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NASA managers met Monday to review preparations for the space shuttle Discovery launch on STS-133, clearing the spacecraft for liftoff Wednesday on what will be its 39th and final flight. It was a quick meeting, with unanimous consent to press ahead with a launch attempt at 3:52 p.m. EDT. “If I wouldn’t have talked about how quickly it was going, it would have gone even faster. We didn’t have any technical issues to discuss,” quips Mike Moses, shuttle launch integration manager at Kennedy Space Center. Over the weekend, technicians plugged helium and nitrogen leaks in the shuttle’s right-side Orbital Maneuvering...

NASA managers cleared space shuttle Discovery for launch at 4:40 p.m. EDT Nov. 1, following a review of weekend repair work to fix a small leak in the flange area of the Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS). “We’re in great shape out at the pad,” Launch Director Mike Leinbach told reporters Oct. 25 following NASA’s Flight Readiness Review for the STS-133 mission, the 39th and final planned mission for Discovery. The replacement of two seals in the OMS flange ate up the four contingency days that had been remaining in the shuttle’s processing schedule, but Leinbach said he saw no reason...

The independent Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel will recommend that NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, the White House and Congress strive for a decision by the end of December whether to launch shuttle Atlantis on an extra mission to the International Space Station in mid-2011, to avoid potential risks associated with workforce uncertainty. The eight-member panel agreed on the recommendation Oct. 22 during its fourth-quarter meeting at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, following two days of fact finding. “You could say this is an administrative issue, but it’s a morale issue, too,” said Joe Dyer, the retired U.S. Navy vice admiral...

With the final crews in training for NASA’s last three space shuttle missions, the number of astronauts in the corps is down to 65 – a 25% drop since last year. NASA plans to keep its roster of astronauts at 65 to support spaces station operations and other programs, including the development of the agency’s Orion deep space capsule and planned commercial crew vehicles, said Jerry Ross, a seven-time shuttle veteran who heads the agency’s Vehicle Integration Test Office, an engineering support team for the Astronaut Office. The 65-member corps does not include nine astronaut-candidates selected last year who are...

NASA space shuttle program managers approved a Nov. 1 launch date for the 11-day STS-133 mission aboard the shuttle Discovery, following a Oct. 6 review of mission preparations. John Shannon, the shuttle program manager, received a unanimous “go” from the team members to continue with launch preparations. NASA will host an agency-wide Flight Readiness Review on Oct. 25 at Kennedy Space Center in Florida to set a formal launch date. The FRR will assess the readiness of the International Space Station as well as Discovery for the STS-133 flight. During the mission, Discovery’s six-member crew will deliver the Permanent Multipurpose...

SNIPPET: "The probe plans to test technology in preparation for an unmanned moon landing in 2012, with a possible manned lunar mission to follow in 2017. China’s other space plans include the launch of the first module of a future space station next year followed by the dispatch of manned spacecraft to dock with it."

Just months after NASA Administrator Charles Bolden drew public attention for claiming his “foremost” directive from the Obama White House was increased outreach to the Muslim world, he’s embarked on a trip this weekend to Saudi Arabia. In early July, Bolden told Al Jazeera network that one of President Obama’s directives for him was “to reach out to the Muslim world and engage with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science and engineering.” Days later, the White House contradicted Bolden’s remarks; Press secretary Robert Gibbs reported that such activities were not among Mr....

Maybe it's the Dog Days of Summer. Perhaps it's the heat -- 102 degrees in Washington -- that's getting to people's heads. But President Obama's latest policy, announced by his NASA administrator, astronaut Charles Bolden, is about to melt down. Speaking on the Arabic language network Al Jazeera, Bolden said Mr. Obama had given him his marching orders for NASA: Get American kids re-inspired to do better in math and science. Work on international cooperation. And perhaps most important: Find ways to "reach out" to the Muslim world to affirm their strong contributions to science and engineering. First, we have...

Priorities: NASA's chief says his mission is not to return us to space but to help the Muslim world feel good about its scientific contributions. The moon we should be landing on should not be crescent-shaped. At a time when the only missile programs in the Arab world, namely in Syria and Iran, are aimed at hitting Israel with chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, NASA administrator Charles Bolden goes on Al Jazeera to tell the Muslim world his "foremost" goal was to make them feel good about their achievements in math, science and engineering.

The two final US space shuttle missions before the shuttle program is phased out will likely be postponed, a NASA spokesperson told AFP on Friday. "It's not official yet but it's very likely," said Allard Beutel, media services chief at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. "The decision will be officially announced July 1st," he said. The US space shuttles are being retired after President Barack Obama opted not to fund a successor program, deciding instead to encourage private spacecraft development. The final two shuttle missions are both to the orbiting International Space Station (ISS). The shuttle Discovery's flight to...

The country that invented the Walkman may be back on track to burnish its image as a technological pioneer. Right now, more than 4.7 million miles from Earth, is a revolutionary spacecraft that could be the future of interstellar travel. Japan's space program, JAXA, confirmed on June 10 they had successfully unfurled the world's first solar sail — a spacecraft that uses the velocity of sunlight to propel it. Then, just three days later, Japan announced what could be an even more impressive accomplishment: a spacecraft that left Earth seven years ago had returned home. Before brilliantly burning up over...

We all love Glenn Beck, but on his Fox News Channel show on Tuesday he said things that left me more shaken than stirred. In summer 1969, Beck said, Americans witnessed the rock concert at Woodstock and American astronauts first landing on the moon. Woodstock he described as dope-smoking hippies rolling erotically in the mud with strangers. The moon landing he described as one of humankind's most impressive achievements. Glenn Beck is right on both counts, as far as he goes. But I was troubled when Beck proclaimed these two events as our choice between two kinds of America. Beck...

Summary Obama is a liar. Pure and simple. I know some of you are offended to hear him called a liar, but he is. He is also a coward for not facing the people whose hopes and dreams for our Human Space Flight Program are being destroyed by this man and his accomplices in Congress and NASA. There is no new Human Space Flight Program. There is just a poorly written Powerpoint, lacking in specifics or even a name, posted on Obama’s teleprompter. No ship, no hardware, no employees, nothing but crap. There is no destination, no idea what NASA...

Competitiveness: The president spent Tax Day reassuring Florida voters that money will keep flowing to NASA. But in space as well as on Earth, we'll be an unexceptional nation. In space, no one can hear you scheme. President Obama's speech at the Kennedy Space Center will never be confused with President Kennedy's clarion call in 1961 to send an American to the moon within a decade. Rather it was an admission that we will now boldly go where no one wants to go.

President Barack Obama on Thursday set out his plan for the future of the U.S. space agency NASA. His vision includes an eventual manned flight to Mars, although not as soon as many Americans had hoped. The president went to Florida's Kennedy Space Center to defend his controversial proposal to change America's course in space. President Obama says he wants American space exploration to "leap into the future," and not continue on the same path. "By the mid-2030s, I believe we can send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to earth, and a landing on Mars will follow,...

America's triumph in space is the greatest achievement of the 20th century. So it makes perverted sense for Obama to destroy our pride in this matchless accomplishment and stage our humiliation before the world.

Did Obama's decision regarding NASA funding serve as a payback to Nancy Pelosi through her husband?

TITUSVILLE, Fla. — They call it Space City, U.S.A. Drive along Highway 50 into Titusville, just across the Indian River from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, and you’ll ... Now, as NASA prepares to ground its shuttle fleet permanently — just four more launches are planned, including one early Monday — Titusville's 45,000 residents are left to wonder what's next. ...this year Obama revealed a 2011 budget with no money allocated for Constellation, effectively canceling Bush’s plan and instead recommending that the focus be on privatized spaceflight. Though Congress still has to OK the measure, Titusville faces the possibility of another...

The men chosen to lead China into outer space are often referred to locally as "superhuman beings" — and not just because they train to cross the final frontier. Would-be taikonauts have to meet near impossible standards that are meant to weed out the less-than-flawless. Chinese astronauts cannot suffer from chronic sore throats or runny noses. They mustn't have food restrictions, strong regional accents, ringworm, cavities or scars. Bad breath, body odor and a snoring problem are all immediate disqualifiers. And if China's spacemen are expected to satisfy an unlikely string of qualifications, so too are its new spacewomen —...

Former Apollo astronauts have expressed dismay at President Barack Obama's decision to cancel the Nasa programme that was intended to return mankind to the Moon. Eugene Cernan, the last man to set foot on the Moon, and Jim Lovell, commander of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission said they were disappointed by the decision to cancel Nasa's Constellation Moon programme. Mr Lovell warned the decision would have "catastrophic consequences" for US space exploration. The pair spoke to the BBC at a private event held at the Royal Soceity in London on Friday evening. They were joined by the first man on...