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Space Travel Editorial Team
Editorial Team

Space Travel Editorial Team

Editorial Team

The Space Travel Editorial Team produces Space Travel's coverage of human spaceflight and access to space. We report on launch, crewed missions and space tourism, and the propulsion, vehicles and human factors of getting people to space. Articles reflect our team's collective editorial process, source verification, drafting, technical review, and editing, rather than a single writer's work. Space Travel takes editorial responsibility for content under this byline. For more on how we work, see our editorial policy.

Legacy Reports

Spacehab Ready For Last Mission

Cape Canaveral FL (SPX) Jul 27, 2007 - Spacehab is preparing to close the hatch on its shuttle research and cargo carrier enterprise fourteen years after its first pressurized module flew into space on an orbiter while the company begins their strategic journey into space-based microgravity processing. The company provided its first space-rated travel trailer of sorts to NASA in 1993. Later, the design would come in especially handy for missions to the Mir space station and during the construction and outfitting of the International Space Station.

Jul 27, 2007
Legacy Reports

Raytheon Launches Virtual Summer Camp For Kids

Waltham MA (SPX) Jul 27, 2007 - What do wakeboarding, horseback riding, archery, rock climbing, whitewater rafting and mountain biking have to do with middle school math? These six pastimes are the basis of Camp MMU, a new program on Raytheon's MathMovesU Web site that uses popular tween activities to help take the monotony out of studying math during the summer break. Participants log on and choose from up to six themed cabins each week.

Jul 27, 2007
Legacy Reports

Security Scare And Drunkeness Report Hit Space Shuttle Program

Washington DC (SPX) Jul 27, 2007 - NASA space shuttle program was once again in crisis as officials found a sabotaged computer meant for an imminent mission, and a trade magazine reported astronauts had been drunk on duty. The tampered computer was due to be installed on the US space shuttle Endeavour for an August mission to work on the International Space Station. One of our subcontractors noticed that a network box for the shuttle had appeared to be tampered with, NASA spokeswoman Katherine Trinidad told AFP on Thursday. It is intentional damage to hardware.

Jul 27, 2007
Legacy Reports

Scaled Composties Explosion Toll Rises To Three

Los Angeles (AFP) Jul 27, 2007 - A rocket exploded Thursday at an airport in the California desert, killing two people and seriously injuring four others, firefighters said CNN television reported that a third person had died but authorities would not immediately confirm the report. There was an explosion on the Mojave Airport at 2:30 this afternoon (2130 GMT), fire engineer Roberto Figueroa of the Kern County Fire Department told AFP. There are two confirmed fatalities and four seriously injured.

Jul 27, 2007
Legacy Reports

Udall Urges Conrad To Question Nussle On NASA Funding

Washington DC (SPX) Jul 27, 2007 - As part of an ongoing effort by the House Committee on Science and Technology to highlight and address the dire funding situation at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics Chairman Mark Udall (D-CO) has enlisted the help of Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND). The growing mismatch between the financial resources being provided to NASA by the Administration and the tasks that NASA is being asked to carry out are of key concern.

Jul 27, 2007
Legacy Reports

NASA Jolted By Boozing Astronauts And Sabotage

Washington (AFP) Jul 27, 2007 - The US space agency faced tough questions Friday, after confirming a report that astronauts had shown up for duty drunk and after workers found a sabotaged computer destined for an imminent mission. Already under pressure over a range of issues, NASA could face a full-blown crisis as US lawmakers focus on the reports of drunken astronauts, who in one case were preparing to fly a shuttle mission, a US Air Force physician said. The revelation was made during a news conference on a US space agency report on astronaut health that found that astronauts were allowed to fly while drunk on at least two occasions.

Jul 27, 2007
Legacy Reports

US Govt Recovers Backpay For Employees Of Colorado-Based Ball Aerospace And Tech

Denver CO (SPX) Jul 27, 2007 - The U.S. Department of Labor announced an agreement with Ball Aerospace and Technologies Inc., a Broomfield, Colo.-based aerospace defense contractor, to pay $976,327 in back wages to 904 employees at Ball facilities in Colorado, New Mexico, Ohio, Georgia and the District of Columbia. The department is committed to making sure that workers are paid all the wages they are due, said Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao. In this case, nearly $1 million in back wages will be paid to over 900 workers and the company is taking steps to ensure that workers are properly compensated in the future.

Jul 27, 2007
Legacy Reports

External Tank ET-120 Headed to Kennedy Space Center

Cape Canaveral FL (SPX) Jul 26, 2007 - Space shuttle external tank ET-120 is en route to the Kennedy Space Center, Fla., after being loaded onto an enclosed barge July 24 for shipment from NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The tank is being towed by a tug during the approximately 850-mile journey and is expected to arrive at the Kennedy Center July 29. ET-120 is slated to fly on the STS-120 mission, targeted for October 2007.

Jul 26, 2007
Legacy Reports

2006-2007 International Space Station Science: Looking Back and Ahead…

Huntsville AL (MSFC) Jul 26, 2007 - It was an exciting year in 2006 and 2007 for science on the International Space Station. New research facilities were installed and new investigations had begun, while the results of a wide variety of investigations began to be published in scientific literature. Here are just a few highlights of the past year, and some great investigations to watch for in the remainder of 2007.

Jul 26, 2007
Legacy Reports

Astrium Wins Study For New Vega Upper Stage

Bremen, Germany (SPX) Jul 26, 2007 - Astrium has won a contract from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Cologne to investigate concepts for a new upper stage for the European launcher Vega. The project is named Venus (Vega New Upper Stage). Currently under development, Vega is a small European launch vehicle which is scheduled for first launch in 2009. The study now awarded to Astrium is worth roughly half a million euros and will run for a period of 18 months.

Jul 26, 2007
Legacy Reports

Crustacean Shells Might Hold Secret To Safer Long-Range Space Travel

Boxford, MA (SPX) Jul 25, 2007 - A team of researchers is seeking to determine if an ingredient found in shrimp and lobster shells might make future missions to Mars safer for space crews who could be injured along the way. Scientists from Harvey Mudd College (HMC) in California and the University of Louisville are collaborating with bioengineering and biomaterials company BioSTAR West on research efforts to better understand how to treat injuries aboard long space flights.

Jul 25, 2007
Legacy Reports

ISS Orbit Adjusted To Host Shuttle Endeavor

Moscow (SPX) Jul 25, 2007 - Russian Mission Control said Tuesday it successfully adjusted the International Space Station's orbit in preparation for the docking of the U.S. space shuttle Endeavor, due to be launched August 8. Corrections to the space station's orbit are conducted periodically before launches of Russian cargo ships and U.S. shuttles to compensate for Earth's gravity and to ensure successful dockings. The correction started at 2:06 a.m. Moscow time (10:06 p.m. GMT Monday) with the help of the Progress M-60 cargo ship, which is already docked with the ISS.

Jul 25, 2007
Legacy Reports

ATK Wins Another Orion Launch Abort Subsystem Contract

Minneapolis MN (SPX) Jul 24, 2007 - Alliant Techsystems has been selected by Orbital Sciences as part of the Orion prime contractor team, led by Lockheed Martin, to provide the attitude control motor (ACM) for NASA's Orion crew exploration vehicle launch abort system (LAS). The new LAS contract is valued at approximately $70 million. The ACM adds to ATK's content on the LAS, which already includes the primary launch abort motor. Work on the ACM will be performed at ATK facilities in Elkton, MD.

Jul 24, 2007