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The primary instrument aboard the Hubble Space Telescope shut down this week, an unwelcome reminder that the observatory's future is tightly tied to NASA's upcoming space shuttle launch... Project managers expect the telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys to be out of commission at least through the end of the month, but have high hopes it eventually will be recovered... If engineers' initial troubleshooting efforts are correct, the problem should be resolved by switching to a backup electronics unit. A circuit on the primary unit is believed to have failed. The backup unit was extensively tested before Hubble was put into...

NASA managers on Saturday picked July 1 to launch the first space shuttle in almost a year for a test-flight mission that will try out inspection methods and repairs that were devised following the Columbia disaster. The launch of the seven crew members aboard Discovery in early July improved the chances that the 12-day mission would be extended by a day to add an important third spacewalk. The launch date was picked after two days of meetings by scores of NASA's top managers and engineers at the Kennedy Space Center. The most contentious debate at the meeting focused on whether...

WASHINGTON - A new spaceship could be ready to replace the nation's aging shuttle fleet by 2011 — three years ahead of schedule — if lawmakers added money to NASA's proposed budget, the head of the space agency told a congressional panel on Tuesday. NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said that date is the earliest the new spaceship, or crew exploration vehicle, could be developed no matter how much money the agency received. Currently, the target date for building a new vehicle is 2014. With his pitch to Congress, Griffin underscored a point he has made previously about completing the spaceship...

Shuttle Program Marks 25 Years 4/11/2006 Lila Campuzano / Signal Staff Writer EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE — The lake bed stretched for miles, a tan, cracked flatness. Monday’s wind couldn’t even lift dust from the expanse, instead rattling a chain-link fence as beige as the clay it bisects. The setting seemed a cliché for loneliness. But 25 years ago the “shore” of Rogers Dry Lake was packed with jubilant, flag-waving masses who came to Edwards Air Force Base to watch — and celebrate — the first space shuttle landing. The enthusiasm of those 200,000 or more shuttle watchers still shone...

As NASA celebrates the 25th anniversary of its first shuttle flight this week, the agency also steels itself for the biggest upheaval since the moon shot days of Apollo in the early 1970s. In just four years the three aging, behemoth space shuttles will be shelved — likely headed to museums. And by 2014, a brand new spacecraft will be flying — one designed to get astronauts to the moon by 2018 and eventually Mars. This wrenching transition will be only the fourth such makeover for the manned space program in the agency's nearly 50-year history. Critics already are grumbling...

“And certainly We gave Moses nine clear signs; so ask the Children of Israel. When he came to them, Pharaoh said to him: Surely I deem thee, O Moses, to be one bewitched. He said: Truly thou knowest that none but the Lord of the heavens and the earth has sent these as clear proofs; and surely I believe thee, O Pharaoh, to be lost.” -Holy Qur’an, Surah 17, verses 101-102 Upon more than one occasion prior to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s departure in 1975, we who were among his family members and Laborers, who sat with him at his...

On Saturday, February 25 at 2:25 pm EASTERN Riding Rockets: The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut Mike Mullane Description: Mike Mullane recounts his experience as a member of the first group of space shuttle astronauts in his memoir "Riding Rockets." On February 1, 1978, the author joined a crew that included the first American woman and the first African American in space. Four of the members would later die as a result of the Challenger disaster. Mr. Mullane details some of the challenges NASA faced with the space shuttle program including how to address the concerns of his...

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...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Twenty years ago, space shuttle Challenger blew apart into jets of fire and plumes of smoke, a terrifying sight witnessed by the families of the seven astronauts and by those who came to watch the historic launch of the first teacher in space. The disaster shattered NASA's spit-shined image and the belief that spaceflight could become as routine as airplane travel. The investigation into the accident's cause revealed a space agency more concerned with schedules and public relations than safety and sound decision-making. Seventeen years later, seven more astronauts were lost on the shuttle Columbia, leading...

One of America's most experienced astronauts has denounced the space shuttle as a deathtrap and accused US space officials of stifling all concerns raised about its safety. The revelation comes as America prepares to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Challenger disaster. Seven astronauts were killed on 28 January 1986, when their shuttle exploded 73 seconds after take-off.

First-Flight Shuttle Ride Aviation Week & Space Technology 01/16/06 author: Col. R. Mike Mullane Jan. 28 marks the 20th anniversary of the 1986 Challenger space shuttle accident that killed NASA astronauts Dick Scobee, Mike Smith, Judy Resnik, Ron McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Hughes corporate payload specialist Greg Jarvis and teacher-in-space Christa McAuliffe. Nearly 18 months before the Challenger accident, the Thiokol solid-rocket boosters used on Discovery's Mission 41D experienced the first major "blow-by" of gases around O-ring seals--the same problem that later doomed Challenger. Former astronaut USAF Col. (ret.) Mike Mullane, a mission specialist on that Discovery flight, describes his experience...

By the Dawn's Early Light on December 7, 1996, Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-80) Lands at NASA's Kennedy Space Center With Impressive Condensation. Photographer National Aeronautics and Space Administration, http://www.NASA.gov Photos KSC-96EC-1336 (above) and KSC-96EC-1334 (below) from NASA's STS-80 Contact Sheethttp://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-80/images/contact80_medium.htmlhttp://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-80/images/contact80_high.html STS-80 Mission Summaryhttp://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-80/mission-sts-80.html

Several lawmakers have warned President Bush in a letter that if NASA doesn't get the budget it seeks for 2007 to 2010, it would have to retire shuttle Atlantis immediately, cutting jobs and gutting the vision for space exploration. The Office of Management and Budget's plan would "under-fund the Shuttle program by $3 billion to $6 billion," a Dec. 9 letter says, leading to "the immediate retirement of the Shuttle Atlantis and a cut from the needed 19 Shuttle missions to between 8 and 11 missions." John Logsdon, director of George Washington University's Space Policy Institute, said a proposal to...

NASA plans to change the space shuttle's external fuel tank again, this time removing a troublesome section of protective foam that broke off during the launch of Discovery last July, the space agency said Thursday. The removal of more foam from the tank and further testing to find the root cause of cracks in the foam could lead to a longer delay until the next shuttle flight, tentatively set for May. But NASA official Bill Gerstenmaier, who is leading the investigation into the foam loss, said that's not necessarily the case. The targeted foam section protects a cable tray that...

NASA’s plan, as of now, is to fly eighteen more shuttle missions to the International Space Station and one to the Hubble Space Telescope before retiring the system at the end of 2010. This assumes a flight rate of about four a year, which is the rough average for the pre-Columbia disaster era. In fact, NASA in at least two of the five years left NASA will have to fly at least five missions a year in order to give themselves a bit of a cushion for unexpected contingencies. The space agency has also given itself some leeway due to...

U.S. Space agency technicians continue their slow, meticulous examination of the space shuttle fleet to eliminate potentially threatening problems that doomed the 2003 flight of Columbia and which appeared on the last mission in July. NASA still hopes to return shuttles to flight next May, but the schedule depends on whether it can minimize the shedding of hard insulating foam from the orbiter's external fuel tank during launch. Processing a space shuttle for flight has always been methodical. Its complex technology assures that. But now work has slowed to a crawl as NASA tries to understand why foam keeps breaking...

Trouble in July a result of problems that also triggered Columbia tragedy, engineers say NASA officials announced Friday they will aim for a May launch of the next shuttle mission after investigators blamed application problems for the potentially deadly foam insulation loss that accompanied Discovery's late July liftoff. The shuttle fleet was grounded by the unexpected shedding of fuel tank insulation as the spacecraft lifted off July 26 on the first mission since the fatal 2003 Columbia accident. Space agency officials outlined a recovery strategy on Friday as an internal engineering team said the foam was most likely loosened by...

Monday, October 3, 2005 NASA Propulsion Strategy Reaches Back While Looking Ahead By Brian Berger Space News Staff Writer The initial propulsion work in support of NASA's bid to return to the Moon and go on to Mars will focus primarily on adapting space shuttle systems and developing methane-fueled engines, a technology with which the United States has little experience. The space shuttle main engine and solid rocket boosters are the basis for two new launchers NASA intends to develop, one for lofting an astronaut-carrying capsule known as the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), and a heavy lifter for Moon-bound cargo...

The White House has approved NASA's plan to replace the nation's aging fleet of winged spaceships with a new generation of vehicles meant to carry human explorers back to the Moon and onward to Mars and beyond, aerospace experts said yesterday. The new rockets and spaceships are a radical departure for the space program, rearranging the components of the space shuttle into a new design expected to be more powerful that the shuttle but also safer. The shuttle has had two fatal accidents in 114 missions. "It's a thumbs-up for NASA to pursue the shuttle-derived vehicle," said John M. Logsdon,...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — With two space shuttle facilities damaged by Hurricane Katrina and hundreds of workers left homeless, NASA is reassessing the prospects of launching another shuttle mission next year. Before the hurricane struck the Gulf Coast last week, NASA had hoped to launch Discovery in March. The storm put those plans in disarray, although NASA officials weren't ready today to officially give up on a spring launch, saying it would be foolish to rule anything in or out. "Right now, we're still addressing what the implications are on the shuttle launch schedule, and if I say I don't...