News 4/22/12

 
Russian Progress cargo ship launched on station resupply mission
 
William Harwood - CBS News
 
An unmanned Russian Progress supply ship blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Friday, rocketing smoothly into orbit and setting off after the International Space Station. Loaded with 2.8 tons of supplies and equipment, the Progress M-15M spacecraft lifted off at 8:50:24 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) and climbed away through a nearly cloudless sky. Eight minutes and 45 seconds later, the spacecraft slipped into orbit. If all goes well, the spacecraft, loaded with 1,988 pounds of propellant, 926 pounds of water, 110 pounds of oxygen and 2,703 pounds of dry cargo, will execute an automated approach to the station complex Sunday, docking at the lower aft Pirs module around 10:39 a.m.
 
International space station's value to science questioned
 
Mark Matthews - Orlando Sentinel
 
After more than 12 years and at least $100 billion in construction costs, NASA leaders say the international space station is ready to bloom into the robust orbiting laboratory that agency leaders envisioned more than two decades ago. "The international space station has now entered its intensive research phase," said Bill Gerstenmaier, head of NASA operations and human exploration, in recent testimony to Congress in defense of the roughly $1.5 billion the agency spends annually on the outpost. But doubts linger. More than a quarter of the space NASA has designated for experiments sits empty. Much of the research done aboard the station deals with living and working in space — with marginal application back on Earth. And the nonprofit group NASA chose to lure more research to the outpost has been plagued by internal strife and recently lost its director.
 
As Shuttles Head to Museums, NASA Counts on Private Astronaut Taxis
 
Mike Wall - Space.com
 
With NASA's oldest and most-flown space shuttle now delivered to its museum retirement home, the commercial future of American human spaceflight is taking center stage. On Thursday (April 19), NASA delivered the shuttle Discovery — the fleet leader with 39 space missions under its belt — to the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Discovery will help teach visitors about the nation's manned spaceflight past, which promises to be much different than its future.
 
SpaceX grows up: ISS test key to next step
Musk and company approach a crucial moment with flight test to space station
 
James Dean - Florida Today
 
Less than four years ago, SpaceX had yet to launch a rocket successfully, and founder Elon Musk doubted the company could survive a fourth consecutive failure. Today, SpaceX is on the verge of an historic attempt to send the first private spacecraft to the International Space Station, after a planned April 30 launch from Cape Canaveral, and has become the face of commercial spaceflight.
 
Orbital Sciences aims for August test launch of Antares
 
Stephen Clark - SpaceflightNow.com
 
Construction of the Antares rocket's launch pad in Virginia is substantially complete after months of delays stemming from difficulties with the facility's fueling and pressurization systems, according to the chief executive of Orbital Sciences Corp., the rocket's commercial operator. The first flight of the Antares rocket, which is designed to launch cargo to the International Space Station, is now targeted for August. The second mission of the expendable booster could occur in October or November with Orbital's Cygnus resupply freighter on a demonstration flight to berth with the space station.
 
Orbital’s Space Station Cargo Launcher Encounters Additional Delays
 
Peter de Selding - Space News
 
The first flight of Orbital Sciences’ Antares rocket with the Cygnus space station cargo freighter has slipped again and is not likely to occur before October or November, Orbital Sciences Chief Executive David W. Thompson said April 20. In a conference call with financial analysts, Thompson pointed to no specific issue responsible for the latest delay of between one to two months from the previous schedule, announced in late February. He said the certification of the Wallops Island, Va., spaceport and its propellant-handling facilities is proceeding without major incident, and that the launch pad should be turned over to Orbital by mid-June or perhaps a bit earlier.
 
14-foot-high seawall built to protect Wallops launch range
 
Eastern Shore News (Gannett Co.)
 
Sand and stone will provide better protection for rocket launch pads, as well as Commonwealth of Virginia and Navy facilities located on Virginia's Eastern Shore from the advancing Atlantic Ocean. The construction of a 14-foot-high seawall, as well as a widened beach, at NASA's Wallops Island Flight Facility's launch range will help slow erosion along the island that has seen the sea advance approximately 8 to 11 feet per year in recent decades. The seawall, completed last month, extended the existing wall by 1420 feet, and protects launch pads from being washed away.
 
Shuttle's details enthrall first visitors
Up-close views reveal much about Discovery's history
 
James Dean - Florida Today
 
During its first full day on public display by the Smithsonian Institution, space shuttle Discovery made a big impression on 12-year-old Andrew Baker. “Very huge and very cool,” the sixth-grader said. Baker’s class from Floris Elementary School in Herndon, Va., was among nearly 5,000 students visiting the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center, whose collection Discovery joined Thursday afternoon, during “Student Discovery Day.” Many local students had visited before and seen Enterprise, the prototype that flew approach and landing tests, which had been displayed in the center’s McDonnell Space Hangar since 2003.
 
Space Shuttle Will Be Late to New York
 
Patrick McGeehan - New York Times
 
The countdown clock for the arrival of New York City’s first space shuttle will have to be reset. On Friday, officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration postponed their plans to transport the shuttle prototype Enterprise to Kennedy International Airport on Monday morning because of a forecast of incompatible weather conditions. A NASA spokesman, Michael Curie, said the agency would aim for the next day, when better conditions are expected. Clear skies will also make it easier for the public to witness its arrival in New York.
 
Space shuttle Enterprise's New York flyover postponed by rain
 
Tomas Dinges - The Star-Ledger (NJ)
 
The likelihood of rain has postponed Monday morning’s scheduled flyover of the space shuttle Enterprise over New York City, NASA officials said Friday. The shuttle was to be flown from Washington, D.C., atop a modified 747 and conduct several flyovers of Manhattan before landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport. But rain is forecast for New York City and Washington on Monday.
 
Shuttle Enterprise waits for NY debut