Category Archives: Space Station

The Dragon capsule is due to deliver 544 kilograms of scientific experiments and supplies to the space station on Saturday

SpaceX, Ben Cooper

This story was updated at 10:45 a.m. ET.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. A privately built unmanned spacecraft launched for NASA by the commercial spaceflight company SpaceX blasted into orbit Friday (March 1), but has experienced some sort of malfunction after separating from its rocket, the company says.

The robotic Dragon space capsule launched into orbit atop SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket in what appeared to be a smooth liftoff from a pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 10:10 a.m. ET (1510 GMT). But once in orbit, SpaceX officials reported a problem just after spacecraft separation, when the Dragon capsule was expected to deploy its solar arrays.

"It appears that, although it achieved Earth orbit, Dragon is experiencing some type of problem right now," SpaceX's John Insprucker said during the company's launch webcast.

The glitch appears to be related to Dragon's thrusters, which allow the capsule to maneuver in orbit.

"Issue with Dragon thruster pods," SpaceX founder Elon Musk wrote on Twitter. "System inhibiting three of four from initializing. About to command inhibit override." [Photos: SpaceX's Third Launch to Space Station]

SPACE.com will provide updates as new information is available.

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SpaceX Dragon Capsule Suffers Glitch after Launch to Space Station

A record release of 33 CubeSats from the International Space Station ended Friday after a methodical series of deployments of miniature Earth imaging satellites for San Francisco-based Planet Labs Inc.

The CubeSat constellation, released in pairs over a 17-day period, included 28 satellites for Planet Labs and five spacecraft for private engineering research firms and institutions in Lithuania and Peru.

The deployments began Feb. 11 as the CubeSats sprang out of pods mounted on the end of the space station's Japanese robotic arm.

The CubeSats were launched to the orbiting complex in January inside an Orbital Sciences Corp. Cygnus cargo craft. Astronauts transferred the payloads, sealed inside more than a dozen NanoRacks deployers, to the space station's Kibo laboratory and through an airlock to the vacuum of space. [Tiny Satellites Launch From Space Station (Photos)]

NanoRacks LLC, a Houston-based company providing commercial research opportunities on the space station, sponsored the CubeSat deployments for Planet Labs and other customers. Spaceflight Inc., a firm specializing in launch services for small satellites, partnered with NanoRacks to provide the CubeSat launch opportunities.

"This is the beginning of a new era in space commerce," said Jeff Manber, NanoRacks CEO, in a press release. "We're helping our customers get a two year head start in space. They don't have to wait around for a dedicated launch to space but can instead catch the next rocket to space station. We want to thank NASA and JAXA for being wonderful partners, as well as Spaceflight Inc., for their help with customers. Without these organizations, this couldn't have happened."

The 28 CubeSats for Planet Labs will return imagery of Earth with a resolution between 3 and 5 meters, or between 10 and 16 feet. Planet Labs constructed the satellites, each about the size of a loaf of bread, at the company's San Francisco headquarters.

The Planet Labs constellation, known as Flock 1, will monitor natural disasters, deforestation, agricultural yields and other environmental changes. The company says the satellites will allow scientists and the public to track changes to Earth's surface at an unprecedented frequency.

It is the largest fleet Earth observation satellitesever launched.

Because the satellites were deployed from the International Space Station, the Flock 1 constellation is limited to observing Earth between 52 degrees of the equator.

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Record-Setting 33 Tiny 'Cubesats' Launched From Space Station

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket currently is NASA's cargo hauler to the International Space Station, but Orbital Sciences is set for an April test flight of its Antares rocket

ORBITAL SCIENCES

The Falcon 9 rocket, which made its fifth successful flight on 1 March, has stolen the spotlight in the commercial space race. Built by SpaceX, a young company based in Hawthorne, California, the rocket has become NASAs choice for hauling cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). But it may soon have competition from a rocket that has kept a low profile (seeBattle of the rockets).

After years of delays, Orbital Sciences of Dulles, Virginia, has slated the first test flight of its Antares rocket for April. If that goes well, its second mission could carry an unmanned Cygnus spacecraft to the ISS within months. Theres no one main problem, no show-stopper, says Orbital spokesman Barron Beneski. In hindsight, this has just taken us longer to do than we thought it would.

Both companies have received hundreds of millions of dollars from NASAs Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. With the space shuttle retiring in 2011, the agency wanted alternatives to paying for ISS deliveries aboard the Russian Progress and Soyuz craft. NASA deliberately put two companies in competition with each other to keep prices down over the long run and to attract other customers. The government is the necessary anchor tenant for commercial cargo, but its not sufficient to build a new economic ecosystem, says Scott Hubbard, an aeronautics researcher at Stanford University in California and former director of NASAs Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.

With 30 years of experience in making satellites and rockets, Orbital once seemed the safer bet. Instead of assembling its vehicles from scratch like SpaceX, Orbital uses parts made by companies with proven track records. The core of the first stage of Antares was designed and built by veterans KB Yuzhnoye and Yuzhmash, both based in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine. Cygnuss sensors come from Mitsubishi Electric in Tokyo and its pressurized cargo module was built at a Thales Alenia Space plant in Turin, Italy. Orbital used more heritage technology, says Alan Lindenmoyer, manager of NASAs commercial crew and cargo program. That was less risky for us.

But the company did not enter COTS until 2008, two years after SpaceX. With the clock ticking, NASA allocated less money for Orbital and ordered a simpler ship. Unlike SpaceXs Dragon capsule, Cygnus cant carry sensitive biological experiments, such as those that grow protein crystals in microgravity. It burns up on re-entry, so it cant return samples to Earth. And it cant be modified to carry humans.

Image: Courtesy of Nature Magazine

Nor has it yet flown. Orbital chose to launch from NASAs Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia; less crowded than Cape Canaveral in Florida, which hosts most NASA rocket launches, Wallops usually caters for smaller vehicles such as scientific balloons and sounding rockets. The facilitys Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport had to build a new launch pad for Antares, which took longer than expected. Originally scheduled for 2010, the demonstration launch slipped to 2012, and then to 2013, after Hurricane Sandy hit the spaceport last October.

Antares engines, built half a century ago for Russias Moon program and recently refurbished, have also proven finicky. A test on 13February was aborted when pressure anomalies were detected in one of the engines. A successful test on 22February means that Orbital can now proceed to a launch in April.

Continued here:
Commercial Space Race Heats Up as Antares Creeps Up on Falcon 9 Rocket

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International Space Station Documentary
The International Space Station (ISS) is a space station, or a habitable artificial satellite in low Earth orbit.

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Space Station Live: Smart SPHERES
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Space Station Live: Treating Huntington #39;s Disease in Space
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Pixel Gun 3D Space Station with Zero Gravity iOS/Android
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The crew orbiting Earth on the International Space Station is just as chummy as ever despite the tension between the U.S. and Russia over the situation in Ukraine.

The international team includes three Russians, two Americans, and one Japanese.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden was asked during a budget teleconference what his game plan was if the situation between Russia and the United States escalates.

Bolden, a former astronaut, said he wasn't particularly worried, and reminisced about commanding the first joint U.S.-Russian space shuttle mission with the legendary Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev.

The ISS is jointly run by the U.S., Russia, Canada and Europe through 2020, though NASA would like to continue operations through 2024. This international cooperation is something that is unique.

"The space station is a remarkable engineering achievement, but more importantly it is a wonderful example of international diplomacy," Neal Lane with the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, told ABC News.

Since the space shuttle was retired US astronauts rely on a Russian Soyuz to get back and forth to the space station. NASA pays Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, $71 million per seat for each astronaut. Russia needs the money, the US needs the ride.

NASA wants very much to get its own ride. hence its proposed budget for 2015 escalates funding for private commercial transportation to develop its own spaceship to get to the space station by 2017. So for the next few years it pays to play nice with Russia.

For the astronauts and cosmonauts who live on the orbiting outpost getting along is easy. They share food and camaraderie and are part of an exclusive cadre of people who have a rare view of our planet.

Astronaut Cady Coleman says the view is life-changing.

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US and Russia Still Friends in Space