Latest Space Shuttle Discovery Stories
By Irene Klotz HOUSTON (Reuters) - The shuttle Discovery sailed away from the International Space Station on Saturday while NASA braced for the first landing since the crew of Columbia died minutes before they were due to touch down in February 2003. "We are going to be pretty darn happy to get to wheels stop and see this good crew step off," said lead flight director Paul Hill. "It'll be a huge sense of accomplishment having gotten through the last two years and demonstrated that we still...
By Jeff Franks HOUSTON (Reuters) - Discovery departed from the International Space Station on Saturday and glided off on its own in the first step toward the shuttle's risky return to Earth. With pilot Jim Kelly at the controls, the spacecraft unlatched from the docking port, then eased away from the station that it joined in space on July 28. Kelly looped Discovery once around the station while his crew mates snapped photographs of the station's exterior for inspection later by NASA...
The space shuttle Discovery and the ISS are going to fly in tandem over parts of the United States on August 6th and 7th. If you live in south Florida, central Texas or near the Mississippi River Delta, you're in for a treat. This weekend the space shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station (ISS) are going to orbit over your part of the country. Shining like very bright stars, the two ships will glide in tandem across the sky--a lovely sight.That's the good news. The bad news is...
By Jeff Franks HOUSTON (Reuters) - Discovery departed from the International Space Station on Saturday and glided off on its own in the first step toward the shuttle's risky return to Earth. With pilot Jim Kelly at the controls, the spacecraft unlatched from the docking port, then eased away from the station that it joined in space on July 28. Kelly looped Discovery once around the station while his crew mates snapped photographs of the station's exterior for inspection later by NASA...
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Shuttle Discovery undocked from the International Space Station on Saturday, in its first step toward returning to Earth on Monday. With pilot Jim Kelly at the controls, Discovery pulled away from the docking port and slowly separated from the station to which it has been linked since July 28 in the first shuttle mission to the space outpost since 2002.
WASHINGTON -- Likened to an old truck, a clipper ship and a box of aging electronics, the shuttle Discovery heads home on Monday, and even its own commander says it should not fly again until problems are fixed.Discovery's much-heralded mission -- the first since shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas on Feb. 1, 2003 -- faced problems that started before liftoff on July 26.First there was a balky fuel gauge that postponed the first scheduled launch attempt on July 13.Then a chunk of foam...
By Jeff Franks HOUSTON (Reuters) - Discovery astronauts started packing up on Friday for their departure from the International Space Station after NASA finally said the shuttle was safe enough to come home from the first flight since the 2003 Columbia disaster. The crew finished loading an Italian-built cargo unit with more than three tonnes of trash and unneeded equipment from the station for the return to Earth and stowed gear that included space suits used on three spacewalks by...
(Corrects figure) By Jeff Franks HOUSTON (Reuters) - Astronauts prepared to dock the shuttle Discovery with the International Space Station on Thursday in what may be the last visit for some time after NASA again grounded its problem-plagued shuttle fleet. The two spacecraft were scheduled to hook up for a week while the Discovery crew makes space-station repairs and brings food and supplies to the two-man station crew. What was supposed to have been the shuttle's triumphant return to the...
By Jeff Franks HOUSTON (Reuters) - Shuttle Discovery docked smoothly with the International Space Station high above the earth on Thursday, carrying on after NASA grounded its other shuttles for fear of another Columbia-like disaster. The two space behemoths, each weighing more than 100 tons, linked up with barely a bump as commander Eileen Collins slowly guided the shuttle in. "This was so much easier than the sims," she radioed to Mission Control, referring to preflight docking...
By Jeff Franks HOUSTON (Reuters) - Shuttle Discovery docked smoothly with the International Space Station high above the earth on Thursday, carrying on after NASA grounded its other shuttles for fear of another Columbia-like disaster. The two space behemoths, each weighing more than 100 tons, linked up with barely a bump as commander Eileen Collins slowly guided the shuttle in. This flight was supposed to have been a triumphant return of the shuttle to the space station for the first time...
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...
