Space Shuttle // Current

3 Questions: Space Tourist Fears

Discovery-News.com: Kasey-Dee Gardner sits down with one of Virgin Galactic's maiden... more

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New Digs For The Space Station

Discovery-News.com: New toilets, beds and a fridge are being installed in the ISS.... more

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Endeavor Docks Successfully At International Space Station

Space Shuttle Endeavour docked with the International Space Station on Sunday carrying... more

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Endeavour docks with space station

The space shuttle Endeavour has docked with the international space station.

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Endeavour leaves for space

The space shuttle Endeavour left today (Friday) to join the international space... more

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NASA begins countdown for space shuttle launch | Top News | Reuters

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) -- Countdown clocks at the Kennedy Space Centre... more

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Space Tourist Fullfills Dream of Following Father

The world's latest space tourist, a computer game wizard and astronaut's son who paid... more

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India launches first unmanned moon mission

NEW DELHI: India launched its first unmanned space ship to orbit the moon early... more

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BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | India Moon probe ready for launch

India is counting down to the launch of its first mission to the Moon. On... more

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Marshall Director says shuttle must retire by 2010 - Breaking News from The Huntsville Times

Keeping the space shuttle program going past its planned retirement date of 2010 is a... more

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CTV.ca | NASA sends space shuttle Atlantis back to hangar

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA pulled space shuttle Atlantis off the launch pad and sent... more

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Israeli Astronaunt's survived diary goes on display

Pages from an Israeli astronaut's diary that survived the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia and a 37-mile fall to earth are going on display this weekend for the first time in Jerusalem.

The diary belonged to Ilan Ramon, Israel's first astronaut and one of seven crew members killed when Columbia disintegrated upon re-entering the atmosphere on Feb. 1, 2003. Part of the restored diary will be displayed at the Israel Museum beginning Sunday.

A little over two months after the shuttle explosion, NASA searchers found 37 pages from Ramon's diary, wet and crumpled, in a field just outside the U.S. town of Palestine, Texas. The diary survived extreme heat in the explosion, extreme atmospheric cold, and then "was attacked by microorganisms and insects" in the field where it fell, said museum curator Yigal Zalmona.

"It's almost a miracle that it survived — it's incredible," Zalmona said. There is "no rational explanation" for how it was recovered when most of the shuttle was not, he said.

NASA officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The U.S. space agency returned the diary to Ramon's wife, Rona, who brought it to forensics experts at the Israel Museum and from the Israeli police. The diary took about a year to restore, Zalmona said, and it took police scientists about four more years to decipher the pages. About 80 percent of the text has been deciphered, and the rest remains unreadable, he said.

Two pages will be displayed. One contains notes written by Ramon, and the other is a copy of the Kiddush prayer, a blessing over wine that Jews recite on the Sabbath. Zalmona said Ramon copied the prayer into his diary so he could recite it on the space shuttle and have the blessing broadcast to Earth.

Most of the pages contain personal information which Ramon's wife did not wish to make public, he said.

"We agreed to do the restoration completely respecting the family's privacy and the sensitivity about how intimate the document is," museum director James Snyder said.

The diary provides no indication Ramon knew anything about potential problems on the shuttle. Columbia's wing was gashed by a chunk of fuel tank foam insulation at liftoff and broke up in flames just 16 minutes before it was scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. All seven astronauts on board were killed.

The diary is being displayed as part of a larger exhibit of famous documents from Israel's history, held to mark the country's 60th anniversary this year. Also on display will be Israel's 1948 declaration of independence, the 1994 peace treaty with Jordan and a bloodstained sheet of paper with lyrics to a peace anthem that was carried by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at the time of his assassination in 1995.

Pages from an Israeli astronaut's diary that survived the explosion of the space... more

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Deceased Israeli astronaut's diary goes on display in Jerusalem

The diary of an Israeli astronaut who lost his life in the space shuttle Columbia's... more

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NASA Delays Atlantis Mission to Hubble Telescope

NASA is delaying next month's shuttle launch to the Hubble Space Telescope because of... more

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Space junk could hinder Hubble repair mission - USATODAY.com

The shuttle that will carry astronauts into space next month to repair the Hubble... more

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Nasa 'reviews shuttle shelf-life'

Nasa will study whether the space shuttle can operate beyond its planned retirement in... more

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Space shuttle replacement crashes in landing test

A test of the spacecraft due to replace the shuttle and take humans back to the moon... more

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Russia-Georgia Conflict Could Hurt U.S. Space Program

The U.S. government must now decide whether it will overlook Russia's skirmishes with Georgia.

Even though Russia and Georgia have officially signed a cease-fire agreement, the volatile situation between the two nations could jeopardize whether or not NASA astronauts fly to the International Space Station aboard Russian spacecraft in the future, U.S. officials warn.

NASA will be forced to rely on Russian spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the ISS on the Soyuz spacecraft and transport supplies from Earth to the space station once the shuttle is retired in 2010. The next-generation Orion spacecraft is not expected to be done until 2015, at the earliest, NASA previously said.

"The new challenge we have is that for approximately five years, the plan — which is a very bad plan but is the only plan that NASA and the administration and Congress have approved — is to be dependent on the Russian Soyuz vehicle to get people to and from the international space station," said Tom Feeney, (R-FL). "And so now, with the political realities with Russia invading Georgia, we have a new wrinkle thrown in."

Furthermore, U.S. Senator Bill Nelson (D, FL) also said the situation between Russia and Georgia could greatly impact the space cooperation between the United States and Russia. Without the use of Russian spacecraft after the shuttle is retired, NASA astronauts will be unable to get to the ISS to help finish its construction.

Nelson also pointed out that a U.S. law signed in 2000 directly prohibits the government from entering contracts with any nation that gave assistance to North Korea and/or Iran with any nuclear programs -- Russia has helped the nations with their nuclear programs. Congress must now either reauthorize the waiver so a transportation agreement can be made, or will uphold the 2000 law and not work with Russia.

So far, the House Foreign Affairs Committee has supported the waiver, though it must now pass the House, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Senate.

The French-brokered cease-fire that has been signed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili forces both sides to return their troops to their original locations prior to the skirmishes. But even with an agreement in place, tensions between the United States and Russia, the two largest contributors to the ISS, remain high.

The U.S. government must now try and determine whether or not it will move forward and pay millions to the Russian government for ferrying astronauts into space, or delay the looming retirement of the space shuttle fleet a few more years.The U.S. government must now decide whether it will overlook Russia's skirmishes with... more