NASA

Ares I is the essential core of a safe, reliable, cost-effective space transportation system — one that will carry crewed missions back to the moon, on to Mars and out into the solar system. A backup transportation plan to the International Space Station once the shuttles are taken out of commission is being sought by three U.S. Senators before the Orion program takes effect in 2015. The new Constellation program is off to a slightly rocky start as its July 24th Ares I drogue parachute test... Read Full Story

The Space Shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to launch next month (October 8th), carrying new instruments, batteries and gyroscopes to the Hubble Space Telescope. This will be the final servicing mission to Hubble, the 30th flight of the 23-year old Atlantis, and one of the final 10 flights of the Space Shuttle program, which will be retired in 2010. Even though Shuttle launches may seem to have become commonplace, their preparation and execution is still a months-long process, requiring the work... Read Full Story

“We want to focus on helping bridge the gap of US vehicles traveling to the ISS (International Space Station) as efficiently as possible,” wrote John Coggeshall, manager of manifest and schedules at Johnson Space Center in Houston, in the e-mail sent Wednesday. ******************************************************************** Last March, NASA’s Mike Griffin told the Senate that a four to six month delay would occur for the Orion crew spacecraft and the Ares launch vehicle—pushing them... Read Full Story

“We are beginning to realize just how many interactions can take place between the solar wind and the atmosphere,” says Nilsson , Swedish Institute of Space Physics, headed a team of space scientists who analyzed the data from ESA’s “Cluster”—their formation-flying quartet of satellites. ************************************************************* “We are beginning to realize just how many interactions can take place between the solar wind and the atmosphere,” says Nilsson, Swedish... Read Full Story

image linked from pavillion.co.uk Atlantis will be late getting to the launch pad due to a stuck pin. Yeah a stuck pin. Actually it was a metal guide pin that jammed in place while engineers were routing a liquid hydrogen fuel line between the shuttle and the external fuel tank. Don't ya just hate it when that happens? Well, they got it out ok, but it will be next Tuesday before the shuttle gets out to the launch pad. This flight will be one to watch, it will be the last service call to the... Read Full Story