30 November 2004
+ 1 - 1 | § ¶Whoops
Turns out I was wrong about that LEGO Lunar Lander being a new set, according to
collectSPACE. Turns out the line has been discontinued, unfortunately. Still, you gotta check out the set linked to from the link above.
+ 2 - 1 | § ¶Picture Of The Day
Saturn, its rings, and Mimas. Courtesy NASA, natch.
29 November 2004
+ 1 - 1 | § ¶Go/No Go
Looking for the finest in space-related DVDs? Be sure to check out the
"Go/No Go" series of reviews at collectSPACE.
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶Lunar LEGO Lander
Unbeknownst to me until yesterday, LEGO added another space set to their Discovery line, the
Lunar Lander, the first in the series to be of sufficiently large scale to include minfig astronauts.
+ 1 - 1 | § ¶Today In History
On this date in 1961, Enos became the first chimp to orbit the Earth during the MA-5 Mercury flight.
Keywords: history,monkeys,nasa,space
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶The Da Vinci Craft
The Edmonton Journal has an update on
erstwhile X Prize contender The Da Vinci Project, now the Golden Palace Space Program:
But the rocket won't be launched from Kindersley, Sask., until early next year. And when it is, it won't be carrying pilot and project founder Brian Feeney.
The Toronto-based team, which at one time was a contender for the $10-million US X-Prize for the first private spacecraft to reach suborbital space, now plans to do at least one unmanned test flight first.
Feeney ... hopes to do a test launch by the end of January, then rocket into space himself sometime in the spring.
And here's just another level of classiness that the project's online casino funding brings:
GoldenPalace.com recently bought a 10-year-old grilled cheese sandwich said to have an image of the Virgin Mary on it, raising speculation that too will fly into space.
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶Soyuz Countdown
From The Washington Times:
NASA and the nations involved in the International Space Station project will run out of emergency rescue craft within 18 months and have not decided what to do after April 2006, when the final Russian Soyuz spacecraft leaves the station and returns to Earth.
Soyuz, the three-person lifeboat for the crews if a fire, serious illness or other disaster occurs, soon ends its production run under the current international agreement, and a cash-strapped Russia wants compensation for building more of the spacecraft after 2006.
(That's the full text of the article, btw, so follow the link only if you want.)
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶Going For A Soyuz Spin
Expedition 10 this morning
went for a quick flight in their Soyuz, moving it to a different docking port in preparation for an upcoming space walk.
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶Watching SNG
Marshall got some attention from NASA Watch this weekend, in two pieces, one
criticizing Science@NASA for not linking to the Vision. (Cowing is insistent for some reason that
every NASA page should link to the Vision--the version of the article that is online today has been changed from yesterday's, in which he wrote that Marshall was "thumbing its nose at the Vision" because SNG didn't link to it.)
In a separate article (orginally part of the same article, but later spun out), he
goes after Station tracking Web sites.
26 November 2004
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶To The Moon And Back
Take
this story from India, via SpaceDaily for what it's worth, but if true, it's kinda cool.
The United States could launch a mission in 2010 that would land two stationary robots on the moon to collect rock samples before returning to earth, a US scientist said here Thursday.
I'm hoping we can get rovers on the Moon before too terribly long (i.e. before we send people back), but a sample return mission is pretty cool too.
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶Astros Online
Since I haven't posted about collectSPACE in a couple of days, I thought I'd share this link to
collectSPACE's guide to astronaut Web sites. Cool stuff.
+ 1 - 1 | § ¶Space Genesis
The
space hotel is another step closer to reality now that the FAA has given Bigelow Aerospace approval to launch its inflatable technology demonstrator Genesis modules into space. A first launch is planned for about a year from now.
25 November 2004
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶Meteorite Photo
Lain sent me this
story that's kinda interesting:
NORTHERN Territory scientists were last night studying what could be the first photograph of a meteorite hitting Earth.
The chances of an impact being captured on film are millions to one.
"If this is true, it's one of the most remarkable pictures ever taken," astronomy tutor Geoff Carr said yesterday.
24 November 2004
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶Going Back To Alpha
Cosmonaut
Sergei Krikalev will become the first person to serve two increments on the International Space Station next year when he returns to ISS as a member of the Expedition 11 crew, along with NASA astronaut
John Phillips, a veteran of the STS-100 mission.
Krikalev, possibly the most historic modern cosmonaut, lived on ISS for 4 1/2 months as part of the first crew to occupy it. Krikalev was the first cosmonaut to fly on the Shuttle in 1994 on the STS-60 (along with Huntsville High School alumna Jan Davis, now of MSFC). His previous ISS experience also includes serving as a crew member of STS-88, the first Station assembly mission, which mated the first two modules.
Before his international mission experience, Krikalev served two increments on Mir (meaning that Expedition 11 will be his
fourth long-duration mission). The second was notable for the fact that Krikalev was launched from the Soviet Union and returned to Earth in Kazakhstan, the
USSR having collapsed in his absence, earning Krikalev notariety as "The Last Soviet Citizen." In fact, his mission was extended when a rotation flight was cancelled during the coup.
Krikalev currently is around number four on the total duration record chart, with 625 days in space under his belt so far. His 6-month stay should bring him to the top of the chart, exceeding Sergei Avdeyev's current 748-day record.
Krikalev will also enter the relatively exclusive six-flight club, becoming the first non-NASA spacefarer to do so. (The current record for total number of flights is seven, held by Franklin Chang-Diaz and Jerry Ross.)
I will admit, though, that I found this news rather surprising, having assumed that the next ISS crew would include Bill McArthur, who had been scheduled for Expedition 9 before suffering an undisclosed temporary health problem, and who served as the back-up commander for Expedition 10.
23 November 2004
+ 1 - 1 | § ¶Your Wired Will Go On
For those who haven't seen it, this month's issue of WIRED magazine is guest-edited by James Cameron, and is centered around the theme of exploration, and includes articles by or about Buzz Aldrin, Sean O'Keefe, Don Pettit, Burt Rutan, Kim Stanley Robinson, among many others.
For more details, check out
collectSPACE.
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶After The Prize
Cosmic Log has a brief piece on the
post-X-Prize private space race.
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶That's No Moon!
The picture above is of Skif, a Soviet orbital laser battle station, mounted to an Energia booster. More pictures, and a little more information, can be found at MilitaryPhotos.net.
22 November 2004
+ 1 - 1 | § ¶Apollo 1 Fire
One of the cooler aspects of
collectSPACE (a cool Web site I may have mentioned before) is the incredible wealth of information its members bring. Check out, for example, this
discussion of the Apollo 1 fire, including first-hand accounts.
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶Money For The Moon!
The Moon got a giant leap closer Saturday, when
Congress voted to fully fund NASA's FY'05 budget request of $16.2 billion.
Also, on a related note, the
House passed H.R. 5382, which paves the way for regulation of suborbital space tourism. The bill now moves on to the Senate.
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶Various And Sundry
Bits and pieces of space news not worth their own full posts:
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶Two New Crew
Astronauts
Lisa Nowak and Stephanie Wilson have been added to the STS-121 mission currently scheduled for a NET July 10 launch date, the second mission after RTF.
This is of particular interest since it means that the flight will not be used for ISS crew exchange, as had earlier been mentioned as a possibility.
Before the loss of Columbia, STS-114, which will be the Return To Flight mission, had originally been manifested as a crew rotation mission, bringing home Expedition 6 and carrying a three-person Expedition 7 crew to the Station. When it was re-manifested as the RTF mission, the three seats that would have been needed for crew rotation were filled by additional Shuttle crew members with the explanation that they were needed for the additional duties that would be carried out relating to RTF.
Another mission, STS-121, was added to the schedule between 114 and STS-115, with a four-person primary crew, meaning that it could take on the crew rotation duties STS-114 was dropping. Now, obviously, that's not going to happen.
It could simply be a matter of scheduling. Under the current schedule, STS-121 will visit the Station roughly 3 months after Expedition 11 begins its tenure there; so swapping the crew then would make for a rather short increment for that crew. (Also, the fact that 121 now has a six-person crew rather than seven means that it could still have one ISS crewmember added to its roster, restoring the ISS to its pre-107 three-person complement.)
However, since there have been unconfirmed rumors that NASA will completely demanifest crew rotation from Shuttle, it's a situation worth watching.
20 November 2004
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶Today In History
On this date 6 years ago, assembly of the International Space Station began with the launch of the first component, the Russian Zarya module.
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶Swiftly Into Space
Barring any additional scrubs, the
Swift observatory will launch today at 11:10 a.m. CST. Once its science mission begins, Swift will detect gamma ray bursts.
19 November 2004
+ 0 - 1 | § ¶Man On The Moon
For those ATW readers in the Memphis area, you can get a chance to see a real live Moonwalker when Apollo 14 LMP Edgar Mitchell speaks in Germantown on Jan. 23. Details at (yep)
collectSPACE.
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶Tunes For Titan
Per SpaceDaily:
When the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft completes its journey to Saturn's moon Titan in January, its probe will carry out many missions -- among them, to boldly blast rock 'n' roll music where none has been heard before.
The US-European vessel, run by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Italian space agency, is carrying a 14-minute CD loaded with music from two little-known French artists who will have the honour of having their tracks broadcast to any alien ears that may be listening.
Earthlings on the other hand will be able to bop along to the tunes on the Internet site www.music2titan.com from December 21 as they follow the mission online.
18 November 2004
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶A Year In Space
ATW not enough to meet your hankering for a daily dose of space? That's just sad.
But, there's help for people like you: Countdown Creations is sponsoring "The Year In Space" desk calendar, with weekly space photos and daily entries on space history and events.
Details are at--suprise!--
collectSPACE.
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶Budget Battle Nears Conclusion
Per Space Politics:
Space News [subscription required] reported late Wednesday that House and Senate budget negotiators have agreed to give NASA $15.9 billion in FY2005. That amount is less than the $16.2 billion that President Bush originally requested, as well as the $16.4 billion the Senate Appropriations Committee proposed (a figure that includes $800 million in emergency funding), but more than the $15.1 billion in the House version of the budget. ...
The Houston Chronicle reported Thursday that the Office of Management and Budget has issued another veto threat, claiming that the President could veto the entire omnibus budget bill if it has "anything close" to the House's $15.1 billion NASA proposal.
+ 1 - 1 | § ¶Second Chance Leonids
There will be another peak of the
Leonids meteor shower at 3 a.m. CST in the morning, though, again, it's unlikely there will be more than a dozen meteors per hour (though those that there are should leave long-lasting streaks).
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶This Week At NE
This week at
NASAexplores, I've got an article about how the Space Station team has learned to optimize the function of the current 11A configuration of the Station while the Shuttle fleet has been grounded, and Maggie's got one about what's involved in getting a commercial jet ready for flight.
17 November 2004
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶Weather Report
I really should try to make a little money as a freelance metereologist, 'cause by now I can predict with uncanny accuracy that any night that I wake up in the middle of the night to go outside to try and see some celestial event like a meteor shower, it will be completely overcast.
+ 1 - 1 | § ¶The Source
So I needed to know today for an article I'm working on whether a line in the movie version of The Right Stuff was in the book or not.
So where do I turn?
collectSPACE, of course.
Another helpful (and more informed) forum member had an answer for me as soon as I checked back.
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶Hyper Active
Yesterday's final flight of the X-43A was successful, and initial data indicate that the
Hyper-X reached a speed of around Mach 10.
