News From Space!

NASA Spacecraft Confirms Martian Water, Mission Extended

 http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/jul/HQ_08_195_Phoenix_water.html

FORMER NASA astronaut and moon-walker Dr Edgar Mitchell - a veteran of the Apollo 14 mission - has stunningly claimed aliens exist. And he says extra-terrestrials have visited Earth on several occasions - but the alien contact has been repeatedly covered up by governments for six decades.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24070088-13762,00.html

The first official image of a Russian-European manned spacecraft has been unveiled. It is designed to replace the Soyuz vehicle currently in use by Russia and will allow Europe to participate directly in crew transportation.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7519723.stm

Today marks 39 years since astronauts first walked on the moon. Apollo 11’s Eagle lunar module touched down on the lunar surface on 20 July 1969.

Today is also the 32nd anniversary of Viking 1’s successful landing on the surface of Mars in 1976.

Today is also the 9th birthday of NewsFromSpace!

Moonlighting NASA Engineers Say They’ve Created a Rocket Better Than NASA’s:

By day, the engineers work on NASA’s new Ares moon rockets. By night, some go undercover to work on a competing design….JUPITER.

 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,382261,00.html

Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the Moon, has issued a stark warning that America must invest now in the space agency Nasa, or surrender leadership of space exploration to Russia and China.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/2211940/Buzz-Aldrin-Invest-in-Nasa-to-beat-the-Chinese-to-Mars.html

LOS ANGELES - Scientists believe NASA’s Phoenix Mars lander exposed bits of ice while digging in the soil of the Martian arctic in recent days.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080620/ap_on_sc/phoenix_mars

Shuttle Discovery returned to Florida today from a successful two-week mission to the ISS. NASA reports:

Discovery Lands at Kennedy

Image above: Space shuttle Discovery lands at Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Photo credit: NASA TV

Space shuttle Discovery glided through a clear Florida sky this morning before touching down safely at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 11:15 a.m. EDT. With Commander Mark Kelly at the controls, the shuttle ended two weeks in space that saw the crew install the large Japanese Pressurized Module on the International Space Station. The 36-foot-long cylinder is the largest habitable module on the space station.

Kelly, Pilot Ken Ham and Mission Specialists Karen Nyberg, Ron Garan, Mike Fossum, Greg Chamitoff and Japan’s Akihiko Hoshide launched from Kennedy on May 31. Chamitoff remained on the International Space Station for a six-month mission in space. He replaces Garrett Reisman, who came back with Discovery’s crew.

The crew will remain inside Discovery for about an hour, going through a number of procedures so ground crews can move in and ready the shuttle for its slow trip to its processing hangar.

STS-124 Mission Stats

Image above: Space shuttle Discovery jettisons its drag chute as it rolls down the runway at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Discovery landed on-time at 11:15 a.m. EDT to end the STS-124 mission. Image credit: NASA

Landed: Sat., June 14, 2008, 11:15 a.m. EDT
Landing Site: Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
Mission Elapsed Time: 13 days, 18 hours, 13 minutes, 7 secs

Official Landing Times
Main gear touchdown: 11:15:19 a.m. EDT
Nose gear touchdown: 11:15:30 a.m. EDT
Wheels stop: 11:16:19 a.m. EDT
Total miles: 5.7 million

Live chat at Bad Astronomy. Discussions at Nasaspaceflight. Official NASA landing blog here.

Landing video here. Landing pics at KSC. Discussion here. Status Report #29 here. Check the links at right for play-by-play and NASA TV.