Movie magic: Part-time filmmaker Chris Jacobs with cast on the set of his space station - a backyard garden shed transformed. Photo: Joe Armao

Chris Jacobs has a space station in his backyard. True, it's unlikely to fly anywhere it's a hotchpotch of MDF and flower pots and plastic bin lids and duct tape from Bunnings, and bits of computer junk salvaged from his day job as an IT consultant but at first glance it looks utterly convincing.

Read our full movies coverage here

It looks real enough for the camera, anyway, which is all that matters. Cobbled together in the shed at the back of his rental house in West Footscray (don't tell the landlord), the space station is a key set on the low-budget sci-fi film Jacobs and his friends have been making. Every weekend for three years and counting.

''When will this be over?'' asks his long-suffering girlfriend, Andrea Innocent, not entirely rhetorically.

Advertisement

Not that she can claim she didn't know what she was in for. ''On one of our first dates he invited me back to do some papier mache work on a creature,'' she confesses. Amazingly, she said yes.

Bits of said creatures are scattered around the backyard; they probably won't win any Oscars for special effects, but like the space station they'll do the job. Or so Jacobs hopes.

His movie MK Outlier started as a simple story about a soldier played by the writer-director-producer-cinematographer's mate Warren Otteraa wandering about a deserted Earth, in communication only with a guy on a space station (another friend, David Leeming). Originally, the whole film was going to be made in six weeks. ''But then I thought, 'I wonder if I can do creatures cheap','' says Jacobs. ''I sit here three years later still wondering.''

He realised that in many movies you only ever see glimpses of the frighteners, which got him thinking again. ''If you're only going to see a few frames, what's wrong with papier mache?''' he asked himself.

Read more here:

Filmmaker builds backyard space station in Footscray

Astronaut sings David Bowie #39;s "Space Oddity" from Space Station
Singing astronaut covers Bowie song in space and wows cyberspace. CNN #39;s Jeanne Moos reports on an out-of-this-world song. For more CNN videos, visit our site...

By: CNN

See original here:

Astronaut sings David Bowie's "Space Oddity" from Space Station - Video

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) An impromptu spacewalk over the weekend seems to have fixed a big ammonia leak at the International Space Station, NASA said Thursday.

The "gusher" erupted a week ago, prompting the hastiest repair job ever by residents of the orbiting lab. Spacewalking astronauts replaced a suspect ammonia pump on Saturday, just two days after the trouble arose.

NASA is now calling the old, removed pump "Mr. Leaky," said flight controller Anthony Vareha.

"Right now, we're feeling pretty good. We definitely got the big leak," Vareha said in a NASA broadcast from Mission Control in Houston.

Vareha said engineers don't know whether the pump replacement also took care of a smaller leak that has plagued the system for years. It will take at least a couple months of monitoring to know the full status.

Ammonia is used as a coolant in the space station's radiator system.

The leak forced one of the station's seven power channels to go offline. NASA hopes to resume normal operations early next week, following computer software updates.

One of the spacewalkers, NASA astronaut Thomas Marshburn, is now back on Earth. He returned this week aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule, ending a five-month mission.

The other spacewalker, Christopher Cassidy, a recent arrival, spent Thursday chatting with three of the actors and a writer-producer of the newest Star Trek movie, "Star Trek into Darkness." The film was beamed up to the space station a few days before its U.S. opening in theaters Thursday.

Cassidy watched the first half-hour of the movie while he was exercising Thursday morning and offered a stellar review.

More here:

NASA: New pump resolves big space station leak

AP Photo / NASA

In this photo from Saturday made available by NASA, astronaut Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn (not pictured) perform a space walk to inspect and replace a pump controller box on the International Space Station after an ammonia coolant leak was discovered.

By Marcia Dunn, AP

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- An impromptu spacewalk over the weekend seems to have fixed a big ammonia leak at the International Space Station, NASA said Thursday.

The "gusher" erupted a week ago, prompting the hastiest repair job ever by residents of the orbiting lab. Spacewalking astronauts replaced a suspect ammonia pump on Saturday, just two days after the trouble arose.

NASA is now calling the old, removed pump "Mr. Leaky," said flight controller Anthony Vareha.

"Right now, we're feeling pretty good. We definitely got the big leak," Vareha said in a NASA broadcast from Mission Control in Houston.

Vareha said engineers don't know whether the pump replacement also took care of a smaller leak that has plagued the system for years. It will take at least a couple months of monitoring to know the full status.

Ammonia is used as a coolant in the space station's radiator system.

The leak forced one of the station's seven power channels to go offline. NASA hopes to resume normal operations early next week, following computer software updates.

View post:

NASA says new pump fixed space station leak

WASHINGTON (AP) In a story May 15 about astronauts at the International Space Station getting the new "Star Trek" movie, The Associated Press reported erroneously when the film opened on Earth. "Star Trek into Darkness" opened in the United States on Thursday; it opened in some other countries earlier in May.

A corrected version of the story is below:

Space not the final frontier for viewing movies

Beam me up popcorn Scotty; space station crew gets 'Star Trek' film before U.S.

By SETH BORENSTEIN

AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) The crew of the International Space Station is boldly going where no one has gone before to see the new "Star Trek" film.

The three astronauts were offered a sneak peak of "Star Trek Into Darkness" days before it opens Thursday in the United States, seeing it not in 3-D, but Zero-G.

NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries said the movie was beamed up to the outpost Monday and the two Russians and American on board had a day off Tuesday. That gave them a chance to view it on their laptops. It's unclear if they watched it.

U.S. astronaut Chris Cassidy is taking part Thursday in a Google+ hangout that's bringing together two Earth-bound astronauts, film stars Chris Pine, Alice Eve and John Cho, and its director and screenwriter.

Link:

Correction: Space Station-Star Trek story

Change of command at International Space Station
http://www.euronews.com/ Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield has handed over control of the International Space Station. He is heading back to Earth after comp...

By: Euronews

Excerpt from:

Change of command at International Space Station - Video

Space Station Live: Preparing for the Ride Home on a Soyuz Spacecraft
NASA Public Affairs Officer Kelly Humphries interviews astronaut Shannon Walker who served as an Expedition 24/25 flight engineer in 2010. She talks about pr...

By: ReelNASA

Original post:

Space Station Live: Preparing for the Ride Home on a Soyuz Spacecraft - Video

May 14, 2013: Commander Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), left, Russian Flight Engineer Roman Romanenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), center, and NASA Flight Engineer Tom Marshburn sit in chairs outside the Soyuz Capsule just minutes after they landed in a remote area outside the town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan.NASA/AP

This image provided by NASA shows astronaut Chris Hadfield recording the first music video from space.AP

MOSCOW A Soyuz space capsule carrying a three-man crew returning from a five-month mission to the International Space Station landed safely Tuesday on the steppes of Kazakhstan.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, American Thomas Marshburn, and Russian Roman Romanenko landed as planned southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan at 8:31 a.m. local time Tuesday.

Live footage on NASA TV showed the Soyuz TMA-07M capsule slowly descending by parachute onto the sun-drenched steppes under clear skies. Russian search and rescue helicopters hovered over the landing site for a quick recovery effort.

Rescue teams moved quickly to help the crew in their bulky spacesuits exit through the narrow hatch of the capsule. They were then put into reclining chairs to start adjusting to Earth's gravity after 146 days in space.

The three astronauts smiled as they chatted with space agency officials and doctors who were checking their condition. Hadfield, who served as the space station's commander, gave a thumbs-up sign. They then made quick phone calls to family members and friends.

NASA spokesman Josh Byerly said by telephone from the landing site that the three returning astronauts were doing very well.

Hadfield, 53, an engineer and former test pilot from Milton, Ontario, was Canada's first professional astronaut to live aboard the space station and became the first Canadian in charge of a spacecraft. He relinquished command of the space station on Sunday.

"It's just been an extremely fulfilling and amazing experience end to end," Hadfield told Mission Control on Monday. "From this Canadian to all the rest of them, I offer an enormous debt of thanks." He was referring to all those in the Canadian Space Agency who helped make his flight possible.

Read the original post:

Space Station Astronauts Home

Before the International Space Station and viral videos from space, there was Skylab -- America's first space station.

30 Photos

Play Video

Skylab launched into space by the unmanned Saturn V rocket on May 14, 1973 from launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.

The space station went unmanned for over a week until Commander Charles C. Conrad Jr., Paul J. Weitz and Joseph Kerwin arrived on May 25, 1973.

In the 1977 book "Skylab, Our First Space Station," author Leland F. Belew describes the highlights of Skylab's mission.

According to Belew, the first crew made repairs to the ship that occurred during take-off and conducted solar astronomy and Earth resources experiments, as well as medical studies and five student experiments. Two more teams of astronauts made missions to Skylab in July and November of 1973.

Researchers on Skylab performed nearly 300 experiments including studies of the Earth's crust, oceans and surfaces, comets, meteors, planets and stars.

Astronauts were able to study the sun like never before because they could observe X-ray and ultraviolet emissions that could not be examined from Earth. And for the first time, remote parts of the Earth could be accurately measured.

Skylab researchers were able to study physiological and psychological effects from prolonged periods of zero-gravity. A total of 16 biomedical experiments were conducted.

Excerpt from:

America's first space station Skylab turns 40

Before the International Space Station existed, before U.S. astronauts shared space on Russia's space station Mir, America's first home in Earth orbit was Skylab.

The converted upper stage of a massive Saturn V moon rocket, Skylab was launched 40 years ago today (May 14). The orbital workshop gave NASA its first experience at establishing a long-duration human presence in space, laying the foundation for American astronauts to take up continuous residency almost three decades later on board the International Space Station (ISS).

On Monday (May 13), NASA commemorated four decades of "life off Earth" and the 40th anniversary of Skylab's launch during a roundtable discussion held at its headquarters in Washington, D.C. The event featured Skylab and ISS astronauts, as well as agency managers who are helping to plan the United States' future outposts in space. [Skylab: The First U.S. Space Station (Photos)]

"When these guys went to the final frontier to stay for a long time, they did it as the first ones, the ones who were entering the unknown and to see what it was going to be like and set the stage for us," said astronaut Kevin Ford, who returned from space in March after commanding the International Space Station's Expedition 34. "It is a pleasure for me to be here on the 40th anniversary."

America's first space station

Three crews of three astronauts each launched to the Skylab space station between May and November 1973. Each mission set a record for the amount of time that crewmembers spent in space Skylab 1 for 28 days, Skylab 2 for 59 days and Skylab 3 for 84 days.

"It verified the fact that people could live, work [and] do productive things for long duration, and also took the first steps toward doing the science that we wanted to have aboard," said Owen Garriott, who served as the science pilot for Skylab's second crew.

That astronauts were even able to spend one day aboard Skylab was a testament to the value of having humans in space.

Excessive vibrations during the station's Saturn V liftoff resulted in a critical meteoroid shield being ripped off in flight, which in turn took out one of the orbital workshop's two power-providing solar arrays. Flight controllers moved Skylab's secondary solar panels to face the sun to provide as much electricity as possible, but because of the loss of the debris shield this caused the station's interior to heat up to over 125 degrees Fahrenheit (52 degrees Celsius).

The effort to "save Skylab" fell to its first crew, who had to quickly prepare for a series of unexpected spacewalks in the short time they had between the station's launch and their own. Despite the very tight schedule, the astronauts successfully deployed a parasol (later augmented by a solar shield) to lower the temperature inside the station and freed a snagged second solar array.

Go here to see the original:

Skylab Legacy: Space Station Astronauts Reflect on 40 Years of Life Off Earth

NASA will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the launch of Skylab, America's first space station, on Tuesday (May 14), but you might be surprised where this icon of U.S. human spaceflight ended up.

After hosting rotating astronaut crews from 1973-1974, theSkylab space stationeventually fell back to Earth in pieces that landed in Australia. Now, decades later, many of those pieces are on display at Australian museums, offering a fascinating glimpse into America's first stab at living in space.

From May 1973 to February 1974,Skylabsaw a trio of three-man crews take up residence aboard the outpost, before it was abandoned with the plan of possibly using the space shuttle (then under development) to reactivate the laboratory. But with no way to reboost Skylab to a higher orbit to keep it aloft, and delays in getting the shuttle off the ground , the space station re-entered the Earths atmosphere over the southern Indian Ocean in 1979, with pieces landing inland along the south coast of Western Australia. [See more photos of Skylab's remains in Australia]

The mostlyuncontrolled re-entrywas a media sensation at the time, with newspapers offering prizes for the first debris found and to persons impacted by falling pieces. NASA's attempt at sending Skylab into the Indian Ocean, out of harm's way, proved only somewhat successful, and the spacecraft entered several minutes earlier than predicted, slightly off course.

Several large chunks and dozens of smaller pieces of Skylab survived the fiery plunge through the atmosphere and impacted the ground in the Australian outback over a large swath centered around the community of Balladonia on the Nullarbor Plain. The largest pieces included the oxygen tanks designed to keep the crew alive during their stays.

Skylab on display

Visitors can almost missSkylab. Tucked away in a large display case in a small city museum, the remains of what fell from the sky on July 11, 1979, can be found in Esperance, a port town with less than 10,000 inhabitants located 450 miles from Perth, which is the only major city in the western half of the sparsely populated country. Esperance was directly under the path of Skylab's re-entry. [How NASA's Skylab Space Station Worked (Infographic)]

On the outside, the corrugated metal walls and roof of the museum have the appearance of four long warehouses. That's because the Esperance Municipal Museum, founded in 1976 on the site of a former railroad yard, is composed of converted train equipment sheds.

From the main road along the waterfront in Esperance, a small blue and yellow sign hung on the side of the building is all that denotes it as a "museum," and a larger hanging billboard makes note of the main attraction inside: "In 1979, a spaceship crashed over Esperance. We fined them $400 for littering." A stamp next to it reads, "PAID IN FULL."

It's true. The local government slapped NASA with a comical $400 bill for the cleanup, though the U.S. space agency never officially paid up. However, on the 30th anniversary of the crash in 2009, a radio host for Highway Radio in California and Nevada used his program to raise the funds and put a formal end to the complaint. The paycheck now hangs above the remains.

See the original post here:

Skylab's Grave: Remains of 1st American Space Station in Australia

Four decades after the United States' first space station roared into orbit, a second version of the groundbreaking craft may be on the horizon.

NASA launched the Skylab space station40 years ago Tuesday (May 14), turning the modified third stage of a Saturn V moon rocket into Amerca's first off-Earth astronaut abode. Now, a team of researchers inspired by this recycling ethos has proposed transforming part of another rocket into "Skylab II," which could become the nation's first-ever manned outpost in deep space.

"This one is a big look backwards 40 years, in fact," said Brand Griffin, an engineer with Gray Research, Inc., who works with the Advanced Concepts Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.[Skylab: The First U.S. Space Station (Photos)]

From Saturn V to the SLS

The original Skylab supported three manned missions in 1973 and 1974, during which three-astronaut crews lived aboard the station for 28, 59 and 84 days, respectively. The 85-ton station continued orbiting Earth until 1979, when it re-entered the planet's atmosphere and famously rained debris down on a stretch of Western Australia.

Nobody was hurt, but the Australian town of Esperance charged NASA $400 for littering. The fine went unpaid until 2009, when California radio DJ Scott Barley took care of it after collecting donations from his listeners.

Like the first Skylab, the proposed Skylab II would be built from a piece of a giant NASA rocket in this case, the Space Launch System(SLS), which the agency is developing to blast astronauts toward asteroids, Mars and other destinations in deep space.

Skylab IIwould make use of the SLS' upper-stage hydrogen propellant tank, which Griffin said would provide an internal volume of 17,481 cubic feet (495 cubic m) roughly equivalent to a two-story house, and significantly more than the original Skylab's 12,713 cubic feet (360 cubic m).

Skylab II could accommodate a crew of four comfortably, and it could carry enough food and gear to last for several years at a time without the need of a resupply mission, Griffin said.

While outfitting the propellant tank as a space station would require some tinkering, its bones are solid and flight-ready, he added.

Read the original here:

40 Years Later, Skylab Space Station Inspires Possible Successor

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - The first Canadian astronaut to command the International Space Station headed back to Earth with two crewmates on Monday, wrapping up a five-month mission aboard the orbital outpost.

Space station commander Chris Hadfield, NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko strapped themselves inside a Russian Soyuz capsule on Monday and departed the station shortly after 7 p.m. EDT (2308 GMT) as the ships sailed 255 miles (410 km) over eastern Mongolia.

"It's just been an extremely fulfilling and amazing experience," Hadfield radioed to flight controllers earlier on Monday.

The mission included an impromptu spacewalk on Saturday to fix an ammonia coolant leak that had cropped up two days earlier. Without the repair, NASA likely would have had to cut back the station's ongoing science experiments to save power. The cooling system dissipates heat from electronics on the station's solar-powered wing panels.

During a 5-1/2-hour spacewalk, Marshburn and crewmate Chris Cassidy, who remains aboard the station, replaced a suspect ammonia coolant pump, apparently resolving the leak. Engineers will continue to monitor the system for several weeks to make sure there are no additional problems.

Hadfield made history on Monday when he released the first music video shot in space, turning an astronaut into an overnight music sensation with his zero-gravity version of David Bowie's hit "Space Oddity.

Hadfield, Marshburn and Romanenko, who blasted off 146 days ago, are due to parachute to a landing in Kazakhstan at 10:31 p.m. EDT (0231 GMT Tuesday). Their mission was the 35th expedition aboard the space station, a permanently staffed, $100 billion laboratory for biomedical, materials science, technology demonstrations and other research.

Their replacements are due to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on May 28. Until then, a skeleton crew commanded by Pavel Vinogradov and including NASA astronaut Cassidy and cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin will keep the station operating.

The crew's return to Earth comes on the 40th anniversary of the launch of the first U.S. space station, Skylab. Three crews lived and worked on the relatively short-lived Skylab between May 1973 and February 1974. The project helped NASA prepare for in-flight research aboard the space shuttles and the International Space Station, which was constructed in orbit beginning in 1998.

See the rest here:

Three space station astronauts headed back to Earth

After five months in space, an astronaut is saying his goodbye to the International Space Station with a classic performance of one of David Bowie's cosmic classics: "Space Oddity."

In new music video from space unveiled Sunday (May 12), Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield sings David Bowie's "Space Oddity" in a visually striking performance recorded in anticipation of Hadfield's return to Earth today.

The first Canadian commander of the orbiting outpost is seen floating through the station modules singing, playing guitar and staring back at Earth throughout the video. The five minute long farewell also features views of the outside of the space station and a time-lapse shot of the Earth as seen from orbit. [Chris Hadfield's Video Guide for Life in Space]

The astronaut's version of the 1969 hit stays true to the original song in many ways, but Hadfield does take some liberties with the lyrics. While Bowie's "Space Oddity" is about a space mission gone awry, Hadfield's version is specifically tailored to his time on the station.

"Lock your Soyuz hatch and put your helmet on," Hadfield sings of the Russian rocket that is scheduled to bring the astronauts down from the orbiting laboratory. "Ground Control to Major Tom: Commencing countdown engines on. Detach from station and may God's love be with you."

This is not the first song that Hadfield has sent back from orbit. In December, at the beginning of his life in space, Hadfield unveiled "Jewel in the Night" a holiday-themed tune that became the first original song recorded on the station.

Hadfield has also sent back videos explaining everything from how astronauts make a sandwich to how they cut their nails in microgravity. He was also very active on Twitter, posting photos and information about his unique vantage point above the planet daily.

Hadfield, NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko are getting ready to board their Soyuz capsule for a planned landing on the Central Asian steppes of Kazakhstan at 10:31 p.m. EDT (0231 May 14 GMT) today. The astronauts will undock from the station at 7:08 p.m. EDT (2308 GMT).

You can watch the Soyuz landing live on SPACE.com via NASA TV.

The departure of the three Expedition 35 spaceflyers will leave three crewmembers on the station until a new crew of three is launched to the station at the end of the month.

Original post:

Astronaut Covers 'Space Oddity' on Space Station (Video)

After months living in space, two astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut will return home from the International Space Station tonight (May 13) and you can watch their landing live online.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, American astronaut Tom Marshburn and cosmonaut Roman Romanenko are preparing to leave the space station aboard a Russian-built Soyuz spacecraft for a planned landing at 10:31 p.m. EDT (0231 May 14 GMT) on the Central Asian steppes of Kazakhstan, where the local time will be early Tuesday morning.

You can watch the Soyuz landing webcast live on SPACE.com, courtesy of NASA. The webcast will begin at 6:45 p.m. EDT (2245 GMT) to show the Soyuz departing the space station. [See photos of the Expedition 35 mission]

The Soyuz landing will mark the end of the station's Expedition 35 mission, which Hadfield commanded, and comes just two days after an emergency spacewalk on Saturday (May 11) by Marshburn and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy to fix a serious ammonia coolant leak on the station. The leak was detected on Thursday (May 9), forcing Mission Control and the astronauts to come up with the impromptu spacewalk plans in record time.

"The real-time execution of that is what made me feel so good as a commander of this crew," Hadfield said Sunday (May 13) as he handed command over to Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov, who will lead the station's Expedition 36 mission.

Vinogradov will remain behind on the space station with Cassidy and fellow Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin. They will be joined by three new crewmembers in late May.

Hadfield, Marshburn and Romanenko are wrapping up a five-month mission to the space station that began in December. The launched as part of the station's Expedition 34 crew, with Hadfield taking command of the Expedition 35 mission midway through the flight.

Hadfield, Canada's first space station commander, shared his spaceflight with millions around the world by tapping into social media. He recorded songs and videos about life in space, shared photos via Twitter and Facebook and even had a close digital encounter with the captain of the Starship Enterprise Canadian actor William Shatner, Captain Kirk on TV's 'Star Trek' during his time on the station.

But, Hadfield said, this weekend's unprecedented spacewalk repair of the station's cooling system was the pinnacle of the mission.

"For me this was just a personification of what the international space station is, and what the people mean to it," Hadfield said. "This is a human research vessel. We've shared it with millions of people around the world, and we've done our absolute best to accomplish the work on board. "

Here is the original post:

Space Station Crew Returns to Earth Tonight: How to Watch it Live

A Russian cosmonaut, a NASA physician-astronaut and outgoing Canadian space station commander Chris Hadfield, whose deft use of social media turned him into an orbital superstar, undocked and plunged back to Earth Monday to close out a five-month stay in space.

Two days after an impromptu spacewalk to fix a coolant leak -- and one day after a YouTube video of Hadfield singing David Bowie's "Space Oddity" went viral with more than 1.5 million views -- Hadfield, Thomas Marshburn and Soyuz TMA-07M commander Roman Romanenko undocked from the station at 7:08 p.m. ET.

After moving a safe distance away from the sprawling lab complex, Romanenko monitored an automated four-minute 45-second rocket firing starting at 9:37 p.m., slowing the ship by 286 mph and putting it on course for a landing near Karaganda, Kazakhstan.

A half hour later, the three modules making up the Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft separated and the crew's descent module, the only part of the ship equipped with a protective heat shield, fell into the discernible atmosphere at an altitude of about 62 miles.

Nine minutes after that, at an altitude of about 6.7 miles, a large braking parachute unfurled and long-range television cameras followed the craft as it descended to a jarring rocket-assisted touchdown at 10:31 p.m. (8:31 a.m. Tuesday local time).

The weather was ideal and Russian recovery crews stationed nearby quickly rushed in to "safe" the descent module and help the returning station fliers out of the cramped cabin as they began their readjustment to gravity after 146 days in weightlessness.

Live television views from the Kazakh steppe showed the charred module resting on its side, surrounded by recovery personnel. As usual, recliners were set up near the spacecraft where the Soyuz crew members rested after they were pulled from the capsule.

All three looked healthy and in good spirits, smiling and chatting easily as they relaxed in their pressure suits.

"That was quite a ride home," Hadfield told someone by phone.

After brief medical checks and satellite phone calls to family and friends, Romanenko, Hadfield and Marshburn were expected to be flown to Karaganda where they will split up. Romanenko will board a Russian plane for a flight back to Star City near Moscow while Hadfield and Marshburn head back to Houston aboard a NASA jet.

Original post:

Star space station commander and crew make it home

A Soyuz capsule brings three spacefliers back to Earth after five months in orbit.

By Miriam Kramer, Space.com

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying a crew of three space travelers successfully touched down on the Central Asian steppes of Kazakhstan on Tuesday, wrapping up a five-month mission to the International Space Station.

Canadianastronaut Chris Hadfield, NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko landed in their Soyuz capsule atabout 8:31 a.m. Kazakh time (10:31 p.m. ET Monday).

"It's beautiful," Romanenko radioed right before landing. "It's morning here."[Astronaut Chris Hadfield's 8 Most Amazing Space Moments]

After the landing, all three had smiles on their faces. "That was quite a ride home," Hadfield said.

The trio's return marks the end of the station's Expedition 35, which Hadfield commanded, and the start of Expedition 36. The landing comes just two days after Marshburn and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy performed an unprecedentedemergency spacewalkto fix a serious ammonia coolant leak on the outside of the station.

The three spacefliers orbited Earth 2,300 times and logged 61 million miles (98 million kilometers) during their 144 days on the station. Romanenko, Hadfield and Marshburn also witnessed the arrival and departure of a few unmanned cargo ships, including SpaceX's Dragon capsule in March.

Hadfield was the first Canadian commander of the space station, and he shared his unique perspective on the planet with everyone back on Earth during his time on the orbiting outpost. The astronaut beamed back a series of videos about life in space, including a music video cover ofDavid Bowie's "Space Oddity,"sung as a goodbye to his space-based home.

Cosmic Log: Space station chief returns home a star

Read more here:

Space station crewmates head back to Earth

A Soyuz capsule brings three spacefliers back to Earth after five months in orbit.

By Miriam Kramer, Space.com

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying a crew of three space travelers successfully touched down on the Central Asian steppes of Kazakhstan on Tuesday, wrapping up a five-month mission to the International Space Station.

Canadianastronaut Chris Hadfield, NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko landed in their Soyuz capsule atabout 8:31 a.m. Kazakh time (10:31 p.m. ET Monday).

"It's beautiful," Romanenko radioed right before landing. "It's morning here."[Astronaut Chris Hadfield's 8 Most Amazing Space Moments]

After the landing, all three had smiles on their faces. "That was quite a ride home," Hadfield said.

The trio's return marks the end of the station's Expedition 35, which Hadfield commanded, and the start of Expedition 36. The landing comes just two days after Marshburn and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy performed an unprecedentedemergency spacewalkto fix a serious ammonia coolant leak on the outside of the station.

The three spacefliers orbited Earth 2,300 times and logged 61 million miles (98 million kilometers) during their 144 days on the station. Romanenko, Hadfield and Marshburn also witnessed the arrival and departure of a few unmanned cargo ships, including SpaceX's Dragon capsule in March.

Hadfield was the first Canadian commander of the space station, and he shared his unique perspective on the planet with everyone back on Earth during his time on the orbiting outpost. The astronaut beamed back a series of videos about life in space, including a music video cover ofDavid Bowie's "Space Oddity,"sung as a goodbye to his space-based home.

Cosmic Log: Space station chief returns home a star

Read the original post:

Russian capsule touches down in Kazakhstan with space station trio

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) In a high-flying, perfectly pitched first, an astronaut on the International Space Station is bowing out of orbit with a musical video: his own custom version of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."

It's believed to be the first music video made in space, according to NASA.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield's personalized rendition of "Space Oddity" was posted on YouTube on Sunday, one day before his departure from the orbiting lab. He's wrapping up a five-month mission that began last December.

He returned aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule, along with American Thomas Marshburn and Russian Roman Romanenko, late Monday to Kazakhstan.

Hadfield, 53, a longtime guitarist who played in an astronaut rock 'n' roll band, recorded the video throughout the space station. He had some down-to-Earth help from a Canadian music team.

"With deference to the genius of David Bowie, here's Space Oddity, recorded on Station. A last glimpse of the World," Hadfield said via Twitter.

The spaceman altered some of the lyrics of Bowie's 1969 version, singing "Planet Earth is blue and there's nothing left to do." The Bowie version goes "... and there's nothing I can do." And instead of "Take your protein pills and put your helmet on," it became, "Lock your Soyuz hatch and put your helmet on."

Planet Earth provided a stunning backdrop for many of the scenes.

"It's just been an extremely fulfilling and amazing experience end to end," Hadfield told Mission Control on Monday. "We're, of course, focusing very much on flying the Soyuz home now and looking forward to seeing everybody face to face. But from this Canadian to all the rest of them, I offer an enormous debt of thanks." He was referring to all those in the Canadian Space Agency who helped make his flight possible.

Hadfield, an engineer and former test pilot from Milton, Ontario, was Canada's first professional astronaut to live aboard the space station and became the first Canadian in charge of a spacecraft. He relinquished command of the space station on Sunday.

Read more from the original source:

Astronaut exits space station with music video

Deep Space Station 35 - Quad/Subreflector Lift Timelapse
With everything going smoothly with the earlier dish lift, engineers were keen to move the quadleg and subreflector into place before any changes in the weat...

By: Canberra DSN

View original post here:

Deep Space Station 35 - Quad/Subreflector Lift Timelapse - Video