replug power cables on the station.

"Many of us consider this the most challenging flight that the International Space Station program will have done since we began the effort of assembling the ISS," said NASA station program manager Mike Suffredini.

"When you look at the space station when the shuttle leaves, it's not going to look hardly any different than when they got there. But it will be a dramatically different vehicle inside when we finish all the reconfigurations," he added. "So this is a big flight for us and we're looking forward to it."

The STS-116 mission also involves a crew swap between Williams and German ESA astronaut, Thomas Reiter, who has been aboard the station since July. Williams will take Reiter's place as Expedition 14 flight engineer and Reiter is expected to return to Earth with Discovery's crew on Dec. 21.

Space station flight controllers told Reiter and his ISS crewmates of Discovery's successful launch shortly after liftoff, prompting a heartfelt congratulation from Expedition 14 commander Michael Lopez-Alegria.

"It's a wonderful achievement," Lopez-Alegria said as the ISS orbited 220 miles (354 kilometers) above Earth. "We're going to go head out and turn the porch light on so they can find us."

Discovery is scheduled to dock with the ISS at 5:08 p.m. EST (2208 GMT) on Monday, Dec. 11.

 

 

 

Monday, December 11, 2006

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Mission Discovery: Shuttle Astronauts Dock at ISS By Ker Than Staff Writer posted: 11 December 2006 5:16 p.m. ET

This story was updated at 9:55 p.m. EST.

HOUSTON-Seven astronauts arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) late Monday as NASA's shuttle Discovery docked with the orbital laboratory for a crew swap and an intense week of spacecraft construction.

Contact occurred at 5:12 p.m. EST (2212 GMT) as shuttle commander Mark Polansky eased Discovery into a berth at the end of the station's U.S. Destiny laboratory.

"Capture confirmed," said Discovery pilot Bill Oefelein.

"Welcome aboard," said station commander Michael Lopez-Alegria.

The successful docking, which happend just after orbital sunrise and while both spacecraft hovered some 220 miles above southeast Asia, ended a two-day chase that began with the shuttle's successful night launch Saturday.

Shortly prior to docking, Polansky guided Discovery through a 360-degree backflip so ISS crewmembers could photograph heat shields on the shuttle's underside to look for any damage that might have been incurred during launch [image]. In-orbit inspections have been standard since the 2003 Columbia tragedy that killed seven astronauts.

Preliminary data from shuttle and ground cameras and radar in place during Discovery's launch have revealed nothing of concern, and the spacecraft looks to be in good condition, NASA officials said yesterday.

"The long range cameras showed typical performance. You could see a few very small pieces of foam or ice come off-none impacted the orbiter," NASA deputy space shuttle manager John Shannon said of Discovery's launch. "The pad cameras showed very good performance, it was the best external tank condition we have seen to date since return to flight."

Flying onboard Discovery with Polansky and Oefelein are mission specialists Robert Curbeam, Nicholas Patrick, Joan Higginbotham, Sunita Williams and Christer Fuglesang, a representative of the European Space Agency (ESA) and Sweden's first astronaut.

Hatch opening between the orbiter and the ISS occurred at 6:54 p.m. EST (2354 GMT) and was signaled by a traditional ringing of the station bell. "Space shuttle Discovery, arriving," Expedition 14 commander Michael Lopez-Alegria said in welcome. The crews of the two spacecrafts shook hands, hugged and took a quick group photo before returning to their busy schedules.

Beginning tomorrow, the STS-116 crew will stage three spacewalks to install a new $11 million Port 5 (P5) spacer segment to the ISS and rewire the orbital laboratory's electrical grid so it can switch to a permanent power configuration [image].

Crew swap

After docking, Patrick used Discovery's 50-foot (15-meter) long robotic arm to latch onto the P5 truss segment in the shuttle's payload cargo bay. The two-ton P5 segment remained poised at the end of the shuttle arm while the station's robotic arm performed an unscheduled inspection of Discovery's left wing leading edge, after sensors detected a very low-velocity impact early this morning while the crew was asleep.

P5 will be transferred from the shuttle arm to the station arm later tonight, in preparation for its installation onto the orbital laboratory by Curbeam and Fuglesang tomorrow during the first of three spacewalks planned for the mission. To prepare for their extravehicular activity (EVA), the two spacewalkers will spend the night in the station's Quest airlock, which will be shut early tomorrow morning at 12:37 a.m. EST (0537 GMT).

Nicknamed the EVA "campout," the move allows spacewalkers to purge nitrogen from their bodies while they sleep at a slightly lower atmospheric pressure - 10.2 psi - rather than the standard 14.7 psi aboard Discovery or the ISS.

Williams will officially relieve German astronaut Thomas Reiter tonight as Expedition 14's flight engineer by transferring her Soyuz spacecraft seat liner to the ISS, which will become her new home for the next six months. She will become the third woman to serve as part of an Expedition crew, preceded only by Susan Helms of Expedition 2 and Peggy Whitson of Expedition 5.

Her crewmates will be Lopez Alegria and Expedition 14 flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin. Reiter, who has been on board the ISS since July, will return to Earth with Discovery's crew on Dec. 21.

 

TUESDAY, December 12, 2006

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ISS Construction: Spacewalkers Add New Piece to Space Station By Tariq Malik Staff Writer posted: 12 December 2006 ET

HOUSTON -- The International Space Station (ISS) grew a bit larger Tuesday after two spacewalking astronauts helped install a new piece of the orbital laboratory's metallic backbone.

Discovery astronauts Robert Curbeam and Christer Fuglesang, aided by their robotic arm wielding crewmates, successfully attached the two-ton Port 5 (P5) spacer segment to the portside end of the outpost's main truss during a six-hour, 36-minute spacewalk.

"That is beautiful," Curbeam said as the P5 spacer moved into place.

Tuesday's spacewalk began at 3:31 p.m. EST (2031 GMT) with Beamer and Fuglesang stepping out of the space station's Quest airlock as the outpost and their docked shuttle Discovery passed 220 miles (354 kilometers) over central Europe.

"It feels good, let me tell you," Curbeam said just after stepping into space to start the fourth spacewalk of his astronaut career.

Fuglesang, a European Space Agency astronaut and Sweden's first spaceflyer, made his first spacewalk during the extravehicular activity (EVA). To mark the event, flight controllers awoke Discovery's crew Tuesday morning with the Swedish band Abba's song 'Waterloo' chosen for Fuglesang.

Inside the space station, Curbeam's fellow STS-116 mission specialists Joan Higginbotham and Sunita Williams, now an ISS crewmember, wielded the ISS robotic arm to maneuver the $11 million P5 truss into position. Discovery pilot William Oefelein choreographed the spacewalk from the shuttle's flight deck.

About the only hitch was a lost extension for Fuglesang's pistol grip tool, which apparently slipped free of its mooring on his spacesuit work bench.

"I was looking around, I didn't see it," Fuglesang told flight controllers. "But, of course, it's dark here."

STS-116 commander Mark Polansky replayed video from Fuglesang's spacesuit helmet camera after the spacewalk to help flight controllers try to track the lost tool.

During the spacewalk, mission controllers told Polansky that a focused inspection of Discovery's heat shield will not be required Wednesday to help engineers determine the spacecraft's health.

"Well, that's outstanding," Polansky said.

Space station grows

The P5 truss adds another 4,110-pound (1,864-kilogram) to the more than 200-ton space station and sets the stage for the future relocation of the Port 6 truss.

Maneuvering P5 into position at the end of the Port 3/Port 4 (P3/P4) truss segment appeared to be tricky but flawless, with Curbeam and Fugelsang giving verbal updates of where Higginbotham and Williams should move the new space station piece. At times the truss segment was within inches of a sensitive electronics box.

"You're eyes are calibrated like nobody else's, Beamer," Higginbotham told Curbeam.

The P5 segment will serve as a structural bridge between two massive trusses whose solar arrays make up part of the space station's power plant. Without the new P5 element, the older array-laden Port 6 truss atop the ISS would be unable to move to its permanent berth on the station's port side near two newer solar wings on the P3/P4 segment.

P5's successful installation prompted some celebration aboard the ISS.

"We didn't want to scream on the loop," Higginbotham said, referring to the communications channel used in today's spacewalk. "But we're very happy."

Curbeam and Fuglesang even managed to perform a series of extra P5-related jobs, included wiring up several utility connections and releasing launch locks on the truss' empty end to prepare for the future arrival of the P6 solar arrays.

Other tasks

Among the other chores on Curbeam and Fuglesang's orbital to-do list were the relocation of a robotic arm grapple fixture, as well as the repair of a video camera at the opposite end of the space station's main truss.

The grapple fixture's move required a bit of extra elbow grease so that Fuglesang could remove some hard-to reach-bolts.

Curbeam also had some trouble removing the faulty camera, which had to be pointing straight upward to unlatch its locks.

"Wiggling it is not working," Curbeam told flight controllers.

"Ok, no go on the wiggle," they replied.

 After some troubleshooting, Curbeam and Fuglesang successfully installed the camera, completing their primary spacewalk goals.

Tuesday's spacewalk marked the 46^th spacewalk based from the ISS and the 84^th dedicated to station assembly and maintenance, NASA officials said. It is the first of three planned EVAs for the STS-116 mission.

 

 

 

 

December 13, 2006

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NASA Stresses Global Participation in New Lunar Plan By Brian Berger Space News Staff Writer posted: 13 December 2006 06:33 am ET

 

December HOUSTON, Texas -- U.S. space exploration plans came into sharper focus with NASA’s announcement that it intends to lay the first pieces of an international lunar outpost at the Moon’s north or south poles starting around 2020.

 

For spacefaring nations considering joining the United States on the Moon, NASA’s unveiling of a fairly detailed lunar exploration plan—highly tentative though it may be—was a small but important step toward international collaboration, experts here said.

 

NASA’s proposed lunar architecture—essentially, a rough plan to scout the Moon with robotic trailblazers before sending astronauts and more machines to lay a foundation for a permanent outpost at one of the lunar poles—is the United States’ response to an overarching Global Exploration Strategy that emerged this year from a series of international meetings involving 14 space agencies and more than 1,000 people including government officials, business executives, scientists and other experts, NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale said during a Dec. 4 press conference here.

 

Dale and other NASA officials revealed more details of the proposed lunar architecture—and the opportunities they saw for international participation—over the next two days at the 2nd Space Exploration Conference here organized by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

 

“First, we see the Moon not as a brief rendezvous, but as an outpost,” Dale said. “Our objective is to create an enduring, sustainable human and robotic presence that will open up vastly greater opportunities for science, research and technological development.”

 

Dale described NASA’s lunar plan as “an open architecture” that other nations and commercial interests could add to “in order to evolve and allow the journey to continue to Mars and to other destinations.”

 

Doug Cooke, NASA’s deputy associate administrator for exploration systems, continued that theme during the conference’s panel discussions. He said NASA is very interested in getting other nations to join the United States on the Moon “so we can all accomplish more than we could on our own.”

 

Cooke said that while NASA intends to field the necessary transportation systems and establish the essential elements of a human outpost at one of the lunar poles, there is plenty of work to be done by others to augment and expand the settlement.

 

A decision was made to locate the base at one of the poles, Cooke said, because it offers a number of operational and scientific advantages over equatorial locations, including longer extended periods of sunlight, more moderate temperature swings, and the tantalizing prospect that the poles might harbor stores of water ice in permanently shadowed craters.

 

The job of describing how NASA foresees the first five years of human lunar expeditions unfolding was left to Tony Lavoie, a Marshall Space Flight Center official who leads the agency’s Lunar Architecture Team. The notional plan produced by Lavoie’s team would enable six-month stays within five years by making sure every lunar landing leaves behind at least some critical piece of infrastructure.

 

An important element of this approach, Lavoie said, entails designing a crew and cargo lander that minimizes the size of its ascent and descent modules in order to maximize the amount of equipment it can put on the Moon’s surface. Notionally, NASA is looking at 6,000 kilograms of landed mass, he said.

 

Lavoie said his team chose the Shackleton Crater at the south pole because NASA currently knows of no better polar location, but that could easily change once the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, due to launch in late 2008, has a chance to report back.

 

Most of what NASA knows about the lunar poles comes from the 1998 Lunar Prospector mission. While Lunar Prospector overflew both the north and south poles during its one-year mission, the satellite saw more of the south pole during winter, Lavoie said, giving NASA a better feel for conditions there.

 

Regardless of whether NASA heads north or south, the poles are attractive in part because they are more thermally moderate than the equatorial regions, where temperature swings of plus or minus 250 degrees would put added stress on equipment and machines. Lavoie said the higher percentage of sunlight at the poles—the edge of Shackleton Crater, for example, is permanently in sunlight at least 75 percent of the time—makes it possible for NASA to consider solar power and fuel cells as an alternative to nuclear power.

 

Before the first astronauts are sent back to the Moon, Lavoie said, NASA envisions conducting an unmanned test of the lander, using the mission to deliver an unpressurized rover and a solar power unit producing perhaps 6 kilowatts of electricity.

 

When astronauts finally arrive, they would stay for seven days and bring with them a habitat and other equipment that they would leave behind. A second mission later that year would deliver additional power-generation units, perhaps another unpressurized rover and other still-to-be determined infrastructure.

 

The focus of the second year, Lavoie said, would be putting additional habitation modules, power-generators and other infrastructure in place to support 14-day stays starting in the third year. The build up would continue with two missions a year, enabling 30-day stays with the arrival of a fourth habitation module at the beginning of year four.

 

By the end of fifth year of human expeditions, Lavoie said, NASA would anticipate being ready to support six-month stays at the growing outpost.

 

A key focus of the first five years, under the plan NASA laid out, would be to demonstrate various forms of in-situ resource utilization, or ISRU, finding a way to use lander byproducts and even astronaut waste to support surface operations.

 

But because ISRU is “in its infancy,” as Lavoie put it, NASA will not rely on it for anything until it is proven.

 

And while NASA plans to emplace the necessary infrastructure to support extended expeditions, Lavoie said one of the advantages of the outpost approach is that there is plenty of room for other agencies or entities to add to the outpost or augment its capabilities by, for example, delivering additional ISRU systems or communications assets.

 

A lengthy list of needed capabilities for a lunar outpost that NASA presented during the conference was remarkable for the limited amount of items the United States staked out for itself, several conference attendees remarked.

 

The response to NASA’s plans from international space agency officials in attendance was positive. A number of these officials praised NASA for engaging the world’s space agencies early in the process, a contrast, they said, to how the U.S. planned the international space station.

 

“The overall approach was very un-NASA,” one non-U.S. space agency official said, meaning it as a compliment.

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<><> Image Gallery: NASA's New Spaceship   VIDEO: A New Era of Space Exploration Video animation of how NASA plans to get back to the Moon by 2018.

 

Others said they were very pleased that NASA presented its plans in enough detail to allow them go back home and engage their governments in fruitful discussions about how their agencies could participate.

 

John Logsdon, the director of George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute, said there was “high level of enthusiasm” among the internationals at the conference both for the overall process and the end product NASA unveiled.

 

“With the announcement that this is leading toward a permanent outpost, that gives everybody a common objective to plan for,” he said.

 

Space agency representatives were due to meet Dec. 8 at the Lunar and Planetary Institute here to craft and issue a common statement on the Global Exploration Strategy.

 

More international meetings are on tap for 2007, according to NASA. The agency also plans to get started early next year on an initial Mars architecture. Cooke said the primary purpose of doing a Mars architecture now is to make sure it “synchs up” with NASA’s lunar plans.

 

Logsdon predicted that it would be several years before another agency announced concrete plans to join the United States on the Moon. But he said he would expect to see an agreement on the framework for coordination and cooperation soon.

 

DECEMBER 13, 2006

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Astronauts to Reel in ISS Solar Array Today By Tariq Malik Staff Writer posted: 13 December 2006 6:30 a.m. ET

HOUSTON--Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) are due to reel in one of the orbital laboratory's expansive solar wings as part of power grid overhaul by a visiting shuttle crew.

The joint crews of the station's Expedition 14 mission and NASA's space shuttle Discovery will retract one of two 115-foot (35-meter) arrays extending from the Port 6 (P6) truss that currently sprouts up mast-like above the ISS.

"We're looking forward to a great day with the P6 solar array retract tomorrow," Discovery's STS-116 commander Mark Polansky told flight controllers earlier today, just before his crew went to sleep at 2:17 a.m. EST (0717 GMT).

Much is at stake for today's P6 solar array retraction.

The power-generating wing must be reeled in at least 40 percent so that it does not block another set of solar arrays--which sprout perpendicular to P6's panels from the station's Port 3/Port 4 (P3/P4) truss--from rotating like a paddlewheel to track the Sun later today.

Those P3/P4 arrays arrived at the ISS in September and are expected to serve as the station's primary power source until new solar wings arrive next year and the P6 truss is relocated to its final position at the tip of the Port 5 (P5) spacer segment, which itself was installed Tuesday by STS-116 spacewalkers.

John Curry, NASA's lead ISS flight director during Discovery's STS-116 mission, said mission controllers will power down the obstructing P6 solar array at about 9:00 a.m. EST (1400 GMT), with the initial retraction beginning at about 1:25 p.m. EST (1835 GMT).

The P6 solar arrays have been extended and generating power since December 2000, when they were installed during NASA's STS-97 mission aboard the shuttle Endeavour. Neither of the solar wings have ever been reeled back in, a process ISS flight controllers have compared to refolding a crusty old map back into its original compact form.

"I feel anxious, I think is the right word," Curry said late Monday, adding that he and his team have spent four years preparing for the next four days of work at the ISS. "I don't know that it won't go perfect, but I can tell you for sure that this team has trained as well as we possibly can to manage it."

Curry said that the P6 retraction will be directly overseen by astronauts aboard the ISS and Discovery, with flight controllers giving them signals proceed as they see fit at various stages.

Built by Lockheed Martin, the P6 solar arrays, their P3/P4 counterparts, as well as two still unflown solar wings destined for the space station's starboard side, are affixed to an erector set-like mast that is split into 31 ½ bays.

Curry's plan is to initially have the ISS and Discovery's astronauts retract P6 about three bays worth, pause to evaluate its stability, then reel the solar wing down to one bay before finally securing them closed.

If the P6 solar array fails to retract automatically, STS-116 astronauts could be called upon to stage a spacewalk in an attempt to reel it in manually, or latch and lash tight its solar blanket boxes. If the panel jams fast, the astronaut would then have to discard it completely.

"I would consider a jettison unlikely," Curry said. "We don't want to lose that solar array if we don't have to."

The P6 solar array retraction marks the start of an intense four-day series of ISS construction to overhaul the orbital laboratory's power system.

On Thursday, STS-116 spacewalkers Robert Curbeam and Christer Fuglesang are due to don their spacesuits for the second time this week to reroute two of four power channels to plug into the P3/P4 solar arrays. The remaining two channels are due to be routed in a planned Saturday spacewalk by Curbeam and ISS astronaut Sunita Williams, who arrived at the station aboard Discovery this week,

 

December 14, 2008

 

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Shuttle Spacewalkers Overhaul ISS Power Grid By Tariq Malik Staff Writer posted: 14 December 2006 9:06 p.m. ET

HOUSTON -- Two shuttle astronauts successfully rewired power systems for half of the International Space Station (ISS) Thursday in the first of two spacewalks to overhaul the orbital laboratory's electrical grid this week.

Discovery's STS-116 spacewalkers Robert Curbeam and Christer Fuglesang reconfigured part of the space station's electrical system from a temporary set up to a permanent one now drawing power from two rotating solar arrays on the outpost's port side [video].

The astronauts wrangled stiff power and utility cables, disconnecting 19 of them while plugging 17 back in, to activate two primary power channels that feed ISS systems and a vital ammonia cooling system loop. The successful spacewalk, along with an upcoming Saturday extravehicular activity (EVA), will set the stage for the station's expansion to support two new international laboratories and crews of six in upcoming years.

"NASA is very happy about that," said astronaut Sunita Williams, an ISS flight engineer who wielded the station's robotic arm in the spacewalk, after flight controllers reported all systems were operating as designed.

"Excellent," Curbeam added.

Curbeam and Fuglesang sped through their spacewalk, the second of their STS-116 mission to the ISS, to finish an hour earlier than the six hours allotted. They also began about 30 minutes early, stepping out of space station's Quest airlock at 2:41 p.m. EST (1941 GMT).

Power play and other tasks

To allow spacewalkers to make major electrical changes outside the ISS, NASA flight controllers cut power to half of the space station. The move left half of the lights off in the U.S. segments along with a smoke detector and communications systems.

Live video was unavailable throughout much of the spacewalk, since the astronauts were working too close to the station's main Ku-band antenna relay, NASA officials said, adding that many non-critical systems were left without the backups.

Until today, the space station has relied on power generated by a pair of solar arrays on its mast-like Port 6 (P6) truss.

During their spacewalk, Curbeam and Fuglesang activated power channels 2 and 3 aboard the ISS, and routed power from the station's two Port 3/Port 4 (P3/P4) truss solar arrays delivered in September through a pair of long dormant Main Bus Switching Units (MBSUs). They also relocated a pair of spacewalk equipment carts, wrapped sensitive areas of the station's robotic arm in thermal blankets, and stowed tool bags outside the ISS.

Curbeam and Williams will stage one last planned spacewalk during the STS-116 mission on Saturday to complete the rewiring job by performing similar activations of the station's power channels 1 and 4.

Sweden, shooting stars and aurora

In addition to speeding through their spacewalk, Curbeam and Fuglesang had some time for orbital sightseeing, which apparently included shooting stars streaking through the Earth far below. The annual Geminid meteor shower, renowned as the world's best, peaked Wednesday night.

"Hey, I actually saw one Beamer," Discovery shuttle pilot William Oefelein, who choreographed the spacewalkers' movements from the orbiter's flight deck, told Curbeam. "That's pretty neat."

Fuglesang, a European Space Agency astronaut and Sweden's first spaceflyer, sought out his homeland as the ISS passed over Europe. He and Curbeam also caught an eyeful of the aurora borealis, or northern lights.

"That's cool, huh? The whole horizon is aurora," said Fuglesang, wondering out loud if the light show stemmed from a powerful solar flare belched by the Sun on Wednesday.

NASA spokesperson Bill Jeffs here at the Johnson Space Center said the astronauts were prepared to forgo any extra tasks during the last scheduled hour of today's spacewalk to avoid being caught outside should a fresh solar flare follow a similar event earlier this week, but the astronauts were already inside by that point. At no point were the astronauts in any danger, he added.

Mission controllers did have the joint ISS and Discovery crews sleep in protected areas earlier this week as a precaution when the flare first appeared.

Today's spacewalk marked the 75^th in support of ISS assembly and maintenance and the 47^th staged from the space station itself. It also marked the fifth career EVA for Curbeam, who now ranks 22^nd on the list of all time spacewalkers. Fuglesang now has two EVAs under his belt, a total of 11 hours and 36 minutes, both which were performed during the current STS-116 mission.

NASA is studying the possibility of a fourth STS-116 spacewalk, that could call for Curbeam and Fuglesang to help fully retract a P6 solar array left half stowed on Wednesday after repeated attempts to fold it away completely from inside the ISS failed

 

December 18, 2006

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Astronauts Successfully Furl ISS Solar Wing in Extra Spacewalk By Tariq Malik Staff Writer posted: 18 December 2006 9:56 p.m. ET

This story was updated at 11:59 p.m. EST.

HOUSTON -- A reluctant solar wing is finally furled atop the International Space Station (ISS) after two spacewalking astronauts poked and prodded it with tape-covered tools.

Veteran spacewalker Robert Curbeam and crewmate Christer Fuglesang spent just over six and one half hours freeing snags on the half-furled array as, bit by bit, its two solar blankets folded into their storage boxes.

"You guys are doing very great work today," Discovery pilot William Oefelein, who choreographed the unplanned extravehicular activity (EVA) from the shuttle's flight deck, told the spacewalking astronauts. "We're not even going to eat you're lunches."

Applause rang out across the communications link between Mission Control, Discovery and the spacewalking duo as the stubborn array's boxes closed for the first time in six-years at about 6:54 p.m. EST (2354 GMT).

"Yes!" Curbeam said just before the applause.

But the solar wing played one last card: some guide wires failed to reel in completely during the retraction, forcing Curbeam to move in and gently tug them with a pair of spaceworthy needle nose pliers. The pliers and other tools used were insulated from electric shocks by the liberal application of translucent orange Kapton tape [image 1, image 2].

"Robert Curbeam, you do good work," NASA astronaut Steve Robinson in Mission Control said when the guide wires were cleared.

About 30 minutes later, the solar array boxes were latched and locked.

"Congratulations," Fuglesang radioed down to flight controllers here at NASA's Johnson Space Center.

Today's six-hour, 38-minute spacewalk began at 2:00 p.m. EST (1900 GMT) [image].

Curbeam set a new shuttle record during the EVA as the first astronaut to make four spacewalks in a single orbiter flight. Today's EVA marked Curbeam's fourth of the STS-116 mission and his seventh overall, hurling him from 13^th to fifth place in the annals of total spacewalking time with 45 hours and 34 minutes of spacesuit-ed work.

Fuglesang, who participated in three of the four STS-116 spacewalks, racked up 18 hours and 14 minutes while his fellow astronaut Sunita Williams performed in one for a total of seven hours and 31 minutes.

The spacewalkers also installed a new piece of the ISS and rewired the orbital laboratory's power grid during the STS-116 mission.

 

Solar wing showdown

Monday's solar array showdown began Dec. 13, when astronauts aboard Discovery and the ISS first attempted to retract the portside member of two wings extending from the mast-like Port 6 (P6) truss some 90 feet (27 meters) above the station [image].

The 115-foot (35-meter) solar wing, designated as P6-4B, repeatedly folded improperly as it was pulled in remotely for the first time since its December 2000 installation [image]. Snags between guide wires and the metal eyelets, or grommets, they thread through were cited as the source.

Attempts to wiggle the snags free by moving the solar array, as well as sending vibrations up through the ISS by a vigorously exercising astronaut, failed though physically shaking the wing using two spacewalkers' hands and a bit of elbow grease met with some success on Saturday [image].

It was then that mission managers officially added today's unplanned spacewalk to the STS-116 mission.

"The entire EVA was put together over a course of a couple of days," said Tricia Mack, NASA's lead STS-116 spacewalk officer, adding that not only had Curbeam never trained to work from the ISS robotic arm on this flight, but that mission controllers scrambled to come up with a safe and doable plan. "Normally we train for a year and a half, is a typical flow."

The P6 solar arrays must be retracted before the massive station segment is hauled from its current location to the portside edge of the orbital laboratory's main truss next year [image]. Mission managers were also concerned that leaving the P6-4B array half-furled could leave the wing's mast open to damage during future ISS reboost maneuvers.

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While Fuglesang floated freely at the base of the P6-4B array, shaking it at times to free snags. Curbeam flicked stuck grommets with his ad hoc tools from the tip of the space station's robotic arm [image], which was controlled by Williams and STS-116 mission specialist Joan Higginbotham.

"There is just no replacing eyeballs and hands in space," Curry said.

Shuttle departure delayed

Monday's spacewalk delayed Discovery's undocking from the ISS by a full 24 hours and led mission managers to give up one of two spare days typically reserved in case weather or glitches prevent an on-time landing.

Initially slated to undock today, Discovery and its seven-astronaut crew will now depart the ISS Tuesday at 5:09 p.m. EST (2209 GMT) with landing set for Friday, Dec. 22.

Phil Engelauf, NASA's mission operations representative, said Discovery will undock from the ISS slightly later than typical orbiter departures to give the STS-116 crew additional time to ferry all the spacewalking equipment used today into the orbiter.

The shuttle astronauts, meanwhile, said they hoped to find some time during their additional day to soak up their orbital surroundings.

"The extra day is just wonderful," Higginbotham told television reporters Sunday. "Maybe I'll have a little more free time to look out the window."

 

December 19, 2006

 

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Departure Day: Shuttle Discovery Undocks From Space Station By Tariq Malik Staff Writer posted: 19 December 2006 7:40 p.m. ET

HOUSTON -- With heartfelt hugs and wide smiles, seven astronauts aboard NASA's shuttle Discovery departed the International Space Station (ISS) Tuesday after eight days of orbital construction work.

Discovery's STS-116 astronauts cast off from their ISS berth at 5:10 p.m. EST (2210 GMT), leaving a very different space station behind than the one they arrived at last week [image, video].

"For Alpha, from the crew of Discovery, we wish you smooth sailing," STS-116 commander Mark Polansky radioed to the ISS crew after undocking as both spacecraft flew over the eastern Pacific Ocean. "We hope you enjoy the new electrical system onboard station."

Polansky and his STS-116 crewmates installed a new portside piece of the ISS, overhauled the orbital laboratory's power grid and stayed an extra day for an unplanned fourth spacewalk to wrangle a wily solar array into its storage boxes on Monday.

The construction work leaves the station ready to accept new solar array segments, as well as European and Japanese laboratories currently set to launch aboard shuttle flights in the next two years. Discovery shuttle pilot William Oefelein flew the orbiter on a partial fly-around of the ISS after undocking, giving the STS-116 astronauts a bird's eye view of their orbital handiwork [image].

"It's always a goal to try and leave someplace in a better shape than it was when you came, and I think we've accomplished that," Polansky said before leaving the ISS. "I hope that we're really on our way to a great start for [ISS] assembly completion."

The seven STS-116 astronauts and three Expedition 14 spaceflyers recorded video and snapped photographs while exchanging handshakes, hugs and warm words to mark their separation [image].

Discovery is due to land at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Friday at 3:56 p.m. EST (1856 GMT). Discovery must land no later than Saturday because of supply limitations.

"We bid a bittersweet farewell to Discovery," Expedition 14 commander Michael Lopez-Alegria said during a brief ceremony. "And we'd like to welcome Suni to our crew."

ISS crew change complete

 

One STS-116 astronaut, first-time spaceflyer Sunita "Suni" Williams, is remaining behind onboard the ISS as a member of its Expedition 14 crew. She is relieving European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas Reiter, who has lived and worked aboard the station in his arrival in July.

"I hope Discovery takes you home as smoothly and safely as it brought me here," Williams told Reiter.

Reiter is returning to Earth aboard Discovery, and received a warm send-off by Lopez-Alegria and fellow Expedition 14 flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin.

"By the power vested in me, which I just invented, we would like to make you an honorary member of NASA's astronaut corps," Lopez-Alegria said, dubbing the German spaceflyer a "model astronaut" and presenting him with makeshift NASA wings.

A veteran of two long-duration spaceflights, one to Russia's Mir and the other aboard ISS, Reiter's current mission returned the station to three-astronaut operations for the first time since the 2003 Columbia accident.

"It's been an exciting time, so it's hard to let go," Reiter said before leaving the space station. "I'm really excited to get back on the ground."

In addition to their ISS construction and crew exchange duties, Discovery's STS-116 astronauts delivered about 5,215 pounds (2,365 kilograms) of spare parts, new equipment and fresh supplies for the space station's crew. The orbiter left the outpost with about 3,725 pounds (1,689 kilograms) of unneeded supplies, completed experiments and other hardware.

Shuttle inspections on tap

Before landing, Discovery's astronaut crew has a few more tasks ahead, including a second heat shield survey and the launch of several microsatellites from a palette at the rear of the orbiter's payload bay.

Known as a late inspection, the heat shield survey is a mirror image of one performed on Dec. 10 and includes scans of the orbiter's vital heat-resistant panels along its wing leading edges and nose cap. Unlike the initial look, which was aimed at identifying any damage caused by shuttle external tank or ice during launch, late inspections target new impacts or dings from micrometeorite hits or orbital debris.

Discovery will take up a position about 40 miles (64 kilometers) from the ISS until the late inspection is complete, staying within range of the orbital laboratory - which can also serve as a shuttle safe haven - until the orbiter's heat shield is once more cleared for landing, NASA officials said.

Discovery carries three small technology-demonstrating satellites to be deployed in the next two days. Two are due for deployment after the heat shield inspection Wednesday, with the third to fly on Thursday.

Mission managers hope to land Discovery and its STS-116 astronauts at the Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility in Cape Canaveral, Florida, weather permitting. They are also preparing alternate runways at California's Edwards Air Force Base and New Mexico's White Sands Space Harbor if required.

 

December 22, 2006

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Shuttle Crew Returns Home for the Holidays By Tariq Malik Staff Writer posted: 22 December 2006 05:33 pm ET

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Seven astronauts and NASA’s shuttle Discovery are home for the holidays after a successful mission to rewire the International Space Station (ISS). 

Despite a grim forecast of low clouds and rain, Discovery swooped down out of the Florida sky and loosed two sonic booms before making a twilight touchdown at NASA’s Shuttle Landing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC).

The sunset landing came at about 5:32 p.m. EST (2232 GMT), ending a complex 13-day spaceflight for Discovery’s STS-116 crew after 5.3 million mile (8.5 million kilometer) trip around their home planet.

"I think it's going to be a great holiday," said veteran spaceflyer Mark Polansky, Discovery’s commander, as he thanked mission control after landing. "We're just really proud of the entire NASA team and thank you."

Returning to Earth alongside Polansky were Discovery pilot William Oefelein, mission specialists Nicholas Patrick, Robert Curbeam, Joan Higginbotham and European Space Agency (ESA) astronauts Christer Fuglesang and Thomas Reiter. The astronauts had to wait one extra orbit to land at KSC due to the weather, NASA said.

“It’s been a fun mission,” Patrick, one of five first-time spaceflyers who launched aboard Discovery, told reporters Thursday. “And I think a successful one.”

The astronauts worked in concert with the space station’s Expedition 14 crew during their 13-day mission to overhaul the orbital laboratory’s power grid, add a new piece to its portside truss and stage an extra spacewalk to help fold a stubborn solar array. Their success leaves the ISS poised for the arrival of new solar wings, a module and international laboratories slated to launch in upcoming shuttle flights.

Reiter, a former ISS resident and Europe’s first long-duration member of station mission, replaced STS-116 mission specialist Sunita Williams, who took his place on the orbital laboratory’s Expedition 14 crew.

“We wish all the best to the people on Earth that we have a healthy New Year,” Reiter said before landing.

Mission controllers awoke the Discovery’s astronaut crew early Friday with Christmas music to celebrate their holiday return after 204 orbits around Earth.

Mission success

Discovery’s astronaut crew completed what mission managers largely believed to be among the most complex shuttle flights ever attempted. Their STS-116 mission marked the third shuttle flight of 2006 and the second dedicated to ISS assembly since construction stalled after the 2003 Columbia accident.

“We’d been training for this flight for over six years, so I can’t even begin to explain to you what it feels like to finally accomplish what we set out to do,” John Curry, NASA’s lead ISS flight director for STS-116, said after Discovery’s crew met all their station construction goals this week. “Cathartic is a good word, I guess, because I’ve been scared of this flight for a very long time.”

The mission’s ISS power reconfiguration alone prompted concerns over whether the station’s long-dormant primary electrical system and cooling pump hardware would perform as planned. Discovery’s flight marked the first time astronauts retracted a U.S. solar array -- and not without issues -- which called for an additional spacewalk. 

“I’m very, very proud and relieved and thankful that things worked out the way they did,” Curry said.

Bringing Discovery’s crew home proved an exercise of sorts for mission managers, who traded a spare weather day for a Monday spacewalk outside the ISS. Two alternate landing sites, Edwards Air Force Base in California and Northrup Strip at New Mexico’s White Sands Space Harbor, were also available since the shuttle carried only enough supplies to stay aloft until Saturday.

Busy year awaits

As 2006 nears its end, shuttle and ISS officials are already looking ahead to what promises to be an even more challenging series of joint construction missions.

“You’re going to see significant changes to the pressurized volume and also to the truss next year, Kirk Shireman, NASA’s deputy ISS program manager, said of next year’s shuttle and space station missions. “So it’s a really exciting year.”

Atlantis’ STS-117 mission – commanded by NASA shuttle veteran Rick Sturckow – is slated to launch spaceward aboard Atlantis no earlier than March 16, 2007 to deliver a new pair of solar arrays for installation on the space station’s starboard side.

Sturckow and his crew will kick off the first of what NASA expects to be a busy year of ISS construction, with five station-bound shuttles and ambitious flights that also include the delivery of a new connector node, the European ESA’s Columbus module and a logistics component of Japan’s Kibo laboratory.

The European Automated Transfer Vehicle is also due to make its first cargo flight to the ISS in May, and Russian Soyuz crew change missions and Progress resupply flights also abound.

“So, big changes coming to the ISS,” Shireman said. “I look forward to a very exciting year next year.”

But for Reiter, who is now a veteran of two long-duration spaceflights, the road ahead has more near-term goals and include reacquainting himself with life in gravity’s embrace.

“I trained a lot, and very hard, on the space station to minimize that time so I can feel normal and walk and hopefully start jogging again,” Reiter told students in Alaska Thursday. “My previous flight, it was about a week to feel a little bit normal, and I hope it will be a little less now.”

The STS-116 crew’s safe return concluded NASA’s 117th shuttle flight and the orbiter’s 33rd spaceflight. It also marked NASA’s 20th orbiter mission to the ISS, and the agency’s 15th December shuttle touchdown.

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2007

 

Febuary 27, 2007

NASA: Atlantis Shuttle Launch Delayed to Late April After Storm By Tariq Malik Staff Writer posted: 27 February 2007 3:56 p.m. ET This story was updated at 6:15 p.m. EST. A freak hail storm that peppered NASA's space shuttle Atlantis late Monday, damaging its external fuel tank and sending launch pad workers seeking cover, has delayed the orbiter's planned March liftoff by at least one month, mission managers said Tuesday. Shuttle workers are now preparing to haul Atlantis from its perch atop NASA's Launch Pad 39A for the slow trek back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at Florida's Kennedy Space Center, where a cadre of inspectors will comb the orbiter' 15-story fuel tank and fragile heat shield for hail damage and make repairs [image 1, image 2]. The resulting delay pushes Atlantis' planned launch to no earlier than April 20 or so, NASA officials said. "This constitutes, in our evaluation, the worst damage that we have ever seen from hail on the external tank foam," Wayne Hale, NASA's shuttle program manager, told reporters during a Tuesday press briefing. "The bottom line is that, at this point, we do not believe we can make the launch window for a March launch of Atlantis." The announcement came in the middle of NASA's standard, two-day pre-launch Flight Readiness Review meeting to determine whether Atlantis is ready for its upcoming spaceflight. Commanded by veteran shuttle flyer Rick Sturckow, Atlantis' STS-117 astronaut crew was preparing to launch towards the International Space Station (ISS) on March 15 to deliver a new set of starboard solar arrays. In order to make a March flight, NASA had to launch Atlantis by around March 25 to complete the planned 11-day STS-117 mission before the April 7 launch of a new crew to the ISS, NASA has said. Current NASA procedures call for a 72-hour buffer period between departing and arriving spacecraft to give the ISS astronaut crew time to rest during the busy schedule. The ISS crew swap - which will mark the station's shift between its Expedition 14 and Expedition 15 missions - should be complete by April 20, clearing the way for an arriving shuttle a few days later, Hale said. Atlantis' solar array cargo will be removed from the orbiter's 60-foot (18-meter) payload bay later this week, setting the stage for its return to the VAB on Sunday or Monday, mission managers said. A hail "explosion" Hale said Monday's hail shower stemmed from an extremely localized storm, which NASA shuttle weather experts dubbed an "explosion," right over the agency's Pad 39 launch site at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Initial estimates indicate that hail up to the size of golf balls caused upwards of 7,000 dings around the nose cone and upper regions of Atlantis' external tank, but it is possible that only a few hundred of those will require repairs, said John Chapman, NASA's external tank project manager at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, during the briefing. "The key right now is to get it back [in the VAB] and look at it and assess exactly what we've got to do," Chapman said. Launch pad cameras [image] offered initial glimpses of the fuel tank's hail damage and were followed up by photographic inspections [image 1, image 2]. The damage is more extensive than that seen in 1999 when the fuel tank for NASA's STS-96 mission aboard Discovery suffered 650 dings, which required four days to fix and caused a one-week launch delay, shuttle mission managers said. A 360-degree area around the tip of Atlantis' external tank suffered hail damage, as well as three protective ice-frost ramps that insulate brackets along the vessel's exterior. Preliminary surveys also found up to 27 minor dings on the heat-resistant tiles of Atlantis' left wing, though they appear to be limited to minor surface damage. The damage apparently stems from ricocheting hail that penetrated the protective Rotating Service Structure which shrouds Atlantis from weather, NASA officials said. "We have not seen any orbiter damage that causes us real concern," NASA launch director Mike Leinbach told reporters in the briefing, adding that pad shuttle workers took cover during the hail. "It was dynamic, the guys knew it was hailing on them." If only minor repairs are required, engineers could extend platforms and scaffolding around Atlantis' external tank to sand, shape and pour new foam insulation into damaged areas inside the VAB. But if the tank is completely unusable - a scenario NASA shuttle officials believe is not likely - Atlantis would have to wait until April 10 for the arrival of a replacement, pushing the STS-117 mission into June. "Right now, we don't think that's likely," Hale said. "But I can't rule it out." The integrity of foam insulation covering shuttle fuel tanks has been a top concern for NASA engineers since 2003, when a briefcase-sized chunk shook free during the launch of Columbia and damaged heat shielding along the orbiter's left wing leading edge. The damage later led to the loss of Columbia and its seven STS-107 astronauts during reentry on Feb. 1, 2003. Since then, NASA has redesigned shuttle fuel tanks to reduce the amount of foam debris at launch and taken steps to avoid striking large birds during liftoff [image], which could also damage an orbiter's heat shield should they hit the spacecraft, shuttle officials have said. History of hail Hail is not uncommon to NASA's Florida launch site and has damaged NASA orbiters and fuel tanks in the past, shuttle officials said. In addition to the May 1999 damage during STS-96, hail also damaged Atlantis' heat resistant tiles in 1990 as the shuttle was being readied for launch of its STS-38 mission. Northern Flicker woodpeckers have also damaged shuttle fuel tanks before a launch. The birds pecked nearly 200 holes in the space shuttle Discovery's fuel tank foam during preparations for NASA's STS-70 mission in 1995. But Atlantis' current delay to April will cause some schedule jockeying for NASA's four additional ISS-bound shuttle flights slated for later this year. Prior to today's STS-117 launch delay, NASA targeted a June 28 launch for the Endeavour orbiter's STS-118 flight, an Aug. 26 liftoff for Atlantis' on STS-120 mission, and two fall shuttle flights to deliver new international laboratory components to the ISS. "I am fully confident that by the end of the year, we'll be back to where we would have been barring any additional complications," Hale said. "You'll see some launch dates change, but it won't be by large amounts and it won't ripple out for a large number of flights."

March 16, 2007

NASA Weighs Shuttle Fuel Tank Repair Options By Tariq Malik Staff Writer posted: 16 March 2007 12:37 p.m. ET

NASA engineers and mission managers are weighing their options on how best to fix thousands of dings in the foam-covered fuel tank of the space shuttle Atlantis.

William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for space operations, said engineers remain hopeful that they can repair Atlantis' fuel tank in time for a late April or early May launch [image]. But switching the damaged tank with a pristine one - which NASA has said would push the planned space shot to June - is not off the table, Gerstenmaier added.

"We've gotten a good look at all the damage on the tank," Gerstenmaier told a congressional subcommittee this week. "There're probably about 2,000 areas of hail damage on the tank that are going to need some evaluation."

Hail battered Atlantis' Pad 39A launch site at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida during a freak storm on Feb. 26, leaving pockmarks in the vital foam insulation coating the orbiter's 15-story external tank [image]. The damage spurred NASA managers to delay Atlantis' planned March 15 launch to late April at the earliest, and roll the shuttle back into the space agency's cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building for repairs [image].

Atlantis is currently slated to launch between late April and May 21, with the next flight window opening around June 8, NASA spokesperson Kyle Herring, at Johnson Space Center in Houston, told SPACE.com.

NASA shuttle officials are expected to meet next week to discuss the ongoing tank inspection and repair work, as well as layout a forward plan for Atlantis' upcoming spaceflight.

"The program is optimistic that we can still use this tank," Herring said.

Not all of the fuel tank's 2,000 hail dings require an extensive repair, Gerstenmaier said. Some are acceptable for launch while others may require simple sanding to smooth out the tiny divots gouged by hail, though tank engineers may have to pour new foam to fill in larger damage areas, he added [image].

"If it turns out the work is significant and it takes a lot of time, we may choose to use the next tank," Gerstenmaier said. "If the work looks bounded and it's understood, and we can make those repairs on the tank, then we'll fly that tank."

Shuttle workers have also repaired minor, hail-related coating damage to more than 20 of Atlantis' black heat-resistant belly tiles, NASA has said.

Atlantis is expected to ferry NASA's six STS-117 astronauts, commanded by veteran spaceflyer Rick Sturckow, to the International Space Station (ISS) on an 11-day flight to deliver a new pair of starboard solar arrays. The mission is expected to be the first of up to five planned shuttle flights dedicated to ISS construction in 2007.

June 8, 2007

Liftoff! Shuttle Atlantis Rockets Towards Space Station By Ker Than Staff Writer posted: 8 June 2007 7:48 p.m. ET

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - After months of delay, NASA's shuttle Atlantis blasted off from the agency's Florida spaceport Friday in a flawless liftoff, kicking off an 11-day construction flight for seven astronauts bound for the International Space Station (ISS).

Launch occurred on time at 7:38:04 p.m. EDT (2338:04 GMT), as daylight waned here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC). Storm clouds hovering around the launch facility in the days leading up to launch were hustled inland by sea winds in time for liftoff, just as forecasters predicted.

"Ok, CJ it took us awhile to get to this point, but the ship's in great shape, we've got a beautiful weather day for you," NASA launch director Mike Leinbach told Atlantis commander Rick "CJ" Sturckow. "Good luck and Godspeed."

"See you in a couple of weeks," Sturckow said as he thanked the entire NASA team for readying Atlantis for launch.

Riding spaceward aboard Atlantis were the seven astronauts of NASA's STS-117 crew , who have weathered three months of delays to launch their ISS construction mission. The crew is tasked with delivering and installing two massive truss segments and a pair of power-generating solar arrays to the space station's starboard side.

"The solar arrays are tremendously important to us," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator of space operations, adding that they will prime the ISS to support the new Harmony connecting node, the European-built Columbus laboratory and the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) due to launch later this year and in early 2008. "That power is necessary to support that node module, which then provides power to Columbus and the JEM module."

Back on track

The launch of Atlantis' STS-117 mission marks a late start for NASA's first shuttle mission of 2007, the first of up to four planned for this year.

In late February, a freak hailstorm left thousands defects in the foam insulation of the shuttle's external fuel tank, forcing the agency to delay the planned March 15 launch for repairs and to decrease the number of planned launches this year from five to four. But the weather seemed to clear Friday, with even late-breaking fog and rain showers at a pair of emergency shuttle landing sites overseas also easing in time for the space shot.

Friday's successful launch is also a morale boost for an agency that has been mired in controversy in recent months, NASA administrator Michael Griffin told the Associated Press.

The agency recently fired astronaut Lisa Nowak after her arrest for allegedly plotting to kidnap a romantic rival for the affections of another astronaut, William Oefelein, whom NASA has also dismissed. Nowak was supposed to serve as lead spacecraft communicatory, known as CAPCOM, for STS-117.

NASA has also weathered the unprecedented hail damage to Atlantis' fuel tank; a murder-suicide at its Johnson Space Center; and just last week, Griffin himself came under fire for publicly doubting whether global warming was a problem humanity could or should deal with.

A busy mission

Atlantis is scheduled to dock with the space station at 3:36 pm EDT (1936 GMT) on Sunday, June 10.

Once there, the shuttle astronauts plan to perform at least three spacewalks to install the 17.5-ton Starboard 3/Starboard 4 truss segments and their two solar wings.

The new equipment represents the heaviest payload ever launched to the space station, NASA officials have said. At 35,678 pounds (16,183 kilograms), the new trusses and solar arrays are about 701 pounds (317 kilograms) heavier than their portside counterparts already aboard the ISS.

The STS-117 astronauts will also fold away an older solar wing into its storage boxes so its central truss segment can be moved during a future spaceflight.

Spacewalkers Robert Curbeam and Christer Fuglesang from last December's STS-116 mission ran into unexpected difficulties while performing a similar retraction maneuver on another pair of solar arrays. The wings got stuck during mid-furl and guide wires had to be coaxed free with tape-covered pliers and other tools before folding away completely.

The STS-117 astronauts said they have taken the lessons learned during that excursion to heart.

"What took them an entire EVA we're hoping to get done in significantly less time," said mission specialist James Reilly II.

STS-117 mission specialist Clayton Anderson will relieve Expedition 15 flight engineer Sunita Williams, who has been aboard the ISS since last December. Williams is scheduled to return to Earth with the STS-117 crew on June 19.

Friday's successful space shot marked the 118th launch of a NASA space shuttle and the 28th liftoff of the Atlantis orbiter. It is NASA's 21st shuttle flight to the ISS

NASA's Space Shuttle Successor Could Fly in 2013, Officials Say By Ker Than Staff Writer

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - There are only about 16 flights left before NASA's space shuttle fleet retires in 2010, but an ambitious plan is in place to have a replacement spacecraft ready by 2013.

This is two years earlier than NASA's previously stated goal of getting the next generation Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle and the Ares I and Ares V rockets ready by 2015.

"There is a two-thirds statistical likelihood of being successful in meeting that [2015] date, but our plan is much more aggressive than that," said Jeff Hanley, program manager for NASA's Constellation program. "We're trying to get the [initial operating capabilities] by as early as 2013."

Hanley said the year-old Constellation program is currently in the formulation phase and trying to secure parts for the new spacecraft. A test flight of an Ares I rocket could begin as early as 2009, with a piloted test to follow as soon as 2013, Hanley said.

"At the end of this year, we will have all the major elements under contract to build the rocket and the spacecraft to take us back into low-Earth orbit and our first steps back toward the Moon," said Scott Horowitz, NASA's associate administrator for exploration systems.

The Ares rockets will contain features from both the current shuttle and the old Saturn rockets that carried the Apollo astronauts to the Moon. Ares I is a two-stage rocket designed to loft NASA's new capsule-based vehicle, Orion, into orbit. Its larger, cargo-only counterpart is Ares V, which will be the most powerful rocket ever built and capable of carrying five to six times more payload than the shuttle.

Orion will replace the shuttle as NASA's vehicle to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station, and it will also be the vehicle the agency plans to use to return to the Moon in 2020.

NASA plans to launch at least 13 shuttle flights dedicated to ISS construction through 2010, with the option of two additional logistics missions if feasible. A final mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope is also slated to launch in September 2008

 

June 10, 2007

Atlantis Docks With Space Station

By JUAN A. LOZANO, Associated Press Writer

22 minutes ago

HOUSTON - The crews of Atlantis and the international space station greeted each other with hugs and handshakes Sunday after the space shuttle arrived at the orbiting outpost.

But amid the smiles and salutations, engineers in Houston 220 miles below started evaluating whether a peeled-back thermal blanket should be fixed by astronauts.

A decision likely will be made in the next day or two, and if the answer is to fix it, another decision will be made on whether it will be done during one of three scheduled spacewalks or during an extra, unplanned one.

Astronauts James Reilly and Danny Olivas planned to make the mission's first spacewalk on Monday to help attach a new 35,000-pound segment to the space station.

Engineers who had studied past damage to the blanket area, located on a pod of engines near the shuttle's tail, on other shuttle missions were uncomfortable with the safety margins of a piece of the blanket sticking out during re-entry into Earth's atmosphere when temperatures on the shuttle's heat shield can reach as high as 2,900 degree Fahrenheit during re-entry.

Temperatures at the blanket's location only reach 700 degrees to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

"The concern is that if it sticks up, you get additional heating," said John Shannon, chairman of the mission management team.

Engineers were confident the loosened blanket was caused by aerodynamic forces during launch, not by being hit by a piece of debris during lift off.

"Since this wasn't an impact blow, we have high confidence that the structure beneath it is pristine," Shannon said. "There's no damage."

The rest of the vehicle appeared to be in fine shape, NASA said. Sensors reported six hits on the wing during launch but engineers were not concerned about them.

Hatches between the two spacecraft opened about 1 1/2-hours after the shuttle docked with the space station following leak checks.

"Atlantis arriving," U.S. space station resident Sunita Williams said after the traditional ringing of a bell.

Atlantis' astronauts floated into the space station's Destiny laboratory and hugged each of the station's residents, which besides Williams includes commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and cosmonaut Oleg Kotov.

After exchanging greetings and receiving a safety briefing from Yurchikhin, both crews resumed working.

Before reaching the space station, Atlantis commander Rick Sturckow told Yurchikhin that shuttle astronaut Clayton Anderson was ready to relieve Williams on the station.

"Are you sure Clay is onboard?" Yurchikhin said.

"Yes we checked before we launched from Florida," Sturckow said amid laughter.

Sturckow eased the shuttle into the space station's docking port. Latches fastened the shuttle and orbiting space lab together at 3:36 p.m. EDT. The shuttle's two-day chase of the space station ended about 210 miles above southeastern Australia.

It was the first visit this year by a shuttle to the space station. The shuttle was delivering Anderson, the newest member of the space station's crew, as well as a new segment to the orbiting outpost.

Prior to Atlantis' arrival, astronaut Danny Olivas took additional photographs from inside the shuttle of the area where the thermal blanket had peeled back. The images were sent to Mission Control for analysis.

Astronauts inside the space station also took photographs of the shuttle's belly when Atlantis was 600 feet below the orbiting outpost.

The pictures were taken when Sturckow maneuvered the shuttle into a 360-degree back-flip _ part of an inspection technique. Engineers want to make sure there is no damage from launch like the kind that doomed Columbia in 2003.

Reviewing the photos, nothing "jumped out at us," Shannon said, although there did appear to be a few pieces of gap filler sticking out. Gap filler is material fitted between thermal tiles to prevent them from rubbing against each other. Two pieces of gap filler had to be removed from Discovery's belly during a spacewalk in 2005 because of concerns they would cause problems during re-entry.

After the hatches opened, Williams and Anderson traded out seatliners on the Russian emergency vehicle attached to the station. The seatliner exchange marked the official replacement of Williams by Anderson as a space station resident. Williams will return to Earth aboard Atlantis after more than six months in space.

The 35,000-pound segment was removed from Atlantis' payload bay and gripped by the space station's robotic arm.

The shuttle astronauts' wake-up song Sunday, "Riding the Sky," written by two Johnson Space Center employees, was dedicated to Anderson in honor of his move to the space station.

___

AP Writer Mike Schneider in Houston contributed to this report.

 

 

June 13, 2007

Astronauts Get 2 Extra Days in Space

By MIKE SCHNEIDER, Associated Press Writer

3 hours ago

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Space shuttle Atlantis' astronauts will spend an extra couple days in space to fix a thermal blanket near the shuttle's tail that peeled back during its launch.

Experts don't believe the gap would pose any threat to the astronauts, but it could allow damage to the shuttle during its re-entry into the atmosphere. So NASA managers decided Monday to extend Atlantis' mission to the international space station from 11 to 13 days.

Engineers at Johnson Space Center in Houston were already were practicing techniques the astronauts might use to make the repair.

"It was a 100 percent consensus that the unknowns of the engineering analysis and the potential damage ... under the blanket was unacceptable and we should go in and fix it if we could," said John Shannon, chairman of the mission management team.

The thermal blankets are used to protect the shuttle from searing heat during re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. Engineers didn't think the intense heat generated by re-entry could burn through the graphite structure underneath it and jeopardize the spacecraft, but they worried it might cause some damage that would require repairs on the ground.

With three additional shuttle flights to the space station planned this year, NASA can't afford delays.

The repair to the thermal blanket, covering a 4-by-6-inch area over a pod for engines, likely will involve an astronaut attached to the end of the shuttle's robotic arm and boom reaching the shuttle's tail area. No decision has been made on whether it will be made during a previously planned third spacewalk or if a fourth, extra spacewalk will be added.

The rest of the shuttle appeared to be in fine shape, Shannon said.

Mission Control on Tuesday planned to begin remotely unfolding a pair of solar arrays, which two astronauts helped install on the international space station during a spacewalk Monday.

Astronauts James Reilly and Danny Olivas removed locks and restraints on the new truss segment, which was attached to the station's girder-like backbone. The start of the spacewalk was delayed by more than an hour because the four spinning gyroscopes that keep the space station properly positioned became overloaded; Atlantis was used to help control the station's orientation until the gyroscopes were able to take over again.

Starting overnight, the 300-foot pair of arrays was to be deployed from its storage box on the new segment slowly, in stages, to get the panels warmed by the sun and prevent them from sticking together.

It is the station's third pair of solar arrays and is similar to a pair that was added to the station last September.

On Wednesday, another solar array will be folded back up in a box so that it can be moved during a later shuttle mission. The retraction of that array will allow the new pair to rotate, following the direction of the sun.

 

June 14 , 2007

All Wired Up: Space Station Spreads its New Solar Wings By Tariq Malik Staff Writer posted: 12 June 2007 3:42 p.m. ET

HOUSTON -- The International Space Station (ISS) unfurled a shiny new set of solar wings Tuesday to increase its power supply and support future construction.

Astronauts aboard the ISS and NASA's shuttle Atlantis watched as the new solar arrays at the tip of the station's new Starboard 3/Starboard 4 (S3/S4) truss unfolded like window blinds as the two spacecraft flew 214 miles (344 kilometers) above Earth.

"Good deploy," NASA astronaut Megan McArthur, serving as spacecraft communicator here at the Johnson Space Center, radioed up to the ISS and shuttle crews.

The new solar wings are the third of four U.S.-built arrays to be installed at the ISS and were attached to the orbital laboratory during a Monday spacewalk. They will allow the orbital laboratory to power new modules and international laboratories from Europe and Japan, which are slated to launch towards the ISS later this year and in early 2008.

"So they need electricity for those new modules, and that's part of our job, to allow them to have that," said Atlantis astronaut Steven Swanson, an STS-117 mission specialist, in a NASA interview.

The solar arrays' S4 truss is designed to rotate its power-generating wings like a paddlewheel so they can track the Sun and maximize electricity production. But first, an older solar array wing extending over the new S3/S4 trusses from the station's mast-like Port 6 (P6) truss will have to be retracted to clear the area.

That solar array retraction is planned during a Wednesday spacewalk by Swanson and fellow STS-117 astronaut Patrick Forrester. The astronauts launched towards the ISS aboard Atlantis on June 8 to deliver the new starboard solar arrays, trusses and a new crewmember to the ISS during their 13-day mission.

Slow and steady

The space station's new solar wings began to unfold in earnest at about 4:03 a.m. EDT (0803 GMT), while the ISS and shuttle astronauts slept, when flight controllers on Earth commanded the first of the two solar wings to extend a single mast section, or bay, of its 31.5-bay length.

"It's really good to look out and see the solar array blankets extended one bay," STS-117 mission commander Rick Sturckow said.

By 1:58 p.m. EDT (1759 GMT), both solar arrays were fully deployed. 

Each ISS solar wing is made up of two 115-foot (35-meter) panels attached to a central mast. When fully unfurled, their wingspan reaches 240 feet (73 meters) from tip to tip.

Both arrays were deployed in stages, which allowed sunlight to warm them up and avoid their paper-thin photovoltaic cells from sticking to one another too strongly -- a phenomena known as 'stiction' -- after years of being packed in a box about 20 inches (50 centimeters) deep.

When NASA deployed its first pair of U.S. solar arrays from the station's P6 truss during the STS-97 mission in 2000, the panels encountered severe stiction and a tension line came off its spool, prompting a spacewalk repair.

Tuesday's solar array deployment, by comparison, appeared to go smoothly.

NASA ISS mission operations representative Joel Montalbano said that by the time the Atlantis astronauts go to sleep today, station mission controllers should know whether the newly unfurled solar arrays are performing as expected.

Meanwhile, the Atlantis astronauts will have some free time later today before gearing up for Wednesday's spacewalk.

Swanson and Forrester will perform the second of four planned spacewalks for the STS-117 mission during the excursion, and will spend the night in the station's Quest airlock to cut down on the time required to prepare their bodies for the planned 6.5-hour excursion.

NASA is broadcasting the space shuttle Atlantis' STS-117 mission live on NASA TV. Click here for mission updates and SPACE.com's video feed.

 

June 15, 2007

 

Space Station Computers Up and Running

By MIKE SCHNEIDER, Associated Press Writers

21 minutes ago

HOUSTON - Two Russian cosmonauts began to get crucial computers up and running Friday, four days after they crashed at the international space station and curbed the outpost's ability to orient itself and produce oxygen.

The progress came after days of frustrating effort and, for the time being, removed a set of troubling options lying ahead for NASA and the Russian space agency if the computers continued to fail.

"They're up and operational and this is good news for all," said Lynette Madison, a NASA spokeswoman in Houston.

Cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov pulled off the feat by bypassing a power switch with a cable to get four out of six processors on two computers running. They planned to watch the computers for the next several hours to make sure they were functioning properly.

Had the machines continued to malfunction, the three-member space station crew could still have remained on board, but other steps would have been taken to maintain oxygen supplies. Russia had already begun to move up plans for a cargo ship to deliver supplies, including new computers, next month.

And ominous questions were raised about the possibility of eventually needing to bail out of the space station _ something a top NASA official rejected earlier in the day.

Maintaining the correct position in orbit is key for the space station. It must point its solar arrays at the sun for power and be able to shift orientation to avoid occasional large debris that comes flying through space.

The computer crash came as astronauts from space shuttle Atlantis were resuming work on the long-running construction of the station. Atlantis' seven astronauts arrived last weekend, NASA's first visit to the space station this year.

During the computer failure, the shuttle's thrusters helped control the station's position. And some of Atlantis' lights, computers and cameras were turned off to save energy in case in case the shuttle had to spend an extra day docked to the station to allow more time to figure out the problem.

NASA officials said the crew was never in danger of running out of oxygen, power or essentials.

However, the failed computers were the latest technical glitch for the half-built, $100 billion outpost. In past years, a Russian oxygen machine and gyroscopes, which also control orientation, have failed.

Critics have called the space station a boondoggle, an ill-conceived, post-Cold War venture between the superpowers which at the moment is producing little science as it undergoes construction.

The days-long computer problems fueled skepticism toward the Bush administration's "Vision for Space Exploration," which calls for finishing the space station in three years, grounding the space shuttles in 2010 and building next-generation vehicles to go to the moon and Mars.

"This growing chorus of opposition to the current vision ... is finding expression in the difficulties of the station," said Howard McCurdy, a space public policy expert at American University. "We're learning a great deal from the space station, and one of things we may be learning is we shouldn't have built this particular one."

Two spacewalking Atlantis astronauts accomplished another critical task Friday: repairing a torn thermal blanket that helps protect the shuttle from heat on its return flight to Earth.

Danny Olivas used a medical stapler to successfully secure in place the 4-by-6-inch corner, and James Reilly installed an external valve.

"Hopefully it's going to be good, good enough," Olivas said after finishing the repair.

The 11-day mission was extended by two days so the rip in the thermal material could be fixed.

Before Friday's nearly eight-hour spacewalk ended, astronauts also finished folding up a 115-foot solar wing on the space station. It took several days to put away the wing, which needed to be retracted to make way for a newly installed pair of power generating wings.

For now, Atlantis is set to land at Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Thursday.

June 15, 2007

U.S. Astronaut Sets Spaceflight Record

By MIKE SCHNEIDER, Associated Press Writer

2 hours ago

HOUSTON - Atlantis was cleared Saturday to return to Earth this coming week after the space shuttle's heat shield was judged capable of surviving the intense heat of re-entry, and a U.S. astronaut reached a milestone with the longest single spaceflight by any woman.

Atlantis is set to land at Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Thursday, although NASA officials were still deciding whether to keep the shuttle at the international space station for an extra day because of a failure of computers that control the station's orientation and oxygen production.

"That's great news," Atlantis commander Rick Sturckow said of the landing plan.

The shuttle's 11-day space station construction mission had already been extended to 13 days so a thermal-protection blanket could be fixed during an unscheduled spacewalk. NASA has been particularly sensitive about the space shuttles' heat shields since the Columbia accident killed seven astronauts in 2003.

Also Saturday, U.S. astronaut Sunita "Suni" Williams set a record for the longest single spaceflight by any woman. Williams, who has lived at the space station since December, surpassed the record of 188 days set by astronaut Shannon Lucid at the Mir space station in 1996.

"It's just that I'm in the right place at the right time," Williams, 41, said when Mission Control in Houston congratulated her on the record. "Even when the station has little problems, it's just a beautiful, wonderful place to live."

Those "little problems" had been considerable in recent days with the computer system failure on the Russian side of the station. Russian cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov got four of six processors on two computers working again on Friday, and on Saturday they got the remaining two on line.

"In the very beginning, we're a little bit worried about the state of the computers," Kotov said during a news conference Saturday. "We were pretty sure our ground team can troubleshoot this problem and it's become true. Now we have a good set of computers and the station again looks pretty good and in good shape."

Engineers in Moscow and Houston had not yet conclusively determined what caused the failure, although the leading theory was changes to the electrical system from the space station's growth.

The cosmonauts started turning on systems _ such as an oxygen machine, a water processor and a carbon dioxide remover _ that had been turned off while the computers were down. On Sunday, they planned to test the station's orientation system, which will be the final benchmark for deciding whether the computers work properly and whether the shuttle needs to stay an extra day.

"The bottom line is it appears that the command and control type computers are functioning just fine," said Mike Suffredini, NASA's space station program manager.

In preparation for Tuesday's scheduled undocking of the shuttle, astronauts and cosmonauts spent Saturday moving supplies and trash between the shuttle and station after several days of grueling work.

Friday's tasks had included spacewalks to repair the torn thermal blanket on Atlantis and to retract a 115-foot solar energy wing that will be moved to a different location on the space station.

Williams' former crew mate at the space station, astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, holds the U.S. record for longest continuous stay in space with 215 days. The longest stay in space was 437 days by Russian Valeri Polyakov.

In February, Williams set another record for the most time spent spacewalking by a woman, kicking off a year of achievements by women in space.

In October, U.S. astronaut Peggy Whitson will become the first woman to command the space station. Later that month, Air Force Col. Pam Melroy will become only the second woman to command a space shuttle mission; Eileen Collins was the first, in 1999.

If Whitson and Melroy's time at the space station overlap, it could be the first time there are two female commanders in space at the same time. "The first time we have two female commanders in orbit _ that will be neat," Whitson said.

Almost three decades after the first women joined the astronaut corps in 1978, only 17 of the 94 current active astronauts are women.

Lucid says part of the problem may be the pipeline that delivers pilots to the astronaut corps _ the U.S. military. Women didn't start entering the military service academies until the late 1970s.

"I think it's really great that all of this happening, but obviously, you wonder, why did it take so many years?" asked Lucid, who is in astronaut office management. "At some point, you would like the field to be such that it doesn't make any difference whether you're male or female."

On the ground, Mission Control had its first female flight director in 1985. All three space station flight directors working the current Atlantis mission, and the lead shuttle flight director, are women. Women make up about a third of NASA's 33 flight directors, who are responsible for running the spaceflight missions.

"So many times, the room is filled with female flight controllers," Lucid said. "I just think it's just a wonderful thing that people are getting the chance to do what they're capable of doing."

 

 

From NASA.GOV

Camping on the Moon Will Be One Far Out Experience

02.23.07

If Earth had a mountain so incredibly high that its peak poked through the outermost layer of our atmosphere, mountain climbers smart enough and hardy enough to reach the top would have some idea what it will be like to be camped on the moon. For those mountain climbers, it would be quiet and there would be no wind or weather to overcome. But without long and careful preparation, those mountain climbers would have no air to breathe, no food or water and no protection from the sun's radiation. All around them would be rocks and, if they were lucky, perhaps a bit of frozen ice in the crevices that never saw the sun. Now imagine that instead of reaching the peak and glorying in the accomplishment and beauty of the view for a day or two then returning to the meadows at the base of the mountain, the mission was to climb those unforgiving miles to the top and create a base camp suitable for living months at a time. Image to right: The "planetary surface habitat and airlock unit" has been delivered to NASA Langley for ground-based evaluation of emerging technologies such as health monitoring of flexible structures. Credit: NASA/Jeff Caplan + View Larger Image + View Video + Captioned Video That is the enormous challenge that NASA and its future exploration partners face now that the agency has announced its intention to build an outpost on the surface of the moon -- a base camp that would become busy when visitors are there, but that could be abandoned for long periods without long-term harm. With such an outpost, NASA could learn to use the moon's natural resources to live off the land, make preparations for a journey to Mars, conduct a wide range of scientific investigations and encourage international participation. The first mission could begin by 2020. As currently envisioned, an incremental buildup would begin with four-person crews making several seven-day visits to the moon until their power supplies, rovers and living quarters are operational. At that point, missions would be extended to two weeks, then two months and ultimately to 180 days. Over the first decade of lunar habitation, space travelers would learn the techniques and skills needed for the eventual journey to Mars. Image to left: The test structure will help researchers determine the best designs and materials for inflatable lunar habitats, to include connecting tunnels between crew quarters on the lunar surface. Credit: NASA/Jeff Caplan + View Larger Image The first steps in making a lunar outpost a reality are being taken now, as planners intensify their efforts to determine what it will take for humans to safely live and work on the lunar surface. One team of experts from NASA's Langley Research Center, NASA's Johnson Space Center and NASA contractor ILC Dover LP is looking at inflation-deployed expandable structures as one possible building block for a lunar base. "Inflatables can be used as connectors or tunnels between crew quarters and can provide radiation shelter if covered with lunar regolith (soil)," said Chris Moore, Exploration Technology Development Program program executive at NASA Headquarters. As a starting point, ILC Dover has delivered a 12-foot (3.65 meter) diameter inflatable structure made of multilayer fabric to Langley for ground-based evaluation of emerging technologies such as flexible structural health monitoring systems, self-healing materials and radiation protective materials. Attached to the structure is a smaller inflatable structure that serves as a demonstration airlock. Both are essentially pressurized cylinders, connected by an airtight door. The "planetary surface habitat and airlock unit" can also be used to evaluate materials, lightweight structure technologies, astronaut interfaces, dust mitigation techniques, and function with robotics and other lunar surface equipment. Image to right: Inflatable Structures Project Leader Karen Whitley stands in the center of the 12-foot (3.65 meter) diameter inflatable lunar habitat at NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va. Credit: NASA/Jeff Caplan + View Larger Image "Inflatable structures are very robust and adaptable. This demonstrator will show the capabilities of inflatable structures in future demonstrations at Langley and Johnson," said Dave Cadogan, research and development manager at ILC Dover. In the next phase, the team will perform an architecture study comparing inflatable and rigid structures for crew habitats. "This follow-on work will allow us to mature inflatable technology by designing and fabricating sub-scale inflatable components for more detailed testing," said Inflatable Structures Project lead Karen Whitley of Langley. In a related development, the government-industry team -- spurred by a NASA Johnson proposal led by Larry Toups, space architect at Johnson -- will work with the National Science Foundation to build an inflatable structure for demonstration in the Antarctic. While not the lunar surface (or the top of an imaginary mountain), the harsh environment of the Antarctic will provide valuable lessons. Once inflated, the unit will likely serve as a dry storage facility and be monitored for its behavior. The work is expected to start shortly. ILC Dover is contributing to the manufacturing of the unit, while Langley and Johnson will contribute a modest amount of manpower. The goal is to transport the unit to the Antarctic in 2008 -- in time to learn more about inflatable structures before decisions must be made between competing technologies for NASA's first habitable lunar base. Whether lunar habitats are ultimately inflatable or constructed in some other way, designing for extreme living and working conditions will likely result in yet-unseen applications for everyday life right here on Earth.   June 19, 2007 Atlantis Shuttle Crew Undocks from Space Station By Tariq Malik Staff Writer posted: 19 June 2007 1:48 p.m. ET This story was updated at 6:59 p.m. EDT. HOUSTON -- Seven astronauts aboard NASA's shuttle Atlantis cast off from the International Space Station (ISS) Tuesday, leaving the orbital laboratory with a more balanced look after installing new starboard solar wings. "We'll see you back on planet Earth," Atlantis commander Rick Sturckow told the space station's Expedition 15 crew as the shuttle departed. Atlantis undocked from the space station at 10:42 a.m. EDT (1442 GMT) as both spacecraft passed 213 miles (342 kilometers) above the Coral Sea off the coast of Australia. Sturckow and his STS-117 crew arrived at the ISS on June 10 and performed four spacewalks to install a new pair of 17.5-ton trusses and unfurl two new solar arrays to the station's starboard side. The astronauts also stowed an older solar wing atop the station, stapled down a torn shuttle thermal blanket and assisted the Expedition 15 crew to revive vital Russian ISS computer systems after they failed last week. During the shuttle mission, a new ISS crewmember relieved NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, who passed the 191-day mark in space Tuesday and is setting a new record for the longest spaceflight by a female astronaut. She joined the space station crew in December 2006 and relinquished her Expedition 15 flight engineer post to fellow NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson. "Godspeed Atlantis," Anderson said as the shuttle pulled away from the ISS. "Thank you for everything." The STS-117 crew is slated to land at 1:54 p.m. EDT (1754 GMT) Thursday at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, with additional landing attempts on Friday and Saturday if weather intervenes, the space agency said. The shuttle has enough supplies to stay in orbit until Sunday, though that extra day would be reserved in the case of an unforeseen malfunction, NASA officials said. Atlantis will take up a station-keeping position about 46 miles (73 kilometers) from the ISS while its crew uses a sensor-laden boom to perform a second detailed inspection of the orbiter's heat shield later today. Known as a late inspection, the survey is now a standard activity for all shuttle missions after NASA's 2003 Columbia accident and will scan the Atlantis' wings and nose cap for any orbital debris and micrometeorite damage sustained during the spaceflight. An identical inspection conducted on June 9 verified the integrity of the shuttle's heat shield after its launch one day earlier, leading mission managers to clear Atlantis for landing pending today's follow-up survey. NASA said late Tuesday that image analysts were also tracking the source of an apparent piece of debris seen in video cameras aboard Atlantis to determine if it came from the orbiter of the ISS. Space station power boost Atlantis' STS-117 mission is the first of up to four planned shuttle flights this year to continue assembly of the ISS. The new solar arrays delivered by the shuttle astronauts primed the station's power grid to support the addition of a new connecting module and European laboratory slated to launch later this year. "It's really exciting to see the station in this configuration," said ISS flight director Holly Ridings early Monday. "I think we all feel like we accomplished the mission objectives." Shuttle pilot Lee Archambault flew Atlantis around the ISS while his crewmates photographed the space station for engineers back on Earth. Prior to the NASA's STS-117 mission, the station had an off-kilter look with one set of portside solar arrays deployed and half of an older solar wing partly stowed atop the outpost. "It looks beautiful," Sturckow said of the station's new profile. Meanwhile, the station's Russian ISS control and navigation computers continue to function properly after they were resuscitated Saturday, Ridings said. All six computers governing the station's Russian-built segment crashed last week after redundant, surge protector-like secondary power sources failed in each of them. Working together with Russian engineers on Earth, Expedition 15 commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineer Oleg Kotov - both Russian cosmonauts - bypassed the faulty components and reactivated the computers. ISS flight controllers, meanwhile, are still working to determine exactly what caused the devices to fail. "The space station is in very, very good shape," Riding said. The Atlantis crew left the ISS with additional supplies of oxygen and other cargo before leaving the ISS, including: 115 pounds (52 kilograms) of oxygen, 1,660 pounds (752 kilograms) of water, and some spare parts to replenish those used in the Russian computer system fix. The shuttle is returning about 1,500 pounds (680 kilograms) of experiments, unneeded equipment and other items from the ISS. Carrying on a new tradition aboard the ISS, Anderson has already come up with his own game to play with Mission Control on Earth dubbed "Space Traveler Trivia" and the end of each day. "Clay, we think, is going to be a lot of fun," Ridings said. Late Monday, Yurchikhin lamented today's departure of Atlantis after a heartfelt farewell ceremony between the station and shuttle crews. "Everything is kind of empty, devoid of life," the Expedition 15 commander told Russian Mission Control of the ISS. June 20, 2007 Atlantis Shuttle Crew Prepares for Landing By Tariq Malik Staff Writer posted: 20 June 2007 7:00 a.m. ET HOUSTON -- The astronaut crew of NASA's shuttle Atlantis is gearing up for a planned Thursday landing after a successful construction flight to the International Space Station (ISS). "It's been a great mission," Atlantis shuttle commander Rick Sturckow told mission control late Tuesday. Sturckow and his six STS-117 crewmates are concluding a 13-day mission to the ISS, where outfitted the orbital laboratory with new starboard solar arrays and trusses, hauled in an older solar wing and swapped out a member of the Expedition 15 crew. The astronauts undocked from the ISS Tuesday and flew around the station to take photographs of its new symmetrical shape. "We refer to this as our TIE fighter video," joked Cathy Koerner, lead STS-117 flight director, the similarity between the station's new look and Star Wars fighters from afar. The shuttle crew is due to land Thursday at 1:54 p.m. EDT (1754 GMT) on a runway at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, though forecasts of showers and clouds through Friday could delay Atlantis' Earth return, Koerner said. The shuttle has enough supplies to last through Sunday, though Saturday would be the deadline for landing unless an unforeseen technical glitch occurred, she added. "Get us some good weather for Thursday if you can," Sturckow told Mission Control late Tuesday. "It doesn't have to be good. It just has to be good enough." Today, the crew will conduct a standard flight control systems check of Atlantis to make sure Atlantis is ready to once more fly though the Earth's atmosphere. A test of the orbiter's reaction control thrusters is also on tap. Overnight, NASA image analysts were studying data from a standard second survey of the heat-resistant carbon composite panels lining Atlantis' wing edges and nose cap in order to give the STS-117 a final go for Thursday's planned landing. The so-called late inspection, conducted by the STS-117 crew using the shuttle's robotic arm and its sensor-tipped extension, scans for damage by orbital debris or micrometeorites. NASA engineers were also studying video of a white object that appeared to float away from the ISS from the vantage point of a camera aboard Atlantis to determine whether it actually came from the station or the orbiter itself, though mission managers said Tuesday that it was not a big concern. Sturckow and his crew also relayed video to Mission Control of washer used to secure blankets in Atlantis' payload bay drifting from the orbiter after undocking. Returning to Earth Included among Atlantis' Earth-bound astronaut crew is U.S. spaceflyer Sunita Williams, who until recently served as the sole American member of the space station's Expedition 15 crew. "She was just great fun to have on orbit," ISS program manager Mike Suffredini, adding that Williams made a point to invite Mission Control to access the station's onboard video cameras often. "You really got a sense that you were part of the crew with her." Williams joined the station's Expedition 14 crew in December 2006 during NASA's last shuttle mission and stayed on for part of Expedition 15 in April. As of today, Williams has spent about 192 unbroken days in space and is setting a new record for the longest spaceflight by a female astronaut. Williams and the STS-117 crew will set up a recumbent seat - rather than an upright on - to ease her transition back to the tug of Earth's gravity after six months in weightlessness. She said Tuesday that she's taken a special effort in recent days to exercise, with some sessions aimed at her heart. "It's one of the muscles that gets a little bit weaker up here in space because it doesn't have to work so hard," Williams said while narrating a daily STS-117 video reel. Williams handed her Expedition 15 post over to fellow U.S. astronaut Clayton Anderson, who launched aboard Atlantis and is due to stay on through late October. "It was my home for six months and a pretty emotional event," Williams said of watching the ISS drop away Tuesday after undocking. "But I'm happy to be coming back to Earth."   JUNE  22, 2007 Space Shuttle Returns to Earth By ALICIA CHANG, Associated Press Writer 20 minutes ago EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - Atlantis and its seven astronauts returned to Earth safely Friday, ending a two-week mission to deliver an addition to the international space station and bring a crew member home from the outpost. Atlantis crossed the Pacific and glided to a stop at 12:49 p.m. on a runway at Edwards Air Force Base in California. NASA managers had hoped to land the shuttle in Florida, but bad weather forced controllers to abandon that plan. Atlantis' return from NASA's first manned flight of the year was marked by its trademark twin sonic booms that were heard from San Diego to Los Angeles. After deploying its parachute, the shuttle came to rest on the concrete runway under mostly sunny skies. Astronaut Sunita "Suni" Williams returned to Earth on Atlantis after spending more than six months at the space station. She set an endurance record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman at 195 days. During her stay, she also set the record for most time spacewalking by a woman. She told reporters the day before landing that she looked forward to a slice of pizza and walking on the beach with her husband and dog, Gorby. But she was going to miss the space station. "When you've been somewhere for six months, it becomes your home and it's hard to leave," Williams said. Returning with Williams were Atlantis commander Rick Sturckow, pilot Lee Archambault and mission specialists Patrick Forrester, James Reilly, Steven Swanson and Danny Olivas. Atlantis delivered a 35,000-pound addition to the space station and Clay Anderson, who replaced Williams as the U.S. representative at the station. He will live with cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov for the next four months. The last time a shuttle landed at Edwards Air Force Base was in 2005, the first flight after the Columbia disaster in 2003. Atlantis' landing was the 51st time a shuttle has touched down in the 26, Mojave Desert. JUNE 26, 2007    NASA Aims to Launch Shuttle Endeavour Two Days Early By Todd Halvorson FLORIDA TODAY posted: 26 June 2007 3:13 p.m. ET CAPE CANAVERAL - NASA aims to move up the planned launch of shuttle Endeavour to Aug. 7 while Atlantis is headed for a weekend return to Kennedy Space Center. Now scheduled for Aug. 9, the launch of Endeavour on an International Space Station construction mission will mark the orbiter's first flight since 2002. Shuttle managers are expected to move the target date during a meeting Thursday. NASA plans to move Endeavour from its processing hangar to the 52-story Vehicle Assembly Building next Monday, three days early. The fully assembled shuttle is set to be rolled out to Pad 39A about July 9. Atlantis, meanwhile, appears to have come through its station assembly mission relatively unscathed. Inspectors found just 10 heat-shield tiles with gouges greater than an inch long. A thermal blanket repaired during a spacewalk peeled back about an inch during re-entry, but no damage was done to the graphite epoxy rocket pod that it protects, NASA said. Technicians this week are preparing Atlantis for a ferry flight back to KSC. The orbiter landed Friday at Edwards Air Force Base in California because of bad weather at the Cape. Atlantis will be bolted to the top of a modified 747 jet, which is to leave Edwards on Friday. The trip probably will take at least two days. Published under license from FLORIDA TODAY. Copyright © 2007

July 28, 2007

This story was updated at 5:07 p.m. EDT.

Sabotaged wires inside a computer box bound for the International Space Station (ISS) won't delay the planned Aug. 7 launch of NASA's shuttle Endeavour, the agency said Thursday.

NASA's Inspector General Office has launched an investigation into intentionally cut wires in a data relay box slated to launch aboard Endeavour next month and be installed inside the space station's U.S.-built Destiny laboratory, NASA's associate administrator for space operations Bill Gerstenmaier told reporters Thursday.

"It will be repaired and it will fly on this flight," Gerstenmaier said of the damaged ISS hardware, which if flown as-is would have prevented the collection of structural performance data on the space station's backbone-like main truss. If left in place, the damage would have posed no risk to astronauts aboard the space station, he added.  

The subcontractor responsible for building the damaged computer box reported the apparent wire sabotage about a week ago, said Gerstenmaier, though he would not disclose the name of the subcontractor while an investigation is underway. The damage found on the ISS box was apparently caused during its preparations at the subcontractor's premises, which are not located in Florida, he added.

Gerstenmaier spoke at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida after shuttle program managers, engineers and contractors concluded a two-day Flight Readiness Review to set an official Aug. 7 launch target for Endeavour and its astronaut crew.

The officials did not discuss the details of an independent health panel which found, according to a report by the weekly trade journal Aviation Week & Space Technology, "heavy use of alcohol" by NASA astronauts before launch.

The report, posted to the journal's Web site, cites findings from one of two astronaut health panel committees which found that, on at least two occasions, astronauts were allowed to launch even after fellow spaceflyers and flight surgeons deemed them unfit from intoxication and possible flight safety risks.

"There has not been a disciplinary action or anything I've been involved with regarding this kind of issue," said Gerstenmaier, adding that it was inappropriate to delve deeper into the details of the report, as well as those of a separate astronaut health panel, which NASA will release Friday.

NASA plans to hold a press conference at 1:00 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT) Friday to discuss to two reports. Both studies were instigated earlier this year by the arrest of former astronaut Lisa Nowak, who is accused of attacking a woman she perceived to be a romantic rival for the affections of a fellow spaceflyer. Nowak has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted kidnapping and battery.

Distractions aside, NASA remains committed to launching Endeavour on Aug. 7 at about 7:02 p.m. EDT (2302 GMT). The planned 11-day mission may be extended three additional days to deliver fresh cargo, spare parts and a new starboard side piece of the space station.

The only major obstacle currently standing between Endeavour and orbit is an unmanned rocket slated to launch NASA's Phoenix mission to Mars on Aug. 3 from a launch pad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station near NASA's Florida spaceport. That mission currently has about two liftoff attempts before Endeavour steps up to the launch plate, but the shuttle flight could be delayed a day or so to allow Phoenix more flight opportunities, Gerstenmaier said.

"Phoenix has essentially a month to get launched," Gerstenmaier said, adding that after that the red planet lander would have to wait two years until Mars and the Earth were in the correct orbital position for another attempt. "So clearly, in the overall sense, to get to Mars is pretty important and they have a pretty constrained launch window."

Commanded by veteran astronaut Scott Kelly, Endeavour's STS-118 mission will mark NASA's second shuttle flight of the year and follows last month's successful STS-117 spaceflight to the ISS aboard Atlantis. Included among Endeavour's seven-astronaut crew is former Idaho schoolteacher Barbara Morgan, NASA's first official educator astronaut to fly.

August 2, 2007

ly 2

NASA Orders Cabin Leak Fix for Shuttle Endeavour By Tariq Malik Staff Writer posted: 1 August 2007 9:17 p.m. ET

NASA's shuttle Endeavour remains on track for its planned launch next week after engineers pinned down the source of a leak inside the orbiter's crew cabin, the space agency said Wednesday.

Shuttle workers had been tracing the elusive leak since the weekend as they readied Endeavour for its planned Aug. 7 launch from Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

"The problem has been traced to one of two positive pressure relief valves which assure that the crew cabin does not become over-pressurized," said George Diller, a NASA spokesperson at KSC, in a status update.

Engineers will swap out the faulty valve with a working one taken from Endeavour's sister ship Atlantis during a fix that is expected to be complete by Thursday.

"There is no impact to the space shuttle's Aug. 7 launch date," Diller said of the repair.

Mission managers also opted not to replace thermostats in one of Endeavour's auxiliary power units found to be returning off-nominal signals, NASA officials said. The glitch is not violating operational specifications and is understood by engineers, they added.

Endeavour's seven STS-118 astronauts are due to arrive at the launch site Friday, with the planned space shot's countdown set to begin at 9:00 p.m. EDT (0100 Aug. 5 GMT). Commanded by veteran shuttle flyer Scott Kelly, Endeavour's STS-118 mission will deliver a fresh load of cargo, spare parts and a new piece of starboard-side truss to the International Space Station.

The up-to-14 day mission will also mark the first flight for educator astronaut Barbara Morgan, an Idaho schoolteacher who first began astronaut training in 1985 as the backup for high school teacher Christa McAuliffe during NASA's Teacher in Space Program. McAuliffe and six NASA astronauts later died in January 1986 when their space shuttle Challenger broke apart just after launch.

Endeavour's STS-118 mission will mark NASA's second of up to four shuttle flights planned for this year.

August 2, 2007

8, 2007

Orbiter Overhaul: NASA's New, Improved Space Shuttle Endeavour By Tariq Malik Staff Writer posted: 1 August 2007 7:00 a.m. ET

After almost five years rooted on Earth, NASA's shuttle Endeavour is again being primed for launch after a major overhaul to upgrade and refit the 100-ton space plane.

The shuttle and its STS-118 astronaut crew are slated to launch Aug. 7 on a construction mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The upcoming spaceflight will mark Endeavour's first flight since late 2002 following several years' worth of maintenance and modifications.

"It's like a new space shuttle," Wayne Hale, NASA's shuttle program manager, said of Endeavour, adding that the orbiter has been inspected from stem to stern. "It's like driving a new car off the showroom floor."

During Endeavour's down time engineers inspected some 150 miles (241 kilometers) of wiring, enhanced its avionics interface, and added a new power transfer and engine monitoring systems among other upgrades.

About the only current hitch with the orbiter is an apparent cabin leak somewhere inside Endeavour's crew module, its attached payload bay-mounted SPACEHAB cargo module or their connecting tunnels and hatches. As of Tuesday, engineers were still working to isolate the leak's source.

Endeavour, also known as Orbiter Vehicle-105 (OV-105), is NASA's youngest space shuttle and was commissioned in 1987 as a replacement for its sister ship Challenger following the loss of that older orbiter, its six-astronaut crew and Teacher in Space Christa McAuliffe in January 1986. The shuttle rolled out of its then-Rockwell International (now Boeing) hangar in Palmdale, California in 1991 to join NASA's orbiter fleet.

Endeavour is now poised to make its 20^th launch into space on NASA's STS-118 mission to deliver cargo, spare parts and a new piece of starboard-side framework to the ISS. Commanded by veteran astronaut Scott Kelly, the mission also features the first flight of teacher-turned-spaceflyer Barbara Morgan, who served as McAuliffe's backup in 1986.

Endeavour's new tech

Standing out among Endeavour's nearly 200 modifications is a trio of systems making their first operational appearance on a NASA shuttle flight.

The shuttle is NASA's first to carry a Station-Shuttle Power Transfer System (SSPTS), which is designed to allow Endeavour to siphon electrical power from the station's 120-volt grid via a docking port connection. The system then converts that power to feed the orbiter's 28-volt system. If successful, the new power transfer system will allow the STS-118 astronauts to conserve Endeavour's own fuel cell supplies.

"[A]ssuming that it works, we'll be able to fly a 14-day mission so we can add three extra days to our flight," Kelly said in a NASA interview.

Endeavour also sports the first fully activated Advanced Health Management System to watch over the shuttle's three main engines during launch, as well as a three-string global positioning system (GPS) for pinpoint navigation during landings, NASA said.

The health management system is designed to monitor vibrations in each of the high-pressure fuel and oxidizer turbopumps - which rotate 34,000 times and 23,000 times per minute, respectively - that feed Endeavour's three main engines with the 526,000 gallons (1,991,126 liters) of propellant required for the 8.5-minute launch into space. If an engine's turbopumps vibrate too much, the new system is designed to shut it down.

"An engine would be shut down before it could progress to any catastrophic situation," Hale said of the monitoring system.

The three-string GPS system, which was tested in part on a shuttle flight last year, replaces Endeavour's 1950s-era TACAN system that is gradually being phased out worldwide, he added.

"We've got a far superior system, far safer, far more accurate to fly our big glider back home with," Hale said.

Other major upgrades

In addition to testing new shuttle technology, Endeavour now also equipped with hardware already installed aboard its sister ships Discovery and Atlantis.

Perhaps the biggest bit of shuttle catch up for Endeavour is the addition of its "glass cockpit," a series of flat screen, full-color multi-functional electronic displays that present flight data to the orbiter's astronaut crew.

"Endeavour was the last orbiter to get that modification," Tassos Abadiotakis, NASA's vehicle flow manager for Endeavour, told SPACE.com. Atlantis first flew with the upgrade during its STS-101 mission in 2000, followed by Discovery in 2005 during NASA's STS-114 flight.

Like Discovery and Atlantis, Endeavour is also now equipped to carry a 50-foot (15-meter) sensor boom, a vital extension of the orbiter's robotic arm that allows astronauts to scan the orbiter's heat shield in flight to seek out signs of damage, Abadiotakis said.

The sensor boom was added as a safety measure following the 2003 loss of seven astronauts aboard Columbia during landing after the orbiter's heat shield had been damaged by fuel tank debris.

The orbiter's wing leading edge sensors, also a post-Columbia safety measure designed to record any impacts from debris or micrometeorites, sport a new voltage booster to extend their in-flight operations, NASA said.

A team of up to 200 shuttle workers helped upgrade Endeavour, as well as perform vital wiring and structural inspections to once more prepare the spacecraft for flight.

"I would say that it's better than when it first rolled out of the barn in Palmdale," Abadiotakis said of Endeavour. "We basically reset the vehicle, the clock, back to zero."

1971: Apollo 15 finds rock from birth of Moon On the second day of the Apollo 15 mission, astronauts have uncovered a rock which may date back to the origin of the Moon. The so-called Genesis rock was found by lunar module pilots David Scott and James Irwin when they dug into the slope of Spur crater, on the flank of the Apennine Mountains. They were there on the second "moon safari", traveling for the first time in a custom-built lunar rover vehicle. The rover, which looks like a four-wheeled Jeep, has enabled the astronauts to spend more time away from the lunar module than ever before, and to go several miles away from the lunar lander, Falcon. 'Sporty driving' There was a small setback when the front-wheel steering failed soon after setting off for the first time yesterday. "It's just sporty driving," commented Scott. "I've got to keep my eye on the road every second." The fault was fixed in time for a longer drive today. The astronauts have so far spent 18 hours on the surface of the moon in three major moonwalks. They have collected 169 lbs (76.8kg) of moon rock from 12 different sites including Hadley Rille, an ancient channel believed to have been carved by torrents of flowing lava. But the highlight has been today's discovery of the ancient crystallized rock, believed to be about 4,500 million years old - dating back to the time the Moon itself was formed. Live on TV All the astronauts' movements were followed in a live colour television transmission with unprecedented images of the Moon's highlands. They included the 15,000 ft (4,500 metres) high Mount Hadley, towering over the landing site of the lunar capsule at the foot of the Apennine mountain range. For the first time, the cameras were controlled from Earth, freeing up the astronauts to describe and explore what they were seeing. At the end of today's seven-hour expedition, flight director Gerald Griffin said, "I think without doubt we've just witnessed the greatest day of scientific exploration that we've ever seen in the space programme - possibly of all time." The experiments carried out by Apollo 15 were the most complex yet, and were originally planned for the cancelled Apollo 20 space mission. The last three Apollo missions have now been cut, and there are just two more flights scheduled to the Moon, the last due to take off next year.

Mount Hadley's steep slopes towered over the landing site (picture: Nasa)

 

In Context

The Genesis Rock proved to be a chunk of anorthosite, part of the original lunar crust and older than any Moon rock previously found. This one rock helped revolutionise ideas about lunar formation, and gave us new insights into the age of the solar system. For the first time, the astronauts were extensively trained as geologists and could make scientific observations, both on the surface and from orbit. After Apollo 15, there were just two more manned missions to the Moon, with the final manned lunar landing, Apollo 17, completed in December 1972. However, in January 2004 the US President, George Bush, announced a new programme for lunar exploration, saying American astronauts would return to the Moon by 2020 as the launching point for missions further into space. James Irwin resigned from Nasa in 1972 to found a religious organisation, High Flight Foundation, and led two expeditions to Mount Ararat in search of Noah's Ark. He died in 1991, aged 61. David Scott retired from Nasa in 1977 to found Scott Science and Technology.   AUGUST 7, 2007 Mission Endeavour: Spaceflight Rookies Prepare for First Launch By Tariq Malik Staff Writer posted: 6 August 2007 6:00 a.m. ET Two astronauts are looking forward to their first taste of space when NASA's shuttle Endeavour rockets towards the International Space Station (ISS) this week. Mission specialists Tracy Caldwell and Alvin Drew, Jr. are each poised to make their first career spaceflights with NASA's STS-118 mission set to launch Aug. 8. "It's almost unreal," Caldwell told reporters in an interview. "I haven't allowed myself to get too giddy imagining what floating in space is going to be like and trying to do all the things that I'm trained to do." Caldwell, Drew and five crewmates will launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to deliver cargo, spare parts and a new piece of the space station's starboard-side truss. Endeavour's crew also includes teacher-turned-astronaut Barbara Morgan, who joined NASA as the backup for Teacher in Space Christa McAuliffe in 1985. McAuliffe and six astronauts were aboard the space shuttle Challenger when it broke apart just after launch in January 1986. Teacher in Space's legacy As Mission Specialist 1 during the STS-118 mission, Caldwell will choreograph up to four spacewalks from inside Endeavour, as well as wield the orbiter's robotic arm. She joined NASA's astronaut corps in 1998, but her interest in spaceflight began at age 16 in 1986 while the agency was preparing to launch the first teacher into space. "It was all because of Christa McAuliffe, and she was a teacher that was going up into space," said Caldwell, now 37 and a private pilot, in a NASA interview. "So I started thinking, 'Wow, if a teacher can become and astronaut, I wonder if I could too.'" Growing up in Arcadia, California, Caldwell routinely helped her electrician father rewire houses and repair cars before working to obtain a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of California at Davis. That training, as well as her ongoing interest in athletics, is welcome practice for her role as the intravehicular spacewalk choreographer, she said. "You've got to think ahead, and what tools you need, and how you approach a problem," Caldwell said. "Dad prepared me really well for that." Since joining NASA, Caldwell helped test and integrate Russian-built hardware and software bound for the ISS. She served as the prime crew support astronaut for the space station's Expedition 5 mission has also served as spacecraft communicator for later ISS flights. Off all the advice she's received from veteran spaceflyers, taking time to look out the window while in Earth orbit is one Caldwell takes to heart. "I'm not just going up there," she told reporters. "My family, my friends, my professors. Everybody that's played a role and I'm going to look out that window for them." CAPCOM to crewmate A late addition to the STS-118 mission, Drew is Mission Specialist 5 on Endeavour's crew and will serve as sort of a utility astronaut. "I'm supporting cast for this mission," he said in a NASA interview, adding that he will help out on tasks and packing things in the right place. "It's not a very glamorous role, but it's something that I'm very happy to be doing." Drew, 44, joined Endeavour's crew in late April as a replacement for ISS Expedition 15 flight engineer Clayton Anderson, who launched earlier during June's STS-117 mission to relieve fellow NASA astronaut Sunita Williams. At the time, he was training to serve as a shuttle spacecraft communicator, or CAPCOM, to speak to orbiter crews for Mission Control. "My initial reaction was just plain shock," Drew told reporters in a preflight briefing. "I've never heard of anybody being selected for a mission about three and a half months out in front of a launch. After that, it was just time to get busy." A colonel in the U.S. Air Force and native of Washington, D.C., Drew joined NASA's astronaut corps in July 2000. After gaining experience as a combat helicopter pilot, he has logged 3,000 of flying time in over 30 different aircraft and has worked in the space station branch of the Astronaut Office. "I've just been all over," Drew said. "My fingerprints are all over parts of space station at this point." Drew's interest in space began at age six, when he watched NASA launch the Apollo 7 mission at school with his classmates in 1968. He later obtained degrees in physics, aeronautical engineering, aerospace science and political science during his Air Force career. But despite the long path, Drew said he isn't sure what part of his first flight will make the biggest impression. "Knowing how my brain works, I won't think about that until after I've landed and hopefully I've got a set of good memories to go reflect back on," Drew said CURRENT NASA NEWS August 9,2007 AD ASTRA    Space Shuttle Endeavour Rockets Into Orbit By Dave Mosher Staff Writer posted: 8 August 2007 6:50 p.m. ET   CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – The space shuttle Endeavour and its astronaut crew roared into space this evening, ending a 22-year wait for teacher-turned-spaceflyer Barbara Morgan. The successful launch is a milestone not only for Morgan, who served as a backup to Christa McAuliffe prior to the tragic 1986 Challenger mission, but also for Endeavour. NASA technicians spent nearly five years overhauling the orbiter with new hardware and electronics systems. Endeavour shot the seven STS-118 astronauts toward space at about 6:36:42 p.m. EDT (2236:42 GMT) from Kennedy Space Center's (KSC) Pad 39A to kick off a busy construction flight to the International Space Station. The shuttle is slated to dock at the orbital laboratory Friday at about 1:53 p.m. EDT (1753 GMT). "Good luck, Godspeed and have some fun up there," NASA launch director Mike Leinbach told shuttle commander Scott Kelly just before liftoff. "Take good care of that great ship Endeavour." "Thanks Mike, this is serious business we're in here," Kelly said, adding that he was proud of the entire NASA team for readying Endeavour for flight. "We'll see you in a couple weeks and thank you for loaning us shuttle." In addition to Morgan and Kelly, STS-118 pilot Charlie Hobaugh and mission specialists Tracy Caldwell, Rick Mastracchio, Alvin Drew, Jr. and Dave Williams - of the Canadian Space Agency - launched into orbit aboard Endeavour. Their planned 11-day mission will deliver 5,000 pounds (2,267 kilograms) of cargo, spare parts and new hardware to the ISS. The spaceflight may also be extended three extra days pending the success of a new station-to-shuttle power transfer system. "I think we're all going to say 'Woohoo!' and then get back to work," Morgan said of reaching orbit before Wednesday's launch. A family matter Morgan said her journey from teacher to astronaut has been emotionally difficult, and that thoughts of the Challenger's STS-51L crew never leave her mind. "I think about Christa and the Challenger crew about every day," Morgan said during a preflight interview. "That’s just something I carry with me. I know how painful this is for folks who were really close." June Scobee Rodgers, who was married to astronaut Dick Scobee when he died aboard Challenger, said she admires Morgan for her strength. "Barbara Morgan is an example of passion, patience and persistence. The Challenger crew were her best friends," Rodgers said of the astronaut. "And she was assigned as an astronaut educator when we lost Columbia, so she lost another crew of seven best friends. She so humble and modest, yet she still goes about her life with enthusiasm." Juliet Sisk, a 7th-grade science teacher at Space Coast High School in Florida, said Morgan is more than an example. "She is a hero to all teachers," Sisk said. "She's shown educators and students that there's no limit to how high they can aim." Morgan plans to hold at least one, and possibly up to three, interactive video events with students on Earth during her shuttle mission. She is also carrying 10 million basil seeds and two plant growth chambers into space as part of her educational program. Tumultuous year The months leading up to Endeavour's launch have been turbulent for NASA, which has seen a former astronaut's arrest, a murder-suicide at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston and - most recently - allegations that spaceflyers have flown at least twice while intoxicated. NASA administrator Michael Griffin said the events have been distracting, but the agency is doing what it can to investigate its culture. "I can't guarantee the behavior of 100,000 people," Griffin told SPACE.com of NASA's workforce. So far, NASA spokesperson David Mould said today, a health review issued by the space agency and conducted by a panel of health experts has not revealed any evidence to support the allegations of alcohol-related abuses among astronauts. "I must admit I would be surprised … if we had any astronaut boarding the shuttle under the influence," Griffin said. Astronaut Patrick Forrester, who flew as a mission specialist aboard the shuttle Atlantis during NASA's STS-117 spaceflight in June, expects investigators to find no foul play. "I don't think they'll find anything other than a professional, hard-working group of people," Forrester said of the investigation. Constructing the future In spite of the allegations centered on the space agency's astronaut corps, Griffin said the space program is moving along well. "In the end, we're judged on our execution of spaceflight missions and we've been having a great year in regard to spaceflight missions," Griffin said. He added that if the space agency's current pace of four to five shuttle flights each year should be adequate to complete the space station. "If we can maintain that average for the next few years, we'll easily get it done," Griffin said. The STS-118 mission will be the second ISS construction flight of the year. The spaceflight marks NASA's 119th shuttle mission, the 22nd bound for the station and the 20th trip to space for Endeavour itself. Launch came after engineers wrangled Endeavour's stubborn shuttle hatch shut and analyzed a small, shallow crack in foam insulation near base of the orbiter's external fuel tank. Even in the worst-case scenario, the analysis team determined the crack's formation posed no risk to the Endeavour, shuttle fuel tank officials said. Once at the ISS, Endeavour's crew will install the small Starboard 5 (S5) spacer truss to the station's starboard-most edge to make room for a new set of solar panels due to launch next year. Other tasks include replacing a broken gyroscope and hooking up a spare parts platform. "I think the building of the International Space Station is one of the greatest engineering accomplishments in the history of mankind," Mastracchio told SPACE.com before today's planned launch. "It's one of the seven wonders in space, that's for sure." August 10,2007 Shuttle Astronauts to Dock at Space Station Today By Tariq Malik Staff Writer posted: 10 August 2007 6:10 a.m. ET Teacher-turned-astronaut Barbara Morgan and her six crewmates have a warm welcome ahead of them when their shuttle Endeavour arrives at the International Space Station (ISS) later today. Aboard the ISS, Expedition 15 commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineers Oleg Kotov and Clayton Anderson - a former member of Endeavour's STS-118 crew - are ready and waiting for their first human visitors since June. "We're really looking forward to docking with the International Space station tomorrow and joining with our crewmates Clay, Oleg and Fyodor," Morgan, a former McCall, Idaho, schoolteacher, said late Thursday. Commanded by veteran shuttle flyer Scott Kelly, Endeavour's STS-118 crew is due to dock at the ISS at 1:53 p.m. EDT (1753 GMT) after a two-day orbital chase that began with a Wednesday launch. Tucked aboard the shuttle are about 5,000 pounds (2,267 kilograms) of fresh cargo, a loaded spare parts platform and a new piece of the space station's starboard-side truss. "The International Space Station is getting visitors from another planet," Anderson, who launched on NASA's earlier June shuttle flight for a crew change, told reporters last week. "I'm really looking forward to seeing them and hopefully they're bringing some goodies for us." Endeavour is also equipped with a new power transfer system designed to siphon electricity from the ISS rather than rely on its own internal fuel cells. If successful, the system will allow Endeavour's STS-118 astronauts to extend their planned 11-day construction mission by three extra days, NASA has said. "Clearly it's a real privilege to be up here in space," Kelly said late Thursday. "Everything is going well." Shuttle back flip on tap Before Kelly and his crew can begin their ISS construction mission, the shuttle commander will fly Endeavour through a bit of orbital acrobatics. At about 12:51 p.m. EDT (1651 GMT), Kelly will guide the 100-ton orbiter into a slow back flip to allow astronauts aboard the ISS to photograph Endeavour's belly-mounted heat resistant tiles. Analysts will study the resulting high-resolution images, particularly those that cover three regions where debris may have struck Endeavour during launch, to ensure the shuttle's heat shield is fit for the return to Earth. Shuttle managers hope the ISS crew's photographs will also show that doors designed to close over Endeavour's two belly-mounted external tank connections after launch are properly latched in place. "We did see some indications early on that things may have been, in terms of the mechanism, not completely seated, but that later cleared," said Matt Abbott, NASA's lead STS-118 shuttle flight director, adding that the heat shield photography during docking will confirm for sure that the doors are in position. Endeavour's ISS arrival will be a return of sorts for two STS-118 astronauts. Mission specialist Rick Mastracchio helped prime the station for astronaut crews during NASA's STS-106 mission in 2000 while shuttle pilot Charlie Hobaugh helped deliver the orbital laboratory's U.S. Quest airlock during the STS-104 mission in 2001. "It'll be really neat to see how it's coming along, how we're proceeding and hopefully where we'll be able to head and go from here," Hobaugh said. NASA is broadcasting Endeavour's STS-118 mission live on NASA TV. Click here for mission updates and SPACE.com's NASA TV feed.

 

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