Category Archives: Space Station

NASA has a new "stage" to expose and educate the public about the work behind and on board the International Space Station.

More than a year in the making, NASA and Space Center Houston, the visitor center for the agency's Johnson Space Center in Texas, put the final touches on a new interactive exhibit and special effects live stage show that highlights how the orbiting outpost came to be, what life is like on board and how it is being used to conduct science.

The 3000-square-foot (280 square meters) display was inspired by NASA's traveling exhibit "Destination Station" (hosted currently at Atlanta's Fernbank Science Center until May 18). But instead of simply recreating the mobile exhibition, NASA's International Space Station Program worked with the external relations office at Johnson and Space Center Houston to enhance and expand the display into a brand-new experience for guests. [Building the International Space Station (Photos)]

"This [new] exhibition highlights, through the use of a live performance, static graphic elements, hardware, astronaut personal effects, video content and interactive software programs, the international partnership which assembled this orbiting laboratory, its human presence which works and lives on board, and the complex research and science that is taking place which benefits all humankind," NASA wrote about the exhibit.

Destination Station 2.0

Space Center Houston began building the exhibit about a year ago by reconfiguring the International Space Station or rather a large detailed model of the orbiting complex.

Suspended from the ceiling, the scale model was updated to reflect the final assembly of the space station, including removing a once-docked replica of the now-retired space shuttle. The model was then re-hung in front of a mural of the Earth, placing it into the context of the new display.

Underneath the not-so-miniature station is a new mockup of a Mission Control console. Nearby, one of the canisters used to transport the orbiting laboratory's power-providing solar arrays is also on display with a sample strip of the cells used to generate electricity for the station.

The Mission Control monitors display the "Space Station Live!" website, which provides access to live data from the real space station as received through the real Mission Control, located nearby at the Johnson Space Center. Not only can visitors use the replica console to learn what the astronauts and cosmonauts on board the station are doing in space in real time, but they can find when the orbiting complex can be seen flying over their homes.

Venturing further into the exhibit, guests can see a training mockup of the space station's multi-window Cupola, a full-size model of the outpost's robotic resident Robonaut 2, and look inside both a crew member's living quarters and the onboard waste containment system, or toilet.

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Space Station Lands in Houston in State-of-the-Art NASA Exhibit

The Earth From Orbit - Satellite and Space Station Views Our Planet | Science Video
Visit my website at http://www.junglejoel.com - some nice views of Earth from space. Please rate and comment, thanks! Credit: NASA.

By: CoconutScienceLab

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The Earth From Orbit - Satellite and Space Station Views Our Planet | Science Video - Video

An unpiloted Russian Progress cargo ship departed the International Space Station (ISS) early Monday, clearing the way for Moscow's next space freighter.

The ISS Progress 49 resupply ship undocked from the rear port of the stations Zvezda service module at 8:02 a.m. EDT after more than five months at the orbiting complex.

From a window in the Russian segment of the station, Russian crew members photographed the automated departure as the cargo craft fired its thrusters to move a safe distance away from the complex.

After several days of thruster firings to help calibrate Russian radar systems on the ground, Progress 49 will re-enter Earth's atmosphere on Sunday, April 21 and will burn up over the Pacific Ocean. Progress resupply ships are not designed to be recovered, so, like its predecessors, Progress 49 was filled with trash and station discards after its cargo was unloaded.

Progress 49 delivered nearly three tons of supplies for the station crew when it docked to the station a little less than six hours after launch on Oct. 31. It should be noted that this was the second of three Progress launches in a row that used an abbreviated launch-to-rendezvous schedule instead of following the typical two-day flight profile to reach the station.

Progress 49's departure clears the way for the arrival of the ISS Progress 51 cargo craft. Loaded with more than 3 tons of food, fuel, supplies and experiment hardware for the six crew members aboard the orbital laboratory, Progress 51 is scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 6:12 a.m. (4:12 p.m. Kazakh time) Wednesday, April 24, and dock to the station two days later.

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Russian cargo craft departs International Space Station

NASA has stopped sending shuttles into space, but D.C. students soon may get their chance to experience life among the stars.

D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray plans to open a space education center, featuring a space station simulator, in the DC Public Schools system, he revealed in his fiscal 2014 budget. Though the so-called Challenger Center for Space Education does not have a designated location, it is expected to include "a two-room simulator that consists of a space station, complete with communications, medical, life and computer science equipment, and a mission control room patterned after NASA's Johnson Space Center and a space lab ready for exploration," according to the budget proposal.

It is expected to cost $1.5 million to design, $1 million of which has already been approved in a previous year's budget. Gray's fiscal 2014 budget proposal includes the remaining $500,000.

The facility would be part of the national Challenger Center for Space Science Education, which oversees a network of centers offering programs in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM. There are 41 centers across the United States, as well as one each in Canada, South Korea and Britain.

Prince George's County Public Schools has operated one of the centers since 1989. The simulator, located at the Howard B. Owens Science Center in Lanham, caters largely to sixth-grade students.

Following the instructions of the teacher -- or "lead flight commander" -- students enter the S.S. Friendship through an airlock door. The students spend two hours performing a variety of experiments -- studying magnetism in rocks, for example, and body weight in zero gravity. While half the class spends an hour in the mock space station, the other half is in mission control, watching the action on Mars via two cameras.

"This is a very good simulation of what it would be like in real life, if they were really in space and really in mission control, which in this case happens to be on Mars," said Russell Waugh, the program's outreach teacher. "This is based on a futuristic style of spacecraft that we're imagining in the year 2076."

Unlike most of the existing centers, the District's "will not only serve D.C. students and teachers, but will also be a national flagship STEM education facility," said Challenger Center spokeswoman Lisa Vernal. "The center will include the next-generation Challenger Learning Center, a model for all of our centers around the globe, and an environment to support workforce development; a state-of-the-art STEM-focused research and development laboratory; and a professional development facility for educators."

Once implemented, DCPS will work to align the program's offerings with science curricula, said DCPS spokeswoman Melissa Salmanowitz, though she said Gray's office is leading the project.

Gray spokesman Pedro Ribeiro said the mayor is excited about the program and directed additional questions to the national program office.

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Mayor Vincent Gray plans space station simulator for D.C. students

Space Station Live: Veteran Astronaut Talks Crew Orientation
NASA Public Affairs Officer Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters recently spoke with NASA astronaut Cady Coleman, who lived aboard the International Space Station as Ex...

By: ReelNASA

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Space Station Live: Veteran Astronaut Talks Crew Orientation - Video

Space Station Live: April 11, 2013
The Space Station Live recap video for April 11, 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 11, 2013 - Video

Space Station Live: EarthKAM Recreating View From Gemini
Ken Ramsley, a graduate student in the Planetary Geosciences group at Brown University in Providence, R.I., joined NASA Public Affairs Officer Nicole Cloutie...

By: ReelNASA

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Space Station Live: EarthKAM Recreating View From Gemini - Video

Space Station Live: Installing the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS)
Space Station Live: Installing the AMS -- PAO Officer Kyle Herring interviews NASA astronaut Mike Fincke about his contribution during STS-134, the shuttle m...

By: okrajoe

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Space Station Live: Installing the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) - Video

Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer Experiment on the International Space Station
Station Commander Praises AMS. When asked what #39;s the most important International Space Station experiment, Commander Chris Hadfield names the Alpha Magnetic...

By: okrajoe

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Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer Experiment on the International Space Station - Video

Kottabos Space Program EP7 - De-Orbiting My Space Station
Welcome to the Kottabos Space Program home of the fastest growing space exploration program on Kerbin (and fifth safest to boot). Come and see as we launch o...

By: KottabosGames

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Kottabos Space Program EP7 - De-Orbiting My Space Station - Video