Category Archives: Space Station

Spacewalking astronauts successfully completed a three-day cable job outside the International Space Station on Sunday, routing several-hundred feet of power and data lines for new crew capsules commissioned by NASA.

It was the third spacewalk in just over a week for Americans Terry Virts and Butch Wilmore, and the quickest succession of spacewalks since NASA's former shuttle days.

The advance work was needed for the manned spacecraft under development by Boeing and SpaceX. A pair of docking ports will fly up later this year, followed by the capsules themselves, with astronauts aboard, in 2017.

Once safely back inside, Virts reported a bit of water in his helmet again for the second time in as many spacewalks. He stressed it was "not a big deal" and said there was no need to hurry out of his suit.

Virts and Wilmore installed two sets of antennas Sunday, as well as 400 feet of cable for this new communication system. They unreeled 364 feet of cable on Feb. 21 and last Wednesday.

It was complicated, hand-intensive work, yet the astronauts managed to wrap up more than an hour early Sunday, for a 5 -hour spacewalk. Their three outings spanned 19 hours.

"You guys have done an outstanding job," Mission Control radioed, "even for two shuttle pilots."

Sunday's 260-mile-high action unfolded 50 years to the month of the world's first spacewalk.

Soviet Alexei Leonov floated out into the vacuum of space on March 18, 1965, beating America's first spacewalker, Gemini 4's Edward White II, by just 2 1/2 months. Leonov is now 80; White died in the Apollo 1 fire on the launch pad in 1967.

"It's amazing ... to see how far we've come from the very first steps outside," Virts said.

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Astronauts try to complete tricky cable repair outside space station

Science and politics have both benefited from humanitys journey into space. And we really might just be getting started

Credit: almir1968/Thinkstock

Editor's note: The following is the introduction to the February 2015 issue of Scientific American Classics: Conquering Space.

I was eight years old when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon. As Apollo 11 touched down on that gray, cratered surface, I was already dreaming of following those astronauts into space. The moon missions made meand millions of others around the worldfeel as though we could do anything, go anywhere.

Twenty-five years after that first moon landing, I was flying onboard the space shuttle Columbia on a 15-day mission during which we conducted some 80 experiments in microgravity.

Space travel was unlike anything I could have imagined when I was a boy. It remained fantastic even after two more shuttle flights, a Soyuz flight and six months on the International Space Station (ISS).

I remember taking a space walk on the ISS. There I was, wrench in hand, tightening bolts on a new module. It was such a mundane task. But when I looked in one direction, there was Earth floating in vivid blues and greens. In the other direction, I could see the blackest black conceivable, punctured by unwavering pinpoints of starshine. It was intense and surreal.

You might have heard about a transformation that can occur when someone first sees Earth from spacehow it becomes harder to think about my country or my people and harder not to think about our planet.

I can tell you, that transformation is real.

I came home with a different sense of our world. And I would wager that every single one of the 500-plus men and women who have traveled into space came home transformed as well. It is one of the reasons why I continue to believe that we need to keep sending humans into space as well as robots. The results are tangible: I have seen firsthand how projects such as the ISS can foster cooperation among countries and cultures that otherwise might find it easier to be enemies.

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Space to Grow

Astronauts on the International Space Station completed a spacewalk Sunday despite the appearance of water inside an astronaut's helmet, NASA reported.

In a tweet, the space agency said astronaut Terry Virts experienced water inside his helmet, just as he did Wednesday, but "it's a known issue; no concern."

The spacewalk lasted five hours and 38 minutes, NASA said.

"Crews have now spent a total of 1,171 hours and 29 minutes conducting space station assembly and maintenance during 187 spacewalks," the agency said in a release.

NASA previously said the suit worn by NASA astronaut Virts has a history of "sublimator water carryover." Water in the sublimator cooling component can condense when the suit is repressurized after a spacewalk, causing a small amount of water to push into the helmet, NASA said.

NASA said International Space Station managers had "a high degree of confidence" in the suit.

On the upcoming spacewalk, Virts and Barry Wilmore installed antennas to provide data to visiting vehicles and deploy 400 feet of cable along the edge of the station.

Virts said he first noticed traces of fluid and dampness in his helmet Wednesday while he was waiting for the crew lock cabin to repressurize.

He and Wilmore had been outside the space station for nearly seven hours working on the station's robotic arm and performing some maintenance.

Virts immediately alerted fellow astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti about the water, and she alerted Mission Control in Houston.

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Astronauts finish 5-hour spacewalk Sunday

Roscosmos, Russia's space agency, is set to revive its lunar programme Agency also pledged to work with Nasa to keep ISS operational until 2024 It came under pressure in 2014 after U.S banned high-tech exports to Russia

By Steph Cockroft for MailOnline

Published: 00:54 EST, 26 February 2015 | Updated: 03:40 EST, 26 February 2015

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Russia has announced plans to send manned flights to the moon by 2030, as it pledges to keep the International Space Station in orbit for nine more years.

Roscosmos, Russia's space agency, said it would launch the manned missions after reviving its lunar programme with unmanned spacecraft.

The news comes three years after a leaked document from the federal agency suggested a manned mission to the moon was in the pipeline.

Russia has announced plans to send manned flights to the moon by 2030, as it pledges to keep the International Space Station (pictured) in orbit for nine more years

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Russia plans to put man on Moon by 2030, as it pledges to keep International Space Station in orbit for nine more years

Watch SpaceX 5 Commercial Resupply Launches from Kennedy Space Center
SpaceX #39;s Falcon 9 rocket and its unpiloted Dragon cargo craft launched in pre-dawn darkness from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida Jan. 10, bou. Int #39;l Space station Jan 10, 2015...

By: Albert Daniel

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Watch SpaceX 5 Commercial Resupply Launches from Kennedy Space Center - Video

Space Station Live: Big Space on the Big Screen
NASA Commentator Lori Meggs talks with movie producer Toni Myers about her film which is now being shot on board the International Space Station. The IMAX movie, targeted for release in spring...

By: ReelNASA

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Space Station Live: Big Space on the Big Screen - Video

Mars Underground Space Station on Marsfull - Full Documentary 2015 - [720p HD]
Mars Underground Space Station on Marsfull - Full Documentary 2015 - [720p HD] Please subscribe to my channel for more Documentaries Full Length 2015, Docume. Mars Underground Space ...

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Russia: Cosmonauts prepare for longest-ever mission to ISS
Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka, Mikhail Korniyenko and US astronaut Scott Kelly are preparing to embark on a trip to the International Space Station (ISS) where they will remain for one...

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Russia: Cosmonauts prepare for longest-ever mission to ISS - Video

Space Station Live: Floatin Molten Metal
NASA Public Affairs Officer Amiko Kauderer talks with Dr. Douglas Matson of Tufts University about the Electromagnetic Levitator, a piece of physics experime...

By: ReelNASA

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Space Station Live: Floatin Molten Metal - Video

Tarsap Play #39;s Alien Isolation: Pt3 - Mysterious People
Today we find out that the space station is not alone! who are these people? thank you for watching. Please, don #39;t forget to like comment and subscribe!

By: tar sap

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Tarsap Play's Alien Isolation: Pt3 - Mysterious People - Video