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Illini grad talks to students from space station

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University of Illinois graduate Mike Hopkins earned cheers from an audience at his alma mater when he spoke via NASA video hookup from the International Space Station.

"University of Illinois, Fighting Illini, I hear you loud and clear, and I'm ready to answer some questions," Hopkins said, standing in front of an Illini flag in the space station on Tuesday.

Hopkins had 10 minutes to answer questions from Illini aerospace engineering students at the University of Illinois National Center for Supercomputing Applications. He is a 1991 engineering graduate and was co-captain of the Illini football team.

The News-Gazette reports that Hopkins has spent six months aboard the space station.

Students had to send in their questions ahead of time so Hopkins would be prepared to answer. They asked him about what he does at the space station, living in space and the future of space travel.

"The station is even more amazing than I ever thought it was going to be," Hopkins said.

Hopkins said his favorite thing to do in space is float.

"It doesn't get old, even just in the middle of the work day as you go floating around from one module to another. It's just fun," Hopkins said.

Then he did a flip.

Sophomore Nick Fulton said he would like to be an astronaut and found Hopkins' talk insightful.

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Illini grad talks to students from space station

Student Spaceflight Experiments Program — Mission 6 to the International Space Station

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The National Center for Earth and Space Science Education and the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education, in partnership with NanoRacks LLC, announce an authentic science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, opportunity for school districts across the U.S. and space station partner nations. The newest flight opportunity, Mission 6 to the International Space Station, or ISS, gives students across a community the ability to design and propose real experiments to fly in low Earth orbit on the International Space Station. This opportunity is part of the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program, or SSEP.

Each participating community will receive a real microgravity research mini-laboratory capable of supporting a single microgravity experiment, and all launch services to fly the mini-lab to the space station in fall 2014 and return it to Earth. An experiment design competition in each community -- engaging typically 300+ students -- allows student teams to design and propose real experiments vying for their community's reserved mini-lab. Content resources for teachers and students support foundational instruction on science in microgravity and experimental design. Additional SSEP programming leverages the experiment design competition to engage the community, embracing a learning community model for science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, education.

This competition is open to students in grades 5-12 and college. Informal education groups and organizations are also encouraged to participate. Interested communities must inquire about the program no later than Nov. 20, 2013. The National Center for Earth and Space Science Education is available to help interested communities in the U.S. secure the needed funding.

To learn more about this opportunity, visit the SSEP Mission 6 to International Space Station National Announcement of Opportunity at http://ssep.ncesse.org/2013/10/new-flight-opportunity-for-school-districts-announcing-student-spaceflight-experiments-program-ssep-mission-6-to-the-international-space-station-for-2014/.

SSEP is enabled through a strategic partnership with NanoRacks LLC working with NASA under a Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization of the International Space Station as a national laboratory. The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (http://www.iss-casis.org/) is a national partner on SSEP. To view a list of all SSEP national partners, visit http://ssep.ncesse.org/national-partners/.

If you have any questions about this opportunity, please email SSEP National Program Director Jeff Goldstein at jeffgoldstein@ncesse.org.

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Student Spaceflight Experiments Program -- Mission 6 to the International Space Station

The International Space Station Will Be Visible Over D.C. Tonight

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Hey D.C.: If you look up tonight and squint real hard, you'll be able to see the International Space Station flying overhead.

According to NASA, the Space Station has been visible in the D.C. area since October 21, at various times, but tonight it will be at peak visibility, with a maximum height at 83 degrees. But blink and you'll miss it. The station will zip across D.C. skies in a matter of minutes. NASA says that it'll be visible starting at 7:03 p.m. and will cross over D.C. skies in six quick minutes. And for where to look to see the station from different parts of D.C.? Well, NASA's got a handy tool for that.

The station will be visible again on Tuesday and Wednesday, but not nearly as close as it will tonight. According to NASA, the ISS flies over our area pretty regularlyonce every few weeksbut it's usually at a time of day or night when it's not visible. A spokesperson for NASA said that "it has to be in the early morning or early evening time, when the sun has gone down below the horizon, but is still lighting up the station," for the station be visible from Earth. That doesn't happen very often.

And if you happen to snap a good shot of the International Space Station streaking across the sky tonight, be sure upload it to our Flickr pool or send it to matt@dcist.com.

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The International Space Station Will Be Visible Over D.C. Tonight

European cargo freighter undocks from space station

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Europe's fourth Automated Transfer Vehicle backed away from the International Space Station on Monday, firing thrusters to vacate the outpost's safety bubble and begin positioning itself for a destructive re-entry Saturday.

The spaceship's Russian docking system pushed the vehicles apart, then the ATV's rocket jets fired to accelerate its rate of departure, exiting the space station's "keep-out sphere" a few minutes after undocking.

In the minutes before undocking, controllers oversaw the activation of the ATV's flight systems, navigation computer and the unlatching of hooks connecting the European spaceship to the space station.

The undocking marked the end of a 134-day stay at the space station since the ATV arrived June 15 with seven tons of cargo, including food, experiments, spare components, water, oxygen and rocket fuel.

About the size of a London double-decker bus, the ATV was responsible for maintaining the space station's orbit during its four-month mission, boosting the outpost's orbit to counter the minuscule effects of atmospheric drag.

Astronauts replaced the cargo delivered to the space station with trash stowed inside the ATV's pressurized compartment. Liquid waste was pumped inside the ATV's fluid tanks.

Named for Albert Einstein, the ATV carted away 4,761 pounds of refuse for the fall back into the atmosphere, according to NASA.

The undocking cleared the way for three members of the station's six-person crew - Fyodor Yurchikhin, Karen Nyberg and Luca Parmitano - to relocate their Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft to the aft port of the Zvezda module, which was vacated by the ATV's departure.

Yurchikhin, Nyberg and Parmitano will strap into their Soyuz spacecraft Friday, undock from its current location on the Rassvet module, and fly around to line up for a docking on Zvezda. The activity should take less than 30 minutes.

The Soyuz relocation will clear the way for three more crew members to dock at the space station Nov. 7, just hours after launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

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European cargo freighter undocks from space station

ATV-4 ‘Einstein’ Says Goodbye to the Space Station

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by Nancy Atkinson on October 28, 2013

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The Expedition 37 crew onboard the International Space Station closed the hatch and said goodbye to the ATV-4 Albert Einstein cargo ship early this morning, Oct. 28. Europes 4th Automated Transfer Vehicle undocked at 08:55 UTC (4:55 a.m. EDT). The cargo carrier was filled with trash and it will be deorbited on Nov. 2 for a destructive entry back into the Earths atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean. ATV-4 has been at the ISS since June 15, delivering more than 7 tons of food, fuel and supplies. Its departure helps prepare for more action at the ISS: the current Soyuz spacecraft docked at the station will be moved to a different location so that a new Soyuz can dock with three new crew members. The Soyuz TMA-11M is scheduled to launch on Nov. 6, 2013 with the Expedition 38/39 crew of Rick Mastracchio, Koichi Wakata, Mikhail Tyurin.

Some images of the undocking, below:

This photo was taken from Japan shorty after the undocking:

The current Expedition 37 crew took this picture inside the ATV-4 before undocking as a tribute to Albert Einstein. Credit: ESA/Luca Parmitano.

ATV-4 backing away from the ISS. Credit: NASA TV.

The ATV-4 is just visible as it passes into Earths terminator. Credit: NASA TV.

Tagged as: ATV-4 Albert Einstein, International Space Station (ISS), Space Flight

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ATV-4 ‘Einstein’ Says Goodbye to the Space Station


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