Category Archives: Space Station

We are pleased to announce that the Obama Administration has approved an extension of the International Space Station (ISS) until at least 2024,wrote Office of Science and Technology Policy Director John Holdren and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden earlier this month. This announcement extends the station for four additional years beyond its previous schedule.

In hisstatementand in a speech at the International Space Exploration Forum at the U.S. Department of State, Holdren outlined the benefits of research on the station and the four year extension. He said the station is critical as a research laboratory for a human mission to Mars in the 2030s. NASA has identified 32 human-health risks likely to be encountered on long-duration flights. Research conducted on the station is necessary to mitigate fully 21 of these risks, he said. Holdren also described medical and other societal benefits from station research. Extension of the ISS will require more commercial cargo and crew flights to the station. This should, to some extent, reduce doubts that some Members of Congress have expressed about whether commercial providers would be willing to undertake robust development of servicing hardware for only a few years. The extension will, Holdren predicted, reduce the per flight cost of servicing the station, and make this investment even more attractive. He also spoke of the stations importance to Earth science research and its role in fostering international cooperation.

Bolden reiterated Holdrens statements about the station in his comments to the forum:From a NASA perspective the ISS is absolutely essential to the goals of sending humans to Mars in the 2030s, developing and establishing a robust U.S. crew transportation capability to low Earth orbit, achieving a self-sustaining commercial use of space in LEO, and returning benefits to humanity through research and technology development.

The Ranking Member of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), released the following statement regarding the station extension: I am pleased that the Administration is initiating an important dialogue with its international partners on the extension of ISS operations to at least 2024. The ISS has been a critical element of our nations human space exploration program, and it is important that a decision on its potential extended operations be made in a way that enables NASA and its partners to ensure its effective utilization and operation. I look forward to further details on the Administrations proposal and on the planned priorities and objectives for ISS activities during the proposed extension.

Holdren and Bolden both reiterated their support for the proposed Asteroid Redirect Mission to retrieve a near-Earth asteroid and put it into orbit at the L2 gravitational-equilibration point where it would be visited by astronauts. Holdren described this mission as one that will significantly raise the bar for what humans could accomplish in space.

Funding for the International Space Station is provided through NASAs Space Operations budget. The FY 2014 request was $3,882.9 million, of which $3,049.1 million or 79 percent was for the station (the remainder being for Space and Flight Support.) The FY 2014 appropriation for Space Operations is $3,778.0 million, approximately 97 percent of the request. The agreement maintains strong support for the ISS declared the Explanatory Statement accompanying the bill.

Congress has been much less enthusiastic about the asteroid mission. The FY 2014 Explanatory Statement included this passage:NASA has proposed a new mission known as the ARM that would engage both scientific and human exploration activities. While the ARM is still an emerging concept, NASA has not provided Congress with satisfactory justification materialssuch as detailed cost estimates or impacts to ongoing missions. The completion of significantpreliminary activities is needed to appropriately lay the groundwork for the ARM prior to NASAand Congress making a long-term commitment to this mission concept.

Richard M. Jones Government Relations Division American Institute of Physics rjones@aip.org 301-209-3095

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AIP FYI: International Space Station to be Extended Until 2024; Asteroid Mission Reaffirmed

MOSCOW, Jan. 31 (UPI) -- A variety of crops successfully grown and harvested on the International Space Station have been verified as safe to eat, a Russian scientist says.

Space-based agriculture has long been of interest, as plants not only scrub carbon dioxide exhaled by astronauts but could be a renewable food source, scientists have said.

"The experiments with peas have been very promising," Margarita Levinskikh, a researcher at the Institute of Biomedical Problems, told an annual space conference in Moscow in describing the ISS "farming."

Russian cosmonauts have grown Japanese leafy greens and a variety of dwarf wheat that has produced seeds of "just extraordinary quality," RIA Novosti quoted her as saying.

Russian cosmonauts will sow rice, tomatoes and bell peppers in the station's Lada greenhouse next year, she said, a cooperative effort between the institute and the Space Dynamics Laboratory at Utah State University.

Currently all food onboard the space station is flown there on periodic resupply missions. Long-duration deep space missions without agriculture would require many months' or years' worth of food, greatly adding to their launch weight, the institute said.

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Space station 'farm' successfully grows a variety of crops

PASADENA, Calif., Jan. 31 (UPI) -- NASA says it will fund seven proposals for physics research using its new microgravity laboratory, set to launch to the International Space Station in 2016.

The Cold Atom Laboratory will provide an opportunity to study ultra-cold quantum gases in the microgravity environment of the space station, a frontier in scientific research expected to reveal interesting and novel quantum phenomena, the space agency said Thursday.

Operating experiments in space makes it possible to conduct research in a way unachievable on Earth because atoms can be observed over a longer period and mixtures of different atoms can be studied free of the effects of gravity, where cold atoms can be trapped more easily by magnetic fields, it said.

The chosen proposals came from seven research teams, which include three Nobel laureates, in response to NASA's research announcement "Research Opportunities in Fundamental Physics." The proposals will receive a total of about $12.7 million over a four- to five-year period and development of selected experiments will begin immediately, the agency said.

The Cold Atom Laboratory is a joint partnership of three NASA branches; the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., the International Space Station Program Office at the Johnson Space Center in Houston and the Space Life and Physical Sciences Branch at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

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NASA announces funding for space station physics research

Let #39;s Play Space Engineers - Episode 72: Space Station Project Part 2
On this episode of Space Engineers, we start a new project where we build a Space Station. This time I try to hollow out the inside a bit more to make some m...

By: Sleepless Knights Studios

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Let's Play Space Engineers - Episode 72: Space Station Project Part 2 - Video

Spacewalk to install Earth-watching cameras
Two Russian cosmonauts at the International Space Station are preparing to finish a mission that was begun last year - the setup of cameras that will stream ...

By: CBS This Morning

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Spacewalk to install Earth-watching cameras - Video

Astronaut Tips: How to Wash Your Hair in Space | Video
NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg shows how she washes her long hair in space while living in weightlessness on the International Space Station. Hint: No rinse sha...

By: How To

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Astronaut Tips: How to Wash Your Hair in Space | Video - Video

ISS Expedition 38 Russian Cosmonauts Install Cameras on EVA
Outside the International Space Station, Expedition 38 Commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy conducted a spacewalk Jan. 27 to reinstall ...

By: NASA

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ISS Expedition 38 Russian Cosmonauts Install Cameras on EVA - Video

Broken Age Act 1 Gameplay Walkthrough Part 1 - Shay #39;s Story(PC)
Broken Age Act 1 Gameplay Walkthrough Part 1 Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/pages/55danutz-gaming/1431665143719561?ref=hl Broken Age is a point-and-click ...

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Broken Age Act 1 Gameplay Walkthrough Part 1 - Shay's Story(PC) - Video

Aliens and UFO #39;s: They Are Watching,They Are Waiting - NEW 2013 UFO Documentary

By: The Space Station

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Aliens and UFO's: They Are Watching,They Are Waiting - NEW 2013 UFO Documentary - Video

ISS Detector
See the International Space Station and more. http://issdetector.com https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.runar.issdetector https://play.google....

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ISS Detector - Video