U.S. astronaut sets spaceflight record By MIKE SCHNEIDER, Associated Press Saturday, June 16, 2007
HOUSTON -- Atlantis was cleared Saturday to return to Earth this coming week after the space shuttle's heat shield was judged capable of surviving the intense heat of re-entry, and a U.S. astronaut reached a milestone with the longest single spaceflight by any woman.
Atlantis is set to land at Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Thursday, although NASA officials were still deciding whether to keep the shuttle at the international space station for an extra day because of a failure of computers that control the station's orientation and oxygen production.
"That's great news," Atlantis commander Rick Sturckow said of the landing plan.
The shuttle's 11-day space station construction mission had already been extended to 13 days so a thermal-protection blanket could be fixed during an unscheduled spacewalk. NASA has been particularly sensitive about the space shuttles' heat shields since the Columbia accident killed seven astronauts in 2003.
Also Saturday, U.S. astronaut Sunita "Suni" Williams set a record for the longest single spaceflight by any woman. Williams, who has lived at the space station since December, surpassed the record of 188 days set by astronaut Shannon Lucid at the Mir space station in 1996.
"It's just that I'm in the right place at the right time," Williams, 41, said when Mission Control in Houston congratulated her on the record. "Even when the station has little problems, it's just a beautiful, wonderful place to live."
Those "little problems" had been considerable in recent days with the computer system failure on the Russian side of the station. Russian cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov got four of six processors on two computers working again on Friday, and on Saturday they got the remaining two on line.
Engineers in Moscow and Houston had not yet conclusively determined what caused the failure, although the leading theory was changes to the electrical system from the space station's growth.
The cosmonauts started turning on systems -- such as an oxygen machine, a water processor and a carbon dioxide remover -- that had been turned off while the computers were down. On Sunday, they planned to test the station's orientation system, which will be the final benchmark for deciding whether the computers work properly and whether the shuttle needs to stay an extra day.
"The bottom line is it appears that the command and control type computers are functioning just fine," said Mike Suffredini, NASA's space station program manager.
In preparation for Tuesday's scheduled undocking of the shuttle, astronauts and cosmonauts spent Saturday moving supplies and trash between the shuttle and station after several days of grueling work.
Friday's tasks had included spacewalks to repair the torn thermal blanket on Atlantis and to retract a 115-foot solar energy wing that will be moved to a different location on the space station.
Williams' former crew mate at the space station, astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, holds the U.S. record for longest continuous stay in space with 215 days. The longest stay in space was 437 days by Russian Valeri Polyakov.Williams' former crew mate at the space station, astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, holds the U.S. record for longest continuous stay in space with 215 days. The longest stay in space was 437 days by Russian Valeri Polyakov. In February, Williams set another record for the most time spent spacewalking by a woman, kicking off a year of achievements by women in space.
In October, U.S. astronaut Peggy Whitson will become the first woman to command the space station. Later that month, Air Force Col. Pam Melroy will become only the second woman to command a space shuttle mission; Eileen Collins was the first, in 1999.
If Whitson and Melroy's time at the space station overlap, it could be the first time there are two female commanders in space at the same time. "The first time we have two female commanders in orbit -- that will be neat," Whitson said.
Almost three decades after the first women joined the astronaut corps in 1978, only 17 of the 94 current active astronauts are women.
Lucid says part of the problem may be the pipeline that delivers pilots to the astronaut corps -- the U.S. military. Women didn't start entering the military service academies until the late 1970s.
"I think it's really great that all of this happening, but obviously, you wonder, why did it take so many years?" asked Lucid, who is in astronaut office management. "At some point, you would like the field to be such that it doesn't make any difference whether you're male or female."
On the ground, Mission Control had its first female flight director in 1985. All three space station flight directors working the current Atlantis mission, and the lead shuttle flight director, are women. Women make up about a third of NASA's 33 flight directors, who are responsible for running the spaceflight missions.
"So many times, the room is filled with female flight controllers," Lucid said. "I just think it's just a wonderful thing that people are getting the chance to do what they're capable of doing."
Heralded by 2 sonic booms, shuttle Atlantis lands in Calif. BY ALICIA CHANG The Associated Press
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — Atlantis and its seven astronauts returned to Earth safely Friday, ending a two-week mission to deliver an addition to the international space station and bring a crew member home from the outpost. Atlantis crossed the Pacific and glided to a stop at 12:49 p.m. PDT on a runway at Edwards Air Force Base in California. NASA managers had hoped to land the shuttle in Florida, but bad weather forced them to abandon that plan. “It’s just great to be back on planet Earth,” Atlantis commander Rick Sturckow said while standing on the tarmac. “There were a lot of challenges on this mission and they were all dramatic. All the solutions worked well.” Atlantis’ return from NASA’s first manned flight of the year was marked by its trademark twin sonic booms that were heard from San Diego to Los Angeles. After deploying its parachute, the shuttle came to rest on the concrete runway under mostly sunny skies. “Welcome back,” Mission Control told Atlantis. “Congratulations on a great mission.” Controllers praised the crew for providing a “stepping stone to the rest of NASA’s exploration plan.” Astronaut Sunita “Suni” Williams returned to Earth on Atlantis after spending more than six months at the space station. She set an endurance record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman at 195 days. During her stay, she also set the record for most time spacewalking by a woman. She told reporters two days before landing that she looked forward to a slice of pizza and walking on the beach with her husband and dog, Gorby. But she was going to miss the space station. “When you’ve been somewhere for six months, it becomes your home and it’s hard to leave,” Williams said. Also returning were pilot Lee Archambault and mission specialists Patrick Forrester, James Reilly, Steven Swanson and Danny Olivas. After touchdown, six of the astronauts stood on the tarmac and examined the shuttle’s underbelly. Only Williams was not present. Archambault said the shuttle was “in great shape.” Atlantis delivered a 35,000-pound addition to the space station and left behind Clay Anderson, who replaced Williams as the U.S. representative at the station.
Patience will finally pay off for educator on shuttle crew BY MIKE SCHNEIDER The Associated Press
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — When former schoolteacher Barbara Morgan leaves Earth on a space shuttle next week, she hopes her students back in Idaho learn a lesson from her 22-year wait to get into orbit: perseverance and patience. That’s what defines teachers, said the astronaut, who is achieving her dream at age 55. Morgan will fly with six other astronauts to the international space station on the shuttle Endeavour, assuming that launch goes forward on Wednesday as planned. The seven arrived at Kennedy Space Center Friday afternoon. Astronaut Alvin Drew noted that the crew was first assigned in 2002. “In the words of the great philosopher poet, Larry the Cable Guy, ‘It’s time to get ’r done,’ ” he joked. The mission comes less than two weeks after an embarrassing report by a panel of medical experts suggested that some astronauts were cleared to fl y after drinking too much, despite concerns raised by flight surgeons and other astronauts. NASA says it’s investigating those claims. The report on astronaut health also called for regular psychological tests. Endeavour commander Scott Kelly said he has already discussed behavior expectations for the upcoming flight. Until the news about possible astronaut drinking, most of the attention in recent weeks has been on the next mission and Barbara Morgan. In 1985, Morgan was chosen from thousands of applicants to be the back-up to teacher-in-space Christa McAuliffe. They trained together at Johnson Space Center in Houston for six months, and it was McAuliffe who was on board Challenger when it blew apart on Jan. 28, 1986. A poorly designed seal in the shuttle’s solid rocket booster was blamed for the disaster that killed her and six astronauts. After the Challenger accident, Morgan returned to teaching grade school students in Idaho, but NASA asked her to stay on as the teacher-in-space designee. She gave speeches and served on a federal task force for women. She helped NASA figure out how to include space in schools’ curricula. And she waited to go to space. NASA struggled with whether to continue the teacher-in-space program or whether to include teachers in the astronaut experience in another way. The agency chose the latter, and in 1998 Morgan was asked to become a full-fledged astronaut. Three other teachers have since joined the astronaut corps. For Morgan, astronaut-educators are just another category of professionals in the astronaut corps. NASA’s original astronauts were test pilots, but the astronaut corps opened up to scientists and engineers during the Apollo program in the late 1960s. Morgan’s duties during the Endeavour mission will include helping to move 5,000 pounds of cargo from the shuttle to the space station and relocating a stowage platform using the shuttle’s robotic arm. “She’s a tough cookie, and I don’t think anything is going to stand in the way of her doing the job that she has been asked to do and that she has been trained well to do,” said crewmate Tracy Caldwell, who was selected in the same astronaut class as Morgan. Space shuttle Endeavour mission specialist Barbara Morgan, front, and mission specialist Alvin Drew Jr. leave the Operation and Checkout Building to perform training exercises at launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Shuttle Endeavour blasts off with schoolteacher aboard BY MARCIA DUNN The Associated Press
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Space shuttle Endeavour roared into orbit Wednesday carrying teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan, who was finally fulfilling the dream of Christa McAuliffe and the rest of the fallen Challenger crew. Endeavour and its crew of seven rose from the seaside pad at 6:36 p.m., right on time, and pierced a solidly blue sky. They’re expected to reach the international space station on Friday. Once Endeavour was safely past the 73-second mark of the flight, the moment when Challenger exploded shortly after the call “Go at throttle up,” Mission Control exclaimed, “Morgan racing toward space on the wings of a legacy.” Immediately after the shuttle reached orbit, Mission Control announced, “For Barbara Morgan and her crewmates, class is in session.” Morgan was McAuliffe’s backup for Challenger’s doomed launch in 1986 and, even after two space shuttle disasters, never swayed in her dedication to NASA and the agency’s onand-off quest to send a schoolteacher into space. She rocketed away in the center seat of the cabin’s lower compartment, the same seat that had been occupied by McAuliffe. McAuliffe’s mother, Grace Corrigan, watched the launch on TV from her home in Massachusetts. “I’m very happy that it went up safely,” she said. “We all send her our love,” she added, her voice breaking. More than half of NASA’s 114 Teacher-in-Space nominees in 1985 gathered at the launch site, along with hundreds of other educators, all of them thrilled to see Morgan continue what McAuliffe began. Also on hand was the widow of Challenger’s commander, who said earlier in the day that she would be praying and pacing at liftoff and would not relax until Morgan was safely back on Earth in two weeks. “The Challenger crew — my husband, private Scobee, the teacher Christa McAuliffe — they would be so happy with Barbara Morgan,” said June Scobee Rodgers. “It’s important that the lessons will be taught because there’s a nation of people waiting, still, who remember where they were when we lost the Challenger and they remember a teacher was aboard.” NASA Administrator Michael Griffin met Tuesday night with several members of the Challenger astronaut families in town for the launch — although not the McAuliffe family — and said they did not seem worried. “They didn’t act like they came to see another tragedy,” he said. “They’re here to celebrate her having a chance to fl y.” Griffin knows NASA could lose another teacher in flight. “Every time we fly I know that we can lose a crew,” he told The Associated Press early Wednesday afternoon. “That occupies a large portion of my thoughts. Unless we’re going to get out of the manned space fl ight business, that thought is going to be with me every time we fly.”
NASA to determine today extent of damage to shuttle BY MARCIA DUNN The Associated Press
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A routine shuttle mission, highlighted by a teacher’s first spaceflight and space station construction, is now overshadowed by a potentially serious gash in Endeavour’s thermal shield. A detailed laser inspection today of the difficult-to-reach area on Endeavour’s belly may send astronauts out to repair the 3-inch wound later in the week. A severe penetration could let in searing gases when the shuttle returns to Earth in a possible replay of the Columbia accident. As a pair of spacewalking astronauts installed a new beam to the international space station on Saturday, engineers back on Earth scrutinized images of the gouge, believed to be the result of a strike by ice at launch. The ice, which would have come from the external fuel tank, is denser than the tank’s insulating foam and even a small piece could cause major damage to the shuttle’s thermal covering. In a scene eerily reminiscent of the foam smack to Columbia four years ago, radar showed a whitish spray or streak emanating from Endeavour’s right side 58 seconds after Wednesday evening’s liftoff. The chairman of NASA’s mission management team was quick to point out that the spray looked much smaller than the one during Columbia’s launch. Nonetheless, the similarities immediately grabbed the attention of mission managers. The 1986 Challenger launch explosion already was at the forefront of everyone’s minds, given the presence of teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan — Christa McAuliffe’s backup — aboard Endeavour. Mission managers promptly ordered a focused inspection of the gouged area for today, using Endeavour’s 100-foot, laser-tipped robot arm and inspection boom. They also had engineers and other experts poring over the radar launch imagery as well as photographs of the damage that were taken by the space station crew right before the shuttle’s docking Friday. The inspection boom and augmented photography became mandatory after the Columbia disaster. Every shuttle crew also has been supplied with a repair kit to handle precisely this type of damage. Today’s inspection will ascertain the depth of the gouge, a vivid white against the surrounding black thermal tiles. If NASA decides a repair is needed, two astronauts will venture out to either cover the gouge with black paint, screw on a plate or squirt goo into the cavity. The damaged area, just a few feet from the right main gear landing door, is subjected to as much as 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit during re-entry. The wings and nose cap get considerably hotter, and any damage there would be even more worrisome. Columbia’s left wing ended up with a hole estimated between 6 inches and 10 inches after being slammed by a wedge of foam shortly after liftoff. Mission managers failed to listen to engineers’ concerns during Columbia’s flight, and no effort was made to check the wing in orbit. Now, everyone’s concern counts, including the astronauts on board. Mission Control notified them once the gouge was discovered Friday and also sent up pictures. Aboard the joined shuttle-station complex, work continued as usual Saturday, with astronauts successfully carrying out the first spacewalk of Endeavour’s mission. Spacewalkers Rick Mastracchio and Dave Williams installed a 2-ton square-shaped beam to the backbone of the station, now stretching 246 feet end to end. The beam, or truss, was delivered by Endeavour along with other station equipment that will be hooked up during at least two more spacewalks in coming days. Astronaut Charles Hobaugh lowered the beam into place, using the space station’s robot arm, as Mastracchio and Williams floated nearby, offering guidance. Once the beam was attached to the station, the spacewalkers bolted it down and hooked up grounding straps, then performed some extra outdoor chores. Midway through the six-hour spacewalk, NASA’s main command-and-control computer aboard the space station mysteriously shut down. The backup automatically kicked in, and the third computer went from standby to backup. Mission Control said the problem did not affect the spacewalk or the health of the station. Even with all the improvements to the fuel tank, NASA has readily acknowledged that it is impossible to launch a shuttle with absolutely no threat of debris. Engineers have focused their efforts on preventing large pieces of foam from coming off the tank, an effort that has mostly paid off. As for ice, technicians have always inspected the fuel tank right before liftoff — the tank is filled with super-cold fuel — but some spots are difficult to see. The chairman of the mission management team, John Shannon, said NASA will review the ice inspection that was carried out before Endeavour took off, to see if anything was missed. Shannon cautioned Friday that space shuttles have safely returned to Earth with thermal tile damage in the past. Almost every mission, if not all, in the 26 years of shuttle flight, in fact, has ended with gouges of at least an inch in the thermal tiles that cover the belly. In one flight, nearly 300 dings that big were recorded. “We have a rich flight history of tile damage, some of which is more significant looking than what we have right here,” Shannon told reporters. “In the past, we didn’t even know we had damage and we flew back home. So what I would tell you is we’re going to do all the work required to understand it ... I would not even venture to guess what the probability is that we would have to go repair this.” NASA hopes to keep Endeavour at the space station for at least seven days and quite possibly a record 10 days. The shuttle is equipped with a new system for drawing power from the station, and mission managers are expected to approve the extra docked days today. In an emergency, Shannon said, Endeavour could remain at the space station for at least two months and a rescue shuttle could be launched as early as October. NASA TV Canadian Space Agency astronaut Dave Williams works outside of the Space Shuttle Endeavour during a space walk on Saturday.
Gee, too bad Ed Kosiur didn't propose that one! If he did, perhaps he may have ended up winning the election! NOT!!
Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil, The Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.
I wonder if the teachers still get paid while they take a 'shuttle trip'. I mean I know school is out, but would they get paid if it were during a school year?
And I do agree with you senders.....it is creepy. I felt that way the day they announced it was a teacher going up. I personally do not know what profession of any of these people. They never really say or elaborate. So why elaborate on the 'teacher thing'?
Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil, The Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.
I wonder if the teachers still get paid while they take a 'shuttle trip'. I mean I know school is out, but would they get paid if it were during a school year?
And I do agree with you senders.....it is creepy. I felt that way the day they announced it was a teacher going up. I personally do not know what profession of any of these people. They never really say or elaborate. So why elaborate on the 'teacher thing'?
She did go back to work for 22years while waiting....she had to do something to pass the time while waiting to 'take up space'...
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Shuttle deeply gouged Tile damage to Endeavour as bad as feared BY JOHN JOHNSON JR. Los Angeles Times
NASA said Sunday that tile damage to the shuttle Endeavour was as deep as feared, adding that the space agency will decide in the next 48 hours whether to send an astronaut out to fix it. Deputy shuttle program manager John Shannon said the damage on the underbelly of Endeavour cuts through two 1.12-inch-thick silica tiles. The only thing shielding the shuttle’s thin aluminum skin from the 2,300-degree heat of re-entry are thin pieces of felt. The felt, about a tenth of an inch thick, is designed to keep the tiles from moving with the surface of the shuttle. They would not provide much heat protection, but if the heating is evenly spread across the entire underbody, it might not be a critical problem. “We would rather not deal with this, but we have prepared for it,” said Shannon, during a briefing at Johnson Space Center in Houston. “I have a lot of confidence that if a repair is required, we could execute it.” Endeavour carries three insulating-tile repair kits: a paint-like wash, a screw-on protective plate, and a putty-like substance known as “the goo.” None has been tried in a real cri- sis, and previous shuttle crews have expressed reservations about trusting their lives to space repairs. Shannon tried to downplay fears that the shuttle and its crew are in danger, stressing that NASA engineers could determine after their analysis that the damage isn’t worth fixing. He said previous shuttle flights have safely returned to Earth with tiles damaged in similar ways. Close-up views of the damaged area was provided Sunday by a boom equipped with a camera and laser. The crew of Endeavour maneuvered the boom remotely, using the International Space Station’s 50-foot arm to manipulate the boom and its sensors. Altogether, five different damage sites on the underbelly were scrutinized. Most were minor and require no further study, Shannon said. The most damaged area has a worrisome flattened area, which could concentrate heat flow, Shannon said. “This is not a long scrape, it’s a localized scoop,” Shannon said. Heat building up in one area is the greatest danger to the shuttle because it might eventually cut into the body of the spacecraft. On the positive side, the damaged area is underlaid by an internal body strut that will provide extra support during re-entry. Also, there are no electronics or other sensitive equipment in the area. Film retrieved from the two solid rocket boosters that helped propel Endeavour to space revealed that the cause of the damage was a chunk of insulating foam that sloughed off the shuttle’s giant external tank near a fuel feed line.
NASA says shuttle can land without repairs CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA decided Thursday that no repairs are needed for a deep gouge in Endeavour’s belly and that the space shuttle is safe to fly home. Mission Control notified the seven shuttle astronauts of the decision right before they went to sleep, putting an end to a week of engineering analyses and anxious uncertainty — both in orbit and on Earth. After meeting for five hours, mission managers opted Thursday night against any risky spacewalk repairs, after receiving the results of one fi nal thermal test. The massive amount of data indicated Endeavour would suffer no serious structural damage during next week’s re-entry.
Complex mission awaits as shuttle crew reaches orbit BY MARCIA DUNN The Associated Press
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Shuttle Discovery and its crew of seven thundered into orbit Tuesday, setting off on the most challenging space station construction mission yet that will pave the way for the arrival of two science labs in a few months. NASA pulled off the on-time launch — the third one in a row — after determining that a small patch of ice on fuel tank plumbing posed no danger. Indeed, most if not all of the ice harmlessly shook loose when the booster rockets and engines ignited. The rain clouds that had been forecast for days stayed away for the late morning launch. “We got lucky today. We could have just as easily gotten unlucky,” said launch director Mike Leinbach. “But as I tell my team, there’s nothing wrong every now and then with a little good luck.” With Discovery safely in orbit, NASA looked ahead to all the work awaiting the astronauts once they arrive at the international space station on Thursday. It is considered the most complicated mission in the nine years of station assembly in orbit. During their 1 1 /2-week station visit, the astronauts must install a live-in compartment that they’re bringing along, relocate a giant girder and set of solar wings, extend those solar wings and radiators, and test a thermal tile repair kit. In all, five spacewalks are planned, which will be the most ever conducted while a shuttle is docked at the station. The three space station residents face even more construction chores after the shuttle leaves, each one of them critical. NASA’s space operations chief, Bill Gerstenmaier, said the two crews face a tremendous series of challenges, but noted, “I can’t think of a better start to this mission than what we got today.” In a historic coincidence, both the shuttle and station have women at the helm. Retired Air Force Col. Pamela Melroy is only the second woman to command a shuttle, and biochemist Peggy Whitson is the first female skipper of a space station. Whitson and Clay Anderson watched Discovery’s launch live on a station computer. Anderson, who will return to Earth aboard Discovery after a five-month expedition, shook a white towel and did a complete backflip once the shuttle reached orbit. At least six pieces of foam insulation came off Discovery’s fuel tank during liftoff, but because that occurred after the crucial fi rst two minutes, the debris posed no risk to the shuttle. “It’s preliminary only, but it did look like a clean ascent,” Mission Control informed Melroy. NASA has paid extra attention to launch debris ever since the 2003 Columbia disaster. A hole in the wing brought down Columbia, the result of a strike by a slab of fuel-tank foam. A much smaller piece of foam broke off a bracket on the fuel tank during the last launch in August, possibly along with some ice, and gouged Endeavour’s belly. More changes were made to Discovery’s fuel tank to prevent dangerous ice buildup from the super-cold propellants. Melroy and her crew will use a laser-tipped inspection boom Wednesday to check Discovery’s vulnerable wings and nose, standard procedure since the Columbia accident. They’ll pay particular attention to three of the 44 panels on the leading edges of Discovery’s wings that may have cracks just beneath a protective coating. Even though NASA’s own safety group wanted to delay the launch, senior managers decided a week ago that wing repairs were unnecessary. Discovery’s primary payload is the Italian-built compartment, about the size of a small bus. An Italian astronaut making his first spaceflight, Paolo Nespoli, is personally delivering the chamber, named Harmony by schoolchildren who took part in a national competition. About 130 of those youngsters were on hand for the launch. Also looking on was “Star Wars” director and writer George Lucas. Flying on Discovery is the lightsaber prop used by the character Luke Skywalker in 1983’s “Return of the Jedi.” Europe and Japan’s laboratories will hook up to Harmony. The European lab, named Columbus, is targeted for a Dec. 6 launch. The Japanese lab should follow in two segments in February and April. NASA is up against a hard 2010 deadline for completing the space station and retiring the three remaining shuttles.
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