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Well it was a good mission which means nothing went wrong knowing how the media tends to make a mountain out of a molehill when it comes to NASA.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 19, 2008 – The anticipated landing tomorrow of the space shuttle Atlantis will open the window of opportunity for the U.S. military to shoot down a dying intelligence satellite headed toward Earth, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said today. President Bush has authorized Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to give the shoot-down order, and the secretary received a briefing on the plan today, Morrell said. The secretary is prepared to make that call from the road, if necessary, during his nine-day, around-the-world trip that begins tomorrow, he said. Marine Gen. James E. Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint...

First Landing Opportunity: Wed., Feb. 20, 9:07 a.m EST Kennedy Space Center The crew members of space shuttle Atlantis spent Tuesday getting ready for their return home and the end of the STS-122 mission. The STS-122 astronauts set up the recumbent seat for Mission Specialist Daniel Tani, who joined the crew of Atlantis on the International Space Station. The recumbent seat is a special seat designed to reduce the stress of gravity on those who have spent long periods of time in the weightless environment of space. Tani served as Expedition 16 flight engineer for almost four months. He was...

I saw not only Atlantis and the International Space Station flyover my neighborhood tonight, but I also saw the spy satellite scheduled for missile destruction on Thursday/ Michelle Obama, eat your heart out. This is one proud American.

Space Weather News for Feb. 17, 2008 http://spaceweather.com DOUBLE FLYBY: If all goes according to plan, space shuttle Atlantis will undock from the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday morning, Feb. 18th, at approximately 4:30 am EST. This is good news for sky watchers across North America who will be able to witness a rare double flyby on Monday evening. Atlantis and the ISS will appear as a tight pair of lights, as bright as Jupiter or Venus, gliding in tandem across the twilight sky--an unforgettable sight. Favored cities include Los Angeles, New Orleans, Dallas, Jackson (MS), Pensacola, Philadelphia, Reno,...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The crews of the space shuttle and station said a teary farewell, then sealed the hatches between them Sunday after more than a week of working tirelessly together to build a bigger and better scientific outpost in orbit. Atlantis was scheduled to undock early Monday, its load considerably lighter than when it arrived Feb. 9 with Europe's premiere space laboratory, Columbus. Astronaut Daniel Tani was especially emotional as he left the international space station, his home for the past four months. Before floating into Atlantis for his long-overdue ride home, Tani paid tribute to his mother,...

Drudge has link up that German astronaut is ill. No details, and no news source up yet.

<p>Press conference just concluded (15:31 hrs CDT) today. Very contentious questions about the health of a space-walker, delay of space walk due to illness, and overall health of crew(s).</p>

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - After two months of delay, shuttle Atlantis blasted off Thursday with Europe's gift to the international space station, a $2 billion science lab named Columbus that spent years waiting to set sail. Atlantis and its seven-man crew roared away from their seaside launch pad at 2:45 p.m., overcoming fuel gauge problems that thwarted back- to-back launch attempts in December. The same cold front that spawned killer tornadoes across the South earlier in the week stayed far enough away and, in the end, cut NASA a break. All week, bad weather had threatened to delay the...

This is the official thread of the Space Shuttle Atlantis.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The space shuttle Atlantis is tentatively set to launch February 7 on a mission to the International Space Station carrying the European lab Columbus, NASA said. "The team did a great job to isolate where (the cutting engine sensor) failure were (so that) the failure would not occur again," Bill Gerstenmayer, deputy administrator for space programs told reporters Wednesday. Gerstenmayer said that as "we head for the 7th of February for launch and we continue to follow the radiator retract hose over the next couple of days; there is a lot of work out to be done...

MMT decide to try for a Sunday launch attempt for STS-122 The Mission Management Team (MMT) have concluded their meeting on flight rationale for proceeding with the launch of Shuttle Atlantis on STS-122, deciding to make a launch attempt on Sunday at 3:21pm Eastern, in a one minute launch window. The main reason for waiting an extra day would be to finalize Flight Controller procedures for watching the tank closely during ascent, in the event of ECO (Engine Cut Off) sensors were deemed unreliable. The launch could be delayed longer if those procedures are not finalized.

This the official Space Shuttle Launch live thread.. Note, there is a former professional football player...

NASA managers today cleared the shuttle Atlantis and its crew for blastoff Dec. 6 on a long-awaited flight to attach the European Space Agency's Columbus research lab to the international space station. With commander Steve Frick and pilot Alan Poindexter at the controls, Atlantis is scheduled to lift off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 4:31:44 p.m. next Thursday, roughly the moment when Earth's rotation carries the launch pad into the plane of the space station's orbit. "We have had three outstanding flights of the space shuttle so far this year and we're looking forward to a...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA moved space shuttle Atlantis to its seaside launch pad on Saturday ahead of a planned early December mission to get Europe's first permanent space laboratory into orbit. Riding on top of a 3,000-ton Apollo-era crawler transporter, Atlantis left the Kennedy Space Center's massive assembly building before dawn. The 3.8-mile trek took about five hours. For a change, NASA has time to spare in its campaign to prepare the shuttle for the three-day launch countdown beginning on December 3. Whether the International Space Station will be ready for Atlantis' arrival is another question. Station commander...

EDWARDS AFB - Technical issues delayed Saturday's scheduled departure of Space Shuttle Atlantis from NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. Shuttle officials said technicians ran into difficulty while mounting the shuttle atop the modified 747 that will ferry it to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Atlantis had been "soft-mated" on three supports atop the jet Friday night, but problems with alignment slowed the final lock-down of the connections. "Engineers and technicians are meeting to discuss their options for completing the mounting of the shuttle to the 747," a statement from NASA Dryden said. The joined vehicles could depart as early as...

Let try it again.. The first landing attempt will be at the cape at 2:18 pm est at the Cape. Details of the launch can be found at Spaceflightnow.com.

Well it was a good mission despite the minor setback... The Shuttle will be landing at the Cape at 1:54 pm edt. Details about the landing can be viewed here at Spaceflightnow

Astronaut John (Danny) Olivas used a surgical stapler and some stainless steel pins to tack down a ripped piece of thermal blanket on the tail of the space shuttle Atlantis June 15, easing concerns the damage could endanger the orbiter on re-entry or delay its turnaround on the ground. Mounted in a foot restraint on the shuttle's robot arm, which was extended the full length of the cargo bay, Olivas carefully used his gloved hand to poke the blanket section on the left Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) pod back into place where it had pulled up from an adjacent row...

Hoping for the best, space station commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineer Oleg Kotov hot wired two computers aboard the international space station today that engineers had feared were victims of fatal power supply failures. To everyone's delight, the machines promptly booted up and appeared to be running normally, two more successes in an improbable recovery from crippling computer crashes last week. Two of the three computers making up the Russian segment's guidance, navigation and control computers, along with two of three central control computers, were successfully revived Friday when Yurchikhin and Kotov used jumper cables to bypass suspect surge...

HOUSTON (AP) - Russian cosmonauts on Saturday began turning back on some crucial systems that had been shut down more than four days ago when a computer system on the Russian side of the international space station crashed. The first system turned on was a machine that scrubs carbon dioxide from the air inside the space station. Just a day earlier, Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov were able to get four of six processors on two computers working again by using a cable to bypass a circuit board. It took four days to restore the capability of the computers. “In...

HOUSTON - Russian computers that control the international space station's orientation and supply of oxygen and water have failed, potentially extending the space shuttle's mission — or cutting it short. Russian engineers aren't sure why the computers stopped working. A failure of this type has never occurred before on the space station. The station is operated primarily by the Russian and U.S. space agencies, with contributions from the Canadian, European and Japanese space agencies. "We have plenty of resources, so we have plenty of time to sort this out," said Mike Suffredini, NASA manager of the space station program. But...

Space Shuttle's Left Wing May Be Damaged Meteorite, Space Junk May Have Struck Panels POSTED: 5:13 pm EDT June 12, 2007 UPDATED: 7:00 pm EDT June 12, 2007 Email This Story | Print This Story Sign Up for Breaking News Alerts WASHINGTON -- A meteorite or space junk may have struck Space Shuttle Atlantis' left wing, according to NBC News space correspondent Jay Barbree. NASA recorded a hit on reinforced carbon panels 7 and 8 on the left wing. The panels keep heat from re-entry from burning the spacecraft. ... This is the same area where foam damaged Columbia's left...

his is the official live thread for the Space Shuttle Atlantis.. The shuttle is suppose to launch at 7:38 PM EST. Mission updates can be found at Space Shuttle Atlantis Launch UpdatesIf you can't view the launch on Cable or Satellite you can go to the Nasa site to view launch live. AD ASTRA!!

A sudden, explosive thunderstorm Monday battered the shuttle Atlantis' external fuel tank with wind-driven, golf ball-sized hail, causing extensive damage to the tank's protective foam insulation. NASA managers said today engineers will have to move the shuttle back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for repairs, delaying launch on a space station assembly mission from March 15 to late April. With wind gusts as high as 62 mph at launch complex 39A Monday, early estimates indicated some 7,000 visible hail dings or blemishes in the orange insulation, mostly around the top of the external tank. John Chapman, external tank program manager...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A piece of space debris punched a small hole in one of space shuttle Atlantis' radiator panels during its recent 12-day spaceflight, NASA said on Thursday. Damage from debris has been NASA's top safety issue since the destruction of shuttle Columbia in February 2003, when insulating foam came off the ship's fuel tank during launch and punched a hole in the shuttle's protective heat shield. The radiator damage, which measures slightly more than one-tenth of an inch in diameter, was found during routine post-landing inspections at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA spokeswoman Jessica...

Shuttle Atlantis' payload bay doors have been closed and locked in preparation for today's fiery descent into Earth's atmosphere and landing at Kennedy Space Center. Touchdown is scheduled for 6:21 a.m. EDT.

Cape Canaveral -- The crew of the international space station welcomed Atlantis' six astronauts on board Monday after the space shuttle arrived carrying the first new addition for the orbiting laboratory in more than 3 1/2 years. The hatch between two orbiting spacecraft was opened more than 1 1/2-hours after Atlantis commander Brent Jett eased the space shuttle into the station's docking port at 6:48 a.m. EDT. The shuttle's nearly two-day trip from Earth ended as the two vehicles were passing about 220 miles above the southeastern part of the Pacific Ocean. Atlantis pilot Chris Ferguson, on his first trip...

AP) Early results from an inspection of space shuttle Atlantis using sensors attached to a boom showed no evidence of damage to the shuttle's thermal skin as it soars to the international space station, a flight director said Sunday. "I have not seen a single problem with the vehicle," said flight director Paul Dye. "So far, everything has gone exactly according to plan except for the fact that we're a little bit early." A decision won't be made for a couple of days on whether NASA will use an extra day to do a "focused inspection" on areas of the...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA makes its fifth attempt to get Atlantis off the launch pad at 11:15 a.m. EDT on Saturday. If the mission is scrubbed again, the space agency must abandon for a few weeks its efforts to send the shuttle off on a construction mission at the international space station.

Lets burn this candle!!!!

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA will try to launch the space shuttle Atlantis on Friday after clearing a technical problem with a power generator that forced a two-day delay, officials said on Thursday.The U.S. space agency had planned to launch Atlantis on Wednesday on the first construction mission to the International Space Station since the 2003 Columbia disaster, but a problem in a motor inside one of the shuttle's onboard fuel cells prompted managers to delay the launch.The flight was previously postponed by a lightning strike and a storm."The team came to the conclusion today that the cloud we...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA managers on Wednesday left open the possibility that space shuttle Atlantis would blast off this week on a mission to resume construction of the international space station. NASA managers ruled out a launch attempt on Thursday but said Friday still was a possibility. The decision followed a lengthy meeting over what to do with a problem in the shuttle's electrical power system that forced a scrub on Wednesday. Friday is the last day the U.S. space agency can get Atlantis off the ground before interfering with the planned launch of a Russian Soyuz vehicle on...

FRIDAY, AUGUST 25, 2006 1430 GMT (10:30 a.m. EDT) The shuttle Atlantis' countdown continues to tick smoothly toward launch on a space station assembly mission. Liftoff is targeted for 4:30 p.m. Sunday. The latest forecast calls for a 60 percent chance of favorable weather, improving to 80 percent "go" Monday and Teusday. The concern Sunday is for possible afternoon thunderstorms within the launch area. =================================================

Five hours after starting space shuttle Atlantis on a slow crawl toward its hangar, NASA changed course Tuesday and sent it back to the launch pad, saying the forecast for Tropical Storm Ernesto had improved. Atlantis was almost halfway into the 12-hour journey back to the Vehicle Assembly Building aboard a giant, caterpillar-track platform when NASA reversed course Tuesday afternoon. "The hurricane track has taken it further west to where the winds have diminished and where we can tolerate them at the pad," said NASA spokesman Bill Johnson. Ernesto's peak winds were expected to be less than 79 mph, the...

The shuttle Atlantis' astronauts flew to Florida today to prepare for launch Sunday on a long-awaited flight to restart space station assembly. With forecasters predicting a 70 percent chance of good weather, liftoff from pad 39B is targeted for 4:30 p.m. Sunday. "I hope you can tell by the smiles on our faces that we're very, very happy to finally be here in Florida to start the launch countdown," Commander Brent Jett told reporters at the shuttle runway. "Now there's been a lot of talk in the press lately about NASA being 'back' and I think we would all certainly...

CAPE CANAVERAL - NASA is poised to pick up the countdown to launch of shuttle Atlantis this week after swapping out two suspect bolts securing a key communications antenna inside the ship's cargo bay. The work, which was finished Sunday at Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39B, put NASA in position to start a three-day countdown Thursday. Liftoff of Atlantis and six astronauts remains scheduled for about 4:30 p.m. Sunday. "Everything is looking good," said KSC spokeswoman Tracy Young. Working atop a platform and scaffolding near the top of the shuttle's six-story payload bay, technicians replaced two of the four...

With just 17 or so flights left on the shuttle manifest before the program is terminated in 2010, NASA's three remaining orbiters can only expect to fly about five missions each. As it turns out, NASA now plans to retire Atlantis in 2008, after five flights, rather than put it through a required overhaul and to "fly out" the remaining half-dozen missions on the manifest with Discovery and Endeavour. But shuttle program manager Wayne Hale told Kennedy Space Center employees today that Atlantis will not be given to a museum, at least not right away. Instead, the space shuttle will...

NASA may push back plans to launch its next shuttle mission until March 2006, allowing engineers more time to solve an ongoing foam shedding problem with orbiter external tanks. A September launch attempt of the space shuttle Atlantis and its STS-121 mission – NASA’s second orbiter to fly since the Columbia disaster – is all but out, with space agency officials stating last week that chances were slim they would make the four-day window that opens on Sept. 22. Shuttle managers are discussing whether to push past a brief, four-day launch window in November, and even switch shuttles – launching...