31 May 2005
+ 3 - 0 | § ¶Opposition To Mars
While it won't be as close as the 2003 perigee,
Mars will once again be spectacularly close to the Earth this year. While the closes point won't occur until Halloween (GMT), Mars is already becoming brighter in the sky, and the two planets are closing on each other at 23,500 miles per hour.
+ 1 - 1 | § ¶Continuing Voyagers
NASA Watch is reporting that NASA Administrator Mike Griffin
has decided to keep the Voyager probes alive, reversing an earlier decision by the agency that could have cut funding to the spacecraft. No formal announcement has been made, however.
28 May 2005
+ 1 - 1 | § ¶Today In History
On this date in 1959, monkeynauts Able and Baker took a 15-minute flight in the nosecone of a Jupiter rocket, becoming the first animals to be recovered alive after a spaceflight. (Though in Able's case, that situation was quickly rectified.)
27 May 2005
+ 1 - 1 | § ¶Today In History
On this date in 1999, the Space Shuttle Discovery launched on the STS-96 mission, the first to dock with the International Space Station.
26 May 2005
+ 1 - 2 | § ¶Miles To Go
OK, get the immediate reaction out of the way: As a fan of Deep Space Nine, the idea of
Miles O'Brien in space delights me. Anyway, moving on...
It appears that prior to the loss of Columbia, NASA had been close to working out an agreement for CNN reporter Miles O'Brien to become the first reporter to fly on the Space Shuttle, an arrangement which was being eyed as a possible foundation for a program like the one being developed in the pre-Challenger mid-80s in which reporters, artists, writers and other civilians would fly on the Shuttle and share their experiences.
I'm more than a little surprised to learn about this, particularly given how much the agency has stressed that the upcoming flight of Educator Astronaut Barbara Morgan is
not like the old Teacher In Space program -- Morgan is a fully trained career astronaut, just like any other member of NASA's corps. Time and again it was stressed that NASA was not going to be flying a civilian.
Of course, that apparently still would have been the case with O'Brien, who reportedly would have dedicated two years to preparation for his flight. Even so, his role would have been very different than that of Morgan, who's dedication is fully to NASA, since O'Brien would have been on the crew representing an outside agency.
With the upcoming retirement of the Shuttle fleet, and the uncertainty of what exactly the post-Shuttle future will entail, the program now seems unlikely to get off the ground.
+ 1 - 1 | § ¶Rollback
Discovery began its several-hour journey back to the Vehicle Assembly Building this morning at 6:44 a.m. EDT. After being mated to a new External Tank, the stack will be rolled out to the pad again in mid-June, in preparation for a launch still scheduled for NET July 13.
25 May 2005
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶7 UP, Up And Away
From Yahoo:
Famed astronaut Buzz Aldrin announced today that the next time you reach UP for a can of Diet 7UP, newly reformulated with SPLENDA® Brand Sweetener, you could be reaching for the stars. In partnership with the X PRIZE Foundation, creators of the $10 million ANSARI X PRIZE, the Diet 7UP Free Ticket to Space sweepstakes takes off this week on www.7UP.com. The sweepstakes will run through August 31, 2005, and will award one lucky consumer the chance to fly to the edge of suborbital space on an FAA-approved commercial space flight.
The sweepstakes is supported by a groundbreaking national TV ad campaign filmed in an authentic zero-gravity environment, aboard G-Force One(TM) -- a plane that simulates the unique experience of weightlessness.
+ 3 - 0 | § ¶Today In History
On this date in 1973, the first crew of Skylab launched on their way to the station. The launch had been delayed for 10 days to allow time for round-the-clock work to find fixes to problems which occurred during Skylab's launch on May 14. The crew of Pete Conrad, Joseph Kerwin and Paul Weitz during their stay were able to repair the crippled spacecraft into fully operational mode.
Also on this date, in 1961, President Kennedy told Congress, "First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish."
+ 2 - 1 | § ¶Positive Discovery
As was announced a while back, before Discovery launches for the STS-114 mission, scheduled for July, the stack currently on the launch pad will have to be rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building to be mated to a new External Tank.
That rollback was delayed recently, though, when cracks were discovered in the landing gear equipment on Atlantis, also currently being prepared for launch, so that Discovery could be checked to make sure it had no similar problems. That check has been completed, and
Discovery's landing gear door mechanism has been found to be in good shape, clearing the way for a rollback scheduled for tomorrow.
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶These Are The Voyagers...
To be honest, I can't remember exactly how much of this is actually new information, but it's still pretty darned cool.
Per Spaceflight Now:
NASA's inteprid Voyager 1 space probe has begun its journey to the stars and is now exploring the farthest reaches of the Sun's influence where the solar wind strangely interacts with interstellar space, agency officials formally announced on Tuesday.
...
The boundary crossed in December marks a point where charged particles constantly emitted from the Sun called the solar wind slow down from hundreds of miles per second to subsonic speeds. This is due to pressure from the interstellar wind, or the gas blowing between stars likely resulting from ancient nearby supernovae.
...
This shock also causes the temperature of the solar wind to significantly increase from about 200,000 degrees to over a million degrees due to the increased density of the particles once inside the heliosheath, which extends out to the heliopause and bow shock - the last official boundaries encountered before entering interstellar space.
24 May 2005
+ 1 - 1 | § ¶Today In History
On this date in 1962, Scott Carpenter became the second American to orbit the Earth following the launch of his Aurora 7 Mercury spacecraft.
+ 2 - 1 | § ¶Sail Away
The Planetary Society's Cosmos 1 spacecraft, which will feature the first solar sail propulsion system to be tested in space,
has been scheduled for launch on June 21.
23 May 2005
+ 2 - 1 | § ¶Ad-ing Up
The FAA is seeking authority to regulate
advertising in Earth orbit, which would enable it to bar space billboards that could be seen from the surface.
+ 1 - 2 | § ¶Show Me The Euros
Russia's proposed Soyuz-successor Klipper spacecraft is taking a major step closer to becoming a reality with the announcement that the
European Space Agency may help foot the bill for the vehicle's development. Rosaviakosmos has been touting the plans for the vehicle for quite a while now, at the same time hinting that it would be much more likely to fly someday if a partner agency would step in with some money.
+ 2 - 1 | § ¶Never Forget
The Orlando Sentinel this weekend published a rather touching story about the
families of the astronauts of Columbia's STS-107 crew.
+ 3 - 0 | § ¶Reach
OK, I thought this was
a really cool video, and I'd love to see it get wider play.
The story behind it is
here.
+ 2 - 1 | § ¶If You Believe...
Though the launch date of the first commercial suborbital spaceflights is still very much in question (at least a year and a half away, and possibly longer), X Prize founder Peter Diamandis believes that
private orbital flights are only five to eight years away, and private lunar missions will follow not far behind that, possibly with far larger stakes than just tourism.
On a related note, Space.com also has an article about the
current state of Virgin Galactic.
20 May 2005
+ 1 - 2 | § ¶Passing In The Martian Night
The image above is a picture of NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft taken by the Mars Global Surveyor orbiter. The picture was part of a batch the agency released of
the first images one spacecraft orbiting another planet has taken of other spacecraft.
+ 1 - 2 | § ¶Abandon Ship?
Per Space.com:
NASA may have to partially abandon the International Space Station if the Bush administration can't figure a way around a law that prevents the United States from paying Russia for future flights to the orbiting outpost.
"If we don't have (an) agreement with the Russians, then we won't be able to have people in space for long periods of time," said U.S. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Science Committee.
18 May 2005
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶Today In History
On this date in 1969, the crew of Apollo 10 launched for the Moon, in the final practice run before the Apollo 11 landing.
17 May 2005
+ 2 - 0 | § ¶Moving Opportunity
After spending weeks mired in the martian dirt,
Opportunity appears to be on its way to moving again, if very slowly.
All right, it's time for some Star-Wars-tie-in science: Astronomers have announced that
planets orbiting stars in multi-star systems, as Tatooine does, may actually be pretty common.
16 May 2005
+ 1 - 1 | § ¶The Real Stuff
As the final hours are ticking away before the premiere of the final Star Wars movie, a press conference will be held for
another group planning to soon begin carrying people into space for real. For X Prize contender Canadian Arrow has partnered with an American businessman to form commercial spaceliner PLANETSPACE, and will be announcing Wednesday details of its plans to use its V2-inspired rocket to carry passengers on suborbital spaceflights.
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶On A Star Trek
Turns out
there were two astronauts on Friday's Trek finale. Not only was ISS Expedition 9 Science Officer Mike Fincke in the show (which I'd heard about beforehand and spotted during the episode), but so was
unflown astronaut Terry Virts.
+ 2 - 0 | § ¶Expedition 12
The
next International Space Station crew, scheduled to launch in October, has been officially announced. The crew will be commanded by astronaut Bill McArthur, who had originally been assigned to last year's Expedition 9. McArthur is a veteral of three spaceflights, including one of the final assembly missions to the ISS before it was crewed.
Joining McArthur will be cosmonaut Valery Tokarev. Originally selected as part of the group that will fly Buran, Tokarev has made only one spaceflight, on the STS-96 mission of the Shuttle (meaning that his launch to ISS will be the first time the cosmonaut has flown on a Russian vehicle).
NASA has also confirmed that another ISS crew member will be awaiting Exp. 12 when they arrive. ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter is scheduled to catch a ride to the Station aboard Atlantis on its STS-121 mission in September. Reiter, who will be the first non-NASA or -RSA astronaut to spent a long-duration stay on the ISS, is scheduled to begin his mission around the 10th anniversary of his previous spaceflight, a 179-day stay on Mir.
14 May 2005
+ 2 - 0 | § ¶Today In History
On this date in 1973, the Skylab space station was launched, using the final Saturn V booster to ever fly.
13 May 2005
+ 1 - 1 | § ¶RTF Update
As of today, it's now two months until Return to Flight.
(Which would seem cooler if we hadn't posted weeks ago that it was only one month until RTF. [In fact, it wasn't all that long ago that the launch was scheduled for Sunday.])
+ 2 - 0 | § ¶The Sky Is Falling
Australia's government was embarrassed yesterday after an e-mail was mistakenly sent out saying, "
This is a message to let you know that Perth is dangerous at this time of year."
Perhaps the e-mail's author was thinking of the city's summer tendency to be
targetted by falling space stations.
+ 1 - 1 | § ¶Scheduling Aera
Aera Corp. has
begun selling tickets for its commercial spaceflight service, which it says will begin launching passengers on suborbital spaceflights in December 2006.
Which strikes me as awfully optimistic for a company whose spacecraft exists solely on paper at this point. Aera plans to develop, build and flight test a new seven-person spacecraft and a launch vehicle in about a year and a half.
12 May 2005
+ 1 - 1 | § ¶Another Way?
Three interesting statements made recently by NASA head Mike Griffin:
- It may not be possible to complete the International Space Station by 2010.
- The Space Shuttle will be retired by 2010.
- The Space Station will will be completed.
For all three of those statements to be true, as Griffin acknowledges, it may be neccessary to
find another means to complete ISS. No word on what that would be, but only one solution seems possible -- bringing a new heavy-lift vehicle online in the next five years or so.
It's not an impossible idea -- in fact, there are two rather easy ways of doing it -- but it would require serious dedication, soon.
+ 1 - 0 | § ¶Oh, Crap!
In yet another example of scientists being so concerned with whether they
could do a thing that they don't stop to think about whether they
should do a thing, researchers at Duke University have brought humanity a step closer to subjugation by
giving monkeys powerful robot limbs!
Keywords: monkeys,robot_holocaust,science
11 May 2005
+ 2 - 0 | § ¶X Files
The design of the formerly Marshall-managed X-37 is apparently about to soon undergo atmospheric testing. White Knight, the Scaled Composites mothership used to launch SpaceShipOne will carry the now-DARPA-run vehicle aloft for
approach and landing drop tests at an undisclosed point in the future. While dates of the tests won't be announced in advance, ground-based taxi runs have already been conducted. The
X-37, which was being used by NASA as a technology demonstrator associated with Orbital Space Plane development, was transferred to DARPA during the switch from OSP to CEV.
There has been speculation that the X-37 could be the foundation of a future
space bomber.
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶What So Proudly We Hailed
Roughly eight months after it was damaged during the hurricanes that battered Florida,
the giant flag on KSC's Vehicle Assembly Building has been repaired. (As recently as when I saw it a week and a half ago, the flag -- and VAB -- were still visibly marred, and every time I passed the building, crews were suspended on its exterior making repairs.) There's still much work yet to be done on the VAB, but the flag repair is easily visible proof of the progress that has been made so far.
+ 1 - 3 | § ¶Another Pic Of The Wall
This blog has reported before on the can-you-or-can't-you discussions about whether the Great Wall of China is visible from space. While the original claims that you can were complete myths with pre-space-age roots, they do have a slight grain of truth to them. Astronaut Leroy Chiao
took pictures of the Wall while on ISS, though said he could not actually see it himself while taking the pictures.
+ 1 - 1 | § ¶RTF Update
So apparently the launch of Discovery
is scheduled for 3:51 p.m. EDT on Wed., July 13, though that, of course, is subject to change.
10 May 2005
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶CEV ASAP
Per UPI:
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin moved rapidly to install his strategy to build America's next-generation spaceship by 2010, the Washington Post reported.
Griffin plans to assemble an Apollo-style team of experts to recommend two finalists by the end of July to develop a new workhorse exploration vehicle, according to internal memorandums the newspaper obtained.
