Tom's WEB Blog

NASA's shuttle Discovery and its seven-astronaut crew are ready to rocket spaceward this afternoon carrying the largest laboratory ever built for the ISS. Discovery is counting down toward a 5:02 p.m. liftoff from Kennedy Space Center. The seven crewmembers of the shuttle's STS-124 mission are planning to deliver the Japan's $1 billion Kibo laboratory module, a room the size of a large bus. Veteran astronaut Mark Kelly will command the planned 14-day mission, leading five rookies and one other veteran spaceflyer, mission specialist Mike Fossum, to the orbital laboratory. The first-timers include pilot Ken Ham and mission specialists Karen Nyberg, Ron Garan and Greg Chamitoff, as well as Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Mission managers are hopeful that Discovery will be able to launch today as planned. There is currently an 80 chance of good weather today's liftoff attempt. If the space shuttle does not blast off today, the weather forecast deteriorates for subsequent launch opportunities on Sunday and Monday. While in space, Discovery's STS-124 astronauts plan to perform three spacewalks outside the station to set up the new Kibo lab and activate its robotic arm, the Japanese Remote Manipulator System. They will also move Kibo's smaller attic-like module from its temporary station to attach it to the new 37-foot main module. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Hoshide will serve as the local expert on Kibo's ins and outs while the crew installs the ISS's new addition. Discovery's flight will be NASA's third shuttle trip this year, and the second of three missions to assemble the Japan's entire 15.9-ton Kibo facility, whose name means "hope" in Japanese, to the station. The lab's storage module arrived during a previous March shuttle mission, and a February flight installed Europe's Columbus laboratory. A third Kibo mission, set to fly in 2009, will deliver a porch-like exterior platform for external space experiments. One of the astronauts slated to launch today will swap places with a current ISS crewmember and stay on for a long duration stint. Chamitoff will relieve American astronaut Garrett Reisman as a flight engineer for the space station's Expedition 17 crew. Reisman is set return to Earth aboard Discovery on June 14, while Chamitoff is currently due home during a planned November shuttle flight. Discovery's launch will also represent a landmark flight for NASA's overhaul of the space shuttle external fuel tanks since the Columbia disaster. After that shuttle's heat shield was fatally damaged by falling debris from its external tank during launch, the agency redesigned the tanks for safety. Discovery's trip will be the first to fly with an external tank built from the ground up with the new safety features in place. A few notable recent additions to Discovery's payload will also mark the flight. Onboard the shuttle is a replacement pump for the space station's broken toilet, which is currently working only sporadically. NASA also packed away a toy action figure of the Disney-Pixar character Buzz Lightyear from the movie "Toy Story," as part of an educational partnership with Disney. The doll will be used to demonstrate the laws of physics in flight to get kids interested in science and exploration, NASA and Disney representatives said. NASA will broadcast the planned launch of Discovery's STS-124 mission live on NASA TV, beginning at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday.

Very cool animation sequence detailing the construction of the International Space Station

http://www.tietronix.com/anim/MoviePlayer.asp?myMovie=movies/assembly640x360.swf

Space shuttle Discovery is in place at NASA Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39A and remaining work is on schedule for liftoff May 31 at 5:02 p.m. EDT. The countdown begins May 28 at 3 p.m., Discovery's 14-day flight will carry the largest payload so far to the station and includes three spacewalks. It is the second of three missions that will launch components to complete the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory. The crew will install Kibo's large Japanese Pressurized Module and Kibo's robotic arm system. Discovery also will deliver new station crew member Greg Chamitoff and bring back Flight Engineer Garrett Reisman, who will end a three-month stay aboard the outpost.

Molly had a big week last week. On Thursday she received the "Distinguished Staff Award" at work

http://www.pct.edu/pctoday/facstaff/College_Presents_Awards_to_Distinguished_Staff_Part-Time_Faculty.shtml

and Saturday she graduated with Honors and earned her B.S.

http://www.pct.edu/pctoday/photos/index.shtml

more pictures on the gallery page

http://tomschrimp.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=AwardDayandGraduation

I'm very proud of her! :)

Well, so much for getting the Blog back on track. Just not enough time in the day. I have some stuff to get up and I have uploaded new photos to the Gallery. Check back as I try to get the ball rolling again! :)

The space shuttle Discovery rolled out to its Florida launch pad early Saturday as NASA prepares to launch a massive Japanese laboratory later this month. Shuttle engineers hauled Discovery and its attached external fuel tank and rocket boosters to their Launch Pad 39A launch site at KSC at about 6:06 a.m. EDT (1006 GMT). The move actually started late Friday at about 11:47 p.m. EST, when Discovery began the slow 3.4-mile (5.4-km) trek to the launch pad atop NASA's massive crawler transporter vehicle. Discovery's launch preparations have gone so smoothly that shuttle workers have a full seven days of cushion time, where none existed earlier, to handle any unforeseen glitches.
This spaceflight will mark NASA's third shuttle mission of up to five planned for the year.

Been so long since I had a chance to post any thing! Well, spring is here and I've been busy. Lots of work around the house and fun things to do. I got a handheld GPS and have been taking the boys Geocaching. If you don't know what that is go here and check it out!

http://www.geocaching.com/

We had a good find today at the college (PCT) but couldn't locate the second one at Lions Field :(. We placed are own cache yesterday and have had 5 people locate it and sign the log already :) We went and saw Iron Man last nice and I'll have a full review of that tomorrow. It was great! More to come soon...