GEARING UP FOR FEBRUARY... Yesterday afternoon, the space shuttle Discovery was rolled over to the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Over the next week or so, Discovery will be mated to its external fuel tank and twin solid rocket boosters in preparation for its launch (on mission STS-119) to the International Space Station on February 12.


NASA / Jim Grossmann

This time around, what makes preparations for NASA’s first space shuttle flight of 2009 significant to me is that I’ll hopefully be in Florida from February 7-10. Ya’ll are probably asking, why not just stay an extra two days to see Discovery actually lift off in person? I’ll elaborate on that in future journal entries (but the main reason why I’m not gonna stay in Florida longer is because of money. Staying at a place for 4 days and not 6 or even 7 days obviously makes a huge difference, spending-wise. And I don’t exactly have a high-paying job right now, haha).


NASA / Kim Shiflett

Once mated with its fuel tank and boosters, Discovery will roll over to its launch pad, 39-A, on January 14. Speaking of the other pad, 39-B, construction continues to take place on the three huge lightning towers that will protect the Ares I rocket (shown below... Ares I will launch from 39-B) once it (hopefully) becomes operational around 2015. As you can see from the pic above, one of the towers have already been completed. Yet another thing to look forward to seeing in person exactly a month from now.



NASA

SpaceX

ENTER THE DRAGON... Yesterday, NASA offered two private aerospace companies—Orbital Sciences Corp. and SpaceX—a contract worth $3.5 billion to haul cargo and/or crew to the International Space Station (ISS) after the space shuttle retires in 2010. The reason why this interests me is pretty much implied above: the United States has the potential to have two types of manned vehicles that will take astronauts into space by 2015. Besides the Dragon capsule that's shown in the pic above, the other manned vehicle—of course—is NASA’s Orion spacecraft.


SpaceX

2009 should be an intriguing year for U.S. human spaceflight. The Dragon spacecraft and the Falcon 9 rocket (which is also constructed by SpaceX) that will carry Dragon into space will undergo a series of test launches next year. This July will see the launch of Ares I-X, a prototype of the Ares I rocket that will ferry the Orion spacecraft to the ISS, and hopefully to more distant destinations (ahem, the Moon, Near Earth Asteroids and of course, Mars?) starting in the later half of next decade. The launch of Ares I-X, however, depends on whether or not the shuttle Atlantis will be able to get off the ground next May on a mission to service and repair the Hubble Space Telescope one last time.


NASA / Troy Cryder

One more thing: Our nation’s potential to have two manned space vehicles by 2015 also hinges on what Barack Obama does when he officially becomes the U.S. President on January 20. *Crosses fingers.*


NASA

NASA / Kim Shiflett

ENDEAVOUR LAUNCHES... Just thought I’d share these two cool photos of the full moon shining high above the space shuttle as it launched on flight STS-126 yesterday evening. Endeavour’s mission involves the installation of several important furnishings (including new sleeping quarters and a high-tech recycling system that converts astronauts’ sweat and urine—you heard right—into clean drinking water) onto the International Space Station to enhance its capability to hold a 6-person crew starting next May or June. Only 3 astronauts/cosmonauts have lived onboard the orbiting outpost since it permanently became habitable 8 years ago this month.

Endeavour is scheduled to return to Kennedy Space Center in Florida on November 29.


NASA / Troy Cryder

50 YEARS AGO TODAY, America's space program officially began operations. Awesome.

NASA / Troy Cryder

TWO BIRDS, READY FOR FLIGHT... At 3:59 AM, Pacific Time yesterday, space shuttle Endeavour arrived at Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39B to begin preps for a potential rescue mission (STS-400) if Atlantis is found damaged during her flight to the Hubble Space Telescope. Atlantis herself has been at Pad 39A since September 4, and is still on track for an October 9 launch to HST.


NASA / Troy Cryder

If Atlantis is found to be unscathed during STS-125, Endeavour will be rolled over to Pad 39A, and begin preparations for her next official flight, STS-126. 39B will then officially be handed over to NASA’s Constellation program, and will be the site of next year’s launch of the Ares I-X rocket. Ares, in case you didn’t know, is the vehicle that will hopefully launch American astronauts back to the Moon by 2020. Hopefully.


FLORIDA TODAY / Michael R. Brown

BACK AT THE PAD... After several days of delays due to the approaching risk of Tropical Storm Hanna, space shuttle Atlantis finally rolled out to its Florida launch pad last Thursday. At first, I thought that NASA was being overly optimistic making this move...seeing as how there were two storms, Hurricane Ike and Tropical Depression Josephine, still brewing out there in the Atlantic. Judging from this page as of today, Josephine is gone, and Ike was only (but perilously) going to pass near the tip of southern Florida on its way to the Gulf of Mexico.

Atlantis is scheduled to launch from Kennedy Space Center at 9:33 PM on October 9 (California time), on a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope one last time. Hubble should last for 5 more years beyond 2008 if the repairs go smoothly on STS-125.


NASA / Kim Shiflett

COMING SOON TO A SPACEPORT NEAR YOU... NASA released this interesting poster today, commemorating the first test flight of the Ares I-X rocket. The flight is scheduled to take place on April 15, 2009...assuming, of course, nothing delays launch processing at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center over the coming months. That means space shuttle Atlantis hopefully lifts off on-time in October to repair the Hubble Space Telescope (on mission STS-125), and Endeavour isn’t needed to conduct a rescue attempt if something goes awry during STS-125. Also... The next administration doesn’t do anything stupid and f*ck up our nation’s human spaceflight program immediately after it moves into the White House this January. I’m talking to you, Obama.


NASA

AS PER TRADITION on this Blog page (in case you’re a regular visitor and haven’t noticed, which you most likely didn’t), here are two images of the International Space Station in its most recent configuration. Added on this current shuttle flight (which should end tomorrow morning with Discovery landing at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center) is Japan's Kibo science lab. The station’s appearance won’t change again till early next year, when the last set of solar panels are launched with Discovery on next February’s STS-119 mission. That’s all.

NASA TV

THAT'S NO X-WING... The European Space Agency’s newest spacecraft, Jules Verne, successfully came within 36 feet of the International Space Station (ISS) yesterday...paving the way for its inaugural docking with the orbiting complex on Thursday. Jules Verne (officially called the Automated Transfer Vehicle, or ATV) joins the space shuttle and Russia’s Soyuz and Progress capsules as the newest member of the fleet that is the lifeline for the ISS. Europe plans to launch at least 4 more ATV’s over the coming years, with Japan next in line to send its own supply ship, the H-II Transfer Vehicle, to the station by 2009.


JAXA

By the way, I was trying to come up with a good quote from the original Star Wars movie to use as the yellow tagline above. "We’re caught in its tractor beam" was considered, and so was "Ship approaching, ATV-class." Though technically, that second line was adapted from The Empire Strikes Back. Haha.




NASA TV

TRULY INTERNATIONAL... Space shuttle Endeavour undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday, and is now scheduled to land at Kennedy Space Center in Florida in about 4 hours. During its 16-day flight, Endeavour’s astronauts assembled and installed a giant robot (shown above) that will help the ISS’ crew conduct maintenance activities on the exterior of the outpost without resorting to dangerous spacewalks. The crew also attached the first of two pressurized modules that will make up Japan’s Kibo science laboratory (the main Kibo module is set to launch in May, and a science platform that will be attached to the outside of the lab will hopefully launch early next year). The robot, nicknamed Dextre and built by the Canadian Space Agency, and the Japanese module brings every international partner involved in the $100 billion project onboard. The United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada now have joint real estate orbiting more than 200 miles up in space.



UPDATE: Endeavour touched down at Kennedy Space Center today at 5:39 PM, Pacific Daylight Time.


Images courtesy of NASA / Gary Rothstein