Mir was a space station that operated for more than 15 years in low Earth orbit. The design was conceived under the Soviet Union, and the station continued work under Russia after the union fell apart in the early 1990s.

The space station served as an important precursor to today's International Space Station. Aboard Mir, crews dealt for the first time with long-duration stays in space of more than 400 days. Health effects and psychological situations were observed and documented.

In later years, NASA used Mir as a testbed for international co-operation. The agency was eager to move forward with ISS, but felt that it required experience working with Russia before continuing. As such, NASA signed an agreement to send its astronauts aboard Mir.

Results from the program were mixed, with some American astronauts comparing about feeling isolated and undersupported when training overseas. Worse, by the time NASA astronauts arrived, Mir was nearing the end of its operational lifetime and experienced frequent power failures and a near-fatal fire.

Astronauts generally, however, got a lot of microgravity research done during the program. Also, the experience aboard Mir gave NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) an education on how to best work together for ISS.

Extending long-term duration experience

According to Enyclopedia Astronautica, Mir was intended as a successor project to the Soviet Union's Salyut series of space stations. While the United States was focused on the moon program in the 1960s and developing the shuttle in the 1970s, Russia went in another direction after the space race.

The country worked on developing expertise in long-duration spaceflight, and felt that a larger space station would allow for more research in that area. Mir was originally authorized in a February 1976, then evolved by 1978 to a station with several ports for crewed Soyuz spacecraft and cargo Progress spaceships.

NPO Energia began work in earnest on the station in 1979, reportedly subcontracting the responsibilities to KB Salyut because Energia was preoccupied with the Salyut, Soyuz, and Progress programs, among others. Work stalled somewhat as Russia developed a Buran space shuttle, but according to the encyclopedia, in 1984 the Soviet Union made it a priority to orbit the station in two years to coincide with the 27th Communist Party Congress in spring 1986.

It took some planning adjustments, but the first module of Mir launched successfully on Feb. 20, 1986. The next step would be bringing it alive for cosmonauts to occupy it.

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Mir Space Station: Testing Long-Term Stays in Space

WASHINGTON -- NASA Television will provide live coverage of the departure of one Russian cargo spacecraft at the International Space Station and the launch and arrival of another.

The ISS Progress 48 resupply ship, which arrived at the station last August, will depart the Pirs docking compartment, part of the Russian segment, on Saturday, Feb. 9. The Progress will leave orbit three hours later and burn up above the Pacific Ocean. NASA TV coverage of the undocking will begin at 8 a.m. EST. The undocking is scheduled for 8:15 a.m.

That move will clear Pirs for the arrival of the new ISS Progress 50 resupply spacecraft. It is scheduled to launch at 9:41 a.m. (8:41 p.m. Kazakhstan time) Monday, Feb. 11, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. NASA TV coverage of the launch begins at 9:30 a.m. The Progress is loaded with almost 3 tons of food, fuel, supplies and experiment hardware for the six crew members aboard the orbital laboratory.

Like its two predecessors, Progress 50 is scheduled to launch into an accelerated, four-orbit rendezvous with the station, docking only six hours after launch. NASA TV coverage will resume at 3 p.m. for the rendezvous and docking activities, with docking scheduled for 3:40 p.m.

If any technical issues arise, the Russian flight control team can default to a standard two-day rendezvous plan for the Progress that would result in docking on Feb. 13.

For NASA TV streaming video, schedule and downlink information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about the International Space Station and its crew, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station

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Space Station Cargo Ship Flights to Be Broadcast on NASA TV

This prototype shows what the tiles made from space waste will look like. The real thing will actually be square. (Photo courtesy of NASA.)

Hauling trash off the International Space Station can be an expensive proposition, especially without NASA's Space Shuttle fleet. So NASA has come up with a system to recycle the waste astronauts develop into radiation-protecting tiles for the space station.

Astronauts working in orbit around the Earth generate waste and they have little room to store it.

Shipping it back to earth is costly, too, so NASA is working on a space station recycling program.

The NASA waste handling system crushes waste to a fraction of its original size, and if that brings to mind the trash compactor scene from Star Wars, John Fisher, a scientist with the Bioengineering Branch at NASA, says astronauts have nothing to worry about. The NASA trash compactor is much too small for a person.

Fisher says its designed to take many other things though, like food packaging, food scraps, tape, cans, paper, plastic bags and even what's known as the astronaut diaper. All that waste is collected from around the spacecraft, then placed inside the heat melt compactor an 8-to-10 inch cube-shaped device.

Once it's filled, the device is run to crush the various items and heat them to remove any residual moisture the trash may contain.

"We continue heating and continue compacting it until you compact from maybe something about 10 inches deep to about one-tenth or slightly less than that of its volume," Fisher said. "The temperature eventually goes up to something over 300, 400 Fahrenheit and the plastic that's in there melts and encapsulates the waste. And then we cool it down and we bring it out and what you have is kind of a hard plastic tile with most of the other waste materials embedded inside of it."

But NASA doesn't make them so dense just to take up less space so they can be shipped back to Earth. The space agency is planning to use them as radiation shields inside the space station, Fisher said.

"Radiation protection works best when the substance you're using contains a lot of hydrogen, and plastic contains a lot of hydrogen as well as carbon, which is still a relatively good material for radiation protection," he added.

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NASA develops system to recycle space station waste into radiation-protecting tiles

Test animation for Blender animated short-Space Station #39;s cupola
This test animation displays the mechanism used for removing the cupola #39;s window protectors. Rendered in Blender internal renderer.

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Test animation for Blender animated short-Space Station's cupola - Video

The Skylab Orbital Workshop experienced a failure that led to a replacement shield to protect against solar heating. CREDIT: NASA.

Skylab was the first space station operated by the United States. It spent six years orbiting Earth until its decaying orbit caused it to re-enter the atmosphere. It scattered debris over the Indian Ocean and sparsely settled areas of Western Australia.

Three crews successfully lived on board the station for several months each. The last crew spent 84 days in orbit an American record that stood until the shuttle era.

Rocky start

Various NASA centers had kicked around ideas for a space station for years before Skylab launched. However, the agency was very focused on the space race and moonshots that dominated public consciousness in the 1960s. Money for other endeavors was not as available.

As Apollo began to wind down in the early 1970s, NASA began an Apollo Applications Program to fly unused hardware from the moon program. One idea, proposed by famous Apollo rocket engineer Wernher von Braun, would be to build a space station out of an unused rocket stage. The design evolved over the years as NASA struggled with reduced funding.

Skylab finally aimed for space on May 14, 1973. However, a meteoroid shield that was supposed to shelter Skylab accidentally opened about 63 seconds into the launch. The still-thick atmosphere tore the shield off, plunging Skylab into a serious situation. The facility experienced communications problems with the antenna as a result of the incident, but that was the least of the agency's worries.

"When the meteoroid shield ripped loose, it disturbed the mounting of workshop solar array wing No. 2 and caused it to partially deploy. The exhaust plume of the second stage retro-rockets impacted the partially deployed solar array and literally blew it into space," NASA wrote.

Workers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center scrambled to stabilize the station. Among other measures, they put the station in an attitude that would minimize overheating, and came up with ways to cope with the station's reduced power situation.

Meanwhile, the first crew led by Apollo 12 commander Pete Conrad would need to make the station habitable before they could get to work. The crew's first challenge during the spacewalk, just hours after launch, was deploying the solar array, but initial attempts met with no luck as a metal strip holding it down refused to give way.

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Skylab: First U.S. Space Station

Let #39;s Play Terraria w/ Hammy Productions Apollo Space Station: Episode 1
Follow my twitter @ twitter.com CaptainSparklez - http://www.youtube.com Tryhardninja - http://www.youtube.com Music - Minecraft Style by captainsparklez

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Let's Play Terraria w/ Hammy Productions Apollo Space Station: Episode 1 - Video

Let #39;s Play Space Station Silicon Valley - Part 13
Part 13: Penguins Playpen Evo must destroy the penguin Ice King and kill a flying rat

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Let's Play Space Station Silicon Valley - Part 13 - Video

Quick shots of International Space Station passing over head
Snapshots of International Space Station (ISS) This is my first attempt and was not well planned. The night before I got this email: -----Original Message-----

By: noreply@nasa.gov Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2013 6:58 PM Subject: SpotTheStation Time: Thu Jan 31 6:38 AM, Visible: 5 min, Max Height: 45 degrees, Appears: WNW, Disappears: SSE --End Email-- I would already be up getting ready for work, so i just needed clear skies! Unfortunately, I didn #39;t double check the time in the morning and thought it was going to be passing overhead at 6:45. Luckily i checked the email again at 6:38 and ran outside to see it -you can #39;t miss it! But my camera wasn #39;t ready...... I scrambled back inside and got setup just in time to catch it about 2/3 of the way on its path. Next Time I #39;ll be ready! You can sign up for alerts here: spotthestation.nasa.gov

By: Dave Hudson

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Quick shots of International Space Station passing over head - Video

KSP - Minmus Space Station - Episode 2
Kerbal Space Program or KSP is a game that allows you to construct rockets and probes and explore celestial bodies. Its up to you how the future of the kerbal #39;s space program is achieved by either success or Jebidiah #39;s wife beating you to death. In this episode I talk about how I removed the old station and replaced it with a newer better station! also I thank you guys once again for viewing! I also add another section on to the base! Version of KSP 0.18.2

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KSP - Minmus Space Station - Episode 2 - Video

(CNN) High above us, beyond the skies, is the International Space Station, which weighs nearly 1 million pounds and has a wingspan the length of a football field. It has nine rooms, two bathrooms, two kitchens and two mini-gyms, and it is the largest spacecraft orbiting the Earth.

NASA announced this week that an instrument called ISS-RapidScat will be launched to the station in 2014 to improve weather forecasts, by doing things like monitoring hurricanes. It will also help scientists explore the Earths global wind field; tropical clouds and tropical systems are affected by wind variations caused by the sun.

Another experiment on board is called InSPACE, which stands for Investigating the Structure of Paramagnetic Aggregates From Colloidal Emulsions. All that means that scientists are studying magnetorheological fluids, which are complex substances that change form or harden when exposed to magnetic fields. These substances could one day be useful in robots, NASA says, acting as a blood to make the movement of joints and limbs like that of a living creature.

Its mission is multifaceted. One of the space stations main goals is to find ways to extend the length of time a human can survive in space. Other experiments include growing cells where there is no gravity and observing bodily fluid changes in different atmospheres. In 2003, scientists aboard the station studied the behavior, mating activity and irregular motility responses of young flies they brought with them from Earth.

The International Space Station is the most complex scientific and technological endeavor ever undertaken, according to a NASA statement.

To lighten things up a bit (lets not forget the ISS is the astronauts workplace and their home), astronauts periodically capture breathtaking aerial views of the Earth, which they send back down to earthlings via Twitter. Recently, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield did a video while on the space station about cutting your nails when theres no gravity.

It was former President Ronald Reagan who pushed the idea of a manned space station in Earths orbit. In what he called a new frontier at his 1984 State of the Union address, he acknowledged that (t)he Space Age is barely a quarter of a century old. But already weve pushed civilization forward with our advances and technology. Opportunities and jobs will multiply as we cross new thresholds of knowledge and reach deeper into the unknown.

Sixteen years later, the U.S. partnered with Russia, Canada, Japan and several European countries to launch the space station. Since it arrived in orbit, over 200 humans have visited the station.

None of the space agencies involved with the space station has confirmed exactly when it will deorbit, though some agencies hint that it may end some time after 2020. When the space station is decommissioned, it will likely drop from space into its new home the Pacific Ocean.

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What’s happening on the space station?

2013 New Year #39;s Message from the Space Station
2013 New Year #39;s Message from the Space Station. Video coutesy NASA.

By: okrajoe

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2013 New Year's Message from the Space Station - Video

KSP - Minmus Space Station - Episode 1
Kerbal Space Program or KSP is a game that allows you to construct rockets and probes and explore celestial bodies. Its up to you how the future of the kerbal #39;s space program is achieved by either success or Jebidiah #39;s wife beating you to death. In this new series I will be building a Minmus Space Station! I launched this as a Thank you to all my subscribers and viewers for helping me get to where I #39;m at now! Once again thank you and tune it! Its going to be growing fast! 😛 Version of KSP 0.18.2

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KSP - Minmus Space Station - Episode 1 - Video

THE WORLD GREATEST MINECRAFT SPACE STATION!
Just a grade 9 science project about a sustainable spacecraft that we could make on neptune.

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THE WORLD GREATEST MINECRAFT SPACE STATION! - Video

let #39;s play Kerbal Space Program : EP 5 : space station part 3, solar panels
Hello everyone, and welcome to my little let #39;s play side project: Kerbal Space Program. This game is about sending little green guys into space with custom build rockets or spaceplanes. The game has a very interesting gameplay and realistic physics, which means you have to work with orbits. The game is a independent production by Squad. It is still under heavy development and currently in alpha, Version 0.18.2 For more information please visit http://www.kerbalspaceprogram.com

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let's play Kerbal Space Program : EP 5 : space station part 3, solar panels - Video

MOSCOW, January 29 (RIA Novosti) - Russian astronauts onboard the International Space Station (ISS) have transferred scientific data using a laser communication channel for the first time in international practice, the Federal Space Agency Roscosmos said on Tuesday.

The information was transferred through the earths atmosphere at a rate of 125 megabytes per second from an onboard laser terminal, the agency said.

The total of 400 megabytes of data included earth imagery and telemetric information.

The transfer operation was part of the Laser Communication System project to exchange data between the ISS and the ground station Arkhyz in the North Caucasus.

Flight engineers Oleg Novitsky, Yevgeny Tarelkin and Roman Romanenko are Russian team members of ISS Expedition 34. NASA astronaut Kevin Ford is the commander, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield and NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn are also flight engineers.

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Space Station Crew Uses Laser Channel to Beam Data

January 29, 2013

Image Caption: Tracy Caldwell Dyson in the Cupola module of the International Space Station observing the Earth below during Expedition 24. Credit: NASA

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

NASA is opening up the floor for suggestions, asking for proposals about how the International Space Station (ISS) can be used as a technological test tube.

The space agency said it is asking for proposals on how the space station may be used to develop advanced or improved exploration technologies. NASA is looking for proposals as to how new approaches, technologies and capabilities could utilize the unique research environment provided by the space laboratory.

The space station is a world-class facility and critical to NASAs plan to extend humanitys presence beyond low-Earth orbit, Andrew Clem of the Technology Demonstration Office in the International Space Station Program at NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston said in a statement. This is an opportunity for researchers, inventors and designers to demonstrate a technology needed for future human spaceflights or to improve an existing space station capability.

NASA said it will be reviewing submissions throughout the year as they are received, and will cover launch and integration costs for selected proposals.

Proposed technologies could help advance exploration and research capabilities aboard the space station. NASA said concepts must fit within its standards for mass and volume to meet requirements for current launch vehicles.

Suggested areas include in-space propulsion; space power and energy storage; components of highly reliable, closed-loop, human health, life support and habitation systems; thermal systems; robotics, telerobotics, and autonomous systems; and human exploration destination systems, the space agency wrote.

According to NASA, the proposals for new exploration technologies could include strategies to reduce mass, maintenance and power requirements for the space station, or to help improve existing space hardware. Acceptable proposals may also have the potential to produce benefits for humanity, such as testing valuable new materials or stimulating economic growth.

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NASA Seeks Ideas For Repurposing The International Space Station

Jan. 29, 2013 In a clever reuse of hardware originally built to test parts of NASA's QuikScat satellite, the agency will launch the ISS-RapidScat instrument to the International Space Station in 2014 to measure ocean surface wind speed and direction.

The ISS-RapidScat instrument will help improve weather forecasts, including hurricane monitoring, and understanding of how ocean-atmosphere interactions influence Earth's climate.

"The ability for NASA to quickly reuse this hardware and launch it to the space station is a great example of a low-cost approach that will have high benefits to science and life here on Earth," said Mike Suffredini, NASA's International Space Station program manager.

ISS-RapidScat will help fill the data gap created when QuikScat, which was designed to last two years but operated for 10, stopped collecting ocean wind data in late 2009. A scatterometer is a microwave radar sensor used to measure the reflection or scattering effect produced while scanning the surface of Earth from an aircraft or a satellite.

NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have studied next-generation replacements for QuikScat, but a successor will not be available soon. To meet this challenge cost-effectively, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and the agency's station program proposed adapting leftover QuikScat hardware in combination with new hardware for use on the space station.

"ISS-RapidScat represents a low-cost approach to acquiring valuable wind vector data for improving global monitoring of hurricanes and other high-intensity storms," said Howard Eisen, ISS-RapidScat project manager at JPL. "By leveraging the capabilities of the International Space Station and recycling leftover hardware, we will acquire good science data at a fraction of the investment needed to launch a new satellite."

ISS-RapidScat will have measurement accuracy similar to QuikScat's and will survey all regions of Earth accessible from the space station's orbit. The instrument will be launched to the space station aboard a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft. It will be installed on the end of the station's Columbus laboratory as an autonomous payload requiring no interaction by station crew members. It is expected to operate aboard the station for two years.

ISS-RapidScat will take advantage of the space station's unique characteristics to advance understanding of Earth's winds. Current scatterometer orbits pass the same point on Earth at approximately the same time every day. Since the space station's orbit intersects the orbits of each of these satellites about once every hour, ISS-RapidScat can serve as a calibration standard and help scientists stitch together the data from multiple sources into a long-term record.

ISS-RapidScat also will collect measurements of Earth's global wind field at all times of day for all locations. Variations in winds caused by the sun can play a significant role in the formation of tropical clouds and tropical systems that play a dominant role in Earth's water and energy cycles. ISS-RapidScat observations will help scientists understand these phenomena better and improve weather and climate models.

The ISS-RapidScat project is a joint partnership of JPL and NASA's International Space Station Program Office at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, with support from the Earth Science Division of the Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

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NASA to launch ocean wind monitor to space station

International Space Station - Robotic Refueling Mission
International Space Station - Robotic Refueling Mission "The prospect of robots in space tantalizes NASA engineers with extraordinary possibility." Source: http://www.nasa.gov Retrieved: 1/28/2013 Video Courtesy of: NASA #39;s Goddard Space Flight Center Public Domain License: http://www.nasa.gov Retrieved: 1/28/2013

By: Mike Stratton

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International Space Station - Robotic Refueling Mission - Video

The International Space Station continues to orbit 240-miles above earth and UND's Agricam has just wrapped up it's first mission aboard the Space Station.

It was a project enabled by retired astronaut, Mario Runco, who lectured at UND this past week.

Mario Runco, Astronaut: "You can have an asset to help monitor the crops in the field as they develop and get data, images to the user, the farmer, so that if there's a problem they can detect. It's like early cancer detection. You detect it early you can do something about it."

Images from the agricam aboard the Space Station were relayed to this UND control room. It's thermal pictures can be used to point out disease in crops and the need for different types of fertilizers.

Now, disaster workers around the globe are interested in refitting the UND camera already aboard the Space Station, so it can zoom in on disasters, like floods.

Doug Olson, UND Aerospace: "If you're trying to determine in a mud slide whether you have something like a buried car or a rock, you need something with a higher resolution."

Olson says they're still waiting to see if their agricam that's already aboard the Space Station, will now be refitted to become a disaster cam.

VIEW THE SPACE STATION THIS WEEK

If there are clear skies and you're an early riser you be able to see the International Space Station pass over the Valley this week.

Each pass lasts only 2 to 4 minutes. You'll need to be looking south by southeast, 30-degrees above the horizon. It will look like at bright star moving to the east.

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UND Camera on Space Station Wraps 1 Mission, May Get Another

Dead Space 2 Gameplay Walkthrough - Part 18: The Space Station
COMMENT - RATE - SUBSCRIBE! DEAD SPACE 2 GAMEPLAY WALKTHROUGH - PART 18: THE SPACE STATION DEAD SPACE 2 GAMEPLAY WALKTHORUGH - PART 1: youtu.be PLAYLIST: http://www.youtube.com

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Dead Space 2 Gameplay Walkthrough - Part 18: The Space Station - Video