SpaceX's first attempt to send its Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station ended abruptly Saturday morning when computers aboard the company's Falcon 9 rocket shut off the craft's engines just after ignition.

SpaceX's first attempt to send its Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station ended abruptly Saturday morning when computers aboard the company's Falcon 9 rocket shut off the craft's engines just after ignition.

The control system for the rocket, which uses a cluster of nine of the company's Merlin engines in its first stage, checks to ensure all the engines are running properly before the craft is released to begin its climb to space.

After a flawless countdown, the engines ignited at 4:55 a.m. as scheduled. But the flight-control computer detected too much pressure in the combustion chamber of one of the engines and aborted the pre-dawn launch. The next launch opportunity comes at 3:44 a.m. Monday.

This mission combines into one attempt the objectives of two demonstration flights the company must perform for NASA before it begins regular cargo runs to and from the International Space Station under a $1.6 billion, 12-mission space-station resupply contract.

SpaceX must show that the automated Dragon spacecraft is capable of the precision flying needed to operate safely in the station's vicinity before docking including a rendezvous-abort maneuver as well as perform the maneuvers needed to bring it within reach of the space station's robotic arm.

Once station crew members have Dragon in their grasp, they use the arm to dock the craft with the station.

This mission represents only the third for the Falcon 9. The rocket's initial test launch in June 2010 was successful. SpaceX's hardware cleared another key milestone the following December, when the company lofted, orbited, and recovered its Dragon capsule becoming the first commercial venture to pull off such a feat.

Although the previous successes have fed high expectations for this mission, SpaceX founder and chief designer Elon Musk cautioned during a press briefing in April previewing the mission that the rocket is still relatively new.

At a post-scrub briefing Saturday morning, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said all nine engines ignited normally, but the flight-control computer detected too much pressure in engine five's combustion chamber, triggering the abort a half second later.

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SpaceX mission to space station scrubbed for now

An American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts arrived at the International Space Station early Thursday, kicking off a four-month stay aboard the orbiting laboratory.

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying NASA astronaut Joe Acaba and cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin docked with the space station at 12:36 a.m. ET Thursday as the two spacecraft soared 249 miles above the border between Mongolia and Kazakhstan.

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Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: Astronomers are taking a long, deep look at one of the best-known galaxies beyond our own Milky Way, to learn more about what happened when it gobbled up another agglomeration of stars that got too close.

"Everything went very smoothly, very well," Padalka radioed the Russian Federal Space Agency's Mission Control Center in Moscow just after docking.

For Acaba, the docking came as a welcome birthday present to mark his 45th birthday, NASA commentator Rob Navias said.

The three spacefliers were due to float into the orbiting lab's hatch overnight, bringing the station back up to its full crew of six. Their fellow Expedition 31 crew members NASA's Don Pettit, Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko have had the $100 billion orbiting complex to themselves since April 27.

Acaba, Padalka and Revin launched Monday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. They were originally scheduled to blast off on March 29, but a botched pressure test cracked their Soyuz capsule, causing a six-week delay while another spacecraft was readied. [See Spectacular Soyuz Launch Photos]

A four-month space stay The three new arrivals will live and work aboard the space station for four months, returning to Earth in mid-September. All will serve as flight engineers under Kononenko, the commander of the Expedition 31 mission.

Kononenko, Pettit and Kuipers boarded the orbiting lab in late December and are scheduled to depart on July 1.

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US-Russian crew arrives at space station

This story was updated May 15 at 11 a.m. ET.

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SpaceX's 1st Private Capsule Launch to Space Station: How It Will Work

An American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts arrived at the International Space Station early Thursday (May 17), kicking off a four-month stay aboard the orbiting laboratory.

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New US-Russian Crew Arrives at Space Station

Don Pettit / NASA

This is a composite of 18 time-exposure images photographed from a mounted camera on the International Space Station, from approximately 240 miles above Earth. The image is filled with star trails and spiraling reflections from the space station's solar arrays.

By Alan Boyle

Flying on the International Space Station is the world's biggest high, and a series of psychedelic time-exposure images engineered by NASA astronaut Don Pettit proves it.

This picture, showing the station's truss structure in the foreground and Earth's airglow in the background, is actually a composite of 18 different exposures. A couple of other pictures in the series step things up a notch by putting together 47 exposures. Here's Pettit's explanation of the process, as laid out in the NASA Twitter gallery:

"My star trail images are made by taking a time exposure of about 10 to 15 minutes. However, with modern digital cameras, 30 seconds is about the longest exposure possible, due to electronic detector noise effectively snowing out the image. To achieve the longer exposures, I do what many amateur astronomers do. I take multiple 30-second exposures, then 'stack' them using imaging software, thus producing the longer exposure."

This isn't the only experiment Pettit has been conducting during his stint on the space station. A wide variety of scientific tests are under way in orbit, ranging from studies of human health in zero-G to the chemistry of Scotch whisky in weightlessness. Pettit has shown off some pretty trippy experiments in a couple of space station videos, including the creation of antibubbles within bubbles and the sight ofsonic water dropletsrockin' out to the sounds of ZZ Top. As Pettit says in one of the videos: "Oh, wow!" Check out the full "Science Off the Sphere" series, presented in cooperation with the American Physical Society.

NASA astronaut Don Pettit injects bubbles inside bubbles in microgravity.

Don Pettit demonstrates water oscillations on a speaker in microgravity.

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Space station astronaut shares a groovy trip

If successful, the unmanned flight will mark the first time a privately built spaceship has docked with the International Space Station.

The private spaceflight company SpaceX is preparing to launch a robotic capsule to the International Space Station this week, following a series of delays that postponed the historic first flight of a commercial spacecraft to the orbiting outpost.

SpaceX is slated to launch itsDragon capsuleto the space station atop the company's own Falcon 9 rocket on May 19 from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Liftoff is set for 4:55 a.m. EDT (0855 GMT).

The test flight was originally scheduled to occur on April 30, but has been delayed several times to complete final checks of the spacecraft's flight software.

The Dragon launch will now occur shortly after three new crewmembers arrive at the orbiting complex. A Russian Soyuz spacecraft, carrying NASA astronaut Joe Acaba and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin, is slated to blast off from Kazakhstan tonight (May 14), and will arrive at the station on May 17.

The test flight of the unmanned Dragon capsule is designed to assess the spacecraft's ability to carry cargo to the orbiting outpost. If successful, it will mark the first time a privately built spaceship has docked with the $100 billion space station. [Gallery: Dragon, SpaceX's Private Spacecraft]

Over the past few weeks, SpaceX engineers have been preparing theFalcon 9 rocketand testing the capsule's docking software. After Dragon reaches orbit, the spacecraft will embark on a three-day chase of the space station before making its planned rendezvous.

As the capsule approaches, two astronauts aboard the station Don Pettit of NASA and Andre Kuipers of the European Space Agency will grab onto Dragon using the outpost's robotic arm and manually attach it to the complex.

Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to fly 12 robotic cargo missions to the space station as part of the agency's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program. The upcoming Dragon flight is designed to test the spacecraft's ability to ferry supplies to and from the station.

Eventually, the company intends to use a version of Dragon to carry up to seven passengers to low-Earth orbit.

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SpaceX to attempt historic private launch to space station this week (+video)

If successful, the unmanned flight will mark the first time a privately built spaceship has docked with the International Space Station.

The private spaceflight company SpaceX is preparing to launch a robotic capsule to the International Space Station this week, following a series of delays that postponed the historic first flight of a commercial spacecraft to the orbiting outpost.

SpaceX is slated to launch itsDragon capsuleto the space station atop the company's own Falcon 9 rocket on May 19 from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Liftoff is set for 4:55 a.m. EDT (0855 GMT).

The test flight was originally scheduled to occur on April 30, but has been delayed several times to complete final checks of the spacecraft's flight software.

The Dragon launch will now occur shortly after three new crewmembers arrive at the orbiting complex. A Russian Soyuz spacecraft, carrying NASA astronaut Joe Acaba and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin, is slated to blast off from Kazakhstan tonight (May 14), and will arrive at the station on May 17.

The test flight of the unmanned Dragon capsule is designed to assess the spacecraft's ability to carry cargo to the orbiting outpost. If successful, it will mark the first time a privately built spaceship has docked with the $100 billion space station. [Gallery: Dragon, SpaceX's Private Spacecraft]

Over the past few weeks, SpaceX engineers have been preparing theFalcon 9 rocketand testing the capsule's docking software. After Dragon reaches orbit, the spacecraft will embark on a three-day chase of the space station before making its planned rendezvous.

As the capsule approaches, two astronauts aboard the station Don Pettit of NASA and Andre Kuipers of the European Space Agency will grab onto Dragon using the outpost's robotic arm and manually attach it to the complex.

Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to fly 12 robotic cargo missions to the space station as part of the agency's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program. The upcoming Dragon flight is designed to test the spacecraft's ability to ferry supplies to and from the station.

Eventually, the company intends to use a version of Dragon to carry up to seven passengers to low-Earth orbit.

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SpaceX to attempt historic private launch to space station this week

Three astronauts are finally ready to blast off toward the International Space Station tonight (May 14), after weeks of delay caused during testing of their Russian-built space capsule.

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New Astronaut Crew Launching to Space Station Tonight

ALMATY, Kazakhstan A three-man crew blasted off from a space center in southern Kazakhstan Tuesday morning on board a Russian-made Soyuz craft for a four-and-half-month stay at the International Space Station.

NASA astronaut Joseph Acaba and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin set off from the Baikonur facility as scheduled at 9:01 a.m. local time.

Russia's space agency says the craft is due to dock with the space station Thursday morning Moscow time and will join the three astronauts currently staying at the orbiting laboratory.

The crew, which is being commanded by retired 53-year old Russian Air Force Col. Padalka, will immediately get to work preparing for the arrival next week of privately owned SpaceX's Dragon Capsule. It will be the first time a private company has launched space station supplies.

The space station is currently occupied by Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, NASA astronaut Don Pettit and Holland's Andre Kuipers.

Padalka is a seasoned space traveler, having spent a total of 585 days in space on three previous missions on board the now-defunct Mir station and the current International Space Station. Inglewood, California-native Acaba, who turns 45 on Thursday, on the day that Soyuz is due to dock, makes his second venture into space after his maiden orbital voyage on the shuttle in 2009. Revin, 46, is making his first trip to space.

Until NASA either brings a new craft online or private companies are able to arrange manned trips to the orbiting station, the Soviet-designed Soyuz spacecraft will remain the only means to deliver crews to the orbiting outpost.

The Russian space program has been blighted by a string of technical glitches in the recent past, raising questions over its dependability.

Tuesday's launch had been pushed back by two months due to depressurization of the spacecraft's descent module during the ground testing phase. It was the second significant postponement of a manned Russian launch in the space of a year.

A Russian Mars moon probe crashed to Earth in January in what the nation's space agency described as the result of cosmic radiation.

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US-Russian crew blasts off on trip to International Space Station

The private spaceflight company SpaceX is preparing to launch a robotic capsule to the International Space Station this week, following a series of delays that postponed the historic first flight of a commercial spacecraft to the orbiting outpost.

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SpaceX to Launch 1st Private Capsule to Space Station This Week

A Russian Soyuz rocket, with three astronauts aboard, is due at the International Space Station Thursday. On Saturday, the SpaceX 'Dragon' will follow.

A Russian rocket launched three astronauts toward the International Space Station late Monday night (May 14), kicking off a two-day journey to the huge orbiting lab.

NASA astronaut Joe Acaba and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin launched aboard aSoyuz spacecraftfrom Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome Monday at 11:01 p.m. EDT.

The Soyuz is slated to dock with thespace stationshortly after midnight EDT (0400 GMT) on Thursday (May 17). Once aboard, the three spaceflyers will bring the orbiting complex back to its full complement of six residents. Their fellow Expedition 31 crewmembers NASA's Don Pettit, Dutchman Andre Kuipers and cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko have had the station to themselves since April 27.

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The launch was a long time coming for Acaba, Padalka and Revin. They were supposed to lift off on March 29, but their flight was delayed for six weeks after a botched pressure test rendered their original Soyuz capsule unusable and forced a new one into service. [Photos: New Expedition 31 Mission Begins]

A four-month stay

The three newcomers will live aboard the station for four months, eventually returning to Earth in mid-September, NASA officials said.

The veteran cosmonaut Padalka already has two long-duration stints aboard the space station under his belt, but the experience will be a new one for the other two astronauts aboard the Soyuz. Acaba visited the station for less than two weeks on his lone previous spaceflight, the shuttle Discovery's STS-119 mission in 2009. And Monday's launch marked Revin's first trip to orbit.

Acaba said he's looking forward to his extended stay aboard the station.

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Russian Soyuz (finally) lifts off for space station (+video)

SpaceX announced that it is gearing up to launch its Dragon capsule toward the International Space Station on Saturday. If successful, the trip will mark the first time a private spacecraft has ever docked at NASA's habitable artificial satellite.

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SpaceX Capsule Slated to Soar to Space Station on Saturday

A three-man crew blasted off from a space center in southern Kazakhstan Tuesday morning on board a Russian-made Soyuz craft for a four-and-half-month stay at the International Space Station.

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Three-man Soyuz crew departs for space station

A Russian rocket launched three astronauts toward the International Space Station late Monday night (May 14), kicking off a two-day journey to the huge orbiting lab.

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New Astronaut Crew Launches Toward Space Station

May 11, 2012

Image Credit: NASA

EarthKAM, a camera onboard the International Space Station (ISS), used for remote Earth sensing and observations, also has another more popular use, giving school children the opportunity to interact with the high-flying (or orbiting) space lab.

The Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students (EarthKAM) system has allowed thousands of students across the country to use the Internet to control a digital camera mounted on the space station, enabling them to photograph the Earth like they have never before, taking pictures of coastlines, mountains, cities and other geographical interests around the world.

This new video explains how EarthKAM works.

The system may offer students a powerful and innovative way to explore the planet from a unique perspective, but it is also an inspirational tool for the next generation of flight controllers for space programs allowing university and college students to take control of the camera as well.

EarthKAM is a payload by students, for students. They are in charge. This system provides a viewpoint that the astronauts haveits just awe-inspiring! said Brion Au, an investigation developer at NASAs Johnson Space Center.

So far, students have captured more than 40,000 photos of the Earth from the ISS, orbiting 225 miles above us. The EarthKAM team posted photographs online for the public and participating school classrooms around the world to view.

EarthKAM is the brainchild of Dr. Sally Ride, an ex-shuttle astronaut, and the first American woman to go into space, paving the way for other women to follow suit. The camera is located in the Window Observational Research Facility (WORF), one of the many research facilities aboard the ISS.

Source: RedOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

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EarthKAM Lets School Children Interact With The International Space Station

Two private aerospace firms are teaming up to sell manned flights to private space stations orbiting Earth.

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Spaceflight Companies Team Up for Private Space Station Flights

Originally scheduled for May 7, the mission would be the first by a private company to send a rocket to the International Space Station.

SpaceX and NASA said today that May 19 is the new launch date for the first-ever attempt to send a private company's rocket to the International Space Station.

Intended as a demonstration flight, the mission is designed to give NASA and SpaceX information that will help them plan future missions to the space station. Weather scrapped the previous attempt at the launch, which had been scheduled for May 7.

Unless weather or other factors intervene, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft will launch from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on May 19. On May 20, Dragon is expected to orbit the Earth on its way to the ISS. The next day, Dragon's flight systems and sensors will be put through a series of tests meant to demonstrate whether the spacecraft is capable of berthing with ISS. During those tests, Dragon will fly within a mile and a half of the ISS. On May 22, NASA will determine if Dragon can dock with the space station, and if so, the ISS' robotic arm will capture the spacecraft.

Assuming all of that goes well, Dragon will then unload its cargo, spending about two weeks at the space station before returning to terra firma with cargo being sent back to Earth.

The Dragon capsule will be the first commercial cargo ship cleared to fly to the ISS. This is a vital step forward for NASA, since in the wake of the end of the Space Shuttle program, the U.S. space agency no longer has the means to send its own spacecraft to the space station. NASA's long-range strategy is to rely on commercial spacecraft for space station missions. SpaceX and Orbital Sciences are two companies that have the contracts for such missions.

The Dragon capsule will have 1,150 pounds of noncritical equipment and supplies aboard when it launches.

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SpaceX sets May 19 as date for space station mission

NOVATO, Calif., May 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --When people think of museums, they often think of the California Academy of Sciences, or the new San Francisco Exploratorium with its huge price tag of approximately $220 million dollars.

A new type of museum opened last October in the San Francisco suburb of Novato: The Space Station offers a quality experience for local residents and tourists alike without the high construction costs and government subsidies required for the on-going operations of most museums.

President and Founder of the investment management firm, Winans Investments, and philanthropist Ken Winans has served as a trustee to several large, Smithsonian affiliated museums, and felt there had to be a more efficient and effective way to offer the public a quality museum experience during this time of fiscal austerity.

With an entrepreneurial spirit, Winans contacted the owners of an upscale shopping center in Novato's Ignacio neighborhood with a unique idea:

The W Foundation, founded in 2002 by Mr. Winans and his wife Debbie Wreyford, would set up and operate a small space exploration museum using rare items from their extensive collection of space artifacts in one of the strip mall's vacant retail space for $1 per month.

The neighborhood and local schools would gain a unique, educational venue free of charge, and the Pacheco Plaza Shopping Center will get increased traffic and new customers for its existing commercial tenants. When the retail space gets rented in the future, no problem, the museum can move to a different location - a nomadic space museum!

The Walter Kieckhefer Company agreed, and after a ribbon cutting ceremony last October with legendary astronauts Rick Searfoss, John Herrington and Dick Gordon in attendance, The Space Station museum opened to the public last November.

With an emphasis on space exploration, and how its discoveries in science and technology have benefited all of mankind, this museum was designed to be truly different:

First, Admission is free and 100% privately funded through donations from local businesses such as Winans Investments Capital Management & Research and Jeremy Forcier of First Cal Mortgage, in-kind support from local businesses such as The Walter Kieckhefer Company, and individual donations. Second, in order to keep costs contained, the museum is 100% volunteer staffed and is open three days a week or by appointment. Third, exhibits are changed four times a year by the volunteer staff to help encourage visitors to frequently return. And last, but not least, the public is given a unique, tactile experience as they are allowed to touch some of the space-flown artifacts.

The Space Station museum is a tremendous success! Since its opening six months ago, the museum has averaged 642 visitors per month while only being open three days per week. Total attendance from all Space Station events in the Pacheco Plaza Shopping Center over the past ten months has exceeded 4,952 visitors. This figure equals 10% of Novato's entire population! Visitors have come from all parts of the Bay Area and as far away Las Vegas, NV. Remarkably, marketing has been limited to word-of mouth, internet blogs and social networks.

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The Space Station: Launching a whole new kind of museum!

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have snapped a stunning new photo of a heavily eroded impact crater in Algeria.

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New Astronaut Photo Highlights Impact Crater

The next residents of the International Space Station are making final preparations for a May 14 launch.

This week, NASA Flight Engineer Joseph Acaba and his two Russian crewmates, Soyuz Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Sergei Revin, are completing their training, undergoing Soyuz spacecraft fit checks and taking part in traditional ceremonies. Video file documentation of the final preparations will be broadcast starting May 10.

Live NASA TV coverage of the Soyuz TMA-04M spacecraft launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan begins at 9 p.m. CDT on May 14 (May 15, Baikonur time), with launch scheduled for 10:01 p.m.

The trio will arrive at the station May 16, joining Expedition 31 Commander Oleg Kononenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency, Flight Engineer Don Pettit of NASA and Flight Engineer Andre Kuipers of the European Space Agency, who have been aboard since December 2011. Padalka, Acaba and Revin will transition to the Expedition 32 crew in July and return to Earth in mid-September.

Provided by JPL/NASA (news : web)

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Next Soyuz Space Station crew prepares for launch