Marc S. Posner
SOAR Magazine

Endeavour Lands Concluding STS-118:

Endeavour lands at the Kennedy Space Center, ending a 13-day, 5.2-million mile journey to continue construction of the International Space Station. It was also the first space flight for educator/astronaut Barbara Morgan. NASA

Hurricane Dean slammed into Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula this morning as a Category 5 storm. Hours later, Endeavour found smooth sailing into Florida’s spaceport. The hurricane was responsible for STS-118’s early conclusion, a day ahead of schedule.

So worried about the storm, at one point space agency managers were pulling out all the stops to get Endeavour home today: They shortened a spacewalk, pulled up stakes from the International Space Station on Sunday rather than Monday, put together plans for a makeshift Mission Control Center at Cape Canaveral, and drew up seven landing scenarios at three sites for today.

In the end, NASA’s concern about Dean proved to be much ado about nothing.

Endeavour floated into NASA’s landing strip of choice on the first opportunity at 12:32 p.m., EDT., ending a 13-day mission that covered roughly 5.2 million miles.

Within a couple of hours of the Kennedy Space Center landing, STS-118 Commander Scott Kelly was commenting on damage to Endeavour’s right wing that had been a topic of debate for roughly a week and was potentially a target for an in-orbit repair technique that had never been tested.

“I was a little bit underwhelmed by the size of the gouge,” he said. “To see it, it looked rather small.”

The mission was the first for educator/astronaut Barbara Morgan, who waited more than 20 years for the experience after being selected as the backup to Christa McAuliffe in NASA’s Teacher-in-Space Program in 1985. McAuliffe and six crewmates were killed when Challenger exploded on launch in January, 1986.

“The flight was absolutely wonderful,” she said. “I felt like I was upside-down the whole first day.”

In addition to Kelly and Morgan, STS-118’s crew was Pilot Charlie Hobaugh and mission specialists Tracy Caldwell, Rick Mastracchio, Alvin Drew and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Dave Williams.

During the mission, a new system that enables docked shuttles to draw electrical power from the station to extend visits to the outpost was activated successfully. Because the system worked, three additional days were added to Endeavour’s mission, though one was later subtracted when landing was moved to Tuesday instead of Wednesday.

Williams, Mastracchio and International Space Station flight engineer Clay Anderson, with the help of their crewmates, made four spacewalks to accomplish STS-118’s construction tasks. The spacewalkers also completed work in preparation for upcoming assembly missions, such as relocating an equipment cart and installing support equipment and communication upgrades.

On the excursions, astronauts added another truss segment, a new gyroscope and external spare parts platform to the International Space Station.

Two of the four spacewalks were cut short, however. The mission’s third spacewalk ended early when Mastracchio noticed a hole in the first two layers of his five-layer glove. Although there was no leak or threat to his safety, officials ordered him back to the airlock early as a precaution.

Prior to the fourth spacewalk, NASA trimmed two hours from the event with an eye on ending Endeavour’s stay at the ISS early. While Williams and Anderson worked outside, colleagues packed up their belongings. The duo was still on the spacewalk when space agency officials had made the decision to have Endeavour leave the ISS.

Although managers addressed several issues with Endeavour’s heat shield, including a small gouge in the protective tile on the orbiter’s belly, inspections in orbit revealed no critical damage. Endeavour’s thermal protection system was officially declared safe for re-entry on Monday, though mission managers had decided against a repair attempt last week.

The orbiter — which made its first flight since late 2002 — will be processed immediately for its next mission, targeted for February 2008. Endeavour completed the last mission prior to the loss of Columbia on re-entry and then entered a scheduled maintenance period.

STS-118 was the second of four missions planned for 2007. It was the 119th shuttle mission, the 20th for Endeavour and the 22nd to the ISS.

Preparations are currently underway for Space Shuttle Discovery’s scheduled launch in October on STS-120 to deliver the pressurized Node 2 connecting module to the station.

SOAR Magazine

Space Shuttle Endeavour has landed on runway 15 at the Kennedy Space Center, ending a 13-day mission that covered 201 orbits of Earth and nearly 5.2 million miles.

STS-118 ended a day early, but still had sufficient time for four spacewalks and 9 days at the International Space Station.

The flight was the first for educator/astronaut Barbara Morgan, who waited more than 20 years for the flight.

It was the 119th shuttle mission, the 20th for Endeavour and the 22nd to the ISS.

NASA and SOAR Magazine

To the sounds of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Homeward Bound,” The STS-118 crew was awakened at 4:36 a.m. in preparation for a landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The crew, Commander Scott Kelly, Pilot Charlie Hobaugh, and Mission Specialists Tracy Caldwell, Rick Mastracchio, Dave Williams, Barbara R. Morgan and Alvin Drew, is scheduled to complete their mission a day ahead of schedule because Hurricane Dean had threatened to close down NASA’s Mission Control Center in Houston, TX.

Dean is no longer an impact on the mission, though it could be a landmark that Endeavour passes over on the way to the Florida spaceport.

While NASA at one point was considering seven landing opportunities across three sites, the landing focus for Tuesday will now be only on Kennedy Space Center, with two opportunities available there. Weather forecasts generally are favorable.

Deorbit preparations by the crew began at 7:26 a.m. and the payload bay doors were closed at 8:45 a.m. NASA is eyeing a landing for orbit 201. The deorbit burn would begin at 11:25 a.m., resulting in a landing at 12:32 p.m., EDT.

The second opportunity is on the subsequent orbit, 202. That would see a deorbit burn beginning at 1 p.m. and a landing at 2:06 p.m. It would take Endeavour almost over Hurricane Dean. At an altitude of more than 35 miles, the shuttle would feel no effects from the storm, nor would the crew be likely to see it. The shuttle would be between its first and second roll reversal, with its belly facing Dean.

Edwards AFB, in California, will be staffed, but is not expected to be used. White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico will not be called up today.

Endeavour hurriedly undocked from the International Space Station at 7:56 a.m. Sunday after almost nine days at the orbiting laboratory. NASA cut short a spacewalk to end the stay a day early and get the STS-118 crew back to Earth ahead of potential threats from Hurricane Dean. The storm, which has now reached Category 5 status, subsequently hooked left. It is expected to slam into the Yucatan Peninsula today; however, it is no longer a factor in mission planning.

While at the station, the STS-118 crew continued the on-orbit construction with the addition of the Starboard 5 truss and conducted joint operations with the Expedition 15 crew. The crew conducted four spacewalks, which included the S5 installation and replacement of an attitude control gyroscope. The two crews also transferred several tons of cargo between the two spacecraft.

Landing will also bring to an end the first flight for Mission Specialist Barbara Morgan, an educator who was selected to become a mission specialist astronaut. She was first selected by NASA in 1985 as the backup to Teacher in Space Christa McAuliffe.

Following the Challenger accident in 1986, Morgan continued to work with NASA on educational activities and returned to teaching elementary school in Idaho. She returned to NASA as an astronaut in 1998.

Marc S. Posner
SOAR Magazine

Voyager Photo of Jupiter:

This iconic photo of Jupiter was taken by Voyager in 1979. It shows a section of the planet and two of its moons, Io (left) in front of the great red spot and Europa. Voyager 2 was launched 30 years ago, on August 20, 1977. Voyager 1 lifted off on September 5, 1977.

Today, all seven members of the STS-118 crew are in orbit with their own iPod. But, 30 years ago, when the first of NASA’s two Voyager spacecraft blasted off, it carried a gold record with recorded greetings from Earth.

The fact that recording media have gone through a number of iterations in the intervening time (eight-track, cassette tape, CDs, digital files), is perhaps the starkest reminder of just how long these probes have been operating.

Voyager 2 launched on Aug. 20, 1977, and Voyager 1 launched on Sept. 5, 1977. Both probes are healthy and they continue to return information from distances more than three times farther away than Pluto.

“I think the main legacy of Voyager is to, in fact, have opened up our solar system in a way which was not possible before the Space Age. It revealed all of our neighbors in the solar system, and it showed us how much there was to learn and how diverse the bodies are that share the solar system with our own planet Earth,” said Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist for the California Institute of Technology.

The Voyager Mission studied four planets — Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus — and is now observing the outer reaches of our solar system.

In the next decade, the craft could become the first to reach interstellar space after crossing the heliopause, the edge of the bubble created by the sun’s supersonic wind. Currently, Voyager 1 is approximately 9.7 billion miles from the sun. Voyager 2 is at approximately 7.8 billion miles. Voyager 1 is in the heliosheath, and Voyager 2 is approaching it.

“The Voyager mission is a legend in the annals of space exploration. It opened our eyes to the scientific richness of the outer solar system, and it has pioneered the deepest exploration of the sun’s domain ever conducted,” said Alan Stern, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. “It’s a testament to Voyager’s designers, builders and operators that both spacecraft continue to deliver important findings more than 25 years after their primary mission to Jupiter and Saturn concluded.”

During their first dozen years of flight, the Voyagers made detailed explorations of Jupiter, Saturn, and their moons, and conducted the first explorations of Uranus and Neptune. The Voyagers returned never-before-seen images and scientific data, making fundamental discoveries about the outer planets and their moons. The spacecraft revealed Jupiter’s turbulent atmosphere, which includes dozens of interacting hurricane-like storm systems, and erupting volcanoes on Jupiter’s moon Io. They also showed waves and fine structure in Saturn’s icy rings from the tugs of nearby moons.

“I think that I’m proudest of the impact Voyager really had, and it was surprising,” Stone said. “I did not realize how much impact it would have. When we flew by Neptune, people were standing in line at night at planetariums in order to be able to see the images coming in from Voyager, because they weren’t on the Web in those days, there was no Web, you had to go somewhere in the middle of the night to see it. It became a worldwide event when Voyager was flying by these worlds.”

Each spacecraft carries five fully functioning science instruments that study the solar wind, energetic particles, magnetic fields and radio waves as they cruise through this unexplored region of deep space. The spacecraft are too far from the sun to use solar power. They run on less than 300 watts, the amount of power needed to light up a bright light bulb. Their long-lived radioisotope thermoelectric generators provide the power.

“The continued operation of these spacecraft and the flow of data to the scientists is a testament to the skills and dedication of the small operations team,” said Ed Massey, Voyager project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. Massey oversees a team of nearly a dozen people in the day-to-day Voyager spacecraft operations.

The Voyagers call home via NASA’s Deep Space Network, a system of antennas around the world. The spacecraft are so distant that commands from Earth, traveling at light speed, take 14 hours one-way to reach Voyager 1 and 12 hours to reach Voyager 2. Each Voyager logs approximately 1 million miles per day.

NASA and SOAR Magazine

Space shuttle Endeavour’s crew spent — weather permitting — their last full day on orbit today getting their ship ready to return home Tuesday with two landing opportunities available at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center at 12:32 p.m. and 2:06 p.m., EDT.

Even with Hurricane Dean reaching Category 5 strength as is heads westward in the Caribbean Sea, forecasts show it making landfall in the Yucatan Peninsula, far from Johnson Space Center. Armed with that information, NASA’s plan for Tuesday now calls for landing attempts only at Kennedy Space Center.

NASA, concerned that the hurricane might prompt an evacuation of Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center, ended Endeavour’s stay at the International Space Station a day early. As the shuttle undocked on Sunday, the space agency was working on plans that included seven landing opportunities at three sites. Contingency plans also called for a makeshift mission control center at the Kennedy Space Center.

As weather threats eased, NASA nixed the White Sands Space Harbor and its two opportunities. By evening, Edwards Air Force Base and it’s three landing opportunities had also been pulled from the mix.

The crew is scheduled to wake up at 4:36 a.m., EDT, on Tuesday with deorbit preparations beginning at 7:26 a.m.

A landing off orbit 201 would bring Endeavour down at 12:32 p.m., EDT. The second opportunity, a revolution later, would have STS-118 landing at 2:06 p.m., EDT.

Weather at Cape Canaveral currently looks favorable.

The shuttle was deemed in good shape for landing this morning, after analysis on Sunday’s final inspection of the wing leading edges and nose cap was completed. Commander Scott Kelly, Pilot Charles Hobaugh, and Mission Specialist Rick Mastracchio reinforced that assessment with successful checks of the shuttle flight control systems. Kelly and Hobaugh spent time on their computers practicing landing simulations and the entire crew, including mission specialists Tracy Caldwell, Dave Williams, Barbara Morgan and Alvin Drew, got ready for return by stowing equipment and supplies.

Kelly and Morgan also joined Williams for a Canadian Space Agency educational event with children from Williams’ home province, Saskatchewan, in Canada. The astronauts fielded questions from seventh and eighth graders on subjects ranging from whether astronauts grow in space, how microgravity affects bone density and what you need to know to operate the Canadarm.

The STS-118 crew members spent almost nine days at the international outpost. They continued the on-orbit construction of the station and transferred tons of cargo between the two spacecraft. The STS-118 crew conducted four spacewalks at the station. The two major objectives were the installation of the S5 and the replacement of a failed attitude control gyroscope.

NASA

The seven-member STS-118 crew is preparing for its return to Earth aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour after a successful stay at the International Space Station.

The crew completed tests this morning of Endeavour’s systems and engines that will be used for re-entry and landing. Other activities include stowing equipment and a 30-minute deorbit briefing. The crew will also have some off-duty time to prepare for Tuesday’s landing opportunities.

Endeavour’s first landing opportunity is at 12:32 p.m. EDT at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., with the deorbit burn occurring at 11:25 a.m. A second opportunity is available at the Florida spaceport at 2:06 p.m. The deorbit burn would occur at 1 p.m. White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico will not be called up for a possible Tuesday landing there. A decision on whether to call up Edwards AFB, Calif., is expected this morning.

Mission managers continue to monitor Hurricane Dean. Early Monday Dean, with winds near 150 mph, was about 150 miles southeast of Grand Cayman, moving west at about 20 mph.

Crew members will take time out of their schedule at 11:46 a.m. today to participate in an education event with the Canadian Space Agency.

The STS-118 crew members spent almost nine days at the international outpost. They continued the on-orbit construction of the station and transferred tons of cargo between the two spacecraft. The STS-118 crew conducted four spacewalks at the station. The two major objectives were the installation of the S5 and the replacement of a failed attitude control gyroscope.

By Marc S. Posner
SOAR Magazine

NASA’s efforts to hurry Shuttle Endeavour home ahead of threats from Hurricane Dean include seven landing opportunities for Tuesday, one day in advance of the space agency’s earlier plans to conclude mission STS-118.

There are two afternoon landing opportunities for Kennedy Space Center, in Florida. The first would bring Endeavour home off of orbit 201 at 12:32 p.m., EDT. The second chance comes a revolution later, culminating at 2:06 p.m., EDT.

Should weather prevent a landing on either of those opportunies, NASA would turn their hopes to three chances at Edwards Air Force Base in the California desert. Endeavour could land in the Golden State on orbits 203, 204 or 205.

NASA’s landing strip of last resorts, the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico, is also available for landing opportunities on the first two orbits available for Edwards, 203 and 204.

NASA and SOAR Magazine

Hurricane Dean at Category 4:

Crew members on the Space Shuttle Endeavour captured this photo of Hurricane Dean in the Caribbean. The still-image close-up shows the of the eye of storm as it was at Category 4 status. Because Dean could force evacuations in the Houston, TX area, mission managers requested that the STS-118 crew leave the International Space Station a day early with an eye on returning to Earth ahead of schedule and the storm.

Space Shuttle Endeavour undocked from the International Space Station at 7:56 a.m. EDT today, ending an almost nine-day stay at the orbital outpost. The STS-118 crew is now conducting the post-docking heat shield inspection with an eye on returning to Earth on Tuesday.

Undocking was moved up a day in preparation for landing a day ahead of planned. The earlier landing opportunity was selected in the event Hurricane Dean threatens the Houston area. It allows an opportunity for the shuttle to land before the Mission Control Center, located in Houston, would be shut down in preparation for a storm. Mission managers are continuing to monitor the situation and assess their options.

In a clear sign of how serious mission managers view the threat from Hurricane Dean, space agency officials say that if Dean continues to be an issue NASA will also activate backup landing sites at both Edwards Air Force Base, in California, and the White Sands Space Harbor, in New Mexico, on Tuesday. Edwards generally is not on standby for a landing on the first day of attempts; White Sands is considered a location of last resorts and routinely isn’t even considered for landing opportunities.

While no decision has been made about moving the landing up by a day, NASA has decided that STS-118’s first landing opportunity on Tuesday is at 12:32 p.m. at the Kennedy Space Center, in Florida.

The Endeavour crew, Commander Scott Kelly, Pilot Charles Hobaugh, and Mission Specialists Tracy Caldwell, Rick Mastracchio, Dave Williams, Barbara Morgan and Alvin Drew, was awakened for undocking day at 3:37 a.m. CDT by “Teacher, Teacher,” performed by .38 Special. It was for Morgan. Station Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineers Oleg Kotov and Clay Anderson got their standard wakeup tone about the same time.

This morning, after departing the ISS, the astronauts are using Endeavour’s robot arm and a 50-foot-long Orbiter Boom Sensor System to inspect the nose cap and the leading edges of the wings. This process is conducted after undocking from the station to make sure the orbiter is ready for re-entry on landing day.

Following the completion of the inspection, the seven astronauts will enjoy some well-deserved off duty time after the busy stay at the station.

While at the station, the crew installed the Starboard 5 (S5) truss segment and transferred tons of cargo between the shuttle and the station. The STS-118 crew conducted four spacewalks at the station. The two major objectives were the installation of the S5 and the replacement of a failed attitude control gyroscope.

Marc S. Posner
SOAR Magazine

Endeavour’s ISS Stay Cut Short:

This image from the orbiting tandem of Shuttle Endeavour and the International Space Station shows Hurricane Dean. The storm could force a closure of the Mission Control Center in Houston, TX. As a result, NASA managers at the Johnson Space Center, cut short Endeavour’s stay at the ISS. The shuttle and space station will separate tomorrow and STS-118 could return home a day early.

Batton the hatches and head for home.

The crews of the International Space Station and the Shuttle Endeavour said their hurried goodbyes and closed the hatches between the two orbiting crafts. The shuttle will depart tomorrow morning — a day early and could return to Earth on Tuesday, ahead of a planned Wednesday touchdown at the Kennedy Space Center.

The change in plans was made official while two astronauts were outside finalizing a spacewalk that had been cut by two hours in anticipation of the move to close up shop.

Endeavour’s schedule change is a result of concerns that Hurricane Dean will force a closure of mission control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX.

Mission managers will continue to review the forecast for Dean as they assess their options.

Astronauts Dave Williams and Clay Anderson were wrapping up the fourth spacewalk of the mission as managers made the decision.

Williams and Anderson had already been asked to shorten their spacewalk to allow the early hatch closing and departure. Originally scheduled for 6.5 hours, NASA cut two hours worth of tasks from the excursion.

During what turned out to be a 5-hour, 2-minute spacewalk, the pair installed a stand for the shuttle’s robotic arm extension boom on the station’s truss structure, installed an External Wireless Instrumentation System antenna and retrieved two containers of the Materials ISS Experiment. They also had a chance to look down at the hurricane as it swirled in the Caribbean Sea.

The spacewalk began at 9:17 a.m. and concluded at 2:19 p.m., bumping up the total time for STS-118’s four spacewalks to 23 hours and 15 minutes. Saturday’s excursion was the 92nd spacewalk devoted to station assembly.

Endeavour and the STS-118 crew will depart the station at 8 a.m. EDT Sunday.

SOAR Magazine and NASA

Even as two fellow astronauts are currently conducting a spacewalk, Endeavour’s STS-118 crew is preparing for a quick getaway from the International Space Station.

While Dave Williams and Clay Anderson are working through a checklist of items that was shortened by NASA officials during the night, others on the crew are preparing to close the hatch between the ISS and Endeavour.

The hurried-up plans comes as space-agency officials are plotting potential scenarios to deal with Hurricane Dean, which could threaten the Houston, TX area.

Those plans could have Endeavour leave the ISS a day early and return home a day early as well.

An earlier landing could allow an opportunity for the shuttle to land before Mission Control, Houston, would be shut down in preparation for a storm.

Overnight, mission managers decided to shorten the originally planned 6.5-hour spacewalk to 4.5 hours so that the crew can close hatches between the station and shuttle at the end of the day today. That plan preserves the option to have Endeavour undock from the station on Sunday and prepare for a landing on Tuesday.

However, managers will review the forecast for Dean and mission activities this afternoon during their daily meeting and assess whether they will continue to pursue a possible early undocking and landing.

Meanwhile, spacewalkers continue working on the exterior of the International Space Station as their crew mates are preparing for hatch closure. STS-118 Mission Specialist Williams and ISS Flight Engineer Clay Anderson began the spacewalk at 9:17 a.m. EDT and are scheduled to wrap up about 1:47 pm.

Williams and Anderson installed a stand for the shuttle’s robotic arm extension boom on the station’s truss structure. Other scheduled tasks for the shortened spacewalk include the installation an External Wireless Instrumentation System antenna and retrieval of two containers of the Materials ISS Experiment. Mission Specialist Tracy Caldwell is the spacewalk coordinator, a role that she has for all four STS-118 spacewalks.

Inside the station, astronauts and cosmonauts are preparing for hatch closure between Space Shuttle Endeavour and the station, which is now scheduled for about 5 p.m. today.