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Howard Wolowitz is still in space.

The fictional aerospace engineer and Expedition 31 crew member was seen floating aboard the International Space Station (ISS) during last week's season premiere of the CBS hit television series " The Big Bang Theory." On this week's episode, airing Thursday night, Wolowitz is still off the planet, 250 miles (400 km) up.

Of course, he is not really on the space station. The real ISS Expedition 31 ended in July. Wolowitz, or rather actor Simon Helberg, was on a sound stage at the Warner Bros. studio lot in Burbank, Calif.

His spacecraft surroundings never orbited the Earth, but they did play previous host to the Energizer Bunny for a Super Bowl commercial and were seen in the 2004 feature film, "The Day After Tomorrow."

But Helberg's, or rather Wolowitz's, crew did include a real life NASA astronaut, Mike Massimino, and, further blurring the lines between art and life, the fictional Expedition 31 crew patch that they wore on the show placed Wolowitz's and Massimino's names side-by-side. [ Photos: TV's "Big Bang Theory" Geek Chic ]

Behind the scenes, the job of delivering Wolowitz to the orbiting outpost didn't fall to a Russian rocket but rather to The Big Bang Theory's production designer John Shaffner, set decorator Ann Shea and their teams.

Scavenging for space parts As it turns out, you can rent a space station.

Last May, when the show's fifth season finale called for Wolowitz to launch onboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, Shaffner went looking for one.

"The first thing that we always do in this business is ask, 'Well, can we rent it? Did somebody make one first?' And unfortunately, we discovered that there weren't any Soyuz replicas to be found," Shaffner told collectSpace.com in an interview.

For the Soyuz, Shaffner and Shea received photos from NASA, turned to a Kansas museum to find dimensions, and scavenged parts from an aerospace junkyard in Los Angeles to piece together a realistic capsule. But in the course of his seeking out the spacecraft, Shaffner found a space station.

Here is the original post:
How 'Big Bang's' Howard flew to space

The first of NASA's contracted cargo resupply flights to the International Space Station now has its own mission patch, courtesy of the company launching the spacecraft.

Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, revealed its insignia for the launch of its second Dragon capsule to the space station today (Oct. 4). The gumdrop-shape cargo craft is scheduled to liftoff atop SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday (Oct. 7) at 8:35 p.m. EDT (0035 Monday GMT) from Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The flight, referred to as Commercial Resupply Services-1 (CRS-1), is the first of a dozen resupply flights for which NASA is paying SpaceX $1.6 billion to fly. The mission follows a demonstration flight in May that made history as the first commercial spacecraft to berth with the station.

The CRS-1 mission patch, which borrows its shape from the Dragon capsule, shows the solar-powered spacecraft grappled by the space station's Canadarm2 robotic arm as it is being brought in to connect with the orbiting outpost's Harmony module. Below the Dragon capsule on the patch is the Earth.

Almost camouflaged with the patch's green-colored North American continent is a four leaf clover. The symbol for luck, the clover has become a regular feature on SpaceX's insignias since the Hawthorne, Calif.-based company's first successful Falcon 1 launch in September 2008. [Photos: SpaceX's Dragon Capsule Set for Cargo Run]

Based on pre-launch photos, the CRS-1 emblem does not appear on the Falcon 9 rocket or the Dragon capsule, but embroidered versions of the patch may fly to the space station and back as part of the mission's Official Flight Kit (OFK) of mementos to be presented to NASA and SpaceX team members for a job well done.

The OFK comprises only 17.6 pounds (8 kilograms) of the 882 pounds (400 kg) of hardware and supplies that the CRS-1 Dragon will deliver to the orbiting lab. Included in the pressurized cargo are food rations, crew clothing and more than 160 science experiments for NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

The CRS-1 mission will span 18 days before returning to a parachute-assisted ocean splashdown. Returning to Earth on the Dragon will be nearly 1,700 pounds (771 kg) of science experiment results, spent hardware and former crew members' spacesuit components.

SpaceX is one of two U.S. companies with contracts to provide unmanned resupply flights to the space station for NASA. The other firm, Orbital Sciences Corp., of Virginia, has a $1.9 billion contract for eight missions using its new Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft. The first Antares rocket was rolled out to its launch pad at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on the Virginia coast on Oct. 1.

While SpaceX's Dragons are the first unpiloted spacecraft to visit the International Space Station, unmanned cargo ships from other countries continue to make deliveries to the orbiting complex. Russia's Progress spacecraft, ESA's Automated Transfer Vehicles (ATV) and the H-2 Transfer Vehicles (HTV) from JAXA round out the station's robotic resupply fleet.

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Space Station-Bound SpaceX Dragon Capsule Gets Mission Patch

Published October 04, 2012

Associated Press

May 25, 2012: View from the International Space Station of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft as the stations robotic arm moves Dragon into place for attachment to the station.NASA

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida A private company is headed back to the International Space Station.

On Sunday night, SpaceX will try to launch another Dragon capsule full of food, clothes and science experiments for the astronauts at the space station. The company hopes to repeat the success of its test flight in May.

This is the California company's first official launch under a $1.6 billion contract with NASA. The contract calls for 12 deliveries.

The U.S. space agency is counting on private business to help keep the space station stocked, now that its space shuttles are retired.

Rainy weather could keep the company's Falcon rocket grounded. Forecasters said Thursday there's a 60 percent chance of favorable conditions for the launch from Florida's Cape Canaveral.

SpaceX is run by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk.

See the rest here:
SpaceX plans historic flight to International Space Station Sunday

Howard Wolowitz is still in space.

The fictional aerospace engineer and Expedition 31 crew member was seen floating aboard the International Space Station (ISS) during last week's season premiere of the CBS hit television series "The Big Bang Theory." On this week's episode, airing tonight (Oct. 4), Wolowitz is still off the planet, 250 miles (400 km) up.

Of course, he is not really on the space station. The real ISS Expedition 31 ended in July. Wolowitz, or rather actor Simon Helberg, was on a sound stage at the Warner Bros. studio lot in Burbank, Calif.

His spacecraft surroundings never orbited the Earth, but they did play previous host to the Energizer Bunny for a Super Bowl commercial and were seen in the 2004 feature film, "The Day After Tomorrow."

But Helberg's, or rather Wolowitz's crew did include a real life NASA astronaut, Mike Massimino, and, further blurring the lines between art and life, the fictional Expedition 31 crew patch that they wore on the show placed Wolowitz's and Massimino's names side-by-side. [Photos: TV's "Big Bang Theory" Geek Chic]

Behind the scenes, the job of delivering Wolowitz to the orbiting outpost didn't fall to a Russian rocket but rather to The Big Bang Theory's production designer John Shaffner, set decorator Ann Shea and their teams.

Scavenging for space parts

As it turns out, you can rent a space station.

Last May, when the show's fifth season finale called for Wolowitz to launch onboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, Shaffner went looking for one.

"The first thing that we always do in this business is ask, 'Well, can we rent it? Did somebody make one first?' And unfortunately, we discovered that there weren't any Soyuz replicas to be found," Shaffner told collectSPACE.com in an interview.

See the rest here:
How 'The Big Bang Theory' Sent Howard Wolowitz to Space

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- A private company is headed back to the International Space Station.

On Sunday night, SpaceX will attempt to launch another Dragon capsule full of food, clothes and science experiments for the astronauts at the space station. The company hopes to repeat the success of its test flight in May.

Rainy weather could keep the company's Falcon rocket grounded. Forecasters said Thursday there's a 60 percent chance of favorable conditions for the 8:35 p.m. launch from Cape Canaveral.

This is the California company's first official launch under a $1.6 billion contract with NASA. The contract calls for 12 deliveries.

The Dragon will spend a few weeks at the space station before being cut loose at the end of October with a full load of science experiments and old equipment. It will parachute into the Pacific.

Among the items going up and coming back on the Dragon are a dozen student experiments that flew aboard the SpaceX capsule in May, but were not properly activated by the station crew. NASA offered this second chance.

NASA is counting on private business to help keep the space station stocked, now that the shuttles are retired. The governments of Russia, Japan and Europe also provide periodic supply runs.

A second company, the Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp., hopes to launch its Antares rocket with a mockup capsule by the end of this year, out of Wallops Island. The first test flight to the space station, by Orbital Sciences, is targeted for early 2013.

SpaceX or Space Exploration Technologies Corp. is run by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk, who's also the chief executive officer of the electric car-maker, Tesla Motors. He is working to modify the Dragon capsule in order to carry astronauts back and forth to the space station, within three to five years. Americans currently hitch rides on Russian rockets.

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SpaceX encore: 2nd private space station shipment