APU Testing for Discovery

At NASA Kennedy Space Center's Orbiter Processing Facility-3, crews continue preparing shuttle Discovery for its upcoming mission. Testing of the spacecraft's auxiliary power units 1, 2, and 3 gearbox will continue through Friday.At NASA's Johnson Space Center, the STS-133 crew will train in the Virtual Reality Lab on robotics for spacewalk suppo...

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NASA Selects Sounding Rockets Operations Contractor

WASHINGTON -- NASA selected Orbital Sciences Corp.'s, Technical Services Division in Greenbelt, Md., for the agency's Sounding Rockets Operations contract. The total value of this indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity cost-plus incentive fee contract is $310 million. The period of performance is five years.Orbital Sciences will coordinate and implement NASA's overall Sounding Rockets Program and provide services and supplies as necessary to complete individual missions and projects. Services...

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Space shuttle workers receive layoff notices

Nearly 1,400 employees were sent layoff notices this week from NASA's space shuttle contractor, United Space Alliance.Of those 1,400 employees, 902 workers in Florida will be laid off, according to United Space Alliance spokeswoman Kari Fluegel. This layoff is related to the shutdown of the space shuttle program, Fluegel said."Previously we let everyone know that this was coming today...this week is when we are notifying specific employees," Fluegel said. The job cuts won't take effect until October...

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NASA Opens Online Voting For Next Desert RATS Exploration Site

WASHINGTON -- NASA is inviting the public to choose an area in northern Arizona where explorers will conduct part of the annual Desert Research and Technology Studies, known as Desert RATS."Desert RATS is an annual test where NASA takes equipment and crews into the field to simulate future planetary exploration missions," said Joe Kosmo, Desert RATS manager at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "We want the public to be a part of this."From July 27 through Aug. 8, space enthusiasts can vote...

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Bright objects float away from space station

The spacewalk Tuesday was meant to replace a video camera and update cable connections to a module of the International Space Station.However, the question every space buff wanted an answer to is: "What was that I just saw floating away?"Two objects drifted away during astronauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Mikhail Kornienko's six-hour assignment.When the first one swam by, even NASA was befuddled as to what it was."Meanwhile here on the ground in Houston, flight controllers have been taking a look at...

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NASA Simulates Space Exploration At Remote Arctic Crater Site

WASHINGTON -- NASA personnel are among a group of international researchers who are in the Canadian Arctic assessing concepts for future planetary exploration as part of the Haughton-Mars Project, or HMP-2010.Scientists are using the arid, rocky environment of the Haughton Crater on Devon Island, Canada to simulate conditions that might be encountered by explorers on other planetary bodies. The latest edition of the HMP-2010 began July 19 and includes three weeks of crew and mission control activities...

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Discovery Preps Continue Through the Weekend

The fuel and oxidizer feed connections on space shuttle Discovery's right Orbital Maneuvering System, or OMS, pod were completed overnight in Orbiter Processing Facility-3 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.Technicians are scheduled to conduct integrated hydraulic testing today and during the weekend work on Discovery's thermal protection system, or heat shield tiles.The six STS-133 astronauts will resume training on Monday at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston after returning from their...

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NASA Astronaut Sends First Signed Message from Orbit

WASHINGTON -- The number of languages used on the International Space Station has recently increased. In addition to those spoken in the 15 countries that have had representatives aboard the space station, American Sign Language, or ASL, is now included. NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson has sent a message in ASL from the station to the deaf community.In the video, Caldwell Dyson answered several questions about living and working aboard the station and how she became interested in sign language."I...

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NASA astronaut sends first message in sign language from space station

For the first time, NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson has sent a message in American Sign Language (ASL) from the International Space Station to the deaf community.In the video, Caldwell Dyson answered several questions about living and working aboard the station and how she became interested in sign language."I am truly grateful for this opportunity on behalf of the deaf community and the multitudes of students who will benefit from seeing their language spoken in space. It is my hope that this...

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House committee supports additional shuttle flight

A House committee on Thursday approved an amendment to a bill that would clear NASA to launch an additional shuttle flight next summer to deliver critical supplies and equipment to the International Space Station.The move came as the House Committee on Science and Technology was reviewing its version of NASA's $19 billion 2011 funding package. The Senate version of the appropriations legislation already included the additional flight. But major differences remain in other key areas, including how...

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Oil Slick in the Gulf of Mexico

The Gulf of Mexico was speckled and streaked with small clouds on July 20, 2010, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image. Between the clouds, however, a silvery-gray streak of oil remained visible offshore of the Mississippi River Delta. The tan-colored waters around the river delta are full of sediment.In photo-like images such as this one, oil is most visible when it is located in the sunglint part of the scene—the place where...

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Boeing space capsule could be operational by 2015

Boeing executives pulled back the curtain on their concept for a commercial human space capsule this week at the Farnborough International Airshow, saying the CST-100 spacecraft could be ready for operational space station flights by 2015 if NASA awards contract money next year.The aerospace giant is teaming with Bigelow Aerospace to develop a market for commercial human space transportation. Boeing's CST-100 capsule could service Bigelow's planned private space stations, but NASA's commitment to...

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Russia to invest US$810M in new space launch site

KOROLYOV, Russia - Russia will build a new US$810-million space launch site as part of its efforts to defend its share of the increasingly competitive space launch market, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Monday.Like in Soviet times, Russia dominates the global space industry, carrying out 37% of last year’s 78 launches around the world, according to the U.S.-based Space Foundation non-profit group.But it faces growing competition from Europe, Asia and the United States as the market becomes...

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SpaceX plans demonstration flight

The first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket expected to fly the first in a series of NASA demonstration missions in September is resting in its Launch Complex 40 hangar.The roughly 100-foot long, 12-foot wide booster and its nine Merlin engines arrived at Cape Canaveral Air Force Base from Texas late last week on an oversized flatbed truck, wrapped in protective tarps."We're glad to see their first stage arrive here," said George Diller, a NASA spokesman at Kennedy Space Center. "This is the first NASA-sponsored...

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Station Crew Prepares for Spacewalk and Conducts Science

The six Expedition 24 crew members aboard the International Space Station continued their preparations for an upcoming spacewalk and worked on science activities Wednesday. Flight Engineers Fyodor Yurchikhin and Mikhail Kornienko prepared equipment they will take out of the Pirs docking compartment and into space during a six-hour spacewalk scheduled to begin the evening of July 26. The space walkers will prepare the recently delivered Rassvet module with a Kurs automated rendezvous capability...

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Senate committee reviews possible NASA budget compromise today

The hoped-for compromise between Congress and President Barack Obama over NASA's future is taking shape in Washington, congressional sources say.The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee meets in executive session today to review - and possibly approve - a $19 billion NASA budget for fiscal year 2011 released Tuesday by Chairman Sen. John Rockefeller, D-W.V. (See the full bill below).U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, chairs the Commerce subcommittee that authorizes NASA spending...

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Taurus 2 rocket could launch astronaut crews from Florida

The firm is contending for rights to launch future NASA astronaut crews to the International Space Station, but it faces stiff competition from SpaceX, Boeing Co., and other companies.NASA wants to transition human transportation to low Earth orbit to private industry after the shuttle's retirement, but it will be several years before any company can demonstrate crew flights.Orbital is already operating under a NASA contract to develop the unmanned Cygnus cargo freighter and the Taurus 2 rocket....

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Indian American – Sunita Williams to again head off into space

The Indian American, Sunita Williams, (44) who currently holds the record for the longest space fight in history for a female astronaut, will yet again head off into space in June 2012 to board the space station that was her home between December 2006 and June 2007. The space station, called Soyuz 31, will also become home to cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide as was announced on Friday by all three agencies. Their mission is to begin undocking the Soyuz 31 from their...

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PSLV launch a great success: Madhavan Nair

G. Madhavan Nair, former chairman of ISRO applauded the 16th consecutive launch PSLV C15, in his speech at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology.The vehicle carried the indigenously built Cartosat 2B remote sensing satellite, Alsat from Algeria, two satellites from Swiss and Canadian universities and a small satellite ‘Studsat’ built by a conglomerate of colleges from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.Dr. Nair emphasized the need inspire students towards the path of experimentation and discovery,...

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That’s no UFO . . . it’s a space station

A UFO investigator says there is a perfectly logical explanation for a set of strange lights being reported in the night sky in Central Alberta.A handful of people from the area, including one person from Blackfalds, have contacted him after seeing a bright light moving across the southern sky. Adding to the intrigue, a dimmer light was seen following it for awhile, as if attached, and then suddenly darting away.No worries, says Brian Vike, a self-taught UFO researcher from Houston, B.C., and creator...

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Leading NASA contractor set to cull more than 1,000 jobs

Ramifications connected to the upcoming retirement of NASA's space shuttle fleet are reaching beyond the what, where and whens of delivering supplies to the orbiting International Space Station.Affecting real people and real jobs back on terra firma, Houston-based United Space Alliance, one of NASA's leading space shuttle contractors, has announced it plans to cull around 15 percent of its total U.S. workforce on October 01 of this year.Announced in a statement released on Tuesday, that percentage...

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Overdue supply ship docks with International Space Station

The unmanned Progress M-06M spacecraft, which failed to dock with the International Space Station a few days ago, succeeded in a second attempt Sunday. Russian officials said that today's docking went flawlessly and exactly as planned, save for the fact that the docking occurred two days behind schedule.NASA officials made clear that in the event of a total failure of the cargo ship, the orbital outpost's crew would have had enough surplus supplies to utilize until October or possibly November....

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Last 2 shuttle flights delayed, final trip in 2011

NASA's space shuttle program will keep going until next year.The space agency made it official Thursday after weeks of hints of launch delays: More time is needed to get the cargo ready for the final two shuttle flights. What's more, a decision regarding a possible third — and really last — mission is off until at least next month.Managers agreed to postpone the next-to-last shuttle launch until Nov. 1. Discovery had been scheduled to fly to the International Space Station with a load of supplies...

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NASA postpones the final two launches of the space shuttle program

NASA announced on Thursday that the final two missions of the space shuttle program have been delayed till November and February because of delays related to the preparation of the last spare-parts load to the International Space Station (ISS).According to the new launch plan disclosed by NASA managers, space shuttle Discovery's launch on a cargo re-supply mission has been postponed from September to November 1; and the space shuttle program's final mission - involving Endeavor's hauling of the...

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