Friday, 8 October 2010
STS-133 Crew Portrait and Mission Insignia
Just a reminder that these items and lots of other space souvenirs are available from the SPACEBOOSTERS Online Store: http://www.space-boosters.co.uk/
Payload at Pad: RSS to Close Around Discovery
At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians are preparing to install the payload for the STS-133 mission into space shuttle Discovery's cargo bay at Launch Pad 39A. After the payload is installed the canister will be removed. The rotating service structure is scheduled to be closed around the shuttle Saturday morning and installation of the payload into Discovery is planned for Monday morning.
At NASA's Johnson Space Center, the STS-133 crew members will continue their bench review of flight equipment.
Managers will meet on Oct. 25 for the agency-level Flight Readiness Review to discuss the shuttle and station's status and officially set the launch date.
STS-133 Embroidered Mission Patch available from SPACEBOOSTERS
At NASA's Johnson Space Center, the STS-133 crew members will continue their bench review of flight equipment.
Managers will meet on Oct. 25 for the agency-level Flight Readiness Review to discuss the shuttle and station's status and officially set the launch date.
STS-133 Embroidered Mission Patch available from SPACEBOOSTERS
STS-133 Payload at Pad for Loading
Thu, 07 Oct 2010 07:44:26 -0500
Space shuttle Discovery's payload for its STS-133 mission to the International Space Station is at Launch Pad 39A where workers will load it into the shuttle's payload bay. Discovery will carry the Permanent Multipurpose Module to the station during the upcoming mission. The module, which will reamin attached to the station after Discovery leaves, is loaded with spare equipment, experiments, supplies and Robonaut 2, the first humanoid robot to go into space. Launch is targeted for Nov. 1 at 4:40 p.m. EDT.
The STS-133 astronauts will perform a bench review of flight equipment today at NASA's Johnson Space Center.
Space shuttle Discovery's payload for its STS-133 mission to the International Space Station is at Launch Pad 39A where workers will load it into the shuttle's payload bay. Discovery will carry the Permanent Multipurpose Module to the station during the upcoming mission. The module, which will reamin attached to the station after Discovery leaves, is loaded with spare equipment, experiments, supplies and Robonaut 2, the first humanoid robot to go into space. Launch is targeted for Nov. 1 at 4:40 p.m. EDT.
The STS-133 astronauts will perform a bench review of flight equipment today at NASA's Johnson Space Center.
New Space Station Crew Members Launch From Kazakhstan
HOUSTON -- NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka launched to the International Space Station aboard their Soyuz TMA-01M spacecraft at 6:10 p.m. CDT, Thursday, (5:10 a.m. Friday local time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Kelly, Soyuz commander Kaleri and Skripochka are scheduled to dock with their new home at 7:02 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 9. They will join Expedition 25 crewmates Doug Wheelock, a NASA astronaut and the station's commander, NASA astronaut Shannon Walker and Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, who have been aboard the station since June 17.
On Saturday, coverage of the Soyuz docking will begin on NASA Television at 6:30 p.m. NASA TV will return at 9:30 p.m. for coverage of the hatches opening and the welcoming ceremony aboard the orbiting laboratory. For NASA TV streaming video, schedule and downlink information, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
The six-person crew will usher in the next decade of continuous human presence on the station, continuing scientific research and station maintenance activities. The station residents will welcome the crew of the last flight of space shuttle Discovery on the STS-133 mission, targeted to launch Nov. 1. The shuttle will deliver critical supplies and the Permanent Multipurpose Module that will provide additional storage for the station crew, and experiments may be conducted inside it.
Yurchikhin and Skripochka are scheduled to conduct a spacewalk in Russian Orlan suits in mid-November to work on science experiments and hardware on the station's Russian segment.
Wheelock, Walker and Yurchikhin, who launched to the station on June 15, are scheduled to return to Earth on Nov. 29. Before departing, Wheelock will hand over command of the station to Kelly for Expedition 26, which begins when the Soyuz TMA-19 undocks Nov. 29.
NASA astronaut Cady Coleman, Russian cosmonaut Dimitry Kondratyev and European Space Agency astronaut Páolo Néspoli will join Kelly, Kaleri and Skripochka in orbit to complete the Expedition 26 crew. Their Soyuz currently is scheduled to launch Dec. 13 and will dock to the station on Dec. 15.
Expedition 25 crew member Walker is blogging about her experiences in orbit. To read her blog and more information about the space station, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station
Kelly, Soyuz commander Kaleri and Skripochka are scheduled to dock with their new home at 7:02 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 9. They will join Expedition 25 crewmates Doug Wheelock, a NASA astronaut and the station's commander, NASA astronaut Shannon Walker and Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, who have been aboard the station since June 17.
On Saturday, coverage of the Soyuz docking will begin on NASA Television at 6:30 p.m. NASA TV will return at 9:30 p.m. for coverage of the hatches opening and the welcoming ceremony aboard the orbiting laboratory. For NASA TV streaming video, schedule and downlink information, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
The six-person crew will usher in the next decade of continuous human presence on the station, continuing scientific research and station maintenance activities. The station residents will welcome the crew of the last flight of space shuttle Discovery on the STS-133 mission, targeted to launch Nov. 1. The shuttle will deliver critical supplies and the Permanent Multipurpose Module that will provide additional storage for the station crew, and experiments may be conducted inside it.
Yurchikhin and Skripochka are scheduled to conduct a spacewalk in Russian Orlan suits in mid-November to work on science experiments and hardware on the station's Russian segment.
Wheelock, Walker and Yurchikhin, who launched to the station on June 15, are scheduled to return to Earth on Nov. 29. Before departing, Wheelock will hand over command of the station to Kelly for Expedition 26, which begins when the Soyuz TMA-19 undocks Nov. 29.
NASA astronaut Cady Coleman, Russian cosmonaut Dimitry Kondratyev and European Space Agency astronaut Páolo Néspoli will join Kelly, Kaleri and Skripochka in orbit to complete the Expedition 26 crew. Their Soyuz currently is scheduled to launch Dec. 13 and will dock to the station on Dec. 15.
Expedition 25 crew member Walker is blogging about her experiences in orbit. To read her blog and more information about the space station, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station
Hubble Astronomers Uncover An Overheated Early Universe
WASHINGTON -- During a period of universal warming 11 billion years ago, quasars -- the brilliant core of active galaxies -- produced fierce radiation blasts that stunted the growth of some dwarf galaxies for approximately 500 million years.
This important conclusion comes from a team of astronomers that used the new capabilities of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to probe the invisible, remote universe. The team's results will be published in the October 10 issue of The Astrophysical Journal.
Using Hubble's Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS), the astronomers identified this era, from 11.7 to 11.3 billion years ago, when the ultraviolet light emitted by active galaxies stripped electrons off helium atoms. The process, known as ionization, heated the intergalactic helium from 18,000 degrees Fahrenheit to nearly 40,000 degrees. This inhibited the gas from gravitationally collapsing to form new generations of stars in some small galaxies.
Because of its greatly improved sensitivity and lower background "noise" compared to previous spectrographs in space, the COS observations were ground-breaking. The observations allowed scientists to produce more detailed measurements of the intergalactic helium than previously possible.
"These COS results yield new insight into an important phase in the history of our universe," said Hubble Program Scientist Eric Smith at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Michael Shull of the University of Colorado in Boulder and his team studied the spectrum of ultraviolet light produced by a quasar and found signs of ionized helium. This beacon, like a headlight shining through fog, travels through interspersed clouds of otherwise invisible gas and allows for a core sample of the gas clouds.
The universe went through an initial heat wave more than 13 billion years ago when energy from early massive stars ionized cold interstellar hydrogen from the big bang. This epoch is called reionization, because the hydrogen nuclei originally were in an ionized state shortly after the big bang.
The Hubble team found it would take another two billion years before the universe produced sources of ultraviolet radiation with enough energy to reionize the primordial helium that also was cooked up in the big bang. This radiation didn't come from stars, but rather from super massive black holes. The black holes furiously converted some of the gravitational energy of this mass to powerful ultraviolet radiation that blazed out of these active galaxies.
The helium's reionization occurred at a transitional time in the universe's history when galaxies collided to ignite quasars. After the helium was reionized, intergalactic gas again cooled down and dwarf galaxies could resume normal assembly.
"I imagine quite a few more dwarf galaxies may have formed if helium reionization had not taken place," Shull said.
So far, Shull and his team only have one perspective to measure the helium transition to its ionized state. However, the COS science team plans to use Hubble to look in other directions to determine if helium reionization uniformly took place across the universe.
For illustrations and more information about these results, visit:
http://hubblesite.org/news/2010/31
This important conclusion comes from a team of astronomers that used the new capabilities of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to probe the invisible, remote universe. The team's results will be published in the October 10 issue of The Astrophysical Journal.
Using Hubble's Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS), the astronomers identified this era, from 11.7 to 11.3 billion years ago, when the ultraviolet light emitted by active galaxies stripped electrons off helium atoms. The process, known as ionization, heated the intergalactic helium from 18,000 degrees Fahrenheit to nearly 40,000 degrees. This inhibited the gas from gravitationally collapsing to form new generations of stars in some small galaxies.
Because of its greatly improved sensitivity and lower background "noise" compared to previous spectrographs in space, the COS observations were ground-breaking. The observations allowed scientists to produce more detailed measurements of the intergalactic helium than previously possible.
"These COS results yield new insight into an important phase in the history of our universe," said Hubble Program Scientist Eric Smith at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Michael Shull of the University of Colorado in Boulder and his team studied the spectrum of ultraviolet light produced by a quasar and found signs of ionized helium. This beacon, like a headlight shining through fog, travels through interspersed clouds of otherwise invisible gas and allows for a core sample of the gas clouds.
The universe went through an initial heat wave more than 13 billion years ago when energy from early massive stars ionized cold interstellar hydrogen from the big bang. This epoch is called reionization, because the hydrogen nuclei originally were in an ionized state shortly after the big bang.
The Hubble team found it would take another two billion years before the universe produced sources of ultraviolet radiation with enough energy to reionize the primordial helium that also was cooked up in the big bang. This radiation didn't come from stars, but rather from super massive black holes. The black holes furiously converted some of the gravitational energy of this mass to powerful ultraviolet radiation that blazed out of these active galaxies.
The helium's reionization occurred at a transitional time in the universe's history when galaxies collided to ignite quasars. After the helium was reionized, intergalactic gas again cooled down and dwarf galaxies could resume normal assembly.
"I imagine quite a few more dwarf galaxies may have formed if helium reionization had not taken place," Shull said.
So far, Shull and his team only have one perspective to measure the helium transition to its ionized state. However, the COS science team plans to use Hubble to look in other directions to determine if helium reionization uniformly took place across the universe.
For illustrations and more information about these results, visit:
http://hubblesite.org/news/2010/31
Soyuz Liftoff in Kazakhstan
The Soyuz TMA-01M rocket launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 7:10 p.m. EDT on Thursday, October 7, 2010 (5:10 a.m. Friday in Kazakhstan). Expedition 25 Soyuz Commander Alexander Kaleri of Russia, NASA Flight Engineer Scott J. Kelly and Russian Flight Engineer Oleg Skripochka are due to arrive at the International Space Station on Saturday, October 9.
Credit: NASA/Carla Cioffi
Visit the SPACEBOOSTERS Online Store for Soyuz souvenirs
Credit: NASA/Carla Cioffi
Visit the SPACEBOOSTERS Online Store for Soyuz souvenirs
Wednesday, 6 October 2010
Payload Preps Underway
Workers at Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida are preparing space shuttle Discovery for its payload installation coming up Thursday. Discovery will carry the Permanent Multipurpose Module to the International Space Station during the STS-133 mission, targeted for launch Nov. 1 at 4:40 p.m. EDT. Robonaut 2 is secured inside the PMM for its role as a humanoid helper once it reaches space and goes through testing.
Technicians also finished installing foam insulation on Discovery's solid rocket booster aft skirt last night. The external tank also is covered in insulation foam, but most of that was sprayed on at the factory before it was shipped to the launch site.
At NASA's Johnson Space Center, the STS-133 astronauts will perform an integrated ascent simulation.
Technicians also finished installing foam insulation on Discovery's solid rocket booster aft skirt last night. The external tank also is covered in insulation foam, but most of that was sprayed on at the factory before it was shipped to the launch site.
At NASA's Johnson Space Center, the STS-133 astronauts will perform an integrated ascent simulation.
Propellant Loading Complete; Payload Install Coming Up
At NASA Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39A, work continues to prepare space shuttle Discovery for its STS-133 mission, targeted to launch Nov. 1 at 4:40 p.m. EDT. Technicians have completed prelaunch propellant servicing operations, and the mission's payload -- the Permanent Multipurpose Module, Express Logistics Carrier 4 and an array of spare hardware -- is set to be installed Wednesday inside Discovery's payload bay.
The six-person STS-133 astronaut crew will practice procedures for the missions first spacewalk today in NASA Johnson Space Center's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory.
The six-person STS-133 astronaut crew will practice procedures for the missions first spacewalk today in NASA Johnson Space Center's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory.
Birth of the Space Age
History changed on Oct. 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I, the world's first artificial satellite. About the size of a beach ball and weighing about 184 pounds, it took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path. That launch ushered in new political, military, technological and scientific developments. While the Sputnik launch was a single event, it marked the start of the space age and the U.S.-U.S.S.R space race.
Image Credit: NASA
Image Credit: NASA
Tuesday, 28 September 2010
NASA To Preview Final Flight Of Space Shuttle Discovery
HOUSTON -- NASA will preview the next space shuttle mission, the final flight of shuttle Discovery and the next to last scheduled shuttle flight, during a series of news briefings Thursday, Oct. 21, at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA Television and the agency's website will broadcast the briefings live. Reporters will be able to ask questions from participating NASA locations.
Discovery is targeted to launch Nov. 1 on the 11-day STS-133 mission to the International Space Station. The shuttle will deliver the Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM), which was converted from the multi-purpose logistics module Leonardo. The PMM will provide additional storage for the station crew, and experiments may be conducted inside it. Discovery also will carry critical spare components and the Express Logistics Carrier 4, an external platform that holds large equipment that can only be transported using the unique capability of the shuttle. Robonaut 2, or R2, will be the first human-like robot in space when it flies on Discovery inside the PMM to become a permanent resident of the station.
Astronaut Steve Lindsey will command Discovery. Eric Boe is the pilot. They will be joined by Mission Specialists Alvin Drew, Tim Kopra, Michael Barratt and Nicole Stott. Kopra and Drew are scheduled to perform two spacewalks to do maintenance work and install new components.
The schedule of briefings is (all times CDT):
8 a.m. -- Program Overview
9:30 a.m. -- STS-133 Mission Overview
12 p.m. -- STS-133 Spacewalk Overview
1 p.m. – Robonaut 2 Briefing
2 p.m. -- STS-133 Crew News Conference
The crew will be available for interviews at Johnson by phone or in person after the briefings. Reporters must contact Gayle Frere at 281-483-8645 by 5 p.m. on Oct. 18 to reserve an interview opportunity. Reporters planning to attend the briefings or interviews in Houston must contact the Johnson newsroom at 281-483-5111 by 5 p.m. on Oct. 14 for credentials.
For NASA TV downlink information, schedules and links to streaming video, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
For the latest information about the STS-133 mission and its crew, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle
Discovery is targeted to launch Nov. 1 on the 11-day STS-133 mission to the International Space Station. The shuttle will deliver the Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM), which was converted from the multi-purpose logistics module Leonardo. The PMM will provide additional storage for the station crew, and experiments may be conducted inside it. Discovery also will carry critical spare components and the Express Logistics Carrier 4, an external platform that holds large equipment that can only be transported using the unique capability of the shuttle. Robonaut 2, or R2, will be the first human-like robot in space when it flies on Discovery inside the PMM to become a permanent resident of the station.
Astronaut Steve Lindsey will command Discovery. Eric Boe is the pilot. They will be joined by Mission Specialists Alvin Drew, Tim Kopra, Michael Barratt and Nicole Stott. Kopra and Drew are scheduled to perform two spacewalks to do maintenance work and install new components.
The schedule of briefings is (all times CDT):
8 a.m. -- Program Overview
9:30 a.m. -- STS-133 Mission Overview
12 p.m. -- STS-133 Spacewalk Overview
1 p.m. – Robonaut 2 Briefing
2 p.m. -- STS-133 Crew News Conference
The crew will be available for interviews at Johnson by phone or in person after the briefings. Reporters must contact Gayle Frere at 281-483-8645 by 5 p.m. on Oct. 18 to reserve an interview opportunity. Reporters planning to attend the briefings or interviews in Houston must contact the Johnson newsroom at 281-483-5111 by 5 p.m. on Oct. 14 for credentials.
For NASA TV downlink information, schedules and links to streaming video, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
For the latest information about the STS-133 mission and its crew, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle
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