GLAST Mission Coverage

GLAST Launch Day
June 11, 2008 - 8:15 a.m. EDT
The liftoff of NASA's Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) spacecraft remains on schedule today. The launch window opens at 11:45 a.m. and extends to 1:40 p.m. EDT.

GLAST will be launched aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket from Launch Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on the sunny east coast of central Florida.

Early this morning the mobile service tower was retracted from around the rocket to allow fueling of liquid oxygen, for the final phase of the launch countdown.

The sky is brilliant at this time with a 40 percent chance of weather concerns to hinder today's launch.

With high sensitivity GLAST is the first imaging gamma-ray observatory to survey the entire sky every day. It will give scientists a unique opportunity to learn about the ever-changing universe at extreme energies. GLAST will detect thousands of gamma-ray sources, most of which will be supermassive black holes in the cores of distant galaxies.

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The crew of space shuttle Discovery is slated to leave the International Space Station today.

On Tuesday, The STS-124 and Expedition 17 crews bid one another farewell, and closed the hatches between the two spacecraft at 4:42 p.m. EDT. Discovery is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station today at 7:42 a.m., ending its almost nine-day stay at the orbital outpost.

STS-124 arrived at the station June 2, delivering the Japanese Pressurized Module, the second pressurized component of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Kibo laboratory, to the station.

In addition, the STS-124 astronauts delivered Expedition 17 Flight Engineer Greg Chamitoff, who replaced Garrett Reisman, now a mission specialist returning to Earth aboard Discovery.

The crew also performed three spacewalks while at the station.

Discovery is scheduled to land at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., Saturday.

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"Indy" Actor Ford Endorses New Global Tiger Initiative

A new World Bank-led tiger conservation initiative will draw on the collective might of the world's nonprofits, governments, and local citizens to prevent tigers from completely "slipping away," experts announced today. The predators have plummeted from 100,000 to 4,000 in the past century and now occupy only 7 percent of their original range.

The "urgent, immediate threat" of poaching continues to whittle down that number, Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank Group, told a press briefing at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C.

The new initiative will take a hard look at existing projects in tiger habitats, review existing efforts to combat the trade in illegal tiger parts, and develop alternative funding for saving tigers, among other strategies.

In addition, a 2010 "Year of the Tiger" summit will bring together the many groups and individuals working to preserve the big cat.

"If wild tigers are to be saved, they must be seen as more valuable alive than dead," Zoellick said. (See tiger photos.)

Because tigers are at the top of the food chain, their health is an "indicator of biodiversity and a barometer for sustainability," he added.

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