So here are a collection of links to NASA resources, which can also be found on the main website NASA.gov.

Information on NASA programs is available at the NASA Public Affairs Home Page

NASA TV information has schedules and links to streaming video.

NASA Television Schedule features key mission events and media briefings during the mission.

Status reports and timely updates on launch countdown, mission progress, and landing operations will be posted at: nasa.gov/shuttle

Information on the International Space Station is available at: nasa.gov/station

The NASA Human Space Flight Web contains an up-to-date archive of mission imagery, video and audio.

Information on safety enhancements for the 2005 Return to Flight effort.

Resources for Educators

The shuttle weather team is carefully watching a cold front moving through Florida, that could impact the final launch of space shuttle Discovery. There’s about a 50 percent chance the shuttle will lift off from Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, November 5th.

Friday’s tentative launch time is 3:04 p.m. EDT. The shuttle team meets at 5:00 am Friday morning to make a final assessment of the weather conditions at the cape, before giving a “go” or “no-go” decision to fill Discovery’s external fuel tank.

Photo Credit: NASA TV

If Discovery launches Friday, the shuttle’s schedule will be as follows:

Docking @ International Space Station 10:55 a.m. EST Sunday Nov. 7th
Spacewalk 1 Tuesday Nov. 9th
Spacewalk 2 Thursday Nov. 11th
Undocking @ 4:21 a.m. Sunday Nov. 14th
Earth Landing @ Kennedy Space Center @ 9:16 a.m. Tuesday Nov. 16th

More space shuttle news and information at nasa.gov

Discovery’s final spaceflight is scheduled to last 11 days, which includes two scheduled spacewalks. It’s the 39th flight for the space shuttle, which has flown more times than any other orbiter in NASA’s shuttle fleet.

This last mission is known as STS-133; it’s crew members will carry several important components to the International Space Station, such as the Italian-built Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM,) and the Express Logistics Carrier 4 (ELC4,) that will provide spare parts and storage capacity to the ISS.

Discovery also will deliver Robonaut 2, which will become the first humanoid robot in space. For now, the primary job for R2 is teaching engineers how dexterous robots behave in space.

Robonaut 2 will be installed in the U.S. Destiny laboratory, providing scientists and engineers on the ground and crews on the station an opportunity to test how humans and human-like robots can work shoulder-to shoulder in microgravity.

Through upgrades and advancements, R2 could one day venture outside the space station to help spacewalkers make repairs or additions to the station or perform scientific work. This will help NASA understand robotic capabilities for future deep space missions.

Nearly 150 experiments are continuing aboard the space station as the transition from assembly work to expanded research on the international laboratory progresses. They span the basic categories of biological and biotechnology, human research, physical and materials sciences, technology development, Earth and space science and educational activities.

More info at nasa.gov/

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Only three more shuttle missions remain in the space program. U.S. astronauts will then be riding with the Russian cosmonauts to get back and forth from the International Space Station. Let’s just hope private aerospace engineers and companies will be able to carry NASA’s space program forward, since the administration won’t.

Source: NASA TV

NASA on Facebook

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

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 on the S0 segment of the station’s truss structure.

NASA Television Schedule & Video: nasa.gov/ntv

Official Press Kit for Mission STS-131

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 Telescope Imaging Spectrograph systems. Stunning new images start streaming in.

2008: NASA marks 50th Anniversary.
International Space Station (ISS) celebrates 10th year in space.
Phoenix Lander arrives on Mars.

January 2004: Mars Rover mission lands with planetary rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Initially the rovers mission was three months, but both robotic explorers surprised the scientific community by lasting six Earth years on the Martian surface.

February 1, 2003: In memory of the crew of Space Shuttle Columbia, which disintegrated over Texas during re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. All seven crew members aboard STS-107 were lost.
Commander: Rick D. Husband, U.S. Air Force colonel and mechanical engineer
Pilot: William C. McCool, U.S. Navy commander
Payload Commander: Michael P. Anderson, U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel and physicist
Payload Specialist: Ilan Ramon, colonel in the Israeli Air Force and the first Israeli astronaut
Mission Specialist: Kalpana Chawla, aerospace engineer from India on her second space mission
Mission Specialist: David M. Brown, U.S. Navy captain and flight surgeon
Mission Specialist: Laurel Clark, U.S. Navy captain and flight surgeon

October 2000: The first crew, Expedition One inhabits the International Space Station for 136 days.

www.nasa.gov

I was wondering what it must be like to celebrate a holiday like Thanksgiving in space.  A quick search discovered this year-old video from the collectspace YouTube Channel. It shows two of the astronauts aboard the International Space Station describing their Thanksgiving dinner and counting their blessings.

The current astronauts have bid farewell to the space station crew, as they prepare to undock and depart the station Friday morning for a return to earth.  The Endeavour shuttle mission was declared a success with four spacewalks completed in eleven days.  More info at www.nasa.gov

NASA News Release: 08-136 May 31, 2008

Space shuttle Discovery and a seven-member crew has launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to deliver and install a Japanese laboratory on the International Space Station.

The mission, designated STS-124, is the second of three flights to launch components to complete the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Kibo laboratory.  Discovery is carrying Kibo’s tour bus-sized Japanese Pressurized Module, or JPM, which will be the station’s largest module.  The shuttle astronauts will work with the three-member station crew and ground teams around the world to install the JPM and Kibo’s robotic arm system.

Joining Kelly on Discovery’s 14-day flight are Pilot Ken Ham and Mission Specialists Karen Nyberg, Ron Garan, Mike Fossum, Greg Chamitoff and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Akihiko Hoshide.

Garan and Fossum will conduct three spacewalks during the mission.  Chamitoff will replace current station crew member Garrett Reisman, who has lived on the outpost since mid-March.  Chamitoff will return to Earth on Endeavour’s STS-126 mission, targeted for Nov. 10.

NASA is providing continuous television and Internet coverage of Discovery’s mission, which is the 123rd shuttle flight, the 35th for Discovery and the 26th shuttle mission to the station.

NASA Television features live mission events, daily mission status news conferences and 24-hour commentary.

NASA TV is webcast at:  www.nasa.gov/ntv