Category Archives: Space Station

SpaceX made good on a 250-mile-high delivery at the International Space Station on Thursday, after fixing a navigation problem that held up the shipment a day.

Everything went smoothly the second time around as the station astronauts captured the SpaceX Dragon cargo ship as the two craft sailed over Australia. On Wednesday, a GPS system error prevented the capsule from getting close enough to be grabbed by the station's big robot arm.

The Dragon loaded with 5,500 pounds of supplies rocketed away Sunday from NASA's historic moon pad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Now leased by the SpaceX, the pad had been idle since the close of the shuttle program almost six years ago.

The station's six-person crew will accept another shipment Friday, this one from the Russians.

Given the Dragon's delayed arrival liftoff also occurred a day late the astronauts were under orders to open the capsule as soon as possible to retrieve sensitive science experiments.

"Sorry about the delays," Mission Control radioed. "Now the real work starts."

"Congratulations Dragon on a successful journey from Earth and now welcome on board," said French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, who operated the robot arm.

At the top of the crew's unloading list: 20 mice that are part of a wound-healing experiment. Before the flight, researchers made small surgical wounds in some of the animals' thigh bones then treated the area. Scientists want to see how quickly the wounds heal in weightlessness. Another 20 mice are taking part in the study on the ground, as control subjects.

Other newly arrived research: highly infectious MRSA bacteria, triple-contained so it doesn't get loose up there; stem cells; and instruments for studying lightning and the Earth's ozone layer.

The Dragon will remain at the space station for a month before it is cut loose to bring back science samples and other items. It's the only supply ship capable of returning intact to Earth; all the others burn up during re-entry. SpaceX is one of two private companies flying up supplies for NASA.

Besides France's Pesquet, the space station is home to two Americans and three Russians.

Online:

SpaceX: http://www.spacex.com/

NASA: https://www.nasa.gov/missionpages/station/main/index.html

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SpaceX makes good on space station delivery a little late - ABC News

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 its 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 capsule flew in orbit 250 miles off of 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 delayed 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 one 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 navigation error forced SpaceX to delay its shipment to the International Space Station on Wednesday, following an otherwise flawless flight from NASAs historic moon pad.

SpaceX's supply ship, the Dragon, was less than a mile from the orbiting outpost when a problem cropped up in the GPS system. The approach was aborted, and the Dragon backed away. NASA said neither the station nor its six-person crew was in any danger.

"As a pilot it is sometimes better to accelerate and circle around than attempt a difficult landing," French astronaut Thomas Pesquet said in a tweet from the space station. "Same in space - we'll be ready tomorrow!"

Just a few hours earlier, Russia successfully launched a cargo ship from Kazakhstan, its first since a failed launch in December.

SpaceX launched the Dragon capsule Sunday from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A, out of action since NASAs space shuttle program ended in 2011. It's the same spot where astronauts flew to the moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s. SpaceX has a 20-year lease with NASA for 39A; besides launching station cargo from there, the company hopes to send up astronauts as early as next year.

Everything was going well with this latest SpaceX flight until the GPS issue. The Dragon's computers halted the rendezvous from just seven-tenths of a mile away. SpaceX said the problem is well understood and can be fixed before another delivery attempt Thursday. The Russian supplies should arrive Friday.

This was the first time that SpaceX had to abort a shipment at the last minute like this. The company, led by tech billionaire Elon Musk, has been making station deliveries since 2012.

The 250-mile-high station is home to two Americans, three Russians and France's Pesquet.

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SpaceX aborts approach to space station, delivery delayed - Fox News

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.

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SpaceX Dragon Docks With Space Station - Olean Times Herald

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.

Link:
International Space Station lifts off with local student work on board - WBFO

The spacecraft is carrying about 5,500 pounds of research materials and supplies.

Even Dragons are lost without GPS.

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft had to delay its delivery to the International Space Center after a navigation glitch with its GPS system. The unmanned craft is carrying about 5,500 pounds of research materials and supplies to the International Space Center. This is the companys tenth cargo flight with NASA.

"The spacecraft is in excellent shape with no issues, and the crew aboard the space station is safe," NASA said in a blog post.

Dragon was only seven-tenths of a mile away from the space station when the GPS error was detected. The attempt to dock was aborted at 3:25 a.m. EST. The spacecraft will make another attempt to reach ISS Thursday morning.

NASA spokesman Rob Navias said on NASA TV that the navigation glitch "is an easily correctable issue." He added, "There's no threat to any of the science or cargo aboard."

On Sunday, SpaceX successfully launched its Dragon cargo ship from NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It was a big day for SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk because this was the first company-owned and -operated spacecraft ever to launch from Kennedy's pad.

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SpaceX Dragon Ship Aborts Space Station Docking After GPS Glitch - Yahoo 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 chiefHindustan Times India Can Send Its Own Astronauts And Build A Space Station, Says ISRO ChiefIndiatimes.com Ready to build space station if govt says so: ISRO chief AS Kiran ...Times of India Xinhua -Scroll.in -Tech Times all 63 news articles »

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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 ... SpaceX launches space station cargo shipWDEF News 12 Busy Traffic Week Ahead For International Space Station Crew As Two Cargo Crafts Deliver SuppliesSpaceCoastDaily.com Florida Tech Science Cargo Headed to Space StationFlorida Tech Now The Verge -NASA -NASA Blogs all 71 news articles »

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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 ... - Spaceflight Now