30 June 2005
+ 2 - 0 | § ¶RTF Update
T
-13 days, 8 minutes.
And counting.
+ 2 - 0 | § ¶Today In History
On this date in 1971, cosmonauts Viktor Patsayev, Georgi Dobrovolsky and Vladislav Volkov died during the return to Earth in their Soyuz 11 vehicle after leaving the Salyut 1 space station, due to decompression of the Soyuz spacecraft during descent.
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶Impact Astronomy
For any skywatchers in the audience, here's some info on
watching the Deep Impact comet collision Monday.
+ 1 - 1 | § ¶RTF Update
Today's the day.
NASA senior managers are currently winding down the two-day
Flight Readiness Review for the STS-114 Return to Flight mission, during which they will decide if and when Discovery will be ready to launch.
An announcement of an official launch date could come as early as 11:30 a.m. CDT.
Addendum: Make that no earlier than 1:30 p.m. CDT.
29 June 2005
+ 1 - 1 | § ¶The Last Planet
You can
send your name to Pluto on NASA's New Horizons mission.
+ 1 - 1 | § ¶Today In History
On this date 10 years ago, the Space Shuttle docked with Mir for the first time, on the STS-71 mission of Atlantis (roughly 20 years after the previous international space docking).
+ 1 - 1 | § ¶Fly Buy
With the issue of U.S. access to ISS nearing a crisis point, the White House is petitioning Congress for relief. After earlier remarks indicating it would not reach this point, the administration has
asked Congress to amend the Iran Nonproliferation Act to allow NASA to purchase Soyuz seats from Russia. Without the amendment or some other agreement, NASA would no longer be able to use the Russian vehicles starting next spring. While the agency would be able to use the Shuttle to carry astronauts to and from the Station, they would not be able to stay for long duration missions without a lifeboat to assure a safe return to Earth in the event of a problem.
+ 1 - 1 | § ¶RTF Update
All the pieces appear to be on the table, and NASA's senior managers are meeting today and tomorrow for the
Flight Readiness Review that will determine officially the launch date for STS-114.
Administrator Mike Griffin said that, barring the unforeseen, the agency will most likely emerge from the FRR ready to go.
According to the currect schedule, today is two weeks until launch.
28 June 2005
+ 2 - 0 | § ¶RTF Update
Given the mainstream media coverage of NASA, it's no wonder a lot of people have the opinions they do. Yesterday, the independent Return To Flight Task Group announced that, while it agreed that NASA had met 12 of the CAIB recommendations, it believes agency had failed to meet three others.
I saw the first official report on the Netscape home page last night, which had a headline along the lines of "NASA slammed on safety."
Well, it's
a bit more complicated than that. Here are some quotes from yesterday's hearing:
"I would not have a concern about flying," [board chair and former astronaut Dick Covey] said.
Said board member Joe Cuzzupoli: "We feel it is a safe vehicle to fly, based on their inputs."
While the mainstream headlines have backed off a bit from yesterday, they still strike me as a bit more negative than the facts warrant.
The article I linked to also indicates that NASA senior managers plan to give a "go" for launch next month at this week's Flight Readiness Review.
In other RTF news,
loading of hypergolic propellants began last Wednesday, and will be completed this week, another sign that the agency appears to be serious about launching soon.
As of this writing, we are at T -15 days, 5 hours, 37 minutes. And counting.
27 June 2005
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶RTF Update
At a meeting Friday, NASA managers decided
Discovery is still go for a July launch. Another meeting will be held late this week for a final decision on whether to go ahead with the scheduled July 13 launch date (now 16 days away, more than a week closer than it's ever been).
Should the launch be delayed beyond the next window, which extends until the end of July, the next available opportunity will begin in September (STS-121 is currently scheduled for launch during that window, with a date now set for NET Sept. 9).
When the Space Shuttle Challenger was lost on January 28, 1986, the next launch was not until two years and eight months later, on Sept. 29, 1988.
It has now been two years and almost five months since the loss of Columbia. If STS-114 launches either in July or September, the RTF delay this time will be less than the last; this hiatus would not pass the post-51-L gap until October 3.
FYI, the year-or-more pauses in American spaceflight have been:
- Post-STS-107 RTF: Feb. 1, 2003 until ... -- 2 years, 4 months, 26 days, so far
- Post-51-L RTF: Jan. 28, 1986 until Sept. 29, 1988 -- 2 years, 8 months, 1 day
- Apollo/Shuttle Gap: July 24, 1975 until April 12, 1981 -- 5 years, 8 months, 19 days
- Gemini/Apollo Gap: Nov. 15, 1966 until Oct. 11, 1968 -- 1 year, 11 months, 27 days. (Includes Apollo I RTF, from Jan. 27, 1967 until Oct. 11, 1968, 1 year, 8 months, 15 days.)
- Mercury/Gemini Gap: May 16, 1963 until March 23, 1965 -- 1 year, 10 months, 7 days
Addendum: The
launch date announcement will be Thursday.
23 June 2005
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶Eye In The Sky
Despite a press release stating that the above image is a picture of
a dust ring around a star that gives evidence for the discovery of a new planet, it's pretty clear that the Hubble Space Telescope has discovered Sauron.
+ 1 - 1 | § ¶Lost Spacecraft Update
Despite what appeared to be weak telemetry data yesterday morning, the solar sail spacecraft
Cosmos 1 appears to have been lost.
22 June 2005
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶Conjunction Junction
For the skygazers in the audience,
Mercury, Venus and Saturn are going to be doing some cool stuff this weekend.
+ 1 - 1 | § ¶Today In History
On this date in 1978, Pluto's moon, Charon, was discovered by astronomer James Christy.
Also on this date, in 1973, the first crew of Skylab returned to Earth after their record-setting stay in space.
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶Lost Spacecraft
Cosmos 1, the Planetary Society's solar sail spacecraft,
disappeared yesterday after its launch on a Russian booster. After ground stations did not receive any signals from the spacecraft, there were reports from Russia that the booster had malfunctioned in a way that caused it to fail to place the spacecraft in orbit. Now, however, mission controllers have announced that they have received what appears to be telemetry from the spacecraft, indicating that it may well be in some sort of orbit.
A technology testbed for Cosmos 1 was lost in 2001 due to the failure of its Russian Volna launch vehicle.
21 June 2005
+ 1 - 1 | § ¶Partners?
The issue of international cooperation in the Vision for Space Exploration has been something of a touchy one. While Bush and former NASA administrator O'Keefe both said from the beginning that the Vision would involve the participation of other nations, other nations have pointed out that none have actually been asked to participate.
If this
report on Space.com is true, that apparently is changing:
The Russian Federal Space Agency is considering a US proposal to participate in its Moon program.
"We have received an official invitation from NASA to join the Moon program and are now considering it," Federal Space Agency chief Anatoly Perminov told a news conference at the Interfax main office on Tuesday.
Perminov said the matter will be discussed in greater detail in autumn. Missions to other planets and the Moon "are only in NASA plans."
Such serious programs can be carried out only through international partnership, he said. "The safety and reliability of flights requires international cooperation," he said.
Addendum: Meanwhile, Japan is making plans to, by 2025,
establish a Moonbase -- for robots!
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶KSNN RTF
Another
NASA site for kids and educators about Return to Flight is now online, and it features a bit more of my work than the last one did.
+ 1 - 1 | § ¶RTF Update
After being moved back to the pad, Discovery is now a step closer to being ready to launch than it got before the rollback -- the payload for the STS-114 mission has been loaded in its cargo bay.
Florida Today reports that
NASA officials are confident that the RTF mission will fly in July.
+ 1 - 1 | § ¶Today In History
On year ago today, SpaceShipOne became the first private manned vehicle to enter space.
Of course, today, one year after the era of private spaceflight began, said era has been on hiatus for well over half a year. SpaceShipOne was effectively mothballed after its second October X Prize flight, and despite all the talk of future vehicles, none has set a launch date yet.
Still, while, unlike a year ago today, it would be no more possible today for someone to fly into space on a private spacecraft than it was two years ago,
things are changing. Though no one has a working vehicle today, many are in development, and, while it's quieter than other space races have been, the stakes for the companies trying to be the first to put a passenger into space are very real.
+ 2 - 0 | § ¶Sail Away
The Planetary Society's
Cosmos I spacecraft will launch today at 2:26 p.m. CDT. The Earth orbiter will test a solar-sail propulsion technology demonstrator system, beginning with the deployment of its sails on Sunday.
Addendum: While the Planetary Society's site seems (understandably) slow today, Spaceref has an article about how you can
spot Cosmos 1 flying overhead.
20 June 2005
+ 1 - 1 | § ¶RTF Update
I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere else, so I could be wrong, but if my math is correct (and, knowing me, that's a big if), the countdown to the launch of STS-114 is now at the lowest point it's ever reached, at 23 days.
+ 2 - 0 | § ¶Trailer On The Moon
collectSPACE has the
teaser trailer for Magnificent Desolation, the 3D IMAX movie coming out in September about the Apollo missions to the Moon. I loved the Space Station 3D movie, and am really looking forward to seeing this one.
Keywords: 3_d,apollo,collectspace,history,moon,movies,space
+ 1 - 1 | § ¶Manual Progress
From Spaceflight Now:
Space station commander Sergei Krikalev took over manual control of an approaching Russian supply ship this evening and remotely guided the robotic craft to a picture-perfect docking after problems prevented an automatic linkup.
The unmanned Progress supply craft, launched Thursday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, was poised for final approach when a problem on the ground prevented Russian flight controllers from sending commands to initiate the procedure.
16 June 2005
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶Today In History
On this date in 1963, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space on Vostok 6.
15 June 2005
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶Can I Get A Witness!
ISS Expedition 11 Science Officer
John Phillips became the first person to testify before Congress from space yesterday.
Thus bringing the nation one step closer to a space-based State of the Union address.
+ 2 - 1 | § ¶Rollout II
Rollout of Discovery back to the launch pad
began at 12:58 a.m. CDT today, and is apparently ongoing as of this writing.
T -28 days. And counting.
14 June 2005
+ 3 - 0 | § ¶Saturn Live
The U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville has set up a new Web site where you can watch
the refurbishment of the Saturn V live. Work is scheduled to begin this week.
+ 1 - 1 | § ¶Rollout Update
Discovery's
second rollout is now scheduled for tonight at 12:01 a.m. EDT (11:01 p.m. CDT) -- the exact same time that Batman Begins will be premiering on the East coast! Coincidence?
+ 2 - 0 | § ¶Under Construction
There's been a good bit of speculation for a while, but NASA administrator Mike Griffin recently confirmed it:
the Space Shuttle will not be able to fly the 28 missions needed to "complete" the International Space Station before the fleet is retired in 2010. Griffin said he will be meeting with the heads of agency partners to decide how best to carry out assembly of the ISS given the resources available.
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶Familiar New Worlds
So, it's not exactly a Class-M planet -- an orbital radius so close to its star that it's "year" is under two days would make it pretty inhospitable to life as we know it -- but it's the closest thing ever discovered.
Astronomers yesterday announced the
discovery of a planet less than eight times the mass of Earth, orbiting a star much like our Sun. The planet is believed to be rocky, like those in our inner solar system. The planet is part of a stellar system with at least two other, Jupiter-class, worlds.
13 June 2005
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶RTF Update
As of today, the Return to Flight STS-114 launch of Discovery is one month away. (Again.)
Rollout is scheduled for tonight. (Again.)
+ 0 - 2 | § ¶RTF Kids
After a lot of time and a lot of work, NASA's
Return to Flight Web site for Kids went online Friday.
Along with many others, I was part of the team that contributed to putting this site together (and even got to help design it), so I had to show it off here.
09 June 2005
+ 1 - 1 | § ¶RTF TG Update
Per The Orlando Sentinel:
With five weeks remaining before space shuttle Discovery's planned launch, NASA moved closer Wednesday to meeting 15 key recommendations for safely returning to flight.
An advisory group led by former astronauts Thomas Stafford and Richard Covey found the space agency had satisfied four more recommendations made by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, bringing the total to 12.
Three key items remain open, but those may be wrapped up after a NASA review of launch-debris hazards scheduled for June 24.
...
"There is nothing out there where we have grave concern," Covey said during a public meeting in Houston on Wednesday. "We don't see anything out there that we have big questions about that are not the same questions that the [shuttle] program is looking at."
08 June 2005
