OrbitalHub

STS-119 was a space shuttle mission flown by Space Shuttle Discovery during March 2009. STS-119 delivered and assembled the S6 Integrated Truss Segment, and the fourth set of solar arrays and batteries to the International Space Station.

The crew members of the STS-119 mission were: Lee Archambault, Dominic A. (Tony) Antonelli, Joseph M. Acaba, Steven R. Swanson, Richard R. Arnold, John L. Phillips, and Koichi Wakata. Wakata remained on the station, replacing Sandra Magnus. Sandra Magnus served as Flight Engineer for Expedition 18.

On April 12, 1981, STS-1 Space Shuttle Columbia lifted off from Pad A, launch Complex 39, at the Kennedy Space Center. This was the first launch of the Space Shuttle and occurred exactly 20 years after the first manned space flight.

Columbia flew with two crew members: astronaut John W. Young as commander, and Robert L. Crippen as pilot. The objectives of STS-1 were to check out the overall Space Shuttle system, make a safe ascent into orbit, and a safe landing.

On April 12, 1961, Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin, became the first human to orbit the Earth. He was born on March 9, 1934 and died on March 27, 1968 while flying a MIG-15 during a routine training flight.

In 1960, Yuri Gagarin was selected with nineteen other cosmonauts for the Soviet Space Program. On the day of the Vostok 1 flight, cosmonaut Gherman Titov was his backup.

Constellation Program is NASA’s new generation space transportation system. It is designed to cover a wide range of space missions, such as delivering supplies and human crews to the International Space Station (ISS) and traveling beyond low Earth orbit (LEO). The goal of the program is to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon and then go to Mars.

Read more about the Constellation Program…

NASA is close to the first test flight of the Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle. The first flight will be a suborbital flight. The solid rocket booster will have a fifth inert segment, and will carry a dummy second stage above the Atlantic Ocean.

DIRECT is an alternative approach to launching missions planned under NASA\’s new mandate: The Vision for Space Exploration (VSE). DIRECT is proposing one single “Jupiter” launch vehicle. “Jupiter” would be able to perform both roles of Ares-I Crew Launch Vehicle (CLV) and Ares-V Cargo Launch Vehicle (CaLV).

Read more about DIRECT…