CALIFORNIA YANKEE

Discovery heads for space station

Space shuttle Discovery and its seven-member crew lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center at 7:43 p.m. EDT Sunday.

Discovery is carrying the space station's fourth and final set of solar array wings. The arrays will provide the electricity to fully power science experiments and support the station's expanded crew of six.

During the 13-day mission, the crew will install the solar array. The crew will also deliver supplies and hardware, and replace a broken machine that turns urine into drinking water.

Discovery should reach the space station Tuesday.

Problems with hydrogen valves delayed the launch for weeks, in February and a hydrogen leak during fueling prevented the launch Wednesday.

NASA's Kepler telescope launched to hunt earth-like planets

A Delta II rocket carrying the Kepler planet-hunting spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Kepler is a space telescope designed to survey distant stars to determine the prevalence of Earth-like planets.

Astronomers already have found more than 300 planets orbiting other stars, usually inhospitable gas giants like Jupiter. Kepler will be looking for smaller rocky planets more similar to Earth:

The goal is to find, if they exist, Earth-like planets circling stars in the so-called habitable zone - orbits where liquid water could be present on the surface of the planets.

[. . .]

Once it's settled into an Earth-trailing orbit around the sun, Kepler will stare nonstop at 100,000 stars near the Cygnus and Lyra constellations, between 600 and 3,000 light years away.

NASA offers these quick facts about the Kepler mission:

• Kepler is the world's first mission with the ability to find true Earth analogs -- planets that orbit stars like our sun in the "habitable zone." The habitable zone is the region around a star where the temperature is just right for water -- an essential ingredient for life as we know it -- to pool on a planet's surface.

• By the end of Kepler's three-and-one-half-year mission, it will give us a good idea of how common or rare other Earths are in our Milky Way galaxy. This will be an important step in answering the age-old question: Are we alone?

• Kepler detects planets by looking for periodic dips in the brightness of stars. Some planets pass in front of their stars as seen from our point of view on Earth; when they do, they cause their stars to dim slightly, an event Kepler can see.

• Kepler has the largest camera ever launched into space, a 95-megapixel array of charge-coupled devices, or CCDs, like those in everyday digital cameras.

• Kepler's telescope is so powerful that, from its view up in space, it could detect one person in a small town turning off a porch light at night.

You can watch the launch in the following video:

Image courtesy of NASA

Endeavour heads home

The space shuttle Endeavour undocked from the International Space Station Friday morning:

Endeavour arrived at the station November 16. The mission delivered equipment to allow the station crew size to double to six. The gear included two sleep stations, a new galley, a water recovery system and an advanced resistive exercise device.

Astronauts also performed four spacewalks -- cleaning, lubricating and installing new bearing assemblies on the starboard solar array.

Endeavour is scheduled to land at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., Sunday at 1:19 p.m.

American space tourist blasts off

A Russian spacecraft, with two Americans and a Russian on board, lifted off from Kazakhstan on Sunday.

One of the American's is computer game millionaire Richard Garriott.

The Soyuz spacecraft is headed for the international space station, where Garriott will spend about 10 days conducting experiments — including some whose sponsors helped fund his trip — and photographing Earth to measure changes since his father snapped pictures from the U.S. station Skylab in 1973.

Garriott, could not become a NASA astronaut because of his poor eyesight. He paid a reported $30 million for his voyage.

You can watch the launch in the following video:

China to launch third manned space flight

China's next manned space is scheduled to launch today.

The Shenzhou VII spacecraft, with three astronauts, will lift off some time between 9:07 a.m. to 10:27 a.m. ET.

This mission, only China's third manned space flight since it became the third space faring nation in October 2003, will feature China's first space walk.

Image: The Shenzhou-VII spacecraft, the Long-March II-F rocket and the escape tower are transferred to the launch pad at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, in Gansu province, September 20, 2008. Credit:REUTERS/Stringer

Obama makes 'dramatic reversal of policy' on NASA funding

I no sooner noted the fact that Obama intended to pay for his proposed expansion of the federal government's role in education by slashing NASA's budget, when Obama makes another dramatic flip flop straddle waffle reversal:

In a dramatic reversal of policy, Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama on Saturday told supporters on the Space Coast he no longer favors slashing NASA's budget, declaring that the United States "cannot cede our leadership in space."

Though he said nothing specific about sending astronauts to the moon or Mars -- the central focus of NASA's plans and key to the hopes of many space supporters -- Obama was more supportive of the agency than he had ever been publicly.

[. . .]

Until Saturday, Obama had said he wanted to delay the Constellation man-on-the-moon program for five years to free up money for education programs.

As a big supporter of space exploration, I'm glad to hear Obama has changed his mind and reversed his long-standing proposal to slash NASA's budget. On the other hand, the Obama changes his positions so frequently, I have absolutely no reason to believe he will actually support NASA's budget. Obama continues to make it very clear that he will say whatever is politically expedient in order o please whomever he addresses.

Happy First Moon Landing Day

Remembering Tranquility Base.

It's been 39 years since we heard those famous words announcing that humans had finally reached another world:

"Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."

On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 landed on the moon.

When mission commander Neil Armstrong finally took the "small step," I was watching in the Fillmore West in San Francisco. In a corner of the huge concert hall they had a large screen showing man’s first steps on the moon. The activities at Tranquility Base fit right in with the light show.

Where were you when Armstrong took that the "giant leap for mankind?"

The following video shows the Eagle's descent and landing, Armstrong's first steps on the moon, activities at Tranquility Base, and the Eagle's return to the orbiting Columbia:

PHOTO: Aldrin Looks Back at Tranquility Base - Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin was photographed by mission commander Neil Armstrong. In the foreground is the Passive Seismic Experiment Package; beyond it is the Laser Ranging Retro-Reflector; in the far right background is the Lunar Module "Eagle." Image credit: NASA

Discovery Lands Safely

NBC's Jay Barbree and Peter Alexander report on Saturday's spectacular landing of space shuttle Discovery.

International Space Station In Full View

The International Space Station seen from space shuttle Discovery as the two spacecraft begin their relative separation on June 11, 2008. Image Courtesy of NASA.

Discovery's Back Flip

Prior to docking with the International Space Station, Space Shuttle Discovery performed the now standard "back flip,"or in NASA speak the rendezvous pitch maneuver, so astronauts aboard the station could photograph Discovery's heat shield.