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

Weekend of Work as Atlantis Readied for Launch

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 12:29:41 -0500

Space shuttle Atlantis is being loaded with hypergolic propellants this weekend while launch preparations continue for the liftoff of STS-132, targeted for May 14. Hypergolics are chemicals that ignite when they come in contact with each other. The propellants are used in the maneuvering system called the reaction control system, or RCS, that steers the shuttle in space.

Technicians will also close the aft compartment of Atlantis during work at Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Chandra X-ray Observatory - Double Black Holes

Double Black Holes

This image from the Chandra X-ray Observatory shows the central region of the starburst galaxy M82 and contains two bright X-ray sources of special interest. New studies with Chandra and ESA's XMM-Newton show that these two sources may be intermediate-mass black holes, with masses in between those of the stellar-mass and supermassive variety. These "survivor" black holes avoided falling into the center of the galaxy and could be examples of the seeds required for the growth of supermassive black holes in galaxies, including the one in the Milky Way.

This is the first case where good evidence for more than one mid-sized black hole exists in a single galaxy. The evidence comes from how their X-ray emission varies over time and analysis of their X-ray brightness and spectra, i.e., the distribution of X-rays with energy. These results are interesting because they may help address the mystery of how supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies form. M82 is located about 12 million light years from Earth and is the nearest place to us where the conditions are similar to those in the early Universe, with lots of stars forming.

Multiple observations of M82 have been made with Chandra beginning soon after launch. The Chandra data shown here were not used in the new research because the X-ray sources are so bright that some distortion is introduced into the X-ray spectra. To combat this, the pointing of Chandra is changed so that images of the sources are deliberately blurred, producing fewer counts in each pixel.

Image credit: NASA/CXC/Tsinghua Univ./H. Feng et al.

Kennedy Preps for Cryo Loading as Crew Rehearses MRM-1 Work

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 09:28:53 -0500

Technicians working at Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center will simulate loading space shuttle Atlantis with cryogenic propellants as they continue preparations for the launch of the shuttle on STS-132. Liftoff is targeted for May 14 at 2:20 p.m. EDT.

Atlantis' payload is the focus of the crew today as they ready themselves for their role. The six astronauts who will fly the shuttle to the International Space Station are running through the steps they will take during the mission's second flight day involving the Russian-built Mini Research Module-1. The module will be connected to the space station during the mission.