Tag: Discovery
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Houston, you’ve got a space shuttle… only NASA won’t say which one
The head of NASA has decided to move one of the agency’s retired space shuttles to Houston, but which one seems to still be up in the air. Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas), who earlier this year introduced and championed an effort to relocate the space shuttle Discovery from the Smithsonian to Space Center Houston, issued…
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Texas politicians make headway in effort to wrench space shuttle from Smithsonian
A political effort to relocate the space shuttle Discovery from the Smithsonian to Space Center Houston has been merged with the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill,” a major economic and policy package now nearing a vote in the US Senate. The “Bring the Space Shuttle Home Act,” first introduced by Texas Senators Ted Cruz and…
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‘Last Exit: Space’ highlights the questions and the quirkiness behind billionaire visions of leaving Earth
An artist’s conception shows a starship on a 5,000-year trip. (Jörgen Engdahl / Courtesy of Discovery+) Amazon founder Jeff Bezos wants to have millions of people living and working in space — that’s why he founded his Blue Origin space venture more than two decades ago. But what if living in space turns out to…
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Fate of NASA’s InSight Mars mission to be decided soon
Updated March 7. The back shell of the InSight spacecraft is lowered onto the lander in a clean room at Lockheed Martin. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Lockheed Martin NASA is close to deciding whether to spend an extra $150 million to send the InSight lander to Mars in 2018 or cancel the mission after an instrument problem made…
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Launch of NASA’s next Mars mission delayed until at least 2018
NASA’s InSight lander is pictured inside Lockheed Martin’s satellite factory in Colorado. Credit: Lockheed Martin Persistent problems with a seismometer instrument package will keep NASA’s InSight Mars lander from departing for the red planet during a March launch period, and officials said they will consider shelving the $675 million project if the issues prove too…
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NASA might pick two Discovery missions, but at a price
Artist’s concept of the VERITAS spacecraft at Venus. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech A senior NASA official said Monday the agency could select two new robotic planetary science missions next year for launch in the early 2020s, and the finalists are a Venus orbiter and atmospheric probe, an observatory to search for killer space rocks, and two probes…
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Safety first: Ten years since STS-114’s return to flight misssion
Ten years ago today, the Space Shuttle Discovery left the Kennedy Space Center on STS-114. The flight, filled with hopes, aspirations, and emotions, marked the first step in returning the Shuttle to flight following the loss of Columbia and marked the beginning of a new journey and vision for NASA. But getting to launch day for STS-114 was a difficult…
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Discovery heads into her mating operations with SCA ahead of final flight
The NASA and United Space Alliance (USA) team at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) have begun the final preparations to transport Discovery to her retirement home outside of Washington, D.C. Rolling out of High Bay 4 of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), the fleet leader made a sober roll to the Mate Demate Device (MDD) ahead…
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Atlantis greets sister as Discovery concludes her T&R processing
Space Shuttle Orbiter Discovery’s almost 30 years of processing at Kennedy Space Center’s (KSC) Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) came to an end on Friday with the retired spaceship’s transfer out of OPF Bay 1. The orbiter traded places with sistership Atlantis, which returned to the OPF from High Bay 4 of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB).…
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Shuttle orbiter fleet heading into their final months ahead of exhibition
With Kennedy Space Center workers towing Orbiter Atlantis on Thursday “around the corner” of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) the day after they moved Endeavour out of the same place, one might have thought it was Groundhog Day, and by coincidence it just so happened it was. Shuttle Preparing For Final Destinations: While America’s perhaps best-known…