Category Archives: Space Exploration

STS-131 Mission Update from the ISS

Space Shuttle Discovery is docked at the International Space Station, with astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Clay Anderson spending their fifth day in space working outside the ISS.
They’ve retrieved a science experiment on the Japanese Kibo Laboratory, replaced a rate gyro assembly on the center segment of the station’s truss, and removed an ammonia tank used to help cool the station.
The accuracy and co-ordination between the astronauts while working in space is amazing. Imagine floating weightless in space for six-and-a-half-hours, while orbiting the earth at 17,000 miles an hour. Often they have to use the grappling robotic arm from [...]

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Space Shuttle Discovery STS-131 Mission Update

Space Shuttle Discovery began mission STS-131 with it’s seven-member crew, as they headed to the International Space Station. There’s only a few shuttle flights left, before the fleet is grounded for good.
Liftoff from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center took place at 6:21 a.m. EDT on Monday, April 5th.
Here is the video of the lift-off on NASA TV’s YouTube Channel.
Mission STS-131 Press Kit

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Space Shuttle Discovery STS-131

Space Shuttle Discovery is set to lift-off tomorrow morning at 6:21 AM EDT on mission STS-131.
Follow NASA’s Launch Blog beginning at 1:15 AM.
Commander Alan Poindexter, Pilot Jim Dutton, Mission Specialists Rick Mastracchio, Clay Anderson, Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, Stephanie Wilson and Naoko Yamazaki will execute the 33rd shuttle mission to the International Space Station.
Discovery will carry a multi-purpose logistics module filled with science racks for the laboratories aboard the ISS. The mission has three planned spacewalks, with work to include replacing an ammonia tank assembly, retrieving a Japanese experiment from the station’s exterior, and switching out a rate gyro assembly [...]

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Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-130

Space Shuttle Endeavour has completed it’s latest mission, STS-130, and has safely landed at the Kennedy Space Center. It’s one of the few remaining shuttle flights left in NASA’s aging fleet of space vehicles.
The International Space Station is 98 percent complete, following NASA’s last big construction project, known as the Tranquility connecting node and cupola. The project added a new room and observation deck to the space station, giving the ISS crew a 360 degree view of earth through it’s seven windows.
Astronauts Bob Behnken and Nicholas Patrick conducted three spacewalks for a total of eighteen hours [...]

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Space Shuttle Program

It was February 1st, 2003, when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas during re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. All seven crew members aboard STS-107 were tragically lost.
Now seven years later, NASA’s Space Shuttle program is almost over. There’s only five more shuttle flights planned before the space shuttle fleet is retired from service. U.S. astronauts will then have to hitch a ride with the Russian Space Agency, whose Soyuz and Progress spacecraft have been participating in the International Space Station program for years.
President Barack Obama is calling for drastic changes in the U.S. space program, taking the [...]

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NASA: Ten Years of Space Exploration

The past decade has been pretty exciting in the realm of space exploration. Here’s my look at NASA’s milestones in the past ten years.
NASA 2009 Year in Review
October 2009: water discovered on the moon by the LCROSS mission.
July 2009: 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing
May 2009: Hubble Space Telescope upgraded and repaired. Space walking astronauts from the Atlantis space shuttle gave the aging space telescope several new updated systems. Two new instruments, the Wide Field Camera 3 and Cosmic Origins Spectrograph were installed, while repairs were made to the Advanced Camera for Surveys and Space [...]

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NASA TV Vintage Video

This video was aired when NASA Television was honored with a Primetime Emmy Award by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
The 2009 Philo T. Farnsworth Award recognizes the agency for engineering excellence and commemorates the 40th anniversary of the technological innovations that made possible the first live TV broadcast from the moon by the Apollo 11 crew on July 20, 1969.
(Source YouTube:) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYyENdNiAPM

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40th Anniversary: Apollo 11 Lunar Landing

NASA is celebrating the 40th anniversary of the first lunar landing and the Apollo space program.  It was forty years ago when Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins circled the moon in the Apollo 11 spacecraft and entered the United States space program into a new chapter in history.
NASA is celebrating with multiple events surrounding the 40th anniversary of the first lunar landing; check out the following links for more information on this historic event!
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/40th/
http://wechoosethemoon.org/
http://www.youtube.com/user/NASAtelevision
http://twitter.com/AP11_CAPCOM
http://twitter.com/AP11_SPACECRAFT

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Atlantis repairs Hubble Space Telescope

The repairs made by the Atlantis Space Shuttle crew in their historic eleven day mission will enable the Hubble Space Telescope to see farther into our universe than ever before.  It was quite a ride for STS-125.

Five spacewalks extended Hubble’s lifespan until at least the year 2014
Replaced gyroscopes, batteries and science data transmitter
Increased the space telescope’s power 10 x 70 times
Installed new instruments (like the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph) and thermal blankets
Repaired two existing instruments

Some of the astronauts were blogging from space.  Mission specialist Mike Massimino is on Twitter as astro_mike.
More shuttle news at www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/

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NASA in 2008

NASA reviews their amazing achievements in 2008…The Ares I rocket, Hubble discoveries, the 10th Anniversary of the International Space Station, the Phoenix Mars Lander, and even a new swimsuit that broke world records.
www.nasa.gov

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