NASA STS-122 (2008) Crew Heads to the Pad: A Tribute to Alan Poindexter

In this image from December 2008, the STS-122 mission crew members stride out of the Operations and Checkout Building, eager to ride to the launch pad and take their seats in space shuttle Atlantis.

On the left, front to back, are Alan Poindexter, followed by Leland Melvin, Stanley Love and Leopold Eyharts. On the right, front to back, are Commander Steve Frick, followed by Rex Walheim and Hans Schlegel.

Schlegel and Eyharts represent the European Space Agency (ESA).

Alan Poindexter died on Sunday, July 1, 2012, as the result of a watercraft accident, while vacationing with his family.

A Navy Captain, he was accepted to the Astronaut Corps in 1998. During his career with NASA, Poindexter commanded the STS-131 space shuttle Discovery mission to the International Space Station in 2010, delivering more than 13,000 pounds of hardware and equipment.

He also served as the pilot of the STS-122 mission, which delivered and installed the European Space Agency's Columbus laboratory on the station in 2008. He also served as a spacecraft communicator, or CAPCOM, for multiple missions.

Poindexter retired from NASA in 2010 and returned to serve in the United States Navy as Dean of Students at the Naval Postgraduate School.

Image Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

CSA Astronaut Roberta Bondar First Woman Neuroligist in Space

Roberta Bondar, OC, O.Ont, FRCP(C), FRSC (born December 4, 1945) is Canada's first female astronaut and the first neurologist in space.

Bondar flew on the NASA Space Shuttle Discovery during Mission STS-42, January 22–30, 1992, during which she performed experiments in the Spacelab

Following more than a decade as NASA's head of space medicine, Bondar became a consultant and speaker in the business, scientific, and medical communities.

Bondar has received many honours including the Order of Canada, the Order of Ontario, the NASA Space Medal, over 22 honorary degrees and induction into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.

Roberta Bondar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

National Geographic’s zoomable panoramic photos of Discovery allow you to see the instrumentation and controls required to operate the space shuttle.

The space shuttle Discovery made its last flight on Tuesday, April 17, 2012 aboard a retrofitted 747 jumbo jet through restricted airspace over Washington, D.C. with an armed escort.

Its destination was the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. The National Geographic site has this two-minute video of Discovery’s final flight over D.C.

Discovery will be on display but, unfortunately, it is not going to be open to the public; the Smithsonian plans to seal it up indefinitely. But before they do, National Geographic, as well as many other news organizations, was able to get inside and take pictures of the shuttle’s interiors.

National Geographic took gigapans of Discovery – a gigapan is a 360-degree photograph with the equivalent of 340 8-megapixel photos stitched together. (Gigapans technology was developed for the Mars Rovers.)

National Georgraphic took 27 gigapans of Discovery, but only 10 gigapans are currently available online; National Geographic plans to release more images on its Spaceflight HD Gigapans page in the next few weeks.

These gigapans allow you to explore online the extensive instrumentation and controls required to operate a space-faring vehicle (check out the Discovery Flight Deck gigapan, which is 2.74 gigapixels) and other areas of the ship, such as the toilet. Each gigapan contains a few “snapshots,” which are areas of interest within the photo that immediately zoom the gigapan when clicked.

Discovery’s sister ships will become museum pieces as well, with Enterprise on display in New York City, Endeavor in LA, and Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Will you travel to the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. or another one of these cities to see a shuttle up close? Share your plans in the comments.

Also read: The NASA site overview of Discovery

Wheels Stopped, Discovery, Welcome Home to Smithsonian

Click on the link to View Zoomable Hi-Res Image

The tow vehicle, beeping while moving backward, tugged Discovery into place in fits and starts, her arrival crew making sure she was aligned perfectly on the floor.

One final movement forward and the United Space Alliance team member signaled to the tow vehicle to shut down yelling, “That’s it!” There were scattered hollers and applause, and then silence.

It felt like it should have been a more familiar and official phrase, spoken after every shuttle landing: “Houston, Discovery. Wheels stopped. Welcome home.”

Astronaut Alan Poindexter, once commander of Discovery on STS-131, walked past her and said heavily, “She looks great, but she’s in the wrong hangar.”

The week was full of both excitement and heavy hearts as the one time daily pride of thousands of NASA workers became the proud new attraction for the residents of the Washington, DC area.

They embraced her with thrilled oohs and ahs during her flyover and cheers as she moved over to the museum flanked by rows of astronauts and shuttle workers.

NASA Space shuttles, Enterprise and Discovery, meet nose-to-nose

Space shuttles Enterprise and Discovery meet nose-to-nose at a transfer ceremony at the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Centre in Chantilly, Virginia. Discovery will take the place of Enterprise at the centre.

Picture: Smithsonian Institution via NASA, Carolyn Russo/AP

HD Simulation of NASA Shuttle Discovery's Arrival at IAD - YouTube

HD Simulation of NASA Shuttle Discovery's arrival at Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) and Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center - scheduled for April 17, 2012

NASA: John Glenn speaks to ISS Crew

Senator John Glenn talks, via satellite, with the astronauts on the International Space Station, in Columbus, Ohio. 

Glenn was the first American to orbit Earth, piloting Friendship 7 around it three times in 1962, and also became the oldest person in space, at age 77, by orbiting Earth with six astronauts aboard shuttle Discovery in 1998.

 

Picture: Jay LaPrete/AP

NASA Space Shuttle Discovery: National Air and Space Museum

Discovery is expected to land at Washington Dulles International Airport on April 17 and transfer to the Udvar-Hazy Center on April 19. 

Join us to launch Space Shuttle Discovery on its new mission to educate & inspire!

Activities related to the arrival of Discovery — including a fly-over — have not been finalized at this time. 

Information on arrival activities, including public events and opportunities, will be released at a later date.

Discovery, the champion of the space shuttle fleet, associated with major historic, scientific and technological achievements, will be the first of the flown space shuttles to go on display.

Exact details will become available in the next few weeks. Check back here for updates. You can also subscribe to the Museum's e-newsletter, What's Up, fan our Facebook page, or follow @airandspace on Twitter for the latest news.

Please note that arrival activities are weather contingent and will be rescheduled in the event of inclement conditions.

For those participating from a distance, many of the activities will be available for viewing on TV or the web. Details coming soon.

Find out more about Space Shuttle Discovery

NASA Shuttles Discovery and Endeavour Mothballed: No country for old technology?

Retired Shuttles Endeavour & Discovery "nose to nose" outside Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building

Shuttle Discovery moves away from Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building

Shuttle Endeavour begins its move out of Kennedy's Orbiter Processing Facility-1

NASA Shuttle Discovery Mothballed

Discovery rolled into the VAB this morning to make room for the return of Shuttle Atlantis next week.

NASA Astronaut Image of Shuttle over Tibet

Xizang, Tibet is near the smaller lake in the top right above the larger one.

Joint crew of ISS and STS-133 in the US Lab

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One of our joint crew pics in the US Lab

A prelaunch picture of STS-133 crew with Robonaut 2

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A prelaunch crew pic with robonaut

NASA STS-133 Mission Crew - Shuttle Discovery's last Lift-off /Touchdown

STS-133 mission crew members, from left, Nicole Stott, Michael Barratt, pilot Eric Boe, Commander Steve Lindsey, Alvin Drew and Steve Bowen, pose for a photograph in front of the space shuttle Discovery after landing, Wednesday, March 9, 2011, at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., completing Discovery's 39th and final flight. Since 1984, Discovery flew 39 missions, spent 365 days in space, orbited Earth 5,830 times and traveled 148,221,675 miles.

Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

NASA Shuttle Discovery's Final Landing

Discovery has completed its final mission, STS-133, for NASA's Space Shuttle Program landing on-time at Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 11:57 a.m. EST, March 9, 2011 after 202 orbits around Earth and a journey of 5,304,140 miles.

NASA Shuttle Discovery detaches from ISS

Discovery detaches from ISS and reaches zenith, during the ISS fly around before final departure

Discovery, over southern Morocco

Space Shuttle Discovery's Final Launch

At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, shuttle Discovery pauses in between Orbiter Processing Facility-3 and the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) during a move called "rollover" on September 9th, 2010.

Once inside the VAB, the shuttle will be joined to its solid rocket boosters and external fuel tank. Later, Discovery was scheduled to "rollout" to Launch Pad 39A for its launch to the International Space Station on the STS-133 mission.

(NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis)

More marvellous collection of images from the history of Discovery at the Atlantic website

NASA ISS: ESA Leonardo Module: Crews of Expedition 26 and STS-133 inside

NASA Space Shuttle Discovery Image: Thermal Tile Inspection

This close-up view of the nose of Discovery shows the thermal tiles covering the underside of the space shuttle.

Picture: NASA

Boiling Bubbles AIds Cooling In Space

It may seem illogical, but boiling is a very efficient way to cool engineering components and systems used in the extreme environments of space.

An experiment to gain a basic understanding of this phenomena launched to the International Space Station on space shuttle Discovery Feb. 24.

The Nucleate Pool Boiling Experiment, or NPBX, is one of two experiments in the new Boiling eXperiment Facility, or BXF.

Nucleate boiling is bubble growth from a heated surface and the subsequent detachment of the bubble to a cooler surrounding liquid. As a result, these bubbles can efficiently transfer energy from the boiling surface into the surrounding fluid.

This investigation provides an understanding of heat transfer and vapor removal processes that happen during nucleate boiling in microgravity. Researchers will glean information to better design and operate space systems that use boiling for efficient heat removal.

Bubbles in microgravity grow to different sizes than on Earth. This experiment will focus on the dynamics of single and multiple bubbles and the associated heat transfer.

NPBX uses a polished aluminum wafer, powered by heaters bonded to its backside, and five fabricated cavities that can be controlled individually. The experiment will study single and/or multiple bubbles generated at these cavities.

It will measure the power supplied to each heater group, and cameras will record the bubble dynamics. Analysis of the heater power data and recorded images will allow investigators to determine how bubble dynamics and heat transfer differ in microgravity.

"With boiling, the size and weight of heat exchange equipment used in space systems can be significantly reduced," said Vijay Dhir, the experiment's principal investigator at the University of California, Los Angeles.

"Boiling and multiphase heat transfer is an enabling technology for space exploration missions including storage and handling of cryogenic, or extremely low temperature liquids, life support systems, power generation and thermal management."

"The cost of transporting equipment to space depends on the size and weight of the equipment," added David Chao, the project scientist from NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. "The knowledge base that will be developed through the experiment will give us the capability to achieve cooling of various components and systems used in space in an efficient manner and could lead to smaller and lighter spacecraft."