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Endeavour Lands Safely

Blogger update, 5:12 p.m.: Senior NASA officials have cancelled a post-landing news conference that was expected around 6 p.m., and there will by no crew news conference later. Endeavour commander Chris Ferguson is expected to make a statement.

Shuttle Endeavour's seven astronauts landed safely today at Edwards Air Force Base in California, completing a successful 16-day mission that furnished the International Space Station to house larger crews.

"Welcome back," astronaut Alan Poindexter said from Mission Control in Houston after Endeavour rolled to a stop at 4:26 p.m. "It was a great way to finish a fantastic flight, Fergie."

"Hey, we're happy to be here in California," replied Endeavour commander Chris Ferguson.

NASA detoured the spaceship to its secondary landing site because of gusty winds and thunderstorms sweeping across Kennedy Space Center, conditions that were not expected to improve Monday.

The mission began Nov. 14 with a moonlit launch from Cape Canaveral.

During a nearly 12-day visit to the space station, Endeavour's crew and three station residents unloaded more than seven tons of appliances, supplies and science experiments from the shuttle's packed cargo container.

The centerpiece: a system designed to recycle astronauts' urine and sweat into drinking water, an essential resource needed for station crews to double to six people next year.

The astronauts initially struggled to activate a urine processor, prompting a one-day mission extension. But after a successful fix, the shuttle returned with water samples that will be tested before the recycling assembly is approved for daily use.

Other new gear delivered included a toilet, refrigerator, exercise machine and two sleep stations.

Outside the station, four spacewalks tackled greasy and tiring repairs to a joint that rotates a set of American solar wings so they track the sun.

Tests showed the joint performing so well that a costly two-year plan to replace a damaged gear might not be necessary.

The mission won global attention after an untethered tool bag floated away from an astronaut during the first spacewalk.

But a team of three spacewalkers recovered and completed their tasks by sharing tools and improvising new repair techniques.

Endeavour's flight - the 124th by a shuttle and the 52nd to land at Edwards - traveled more than 6.6 million miles during 251 orbits of Earth.

It was last of four missions in 2008. The next flight, by Discovery, is targeted to launch Feb. 12 and deliver a final set of American solar wings to the space station.

Endeavour's crew included commander Chris Ferguson, pilot Eric Boe and mission specialists Steve Bowen, Greg Chamitoff, Shane Kimbrough, Don Pettit and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper.

Chamitoff replaced Sandra Magnus, who launched with Endeavour but stayed behind on the space station, taking Chamitoff's position as a flight engineer for Expedition 18.

The shuttle is expected to return to KSC in about a week, mounted on top of a modified 747. The journey will cost $1.8 million.

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Endeavour skipper: "It's great to be back"

Three Endeavour astronauts who did not join the crew for a brief post-landing statement are fine, mission commander Chris Ferguson said.

He said mission specialists Don Pettit and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper were keeping an eye on astronaut Greg Chamitoff, who will have a harder time readjusting to gravity's pull after six months in orbit.

Chamitoff just completed a tour as an International Space Station flight engineer. He was replaced as a member of Expedition 18 by Sandra Magnus, who launched with the Endeavour crew on Nov. 14.

"It's great to be back on the ground, and it's great to be in California," Ferguson said from the temporary runway on which Endeavour landed this afternoon at Edwards Air Force Base.

He was joined by pilot Eric Boe and mission specialists Steve Bowen and Shane Kimbrough about two hours after touchdown. The group took time to inspect the orbiter, which Ferguson said "seems to have fared entry very well."

He called Endeavour's 16-day mission "extremely successful" and "very ambitious" in its length and goals.

"We improved the station inside and out," he said, referring to the tons of new equipment the shuttle delivered and repairs made during four spacewalks.

Ferguson thanked NASA staff across the country for supporting the mission. He called the Edwards landing a unique opportunity, "but I think it all worked out in the end very well," he said.

NASA ruled out landings at Kennedy Space Center today or Monday because of stormy weather and strong winds.

Senior NASA officials decided not to hold a post-landing press conference at KSC because the landing went so smoothly.

"All right guys, way to go," Ferguson said to Boe, Bowen and Kimbrough as they stepped away from the microphone at Edwards.

It was Ferguson's second complete mission, and the first for the other three.

A welcome home ceremony for the crew is planned Monday afternoon at Ellington Field near Johnson Space Center in Houston.

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Endeavour Lands in California
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html
With commander Chris Ferguson and pilot Eric Boe at the controls, space shuttle Endeavour descended to a smooth landing at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The STS-126 crew members concluded their successful mission to the International Space Station when the shuttle touched down at 4:25 p.m. EST.

Endeavour arrived at the station Nov. 16, delivering equipment that will help allow the station to double its crew size to six. In addition, the STS-126 astronauts delivered Expedition 18 Flight Engineer Sandra Magnus, who replaced Greg Chamitoff, now a mission specialist who returned to Earth aboard Endeavour.

STS-126 is the 124th shuttle mission and 27th shuttle flight to visit the space station.

Due to the late landing time of space shuttle Endeavour, the previously reported STS-126 post-landing news conference at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., has been canceled.

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Shuttle Prepped For Return To KSC
The orbiter Endeavour is being prepped in California for a return trip to Kennedy Space Center and the seven astronauts who landed in the shuttle on Sunday will return to Houston today.

Endeavour mission commander Chris Ferguson and his crew will have some words prior to their departure from Edwards Air Force Base, and we'll be webcasting NASA TV coverage of the event at 2 p.m. EST today. A videotaped recording of the crew's comments prior to departure will be broadcast at that time. Simply click the NASA TV box at the righthand side of this page to launch our NASA TV viewer.

NASA contractor technicians today are taking part in a drill that includes offloading hazardous residual propellants from the tanks that supply the shuttle's twin orbital manuevering engines, 44 nose-and-tail steering jets and the Auxiliary Power Units that are used to steer the shuttle's liquid-fueled main engines during ascent and operate its aerosurfaces, landing gear, brakes and nosewheel steering system during atmospheric reentry and landing.

The orbiter ultimately will be towed to a Mate-Demate Device -- a large gantry-like steel structure with hoists that raise the orbiter into the air so a 747 carrier aircraft can be positioned below it. The orbiter then will be bolted to the top of the aircraft for a piggyback ride back to KSC.

A preliminary look at Endeavour shows that the orbiter came through the atmospheric reentry and landing on Runway 04 at Edwards in very good shape. Damage to tiles on the underside of the orbiter was minimal.

NASA officials say it will take five to seven days to get the orbiter ready for the cross-country flight back to NASA's prime launch operations center. Weather permitting, the carrier aircraft and Endeavour should be back on the Space Coast early next week.

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Endeavour Crew Headed Home to Houston
http://www.floridatoday.com/content/blogs/space/
A day after landing safely in California to conclude a 16-day mission, seven Endeavour astronauts are on their way home to Houston for a welcome ceremony at Ellington Field near Johnson Space Center.

In brief remarks before departing Edwards Air Force Base in NASA jets, mission commander Chris Ferguson and pilot Eric Boe - joined by four of five crew mates - thanked supporters there.

"It was a wonderful mission," Ferguson said. "I'm glad that you were all here welcoming us with open arms when we came back yesterday."

You can track the crew's return to Houston here.

Boe, an Air Force colonel who went through test pilot school at Edwards, described the thrill of experiencing the shuttle's Mach 22 speed as it dropped back into Earth's atmosphere and clouds whizzed by.

"We were saying, 'Wow, it's a lot closer and a lot more personal now as you're getting closer to the ground,'" he said.

Boe said the speed reminded him of the pioneering X-15 rocket-powered aircraft tested at Edwards.

"It was actually a big part of what made the shuttle fly," he said. "And it was very cool to be sitting there looking (down) at it, going, this is kind of like one of the runs that they made back in the '60s in the X-15, making it happen."

Astronaut Greg Chamitoff did not make the public appearance. Ferguson said he was still re-acclimating after six months living in weightlessness as a flight engineer on the International Space Station.

Mission specialists Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and Don Pettit, who had not participated in remarks shortly after Sunday's landing, stood by Ferguson and Boe in blue flight suits. Mission specialists Steve Bowen and Shane Kimbrough rounded out the crew.

The crew left behind Endeavour, which is expected to be flown home to Kennedy Space Center in seven to 10 days, ferried by a modified 747 jumbo jet at a cost of $1.8 million.

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NASA Buys Three Seats On Russian Soyuz
NASA is purchasing its first Russian crew transportation services since Congress extended a waiver to a law that effectively would have blocked the launch of American astronauts to the International Space Station after the end of 2011.

The $141 million contract modification signed with the Russian Federal Space Agency buys three seats on two Russian Soyuz spacecraft to be launched in late 2011.

A single seat was purchased on a September 2011 Soyuz flight, and two seats were purchased on a Soyuz mission to be launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in November 2011.

The firm, fixed-price contract covers all training and preparation for launch, crew rescue and return trips to Earth in the spring of 2012. The flights may be used to fulfill U.S. obligations to its international partners -- including space agencies in Canada, Europe and Japan -- for transportation services to and from the outpost.

The pact also provides for limited amounts of cargo to be flown to or from the station. The cargo allotments can be used to dispose of trash, too. About 110 pounds can be launched to the station, 37 pounds can be returned to Earth and about 66 pounds can be put toward trash disposal.

NASA aims to finish construction of the International Space Station and retire its aging shuttle fleet by the end of September 2010. The U.S. then would rely on Russia to launch American astronauts to and from the station until its Ares 1 rocket and Orion spacecraft are ready to fly in March 2015.

The U.S. also is obligated under intergovernmental agreements to provide crew rescuXXXXXlity at the station, and Russian Soyuz craft are the only capable vehicles available.

NASA had been purchasing Soyuz from the Russians under a waiver to the Iran, North Korea and Syria Non-Proliferation Act. That waiver was set to expire at the end of 2011, but Congress passed an extension in late September.

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External Tank Arrives at KSC
A 15-story external tank expected to help launch a shuttle in May arrived this morning at the turn basin near Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building.

The tank, which measures 28 feet in diameter and weighs about 60,000 pounds when empty, left NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans on Nov. 21 aboard the enclosed Pegasus barge shown above.

The Liberty Star solid rocket booster retrieval ship picked up the barge in Gulfport, Miss., and towed it the rest of the roughly 900-mile journey from New Orleans.

The barge arrived at Port Canaveral the day before Thanksgiving, and reached KSC at 11 a.m. today.

Spaceport workers will start moving the external tank from the barge to a transport vehicle at 8 a.m. Thursday, then roll it a short distance into the 52-story assembly building. The tank will be lifted into High Bay 2 starting Friday morning.

Designated ET-130 and built by Lockheed Martin, the tank would equip a rescue shuttle if Discovery's targeted Feb. 12 flight ran into trouble.

It is expected to launch in mid-May, a mission now targeted for Endeavour's next flight to the International Space Station.

However, Atlantis could take over that launch slot for its Hubble Space TelXXXXXervicing mission, if a back-up part for the observatory is certified for flight soon.

The planned October Hubble mission was postponed in late September because of a computer failure on the observatory. Atlantis was rolled back from its launch pad and disconnected from its external tank and solid rocket boosters, which will be used by Discovery.

The orange external tank pumps liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen fuel into the shuttle's main engines during liftoff. It is jettisoned about 8.5 minutes into flight, then breaks up as it re-enters Earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean.

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NASA Delays Mars Science Lab Launch
The launch of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory is being delayed until a planetary opportunity in 2011. The mission had been slated to launch in October 2009.

NASA Administrator Mike Griffin said the agency is wrestling with technical problems with small motors that that will drive the rover's six wheels and move the wrist, elbow and shoulder joints of the craft's robotic arm.

Aeroflex Inc. of Plainview, N.Y., is running behind schedule on the production of thXXXXX motors - some of which have as many as 600 individual parts.

NASA in October said manufacturing would have to be sped up to make the 2009 or 2011 window. Software and other test programs also would have to be accelerated, but the costs involved remained unclear.

Griffin said the problems with the actuators and the required testing needed to ensure mission success could not bXXXXXed in time to meet the planetary window in 2009. Earth and Mars will not be properly aligned for the trip again until 2011. The window then will open in October 2011 and close in December that year.

NASA Science Mission Chief Ed Weiler said the delay will enable NASA to avoid a "mad rush to launch." NASA Mars Project Executive Doug McCuistion said the delay was "absolutely the right thing to do" with a flagship mission that costs as much as the Mars Science Laboratory.

The delay will add $400 million to the cost of the mission -- or about 15 percent of the total cost, which now will rise to between $2.2 billion and $2.3 billion.

The original advertised mission cost in August 2006 was $1.63 billion. Subsequent problems prompted a cost increase to $1.88 billion.

It would have cost $200 million to accelerate actuator development and production to make the 2009 window, but NASA decided that would significantly reduce the chance of success on what will be the most complex Mars mission ever launched.

About the size of an SUV, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory will be equipped with the most sophisticated suite of instruments ever delivered to the surface of another planet. Its chief goal: to determine whether Mars is, or ever was, capable of supporting microbial life.

In other news: Weiler said NASA and the European Space Agency have decided to merge their Mars exploration programs and develop a joint Mars mission architecture. The idea is to combine resources and expertise to develop missions that would lead to a Mars Sample Return around 2020.

The first U.S.-European Mars mission could come as early as 2016.

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Hubble Servicing Mission To Launch May 12
NASA aims to launch shuttle Atlantis May 12 on a fifth and final Hubble Space TelXXXXXervicing mission, officials said today.

A spare science instrument control and data handling unit will be ready for flight in time to meet that date. Officials said the unit will be put through extensive testing before it is shipped to Kennedy Space Center next spring.

The mission had been slated for launch Oct. 14. But the flight was delayed after the telXXXXXs prime instrument control and data handling unit -- which is critical to observatory operations -- failed Sept. 27.

Like the unit on the observatory, the spare is equipped with a prime control and data formatting device. The primary one did not operate properly during initial testing, and NASA officials still are not certain why.

No "smoking gun" was discovered during subsequent testing. So the plan now is to start up vibration, thermal vacuum and other environmental testing after a readiness review to be held Dec. 16.

Project officials say there still is substantial slack in the schedule for the mid-May launch date.

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Endeavour Aims For Early Return To KSC
Aiming to return to Kennedy Space Center a day earlier than originally planned, NASA contractor technicians today will mount a tailcone on Endeavour as preparations for a cross-country trip from California continue at Edwards Air Force Base.

NASA is outfitting the orbiter with the tailcone to reduce aerodynamic drag during the coast-to-coast trip, which now might begin as early as Sunday. The earliest Endeavour might be back on the Space Coast is late in the morning on Monday.

Endeavour landed at the Mojave Desert military base Nov. 30 after stiff crosswinds prompted NASA to forego two landing opportunities at KSC. Endeavour will be mounted atop a specially designed 747 carrier aircraft for a piggyback ride that likely will take the duo over the southwest and southeast United States.

Post-flight inspections to the orbiter's thermal protection system have been completed and no major damage was discovered. Contractor technicians finished offloading toxic rocket propellants from the shuttle's Orbital Maneuvering System, its Reaction Control System and its Auxiliary Power Units on Thursday.

A purge of the orbiter's three power-producing fuel cells is expected to bXXXXXe today.

A ferry flight readiness review will be conducted Saturday to determine whether the 747 carrier aircraft and Endeavour will be ready to depart Edwards early Sunday. Preps for the trip are on track to do just that.

Check out our interactive graphic that shows how the shuttle will make the trip: Shuttle Piggyback. The graphic was done by Florida Today's Dennis Lowe.

Endeavour and seven astronauts launched from KSC on Nov. 14 and flew a mission to outfit the International Space Station for larger crews. The orbiter's next flight will be in the summer of 2009.

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NASA Assigns STS-130, STS-131 Crews
Kathryn "Kay" Hire, the first Kennedy Space Center employee to be selected as an astronaut and the holder of a Florida Tech master's degree, has been assigned to her second shuttle mission.

Hire was among 13 astronauts that NASA today announced have been assigned to crews for the STS-130 and STS-131 shuttle missions planned in 2009 and 2010, respectively.

Hire began working at KSC in 1989 as an Orbiter Processing Facility 3 Activation Engineer. She was selected for astronaut training in 1994 and four years later flew aboard Columbia as a mission specialist during STS-90.

George Zamka, the commander assigned to Hire's mission, also holds a master's degree from Florida Tech.

Click "Read more" to for the rest of the detail on the crews from NASA.

The STS-130 mission will deliver a third connecting module to the International Space Station and a seven-windowed cupola to be used as a control room for robotics.

The STS-131 mission will deliver research and science experiment equipment, a new sleeping area and supplies to the station in a logistics module carried in the shuttle's payload bay.

Marine Col. George Zamka will command the shuttle Endeavour during STS-130, targeted for launch in December 2009. Air Force Col. Terry Virts, Jr., will serve as the pilot. Mission specialists are NASA astronauts Air Force Lt. Col. Robert Behnken, Nicholas Patrick, Kathryn Hire and Stephen Robinson. Virts will be making his first trip to space.

Navy Capt. Alan Poindexter will command the shuttle Atlantis during STS-131, targeted for launch in February 2010. Air Force Lt. Col. James P. Dutton, Jr., will serve as the pilot. Mission specialists are NASA astronauts Rick Mastracchio, Clayton Anderson, Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, Stephanie Wilson and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Naoko Yamazaki. Dutton, Metcalf-Lindenburger and Yamazaki will be making their first trip to space.

Zamka was born in Jersey City, N.J., and grew up in several cities including Medellin, Colombia. He received a bachelor's degree from the U.S. Naval Academy and a master's degree in engineering management from the Florida Institute of Technology. He served as the pilot on STS-120.

Virts was born in Baltimore and considers Columbia, Md., his hometown. He holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the U.S. Air Force Academy and a master's degree in aeronautics from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

Behnken recently flew as a mission specialist on STS-123. Behnken holds bachelor's degrees in mechanical engineering and physics from Washington University in St. Louis. He also has master's and doctorate degrees in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology. Behnken was born in Creve Coeur, Mo.

STS-130 will be the second flight for Nicholas Patrick, who flew as a mission specialist on STS-116. Patrick was born in North Yorkshire in the United Kingdom and considers London and Rye, N.Y., his hometowns. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in engineering from the University of Cambridge and a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Hire will again serve as a mission specialist on her second spaceflight. Her first was STS-90. She holds a bachelor's degree from the U.S. Naval Academy and a master's degree in space technology from the Florida Institute of Technology. She was born in Mobile, Ala.

Stephen Robinson is a veteran of three spaceflights. Flying on STS-85, STS-95 and STS-114, he has logged more than 830 hours in space. He was born in Sacramento, Calif., and holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical and aeronautical engineering from the University of California and master's and doctorate degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford University.

STS-131 will be the second spaceflight for Poindexter, who served as the pilot on STS-122. He graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering. He also has a master's degree in aeronautical engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School. He was born in Pasadena, Calif.

Dutton joined NASA in 2004. His hometown is Eugene, Ore. He has a bachelor's degree in astronautical engineering from the U.S. Air Force Academy and a master's degree in aeronautics and astronautics from the University of Washington in Seattle.

Mastracchio flew as a mission specialist on STS-106 and STS-118. He was born in Waterbury, Conn., and earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of Connecticut. He also has master's degrees in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and physical science from the University of Houston.

Anderson spent 152 days on the space station, as a flight engineer on Expedition 15. He launched to the station as part of the STS-117 crew and returned on the STS-120 mission. Anderson's hometown is Omaha, Neb. He has a bachelor's degree in physics from Hastings College, Neb., and a master's degree in aerospace engineering from Iowa State University.

Metcalf-Lindenburger was selected as an astronaut in 2004. She was born in Colorado Springs, Colo., and considers Fort Collins her hometown. She has a bachelor's degree in geology from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash.

Wilson was born in Boston. This will be her third spaceflight. She flew as a mission specialist on STS-121 and STS-120. Wilson received a bachelor's degree in engineering science from Harvard University and a master's degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas.

Yamazaki was born in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. She holds both bachelor's and master's degrees in aerospace engineering from the University of Tokyo. Yamazaki was selected by National Space Development Agency of Japan (currently JAXA) as one of three astronaut candidates in 1999 and joined NASA's astronaut candidates for training in 2004.

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Discovery headed to launch pad Jan. 14
While NASA prepares to ferry shuttle Endeavour from California back to Kennedy Space Center, Discovery is on pace to roll to its launch pad in a little over a month.

Discovery is targeted to launch Feb. 12 on a 14-day mission to install the International Space Station's fourth and final set of American solar wings.

The wings will unfurl from a 60-foot truss segment called "S6" that will complete the station's central backbone when added to its starboard side. When completed, the backbone will measure 361 feet, longer than a football field.

The truss is expected to be placed into a payload canister on the same day Discovery rolls from its hangar to the Vehicle Assembly Building, on Jan. 7.

The canister then will be transported to launch pad 39A on Jan. 11. Mounted on a mobile launcher platform, Discovery is expected to roll to the pad a few days later, on Jan. 14.

The shuttle's seven-person crew is scheduled to arrive at KSC on Jan. 19 for three days of training that includes a practice countdown, a review of launch pad XXXXXrocedures and practice shuttle landings.

Air Force Col. Lee Archambault, who piloted Atlantis during STS-117 in June 2007, will lead a crew including pilot Tony Antonelli and mission specialists Joseph Acaba, John Phillips, Steve Swanson, Richard Arnold and Koichi Wakata.

Swanson flew on STS-117 with Archambault. Phillips is a veteran of two prior spaceflights, STS-100 in 2001 and the space station's 11th expedition in 2005. Antonelli, Acaba and Arnold will be making their first spaceflight.

Wakata flew on STS-72 in 1996 and STS-92 in 2000. He will be the first Japanese astronaut to participate in a long-duration space station expedition.

He'll replace Sandra Magnus, who launched to the station Nov. 14 with Endeavour's crew and replaced Greg Chamitoff, who returned home with Endeavour Nov. 30.

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

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Endeavour Returns To Shuttle Homeport

The orbiter Endeavour and its 747 carrier aircraft landed safely at Kennedy Space Center today after a three-day, piggyback trip from Edwards Air Force Base in California.

The pilot of the 747 made a looping flyaround of Florida's Space Coast, soaring down I-95 to Wickham Road before heading east over the Pineda Causeway and the north over Patrick Air Force Base, Cocoa Beach, Cape Canaveral and Port Canaveral.

The world's largest biplane flew over the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex and then passed over Runway 33 before taking off to the north and circling out over the Indian River and the Visitor Complex again on its way toward a touch-down on the southern end of the three-mile KSC landing strip.

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Endeavour Touches Down in Florida
Sat, 13 Dec 2008 04:21:04 AM GMT+0800
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html
Space shuttle Endeavour and the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft shimmered in the Florida sun Friday afternoon as the shuttle returned to its home spaceport at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Florida's Atlantic coast. The modified 747 provided the muscle to lift and fly Endeavour from Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., to Kennedy. The ferry flight began Wednesday and made overnight stops in Texas and Louisiana on its way to Florida.

The 747 touched down at 2:44 p.m. EST on the Shuttle Landing Facility’s runway 33. The 3-mile-long runway is the same one used by shuttles when they return from space. Endeavour will be taken to the gantry-like Mate-Demate Device to be removed from the top of the 747. Then Endeavour will be towed to the Orbiter Processing Facility where it will be readied for a future flight.

Endeavour, flying STS-126, landed at Edwards on Nov. 30 because weather conditions at Kennedy were not acceptable.

Space shuttle Endeavour and its seven astronauts followed up recent missions that added to the International Space Station’s exterior by beefing up the interior of the orbital complex. During about 16 days in space, the crew added new living, cooking and exercise facilities to the space station. They also performed four spacewalks to service the joints in the station’s truss that turn the power-producing solar arrays.

By the time Endeavour left the station on Nov. 28, 2008, it had spent almost 12 days at the complex. The seven astronauts, joined by the three crew members living on the station, had transferred more than seven tons of equipment and supplies to the station, and moved more than 3,400 pounds from the station for return to Earth.

After launching from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center well after sunset on Nov. 14 Endeavour glided back to Earth awash in sunlight over California. Commander Chris Ferguson guided Endeavour to an afternoon landing at Edwards Air Force Base on Nov. 30 to end the flight.

The next shuttle mission is STS-119, targeted for launch on Feb. 12, 2009, on a flight to install the fourth set of solar arrays on the International Space Station.

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NASA Starts 2nd Phase Of Mars Mission
An American reconnaissance craft is starting a second stage of science operations in Martian orbit this week after wrapping up a prime two-year mission that shed new light on the probability that the planet once was awash in water.

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in August 2005, setting sail on a 310-million-mile journey through the inner solar system. The $450 million spacecraft arrived at Mars in March 2006 and then spent the next eight months easing its way into a near-polar orbit 186 miles above the surface of the planet.

Equipped with a very high resolution camera, a hyper-spectral imaging spectrometer, a climate sounder and a shallow subsurface radar, the NASA orbiter has beamed back 73 terrabits of science data -- or more data that all previous Mars missions combined.

The data suggests that water once flowed on and near the surface of parts of the planet for hundreds of millions of years, raising the real possibility that conditions might have been conducive to harboring primitive life.

"These observations are now at the level of detail necessary to test hypotheses about when and where water has changed Mars and where future missions will be most productive as they search for habitable regions on Mars," NASA project scientist Richard Zurek said in a NASA news release.

During an initial 25-month mission, the orbiter has carried out 10,000 targeted observations and has imaged 40 percent of the planet with the same type of resolution that enables Google Earth to spotlight individual houses around the world.

The orbiter has mapped mineral bands around the planet, and NASA officials note that data from the spacecraft have enabled scientists to create almost 700 daily Martian weather maps, dozens of atmospheric temperature profiles and hundreds of radar profiles of the subsurface and the interior of the polar caps.

The orbiter also imaged NASA's Opportunity rover on the rim of Victoria Crater, and it captured images of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander during its descent to a northern arctic plain.

Data from the Mars Odyssey spacecraft and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter prompted NASA to change the Mars Phoenix landing site. And the spacecraft served as a communications relay for the Phoenix lander, routing commands to the craft and data from it back to Earth.

"This spacecraft truly exemplifies the best in capabilities to support science and other Martian spacecraft activities," said NASA program scientist Michael Meyer said in the release. "MRO has exceeded its own goals and our expectations."

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver is the prime contractor for the $720 million project and built the spacecraft.

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NASA Issues Top 10 List For 2008                                          
NASA issued a list this week of the top news stories generated by thenation's space agency in 2008, and the progress made in the assembly ofthe International Space Station topped the chart.

An agency newsrelease noted that NASA landed on Mars, photographed distant worlds,took part in a lunar science mission with India and made major progresstoward returning astronauts to the moon as the agency celebrated its50th birthday in 2008.

Here on Earth, NASA said, researchersrecorded the continued decline of Arctic sea ice, won awards foraviation breakthroughs, discovered the cause of storms that brightenthe Northern Lights and helped create state-of-the-art swimsuits wornby Olympic gold medalists.

Check out the agency's 10 top accomplishments in 2008 and then add your own thoughts in the comment srection below:

[ 本帖最后由 kl90 于 18-12-2008 01:40 PM 编辑 ]

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INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION NEARS COMPLETION

NASA completed four space shuttle missions in 2008 to deliver modules and hardware to the International Space Station, allowing it to grow in size, volume and science capability. The flights also prepared the station to house six crew members for long-duration missions and to expand scientific exploration. The activation in 2008 of the European Space Agency's Columbus module and Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle, as well as the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory, marked the beginning of new human spaceflight control centers in Germany, France and Japan that are working with existing control centers in the U.S., Russia and Canada. Nov. 20 was the 10th anniversary of the launch of Zarya, a Russian control module that was the station's first component. In the decade since Zarya arrived in orbit, the station has grown to become the largest spacecraft ever built. Its mass has expanded to more than 313 tons, and its interior volume is more than 25,000 cubic feet, comparable to the size of a five-bedroom house. The station now hosts 19 research facilities, including nine sponsored by NASA, eight by European Space Agency and two by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

PHOENIX WRAPS UP SUCCESSFUL MISSION TO MARS

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander ceased communications Nov. 2 after successfully returning unprecedented science data to Earth. Launched Aug. 4, 2007, Phoenix safely touched down on Mars on May 25, 2008, at a site farther north than where any previous spacecraft had landed. Phoenix's soft landing on Mars was the first in 32 years and only the third in history. Cameras on Phoenix sent more than 25,000 images back to Earth. Preliminary science data shed light on whether the Martian arctic environment ever has been favorable for microbes; documented a mildly alkaline soil environment unlike any found by earlier missions; discovered small concentrations of salts that could be nutrients for life; located calcium carbonate; and detected perchlorate salt. The findings also advanced the goal of documenting the history of water on Mars. Phoenix exceeded its planned operational life of three to five months. Analysis of data from its instruments continues.

ARES I ROCKET PASSES IMPORTANT DESIGN MILESTONE

NASA successfully completed the preliminary design review for the new Ares I rocket in 2008. Starting in 2015, the rocket will launch the Orion crew exploration vehicle, its crew of four to six astronauts, and small payloads to the International Space Station. The rocket also will be used as part of missions to explore the moon and beyond in coming decades. The preliminary design review is the first such milestone in more than 35 years for a U.S. rocket that will carry astronauts into space. The review examined the design of Ares I to confirm the planned technical approach will meet NASA's requirements for the fully integrated vehicle and ensure all of the rocket's components and supporting systems are designed to work together. NASA is preparing for the rocket's first test flight in 2009. Hardware for the test flight, including the forward skirt and the upper stage simulator, began arriving at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida this fall.

ARCTIC SEA ICE DECLINE CONTINUES

In September, Arctic sea ice coverage reached the second-lowest level recorded since the dawn of the satellite era, according to observations from the NASA-supported National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado. While slightly above the record-low set in September 2007, this season further reinforces the strong negative trend in summer sea ice coverage observed during the past 30 years. In March, when the Arctic reached its annual maximum sea ice coverage during the winter, scientists from NASA and the data center reported that thick, older sea ice was continuing to decline. NASA developed the capability to observe the extent and concentration of sea ice from space using passive microwave sensors.

LIGHTING UP THE NIGHT

Researchers using a fleet of five NASA satellites discovered in 2008 that explosions of magnetic energy occurring a third of the way to the moon power substorms that cause sudden brightenings and rapid movements of the aurora borealis, or Northern Lights. The cause is magnetic reconnection, a common process that occurs throughout the universe when stressed magnetic field lines suddenly snap to a new shape, like a rubber band that has been stretched too far. These substorms often accompany intense space storms that can cause power outages and disrupt radio communications and global positioning system signals. Scientists are studying the beginning of substorms using a network of 20 ground observatories located throughout Canada
and Alaska and five THEMIS, or Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms, satellites.

HUBBLE FINDS PLANET CIRCLING A DISTANT STAR

Astronomers announced in 2008 that NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has taken the first visible-light snapshot of a planet circling another star. Observations taken 21 months apart by the coronagraph on Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys showed the object orbiting around a star named Fomalhaut. The planet, called Fomalhaut b, is
approximately 10 times the distance of Saturn from our sun. Estimated to be as much as three times Jupiter's mass, Fomalhaut b is located 25 light-years away in the constellation Piscis Australis, or the "Southern Fish." Fomalhaut has been a candidate for planet hunting since an excess of dust was discovered around the star in the early 1980s by NASA's Infrared Astronomy Satellite. The planet is brighter than expected for an object of three Jupiter masses. One possibility is that it has a Saturn-like ring of ice and dust reflecting starlight. Scientists theorize that the ring might eventually coalesce to form moons.

NASA COMPLETES NEXT-GENERATION ROCKET ENGINE TESTS

NASA engineers successfully completed in 2008 the first series of tests in the early development of the J-2X engine that will power the upper stages of the Ares I and Ares V rockets. Ares I will launch the Orion spacecraft that will take astronauts to the International Space Station and on to the moon by 2020. Ares V will carry cargo and components into orbit for trips to the moon and later to Mars. NASA conducted nine tests of heritage J-2 engine components from December to May as part of a series designed to verify J-2 performance data and explore performance boundaries. Engineers at NASA's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Miss., conducted the tests on a heritage J-2 "powerpack," which, in a fully assembled engine, pumps liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen into the engine's main combustion chamber to produce thrust. The test hardware consisted of J-2 components used from the Apollo program in the1960s through the X-33 program in the 1990s.

NASA TEAM A RECIPIENT OF CELEBRATED COLLIER TROPHY

NASA was part of a team that received one of the most prestigious awards in aviation in June. Judges for the Robert J. Collier Trophy, awarded by the National Aeronautic Association, chose the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, or ADS-B, team of public and private groups to receive the 2007 honor. According to the selection committee, "ADS-B is a ground-breaking effort for next-generation airborne surveillance and cockpit avionics. Its implementation will have a broad impact on the safety, capacity and efficiency of the national airspace system." Researchers at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., and NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., were part of the extensive team that developed and tested ADS-B.

NASA RETURNS TO THE MOON WITH INSTRUMENTS ON INDIAN SPACECRAFT

NASA has partnered with India to fly two science instruments aboard the country's first lunar explorer, Chandrayaan-1. The Indian Space Research Organization launched Chandrayaan-1 on Oct. 22 from Sriharikota, India. It entered lunar orbit on Nov. 8. NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper is surveying mineral resources of the moon, and the
Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar is mapping the moon's polar regions and looking for ice deposits in the permanently shadowed craters. Data from the two instruments is contributing to NASA's increased understanding of the lunar environment as the agency implements the nation's space exploration policy, which calls for robotic and human missions to the moon.

NASA TESTS HELP OLYMPIANS ROCKET THROUGH WATER

NASA know-how helped swimsuit designers create a body suit worn by an assortment of gold medalists and world record holders at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Among the medalists wearing Speedo's LZR Racer were Americans Michael Phelps -- winner of more Olympic gold medals than any athlete in the modern era -- and Natalie Coughlin. Aerospace engineer Steve Wilkinson at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., played a role in developing the swimsuit by testing dozens of fabrics in Langley's 7-by-11-inch low speed wind tunnel. Warnaco Inc., the U.S. licensee of the Speedo swimwear brand, approached Langley to test fabric samples because the NASA center has researched drag reduction for aircraft and boats for decades. Just as reducing drag helps planes fly more efficiently, reducing drag helps swimmers go faster. Studies indicate viscous drag or skin friction is almost a third of the total restraining force on a swimmer. Wind tunnel tests measured the drag on the surface of the fabrics. Speedo's research and development team, Aqualab, took the results and used them to help create advanced "space-age" swimsuit designs.

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NASA Eyes Single Pad For Hubble, Rescue Flights
NASA will need to turn over one of its two shuttle launch pads to its moon project by late February to launch its first Ares 1 test flight in mid-July, agency officials said today.

But to do that, NASA would have to be able to launch a May 12 Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission and a follow-up rescue flight -- if required -- from a single pad. Otherwise, the critical Ares 1X test flight would be delayed around October.

An engineering study is ongoing, and a course of action is expected early next year.

"Within the first couple of months of the year, we will need to nail that down," said Jeff Hanley, manager for NASA's Project Constellation, which is developing the rockets and spacecraft to return American astronauts to the moon by 2020.

"We'll be clear then on what our path forward is for 1X, and we'll work with it."

NASA now is scheduled to launch the Ares 1X test flight from Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39B on July 11.

The 327-foot-tall rocket will be a mix of flight hardware and mock-ups: a four-segment shuttle solid rocket booster topped with a fifth spacer segment and mock-ups of the Ares 1 second stage, Orion crew capsule and a launch abort system.

The mass simulators will sport outer mold lines that are aerodynamically exact copies of the Ares 1 rocket components and Orion spacecraft.

The goal of the $360 million test flight is to determine whether the first-stage flight control system will keep the rocket on course during the crucial first two minutes of flight. The rocket's stage separation system and its parachute recovery system will be tested, too.

NASA's moon project must modify pad 39B, a shuttle mobile launcher platform and a high bay in the Vehicle Assembly Building to proceed with the Ares 1X test.

The mobile launcher for the test will be used for the planned Feb. 12 launch of Discovery on an International Space Station assembly mission.

High Bay No. 3 of the assembly building soon will be turned over to the moon project.

But the availability of pad 39B is in question. NASA had been planning to have a second shuttle poised for a rescue mission launch off that pad if Atlantis is critically damaged during its launch from pad 39A on the Hubble flight.

Engineers now are determining if the Hubble flight and a rescue mission could be launched from pad 39A in a timely enough manner to save the Hubble crew in an emergency.

Then pad 39B, the mobile launcher and the high bay could be turned over to the moon project in time to launch Ares 1X in July.

"Once those things are handed over, we've got well-laid out plans to go get those things prepareed to launch Ares 1X in July. And we'll see if that holds," Hanley said. "I can confidentally say that if pad B is required for (the Hubble mission) in May that we will not launch Ares 1X in July."