“‘There’s very little in life that is 100 percent guaranteed,’ said N. Wayne Hale Jr., the deputy manager of the shuttle program, at a news briefing Sunday evening. ‘And there’s probably less in rocket science.‘ With Discovery poised to fly tomorrow despite a nagging sensor problem, the NYT examines the durability of the aging shuttle fleet. Update: Back in the blue! Godspeed, STS-114.
Tag: Space
Say Cheese.
Via a friend in the program, Google maps the moon to commemorate the 36th anniversary of Apollo 11.
The Rocket’s Red Glare.
In a day of fireworks the nation over, the most intriguing flash-bang occurred 83 million miles away, with the successful crashing of NASA’s Deep Impact into Tempel 1. (Space.com has gathered together the best pics from the big show.)
Ever Watchful.
“Concealed within his fortress, the Lord of Mordor sees all. His gaze pierces cloud, shadow, earth and flesh. You know of what I speak, Gandalf — a Great Eye, lidless, wreathed in flame.”. (Via Supercres.)
(And, while I’m quoting our fallen friend, Saruman of Many Colors: “The hour is later than you think. Sauron’s forces are already moving. The Nine have left Minas Morgul…they crossed the river Potomac on Midsummer’s Eve, disguised as judges in black.“)
Spaced.
“Current U.S. space policy presents a paradoxical picture of high ambition and diminishing commitment…Pursuit of the NASA Plan, as formulated, is likely to result in substantial harm to the U.S. space program.” A new report by experts at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy finds the Dubya space program is a mess. The two writers (both active during the Clinton years) do praise new NASA head Michael Griffin, who may be the only Bush appointee out there that I have positive feelings for. But, in keeping with the general unilateralism of Dubya’s tenure, the scientists bemoan the demise of international cooperation in recent years, with our move to weaponize space a particular stumbling block.
Sail on, Silver Bird.
All systems are go today for the launch of Cosmos 1, a satellite designed to test the possibility of interstellar travel via solar sail. “Because it carries no fuel and keeps accelerating over almost unlimited distances, it is the only technology now in existence that can one day take us to the stars.” (Well, it worked for Chris Lee.) Update: Uh oh…
Darkness on the Edge of Town.
Twenty-eight years into its tour of the universe, Voyager I reaches the edge of the solar system. “[P]roject scientists, working from models of a phenomenon never before directly observed, finally agreed that data from Voyager 1’s tiny 80-kilobyte computer memory showed that the spacecraft had passed through termination shock to the ‘heliosheath,’ a frontier of unknown thickness that defines the border with interstellar space.“
Star Wars: Episode I.
Eager to try out new experimental weapons systems with dubious names like “Rods from God,” the Air Force looks to Dubya to greenlight space weapons programs. The Air Force believes ‘we must establish and maintain space superiority,’ Gen. Lance Lord, who leads the Air Force Space Command, told Congress recently. ‘Simply put, it’s the American way of fighting.” Hmmm. I might feel less uneasy about all this if this fellow Lord didn’t sound like he’s channeling Buck Turgidson. ‘Space superiority is not our birthright, but it is our destiny,” he told an Air Force conference in September. “Space superiority is our day-to-day mission. Space supremacy is our vision for the future.“‘
That’s no moon, it’s a…uh, a moon.
The Cassini discovers a new moon within Saturn’s rings. “Tentatively called S/2005 S1, the moon measures four miles across and is about 85,000 miles from the center of Saturn.” (Via Corsairs United.)
Express Shuttle.
A month into his new gig, new NASA administrator Michael Griffin argues for speeding up the shuttle replacement by four years, with a new proposed launch date of 2010. “To execute the new strategy, sources said, Griffin intends to assemble a small, Apollo-style team of NASA experts and scrap the current plan to have two civilian contractors compete for several years for the right to direct development of the exploration vehicle.”