By TonyF on 31 July 2009 at 7:25AM
Flight Day 17 should be homecoming day for Endeavour's astronauts. NASA reports:
Image above: STS-127 Mission Specialist Julie Payette is pictured on the aft flight deck of the Earth-orbiting space shuttle Endeavour. Photo credit: NASA
Space shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to land at Florida's Kennedy Space Center today with a touchdown at 10:48 a.m. EDT. The shuttle would begin its descent from orbit with a deorbit engine firing at 9:42 a.m. Weather conditions at Kennedy are forecast to be favorable for landing, although a slight chance of rain is possible.
A second opportunity exists for a landing in Florida today, beginning with a deorbit engine firing at 11:16 a.m., leading to a 12:22 p.m. touchdown. No other shuttle landing sites are being considered for a landing today. If weather prevents a landing today, alternate landing sites would be called up for Saturday’s landing opportunities.
Thursday, Endeavour Commander Mark Polansky and Pilot Doug Hurley checked out the systems the shuttle will use as it returns home, finding everything in excellent shape. The crew also deployed two pairs of small satellites from canisters in the shuttle’s payload bay.
› Read more
STS-127 Additional Resources
› Mission Press Kit (6.9 Mb PDF)
› Mission Summary (429 Kb PDF)
› Meet the STS-127 Crew
Friday's Landing Day Highlights (all times are listed in EDT)
|
| 5:53 a.m. |
Deorbit preparations begin |
| 7:02 a.m. |
Payload bay door closing |
| 7:15 a.m. |
Mission Control "go" for Ops 3 software transition |
| 8:19 a.m. |
Endeavour astronauts suit up |
| 8:42 a.m. |
Astronauts strap into their seats |
| 8:58 a.m. |
Orbital Maneuvering System engine gimbal checks |
| 9:09 a.m. |
Auxiliary power unit prestart |
| 9:22 a.m. |
Mission Control "go/no-go" decision for the deorbit burn |
| 9:27 a.m. |
Maneuver to the deorbit burn attitude |
| 9:42 a.m. |
Deorbit burn |
| 10:35 a.m. |
Merritt Island, Fla. tracking station acquires signal from Endeavour |
| 10:48 a.m. |
Landing |
Live HD webcast at SpaceVidCast. Landing blog at NASA. Flight Day 15 pics and video are up at the JSC Gallery. More pics and video at KSC. More clips at Space Multimedia. Live video at SFN. Discussion at Nasaspaceflight. Check the links at right for play-by-play and NASA TV.
By Rick on 21 July 2009 at 9:12PM
- Take tours of landing sites, narrated by Apollo astronauts
- View 3D models of landed spacecraft
- Zoom into 360-degree photos to see astronauts' footprints
- Watch rare TV footage of the Apollo missions
http://earth.google.com/moon/
By Rick on 20 July 2009 at 9:57PM
At 10:56 p.m. EDT on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong descended the ladder of the Apollo 11 lunar module, becoming the first man to walk on the moon.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,534129,00.html
Forty years ago this evening, a man walked on the moon for the first time, a moment that will stand for millennia as one of humanity's most remarkable achievements.
By Rick on 20 July 2009 at 9:54PM
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - The U.S. investment in the Apollo space program, which landed men on the moon, paid off handsomely, unlike the $100 billion plowed into the International Space Station, Apollo's pioneering astronauts said on Monday.
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE56J4O020090720?feedType=RSS&feedName=scienceNews&rpc=22&sp=true
By Rick on 16 July 2009 at 1:04PM
The Saga Of the Lost Space Tapes
NASA Is Stumped in Search For Videos of 1969 Moonwalk....As Neil Armstrong prepared to take his "one small step" onto the moon in July 1969, a specially hardened video camera tucked into the lander's door clicked on to capture that first human contact with the lunar surface. The ghostly images of the astronaut's boot touching the soil record what may be the most iconic moment in NASA history, and a major milestone for mankind.
Millions of television viewers around the world saw those fuzzy, moving images and were amazed, even mesmerized. What they didn't know was that the Apollo 11 camera had actually sent back video far crisper and more dramatic -- spectacular images that, remarkably, only a handful of people have ever seen.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/30/AR2007013002065.html
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,533160,00.html
By Rick on 15 July 2009 at 10:11PM
The first man to walk on the moon will not take part in a NASA event celebrating the 40th anniversary of the lunar landing.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/jul/15/neil-armstrong-nasa-apollo-event
By DIRECT2TheMoon on 15 July 2009 at 5:31PM
...and LIFTOFF of Endeavour, completing Kibo and fulfilling Japan's hope for an out-of-this-world space laboratory!
Finally! On the sixth launch attempt, Florida's summer storms held off and allowed Endeavour to launch on a construction and crew-transfer mission to the International Space Station. NASA reports:
Image above: Liftoff of space shuttle Endeavour from Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy SPace Center in Florida. Photo credit: NASA TV
STS-127 Mission Overview
The 16-day mission will feature five spacewalks and complete construction of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory. Astronauts will attach a platform to the outside of the Japanese module that will allow experiments to be exposed to space.
The STS-127 crew members are Commander Mark Polansky, Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialists Dave Wolf, Christopher Cassidy, Tom Marshburn, Tim Kopra and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Julie Payette. Kopra will join the space station crew and replace Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata. Wakata will return to Earth on Endeavour to conclude a three-month stay at the station.
STS-127 Additional Resources
› Mission Press Kit (6.9 Mb PDF)
› Mission Summary (429 Kb PDF)
› Meet the STS-127 Crew
Live HD webcast at SpaceVidCast. Launch clip at YouTube and BBC. Preflight pics are up at CBC, JSC, and Sentinel. Launch blog at NASA. Pics and video at KSC. More clips at Space Multimedia. Live video at SFN. Discussion at Nasaspaceflight. Check the links at right for play-by-play and NASA TV.
Recent Comments