1. Space Flight

Category Archives: Space Flight

Russian-U.S. Space Trio Return to Earth After 6 Months at ISS

Posted on by

Vasily Maximov / ReutersRussia's space agency ground personnel check the Soyuz TMA-14M capsule shortly after its landing, southeast of the town of Zhezkazgan in central Kazakhstan.

Two Russian cosmonauts anda NASA astronaut landed safely ina snow-covered Kazakh steppe onThursday after a167-day mission aboard theInternational Space Station (ISS).

See the Photo Gallery: Russian Cosmonauts Return to Earth From ISS

Acapsule carrying NASA station commander Barry "Butch" Wilmore andRussian flight engineers Alexander Samokutyaev andElena Serova landed ina vertical upright position shortly after sunrise at0807 (0207 GMT), some 147 kilometers southeast ofthe town ofZhezkazgan incentral Kazakhstan.

"Everything is going onby thebook," said aNASA television commentator. "Expedition 42 is back onEarth."

Extracted fromthe capsule, which was charred onre-entry, thethree were seated insemi-reclined chairs fora breath offresh air andfirst medical checks, bundled up inblankets toprotect them fromfrigid temperatures.

"Everything is great, thank you. Theguys are great andworked very well," said asmiling Serova while afemale doctor measured her pulse andblood pressure.

"Congratulations onthe recent holiday," arescue andrecovery team officer said toSerova, referring tothe International Women's Day marked onMarch 8.

Serova made her first space flight andbecame thefirst Russian woman toserve onthe ISS, a$100 billion project of15 countries. Wilmore andSamokutyaev completed their second flights.

"Everything is fine. I am drinking real tea with lemon," Samokutyaev said with asmile.

See the article here:

Russian-U.S. Space Trio Return to Earth After 6 Months at ISS

NASA Womens History Month Profile – Jane Maples (Marshall Space Flight Center) – Video

Posted on by


NASA Womens History Month Profile - Jane Maples (Marshall Space Flight Center)
Jane Maples is an information technology specialist at NASA #39;s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. She manages the Enterprise Service Bus Line of Business and the Center for...

By: NASA

Visit link:

NASA Womens History Month Profile - Jane Maples (Marshall Space Flight Center) - Video

One-Year Crew Set for Launch to Space Station

Posted on by

The first one-year crew for the International Space Station is set to launch Friday, March 27. NASA Television will provide extensive coverage of the launch and the crew's arrival to the orbital laboratory.

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will spend a year living and working aboard the space station and will launch with cosmonaut Gennady Padalka. The trio will become part of the station's Expedition 43 crew.

NASA TV coverage will begin at 2:30 p.m. EDT March 27, with launch scheduled for 3:42 p.m. (1:42 a.m. Saturday, March 28 in Baikonur) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The trio will ride to space in a Soyuz spacecraft, which will rendezvous with the space station and dock after four orbits of Earth. Docking to the space station's Poisk module will take place at 9:36 p.m. Friday. NASA TV coverage of docking will begin at 8:45 p.m.

Hatches between the Soyuz and the station will be opened at approximately 11:15 p.m., at which time Expedition 43 Commander Terry Virts of NASA and his crewmates, Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos and Samantha Cristoforetti of ESA (European Space Agency), will greet Kelly, Kornienko and Padalka. Hatch opening coverage begins on NASA TV at 10:45 p.m.

Kelly and Kornienko will spend a year on the space station to better understand how the human body reacts and adapts to the harsh environment of space. Data from the expedition will be used to determine whether there are ways to further reduce the risks on future long-duration missions to an asteroid and eventually Mars.

The crew will support several hundred experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science - research that impacts life on Earth. Data and samples will be collected throughout the year from a series of studies involving Scott and his twin brother, former NASA astronaut Mark Kelly. The studies will compare data from the genetically-identical Kelly brothers to identify any subtle changes caused by spaceflight.

Padalka will spend six months aboard the outpost, during which he will become the first four-time station commander and record holder for most cumulative time spent in space.

See the article here:

One-Year Crew Set for Launch to Space Station

Hubble finds phantom objects near dead quasars

Posted on by

IMAGE:These Hubble Space Telescope images reveal a set of bizarre, greenish looping, spiral, and braided shapes around eight active galaxies. The galaxies host a bright quasar that may have illuminated... view more

Credit: NASA, ESA, and W. Keel (University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa)

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has photographed a set of wispy, goblin-green objects that are the ephemeral ghosts of quasars that flickered to life and then faded.

The glowing structures have looping, helical, and braided shapes. "They don't fit a single pattern," said Bill Keel of the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, who initiated the Hubble survey. Keel believes the features offer insights into the puzzling behavior of galaxies with energetic cores.

The ethereal wisps outside the host galaxy are believed to have been illuminated by powerful ultraviolet radiation from a supermassive black hole at the core of the host galaxy. The most active of these galaxy cores are called quasars, where infalling material is heated to a point where a brilliant searchlight shines into deep space. The beam is produced by a disk of glowing, superheated gas encircling the black hole.

"However, the quasars are not bright enough now to account for what we're seeing; this is a record of something that happened in the past," Keel said. "The glowing filaments are telling us that the quasars were once emitting more energy, or they are changing very rapidly, which they were not supposed to do."

Keel said that one possible explanation is that pairs of co-orbiting black holes are powering the quasars, and this could change their brightness, like using the dimmer switch on a chandelier.

The quasar beam caused the once invisible filaments in deep space to glow through a process called photoionization. Oxygen atoms in the filaments absorb light from the quasar and slowly re-emit it over many thousands of years. Other elements detected in the filaments are hydrogen, helium, nitrogen, sulfur, and neon. "The heavy elements occur in modest amounts, adding to the case that the gas originated in the outskirts of the galaxies rather than being blasted out from the nucleus," Keel said.

The green filaments are believed to be long tails of gas pulled apart like taffy under gravitational forces resulting from a merger of two galaxies. Rather than being blasted out of the quasar's black hole, these immense structures, tens of thousands of light-years long, are slowly orbiting their host galaxy long after the merger was completed.

"We see these twisting dust lanes connecting to the gas, and there's a mathematical model for how that material wraps around in the galaxy," Keel said. Potentially, you can say we're seeing it 1.5 billion years after a smaller gas-rich galaxy fell into a bigger galaxy."

Follow this link:

Hubble finds phantom objects near dead quasars

NASA covers Super Typhoon Maysak's rainfall, winds, clouds, eye

Posted on by

IMAGE:This close up photo of Super Typhoon Maysak's eye was taken by Terry Virts aboard the International Space Station on April 1, 2015. view more

NASA's fleet of satellites and instruments in space have covered Super Typhoon Maysak's rainfall, winds, clouds and an astronaut about the International Space Station captured a close-up photo of the storm's eye.

On April 1 at 01:35 UTC (March 31 at 9:35 p.m. EDT), the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite captured a stunning view of Super Typhoon Maysak in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. The MODIS image clearly showed its eye and bands of powerful thunderstorms circling the eye, and wrapping into it from the east and west.

From the International Space Station, astronaut Terry Virts photographed Super Typhoon Maysak's 15 nautical-mile wide eye using a zoom lens on April 1, 2015.

The Global Precipitation Measurement or GPM core observatory's Microwave Imager (GMI) revealed that Maysak was dropping rain at a rate of over 70 mm (2.8 inches) per hour northwest of a well-defined eye on April 1 at 12:15 UTC (8:15 a.m. EDT). The 12:11 UTC (8:11 a.m. EDT) GPM microwave image also showed the weakening of the deep convection on the southern edge of the storm.

Super typhoon Maysak's winds were near 130 knots (~150 mph) and the storm was north of Palau in the western Pacific Ocean when the Global Precipitation Measurement of GPM core observatory satellite flew overhead on April 1, 2015 at 1215 UTC (8:15 a.m. EDT). GPM's Microwave Imager (GMI) revealed that Maysak was dropping rain at a rate of over 70 mm (2.8 inches) per hour northwest of a well-defined eye.

On April 1 at 1500 UTC (11 a.m. EDT) Super Typhoon Maysak, known in the Philippines as Chedeng, was centered near 11.6 north latitude and 135.6 east longitude, about 194 nautical miles (223 miles/359.3 km) northwest of Yap.

Maysak's maximum sustained winds were near 130 knots (149.6 mph/ 240.8 kph) with higher gusts. Maysak is a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale. The super typhoon was moving to the west-northwest at 10 knots (11.5 mph/18.5 kph) and generating 44-foot-high seas (13.4 meters).

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) noted that Maysak appears to be "weakening slightly, as can be seen by the increase in dry air entrainment (moving into the system) seen in the water vapor and total perceptible water loops (animated imagery)."

The JTWC forecast calls for Maysak to move northwest toward the Central Luzon Region of the Philippines. The storm is not expected to intensify further and begin weakening in the next day as vertical wind shear increases. JTWC is forecasting a landfall in Central Luzon on April 4.

Original post:

NASA covers Super Typhoon Maysak's rainfall, winds, clouds, eye

Selma native named to leadership role at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center

Posted on by

HUNTSVILLE, AL -

Larry K. Mack, a native of Selma, Alabama, has been named deputy director of the Office of Human Capital at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Named to the position in March 2015, he is responsible for helping oversee organization and leadership development, academic affairs, training and incentives, workforce strategy and planning, federal labor relations and employee services and operations.

Mack has more than 20 years of experience in human capital, human resources and personnel management with the federal government. Most recently, he was compensation manager in the Human Resources Branch of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in Washington, where he was responsible for the development and execution of human resources linked to the CFTC's human capital, performance management and compensation programs.

He held a number of posts with the CFTC during his tenure at the agency. Earlier in his career, Mack was a personnel management specialist at the federal government's Office of Personnel Management, providing advice and counsel to managers and employees regarding employee and labor relations matters, as well as providing support in the administration of government-wide systems for setting and adjusting rates of pay.

In both high finance and space exploration the goal of human capital professionals is largely the same, Mack said. "The key part is to devise effective human resource strategies so that they align with the mission and its needs. The way you support the mission is to keep team members from worrying about these issues so they can focus on their work."

He has earned a number of awards, including the CFTC's Chairman's Award for Supervisory Excellence, the Office of Personnel Management Director's Citation for Exemplary Public Service, the Small Agency Human Resources Council's Charles A. Bradshaw Award, superior performance awards and several letters of commendation for outstanding service.

Mack earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Alabama State University in Montgomery, and a Master of Arts degree in human resources development from Bowie State University in Bowie, Maryland.

His wife, Tamara, born in Montgomery, Alabama, also grew up in Columbus, Georgia. Mack said that after years in Washington, they were excited by the opportunity to move their family to the South. "I'm coming home," he said.

Mack, his wife and their children, Zachary, 16, and Alexis, 3, live in Madison, Alabama.

Link:

Selma native named to leadership role at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center

Orbiter Space Flight Simulator (Orbitersim) 2010 stock Space Shuttle manual launch and LEO – Video

Posted on by


Orbiter Space Flight Simulator (Orbitersim) 2010 stock Space Shuttle manual launch and LEO
In this video I will manually launch and ascend the default Space Shuttle to an initial orbit of 60x120 Km, which, after jettison, will have the external tank (ET) reenter safely into atmosphere...

By: V8Li

Read more:

Orbiter Space Flight Simulator (Orbitersim) 2010 stock Space Shuttle manual launch and LEO - Video

NASA Drives Future Discoveries with New International Space Station Information System

Posted on by

A new NASA-designed information system will drive discoveries as scientists and researchers devise future investigations to be conducted aboard the International Space Station.

Specialists at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, gathered critical information on the agency's physical science research to create Physical Science Informatics, a knowledge base that will give investigators access to information on previous space station research to boost future research.

The space station is an orbiting laboratory providing an ideal facility to conduct long-duration investigations in a microgravity environment. The platform allows continuous and interactive research similar to Earth-based laboratories, including key hardware for conducting investigations.

"The space station enables scientists to pursue innovations and discoveries not currently achievable by other means," said Julie Robinson, chief scientist for the International Space Station. "We want to make this coordinated scientific data available so scientists from any field can use it to propose new investigations and make advances to benefit the entire world."

Funded by the International Space Station Program, the Physical Science Informatics puts information on past, current and future space station physical science investigations in one digital repository making it easy for investigators to find out what's been done so far in research areas and devise where to go next.

"This comprehensive data will allow researchers to easily see what kinds of physical sciences experiments have been done and use that information to design new experiments for the International Space Station," said Teresa Miller, who leads the effort for Marshall's Materials and Process Laboratory.

All results are sortable and cover a variety of subjects that comprise physical science including combustion science, complex fluids, fundamental physics, materials science and biophysics.

"The informatics system provides open access of the space station physical sciences data to the global community," said Fran Chiaramonte, program scientist for physical sciences at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The goals are to increase the number of scientists participating in space station research, allow new areas of research and discovery to occur more quickly, and accelerate the research-to-product timeline through rapid and open sharing of data."

Collecting this data in a single location not only provides scientists with scientific data from NASA research, but also helps identify fields where more study is needed. Investigators will find it easy to locate information about materials properties and other physical influences of the microgravity environment.

View post:

NASA Drives Future Discoveries with New International Space Station Information System

Win the chance to go space training with England rugby stars plus tickets to Twickenham – courtesy of Heathrow Express

Posted on by

Published: 10:51 EST, 31 March 2015 | Updated: 10:51 EST, 31 March 2015

MailOnline has teamed up with Heathrow Express, principal partner of England Sevens, to offer one rugby fan the chance to go galactic at a space training experience with England stars.

The prize includes:

An astronaut training experience in the centrifuge system at QinetiQ space centre for the winner, plus a guest

The opportunity to meet players from the England Rugby Sevens team

Two England Rugby Sevens shirts

A pair of weekend tickets to the Marriott London Sevens

The event will see the lucky fan and their friend travel to the QinetiQ space centre in Farnborough, where under the tutorage of experts from the UK Space Agency they will experience what its like to train for a space mission.

They will experience all this alongside England stars Tom Mitchell, James Rodwell and Alex Davis.

Following a health assessment and briefing from a space flight director, the players and the fan will embark on a series of rotations in a centrifuge system, designed to replicate the effect of G force on the body.

The rest is here:

Win the chance to go space training with England rugby stars plus tickets to Twickenham - courtesy of Heathrow Express

Aral Sea Looks Like a Painting From Space

Posted on by

The Aral Sea is shrinking, leaving a dried-up white lakebed where there used to be blue water. But in the eyes of a radar satellite, the sea's shores look like a colorful abstract painting.

Once the world's fourth-largest inland body of water,Central Asia's Aral Sea has been starving ever since the two rivers that fed it were diverted for Soviet irrigation projects in the surrounding desert region 50 years ago. Since 1960, it's lost about 90 percent of its volume.

As the Aral Sea has gotten smaller, fisheries and local businesses have suffered. The desiccated lakebed is quite salty and laden with pollution from agricultural fertilizer and pesticides, which make dust storms an even worse public health problem.

This new image of the Aral Sea, which lies on the border between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, was created with radar data from the European Space Agency's (ESA) Sentinel-1A.

The image actually combines three separate radar scans: the red parts show data from Oct. 17 2014, the green from Dec. 28 2014 and blue from Feb. 14 2015. The blended colors between represent changes between these acquisitions.

The large dark area on the left side showswhere water is still present. There's also a boomerang-shaped blob in the lower-right corner of the image, which ESA officials said shows where water flows into the parched seabed from a river.

There are some traces of human life visible in the image, too, including a road on the outside of the seabed in the lower-left corner, near dots representing some unidentified human-made structures.

The Sentinel-1A satellite, which is coming up on its one-year anniversary in space, launched on April 3, 2014, to provide all-weather, day-or-night radar images of Earth.

More From LiveScience:

Original article onLive Science.

See the original post here:

Aral Sea Looks Like a Painting From Space

NASA Solicitation: Hubble Science Operations at Space Telescope Science Institute

Posted on by

SCIENCE OPERATIONS OF THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE AND OPERATION OF THE MIKULSKI ARCHIVE FOR SPACE TELESCOPES AT THE SPACE TELESCOPE SCIENCE INSTITUTE Synopsis - Mar 27, 2015 General Information Solicitation Number: NNG15543474 Posted Date: Mar 27, 2015 FedBizOpps Posted Date: Mar 27, 2015 Recovery and Reinvestment Act Action: No Original Response Date: Apr 10, 2015 Current Response Date: Apr 13, 2015 Classification Code: A -- Research and Development NAICS Code: 541712 Contracting Office Address NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 210.S, Greenbelt, MD 20771 Description NASA/GSFC has a requirement for the continuation of Contract NAS5-26555 with the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) for continued operation of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) which provides full science management of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and supports the HST science and flight operations facility. The requirement is for the contractor to continue to provide the products and services required to execute the science program, maintain and calibrate the onboard instruments, maintain the ground systems, archive and distribute the science data, perform follow-on mission studies, manage the HST grants program, and conduct astronomical research during the remaining years of HST science mission as well as operate and maintain the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST). The period of performance for this effort is May 1, 2016 through April 30, 2021. NASA/GSFC intends to extend Contract NAS5-26555 with AURA under the statutory authority of 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1), only one responsible source. AURA is the only known source that possesses the required experience and expertise in all areas, including, but not limited to astronomy, HST operations, optics, detectors, systems engineering, public affairs, grants administration, and foreign agreements to successfully meet the specific challenging mission requirements. HST is a highly complex and internationally acclaimed spacecraft that provides astronomical observing capabilities that are unique in the world. AURA is the only contractor that possesses a complete knowledge of HST's mission requirements in the critical area of planning and schedulingknowledge that is indispensable for maximizing the science return from the observatory. AURA's expertise in science operations is required to ensure the safety of the instruments and to process and calibrate the data so that it can be easily and effectively distributed to the astronomical community. AURA has expertly and continuously refined the science operations techniques of the mission during the past 25 years to incorporate changes and has worked with the astronomical community to develop, peer-review, communicate, and coordinate these changes with the telescope's users. AURA has made extensive, complex modifications to the planning, scheduling, and command-load-generation systems to support mission-critical life-extension activities. AURA is the only known source that possesses the end-to-end life cycle knowledge and skill set to safely and effectively operate the HST instrument suite. AURA is also the only identified source with deep, growing synergies between the HST and James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) missions that demonstrably reduce risk, increase productivity, and minimize costs for both programs. The Government does not intend to acquire a commercial item using FAR Part 12. Interested organizations may submit their capabilities and qualifications to perform the effort in writing via email to Michele.R.Connerton@nasa.gov no later than 2:00 p.m. local time on April 13, 2015. Such capabilities/qualifications will be evaluated solely for the purpose of determining whether or not to conduct this procurement on a competitive basis. A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed effort on a full and open competition basis, based upon responses to this notice, is solely within the discretion of the government. Oral communications ARE NOT acceptable in response to this notice. NASA Clause 1852.215-84, Ombudsman, is applicable. The Center Ombudsman for this acquisition can be found at http://prod.nais.nasa.gov/pub/pub_library/Omb.html . Point of Contact Name: Michele R Connerton Title: Contract Specialist Phone: 301-286-6640 Fax: 301-286-1773 Email: michele.r.connerton@nasa.gov

Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.

Excerpt from:

NASA Solicitation: Hubble Science Operations at Space Telescope Science Institute

SpaceShipOne 'Lands' on Smithsonian Floor as Museum Renovates Hall

Posted on by

SpaceShipOne, the world's first privately-built piloted spacecraft, has touched down after a decade in 'Flight.'

The historic space plane, which flew three suborbital flights in 2004 and then was donated to the Smithsonian the year later, was lowered to the ground on Friday(March 27) after spending ten years suspended in the Milestones of Flight hall at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

"It's hard to believe it's been here 10 years already," said Valerie Neal, chair of the museum's space history division and curator responsible for SpaceShipOne, in an interview with collectSPACE.com. [Watch SpaceShipOne's Historic X Prize Flight (Video)]

SpaceShipOne's 'landing' was part of ongoing renovations to the hall, the first major redesign to Milestonessince the museum opened in 1976. The museum plans to have the new "Boeing Milestones of Flight Gallery" ready in time for its 40th anniversary in 2016.

Workers carefully placed SpaceShipOne on the floor next to its formerly-suspended companion, Charles Lindbergh'socean-crossing airplane, the Spirit of St. Louis, which had been similarly lowered from Milestones' ceiling in January. There the two will remain for the next couple of months as they're inspected and undergo preservation work, awaiting their re-suspension.

Neal did not anticipate SpaceShipOne requiring any repair, but she said she might take the opportunity to get a better look at its aft section.

"There are a lot of signatures on the exhaust nozzle and I may go take a closer look at those," she shared. "I think they had a little signing party before they turned it over to us, or perhaps when it first landed."

Created by prolific aircraft designer Burt Rutan and funded by Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen, SpaceShipOne was air launched from the carrier aircraft White Knight, also built by Rutan's Scaled Composites. Dropped from underneath the aircraft, SpaceShipOne was rocketed to space using a hybrid motor and then employed a unique "feathered" tail system to return to Earth as a glider.

The craft flew to space three times: twice with pilot Mike Melvill at the controls on June 21 and Sept. 29, 2004, and once with Brian Binnie on Oct. 4 of the same year. Its two latter flights claimed the $10 million Ansari X Prize offered for the first private vehicle to twice exceed 62 miles (100 kilometers) altitude in less than two weeks.

The Smithsonian, which awarded Rutan and his Scaled team with the National Air and Space Museum trophy for their achievement, chose SpaceShipOne for Milestones of Flight because of what it represented for the near future.

Follow this link:

SpaceShipOne 'Lands' on Smithsonian Floor as Museum Renovates Hall


  1. Space Flight