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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., May 10 (UPI) -- NASA says space shuttle Atlantis's last crew prepared Monday for pre-launch training in advance of the shuttle's final mission.

NASA has cleared the space shuttle Atlantis for its last planned launch on May 14, the first of three final spaceflights planned for the U.S. space agency's storied space plane fleet. Atlantis is officially set to blast off on May 14 at 2:20 p.m. EDT (1820 GMT) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a 12-day mission to the International Space Station. The shuttle's six-astronaut crew will deliver and install a new Russian science module called Rassvet, which means "Dawn" in Russian. "We're ready to go next Friday," NASA's shuttle program chief John Shannon told reporters Wednesday. "It's been...

Space station Program Manager Mike Suffredini would prefer a summer 2011 flight if NASA moves forward with an extra shuttle mission using orbiter Atlantis. The timing would permit the shuttle to supply the orbiting laboratory with additional scientific hardware and components for the water recovery system that is recycling condensate from the breathing air and urine into drinking water for the six-person crews, Suffredini said May 3. Nonetheless, there is no funding for a mid-2011 extension, and the shuttle program is proceeding with plans to wind up operations late this year, with the launching of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS)...

Good mission.. 2nd time the charm????

This is the Space Shuttle Discovery Landing Live Thread

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.

When America's space shuttle program ends in September, the U.S. will be completely dependent on Russian rockets for launching men and women into space -- and bringing them back. But what will happen to America's astronauts if relations between the U.S. and Russia sour? Until American companies come to market with commercial rockets and launch vehicles to replace the shuttle, the only nation ever to put a man on the Moon won't even be able to put a man into orbit. And that, experts tell FoxNews.com, has the potential to be a "tragic mistake," one that could hold America's astronauts...

Dear Lord Please Don't Let Me Frak Up!!

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...

NASA on Friday cleared space shuttle Discovery for launch on April 5 on one of its final cargo runs to the International Space Station before the fleet is retired later this year. Liftoff of the spaceship and seven astronauts is targeted for 6:21 a.m. EDT (1021 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The shuttle will be carrying a cargo pod filled with science racks and equipment for the space station, which is nearing completion after more than a decade of construction 220 miles (350 km) above Earth. NASA has four flights remaining to finish outfitting the station, a...

A few years ago a company by the name of AirLaunch had a novel idea for a rocket—put it in a C-17 cargo plane and then slide it out the back at high altitude. The rocket would rotate until it was vertical and then fire, heading into orbit. You can watch video of the drop tests. “We examined a wide variety of propellants ranging from storable hypergolics, RP/LOX, to fluorine/deuterium.” That may sound exotic, but Ehrlich joked that “this was a paper study!” Now imagine that instead of a relatively small rocket, there was a much larger rocket, with a...

The chief of NASA's space shuttle program said Tuesday that the agency could technically continue to fly its three aging orbiters beyond their planned 2010 retirement if ordered to do so by President Barack Obama and lawmakers. All it would take would be the extra funding needed to pay for it. Space shuttle program manager John Shannon said NASA spends about $200 million a month on its space shuttle program. That's about $2.4 billion a year that would be required to keep the shuttle flying beyond their 2010 retirement date, he said. "I think the real issue that the agency...

President Obama vowed to defend his plan to mothball NASA's shuttle fleet as the debate over the spacecraft's future turned partisan. The White House said Obama would explain to the country why he believes NASA would get more bang for its space buck by scrapping the shuttle and turning rocket launches over to private contractors in an address slated for April 15th. The shuttle program is slated to end later this year. Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, of Texas, last week slammed Obama's agenda, claiming it would cause the U.S. to take a back seat to other countries in terms...

The Space Shuttle Program’s final flight tank, designated External Tank-138, has completed a critical production milestone at the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility. Lockheed Martin builds the External Tanks in New Orleans where its engineers and technicians mechanically spliced ET-138’s liquid oxygen (LO2)/intertank to the liquid hydrogen (LH2) tank, thus producing “a whole tank” for the first time in the production process. The work is performed in Cell A in the 20-story-tall Vertical Assembly Building, and is the only time during production that the tank is standing upright. Workers also completed foam closeouts on the LH2 to intertank flange. An External...

Well it was a good mission... I'm going to miss those old birds...

Looking out through the brand new observation deck on the International Space Station, this is one room with a helluva view. The vast Sahara Desert can be seen in impressive detail through the array of seven windows more than 200miles above Earth. The windows were opened one by one yesterday, after British-born astronaut Nicholas Patrick and American Robert Behnken removed the launch restraint bolts from each of the seven windows during the third and final spacewalk of the shuttle Endeavour's mission. They tested that each of the shutters worked as these will be needed to protect them from passing space...

Obama's Call to Endeavour Astronauts Gets Awkward Traci Watson Contributor (Feb. 18) -- Astronauts flying in space are used to VIP phone calls that don't always go as scripted, but Wednesday's conversation was probably one of the most awkward. President Barack Obama used his chat with the crews of the space shuttle Endeavour and the International Space Station to declare that he sees space exploration as "so important." "My commitment to NASA is unwavering," Obama said. He emphasized "how proud we are of you ... and how committed we are to continuing human space exploration in the future." A few...

1. 6048x4030 pixels, 4000x2665 pixels, 3024x2015 pixels, 2000x1332 pixels 2. 6048x4030 pixels, 4000x2665 pixels, 3024x2015 pixels, 2000x1332 pixels 3. 6048x4030 pixels, 4000x2665 pixels, 3024x2015 pixels, 2000x1332 pixels 4. 6048x4030 pixels, 4000x2665 pixels, 3024x2015 pixels, 2000x1332 pixels NASA Explains Earth's Colorful Horizon"The orange layer is the troposphere where all of the weather and clouds which we typically watch and experience are generated and contained. This orange layer gives way to the whitish stratosphere and then into the mesosphere. In some frames the black color is part of a window frame rather than the blackness of space." The PhotographerAn Expedition 22...

In a very unique setting over Earth's colorful horizon, the silhouette of the space shuttle Endeavour is featured in this photo by an Expedition 22 crew member on board the International Space Station, as the shuttle approached for its docking on Feb. 9 during the STS-130 mission. Image Credit: NASA

Two astronauts from the US space shuttle Endeavour successfully completed the first phase of installing a new observation deck on the International Space Station Friday, NASA said. A giant robot arm hoisted the Tranquility node and cupola from the shuttle Endeavour's payload bay onto the ISS. The two spacewalkers then completed the first phase of attaching the structure -- built for NASA by the European group Thales Alenia Space in their Turin factory -- onto the orbiting space station.