If you were around the Press Site either as one of the 2,500 media representatives or the 150 Tweeps from the #NASATweetup you will have seen a large number of astronauts hanging out and being interviewed. Our friend Lon Seidman from CTTechJunkie managed to get the prize interview, NASA’s newest recruit Elmo from Sesame Street.
Head on over to CTTechJunkie‘s site for more info.
12th April 1961 Vostok 1 launches carrying Yuri Gargarin into Space
April the 12th is one of those days that is famous in the history of Space Exploration. It was on the 12th April 1961 that Yuri Gargarin made his one and only flight in a rocket to become the first man to ever leave earth to travel in outer space. The rocket, Vostok 1, was also the first spaceship to orbit the earth.
At 6:07 GMT the Baikonur Cosmodrome witnessed the roar of the rocket engines as the Vostok 1 spacecraft launched from the Russian space centre. Ten minutes at 6:17 later the main engine shuts down and Vostok 1 with Yuri Gargarin on board achieves earth orbit.
The mission lasted 108 minutes with the capsule landing about 10 minutes ahead of Yuri as the first man in space had ejected at 23,000 feet and returned to Earth by parachute.
12th April 1981 Space Shuttle Columbia STS-1 launches (Credit NASA)
Fast forward 20 years to April 12 1981 and sitting atop the Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39 is the first ever Space Shuttle waiting to launch. Commander John Young and Pilot Richard Truly took off from LC-39A for the first flight of the revolutionary Space Shuttle, a space vehicle that took off like a rocket, but returned to earth like a plane.
Space Shuttle Columbia (code named OV-102) was the orbiter for this test flight which lasted 2 days 6 hours and 20 minutes. During the flight the Columbia orbited the Earth 37 times, before finally landing on runway 23 at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
On February 24th 2011 at 4:53:24 pm EST the Space Shuttle Discovery STS-133 hurled itself into space for the last time. After a number of delays and engineering issues the rocket was finally cleared for flight, and on a near perfect day with beautiful weather at the launch site the shuttle terminal countdown commenced.
The countdown went to plan with no glitches until just as we were about to come out of the T-9 hold when a 6 amp surge on a bus caused a RSO to go red for launch. RSO is the Range Safety Officer who is part of the 45th Space Wing at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The RSO is responsible for amongst other things the FTS (Flight Termination System) without which a rocket cannot fly.
The RSO has a physical GO/NO-GO switch which has to be thrown to allow the launch to take place. NASA decided to proceed with the countdown until T-5 when they had another hold waiting for the RSO to go green. The launch window for an ISS docking is about 10 minutes with the optimal launch time right in the middle. As the seconds were ticking away it was getting very close to a scrub for the day when with 2 seconds to spare the RSO went green and the countdown continued…
 Space Shuttle Discovery starting to rise. |
 Space Shuttle Discovery clears the tower. |
The full image gallery is a the bottom of the article:
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As everyone must know by now Space Shuttle Discovery STS-133 launched successfully yesterday. We are still working on images and our take of the day, but it must have been one of the best days of our lives. Such a special privilege to see the perfect launch of Discovery in ideal conditions.
Rather than make everyone wait for the full report here is our launch video taken from the press site at Kennedy Space Center. My favorite part is around 1 minute 50 seconds when I get a name check. Unfortunately they did a switch on me and put the other Mike Barratt up there.
STS-133 Crew arriving at the LCC
After a difficult trip into the Kennedy Space Center today I missed the Crew Walkout. Jeff was there though so we should be getting some images for the launch summary. I experienced a 40 mile queue. There are rumours that over 2,000,000 people will be in the Titusville area to witness the launch, I think most of them were in the same jam I was.
Anyway we are here now and can report that the countdown is proceeding normally so far. One of the first events of the day is to get the cryogenic fuels on-board. This went to plan and no issues were found. The GUCP repairs have obviously worked fine.
The next main event is the crew walkout where the astronauts are moved from their quarters to the launch pad. On route they drop off some of the senior launch control staff at the Launch Control Center.
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Mike Barratt meets Robonaut 2-B (image credit NASA)
With little happening today until the MMT (Mission Management Team) meeting this afternoon I thought it was a good time to focus on the Space Shuttle STS-133 Discovery payloads. Of course we all gaze at the stars and wish to be Astronauts but the main reason we have people in space is to manage the research projects. These projects form the payloads of the Space Shuttle.
The STS-133 mission is important for a number of reasons. The first humanoid robot: Robonaut 2 affectionally known as R2 will be flying up to the ISS. There will be a Lego Shuttle model flying on Discovery. There are 9 research experiments being transported including some very interesting projects, not least of which is a microbiological medical experiment. If you have been following ISS news recently you will have realised that there was a problem with the stations’s cooling system. Packed into the payload bay of discovery are some components, including a radiator, for the heating/cooling systems of the Space Station. Finally thee will be a new room added to the ISS.
Dr Millie Hughes-Fulford
Space Shuttle Discovery STS-133 is carrying 9 research experiments up into space in the mid-deck area.
Of the experiments the one that stood out for me was a groundbreaking study at the molecular level. This microbiology is identifying the causes of cascading effect of illnesses in molecules. Essentially the concept is that by identifying and controlling the initial outbreak as it occurs the cascading effect as it spreads through your immune system can be halted thus effectively preventing the illness.
Discussing this with Dr Mille Hughes-Fulford, micro-biologist and Space Shuttle STS-40 veteran, she told me that this research in space was critical for a number of reasons, but the most important was that normally healthy immune systems become vulnerable in low gravity environments. Of the 29 Apollo astronauts 15 returned home either with infections or picked up infections within a few days of returning to earth. Research has proved that the cause of this was the effect of low gravity on the immune system. This make Space an ideal environment for micro-biological experiments. As astronauts are among the healthiest people on (or off) earth then all other causes of infection can be ruled out, making the identification of the molecules starting the cascade much easier. Dr Hughes-Fulford suggested that this research could not only be the end of the common cold, but will have far wider implications for all sorts of illness, including Asthma and other allergic conditions.
Normally this sort of research takes about 10-20 years from experimentation to being productised, but Dr Hughes-Fulford suggested that her research may well reap rewards much faster than that, possibly even within 3 years.
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