NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida has set the news conferences, events and operating hours for the news center for the final scheduled launch of space shuttle Discovery.

The spacecraft’s STS-133 mission to the International Space Station is set to lift off at 4:40 p.m. EDT on Monday, Nov. 1.

A NASA blog will update the countdown beginning at 11:15 a.m. Nov. 1. Originating from Kennedy’s Launch Control Center, the blog is the definitive Internet source for information leading up to launch. During the mission, visitors to NASA’s shuttle website may read about the crew’s progress and watch the mission’s two spacewalks live.

As Discovery’s flight concludes, the NASA blog will detail the spacecraft’s return to Earth. For NASA’s launch blog and continuous mission updates, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

The International Space Station partner agencies will mark a major milestone on Nov. 2 with the 10-year anniversary of people living permanently aboard the space station. NASA will commemorate the event with a news conference featuring the six crew members currently in orbit.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will begin the event, speaking live to the station crew at 9:15 a.m. EDT from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. His remarks and the following news conference will be broadcast live on NASA Television.

The news conference will begin immediately after the administrator’s conversation with the crew and be open to participation from accredited media representatives at participating NASA or international partner locations. U.S. media planning to attend should contact their respective NASA newsroom by 4 p.m. Monday, Nov. 1.

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/oct/HQ_M10-153_ISS_Anniversary.html

A propulsion system glitch aboard the U.S. Air Force’s first Advanced Extremely High Frequency secure communications satellite has forced the service to devise a new orbit-raising plan utilizing smaller thrusters that will delay the craft’s arrival at its operating orbit by six months to seven months, according to a service official.

The satellite’s operational service life is not expected to be reduced as a result of the revised plan, said Dave Madden, director of the Air Force’s Military Satellite Communications Systems Wing.

After years of delay, the Air Force on Aug. 14 launched AEHF-1 aboard an Atlas 5 rocket, which placed the satellite into an elliptical orbit ranging in altitude from 230 kilometers at perigee to 36,000 kilometers at apogee as planned, Madden said during an Aug. 30 media briefing.

A story appearing at SpaceMart.com section of SpaceDaily.com (http://tinyurl.com/32lxyjo) on August 27 described the success of the first ESA CanSat competition.

High school students from different ESA Member States were able to watch their own ‘satellites’ soar into the sky aboard suborbital rockets during the first European CanSat competition, held at the Andoya Rocket Range in Norway.

The CanSat competition, organised by ESA’s Education Office and the Norwegian Centre for Space-related Education (NAROM), was open to teams of at least four students, assisted by a teacher or tutor.

The selected teams had to build their own small CanSat ‘satellite’ in six months, with each team developing an experiment that would fit inside a 350 ml soft drink can. These investigations ranged from calculating variations in Earth’s magnetic field and tracking the Sun, to measuring solar radiation and levels of carbon dioxide.

The most exciting day was 17 August, when the students were able to watch five Intruder rockets launch their CanSats from Skarsteindalen, a former military facility close to Andoya Rocket Range. The mini-payloads soared to an altitude of 1 km before parachuting back to Earth.

The culmination of the competition was the prize ceremony on 18 August, when the expert jury announced the results of its evaluation of the projects and selected the three winning teams:
•The bronze award went to the Brussels Vikings team from Sint-Pieterscollege Jette in Belgium.
•The silver award went to the Irish team Triailliu from Laurel Hill School.
•The gold award winners were ‘Team Eclipse’ from St Paul’s School in London, United Kingdom.
A CanSat is a simulation of a real satellite, integrated within the volume and shape of a regular soft drink can. CanSats offer unique opportunities for students to experience their first real space-related project. The participating countries in the first competition were
Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Norway, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom.

The European CanSat competition is one of many ESA hands-on initiatives to inspire young people to follow a career in science or engineering. In this way, it is hoped to ensure the availability of a highly qualified
work force in the space industry of the future.

One of the primary objectives of the competition is to promote the CanSat concept in ESA Member States. Similar competitions already exist in some ESA Member States and ESA is seeking to support additional CanSat activities from 2011.

[ANS thanks SpaceMart.com for the above information]

AO-51 Command Team, Mark Hammond, N8MH said this week that according to projections, the next 100% illumination period for AO-51 has begun. Hopefully for the next week or two AO-51 can run both transmitters ON at reasonable power. The PL tone isn’t needed (and hasn’t been for the last few weeks).

FM Digital PBBS, U
Uplink: N/A
Downlink: 435.150 Mhz FM

FM Repeater, V/U
Uplink: 145.920 Mhz FM
Downlink: 435.300 Mhz FM

Even though AO-51 “sees sunlight” all the time, it doesn’t “see” the sun equally throughout an orbit. So, the Operations Team is going to keep the power management software running in hopes they can optimize the transmitter power output and keep the battery temperatures down.

The way it is currently configured, AO-51 can run in one of three states, depending on available battery power:

1) HIGH 435.300 at 550 mW and 435.150 at 420 mW
2) MEDIUM 435.300 at 420 mW and 435.150 at 300 mW
3) LOW which currently sets both transmitters effectively to OFF

It is very likely that users will see the transmitter power going up and down some as the battery voltage goes up and down. AO-51 Operator hope the power changes do not occur too often, and adjustments will be made after collecting some telemetry over the next few days. The goal has always been to keep it ON and useable as much as possible, and the Command Team will do their best to continue that tradition.

Activity reports over the next few weeks to http://oscar.dcarr.org/ (or to n8mh AT amsat.org if AO-51 appears to be OFF) will be very much appreciated.

And finally–telemetry files (KISS format preferred) from around the world will be greatly appreciated for the next few weeks!