STS-125 CREW TO INSPECT HEAT SHIELD, PREPARE FOR RENDEZVOUS WITH HUBBLE - During their first full day in orbit, the STS-125 crew members will inspect space shuttle Atlantis’ heat shield and prepare for Wednesday’s rendezvous with the Hubble Space Telescope. The crew will use Atlantis’ robotic arm and orbiter boom extension to check out the spacecraft’s underside and the leading edges of its wings. The inspections are conducted to see if any damage occurred to the heat shield during the climb to orbit that began when Atlantis lifted off at 2:01 p.m. EDT Monday from Kennedy Space Center, Fla. More (Source: NASA - May 12)
LIFTOFF! SPACE SHUTTLE ATLANTIS, STS-125 ASTRONAUTS EN ROUTE TO HUBBLE - Space shuttle Atlantis lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida today, rising on twin columns of fire to embark on ST-125, the final shuttle mission to service NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Veteran astronaut Scott Altman is serving as commander, and retired Navy Capt. Gregory C. Johnson will serve as pilot. Mission specialists rounding out the crew are: veteran spacewalkers John Grunsfeld and Mike Massimino, and first-time space fliers Andrew Feustel, Michael Good and Megan McArthur. More (Source: NASA - May 11)
SHUTTLE ATLANTIS READY FOR LIFTOFF - Final preparations are under way for Monday's scheduled launch of the space shuttle Atlantis from Kennedy Space Center in Florida in a repair mission for the Hubble Space Telescope. The countdown timeline is on target, and "Atlantis is ready to fly," said Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, NASA's test director. Preparations for the 2:01 p.m. ET flight will continue throughout the day. The forecast is favorable, according to the shuttle's weather officer, Kathy Winters, who said there's a 90 percent chance the weather will cooperate. More (Source: CNN - May 11)
RESCUE SHUTTLE AT LAUNCH PAD FOR HUBBLE TRIP - In what's expected to be the last time ever, both of NASA's shuttle launch pads are occupied. Atlantis is on one, primed for a flight this coming week to the Hubble Space Telescope. Endeavour sits on the other a mile away for a mission no one wants. Endeavour is on unprecedented standby in case the seven astronauts who go up on Atlantis need to be rescued. Atlantis and its crew are headed into space for one last repair job on the 19-year-old Hubble Space Telescope. It's a venture that was canceled five years ago because it was considered too dangerous. After a more recent delay, the launch finally is scheduled for Monday. More (Source: The Associated Press - May 10)
NASA CLEARS SPACE SHUTTLE ATLANTIS FOR MONDAY LAUNCH TO HUBBLE - After months of delay, NASA cleared space shuttle Atlantis for a Monday launch to the Hubble Space Telescope. Mission managers concluded Saturday that Atlantis is ready to take off on the long-awaited Hubble repair mission, the fifth and final one. Shuttle Endeavour is also in good shape at the other launch pad; it's on standby in case Atlantis is damaged during the flight and its seven astronauts need to be rescued. More (Source: Fox News - May 10)
WEATHER LOOKS GOOD FOR MONDAY SHUTTLE LAUNCH - Final preparations are under way for NASA's planned launch next week of the space shuttle Atlantis to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. The weather looks promising for the shuttle's planned liftoff May 11 at 2:01 p.m. EDT (1802 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral, Fla. More (Source: Fox News - May 9)
ROCKET LAUNCH FROM VIRGINIA SCRUBS A THIRD TIME - This time the countdown got to within 2 minutes and 15 seconds of liftoff, but a low-voltage reading from somewhere inside the Minotaur 1 rocket or its payload last night aborted the count at about 10:43 p.m. It was the third time this week attempts to send five small satellites into orbit from the NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia fell short. The first two attempts were halted by bad weather. More (Source: Maryland Weather - May 9)
ROCKET LAUNCH POSTPONED FOR WEATHER AGAIN - A Minotaur I rocket carrying several satellites that was scheduled to be launched Thursday night has been postponed because of bad weather, according to officials at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport. The launch had been delayed since about 8:30 p.m. for weather because a surveillance aircraft could not take off in the storm to check for any ships downrange of the rocket's flight path, according to the NASA Web site. The launch countdown was stopped at one hour and remained there until the launch was postponed at about 10 p.m. More (Source: The Virginian-Pilot - May 8)
STS-400: 'JUST IN CASE' - When the space shuttle Atlantis blasts off on NASA's final mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope, the shuttle Endeavour and a four-man crew will be standing by for launch on a mission space agency managers hope will never be needed: an emergency rescue flight to bring the Atlantis astronauts back to Earth if heat shield damage or some other problem prevents a safe re-entry. Unlike flights to the International Space Station, the Atlantis astronauts, working in a very different orbit, cannot seek "safe haven" aboard the lab complex if Columbia-class damage is incurred during the climb to space or later, due to impact with space debris. In either case, Endeavour could mean the difference between life and death for Atlantis' crew. More (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com - May 7)
Previous Next
