Last Friday, March 24, 2017, members of the Expedition 50 crew made the 198th EVA in support of the International Space Station to make preparations for the arrival of future commercial crews and perform routine maintenance. The two EVA astronauts were Expedition 50 commander Shane Kimbrough of NASA and Flight Engineer Thomas Pesquet of ESA. … [Read more…]
The Return of Peggy Whitson Once known as the over-achieving Science Officer of Expedition 5, Peggy Whitson was returning to the International Space Station as Expedition 16’s commander. To celebrate the occasion, engineers in Russia’s Star City presented her with a Kazakh-style riding whip with the suggestion that she could use it to keep her … [Read more…]
When astronaut Garrett Reisman applied to NASA as a potential astronaut, he had to appear before a panel headed by John Young, who had flown two Gemini, two Apollo, and two of the early Space Shuttle flights including the very first one. In pre-flight interviews, Reisman commented on how tough it was to appear in … [Read more…]
The Space Shuttle Atlantis launched on February 7, 2007 for the STS-122 mission, with the first addition to the station provided by the European Space Agency, the Columbus module. Engine ignition tended to rock the entire stack (External Tank and Orbiter) and Mission Specialist Rex Walheim said of it, “Suddenly you’re riding a wild animal.” … [Read more…]
Discovery launched on October 23, 2007, in what Michael Leinbach called “One of the cleanest countdowns we’ve had since I’ve been a Launch Director.” Commanded by Pamela Melroy, the crew also included Pilot George Zamka, Mission Specialists Scott Parazynski, Douglas Wheelock, Stephanie Wilson, and the ESA’s Paolo Nespoli, and Expedition 16/17 crew member Daniel Tani. … [Read more…]
Docking of Soyuz TMA-10 On April 7, 2007, Soyuz TMA-10 launched with Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov. Also on board was another spaceflight participant, Charles Simonyi, who was a co-founder and software developer for Microsoft and founder of Intentional Software Corp., a software engineering firm. The Soyuz docked with the … [Read more…]
The Endeavour launched on its first mission in four and a half years on August 8, 2007. It had been heavily upgraded during the hiatus to allow for longer missions and now included the Station-to-Shuttle Power Transfer System (SSPTS), which would allow it to draw power from the station. The crew included Shuttle Commander Scott … [Read more…]
STS-117 Launch The launch of STS-117 was delayed due to weather, hailstone damage and a thorough check of the External Tank. This was expected to push back the schedule for future Space Shuttle launches but NASA was confident that they could get back on track by the end of the year. STS-117 Atlantis finally launched … [Read more…]
Highlights of STS-116 STS-116 was to be an important and complex shuttle flight for assembly of the International Space Station. Project manager Mike Suffrendi told reporters, “Many of us consider this the most challenging Space Station flight we’ve done. … When the Shuttle leaves, ISS will not look much different than when Discovery got there, … [Read more…]
Soyuz TMA-9 launched just after midnight on September 18, 2006, while Atlantis was still on its way home. The crew included Expedition Commander Michael Lopez-Algria, Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin and another spaceflight participant, an Iranian native named Anousheh Ansari. Ansari was a last-minute replacement for another paying spaceflight participant named Daisuke Enomoto, who had been … [Read more…]