Upcoming Launches
Next Rocket Launch: Atlas 5 - Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)
Cape Canaveral, FL - The Solar Dynamics Observatory is the first mission to be launched for NASA's Living With a Star (LWS) Program, a program designed to understand the causes of solar variability and its impacts on Earth. SDO is designed to help us understand the Sun's influence on Earth and Near-Earth space by studying the solar atmosphere on small scales of space and time and in many wavelengths simultaneously.
SDO will study how solar activity is created and how Space Weather comes from that activity. Measurements of the interior of the Sun, the Sun's magnetic field, the hot plasma of the solar corona, and the irradiance that creates the ionospheres of the planets are our primary data products.
Current Mission: STS-130 - Space Shuttle Endeavour to the International Space Station
 At Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida space shuttle Endeavour arrives at the pad. First motion on the 3.4-mile trip from the Vehicle Assembly Building, known as rollout, was at 4:13 a.m. EST Jan. 6. Endeavour was secure or "hard down" on the pad at 10:37 a.m. |
Kennedy Space Center, FL - Commander George Zamka will lead the STS-130 mission to the International Space Station aboard space shuttle Endeavour. Terry Virts Jr. will serve as the pilot. Mission specialists are Nicholas Patrick, Robert Behnken, Stephen Robinson and Kathryn Hire. Virts will be making his first trip to space.
 Space shuttle Endeavour is silhouetted against the pre-dawn sky as it rolls out to Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. |
Endeavour will deliver a third connecting module - the Tranquility node - to the station and a seven-windowed cupola to be used as a control room for robotics. The mission will feature three spacewalks.
STS-130 is the 32nd shuttle mission to the station and represent a major milestone mission, as it will be bringing up the last major United States addition to the space station. And as usual, last doesn't equal least.
Not only will space shuttle Endeavour be bringing up the final node – this one named Tranquility – and giving the expanded crew plenty of space to spread out in, but as this node will come attached to the six-windowed cupola, it's likely to become everyone's favorite room on the station.
"This flight will, I think, grab the public's attention," Shireman said. "It's just going to be a really, really neat module for those on board. The dream of being able to go out and just have an unencumbered view of space – we'll have it. You can open up all the windows and look around and really feel like you're out there."
The windows aren't just for fun, however – they'll be working windows. As more cargo vehicles begin frequenting the space station, the station's robotic arm is going to be called into action to capture some of them as they approach and guide them into their docking port. A good view of that operation will be a welcomed help to those at the controls of the arm.
