ISS Expedition 27/28 Crew in Moscow

The three astronauts that will be ISS Expedition 27/28 are spending time together in Moscow before heading to Kasakhstan for their launch on March 29th.

Here they are at Moscow's Red Square visiting a wall honoring Russian Cosmonauts. NASA astronaut Ron Garan is on the left. The other two are Russian cosmonauts Borisenko and Samokutyaev.

Check out this video of preparations of the Soyuz capsule for Expedition 27/28: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXrDVyWJ0Pc

Robonaut2 Soon Unpacked

R2 tweeted earlier today:

AstroRobonaut Robonaut 

Get ready, folks - I'm coming out of my box! Cady & Paolo will be unpacking me on Tuesday!

ISS Expedition 26 Drawing to a Close

Three of the 6 astronauts currently on board the International Space Station (ISS) will be returning to earth next week. This will bring Expedition 26 and Scott Kelly's command to a close. The Soyuz capsule, carrying Kelly, Kaleri, and Skripochka is scheduled to land in Kazakhstan on March 16th.


Scott Kelly gives a video tour of his quarters aboard the ISS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4dG9vSyUFQ


Cady Coleman NASA Flight Engineer aboard ISS gives another tour: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4dG9vSyUFQ Flight Engineer Cady Coleman takes us on a video tour of the International Space Station as she collects various items needed to perform a Kids In Micro-g experiment.

Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-134 on Launch Pad

Overnight, Space Shuttle Endeavour made its way on the special crawler from the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) to launch pad 39A. The 3.4-mile trip began at 7:56 p.m. Thursday evening and ended at 3:49 a.m. Friday morning. Ok, can't resist, the math problem is just too good... So, how fast does the crawler travel in miles per hour?

Ground crews will continue to prepare Endeavour for launch from the pad. STS-134 Launch is scheduled for April 19th at 7:48 p.m. 

Discovery STS-133 Mission Complete

The past 24 hours have been very exciting. The return of Discovery was one of the most spectacular shuttle landings that I've seen. I think I felt as excited about seeing this one as when I watched the test flight and landing of Enterprise - the prototype for the shuttle fleet. As CMDR Lindsey and Pilot Boe brought Discovery to a full stop on runway 15 at the Kennedy Space Center, Discovery completed an extraordinary career as the hardest working shuttle in the fleet. When Discovery landed, at 11:57 a.m. EST, it had completed 202 orbits around Earth and a journey of 5,304,140 miles on this mission alone. STS-133 was the 39th and final flight for Discovery, which spent a total of 365 days in space, orbited Earth 5,830 times and traveled 148,221,675 miles!

Welcome home Discovery and your crew of 6 NASA astronauts: Lindsey, Boe, Bowen, Drew, Stott, and Barratt.


It was a lot of fun watching this mission, and it was a great experience sharing it with my students. I was very lucky to have company of about twenty of my students watching the landing live.

I must admit, I am already suffering from a bit of shuttle withdrawal. And that is the reason for this blog. I invite you to join me as I follow the last two shuttle missions: Endeavour STS-134 and Atlantis STS-135. I will also be following the International Space Station Expeditions (currently Expedition 26). In the blog, I will share links to information on each mission, video feeds, photos, and my own thoughts. I also invite you to share your comments and questions.