Cassini Spacecraft Captures Images And Sounds Of Big Saturn Storm

Dwayne C. Brown

Headquarters, Washington                               

 

Jia-Rui Cook

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

WASHINGTON -- Scientists analyzing data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft now have the first-ever, up-close details of a Saturn storm that is eight times the surface area of Earth.

On Dec. 5, 2010, Cassini first detected the storm that has been raging ever since. It appears at approximately 35 degrees north latitude on Saturn. Pictures from Cassini's imaging cameras show the storm wrapping around the entire planet covering approximately 1.5 billion square miles (4 billion square kilometers).

The storm is about 500 times larger than the biggest storm previously seen by Cassini during several months from 2009 to 2010. Scientists studied the sounds of the new storm's lightning strikes and analyzed images taken between December 2010 and February 2011. Data from Cassini's radio and plasma wave science instrument showed the lightning flash rate as much as 10 times more frequent than during other storms monitored since Cassini's arrival to Saturn in 2004. The data appear in a paper published this week in the journal Nature.

"Cassini shows us that Saturn is bipolar," said Andrew Ingersoll, an author of the study and a Cassini imaging team member at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif. "Saturn is not like Earth and Jupiter, where storms are fairly frequent. Weather on Saturn appears to hum along placidly for years and then erupt violently. I'm excited we saw weather so spectacular on our watch."

At its most intense, the storm generated more than 10 lightning flashes per second. Even with millisecond resolution, the spacecraft's radio and plasma wave instrument had difficulty separating individual signals during the most intense period. Scientists created a sound file from data obtained on March 15 at a slightly lower intensity period.

Cassini has detected 10 lightning storms on Saturn since the spacecraft entered the planet’s orbit and its southern hemisphere was experiencing summer, with full solar illumination not shadowed by the rings. Those storms rolled through an area in the southern hemisphere dubbed "Storm Alley." But the sun's illumination on the hemispheres flipped around August 2009, when the northern hemisphere began experiencing spring.

"This storm is thrilling because it shows how shifting seasons and solar illumination can dramatically stir up the weather on Saturn," said Georg Fischer, the paper's lead author and a radio and plasma wave science team member at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Graz. "We have been observing storms on Saturn for almost seven years, so tracking a storm so different from the others has put us at the edge of our seats."

The storm's results are the first activities of a new "Saturn Storm Watch" campaign. During this effort, Cassini looks at likely storm locations on Saturn in between its scheduled observations. On the same day that the radio and plasma wave instrument detected the first lightning, Cassini's cameras happened to be pointed at the right location as part of the campaign and captured an image of a small bright cloud.

Because analysis on that image was not completed immediately, Fischer sent out a notice to the worldwide amateur astronomy community to collect more images. A flood of amateur images helped scientists track the storm as it grew rapidly, wrapping around the planet by late January 2011.

The new details about this storm complement atmospheric disturbances described recently by scientists using Cassini's composite infrared spectrometer and the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope. The storm is the biggest observed by spacecraft orbiting or flying by Saturn. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured images in 1990 of an equally large storm.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena manages the mission for the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The radio and plasma wave science team is based at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, where the instrument was built. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

For images and an audio file of the storm, visit http://www.nasa.gov/cassini.

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Cassini Spacecraft Captures Images And Sounds Of Big Saturn Storm

Dwayne C. Brown

Headquarters, Washington                               

 

Jia-Rui Cook

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

WASHINGTON -- Scientists analyzing data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft now have the first-ever, up-close details of a Saturn storm that is eight times the surface area of Earth.

On Dec. 5, 2010, Cassini first detected the storm that has been raging ever since. It appears at approximately 35 degrees north latitude on Saturn. Pictures from Cassini's imaging cameras show the storm wrapping around the entire planet covering approximately 1.5 billion square miles (4 billion square kilometers).

The storm is about 500 times larger than the biggest storm previously seen by Cassini during several months from 2009 to 2010. Scientists studied the sounds of the new storm's lightning strikes and analyzed images taken between December 2010 and February 2011. Data from Cassini's radio and plasma wave science instrument showed the lightning flash rate as much as 10 times more frequent than during other storms monitored since Cassini's arrival to Saturn in 2004. The data appear in a paper published this week in the journal Nature.

"Cassini shows us that Saturn is bipolar," said Andrew Ingersoll, an author of the study and a Cassini imaging team member at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif. "Saturn is not like Earth and Jupiter, where storms are fairly frequent. Weather on Saturn appears to hum along placidly for years and then erupt violently. I'm excited we saw weather so spectacular on our watch."

At its most intense, the storm generated more than 10 lightning flashes per second. Even with millisecond resolution, the spacecraft's radio and plasma wave instrument had difficulty separating individual signals during the most intense period. Scientists created a sound file from data obtained on March 15 at a slightly lower intensity period.

Cassini has detected 10 lightning storms on Saturn since the spacecraft entered the planet’s orbit and its southern hemisphere was experiencing summer, with full solar illumination not shadowed by the rings. Those storms rolled through an area in the southern hemisphere dubbed "Storm Alley." But the sun's illumination on the hemispheres flipped around August 2009, when the northern hemisphere began experiencing spring.

"This storm is thrilling because it shows how shifting seasons and solar illumination can dramatically stir up the weather on Saturn," said Georg Fischer, the paper's lead author and a radio and plasma wave science team member at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Graz. "We have been observing storms on Saturn for almost seven years, so tracking a storm so different from the others has put us at the edge of our seats."

The storm's results are the first activities of a new "Saturn Storm Watch" campaign. During this effort, Cassini looks at likely storm locations on Saturn in between its scheduled observations. On the same day that the radio and plasma wave instrument detected the first lightning, Cassini's cameras happened to be pointed at the right location as part of the campaign and captured an image of a small bright cloud.

Because analysis on that image was not completed immediately, Fischer sent out a notice to the worldwide amateur astronomy community to collect more images. A flood of amateur images helped scientists track the storm as it grew rapidly, wrapping around the planet by late January 2011.

The new details about this storm complement atmospheric disturbances described recently by scientists using Cassini's composite infrared spectrometer and the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope. The storm is the biggest observed by spacecraft orbiting or flying by Saturn. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured images in 1990 of an equally large storm.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena manages the mission for the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The radio and plasma wave science team is based at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, where the instrument was built. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

For images and an audio file of the storm, visit http://www.nasa.gov/cassini.

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NASA Completes Mirror Polishing For James Webb Space Telescope

Trent Perrotto

Headquarters, Washington

 

Mary Blake

Northrop Grumman, Redondo Beach, Calif.

WASHINGTON -- Mirrors are a critical part of a telescope. The quality is crucial, so completion of mirror polishing represents a major milestone. All of the mirrors that will fly aboard NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have been polished so the observatory can see objects as far away as the first galaxies in the universe.

The Webb telescope is comprised of four types of mirrors. The primary one has an area of approximately 25 square meters (29.9 square yards), which will enable scientists to capture light from faint, distant objects in the universe faster than any previous space observatory. The mirrors are made of Beryllium and will work together to relay images of the sky to the telescope's science cameras.

"Webb's mirror polishing always was considered the most challenging and important technological milestone in the manufacture of the telescope, so this is a hugely significant accomplishment," said Lee Feinberg, Webb Optical Telescope manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

The mirrors were polished at the L3 Integrated Optical Systems - Tinsley in Richmond, Calif. to accuracies of less than one millionth of an inch. That accuracy is important for forming the sharpest images when the mirrors cool to -400°F (-240°C) in the cold of space.

"The completion of the mirror polishing shows that the strategy of doing the hardest things first has really paid off," said Nobel Prize Winner John C. Mather, Webb's senior project scientist at Goddard. "Some astronomers doubted we could make these mirrors."

After polishing, the mirrors are being coated with a microscopically thin layer of gold to enable them to efficiently reflect infrared light. NASA has completed coating 13 of 18 primary mirror segments and will complete the rest by early next year. The 18 segments fit together to make one large mirror 21.3 feet (6.5 meters) across.

"This milestone is the culmination of a decade-long process," said Scott Willoughby, vice president and Webb Telescope Program manager for Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems. "We had to invent an entire new mirror technology to give Webb the ability to see back in time."

Northrop Grumman Corp. in Redondo Beach, Calif. is the telescope's prime contractor.

As the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, the Webb telescope is the world's next-generation space observatory. It is the most powerful space telescope ever built. More than 75 percent of its hardware is either in production or undergoing testing. The telescope will observe the most distant objects in the universe, provide images of the first galaxies ever formed and study planets around distant stars. NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency are collaborating on this project.

For related images and more information about the mirrors, visit http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/webb-mirrors-done.html.

To view the "Behind the Webb: Wax on, Wax Off" video explaining the mirror polishing process, visit http://webbtelescope.org/webb_telescope/behind_the_webb/10.

For more information about the James Webb Space Telescope, visit http://www.jwst.nasa.gov.

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NASA Cassini Spacecraft Captures Ocean-Like Spray At Saturn Moon

Dwayne C. Brown

Headquarters, Washington                          

 

Jia-Rui Cook

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

 

Markus Bauer

European Space Agency

 

WASHINGTON -- NASA's Cassini spacecraft has discovered the best evidence yet for a large-scale saltwater reservoir beneath the icy crust of Saturn's moon Enceladus. The data came from the spacecraft's direct analysis of salt-rich ice grains close to the jets ejected from the moon.

Data from Cassini's cosmic dust analyzer show the grains expelled from fissures, known as tiger stripes, are relatively small and usually low in salt far away from the moon. But closer to the moon's surface, Cassini found that relatively large grains rich with sodium and potassium dominate the plumes. The salt-rich particles have an "ocean-like" composition and indicate that most, if not all, of the expelled ice and water vapor comes from the evaporation of liquid salt-water. The findings appear in this week's issue of the journal Nature.

"There currently is no plausible way to produce a steady outflow of salt-rich grains from solid ice across all the tiger stripes other than salt water under Enceladus's icy surface," said Frank Postberg, a Cassini team scientist at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, and the lead author on the paper. When water freezes, the salt is squeezed out, leaving pure water ice behind. If the plumes emanated from ice, they should have very little salt in them.

The Cassini mission discovered Enceladus' water-vapor and ice jets in 2005. In 2009, scientists working with the cosmic dust analyzer examined some sodium salts found in ice grains of Saturn's E ring, the outermost ring that gets its material primarily from Enceladean jets. But the link to subsurface salt water was not definitive.

The new paper analyzes three Enceladus flybys in 2008 and 2009 with the same instrument, focusing on the composition of freshly ejected plume grains. The icy particles hit the detector target at speeds between 15,000 and 39,000 mph (23,000 and 63,000 kilometers per hour), vaporizing instantly. Electrical fields inside the cosmic dust analyzer separated the various constituents of the impact cloud.

The data suggest a layer of water between the moon's rocky core and its icy mantle, possibly as deep as about 50 miles (80 kilometers) beneath the surface. As this water washes against the rocks, it dissolves salt compounds and rises through fractures in the overlying ice to form reserves nearer the surface. If the outermost layer cracks open, the decrease in pressure from these reserves to space causes a plume to shoot out. Roughly 400 pounds (200 kilograms) of water vapor is lost every second in the plumes, with smaller amounts being lost as ice grains. The team calculates the water reserves must have large evaporating surfaces, or they would freeze easily and stop the plumes.

"This finding is a crucial new piece of evidence showing that environmental conditions favorable to the emergence of life can be sustained on icy bodies orbiting gas giant planets," said Nicolas Altobelli, the European Space Agency's project scientist for Cassini.

Cassini's ultraviolet imaging spectrograph also recently obtained complementary results that support the presence of a subsurface ocean. A team of Cassini researchers led by Candice Hansen of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Ariz., measured gas shooting out of distinct jets originating in the moon's south polar region at five to eight times the speed of sound, several times faster than previously measured. These observations of distinct jets, from a 2010 flyby, are consistent with results showing a difference in composition of ice grains close to the moon's surface and those that made it out to the E ring. The paper was published in the June 9 issue of Geophysical Research Letters.

"Without an orbiter like Cassini to fly close to Saturn and its moons -- to taste salt and feel the bombardment of ice grains -- scientists would never have known how interesting these outer solar system worlds are," said Linda Spilker, NASA's Cassini project scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For more information about Cassini, visit http://www.nasa.gov/cassini.

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NASA Television Covers Station Cargo Craft Departure And Arrival

Michael Curie

Headquarters, Washington                               

 

Kelly Humphries

Johnson Space Center, Houston

 

HOUSTON -- NASA Television will provide live coverage during a busy International Space Station traffic pattern, when one cargo spacecraft departs and another arrives.

The European Space Agency's "Johannes Kepler" Automated Transfer Vehicle-2 (ATV2) is scheduled to undock from the station's Zvezda service module port at 9:48 a.m. CDT on Monday, June 20, and will burn up in the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.

ATV2, the second unpiloted European cargo ship, delivered seven tons of food and supplies and is supporting a series of reboosts to raise the station's orbit. It has been linked to the station since February. NASA TV will incorporate coverage of the undocking into the "ISS Update" hour, which will air at 9:30 a.m. Monday.

The next day, the Russian Progress 43 cargo ship will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 9:38 a.m. (8:38 p.m. Baikonur time), carrying nearly three tons of food, fuel and supplies for the six-person Expedition 28 crew. The launch will be part of the NASA TV "ISS Update" that day, which will air at 9 a.m. NASA TV will provide live coverage of the Progress docking beginning at 11 a.m. on Thursday, June 23.

For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

For International Space Station information, visit

http://www.nasa.gov/station.

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STS-134: Mission Accomplished

Transcript

Launch Commentator George Diller: "Go for main engine start, 8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...zero...and liftoff for the final launch of Endeavour, expanding our knowledge and expanding our lives in space."

And with that, space shuttle Endeavour embarked on its final flight on the morning of May 16, 2011, carrying six crew members on their way to complete U.S. construction of the International Space Station.

Under the command of Mark Kelly, Pilot Greg Johnson and Mission Specialists Mike Fincke, Greg Chamitoff, Drew Feustel and the European Space Agency's Roberto Vittori headed to orbit.

After the remote inspection of the shuttle's exterior thermal protection system was complete, Vittori and Johnson used the shuttle's robotic arm to reach into the payload bay and grapple the Express Logistics Carrier.

Once Endeavour caught up with the station, Kelly put the shuttle through a "backflip" at a distance of 600 feet to allow the station crew to photograph Endeavour's thermal protection tiles before docking.

During the docking process an advanced system called STORMM -- or Sensor Test for Orion Rel-nav Risk Mitigation -- gathered data that could help future spacecraft dock to the station.

Soon after docking and the hatches were opened, the Express Logistics Carrier containing space parts was installed on the station's exterior using shuttle and station robotic arms.

The chief payload -- the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2 -- was handed off from the shuttle arm to the station's and then placed in its permanent position atop the starboard 3 truss.

The spectrometer is a 15,000-pound, $2 billion advanced scientific instrument that could answer basic questions about our universe, perhaps shedding light on dark matter and antimatter.

The mission's first of four spacewalks was completed by Feustel and Chamitoff as they swapped exterior experiments and installed equipment in more than six hours outside the station.

The following day, the crew used the station's robotic arm to conduct a focused inspection to collect photographs and data on a small area of damage spotted on Endearvour's underside.

The information gathered enabled mission managers to clear Endeavour for its return.

That same day, the combined crews joined together in the Kibo module for a special call from Pope Benedict XVI.

Spacewalk two paired Fincke and Feustel as they spent eight hours completing station maintenance tasks.

Among those tasks -- topping off ammonia in a cooling loop and lubricating a solar array joint on the port truss and one of the hands on Dextre robotic arm.

There was a break in the busy schedule when three of the station's crew members departed the station aboard a Russian Soyuz and returned to Earth on May 23.

It marked the only time a Soyuz departed the station while a space shuttle was docked.

The following day, the remaining combined crew of nine had time to complete some interior maintenance around the station.

The third spacewalk was once again conducted by the team of Fincke and Feustel.

Performing a number of tasks in just short of seven hours, the spacewalkers left the Canadarm2 closer to having a new base of operation which will give it access to much of the orbiting laboratory's Russian segment.

After the docked inspection and clearance for Endeavour from Houston, the fourth and last spacewalk was conducted by Chamitoff and Fincke.

The outing marked the final spacewalk by space shuttle crew members.

Among the tasks in their almost seven-and-a-half hour work, the spacewalkers attached the shuttle's boom sensor to the station -- making it the final major U.S. piece to be added to the orbiting laboratory.

Mission Specialist Greg Chamitoff: "On behalf of the STS-134 crew and the Expedition 27 crew, space station assembly is complete."

With construction complete and supplies delivered during 11 days of joint operations, the two crews said goodbye and the hatches were closed between the two spacecraft.

After undocking, the shuttle completed a fly-around, providing amazing images of the fully completed station.

Fincke, who during the mission became the U.S. astronaut with the most time in space, later described the crew's feelings looking at the completed station.

Mission Specialist Mike Fincke: "I think we all should be really impressed how big and magnificent that space station is, we were impressed; we were exited like five-year olds at a rollercoaster park a mean it was pretty impressive."

The STS-134 crew performed an additional test of the STORRM equipment during a rendezvous exercise before backing away from the station.

Endeavour's final return to Earth came in the overnight hours, as its ghostly outline -- lit by the runway's xenon lights -- appeared out of the darkness at 2:35 a.m. on June 1.

Commander Mark Kelly: "Houston, Endeavour, wheelstop."

Mission Control: "One hundred and twenty-two million miles flown during 25 challenging spaceflights, your landing ends a vibrant legacy for this amazing vehicle that will long be remembered. Welcome home, Endeavour."

After 16 days of a demanding and busy mission, the crew members greeted well-wishers at the runway and received congratulations for a job well done.

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Unique 'Portrait' Of Shuttle And International Space Station Released

ISS027-E-036706 (23 May 2011) --- This image of the International Space Station and the docked space shuttle Endeavour, flying at an altitude of approximately 220 miles, was taken by Expedition 27 crew member Paolo Nespoli from the Soyuz TMA-20 following its undocking on May 23, 2011 (USA time). The pictures taken by Nespoli are the first taken of a shuttle docked to the International Space Station from the perspective of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft Onboard the Soyuz were Russian cosmonaut and Expedition 27 commander Dmitry Kondratyev; Nespoli, a European Space Agency astronaut; and NASA astronaut Cady Coleman. Coleman and Nespoli were both flight engineers. The three landed in Kazakhstan later that day, completing 159 days in space.

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Portrait of Shuttle and Station

Newly released portraits show the International Space Station together with the space shuttle, the vehicle that helped build the complex during the last decade. The pictures are the first taken of a shuttle docked to the station from the perspective of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

On May 23, the Soyuz was carrying Russian cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev, NASA astronaut Cady Coleman and European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli back to Earth. Once their vehicle was about 600 feet from the station, Mission Control Moscow, outside the Russian capital, commanded the orbiting laboratory to rotate 130 degrees. This move allowed Nespoli to capture digital photographs and high definition video of shuttle Endeavour docked to the station.

Credit: NASA

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Unique 'Portrait' Of Shuttle And International Space Station Released

Joshua Buck

Headquarters, Washington     

 

Kelly Humphries

Johnson Space Center, Houston

WASHINGTON -- Newly-released portraits show the International Space Station together with the space shuttle, the vehicle that helped build the complex during the last decade. The pictures are the first taken of a shuttle docked to the station from the perspective of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

On May 23, the Soyuz was carrying Russian cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev, NASA astronaut Cady Coleman and European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli back to Earth. Once their vehicle was about 600 feet from the station, Mission Control Moscow, outside the Russian capital, commanded the orbiting laboratory to rotate 130 degrees. This move allowed Nespoli to capture digital photographs and high definition video of shuttle Endeavour docked to the station.

The Soyuz landed in Kazakhstan and was taken to Moscow for routine post-landing analysis. NASA and the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, then processed the imagery as part of the standard disposition of spacecraft cargo.

Additional images and high definition video are being processed and will be posted on NASA's website. To view the still images, visit http://go.nasa.gov/stationportrait.

For NASA TV streaming video, schedule and downlink information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

For information about the International Space Station, visit http://www.nasa.gov/station.

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Brothers in Arms

The STS-134 crew pose for a group photograph shortly after landing aboard the space shuttle Endeavour at the Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center, Wednesday, June 1, 2011, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. From left are European Space Agency astronaut Roberto Vittori and NASA astronauts Gregory H. Johnson, pilot; Mark Kelly, commander; Michael Fincke, Greg Chamitoff, and Andrew Feustel all mission specialists. Endeavour completed a 16-day mission to outfit the International Space Station, its final voyage.

Endeavout launched on its first mission on May 7, 1992 and spent a total of 299 days in space and traveled more than 122.8 million miles during its 25 flights.

Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

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Space Shuttle Endeavour Sails To Home Port For Final Time

Michael Curie

Headquarters, Washington     

 

Candrea Thomas

Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Space shuttle Endeavour and its six-astronaut crew sailed home for the final time, ending a 16-day journey of more than 6.5 million miles with a landing at 2:34 a.m. EDT on Wednesday at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

STS-134 was the last mission for the youngest of NASA's space shuttle fleet. Since 1992, Endeavour flew 25 missions, spent 299 days in space, orbited Earth 4,671 times and traveled 122,883,151 miles.

"We are very proud of Endeavour's legacy, and this penultimate flight of the space shuttle program once again demonstrated the amazing skill and dedication of our astronauts and the entire workforce," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. "As we begin the transition from the shuttle program to the commercial transportation of our crews and cargo, our ability to tackle big challenges remains steadfast and will ensure that NASA reaches even more destinations farther in the solar system."

Mark Kelly commanded the flight and was joined by Pilot Greg H. Johnson and Mission Specialists Mike Fincke, Drew Feustel, Greg Chamitoff and the European Space Agency's Roberto Vittori. Endeavour delivered the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2 (AMS), beginning a scientific voyage of discovery to our solar system and beyond from the International Space Station. By measuring cosmic rays, AMS is designed to help researchers understand the origin of the universe and search for evidence of dark matter, strange matter and antimatter.

Endeavour also delivered the Express Logistics Carrier-3, a platform carrying spare parts that will sustain space station operations once the shuttles are retired from service. The astronauts performed four spacewalks to maintain station systems and install new components.

These were the last scheduled spacewalks by shuttle crew members and brought the final number of shuttle excursions to 164. During 159 spacewalks for assembly and maintenance of the space station, astronauts and cosmonauts have spent a total of 1,002 hours and 37 minutes outside.

Fincke set a new record for time a U.S. astronaut has spent in space when he reached his 377th day on May 27, surpassing previous record holder Peggy Whitson. With today's landing, Fincke's record now is at 382 days in space.

A welcome ceremony for the astronauts will be held Thursday, June 2, in Houston. The public is invited to attend the 4 p.m. CDT event at Ellington Field's NASA Hangar 990. Gates to Ellington Field will open at 3:30 p.m. Highlights from the ceremony will be broadcast on NASA Television's Video File. For NASA TV downlink information, schedules and links to streaming video, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

STS-134 was the 134th shuttle flight and the 36th shuttle mission dedicated to station assembly and maintenance. With Endeavour and its crew safely home, the stage is set for the launch of shuttle Atlantis on its STS-135 mission, targeted to begin July 8.

Four veteran astronauts will deliver supplies and spare parts to the space station. The 12-day mission also will install an experiment designed to demonstrate and test the tools, technologies and techniques needed to refuel satellites in space robotically -- even satellites not designed to be serviced.

Chris Ferguson, a veteran of two previous shuttle missions, will command the flight. Doug Hurley will be the pilot, a role he filled on the STS-127 mission in 2009. Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim will be the mission specialists. Magnus spent four and a half months aboard the station beginning in November 2008. Walheim flew on the STS-110 mission in 2002 and the STS-122 mission in 2008.

STS-135 will be Atlantis' 33rd mission and the 37th shuttle flight dedicated to station assembly and maintenance. It will be the 135th and final mission of NASA's Space Shuttle Program.

For more information about the STS-134 mission and the upcoming STS-135 flight, visit http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle.

For information about the space station, visit http://www.nasa.gov/station.

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NASA'S Hubble Finds Rare 'Blue Straggler' Stars In Milky Way's Hub

Trent J. Perrotto

Headquarters, Washington                                    

 

Ray Villard/Kailash Sahu

Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore

 

WASHINGTON -- NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has found a rare class of oddball stars called blue stragglers in the hub of our Milky Way, the first detected within our galaxy's bulge.

Blue stragglers are so named because they seemingly lag behind in the aging process, appearing younger than the population from which they formed. While they have been detected in many distant star clusters, and among nearby stars, they never have been seen inside the core of our galaxy.

It is not clear how blue stragglers form. A common theory is that they emerge from binary pairs. As the more massive star evolves and expands, the smaller star gains material from its companion. This stirs up hydrogen fuel and causes the growing star to undergo nuclear fusion at a faster rate. It burns hotter and bluer, like a massive young star.

The findings support the idea that the Milky Way's central bulge stopped making stars billions of years ago. It now is home to aging sun-like stars and cooler red dwarfs. Giant blue stars that once lived there have long since exploded as supernovae. The results have been accepted for publication in an upcoming issue of The Astrophysical Journal. Lead author Will Clarkson of Indiana University in Bloomington, will discuss them today at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Boston.

"Although the Milky Way bulge is by far the closest galaxy bulge, several key aspects of its formation and subsequent evolution remain poorly understood," Clarkson said. "Many details of its star-formation history remain controversial. The extent of the blue straggler population detected provides two new constraints for models of the star-formation history of the bulge."

The discovery followed a seven-day survey in 2006 called the Sagittarius Window Eclipsing Extrasolar Planet Search (SWEEPS). Hubble peered at 180,000 stars in the crowded central bulge of our galaxy, 26,000 light-years away. The survey was intended to find hot Jupiter-class planets that orbit very close to their stars. In doing so, the SWEEPS team also uncovered 42 oddball blue stars with brightness and temperatures typical for stars much younger than ordinary bulge stars.

The observations clearly indicate that if there is a young star population in the bulge, it is very small. It was not detected in the SWEEPS program. Blue stragglers long have been suspected to be living in the bulge, but had not been observed because younger stars in the disk of our galaxy lie along the line-of-sight to the core, confusing and contaminating the view.

Astronomers used Hubble to distinguish the motion of the core population from foreground stars in the Milky Way. Bulge stars orbit the galactic center at a different speed than foreground stars. Plotting their motion required returning to the SWEEPS target region with Hubble two years after the first observations were made. The blue stragglers were identified as moving along with the other stars in the bulge.

"The size of the field of view on the sky is roughly that of the thickness of a human fingernail held at arm's length, and within this region, Hubble sees about a quarter million stars toward the bulge," Clarkson said. "Only the superb image quality and stability of Hubble allowed us to make this measurement in such a crowded field."

From the 42 candidate blue stragglers, the investigators estimate 18 to 37 are likely genuine. The remainder could be a mix of foreground objects and, at most, a small population of genuinely young bulge stars.

"The SWEEPS program was designed to detect transiting planets through small light variations" said Kailash Sahu, the principal investigator of the SWEEPS program. "Therefore the program could easily detect the variability of binary pairs, which was crucial in confirming these are indeed blue stragglers."

Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy in Washington. For images and more information about the findings, visit http://www.nasa.gov/hubble and http://hubblesite.org/news/2011/16.

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Expedition 27 Crew And Capsule Land Safely In Kazakhstan

Stephanie Schierholz

Headquarters, Washington

 

Kelly Humphries

Johnson Space Center, Houston

WASHINGTON -- Expedition 27 Commander Dmitry Kondratyev and Flight Engineers Cady Coleman and Paolo Nespoli safely landed their Soyuz spacecraft on the Kazakhstan steppe Monday, wrapping up a five-month stay aboard the International Space Station.

The trio landed at 10:27 p.m. (8:27 a.m. on May 24 local time) at a site southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan. Kondratyev, the Soyuz commander, was at the controls of the spacecraft as it undocked at 5:35 p.m. EDT from the station's Rassvet module. Once the Soyuz was 600 feet away, Nespoli took the first still images and video of a space shuttle docked to the station. The orbiting laboratory had to rotate 130 degrees to provide an ideal view for the historic imagery.

Russian recovery teams were on hand to help the crew exit the Soyuz and adjust to gravity. Kondratyev will return to the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, outside of Moscow, while NASA's Coleman and Nespoli of the European Space Agency will fly directly to Houston.

They launched aboard the Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Dec. 15, 2010. As members of the Expedition 26 and 27 crews, they spent 159 days in space, 157 of them aboard the station. They worked on more than 150 microgravity experiments in human research; biology and biotechnology; physical and materials sciences; technology development; and Earth and space sciences.

During the trio's mission, the station welcomed a quick succession of international space vehicles including the Japanese Kounotori2, or "white stork," H-II Transfer Vehicle 2; two Russian Progress cargo ships; the European Johannes Kepler Automated Transfer Vehicle-2; and space shuttles Discovery and Endeavour on their final flights. The shuttles delivered more than 15 tons of supplies necessary for working and living aboard the station, as well as the new cosmic ray detector, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer.

A veteran of three space flights, Coleman has logged 179 days in space. Nespoli has chalked up 174 days in space on his two flights. Kondratyev completed his first space mission.

Expedition 28 Commander Andrey Borisenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency and Flight Engineers Ron Garan of NASA and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Samokutyaev remain aboard the station.

Three new Expedition 28 crew members, Soyuz Commander Sergei Volkov, NASA Flight Engineer Mike Fossum and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa, will launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in their Soyuz TMA-02M spacecraft at 3:15 p.m. on June 7 (2:15 a.m. Baikonur time June 8) and dock to the complex two days later.

For more information about the space station, visit http://www.nasa.gov/station.

For a schedule of upcoming flights to the station, visit http://www.nasa.gov/stationflights.

To view Coleman's and Garan's mission updates on their Twitter pages, visit http://www.twitter.com/Astro_Cady and http://www.twitter.com/Astro_Ron.

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Soyuz TMA-20 Undocks

After spending 157 days aboard the International Space Station, Dmitry Kondratyev, NASA Flight Engineer Cady Coleman and European Space Agency Flight Engineer Paolo Nespoli undocked from the station's Rassvet module at 5:35 p.m. EDT to begin their voyage home.

Russian cosmonaut Kondratyev, the Soyuz commander, is at the controls of the spacecraft. He is backing the Soyuz TMA-20 away from the station and will halt it about 600 feet away. From there, Nespoli will take still photographs and video of the complex with space shuttle Endeavour attached. The station will slowly rotate 130 degrees to provide Nespoli with the best lighting and views during his photo opportunity. NASA will post the pictures and video on its website at www.nasa.gov. They are not expected to be available until mid-day Tuesday at the earliest.

Once Nespoli has completed taking pictures, Soyuz will perform a separation burn at 6:15 p.m. to increase the distance from the station before executing a deorbit burn at 9:36 p.m. The crew is scheduled to land at 10:26 p.m. southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan.

The departure of Kondratyev, Coleman and Nespoli marks the end of Expedition 27. Remaining aboard the station are Expedition 28 Russian Cosmonaut and Commander Andrey Borisenko, NASA Flight Engineer Ron Garan and Cosmonaut Alexander Samokutyaev. Two weeks after the Expedition 27 crew lands, Soyuz Commander Sergei Volkov, NASA Flight Engineer Mike Fossum and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on June 7. They will dock with the station and join its crew on June 9.

NASA Television will air live coverage of the Soyuz TMA-20 deorbit burn and landing beginning at 9:15 p.m.

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Italian Astronauts Receive VIP Call

Mission Specialist Roberto Vittori joined Expedition 27 Flight Engineer and fellow Italian Paolo Nespoli for a special call from Giorgio Napolitano, the President of the Italian Republic. The call took place from Rome at 9:31 a.m. EDT.

Earlier, Commander Mark Kelly and Mission Specialist Mike Fincke spoke with about 400 students from Mesa Verde Elementary School in Tucson, Ariz. Replays of the event will air on NASA TV at 5 a.m., 7 a.m. and 8 a.m.

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NASA Television To Cover Next Soyuz Departure, Arrival

Joshua Buck

Headquarters, Washington                                        

 

Kelly Humphries

Johnson Space Center, Houston

HOUSTON -- NASA Television will cover the return of three International Space Station crew members and the launch of three new station residents in the coming weeks.

For the first time, a Soyuz undocking is expected to take place while a space shuttle is docked. Endeavour is set to launch May 16 on the STS-134 mission to deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and continue station outfitting. All Soyuz activities during STS-134 will be incorporated into mission coverage.

Expedition 27 Commander Dmitry Kondratyev, NASA Flight Engineer Cady Coleman and European Space Agency Flight Engineer Paolo Nespoli are scheduled to land in their Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft in southern Kazakhstan at 9:26 p.m. CDT May 23 (8:26 a.m. local time May 24).

Two weeks after the Expedition 27 crew lands, Soyuz Commander Sergei Volkov, NASA Flight Engineer Mike Fossum and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Flight Engineer Satoshi Furakawa will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Their Soyuz TMA-02M spacecraft is scheduled to lift off at 3:15 p.m. June 7 (2:15 a.m. local time June 8).

They will join Expedition 28 Commander Andrey Borisenko, NASA astronaut Ron Garan and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Samokutyaev, who have been aboard the station since April.

NASA Television’s scheduled coverage includes (all times Central):

Monday, May 16

2 p.m. – Video File of the Soyuz TMA-02M crew news conference at Star City, Russia, and visit to Red Square in Moscow

Monday, May 23

2:30 p.m. – Soyuz TMA-20 crew farewells and hatch closure (3 p.m.) coverage

5:45 p.m. – Undocking (6:06 p.m.) coverage

8:15 p.m. – Deorbit burn (8:35 p.m.) and landing (9:26 p.m.) coverage

Tuesday, May 24

5 a.m. – Video File of landing and post-landing activities

11 a.m. – Video File of the landing and post-landing activities, including post-landing interview and return to Chkalovsky Airfield, Star City, Russia

Wednesday, May 25

11 a.m. – Video File of the Soyuz TMA-02M crew departure for Baikonur ceremony at Star City, Russia

Friday, June 3

11 a.m. – Video File of the crew activities in Baikonur

Sunday, June 5

11 a.m. – Video File of the rocket mating and rollout to the launch pad in Baikonur

Monday, June 6

2 p.m. – Video File of the final pre-launch crew news conference and Russian State Commission meeting in Baikonur

Tuesday, June 7

1:45 p.m. – Video File of the crew pre-launch activities in Baikonur

2:30 p.m. – Launch (3:15 p.m.) coverage

6 p.m. – Video File of pre-launch, launch and post-launch interviews

Thursday, June 9

3:30 p.m. – Docking (4:15 p.m.) coverage, including post-docking news conference from Mission Control in Korolev, Russia

6:45 p.m. – Hatch opening (7:15 p.m.) and welcoming ceremony coverage

9 p.m. – Video File of docking, hatch opening and welcoming ceremony

For NASA TV downlink information, schedules and links to streaming video, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

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