Orbit 17 +++ Space and beyond
galaxies, science, exploration, astronomy (blog)
Posts tagged shuttle
NASA plans for shuttle Endeavour to liftoff as per schedule
Jan 12th
Space Shuttle Endeavour rolls to launch pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center January 6, 2010 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Coolant hoses on board the to-be-launched Tranquility module failed pre-launch checks. Credit: Matt Stroshane / Getty Images
NASA is still hoping to launch the shuttle Endeavour in early February as engineers scramble to repair broken hoses on the new space station module set to ride aboard the orbiter.
Endeavour is slated to launch the new Tranquility module to the International Space Station on Feb. 7 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. But two of the module’s four ammonia coolant hoses have failed standard pre-launch checks, forcing engineers to come up with a repair plan while others try to build new hoses from scratch, station managers said Monday.
“Folks are working really hard to get the hoses checked out, completed, certified [and] tested,” said Pete Hasbrook, NASA manager for the Expedition 22 mission aboard the space station. “We are still working toward the Feb. 7 launch date.”
NASA extends life of Chandra X-ray mission, funding until 2013
Jan 9th
After a decade of scanning the universe, NASA’s orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory has a new lease on life – one that could extend its mission through 2013, and possibly longer.
NASA officially extended the 10-year-old Chandra mission by extending its science support contract by $172 million, which will fund the effort through 2013 and bring its total base cost up to $545 million. Options for two more life extensions for the healthy space telescope could increase its value to $913 million, NASA officials said.
“I think it’s very good news,” said astronomer Roger Brissenden, manager and flight director of the Chandra X-ray Center overseeing the space telescope’s science operations. “It shows they really do have confidence that the spacecraft is healthy and able to do good science.”
NASA discovers evidence of ancient lakes on Mars
Jan 7th
New images taken from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show that huge lakes of melted ice may have once existed on ancient Mars. The lakes suggest a possible warm, wet period that may have occurred more recently than previously thought. Scientists hope to prove that these ancient lakes may have hosted life of some form.
Thus far, there is no firm evidence of any past or present Martian biology. But these new photos show winding channels that link several lake-like depressions in the Martian surface. NASA speculates that these channels could only have been caused by Martian lake water running between the depressions about 3 billion years ago. We already know that water once existed on Mars, based on the data collected from other satellites and the Mars rovers. Previous studies also suggest that Mars was warm and wet enough to support liquid lakes around 4 billion years ago.
But this new evidence suggests that Mars could have sustained lakes even later. Nicholas Warner is a researcher who led the study at the Imperial College of London. As Warner explains, “Excitingly, our study now shows that this middle period in Mars’ history was much more dynamic than we previously thought.”
NASA: Hubble peers 13 billion years back in cosmic history
Jan 7th
Less than a year after getting a major overhaul, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has snapped panoramic, full-color images that let astronomers peer more than 13 billion years back into cosmic history.
The newly souped-up Hubble telescope is acting as something of a time machine that allows scientists to see galaxies as they were billions of years ago. Hubble captured images in September and October that have been stitched together to show 7,500 galaxies stretching back through most of the universe’s history.
“With the rejuvenated Hubble and its new instruments, we are now entering unchartered territory that is ripe for new discoveries,” said Garth Illingworth of the University of California and leader of the survey team. “The deepest-ever, near-infrared view of the universe has now been combined with the deepest-ever optical image to push back the frontiers of the searches for the first galaxies and to explore their nature.”
Just 5 Missions Left for NASA’s Space Shuttles
Jan 7th
The end is beginning for NASA’s three aging space shuttles, with just five more missions on tap this year before the orbiter fleet retires in the fall.
That is, unless NASA needs a few more months to fly those remaining missions or President Barack Obama chooses to extend the shuttle program to fill a looming gap in U.S. human spaceflight capability.
Though the ultimate path forward for NASA has not yet been decided, the space agency is at a turning point after nearly 29 years of shuttle flight.
“Obviously it’s the end of an era,” said Roger Launius, space history curator at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. “There’s a certain amount of nostalgia and a sense of loss, no question.”
The very last space shuttle flight, the STS-133 mission of the shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station, is scheduled for September 2010. The launch will be the 134th shuttle voyage since the fleet’s debut in 1981.
NASA Offers Up Space Shuttle for $42M — pretty affordable!
Jan 4th
Space shuttle Atlantis lifts off on the STS-125 mission to the Hubble Space Telescope Credit: Chris Boex / MyFOX photo
NASA has told museums around the country that they can have a genuine space shuttle if they’re willing to pay $42 million, according to the Houston Chronicle .
That’s NASA’s price tag for cleaning up each of the three remaining shuttles — now scheduled to be retired in 2010 — and delivering one to an airport near the museum. It includes $6 million for shipping and handling.
About 20 institutions, including a group of bidders led by Space Center Houston, are reportedly interested, but no decisions have been made.
NASA Focuses Next Mission on Venus, Asteroid or the Moon
Jan 4th
NASA has narrowed the choices for its next unmanned space mission down to three potential expeditions: one aimed at Venus and the others promising to return samples of an asteroid or the moon.
But only one of those contenders will get the green light for $650 million in funding (which excludes rocket costs) and a launch sometime before Dec. 30, 2018. The competition is part of NASA’s New Frontiers program to develop medium-class missions to explore the solar system.
“These are projects that inspire and excite young scientists, engineers and the public,” said Ed Weiler, NASA’s associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, in a statement.
NASA has set aside $3.3 million in seed money for each of the three potential missions in 2010 to flesh out their project concepts, feasibility, costs and management plans. The proposals were submitted in July 2009 and a final selection will be made in mid-2011.
“These three proposals provide the best science value among eight submitted to NASA this year,” Weiler said.
Here’s a look at the top contenders vying for NASA’s next New Frontiers mission slot:
Target: Venus — The Surface and Atmosphere Geochemical Explorer (SAGE) mission to Venus would send a probe plunging through the planet’s atmosphere to land on its harsh surface. The spacecraft would perform extensive measurements of the Venusian atmosphere and weather on the way down, and then dig into the ground to study surface composition and mineralogy.
NASA Plans Backup Astronaut Escape System
Jan 4th
Determined never to repeat the tragic Challenger launch accident, NASA not only is developing a crew escape system for the space shuttles’ replacements; the space agency also has a backup system that could fly astronauts to safety in case of an emergency.
Significantly improving safety is one of the reasons the United States is retiring its three-ship shuttle fleet after five more missions in 2010 to complete construction of the International Space Station.
The shuttles began flying in 1981. Two of the 129 flights ended in disaster, including the Jan. 28, 1986, loss of Challenger, which was destroyed 73 seconds after liftoff due to a leak in one of its booster rockets.
Russia plans space project to prevent asteroid collision — now that’s a serious diversion
Jan 3rd
Russia is considering a project to launch a spaceship to try to divert a large asteroid from hitting Earth after 2030, the head of the country’s space program said today.
Anatoly Perminov, head of Roscosmos, tells Voice of Russia radio that Moscow may invite experts from Europe, the United States and China to join the project aimed at thwarting the menacing asteroid Apophis.
“People’s lives are at stake. We should pay several hundred million dollars and design a system that would prevent a collision, rather than sit and wait for it to happen and kill hundreds of thousands of people,” Perminov says, according to RIA Novosti news agency.
He says it is his understanding that the 850-foot asteroid “will surely collide with the Earth in the 2030s.”
Voyager 2 on a ‘magic mission’ into Milky Way, or Melkweg in Dutch :)
Dec 30th
A map of the Milky Way. Credit: NASA/JPL
Holiday tidings come from NASA’s Voyager 2 this week, offering a view of deep space beyond our sun’s solar system.
Now speeding through space at more than 34,000 miles-per-hour, the 1977 space probe resides more than 8.3. billion miles away from the sun. That is twice as far as Pluto. Two years ago, Voyager 2 passed into the region of space where the sun’s solar wind peters out as it plows into the interstellar gases of our Milky Way galaxy. And now it’s giving us some news from this region, called the “heliosheath,” by astrophysicists.
“This is a magic mission,” says space scientist Merav Opher of George Mason University. in Fairfax, Va.. “After all these years, Voyager 2 is still working and sending us first hand (on-site) data.”