Category Archives: Space Station

NASA lost direct contact with the International Space Station Tuesday due to equipment failure, leaving the orbiting laboratory dependent on Russian ground stations for communications with Earth, space agency officials say.

The communications loss occurred at 9:45 a.m. EST (1445 GMT) as flight controllers at NASA's Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston were sending a software update to the space station.

A main data relay system malfunctioned, and the computer that controls the station's critical functions switched to a backup, NASA officials said in a statement. However, the station was still unable to communicate with the Tracking and Data Relay satellite network that serves as the outpost's link to NASA's Mission Control center on the ground.

All six space station astronauts are in good health, and NASA has reestablished a connection with the station, NASA officials said. The space station is currently home to three Russians, two Americans and a Canadian astronaut.

"Mission Control Houston was able to communicate with the crew as the space station flew over Russian ground stations before 11:00 a.m. EST and instructed the crew to connect a backup computer to begin the process of restoring communications," NASA officials explained. "Expedition 34 Commander Kevin Ford reported that the stations status was fine and that the crew was doing well."

The International Space Station is a $100 billion laboratory in space that is about the size of a football field. It has the living space equivalent of a five-bedroom home and was built by five difference space agencies representing the United States, Russia, Europe, Canada and Japan.

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NASA briefly loses contact with international space station

The International Space Station in 2010 (NASA)

NASA's Mission Control lost contact with the International Space Station on Tuesday, temporarily leaving the $100 billion orbiting laboratory and its six astronauts without a means to communicate with Earth.

At 9:45 a.m., flight controllers in Houston were updating the software onboard the stations flight computers when one of the stations data relay systems malfunctioned, NASA said in a statement.

"The primary computer that controls critical station functions defaulted to a backup computer, but was not allowing the station to communicate with NASAs Tracking and Data Relay Satellites," NASA explained.

An hour later, NASA was able to communicate with the crew as the space station flew over Russian ground stations. Commander Kevin Ford reported that the stations status was fine and that the crew was doing well.

"The station is still flying straight, and everybody is in good shape," Ford said.

According to NASA's Johnson Space Center, communications were restored at 12:34 p.m. ET.

The International Space Stationbuilt in 1998 by space agencies representing the U.S., Russia, Europe, Canada and Japanis about the size of a football field and has the living space equivalent of a five-bedroom home.

It's been a rough go in the galaxy of late. Last week, a 150-foot asteroid buzzed by Earth, coming within 17,150 miles in the closest known flyby of a rock of its size, the Associated Press said.

The 17,400-mph brushback pitch came just hours after a meteor exploded above Russia, injuring more than 1,000 people, blowing out windows and shaking eyewitnesses with a blast equivalent of a 300-kiloton explosion.

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Space Station astronauts temporarily lose all contact with NASA

WASHINGTON (AP) The International Space Station regained contact with NASA controllers in Houston after nearly three hours of accidental quiet, the space agency says.

Officials say the six crew members and station are fine and had no problem during the brief outage.

NASA spokesman Josh Byerly said something went wrong around 9:45 a.m. EST Tuesday during a computer software update on the station. The outpost abruptly lost all communication, voice and command from Houston.

Communication was restored less than three hours later, Byerly said

"We've got our command and control back," he said.

Station commander Kevin Ford was able to briefly radio Moscow while the station was flying over Russia.

Normally, NASA communicates with and sends commands to the station from Houston, via three communications satellites that transmit voice, video and data. Such interruptions have happened a few times in the past, the space agency said.

If there is no crisis going on, losing communication with the ground "is not a terrible thing," said former astronaut Jerry Linenger, who was on the Russian space station Mir during a dangerous fire in 1997. "You feel pretty confident up there that you can handle it. You're flying the spacecraft."

Not only should this boost the confidence of the station crew, it's good training for any eventual mission to Mars because there will be times when communications is down or difficult during the much farther voyage, Linenger said.

In the past few weeks the space station had been purposely simulating communications delays and downtimes to see how activity could work for a future Mars mission, Byerly said. This was not part of those tests, but may prove useful, he said.

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NASA regains space station contact after outage

As Mission Control Houston upgraded software on the International Space Station's main computers, primary communications were lost for about 3 hours.

The International Space Station (ISS) lost ground communications capabilities for around three hours this morning during a software upgrade, according to NASA.

As flight controllers on the ground in Houston were updating flight computers, the data relay systems malfunctioned, cutting off all communications with the ground. The Communication and Tracking System provides communications between the crew and Mission Control via Ku-band, S-band, and UHF frequencies.

During the upgrade, an anomaly resulted in the primary computer that controls critical station functions defaulting to a backup computer, but the system was not allowing the station to communicate with NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellites.

As the space station flew over Russian ground stations around 8 a.m. PT, Mission Control Houston was able to make contact and instructed the crew to connect to a backup computer to begin the process of restoring the main communications.

Though communication is at the core of safe, reliable International Space Station operations, there doesn't appear to be any additional threat to the ISS as a result of the computer glitch. Expedition 34 Commander Kevin Ford reported that the station's status was fine and that the crew was doing well.

Mission Control Center, Houston, communicates with the ISS via 60-foot diameter, high-gain microwave ground terminals at NASA's White Sands Test Facility near Las Cruces, N.M. These terminals then relay signals to and from a pair of Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System satellites orbiting at an altitude of 22,300 miles. When everything is working smoothly, the satellites pass these signals directly to and from the ISS.

In 2010 the space station lost communications for about an hour when a computer crashed. See an interactive demonstration that further explains the process of space communications here.

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Space station loses touch with Earth after glitch

NASA has reestablished contact with the International Space Station Tuesday (Feb. 19) nearly three hours after an equipment failure left the orbiting laboratory dependent without a direct link to its Mission Control center, space agency officials said.

Space station flight controllers at NASA's Mission Control center in Houston restored contact with the space station at 12:34 p.m. ET (17:34 GMT), according to an update. The space agency lost communication with the International Space Station at 9:45 a.m. ET (1445 GMT).

"Flight controllers were in the process of updating the stations command and control software and were transitioning from the primary computer to the backup computer to complete the software load when the loss of communication occurred," NASA officials said in a statement.

A main data relay system malfunctioned, and the computer that controls the station's critical functions switched to a backup, NASA officials said in a statement. However, the station was still was unable to communicate with the Tracking and Data Relay satellite network that serves as the outpost's link to NASA's Mission Control center on the ground. [How NASA's Satellite Communications Network Works (Infographic)]

The communications loss occurred as flight controllers at NASA's Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston were sending a software update to the space station. The space station is currently home to three Russians, two Americans and a Canadian astronaut.

NASA flight controllers were able to communicate with the spaceflyers aboard the space station before lines of communication were reestablished.

"Mission Control Houston was able to communicate with the crew as the space station flew over Russian ground stations before 11:00 a.m. EST and instructed the crew to connect a backup computer to begin the process of restoring communications," NASA officials explained.

When Mission Control made contact with the International Space Station via Russian ground stations earlier today, Expedition 34 commander Kevin Ford reported on the health and status of the space station and its residents.

"Hey, just FYI, the station's still fine and straight, everybody is in good shape of course," said Ford in audio released by NASA. "And nothing unexpected other than lots of caution warning tones, and of course we have no system in sight. We'll get that back to you as soon as we can."

This is not the first time Mission Control has lost direct communication with the orbiting science laboratory. In 2010, the space station briefly lost communication with the ground when a primary computer failed and the backup had to take over. Communications were out for about one hour before NASA restored the connection.

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NASA Restores Contact with Space Station

WASHINGTON -- Journalists are invited to participate in a NASA Social from 9:30 a.m. to noon EST Wednesday, Feb. 20, in the James Webb Auditorium of NASA Headquarters at 300 E St. SW in Washington.

During this event, 150 social media followers and their guests will speak with three of the six crew members currently aboard the International Space Station orbiting about 240 miles above Earth. The participants also will hear from agency scientists and engineers about ground-breaking research taking place daily on the orbiting laboratory.

NASA Socials are in-person meetings for people who engage with the agency through Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and other social networks.

Participants in this NASA Social will learn about the discoveries enabled by the space station's unique microgravity environment that benefit humanity and increase our understanding of how humans can safely work and live in space for long periods.

Astronauts and officials scheduled to meet with the NASA Social participants are:

-- Astronauts Kevin Ford and Tom Marshburn of NASA and Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency will participate from the space station

-- NASA astronaut Don Pettit, a former space station resident

-- Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations Mission Directorate

-- Marshall Porterfield, director of NASA's Space Life and Physical Sciences Research and Applications Division

-- Tara Ruttley of NASA, an associate space station program scientist

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Reporters Invited to International Space Station Social Media Event

Lego space Station
cool

By: Thomas young

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Lego space Station - Video

Scientists are preparing to release the first round of results from a key experiment aboard the International Space Station that has been sampling a soup of high-energy particles in space.

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer particle detector was installed on the station during the next-to-last space shuttle mission in April 2011. Since then, the $2 billion instrument, a collaboration of 60 research institutes in 16 countries, has been amassing a proverbial mountain of data, including a headcount of 7.7 billion electrons and positrons (the antimatter counterpart to electrons.)

Scientists are less interested in the overall numbers of particles than the ratio between the two. The idea is to determine if there are more antimatter particles than matter, and, if so, at exactly what energy level does the disparity occur.

The smoking gun that were looking for in the positron-to-electron ratio is a rise and then a dramatic fall. Thats the key signature that would come from the dark matter annihilating the halo, said Michael Turner, director of the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago.

The halo Turner is referring to is the halo of the Milky Way galaxy, the region beyond the central disk of stars and dust. If current theoretical models are correct, theres a massively massive pool of dark matter perhaps as big as 1 million light years across that envelopes the visible galaxy, which is about 100,000 light years in diameter.

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1st Results from Space Station Particle Detector Experiment Coming in March

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield has beamed down responses to users of a popular social media website while circling Earth on the International Space Station.

Hadfield used a laptop to field questions sent up Sunday from users of the website Reddit in the "Ask Me Anything" discussion, which drew more than 2,000 queries and comments.

He says the scariest thing he's seen in space was a large meteorite burning up in front of him, sending a "shiver up my back" as he imagined the "lump of rock" hurtling towards the station instead.

Hadfield told one user a space mutiny was not going to happen, since the shared scientific goals of the station crew "keeps mutinies to a minimum."

He says he often loses track of which way is "up" in the station, and told one terrestrial questioner that if his daughter wanted to be an astronaut she'd have to stay fit and smart by eating her greens and doing her homework.

Hadfield says his favourite thing to do in space is to "simply fly" from one end of the station to the other.

And the 53-year-old astronaut waxed poetic when asked to describe his view of space outside.

"It looks like a carpet of countless tiny perfect unblinking lights in endless velvet, with the Milky Way as a glowing area of paler texture," he replied.

Hadfield said that space privatization is "the right and natural way to go," noting that the privately developed SpaceX Dragon spacecraft was due to float up and dock with the station in two weeks.

"And we'll grab it with Canadarm2," he said.

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Astronaut Chris Hadfield beams down replies from space station in online Q&A

An astronaut on the International Space Station has revealed his scariest moment - watching a large meteorite burn up over Australia.

Colonel Chris Hadfield, 53, a former Royal Canadian Air Force fighter pilot, is on board the ISS as the leader of Expedition 35.

Col Hadfield, who has also flown two space shuttle missions, blasted off for the ISS on December 19 on board a Russian Soyuz TMA-07M.

He has been keeping in touch with followers on Earth using social news site Reddit to host a question-and-answer session.

Reddit user unfortunatelyhuman asked him: "Which part of the world looks the coolest from space?"

The astronaut, who has been tweeting pictures from space , replied: "Australia looks coolest - the colours and textures of the Outback are severely artistic.

"The most beautiful to me are the Bahamas, the vast glowing reefs of every shade of blue that exists."

But it was also while the space station was over Australia that he admitted he had had his most scary moment - the meteorite encounter.

He wrote: "I watched a large meteorite burn up between me and Australia.

"To think of that hypersonic dumb lump of rock randomly hurtling into us instead sent a shiver up my back."

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Astronaut On Scariest Space Station Moment