NASA

Orion Update... While the world continues to honor Neil Armstrong after he passed away last Saturday, NASA continues to make progress on the spacecraft that will hopefully allow a new generation of explorers follow in the footsteps of Armstrong and his fellow Apollo astronauts within the next decade or so. Here are photos from yesterday's successful Orion parachute drop test, which once again took place above the U.S. Army's Yuma Proving Grounds in southwestern Arizona:


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NASA / Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr.

Neil Armstrong (1930-2012)... Thank you, Mr. Armstrong, for making that giant leap for mankind 43 years ago. The former test pilot, aerospace engineer, university professor and Gemini 8 and Apollo 11 astronaut passed away today at the age of 82. May Armstrong Rest In Peace.


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NASA / Neil A. Armstrong


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NASA / Frankie Martin

The Final Shuttle Swap... Earlier today, Endeavour and Atlantis switched places—for the last time—inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF)-2 at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Endeavour is about a month away from being towed from the VAB to the Shuttle Landing Facility to begin her cross-country ferry flight to Southern California. And finishing touches will be made to Atlantis inside OPF-2 as her decommissioning process comes to an end, and Atlantis herself becomes a space artifact at the nearby KSC Visitor Complex. As mentioned in last Friday's journal entry, Atlantis' transport down the street to the Visitor Complex will take place on November 2. After that, KSC proper will finally find itself bereft of the historic orbiters that called Spaceport USA their home for more than 30 years. It is after Atlantis' departure from KSC that the presence of the Orion EFT-1 vehicle a few miles down the street at the KSC Industrial Complex (inside the Operations and Checkout Facility, to be exact) takes on more meaning. A new era of manned spaceflight for NASA will soon begin.


NASA / Dimitri Gerondidakis


NASA / Dimitri Gerondidakis


NASA / Dimitri Gerondidakis


NASA / Dimitri Gerondidakis


NASA / Dimitri Gerondidakis

NASA / Jim Grossmann

Photos of the Day... Now that Endeavour has pretty much completed final decommissioning activities at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, the orbiter will be transported from KSC's Orbiter Processing Facility-2 to the Vehicle Assembly Building on August 16 for temporary storage...prior to her being rolled out to the Shuttle Landing Facility next month to undergo final preps for her ferry flight to Los Angeles on September 17. Endeavour will then arrive at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) a few days later on September 20, and will briefly reside in a United Airlines hangar at LAX before she embarks on a 12-mile-long 'parade' through the streets of L.A. (mostly in the City of Inglewood) between October 12 and 13. Endeavour will arrive at the Samuel Oschin Space Shuttle Endeavour Display Pavilion at the California Science Center on the evening of October 13—and will open to the public for the first time on October 30th.


California Science Center

A few days after Endeavour officially becomes available for viewing at the California Science Center, Atlantis will be rolled over to her final home at KSC's Visitor Complex on November 2. The second oldest orbiter in NASA's retired shuttle fleet will then open to the public next July.


NASA / Jim Grossmann


NASA / Jim Grossmann


NASA / Jim Grossmann


Gene Blevins / LA Daily News

The DragonRider in Pasadena... Yesterday, I attended Planetfest 2012 at the Pasadena Convention Center to watch a live NASA TV broadcast (with around 2,000 people in attendance inside the auditorium) of the Curiosity rover safely landing on Mars. Needless to say, the event was memorable—not just because a new U.S.-built spacecraft is now on the surface of the Red Planet, but also because the flight engineering model of SpaceX's crewed version of the Dragon capsule was on display outside of the convention center. The symbolism of the replica's presence at Planetfest should not be lost on anyone... Although NASA is making strides developing the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and the Space Launch System that will hurl Orion into deep space, it is not far-fetched to think that the DragonRider could also be responsible for sending Mars-bound astronauts to low-Earth orbit first (to rendezvous with the vehicle that will take the crew to Earth's rust-colored planetary neighbor). Of course, if SpaceX's plan for the so-called Red Dragon robotic Mars mission is any indication, it's not so inconceivable to ponder that the DragonRider will find itself orbiting hundreds of miles above the Red Planet as well. That would be awesome.

NASA / Charisse Nahsser

Hoping for the future... More than two weeks ago, a rocket launch competition was held at Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Among the contestants was a model rocket based on the Space Launch System (SLS). Built by the faculty of the International Space University, which is located in France, this rocket is a 1/60th scale version of the 400-foot-tall 'Block II' variant of the SLS that NASA hopes will become operational by 2025. Checking out the photo above, one can only use his or her imagination and picture that toy rocket to be much, much bigger...and sitting majestically on the launch pad that now lies vacant behind the space aficionados posing in this picture.


NASA / MSFC

NASA / JAXA

Photos of the Day... Here are a couple of images showing the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) docking with the International Space Station (ISS) earlier today. Nicknamed Kounotori 3, this HTV—which was launched from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan on July 21 (Japan Standard Time)—is the third of seven unmanned freighters that JAXA currently plans to send to the ISS by 2015. HTV-3 will remain docked to the orbital complex till September 6...when Kounotori will be unberthed from the station prior to re-entering and burning up in Earth's atmosphere that same day.


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NASA / JAXA

Sally Ride (1951-2012)... The physicist became the first American woman to fly into space when she launched into Earth orbit aboard the shuttle Challenger in 1983, on mission STS-7. She again soared into the skies aboard Challenger a year later, on STS-41-G. I remember attending a presentation given by Ms. Ride in San Diego back in 1993...when I was in 7th grade. At the age of 61, she sadly passed away today due to pancreatic cancer. May Ride rest in peace.


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Photos of the Day... While work continues on prepping the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle for its first voyage into space on 2014's Exploration Flight Test-1 mission, today marks the one-year anniversary since Atlantis brought STS-135 and the space shuttle program to a successful end with Atlantis' safe landing at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. The image above shows fit checks being done on Orion prior to its windows being attached inside the Operations and Checkout Facility at KSC. The last two pics of this entry show the engraved marker (which was installed on June 28) that commemorates where Atlantis came to a stop at KSC's Shuttle Landing Facility last summer. Similar markers for the final missions of Discovery (on STS-133) and Endeavour (on STS-134) are also placed on the 3-mile-long runway.


NASA / Frank Michaux


NASA / Charisse Nahser


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Orion Update... Earlier today, another parachute test was conducted for the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle 25,000 feet above the U.S. Army's Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona. The test, which was done in preparation for the Exploration Flight Test-1 mission that will launch into space from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in 2014, was performed to see how the vehicle would react if one of its three main parachutes inflated too quickly after deployment. Orion safely touched down in the Arizona desert minutes after being dropped from a C-17 cargo plane that brought the spacecraft airborne, successfully concluding the demonstration.


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