POOR WEATHER SCRUBS TUESDAY LAUNCH TRY - The launch attempt for space shuttle Discovery was called off Tuesday morning because of poor weather in the area. The launch team will make another attempt Wednesday morning at 1:10 a.m. EDT. More (Source: NASA - Aug 25)
SPACE SHUTTLE LAUNCH VISIBLE FROM EAST COAST - People in the eastern United States will get a great opportunity, weather permitting, to see the space shuttle Discovery launched into orbit early Tuesday morning. And it might also be the final opportunity ever to see a nighttime shuttle launch. This flight (STS-128) will be the 30th to rendezvous and dock with the International Space Station (ISS), and the glow of the shuttle's engines will be visible along much of the Eastern Seaboard. A SPACE.com map shows the area of visibility. To reach the space station, Discovery must be launched when Earth's rotation carries the launch pad into the plane of the station's orbit. More (Source: Space.com - Aug 24)
WEATHER IMPROVING FOR TUESDAY SPACE SHUTTLE LAUNCH - The weather is looking even more promising for Tuesday's launch of space shuttle Discovery. Forecasters said Sunday there is an 80 percent chance the weather will cooperate for Discovery's early morning flight to the international space station. That's better than previous forecasts. There is a 40 percent chance that thunderstorms could interfere with Monday afternoon's fueling. A delay of more than a couple of hours could stall the launch. More (Source: The Associated Press - Aug 24)
STEPHEN COLBERT TREADMILL HEADS TO ISS - The Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill—the COLBERT—will be delivered to the International Space Station next week. It started as a joke and will end up at the International Space Station. After comedian Stephen Colbert discovered NASA was soliciting names for Node 3 of the ISS in an online poll, the host of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" urged his viewers to ignore NASA's suggestion of "Serenity" and suggested his own. More (Source: eWeek - Aug 24)
SPACE SHUTTLE DISCOVERY ON TRACK FOR TUESDAY LAUNCH - NASA's space shuttle Discovery is on track for a planned Tuesday launch toward the International Space Station, mission managers said Saturday. The shuttle and its seven-astronaut crew are nearly ready for their predawn launch Tuesday at 1:36 a.m. EDT (0536 GMT) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, said NASA test director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson. "All of our vehicle systems are in good shape. Our countdown work is progressing well," Blackwell-Thompson said today in a morning status briefing. "Discovery and her launch team are ready to go." More (Source: Space.com - Aug 23)
ARIANE 5 LAUNCHES JCSAT-12 AND OPTUS D3 - Arianespace reinforced its position as the world's commercial launch services provider of choice with the fourth Ariane 5 flight of 2009, which orbited two Asia-Pacific telecommunications satellites tonight (August 21) on the 32nd consecutive mission success of this workhorse vehicle. Lifting off from the Spaceport's ELA-3 launch zone in French Guiana, the Ariane 5 injected its JCSAT-12 and Optus D3 payloads into geostationary transfer orbit during a flight that lasted just over 34 minutes. More (Source: Space-travel.com - Aug 22)
COUNTDOWN BEGINS FOR TUESDAY SPACE SHUTTLE LAUNCH - NASA has begun the launch countdown for space shuttle Discovery. The countdown clocks began ticking late Friday night. Discovery is scheduled to blast off early Tuesday morning. Forecasters put the odds of acceptable conditions at 70 percent. Discovery and a crew of seven will deliver about 17,000 pounds of supplies and equipment to the international space station. NASA test director Steve Payne said the only outstanding issue is a shuttle power controller that had to be replaced, but so far, all the testing looks good. More (Source: Associated Press - Aug 22)
HURRICANE BILL HOWLS TO CAT 4; GOES-14 SATELLITE CAPTURES ATLANTIC STORMS - NASA's new GOES-14 satellite targeted the turbulent Atlantic storms as it beamed back its first "full disk"-- or an entire hemisphere--photo. At the far right: Hurricane Bill, now a dangerous Category 4 storm. Houston Weather Examiner Larry Cosgrove predicts that Bill could brush Bermuda by Friday and then head for the upper northeast coast. More (Source: Examiner.com - Aug 20)
SOUTH KOREA CANCELS LAUNCHING OF SATELLITE - South Korea canceled the first satellite launching from its own territory on Wednesday only seven minutes before the planned liftoff, attributing the decision to a technical problem. The terminated mission seemed to avert, for the moment, a new flare-up of tensions with North Korea, which has been condemned internationally for launching a rocket this year and has said the United Nations should apply the same punitive standards to the South. More (Source: New York Times - Aug 20)
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