LAUNCH OF NEW GPS SATELLITE DELAYED BY 1 DAY - The Air Force has delayed the launch of the latest Global Positioning System satellite by one day due to faulty launch tower equipment. While prepping the Delta IV rocket that will carry the GPS IIF-01 satellite aloft, “mission managers determined a piece of ground support equipment used to control one of the swing arms on the [launch] tower was not operating correctly and needed replacing,” according to an announcement released Wednesday by Air Force Space Command. More (Source: AirForceTimes.com - May 20)
SHUTTLE ATLANTIS, SPACE STATION VISIBLE THIS WEEK - Look! Up in the sky! It's not a bird. It's not a plane. It's the Space Shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station. From now until Sunday, as the two spacecraft circle the Earth every 90 minutes, they should be visible to sky gazers across the globe. And that's especially true given that the shuttle is docked with the space station during its current mission. More (Source: CNET - May 20)
ATLANTIS DOCKS WITH STATION, CREWS BEGIN JOINT OPERATIONS - Space shuttle Atlantis docked with the International Space Station Sunday at 10:28 a.m. EDT. After a series of leak checks, the Expedition 23 crew, Commander Oleg Kotov, and Flight Engineers Alexander Skvortsov, Mikhail Kornienko, Soichi Noguchi, T.J. Creamer and Tracy Caldwell Dyson, welcomed the shuttle crew, Commander Ken Ham, Pilot Tony Antonelli and Mission Specialists Garrett Reisman, Michael Good, Steve Bowen and Piers Sellers, onboard and provided them with a station safety briefing before beginning the first tasks of the joint mission. More (Source: NASA - May 17)
SPACE JUNK MAY MAKE SHUTTLE ATLANTIS' ARRIVAL AT STATION TRICKIER - A piece of space junk near the International Space Station this weekend may force the massive orbiting laboratory to dodge out of the way, adding a bit more complexity to the shuttle Atlantis' planned arrival at the outpost on Sunday. The chunk space debris is expected to zip by the station Sunday morning. To dodge it, the orbiting lab may fire its Russian thrusters Saturday at about 9:08 p.m. EDT (0108 Sunday GMT), NASA officials said. More (Source: Space.com - May 15)
ATLANTIS IN ORBIT! - Space shuttle Atlantis is officially in orbit, kicking off its STS-132 mission and the pursuit of its target, the International Space Station. Atlantis lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center right on time at 2:20 p.m. EDT, rising into a picture-perfect Florida sky and capping a relatively problem-free countdown. More (Source: NASA - May 14)
SPACE SHUTTLE SET FOR FRIDAY LIFTOFF - The Space Shuttle Atlantis is on schedule for a Friday afternoon liftoff from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA said. "We've had a very clean countdown so far and we're currently on schedule, and we're not working on any issues," said Jeremy Graeber, NASA test director. The forecast calls for a 70 percent chance of favorable conditions at launch time, according to Todd McNamara, NASA's weather officer. He said the biggest concern is low cloud cover. More (Source: CNN - May 14)
LAST CHANCE TO SEE ATLANTIS IN NIGHT SKY - Skywatchers across the continental United States will get a fine opportunity this weekend to watch as the space shuttle Atlantis — on its final scheduled mission into space — chases and ultimately docks with the International Space Station. Both the shuttle and space station will be visible as separate entities, each appearing as bright "stars" sailing across the evening twilight sky on Friday and Saturday. By Sunday evening, Atlantis will be docked to the space station, and both will appear as a single bright moving "star." More (Source: MSNBC - May 14)
SHUTTLE MISSION IS 'GO FOR LAUNCH' - The astronauts who will man the next shuttle mission arrived Monday at Florida's Kennedy Space Center to prepare for launch Thursday. The astronauts will board shuttle Atlantis later this week as they prepare for the May 14 launch, which is set for 2:20 p.m. EDT. More (Source: InformationWeek - May 12)
NASA TESTS LAUNCH ABORT SYSTEM FOR SPACE CAPSULES - In a spectacular $220 million test, NASA fired a new astronaut escape system rocket in New Mexico Thursday, boosting a dummy crew module more than a mile up in just 20 seconds to demonstrate how a future manned spacecraft could be pulled to safety in the event of a catastrophic on-pad rocket failure. Using a solid-fuel motor generating some 500,000 pounds of thrust, the launch abort system ignited with a torrent of orange fire and smoke at 9 a.m. EDT, pulling the dummy crew module to nearly 450 mph in just 2.5 seconds with an acceleration of 16 times the force of gravity. More (Source: Space Flight Now - May 10)
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