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Endeavour Go for July 11

The space shuttle launch team fueled Endeavour's external tank on Wednesday to check for leaking gaseous hydrogen following repairs to a seal which keeps the evaporated hydrogen from hanging around as the main engines ignite.

It was leaking gaseous hydrogen, which is the result of burn off from the liquid hydrogen fuel, which forced two launch scrubs in June. NASA is working to launch Endeavour on a flight to the space station on the evening of July 11.

The seven member flight crew are scheduled to arrive at Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday at 2 PM EDT, just as the countdown begins for launch.

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A European Space Agency Ariane V heavy-lift booster rocketed off its South America launch pad on July 1st carrying the largest commercial satellite which will allow cellular PDA phones satellite voice across America and Canada.

Lift-off of Ariane's 31st consecutive successful launch occurred at 1:52 pm EDT, with only ten minutes left in the two hour launch window due to a weather hold. This 189th Ariane mission launched from it's French Guiana launch pad under cloudy skies. [Ariane V Updates]

A new weather satellite successfully arrived into earth orbit on June 27 following a beautiful ride aboard a Delta IV rocket from America's space coast. The United Launch Alliance Delta IV, with its twin boosters, lifted off at 6:51 pm EDT, 37 minutes late due to severe thunderstorms and lightning near it's launch pad here at Cape Canaveral, AFS.

Acording to NASA, GOES-O "will add to the global community of knowledge, embracing many civil and government environmental forecasting organizations that work to benefit people everywhere and help save lives". [GOES-O Updates]

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter entered our moon's orbit June 23, beginning a year long period of imaging the lunar surface for possible manned landing sites as America returns to the moon in 2020. Over the next few days, according to NASA's Ames Research Center, the spacecraft will begin powering up its instruments and imager and begin to lower its orbit slightly to begin mapping operations.

Meanwhile, the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite gave it's scientists their first data and LIVE television of the earth's moon from... [LRO/LCROSS Updates]

The launch of space shuttle Endeavour was scrubbed at 1:55 am on June 17 due to a gaseous hydrogen leak which cropped up again midway into the fueling of her external tank.

According to KSC's launch control, "Fueling was halted after the leak was detected near the Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate, which (is) attached to the external tank at its intertank area. The line leads from the GUCP back to the launch pad and to the "flare stack" where vented gaseous hydrogen is burned off. Launch is now set for... [Endeavour STS-127 Updates]

Dodging pockets of thunderstorms from northern Alabama to central Florida on June 2, a NASA Boeing 747 aircraft returned the space shuttle Atlantis to her home here at the Kennedy Space Center.

The NASA modified Boeing 747's huge complex of tires hit the shuttle landing facility's runway 15 at 6:53 pm EDT this evening. The shuttle carrier aircraft departed Columbus, AFB in northeastern Mississippi at 4:37 pm EDT, to begin the final leg of Atlantis' journey which began on May 11th with her launch on the Hubble servicing flight 350 miles high in space. [Read Story]

Under blue skies, a Russian Soyuz rocket lifted-off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan today with a truly international crew of three on a two day flight to the international space station.

Russian Roman Romanenko, European Frank De Winne and Canadian Robert Thirsk lifted-off from their launch pad in southeastern Russia this morning at 6:34 am EDT or 4:34 pm local time, to begin a trip which will double the current station crew size to six. Launch came as the space station flew 220 miles high over the southern Pacific Ocean as it approached... [Read Story]

After thirteen days in earth orbit, the space shuttle Atlantis fired her jets and returned home to America with a desert runway landing at sunny Edwards, AFB in California on May 24. Continuing rain bands flowing up the Space Coast caused Mission Control to reroute the mission from a landing here at the Kennedy Space Center to a beautiful blue sky Edwards landing.

"Ten feet. Five feet. One foot...Touchdown!" pilot Johnson radioed to his commander as the main gear hit the desert runway at 220 mph at 10:39:05 am EDT. [Read Story]

A United Launch Alliance Delta II-7920 carried a military tracking satellite into low earth orbit as a new technology weapon to defend America and her allies against an incoming ballistic missile.

The Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS) Advanced Technology Risk Reduction (ATRR) satellite departed Vandenberg, AFB in California with an on time launch on May 5th at 1:24 pm PDT from Launch Complex 2-West... [Read Story]

The country of India launched a pair of satellites on Monday morning from its coastal launch base into low earth orbit, one of which will assist their country in the war on terrorism.

Liftoff of the PSLV-C12 rocket occurred on time at 6:45 am Indian Time April 20th, or 9:15 pm EDT on April 19, from from the Satish Dhawan Space Center's Pad 2 (left), located on an island on the east coast of Andhra Pradesh in southern India. [Read Story]