STS-128 looks set to launch tomorrow at 6.36am bst. The weather is reporting at the moment as an 80% chance of favorable conditions.
Remember you can watch the launch live @ www.nasa.gov/ntv
For the best quality feed choose “Other Viewing Options” from the right hand sidebar and then choose “Windows Media” which is the second choice in the list.
Total launch from blast off to orbit usually takes about 10 mins.
Enjoy!
A
For information on the mission see my previous post – here
Not the whole of space, that would take ages but I’ll update you on NASA’s goings on as I haven’t mentioned the space programme in quite a while.
The last mission saw STS-127 blast off on the 15th of July at 6.03pm EDT and delivered the Kibo module to the ISS.
Endeavour set sail on its 23rd mission with the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility and Experiment Logistics Module Exposed Section. The facility provides a type of “front porch” for experiments in the exposed environment, and a robotic arm that is attached to the Kibo Pressurized Module and is used to position experiments outside the station. The mission included five spacewalks.
Nasa.gov
The mission was classed as a total success and was completed with the wheels down of the shuttle on July 31st. Due the delays in getting the shuttle launched (thanks to both weather and technical reasons) the next mission to the the space station was very much in preparation when STS-127 landed.
STS-128 is scheduled for a August 24th Launch at 1.24am EDT, this mission will see Discovery launch on it’s 36th flight since it’s commissioning in 1984 and will see it deliver supplies and a new occupant to the ISS.
Discovery’s flight will deliver supplies and equipment to the International Space Station. Inside
the shuttle’s cargo bay is the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM), a pressurized
“moving van” that will be temporarily installed to the station. The module will deliver science
and storage racks, a freezer to store research samples, a new sleeping compartment and the
COLBERT treadmill. The 13-day mission will include three spacewalks to replace experiments
outside the European Space Agency’s Columbus laboratory, and install a new ammonia storage
tank and return the used one. Ammonia is used to move excess heat from inside the station
to the radiators located outside. Discovery also will deliver a new crew member and bring
back another after almost two months aboard the space station.
Nasa.gov
As this is a night launch, I will repeat what I have said a number of times before, if you can watch this one do… If you never watch another launch so be it, but night launches are something special to see. For the UK residents it’s not a bad time really with the launch at 6.24am BST.
There are also only a few shuttle missions left in the program now with the last targeted to launch on September 16th 2010. This will then lead the way for the Ares launch vehicles and the beginning of the Constellation program to return to the Moon and to go to Mars.
To watch coverage of the Launch on the 24th of August got http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
For more info on STS-127 or STS-128 head to http://www.nasa.gov/missions
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I am currently sitting here in Canada watching Nasa TV live on the internet. Space Shuttle Discovery is set to launch tonight to carry out STS 119. The mission, which is scheduled to last 14 days is Discoverys 36th mission and is set to deliver the final set of solar arrays to the International Space Station (ISS). Once the arrays are installed and operational the ISS will be running at 100% of it’s total power.
The launch is scheduled for 7.43pm EDT (01.43 GMT) which I know for most of you is too late to watch but if you can stay up then do because a night launch is always a special thing to see.
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Unless you have been in a box or stranded on desert island for the past week I am sure you will have heard about the big science experiment going on in Switzerland. You might not have realised that you heard about it, but you probably have.
Let me explain, there is a big science lab in Switzerland called CERN (originally called Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (European Council for Nuclear Research) but the labs were renamed in 1954 to Organisation Européenne pour la Recherche Nucléaire (European Organization for Nuclear Research) it was decided, however to keep the acronym.
This lab has had a colorful past, it is the location where Tim Berners-Lee OM invented the World Wide Web and many other scientific discovery were also made there. This Lab is also home to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) which is the world’s largest and highest-energy particle accelerator complex. The collider is contained in a circular tunnel, with a circumference of 27 kilometres (17 mi), at a depth ranging from 50 to 175 metres underground.
Now this LHC is the centre of all the attention at the moment. Mainly because it was switched on for the 1st time on the 10th of this month. Ok Ok, I can hear you all now "but what does it do" I will try to explain as best I can without getting too technical.
The LHC as the name suggests collides things together, it is intended to collide opposing beams of protons (one of several types of hadrons) with very high kinetic energy. Now a Hadron is a bound state of Quarks and a Quark is a type of physical particle that interacts via all four fundamental forces and that forms one of the two basic constituents of matter. Right that is as technical as I will get, now when those protons collide they will react with each other this, is what the scientists want to measure.
The "big bang" that started the universe was created by protons colliding (spot the correlation) so yes,they are attempting to recreate the "big bang". There is one small issue with the whole process, it has to be done at speed, the protons need to be moving pretty fast to create the same reaction. In-fact they need to be traveling at 99.999999% the speed of light when they collide. That is why they need such a long tunnel to go round before hitting each other. It takes time to get the protons to that speed too, they started the machine on September 10th but they won’t actually start colliding till October.
To give you an idea of how fast they will be traveling when they collide, 1 proton when at full speed will circulate the 27km pipe 11,000 times in a single SECOND!!! I don’t know about you but I cannot even begin to comprehend that sort of speed. Anyway when the proton hits that speed it will be directed directly into another one and all the reactions will be measured and recorded.
It is the single largest science experiment ever in terms of both physical size and monetary size (estimated €6.4billion) and for me it is one of the most exciting. To think that in just under 8 weeks we may well know exactly how the universe was created is astonishing. Ok it’s going to take a while to put all the data together but you get what I mean.
I will post some links below of Items for further reading.
Wikipedia
How Stuff Works http://science.howstuffworks.com/large-hadron-collider.htm
Cern Website http://public.web.cern.ch/public/
When we know more I will post again on this topic.
A
Ok the blogs been quiet, and that’s due to the fact that I have been pretty much rendered useless (more than usual) by my re-occurring back condition. This is the 5th time I have been struck down with it and when it happens it hurts like hell. It’s called Sciatica, and it laid me off my day job for 3 days this time. When it happens sitting at my desk is nearly impossible. The only way to rest it is to lay down and keep pretty still. It sucks but I just have to put up with it.
Anyway enough complaining. I have a HUGE list of things to blog about and I am going to get them done over this weekend.
Stay tuned!
p.s Don’t forget there is a shuttle launch today. All info can be found here
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Ok just a quick post tonight as I am way behind on paper work and it is getting late.
1st; May 25th is set to be the landing day for the Phoenix spacecraft onto the surface of Mars. The spacecraft launched Aug. 4 2007 and Sunday is set to be the culmination of all the hard work to get the craft to the surface. Phoenix will be approaching Mars at about 12,750 miles per hour. After it enters the top of the Martian atmosphere at that velocity, it must use superheated friction with the atmosphere, a strong parachute and a set of pulsing retrorockets to achieve a safe, three-legged standstill touchdown on the surface in just seven minutes.
NASA TV coverage of this starts at 6.30pm Eastern Time (11.30pm UK time Sunday night)
2nd; STS 124 is scheduled for a May 31st lift-off to the international space station. Discovery’s 14-day flight will carry the largest payload so far to the station and includes three spacewalks. It is the second of three missions that will launch components to complete the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Kibo laboratory. The crew will install Kibo’s large Japanese Pressurized Module and Kibo’s robotic arm system. Discovery also will deliver new station crew member Greg Chamitoff and bring back Flight Engineer Garrett Reisman, who will end a three-month stay aboard the outpost.
Launch is scheduled for 5.02pm Eastern (10.02pm UK time) and can be seen live on NASA TV. Tune in up to 6 hours before for the latest news and video from the space center.
Right on with the paper work
A
p.s I have a load of posts to do tomorrow night so keep watching for them!
Space shuttle Endeavour’s STS-123 mission is officially set for launch after getting the “go” from NASA’s Mission Management Team on Sunday. Liftoff from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, is scheduled for 2:28 a.m. EDT (6.28 GMT) Tuesday, March 11.
The crew arrived at Kennedy Space centre in Florida early this morning in preparation for the flight that will deliver the 1st part of the Kibo laboratory and the new Canadian Space agency system Dextre. Dextre is a new two arm robotic system designed to aid building of the space station in it’s final stages of development.
The current weather forecast calls for only a 10 percent chance atmospheric conditions will delay the launch, with the primary concern coming from a slight chance of a low cloud ceiling around Kennedy.
I’ll be getting up for the launch, will you?
If you have never seen a lunch it is a really amazing thing to see, and night launches such as this are even more spectacular. Goto www.nasa.gov for full coverage of the launch via Nasa TV
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Usually I provide good commentary on NASA missions as it is one of my interests, this time though I have been so stacked with other work I didn’t STS 122 was a mission to install the Columbus laboratory to the ISS. This mission was originally scheduled for late last year but after problems with the fuel cutoff sensors in the tank launch did not happen till Feb 7th.
The module was installed perfectly and other spacewalks also went well to do some maintenance to the ISS. There was one anomly to the mission where one of the astronauts became ill during the mission but NASA declined to comment on the nature of the illness. All that was said was that “it was not life threatening”. I guess we’ll never know!
The next Shuttle mission which will see Space Shuttle Endeavour deliver the first section of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Kibo laboratory and the Canadian Space Agency’s two-armed robotic system, Dextre.
Space shuttle Endeavour and the entire flight team are now gearing up for a targeted March 11 launch at 2:28 a.m. EDT.
A
Space shuttle Atlantis’ STS-122 mission to the International Space Station is targeted to launch no earlier than Jan. 2 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The liftoff date depends on the resolution of a problem in a fuel sensor system.
Early Sunday, one of the four engine cutoff, or ECO, sensors inside the liquid hydrogen section of Atlantis’ external fuel tank gave a false reading while the tank was being filled. NASA’s current Launch Commit Criteria require that all four sensors function properly.
The next Shuttle window opens December 30th but NASA do not want to risk flying over the change of the year incase a computer goes bonkers (that is the non technical reasoning).
The Crew heads back to Houston on Sunday evening, before leaving said:
“We want to thank everyone who worked so hard to get us into space this launch window,” the astronauts said in a statement. “We had support teams working around the clock at KSC, JSC, and numerous sites in Europe. We were ready to fly, but understand that these types of technical challenges are part of the space program. We hope everyone gets some well-deserved rest, and we will be back to try again when the vehicle is ready to fly.”
Oh well Roll on January!
Dec. 6, 6:15 p.m. EST: During tanking, two of four LH2 Engine Cutoff (ECO) sensors failed to respond appropriately, which is a Launch Commit Violation. The requirement to proceed calls for 3 of 4. The launch was scrubbed at 9:56 a.m. EST on the recommendation of Launch Director Doug Lyons.
The shuttle Launch was scrubbed today sadly. They are going to look to the next lauch window which is tomorrow at 4.09pm est (9.09pm UK time)
Checkout NasaTV tomorrow from around 8:30pm GMT to see all the build up!
UPDATE: Nasa have now put the next attempt back till Saturday 3.43pm est.
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I have created a sidebar gadget to show NasaTV. I only need 297 more downloads to hit the 20,000 mark! I know shameless plugging but hey it’s my blog!
Also apologies for the sparse posts, I have 4 deadlines due next Friday so have been working like trooper to get everything done!
I plan to get a few churned out this weekend and next week. On my list of things to do is:
Plus breaking tech news that I feel is worth mentioning!
I am honestly trying to get back to regular blogging asap!!
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