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http://www.livescience.com/blogs/author/tariqmalik

Astronaut Gives Familiar Name for NASA’s Next Spaceship
Posted on August 22, 2006 @ 16:44:13 EDT
Author Tariq Malik

It may have seemed a slip of the tongue (or comm channel button) when NASA astronaut Jeffrey Williams named Orion as the moniker for the U.S. space agency’s next spacecraft today. But NASA let the cat out of the bag weeks ago.

Williams, who is serving a six-month tour aboard the International Space Station as flight engineer for Expedition 13, named Orion as the title of NASA’s Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) - a shuttle successor to reach orbit and return astronauts to the Moon - during a recorded announcement apparently broadcast on space-to-ground radio by accident.

But while it’s nice to have astronaut confirmation of the CEV’s more palatable title, SPACE.com partner collectSPACE.com reported the selection weeks ago once editor and founder Robert Pearlman learned of a NASA trademark for the Orion name. The trademark’s description was eerily similar to one used to secure NASA’s trademark to use Ares as the family name for its CEV and cargo rockets to launch future missions into orbit and on to the Moon.

The Orion trademark filing, however, specifically mentioned its use for “command modules.”

It doesn’t stop there.

Just this month, Pearlman also learned of NASA’s planned logo for its Moon project through internal agency documents. NASA plans to update the press on its exploration plans before the launch of its Atlantis orbiter’s STS-115 mission on Aug. 27, and announce the CEV contractor selection - Lockheed Martin and a joint team of Northrop Grumman and Boeing are in the competition - on Aug. 31.

So the name has been around for awhile, but it’s nice to hear the words uttered from an astronaut.

http://www.space.com/images/060814_orion_logo_02.jpg
 
They made up their minds. Pluto is out.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/08/24/pluto.ap/index.html

Pluto gets the boot
Pluto no longer a planet, say astronomers
Thursday, August 24, 2006; Posted: 9:32 a.m. EDT

PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) -- Leading astronomers declared Thursday that Pluto is no longer a planet under historic new guidelines that downsize the solar system from nine planets to eight.

After a tumultuous week of clashing over the essence of the cosmos, the International Astronomical Union stripped Pluto of the planetary status it has held since its discovery in 1930.

The new definition of what is -- and isn't -- a planet fills a centuries-old black hole for scientists who have labored since Copernicus without one.

Pluto is no stranger to controversy. In fact, it's been dogged by disputes ever since its discovery. (Watch why some think planet size doesn't matter -- 3:39)

Discovered by Clyde Tombaugh of Arizona's Lowell Observatory, Pluto was classified as a planet because scientists initially believed it was the same size as Earth. It remained one because for years, it was the only known object in the Kuiper Belt, an enigmatic zone beyond Neptune that's teeming with comets and other planetary objects.

Pluto got an ego boost in 1978 when it was found to have a moon that was later named Charon. The Hubble turned up two more, which this past June were christened Nix and Hydra.

But in the 1990s, more powerful telescopes revealed numerous bodies similar to Pluto in the neighborhood. New observations also showed that Pluto's orbit was oblong, sending it soaring well above and beyond the main plane of the solar system where Earth and the other seven planets circle the sun.

That prompted some galactic grumbling from astronomers who began openly attacking Pluto's planethood.

At one point, things looked so bad for Pluto, the international union said publicly in 1999 that rumors of Pluto's imminent demise were greatly exaggerated and there were no plans to kick it out of the cosmic club.

A year later, the Hayden Planetarium at New York's American Museum of Natural History was accused of snubbing Pluto by excluding it from a solar system exhibition.

Pluto took another hit after Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology discovered 2003 UB313, a slightly larger Kuiper Belt object. What's the point, some astronomers wondered, in keeping Pluto as a planet?

Its future brightened earlier this year, when NASA sent the New Horizons spacecraft to Pluto to get a closer look at the ball of rock and ice. The Hubble has managed to glimpse only its most prominent surface features; New Horizons, if all goes well, will arrive in 2015.
Click to expand...
 
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/08/26/atlantis.launch/index.html

Shuttle launch delayed until Monday

http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2006/TECH/space/08/26/atlantis.launch/story.launchpad.nasa.jpg

Saturday, August 26, 2006

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida (CNN) -- The launch of space shuttle Atlantis on Sunday was scrubbed for 24 hours because of lightning striking the launch pad Friday and other weather worries, NASA announced.

The launch will be tried again Monday. Sunday is the first day of the shuttle's launch window, which closes September 7.

Mission managers said no other significant issues besides weather could affect the launch, said NASA test director Jeff Spaulding.

On Friday, lightning struck Atlantis' launch pad 39B, which has several lightning-detection systems -- but caused no apparent damage, said launch director Mike Leinbach.

The Atlantis crew of six has been waiting nearly four years for the opportunity to travel to the International Space Station, and are hopeful the weather will cooperate, Leinbach said.

Once Atlantis docks with the station, the crew plans to do three spacewalks to install a second set of solar arrays designed to provide about a quarter of the station's power generation.

That should double the station's power capability, in addition to adding more than 17 tons to its mass.

The solar arrays have been packed away since May 2003, when they were originally scheduled to be delivered.

NASA has dubbed the 12-day mission, the 27th flight of Atlantis, the "return to assembly."

If Atlantis takes off Monday, the mission will be the quickest turnaround between flights since the 2003 Columbia disaster.

Space Shuttle Discovery landed on July 17 after a 13-day mission that recorded no major problems.

Weather will remain a concern for the success of Atlantis' mission, even after launch.

NASA is closely monitoring Tropical Storm Ernesto. If the storm gains strength and heads directly for Houston, where Mission Control is located, the Atlantis mission would have to end early.

There are no contingency plans, said LeRoy Cain, launch integration manager of the space shuttle program, on Friday. Should Mission Control be evacuated, the complicated construction activities of the Atlantis mission cannot be accomplished, he said.

"We would undock, de-orbit at the first safe opportunity, and leave the (space) station in the safest configuration we could," he said.

Still, Houston personnel will still be able to communicate with Atlantis and the space station crew through control rooms in Moscow, should Mission Control have to evacuate, said space station program manager Mike Suffredini.

NASA managers hope the Atlantis flight can cement the agency's efforts to resume a regular schedule of missions in order to complete the space station before the shuttle fleet is retired in 2010.

Fifteen more flights -- or about four launches a year -- are required to complete the work.

Participants in the flight readiness review were unanimous in their decision to go ahead with the launch of Atlantis, including two senior managers who had declined to sign off on Discovery's launch in July, said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for space flight.

Those two managers, as well as the directors of the Johnson Space Center in Houston and the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, urged modifications be made to "ice-front ramps" on the shuttle's external fuel tank, however.

Small pieces of insulating foam have come off the ice-front ramps on previous flights.

Shedding foam became a major concern after Columbia, which disintegrated upon re-entry in 2003 after a large piece of foam cracked a heat shield on the orbiter. All the astronauts aboard were killed.
 
"It's much better to get it up safe than get it up quick."

That's what sheeeeeeee said......*bada-bump!* :nana:
 
"It's much better to get it up safe than get it up quick."

Lost Cause said:
That's what sheeeeeeee said......*bada-bump!* :nana:
Click to expand...

And have a long mission.
 
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/08/27/shuttle/index.html

Ernesto threatens Atlantis launch
7:46 p.m. EDT, August 27, 2006

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida (CNN) -- Tropical Storm Ernesto is raising concern for NASA officials who are working to decide whether to try to launch the space shuttle Atlantis on Tuesday or move the spacecraft to safety.

"Tonight is the night we have got to decide. We cannot protect both options," Associate Administrator for Space Operations Bill Gerstenmaier said on Sunday.

Gerstenmaier said crews at the launch site may appear to be working at cross purposes, getting the vehicle ready to fly, and preparing to roll Atlantis back to the safety of the Vertical Assembly Building. (Full story)

"At some point we have to give up on one or the other," Gerstenmaier said at an afternoon news briefing.

Ernesto is just one of the weather problems NASA is dealing with.

Atlantis had been scheduled to launch on Sunday afternoon, but the launch was delayed after lightning hit the launch site. It was the strongest strike ever recorded at the launch site.

NASA officials said they have checked the orbiter and the external fuel tank for lightning damage and found nothing to be concerned about. Teams are still analyzing the solid rocket boosters.

Ernesto shifted course on Saturday. The storm had been heading west toward the Gulf of Mexico, but forecasters now say the storm could sweep across Florida.

High winds and rain could damage the shuttle,so there are strict hurricane rules in place for the spacecraft¹s safety.

The rules call for the shuttle to be moved off of the launchpad if peak winds are forecast to reach 70 knots (79 mph). It must be moved to the Vehicle Assembly Building before winds reach 40 knots (46 mph). There also cannot be any lightning within 20 nautical miles of the shuttle.

NASA is dealing with a tight time frame for Atlantis. The launch window is from August 27 through September 13. But NASA has a commitment to the Russian space agency to launch before September 7, so the Atlantis mission will not interfere with a scheduled Russian Soyuz flight to the space station in mid-September.

Meanwhile, the six-member crew of this mission is resting and relaxing in their quarters. Commander Brent Jett and Pilot Chris Ferguson flew on the shuttle training aircraft this morning.

The flight is being called "return to assembly." It is the first shuttle mission since the crash of Columbia in 2003 to deliver a major new portion of the International Space Station.

Once docked with space station, astronauts will conduct three spacewalks to install a second set of solar arrays to the station. That should double the station's power capability, and add more than 17 tons to its mass. The solar arrays have been packed away since May 2003, when they were originally scheduled to be delivered to the station.

Construction of the $100 billion space station began in 1998. Fifteen countries are part of the endeavor. NASA plans to complete the station before the space shuttle fleet is retired in 2010.
 
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

Crew to Arrive as Launch Approaches

The Atlantis crew is scheduled to arrive back at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida Saturday to begin final preparations for mission STS-115. Flying T-38 trainer jets, the astronauts will land at the Shuttle Landing Facility about 10:30 a.m. EDT. NASA TV will broadcast the crew's arrival live.

Launch preparations resumed at NASA's Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39B on Thursday, as mission managers set Sept. 6 as the new date for the launch of the space shuttle on Mission STS-115 to the International Space Station. Liftoff time is 12:29 p.m. EDT.
 
I am still pissed off at astronomers for moving Pluto out as a planet


Just keep it as a planet for traditional reasons. And put an asterisk next to it, to say it shouldn't be classified as one due to it's actual qualities.



Scientists have to be so literal about things, and just can't have any fun
 
The Right Builder for the Right Spacecraft at the Right Time

Analysis: By awarding the contract for the next generation Orion space vehicle to Lockheed Martin, NASA finally got something right. But will Washington have the political will to complete the trip?

By JEFFREY KLUGER
Posted Friday, Sep. 01, 2006

It was a long, long time in coming, but NASA’s manned space program finally got one right. Thursday's announcement that the contract for the next generation crew exploration vehicle—now dubbed Orion—had been awarded to Lockheed Martin was the right spacecraft to the right company at the right time.

Going on three years after President Bush announced his plans to send human beings back to the moon and onto Mars, not a bit of metal had yet been cut on the ships that would make the trips. That’s not such a long time by government standards. But by three years after President Kennedy made his commitment to send men to the moon in the first place, we had completed the six flights of the Mercury program and were on about the business of Gemini. And Kennedy delivered his speech before we had any real idea of how to make the trip. So it was high time NASA pulled the trigger on the new spacecraft, and the fact that it did so yesterday was a welcome sign of a true commitment.

Lockheed Martin was a good choice for a few reasons. First of all, a NASA contract can be the sweetest of government plums. The projects can go on for decades (look at the 30-year shuttle program) and cost overruns are usually tolerated and even expected. That may not do the federal deficit any favors, but a company that can score a $2 billion deal and know full well that it may turn into $3 billion by the end of the contract term is a company with a lot of happy shareholders. Lockheed Martin has not shared much in the manned space program goodies lately—the big deals historically going to Boeing and Northrop Grumman—and it’s healthy for the industry if the wealth gets spread.

What’s more, Boeing, which had been considered the front-runner for the new contract, has hardly distinguished itself in space of late. It is the prime contractor for the incomplete and largely useless International Space Station, a project that was originally envisioned as a lean, $8 billion operation and is now projected to cost a cool $100 billion. That’s by no means all Boeing’s fault, but nor is it to the company’s credit.

Far more important is the ship itself. The shuttles have been such pricey, lethal failures for a lot of reasons. They’re too complicated, too finicky, and they break too many rules of safe space travel. Until the shuttle, no human being had ever been launched into space with solid-fuel rockets—comparatively primitive motors that burn a sort of rubbery goo and can neither be throttled up and down nor shut off once they’re lit. The shuttle’s two external engines burn solid fuel and it was one of those that destroyed the Challenger. Moreover, until the shuttle, the crew compartment of any manned ship had always been positioned at the very top of the rocket stack, keeping it away from debris that may shake itself off the booster on the way up. The shuttle orbiter sits rear of the nose of the external tank and it’s hard foam from that tank that killed Columbia.

The Orion spacecraft, by contrast, is based on proven Apollo technology. It’s configured like a large Apollo: a conical crew compartment atop a cylindrical engine module. It will sit atop heavy-lift boosters that are modelled in part after the shuttle’s own liquid—fuel engines—far and away the best part of the old shuttle technology and the part most worth saving. Unlike Apollo, it will be stuffed with 21st century electronics and computers, and it will be cleverly reconfigurable, able to carry six astronauts into Earth orbit and four to the moon or Mars.

Even better, it will also rely on Apollo’s lunar landing technique, with a spidery lunar module like the beloved old LEMs still to come. The contractor for that one hasn’t been picked, but Northrop Grumman—whose Grumman Corporation granddaddy built the original LEM—would not be a bad choice.

The biggest worry space-watchers have is not whether the technology and the builders are sound; they are. It’s whether the political will is in place. There was a lot of heartburn in 2004 when President Bush announced his original timetable for the launch of the new vehicles: 2014 for the first, tentative Earth orbital flight, and 2020 for the first lunar landing. This called to mind the first President Bush’s 1989 challenge to put human beings on Mars by 2019—a comfortably remote thirty years away. Hear anything of that ambitious plan since?

The first lunar landing program, from the inception of NASA to the final, Apollo 17 landing, spanned four presidents—Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon—and repeated changeovers in Congress. The same steadfastness will be required of present and future political leaders if the new ships are to get off the gorund. Anything less than a multi-generational commitment to the new program will waste the government’s money—and try the public’s patience.

source
 
It will be interesting which L-M areas are involved. May make for some interesting employement possibilities if they are doing any significant work on it at their central FL centers.
 
The dust settles after Europe lands a mission on the Moon
By Nic Fleming, Science Correspondent
(Filed: 04/09/2006)

Europe's first lunar mission came to a spectacular end yesterday with a controlled crash landing observed by thousands of professional and amateur astronomers.

The 4,500mph impact in a volcanic plain called the Lake of Excellence was captured by telescopes big and small.

Scientists will now begin to analyse the resulting cloud of dust and debris, and the fresh crater for clues to the geologic composition of the Moon.

A grainy infrared image of Smart-1's abrupt demise, captured by a French-Canadian telescope in Hawaii, appeared on a screen at the European Space Agency's mission control centre in Darmstadt, Germany. The picture came minutes after the washing machine-sized probe crashed into the Moon's surface on schedule at 6.42am.

Measurements gathered during the three-year mission will provide clues to the composition of the Moon. The readings will help to confirm or disprove the theory that it was formed when a huge body collided with Earth billions of years ago.

The £80 million spacecraft will also pave the way for future lunar missions to be launched from next year and test new technology that could one day put man on Mars.

Soon after the astronomical firework display was greeted with clapping and cheering at the ESA control centre, Prof Bernard Foing, the ESA project scientist, said: "Smart-1 will now rest in peace on the Moon. We are collaborating with the international community, preparing the way for the future exploration of the Moon — the next fleet of orbiters, landers; leading to robotic villages and human bases."

Gerhard Schwehm, the Smart-1 mission manager, said: "I was really surprised as the flash was very impressive.

"I was betting on not seeing much. We know a lot about the Moon, but there are things we need to know more precisely if we are to embark on ambitious projects like those planned for the future."

A series of missions will visit the Moon in the next few years, culminating in US astronauts returning to the surface for the first time since the Apollo missions, probably around 2020.

Smart-1, launched by an Ariane-5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, in September 2003, will be important to a series of future missions.

It was driven by an ion engine that used electricity gathered from solar panels to charge atoms of the noble gas xenon which were fired into space to create a gentle thrust. Smart-1 travelled 62 million miles in a spiralling journey over three years to cover the 240,000 miles direct distance between the Earth and the Moon. While the technology is much slower than conventional chemical combustion in the short term, the mission used only 60 litres of fuel.

Ion propulsion is thought likely to be ideal for future longer space journeys.

On Saturday, mission controllers had to use Smart-1's thrusters to raise its orbit by 2,000ft to avoid a crash with a crater rim on its final approach that would have made the impact difficult or impossible to observe.

Octavio Camino-Ramos, the mission operations manager, said: "Smart-1 is the vanguard. Almost everything on board was innovative. We have shown that ion propulsion works."

Other innovations include a new communications system, the latest solar panels and a package of sensors and scanners described by Prof Foing as "a miracle of miniaturisation". The most widely accepted theory is that the Moon was formed from material sent into orbit when a body half the size of Mars crashed into Earth.

However, since the Apollo missions returned samples it has been realised that they are not representative of the Moon's overall composition.

Smart-1 also identified locations at the lunar poles that are in permanent shade and could be worth exploring if, as some scientists hope, water exists on the Moon.

source
 
Go baby, Go!

The countdown officially began at 8 a.m. Sunday, at the T-43 hour mark, which includes over 30 hours of built-in hold time prior to a targeted 12:29 p.m. launch on Wednesday. The launch time is the middle point in the launch window that extends for 10 minutes.

:nana:
 
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

Launch Delayed by Fuel Cell Problem

The launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis was postponed today for at least 24 hours because of an issue with the shuttle's fuel cell number 1. A short (a spike and drop in voltage) in the fuel cell coolant motor was seen shortly after the cell was activated.

The Mission Management Team is scheduled to meet at 1p.m. EDT today, and a news conference will follow.
 
linuxgeek said:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

Launch Delayed by Fuel Cell Problem

The launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis was postponed today for at least 24 hours because of an issue with the shuttle's fuel cell number 1. A short (a spike and drop in voltage) in the fuel cell coolant motor was seen shortly after the cell was activated.

The Mission Management Team is scheduled to meet at 1p.m. EDT today, and a news conference will follow.
Click to expand...
Appreciate the update.
 
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