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Photos of the Day... SpaceX and NASA personnel worked together earlier this month to load cargo into the Dragon C2+ spacecraft, in preparation for Dragon's historic launch to the International Space Station on April 30th—which is a week from this Monday.


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James Dean / Florida Today

Discovery now belongs to the Smithsonian... Earlier today, NASA officially transferred ownership of the orbiter Discovery to the Smithsonian Institution. A few hours later, Discovery was towed into the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, the shuttle's permanent home...and finally began her new career as a museum exhibit meant to inspire and educate young folks into becoming the next generation of engineers and scientists. Inside the Udvar-Hazy Center, Discovery took the spot of her prototype sister ship Enterprise—which had been on display at this museum since 2003. Enterprise herself will be mated to the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (NASA 905) that brought Discovery to Virginia from Kennedy Space Center in Florida last Tuesday, and be ferried to New York City next Monday (April 23). Enterprise will then be delivered via barge to her new home at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum a few weeks later.


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Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum


Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

NASA / Jim Grossmann

Discovery Bids Florida 'Adieu'... And says 'hello' to our nation's capital. Welcome to the Smithsonian, Discovery.


NASA / Dimitri Gerondidaki


NASA / Glenn Benson


NASA / R. D. Lee


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Jim Bourg / Reuters

NASA / Kim Shiflett

Discovery boards her ride for the U.S. capital... After mating operations were delayed yesterday due to gusty winds at Cape Canaveral, the orbiter Discovery was finally 'soft-mated' (that is, achieving an initial stage of capture) with her Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) around 8:15 AM, Pacific Daylight Time, this morning. Work will continue throughout the day to hard-mate Discovery to the SCA (officially designated as NASA 905) prior to them being towed away from the Mate-Demate Device at the Shuttle Landing Facility around 4 AM (PDT) tomorrow morning. NASA 905 will depart with Discovery from Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the final time at 4 AM (PDT) this Tuesday (weather permitting)...embarking on a brief flight that will end with Discovery safely on the ground at Dulles International Airport before the Smithsonian takes ownership of the orbiter on April 19.


NASA / Tim Jacobs


NASA / Kim Shiflett


NASA / Dimitri Gerondidakis


NASA / Kim Shiflet


NASA / Kim Shiflett

NASA / Dimitri Gerondidakis

Photos of the Day... Late last month, construction began on the Endeavour Display Pavilion at the California Science Center in downtown Los Angeles. The Pavilion will be the temporary hangar where space shuttle Endeavour is placed after she arrives in Southern California this September. The California Science Center is currently raising funds needed to build a new Air and Space Center where Endeavour will go on permanent display once the Center is completed (which would be a few years from now).

In the image above, Endeavour's flight deck is fully lit by all of its high-tech monitors during a media photo op held inside Orbiter Processing Facility-2 (where Endeavour is currently being decommissioned) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida last week. These monitors and the rest of Endeavour's electrical systems will permanently go dark sometime next month...making Endeavour the last of NASA's three retired orbiters to fall silent forever.

All photos below courtesy of Jason1701 - NASASpaceflight.com

NASA / Frankie Martin

Discovery's Taxi Arrives in Florida... At 2:35 PM, Pacific Daylight Time yesterday, the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) that will transport the orbiter Discovery from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia touched down at KSC's Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF). In less than a week—on Tuesday, April 17—Discovery will find herself mated atop the modified Boeing 747 (the mating operation itself will take place at the SLF this Saturday) and headed onto a northwesterly direction towards our nation's capital...where Discovery and the SCA will do a quick flyover of Washington, D.C. before finally settling down at Dulles International Airport. Dulles is only a short distance away from the Udvar-Hazy Center, which is an annex of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. The official public ceremony where NASA transfers ownership of Discovery to the Smithsonian takes place on April 19.

No doubt, next week will prove to be an emotional time for long-time supporters of the space shuttle program.


NASA / Frankie Martin


NASA / Frankie Martin


NASA / Frankie Martin


NASA / Kim Shiflett

Boeing CST-100 Update... Less than a month after its launch abort engine was successfully tested in California, the Crew Space Transportation (CST)-100 spacecraft achieved another milestone when it safely landed in the middle of Delmar Dry Lake Bed in Nevada during a parachute test on April 3. The CST-100 boilerplate capsule used in the test was released from a helicopter 11,000 feet above the ground, with the capsule being guided to a smooth landing after its three main parachutes flawlessly deployed moments later.

Assuming its development process isn't severely hampered by a lack of (NASA) funding, the CST-100 will hopefully launch aboard an Atlas V rocket and send cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) within a few years. In terms of ferrying astronauts to the ISS, the timeline is more uncertain...as it will be up to our Legislature in Washington, D.C. to decide whether or not NASA gives Boeing and other commercial space companies such as Sierra Nevada Corp the resources they need to make up for the capability that was lost after the space shuttle was retired. We'll see.


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NASA / Jim Grossmann

Discovery poses with an old friend... On display with space shuttle Discovery inside the Vehicle Assembly Building right now is the Astrovan. Between 1984 and 2011, the Astrovan transported 252 astronauts from their crew quarters at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida to a flight-ready Discovery sitting out on her pad at KSC's Launch Complex (LC)-39. There's no reason to think that NASA won't continue tradition and have future crew members use this historic land vehicle for their minutes-long road trip to a Space Launch System rocket waiting out on its pad at LC-39...or even a commercially-made vehicle like SpaceX's Falcon 9 that would welcome the astronauts and their venerable transport at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex 40 in Florida. It's exciting to ponder about where future crew members riding in the Astrovan will be headed once they soar off into space.


NASA / Jim Grossmann


NASA / Jim Grossmann

Image of the Day... Check out this awesome NASA poster touting its Commercial Crew Program. I wish Congress would just relax and let SpaceX, Boeing, the Orbital Sciences Corporation and NASA's other partners in the private sector do their thang (yes, I had to spell it that way) without worrying about funding. How can one who's even a slight space aficionado not be excited for the launch of Dragon C2 at the end of this month? I'm eager as heck to see SpaceX's baby get grappled by the International Space Station's robotic arm on arrival day (which is targeted for May 3 if Dragon launches on April 30 as scheduled). You can bet I'll make this Blog slow to load up by posting tons of pictures of a commercially-made vehicle safely berthed at a giant government-made orbital complex that is the space shuttle's legacy. That is all.


NASA - Kennedy Space Center Graphics Department / Greg Lee

ATK

Space Launch System Update... NASA is already making progress on preparing for the flight tests that will take place in 2017 and 2021, respectively.

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SLS Avionics Test Paves Way for Full-Scale Booster Firing (Press Release - April 2)

NASA has successfully tested the solid rocket booster avionics for the first two test flights of the Space Launch System, America's next heavy-lift launch vehicle. This avionics system includes electrical components for the SLS' solid rocket boosters, which provide propulsion to augment the core stage main engines of the rocket. The first qualification test of the five-segment SLS booster is slated for spring 2013.

The test dubbed Flight Control Test 1, FCT-1, included heritage thrust vector control (TVC) actuators -- electro-hydraulic mechanisms previously used on the space shuttle that direct the booster propulsion system -- with a new SLS booster avionics subsystem. ATK of Brigham City, Utah, the SLS booster prime contractor for the first two test flights, conducted the test at its Promontory, Utah, test facility.

The test successfully demonstrated the new avionics subsystem's interface and control of the heritage shuttle Thrust Vector Control system and performed an SLS launch simulation. In addition to the new avionics subsystem, the test included new electronic ground support equipment which monitored and coordinated activities between the test facilities, avionics subsystem and TVC system. The test is one in a series of tests to reduce risk and demonstrate the avionics subsystem design early in the development life cycle.

"We were pleased to see how the avionics system functioned outside the lab," said Todd May, Space Launch System program manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. "This test provides an insightful first look at how the booster thrust vector control system will operate and interface with flight hardware."

The booster avionics design has incorporated lean manufacturing and continuous improvement principles. For example, the design includes a common, ruggedized chassis design, 14 common programmable circuit cards and standardized cable designs.

Two additional tests are planned for the avionics and controls system.

The Space Launch System will provide an entirely new heavy-lift launch capability for human exploration beyond Earth orbit and will take crew and cargo farther into space than ever before.

Source: NASA.Gov

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ATK