Space Shuttle Lands

The space shuttle Endeavour landed in Florida early this morning. The 20-year-old space heap was cobbled together out of spare parts from the 1984-model Discovery and 1985 Atlantis shuttles. Endeavour’s next trip? It’s going to a museum.

So is another spacecraft. George Clinton’s Parliament Funkadelic Mothership is  headed to the Smithsonian. Not the original 1976 stage prop – it went to a junkyard in Maryland — but a mid-Nineties version. That’s right, Endeavour is about the same age as the Mothership.

Space shuttle Atlantis is even older.  First launched in 1985. it will fly again on NASA’s last space shuttle mission in July.

Related:

“Spaceport Opens for Tours,” Monica Drake, New York Times

“Australians create ‘space beer’ for intergalactic tourists,” The Telegraph

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Squid In Space!

When NASA’s space shuttle Endeavour blasts off on mission STS-134 it will carry several non-human passengers. They are cephalopods, squid.

Calamari for cosmonauts? No.  This is part of a controlled experiment that will finally answer the vital scientific question “Hey, what would happen if we launched some squid into Outer Space?”

Space Shuttle Endeavour Back in the Shop

To the disappointment of First Space Fan Barack Obama, NASA scrubbed the launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour Friday afternoon. The 20-year-old spacecraft has some sort of electrical malfunction in the two heaters in auxiliary power unit 1. Or maybe it’s the carburetor.

The Endeavour was kind of jalopy to begin with, anyway. It was cobbled together out of spare parts from the 1984-model Discovery and 1985 Atlantis space shuttles.

 

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Earthquake Shocks Reach Outer Space

 

When the space shuttle Discovery (STS-133) visited the International Space Station (ISS), the Japanese robotic space freighter KOUNOTORI2 was already up there, and the station crew moved it to an alternate location. Discovery left for earth, and the crew moved the freighter back to the original port to continue working.  When the earthquake struck Japan, the Japanese space program’s ground control station at Tsukuba was evacuated due to power failure and shortages of fuel and water.  Photos indicate some interior damage, but there are no reports of injuries. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has  passed control of the space station’s Kibo module to NASA ground facilities in Houston and Huntsville.  The unmanned Japanese supply ship remains at the ISS and scheduled work with it has been postponed.

 

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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NASA Clears Toyota for Takeoff

NASA engineers at Goddard Space Flight Center and the the NASA Engineering and Safety Center examined the Toyota automobile models implicated in episoides of sudden unintended acceleration. So did engineers from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Verdict: no design flaws in the Toyota electronic throttle control. There were no electronic causes of the acceleration episodes.

More:

Rocket to Nowhere

Forget about the Bridge to Nowhere. Congress just funded a dud NASA rocket for half a billion dollars.

That’s the Ares I rocket. It was supposed to launch humans into space. Many of those scarce taxpayer dollars will go to Alliant Techsystems for a solid fuel rocket engine. But NASA cancelled the Ares I, and future manned missions will probably use liquid-fueled vehicles.

Congress just passed a Continuing Resolution with specific language funding the cancelled rocket. Why?The Aries I project is run out of Huntsville Alabama, and Senator Richard Shelby of that state is on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Cupola: Cafe Bella Vista

NASA’s Evel Knievel Memorial Space Stunt Program aims at putting humans in space for the scientific purpose of … putting humans in space. Italy now brings some European sophistication to this effort.

NASA’s idea of “sophistication” was spelling the name of a space shuttle  “Endeavour”  instead of “Endeavor” back in 1987.  Monday morning the same creaking craft hurled aloft with improvements for the International Space Shoppes (ISS).

Europe is opening two new Space Shoppes modules, the utilitarian Tranquility and the stylish Cupola. The latter (pictured above) offers diners scenic space vistas, and will complement the Asian fare of Japan’s austere Kibo Noodle Shop.

With Cupola in place, the ISS Food Court of Nations will be virtually complete. Thank goodness the International Space Toilet was repaired. Twice.

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Astronaut Sex Scandal:Guilty!

Ex-Astronaut Lisa Nowak, who attacked her rival in a love triangle, pleaded guilty today to burglary of a car and misdemeanor battery, avoiding kidnapping and attempted murder charges. Under a plea bargain agreement, she was sentenced to two days in jail (already served) and one year of probation, which she will undoubtedly serve in the company of a literary agent and ghost writer.

On February 5, 2007, Captain Nowak was arrested at the Orlando airport after driving 900 miles non-stop from Houston and pepper-spraying her romantic rival, Air Force Captain Colleen Shipman. Ms. Shipman was the current lover of Ms. Nowak’s old flame, Astronaut William Oefelein.

Nowak’s car contained latex gloves, a wig, a BB pistol and ammunition, pepper spray, a 2-pound drilling hammer, rubber tubing, plastic garbage bags, an 8-inch folding knife, and (apparently) the Astronaut’s friend, Maximum Absorbency Garments (adult diapers). Ms. Nowak denied wearing the diapers on her non-stop 24-hour drive. She also pleaded insanity before taking the plea bargain.

Water on the Moon

Man’s thirst for knowledge led the scientists of the National Aeronautical and Space Administration to ask the question: If we smash a big, heavy object into the Moon, will we find water? The answer: Oh boy! Let’s try!

On October 9th, a bus-sized Centaur booster rocket smacked into a lunar crater at 6.000 miles per hour, sending up a mile-high plume of dust, vapor, and moon-dirt. Yeah! Then the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) analyzed the dirt and vapor, looking for ice cubes before it smacked down. Wow! Man! Worth every penny of the $79 million cost.

So where’s the water? NASA has the data, recorded by nine instruments; they’re working on it. There’s water on the Moon somewhere. India’s Chandrayaan lunar probe just confirmed that. There’s just no dramatic underground lake or anything.

Too bad. Our spy at NASA told us the agency hopes to recoup the mission cost by developing lunar water products (in mission-safe plastic bottles) for prestige retailers. Scientists even have a marketing campaign. Everything is ready.

Everything but the water.

 

Image by Mike Licht (who actually appreciates NASA’s unmanned programs). Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Another Triumph in Space

In the vast human adventure that is the U.S. manned space program, NASA engineers fixed the broken toilet in the International Space Station yesterday, just in time to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the first walk on the lunar surface.