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Lucky or Smart

NASA, given heavily to acronyms, even has one for death: LOCV. It actually stands for Loss Of Crew/Vehicle, and there were passing references to it as mission managers debated what to do about that now-famed gouge mark beneath Endeavour's tail....

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August 21, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (7)

The Storm Below

The shuttle story has been going on for a week now, and it's not over, but here are a few last notes for now: 1) A fair number of you have questioned NASA's decision not to order a spacewalk to...

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August 17, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (3)

NASA Shuttle Decision: No Repair Needed

NASA managers have told the crew of Endeavour that no repairs are needed after all to the underside of the shuttle. Pictures had shown a three-inch-wide, inch-deep gouge in two heat-shield tiles after launch, and the shuttle's Mission Management Team...

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August 16, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (26)

Thumbs Up

A little late to be terribly useful, here is a closeup of the damage Wednesday to Rick Mastracchio's spacesuit glove. And here's a LINK to a picture of some shuttle tiles on the ground after an experiment to see what...

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August 16, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (1)

Torn Glove

NASA just gave a quick, inadvertent illustration of why it's not a slam-dunk decision to send astronauts on a spacewalk to go fix the gouge in the shuttle's underside. Astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Clay Anderson were outside, configuring components of...

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August 15, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (2)

Twenty Questions

Amid all the business over the shuttle's tiles, life really does go on. Barbara Morgan, the teacher turned astronaut, took questions today from schoolchildren at the Discovery Center of Idaho in Boise, about two hours from McCall, where she used...

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August 14, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (3)

Shuttle Damage More Serious Than First Thought

It turns out, says NASA, that the three-inch ding in Endeavour's underside is deep enough to go through the thermal tiles to the aluminum skin of the orbiter itself. It is hardly doom for the mission, or for the shuttle...

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August 12, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (6)

Shuttle Has Damaged Tile

About 58 seconds after liftoff on Wednesday, NASA says there was something, possibly a small piece of ice, that hit the belly of the shuttle Endeavour. And now, from pictures taken by the space station crew, they can see a...

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August 10, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (7)

Watching the Shuttle

This afternoon the Shuttle Endeavour closed in on the Space Station. The the pictures were quite cool, and it's all on your computer. NASA TV has a page HERE, from which you can watch live video of the mission (or...

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August 10, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (1)

Hurricane Forecast

Don't be lulled, says NOAA. This morning it updated its hurricane outlook for this year, and basically stuck to its guns, giving much the same numbers it had in May. The summary is HERE. It predicts: --13-16 named storms (down...

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August 9, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (9)