AERONAUTICS AND ASTRONAUTICS: 

A CHRONOLOGY: 2007 

NASA SP-2011-4033 

 

January 2011

 

 

Author: Marieke Lewis

Project Manager: Alice R. Buchalter

Federal Research Division, Library of Congress

NASA History Program Office

Office of Communications

NASA Headquarters

Washington, DC 20546
Aeronautics and Astronautics: A Chronology, 2007

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PREFACE

This report is a chronological compilation of narrative summaries of news reports and 

government documents highlighting significant events and developments in U.S. and foreign 

aeronautics and astronautics. It covers the year 2007. These summaries provide a day-to-day 

recounting of major activities, such as administrative developments, awards, launches, scientific 

discoveries, corporate and government research results, and other events in countries with 

aeronautics and astronautics programs. Researchers used the archives and files housed in the 

NASA History Division, as well as reports and databases on the NASA Web site. 
Aeronautics and Astronautics: A Chronology, 2007

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE ........................................................................................................................................ i

JANUARY 2007 ............................................................................................................................. 1

FEBRUARY 2007 .......................................................................................................................... 6

MARCH 2007 ............................................................................................................................... 12

APRIL 2007 .................................................................................................................................. 17

MAY 2007 .................................................................................................................................... 21

JUNE 2007 .................................................................................................................................... 28

JULY 2007 .................................................................................................................................... 35

AUGUST 2007 ............................................................................................................................. 41

SEPTEMBER 2007 ...................................................................................................................... 48

OCTOBER 2007 ........................................................................................................................... 53

NOVEMBER 2007 ....................................................................................................................... 60

DECEMBER 2007 ........................................................................................................................ 65

APPENDIX A: TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS......................................................................... 71

APPENDIX B: BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................... 75
Aeronautics and Astronautics: A Chronology, 2007

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JANUARY 2007

2 January 

Jeffrey P. Bezos, founder of Amazon.com and the commercial spaceflight company Blue Origin, 

released images of the 13 November 2006 test launch of the space capsule Goddard, the first 

vehicle of Blue Origin’s New Shepard program. Goddard was a vertical-takeoff, vertical-landing 

vehicle, shaped like a cone, with a square base sitting on four legs. During the successful test 

launch, which lasted 25 seconds, the craft ascended to 300 feet (91.4 meters) before descending 

to land gently on the launchpad, approximately 120 miles (193 kilometers) east of El Paso, Texas. 

Bezos, who had founded Blue Origin in 2000, planned for the craft eventually to carry several 

astronauts into suborbital flight. However, he clearly stated that he intended for these plans to 

proceed slowly, choosing as Blue Origin’s motto “Gradatim Ferociter” or “Step by Step, 

Fiercely.”1

4 January 

NASA announced the official appointment of William W. Parsons Jr. as Director of NASA’s 

Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Parsons became KSC’s ninth director, succeeding 

James W. Kennedy, who was retiring from NASA. Parsons had served as KSC’s Deputy 

Director since February 2006. After the Columbia tragedy in 2003, Parsons had led NASA’s 

Return to Flight effort as Space Shuttle Program Manager at KSC and had contributed to the 

success of STS-114 in 2005. Parsons had also served as Director of NASA’s Stennis Space 

Center (SSC) in Mississippi and as Deputy Director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in 

Houston, Texas. NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin remarked that Parson’s experience as a 

program manager and center director, in addition to his knowledge of NASA’s human 

spaceflight community, made him the “right person to take Kennedy Space Center through the 

end of the Shuttle era and into the era of lunar exploration.”2

7 January

NASA announced that an international team of astronomers had used data from NASA’s Hubble 

Space Telescope (HST) to create the first three-dimensional map of the distribution of dark 

matter in the universe, an undertaking fundamental to understanding how galaxies have grown 

and clustered over billions of years. The research team had focused HST’s camera on an area of 

the sky 2° wide during 600 HST orbits, the largest investment of viewing time for a single 

project since the telescope had launched in 1990. Astronomers had measured the shapes of half a 

million faraway galaxies, constructing a map of dark matter that “stretches halfway back to the 

beginning of the universe and shows how dark matter has grown increasingly ‘clumpy’ as it 

collapses under gravity.” The map provided the best evidence to date that normal matter, such as 

that composing galaxies, collects along the densest concentration of dark matter, thereby 

revealing a loose network of filaments that intersect in massive structures at the locations of 

clusters of galaxies. One of the researchers, Richard Massey of the California Institute of 

 

1 Jeff Bezos, “Development Flight, and We Are Hiring,” Blue Origin, 2 January 2007, http://www.blueorigin.com/ 

letter.htm (accessed 9 November 2009); Aero-News Network, “Bezos Releases Details of November’s Goddard 

Launch,” 5 January 2007; Stefanie Olsen, “Bezos Unleashes Space Rocket Prototype,” New York Times, 4 January 

2007.

2 NASA, “Parsons Assumes Role as NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Director,” news release 07-01, 4 January 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/jan/HQ_0701_Parsons_KSC.html#at (accessed 14 October 2009); AeroNews Network, “Upgraded: Parsons Tapped as Kennedy Space Center Director,” 8 January 2007.
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Technology, described the dark matter as “scaffolding,” stating that the stars and galaxies had 

assembled themselves inside of the scaffolding.3

9 January

NASA awarded Scripps Institution of Oceanography a grant valued at US$750,000, to develop 

an instrument to detect signs of biological compounds on Mars. European Space Agency (ESA) 

selected the Urey Mars Organic and Oxidant Detector (Urey), named for the late Nobel Laureate, 

Harold C. Urey, to fly aboard its ExoMars rover mission in 2013. Jeffrey L. Bada, Lead 

Investigator on the Urey team and Director of the NASA Specialized Center of Research and 

Training in Exobiology at Scripps, explained that Urey would be the first instrument with the 

capacity to detect amino acids, as well as other possible biomolecules. To search for trace levels 

of amino acids and for some components of DNA and RNA, Urey would heat and analyze 

spoon-sized amounts of Martian soil, collected from 2 meters (6.6 feet) beneath Mars’s surface. 

Urey would then trap and condense any molecules released from the heated soil and probe them 

with a laser. If the laser detected amino acids in the soil, another instrument, developed at the 

University of California at Berkeley, would examine the amino-acid composition to determine 

whether the molecules came from biological or nonbiological sources.4

10 January

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) successfully launched four spacecraft aboard its 

Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C7 (PSLV-C7), from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 9:24 a.m. 

(IST). The PSLV-C7 carried the 680-kilogram (1,500-pound) Cartosat-2, an Indian Remote 

Sensing (IRS) satellite; ISRO’s 550-kilogram (1,213-pound) SRE-1 (Space Capsule Recovery 

Experiment-1); the Indonesian microsatellite Lapan-Tubsat; and the 6-kilogram (13-pound) 

PehuenSat-1, an Argentinean nanosatellite. Cartosat-2, designed to provide scene-specific spot 

imagery, joined six IRS satellites already in service. ISRO planned to keep SRE-1 in orbit for 11 

days before testing its reentry technology. While in orbit, the craft would conduct microgravity 

experiments. Lapan-Tubsat, the first Indonesian-built satellite, was a technology-demonstrator 

craft carrying two color cameras. The University of Comahue of Argentina, the Amateur 

Satellite Association of Argentina, and the Argentina Association for Space Technology had 

built PehuenSat-1 to provide a platform for Argentinean university students to perform amateur 

radio experiments.5

 

3 NASA, “Hubble Maps the Cosmic Web of ‘Clumpy’ Dark Matter in 3-D,” news release 07-02, 7 January 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/jan/HQ_07002_Hubble_Dark_Matter.html (accessed 7 January 2007); 

Richard Massey et al., “Dark Matter Maps Reveal Cosmic Scaffolding,” Nature 445 (18 January 2007): 286–290, 

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v445/n7125/full/nature05497.html (DOI 10.1038/nature05497; accessed 4 

March 2010); John Johnson Jr., “Dark Matter Is Mapped Unseen,” Los Angeles Times, 8 January 2007. 4 Scripps Institution of Oceanography, “NASA Funds Scripps Instrument for Probing for Life on Mars: Detector To 

Hunt for Organic Molecules During Proposed 2013 Mission,” Scripps News, 9 January 2007, http://scrippsnews. 

ucsd.edu/Releases/?releaseID=768 (accessed 9 November 2009). 5 Spacewarn Bulletin, no. 639, 31 January 2007, http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/spacewarn/spx639.html (accessed 4 

November 2009); Chris Bergen, “India’s PSLV Launches Successfully,” NASASpaceflight.com, 9 January 2007, 

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2007/01/indias-pslv-launches-successfully/ (accessed 4 March 2010); K. N. Arun 

for Associated Press, “India Launches Rocket To Test Re-entry,” 10 January 2007.
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15 January

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) released a study conducted over two years, examining 

the United States’ Earth-observing satellite missions. The study, Earth Science and Applications 

from Space: National Imperatives for the Next Decade and Beyond, was the first 10-year plan to 

recommend a path forward that would restore U.S. leadership in Earth science and prevent the 

collapse of the U.S. system of Earth- science satellites. The report recommended that, to 

accomplish this goal and to rebuild the aging network of environmental spacecraft, the U.S. 

government should fund 17 Earth-observing-satellite missions between 2010 and 2020. To fund 

these missions, NASA would need to resume spending US$2 billion per year on Earth science, 

and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) would need to 

maintain funding levels at US$1 billion each year. According to the report, NASA’s budget for 

Earth science had decreased 30 percent since 2000, while NOAA had experienced major cost 

overruns and schedule delays in its primary mission to study weather and climate. Without 

reinvestment, the number of NASA’s satellites monitoring the Earth’s climate could decrease by 

2017 from 25 to 7, leaving the United States without scientific information to analyze severe 

storms and to determine changes in the Earth’s climate.6

16 January

XCOR Aerospace announced that it had successfully completed six short-duration test fires of 

the prototype engine 5M15, the new 7,500-pound-thrust (3.75-ton-thrust or 3.4-tonne-thrust) 

rocket engine, using liquid methane and liquid oxygen as propellants. Spokesperson Aleta 

Jackson explained that XCOR had designed the test fires to determine the appropriate length of 

the chamber for a flight-weight version of the engine. XCOR had developed the engine as part of 

a subcontract with Alliant Techsystems (ATK), which was developing liquid-methane rocket 

engine technology for NASA’s future space applications.7

19 January

IBM announced that NASA had selected, for its James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), IBM’s 

Rational Rose Real-time software, which used unified modeling language (UML). The choice 

marked a change in NASA’s strategy for software development and management of its spacebased telescopes. Because a number of organizations had used proprietary software to build 

components and instruments for the HST, the software had lacked a UML, preventing the 

software codes of the various programs from relating to one another. Furthermore, the 

contractors who had built the scientific instruments had not maintained them after the launch of 

the craft. Instead, NASA staff had assumed that responsibility. Glenn Cammarata, leader of 

NASA’s Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) flight-software development team at 

Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), explained that the management of telescopes with 

instruments containing incompatible software was a nightmare. Resolving problems in the HST 

 

6 Brian Berger, “Report Urges Reinvestment in U.S. Earth Science Satellites,” Space.com, 16 January 2007, 

http://www.space.com/aol/businessmonday_070122.html (accessed 4 March 2010); Marc Kaufman, “Cutbacks 

Impede Climate Studies,” Washington Post, 16 January 2007; National Research Council, Space Studies Board and 

Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences, Earth Science and Applications from Space: National Imperatives 

for the Next Decade and Beyond (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2007), http://www.nap.edu/catalog. 

php?record_id=11820#toc (accessed 5 November 2009). 7 XCOR Aerospace, “XCOR Aerospace Begins Test Firing of Methane Rocket Engine: Successful Test Completed 

for NASA,” press release, 16 January 2007, http://www.xcor.com/press-releases/2007/07-01-16_XCOR_begins_ 

methane_engine_testing.html (accessed 9 November 2009).
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software had often required NASA to locate the person who wrote the code in the original 

software, whereas IBM’s UML would allow any programmer to examine JWST software and to 

understand its system architecture. Additionally, the UML would allow close collaboration 

among the various developers working on individual components of the JWST.8

22 January

The ISRO SRE-1 space capsule reentered Earth’s atmosphere and splashed down in the Bay of 

Bengal at 9:47 a.m. (IST), successfully completing India’s first test of reusable vehicles and 

satellites. The SRE-1 had launched on 10 January. The Spacecraft Control Centre of ISRO’s 

Telemetry, Tracking, and Command Centre (ISTRAC) in Bangalore, India, guided the reentry of 

the craft, which splashed down at approximately 40 kilometers per hour (25 miles per hour). A 

U.S. Coast Guard ship recovered the craft and brought it to a container port, amid tight security. 

From that port, ISRO sent the SRE-1 to the launching station at the Sriharikota Space Centre, to 

determine how well the craft had carried out its microgravity experiments while in orbit.9

23 January

The heads of space agencies from Canada, Europe, Japan, Russia, and the United States met at 

the ESA headquarters in Paris to review International Space Station (ISS) cooperation. The ISS 

partners discussed the significant accomplishments and milestones in implementing the ISS’s 

configuration and assembly sequence, as endorsed at the previous meeting of the partners in 

March 2006. Milestones for the ISS included reestablishing a three-person crew, reinitiating 

station-assembly activities, and completing three extremely challenging Space Shuttle missions, 

which included the extravehicular accomplishments of American, Canadian, European, and 

Russian astronauts.10

The People’s Republic of China ended its silence regarding a reported test of antisatellite 

technology, confirming that, on 11 January, China had fired a guided missile into space to 

destroy one of its own weather satellites. U.S. monitors had detected the test shot, and observers 

in the United States had protested, based on concerns that U.S. military satellites might be 

vulnerable to attack from China. China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Liu Jianchao stated that 

China had informed the United States and other governments about the classified test through 

diplomatic channels and had “emphasized that the use of anti-satellite technology” did not mean 

that China had “abandoned its opposition to the militarization of space.” The United States and 

Russia had tested antisatellite technology in the 1980s but had ceased those tests, partly because 

of concern that debris created during the tests could damage satellites in nearby orbits. Analysts 

stated that China’s test had created several hundred thousand debris fragments in a region 

containing as many as 125 satellites.11

 

8 IBM, “NASA Eyes Open Standard Software for Next-Generation James Webb Space Telescope,” press release, 19 

January 2007, http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/20901.wss (accessed 30 October 2009); Jon Brodkin, 

“The Software Plan for NASA’s New Space Telescope,” Infoworld, 23 January 2007. 9 Indo-Asian News Service, “India Brings Satellite Back to Earth,” 23 January 2007. 10 NASA, “Heads of Agency International Space Station Joint Statement,” news release 07-013, 23 January 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/jan/HQ_07013_HOA_Joint_Statement.html (accessed 14 October 2009). 11 Edward Cody, “China Confirms Firing Missile To Destroy Satellite,” Washington Post, 24 January 2007; Jason 

Dean, “China Verifies Antisatellite-Missile Test,” Wall Street Journal, 24 January 2007.
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24 January

NASA announced that engineers and scientists building the JWST had created a new technology 

called “microshutters,” which had successfully passed crucial environmental testing in December 

2006 and had demonstrated the ability to withstand the stress of launch and placement in deep 

space. The 62,000 microshutters measured 100 by 200 microns—approximately the width of 

three to six human hairs. NASA had designed the microshutters to allow scientists to mask 

unwanted light from foreground objects, thus enabling the telescope to focus on the faint light of 

the earliest stars and galaxies that had formed in the universe. Behind the JWST microshutters, 

arranged in four identical grids, in a layout of 171 rows by 365 columns, engineers had placed an 

8 million-pixel infrared detector, designed to record light passing through open shutters. The 

detector itself was a technological breakthrough. Murzy D. Jhabvala, Chief Engineer of 

Goddard’s Instrument Technology and Systems Division, explained that designing a telescope 

able to peer farther than the HST had required new technology.12

26 January

Timothy Shank, a researcher on board the Alvin submersible, located 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) 

deep in the Pacific Ocean, placed a telephone call to Sunita L. Williams, a NASA astronaut 

living aboard the ISS. The call—the first placed from deep sea to space—did not break scientific 

ground. However, scientists believed the experiment could help pave the way for future 

interplanetary communication. To place the call, the crew in the Alvin submersible had 

communicated with a surface ship named Atlantis via acoustic transponders, a type of 

underwater telephone. The Atlantis had an on-board telephone connected to a satellite telephone, 

which could contact anyone on shore. Atlantis had telephoned NASA’s JSC in Houston, Texas, 

where a high-powered dish transmitter had contacted the ISS directly. Oceanographers and 

astrobiologists were equally enthusiastic about the telephone call because much of the 

information oceanographers learn researching the sea floor applies to space exploration. 

Astrobiologist Richard Shand of Northern Arizona University described the feat of 

communicating with people who are not currently on Earth’s surface, using three different 

media—water, air, and vacuum—as an astonishing accomplishment. Apollo astronauts, who had 

called Houston from a distance of 384,400 kilometers (238,855 miles), retained the record for a 

long-distance call. The call from the Alvin submersible to the ISS was a 253-kilometer (157-mile) 

long-distance call.13

The government of Sweden announced that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding 

(MOU) with the suborbital-space tourism company Virgin Galactic. The agreement established 

plans for Virgin’s SpaceShipTwo vehicle to launch from a site in Kiruna, Sweden, during the 

midsummer and midwinter, so that the craft could fly through the aurora borealis. In preparation 

for future flights, Swedish Space Corporation authorities planned a March 2008 demonstration 

launch of a small sounding rocket equipped with cameras. SpaceShipTwo designer Burt Rutan 

would collect data to determine the possible effect of the aurora borealis on passengers or on 

electronics aboard the spacecraft. The MOU did not call for any exchange of funds, because the 

Kiruna facility was the site of suborbital sounding rocket and atmospheric balloon launches. 

 

12 NASA, “NASA Creates Microscopic Technology for Webb Space Telescope,” news release 07-014, 24 January 

2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/jan/HQ_07014_Webb_microshutters.html (accessed 14 October 

2009).

13 Christina Reed, “Houston, We Have a Phone Call,” Science Now, 26 January 2007.
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Swedish officials stated that the site had sufficient infrastructure to accommodate Virgin Galactic 

craft without new investment.14

30 January

A Zenit-3SL rocket carrying a commercial communications satellite exploded during launch 

from the Sea Launch consortium’s floating platform Odyssey. The Netherlands–based SES New 

Skies NSS-8 satellite would have provided audio, video, data, and Internet services to countries 

in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Indian subcontinent, and the Middle East. Sea Launch spokesperson 

Paula Korn stated that the consortium was forming a failure-review oversight board to 

investigate the cause of the accident. A Sea Launch helicopter dispatched to the launch platform 

would assess the damage.15

31 January

Expedition 14 Commander Michael E. Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Sunita L. Williams 

conducted a spacewalk outside the ISS, lasting 7 hours and 55 minutes, which exceeded the 

planned time of 6 hours and 30 minutes. The two astronauts moved half of the ISS’s coolant 

lines to a permanent cooling station on the station’s Port 6 (P6) Truss. Several flakes, either of 

toxic ammonia or of paint, floated away from a cooling-line cap as the astronauts disconnected 

two of the fluid lines connected to an ammonia reservoir, preparing to stow them away. Time 

constraints prevented the astronauts from stowing both of the fluid lines. Moreover, the 

astronauts failed to accomplish tasks that would enable them to “get ahead,” such as 

photographing a solar array that the ISS partners planned to retract during the next Shuttle 

mission in March. Because of the suspected leak during stowage of the fluid line, Mission 

Control required Lopez-Alegria and Williams to remain in their spacesuits for an additional 25 

minutes once inside the ISS’s airlock, as a precaution against contaminating the station with 

ammonia.16

FEBRUARY 2007

1 February

NASA announced that it had signed Commercial Space Transportation Capabilities Agreements 

with PlanetSpace, of Chicago and Transformational Space Corporation in Reston, Virginia, to 

facilitate the commercialization of low Earth orbit. According to these nonreimbursable Space 

Act agreements, NASA would provide no funding to either company. Instead, the agreements 

established milestones and objective criteria that the companies would use to measure progress. 

The agreements stipulated that NASA share information with the two companies, to help them 

understand NASA’s projected requirements for space station crew, transportation launch 

vehicles, and spacecraft, as well as NASA’s human-rating criteria, which indicates how safe a 

 

14 Peter B. de Selding, “Virgin Galactic Strikes Deal with Swedish Government,” Space.com, 28 January 2007, 

http://www.space.com/news/070128_sweden_virgin.html (accessed 9 November 2009). 15 Associated Press, “Sea Launch Rocket with Satellite Explodes on Lift-off,” 31 January 2007; Lon Rains, “Sea 

Launch Rocket Explodes During Launch,” Space.com, 30 January 2007, http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/ 

070130_sealaunch_explosion.html (accessed 4 November 2009). 16 NASA, “International Space Station Status Report: SS07-06,” 4 February 2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/

hqnews/2007/feb/HQ_SS0706_station_status.html (accessed 14 October 2009); Warren E. Leary, “Spacewalkers 

Start Switch of Station’s Cooling System,” New York Times, 1 February 2007; Mike Schneider, “Astronauts Take 1st

of 3 Spacewalks,” Associated Press, 1 February 2007.
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spacecraft, launch vehicle, or airplane is for transporting people. Each company would develop 

and demonstrate vehicles, systems, and operations required to transport crews and cargo to and 

from low Earth orbit. Scott J. Horowitz, NASA’s Associate Administrator for Exploration 

Systems, explained that stimulating the growth of commercial space enterprise would enable 

NASA to focus on long-range exploration of the Moon and Mars.17

4 February

Expedition 14 Commander Michael E. Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Sunita L. Williams 

conducted their second spacewalk in four days, to finish connecting cooling lines to a permanent 

system of the ISS. Working for just over 7 hours, the astronauts rerouted a series of two 

electrical cables and four quick-disconnect fluid lines to the Destiny laboratory’s permanent 

cooling system; retracted the aft heat-rejecting radiator on the P6 Truss; and finished 

disconnecting and stowing the second of two fluid lines for the Early Ammonia Servicer. LopezAlegria photographed the starboard solar array and the blanket box into which it folds, so that 

engineers could analyze the photos and finalize plans for its retraction during the Shuttle Mission 

STS-117, scheduled for March 2007. He also removed a sunshade that the crew no longer 

needed from a data-relay box, folding the sunshade to bring it inside the ISS, so that the crew 

could dispose of it later. At the conclusion of the spacewalk, Williams and Lopez-Alegria again 

followed precautionary decontamination procedures in the ISS’s airlock, as they had on 31 

January, because they had seen ammonia flakes early in the spacewalk. Williams set a record for 

spacewalking time accrued by a woman—22 hours and 37 minutes—surpassing the record that 

NASA astronaut Kathryn C. Thornton had set in 1993.18

6 February

Florida police released on bail Lisa M. Nowak, a NASA astronaut and U.S. Navy captain. The 

police had arrested Nowak the day before, after she threatened Colleen M. Shipman, a captain in 

the U.S. Air Force. Nowak had perceived Shipman as a romantic rival. NASA placed Nowak on 

30-day leave and removed her from her mission duties. Nowak had flown her only mission as a 

crew member on STS-121 in July 2006, aboard Space Shuttle Discovery. NASA spokesperson 

Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters explained that, according to its past policy, NASA had screened crew 

members assigned to the ISS, before, during, and after missions, but had not screened Shuttle 

crews flying for two-week stints. Although Cloutier-Lemasters said that NASA did not plan to 

conduct an investigation of Nowak, NASA’s Deputy Administrator Shana L. Dale stated that 

NASA had begun a review of its screening policy. NASA hoped to determine whether it had 

overlooked indications for concern in Nowak’s case. Dale explained that NASA intended the 

review process to reveal whether or not astronauts were receiving adequate psychological and 

medical care and attention.19

 

17 NASA, “Commercial Space Transportation Capabilities Agreements Signed,” news release 07-20, 1 February 

2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/feb/HQ_0720_COTS_agreements.html (accessed 13 January 2010); 

PlanetSpace, “NASA Signs Agreement with PlanetSpace for Development of Commercial Space Transportation 

Capabilities,” news release, 1 February 2007, http://www.planetspace.org/pdf/PressRelease020107.pdf (accessed 13 

January 2010).

18 NASA, “International Space Station Status Report: SS07-06”; Marc Carreau, “Spacewalkers Finish Job; 

Astronauts Sets Record,” Houston Chronicle, 5 February 2007.

19 Mike Schneider and Erin McClam, “Astronaut Charged with Attempted Murder,” Associated Press, 7 February 

2007; John Schwartz, “Astronaut’s Arrest Spurs Review of NASA Testing,” New York Times, 8 February 2007.
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7 February

The National Research Council (NRC) published a report, Performance Assessment of NASA’s 

Astrophysics Program, examining how well NASA’s Astrophysics Science Division had 

addressed the strategies, goals, and priorities identified in previous NRC reports. The NRC 

focused, in particular, on its previous reports Astronomy and Astrophysics in the New Millennium 

(2001) and Connecting Quarks with the Cosmos (2003). Noting that, over the past decade, the 

Astrophysics Science Division had made remarkable progress in meeting its goals, the authors of 

the new NRC report expressed concern that the division would likely produce far fewer 

discoveries after 2010. The NRC noted that NASA had based its recent discoveries on missions 

that it had developed during the previous decade. However, at the time NRC was examining 

NASA’s astrophysics program to prepare the new report, NASA had no small-scale, low-cost 

missions in development. The report warned of a four-year gap in NASA’s missions between 

2009, when NASA had scheduled the launch of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), 

and 2013, when NASA planned to launch the JWST. According to the report, NASA had skewed 

its astrophysics portfolio in favor of the largest missions, at the expense of smaller missions that 

could launch more frequently, such as the Explorer program missions. The report recommended 

that NASA restore funding for Explorer missions, even if funding those missions required that 

NASA scale back larger programs already in development.20

8 February

NASA astronauts Michael E. Lopez-Alegria and Sunita L. Williams undertook their third 

spacewalk outside the ISS in nine days. Over 6.5 hours, the astronauts accomplished their 

primary task—jettisoning two large thermal covers, folding them with smaller shrouds that had 

covered an electronics box, and tossing them away from the ISS, so that they would eventually 

burn up in Earth’s atmosphere. The astronauts also connected cables to a new system that would 

allow the ISS to share power with a docked orbiter; added a platform intended to hold a storage 

container; and photographed the docking port. Lopez-Alegria set a new U.S. spacewalking 

record of 61 hours and 22 minutes. The all-time record of more than 82 hours belonged to 

Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Y. Solovyov. Sunita L. Williams extended the spacewalking record 

she had set on 4 February to 29 hours and 17 minutes. The series of spacewalks that had begun 

on 31 January marked the first time that ISS crew had conducted three spacewalks within such a 

short time, without a Space Shuttle docked at the ISS.21

17 February

NASA launched its Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms 

(THEMIS) mission from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 6:01 p.m. (EST), 

marking the first time NASA had launched a five-satellite constellation aboard a single rocket. 

NASA had designed the mission to uncover the catalyst of geomagnetic substorms, the 

atmospheric events visible in the Northern Hemisphere as a sudden brightening of the aurora 

borealis. Scientists hoped that the mission’s findings would help protect humans and commercial 

 

20 National Research Council, National Astrophysics Performance Assessment Committee, A Performance 

Assessment of NASA’s Astrophysics Program (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2007), 

http://books.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11828#toc (accessed 5 March 2010); National Academies, “Cost 

Overruns, Cancelling of Small Missions Have Led to Lost Science Opportunities at NASA,” news release, 7 

February 2007, http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=11828 (accessed 10 

December 2009); New Scientist, “Report Slams NASA’s Neglect of Small Missions,” 7 February 2007. 21 Mike Schneider, “Astronaut Sets U.S. Spacewalking Record,” Associated Press, 9 February 2007.
Aeronautics and Astronautics: A Chronology, 2007

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satellites in space from the effects of particle radiation. NASA had planned the mission to last 

two years, during which time the five identical satellites would collect data, attempting to 

achieve what no previous single-satellite mission had been able to do—to pinpoint when and 

where substorms begin.22

20 February

NASA’s Ames Research Center (ARC) and Virgin Galactic signed a MOU, providing a 

framework to explore potential collaborations, such as developing spacesuits, heat shields for 

spacecraft, hybrid rocket motors, and hypersonic vehicles. The press also reported that the MOU 

included provisions for training NASA astronauts, for NASA to buy seats on a Virgin Galactic 

flight, and for NASA to provide technical advice to Virgin Galactic; however; these provisions 

were not, in fact, part of the agreement. A newly formed organization in the NASA Research 

Park at Ames—NASA’s Space Portal—had enabled the negotiation with Virgin Galactic to help 

NASA promote the development of the commercial space economy.23

21 February

NASA announced a landmark achievement of its Spitzer Space Telescope (SST). For the first 

time the SST had captured enough light from exoplanets—planets outside Earth’s solar system—

to identify molecular signatures in their atmospheres. NASA described the event as a significant 

step toward achieving the ability to detect life on rocky exoplanets. Using a spectrograph to 

reveal the “fingerprints” of the objects’ chemical composition, the space-based infrared SST had 

obtained the data from two different gaseous exoplanets—HD 189733b, located 63 light-years 

from Earth in the constellation Vulpecula, and HD 209458b, located 150 light-years away in the 

constellation Pegasus. The telescope had monitored the planets as they transited behind their 

stars and temporarily disappeared from view. Once the exoplanets were no longer visible, 

Spitzer’s spectrograph measured the dip in infrared light. The data collected through this method, 

known as the secondary-eclipse technique, indicated that the two planets—known as “hot 

Jupiters,” because they are gaseous like Jupiter, but orbit much closer to their stars—are drier 

and cloudier than scientists had previously predicted. Although scientists had predicted that 

water vapor would prove a common feature of the atmospheres of hot Jupiters, the SST found no 

evidence of water vapor on either HD189733b or HD 209458b.24

SPACEHAB announced that it had filed for a formal dismissal, with prejudice, of all litigation 

against NASA relating to losses incurred because of the Space Shuttle Columbia accident in 

2003. SPACEHAB stated that the potential benefits of continuing litigation no longer 

 

22 NASA, “NASA’s THEMIS Mission Launches To Study Geomagnetic Substorms,” news release 07-47, 17 

February 2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/feb/HQ_0747_THEMIS_Postlaunch.html (accessed 14 

October 2007).

23 NASA, “NASA, Virgin Galactic To Explore Future Cooperation,” news release 07-49, 21 February 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/feb/HQ_07049_Virgin_Galactic.html (accessed 14 October 2009); NASA, 

“NASA Provides Additional Information on Agreement with Virgin Galactic,” news release 07-50, 21 February 

2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/feb/HQ_07050_Virgin_Galactic_info.html (accessed 14 October 

2009); Associated Press, “NASA, Virgin Galactic Sign Agreement,” 22 February 2007; Matthew Moore, “Virgin 

Galactic To Train NASA Astronauts,” Daily Telegraph (London), 22 February 2007. 24 NASA, “NASA’s Spitzer First To Crack Open Light of Far Away Worlds,” news release 07-48, 21 February 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/feb/HQ_0748_Spitzer.html (accessed 14 October 2009); Eric Berger, 

“Another Step Closer To Finding a Planet Like Ours,” Houston Chronicle, 22 February 2007.
Aeronautics and Astronautics: A Chronology, 2007

10

outweighed the benefits of the case’s dismissal. At the time of the Columbia accident, NASA 

had been SPACEHAB’s largest customer. SPACEHAB had initiated a contract claim against 

NASA in January 2004, seeking US$87.7 million in damages for the loss of its Research Double 

Module (RDM). Claiming that its liability was limited under the contract, NASA had paid 

SPACEHAB US$8.2 million, including interest, in October 2004. SPACEHAB had filed an 

appeal with the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals, and the two parties had proceeded 

with preparations for a hearing, which the court had scheduled for July 2008. SPACEHAB had 

also filed a tort claim in November 2004, seeking US$79.7 million in additional damages, but the 

court had granted a motion in June 2006 to stay the case until resolution of the contract claim 

appeal. Dismissal of the claim required SPACEHAB to pay US$500,000 to Lloyd’s of London, 

the RDM insurer.25

22 February

Expedition 14 Commander Michael E. Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail V. Tyurin 

undertook a spacewalk outside the ISS lasting 6 hours and 18 minutes. In undertaking his 10th 

spacewalk, Lopez-Alegria set another U.S. record, surpassing Jerry L. Ross’s nine spacewalks. 

Although Tyurin initially encountered problems with his spacesuit’s cooling system, causing his 

visor to fog up, he and Lopez-Alegria accomplished several tasks, including repairing an antenna. 

The antenna had failed to retract on 26 October 2006, when a Russian Progress vehicle docked at 

the ISS’s Zvezda service module. To ensure the antenna would not interfere with the undocking 

of the craft in April, Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin partially retracted the stuck antenna and secured 

it with wire ties, leaving 6 inches (15 centimeters) of clearance, a distance adequate for 

undocking. Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin also photographed a Russian satellite navigation antenna, 

changed out a Russian materials experiment, photographed a German robotics experiment, and 

inspected and photographed an antenna and the docking targets for the European cargo craft, the 

Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV). The ATV, designed with greater capacity than the Russian 

Progress craft, had not yet made its first trip to the ISS.26

23 February

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) successfully launched a spy satellite aboard an H2A rocket from Japan’s southern island, Tanegashima, at 1:41 p.m. (JST). The spy satellite, the 

fourth of a four-craft constellation, enabled Japan to monitor any point on Earth once each day. 

Japan had previously relied on the United States for intelligence, but, following North Korea’s 

1998 launch of a ballistic missile over Japan, the Japanese government had decided to develop an 

independent intelligence-gathering capacity and had launched the four spy satellites. The H-2A 

launch vehicle also carried into orbit an experimental optical satellite, which would carry out 

tests for future espionage operations.27

 

25 SPACEHAB, “SPACEHAB Dismisses RDM Claim with NASA,” news release, 21 February 2007, http://www. 

spacehab.com/news-and-events/news/spacehab-dismisses-rdm-claim-with-nasa (accessed 13 January 2010); 

Houston Business Journal, “Spacehab Drops Suit Against NASA,” 21 February 2007. 26 NASA, “International Space Station Status Report: SS07-10,” 22 February 2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/

hqnews/2007/feb/HQ_SS0710_station_status.html (accessed 14 October 2009). 27 New York Times, “Japan Launches Its 4th Spy Satellite,” 25 February 2007; Agence France-Presse, “Japan 

Launches Spy Satellite,” 26 February 2007.
Aeronautics and Astronautics: A Chronology, 2007

11

26 February

NASA announced that NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin and Under Secretary of Defense 

for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics Kenneth J. Krieg had signed the National Partnership 

for Aeronautical Testing (NPAT) Agreement. NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) 

would use the integrated national strategy NPAT to manage their respective aeronautical test 

facilities, including wind tunnels, propulsion-test facilities, simulation facilities, and open-air 

ranges. The agreement fulfilled one element of the two agencies’ response to the National 

Aeronautics Research and Development Policy, which President George W. Bush had signed in 

December 2006. In addition to expanding the dialogue beyond the test-and-evaluation 

communities, to include industry, academia, and the science and technology programs of NASA 

and DOD, the agreement established a council responsible for developing projects to streamline 

and economize management of aeronautical test facilities. Lisa J. Porter, Associate Administrator 

of NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, and John B. Foulkes of DOD’s Test 

Resource Management Center would cochair the council.28

27 February

NASA announced that the ISS Independent Safety Task Force (IISTF) had released its final 

report, and that NASA had made the report available online. The U.S. Congress had mandated 

the task force under Section 801 of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration 

Authorization Act of 2005 (Pub. L. No. 109-155, Title VIII, Subtitle A, 119 Stat. 2940), charging 

it with reviewing the ISS program and assessing potential vulnerabilities that could threaten the 

crew or cause the station’s premature abandonment. In its report, the task force identified a 

number of potential risks to the ISS, including possible on-board fires, attacks on the station 

from Earth, and collisions with a robotic arm or with visiting vehicles. However, the report 

named micrometeoroids and space debris as the greatest threats to the ISS. Regarding safety and 

crew health, the task force concluded that ISS operating procedures were thorough and sound. 

However, the IISTF offered several recommendations to address the grave threat of small debris 

striking the ISS, including keeping spare windows on board and installing extra protective 

measures to prevent micrometeoroids or orbital debris from puncturing the station.29

28 February

NASA announced that its New Horizons spacecraft, en route to Pluto and the unexplored Kuiper 

Belt region, had successfully completed a flyby of Jupiter. NASA stated that New Horizons, 

designed as the fastest spacecraft ever launched, had gained nearly 9,000 miles per hour (14,484 

kilometers per hour) from Jupiter’s gravity, accelerating the craft to more than 52,000 miles per 

hour (83,685 kilometers per hour). Covering approximately 500 million miles (805 million 

kilometers) since its launch in January 2006, the craft had reached Jupiter more quickly than any 

of the seven previous spacecraft to visit the planet. New Horizon’s successful flyby confirmed 

 

28 NASA, “NASA and Department of Defense Partner for Aeronautical Testing,” news release 07-52, 26 February 

2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/feb/HQ_07052_DoD_MoU_aero.html (accessed 14 October 2009); 

United Press International, “NASA Signs Defense Department Agreement,” 28 February 2007.

29 NASA, “Independent Space Station Task Force Releases Final Report,” media advisory M07-27, 27 February 

2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/feb/HQ_M0727_Independent_ ISS_Task_ Force_Report.html

(accessed 14 October 2009); Larry Wheeler, “Report: Space Station at Risk for Catastrophe,” Florida Today

(Brevard, FL), 28 February 2007; United Press International, “Space Station Safety Report Is Issued,” 27 February 

2007; International Space Station Independent Safety Task Force, “Final Report” (NASA, Washington, DC, 

February 2007), http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/170368main_IIST_%20Final%20Report.pdf (accessed 29 January 2010).
Aeronautics and Astronautics: A Chronology, 2007

12

that the craft was on track to travel 3 billion miles (4.8 billion kilometers) and to reach the Pluto 

system in July 2015. Moreover, during the Jupiter encounter, the craft had conducted portions of 

an intense six-month-long systems check, including more than 700 scientific observations of the 

Jupiter system. New Horizons Principal Investigator S. Alan Stern of the Southwest Research 

Institute in Boulder, Colorado, described these checks as a purposely designed “tough test for the 

mission team” and for the spacecraft.30

MARCH 2007

1 March

NASA released images of solar activity captured by the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory 

(STEREO), a pair of spacecraft launched on 25 October 2006 to study the Sun. The images 

revealed a close view of the Sun’s activity, as well as a progressive view of the Sun’s radiation 

as it reaches Earth’s atmosphere. Scientists intended to use STEREO images to study the flow of 

energy from the Sun to Earth, in particular, coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which can cause 

dangerous solar storms. STEREO Principal Investigator Russell A. Howard stated that the new 

view from the spacecraft would improve scientists’ ability to forecast the arrival time of severe 

space weather, enabling them to predict the arrival of solar storms to within a couple of hours, 

instead of within a day.31

7 March

NASA issued a statement regarding the status of astronaut Lisa M. Nowak, the U.S. Navy 

captain charged with attempted kidnapping and related charges. Under a mutual agreement with 

the U.S. Navy, NASA was terminating Nowak’s detail as an astronaut, effective 8 March. 

Nowak, the first astronaut ever dismissed by NASA, had begun her detail with NASA following 

her selection as a member of the astronaut class of 1996. She had flown on her only mission, 

STS-121, in 2006. NASA had requested the U.S. Navy’s agreement to terminate Nowak’s detail 

because NASA lacked the administrative authority to address the criminal charges pending 

against Nowak. Because Nowak was a naval officer assigned to NASA, rather than a NASA civil 

servant, she was not subject to administrative action by NASA. NASA further stated that the 

decision to terminate Nowak’s detail did not indicate that NASA had taken a position on the 

criminal charges against her.32

NASA announced the completion of its Systems Requirement Review (SRR) of the Orion crew 

exploration vehicle (CEV), marking the first major milestone in Orion’s engineering process. In 

conducting the review of Orion’s requirements data set, NASA scientists and engineers had 

discussed more than 1,700 topics, covering all aspects of Orion’s performance, design, and 

qualifications. The SRR would provide a baseline for the design, development, construction, and 

safe operation of the spacecraft that NASA would use to carry astronauts beyond Earth orbit. In 

 

30 NASA, “NASA Spacecraft Gets Boost from Jupiter for Pluto Encounter,” news release 07-55, 28 February 2007,

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/feb/HQ_07055_New_Horizons_Jupiter_Flyby.html (accessed 14 October 

2009).

31 Aalok Mehta, “Photo in the News: Stunning New Images of Sun Captured,” National Geographic News, 1 March 

2007.

32 NASA, “Statement Regarding the Status of Lisa Nowak,” news release 07-26, 7 March 2007, http://www.nasa. 

gov/home/hqnews/2007/mar/HQ_07026_Nowak_Status.html (accessed 14 October 2009); Lianne Hart, “NASA 

Fires Astronaut Charged in Assault on Rival,” Los Angeles Times, 8 March 2007.
Aeronautics and Astronautics: A Chronology, 2007

13

November 2006, NASA had completed an overall review of requirements for the Constellation 

Program, which also included the Ares launch vehicles and systems for the human exploration of 

planetary surfaces.33

8 March

The Italian Centre for Aerospace Research (Centro Italiano Ricerche Aerospaziali—CIRA) 

announced that it had successfully tested a prototype of an unmanned space vehicle (USV). On 

24 February, CIRA had conducted a drop test of the torpedo-shaped craft from Tortolì Airport in 

Sardinia, releasing the USV from a balloon at an altitude of 21 kilometers (13 miles). The USV, 

named Castore, had reached a speed of Mach 1.05 in 70 seconds, and had successfully performed 

a nose-up maneuver at transonic speeds. However, following the successful test, the first-stage 

parachute had failed to deploy, causing the craft to split into three pieces. When the USV had 

crashed into the sea with too much force, one of the pieces of the craft had sunk. Gennaro Russo, 

USV Programme Manager and head of the Space Programmes Office at CIRA in Capua, Italy, 

stated that CIRA would use insurance money to rebuild Castore.34

9 March

An Atlas-5 rocket launched six satellites from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Two 

of the satellites were part of the Orbital Express Experiment and four would measure the 

chemical makeup of the atmosphere and the signal turbulence of satellites. The primary goal of 

Orbital Express, a joint effort of NASA, the U.S. Air Force, and the U.S. Defense Advanced 

Research Projects Agency (DARPA), was to develop a system allowing spacecraft to “act 

independently and smarter.” Fred G. Kennedy of the U.S. Air Force, DARPA Program Manager 

for Orbital Express, explained that the Orbital Express mission’s goal was to enable satellites 

autonomously to refuel, repair, and upgrade—a feat that would “radically change satellite 

design.” In April 2005, NASA had launched two satellites that were supposed to rendezvous 

autonomously, but a collision of the two craft during the docking attempt had destroyed them. 

Because the satellites were preprogrammed, ground controllers had been unable to transmit 

commands to the satellites’ computers. To avoid such an event in the future, DARPA had 

designed the Orbital Express satellites to accept guidance from ground controllers.35

11 March

An Ariane-5ECA rocket launched the British Defense Ministry’s 4.7-tonne (5.2-ton) Skynet-5A 

satellite and ISRO’s 3.1-tonne (3.4-ton) Insat-4B civil-communications satellite from Kourou, 

French Guiana. The Skynet 5A was part of a system designed to deliver secure, high-bandwidth 

communications for British armed forces, NATO, and other allied forces. Skynet had ultra-high-

 

33 NASA, “NASA Completes Key Review of Orion Spacecraft,” news release 07-58, 7 March 2007, http://www. 

nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/mar/HQ_07058_Orion_SRR.html (accessed October 14, 2009); Jefferson Morris, 

“Baseline Requirements Completed by NASA for Orion,” Aviation Week, 9 March 2007; “NASA’s Orion 

Spacecraft One Step Closer to Assembly,” Aero-News Network, 9 March 2007. 34 Agence France-Presse, “Italy Tests Prototype of Unmanned Space Shuttle,” 8 March 2007; Tariq Malik, “Italian 

Firm Hails Test of Unmanned Spacecraft Prototype,” Space.com, 12 March 2007, http://www.space.com/

businesstechnology/070312_usv_droptest.html (accessed 1 February 2010); Stuart Clark, “Uncrewed Space Plane 

Passes First Key Test,” New Scientist, 12 March 2007. 35 Spacewarn Bulletin, no. 641, 1 April 2007, http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/spacewarn/spx641.html (accessed 25 

January 2010); Todd Halvorson, “Atlas 5 Launches Satellites,” Florida Today (Brevard, FL), 9 March 2007; Shelby 

G. Spires, “2 Satellites To Test Auto Docking Technology,” Huntsville Times (AL), 9 March 2007.
Aeronautics and Astronautics: A Chronology, 2007

14

frequency and super-high-frequency communications instruments, a secure payload-control 

system, antijamming capabilities, and multiple spot beams. Insat 4B carried 12 Ku-band 

transponders to reach homes and businesses throughout India, as well as 12 C-band transponders 

to serve users living in an area stretching from the Middle East to Southeast Asia. Insat 4B was 

the second Insat-4 craft to reach orbit successfully. Insat 4A had successfully launched in 2005, 

but Insat 4C’s launch vehicle had exploded in July 2006, destroying the satellite.36

13 March

Yuzhnoye, the Ukrainian rocket-construction bureau and a member of the Sea Launch 

consortium, released its findings on the failed 30 January 2007 launch of the Zenit-3SL rocket. 

Yuzhnoye stated that a stray metal fragment had entered a pump in the rocket’s engine, causing 

the Zenit-3SL to explode during its attempt to launch a Boeing-built commercial 

communications satellite for the Netherlands-based SES New Skies. Representatives of the 

Ukrainian and Russian developers of the Zenit-3SL rocket had comprised the commission that 

investigated the launch failure.37

15 March

NASA announced the winning entry of the competition to name the Node 2 module of the ISS: 

the module’s name would be Harmony. The Node 2 module, built in Europe for NASA and 

scheduled to launch aboard STS-120 in 2007, would serve as a central hub for the ISS’s science 

laboratories. More than 2,000 students from 32 states had participated in the competition, and six 

schools had submitted the name “Harmony.” According to the rules of the contest, students had 

learned about the ISS, built a scale model, and written an essay explaining their proposed name 

for the module. A panel of NASA educators, engineers, scientists, and senior managers had 

selected the name because it symbolized the “spirit of international cooperation embodied by the 

space station, as well as the module’s specific role in connecting the international partner 

modules.”38

The House Committee on Science and Technology held a hearing on NASA’s fiscal year (FY) 

2008 budget request, receiving testimony from NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin. On 5 

February, President George W. Bush had presented to Congress NASA’s proposed US$17.3 

billion budget for FY 2008, as a component of the federal budget, including US$4 billion for five 

Space Shuttle flights and US$2.24 billion for ISS activities. Administrator Griffin urged 

Congress to fund NASA’s FY 2008 Exploration Systems request fully, enabling NASA to 

develop the Orion and the Ares-1 crew vehicles. He cautioned that NASA was unlikely to 

succeed in bringing new exploration capabilities online by 2014 because of several factors, 

including the cost of retiring the Space Shuttle and making the transition to the new vehicle, the 

cost of supporting the ISS, and the impact of the overall reduction in funding for NASA 

 

36 Spacewarn Bulletin, no. 641; Stephen Clark, “British and Indian Satellites Fly to Space on Ariane 5,” Spaceflight 

Now, 11 March 2007, http://spaceflightnow.com/ariane/v175/ (accessed 9 June 2010 ); Jonathan Amos, “British 

Skynet Satellite Launched,” BBC News, 12 March 2007, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6434773.stm (accessed 9 June 

2010).

37 Associated Press, “Company: Metal Fragment Doomed Rocket,” 14 March 2007; RIA Novosti, “Sea Launch 

Explosion Due To Engine Failure,” 14 March 2007.

38 NASA, “NASA Space Station Module in Perfect ‘Harmony’ with New Name,” news release 07-65, 15 March 

2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/mar/HQ_07065_Node_2_Naming_Announcement.html (accessed 14 

October 2009).
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15

mandated by the FY 2007 Continuing Resolution. However, Griffin stated that NASA would 

continue to “transition the workforce, infrastructure, and equipment from the Space Shuttle to 

new Exploration systems.” Committee Chair Bart Gordon (D-TN) criticized the Bush 

administration’s failure to recommend the funding levels necessary to support the exploration 

initiative, the ISS, the termination of the Space Shuttle program, and the upgrade of the aging 

Deep Space Network.39

20 March

Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), a private company based in El Segundo, California, 

launched its Falcon-1 rocket from Omelek Island in the Kwajawlein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. 

The 70-foot-long (21.3-meter-long), two-stage rocket, powered by liquid oxygen and kerosene, 

successfully reached space, accomplishing stage separation and second-stage ignition before 

reentering the atmosphere. Although the rocket failed to reach its desired orbit of 425 miles (684 

kilometers), SpaceX’s founder Elon Musk, also the cofounder of PayPal, considered the launch a 

success because the rocket had successfully achieved many of the riskiest milestones of 

launching and entering space. The company’s first attempt at launching a Falcon-1 rocket in 

2006 had failed when leaking fuel caught fire just after liftoff. SpaceX had designed the most 

recent mission—Demo 2—to gather flight data for the company’s main customer, DARPA, 

which was seeking more economical means of reaching space. The typical commercial launch 

service cost US$30 million, but Musk had pledged to launch satellites for US$7 million.40

21 March

NASA released images of the Sun, captured by the X-ray Telescope aboard the international 

spacecraft Hinode, formerly known as Solar B. The images showed that the Sun’s magnetic field 

“is much more turbulent and dynamic than previously known.” Richard R. Fisher of the 

Heliophysics Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate remarked that, for the first time, 

scientists could detect tiny granules of hot gas rising and falling in the Sun’s magnetized 

atmosphere. Alan M. Title of Lockheed Martin, also a professor of physics at Stanford 

University, added that Hinode images revealed irrefutable evidence of the presence of 

turbulence-driven processes that bring magnetic fields to the Sun’s surface, resulting in an 

extremely dynamic gaseous envelope around the Sun. A collaborative mission, led by JAXA and 

including ESA and Britain’s Particle Physics Astronomy Research Council, Hinode had 

launched on 23 September 2006. Hinode carried three primary instruments—the Solar Optical 

Telescope, the X-ray Telescope, and the Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer—to study 

the Sun’s magnetic field and how its explosive energy propagates through the various layers of 

the solar atmosphere.41

 

39 U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Science and Technology, “NASA’s Fiscal Year 2008 Budget 

Request,” 110th Cong., 1st Sess., 15 March, 2007, 28, http://origin.www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-110hhrg33803/

pdf/CHRG-110hrg33803.pdf (accessed 20 December 2010); U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Science 

and Technology, “NASA’s ‘Lean’ Budgetary Outlook Will Have Wide-Ranging Impact on Agency Programs,” 

press release, 15 March 2007, http://science.house.gov/press/PRArticle.aspx?NewsID=1724 (accessed 28 

September 2010).

40 John Antczak for Associated Press, “SpaceX Launches New Rocket Into Space,” 21 March 2007; John Schwartz, 

“Private Rocket Lost Shortly After Launch,” New York Times, 21 March 2007. 41 NASA, “International Spacecraft Reveals Detailed Processes on the Sun,” news release 07-72, 21 March 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/mar/HQ_07072_Hinode_Images_of_Sun.html (accessed 14 October 2009); 
Aeronautics and Astronautics: A Chronology, 2007

16

26 March

NASA announced the names of the committee members tasked with conducting a 

comprehensive review of the health care systems and medical policies that NASA provided for 

the benefit of astronauts, as well as the standards and certification NASA required of astronauts. 

The review included an examination of behavioral health care services available to astronauts. 

To chair the group of external experts, NASA named Richard E. Bachmann Jr. of the U.S. Air 

Force, an expert in aerospace medicine with experience providing medical support to people 

conducting operations in extreme environments. NASA appointed James M. Duncan, NASA 

Chief of Space Medicine, and Wayne R. Frazier, an executive from the Office of Safety and 

Mission Assurance at NASA Headquarters, to serve on the committee in an ex officio capacity. 

The arrest of astronaut Lisa M. Nowak in February had prompted the review.42

China National Space Administration (CNSA) and Roskosmos signed an agreement to launch a 

joint mission to Mars in 2009, marking a milestone in space cooperation between the People’s 

Republic of China and Russia. The agreement stipulated that a Russian rocket would launch a 

Chinese satellite to Mars, along with Russia’s Phobos Explorer. The Chinese satellite would 

explore the Martian atmosphere and the Phobos Explorer would land on the Martian moon 

Phobos, to collect soil samples to return to Earth.43

27 March

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) released images of “an odd, six-sided, honeycombshaped feature circling the entire north pole of Saturn.” NASA’s Cassini spacecraft had collected 

the images in thermal-infrared light during a 12-day period beginning on 30 October 2006. 

NASA’s Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft had also collected images of the hexagon-shaped feature 

more than 20 years before, indicating the long-lived nature of the feature. The Cassini images 

also revealed that the hexagon, which is 25,000 kilometers (15,000 miles) across, extends 

approximately 100 kilometers (60 miles) into the atmosphere, much deeper than previously 

thought. Kevin H. Baines, an atmospheric expert and member of Cassini’s visual and infrared 

mapping spectrometer team at NASA’s JPL, remarked that scientists had never seen a feature 

like the hexagon on any other planet. Because of its thick atmosphere, where circularly shaped 

waves and convective cells dominate, Saturn was the last place scientists had expected to see 

such a feature.44

30 March

NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate and the American Helicopter Society (AHS) 

selected Eric Greenwood II—a graduate student at the University of Maryland, who was 

studying aerospace engineering with a specialty in rotorcraft acoustics—as the first winner of the 

 Jeanna Bryner, “Twisted Solution to Sun’s Mystery Heat,” Space.com, 21 March 2007, http://www.space.com/ 

scienceastronomy/070321_solarb_update.html (accessed 28 January 2010). 42 NASA, “NASA Announces Medical Review Team Members,” news release 07-75, 26 March 2007, http://www. 

nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/mar/HQ_07075_Medical_Review_Members.html (accessed 14 October 2009); Jeanna 

Bryner, “NASA Sets Team To Review Astronaut Mental Healthcare,” Space.com, 26 March 2007, http://www.space. 

com/news/070326_nasa_healthcare.html (accessed 27 January 2010). 43 Agence France-Presse, “China and Russian Plan Joint Mission to Mars,” 28 March 2007. 44 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), “Cassini Images Bizarre Hexagon on Saturn,” news release 2007-034, 27 

March 2007, http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2007-034 (accessed 1 February 2010).
Aeronautics and Astronautics: A Chronology, 2007

17

NASA-AHS Robert L. Lichten Internship Award. The basis of the award was a paper that 

Greenwood had submitted to the AHS International 2007 Robert L. Lichten Competition, 

“Helicopter External Noise Radiation in Turning Flight: Theory and Experiment.” During his 

eight-week NASA-sponsored internship, Greenwood would divide his time between two NASA 

centers: ARC at Moffett Field, California, and Langley Research Center (LaRC) in Hampton, 

Virginia. Greenwood would work on NASA’s science and technology projects involving rotary 

wings.45

APRIL 2007 

3 April

NASA released a study finding that, in 2005, the Arctic had replaced very little of the thick sea 

ice that it loses and replenishes annually. The findings complemented an earlier study showing a 

14 percent decrease in perennial ice between 2004 and 2005. That study had provided the first 

reliable estimates of the annual variation of perennial ice replenishment at the end of summer. 

Ron Kwok of NASA’s JPL had used data, including data that NASA’s QuikSCAT satellite had 

collected, to study six annual cycles of Arctic perennial ice coverage. The results of the study 

indicated that only 4 percent of the thin, seasonal ice that had formed during the winter of 2005 

had survived the summer, leaving perennial ice coverage in January 2006 14 percent smaller 

than in 2005. The 2005 replenishment was the smallest seen in any study to date. Kwok had also 

studied the 2005–2006 temperature records, comparing them with records dating back to 1958. 

The temperature records demonstrated a gradual warming trend during the first 30 years after 

1958, with a rapid acceleration after the mid-1980s. Kwok remarked that “the record doesn’t 

show any hint of recovery from these trends,” adding that, “if the correlations between 

replenishment area and numbers of freezing and melting temperature days hold long term, it’s 

expected the perennial ice coverage will continue to decline.” Geophysical Research Letters

published the study, “Near Zero Replenishment of the Arctic Multiyear Sea Ice Cover at the End 

of 2005 Summer,” in its 2 March 2007 issue.46

6 April

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) published a final rule, effective 5 June 2007, 

governing experimental permits for launching reusable suborbital rockets for space tourism. 

Under the rules, which the U.S. Congress had mandated in the Commercial Space Launch 

Amendments Act of 2004 (Pub. L. No. 108-492), a single experimental permit would cover 

multiple vehicles of a particular design and allow an unlimited number of launches. The FAA 

would identify the type of design changes that it would permit the licensed launch company to 

make without invalidating the permit; renew the one-year permit after conducting a review; 

prohibit companies conducting test flights covered by an experimental permit to carry passengers 

for compensation or hire; establish criteria for the physical area in which a company could 

 

45 NASA, “NASA Announces First Lichten Intership Award Winner,” news release 07-79, 30 March 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/mar/HQ_07079_ARMD_Intern.html (accessed 14 October 2009). 46 NASA, “NASA Finds Arctic Replenished Very Little Thick Sea Ice in 2005,” news release 07-77, 3 April 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/apr/HQ_07077_Arctic_Sea_Ice.html (accessed 16 February 2010); Ron 

Kwok, “Near Zero Replenishment of the Arctic Multiyear Sear Ice Cover at the End of 2005 Summer,” Geophysical 

Research Letters 34 (2 March 2007): L05501−L05506, http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2007/2006GL028737. 

shtml (accessed 24 March 2010).
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18

operate a vehicle with an experimental permit; and require a vehicle developer applying for a 

permit to provide a program description, flight-test plan, and operational-safety documentation.47

7 April

TMA-10 launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 17:31 (UT), carrying 

Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor N. Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg V. Kotov, as well as 

Charles Simonyi, who had paid US$25 million to travel to the ISS as a tourist. After joining 

Microsoft Corporation in 1981, Simonyi had led the development of the computer software 

programs Word and Excel, but he had since left Microsoft to start International Software 

Corporation of Bellevue, Washington. Simonyi planned to participate in several medical and 

engineering experiments during his 11-day visit to the ISS and to update the blog for his studentoriented Web site, www.charlesinspace.com, among other educational activities. Simonyi 

remarked that his one goal was to educate students about the science of space travel. The Russian 

space agency Roskosmos had scheduled Simonyi to return to Earth on 20 April, with Expedition 

14 Commander Michael E. Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail V. Tyurin. LopezAlegria and Tyurin had been aboard the ISS since September 2006. Flight Engineer Sunita L. 

Williams, who had served with Expedition 14 since December 2006, would remain aboard the 

ISS as a member of Expedition 15 until later in 2007.48

9 April

NASA announced modifications to the ISS contract with Roskosmos. The US$719 million 

modified contract covered crew rotations for 15 crew members—six in 2009, six in 2010, and 

three in 2011—as well as the delivery and removal of 5.6 tonnes (6.2 tons) of cargo. The 

modification also included NASA’s purchase of a Russian Docking Cargo Module flight in 2010, 

which would carry 1.4 tonnes (1.5 tons) of NASA cargo to the ISS, and the purchase of a flight 

opportunity in 2009, which would allow an astronaut from one of the ISS partner nations to 

spend approximately six months aboard the space station.49

16 April

NASA announced an agreement with the U.S. Air Force to support abort-flight-test requirements 

for the Orion Project. Under a contract with Orbital Sciences Corporation of Chandler, Arizona, 

the U.S. Air Force Space Development and Test Wing at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, 

had scheduled flight tests of abort-test boosters. The purpose of the tests, which would begin in 

2009 at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) in New Mexico and would last through 2011, was 

to support certification of the Orion CEV’s launch-abort system. The system included a small 

 

47 Rob Coppinger, “Space Tourism Vehicle Flight Test Rules Published by FAA,” Flightglobal.com, 9 April 2007, 

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2007/04/09/213108/space-tourism-vehicle-flight-test-rules-published-byfaa.html (accessed 2 March 2010); “Experimental Permits for Reusable Suborbital Rockets,” 72 Fed. Reg. 17,001 (6 

April 2007).

48 NASA, “International Space Station Status Report SS07-18,” 7 April 2007, http://www.nasa.gov/homehqnews/ 

2007/apr/HQ_SS0718_station_status.html (accessed 16 February 2010); Spacewarn Bulletin, no. 642, 1 May 2007, 

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/spacewarn/spx642.html (accessed March 1, 2010); Marc Carreau, “5th Space Tourist Goes 

into Orbit on $25 Million Ticket,” Houston Chronicle, 8 April 2007; Scott Gutierrez, “Developer of Word on Way 

to Space Station,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer (WA), 9 April 2007.

49 NASA, “NASA Extends Contract with Russia’s Federal Space Agency,” contract release C07-18, 9 April 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/apr/HQ_C07-18_Roscosmos.html (accessed 2 March 2010); Rob 

Coppinger, “NASA Signs Five-Year $719 Million International Space Station Crew and Cargo Contract with 

Russia’s Federal Space Agency,” Flight International, 10 April 2007.
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19

escape rocket designed to ensure the safety of the crew in the event of a launch-vehicle 

malfunction while on the launchpad or during ascent to orbit. Of the six tests planned, two would 

simulate a situation involving an abort from the launchpad and would require no booster; the 

remainder would use abort-test boosters to simulate aborts at three stressing conditions along the 

Ares launch-vehicle trajectory.50

17 April

A Dnepr rocket launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 7:02 (UT), carrying a 

variety of small satellites, many of them student-built. Four American-built picosatellites, 

dubbed Objects T, S, R, and Q—all CubeSats with masses of 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds)—were 

technology demonstrators, including two—CalPoly 3 (CP 3) and CalPoly 4 (CP 4)—that 

students at California Polytechnic University and Stanford University had built. Students at the 

University of Louisiana, Lafayette, had built another CubeSat—CAPE 1—with a mass of 1 

kilogram (2.2 pounds), to collect and store data on the ambient ionosphere and to relay the data 

to the students. Students at Sergio Arboleda University had constructed Libertad 1, a Colombian 

1-kilogram (2.2-pound) CubeSat, for an unspecified purpose. The Dnepr rocket also carried five 

Saudi Arabian communications nanosatellites. Students and faculty of King Abdulaziz City for 

Science and Technology had built the 12-kilogram (26.5-pound) CubeSats, which were the first 

five of a planned fleet of 24 nanosatellites that would store and forward communications. Also 

aboard was EgyptSat 1, a 100-kilogram (220.5-pound) Egyptian minisatellite carrying a 

multispectral imager for Earth observation.51

20 April

NASA announced that it had awarded a contract to the Boeing Company to provide engineering 

and technical support for four specialized research aircraft—two F-15s and two F/A-18s—at 

NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC). NASA had modified the aircraft to conduct a 

variety of flight-research missions to support NASA and other government agencies, as well as 

private industry. The contract’s value was as much as US$28 million during the five-year 

performance period lasting through April 2012.52

NASA announced a modification to its contract with Lockheed Martin to design, test, and build 

the Orion CEV. The modified contract had three significant changes, including the addition of 

two test flights of Orion’s launch-abort system and the deletion from the initial design phase of 

the production of a pressurized cargo carrier for the ISS. The contract also added two years to the 

development period, extending it to December 2013, and increased the contract’s value from 

US$3.9 billion to US$4.3 billion. The modification reflected the continuing progress on Orion’s 

development and NASA’s evolving budgetary landscape.53

 

50 NASA, “NASA Buys Abort Test Boosters for Orion Flight Tests,” news release 07-86, 16 April 2007, http://www. 

nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/apr/HQ_07086_Orion_ATB_purchase.html (accessed 16 February 2010). 51 Spacewarn Bulletin, no. 642. 52 NASA, “NASA Awards California Aircraft Support Contract to Boeing,” contract release C07-20, 20 April 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/apr/HQ_C0720_Boeing_Aircraft_Support.html (accessed 16 February 

2010).

53 NASA, “NASA Modifies Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle Contract,” contract release C07-21, 20 April 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/apr/HQ_C0721_Orion_Contract_Mod.html (accessed 16 February 2010).
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20

24 April

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency successfully launched a Minotaur-1 rocket from the MidAtlantic Regional Spaceport launchpad on Wallops Island, Virginia, at 2:47 a.m. (EST). The 

rocket carried the Near Field Infrared Experiment (NFIRE), which was part of a study to 

improve the interception of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and to assess the viability 

of a laser communication system for missile-defense applications. During the mission, an 

infrared tracking sensor on board NFIRE would collect exhaust-plume data from two disarmed 

Minutemen ICBMs, which the agency would launch later in 2007 from Vandenberg Air Force 

Base in California. The launch of Minotaur 1 was the second launch from the Mid-Atlantic 

Regional Spaceport. Operated by a consortium including Old Dominion University and the states 

of Maryland and Virginia, the spaceport was one of six federally licensed spaceports in the 

United States.54

25 April

NASA launched its Aeronomy of Ice in Mesosphere (AIM) satellite aboard a Pegasus-XL rocket 

dropped from a Stargazer-L-1011 aircraft. The Stargazer launched from Vandenberg Air Force 

Base in California at 21:26 (UT). NASA had designed AIM to study noctilucent clouds (NLCs) 

in the polar mesosphere. Observers can only see NLCs at night. Shortly before the mission, these 

clouds had appeared more often and had grown brighter. Observers had first seen NLCs in the 

1880s, soon after the massive volcanic eruption on the Indonesian island of Krakatoa. Spacebased satellites had periodically observed the clouds since the 1980s. AIM was the first 

spacecraft devoted to the study of NLCs. Scientists hoped to answer basic questions about why 

the clouds form and whether human-caused global warming was responsible for the recent 

changes. AIM carried three instruments: the Solar Occultation for Ice Experiment (SOFIE) 

would remotely sense the gases that condense to NLCs; the Cosmic Dust Experiment (CDE) 

would serve as an in situ sampler of the cosmic dust over the NLCs; and the Cloud Imaging and 

Particle Size (CIPS) experiment, a panoramic ultraviolet (UV) imager of the NLCs operating in 

the 265-nanometer-wavelength band, would provide the morphology of the clouds in both 

hemispheres.55

26 April

The U.S. Air Force granted SpaceX a five-year license to launch satellites from Space Launch 

Complex 40 (SLC 40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Commander of the U.S. 

Air Force Space Command Kevin P. Chilton remarked that such agreements encourage 

entrepreneurial space achievement, which could benefit DOD and the commercial space industry. 

Under the agreement, SpaceX would pay for all improvements, construction, and maintenance 

related to operations at the site. Before receiving the license, SpaceX had operated from a launch 

complex on Omelek Island, in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. Elon Musk of SpaceX 

highlighted the importance of access to the Cape Canaveral launch complex, stating that SLC 40 

was the only launchpad capable of supporting activities involving SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Heavy. The 

 

54 Stephen Furness, “Wallops Spaceport’s 2:47 a.m. Launch a Success,” Chincoteague Beacon (VA), 24 April 2007; 

Jon W. Glass, “Rocket Launched Successfully from Eastern Shore Spaceport,” Virginian-Pilot (Hampton Roads, 

VA), 25 April 2007.

55 Spacewarn Bulletin, no. 642; NASA, “NASA’s AIM Mission Soars to the Edge of Space,” news release 07-92, 25 

April 2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/apr/HQ_07092_AIM_launch.html (accessed 16 February 

2010); Associated Press, “NASA Launches Satellite To Study Clouds,” 26 April 2007.
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21

license allowed the government to retain the right to let other competitors share use of the launch 

site.56

28 April

A UP Aerospace–built SpaceLoft SL-2 rocket launched from Spaceport America in New Mexico, 

carrying small amounts of the cremated remains of approximately 200 people, including Star 

Trek creator Eugene W. Roddenberry and Star Trek actor James M. Doohan. The event was the 

first successful launch into space from the commercial spaceport; the company’s first attempt in 

December 2006 had failed when the SpaceLoft XL rocket corkscrewed out of control seconds 

after the launch, never reaching space. The SL-2 rocket reached an altitude of almost 73 miles 

(117 kilometers) before returning to Earth. The payload landed by parachute at WSMR, 33 miles 

(53 kilometers) east of the launch site. UP Aerospace President Jerry Larson remarked that the 

launch’s only malfunction was a signal beacon, an equipment failure that prevented WSMR from 

tracking the launch vehicle during the opening moments of the 13-minute flight.57

MAY 2007 

1 May

NASA released images that its New Horizons spacecraft had captured 28 February 2007, when 

the craft passed within 1.4 million miles (2.2 million kilometers) of Jupiter on its way to Pluto. 

The images provided “never-before-seen perspectives” of the giant planet’s atmosphere, rings, 

moons, and magnetosphere, including the first close-up scans of Jupiter’s second-largest storm

Little Red Spot, which had formed during the previous decade when three smaller storms merged. 

Harold A. Weaver Jr., New Horizons Project Scientist for the John Hopkins University Applied 

Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, remarked that the image was “the best look ever of a 

storm like this in its infancy.” New Horizons had also captured the clearest images to date of the 

tenuous Jovian ring system, including images revealing a series of unexpected arcs and clumps 

of dust in the system, indicating that a small object had recently impacted the ring. In addition, 

NASA had compiled movies using the images, creating an unprecedented view of ring dynamics. 

Jeffrey Moore, New Horizons Jupiter Encounter Science Team Leader, commented that the new 

images enabled scientists to view the rapid evolution of Jupiter’s rings, detecting changes within 

weeks and months. Scientists had already made similar observations of Saturn’s rings. The New 

Horizons spacecraft had launched in January 2006.58

2 May

Former U.S. Navy pilot and astronaut Walter M. “Wally” Schirra Jr., one of the astronauts 

known as the Original Seven, died of a heart attack at the age of 84. Schirra was the only 

astronaut to participate in all three of the United States’ first human space projects—Mercury, 

Gemini, and Apollo. Selected in 1959 as one of the first seven astronauts, Schirra had made his 

first spaceflight on 3 October 1962, piloting the fifth Mercury mission, in which Mercury orbited 

 

56 Associated Press, “Air Force OKs License for SpaceX,” 27 April 2007; Brian Berger, “U.S. Air Force Licenses 

SpaceX To Launch from Cape Canaveral,” Space.com, 26 April 2007, http://www.space.com/news/070426_spacex_ 

capecanaveral.html (accessed 9 June 2010). 57 Jose L. Medina, “Spaceport Launch a Success,” Las Cruces Sun News (NM), 30 April 2007. 58 NASA, “Pluto-Bound New Horizons Provides New Look at Jupiter System,” news release 07-95, 1 May 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/may/HQ_07095_Pluto.html (accessed 24 March 2010); Agence FrancePresse, “Jupiter’s Moons Shepherd Dust Through Wings: NASA,” 2 May 2007.
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22

Earth six times in 9 hours and 13 minutes. On 15 December 1965, Schirra had flown aboard 

Gemini 6-A with Thomas P. Stafford II, in a mission that included the first rendezvous of 

maneuverable spacecraft. Gemini 6-A, carrying Schirra and Stafford, had flown in formation for 

5 hours with Gemini 7, which carried astronauts Frank F. Borman II and James A. Lovell Jr. 

With his fellow Apollo 7 crew members Walter Cunningham and Donn F. Eisele, Schirra had 

tested the Apollo’s systems during an 11-day flight beginning on 11 October 1968, a test that 

proved that Apollo was ready to ferry astronauts to the Moon. The Apollo 7 flight, Schirra’s final 

mission for NASA, had been the first to provide televised images from orbit. Following his 

retirement from the U.S. Navy in 1969, Schirra had worked with Walter L. Cronkite Jr. as a news 

commentator for CBS. Schirra was also a founding member and director of the Mercury Seven 

Foundation. The U.S. military had awarded Schirra the Navy Distinguished Service Medal, three 

Distinguished Flying Crosses, three Air Medals, and the Philippines Legion of Honor. NASA 

had awarded him two Distinguished Service Medals and its Exceptional Service Medal.59

3 May

NASA announced the winner of the first Astronaut Glove Challenge, one of NASA’s Centennial 

Challenges. Peter K. Homer of Southwest Harbor, Maine, won US$200,000 for his design of a 

glove that performed better overall than those his competitors had created, according to tests 

rating the glove’s strength, flexibility, and comfort. NASA stated that Homer had made 

innovations in finger dexterity that could enhance the gloves created for NASA’s astronauts in 

the future.60

4 May

Europe’s Ariane-5ECA rocket launched a two-satellite payload, weighing 9.4 tonnes (10.4 tons), 

from Europe’s launch center in Kourou, French Guiana, at 22:29 (GMT), setting a new 

benchmark for a commercial launch. The heavy-lift rocket carried Galaxy 17, an American 

geostationary communications satellite, and Astra 1L, a European geostationary communications 

satellite. Galaxy 1 would provide telephone and television services for South America, North 

America, and Europe; Astra 1L would provide direct-to-home video and voice links throughout 

Europe. NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin attended the launch to observe the Ariane5ECA rocket, which would begin launching payloads to the ISS later in 2007.61

5 May

DARPA’s Orbital Express mission successfully executed a maneuver to demonstrate a satelliteservicing technique. Orbital Express consisted of a robotic servicer called ASTRO and a fuel 

depot and client satellite called NextSat. The mission aimed to demonstrate in-orbit refueling and 

servicing. The test marked the first time the two craft had maneuvered separately, flying apart at 

a distance of approximately 10 meters (33 feet). After the two craft had flown apart for 1 hour, 

 

59 NASA, “Veteran Astronaut Walter Schirra Dies,” news release 07-100, 3 May 2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/

hqnews/2007/may/HQ_07100_Schirra_Dies.html (accessed 24 March 2010); Richard Goldstein, “Walter M. Schirra 

Jr., Astronaut, Dies at 84,” New York Times, 4 May 2007. 60 NASA, “Peter Homer Wins NASA’s Challenges for Improved Astronaut Gloves,” news release 07-101, 3 May 

2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/may/HQ_07101_Winner_of_Astronaut_Glove_ Challenge.html

(accessed 24 March 2010).

61 Spacewarn Bulletin, no. 643, 1 June 2007, http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/spacewarn/spx643.html (accessed 26 March 

2010); BBC News, “European Rocket Powers To Record,” 4 May 2007, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/

6621297.stm (accessed 10 June 2010).
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23

ASTRO directed on-board guidance and navigation instruments to close in and to dock with 

NextSat, completing the mission’s objectives without input from ground controllers. The test was 

the third of nine increasingly complex procedures DARPA had planned for the mission.62

8 May

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) announced the successful completion of 

subscale-main-injector hardware, an early step in the development of the RS-68 engine that 

would power the core stage of NASA’s Ares 5. Under the Constellation Program, Ares 5 would 

serve as NASA’s cargo launch vehicle, delivering large-scale hardware and systems to space, in 

support of NASA’s exploration missions to the Moon. MSFC engineers had conducted multiple 

hot-fire tests on the inject hardware, a major component of the engine. The hardware would 

inject and mix liquid-hydrogen and liquid-oxygen propellants in the engine’s combustion 

chamber, where they would ignite and burn to produce thrust. Because injector hardware for the 

RS-68 and the J-2X engine systems shared design features, engineers planned to use data 

collected during the tests to develop the J-2X engine systems for the upper stages of Ares 5 and 

for Ares 1, the crew launch vehicle (CLV) that would carry the Orion spacecraft.63

9 May

NASA announced its selection of four research teams, which would receive five-year grants 

valued at approximately US$7 million per team. The teams would become new members of the 

NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI), increasing the number of the NAI’s members to 16. The 

University of Wisconsin team proposed to study organic and mineralogical environments and 

signatures of life on Earth and on other planets, focusing on technologies for detecting microbial 

life within rock chemistry. The team from the California Institute of Technology planned to 

extend the research it had conducted at NAI during 2001−2006, using the Virtual Planetary 

Laboratory that the team had developed to explore the habitability and biosignatures of 

extrasolar Earth-like planets. The Montana State University team would investigate the role of 

iron-sulfide compounds in the transition from the nonliving to the living world, supporting 

NASA’s mission to investigate prebiotic chemistry and the development of signatures for 

terrestrial and extraterrestrial life. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology planned to 

investigate requirements for the development of multicellular life in Earth’s ancient past, 

concentrating on organic biosignatures preserved in the rock record and on the state of Earth’s 

early atmosphere.64

NASA announced that it had signed a MOU with the FAA to develop U.S. students’ skills in 

science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The partnership, which complemented and 

supported each organization’s educational goals, would offer a broad range of cooperative 

outreach activities, with the initial focus on NASA’s curriculum Smart Skies. An online air 

traffic–control simulator for students in fifth through ninth grades, Smart Skies provided a fun 

way to learn mathematics and problem solving, as well as skills essential to air traffic control. 

The program would also provide students with the opportunity to learn about high-technology 

 

62 Stephen Clark, “Orbital Express Duo Split Apart, Rejoin Autonomously,” Spaceflight Now, 7 May 2007. 63 NASA, “NASA Successfully Completes Engine Hardware Tests for Ares V,” MSFC news release 07-053, 8 May 

2007, http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/news/news/releases/2007/07-053.html (accessed 1 April 2010). 64 NASA, “NASA Selects New Members of Astrobiology Institute,” new release 07-108, 9 May 2007, http://www.

nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/may/HQ_07108_Astrobiology_Grants.html (accessed 24 March 2010).
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24

careers related to aviation. NASA had developed the Smart Skies program with help from air 

traffic controllers at the FAA’s Oakland, California, facility.65

12 May

Four teams competed at NASA’s Regolith Excavation Challenge to dig a minimum of 150 

kilograms (331 pounds) of simulated lunar soil—regolith—within 0.5 hours, using no more than 

30 watts of power. However, none of the teams succeeded in winning the US$125,000 first prize. 

The top performer was the entry from Technology Ranch of Pixmo Beach, California, the only 

machine to run for a full 30 minutes in its first attempt and to scoop up 75 kilograms (165 

pounds) of regolith. The Regolith Excavation Challenge was the seventh centennial challenge 

NASA had held since 2005. However, the only person who had won any of the competitions was 

Peter K. Homer, who had won US$200,000 for his entry in the Astronaut Glove Challenge on 3 

May. Kenneth Davidian, Program Manager of NASA’s Centennial Challenges Program, stated 

that NASA would add the unawarded prize money to the winnings for the 2008 Regolith 

Excavation Challenge, increasing the value of the prize for that competition to US$375,000. 

Davidian said that he expected the number of teams competing in the challenge would double 

and that many more NASA engineers would observe the competition in the future.66

13 May

The People’s Republic of China launched NIGCOMSAT-1—a communications satellite that 

China had manufactured for Nigeria—aboard a Long March-3B rocket from Xichang Launch 

Center in Sichuan Province. The launch marked the first time that China had built and launched a 

satellite under a contract with another country. China had reportedly secured the US$311 million 

contract in 2004, in a bidding process that had included 21 companies, in addition to China. The 

5.2-tonne (5.7-ton) craft carried four C-band, eighteen Ku-band, four Ka-band, and two L-band 

transponders, for providing voice, video, and data links to all of Africa, southern Europe, and 

parts of the Middle East. News reports described the launch as a symbol of China’s broad 

network of economic relations with African nations, suggesting that the launch signaled China’s 

wish to cooperate with developing countries in the peaceful use of outer space. Nigerian officials 

hailed the launch as a breakthrough that signaled the end of the nation’s exclusive reliance on oil. 

Hammed Rufai, Managing Director of the NIGCOMSAT-1 project for Nigeria, remarked that 

the satellite would help Nigeria develop knowledge-based industries.67

17 May

The House Science and Technology Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics held a hearing to 

examine NASA workforce issues and recommendations made in recently released reports of two 

independent review panels—the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA), and the 

NRC. The subcommittee noted a sizeable shift in NASA’s programmatic activities, to implement 

the Vision for Space Exploration; retire the Shuttle by 2010; complete the ISS; develop the 

Orion CEV and the Ares CLV; and deal with the growing retirement-eligible workforce, all 

within the framework of a limited budget. NASA Assistant Administrator for Human Capital 

 

65 NASA, “NASA and FAA Team To Encourage Aviation and Space Careers,” news release 07-107, 9 May 2007,

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/may/HQ_07107_NASA_FAA_MOU.html (accessed 24 March 2010). 66 Dana Mackenzie, “No One Scoops the Prize at Moon Digger Contest,” New Scientist, 14 May 2007. 67 Spacewarn Bulletin, no. 643; Edward Cody, “China Builds and Launches a Satellite for Nigeria,” Washington 

Post, 14 May 2007.
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25

Management Toni Dawsey testified that NASA’s Workforce Strategy, submitted to Congress in 

April 2006, articulated three underlying principles: “building and sustaining ten healthy Centers; 

maximizing the use of NASA’s current human capital capabilities; and evolving to a more 

flexible, scalable workforce.” John G. Stewart, a member of NAPA’s Panel on NASA MultiSector Workforce, summarized the panel’s major recommendations, including NASA’s adoption 

of “a longer range, risk-based planning strategy to anticipate and respond effectively to future 

program needs, budget shortfalls, and schedule revisions for [its] total multi-sector workforce.” 

David C. Black, co-chair of NRC’s Committee on Issues Affecting the Future of the U.S. Space 

Science and Engineering Workforce, testified that the committee had concluded that NASA did 

not currently have the in-house expertise, particularly in the areas of systems engineering and 

project management, to implement the Vision for Space Exploration. Black recommended that 

NASA adopt policies enabling it to obtain the highest quality personnel over the long term. Toni 

Dawsey acknowledged that NAPA’s and NRC’s reports confirmed NASA’s “assessments of the 

challenges facing us in the workforce arena and validate the actions that we have initiated to 

address the most critical and encompassing issues.”68

19 May

Orbital Express successfully captured the ASTRO servicing satellite, and its client spacecraft 

NextSat, after the two spacecraft had flown apart for nearly eight days. ASTRO’s primary sensor 

flight computer AC-2 had failed during a test on 11 May, causing the craft to lose its relative 

navigation. During the test, the pair of craft had undocked and separated as planned, moving 

apart to a distance of 10 meters (33 feet). After the failure of its AC-2 computer, ASTRO had 

behaved according to the protocol of its programmed fault-protection software, flying 120 meters 

(394 feet) away from NextSat to avoid inadvertently colliding with the satellite. However, 

thereafter, ASTRO had drifted approximately 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) away from NextSat, 

requiring ground observers’ intervention to help the two craft remate successfully. DARPA 

planned to conduct a technical review of ASTRO’s sensor- and navigation-performance lessons 

and to conduct an investigation into the cause of the AC-2’s failure. The technical review would 

assist DARPA in planning the remaining set of Orbital Express demonstration activities, 

scheduled for the following weeks.69

21 May

NASA celebrated the 80th anniversary of Charles A. Lindbergh’s solo transatlantic flight with 

Lindbergh’s grandson Erik Lindbergh, himself an aviator, who had recreated his grandfather’s 

historic flight in 2002. Erik Lindbergh joined NASA in its rededication of a unique astronomy 

 

68 National Research Council, Committee on Meeting the Workforce Needs for the National Vision for Space 

Exploration, Building a Better NASA Workforce: Meeting the Workforce Needs for the National Vision for Space 

Exploration (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2007); National Academy of Public Administration, 

NASA: Balancing a Multisector Workforce To Achieve a Healthy Organization (report, Washington, DC, February 

2007), 95−101, in U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Science and Technology, Subcommittee 

on Space and Aeronautics, Building and Maintaining a Healthy and Strong NASA Workforce, 110th Cong., 1st sess., 

17 May 2007; U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Science and Technology, “Subcommittee 

Focuses on Ensuring the Health and Vitality of NASA’s Current and Future Workforce,” news release, 17 May 2007, 

http://science.house.gov/press/PRArticle.aspx?NewsID=1833 (accessed 9 August 2010). 69 U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, “Orbital Express Spacecraft Successfully Rendezvous, 

Remate,” news release, 21 May 2007, http://www.darpa.mil/news/2007/oe_remate.pdf (accessed 6 April 2010); 

Kelly Young, “Estranged Satellite Pair Reunited at Last,” New Scientist, 21 May 2007; Stephen Clark, “Computer 

Problem Interrupts Satellite Servicing Demo,” Spaceflight Now, 15 May 2007.
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craft, a 747 airliner, which Pan American Airways had christened “Clipper Lindbergh” in 1977. 

NASA had modified the aircraft, enabling it to carry a 45,000-pound (22.5-ton or 20.4 tonnes) 

infrared telescope system. Designed to fly at more than 40,000 feet (12,192 meters), the 

Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) would operate at an altitude above 

nearly 99 percent of Earth’s atmospheric water vapor, greatly enhancing the observatory’s ability 

to study the cosmos. The German Aerospace Center had provided the telescope, and NASA had 

modified the craft.70

NASA announced that the chemical analyzer at the end of the arm of the Mars rover Spirit had 

measured a concentration of pure silica in a soil sample at Gusev Crater, providing the strongest 

evidence to date that Mars was much wetter in the ancient past than at present. At 90 percent, the 

concentrated deposit of silica could only have formed in the presence of water. Spirit’s discovery 

had been the result of a mechanical failure. One of the rover’s six wheels, which had become 

incapable of rotating, had gouged a deep impression as it moved through the soil. The scraping 

had exposed patches of bright soil, leading to the discovery of the silica. Steven W. Squyres of 

Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, Principal Investigator for the Mars rovers’ scientific 

instruments, underscored the significance of the discovery, stating, “the fact that we found 

something this new and different after nearly 1,200 days on Mars makes it even more 

remarkable.” J. Douglas McCuistion, Director of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, added that 

the unexpected discovery was a reminder that Spirit and Opportunity were still conducting 

cutting-edge exploration more than three years into their extended mission.71

23 May

NASA announced its selection of four universities to conduct suborbital scientific research. 

NASA intended the projects to reinvigorate its Sounding Rocket Program. The four projects had 

a combined value of US$4.2 million. NASA’s Science Mission Directorate’s Heliophysics 

Division had selected two of the programs, and the Directorate’s Astrophysics Division had 

selected the other two. The University of Wisconsin proposed to design a payload to make 

astronomical polarization measurements in the far-ultraviolet spectrum and to explore new 

diagnostics of the geometry and magnetic fields in stellar envelopes and interstellar medium. 

Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, planned to launch a payload to investigate 

substorm auroras and their variations. The team from the University of Colorado, Boulder, 

proposed to investigate the ratio of molecular hydrogen to carbon monoxide in gas clouds of 

other galaxies, to help determine accurately the masses of those galaxies. The team from the 

University of Southern California at Los Angeles proposed to test a new photoelectron focusing 

system, which scientists could use in future solar observations to calibrate space research. A 

panel comprising external reviewers and representatives from NASA’s scientific staff had 

 

70 NASA, “NASA’s SOFIA To Be Rededicated on Historic Lindbergh Anniversary,” media advisory M07-52, 11 

May 2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/may/HQ_M07052_SOFIA_event.html (accessed 24 March 

2010); Aero-News Network, “Erik Lindbergh Dedicates NASA’s Sofia in Honor of Grandfather,” 22 May 2007. 71 NASA, “Mars Rover Spirit Unearths Surprise Evidence of Wetter Past,” news release 07-118, 21 May 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/may/HQ_07118_Spirit_discovers_wet_Mars.html (accessed 24 March 

2010); Space.com, “NASA Rover Finds Surprising Evidence for Mars’ Watery Past,” 21 May 2007, http://www.

space.com/scienceastronomy/070521_rover_wetterpast.html (accessed 6 April 2010).
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27

selected the proposals, based on each project’s scientific and technical merits, costs, and 

relevance to NASA programs.72

24 May

NASA announced that it had completed six months of SRRs for individual components of the 

Constellation Program—a major milestone on the road to executing development and operations 

strategies in support of the next generation of space vehicles. Following completion of SRRs of 

Orion, Ares, Ground Operations, Mission Operations, and Extravehicular Activity projects, 

NASA had conducted a baseline synchronization to identify any conflicts or gaps among the 

projects, or between the projects and the Constellation Program, and to establish a plan for 

resolving any discrepancies. As a result, although the basic program architecture for design, 

development, construction, and operation of the launch vehicles and spacecraft remained 

unchanged, the Constellation Program would have a more solid foundation in its future 

endeavors.73

30 May

ISS Commander Fyodor N. Yurchikhin and ISS Flight Engineer Oleg V. Kotov undertook a 5.5-

hour spacewalk to install protective panels designed to shield the space station from dangerous 

space debris. The IISTF had issued a report in February 2007 finding that the impact from space 

debris was the top threat to the future of the ISS and to the safety of its inhabitants. Yurchikhin 

and Kotov installed 5of 17 panels on a Russian section of the ISS, a section that had been among 

the first components launched and was not as heavily protected as the later U.S. modules. Each 

panel measured approximately 2 feet by 3 feet (0.6 meters by 0.9 meters) and 5 inches thick 

(12.7 centimeters thick) and weighed approximately 20 pounds (9 kilograms). The cosmonauts 

also successfully rerouted a cable for a navigation antenna that the crew would use later in the 

year at the scheduled arrival of the first new European cargo vehicle.74

31 May

NASA announced that the Deep Phreatic Thermal Explorer (DEPTHX)—a 3,300-pound (1.65-

ton or 1.5-tonne or 1,497-kilogram) computerized underwater vehicle, which NASA had 

funded—had successfully navigated the Sistema Zacaton cenote in Mexico, one of the world’s 

deepest sinkholes. DEPTHX had used more than 100 sensors, 36 on-board computers, and 16 

thrusters and actuators, to determine where to swim, what samples to collect, and how to return 

home. On 26 May, operating autonomously, the underwater craft had dived repeatedly into the 

Zacaton to collect samples of water and a sample of the biofilm coating the cenote’s walls. 

Traveling to a depth of 1,099 feet (335 meters), the craft had penetrated deeper into the sinkhole 

than human divers could ever reach. On 28 May, DEPTHX had again explored Zacaton 

 

72 NASA, “NASA Funds Universities’ New Experiments for Suborbital Flights,” news release 07-121, 23 May 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/may/HQ_07121_Suborbital_Grants.html (accessed 24 March 2010). 73 NASA, “Reviews Document NASA’s Progress on Next Human Spaceflight,” news release 07-122, 24 May 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/may/HQ_07122_ESMD_Reviews.html (accessed 24 March 2010); NASA, 

“NASA Completes Constellation Ground Operations Review,” news release 07-112, 11 May 2007, http://www.nasa.

gov/home/hqnews/2007/may/HQ_0712_Constellation_SRR.html (accessed 24 March 2010). 74 Mike Schneider for Associated Press, “Space Station Gets Protective Shielding,” 31 May 2007; Mark Carreau, 

“Cosmonauts Install Protective Panels on Spacewalk,” Houston Chronicle, 31 May 2007; International Space 

Station Independent Safety Task Force, “Final Report” (NASA, Washington, DC, February 2007), 17, http://www.

nasa.gov/pdf/170368main_IIST_%20Final%20Report.pdf (accessed 29 January 2010).
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28

autonomously, using Simultaneous Localization and Mapping, a novel form of three-dimensional 

navigation, to map the cenote. NASA intended to apply the autonomous scientific operations and 

the autonomous navigation and mapping technologies to a new generation of planetary robotic 

systems. NASA anticipated that the new technologies would also have benefits on Earth, helping 

to advance medical therapies or enabling safety inspectors to examine underwater dams and 

drilling platforms remotely.75

JUNE 2007 

1 June

NASA submitted to the U.S. Congress a report that the National Aeronautics and Space 

Administration Authorization Act of 2005 (Pub. L. No. 109-155) had mandated, “NASA Report 

to Congress Regarding a Plan for the International Space Station National Laboratory.” The Act 

required NASA to designate the U.S. portion of the ISS as a “national laboratory” and to make it 

available to public and private entities for basic and applied research not applicable to NASA’s 

mission. In the report, NASA affirmed its support of the concept and summarized steps taken 

during 2006 to make the ISS national laboratory a reality. NASA reported that a number of 

organizations had expressed interest in using the ISS for research in the fields of education, 

human health, and defense sciences. The report highlighted the project’s scheduled milestones, 

identified its constraints, explained NASA’s strategy and tactical initiatives for achieving the 

goal, and offered NASA’s preliminary findings on the project’s feasibility. After outlining 

progress to date, NASA described the preliminary operations plan. According to this plan, 

NASA would first address workforce needs and the requisite ground-based assets and 

management structures. NASA’s report concluded that, based on the demonstrated interest of 

parties outside of NASA, the odds of successfully realizing the goal set forth by Congress 

appeared promising. However, the report also noted that, because of the challenge of completing 

the ISS by 2010 and the need to demonstrate the capabilities of next-generation, commercial 

space-transportation services by the end of 2010, the financial risk to non-NASA entities 

remained high.76

5 June

NASA’s MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) 

spacecraft, which had launched in August 2004, made its second and closest pass of Venus. 

MESSENGER was en route to Mercury and scheduled to reach that planet in January 2008. The 

flyby, which caused a change in the spacecraft’s direction around the Sun, as well as the craft’s 

deceleration, enabled scientists to test on-board instruments. All of the instruments performed 

well, carrying out tasks such as measuring the atmosphere on the day and night sides of Venus 

and examining the trail that the planet leaves in the atmosphere. The mission team tested the 

probe’s Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) to calibrate the angle/narrow-angle camera 

system, which would map Mercury’s landforms and gather data on the planet’s surface 

 

75 NASA, “NASA Robot Completes Test Drive of Exploration Capabilities,” news release 07-218, 31 May 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/may/HQ_07128_DEPTHX.html (accessed 24 March 2010). 76 NASA, “NASA Report to Congress Regarding a Plan for the International Space Station National Laboratory” 

(NASA technical report no. PB2008-1005533, Washington, DC, May 2007), http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/

casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20090010198_2008045339.pdf (accessed 24 May 2010); Jeff M. Bingham, “The Significance of 

NASA’s ISS National Laboratory Report,” NASASpaceflight.com, 4 June 2007, http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/ 

2007/06/the-significance-of-nasas-iss-national-laboratory-report/ (accessed 20 June 2010). 
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29

composition. Although NASA had not designed MDIS to capture images of cloud-shrouded 

Venus, the collection of images that the instrument gathered would allow scientists to adjust the 

camera system’s color-sensitivity parameters and to understand the geometric properties of the 

instrument better. During its first flyby of Venus in October 2006, MESSENGER had made no 

scientific observations.77

6 June

The ISS Expedition 15 crew completed their second spacewalk in eight days. During the 5-hourand-37-minute spacewalk, Commander Fyodor N. Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg V. 

Kotov performed a number of tasks. They installed on the Pirs module sample containers for a 

Russian experiment on the effect of space on microorganisms and placed a section of Ethernet 

cable on the exterior of the Zarya module. The installation of the cable completed a remote 

computer network, enabling the crew to command the Russian segment of the ISS from the U.S. 

segment. Furthermore, Yurchikhin and Kotov successfully completed their primary task, 

installing 12 debris-shield panels on the conical section of the Zvezda module. During the 

previous week, the crew had installed five panels, and in 2002 the ISS crew had installed six 

others, to provide the module with better protection from micrometeoroid-debris strikes. During 

the spacewalk, Yurchikhin and Kotov found a dent or hole from a meteorite, measuring 

approximately 5−6 millimeters (approximately 0.2 inches), in an outer pumping component on 

the Zarya module. This damage was the first of its type ever found on a module of the ISS. In 

addition, with the completion of the spacewalk, both cosmonauts had logged 11 hours and 2 

minutes of experience in Russia’s new Orlan spacesuits.78

8 June

Space Shuttle Atlantis launched from NASA’s KSC on an 11-day mission, designated STS-117, 

to continue construction of the ISS. The crew consisted of Commander Frederick W. Sturckow; 

Pilot Lee J. Archambault; Mission Specialists James F. Reilly II, Patrick G. Forrester, Steven R. 

Swanson, and John D. Olivas; and Flight Engineer Clayton C. Anderson, who would replace 

Sunita L. Williams on board the ISS as a member of ISS Expeditions 15 and 16. The launch was 

nearly flawless. Only one potential problem occurred several minutes into the flight, when onboard cameras captured an image that appeared to show foam flaking off the Shuttle’s external

fuel tank, just after the solid rocket boosters (SRBs) had separated from the orbiter. According to 

Shuttle Program Manager N. Wayne Hale Jr., NASA’s preliminary analysis of the incident 

indicated that the foam had not struck the craft. NASA planned further analysis.79

 

77 NASA, “NASA Spacecraft Ready for Science-Rich Encounter with Venus,” news release 07-129, 4 June 2007,

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/jun/HQ_07129_MESSENGER.html (accessed 13 April 2010); Colorado 

Daily (Boulder, CO), “Making Its Way to Mercury,” 10 June 2007; Alan Boyle, “Mercury Probe Sends Venus 

Pics,” MSNBC.com, 15 June 2007, http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2007/06/14/ 4351567-mercury-probesends-venus-pics (accessed 20 June 2010). 78 Agence France-Presse, “International Space Station Holed by Meteorite,” 7 June 2007; Spaceflight Now, 

“Cosmonauts Begin Another Station Spacewalk,” 7 June 2007.

79 NASA, “NASA’s Shuttle Atlantis Begins Mission to the Space Station,” news release 07-136, 8 June 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/jun/HQ_07136_Atlantis_launch.html (accessed 13 April 2010); NASA, 

“STS-117 (21st Space Station Flight),” NASAfacts, http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/177714main_STS-117.pdf (accessed 21 

May 2010), John Johnson Jr., “Flawless Launch, At Last, For Atlantis,” Los Angeles Times, 9 June 2007.
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30

9 June

Shuttle Commander Frederick W. Sturckow guided Space Shuttle Atlantis through an end-overend rotational pitch maneuver (RPM), to allow ISS crew to photograph the Shuttle’s fragile heat 

shield. Atlantis’s Mission STS-117 ended in a trouble-free rendezvous and a flawless docking 

with the ISS. Since the Columbia tragedy, the RPM had become a routine element of flights to 

the ISS. ISS Commander Fyodor N. Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg V. Kotov shot closeup digital photographs of the craft from inside the ISS, images that NASA engineers would 

examine to determine the need for additional inspections.80

11 June

During a ceremony rededicating its Glenn Research Center (GRC) Plum Brook site in Ohio, 

NASA announced its intention to use the Plum Brook Station’s Space Power Facility (SPF) to 

test the CEV Orion. NASA had designed Orion, which was in development, to enable research 

on the Moon, Mars, and other destinations in Earth’s solar system. NASA intended for the 

SPF—the only facility in the world large enough to undertake full-scale testing—to conduct 

environmental tests of the Orion spacecraft, using simulations of conditions during launch, inorbit operations, and reentry. The facility would also conduct thermal, acoustic, mechanicalvibration, and electromagnetic-interference tests.81

11 June

Two U.S. astronauts, Mission Specialists John D. Olivas and James F. Reilly II, conducted the 

first extravehicular activity (EVA) of STS-117. During the 6-hour-and-15-minute spacewalk at 

the ISS, the astronauts made power, data, and cooling connections on a new 16-tonne (17.6-ton 

or 16,000-kilogram) truss segment containing solar arrays. One of STS-117’s objectives was to 

deliver the new US$367 million solar-power module to the ISS. The ISS partners intended for 

the arrays to increase the ISS’s power generation substantially and to serve future European and 

Japanese science modules. Mission managers decided to extend STS-117 two days, in case the 

crew needed to repair the fabric heat shield on the orbiter’s left tail section. Managers feared that 

Atlantis’s tail section had sustained damaged shortly after launch.82

12 June

Over the course of 10 hours, NASA’s Mission Control remotely unfurled the S3/S4 solar arrays 

located on the new truss segment. Tip to tip the solar arrays spanned a distance of 240 feet (73 

meters). With the solar arrays added to the left and right sides of the new power module, the ISS 

achieved an unprecedented symmetry in its appearance. In the midst of the solar-arraydeployment operation, a fire alarm sounded in the Russian sector of the ISS, but crew and 

mission managers quickly determined that a computer malfunction was the cause. Russian 

computers, working in conjunction with American computers, had failed, and attempts to reboot 

the Russian computers had triggered the false fire alarm. However, because of the computer 

failure, the small maneuvering jets on Atlantis had assumed control of the ISS’s attitude, placing 

 

80 William Harwood, “Atlantis Arrives at the Station After Smooth Rendezvous,” Spaceflight Now, 10 June 2007. 81 NASA, “Rededication of NASA’s Space Power Facility in Sandusky,” news release 07-017, 6 June 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/news/pressrel/2007/07-017_SPF_Rededication.html (accessed 21 May 2010); 

Maggie Reid, “Plum Brook To Put New NASA Vehicle to the Test,” Toledo Blade (OH), 12 June 2007. 82 NASA, “STS-117 (21st Space Station Flight)”; Jean-Louis Santini for Agence France-Presse, “US Atlantis 

Astronauts Step Out on Space Walk,” 12 June 2007; Houston Chronicle, “New Solar Array Being Unfurled on 

Space Station,” 13 June 2007.
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31

the station’s solar panels in a poor position for gathering sunlight and causing power levels to 

drop. Mission Control ordered the crew to turn off some nonessential equipment until the ISS 

regained attitude control. Thereafter, engineers successfully reestablished gyroscope control, and 

the left-side array began tracking the Sun properly.83

13 June

U.S. astronauts Patrick G. Forrester and Steven R. Swanson undertook a 7-hour-and-16-minute 

spacewalk to assist with the retraction of a 115-foot-long (35-meter-long) solar panel that crew 

had installed on the ISS seven years before. The retraction was essential to the successful 

activation of the new solar power module because the old solar array was preventing the pair of 

arrays on the new module from rotating as they tracked the Sun. Shuttle Commander Frederick 

W. Sturckow and the ISS crew attempted to initiate the retraction using remote commands, but 

the panel failed to fold correctly. During the spacewalk, Forrester and Swanson rode on the tip of 

the ISS’s robotic arm to the top of the space station, carrying tools that enabled them to smooth 

the array folds and to straighten obstructing wire guides. Although, after 2 hours, the panel had 

only retracted partially, Forrester and Swanson returned to the new power module to work on the 

2,500-pound (1,134-kilogram) solar alpha rotary joint (SARJ). The astronauts planned to resume 

their efforts to retract the panel the following day. Because another Shuttle crew had encountered 

difficulties retracting an array in December 2006, Forrester and Swanson had trained extensively 

before their mission, learning to address problems with the solar-array retraction.84

15 June

A Dnepr rocket launched a German satellite called TerraSAR-X from Baikonur Cosmodrome in 

Kazakhstan at 2:14 (UT). The 3,000-pound (1,361-kilogram) TerraSAR-X was a night-vision 

radar system designed to create the most precise maps and imagery that a civilian space-radar 

system had produced to date. The craft’s mission was to map Earth and its oceans at a rate of 1 

million square kilometers per day (almost 400,000 square miles per day), to capture scientific 

data such as sea-ice coverage, vegetation and crop estimates, and to acquire military 

reconnaissance information at a 1.0-meter (3.3-foot) resolution.85

The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) launched two ocean-surveillance spacecraft from 

Cape Canaveral aboard an Atlas-5 Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV), marking the 

rocket’s first NRO secret mission. The NRO had designed the two craft to track ships that might 

be concealing al-Qaeda operatives and to monitor Iranian and Chinese sea-based military 

operations. However, the rocket had stopped firing prematurely, causing the craft to launch into 

the wrong orbit. Although the satellites separated safely from the malfunctioning booster, they 

did not have enough rocket propellant to reach the correct orbit. Lockheed Martin had built the 

Atlas 5 using a Lockheed Martin Centaur upper stage, with a Pratt & Whitney RL10 rocket 

engine powered with liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. United Launch Alliance, which 

 

83 Houston Chronicle, “New Solar Array,” 13 June 2007; John Schwartz, “Glitch Blamed for Fire Alarm on 

Orbiter,” New York Times, 13 June 2007; William Harwood, “Computer Glitches Impact Station Attitude Control,” 

Spaceflight Now, 12 June 2007. 84 John Johnson Jr., “Spacewalkers Face Workaday Glitches,” Los Angeles Times, 14 June 2007; Mark Carreau, 

“Solar Panel Keeps Shuttle Spacewalkers Busy,” Houston Chronicle, 14 June 2007; Robyn Shelton, “Astronauts 

Tame Stubborn Solar Array,” Orlando Sentinel (FL), 14 June 2007. 85 Spacewarn Bulletin, no. 644, 1 July 2007, http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/spacewarn/spx644.html (accessed 13 April 

2010); Stephen Clark, “German Radar Imaging Satellite Launched into Space,” Spaceflight Now, 16 June 2007.
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32

operated the Atlas program, managed the launch in conjunction with NRO and the U.S. Air 

Force’s 45th Space Wing.86

Russian cosmonauts Fyodor N. Yurchikhin and Oleg V. Kotov restored two of the three data 

channels on each of the two computers that had failed on 12 June during the deployment of the 

solar arrays on the ISS’s new power module. Russian engineers had determined that backuppower supplies for the computers had also failed. While Yurchikhin and Kotov worked on 

restoring the computers, U.S. astronauts James F. Reilly II and John D. Olivas conducted the 

third scheduled EVA of the Atlantis Mission STS-117. During a spacewalk lasting 7 hours and 

58 minutes, Reilly installed a hydrogen vent on the ISS’s Destiny laboratory, and Olivas repaired 

a 4-by-6-inch (10.2-by-15.2-centimeter) piece of thermal blanket on Atlantis’s left orbitalmaneuvering-system pod. The thermal blanket had loosened during launch. Together, Olivas and 

Reilly also finished retracting the old solar panels.87

17 June

U.S. astronauts Patrick G. Forrester and Steven R. Swanson conducted a fourth unscheduled 

spacewalk outside the ISS, to wrap up incomplete tasks. During the spacewalk, which lasted 6 

hours and 29 minutes, Forrester and Swanson completed their primary task of activating the 

SARJ, a rotating joint on the ISS’s new power module; installed a new camera stanchion on the 

S3 Truss; and linked a computer-network cable between the U.S. and Russian sides of the 

stations. The two astronauts were unable to bolt down the debris shields that Commander Fyodor 

N. Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg V. Kotov had installed on the Zvezda module during the 

spacewalk on 6 June. Instead, they opted to tether the two panels in place.88

18 June

NASA announced that it had signed three unfunded agreements with three private firms, 

according to the terms of the Space Act of 1958, as amended (42 U.S.C. 2451 et seq.). The Space 

Act, aimed at helping to establish a robust commercial space industry, authorized companies to 

dedicate private funds to NASA projects. The new agreements brought the number of private 

companies cooperating with NASA to five. According to the new non-reimbursable Space Act 

agreements with Constellations Services International (CSI), SpaceDev, and Spacehab, NASA 

pledged to provide the three firms with up-to-date technical requirements and specifications for 

crew and cargo flights to the ISS, while the firms developed and demonstrated the vehicles, 

systems, and operations needed to transport cargo to and from a low-Earth-orbit destination. 

Additionally, SpaceDev would develop the vehicles, systems, and operations needed for crew 

transport. NASA hoped that the agreements would stimulate commercial enterprises in space, 

facilitate U.S. private industry’s development of reliable, cost-effective access to low Earth orbit, 

and create a market environment in which private firms could make commercial spacetransportation services available to government and private customers. CSI President Charles 

 

86 Craig Covault, “NRO Spacecraft in Wrong Orbit,” Aviation Week, 16 June 2007, http://www.aviationweek.com/

aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=space&id=news/mission06157.xml (accessed 20 June 2010). 87 NASA, “STS-117 (21st Space Station Flight)”; Thomas H. Maugh II, “Cosmonauts Reboot Space Station 

Computers,” Los Angeles Times, 16 June 2007; Mark Carreau, “Astronauts Complete To-Do List on Shuttle, Space 

Station,” Houston Chronicle, 16 June 2007. 88 NASA, “STS-117 (21st Space Station Flight)”; Mike Schneider for Associated Press, “Astronauts Complete 4th

Spacewalk,” 18 June 2007; Mark Carreau, “Astronauts Finish Power Upgrades to Station,” Houston Chronicle, 18 

June 2007.
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33

Miller pointed out the benefit of NASA’s providing technical assistance instead of monetary 

funding and remarked that the agreements represented a statement of the federal government’s 

confidence in the fundamentals of private-sector cargo systems.89

NASA announced that it had tested the first nanotechnology-based electronic device to fly in 

space—the Nano ChemSensor Unit—demonstrating that the device known as a nanosensor 

could monitor trace gases inside a spacecraft. NASA had launched the device into orbit on 9 

March 2007 as a secondary payload experiment on board the U.S. Naval Academy’s MidSTAR1 satellite. Scientists had conducted the sensor test on 24 May, successfully showing that the 

nanosensors could survive in space conditions, as well as in the extreme vibrations and gravity 

changes that occur during launch.90

21 June

NASA announced that it had selected proposals for future lunar-science activities and had 

established two new programs to enhance the research that the Vision for Space Exploration had 

made possible. Under the Lunar Sortie Science Opportunities (LSSO) Program, NASA had 

selected seven from among more than 70 proposals to develop simple, autonomous instrument 

packages that future astronauts could deploy on the lunar surface. Scientists planned to use these 

packages, known as suitcase science studies, to study the Moon’s interior; to examine lunar dust, 

which creates problems for astronauts; to search for natural resources on the lunar surface; and to 

use lasers to provide precise information about the position and features of the Moon. The 

studies complemented two new programs already established in the Science Mission 

Directorate’s Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters—the Lunar Advanced Science 

and Exploration Research (LASER) Program and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) 

Participating Scientist Program. The LRO mission, scheduled to launch in 2008, would help 

NASA prepare for long-duration human operations on the Moon. For that program, NASA 

planned to fund researchers analyzing data from the orbiter’s six instruments. Under the LASER 

program, NASA intended to solicit proposals for research investigating the lunar environment to 

determine how to enable humans to live and work on the Moon in the future.91

22 June

Space Shuttle Atlantis landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California after weather 

concerns prevented the crew from landing at NASA’s KSC in Florida. Sunita L. Williams 

returned home with the STS-117 crew, having surpassed Shannon W. Lucid’s 1996 record of 

188 days and 4 hours. Williams had set a new 195-day record for the longest spaceflight by a 

woman. U.S. astronaut Clayton C. Anderson remained at the ISS, scheduled to return home 

aboard Discovery in October. The STS-117 mission had successfully increased the power 

 

89 NASA, “NASA Signs Commercial Space Transportation Agreements,” news release 07-138, 18 June 2007,

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/jun/HQ_07138_COTS_3_Unfunded_SAAs.html (accessed 13 April 2010); 

Brian Berger, “NASA Signs Space Act Agreements with Three More Firms,” Space News, 19 June 2007.

90 NASA, “NASA Nanotechnology Space Sensor Test Successful in Orbit,” news release 07-140, 18 June 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/jun/HQ_07140_Nanotech_Sensor_Test.html (accessed 13 April 2010);

United Press International, “NASA Nanotechnology Tested in Orbit,” 19 June 2007.

91 NASA, “NASA Prepares for Performing New Science on the Moon,” news release 07-141, 21 June 2007,

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/jun/HQ_07141_moon_science.html (accessed 13 April 2010); Aerospace 

Daily and Defense Report, “NASA Sets New Lunar Science Programs,” Aviation Week, 28 June 2007, http://www.

aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=space&id=news/lro062707.xml (accessed 20 June 2010).
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capability of the ISS, preparing the station for the future delivery of European and Japanese 

laboratories. Although Atlantis had sustained some damage soon after launch on 8 June, several 

inspections in orbit had revealed no critical damage, and Mission Control had declared the 

Shuttle’s thermal protection system safe for reentry on flight day 13. NASA had originally 

scheduled the mission to last 11 days, but had added extra days to allow time in case of the 

necessity of repairs to the thermal protection system. Olivas had stapled a thermal blanket back 

into place during the unscheduled fourth spacewalk on 17 June.92

26 June

NASA announced the creation of the Einstein Probes Office (EPO), which would reside within 

the Beyond Einstein Program Office at NASA’s GSFC. NASA had tasked the EPO with 

facilitating NASA’s future medium-class science missions, which would study in detail dark 

energy, black holes, and cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. The Beyond Einstein 

Program consisted of five proposed missions—the creation of two major observatories and three 

smaller probes. NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy had commissioned an NRC 

committee to assess which of the five missions they should develop and launch first, based upon 

the missions’ potential scientific impact, technological readiness, and budgetary considerations.93

28 June

A Dnepr rocket carrying Bigelow Aerospace Corporation’s Genesis-2 inflatable spacecraft 

launched from ISC Kosmotras Yasny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Orenburg region at 15:02 (UT). 

Bigelow Aerospace had designed and built the 15-foot-long (4.6-meter-long) technology 

demonstrator, which was part of the vision for an affordable space tourism market. Genesis 2 

would deploy eight solar arrays and expand to a diameter of 8 feet (2.44 meters) from its launch 

width of 6.2 feet (1.9 meters). The craft’s design—involving the use of flexible material, 

wrapped around a core for launch, then inflated with air in orbit—would allow several modules 

to connect, forming a space station. According to Bigelow Aerospace’s spokesperson Chris Reed, 

data indicated that Genesis 2 had adequate air pressure and its power system had good voltage; 

however, data did not officially confirm the deployment of its solar panels or the expansion of its 

outer shell. Genesis 2 was a near duplicate of Genesis 1, which had launched in July 2006 and 

remained operational. Genesis 2 carried a new suite of sensors and avionics to monitor and 

control the craft while in orbit, as well as 22 cameras, compared to the 13 aboard Genesis 1. 

Genesis 2 also carried a multi-tank system to inflate the module with compressed air, an 

improvement over Genesis 1 that added vital redundancy in the inflation process and allowed 

better control of the craft’s gas supplies.94

NASA announced that, on 25 May 2007, its AIM satellite had captured the first occurrence that 

season of mysterious iridescent polar clouds. AIM had been the first satellite mission dedicated 

to the study of these unusual clouds, known as Polar Mesospheric Clouds (PMCs) when viewed 

 

92 NASA, “Shuttle Atlantis Crew Returns Home After Successful Mission,” news release 07-142, 22 June 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/jun/HQ_07142_Atlantis_landing.html (accessed 13 April 2010); Alicia 

Chang for Associated Press, “Space Shuttle Lands in California,” 25 June 2007.

93 NASA, “NASA Establishes New Office To Study Cosmic Phenomena,” news release 07-143, 26 June 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/jun/HQ_07143_Einstien_Probes_office.html (accessed 13 April 2010).

94 Spacewarn Bulletin, no. 644; John Antczak for Associated Press, “Inflatable Space Station Design Tested,” 29 

June 2007; Tariq Malik, “Bigelow’s Second Orbital Module Launches Into Space,” Space.com, 28 June 2007,

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/070628_genesis2_update.html (accessed 16 April 2010).
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35

from space and as noctilucent clouds (NLCs) when viewed from Earth. NLCs form in the 

Northern Hemisphere, beginning in mid-May and remaining through the end of August. They 

appear in the Southern Hemisphere between mid-November and March. AIM’s mission was to 

observe two complete PMC seasons over both poles, documenting for the first time the complete, 

complex life cycle of PMCs.95

JULY 2007 

3 July

NASA announced that it had assigned new tasks to two spacecraft that had completed their 

original missions under the Discovery program. In their mission extensions, NASA’s Stardust 

and Deep Impact would use their flight-proven hardware to revisit a comet for the first time, to 

investigate an unexplored comet, and to search for small planets around stars with known large 

planets. NASA had selected Deep Impact’s mothership Flyby to perform two new tasks under 

the EPOXI mission, which combined the Deep Impact Extended Investigation (DIXI) and the 

Extrasolar Planet Observation and Characterization (EPOCh) investigation. Flyby had 

successfully crashed its Impactor probe into comet Tempel 1 on 4 July 2005. For the DIXI 

mission, Flyby would investigate the previously unexplored comet Boethin, enabling NASA to 

recover some of the science lost with the 2002 failure of the Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR) 

mission. On the way to Boethin, the Deep Impact craft would perform the EPOCh investigation, 

observing several nearby bright stars, collecting data that would help astronomers characterize 

giant planets, and measuring the mid-infrared spectrum of Earth, to provide comparative data for 

the future study of the atmospheres of extrasolar planets. Stardust’s new assignment was the 

New Exploration of Tempel 1 (NExT) mission to observe the comet after its innermost swing 

past the Sun. Associate Administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate S. Alan Stern 

explained that using spacecraft already in flight would enable NASA to accomplish the missions 

for approximately 15 percent of the cost of starting new ones.96

NASA announced that it had signed a US$46 million fixed-price basic contract with S. P. 

Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation (RSC Energia) to provide various hardware items and to 

integrate them into the structure of the ISS. The contract included the purchase of a spare depress 

air pump, enabling air conservation when the crew exited the Quest airlock for spacewalks; 

technical and engineering support for the mechanism enabling Shuttles to dock with the station; 

software updates for the ISS’s inventory-management system; certification of additional 

computer hardware for use on the station; and a Russian-designed toilet system that would 

automatically transfer urine to a U.S. device that generated potable water. Adding the toilet 

system to the structure was necessary to enable the ISS partners to increase the station crew from 

three to six members in 2009.97

 

95 NASA, “NASA Satellite Captures First View of ‘Night-Shining’ Clouds,” news release 07-145, 28 June 2007,

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/jun/HQ_07145_AIM_First_Light.html (accessed 13 April 2010). 96 NASA, “NASA Gives Two Successful Spacecraft New Assignments,” news release 07-147, 3 July 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/jul/HQ_07147_Discovery_missions.html (accessed 9 June 2010); Tariq 

Malik, “NASA Recycles Old Spacecraft for New Missions,” Space.com, 4 July 2007, http://www.space.com/news/

070704_recycled_missions.html (accessed 9 June 2010). 97 NASA, “NASA Awards Contract for Space Station Hardware,” news release C07-028, 3 July 2007, http://www.

nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/jul/HQ_C07028_station_hardware.html (accessed 11 June 2010).
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36

6 July

The NRC published its report, The Limits of Organic Life in Planetary Systems, in which the 

authors called for scientists to expand their search for extra-terrestrial life to include “weird 

life”—organisms that lack DNA or other molecules that compose known life forms. The NASAsponsored committee’s investigation concluded that life in forms different from those on Earth is 

possible and that good reason exists to suspect that various types of chemistry could potentially 

support life. The report suggested that, not only should NASA and the National Science 

Foundation (NSF) support research into weird life in the universe, but scientists should also 

search for weird life on Earth. The committee found that the generally accepted fundamental 

requirements for life—a liquid water biosolvent, a carbon-based metabolism, a molecular system 

capable of evolution, and the ability to exchange energy with the environment—are not the only 

means of supporting the phenomena scientists recognize as life. The committee noted that, 

“nothing would be more tragic in the American exploration of space than to encounter alien life 

and fail to recognize it.”98

11 July

NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin selected Christopher J. Scolese to succeed Associate 

Administrator Rex D. Geveden, who would leave NASA at the end of July to accept the position 

of President of Teledyne Brown Engineering in Huntsville, Alabama. Geveden had joined NASA 

in 1990 and had served as Associate Administrator, the number three position in NASA, since 

August 2005. Before Geveden’s appointment, the position had been vacant for several decades, 

but Griffin had reestablished it, to provide programmatic integration between NASA’s mission 

directorates and field centers. At the time of his appointment to succeed Geveden, Scolese was 

serving as NASA’s Chief Engineer. Scolese had joined NASA in 1987 and had served as Deputy 

Director of NASA’s GSFC and Deputy Associate Administrator in NASA’s Office of Space 

Science. In the Office of Space Science, he had directed NASA’s Space Science Flight Program, 

mission studies, technology development, and the overall contract management of NASA’s JPL 

in Pasadena, California.99

The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee held a hearing to discuss planned 

budget cuts to weather and environmental satellite programs, reductions that could significantly 

affect scientists’ ability to study Earth’s climate. Antonio J. Busalacchi, Director of the Earth 

System Science Interdisciplinary Center of the University of Maryland, spoke extensively about 

the causes of the delays and cost overruns in the National Polar-Orbiting Operational 

Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS), a joint project of DOD, NASA, and NOAA. The 

partner agencies, intending for NPOESS to replace NASA’s QuikSCAT satellite, which had 

launched in 1999 with a three- to five-year life expectancy, had originally scheduled NPOESS 

satellites to begin launches to replace aging satellites in 2008. However, at the time of the 

hearing, the partners had postponed the launches, now scheduled to occur during 2013−2026. 

Busalacchi characterized the status of the program as “one giant leap backward for mankind,” 

and Commerce Committee Chair Clarence William “Bill” Nelson (D-FL) called the 

 

98 Carl Zimmer, “Scientists Urge a Search for Life Not as We Know It,” New York Times, 7 July 2007; National 

Research Council, “Life Elsewhere in Solar System Could Be Different From Life as We Know It,” news release, 6 

July 2007, http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=11919 (accessed 4 June 2010). 99 NASA, “Scolese To Succeed Geveden as NASA Associate Administrator,” news release 07-152, 11 July 2007,

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/jul/HQ_07152_Geveden_departure.html (accessed 9 June 2010).
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37

implementation of the NPOESS program a disaster. David A. Powner of the U.S. Government 

Accountability Office (GAO) testified that, although the initial cost estimate for the program had 

been US$6.5 billion for six satellites, the projected cost had since reached US$12.5 billion, with 

two satellites and some instruments dropped from the program. The report also found that the 

agencies had not coordinated effectively and had not filled critical NPOESS jobs. Mary Ellen 

Kicza, Assistant Administrator for Satellite and Information Services at NOAA, testified to the 

committee that the agencies had already addressed many of the problems that GAO had 

identified.100

13 July

Associate Administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate Scott J. Horowitz 

announced that he planned to leave NASA in December to spend more time with his family. A 

retired U.S. Air Force colonel and test pilot, Horowitz had logged over 1,138 hours of 

spaceflight, serving as commander or pilot on four Space Shuttle missions—STS-75 (1996), 

STS-82 (1997), STS-101 (2000), and STS-105 (2001). At the time he decided to depart NASA, 

Horowitz was leading NASA’s efforts to develop the next generation of spacecraft, intended to 

return astronauts to the Moon by 2020. NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin accepted 

Horowitz’s resignation, praising the former astronaut’s tireless contribution to the Vision for 

Space Exploration. Griffin attributed NASA’s decision to pursue the Ares-1 CLV to Horowitz, 

calling it his brainchild. NASA planned to use Ares 1 to launch the Orion CEV, the capsule-style 

successor to the Shuttle. Horowitz had left NASA in 2004 to serve as the director of exploration 

and space transportation at the aerospace firm ATK. While he was at ATK, he had vigorously 

supported using the Space Shuttle’s reusable SRB as the basis for the first stage of the Ares-1 

CLV. NASA had chosen that design over the Atlas-5 and Delta-4 expendable launch vehicles 

(ELVs) before Horowitz returned to NASA as its exploration chief in 2005. Griffin had not yet 

named a successor to Horowitz.101

16 July

NASA announced that it had signed a US$1.2 billion contract with Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne 

of Canoga Park, California, to design, develop, test, and evaluate the J-2X engine that would 

power the upper stages of the Ares-1 and Ares-5 launch vehicles. The Ares 1 and Ares 5 would 

launch the spacecraft that replaced the Space Shuttle. The contract allowed the continuation of 

the work that had begun in June 2006 under a preliminary letter contract with Pratt & Whitney 

Rocketdyne, extending the performance period through December 2012. The J-2X was an 

evolved version of two historic predecessors—the J-2 engine, which had propelled the Apollo-

 

100 U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, U.S. Weather and Environmental 

Satellites: Ready for the 21st Century? 110th Cong., 1st sess., 11 July 2007; see also statements of Ellen Kicza, David 

A. Powner, and Antonio J. Busalacchi, http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Hearings (accessed 29 

October 2010) ; Wes Allison, “Politics Aging Satellite Won’t Cripple Storm Trackers,” St. Petersburg Times (FL), 

12 July 2007; Jessica Gresko for the Associated Press, “Senate Committee Hears Recommendations on Weather 

Satellites,” 11 July 2007.

101 NASA, “Scott Horowitz Announces Departure from NASA,” news release 07-154, 13 July 2007, http://www.

nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/jul/HQ_07154_Horowitz_departs_NASA.html (accessed 9 June 2010); NASA Johnson 

Space Center, “Scott J. ‘Doc’ Horowitz, Ph.D. (Colonel, USAF, Ret.), NASA Astronaut (Former),” http://www.jsc.

nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/horowitz.html (accessed 10 June 2010); Tariq Malik, “NASA’s Exploration Chief To Step 

Down for Family,” Space.com, 13 July 2007, http://www.space.com/news/070713_nasa_ horowitz_updt.html 

(accessed 10 June 2010).
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38

era Saturn -1B and Saturn-5 rockets, and the J-2S, a simplified version of the J-2 engine that 

NASA had tested in the 1970s. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne had designed and developed both of 

those engines. According to Jeffrey M. Hanley, Manager of NASA’s Constellation Program, 

NASA had selected Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne without competitive bidding because the 

company was the only manufacturer that could meet the Ares design requirements and schedule 

goals.102

NASA Deputy Administrator Shana L. Dale and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) President and 

Chief Executive Officer Laurier J. Boisvert signed the official agreement defining the terms of 

cooperation on the JWST, an international cooperative effort among NASA, CSA, and ESA. As 

the successor to NASA’s HST, the JWST would investigate the origin and evolution of galaxies, 

stars, and planetary systems. Under the agreement, NASA would build the spacecraft, the 

telescope, and the platform hosting the instruments. NASA would also be responsible for the 

overall management and operations of the mission. CSA would provide the fine-guidance-sensor 

instrument, which would give the JWST the stability needed for capturing sharp images.103

17 July

NASA announced the successful activation and operation of its new oxygen-generation system, 

which it had tested aboard the ISS between 11 and 14 July. Space Shuttle Discovery had 

delivered the 1,800-pound (816.5-kilogram) component during Mission STS-121 in July 2006, 

and the crew had installed it in the ISS’s Destiny laboratory. Since the new system’s installation, 

the crew had added several pieces of hardware and software to the ISS to support its operation. 

The crew had installed the last required part, a hydrogen-vent valve, during a spacewalk on 

Space Shuttle Atlantis’s Mission STS-117 in June 2007. Software updates to U.S. computers 

earlier in July had completed preparations for the system’s activation and operation. The new 

system, which would augment the Russian Elektron oxygen generator, would allow the increase 

of the ISS crew in 2009. NASA had designed the system to generate approximately 12 pounds 

(5.4 kilograms) of oxygen per day, enough for six people, but it was capable of providing as 

much as 20 pounds (9 kilograms), enough for 11 people. During the test, the system had 

generated approximately 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms) of oxygen.104

20 July

NASA announced that it had begun testing two NASA robots in the Arctic Circle in preparation 

for a return to the Moon in 2020. For the mission to the Moon, scientists would need autonomous 

robots that could perform activities unsuitable for humans and could respond quickly to human 

commands. On 12 July, the research team had arrived at Haughton Crater at Devon Island, 

Canada, with two test robots—K10 Black and K10 Red. NASA planned to operate the robots 

until 31 July. The robots carried 3-D laser scanners, capable of mapping topographic features 

from 3,280 feet (1,000 meters), and ground-penetrating radar, which could map below ground to 

a distance of 16.4 feet (5 meters). The robots navigated using GPS, stereo cameras, laser 

 

102 NASA, “NASA Awards Upper Stage Engine Contract for Ares Rockets,” news release C07-030, 16 July 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/jul/HQ_C07030_J2X_Contract.html (accessed 8 June 2010); Mark Carreau, 

“NASA Seals Deal on New Engine for Moon Rocket,” Houston Chronicle, 17 July 2007. 103 NASA, “NASA and Canada Sign Agreement for Future Cooperation,” news release 07-155, 16 July 2007,

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/jul/HQ_07155_jwst_csa_mou.html (accessed 9 June 2010). 104 NASA, “New NASA System Will Help Space Station Crews Breathe Easier,” news release 07-159, 17 July 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/jul/HQ_07157_station_oxygen.html (accessed 11 June 2010).
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39

scanners, and Sun trackers. For the practice session, the robots conducted a survey of an area 

called Drill Hill in Haughton Crater. Researchers sent commands to the robots from a base camp 

more than 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) away from Drill Hill. The key objective of the research 

expedition was to test the robots’ instruments and software, as well as the equipment and 

software that humans could potentially use to supervise the robots at lunar outposts. Scientists 

had chosen Haughton Crater as the test site because of its extreme environmental conditions, 

lack of infrastructure and resources, and geologic features. Haughton Crater bears geographic 

similarities to Shackleton Crater at the south pole of the Moon—both are impact craters 

measuring approximately 12.4 miles (20 kilometers) in diameter.105

22 July

DARPA decommissioned its experimental Orbital Express satellites, officially ending the 

demonstration of on-orbit satellite servicing and robotics. The two craft comprising Orbital 

Express—ASTRO and NextSat—had launched together in March 2007, to demonstrate 

ASTRO’s ability to approach NextSat with limited interaction from the ground, to grapple the 

craft with a robotic arm, and to transfer fuel and hardware to NextSat. The decommissioning of 

the satellites followed the completion of one last maneuver. ASTRO had found NextSat and 

homed in on the craft from long range, assisted by the U.S. Space Surveillance Network. 

Beginning on 16 July, ASTRO had traveled approximately 250 miles (402 kilometers) away 

from NextSat, so that its sensor suite lost track of NextSat. ASTRO then required input from the 

ground-based network to help it locate the target satellite. DARPA had originally scheduled the 

decommissioning to occur on 5 July but had extended the mission two weeks to allow the 

research team to attempt the long-range rendezvous maneuver. Orbital Express had met all of 

DARPA’s criteria for mission success, including demonstrating its capability to track and to 

rendezvous with long-range targets.106

24 July

The House Science and Technology Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics held a hearing to 

discuss the status and future of the ISS in the context of NASA’s FY 2008 budget request. 

Subcommittee Chair Mark E. Udall (D-CO) expressed concern about the significant cutbacks in 

NASA’s ISS research program, warning that these cuts had “potentially serious implications for 

the productivity of the station as a research facility once it is assembled.” Christina T. Chaplain 

of GAO testified that NASA had planned 15 more Space Shuttle launches—an average of one 

every 2.7 months—through 2010, when NASA intended to end the Space Shuttle program. 

Compared to the existing launch schedule of once every 10.8 months, the new Shuttle schedule 

would provide little allowance for delays related to mechanical failure or weather. Thomas W. 

Holloway, Chair of the IISTF, expressed doubt that commercial space vehicles under 

development would be ready to ferry supplies to the ISS when the Space Shuttle retired. 

Associate Administrator of NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate William H. 

Gerstenmaier testified that, after the first test flights of the commercial cargo vehicles, scheduled 

 

105 NASA, “NASA Robots Practice Moon Survey in the Arctic Circle,” news release 07-163, 20 July 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/jul/HQ_07163_Ames_Lunar_Sim_Robot_Survey.html (accessed 8 June 

2010); Stefanie Olsen, “NASA Tests Lunar Robots in Arctic Crater,” CNET News.com, 20 July 2007, http://news.

cnet.com/NASA-tests-lunar-robots-in-Arctic-crater/2100-11397_3-6198044.html?tag=mncol (accessed 8 July 2010). 106 Brian Berger, “Pentagon Pulls Plug on Satellite Refueling Prototypes,” Space.com, 25 July 2007, http://www.

space.com/missionlaunches/070725_darpa_orbitalexpress_end.html (accessed 9 June 2010); Stephen Clark, 

“Satellite In-Space Servicing Demo Mission a Success,” Spaceflight Now, 24 July 2007.
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40

for 2008, NASA would be better able to judge their readiness. Subcommittee Ranking Minority 

Member Thomas Charles “Tom” Feeney III (R-FL) expressed concern about the loss of skilled 

KSC workers when NASA ended its Shuttle Program and shifted its focus to the Moon and Mars 

programs, warning, “We can’t repeat past mistakes—like the Apollo-to-Shuttle transition—

where America frittered away hard-earned space-faring skills, which are almost impossible to 

replace.”107

26 July

The Boeing Company announced that, on 20 July, the X-48B flight-test vehicle, a Blended Wing 

Body (BWB) experimental aircraft, had made its first test flight. Boeing Phantom Works had 

developed the BWB in cooperation with NASA and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory. 

The remotely controlled X-48B had taken off from NASA’s Edwards Air Force Base in 

California, climbing to an altitude of 7,500 feet (2,286 meters) and landing 31 minutes after 

takeoff. Boeing had developed two X-48B research vehicles to gather detailed information about 

the stability and flight-control characteristics of the BWB design, particularly during takeoff and 

landing. Previously, Boeing had used Ship 2, the test-flight vehicle, for ground and taxi testing. 

Ship 1, which had completed extensive testing in 2006 at the Old Dominion University’s NASA 

Langley Full-Scale Wind Tunnel in Virginia, was the backup vehicle for the flight-test program. 

The BWB design resembled a flying wing, but the wing blended smoothly into a wide, flat, 

tailless fuselage, helping the craft gain additional lift with less drag than a circular fuselage. 

NASA’s DFRC had provided engineering and technical support for the BWB, based on its years 

of operating cutting-edge, remotely controlled aircraft. NASA had focused on developing 

fundamental flight dynamics and structural concepts for the BWB, as well as helping to validate 

and verify its hardware and software and to integrate and test the aircraft’s systems and the 

pilot’s ground-control station. NASA’s range group had provided critical command and control 

communications and telemetry during the test flight.108

27 July

NASA released the findings of two reviews examining the medical and behavioral health 

assessment of astronauts. Following the arrest of astronaut Lisa M. Nowak in February 2007, 

NASA had requested that an independent external committee conduct a comprehensive review of 

the health services available to astronauts. Commander of the U.S. Air Force School of 

Aerospace Medicine Richard E. Bachmann Jr. had chaired the Astronaut Health Care System 

Review Committee, composed of representatives from eight federal agencies. The Review 

Committee suggested that NASA examine the structure of the Astronaut Office. In addition, the 

 

107U. S. Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Science and Technology, Subcommittee on Space and 

Aeronautics, NASA’s Space Shuttle and International Space Station Programs: Status and Issues, 110th Cong., 1st

sess., 24 July 2007, 14, http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/search/pagedetails.action?browsePath=110%2FHOUSE%

2FCommittee+on+Science+and+Technology&granuleId=CHRG-110hhrg36737&packageId=CHRG110hhrg36737&fromBrowse=true (accessed 11 January 2011); U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, 

Committee on Science and Technology, “Subcommittee Examines Challenges Facing Space Shuttle and 

International Space Station Programs,” press release, 24 July 2007, http://science.house.gov/press/PRArticle. 

aspx?NewsID=1928 (accessed 29 October 2010); Tamara Lytle, “Space Station’s Future in Doubt,” Orlando 

Sentinel (FL), 26 July 2007. 108NASA, “X-48B Blended Wing Body Research Aircraft Takes First Flight,” news release 07-165, 26 July 2007,

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/jul/HQ_07165_BWB_First_Flight.html (accessed 8 June 2010); Boeing 

Company, “Boeing Flies Blended Wing Body Research Aircraft,” news release, 26 July 2007, http://www.boeing.

com/news/releases/2007/q3/070726c_nr.html (accessed 8 June 2010).
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committee recommended that NASA determine the scope of alleged alcohol-related incidents. 

The Review Committee had previously reported anecdotally that several astronauts had violated 

the rule prohibiting members of the flight crew from drinking alcohol or working under the 

effects of alcohol during the 12 hours before launch. Concurrent with the Review Committee’s 

study, Director of NASA’s JSC Michael L. Coats had led an internal assessment of behavioral 

medicine practices for astronauts. The JSC Astronaut Health Care System Review Committee 

had evaluated JSC’s extensive health care programs for astronauts and had recommended 

improvements to those programs, such as adding a more extensive behavioral health assessment 

to the annual flight physical examinations for all astronauts.109

AUGUST 2007

4 August

NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander launched aboard a Delta-2 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, 

at 9:36 (UT). The 350-kilogram (772-pound) Lander carried scientific instruments and a robotic 

arm that would vertically penetrate the icy soil of the Vastitas Borealis, an arctic plain bearing 

similarities to central Greenland or northern Alaska. Phoenix’s instruments included eight onboard ovens designed to analyze vapors from soil samples to identify the presence of organic 

compounds, which would indicate whether biological processes had occurred. To avoid 

contamination, Phoenix would use each oven just once. Phoenix also carried multi-spectral 

instruments that would collect data revealing the composition of Mars’s surface minerals and of 

its atmosphere, to an altitude of 20 kilometers (12.4 miles).110

7 August

NASA announced that it had developed a new wireless tile scanner and was using it to inspect 

Space Shuttles before launch, looking for cracks and other imperfections. NASA intended for the 

new method to replace manual inspection of Space Shuttles. Wireless scanner inspections had 

begun on Endeavour, scheduled to launch to the ISS on 8 August. Technicians were using six 

new scanners, designed and built at NASA’s ARC in California, to check for problems in some 

of the 24,000 tiles covering Endeavour. Instead of using small hand-held scales to measure dents 

and cracks and to estimate the volume of flaws to a worst-case value, the technicians were able 

to use the new devices to scan flaws and to archive the data. The scanner’s software measured 

the archived data to determine accurately the depth and volume of flaws and their locations, 

allowing engineers to examine three-dimensional images of the flaws. NASA had developed the 

same technology further, to create a larger, desktop version of the scanner. NASA was using the 

larger version to study samples of material for the heat shield that was under development for 

Orion.

111

 

109 NASA, “NASA Releases Findings of Astronaut Health Review,” media advisory 07-92, 26 July 2007,

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/jul/HQ_M07092_Astro_Reports.html (accessed 11 June 2010); NASA, 

“Opening Remarks: NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale,” 27 July 2007, http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/

183223main_Shana_Dale%20_opening%20_statement_7-27-07.pdf (accessed 14 July 2010). 110 Spacewarn Bulletin, no. 646, 1 September 2007, http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/spacewarn/spx646.html (accessed 14 

June 2010); John Johnson Jr., “Phoenix Spacecraft Launches to Mars,” Los Angeles Times, 6 August 2007. 111 NASA, “NASA Develops Wireless Tile Scanner for Space Shuttle Inspection,” news release 07-171, 7 August 

2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/aug/HQ_07171_Shuttle_Tile_Scanner.html (accessed 14 June 2010).
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42

8 August

Space Shuttle Endeavour launched from NASA’s KSC on STS-118 for an ISS assembly mission. 

STS-118 crew included Commander Scott J. Kelly; Pilot Charles O. Hobaugh; Mission 

Specialists Tracy E. Caldwell, Richard A. Mastracchio, Barbara R. Morgan, Benjamin A.

“Alvin” Drew Jr., and CSA astronaut Dafydd R. “Dave” Williams. Astronaut Barbara R. Morgan, 

who had been Christa McAuliffe’s backup during NASA’s teacher-in-space program, had been a 

spectator at KSC when Space Shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after launch on 28 January 

1986. After the accident, Morgan had returned to teaching. However, in 1998 she had joined the 

Astronaut Corps. She was participating in STS-118 as a Mission Specialist, not as a teacher. 

Endeavour’s payload included the Starboard 5 (S5) truss, the Spacehab module, and external 

stowage platform 3, with a replacement control moment gyroscope (CMG). The mission, 

Endeavour’s 20th, was the first in almost five years. The Columbia tragedy in 2003 had extended 

Endeavour’s time on the ground. Following its last mission in December 2002, Endeavour had 

undergone a major overhaul involving over 194 modifications, including GPS receivers, a 

modern glass cockpit, a system for docking at the ISS, and a system for monitoring the three 

engines during launch. NASA had also replaced more than 2,000 of Endeavour’s heat tiles and 

blankets and more than 3,000 gap fillers between its tiles. The overhauled Shuttle seemed to 

launch flawlessly. NASA observed one debris event on live video, but the object appeared to 

have missed the orbiter.112

10 August

NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin named Richard J. Gilbrech as Associate Administrator 

for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, succeeding Scott J. Horowitz, who had 

announced in July his intention to leave NASA by 1 October. The Directorate was responsible 

for designing the next generation of spacecraft, intended to return astronauts to the Moon and, 

eventually, to transport human explorers to Mars. Gilbrech had joined NASA in 1991 and had 

played a key role in helping NASA solve the problem of the Shuttle’s dangerous foam debris, 

which had caused the Columbia tragedy in 2003. Griffin also named Robert D. Cabana, Deputy 

Director of NASA’s JSC in Houston since 2004, to replace Gilbrech as Director of NASA’s SSC, 

where he would oversee all operations of NASA’s primary center for rocket-propulsion testing 

and of the Applied Research and Technology Project Office. NASA had selected Cabana as an 

astronaut in 1985. He had flown twice as a Space Shuttle pilot and twice as a Shuttle commander, 

accumulating more than 1,000 hours in space.113

NASA announced that it had signed a contract with ATK for the design, development, testing, 

and evaluation of the first stage of the Ares-1 and Ares-5 launch vehicles. NASA planned to use 

Ares 1 to launch the Orion CEV, which would replace the current Space Shuttle fleet. NASA 

intended to use Ares 5, a heavy-lift launch vehicle, to launch a variety of payloads for science 

 

112 NASA, “NASA’s Shuttle Endeavour Begins Mission to the Space Station,” news release 07-173, 8 August 2007; 

NASA Kennedy Space Center, “STS-118: Endeavour,” NASA Facts no. FS-2007-09-027-KSC, http://www.nasa.

gov/pdf/182309main_STS-118W.pdf (accessed 7 July 2010); Chris Bergin, “Endeavour Launches: Debris Observed, 

But Appears To Miss Orbiter,” NASASpaceflight.com, 8 August 2007, http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2007/08/

endeavour-launches-debris-observed/ (accessed 7 July 2010); Kenneth Chang, “Shuttle Endeavour Takes Off,” New 

York Times, 9 August 2007. 113 NASA, “NASA Administrator Announces Senior Leadership Appointments,” news release 07-175, 10 August 

2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/aug/HQ_07175_Gilbrech_Cabana.html (accessed 21 June 2010); 

Mark Carreau, “NASA Names New Leader for Moon Exploration,” Houston Chronicle, 12 August 2007.
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43

and exploration activities. ATK planned to develop the Ares-1 first stage as a five-segment SRB, 

basing it on the four-segment design that the company had used for the Space Shuttle. The 

company planned to draw on current hardware, facilities, and manufacturing equipment qualified 

for human-rated SRBs. The contract, valued at US$1.8 billion, continued work that had begun in 

April 2006 under a temporary agreement, extending the performance period through December 

2014. It included the delivery of five ground-static-test motors, two ground-vibration-test articles, 

and four flight-test stages.114

11 August

Mission Specialists Richard A. Mastracchio and Dafydd R. “Dave” Williams undertook the first 

EVA of STS-118, marking the first time that either astronaut had spacewalked. Over the course 

of 6 hours and 17 minutes, the pair worked to install and activate the 1.58-ton (1.4-tonne or 

1,433-kilogram), 11-by-14-foot (3.33-by-4.3-meter) S5-truss segment and to retract the forward 

heat-rejecting radiator from the P6 truss. NASA planned to relocate the forward heat-rejecting 

radiator to the end of the port truss during the upcoming STS-120. Pilot Charles O. Hobaugh 

assisted Williams and Mastracchio from inside the ISS, operating the ISS’s robotic arm, which 

held the truss.115

13 August

Astronauts Richard A. Mastracchio and Dafydd R. “Dave” Williams undertook the second EVA 

of STS-118, to install the 600-pound (272-kilogram) CMG on the Z1 segment of the ISS’s truss, 

and to remove and replace the gyroscope that had failed in late 2006. The defective gyroscope 

was one of four such devices controlling the ISS’s position. NASA announced it had added a 

new computer program, the Inductive Monitoring System, to assist in monitoring these four 

gyroscopes. NASA had begun using the system earlier in 2007. David L. Iverson, the computer 

scientist at NASA’s ARC who had led the five-year effort to develop the new system, explained 

that the purpose of the software was to alert ground controllers to anomalies, so that they could 

analyze the situation immediately and take any necessary preventive measures. During the test 

phase, the new software had identified problems with the gyroscopes long before the previous 

system would have flagged anomalies. Engineers had also used the software program in F-18 

fighter planes and in the Space Shuttle’s leading-edge impact-detection system, as well as in 

monitoring electric-power plants and water quality.116

14 August

NASA announced that it had awarded US$250,000 to participants of the Personal Air Vehicle 

competition, one of seven NASA Centennial Challenges. Four teams had competed for overall 

best performance and for prizes for noise reduction, handling, efficiency, short takeoff, and top 

speed. The competition promoted the use of self-operated, personal aircraft that could serve as 

on-demand transportation, part of the future solution to U.S. transportation needs. The 

 

114 NASA, “NASA Awards First Stage Contract for Ares Rockets,” contract release C07-36, 10 August 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/aug/HQ_C07036_Ares_first_stage.html (accessed 14 June 2010); Edmond 

Lococo, “Alliant Techsystems Wins $1.8 Billion NASA Contract,” Bloomberg, 11 August 2007. 115 NASA KSC, “STS-118”; Jean-Louis Santini for Agence France-Presse, “Astronauts Begin Spacewalk as NASA 

Analyzes Shuttle Damage.”

116 NASA, “New NASA Software Monitors Space Station Gyroscopes,” news release 07-201, 13 August 2007,

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/aug/HQ_07201_ISS_Gyro_Software.html (accessed 14 June 2010); Traci 

Watson, “Endeavour Astronauts Replace Faulty Gyroscope,” USA Today, 14 August 2007.
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44

Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency Foundation (CAFE Foundation) had administered the 

challenge, which took place at the Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport in Santa Rosa, 

California, on 4−12 August. Frank Vance Turner of Rescue, California, owner of a short-wing 

Pipistrel aircraft, won the US$100,000 Vantage Prize, as well as the CAFE Efficiency Prize, the 

Short Runway Prize, and second prize for Top Speed, for a total of US$160,000 in prize money. 

David and Diane Anders of Visalia, California, owners and pilots of an RV-4 aircraft, won the 

Noise Prize and first prize for Top Speed, for US$65,000 total winnings. John Rehn of Santa 

Rosa, California, owner of a Cessna 172 aircraft, won the US$25,000 Handling Qualities 

Prize.117

STS-118 Mission Specialist Richard A. Mastracchio and ISS Expedition 16 Flight Engineer 

Clayton C. Anderson undertook the third EVA of STS-118. Over the course of 5 hours and 28 

minutes, the pair relocated the S-band antenna subassembly from the P6 truss to the P1 truss, 

installed a new transponder on P1, and retrieved the P6 transponder. The spacewalk ended early 

when Mastracchio’s spacesuit was damaged. The suit had a cut in the left thumb of the glove. 

Mission Control instructed Mastracchio to return to the ISS airlock as a precaution against 

further damage that could potentially allow air to rush out of the suit. Anderson quickly finished 

the task he had been working on and followed Mastracchio to the airlock.118

16 August

NASA’s Ikhana, a Predator B drone adapted for civil missions, launched on its maiden scientific 

flight, flying above wildfires in California, including the Zaca fire that had been blazing in 

Ventura County since 4 July. The drone’s mission was to map the direction of the flames. The 

craft carried sophisticated instruments, which could capture images that conventional aircraft 

could not, providing intelligence to firefighters regarding the precise location of the front. Flying 

for 10 hours, Ikhana demonstrated its on-board infrared camera and its ability to transmit realtime images to command stations on the ground. Everett Hinkley, coordinator of the National 

Remote Sensing Program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service, remarked upon 

the usefulness of future firefighting tools like Ikhana, which could supply critical knowledge of 

the precise location of a fire so that responders could deploy resources quickly, without placing 

people on the ground in harm’s way.119

18 August

STS-118 Mission Specialist Dafydd R. “Dave” Williams and ISS Expedition 16 Flight Engineer 

Clayton C. Anderson made the fourth and final spacewalk of STS-118. Over the course of 5 

hours, the pair installed the antenna of the External Wireless Instrumentation System, attached a 

stand for the extension boom of the Shuttle’s robotic arm, and retrieved two materials 

experiment containers for return to Earth aboard Endeavour. Mission Control had cancelled 

approximately 2 hours worth of tasks from the EVA to enable the crew to close the hatch 

between the ISS and the Shuttle in preparation for an early departure. NASA managers had 

 

117 NASA, “NASA Names Winners of Personal Air Vehicle Challenge,” news release 07-199, 14 August 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/aug/HQ_07199_personal_air_vehicles.html (accessed 14 June 2010). 118 NASA KSC, “STS-118”; Mark Carreau, “Spacewalk Ends Early After Cut in Space Suit Found,” Houston 

Chronicle, 16 August 2007.

119 Catherine Saillant, “NASA Drone Aids Crews Fighting Zaca Fire,” Los Angeles Times, 25 August 2007; Elise 

Kleeman, “NASA Drone Joins the Effort To Fight Southland Wildfires,” Pasadena Star-News (CA), 26 August 

2007.
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45

rescheduled the return flight to enable Endeavour to land a day early, in case Hurricane Dean 

headed toward Houston. The hurricane could have forced an emergency relocation of flight 

controllers from Houston to a makeshift control center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. A temporary 

control center would have been neither as organized nor as large as the Houston operation.120

20 August

Aeronautical engineer Jerome B. Hammack, who was one of the seven inventors of NASA’s 

Mercury capsule and had been instrumental in creating the recovery team to retrieve Mercury 

astronauts from the ocean, died of cancer at the age of 85. After playing a key role in the 

Mercury program, NASA’s first human space program, Hammack had carried out similar duties 

in the Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, and Shuttle projects. In 1958 Hammack had joined National 

Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), NASA’s predecessor organization, and, in the 

early 1960s, he had been one of the 35-member group that came to Houston to establish the 

institution that became NASA’s JSC.121

NASA announced the selection of Benham Constructors LLC of Oklahoma City for a contract 

valued at US$54.1 million to design, build, and commission vibration and acoustic test 

capabilities in support of the development of the Orion CEV. The contract stipulated that 

Benham Constructors build the test capability, including a mechanical-vibration test facility, a 

reverberant-acoustic test facility, and a high-speed-data-acquisition system in the SPF at Plum 

Brook Station, in Sandusky, Ohio, which NASA’s GRC operates. The contract covered a 

performance period of 18 months, with an additional six months of technical support. 

Environmental tests conducted in the facilities would demonstrate Orion’s hardware, ensuring 

that it met NASA’s specified requirements in simulated launch, orbit, and reentry conditions. 

NASA also intended the new test capability to support testing in NASA’s Constellation Program, 

which was developing spacecraft and other systems to support exploration missions to the Moon, 

Mars, and other destinations in Earth’s solar system.122

NASA’s Voyagers celebrated 30 years of flight. The two spacecraft continued to travel toward 

interstellar space and to return data, marking an unprecedented, historic accomplishment. 

Voyager 2 had launched on 20 August 1977, and Voyager 1 had followed shortly after on 5 

September 1977. The original mission plan had sent the two craft to Saturn and Jupiter. However, 

NASA had extended the two Voyagers’ tours beyond the initial four years, because of their 

achievements and because a rare planetary alignment had allowed them to travel to Uranus and 

Neptune. Following the completion of the extended mission, NASA had sent the Voyagers to 

explore the outer heliosphere. In December 2004, Voyager 1 had begun crossing the so-called 

heliosheath. Located approximately 8.7 billion miles (14 billion kilometers) from the Sun, the 

heliosheath is the region where the solar wind slows as it crashes into the thin gas that fills the 

space between stars. NASA expected Voyager 2 to reach this boundary later in 2007, placing 

both Voyagers on their final leg toward interstellar space. At the 30th anniversary of the 

 

120 NASA KSC, “STS-118”; Marcia Dunn for Associated Press, “Astronauts Hurriedly Complete Spacewalk,” 19 

August 2007.

121 Lynwood Abram, “Hammack, Helped [Design] Vehicles for Space Program,” Houston Chronicle, 24 August 

2007.

122 NASA, “NASA Selects Vibration Test Capability Contractor,” contract release C07-37, 20 August 2007,

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/aug/HQ_C07037_Plum_Brook_Contract.html (accessed 14 June 2010); 

Cleveland Plain Dealer (OH), “NASA Glenn Gets Role in New Spacecraft Design,” 21 August 2007.
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46

spacecraft, Voyager 1, located approximately 9.7 billion miles (15.5 billion kilometers) from the 

Sun, was the farthest human-made object from Earth. Voyager 2 was approximately 7.8 billion 

miles (12.5 billion kilometers) from Earth. Each craft was traveling approximately 1 million 

miles (1.6 million kilometers) per day. NASA’s Deep Space Network required 14 hours for its 

communications to reach Voyager 1 and 12 hours to reach Voyager 2.123

21 August

Space Shuttle Endeavour landed safely at NASA’s KSC after the 13-day STS-118 assembly 

mission to the ISS. Although the Shuttle had sustained damage during launch, including a small 

gouge in the protective tile on the orbiter’s underside, inspections during orbit had revealed no 

critical damage to the craft, and NASA managers had declared Endeavour’s thermal protection 

system safe for reentry. Endeavour had landed a day early because of NASA’s concern about 

Hurricane Dean. The hurricane had ultimately followed a track that did not threaten Houston, the 

home of NASA’s Mission Control. During the mission, Canadian astronaut Dafydd R. “Dave” 

Williams had undertaken three of the four spacewalks of STS-118, setting a new spacewalking 

record for Canada. Williams had surpassed the record held by Canadian Chris A. Hadfield, who 

had performed two EVAs during a single mission in 2001.124

23 August

NASA announced that its SSC in Mississippi had broken ground for the construction of a new 

rocket-engine test stand, which would provide altitude testing for the J-2X engine. The J-2X 

would power the upper stages of the Ares-1 and Ares-5 rockets. NASA Deputy Administrator 

Shana L. Dale spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony for the new test stand, recalling that the 

first stand erected at NASA’s SSC had tested the Saturn-5 rocket for the Apollo program. NASA 

had first tested the Space Shuttle engines at SSC in the 1970s. The new test stand for the new 

spacecraft signaled the beginning of a new era of exploration. The 19-acre site in SSC’s A 

Complex would contain the 300-foot-tall (91-meter-tall), open-steel-frame A-3 test stand; a testcontrol center; propellant-barge docks; and access roadways. Engineers would generate steam to 

reduce pressure in the test cell, using the test stand to simulate conditions at different altitudes.125

28 August

NASA announced the selection of the Boeing Company of Huntsville, Alabama, as the 

production contractor for the Ares-1 upper stage. Under the contract, valued at US$514.7 million, 

plus US$610 million in options, a NASA-led design team would receive support from Boeing 

during the design phase. Boeing would take responsibility for production of the upper stage, 

manufacturing a ground-test article, three flight-test units, and six production-flight units to 

 

123 NASA, “Pioneering NASA Spacecraft Mark Thirty Years of Flight,” news release 07-205, 20 August 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/aug/HQ_07205_Voyager_30th.html (accessed 14 June 2010). 124 NASA, “Shuttle Endeavour Crew Returns Home After Successful Mission,” news release 07-177, 21 August 

2007; Andy Blatchford, “Canadian’s Record Spacewalk,” Toronto Star, 19 August 2007; Traci Watson, “Shuttle 

Coming Home Early as Dean Nears,” USA Today, 20 August 2007. 125 NASA, “NASA’s Stennis Space Center Marks New Chapter in Space Exploration,” news release 07-180, 23 

August 2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/aug/HQ_07180_Stennis_groundbreaking.html (accessed 14 

June 2010).
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47

support NASA’s flight manifest through 2016. The cost-plus-award-fee contract covered a 

performance period that would begin in September 2007 and last through December 2016.126

29 August

NASA released safety-review findings that showed no evidence of astronauts using alcohol 

improperly before spaceflight. NASA Chief of Safety and Mission Assurance Bryan D. 

O’Connor had conducted the review to evaluate allegations included in the Astronaut Health 

Care System Review Committee’s report, released in late July. For the safety review, which 

covered the past 20 years of spaceflight, NASA had interviewed approximately 90 participants in 

and witnesses to the activities that had occurred during the last few days before Shuttle and 

Soyuz launches. In addition, NASA had reviewed more than 40,000 records, from as far back as 

1984, including reports of mishaps and close calls, anonymous safety reports, safety-hotline 

reports, and alcohol- and drug-related disciplinary actions, as well as NASA’s relevant policies 

and procedures. The review had also included an inspection of crew quarters at NASA’s JSC in 

Houston and NASA’s KSC in Florida. O’Connor remarked that the investigation had been much 

more exhaustive than NASA’s usual response to an anonymous allegation concerning a matter of 

safety; therefore, he expressed confidence that NASA had sufficient safeguards to prevent an 

impaired crew member from participating in spaceflight.127

30 August

ISS crew members successfully moved an old docking port to a new location, clearing a space 

for a new module scheduled to arrive later in the year. ISS Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor N. 

Yurchikhin and Flight Engineers Oleg V. Kotov and Clayton C. Anderson worked from inside 

the space station to move the Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 (PMA-3) from its port-side perch on 

NASA’s Unity module to a berth facing Earth. The crew had delayed the relocation process by 

approximately 1 hour, because three of the sixteen bolts securing the PMA had returned 

intermittent fault messages. However, Mission Control determined that the error messages would 

not affect the relocation or the installation of the Harmony node later in the year. Kotov assisted 

Anderson in operating the ISS’s robotic arm, while Yurchkhin oversaw the bolt-latching systems, 

alternately freeing and securing the module during its relocation. PMA-3 detached from Unity at 

8:23 a.m. (EDT) and, at 9:07 a.m. (EDT), the crew successfully reattached the port to its new 

berth. NASA’s lead Expedition 15 Flight Director Robert C. Dempsey acknowledged the 

cooperation between the Russian and American crew members. Dempsey remarked that 

Expedition 15’s crew was one of the first truly integrated crews that he had seen, noting that the 

mission marked the first time that Russian cosmonauts had operated NASA-controlled 

components, such as the Canadian-built robotic arm.128

 

126 NASA, “NASA Selects Ares I Upper Stage Production Contractor,” contract release C07-40, 28 August 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/aug/HQ_C07040_Ares_1_Upper_Stage_Contract.html (accessed 14 June 

2010); Seth Borenstein for Associated Press, “Boeing Wins Big NASA Contract,” 29 August 2007. 127 NASA, “NASA Safety Review Finds No Evidence of Improper Alcohol Use by Astronauts Before Space Flight,” 

news release 07-184, 29 August 2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/aug/HQ_07184_oconnor_alcohol_

study.html (accessed 14 June 2010); Warren E. Leary, “No Evidence of Drunken Astronauts, NASA Says,” New 

York Times, 30 August 2007. 128 Tariq Malik, “Space Station Crew Clears Port for New Module,” Space.com, 30 August 2007, http://www.space.

com/missionlaunches/070830_exp15_pma3move.html (accessed 30 June 2010).
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48

SEPTEMBER 2007

4 September

NASA’s JPL announced that the Phoenix Mars Lander flight-operations team had successfully 

tested the craft’s descent-monitoring radar and UHF radio on 24 August. During its flight to 

Mars, Phoenix had communicated with Earth via an X-band radio unit, but the craft would 

switch to UHF radio after landing on Mars. Because the X-band radio unit was mounted on a 

part of the craft that would jettison shortly before Phoenix reached the Martian atmosphere, the 

UHF radio would become critical to communications once the craft reached Mars.129

5 September

South Korean Vice Minister of Science and Technology Chung Yoon announced the selection of 

Ko San, a 30-year-old expert on artificial intelligence, to visit the ISS as South Korea’s first 

astronaut. Ko San had been one of two finalists. The other finalist, Yi So-yeon, was a 29-yearold female doctoral student in biotechnology. More than 36,000 South Koreans had applied to 

become the first person in South Korea to travel in space. Ko and Yi had been training in Russia 

when South Korean authorities selected Ko as the winner. They appointed Yi as his backup, in 

the event Ko was unable to participate in the mission. They selected Ko over Yi because he had 

performed better in certain experiments and had demonstrated a stronger capability of 

communicating with Russian cosmonauts. As backup, Yi would continue to train with Ko and 

would serve as a consultant in planning Ko’s mission.130

6 September

The House Science and Technology Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics held a hearing to 

review the findings of two reports that NASA had made public on 27 July 2007. The reports 

examined NASA’s medical and behavioral health care system for its astronauts. The NASA 

Astronaut Health Care System Review had identified a number of issues related to NASA culture, 

communication, and behavioral concerns, including some astronauts’ alleged preflight alcohol 

abuse. However, NASA’s internal JSC review had contradicted the finding, stating that the 

investigators had been unable to verify any instance of alcohol abuse. At the hearing, Richard E. 

Bachmann Jr., Chair of the Astronaut Health Care System Review Committee, stated that 

NASA’s rebuttal of reports and derision of the claims that astronauts had imbibed alcohol during 

the preflight alcohol-restriction period had discouraged open communication. Moreover, 

Bachmann expressed deep concern about NASA’s apparent disregard of mental health and 

behavior issues among astronauts and about the reluctance of flight surgeons and astronauts alike 

to report improper conduct. Subcommittee Chair Mark E. Udall (D-CO) remarked that the 

findings of the two panels seemed to describe two different organizations. Udall instructed 

NASA to present a credible plan and accompanying timetable for implementing the NASA 

Astronaut Health Care System Review Committee’s recommendations, including the most 

controversial one, related to the allegations that some astronauts had drunk alcohol shortly before 

 

129 NASA JPL, “Phoenix Mars Lander Status Report: Radar and Other Gear Pass Checkouts,” news release 2007-

094a, 4 September 2007, http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2007-094a (accessed 9 August 2010); 

Dave Mosher, “Phoenix Spacecraft Passes In-Flight Tests,” Space.com, 5 September 2007, http://www.space.com/

missionlaunches/070905_phoenix_update.html (added 9 August 2010). 130 Kurt Achin, “S. Korea Names Astronaut for the Country’s First Voyage into Space,” Voice of America, 6 

September 2007; “Space Mission To Help Boost Aerospace Research,” Korea Times, 6 September 2007.
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49

flight. NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin, who had compared the alcohol allegations to 

urban legends, testified that NASA was already in the process of addressing the committee’s 

concerns. At the time of the hearing, NASA was preparing an anonymous survey to assist in 

identifying its employees’ continuing concerns about safety issues and about other review 

committee findings.131

7 September

NASA announced that its solar-powered Mars rover duo, Spirit and Opportunity, had survived 

severe dust storms and were ready to continue their mission. Spirit had awakened and, on 5 

September, had climbed onto a plateau of layered bedrock, its long-term destination. On the 

plateau, known as Home Plate, Spirit would examine clues about an explosive mixture of lava 

and water. Meanwhile, Opportunity had begun preparing for its descent into Victoria Crater, 

where it would examine an exposed layer of bright rocks. The rocks might provide preserved 

evidence of an ancient interaction between the Martian atmosphere and surface. Dust storms in 

July had delayed Opportunity’s scheduled descent into the crater, blocking significant amounts 

of sunlight and causing researchers to become concerned that the rovers’ daily energy supplies 

might plunge too low for recovery.132

11 September

NASA announced that its aeronautics researchers had designed and built a new silicon-carbide 

differential-amplifier integrated-circuit chip that could exceed 1,700 hours of continuous 

operation at 500°C (932°F). The groundbreaking success represented a 100 percent improvement 

over the operating times that integrated circuit chips had achieved in the past. Previously, such 

chips could only withstand a few hours of high temperatures before degrading or failing. The 

goal of the project, a joint effort of the Aviation Safety and Fundamental Aeronautics programs 

under NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, was to develop extremely functional, 

but physically small, circuitry for the hot sections of jet engines. This circuitry would enhance 

sensing and control of the combustion process—key elements in the search for improved safety, 

fuel efficiency, and reduced emissions for jet engines. Researchers believed that this technology 

could also improve automotive engines, equipment for drilling oil and natural gas wells, and 

other types of machinery requiring long-lasting electronic circuits in very hot environments, such 

as robotic equipment for exploratory missions on the hostile surface of gaseous planets like 

Venus.133

 

131 U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Science and Technology, Subcommittee on Space and 

Aeronautics, “Subcommittee Questions NASA on Health Care of Astronaut Corps,” news release, 6 September 2007, 

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/search/pagedetails.action?browsePath=110%2FHOUSE%2FCommittee+on+Science+ 

and+Technology&granuleId=CHRG-110hhrg37640&packageId=CHRG-110hhrg37640&fromBrowse=true

(accessed 11 January 2011); U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Science and Technology, 

Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, NASA’s Astronaut Health Care System—Results of an Independent 

Review, 110th Cong., 1st sess., 6 September 2007; Eun Kyung Kim, “Fear May Be NASA Problem,” Florida Today

(Brevard, FL), 7 September 2007. 132 NASA, “Mars Rovers Survive Severe Dust Storms, Ready for Next Objectives,” news release 07-187, 7 

September 2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/sep/HQ_07187_Mars_Rovers.html (accessed 4 August 

2010). 

133 NASA, “NASA Researchers Extend Life of Hot Temperature Electronic Chip,” news release 07-189, 11 

September 2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/sep/HQ_07189_Silicon_Chip.html (accessed 4 August 

2010).
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50

12 September

NASA announced that it had signed a MOU with the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), 

entering into an agreement that would enable American scientists to access the ISS to pursue 

research about human health and disease. NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin and NIH 

Director Elias A. Zerhouni stated that the partnership could pave the way for research advances 

in cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, osteoporosis, and other medical conditions. The MOU marked 

the first time that NASA had formed a partnership with another agency to use the U.S. segment 

of the ISS as a national laboratory.134

13 September

The X Prize Foundation and Google announced the creation of the Google Lunar X Prize, a 

contest with a US$30 million prize purse, inviting private companies worldwide to compete to 

land a privately funded robotic rover on the Moon. The prize purse consisted of a US$20 million 

grand prize, a US$5 million second prize, and US$5 million in bonus prizes. To win the grand 

prize, the rover would need to complete several mission objectives, including roaming the lunar 

surface for at least 500 meters (1,640 feet) and sending data back to Earth, including video and 

still images. The grand prize would be worth US$20 million until 31 December 2012, and then 

would be worth US$15 million until 31 December 2014. If no team claimed the grand prize by 

31 December 2014, the competition would terminate, unless Google and the X Prize Foundation 

extended it. To win the second prize, which would also be available until 31 December 2014, a 

team would have to land a craft, which would roam the lunar surface and transmit data to Earth. 

The sponsors would distribute bonus prizes to teams that successfully completed additional 

mission tasks such as roaming distances greater than 5,000 meters (16,404 feet); capturing 

images of human-made artifacts, such as Apollo hardware; discovering water ice; or surviving a 

cold lunar night—the equivalent of 14.5 Earth days.135

14 September

Four years behind its original schedule, JAXA successfully launched Kaguya, also called the 

Selenological and Engineering Explorer (SELENE), aboard an H-2A solid-fuel rocket from 

Tanegashima Island at 1:31 (UT). The 2.9-tonne (2,900-kilogram or 3.2-ton) lunar orbiter carried 

various instruments that would enable it to obtain detailed data about the lunar topography and 

surface-mineral composition. JAXA had promoted the mission as the most significant lunar 

expedition since America’s Apollo program of the 1960s and early 1970s, in terms of its scope 

and ambition. JAXA claimed that the mission would outpace the former Soviet Union’s Luna 

program, NASA’s Clementine mission of 1994, and NASA’s Lunar Prospector mission of 1998–

1999. Kaguya’s launch occurred at a critical time for the Japanese space agency, which was 

facing accusations that it lacked a vision capable of challenging the ambition of the People’s 

Republic of China to lead East Asia in space exploration. At the time of the launch, JAXA also 

lacked popular and political support. Japan’s citizens had such poor regard for the civilian space 

program that JAXA had to negotiate with the local fishermen of Tanegashima for acceptable 

 

134 NASA, “NASA and NIH Partner for Health Research in Space,” news release 07-190, 12 September 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/sep/HQ_07190_NASA_NIH_MOU.html (accessed 4 August 2010); 

Michelle Mittelstadt, “NIH, NASA Finish Deal for Research Lab in Space,” Houston Chronicle, 13 September 2007. 135 X Prize Foundation, “Google Sponsors Lunar X Prize To Create a Space Race for a New Generation,” news 

release, 13 September 2007, http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/lunar/press-release/google-sponsors-lunar-x-prizeto-create-a-space-race-for-a-new-generation (accessed 9 August 2010); John Schwartz, “$25 Million in Prizes Is 

Offered for Trip to Moon,” New York Times, 14 September 2007.
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51

launch times. Because September was one of two launch windows that Tanegashima fishermen’s 

unions had offered JAXA, Kaguya’s launch took place during typhoon season. Kazuto Suzuki, a 

specialist in global space issues at Tsukuba University in Tokyo, explained that JAXA was only 

beginning to realize that, to enhance the political importance of Japan’s space initiatives, it 

would need to market Japan’s space program to appeal to the Japanese public.136

ESA and Russia successfully launched Foton M-3 aboard a Russian Soyuz-U rocket from 

Baikonur Cosmodrome at 11:00 (UT). The 6.4-tonne (6,400-kilogram or 7-ton) satellite carried a 

payload of approximately 40 European experiments, including a 35-kilogram (77-pound) 

student-built module called the Young Engineers Satellite 2 (YES2), which the Foton craft 

would deploy to orbit Earth for 12 days. When the orbiting period had ended, the YES2 mission 

would use an experimental tether to return the picosatellite and reentry vehicle Fotino to Earth on 

25 September. ESA and Russia had planned the tether-technology demonstration to test and 

produce data related to “space mail,” a concept developed to enable the return of material from 

space without the use of conventional chemical propulsion.137

18 September

NASA announced that it had signed a MOU agreeing to collaborate with the U.S. Army on 

aeronautics research. The agreement focused on rotorcraft aeronautics and included avionics, 

aeromechanics, propulsion, flight dynamics and control, safety and airspace management, and 

vehicle structures. The agreement would ensure the free exchange of information, enabling 

NASA and the Army to reduce duplication and enhance long-term research planning. NASA’s 

Associate Administrator for the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate Lisa J. Porter 

remarked that, although NASA and the Army had different missions, they shared the common 

goal of pursuing innovative research and faced common challenges in research related to the 

rotorcraft’s payload, range, noise, and efficiency.138

21 September

The journal Science published a special issue about water on Mars. The issue included five 

reports that had used the scientific results derived from the detailed images that NASA’s Mars 

Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) had captured during the first 100 days of its mission. MRO’s 

primary mission was to study Mars’s hydrologic history, using six scientific instruments, 

including the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera (HiRISE), which provided 

10 times the resolution of any previous Mars imager. The papers published in this special issue 

of Science indicated that evidence for liquid water on Mars was rare and difficult to discern. 

NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor (MGS), which had visited Mars in 1999, had raised researchers’ 

hopes that the probe had detected modern flows of liquid water on Mars. However, MRO’s 

observations suggested otherwise—that landslides of loose, dry materials had created the 

 

136 Spacewarn Bulletin, no. 647, 1 October 2007, http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/spacewarn/spx647.html (accessed 4 

August 2010); Bruce Wallace, “After Long Delay, Japan Launches Lunar Orbiter,” Los Angeles Times, 14 

September 2007; Associated Press, “Japan’s Space Agency Launches Lunar Probe,” 14 September 2007. 137 Spacewarn Bulletin, no. 647; European Space Agency (ESA), “Young Engineers’ Satellite 2; Mission Facts,” 5 

September 2007, http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/YES/SEMLRV8OY2F_0.html (accessed 5 August 2010); ESA, 

“Focus On; Foton-M3 Mission To Launch European Experiments,” 11 September 2007, http://www.esa.int/esaCP/

SEMN5ZMPQ5F_FeatureWeek_0.html (accessed 5 August 2010). 138 NASA, “NASA, U.S. Army Agree To Aeronautics Cooperation,” news release 07-197, 18 September 2007,

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/sep/HQ_07197_NASA_Army_MOU.html (accessed 4 August 2010).
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52

deposits that scientists had interpreted as evidence of liquid water. In addition, MRO had 

captured images suggesting that flowing lava, rather than water, had shaped some Martian 

landforms, such as branched channels and fan-like deposits. Moreover, MRO images indicated 

that, although certain gullies and rims of craters did indeed contain liquid water, the presence of 

water at these locations did not reveal the presence of a water table. Rather, the images suggested 

that objects impacting Mars had triggered trickles of water at these sites. Radar and gravity data 

indicated that the cap on Mars’s south pole held the largest reservoir of water ice on the 

planet.139

25 September

ESA’s YES2 craft attempted to deliver Fotino, a 12-pound (5.4-kilogram) reentry capsule, to a 

landing site in Kazakhstan, via an experimental tether system. YES2 deployed Fotino from the 

Foton-M3 spacecraft. A metal brace and straps held Fotino in place while the tether unwound, 

gradually lowering the capsule. The mission plan called for the tether to lower the capsule 30 

kilometers (18.6 miles) below Foton-M3. However, a malfunction prevented the tether from 

unreeling to its full length. Telemetry data indicated that the tether had deployed approximately 

8.5 kilometers (5.3 miles). Automated timers aboard the craft commanded Fotino to separate 

approximately a half hour before the scheduled touchdown time, even though the tether had not 

extended fully. However, because the tether had not completely deployed before Fotino’s release, 

early estimates predicted that the reentry vehicle would orbit for 4–11 days before reentering the 

atmosphere. Lead Engineer for the YES2 mission Â. Michiel Kruijiff remarked that, apart from 

the problem with the tether, the mission had been largely successful, achieving many of the 

mission objectives.140

26 September

NASA’s JPL announced that, after entering the Victoria Crater on 13 September, Opportunity 

had reached its first destination inside the crater, driving 7.45 meters (24 feet) on 18 September 

and 2.47 meters (8 feet) further on 22 September. On 25 September, the rover had descended 

2.25 meters (7.38 feet) down the inner slope of the 800-meter-wide (2,625-foot-wide) crater to a 

band of relatively bright bedrock, positioning itself to examine a selected slab of rock composed 

of three distinct layers. After the science team had conducted safety checks, Opportunity would 

examine the rock, using the tools at the end of its robotic arm. Safety checks were necessary 

because Opportunity was sitting on the slope at a 25° tilt. Victoria was the largest crater that 

Opportunity had visited during its nearly four Earth years of Mars exploration. Steven W. 

Squyres of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, the Rover Science Principal Investigator, 

 

139 NASA, “NASA Orbiter Provides Insights About Mars Water and Climate,” news release 07-206, 20 September 

2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/sep/HQ_07206_Mars_Water.html (accessed 4 August 2010); Joanne 

Baker, “Introduction to Special Issue: Water, Water, Not Everywhere?” Science 317, no. 5845 (21 September 2007): 

1705, http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/sci;317/5845/1705?maxtoshow=&hits=10&RESULT

FORMAT=&fulltext=Mars+Reconnaissance+Orbiter&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT (DOI: 

10.1126/science.317.5845.1705; accessed 10 August 2010); Jeanna Bryner, “Hope for Water on Mars Dims with 

Sharp New Images,” Space.com, 20 September 2007, http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/070920_mars_tale.

html (accessed 10 August 2010). 140 Stephen Clark, “Space Tether Experiment Hits Major Snag,” Spaceflight Now, 26 September 2007; Vladimir 

Isachenkov for Associated Press, “Russian Attempt To Deliver Parcel from Space Fails,” 26 September 2007.
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53

explained that, through the several planned stops along the band of rock, scientists hoped to 

figure out the processes that had led to Victoria’s formation and to its distinctive appearance.141

27 September

NASA successfully launched its Dawn spacecraft aboard a Delta-2 rocket from Cape Canaveral 

Air Force Station in Florida at 7:34 a.m. (EDT). Mission Controllers at NASA’s JPL in Pasadena, 

California, received telemetry data on schedule at 9:44 a.m. (EDT). The data indicated that Dawn 

had achieved proper orientation in space and that its solar array had succeeded in generating 

power from the Sun. Dawn’s mission was to travel 1.7 billion miles (2.7 billion kilometers) to 

explore two asteroids located in orbit between Mars and Jupiter—Vesta in 2011 and Ceres in 

2015. The International Astronomical Union had reclassified Ceres as a dwarf planet in 2006. In 

their search for new information about the collection of rocky materials remaining from the 

formation of the planets, NASA scientists hoped that the US$474 million mission would provide 

insight into how size, water, and gravity had influenced the development of Earth and its 

planetary neighbors. NASA scientists intended to use Dawn’s instrument suite to measure the 

asteroids’ elemental and mineral composition, shape, surface topography, and tectonic history, as 

well as to search for water-bearing minerals. While studying how Dawn orbits the asteroids, 

scientists also planned to measure the masses and gravity fields of Vesta and Ceres. Engineers 

had designed Dawn to use ion propulsion, a unique hyperefficient system using solar power to 

ionize xenon, generating thrust. Although this method provided less power than conventional 

engines, ion propulsion could maintain thrust for months at a time.142

OCTOBER 2007 

1 October

NASA announced that one of its STEREO satellites had recorded images of an April 2007 

collision between a comet and a solar hurricane, marking the first time that scientists had 

observed such an event. Encke’s comet, traveling in the orbit of Mercury, had encountered a 

CME. NASA had designed STEREO to observe this type of solar event. As the CME swept by, 

the comet’s tail had brightened and then had disconnected, as the front of the ejection carried it 

away. Scientists had known that a comet’s plasma tail could disconnect from the comet, but the 

conditions necessary for this to occur had remained a mystery. Preliminary analysis of the 

images, which NASA researchers had combined into a movie, indicated that a phenomenon 

called magnetic reconnection had caused the tail to detach. In a magnetic reconnection event, the 

magnetic fields in a CME crunch together the oppositely directed magnetic fields around a comet, 

causing the comet fields to link together suddenly. This sudden reconnection releases a burst of 

 

141 NASA JPL, “Opportunity Reaches First Target Inside Crater,” news release 2007-109, 26 September 2007, 

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2007-109 (accessed 9 August 2010); Tariq Malik, “NASA Rover 

Reaches First Stop Inside Giant Martian Crater,” Space.com, 26 September 2007, http://www.space.com/

scienceastronomy/070926_marsrover_victoriascience.html (accessed 10 August 2010). 142 NASA, “NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft Enroute To Shed Light on Asteroid Belt,” news release 07-213, 27 

September 2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/sep/HQ_07213_Dawn_Final_Release.html (accessed 4 

August 2010); NASA, “Dawn Spacecraft Successfully Launched,” news release 07-212, 27 September 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/sep/HQ_07212_Dawn_launched.html (accessed 4 August 2010); Mark K. 

Matthews, “NASA’s Dawn To Cast Light on Asteroids ‘Frozen in Time’,” Orlando Sentinel (FL), 28 September 

2007; Mark Carreau, “NASA’s Launch Starts 3-Billion-Mile Trip to Asteroids,” Houston Chronicle, 28 September 

2007.
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54

energy that detaches the comet’s tail. Angelos Vourlidas of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory 

in Washington, DC, was lead author of an article about the event, published in the 10 October 

2007 issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters. Remarking on the researchers’ sense of awe when 

they viewed the images, Vourlidas described their surprise at seeing the disconnection of the tail, 

calling the event “the icing on the cake.”143

3 October

NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin and Roskosmos head Anatoly N. Perminov signed 

agreements in Moscow allowing two Russian scientific instruments to fly aboard NASA 

spacecraft. According to the agreement, the Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector (LEND) would 

fly aboard NASA’s LRO, which was scheduled to begin a yearlong mission in October 2008. In 

addition, the Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) instrument would travel to Mars aboard 

NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), a robotic rover scheduled to launch in 2009. Designed 

to search for evidence of water ice, LEND would map concentrations of hydrogen at the lunar 

surface, or just below it. The DAN instrument would conduct similar investigations on Mars—

measuring hydrogen to analyze the interaction of neutrons with the Martian surface.144

4 October

On the 50th anniversary of the launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik, publisher Harry N. Abrams 

released America in Space, a photographic record of the history of space exploration, 

documenting NASA’s achievements in aeronautics, science and technology, and human 

spaceflight. Published in cooperation with NASA, the book contained 500 color and black-andwhite photographs, including many previously unpublished photographs, selected from NASA’s 

archives. Heralding the space age, the launch of Sputnik led to the creation of NASA one year 

later.145

Russia marked the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik with veterans of the Soviet space 

program laying flowers at the grave of Sergei P. Korolev, the man who had created Sputnik, the 

tiny satellite that launched the space race between the United States and the U.S.S.R. Korolev’s 

name had remained a secret while he was alive. Ceremonies also included the unveiling of a 

monument to Sputnik near Moscow, a tour of S. P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation 

Energia for schoolchildren, and Roskosmos’s announcement of a special film about the 1957 

launch. President Vladimir V. Putin congratulated Russia’s space scientists, reminding them, 

“the launch of the Earth’s first satellite was a truly historic event, which started a space age.” The 

RIA Novosti news agency quoted First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei B. Ivanov as stating, “Fifty 

 

143 NASA, “NASA Satellite Sees Solar Hurricane Detach Comet Tail,” news release 07-214, 1 October 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/oct/HQ_07214_Comet_Collision.html (accessed 8 September 2010); 

Andrea Thompson, “Solar Storm Rips Tail Off Comet,” Space.com, 1 October 2007, http://www.space.com/

scienceastronomy/071001_hurr_comet.html (accessed 27 September 2010). 144 NASA, “NASA Spacecraft To Carry Russian Science Instruments,” news release 07-219, 3 October 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/oct/HQ_07219_combined_Russian_MOU.html (accessed 8 September 

2010).

145 NASA, “New Book Chronicles NASA’s First 50 Years,” news release 07-210, 1 October 2007, http://www.nasa.

gov/home/hqnews/2007/oct/HQ_07210_NASA_book.html (accessed 8 September 2010); Jeremy Hsu, “NASA Book 

Commemorates 50 Years of Spaceflight,” Space.com, 5 October 2007, http://www.space.com/entertainment/

071004-nasabook-anniversary.html (accessed 28 September 2010).
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55

years in cosmic terms is a mere instant, and yet it fundamentally changed the nature of all 

humanity.”146

5 October

JAXA officials announced that, after project engineers had successfully put the probe through a 

series of maneuvers, Japan’s lunar satellite, SELENE, had reached orbit, marking the first time 

Japan had placed a satellite in orbit around the Moon. According to the mission plan, SELENE 

would place its main orbiter Kayuga in an orbit approximately 60 miles (96.6 kilometers) from 

the Moon and would then deploy two smaller satellites in polar orbits. The project constituted a 

key advance for Japan, which had launched its first satellite in 1972 but, since that time, had 

struggled to keep up with the People’s Republic of China. Japan had launched SELENE on 14 

September, following a four-year delay of the mission.147

10 October

Soyuz TMA-11 launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome at 13:22 (UT) carrying three astronauts—a 

Russian, an American, and a Malaysian—to the ISS. Upon their arrival at the ISS, American 

astronaut Peggy A. Whitson, as Commander of Expedition 16, would become the first woman to 

command the space station. Veteran Russian cosmonaut Yuri I. Malenchenko would join 

Whitson as a member of Expedition 16, each of the two replacing crew members of Expedition 

15. Russian cosmonauts Fyodor N. Yurchikhin, Expedition 15 Commander, and Flight Engineer 

Oleg V. Kotov, who had been aboard the ISS since 9 April 2007, would accompany Sheikh 

Muszaphar Shukor on the return flight to Earth. Shukor, an orthopedic surgeon from Malaysia, 

would conduct experiments on board the ISS, studying diseases and the effects of microgravity 

and space radiation on cells and genes. Shukor was Malaysia’s first astronaut.148

12 October

NASA announced that it had begun testing SOFIA, the highly modified Boeing 747SP aircraft 

that NASA intended to use as an airborne observatory for “first light” infrared observations of 

the universe. Before arriving at NASA’s DFRC, engineers had installed a 17-tonne (18.7-ton or 

17,000-kilogram) telescope in the aircraft’s aft fuselage and had cut a 16-foot-high (4.9-meterhigh) telescope door in the fuselage. At DFRC, engineers had installed test instrumentation 

critical for the initial flight tests. In addition, they had equipped a telescope-cavity 

environmental-control system, designed to keep the telescope dry when the cavity door was 

closed, as well as when the craft had achieved the altitude required for operating the observatory. 

The first series of flight tests, conducted with the cavity door closed, would study the 

aerodynamics, structural integrity, stability and control, and handling qualities of the modified 

aircraft.149

 

146 Agence France-Presse, “Russia Marks Sputnik Anniversary,” 5 October 2007. 147 Eric Talmadge for Associated Press, “Japan’s SELENE Probe Reaches Lunar Orbit,” 5 October 2007. 148 Spacewarn Bulletin, no. 648, 1 November 2007, http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/spacewarn/spx648.html (accessed 13 

September 2010); Mansur Mirovalev for Associated Press, “Rocket Lifts Off for International Space Station,” 11 

October 2007.

149 NASA, “Sofia Observatory Enters Aircraft Testing Phase,” news release 07-225, 12 October 2007,

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/oct/HQ_07225_sofia_first_flights.html (accessed 8 September 2010).
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15 October

NASA announced that, for the fifth time, it would extend the missions of the Mars Exploration 

Rovers Spirit and Opportunity. The twin rovers had landed on Mars in January 2004, embarking 

on missions originally planned to last 90 days. John L. Callas, Mars Rover Project Manager at 

NASA’s JPL in Pasadena, California, remarked that, although Spirit and Opportunity were 

showing some signs of aging, they remained “in good health” and capable of continuing to 

collect scientific data. At the time of the announcement of the missions’ extension, Spirit had 

driven 4.5 miles (7.3 kilometers) and had returned more than 102,000 images. Opportunity had 

driven 7.2 miles (11.6 kilometers) and had returned more than 94,000 images.150

17 October

NASA announced the conclusion of the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) mission. 

FUSE had become inoperable in July 2007 when it became incapable of pointing steadily. 

NASA had launched FUSE in 1999 to study how chemicals disperse throughout galaxies, as well 

as the composition of interstellar gas clouds. FUSE’s mission was to help answer important 

questions about the conditions in the universe immediately following the Big Bang. However, 

FUSE’s reaction wheels, designed to turn and aim the telescope, holding it on target, had 

malfunctioned. To operate correctly, FUSE required three reaction wheels, but in November and 

December 2001, two of the four wheels had stopped operating. FUSE flew too high for the Space 

Shuttle to carry astronauts to repair it. Therefore, NASA scientist Jeffrey W. Kruk had devised a 

way to use FUSE’s magnetic torquer bars, designed to act as a weak break against Earth’s 

magnetic field, as a third wheel to help FUSE’s remaining wheel and backup wheel turn and aim 

the telescope. This solution had worked until December 2004, when the third reaction wheel had 

broken down, leaving FUSE with only one working wheel and the torquer bars. The FUSE 

project team had required 11 months to devise a new pointing system for the telescope. Once the 

team had completed the repair, FUSE had explored the universe with few interruptions from 

November 2005 until July 2007. FUSE Project Scientist George Sonneborn, of NASA’s GSFC 

in Greenbelt, Maryland, remarked that the telescope had collected scientific data of high quality 

for eight years, longer than its five-year goal.151

18 October

NASA announced a new competition for the remaining funds in its Commercial Orbital 

Transportation Services (COTS) Project. The announcement followed NASA’s decision to 

terminate its agreement with Rocketplane Kistler of Oklahoma City, which had failed to meet 

requisite milestones toward developing and demonstrating commercial transportation capabilities 

to low Earth orbit. According to the COTS agreements, companies participating in the 

competition would receive seed money upon reaching specific performance milestones. NASA 

had selected two companies in 2006—Rocketplane Kistler and SpaceX of El Segundo, 

California—to receive COTS funding. Both companies had signed Space Act Agreements 

detailing mutually agreed financial and technical milestones and a payment schedule based on 

 

150 NASA, “NASA Extends Operations for Its Long-Lived Mars Rovers,” news release 07-208, 15 October 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/oct/HQ_072088_Mars_Rovers_Funding_Ext.html (accessed 8 September 

2010). 151 NASA, “NASA Concludes Successful FUSE Mission,” news release 07-227, 17 October 2007, http://www.nasa.

gov/home/hqnews/2007/oct/HQ_07227_FUSE.html (accessed 8 September 2010); Frank D. Roylance, “8-Year 

Space Vigil Goes Dark,” Baltimore Sun, 19 October 2007.
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57

those requirements. Rocketplane Kistler had missed its fourth milestone in May—a second round 

of private financing. In early September, NASA had officially notified Rocketplane Kistler that 

the company had failed to perform, leading to the termination process. Unable to attract US$500 

million in private investment, Rocketplane Kistler had expended its funds and had stopped nearly 

all its technical work by the end of July. NASA had disbursed to Rocketplane Kistler US$32.1 

million out of the US$206.8 million that it had agreed to invest in the company. NASA would 

make the remaining US$174.7 million available to other aerospace firms in the new 

competition.152

21 October

The Soyuz craft carrying Fyodor N. Yurchikhin, Oleg V. Kotov, and Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor 

landed at 6:36 a.m. (EDT), more than 200 miles (322 kilometers) west of the designated landing 

site in Kazakhstan. The craft, returning from the ISS, had veered off course, causing the crew to 

experience higher than normal gravity load during the descent. The steep off-course landing was 

similar to the Soyuz incident in May 2003. However, this time, Russian crews were able to locate 

the Soyuz crew quickly. Medical tests showed that none of the three space travelers had 

experienced injuries and that all were in good condition. The two Russian cosmonauts were 

returning from a six-month assignment at the ISS, and Muszaphar, Malaysia’s first astronaut, 

was returning from 10 days aboard the station conducting scientific research.153

23 October

The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) announced that a landmark test flight of 

a balloon-borne solar telescope had succeeded, clearing the way for long-duration polar balloon 

flights to capture unprecedented details of the Sun’s surface. The project, called Sunrise, was an 

international collaboration among NCAR, NASA, Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Solar 

System Research and Kiepenheuer Institute for Solar Physics, Spain’s Astrophysics Institute of 

the Canary Islands, and the Swedish Space Corporation. U.S. partners Lockheed Martin and the 

University of Chicago were also participating. The balloon, which was larger than a Boeing 747 

jet, launched 3 October carrying a gondola containing 6,000 pounds (2,722 kilograms) of 

scientific instruments. The balloon flew for 10 hours, reaching an altitude of 120,000 feet 

(36,576 meters), and released the gondola to descend to Earth via parachute. During the flight, 

the telescope captured stable images of the solar surface, and the various instruments on board 

captured additional data. David Elmore of NCAR confirmed that the test flight had verified the 

operations of the entire system, allowing the team to continue planning the first full-scale 

mission. NASA and the NSF had funded the projects. Associate Administrator of NASA’s 

Science Mission Directorate S. Alan Stern, in congratulating the NCAR team for their successful 

test flight, advocated the use of suborbital flight as a less expensive method of studying space 

than satellites and spacecraft.154

 

152 NASA, “NASA To Open New Competition for Space Transportation Seed Money,” news release 07-228, 18 

October 2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/oct/HQ_07228_COTS_competition.html (accessed 8 

September 2010); Patrick Peterson, “RPK out of COTS Race,” Florida Today (Brevard, FL), 19 October 2007. 153 Sergei Ponomarev for Associated Press, “Soyuz Craft Lands Short of Destination,” 22 October 2007. 154 National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), “Solar Telescope Reaches 120,000 Feet on Jumbo-Jet-Sized 

Balloon,” news release, 23 October 2007, http://www.ucar.edu/news/releases/2007/sunrise.shtml (accessed 29 

September 2010); Katy Human, “Balloon Test Flight Hailed,” Denver Post (CO), 22 October 2007.
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58

Space Shuttle Discovery launched from KSC in Florida at 11:38 a.m. (EDT) on STS-120, a 14-

day mission to continue ISS construction. The STS-120 crew consisted of Commander Pamela A. 

Melroy; Pilot George D. Zamka; and Mission Specialists Scott E. Parazynski, Douglas H. 

Wheelock, Stephanie D. Wilson, Daniel M. Tani, and ESA astronaut Paolo A. Nespoli. Mission 

Specialist Tani would join Expedition 16 Commander Peggy A. Whitson and Flight Engineer 

Yuri I. Malenchenko, replacing Clayton C. Anderson, who had lived aboard the ISS for five 

months. Mission goals included installing the Harmony connecting module (Node 2) and moving 

the P6 segment of the ISS truss, with its solar arrays, to a permanent position at the end of the 

left side of the truss.155

24 October

The People’s Republic of China launched its lunar orbiter Chang’e 1 aboard a Long March-3A 

rocket at 10:05 (UT) from Xichang Satellite Launch Center. China named the 5,070-pound 

(2,230-kilogram) craft for a Chinese goddess who, according to myth, had flown to the Moon. 

Chang’e 1 carried several scientific instruments, including a stereo camera and spectrometer 

imager, laser altimeter, gamma-ray and x-ray spectrometer, microwave radiometer, high-energy 

particle detector, and solar-wind detectors. The Chinese Academy of Sciences and CNSA 

planned to use the instruments to identify 14 atomic elements, helping scientists determine the 

mineral content of the lunar surface. The goal of the mission was to analyze the chemical and 

mineral composition of the lunar surface.156

26 October

Mission Specialists Scott E. Parazynski and Douglas H. Wheelock embarked on the first EVA of 

STS-120. The astronauts installed the Harmony module in a temporary location; prepared the P6 

truss for relocation, a task that NASA had scheduled for the second EVA; retrieved a failed 

radio-communications antenna; and secured one of Harmony’s window covers, which had 

opened during launch. The spacewalk lasted 6 hours and 14 minutes.157

28 October

Mission Specialist Scott E. Parazynski and Flight Engineer Daniel M. Tani undertook the second 

EVA of STS-120, disconnecting cables from the P6 truss, to remove the P6 truss from the Z1 

truss. Tani and Parazynski made progress outfitting the new Harmony module, mating the power 

and data grapple fixture, and reconfiguring connectors on the S1 truss, in preparation for the later 

deployment of the radiator on S1. Tani also inspected the SARJ, collecting fine metal shavings 

on part of a wheel with solar panels attached to it. The discovery of the metal shavings enabled 

engineers to identify the source of friction that had caused the wheel to begin slowing down in 

September. Engineers had designed the wheel to spin freely so that the solar panels pointed 

toward the Sun; the panels generated electricity to operate the ISS’s computers, oxygenproducing machine, and other systems. Tani reported that, in addition to collecting the metal 

shavings, he had observed that parts of the wheel’s surface appeared discolored, a possible sign 

 

155 NASA, “NASA’s Shuttle Discovery Begins Mission to the Space Station,” news release 07-231, 23 October 

2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/oct/HQ_07231_STS-120_launch.html (accessed 8 September 2010). 156 Spacewarn Bulletin, no. 648; Audra Ang for Associated Press, “China Successfully Launches Lunar Probe,” 24 

October 2007.

157 NASA, “NASAfacts; STS-120 (23rd Space Station Flight) Discovery,” http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/216375main_

STS-120.pdf (accessed 29 September 2010).
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of corrosion. To prevent further damage to the wheel, engineers stopped it from spinning, 

thereby reducing the amount of electricity that the panels generated. The spacewalk lasted 6 

hours and 33 minutes.158

30 October

NASA announced the assignments to NASA’s field centers of specific tasks related to lunar 

exploration, as part of the Constellation Program. NASA assigned lead responsibility for 

designing the lunar lander and other lunar-surface systems, such as rovers and astronaut habitats, 

to JSC in Houston. MFSC would lead the development of the lunar lander’s descent stage and 

the development of the Earth-departure stage of the Ares-5 rocket. NASA gave ARC lead 

responsibility for the integrated health-management systems of Ares 5, the lunar lander, and for 

other lunar-surface systems, as well as a supporting role in developing Ares 5’s payload shroud. 

DFRC would assist ARC in developing mission-operation simulations capabilities and 

supporting ground- and flight-test operations for lunar projects. NASA assigned GRC lead 

responsibility for developing the lunar lander’s ascent stage and Ares 5’s power system, thrustvector control system, and payload shroud, as well as for testing the Earth-departure stage at 

Plum Brook Station in Ohio. GSFC would take the lead in developing an unpressurized cargo 

carrier for Orion and avionics for lunar landers. GSFC would also develop equipment and tools 

for lunar EVAs. JPL would have a variety of supporting roles in the lunar-lander project and lead 

responsibility for a particular robotic lunar-surface mobility system—the All-Terrain HexLegged Extra-Terrestrial Explorer (ATHLETE), a six-legged robot. KSC would have lead 

responsibility for final assembly of the human lunar lander, help integrate lunar-habitat modules, 

and prepare Ares 1 and Ares 5 for launch. NASA assigned LaRC a variety of supporting roles in 

the lunar-lander project, in addition to lead roles in developing the aerodynamics of Ares 5 and 

structures and mechanisms for lunar-surface systems. As NASA’s primary rocket-engine testing 

facility, SSC would continue that role for the Ares 1 and Ares 5 and would support the testing of 

the lunar-lander descent engine.159

Mission Specialists Scott E. Parazynski and Douglas H. Wheelock conducted the third EVA of 

STS-120, which lasted 7 hours and 8 minutes. With the assistance of an orbital crane, the two 

astronauts installed the P6-truss segment, which had a 17.5-ton (15.9-tonne or 15,900-kilogram) 

solar-power girder. They also installed a 40-foot (12.2-meter) radiator, to dissipate heat 

generated by station systems, and a spare main-bus switching unit on a stowage platform, for 

future use. The astronauts deployed the first solar array without incident, but discovered a 2.5-

foot (0.76-meter) tear in a solar blanket during deployment of the second array. With solar-array 

deployment at 80 percent, Mission Control decided to halt the process to allow engineers the 

opportunity to analyze the situation and to recommend next steps. Despite its 80 percent 

deployment, the array was already producing 97 percent of its power-generation capability.160

 

158 NASA, “NASAfacts; STS-120”; Traci Watson, “Damaged Component Could Thwart Space Station Plans,” USA 

Today, 29 October 2007; John Schwartz, “Astronauts Discover Damage to Space Station,” 29 October 2007.

159 NASA, “NASA Announces New Center Assignments for Moon Exploration,” news release 07-234, 30 October 

2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/oct/HQ_07234_ESMD_Work_Assignments.html (accessed 8 

September 2010); Brian Berger, “NASA Assigns Field Center Roles for Ares 5, Lunar Lander,” Space.com, 30 

October 2007, http://www.space.com/news/071030-sn-ares-fieldassign.html (accessed 28 September 2010). 160 160 NASA, “NASAfacts; STS-120”; Todd Halvorson, “Solar Array Producing Power Despite Rip,” Florida 

Today (Brevard, FL), 31 October 2007.
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NOVEMBER 2007

2 November

NASA and NOAA launched an Aerosonde Mk3, an unmanned aerial system (UAS), into 

Category 1 Hurricane Noel for the Aerosonde Hurricane Boundary Layer Mission, marking the 

first time they had successfully flown such an aircraft into the inner core of a hurricane. 

Launching from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility (WFF), the UAS flew into the eye wall of the 

hurricane at altitudes as low as 300 feet (91 meters). Winds reached 80 miles per hour (129 

kilometers per hour) in the core of the storm. Flying for 7.5 hours inside the storm, the craft 

allowed scientists to make detailed real-time observations of areas known to be too dangerous for 

human-piloted aircraft. Combining mission data with data from recent NASA and NOAA field 

missions that had used conventional aircraft and satellites, scientists planned to develop a 

valuable new set of observations for air-sea interaction and tropical cyclone research.161

3 November

In one of the most difficult and dangerous spacewalks ever attempted, NASA astronaut Scott E. 

Parazynski successfully cut loose a tangled set of wires that had prevented a solar array at the 

ISS from unfurling properly on 30 October. Parazynski rode on the end of the robotic arm 

extension, which at 90 feet (27 meters) barely reached the damaged solar wing. The extension 

placed Parazynski farther away from the ISS than any astronaut had ever been. After 1 hour 

riding the extension out to the power grid, Parazynski worked for 2 hours, cutting hinge wires 

and guide wires. Once cut, the 90-foot (27-meter) guide wire retracted smoothly into its reel at 

the base of the solar wing. Throughout the operation, Parazynski used an L-shaped Teflon stick 

wrapped in insulating tape to keep the solar wing away, protecting himself from electrical shock. 

The spacewalk was the fourth and final EVA for the Discovery astronauts.162

The Aersonde Mk3 aircraft that had flown into the core of Hurricane Noel on 2 November 

crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of North Carolina. NOAA had purposely sacrificed 

the US$35,000 craft. To conserve enough fuel for a return flight, the craft would have only spent 

1 hour inside the core of the storm. Therefore, NOAA had decided to allow the aircraft to collect 

data until it had depleted its fuel. The craft had flown for 8 hours before reaching the storm and 

had then spent 7.5 hours within the storm’s environment before running out of fuel at the end of 

its mission. In total, the mission lasted for 17.5 hours.163

7 November

Space Shuttle Discovery landed safely at NASA’s KSC after completing a 15-day mission to the 

ISS. Highlights of STS-120 included the successful delivery of the Node 2 module called 

Harmony, which would provide attachment points for future European and Japanese laboratories; 

the relocation of a solar array and truss to its permanent position, a move that required two 

 

161 Daily Times, “Wallops: Launch into Hurricane Friday Is Historic,” 6 November 2007. 162 Marcia Dunn for Associated Press, “Astronauts Fix Ripped Solar Wing,” 4 November 2007; Liz Austin Peterson 

for Associated Press, “Astronauts Revel in Wing Repair Success,” 4 November 2007.

163 John Croft, “NOAA Sacrifices Aerosonde UAV Inside Hurricane,” Flightglobal, 6 November 2007.
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spacewalks; and an unprecedented spacewalk to repair damage to the newly relocated solar array, 

which had failed to deploy properly.164

9 November

ISS Commander Peggy A. Whitson and Russian cosmonaut Yuri I. Malenchenko undertook a 

spacewalk to prepare the space station for the relocation of the Harmony module, a pressurized 

compartment designed to serve as a docking port for European and Japanese laboratories. NASA 

had scheduled the Discovery astronauts to conduct this spacewalk as the fifth and final EVA of 

their mission to the ISS. However, the discovery and repair of tears in a critical solar-power 

module had taken precedence. During this EVA, Whitson and Malenchenko cleared cables from 

Harmony’s destined location and disconnected electrical and fluid connections. Mission STS120 had delivered the module to the ISS in October, and the crew had installed Harmony at a 

temporary location. Completion of Harmony’s transfer would require three spacewalks and 

extensive robotic work. Astronauts living aboard the ISS would need to reposition the module 

before NASA launched its next Shuttle mission, scheduled for early December 2010. That 

mission would carry Europe’s laboratory Columbus to the ISS.165

12 November

In a procedure lasting 2 hours, ISS Commander Peggy A. Whitson and Flight Engineer Daniel M. 

Tani relocated the Pressurized Mating Adapter 2 (PMA-2) from the Destiny module to the 

Harmony module, using the station’s robotic arm, and tightened 16 motorized bolts, permanently 

attaching PMA-2 to Harmony. The maneuver was one of a series of critical relocations of parts 

of the ISS in preparation for the expansion of the space station.166

Russia and India signed an agreement in Moscow for India to participate in Russia’s 2011 MoonGlobe Program to design a spacecraft for lunar exploration. Under the terms of the agreement, 

Russia and India would jointly build a robotic laboratory, with India supplying the rocket and 

flight module and Russia developing and producing the landing module of a Moon rover and a 

scientific complex. The agreement allowed for joint lunar exploration through 2017.167

13 November 

Boeing completed a developmental heat shield for NASA’s Orion CEV. In 2006 NASA’s ARC 

had awarded Boeing Advanced Systems a contract to develop a demonstration Thermal 

Protection System (TPS) Manufacturing Demonstration Unit (MDU) for the Orion capsule. 

Thomas Andrews, Boeing TPS Program Manager, stated that the TPS MDU had met NASA’s 

 

164 NASA, “Shuttle Discovery Crew Returns Home After Successful Mission,” news release 07-249, 7 November 

2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/nov/HQ_07249_STS-120_Discovery_landing.html (accessed 20 

October 2010); John Schwartz, “Eventful 15-Day Mission for Shuttle Discovery Ends,” New York Times, 8 

November 2007.

165 Marcia Dunn for Associated Press, “Astronauts Take Spacewalk at Station,” 9 November 2007; Mark Carreau, 

“Space Station Crew Tackles Next Phase of Remodeling,” Houston Chronicle, 10 November 2007; Tariq Malik, 

“Space Station Astronauts Move Shuttle Docking Port,” Space.com, 12 November 2007, http://www.space.com/

missionlaunches/071112-expedition16-dockingport-move.html (accessed 9 November 2010). 166 Patrick Peterson, “Docking Port Relocated, Attached to Harmony,” Florida Today (Brevard, FL), 13 November 

2007; Tariq Malik, “Space Station Astronauts Move Shuttle Docking Port,” Space.com, 12 November 2007,

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/071112-expedition16-dockingport-move.html (accessed 9 November 2010). 167 Xinhua News Agency, “Russia, India To Develop Advanced Military Aircraft, 13 November 2007; Agence

France-Presse, “Russia, India To Join in Moon Mission,” 12 November 2007.
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risk-reduction objectives “to move the Orion heat shield program toward full-scale development 

in preparation for CEV missions.” Boeing had fabricated the TPS MDU from Phenolic 

Impregnated Carbon Ablator (PICA) material. With PICA’s proven performance on NASA’s 

Stardust spacecraft heat shield, NASA was considering the material for Orion’s heat shield. 

Boeing’s integrated concept for the TPS MDU used multiple PICA components, with each piece 

sized significantly larger than the typical Space Shuttle tiles, greatly reducing the number of the 

shield’s parts, as well as its complexity.168

14 November

The ISS crew detached the 34,500-pound (15,649-kilogram) Harmony module from its 

temporary location and moved it to its permanent location at the front of the laboratory complex. 

ISS Commander Peggy A. Whitson worked from a computer inside the Destiny module, sending 

commands to release 16 motorized bolts and to detach Harmony from its mounting point. Flight 

Engineer Daniel M. Tani then operated the robotic arm slowly, to move Harmony and to position 

the module at the front of Destiny. The operation, the most significant relocation of a module 

ever conducted in the absence of a Space Shuttle, took a little over an hour to complete. The 

relocation of Harmony prepared the ISS to receive the European Columbus module, scheduled to 

arrive in December 2010, and the Japanese laboratory, scheduled to arrive in 2011.169

15 November

NASA lifted the ban on spacewalks that it had imposed on 14 November after a spacesuit 

emitted a smoky smell during a ground test at JSC. The initial investigation had failed to 

determine the source of the odor. NASA spokesperson Brandi K. Dean explained that NASA 

personnel had reported a smoky odor on 9 November during a test of a spacesuit selected for use 

on a future mission. No test participants had been injured. NASA had lifted the ban when experts 

found no sign of combustion, either in the spacesuit or in the chamber where the staff had tested 

the suit.170

Engineers successfully tested the main parachute for NASA’s Constellation Program rockets 

during a drop test at the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground, validating the results of a test 

conducted in September. NASA had designed the parachute system to allow recovery and reuse 

of Ares-1 and Ares-5 first-stage boosters. A U.S. Air Force C-17 aircraft flying at an altitude of 

16,500 feet (5,029 meters) dropped the main parachute, which measured 150 feet (46 meters) in 

diameter and weighed 2,000 pounds (907 kilograms). NASA had outfitted the main parachute 

with a 42,000-pound (19,051-kilogram) weight that simulated the load of the rocket’s first stage. 

The parachute and all supporting hardware functioned properly and landed safely 3 minutes after 

the drop.171

 

168 Boeing Company, “Boeing Completes Prototype Heat Shield for NASA Orion Spacecraft,” news release, 13 

November 2007, http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2007/q4/071113a_nr.html (accessed 12 November 2010).

169 William Harwood, “Harmony Module Detached in Critical Relocation Operation,” CBS Space Place, 14 

November 2007; Patrick Peterson, “Live in Orbit: 16 Bolts Driven, Mating Permanent,” Florida Today (Brevard, 

FL), 14 November 2007. 170 Mark Carreau, “Space Suit’s Smoky Odor Halts NASA Spacewalks,” Houston Chronicle, 14 November 2007; 

Mark Carreau, “NASA Lifts Spacewalk Ban After Investigation,” Houston Chronicle, 16 November 2007. 171 NASA, “NASA Conducts Second Test of Main Parachute for Ares Rockets,” news release 07-254, 15 November 

2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/nov/HQ_07254_Ares_Yuma_Parachute_ Test.html (accessed 20 

October 2010).
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19 November

SPACEHAB announced that, at the end of October, the company had completed a formal 

systems requirements review for its Advanced Research and Conventional Technology 

Utilization Spacecraft (ARCTUS). The company was developing ARCTUS for NASA’s COTS 

program under an unfunded Space Act Agreement. SPACEHAB had designed ARCTUS to 

deliver and return pressurized cargo to and from low-Earth orbit, in support of NASA’s 

requirement to fill the ISS cargo-transport gap following the retirement of the Space Shuttle. 

NASA had scheduled the Space Shuttle program to end in 2010.172

20 November

ISS Commander Peggy A. Whitson and Flight Engineer Daniel M. Tani conducted a spacewalk 

to connect power and heater cables, as well as the coolant lines that would carry ammonia 

between the Harmony module and the ISS. The astronauts took turns carrying the 18.5-foot (5.6 -

meter), 300-pound (136-kilogram) tray containing the coolant lines to Harmony, where they 

bolted the tray to the adjacent lab module. After securing the tray, Whitson and Tani worked 

ahead of schedule, routing the coolant lines and other cables. The spacewalk lasted 7 hours and 

16 minutes.173

26 November

The People’s Republic of China released the first image of the Moon that its Chang’e-1 lunar 

probe had captured, marking the formal start of China’s mission to document the lunar landscape. 

China unveiled the image at a ceremony at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center. China’s 

Premier Wen Jiabao described the event as a major step in his people’s 1,000-year-old dream of 

exploring the Moon. Chang’e 1 had become China’s first circumlunar satellite on 5 November 

when it successfully entered the Moon’s orbit.174

26 November

ISS Commander Peggy A. Whitson and Flight Engineer Daniel M. Tani conducted their third 

spacewalk in 15 days, to connect a second set of ammonia-coolant lines to the Harmony module, 

to finish reconnecting the station-to-Shuttle power-transfer system, and to carry out a second 

inspection of the ISS’s right-side SARJ. According to ISS Flight Director J. Derek Hassmann, 

the SARJ inspection revealed significant and widespread “race ring damage and particulate that 

was consistent with the damage Daniel M. Tani observed” in late October. The astronauts also 

prepared Harmony’s right-side port for the upcoming attachment of the Columbus laboratory. On 

the ground, JSC flight controllers checked out electrical- and cooling-system connections in 

preparation for fully activating Harmony.175

 

172 Bettina Haymann Chavanne, “Spacehab Finishes COTS Vehicle Review,” Aviation Week, 21 November 2007. 173 Marcia Dunn for Associated Press, “Space Station Astronauts Take Spacewalk,” 21 November 2007; Mark 

Carreau, “Much Accomplished During Spacewalk: Astronauts Get the Space Station Ready To Receive European 

Module,” Houston Chronicle, 21 November 2007. 174 Associated Press, “China Shows First Image from Lunar Probe,” 26 November 2007; Xinhua News Agency, 

“China’s First Lunar Probe Enters Moon’s Orbit,” 5 November 2007. 175 William Harwood, “Successful Spacewalk Ends as Harmony Activation Proceeds,” Spaceflight Now, 26 

November 2007.
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27 November

A team of researchers comprising members from NASA, the U.S. Geological Survey, the NSF, 

and the British Antarctic Survey unveiled a new map of Antarctica—the Landsat Image Mosaic 

of Antarctica—that scientists expected would revolutionize the study of the continent’s frozen 

landscape. The researchers pieced together more than 1,000 images, primarily selected from the 

Landsat observations of 1999−2001. The result was a realistic, nearly cloudless satellite view of 

Antarctica at a resolution 10 times greater than that of any previous image captured by Landsat 7. 

Robert A. Bindschadler, Chief Scientist of the Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory 

at NASA’s GSFC in Greenbelt, Maryland, explained that the map did not provide a mere 

snapshot of the continent, but rather a time-lapse historical record of how Antarctica had 

changed. The map would also enable scientists to observe changes unfold. Scientists anticipated 

that, among its uses, the map would help with planning scientific expeditions, because its higher 

resolution would enable researchers to interpret changes in land elevation in hard-to-access 

areas.176

29 November

Scientists published a set of eight papers in the journal Nature, reporting the first observations of 

the ESA craft Venus Express. The spacecraft, carrying out Europe’s first mission to Venus, had 

launched in November 2005 to gather information that would help answer questions about 

Venus’s geological history; the location of water on Venus; Venus’s weather and how it differs 

from Earth’s; and what the composition of its atmosphere reveals about Venus’s planetary 

evolution. The craft had arrived at Earth’s “next-door neighbor” in 2006. Using hand-me-down 

Mars Express designs, ESA had quickly organized the €220 million mission, the second mission 

to Venus since NASA’s Magellan Mission ended in 1994. Venus Express had gathered data that 

presented a three-dimensional view of the planet’s atmosphere, showing the difference between 

weather patterns on Earth and Venus. Weather on Earth derives from Earth’s rotation. However, 

on Venus, winds in the planet’s upper atmosphere, reaching 350 kilometers per hour (217.5 

miles per hour), are detached from Venus’s slowly rotating and windless surface. Furthermore, 

although no oceans exist on Venus, tiny amounts of water—200 parts per millions—are present 

in the atmosphere in the form of vapor, or dissolved in sulphuric-acid clouds. Venus Express 

data also confirmed the presence of lightening on Venus, which scientists had suspected since 

1978, when a NASA probe showed signs of electrical activity in the Venusian atmosphere. 

Christopher T. Russell of the University of California, lead author of the paper in Nature, 

explained that Venus’s lightening takes the form of cloud-to-cloud lightening, 35 miles (56 

kilometers) above the planet’s surface. Because lightening affects atmospheric chemistry, 

scientists should take into account this phenomenon when studying the atmosphere and climate 

of Venus.177

 

176 NASA, “Breakthrough Map of Antarctica Lays Ground for New Discoveries,” news release 07-260, 27 

November 2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/nov/HQ_07260_New_Landsat_Map.html (accessed 20 

October 2010); Paul Tighe for Bloomberg, “Antarctica Map from Satellite Images Aids Scientists, NASA Says,” 28 

November 2007.

177 Eric Hand, “News: European Mission Reports from Venus: Venus Express, the First European Mission to Venus, 

Finds Evidence for Past Oceans,” Nature News, 29 November 2007; Seth Borenstein for Associated Press, “Venus 

Has Frequent Bursts of Lightening,” 29 November 2007; see also Andrew P. Ingersoll, “News and Views: Venus 

Express Dispatches,” Nature 450, no. 7170 (29 November 2007): 617−618.
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DECEMBER 2007

5 December

NASA’s Science Mission Directorate awarded a US$9.3 million contract to Dartmouth College 

of Hanover, New Hampshire, to conduct a project using more than 40 high-altitude balloons to 

capture data about Earth’s Van Allen Belts. The Balloon Array for Radiation-belt Relativistic 

Electron Losses (BARREL) would fly in 2013 or 2014 in conjunction with NASA’s Radiation 

Belt Storm Probes satellites, scheduled to launch in 2011. Under the terms of the contract, the 

mission’s Principal Investigator Robyn M. Millan and her team would conduct test flights of the 

balloons and their instrumentation. In 2013 the team would launch 20 balloons from South 

African and British research stations in Antarctica, at a rate of one per day. Each balloon, 

separated by approximately 620 miles (998 kilometers) and carried by winds, would float at an 

altitude of approximately 21 miles (34 kilometers) for as long as two weeks, forming a ring 

encircling the South Pole. In the first experiment of its kind working in tandem with a satellite 

mission, the balloons would use sensors to measure the influx of radiation from the Van Allen 

Belts into Earth’s atmosphere. Millan and her team would repeat the procedure with 20 more 

balloons the following year.178

6 December

NASA announced that images about the Japanese Hinode satellite, collected by NASA-funded 

telescopes, had provided new information about the Sun’s magnetic field and the origins of solar 

wind. Hinode’s high-resolution x-ray telescope had revealed a record number of x-ray jets—up 

to 240—in the corona at the Sun’s poles, contrary to previous research that had detected only a 

few such jets daily. Based on observation of these solar jets, a team led by solar physicist 

Jonathan W. Cirtain, of NASA’s MSFC, concluded that a magnetic reconnection occurring in the 

low solar corona was forming Alfvén waves and bursts of energized plasma in the x-ray jets.

Alfvén waves form when convective motions and sound waves push magnetic fields around, or 

otherwise allow magnetic fields to change shape or to reconnect. Previously, researchers had 

been unable to observe Alfvén waves because of the limited resolution of available instruments. 

Yet, in their search to identify the forces responsible for the formation of solar winds, scientists 

had long considered Alfvén waves the leading candidate. Alfvén waves are capable of 

transferring energy from the Sun’s surface up through its atmosphere (corona) and into the solar 

wind. Cirtain explained that the team’s observations had revealed a clear relationship between 

magnetic reconnection and the formation of Alfvén waves in the x-ray jets, and that “the large 

number of jets, coupled with the high speeds of the outflowing plasma, lends further credence to 

the idea that x-ray jets are a driving force in the creation of the fast solar wind.” The team 

published its findings in the 7 December issue of the journal Science, a special issue focusing on 

Hinode.

179

 

178 NASA, “NASA To Use Balloon Flotilla To Study Radiation That Affects Earth,” news release 07-265, 5 

December 2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/dec/HQ_07265_Balloons_and_Van_Allen_ Belts.html

(accessed 20 October 2007); Kristen Senz, “Dartmouth Professor Gets $9.3 Million NASA Grant,” Manchester 

Union Leader (NH), 14 December 2007.

179 NASA, “Spacecraft Reveals New Insights About the Origin of Solar Wind,” news release 07-264, 6 December 

2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/dec/HQ_07264_Hinode_Waves.html (accessed 20 October 2010); 

Jonathan W. Cirtain et al., “Evidence for Alfvén Waves in Solar X-ray Jets,” Science 318, no. 5856 (7 December 

2007): 1580−1582, http://www.sciencemag.org/content/318/5856/1580.abstract (DOI 10.1126/science.318.5856.

1571; accessed 1 December 2010).
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7 December

Scientists from MIT and researchers from the U.S. Air Force published a paper in the journal 

Science explaining their development of oil-repellant materials with aerospace applications. The 

scientists had used fibers from polymers, combined with a special class of molecules called 

fluoroPOSS, to create oil-repellant, or superoleophobic, surfaces. The scientists explained that 

engineers would be able to use the fluoroPOSS-polymer blend to protect parts of airplanes and 

rockets, such as rubber gaskets and O-rings, which are vulnerable to damage resulting from 

saturation in fuel.180

12 December

NASA announced that, after a full and open competition, it had selected the Boeing Company as 

the prime contractor for the production, delivery, and installation of avionics systems for the 

Ares-1 rocket, a key component of the Constellation Program. NASA planned for Ares 1 to 

launch the Orion CEV into orbit. Under the terms of the US$799.5 million contract, Boeing was 

responsible for developing and acquiring the avionics hardware, and for assembling, inspecting, 

and integrating the systems’ components on the upper stage of the rocket. During the 

performance period, which would last through 16 December 2016, NASA required Boeing to 

provide one instrument-unit avionics-ground-test article, three flight-test units, and six 

production-flight units to support integrated flight tests and missions. The selection was the final 

major contract award for the Constellation Program, wrapping up a five-month period in which 

NASA had awarded nearly US$5 billion in contracts. The award was the second to go to Boeing, 

which had also won the US$1.1 billion contract to build the upper stage of the Ares rocket.181

13 December

NASA approved plans to retarget the EPOXI mission for a flyby of comet Hartley 2 in October 

2010. NASA had melded two science investigations—the Extrasolar Planet Observation and 

Characterization and the Deep Impact Extended Investigation—to create the EPOXI mission. 

NASA was revising the mission’s goal because its initial target, Boethin, had inexplicably 

disappeared. Scientists had expected Boethin to appear by October. Although they thought that 

Boethin might still eventually show up far off track, scientists theorized that the comet had more 

likely broken into pieces too small to detect. Thomas C. Duxbury, EPOXI Project Manager, 

explained that Hartley 2 was as interesting as Boethin because Hartley 2 also has relatively small, 

active nuclei. However, the spacecraft would require an additional two years to reach Hartley 

2.182

 

180Anish Tuteja et al., “Designing Superoleophobic Surfaces,” Science 318, no. 5856 (7 December 2007): 1618, 

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/318/5856/1618.abstract (DOI 10.1126/science.1148326; accessed 1 December 

2010); Henry Fountain, “Scientists Blend Materials To Create Oil-Repellant Surfaces,” New York Times, 11 

December 2007; United Press International, “New Oil-Repellant Material Is Created,” 11 December 2007. 181 NASA, “NASA Selects Prime Contractor for Ares 1 Rocket Avionics,” news release C07-060, 12 December 

2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/dec/HQ_C07060_Ares_1_Avionics.html (accessed 20 October 2007); 

Associated Press, “Boeing Wins Final NASA Rocket Deal,” 13 December 2007; Florida Today (Brevard, FL), 

“Boeing Wins Final Ares 1 Contract,” 13 December 2007.

182 NASA, “NASA Sends Spacecraft on Mission to Comet Hartley 2,” news release 07-279, 13 December 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/dec/HQ_07279_EPOXI_mission_to_comet_Hartley.html (accessed 20 

October 2010); Xinhua News Agency, “Deep Impact Gets New Mission to Comet Hartley 2,” 17 December 2007; 

Helen Altonn, “Missing Comet Baffles Scientists,” Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 17 December 2007.
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17 December

NASA released findings from the collective efforts of its Chandra X-ray Observatory, HST, SST, 

and ground-based telescopes—the Very Large Array in New Mexico and the Multi-Element 

Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) in the United Kingdom. The telescopes had 

captured imagery showing, for the first time, a powerful jet from a supermassive black hole 

striking a nearby galaxy. The system, called 3C321, contained two galaxies orbiting each other, 

each with a supermassive black hole at its center. However, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory 

had shown a jet emanating from the black hole at the center of the larger galaxy and “punching” 

the smaller galaxy, which had swung into the larger galaxy’s path. The study’s leader, Daniel A.

Evans of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, remarked that, although scientists 

had seen many black holes produce similar jets, this was the first time scientists had observed 

such a jet punching into another galaxy. Coinvestigator Martin J. Hardcastle of the University of 

Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom added that, although these jets are common in the universe, 

scientists struggled to understand some of their basic properties. Hardcastle said that 3C321 had 

provided the chance to learn about the behavior of jets when they slam into a galaxy and about 

the subsequent effect of such events on jets.183

18 December

Over a period of 6 hours and 56 minutes, Expedition 16 Commander Peggy A. Whitson and 

Flight Engineer Daniel M. Tani undertook the 100th spacewalk for ISS construction. The 

astronauts focused on inspecting two devices related to the power-generating solar arrays—the 

SARJ and the beta gimbal assembly (BGA) on the starboard side. Both devices had 

malfunctioned. The spacewalk, a so-called fact-finding mission, sought to determine what had 

caused the SARJ to shed metal filings and the BGA to trip circuit breakers. Whitson and Tani 

found widespread contamination inside the gear that rotates the SARJ. They also retrieved a set 

of bearings—one of 12 on the joint—suspected of being a source of the contamination. They 

used orange Kempton tape to take samples of the metal filings. The astronauts found no damage 

to the cables and other hardware on the BGA joint, which had suffered triple electrical failures 

on 8 December. During this EVA, Whitson, who had already made history as the first female 

commander of the ISS, surpassed Sunita L. William’s spacewalking record to set a new record 

for women in space, at 32 hours and 36 minutes.184

19 December

New Mexico Spaceport Authority announced the successful launch of a UP Aerospace flight 

vehicle. The company had launched the flight vehicle to test proprietary advanced launch 

technologies. At the request of UP Aerospace, the New Mexico Spaceport Authority had not 

publicized the launch, which was the Connecticut-based company’s third launch attempt. In the 

company’s first launch attempt in September 2006, the vehicle had failed to reach space. 

Although the April 2007 second attempt had succeeded, locating the rocket after launch had 

 

183 NASA, “‘Death Star’ Galaxy Black Hole Fires at Neighboring Galaxy,” news release 07-280, 17 December 2007,

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/dec/HQ_07280_Death_Star_Black_Hole.html (accessed 20 October 2010). 184 Todd Halvorson, “Whitson, ‘The Queen of EVA’: Commander Sets Record for Female Spacewalkers,” Florida 

Today (Brevard, FL), 19 December 2007; Robert Z. Pearlman, “Astronauts Mark 100th Station Spacewalk,” 

Space.com, 18 December 2007, http://www.space.com/news/cs-071218-100th-iss-spacewalk.html (accessed 29 

November 2010); Tariq Malik, “Spacewalkers Inspect Space Station’s Solar Wing Joints,” Space.com, 18 December 

2007, http://www.space.com/071218-expedition16-fourth-spacewalk-wrap.html (accessed 29 November 2010).
Aeronautics and Astronautics: A Chronology, 2007

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required weeks of searching. In this third attempt, the launch vehicle had reached its planned 

altitude of 2,500 feet (762 meters).185

20 December

NASA announced that it had awarded a US$695 million contract to Boeing Satellite Systems of 

El Segundo, California, to design, develop, and fabricate two new Tracking and Data Relay 

Satellites—TDRS-K and TDRS-L. Under the terms of the contract, Boeing would also integrate, 

test, ship, provide launch support, conduct in-orbit checkout operations, and provide sustaining 

engineering support for the satellites. In addition, Boeing would design, assemble, test, install, 

and verify modifications necessary to making the ground terminals at NASA’s White Sands 

Complex in New Mexico fully compatible with the new TDRS spacecraft design. The period of 

performance for the contract, which had a value of up to US$1.22 billion, could extend through 

April 2025 if NASA exercised its options. These included two additional spacecraft, TDRS-M 

and TDRS-N. The contract would extend the lifetime of the TDRS system, the primary source of 

voice, data, and telemetry for the Space Shuttle and ISS programs, and would provide those 

services for NASA’s Constellation Program.186

NASA issued a statement in support of astronaut Daniel M. Tani and his family. Tani, stationed 

at the ISS, had lost his mother on 19 December when she died in an automobile accident. NASA 

spokesperson Eileen M. Hawley remarked that NASA believed this was the first time an 

American astronaut had lost a family member while on a mission in space. The statement 

indicated that NASA intended to provide Tani and his family with any assistance they needed. 

Hawley explained that NASA did not have a prescribed policy for emergencies such as this and 

would respond according to Tani’s wishes.187

21 December

ESA launched the sixth Ariane-5 rocket of 2007 from Kourou, French Guiana, setting a record 

for the agency. The Ariane 5 lifted into orbit the Horizons-2 telecommunications satellite, a joint 

U.S.-Japanese venture. The rocket also carried the RASCOM-QAF1 satellite, which would offer 

telephone and Internet service throughout Africa. Horizons 2, the second satellite for the U.S.-

based Intelsat and the Japan-based JSAT, would replace Intelsat’s SBS-6 spacecraft, which had 

been in orbit for 17 years. With 20 Ku-band transponders, the 2,304-kilogram (5079.5-pound) 

Horizons 2 would provide telecommunications services for 15−17 years to the continental United 

States, the Caribbean, and parts of Canada. After 10 years struggle to organize an ownership 

structure, Regional African Satellite Communications Organization (RASCOM) had secured 

US$370 million in funding from a consortium, comprising a Libyan investment fund, the Libyan 

 

185 New Mexico Spaceport Authority, “UP Aerospace Reports Successful Launch at Spaceport America,” news 

release, 19 December 2007, http://www.spaceportamerica.com/news/press-releases/104-up-areo-reports-successlaunch.html (accessed 19 November 2010); Las Cruces Sun-News (NM), “Unannounced Launch Lifts Off from 

Spaceport,” 20 December 2007.

186 NASA, “NASA Awards Tracking and Data Relay Satellite Contract,” news release C07-064, 20 December 2007, 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/dec/HQ_C07064_TDRSS_Awards.html (accessed 20 October 2010); 

Clinton Parks, “Boeing Satellite Systems Wins $695 Million TDRS Contract,” Space.com, 21 December 2007. 187 NASA, “NASA Statement on the Death of Astronaut Dan Tani’s Mother,” news release 07-282, 20 December 

2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/dec/HQ_07282_Mike_Coays_Statement.html (accessed 20 October 

2010); Mark Carreau and Carol Christian, “Space Station Astronaut’s Mom Dies in Car Wreck,” Houston Chronicle, 

20 December 2007.
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69

General Post and Telecommunications Company, and three African development banks. The 

consortium intended for its satellite, the Rascom-QAF1, to provide a first step toward 

establishing the space infrastructure necessary to link poor rural Africans with urban areas.188

NASA named Macro-Fiber Composite (MFC), a device that acts like muscle and nerves to 

expand and contract surfaces, as the 2006 NASA Government Invention of the Year. A team of 

researchers at NASA’s LaRC had created the flexible material using ceramic fibers. Voltage 

applied to the MFC made the ceramic fibers change shape and expand or contract, causing 

material to bend or twist. The device had industrial and research applications, primarily for 

vibration monitoring and dampening. The MFC had improved research on helicopter rotor blades 

and assisted in detecting pipeline cracks. NASA had used the MFC to monitor the vibrations of 

support structures near the Space Shuttle launchpads during launches.189

26 December

Progress M-62, a Russian cargo spacecraft, docked with the ISS to bring the Expedition 16 crew 

supplies—1.26 tonnes (1,260 kilograms or 1.4 tons) of food and water, fuel, and other cargo, 

such as research equipment and Christmas and birthday presents. The crew had detached 

Progress M-61 from the ISS on 22 December to make room for M-62’s arrival. Instead of 

sending M-61 directly back to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere, Russian space program officials 

had decided to use it first as a platform for technical experiments. Roskosmos had also used 

Progress M-60 for research after undocking the craft from the ISS.190

31 December

In compliance with a request from Congress, NASA released a version of safety data collected 

from 24,000 interviews with airline pilots. NASA had previously refused to release the 

information, citing the potential for a negative economic effect on the airline industry. According 

to media sources, the safety survey revealed complaints from pilots regarding fatigue and 

problems with air traffic controllers, airport security, and runway and taxiway layouts. NASA 

Administrator Michael D. Griffin stated in a press conference that NASA had no plans to study 

the database for trends, saying that NASA had conducted the survey to determine whether 

collecting information from pilots in this manner was worthwhile.191

 

188 Peter B. De Selding, “Ariane 5 Rocket Successfully Lofts Horizons-2, RascomStar-QAF-1,” Space.com, 21 

December 2007; Stephen Clark, “Ariane 5 Launches for Record 6th Time this Year,” Spaceflight Now, 21 November 

2007.

189 NASA, “NASA Names New Composite Government Invention of the Year,” news release 07-287, 21 December 

2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/dec/HQ_07287_Invention_of_the_Year.html (accessed 20 October 

2010).

190 RIA Novosti, “Russian Cargo Spacecraft Docks with ISS,” 26 December 2007.

191 Matthew L. Wald, “NASA Offers Airline Safety Data,” New York Times, 1 January 2008; Del Quentin Wilber, 

“Redacted Air-Traffic Safety Survey Released: NASA Downplays Pilots’ Complaints About Fatigue, Security,” 

Washington Post, 1 January 2008.
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APPENDIX A: TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS

AHS American Helicopter Society

AIM Aeronomy of Ice in Mesosphere

ARC Ames Research Center

ARCTUS Advanced Research and Conventional Technology Utilization 

Spacecraft

ATHLETE All-Terrain Hex-Legged Extra-Terrestrial Explorer

ATK Alliant Techsystems

ATV Automated Transfer Vehicle

BARREL Radiation-belt Relativistic Electron Losses

BGA beta gimbal assembly

BWB Blended Wing Body

CAFÉ Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency

CDE Cosmic Dust Experiment 

CEV crew exploration vehicle

CIPS Cloud Imaging and Particle Size

CIRA Centro Italiano Ricerche Aerospaziali

CLV crew launch vehicle

CMB cosmic microwave background

CME coronal mass ejection

CMG control moment gyroscope

CNSA China National Space Administration

CONTOUR Comet Nucleus Tour

COTS Commercial Orbital Transportation Services

CP CalPoly

CSA Canadian Space Agency

CSI Constellations Services International

DAN Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons

DARPA Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

DEPTHX Deep Phreatic Thermal Explorer 

DFRC Dryden Flight Research Center

DIXI Deep Impact Extended Investigation

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid

DOD Department of Defense

EDT Eastern Daylight Time

ELV expendable launch vehicle

EELV evolved expendable launch vehicle

EPO Einstein Probes Office

EPOCh Extrasolar Planet Observation and Characterization

EPOXI Extrasolar Planet Observation and Characterization (EPOCh) and 

Deep Impact Extended Investigation (DIXI) 
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APPENDIX A: TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS

ESA European Space Agency

EST Eastern Standard Time

EVA extravehicular activity

FAA Federal Aviation Administration

FUSE Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer

FY fiscal year

GAO Government Accountability Office

GMT Greenwich Mean Time

GPS Global Positioning System

GRC Glenn Research Center

GSFC Goddard Space Flight Center

HiRISE High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera

HST Hubble Space Telescope

ICBM intercontinental ballistic missile

IISTF International Space Station Independent Safety Task Force

Insat Indian National Satellite

IRS Indian Remote Sensing

ISIM Integrated Science Instrument Module

ISRO Indian Space Research Organization

ISS International Space Station

IST India Standard Time

ISTRAC Indian Space Research Organization Telemetry, Tracking, and 

Command Centre

JAXA Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

JPL Jet Propulsion Laboratory

JSC Johnson Space Center 

JST Japan Standard Time

JWST James Webb Space Telescope

KSC Kennedy Space Center 

LaRC Langley Research Center

LASER Lunar Advanced Science and Exploration Research

LEND Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector

LRO Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

LSSO Lunar Sortie Science Opportunities

MDIS Mercury Dual Imaging System

MDU Manufacturing Demonstration Unit
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APPENDIX A: TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS

MERLIN Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network

MESSENGER Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging

MFC Macro-Fiber Composite

MGS Mars Global Surveyor

MOU Memorandum of Understanding

MRO Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

MSFC Marshall Space Flight Center

MSL Mars Science Laboratory

NACA National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics

NAI NASA Astrobiology Institute

NAPA National Academy of Public Administration

NAS National Academy of Sciences

NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research

NExT New Exploration of Tempel

NFIRE Near Field Infrared Experiment

NIGCOMSAT Nigerian Communications Satellite

NIH National Institutes of Health

NLC noctilucent cloud

NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

NPAT National Partnership for Aeronautical Testing

NPOESS National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System

NRC National Research Council

NRO National Reconnaissance Office

NSF National Science Foundation

PICA Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator

PMA Pressurized Mating Adapter

PMC Polar Mesospheric Cloud

P6 Port 6

PSLV Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle

QuikSCAT Quick Scatterometer

RASCOM Regional African Satellite Communications Organization

RNA Ribonucleic acid

RDM Research Double Module

RPM rotational pitch maneuver

S5 Starboard 5

SARJ solar alpha rotary joint

SELENE Selenological and Engineering Explorer

SLC Space Launch Complex

SOFIA Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy
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APPENDIX A: TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS

SOFIE Solar Occultation for Ice Experiment

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies

SPF Space Power Facility

SRE Space Capsule Recovery Experiment

SRB solid rocket booster

SRR Systems Requirement Review

SSC Stennis Space Center

SST Spitzer Space Telescope

STEREO Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory

TDRS Tracking and Data Relay Satellites

THEMIS Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms

TPS Thermal Protection System

UAS unmanned aerial system

UHF ultra-high frequency

UML unified modeling language

USV unmanned space vehicle

UT Universal Time

UV ultraviolet

WFF Wallops Flight Facility

WISE Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer

WSMR White Sands Missile Range

YES Young Engineers Satellite
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releases of the Boeing Company, IBM, National Academies, National Center for Atmospheric 

Research, PlanetSpace, SPACEHAB, U.S. Congress, U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects 

Agency, XCOR Aerospace, and the X Prize Foundation; print and online newsletters, bulletins, 

newspapers, and news services, including Aero-News Network, Agence France-Presse, 

Associated Press, Aviation Week, Baltimore Sun, Chincoteague Beacon, Cleveland Plain Dealer, 

Colorado Daily, Daily Telegraph (London), Denver Post, Flight International, Florida Today, 

Houston Business Journal, Houston Chronicle, Huntsville Times, Infoworld, Korea Times, Las 

Cruces Sun News, Los Angeles Times, National Geographic News, New Scientist, New York 

Times, Orlando Sentinel, Pasadena Star-News, RIA Novosti, Science Now, Scripps News, 

Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Space News, Spaceflight Now, St. Petersburg Times, Toledo Blade, 

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Street Journal, and Washington Post; and Web sites, including those of BBC News, Blue Origin,

European Space Agency, Flightglobal.com, MSNBC.com, NASA, and Space.com.