Atlantis has done it's job delivering some solar sails to the ISS, and all has gone reasonably well for this mission (barring a brief glitch in the station's oxygen supplier that created a tiny toxic spill).

The craft was due to land back on Earth tomorrow - but the weather in Florida doesn't look so good, and now there's a 'mystery object' between the shuttle and the ground that has put off a landing attempt for at least a day.

That term and the description (a baffling object of indeterminate size in the same orbit as the shuttle) makes it sound like a UFO... sadly it's probably just a bit of kit that fell out of the cargo bay.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 05:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

So finally the penguin got itself off the ground today.

It was indeed something to see, and I was happy I stuck it out for the final attempt. The engines were so bright that it was a little like looking into the sun, and the sound was deafening. The orbiter rose into the sky, and kept shrinking until it eventually looked like a shooting star heading out over the Atlantic.

The engine cut off, the big orange tank separated, and now Atlantis is safely in orbit. As we speak, the Atlantis is making its way towards the International Space Station, which is somewhere between North America and Europe. It will catch up with the station over the next few days, and rendezvous with it around 11:00 AM GMT on Monday, 11 September.

Later that same day, assuming everything else goes according to schedule, the giant truss the shuttle is carrying will be handed off to the station’s own robotic arm. Over the next few days, the astronauts will carry out a series of space walks to attach the truss and open the solar array.

The shuttle will land back here at the Kennedy Space Center around 20 September.

I, on the other hand, will be landing in Washington later this evening, with a pack full of very dirty clothes. Thanks for reading everyone!

Posted by Geoff Brumfiel at 04:28 PM | Permalink

The astronauts are strapping in for their fifth attempted launch of the space shuttle Atlantis. For once, things are looking up, the engine cut off sensor problem appears to be well in hand, and the weather, thus far, is cooperating.

My editor yesterday asked why this would be the last attempt for at least a few weeks. The principle problem is the Russians. They’re planning on launching a Soyuz capsule on 18 September, and if the shuttle leaves any later than today, the two would overlap. Docking two spacecraft to the station at once is no mean feat, and everyone would assume avoid that situation.

So why can’t the Russians move their launch date back? Well they have constraints of their own: they’ve got some new contractors recovering the Soyuz, and they want their people to have solid daylight to look for the capsule when it comes down in Kazakhstan. Just as the daylight launch restriction on the shuttle is constraining NASA, the daylight landing restriction restrains the Russians.

Beyond that, there’s always been a bit of a tense relationship between the US and Russian partners. In 2001, Dennis Tito paid $20 million to the Russian Space Agency to fly to the International Space Station, against the express wishes of NASA.

By coincidence, this capsule will also be carrying a space tourist: Anousheh Ansari, who with her husband created the X-prize, will be along for the ride.

Posted by Geoff Brumfiel at 01:32 PM | Permalink

It’s a sign of just how cautious NASA has become that they decided to stand down today. The questionable engine cut-off sensor was one of four that are used to shutdown the engine if the hydrogen fuel runs low. The shuttle needs just two of its four sensors working, and the whole cut-off system itself is a backup: the navigational computers typically turn things off automatically at the right altitude and speed. Even if they don’t, Atlantis carries an extra 300 kilos of hydrogen to prevent the engines running dry.

The risk was so minimal that only two members of the roughly twenty-man mission management team voted "no-go." One of them was team chairman LeRoy Cain, so that sealed the deal.

Nevertheless, shuttle programme manager Wayne Hale said, if the shuttle did run out of hydrogen, it would be a “very bad day.” In static tests, shuttle engines running on oxygen without the presence of hydrogen underwent what engine designers euphemistically call “uncontained failure.”

Mission managers say that they will try again tomorrow, and unless they see something really weird in other sensors, they’ll go ahead regardless of the bad engine cut-off sensor’s status. If tomorrow doesn’t happen, they’ll wait until after an 18 September Soyuz mission.

“Tomorrow is a deadline because I have to go find a Laundromat,” says Hale.

Amen to that.

Posted by Geoff Brumfiel at 06:55 PM | Permalink

Sensor glitch keeps Atlantis grounded.

CAPE CANAVERAL - The space shuttle Atlantis failed to take off today from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Mission managers are going to make one last try tomorrow morning, but the timing is getting ever tighter for the launch of the third shuttle mission since Columbia broke up on re-entry in 2003.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 06:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Mission managers scrubbed at T minus 9:00 minutes to further evaluate bad hydrogen engine cut off sensor. They’re resetting for a launch 24 hours from now. We’ll likely have a press conference later today to update us on the status of the questionable sensor.

Posted by Geoff Brumfiel at 03:57 PM | Permalink

The Atlantis is fuelled, the weather is good, the crew is strapped in, but will Atlantis fly? Mission managers are still trying to work out whether they can go with only three of their four engine cut off sensors.

We’re at a built in 10 minute hold and then the count resumes. The team will have to make a choice soon.

Posted by Geoff Brumfiel at 03:30 PM | Permalink

Complicating the launch plans is the apparent failure of one of four hydrogen engine cut-off sensors on the shuttle’s main fuel tank (that’s the big orange one). Mission managers will now need to decide whether to launch with only three sensors, or scrub for 24 hours.

If history is any indication, we’re headed for scrubsville: In 2005, Discovery scrubbed for 24 hours after a similar failure. It then took off with three sensors the next day.

Posted by Geoff Brumfiel at 11:52 AM | Permalink

Mission managers made the case today for launching on Friday, despite the partial failure of a motor used to cool one of the Atlantis’s three fuel cells. The motor is still operational, but any further problem would cause it to shutdown. Astronauts would then have about ten minutes to shut off the entire cell before some presumably very bad would happen.

Shuttle programme manager Wayne Hale made his case that none of that will go down tomorrow. The data indicates some faulty wiring in the motor, but Hale says that it appears isolated, making it highly unlikely anything more will go wrong. “This is not rocket science, this is 19th century technology,” he said. “It’s very robust, it’s very reliable, and in particular, these motors are very reliable.

“What we are looking at here is a random kind of a thing,” he added.

Some other people on the launch team aren't so sure, including the folks who manufactured the fuel cell. But nevertheless, the launch is going forward.

And assuming nothing else happens, I’ll write again early tomorrow.

Posted by Geoff Brumfiel at 12:10 AM | Permalink

We don’t know the details just yet, but they just announced that they would attempt a launch tomorrow at 11:41AM. We’ll hear more in the press briefing in 20 minutes.

Posted by Geoff Brumfiel at 10:40 PM | Permalink

As the mission management team goes into its afternoon meeting, the press pool is sitting around, speculating on whether they’ll shoot Friday. There are arguments for and against, but one thing seems clear: if they need to replace the fuel cell, they’ll think seriously about launching later in the month—even if that means launching at night.

Wayne Hale says that the lack of daylight won’t dramatically affect safety because they’ve already taken enough data, and if they are forced to launch in late September then it would be too late to use additional imagery to plan modifications to the external fuel tank.

Meanwhile, Florida Today, a local paper, has a blog entry on the Atlantis’s new nickname among the shuttle ground crew. They’re calling it “The Penguin.” Why?

Because it’s black and white and doesn’t fly.

Posted by Geoff Brumfiel at 07:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Shuttle programme managers just announced that they are standing down for another 24 hours to review a problem with one of the orbiter’s three fuel cells.

The roughly 100kg fuel cells combine hydrogen and oxygen to create power for the shuttle and water for its crew. They are considered essential for shuttle operations, and Atlantis will not launch without all three in working order.

In fact, shuttle programme managers kept insisting, all three cells do appear to be working at the moment, but a cooling motor on one of cell is only partially operational. As is, it shouldn’t be a problem, but if anything else were to go wrong, it could create significant trouble that might cut short the mission.

Engineers will spend most of tomorrow looking at the history of the fuel cell to try and see if they can find the origin of the fault. That’s not easy, says shuttle programme manager Wayne Hale. The cell was built in 1976 and tested in 1981 by a company that has changed hands at least four times since then. And the circuitry is proprietary, says Hale, “which is to say that the vender sold us this thing but didn’t tell us exactly how it works.”

They’re now trying to resurrect those old proprietary drawings to learn exactly what caused the failure and whether it could worsen.

Posted by Geoff Brumfiel at 12:19 AM | Permalink

Last night I took a trip out to the pad with the camera corps and learned a little more about how one goes about photographing the shuttle. Since you have to be several kilometres away from the launch pad when it launches, you need one of two things: a very long telephoto lens or a remote control camera.

Most photographers apparently opt for the later. The day before the launch they climb aboard a NASA bus and haul their gear out to the restricted area around the pad. They set up their cameras at what the think will be a good angle, placing them atop tripods and inside little armoured boxes. The cameras have sound triggers that go off when hey hear the deafening roar of the shuttle engines (usually above 100 decibels).

According to a local photographer I befriended, the guys are pretty hard core about getting their shots. They often tromp out into the marshland around the pad to set up their tripods, getting devoured by mosquitoes in the process (the ones around the pad are both numerous and ravenous). They also run the risk of being eaten by alarmed alligators, many of which, according to photographer lore anyway, are deaf as a result of previous shuttle launches.

I also learned that the single most embarrassing thing any photographer can do is ask to have their picture taken in front of whatever it is they’re supposed to be covering. I’m a reporter though, so I was unabashed about taking a quick snapshot of me and the Atlantis.

Posted by Geoff Brumfiel at 08:42 PM | Permalink

We've just found out they've scrubbed the launch for 24 hrs due to a short in an electricity-producing fuel cell. If the cell has to be replaced, then Atalntis will have to return to the hanger, and the launch is off until next month.

An 11 AM press conference is being held to discuss the matter further. I'll write more when I know it.

Posted by Geoff Brumfiel at 12:45 PM | Permalink

The Atlantis is now in a built-in “hold” until about 1:30 AM. The service structure has been rolled back and the orbiter is exposed. There’s a media trip to the pad in a few minutes, and I’m going to go check it out.

When I arrived at Orlando Airport this evening, it was raining buckets. So why is everyone optimistic? Because the narrow, 20 minute launch window the shuttle has each day is earlier now than it was in late August. Programme managers are hoping the noonish launch time will mean the shuttle takes off ahead of the afternoon showers.

Posted by Geoff Brumfiel at 11:46 PM | Permalink

Shuttle managers have set tomorrow at 12:39 EDT as the new launch date for STS 115. This time, things are looking a little better: there's only a small chance of thunderstorms and no tropical storms or hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico.

Still, the Air Force weather folks, who do forecasting for launch days, say that lift off isn’t a sure thing. Strict launch weather conditions mean that puffy cumulous clouds may be enough to force a scrub, and there is a chance of scattered showers at the Shuttle Landing Facility a few kilometres from the launch site. The bottom line is that the shuttle has only a 70% chance of getting off the ground tomorrow.

I’m headed back this afternoon, and I’ll write more when I arrive.

Posted by Geoff Brumfiel at 02:39 PM | Permalink

Mission managers announced today that they're moving the vehicle back to the pad ahead of Ernesto, which has been downgraded to a tropical storm. But it's unclear when the vehicle will be able to lift off.

That means the shuttle could still miss its rendezvous date with the International Space Station. The launch window is set to close on 14 September, and, complicating the situation are plans to launch a Russian Soyuz capsule to the station later in the month. The Russians have requested that the shuttle not launch after 7 September in order to prevent a scheduling conflict. NASA officials are now pleading with the Russians for more time, but it’s unclear whether they’ll get it.

If the September launch window is missed then Shuttle planners will have a small, two day window in late October, and a day in December when the launch pad and station will line up correctly. The next siginificant launch window will not open until February. Waiting that long would be a setback, though not a devastating one, according to John Logsdon, Director of the Space Policy Institute at Geroge Washington University. “I wouldn’t call it minor, but I wouldn’t call it major either,” he says. While it will put pressure on plans to finish the station and retire the shuttle by 2010, the construction “remains doable.”

When it does eventually fly, the Atlantis will deploy a massive solar array that will provide additional power for an upcoming space station expansion. It will be the first mission to continue construction of the International Space Station since the break up of the shuttle Columbia upon reentry in 2003.

Posted by Geoff Brumfiel at 08:06 PM | Permalink

Ernesto has taken a turn for the worse and is heading straight towards Florida. The mission management team announced this morning that they will be moving the shuttle as soon as possible, likely early tomorrow morning.

If they do, it will be over a week before a launch will be possible. I’m headed home ahead of the weather.

Posted by Geoff Brumfiel at 04:21 PM | Permalink

The mission management team announced tonight that they are holding off on the decision to roll the shuttle back into the Vertical Assembly Building until 7:00am tomorrow. But LeRoy Cain, the highest ranking member of the shuttle team, sounded downbeat about the threat posed by Ernesto: “It would take a relatively significant change from the current forecasts that we’re seeing to prevent us from going into rollback preparation.”

The good news is that the shuttle and its booster rockets appear undamaged from the lightning strike, so it would be capable of launching Tuesday if the weather holds.

Posted by Geoff Brumfiel at 02:16 AM | Permalink

Today was supposed to be launch day, but instead, journalists walked out of the afternoon press briefing wondering if there would be any launch at all. Weather seems to be conspiring against the lift off.

First, Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for space operations, announced that Friday’s lightning strike required further evaluation of the shuttle’s solid rocket boosters. Mission engineers are fearful that the booster’s pyrotechnic bolts and other systems may have been damaged by the strike. The launch has been pushed back until Tuesday afternoon at the earliest.

Second, hurricane Ernesto, the year’s first, has taken an unexpected turn. NASA officials are now concerned that the hurricane could strike Cape Canaveral. “We’d like to have the vehicle back in the vertical assembly building before high winds hit the Cape,” says Gerstenmaier. “That forces us to start taking some action fairly soon.”

The team is in a quandary, Gerstenmaier continued. On the one hand, they want to get the shuttle ready to fly. On the other, they need to prepare to move it into the relative safety of the vehicle assembly building. At some point, they will have to choose which they will do. “That point in time hasn’t occurred yet,” he said. “But it’s coming this evening.”

Posted by Geoff Brumfiel at 08:23 PM | Permalink

At the afternoon press conference, we learned that launch pad 39B was hit yesterday by the largest lightning strike the shuttle programme has ever seen. One hundred thousand amps coursed through the tower’s lightning rod. The arc may have affected an arm on the ground structure that’s meant to swing away at launch, as well as one of the shuttle’s primary electrical systems, according to LeRoy Cain, the senior shuttle programme manager at the site. “At this point we don’t really have enough data yet to really know whether or not we have any problems.”

Cain says that the team has decided to delay the launch by at least 24 hours to assess the strike.Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that engineers will be able to go out and inspect the shuttle or the launch pad anytime soon. A second round of thunderstorms has rolled in this afternoon, and the pad will probably have to be kept clear until the late evening or early morning hours.

Posted by Geoff Brumfiel at 09:01 PM | Permalink

They've scrapped launch for at least 24 hours. I'll know more when I get back from our afternoon press conference.

Posted by Geoff Brumfiel at 07:44 PM | Permalink

Another reporter (for an unnamed rival British publication) and I spotted NASA administrator Michael Griffin in the cafeteria this afternoon. He was sporting a bright blue NASA polo and seemed busy rallying the troops.

I hope he likes thunderstorms, those clouds are gathering.

Posted by Geoff Brumfiel at 05:44 PM | Permalink

But there are clouds on the horizon. NASA forecasters have upgraded the chances of rain tomorrow to 60%, making a launch seem unlikely. Complicating things, this afternoon’s anticipated thunderstorms will likely further complicate preparations.

The weather folks are more sanguine about Monday, when rain has only a 20% chance of spoiling the show.

Posted by Geoff Brumfiel at 04:39 PM | Permalink

I showed up at the press centre at around noon, and almost as soon as I pulled up it started pouring. At its heaviest, the rain was so thick that you could just barely make out the fifty-story tall vehicle assembly building across the street. We found out at an evening press conference that Pad 39-B, where Atlantis is fueling up, was actually struck by lightning around that time. They’ve got ways (i.e. ¾” steel lighting rods) of deflecting the strike, and it looks like none of the shuttle’s systems were damaged.

So fortunately, launch is still scheduled for just under forty-eight hours away. At least tentatively: first Lieutenant Kaleb Nordgren of the Air Force’s 45th Weather Squadron tells us that there’s a 40% rain will spoil the show on Sunday.

And there are bigger rain clouds hanging over the launch plans. A tropical storm is forming in the Gulf of Mexico, and it appears to be headed towards Houston, where mission control is based. If the storm were to turn into a full-blown hurricane, and Houston had to be evacuated, planers say that they would have to abandon the entire mission.

That’s a pretty big if, with the storm still so far out to sea (and pretty weak), but it didn’t stop us reporters from speculating wildly about it.

Posted by Geoff Brumfiel at 03:29 AM | Permalink

So here I am at my very first shuttle launch. The space shuttle Atlantis will be carrying a roughly 16,000 kg truss, complete with solar arrays, into orbit. It’s an essential part of the International Space Station (ISS), which will need the extra juice to keep growing. It’s also an important test in the return to normal shuttle flights, because it’s the first flight to resume construction of the ISS, something that ended after the break-up of the Columbia upon re-entry in 2003.

Mission planners are telling us that this is one of the most logistically complex shuttle flights ever attempted. For starters, that truss is heavier than any payload ever carried into orbit. Furthermore, assembling it will require three separate space walks.

Posted by Geoff Brumfiel at 03:27 AM | Permalink

NASA’s shuttle Atlantis is due to launch at 4:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday 27 August – only the third launch since Columbia broke up in re-entry in 2003.

Geoff Brumfiel will be on the site and blogging here with live updates. So stay tuned this weekend for behind-the-scenes reports.

You can also catch up on the shuttle programme with our interactive special.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 06:51 PM | Permalink