Space Shuttle Atlantis

NASA's Space Shuttle Atlantis at Launch Pad for Hubble Mission

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- After safely reaching its launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, space shuttle Atlantis now awaits liftoff for its target May 12 STS-125 mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. Atlantis arrived at Launch Pad 39A at approximately 9:10 a.m. EDT Tuesday on top of a giant crawler-transporter. The crawler-transporter left Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building at 3:54 a.m., traveling less than 1 mph during the 3.4-mile journey. The shuttle was secured on the launch pad at 11:17 a.m. Atlantis' 11-day mission is the final shuttle flight to Hubble.

During five spacewalks, the shuttle's seven astronauts will install two new instruments, repair two inactive ones and replace other Hubble components. The Science Instrument Command and Data Handling Unit that will be installed in the telescope arrived at Kennedy on Monday. The new unit will replace the one in Hubble that stopped working in September 2008 and delayed the servicing mission. The result of the upgrades will be six working, complementary science instruments with capabilities beyond those now available and an extended operational lifespan of the telescope through at least 2014.

Scott Altman will command Atlantis. Gregory C. Johnson will be the pilot. The Mission Specialists will be John Grunsfeld, Mike Massimino, Megan McArthur, Andrew Feustel and Michael Good. STS-125 is the 126th shuttle flight, the 30th flight for Atlantis and the fifth Hubble servicing mission.

Space shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to roll out to Kennedy's other launch pad, 39B, on Thursday, April 17. Endeavour will be prepared for liftoff in the unlikely event that a rescue mission is necessary following Atlantis' launch. After Atlantis is cleared to land, Endeavour will move to Launch Pad 39A for its upcoming STS-127 mission to the International Space Station, targeted to launch in mid-June. Endeavour will roll over from Kennedy's Orbiter Processing Facility 2 to the Vehicle Assembly Building on April 10. In the assembly building, crews will attach the spacecraft to its external fuel tank and twin solid rocket boosters in preparations for its move to pad 39B.

NASA managers decided to proceed with the dual-pad approach after carefully reviewing the manifest options to complete the International Space Station and to ensure it is in the most robust condition possible following shuttle retirement. The dual-pad approach requires one month less processing time than the single-pad approach and will help complete both STS-125 and STS-127.

Endeavour will deliver the Japanese Exposed Facility and make the space station more robust to support cargo delivery for a six-person crew. The Space Shuttle Program will continue to work with the Constellation Program to minimize the impact on the Ares I-X test flight which will use Launch Pad 39B later this year.

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Astronaut James Lovell

NASA Honours Gemini and Apollo Astronaut James Lovell

WASHINGTON -- NASA will honour astronaut James "Jim" Lovell, Jr., with the presentation of an Ambassador of Exploration Award for his contributions to the U.S. space program. During a ceremony Friday, April 3, Lovell will accept the award at the Patuxent River Naval Air Museum in Lexington Park, Md., and present it to the museum for display. NASA is giving the Ambassador of Exploration Award to the first generation of explorers in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space programs for realizing America's goal of going to the moon. The award is a moon rock encased in Lucite, mounted for public display. The rock is part of the 842 pounds of lunar samples collected during six Apollo expeditions from 1969 to 1972. Lovell was born in Cleveland and received his bachelor's degree from the United States Naval Academy in 1952. He spent four years as a test pilot at the Naval Air Test Center, now the Patuxent River Naval Air Station.

Lovell was the pilot for the Gemini 7 mission and the command pilot for Gemini 12.

He and fellow crewmen, Frank Borman and William A. Anders, became the first humans to leave the Earth's gravitational influence and travel to the moon during the Apollo 8 mission in 1968. On Lovell's fourth mission, he was the commander of Apollo 13.

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Astronauts & Cosmonauts

Astronaut Flight Order provided by SPACEBOOSTER.co.uk

This post includes Space Explorers 301 to Current,

There are currently 490 Space Explorers...and counting


301. Richard Searfoss STS 58

302. William McArthur STS 58

303. David Wolf STS 58

304. Martin Fettman STS 58

305. Yuri Usachev Soyuz TM-18

306. Ronald Sega STS 60

307. Thomas Jones STS 59

308. Yuri Malenchenko Soyuz TM-19

309. Talgat Musabayev Soyuz TM-19

310. James Halsell STS 65

311. Leroy Chiao STS 65

312. Donald Thomas STS 65

313. Chiaki Mukai STS 65

314. Jerry Linenger STS 64

315. Terrence Wilcutt STS 68

316. Steven Smith STS 68

317. Yelena Kondakova Soyuz TM-20

318. Joseph Tanner STS 66

319. Jean-Francois Clervoy STS 66

320. Scott Parazynski STS 66

321. Eileen Collins STS 63

322. William Gregory STS 67

323. John Grunsfeld STS 67

324. Wendy Lawrence STS 67

325. Vladimir Dezhurov Soyuz TM-21

326. Nikolai Budarin STS 71

327. Kevin Kregel STS 70

328. Mary Ellen Weber STS 70

329. Yuri Gidzenko Soyuz TM-22

330. Thomas Reiter Soyuz TM-22

331. Michael Gernhardt STS 69

332. Kent Rominger STS 73

333. Catherine Coleman STS 73

334. Michael Lopez-Alegria STS 73

335. Fred Leslie STS 73

336. Albert Sacco, Jr STS 73

337. Chris Hadfield STS 74

338. Brent Jett, Jr. STS 72

339. Winston Scott STS 72

340. Koichi Wakata STS 72

341. Daniel Barry STS 72

342. Yuri Onufrienko Soyuz TM-23

343. Scott Horowitz STS 75

344. Maurizio Cheli STS 75

345. Umberto Guidoni STS 75

346. Andrew Thomas STS 77

347. Richard Linnehan STS 78

348. Charles Brady STS 78

349. Jean-Jacques Favier STS 78

350. Robert Thirsk STS 78

351. Valeri Korzun Soyuz TM-24

352. Claudie André-Deshays Soyuz TM-24

353. Alexander Lazutkin Soyuz TM-25

354. Reinhold Ewald Soyuz TM-25

355. Susan Kilrain STS 83

356. Roger Crouch STS 83

357. Gregory Linteris STS 83

358. Carlos Noriega STS 84

359. Edward Lu STS 84

360. Pavel Vinogradov Soyuz TM-26

361. Robert Curbeam STS 85

362. Stephen Robinson STS 85

363. Bjarni Tryggvason STS 85

364. Michael Bloomfield STS 86

365. Steven Lindsey STS 87

366. Kalpana Chawla STS 87

367. Takao Doi STS 87

368. Leonid Kadenyuk STS 87

369. Joe Edwards STS 89

370. James Reilly STS 89

371. Michael Anderson STS 89

372. Salizan Sharipov STS 89

373. Leopold Eyharts Soyuz TM-27

374. Scott Altman STS 90

375. Kathryn Hire STS 90

376. Dafydd Rhys Williams STS 90

377. Jay Buckey STS 90

378. James Pawelczyk STS 90

379. Dominic Gorie STS 91

380. Janet Kavandi STS 91

381. Gennadi Padalka Soyuz TM-28

382. Yuri Baturin Soyuz TM-28

383. Pedro Duque STS 95

384. Frederick Sturckow STS 88

385. Ivan Bella Soyuz TM-29

386. Rick Husband STS 96

387. Julie Payette STS 96

388. Valeri Tokarev STS 96

389. Jeffrey Ashby STS 93

390. Scott Kelly STS 103

391. Gerhard Thiele STS 99

392. Sergei Zalyotin Soyuz TM-30

393. Jeff Williams STS 101

394. Dan Burbank STS 106

395. Richard Mastracchio STS 106

396. Boris Morukov STS 106

397. Pamela Melroy STS 92

398. Mark Polansky STS 98

399. James Kelly STS 102

400. Paul Richards STS 102

401. John Phillips STS 100

402. Yuri Lonchakov STS 100

403. Dennis Tito Soyuz TM-32

404. Charles Hobaugh STS 104

405. Patrick Forrester STS 105

406. Mikhail Turin STS 105

407. Konstantin Kozeev Soyuz TM-33

408. Mark Kelly STS 108

409. Daniel Tani STS 108

410. Duane Carey STS 109

411. Michael Massimino STS 109

412. Steven Frick STS 110

413. Rex Walheim STS 110

414. Lee Morin STS 110

415. Roberto Vittori Soyuz TM-34

416. Mark Shuttleworth Soyuz TM-34

417. Paul Lockhart STS 111

418. Phillipe Perrin STS 111

419. Peggy Whitson STS 111

420. Sergei Treschev STS 111

421. Sandra Magnus STS 112

422. Piers Sellers STS 112

423. Fyodor Yurchikin STS 112

424. Frank DeWinne Soyuz TMA-1

425. John Herrington STS 113

426. Don Pettit STS 113

427. Willie McCool STS 107

428. David Brown STS 107

429. Laurel Clark STS 107

430. Ilan Ramon STS 107

431. Yang Liwei Shenzhou 5

432. Michael Fincke Soyuz TMA-4

433. Andre Kuipers Soyuz TMA-4

434. Yuri Shargin Soyuz TMA-5

435. Charles Camarda STS 114

436. Soichi Noguchi STS 114

437. Greg Olsen Soyuz TMA 7

438. Fei Junlong Shenzhou 6

439. Nie Haisheng Shenzhou 6

440. Marcos Pontes Soyuz TMA-8

441. Mike Fossum STS 121

442. Lisa Nowak STS 121

443. Stephanie Wilson STS 121

444. Chris Ferguson STS 115

445. Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper STS 115

446. Anousheh Ansari Soyuz TMA-9

447. William Oefelein STS 116

448. Nicholas Patrick STS 116

449. Christer Fugelsang STS 116

450. Joan Higginbotham STS 116

451. Sunita Williams STS 116

452. Oleg Kotov Soyuz TMA-10

453. Charles Simonyi Soyuz TMA-10

454. Lee Archambault STS 117

455. Steven Swanson STS 117


456. John Olivas STS 117


457. Clayton Anderson STS 117


458. Tracy Caldwell STS 118


459. Barbara Morgan STS 118


460. Alvin Drew STS 118


461. Muszaphar Shukor Soyuz TMA-11


462. George Zamka STS-120


463. Douglas Wheelock STS-120


464. Paolo Nespoli STS-120


465. Alan Poindexter STS-122


466. Leland Melvin STS-122


467. Stanley Love STS-122


468. Gregory H. Johnson STS 123


469. Robert Behnken STS 123


470. Michael Foreman STS 123


471. Garrett Reisman STS 123


472. Sergei Volkov Soyuz TMA-12


473. Oleg Kononenko Soyuz TMA-12


474. Yi So-yeon Soyuz TMA-12


475. Kenneth Ham STS-124


476. Karen Nyberg STS-124


477. Ronald Garan STS-124


478. Akihiko Hoshide STS-124


479. Gregory Chamitoff STS-124


480. Liu Boming Shenzhou 7


481. Zhai Zhigang Shenzhou 7


482. Jing Haipeng Shenzhou 7


483. Richard Garriott Soyuz TMA-13


484. Eric Boe STS-126


485. Stephen Bowen STS-126


486. Robert Kimbrough STS-126


487. Dominic "Tony" Antonelli STS-119


488. Joseph Acaba STS-119


489. Richard "Ricky" Arnold STS-119

490. Michael Barratt Soyuz TMA-14

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NASA Space info available at NASA-Space

Atlantis moves towards pad

NASA's Shuttle Atlantis Starts Move to Launch Pad at 4 a.m. Tuesday

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Space shuttle Atlantis' rollout to Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida has been rescheduled to begin at 4 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, March 31, as preparations for the STS-125 mission move forward. Atlantis is targeted to lift off May 12 to service NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. NASA Television's live coverage of the event will begin at 6:30 a.m. Video highlights will air on the NASA TV Video File. Journalists are invited to a photo opportunity of the shuttle's move to the pad and an interview opportunity with Atlantis Flow Director Angie Brewer at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday. Dates and times of this event are subject to change. Updates are available by calling 321-867-2525. Reporters must arrive at Kennedy's news center by 6:30 a.m. Tuesday for transportation to the viewing area. Media accreditation for this event has closed. Badges can be picked up through Tuesday at the Kennedy Badging Office on State Road 405. The badging office opens at 6 a.m. The fully assembled space shuttle, consisting of the orbiter, external fuel tank and twin solid rocket boosters is mounted on a mobile launcher platform and will be delivered to the pad atop a crawler-transporter. The crawler will travel slower than 1 mph during the 3.4-mile journey. The process is expected to take approximately six hours. During Atlantis' 11-day mission, the crew of seven astronauts will make the final shuttle flight to Hubble. During five spacewalks, they will install two new instruments, repair two inactive ones and replace components. The result will be six working, complementary science instruments with capabilities beyond what is now available, and an extended operational lifespan for the telescope through at least 2014. Scott Altman will be the commander of Atlantis. Gregory C. Johnson will be the pilot. Mission specialists will be John Grunsfeld, Mike Massimino, Megan McArthur, Andrew Feustel and Michael Good.

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NASA Honours Astronaut Ken Mattingly

NASA Honours Apollo and Shuttle Astronaut Thomas K. Mattingly

WASHINGTON -- NASA will honor astronaut Thomas K. "Ken" Mattingly, II, with the presentation of an Ambassador of Exploration Award for his contributions to the U.S. space program. During a ceremony on Thursday, March 26, Mattingly will accept the award at the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering at Auburn University in Alabama and present it for display at the university. NASA is giving the Ambassador of Exploration Award to the first generation of explorers in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space programs for realizing America's goal of going to the moon. The award is a moon rock encased in Lucite, mounted for public display. The rock is part of the 842 pounds of lunar samples collected during six Apollo expeditions from 1969 to 1972. Mattingly was born in Chicago and received his bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering from Auburn University in 1958. He was the command module pilot for the Apollo 16 mission. He also was designated command module pilot for the Apollo 13 flight, but he was removed from flight status 72 hours before the scheduled launch because of exposure to the German measles. Mattingly is one of a few Apollo astronauts who also flew aboard the space shuttle. He was the shuttle commander on missions STS-4 and STS 51-C.

Apollo 13 Crew Portrait, STS-4 Crew Patch, STS-51-C Mission Patch

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May - Space Shuttle Hubble Mission

Preparations Continue for the May Mission to Hubble

Image Above: Goddard engineer Steve Leete performs a mechanical fit-check of a contingency tool on the replacement Science Instrument Control and Data Handling (SI C&DH) unit in Goddard’s large clean room. The SI C&DH passed it final functional test and will be transported to Kennedy Space Center on March 29. Once it arrives, it will be integrated onto the Multi-Use Logistics Equipment (MULE) Shuttle Carrier where it will ride to orbit on the Space Shuttle Atlantis. Image Credit: NASA/Eric Foster.

Image Above: Goddard engineers re-install the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph instrument into its Shuttle carrier at the Payload Hazardous Systems Facility at Kennedy Space Center. The SM4 flight hardware is being prepared to re-enter the Shuttle launch flow in preparation for a May 12 launch.nbsp; Image Credit: NASA

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New Crew for ISS

New Crew for International Space Station

Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Michael Barratt of the 19th International Space Station crew launched in their Soyuz TMA-14 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 7:49 a.m. EDT Thursday to begin a six-month stay in space. Less than 10 minutes after launch their spacecraft reached orbit. Its antennas and solar arrays were deployed shortly afterward.

With Padalka and Barratt is second-time spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi, flying under contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency. Simonyi previously flew to the station in April 2007 as a spaceflight participant with the Expedition 15 crew. Simonyi will return to Earth with Expedition 18 crew members, Commander Mike Fincke and Flight Engineer Yury Lonchakov, in their Soyuz TMA-13 on April 7.

Expedition 18 launched to the station Oct. 12. Expedition 19 crew members will be welcomed by the Expedition 18 crew, including Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata, after their docking to the orbiting laboratory, scheduled for Saturday. Wakata launched to the station on the STS-119 mission of Discovery March 15. He joined Expedition 18 in progress and will provide Expedition 19 with an experienced flight engineer for its increment.

For the latest news and information on the STS-119 mission, visit the main shuttle page. › Read more Padalka, a colonel in the Russian Air Force, will command the Expedition 19 mission and also serve as Soyuz commander. He previously served as commander of Expedition 9 in 2004. During Padalka's first stay at the International Space Station, he performed four spacewalks. Barratt will serve as a flight engineer for Expedition 19. He served as lead crew surgeon for the first Expedition crew to the station from July 1998 until he was selected as an astronaut candidate. This will be his first spaceflight. Wakata will serve as a flight engineer for Expeditions 18, 19 and 20. Wakata will be the first resident station crew member from JAXA. He will return to Earth on STS-127.

Image above: The Soyuz TMA-14 launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Thursday, March 26, 2009 carrying Expedition 19 Commander Gennady I. Padalka, Flight Engineer Michael R. Barratt and Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi to the International Space Station. (Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Soyuz TMA-14 Launch to the Interrnational Space Station

New Astronaut Crew Launches to International Space Station

HOUSTON -- The 19th crew to live and work aboard the International Space Station launched into orbit Thursday morning from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, aboard a Soyuz spacecraft. NASA astronaut Michael Barratt, Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, and spaceflight participant and U.S. software engineer Charles Simonyi lifted off at 6:49 a.m. CDT.

They are scheduled to dock with the station at 8:14 a.m. Saturday, March 28. Padalka will serve as commander of Expeditions 19 and 20 aboard the station. Barratt will serve as a flight engineer for those two missions. Padalka and Barratt's other crewmate is Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. He arrived to the station March 17 on space shuttle Discovery. Simonyi, flying to the station under a commercial agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency, previously visited the complex in April 2007. He is the first spaceflight participant to make a second flight to the station and will spend 10 days aboard. Simonyi will return to Earth April 7 with Expedition 18 Commander Michael Fincke and Flight Engineer Yury Lonchakov, who have been on the station since October 2008.

The Expedition 19 crew will continue science investigations and prepare for the arrival of the rest of the station's first six-person contingent. Roman Romanenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency, Frank De Winne of the European Space Agency and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Bob Thirsk will launch from Baikonur on May 27, arriving at the station on May 29. After all the astronauts are aboard, Expedition 20 will begin, ushering in an era of six-person station crews.

This mission also will be the first time the crew members represent all five International Space Station partners. For more information about the space station and how to view it from Earth, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station

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Spaceboosters - STS 119 Mission Report #7

Wednesday, March 18, 2009Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

STS-119 Mission Report #07

A busy day in orbit for the crews of Space Shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station has set the stage for another station assembly task – the installation of the final truss segment and American solar power panels. As the crew prepared for the first spacewalk to assist with the truss installation, Mission Control radioed that no further inspection of Discovery’s heat shield is necessary clearing the way for an earlier deployment of the solar wings Friday. Late today, imagery analysts along with the Damage Assessment Team in Mission Control determined Discovery’s heat shield is healthy for reentry next week. A final routine inspection of the shuttle’s wing leading edge panels will be conducted after Discovery leaves the station to ensure their health. Near the end of the crew day, the station’s robotic arm maneuvered the 31,000 pound, 45-foot-long truss segment to an overnight “park” position to await the start of the first spacewalk by Mission Specialists Steve Swanson and Ricky Arnold. They will “campout” in the Quest airlock of the station at a reduced air pressure overnight to prepare their bodies for the spacewalk planned to last six and a half hours. The two astronauts will assist with final connection of the S6 to its permanent home attached to the remaining station truss. They will connect plumbing, electrical and data cables bringing the segment to life before deployment of the 240-foot-long solar panels. Meanwhile, the newest station crew member Koichi Wakata is settling in for a three-month stay on board after swapping places with Sandy Magnus who returns home aboard Discovery after four months in space. Wakata is the first Japanese astronaut to stay long-term aboard the station. He will be on board when the final pieces of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Kibo laboratory are launched aboard Endeavour this summer on the STS-127 mission. The crews head to bed between 10 and 11 tonight as preparations continue toward Thursday’s assembly task.

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Spaceboosters - STS 119 Mission Report #6

Wednesday, March 18, 2009Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

STS-119 Mission Report #06

The last set of American solar power panels for the International Space Station start the last leg of their journey today when the astronauts on space shuttle Discovery position the new S6 truss element for installation. At 10:18 a.m. CDT, Mission Specialists John Phillips and Sandra Magnus start the procedure to command the station’s Canadarm2 to grapple S6 and lift it out of the shuttle’s payload bay, where Pilot Tony Antonelli and Mission Specialist Joseph Acaba are waiting for a handoff to the shuttle’s robot arm. The station arm will release S6 so its operating base can move out to the starboard end of the station’s truss structure. Once there, Phillips and station Flight Engineer Koichi Wakata will fly Canadarm2 back to take a handoff back from the shuttle arm, and then move S6 into an overnight park position near its final installation location. The new element, and its two solar array wings, will be put in place on the starboard end of the truss during the first spacewalk of the mission Thursday. In the meantime, Mission Specialists Steve Swanson and Richard Arnold will spend the first part of the day checking out systems in the station’s Quest airlock and configuring the tools they’ll take outside with them on the mission's first planned spacewalk Thursday. The two spacewalkers will assist with the installation of the S6 Truss and open the solar array blanket boxes. Station Commander Mike Fincke and Discovery Commander Lee Archambault will join Acaba and Arnold to talk about the progress of the mission in an interview with Channel One News at 1:58 p.m. Just before the combined crews break for lunch at 2:20 p.m. station Flight Engineer Yury Lonchakov will assist his new crewmate Wakata with a leak check of the Japanese astronaut’s Soyuz launch and entry suit. Wakata has time in his schedule each day to familiarize himself with the stations’ systems and operations. This morning’s wakeup song, “I Walk the Line” by Johnny Cash, was played for Swanson. The next status report will be issued at the end of the crew day, or earlier if events warrant.

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