Archive - Aug 7, 2007
First Lady Calls Teacher-Astronaut Barbara Morgan
Teacher-turned-astronaut Barbara Morgan received a welcome call of support from First Lady Laura Bush Tuesday, one day before she and six crewmates launch into orbit aboard NASA's space shuttle Endeavour.
"Mrs. Bush expressed congratulations from one schoolteacher to another and noted that she and the President appreciate Ms. Morgan's commitment to America's space program, to teaching, and to students," White House officials said of the First Lady's call in a statement.
Morgan and her six STS-118 crewmates are set to launch Wednesday at 6:36 p.m. EDT (2236 GMT) from Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to begin Endeavour's construction mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
NASA Develops Wireless Tile Scanner for Space ShuttleInspection
A new space shuttle tile inspection method using NASA-built, wireless scanners is replacing manual inspection. The new process begins with the upcoming shuttle mission, STS-118. Endeavour is scheduled to launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, Aug. 8 at 6:36 p.m. EDT.
Technicians have been using six new scanners to look for cracks and other imperfections in some of the 24,000 tiles that cover space shuttle Endeavour. The agency designed and built the new tools at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. In the past, workers at Kennedy visually analyzed tiles and measured dings and cracks with small hand-held scales.
Progress Docks to Station
The ISS Progress 26 (P26) arrived at the International Space Station docking to the Pirs docking compartment at 2:40 p.m. EDT Sunday.
The station crew members, Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineers Oleg Kotov and Clay Anderson had a busy day Sunday. Yurchikhin and Kotov monitored the approach of P26 carefully in case it would have been necessary to have manually docked the new cargo craft.
Meanwhile, Endeavour's launch was pushed back from Tuesday to Wednesday at 6:36 p.m. That was done to give workers additional time to complete routine prelaunch activities. Station crew members held a conference by radio Friday morning with their future visitors of the Endeavour crew.