CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Space shuttle Atlantis and its crew of seven
astronauts ended an 11-day journey of nearly 4.5 million miles with a
9:44 a.m. EST landing Friday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in
Florida.

The mission, designated STS-129, included three spacewalks and the
installation of two platforms to the International Space Station’s
truss, or backbone. The platforms hold large spare parts to sustain
station operations after the shuttles are retired. The shuttle crew
delivered about 30,000 pounds of replacement parts for systems that
provide power to the station, keep it from overheating, and maintain
a proper orientation in space.

STS-129 Commander Charlie Hobaugh was joined on Atlantis’ STS-129
mission by Pilot Barry Wilmore and Mission Specialists Leland Melvin,
Randy Bresnik, Mike Foreman and Bobby Satcher. Atlantis returned with
station resident Nicole Stott, who spent 91 days in space. This marks
the final time the shuttle is expected to rotate station crew
members.

A welcome ceremony for the astronauts will be held Monday, Nov. 30, in
Houston. The public is invited to attend the 4 p.m. CST event at
Ellington Field’s NASA Hangar 990. Highlights from the ceremony will
be broadcast on NASA Television’s Video File. For NASA TV downlink
information, schedules and links to streaming video, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

With Atlantis and its crew safely home, the stage is set for launch of
shuttle Endeavour on its STS-130 mission, targeted to begin in
February. Endeavour will deliver a pressurized module, known as
Tranquility, which will provide room for many of the space station’s
life support systems. Attached to the node is a cupola, a robotic
control station with six windows around its sides and another in the
center that provides a 360-degree view around the station.

For more about the STS-129 mission and the upcoming STS-130 flight,
visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

STS-129 crew members Melvin, Satcher and Stott are providing mission
updates on Twitter. For their Twitter feeds and other NASA social
media Web sites, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/connect

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

EDWARDS, Calif. — Space shuttle Discovery and its crew of seven astronauts ended a 14-day journey of more than 5.7 million miles with a 5:53 p.m. PDT / 8:53 p.m. EDT landing Friday at Edwards Air Force Base in California. With its characteristic double sonic booms, Discovery touched down on Runway 22L at Edwards at 5:53.25 after almost 14 days in orbit.

The mission, designated STS-128, delivered two refrigerator-sized science racks to the International Space Station. One rack will be used to conduct experiments on materials such as metals, glasses and ceramics. The results from these experiments could lead to the development of better materials on Earth. The other rack will be used for fluid physics research. Understanding how fluids react in microgravity could lead to improved designs for fuel tanks, water systems and other fluid-based systems.

STS-128 Commander Rick Sturckow was joined on the mission by Pilot Kevin Ford, Mission Specialists Pat Forrester, Jose Hernandez, Danny Olivas and European Space Agency astronaut Christer Fuglesang. NASA astronaut Nicole Stott flew to the complex aboard Discovery to begin a nearly three-month mission as a station resident, replacing Tim Kopra, who returned home on Discovery.

Weather concerns prevented the crew from returning to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the primary end-of-mission landing site. In 7-10 days, Discovery will be transported approximately 2,500 miles from California to Florida on the back of a modified 747 jumbo jet. Once at Kennedy, Discovery will be separated from the aircraft to begin processing for its next flight, targeted for March 2010.

In addition to carrying a new station crew member, Discovery and the crew also delivered a new sleeping compartment, an air purification system and a treadmill named after comedian Stephen Colbert. The mission included three spacewalks that replaced experiments outside the European Space Agency’s Columbus laboratory and an empty ammonia storage tank. Ammonia is needed to move excess heat from inside the station to the radiators located outside.

Disney’s toy astronaut Buzz Lightyear also returned from the space station aboard Discovery. He flew to the station in May 2008 on shuttle Discovery’s STS-124 mission and served as the longest tenured “crew member” in space. While on the station, Buzz supported NASA’s education outreach by creating a series of online educational outreach programs.

With Discovery and its crew safely home, the stage is set for the launch of shuttle Atlantis on its STS-129 mission. Atlantis’ liftoff currently is targeted for Nov.12, although shuttle and station teams are assessing Nov. 9 as a potential launch date. The flight will focus on storing important spare hardware on the station’s exterior. The 11-day flight will include three spacewalks and the installation of two platforms to the station’s truss, or backbone. Atlantis also will bring Stott back to Earth.

For more about the STS-128 mission and the upcoming STS-129 flight, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle.

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit: http://www.nasa.gov.

HOUSTON – Discovery’s heat shield was cleared for landing on Wednesday, and the crew checked out the systems that will be used to control the space shuttle’s return to Earth.

The first landing opportunity is planned for 7:05 p.m. EDT Thursday, but Mission Control is keeping a close watch on weather conditions at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. A second opportunity is available on the following orbit at 8:42 p.m.

The forecast shows a frontal boundary meandering up and down the Florida peninsula over the weekend that could cause thunderstorms or winds unfavorable for landing.

Entry Flight Director Richard Jones and his team have elected to focus solely on a landing at Kennedy’s Shuttle Landing Facility runway on Thursday. If Discovery is unable to land in Florida on Thursday, additional landing opportunities may be considered at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on Friday or Saturday.

Commander Rick Sturckow and Pilot Kevin Ford spent the day preparing the shuttle for re-entry, completing a checkout of the flight control systems and test-firing the shuttle’s reaction control system thrusters.

Mission Specialists Pat Forrester, Jose Hernandez, Danny Olivas and Christer Fuglesang packed up for the return to Earth, and installed a reclining seat that will be used by Mission Specialist Tim Kopra, who is returning home after more than 50 days in space.

All seven crew members answered questions posed by reporters from CBS News, ABC News and CNN on NASA Television.

The shuttle crew ws due to go to sleep about 2 a.m. Thursday. The is scheduled to awaken and begin final landing preparations at 10:59 a.m.

With eight days of joint operations between the spacecraft complete, astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station and space shuttle Discovery have bid each other farewell and closed the hatches between them at 11:41 p.m. EDT on Monday and undocked on Tuesday afternoon at 3:26 p.m..

Prior to undocking, the crews completed the last major activity of the joint operation. They exited the Leonardo Multi-purpose Logistics Module, deactivated it and returned it to Discovery’s cargo bay using the station’s robotic arm. Pilot Kevin Ford and Mission Specialist Jose Hernandez operated the arm.

Leonardo is carrying about 2,400 pounds of equipment back to Earth. Discovery’s middeck is transporting about 860 pounds of return items.

Also returning to Earth aboard Discovery, Mission Specialist Tim Kopra bid his Expedition 20 crew mates farewell. Flight Engineer Nicole Stott has taken his place as a long-duration crew member aboard the station.

On Wednesday, space shuttle Discovery’s crew will peform the Flight Control System checkout and the Reaction Control System hot-fire. Landing is scheduled for Thursday at 7:05 p.m. EDT at Kennedy Space Center.

The STS-128 crew completed all its major objectives including three spacewalks, transferring 17,000 pounds of cargo and delivery of three major research facilities.

HOUSTON – The 8 tons of supplies, equipment and science experiments that space shuttle Discovery carried into space are now at the International Space Station and ready to be unpacked.

Using the station’s 50-foot-long robotic arm Monday, STS-128 Pilot Kevin Ford and Expedition 20 Flight Engineer Mike Barratt removed the Leonardo multi-purpose logistics module from the shuttle’s cargo bay and installed it onto the station’s Harmony module. Once attached, Mission Specialist Christer Fuglesang and Flight Engineer Frank DeWinne, both of the European Space Agency, became the first crewmembers to venture inside. They spent the rest of their day preparing the pressurized cargo module for the transfer work that will be performed over the next six days.

The shuttle and station crews already have gotten a start on transferring the cargo brought up inside the shuttle’s middeck. In particular, the mission’s spacewalkers – Mission Specialists Danny Olivas and Jose Hernandez, and Flight Engineer Nicole Stott – worked to move the tools to be used during the three STS-128 spacewalks into the station’s airlock and get them ready for use.

The first of those spacewalks is set to begin 4:49 p.m. Tuesday, as Olivas and Stott head outside the station to begin the task of replacing an empty ammonia tank assembly. They’ll also be retrieving two science experiments that have been attached to the station’s exterior and transferring them to the shuttle’s cargo bay for return to Earth.

Olivas and Stott will spend the night inside the Quest airlock at a lower air pressure to prepare their bodies for work in the vacuum of space. Part of what’s called the “pre-breathe protocol,” the reduced air pressure helps force nitrogen out of the spacewalkers’ blood stream, which protects them from getting decompression sickness, also known as the bends.

Discovery’s crew is scheduled to go to sleep just before 4 a.m. Tuesday and wake up at 11:59 a.m. The next shuttle status report will be issued after the crew wakes up call or earlier if events warrant.

By Marc S. Posner
SOAR Magazine

Space Shuttle Discovery lit up the night sky, blasting off on a 13-day mission from Launch Pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center on Friday night, just 30 seconds before midnight.

While in orbit, Discovery and the orbiter’s seven-member crew will replenish supplies and deliver science experiments to the International Space Station.

Inside the shuttle’s payload bay, Discovery is carrying the Leonardo supply module, which is filled with science and storage racks, a freezer to store research samples, a new sleeping compartment and the COLBERT treadmill, named after TV show host Stephen Colbert.

Discovery will celebrate it’s 25th birthday on Sunday when it docks with the International Space Station.

“Liftoff of Discovery celebrating its 25th birthday by bringing up science and supplies to the International Space Station,” said KSC Launch Commentator Mike Curie.

Unlike two previous attempts this week, Friday night’s countdown was smooth and uneventful. The 8.5-minute ride to orbit followed in suit.

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.

Nine minutes before liftoff, Launch Director Pete Nickolenko wished Sturckow well: “This time the weather is cooperating. We wish you good luck and God speed.”

“Let’s go step up the science on the International Space Station,” said Sturckow in response. He then in thanked those who had prepared the crew and orbiter for flight.

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.

STS-128 is the 128th space shuttle flight, the 30th to the station, the 37th for Discovery and the fourth in
2009.

Following this mission only six flights remain on the schedule before the shuttle fleet is scheduled to be retired next year. All six are slated to head to the International Space Station.

NASA’S KEPLER MISSION SPIES CHANGING PHASES IN A DISTANT WORLD

WASHINGTON — NASA’s new exoplanet-hunting Kepler space telescope has detected the atmosphere of a known giant gas planet, demonstrating the telescope’s extraordinary scientific capabilities. The discovery was published Friday in the journal Science.

The find is based on a relatively short 10 days of test data collected before the official start of science operations. Kepler was launched March 6, 2009, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The observation demonstrates the extremely high precision of the measurements made by the telescope, even before its calibration and data analysis software were finished.

“As NASA’s first exoplanets mission, Kepler has made a dramatic entrance on the planet-hunting scene,” said Jon Morse, director of the Science Mission Directorate’s Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Detecting this planet’s atmosphere in just the first 10 days of data is only a taste of things to come. The planet hunt is on!”

Kepler team members say these new data indicate the mission is indeed capable of finding Earth-like planets, if they exist. Kepler will spend the next three-and-a-half years searching for planets as small as Earth, including those that orbit stars in a warm zone where there could be water. It will do this by looking for periodic dips in the brightness of stars, which occur when orbiting planets transit, or cross in front of, the stars.

“When the light curves from tens of thousands of stars were shown to the Kepler science team, everyone was awed; no one had ever seen such exquisitely detailed measurements of the light variations of so many different types of stars,” said William Borucki, the principal science investigator and lead author of the paper.

The observations were collected from a planet called HAT-P-7, known to transit a star located about 1,000 light years from Earth. The planet orbits the star in just 2.2 days and is 26 times closer than Earth is to the sun. Its orbit, combined with a mass somewhat larger than the planet Jupiter, classifies this planet as a “hot Jupiter.” It is so close to its star, the planet is as hot as the glowing red heating element on a stove.

The Kepler measurements show the transit from the previously detected HAT-P-7. However, these new measurements are so precise, they also show a smooth rise and fall of the light between transits caused by the changing phases of the planet, similar to those of our moon. This is a combination of both the light emitted from the planet and the light reflected off the planet. The smooth rise and fall of light is also punctuated by a small drop in light, called an occultation, exactly halfway between each transit. An occultation happens when a planet passes behind a star.

The new Kepler data can be used to study this hot Jupiter in unprecedented detail. The depth of the occultation and the shape and amplitude of the light curve show the planet has an atmosphere with a day-side temperature of about 4,310 degrees Fahrenheit. Little of this heat is carried to the cool night side. The occultation time compared to the main transit time shows the planet has a circular orbit. The discovery of light from this planet confirms the predictions by researchers and theoretical models that the emission would be detectable by Kepler.

This new discovery also demonstrates Kepler has the precision to find Earth-size planets. The observed brightness variation is just one and a half times what is expected for a transit caused by an Earth-sized planet. Although this is already the highest precision ever obtained for an observation of this star, Kepler will be even more precise after analysis software being developed for the mission is completed.

“This early result shows the Kepler detection system is performing right on the mark,” said David Koch, deputy principal investigator of NASA’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. “It bodes well for Kepler’s prospects to be able to detect Earth-size planets.”

Kepler is a NASA Discovery mission. Ames is responsible for the ground system development, mission operations and science data analysis. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colo., is responsible for developing the Kepler flight system and supporting mission operations.

For images, animations and more information about the Kepler mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/kepler.

HOUSTON — NASA astronaut and U.S. Army Col. Tim Kopra has become the first International Space Station crew member to use the social media tool Twitter to discuss living and working in orbit.

Kopra (@Astro_Tim) recently joined the Expedition 20 crew after arriving at the orbiting laboratory July 17 aboard space shuttle Endeavour. He is set to return to Earth on the STS-128 mission, which is targeted to launch Aug. 25. To follow Kopra on Twitter, visit: www.twitter.com/Astro_Tim.

Kopra will provide followers with a unique perspective as an Expedition 20 flight engineer and member of the Army. He is an Army aviator and West Point graduate. He periodically will answer questions submitted on the Army’s Web site. To submit questions and view Kopra’s answers, visit: www.goarmy.com/space.

This is Kopra’s first spaceflight. He completed his first spacewalk July 18 during the STS-127 mission. Kopra is in orbit with station Commander Gennady Padalka and Roman Romanenko — both Russian cosmonauts — and NASA astronaut Mike Barratt, European Space Agency astronaut Frank DeWinne and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Bob Thirsk.

For a detailed biography of Kopra, visit: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/kopra-tl.html.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Space shuttle Endeavour and its crew of seven astronauts ended a 16-day journey of more than 6.5 million miles with a 10:48 a.m. EDT landing Friday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. During the flight, Endeavour delivered the final piece of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Kibo laboratory and a new crew member to the International Space Station.

Endeavour’s mission included five spacewalks and installation of two platforms outside the Japanese module. One platform remained on the station and serves as a type of porch for experiments that require direct exposure to space. The other was an experiment storage pallet that returned aboard the shuttle. During the mission, Kibo’s robotic arm transferred three experiments from the palette to the platform. The station now is 83 percent complete and has a mass of more than 685,000 pounds.

“It’s a great day to be here at (Kennedy),” Commander Mark Polansky said as the crew members prepared to depart the runway. “What a fantastic mission.”

Polansky was joined by Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialists Christopher Cassidy, Tom Marshburn, Dave Wolf, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Julie Payette and Tim Kopra. Kopra remained aboard the station, replacing Flight Engineer and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, who returned to Earth on Endeavour after more than four months on the station.

When Endeavour’s seven astronauts joined the six resident Expedition 20 crew members aboard the space station, a record number of 13 people were aboard the orbiting laboratory. All five partner agencies were represented.

A welcome ceremony for the crew’s return to Houston will be held at Ellington Field’s NASA Hangar 990 at 5 p.m. EDT on Saturday, Aug. 1. The public is invited to attend. The crew’s return will be broadcast on NASA Television’s video file Monday.

STS-127 was the 127th space shuttle mission, the 23rd flight for Endeavour and the 29th shuttle visit to the station.

With Endeavor and its crew safely home, the stage is set for the launch of STS-128, which is targeted for Aug. 25. Discovery’s 13-day flight will deliver a new crew member and 33,000 pounds of equipment to the station. The equipment includes science and storage racks, a freezer to store research samples, a new sleeping compartment and the COLBERT treadmill.

Space shuttle Endeavour will land at Kennedy Space Center within the hour.

Endeavour’s crew this morning fired the orbiter’s thrusters to complete its deorbit burn and begin the descent.

The shuttle is set to land at about 10:48 a.m. EDT.