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UFO Disk Matching Speeds With Space Station, Feb 8, 2015, VIDEO, UFO Sighting News. – Video

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UFO Disk Matching Speeds With Space Station, Feb 8, 2015, VIDEO, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: Feb 8, 2015 Location of sighting: Space Station, Earths orbit NASA Live Cam: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/iss_ustream.html#.VNdqvI...

By: Scott Waring

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UFO Disk Matching Speeds With Space Station, Feb 8, 2015, VIDEO, UFO Sighting News. - Video

Space Station Crew Member Discusses Life In Space And Music With Her Native Italy – Video

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Space Station Crew Member Discusses Life In Space And Music With Her Native Italy
Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 42 Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency (ESA) discussed her love of music and how she listens to music aboard...

By: NASA

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Space Station Crew Member Discusses Life In Space And Music With Her Native Italy - Video

Europe's final cargo ship leaves Space Station on Valentine's Day

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An unmanned European space ship as big as a double-decker buswill leave the International Space Station tomorrow, signaling the end of a line of cargo ships that had delivered supplies to astronauts since 2008.

Packed with astronaut trash, the European Space Agency's (ESA) fifth and last Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV-5) will undock from the orbiting outpost Saturday morning (Feb. 14) at 8:41 a.m. EST.

You canwatch the undocking live on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV. The space agency's coverage will begin at 8:15 a.m. EST. [Europe's ATV-5 Space Cargo Ship Mission in Pictures]

At first, ATV-5 will be steered to a safe distance from the space station. Then on Sunday (Feb. 15) the cargo ship will slip out of its orbit and make a steep dive into Earth's atmosphere over the South Pacific.

ATV-5 was originally supposed to test out a more daring, shallow dive back to Earth so that ESA and NASA officials could get a taste of what might happen when it comes time to retire the International Space Station and safely guide it to its deorbited demise. (NASA and the White House last year committed to keep thespace station operating through at least 2024.)

Entering the atmosphere at a shallower angle would result in a larger dispersion of debris and a longer reentry over Earth's surface, according toESA's ATV blog. But this plan was abandoned after one of the ATV-5's four power chains failed last week.

Instead, the ATV-5 will go ahead with the standard steep dive that's brought its predecessors safely out of orbit.

"While teams are sincerely disappointed not to conduct the planned shallow reentry, the revised plan doesnt alter the program's overall success," ATV-5 mission manager Massimo Cislaghi,said in a statement from ESA.

"The ATVs are large and complex spacecraft and they have achieved every goal," Cislaghi added.

ATV-5launched for its final missionon July 29, 2014, from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana, atop an Ariane 5 rocket. It was carrying more than 7 tons of scientific experiments and other supplies, including food, drinking water, spare parts and clothing, for the astronauts living on board the space station. The spacecraft arrived at the space station in August and spent six months attached to the Zvezda Service Module.

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Europe's final cargo ship leaves Space Station on Valentine's Day

Grounded: Left behind in the contracting race to restore Americans to space

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This animation shows what Sierra Nevada Corp.'s Dream Chaser shuttle would look like launching, docking with the space station and landing on a runway. (Sierra Nevada Corporation)

They had been waiting for this moment for the better part of a decade the announcement from NASA on who would build the next spaceship to take astronauts to the International Space Station.

Sierra Nevada Corp., a more than 3,000-person outfit headquartered in Nevada, was a distinct underdog. Its competitors were Boeing, which traces its space legacy to the Apollo, Gemini and Mercury programs, and SpaceX, the brash upstart founded by billionaire Elon Musk that became the first private company to resupply the space station.

But the executives at the Sierra Nevada had built something they considered ground-breaking: a sporty space plane called the Dream Chaser that looked like a miniature version of the shuttle and gave them confidence they would win the contract, potentially worth billions of dollars.

It was also a chance to make history by restoring Americas ability to launch its own astronauts from U.S. soil, ending reliance on Russia, to which the United States has paid $1.2 billion for trips to the space station since the shuttle was retired in 2011.

On the day of the contract announcement, Mark Sirangelo, director of the companys space program, took the call at his desk. It was not good news. Like a death in the family, he would later say.

And so Sierra Nevada entered a realm particular to the world of government contracting: that of the big-time corporate loser.

Ford will survive if someone decides to buy a Chevrolet, and it wont break Dennys if you eat breakfast at IHOP. But the stakes are higher for contractors who put everything on the line in a marketplace dominated by a single customer: the federal government.

The losers locker room is a scene of despair, anger, calls for litigious revenge. There is lost revenue, sometimes layoffs, even bankruptcy. In Sierra Nevadas case, it had a spaceship suddenly in search of a mission and now even more pressure to find a customer to fly it.

As federal procurement spending has been cut dramatically by almost $100 billion between 2010 and last year the stakes have only climbed. Having to absorb defeat with less business to fall back on is driving a wave of industry consolidation, and many contractors are looking to foreign governments and the commercial sector to help offset the losses.

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Grounded: Left behind in the contracting race to restore Americans to space

Astronauts dress as Jedi for NASA Expedition 45 portrait

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International Space Station-bound astronauts dressed as Jedi pose with lightsabers in their mission poster for NASA. Proud of them, Yoda would be.

Who knew astronauts had a high midi-chlorian count? NASA

The new NASA mission poster finally reveals the truth that many of us have suspected for a long time -- astronauts are actually Jedi masters. Well, at least they are for Expedition 45. Proud of these astronauts, Yoda would be.

In the latest promotional poster from NASA, astronauts and cosmonauts headed to the International Space Station for their next mission are dressed as Jedi masters complete with their own colored lightsabers. The poster, rendered in "Star Wars" font and design, also has the title "Space Station: Expedition XLV The Science Continues."

Included in the poster are NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren and Scott Kelly; Russian cosmonauts Sergei Volkov, Oleg Kononenko and Mikhail Kornienko; and Japan's Kimiya Yui.

Past posters have parodied "Star Trek" for Expedition 21, The Beatles' "Abbey Road" album cover for Expedition 30, "Pirates of the Caribbean" for Expedition 30 and "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" for Expedition 42 -- 42 being "the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything." You can find all the parody posters on the NASA site.

If NASA is taking suggestions for the next parody poster, might we suggestion Doctor Who? We'd love to see the Tardis as its next form of space travel. Just no Daleks, please.

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Astronauts dress as Jedi for NASA Expedition 45 portrait

Astronauts Don Jedi Robes for Star Wars-Inspired Poster

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NASA The official crew poster for the International Space Station's 45th expedition pays tribute to Disney/Lucasfilm's Star Wars.

That's no Star Wars poster. It's a space station... crew.

NASA on Thursday (Feb. 12) revealed the official poster for the International Space Station Expedition 45 crew and let's just say, the Force is strong with them.

The six astronauts and cosmonauts, who will begin their residency on the orbital outpost beginning this September, traded their blue NASA flight suits for brown Jedi robes at the photo shoot.

Entitled "International Space Station Expedition XLV: The Science Continues," the poster features the station's first year-long mission crew Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko (right, bottom and middle), together with NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren (left, bottom), Russian cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko (right, top and left, top) and Kimiya Yui with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. [NASA's Wackiest Astronaut Mission Posters (Photos)]

The poster includes the crew's official mission patch at its center (which may or may not be coincidentally the same shape as an Imperial Star Destroyer), flanked on its sides by a Russian Soyuz rocket like the type the crew will ride to orbit and a European Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) with its distinctive "X-wing" solar panels. The station itself is depicted above the crew.

(Look carefully and you might spot another space station or is that a moon? hiding in the shadows.)

The poster's theme and layout was reportedly the idea of Lindgren, who will be making his first trip into space with this mission. NASA photographers and graphic artists at the Johnson Space Center in Houston brought the poster together, digitally adding the lightsabers and background.

The Star Wars-infused crew poster is the latest in a series of NASA posters spoofing movie and other entertainment one-sheets. Past releases have parodied Pirates of the Caribbean, Tron, The Beatles, Star Trek and Harry Potter. The station's current Expedition 42 crew drew inspiration from their mission's numerical designation to recreate the movie poster for "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."

The Expedition 45 crew poster is not the first time NASA and Star Wars have combined.

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Astronauts Don Jedi Robes for Star Wars-Inspired Poster

Former astronaut Chris Hadfield discusses future of space exploration – Video

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Former astronaut Chris Hadfield discusses future of space exploration
The Heat interviewed Commander Chris Hadfield, a former astronaut, leading NASA innovator, and a space historian about the future of space exploration. Hadfield is the first Canadian astronaut...

By: CCTV America

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Former astronaut Chris Hadfield discusses future of space exploration - Video

SpaceX Dragon Commercial Cargo Ship Departs International Space Station – Video

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SpaceX Dragon Commercial Cargo Ship Departs International Space Station
After spending a month at the International Space Station, the U.S. unpiloted SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft was unberthed from the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module and released from...

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SpaceX Dragon Commercial Cargo Ship Departs International Space Station - Video

Space Station Astronauts In Star Wars-Themed Crew Pic

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Something's definitely going on at NASA. We're thinking someone in the public relations department is trying to blow the dust off the space agency's ever-serious image.

First there was the photo below, deemed by almost anyone with a pulse as unquestionably the best astronaut portrait ever:

And now, the Expedition 45 crew, scheduled to go to the International Space Station in September, is having fun with Jedi robes and light sabers:

Collectspace.com says the shot is titled "International Space Station Expedition XLV: The Science Continues." The crew will make up the station's first year-long mission.

The website says: "The poster's theme and layout was reportedly the idea of [Kjell] Lindgren (bottom left in the photo), who will be making his first trip into space with this mission. NASA photographers and graphic artists at the Johnson Space Center in Houston brought the poster together, digitally adding the lightsabers and background."

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Space Station Astronauts In Star Wars-Themed Crew Pic

NASA TV Previews and Broadcasts Space Station U.S. Spacewalks

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Two NASA astronauts from the International Space Stations Expedition 42 crew will venture outside the orbital complex on Friday, Feb. 20; Tuesday, Feb. 24; and Sunday, March 1. They will prepare cables and communications gear for new docking ports that will allow future crews launched from Florida on U.S. commercial spacecraft to dock to the space station.

NASA TV will provide comprehensive coverage, beginning with a preview news briefing Wednesday, Feb. 18.

The preview briefing will be broadcast at 2 p.m. EST from NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston. Media may take part in person or by telephone. Reporters who want to ask questions by phone must call Johnsons newsroom at 281-483-5111 no later than 1:45 p.m. Wednesday. Cell phones are discouraged.

The panelists for the briefing are:

Kenneth Todd, International Space Station Operations and Integration manager

Tomas Gonzalez-Torres, Expedition 42 lead flight director

Karina Eversley, Extravehicular Activity (EVA) # 29 officer

Sarah Korona, EVA # 30 officer

Arthur Thomason, EVA # 31 officer

Expedition 42 Commander Barry Wilmore and Flight Engineer Terry Virts will exit the station from the Quest airlock for each of the three spacewalks around 7:10 a.m. NASA TV coverage of the approximately six-and-a-half hour spacewalks will begin at 6 a.m.

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NASA TV Previews and Broadcasts Space Station U.S. Spacewalks


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