The space shuttle Atlantis successfully docked with the Russian space station Mir early Wednesday morning, the second time the two spacecraft have joined together in orbit.
The docking took place as scheduled at 1:26am EST. Atlantis made the final approach at only 2 centimeters per second (0.85 inches/second), carefully avoiding Mir's solar panels, some of which extend very close to the orbiter.
Two and a half hours after docking, the shuttle crew opened the hatch separating the two spacecraft, and Atlatis commander Kenneth Cameron greeted Mir commander Yuri Gidzenko. The two crews exchanged handshakes and gifts.
Mission Control in Houston was fully staffed throughout the mission despite the U.S. federal budget impasse which has shut down most government offices. Mission controllers are considered essential personnel and will remain on duty throughout the mission. However, the government shutdown has furloughed many non-essential NASA employees, forcing the agency to cancel press conferences and shut down a number of World Wide Web servers.
The space shuttle Atlantis lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center Sunday morning -- one day late -- on a week-long mission that features the second docking between the shuttle and the Mir space station.
The shuttle lifted off Sunday at 7:30 am EST. The launch was delayed one day due to poor weather conditions at the three airstrips in Spain and Morocco which serve as emergency landing areas in case of an abort.
Atlantis is scheduled to dock with the Russian space station Mir on Wednesday, the second time the two spacecraft have docked. The shuttle is carrying a 4.5-m (15-foot) docking tunnel which it will attach to Mir. The tunnel will be left behind for use by future docking missions.
The shuttle is bringing supplies, including food and water, and experimental equipment to Mir. The shuttle is also bringing two solar panels which will later be attached to Mir to provide additional electrical power. Personal items and mail are also being brought for the Mir crew.
Unlike the last docking mission in July, there will be no crew exchange. The four Americans and one Canadian aboard Atlantis will return to Earth on Monday, November 20. The two Russians and one German aboard Mir have been in space since early September and will stay aboard Mir until their relief flight arrives in late February.
The launch of Europe's Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) was scrubbed Friday when engineers discovered a problem with an onboard computer, delaying the launch until this Thursday night.
The long-delayed ISO was to be launched in the early morning hours Saturday, November 11, but the launch was delayed when engineers in France discovered an error in a computer on the Ariane 44P booster the day before the launch. The computer error was corrected by Monday.
The delay is the latest for the spacecraft, originally scheduled to be launched in 1993. Problems with the spacecraft's temperature control system delayed the launch for two years. The spacecraft uses liquid helium to cool its detectors to near absolute zero, to reduce the effects of thermal noise on the detectors, improving their sensitivity to faint sources.
ISO, a project of the European Space Agency, is now scheduled for launch Thursday evening at 8:20pm EST (10:20pm at the launch site in Kourou, French Guiana). The launch is scheduled at the beginning of a 45-minute launch window. The spacecraft will spend 18 months studing infrared sources ranging from nearby planets to distant galaxies and quasars.
The shuttle Columbia returned to Earth Sunday, November 5, ending a 16-day mission that studied the effects of microgravity on plants, materials, and combustion.
The mission, which came within half a day of being the longest shuttle mission in history, carried 14 major pieces of lab equipment to study microgravity effects. At 104,700 kg (230,400 lbs), Columbia was the heaviest shuttle ever to land, due in part to the lab equipment it carried.
During the mission, the seven-person crew performed a number of experiments to test the effects of weightlessness on a variety of objects and processes. The crew grew small potato plants in space, studied the effects of weightless on droplets, and studied how various fuels burn in microgravity.
Soon after the landing, the crew got to enjoy two of the things they said they missed most during the long mission -- a hot shower, and some pizza.
A coolant leak aboard the Mir space station forced some primary life support systems to go offline, but backup systems and a quick fix kept things running on the nearly ten-year-old station.
The leak started late Tuesday night, October 31, when a solution of 37% ethylene glycol leaked from a cooling loop in the main Mir module. The exact location of the leak was not tracked down until Thursday, and was repaired by cosmonauts aboard the station on Friday, by which time 1.8 liters (1.9 quarts) of coolant had leaked out.
The leak forced Russian officials to shut down the cooling loop, which shut down the primary carbon dioxide scrubber on the station. A backup system, which uses lithium hydroxide scrubbers, was put into use.
Russian officials downplayed the severity of the leak. "You can compare it to a failure in a home refrigerator, which any adult man could repair," according to a Russian spokesman.
The shuttle Atlantis, scheduled to dock with Mir this Wednesday, was ready to send additional cartridges and other supplies to the station, if needed.
A Canadian radar satellite and a student-built communications test satellite were successfully launched Saturday, November 4, on a Delta II from Vandenberg Air Force Base.
Radarsat, a cooperative project of the Canadian Space Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the U.S., is a 2,860-kg (6,300-lbs) satellite which will provide detailed radar images. The $468-million satellite will be primarily used for applications in agriculture, forestry, geology, hydrology, and oceanography.
Also launched on the Delta II was SURFSat-1. The satellite, built by college students from the United States and United Kingdom, will be used to test NASA's Deep Space Network, used to maintain contact with various planetary probes. The satellite project, which was initiated in 1987, gets its name from the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Most of the students who worked on SURFSat got their positions through Caltech's SURF program.
The Delta II launch was delayed by one day to allow an upgrade to solid rocket boosters that helps the boosters separate from the launcher. A Korean communications satellite was placed in the wrong orbit in August when one of the boosters failed to separate.
NASA officials announced on October 30 the selection of scientific instruments that will be placed on two spacecraft to be sent to Mars in late 1998.
The instruments will go on Mars Surveyor '98 Orbiter and Mars Surveyor '98 Lander. The lander will be sent to the south polar regions of Mars, the first time a spacecraft has been sent to Mars's polar caps.
Included on the orbiter will be an advanced technology, lightweight camera. Built by Malin Space Science Systems, the same company that built the camera for the ill-fated Mars Observer spacecraft, the new camera masses only 1 kg (2.2 lbs), only 1/20th the mass of the original Mars Observer camera.
The lander will feature an integrated science payload known as the Volatile and Climate Surveyor. Built by Dr. David Paige of UCLA, the 17-kg (37-lb) instrument will include a camera, a robot arm to obtain surface samples, a gas analyzer to study the samples, and meteorological sensors to determine the atmospheric temperature, pressure, and winds.
The two spacecraft will be launched on separate Med-Lite boosters in late 1998 and early 1999. They are part of NASA's 10-year Mars Surveyor program, designed to send missions to Mars at each launch opportunity, every 26 months.
NASA announced November 7 that it will pursue a non-competitive contract with United Space Alliance, a Rockwell-Lockheed Martin joint venture, to provide shuttle launch support and eventually assume space shuttle operations.
Three others companies, McDonnell Douglas, Boeing, and Bamsi, also sought the contract. Representatives of the companies expressed surprise and disappointment that the competition for a single shuttle contractor had been abandoned. Rockwell and Lockheed Martin currently have 69% of the dollar value of all shuttle-related contracts.
The goal of the contract process is to create a single prime contractor responsible for all aspects of shuttle flight. NASA hopes having a single contractor will eliminate duplicated work, saving money. Giving responsibility to a private contractor will also reduce the number of NASA employees needed to run the shuttle program.
NASA and U.S. Alliance will now work on a number of steps before a contract is awarded, including agreeing upon a Statement of Work and evaluating a number of proposals. If no roadblocks are encountered, a contract could be tendered by September, 1996.
The Australian National Space Council issued a report October 30 recommending that the country pursue a vigorous program that could give it an edge in the expanding Asia market.
The board recommends that the country spend up to A$90 million (US$67 million) over the next four years to achieve a number of goals in satellite and launch site development.
Among the goals listed by the committee include developing and launching two remote sensing satellites targeted for mining, agriculture, and environmental applications; development of a microsat launch capability from its range in Woomera, South Australia; and working with major international corporations to develop a "major Spaceport" in northern Australia.
"The Council has put forward a program which, by the year 2000, would see Australia have a significant commercial involvement in the space industry, particularly in Asia, and be less reliant on other nations' programs for earth observation data and communications systems," Dr. Don Watts, chairman of the Council, said.
Astronomers November 2nd released spectacular pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope showing evidence of stellar formation in gas pockets known as "EGGs" located in a nebula 7,000 light-years away.
Located, appropriately enough, in the Eagle nebula, these EGGs, or evaporating gas globules, are regions of dense gas that are located at the tips of tendrils of gas in dust known as "elephant trunks" in the nebula.
The trunks are formed when ultraviolet light streaming into the nebula from one side heats and "boils away" gas in the nebula in a process known as photoevaporation. The EGGs, which are denser than the surrounding gas, are not evaporated, leaving behind trails of gas protected from the ultraviolet light, creating the trunks.
The gas within the EGGs and their trunks is dense enough to collapse under its own weight, creating new stars. These stars continue to grow by feeding on gas from its surroundings until the ultraviolet light finally boils away the gas, leaving behind the star.
Astronomers and NASA officials have proposed constructing in the next 15 to 20 years a more than $1 billion space telescope located near Jupiter to search for other planetary systems.
One proposal, by Roger Angel and Neville Woolf of the University of Arizona, would involve four 1.5-m (60-inch) telescopes mounted on a beam, rotating slowly, like a fan. The telescope would be located near Jupiter to get away from the dust in the inner solar system which makes observations of faint objects more difficult.
The ultimate goal of the telescope would be to detect ozone in the atmospheres of planets. Various techniques would remove the light coming from stars, making terrestrial planets more visible and their atmospheres subject to spectroscopic analysis. Ozone is likely to be produced only on planets where free oxygen is available from the respiration of plants.
The cost of the telescope is estimated to be $1 to $3 billion dollars, according to NASA's Edward Weiler. The telescope would likely cost less, in 1990 dollars, than the Hubble Space Telescope. The proposal was announced Thursday, November 2 at Duke University during a meeting of the Council of American Science Writers.
Woomera Launch Successful: The third in a series of sounding rocket launches in Woomera, South Australia, was successful Monday, November 6. A Black Brant IX rocket was launched, carrying an ultraviolet sensor to examine the star Adhara (Epsilon Canis Majoris). The 15-minute flight reached an altitude of 400 kilometers (250 miles). The flight was the third in a series of six launches sponsored by NASA.
Amateur Launch Fizzles: An attempt by a British amateur rocketeer to be the first to launch a rocket into space fizzled Sunday, November 5th, when his rocket failed to lift off from the launch pad. Stephen Bennett had hoped his 20-foot-tall Starchaser 2 rocket would be the first amateur rocket to reach an altitude of 75 kilometers (46 miles), and thus be the first into space. However, his rocket failed to do more than produce white smoke during an exhibition on Britain's traditional "fireworks night". The rocket is primarily fueled by cane sugar, and the sugar conglomerate Tate is paying all of Bennett's expenses.
SOHO Ready for Launch: The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) has been readied for a November 23 launch. NASA has assigned responsibility for the launch, which will take place at the Kennedy Space Center aboard an Atlas IIAS, to the Lewis Research Center in Cleveland. The satellite, a joint project of NASA and ESA, carries 12 experiments to study the Sun's interior and the solar wind, in an effort to better understand the nature and origin of the Sun.
Pioneer Food for the Final Frontier: Following in the footsteps of Tang and freeze-dried ice cream, a California entrepreneur hopes that beef jerky will become the next space food to be popular on Earth. Greg Nemitz is marketing his "Final Frontier Jerky" as "the jerky eaten in space." To prove his point, he sent several pounds of his jerky to Russia to be given as gifts to cosmonauts and officials there. The jerky has been approved for use on the Russian space station Mir, and a batch will be flown to the station in January. For Earthbound folks looking to sample the latest space food, e-mail info@beefjerky.com or browse http://www.beefjerky.com on the World Wide Web.