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Kosmas votes against House budget
U.S. Rep. Suzanne Kosmas, a New Smyrna Beach Democrat whose district includes Kennedy Space Center, voted against a proposed 2010 federal budget that passed in the House today along largely party lines.

Here's a statement from her office:

"The budget put forward by House Leadership outlines many priorities that are important for moving our country forward: comprehensive energy reform; a 21st Century education for our children; and access to quality, affordable health care for all Americans.

Though there are areas of the budget that I support, my priority is helping Central Florida through these difficult economic times, and I believe the Senate's proposed budget does more to protect jobs in our community.

Thousands of jobs at Kennedy Space Center and tens of thousands across Florida are at risk due to the pending spaceflight gap. Unlike the Senate version, the House budget does not give NASA the flexibility to fly the Space Shuttle past 2010.

"As the recent delays in launching Discovery have shown, a Shuttle launch schedule can be unpredictable. Setting a hard deadline for Shuttle retirement could cause dangerous schedule pressure and risk jobs. I will keep fighting to ensure that NASA has the flexibility it needs to maintain safety and retain a highly skilled workforce."

Here's a brief Associated Press report on the House budget action:

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives has approved a budget blueprint drawn to President Barack Obama's specifications. The Senate is ready to follow suit.

The developments come on a day administration allies rejected alternatives advanced by liberals and conservatives alike.

The budgets in the House and Senate call for higher spending on domestic programs and clear the way for action later in the year on Obama's priority items of health care, energy and education.

Republicans in both houses contend the plans spend and tax too much and will leave the nation with deficits that are too large.

The House vote was 233-196, along party lines.

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Expedition 18 Crew Lands in Kazakhstan

Commander Mike Fincke and Flight Engineer Yury Lonchakov of the 18th International Space Station crew landed in Kazakhstan at 3:16 a.m. EDT Wednesday after about six months in space.

All three people aboard the Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft were reported to be in good condition after their re-entry and landing.

A Russian recovery team and NASA personnel reached the landing site by helicopter shortly after the Soyuz touched down. They helped the crew members into reclining chairs for medical tests and set up a medical tent nearby.

With Fincke and Lonchakov was spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi. He launched to the station March 26 with the Expedition 19 crew, Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Michael Barratt, under contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata came to the station aboard space shuttle Discovery on its STS-119 mission, launched March 15. He served for the last part of Expedition 18 as a flight engineer. He remains aboard the station as a member of the Expedition 19 crew. Wakata is the first resident station crew member from JAXA.

Expedition 18 crew members undocked their Soyuz spacecraft from the station at 11:55 p.m. Tuesday. The deorbit burn to slow the Soyuz and begin its descent toward the Earth took place at 2:24 a.m. Wednesday.

When they landed, Fincke and Lonchakov had spent 178 days in space on their Expedition 18 flight, 176 of them on the station.

Fincke, a colonel in the U.S. Air Force, returned from his second stay at the space station. He previously served as flight engineer and NASA Space Station science officer on Expedition 9 in 2004. Lonchakov, a colonel in the Russian Air Force, completed his third trip to the station. He was a mission specialist on STS-100, which visited the orbital outpost in 2001, and he returned to the station in 2002 as part of the Soyuz TMA-1 crew.

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See for yourself if Ares, Orion are on track

Everyone seems to be talking these days about whether or not Ares 1 and Orion remain on schedule and on budget.

NASA seems to have clearly answered the budget question, acknowledging last week that project costs through the first human flight have risen from $28 billion to $36 billion (plus another $8 billion in related support costs for a total of $44 billion). Read all about in our story from late last week.

The schedule question seems to be harder to answer, but take a look at the official planning schedules for NASA's human space flight programs and you start to see what is and is not moving on the calendar when it comes to Ares and Orion missions.

Linked below are what's called the Multi-Program Integrated Milestones, or space agency lingo for a planning schedule. We've posted the version from two years ago and the most recent publicly-released version. Some are reporting that a new update is coming soon, with the possibility of the first human Ares flight being delayed.

For now, however, that flight (known as Orion 2) remains scheduled for March 2015. What the schedule documents show, however, is that many of the precursor flights are moving later on the calendar. Some are moving many months or even a year. It remains unclear how changes in the schedules for those flights, which presumably would rely on the same hardware, personnel and ground equipment, would not impact Orion 2.

That said, here are the 2007 and 2009 schedules in PDF form so you can take a look for yourself. If you click read more after that, you can see a quick list on the date changes for all Ares test flights leading to the first human flight.

http://www.floridatoday.com/content/blogs/space/MPIM07Q2.pdf
http://www.floridatoday.com/content/blogs/space/MPIM09Q2.pdf

Ares 1-X test flight was scheduled for 2nd quarter of 2009 and has since been delayed to the 3rd quarter.
AA-1 Transonic test flight was scheduled for 3rd quarter of 2009 and has since been delayed one year to the 3rd quarter of 2010.
Pad Abort 2 test was scheduled for 2nd quarter of 2010 and has since been rescheduled for 4th quarter of 2012, more than two years later.
Ares 1-Y test flight was scheduled for mid-2012 and is now scheduled for mid to late 2013.
AA-2 max-q test flight was scheduled for 3rd quarter of 2010 and is now set for 4th quarter of 2011.

Some tests and test flights have been eliminated from the schedule altogether or re-ordered and re-configured in a fashion that makes comparisons difficult.

NASA officials stressed they are trying to maintain the schedule and reviewing funding levels. In these documents and in public statements before Congress, NASA officials have said they have a 65 percent confidence level in the 2015 first launch date. The GAO has questioned that schedule as overly optimistic in several reports and in its testimony to Congress.

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NASA Selects Apollo-Era Heat Shield
NASA plans to dust off Apollo-era heat shield technology for the next spacecraft it hopes to send to the moon.

The agency announced today it had selected a system for its Orion crew exploration vehicle that protected Apollo capsules, called the Avocat ablator system. The material was no longer in production before more than three years of tests began for Orion.

The Government Accountability Office last year cited heat shield challenges as one of several potential risks to developing a replacement for the space shuttle by NASA's targeted 2015 timeline. Read the report here.

"There is currently no industry capability for producing a thermal protection system of the size required by the Orion," the report says. "Furthermore, heat shield design features required by the Orion, namely the size, have never been proven and must be developed."

Orion is intended to return astronauts to the moon by 2020.

Click "Read more..." to read NASA's press release.

NASA SELECTS MATERIAL FOR ORION SPACECRAFT HEAT SHIELD

HOUSTON -- NASA has chosen the material for a heat shield that will
protect a new generation of space explorers when they return from the
moon. After extensive study, NASA has selected the Avcoat ablator
system for the Orion crew module.

Orion is part of the Constellation Program that is developing the country's next-generation spacecraft system for human exploration of
the moon and further destinations in the solar system. The Orion crew
module, which will launch atop an Ares I rocket, is targeted to begin
carrying astronauts to the International Space Station in 2015 and to
the moon in 2020.

Orion will face extreme conditions during its voyage to the moon and
on the journey home. On the blistering return through Earth's
atmosphere, the module will encounter temperatures as high as 5,000
degrees Fahrenheit. Heating rates may be up to five times more
extreme than rates for missions returning from the International
Space Station. Orion's heat shield, the dish-shaped thermal
protection system at the base of the spacecraft, will endure the most
heat and will erode, or "ablate," in a controlled fashion,
transporting heat away from the crew module during its descent
through the atmosphere.

To protect the spacecraft and its crew from such severe conditions,
the Orion Project Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston
identified a team to develop the thermal protection system, or TPS,
heat shield. For more than three years, NASA's Orion Thermal
Protection System Advanced Development Project considered eight
different candidate materials, including the two final candidates,
Avcoat and Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator, or PICA, both of
which have proven successful in previous space missions.

Avcoat was used for the Apollo capsule heat shield and on select
regions of the space shuttle orbiter in its earliest flights. It was
put back into production for the study. It is made of silica fibers
with an epoxy-novalic resin filled in a fiberglass-phenolic honeycomb
and is manufactured directly onto the heat shield substructure and
attached as a unit to the crew module during spacecraft assembly.
PICA, which is manufactured in blocks and attached to the vehicle
after fabrication, was used on Stardust, NASA's first robotic space
mission dedicated solely to exploring a comet, and the first sample
return mission since Apollo.

"NASA made a significant technology development effort, conducted
thousands of tests, and tapped into the facilities, talents and
resources across the agency to understand how these materials would
perform on Orion's five-meter wide heat shield," said James Reuther,
the project manager of the study at NASA's Ames Research Center at
Moffett Field, Calif. "We manufactured full-scale demonstrations to
prove they could be efficiently and reliably produced for Orion."

Ames led the study in cooperation with experts from across the agency.
Engineers performed rigorous thermal, structural and environmental
testing on both candidate materials. The team then compared the
materials based on mass, thermal and structural performance, life
cycle costs, manufacturability, reliability and certification
challenges. NASA, working with Orion prime contractor Lockheed
Martin, recommended Avcoat as the more robust, reliable and mature
system.

"The biggest challenge with Avcoat has been reviving the technology to
manufacture the material such that its performance is similar to what
was demonstrated during the Apollo missions," said John Kowal,
Orion's thermal protection system manager at Johnson. "Once that had
been accomplished, the system evaluations clearly indicated that
Avcoat was the preferred system."

In partnership with the material subcontractor, Textron Defense
Systems of Wilmington, Mass., Lockheed Martin will continue
development of the material for Orion. While Avcoat was selected as
the better of the two candidates, more research is needed to
integrate it completely into Orion's design.

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Soyuz Hatch Closed
Hatches between the International Space Station and the Souyz TMA-13 spacecraft have been closed.

Inside the Soyuz, preparing to return home, are American astronaut Mike Fincke, Russian cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov and American space tourist Charles Simonyi, a Hungarian-born U.S. citizen billionaire software developer.

"It's going to be an interesting and fun ride back," said Fincke, the commander of the station's 18th expedition, during a brief farewell ceremony before he climbed into the Soyuz.

Outside of his wife and kids, Fincke said, the coolest thing in his life has been working with international partners in space.

"We do everything together. We're humanity's bright hope for the future," he said.
"So we're handing you over a station with all that. The pressure's on, guys."

"Good luck to you," he concluded.

Fincke and his crewmates embraced and shook hands with Expedition 19 commander Gennady Padalka and flight engineers Michael Barratt and Koichi Wakata.

"Thanks guys for (leaving) station in great safe, condition for us," Padalka said. "We're ready to accept the station command and ready to continue our research and to prepare space station for six-person crew. Honestly, we'll be missing you and you'll be always in our hearts. We'll be looking forward to seeing you again as soon as possible, but not earlier than in six months."

Simonyi, who flew up to the station with Pedalka and Barratt in the Soyuz TMA-14 on March 16, said he'd had a "fantastic" second stay on the station.

"It was a difficult decision for me to fly for the second time," he said. "Now, looking back, I'm so glad that I've done it. I could accomplish so much more with the experience that I had."

Simonyi paid a reported $35 million to the Russian Federal Space Agency for the seat on the Soyuz, which would serve as the space station's lifeboat in the event the crew had to suddenly evacuate in an emergency.

The hatch on the Russian Zarya module closed at 8:46 p.m. EDT, and the internal Soyuz hatch closed two minutes later, followed by leak checks.

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Station Crew Headed Home

                            
Springs gently pushed the Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft away from theInternational Space Station's Zarya module at 11:55 p.m. EDT, puttingan astronaut, cosmonaut and space tourist on track to land on Earth injust a few hours.

On board were American astronaut andExpedition 18 commander Mike Fincke, Russian cosmonaut and Expedition18 flight engineer Yury Lonchakov, and American space tourist CharlesSimonyi.

A short time later, the spacecraft conducted a firstseparation burn lasting 15 seconds, adding velocity of just under onemeter per second.

As the Soyuz backed away, its docking cameraoffered views of the station with all four sets of solar arrays. TheExpedition 18 crew members helped install the final set of arrays lastmonth during space shuttle Discovery's visit.

The crew, whichpreviously included astronauts Greg Chamitoff and Sandra Magnus, alsohelped install and activate a water recycling system delivered byshuttle Endeavour last November.

Click "Read more..." to see a cool sequence of undocking images.

A deorbit burn to slow down the vehicle is scheduled around 2:20 a.m.EDT, and the crew hopes for a soft landing on the steppes of Kazakhstanat 3:16 a.m. EDT.

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Soyuz Plunges Toward Earth

                            
A Soyuz spacecraft and three passengers have begun a one-hour plungethrough Earth's atmosphere following a 4.5-minute engine burn to dropout of orbit.

Astronaut Mike Fincke, cosmonaut Yury Lonchakovand space tourist Charles Simonyi are scheduled to land in centralKazakhstan at 3:16 a.m. EDT.


The de-orbit burn proceeded on schedule at 2:24 a.m. EDT, and systems were reportedly performing normally.

The maneuver east of South America slowed the spacecraft's speed by 257 miles per hour.

Closeto 3 a.m., as the crew is experiencing maximum g-forces, the spacecraftwill jettison its orbital and propulsion modules, which will burn up inthe atmosphere. Just after 3 a.m., parachutes will deploy to furtherslow the descent module.


Medical and engineering teams will be standing by in MI-8 helicoptersto descend on the landing site and treat the crew and spacecraft.

NASArepresentatives there to greet Fincke and the others include MikeSuffredini, head of the space station program; Steve Lindsey, head ofthe astronaut office; NASA's lead flight surgeon; and astronaut MikeFoale, who now is one spot ahead of Fincke for the most time in spaceby a U.S. astronaut.

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Touchdown! Soyuz Crew Lands Safely



An astronaut, cosmonaut and space tourist have returned safely home toEarth early Wednesday aboard a Soyuz spacecraft, landing on the centralKazakhstan steppes a few hours after departing the International SpaceStation.

Search and rescue teams that had surrounded thelanding area in helicopters quickly got to work helping Mike Finke,Yury Lonchkov and Charles Simonyi out of the spacecraft, which restedon its side after the at 3:16 a.m. landing (1:16 p.m. local time) inchilly 48-degree weather.

A medical tent was set up for post-flight examinations, and the crewmembers were swaddled in blue blankets and seated in recumbent chairsto ease their transition back to Earth's gravity.

"The crewreported they feel fine," NASA mission controllers in Houston told thethree Expedition 19 crew members still up on the space station.

Video showed Fincke shaking hands and giving a thumbs-up sign, Lonchakov smiling and Simonyi kissing his wife.


The Soyuz, which experienced two unplanned ballistic re-entries in 2007and 2008, apparently performed well for a second consecutive landing.Rob Navias, a NASA public affairs official at the landing site, saidthe landing was 2 kilometers long but essentially "a bulls-eye."

Within about eight hours, the crew will be flown back to Star City, Russia.

Duringtheir nearly six-month expedition, U.S. Air Force Col. Fincke andRussian Air Force Col. Lonchokov helped prepare the space station for aplanned doubling of crew sizes to six people starting in May.

Simonyi,a former developer of Microsoft Office software, completed a 11-daystay at the orbiting science complex that was his second in two years,reportedly at a cost of $35 million.

The Soyuz shoved awayfrom the station orbiting 220 miles above eastern Russia just beforemidnight Eastern time, with its three passengers strapped incustom-fitted reclining seats designed to cushion the thud of landing.

"Bye, bye, station," one of the departing crew members said, according to a Russian commentator, as the station receded.

"All the best," members of the outgoing and remaining crews said to each other.

Enginesfired about two-and-a-half hours later to slow the spacecraft and guideits fiery plunge through Earth's atmosphere, where two of the threeSoyuz modules separated and burned up as intended.


The first of several parachutes deployed at just after 3 a.m., andSoyuz thrusters fired just a few feet from the ground to soften thetouchdown.

The landing at 3:16 a.m. EDT was delayed a day and shifted to a different site than usual to position it on less soggy ground.

Finckeand Lonchakov launched on the Soyuz TMA-13 from the Baikonur Cosmodromeon Oct. 12 and docked at the station two days later.

They helped install and troubleshoot a critical water recycling system delivered by space shuttle Endeavour in November.

Thesystem is designed to recycle urine, sweat and other condensate for useas drinking water, a necessary system for NASA and internationalpartners to sustain larger crews.

Last month, the pairassisted shuttle Discovery's crew with the installation of a final pairof power-generating solar arrays on the station's right side.

In between shuttle visits, Fincke and Lonchakov performed two spacewalks during their expedition, on Dec 22 and March 10.

TheirExpedition 18 crew at different times included American astronauts GregChamitoff and Sandra Magnus and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata.

Chamitoffand Magnus returned home on Endeavour and Discovery, respectively,while Wakata remains on the station as an Expedition 19 flightengineer. He's the first Japanese to participate in a long-durationspaceflight.

Wakata is joined on the space station by theexpedition's Russian commander, Gennady Padalka, and American astronautDr. Michael Barratt.

In late May, three more crew members -cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk andEuropean astronaut Frank De Winne - are scheduled to arrive at thestation and increase to six the number of long-term residents.

Thatcrew, representing all the station's major international partners, maybe the first to drink from the new recycling system, once it is clearedfor use by NASA scientists.

Before departing, Fincke praised the achievements of international partners working on the station.

"We do everything together," he said during the farewell ceremony. "We're humanity's bright hope for the future."

Finckenow has the third most time in space of any American astronaut, with atotal of 366 days in space including his prior tour on the station in2004. He trails leader Peggy Whitson by 11 days and Michael Foale byeight days

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Auction Offers Chance to Meet Mercury 7 Astronauts
On the 50th anniversary of the press conference that introduced America's first astronauts, a foundation started by the Mercury Seven is raising scholarship money with an auction that includes opportunities to dine with the first and second Americans to orbit Earth.

The Titusville-based, non-profit Astronaut Scholarship Foundation today opened its semi-annual auction of astronaut experiences and memorabilia. Proceeds support scholarships for students pursuing science and technology degrees.

Bidding is open until 5 p.m. EDT April 18. Click here for a list of auction items and rules.

As of 10:30 a.m. today, a lunch with John Glenn, the first U.S. astronaut to orbit Earth in 1962, led the bidding at more than $1,000.

Lunch with Glenn's Project Mercury colleague Scott Carpenter - the only other living member of the original seven - is also up for grabs, as is a Cape Canaveral meal with Apollo 10 commander Tom Stafford or a chance to see a space shuttle launch from Kennedy Space Center with veteran shuttle flyer Fred Gregory.

Other items being auctioned include a cachet cover signed by the Apollo 11 crew, and items flown in space on various missions, from a fork used by Skylab 4 astronaut William Pogue to a polo shirt worn by astronaut Bruce Melnick on STS-41 in October 1990.

The foundation - established in 1984 as the Mercury Seven Foundation - annually awards 19 scholarships each worth $10,000, for a total of $190,000, according to its Web site. It has awarded a total of more than $2.5 million in scholarships.

One scholarship winner last year was University of Central Florida student Ashley Ewh, a graduate of Satellite High School here on the Space Coast.

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House Committee Scolds NASA for Contract Award
Leaders of the U.S. House committee that oversees NASA chastised the agency for awarding a $1.2-billion contract today that was still under investigation for possible conflicts of interests.

"I am disappointed that NASA chose to award this $1.2 billion contract while both the Committee and the NASA Inspector General's Office are investigating serious allegations of conflicts of interest that may have affected the procurement," said Rep. Bart Gordon, chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, in a statement.

"Chairman (Brad) Miller and I had specifically asked NASA not to do this until our investigative work was finished. I hope that a new Administrator would want to review the SCNS procurement process."

In letters last month to acting NASA administrator Chris Scolese, Gordon and Miller requested records concerning the Space Communications Network System contract awarded last October to ITT Corp.

The five-year SCNS contract covers the operation and maintenance of satellites and ground-based facilities - including the Merritt Island Launch Annex in Florida - providing telemetry, tracking and command services for near-Earth missions including the space shuttle, International Space Station and Hubble Space Telescope, according to NASA.

The losing bidder alleged a conflict of interest because NASA's former deputy associate administrator for space communications, Robert Spearing, had joined ITT after retiring from NASA in April 2007.

The congressmen said their committee was "increasingly concerned about the role private contractors play in support of government officials, both in establishing future agency requirements and in managing other contractors."

Here are links to the committee's letters, dated March 6 and March 19, 2009.

NASA offered the following statement:

"Honeywell Technology Solutions Inc. filed a bid protest in October 2008 with the Government Accountability Office, objecting to NASA awarding a Space Communications Network Services contract to ITT Corporation, Advanced Engineering and Sciences of Herndon, Va. As a result of that protest, GAO recommended that NASA reevaluate ITT's past performance consistent with its decision.

"NASA now has completed that corrective action and, based on the review of mission suitability, cost, and the reevaluated past performance, NASA has selected ITT Corp. to perform this contract for telemetry, tracking and command services for near-Earth missions. The contract has an estimated maximum value of $1.26 billion."

Here's the NASA press release announcing ITT as the contract winner last October:

NASA Selects ITT for Space Communications Network Services
WASHINGTON -- NASA has selected ITT Corporation, Advanced Engineering and Sciences of Herndon, Va., to perform telemetry, tracking and command services for near-Earth missions under the Space Communications Network Services contract.

The contract, with an estimated maximum value of $1.26 billion, will support NASA's Space and Near Earth Networks, which provide most of the communications for a wide range of NASA's science-based Earth-orbiting spacecraft, including the International Space Station, the space shuttle, the Hubble Space Telescope and the Earth Observing System satellites.

This cost-plus-award-fee core and indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract has a basic period of performance of five years and three months, including the phase-in period. The contract also includes two one-year options.

The core portion of the contract provides for the operation and maintenance of NASA's Space Network, comprised of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellites and associated ground systems located primarily at White Sands, N.M., and Guam. The contract also provides support to ancillary Space Network sites located in American Samoa, Ascension Island and Australia.

The indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity portion of the contract provides for operation and maintenance of NASA's Near Earth Network, including operations at Wallops Flight Facility at Wallops Island, Va.; the White Sands Complex in Las Cruces, N.M.; the Merritt Island Launch Annex in Florida; and McMurdo Station in Antarctica. It also includes commercial tracking and data-acquisition operations worldwide, and the Electronics Systems Test Laboratory at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. This portion of the contract also includes support for the Satellite Laser Ranging network and the global Very Long Baseline Interferometry Network. Support in the areas of systems and sustaining engineering, logistics, facilities management and hardware and software development for the Space Network and the Near Earth Network also will be provided.

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Endeavour Moved to VAB
In Kennedy Space Center's vast Vehicle Assembly Building today, the orbiter Endeavour is being connected to the fuel tank and solid rocket boosters that will power its next launch.

What that mission is remains to be seen.

It could be a high-stakes rescue of the Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission crew, in the unlikely event that Atlantis is badly damaged during its targeted May 12 liftoff.

Or, with that scenario passed, it could be a mid-June launch to the International Space Station, to deliver final components of the new Japanese Kibo science lab.

Endeavour backed out of its high-tech garage at the space center on schedule at 7 a.m. today, as the rising sun burst through lines of clouds.

Perched on a yellow transporter rolling on 76 wheels, the orbiter emerged slowly from the rows of access platforms that have cocooned it in a processing hangar since its return to the spaceport last December.

That followed a cross-country flight from Edwards Air Force Base in California, where Endeavour's crew landed Nov. 30 to conclude the STS-126 mission.

Once it was moving forward, the transporter advanced at a steady 5 mph clip, a comfortable pace for dozens of KSC employees who strolled in front of and behind the vehicle they had helped prepare for flight.

Other center employees took pictures from behind ropes as the 122-foot, 242,000-pound spaceship rolled by on its quarter-mile "rollover."

By about 7:40 a.m., the orbiter was turning in to the north side of the 52-story assembly building, where it would be grabbed by a sling and hoisted lifted several hundred feet over a transom and lowered into High Bay 1.

There, an orange external tank and twin solid rocket boosters awaited, already fastened to a mobile launcher platform.

After six days of processing, the platform and assembled space shuttle are scheduled to be delivered to launch pad 39B after midnight next Friday, a four-mile ride on a crawler-transporter.

Endeavour will rest on pad 39B, a short distance north of Atlantis on pad 39A, until Atlantis is cleared for landing on its Hubble mission. Assuming that happens, Endeavour will be rolled around to pad 39A to get ready for its own mission, called STS-127.

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Endeavour Moved to VAB
In Kennedy Space Center's vast Vehicle Assembly Building today, the orbiter Endeavour is being connected to the fuel tank and solid rocket boosters that will power its next launch.

What that mission is remains to be seen.

It could be a high-stakes rescue of the Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission crew, in the unlikely event that Atlantis is badly damaged during its targeted May 12 liftoff.

Or, with that scenario passed, it could be a mid-June launch to the International Space Station, to deliver final components of the new Japanese Kibo science lab.

Endeavour backed out of its high-tech garage at the space center on schedule at 7 a.m. today, as the rising sun burst through lines of clouds.

Perched on a yellow transporter rolling on 76 wheels, the orbiter emerged slowly from the rows of access platforms that have cocooned it in a processing hangar since its return to the spaceport last December.

That followed a cross-country flight from Edwards Air Force Base in California, where Endeavour's crew landed Nov. 30 to conclude the STS-126 mission.

Once it was moving forward, the transporter advanced at a steady 5 mph clip, a comfortable pace for dozens of KSC employees who strolled in front of and behind the vehicle they had helped prepare for flight.

Other center employees took pictures from behind ropes as the 122-foot, 242,000-pound spaceship rolled by on its quarter-mile "rollover."

By about 7:40 a.m., the orbiter was turning in to the north side of the 52-story assembly building, where it would be grabbed by a sling and hoisted lifted several hundred feet over a transom and lowered into High Bay 1.

There, an orange external tank and twin solid rocket boosters awaited, already fastened to a mobile launcher platform.

After six days of processing, the platform and assembled space shuttle are scheduled to be delivered to launch pad 39B after midnight next Friday, a four-mile ride on a crawler-transporter.

Endeavour will rest on pad 39B, a short distance north of Atlantis on pad 39A, until Atlantis is cleared for landing on its Hubble mission. Assuming that happens, Endeavour will be rolled around to pad 39A to get ready for its own mission, called STS-127.

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Delta IV launch postponed until May
This month's planned launch of a Delta IV rocket carrying a weather and climate observation satellite has been pushed back into May.

The United Launch Alliance rocket had been scheduled to blast off with the satellite for the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration on April 28. But NASA said today that the launch will now take place no earlier than May 12.

During a countdown dress rehearsal on Wednesday - essentially a trial run countdown with the rocket fully fueled - a liquid oxygen leak was detected in the first state, possibly in the fill and drain valve, NASA said.

A ULA team has begun work to isolate and repair the first stage of the liquid oxygen leak. Testing of the second stage and the hydrogen portion of the first stage were completed successfully.

The targeted launch date is the same day that Atlantis is scheduled to blast off on the Hubble Space Telescope serving mission.

NASA said that the Delta rocket's launch will be adjusted accordingly based on the outcome of troubleshooting and readiness of the Delta IV, the status of the shuttle, and the availability of the Eastern Range.

The weather satellite is expected to be transported to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Launch Complex 37 for mating to the rocket no earlier than April 24.

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Lyon to receive Debus award Saturday
John R. "Dick" Lyon, vice president of Florida operations and program manager for ASRC Aerospace Corporation, has been selected by the National Space Club Florida Committee to receive its 2009 Dr. Kurt H. Debus Award. Lyon will be honored at the Debus Award Dinner on Saturday. The formal event, which begins at 6:30 p.m., will be at the Debus Conference Facility at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

"The Space Club is proud to honor Dick for this prestigious award," National Space Club Chair Roy Tharpe said in a statement. "Dick's almost 50 year service to our nationâ

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NASA Preps Rescue Shuttle For Friday Rollout
NASA aims to roll shuttle Endeavour out to launch pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center this week, a move that will set the stage to launch -- if need be -- a mission to rescue a Hubble Space Telescope servicing crew.

Now stacked in High Bay No. 1 of the landmark Vehicle Assembly Building, Endeavour is slated to start a 4.2-mile move out to the pad at 12:01 a.m. Friday.

A giant tracked transporter originally built for the Apollo moon-landing project will haul Endeavour down a river-rock crawlerway that stretches between the assembly building and the pad.

With the transporter crawling at less than one mile per hour, the trip is expected to take six to eight hours to complete.

Sistership Atlantis, which already is at launch pad 39A, is slated to be launched May 12 on NASA's fifth and final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission. Endeavour and four astronauts will be ready to launch within seven days if Atlantis sustains critical damage during the Hubble mission.

If no rescue mission is required, then Endeavour would roll to pad 39A for a targeted June 13 launch on a mission to deliver the third and final section of the Japanese Kibo science research facility to the International Space Station.

Endeavour was moved late last week from its processing hangar to the 52-story assembly building. Crane operators with United Space Alliance hoisted the 122-foot-long orbiter up and over a 16th-floor transom and then down onto a mobile launcher platform in High Bay 1.

Endeavour then was connected to an external tank that already had been equipped with twin solid rocket boosters.

Engineers this week are conducting a series of tests aimed at verifying mechanical and electrical connections between the orbiter, the tank, the boosters and the shuttle's mobile launcher platform.

No significant problems are being worked on either Endeavour or Atlantis.

kl90

Sorry Mr. Colbert: New Module Named Tranquility
The next and final U.S. module at the International Space Station is being named Tranquility -- rather than (Steven) Colbert, a cable TV comedian who lobbied for the agency to make the node his namesake.

Appearing on on The Colbert Report on Comedy Central, NASA astronaut Suni Williams -- who spent more than six months aboard the orbiting outpost -- broke the news to the comedic genius during his 11:30 p.m. show tonight.

Colbert lobbied his vast audience to submit his surname during a "Name The Node" contest NASA recently held, and his supporters chalked up more than 230,000 votes.

"Serenity" was second with about 190,000 votes, and Colbert said he submitted seven votes for the name "Fart Monkey."

Williams, deputy director of the NASA Astronaut Office at Johnson Space Center in Houston, did not say why NASA selected Tranquility.

But it's well known that the Apollo 11 astronauts landed on the Sea of Tranquility on the moon 40 years ago July 20, marking the first time humans have set foot on another planetary body.

NASA did, however, offer up a consolation prize.

The agency in August plans to launch up to the station a treadmill that will be called the Combined Operational Load-Bearing External Resistive Treadmill -- or the COLBERT.

It will reside in the Tranquility Module, a pressurized passageway to be launched to the outpost next February. And station astronauts -- who work out two hours a day to stay physically fit for their ultimate return to normal gravity -- will exercise on the apparatus every day.

"Everyday somebody will have to jump on the COLBERT to work out," Williams said. "So the words that will be passed down on space-to-ground (will be), 'It's time for me to jump on COLBERT."

kl90

Shuttle Program Shutdown To Resume May 1
Blogger Note: Updated at 12:34 p.m. with comments from U.S. Rep. Suzanne Kosmas.

NASA intends to resume an orderly shutdown of the shuttle program on May 1, a move aimed at carrying out national space policy while safely flying nine more missions between now and the end of next year.

The shuttle program shutdown will restart a day after the expiration of a congressional order to hold up the phase-out.

"The plan all along has been that we would follow the course that already had been laid out and resume a slow and methodical phase down of the shuttle program," said Mike Curie, a spokesman at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

"We have to do this to meet the budget allocations we have been given for this year and next year," Curie said.

The action is required "in order to be sure we have the money needed to fly the remaining nine missions safely," he added.

In recent weeks, several congressional legislators with ties to NASA's human space flight program have proposed extending the shuttle program beyond 2010, but it's highly unlikely action will be taken before April 30.

NASA reportedly has spent about $90 million to keep the shuttle extension option open. But agency managers now intend to proceed with an orderly phase down of the program so the remaining missions can be safely completed.

"You have heard me say that 'hope is not an effective management tool' on many occasions," NASA Shuttle Program Manager John Shannon told colleagues recently in a widely distributed e-mail.

"It is my position that we cannot continue to spend money to retain the capability to fly additional space shuttle missions, hoping that someone will recognize the national assets we are giving up," he wrote.

"We have to take our destiny in our own hands and manage within the limited budget we have been given and ensure that we will fly the full manifest and leave the International Space Station in the best configuration possible."

U.S. Rep. Suzanne Kosmas, D-New Smyrna Beach and a member of the House Committee on Science and Technology, said she still is fighting to eliminate the "hard deadline" for shuttle retirement.

"The need has never been more urgent to increase funding for our human spaceflight program, which is why I have made a request to the Appropriations Committee to eliminate the hard deadline for Shuttle retirement and provide an additional $2 billion for NASA so they have the flexibility to fly the Shuttle past 2010 and to accelerate Constellation," Kosmas said.

"I will fight at every turn to give NASA the flexibility to fly the Shuttle past 2010 in order to safely complete the scheduled launches and retain the highly skilled workforce at Kennedy Space Center," she said.

"Now, more than ever, NASA needs leadership and direction to deal with its growing challenges. I hope the president will quickly take action and appoint a NASA Administrator who understands these challenges and who is focused on minimizing the spaceflight gap."

Eleven months after the 2003 Columbia accident, then-President George Bush directed NASA to complete construction of the International Space Station and retire the agency's aging shuttle fleet by Sept. 30, 2010.

Bush's "Vision For Space Exploration" called for NASA to develop a new Crew Exploration Vehicle by 2014 and then return American astronauts to the moon by 2020. The U.S. would rely on Russia to ferry NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station during the gap between shuttle fleet retirement and the first piloted flights of successor spacecraft.

NASA at that time laid out a plan to return the shuttle fleet to service, resume assembly of the International Space Station and at the same time, effect a slow, methodical phase down of shuttle fleet operations.

NASA had been following that course for four years. Then as the 2008 presidential election approached, Congress directed NASA to take no further action before April 30 that would preclude an extension of the shuttle program beyond 2010.

The intent was to give a new administration an opportunity to make a call on shuttle fleet retirement plans after the inauguration on Jan. 20.

President Obama weighed in with his budget blueprint in February. It calls for NASA to finish assembly of the International Space Station and retire the shuttle by the end of 2010. It authorizes NASA to fly one additional mission if it can be done "safely and affordably" by the end of next year.

NASA now plans to launch a fifth and final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission on May 12. Eight more International Space Station assembly and outfitting missions also are on the books. Those flights include the single additional mission okayed by the Obama Administration -- a mission to haul a particle physics experiment up to the outpost.

NASA is putting in place plans to fly that mission, but Congress has not appropriated the money required to carry it out.

Said Curie: "We need to have the funding for that mission in order to accomplish it."

kl90

SpaceX Snares Two Launches
5:03 p.m. Blogger Update: SpaceX officials now say they provided The Flame Trench with inaccurate information. As two of our commenters noted, the satellites will be launched into a sun-synchronous orbits. Consequently, SpaceX officials say the launches will take place from either Vandenberg Air Force Base in California or Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific. We regret the error.

Upstart SpaceX has signed an agreement to launch two Falcon 9 missions for the Argentinian space agency, company officials said today.

The flights will blast off in 2012 and 2013, which is good news for Florida's Space Coast. NASA is expected to cut at least 3,500 of 14,500 jobs at Kennedy Space Center after the agency retires its three-orbiter shuttle fleet in 2010. The SpaceX flights will help fill the gap between shuttle retirement and the first piloted flights of Ares 1 rockets and Orion space capsules in 2015.

"We're just super-stoked about this," said SpaceX spokeswoman Cassie Kloberdanz. "We are so excited to step into the space-hungry world of the Space Coast."

The Falcon 9s both will carry Earth-observation satellites for Argentina's National Commission on Space Activity. The satellites will enable the South American nation to monitor natural resources and provide emergency and disaster management.

SpaceX did not provide the value of the contracts.

Based in Hawthrone, California, Space Exploration Technologies -- more commonly know as SpaceX -- is one of two companies developing commercial means to fly cargo and ultimately crews to and from the International Space Station.

The company intends to fly Falcon 9 rockets from Launch Complex 40, which is a decommissioned Air Force Titan 4 launch site. The company's inaugural Falcon 9 launch is scheduled for no earlier than June of this year.

Two other Falcon 9 missions are tentatively scheduled to fly from the Cape Canaveral this year, including the first flight of the company's Dragon spacecraft. The spacecraft is being designed to carry cargo to the International Space Station; the company also intends to upgrade the vehicle to fly crews to and from the outpost.

kl90

Planet-hunting spacecraft's first images released
This just in from The Associated Press:

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) -- NASA's new planet-hunting telescope has beamed back the first images of a patch of faraway sky in the Milky Way galaxy where it hopes to find Earth-like planets.

NASA today released several images snapped by Kepler earlier this month, including a view of a distant part of our galaxy containing some 14 million stars. Scientists say more than 100,000 of those stars are potential candidates for research.

Kepler was launched in March and will spend 3½ years studying these stars in search of small rocky planets.

The $600 million mission will begin searching after engineers tune up Kepler's science instruments in the next few weeks.

kl90

ULA Wins Another Gap-Filling Launch Contract
The U.S. government's prime space launch services supplier snared another multimillion-dollar contract this month, bringing to more than 60 the number of satellite-delivery missions it intends to fly between now and 2015.

Under the terms of the $184 million contract, United Launch Alliance will loft a classified payload for the super-secret National Reconnaissance Office in 2011. The NRO owns and operates the nation's fleet of spy satellites.

ULA spokesman Mike Rein said the payload -- designated NROL-15 -- will blast off atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Launch Complex 37.

The announcement is good news for Florida's Space Coast. NASA is expected to cut at least 3,500 of 14,500 jobs at Kennedy Space Center when the shuttle fleet is retired at the end of 2010, and the agency is facing a five-year gap between the last shuttle mission and the first piloted flights of Ares rockets and Orion spacecraft.

It also marks the second time in the past month that United Launch Alliance has captured a launch services contract for flights that will take place during the gap. NASA last month awarded the company a $600 million contract to launch four spacecraft between 2011 and 2014.

"I'm extremely proud and appreciative of the confidence our DOD, NASA and commercial customers have placed in United Launch Alliance to launch these critically important missions for our nation. All of these missions will enhance national defense, scientific exploration and economic prosperity benefiting all Americans and many of our allied nations," Jerry Jamison, the company's vice president for launch operations, said in a statement.

"Specifically for Florida, there will be tremendous change taking place for the space industry in Brevard in the coming years, but our launch team is pleased that we will continue to play a major role in continuing the legacy that has made the Cape the 'world's premiere gateway to space' for decades," he said.

"Ultimately, this is not only great news for ULA, but great news for all of Brevard County due to the positive economic impact each launch brings to the Space Coast."

A joint venture partnership of Lockheed Martin and The Boeing Co., United Launch Alliance merges the Atlas and Delta rocket families and launches satellite-delivery missions from Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

ULA is the prime provider of expendable rocket launch services for the U.S. government; its customers include the NRO, NASA, the Department of Defense, the U.S. Air Force and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, among others.

The new contract marks the 14th launch the company has been awarded in the past 14 months. Eleven of those will set sail from Cape Canaveral; the remaining three will fly from Vandenberg.