The next shuttle mission is also in the last few weeks before launch!

Space shuttle Endeavour is already perched on its launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center to launch the first module for the Japanese lab. It is to launch March 11.

"It feels really good to have mission back-to-back again," said Mike Leinbach, launch director at Kennedy. "The team is really pumped to get going and get ready for their next flight."  STS-123 will see the delivery of the first section of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's new laboratory module, Kibo. Canada's new robotics system, the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, or Dextre, will also be delivered to the International Space Station.

Some other news today was about the US destroying one of there own spy sats.

The US has successfully struck a disabled spy satellite with a missile fired from a warship in waters west of Hawaii, military officials say. Operatives had only a 10-second window to hit the satellite - USA 193 - which went out of control shortly after it was launched in December 2006.  Officials were worried its hydrazine fuel could do harm, but it is not yet known if the fuel tank was destroyed.

And advanced notice for August is the upcoming FINAL space shuttle mission to the hubble space telescope! - STS 125:

Launch Target: Aug. 28, 2008 Orbiter: Atlantis Mission Number: STS-125 (125th space shuttle flight) Launch Window: 60 minutes - rendezvous dependent Launch Pad: 39A Mission Duration: 11 days Landing Site: KSC Inclination/Altitude: 28.5 degrees/320 nautical miles Primary Payload: Hubble Space  Telescope Servicing Mission 4

1- What does KSC stand for?

These were five questions I came up with myself without looking any of them (or their answers) up.  They are based soley on what I have learned from simply watching space activities over the last year.  Lets first take a look at what the answers should have been.

Question 1 - KSC is an acronym for Kennedy Space Centre, the main US space port found on Cape Canaveral in Florida.  It is home to many launch pads which can support a vast array of rockets and spaceships including the two active Space Shuttle lanch pads.  It was also the site were the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions were launched from.

Question 2 - The Space Shuttles main engines are fueled by liquid Oxygen and Hydrogen, during launch the main engines burn these two liquids to create 393,800pounds of thrust.

Question 3 - The ECO sensors which have recently been failing causing the delay of the current space shuttle Atlantis mission are Engine Cutoff Sensors.  As liquid oygen and hydrogen is incredibly cold, it used to cool the engines before being burned inside them.  For this reason, the engines must not be allowed to run dry or the cooling will fail before the engines uses the last of the fuel which would cause massive damage.  The ECO sensors are found in the external fuel tank and they check when the fuel is nearly used up and signal the engines to cut off before they run dry.

Question 4 - Another more common name for an extra vehicdular activity, is simply a space walk.  The astronaughts going to work outside their spaceship.

Question 5 - The big orange brown section, is the external fuel tank for the space shuttle man engines.  So much fuel is needed on launch that there is not enough space inside the vehicle for a tank big enough.  Therefore it is attached outside of the main vehicle.  The orange colour is simply the colour of the foam coating that is put on it to keep the liquid oxygen and hydrogen fuel inside cool.  The tank is ditched from the space shuttle as it reaches orbit and then the tank drops back to earth burning up in the atmosphere.  Each launch requires a brand new tank.

Now lets look at some of the answers i recieved from my msn buddies!

Jackzter gets a BIG well done as he scored 5/5!!  way to go

One person suggested KSC stood for Kung-Fu Supplies Combustion!  Everyone else got that first question right though!

The space shuttles fuel caused alot more problems though with only one person knowning both fuels.  Just life thought that the shuttle was fueled by water and plant oil, rocker thought gatorade and powerade would launch it while Blizz suggested coke and apple juice would be a good explosive mix.

ECO sensors were another problem, suggestions for their function included, finding out where santa really lived! Checking the global economy! Searching for aliens  and checking how ECO-friendly people have been!

A couple of people remembered the term space walk but two people thought extravehicular activity was more to do with cars than anything else!

But the best answers were to the question about what is found in the big orange external fuel tank!  Apparenty, the american government hides lots of money in there they dont want anyone to find ready for retirment, alongside a load of little chinese men with computers.  Rocker thought it contained orange juice, matt thought the space shuttles guns were kept inside it and JL guessed it was a new transport system for santa to use instead of the out of date sledge!

Full answers are shown below:

carfreak says:

1 something with  shuttles and space ? :P

2 uhmm not sure how its called

3 i think(never heard of it) it senses weather/climate or something

4 uhh

5 didn't look at the pic, fuel tanks?

Fo shizzle my nizzle, extra salt on my frizzle. (L) jou says:

1. Is it eatable?

2. Water and plant oil =)

3. To find out where Sata realy lives!

4. U made up that question your selve? O.o'

5. New transport for the santa? Besides, why else do you need a sensor to track him since everyone knows he lives on the northpole (yeh)

Matt says:

1: kennedy space centre

2: nitrogen, oxygen

3: sense eco's

4: a car

5: guns

Rocker™ says:

1- Keneddy Space Center

2- Gatorade and Powerade xD

3- Senses the economy? lol!

4- Spacewalk

5- Lot's of Orange Juice haha

        Jared     -       *mssoc making a difference!!         says:

xD

1)  ummm Kennedy Space Center (wow...)

2)  Hydrogen and ummm...uhhh...errr...i dunno

3)  Engine cut off sensor, cuts off the engines in case the shuttle is bout to blow up???

4)  Space Walk // EVA

5) Fuel?

tehblizz™ (8) says:

1) Knowing JoEy I'd say Kennedy Space Center

2) Coke and Apple juice?

3) It can sense if yo have been ECO-friendly in the past 6 months

4) I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure it has something to do with Aliens..

5) It contains the fuel, which is made of liquid hydrogen and something else that I don't remember atm !

Professor™ says:

1: Kung-fu Supplies Combustion

2: Liquid chocolate and whiskey

3: Eats Chocolate Over-time

4: Space walking

5: A load of little Chinese men tapping away at computers

Shels answers were labeled as X-rated and so wont be shown here except for answer 5
__Thinkin2 aka Shel aka hey you ! sent 1/18/2008 00:13:
lol prolly full of money the  government wants to stash and not have it found until after retirment

Thanks again everyone for taking part!  If i get any more replies I will add them on! Feel free to comment on the results

If you want to keep the quiz going then post it to everyone on your contact list and then paste the answers you get in a comment below!  ANy really good ones will be moved up into the main body of the text.

In July, the Kennedy Space Center marked the 45th year as NASA's launch operations center. Its workers and managers focused on the center's diverse missions, including launching the space shuttle and spacecraft atop expendable launch vehicles, gearing up for the Constellation Program and working toward completing the International Space Station.

Even though a hailstorm caused a late start, Kennedy launched three space shuttle missions this year. Atlantis' STS-117 mission brought the second and third starboard truss segments and another pair of solar power arrays to the station in June. In August, shuttle Endeavour's STS-118 mission installed a third starboard truss segment, the S5 truss, and shuttle Discovery's STS-120 mission delivered the Italian-built U.S. Harmony connecting module in October.  

Four expendable launch vehicles have also lifted off this year. This includes three Cape Canaveral launches: Dawn's voyage through the inner solar system that began in September, Phoenix's journey to examine soil on Mars that launched in August, and February's THEMIS mission to study Earth's auroras. Kennedy also supported the AIM mission in April, which launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to learn about high cloud formations.

With at least five space shuttle flights and 10 expendable launch vehicle missions, Kennedy's work force is preparing for an aggressive launch schedule in 2008 while continuing construction and other transition work for the new Constellation Program.

There have been a number of launches this year in which the British National Space Center partners have a major involvement:

-METOP, the first European low Earth orbit weather satellite, will contribute signifi cantly to improving weather forecasts as well as contributing to wider climate and environment issues.
-STEREO will investigate solar fl ares and improve our understanding of the impact of these events on our planet.
-And Hinode is set to improve our knowledge of the energy generated by the Sun’s magnetic fi eld changes.

On the 22nd December Europe's Ariane 5 rocket complete its sixth and final flight of 2007.  The payload comprised RASCOM-QAF1, the first pan-African telecommunications satellite, and Horizons-2, which will address the growing demand for telecommunications, HDTV and IP-based content distribution in North America. The payload mass was 6182 kg; the satellite masses totalled 5464 kg, with payload adapters and dispensers making up the additional 721 kg.
 
This sixth launch of the year fulfils the 2007 target for Arianespace and Europe's Spaceport as they head towards their planned seven to eight missions per year in the coming years. Payload preparations and launcher assembly for the next flight are already under way.  

ESA highlights for next year include:

The launch of the agency's Planck and Herschel orbiting telescopes; and the third and final satellite in the UK's biggest space project, its Skynet military communications system.

But the main event will be the lofting of the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), the new supply vessel for the International Space Station. The flight will require the Ariane 5 vehicle to lift 20 tonnes into a low-Earth orbit, a task the rocket has never before undertaken. The launch is timed for no earlier than February.

The next shuttle launch is scheduled for early in the new year so watch out for that! =o)

NASA is targeting Jan. 10 as the next possible launch opportunity for Atlantis on mission STS-122. The postponement will give engineers time to evaluate false readings from the engine cutoff sensor system that measures liquid hydrogen in the external tank.

Of the four engine cutoff sensors, ECO sensor number three gave false readings during Sunday's launch attempt. The sensor system is one of several that protect the shuttle's main engines by triggering their shut down if fuel runs unexpectedly low.

Atlantis' scheduled launch on Thursday was delayed after two of the four engine cutoff, or ECO, sensors in the shuttle's external fuel tank gave false readings. A third sensor failed after the tank was drained of fuel.