Latest Space Shuttle Discovery Stories
The U.S. space agency says the countdown has started for the planned launch of space shuttle Discovery on Wednesday. The official countdown for the STS-119 mission to the International Space Station started at 7 p.m. EDT Sunday, with the launch scheduled for 9:20 p.m. EDT Wednesday, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said. Shuttle commander Lee Archambault and his six crew mates are to deliver the space station's fourth and final set of solar array wings. The 14-day mission...
NASA announced on Tuesday that it would be pushing back its launch of the shuttle Discovery due to concerns about a flow control valve in the shuttle's main engines. The launch will now occur no earlier than Feb. 19, according to NASA managers. The shuttle was slated to launch on Feb. 12.The move to delay the launch comes after NASA noticed a valve in shuttle Endeavor, which flew in November, had been damaged. As a precaution, NASA decided to remove Discovery's valves for inspection and...
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was carried into space last night with the successful launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.The launch of the Declaration on board Endeavour is part of a year long calendar of celebrations to mark 60 years since the document was first adopted by the United Nations General Assembly at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, France.Ms Rama Yade, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Human Rights within the French...
CAPE CANAVERAL -- The space shuttle Discovery touched down safely Saturday, ending a 14-day International Space Station construction job and clearing the way for a major mission to repair and augment the Hubble Space Telescope. Planned repairs and additions to Hubble, scheduled for October, "will bring it to the apex of its scientific ability," said Michael Weiss, NASA deputy program technical manager for the Hubble program at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland....
Phew! For a few tense hours Friday it looked to Houston as if shuttle Discovery might have a problem. During routine pre-landing checks, crew members saw something fly off the shuttle and into space. Then they noticed what looked like a bump in the ship's tail rudder. Luckily, they took some great photos and video, which allowed engineers to figure out that there was no bump on the rudder, and the floating object was a piece of insulation needed only for takeoff. With the mysteries solved,...
The shuttle Discovery's nine-day mission to deliver a Japanese-made orbital research laboratory came to an end Tuesday as astronauts said goodbye to the International Space Station crew."I can hardly believe this time has come. It's been an amazing adventure," said astronaut Greg Chamitoff, who is staying behind on the station for six months. "I'm looking forward to the adventure ahead."Chamitoff replaces station flight engineer Garrett Reisman, who has been in orbit...
NASA's Hubble Repair Mission launch date is being pushed back due to unexpected problems getting a new external fuel tank ready for the Atlantis orbiter's launch.The flight was set for August 28, but NASA said it expects that date to slip by four to five weeks.The repair flight is intended to provide upgrades for the Hubble Space Telescope, which should expand its time in space to at least 2013."Right now Hubble is scheduled for August 28. We really cannot make that date with the...
By Irene KlotzHOUSTON (Reuters) - The Discovery crew used a boom-mounted digital camera to reinspect six suspect areas on the shuttle's heat shield on Friday, but were confident the problems that led to the 2003 Columbia disaster have been resolved.The most serious area of concern is on Discovery's carbon-tipped nose, which must withstand temperatures hot enough to melt steel when the shuttle plunges back into the atmosphere prior to landing."That's the main thing we're looking at,"...
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Astronauts on Discovery said on Friday they were happy with the spacecraft's performance, which was good news for NASA since more trouble with the shuttle could force the space agency to scrap the program."At this point we're really satisfied. We haven't had many problems with Discovery," pilot Mark Kelly said in a radio interview from the shuttle on Friday. "We feel really good about the condition."Kelly's comments reflected NASA's growing optimism...
This drives astronomers crazy. Every summer, on the one night when millions of Americans are guaranteed to be outside at nightfall, necks craned upward watching the sky, almost no one pays attention to the heavens. It's all fireworks, fireworks, fireworks. Stars and planets don't stand a chance.But this 4th of July is different.At sunset, just as the fireworks are about to begin, the Moon and Jupiter will pop out of the twilight side-by-side: sky map. These are the brightest objects in the...
Latest Space Shuttle Discovery Reference Libraries
Janice Elaine Voss was a NASA astronaut as well as an American Engineer whom flew in space five times placing her at first for holding the record for American women. Voss was born on October 8, 1956 in South Bend, Indiana. She attended Minnechaug Regional High School in Wilbraham, Massachusetts and graduated in 1972. She then attended Purdue University to receive her bachelor’s degree in engineering while concurrently working at the Johnson Space Center. After Purdue University, Voss...
Steven Hawley is a former NASA astronaut. He was born Steven Alan Hawley on December 12, 1951 in Ottawa, Kansas. He graduated from Salina High School Central in Salina, Kansas in 1969 and continued on to The University of Kansas, where he received two Bachelor of Arts degrees in physics and astronomy. After graduating with the highest distinction of his class and spending summers as a research assistant at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia, Hawley received...
Andrew “Andy” Sydney Withiel Thomas was born December 18, 1951 in Adelaide, South Australia. He entered into US citizenship in December of 1986 with the goal of participating in NASA’s astronaut program. Andy became an Australian-born American NASA astronaut as an aerospace engineer. He was the first Australian born professional astronaut to enter space. He was preceded in entering into orbit by Paul D. Scully-Power, an oceanographer in 1985. He married a fellow NASA astronaut Shannon...
Discovery launched from Kennedy Space Center on February 3, 1994 at 7:10 AM EST and landed at Kennedy on February 11, 1994 at 2:19 PM EST. The shuttle orbited 130 times at an altitude of 191 nautical miles at an inclination of 57 degrees and travelled 3.4 million miles. The mission lasted 8 days, 7 hours, 9 minutes, and 22 seconds. This was the second SPACEHAB mission and the first mission undertaken with a Russian crew member. It was the first step in the ongoing US-Russian cooperative...
Discovery launched from Kennedy Space Center on October 6, 1990 at 6:57 AM PDT and landed at Edwards Air Force Base on October 10 at 6:57 AM PDT. The shuttle orbited 66 times at an inclination of 28.45 degrees at an altitude of 160 nautical miles and travelled 1.7 million miles. The mission lasted 4 days, 2 hours, 10 minutes, and 4 seconds. This mission launched the Ulysses probe to study the polar regions of the Sun. Two upper stages of Ulysses, the Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) and a...
