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NASA announced Tuesday the new retirement homes for the four remaining space shuttles --three historic orbiters and the program's test vehicle. The space sh

Today, NASA Director Charles Bolden will head up a commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the Space Shuttle's 1st launch. He will also announce where the 4 remaining shuttles will go. As I understand it, Discovery is already spoken for although I can't remember where it's going. The other 3 shuttle, Atlantis, Endeavour, and the test vehicle Enterprise will go to three lucky museums. The announcement will be carried on NASA TV, as well as on TV stations of cities all over the US who are vying for a Shuttle. Although NASA is headed in a direction it has no...

In the most austere fiscal climate in memory, Congress refuses to be serious about space policy. When the Obama administration proposed cancellation of the overbudget, behind-schedule, underperforming Constellation program a year ago, its decision was hamstrung by wording that Congress had added to legislation that prevented NASA from shutting down any aspect of it. As a result, the space agency, like other government programs, has been forced to continue spending hundreds of million dollars on a program that most, including many in Congress, now agree will not move forward in its present form. The agency has been largely viewed as...

The one. The only. The last

Space shuttle Discovery docked with the International Space Station for the final time at 2:14 p.m. EST Saturday, where it will make a last delivery to the orbiting space lab -- before parking ultimately at a museum. The two spacecraft were flying about 220 miles above western Australia at the time they docked for the 11-day mission to deliver supplies, spare parts, an extra storage module and a humanoid robot assistant to the International Space Station. Two spacewalks are also planned during the shuttle's week-long stay at the orbiting lab. The shuttle and station crews will open hatches and hold...

follow the shuttle as it disappears into the outer atmosphere. This can create some truly stunning footage, especially as the rockets fire and the initial launch happens. On Thursday Discovery got its last ascent into space, but this time instead of just seeing it from the ground, one lucky passenger flight also saw it from the air. The flight was from Orlando, Florida, and it happened to be passing by the Kennedy Space Center just as the launch happened. We’re also lucky that one of the passengers had the sense to pull his camera out and start recording. The footage...

Record crowds by the thousands are expected to turn out Thursday (Feb. 24) to watch NASA's space shuttle Discovery soar to space for the last time. Luckily, a shuttle launch is such a bright spectacle that anyone on Florida's Space Coast can get a decent view. The shuttle is poised to blast off on Feb. 24 at 4:50 p.m. EST (2150 GMT) to make one last delivery trip to the International Space Station.

STS-51-L took off and flew for only 73 seconds on Jan. 28, 1986. I missed the launch -- something I think I tried to watch live back then -- because I was in a classroom somewhere on the Catholic University campus in Washington, D.C. Within minutes after the explosion, the TV was on in the lounge, the usually loud dorm quite. Where were you?

NASA doesn't know yet where it will get the money, but on Thursday the space agency officially added another space shuttle launch to its schedule — the final one for the fleet. The space agency set a target launch date of June 28 for shuttle Atlantis and started preparations for the 135th and last shuttle flight. The four-member crew will take up supplies to the International Space Station and return a faulty pump that has bedeviled engineers. Now three missions remain before NASA retires its shuttle fleet this year. Shuttle Discovery's last mission is slated for Feb. 24, Endeavour's in...

Space shuttle Discovery’s final mission is off until February. NASA managers announced the latest delay for Discovery on Friday. They say they need more time to analyze cracks in the shuttle’s fuel tank. The damage cropped up following a failed launch attempt in early November. Discovery remains on the launch pad, holding a load of equipment for the International Space Station. Officials want to conduct a fueling test to better understand the problem. Officials say they will tentatively aim for a liftoff on Feb. 3. That will result in a postponement for shuttle Endeavour, which had been scheduled to soar...

The final launch of Space Shuttle Discovery will take place no earlier than 3 December. Weather permitting, the launch - originally set for September but postponed to 1 November because the payload was not ready and then to 30 November after a hydrogen leak was discovered while filling the external fuel tank - is now expected at 02:52 Eastern Standard Time. The current launch window will be open until 5 December. The countdown-stopping leak was at the ground umbilical carrier plate, an attachment point between the external tank and a 178mm (7in) pipe that carries gaseous hydrogen safely away from...

NASA managers have targeted space shuttle Discovery's launch for no earlier than Dec. 17. Shuttle managers determined more tests and analysis are needed before proceeding with the STS-133 mission. The launch status meeting planned for Monday, Nov. 29, has been postponed and will be rescheduled. The Program Requirements Control Board reviewed on Wednesday repairs and engineering evaluations associated with cracks on two 21-foot-long, U-shaped aluminum brackets, called stringers, on the shuttle's external tank. Managers decided the analysis and tests required to launch Discovery safely are not complete. The work will continue through next week. The next status review by the...

Preliminary analysis of the space shuttle’s Discovery’s leaking Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate (GUCP) shows a misaligned seal, a NASA spokesman said Nov. 11. “Not to get ahead of the engineering investigation, but they’re analyzing the flight seal, which they found wasn’t aligned properly. The team plans to install a new GUCP ... connectors, seal, etc., by tomorrow,” Kennedy Space Center spokesman Allard Beutel said in an e-mail to Aviation Week. The GUCP leak forced NASA to cancel its Nov. 5 launch attempt of Discovery on the STS-133 mission, an 11-day space station assembly and maintenance mission that will be the...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA discovered cracks in Discovery's fuel tank Wednesday, an added problem that will complicate trying to launch the space shuttle on its final voyage this year.

NASA has postponed the launch of Discovery’s 11-day mission to the International Space Station until no earlier than Nov. 30, following a substantial leak of hydrogen gas at a launch pad vent-line fitting during a Nov. 5 countdown to the orbiter’s 39th and final mission. The leak at the Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate (GUCP), surfaced before 8 a.m. EDT, and the pre-launch Mission Management Team (MMT) initially braced for repairs that would permit another flight attempt on Nov. 8, a day beyond the nominal closing of the launch window. However, it soon became clear that the lack of rapid access...

Well lets try this again...

NASA will Thursday try to launch space shuttle Discovery on its final voyage, although stormy weather could force yet another delay. Mission managers met Wednesday afternoon and into the evening to discuss an electrical problem that forced the latest postponement. They concluded the circuit breaker trouble no longer exists and the shuttle is safe to fly. But forecasters warned there is an 80 per cent chance that thunderstorms will keep Discovery on the pad. Liftoff is scheduled for 3:29 p.m. (1929 GMT).

Well this is live launch thread of the Space Shuttle Discovery..

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Forty years of space history is being demolished at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral as crews worked to begin dismantling historic launch pad 39-B. It is not yet clear when launch pad 39-B will make history again. The pad is one of two used for both the Apollo and Shuttle programs. Shuttle Discovery is prepared for its next flight on the only remaining pad, 39-A, where it is set to launch Monday. The last time pad 30-B was used it launched an Aries 1X, which was to be the rocket to launch astronauts to...

There's still the matter of money. But it looks increasingly likely that NASA will get an extra space shuttle flight. President Barack Obama signed the NASA 2010 Authorization Act into law Monday, following last week's approval by Congress. The measure directs NASA to move forward with an additional shuttle flight, before retiring the fleet. U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson says the funding issue should be resolved once Congress returns to Washington in a lame duck session next month.