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First man to walk on the Moon Neil Armstrong
Neil Armstrong, first man to set foot on the Moon in 1969, is usually known as a quiet man of few words who would rather avoid the spotlight. 

Yesterday, however, saw him take part in a 4 man committee testifying before Congress about the current state of the American human spaceflight program, with the words “embarrassing” and “unacceptable” being freely used.

"We will have no American access to, and return from, low Earth orbit and the International Space Station for an unpredictable length of time in the future", Armstrong told the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.

"For a country that has invested so much for so long to achieve a leadership position in space exploration and exploitation, this condition is viewed by many as lamentably embarrassing and unacceptable."

His words echoed the sentiments felt by many with the cancelation by President Barack Obama of the Constellation program that would have returned man to the Moon, and with the recent final flight and retirement of the space shuttle program, leaving no capability for the US to send humans into space.

Armstrong was joined by fellow astronaut and last man to step on the Moon in 1972, Eugene Cernan, who was equally dismissive of the current administration at NASA.

"Today, we are on a path of decay. We are seeing the book close on five decades of accomplishment as the leader in human space exploration", Cernan said.

Given the current poor economic situation of the United States and a new determination to encourage commercial companies to supply the next generation of crew and cargo transport vehicles, it is difficult to see how the US can lead at the forefront of future space exploration – but I guess time will tell.  


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With the final flight of NASA's shuttle Atlantis due to take place later this week, it will bring with it an end to the capability of the USA to send its own astronauts into Space. I'm sure it is going to be a very sad day for many when Atlantis makes its final landing after a 12 day mission to the International Space Station (ISS), and many people I am sure will be left shaking their heads in disappointment. 
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The US will now be reliant on Russia for future astronaut transportation to the ISS until such time as privately developed commercial crew transport becomes available, hopefully in the next few years but with no guarantees as to time scale. Quite coincidentally today I came across this graphic which shows the yearly cost per seat the US will have to pay on board the Russian Soyuz capsules. According to Charlie Bolden, current Nasa Administrator, the price is going up due to inflation and not because the Russians are taking advantage of their monopoly. Perhaps true, but inflation would seem to be very high at the moment! 
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The final touchdown of US space shuttle Endeavor took place at 06.34 GMT, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida today, bringing an end to the space craft’s last 16 day mission to the International Space Station.

For the record, Endeavour flew into Space a total of 25 times, orbited the Earth 4,671 times, covered 123 million miles, and spent 299 days in Space.

Retirement now beckons for the craft that was named after the ship commanded in 1769 by British explorer James Cook, with Endeavor going on public display at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.

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Space shuttle Endeavor blasted off today on its final mission before being decommissioned and put on display to the public at the California Science Center, USA.

The 16 day mission which will be its 25th flight into Space and the 11th calling at the International Space Station, will deliver $2bn worth of astrophysics equipment to the ISS, designed to search Space for antimatter. 

The final countdown for the launch of the last shuttle will take place in July when Atlantis will fly for the last time, bringing to an end the 30 year NASA shuttle program.

What follows next will be a significant period of time when the US will be unable to put astronauts into Space under its own steam, relying totally on the Russian Soyuz program. The future of American led missions into Space will only restart again once private companies have developed and built rockets to take over the job, with 2015 being estimated as the earliest date for new launches to begin.

Uneasy times ahead for the USA Space program I think!

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Just a few short weeks after safely returning to Earth from her last mission STS-133 on March 9th 2011, the Discovery space shuttle is already going through the process of decommissioning before making her way to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum, in Washington DC, USA.

Technicians from Kennedy Space Centre’s Orbiter Processing Facility are presently pulling her to bits to make her safe for the general public to play with!

Pictures below show the removal of the front nose where lies the forward reaction control system (FRCS), or in layman’s terms an array of tiny little rocket engines used to control the precise movements and orientation of the shuttle in Space. As such, these tend to contain toxic explosive material and so it all needs a good clean out. The engines will also be removed and replaced with replicas, and the originals put into storage for possible use at a later date with a future spacecraft.

Only two more space shuttle flights now remain, with Endeavour  due to fly on mission STS-134 on April 19th 2011, to be followed in June this year by the last historic shuttle flight ever by Atlantis. 

Click on the images below to enlarge.

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I couldn't resist just posting this little bit of silliness from the employees at the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida, who got together yesterday to pay tribute to the 30th anniversary of the space shuttle program by “building” their own space shuttle. 

Click the play button below to see how they did it. 
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The coming week sees the 25th anniversary of a disaster that shocked a nation and resulted in an investigation revealing a space agency that had allegedly become more concerned with schedules and public relations than with safety.

28th January 1986 saw the launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida of the NASA space shuttle Challenger, complete with a crew of seven. Just 73 seconds into the flight, disaster struck when the shuttle broke apart and disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean. The crew compartment was eventually recovered from the ocean floor, and although some crew members are thought to have lived through the initial breakup of the spacecraft, nobody could have survived the impact of the crew compartment with the ocean surface.

 An investigating commission concluded that the accident cause was a faulty O-ring in one of two solid-fuel rocket boosters, coupled with the very cold weather on the launch day which caused the O-ring to shrink and allow hot gases to escape, and consequently ignite. Unfortunately, NASA managers had known about this potential problem from previous launches but ignored the warning signs.

Understandably, no chances are being taken with the final and much postponed launch of shuttle Discovery following ongoing problems with the fuel tanks. Launch is currently due to take place on 24th February 2011.

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The last flight of the shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station (ISS) has once again been postponed while engineers continue to try and sort out the mystery of the cracked fuel tank. 

Experts are baffled by the cracks that were found on the shuttles external fuel tank, with there being no obvious explanation as to their cause. Thus, a more detailed examination is being conducted, resulting in launch date being put back to 3rd February 2011, at the earliest.

The ‘safety first’ policy certainly has my backing as nobody would want to see a repetition of the disasters that befell the shuttles Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003. Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight after an O-ring seal on a solid rocket booster failed at lift-off, whilst Columbia disintegrated during re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere due to damage to the thermal protection system – accidents that resulted in the deaths of 14 crew members.

The 11 day mission of Discovery with an all American crew, including long time friend Michael Barratt, will deliver a new pressurized module to the ISS to provide extra storage space, more spare parts, and also Robonaut2, the first human-like robotic assistant in Space.

Every cloud has a silver lining, so the expression goes, and for the 6 strong Discovery crew of the STS-133 mission, that silver lining must be the certainty of spending the holiday period with their families. So may I wish a very Happy Christmas to the crew of STS-133, and a special festive hug to Mike and his family.

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These must be stressful times in the USA at the moment for those involved at all levels with NASA and the Space program. Times are hard, financial budgets have not increased as many would have wished, the shuttle program is coming to an end, and many employees will find themselves searching for new jobs next year. To add insult to injury, the latest shuttle launch is delayed until at least 17th December 2010, following the discovery of cracks in the foam surrounding the fuel tanks.

It would now appear that the development of the much needed ‘alternative commercially operated transportation’, something that NASA will be relying upon for future delivery of cargo to the International Space Station, may not be proceeding as quickly as had been hoped.

NASA boss Charles Bolden is reported to have said this week at the Marshall Space Flight Centre that:

"We are hoping to fly a third shuttle mission in June, what everybody calls the launch-on-need mission ... and that's really needed to [reduce] the risk for the development time for commercial cargo. If there's any delay in ... delivery of commercial capability to take cargo to station, we could find ourselves in a situation as bad as having to de-man the station or take it down to three people, and we really don't want to do that".

Difficult times ahead then! 

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NASA Shuttle Discovery
Cape Canaveral in Florida this week proved to be a place where the ability to bide your time and remain patient was essential.

Monday 1st November 2010 was to see the final launch of the NASA space shuttle Discovery before it is decommissioned forever. However, what followed was a series of problems, helium and nitrogen gas leaks, an electrical problem with a circuit breaker, and bad weather, with the launch date being put back again and again. 

Finally, a hydrogen leak from an 18cm long crack in an external fuel tank discovered just hours before the launch brought the whole proceedings to a finish on Friday, with the latest problem likely to take at least 4 days to fix.

NASA has now set the next launch date for no earlier than November 30th, with the likelihood that Discovery will launch in the first week of December at some point – hopefully!

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