By Marc S. Posner
SOAR Magazine

NASA has scrubbed the launch of space shuttle Discovery because of multiple weather violations at the Kennedy Space Center launch site.

The space agency will try again tomorrow to get the orbiter off on STS-128 — a mission that will deliver supplies and a famous treadmill to the International Space Station. The piece of exercise equipment was named after comedian Stephen Colbert.

The name Colbert received the most entries in NASA’s online poll to name the station’s Node 3 module, so NASA named its new space station treadmill the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill, or COLBERT. NASA named the module Tranquility.

Colbert, the host of Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report,” took an interest in the poll and urged his viewers to suggest his name, which received the most entries.

NASA will attempt to launch Discovery and its seven-member crew at 1:10 a.m. EDT
Wednesday, Aug. 26, on a 13-day mission.

Commanded by veteran astronaut Rick “C.J.” Sturckow, the crew also includes Nicole Stott — who is replacing Tim Kopra aboard the the International Space Station. Pilot Kevin Ford and Mission Specialists Patrick Forrester, Jose Hernandez, John “Danny” Olivas and Sweden’s Christer Fuglesang round out the crew.

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. — The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing
Satellite, or LCROSS, successfully completed its most significant
early mission milestone Tuesday with a lunar swingby and calibration
of its science instruments. The satellite will search for water ice
in a permanently shadowed crater at the moon’s south pole.

With the assist of the moon’s gravity, LCROSS and its attached Centaur
booster rocket successfully entered into polar Earth orbit at 6:20
a.m. PDT on June 23. The maneuver puts the spacecraft and Centaur on
course for a pair of impacts near the moon’s south pole on Oct. 9.

“The successful completion of the LCROSS swingby proves the science
instruments are functioning as expected. It is a testament to the
hard work and dedication of the entire team” said Dan Andrews, LCROSS
project manager at NASA’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Field,
Calif. “We are elated at the results from the maneuver and eagerly
anticipate the impacts in early October.”

During its swing by the moon, the spacecraft’s instruments were turned
on and calibrated by scanning three sites on the lunar surface. These
sites were the craters Mendeleev, Goddard C and Giordano Bruno. They
were selected because they offer a variety of terrain types,
compositions and illumination conditions. The spacecraft also scanned
the lunar horizon to confirm its instruments are aligned in
preparation for observing the Centaur’s debris plume.

“Each instrument returned good data that the science team will spend
the next few weeks analyzing,” said Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS project
scientist at Ames. “These data will ensure we are as prepared as
possible for monitoring and interpreting data we receive during
impact.”

LCROSS and its attached Centaur upper stage rocket are now in a long,
looping polar orbit around Earth and the moon. Each orbit will be
roughly perpendicular to the moon’s orbit around Earth and take about
37 days to complete. Before impact, the spacecraft and Centaur will
make approximately three orbits.

LCROSS and the Centaur separately will collide with the moon at
approximately 7:30 a.m. EDT on Oct. 9, creating a pair of debris
plumes that will be analyzed for the presence of water ice or water
vapor, hydrocarbons and hydrated materials. The spacecraft and
Centaur are targeted to impact the moon’s south pole near the Cabeus
region. The exact target crater will be identified 30 days before
impact, after considering information collected by NASA’s Lunar
Reconnaissance Orbiter and observatories on Earth.

Nine hours before impact, about 54,000 miles above the surface, LCROSS
and the Centaur will separate. LCROSS will spin 180 degrees to turn
its science payload toward the moon and fire thrusters to create
distance from the Centaur. The spacecraft will observe the flash from
the Centaur’s impact and fly through the debris plume. Data will be
collected and streamed to Earth for analysis. Four minutes later,
LCROSS also will impact, creating a second debris plume.

The LCROSS mission is providing mission updates on Twitter at:

http://www.twitter.com/lcross_nasa

For more information about NASA’s LCROSS mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/lcross

The Falcoln 1 lifted off at a 8:33 p.m., but SpaceX reported “an anomoly” at 8:37 p.m., PDT. — just seconds after a live video feed of the launch cut off abruptly.

Video of the first Falcon 1 launch also cut off when that vehicle was lost during ascent.

This was the third Falcon 1 launch attempt by SpaceX.

The company said updates would be available on their website.

UPDATE: From SpaceX, “Posted August 2, 2008 - 20:38 PDT

We have heard from launch control that there has been an anomaly. More details will be posted to the website as available.”

Mission Specialists Mike Fossum and Ron Garan today completed a 7-hour, 11-minute spacewalk, the second excursion on STS-124.

The spacewalkers installed two cameras on the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Kibo laboratory. These cameras will be used to judge clearances for the module’s robotic arm.

Garan and Fossum also prepared the laboratory’s top active common berthing mechanism for the attachment of the smaller section of the module, the Japanese Experiment Logistics Module - Pressurized Section, which was delivered during STS-123.

In addition, the two spacewalkers made preparations for a nitrogen tank assembly swap they will make on their third spacewalk. They also removed an external television camera that had a failing power supply.

Fossum also inspected the space station’s port solar alpha rotary joint, or SARJ. Unlike the starboard SARJ, the port SARJ has performed flawlessly. The inspection was done to ensure the port SARJ remains in good condition.

Fossum and Garan exited the space station at 11:04 a.m. EDT, nearly 30 minutes ahead of schedule, to begin the second spacewalk. The excursion ended at 6:15 p.m.

The rest of the station and shuttle crew members continued with work inside the docked complex transferring supplies and equipment, outfitting the interior of Kibo and its robotics console, transferring racks into the new lab and readying for tomorrow’s relocation of the logistics module onto the lab.

The crew is scheduled to go to sleep at 9:32 p.m. and awaken at 5:32 a.m. Friday

Sensor problems persist.

WASHINGTON - NASA’s Web site received a significant multimedia award earlier this month when Adobe Systems Inc., of San Jose, CA, honored the interactive International Space Station Reference Guide with a 2007 Max Award.

“The NASA Web team continually is finding new and innovative ways of making NASA more accessible to the world,” said Ron Ticker, NASA’s manager for space station development and the project’s sponsor. “The Interactive ISS Reference Guide and its recognition is another testament to the team’s success in that endeavor.”

With video and interactive elements, the guide explains the basic operations and physical dimensions of the International Space Station. Astronaut Mike Fincke, who spent six months aboard the station, guides users through the multimedia guide. Fincke explains how the crew works and lives in space, and how the station operates.

The guide also includes 360-degree views of the inside of several space station modules. It will be updated regularly as new elements are added to the station; the first update will be online Oct. 12.

The agency’s web presence takes another leap forward later this year with the rollout of a new design that allows Internet visitors to interact with the agency, create personal bookmark collections and playlists, and navigate and search more effectively.

The space station’s interactive feature can be found at: http://www.nasa.gov/station