End of the Shuttle program

The Shuttle program ended yesterday with the final landing of the Space Shuttle Atlantis.
I've posted about the Shuttle program and the impending cancellation of it before but this time it is done; the shuttles will fly no more and an era has come to an end.

Atlantis landing at Kennedy Space Center for the last time

The Bad Astronomer posted a link to a very nice Shuttle tribute video, which you can see here.

I apologize for the long break from the last post but I became a father for the first time in April and haven't really had the time to post anything since.
I'll try to keep up with the latest in space news again :-)

Shuttle launch tonight

I wrote about the last mission for the Discovery space shuttle November last year.
The launch was cancelled and has been postponed for several months now.
But now all the problems with the external tank have been fixed and the shuttle has been rolled out on the launch pad in preparation for the launch tonight.

The launch will be broadcast live on NASA TV and is scheduled for 22:50 CET tonight (you can see the official countdown clock at the NASA shuttle site).

As I mentioned in the previous post this is going to be the last flight of the Discovery and the third-to-last flight of the entire Shuttle program. Hopefully we can make something else just as cool as this to get more stuff into space.

Pictured: 2 million tons of awesome

Space Shuttle Challenger

25 years ago today the Challenger disaster took the lives of seven American astronauts.

In the back row from left to right: Ellison S. Onizuka, Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Greg Jarvis, and Judy Resnik.
In the front row from left to right: Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, and Ron McNair.

On the 28th of January 1986 the space shuttle Challenger disintegrated only 73 seconds after lift off killing the entire crew of seven.
I won't go into much details about the disaster in this post you can find that elsewhere.

Disaster.

This is merely a post to remember the sacrifices that have been made in order for mankind to begin its journey into space and to honour the brave people who dare venture into space on behalf of all of us even though it may cost them their lives.

The Day of Remembrance (yesterday actually) is an annual event to honour the crews and families that paid the ultimate price;
Apollo 1 (January 27, 1967), Challenger (January 28, 1986) and Columbia (February 1st, 2003).

Picture from 'Red and Rover'

I was 6½ at the time of the disaster but I still remember it vividly. Back then shuttle launches were covered much more intensely on the news so we were all watching.
The destruction of the shuttle really left an impact. Something I'll never forget.

Amazing high def shuttle launch video (with commentary)

I saw a blog post the other day made by astropixie entitled 'understanding the space shuttles' (astropixie is one of the blogs in my blogroll on the right).
It was about a Youtube video uploaded by NASA in December which features a lot of high definition slow motion video taken from the many launch cameras at the shuttle launch site (astropixie links to a lower resolution video, so watch the one below instead).

The video is made by Matt Melis at the Glenn Research Center. One of the best things about the video (apart from the incredible footage) is the fact that Matt and another engineer (Kevin Burke) narrates the video and explains what is going on, mentioning many cool things you might miss if you just watch the video.

The video material is absolutely amazing and the many cameras show the launch from every angle imaginable showing you a lot of cool stuff you didn't know about the launches. The video is composed of footage from three space shuttle missions: STS-114, STS-117, and STS-124.
Do yourself a favour and watch it full screen in HD.



If you liked the video there is another segment, or bonus clips, from the original DVD. They are also narrated by Matt and Kevin but unfortunately they aren't in HD. But the footage is still unbelievable, some of the cameras are more than 30 kilometres away from the launch pad.

Discovery no more

I've written about the end of the space shuttle program before (and talked about the last flight of the shuttle Atlantis here) and last Monday the space shuttle Discovery was supposed to launch for its final flight.

The mission
The main objective of flight STS-133 is to transport the Permanent Multipurpose Module to the ISS, which is going to be a permanent (storage) module attached to the ISS.
It was previously called Leonardo when it was a Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (used to transport supplies and materiel to and from the ISS).

Besides the external module attachment, Discovery is also going to transport a humanoid space robot to the ISS called Robonaut2. Yes, you read that right, a humanoid robot. It's the second generation of the Robonaut project designing robotic astronaut helpers.
It's non-mobile in its current configuration and is designed to be attached to fixed points of the ISS, so it can assist in whatever the astronauts are doing there.
Later models might be more mobile and eventually be able to perform Extra-Vehicular Activities (working on the outside of a shuttle/the ISS/another object in space).

But unfortunately the launch was postponed a couple of times, first because of a vapor leak in the right Orbital Maneuvering System then because of bad weather.
And finally the launch was suspended until November 30th at the earliest because of a hydrogen leak in the Ground umbilical carrier plate.

Discovery
But fear not, Discovery will fly again.
Whenever there has been a major disaster (space shuttle Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003) the 'return to flight'-missions were all flown by Discovery.
It was also the Discovery that launched the Hubble Space Telescope.

The last flight of Shuttle Atlantis

The Shuttle Atlantis launched today on the STS-132 mission.
If you've read some of my previous Shuttle posts (here and here) or if you are following the Shuttle program, you'll now that this is the last flight of the Atlantis. When it lands, it will be decommissioned.
Endeavour and Discovery will have their final flights later this year.

You can see the launch here on youtube


This is truly an end of an era. The shuttles have been in service since the 80's and have given us so much. And now it's all coming to an end. In a couple of weeks when Atlantis comes back down, it will never fly into space again (unless an emergency comes up). How sad is that..

But hopefully we'll get a replacement at some point, something cheap and easily serviceable, so we can send lots of astronauts and more equipment into orbit around the Earth.


I'll sign off again now, I'm very busy writing my Master's Thesis and this was just a quick update on an important subject :)

STS-131 and 3 to go

2 days ago (April 5th) the space shuttle Discovery launched on the 131st Space Shuttle mission.
It's mission, among other things, is to deliver the multi-purpose logistics module Leonardo to the ISS, along with multiple science racks and equipment for use on-board the space station.

That means there are only 3 more shuttle launches scheduled, before the Shuttle program is scrapped. Sadly. The shuttles are cool and have been helping mankind do space science since the 80's, but I guess they are do for retirement, I just wish we had a real replacement ready.

I mentioned the previous launch (STS-130) in another post as it was the last night launch, but STS-131 was launched in the morning, so the sky was still dark at first.
You can see some awesome photos of the launch here (the text is in Danish, but he pictures speak for themselves). The image below (from the above link) shows the plume of smoke from the launch and the Discovery creating contrails over the Atlantic.

After the launch of Discovery (image from http://www.martin.gl)

I've just watched the docking of Discovery to the ISS, in real-time video, on NASA TV. Of course it's too late for you to do the same now, but check it out anyway, or wait until something cool is announced and then watch for that (such as this docking).

Last night launch for the Shuttles

Early this morning (at least in CET) the last night time launch of the shuttles were completed and the final four shuttle launches, before the program is ended, will be daytime launches.

 Last nighttime launch

Click here to see the video of the launch on Youtube (don't forget to select high definition).




The STS-130 mission is really cool, as it delivers the final module for the ISS. The tranquillity module (or Node 3) will, among other things, contain the most advanced life support system ever sent into space, being capable of cleaning water, generating oxygen and storing waste.

You can read more about the shuttle program here.