August 7, 2008 — STS-125 launch of Space Shuttle

Mission: STS-125
Launch Vehicle: Atlantis
Launch Site: Kennedy Space Center - Launch Pad 39A
Launch Time: 8:24 a.m. EDT
Description: Space Shuttle Atlantis will fly seven astronauts into space for the fifth and final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. During the 11-day flight, the crew will repair and improve the observatory’s capabilities through 2013.

China’s Shenzhou VII to launch Sept 25th

BEIJING, Sept. 17 — Zhai Zhigang, a reserve for the Shenzhou V and VI missions, is poised to become China’s first spacewalker, reports have said.

Three 42-year-old astronauts – Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng – have been selected to carry out the country’s third manned space mission, which will last from Sept 25-28, according to China.com.cn.

The most likely takeoff time for Shenzhou VII is 9:10 pm on Sept 25, the website said.

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Does America still have the ‘Right Stuff’?

It’s been 36 years already since Americans last set foot on the Moon. It could be another 12 before we do again!

NASA director Michael Griffin recently gave a speech in which he basically addressed this question, “Does American have the right stuff?”

Here are excerpts from the speech. Some of these trends he cites are alarming. The full text of the speech is found here.

Sept 15th

NASA is in the inspiration business. Space exploration inspires the questioning child in each of us to “explore strange new worlds, to seek new life and new civilizations, and to boldly go where no one has gone before.” I believe that we will, one day, find a civilization on Mars. Ours. The stuff of science fiction slowly turns into reality.

So I ask, why not dare to do the great things, the hard things, the meaningful things which makes our country great? It is a choice, a choice of strategic importance for how we as a small group of people in this room tonight and as a nation choose to spend our time, resources, and energy. Do we choose to spend our time on things which will have lasting meaning and improve the lives of current and future generations, or do we choose to waste our time with trivial pursuits?

The abandonment of the capability our nation purchased at such great price during the Apollo years was a mistake of strategic proportions. NASA’s spending declined from a high of 4.2 percent of our nation’s federal budget to just under 0.6 percent today. The termination of the Apollo program, the failure to sustain America’s journey beyond low-Earth orbit, the destruction of the industrial capability to produce the Saturn V rocket and Apollo spacecraft, and the loss of the future our nation could have had in space, was a policy decision perpetrated by the Nixon Administration and ratified by the Congress of that time, essentially without debate. Our nation was distracted by other pressing issues, and our future on the space frontier suffered as a result.

We have become inured to what should be recognized as alarming trends, the subject of a recent hearing before the House of Representatives Science & Technology Committee. There are half as many bachelor’s degrees in physics awarded today in the United States than when Sputnik was launched in 1957. The number of engineers graduating with bachelor’s degrees declined by over 20% in the last two decades prior to a recent up-tick – but that up-tick is primarily due to an increase in the number of foreign students, who are increasingly returning to their home countries. In 2004, China graduated approximately 500,000 engineers while India graduated 200,000 and the United States graduated 70,000. In 2005, the United States produced more undergraduates in sports exercise than in electrical engineering. In 2006, only 15% of college graduates in the United States received a diploma in engineering or the natural sciences, compared to 38% in South Korea, 47% in France, and 67% in Singapore. The number of PhDs in engineering awarded by U.S. universities to U.S. citizens declined 34% in a single decade. Two-thirds of U.S. engineering PhDs are awarded to foreign nationals. In some surveys, U.S. public schools consistently rank near the bottom in mathematics and science as compared to their global counterparts. We are surpassed by, among others, Azerbaijan, Latvia and Macao.

According a recent report by the RAND Corporation, a few years ago China initiated a fifteen-year “Medium-to Long-Term Plan for the Development of Science and Technology” which clearly stated their nation’s goals and means to achieve it. It stated that China aims to become an “innovation-oriented society” by 2020 and a world leader in science and technology by 2050, develop indigenous innovation capabilities, leap-frog into leading positions in new science-based industries, increase R&D expenditures to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2020 (from 1.34 percent in 2005), increase the contribution to economic growth from technological advances to 60%, limit dependence on imported technology to 30%, and become one of the top five countries in the world in the number of patents granted.

China is investing heavily in building space capability because they understand the value of these activities, both as a driver for innovation and a source of national pride in being a member of the world’s most exclusive club. They understand what it means for a society to be pushing the human frontier. China today not only flies its own taikonauts, but also has plans to launch about a hundred satellites over the next five to eight years. It should be no surprise, especially to those who have read Tom Friedman’s book “The World is Flat” or John Kao’s “Innovation Nation”, that this environment in China is breeding thousands of high-tech start-ups.

The Chinese adapted the design of the Russian Soyuz to create their Shenzhou spacecraft. However, the similarity between the two ends at the outer mould line; the Shenzhou spacecraft is both more spacious and more capable. They plan to conduct their first spacewalks and orbital rendezvous operations, and to build their own space station – admittedly simpler than ours – in the coming years. While they have not stated an intention to do so, the Chinese could send a mission around the Moon with the Shenzhou spacecraft, as the United States did with the inspiring Apollo 8 mission back in 1968. China could easily execute such a mission with their planned Long March V rocket, currently under development and reportedly rivaling the capabilities of any expendable rocket in the world today. After visiting their facilities and talking to their engineers two years ago, I have no doubt that they will have it in use, as they plan, by around 2013. I’ve also visited India, and seen their space infrastructure. I was equally impressed.

History shows that nations that shrink from the frontiers of their time, shrink also in their influence on the world stage. Yet we see that Americans today do not feel the urgency for preeminence on the space frontier that we felt in the 1950s and ’60s. Sometimes I wonder if we are a bit tired, or distracted by other urgent crises, to recognize what it is that preeminence means for America.

As we are seeing, other nations seem to realize the importance of space exploration. This is an enterprise in which we can afford to be a leader, and one in which we cannot afford to be a follower. Whether America takes part or not, human exploration of space will go forward in this century. It is only a question of who those explorers are, what languages they speak, and what values they hold. Make no mistake, those who explore space in the coming decades will have The Right Stuff. I only hope that Americans will be among them.

NASA announces next Mars mission: Maven

According to NASA (9/15/08) we learn:

The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft will provide information about the Red Planet’s atmosphere, climate history and potential habitability in greater detail than ever before. MAVEN will make definitive scientific measurements of present-day atmospheric loss that will offer clues about the planet’s history. Called the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft, the $485 million mission is scheduled for launch in late 2013.

Artist’s Concept of MAVEN, set to launch in 2013. Credit: NASA.

NASA’s web site says, “NASA’s Mars Exploration Program seeks to characterize and understand Mars as a dynamic system, including its present and past environment, climate cycles, geology and biological potential.”

More info from NASA

With the Shuttle Program officially retiring in 2010 programs like these will be exciting to watch for space exploration enthusiasts.

To read the latest news stories about the Mars NASA Maven mission visit this link

September 18, 2008 – launch of STS-126

Mission: STS-126
Launch Vehicle: Space Shuttle Endeavour
Launch Site: Kennedy Space Center - Launch Pad 39A
Launch Time: 8:08 p.m. EDT
Description: Space Shuttle Endeavour launching on assembly flight ULF2, will deliver a Multi-Purpose Logistics Module to the International Space Station.

September 15, 1976 – Soyuz 22 (Russia) launches

Soyuz 22 was an earth-sciences mission using a modified Soyuz capsule that had served as a backup for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project mission the previous year.

Cosmonauts Valery Bykovsky and Vladimir Aksyonov spent a week in orbit photographing the surface of the Earth with a specially-built camera. It was hoped that these observations would assist in identifying resources and assisting in economic planning.

Source: Wikipedia

September 15, 1968 – Soviet Union launch Zond 5

Zond 5, a member of the Soviet Union’s Zond program, was launched from a Tyazheliy Sputnik (68-076B) in Earth parking orbit to make scientific studies during a lunar flyby and to return to Earth. On September 18, 1968, the spacecraft flew around the Moon.

Source: Wikipedia

Descent modules of Zond-5 (left) and Soyuz-3 (right)

September 12, 1970 – Luna 16 (Russia) becomes first robotic mission to return soil samples to earth from another world

Luna 16 was the first robotic probe to land on the Moon and return a sample to Earth. It represented the first lunar sample return mission by the Soviet Union, and was the third lunar sample return mission overall, following the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 missions.

Source: Wikipedia

September 12, 1959 – Luna 2 (Russian) hits moon

Luna 2 (E-1A series) was the second of the Soviet Union’s Luna program spacecraft launched in the direction of the Moon. It was the first spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon, and it impacted the lunar surface west of Mare Serenitatis near the craters Aristides, Archimedes, and Autolycus.

Source: Wikipedia

Luna 2

September 12, 1966 – Gemini 11 was launched

Gemini 11 (officially Gemini XI) was a 1966 manned spaceflight in NASA’s Gemini program. It was the 9th manned Gemini flight, the 17th manned American flight and the 25th spaceflight of all time (includes X-15 flights over 100 km).

Source: Wikipedia

Gemini 11 lifts off from Kennedy Space Center with astronauts Conrad and Gordon aboard.