STS-127 Day six – planned activities

10:33 GMT (6:33 am EDT) – Endeavour / ISS Crew Wake Up
11:13 GMT (7:13 am EDT) – EVA #2 Preparations Resume
15:28 GMT (11:28 am EDT) – EVA #2 Begins (Wolf & Marshburn)
15:58 GMT (11:58 am EDT) – ICC ORU (SGANT, PM, LDU) Transfers To ESP-3 Begin; Fixed Grapple Bar Relocate From ESP-2 To P1 ATA
20:18 GMT (4:18 pm EDT) – JEF Forward Camera Installation
21:58 GMT (5:58 pm EDT) – EVA #2 Ends
1:33 GMT (9:33 pm EDT) – ISS Crew Sleep Begins
2:03 GMT (10:03 pm EDT) – Endeavour Crew Sleep Begins

Source

July 20, 1999 – Liberty Bell 7 capsule is raised from the ocean

Gus Grissom, a native of Mitchell, Indiana, became just the second American to reach space on July 22, 1961. He was born April 3, 1926, and perished with two colleagues on the launch test-pad on January 27, 1967. His Mercury capsule, Liberty Bell 7, sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean after splashdown of his completed mission on July 22, 1961.

Wikipedia says:

“Following the splashdown of “Liberty Bell 7″, the hatch, which had explosive bolts, blew off prematurely, letting water into the capsule and into Grissom’s suit. Grissom nearly drowned but was rescued by helicopter, while the spacecraft sank in deep water. Grissom maintained he did nothing to set off the explosives to blow the hatch, and NASA officials agreed. The craft was recovered in 1999 but there was no evidence of how the hatch had been opened. However, later experience showed that the force necessary to trigger the initiator for the explosive egress system would leave a major bruise, and Grissom had no such injury.”

Recommended Reading:

• Gus Grissom: The Lost Astronaut by Ray E. Boomhower

Recommended Links:

• Liberty Bell 7 capsule raised from ocean floor, CNN article

Explore the Apollo 11 landing site

Explore the Apollo 11 landing site using NASA’s special web site allowing the viewer to pan 360 degrees standing near the LM. Key “hot spot” allow the user to zoom in and see closer images and views.

Access photo galleries, videos and audio transmissions (transcripts) too.

Explore the landing site.

STS-127 Endeavor crew completes first walk

(NASA) – In a complex and choreographed activity, the crews of Endeavour and the International Space Station installed the Exposed Facility on the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Kibo laboratory today, the top priority for the mission, and completed the first of five spacewalks planned.

Though plagued by communication problems, crew members Dave Wolf and Tim Kopra completed all of their primary tasks during a 5 hour, 32 minute spacewalk. STS-127 lead spacewalker Dave Wolf and the newest space station crew member Tim Kopra began the spacewalk at 12:19 p.m. EDT, when they switched their spacesuits to battery power. The spacewalk ended at 5:51 p.m.

[more]

STS-127 Day five planned activities

10:33 GMT (6:33 am EDT) – Endeavour / ISS Crew Wake Up
12:33 GMT (8:33 am EDT) – SSRMS Grapple & Unberth OBSS
13:48 GMT (9:48 am EDT) – SSRMS Handoff OBSS To SRMS
14:38 GMT (10:38 am EDT) – SRMS / OBSS Focused Inspection Of Endeavour TPS Begins
18:03 GMT (2:03 pm EDT) – SRMS Handoff OBSS To SSRMS
18:18 GMT (2:18 pm EDT) – OBSS Berth In Endeavour’s Payload Bay
19:38 GMT (3:38 pm EDT) – SRMS Grapple & Unberth ICC From Endeavour’s Payload Bay & Maneuvers To Handoff Position
22:08 GMT (6:08 pm EDT) – CSA PAO Event
22:28 GMT (6:28 pm EDT) – EVA #2 Procedure Review
0:58 GMT (8:58 pm EDT) – EVA #2 Campout Begins (Wolf & Marshburn)
2:03 GMT (10:03 pm EDT) – ISS Crew Sleep Begins
2:33 GMT (10:33 pm EDT) – Endeavour Crew Sleep Begins

Source: Spacefellowship

NASA/space technology helping our soldiers: LED technology for pain relief

Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs)

Red light-emitting diodes are growing plants in space and healing humans on Earth.

Red light-emitting diodes are growing plants in space and healing humans on Earth. The LED technology used in NASA space shuttle plant growth experiments has contributed to the development of medical devices such as award-winning WARP 10, a hand-held, high- intensity, LED unit developed by Quantum Devices Inc. The WARP 10 is intended for the temporary relief of minor muscle and joint pain, arthritis, stiffness, and muscle spasms, and also promotes muscle relaxation and increases local blood circulation. The WARP 10 is being used by the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Navy as a noninvasive “soldier self-care” device that aids front-line forces with first aid for minor injuries and pain, thereby improving endurance in combat. The next-generation WARP 75 has been used to relieve pain in bone marrow transplant patients, and will be used to combat the symptoms of bone atrophy, multiple sclerosis, diabetic complications, Parkinson’s disease, and in a variety of ocular applications.

(Spinoff 2005, 2008)

Source: NASA, Spinoff 2008 report. More info

NASA releases new images of Apollo landing sites

NASA reports:

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, has returned its first imagery of the Apollo moon landing sites. The pictures show the Apollo missions’ lunar module descent stages sitting on the moon’s surface, as long shadows from a low sun angle make the modules’ locations evident.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, or LROC, was able to image five of the six Apollo sites, with the remaining Apollo 12 site expected to be photographed in the coming weeks.

The satellite reached lunar orbit June 23 and captured the Apollo sites between July 11 and 15. Though it had been expected that LRO would be able to resolve the remnants of the Apollo mission, these first images came before the spacecraft reached its final mapping orbit. Future LROC images from these sites will have two to three times greater resolution.

Source: NASA

This graphic shows the approximate locations of the Apollo moon landing sites.
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio