CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA’s space shuttle Atlantis is targeted to
begin an 11-day flight to the International Space Station with a Nov.
16 launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Liftoff is
scheduled for 2:28 p.m. EST.

Atlantis’ launch date was announced Thursday at the conclusion of a
flight readiness review at Kennedy. During the meeting, senior NASA
and contractor managers assessed the risks associated with the
mission and determined the shuttle’s equipment, support systems and
procedures are ready.

The Nov. 16 target date depends on the planned Nov. 14 launch of an
Atlas V rocket from nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The
Atlas has reserved the Eastern Range on Nov. 14 and 15. If the Atlas
launch is delayed to Nov. 15, the shuttle’s liftoff will move to no
earlier than 2:02 p.m. on Nov. 17.

The STS-129 mission will focus on storing spare hardware on the
exterior of the space station. The flight will include three
spacewalks and install two platforms on the station’s truss, or
backbone. The platforms will hold spare parts to sustain station
operations after the shuttle fleet is retired.

Commander Charlie Hobaugh and his crew of five astronauts are
scheduled to arrive at Kennedy at approximately 5 p.m. on Thursday,
Nov. 12, for final launch preparations. Joining Hobaugh on STS-129
will be Pilot Barry Wilmore and Mission Specialists Leland Melvin,
Randy Bresnik, Mike Foreman and Bobby Satcher. Nicole Stott, an
astronaut who currently resides on the station, will return home with
the Atlantis crew after living in space for more than two months. Her
return on the shuttle is slated to be the final time it is used to
rotate space station crew members.

STS-129 will be Atlantis’ 31st mission and the 31st shuttle flight
dedicated to station assembly and maintenance. For more information
about STS-129, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

Mission Specialist Bobby Satcher, an orthopedic surgeon, now is
sending updates about his training to his Twitter account,
Astro_Bones. He can be followed at:

http://www.twitter.com/Astro_Bones

For more information on the space station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA’s Ares I-X test rocket lifted off at 11:30
a.m. EDT Wednesday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a
two-minute powered flight. The test flight lasted about six minutes
from its launch from the newly modified Launch Complex 39B until
splash down of the rocket’s booster stage nearly 150 miles down
range.

“This is a huge step forward for NASA’s exploration goals,” said Doug
Cooke, associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission
Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Ares I-X provides
NASA with an enormous amount of data that will be used to improve the
design and safety of the next generation of American spaceflight
vehicles — vehicles that could again take humans beyond low Earth
orbit.”

The 327-foot tall Ares I-X test vehicle produced 2.6 million pounds of
thrust to accelerate the rocket to nearly 3 g’s and Mach 4.76, just
shy of hypersonic speed. It capped its easterly flight at a
suborbital altitude of 150,000 feet after the separation of its first
stage, a four-segment solid rocket booster.

Parachutes deployed for recovery of the booster and the solid rocket
motor will be recovered at sea for later inspection. The simulated
upper stage, Orion crew module, and launch abort system will not be
recovered.

“The most valuable learning is through experience and observation,”
said Bob Ess, Ares I-X mission manager. “Tests such as this — from
paper to flight — are vital in gaining a deeper understanding of the
vehicle, from design to development.”

Wednesday’s flight offered an early opportunity to test and prove
hardware, facilities, and ground operations - important data for
future space vehicles. During the flight, a range of performance data
was relayed to the ground and also stored in the onboard flight data
recorder. The 700 sensors mounted on the vehicle provide flight test
engineering data to correlate with computer models and analysis. The
rocket’s sensors gathered information in several areas, including
assembly and launch operations, separation of the vehicle’s first and
second stages, controllability and aerodynamics, the re-entry and
recovery of the first stage and new vehicle design techniques.

The Ares I-X efforts are led by the Ares I-X mission management office
of the Constellation Program, based at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in
Houston, and NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate in
Washington. NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland designed and
built the vehicle’s upper stage mass simulator. NASA’s Langley
Research Center in Hampton, Va., provided aerodynamic
characterization, flight test vehicle integration and the crew
module/launch abort system mass simulator. NASA’s Marshall Space
Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., with contractor support, provided
management for the development of Ares I-X avionics, roll control,
and first stage systems. The Kennedy Space Center provided operations
and associated ground activities and launch operations.

Contractors for Ares I-X include Alliant Techsystems, or ATK, of Salt
Lake City for the first stage solid rocket booster and Teledyne Brown
Engineering of Huntsville for the roll control system. Jacobs
Engineering of Tullahoma, Tenn., supported by Lockheed Martin of
Denver, provided the avionics systems. United Space Alliance of
Houston and ATK Launch Systems support the ground systems and launch
operations.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA has completed a review of the Ares I-X development rocket’s readiness for its flight test and selected Tuesday, Oct. 27, as the official launch date. Liftoff is scheduled for 8 a.m. EDT from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The Ares I-X launch date was announced after a flight test readiness review at Kennedy. During the meeting, senior NASA and contractor managers assessed the risks associated with the test and determined the rocket, support systems and procedures are ready for launch.

“I am proud of the work this team has done to ready this test rocket for launch,” said Doug Cooke, associate administrator for NASA Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. “This is the first time in more than 30 years that NASA has built a vehicle in a new configuration so this has been a valuable learning experience.

“This test will yield important data to support the nation’s next steps in exploration. There is no substitute for hard data - flight testing clarifies the distinction between imagined outcomes and real flight experience.”

The 28-mile high, two-minute flight of the Ares I-X, an uncrewed development rocket, will provide NASA with an opportunity to test and prove hardware, facilities and ground operations, while gathering critical data for the Ares I rocket and future launch vehicles.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — For the first time in more than a quarter century, a new vehicle is sitting at Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Ares I-X flight test vehicle arrived at the pad atop of a giant crawler-transporter at approximately 7:45 a.m. EDT Tuesday.

The crawler-transporter left Kennedy’s Vehicle Assembly Building at 1:39 a.m., traveling less than 1 mph during the 4.2-mile journey. The rocket was secured on the launch pad at 9:17 a.m.

The vehicle is scheduled to launch at 8 a.m. on Oct. 27. This test flight of the Ares I-X rocket will provide NASA an early opportunity to test and prove hardware, models, facilities and ground operations associated with the Ares I launch vehicle.

The Ares I rocket is being designed to carry astronauts to space in the Orion crew exploration vehicle. The Ares I-X test flight also will allow NASA to gather critical data during ascent of the vehicle’s integrated stack, which includes the Ares I with a simulated upper stage, Orion and launch abort system. Data collected from more than 700 sensors throughout the rocket will begin to confirm the vehicle as a whole is safe and stable in flight before astronauts begin traveling into orbit.

“With the arrival of Ares I-X at the pad, this milestone demonstrates NASA’s world-class ability to conceptually design, build and process a new launch vehicle in just under four years,” said Bob Ess, mission manager for Ares I-X at Kennedy. “Nearly 2,000 NASA and contractor employees located throughout the United States worked together in an unprecedented fashion, resulting in the new vehicle ready for flight.”

During the week before launch, technicians at the pad will perform a variety of electrical and mechanical checks to ready the vehicle for flight, including hydraulic power unit hot fire, steering tests and internal power verifications using flight batteries.

United Space Alliance of Houston is NASA’s prime contractor for the ground processing of the Ares I-X rocket.

“Processing for the Ares I-X test flight in parallel with space shuttle operations has been a true challenge involving people and hardware from across the country, and we’re very proud of what the team has accomplished,” said Mark Nappi, vice president of Launch and Recovery Systems for United Space Alliance.

ATK Space Systems of Magna, Utah, is NASA’s prime contractor for the first stage of the rocket.

“The NASA and contractor teamwork displayed over the last four years has been the catalyst that brought us to this important milestone today,” said Bob Herman, ATK’s vice president of Exploration Systems for Kennedy Space Center Operations. “As the Ares I first stage provider, we are looking forward to receiving invaluable data during the flight test.”

At the Flight Test Readiness Review on Oct. 23, mission managers will finalize the launch date and provide the team with a final “go” or “no go” for launch.

Ares I-X is an un-crewed, sub-orbital development test in a modified Ares I configuration. Ares I-X is the first developmental flight test of the Constellation Program, which includes the Ares I and V rockets, Orion and the Altair lunar lander.

To follow Ares I-X on Twitter, visit: http://www.twitter.com/NASA_Ares_I_X.

For information about Ares I-X, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/aresIX.

WASHINGTON — NASA is targeting Nov. 16 for the launch of space shuttle Atlantis’ STS-129 mission from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The 4-day delay will accommodate the space agency’s efforts to launch the first Ares I-X mission later this month.

Managers for NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate and Exploration Systems Mission Directorate met Monday and decided to adjust Atlantis’ target launch date to optimize the agency’s ability to launch both Ares I-X and Atlantis before the end of the year. The same launch team at Kennedy is supporting both the shuttle and the flight test of the Ares I-X rocket, which is targeted to lift off on Oct. 27. Ares I-X is scheduled to roll out to its launch pad at 12:01 a.m. EDT Tuesday.

Atlantis’ new target launch date will give Ares I-X launch opportunities Oct. 27, 28 and 29. NASA has yet to schedule Atlantis’ new target liftoff date on the Eastern Range.

The change to Atlantis’ targeted launch will affect the launch countdown dress rehearsal for the shuttle’s six astronauts. The astronauts arrived at Kennedy on Monday for the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test and related training. The simulated countdown has been rescheduled to Nov. 3. The astronauts will practice emergency escape and other related training while they are at Kennedy this week and return there Nov. 2 to conclude their rehearsal work.

Atlantis had been targeted for a Nov. 12 liftoff.

The agency’s Flight Readiness Review meeting for STS-129 is set for Oct. 29. NASA will schedule an official launch date for Atlantis following that meeting.

For more information about the STS-129 mission and its crew, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA is poised for the rollout of the Ares I-X rocket to Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The first motion of the Ares I-X out of Kennedy’s Vehicle Assembly Building is targeted for 12:01 a.m. EDT, on Tuesday, Oct. 20. The 4.2-mile journey is expected to last about seven hours.

Live NASA Television coverage with commentary will start at 11:45 p.m., Oct. 19, and 7 a.m., Oct. 20. Video highlights of the move will air on NASA Television’s Video File.

The rollout of Ares I-X originally was set for Monday, Oct. 19. During testing on Oct. 14, engineers detected a nitrogen gas leak in an accumulator located in the aft skirt of the rocket. The accumulator, which absorbs hydraulic pressure spikes as the system operates, was replaced and successfully retested. Management is assessing what effect, if any, this delayed rollout will have on the targeted Oct. 27 launch date.

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. — NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, created twin impacts on the moon’s surface early Friday in a search for water ice. Scientists will analyze data from the spacecraft’s instruments to assess whether water ice is present.

The satellite traveled 5.6 million miles during an historic 113-day mission that ended in the Cabeus crater, a permanently shadowed region near the moon’s south pole. The spacecraft was launched June 18 as a companion mission to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

“The LCROSS science instruments worked exceedingly well and returned a wealth of data that will greatly improve our understanding of our closest celestial neighbor,” said Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS principal investigator and project scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. “The team is excited to dive into data.”

In preparation for impact, LCROSS and its spent Centaur upper stage rocket separated about 54,000 miles above the surface of the moon on Thursday at approximately 6:50 p.m. PDT.

Moving at a speed of more than 1.5 miles per second, the Centaur hit the lunar surface shortly after 4:31 a.m. Oct. 9, creating an impact that instruments aboard LCROSS observed for approximately four minutes. LCROSS then impacted the surface at approximately 4:36 a.m.

“This is a great day for science and exploration,” said Doug Cooke, associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The LCROSS data should prove to be an impressive addition to the tremendous leaps in knowledge about the moon that have been achieved in recent weeks. I want to congratulate the LCROSS team for their tremendous achievement in development of this low cost spacecraft and for their perseverance through a number of difficult technical and operational challenges.”

Other observatories reported capturing both impacts. The data will be shared with the LCROSS science team for analysis. The LCROSS team expects it to take several weeks of analysis before it can make a definitive assessment of the presence or absence of water ice.

“I am very proud of the success of this LCROSS mission team,” said Daniel Andrews, LCROSS project manager at Ames. “Whenever this team would hit a roadblock, it conceived a clever work-around allowing us to push forward with a successful mission.”

The images and video collected by the amateur astronomer community and the public also will be used to enhance our knowledge about the moon.

“One of the early goals of the mission was to get as many people to look at the LCROSS impacts in as many ways possible, and we succeeded,” said Jennifer Heldmann, Ames’ coordinator of the LCROSS observation campaign. “The amount of corroborated information that can be pulled out of this one event is fascinating.”

“It has been an incredible journey since LCROSS was selected in April 2006,” said Andrews. “The LCROSS Project faced a very ambitious schedule and an uncommonly small budget for a mission of this size. LCROSS could be a model for how small robotic missions are executed. This is truly big science on a small budget.”

For more information about the LCROSS mission, including images and video, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/lcross.