MyPalmBeachPost (blog) | Two chances to see International Space Station flyby this weekend ... MyPalmBeachPost (blog) The International Space Station will make two appearances over Palm Beach County in the next few days. But the spacecraft's passes are for early-risers only, ... |
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Two chances to see International Space Station flyby this weekend ... - MyPalmBeachPost (blog)
SpaceX's Dragon cargo ship is captured by astronauts aboard the International Space Station early Thursday, one day after its initial docking attempt was aborted. AP hide caption
SpaceX's Dragon cargo ship is captured by astronauts aboard the International Space Station early Thursday, one day after its initial docking attempt was aborted.
With a nudge of a robotic arm, astronauts aboard the International Space Station captured a space capsule carrying 5,500 pounds of cargo early Thursday.
"Capture confirmed," NASA TV's announcer stated at 5:44 a.m. ET. The capture took place as the space station and the SpaceX capsule flew in orbit 250 miles over Australia's northwest coast.
The safe rendezvous should help soothe the nerves of NASA and SpaceX teams that have seen this mission encounter delays at crucial moments. In NASA's timetable that was released last week, the agency had planned for the Dragon craft to reach the space station three days ago.
On Saturday, the craft's launch was aborted just seconds ahead of rocket ignition, due to an anomaly in its steering system.
The actual launch one day later went perfectly, but when the Dragon craft was less than a mile from its space station dock early Wednesday, its computer automatically aborted the maneuver due to an error in its GPS software. That set up today's meeting, which comes just a day before a Russian resupply rocket is slated to arrive early Friday.
It will take the ISS crew about a month to unload the spacecraft, NASA says. In late March, it will splash down in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Baja California.
NASA describes some of the experiments Dragon is carrying along with crew supplies:
"Science investigations launching on Dragon include commercial and academic research investigations that will enable researchers to advance their knowledge of the medical, psychological and biomedical challenges astronauts face during long-duration spaceflight.
"One experiment will use the microgravity environment to grow stem cells that are of sufficient quality and quantity to use in the treatment of patients who have suffered a stroke. A Merck Research Labs investigation will test growth in microgravity of antibodies important for fighting a wide range of human diseases, including cancer."
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SpaceX Cargo Craft Is Now In Space Station's Grip, One Day After Aborted Docking - NPR
A Russian Soyuz rocket blasts off in sub-zero temperatures on Wednesday on its supply mission to the International Space Station. Photograph: Roscosmos/EPA
Two supply vessels blasted off within days of each other this week both heading for the International Space Station (ISS).
On 19 February at 14:39 GMT, Space X, a private company, launched a Falcon 9 rocket from pad 39a at NASAs Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The launch pad is historic because it was built for the Apollo moon landing programme of the 60s and 70s. It was then used for space shuttle launches. Since April 2014, the launch pad has been used by Space X, which signed a 20-year lease with NASA.
The SpaceX capsule launched on Sunday carried 2.5 tonnes of experiments and supplies. It will remain at the ISS until March, when it will return Earth with cargo. The capsule will splash down in the Pacific.
The first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket returned to Florida eight minutes after launch, completing a soft landing so that it can be refuelled and reused.
The second supply mission took flight from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 22 February at 05:58 GMT. The 2.7 tonnes of cargo was loaded into a Russian Progress spacecraft and launched atop a Soyuz rocket in sub-zero temperatures from a snow-covered launch pad.
Nine minutes later, it reached orbit. This was the first launch of a Soyuz rocket since 1 December, when a fault in the third-stage motor caused the vehicle to explode. The fault was traced to poor materials used in the manufacturing.
Astronauts look forward to the cargo missions arriving because they bring fresh fruit and other produce to liven up their diets. The missions also carry essentials. The supplies on the Russian spacecraft include 420kg of fresh water and 23kg of oxygen.
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Rockets on track with supplies for the space station - The Guardian
USA Today Network James Dean, Florida Today Published 6:39 a.m. ET Feb. 23, 2017 | Updated 14 hours ago
SpaceX's Dragon cargo ship docked with the International Space Station on Thursday, a day after a GPS problem prevented the capsule from coming too close. AP
The SpaceX Dragon capsule flying the CRS-10 cargo resupply mission was captured by the International Space Station's robotic arm at 5:44 a.m. EST Thursday, Feb. 23, 2017.(Photo: NASA TV)
MELBOURNE, Fla.A SpaceX Dragon capsule carrying nearly 5,500 pounds of supplies and science experiments arrived safely at the International Space Station early Thursday, a day later than planned after an aborted rendezvousWednesday.
French astronaut Thomas Pesquet steered a 58-foot robotic arm to snare the unmanned Dragon at 5:44 p.m. EST, as the two spacecraft flew 250 miles above northwestern Australia.
"Looks like we got a great capture," crewmate and Expedition 50 commander Shane Kimbrough radioed to flight controllers in Houston.
"Great job with Dragon capture, and sorry about the delays," responded NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins, who was communicating with the crew from the ground. "Now the real work starts."
Related: SpaceX cargo ship scrapped docking at space station
Pesquet said the six-person space stationcrew was "very happy" to have Dragon on board and complemented the public-private partnership behind the commercial resupply mission that launched Sunday on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center.
"Such a strong partnership between agencies and commercial entities together with the international partners is without a doubt the future of space exploration, and were paving the way every day on the ISS," he said.
By 8:15a.m., robotics teams on the groundattached the Dragon to the Earth-facing port of the station's Harmony module for a monthlong stay.
The crew planned to open the Dragon's hatch later Thursday to begin removing time-sensitive science experiments.
More than half of the cargo is dedicated to science research, including a pair of NASA science instruments that will monitor Earth's ozone layer and lightning strikes. Another NASA instrument will test guidance systems for missions that would attempt to robotically service satellites.
Other research includes studies of tissue regeneration, involving 20 mice in orbit; of stem cells that could be applied to stroke treatments; and of protein crystals that could improve cancer drugs.
Related:SpaceX launches rocket from historic NASA launchpad
On Wednesday, the Dragon flew within about 1,200 feet of the station before backing out of its approach. NASA said flight computers triggered the abort after recognizinga problem with navigation data calculating the Dragon's position relative to the station.
Afterthe Dragon's berthing Thursday, aRussian Progress resupply ship, flying for the first time since a failed launch on Dec. 1, 2016, is scheduled to dock at the outpost around 3:30 a.m. EST Friday.
The next U.S. commercial cargo ship in line to fly, Orbital ATK's Cygnus, is being prepared for a March 19 launch from Cape Canaveral on a United Launch AllianceAtlas Vrocket.
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SpaceX cargo ship arrives safely at space station - USA TODAY
THIS is what Perth looks like at night from the International Space Station.
Italian Astronaut Ignazio Magnani posted the picture of Perth lit up by city lights after the famous space station crossed over the state.
If you were staring up at the stars around 8.20pm Thursday night you may have witnessed the rare event.
The ISS is a large spacecraft in orbit around Earth where astronauts live and conduct research. It has made it possible for people to have an ongoing presence in space since 1998.
Although the ISS has been circling the earth for almost two decades it doesnt often cross Perth at such a convenient time and so bright to see with the naked eye.
The space station was only visible for about five minutes. Mr Magnani alerted Perth to the crossing.
Did you manage to capture a glimpse? Some Perth astrophotgraphers did.
Another interesting photo tonight... The International Space Station flew over Perth from the north-west to the south-east at 8:22PM. I took this photo from Port Coogee, with Leonie. Thanks for the tip Dan! 🙂
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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has selected astronaut Jeanette Epps to join the crew of the International Space Station in 2018. Epps will become the first Black crew member to represent the U.S. on the station.
The journey will mark the first time Epps has traveled to orbit, allowing her to follow in the footsteps of the women who, she said, inspired her to become an astronaut.
While other Black astronauts have flown to the Space Station for brief stays during the outposts construction, Epps will be the first Black crew member to live and work on the station for an extended period of time. Her journey aboard the Soyuz spacecraft and stay at the station places her as the only American and female among a crew made up of mostly Russians and men.
Im a person just like they are. I do the same work as they do, Epps told a group of STEM students at her Syracuse alma mater, Danforth Middle School. If something breaks, any one of us will have to be able to go out the door. We have to be jacks of all trades. Its not a job thats like any other.
While working on her doctorate, Epps was a NASA graduate student Researchers Project fellow, authoring several journal and conference articles about her research. After completing her graduate studies, Epps worked in a research lab for more than two years, co-authoring multiple patents, before being recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). She was a CIA technical intelligence officer for about seven years before being selected as a member of the 2009 astronaut class.
Anything you dont know is going to be hard at first, Epps said in a video statement about the launch. But if you stay the course, put the time and effort in, it will become seamless eventually.
Epps, in the NASA video interview, shared when she was first introduced to the idea that she could be an astronaut. It was about 1980, I was nine years old. My brother came home and he looked at my grades and my twin sisters grades and he said, You know, you guys can probably become aerospace engineers or even astronauts, Epps said.
And this was at the time that Sally Ride [the first American woman to fly in space] and a group of women were selected to become astronauts the first time in history. So, he made that comment and I said, Wow, that would be so cool.
Epps will join veteran NASA astronaut Andrew Feustel at the Space Station. On Feustels first long-duration mission, he served as a flight engineer on Expedition 55, and later as commander of Expedition 56.
By Shantella Y. Sherman (AFRO/NNPA Member)
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First Black Crew Member To Join International Space Station - Thenewjournalandguide
Early Wednesday morning, a space capsule carrying 5,500 pounds of cargo approached the International Space Station.
The SpaceX Dragon cargo ship was scheduled to arrive at the station around 6 a.m. ET. If all went as planned, astronauts Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency and Shane Kimbrough of NASA would use a robotic arm on the station to reach out and grasp the ship, pulling it in and locking hatches with it.
But that cosmic embrace was not to be.
Around 3:25 a.m. ET, according to NASA TV, the navigation system on the unmanned Dragon cargo ship detected an error. A number was wrong in its GPS software. The ship automatically aborted its mission. It was about three-quarters of a mile away from the space station.
The docking has been rescheduled for Thursday morning.
"It did exactly what it was designed to do, breaking out of a rendezvous approach when it saw an incorrect value," said NASA TV commentator Rob Navias.
"This is an easily correctable issue," he explained during a live NASA TV stream of the docking attempt. "Dragon itself is in excellent shape."
The new schedule means Dragon will arrive at the International Space Station the day before a Russian resupply rocket, which launched early Wednesday and is set to arrive at the ISS early Friday morning.
As The Two-Way reported, today's is not the first delay for the SpaceX Dragon. The cargo ship was supposed to launch Saturday, but that was scrubbed just 13 seconds before liftoff because of an anomaly discovered in the rocket's steering system.
"On Sunday, however, the launch went smoothly," NPR's Colin Dwyer reported. "Not only did SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket lift off without a hitch, its first stage also returned to land right back on a platform on Earth. Shortly afterward, the Dragon spacecraft it was carrying detached as planned from the rocket."
As The Wall Street Journal has reported, mistakes and setbacks in its rocket business have become an increasing concern for the commercial spaceflight company, in part because its founder Elon Musk has publicly announced that the company will build a system to colonize Mars.
As the newspaper reported, failed launches (the rockets exploded) in June 2015 and September 2016 contributed to a loss in revenue:
"Internal financial documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and interviews with former SpaceX employees depict robust growth in new rocket-launch contracts and a thin bottom line that is vulnerable when things go awry. They also show the company putting steep revenue expectations on a nascent satellite-internet business it hopes will eventually dwarf the rocket division and help finance its goal of manned missions to Mars."
In addition to stuff humans use to live in space, the cargo craft is carrying science experiments. "One experiment will use the microgravity environment to grow stem cells that are of sufficient quality and quantity to use in the treatment of patients who have suffered a stroke," a NASA press release read. The mission will also aid in recording "key climate observations and data records."
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SpaceX Cargo Craft Fails To Dock With Space Station, Will Try Again - KALW
This is what failed to happen on Wednesday morning. In this image from April 17, 2015, a robotic arm on the International Space Station grasps a SpaceX Dragon cargo ship during docking. NASA/AP hide caption
This is what failed to happen on Wednesday morning. In this image from April 17, 2015, a robotic arm on the International Space Station grasps a SpaceX Dragon cargo ship during docking.
Early Wednesday morning, a space capsule carrying 5,500 pounds of cargo approached the International Space Station.
The SpaceX Dragon cargo ship was scheduled to arrive at the station around 6 a.m. ET. If all went as planned, astronauts Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency and Shane Kimbrough of NASA would use a robotic arm on the station to reach out and grasp the ship, pulling it in and locking hatches with it.
But that cosmic embrace was not to be.
Around 3:25 a.m. ET, according to NASA TV, the navigation system on the unmanned Dragon cargo ship detected an error. A number was wrong in its GPS software. The ship automatically aborted its mission. It was about three-quarters of a mile away from the space station.
The docking has been rescheduled for Thursday morning.
"It did exactly what it was designed to do, breaking out of a rendezvous approach when it saw an incorrect value," said NASA TV commentator Rob Navias.
"This is an easily correctable issue," he explained during a live NASA TV stream of the docking attempt. "Dragon itself is in excellent shape."
The new schedule means Dragon will arrive at the International Space Station the day before a Russian resupply rocket, which launched early Wednesday and is set to arrive at the ISS early Friday morning.
As The Two-Way reported, today's is not the first delay for the SpaceX Dragon. The cargo ship was supposed to launch Saturday, but that was scrubbed just 13 seconds before liftoff because of an anomaly discovered in the rocket's steering system.
"On Sunday, however, the launch went smoothly," NPR's Colin Dwyer reported. "Not only did SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket lift off without a hitch, its first stage also returned to land right back on a platform on Earth. Shortly afterward, the Dragon spacecraft it was carrying detached as planned from the rocket."
As The Wall Street Journal has reported, mistakes and setbacks in its rocket business have become an increasing concern for the commercial spaceflight company, in part because its founder Elon Musk has publicly announced that the company will build a system to colonize Mars.
As the newspaper reported, failed launches (the rockets exploded) in June 2015 and September 2016 contributed to a loss in revenue:
"Internal financial documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and interviews with former SpaceX employees depict robust growth in new rocket-launch contracts and a thin bottom line that is vulnerable when things go awry. They also show the company putting steep revenue expectations on a nascent satellite-internet business it hopes will eventually dwarf the rocket division and help finance its goal of manned missions to Mars."
In addition to stuff humans use to live in space, the cargo craft is carrying science experiments. "One experiment will use the microgravity environment to grow stem cells that are of sufficient quality and quantity to use in the treatment of patients who have suffered a stroke," a NASA press release read. The mission will also aid in recording "key climate observations and data records."
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SpaceX Cargo Craft Fails To Dock With Space Station, Will Try Again - NPR
By Leah Crane
The only ride to the International Space Station is back in business. Early Wednesday morning, Roscosmos launched the uncrewed Progress MS-05 spacecraft to the ISS aboard a Soyuz rocket the first Soyuz launch since Decembers unsuccessful Progress MS-04, which burned up in Earths atmosphere.
The loss of that rocket left future astronauts in a tenuous position. The Soyuz rocket is currently the only available ride to the space station, so until it was proven safe, no more astronauts could make the journey. That crafts failure resulted in the loss of 2,450 kilograms of food, water, fuel, and equipment but a failure with humans aboard could be a true disaster.
The Russian commission investigating MS-04s launch failure found that it may have been due to defective workmanship in the third stage of the three-stage rocket. Six minutes after a successful-looking launch, the third stage and the Progress capsule appeared to separate prematurely. Most of the resulting debris burned up in Earths atmosphere, and a few fragments fell in the Tuva region of Russia.
When it reaches the ISS on Friday, Progress MS-05 will replace the lost supplies although theyre not running low yet. Consumables aboard the station are at good levels, Mark Garcia posted on NASAs Space Station blog after the MS-04 incident.
More options for sending astronauts to the station are in the works: SpaceXs Crew Dragon is expected to start shuttling astronauts on top of a Falcon 9 rocket at the end of 2017. Boeings CST-100 is also scheduled to start its uncrewed testing around the same time, aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.
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Successful Russian launch re-paves the way to space station - New Scientist
Some students from the Buffalo Public and Niagara Falls City School Districts havereturned from a trip to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. WBFO's Senior Reporter Eileen Buckley says the students won contests for their STEM projects.
WBFO's senior reporter Eileen Buckley says some students returned from a trip to the Kennedy Space Center as part of their STEM work.
Its just been a really great experience, said Elise Glahe, a sixth-grader at the Abate Elementary School in the Niagara Falls City School District.
Glahe designed a winning Mission Patch as part of the Student Spaceflights Experiments Program last year.
Glahe's mission patch was lifted into orbit this weekend onboard the International Space Station.
You made something that, just by chance, has flown into outer space and thats just such a crazy thing to think about, Glahe declared.
Glahe and three other Buffalo Public school Students were welcomed back home by Western New York Congressman Brian Higgins Monday at the Buffaloand Erie County Public Library following their weekend trip.
Three Buffalo students, known as the Spud Launchers, said their winning project, to try to grow potatoes in space is now in orbit.
Hamlin Park eighth-grader Gabriella Melendez noted how exciting it was to know that our hard work is actually going into outer space.
Melendez was the lead investigator of the project.
It should be up there for I think six to eight weeks and then we get our results back, then thats when you know everything is going to come together and we all find out the results that weve been waiting for," Melendez said.
The space launch was initially scrubbed over the weekend, but later, while they were driving through Florida, the rocket was launched and they caught it on the radio.
Its exactly 9:38 and that was our launch time and he pulled over, he turned up the radio and it goes 5, 4 and you just hear it and its like ready to take off and it just went and you heard the wind and you heard everybodys excitement, responded Melendez.
Buffalo school students Shaniylah Welch and Toriana Cornwell were co-investigators of the experiment.
It was pretty cool. We watched a video on all the astronauts and the fallen ones also, said Cornwell.
Im looking forward to being an [astronomer]. Im not too much of being in space Im more like research in space you know, learn about the cosmos and Milky Way and all the galaxies, Welch explained.
The school districts have been teaming with WNY STEM HUB to promote STEM learning. Buffalo Schools Superintendent Kriner Cash called the young women an inspiration in promoting interest in STEM fields.
We also need boys and girls of color to continue to pursue STEM fields as well, remarked Cash.
Their teacher and advisor, Andrew Franz, was elated for his students.
It took every inch of my being to not cry, Franz said.
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International Space Station lifts off with local student work on board - WBFO
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has selected astronaut Jeanette Epps to join the crew of the International Space Station in 2018. Epps will become the first Black crewmember to represent the U.S. on the station.
The journey will mark the first time Epps has traveled to orbit, allowing her to follow in the footsteps of the women who, she said, inspired her to become an astronaut.
While other Black astronauts have flown to the Space Station for brief stays during the outposts construction, Epps will be the first Black crewmember to live and work on the station for an extended period of time. Her journey aboard the Soyuz spacecraft and stay at the station places her as the only American and female among a crew made up of mostly Russians and men.
Im a person just like they are. I do the same work as they do, Epps told a group of STEM students at her Syracuse alma mater, Danforth Middle School. If something breaks, anyone of us will have to be able to go out the door. We have to be jacks of all trades. Its not a job thats like any other.
While working on her doctorate, Epps was a NASA graduate student Researchers Project fellow, authoring several journal and conference articles about her research. After completing her graduate studies, Epps worked in a research lab for more than two years, co-authoring multiple patents, before being recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). She was a CIA technical intelligence officer for about seven years before being selected as a member of the 2009 astronaut class.
Anything you dont know is going to be hard at first, Epps said in a video statement about the launch. But if you stay the course, put the time and effort in, it will become seamless eventually.
Epps, in the NASA video interview, shared when she was first introduced to the idea that she could be an astronaut. It was about 1980, I was nine years old. My brother came home and he looked at my grades and my twin sisters grades and he said, You know, you guys can probably become aerospace engineers or even astronauts, Epps said. And this was at the time that Sally Ride [the first American woman to fly in space] and a group of women were selected to become astronauts the first time in history. So, he made that comment and I said, Wow, that would be so cool.
Epps will join veteran NASA astronaut Andrew Feustel at the Space Station. On Feustels first long-duration mission, he served as a flight engineer on Expedition 55, and later as commander of Expedition 56.
Each space station crew brings something different to the table, and Drew and Jeanette both have a lot to offer, said Chris Cassidy, chief of the Astronaut Office at NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston, in a statement. The space station will benefit from having them on board.
The AFRO is a member publication of the National Newspaper Publishers Association. Learn more about becoming a member at http://www.nnpa.org.
PHOTO CAPTION: will be the first Black crewmember to live and work on the International Space Station for an extended period of time. (NASA)
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First Black crew member to join International Space Station | New ... - Amsterdam News
Andrei Borisenko filming one of his 360-degree tours of the space station.
airspacemag.com February 21, 2017 3:15PM
Packed inside a Dragon cargo ship scheduled to dock with the space station tomorrow morning is a technology that, for all the attention it gets on Earth, has yet to be tried in orbit: an Oculus Rift headset, modified and certified for use in space.
The French space agency CNES sent up the headset and associated hardwaretogether called Perspectivesfor use in neuroscience experiments to be conducted by French astronaut Thomas Pesquet. American and European astronauts have used clunky, custom-built VR rigs on the station, but this is the first of the modern, high-end commercial VR headsets to go up. The Perspectives system will remain on the station for future astronaut studies.
It wasnt easy getting the hardware approved for spaceflight, says Maurice Marnat, who works for the MEDES Institute for Space Medicine and Physiology at the CNES CADMOS laboratory in Toulouse. Engineers first had to make sure the Oculus headset could pass safety tests regarding flammability and shatter-proofing (fortunately the lenses are plastic, not glass).
The stations onboard laptopsnewly arrived HP Zbooksare powerful by past space standards, says Marnat, but are not ideal for VR, which demands a lot of computing power. But theyll do for now. The engineers also couldnt use Oculus own Constellation infrared head-tracking system on the station, so they adapted a European head-tracker used for previous space experiments. Then they had to test the whole thing on zero-G airplane flights to make sure the magnetometer and other position sensors would work in the absence of gravity.
Pesquet will use the Perspectives headset in an experiment called GRASP, which tests a weightless subjects perceptions when reaching for virtual objects.
The ESA astronaut, who has been living on the station since November, also has been shooting 360-degree videos with a Giroptic camera. CNES and ESA expect to post Pesquets VR videos online within the next week or so.
They wont be the first, however. The Russian space agency Roskosmos, in cooperation with the Russia Today TV network, has been posting a series of 360-degree video tours of the space stations different elements [YouTube channel] by cosmonaut Andrei Borisenko, who does a pretty good job of adapting the typical astronaut tour for VR.
360-degree cameras like Giroptics and the one used by Borisenko are still fairly low-resolution, which leaves us still waiting for the day when, goggles strapped on head, well feel like were floating right there alongside the astronauts. U.S. astronauts have shot some experimental ultra-high-definition footage, and NASA and Oculus are looking into routinely filming high-resolution 360 video on the station, but they havent yet finalized their plans.
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Virtual Reality Comes to the Space Station - Air & Space Magazine
Mashable | India capable of building its own space station: ISRO chief Mashable India's space agency has time and again set world records and earned praises for operating on thin budgets. But one thing that many space enthusiasts in the country have longed for but haven't seen getting materialised is a space station they could ... India has capability to set up space station, says ISRO chief India Can Send Its Own Astronauts And Build A Space Station, Says ISRO Chief Ready to build space station if govt says so: ISRO chief AS Kiran ... |
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India capable of building its own space station: ISRO chief - Mashable
Universe Today | Spectacular SpaceX Space Station Launch and 1st Stage Landing Photo/Video Gallery Universe Today Historic maiden blastoff of SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center) at 9:38 a.m. EDT on Feb 19, 2017, on Dragon CRS-10 resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA. Credit: Ken ... Busy Traffic Week Ahead for Space Station Crew SpaceX launches space station cargo ship Florida Tech Science Cargo Headed to Space Station |
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Spectacular SpaceX Space Station Launch and 1st Stage Landing Photo/Video Gallery - Universe Today
A Soyuz rocket and Progress supply ship packed with nearly 3 tons of cargo, provisions and fuel for the International Space Station rolled out to a launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday.
The Progress MS-05 cargo freighter is set for liftoff Wednesday at 0558:33 GMT (12:58:33 a.m. EST; 11:58:33 a.m. Baikonur time) on a two-day trip to the space station.
The launch will be the last mission of the Soyuz-U version of Russias most-flown rocket. The Soyuz-U was a workhorse for the Russian space program, launching nearly 800 times with military spy satellites, cosmonaut crews and space station resupply missions to a series of Russian orbital outposts since 1973.
Newer versions of the expendable Soyuz booster are now flying with upgraded engines.
Wednesdays launch will be the first Soyuz-U flight, and the first Progress cargo launch, since a rocket failure doomed a Russian resupply mission Dec. 1 on the way to the space station.
Russian investigators believe foreign object debris or a manufacturing defect in the third stages RD-0110 engine led the failure, which caused the Progress MS-04 spaceship to crash in Siberia downrange from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
The most likely cause of the contingency was the third stage liquid oxygen tank opening as a result of exposure of (RD-0110) engine destruction elements that occurred (as a) result of fire, and further destruction of the oxidizer compound pump, the Russian space agency, or Roscosmos, said in a Jan. 11 statement.
The oxidizer pump fire could have been caused by the introduction of foreign object debris into the pump cavity, or a violation of engine assembly procedures, Roscosmos said.
Engineers replaced the third stage RD-0110 engine on the Soyuz-U booster flying Wednesday with a powerplant from a different manufacturing batch after the inquiry discovered some engines produced by the same contractor were made with substandard alloys.
The automated Progress MS-05 cargo freighter, known as Progress 66P in the space stations visiting vehicle manifest, will reach orbit around 8 minutes, 49 seconds, after liftoff Wednesday. Docking with the International Space Stations Pirs module is set for 0834 GMT (3:34 a.m. EST) Friday.
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Watch live: Soyuz booster set for launch with space station supply freighter - Spaceflight Now
When SpaceXs Dragon capsule, loaded with supplies and experiments, docks with the International Space Station sometime Wednesday, a part from Olean will have made the trip.
Students in Jim Hilyers product design and manufacturing senior class at the Olean BOCES Career and Technical Education Center designed and manufactured part of the stainless steel latch assembly for a storage locker aboard SpaceX-11, which launched Sunday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The project was completed through High Schools United with NASA to Create Hardware (HUNCH), an educational initiative started by Stacy Hale to give students the opportunity to create hardware with NASAs aid. NASA provides materials, equipment and mentoring to each of the HUNCH teams across the country so they can complete their projects to near-expert quality over the course of their studies.
Olean High School senior Korryn Martin served as the lead designer and programmer on this years project. She started with an original drawing of the part created in the 1980s as part of the space shuttle program which she used to develop a new, modified design. She explains the new drawing also involved changing some of the old coding.
Martin says she spent part or all of 20 classes on the project. In addition to creating the new drawing, she did all of the programming for the computer numeric control machining of the piece. Each piece takes about an hour to make on the machine, which uses three separate bits to slowly manufacture the part, taking 20/1,000ths off with each pass.
This project has been pretty interesting, Martin says. Im kind of interested in space, and ever since I was a young age, I have been interested in making or inventing something. So this project has brought both of those interests together.
Hale brought a storage locker to be used in the launch, about the size of a bread box, to the BOCES class so students could sign the locker with a special Sharpie.
It is cool that your signature is going to be out of this world, Hale told the students at the time.
Olean Mayor Bill Aiello was on hand, along with Joyce Louser, a representative of State Sen. Catharine Youngs office, who read a letter congratulating the class on its accomplishments.
The signatures will be short-lived, however, as once the items have been removed from the storage containers, the lockers are usually jettisoned and burn up upon re-entry into the earths atmosphere.
Hale says the storage lockers weigh a little over 9 pounds, but each locker requires more than 170 pounds of raw materials to make. In addition to providing a valuable learning experience for the students, the HUNCH program has saved NASA a lot of money, he says.
Before HUNCH, Lockheed wanted to charge NASA $1 million to make 20 of the storage lockers, he says. That is about $50,000 each. We probably make them for less than $4,000.
+11
Hilyer, the BOCES teacher, says the NASA HUNCH program has been great for our CTE students, giving them the opportunity to work on real-world projects that incorporate CAD, CNC programming and machining. Its also great that our students can put on their resume that theyve created parts for NASA.
Several students from the Olean BOCES classes plan to attend a HUNCH ceremony April 22 at the Plum Brook Station, a remote test facility for the NASA Glenn Research Center located in Sandusky, Ohio.
Meanwhile, Martins mother, Kristina Capizzi, says her daughter struggled in school but has been much more interested since she started attending the CTE Center as a junior last year.
For her part, Martin agrees.
I am planning to move to Florida after graduation, she says. I am thinking of possibly taking a two-year course in programming or CAD design.
Elon Musks SpaceX developed the Dragon rocket and capsule as a private contractor working with NASA.
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State & Union: Part from local BOCES on way to space station ... - Olean Times Herald
COLUMBIA, S.C. When the SpaceX rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Sunday, one of the things it was carrying was a science experiment designed by three South Carolina high school students. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station will perform the experiment.
Cedric McQueen, Parker Matthews, and Tevin Glover are all 10th-graders at Keenan High School in Columbia. Last year, they had to come up with an experiment idea in science class. They did some research and took bits and pieces of different ideas they found and put them together. Cedric McQueen explains that what they came up with was, How does microgravity affect the turbidity of a non-Newtonian fluid.
The non-Newtonian fluid is cornstarch mixed with water, which can act as both a solid and a liquid depending on the force applied to it. Turbidity is a measure of how much water loses its transparency because of suspended particulates that are floating in it.
We were going to measure the turbidity of it after it came back from being in space, which is microgravity, and see if the results that we get back from it being in microgravity are different from it having gravity. So if its different, then, in space, what were hoping it will do is well be able to grow plants beyond earth, says Parker Matthews.
Their teacher entered their idea in the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program. It was one of 21 chosen for this SpaceX flight. When the results came back that we had won, I didnt know how to contain myself, cause it was so, it was a very proud moment in my life, says Tevin Glover.
Theyll get the results back on March 20th and will compare them to what they found doing the same experiment here on earth.
Having an experiment get so much attention has been exciting, but it hasnt changed any of their plans for the future. Cedric says he wants to go into something thats math-based, Parker wants to go into sports journalism, and Tevin says hes thinking about becoming a lawyer or judge. But they all say the notoriety should help them, regardless of what they try to do.
Itll get some eyes open from some colleges, Parker says.
This would look great as an accomplishment, because if I can accomplish this then I could probably accomplish many other things, Tevin says.
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SC 10th-Graders Have Experiment on Space Station | WBTW.com - WBTW - Myrtle Beach and Florence SC
New York Times | SpaceX Launches Rocket Carrying Space Station Cargo New York Times A Falcon 9 rocket from Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX, was launched at the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sunday, carrying supplies, experiments and cargo to the International Space Station. By NASA on ... SpaceX launches supplies to space station; 'Baby came back,' Elon Musk says of booster's return SpaceX rocket heads for International Space Station - The Portland ... Why NASA sent a superbug to the space station |
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SpaceX Launches Rocket Carrying Space Station Cargo - New York Times
Using NASAs historic pad 39A, which once sent Apollo moonships and space shuttles on their way, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center Sunday, boosting a Dragon cargo ship into orbit to deliver nearly 5,500 pounds of equipment, supplies research material to the International Space Station.
It was the first use of pad 39A since the shuttle Atlantis blasted off on the programs final mission in July 2011 and despite heavy cloud cover, the Falcon 9s fiery climb away from the familiar launch complex sent a thrill through spaceport workers, area residents and tourists who were disappointed by a last-minute delay Saturday.
Their patience was rewarded with a launch and a landing. While the rockets second stage was boosting the cargo ship to orbit, the first stage successfully flew itself back to a pinpoint touchdown at the nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, dropping out of the clouds atop a jet of flame after rocking the area with sonic booms.
It was the California rocket builders eighth successful booster recovery in 13 tries, its third at the Air Force station, in an on-going push by SpaceX founder Elon Musk to lower costs by recovering, refurbishing and re-launching spent stages.
But the primary goal of the mission was to lift the Dragon cargo ship into orbit and to inaugurate the repurposed launch pad, which was heavily modified to convert it from shuttle use to the Falcon 9.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket thunders away from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, boosting a Dragon cargo ship into orbit for a two-day flight to the International Space Station.
NASA TV
Its been a super-exciting day, said Jessica Jensen, the SpaceX Dragon mission manager. It was really awesome to see 39A roar back to life for the first time since the shuttle era, and it was extremely special that this first launch off 39A was a Dragon mission for NASA headed to the space station. I feel great! Its been fantastic.
The mission got underway at 9:39 a.m. EST (GMT-5) when the 229-foot-tall Falcon 9s nine Merlin 1D first-stage engine ignited with a roar, throttled up to full power and quickly pushed the booster away from its transporter-erector at the top of the pad.
Liftoff came a day late because of a problem with the rockets second stage steering system that stopped the countdown Saturday just 13 seconds before launch. Engineers resolved the problem overnight and despite concerns about the weather, the countdown ticked smoothly down to engine ignition Sunday.
Arcing to the east atop 1.7 million pounds of thrust, the slender Falcon 9 rapidly shed weight and smoothly accelerated as it consumed its first-stage load of liquid oxygen and RP-1 kerosene rocket fuel, breaking through the sound barrier a little more than a minute after liftoff as it climbed through the dense lower atmosphere.
The first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket successfully landed at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station about eight minutes after launch. SpaceXs first stage recovery record now stands at eight successes in 13 attempts, with five landings on off-shore drone ships and three at the Air Force station.
SpaceX
The first stage engines shut down as expected about two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff, the stage then fell away and the single engine powering the Falcon 9s second stage ignited to continue the push to orbit.
The first stage, meanwhile, flipped around and fired three of its engines to reverse its forward progress and put it on a trajectory back toward Cape Canaveral. A second engine firing then slowed the craft for its plunge back into the thick lower atmosphere.
Deploying so-called grid fins to control its orientation and trajectory, the booster plunged toward the landing pad tail first, restarting its center engine for the final time. Four landing legs then deployed and locked in place and the rocket stage settled to an on-target touchdown.
Two minutes later, the Falcon 9 second stage finished its climb to space and at 9:49 a.m., about 10 minutes after liftoff, the Dragon cargo ship was released into the planned preliminary orbit. A few moments later, its two solar panels deployed and SpaceX reported the craft was in good health going into a two-day rendezvous.
Im sure the team will be out celebrating tonight, Jensen told a reporter. As of now, were still watching Dragon and ensuring it gets on its way to space station safely. It still does checkouts for the next several hours. But all is looking great, were not expecting any issues. But yeah, well be out tonight if you want to find us.
If all goes well, the Dragon will catch up with the International Space Station early Wednesday, pulling up to within about 30 feet and then standing by while the labs robot arm, operated by European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet, locks onto a grapple fixture. At that point, flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center will take over arm operations, pulling the Dragon in for berthing at the forward Harmony modules Earth-facing port.
Obviously, a great launch today, we were really excited to see everything go well after yesterdays countdown fun, said William Spetch, deputy manager of the space station transportation office. Dragon is on its way. Space station is in great shape and really looking forward to getting the 5,000-plus pounds of cargo coming up to the vehicle.
Carried inside the Dragons pressurized compartment, the section accessible by the station crew, are 580 pounds of crew supplies, 842 pounds of spare parts and other vehicle hardware and more than 1,600 pounds of science gear.
Twenty mice also are on board to help researchers learn more about what processes prevent most vertebrates from regrowing lost limbs or tissue. All 20 will be euthanized, dissected on the station and returned to Earth aboard the Dragon for comparisons with mice that underwent the same protocols on Earth.
Also on board: methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, in an experiment to learn more about how the deadly bacteria mutate to design more effective drugs.
We are excited to put MRSA, which is a superbug, on the International Space Station and investigate the effects of microgravity on the growth and mutation patterns of these bugs, said Anita Goel, chairman and science director of Nanobiosym, which developed the experiment with the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space.
I have this hypothesis that microgravity will accelerate the mutation patterns. If we can use microgravity as an accelerator to fast forward and get a sneak preview of what these mutations will look like, then we can essentially build smarter drugs back on Earth.
Mounted in the Dragons unpressurized trunk section are a $92 million ozone monitoring experiment, a $7 million sensor to monitor lightning strikes and experimental gear designed to help engineers perfect autonomous rendezvous and docking software.
Lightning actually occurs somewhere on Earth some 45 times every single second, said Michael Freilich, director of NASAs Earth Science Division. Understanding the processes that cause lightning and the connections between lightning and subsequent severe weather events, like connvective storms and tornados, are keys to improving weather predictions and saving life and property in this country and (around) the globe.
The lightning sensor, the RAVEN rendezvous experiment and the SAGE III ozone hardware will be extracted from the Dragons trunk by the stations robot arm and mounted on platforms along the labs solar power truss.
Researchers will use SAGE III data to monitor the recovery of stratospheric ozone, the so-called ozone layer, as a result of the Montreal protocol, Freilich said. SAGE III will also measure other important stratospheric gases and atmospheric aerosols, which are components of pollution that also impact the radiation balance of our planet.
The Dragon cargo ship was released to fly on its own about 10 minutes after launch, seen here through a camera mounted on the Falcon 9 rockets second stage. Visible in the spacecrafts unpressurized trunk section are two environmental research payloads and hardware to help perfect automated rendezvous systems.
SpaceX
Freilich downplayed concerns about the Trump administrations possible impact on Earth science at NASA, saying the agency is pursuing a broad and aggressive program of instruments and spacecraft development with some 20 launches planned by NASA between the launch of CRS-10 and about 2022.
We have several more instruments we are developing to fly on the space station and several missions, stand alone and with international partners, that will be observing many different aspects of the Earth system in that timeframe. We are moving full speed ahead to continue to observe our planet, to monitor its changes and to turn the knowledge we are getting from those observations into societal benefit.
Sundays launching marked the second success in a row for SpaceX following an on-pad explosion Sept. 1 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station that destroyed a Falcon 9, its $200 million satellite payload and heavily damaged launch complex 40. The mishap was the companys second in 29 rockets following an in-flight breakup in June 2015 that destroyed another station-bound Dragon cargo ship.
Both accidents were blamed on problems with the helium pressurization system used in the Falcon 9s second stage. Hardware and procedures were changed to minimize the chances for another mishap and SpaceX successfully returned the Falcon 9 to flight with a Jan. 14 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., that boosted 10 Iridium satellite telephone relay stations into orbit.
The company hopes to return pad 40 to service in the May timeframe and will use 39A at the Kennedy Space Center for the next several flights, launching an EchoStar communications satellite around the end of the month followed launch of an SES relay station in March, the first using a refurbished first stage.
Those two flights will be followed by launch of an Intelsat communications station and then another cargo mission to the space station.
Since the explosion five months ago at the Air Force station, engineers worked around the clock to complete extensive modifications to the historic pad where huge Saturn 5s once boosted Apollo astronauts to the moon, where the shuttle Columbia took off on the programs first flight in 1981 and where Atlantis climbed away on the final flight in 2011.
A large rocket-processing hangar at the base of the elevated pad now blocks the old river-rock roadway where massive crawlers once carried Saturn rockets and space shuttles. Falcon 9s will be carried from the hangar, which can house five rockets at a time, to the top of the pad horizontally by a transporter-erector and then raised vertical using a powerful hydraulic system.
Propellant lines leading to liquid oxygen and kerosene fuel tanks are in place along with a revamped water deluge system to cool pad structures during launch and to deaden the acoustic shock of engine ignition. Data and power lines have been installed and the old flame trench bisecting the pad to carry exhaust away has been partially filled in with hydraulic and other systems.
SpaceX is slowly dismantling the old payload changeout room that used to swing into place around space shuttles before launch but will keep the central fixed service structure gantry. A crew access swing arm will be installed later for use by astronauts boarding SpaceX commercial crew capsules for flights to the International Space Station.
SpaceX officials say the modifications will exceed $100 million when the work is complete.
If all goes well, SpaceX hopes to launch a heavy-lift version of the Falcon 9 sometime this summer, a booster made up of three first stages bolted together and a standard single-engine second stage.
In November, an unpiloted Dragon crew capsule will be launched from pad 39A on a test flight before the first spacecraft carrying astronauts takes off next year.
Continued here:
Cedric McQueen, Parker Matthews, and Tevin Glover are all 10th-graders at Keenan High School in Columbia. Last year, they had to come up with an experiment idea in science class. They did some research and took bits and pieces of different ideas they found and put them together. Cedric McQueen explains that what they came up with was, "How does microgravity affect the turbidity of a non-Newtonian fluid."
The non-Newtonian fluid is cornstarch mixed with water, which can act as both a solid and a liquid depending on the force applied to it. Turbidity is a measure of how much water loses its transparency because of suspended particulates that are floating in it.
"We were going to measure the turbidity of it after it came back from being in space, which is microgravity, and see if the results that we get back from it being in microgravity are different from it having gravity. So if it's different, then, in space, what we're hoping it will do is we'll be able to grow plants beyond earth," says Parker Matthews.
Their teacher entered their idea in the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program. It was one of 21 chosen for this SpaceX flight. "When the results came back that we had won, I didn't know how to contain myself, 'cause it was so, it was a very proud moment in my life," says Tevin Glover.
Theyll get the results back on March 20th and will compare them to what they found doing the same experiment here on earth.
Having an experiment get so much attention has been exciting, but it hasnt changed any of their plans for the future. Cedric says he wants to go into something thats math-based, Parker wants to go into sports journalism, and Tevin says hes thinking about becoming a lawyer or judge. But they all say the notoriety should help them, regardless of what they try to do.
"It'll get some eyes open from some colleges," Parker says.
This would look great as an accomplishment, because if I can accomplish this then I could probably accomplish many other things," Tevin says.
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Local 10th Graders Have Experiment on Space Station | wltx.com - WLTX.com