Shuttle "Rollback" Rolled Back

After deciding to return the Space Shuttle Atlantis to Vehicle Assembly Building yesterday morning, NASA reversed course a few hours later and began to move the Shuttle back to the launch pad. The decision was based on weather forecasts that Tropical Storm Ernesto would not pose a threat to the launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The shuttle rollback, the first to be reversed in mid-course, would have been the 17th rollback since the first rollback on October 19, 1983, when Space Shuttle Columbia was returned to the Vehicle Assembly Building.

Learn more about the Atlantis Mission STS-115.

One year ago today...

One year ago today Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast of the United States. Hurricane Katrina had the worst economic cost of any hurricane that has hit the United States. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has just put up a web site on Katrina. This web site links to satellite photos of the storm, pictures of the aftermath, and much more. For a look at the human toll of the Hurricane, take a look at the World Health Organization (WHO) report on mental illness and suicides before and after the storm. On this blog over the past year we have linked to a variety of government reports on Katrina relief, check out these search results to see those reports.

Space Shuttle Rollbacks

NASA has announced that rollback preparations are proceeding to return Space Shuttle Atlantis to safety as Tropical Storm Ernesto heads toward Kennedy Space Center. Tuesday's scheduled launch has been postponed and a new launch date has not been set. "Rollback" is the term used when the Space Shuttle must be rolled back from the launch pad atop the Mobile Launcher Platform and Crawler-Transporter to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). Between 1983 and 2005, there were sixteen rollbacks.

During its mission, STS-115, the Atlantis crew will install a second set of solar arrays on the space station, doubling the station’s ability to generate power from sunlight and adding 17.5 tons to its mass.

NTSB what is it?

When watching the evening news last night the news anchor kept saying the NTSB reports or NTSB is investigating... I got to wondering how many people actually know what the NTSB stands for or what they do. So today, I thought I'd talk a little bit about this agency.

NTSB is the "National Transportation Safety Board," which investigates every civil aviation accident, no matter how small, and is generally called in for any significant accident in the other modes of transportation, like trains and roadways. When the NTSB was formed in 1967 it was part of the Department of Transportation, but in 1975 it was made an independent agency, which means it has its own budget and administrative staff. It has investigated 124,000 aviation accidents and over 10,000 surface transportation accidents since 1967. If you'd like to read more about it's history and the laws and rules of the agency, check out the NTSB's "History and Mission" web site. I would link to information on the crash in Lexington, Kentucky here, but the NTSB makes it a policy not to release information on the cause of a crash until a through investigation has been made, which can take up to 12 to 18 months. Generally, a preliminary report will come out within a week of the accident, but it has not come out yet. If you are interested in learning more about a particular aviation accident, the NTSB has a database of accident reports, as well as a collection of aviation accident statistics.

For those of you who want to know what some of the other government acronyms (CIA, ATF, etc.) stand for, check out our List of Government Acronyms.

Little Pluto Gets Demoted!!

Did anybody ask Interplanet Janet about this?


The International Astronomical Union has downgraded Pluto!! On Thursday, Aug. 24, the 2006 General Assembly passed six resolutions including one that defines planets and another that defines Pluto as a "dwarf planet", leaving only eight planets in our solar system.

NASA's Solar System Exploration website has been edited to show this change on its Pluto page.

For related information, check out the Government Publications Library's Astronomy and Space subject guide.

For items in the library collection, browse the following titles in Chinook.