New plan: Send humans into space, keep the robots on Earth

The REgister: New plan: Send humans into space, keep the robots on Earth
Barring certain exceptions, as everyone knows, the usual way for humanity to explore other planets or astronomical bodies is that we send out sophisticated robots to have a look round, controlled by teams of humans here on Earth.

But that's boring, according to bigwigs at the European Space Agency (ESA). Just for a change of pace, they've decided to send the humans into space and keep the robots here on Earth: but the humans will still control the robots, not the other way round.

Sadly this doesn't herald the first manned interplanetary mission. It remains the case that the only space destination for humans in the near future will be the International Space Station (ISS). Under ESA plans announced yesterday, astronauts in the station's Columbus laboratory podule will use a variety of innovative interfaces to control a range of robots down here on Earth's surface.

Apparently the novel topsy-turvination of the usual model of space exploration results from a consultation exercise in which the ESA invited submissions on using the station and its crew to conduct experiments. Many ideas involving control of ground robots from space were sent in.

“The multitude of submissions shows the strength of the idea,” comments Philippe Schoonejans, ESA robotics honcho.

One cunning plan would see an orbiting astronaut use an "exoskeleton" rig to make a humanoid "android" dubbed "Justin" conform to the human controller's movements. Earlier experiments will see a more basic rover-type droid in remote space station telepresence action. The underlying metwork and protocol project has been dubbed Meteron (Multi-purpose End-To-End Robotic Operations Network).

The idea of humans in space controlling robots on Earth may seem to make a mockery of manned space exploration, but in fact – assuming that people ever do travel beyond low Earth orbit – they will probably make a lot of use of robotics despite the fact that they are at or near the places they want to explore. Operations by the Space Shuttle and the ISS have been made much easier by the powerful robot arms fitted to both, and by the presence of such machinery as the station's DEXTRE robot.

Humans exploring the Moon or Mars from orbit (or from bases or colonies protected from deadly space radiation and the hostile local environment) would not necessarily be redundant: their presence would avoid delays caused by the serious comms latency resulting from astronomical distances. But the explorers might often choose, rather than suiting up and doing a job themselves, to send in the robots despite being nearby themselves.

There's more on Meteron from the ESA at http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMYYR3TBPG_index_0.html.

NASA bids farewell to "amazing" relic, the shuttle

Reuters: NASA bids farewell to "amazing" relic, the shuttle
(Reuters) - When the United States embarked on its shuttle program decades ago, it set out to build a workhorse vehicle that would make space travel routine and beat the Soviets during the Cold War struggle for dominance in space.

The resulting spaceship had 2.5 million parts and was nine times faster than a speeding bullet as it climbed heavenward. It was the first reusable spacecraft, capable of gliding back to Earth like an airplane.

"It was leading-edge stuff back then," said NASA Chief Historian Bill Barry. "It was seen as a major leap forward."

Other manned spacecraft did not fly home. They were ballistic missiles that splashed down into the sea or used thrusters and parachutes to control their plunge to Earth.

The shuttle program will end next month after three decades and 135 voyages when Atlantis returns from a mission set to launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 8.

NASA is consigning its shuttles to museums because they are too old and too expensive to keep flying, and the space agency plans to design and build something new with a farther reach.

To understand what relics the shuttles are, consider:

When the first one, Columbia, made its inaugural flight in April 1981, music was sold on cassette tapes, there were no dot-coms and the United States had no commercial cell phone service.

IBM introduced its first Personal Computer four months later -- a desktop that weighed 21 pounds (9.5 kg), not counting the disk drive or keyboard, and came with a 16-bit operating system called MS-DOS 1.0.

The shuttle design itself is a product of the 1970s. President Richard Nixon signed off on the shuttle program in 1972, a mere 15 years after the Soviet Union launched the first man-made satellite, the beachball-sized Sputnik that marked the dawn of the space age.

TIME TO LET GO

The shuttles have been "pretty darn amazing," Barry said.

"I'm going to be very sad in July when the last shuttle flight ends," he said. "I love the program and I'm sorry to see it go but I think it's time to let it go."

Five shuttles were built, ending with Endeavour in 1992. The design changed a bit with each one and there were steady upgrades over the years. The external fuel tanks were made lighter and stronger. The main engines underwent several overhauls to make them safer.

A crew escape system was added after Challenger exploded in 1986, killing seven astronauts. The toilets and air-scrubbing systems were upgraded so the crew could stay in space longer than the original one-week limit.

But the basic structure stayed the same, Barry said.

"Out of 2.5 million parts, many of them have been replaced but not changed dramatically. I suspect it's not that much different from what it used to be," he said.

The shuttle never lived up to Nixon's dream of a reliable, low-cost space freighter that would fly almost weekly. It was supposed to whisk ordinary people into space in such gentle comfort that they would not need to undergo years of rigorous training -- they would no longer need the Right Stuff, the macho toughness of NASA's original astronaut corps.

"It was going to make access to space easy, cheaper and accessible to average American scientists and engineers, not just NASA test pilots," Barry said.

NASA did put politicians, a Saudi prince and other civilians on shuttle flights, until the Challenger explosion killed Christa McAuliffe, who was to be the first teacher in space.

The shuttles were never as reliable as their planners envisioned. NASA lost seven more astronauts when Columbia was torn apart during re-entry to the Earth's atmosphere in 2003.

The shuttles averaged only four or five flights a year and were not as cheap as envisioned either. The original design was changed in order to keep the construction cost within budget, but that raised the operating costs, Barry said.

The lifetime cost of the shuttle program is hard to calculate, but researchers at the University of Colorado-Boulder estimated it at $196.5 billion (in 2010 dollars), according to a study published in the April 7 issue of the journal Nature.

SATELLITE WORKSHOP

The shuttles did exceed expectations in some ways, Barry said. They allowed astronauts to not only launch satellites, but to grab and repair them and put them back into service.

Most remarkably, he said, they allowed NASA to regularly rejuvenate the Hubble Space Telescope, which for 21 years has produced images that are transforming astronomers' understanding of the universe.

With their enormous cargo bays, the shuttles also enabled the United States and its partners to build the International Space Station, though not in a way anyone imagined when President Ronald Reagan green-lighted that project in 1984.

The United States' original goal was to one-up the Soviets by building a bigger, fancier space laboratory than the Soviet Mir. Today that competition between the two Cold War enemies is seen as having been good for the entire space program, and leading to the broad international cooperation for the peaceful exploration of space.

"We wouldn't have gone to the moon in the first place if they hadn't been kicking us in the butt every chance they got in the 60s," said Barry, who formerly led the Russia Team in NASA's Office of External Relations.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the United States realized its space program was one legacy of communism "that was really good," Barry said.

The former enemies now are now partners in space. Russia will ferry U.S. astronauts to the 16-nation International Space Station in its Soyuz capsules until the next generation of U.S. spaceships are ready to do the job.

Orbital Minotaur I launch with ORS-1 delayed 24 hours

NASA Spaceflight.com: Orbital Minotaur I launch with ORS-1 delayed 24 hours
Orbital Sciences Corporation were set to launch a spacecraft for the United States’ Operationally Responsive Space Office on Tuesday evening, prior to a 24 hour scrub being called due to unacceptable weather. The ORS-1 satellite is waiting to be carried into orbit by the tenth flight of a Minotaur I rocket, with lift off from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island.

The ORS-1 satellite is the first fully operational spacecraft to be launched as part of the Operationally Responsive Space programme, which has so far seen a series of technology demonstration satellites placed into orbit to test systems for future missions.

Goodrich Corporation is the primary contractor for the ORS-1 mission, and also produced the sensors that will fly aboard it. The satellite is based on the ORS/JWS bus, which was built by Alliant Techsystems. It is the same bus that was used for the earlier TacSat-3 mission. The satellite’s primary instrument is the Senior Year Electro-optical Reconnaissance System 2, or SYERS-2, the same imagery payload carried by the Lockheed U-2 aircraft.

The Tactical Satellite, or TacSat programme, is the primary technology demonstration programme for ORS. To date, two spacecraft have been launched, with a third cancelled and a fourth expected to fly later this year. The programme was originally expected to begin with the TacSat-1 spacecraft, a converted OrbComm satellite which was to have demonstrated the provision of infrared and optical images directly to troops on the battlefield.

The spacecraft was intended to be launched from Vandenberg AFB on the maiden flight of the Falcon 1 rocket in 2005 however the launch was delayed to avoid overflying Space Launch Complex 4E whilst it was occupied by the last Titan IV rocket.

The launch of FalconSat-2 in early 2006 instead became the Falcon 1′s maiden flight, and following its failure, and the failure of a demonstration launch the next year, TacSat-1 was declared obsolete and its launch cancelled. Despite reports that it was to have been refurbished and launched in 2009 as TacSat-1A, it never flew.

TacSat-2 was the first TacSat to fly. It was launched by a Minotaur I from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) in December 2006. Eleven imagery and technology demonstration payloads were carried aboard the satellite, with the primary instrument being the Earth Surface Imager, or ESI.

The mission was officially considered a success, however a reported dispute between the US Navy and National Reconnaissance Office allegedly prevented some of the sensors from being tested for several months, and it remains unclear if they were ever activated. The satellite ceased operations in January 2008, and decayed from orbit on 5 February 2011.

TacSat-3 was launched in May 2009, also on a Minotaur I from MARS. The first spacecraft to be operated under the Operationally Responsive Space Office, it carries a hyperspectral imaging (HSI) payload; the Advanced Responsive Tactically Effective Military Imaging Spectrometer or Artemis.

Following the completion of the experimental phase of its mission, TacSat-3 was brought into service with US Space Command, reportedly as it was able to detect underground tunnels and roadside bombs. TacSat-4, which is currently scheduled to launch on a Minotaur IV in October, will be used for communications experiments.

The United Kingdom has also developed operationally responsive satellites, with the TopSat spacecraft having been launched in October 2005, a year before TacSat-2. TopSat was also used for tests conducted by the United States as part of the TacSat programme, into the distribution of imagery to troops via the internet, and within 90 minutes of the images being produced. The United States military named the satellite TacSat-0 whilst it was being used for these tests.

In addition to the TacSat series, the Operationally Responsive Space office was also to have operated the Trailblazer satellite, which was lost in a launch failure in August 2008.

The primary payload for the third Falcon 1 launch, which was originally to have carried TacSat-1, Trailblazer was selected for launch in May 2008, at the time less than a month before the scheduled launch date, as part of the Jumpstart programme. During launch, residual thrust in the first stage engine led to recontact between the first and second stages, and the rocket subsequently failed to achieve orbit.

ORS-1 will be launched by Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC), using a Minotaur I rocket, which will be making its tenth flight. The Minotaur I, which first flew in January 2000, is a four stage solid-fuelled expendable launch system derived from the LGM-30F Minuteman II missile, which was developed in the 1960s and retired from operational service in December 1991.

The Minuteman II was a three stage rocket, consisting of an M-55E1 first stage, an SR-19 second stage, and an M-57A1 third stage. It first flew in September 1964, and made 181 flights concluding with a final operational test in November 1987. All but four of its test launches were successful. In total 668 rockets were built; 48 prototypes and pre-production missiles, before a production run of 620 missiles.

The Minotaur I uses the first two stages of the Minuteman, however it has an Orion-50XL as its third stage, in place of the M-57A1. In addition, an Orion-38 motor is used as a fourth stage, and a Hydrazine Auxiliary Propulsion System (HAPS) can be added as a fifth stage if required, however to date this has never been used on a Minotaur launch.

The payload is encapsulated within a payload fairing, with two sizes available depending on the size of the spacecraft. For this launch the larger fairing, which has a diameter of 1.55 metres will be used. The standard fairing has a diameter of 1.27 metres, and was last used for the launch of USA-225, or NROL-66, in February.

In addition to Minuteman II rockets have also been converted into Multi-Service Launch System (MSLS) and Minotaur II suborbital launch systems. Unlike the Minotaur I, both of these configurations use all three stages of the Minuteman II. MSLS made eight flights between 1996 and 2001, and since 2000 the Minotaur II has made six flights. A further two flights have been made using the Minotaur II+ configuration, which features an SR-73 third stage instead of the M-57A1.

The launch of ORS-1 marks the twenty first flight of a Minotaur rocket. In addition to the Minotaur I and II, the Minotaur family consists of the Peacekeeper-derived Minotaur III, IV and V.

The Minotaur IV is the only of these three to have flown so far, having made three launches to date; all last year. It is an orbital launch system designed to orbit heavier payloads than the Minotaur I is capable of. The Minotaur III is designed for suborbital flights, and the Minotaur V will be able to place payloads into higher orbits than the Minotaur IV; its first flight will be the launch of NASA’s LADEE spacecraft bound for the Moon.

The launch will last less than twelve minutes from liftoff to spacecraft separation. The flight will begin at T-0, with the ignition of the first stage to begin the vehicle’s ascent. Two seconds after launch the rocket will begin roll and pitch manoeuvres to attain the correct attitude for its climb. Thirty eight seconds into flight the rocket will pass through the area of maximum dynamic pressure, or max-Q.

The first stage is expected to burn for around 61.3 seconds, after which it will be jettisoned, and the second stage will ignite. The interstage between the first and second stages will separate from the second stage seventeen seconds after ignition.

The second stage will burn for 72 seconds, completing its burn and separating 133 seconds after liftoff. Two seconds after the second stage separates, the third stage will ignite for a 73 second burn. About ten seconds after third stage ignition, the payload fairing will be jettisoned, exposing the ORS-1 satellite to space for the first time.

Flight controllers will be watching fairing separation closely since the Minotaur and Taurus rockets have similar fairing separation mechanisms, and this is the first launch OSC have made since a Taurus-XL failed to place the Glory satellite into orbit in early March. It was the second consecutive Taurus launch on which the payload fairing failed to separate, resulting in the rocket being too heavy to reach orbit.

Once the third stage completes its burn, the rocket will coast for 303 seconds, after which the third stage will be jettisoned. Then, eleven seconds later, the fourth stage will ignite to begin the final powered phase of the mission. This burn will last 66 seconds, leaving the stage and its payload in an approximately circular orbit at an altitude of 400 kilometres, inclined at 40 degrees to the equator. Two minutes after fourth stage burnout; eleven minutes and forty eight seconds after lifting off, the spacecraft will separate from the fourth stage to begin its mission.

Launch Pad 0B (LP-0B) at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport will be the point of departure for the ORS-1 mission. Pad 0B was built in the mid-1990s as part of NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, with construction being completed in 1998. Following completion, several modifications have been made to the complex, including the addition of a mobile service tower in 2004.

ORS-1 will be the fifth launch from Pad 0B, and the fourth Minotaur to fly from the complex. The first launch from the pad, that of TacSat-2, occurred on 16 December 2006; the day after the eighth anniversary of the end of construction work on the pad. Four months later on 24 April 2007, another Minotaur launched from the facility carrying the NFIRE satellite.

The next launch from the complex was the ALV X-1 mission in August 2008, on the only flight of the experimental ATK Launch Vehicle. The rocket went off course, and was destroyed by range safety twenty seconds into its flight. The most recent launch from LP-0B was of TacSat-3 in May 2009.

The Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport is a commercial spaceport operated by the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority in conjunction with NASA. It consists of two launch pads; Pad 0B, and Pad 0A. Pad 0A was originally built for Conestoga rockets, however the Conestoga programme was abandoned after the rocket failed on its maiden flight and as a result only one launch was made from LP-0A.

The pad remained dormant until September 2008, when it was demolished to make way for a new launch pad for the Taurus II rocket. The Taurus II is currently expected to make its maiden flight from LA-0A at MARS in October this year.

This is the second launch of a Minotaur rocket this year, following the successful deployment of the USA-225 satellite in February by another Minotaur I. The next Minotaur launches are expected to occur in October, with two Minotaur IVs scheduled to fly that month. One will carry the TacSat-4 spacecraft into an elliptical orbit, whilst the other will carry the HTV-2b hypersonic technology experiment on a suborbital trajectory.

In the same month Orbital Sciences Corporation is also planning to conduct the maiden flight of the Taurus II; a demonstration flight which is not expected to carry a payload.

Last Space Shuttle Mission Will Launch July 8

Space.com: NASA: Last Space Shuttle Mission Will Launch July 8
It's official: NASA's last space shuttle launch in history is set to blast off from Florida on July 8.

Senior agency officials made the decision today (June 28) after an extensive review of the space shuttle Atlantis, which will fly the upcoming mission to the International Space Station, as well as the shuttle's four-astronaut crew and ground teams.

Atlantis is slated to liftoff from its seaside Launch Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 8 at 11:26 a.m. EDT (1526 GMT).

NASA is retiring its three space shuttles this year to make way for a new space exploration program aimed at sending astronauts to asteroids and other deep space targets. The shuttles Discovery and Endeavour have already flown their final missions.

Atlantis' 12-day mission will deliver vital spare parts to the space station to help keep the orbiting lab going after the shuttle era ends. It will be NASA's 135th shuttle mission since the program began 30 years ago.

During today's meeting, top NASA shuttle officials reviewed outstanding issues from the agency's previous spaceflight — the shuttle Endeavour's STS-134 mission — to make sure they won't impact Atlantis' flight.

They also checked on repairs to a main engine fuel valve on Atlantis that leaked during a recent fueling test on June 15. The leaky valve was replaced and technicians at the launch pad completed a successful test on the new valve, NASA officials said.

Officials also checked modifications to Atlantis' external fuel tank, reinforcements designed to prevent the type of cracks found on the shuttle Discovery's tank before its own final launch earlier this year. Discovery's liftoff was delayed months due to the cracks, but eventually launched flawlessly on Feb. 24.

The results of Atlantis' fueling test earlier this month showed no cracks or other anomalies, agency officials said.

Atlantis' final astronaut crew, which includes commander Chris Ferguson, pilot Doug Hurley and mission specialists Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim, will arrive at Kennedy Space Center on July 4 at 2:45 p.m. EDT (1845 GMT).

Station crew 'shelters in place' for debris threat

SpaceflightNow: Station crew 'shelters in place' for debris threat

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--The six-member crew of the International Space Station took shelter in two Russian Soyuz spacecraft early Tuesday because of a predicted close approach by an unknown piece of space debris. Radar tracking indicated the debris could pass within about 820 feet of the space station at 8:08 a.m. EDT (GMT-4), but no impact was detected and the crew was told to resume normal operations.

"We are currently at TCA plus four minutes and you are clear to egress Soyuz," Kjell Lindgren radioed the crew from mission control in Houston at 8:12 a.m., four minutes after the time of closest approach.

"Copy that. Thank you," replied Expedition 28 flight engineer Satoshi Furukawa.

Safety procedures are put into effect when radar tracking indicates debris could pass within an imaginary box around the space station that takes into account tracking errors to provide a margin of safety. "Sheltering in place" aboard the Soyuz crew ferry craft is required when notification of a possible debris "conjunction" occurs too late to orchestrate a space station maneuver to get out of the way.

"We have a fourth update from (tracking) and the probabilities are still in the red threshold and we are still planning to have you shelter in place," a flight controller radioed from Houston a few minutes before 7:30 a.m. EDT (GMT-4). The time of closest approach is still 12:08 GMT (8:08 a.m. EDT)."

Station commander Andrey Borisenko, Alexander Samokutyaev and Ronald Garan took shelter aboard the Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft docked to the Poisk module. Sergei Volkov, Michael Fossum and Furukawa sheltered aboard the Soyuz TMA-02M spacecraft docked to the Rassvet module.

The size and source of the debris were not immediately known.

Space debris is an ongoing concern for space station crews because of the extreme velocities of objects in low-Earth orbit -- about five miles per second.

"The way we do all of this is we get tracking data from Space Command on the objects that are a threat to the space station," space station flight director Ron Spencer said before a debris event in 2009. "Initially, we have a screening box, which is .75 kilometers radial miss, which would be up or down, by 25 kilometers in cross track, which would be left or right, by 25 kilometers down track, which is either in front or behind us.

"Space Command will alert us of any debris objects out there that are going to get that close to us. Then they increase tasking on those objects to try to get a better solution and decrease the uncertainty. And then we calculate a probability of collision on that, based on the data Space Command gives us, on the object and if the probability of collision is greater than 10 to the minus five, then we will begin to start looking at taking action."

US space entrepreneur accused of aiding Iran

SFGate: US space entrepreneur accused of aiding Iran
Growing up in a provincial town in Iran, Nader Modanlo was fascinated by the flickering TV images of astronauts walking on the moon.

As a teenager, he came to the United States, where he earned degrees in aerospace engineering, became a U.S. citizen and co-founded a pioneering satellite telecommunications company that at one point was worth up to $500 million. He seemed on the verge of the kind of success that immigrants dream of achieving.

Today, those dreams are burning up like a spacecraft in steep re-entry.

Modanlo's company is bankrupt, his U.S. and Iranian passports have been confiscated and a federal judge has ordered him to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet while he sleeps.

A federal grand jury indicted the Potomac, Md., resident last year on charges he secretly brokered the launch from Russia of the first Iranian-owned satellite in 2005, in violation of the U.S. sanctions against Iran. If convicted on all counts, he could be sentenced to 65 years in prison and ordered to pay $10 million. Five Iranian nationals were also indicted, but none are in custody.

Iran went on to launch its first satellite aboard an Iranian-built rocket in 2009 and its second earlier this month. Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said the June 15 launch of the tiny Rashad-1 satellite, a 34-pound orbiter, shows the country is well on its way to mastering the multi-stage rocket technology that would be needed for long-range nuclear missiles.

McDowell called it an impressive record for a country in the early stages of its space program.

"They might have a couple of more failures in the next couple of launches," he said. "But after that, they will basically have the capability to know what they're doing."

Modanlo, 50, denies that he violated U.S. sanctions and is free on $250,000 bond. He declined through his lawyers to be interviewed, and officials from the Justice Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement likewise declined to discuss the case. But experts, court documents and other public records describe how his ambitions might have led him into trouble. The trial is expected to begin in October 2012.

The 2005 launch from Russia of the Sina-1 satellite came one day after newly-elected Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Israel must be "wiped off the map." To many, the launch seemed to back up this threat.

David Albright of the Institute for Science and International Security, an expert on nuclear proliferation, said Iran is focused on the military applications of space science. "One of the goals of the program, and it appears to be an ongoing program, is to develop a missile that can carry a nuclear warhead if Iran decides to build one," he said.

Iranian officials insist that they are pursuing nuclear technology strictly for peaceful purposes. But their refusal to disclose all their nuclear activities has raised international suspicions, and has led to four rounds of United Nations sanctions since 2006.

A recent International Atomic Energy Agency report said there was evidence Iranian scientists were studying ways to build nuclear warheads compact enough to be carried by a missile. Ahmadinejad recently announced Iran was expanding its uranium enrichment program, bringing the country another step closer to the capacity to build weapons.

The Justice Department said Modanlo's case is just one of more than 150 filed by prosecutors in the past four years against arms traders and middlemen suspected of helping Tehran illegally acquire U.S. technology. Defendants have been accused of using shell companies, offshore bank accounts and faked end-user certificates to supply Tehran with everything from U.S.-made component parts for missile guidance systems to the ultra-high-strength steel needed to build centrifuges that enrich uranium.

Yet Modanlo's case stands out. Unlike most of those prosecuted under the act, he isn't charged with shipping U.S. technology to Iran. Instead, he is suspected of using his business contacts and aerospace engineering experience to help launch Iran's space program.

Modanlo said he came to the U.S. from the Iranian city of Sari on the Caspian Sea coast in 1979 — the year of the Islamic revolution, according to interviews with The Washington Post and other publications in the 1990s. After earning degrees in engineering and aeronautics from George Washington University, he worked on projects for the Defense Department and NASA.

Modanlo and business partner Michael Ahan in 1992 founded Final Analysis Inc., based in offices near NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. They planned to loft a network of up to 32 small, low-earth orbiting telecommunications satellites that were designed to provide low-cost messaging and cargo tracking services.

"It was a good idea, and he (Modanlo) was one of the early guys thinking about it," said researcher David Boyle of Texas A&M University, whose lab developed communications gear for Final Analysis.

Modanlo's plan was to save millions by launching half-a-dozen communications satellites at a time using Soviet ICBMs, designed to carry multiple nuclear warheads aimed at the U.S. He and Ahan signed a deal with a top former Soviet missile scientist, Dr. Alexander I. Ilyin of Gloria Polyot, or "Glory Flight" in English. The private company employed scientists and technicians working at a missile factory in the Siberian town of Omsk.

The swords-into-ploughshares deal fit neatly into Washington's drive to encourage former Soviet weapons scientists to move into civilian jobs.

A Polyot rocket carried a Final Analysis test satellite, FAISAT-1, into orbit in January 1995 — the first launch of a U.S. satellite from post-Soviet Russia. But the orbiter quickly went silent. McDowell, the satellite expert, said the onboard computer wasn't hardened against radiation and may have fried in a solar storm.

Final Analysis scrambled to launch a second satellite, FAISAT-2v, in September 1997, but that failed as well. Modanlo later said the orbiter's Russian-built solar panels didn't generate enough power.

Despite the setbacks, Modanlo and Ahan raised millions from dozens of private investors and struck a deal with a subsidiary of a major defense contractor, General Dynamics, to provide engineering, networking and ground operations services for the planned satellite network.

But the two aerospace pioneers were increasingly at odds over the direction of their company. After they split, Final Analysis was forced into corporate bankruptcy in September 2001.

After almost 11 years, the bankruptcy case is still in litigation. Claims, counter-claims and appeals have led to at least ten related cases in county, state and federal courts in the U.S.

While Modanlo struggled to keep control of his company in the courts, the indictment said, he facilitated a series of meetings in Moscow between Polyot and Iranian government officials, including Sirous Naseri, a consultant to the Iranian foreign ministry, and Hamid Malmirian, general director of Iran's state-financed National Geographical Organization. Both are among the five co-defendants in the case.

Russian signed a deal in December 2001 to provide Iran with satellites, launch services and a satellite control center for $15 million. According to the indictment, a few months later Modanlo and several co-defendants founded a company called Prospect Telecom in Switzerland that was used to launder a $10 million fee to Modanlo for setting up the satellite deal.

In bankruptcy court filings, some disgruntled investors claimed Modanlo had used forged signatures and documents to divert more than $6 million from his satellite business. Modanlo said the money represented legitimate payments to Gloria Polyot.

The civil court claims drew the attention of the U.S. government, and in May 2004, federal agents raided Modanlo's suburban home and business office. They hauled off 120 computers, discs and drives. Officials also seized enough paper to fill a 225-square-foot room.

But the American investigation didn't derail the Iran-Russia satellite project. In October 2005, Polyot launched the 375-pound Sina-1 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in a forest about 500 miles north of Moscow. The tiny orbiter carried two cameras and bore a map of Iran on its skin.

The Russian and Israeli press speculated that Sina-1 was designed to spy on Israeli and U.S. forces in the Mideast. But McDowell said the orbiter's low-resolution cameras made it more suitable for its announced purpose, surveying agricultural cropland and mapping the effects of earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters.

The White House under President George W. Bush never commented publicly on the launch. But the deputy director of Russia's Federal Security Service said months later that Moscow was cooperating in a U.S. investigation of allegations that Modanlo had tried to transfer missile and space-related technologies to Iran.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers in the Modanlo case face unusual hurdles. The paper trail is gargantuan. The bankruptcy of the company Final Analysis and the cases it spawned have generated thousands of documents over the past decade. Court papers show it took months for the government to download two terabytes of digital data seized from Modanlo's home and office into a searchable database.

Getting the cooperation of key Iranian and Russian witnesses could be difficult or impossible. And the key piece of evidence in the case, the Sina-1 satellite, is in plain sight but forever out of reach.

It's still circling the earth every 99 minutes.

Avid Lansdowne tweeter to witness final space shuttle launch

LoudonTimes: Avid Lansdowne tweeter to witness final space shuttle launch
NASA will fire up the last shuttle of its Atlantis Space Shuttle Program on July 8. Loudoun resident Charles Godfrey will be watching just three miles away, tweeting up a storm.

The avid twitter user was one of 150 NASA Twitter followers selected to attend a two-day “tweetup” at the Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island in Florida. Every recorded U.S. human space flight since December 1968 has launched from the location.

“I’ve always wanted to go to a launch,” Godfrey, who will be stationed at a media viewing point just three miles away from the launch, said. “I was thrilled when I got the email that I had been selected — with the ending of the program this may have been my last chance.”

The 150 lucky followers, winners of a lottery of which more than 5,500 applied, will have the opportunity to interact with NASA engineers, shuttle technicians and astronauts, and will tour the facility.

“Getting this lucky for the final launch is unbelievable,” Godfrey said.

Atlantis is targeted to launch on July 8 at 11:40 a.m. — embarking on mission STS-135 to the International Space Station.

“Space Shuttle Atlantis will be launched into space at 17,500 mph to reach the International Space Station orbiting 225-plus miles above Earth,” Godfrey said. “Seeing the launch from only 3 miles away will be awe inspiring. The Space Shuttle Program represents the best of our determination and ingenuity. I am humbled and honored to be one of only 150 given the opportunity to see the final shuttle launch.”

Godfrey, a Sr. Software Engineer at Unanet Technologies in Sterling, said his Twitter followers, of which he currently has 441, can expect pictures as well as a wealth of interesting facts during the launch.

“We will be behind the scenes — seeing things most people will never get the opportunity to see. I can’t wait to share that with everyone.”

Godfrey knows some of the other 149 selectees from previous events (including the 2011 Sun Earth Day tweetup on March 19), but has also reached out to additional winners via Twitter.

For now, the lucky 150, Godfrey included, prepare to have a “blast” in Florida.

The date of Atlantis’ launch will be official after the Flight Readiness Review, scheduled for June 28. If the launch date moves or is delayed prior to July 8, NASA may change the Tweetup schedule accordingly.

Article: Asteroid to Pass Extremely Close By Earth On Monday

Space.com: Asteroid to Pass Extremely Close By Earth On Monday

Here's something to dwell on as you head to work on Monday morning: A small asteroid the size of a tour bus will make an extremely close pass by the Earth at about that time, but it poses no threat to the planet.

The asteroid will make its closest approach at 9:26 a.m. EDT (1326 GMT) on June 27 and will pass just over 7,500 miles (12,000 kilometers) above the Earth's surface, NASA officials say. At that particular moment, the asteroid — which scientists have named 2011 MD — will be sailing high off the coast of Antarctica, almost 2,000 miles (3,218 km) south-southwest of South Africa.

Asteroid 2011 MD was discovered Wednesday (June 22) by LINEAR, a pair of robotic telescopes in New Mexico that scan the skies for near-Earth asteroids. The best estimates suggest that this asteroid is between 29 to 98 feet (9 to 30 meters) wide.

According to NASA's Near-Earth Object Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., an object of this size can be expected to come this close to Earth about every 6 years or so, on average.

"There is no chance that 2011 MD will hit Earth but scientists will use the close pass as opportunity to study it w/ radar observations," astronomers with NASA's Asteroid Watch program at JPL wrote in a Twitter post Thursday (June 23). [Photo of asteroid 2011MD trajectory]

Even if the asteroid were to enter Earth's atmosphere, it likely wouldn't reach the surface, they added.

"Asteroid 2011 MD measures about 10 meters. Stony asteroids less than 25 m would break up in Earth's atmosphere & not cause ground damage," Asteroid Watch scientists said.

The asteroid's upcoming Earth flyby will be a close shave, but not a record for nearby passing asteroids. The record is currently held by the asteroid 2011 CQ1, which came within 3,400 miles (5,471 kilometers) of Earth on Feb. 4 of this year.

A tricky skywatching target

For several hours prior to its closest approach, 2011 MD will be visible in moderately-large amateur telescopes. But despite its close approach, actually seeing this asteroid will not be an easy task.

"These objects are so small (10 meters) that normally a sizeable telescope is required," Asteroid Watch scientists warned.

You will need to have access to an excellent star atlas, and because it will be moving so rapidly you'll also need the very latest data from the Minor Planet Center to track its precise course against the background stars. The asteroid is not expected to get very bright; about 250 times dimmer than the faintest stars visible to the eye without optical aid. [Photos: Asteroids in Deep Space]

The asteroid will pass so close that Earth's gravity will sharply alter the asteroid's trajectory.

After making its closest pass to Earth, the asteroid will zoom through the zone of geosynchronous satellites. The chance of a collision with a satellite or piece of space junk is exceedingly remote.

History of near-Earth asteroids

On Oct. 28, 1937, German astronomer Karl Reinmuth (1892-1979) accidentally photographed the long trail of a fast moving asteroid. Two nights later, this asteroid passed within 460,000 miles of the Earth. Reinmuth named it Hermes, after the Olympian god of boundaries and travelers.

Since the vast majority of asteroids (so far numbering over 210,000) congregate between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, astronomers at that time felt that Hermes' very close approach was an outstanding exception.

"Astronomers of the day were somewhat biased," explained NASA asteroid scientist Paul Chodas. "They had convinced themselves that collisions were too rare to consider."

Since then, astronomers have learned that asteroids can make very close approaches to Earth with far greater frequency than previously thought. Asteroid 2011 MD's Monday pass is a prime example of that.

Of the 8,099 Near-Earth objects that have been discovered, about 827 of them are asteroids with a diameter of approximately a half-mile (1 km) or larger. About 1,236 of these NEOs have been classified as Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs).

NASA currently plans to launch a probe to visit one of these potentially dangerous near-Earth objects and return samples of the asteroid to Earth.

That mission will launch the OSIRIS-Rex asteroid probe in 2016 to rendezvous with the space rock 1999 RQ36 in 2020. The target asteroid is 1,900 feet (580 meters) wide and has a 1-in-1,800 chance of hitting Earth in the year 2170, and a 1-in-1,000 chance of slamming into us in 2182.

NASA Mars Rover Arrives In Florida

RedOrbit: NASA Mars Rover Arrives In Florida
NASA’s next Mars rover, nicknamed Curiosity, departed March Air Force Base in California and arrived at Kennedy Space Center in Florida Wednesday night where it will undergo final launch testing, officials said on Thursday.

The $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory is nuclear-fueled and is the size of a small car, It has been designed to roam the martian surface and assess the planet’s suitability for life.

Engineers will spend the next several months preparing the rover for its November launch. The mission was originally scheduled to launch in 2009, but problems during development increased costs by nearly $800 million and the launch had to be delayed.

Curiosity is about 4 times bigger than NASA’s last Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, and also has more scientific instruments. The previous rovers landed on Mars in 2004 for what was supposed to be three-month missions.

Spirit and Opportunity were developed to search for signs of water on the Red Planet. Seven years later and Opportunity is still operational, however Spirit got mired in soft soil in May 2009 and after several attempts to free the rover remotely, NASA threw in the towel.

Curiosity’s bigger size and better science capabilities should give the rover a better grip on the surface of Mars. Its mission: To search for signs that the planet has, or has ever had, the right conditions for microbial life to arise.

Curiosity is designed to spend at least one Martian year on the planet -- which is the equivalent of nearly two Earth years.

“The design and building part of the mission is nearly behind us now,” David Gruel, manager of Mars Science Lab's assembly, test and launch operations at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, told Reuters in a statement.

NASA’s inspector general warned earlier this month that it was in danger of missing this year’s launch as well, which can be anywhere from November 25 to December 18, when Earth and Mars are in favorable alignment for transport.

But NASA officials said it had resolved those issues by the June 8 report and should be capable of meeting the launch window.

The 'Eyes, Ears And Hands' Of The Shuttle Test Team

Red Orbit: The 'Eyes, Ears And Hands' Of The Shuttle Test Team
When space shuttle astronauts are living and working in Earth orbit, their mission -- and, ultimately, their lives -- depend on all the shuttle orbiter's systems and controls working exactly as expected.

From the time a shuttle lands after a mission until it launches on its next spaceflight, a small group of specially certified United Space Alliance aerospace technicians called spacecraft operators act as the eyes, ears and hands of the test team at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Their workspace is the orbiter crew module, the part of the shuttle where astronauts live and work in space. They focus heavily on the cockpit -- the nerve center of the space shuttle orbiter.

"The astronauts have a good job. They make it look easy," says Bill Powers, a spacecraft operator (SCO) since 1985. "Our job is just to make sure when they get the vehicle, there aren't any surprises."

Spacecraft operators are an integral part of the processing and test teams that ensure the shuttle is ready to fly.

Any time the orbiter is powered up -- meaning that its systems are on -- spacecraft operators are on duty.

"What SCOs do is take information from Engineering and the test conductor, and they do what the astronauts do on orbit," explains Chris Meinert. He's worked on the space shuttle since 1981, and became certified as a spacecraft operator in 1984.

Orbiter systems can be controlled in three ways. In "command," a ground controller can send a command through the shuttle's S-band antenna and, for example, turn on a fan or pump while the astronauts are asleep. "Copper path" involves a crew member physically throwing a switch in the cockpit to accomplish a task. Finally, the Launch Processing System, or LPS, is the ground command in which a signal from the Launch Control Center (LCC) travels down a wire to the launch pad.

Spacecraft operators take part in testing all three methods.

"In the LCC, you've got 15 or 20 different consoles, with many feet or yards separating them. But in the cockpit, you can see several different systems, all within arm's reach," says Meinert. "If there's something going on, we can give a report pretty quick as to what's the initial system that's either good or bad, and how the other systems are reacting to it."

More than 2,000 switches, displays and controls fill almost every surface of the flight deck, beginning with the center console in front of the commander's and pilot's seats and spreading out across the ceiling and walls. All this instrumentation is labeled and grouped into panels according to system. In order to operate the spacecraft, it's critically important to know its systems and how they interact.

"The better your knowledge of the systems, the better an SCO you are," says Meinert. "If you look at it as a number, who can remember 2,400 different things? But the panels are laid out for the crew, kind of logically, either as current flows, or as water flows, or as air flows."

The spacecraft operator certification requires one to two years of additional training. Not only must candidate technicians learn the shuttle's systems and the inner workings of the crew module, they also must learn "communication etiquette" and spend some time working in a Launch Control Center firing room.

"When you're on the headset and you're working on a job, all you hear is a voice," says spacecraft operator Jay Beason. "The only thing you see is your end of the job. So we're required, as part of our training, to sit in the firing room on the test project engineer's console and do what they do. I found that experience invaluable."

Some spacecraft operators concentrate on horizontal processing, which primarily takes place inside the orbiter processing facility. Others specialize in vertical operations inside the Vehicle Assembly Building and at the launch pad. But all are able to fill in wherever they're needed.

The shuttle arrives in the orbiter processing facility (OPF) after landing, kicking off several months of work to "safe" the spacecraft and prepare it for its next flight -- an effort known to the shuttle team as the "processing flow." During horizontal processing -- while the orbiter still is oriented like an airplane in a hangar -- two spacecraft operators normally take turns working inside the crew module during the day, taking over for each other every two hours.

"On a typical SCO day, I might come in here and power up the ship, get it configured for whatever engineering needs or any testing that's going on -- whether it be aft, midbody or forward operations," says Greg Rose, who earned his SCO certification about a year ago.

"Days when I'm not in the 'SCO loop,' I could be working on anything outside the ship: forward reaction control system, doing thruster desiccant changeouts, hooking up quick disconnects here and there, hooking up water servicing, working on the nose landing gear," he adds.

Once the orbiter is brought to the Vehicle Assembly Building, lifted to vertical and attached to its external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters, the context of the work changes.

"In the OPF, you stand on the floor and you throw switches, and it's all logically laid out where you can read them," Meinert says. "But at the pad, you're standing on a wall and all of the overhead switches are upside down. You have to read upside down and backwards in order to get the right one."

But he explains that's not the only change.

"When the vehicle goes out to the launch pad, we arm it with pyrotechnics and we put nasty hypergolics inside it. We put ammonia in it. There are systems that are armed and ready, and they need monitoring. Testing at the pad has a bit more danger to it."

About three days before liftoff, the countdown officially begins. The orbiter is powered up the entire time, and four SCOs are there at any given time: two in the cockpit and two to provide relief. Every system has to be ready before the Astronaut Support Person (ASP) -- a NASA astronaut not part of the flight crew -- climbs in to configure the cockpit switches prior to boarding.

Some launch pad SCOs, such as Meinert, also are members of the Closeout Crew, helping the astronauts climb aboard, making sure the hatch closes correctly and ensuring the climate-controlled White Room is set up correctly for launch.

But a successful liftoff doesn't signal the end of the spacecraft operators' role in a mission. They also have a critical role on landing day and are some of the first people to approach an orbiter that's just returned from space.

"In the wintertime, when it's cool outside, the tiles make a crinkling sound. And sometimes the panels on the hatch are still pretty warm. It's just so alive," he says. "You know it's been somewhere."

After the returning astronauts, medical staff and ASP leave the crew module, control of the ship is transferred from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston back to Kennedy. At that point, two SCOs will settle into the cockpit and begin monitoring systems, flipping switches and installing guards on switches that need to stay in their current position. They'll stay on board until the shuttle is towed back to the processing facility. The procedure is the same at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

The space shuttle era is set to conclude with the STS-135 mission, when Atlantis' wheels roll to a stop for the last time. The spacecraft operators who remain will prepare the orbiters for their next assignment: as museum pieces.

They also have a tremendous record of success to enjoy.

"When you reach that moment at T-0, knowing that approximately eight hours earlier you were up there getting everything ready for the Closeout Crew and the flight crew to get on board, it gives you a real sense of pride," Beason says.

"It's the culmination of a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of love."

A visit to the heart of European space research

CNet: A visit to the heart of European space research

NOORDWIJK, The Netherlands--I'm inside Columbus, one of the modules of the International Space Station, trying to decide whether I'm more interested in the glovebox that allows scientists to work on experiments in a vacuum or in the exercise bike.

Actually, I'm not really in space--I'm about an hour south of Amsterdam. But I am inside Columbus, at least a full-size mockup of it that's located here, inside ESTEC--the European Space Research and Technology Center--part of the European Space Agency (ESA).

I've come as part of Road Trip 2011, and as someone interested in the work space agencies do and who has visited a number of NASA installations back home, I'm here to get a primer on what the Europeans are up to when it comes to space research.

The ESA has 18 member states, mostly in Europe, but also including Canada, and it is NASA's counterpart across the pond. As for ESTEC, it has a number of different mandates, but broadly speaking, they fall into four main areas: Developing and managing ESA missions; Supporting the ESA's space systems and associated technologies with technical and managerial expertise; Running an environmental test center for spacecraft; and providing the European space industry and corresponding institutions with logistical support.

During my visit, I'm checking out several different ESTEC areas--the test center, the human spaceflight center, the propulsion lab, the robotics and haptics labs, and the life and physical science and life support lab. That's a lot for one day, but when you have the chance to explore a place like this, you take all you can get.

Test Center
My host at the test center is its head, Gaetan Piret. He takes me first to what's known as the acoustic chamber, a huge room used to reproduce the noise of a rocket launch in a bid to see if various satellites are hardy enough to be sent into space. The room has four huge speakers built into the walls, and together they generate noise up to 256 decibels for one to two minutes, enough to see if a satellite can handle a launch.

This is crucial for ESTEC, because a big part of its business is evaluating commercial satellites for European telecommunications firms. And if one of those satellites is vibrated into dysfunction by the tremendous noise of a launch, that means a terrific financial hit for its owner.

Many of the satellites that are tested here, Piret said, do in fact turn out to have problems with the noise and require some kind of retrofitting. But at least it's happening in the test phase, he explains, rather than on the back of a very expensive rocket. And, for the most part, those are workmanship issues that require just a few days to fix, rather than design flaws.

Another big part of the test center is its shaker. This, too, is built to evaluate the space-worthiness of satellites, and in this case, it subjects them to earthquake-level shuddering in a bid to ensure that the equipment can handle the rigors of being sent into space.

At the same time, the shaker is also contracted out to other industries, such as transportation, because companies in those fields cannot always find facilities that are capable of putting their equipment through the proper paces. For example, during my visit, I saw a section of airplane fuselage waiting to be put on the shaker. Other customers might be companies wanting to know if their sensitive equipment can handle being sent over the rough roads and bouncy trains of developing countries like China.

The test center also contains a couple other major facilities, the large space simulator, and the small space simulator. These are meant to create vacuum and high-temperature conditions in which satellites can be subjected to a space-like environment. The LSS can also subject satellites to a sun simulator.

ERASMUS
The next stop on my tour was ERASMUS, the ESTEC human spaceflight center. This is largely a group of demonstration projects rather than fully functional research facilities, but according to my host here, the center's event coordinator, Sander Verkerk, some actual testing goes on as well.

The first thing he shows me is a scale-model of a drop tower. This is about providing a simulation of microgravity, something that is necessary for many scientific experiments--such as those involving fluids or gases, or even combustion--that need a simulation of the lack of gravity in space, and something that happens when you drop an object suddenly from a certain height. The drop tower in the center here provides several about two seconds of microgravity, but that's enough for some experiments, Verkerk explained. This, however, is just a model of a much larger drop tower that ESA maintains in Germany, and which can offer students and others four seconds microgravity.

Not far away from the drop tower here is a model of part of the interior of an airplane that takes parabolic flights in order to provide a zero-gravity experience for scientists and others. The model is meant, Verkerk explained, to give those who will be going on such a flight a sense of what they will experience on board. Essentially, he said, it's an instrument tool to show people what it's like on the plane and ideally cut short what might otherwise be up to two days of training. The trainer has a screen that shows what happens on the plane, as well as other tools to help them prepare.

Another element of the ERASMUS center is its full-scale model of the Columbus module of the International Space Station. Columbus was built for the ISS by the ESA, and was the space agency's contribution to the ISS in return for having a number of crucial components taken to the ISS aboard NASA's Space Shuttle.

Inside the Columbus model, ERASMUS has done a faithful job of recreating most of the major elements of the module: drawers that were installed on a rack that are used for conducting experiments; a glove box used to run experiments in a vacuum; an exercise station that allows the ISS astronauts to stay in shape; and a centrifuge used as part of a biolab.

Verkerk explained that the Columbus mockup was originally used to train astronauts who were actually going to the ISS, but that job is now handled by an ESA facility in Cologne, Germany. But even now, when scientific experiments are being done aboard the real Columbus, they can be run in parallel in the mockup to see how the results differ.

Lastly, he showed me the Mars 500 project, a mockup of a facility used to simulate the effects on astronauts of a mission to Mars, a trip that is expected to take 500 days or so. For the project, six volunteers were isolated for 500 days in a simulator that offers conditions nearly identical to what they'd experience in their spacecraft, including 20-minute communications delays. The goal is to see what the psychological effects are of being locked away for so long.

Robotics and Haptics
Another stop on my ESTEC tour took me to the Robotics and Haptics Labs, where engineer and Ph.D. student Joao Rebelo demonstrated some of the work being done there on the latest in exoskeletons.

The idea, Rebelo explained, is to develop technologies that can allow us to control robots from a distance. That would be important for, say, Mars missions, during which astronauts may well "drive" rovers while in capsules orbiting the planet.

In order to do that, the lab has developed a series of exoskeletons that let people make all kinds of hand and arm gestures and then have a robot repeat those movements remotely.

For now, remotely means digitally, so whoever is using the exoskeletons--complex contraptions that you can put your arm into--is controlling the movements of the digital robotic hand on a screen. Previous generations of these devices had little flexibility, meaning that it really only fit properly on one body type. If you were too tall or too short, you struggled to use it. A newer prototype has solved that problem by adjusting to the size of the wearer.

For now, all the work is being done here at ESTEC. Soon, some of the robots will be based outside the lab, or even outside ESTEC. But within five or six years, Rebelo said, he hopes that they will be able to put one of their exoskeletons on the space station and have someone control robots back on Earth. Still, there are some significant hurdles to that, including the fact that the mechanical controls required have not yet been created, and the inconvenient reality that no one knows how zero gravity affects haptics.

Planetary protection
My last stop of the day was to the Life and Physical Sciences Instrumentation Section, where the lab's head, Robert Linder, talked to me about some of the work being done there to ensure that when and if humans make it to other planets, we don't bring any uninvited microbes with us.

According to Linder, there are internationally agreed-upon standards for the levels of microbes humans can bring with us into space in a bid to ensure we don't contaminate our destinations. So Linder's lab is busy conducting experiments on how extreme heat and cold affect certain microbes.

Linder's purview also includes a gravity simulation lab that features a large centrifuge (see video below) that is used both to provide scientists with an environment where they can mimic zero gravity--something that is useful when experimenting with "slow systems" like plants and other biological material--and to test how materials react to the loss of normal positioning. So, if an experiment is done on plants over several weeks, he said, the results may be roots growing in many different directions.

This is all pretty heady stuff, but it's good to get a front-row seat and see how space research is being done in other countries. As an American, it's easy to think that the only work in the area is being done at home, but here, it's clear that while the Europeans don't have anything like the space shuttle, they do have serious scientists doing serious work that could benefit all mankind. And of course, even America will soon not have the space shuttle.

'Missing' Moon Dust Turns Up at St. Louis Auction

Space.com: 'Missing' Moon Dust Turns Up at St. Louis Auction
NASA has recovered a few grains of moon dust after learning that the lunar material was set to be auctioned off in St. Louis this month, federal prosecutors announced Thursday (June 23).

There's not much of the stuff — just some residue attached to a piece of transparent tape one-eighth of an inch (3 millimeters) wide. But its origin and history are what make the dust special: It came down to Earth in July 1969 with the Apollo 11 astronauts, who were the first humans to set foot on the lunar surface.

The United States Attorney's Office for Eastern Missouri learned in early June that the moon dust was going to be auctioned off in St. Louis. NASA investigators then contacted the auction house, Regency-Superior Auctions, which withdrew the material, prosecutors said.

Officials from the U.S. Attorney's Office took possession of the tape last Friday (June 17), then handed it over to NASA. The material was returned to the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston on Monday (June 20).

The federal government regards the Apollo lunar samples as national treasures. It has never knowingly given moon rocks or loose moon dust to private individuals. But no arrests have been made in this case.

The woman who consigned the tape to Regency-Superior inherited it from her late husband, who apparently acquired it in good faith, officials said. The woman's name has not been released.

"In this particular situation, there was no wrong done," said space history expert Robert Pearlman, editor of the website collectSPACE.com, which is a SPACE.com partner. "Everyone cooperated."

Selling is not a crime
It's not illegal per se to sell lunar materials, Pearlman said. It all depends on how the seller came into possession of the samples. And people have gotten a hold of moon dust legally.

For example, NASA gave Apollo astronauts the patches from the outsides of their spacesuits, which had become impregnated with lunar dust. And the agency once released from its inventory a so-called "temporary stowage bag" used on one of the Apollo flights to hold small items during the mission.

In the course of the flight, the items placed in the bag stained the interior with moon dust. When the bag was later sold during an Oct. 2000 auction, its new owner found some smatterings of the remaining moon dust inside when he opened it up, Pearlman said.

A dusty film cartridge
The moon dust to be auctioned in St. Louis this month was originally lodged in the film cartridge of a camera used by Apollo 11 astronauts, who apparently dropped it on the surface of the moon.

Back then, a NASA employee named Terry Slezak was in charge of processing the film brought back from the Apollo missions. When he opened this particular cartridge, dust poured out, getting all over his hands. Slezak thus became the non-astronaut ever to touch lunar material with his bare hands.

According to Slezak, he used a towel and some transparent tape to clear the dust off the film, the New York Times reported.

The Apollo 11 astronauts later presented Slezak with a signed commemorative poster board, complete with pictures showing a smiling Slezak holding his dusty hand up for the camera. Slezak affixed the dusty piece of tape to the poster.

"I thought that would be kind of neat," Slezak told the Times.

Slezak sold the poster at auction in 2001 for just over $25,000, Pearlman said. While Slezak was never authorized to take the dust-flecked tape, he maintains that NASA has never questioned him about the matter.

Later, the dusty tape from the poster board was cut up into tiny pieces, some of which were also put up for sale. A piece three-eighths of an inch (9 mm) wide has sold for about $6,000, and slivers the size of the one Regency-Superior was going to auction off have been offered at nearly $1,000, Pearlman said.

Moon rocks for sale?
NASA astronauts brought 842 pounds (382 kilograms) of lunar material home to Earth between 1969 and 1972, souvenirs from their Apollo moonwalking jaunts. A court has valued this stuff at $1.44 million per ounce ($50,800 per gram), based on how much those NASA missions cost.

The space agency has given small amounts of moon material to national and state governments over the years. But NASA hangs on tightly to the rest of it.

"They track it very well," Pearlman said, adding that less than 1 ounce (28 g) of the lunar samples is thought to be unaccounted for.

But moon rocks, real or fake, are circulating on the market.

Just last month, NASA officials busted a woman who was trying to sell a purported moon rock for $1.7 million. The moon rock sting went down in a Denny's restaurant in Lake Elsinore, Calif.

While the auction of this tiny tape sliver seems to be small potatoes by comparison, Pearlman said he understands why NASA works so hard to recover lunar materials.

"You can't undo precedent," Pearlman said. "They want to be able to defend when there are large missing moon rocks, if that ever comes up. So they have to respond to every report that they receive."

Preliminary analysis of the dust on the tape indicates that it likely is of lunar origin, though it will take two to three weeks to confirm this definitively, prosecutors said.

Shuttle astronauts suit up for launch rehearsal

MSNBC.com: Shuttle astronauts suit up for launch rehearsal
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The astronauts slated to launch on NASA's final space shuttle mission took part Thursday in their last full dress rehearsal for their July liftoff.

Led by mission commander Chris Ferguson, the four crew members donned bright orange pressure suits and boarded the shuttle Atlantis on Launch Pad 39A here at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

After strapping into their seats on the shuttle's flight deck, Ferguson, together with pilot Doug Hurley and mission specialists Rex Walheim and Sandra Magnus, rehearsed the prelaunch procedures that they will follow on launch day, targeted for July 8 at 11:26 a.m. EDT.

Their mission, called STS-135, is a 12-day flight to deliver supplies and equipment to the International Space Station. It will be the 135th and last shuttle flight for NASA before the 30-year-old program is retired this year.

But Thursday, the Atlantis crew's mission was to gain familiarity with their spacecraft and the teams that will assist them on launch day.

"The biggest thing is that you're working with the whole team down here and actually going through a launch count right up until T-zero," Hurley said during a Wednesday press conference at the launch pad. "You've got your suits, you got your suit techs, you're doing all the motions that you go through on launch day all the way out to the pad."

The training session has been a standard activity for all NASA shuttle missions and is known as the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test, or TCDT.

"It is just a very comprehensive, hands-on-at-the-place-you're-going-to-do-it kind of training and it is invaluable," Hurley said. "You can do all the simulators in the world but until you get into that real vehicle, touch the vehicle, see what you can reach, see the different switches — everything is just a little bit different when you are in the real vehicle."

"It is a great way to get you ready for the launch day when it counts," he said.

"3, 2, 1 ... Abort!"

NASA's shuttle launch team started the countdown for today's test at the T-24 hour mark on Wednesday. The simulated liftoff was set for just after 11 a.m. EDT.

As a standard part of the TCDT, a mock main engine cutoff and abort was called when the count ran out, giving the astronauts a chance to practice bailing out of Atlantis.

The emergency escape was the culmination of several days of contingency training that began soon after the astronauts arrived in Florida on Monday afternoon.

Before Thursday's launch day rehearsal, Ferguson and Hurley practiced landing Atlantis by flying a specially modified Gulfstream jet. They were then joined by their two other crewmates to review procedures to use a slidewire system to evacuate the pad, and took turns driving the tank-like M113 armored personnel carrier they'd use to escape the vicinity of the shuttle.

Following the practice countdown, the astronauts returned to Houston and the Johnson Space Center flying in two T-38 supersonic jets.

Preparing Atlantis for launch
Even as the astronauts were undergoing their prelaunch preparations in and around their spacecraft, technicians were busy readying Atlantis to launch in two weeks.

NASA's next rocket should keep hope alive Saturn moon's ice shows signs of salty sea Video: Inside space shuttle Discovery Workers continued to perform X-ray scans of the shuttle's external fuel tank, verifying that its support beams, called "stringers," sustained no cracks during a recent prelaunch test. So far, no issues have been reported.

Technicians were also working on installing a replacement fuel valve for one of Atlantis' three main engines. During the earlier tanking test, engineers saw indications that the valve was leaking liquid hydrogen. A full retest of the valve is set for this weekend.

On Tuesday, NASA's senior management and shuttle team leaders will meet at the Kennedy Space Center to assess preparations for shuttle Atlantis' STS-135 mission. During the readiness reviews, managers will confirm the launch date for the final shuttle mission.

NASA is retiring its remaining three-shuttle fleet this year to make way for a new exploration program aimed at deep-space missions to an asteroid and Mars. The shuttles Discovery and Endeavour completed their own final missions earlier this year.

Europe joins up space and defence

BBC News: Europe joins up space and defence
Two European organisations - one concerned with space, the other with defence - have signed an agreement on closer co-operation.

The European Space Agency (Esa) and the European Defence Agency (EDA) penned their accord at the Paris Air Show.

The pair hope closer ties can help them avoid duplication and reduce the cost of space activity where they have shared interests.

These areas include satellite remote-sensing and communications.

Although both organisations include many of the same states in their membership (EDA is part of the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy), they are actually separate legal entities.

One obvious example of overlap concerns Esa's desire to develop a Space Situational Awareness (SSA) programme.

This will use radar and other technologies to track and catalogue the precise movements of all bodies moving in orbit - from spacecraft to asteroids.

It is a priority for Esa because it frequently has to shift its satellites to avoid a collision with a piece of debris, of which there are now thousands of items floating above Earth.

But European armed forces also have an intelligence interest in knowing what is moving overhead - for example, others' spy satellites - and they already deploy radar capability to ascertain such information.

"There is a need to define civilian requirements and that is clearly to be done by the European Space agency, but also to see what would be more security[-orientated] requirements, and particularly in the military field. That is something that requires co-operation between us," EDA chief executive Claude-France Arnould told BBC News.

The agreement signed at Le Bourget should make it easier to exchange technical and catalogue data.

She cited other areas where "synergies" existed - such as the safe introduction into civilian airspace of unmanned aerial vehicles using satellite communications; and in the development of space technologies that gave Europe industrial independence.

Cooperation in the defence sphere is a delicate issue for the European Space Agency.

Its convention states that it must only engage in activities that have "exclusively peaceful purposes". A country like Switzerland, which maintains absolute neutrality, would not be part of Esa if this declaration were broken.

"Obviously, I could not sign this agreement if it was not consistent with the convention of Esa," said the space agency's director general, Jean-Jacques Dordain.

"I invite you to read the Esa convention; you will not find the adjective 'civilian'. Nowhere is it written 'civilian' - just 'for peaceful purposes'.

"So as long as we are working for peaceful purposes - and Madame Arnould has mentioned a list of topics that are only for peaceful purposes - then I think that we are entitled to work on all these aspects."

Mr Dordain said there were checks in place to ensure technologies developed within the agency were not simply passed over to be used in weaponry.

Robot Spaceship Meets Fiery Doom in Space

Fox News: Robot Spaceship Meets Fiery Doom in Space

A huge, unmanned spacecraft met an intentionally fiery demise Tuesday (June 21), but thanks to a special onboard recorder, the cargo ship beamed a steady narration of its final descent to Earth.

The European Automated Transfer Vehicle-2 (ATV-2) plunged into Earth's atmosphere as planned today to end its months-long mission at the International Space Station. The spacecraft broke apart over the southern Pacific Ocean as it burned up in the atmosphere, in what has become a common method for disposing of robotic space station cargo ships.

Mission directors at the European Space Agency (ESA) lost contact with the space freighter, named the "Johannes Kepler," at 4:41 p.m. EDT (2041 GMT) at an altitude of about 50 miles (80 kilometers).

"There is nothing more we can do but watch," said ESA’s ATV deputy program head Charlotte Beskow prior to the vehicle's fragmentation in the atmosphere. [Video: ATV-2 Johannes Kepler's Fiery Finale Explained]

The cylindrical vehicle is about 35 feet (10.7 meters) long and 14.7 feet (4.5 meters) wide. In all the ATV-2 weighed 22 tons (about 20,000 kilograms) at launch, and is big enough to fit a double-decker bus inside.

One last phone home
The final moments of the ATV-2 Johannes Kepler were expected to be documented by its Re-entry Breakup Recorder, which functions similar to black boxes on aircraft.

The box, which is about 20 pounds (9 kg), automatically began recording data during the last five minutes of the ATV's descent. The recorder collected information on the vehicle's position, attitude, temperature, pressure and other aspects of its breakup during re-entry.

The snub-nose recorder was jettisoned as the Johannes Kepler neared its demise, and was protected by its own heat shield. The recorder was expected to transmit the stored data to mission team members for analysis, from an altitude of 11 miles (18 km), before plunging into the Pacific to meet its own doom.

The information will be used to better understand aspects of controlled destructive entries. Similar recorders may be used on future satellites and spacecraft, ESA officials have said.

Europe's robot spaceship fleet
The ATV-2 Johannes Kepler spacecraft was named after the famous 17th century German astronomer and was the second robotic cargo ship built by the European Space Agency. It departed the space station on Monday (June 20) after being packed with trash and unneeded cargo from the space station.

The Johannes Kepler undocked from the orbiting laboratory at 10:46 a.m. EDT (1446 GMT) yesterday. The robotic ship arrived at the space station on Feb. 24 and spent about four months docked at the outpost.

During that time it delivered 7 tons of cargo, including experiments, fuel, water, food and other critical supplies. Space station managers also used the docked spacecraft's thrusters to boost the station into a higher orbit from time to time.

With the Johannes Kepler's departure from the space station, the orbiting lab is now ready to welcome the arrival of a new cargo ship.

The unmanned Russian Progress 43 space freighter launched into orbit today from the central Asian spaceport of Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It will arrive at the space station on Thursday, June 23.

Final countdown to NASA's last space shuttle launch begins

9News.com: Final countdown to NASA's last space shuttle launch begins

KUSA - While one space shuttle finishes its 33rd and final mission, another historic shuttle prepares to take off in early July.

"It really is about honoring the folks that have made this their careers'-worth of work," pilot Doug Hurley said.

Atlantis' STS-135 mission is set to launch July 8, delivering the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module packed with more than 15,000 pounds of supplies and equipment for the outpost. This will be the Atlantis' last-ever space shuttle mission.

"It's a mix of emotions, obviously you're excited. The reality that this is the last flight in the program sets in to a degree. Obviously the biggest thing is you count your blessings, you're honored, you're humbled, you're lucky and very thankful. We just want to put the ISS in as best a posture as we can for the post-shuttle era. So we're taking up a large load of supplies - a year's worth of food for the ISS crew, spare parts, replacement parts, some scientific experiments and other supplies that they may need in the long-term," Hurley said.

In order to complete this mission it's necessary to have an amazing vehicle. The Atlantis - designed 30-plus years ago - can launch satellites, complete robotic tasks, carry huge pay-loads into space and gives us the opportunity to conduct space walks.

"It's going to be a while before we see a vehicle that versatile again for low earth orbit," Hurley said.

In May 2009, the Atlantis flew a seven-member crew but this trip will be very different. Only four experienced crew-members will board the Atlantis, a pre-caution for a potential rescue scenario.

In the event of a rescue, each astronaut will have to come back to Earth one at a time - a lengthy process - with Hurley potentially being the last to return home.

"I thought about it for a few minutes and I said, "Well, let me look at it this way: I've got nine months of shuttle training for this flight, versus the two-and-a-half years that most folks typically train to go on ISS for six months." So I told her, "Well, it's a bargain at any price so I'll take it,"" Hurley said.

This mission is unique, featuring one spacewalk on Flight Day Five unlike past shuttle flights. On the spacewalk, there will be two objectives: astronauts will retrieve the failed pump module which runs the cooling system, from last summer to bring back to Earth, so engineers can determine what caused it to fail.

Next, the walkers will detach the robotics refueling module from the payload bay and place it in a different area of the station.

"I think any time you're involving a spacewalker on the end of the arm and close clearances, it's always fairly intense," Hurley said.

What is Hurley looking forward to most?

"The cupola. There's no camera that can capture that vividness, just the stunning views that you see out the window. One look out the window is worth 1,000 camera views," Hurley said.

The cupola is the largest window used in space, and Hurley recommends keeping your eyes peeled during the fly-around of the station to witness breathtaking views.

European cargo ship departs International Space Station

SpaceflightNow: European cargo ship departs International Space Station
After delivering nearly more than 5,000 pounds of cargo, fuel and oxygen, a European automated resupply freighter undocked from the International Space Station on Monday and headed for a destructive plunge back into the atmosphere.

The Automated Transfer Vehicle, christened Johannes Kepler after the German astronomer and mathematician, separated from the complex at 1446 GMT (10:46 a.m. EDT). One minute later, after backing away from the station's Zvezda service module, the ATV fired thrusters to accelerate its departure.

The ship is carrying more than 2,600 pounds of trash for the re-entry. Almost all the spacecraft will burn up in the atmosphere, but the hardiest components could survive to impact the Pacific Ocean.

Two engine burns are on tap Tuesday to lower the craft's orbit. The ATV will dive back into the atmosphere at 2024 GMT (4:24 p.m. EDT) and its remnants will reach the surface about 2059 GMT (4:59 p.m. EDT), according to the European Space Agency.

A data recorder strapped to the spacecraft will record the ATV's final moments, capturing information on temperatures, accelerations and tumble rates as the ship breaks apart in the atmosphere.

Designed and built by the Aerospace Corp., the Re-entry Breakup Recorder, or REBR, is protected inside its own heat shield to survive the scorching environment. It will transmit the data via satellite back to engineers in the United States before hitting the ocean and sinking.

Officials believe data collected by the REBR device will yield insights into how spacecraft end their lives during re-entry. A similar unit was stored inside a Japanese cargo freighter on its trip back into the atmosphere in March.

The ATV's last duty before leaving the space station was boosting the lab's orbit by 35 kilometers, or about 22 miles. The spacecraft fired its thrusters over three days between June 12 and June 17 to raise the station's orbit.

The complex is now circling the planet at an average altitude of 237 miles, higher than the space station has ever flown before. The reboosts were conceived to place the lab higher above the drag effects of Earth's atmosphere.

Although the atmosphere at the station's orbit is almost non-existent, there is enough air resistance to gradually slow the lab's velocity and cause it to drop altitude. After the reboosts, engineers say the station will need fewer correction maneuveers to maintain its orbit, so future cargo vehicles could deliver more experiments and spare parts instead of refueling propellant.

The space station flew at a lower altitude during construction to allow visiting space shuttles to deliver more gear and heavier modules to the outpost. With the shuttle's retirement looming, there's no longer a need to keep the station's orbit lower.

The higher orbit will cut the station's annual fuel usage nearly in half, according to ESA.

The Johannes Kepler spacecraft launched Feb. 16 and reached the space station Feb. 24. It stayed docked to the lab for 116 days.

Built by EADS Astrium, the ATV measures 32 feet long and nearly 15 feet wide. Its four solar array wings stretch more than 70 feet across. Four main engines and 20 smaller thrusters guide spacecraft in orbit.

The Johannes Kepler mission, the ATV's second flight, hauled about 3,500 pounds of dry cargo in its pressurized cabin. Astronauts manually unloaded that equipment during the craft's stay.

The spacecraft also carried refueling propellant and oxygen to replenish the station's tanks.

ESA chief: 'anarchy' over space station planning

Google News: ESA chief: 'anarchy' over space station planning

LE BOURGET, France — Europe's space chief on Monday said the International Space Station faced lean times as a result of the US shuttle phase-out and said project planning for transport to the ISS had been "anarchy".

Jean-Jacques Dordain, director general of the European Space Agency (ESA), said the scheduled phase-out of the US space shuttle meant "we are not in a very comfortable situation, and that's just a euphemism."

"The biggest lesson from the international space station programme is entirely the lack of a joint transportation policy," he said at a press conference on the sidelines of the Paris Air Show.

"The International Space Station is a splendid cooperation between five partners, but they did make a mistake... we didn't discuss things sufficiently," Dordain said.

"Each party made a unilateral decision," Dordain said, admitting though that this approach was "justified on individual grounds."

"NASA made a unilateral decision to stop the shuttle, ESA took the unilateral decision to develop the ATV, Japan took the unilateral decision to develop an HTV. Anarchy," Dordain said.

The ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle) and the HTV (H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) are unmanned supply ships, as is Russia's veteran Progress freighter.

The shuttle has been the key means to take humans and freight to and from the ISS.

Its retirement after its last mission, starting July 8, means that the station will depend entirely on the Russian Soyuz system for transporting astronauts.

The Soyuz cannot take large non-human payloads, such as big experiments or equipment that needs a fix on Earth.

The three other freight systems for the ISS, meanwhile, are all designed to be one-way systems, which means they are sent to Earth to burn up in the atmosphere after separating from the ISS.

This includes Europe's ATV, the second of which, the Johannes Kepler, undocked from the ISS on Monday ahead of a suicide plunge on Tuesday.

Dordain said ESA had no plans to give Europe its own manned flight capability.

Europe has a powerful launcher, the Ariane 5, but in face of the costs of manned space flight has always placed its astronauts on the shuttle or the Soyuz.

Dordain said ESA and NASA were in talks about possibly adapting the ATV for the US agency, which expects a gap of several years between the end of the shuttle and the introduction of a likely rocket-and-capsule system provided by the private sector.

"We are currently discussing with NASA about how we can converge the interests of NASA and the interests of ESA, which are not necessarily the same," he said.

By autumn, he said, ESA hoped to have a convergence of views on a "module," a common blueprint that could be used for NASA but also help to expand the use of the ATV.

"We are working but we are still far from a result," he said.

Crew arrives at shuttle pad to practice launch

MSNBC: Crew arrives at shuttle pad to practice launch
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The four astronauts who will fly on the last-ever space shuttle mission landed at NASA's Florida spaceport Monday evening to participate in a dress rehearsal for their July 8 launch.

Flying in a pair of NASA's T-38 supersonic jets, the crew touched down at 5:30 p.m. EDT here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, landing on the same runway the astronauts plan to use when they return to Earth at the end of their upcoming mission.

NASA's final shuttle flight, called STS-135, is a 12-day mission on the shuttle Atlantis that will deliver vital supplies to the International Space Station.

The shuttle will be commanded by Chris Ferguson, who landed his T-38 jet today with crewmate Rex Walheim, an Atlantis mission specialist. Atlantis' pilot Doug Hurley rode in on the second T-38 jet with mission specialist Sandra Magnus.

The four astronauts left Ellington Field in Houston, Texas, at just before 2 p.m. EDT. They stopped over in Mobile, Alabama to refuel before proceeding to their Florida launch site.

Launch practice on tap
Over the next three days, the Atlantis crew will take part in a number of training activities leading up to their suiting up and climbing aboard the shuttle on Thursday to proceed through their prelaunch checklists as a simulated countdown ticks down to just before engine ignition.

The training session has been standard for all NASA shuttle missions and is known as the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test, or TCDT.

Advertise | AdChoicesAdvertise | AdChoicesAdvertise | AdChoicesBefore the actual launch day rehearsal on Thursday, Ferguson and Hurley will practice landing Atlantis by flying a specially modified Gulfstream jet. The shuttle astronauts will also undergo training in case there is an emergency on the launch pad, as well as review procedures to use a slidewire system to evacuate the pad and will take turns driving a tank-like armored personnel carrier.

Atlantis' last cargo
Meanwhile, shuttle technicians working out on the launch pad continued Monday installing a cargo pod inside Atlantis' payload bay.

Now positioned for launch, the Raffaello logistics module is packed with more than 8,000 pounds of supplies and equipment for the space station. A separate experiment platform is also packed in Atlantis' payload bay.

Technicians were also busy performing X-ray scans of support beams inside Atlantis' external fuel tank.

The 50-foot beams, called "stringers," were being inspected to ensure no cracks formed during a recent fueling test that filled the orange-brown tank with super-cold propellants subjecting it to the same super-cold temperatures it will experience on launch day.

More space news from MSNBC Tech & Science
ESA / DLR / FU Berlin A Martian moon slips by Jupiter
Cosmic Log: Alignments of planets, moons and stars as seen from Earth always get us excited. This close-up view of the Martian moon Phobos lined up with Jupiter ups the ante – it was seen by a spacecraft orbiting Mars.
Buzz Aldrin breaks up with third wife Cargo pod is rolled out to Atlantis launch pad Humongous plasma waves speed across sun Workers also began replacing a fuel valve in Atlantis' space shuttle main engine No. 3 Monday after seeing indications it was leaking during the tanking test.

Atlantis' upcoming mission will be the 135th and last shuttle mission for NASA since the fleet began launching into orbit in April 1981.

NASA is retiring its three-shuttle fleet this year to make way for a new exploration program aimed at deep-space missions to an asteroid and Mars. The shuttle's Discovery and Endeavour completed their own final missions earlier this year.

After Atlantis flies its final mission the shuttle, like its sister ships, will be sent to museums for public display.

NASA employees training for Atlantis mission

ABC13: NASA employees training for Atlantis mission

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- We are just weeks ago from NASA'S final shuttle mission. Atlantis is getting ready to blast off for the international space station.

We're getting a look behind the scenes in mission control and the training for those who are set to jump into action if things go wrong.

When you see a launch in person in Florida or even on TV, the shuttle's engine roar is so loud. So we figured on the floor of mission control it would, for some reason, be the same. It's not. It is really quiet in there.

For the trip to space, there are 15 people in this room. Mostly, but not all, are men, and even when things are going well, they are tied keyed into the job they're doing.

But when things go wrong, it's hard to tell.

We were there for a simulation. The mission control team is at their normal seats.

The crew was a few buildings over at Johnson Space Center in a simulator that twists and tilts and shakes with the crew inside.

In this training session, the shuttle developed a simulated Freon leak. It knocked out the shuttle's ability to cool itself down and that could've been dangerous.

The team decided to bring the shuttle home after just one orbit. It's never been done in real life. But on this day, in this room, it was done successfully.

"It was a very important practicing. We have a very small crew this time, we don't have anyone in the mid-dock," shuttle commander Chris Ferguson said. "I think it was a great script. It gave us an opportunity and the mission control team an opportunity to see just what our capabilities are."

They will practice this just one more time, and then it's launch day and then mission control is done.

Once Atlantis lands, mission control will turn into a new room for some unnamed program. A lot of these people will get new jobs and the shuttles will stop flying, but this crew doesn't think it's the end.

"The space shuttle won't stop inspiring people, they're going to park Atlantis down at the Kennedy Space Center and kids are going to go real close for the first time to see the Atlantis and say, wow that's amazing we can launch those into space, and hopefully they'll get the same reaction and say let's do it again, let's do it again," astronaut Rex Walheim said.

Technicians will begin making high-tech X-ray scans of the shuttle's fuel tank's support beams to look for any cracks that could delay launch. Atlantis' final launch is scheduled for July 8 and we'll be in Florida to bring it to you.