Category Archives: Space Station

Space fans have a lot to look forward to next year.

Closely watched spacecraft are expected to start pumping out science, whileprivate spaceflightcompanies have a number of launches on the books for 2015. A Mars rover will celebrate its third anniversary chugging along on the Red Planet, and a Japanese spacecraft will have another chance to make it into orbit around Venus. Next year could also mark the return of Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station after a launch accident in October 2014.

Here are Space.com's major missions to keep an eye out for next year: [The Most Important Spaceflight Stories of 2014]

XCOR Aerospace and the Lynx space plane: Through 2015

XCOR Aerospace the company building the Lynx space plane has been making steady progress with the Lynx for the last few years. The plane is designed to take commercial customers and science payloads on flights to suborbital space. Lynx has room for one pilot and one passenger (as well as scientific experiments) on each flight, which reaches 330,000 feet (100 kilometers) into the air.

SpaceX reusable rocket landing on ocean platform: No earlier than Jan. 6

The private spaceflight company SpaceX is planning to land the first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean no earlier than Jan. 6, after launching an uncrewed Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station. This will mark the first time anyone has ever attempted this kind of reusable rocket test, SpaceX representatives have said. SpaceX is also planning three more cargo launches in 2015 under a contract with NASA.

DSCOVR satellite launching to space: No earlier than Jan. 29

The Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) is set for launch on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket on Jan. 23. The satellite is designed to monitor solar wind from about 900,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth. The DSCOVR mission is a partnership among NOAA, NASA and the U.S. Air Force, and some version of the mission has been in process for more than 10 years.

Europe's IXV space plane prototype test flight: Feb. 11

Excerpt from:
15 Amazing Space Missions to Watch in 2015

In an effort to fundamentally change the way it will communicate with future deep space missions, NASA will use a laser beam to send a video from the International Space Station to Earth on Thursday.

NASA announced late Wednesday that it will beam enhanced-definition video via laser from the space station to the Table Mountain Observatory in Wrightwood, Calif. From there, the video will be transmitted to the mission team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

This is the first planned official transmission of this mission, which has been dubbed Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science or OPALS.

The transmission, according to NASA, is scheduled to take place between 11:20 p.m. and 11:23 p.m. ET -- while the space station is visible passing over the Los Angeles area in the twilight sky.

In April, the SpaceX cargo spacecraft carried equipment needed for the laser communications test to the space station.

Optical laser communications are one of the emerging technologies NASA is testing. The new laser communications initiative is a key part of the agency's Space Technology Mission Directorate, which is focused on developing technology for future space missions, as well as for life on Earth.

With lasercom, data is transmitted via laser beams, achieving data rates 10 to 1,000 times higher than current space communications, which rely on current radio frequency transmissions, NASA noted.

"Optical communications have the potential to be a game-changer," said mission manager Matt Abrahamson, in an April statement. "It's like upgrading from dial-up to DSL. Our ability to generate data has greatly outpaced our ability to downlink it. Imagine trying to download a movie at home over dial-up. It's essentially the same problem in space, whether we're talking about low-Earth orbit or deep space."

Abrahamson noted that many of the latest deep space missions send data back and forth at 200 to 400 kilobits per second. The new laser technology is expected to transmit data at 50 megabits per second.

Since one megabit is equal to 1,024 kilobits, that means the new communications should be up to 256 times faster.

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NASA to beam video from space station with a laser beam

Lift off: The Russian Soyuz rocket blasts off from a launch pad at the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Photo: AFP

A US-Russian three man crew on Wednesday faced an unprecedented two-day delay in their docking with the International Space Station (ISS) after their Russian Soyuz spacecraft suffered a technical glitch on its approach in orbit.

The two Russian cosmonauts and American astronaut were to have docked with the ISS early Wednesday just six hours after launch from Kazakhstan but the problem means that the docking cannot take place until Friday.

This means that the trio will now orbit the Earth 34 times before their rendezvous with the international space laboratory, instead of the fast track route of four orbits originally envisaged.

Russians Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev along with Steve Swanson of NASA had earlier taken off from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in the spectacular night-time launch that initially went without a problem.

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The issue appeared to arise once their Soyuz capsule was in orbit and a thruster failed to fire to assist its approach for docking with the ISS.

The US space agency NASA said in a statement on its website that the Soyuz spacecraft "was unable to complete its third thruster burn to fine-tune its approach" to the orbiting space station.

The trio were using a fast-track approach to the ISS that Russia has been employing since 2013. After the problem, they are now using the traditional two-day longer approach that was employed up to 2012.

"Rendezvous experts are reviewing the plan, and may update it later as necessary," the US space agency said, adding that the trio on board were "in good spirits".

More here:
Soyuz technical hitch delays US-Russia crew's ISS docking

Beer Review # 1558 Three Floyds Brewing Space Station Middle Finger Pale Ale
Three Floyds Brewing Space Station Middle Finger Pale Ale follow me now on Twitter http://twitter.com/Gregsbeerreview Facebook- facebook.com/greg.puckett.16 ...

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Beer Review # 1558 Three Floyds Brewing Space Station Middle Finger Pale Ale - Video

Space Station Astronauts Say Merry Christmas and Thank You to the Troops
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By: ReelNASA

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Space Station Astronauts Say Merry Christmas and Thank You to the Troops - Video

UFO Shoots Laser Near Space Station?
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Christmas greeting from Samantha (Italian)
A Christmas greeting (in Italian) from ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti who is currently living and working on board the International Space Station as part of the Expedition 42 crew. ...

By: European Space Agency, ESA

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Christmas greeting from Samantha (Italian) - Video

International Space Station for Mon, 22nd December 2014
This is a image taken from the live feed from the International Space Station.

By: dingo001

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International Space Station for Mon, 22nd December 2014 - Video

Exploring the International Space Station (2012, 1080p)

By: DOCUMENTARY TUBE

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Exploring the International Space Station (2012, 1080p) - Video

Space Station 13 - The average day on Liberty Station
First video, so tell me in the comments how I could improve on my videos! Also because of Youtube shenanigans I have 3 options to set as my thumbnail: blank, blank, blank, vote in the comments...

By: lvedk Betyr

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Space Station 13 - The average day on Liberty Station - Video