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Shuttle Atlantis moved to pad for Hubble launch

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

Buzz Out Loud 938: Dork day afternoon

Ron Richards from iFanboy joins us as we finish today's show with a discussion of "geek" vs. "nerd" and decide "dork" is the next wave. We also talk about a cow that poops money, also known as Jonathan Coulton's business model. And we get mad at AT&T.

Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 938

AT&T working with RIAA http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10203799-93.html

How it works for a real musician http://www.jonathancoulton.com/2009/03/24/payday/

John Mellencamp: Back In The Good Old Days… … Read more

Japanese space underwear set to invade Earth?

For some reason, every time high-tech underwear news hits the Internet, my editors think it's something I need to cover (pun intended). This time, though, it's underwear from space. And it's Japanese underwear from space that lasts up to a week before you have to change it--for better or worse.

According to Reuters, the clothing called J-ware is currently being tested aboard the International Space Station, perhaps to the dismay of Koichi Wakata's fellow astronauts.

The skivvies, developed by textile specialists at Japan Women's University in Tokyo, are meant to absorb moisture, kill bacteria, and … Read more

Microsoft, NASA put universe back on the Web

If you think the new Google Earth update that shows even more about Mars' surface is cool, Microsoft thinks what's it's about to offer is even cooler.

The company, together with NASA, announced on Tuesday plans to make planetary images and data available via the Internet. The two organizations will jointly develop the technology and infrastructure necessary to make NASA content--including high-resolution scientific images and data from Mars and the moon--explorable on Microsoft's online virtual telescope for exploring the universe, called WorldWide Telescope.

The WorldWide Telescope is a Web 2.0 visualization environment that functions as a … Read more

NASA naming contest falls for Colbert prank

If the results of an online poll are any indication, NASA may soon be naming a new wing of the International Space Station, Node 3, after late-night comedian Stephen Colbert.

According to the Associated Press, write-ins for "Colbert" crushed all of NASA's four poll options, pulling in 230,539 votes; the second-place choice, NASA suggestion "Serenity" (a nod to sci-fi hero Joss Whedon) was more than 40,000 votes behind. Writer Dave Barry also threw his hat in the ring, suggesting "Buddy" as the perfect name for Node 3. But he didn't … Read more

AIG, a space shuttle disaster, and creeping risk

Listening to all the fully justified outrage about bonuses getting paid to the employees of AIG who took all the risky bets reminds me of the recriminations and second-guessing after the two space shuttle disasters.

Undoubtedly, if Edward Tufte put his mind to it, he could come up with a fascinating graphic about the data leading up to the collapse of AIG, as he did with the launch decision for the ill-fated space shuttle Challenger. But in the meantime, here are some thoughts based on the extremely thorough and interesting 566-page book, "The Challenger Launch Decision," which I … Read more

Terry Waite speaks for NASA hacker

The Pentagon should thank NASA hacker Gary McKinnon for "exposing the fragility" of U.S. military systems, according to Terry Waite.

Waite, who was held hostage in Lebanon for four years after being kidnapped in 1987, said that McKinnon's motives were "harmless," according to an article by Jack Doyle, a Press Association legal affairs correspondent.

"Gary is clearly a very clever chap," said Waite. "He has that unique ability to find his way through the Internet jungle and enter the inner recesses of the Pentagon. Full marks for his ingenuity. Was Gary … Read more

Systems go for Sunday Shuttle Discovery launch

Update at 4:44 PDT: Space Shuttle Discovery has successfully lifted off as scheduled.

If the weather cooperates--and forecasters predict that it will--Space Shuttle Discovery will take off for the International Space Station on Sunday evening. A hydrogen gas leak delayed a planned launch last week.

NASA said blastoff is scheduled for 7:43 p.m. EDT from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Commander Lee Archambault is set to lead a crew of seven on the STS-119 mission, which is aimed at installing the fourth and final set of power-generating solar arrays to the ISS. The arrays will provide electricity … Read more

Kepler starts mission to detect other Earths

The Kepler spacecraft vaulted away from Cape Canaveral late Friday, boosting a powerful space telescope into orbit around the sun for a $591 million mission to search for Earth-like planets orbiting distant stars.

"I think people everywhere want to know whether, with all the stars out there, do they have planets that are Earth-sized?" said principal investigator William Borucki of NASA's Ames Research Center. "Are Earths frequent or are they rare? And this gives us that answer. It's the next step in mankind's exploration of the galaxy."

The Kepler spacecraft's three-and-a-half-year mission … Read more

Kepler: Finding a 'Goldilocks zone' in the Milky Way

In the vastness of the universe, there are likely to be nearly countless planets. The big question for humans, of course, is whether even a single one of them could support life.

NASA's Kepler satellite, which is scheduled to lift off at 10:49 p.m. EST tonight, is headed out to keep watch on a patch of the Milky Way for at least three and a half years. Unlike the Hubble space telescope, Kepler won't be taking brilliant pictures suitable for framing. Instead, it will look for minute changes in the brightness of stars--some 100,000 of … Read more