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Sunita Williams during a space walk -- Image courtesy of NASA
Shuttle Atlantis on its way back to Earth; JAXA ready to launch the country's first lunar orbiter; and Sunita Williams now has another record

The NASA shuttle Atlantis undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) after a successful but tumultuous 10-day mission in space.  Even though the crew was able to install two new solar panels, a Russian computer crash left space officials with problems to resolve before spacecraft return to the ISS.  Astronauts were also forced to repair a thermal blanket on the shuttle's left orbital maneuvering system pod before heading back to Earth.

Crew members will spend a large portion of today preparing to land at Kennedy Space Center, with the first possible time of landing sometime Thursday afternoon.

JAXA officials recently announced the launch date for Selenological and Engineering Explorer (SELENE), the nation's first lunar orbiter.  The $269 million project already endured more than four years of delays, and JAXA is excited for the project to finally get underway.  The SELENE project is said to be the largest lunar project since NASA's Apollo space program.

JAXA will locate one satellite in orbit 60 miles above the moon while deploying two smaller satellites at the moon's polar orbits.  The collected data should help figure out the origin of the moon.

Even though JAXA successfully launched a moon probe in 1990, it was only designed for a fly by, while SELENE is expected to orbit the moon.  Japan hopes to one day conduct a lunar landing and manned missions to space.

Sunita Williams now has another record to be proud of -- she now owns the record for longest uninterrupted spaceflight by a woman.  Space analysts agree the 188-day, four-hour record will most likely remain intact for several years.

Williams is also the only woman to work on four spacewalks, and no other female astronauts have worked in free space. She worked 29 hours, 17 minutes in free space since December.

She will be returning to Earth when the shuttle lands on Thursday.

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LUNAR ORBITER!!!
By Mclendo06 on 6/21/2007 1:10:16 AM , Rating: 2
God I hope they can take pictures of the US landers and flags to shut up all the people who say we didn't land there.




RE: LUNAR ORBITER!!!
By kattanna on 6/21/2007 10:55:25 AM , Rating: 2
oh come now..never under estimate the power of delusion

if japan does what you say..the nay sayers will simply say we paid them to make up fake images....

it will be the "face on mars" all over again

LOL


Clarification, please
By McTwist on 6/20/2007 5:38:07 PM , Rating: 2
Can you clarify this sentence?
quote:
JAXA will locate one satellite in orbit 60 miles above the moon while deploying two smaller satellites at the moon's polar orbits.

It doesn't really make sense to say "the moon's polar orbits," since there essentially infinitely many different polar orbits. A polar orbit only requires the inclination to be at or near 90 degrees. I'd just read the references but all the links (past and present) to the AP story are broken. I think maybe you meant to say "in polar orbits about the moon."




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