NASA, confident that they have pinned down the cause of the cracks on the external tank, has set February 24 as the date for Discovery’s launch.
The bright outlook in 2011 for Russia’s space industry.
Not so good news: Nelson suggests NASA might not get a third shuttle flight.
Good news: NASA decides to do more to strengthen the shuttle’s external tank.
Who says there’s a lack of customers for private space? Clark Lindsay, with the help of Trent Waddington, provides a list of the six nations that have signed a deal with Bigelow Aerospace to buy space on the company’s privately-built space stations.
The shooting in Tucson might cause NASA to drop Congresswoman Giffords’ husband as commander of Endeavour’s last mission this spring.
A proposal to revive a project to send a private science probe to an asteroid.
The original project, NEAP, was proposed back in 1997 by the late Jim Bensen of SpaceDev (now Sierra Nevada). Benson wanted to not only do research, but he planned to claim the asteroid as his property upon landing. Though his proposal never flew, it was clearly a forerunner to today’s resurgence of the private space industry, and in many ways kickstarted that resurgence.
December 14 has been set as the target date for the first test launch of Orbital Sciences’s commercial ferry to ISS. Key quote:
The flight is scheduled to include delivery of a token cargo load using Orbital’s first Cygnus visiting vehicle, a service module combined with a pressurized cargo module.
Two old unused Soviet Almaz space stations have been sold to a private company and have arrived in their new home on the Isle of Man. Key quote:
The stations will be initially stored in Jurby, but there plans for research, testing and possible launch into orbit.
For those who do not know, the Almaz station was built in the 1970s by the Soviet Union to do manned military reconnaissance. Two manned Almaz stations were eventually flown, Salyut 3 and Salyut 5. The station hull itself became the fundamental module for all subsequent Soviet/Russian stations, including Mir and ISS.
Today NASA administrator Charles Bolden spoke at the AIAA meeting in Orlando. According to Florida Today, he said two things of interest:
Considering that his administration has done nothing to save the program, and in fact has almost seemed eager to shut it down at times, his sadness seems incredibly insincere and self-serving.
As for his second comment about the shuttle’s safety, I wonder how he knows this, especially since his own engineers are currently struggling to pin down the root cause of the external tank cracks that have delayed the last flight of Discovery, and appear to be a chronic problem that needs to be fixed before any shuttle can once again fly.
Keith Cowing: Reorganization at NASA: More smoke and mirrors.
Don’t plan that honeymoon yet! Long-term space flight may be a problem for human reproduction. Key quote:
If exercise keeps muscles in shape [in space], what countermeasure might astronauts use to maintain reproductive health?
Souza laughed.
“That’s a good question,” he said.
Japan may try to put Akatsuki into orbit around Venus five years from now, rather than six.
NASA engineers think they might have found the root cause of the cracks that have been appearing on the shuttle external tank. The cracks appear on structural units called stringers. Key quote:
“Some material used for the stringers was found to be ‘mottled,’ with a different surface appearance than the standard material. Testing revealed this mottled material had lower fracture toughness than the nominal material and exhibited unstable crack growth. All of the cracks found during tanking as well as cracks fixed during manufacturing were located on stringers made with this mottled material.”
A Playboy topless calendar pin-up that went into lunar orbit on Apollo 12 is up for sale.
Another government-operated business that is losing money: Arianespace is requesting financial aid from the member nations of the European Space Agency to avoid a loss in 2010. This despite the fact that “the current request comes at a time when Arianespace might be expected to be in prime financial health.”
NASA engineers are considering giving Discovery’s external tank the equivalent of a girdle in order to keep it from developing more cracks during launch. Key quote:
If that decision is made, it is unlikely NASA could complete the work, repair the tank’s foam insulation and get Discovery back out to the launch pad in time to support a launch attempt during the next available window, which opens Feb. 3 and closes Feb. 10. Work to beef up all 108 stringers at the top of the intertank almost certainly would delay Discovery’s launch on a space station resupply mission to the next available window, which opens Feb. 27 and closes in early March.
Groovy! The rock music group Muse wants to play music in space, and seems willing to buy the tickets to do it.
According to Wikileaks cables, the United States and Germany plan to develop a secret constellation of spy satellites. Though Germany denies the story, their denial is somewhat puzzling:
German Aerospace Center spokesman Andreas Schuetz said that such a project for a high-resolution optical satellite has been in discussion for the past two years under the name HIROS. “HIROS is neither a spy satellite, nor a secret project,” Schuetz said. He insisted that the project was to be used only for government purposes, “for example crisis management during natural catastrophes and for scientific uses.”
He refused to give any further details, saying the plan was still in the project stage and could not be discussed.
The repairs to the cracks on Discovery’s external tank continue, with the hope for a February 3 launch.
The new colonial movement: China to explore Mars with Russia this year.
Snapped connectors led to the failure last week of India’s GSLV rocket.
Though I have been saying that the Sun’s lack of sunspots the last two years suggests the possibility of that we might be facing an extended period without solar activity, I am not a solar scientist. Today, in a paper published today on the Los Alamos astro-ph website, a solar scientist says just that. Key quote:
One method that has yielded predictions consistently in the right range during the past few solar cycles is that of K. Schatten et al., whose approach is mainly based on the polar field precursor. The incipient cycle 24 [on-going right now] will probably mark the end of the Modern Maximum, with the Sun switching to a state of less strong activity.
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin has sued Topps for using his likeness in their trading cards.
Updated and bumped: The inspections reveal four additional cracks on Discovery’s external tank.
NASA engineers have finished a series of x-ray scans of Discovery’s external tank.
“Zombie” satellite comes back to life.
Russian space officials are fired over rocket failure.
Want to become an astronaut? The private company Astronauts4Hire is taking applications.
As I’ve said, it’s all pork: NASA’s Ares rocket is supposingly dead, but the continuing resolution from Congress requires NASA to spend $500 million more for it.
It is also a mess, but I’ve said that before also!
