What you need to know (NASA comments in quotes) Why 2012?

"The story started with claims that Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered by the Sumerians, is headed toward Earth. This catastrophe was initially predicted for May 2003, but when nothing happened the doomsday date was moved forward to December 2012. Then these two fables were linked to the end of one of the cycles in the ancient Mayan calendar at the winter solstice in 2012 -- hence the predicted doomsday date of December 21, 2012."

Should we be worried about mysterious planets going rogue?

 

"If Nibiru or Planet X were real and headed for an encounter with the Earth in 2012, astronomers would have been tracking it for at least the past decade, and it would be visible by now to the naked eye."

Is what Woody Harrelson (appropriately cast as an apocalypse-predicting radio DJ) says about planetary alignments science or gibberish?

 

"There are no planetary alignments in the next few decades, Earth will not cross the galactic plane in 2012, and even if these alignments were to occur, their effects on the Earth would be negligible."

About this doomsday calendar business ...

"The Mayan calendar does not cease to exist on December 21, 2012. This date is the end of the Mayan long-count period but then -- just as your calendar begins again on January 1 -- another long-count period begins for the Mayan calendar."

 

What about meteors and asteroids?

"... Nothing is predicted to hit in 2012."

The earth's crust won't do a 180-degree rotation around the core in a matter of days if not hours?

"A bait-and-shift to fool people."

So what you're saying is ...

"Nothing bad will happen to the Earth in 2012 ... scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012."

Retirement of NASA’s Space Shuttle Program Delayed Until 2011

The Space Shuttle ‘Endeavor’ was scheduled to make the last mission in NASA’S space shuttle history in November of 2010, when it was all set to take off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, but that final launch has now been postponed until February of 2011.

The final flight of the spaceship ‘Discovery’, will be launch in November, if all goes according to plan. The decision to cancel NASA’s space shuttle program explosion of the spaceshuttle ‘Challenger’ when it re entered the earth’s atmosphere, that killed seven crew members, one of which was the first teacher in space.

President Obama bill decided to go ahead with the planned cancellation, but also dropped a Bush initiative which would have placed astronauts back on the moon before 2020, in a new system which would comprise the Orion crew capsule and the Ares rocket. But Obama’s current fiscal plans ditch the Ares and makes Orion into an emergency lifeboat which would be docked constantly at the International Space Station.

Replacement of Boeing Building Space Shuttle

Hurrah! NASA space shuttle got retirement and now aerospace juggernaut is hard at work developing a new capsule-based spaceship to fly people to and from the International Space Station. Which will be the challenging deal with other.

The new Beoing space capsule is a project using the company's recent $18 million award from NASA to advance the concepts and technology necessary to build a commercial crew space transportation system. It is one of several efforts by different U.S. companies to come with new spaceships to fill the void left by NASA's retiring shuttles.

And so far, things have been progressing right on schedule…

Boeing's new spaceship

At the heart of Boeing's new spaceship design is the CST-100 capsule, which will look similar to the cone-shaped Apollo and Orion spacecraft.

The larger Orion vehicles were part of NASA's Constellation program to return astronauts to the moon, and are now slated to serve as a space station lifeboat.

"It's a little smaller than Orion, but a little bigger than Apollo,". "It carries seven, but it's fairly small – it's not as large or as spacious as the Orion."

The capsule is being built for short missions to the space station, meaning it will not be designed to stay in space for long periods of time.

Multiple rocket rides

Boeing plans to launch the CST-100 capsule from Florida, but has yet to determine which rocket will carry it into space.

The spacecraft is being designed for compatibility with a variety of rockets, in much the same way that commercial satellites are. This will give Boeing the flexibility to select an appropriate rocket later in the development process.

And while NASA has outlined a launch target for 2016, the new capsule could be rolled out sooner than expected, which could help fill the gap in future human spaceflight should NASA scrap its Constellation program.

Private space station ferries

NASA isn't the only customer Boeing has in mind for the CST-100. The company has teamed up with Bigelow Aerospace, a Las Vegas-based company that recently joined the Commercial Spaceflight Federation.

Bigelow Aerospace is developing private inflatable space habitats with the goal of launching a commercial space station in 2014.

Keep it affordable

For Boeing, one of their main challenges in expanding their branch of commercial spaceflight is in designing a relatively inexpensive option.

"The unprecedented success of the Falcon 9's inaugural launch clearly demonstrates that it's possible to dramatically reduce the cost of human spaceflight operations," " And, with months and years of demonstrations and tests on the horizon for Boeing, the company can look to the successful launch of Falcon 9 as inspiration and motivation.

"It's always good to see folks succeed in spaceflight. "It certainly provides an impetus for all commercial providers to continue working hard."