For the first time ever, a man-made probe has entered into orbit around the Sun’s closest neighbor.
Tag Archives: NASA
“For the final time: Wheels stop”
Space Shuttle Discovery, the oldest and most experienced shuttle in the fleet has come home, one final time.
Endeavor and Atlantis are still scheduled for their own missions, but Discovery marks the beginning of the end for a 30-year era at NASA.
Discovery Retrospective from NASA
To get an idea of what she’s accomplished, look at it this way:
- Spent a just over a year in space (365 days, 12 hours, 53 minutes, 34 seconds)
- Flown a distance equivalent to 1.5 trips to the Sun.
NASA finds extremophiles with different molecular setup
For those following Science news, you may have heard that NASA was planning on making a big announcement today about… something. Something astrobiology related. Well, those spoilers of all things spoilerriffic at Gizmodo have spilled the beans again – NASA found life different from life as we know it on Earth, organisms that use Arsenic instead of Phosphorous in their molecular structure. Continue reading →
A Day Late, Space Shuttle Discovery Comes Home
Delayed a day by rainy weather, the space shuttle Discovery is back, safe and sound at Kennedy Space Center in Florida after a 15 day mission.
Meanwhile, the Atlantis is getting ready to be moved overnight to the Vehicle Assembly Building to get her ready for her final mission. That mission is slated to launch May 14th.
The next time Discovery takes to the skies it will be in September and will mark not only her final mission, but the last planned mission for the entire shuttle fleet.
Shuttle Discovery Now in Orbit
It was an early morning launch, but the Space Shuttle Discovery is now in orbit. They are reporting some problems with the shuttle’s main antenna, but it doesn’t appear to be bad enough to scrub Discovery’s planned dock with the ISS.
This mission represents the first time four women have been in space at the same time (three from the Shuttle’s crew and one aboard the ISS).
The mission also marks a milestone for the retiring program. Every mission from here on out will be each shuttle’s last.