Category Archives: Space Station

Space travelers from around the globe recently got a firsthand sense of China's blossoming plans to explore Earth orbit and beyond.

At the 27th Planetary Congress of the Association of Space Explorers (ASE), held in Beijing last month, China's space industry leaders extended an open invitation for other nations to take part in China's emerging space station program.

"We reserved a number of platforms that can be used for international cooperative projects in our future space station when we designed it," Yang Liwei, deputy director of China Manned Space Engineering and China's first astronaut, said at the event, which was held in China for the first time. "In addition to collaboration in applied experiments, we also designed adapters that can dock with other nations' spacecraft." [Read the latest news about China's space program]

China has initiated a multistep space station program, sending the Tiangong 1, its first space lab and still-operating spacecraft, into orbit in September 2011.

And the liftoff of China's Tiangong 2 space lab, scheduled for 2016, is intended to sharpen China's space station construction skills. A Shenzhou 11 crewed spacecraft and a Tianzhou 1 cargo spacecraft would then be launched to dock with that facility.

Yang told the ASE delegates that by about 2022, China's first space station would be fully operational.

Space travelers from around the world attended the event hosted by ASE, an international nonprofit professional and educational organization of nearly 400 astronauts from 35 nations. One of them was Charles Walker, the first industrial payload specialist that flew as a crew member on three space shuttle missions in the 1980s.

"The ASE Congress was very successful; the Chinese are energetic, welcoming, friendly and intent on exploring and developing space," Walker said.

The Chinese mythabout the beautiful young woman, Chang'e, and her jade rabbit, Yutu, going to the moon have made for a great connection with the Chinese people. All of China's lunar missions to date have been named for the Chang'e moon maiden. "They seem intent on lunar exploration and exploitation through some or all the scenarios of which we are familiar," Walker told Space.com.

And China is maintaining its momentum with missions to low-Earth orbit, Walker said. "Their human spaceflight program is maturing quickly and deliberately," he said.

Continued here:
China Moving Forward with Big Space Station Plans

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Astronauts Replace Power Unit During Spacewalk
Subscribe for more Breaking News: http://smarturl.it/AssociatedPress Spacewalking astronauts replaced a failed electrical unit at the International Space Station on Wednesday, restoring full...

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Astronauts Replace Power Unit During Spacewalk - Video

Space: Watch as astronauts venture outside the ISS for 6-hour spacewalk
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Space: Watch as astronauts venture outside the ISS for 6-hour spacewalk - Video

Cape Canaveral, Fla. Spacewalking astronauts replaced a failed electrical unit at the International Space Station on Wednesday, restoring full power to the orbiting lab.

The space station had been operating since spring with only seven of its eight solar-power channels. Wednesday's work by Reid Wiseman and Butch Wilmore NASA's second spacewalk in two weeks brought the energy capability back up to 100 percent.

The spacewalkers encountered balky bolts but still managed to complete the job in the allotted time, with less than two minutes to spare.

"Yoo-hoo!" they cheered as NASA declared victory.

The voltage regulator shorted out in May but could not be replaced until now because of a yearlong hiatus in nonemergency spacewalks by NASA. The stoppage was caused by spacesuit problems, most notably a flooded helmet that nearly cost an astronaut's life in 2013.

Wiseman took part in the Oct. 7 spacewalk that jump-started NASA's outside maintenance, accompanied by a German. This time, Wiseman was joined by Wilmore, who made his first spacewalk.

To avoid an electrical shock, the two spacewalkers waited until darkness before attempting to remove the old voltage regulator, so there would be no discharge. They took in the view 260 miles below as they waited for the space station to fly into the night side of Earth.

"I see Cairo!" Wiseman said. "Can't quite make out the pyramids, though."

Sunset came over Kazakhstan and China, and Wiseman began to undo the bolt holding down the bad regulator. His pistol grip tool failed to loosen the bolt. "I can feel it binding up," he said. A ratchet wrench along with some muscle did the trick.

Wiseman removed the 330-pound boxy regulator from its slot and, with Wilmore's help, popped in the new one. But once again, they ran into bolt trouble, this time in securing the new device.

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Astronauts restore full power to International Space Station

Astronauts Reid Wiseman (R) and Barry Wilmore work inside the International Space Station earlier this month. REUTERS/NASA

A pair of spacewalking NASA astronauts hustled through an electrical repair job outside the International Space Station, then began work to prepare the outpost for new commercial space taxis.

Station flight engineers Reid Wiseman and Barry "Butch" Wilmore floated outside the station's airlock to begin a 6 1/2-hour spacewalk.

Their primary job was to replace a voltage regulator that failed in May, cutting out one of the station's eight power channels. The work needed to be done during a nighttime pass around Earth when the solar arrays are not generating power. The station, a $100 billion research complex, flies about 260 miles (420 km) above Earth.

After collecting their tools and making their way to the right-side exterior truss, the astronauts had just 35 minutes to unbolt the failed unit and install the replacement. The bolts, however, were not cooperative.

"The PGT (pistol grip tool) doesn't have enough power to turn it right now," Wiseman radioed to Mission Control in Houston. "I can feel it binding up."

Wiseman then switched to a ratchet wrench to unbolt the failed device, known as a sequential shunt unit, or SSU. "Now it's time for Wiseman to apply a little muscle," NASA commentator Rob Navias said during a live broadcast on NASA TV.

That did the trick, clearing the spot for the new SSU. Wiseman again ran into problems installing the replacement, but as the minutes ticked down toward daylight, he was able to use the power tool and then the ratchet wrench to tighten the single bolt holding the SSU in place.

With less than two minutes before the station passed back into daylight, flight controllers tested the new unit and reported it was working properly, "Whoo-hoo," the spacewalkers radioed to Mission Control.

Wiseman and Wilmore then kicked off what is expected to be a year-long NASA project to reconfigure the station for the arrival of privately owned and operated passenger spaceships. NASA hired Boeing and privately owned Space Exploration Technologies to begin flying crews to the station in 2017.

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Station preparing for new space taxis

Cape Canaveral, Fla. Spacewalking astronauts replaced a failed electrical unit at the International Space Station on Wednesday, restoring full power to the orbiting lab.

The space station had been operating since spring with only seven of its eight solar-power channels. Wednesday's work by Reid Wiseman and Butch Wilmore NASA's second spacewalk in two weeks brought the energy capability back up to 100 percent.

The spacewalkers encountered balky bolts but still managed to complete the job in the allotted time, with less than two minutes to spare.

"Yoo-hoo!" they cheered as NASA declared victory.

The voltage regulator shorted out in May but could not be replaced until now because of a yearlong hiatus in nonemergency spacewalks by NASA. The stoppage was caused by spacesuit problems, most notably a flooded helmet that nearly cost an astronaut's life in 2013.

Wiseman took part in the Oct. 7 spacewalk that jump-started NASA's outside maintenance, accompanied by a German. This time, Wiseman was joined by Wilmore, who made his first spacewalk.

To avoid an electrical shock, the two spacewalkers waited until darkness before attempting to remove the old voltage regulator, so there would be no discharge. They took in the view 260 miles below as they waited for the space station to fly into the night side of Earth.

"I see Cairo!" Wiseman said. "Can't quite make out the pyramids, though."

Sunset came over Kazakhstan and China, and Wiseman began to undo the bolt holding down the bad regulator. His pistol grip tool failed to loosen the bolt. "I can feel it binding up," he said. A ratchet wrench along with some muscle did the trick.

Wiseman removed the 330-pound boxy regulator from its slot and, with Wilmore's help, popped in the new one. But once again, they ran into bolt trouble, this time in securing the new device.

See the original post:
Astronauts restore full power to International Space Station (+video)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Spacewalking astronauts replaced a failed electrical unit at the International Space Station on Wednesday, restoring full power to the orbiting lab. The space station had been operating since spring with only seven of its eight solar-power channels. Wednesday's work by Reid Wiseman and Butch Wilmore NASA's second spacewalk in two weeks brought the energy capability back up to 100 percent. The spacewalkers encountered balky bolts but still managed to complete the job in the allotted time, with less than two minutes to spare. "Yoo-hoo!" they cheered as NASA declared victory.

With their main job completed, the spacewalkers installed a new camera, and moved around various camera and wireless radio systems. The relocations are needed to get ready for the eventual arrival of new commercial crew vehicles. That's still a few years away. "It's been a very successful day," Mission Control said as the 6.5-hour spacewalk drew to a close. A Russian spacewalk, meanwhile, is on tap for next Wednesday.

First published October 15 2014, 6:59 AM

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Watch NASA Spacewalkers Remodel the Space Station