Milestones of the Week... Earlier this morning, SpaceX successfully conducted a Wet Dress Rehearsal for its Dragon C2/Falcon 9 vehicle prior to its tentatively-scheduled April 30 launch date, while on February 29 (yesterday), NASA performed another successful deployment test for its Orion parachute system.


NASA / Gianni Woods

SpaceX will test-fire the Falcon 9's nine first stage engines several days before the targeted April 30 flight to check their health before liftoff.


NASA

SpaceX update... The International Space Station (ISS)-bound Dragon C2 capsule is now mated to its Falcon 9 rocket, and will undergo final pre-launch testing before the vehicle lifts off on an (tentative) April 30 flight to the ISS.


Courtesy of Facebook

Another milestone for Discovery... Inside Orbiter Processing Facility-1 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Discovery's main access hatch for hundreds of astronauts who flew aboard her throughout 27 years of service was closed and sealed for the final time yesterday.


NASA / Jim Grossmann


NASA / Jim Grossmann

50 Years Ago Today, John Glenn became the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth. Props to Mr. Glenn for such an awesome and historic achievement.


NASA

Sorry for the lack of updates on this Blog... Still recovering from a really bad case of bronchitis (plus a couple of bites from lousy' dust mites, or I may have broken out in stress-induced hives; don't ask) that I've had for the past two weeks.

Fortunately, the launch of SpaceX's first Dragon vehicle to the International Space Station will probably be pushed back to April, so there's nothing overly substantial for me to type about for the next two months.


Just being facetious.

NASA / Kim Shiflett

Photos of the Day... Space shuttle Endeavour was towed from the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) to Orbiter Processing Facility-2 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida yesterday to continue transition and retirement operations. Today, Endeavour's sister ship Atlantis was switched over from the VAB's transfer aisle to high bay 4...where Atlantis will remain in temporary storage before the orbiter continues her own preparations for permanent public display at the KSC Visitor Complex next year.


NASA / Kim Shiflett


NASA / Kim Shiflett


NASA / Kim Shiflett

26 Years Ago Today... The 7 astronauts of space shuttle Challenger lost their lives 73 seconds into flight on a cold January day. 45 years ago yesterday, the 3 astronauts of Apollo 1 perished in a terrible fire during a ground launch rehearsal at Cape Canaveral, Florida. This Wednesday, it will be 9 years since the crew of space shuttle Columbia was lost during re-entry into Earth's atmosphere over Texas. May all these folks rest in peace. NASA's official Day of Remembrance for these fallen heroes was last Thursday.

Image of the Day... During a speech he made in the city of Cocoa, Florida yesterday, 2012 Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich told his audience that the United States would have a permanent manned colony on the Moon by 2020 if he was elected this November. This is despite the fact the Space Launch System—which is solely designed to make this grand vision a reality—isn't scheduled to take flight with astronauts aboard till 2021, and NASA's budget will no doubt be mired in uncertainty for the rest of this decade. Just like it has been for the last two years of the previous one.

Newt Gingrich also proclaimed that he would in fact cut NASA's budget and provide more funding ($10 billion to be exact) to commercial space companies...thus relying on SpaceX and the rest of the private sector to follow through in taking us out of low-Earth orbit again. If the delayed launch of Dragon C2 from February 7 to March 20 for additional testing is any indication, I would be skeptical to think that commercial space companies will make Gingrich's 2020 goal a reality.

I would say that Gingrich's declaration to establish a lunar settlement within eight years is akin to Barack Obama assuring constituents that he would immediately close the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay after being elected in 2008. Of course, that closure never came to fruition. False promises rule the day in U.S. politics.


NASA

NASA

Orion Update... Last week, the Launch Abort System shroud was removed from the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) at Lockheed Martin's Waterton Facility near Denver, Colorado (below). This was in preparation for a multi-point vibration test that will be conducted on the MPCV soon.

The image above is of Orion as it was being readied for the Launch Abort Vehicle Configuration Test...which occurred late last year. The MPCV's first sojourn into space, during the Exploration Flight Test, is currently scheduled for Spring of 2014.


NASA

NASA / Jim Grossmann

Images of the Day... Here are additional photos of Atlantis after she was transported to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) for temporary storage last Friday, with the pics below showing her with Endeavour parked in the adjacent bay inside the VAB. Endeavour will take Atlantis' place inside Orbiter Processing Facility-2 on February 1 to continue transition and retirement operations, while Discovery will switch places with OV-104 (Orbiter Vehicle 104... Atlantis' official NASA designation. Discovery is OV-103 and Endeavour is OV-105) at the VAB this March—only one month before Discovery is ferried from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia for permanent museum display.


NASA / Jim Grossmann


NASA / Jim Grossmann