TOOL KIT DROPPED FROM SPACE STATION IS ORBITAL JUNK NO MORE - A tool bag lost by a spacewalking astronaut in November appears to have met its end after more than eight months in orbit. The chief scientist at NASA's Orbital Debris Program Office says the tool kit should have reentered the atmosphere this morning. "We are waiting on a post-reentry assessment of time and location," to be completed later today by military space monitors, says Nicholas Johnson, who is based at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. More (Source: Scientific American - Aug 4)
SHUTTLE DISCOVERY HEADS FOR LAUNCH PAD ON TUESDAY - Engineers are readying the shuttle Discovery for rollout to pad 39A early Tuesday, one day later than planned because of work to assess the impact of a check valve failure in the steering system of the ship's left-side solid-fuel booster. The valve problem apparently caused a hydraulic system pump to spin backwards during a high-pressure leak check, possibly damaging the pump and one of the booster's hydraulic power units, officials said. More (Source: Spaceflight Now - Aug 4)
VIRGIN GOES GALACTIC WITH SATELLITES - Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic is developing plans to use its space tourism vehicle WhiteKnightTwo as a platform to launch commercial satellites by 2012. The company is working with UK space exploration company Surrey Small Satellites on plans to develop a launcher that could propel a 200kg satellite into space at roughly 10pc the cost of current technology. More (Source: Telegraph.co.uk - Aug 2)
SSTL LAUNCHES 2 MORE SATELLITES - With the successful launch last night of the UK-DMC2 and Deimos-1 satellites, SSTL has expanded the capability of the world's only spaced-based disaster monitoring system, the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC). The British built satellites were launched onboard a Dnepr rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 18:45 UTC on Wednesday, 29th July 2009. More (Source: TMCnet - Aug 2)
ENDEAVOUR LANDS AT KENNEDY SPACE CENTER - Space shuttle Endeavour landed at Florida's Kennedy Space Center today with a touchdown at 10:48 a.m. EDT. The shuttle began its descent from orbit with a deorbit engine firing at 9:41 a.m. More (Source: NASA - Jul 31)
SPACE SHUTTLE ENDEAVOUR EXPECTED TO LAND FRIDAY - The crew of the space shuttle Endeavour is set to land Friday morning in Florida after spending 16 days in space. The shuttle is scheduled to land at 10:48 a.m. ET at Kennedy Space Center, NASA said. If the weather turns bad, the landing could be delayed till 12:22 p.m. The forecast is favorable, though there is a slight chance of rain. The seven-member crew lifted off on July 15 after five previous launch attempts due to weather and technical issues on a mission to the international space station. More (Source: CNN - Jul 31)
SPACE SHUTTLE ENDEAVOUR FIRES ENGINES FOR RETURN HOME - Endeavour has completed its deorbit burn and begun the descent towards NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The shuttle is set to land at about 10:48 a.m. EDT. More (Source: NASA - Jul 31)
SPACE SHUTTLE ENDEAVOUR TO DEPLOY STUDENT-BUILT SATELLITES - The space shuttle Endeavour is due to land Friday, July 31, but before it leaves orbit it will deploy four student-built satellites, all with telemetry downlinks in the 2 meter, or 70 cm, amateur bands. The twin spherical satellites -- named Castor and Pollux -- were designed by students in cooperation with the Naval Research Laboratory as part of the Atmospheric Neutral Density Experiment (ANDE). More (Source: ARRL - Jul 30)
SPACE SHUTTLE STS-127 FLIGHT DAY 15 - The crew of Endeavour completed the last heat shield inspection of the shuttle and spent a large part of the day preparing for their return to the Kennedy Space Center on Friday. The astronauts also unlimbered the shuttle's robotic arm and boom extension that was used for the thermal protection system's inspection. Early reports indicate that the spacecraft is safe for its return home. However, an official clearance won't be given until Thursday when the entry team has reviewed all data from the inspection. More (Source: Examiner.com - Jul 30)
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