Kennedy: Florida snipes at Virginia’s launch market competition, Richmond Times DIspatch “Virginia would never use an environmental study to seek to undermine the recently announced $38 billion American taxpayer-funded civil space rocket booster to launch from Florida’s coast. The Space Florida effort is an abuse of federal environmental law process. Worse still, by seeking to deprive Virginia of space business investment and jobs, Space Florida makes clear its desire to […]

YouTube SpaceLab Lifts Off With Lenovo Aboard “Lenovo ThinkPad laptops have played a critical role aboard dozens of NASA space shuttle missions since 1995 and are currently used by astronauts in critical operations onboard the International Space Station.” Keith’s note: This is not exactly accurate. Lenovo completed its purchase of IBM’s laptop division – the original manufacturer of ThinkPads – in 2005. Only in the past year or so have […]

Former Florida shuttle workers still struggling to find jobs, Orlando Sentinel via Washington Post “NASA officials predict the KSC workforce will number roughly 8,200 next year — about half the 15,000 employed there in 2008. A few hundred contractors are giving the shuttles last rites before they, too, join their former colleagues in a brutal job market.” Kennedy Space Center to build new $300M HQ, Orlando Business Journal “The project […]

Houston delegation wants a new shot at shuttle, Houston Chronicle “The museum does not own the land where it hopes to display the Enterprise, a parking lot across the busy West Side Highway owned by the New York State Department of Transportation. Nor does the museum have the zoning change that would be needed to build and operate a museum on land reserved for industrial manufacturing. “It’s obvious New York […]

Russia declares ‘era of Soyuz’ after shuttle, AFP “Mankind acknowledges the role of American space ships in exploring the cosmos,” it added. But Roskosmos also used the occasion to tout the virtues of the Soyuz (Union) spacecraft, which unlike the shuttle lands on Earth vertically with the aid of parachutes after leaving orbit. It said that there was a simple answer to why the Soyuz was still flying after the […]

NASA Invites Public To “Virtual Dinner” With Final Shuttle Crew “The crew’s All American menu begins with crackers, brie cheese and sausage.” Keith’s note: Brie cheese? Wikipedia says: “Brie is a soft cow cheese named after Brie, the French region from which it originated (roughly corresponding to the modern dpartement of Seine-et-Marne).” Gee, that doesn’t sound “all-American” to me. Duh – why not serve “American cheese”? Wikipedia says: “American cheese […]

Images: STS-135 Crew Arrives in Florida, Ken Kremer, SpaceRef The Last Space Shuttle Crew jeted into the Kennedy Space Center on Independence Day, 2011. From Left: Shuttle Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim.

Into the sunset, Economist “Disasters apart, the shuttle generally succeeded in at least one aspect of its mission: its regular launches (not to mention stunts such as flying a 77-year-old astronaut, and assorted senators and congressmen) made space travel seem routine, almost mundane–which helped to dampen public interest.” The end of the Space Age, Economist “But the shuttle is now over. The ISS is due to be de-orbited, in the […]

NASA Sets Launch Date For Final Space Shuttle Mission “Space shuttle Atlantis’ Commander Chris Ferguson and his three crewmates are scheduled to begin a 12-day mission to the International Space Station with a launch at 11:26 a.m. EDT on July 8, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The STS-135 mission is the final flight of the Space Shuttle Program. The launch date was announced Tuesday at the conclusion of […]

Keith’s note: Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach recently spoke his mind (audio file) as Shuttle Discovery was being prepared for launch – the last time anyone will prepare a Space Shuttle for launch. “We’re all victims of poor policy out of Washington, DC – both at the NASA level and the executive branch of the government. … I’m embarrassed that we don’t have better guidance out of Washington, DC. Throughout […]