1 00:00:08,160 --> 00:00:12,360 This Week at NASA… 2 00:00:12,360 --> 00:00:17,480 With launch day fast approaching, the STS-130 crew and launch team have their hands full 3 00:00:17,480 --> 00:00:23,180 with last minute preparations. As pad maintenance and system checks are performed, Commander 4 00:00:23,180 --> 00:00:29,230 George Zamka, Pilot Terry Virts, and Mission Specialists Nicholas Patrick, Bob Behnken, 5 00:00:29,230 --> 00:00:34,850 Steve Robinson and Kathryn Hire continue to review flight data and practice tasks they’ll 6 00:00:34,850 --> 00:00:40,360 perform during launch and on orbit. Virts, the only first-time flyer of the crew, is 7 00:00:40,360 --> 00:00:42,350 understandably excited about the mission. 8 00:00:42,350 --> 00:00:47,120 I think everybody on their first space flight is just looking forward to going into space. 9 00:00:47,120 --> 00:00:52,430 It’s an amazing concept to think of leaving the planet earth and just not that many people 10 00:00:52,430 --> 00:00:54,160 have gotten to do that so I’m really looking forward to that. 11 00:00:54,160 --> 00:00:59,969 At launch pad 39A Endeavour’s payload bay doors are closed and ready for flight. Inside 12 00:00:59,969 --> 00:01:04,430 is Tranquility, a pressurized module that will house many of the station’s life support 13 00:01:04,430 --> 00:01:09,770 systems, and a cupola, a seven-window work station that will give the astronauts a vastly 14 00:01:09,770 --> 00:01:14,330 improved view of the station’s exterior. Launch of Endeavour is scheduled for Feb. 15 00:01:14,330 --> 00:01:20,380 7 at 4:39 am eastern. 16 00:01:20,380 --> 00:01:26,240 A NASA aircraft with extensive radar capabilities will help study earthquake faults in Haiti 17 00:01:26,240 --> 00:01:31,670 and the Dominican Republic. A Gulfstream III carrying NASA’s Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle 18 00:01:31,670 --> 00:01:37,270 Synthetic Aperture Radar, or UAVSAR, was already scheduled to perform a three-week series of 19 00:01:37,270 --> 00:01:43,200 science over flights in Central America. After the Haitian earthquake, NASA managers added 20 00:01:43,200 --> 00:01:48,580 additional science objectives that will allow UAVSAR’s unique observational capabilities 21 00:01:48,580 --> 00:01:53,970 to study geologic processes in Hispaniola following the earthquake. UAVSAR’s ability 22 00:01:53,970 --> 00:01:59,920 to provide rapid access to regions of interest, short repeat flight intervals, high resolution 23 00:01:59,920 --> 00:02:05,060 and its variable viewing geometry make it a powerful tool for studying ongoing Earth 24 00:02:05,060 --> 00:02:06,060 processes. 25 00:02:06,060 --> 00:02:17,250 It began as a 90-day mission, but NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover, Spirit, roamed for 26 00:02:17,250 --> 00:02:23,740 more than six years to gather and return unprecedented science from the Red Planet. Now, impossibly 27 00:02:23,740 --> 00:02:29,910 stuck in a sand trap, Spirit has been designated a stationary science platform after efforts 28 00:02:29,910 --> 00:02:33,290 during the past several months to free it have been unsuccessful. 29 00:02:33,290 --> 00:02:39,910 With the loss of mobility on Spirit, people are disappointed. These have really become 30 00:02:39,910 --> 00:02:45,970 public icons, globally, not just in the United States. Even children, easily, identify with 31 00:02:45,970 --> 00:02:52,150 the rovers; they’re cute, and they give you a human’s eye view of the surface of 32 00:02:52,150 --> 00:02:55,920 another planet for the first time. Spirit’s primary objective in the coming 33 00:02:55,920 --> 00:03:01,440 weeks will be to tilt itself more towards the sun and collect enough solar energy to 34 00:03:01,440 --> 00:03:07,400 weather the severe Martian winter. If Spirit survives, it could continue conducting significant 35 00:03:07,400 --> 00:03:11,150 new science for years. 36 00:03:11,150 --> 00:03:15,350 NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory mission gets underway with a launch from Cape Canaveral 37 00:03:15,350 --> 00:03:16,970 Air Force Station in February. 38 00:03:16,970 --> 00:03:23,250 SDO is our first opportunity to use a piece of instrumentation called a heliosiesmometer, 39 00:03:23,250 --> 00:03:28,630 and what this does is it does the same thing as a sonogram for a human diagnostic, where 40 00:03:28,630 --> 00:03:33,520 you look inside of a human to see organs and processes going on, and we are going to be 41 00:03:33,520 --> 00:03:38,170 able to see the birth of magnetic fields in the sun and their evolutions this is the first 42 00:03:38,170 --> 00:03:39,390 time ever we’ll be able to do that. 43 00:03:39,390 --> 00:03:43,819 The Solar Dynamics Observatory, will help scientists zoom in on solar activity such 44 00:03:43,819 --> 00:03:49,500 as sunspots, solar flares and coronal mass ejections, thus improving forecasting of how 45 00:03:49,500 --> 00:03:55,040 this solar weather will affect us. The Observatory is expected to deliver startling images of 46 00:03:55,040 --> 00:04:01,060 the sun with ten times more detail than High Definition Television cameras. SDO is the 47 00:04:01,060 --> 00:04:05,380 first in NASA’s “Living with a Star” satellites and has been designed to provide 48 00:04:05,380 --> 00:04:10,670 invaluable data about the sun for five years. 49 00:04:10,670 --> 00:04:16,340 WISE, the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer has discovered a near-Earth asteroid some 50 00:04:16,340 --> 00:04:22,019 98 million miles away. The asteroid is not expected to come near enough to our planet 51 00:04:22,019 --> 00:04:27,650 to pose a threat. Scientists say this is just the beginning for WISE, which began its all-sky 52 00:04:27,650 --> 00:04:28,850 survey at the beginning of the year. 53 00:04:28,850 --> 00:04:36,440 Ignition and lift-off of a Delta II rocket and WISE searching for stars at galaxies never 54 00:04:36,440 --> 00:04:39,910 seen before. The telescope should find as many as a thousand 55 00:04:39,910 --> 00:04:45,160 previously undiscovered asteroids in the belt between Mars and Jupiter, as well as hundreds 56 00:04:45,160 --> 00:04:48,540 of new near-Earth asteroids and other hidden objects. 57 00:04:48,540 --> 00:04:55,190 The things we did on our flight, of course launch, landing & space station 58 00:04:55,190 --> 00:05:00,040 The STS-129 crew continued its center tour with a stop in northeast Ohio at the Glenn 59 00:05:00,040 --> 00:05:04,550 Research Center. There, they presented video highlights from their 11-day mission last 60 00:05:04,550 --> 00:05:05,550 November. 61 00:05:05,550 --> 00:05:12,150 The 129 crew also visited the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, bringing with 62 00:05:12,150 --> 00:05:18,440 them several items that accompanied the astronauts on their 4.5 million mile journey into space: 63 00:05:18,440 --> 00:05:24,430 a specially-minted silver coin that will be used at the kickoff of Super Bowl XLIV; jerseys 64 00:05:24,430 --> 00:05:29,220 representing the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys, the two NFL teams with whom crew 65 00:05:29,220 --> 00:05:34,320 member Leland Melvin had a tryout; and, a football, inscribed with the names of Pro 66 00:05:34,320 --> 00:05:39,740 Football Hall of Fame members. Local students and community partners joined in the event. 67 00:05:39,740 --> 00:05:44,370 Commander Charlie Hobaugh, who attended high school in Ridgeville, Ohio, and Cleveland-area 68 00:05:44,370 --> 00:05:49,990 native, Mission Specialist Mike Foreman, were joined by crew members Melvin, Barry Wilmore, 69 00:05:49,990 --> 00:05:54,669 Randy Bresnik and Bobby Satcher at a Cleveland Cavaliers game with the visiting Minnesota 70 00:05:54,669 --> 00:05:57,080 Timberwolves at Quicken Loans Arena. 71 00:05:57,080 --> 00:06:01,540 Joining us tonight with that jersey is the crew from the space shuttle Atlantis 72 00:06:01,540 --> 00:06:06,830 As well as taking in the matchup, the astronauts participated in pregame activities and met 73 00:06:06,830 --> 00:06:09,310 with fans. 74 00:06:09,310 --> 00:06:15,160 Fifteen years ago, on February 3, 1995, Space Shuttle Discovery launched from the Kennedy 75 00:06:15,160 --> 00:06:23,570 Space Center on mission STS-63. A night launch and the 20th mission for Discovery, it marked 76 00:06:23,570 --> 00:06:28,820 the first time a space shuttle mission had a female pilot, Eileen Collins. Dubbed the 77 00:06:28,820 --> 00:06:35,419 Near-Mir mission, STS-63 rendezvoused with and did a fly around of Russian space station 78 00:06:35,419 --> 00:06:41,520 Mir, in preparation for STS-71, the first mission to dock with Mir. Along with Collins, 79 00:06:41,520 --> 00:06:48,210 the STS-63 crew included Commander Jim Weatherbee, Mike Foale, Janice Voss, Bernard Harris and 80 00:06:48,210 --> 00:06:53,720 cosmonaut Vladimir Titov. Collins went on to become the first female commander of a 81 00:06:53,720 --> 00:06:58,910 space shuttle mission, STS-93, in 1999.