Video of #STS1 launch #OTD 12 April 1981 At 3:47 you can see @SenBillNelson in the VIP area shouting "GO". I was standing 10 feet away (I was Jerry Brown's advance man) and you can see me in the lower right with the sunglasses on, hands on my hips at 4:17 https://t.co/4Y6G1TN6YI — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) April 12, 2021 #OTD 12 April 1981 I stood in the VIP area at […]

Keith’s note: Looks like Boeing is taking this recruitment drive seriously. Now you can become a member of their official fan club by going to this link and get exclusive content. Of course, to do this you have to sign in with your Facebook account (with all the risks that go with that) or give them your email. By visiting this page Boeing puts a cookie in your browser to […]

NASA Has To Fight The Forgetting, NBC “[Space workers] need the consequent inescapable ache of fear and the gnawing of doubt that keeps asking, over and over, if they’ve covered all angles and done all they can. And if their stomachs do not knot up, and mouths go dry, as they confront such decisions perhaps they need new jobs. They do not need comforting myths about “valuable sacrifices” and “space-is-very-very-hard” […]

NASA JSC Storytelling – Early SSP Programmatic Decisions “Come join us today for the November Session of our Storytelling program. A panel of 5 will chronicle the Early Space Shuttle Programmatic Decisions. The program will focus on the Phase A and B concepts that were studied and how NASA arrived at the conceptual baseline that was developed during the subsequent design and development phases, and the management/organizational approach used during […]

Tree removal for space shuttle arrival tempers excitement, LA Times “… for some residents in South L.A., the excitement of the shuttle rumbling through their neighborhoods quickly faded when they learned that 400 trees will be chopped down to make room for the behemoth. The California Science Center — Endeavour’s final home — has agreed to replant twice as many trees along the route from the shuttle’s docking place at […]

How We Nearly Lost Discovery, Wayne Hale “Now that Discovery is safely delivered to the Smithsonian, I think I can tell the story of how we nearly lost her in July of 2005, and how well intentioned, highly motivated, hard working, smart people can miss the most obvious. … So were we stupid? Yes. Can you learn from our mistake? I hope so.”

NASA Internal Memo: Official Overarching Messages Regarding Shuttle Retirement “* The Bush Administration in 2004 made the decision to end the Space Shuttle program. President Obama extended the program’s life by adding two Space Shuttle launches to the manifest: STS-134, which was funded in the President’s FY 2010 Budget Request; and STS-135 which was funded as part of the agreement that the President reached with Congress for FY 2011 funding. […]

Space Shuttle Discovery Returns From Space For The Last Time “At 11:57 a.m. EST, space shuttle Discovery landed for the final time at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center after 202 orbits around Earth and a journey of 5,304,140 miles on STS-133. Discovery’s main gear touched down at 11:57:17 a.m. followed by the nose gear at 11:57:28 and wheels stop at 11:58:14 a.m. At wheels stop, the mission elapsed time was 12 […]

E.P.A. Plans First Rules Ever on Perchlorate in Drinking Water “The Obama administration announced on Wednesday that it planned to regulate toxic substances in drinking water more strictly and would issue the first limits ever on perchlorate, a dangerous chemical found in rocket fuel that has seeped into groundwater in at least 400 locations.” PERCHLORATE: Occurrence Is Widespread but at Varying Levels; Federal Agencies Have Taken Some Actions to Respond […]

Amid sadness and anger at NASA, a time for gallows humor, Houston Chronicle “As NASA administrator Charles Bolden makes his two appearances on Capital Hill this week, it has become ever more clear that NASA’s Constellation program is going away, despite the protestations of some people in Congress. Constellation, the space program’s next generation of rockets and spacecraft, is managed at Johnson Space Center. Although the mood there is rather […]

The first few secs of video are jumbled – just wait it is perfect after that.

2 December 2003: NASA Names Crew for New Space Shuttle Mission STS-121, NASA “Four NASA astronauts have been chosen to fly on the newly created Space Shuttle mission, STS-121. It is the mission following the Space Shuttle’s Return to Flight.” 1 December 2003: After Columbia, a Picture of Greater Shuttle Vigilance, Washington Post “Engineers have made scant progress in their struggle to develop a repair technique for the exotic composite […]

12 December 2002: Small crack found on Discovery raises concerns about Columbia, Orlando Sentinel “During a standard inspection this week, technicians discovered the crack on a metal ball inside a line that feeds super-cold liquid oxygen to the shuttle’s three main engines.” 12 December 2002: The Last Scientist On The Moon, Rand Simberg, Transterrestrial Musings, Fox News “Now let’s look at reality. The station currently has three astronauts aboard. Most […]

5 October 2001: Shuttle Commercialization All Hands at JSC Editor’s note: Word has it that Ron Dittemore, Space Shuttle Program Manager at JSC, will be holding an all-hands meeting today to discuss “shuttle commercialization”. According to NASA sources, Dittemore will be discussing an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) concept that has been developed that would operate the Space Shuttle program. This concept has been under development for the last 9 months. Dittemore […]

26 October 2000: Shuttle Main Engine Test Investigation Points to Fuel Cell System Contamination, NASA “A detailed review of a Space Shuttle Main Engine test mishap, June 16, at NASA’s Stennis Space Center, MS, has revealed that special tape was left behind inside the engine during processing, contaminating the system.” 26 October 2000: SSME 0523 TEST 902-772 Failure Investigation Final Report (10MB Adobe Acrobat) “In accordance with NPG8621.1H, enclosed is […]

17 December 1999: Protocol 2A.X Contingency Meeting (complete text with attachments) “The parties met on Dec 13 through 17 to discuss the possibility of a contingency mission to ISS to repair the FGB and to extend its on orbit life in the event of a further delay of the SM launch date. RSC-E was represented by L. Gorshkov, NASA by K. Reiley, and KhSC by A. Mikhailov. The following items […]

28 August 1998:  Liquid Flyback Booster Study, What’s New in Program Development Volume 1, Number 3 August, 1998, NASA MSFC 2 July 1998: USA Assumes Responsibility for Three Additional Major Shuttle Contracts, press release, Yahoo 26 May 1998:  Russ Turner Named President & CEO of United Space Alliance, press release, Yahoo 1 February 1998: Safety concerns should prompt close scrutiny of NASA layoffs, A Florida Today Editorial 29 January 1998:  Statement by […]

24 December 1997: Spacehab gets $62 mln in space contracts, Reuters, Yahoo 19 December 1997: Science Fiction-Like Exploits Of The Space Shuttle, USA press release, Yahoo 16 December 1997:  NASA officials criticize space report, UPI, Yahoo 16 December 1997:  Report: space debris threatens shuttle,UPI, Yahoo 16 December 1997:  Tiny deadly space debris seen as threat, Wired, Yahoo 16 December 1997:  Orbital Debris May Pose Significant Risk to the Space Shuttle, Press release, […]

As you know, the Mir station is currently in its twelfth year on orbit, and of course all of its systems are operating beyond their intended service life. Our philosophy on service life is that we assess the impact of failure of any instruments or assemblies, and if such failure poses no threat to crew safety, then we allow them to operate not only for the length of their service […]