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With the space shuttle program shutting down this year, NASA on Jan. 24 issued official notification that Kennedy Space Center (KSC) launch pads, payload processing facilities, runways and other amenities will be available for use by commercial companies and non-federal entities. In its Notice of Availability and Request for Information, NASA identified four types of facilities it expects to make available upon completion of the shuttle program: space vehicle processing and launch, off-line processing, payload processing and miscellaneous. Listed in the announcement are Launch Complexes 39A and 39B, the Vehicle Assembly Building, Launch Control Center, Orbiter Processing Facilities, Shuttle Landing...

The shocking gundown of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has left NASA reeling: Her astronaut husband was due to rocket away in just three months as perhaps the last space shuttle commander, and her brother-in-law is currently on the International Space Station. Shuttle commander Mark Kelly rushed to his wife's hospital bedside Saturday as his identical twin brother, Scott, did his best to keep updated on the Arizona shooting through Mission Control, the Internet and the lone phone aboard the space station. (snip)

Five minute time lapse of STS 131, from hangar to launch. Pretty cool! Direct Link

The second flight of the space shuttle Atlantis was almost its last. What was then NASA’s newest orbiter sustained severe damage to its fragile thermal protection system when it lifted off from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39B on Dec. 2, 1988. But through a combination of military secrecy and plain old human misunderstanding, the problem went unaddressed until Atlantis returned to Earth four days later. The STS-27 mission was the second shuttle flight after the fatal Challenger mission, an urgent “black” mission to orbit the Lacrosse-1 radar-reconnaissance satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office (AW&ST July 9, 2007, p. 28)....

Space shuttle Discovery’s final mission is off until February. NASA managers announced the latest delay for Discovery on Friday. They say they need more time to analyze cracks in the shuttle’s fuel tank. The damage cropped up following a failed launch attempt in early November. Discovery remains on the launch pad, holding a load of equipment for the International Space Station. Officials want to conduct a fueling test to better understand the problem. Officials say they will tentatively aim for a liftoff on Feb. 3. That will result in a postponement for shuttle Endeavour, which had been scheduled to soar...

The wonderfully sort-of-secret X-37B is back on terra firma after a long stay in space. Very little information beyond its appearance, dimensions and the fact that the Air Force is deploying it is known about the vehicle, which looks a lot like a mini space shuttle. The vehicle can stay in orbit for at least nine months. As someone who spent five years at Space News — much of that time covering intelligence issues — I’m going to engage in some informed speculation. It could take advanced sensors into space for testing and, probably, allow sensors to operate from the...

The final launch of Space Shuttle Discovery will take place no earlier than 3 December. Weather permitting, the launch - originally set for September but postponed to 1 November because the payload was not ready and then to 30 November after a hydrogen leak was discovered while filling the external fuel tank - is now expected at 02:52 Eastern Standard Time. The current launch window will be open until 5 December. The countdown-stopping leak was at the ground umbilical carrier plate, an attachment point between the external tank and a 178mm (7in) pipe that carries gaseous hydrogen safely away from...

The aviation and space press buzzed last week with the news that NASA had quietly moved its two long-grounded X-34 space planes from open storage at the space agency's Dryden center - located on Edwards Air Force Base in California - to a test pilot school in the Mojave Desert. At the desert facility, the mid-'90s-vintage, robotic X-34s would be inspected to determine if they were capable of flying again. It seemed that NASA was eying a dramatic return to the business of fast, cheap space access using a reusable, airplane-style vehicle - something the Air Force has enthusiastically embraced...

Preliminary analysis of the space shuttle’s Discovery’s leaking Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate (GUCP) shows a misaligned seal, a NASA spokesman said Nov. 11. “Not to get ahead of the engineering investigation, but they’re analyzing the flight seal, which they found wasn’t aligned properly. The team plans to install a new GUCP ... connectors, seal, etc., by tomorrow,” Kennedy Space Center spokesman Allard Beutel said in an e-mail to Aviation Week. The GUCP leak forced NASA to cancel its Nov. 5 launch attempt of Discovery on the STS-133 mission, an 11-day space station assembly and maintenance mission that will be the...

NASA has postponed the launch of Discovery’s 11-day mission to the International Space Station until no earlier than Nov. 30, following a substantial leak of hydrogen gas at a launch pad vent-line fitting during a Nov. 5 countdown to the orbiter’s 39th and final mission. The leak at the Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate (GUCP), surfaced before 8 a.m. EDT, and the pre-launch Mission Management Team (MMT) initially braced for repairs that would permit another flight attempt on Nov. 8, a day beyond the nominal closing of the launch window. However, it soon became clear that the lack of rapid access...

Well this is live launch thread of the Space Shuttle Discovery..

NASA will Thursday try to launch space shuttle Discovery on its final voyage, although stormy weather could force yet another delay. Mission managers met Wednesday afternoon and into the evening to discuss an electrical problem that forced the latest postponement. They concluded the circuit breaker trouble no longer exists and the shuttle is safe to fly. But forecasters warned there is an 80 per cent chance that thunderstorms will keep Discovery on the pad. Liftoff is scheduled for 3:29 p.m. (1929 GMT).

NASA managers met Monday to review preparations for the space shuttle Discovery launch on STS-133, clearing the spacecraft for liftoff Wednesday on what will be its 39th and final flight. It was a quick meeting, with unanimous consent to press ahead with a launch attempt at 3:52 p.m. EDT. “If I wouldn’t have talked about how quickly it was going, it would have gone even faster. We didn’t have any technical issues to discuss,” quips Mike Moses, shuttle launch integration manager at Kennedy Space Center. Over the weekend, technicians plugged helium and nitrogen leaks in the shuttle’s right-side Orbital Maneuvering...

NASA managers cleared space shuttle Discovery for launch at 4:40 p.m. EDT Nov. 1, following a review of weekend repair work to fix a small leak in the flange area of the Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS). “We’re in great shape out at the pad,” Launch Director Mike Leinbach told reporters Oct. 25 following NASA’s Flight Readiness Review for the STS-133 mission, the 39th and final planned mission for Discovery. The replacement of two seals in the OMS flange ate up the four contingency days that had been remaining in the shuttle’s processing schedule, but Leinbach said he saw no reason...

The independent Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel will recommend that NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, the White House and Congress strive for a decision by the end of December whether to launch shuttle Atlantis on an extra mission to the International Space Station in mid-2011, to avoid potential risks associated with workforce uncertainty. The eight-member panel agreed on the recommendation Oct. 22 during its fourth-quarter meeting at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, following two days of fact finding. “You could say this is an administrative issue, but it’s a morale issue, too,” said Joe Dyer, the retired U.S. Navy vice admiral...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Space shuttle Discovery has new seals and is no longer leaking. It also has an official launch date. NASA's senior managers met Monday and set Discovery's last liftoff for next Monday. Launch time is 4:40 p.m. This will be Discovery's 39th and final mission as NASA retires its three remaining

With the final crews in training for NASA’s last three space shuttle missions, the number of astronauts in the corps is down to 65 – a 25% drop since last year. NASA plans to keep its roster of astronauts at 65 to support spaces station operations and other programs, including the development of the agency’s Orion deep space capsule and planned commercial crew vehicles, said Jerry Ross, a seven-time shuttle veteran who heads the agency’s Vehicle Integration Test Office, an engineering support team for the Astronaut Office. The 65-member corps does not include nine astronaut-candidates selected last year who are...

There's still the matter of money. But it looks increasingly likely that NASA will get an extra space shuttle flight. President Barack Obama signed the NASA 2010 Authorization Act into law Monday, following last week's approval by Congress. The measure directs NASA to move forward with an additional shuttle flight, before retiring the fleet. U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson says the funding issue should be resolved once Congress returns to Washington in a lame duck session next month.

NASA space shuttle program managers approved a Nov. 1 launch date for the 11-day STS-133 mission aboard the shuttle Discovery, following a Oct. 6 review of mission preparations. John Shannon, the shuttle program manager, received a unanimous “go” from the team members to continue with launch preparations. NASA will host an agency-wide Flight Readiness Review on Oct. 25 at Kennedy Space Center in Florida to set a formal launch date. The FRR will assess the readiness of the International Space Station as well as Discovery for the STS-133 flight. During the mission, Discovery’s six-member crew will deliver the Permanent Multipurpose...

HOUSTON - Perhaps as many as one thousand people from the NASA community are being laid off Friday. The cut-backs are among NASA contractors tied to the Space Shuttle Program that has just 3 launches remaining. The United Space Alliance (USA) says it's letting go of 333 employees from its Houston office and nearly 900 employees in Florida. "Today we say goodbye to a remarkable group of people," said USA's Chief Executive Officer Virginia Barnes Friday morning. Barnes statement continued, "Although our workforce has known for several years that the Space Shuttle Program was scheduled to end, layoffs are always...