It’s a Unanimous “Go” for Endeavour “The Space Shuttle Program Mission Management Team voted unanimously to proceed toward Endeavour’s scheduled liftoff at 3:47 p.m. EDT Friday. Mike Moses, chair of the Prelaunch Mission Management team, reported that it was a very short meeting and everything is in great shape and ready to go.” NASA Invites 150 Lucky Twitter Followers To Endeavour Launch “NASA invited 150 lucky people to a behind-the-scenes […]

Making Do With a Plywood Spaceship, New York Times “Q. What was your response when NASA announced its decision? A. A shuttle would have been our first choice. I won’t pretend we’re not disappointed, but we’re moving forward. Q. What are the plans for the Space Gallery? A. We will have a full-size mockup of the space shuttle — a full fuselage shuttle trainer. It looks exactly like the shuttle […]

NASA Solicitation: Flight and Payload Intergation Services for Suborbital Reusable Launch Vehicles “This notice is issued by the NASA/DFRC to post a draft RFP via the internet, and solicit responses from interested parties. This document is for information and planning purposes and to allow industry the opportunity to verify reasonableness and feasibility of the requirement, as well as promote competition.”

NASA’s NanoSail-D Satellite Continues to Slowly De-Orbit Earth’s Upper Atmosphere “NASA’s nanosatellite NanoSail-D is slowly descending after successfully orbiting the Earth’s upper atmosphere for 95 days since deploying its 100-square-foot sail on Jan. 20. The small satellite demonstration experiment continues its descent towards Earth, lending key sail data to the design of de-orbit mechanisms for future satellites.” Keith’s note: I love the title of this MSFC press release: just how […]

See Your Exposure with Space Radiation iPhone app “HAMPTON, Va. – Flying somewhere and want to find out your exposure to galactic and solar radiation? A new update to an iPhone app will let you do that. The $1.99 “Space Wx” app provides real-time information about exposure to radiation from solar activity and other sources from space, starting at an altitude of 16,000 feet (5). Exposure levels are broken down […]

NASA Pre-Countdown Update only has Weather as a Potential Issue, SpaceRef “At today’s NASA pre-countdown briefing NASA Test Director Jeremy Graeber said that there currently is no technical issues while a potential severe thunder storm coming through Thursday is the only issue at this time that could delay the shuttle launch.”

Wings In Orbit: An Inside Look at the Shuttle, Aviation Week “Published by the Johnson Space Center and the Government Printing Office, Wings In Orbit is scheduled for an April 8 release through major book stores, including Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble, as well as at http://www.shopNASA.com.” Keith’s 26 April note: This book is finally online. No one at PAO bothered to tell me despite repeated email inquiries and a […]

NASA Hosts Conrad Foundation’s 2011 Spirit of Innovation Awards “Young innovators from across America are invited to solve the challenges of the 21st century by creating breakthrough technologies at the Conrad Foundation’s 2011 Innovation Summit. The Summit will be held at NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., on April 28-May 1, 2011. This year’s categories for team entries are: aerospace exploration, clean energy and cyber security.”

Budget crunch mothballs telescopes built to search for alien signals, Scientific American “The hunt for extraterrestrial life just lost one of its best tools. The Allen Telescope Array (ATA), a field of radio dishes in rural northern California built to seek out transmissions from distant alien civilizations, has been shuttered, at least temporarily, as its operators scramble to find a way to continue to fund it. In an April 22 […]

Transcendence Splashes Down, New York Magazine “It is objectively no small feat, slipping the surly bonds of Earth. But somehow, over its 30 years of existence, NASA’s Space Shuttle program has become roughly as thrilling as the Delta Shuttle. Still, there’s something sad about the end of the program, which will officially shut down after Endeavour’s 25th and final mission, on April 29, and one last there-and-back by Space Shuttle […]