If the first third of 2010 represented an outstanding and unwavering commitment to safety and technical investigation/understanding, the middle portion of 2010 would bring with it not only a continued commitment to safety, but also a great deal of uncertainty over launch schedules, payload readiness, the status of orbiter Atlantis, and NASA’s overall future and [...]
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Following a Space Shuttle Program (SSP) meeting on Thursday, a decision on carrying out modifications to STS-133′s External Tank (ET-137) won’t be made until next week, as engineers inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) carry out repairs to a number of additional cracks, found during Non Destructive Evaluation (NDE) scans of the intertank flanges.
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If 2009 demonstrated an amazing execution of both unprecedented missions of science, cooperation, and exploration for NASA, 2010 undoubtedly demonstrated the agency’s unwavering commitment to investigation and understanding over launch and mission schedules. During the first four months of 2010 alone, NASA’s commitment to safety over schedule was demonstrated in large ways during the STS-130 [...]
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Arianespace have concluded their sixth, and final, Ariane 5 ECA launch for 2010, as their workhorse vehicle launched with its dual passengers – Koreasat 6 and Hispasat 1E. High altitude winds resulted in a hold at T-7 minutes, prior to Arianespace announcing they would scrub for 24 hours on Tuesday. Wednesday’s attempt launched at the opening [...]
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Pending the successful outcome of STS-133′s External Tank (ET-137) clearance for flight, managers have created a preliminary schedule for Endeavour’s realigned milestones. Currently, STS-134′s April 1 launch date is only a placeholder, but remains a target that can be achieved – providing Discovery doesn’t slip from her early February launch window.
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International Launch Services (ILS) have launched their Proton-M rocket on Sunday, on a mission which is marking the quick return to flight for the Russian workhorse which suffered from a failure during a recent government launch. Launched at 21:51 GMT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Proton deployed the KA-SAT communications satellite for Eutelsat, [...]
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The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) GSLV-F06 launch vehicle has suffered another failure, when it exploded around 60 seconds into ascent. The vehicle was carrying the GSAT-5P telecommunications satellite on Christmas Day, lifting off at 10:34am GMT from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Shriharikota. The launch was originally rescheduled due to a leak in the Russian [...]
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As the International Space Station prepares to enter a new era of governmental (ATV, HTV, and Progress) and commercial (SpaceX’s Dragon and Orbital’s Cygnus) unmanned resupply services, the ISS Program (ISSP) is pressing ahead with three software upgrades for the Space Station – which are aimed at accommodating multiple visiting vehicles at a single time, improving [...]
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With Discovery now back inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), a preliminary timeline has listed January 13 as a preliminary target to return to Pad 39A in order to make the opening of the next available launch window, which opens on February 3. NASA managers will meet on December 30 to discuss the forward plan [...]
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Discovery’s return to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) – in order to gain extra data on the health of the stringers on areas of her tank (ET-137) which can’t be scanned out at the Pad – was completed early on Wednesday. Efforts to return Discovery to the VAB comes just days after a successful Tanking [...]
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International Space Station (ISS) program managers are currently in the process of conducting an assessment into the long-term configuration of the US Segment of the orbital outpost, as preparations are made for the post-Shuttle era which will see the addition of a new fleet of “Visiting Vehicles” arriving at the Station.
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Ending a record breaking year, China launched its seventh satellite as part of their large navigation system via their Long March 3A – otherwise known as the CZ-3A Chang Zheng-3A (Y18) – launch vehicle. The launch of BeiDou-2 ‘Compass-I2′ took place from the Xi Chang Satellite Launch Center, in Sichuan Province at 20:20UTC on Friday.
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Engineers have gathering detailed data on the thermal and stress environments of the External Tank’s intertank stringers at the LOX flange and LH2 flange areas, NASA managers completed fueling Discovery’s External Tank with nearly 535,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, with a smooth Tanking Test is culminating in a GLS (Ground Launch Sequencer) [...]
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Pending acceptable weather conditions on Friday, all systems are go for ET-137′s Tanking Test – a key milestone in the effort to gain data on both the health of the tank and the root cause investigation into four cracks sustained during the previous STS-133 tanking. The November launch attempt was scrubbed due to a leak [...]
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The Russian Soyuz TMA-20, also known by its US designation of 25S, lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday at 7:09:25 PM GMT. Following a two-day free flight, TMA-20 successfully dock to the International Space Station (ISS) at the Mini Research Module-1 (MRM-1) Nadir port on Friday 17th December at 8:12 PM [...]
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Although technically still a notional mission, should Atlantis provide the swansong to the Shuttle Program with STS-135, she’d be returning home full of downmass – ranging from a full Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM), the failed Pump Module, a Pressurized Mating Adaptor (PMA-3) and also now potentially including the BRRM motor component of the 2A Beta [...]
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With unacceptable weather at KSC restricting preparations for STS-133′s Tanking Test, managers decided to delay the test until at least Friday. With the Program Requirements Control Board (PRCB) approving the plan to collect data from ET-137′s stringers, a decision was also taken to roll the stack back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) next week [...]
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The Orion vehicle’s return to life is starting to pick up the pace, with planning for an unmanned test flight as early as 2013, along with discussions into the schedule for the manned debut of the vehicle. Key questions revolve around joint government and contractor responsibility for the test flight, while the manned debut may [...]
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A final round of potential Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle (HLV) options – which will allow the NASA leadership to choose the design of the Space Launch System (SLS) as early as April, 2011 – has been created by The Human Exploration Framework Team (HEFT), which is coming to the end of its current architecture design phase.
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Engineers are pressing forward with work relating to next week’s instrumented Tanking Test – a key milestone in gaining data towards the root cause of the cracks found two of ET-137′s stringers – with Thermal Protection System (TPS) foam already removed from the tank, allowing for the installation of strain gages and thermocouples into two [...]
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