NASA confirms launch time for STS 127

NASA confirmed the official launch time for Space Shuttle Endeavour's lift-off on Saturday, 11 July 2009 for 19:39 EST. The mission designation is STS 127 and will be Endeavour's 23rd flight. All systems are clear for tomorrow's launch, however, weather forecasts call for thunderstorms in the Gulf of Mexico and heavy wind and rain may delay the launch.

Shuttle Endeavour first flew STS-49, May 1992, following a NASA-sponsored, nation-wide contest to name the shuttle commissioned to replace Challenger. STS-127 will be Endeavour's final mission, as the American space shuttle program is due to be decommissioned in 2010. Upon its return to Earth, Endeavour will be sent to March Field Air Museum in Riverside, CA in honor of astronaut and Riverside resident, Tracy Caldwell.

The Orion spacecraft, powered by the new Ares-class rocket, is due to replace the aging shuttle fleet as the United States' primary space vehicle in 2014. Due to the unavoidable time gap between NASA moth-balling the shuttle fleet and launching the Orion craft, the Russian Federal Space Agency (RSA) will take the lead on most missions to the International Space Station (ISS).

Commander Mark Polansky and the crew of Endeavour are delivering the final components of Japan's Kibo module to the ISS. Upon completion, the Kibo module will be the largest part of the ISS and will be used to conduct science experiments in the vacuum of space.

So tomorrow at 7:40pm, if you stand outside and you live on the East Coast, you will probably be able to hear the launch. - Jack

Hope of the East: Iran's Official Entry into the "Space Club"

21 June 1989, during a summit meeting of the Soviet and Iranian leadership, Iran becomes the first Islamic country to announce plans to send a man into space. Soviet General Secretary Gorbachov and Iranian President Rafsanjani announce joint Soviet-Iranian missions to the Mir Space Station. Unfortunately, the break-up of the Soviet Union less than a year later led to the postponement of Iran's entry into the "space club", countries that have successfully launched payloads into orbit. However, almost 20 years after Iran lost its technological sponsor, 20 August 2008, the head of the Iran Aerospace Industries Organization (IAIO), Reza Tagipour, announced that the Iranian government had made putting its first Faza-Navard (Iranian astronaut) into space its top priority. Mr. Tagipour said Iran had plans to set a date for initial rocket testing to begin within six months and the government set 2021 as the goal for manned-missions.

Iran launched its first satellite, Sinah-1, on 28 October 2005. The Russian-built Sinah-1 satellite was launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Arkhangelsk, Russia and was lifted into orbit by Russian-built Kosmos-3 booster rockets. The Russian-Iranian cooperation in space technologies enabled Iran to become the 43rd nation to place a satellite into orbit, however, Iran has since launched satellites in partnership with several other Asian nations, most notably China and Thailand.

Iran has also developed its own satellite launch vehicle, the Safir SLV, a 26 ton, two-stage rocket driven by all liquid-propellant systems. The first stage is capable of placing a payload package in low-earth orbit at an altitude of 68km; the second stage extends this range more than 40% and its new parachute package allows the payload to be recovered after re-entry. Iran began testing the Safir SLV in late 2000, and by 2004 the Iranian Space Agency (ISA) announced the program would allow Iran to launch its first domestically produced satellite, the Omid (Persian for Hope). The Omid was shot into orbit on 2 February 2009, making Iran the 9th country to launch its own satellite using only domestically produced technologies.

The Iranian Space Agency, overseen by the Iranian Space Council (chaired by President Ahmadinejad), has three dedicated space centers. The older launch facilities, Emamshahr and Qom, have been used to test Iranian Shahab-3 LV rockets but are soon to be phased out as the ISA finishes moving into the new satellite launch center in Semnan. The center at Semnan opened 4 February 2008 with an inaugural launch of Iran's first sub-orbital Safir-class rocket, the Kavoshgar-1 (Explorer 1), and Semnan is expected to become the primary Iranian space center.

Currently, Iran is testing a new solid-fuel rocket, the multi-stage Ghadr-110, based upon the design of the Shahab-3A. This new rocket will allow Iran to launch heavier payloads into much higher orbits and allow it to be used to transport cargo to the proposed Chinese space station, which as of now will be operated by China in conjunction with Iran and India. All of the rockets have military capability and may be diverted from the Iranian Space Agency into the Iranian nuclear program. Fortunately, such action would again postpone Iranian manned-missions and the Iranian government has declared Iran's space ambitions are purely peaceful and scientific.

• Country: Islamic Republic of Iran

• Agency Name: Iranian Space Agency (ISA)

• Affiliation: civilian

• Annual budget: unknown

• Launch-platform: Safir-class rocket, liquid fuel
  

• Unmanned capability: one of a handful of countries with the technology to carry out unilateral launches.

• Manned capability: none, planned to occur before 2021.

• Lunar ambitions: yes

...and that's the way the cookie crumbles. - Jack

Stacking Begins on NASA's New Ares I-X Rocket

The Ares I-X rocket being "stacked" in High Bay 4, VAB.

NASA released photos and information about the 5 sections that make up the United States' new Ares I-X rocket. The Ares I-X is the test configuration of the Ares I launch vehicle. The test, scheduled to be carried out before 30 August 2009 with an announced lift-off time of 7:00 EST, is designed to test the Ares control logarithms, stage separation, and parachute systems. The upcoming tests are part of the initial stages of Project Constellation, proposed by former President George W. Bush with the NASA Authorization Act of 2005.

The NASA Authorization Act of 2005 establishes several long-term goals and benchmarks for NASA to work towards; the act contains the United States government's Vision of Space Exploration (VSE). The VSE calls for American astronauts to return to the moon no later than 2020, launch the new Crew Exploration Vehicle by 2010 (postponed by President Obama in January 2009 due to the souring economy).

The Ares I is nothing more than a redesigned space shuttle Solid Rocket Booster (SRB). The liquid-fueled second stage of the Ares I is an updated J-2X engine last used in the Apollo program. The lift provided by the Ares rocket will take payloads into low-earth orbit, where the service module (SM) and the new Orion command module (CM) will separate and transport a crew of 4-6 astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), back to the moon, and in the next few decades, on to Mars.

See where it goes..... - Jack
EDIT: CNN.com just posted some new astronomy pictures taken over the years. Clicking here will take you to the article. ***WARNING*** I am NOT responsible for the content of any outgoing links.

ONE SMALL STEP - my lunar lander is born

Hello!

My name is Jack and I am launching "my lunar lander" blog in an attempt to share all the latest news and interesting bits I come across regarding Man's return to the moon. The 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11th landing is July 20th, 2009 - less than 2 weeks away! While humans have not set foot on the moon since December 1972, many countries have recently begun planning to return humans to the moon. The Google Lunar X Prize is encouraging non-governmental organizations to attempt a moonshot by offering a $20M dollar reward for the first team to land a robotic probe on the surface of the moon. The Google sponsored competition is similar to the Ansari X Prize (goal: first privately funded human spaceflight); the X-PRIZE foundation awarded $10M dollars after Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne successful 21 June 2004 mission.

Here is a list of countries who have announced lunar ambitions, the name of their respective space agency and the estimated date of a landing:

• United States (NASA): 2020, unmanned lunar missions June 18th, 2009
• Russia (RSA): 2025, International Space Station.
• European Union (ESA): 2024, unmanned martian missions
• China (CNSA): 2030???, 2nd unmanned lunar mission, Chang'e 2, 2009-2010
• Japan (JAXA): 2025, 2nd unmanned lunar mission (SELENE) on 10 June 2009
• India (ISRO): 2030???, 2nd unmanned lunar mission, Chandrayaan-2, 2011

This week I will begin a series "International Space Ambitions", going over the histories and futures of government space agencies ranging from North Korea to the EU.

Check ignition and may God's love be with you - Jack