太空探索工程 卫星发射 剪报评论

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ATK, Boeing, Lockheed to launch at SLC 36


Hours after being dedicated for commercial launch operations, Launch Complex 36 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station got its first potential customer.

PlanetSpace, a consortium of ATK, Lockheed Martin and Boeing, announced today that it proposes to launch a 158-foot solid-fuel rocket by 2011 from the historic launch pad at Cape Canaveral, which the Air Force has agreed to lease to Space Florida. The rocket would be capable of carrying about two metric tons of cargo to the International Space Station.

NASA plans to announce who gets the award on Dec. 23. The company says its plan would create 350 new jobs in Florida, with an economic impact of $300 million. PlanetSpace expects to have at least two competitors for the award.

Meanwhile, using state money, Space Florida will set about turning the abandoned complex into a serviceable launch pad, which it hopes will attract other customers to a commercial launch zone where tariffs and other limitations will be eliminated.

"The door is now open to more innovation," said Gov. Charlie Crist, who spoke Wednesday at the groundbreaking of the commercial launch pad.

Launch Complex 36 is now only a domed bunker beside a concrete slab at CCAFS. The U.S. Air Force, which controls the property, intends to lease the site to Space Florida after an environmental impact analysis. Space Florida then would build a launch facility that could accommodate medium to light rockets.

"This is a rebirth of a historical launch complex," said Space Florida President Steve Kohler.

The state has appropriated some $14.5 million for the project and has bonding authority for another $40 million.

"We hope that the first phase of development could reach $55 million to build it out," said Kohler.

PlanetSpace hopes to be first to use the new launch pad in 2011. Under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services program, the group hopes to win a $3.1 billion NASA contract to move 20 metric tons of cargo to the space station with 10 to 12 rocket launches.

PlanetSpace proposes to cobble together existing rocket stages into a workable vehicle that could reach the space station. The first stage would consist of 2.5 solid rocket segments and a steering skirt similar to a solid rocket booster on the space shuttle. The second stage is the ATK CASTOR 120, which is topped by an ATK CASTOR 30 and a flight-proven cargo module.

"The stage itself has not flown, but the pieces that make it up have," said Al Simpson of Lockheed Martin Space Systems.

Work on this commercial venture will not interfere with development of the Ares I, which is scheduled to replace the shuttle in 2015, said ATK spokesman George Torres.

The PlanetSpace rocket will be simpler to launch because it burns solid fuel, Torres added.

"You don't have to fuel it on the pad," he said.

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U.S. astronaut takes station command



A Russian cosmonaut handed over the command of the International Space Station to an American astronaut today as the 18th expedition to the orbiting outpost began in earnest 220 miles above Earth.

NASA astronaut Michael Fincke took the helm from Expedition 17 commander Sergei Volkov as his flight engineer, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, rang a bell inside the station.

The longtime nautical tradition was started aboard the station by retired U.S. astronaut William Shepherd, the commander of the first expedition to the outpost in late 2000.

"I would like to congratulate Expedition 17 on an incredible mission. You guys did so much and you left the ship in really fine shape, and we're very proud to be able to take the ship and work with it hopefully as well as you have," said Fincke, who served as a flight engineer aboard the station in 2004.

"Sergei, you are an amazing, awesome commander; Oleg Dmitriyevich, you know everything -- you are the best engineer."

To make the handover official, Fincke stripped an Expedition 17 mission patch off the flight suit of U.S. astronaut Gregory Chamitoff and then replaced it with an Expedition 18 crew insignia.

Chamitoff flew up to the station on shuttle Discovery and joined the Expedition 17 crew in June. Chamitoff now will work with the Expedition 18 crew and then return to Earth aboard Endeavour, which is scheduled to launch Nov. 14 on a station outfitting mission.

Volkov, Kononenko and space tourist Richard Garriott -- the son of retired U.S. astronaut Owen Garriott -- will depart the station Thursday and make a return to Earth aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

The flight will mark the first time second-generation space travelers have gone through an atmospheric reentry together. Volkov is the son of former Russian cosmonaut Alexander Volkov.

The departure of the Expedition 17 crew, their reentry and their landing in central Asia all will be webcast live here in The Flame Trench.

Look for live NASA TV coverage to begin at 4:45 p.m. EDT Thursday. Volkov, Kononenko and Garriott will climb aboard a Soyuz spacecraft docked at the station and close hatches between the spacecraft at about 5:15 p.m. EDT.

Live coverage of a planned 8:15 p.m. EDT Thursday undocking from the station will begin at 8 p.m., and we'll webcast live NASA TV coverage of the deobit and landing beginning at 10:30 p.m. EDT. Landing in Kazakhstan is scheduled at 10:44 p.m. EDT.

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Endeavour Rollaround Moved To Thursday



Because of an iffy weekend weather forecast, shuttle program managers hope to move Endeavour to launch pad 39A Thursday morning instead of on Saturday.

The unusual move from launch pad 39B about a mile up the coast would start at 8 a.m. and finish about seven hours later.

The decision came today as managers today finished a flight readiness review of Endeavour's planned Nov. 14 launch on an International Space Station outfitting mission.

No major issues were raised in the meetings that would jeopardize the targeted launch date, a Kennedy Space Center spokeswoman said.

NASA executives will set an official launch date during another readiness review scheduled Oct. 30-31.

Shuttles have only moved from one spaceport launch pad to another twice in the program's history, in 1990 and 1993.

The "rollaround," as officials call it, is being made primarily because modifications to pad 39B will begin soon in preparation for an Ares 1X test flight planned next summer and future Ares 1 flights.

Managers preferred to relocate Endeavour sooner rather than later so it will be in place for practice countdown training by Endeavour's seven-person crew next week. The crew arrives Sunday afternoon.

But the final go ahead won't be made until a weather check Thursday morning, and until a payload canister is safely out of the way at the launch pad.

Endeavour's cargo of station supplies and furnishings was delivered to the launch pad early this morning, and should be installed in the payload changeout room by this evening.

The mission will outfit the station so full-time crews can expand from three to six people.

Endeavour's move follows Monday's rollback of Atlnatis from pad 39A to the Vehicle Assembly Building, after its Hubble servicing mission was postponed until at least February.

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India launches lunar mapping mission
This just in from The Associated Press:

NEW DELHI -- India launched its first mission to the moon Wednesday, rocketing a satellite up into the pale dawn sky in a two-year mission to redraw maps of the lunar surface.

Clapping and cheering scientists tracked the ascent on computer screens after they lost sight of Chandrayaan-1 from the Sriharikota space center in southern India. Chandrayaan means "Moon Craft" in ancient Sanskrit.

Indian Space Research Organization chairman G. Madhavan Nair said the mission is to "unravel the mystery of the moon."

"We have started our journey to the moon and the first leg has gone perfectly well," he said.

Chief among the mission's goals is mapping not only the surface of the moon, but what lies beneath. If successful, India will join what's shaping up as a 21st century space race with Chinese and Japanese crafts already in orbit around the moon.

To date only the U.S., Russia, the European Space Agency, Japan and China have sent missions to the moon.

As India's economy has boomed in recent years, it has sought to convert its newfound wealth -- built on the nation's high-tech sector -- into political and military clout. It is hoping that the moon mission -- coming just months after finalizing a deal with the United States that recognizes India as a nuclear power -- will further enhance its status.

Until now, India's space launches have mainly carried weather warning satellites and communication systems, said former NASA associate administrator Scott Pace, director of space policy at the George Washington University.

"You're seeing India lifting its sights," Pace said.

While much of the technology involved in reaching the moon has not changed since the Soviet Union and the U.S. did it more than four decades ago, analysts say new mapping equipment allows the exploration of new areas, including below the surface.

India plans to use the 3,080-pound lunar probe to create a high-resolution map of the lunar surface and the minerals below. Two of the mapping instruments are a joint project with NASA.

In the last year, Asian nations have taken the lead in moon exploration. In October 2007, Japan sent up the Kaguya spacecraft. A month later, China's Chang'e-1 entered lunar orbit.

Those missions took high-resolution pictures of the moon, but are not as comprehensive as Chandrayaan-1 will be or NASA's half-a-billion-dollar Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter scheduled to be launched next year, Pace said. The most comprehensive maps of the moon were made about 40 years ago during the Apollo era, he said.

"We don't really have really good modern maps of the moon with modern instrument," Pace said. "The quality of the Martian maps, I would make a general argument, is superior to what we have of the moon."

NASA has put probes on Mars' frigid polar region, but not on the rugged poles of the moon. Yet the moon's south pole is where NASA is considering setting up an eventual human-staffed lunar outpost, Pace said.

The moon's south pole is "certainly more rugged than where Neil Armstrong landed. It's more interesting. It's more dangerous," Pace said. "We need better maps."

Beijing in 2003 became the first Asian country to put its own astronauts into space. It followed that last month with its first spacewalk.

More ominously, last year China also blasted an old satellite into oblivion with a land-based anti-satellite missile, the first such test ever conducted by any nation, including the United States and Russia.

The Indian mission is not all about rivalry and prestige. Analysts say India stands to reap valuable rewards from the technology it develops and, according to Pace, it already shows increased confidence in difficult engineering and quality control.

The $80 million mission will test systems for a future moon landing, with plans to land a rover on the moon in 2011 and eventually a manned space program, though this has not been authorized yet.

And the Indian space agency was already dreaming of more.

"Space is the frontier for mankind in the future. If we want to go beyond the moon, we have to go there first," said Indian space agency spokesman S. Satish.

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Russians, US tourist land softly in Soyuz

A homebound International Space Station crew made a smooth landing in Kazakhstan on Thursday -- one quite different from rocky rides on the last two return trips aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

Flying at 17,500 mph in an orbit 215 miles above Earth, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov ignited the powerful engines on his Soyuz spacecraft at 10:45 p.m.

Onboard with him were cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and multimillionaire American space tourist Richard Garriott.

The four-minute, 42-second firing slowed the ship enough to send it into a 45-minute plunge back through the atmosphere and toward a landing site on the arid steppes of north-central Kazakhstan.

No re-entry problems were reported. The touchdown near the desolate town of Arkalyk came at 11:37 p.m.

The landing was the first since back-to-back ballistic re-entries by the Soyuz -- steep descents that subjected crews to triple the gravitational forces normally encountered during re-entry. The October 2007 and April 2008 landings were hundreds of miles off course.

It marked the first time that second-generation space travelers journeyed together between low Earth orbit and the planet's surface. Volkov is the son of retired cosmonaut Alexander Volkov. Garriott, who paid the Russian Federal Space Agency about $30 million for a 12-day trip, is the son of former U.S. astronaut Owen Garriott.

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Update: Crew Ready For Rehearsal


Endeavour's seven-member crew landed this afternoon at Kennedy Space Center for three days of training, including a dress rehearsal of launch procedures they hope to execute for real in less than three weeks.

"We're happy to be here," Commander Chris Ferguson said in a brief address to assembled media. "We hope for weather like this when we come out for the real thing."

Ferguson introduced his fellow crew members, all dressed in blue flight suits: Pilot Eric Boe and mission specialists Steve Bowen, Shane Kimbrough, Sandra Magnus, Donald Pettit and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper.

NASA is targeting a Nov. 14 liftoff for Endeavour's outfitting mission to the International Space Station, which will allow the station to double its resident crews from three to six people.

The astronauts arrived from Houston in five T-38 training jets, two piloted by Ferguson and Boe, between 2:20 p.m. and 3:45 p.m. Two modified Gulfstream jets also brought support staff and luggage.

Ferguson and Boe immediately got to work practicing landings in the Gulfstreams, whose controls are modified to simulate shuttle landings. They are officially called Shuttle Training Aircraft.

On Monday, the crew will learn how to drive the M113 tank they would ride to safety if a disaster forced them to flee the launch pad. Security briefings and more practice landings will follow.

On Tuesday at 8:30 a.m., the astronauts will gather at launch pad 39A to answer questions from the media. You can watch live NASA TV coverage of that event live here at The Flame Trench.

On Wednesday morning, the crew will dress in their orange launch-and-entry suits and board Endeavour, rehearsing everything they'll do on launch day until a simulated countdown concludes at 11 a.m.

They'll also practice emergency escapes from the shuttle, including how to jump into baskets that would sling them away from the launch pad.

They are scheduled to return to Houston on Wednesday afternoon.

After arriving at KSC today, the crew shook hands with the designer of their STS-126 mission patch, Titusville resident Tim Gagnon, shown at left.

Here's an official description of the patch: The STS-126 patch represents shuttle Endeavour on its mission to help complete the assembly of the International Space Station (ISS). The inner patch outline depicts the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) Leonardo. This reusable logistics module will carry the equipment necessary to sustain a crew of six on board the ISS and will include additional crew quarters, exercise equipment, galley, and life support equipment. In addition, a single expedition crew member will launch on STS-126 to remain on board ISS, replacing an expedition crew member who will return home with the shuttle crew.

Near the center of the patch, the constellation Orion reflects the goals of the human spaceflight program, returning us to the Moon and on to Mars, the red planet, which are also shown. At the top of the patch is the gold symbol of the astronaut office. The sunburst, just clearing the horizon of the magnificent Earth, powers all these efforts through the solar arrays of the ISS current configuration orbiting high above.

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Launch Rehearsal Counting Down

Endeavour astronauts were strapped into their shuttle seats on launch pad 39A for this morning's countdown dress rehearsal.

The shuttle's crew compartment hatch was scheduled to be closed around 9:30 a.m. The mock countdown should conclude by 11 a.m., when the crew will practice an abort scenario simulating a fire or other emergency at the pad.

The test run comes just over two weeks before Endeavour's targeted Nov. 14 launch to the International Space Station, and concludes training called the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test, or TCDT.

Earlier this morning, the seven-member crew dressed in their orange partial-pressure launch-and-entry suits. Around 7:45 a.m., the astronauts walked out of their crew quarters building, waved to assembled media and space center employees, and boarded NASA's Astrovan for a ride to the launch pad.

A SWAT team and armed helicopter escorted the van, just as they would on launch day.

When the countdown ends, the crew will practice how they would escape from the launch pad called a "Mode 1 Egress."

Still in their heavy launch spacesuits, they'll cross a platform at the launch tower's 195-foot level and jump into slide-wire baskets that can fit up to three astronauts.

If a latch is triggered, the baskets would whisk the astronauts to the ground near the launch pad bunker in which they would take shelter. Then, if time allowed, the crew would ride an M113 armored personnel carrier to safety.

The seven-member crew arrived at Kennedy Space Center on Sunday, and will return to Houston this afternoon.

NASA plans to announce an official launch date and time for the mission Thursday evening.

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Ares 1-X test flight target now July 12
NASA's first test flight of a new moon rocket is being pushed back to July 12 as a result of the delay in the agency's fifth and final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, officials said today.

And that date for the Ares 1-X test flight would be further delayed if launch of the Hubble servicing mission moves from a tentatively targeted liftoff in February to the next flight opportunity in May.

That was the word today during a wide-ranging media teleconference NASA staged to provide an update on progress being made in Project Constellation -- the effort to send American astronauts back to the moon by 2020.

NASA Constellation Program Manager Jeff Hanley said the agency still aims to launch the first piloted flight of an Ares 1 rocket and an Orion spacecraft by March 2015 -- the date promised to Congress. But internally, agency engineers are shooting for a September 2014 target.

NASA also is conducting a study to determine if the five-year gap between the last shuttle mission and the first Ares-Orion flight can be reduced.

Both presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain have said they would increase NASA funding by $2 billion to minimize the gap and reduce sole reliance on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to send astronauts to the International Space Station.

Former Kennedy Space Center manager Ralph Roe, now head of the NASA Engineering and Safety Center at Langley Research Center, is heading the review.

Hanley said the Constellation Acceleration Study aims to determine whether the first flight could be moved up by 12 to 18 months. A 12-move advance might be possible; an 18-month advance would be very difficult to achieve, he said.

The Ares 1-X test flight had been targeted for launch April 15. But shuttle Atlantis now sits on the mobile launcher platform that the Ares 1-X test vehicle is to be erected upon, and the delay in the Hubble mission also is stalling modifications at launch pad 39B.

NASA wants to keep that pad "shuttle ready" so that a rescue mission could be launched to save the Hubble servicing crew if Atlantis sustains critical damage in flight. A second shuttle will be on the oad ready to go when Atlantis blasts off, and some pad modifications cannot be completed until after the Hubble mission.

Hanley and other NASA managers also shot down recent reports that have been highly critical of the Ares 1 rocket.

NASA Ares Program Manager Steve Cook said reports that there has been a "revolt" in the astronaut office over the Ares 1 are just not true.

NASA astronaut Brent Jett, who also served as director of the Flight Crew Operations Diractorate at Johnson Space Center, said the astronauts have been intimately involved in the design of the rocket and risk mitigation efforts.

"We have not found one person in our office with a dissenting opinion," Jett said.

Hanley, Cook and Doug Cooke, NASA deputy administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, labeled recent reports that the Ares 1 would collide with its launch tower as "inaccurate."

A published report over the weekend claimed that a southerly wind of just 12.5 mph would push an Ares 1 into its tower as the rocket blasts off.

Cook said the Ares 1 would be able to withstand launch winds of 34 knots -- nearly double the 19-knot limit for space shuttles.

Meteorological studies also show that the type of southerly wind that could cause problems would crop up only 0.3 percent of the time at Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39B, which is being modified to accomodate Ares 1 rockets, Cook said.

Cook and Hanley also dismissed talk of launching the Orion spacecraft on upgraded Atlas 5 or Delta 4 rockets -- so-called Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles, or EELVs.

Hanley said NASA studied that option before selecting the Ares 1 and Ares 5 launch vehicle architecture.

Cook said a switch to EELVs at this point would only lenghten the amount of time it would take to field next-generation U.S. space transportation systems.

"Just watch the gap grow if you go down that line," Cook said.

Ares 1 is "twice as safe" for crews than EELVs, he said. He also said it would be 25 percent less expensive to field the Ares 1 and Ares 5 vehicles.

The NASA managers also discounted recent reports from Brevard County space lobbyist Robert Walker that "Ares 1 is on the chopping block."

Hanley noted that Congress recently passed a NASA authorization bill for fiscal year 2008 that showed bipartisan support for the agency and Project Constellation.

"I don't see any indication that there is anything but robust support for Constellation," he said.

Walker, a former congressman who held key positions on House space subcommittees, holds a $180,000-per-year contract to lobby on behalf of the county in Washington, D.C.

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Shuttle future "urgent" issue for new president

Eun Kim in Washington reports...

The space shuttle's retirement is listed as one of 13 "urgent issues" that government auditors believe need immediate attention from President-elect Barack Obama.

"The administration needs to move quickly to nominate and fill key leadership positions within NASA because the decision on whether to retire or continue operating the Space Shuttle will need to be made soon," the Government Accountability Office said in a summary of its decision.

NASA currently plans to retire the shuttle fleet at the end of 2010 and its replacement isn't scheduled to take astronauts back into space for another five years after that. However, the agency has been studying the cost of adding more flights and extending the fleet's service and Obama promised during the campaign to increase the agency's budget by $2 billion a year to cut the gap in human flights.

The GAO identified the shuttle's retirement as an issue it wants the Obama administration to address within the next six months, which could bode well for thousands of space shuttle workers at Kennedy Space Center whose jobs are hanging on decisions made about whether to end the program in 2010 or not.

The other dozen "urgent issues" are listed on a new Web site the GAO launched this morning. The other issues include defense spending and security, oversight of the financial institutions and markets and the 2010 census.

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Shuttle Extension Would Cost $2B A Year

NASA would need an extra $2 billion a year to keep the shuttle fleet flying between 2010 and 2015, but doing so would impact plans to begin launching Ares 5 moon rockets by 2018, officials said today.

With presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama both signaling a desire to keep the shuttle fleet flying beyond 2010, NASA over the past two months has been studying what it would take to do just that. Both have said they would add $2 billion to NASA's budget to minimize the gap between the last shuttle flight and the inaugural flights of Ares 1 rockets and Orion spacecraft.

NASA shuttle program manager John Shannon told reporters today that the agency studied two different scenarios. One would simply extend the shuttle program through 2012 by flying out all external tanks and other hardware NASA already intends to build. The other would call for NASA to keep the shuttle fleet flying three shuttle missions per year -- presumably to the International Space Station.

Shannon said the bottom line is that NASA would need $2 billion a year -- "money that is not currently in the budget," he said.

He added that shifting $2 billion a year to the shuttle program from Project Constellation -- NASA's effort to return U.S. astronauts to the moon by 2020 -- would be "disastrous."

Shannon made his comments during preflight briefings for the planned Nov. 14 launch of shuttle Endeavour on an International Space Station outfitting and repair mission. The briefings are being weebcast live here in The Flame Trench. Simply click the NASA TV box on the righthand side of the page to launch our NASA TV viewer and live coverage of the briefings.

NASA engineers identified a number of challenges that would crop up if the agency was directed to keep the shuttle fleet flying between 2010 and 2015 -- the gap now projected between the last shuttle mission and the first flight of the Ares 1 rocket and the Orion spacecraft.

The Ares 5 rocket will be a Saturn 5-class launcher designed to carry Altair lunar landers and earth-departures stages that would link-up with Orion spacecraft in orbit for journeys to the moon and back.

NASA intends to start launching Ares 5 rockets in 2018, but to do so, the agency would need to start modifying Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39B by 2012. High Bay 1 of the Vehicle Assembly Buildiing also would have to be available for the build-up of Ares 5 rockets. Floor space at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans also would be required.

NASA's space shuttle program would require those same facilities if the shuttle fleet continues to fly between 2010 and 2015. That's because Ares 1 rockets and Orion spacecraft will be assembled in High Bay 3 of the building and then launched from pad 39A.

Both the shuttle and Ares 5 programs would need enjgine test stands at Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Miss., Shannon said.

And Project Constellation is counting on an infusion of workers from the shuttle program in 2010, and there would be no opportunity to shift the work force if the shuttle continues flying, he said.

kl90

Ares 1-X Upper Stage Arrives At The Cape
The Upper Stage Simulator for the first test flight of the Ares 1 rocket will be at Kennedy Space Center this week after a long journey from Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.

Tentatively set for launch July 12 from KSC's launch pad 39B, the $360 million Ares 1-X mission will test first stage flight control systems of NASA's new moon rocket as well as the system that separates the first and second stages of the vehicle and the first-stage parachute recovery system.

The 327-foot vehicle comprises a four-segment shuttle solid rocket boosters, an inert fifth segment and aerodynamically exact copies of the Ares 1 second stage, the Orion spacecraft and a launch abort system that tops the rocket.

The replicas simulate the mass and outer mold lines of the rocket that will propel American astronauts on round trips to the moon no later than 2020.

Components that make up the Upper Stage Simulator arrived at Port Canaveral on Tuesday aboard the Delta Mariner, a ship that also transports Delta 4 rocket components for United Launch Alliance.

The joint partnership of Lockheed Martin and Boeing fly Delta 4 rockets from Launch Complex 37 and Atlas 5 rockets at Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The Upper Stage Simulator began its journey Oct. 22 on the Ohio River, and the Delta Mariner traveled down the Mississippi River and then through the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean before it arrived at Port Canaveral.

NASA expects to have all of the hardware delivered to High Bay 4 of the Vehicle Assembly Building by the end of business Thursday.

The Upper Stage Simulator consists of 11 components that represent the size, outer shape and weight of the second stage of the Ares 1 rocket.

Take a look at this NASA drawing that shows how the parts of the Upper Stage Simulator and the rest of the Ares 1-X test vehicle fit together: Ares 1 Schematic.

The Ares I-X test flight is the first of several in a series that will be carried out before the first piloted flight of the rocket and an Apollo-style Orion crew capsule in March 2015.

kl90

NASA Steps Toward Shuttle Launch
http://www.floridatoday.com/content/blogs/space/2008/11/nasa-steps-toward-shuttle-launch.shtml

NASA is pressing ahead with launch countdown preparations at Kennedy Space Center today as the agency aims to send up shuttle Endeavour next week on a mission to outfit the International Space Station for crews of six.

With seven astronauts strapped into its crew cabin, Endeavour is scheduled to blast off from launch pad 39A at 7:55 p.m. EDT next Friday. The shuttle will dock at the station a week from Sunday and the astronauts also plan four spacewalks to repair a giant rotary wheel on the starboard end of the outpost's central truss.

Read all about the STS-126 mission and its crew in this official NASA Press Kit: STS-126 Press Kit

A more concise mission summary is here: STS-126 Mission Summary

At the launch pad today, United Space Alliance technicians are wrapping up work in the aft compartment of the orbiter. The doors to the compartment are to be put in place today, and then a leak check will be performed.

Leak checks of the shuttle's main propulsion system were completed Thursday along with ordnance installation and connections.

A faulty cockpit display was removed and replaced Thursday and the new unit will be tested today.

Call to stations for pressurization of the shuttle's hypergolic propellant systems and the main propulsion system will take place at 4 a.m. Monday.

Call to stations for the destacking of Atlantis in the Vehicle Assembly Building will take place at the same time.

The Endeavour astronauts are scheduled to arrive at Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, and a standard, three-day countdown will pick up at 10 p.m. that night.

We'll have live coverage of the crew arrival, a prelaunch news conference on Wednesday, and the terminal countdown and launch starting at 2:30 p.m. EDT Friday here in The Flame Trench and at www.floridatoday.com.

Be sure to join us.

[ 本帖最后由 kl90 于 8-11-2008 04:34 PM 编辑 ]

kl90

Crew Excited About Space Station Mission

Nov. 11, 2008
STS-126 Commander Chris Ferguson guided his T-38 jet over NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday afternoon before steering it to a precise landing on the 3-mile-long runway at the Shuttle Landing Facility at about 4 p.m. EST. The rest of the crew of space shuttle Endeavour touched down on the runway in turn as the astronauts arrived six hours before the countdown is to begin for Friday evening’s liftoff.

The astronauts are to fly Endeavour to the International Space Station on a 15-day mission to install new equipment, transfer a new crew member to the station and conduct four spacewalks to service the joints that turn the station’s massive solar arrays.

“This mission is all about home improvement,” Ferguson said minutes after the crew landed. “Home improvement inside and outside the station.”

Liftoff is scheduled for Friday at 7:55 p.m. EST. The countdown will begin at 10 p.m. tonight.

Heidimarie Stefanyshyn-Piper will lead the spacewalks. She said the flight will mark a milestone for the space station.

“There comes a time to start doing maintenance, and this is it,” she said.

Preparations on Endeavour are on schedule for the liftoff with officials reporting no technical issues standing in the way of a launch.

Shuttle Weather Officer Kathy Winters gave the shuttle a 60 percent chance of meeting launch weather criteria for Friday’s attempt. That falls to 40 percent chance of acceptable conditions on Saturday, but back up to a 70 percent chance of acceptable conditions on Sunday.

A weather front that could produce thick clouds is expected to enter the region on Friday or Saturday, Winters said. Under certain conditions, the clouds can be thick enough to prompt lightning concerns.

NASA Test Director Jeff Spaulding said Endeavour is ready for its flight to the International Space Station. Endeavour and its crew of seven astronauts will deliver about seven tons of new equipment and supplies, including a new kitchen and crew facilities for enlarging the station’s resident capacity.

“Our systems are in great shape and all of us are prepared to pick up the countdown tonight,” Spaulding said.

kl90

STS-126 Mission Update
Countdown Begins for Endeavour Mission
Wed, 12 Nov 2008 11:44:10 AM GMT+0800

The countdown began Tuesday night for the launch of STS-126. Liftoff is scheduled for Friday at 7:55 p.m. EST. The launch team at NASA's Kennedy Space Center began the countdown from the T-43 hour mark at 10 p.m. There are several built-in holds during the countdown that mark milestones leading up to launch. Space shuttle Endeavour and its crew of seven astronauts are to carry about seven tons of equipment and supplies to the International Space Station during the 15-day mission.

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The Mission Ahead
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

The flight of space shuttle Endeavour includes several significant steps to install new crew equipment inside the International Space Station and service the solar array joints of the laboratory. During STS-126, the crew of space shuttle Endeavour and the space station will:

-- Exchange crew members. Sandra Magnus will swap places with current station resident Greg Chamitoff.

-- Conduct four spacewalks. Working in teams of two, astronauts will emerge from the space station’s Quest airlock and work on the two large joints that turn the station’s massive solar array “wings.” They are to service the starboard side joint and perform preventative maintenance on the port side joint.

-- Install new crew quarters, a galley, waste water recycling system and oxygen generator inside the space station. The equipment has been packed inside refrigerator-sized racks that require forklifts to lift them on Earth. But in space, a single astronaut can move a rack around with little problem.

Endeavour and its crew are to land at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center after 15 days in space.

[ 本帖最后由 kl90 于 14-11-2008 02:52 AM 编辑 ]

kl90

http://www.floridatoday.com/content/blogs/space/
Endeavour Embarks On 15-Day Mission

Space shuttle Endeavour blasted off Friday from Kennedy Space Center and streaked past a nearly full moon rising in the east, lighting up the night sky as seven astronauts rode a 700-foot trail of fire into orbit.

The shuttle's planned 15-day mission will set the stage for International Space Station crews to double to six people next spring, a long-awaited milestone that promises to boost the decade-old outpost's productivity as a science lab.

"It's our turn to take home improvement to a new level after 10 years of International Space Station construction," mission commander Chris Ferguson told launch controllers nine minutes before liftoff. "Endeavour is ready to go."

Ferguson was joined on Endeavour's crew by pilot Eric Boe and mission specialists Steve Bowen, Shane Kimbrough, Sandra Magnus, Don Pettit and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper.

Their 7:55 p.m. launch began a two-day chase to the station. The first order of business Saturday will be scanning the orbiter's wings, nose and belly for damage that could have occurred during launch.

After a scheduled Sunday evening docking with the station, Endeavour's crew will begin unloading nearly 15,000 pounds of furnishings, appliances and science experiments.

The station's home improvements include two new sleep stations, a second toilet, kitchen appliances and a weight-training machine. Also on its way is a system designed to recycle astronauts' urine and other wastewater into drinkable water.

Outside the station, Bowen, Kimbrough and Stefanyshyn-Piper will conduct four spacewalks over seven days, attempting to fix one of the station's most serious mechanical problems since its first module was launched Nov. 20, 1998.

A joint that rotates massive American solar wings on the station's right side is damaged, limiting the wings' ability to track the sun and generate power.

The spacewalkers will clean metal debris from the 10-foot joint, lubricate it with space grease the consistency of toothpaste and replace bearing assemblies.

Endeavour's crew is scheduled to depart the station on Thanksgiving, without Magnus.

She will begin a four-month tour as a flight engineer on the station, replacing American Greg Chamitoff, who will return home on the shuttle after six months in orbit.

Endeavour's 22nd flight - the 124th shuttle mission and the 31st night shuttle launch - is the last of four flown this year. The shuttle and its crew are scheduled to land at KSC's three-mile shuttle landing strip just after 2 p.m. Nov. 29.

[ 本帖最后由 kl90 于 16-11-2008 02:31 PM 编辑 ]

kl90

Inspection Complete; Docking Sunday
http://www.floridatoday.com/content/blogs/space/
Endeavour's crew has completed scans of the orbiter's reinforced carbon-carbon wing panels and nose cap taken during its first full day in orbit.

The crew has sent images to the ground for analysis, including close-up shots of an area on the back, left side of the shuttle where mission managers suspected a strip of insulation might have come loose about 30 seconds after liftoff from Kennedy Space Center on Friday.

However, first looks at the pictures don't show any obvious problem.

"There's no apparent damage there in the imagery that we gathered," said
Mike Sarafin, the lead flight director for STS-126, during an 8 p.m. briefing at Johnson Space Center in Houston. "And again, our imagery analysts are off assessing it."

Even if the 12- to 18-inch strip of insulating blanket has torn off, senior shuttle program manager LeRoy Cain said earlier today it likely is not a significant concern because its location - near an Orbital Maneuvering System pod used to adjust the shuttle's course on orbit - is not subject to the most intense heat on re-entry.

More photos will be taken of the shuttle's belly on Sunday when mission commander Chris Ferguson orchestrates an orbital back flip 600 feet beneath the International Space Station, shortly before a planned 5:04 p.m. docking.

Engineers are also investigating an antenna problem, possibly related to a recent software upgrade, that could limit the shuttle's radar capability as it approaches the station.

In that case, a star-tracking system would be implemented, and a light illuminated on the space station during a night passage would transform it into a star for navigation purposes.

"It acts effectively as a star," Sarafin said.

The problem is not expected to disrupt the docking schedule.

Upon docking, Endeavour's seven astronauts will be welcomed in a ceremony by three residents already on the station: Americans Mike Fincke and Greg Chamitoff, and Russian cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov.

In other activity today, spacewalkers Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and Steve Bowen completed successful checkouts of spacesuits they and Shane Kimbrough will use during four spacewalks.

A second orbital burn to adjust Endeavour's trajectory toward the station was cancelled in favor of a longer one Sunday.

"Today was a very busy day on orbit for the crew of Endeavour," Sarafin said.

[ 本帖最后由 kl90 于 16-11-2008 02:31 PM 编辑 ]

kl90

http://www.floridatoday.com/content/blogs/space/

ISS To Endeavour: 'Welcome To Space'

To the ceremonial ringing of a bell, Endeavour astronauts today crawled through hatches into the International Space Station around 7:15 p.m.

Endeavour's seven-person crew exchanged hugs and handshakes with three residents already on board the station.

"Welcome, Endeavour," said Mike Fincke, commander of the station's 18th expedition, as the two crews assembled. "You guys look awesome. It was a beauticul approach, a beautiful docking. We're really glad you're here. We understand that this house is in need of an extreme makeover, and that you're the crew to do it. We think we got everything ready for you. We're really glad to see you. Welcome. Welcome, everybody. Welcome to space."

"We figured we'd go for a 10-year anniversary party for the space station, so that's what we showed up for," said Endeavour commander Chris Ferguson, referring to the launch of the station's first module on Nov. 20, 1998. "We're looking forward to working on your house and making it look a little bit better when we're done. You guys are awesome. It's great to see you."

A mission status briefing is about to begin featuring LeRoy Cain, a senior shuttle manager, and Mike Sarafin, the mission's lead flight director.

kl90

http://www.floridatoday.com/content/blogs/space/

Update: Mission Going 'Exceedingly Well'
Endeavour's two-day-old mission is going "exceedingly well," a senior shuttle program manager said tonight during a briefing at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Photo analysis has determined that a strip of insulation thought to have torn away during launch is in fact intact near a rear orbital maneuvering engine on the shuttle's left side.

"We have determined that all of our thermal protection system blankets are intact in that area," said LeRoy Cain, chairman of the Mission Management Team.

Cain said photos likely spotted ice debris, since it was located in an area that gets extremely cold, where liquid hydrogen is pumped into shuttle fuel cells.

It is the mission's only confirmed report of launch debris thus far, but teams are still analyzing pictures, including those taken today during a back flip maneuver prior to Endeavour's docking with the International Space Station around 5 p.m.

"They have been able to ascertain positively that that piece of debris did not strike the vehicle anywhere, so we don't anticipate any issues with that," Cain said.

"Things are going exceedingly well," Cain concluded. "I'm very pleased with progress that we've had so far."

A decision will be made tomorrow on whether a more in-depth inspection is needed of the tip of Endeavour's right wing.

Access to that area by the shuttle's robotic arm and boom would be blocked once the Italian-made Leonardo cargo module is connected to the station, a process scheduled Monday.

So if an inspection is necessary, it would delay transfer of the packed cargo carrier one day, and extend the current 15-day mission by a day, said lead flight director Mike Sarafin.

"That doesn't present any impact to the mission other than we would use extension day capability to do that," Sarafin said.

Up on the station, Endeavour astronaut Sandra Magnus is scheduled to swap places with Greg Chamitoff as a flight engineer and science officer on Expedition 18. She's expected to spend the next four months on orbit.

Chamitoff, who has spent the past 170 days in space, will ride home on Endeavour, a trip now planned Nov. 29.

Magnus was to place a custom-fitted seat liner into the Soyuz spacecraft docked with the station, which would be used in the event of an emergency escape. Chamitoff removed his seat liner from the Soyuz and placed it in Endeavour.

A move of the boom extenstion in the shuttle payload bay was also planned tonight. The station's robotic arm was to grapple the boom and hand it off to shuttle's robotic arm.

The crews also planned to unload some cargo stowed in the shuttle's mid-deck, including spacesuits to be used Tuesday during the first of four planned spacewalks.

Back at Kennedy Space Center, United Space Alliance officials said ships were expected to return Endeavour's solid rocket boosters to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. Monday.

kl90

Update: First Spacewalk Complete
Astronauts and flight controller's declared the first of four spacewalks by Endeavour astronauts a success, despite a "hiccup" that saw a tool bag lost in space.

"You all did a great job today," said Shane Kimbrough, a mission specialist who coordinated the spacewalk from inside the International Space Station. "Welcome back."

"Thanks, it's good to be back," said lead spacewalker Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, who lost her grasp on the tool bag after discovering that a grease gun had leaked inside it. "In spite of our little hiccup there â