NASA is having a busy schedule for February. NASA's special schedule is being broadcast through NASA TV.
NASA TV Multichannel Broadcast includes: Public Services Channel (Channel 101); the Education Channel (Channel 102) and the Media Services Channel (Channel 103).
All NASA Television Channels (Public, Education, Media, occasional HD feed and the Live Interactive Media Outlet) are now available on Satellite AMC 3. Cable and satellite service providers, broadcasters, and educational and scientific institutions need to re-tune receiving devices to AMC 3 to continue accessing NASA TV
Starting with the lineup, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden would brief reporters about the agency's fiscal 2012 budget at 2 pm EST on Monday, Feb. 14. The news conference will take place in the James E. Webb Memorial Auditorium at NASA Headquarters, located in Washington.
Chief Financial Officer Elizabeth Robinson will join Bolden. The news conference will be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency's web site. The NASA budget and supporting information will be available online at 1 pm (EST), Feb. 14, at: www.nasa.gov/budget
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will brief reporters about the agency's fiscal 2012 budget at 2 pm EST on Monday, Feb. 14. The news conference will take place in the James E. Webb Memorial Auditorium at NASA Headquarters, located in Washington.Chief Financial Officer Elizabeth Robinson will join Bolden. The news conference will be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency's web site. The NASA budget and supporting information will be available online at 1 pm (EST), Feb. 14, at: www.nasa.gov/budgetNASAThis year Valentine's Day is so special as NASA's Stardust spacecraft is preparing for its final dating with comet Tempel 1 on its second exploration. The world will begin to see images when the spacecraft is on its closest approach to fly by comet Tempel 1 at about 11:37 pm EST on Monday, with confirmation received on Earth at about 11:56 pm EST.NASANASA TV will host live Stardust-NeXT mission commentary on February 15 at 3 to 4.30 am (EST) that resumes with the arrival of the first close-approach images of Comet Tempel 1 from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The post-encounter news briefing from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is scheduled to begin at 1 pm (EST).All images of the comet will be taken by the spacecraft's navigation camera – an amalgam of spare flight-ready hardware left over from previous NASA missions: Voyager (launched in 1977), Galileo (launched in 1989), and Cassini (launched in 1997). Each image will take about 15 minutes to transmit.The first five images to be received and processed on the ground are expected to include a close up of Tempel 1's nucleus. All data from the flyby (including the images and science data obtained by the spacecraft's two onboard dust experiments) are expected to take about 10 hours to reach the ground.NASAEuropean Space Agency's second Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) has been named Johannes Kepler after the German astronomer and mathematician.Europe's next unmanned logistics spacecraft is scheduled for launch to the International Space Station on February 15, 2011 at 5:13 pm (EST). It is on mission to supply the International Space Station with propellant, water, air, and dry cargo.Johannes Kepler will be launched on an Ariane 5ES rocket, from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana. Launch will be conducted by Arianespace on behalf of the European Space Agency.The next Ariane 5 launch is scheduled for February 15. Ariane’s 200th flight will carry ESA's second Automated Transfer Vehicle, Johannes Kepler, into low Earth orbit, the heaviest load ever lofted into space by the Ariane 5 launcher.NASA TV will be covering "Johannes Kepler" ATV-2 Launch at 4:45 pm EST. European Space Agency TV is also covering its launch feed, starting at 9:45-11:45 pm GMT of live TV transmission of the launch.European Space AgencyFor the second time in less than a month, two Russian cosmonauts will venture outside the International Space Station on February 16 to install a pair of earthquake and lightning sensing experiments, and to retrieve a pair of spacecraft material evaluation panels.Expedition 26 Flight Engineers Dmitry Kondratyev and Oleg Skripochka are scheduled to float outside the Pirs airlock at 8:15 a.m. EST Wednesday to begin the five-and-a-half-hour excursion. Both spacewalkers will wear Russian Orlan-MK spacesuits.NASA TV will be covering the International Space Station Expedition 26 Russian Spacewalk Coverage from 7:45 am EST. On February 17, NASA TV is covering International Space Station Expedition 26 ESA Educational Event briefing from NASA's Johnson Space Center. On February 23, NASA TV will be covering “Johannes Kepler” ATV-2 Docking Coverage from 9:00 am EST (docking scheduled for 10.20 am EST).NASAThe Glory spacecraft and its Taurus XL launch vehicle are coming together at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California as NASA gets ready to launch its first Launch Services Program mission of 2011. Glory is to lift off February 23 at 5:09 am EST.The Glory Mission will help increase understanding of the Earth's energy balance by collecting data on the properties of aerosols and black carbon in the Earth's atmosphere and how the Sun's irradiance affects the Earth's climate.Researchers are looking for more puzzle pieces to fill out the picture of Earth's climate and Glory was designed to give them the pieces relating to the role tiny particles known as aerosols play in the planet's weather. The spacecraft, about the size of a refrigerator, is also equipped with an instrument to measure the sun's impact on Earth's conditions.NASA TV will be covering the Glory prelaunch news conference and mission science briefing from NASA's Kennedy Space Center and from Vandenberg Air Force Base on February 21 at 4-7 pm EST.NASA TV is covering the Glory spacecraft launch coverage with commentary from NASA's Kennedy Space Center and from Vandenberg Air Force Base from 3:30 am EST.NASASpace shuttle Discovery launch is currently scheduled on February 24 from Kennedy Space Center at 4:50 pm EST. The spacecraft will deliver the Express Logistics Carrier-4 (ELC-4), a Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM) and critical spare components to the International Space Station.At the conclusion of the space shuttle program flight readiness review (FRR), NASA managers unanimously recommended proceeding to the agency-level FRR Friday, Feb. 18.The main topics discussed included briefings from all elements updating any changes or issues that surfaced since the Nov. 5, 2010 launch attempt. Items included repair of the ground umbilical carrier plate (GUCP) on space shuttle Discovery's external fuel tank; investigation, testing and repair of the tank’s support beams, called stringers; and a debris risk assessment if foam insulation comes loose in the stringer area because of a crack in the first two minutes and 15 seconds of flight.Managers also received a crew update following Mission Specialist Steve Bowen's addition to the STS-133 crew. At the agency-level FRR, NASA officials will discuss the readiness of flight crew and hardware and announce a launch date for Discovery's STS-133 mission to the International Space Station, now targeted for 4:50 pm EST February 24.NASA
