News From Space!

BEIJING, China (Reuters) — China and Russia will mount a joint effort to explore Mars and one of its moons in 2009, Chinese state media reported on Wednesday following an agreement to boost cooperation between the two ambitious space powers.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/03/28/china.russia.space.reut/

HOUSTON, Texas (AP) — Astronaut apparel has evolved over the decades from 1960s-era aluminum foil-style outfits to the bulky, 275-pound whites now used on jaunts outside the space station. NASA engineers at Houston’s Johnson Space Center are hard at work on updating the look even further.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/03/23/new.spacesuits.ap/

March 13th marks the 226th anniversary of the discovery of planet Uranus. The seventh planet in our solar system, Uranus is the first to be discovered in modern times.  Astronomer William Herschel first observed it in 1781.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) — The hail-damaged fuel tank on space shuttle Atlantis likely will be repaired at the Florida launch site, minimizing the delay for NASA’s first mission of the year, officials said on Monday.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/03/12/space.shuttle.reut/

The launch of two satellites aboard Europe’s heavy-lift launcher, the Ariane 5, is scheduled for tonight between 6:03PM and 6:58PM EDT on 11 March 2007. Yesterday’s launch attempt was scrubbed due to a fault in the water system at the pad.

Note that Arianespace’s website is stating the US Eastern time as if Daylight Saving Time has not started yet. There are new rules for DST in the U.S. and Canada, so instead of GMT-5, we on the East Coast are at GMT-4.

Live video here. More info and live coverage here. Play-by-play here.

The Ariane 5 rocket launch scheduled for today has been scrubbed due to an issue with the “deluge system” which floods the platform with water for cooling and vibration control.

Launch is rescheduled for tomorrow at approximately the same time.

Great Britain’s Ministry of Defence will be launching a new milsat tomorrow. The Skynet-5 bird will lift off aboard an Ariane-5 rocket from the Arianespace site at French Guiana. An Indian TV satellite will also be along for the ride.

Watch the launch live between 5:25PM and 5:58PM (EST) on Saturday, 11 March 2007. 

Will the damaged Shuttle external tank be repaired in time for an April launch, or will it have to be swapped out? NASA reports…

Shuttle Back in Vehicle Assembly Building

03.05.07
Space Shuttle Atlantis has rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building from Launch Pad 39A. The vehicle was roll backed due to hail damage that occurred on the tank during a severe thunderstorm that happened on Feb. 26.

The vehicle was “hard down” inside the Vehicle Assembly Building around 5:49 p.m. on Sunday, March 4.

The hail caused approximately 1,000 to 2,000 divots in the giant tank’s foam insulation and minor surface damage to about 26 heat shield tiles on the orbiter’s left wing.

Further inspection of the tank is necessary to get an accurate appraisal of foam damage and must be done in the Vehicle Assembly Building, where the entire tank can be more easily accessed.

Once an up-close look at the damage is complete, the type of repair required and the time needed for that work can be determined.

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