Atlantis Heads for Space

At about 1:30 local time this afternoon Atlantis and her crew successfully launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida:
We were fortunate to be able to watch the launch live during my 6th period class.

Atlantis Set to Launch

Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-129) is scheduled to launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida later this afternoon. The 11 day mission to the International Space Station will deal primarily with the task of delivering spare parts that could be used to repair the ISS in the future. NASA plans to retire its shuttle fleet next year, and since the shuttle is the only vehicle capable to delivering large pieces of equipment to the space station, making sure that the ISS is well stocked with spares in the event of breakdown has become one of NASA's top priorities. As far as what sorts of spare parts are going up, NASA has this to say:

The spares are going up on two platforms – called external logistics carriers, or ELCs – to be attached on either side of the station’s truss, in hopes that wherever a failure happens, the necessary spare won’t be too far away. The ELCs carried up on STS-129 will be chocked full with two pump modules, two control moment gyroscopes, two nitrogen tank assemblies, an ammonia tank assembly, a high-pressure gas tank, a latching end effector for the station’s robotic arm and a trailing umbilical system reel assembly for the railroad cart that allows the arm to move along the station’s truss system. There’s also a power control unit, a plasma container unit, a cargo transportation container and a battery charge/discharge unit. In all, that’s 27,250 pounds worth of spares to keep the station going long after the shuttles retire.

Atlantis will carry a crew of 6 astronauts and will dock with the ISS on flight day 3 (Wednesday). Astronaut Nicole Stott, currently a member of the ISS crew, will be returning to Earth aboard Atlantis after spending over two months in space.

Discovery Lands in California

From NASA:

Space shuttle Discovery touched down at Edwards Air Force Base In California on Friday to end a 14-day mission to the International Space Station dedicated to outfitting the orbital laboratory with new experiments, science equipment, supplies and other gear the six people living on the station will need. Unacceptable weather conditions at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida Thursday and Friday forced the detour by Discovery to the West Coast.

"We're very happy to be back on land here in California," STS-128 Commander Rick "C.J." Sturckow said after the astronauts got off the shuttle and surveyed their craft. "It was a great mission and we just want to thank everybody for their support."

The crew of seven astronauts, including former station resident Tim Kopra, will fly to their training base at Johnson Space Center in Houston on Saturday. Meanwhile, technicians at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, adjacent to Edwards, will take about a week to get the spacecraft ready for its cross-country flight back to Kennedy atop a modified 747.

Welcome home Discovery!

Discovery Update

Space Shuttle Discovery is now well into its 14 day mission to the International Space Station (ISS). After lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida late Friday night, the crew of Discovery spent their first day in orbit on Saturday chasing down the ISS and inspecting the orbiter's heat shields for damage. On Sunday, Discovery arrived at, and successfully docked with, the International Space Station.

One of the first items of business after docking was to transfer crew members. Astronaunt Nicole Stott, who rode up on Discovery, became a member of the ISS crew, relieving astronaut Tim Kopra who will be returning to Earth aboard Discovery after spending 44 days aboard the ISS.

On Monday, ISS and shuttle crews worked together to transfer materials from Discovery onto the space station. One of the most touted pieces of equipment transferred was the COLBERT treadmill, which is named after Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert. The heat shield inspection was also completed on Sunday, when mission control confirming that the orbiter is safe for re-entry.

On Tuesday, the first of three planned spacewalks went off without a hitch. astronauts Danny Olivas and Nicole Stott spent a total of 6 hours, 35 minutes outside of the space station.

Late Friday night, Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-128) lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a 14 day mission to rendezvous with the Internation Space Station (ISS):

Atlantis update

Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-125) has now been in orbit for 4 1/2 days, so I thought this would be a good time for a little bit of an update. Most of what I'm giving you comes from NASA's website, which is posting a very detailed status blog.

After lifting off early Monday afternoon, the astronauts spent most of Tuesday using cameras attached to the shuttle's boom to inspect the heat shield for damage. This is standard protocol after the Space Shuttle Comumbia (STS-107) disintegrated upon reentry at the completion of its mission to space. Seven astronauts were killed in the disaster which resulted from damage sustained by the heat shield during liftoff. The initial inspection of Atlantis's heat shield showed only a minor defect, which at this point isn't thought to pose a risk to the shuttle or her crew. (BTW...the question I asked a few days ago relates to this. Space Shuttle Endeavor is still setting on a launch pad in Florida. There is a crew of 4 astronauts on "stand by" ready to do rescue the Atlantis crew should that orbiter be determined to be unsafe.)
The main order of business on Wednesday was to capture the Hubble Space Telescope using the shuttle's boom arm, and secure it to the cargo bay of the orbiter.

Yesterday, Astronauts John Grunsfeld and Andrew Feustel completed the first of 5 scheduled spacewalks for this mission. The spacewalk lasted about 7.5 hours and was spent replacing a camera and a computer on the telescope, doing some maintenance work, and making preparations for subsequent spacewalks later in the mission.
Today (Friday), Astronauts Mike Massimino and Michael Good completed the mission's second spacewalk. At just under 8 hours, this was the 8th longest spacewalk in history. (Think about that...a normal work or school day spent in a space outside of the spacecraft...) This time was spent replacing several sensors and a batteries on the telescope.

The last three spacewalks are scheduled to be completed in the next three days.

Space Shuttle question

This NASA image was take a few weeks ago at the Kennedy Space Center and shows two shuttles sitting on launch pads. The Shuttle in the foreground (on the left in this image) is Atlantis, which lifted off on Monday afternoon as STS-125. The second shuttle in the background is Endeavor:
My question is this: why are there TWO shuttles ready to launch?
And no, it doesn't have anything to do with this scenario:

Atlantis off to Hubble

At 1:00 yesterday afternoon, the space shuttle Atlantic (STS 125) successfully lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Atlantis is carrying a crew of 7 astronauts on an 11 day mission to service and add equipment to the Hubble Space Telescope. This will be the last shuttle mission to Hubble, since NASA will be retiring the fleet of spacecraft next year.

Here's video of the launch. For reasons that I plan on discussing later, a shuttle launch always fills me with a sense of awe. (BTW...I recommend clicking on the "HD" button that comes up once the video is playing...very cool.)

The crew spent their first full day in space today inspecting Atlantis's heat shields for any damage that might have occurred during liftoff. That inspection turned up a few minor dings which the experts at NASA will have to analyze. They are not, at this point, expected to cause a problem with the shuttle's flight or re-entry.

Atlantis is expect to rendezvous with Hubble tomorrow morning. Once the shuttle has secured the telescope, the crew will spend the rest of the mission completing 5 separate spacewalks to install the new equipment.

Welcome Home, Discovery

Space shuttle Discovery touched down safely at Kennedy Space Center yesterday afternoon at 3:14 p.m. EDT. This brought a safe conclusion to its mission, referred to as STS-119. Here are some interesting facts about the mission:

-Astronaut Sandra Magnus returned to Earth aboard Discovery. She had spent a total of 134 days in space, with 129 of them being aboard the Internation Space Station (ISS).
-Discovery spent 13 days in space. 8 of those days were spent docked to the ISS.
-Astronauts aboard discovery completed 3 spacewalks. Each spacewalk lasted about 6.5 hours.
-During the mission, Discovery traveled 5.3 million miles and completed 202 orbits of Earth.
-This was the 125th space shuttle mission. It was Discovery's 36th trip into space.

Discovery prepares to come home

The photo above was taken by the astronauts aboard the space shuttle Discovery as the orbiter separated from the international space station. The two spacecraft closed their hatches and undocked yesterday afternoon.

The crew of Discovery spent today inspecting the orbiter for damage that could cause problems on re-entry. The are scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space Center on Saturday afternoon.

Every morning, Mission Control wakes the astronauts up with music. And what tune did they wake up to this morning? Enter Sandman, by Metallica. Rock on!

Update on Discovery

The crews of Space Shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station have both been busy since Sunday's launch. Discovery's primary mission is to deliver the last set of solar panels to the space station. This will increase the amount of power available up there for scientific experiments. They are about halfway through their two-week mission, and here's a short recap of what's been going on:

Sunday evening: launch

Monday: One of the biggest jobs on Monday was to use specialized cameras mounted on the shuttle's robotic arm to inspect the exterior of the shuttle for any damage that was sustained during launch.

Tuesday: On Tuesday Discovery docked with the International Space Station. The two crews exchanged personnel...one astronaut will be leaving the ISS after several months in orbit and returning to earth aboard Discovery. One member of Discovery's crew will stay aboard the ISS when Discovery departs. (It's like a space version of "Red Rover".)

Wednesday: The shuttle and space station worked together to unload a "truss" which will support the new solar panels.

Thursday: Two astronauts performed a 6-hour spacewalk to install the truss that was deployed on Wednesday.

Friday: The new solar wings were deployed on Friday. They will be installed during later spacewalks.

Saturday: A second spacewalk, this time lasting 6.5 hours. The objectives of this one appeared to be some work in preparation for later missions to the ISS.

Sunday: The shuttle and space station performed a maneuver today that slowed down their combined orbit slightly. This was important to allow them to "dodge" a 4-inch piece of space debris. The third and final scheduled spacewalk will happen tomorrow.

NASA's website has a ton of great information and pictures of this (and other) missions. It's definitely worth taking some time to check it out. Also, if you're really interested in this stuff, there's a 45 minute animated video on YouTube that details the entire mission.

In case you missed it...

I haven't posted in a few days, and have some catching up to do, but I wanted to get this on in case you missed it. Space shuttle Discovery was successfully launched yesterday from the Kennedy Space Center. Thoughts and prayers are with the astronauts and their families.

It's worth watching the whole video. At about 8:30 they talk about how fast the shuttle will be traveling when it enters space...9 times the speed of a rifle bullet!

The first full day in space consisted of examining the orbiter for damage sustained during launch, and making preparations for docking with the International Space Station tomorrow afternoon.

Sunday at the Earliest

The word from NASA:

Space shuttle Discovery’s launch to the International Space Station now is targeted for no earlier than March 15. NASA managers postponed Wednesday’s planned liftoff due to a leak associated with the gaseous hydrogen venting system outside the external fuel tank. The system is used to carry excess hydrogen safely away from the launch pad.

Liftoff on March 15 would be at 7:43 p.m. EDT. The exact launch date is dependent on the work necessary to repair the problem. Managers will meet Thursday at 4 p.m. to further assess the troubleshooting plan.

Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach said Wednesday that workers will take their first up-close look Thursday afternoon at the gaseous hydrogen vent line that began leaking during the countdown to Wednesday night’s launch attempt. The leak prompted a postponement of the STS-119 launch to the International Space Station.

The inspection could set a course for repair options that would allow another launch attempt as soon as Sunday.

Leinbach said the leak developed on the piping that runs from the fixed service structure, or launch tower, to a valve at the intertank section of the shuttle’s external tank. The pipe moves hydrogen gas away from the shuttle and to a flare stack near the launch pad that burns it away safely. He said there was never any danger to the shuttle while it was being fueled, but that the leak allowed too much gaseous hydrogen to escape the vent line.

I guess that big bird will be sitting for a few days at least.

"No go" for Discovery

Tonight's scheduled launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery was postponed earlier this afternoon when crews discovered a hydrogen fuel leak that had the potential to be "catastrophic". The launch was tentatively rescheduled for just before 9:00 p.m. (eastern time) tomorrow (Thursday).

A press conference should be held at any time now to discuss the status of Discovery's launch. You can follow the updates on NASA's website.

T-minus 12 hours

The countdown is proceeding for this evening's launch of the space shuttle Discovery. The actual launch time has been adjusted four seconds to 9:20:14 Eastern time, which will put it after dark. Nighttime shuttle launches are beautiful...

NASA personnel will meet later this morning to give a final "go" or "no go" to begin filling the big orange external tank.

Countdown to Discovery

The countdown to Wednesday's launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery (STS 119) began yesterday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The two-week mission will be primarily focused on adding the last set of solar panels to the International Space Station, and will feature up to four spacewalks. In addition, one of Discovery's crew members (Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata) will remain on the International Space Station at the completion of the mission, and one of the ISS crew members (Sandra Magnus) will be hitching a ride home on Discovery after being in space since November 14th.