Space Historian Rex Hall MBE (1946-2010)

Space Historian Rex Hall MBE (1946-2010)

Received the very sad news today of the passing of noted space historian, author and all round first class gentleman and ambassador for space exploration Rex Hall MBE.God Bless Rex and Family, our sincere condolences to Lynn & family.

Atlantis Crew Enjoyed Some Time Off Monday

STS-132 MCC Status Report #21

HOUSTON – Atlantis astronauts stowed spacesuits, wrapped up the standard late inspection of the shuttle’s thermal protection system ahead of schedule and enjoyed some time off Monday  .

Commander Ken Ham, Pilot Tony Antonelli and Mission Specialists Garrett Reisman and Piers Sellers began the inspection well ahead of scheduled start. By 4:50 a.m. they had finished their look at the right wing, by 5:52 a.m. the nose cap survey was complete and the left wing survey was finished at 7:17 a.m., about 2.5 hours ahead of the timeline.

The survey was done using the shuttle arm and its 50-foot extension, the orbiter boom sensor system. Early in the mission, a pan-tilt assembly at the boom’s end supporting a laser dynamic range imager and an intensified video camera had been partly disabled by a snagged cable.

A secondary system on the boom was used for the day-after-launch survey, and spacewalkers cleared the cable snag on Wednesday. The pan-tilt assembly and its instruments functioned flawlessly today. The results will be analyzed on the ground before Atlantis is formally cleared to land.

Spacewalkers Mike Good and Steve Bowen finished working with the spacesuits and put them away while the survey was being done. After the survey, the boom and the arm were stowed on opposite sides of the cargo bay sill, their work done for the mission.

Tuesday, crew members will stow items in the cabin and check out Atlantis’ reaction control system and its flight control surfaces. Landing at Kennedy Space Center is scheduled for 7:48 a.m. Wednesday.

Final Inspection of Atlantis

STS-132 MCC Status Report #20

HOUSTON – Today, the shuttle crew performs a final inspection of Atlantis’ heat shield. The crew of six will also pack up spacesuits and have some time off.

Atlantis’ crew was awakened at 11:50 p.m. CDT. The music was the theme to “Wallace and Gromit” played for Mission Specialist Steve Bowen.

Bowen and fellow spacewalker Mission Specialist Mike Good will start their day by cleaning up the spacesuits and stowing them.

Commander Ken Ham, Pilot Tony Antonelli and Mission Specialists Garrett Reisman and Piers Sellers will work on inspection activities. They will again use the shuttle robotic arm and the 50-foot-long orbiter boom and its cameras to scan Atlantis’ nose and starboard, or right, wing. They will break for lunch and then finish the task by scanning the port wing.

Exercise sessions will be interspersed throughout the day for each of the crewmembers in order to help prepare them for their return to Earth’s gravity Wednesday.

They will also have some off-duty time. Crew sleep is scheduled for 3:20 p.m.

Atlantis undocked from the International Space Station

HOUSTON – Atlantis undocked from the International Space Station at 10:22 a.m. CDT Sunday, ending a seven-day stay that saw the addition of a new station module, replacement of batteries and resupply of the orbiting outpost.


During three spacewalks astronauts added a backup high-data-rate antenna to the station and a tool platform to Dextre, the robot-like special purpose dexterous manipulator. They removed and replaced six 375-pound batteries on the station’s P6 truss segment. The six old batteries are headed back to Earth in Atlantis’ cargo bay.

Rassvet, the Russian Mini-Research Module 1 brought to the station by Atlantis, was installed on the Zarya module by Mission Specialists Piers Sellers and Garrett Reisman. The delicate installation involved working in Russian on a computer linked to Rassvet and the station’s Russian segment and exacting control of the 58-foot Canadarm2. Both astronauts were in the new cupola, enjoying the luxury of window views to aid arm operation for the first time.

The joint operations were a good example of friendship and professionalism, station Commander Oleg Kotov said after summarizing the week’s accomplishments in the farewell ceremony. Atlantis Commander Ken Ham responded: “We are one happy shuttle crew … happy because of all of your efforts too. We were a 12-person crew that operated together.”

After undocking, Pilot Tony Antonelli flew Atlantis around the station at a distance ranging from about 400 to 600 feet. Crew members took photographs and video of the station with its new module to document its condition. Atlantis did the first separation burn, taking Atlantis away from the station, at 11:37 a.m.

Atlantis crew members, Ham, Antonelli and Mission Specialists Reisman, Michael Good, Steve Bowen and Sellers, spent their morning transferring final items from the station and preparing rendezvous tools and other items for their departure.

They and the station crew, Kotov and Flight Engineers Alexander Skvortsov, Tracy Caldwell Dyson, Mikhail Kornienko, Soichi Noguchi, and T.J. Creamer, gathered for a crew photo a little after 5 a.m. They subsequently fielded questions from media representatives at NASA centers and in Tokyo. The crews enjoyed a final midday meal together.

The farewell ceremony and subsequent departure of the Atlantis crew followed. Hatches between the two spacecraft were closed at 7:43 a.m., ending 6 days, 20 hours, 25 minutes of joint crew operations. At undocking, the two spacecraft had been together for 7 days, 54 minutes.

Monday shuttle crew members will do the standard late inspection of the heat resistant reinforced carbon carbon surfaces using the robotic arm and its 50-foot orbiter boom sensor system extension. A cable snag at the end of the OBSS had prevented a full inspection after launch. Spacewalkers cleared the snag, so the arm should be fully operational Monday. Other imagery and engineering data was used to fill in the gaps in the post-launch inspection.

Tuesday will focus on cabin stowage and checkout of Atlantis’ reaction control system and its flight control surfaces. Landing at Kennedy Space Center is scheduled for 7:48 a.m. Wednesday.

International Space Station and shuttle crews part ways today.

HOUSTON – After more than seven days of working together, including three spacewalks and the installation of a new module, the International Space Station and shuttle crews part ways today.

The Atlantis crew woke at 11:50 p.m. Saturday to “These Are Days” performed by 10,000 Maniacs. The song was played for Pilot Tony Antonelli.

Before they part, the combined crews of shuttle Commander Ken Ham, Antonelli, Mission Specialists Michael Good, Garrett Reisman, Steve Bowen and Piers Sellers, and Expedition 23 Commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineers Alexander Skvortsov, Tracy Caldwell Dyson, Mikhail Kornienko, Soichi Noguchi, and T.J. Creamer, will gather one last time in the space station for a joint news conference. They will take questions from reporters in the United States and in Tokyo, Japan. The event will air on NASA TV at 5:25 a.m.

The crews will then gather the last items for transfer, and then gather for their farewells and close the hatches between the two spacecraft. Undocking is planned for 10:22 a.m.

Once backed safely away from the complex, Antonelli will perform a flyaround of the station. The shuttle crew will record views of the station during the planned 1.5 revolutions of the station. The shuttle will slowly increase its distance, but stay within range that it is able to redock to the orbiting laboratory if needed.

More equipment transfers between Shuttle and the ISS

HOUSTON – Atlantis astronauts transferred equipment and supplies between the shuttle and the International Space Station on Saturday in preparation for their departure Sunday, after more than seven days of docked operations.

 

The cargo carrier that brought six new 375-pound batteries to the station was returned to the shuttle with the old station batteries. They were replaced during the mission’s second and third spacewalks on Wednesday and Friday. Cargo bay latches securing the carrier were closed at about 4:50 a.m. CDT.

Moments later Mission Specialists Piers Sellers and Garrett Reisman, at the controls of Canadarm2 in the station’s new cupola, released the arm’s grip on the carrier. They put the robotic arm in a parking position, completing its work for the STS-132 mission of Atlantis.

 

Beginning about 6:40 a.m. the Atlantis crew and station Flight Engineer Tracy Caldwell Dyson spent about 20 minutes answering videotaped questions from students at 12 NASA Explorer Schools around the country. The schools’ three-year partnerships with NASA are aimed at increasing students’ interest in science, technology and mathematics.

Departure preparations and transfer activities occupied some of the crew’s morning. Much of the transfer work focused on moving items between the station and Atlantis’ middeck. After the hour-long break for the midday meal and a couple of hours of early afternoon work, the crew was given almost three hours of off-duty time.

On Sunday crew farewells and hatch closure are to begin a little after 7 a.m. Undocking is set for 10:22 a.m.

Batteries loaded into Atlantis’ payload bay for the return trip home.

STS-132 MCC Status Report #16

HOUSTON – Space shuttle Atlantis' crew will begin the day by moving the cargo carrier, temporarily stowed Friday on the International Space Station’s mobile base system, into the shuttle’s payload bay, answer questions submitted by 12 NASA Explorer Schools and then wrap up the final transfer of items between vehicles.

The crews woke to Matt Redman’s “Lord We Have Seen the Rising Sun” at 12:20 a.m. CDT. The song was played for Mission Specialist Mike Good, who completed his fourth spacewalk Friday.

At 2:35 a.m. Mission Specialists Garrett Reisman and Piers Sellers will use the station’s robotic arm to move the cargo carrier, loaded with six 375-pound used batteries, into Atlantis’ payload bay for the return trip home.

At 6:40 a.m. the shuttle crew will answer questions submitted by video from elementary and middle school students from 12 NASA Explorer Schools. The NASA Explorer Schools project establishes a three-year partnership between NASA and schools in diverse communities to increase awareness of science, technology and mathematics education.

Schools participating include John B. Cary Elementary in Richmond, Va., Cumberland Middle School in Cumberland, Wisc., Rodriguez Elementary in Harlingen, Texas, Hobgood Elementary in Murfreesboro, Tenn., Lebanon Middle School in Lebanon, Ky., Ellen Ochoa Learning Center in Cudahy, Calif., Orleans Elementary in Orleans, Vt., Wendover High School in Wendover, Utah, Harding Middle School in Des Moines, Iowa, Conyers Middle School in Conyers, Ga., Forest Lake Elementary School in Columbia, S.C., and Arapahoe School in Arapahoe, Wyo.

Their station counterparts, Flight Engineers Tracy Caldwell Dyson, Mikhail Kornienko, Soichi Noguchi and T.J. Creamer will have a routine day of science work, maintenance and exercise sessions.

STS-132 MCC Status Report #15

STS-132 MCC Status Report #15

HOUSTON – Atlantis astronauts completed the second of two high-priority tasks today, installing the final two 375-pound batteries of the six the shuttle brought to the International Space Station. Their 6-hour, 46-minute spacewalk wrapped up at 12:13 p.m. CDT.



Spacewalkers Mike Good and Garrett Reisman also installed an ammonia jumper and brought a power and data grapple fixture from Atlantis’ cargo bay into the station. Those tasks were added to the spacewalk after Good and Mission Specialist Steve Bowen were able to replace four batteries, one more than planned, during their Wednesday spacewalk.

The other high-priority task, installation of the Russian Mini-Research Module 1 named Rassvet was accomplished Tuesday. Hatches between it and the Zarya module were opened on Thursday. Today, after fans and filters were used overnight, station crew members reported a significant decrease in the amount of the metal shavings they had seen Thursday.

The first spacewalk task was installation of a backup ammonia coolant jumper between the Port 4 and Port 5 truss segments. It provides a readily available path for an ammonia recharge should one become necessary.


The spacewalkers moved farther out the port truss to turn their attention to the batteries. They removed and replaced the fifth and sixth old batteries and returned each to the nearby cargo carrier at the end of the station arm. Finally they took the last battery removed Wednesday from its temporary stowage position on the truss and moved it to the cargo carrier.

The station arm moved the cargo carrier with the old batteries to a temporary stowage position, to await its return to Atlantis’ cargo bay on Saturday. The batteries, on the Port 6 truss, store power from the station’s solar arrays for use during the 16 nights the station experiences each 24 hours.


Good and Reisman moved to the cargo bay where they removed the grapple fixture. Once it was free, both spacewalkers moved with it back to the airlock where it was stowed. It will provide a base for the station’s Canadarm2 on the Zarya module, where it is to be installed during a spacewalk scheduled for July.


From there the two moved into a get-ahead task, stowing and retrieving tools at Z1 truss tool boxes – basically a cleanup task after previous spacewalks. That was the final job before they moved back to the airlock to end the spacewalk.

As during the first two spacewalks, Atlantis Pilot Tony Antonelli was the intravehicular officer, choreographing activities. Mission Specialist Piers Sellers and station Flight Engineer Tracy Caldwell Dyson operated Canadarm2. Bowen, who participated in the Monday and Wednesday spacewalks, worked on photo and TV coverage.


Today’s spacewalk, the fourth for Good and the third for Reisman, was the 146th for station assembly and maintenance. Those spacewalks total 914 hours, 53 minutes.

Third spacewalk of the mission - STS-132

STS-132 MCC Status Report #14

HOUSTON – Today, the shuttle and station crews will focus on the third spacewalk of the mission. Astronauts will install a jumper, swap out batteries and retrieve a grapple fixture during the excursion.

The crew woke at 12:50 a.m. CDT to “Traveling Light” performed by JJ Cale. The song was played for Mission Specialist Piers Sellers.

The shuttle crew of Commander Ken Ham, Pilot Tony Antonelli, and Mission Specialists Michael Good, Garrett Reisman, Steve Bowen and Sellers will focus on the spacewalk. Reisman and Good will perform the extravehicular activity that will finish the last of the battery exchanges and a few additional tasks.

The two are expected to egress from the Quest airlock at 5:45 a.m. Their first task will be the installation of an ammonia jumper on the port 4 and 5 truss. Next, they will finish the last of the battery replacement work, swapping the remaining two batteries and installing a battery that was left in a temporary stow position from the last spacewalk.

The final planned task is the retrieval of a Power and Data Grapple Fixture (PDGF) from the orbiter’s payload bay to bring inside the station at the end of the spacewalk. The PDGF will be installed to the Zarya module’s exterior on a spacewalk later this summer.

Antonelli and Bowen will assist from inside the complex throughout the spacewalk. Sellers and Expedition 23 Flight Engineer Tracy Caldwell Dyson will provide robotics support. Ham will oversee the activities and assist with orbiter activities and transfer work.

On the International Space Station, Expedition 23 Commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineers Alexander Skvortsov, Mikhail Kornienko, Soichi Noguchi and T.J. Creamer will continue station science work and departure preparations for the upcoming Soyuz TMA-17 undocking.

Mini-Research Module 1

STS-132 MCC Status Report #13

HOUSTON – Spacefarers opened hatches between the International Space Station and its new Russian Rassvet module for the first time at 5:52 a.m. CDT today.

Also known as Mini-Research Module 1, Rassvet was transported to the station by Atlantis and installed by Mission Specialists Garrett Reisman and Piers Sellers using the station’s Canadarm2. The module is almost 20 feet long, 7.7 feet wide and weighs 11,188 pounds. Carrying almost 6,500 pounds of internal and external cargo to the station, Rassvet has eight science work stations and will be used both as a docking and stowage compartment.

Crew members wore eye and breathing protection as a standard precaution when entering a new module. Station Commander Oleg Kotov initially reported that the inside of the module looked clean, but as unpacking activities ramped up reported some metal filings drifting inside the new module. Flight controllers in Houston and Moscow were working with the crew to develop a technique for safely removing the floating debris.

Atlantis Commander Ken Ham, Pilot Tony Antonelli and Sellers transferred equipment, supplies and experiments between the shuttle and station. Mike Good and Reisman prepared for their Friday spacewalk, configuring tools and preparing suits and the airlock. Intravehicular officer Antonelli , who choreographed the flight’s first two spacewalks, and Steve Bowen, who participated in the second spacewalk, helped with preparations.

The major task of the spacewalk is to replace the final two of the six batteries being changed out on the Port 6 truss. Four were replaced Wednesday. Spacewalkers also will install an ammonia jumper and take a power and data grapple fixture from Atlantis’ cargo bay into the station. It will be installed later on the Zarya module, to provide a base for the station arm to work in that area.

Ham, Antonelli, Sellers and station Flight Engineer Tracy Caldwell Dyson answered questions from representatives of Associated Press, FOX News Radio and CBS News.

Just before lunch, the crew talked with spacewalk experts on the ground. The crew got about four hours of afternoon free time, until the spacewalk procedure review near the end of their workday. The spacewalkers will spend the night in the Quest airlock with its pressure reduced to 10.2 to psi.

Hatches Open on New ISS Module - Rassvet

STS-132 MCC Status Report #12

HOUSTON – The space shuttle crew gets a little break from the busy pace of the last several days. Today they will open the hatches on the new module Rassvet and prepare for a third spacewalk, but the shuttle astronauts will have some off-duty time as well.

The crews woke to Elvis Costello’s “Welcome to the Working Week” at 12:59 a.m. CDT. The song was played for Mission Specialist Stephen Bowen.

The first tasks of the day will focus on the new module, Mini-Research Module-1, which was attached to the International Space Station Tuesday. Expedition 23 Commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineer Alexander Skvortsov will perform leak checks in the Russian segment before opening hatches around 5:30 a.m.

 

Their station counterparts, Flight Engineers Tracy Caldwell Dyson, Mikhail Kornienko, Soichi Noguchi and T.J. Creamer will have a routine day of science work, maintenance and exercise sessions.

The shuttle crew will have a few hours of off duty time in the afternoon, but otherwise, the day will largely focus on preparations for the third and final spacewalk. Mission Specialists Garrett Reisman, Mike Good and Bowen will gather and prepare the tools needed and configure the airlock. Commander Ken Ham, Pilot Tony Antonelli and Mission Specialist Piers Sellers will join them to review the procedures before Reisman and Good settle in to spend the night in the Quest module as part of the “camp out” for their excursion.

 

Ham, Antonelli, Sellers and Caldwell Dyson will talk with media representatives at 7:25 a.m. The event, with media from the Associated Press, FOX News Radio and CBS News, will air live on NASA television.

7-hour, 9-minute spacewalk

STS-132 MCC Status Report #11

HOUSTON – Atlantis astronauts Steve Bowen and Michael Good changed out four of the six 375-pound batteries on the International Space Station’s port 6 truss during a 7-hour, 9-minute spacewalk Wednesday, getting a leg up on a major mission priority.

 

Plans called for three of the batteries to be replaced today, and mission managers hoped the fourth could be changed out. Remaining batteries are to be swapped during a Friday spacewalk by Good and Garrett Reisman.

The spacewalk, the fifth for Bowen and the third for Good, got under way at 5:38 a.m. CDT, more than 25 minutes ahead of the scheduled start that already had been moved up 30 minutes. One reason for the early scheduled start was the addition of a task to remove a cable snag in the orbiter boom sensor system’s pan and tilt mechanism. Bowen accomplished that task in less than 30 minutes, while Good began work with the batteries.

After testing, Mission Control declared the heat shield inspection mechanism fully functional.

Atlantis Pilot Tony Antonelli was the intravehicular officer, providing guidance and advice to the spacewalkers. Mission Specialists Reisman and Piers Sellers operated the station’s Canadarm2. Spacewalkers took each battery from the cargo carrier held by the station arm, installed it in a space from which they had removed an old battery, then bolted the old battery into the cargo carrier for return to Earth.

The fourth old battery was stowed temporarily on the truss. It will be taken to the cargo carrier during the Friday spacewalk.

 

After the battery work and cleanup of the area, the spacewalkers moved on to the new backup Ku band antenna on the Z1 truss. They tightened bolts holding its dish to its boom, closing a gap left there after Monday’s spacewalk. They removed launch latches, leaving the antenna ready to operate.

That done, they cleaned up the area and returned to the Quest airlock. The spacewalk officially ended at 12:47 p.m., when Quest repressurization began.

 

Today’s spacewalk was the 145th for station assembly and maintenance. Those spacewalks total 908 hours, 7 minutes.

Today’s spacewalk, the second of the mission.

STS-132 MCC Status Report #10

HOUSTON – The flight control team and on-orbit crew prepare for another excursion into space today. Astronauts will replace station batteries and fix a camera cable on today’s spacewalk, the second of the mission.

The wake up music was “Start Me Up” by the Rolling Stones. The song, played at 1:20 a.m. CDT, was dedicated to Piers Sellers, who is on his third spaceflight.

Astronauts Stephen Bowen and Michael Good are expected to egress from the Quest Airlock at 6:15 a.m. to get an early start on the spacewalk. First, Bowen will adjust a cable on the end of the orbiter boom. This brief task was added after discovering early in the flight that the cable was inhibiting a camera from maneuvering correctly. Bowen will adjust the cable and use a plastic tie to hold it in position.

Next, the two spacewalkers will replace three batteries on the station port solar array. Each of the batteries weighs more than 360 pounds and will require an intricate choreography between the spacewalkers to swap out safely. The spacewalk is expected to last six and a half hours.

Throughout the spacewalk, shuttle Commander Ken Ham will provide photo and television support, Pilot Tony Antonelli will serve as the intravehicular officer and Mission Specialists Garrett Reisman and Sellers will again operate the station robotic arm. Expedition 23 Flight Engineer Tracy Caldwell Dyson will assist with spacewalk preparations as well.

Her station crew counterparts, Commander Oleg Kotov, Flight Engineers Alexander Skvortsov, Mikhail Kornienko, Soichi Noguchi and T.J. Creamer will work on varied space station activities, including packing unneeded supplies into the Progress and Soyuz spacecraft.

ISS has a new module named Rassvet - Dawn

STS-132 MCC Status Report #09

HOUSTON – The International Space Station has a new module named Rassvet, the Russian word for dawn. Atlantis astronauts used the station’s Canadarm2 to connect the module just after sunrise over Argentina.

Mission Specialist Piers Sellers operated a computer linked to the module, also known as Mini-Research Module 1, and the Russian part of the station. The interface between the 19.7-foot Rassvet, weighing with its cargo a total of 17,760 pounds, and Zarya was sealed at 7:50 a.m. CDT, about three hours after the module had been lifted from Atlantis’ cargo bay.

 

Atlantis Commander Ken Ham and Pilot Tony Antonelli used the shuttle’s robotic arm to lift Rassvet from the cargo bay to hand it off to the station arm. Then they moved that arm into position for its cameras to monitor the move.

The new module will host a variety of biotechnology and biological science experiments and fluid physics and educational research. Rassvet contains a pressurized compartment with eight workstations, including a glove box to keep experiments separated from the in-cabin environment; two incubators to accommodate high- and low-temperature experiments; and a special platform to protect experiments from onboard vibrations.

Attached to its exterior is an experiment airlock that will be used on another Russian laboratory module set for delivery in 2012.

After the midday meal, Reisman and Sellers used Canadarm2 to unberth the orbiter boom sensor system from the sill of Atlantis’ cargo bay. They handed it off to the shuttle arm, again operated by Ham and Antonelli, which itself could not reach the arm extension’s grapple fixture while docked. The OBSS will be used to monitor activities during the mission’s second spacewalk on Wednesday.

The spacewalkers, Mission Specialists Michael Good and Steve Bowen, configured tools and prepared spacesuits for the spacewalk. Plans call for them to change out three batteries on the station’s port-side truss segment with three of the six new ones brought up by Atlantis. The remaining three of the 375-pound batteries are to be changed out on the Friday spacewalk by Reisman and Good.

Good and Bowen will spend tonight in the Quest airlock with pressure reduced to 10.2 psi, to reduce the possibility of developing the bends in the low pressure of the suits, which will be under 5 psi. At the end of the workday, the Atlantis crew along with three station crew members met for an hour-long spacewalk procedures review.

 

As part of that review, crew members will talk about a task added to their spacewalk to resolve a problem encountered during the heat shield survey the day after launch. They will put a tie wrap on two cables to relieve a snag that is preventing full use of a laser range imager and an intensified video camera on the extension’s pan-tilt assembly.

 

The task is to be performed early in the spacewalk. As a result, the crew’s bedtime was moved up 30 minutes. They’ll get an early wakeup call and an early start on the spacewalk, now scheduled to begin at 6:15 a.m.

Mission Specialist Garrett Reisman guided the docking probe of Rassvet, at the end of the 58-foot robotic arm, into the receptacle on the Earth-facing port on the Zarya module. There was about 1 millimeter of clearance on either side of the probe. Capcom Steve Swanson in the station flight control room radioed up that Reisman had made “a hole in one.”

Atlantis and International Space Station astronauts continue with robotics activities

STATUS REPORT : STS-132-08 STS-132 MCC Status Report #08

HOUSTON – With a new day comes a new dawn as Atlantis and International Space Station astronauts continue with robotics activities today to add a new module to the orbiting complex.

The crew members woke at 1:50 a.m. CDT to the tunes of The Village People. “Macho Man” was the featured song played for Mission Specialist Garrett Reisman.

Today, the crew will be focused on the addition of the Russian Mini-Research Module-1 (MRM-1) to the station. The module, named Rassvet, Russian for “dawn,” will be docked to the Earth-facing port on the Zarya module.

Shuttle Commander Ken Ham and Pilot Tony Antonelli will maneuver the shuttle robotic arm to unberth the module from Atlantis’ payload bay and position it for handoff to the station robotic arm. Reisman and Mission Specialist Piers Sellers will be at the station arm controls to maneuver MRM-1 to its new position on the Russian segment. Expedition 23 Commander Oleg Kotov will monitor the activities from the Russian segment as the MRM-1 engages into its automated docking sequence for the final attachment to station.

 

Meanwhile, Mission Specialists Michael Good and Steve Bowen will prepare for the mission’s next spacewalk. They will prepare the suits and gather tools needed for their extravehicular excursion on Wednesday.

Their Expedition crew counterparts, Flight Engineer Alexander Skvortsov, Tracy Caldwell Dyson, Mikhail Kornienko, Soichi Noguchi and T.J. Creamer will work on station maintenance activities and experiments.

 

At 1:20 p.m., Ham, Reisman, Sellers, Kotov, Skvortsov and Caldwell Dyson will gather in the Harmony module to talk with reporters from MSNBC, Fox News and CNN.

A 7-hour, 25-minute spacewalk completed

STATUS REPORT : STS-132-07 STS-132 MCC Status Report #07

HOUSTON – Atlantis astronauts completed a 7-hour, 25-minute spacewalk Monday, installing a second antenna for high-speed Ku band transmissions and adding a spare parts platform to Dextre, a two-armed extension for the station’s robotic arm.

 

Mission Specialists Garrett Reisman and Steve Bowen also loosened bolts holding six replacement batteries. The 375-pound batteries are to be installed during the mission’s second and third spacewalks, on Wednesday and Friday. The antenna and the batteries came to the station on Atlantis on a cargo carrier, which was moved to the station’s main truss on Sunday.

 

Monday’s spacewalk began at 6:54 a.m. CDT when Reisman and Bowen switched their suits to battery power. After setup they removed the antenna’s nearly nine-foot-long boom from the cargo carrier and Reisman, on the end of station’s Canadarm2, carried it high above the station and then to the Z1 truss.

Intravehicular officer and Atlantis Pilot Tony Antonelli coached them through their activities. Mission Specialist Piers Sellers and station Flight Engineer Tracy Caldwell Dyson operated the arm.

 

After the spacewalkers attached and connected the boom, Reisman made a return trip to the cargo carrier on the end of the arm sometimes fully extended in a windshield-wiper-like maneuver. He removed the six-foot-diameter dish antenna, then held it as the arm took him back to the Z1 truss. There he and Bowen installed it, then refastened bolts and hooked up balky connections.

 

Because of a gap that remained between the dish and the boom, spacewalkers did not remove dish launch locks, to keep it from rotating. They also used a tether to strap the spare antenna’s dish and boom together.

 

While Bowen recharged his suit’s oxygen supply, Reisman removed the spare-parts platform from the cargo carrier, took it to Dextre atop the U.S. laboratory Destiny, and installed it.

 

More than six hours after the start of the spacewalk, Reisman and Bowen both said they were willing to work beyond the 6.5 hours planned for the activity. Bowen moved on the cargo carrier to loosen bolts on the six 375-pound batteries while Reisman did cleanup work on Canadarm2, removing a foot restraint and retrieving an adapter from the arm’s latching end effector.

As the spacewalkers were wrapping up their work, Mission Control reported that the shuttle’s arm had successfully grappled the Russian Mini-Research Module-1 in Atlantis’ cargo bay. The 19.7-foot module, named Rassvet, is scheduled to be installed Tuesday on the Zarya service module.

Today’s spacewalk was the second for Reisman and the fourth for Bowen. It was the 144th spacewalk for station assembly and maintenance. Those spacewalks total 900 hours, 58 minutes.

The first of three planned spacewalks

STATUS REPORT : STS-132-06 STS-132 MCC Status Report #06

HOUSTON – Two astronauts will venture outside their spacecraft today in the first of three planned spacewalks for the mission. They will install back-up communications equipment onto the station and a work platform onto a station robot.

The station and shuttle crews awoke at 2:20 a.m. CDT. Matt Maher’s “Alive Again” was the featured wake-up song, played for Mike Good.

Mission specialists Garrett Reisman and Stephen Bowen spent the night in the Quest Airlock to prepare for the planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk. They are expected to egress from the airlock at 7:15 a.m. Good and Expedition 23 Flight Engineer T.J. Creamer will help with the suit-up preparations and Good will join Pilot Tony Antonelli, the intravehicular officer, to assist during the spacewalk. Mission Specialist Piers Sellers and Flight Engineer Tracy Caldwell Dyson will support robotic arm operations throughout.

The first task of the spacewalk will be the installation of a back-up Ku-band antenna known as the SGAnt or Space-to-Ground Antenna. The task will start at the mobile transporter to remove the SGAnt, then Reisman will hand carry the boom and antenna to its installation point on the Z1 truss. Bowen will meet Reisman there to attach the antenna, connect power and data cables and remove protective insulation. During that time, Reisman will travel on the arm to retrieve the antenna dish and bring it to the worksite for installation. Time permitting, Bowen will install a heat shield and remove position locks on the antenna.

 

Reisman will again return to the pallet to collect Dextre’s storage platform. He and Bowen will meet at Dextre’s worksite atop the Destiny laboratory to attach the platform to the robot. If possible, they will also install a maintenance tether and connect two electrical fuses.

 

The final task will have Bowen at the end of the left or port truss, to loosen bolts on the six batteries that will be replaced in the later spacewalks.

Throughout the extravehicular activity, shuttle Commander Ken Ham will oversee the activities and work on transfer of supplies to the station. Expedition 23 Commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineers Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Kornienko will support station operations and maintenance. Soichi Noguchi will also assist with transfer.

The station crew is scheduled for sleep at 5:50 p.m. and the shuttle crew thirty minutes later.

Atlantis docked with ISS

STATUS REPORT : STS-132-05 STS-132 MCC Status Report #05

HOUSTON – Atlantis docked with the International Space Station at 9:28 a.m. Sunday about 220 miles above the far South Pacific Ocean to begin more than seven days together. Hatches between the two were opened at 11:18 a.m.

The shuttle approach and docking went smoothly. Commander Ken Ham flew the shuttle through the rendezvous pitch maneuver, the backflip to enable three station crew members in the Zvezda service module to take 398 photos of Atlantis’ thermal protection system. Flight Engineers Tracy Caldwell Dyson, T.J. Creamer, both U.S. astronauts, and Russian station Commander Oleg Kotov used cameras with 400- and 800-mm lenses.

The photo session was more intense than usual because an equipment malfunction had altered the standard inspection process Saturday. A backup procedure was used, but time prevented completion of the port wing survey. Additional inspections are being considered.

Ham, helped by Pilot Tony Antonelli and other crew members, maneuvered Atlantis to a point ahead of the station and then back toward the docking port.

After a brief welcoming ceremony by the station crew, Atlantis’ astronauts got the standard station safety briefing. Then the crew, Ham, Antonelli and Mission Specialists Garrett Reisman, Michael Good, Steve Bowen and Piers Sellers, promptly got to work with initial transfers of equipment and supplies. Spacesuits were among the first items to go to the station.

Monday, Reisman and Bowen are scheduled to do the first of three 6.5-hour spacewalks scheduled for the week. In preparation, all Atlantis’ crew members gathered for an hour-long spacewalk procedure review before their Sunday bedtime. Reisman and Bowen will spend the night “camped out” in the Quest airlock, with pressure reduced to 10.5 psi to avoid formation of nitrogen bubbles in their blood in the vacuum of space.

During the spacewalk they will install a second station space-to-ground Ku-band antenna and a spare parts platform on Dextre, the two-armed robotic Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator. They also will loosen battery bolts on the port-6 truss segment in preparation for the other spacewalks. Atlantis brought to the station six new 375-pound batteries, to be installed there during the second and third spacewalks.

Sellers and Caldwell Dyson used the station’s robotic arm to transfer a cargo carrier from Atlantis to the arm’s mobile base system to prepare for the spacewalks.

A piece of orbital debris that had been followed closely by flight controllers passed the station at a distance of more than 10 miles just over an hour after docking.

Dock with the International Space Station later today

STS-132 MCC Status Report #04

HOUSTON – Atlantis astronauts prepare to dock with the International Space Station today. Once the two spacecraft are mated, crew members will also start the first of many robotic operations and prepare for the mission’s first spacewalk.


The crew, Commander Ken Ham, Pilot Tony Antonelli and Mission Specialists Garrett Reisman, Michael Good, Steve Bowen and Piers Sellers woke at 2:20 a.m. CDT. “Sweet Home Alabama” performed by Lynyrd Skynyrd, was the wake up song played for Antonelli.

Approximately four hours after wake up, Ham will perform the final burn, called the terminal initiation (TI) burn, to put Atlantis on trajectory to meet the orbiting complex. By 8:26 a.m. Atlantis should be positioned beneath the station to begin the rendezvous pitch maneuver. Station crew members will use two digital cameras to capture detailed images of the shuttle’s underside to ensure it has not been damaged.

Docking to the station is scheduled for 9:27 a.m. with hatch opening about two hours later. Expedition 23 Commander Oleg Kotov, and Flight Engineers Alexander Skvortsov, Mikhail Kornienko, Soichi Noguchi, T.J. Creamer and Tracy Caldwell Dyson, will welcome the shuttle crew onboard and provide them with a station safety briefing before beginning the first tasks of the joint mission.

Caldwell Dyson and Sellers will use the station’s robotic arm to move the Integrated Cargo Carrier from the payload bay to the station’s mobile transporter. This will enable the carrier and its attached hardware to be prepositioned for use throughout the mission.

Good, Bowen and Reisman will transfer the spacesuits and spacewalk equipment over to the station’s Quest airlock and begin setting up for the first extravehicular activity (EVA). The day will end with most crew members gathering for a review of the spacewalk.

The station crew is scheduled for sleep at 5:50 p.m. and the shuttle crew thirty minutes later.

Preparation's for Sunday’s docking with the International Space Station

HOUSTON – Atlantis astronauts checked out spacesuits and rendezvous tools in preparation for Sunday’s docking with the International Space Station, scheduled for 9:27 a.m. CDT. They also did a modified thermal protection system inspection.

The shuttle and its crew of six, Commander Ken Ham, Pilot Tony Antonelli and Mission Specialists Garrett Reisman, Michael Good, Steve Bowen and Piers Sellers are bringing six new 375-pound batteries to the station, along with the Russian Mini-Research Module and other equipment, supplies and experiments. They will spend about seven days at the station. Reisman, Bowen and Good will perform a total of three spacewalks.

Good and Bowen spent several hours Saturday checking out spacesuits and preparing them for transfer to the station’s Quest airlock, where the spacewalks will originate. Reisman, who spent much of his day working with Antonelli and Ham on the thermal protection system survey, did manage to spend some time helping with the suit and spacewalk equipment checkouts.

Before the thermal protection checkout began, the crew encountered a problem with a cable snagging the pan-tilt unit on the end of the 50-foot orbiter boom sensor system. It is the mount for senor package 1, the Laser Dynamic Range Imager and the intensified video camera.

As a result, mission control decided to switch to sensor package 2, a laser camera and a digital camera mounted near the end of the boom. That system, which requires daylight or another light source, has a resolution of a few millimeters and can scan at about 2.5 inches per second. Its images of the right wing, the nose cap and much of the left wing were sent to the ground for detailed analysis. Additional images will be available after the rendezvous pitch maneuver and from station assets. The change is not expected to affect Sunday’s rendezvous and docking or otherwise impact the mission.

Managers in mission control decided not to perform a debris avoidance maneuver that would have taken place Saturday a little after 8 p.m. Flight controllers had been carefully monitoring a piece of orbital debris that had threatened to come near the station Sunday, but updated tracking information showed the object will remain a safe distance away and the maneuver is not needed.

The station crew, Commander Oleg Kotov and Russian Flight Engineers Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Kornienko, Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and NASA Flight Engineers T.J. Creamer and Tracy Caldwell Dyson, are shifting their sleep schedule in preparation for welcoming Atlantis' astronauts.

STS-132 First full day in space

STS-132 MCC Status Report #02

HOUSTON – Space shuttle Atlantis’ crew of six are awake and ready to embark on their first full day in space for the mission. Today, the crew will focus on a routine inspection of the orbiter and preparations for their docking to the International Space Station.

The crew awoke at 3:20 a.m. CDT to “You’re My Home” performed by Billy Joel. The song was played for Commander Ken Ham, who is on his second spaceflight.

The main focus of the day will be the six-hour-long inspection of Atlantis’ wing leading edges and nose cap. Ham, Pilot Tony Antonelli and Mission Specialists Garrett Reisman and Piers Sellers will use the shuttle’s robotic arm and specialized cameras to downlink the detailed views of the thermal protection system for analysis by specialists on the ground.

Meanwhile, Michael Good and Steve Bowen are scheduled to unpack and ready the spacesuits that will be used for the three planned spacewalks. Later in the day, Bowen will join Reisman to perform a checkout of the tools needed for the rendezvous and docking to the station, which is planned for 9:27 a.m. Sunday.

The Expedition 23 Commander Oleg Kotov and Russian Flight Engineers Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Kornienko, Flight Engineer Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and NASA Flight Engineers T.J. Creamer and Tracy Caldwell Dyson are likewise making preparations for the arrival of the shuttle crew.

As part of the Daily Planning Conference, the station crew was informed of a possible debris avoidance maneuver. The team is still assessing if a maneuver will be required, but if so, they could implement it remotely during crew sleep Saturday evening. A final decision is expected to be made by 4 p.m. If a maneuver is executed, it would be a 0.5 meter-per-second retrograde burn at 8:08 p.m. and would not affect rendezvous with Atlantis on Sunday.

F

Liftoff of space shuttle Atlantis! Mission STS-132

Liftoff of space shuttle Atlantis! Mission STS-132 is officially under way as the shuttle and its all-veteran crew of astronauts rise up and away from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida following an on-time launch at 2:20 p.m. EDT. In approximately two minutes, Atlantis' twin white solid rocket boosters will burn out and separate, eventually falling back to the Atlantic Ocean. The shuttle's trio of main engines will propel the vehicle on the rest of its eight-and-a-half-minute climb to orbit, assisted by the two orbital maneuvering system engines.

NASA Managers 'Go' for Friday Launch

Wednesday is "L-2" at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, meaning there are only two days remaining until the scheduled launch of space shuttle Atlantis on its STS-132 mission. Countdown clocks across the launch complex were activated at 4 p.m. EDT Tuesday and the countdown continues on schedule for liftoff Friday at 2:20 p.m.

During the 12-day mission, Atlantis and the mission's six astronauts are delivering an Integrated Cargo Carrier and a Russian-built Mini Research Module to the International Space Station.

"From a Space Shuttle Program and ISS Program standpoint, we're ready to launch Atlantis and get this mission under way," said Mike Moses, chair of the prelaunch mission management team that gathered today at Kennedy and gave a unanimous "go" for liftoff. According to Launch Director Mike Leinbach, the launch team is not tracking any issues that would prevent an on-time liftoff.

Atlantis' astronauts are relaxing today while technicians at Launch Pad 39A load the orbiter's power reactant and storage distribution system, which supplies super-cold propellants to the vehicle's three fuel cells and life-support system during flight.

A high-pressure system continues to dominate Florida's weather pattern, resulting in favorable weather for the rest of the week. The primary launch weather concern is a low cloud ceiling, but the forecast is good overall, calling for a 70 percent chance of favorable conditions at launch time.

'L-2' for Space Shuttle Atlantis, STS-132 Astronauts

Wednesday is "L-2" at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, meaning there are only two days remaining until the scheduled launch of space shuttle Atlantis on its STS-132 mission. Countdown clocks across the launch complex were activated at 4 p.m. Tuesday and the countdown continues on schedule for liftoff Friday at 2:20 p.m. EDT.

After today's mission management team meeting, NASA managers will hold a news conference no earlier than 11 a.m. Participants are Mike Moses, chair of the prelaunch mission management team, Mike Leinbach, shuttle launch director, and Todd McNamara, STS-132 weather officer. Watch the event live on NASA TV at www.nasa.gov/ntv.

Atlantis' six astronauts are relaxing today while technicians at Launch Pad 39A load the orbiter's power reactant and storage distribution system, which supplies super-cold propellants to the vehicle's three fuel cells and life-support system during flight.

NASA Studies How Spaceflight Affects Bacteria

NASA Studies How Spaceflight Affects Bacteria

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. – Every day, each of us comes into contact with bacteria, just like the astronauts in space.

When space shuttle Atlantis launches, currently scheduled for May 14, 2010, it will carry an experiment to study how microgravity affects bacterial growth and the formation of surface films. Funded by NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., a team of researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Troy, N.Y., will conduct the experiment.

“As astronauts are spending more time at the International Space Station and long-term spaceflight becomes closer to a reality, it is important to understand the long-term effects of bacteria on human beings and spacecraft materials, including those organisms and interactions that would likely be harmless on Earth,” said RPI Professor Cynthia Collins, who leads the team of scientists working on the experiment.

The study will focus on microbes, including bacteria that play an essential role in human health, from digestion to proper immune system function. Because of these important roles, maintaining a spacecraft and the ISS microbe free is neither possible nor desirable.

The community of microbes that live in the human body is not simply composed of organisms that are beneficial for human life, but also harbors many bacteria that are potentially capable of causing disease. “It is essential that we study microbes, their behavior in space, their role in biofilm formation, for example spacecraft surfaces, and ultimately their potential impact on the health of an astronaut,” said Collins.

The Micro-2 experiment will study how gravity alters biofilm formation with the goal of developing new strategies to reduce their impact on maintaining and operating spacecraft and crew health. Bacterial biofilms, complex three-dimensional microbial communities formed on many types of surfaces, were responsible for increasing corrosion and damaging a water purification system on the Mir space station.

Since astronauts have been shown to exhibit a decrease in immune system function during spaceflight, scientists want to study how bacteria, especially those that form biofilms, respond to microgravity. According to the team of scientists from RPI, the development of biofilms is of great concern because by forming biofilms, bacteria increase their resistance to antibiotics, thereby enhancing their chances of survival in hostile environments and becoming more infectious and dangerous to human health.

Biofilms routinely grow large enough to be affected by gravity. “Growing biofilms in microgravity will provide tremendous insight into how gravitational forces acting on biofilms can lead to changes in processes occurring at a cellular level,” says RPI Professor Joel Plawsky, a project co-investigator.

The Micro-2 experiment also will test new nanotechnology-based coatings that have the potential to decrease biofilm growth. “Using defense mechanisms found in nature, we have ‘packaged’ highly efficient bactericidal activity into functional surface coatings. These surfaces do not cause toxic agents to be released, thereby providing a surface that is safe to humans but effective in destroying pathogenic bacteria”, explained RPI Professor Jonathan Dordick, co-investigator.

The Micro-2 experiment uses BioServe Space Technologies flight-certified hardware. There will be 16 Group Activation Packs onboard space shuttle Atlantis and a control group consisting of 16 packs on the ground at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Each will be activated to enable the bacteria to grow and subsequently be preserved for post-flight processing upon the space shuttle’s return.

The Micro-2 experiment is managed and funded by the ISS Non-Exploration Research Projects Office located at NASA Ames Research Center.

For more information on the Micro-2 experiment, visit:

http://spacebiosciences.arc.nasa.gov/micro2.html

For more information about the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, visit:

http://www.rpi.edu/

For more information about NASA Ames visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ames

Spaceboosters Online Store for Space Collectables and Memorabilia

Launch Countdown Under Way for STS-132

The countdown to liftoff of space shuttle Atlantis on its STS-132 mission officially has started. Countdown clocks at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida were activated at 4 p.m. EDT, ticking backward from the T-43 hour mark.

"Teams at the Kennedy Space Center and at other centers around the country have been working very hard to get this vehicle ready to fly, and I am happy to report everything is going quite well at [Launch Pad 39A]," NASA Test Director Steve Payne said Tuesday morning. "Atlantis, crew and launch team are ready to go and looking forward to a beautiful launch Friday afternoon."

During the 12-day mission, Atlantis and the mission's six astronauts are delivering an Integrated Cargo Carrier and a Russian-built Mini Research Module to the International Space Station. Technicians will close Atlantis' payload bay doors today, although a few experiments will be added to Atlantis' middeck about 28 hours prior to launch.

Atlantis' astronauts arrived at Kennedy on Monday evening, touching down at the Shuttle Landing Facility in four T-38 jets at 6:49 p.m. Today the crew members will review flight day file material and take part in a checkout of their orange launch-and-entry suits.

Liftoff is scheduled for May 14 at 2:20 p.m. According to Shuttle Weather Officer Kathy Winters, weather is expected to be favorable, with a 70 percent chance of good conditions. The primary weather concern for Friday is the possibility of a low cloud ceiling. Partly cloudy and generally dry conditions will dominate the afternoon hours throughout the week.

Countdown to Atlantis' Liftoff Begins Today

Tue, 11 May 2010 08:37:27 -0500

The countdown to liftoff of space shuttle Atlantis on its STS-132 mission is set to begin today at 4 p.m. EDT. Launch controllers will report to their consoles in NASA Kennedy Space Center's Launch Control Center at 3:30 p.m. to be in place when countdown clocks start counting back from the T-43 hour mark.

A countdown status briefing will be held at 10 a.m. and broadcast live on NASA TV. Watch it at www.nasa.gov/ntv

 

Atlantis' six astronauts arrived at Kennedy on Monday evening, touching down at the Shuttle Landing Facility in four T-38 jets at 6:49 p.m. Today the crew members will review flight day file material and take part in a checkout of their orange launch-and-entry suits. At Launch Pad 39A, technicians will close Atlantis' payload bay doors for flight.

Liftoff is scheduled for May 14 at 2:20 p.m.

Alan Shepard - Freedom 7

Freedom 7

On May 5, 1961, at 9:34am EST NASA astronaut Alan Shepard launched about his Mercury Redstone spacecraft, nicknamed Freedom 7, to become the first American in space. In this image, fellow astronaut Gus Grissom wishes a suited Alan Shepard a safe flight just before insertion into the craft.

The flight lasted 15 minutes, 28 seconds and traveled a distance of 303 statute miles.

Image Credit: NASA

STS-132 Astronauts Practice for Entry

Tue, 04 May 2010 09:09:59 -0500

At NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, the six astronauts who will fly aboard space shuttle Atlantis on its STS-132 mission are participating in an integrated entry simulation, part of the final round of training and other preparations for their flight. Atlantis is in place on Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where technicians continue their efforts to ready the shuttle for liftoff.

On Wednesday, NASA managers will hold a news conference at Kennedy after the Flight Readiness Review meeting to discuss space shuttle Atlantis' upcoming mission.

Launch is targeted for May 14 at 2:20 p.m. EDT.

 

Launch Target: May 14, 2010

Orbiter: Atlantis

Mission Number: STS-132 (132nd space shuttle flight)

Launch Window: 10 minutes

Launch Pad: 39A Mission Duration: 12 days

Landing Site: KSC Inclination/Altitude: 51.6 degrees/122 nautical miles

Primary Payload: 34th station flight (ULF4), Integrated Cargo Carrier (ICC), Mini Research Module (MRM1)

STS-132 Individual Crew Member Portraits

Mission Commander Ken Ham,

Mission Specialists Garrett Reisman and Michael Good,

Pilot Tony Antonelli,

and Mission Specialists Piers Sellers and Steve Bowen

Stellar Nursery in the Rosette Nebula

Stellar Nursery in the Rosette Nebula

This image from the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory shows the cloud associated with the Rosette Nebula, a stellar nursery about 5,000 light-years from Earth in the Monoceros, or Unicorn, constellation. Herschel collects the infrared light given out by dust. The bright smudges are dusty cocoons containing massive embryonic stars, which will grow up to 10 times the mass of our sun. The small spots near the center of the image are lower mass stellar embryos. The Rosette Nebula itself, and its massive cluster of stars, is located to the right of the picture.

This image is a three-color composite showing infrared wavelengths of 70 microns (blue), 160 microns (green), and 250 microns (red). It was made with observations from Herschel's Photoconductor Array Camera and Spectrometer and the Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver instruments.

Herschel is an ESA cornerstone mission, with science instruments provided by consortia of European institutes and with participation by NASA.

 

A media day celebrating the release of the first results from ESA’s Herschel infrared space telescope will take place on May 6, 2010, at Space Expo, at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), Noordwijk, The Netherlands. Doors open at 11:30 CEST. The media day is organized in connection with the Herschel First Results Symposium taking place this week at ESTEC and the theme is Revealing the Hidden Side of Star Formation. For more information on the day's activities, see the press release.

For more information on this image, visit ESA's Herschel Program site.

 

Image Credit: ESA/PACS & SPIRE Consortium/HOBYS Key Programme Consortia

Atlantis, Astronauts Continue STS-132 Preparations

Mon, 03 May 2010 11:28:32 -0500

Less than two weeks remain until space shuttle Atlantis' liftoff on its STS-132 mission, targeted for May 14 at 2:20 p.m. EDT. At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians will attach the orbital midbody unit to Atlantis. Additionally, the spacewalk suits to be worn by Atlantis' astronauts during the mission will be checked out before they're stowed for flight.

The six STS-132 astronauts are at their home base, NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. They'll go through medical exams and a final prelaunch crew news conference with reporters today.

 

NASA managers will hold a news conference Wednesday, May 5, at Kennedy after the Flight Readiness Review meeting to discuss space shuttle Atlantis' upcoming mission.

Guenter Wendt, 1924-2010: Pad leader

Guenter Wendt, 1924-2010: Pad leader  for NASA's Mercury, Gemini and Apollo flights, Guenter Wendt died Monday at his home in Merritt Island, Fla., after being hospitalized for congestive heart failure and suffering a stroke. He was 85.


Guenter Wendt and the Apollo 11 Crew

Within the White Room atop the gantry on Launch Complex 39 Pad A, the Apollo 11 astronauts egress from the Apollo spacecraft after participation in the Countdown Demonstration Test. In the foreground of the photograph is Astronaut Buzz Aldrin. Pad leader Guenter Wendt talks with Neil Armstrong. Astronaut Michael Collins stands to the left of Armstrong.

Image Credit: NASA