Category Archives: Space Station

What's one thing NASA astronaut Scott Kelly can't do without when he moves into space this week for a year? A belt.

Kelly went beltless during his five-month mission at the International Space Station a few years back, and he hated how his shirttails kept floating out of his pants. So this time, the 51-year-old retired Navy captain packed "a military, tactical-style thing" that can hold a tool pouch. He calls it a "superhero utility belt."

Meanwhile, Kelly's 54-year-old partner on the yearlong stay at the space station Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko can't do without his vitamins. When their Soyuz rocket blasts off from Kazakhstan on Saturday (Friday afternoon in the U.S.), three bottles of over-age-50 vitamins will be on board.

After more than two years of training, Kelly and Kornienko are eager to get going. It will be the longest space mission ever for NASA, and the longest in almost two decades for the Russian Space Agency, which holds the record at 14 months. Medicine and technology have made huge leaps since then, and the world's space agencies need to know how the body adapts to an entire year of weightlessness before committing to even longer Mars expeditions.

More yearlong missions are planned, with an ultimate goal of 12 test subjects. The typical station stint is six months. "We know a lot about six months. But we know almost nothing about what happens between six and 12 months in space," said NASA's space station program scientist, Julie Robinson. Among the more common space afflictions: weakened bones and muscles, and impaired vision and immune system.

Then there is the psychological toll. Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, a frequent flier who will accompany Kelly and Kornienko into orbit, predicts it will be the psychological not physical effects that will be toughest on the one-year crew.

Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Gennady Padalka team up with NASA astronaut Scott Kelly for a photo op in front of their Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft during a final preflight check on Monday at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Kelly and Kornienko will spend a year on the International Space Station, while Padalka is due to set a record for cumulative time in space (900 days) during his stint on the station.

NASA actually got a 2-for-1 deal with Kelly. He is teaming up with brother Mark for a battery of medical tests so researchers can compare the physique and physiology of the space twin with his genetic double on the ground. Raised by police-officer parents, they've lived parallel lives as Navy fighter and test pilots and space shuttle commanders.

Mark Kelly, a four-time space flier, will be at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for his brother's launch; wife Giffords will watch from Houston with Johnson Space Center friends. He's already endured numerous blood draws and ultrasounds in the name of space science.

As for what Scott will endure, "Imagine if you went to work where your office was and then you had to stay in that place for a year and not go outside, right? Kind of a challenge," Mark said in an AP interview.

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Astronaut Packs 'Superhero Belt' for His Year in Space

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. What's one thing astronaut Scott Kelly can't do without when he moves into space this week for a year? A belt.

Kelly went beltless during his five-month mission at the International Space Station a few years back, and he hated how his shirttails kept floating out of his pants. So this time, the 51-year-old retired Navy captain packed "a military, tactical-style thing" that can hold a tool pouch.

Actually, scratch "pouch." He prefers "superhero utility belt."

Kelly's partner on the yearlong stay at the space station Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko can't do without his vitamins. When their Soyuz rocket blasts off from Kazakhstan on Saturday (Friday afternoon in the U.S.), three bottles of over-age-50 vitamins will be on board.

After more than two years of training, Kelly and Kornienko are eager to get going. It will be the longest space mission ever for NASA, and the longest in almost two decades for the Russian Space Agency, which holds the record at 14 months.

Medicine and technology have made huge leaps since then, and the world's space agencies need to know how the body adapts to an entire year of weightlessness before committing to even longer Mars expeditions. More yearlong missions are planned, with an ultimate goal of 12 test subjects. The typical station stint is six months.

"We know a lot about six months. But we know almost nothing about what happens between six and 12 months in space," said NASA's space station program scientist, Julie Robinson.

Among the more common space afflictions: weakened bones and muscles, and impaired vision and immune system. Then there is the psychological toll.

Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, a frequent flier who will accompany Kelly and Kornienko into orbit, predicts it will be the psychological not physical effects that will be toughest on the one-year crew.

"Being far away from Earth, being sort of crammed, having few people to interact with," Padalka said. He'll break the record for most time spent in space during his six-month stay, closing in on a grand total of 900 days by the time he returns to Earth in September.

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US astronaut flying 'superhero utility belt' on 1-year mission; Russian packing megavitamins

Star Trek The Animated Series Episode 14 [FULL EPISODE]
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Star Trek The Animated Series Episode 14 [FULL EPISODE] - Video

Space Station Live: Taking the First Step
NASA Public Affairs Officer Brandi Dean talks with Dr. Millard Reschke, the co-principal investigator of the Field Test experiment, which will gauge the returning One Year Crew #39;s re-adaptation...

By: ReelNASA

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Space Station Live: Taking the First Step - Video

[GamePlay] MONZO - Space Station MIR [] - video
[GamePlay] MONZO - Space Station MIR - VIDEO One of the best model from MONZO. Thanks for it - it is cooool. The MIR is beautiful. MONZO is an interactive digital model kits and you can see...

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[GamePlay] MONZO - Space Station MIR [] - video - Video

Space to Ground : Preparing for Launch : 3/20/15
NASA #39;s Space to Ground is your weekly update on what #39;s happening aboard the International Space Station. Got a question or comment? Use #spacetoground to talk to us.

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Space to Ground : Preparing for Launch : 3/20/15 - Video

Space Station Live: Opening up Science on a New Expedition
NASA Public Affairs Officer Brandi Dean talks with Expedition 43/44 Lead Increment Scientist Jorge Sotomayor about the research plan for the coming six months on board the International Space...

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Space Station Live: Opening up Science on a New Expedition - Video

International Space Station Expedition 43 Crew Prepares for Launch in Kazakhstan
At the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Expedition 43 Soyuz Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Mikhail Kornienko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), NASA ...

By: NASA

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International Space Station Expedition 43 Crew Prepares for Launch in Kazakhstan - Video

ISS: "I wish peace to all earth dwellers" - Russian cosmonaut Shkaplerov
Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov said that he would like to "wish peace to all earth dwellers" during an interview aboard the International Space Station on Friday. Shkaplerov further stated...

By: RuptlyTV

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ISS: "I wish peace to all earth dwellers" - Russian cosmonaut Shkaplerov - Video

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com @BednarChuck

The International Space Station (ISS) has been in service for nearly 15 years, been visited by hundreds of astronauts, travelled well over 1.5 billion miles and provided invaluable scientific research. But have you ever stopped to wonder why it looks so odd?

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Lets face it, as wonderful as the ISS is, it doesnt look near as badass as the orbital outposts that are depicted in science fiction (Star Treks Deep Space 9 or the Death Star, for example). So why did NASA and its international colleagues choose to give it such an unusual shape?

As it turns out, they didnt, according to Robert Frost, an instructor and engineer in the US space agencys Flight Operations Directorate and the author of a Quora article (reprinted by Gizmodo) that dishes the dirt on why the station lacks the sleek designs of its fictional counterparts.

Where a fictional spacecraft has the luxury of having its design dictated by style, real spacecraft are constrained by budget, tradeoffs, and practicality, Frost wrote. Every feature of the ISS can be explained by those words.

[STORY: Astronaut builds Lego ISS model in space]

We dont yet have the technology to do construction in space, so we have to assemble a large vehicle in space from launch-able components, he added. At the time of the ISS assembly, the two mechanisms for getting a large payload to space were the Space Shuttle Orbiter and the Russian Proton rocket. Those two sentences explain a lot of the ISS appearance.

Frost went on to explain that the ISS had to be assembled from pieces that were small enough to find in the space shuttles payload bay, or in the cargo compartment of a Proton rocket. As such, the maximum length and diameter of these components were limited, forcing crews to rely upon pieces that were primarily cylindrical in shape and able to be linked together.

Parts had to fly themselves

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Why is the ISS shaped so weirdly?