http://n.yam.com/afp/international/200811/20081115537742.html
美奮進號太空梭升空　執行太空站修繕任務  
法新社╱蔡佳敏 2008-11-15 11:50     
 
 
（法新社佛羅里達州卡納維爾角十四日電）美國太空梭「奮進號」今天在佛羅里達州升空，七位太空人將執行「居家修繕」任務，為在軌道運行的國際太空站擴充太空艙，以及修復太空站的發電設備。

奮進號今晚在卡納維爾角升空約兩分鐘之後，兩枚固態燃料火箭推進器和太空梭分離，太空梭順利啟程前往國際太空站接軌。

太空梭升空前數小時，七位太空人在美國航空暨太空總署（NASA）為十五天的「居家繕修」任務做最後準備。

甘迺迪太空中心媒體部主任強生說：「各項情況看來都很好，天氣很配合，也沒有程序上的問題。」奮進號是在今天晚上七時五十五分（台灣時間今天上午八時五十五分）發射。

執行奮進號任務的七名太空人都是美國籍，其中五名是男性，兩名是女性。所有太空人穿上亮橘色飛行裝後，在嚴密安全警戒下，被送往十六公里外的甘迺迪太空中心39A發射台，為太空梭展開最後一系列測試。

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081115/sc_afp/usspaceshuttle_081115070653
Endeavour speeds toward space station

by Jean-louis Santini – Sat Nov 15, 2:06 am ET

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida, (AFP) – The space shuttle Endeavour sped Saturday to its rendezvous with the International Space Station, carrying seven American astronauts on a "home improvement" mission that will expand the station's living quarters.

The journey began with a spectacular Friday nighttime launch from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

"It was a great launch and a great team," said NASA Administrator Michael Griffin.

"We are off to a great start on what's going to be an extremely complex and challenging mission," echoed the sentiment top mission management LeRoy Cain.

The task of the Endeavour, which launched nearly 10 years to the day since a shuttle crew first began constructing the ISS on November 20, 1998, will be to repair the station's power-generating solar arrays and expand its living quarters to accommodate bigger crews.

"This mission is all about home improvement," shuttle commander Chris Ferguson said this week during launch preparations. "Home improvement inside and outside the station."

It will be the most extreme home makeover ever attempted by NASA astronauts. The additions will include two new sleeping quarters, exercise equipment, a second toilet, two new ovens to heat food, a refrigerator for food and drinks, a freezer and an oven for scientific experiments.

Endeavour is carrying 14.5 tonnes of material and equipment to the Italian module Leonardo, allowing for the ISS crew to expand from three to six in 2009.

As one NASA expert described it on NASA Television shortly after the launch, the upgrades will effectively turn the ISS into "a five-bedroom two-bath house with a kitchen, and support six residents on a continuing basis."

The astronauts also will be installing a system that can turn urine back into drinking water. The 250-million-dollar upgrade will allow enough recycling for a six-person ISS crew to sharply reduce the amount of water that has to be flown up from Earth.

Over the next day or so, astronauts aboard the ISS are expected to begin limbering up the space station's robotic arm to prepare for the inspection of Endeavour's heat protection shield ahead of the docking at 2213 GMT Sunday.

Four planned spacewalks during the mission will focus on servicing the station's solar wings, mainly the large joints that allow the apparatus to rotate to track the sun.

The wagon-wheel-shaped joints have become gummed up and astronauts essentially will need to perform a space-age lube job -- cleaning out the debris that has accumulated in the joints before lubricating them with grease.

The first spacewalk begins on the fifth day of the mission.

The 27th shuttle flight to the orbiting space station and the fourth and final shuttle mission for 2008 consists of a crew of five men and two women, all Americans.

While docked to the ISS, the Endeavour astronauts and ISS crew will mark the 10th anniversary of the International Space Station, a multi-billion-dollar collaborative effort between the space agencies of Canada, Europe, Japan, Russia and the United States.

Endeavour's crew includes commander Ferguson, 47, co-pilot Eric Boe, 44, and five other mission specialists including Sandra Magnus, 44.

She will replace compatriot Greg Chamitoff as ISS Expedition 18 flight engineer. Chamitoff is scheduled to return to Earth on Endeavour in late November while Magnus is to stay on through February 2009.

Endeavour's mission is scheduled to end November 29, though NASA has said the flight could well be extended a day.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts126/index.html
Mission STS-126

Launch Target:
7:55 p.m. EST
Nov. 14, 2008
Orbiter:
Endeavour
Mission Number:
STS-126
(124th space shuttle flight)
Launch Window:
10 minutes
Launch Pad:
39A
Mission Duration:
15 days
Landing Site:
KSC
Inclination/Altitude:
51.6 degrees/122 nautical miles
Primary Payload:
27th station flight (ULF2), Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM)

STS-126 Crew：
克里斯多夫‧佛格森(Christopher J. Ferguson)
Commander
 
艾利克‧鮑伊(Eric A. Boe)
Pilot
 
史蒂芬‧鮑恩(Stephen G. Bowen)
Mission Specialist
 
羅伯特‧金布諾(Robert S. (Shane) Kimbrough)
Mission Specialist
 
海德瑪瑞‧史蒂芬尼欣-派柏(Heidemarie M. Stefanyshyn-Piper)
Mission Specialist(女)
 
唐納‧佩提(Donald R. Pettit)
Mission Specialist
 
珊卓‧馬格努斯(Sandra H. Magnus)
Mission Specialist/ISS Flight Engineer(女)
遠征18號(Expedition 18/17S)

桂格瑞‧查米托夫(Gregory Chamitoff)
Mission Specialist/ISS Flight Engineer
遠征17號(Expedition 17/16S)

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html
Review sets Nov. 14 to Launch STS-126

Oct. 30, 2008 - 7:30 p.m. EDT
Space shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to launch Nov. 14 at 7:55 p.m. EST after NASA officials conducted an exhaustive review of the shuttle, its payload and the International Space Station. The officials met Thursday at Kennedy Space Center during the Flight Readiness Review, a standard session that clears the way for the launch of a shuttle mission.

“We’re in very good shape to go fly,” said John Shannon, manager of the Space Shuttle Program.

Agency officials evaluated the processing of Endeavour and its payload including the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Leonardo before giving the go to set the launch date. Endeavour and its crew of seven astronauts are to deliver 14,500 pounds of supplies and equipment packed inside the Leonardo to the International Space Station.

“This is an extremely complicated mission for us,” said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for space operations. “There’s lot of things that will be going on the outside of the station with the EVAs (spacewalks) and just as many things going on the inside.”

Leonardo acts as NASA’s moving van. It will be connected to the station while astronauts and station crew members transfer the gear into the orbiting laboratory. They will also transfer used equipment and completed experiments into Leonardo for return to Earth. The module will be disconnected and will fly back inside Endeavour.

Separately, NASA managers have announced that they will not meet a possible February 2009 launch time for the fifth and final shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. The decision comes after engineers completed assessments of the work needed to get a second data handling unit for the telescope ready to fly. The unit will replace one that failed on Hubble in late September, causing the agency to postpone the servicing mission, which had been targeted for Oct. 14.

"We now have done enough analysis of all the things that need to happen with the flight spare unit to know that we cannot be ready for a February launch," said NASA's Astrophysics Division Director Jon Morse at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The February date was an initial estimate, assuming minimal hardware preparations and test durations that are no longer viewed as realistic. We've communicated our assessment to the Space Shuttle Program so it can adjust near-term plans. We will work closely with the Shuttle Program to develop details for a new launch opportunity."

Gerstenmaier said during a news conference Thursday they would unbolt Atlantis from its launch stack and return it to its processing hangar. Atlantis is the shuttle that will be used in servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble managers say they expect to deliver a replacement data handling unit to Kennedy in April 2009. The exact new target launch date for the Hubble mission is under review.

http://udn.com/NEWS/WORLD/WOR6/4578354.shtml
努力號下月升空

【世界日報╱法新社】 2008.10.29 09:28 pm

「努力號」太空梭和其搭載的7名太空人，正在為預定11月14日發射升空的任務做準備。努力號將前往國際太空站，執行15天的任務。圖為努力號的7名太空人，包括指揮官佛格森、駕駛員波伊，和太空人波萬、珊黛拉‧梅格納斯、金柏若、派提特和海蒂‧派柏，28日在佛羅里達州甘迺迪太空中心拍照，其後方是在第39-A發射台的努力號。

【2008/10/29 世界日報】

http://www.dsti.com.cn/index.asp?modelname=gjfw%5Cgjfw%5Fdetail&FractionNo=&titleno=GJFWKX&recno=49815
布希簽署授權法案給予NASA更多資金和太空梭飛行次數
（2008年10月21日）

    [據美國休斯頓大事記報網站2008年10月16日報導]  美國總統布希簽署一項法案，允許增加太空梭飛行次數並加速研發新型飛船。布希總統簽署的這項NASA授權法案是未來投資的藍本。

    NASA授權法案2009年為NASA提供202億美元預算，比布希政府申請的多26億美元。該法案還要求增加10億美元用於加速“獵戶座”/“戰神”項目，該項目首次載人飛行已被推遲到2015年。

    授權法案將確保為九次飛往國際空間站的太空梭任務提供投資，並把NASA參與國際空間站計畫的期限延長至2020年。

    此外，該法案還主張增加一次太空梭任務發射阿爾法磁譜儀，阿爾法磁譜儀是一個價值16億美元的觀測台，它將被安裝到國際空間站外。（中國航太工程中心 錢錢 謝慧敏） 

http://big5.xinhuanet.com/gate/big5/news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2008-09/24/content_10100956.htm
美國兩架航天飛機首次同時矗立在發射場 
2008年09月24日 09:11:26 　來源：中國新聞網 

    綜合媒體報道，美國宇航局網站23日刊登了美國兩架航天飛機首次同時矗立在發射場的照片。

    在美國宇航局肯尼迪航天中心發射場，兩架航天飛機——“奮進”號和“亞特蘭蒂斯”號並列立在發射架上。它們將執行STS-125任務，修復宇航局的“哈勃”太空望遠鏡。 自2001年7月以來，兩架航天飛機首次同時出現在肯尼迪航天中心。

    “亞特蘭蒂斯”號航天飛機計劃于10月8日發射，前往太空執行維修“哈勃”太空望遠鏡的重任。這將是美國宇航局最後一次派宇航員維修“哈勃”，也將是服役了23年的“亞特蘭蒂斯”號的第30次飛行。

    與此同時，“奮進”號將在39B發射架上待命，一旦“亞特蘭蒂斯”號遇險，“奮進”號將前去救援。為保證任務順利進行，美國宇航局已經開始準備，力求萬無一失。

    在告別“營救者”身份後，“奮進”號將被轉移到39A發射架，而後飛往國際空間站執行STS-126任務。

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/orl-nasa2908aug30,0,3449221.story
NASA chief asks: Can shuttle fly after 2010?

Robert Block and Mark K. Matthews | Sentinel Staff Writers
August 30, 2008

CAPE CANAVERAL - NASA Administrator Michael Griffin has ordered his top officials to study how the agency could fly the space shuttle beyond its planned retirement in 2010, according to an internal e-mail obtained by the Orlando Sentinel.

The decision signals what could be a huge change in NASA policy. Griffin has steadfastly opposed extending the shuttle era beyond its 2010 retirement date, arguing it could kill astronauts and cripple the agency's fledgling Constellation program, a system of new rockets and capsules meant to replace the shuttle.

But geopolitics and political pressure are undermining his position.

The Russian invasion of neighboring Georgia has chilled relations between Washington and Moscow. The incursion has threatened NASA's carefully laid plans to rely on Russian spaceships to ferry astronauts to the international space station during the years between the shuttle's retirement and the maiden voyage of NASA's next generation of rocket in 2015.

Anger over Russia's actions has lawmakers clamoring for new ways to keep America's space program independent of Moscow. Sen. John McCain earlier this week asked the White House to stop dismantling the shuttle program for at least a year to preserve the option of keeping Atlantis, Discovery and Endeavour flying.

It is not something that Griffin wants to do. In April this year, he told a Senate panel: "If one were to do as some have suggested and fly the shuttle for an additional five years -- say, two missions a year -- the risk would be about one in 12 that we would lose another crew. That's a high risk . . . [one] I would not choose to accept on behalf of our astronauts."

But flying two shuttle flights a year until 2015 is exactly the kind of option NASA is now looking at, according to NASA officials and the e-mail sent Wednesday by John Coggeshall, manifest and schedules manager at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

"The [shuttle] program in conjunction with [Constellation] and [space station] have been asked by the administrator to put together some manifest options to assess extending shuttle flights to 2015," Coggeshall wrote. "We want to focus on helping bridge the gap of U.S. vehicles traveling to the [space station] as efficiently as possible," he added.

Speculation 'premature'

NASA spokesman John Yembrick described the e-mail's goals as "premature" because NASA has not finalized the parameters of the study.

"Our plan is still, of course, to retire the shuttle in 2010," said Yembrick, adding that such a "what-if analysis" represented "prudent planning," especially in light of suggestions by McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, who would dictate the agency's future if he captures the White House.

John Shannon, shuttle-program manager, told NASA and some contractors earlier this week that the aim of the study was to have a plan ready should the next administration or Congress want to change the current plan NASA has been operating under.

The scope of the study appears open-ended but in the e-mail Coggeshall said that NASA cannot simply spread out the remaining 10 shuttle flights until 2015.

"That does not support [space-station] requirements," the e-mail said. NASA has planned to finish building the last part of the station by 2010.

It also raised the idea of retiring one of the three remaining orbiters, possibly for spare parts.

"We have been encouraged not to focus on a certain set of assumptions or costs. We will probably develop multiple options," it reads.

But if continuing the shuttle means adding shuttle flights rather that trying to spread out the existing 10 flights during the next few years, then the costs could be enormous. At one point last year, Griffin estimated it would cost as much as $4 billion a year to fly the shuttle beyond 2010, a major bite for an agency that had a $17.3 billion budget this year.

Contracts wind down

To have enough money to build the new rockets and capsules of the Constellation program under its current plan, NASA must retire the shuttle or get more money from Congress.

Even if Congress coughs up more cash, there is another worry: NASA already has begun pulling the plug on shuttle contracts. During the past year it has closed down its supply chain from many vendors who make shuttle parts, and some NASA facilities have begun converting systems to get ready for the new Constellation program.

Wayne Hale, a NASA deputy assistant administrator who recently was the shuttle-program manager, recently asked these same questions on his blog.

"Where does the money come from? Where do the people -- who should be working on the moon rocket -- where do they come from? We started shutting down the shuttle four years ago. That horse has left the barn,"

http://udn.com/NEWS/WORLD/WOR6/4497071.shtml
不放心俄國 美太空梭擬延役

【聯合報╱編譯高國珍／綜合外電】 2008.08.31 02:55 am

美俄因喬治亞問題而關係緊張，美方認為，在太空梭除役、新載具尚未接手的空檔仰賴俄國太空船往返太空與地球之間，實非明智之舉，美國太空總署（NASA）考慮讓太空梭延役。

太空梭原定2010年除役，「奧蘭多前哨報」取得NASA一封內部電子郵件的內容，顯示署長葛里芬下令研究太空梭能否服役到2015年，屆時NASA新一代太空平台應已完成。

休士頓太空中心進度主管柯傑蕭在27日寄出的這封電郵中寫道，我們希望以最有效率的方式，填補美國太空船往返於國際太空站與地面之間的交通斷層。

NASA高層證實這份電子郵件屬實，但指此案具體內容尚不確定。

葛里芬曾反對太空梭延役。太空梭計劃開始於1981年，他去年曾估算2010年後每年得投入40億美元，葛里芬認為此計畫費之金錢和心力，將有損於未來軌道飛行及月球任務的進度。

共和黨總統參選人馬侃等參議員已要求太空梭至少延役一年；民主黨總統侯選人歐巴馬也呼籲應追加20億美元預算，使太空梭役期至少延至2010年之後。

俄羅斯總統麥維德夫26日宣布，承認喬治亞境內尋求獨立的南奧塞梯亞與阿布哈茲二省，西方國家批評聲四起，迄今尚無其他國家承認此二省之獨立地位。

喬治亞29日宣布與俄羅斯斷交，莫斯科則強烈抨擊支持喬治亞的西方勢力，使這場國際對立危機昇高。

【2008/08/31 聯合報】

http://news.yam.com/afp/life/200807/20080709468864.html
NASA太空梭飛行 2010年成絕響
法新社╱鄭詩韻 2008-07-09 13:05     
 
 
（法新社華盛頓八日電）美國國家航空暨太空總署（NASA）今天說，太空梭計畫最後一趟飛行將於二零一零年五月三十一日啟程，四個月後，服役近三十年的太空梭機隊將正式退役。

NASA的「奮進號」、「發現者號」、「亞特蘭提斯號」太空梭，將於二零一零年九月除役前進行十趟飛行。

其中兩趟將在今年進行：十月八日，亞特蘭提斯號將飛往哈伯太空望遠鏡進行維修；十一月十日，奮進號將載運補給品與維修零件前往國際太空站。

NASA發言人納維亞斯說，太空梭另外預定的行程包括二零零九年五趟，以及二零一零年三趟。

奮進號將於二零一零年五月三十一日飛往國際太空站，為太空梭計畫劃下句點。一九八一年四月十二日，哥倫比亞號於佛羅里達州卡納維爾角甘迺迪太空中心升空，太空梭計畫正式展開。

太空梭除役後，NASA將把重心放在生產外型類似阿波羅號、然體積更大的新型可載人太空船「獵戶座」（Orion），新款太空船將以火箭載運升空，可望載人至月球和火星進行任務。 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080708/sc_afp/usspaceshuttle_080708193430;_ylt=AqerWoppNWW4ILXadFQL1E_POrgF
NASA shuttle to take last flight in May 2010

by Virginie Montet
Tue Jul 8, 3:34 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The final flight in NASA's space shuttle program will take off on May 31, 2010, four months before the fleet is retired after 30 years of service, the agency said Tuesday.
 
The last mission is one of 10 flights that NASA has planned for Endeavour, Discovery and Atlantis before they are taken out of service in September 2010.

Two of these are planned for this year -- on October 8, Atlantis heads on a service mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, and on November 10, Endeavour will deliver supplies and service parts to the International Space Station.

Another five flights are scheduled for 2009 and three for 2010, said NASA spokesman Rob Navias.

Endeavour will take off for the ISS on May 31, 2010, for the final flight of the shuttle program, which began with the launch of Columbia from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in Florida on April 12, 1981.

It will carry critical spare components, including two S-band communication antennas, a high-pressure gas tank and spare parts for the mechanical maintenance robot named Dexter that has been installed outside the station.

"The approved target dates are subject to change based on processing and other launch vehicle schedules," NASA said in a statement.

"They reflect the agency's commitment to complete assembly of the (space) station and to retire the shuttle fleet as transition continues to the new launch vehicles, including Ares and Orion."

Once the shuttles are out of service, NASA will focus on a new type of space vehicle similar in shape but significantly larger than the Apollo spacecraft, launched by rocket and intended to carry manned missions to the moon and Mars.

The Orion capsule has been named after the brightest and most recognizable star in the sky, and its launch vehicle, the rocket Ares, takes its name from the Greek god who is associated with Roman warrior god Mars.

Orion's first manned mission is planned by 2014 at the latest while its first trip to the moon is hoped to take place by at least 2020.

The space shuttle is a complex and fragile feat of engineering, made up of more than two million parts and comprising an airplane-like orbiter that can accommodate three astronauts in the cock-pit and five others on deck.

It also has a huge 18-meter by 4.6-meter (59-foot by 15-foot) storage area for transporting freight. The only spacecraft with the room to carry ISS parts, the shuttle was key to the construction of the station when it began in 1998.

Six shuttles were originally built: Enterprise, a demonstration model that never made it into space, then Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour. Two of these never returned to Earth.

Challenger exploded shortly after its launch on January 28, 1986, and Columbia was destroyed on its re-entry into the atmosphere on February 1, 2003. Each shuttle was carrying seven astronauts, all of whom died.

The Columbia disaster temporarily put a halt to NASA's shuttle missions to the ISS -- they did not resume until July 2005. In the meantime, only the Russians sent astronauts into space on their Soyouz spacecraft.

The shuttle is the first spacecraft intended for multiple use, and by the time they are taken out of service, Endeavour will have carried out 25 missions, Atlantis 32 and Discovery 38.

About 35 missions will have been sent to the ISS, the largest structure ever created by man in space and a key step towards conquering Mars.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html
STS-124 Mission Stats

Landed:
Sat., June 14, 2008, 11:15 a.m. EDT
Landing Site:
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

Mission Elapsed Time:
13 days, 18 hours, 13 minutes, 7 secs

Official Landing Times
Main gear touchdown:
11:15:19 a.m. EDT
Nose gear touchdown:
11:15:30 a.m. EDT
Wheels stop:
11:16:19 a.m. EDT
Total miles:
5.7 million