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Pegasus launches AIM

An air-launched Pegasus rocket lofts NASA's AIM satellite into orbit to study mysterious clouds at the edge of space.

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The Sun in 3-D

NASA's twin STEREO spacecraft have made the first three-dimensional images of the Sun. Scientists unveil the images in this news conference held April 23.

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Hubble turns 17

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched in April 1990, opening a new window on the universe that has revolutionized our understanding of the cosmos.

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Flight of Gemini 3

The first manned flight of Project Gemini launched on March 23, 1965 with pioneering astronauts Gus Grissom and John Young. Take a look back!

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Apollo 9: Spider flies

Apollo 9 put the lunar landing module Spider through the stresses of spaceflight while orbiting Earth. This documentary looks back with astronauts Jim McDivitt, Dave Scott, and Rusty Schweickart.

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Expedition 15 coverage
The Russian Soyuz spacecraft with Expedition 15 cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov, along with tourist Charles Simonyi, fly to the space station.

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STS-61: Fixing Hubble

One of the most daunting yet crucial human spaceflights occurred in December 1993 as the crew of shuttle Endeavour embarked on a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.

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Station crew plans changed as shuttle repairs continue
BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: April 26, 2007

Repairs to the shuttle Atlantis' hail-damaged external fuel tank are going relatively smoothly, with the first of two large-area foam sprays scheduled to begin as early as Sunday. While rollout to launch pad 39A has slipped several days to around May 15, NASA managers say a launch June 8 is still possible, although the schedule is very tight.

Shuttle managers today also approved a plan to bring space station astronaut Sunita Williams back to Earth aboard Atlantis in June. Williams was launched to the station aboard the shuttle Discovery in December and before Atlantis was damaged by hail during a freak storm in February, she was scheduled to come home aboard the Endeavour in June.

But because of the work to repair Atlantis, Endeavour's flight has slipped to August. NASA managers monitor the cumulative radiation long-duration crews are exposed to and while Williams faced no specific health threat remaining in space through August, sources said there was some concern that her total exposure might preclude any future station flights. By coming home in June as originally planned, she likely will remain eligible for a future flight assignment.

But moving her return up to June also meant moving her replacement, astronaut Clay Anderson, from Endeavour to Atlantis. NASA managers are debating whether to add an astronaut to Endeavour's crew to help out with moving equipment and supplies back and forth between the shuttle and the station.

The crew rotation was approved by NASA managers today "after a more detailed review determined there would be no impact on space station operations or future shuttle mission objectives," NASA said in a statement. "Since an earlier crew rotation was possible, NASA managers decided it would be prudent to return Williams and deliver Anderson sooner rather than later."

As a result, the duration of Williams' flight will be roughly the same as originally planned and on her return, she will set a new space endurance record for female astronauts. She already holds the record for spacewalks by a female flier with 29 hours and 17 minutes of EVA time during four excursions.

Told of the decision earlier today, Williams said she was looking forward to seeing the crew of Atlantis.

"It's going to be a fun flight, hopefully putting on that next solar array and retracting the other one," she said, referring to an array that must be retracted so it can be moved later. "It should be a lot of fun, looking forward to it. Thanks for the news."

NASA managers had hoped to launch Atlantis on mission STS-117, the first of five planned 2007 shuttle missions, March 15. But during a freak storm that thundered over pad 39A on Feb. 26, the shuttle's external tank was blasted by hail, suffering thousands of pits and gouges in its foam insulation. Wind gusts reached 62 knots and hail up to 1.5 inches in diameter was found at the pad.

Most of the damage was restricted to the upper liquid oxygen section of Atlantis' tank. Only a handful of dings were found lower down on the hydrogen section and while two dozen heat shield tiles on the orbiter were scraped by hail that worked its way behind weather protection panels, detailed inspections show the ship's critical carbon composite wing leading edge panels and nose cap were undamaged.

John Honeycutt, deputy manager of the external tank project, said April 10 that some 2,664 areas of damage requiring repair had been identified. Two areas, one near the tip of the tank that had between 1,000 and 1,600 hits and the other lower down on the side of the oxygen tank with 200 or so tightly packed impact sites, were so heavily pitted that engineers opted against individual repairs.

Instead, the damaged foam was sanded down so fresh insulation could be sprayed on by tank engineers. About 700 dings and pits were subject to repairs by boring them out and pouring in fresh foam.

Foam sprays normally are carried out robotically at Lockheed Martin's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The repair sprays will use a different type of foam and it will be applied manually. These are "non-standard" repairs and extensive testing was ordered to make sure the foam will provide the proper pre-launch insulation and also stand up to the rigors of launch without shedding any debris that could damage the shuttle's heat shield.

The first of those sprays could begin as early as Sunday. Other repair work is continuing, including work to fix relatively minor collateral damage caused in the process of making the other fixes.

Engineers also plan to begin removing Atlantis' three main engines Sunday for main propulsion system inspections to look for signs of contamination from a silicon rubber material used between flights to look for signs of cracks. A small amount of debris was found inside plumbing aboard the shuttle Discovery, prompting concern about similar contamination in Atlantis and Endeavour.

The silicon rubber is used before and after a shuttle flight to make exact three-dimensional impressions of the fuel line flow liners to look for signs of potentially catastrophic cracks. Engineers apparently missed a small bit of the material after impressions were made in Discovery's flow liners between two of its most recent flights. NASA managers wanted to make sure no similar contamination is present in the main propulsion systems of the other orbiters. So far, no other contamination has been found.



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