Not Your Typical 9-to-5

Astronaut Drew Feustel works in the vacuum of space during the first of four spacewalks during the STS-134 mission of Space Shuttle Endeavour to the International Space Station. Working early in the morning of Fri., May 20, 2011, Feustel and Astronaut Greg Chamitoff successfully installed antennas for the External Wireless Communication system, routing cables, setting up the antenna, installing handrails, and connecting power cables during this spacewalk. This was the 245th spacewalk conducted by U.S. astronauts and was Feustel's fourth spacewalk.

Image Credit: NASA

Endeavour's Launch Officially Set for April 29

Space shuttle Commander Mark Kelly and his five crewmates are scheduled to begin a 14-day mission to the International Space Station with a launch at 3:47 p.m. EDT on Friday, April 29, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The STS-134 mission is shuttle Endeavour's final scheduled flight.

The launch date was announced Tuesday at the conclusion of a flight readiness review at Kennedy. During the meeting, senior NASA and contractor managers assessed the risks associated with the mission and determined the shuttle and station's equipment, support systems and personnel are ready.

The crew consists of Commander Kelly, Pilot Greg H. Johnson, NASA Mission Specialists Michael Fincke, Andrew Feustel and Greg Chamitoff and European Space Agency Mission Specialist Roberto Vittori. They are scheduled to arrive at Kennedy on Tuesday, April 26, for final launch preparations.

STS-134 is the 134th shuttle mission, Endeavour's 25th flight and the 36th shuttle mission to the station.

NASA Opens Voting For Original Songs To Awaken Next Shuttle Crew

Joshua Buck

Headquarters, Washington                                         

 

Kyle Herring

Johnson Space Center, Houston

HOUSTON -- NASA is inviting the public to vote for its favorite original song to wake up space shuttle Commander Mark Kelly and his five crewmates during their STS-134 mission to the International Space Station. Voting runs from Tuesday, March 29 through launch day, which currently is targeted for April 19.

Electronic voting is open to the public on NASA's Space Rock website, which includes the songs, inspiration and biographical information about the 10 finalists https://songcontest.nasa.gov/.

Songwriters and performers from around the world submitted 1,350 songs, including 693 from 47 states, 105 from Canada, and 552 from 61 other countries. The song contest began Aug. 20, 2010 and ended Jan. 31. The finalists were notified on Feb. 18.

Below are the original song finalists (alphabetical by song title):

"Boogie Woogie Shuttle," by Ryan McCullough (Savannah, Ga.)

"Dreams You Give," by Brian Plunkett (Halfway, Mo.)

"Endeavour, It's a Brand New Day," by Susan Rose Simonetti (Cocoa Beach, Fla.)

"I Need My Space," by Stan Clardy (Statesville, N.C.)

"I Want to Be an Astronaut," by Michael J. Kunes (Phoenix)

"Just Another Day in Space," by Kurt Lanham (Jacksonville, Fla.)

"Rocket Scientist," by Tray Eppes (Cullen, Va.)

"Spacing Out," by Jeremy Parsons (Nashville, Tenn.)

"Sunrise Number 1," by Jorge Otero (Ovideo, Spain)

"The Countdown Blues (Hymn for Tim)," by Sharon Riddell (Nashville, Tenn.)

The two songs with the most votes will be the first original songs chosen by the public to be played as wakeup music for a shuttle crew. The STS-134 Original Song Contest ran concurrently with the Top 40 Song Contest for shuttle Discovery's STS-133 mission. The Top 40 Song Contest ended earlier this month.

The song contests join the ongoing "Face in Space" project offering the opportunity to send a picture to space via an electronic transfer. During Discovery's mission, more than 194,000 images flew in space. So far, almost 117,000 images have been submitted to fly aboard shuttle Endeavour’s STS-134 flight. To send your face to space aboard Endeavour, or Atlantis on the STS-135 mission targeted for June, visit http://faceinspace.nasa.gov.

The 14-day mission will be the 36th flight to the space station and the 25th, and final, flight for Endeavour. Pilot Greg H. Johnson and mission specialists Mike Fincke, Drew Feustel, Greg Chamitoff and Roberto Vittori of the European Space Agency will join Kelly.

They will deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a particle physics detector designed to search for various types of unusual matter by measuring cosmic rays. The crew also will deliver the Express Logistics Carrier-3, a platform that carries spare parts to sustain station operations once the shuttles are retired later this year.

For more information on the Space Shuttle Program and Endeavour's final mission, visit http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle.

For more information about the International Space Station, visit http://www.nasa.gov/station.

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