If the first half of 2009 for NASA demonstrated the agency’s unwavering attention to safety, NASA not only continued that trend – upholding the utmost safety standards in the Space Shuttle and International Space Station Programs – during the second half of the year but also placed itself and its various programs in a tremendous [...]
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For NASA, 2009 proved to be a stellar year, one filled with five extremely successful Space Shuttle missions (one of which repaired the Hubble Space Telescope), the test flight of the Ares I-X rocket, the launch of the Kepler Space Telescope, the launch of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and companion spacecraft the Lunar CRater [...]
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International Launch Services (ILS) have launched the DirecTV 12 telecommunications satellite via their veteran Proton-M launch vehicle and Breeze-M upper stage late on Monday, marking the final orbital launch of 2009. Lift-off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan was on time at 19:22 EST, ahead of over nine hours of flight until the spacecraft was successfully [...]
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External Tank ET-135 has arrived at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), following its journey from New Orleans in the Pegasus Barge. The tank will remain inside the barge until the new year, ahead of being towed into the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) for processing. Meanwhile, engineers are continuing to evaluate the foam loss observed from [...]
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A tiny washer has been removed from External Tank ET-134, after an engineer spotted the rouge item embedded into GO2 pressline guide rail. Engineers had to dig out the washer, prior to carrying out foam repairs to the area of the tank – which have since been completed. The STS-130 stack will remain in the [...]
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International Space Station Program (ISSP) and Space Shuttle Program (SSP) engineers have updated NASA on the safety issues pertaining to Dual-Docked Operations (DDO) between the Space Shuttle and various Russian visiting vehicles making use of the numerous Russian docking ports. Meanwhile, the three man crew of Soyuz TMA-17 have docked with the Station.
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With work complete for the year on Endeavour in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), her older sister is in the final stages of processing, ahead of the Christmas holidays. With the External Tank now enroute to Florida, Discovery’s Forward Reaction Control System (FRCS) has been successfully reinstalled – following a few issues during its original [...]
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Oleg Kotov (Russia), Timothy Creamer (NASA) and Soichi Noguchi (Japan) have launched on board the Russian Soyuz TMA-17 on Sunday, taking aim on the International Space Station (ISS) where they will join NASA’s Jeff Williams, commander of the Expedition 22 crew. The crew launched at 4:51pm Eastern from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
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Capping off a highly successful year for the Space Shuttle Program, the STS-129 flight of Atlantis last month has undergone its final, official post-flight assessment: the all-important In-Flight Anomaly (IFA) review. In all, STS-129 was a clean flight, particularly for the vehicle’s Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) and Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs).
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The seventh and final Ariane 5 launch for 2009 has launched at the second attempt on Friday - following a 24 hour scrub due to an unspecified issue with the launch platform. The Ariane 5 GS’s mission is to launch the Helios 2B spy satellite from the European Spaceport in French Guiana is behalf of the French [...]
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Mating operations have been completed in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) ahead of an extended stay for Endeavour as the STS-130 stack, with the orbiter now powered down for the Christmas holidays. Meanwhile, the Program Requirements Control Board (PRCB) approved a Change Request (CR) to officially target STS-130 on a February 7 launch date, whilst [...]
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Preparations for Discovery’s STS-131 mission have encountered a slight hiccup during the installation of the reserviced Forward Reaction Control System (FRCS). The large unit of thrusters – which sits in the nose section of the vehicle – has been uninstalled for repairs to its bolts and seals, ahead of a second reinstallation effort on Thursday, [...]
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China have launched the YaoGan Weinxing-8 “remote sensing” satellite via a CZ-4C Chang Zheng-4C from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center early on Tuesday. The final launch of the year is being classed as an Earth Monitoring satellite by the Chinese media. However, experts have revealed the bird is the latest to be equipped with reconnaissance [...]
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A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta II rocket (Delta 347) has launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base this morning carrying the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer satellite for NASA. The launch occured at the start of a fourteen minute window, which opened at 6:09am Pacific (14:09 GMT).
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Shuttle managers have concluded the key review of STS-129’s mission, in turn providing a baseline for STS-130’s Flight Readiness Reviews (FRRs). The STS-129 IFA (In Flight Anomaly) review provided an in-depth post flight overview of all shuttle hardware, from the orbiter, to the External Tank, Space Shuttle Main Engines, and boosters – the latter of [...]
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Endeavour has completed her rollover to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), ahead of mating with External Tank (ET-134) and the twin Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs). No issues have been worked in her recent processing flow, with only a minor requirement to replace a flash on the ET umbilical well camera being noted by engineers.
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MOD Director Paul Hill has hinted that there’s a “remote” chance NASA may add one or more shuttle flights, in addition to “under evaluation” STS-135. Mr Hill’s comments came during an address to his team – relating to the upcoming White House decision on NASA’s Human Space Flight program - in which he noted his awareness of discussions relating [...]
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STS-130 is set to achieve its latest milestone, as Endeavour prepares to rollover to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) on Friday. The youngest orbiter in the fleet will be sporting a full set of instrumentation, which will gain additional data on Main Engine Ignition (MEI) Acoustic and SSME (Space Shuttle Main Engine) Ignition Overpressure (IOP) [...]
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NASA managers at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and Johnson Space Center (JSC) have confirmed they are working on the addition of STS-135, to fly at end of the shuttle manifest in late 2010, early 2011. Although the mission has some way to go before it is baselined, Atlantis would gain the honor of flying [...]
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A new configuration of the Delta IV rocket has launched on its maiden flight. The new Medium+ (5,4) variant was used to orbit the Wideband Global SATCOM 3 (WGS-3) satellite for the US Air Force. Weather and a technical issue with the Ground Launch Control system put pay to the opening attempt two days ago – [...]
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