1. Potential Shuttle launch on 13 July.
2. Russian supply ship on course for rendevous with the ISS.CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA returned the space shuttle Discovery to the launch pad Wednesday for the first mission since the Columbia disaster, after replacing the external fuel tank with a new model designed to prevent dangerous ice buildup.
Shuttle managers are aiming for a liftoff as early as July 13.
Discovery's four-mile trek from the assembly building to the launch pad aboard the giant shuttle transporter took more than 10 hours. The morning trip was halted several times because of overheated bearings in the 40-year-old old transporter, and the speed fell below the usual mile per hour.
"A little bit of deja vu — we've done this before, we're doing it again," vehicle manager Stephanie Stilson said as Discovery crept to the pad.
The shuttle team was disheartened when it had to haul Discovery off the pad last month for more work, but understood it was the right thing to do, Stilson said.
"Today was not quite the excitement of the first time, but still, what a great thrill to be back on track, moving in the right direction, getting ready for launch, getting back out to the pad," she said.
Discovery was transported to the pad in April but removed May 26 after NASA determined that potentially deadly pieces of ice could form over an expansion joint on the external fuel tank after the super-chilled fuel was loaded. Managers decided to install a heater at the joint, located along the feed line for liquid oxygen.
Falling chunks of ice could be even more menacing than pieces of the fuel tank's insulating foam, which was responsible for Columbia's destruction during re-entry and the deaths of seven astronauts 2 1/2 years ago. Because of their focus on keeping big chunks of foam from coming off the tank during liftoff, engineers did not realize the ice threat until April.
NASA replaced Discovery's fuel tank with one intended for Atlantis on the second post-Columbia flight, because it was quicker to add a heater to the expansion joint on that second tank. Discovery also got the two booster rockets intended for Atlantis.
Stilson said Discovery should now be the safest shuttle to ever fly, with all the other safety modifications made in the wake of the Columbia catastrophe.
NASA is still assessing the potential danger of ice buildup on brackets on the tank. Options for reducing that risk include using infrared lamps at the pad or putting bags over the brackets.
Discovery's 12-day mission to the international space station is considered a test flight because of all the changes.
Interesting about the nature tapes, I hadn't considered that before.MOSCOW (AFP) - A Progress cargo ship carrying supplies for the International Space Station (ISS) blasted off successfully from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazhakstan, the Russian space agency said.
The unmanned Progress M-53 vessel is carrying more than two and a half tonnes of supplies, mainly water, food and fuel, as well as packages from home for Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalyov and US astronaut John Phillips.
The cargo also included audio tapes with nature sounds for the ISS crew, as they "have positive psychological influence on the cosmonauts who have to work in closed space for half a year," chief of the psychological support team of Russia's biomedical problem institute, Olga Kozerenko, said as quoted by the ITAR-TASS news agency.
The Progress would also deliver several popular movies, both classic and new, and a load of snails from Georgia for a series of scientific experiments.
The space ship is due to dock with the orbiting space station Saturday.
3. Russian replacement for the Soyuz spacecraft.
Great website here about the "<a href="http://www.russianspaceweb.com/kliper.html">Kliper</a>". Lots of history, technical details and some 3d animation of how the new spacecraft would operate.
4. Space probe set for collision with comet Tempel 1.
5. The Wikipedia page about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extrasolar_planet"> Extrasolar planets</a>, with links to the list of stars with confirmed planets, techniques for locating planets, and images taken from the Hubble.Following its launch on January 12, 2005, the Deep Impact spacecraft is currently en-route to Comet Tempel 1. The journey will take 174 days at a cruising speed of 103,000 kilometers per hour (64,000 miles per hour).
Once the spacecraft reaches the vicinity of the comet on July 3, 2005, it will separate into two portions, an impactor and a flyby probe. The impactor will use its thrusters to move into the path of the comet, impacting 24 hours later at a relative speed of 37,000 kilometers per hour.
The impactor has a mass of 370 kilograms and will approach Tempel 1 with a relative speed of 10.2 kilometers per second (6.3 miles per second), thus delivering 1.9 × 1010 joules of kinetic energy, the equivalent of 4.8 tons of TNT.
Scientists believe that the energy of this high-velocity collision will be sufficient to excavate a crater up to 100 meters wide (larger than the bowl of the Roman Colosseum), although the exact size is difficult to predict.
Just minutes after the impact, the flyby probe will pass by the nucleus at a close distance of 500 km, taking pictures of the crater, the ejecta plume, and the entire cometary nucleus. The entire event will also be photographed by Earth-based and orbital telescopes, such as the Hubble.
Like I've said before, I can't get enough of this stuff.
Enjoy.DP
) submerged under the Barents Sea. WOW!