The Saints are currently trailing in the Super Bowl. But they won the coin toss. And the coin, last November, was orbiting the earth aboard the shuttle Atlantis.
Jeff Williams, one of the astronauts pictured flipping the coin, is currently aboard the International Space Station. I guess Williams won the toss…

Originally priced (for museums) at $42 million each, the retiring space shuttles are now available at the rock-bottom price of only $28,200,000.95. (Okay, the 95 cents at the end was my idea…)
In any case, some lucky museums which successfully raise that kind of money will end up as owners and caretakers of Atlantis and Endeavor [...]

The final shuttle flight, currently scheduled to launch September 16, 2010 will have a crew of six veteran astronauts.

Eric Boe (pilot), will be making his second flight. Previously, he flew as pilot of STS-126 in 2008.
Benjamin Drew (mission specialist) previously flew on STS-118 in 2007.
Timothy Kopra just completed a shuttle mission, having been launched aboard [...]

Ilan Ramon, Israel’s first (and so far only) astronaut died in his first flight—the ill-fated final mission of the shuttle Columbia in 2003. Now, his son, who also hoped to become an astronaut, will be buried beside him.
Asaf Ramon, 21, died when his F-16 crashed during a training exercise.
In Israel, the elder Ramon is remembered [...]

Mark Kelly is an experienced astronaut. He’s flown three times, including last year’s STS-124—which he commanded.
Scott Kelly is also an experienced astronaut. He’s had two flights, including piloting STS-118 as commander.
They are identical twins and are scheduled to meet in orbit next year.
Mark will be commanding STS-134 which will dock with the International Space Station. [...]

The shuttle Columbia was destroyed, along with its crew, in a horrible tragedy caused by foam from the fuel tank damaging the critical heat shield tiles on the vehicle. The tile damage resulted in the spacecraft’s destruction.
Now, in today’s launch of the shuttle Discovery, a new adhesive was used to keep the foam from coming [...]

With the scheduled retirement of the shuttle fast approaching, and the questionable ability of the United States to launch astronauts anytime soon after, Europe is looking toward Russia.
The Soyuz spacecraft, in operation since 1967, may soon be the only real alternative for European astronauts to get in to space. And, to ensure the accessibility to [...]

Engineers hope and expect no foam damage during the next shuttle launch.
Foam falling from the external fuel tanks has been an ongoing problem. In 2003, foam hit and damaged the protective tiles on the shuttle Columbia—destroying the spacecraft and killing the crew.
Engineers at the Marshall Space Flight Center say new adhesive should prevent foam from [...]

Mike Massimino took home plate from Shea Stadium. He’s returning it to the Mets new ballpark on Friday.
A shuttle astronaut, Massimino took home plate with him on his most recent trip on the space shuttle. It was with him, aboard Atlantis, when he serviced the Hubble Space Telescope.
Although he lives in Houston now, Massimino still [...]

Endeavor will make a sixth attempt to launch. That’s slated for Wednesday. How much longer can this go on?
If the shuttle launches successfully on Wednesday, it wouldn’t be a record. Earlier shuttle flights were delayed until a seventh launch attempt.
Nonetheless, fuel leaks and bad weather and other problems seem interminable. My thought: keep delaying whenever [...]