Nasa
NASA GIVES 'GO' FOR SPACE SHUTTLE DISCOVERY LAUNCH
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA senior managers today unanimously
recommended launching the Space Shuttle Discovery on December 7.
Commander Mark Polansky and his six crewmates are scheduled to lift
off at 9:35 p.m. EST on the STS-116 mission, one of the most
challenging flights to continue building the International Space
Station.
During the 12-day mission and three spacewalks, the crew will work
closely with flight controllers at NASA's Johnson Space Center,
Houston, to install a new segment of the station's girder-like truss
and activate the station's permanent, complex power and cooling
systems.
The launch date was announced after a traditional meeting, known as
the Flight Readiness Review. During the two-day meeting, top NASA
managers and engineers assess any risks associated with the mission
and determine whether the shuttle's equipment, support systems and
procedures are ready for flight.
"What struck me during this meeting was how complex this mission is
and how it fits into the next series of assembly missions," said
Associate Administrator for Space Operations Bill Gerstenmaier, who
chaired the Flight Readiness Review. "We had a very good discussion
on a lot of topics and our teams worked hard to make sure we had all
the information we need to set our launch date for next Thursday."
Joining Commander Polansky aboard Discovery will be Pilot Bill
Oefelein, mission specialists Bob Curbeam, Joan Higginbotham,
Nicholas Patrick, European Space Agency astronaut Christer Fuglesang
and Sunita Williams. Williams will remain aboard the station for six
months. ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter, who has lived on the station
since July, will return to Earth on Discovery.
For more information about the STS-116 mission, including images and
interviews with the crew, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STATUS REPORT: SS06-050
Houston - Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and flight
engineers Mikhail Tyurin and Thomas Reiter continue to prepare for a
spacewalk Wednesday, Nov. 22, out of the International Space
Station's Russian Pirs Docking Compartment airlock.
Lopez-Alegria, who will make his sixth spacewalk, and Tyurin, with
three previous spacewalks to his credit, climbed into Russian Orlan
spacesuits Friday to test all systems and communications gear. This
ended a week during which the spacewalkers also installed U.S. lights
on their suit helmets, reviewed procedures for the extravehicular
activity and performed leak checks on the Progress 22 craft currently
docked to the Pirs airlock.
The six-hour spacewalk includes a commercial golf demonstration by
Tyurin. Under a commercial agreement between the Russian Federal
Space Agency and a Canadian golf company, Tyurin will hit a golf ball
into space from a spring-mounted tee on the ladder next to the hatch
of Pirs. The ball will be tapped over the back of the station's
Russian segment so that the ball travels away from the complex. NASA
flight controllers have calculated that it will burn up in the
atmosphere in about three days. The ball weighs much less than the
standard 45 gram golf ball. The ball used for this demonstration
weighs three grams, approximately the weight of three paper clips.
During the spacewalk, Tyurin will examine part of the ISS Progress 23
cargo ship. One of the antennas for the Progress' automated docking
system may have failed to fold back when the spacecraft approached
the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module on Oct. 26. If it's
necessary, Tyurin will manually retract that antenna.
Also, Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin will reposition a communications
antenna on the aft end of Zvezda associated with next year's docking
of the European Automated Transfer Vehicle, check restraining bolts
on one of two Russian cargo cranes attached to Pirs and deploy an
experiment to measure solar flares.
Coverage on NASA Television and www.nasa.gov begins at 4 p.m. CST. The
spacewalk begins one hour later.
Wednesday marked the first live high-definition television broadcast
from space. It featured Lopez-Alegria, with Reiter serving as camera
operator. The broadcasts were conducted by NHK Television in Japan
and the Discovery HD Theater. Known as the Space Video Gateway, the
HD system onboard transmits high bandwidth digital television signals
to the ground through a computer. Previously, high-definition video
was recorded and then returned to Earth for viewing.
Flight controllers this week continued to test one of the station's
four control moment gyroscopes (CMGs). CMG-3 exhibited high
vibrations and electrical currents in the past and was shut down Oct.
9. The recent test results will be compared to a previous series of
tests to provide additional data on the state of the gyroscope's
accelerometer, lubricant and lubrication of the spin bearings.
CMG-3 is scheduled to be removed and replaced on the STS-118 shuttle
mission, targeted for launch in June 2007. The gyroscope will be
stowed and returned to Earth on the STS-122 mission next fall. The
station continues to function on three healthy CMGs without affecting
operations.
Reiter also continued work this week on a suite of European Space
Agency science experiments, including one called CASPER. Its
objective is to develop ways to help astronauts sleep better during
long-duration missions. Alteino Long Term Monitoring of Cosmic Rays
or ALTCRISS is another experiment Reiter performed. It is allowing
scientists to study the effects of shielding on cosmic rays. The
information gained may help engineers better understand the radiation
environment and how to provide efficient shielding against it.
The next station status report will be issued early Nov. 23 after the
spacewalk, or earlier if events warrant. For more about the crew's
activities and station sighting opportunities, visit:
ROCKET MOTOR TEST HELPS NASA'S SHUTTLE AND ARES 1 PROMONTORY, Utah
- NASA's Space Shuttle Program successfully fired a reusable solid rocket motor Thursday, Nov. 16, at a Utah facility. The two-minute test provided important information for nighttime shuttle launches and for the development of the rocket that will carry the next human spacecraft to the moon. The static firing of the full-scale, full-duration flight support motor was performed at 6 p.m. MST at ATK Launch Systems Group, a unit of Alliant Techsystems Inc. in Promontory, Utah, where the shuttle's solid rocket motors are manufactured. The flight support motor, or FSM-13, burned for approximately 123 seconds, the same time each reusable solid rocket motor burns during an actual space shuttle launch. The Reusable Solid Rocket Motor Project Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages these tests to qualify any proposed changes to the rocket motor and to determine whether new materials perform as well as those now in use. The motor firing also provided the Space Shuttle Program with data on how image quality is affected by night launch conditions. The data will help determine camera settings and techniques that are most suitable for future night shuttle launches and those which could possibly enhance imagery gathered during a day launch. "Full-scale static testing such as this is a key element of the 'test before you fly' standard and ensures continued quality and performance," said Jody Singer, manager of the Reusable Solid Rocket Motor Project, part of the Space Shuttle Propulsion Office at Marshall. The shuttle solid rocket motor firing also supports NASA's future exploration goals to return humans to the moon. The test provided data for development of the first stage reusable solid rocket motor for NASA's Ares I, the launch vehicle that will carry the Orion crew module to space. Engineers with NASA's Exploration Launch Projects Office at Marshall, which manages the Ares launch vehicles, will analyze motor-induced, roll-torque measurements. The information - how the motor affects the rotation and twisting of a system - is needed for the Ares I control system design. Thursday night's test provided data on numerous process, material and design changes planned for shuttle solid rocket motors, including a propellant structural redesign that more evenly distributes loads and improves safety during storage and transportation; an improved adhesive bonding process to eliminate insulation voids and increase bond strength; and a new nozzle liner material to replace a material that is no longer available. Stress data was also gathered on an instrumented external tank attachment ring, which connects the solid rocket booster to the shuttle's external fuel tank. Preliminary indications are that all test objectives were met. After final test data are analyzed, results for each objective will be published by NASA in a report that will be available early next year. The shuttle's reusable solid rocket motor is the largest solid rocket motor ever flown, the only one rated for human flight and the first designed for reuse. Each shuttle launch requires two reusable solid rocket motors to lift the 4.5-million-pound shuttle. The motors provide 80 percent of the thrust during the first two minutes of flight. Each motor, just over 126 feet long and 12 feet in diameter, generates an average thrust of 2.6 million pounds. It is the primary component of the shuttle's twin solid rocket boosters. During a shuttle launch, the rockets take the shuttle to an altitude of 28 miles at a speed of 3,094 mph before they separate and fall into the ocean. Then they are retrieved, refurbished and prepared for another flight. Regular static-fire tests of the motors help maintain the highest safety, quality and reliability standards of solid rocket motors used for human spaceflight. Engineers conduct approximately 110,000 quality-control inspections on each motor designed for flight. For more information about the Space Shuttle Program, visit:
NASA COMPLETES MILESTONE REVIEW OF NEXT HUMAN SPACECRAFT SYSTEM
NASA has completed a milestone first review of all systems for the Orion spacecraft and the Ares I and Ares V rockets. The review brings the agency a step closer to launching the nation's next human space vehicle. NASA completed the thorough systems requirements review of the Constellation Program this week. Review results provide the foundation for design, development, construction and operation of the rockets and spacecraft necessary to take explorers to Earth orbit, the moon, and eventually to Mars. "This review is a critical step in making the system a reality," said Constellation Program Manager Jeff Hanley of NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston. "I am proud of this dedicated and diligent NASA-wide team. We have established the foundation for a safe and strong transportation system and infrastructure. It is a historic first step." This is the first system requirements review NASA has completed for a human spacecraft system since a review of the space shuttle's development held in October 1972. The Constellation Program system requirements are the product of 12 months of work by a NASA-wide team. The system requirements review is one in a series of reviews that will occur before NASA and its contractors build the Orion capsule, the Ares launch vehicles, and establish ground and mission operations. The review guidelines narrow the scope and add detail to the system design. "We are confident these first requirements provide an exceptional framework for the vehicle system," said Chris Hardcastle, Constellation Program systems engineering and integration manager at Johnson. "This team has done a significant amount of analysis which will bear out as we continue with our systems engineering approach and refine our requirements for the next human space transportation system." An example of the activity was a review and analysis that confirmed the planned Ares I launch system has sufficient thrust to put the Orion spacecraft in orbit. In fact, the Ares I thrust provides a 15 percent margin of performance in addition to the energy needed to put the fully crewed and supplied Orion into orbit for a lunar mission. Engineers established Orion's take off weight for lunar missions at over 61,000 pounds. Each Constellation project also is preparing for a narrower, project-level systems review, according to the following schedule: * Orion crew exploration vehicle, February 2007 * Ground operations (launch support), February 2007 * Mission operations (mission support), March 2007 * Extravehicular activity (space suits), March 2007 Once the project-level reviews are complete, the Constellation Program will hold another full review to reconcile the baseline from this first review with any updates from the project reviews. A lunar architecture systems review of equipment associated with surface exploration and science activities on the moon is expected in the spring of 2009. For more information about NASA's Constellation Program, visit:
NASA'S HUBBLE FINDS EVIDENCE FOR DARK ENERGY IN THE YOUNG UNIVERSE
Scientists using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that
dark energy is not a new constituent of space, but rather has been
present for most of the universe's history. Dark energy is a
mysterious repulsive force that causes the universe to expand at an
increasing rate.
Investigators used Hubble to find that dark energy was already
boosting the expansion rate of the universe as long as nine billion
years ago. This picture of dark energy is consistent with Albert
Einstein's prediction of nearly a century ago that a repulsive form
of gravity emanates from empty space.
Data from Hubble provide supporting evidence that help astrophysicists
to understand the nature of dark energy. This will allow scientists
to begin ruling out some competing explanations that predict that the
strength of dark energy changes over time.
Researchers also have found that the class of ancient exploding stars,
or supernovae, used to measure the expansion of space today look
remarkably similar to those that exploded nine billion years ago and
are just now being seen by Hubble. This important finding gives
additional credibility to the use of these supernovae for tracking
the cosmic expansion over most of the universe's lifetime.
"Although dark energy accounts for more than 70 percent of the energy
of the universe, we know very little about it, so each clue is
precious," said Adam Riess of the Space Telescope Science Institute
and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Reiss led one of the first
studies to reveal the presence of dark energy in 1998 and is the
leader of the current Hubble study. "Our latest clue is that the
stuff we call dark energy was relatively weak, but starting to make
its presence felt nine billion years ago."
To study the behavior of dark energy of long ago, Hubble had to peer
far across the universe and back into time to detect supernovae.
Supernovae can be used to trace the universe's expansion. This is
analogous to seeing fireflies on a summer night. Fireflies glow with
about the same brightness, so you can judge how they are distributed
in the backyard by their comparative faintness or brightness,
depending on their distance from you. Only Hubble can measure these
ancient supernovae because they are too distant, and therefore too
faint, to be studied by the largest ground-based telescopes.
Einstein first conceived of the notion of a repulsive force in space
in his attempt to balance the universe against the inward pull of its
own gravity, which he thought would ultimately cause the universe to
implode.
His "cosmological constant" remained a curious hypothesis until 1998,
when Riess and the members of the High-z Supernova Team and the
Supernova Cosmology Project used ground-based telescopes and Hubble
to detect the acceleration of the expansion of space from
observations of distant supernovae. Astrophysicists came to the
realization that Einstein may have been right after all: there really
was a repulsive form of gravity in space that was soon after dubbed
"dark energy."
Over the past eight years astrophysicists have been trying to uncover
two of dark energy's most fundamental properties: its strength and
its permanence. These new observations reveal that dark energy was
present and obstructing the gravitational pull of the matter in the
universe even before it began to win this cosmic "tug of war."
Previous Hubble observations of the most distant supernovae known
revealed that the early universe was dominated by matter whose
gravity was slowing down the universe's expansion rate, like a ball
rolling up a slight incline. The observations also confirmed that the
expansion rate of the cosmos began speeding up about five to six
billion years ago. That is when astronomers believe that dark
energy's repulsive force overtook gravity's attractive grip.
The latest results are based on an analysis of the 24 most distant
supernovae known, most found within the last two years.
By measuring the universe's relative size over time, astrophysicists
have tracked the universe's growth spurts, much as a parent may
witness the growth spurts of a child by tracking changes in height on
a doorframe. Distant supernovae provide the doorframe markings read
by Hubble. "After we subtract the gravity from the known matter in
the universe, we can see the dark energy pushing to get out," said
Lou Strolger, astronomer and Hubble team member at Western Kentucky
University, Bowling Green, Ky.
For images and additional information on the web about dark energy,
visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/hubble
NASA TV COVERAGE SET FOR SPACE STATION SPACEWALK
The six-hour spacewalk is planned for the night before
Thanksgiving.
On Nov. 22, Expedition 14 Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and Flight
Engineer Mikhail Tyurin will retrieve equipment and photograph the
station's Russian Zvezda Service Module's docking port. Tyurin also
will hit a golf ball from a specially designed tee mounted on the
Pirs airlock as part of a Russian commercial activity. Flight
Engineer Thomas Reiter will remain inside the station tending to
systems during the spacewalk.
Both the preview briefing and the spacewalk will be broadcast live on
NASA Television. During the briefing, questions will be taken from
media at participating NASA sites. Journalists must contact their
preferred NASA location by Nov. 15 for participation details.
Briefing particpants include:
-- Kirk Shireman, deputy International Space Station program manager
-- Holly Ridings, lead spacewalk flight director
-- Paul Boehm, Expedition 14 lead spacewalk officer
-- Julie Robinson, International Space Station acting program
scientist
The spacewalk coverage begins at 4 p.m. on NASA TV and the agency's
Internet homepage. The spacewalk begins at 5 p.m.
NASA SCHEDULES FIRST LIVE HDTV BROADCAST FROM SPACE
Houston -- NASA makes history next week with the first live broadcasts
from space in High Definition television (HDTV). NASA, in cooperation
with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Discovery HD Theater and
Japanese broadcast network NHK will produce the broadcasts on Nov.
15.
Two live HDTV broadcasts will feature Expedition 14 Commander Michael
Lopez-Alegria on the International Space Station, with Flight
Engineer Thomas Reiter serving as camera operator aboard the
220-mile-high laboratory. The broadcasts will be carried by Discovery
HD Theater and NHK. Discovery HD Theater will carry the special
broadcast live at 10:30 a.m. CST and will be shown at Discovery
Channel stores.
"HDTV provides up to six times the resolution of regular analog
video," said Rodney Grubbs, NASA principal investigator. "On previous
missions, we've flown HDTV cameras but had to wait until after the
mission to retrieve the tapes, watch the video and share it with the
science and engineering community, the media and the public. For the
first time ever, this test lets us stream live HDTV from space so the
public can experience what its like to be there."
Known as the Space Video Gateway, the system transmits high bandwidth
digital television signals to the ground that are not only
spectacular, but also valuable to scientists, engineers and managers.
NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, along with both NHK
and Discovery, are cooperating in this effort though a Space Act
Agreement originally signed in 2002.
The equipment to record and downlink HDTV signals was delivered to the
station by the Space Shuttle Atlantis crew in September. It includes
a commercially manufactured camcorder, viewfinder, lenses and power
cables, an HDTV signal decoder, processor and hard drive, and power
and data cables.
For more information about the International Space Station and the
Expedition 14 crew, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station
HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS TO CHAT WITH SPACE STATION CREW
To highlight International Educational Week, NASA and the U.S
Department of Education will host a live, ultra-long distance call
with the crew of the International Space Station at 9:21 a.m. EST
Tuesday, Nov. 14 at the U.S. Department of Education, Washington.
NASA Assistant Administrator for Education Joyce Winterton, U.S.
Deputy Secretary of Education Ray Simon, and Educator Astronauts
Barbara Morgan and Ricky Arnold, will give remarks at 9 a.m. Morgan
is the first educator astronaut and will travel to space next year on
shuttle mission STS-118. Her mission will continue assembly of the
station and include educational aspects to spark the imagination,
dreams and curiosity of the next generation of explorers.
Media that attend the event must be in place by 9 a.m. Morgan, Arnold
and Simon will be available for media interviews immediately
following the call.
Students from McKinley Technology High School, Washington; Walt
Whitman High School, Bethesda, Md.; and Washington-Lee High School,
Arlington, Va., will have the opportunity to ask questions of the
Expedition 14 crew as it orbits 220 miles above the Earth.
Between the three crewmembers, NASA astronaut and Commander Michael
Lopez-Alegria, Russian cosmonaut Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin and
European Space Agency astronaut and Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter,
five languages can be spoken aboard the world's only orbiting
laboratory: English, French, German, Russian, and Spanish.
This year's International Education Week theme is "International
Education: Engaging in Global Partnerships and Opportunities."
International Education Week runs from Nov. 13-17.
This joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S.
Department of Education is part of an effort to promote programs that
prepare Americans for a global environment and attract future leaders
from abroad to study, learn, and exchange experiences in the United
States.
The station crew's call will be broadcast live on NASA TV. For NASA TV
downlink, schedule and streaming video information, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
For more information about NASA's education programs, the STS-118
mission and Expedition 14 on the Internet, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/home
NASA SEES INTO THE EYE OF A MONSTER STORM ON SATURN
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has seen something never before seen on
another planet -- a hurricane-like storm at Saturn's South Pole with
a well-developed eye, ringed by towering clouds.
The "hurricane" spans a dark area inside a thick, brighter ring of
clouds. It is approximately 5,000 miles across, or two thirds the
diameter of Earth.
"It looks like a hurricane, but it doesn't behave like a hurricane,"
said Andrew Ingersoll, a member of Cassini's imaging team at the
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. "Whatever it is, we're
going to focus on the eye of this storm and find out why it's there."
A movie taken by Cassini's camera over a three-hour period reveals
winds around Saturn's South Pole blowing clockwise at 350 miles per
hour. The camera also saw the shadow cast by a ring of towering
clouds surrounding the pole, and two spiral arms of clouds extending
from the central ring. These ring clouds, 20 to 45 miles above those
in the center of the storm, are two to five times taller than the
clouds of thunderstorms and hurricanes on Earth.
Eye-wall clouds are a distinguishing feature of hurricanes on Earth.
They form where moist air flows inward across the ocean's surface,
rising vertically and releasing a heavy rain around an interior
circle of descending air that is the eye of the storm itself. Though
it is uncertain whether such moist convection is driving Saturn's
storm, the dark "eye" at the pole, the eye-wall clouds and the spiral
arms together indicate a hurricane-like system.
Distinctive eye-wall clouds have not been seen on any planet other
than Earth. Even Jupiter's Great Red Spot, much larger than Saturn's
polar storm, has no eye or eye-wall, and is relatively calm at the
center.
This giant Saturnian storm is apparently different than hurricanes on
Earth because it is locked to the pole and does not drift around like
terrestrial hurricanes. Also, since Saturn is a gaseous planet, the
storm forms without an ocean at its base.
In the Cassini imagery the eye looks dark at light wavelengths where
methane gas absorbs the light and only the highest clouds are
visible.
"The clear skies over the eye appear to extend down to a level about
twice as deep as the usual cloud level observed on Saturn," said
Kevin H. Baines, of Cassini's visual and infrared mapping
spectrometer team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,
Calif. "This gives us the deepest view yet into Saturn over a wide
range of wavelengths, and reveals a mysterious set of dark clouds at
the bottom of the eye."
Infrared images taken by the Keck I telescope in Mauna Kea, Hawaii,
had previously shown Saturn's South Pole to be warm. Cassini's
composite infrared spectrometer has confirmed this with higher
resolution temperature maps of the area. The spectrometer observed a
temperature increase of about 4 degrees Fahrenheit at the pole. The
instrument measured high temperatures in the upper troposphere and
stratosphere, regions higher in the atmosphere than the clouds seen
by the Cassini imaging instruments.
"The winds decrease with height, and the atmosphere is sinking,
compressing and heating over the South Pole," said Richard
Achterberg, a member of Cassini's composite infrared spectrometer
team at NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Observations taken over the next few years, as the South Pole season
changes from summer to fall, will help scientists understand the role
seasons play in driving the dramatic meteorology at the south pole of
Saturn.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the
European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet
Propulsion Laboratory manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's
Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
For a movie, high-resolution images, infrared images and Saturn
temperature maps, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/cassini
NASA HONORS APOLLO MOON WALKER'S MEMORY IN SEATTLE CEREMONY
NASA will honor former astronaut Charles "Pete" Conrad for his
involvement in the U.S. space program with the presentation of the
Ambassador of Exploration Award at 2 p.m. EST, Saturday, Nov. 18, in
the Allen Theater, The Museum of Flight, 9404 East Marginal Way
South, Seattle.
The award ceremony coincides with the 37th anniversary of the Apollo
12 mission of Nov. 14-19, 1969, and culminates a day of museum
space-related activities and workshops.
NASA is presenting the Ambassador of Exploration Award to the
astronauts and other key individuals who participated in the Mercury,
Gemini, and Apollo space programs for realizing America's vision of
space exploration from 1961 to 1972.
The award is a sample of lunar material mounted for public display.
The material is part of the 842 pounds of samples brought back to
Earth during the six Apollo lunar expeditions from 1969 to 1972.
Conrad's award will be displayed at The Museum of Flight, one of the
largest air and space museums in the world. Conrad was the third man
to walk on the moon as commander of Apollo 12, the second lunar
landing mission. He and lunar module pilot Alan L. Bean spent 31.5
hours on the moon. Conrad also served as pilot of the Gemini V
mission; commander of Gemini XI; and commander of the first mission
launched to the Skylab space station in 1973. He retired from the
U.S. Navy and NASA as a captain in 1974.
Conrad died of injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident in July
1999, so his widow Nancy will accept the award on his behalf. She
will present it for display to The Museum of Flight President Bonnie
Dunbar. Dunbar is also a former NASA astronaut. For Conrad's
astronaut biography, visit:
