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CAPE CANAVERAL – If one did not know better they would think that the day’s events would be rather boring. After all, the name of this event hardly does it justice -rollover. However, when one has the opportunity to view a rollover – it is unlikely they’ll forget it. The space shuttle Discovery emerged from its technological cocoon located in Orbiter Processing Facility-3 (OPF-3) at 7 a.m. EDT and was moved into the expansive Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) a few hours later. Discovery’s trip to the VAB was delayed a day from Wednesday to Thursday Sept. 9, due to a broken water main. Workers found the break in an iron pipe near the VAB and repaired it enough to allow second-shift workers to go to work later in the day. “It was a dramatic, albeit a short-lived event,” said Allard Beutel, a NASA Public Affairs Officer. “The Kennedy team managed to have a work-around in place in under a day.” Rollover is a very special milestone on the road to flight. One can actually watch one of these legendary craft slowly roll by in a stately procession. The orbiter is flanked by workers that have worked to see that the shuttle is prepared for flight. They act as guides ensuring that there is no debris along the short drive that the transport vehicle takes from OPF-3 to the VAB. There were several stops on the way to allow photographs to be taken; marking the last time that Discovery is scheduled to move to the VAB in preparation for flight. Once inside the VAB Discovery was connected to a crane that will hoist the 171,000 lb. space glider into the air. From there it is mated to a set of Solid Rocket Boosters (SRB) and External Tank waiting for the orbiter’s arrival. Seeing this massive spacecraft hanging in mid-air alters one’s perceptions about space flight. It clearly puts into perspective the amount of effort that goes into the U.S. space program. Within approximately two weeks the “full stack” is then ready to head to Launch Complex 39A in what will be the next milestone to flight – Rollout. Discovery will deliver and install the Leonardo Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM), the Express Logistics Carrier 4 and provide much-needed spare parts to the International Space Station (ISS). This will be the 35th shuttle mission to the space station. The crew of STS-133 consists of Commander Steven Lindsey, Pilot Eric Boe and Mission Specialists Alvin Drew, Michael Barratt, Tim Kopra and Nicole Stott. STS-133 will mark the final time that Discovery is slated to take to the skies. There had been talk that she could potentially ride to orbit on STS-135. However, if that mission is approved it is likely that Atlantis will be the orbiter selected for that flight. Currently, Discovery is scheduled to launch from Kennedy Space Center on Nov. 1, 2010 at 4:40 p.m. EDT.

We are joined by the amazingly awesome William Pomerantz, Senior Director of Space Prizes at the X PRIZE Foundation. We have a new team being added to the Google Lunar X PRIZE Competition, a newer X PRIZE to help clean up the ocean and of course all around space geekery and fun. This live show happened on Friday, September 10th at 0200 UTC with live community participation. The post-show is available to Spacevidcast epic subscribers.

The deserts of Promontory, Utah came alive with fire and thunder as NASA and ATK tested the Development Motor-2 (DM-2). The five-segment, first-stage of the Ares rocket was activated at 9:27 a.m. MDT on Aug. 31. The still morning air surrendered its silence to the sound of unleashed technological thunder. The surrounding countryside was bathed in the colors of fire as a huge plume of fame shot out the back of the solid motor. The DM-2 test was conducted to gain data on some 53 designs incorporated in this system. Some of the elements tested include the redesigned rocket nozzle, new insulation used in this design and the motor casing’s liner. When activated the DM-2 produced an estimated 3.6 million pounds of thrust – equaling 22 million horsepower. The motor had 760 instruments incorporated into it these instruments worked to collect vital information regarding the rocket’s performance when it was fired. The horizontal ground test firing is what is known as a “cold motor” test. This is accomplished by chilling the DM-2 down to 40 degrees F. This is done to measure how the motor performs at very low temperatures. The test also was held to prove out design specifications of new materials used in the motor joints. These new elements will eliminate the need for the joint heaters that are currently used. (these heaters were required in the 4-segment version of the motor’s design). It is hoped that with the addition of these new modifications weight will be dramatically reduced, launch operations will be simplified and the overall system will be far less complicated DM-2 is a combination of Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) segments that have flown on 57 shuttle missions total. These segments are recycled after every mission. Once they have been jettisoned from the space shuttle they are recovered out in the Atlantic Ocean by recovery ships (named Freedom Star and Liberty Star). From there, they are shipped back to ATK’s plant where they are broken down into segments again and refurbished for the next mission.

We recap SpaceUp DC 2010 and have a conversation about awesome space stuff. Sorry epic subscribers, but the post show was lost due to a corrupt recording. It only happened live. SpaceUp DC recap:  AWESOME! Tribble Fight/ Spork Incident archive Kickstarter shirt  VIDEO Announcement of SpaceUp San Diego 2 in Jan 2011 and SpaceUp MSP June 2011 Downloadable Shuttle Tribute Posters Large versions of these posters now hang in Firing Room 4 of the Launch Control Center at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA adds old photos to Flickr There are three sets of NASA photos now on Flickr: "Launch and Takeoff" set captures iconic spacecraft and aircraft taking flight. "Building NASA" spotlights ground-breaking events and the construction of some of NASA's one-of-a-kind facilities. The "Center Namesakes" set features photos of the founders and figureheads of NASA's 10 field centers. MoonBots Comeptition has a winner More than 200 teams from 16 nations representing every continent but Antarctica registered for MoonBots. Team Landroids of New Jersey was named the grand winner of MoonBots. As part of their reward, the team will travel to LEGO’s world headquarters in BIllund, Denmark to tour the LEGO factory and meet with company executives. Second place was team Shadowed Craters of California Third place was claimed by Team Moonwalk, jointly of New Jersey and Connecticut. All three finalist teams also received registrations and start up kits to compete in the FIRST robotics competitions. James Cameron and Zero-G Bid via eBay on a Zero-G flight with James Cameron All proceeds go to X PRIZE Foundation http://eBay.com/cameron Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles, California on Saturday, October 9, 2010 bidding is over on Sept 3rd 2010 James Cameron, Peter Diamandis and our very own @tim846 Vostochny Russian National Cosmodrome Two launch pads are planned for the spaceport, with appropriate infrastructure to prepare rockets for launch and assembly buildings. A special complex for training astronauts and medical examinations will also be built Will occupy an area ten times smaller than the Baikonur Cosmodrome and three times smaller than the Plesetsk Cosmodrome

CAPE CANAVERAL – The first-of-its-kind Advanced Extremely High Frequency 1 (AEHF-1) military satellite launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC 41) right on time at 7:07 a.m. EDT. Morning launches are always spectacular (even if you aren’t a morning person) and his one was no different. The slow, steady roar of the United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Atlas V rocket reached out across the marshy landscape and reminded everyone in attendance that Cape Canaveral was a place written in rocket fire. This launch was historic in that it will see an upgrade in the capabilities of the United States and her allies. The AEHF class of military satellites will replace the aging Milstar fleet. A single AEHF-class satellite will have greater capabilities than the entire Milstar fleet – combined. Currently, the AEHF fleet is expected to consist of three operational satellites and a fourth “spare” satellite. The window for this morning’s launch opened at 7:07 a.m. (EDT) and extended two hours until 9:07 a.m. EDT. The U.S. Air Force worked through a number of issues including a problematic fairing control mechanism and a broke crane to get the satellite and its launch vehicle ready for launch.

Home made rockets launched from home made submarines next to dragon wings floating in the ocean on your SpacePod for August 24th, 2010 ----- Before we begin I just wanted to give a shout out to our new viewers on both Space.com and Universe Today. Hopefully you like what you’ll see and you’ll stick around for a while, check out some of our other videos and join us for our live weekly show all about space. For today though, lets start over the Pacific Ocean where SpaceX tested the Dragon’s parachute deployment system on August 12th, 2010. The dragon spacecraft will initially transport cargo to the International Space station but is just begging to be human rated. That’s cool and all, but lets go to the fringe of NewSpace with Copenhagen Suborbitals. This next Monday, right after SpaceUp DC, the non-profit team that is Copenhagen Suborbital will launch their Heat 1X rocket from the Baltic Sea. The ultimate goal is to put a human in to space, although it looks as though the accommodations may be a bit more restrictive than that of Virgin Galactic. This test flight will include a capsule with a human dummy that will float back down to the water. Well, we hope. This particular mission should go as high as 93 miles or just under 1/2 way to the International Space Station. This is Denmarks largest launch ever and should be awesome. How awesome? Well, they are towing the rocket out to sea using a home-made submarine that they built. If that’s not an epic awesome of epic epicness then I don’t know what is! Of course when I watch their engine test fireing I can’t help to think that it looks a bit rougher than would be required for human spaceflight. I guess we’ll see this Monday. And if you want to keep the conversation going, join us in Washington, D.C. this Friday and Saturday for your Space Unconference. Spacevidcast will be there, and I hope you will be too!

On our 100th live show we have special guest Andrew Chaikin who is a very well known author for his books detailing the space program. Chaikin is best known as the author of A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts, widely regarded as the definitive account of the moon missions. First published in 1994, this acclaimed work was the main basis for Tom Hanks' 12-part HBO miniseries, From the Earth to the Moon, which won the Emmy for best miniseries in 1998. Chaikin spent eight years writing and researching A Man on the Moon, including over 150 hours of personal interviews with 23 of the 24 lunar astronauts (Apollo 13's Jack Swigert was already deceased). Apollo moonwalker Gene Cernan said of the book, "I've been there. Chaikin took me back." A new edition of the book, with a new afterword for the 50th anniversary of the space age, was published by Penguin in 2007. You can find Andrew online at http://www.andrewchaikin.com

CAPE CANAVERAL – NASA had the payload for STS-133 on full display at Kennedy Space Center – including the mission’s “7th” crew member – Robonaut (or R2 as he is known to his friends). Held at the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF) on Aug. 12 at 1 p.m. the event showcased elements that Discovery is scheduled to lift to orbit on Nov. 1, 2010 at 4:33 p.m. EDT. Without a doubt the star of the show was R2 himself. The mostly-white android looked every bit the science-fiction meets science-fact as the imagery we have all seen on television and the internet have made him out to be. Robonaut 2 had originally been designed to only be a technology demonstrator, but engineers wanted to see how the system would operate in space and he was given a seat on the flight (albeit way in the back). R2 was not the only horse at this rodeo however; NASA also had other flight hardware elements on display that will roar into orbit this fall. One of these was the Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM) that will be transported to the space station in Discovery’s payload bay (with R2 nestled inside). The PMM is in actuality the modified Leonardo multi-purpose logistics module (MPLM) and when the mission is completed the PMM will be left attached to the station. Space Shuttle Discovery will carry Space Exploration Technologies’ (SpaceX) DragonEye (DE) relative navigation sensor on this mission. It is expected that this sensor will be installed about half a month later than originally planned due to a failure in the laser rod that was detected during testing. This item however was not on display at this event. This could possibly be Discovery’s final flight (it has been mentioned that if there is an STS-135 - that Discovery might fly that mission). It will mark the 35th time that one of NASA’s orbiters has traveled to the orbiting laboratory. The crew consists of Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Eric Boe and Mission Specialists Alvin Drew, Michael Barratt, Tim Kopra and Nicole Stott.

Author Dwight Steven-Boniecki joins us for our 99th live show as we talk about his book "Live TV from the Moon". Many people take the live TV coverage of the Apollo moon landings for granted. Since the inception of the human spaceflight program many people within NASA had to fight to get live TV coverage of anything in space. They didn't just have to fight with other engineers but also with the astronauts and anyone who was in their way. This is the story of not only the technical problems of broadcasting live TV from the moon, but also the political ones as well. The story doesn't end here though! Spacevidcast epic subscribers can see the remainder of this live show by signing in! Just sign up for epic access and get the rest of this interview as well as a copy of the WEC Color TV Manual, a clip from Apollo 11 using the cameras mentioned in this live show! Clearly something is messed up in that post show encode. I'm working on re-encoding as I didn't see that in the master file. Until then, I'll leave it up so you can get a general idea, but it will probably take another 24 hours before I can get it fixed.

SpaceX founder, CEO and CTO Elon Musk sat down with us for about 20 minutes to talk about space and SpaceX. This is the 10 minute SpacePod edition which has a little under 1/2 the interview available. For the full interview you'll need to sign up for Spacevidcast epic access.

The International Space Station is trying to keep it cool with what may now amount to 3 spacewalks, on your SpacePod for Monday August 9th, 2010 The first spacewalk to repair the ammonia coolant pump failed, putting a possible third unplanned spacewalk on the schedule. This is all part of the continued TROUBLE ON THE ISS Overly dramatic opening aside, here’s what is really going on. The ISS needs to dissipate heat. While you may think that it’s really cold in space, and by the way it is, the equipment on the ISS can get quite hot. To show you how much, try this fun game. Turn on your computer and start playing a game. Something awesome like Starcraft II. After an hour or so put your hand behind the computer and feel the warm or in some cases hot air coming out of the back. Now multiply that by 10 or 100 and you have the heat generated just by some of the equipment in the ISS. Unlike here on Earth you can’t just blow the hot air outside, or at least out of your room. If they did that in space, they would suffocate. So instead a method to transfer the heat to something else is required, and that’s where ammonia lines that run all through the ISS come in. These ammonia lines are used to collect heat, move it away and reject it via a couple of built in radiators on the stations truss. Think of the ISS as a giant water cooled gaming PC. Only, theres no real time battle.net connection and the lag is insane. To ensure that mass chaos does not erupt if the coolant system ever goes down, it is separated in to two parts: Loop A and Loop B. Clever naming, I know. At around 0000 Universal Time on August 1st, the Loop A pump was knocked out with what NASA engineers suspect was a power surge. The ammonia cooling system is in two parts, one partly inside the ISS and the other partly outside. The pump they need to replace is outside which required at the time two different spacewalks. That was until the spacewalk that happened on Saturday lasted over 8 hours and wasn’t a success. NASA Astronauts Douglas Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson had attempted to remove and replace the broken pump on their EVA or Spacewalk this last Saturday but they were plagued with setbacks. There was a stuck ammonia hose and a bit later on an ammonia leak, which by the way is not a good thing, that resulted in the pump not being replaced. This was only the first of the two planned spacewalks to get the pumps working again, but since it didn’t go quite as well as planned NASA believes that a third spacewalk will now be required. Loop B is still operational, however it can only dissipate heat where its ammonia lines pass, so not all of the instrumentation on the space station is being cooled. This means that some equipment has been shut down until Loop A can be repaired. Hopefully that will happen sooner rather than later. The next planned EVA or Spacewalk is set for this Wednesday but may be delayed as NASA engineers try and figure out what they want to do next.

We have overly dramatic intros that juuust don't quite seem to work. This is a news packed live show with cooling issues on the ISS, Space Debris threatening the ISS and a clever way to get rid of it, the different NASA wakeup calls throughout history, SpaceUP DC and a way to win free tickets to see one of the final Space Shuttle launches! This is hands down one of our more casual shows, so sit back, relax and enjoy.

Author of "The Nuclear Rocket", James Dewar joins us to discuss why we should consider moving away from chemical rockets and re-start development of nuclear rockets. Think radiation would be a huge issue? Think again! This is a completely different way of looking at space travel and a very fascinating interview. If you want even MORE technical information, pick up both of James' books at http://www.apogeebooks.com and check out our post-show interview that continued for another hour! Post shows are made available exclusively on Spacevidcast epic!

The Space Travelers Emporium is a store in a pedestrian-friendly area of South Park, San Diego, California (30th St and Grape St). The store is operated by the San Diego Space Society (“SD Space”), a non-profit organization. It’s designed to be a classroom, project lab, and meeting place for local space enthusiasts, plus a storefront that provides both financial support for the lab and outreach to the community. The storefront is a blend of in-stock products (t-shirts, posters, patches), special order items (books, model rockets, electronics, actual space suits), and travel-agency-style ticketing (Zero-G flights, suborbital space flights, astronaut training).

The debate over NASA’s future continues... for your SpacePod for July 19, 2010. Late last week the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee had unanimously approved a new NASA Authorization Act of 2010. Keep in mind that this is not yet law which means it could all change yet again. The bill modifies much of what the Obama administration had proposed for NASA OK, so we have a radical departure of what the White House had proposed for Fiscal Year 2011. What does that actually mean So it sounds like we’re not to continue with Ares I or Ares V but we will immediately move to new rocket development. This could end up to be a modified version of the Ares V vehicle or for all we know NASA will decide on a Jupiter DIRECT configuration to utilize old Space Shuttle components Or maybe something completely different. At this time we really have no idea how NASA will proceed other than to work within the conditions of the bill. So what restrictions does NASA have to work under for their new rocket design? Well that’s interesting. Experts in Utah have had written in to the bill one of the most controversial parts of the shuttle remain: the solid rocket fuel. That’s not to say that the statements are untrue or that solid fuel can’t play a pivotal role, but even from the beginning of the STS program solid fuel has been debated and directly led to the loss of Space Shuttle Challenger. Solid fuel is one of the most dangerous if not *the* most dangerous components of the Space Shuttle system, and that extreme danger will remain for the next generation NASA rocket. Assuming of course that this is signed in to law. One item that wasn’t really a surprise was adding an additional space shuttle flight in the form of STS-135 While Senator Nelson doesn’t come right out and say it, he is talking about Space Shuttle Atlantis which is the Launch On Need vehicle for the current final slated mission of STS-134. That means that if this bill passes, the most powerful, charismatic, energetic and dynamic shuttle ever built would be the one to take the Space Shuttle Program in to the sunset. Of course everything is still up in the air. The bill still needs the approval of the full senate, it has to reconcile with legislation from the house and of course President Obama needs to agree with it as well. However, given it’s full bi-partisan support it seems like a much better starting place than Obama’s proposed Fiscal Year 2011 plan. All of this is moot if we don’t have the money to fund the program though. We’ll see how well this all works out. Let us not forget that the Constellation program was originally designed to use off-the-shelf shuttle components to be faster, cheaper and safer than what we have today. 7 years later, billions of dollars spent and we have a vehicle that was none of those things. Only time will tell. Before we close, I think it’s important to understand the meaning behind the bill. Why did the committee not like the Fiscal Year 2011 plan and want to change it? What is the point and what was the vision behind their new plan? To get the big picture, you can watch the full press conference by going to the URL at the bottom of your screen. Remember to keep the conversation going. Not just in the comments on Spacevidcast and YouTube but at the office, around the water cooler. Get people excited and engaged with space again. Sometimes that starts with a simple comment about the space shuttle retiring. The next natural question is, what will replace it. How will you answer that question?