Category Archives: Space Station

Russian Spacewalk Underway outside International Space Station
The first Spacewalk (EVA) of 2013 began today, April 19th 2013 at 14:03 UTC. The Russian Spacewalk is due to last about 6 hours, the spacewalkers are Pavel V...

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Russian Spacewalk Underway outside International Space Station - Video

Space Station Live: April 16, 2013
The Space Station Live recap video for April 16, 2013. Watch the full Space Station Live broadcast weekdays on NASA TV at 10 a.m. CDT.

By: ReelNASA

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Space Station Live: April 16, 2013 - Video

Discord space station luna chapter 1 Applejack Arrives
Developments in food technology has forced Applejack into a tedious position. In order to keep Sweet Apple Acres afloat, she has decided to attend the CEC en...

By: gsamalot

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Discord space station luna chapter 1 Applejack Arrives - Video

By The Associated Press

ATLANTIC, Va. A company contracted by NASA to deliver supplies to the International Space Station successfully launched a rocket Sunday in a test of its ability to send a cargo ship aloft.

About 10 minutes after the launch from Wallops Island on Virginias Eastern Shore, Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles declared the test a success after observing a practice payload reach orbit and safely separate from the rocket.

The Sunday launch comes after two previous attempts were scrubbed. A data cord that was connected to the rockets second stage came loose just minutes before the rocket was set to lift off Wednesday, and company officials said they were easily able to fix the problem. A second attempt Saturday was scrubbed because of wind.

It certainly was an amazing achievement for Orbital today, a great day for NASA and another historical day for commercial spaceflight in America. The flight today was just beautiful and it looks like the preliminary data says that all the objectives we established for the flight were 100 percent met, said Alan Lindenmoyer, manager of NASAs commercial crew and cargo program.

The company from the Washington suburb of Dulles was one of two, along with California-based competitor SpaceX, chosen to supply the space station after NASA ended its three-decade-old shuttle program in 2011. The space agency turned to private companies for the job, saying it would focus on getting manned flights to asteroids and to Mars.

SpaceX was awarded a $1.6 billion contract by NASA in 2006 to make a dozen missions to restock the space station. Orbital got into the mix in 2008 when it was awarded a $1.9 billion contract for eight deliveries.

Weve been playing catch up, but were about caught up, Frank Culbertson, executive vice president and general manager of Orbitals Advanced Programs Group, said last week. By the end of next year we should have an additional four or five cargo missions under our belt, so were going to be moving fast.

SpaceX has connected with the space station three times.

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Private rocket passes test for space station voyage

A company contracted by US space agency Nasa to deliver supplies to the International Space Station has launched its first test rocket.

High winds forced Orbital Sciences Corporation to scrap the launch of the unmanned Antares rocket from Virginia on Saturday, but a new attempt was made on Sunday.

It blasted off from Wallops Island on Virginia's Eastern Shore.

About 10 minutes after the launch, Orbital Sciences declared the test a success after observing a practice payload reach orbit and safely separate from the rocket.

Nasa administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement: "Congratulations to Orbital Sciences and the Nasa team that worked alongside them for the picture-perfect launch of the Antares rocket.

"In addition to providing further evidence that our strategic space exploration plan is moving forward, this test also inaugurates America's newest spaceport capable of launching to the space station, opening up additional opportunities for commercial and government users."

The Antares rocket, which is an expendable launch system, is designed to put payloads weighing up to 5,000 kg (11,000 lb) into low-Earth orbit.

Orbital intends to use the Antares to launch its Cygnus spacecraft on the ISS resupply missions.

The Antares rocket was known during early development as the Taurus II, but was renamed in 2011 after the star of the same name.

Orbital now plans to launch another Antares carrying a Cygnus spacecraft in June.

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Space Station Rocket Launch 'A Success'

The International Space Station.
The ISS flying by over were i live tonight.

By: duxberry1958

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The International Space Station. - Video

A fascinating video from the International Space Station shows Earthlings what it's like to wring out a wet washcloth without gravity's help.

Where does the water go in space?

Thanks to astronaut Chris Hadfield and a series of videos from the Canadian Space Agency, we've had incredible access to all aspects of life on the International Space Station. Activities that are so mundane here on Earth (like clipping nails and heating up some spinach) become things of wonder in zero gravity. That's why we're all going ga-ga over Hadfield wringing out a washcloth.

If I told you nearly 600,000 people would tune into YouTube to watch a piece of cloth get wrung out, you would probably laugh and tell me to take the day off. Fortunately, we're not all suffering from a mass delusion. Hadfield soaking up a washcloth with water and then wringing it out really is that cool.

He starts with a compressed puck of official NASA-issue washcloth. After shaking it out, he soaks it with drinking water squirted out from a flexible plastic bottle.

Once the cloth has absorbed all it can, we get the moment of truth. Tiny blobs of water float out free into the ISS, but most of it just gathers in a liquid tube around the cloth and Hadfield's fingers. Space! Science! Astronauts! It's the best kind of viral video hit.

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Wringing out a space station washcloth makes water clingy

The six-hour spacewalk involves upgrading the orbiting lab with new experiments to measure charged particle interactions and the effects of microbes on spacecraft materials

By Megan Gannon and SPACE.com

Russian cosmonauts Roman Romanenko (bottom) and Pavel Vinogradov flout outside the International Space Station on April 19, 2013, during the first spacewalk of their Expedition 35 mission. The two men will spend six hours upgrading the station' Image: NASA TV

Two Russian cosmonauts ventured outside the International Space Station Friday (April 19) to begin a six-hour spacewalk to upgrade the orbiting lab with new experiments.

Clad in their bulky Orlan spacesuits, veteran cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Roman Romanenko began their spacewalk just after 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) to install a space weather experiment to the space station's hull and prepare the outpost for the arrival of a robotic cargo ship later this year. You can watch the spacewalk live on SPACE.com, courtesy of NASA TV.

"It's dark outside," one of the cosmonauts said after they opened the hatch of the Pirs docking module, which doubles as a spacewalk airlock and spacecraft parking spot at the station. [Space Station's Expedition 35 Mission in Photos]

The spacewalk's first task is the installation of a new Russian experiment called Obstanovka, which will measure charged particles interact with a variety of materials kept outside of the space station. Obstanovka could offer scientists new insights about how space weather affects the ionosphere, an active region of the Earth's atmosphere, NASA officials explained in a spacewalk description.

Vinogradov and Romanenko also plan to retrieve a Biorisk canister, an experiment that measures the effects of bacteria and fungus on spacecraft materials, as well as part of a materials exposure experiment called Vinoslivost.

"All this is hard work," Romanenko said of the spacewalk in a NASA interview before launching to the station in December. "Also I'm supposed to collect information from other experiments that were installed outside the station."

Vinogradov and Romanenko are also expected to replace a faulty retro-reflector device needed to guide the upcoming arrival of the European Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle 4 an unmanned cargo ship named "Albert Einstein." That robotic spacecraft will launch toward the space station in Juneand park itself at the orbiting laboratory's Russian-built Zvezda service module.

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Cosmonauts Take Spacewalk Outside Space Station

NASA TV

Russian cosmonauts Roman Romanenko (bottom) and Pavel Vinogradov float outside the International Space Station on Friday during a spacewalk.

By Marcia Dunn, The Associated Press

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. A 59-year-old Russian cosmonaut became the world's oldest spacewalker Friday, joining a much younger cosmonaut's son for a little maintenance work outside the International Space Station.

Pavel Vinogradov, a cosmonaut for two decades, claimed the honor as he emerged from the hatch with Roman Romanenko. But he inadvertently added to the booming population of space junk when he lost his grip on an experiment tray that he was retrieving toward the end of the 6-hour spacewalk.

The lost aluminum panel 18 inches by 12 inches (45 by 30 centimeters) and about 6 pounds (3 kilograms) contained metal samples. Scientists wanted to see how the samples had fared after a year out in the vacuum of space.

Otherwise, the spacewalk went well, with the spacewalkers installing new science equipment and replacing a navigation device needed for the June arrival of a European cargo ship.

Collecting the experiment tray was Vinogradov's last task outside.

The tray drifted toward the solar panels of the main Russian space station compartment, called Zvezda, Russian for Star. Flight controllers did not believe it struck anything, and the object was not thought to pose a safety hazard in the hours and days ahead.

"That's unfortunate," someone radioed in Russian.

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During space station fix-up, Russian becomes world's oldest spacewalker

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A pair of Russian cosmonauts wrapped up a 6-1/2 hour spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Friday, the first of up to eight outings this year to install experiments and prepare the orbital outpost for a new module, officials said.

Flight engineers Pavel Vinogradov, 59, a veteran of seven spacewalks and Roman Romanenko, 41, a second-generation cosmonaut on his debut spacewalk, floated outside the station's airlock at 10:03 a.m. EDT/1403 GMT as the station soared 262 miles over the southern Pacific Ocean.

The primary purpose of the 6-1/2 hour excursion was to set up an experiment that monitors plasma waves in Earth's ionosphere, the outer layer of the planet's atmosphere that extends to about 370 miles into space.

Instruments on two boxes attached to handrails on the forward portion of the station's Zvezda module will measure low-frequency electromagnetic radiation, which, among other triggers, has been tied to earthquakes.

At the other end of the Zvezda module, Vinogradov and Romanenko replaced a faulty laser retroreflector that is part of an automated docking system used by the European Space Agency's cargo transports. The next ship is due to launch in June.

Before heading back into the station, the cosmonauts retrieved another experiment designed to study how microbes affect spacecraft structures and whether microbes are affected by solar activity.

The day's only glitch occurred just before the men wrapped up their six-hour, 38-minute spacewalk. Vinogradov lost his grip on a science experiment that was slated to be returned to Earth. It floated away in the gravity-free world of space.

The lost aluminum panel, which measured about 18 inches by 12 inches and weighed about 6.5 pounds (3 kg), had been anchored outside the station to test how various metals wear in the harsh space environment.

It floated off in the direction of the Zvezda module's solar arrays, but engineers determined it did not hit or threaten the station, NASA mission commentator Rob Navias said.

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Cosmonauts tackle equipment installation outside space station