Wednesday, July 15, 2009

T+17 ISS



Essentially complete, ISS will soon have four more modules attached to its primary structure. This research platform will provide the knowledge and experience needed for the first deep space voyages beyond the Moon.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

T+16 Constellation



Brilliant production.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

T+15 QPR12

Friday, May 22, 2009

T+14 Cluster

Thursday, May 21, 2009

T+13 Poster


At KSC in the Operations and Checkout Building's high bay, a large poster displays an image of the completed Orion crew module. The Orion spacecraft will enable voyages to the moon and help prepare for future voyages to Mars and Beyond.

Friday, May 15, 2009

T+12 Crawler


An aerial view shows the crawler-transporter at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the crawlerway that stretches from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the launch pads. Used now to take the shuttles to the launch pads, the crawler also will be used to move the Ares rockets on the mobile launcher, or ML, to the launch pad. A new mobile launcher is being built to launch the Orion crew exploration vehicle and the cargo vehicle. The base is being made lighter than space shuttle mobile launcher platforms so the crawler-transporter can pick up the added load of the 345-foot tower and taller rocket. (NASA text)

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

T+11 Smile


Astronomer Astronaut John M. Grunsfeld, payload commander, peers into the crew cabin of the Space Shuttle Columbia during the first STS-109 extravehicular activity (EVA-1) on March 4, 2002.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

T+10 Speech

A Fictional Space Program - Mike Griffin

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

T+9 Afar


Imaged with the Swift space telescope 23 Apr 2009, the most distant object known. Named GRB 090423, it is estimated to be 13.035 billion light-years away.

New Gamma-Ray Burst Smashes Cosmic Distance Record

Monday, April 27, 2009

T+8 Afloat



Symbolically and actually afloat: a mockup of the Orion command module being tested in the Atlantic Ocean. Orion will carry crews between Earth and Moon orbit and perhaps one day to Mars and beyond.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

T+7 Model


Launch of the world's largest model rocket. It's a 36 feet high scale model of a Saturn V and it climbed over 1000m into the Maryland sky on April 25 2009.

One man's quest to honor America's Saturn V rocket

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

T+6.1 Slideshow





T+6 YouTube



Introducing SLIC, the Super Lightweight Interchangeable Carrier on STS-125 SM4 to carry WFC3 to HST. SLIC is made of carbon fiber with a cyanate ester resin and a titanium metal matrix composite; it's the first all‐composite carrier to fly on the shuttle. This technology is being transferred to the Constellation program.

T+5 Photo


Imaged 5 Mar 2002: James H. Newman, STS-109 mission specialist, servicing HST in Columbia's cargo bay.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

T+4 Document

Design Reference Architecture 5.0 (pdf)

One way to go.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

T+3 Data



Let's see what Ares I is estimated to cost, converting this CBO image to text yields:

1.0 (2007) + 1.0 (2008) + 1.0 (2009) + 1.3 (2010) +
2.0 (2011) + 1.7 (2012) + 1.4 (2013) + 1.0 (2014) = $10.4 B

This number does not include earlier costs, reserves, Cross Agency Support and Program Integration etc etc.

Friday, April 17, 2009

T+2 Video



Orbital's COTS CRS heading uphill, docking with ISS and reentry.

T+1 Image


DRA 5.0 concept image - going beyond Mars.