Oh what a shock! From CNN:

NASA’s press office “marginalized, or mischaracterized” studies on global warming between 2004 and 2006, a government watchdog says.

In a report issued Monday, the NASA inspector general said the press office’s actions were a result of “inappropriate political interference.”

The inspector general’s report blamed “political appointees,” saying neither the agency’s top management nor career officials engaged in censorship of the studies.

By MARCIA DUNN
The Associated Press

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA decided Thursday that no repairs are needed for a deep gouge in Endeavour’s belly and that the space shuttle is safe to fly home. Mission Control notified the seven shuttle astronauts of the decision right before they went to sleep, putting an end to a week of engineering analyses and anxious uncertainty - both in orbit and on Earth.

Endeavour’s relieved commander, Scott Kelly, thanked everyone on the ground for their hard work. Mission Control replied, “It’s great we finally have a decision and we can press forward.”

After meeting for five hours, mission managers opted Thursday night against any risky spacewalk repairs based on the overwhelming - but not unanimous - recommendations of hundreds of engineers. The massive amount of data indicated Endeavour would suffer no serious structural damage during next week’s re-entry.

Their worry was not that Endeavour might be destroyed and its seven astronauts killed in a replay of the Columbia disaster; the gouge is too small to be catastrophic. They were concerned that the heat of re-entry could weaken the shuttle’s aluminum frame at the damaged spot and result in lengthy postflight repairs.

The chairman of the mission management team, John Shannon, said Johnson Space Center’s engineering group in Houston wanted to proceed with the repairs. But everyone else, including safety officials, voted to skip them.

read more HERE

By MARCIA DUNN
Associated Press

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA discovered a worrisome gouge on Endeavour’s belly soon after the shuttle docked with the international space station Friday, possibly caused by ice that broke off the fuel tank a minute after liftoff.

The gouge - about 3 inches square - was spotted in zoom-in photography taken by the space station crew shortly before Endeavour delivered teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan and her six crewmates to the orbiting outpost.

“What does this mean? I don’t know at this point,” said John Shannon, chairman of the mission management team. If the gouge is deep enough, the shuttle astronauts may have to patch it during a spacewalk, he said.

Columbia was destroyed during re-entry four years ago because of a hole in its wing, the result of a large chunk of foam insulation that broke off the external fuel tank and slammed into the wing at liftoff. Ice is heavier than foam, however, and would cause more damage to the thermal cover that protects the shuttle from the intense heat of re-entry at flight’s end.

NASA was still rejoicing over the shuttle’s arrival at the space station, and the grand entrance by Morgan, Christa McAuliffe’s backup for Challenger’s tragic mission in 1986, when engineers saw photos of the gouge.

read more HERE

From the NASA site, where you can watch the liftoff.

The Closeout crew is continuing to prepare Endeavour’s crew module for closeout for flight. The hatch is closed and cabin leak checks will be conducted. The astronauts continue to go through final checks inside the orbiter to prepare for their journey to the International Space Station.

There is only a 10 percent chance of weather prohibiting a liftoff at 6:36 p.m. EDT.

Mission STS-118 will be the first for Mission Specialist Barbara Morgan, the teacher-turned-astronaut whose association with NASA began more than 20 years ago. First Lady Laura Bush called Morgan Tuesday morning to offer congratulations “one schoolteacher to another,” and to thank her for her commitment to the space program and to education.

By MARCIA DUNN

As a huge fan of the space program, both as a child watching a man fly to the moon and walk on another planet, as well as now, I am extremely disappointed in this controvery/scandal. My heart sinks in shame, knowing that one of my group of heroes is now embattled in controvery. Is nothing sacred to our country anymore? - JS

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - After drinking heavily, an astronaut flew on a Russian spacecraft and another was cleared to launch on a space shuttle, according to interviews by a panel of outside experts, the panel’s chairman said Friday.

In the case of the shuttle, the mission was delayed for mechanical reasons and the astronaut wanted to fly a jet from Florida back home to Houston, said Col. Richard Bachmann Jr., head of the panel, created to assess astronaut health. He said he didn’t know the outcome.

“In none of these can we say factually they did or did not occur,” he added, speaking by telephone to a news conference held in Washington. He said it was not the panel’s mission to investigate allegations and that NASA would have to ferret out details.

The independent panel was created by NASA after the arrest of astronaut Lisa Nowak in February on charges she tried to kidnap her rival in a love triangle.

NASA said it is unaware of any astronauts who were drunk before a flight but that it is investigating. Deputy Administrator Shana Dale said the panel provided no details and did not verify the troubling revelations and promised the space agency would pursue the truth.

Bachmann, an aerospace medical specialist with the Air Force, said his panel deliberately did not seek out pertinent details, such as exactly when the heavy drinking occurred. The overriding concern, he said, was that flight surgeons were ignored.

read more HERE

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Drunken NASA astronauts were allowed to fly on a Russian spacecraft and cleared to fly on the U.S. space shuttle, a panel convened by NASA said on Friday, citing “heavy use of alcohol by astronauts.”

In response, NASA said it launched an investigation to try to verify the allegations, embraced an astronaut code of conduct and was weighing changes in its drinking policies.

NASA convened the eight-member panel to examine its health policies after the arrest of astronaut Lisa Nowak in February on allegations she stalked and attacked a rival for the affections of a fellow astronaut.

More at Reuters

By MARCIA DUNN

Gosh! Could we please have one great American dream go untarnished by some kind of controversy? - JS

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - America’s space agency was shaken Thursday by two startling and unrelated reports: One involved claims that astronauts were drunk before flying. The other was news from NASA itself that a worker had sabotaged a computer set for delivery to the international space station.

It was just another jolt for an operation that has had a rocky year from the start, beginning with the arrest of an astronaut accused of attacking a rival in a love triangle.

“It’s going to shake up the world, I’ll tell you that,” retired NASA executive Seymour Himmel said of the latest news. “There will be congressional hearings that you will not be able to avoid.”

News of the two latest bombshells broke within just a few hours of each other Thursday afternoon.

Aviation Week & Space Technology reported on its Web site that a special panel studying astronaut health found that on two occasions, astronauts were allowed to fly after flight surgeons and other astronauts warned they were so drunk they posed a safety risk.

read more HERE

NASA will send three astronauts and a Constellation Program aerospace engineer into the ocean depths off the Florida coast from Aug. 6 to 15. They will test lunar exploration concepts and a suite of medical objectives for long-duration spaceflight.

NASA veteran space flyer and aquanaut Nicholas Patrick will lead the 10-day undersea mission aboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Aquarius Underwater Laboratory. NASA astronaut Richard Arnold, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and systems integration engineer Christopher Gerty complete the crew.

During the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations 13 (NEEMO 13), the crew will conduct a variety of undersea “moon walks.” They will test concepts for future lunar exploration using advanced navigation and communication equipment.

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