Space and Space Travel News

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• STS-125 countdown clock to start Friday

- 05/07/09: The countdown clock will start at 4 p.m. EDT tomorrow at T-43 hours. Liftoff of Atlantis and crew on the STS-125 mission to service NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is set for May 11 at 2:01 p.m. EDT. - NASA (Infos and Photos)






• STS-125, countdown begins today - The pace of prelaunch activities at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida picks up today with only three days remaining until liftoff of space shuttle Atlantis on the STS-125 mission to service NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. “All of the systems are in great shape,” reported NASA Test Director Jeremy Graeber during this morning’s countdown status briefing at Kennedy. “Launch countdown preps are complete and we don’t have any issues to report right now. Our launch team here at Kennedy Space Center is proud to be a part of this historic mission that will expand the Hubble Space Telescope’s view of the universe and extend its life into the next decade.”

Shuttle Weather Officer Kathy Winters reported only a 20 percent chance that weather could cause issues at the preferred launch time of 2:01 p.m. EDT May 11. The team has a launch window of about one hour that opens 20 minutes earlier at 1:41 p.m. At 3:30 p.m., launch personnel will take their seats inside Firing Room 4 of Kennedy’s Launch Control Center. The countdown will begin at 4 p.m., ticking backward from T-43 hours. At the launch pad, Atlantis’ payload bay doors will be closed this afternoon. (more)


• Latest Space and Astronautics News • www.floridatoday.com • NASA TV Web Cams KSC
• God and Science • Hubble has opened eyes, sparked scientific interest • NASA Television News • Videos: Hubble Space Telescope

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Space News

Progress 33 launches to International Space Station from Baikonur.
By Space News, May 7th, 2009





A new Progress cargo carrier launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Thursday at 2:37 p.m. EDT. Less than nine minutes later, the ISS Progress 33 reached its preliminary orbit and deployed its solar arrays and navigational antennas.

It replaces the Progress 32 which was undocked from the station on May 6. Filled with trash and other discarded items, Progress 32 will be deorbited over the Pacific Ocean on May 18. Prior to deorbit, ground controllers will perform a series of engine firings and study their effect on plasma in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Progress 33 is set to dock to the Pirs docking compartment May 12 with more than 2 ½ tons of food, fuel and supplies aboard. Once the Expedition 19 crew members have unloaded its cargo, Progress 33 will be filled with trash and station discards. It will be undocked from the station later this year, and like its predecessors, also will be deorbited to burn in the Earth’s atmosphere. (more)


• Progress 32 undocks from Int. Space Station

- The ISS Progress 32 (P32) undocked Wednesday at 11:18 a.m. EDT. Filled with trash and other discarded items, the P32 will burn over the Pacific Ocean on May 18. Prior to deorbit, ground controllers will perform a series of engine firings and study their effect on plasma in the Earth’s atmosphere. The P32 arrived at the station on Feb 13. (more)

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Floridatoday.com

Obama to order review of moon mission
By James Dean, Florida Today, May 6, 2009




- The NASA Moon Program needs more funding to succeed, but less is coming - NASA Fiscal Year 2010 Budget


US President Barack Obama will order a comprehensive review of NASA's plans to return astronauts to the moon when the agency's proposed 2010 budget is released Thursday. Expected to last 60 to 90 days, the independent review will examine designs for the launch and exploration vehicles proposed for use by the Constellation program and the timeframe for flying lunar missions, according to sources familiar with the budget planning but not authorized to speak publicly about it.

Norman Augustine, a retired chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corp. and former president of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, is the likely candidate to lead the study, the sources said. Augustine could speak publicly about the review as early as Friday. Current NASA plans call for missions to the moon by 2020, a target set by the space exploration vision established in 2004 by former President George W. Bush. But the agency last month put on hold contract awards for preliminary designs of the Ares V heavy-lift rocket and Altair lunar lander, pending release of the budget. The coming five-year budget reduces the funding planned for Constellation starting in 2013, when development budgets were expected to start growing to cover components needed for lunar missions, sources said.

The Ares I rocket and Orion capsule, which are being developed to start flying crews to the International Space Station as early as 2015, are not likely to be ready on schedule without significant funding increases, according to the Congressional Budget Office. In its own internal study, the Constellation Acceleration Study, the space agency said it was at least $1.9 billion short of the funding needed to keep the program on track, let alone speed it up. The cost to reach the first human flight in 2010 has increased from about $28 billion to about $36 billion, and NASA said recently that it would reduce the number of seats on the Orion capsule from six to four to maintain its time line. At least 3,500 KSC employees could lose jobs after the last shuttle mission in late 2010, according to NASA projections. Continued...




-- America wants to send a new generation of explorers to the moon aboard NASA's Orion crew exploration vehicle - Photos
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On the Net:
Live news, web cams and analysis from NASA's Space Center at Cape Canaveral: http://floridatoday.com - NASA TV Player

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Refined Hubble Constant Narrows Possible Explanations for Dark Energy.
May 7th, 2009

Whatever dark energy is, explanations for it have less wiggle room following a Hubble Space Telescope observation that has refined the measurement of the Universe’s present expansion rate to a precision where the error is smaller than five percent. The new value for the expansion rate, known as the Hubble constant, or H0 (after Edwin Hubble who first measured the expansion of the Universe nearly a century ago), is 74.2 kilometers per second per megaparsec (error margin of +/- 3.6). The results agree closely with an earlier measurement gleaned from Hubble of 72 +/- 8 km/sec/megaparsec, but are now more than twice as precise.

The Hubble measurement, conducted by the SHOES (Supernova H0 for the Equation of State) Team and led by Adam Riess, of the Space Telescope Science Institute and the Johns Hopkins University, uses a number of refinements to streamline and strengthen the construction of a cosmic “distance ladder,” a billion light-years in length, that astronomers use to determine the Universe’s expansion rate.

Hubble observations of pulsating stars called Cepheid variables in a nearby cosmic mile marker, the galaxy NGC 4258, and in the host galaxies of recent supernovae, directly link these distance indicators. The use of Hubble to bridge these rungs in the ladder eliminated the systematic errors that are almost unavoidably introduced by comparing measurements from different telescopes. (more)

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NASA.gov


• Photos on the web

- An astronaut performs maintenance on the Hubble Space Telescope in this file photo.


(high res.) • Astronaut Works on Hubble



• Photo

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Photo

- Astronauts work to replace the starboard solar array on the Hubble Space Telescope. The foremost astronaut is standing on a foot restraint connected to the Space Shuttle Columbia's robotic arm. An astronaut stands beneath one of two new solar panels installed during Servicing Mission 3B (the fourth service visit, in March, 2002). (more) http://hubblesite.org/image

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NASA: Photo Galleries - Blog: Space Videos

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- In the Vehicle Assembly Building’s high bay 3 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, space shuttle Atlantis comes to rest after its six-hour journey from Launch Pad 39A. In the VAB, Atlantis will await launch on its STS-125 mission to repair NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. (more) • STS-125, Hubble Servicing Mission 4 - countdown begins today.


• STS-125 Hubble Mission News


• For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
• Shuttle Mission STS-126 to the International Space Station: http://www.space.gs/08/sts-126 - Video / 2 / 3
• STS-125 Hubble Servicing Mission 4: http://www.space.gs/sts-125


• http://www.nbbd.com/events/nasa.html

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Space.gs

STS-125 Mission: Space Shuttle Atlantis is Go for Launch on Monday.
By Space News, May 9, 2009




Dailymail.uk: Space shuttle Atlantis all set for March launch


At Saturday morning's countdown status briefing, NASA Test Director Jeff Spaulding said the countdown is proceeding well, and all the teams are prepared and well aware of the significance of this flight. "We're all ready to go and looking forward to the great science that will result from this mission," he added.

Shuttle Weather Officer Kathy Winters reported that the weather forecast for Monday's launch is still 80 favorable at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with only a slight chance of an isolated shower in the area of Moron, Spain, the only transoceanic abort landing site for this mission.

Just after the countdown began on Friday afternoon, the seven STS-125 astronauts arrived at Kennedy. At the Shuttle Landing Facility, Commander Scott Altman and Pilot Gregory C. Johnson conducted suited practices in the Shuttle Training Aircraft on Saturday morning. Liftoff of Atlantis and crew on the final mission to service NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is set for 2:01 p.m. EDT on May 11. (more)


Photos / 2

NASA News: Shuttle, Crew and Weather "Go" for Launch on Monday

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- May 8, 2009: On Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, workers close one of space shuttle Atlantis' payload bay doors around the hardware for the STS-125 mission to service NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Partially concealed from view at the bottom are the Flight Support System with the Soft Capture mechanism and Multi-Use Lightweight Equipment Carrier with the Science Instrument Command and Data Handling Unit, or SIC&DH. At center is the Orbital Replacement Unit Carrier with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, or COS, and an IMAX 3D camera. At top is the Super Lightweight Interchangeable Carrier with the Wide Field Camera 3. Launch is scheduled for 2:01 p.m. EDT on May 11.
Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

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- May 8, 2009: On Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, workers prepare to close the doors of space shuttle Atlantis' payload bay that is filled with hardware for the STS-125 mission to service NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. At the bottom are the Flight Support System with the Soft Capture mechanism and Multi-Use Lightweight Equipment Carrier with the Science Instrument Command and Data Handling Unit, or SIC&DH. At center is the Orbital Replacement Unit Carrier with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, or COS, and an IMAX 3D camera. At top is the Super Lightweight Interchangeable Carrier with the Wide Field Camera 3. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett • More Photos from KSC



• Wide Field Camera 3

• Videos: Real World: Hubble Wide Field Camera 3 • Extending Hubble's Vision Video
• Blog News and Photos: NASA Sending Élite To Much-Loved Hubble Space Telescope

• Photo Gallery: Preparing to rescue Hubble • NASA Considering Robotic Servicing Mission To Hubble
Here are some photos of the ongoing preparations for the launch of this mission, STS-125, some of the people involved in making it work, and the crew, who will assume the risks to help keep Hubble alive. (23 photos total)


- Technicians at NASA's Kennedy Space Center


• Hubble Images and information: http://hubblesite.org • http://hubblesite.org/servicing_mission_4 • www.nasa.gov/hubble

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- On October 31, 2006, NASA Administrator Mike Griffin announced that there will be another servicing mission (SM4) to Hubble. (Read NASA Press Release). Hubble is located in 600 km (375 miles) above the Earth's surface in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The space shuttle will match altitude and velocity with Hubble so that the astronauts can perform their operation...

Orbiting high above the Earth, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) obtains its extraordinary view of the Universe. Hubble is one of NASA's crown jewels and has remained on the forefront of astronomical science for the past decade. To do this Hubble has been continuously maintained and upgraded with cutting edge technology. As Hubble enters the last stage of its life, WFC3 - Wide Field Camera 3 - will be Hubble's next evolutionary step, allowing Hubble to peer ever further into the mysteries of the cosmos.

On the Net:
Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) Public Information Center: http://wfc3.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.php

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- To ensure the imaging capabilities of Hubble, Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) will replace Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2). Currently, there are three scientific instruments operating on Hubble. WFC3 will possibly be Hubble's last and most technologically advanced instrument to take images in the visible spectrum.

More Info and photos: http://spacestation-shuttle.blogspot.co ... chive.html

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- In June 1997, NASA made the decision to extend the HST mission from 2005 until 2010. There have been two servicing missions since that time - SM3A in December 1999 and SM3B in March 2002. In October of 2006, NASA made the decision to service the Hubble again to prolong its life until at least 2013. That mission is taking place now on 11 May 2009.

WFPC2 has been Hubble's "workhorse" instrument since it was installed in 1993, capturing more images for astronomers and the public than any other instrument. But technology often needs an upgrade, and after ten years, WFC3 will provide that. Think how far personal computers have advanced in ten years.

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• Photos: WFC3 / 2


- WFC3 will go through various stages before it is finally installed into Hubble in orbit - planning, building, testing, training, and more testing. Millions of man hours were put into WFC3. For installation, WFC3 was stowed aboard the space shuttle Atlantis and will be taken up to Hubble in orbit where astronauts will perform the installation of WFC3 after removing WFPC2 from Hubble's radial bay. The planning and construction of WFC3 has been ongoing since 1997. Its installation during Servicing Mission 4 (SM4) is currently set for May 11 2009.


• http://hubble.nasa.gov/missions






- WFC3 is being constructed mostly at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC in Maryland) and Ball Aerospace (in Colorado). Also various parts are being built by contractors across the United States and the United Kingdom. The Hubble Project, led by NASA, consists of a myriad of organizations and companies in government, academia, and industry. Those who worked to build WFPC1, WFPC2, and several other HST instruments are working together on WFC3, leveraging their experience to provide a superior instrument at a modest cost. CLICK HERE for a listing of all those involved with WFC3. (more)