The Space Shot

NASA managers are meeting this week to discuss the impact of ending projects that have been keeping open the possibility of an extension of the shuttle program, which is currently planned to end in 2010.

NASA faces several challenges, including a tight budget, a 2010 deadline to end space shuttle operations, and a lack of concrete political support to fund additional flights or extend the current manifest. In a note to shuttle managers and engineers that was obtained by CBS News, shuttle program manager John Shannon outlined the issues in stark terms:

You have heard me say that 'hope is … Read more

The space shuttle Endeavour, the designated rescue ship for next month's Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission in case something goes awry, was hauled from its processing hangar to the vehicle assembly building at the Kennedy Space Center in Orlando, Fla., early Friday.

Inside the vehicle assembly building, the shuttle will be attached to an external tank and solid-fuel boosters. Rollout to pad 39B is planned for April 17.

The shuttle Atlantis already is mounted atop pad 39A for work to ready the ship for blastoff on May 12, at 10:31 a.m. PDT, on a fifth and final … Read more

Dropping to Earth under a huge parachute, a Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying outgoing space station Commander Mike Fincke, Flight Engineer Yury Lonchakov, and space tourist Charles Simonyi settled to a jarring landing in Kazakhstan on Wednesday after a descent from the International Space Station.

With Lonchakov at the controls, the central descent module of the Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft touched down at 3:16 a.m. EDT northeast of Dzhezkazgan, coming to rest on its side.

Russian recovery forces were staged nearby to assist the returning space fliers, as required, and by 3:30 a.m., all three were resting comfortably … Read more

Outgoing International Space Station Commander Mike Fincke, Flight Engineer Yury Lonchakov, and space tourist Charles Simonyi bid farewell to their station crewmates Tuesday and boarded a Soyuz ferry craft for re-entry and landing Wednesday in Kazakhstan.

Fincke and Lonchakov, launched to the International Space Station on October 12, are wrapping up a 178-day stay off planet as the core members of the lab's 18th full-time crew. Simonyi, a wealthy software developer making his second paid trip to the station, took off March 26 with Expedition 19 commander Gennady Padalka and flight engineer Michael Barratt.

After a busy day of … Read more

Snow and soggy conditions at the primary landing site in Kazakhstan prompted Russian flight planners on Friday to order a 24-hour delay, from April 7 to 8, for the return to Earth of a Soyuz capsule carrying outgoing space station commander Mike Fincke, flight engineer Yury Lonchakov, and space tourist Charles Simonyi.

The mission had been scheduled to conclude with a touchdown on April 7 northeast of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, but the landing zone has been moved to a backup site about 180 miles to the southeast, where conditions may be more favorable. Touchdown now is targeted for 3:15 a.… Read more

The space shuttle Atlantis, bolted to a mobile launch platform atop an Apollo-era crawler-transporter, was hauled to launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday for work to ready the ship for blastoff May 12 on a fifth and final mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.

Originally scheduled for launch on October 14, the long-awaited Hubble overhaul was delayed when one channel of a critical data-processing system unit aboard the telescope failed just two weeks before liftoff. NASA managers decided to replace Hubble's entire science instrument command and data handling unit, or SI/C&DH, to restore redundancy and improve reliability.

But testing a spare ground unit at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., getting it certified for flight, and working the mission back into NASA's shuttle manifest ended up delaying Atlantis and Hubble Servicing Mission 4, or SM-4, for seven months, when all was said and done.

The replacement SI/C&DH was delivered to the Kennedy Space Center on Monday, and Atlantis, attached to an external fuel tank and two solid-fuel boosters, took its first step toward space with a six-and-a-half-hour, 3.2-mile trip from the Vehicle Assembly Building to pad 39A on Tuesday.

Shuttle commander Scott Altman, pilot Gregory C. Johnson, flight engineer Megan McArthur, and spacewalkers John Grunsfeld, Michael Massimino, Andrew Feustel, and Michael Good plan to fly to Kennedy late this week to inspect the replacement computer unit before it is moved to the pad April 18, along with the rest of the Hubble payload, for installation in Atlantis' cargo bay.… Read more