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Showing posts from January, 2010

NASA Final Space Shuttle Night “Feb. 7”

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Space shuttle Endeavour is set to begin a 13-day flight to the International Space Station with a Feb. 7 launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Liftoff is planned for 4:39 a.m. EST, making this the final scheduled space shuttle night launch. Endeavour's launch date was announced Wednesday at the conclusion of a flight readiness review at Kennedy. During the meeting, senior NASA and contractor managers assessed the risks associated with the mission and determined the shuttle's equipment , support systems and procedures are ready. Endeavour's flight will begin the final year of space shuttle operations. Five shuttle missions are planned in 2010, with the last flight currently targeted for launch in September. Endeavour's mission will include three spacewalks and the delivery of the Tranquility node, the final module of the U.S. portion of the space station. Tranquility will provide additional room for crew members and many of the

Crew Prepares: for Arrivals and Expansions

Image above: Flight Engineer Soichi Noguchi services the Fluid Physics Experiment Facility/Marangoni Surface Core hardware in the Kibo laboratory of the International Space Station. Credit: NASA Science and preparations for the arrivals of space shuttle Endeavour and a Russian cargo craft in February were the focus of the Expedition 22 crew’s activities Tuesday aboard the International Space Station . After the crew’s daily planning conference with teams in the U.S., Russia, Germany and Japan, Commander Jeff Williams began his workday performing his fourth session with an experiment that studies changes in the astronauts’ aerobic capacity during long-duration spaceflight. NASA is interested in tracking these changes because a reduction in maximum oxygen uptake directly impacts a crew member’s ability to perform strenuous activities such as spacewalks or emergency operations. Working in the Japanese Kibo module, Flight Engineer Soichi Noguchi set up equipment in the Fluid Physics Expe

Shahrukh and Aishwarya to act together

After a long hiatus, Shahrukh Khan will again be seen sharing screen space with beautiful Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. They were last seen together during Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Devdas’ but after the fallout over starring in ‘Chalte Chalte’, Ash never worked with Shahrukh. Now that both the parties mend their relationship, they are eager to strengthen their professional relationship as well. With this aim, Shahrukh approached Ash for a cameo in his forthcoming film ‘RA 1’. A close source said, “At a social get-together recently, Shah Rukh and Gauri were seen in the company of Abhi-Ash. Both the couples were bonding also had a long chat about movies and forthcoming projects. It was at this moment that Shah Rukh spoke about ‘RA 1.’” “ Shah Rukh mentioned a scene to Aishwarya where she has to play herself in the film. It is a cameo. The scene is yet to be scripted, but so far it is about a character in the film that is Ash’s biggest fan and actually gets to meet her. Abhishek, who was list

Miffed Katrina Kaif : A special award category

Katrina Kaif has not yet learned to accept defeat. When she was beaten by Vidya Balan for the best actress award, she refused to performed at the event. She was to perform at the award ceremony but not live. Her dance number was to be recorded later just at the end of the ceremony. In order to convince miffed Katrina Kaif, a special award category be created for her. Says a source, "When Katrina came to the venue, she learnt that Kareena Kapoor was getting the Best Actress award (Popular) for 3 Idiots . Although she was nominated for Best Actress for her performance in New York (Critics' Choice), Vidya beat her to it for Paa. It is learnt that she be miffed at being left out because, after all, she had the most hits in 2009 ." Later the organizers (Morani Brothers) and the publishing house created a special award for Kat also she was presented with the award for the best entertainer of the year. Still Katrina did not seem convincing, she came just before the announce

NASA's New Museum Grant Allies will make the Universe Accessible

Montage of our solar system. Image credit: NASA/JPL › Larger image January 12, 2010 WASHINGTON -- Interactive museum exhibits about climate change, Earth science, and missions beyond Earth are among the projects NASA has selected to receive agency funding. Nine informal education providers from Alaska to New York will share $6.2 million in grants through NASA's Competitive Program for Science Museums and Planetariums. Participating organizations include museums, science centers, Challenger Centers and other institutions of informal education. Selected projects will partner with NASA's Museum Alliance, an Internet-based, nationwide network of more than 400 science centers, planetariums, museums, aquariums, zoos, observatory visitor centers, NASA visitor centers, nature centers and park visitor centers. Projects in the program will engage learners of all ages as well as educators who work in formal or informal science education. The project

Asteroid To Fly By Earth Wednesday Is a Natural

Orbital diagram depicts the trajectory of asteroid 2010 AL30 during its flyby of Earth in the early morning hours of Jan. 13. Image credit: NASA/JPL › Larger image January 12, 2010 Asteroid 2010 AL30, discovered by the LINEAR survey of MIT's Lincoln Laboratories on Jan. 10, will make a close approach to the Earth's surface to within 76,000 miles on Jan. 13 at 12:46 pm Greenwich time (7:46 am EST, 4:46 am PST). Because its orbital period is nearly identical to the Earth's one year period, some have suggested it may be a manmade rocket stage in orbit about the sun. However, this object's orbit reaches the orbit of Venus at its closest point to the sun and nearly out to the orbit of Mars at its furthest point, crossing the Earth's orbit at a very steep angle. This makes it very unlikely that 2010 AL30 is a rocket stage. Furthermore, trajectory extrapolations show that this object cannot be associated with

NASA's New Museum Grant Allies Will Make the Universe Accessible to Families From Alaska to Florida

WASHINGTON -- Interactive museum exhibits about climate change, Earth science, and missions beyond Earth are among the projects NASA has selected to receive agency funding. Nine informal education providers from Alaska to New York will share $6.2 million in grants through NASA's Competitive Program for Science Museums and Planetariums. Participating organizations include museums, science centers, Challenger Centers and other institutions of informal education. Selected projects will partner with NASA's Museum Alliance, an Internet-based, nationwide network of more than 400 science centers, planetariums, museums, aquariums, zoos, observatory visitor centers, NASA visitor centers, nature centers and park visitor centers. Projects in the program will engage learners of all ages as well as educators who work in formal or informal science education. The projects will provide NASA-inspired space, science, technology, engineering or mathematics educational opportunities, including pl

Meet the Next International Space Station Crew: NASA Holds Briefing and One-On-One Media Interviews on Jan. 21

HOUSTON -- NASA will hold a briefing for journalists with the next set of residents of the International Space Station at 1 p.m. CST Thursday, Jan. 21, from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. The briefings will be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency's Web site. Questions also will be taken from participating NASA locations. The briefing participants are: - Expedition 23 Flight Engineer and NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson - Expedition 23 Flight Engineer and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov - Expedition 23 Flight Engineer and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko Following the briefing, the crew members will be available for individual round-robin interviews, in person or by phone. There also will be a photo opportunity. To participate in the interviews, reporters should contact the Johnson newsroom at 281-483-5111, by 4 p.m. CST, Wednesday, Jan. 20. U.S. and foreign nationals planning to attend the news briefing must contact the Johnson newsroom by 4 p.