NASA UPDATES
NASA ISSUES HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE STATUS REPORT
NASA engineers successfully activated the Advanced Camera for Surveys at 9:12 a.m. EDT Friday aboard the agency's Hubble Space Telescope.
Checkout was completed at 10:20 a.m. EDT with science observations scheduled to resume Sunday, July 2.
"This is the best possible news," said Ed Ruitberg, deputy associate director for the Astrophysics Division at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "We were confident we could work through the
camera issue, and now we can get back to doing more incredible science with the camera."
Engineers began uploading commands to the instrument Thursday, June
29, in an effort to restore operational status. A pre-programmed
observing timeline for normal camera science operations will begin
executing at approximately 8 p.m. EDT on July 2.
Engineers received indications on Monday, June 19, that power supply
voltages were out of acceptable limits, causing the camera to stop
functioning. The instrument was taken off line, so engineers could
study the problem and determine the appropriate remedy. Hubble
observations continued using other onboard science instruments.
The third-generation Hubble instrument consists of three electronic
cameras, filters and dispersers that detect light from the
ultraviolet to the near infrared. Astronauts installed the camera
during a servicing mission in March 2002. It was developed jointly by
Goddard, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore; Ball Aerospace,
Boulder, Colo.; and the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore.
For information about the Hubble Space Telescope, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/hubble
NASA AWARDS ENGINEERING AND SCIENTIFIC SERVICES CONTRACT
NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland has selected ASRC Aerospace,
Inc., of Greenbelt, Md., to provide engineering and scientific
services.
ASRC will provide on-site support services for technical, engineering
and scientific tasks in the areas of aeronautics, microgravity
science, space exploration, space power and propulsion, related
science and technology activities.
This is a performance-based, indefinite-quantity, indefinite-delivery,
cost-plus-award-fee, small business set-aside contract. The maximum
value of the contract is $250 million over a possible five-year
period, consisting of a two-year base period, followed by three
one-year options.
For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/home
NASA NAMES NEW ROCKETS, SALUTING THE FUTURE, HONORING THE PAST
NASA announced on Friday the names of the next generation of launch
vehicles that will return humans to the moon and later take them to
Mars and other destinations. The crew launch vehicle will be called
Ares I, and the cargo launch vehicle will be known as Ares V.
"It's appropriate that we named these vehicles Ares, which is a
pseudonym for Mars," said Scott Horowitz, associate administrator for
NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, Washington. "We honor
the past with the number designations and salute the future with a
name that resonates with NASA's exploration mission."
The "I and V" designations pay homage to the Apollo program's Saturn I
and Saturn V rockets, the first large U.S. space vehicles conceived
and developed specifically for human spaceflight.
The crew exploration vehicle, which will succeed the space shuttle as
NASA's spacecraft for human space exploration, will be named later.
This vehicle will be carried into space by Ares I, which uses a
single five-segment solid rocket booster, a derivative of the space
shuttle's solid rocket booster, for the first stage. A liquid
oxygen/liquid hydrogen J-2X engine derived from the J-2 engine used
on Apollo's second stage will power the crew exploration vehicle's
second stage. The Ares I can lift more than 55,000 pounds to low
Earth orbit.
Ares V, a heavy lift launch vehicle, will use five RS-68 liquid
oxygen/liquid hydrogen engines mounted below a larger version of the
space shuttle's external tank, and two five-segment solid propellant
rocket boosters for the first stage. The upper stage will use the
same J-2X engine as the Ares I. The Ares V can lift more than 286,000
pounds to low Earth orbit and stands approximately 360 feet tall.
This versatile system will be used to carry cargo and the components
into orbit needed to go to the moon and later to Mars.
NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, manages the Constellation
Program and the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville,
Ala., manages the Exploration Launch Projects office for the
Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, Washington.
For information about NASA's exploration efforts, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/exploration
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STATUS REPORT: SS06-031
The Expedition 13 crew welcomed a Russian resupply ship this week and
prepared for the arrival of Space Shuttle Discovery.
Discovery's launch is scheduled for 3:49 p.m. EDT Saturday.
Discovery's STS-121 mission will return the station to three crew
members for the first time since 2003, when European Space Agency
astronaut Thomas Reiter joins crew members Jeff Williams, flight
engineer and Pavel Vinogradov, commander.
To get ready for STS-121 spacewalks, the crew flushed cooling loops in
the Quest airlock and U.S. spacesuits, configured airlock systems and
tools and reviewed robotic arm procedures. They checked out a
ship-to-ship communications system that will be used for
conversations with Discovery's crew during rendezvous and
disconnected the station's Common Cabin Air Assembly heat exchanger.
That device will be returned to Earth aboard Discovery along with
other equipment in the Italian-built Leonardo Multipurpose Logistics
Module. Discovery will use Leonardo to bring about 5,000 pounds of
supplies to the station.
The crew also completed a mid-mission session of the renal stone
experiment by collecting urine samples and logging all of the food
and drinks consumed over a three-day period. Each crewmember is
taking either potassium citrate, a drug found to be useful in
preventing kidney stone formation on Earth, or a placebo. Crews in
space are at risk for kidney stones because of their loss of bone
density.
ISS Progress 22, the unpiloted Russian cargo spacecraft, brought 2.5
tons of fresh produce, other foodstuffs, food, fuel and supplies to
the station on June 26. After the cargo ship was fully connected with
station systems, flight controllers in Moscow completed a routine
thruster test, and Vinogradov removed its Kurs automated rendezvous
hardware.
The next station status report will be issued on Friday, July 7, or
after the STS-121 mission.
For more about the crew's activities and station sighting
opportunities, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station
