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ASTRONAUTS aboard Discovery were upbeat overnight as they readied for re-entry into the atmosphere, but remembered the crew of Columbia who lost their lives at that critical stage of the mission. Commander Eileen Collins and Pilot James Kelly both said they had no worries about today's scheduled landing in Florida and said Discovery was in great shape. The crew and NASA managers hailed what they said was the complete success of the first space shuttle flight since the February 1, 2003 Columbia disaster. Despite the optimism, Discovery will be grounded with the rest of the fleet once it returns to...

If the Shuttle comes down, as scheduled, around 3 AM on Monday morning, 8/8, I'm wondering if there's a chance it would be viewable from the Memphis, TN, area I've been looking on the net but only find current position tracking and historical information, but nothing that predicts the landing track. Does anyone know of any resources to figure out if this will be viewable for me?

An inflatable re-entry vehicle that could be used to return cargo and even astronauts from the International Space Station is to undergo flight tests next month. If the tests are successful the lightweight spacecraft could be used to transport payloads from the ISS within two to three years, according to Dr Stephan Walther, chief executive of developer Return & Rescue Space Systems (RRSS), a joint venture between EADS-Space Transportation and the Russian Babakin Space Centre. The craft, which resembles a shuttlecock, is being developed with support from ESA as a cheaper alternative to the US Shuttle for transporting cargo from...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A grainy U.S. Air Force photograph that NASA (news - web sites) originally dismissed as being too fuzzy may in fact show the deadly effects of missing tiles on the space shuttle Columbia, the Washington Post reported on Saturday. The picture taken in the last seconds of Columbia's existence shows what may be a vortex of superheated air roiling over the left wing and a section of heat-shield panels missing from the leading edge, the newspaper reported. It quotes an official close to the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, which is charged with finding out why Columbia, NASA'S...

NASA Studied Microscopic Corrosion Studies performed by NASA (news - web sites) engineers during the 1990s raised the possibility that tiny pinholes on the space shuttle orbiters' wings could be enlarged by hot gasses during re-entry, but concluded that the problem was unlikely to endanger the spacecraft or their crews. Yet with increasing focus on the leading edge of Columbia's left wing in the days since the spacecraft broke up over Texas, interest in the pinholes may be renewed. NASA officials declined to say Thursday whether they considered pinholes a possible cause of the Columbia accident. Engineers who have studied...

The Pilot - Joe H. Engle Whether commanding the Space Shuttle in orbit, flying the X-15 at Mach 5, pulling 9Gs in an F-16, or flying his own Piper L-4 "Cub", Joe H. Engle is completely at home in an airplane. Born in Abilene, Kansas, he attended the University of Kansas and graduated with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering in 1955. Commissioned through the Air Force ROTC program, Joe earned his pilot's wings in 1958, and was assigned to George AFB, CA flying North American F-100 Super Sabres. He graduated from the USAF Test Pilot School in 1961, and the...

February 4, 2003The space program must fly higher WASHINGTON--First we will mourn the brave and beautiful who fell out of the sky. Then, however, we will proceed to the usual post-catastrophe ritual: investigation and recrimination. We will search for the culprits. Some human agent will be hauled out to bear the blame. And we will search for the cause: flying foam, wing damage, insulating tiles, whatever--we will find it. But we will miss the point. The point is that the first 150 or so miles of space travel--braving the gravitational well of Earth and shooting through the atmosphere--is the...

‘Punkin Suit’ Pride Feb. 10 issue — We’ve got a NASA channel on our cable TV here at home, and we were going to watch the landing. Suddenly, everything went off the air and they said they had lost all signal. I knew we had deep problems. BACK IN THE old days, it was normal to lose contact for about four minutes during the highest heat of re-entry, but the blackout period now is less. I turned to my wife, Annie, and said, “This is big-time trouble.” We’ve never had a disaster on re-entry before. The launch has always been...

ASTRONOMY/SPACE ALERT FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Brian Webb, KD6NRP Ventura County, California E-mail: kd6nrp@earthlink.net Web Site: http://home.earthlink.net/~kd6nrp 2003 January 30 (Thursday) 20:00 PST ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SPACE SHUTTLE REENTRY VISIBLE The Space Shuttle Columbia is set to land this Saturday morning at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Prior to landing, the spacecraft will reenter the Earth's atmosphere and become an artificial meteor. During reentry, Columbia's groundtrack will pass north of San Francisco at 05:53 PST and continue east. The Shuttle will then pass immediately south of Lake Tahoe and cross southern Utah. Because the Shuttle will cross northern California before sunrise and...

ASTRONOMY/SPACE ALERT FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Brian Webb, KD6NRP Ventura County, California E-mail: kd6nrp@earthlink.net Web Site: http://home.earthlink.net/~kd6nrp 2003 January 19 (Sunday) 16:35 PST ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SHUTTLE REENTRY VISIBLE Launch Alert reader Rick Baldridge recently passed the word that part of the upcoming reentry of Space Shuttle Columbia will occur over northern California before dawn on February 1st. According to Rick "The shuttle will be re-entering the Earth's atmosphere over the North Bay Area at 4:48am (22 minutes before landing) which is well before the start of astronomical twilight, yielding a spectacular sight to all of central and northern California, Nevada and points...

SHUTTLE REENTRY VISIBLE Launch Alert reader Rick Baldridge recently passed the word that part of the upcoming reentry of Space Shuttle Columbia will occur over northern California before dawn on February 1st. According to Rick "The shuttle will be re-entering the Earth's atmosphere over the North Bay Area at 4:48am (22 minutes before landing) which is well before the start of astronomical twilight, yielding a spectacular sight to all of central and northern California, Nevada and points east almost to the Mississippi River basin where sunlight will begin to interfere. Many PAS [Penninsula Astronomical Society] members have seen these re-entries...

Starshine 2 Return A glittering satellite named Starshine 2 will disintegrate in Earth's atmosphere on April 26th. Listen to this story via streaming audio, a downloadable file, or get help. April 25, 2002: For some months now sky watchers have occasionally looked up and seen a curious flashing light in the sky. Pulsing as brightly as a first magnitude star, it would appear, race across the heavens, and be gone in a matter of moments. A high-powered telescope -- if one could be made to track the fast-moving thing -- would reveal a half-meter wide sphere, spinning and studded...