Just wanted to share that I was in D.C. this past weekend (May 4-6) and took time to visit Discovery in her new digs. Pictures below:


http://flic.kr/p/bUcfph

Please check them out.

August 2012

STS-213-LF7 is complete and KSC is getting ready for the next launch. This launch will be of an Automated Transfer Vehicle on top of an Ares I. The ATV program has been in development for some time now but is was only fairly recently that any progress was made.

The ATV (which is the same design as the ESA ATVs) was originaly developed to fly logistics to Space Station Helios. For much of the development, NASA could not deside on a launch vehicle. After the...

July 2012

Space Shuttle Endeavour is finally back home after a check up and refit out at the Palmdale Shuttle Factory. She was sent to her birthplace after landing at Edwards AFB at the end of STS-210 in Janurary. She arrived at the Shuttle Landing Facility piggy-backing on the SCA. Her managers at KSC have given her a once over in her OPF and have given NASA the go to put her back into the flight rotation. After a few months of getting ready, she will be launched on STS-212 in October....

June 25 2012

It has been a busy couple of months for NASA's Cape Canaveral. After STS-211 there has been three important launches from the Cape. The first happened on May 8 and was the launch of the first piece of Artemis Program hardware. Artemis is NASA's return to the Moon program and the launch was that of the first in a network of satellites that will help keep crews in lunar orbit and on the surface in contact with Earth. The satellite, LTDRS 1, is a satellite that will map the...

April 20 2012

Space Shuttle Discovery is on pad 39A and ready to launch on her seventh trip to the SSF. On board is the Helios Solar Truss Array bound for the Helios High Orbital Station. Mission duration will be about seven days (+2 for weather).

FD1: Launch/reondezous setup
FD2: OBSS surveys
FD3: approach and docking with SSF
FD4: Robotic Ops/EVA for HSTA-OMV mating
FD5: Launch of OMV to HEO
FD6: Undocking
FD7: Landing-KSC
...