31 July 2006
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶STS-125 Update
For the Hubble-huggers in the ATW audience, Space.com has a look at the
safety issues involved in HSM-4.
According to the article, Griffin has said no decision will be made until after the end of STS-115.
The one thing NASA could do that would give me some degree of confidence in a Hubble mission, and I realize there are reasons why this won't happen, would be to launch two station missions so that both are in space at the same time. (I realize flight rules say they can't both be docked at the same time, but even if one launched the day before the other was to land, there would be an overlap, and that would give the station crew a little bit of time to regroup.) Doing this successfully would prove that it would be possible to send a rescue crew up in the event of damage to an orbiter on the servicing mission. (Of course, truth be told, Hubble aside, I just would like to see them do this once before the shuttle's retired. Oh well.)
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶STS-115 Update
Per NASA:
Due to weather conditions, the scheduled roll out of Space Shuttle Atlantis to Launch Pad 39B was delayed. The new target time for first motion is set for no earlier than 10:00 p.m. EDT tonight.
The launch window for this mission to resume construction of the International Space Station opens Aug. 27. During their 11 days in space, the astronauts will install the integrated P3/P4 truss segment with its two large solar arrays that will provide one-fourth of the total power generation capability of the completed station.
OK, that's an argument against me trying to go see the launch. This delay, and the fact that the new launch date is the day before the anniversary of Katrina, might make one believe there's a chance there may be some weather issues for 115 as well. Who knows, though?
Of course, with a Sept. 1 deadline for the book, I may be otherwise occupied around that time anyway. (Though, really, I should have placed the manuscript in the mail by then, and be ready to celebrate.)
Addendum: OK, so now there's talk of
a Saturday launch. Which would change things again. Hrm.
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶Casting My Vote
OK, I just did something cool. (Well, to me, at least.)
For the first time, I just cast my proxy vote as a shareholder of a public corporation in preparation for
SpaceDev, Inc.'s annual shareholder meeting next week.
Nothing major on the docket, and my shares have exactly zero sway, I realize, but even so it's somewhat exciting to be actually participating, in a very very very minor way, in the future of commercial spaceflight. To be honest, I bought SpaceDev in no small part because they were cheap, though their SpaceShipOne connection (and accompanying slight Huntsville connection) was certainly a factor, also.
Now, though, I'm somewhat partial to their plans for the
Dream Chaser, and would love to see it become a reality.
28 July 2006
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶Aliens Among Us
It turns out, according to Project P.R.O.V.E. at least, that
a UFO was spotted during the STS-121 mission. Not only that, but a self-luminous UFO the size of a small city that wasn't noticed from the ground, despite being at cloud level.
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶STS-115 Update
As speculated, the STS-115 launch of Atlanis has been
moved forward one day due to scheduling conflicts with the Expedition 14 crew's Soyuz launch.
The launch is now scheduled for August 27, at 4:29:47 p.m. EDT.
(I've said I wouldn't even consider trying to go to this launch unless it were moved, so this complicates things for me. Oh well.)
26 July 2006
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶Space Falls
Per The Baltimore Sun:
[Bill Pullman]'s in Baltimore to fine-tune Expedition 6, the play that he has written and is directing about three astronauts, two Americans and one Russian, who were stranded on the International Space Station in 2003. (The play still is being developed, but the public is invited to attend two open rehearsals this weekend.)
...
After the shuttle Columbia exploded on Feb. 1, 2003, killing all seven crew members, space missions were halted temporarily. Americans Kenneth Bowersox and Donald Pettit and Russian cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin were forced to spend an additional two months orbiting 240 miles above Earth.
When they did attempt re-entry in a tiny Russian Soyuz spacecraft in May 2003, the crew lost radio control with aeronautics officials for 90 minutes and landed nearly 290 miles off course, in the steppes of Kazakhstan.
...
Until Expedition 6, Pullman never had written a play, but he was captivated by the plight of the trio and their eventual rescue.
"This story never got the attention it deserved," he says. "On March 20, 2003, the war started, and for months afterward, everything else that happened in the world was sort of buried in the back of the paper."
...
Pullman instantly realized the potential of actors on trapezes for dramatizing a story about space exploration, and he and McCray Rincon joined forces. Expedition 6 incorporates excerpts from such sources as the Quran, newspaper interviews with the astronauts, speeches by Osama bin Laden and NASA reports, and it features recent graduates of the theater training program.
As Pullman read and wrote and thought, the rescue of the three explorers gradually formed into a metaphor. The two Americans and one Russian were alone, adrift and tremendously vulnerable. Their plight symbolized the fragility of the very notion of international brotherhood. Every time that year that Pullman picked up a newspaper, he was struck by the ease with which that ideal could be shattered.
"What we have in mind is to take Expedition 6 to 10 cities with connections with the aerospace industry," Pullman says. "We'd also like to have ancillary activities going on around it: lectures and panel discussions, a real Chautauqua kind of a thing," he says, referring to an educational movement that flourished throughout the United States in the early 20th century.
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶STS-115 Update
25 July 2006
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶Saving Skylab
Finally, a much-needed effort is beginning to restore the
deteriorating Skylab mock-up at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center here in Huntsville.
I'm very excited to see this project getting started; it's really a shame what has been allowed to happen to this relic.
(Not much to post at the moment -- though there are some of my pictures at that link -- I'm mainly just posting this as a heads-up because I'll almost certainly be following up as they get further in the project.)
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶Enduring Spirit
The Spirit rover on Mars has passed another milestone -- it's now operated for 10 times its nominal mission.
Originally planned with a 90-sol lifespan, Spirit recently marked its
900th sol on the Red Planet.
Keywords: mars,nasa,rovers,space
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶Hundreds Of Worlds
Per USA Today:
In real life, science fiction turns into science with little fanfare, certainly a disappointment for fans of zap guns, teleportation and mini-skirted aliens. Take the discovery of planets circling nearby stars — a minor sensation a few years ago, but now almost humdrum. With little fanfare though, planet detectives have now found an astounding 200 planets orbiting nearby stars.
A little more than a decade ago, that number was zero. Since that time, planet detections have confirmed astronomers' suspicions stretching back centuries, along with many a space opera writer's plot outline.
24 July 2006
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶STS-115 Update
As of this morning,
Atlantis is in the VAB, and the stacking process will begin today.
Rollout to Pad 39B is scheduled for one week from today.
According to the current schedule, launch is scheduled for one month, four days from today. And, here's a phrase that hasn't been applied to a shuttle launch for a while -- But it could be a little bit sooner.
21 July 2006
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶Naming CEV
Space spoilsport Robert Pearlman may have taken away the excitement of the announcement of the name for NASA's new Crew Exploration Vehicle by finding what appears to be the name via a public document search.
According to collectSPACE,
NASA has received a federal trademark for the use of the name Orion for the CEV.
Keywords: collectspace,constellation,nasa,orion,space
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶Buy A Walk
Space Adventures has announced they've struck a deal to be able to
sell spacewalks on their ISS tourism flights. Adding the spacewalk option would bump up the cost by another $15 million, bringing the total to $35 million.
I see the appeal, and it would be a very cool experience, but, man, it strikes me as a bad, bad idea, and a huge waste of station resources. (NASA was quoted this morning as saying they have not been contacted about the plans by any partner agency.)
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶STS-115 Update
Per Spaceflight Now:
Space shuttle Atlantis will move closer to its first flight in almost four years when the orbiter is hauled into Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building at sunrise Monday.
Perched atop the 76-wheel Orbiter Transporter System, the shuttle will driven a quarter-mile from its hangar to the VAB around 6 a.m. EDT (1000 GMT).
...
Rollout to launch pad 39B is expected on Monday, July 31, if all goes well.
Atlantis will resume construction of the International Space Station with delivery of the outpost's second set of power-generating solar arrays. Liftoff had been targeted for August 28. However, managers are looking at moving up the launch date to Sunday, August 27. The preferred launch time within the day's 10-minute window would 4:30 p.m. EDT (2030 GMT).
You know, it's still kind of hard to believe that everything is moving ahead on a regular schedule. Part of me keeps waiting for the announcement that there's going to be another major delay. I've worked at Marshall for almost four years now, during which time there have been five launches, three of which were in the first five months. It's going to be nice to work for a NASA that actually launches people into space regularly. (And here's hoping CEV development is funded adequately, and proceeds quickly. By the time the shuttle fleet is retired, it will mean regular flights were made regularly for about half of my eight years here, if I'm still around [which I'd hope to be]. A good delay for CEV, and being grounded would once again be the rule, rather than the exception.)
20 July 2006
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶Also Today In History
Today marks the 30th anniversary of the
Viking I landing on Mars.
Arguably the first successful Mars lander mission, NASA's Viking 1 and 2 missions to Mars, each consisting of an orbiter and a lander, became the first space probes to obtain high resolution images of the Martian surface; characterize the structure and composition of the atmosphere and surface; and conduct on-the-spot biological tests for life on another planet (the results of which, 30 years later, are still the subject of
some controversy).
This bit amused me: "Originally designed to function for 90 days, the Viking spacecraft continued collecting data for more than six years." Was that 90 days established using the same technique used to predict the 90-day lifespan of Spirit and Opportunity? Or, perhaps, the conversation went something like, "So, how long do you think these rovers will last on Mars?" "I think they should be able to last as long as Viking did." "Oh, so 90 days, then?"
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶Today In History
Celebrate the occasion by playing the
lunar lander game I commissioned a couple of years back.
19 July 2006
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶Returned To Flight
Per AFP:
With Discovery and its crew of six safely back on Earth, NASA set its eyes on next month's scheduled launch that should mark the resumption of regular shuttle flights.
Monday's conclusion of Discovery's near-flawless 13-day mission marked a milestone for the US space program that has been plagued by continuing problems and safety concerns since Columbia broke apart in a fiery reentry on February 1, 2003.
"It was an enormously successful flight ... we're back on track," said NASA chief Michael Griffin after Discovery's smooth touchdown at the Kennedy Space Center on Florida's Atlantic Coast.
And,
per the AP:
NASA faces 16 more shuttle flights to complete the space station and, hopefully, repair the popular Hubble Space Telescope before the shuttle fleet is grounded in 2010. A decision is expected by fall on whether to send a shuttle to Hubble one final time to extend the observatory's life.
18 July 2006
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶Blowing Up In Space Update
Per Space.com:
Turns out that Genesis-1 is toting a NASA payload – a shoebo
ized experiment dubbed “GeneBox” – a miniature laboratory that includes sensors and optical systems that can detect proteins and specific genetic activity.
The plan is to activate the GeneBox in a few weeks time with the micro-lab’s data relayed to the ground for further analysis. This trial run of hardware onboard Genesis-1 is a forerunner of tiny spacecraft called GeneSats being pursued by NASA Ames Research Center specialists.
...
Also onboard the Genesis-1, lots of personal items from Bigelow Aerospace employees. The space firm released footage from one of six interior cameras viewing the “Fly Your Stuff” payload supplied by Bigelow Aerospace employees. The objects are seen fluttering around within the module due to internal fans.
17 July 2006
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶Blowing Up In Space Update
Yeah, so it's a two-big-pictures-on-the-same-day day. Sorry.
Anyway, the picture above is the first image of
Bigelow Aerospace's Genesis I module inflated in orbit.
That, folks, is the future of space tourism.
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶STS-115 Update
NASA and Roskosmos are discussing
potential changes to the shuttle and Soyuz launch schedules since there is a potential conflict between the flight of STS-115 and the launch of the ISS Expedition 14 crew on Soyuz.
Unfortunately, the thing they're trying to avoid -- which is against mission rules -- would be kinda cool if they would do it. Under the current schedule, it sets up the possibility that both Soyuz would arrive for the crew change-out while Atlantis was still at ISS. That would mean there would be three crewed spacecraft docked with ISS simultaneously (in addition to, I believe, a Progress or two) and a record twelve people woudl be aboard. However, as neat as that may be, it turns out its a bad idea.
The agencies are reportedly leaning towards shortening the STS-115 window and pushing the Expedition 14 launch back a few days. There's also talk of opening the 115 window a little bit earlier (which would move it into the weekend. Hmmmm...)
If Atlantis misses the August/September window, there's a three-day window in late October, which, if used, would allow STS-116 to stay on schedule for Dec. 14.
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶STS-121 Final Update
'Wheels stop."
The STS-121 crew and the space shuttle Discovery have returned safely to Earth after a successful 13-day mission to the International Space Station.
It is currently one month, 11 days until the scheduled STS-115 launch of Atlantis. (The countdown box in the lefthand sidebar has been reset.)
16 July 2006
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶Lazy Sunday
I went to the Third Annual Apollo/Saturn V Reunion at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center last night, but, since my photos and notes are already posted at collectSPACE, rather than reposting it here, I'm just going to
direct you there.
Keywords: collectspace,history,huntsville,saturn,ussrc
14 July 2006
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶Sidebar Update Update
Having found some more information that supports and clarifies some of the stuff I wasn't sure about, I've gone back into the left-hand sidebar and made a few more additions to the launch schedule info. While tentative, this means the shuttle launch schedule is now
complete.
In fact, it's arguably more than complete, since the missions I added include STS-125, which would be the final Hubble servicing mission, but which I do not believe is officially go at this point.
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶Shuttle Sighting Update
The Discovery thing has started packing things up to
leave the station tomorrow at 6:08 a.m. and begin the two-day trip home.
During the return trip, there may be opportunities to see the two spacecraft following each other through robit. You can visit
Skywatch to see when or whether they'll pass over your location.
13 July 2006
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶Picture Of The Day
At the U.S. Space & Rocket Center last week, I made the comment to someone that their outdated -- and overly ambitious -- artwork of what the International Space Station would look like when finished needed a little footnote: "*NOTE: Actual Space Station may vary from model pictured here."
The picture above, though, is the current planned complete version of ISS, and, assuming the shuttle is actually ready to start flying regularly again, seems to be an attainable goal.
In contrast, here's
the station's configuration prior to Discovery's arrival.
More images of the
planned complete status can be found here.
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶Blowing Up In Space Update
Per Space.com:
Robert Bigelow, head of Bigelow Aerospace has confirmed that the Genesis-1 spacecraft has successfully expanded. “We have also confirmed that all of the solar arrays have been deployed,” he noted.
At the firm’s mission control center in Las Vegas, Nevada, information has been acquired from Genesis-1. “The ISC Kosmotras Dnepr rocket has flawlessly delivered the Genesis-1 into the target orbit of 550 kilometers altitude at 64 degrees inclination,” Bigelow said.
...
“It’s going better than we would have anticipated,” added Mike Gold, corporate counsel for Bigelow Aerospace in Washington, D.C. Both he and Pierson, and other Bigelow Aerospace personnel were on hand for the Dnepr liftoff that placed Genesis-1 into Earth orbit.
12 July 2006
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶Career Options
Heh
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶STS-121 Update
Per Spaceflight Now:
The Discovery astronauts, working through a relatively relaxed day of space station equipment and supply transfers, say the shuttle's trouble-free launch and lack of significant impact damage show NASA is finally ready to put the Columbia tragedy behind it.
"My brother put it very well," pilot Mark Kelly, whose twin brother, Scott, is also an astronaut, told The Associated Press. "I spoke to him on what's called the IP phone, which is an internet phone, and he said 'we're back, baby!'"
11 July 2006
+ 1 - 0 | § ¶Sidebar Update
Even though it is a complete exercise in futility, I've finally, after way too long, gotten around to updating the Aerospace Events box in the left-hand sidebar, making the assumption that with the success, so far, of STS-121, the shuttle may be able to resume flying something like a regular schedule.
That said, all of the dates listed are
extremely subject to change.
I've also updated several of the individual mission pages, and added a few more of those. Those, too, are very subject to change.
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶Blowing Up In Space
Russia has had some problems with launch vehicles in the last few years (as
India did yesterday), but if the payload of a rocket scheduled for launch tomorrow blows up in orbit, then things will have gone perfectly.
According to Cosmic Log,
Bigelow Aerospace's Genesis 1 inflatable space module is scheduled for launch tomorrow on a Russian rocket. As CL puts it, "If Bigelow Aerospace's Genesis 1 inflatable space module lifts off successfully, the test mission could mark a significant step toward an era of hotels and even sports complexes in space."
In my mind, Bigelow's work is possibly
the most important step in the development of orbital space tourism, providing a destination in space where people would actually want to go. Sure, just being in orbit would be great, but to really enjoy it, you need space to float around, and volume is going to be a huge limitation for developers of
