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Texas High School Students to Talk Live with Space Station Crew Members

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Students at Alamo Heights High School in San Antonio and their congressional representative will speak with Expedition 38 crew members aboard the International Space Station at 10:25 a.m. CST Thursday, Jan. 23.

Media are invited to attend and cover the 20-minute Earth-to-space call, which also will be broadcast on NASA Television and the agency's website.

Students will ask NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins and Rick Mastracchio questions about life, work and research aboard the space station. Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, will open the downlink with a voice check call up to the station.

Media interested in covering the event must contact Colin Lang at 210-820-8850 or clang@ahisd.net. Alamo Heights High School is located at 6900 Broadway in San Antonio.

The students participating in the downlink are involved in SystemsGo, a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) initiative developed to promote engineering studies through research. SystemsGo helps students to develop work force skills and encourage them to study subjects that lead to careers in the engineering industries. The school has incorporated NASA activities into classes in preparation for the conversation. Linking students directly to astronauts aboard the space station provides them with an authentic, live experience of space exploration, space study and the scientific components of space travel and possibilities of life in space.

This in-flight education downlink is one in a series with educational organizations in the United States to improve STEM teaching and learning. It is an integral component of NASA's Teaching From Space education program, which promotes learning opportunities and builds partnerships with the education community using the unique environment of space and NASA's human spaceflight program.

To keep up with Hopkins' research and life on the station through Twitter, follow:

To follow Twitter updates from Mastracchio, visit:

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Texas High School Students to Talk Live with Space Station Crew Members

NASA poised to launch modernized relay satellite

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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. -- A fresh satellite for NASA's communications network is set for launch from Florida's Space Coast on Thursday to bolster voice and data links between mission control, the International Space Station and a fleet of orbiting research observatories.

Built by Boeing Co., the satellite will be the 12th craft launched in NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite program, which started linking mission control with space shuttles in the 1980s. Now that the shuttle is retired, the TDRS network's primary customers are the space station, the Hubble Space Telescope and U.S. government Earth observation satellites.

NASA developed the tracking system to replace an array of ground stations that provided intermittent communications coverage for a fraction of a space mission. Without TDRS, officials say the space station and NASA's most prolific satellites in Earth orbit would be left without a way to get data back on the ground at the speeds scientists have become accustomed to in the last few decades.

"No human spaceflight program can be supported at this data rate, and our ability to respond in real time to emergencies would be diminished drastically," said Badri Younes, NASA's deputy associate administrator for space communications and navigation. "That's why TDRS has been declared a national asset, not only because of the capabilities up there but our ability to reach any point on Earth at any time."

Eight TDRS satellites are spread around the globe in strategic positions over the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Two aging craft have been retired, and one TDRS payload was lost aboard the space shuttle Challenger in 1986.

Officials from NASA, the U.S. Air Force and United Launch Alliance, the Atlas 5 rocket's operator, gave approval Tuesday to continue with launch preparations. The 19-story Atlas launcher will roll to the pad on rail tracks at 10 a.m. EST Wednesday to be plugged into electrical and fueling systems.

"The Atlas 5 rocket and range equipment are ready, and the combined government and contractor team is prepared," said Tim Dunn, NASA's launch director for the mission. "We're all excited to launch this critical national asset, the TDRS L satellite."

TDRS L is the second satellite in NASA's newest series of data relay platforms, joining an identical spacecraft launched in January 2013 and already in service.

According to NASA, the two satellites and associated upgrades to the TDRS ground station at White Sands, N.M., cost approximately $715 million.

NASA has one more TDRS satellite under construction for launch when needed.

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NASA poised to launch modernized relay satellite

NASA: Space station dodged debris 16 times in past 15 years

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NASA recently wrote that the International Space Station has, during its first 15 years of operations, made 16 space junk collision avoidance maneuvers and been closely threatened another four times.

After a record number of four collision threats in 2012, no ISS collision avoidance maneuvers were required during 2013, reflecting the chaotic nature of the satellite population, said NASA's Orbital Debris Program Office in its quarterly newsletter.

+More on Network World: NASA Inspector General details challenges the International Space Station as a research lab+

+MORE: Skylab: NASA's first space station marks 40 years]+

"In addition, three incidents arose when insufficient time permitted a collision avoidance maneuver, forcing the crew of the ISS to retreat to the Soyuz return craft during the time of closest approach, where they were prepared to undock from the ISS quickly in the event of a collision. In total, the collision avoidance maneuver threshold level has been reached only 20 times for an average of once per year."

That seems like a lot but considering the amount of debris that crosses its path in the course of a year its pretty amazing there have not been more close calls.

"The number of known objects that routinely transit the ISS orbital altitude is significant. In October 2013, the number of cataloged objects that posed potential threats to the ISS was in excess of 800, representing an increase of 60% from the population of November 1998 in an altitude region of ~415-420 km. Of these, 10% were spacecraft (operational and non-functional), a third were rocket bodies, and the remainder were miscellaneous debris. Although the individual masses of these objects varied from less than a kilogram to several metric tons, each was capable of inflicting serious damage to the ISS in the event of a collision," NASA stated.

NASA went on to note that space objects in circular orbits intersecting the ISS altitude normally drop below the ISS orbit very quickly, in days or weeks, but they can cross the space station's orbital plane up to 30 times per day.

In addition to the cataloged satellites, the U.S. Space Surveillance Network (SSN) maintains orbits on a large number (on the order of 5,000 or more) of objects that have not yet been officially cataloged. For October 2013, the number of such objects with orbits passing through the ISS altitude regime exceeded 200.

So what exactly triggers a collision avoidance maneuver? NASA says "if a predicted conjunction yields a probability of collision greater than 1 in 10,000, official flight rules call for the execution of a collision avoidance maneuver by the ISS unless such a maneuver would lead to an even greater risk to the ISS or its crew. "

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NASA: Space station dodged debris 16 times in past 15 years

Minecraft – MainBlock Day 166 – Space Station Pod 1 Build Complete and Solar Panels – Video

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Minecraft - MainBlock Day 166 - Space Station Pod 1 Build Complete and Solar Panels
NEW Channel! - KBDToysTV: - https://www.youtube.com/user/KBDToysTV Extreme Ant Farm - Ep 1 - http://youtu.be/P3x43rF-1I4 Ant Farm Survival Day 1 - http://you...

By: KBDGamesTV

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Minecraft - MainBlock Day 166 - Space Station Pod 1 Build Complete and Solar Panels - Video

Kerbal Space Program Gravity Ring, Legit Launch (with mechjeb) – Part One. Orbit – Video

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Kerbal Space Program Gravity Ring, Legit Launch (with mechjeb) - Part One. Orbit
Going for a geostationary space station, capable of going interplanetary. So this is phase one, getting the thing to orbit. Phase two is refueling and adding...

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Kerbal Space Program Gravity Ring, Legit Launch (with mechjeb) - Part One. Orbit - Video

NASA Administrator Bolden Calls Orbital Sciences and ISS Crew on Success of Cygnus Arrival – Video

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NASA Administrator Bolden Calls Orbital Sciences and ISS Crew on Success of Cygnus Arrival
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, speaking from NASA #39;s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans on Monday, Jan. 13, congratulated teams from NASA, Orbital S...

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NASA Administrator Bolden Calls Orbital Sciences and ISS Crew on Success of Cygnus Arrival - Video

Russia may build own space station

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Moscow, March 27 : Russia may use future modules of its segment of the International Space Station (ISS) to build its own orbital station, a senior space industry official said.

Russia is planning to launch four new ISS modules - a multirole laboratory module (MLM), a node module and two science-power modules - by 2020, when the time comes to de-orbit the existing international outpost in space.

"If the need arises, we could undock the new modules (from the ISS), starting with the MLM, and they will serve as a foundation for a new generation Russian space station," said Alexander Derechin, deputy chief designer for Russia's space corporation RKK Energia.

The launch of the MLM module is tentatively scheduled for the end of 2013, Derechin added.

The current ISS project involves NASA, Roscosmos, the Canadian Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and 11 members of the European Space Agency (ESA).

The participants in the project are discussing the possibility of extending the ISS life until 2028.

The ISS currently has five Russian-built modules -- the Zvezda service module, the Zarya cargo block, the Pirs docking module, the Poisk ("Search") research module and Rassvet ("Dawn") research module.

Russia's space agency Roscosmos announced plans to build a low-orbit space station to support future exploration of the Moon and Mars in 2009.

--IANS (Posted on 27-03-2013)

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Russia may build own space station


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