ATLANTIS SHUTTLE UPDATES - Senior NASA managers, including agency Administrator Mike Griffin, plan to meet late next week to assess the shuttle Atlantis's hail-damaged external tank. Engineers are hopeful the tank can be fixed during a somewhat arbitrarily defined 45-day processing flow that would lead to a launch around May 11. More (Source: spaceflightnow.com - Mar 16)
CHINA TV BROADCASTING SATELLITE - China plans a second attempt at launching a working satellite that can broadcast television directly to homes. To be launched in September or October, Chinasat-9 will provide broadcasts to areas that are home to 98 percent of China's population, the official Xinhua News Agency said. More (Source: baltimoresun.com - Mar 16)
ARIANE-5 SATELLITE LAUNCH A SUCCESS - Sunday's launch of the Ariane-5 ECA rocket went smoothly, with the Ariane-5 deploying the British Defense Ministry's Skynet 5A satellite 26 minutes into the mission, followed four minutes later by India's INSAT 4B satellite. More (Source: sci-tech-today.com - Mar 16)
CHINA FIXES NEW NAVIGATION SATELLITE - Chinese scientists and technicians have fixed a glitch in the recently launched Beidou (Big Dipper) experimental navigation satellite after 60 days of hard work, according to the Xi'an Satellite Control Center. The control center reported that satellite number 4 is once again functioning normally. The Beidou satellites provide all-weather and all-day navigation and positioning information. More (Source: China View - Nov 30)
SHUTTLE 'GO' FOR LAUNCH NEXT WEEK - NASA managers announced Thursday that they would press ahead with the first space shuttle launch of the year next week, three months later than originally planned because of a hail storm that pockmarked the spacecraft's external tank. More (Source: CNN.com - Nov 30)
ROBOT ARM ATTACHES TRUSS TO STATION - STS-117 and Expedition 15 crew members used a robotic arm this morning to attach a new truss segment onto the International Space Station as preparations continued for the start of today's spacewalk. More (Source: NASA - Nov 30)
SHUTTLE MISSION HIT BY FAULTS - Russian computers that control the international space station's orientation and supply of oxygen and water have failed, potentially extending the space shuttle's mission -- or cutting it short. Russian engineers are not sure why the computers stopped working. A failure of this type has never occurred before on the space station. More (Source: CNN.com - Nov 30)
SPACE SHUTTLE ENDEAVOUR LAUNCH POSTPONED 24 HOURS - Liftoff of Space Shuttle Endeavour on the STS-118 mission has been postponed 24 hours. Launch is now scheduled for Aug. 8 at 6:36 p.m. EDT. An earlier leak in Endeavour's crew cabin has been fully resolved. The problem was traced to one of two positive pressure-relief valves that ensure that the cabin does not become over-pressurized. More (Source: NASA - Nov 30)
ASTRONAUTS CONDUCTING STS-118'S FOURTH SPACEWALK - Mission Specialist Dave Williams and Flight Engineer Clay Anderson are working outside the International Space Station. The spacewalk kicked off at 9:17 a.m. EDT and is scheduled to wrap up about 1:47 pm. The orbital duo's scheduled tasks for the shortened spacewalk include the installation an External Wireless Instrumentation System antenna, installation of a stand for the shuttle's robotic arm extension boom and retrieval two containers of the Materials ISS Experiment. More (Source: NASA - Nov 30)
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