Category Archives: Space Station

US Space Taxi: Vehicles to ferry astronauts to and from the ISS
The US space agency retired its space shuttle fleet in 2011. Since then, the only way American astronauts can get to the International Space Station is through its old rival, Russia. But the...

By: CCTV

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US Space Taxi: Vehicles to ferry astronauts to and from the ISS - Video

KSP Rescaled, Part 20: Station Destruction
Space Station Adventure has some fatal construction errors, and it has to go. Should be a really cool reentry! Get the game here: https://kerbalspaceprogram.com For a mod list and other informati...

By: TheWinterOwl

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KSP Rescaled, Part 20: Station Destruction - Video

Boeing #39;s Big Bet on the Future of Space Travel
May 7 (Bloomberg) --- Boeing is known for making airplanes, but they actually have a long history in space. They #39;ve been a contractor for NASA on every manned space mission ever flown. A new...

By: Bloomberg News

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Boeing's Big Bet on the Future of Space Travel - Video

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Backdropped against a cloudy portion of Earth, Canadas Dextre robotic handyman and Canadarm2 dig out the trunk of SpaceXs Dragon cargo vessel docked to the ISS after completing a task 225 miles above the home planet. Credit: NASA

To close out their final week aboard the International Space Station, three of the six Expedition 39 crew members are completing their unloading tasks inside the docked commercial SpaceX Dragon cargo freighter and other duties while teams at Mission Control in Houston conduct delicate robotics work outside with dazzling maneuvers of the Dextre robot to remove the last external experiment from the vessels storage truck.

See a dazzling gallery of photos of Dextre dangling outside the docked Dragon depot above and below.

On Monday, May 5, the robotics team at NASA Mission Control Center at the Johnson Space Center in Houston carefully guided Canadas Dextre robotic handyman attached to the end of the 57-foot long Canadarm2 to basically dig out the final payload item housed in the unpressurized trunk section at the rear of the SpaceX Dragon cargo vessel docked to the ISS.

Dextre stands for Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator and was contributed to the station by the Canadian Space Agency. It measures 12 feet tall and is outfitted with a pair of arms and an array of finely detailed tools to carry out intricate and complex tasks that would otherwise require spacewalking astronauts.

The Canadarm2 with Dextre in its grasp conducts external cargo transfers from the SpaceX Dragon resupply ship. Credit: NASA TV

The massive orbiting outpost was soaring some 225 miles above the home planet as Dextres work was in progress to remove the Optical PAyload for Lasercomm Science, or OPALS, from the Dragons truck.

The next step is to install OPALS on the Express Logistics Carrier-1 (ELC-1) depot at the end of the stations port truss on Wednesday.

Mondays attempt was the second try at grappling OPALS. The initial attempt last Thursday was unsuccessful due to a problem gripping the payloads grapple fixture with the Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator, or Dextre, NASA reported.

Link:
Dangling Dextre Digs out Docked Dragon Depot prior to Station Departure

By Chris Taylor2014-05-07 23:52:39 UTC

As astronauts who've spent time aboard the International Space Station have noted, there is nothing more beautiful than watching 16 sunrises a day.

Now you can see them all from your desk, thanks to four HD cameras NASA has installed aboard the ISS and Ustream, which is transmitting the results live, and for free, to the whole Internet.

The view is such stunning high quality, it's hard to believe this is just an experiment. The cameras are being exposed to the harsh radiation of space so that engineers can figure out how to build better, more radiation-resistant cameras in the future, according to the space agency. Another hard-to-believe fact: These cameras were constructed and are maintained with the help of high school kids across the U.S.

The best part? This NASA note on the feed: "There is no audio on purpose. Add your own soundtrack."

The experimental feed was meant to launch a couple of days ago, but last-minute glitches held it back. It seems to have been worth the wait, however. Just under 7 million viewers have been watching the feed at any one time, a large enough number that we're wondering what kind of impact this glorious view is having on the economy.

The link to the feed has been tweeted more than 11,000 times Wednesday, with some well-known names expressing their delight alongside regular, earthbound Joes:

Image: NASA

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First-Ever HD Live Stream From Space Is Your New Favorite Time Suck

The next generation of American spacecraft designed to carry people into low-Earth orbit will be required to function as a lifeboat for the International Space Station for up to seven months. This service has not been provided by an American spacecraft since an Apollo command module remained docked to Skylab for about three months from 1973 to '74.

Like a lifeboat on a cruise ship, the spacecraft is not expected to be called into service to quickly evacuate people but it has to be ready for that job just in case.

Right now, the lifeboat function on the space station is served by requiring a pair of Russian Soyuz spacecraft to be docked at all times. Each Soyuz holds three people. So with two docked, there can be six people working on the station at any one time. The crew drops to three when one Soyuz leaves and before another arrives during a procedure called an indirect handover.

There are fundamentally two capabilities a spacecraft must perform to be called a lifeboat, said NASA engineers who are working with companies developing spacecraft in the agency's Commercial Crew Program (CCP).

First, the spacecraft needs to provide a shelter for astronauts in case of a problem on the station. Second, the ship has to be able to quickly get all its systems operating and detach from the station for a potential return to Earth.

"You've got to make sure it provides the same capability on day 210 as it does on day 1," said Justin Kerr, manager of CCP's Spacecraft Office.

Two things make it tough for spacecraft designers when it comes to the lifeboat feature: power and protection from things outside the spacecraft like micrometeoroids. The vast amount of electricity generated by the space station's acre of solar arrays is reserved for the station's systems and science experiments.

The amount of power dedicated for a docked crew spacecraft is similar to the amount of electricity a refrigerator uses.

"There's very little power available for these spacecraft so what we're really driving the partners to do is develop this quiescent mode that draws very little power," Kerr said.

Ideally, designers want to have the spacecraft powered off when it is attached to the station. That might not be possible, though, because air doesn't automatically circulate in microgravity the way it does on Earth. So a spacecraft, even with its hatch open inside of the station, can develop dead spots, or sections of the cabin without air for breathing, unless there is something to move the air around.

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New Craft Will Be America's First Space Lifeboat in 40 Years

Three crew members currently aboard the International Space Station are scheduled to end more than six months on the orbiting laboratory Tuesday, May 13 (U.S. time), and NASA Television will provide complete coverage of their return to Earth, from farewells to landing.

Expedition 39 Commander Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio of NASA and Soyuz commander Mikhail Tyurin of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) will undock their Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft from the station at 6:33 p.m. EDT. The spacecraft will land southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan at 9:57 p.m. (7:57 a.m. May 14 local time in Dzhezkazgan). Their return will wrap up 188 days in space since launching from Kazakhstan Nov. 7.

Under the command of NASA astronaut Steve Swanson, Expedition 40 formally will begin aboard the station when Expedition 39 undocks. Swanson and his crewmates, Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos, will operate the station as a three-person crew for two weeks until the arrival of three new crew members. Reid Wiseman of NASA, Max Suraev of Roscosmos and Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency are scheduled to launch from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on May 28 (U.S. time).

NASA TV coverage of Expedition 39's return to Earth will begin Monday, May 12, with the change of command ceremony in which Wakata will turn over command of station operations to Swanson. Coverage will continue Tuesday and Wednesday with Expedition 39 landing and post-landing activities.

All times Eastern:

Monday, May 12: 3 p.m. -- Expedition 39/40 Change of Command Ceremony

Tuesday, May 13: 3 p.m. -- Farewells and hatch closure (hatch closure scheduled at 3:15 p.m.) 6:15 p.m. -- Undocking (undocking scheduled at 6:33 p.m.) 8:45 p.m. -- Deorbit burn and landing (deorbit burn scheduled at 9:03 p.m. landing scheduled at 9:57 p.m.)

Wednesday, May 14: 12 a.m. -- Video File of hatch closure, undocking and landing activities 12 p.m. -- Video File of post-landing activities and interviews with Mastracchio and Wakata in Kazakhstan (pending availability)

For more information on the International Space Station, visit:

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NASA Television to Air Expedition 39 Crew's Return from Space Station

Hey! What #39;s Space Station Freedom? - 1992 NASA Documentary - CharlieDeanArchives
This video, #39;Hey! What #39;s Space Station Freedom? #39;, has been produced as a classroom tool geared toward middle school children. There are three segments to thi...

By: Charlie Dean Archives

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Hey! What's Space Station Freedom? - 1992 NASA Documentary - CharlieDeanArchives - Video

Space Taxi: Private Vehicles to Ferry Astronauts to ISS
NASA retired its space shuttle fleet in 2011. Since then, the only way American astronauts can get to the International Space Station (ISS) is through its old rival, Russia. But the cost of...

By: CCTV America

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Space Taxi: Private Vehicles to Ferry Astronauts to ISS - Video

International Space Station flyby Jupiter
ISS flyby Jupiter as close as 8 arcminutes.

By: Jos Agustoni

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International Space Station flyby Jupiter - Video