Category Archives: Space Station

Space Station Live: Oct. 24, 2013
The Space Station Live recap video for Oct. 24, 2013. Watch the full Space Station Live broadcast weekdays on NASA TV at 10 a.m. CDT. http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

By: ReelNASA

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Space Station Live: Oct. 24, 2013 - Video

International Space Station Live Oct 22, 2013
The Space Station Live recap video for Oct. 22, 2013. Watch the full Space Station Live broadcast weekdays on NASA TV at 10 a.m. CDT. http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

By: AussieNews1

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International Space Station Live Oct 22, 2013 - Video

Space Station 2401 99

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Space Station 2401 99 - Video

DULLES, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Orbital Sciences Corporation (ORB), one of the worlds leading space technology companies, today confirmed that its Cygnus cargo logistics spacecraft reentered Earths atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean east of New Zealand at approximately 2:15 p.m. (EDT). Cygnus unberthed from the International Space Station (ISS) yesterday following its 23-day stay at the station. The successful conclusion to its demonstration mission also completes the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) joint research and development initiative with NASA. Orbital is now ready to begin regularly scheduled resupply flights to the station later this year as part of a $1.9 billion Cargo Resupply Services (CRS) contract with NASA.

Upon the successful unberthing and departure from the ISS yesterday, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said, Congratulations to the teams at Orbital and NASA who worked hard to make this demonstration mission to the International Space Station an overwhelming success. Orbitals success today is helping make NASAs future exploration to farther destinations possible.

For the COTS demonstration mission, Orbital launched its Antares rocket carrying its Cygnus cargo logistics spacecraft on September 18 from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS), located at NASAs Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia. Following its launch and in-orbit testing and demonstration maneuvers, Cygnus rendezvoused and berthed with the ISS on September 29. Prior to its departure from the station yesterday, the astronauts loaded the cargo module with nearly 3,000 lbs. of unneeded items for disposal.

With the COTS development phase now successfully completed, we are now turning our full attention to the eight operational resupply missions covered by our Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA, said Frank Culbertson, Orbitals Executive Vice President and General Manager ofitsAdvanced Programs Group. Each Cygnus is capable of delivering a large quantity of pressurized cargo, totaling up to 20,000 kg over the eight missions, including crew supplies, spare parts and equipment, and scientific experiments for the ISS. We are looking forward to starting these missions in December.

Over the past five years, Orbital privately developed the Antares launch vehicle to provide low-cost, reliable access to space for medium-class payloads, while also developing the Cygnus spacecraft in conjunction with NASA under the COTS program to meet the stringent safety requirements for ISS operations. Together these products showcased Orbitals ability to apply commercial business practices and engineering approaches to significantly shorten development timelines and lower operational costs of sophisticated space systems as compared to traditional government-run programs.

About Cygnus

Orbital developed the Cygnus cargo spacecraft as part of its COTS joint research and development initiative with NASA. Cygnus consists of a common Service Module (SM) and a Pressurized Cargo Module (PCM). The SM incorporates avionics, power, propulsion and communications systems already successfully flown aboard dozens of Orbitals LEOStar and GEOStar satellites. The PCM, designed and built by Thales Alenia Space under a subcontract from Orbital, is based on the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) previously used with the Space Shuttle. With a full load of cargo and fuel, the standard-configuration Cygnus weighs about 11,000 lbs. at launch and generates 3.5 kw of electrical power while in orbit. It is capable of extended-duration missions of a year or longer in space.

About Antares

The Antares medium-class launch vehicle provides a major increase in the payload launch capability that Orbital can provide to NASA, the U.S. Air Force and commercial customers. The Antares rocket can launch spacecraft weighing up to 14,000 lbs. into low-Earth orbit, as well as lighter-weight payloads into higher-energy orbits. Orbitals newest launcher is currently on-ramped to both the NASA Launch Services-2 and the U.S. Air Forces Orbital/Suborbital Program-3 contracts, enabling the two largest U.S. government space launch customers to order Antares for right-size and right-price launch services for medium-class spacecraft. Antares made its debut earlier this year with a fully successful inaugural launch on April 21, followed up by another successful launch of the COTS demonstration mission on September 18.

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Orbital Completes COTS Demonstration Mission to International Space Station

USAF Colonel Mike Hopkins - Interview From the International Space Station
Rick Pizzo and Howard Griffith talk with USAF Colonel Mike Hopkins, former Illinois football player and current astronaut, from the International Space Station.

By: bigtennetwork

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USAF Colonel Mike Hopkins - Interview From the International Space Station - Video

Can you compost in space? How do you protect astronauts from ultraviolet rays? And will natural food preservatives work as well for space settlers as they do on Earth?

This semester, hundreds of Northland Preparatory Academy students are finding out what it takes to propose untested ideas and do cutting-edge science in orbit. Its a competition pitting 100 groups at NPA against each other in a test of real-world science skills.

And one group of sixth- through 12th-grade students will be rewarded with a spot for their experiment on board the International Space Station.

But seventh-grade general science teacher Susan Brown says the lessons stretch far beyond the realm of space science. During research, the students develop critical reading skills and learn to write persuasively while preparing proposals.

Theyre not just learning the scientific method, theyre learning how to write well and communicate, Brown said. Theyre acting like real scientists because, in fact, one of them is going up to space.

Theres a lot of reading and writing that goes into a real-world science career, said NPA science teacher and competition organizer Kaci Heins. Its not just blowing stuff up.

RAISED $21,500

The project came about after Heins learned of the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program from a friend whose class flew an experiment on the Space Shuttle. The program, hosted by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education, drew headlines earlier this month with an 11-year-old boys plan to send a tiny brewery into space inside one of their 6-inch tubes.

Heins has already played a role in having NPA students speak to astronauts on the ISS via ham radio. And NPA has also sent low-gravity experiments to near-space on high-altitude balloons. But to have astronauts actually carry out a student experiment is truly rare.

The opportunity might not seem out of the ordinary in Flagstaff, the worlds first STEM city (for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). But it is unusual for students in a small-city school to send experiments to space. Most of the participants typically come from places like New York City and Houston.

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Space race: Hundreds of NPA students compete to have an experiment aboard space station

Orbital Sciences Corp.s Cygnus cargo capsule left the International Space Station on Tuesday, wrapping up a successful test flight that clears the company to begin making regular resupply runs for NASA beginning in December.

PHOTOS: Astronaut Guide: How to Train Your Dragon

Cygnus is the second commercial freighter, developed in partnership in NASA, to reach the space station, which had been dependent on cargo ships built and operated by partners Russia, Europe and Japan to keep the station stocked following the retirement of the space shuttles in 2011.

Space Exploration Technologies, which started work for NASA about 18 months before Orbital Sciences, made a test flight to the station in May 2012 and so far has completed two of 12 planned resupply missions.

Cygnus, which unlike SpaceXs Dragon capsule does not return to Earth, is expected to fire its braking rocket on Wednesday to lower its orbit and allow itself to be dragged back into the planets atmosphere for incineration.

NEWS: Orbitals Cygnus Capsule Reaches Space Station

The capsule was loaded up with garbage and items no longer needed aboard the station before its release at 7:31 a.m. EDT on Tuesday.

We are delighted to now have two American companies able to resupply the station, NASA administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement.

Orbitals success today is helping make NASAs future exploration to farther destinations possible, he added.

ANALYSIS: When Antares Delivered its Payload to Orbit

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Orbital Sciences' Cygnus Capsule Leaves Space Station

Cygnus spacecraft lifts off in maiden voyage for NASA to International Space Station
Originally published on September 19, 2013 An unmanned Antares rocket carrying a Cygnus cargo spacecraft launched from NASA #39;s Wallops Flight Facility in Virg...

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Cygnus spacecraft lifts off in maiden voyage for NASA to International Space Station - Video

The first privately built Cygnus cargo ship to visit the International Space Station detached from the orbiting lab Tuesday (Oct. 22) and is poised to destroy itself in Earth's atmosphere in a fiery finale to its successful test flight.

The unmanned Cygnus spacecraft built by Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., was released by astronauts using the station's robotic arm at 7:30 a.m. EDT (1130 GMT) as both space vehicles sailed high above the Atlantic Ocean, east of Argentina. The spacecraft is expected to fire its rocket thrusters Wednesday (Oct. 23) to leave orbit and burn up in Earth's atmosphere.

On the space station, astronauts and cosmonauts bid farewell to the visiting cargo ship. Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano of Italy thanked Orbital and Cygnus ground control teams, adding that it was a honor to watch over the spacecraft's first test flight. [See photos from Orbital Sciences' 1st Cygnus test flight]

"It was a real pleasure to work both with Cygnus and all the people on the ground," Parmitano radioed NASA's Mission Control in Houston.

Cygnus test flight success

The departure of Cygnus caps a successful test flight of the new spacecraft by Orbital and sets the stage for the first official cargo delivery to the space station in December. Orbital Sciences has a $1.9 billion contract with NASA to deliver supplies to the space station with at least eight Cygnus spacecraft.

The next Cygnus spacecraft is expected to launch to the space station in December to fly Orbital's first official cargo delivery mission for NASA.

This first Cygnus launched toward the space station on Sept. 18 atop an Orbital-built Antares rocket from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va. The spacecraft arrived at the station on Sept. 29, about seven days later than planned due to a software glitch and the launch of a new crew to the orbiting lab on Sept. 25.

Orbital's disposable Cygnus spacecraft are silver cylinders about 17 feet (5 meters) long that are built for the company by Thales Alenia Space in Italy. Cygnus is powered by an Orbital-built service module containing two solar wings for power, as well as rocket thrusters. Each Cygnus is capable of carrying up to 4,409 pounds (2,000 kg) of supplies, though the first test vehicle was packed with only 1,543 pounds (700 kilograms) of supplies and gear, Orbital officials said.

Commercial spaceflight's giant leap

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Cygnus spacecraft leaves International Space Station, will burn up in atmosphere

5 hours ago This photo courtesy of NASA shows the Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket, with the Cygnus cargo spacecraft aboard, as it launches on September 18, 2013, NASA Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia

A private cargo ship built by Orbital Sciences Corporation is preparing to leave the International Space Station early Tuesday and burn up on re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, NASA said Monday.

The Cygnus spacecraft is scheduled to detach from the orbiting research outpost at 1000 GMT Tuesday and leave the ISS an hour and a half later.

"Orbital engineers then will conduct a series of planned burns and maneuvers to move Cygnus toward a destructive re-entry in Earth's atmosphere," NASA said in a statement.

Orbital said Cygnus is expected to re-enter the atmosphere on Wednesday, October 23 at 1818 GMT over the Pacific Ocean east of New Zealand.

The unmanned spaceship attached itself to the ISS on September 29, marking the first successful demonstration mission of a cargo resupply flight by Orbital Sciences.

It is the fourth such mission by a private company to ferry supplies to global astronauts, a capacity the United States lost when the space shuttle program ended in 2011.

The California-based SpaceX, owned by entrepreneur Elon Musk, in 2012 became the first private enterprise to send its own cargo-bearing spacecraft to the ISS and back.

Both companies have billion-dollar NASA contracts to deliver cargo to the ISS on multiple missions over the coming years.

Unlike SpaceX's Dragon capsule, Cygnus cannot return to Earth intact and will be destroyed after its mission is complete.

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Cygnus cargo craft readies to leave space station