NASA News: Fears And Near Misses

Fears arise as last shuttle mission nears

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NBC NEWS- The last space shuttle mission is only ten days away.

The cargo has arrived at the launch pad.

Technicians have eased the cargo carrier into the shuttle's 60-foot cargo bay.

There's a year's supply of food for the space station crew, as much as the ship can carry.

The importance of this flight was a major topic at an all-day flight readiness review Tuesday, the last one ever.

Mission managers examined a potential leak that was found during a fueling test two weeks ago, and said it was a good thing it was found; it likely would have caused a week's delay in the launch.

Problems on the last mission - a landing gear fire and the appearance of some debris during liftoff - are not expected to reoccur.

Only four astronauts will be onboard, because there is no backup shuttle to come to their rescue.

They would go home one by one on Russian Soyuz capsules over the next year if Atlantis is damaged during launch.

Most of what this mission is about is leaving the space station crew able to survive without regular shuttle flights anymore.

This flight of supplies is crucial to the crew of the International Space Station, because no one knows how reliable new spaceships planned by private industry will be.

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This follows on the heels of Tuesday's near mishap, when space debris came perilously close to the ISS.

NASA: debris is 'closest' ever to space station

(CNN) -- Tuesday's space debris incident at the International Space Station was the "closest anything has come to the space station," NASA said Wednesday.

Final calculations showed the unknown object passed the space station 1,100 feet away and its source remains a mystery, according to Kelly Humphries, a spokesman at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

When the unexpected space debris came flying close to the space station Tuesday, it prompted the station's six astronauts to take shelter inside two Soyuz capsules, NASA said.

NASA does not expect any other close calls with this particular debris, said Humphries.

Russia's Interfax news agency said preliminary data on "the dangerous approach" shows that the "trash" came within about 250 meters (820 feet) of the station.

Officials at NASA are investigating what the debris was, NASA spokesman Joshua Buck said.

By the time it was spotted, it was "too late to make an avoidance maneuver," so NASA ordered the six crew members to "shelter in place," Buck said. About 7:30 a.m. ET, the crew members climbed into the two Soyuz capsules positioned at the station.

NASA determined that the debris would come closest to the station at 8:08 a.m. ET.

Three minutes later, at 8:11 a.m. ET, the all-clear was sounded and astronauts were allowed to exit the capsules, Buck said.

Buck described the debris as an "unknown object of unknown size."


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Note:  Now there is confidence for you and to top it off, doesn't NASA (and NORAD) track most of the space junk up there?  Just how did a piece of junk (an "unknown object of unknown size") sneak up on them, or was it even debris? 

Sounds like space whale poop to me.

And speaking of fears, NASA's Director has something to tell us all:

A Warning From NASA



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Note:  Talk about cryptic, is this guy trying to insinuate that something bad could happen?  What are they going to do, what till the last minute and say, "oh, by the way..." 

Should we get ready to duck and cover?  And just what is it they are not telling us? -SW

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