Monthly Archives: April 2011

ITA called and asked whether it would be better to leave our samples in the MDA or reload them based on a 72 hour delay.  We decided to leave the samples in the MDA and not reload.

The students are not too happy about delay but two in Florida  just met some of the astronauts.

We will wait for NASA to have press conference at 4pm today (Friday) and then plan next step. If Monday launch – at 2:33 pm – we will watch it from school.

  Preparations are underway back at the school – launch is right after school tomorrow.

Lots of statistics about the chances for an on time launch were shared.  During the mission the crew will instal the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer experiment – a cosmic particle detector that utilizes the first ever superconducting magnet flown in space.

Endeavour on the lanuch pad.

There were no phone calls recieved from ITA after we dropped off the samples so we are assuming that no news is good news and that the loading of the samples went well.  We did find it quite amusing that … Continue reading →

Here is a photo of the samples in the lab this afternoon. They are in the box on the left of the table. They will be moved from this lab to another more high tech lab this afternoon to be … Continue reading →

Science Coordinator Diane Irwin sent a note that they have just handed off the samples at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor’s Center. 3 days to go…………