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In my recent letter to you concerning the TTC, I misquoted some information about the company known as Cintra. Mr. Patrick Rhodes of Cintra wrote in response to my mistake. Therefore, I stand corrected with the following: Fellow citizens, the company, Cintra, is not affiliated with ZAI-ACS. Cintra is partnered with Zachry on some TxDOT projects and ACS is partnered with Zachry on some other TxDOT projects. Therefore, I hope this clarifies the over-zealous statements in my letter. Cintra is a Spanish-owned company, and ACS is a larger Spanish-owned company. Zachry, a Texas company, is affiliated with each of them...

Acknowledging that a NASA authorization bill is unlikely to be enacted this year, three Republican senators – including presidential candidate John McCain (R-Ariz.) – have written President George W. Bush imploring him to direct NASA to hold off for at least a year taking any action that would preclude the agency from flying space shuttles beyond 2010. McCain, joined by Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and David Vitter (R-La.), also cited Russia's recent military incursion into neighboring Georgia earlier this month as evidence that Russia's continued cooperation on the international space station program should not be taken for granted. Once...

For years, patients staying in Rochester have used free shuttles to get to Mayo Clinic. But now higher fuel prices and the slumping economy are creating a whole new hardship for people already on a tough road. Maybe you can imagine how tough it is for a person battling a life-threatening condition. Now many who have turned to Mayo in Rochester face a new and unexpected battle. Sharon Irwin, Kidney Transplant patient, says, "This is my second kidney, so I lost my first one two years ago." With a new kidney and the pain that comes with it, Sharon Irwin...

Seven NASA astronauts are eagerly looking forward to a risky, but pivotal, shuttle flight to the Hubble Space Telescope this fall. Veteran shuttle commander Scott Altman and his crew are preparing to launch in early October aboard the Atlantis orbiter on what is expected to be NASA's final service call on the iconic space observatory. The telescope passed its 100,000th orbit around Earth on Monday. "What we want to do, though, is refurbish the Hubble so that it can operate as long as possible," Altman said during a series of NASA interviews released on Monday. "We're going to add some...

In a news conference Monday, NASA managers discussed how the agency will be adjusting the budget, schedule and technical performance milestones for its Constellation Program to ensure the first crewed flight of the Ares I rocket and Orion crew capsule in March 2015. The Constellation Program is developing the spacecraft and systems, including the Ares I and Ares V rockets, the Orion crew exploration vehicle, and the Altair lunar lander, that will take astronauts to the International Space Station after the retirement of the space shuttle, and eventually return humans to the moon. "Since the program's inception, NASA has been...

It was a good mission and I'm glad to see the ISS is taking shape. As for the object, not a big deal. My advice for everyone here, before going crazy over something minor or if something goes wrong, listen to NASA, not the media.

HEAVENLY TRIANGLE: Ringed planet, first-magnitude star, crescent moon. Add them all together and you get a heavenly triangle visible tonight. Look up after sunset for Saturn, Regulus and the Moon in scalene formation. http://spaceweather.com/ [note: First, all of this is naked-eye visible (no, you do not need to remove your clothes to see it!). Next, Saturn (in the diagram above) is the large blue dot. They apparently forgot to label it. Saturn will appear brighter and somewhat 'yellowish' compared to the nearby white star Regulus just to its lower right (Saturn is brighter than the star). Mars, a bit further...

HOUSTON (AP) — Space shuttle Discovery's seven-member crew completed an inspection of the spacecraft's wings Sunday afternoon, looking for any signs of damage after launching a day earlier.Discovery, making its way to the international space station, is carrying the orbiting outpost's biggest room by far — Japan's $1 billion lab. The shuttle is also delivering a spare pump for the space station's malfunctioning toilet.But the inspection of the shuttle was not as thorough as it normally is because the school-bus-size lab, named Kibo — Japanese for hope — takes up almost the entire payload bay.That left no room for a...

This will be the official thread for the launching of the Space Shuttle Discovery..

Just logged onto the Space Shuttle schedule and saw that NASA has delayed the Space Shuttle mission to the Hubble Telescope from August 28 to October 8. It looks like a May 22 update, so I'm going to assume this may be breaking news. Anyone have further details?

Jon Edwards often manages what appears impossible. He has recovered precious data from computers wrecked in floods and fires and dumped in lakes. Now Edwards may have set a new standard: He found information on a melted disk drive that fell from the sky when space shuttle Columbia disintegrated in 2003. "When we got it, it was two hunks of metal stuck together. We couldn't even tell it was a hard drive. It was burned and the edges were melted," said Edwards, an engineer at Kroll Ontrack Inc., outside Minneapolis. "It looked pretty bad at first glance, but we always...

Using data recovered from a damaged computer hard-drive that was aboard the ill-fated Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003, scientists have recently learned more about why the act of shaking a material can quickly transform it into something completely different. One of the best examples of this phenomenon is ordinary ketchup. Shake the bottle and the semi-solid paste becomes a runny liquid. Food scientists do the shaking in a controlled way by putting ketchup (and other processed foods) into a rheometer (rheo, meaning "flow") to see how its viscosity -- the scientific word for stickiness -- decreases when shaken. Robert Berg...

MOSCOW — The crew of the Soyuz capsule that landed hundreds of miles off target in Kazakhstan last weekend was in serious danger during the descent, a Russian news agency reported today. Interfax quoted an unidentified space official as saying the capsule entered Earth's atmosphere with the hatch first instead of with its heat shields leading the way. As a result, the hatch suffered significant damage. The official also said the TMA-11 capsule's antenna burned up during Saturday's descent, meaning the crew couldn't communicate properly with Russian Mission Control. The Soyuz crew included U.S. astronaut Peggy Whitson, South Korea's first...

As the legend goes, when the Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortez landed in what is now Mexico in 1519, he ordered the boats that brought him and his men there to be burned. Obama seems to have something similar planned for NASA. Although the MSM has largely ignored Barack Obama's plans for NASA, the issue is likely to bubble up during the general election campaign, if he's the Democratic nominee. Here's why. There's a potential confluence of two events - one possible and one planned: an Obama presidency and a mission shift already underway at NASA. The Space Shuttle program will...

Cape Canaveral FL (SPX) Apr 17, 2008 The cargo aboard the space shuttle Discovery on mission STS-124 already has traveled halfway around Earth, more than 10,000 miles over land and sea. It's now ready for the culmination of its 23-year journey to the International Space Station. Hope will take flight on Discovery. Or rather, the centerpiece of Kibo, a laboratory complex named for the Japanese word for hope, will take flight. STS-124 will launch the main segment of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's - or JAXA's - station laboratory. Kibo's Japanese Pressurized Module, or JPM, is 14.4 feet in diameter...

Hubble servicing mission's launch date threatened BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: March 21, 2008 With the shuttle Endeavour's mission entering the home stretch, shuttle Discovery remains on track for blastoff May 25 to ferry a huge Japanese laboratory module to the international space station. But subsequent near-term flights, including a high-profile mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope, could be delayed, sources say, because of ongoing external tank production issues. The tank used by Endeavour for its current mission was the last in the inventory of tanks built before the...

The space shuttle Endeavour and the international space station will be visible to Antelope Valley residents early each morning for more than a week beginning Sunday. The Endeavour mission, to deliver the first component of a Japanese science laboratory and a Canadian robotic system to the station, is scheduled to end with a landing at 5:33 p.m. Wednesday, March 26, in Florida. The shuttle-space station combination will look like a very bright star moving steadily as they arc through the sky. If no variations are made to the flight plan, the only evening sighting of the shuttle and space station...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Space shuttle Endeavour pulled up to the international space station and docked Wednesday, kicking off almost two weeks of demanding construction work. Before the late-night linkup, Endeavour's commander, Dominic Gorie, guided the shuttle through a 360-degree backflip to allow for full photographic surveillance. It's one of the many safety-related procedures put in place following the Columbia tragedy in 2003. The space station crew used cameras with high-powered zoom lenses to photograph Endeavour from nose to tail, especially all the thermal tiles on its belly. The pictures — as many as 300 — will be scrutinized by...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA's space shuttle Endeavour is on track to light the predawn Florida sky ablaze early Tuesday as it rockets toward the International Space Station (ISS) with seven astronauts on board. Led by commander Dominic Gorie, Endeavour's STS-123 crew will install the first piece of Japan's three-part Kibo laboratory, assemble a monstrous, two-armed Canadian robot and deliver a suite of on-orbit experiments during their mission. The shuttle is counting down toward a planned 2:28 a.m. EDT (0628 GMT) launch on Tuesday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Gorie and his crew plan to spend...

Well it was a good mission which means nothing went wrong knowing how the media tends to make a mountain out of a molehill when it comes to NASA.

<p>Press conference just concluded (15:31 hrs CDT) today. Very contentious questions about the health of a space-walker, delay of space walk due to illness, and overall health of crew(s).</p>

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The space shuttle Atlantis is tentatively set to launch February 7 on a mission to the International Space Station carrying the European lab Columbus, NASA said. "The team did a great job to isolate where (the cutting engine sensor) failure were (so that) the failure would not occur again," Bill Gerstenmayer, deputy administrator for space programs told reporters Wednesday. Gerstenmayer said that as "we head for the 7th of February for launch and we continue to follow the radiator retract hose over the next couple of days; there is a lot of work out to be done...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA called off Thursday's launch of space shuttle Atlantis after detecting problems with fuel gauges in the shuttle's external tank.

This the official Space Shuttle Launch live thread.. Note, there is a former professional football player...

NASA managers today cleared the shuttle Atlantis and its crew for blastoff Dec. 6 on a long-awaited flight to attach the European Space Agency's Columbus research lab to the international space station. With commander Steve Frick and pilot Alan Poindexter at the controls, Atlantis is scheduled to lift off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 4:31:44 p.m. next Thursday, roughly the moment when Earth's rotation carries the launch pad into the plane of the space station's orbit. "We have had three outstanding flights of the space shuttle so far this year and we're looking forward to a...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA moved space shuttle Atlantis to its seaside launch pad on Saturday ahead of a planned early December mission to get Europe's first permanent space laboratory into orbit. Riding on top of a 3,000-ton Apollo-era crawler transporter, Atlantis left the Kennedy Space Center's massive assembly building before dawn. The 3.8-mile trek took about five hours. For a change, NASA has time to spare in its campaign to prepare the shuttle for the three-day launch countdown beginning on December 3. Whether the International Space Station will be ready for Atlantis' arrival is another question. Station commander...

Just heard a loud, double sonic boom, actually felt my chair jump, might have been the shuttle. They don't usually come in over St. John's County.

With the Space Shuttle Discovery having successfully undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) early Monday morning, skywatchers across much of the United States and southern Canada are now in for a real treat on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. Weather permitting, there will be opportunities to see both the Discovery orbiter and the ISS independently flying across the sky from many locations. The sight should easily be visible to anyone, even from brightly lit cities. The appearance of either the space shuttle or the space station moving across the sky is not in itself unusual. On any clear morning within...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 22, 2007 – Retired Air Force Col. Pamela A. Melroy will become the second woman to command a NASA space shuttle flight when Discovery lifts off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., tomorrow. Retired Air Force Col. Pamela A. Melroy is the second woman to command a space shuttle mission. NASA photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The STS-120 flight is the 23rd shuttle mission to the International Space Station, according NASA’s Web site. The mission will launch an Italian-built U.S. multi-port module for the station. The “Harmony” device will provide attachment points for European and Japanese laboratory...

When the space shuttle Discovery launches the STS-120 astronaut crew in October, the force will be with them. Stowed on-board the orbiter, in addition to a new module for the International Space Station, will be the original prop lightsaber used by actor Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker in the 1977 film "Star Wars". The laser-like Jedi weapon is being flown to the orbiting outpost and back in honor of the 30th anniversary of director George Lucas' franchise. Before it can make its trip to orbit though, the lightsaber will first fly to Houston, Texas, home of NASA's Johnson Space Center,...

If anyone's interested. Shuttle is landing shortly. Click player preference, watch and listen live.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA decided Thursday that no repairs are needed for a deep gouge in Endeavour's belly and the space shuttle is safe to fly home. Mission Control notified the seven shuttle astronauts of the decision right before they went to sleep, putting an end to a week of engineering analyses and anxious uncertainty — both in orbit and on Earth. "Please pass along our thanks for all the hard work," radioed Endeavour's commander, Scott Kelly. Mission Control replied, "It's great we finally have a decision and we can press forward." The astronauts had spent much of the...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - A close-up laser inspection by Endeavour's astronauts Sunday revealed that a 3 1/2-inch-long gouge penetrates all the way through the thermal shielding on the shuttle's belly, and had NASA urgently calculating whether risky spacewalk repairs are needed. A chunk of insulating foam smacked the shuttle at liftoff last week in an unbelievably unlucky ricochet off the fuel tank and carved out the gouge. The unevenly shaped gouge — which straddles two side-by-side thermal tiles and the corner of a third — is 3 1/2 inches long and just over 2 inches wide. Sunday's inspection showed that...

A routine shuttle mission, highlighted by a teacher's first spaceflight and space station construction, is now overshadowed by a troubling gash in Endeavour's thermal shield. A detailed laser inspection on Sunday of the difficult-to-reach area on Endeavour's belly could send astronauts out to repair the 3-inch wound later in the week, although NASA said that prospect appeared less likely than it did a day earlier. A penetration, if severe enough, could let in searing gases when the shuttle returns to Earth in a possible replay of the Columbia accident. As a pair of spacewalking astronauts installed a new beam to...

CAPE CANAVERAL, United States (AFP) - Space shuttle Endeavour linked up with the International Space Station on Friday, bringing the first teacher in space and a new truss segment to expand the orbiting laboratory. Borrowing a navy tradition, a bell rang inside the ISS to welcome the shuttle after it docked with the outpost at 1802 GMT some 341 kilometers (212 miles) above the South Pacific, NASA television images showed. The astronauts will enter the ISS after leak and pressure checks between the two spacecraft, NASA said. Before docking, shuttle commander Scott Kelly made a tricky maneuver to make Endeavour...

The first NASA sign at launch pad 39A encouraging the next launch of space shuttle Endeavour at Kennedy Space Center was misspelled and noticed by someone looking at the craft. When the shuttle rolled out from the Vehicle Assembly Building Wednesday, a giant "Go Endeavour" sign was put on a fence in front of the craft. However, one item was missing from the sign: the "u" in Endeavour. Someone spotted the mistake and called KSC to fix it, WKMG-TV reported. NASA scrambled someone out to pad 39A with a new sign that has orbiter Endeavour's name spelled correctly. A photo...

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Was the astronaut really wearing a diaper? It depends on which story you believe. Late-night comedians had a field day with the story of an astronaut who drove more than 900 miles from Houston to Orlando to confront a romantic rival -- while wearing diapers so she wouldn't have to stop. But now, an attorney for former astronaut Lisa Nowak says his client wasn't wearing diapers during the trip, calling the story "an absolute fabrication." He made the remarks after filing motions to suppress evidence in Nowak's criminal case. The tidbit that Nowak wore diapers during...

A source inside the Russian space agency has told ABC News that there could be a "fatal flaw" with the station's main computer. After working for a couple of days, the Russians still have no idea what the problem is, and they are pointing the finger at the Americans. They say that setting up the solar array sent electromagnetic interference into the computer, shutting it down. The story is getting almost no coverage in the Russian media. On the positive side, the space agency says that the station could fly for a few months without correcting its flight, meaning that...

(CBS) PALATINE- When a new mom in Palatine went to check her baby monitor recently, she saw a picture that was literally out of this world. CBS 2's Alita Guillen reports that instead of hearing the coos of her baby boy, it was more like “Hello mission control.” Natalie Meilinger regularly keeps a close eye on 3-and-a-half-month-old jack. A baby video monitor sits just a few feet from his crib, capturing images of him sleeping. That is, until this week, when those images went from Jack’s room to outer space. “I'm going why am I picking up NASA or the...

Summer 2004 The Path Not Taken Rand Simberg n June 21, 2004, with thousands in attendance in the small southern California desert town of Mojave, a sexagenarian test pilot performed the first trip to space in a privately-built spacecraft. SpaceShipOne, as it is called, cost less than $30 million and was funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Occurring seventeen months after the loss of the shuttle Columbia put America’s manned space program on hiatus, the SpaceShipOne flight received a surprising amount of publicity. The achievement, while impressive, was also limited: SpaceShipOne’s flight was only a suborbital test, roughly the equivalent...

Space Shuttle's Left Wing May Be Damaged Meteorite, Space Junk May Have Struck Panels POSTED: 5:13 pm EDT June 12, 2007 UPDATED: 7:00 pm EDT June 12, 2007 Email This Story | Print This Story Sign Up for Breaking News Alerts WASHINGTON -- A meteorite or space junk may have struck Space Shuttle Atlantis' left wing, according to NBC News space correspondent Jay Barbree. NASA recorded a hit on reinforced carbon panels 7 and 8 on the left wing. The panels keep heat from re-entry from burning the spacecraft. ... This is the same area where foam damaged Columbia's left...

STS-117 was the second launch I've attended since I moved to Florida. The threads always get hundreds of posts and thousands of views, so I think an upcoming launch would be a good place for FReepers to meet, share some lunch (or breakfast or dinner) and watch one of man's greatest achievements. I'm starting this thread with pings to several FReepers who live in Florida and posted on the STS-117 launch thread. This is just because we can drive there without worrying about hotels and taking multiple days off work, so it's easier for us. If you are not...

Atlantis Astronauts Inspect Shuttle Heat ShieldTariq Malik Staff Writer SPACE.com 37 minutes ago A torn insulation blanket (upper right) on the port side of the Shuttle Atlantis is shown in this video grab from the orbiter's end effector camera during a survey of the spacecraft's thermal protection system June 8, 2007. (NASA TV/Reuters) Astronauts aboard NASA's shuttle Atlantis scanned their spacecraft's heat shield for any signs of damage Saturday as they continue on course towards the International Space Station (ISS). Atlantis launched into orbit late Friday on a planned 11-day construction mission to the orbital laboratory. Commanded by veteran shuttle...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA managers announced Thursday that they would press ahead with the first space shuttle launch of the year next week, three months later than originally planned because of a hail storm that pockmarked the spacecraft's external tank. After a two-day meeting at the Kennedy Space Center, NASA officials agreed to launch Atlantis at 7:38 p.m. EDT June 8 on a mission to deliver a new pair of solar arrays to the international space station. "The team is really pumped to get this done this time," said Mike Leinbach, NASA launch director. "We've been doing three months...

WASHINGTON, April 11 (RIA Novosti) - NASA is planning to launch four space shuttles before the end of the year, Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for space operations, said Wednesday. NASA managers had been pondering whether to finish repairing a tank and use it for Atlantis' mission or replace it with another tank. But they said they were pleased with the progress of repairs that had been made. He said Atlantis will return to the launch pad May 6, after its hail-damaged fuel tank has been repaired. He said the first launch will not be made until June 8, while the...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA has pushed back the launch of space shuttle Atlantis until at least early June so that technicians can finish repairing its hail-damaged fuel tank, officials said Tuesday. The new launch date was set for no earlier than June 8 — a nearly three-month delay for the first shuttle mission of the year. NASA had been trying to decide whether to finish repairing the tank and use it for Atlantis' mission or swap it out with another tank. But NASA managers said they were pleased with the progress of repairs that already have been made. "We...

A NASA astronaut is charged with attacking her rival for another astronaut's attention early Monday at Orlando International Airport, the Orlando Sentinel has learned. Lisa Marie Nowak drove from Texas to meet the 1 a.m. flight of a younger woman who had also been seeing the male astronaut Nowak pined for, according to Orlando police. Nowak -- who was a mission specialist on a Discovery launch last summer -- was wearing a trench coat and wig and had a knife, BB pistol, rubber tubing and plastic bags, reports show. Once U.S. Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman arrived, Nowak followed her...

These photos were sent to me via email. They originated from a friend of a friend who works at Fox News.Here's something that you don't see every day... The launch, as seen from the International Space Station. The International Space Station happened to be passing by The Cape when STS-115 was being launched in September. They are so spectacular I thought I'd create a thread to share them here. Enjoy.