Category Archives: Space Station

NASA and its international partners have named several future International Space Station expedition crews. They include NASA astronauts Steve Swanson, Reid Wiseman, Barry Wilmore and Terry Virts.

Swanson was born in Syracuse, N.Y., but considers Steamboat Springs, Colo., his hometown. Wiseman is from Baltimore and is a commander in the U.S. Navy. Wilmore, a captain in the U.S. Navy, is from Mount Juliet, Tenn. Virts, a colonel in the U.S. Air Force, was born in Baltimore, but considers Columbia, Md., his hometown.

Swanson and his two Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) crewmates will join Expedition 39 in progress. That expedition will begin in mid-March 2014. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata, the expedition's commander; NASA's Richard Mastracchio; and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin already will be aboard.

Swanson and his crewmates are scheduled to launch in late-March 2014. Expedition 39 will consist of the following crew members:

-- Wakata, station commander -- Mastracchio, flight engineer -- Tyurin, flight engineer -- Swanson, flight engineer -- Alexander Skvortsov of Roscomos, flight engineer -- Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos, flight engineer

Expedition 40 will begin in mid-May 2014. The second half of the crew is scheduled to launch in late-May 2014. Expedition 40 will consist of the following crew members:

-- Swanson, station commander -- Skvortsov, flight engineer -- Artemyev, flight engineer -- Wiseman, flight engineer -- Maxim Suraev of Roscosmos, flight engineer -- Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency (ESA), flight engineer

Expedition 41 will begin in September 2014. The remainder of the crew is scheduled to launch in October 2014. Expedition 41 will consist of the following crew members:

-- Suraev, station commander -- Wiseman, flight engineer -- Gerst, flight engineer -- Wilmore, flight engineer -- Yelena Serova of Roscosmos, flight engineer -- Alexander Samoukutyaev of Roscosmos, flight engineer

Expedition 42 will begin in mid-November 2014. The other half of the team is scheduled to launch in late-November 2014. Once on the station, Expedition 42 will include the following crew members:

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NASA, Space Station Partners Announce Future Crew Members

NASA will use Bigelow's Expandable Activity Module to determine the potential benefits of inflatables for exploration and commercial space work.

The Bigelow Aerospace BA 330.

NASA has awarded a contract to explore ways to potentially expand the International Space Station.

The agency announced last week that Bigelow Aerospace has been awarded a $17.8 million contract to deliver to the agency an inflatable extension for the space station. According to NASA, the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module "will demonstrate the benefits of this space habitat technology for future exploration and commercial space endeavors."

Inflatable space technology is nothing new. In fact, the first passive communications satellites -- Echo 1 and Echo 2 -- were both inflatable. NASA determined in 1958 that the satellites would be too big to fit into the Thor-Delta rocket, so scientists decided to allow the satellites to inflate when they got into space.

The idea of a self-contained inflatable habitat for space exploration has even been in place for decades. However, due to NASA budget constraints, the so-called "Transit Habitat," which was to help get crews to Mars with inflatable technology, was cancelled in 2000.

Bigelow, founded in the late 1990s, has been working on its own inflatable habitats for years. The company currently offers a BA 330 inflatable habitat that can be both added on to existing stations or operate on its own. The BA 330 has 330 cubed meters of volume and support up to six crewpeople for an extended period of time. According to Bigelow, the BA 330's radiation protection can at least match that of the International Space Station. The habitat's "aluminum can" design includes four large windows for occupants to look out into space.

It's not clear whether the BA 330 or another habitat has been commissioned by NASA. However, the space agency plans to hold a press event with Bigelow on Wednesday to discuss their plans.

(Via Forbes)

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Space station to test $17 million inflatable room

NASA has officially signed a deal to attach an inflatable private module to the International Space Station, space agency officials confirmed Friday, Jan. 11.

Under the new deal, NASA will pay $17.8 million to the Nevada-based private spaceflight firm Bigelow Aerospace for the company's Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), which will be affixed to the orbiting lab as a technology demonstration.

"This partnership agreement for the use of expandable habitats represents a step forward in cutting-edge technology that can allow humans to thrive in space safely and affordably, and heralds important progress in U.S. commercial space innovation," NASA deputy chief Lori Garver said in a statement.

Friday's announcement confirms reports that surfaced earlier in the week. Garver and Bigelow founder and president Robert Bigelow will discuss the BEAM program at a media event Jan. 16 at Bigelow Aerospace facilities in North Las Vegas, NASA officials said.

- NASA deputy chief Lori Garver

BEAM is likely to be similar to Bigelow's Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 prototypes, which the company launched to orbit in 2006 and 2007, respectively. Both Genesis modules are 14.4 feet long by 8.3 feet wide, with about 406 cubic feet of pressurized volume. [Photos: Bigelow's Inflatable Space Station Idea]

NASA officials have said that BEAM could be on orbit about two years after getting an official go-ahead. The module will likely be launched by one of the agency's commerical cargo suppliers, California-based SpaceX or Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp.

Bigelow's dreams don't stop at the International Space Station. The company wants to launch and link up several of its larger expandable modules to create private space stations, which could be used by a variety of clients.

Tenants could get to orbiting Bigelow habitats in several different ways. The company has set up a partnership with SpaceX for use of its Dragon spacecraft and another one with Boeing, to use the aerospace giant's CST-100 capsule.

Bigelow is also eyeing a possible outpost on the moon, for which the company envisions using its BA-330 modules (so named because they offer 330 cubic meters of usable internal volume). Several BA-330 habitats, along with propulsion tanks and power units, would be joined together in space and then flown down to the lunar surface.

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NASA buys $18M inflatable room for international space station

From high above Earth, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield is broadcasting a message of peace for the people of Earth, with a little help from 200,000 Twitter fans.

The three-time spaceflyer, a flight engineer and prolific Twitter user on the International Space Station, spoke solemnly Thursday (Jan. 10) about a picture he recently took of war-torn Syria.

The picture had special poignancy given that the Earth appears as "one place" from orbit, Hadfield told reporters in a press conference at the Canadian Space Agency's headquarters near Montreal, Quebec.

"When we do look down on a place that is in great turmoil or strife, it's hard to reconcile the inherent patience and beauty of the world with the terrible things that we can do to each other as people, and can do to the Earth itself, locally," Hadfield said from space.

Hadfield, 53, spent his first three weeks in orbit sending dozens of pictures of his view on Earth. That, plus a Twitter chat with Star Trek actor William Shatner and other celebrities, propelled his social media account @Cmdr_Hadfield on to the world stageafter his launch Dec. 19.

This weekend, Hadfield's Twitter feed surpassed 200,000 followers. As of Sunday (Jan. 13), the count was at 204,630 fans.

"Thats probably the reason we work so hard to communicate what were doing up here, as an international team ... to just try to give people just a little glimpse of that global perspective, of that understanding that were all in this together, and that this is a spaceship, but so is the world."

'A lot of the world's territory'

Chris Hadfield, who will be Canada's first space station commander in March when he takes charge, played down his sudden celebrity on Twitter, saying that he is "just a member of the rest of the team here". He attributed his popularity to the "fundamentally fascinating" work that he and the rest of the station's six-man Expedition 34 creware performing in space. [Photos by Space Station's Expedition 34Crew]

"With these new technologies in communications, we can directly give people the human side of that. The fact that now, gosh, more than 150,000 people are directly following us every day I think its just a direct measure of how important and useful this is in the human experience."

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Space Station Astronaut Calls for Peace on Earth

Nasa is set to expand the International Space Station with an inflatable module made by a private company.

Bigelow Aerospace is producing the new module for $17.8 million, which in comparison to most Nasa projects is remarkably cheap.

The exact specification of the module has not been announced, but it is thought to be similar to the BA 330 prototypes which are already orbiting Earth.

It is also expected that SpaceX will help Bigelow to launch the module into space - the two already have a launch scheduled for 2015.

Nasa said:

"The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module will demonstrate the benefits of this space habitat technology for future exploration and commercial space endeavors."

The full details of the expansion will be announced on Wednesday, Nasa said. Images of Bigelow Aerospace's modules on its websites depict a live-work space rather than a science lab, though it is unclear if this will reflect the final design.

"This partnership agreement for the use of expandable habitats represents a step forward in cutting-edge technology that can allow humans to thrive in space safely and affordably, and heralds important progress in U.S. commercial space innovation."

Above: Deputy Administrator Lori Garver of NASA is given a tour of the Bigelow Aerospace facilities by the company's President Robert Bigelow February 4, 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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Nasa's Next Space Station Project Is Inflatable

Snapshots of Earth from the International Space Station! 1/12/13
January 12, 2013 Report

By: MyNewsWatch

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Snapshots of Earth from the International Space Station! 1/12/13 - Video

Metroid Prime OST - #04 Space Station Interior
This music has some scary touch ... creepy 😐 Enjoy

By: GamezOST

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Metroid Prime OST - #04 Space Station Interior - Video

Let #39;s Play Space Station 13 - Station 1 - These UnUnited Nations : Nations Game Mode Special
Nations is a SS 13 ((TG station version of SS 13)) special game mode, it is when all departments are dependent from nanotransen ((wiki.nanotrasen.com This video was recorded on Yogstation 13 : http://www.byond.com Note : Trying to start a Nations game mode in OOC may result in ban depending on the Admin, you have been warned

By: keyreper

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Let's Play Space Station 13 - Station 1 - These UnUnited Nations : Nations Game Mode Special - Video

ISS - International Space Station Comms - Over E. Ontario
Jan 12th 2013 - 939am-945am - 145.8000Mhz

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ISS - International Space Station Comms - Over E. Ontario - Video

After controlling small satellites in the International Space Station this morning (Jan. 11), two teams of high school students took home top prizes for their programming skills.

The teams were part of theZero Robotics SPHERES Challenge, an annual competition that asks students to program bowling ball-size satellites to perform maneuvers related to current space-exploration problems. This year's competitors had to mimic cleaning up broken satellites and other unwanted debris humans have put into orbit around the Earth, but haven't brought back down again. Such "space junk" increases every year, which is a problem for new satellites that people want to put into space.

The student-written programs run in real testing satellites, calledSynchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient Experimental Satellitesor SPHERES, that zip around the cabin of the International Space Station.

Every year, winners are announced among U.S. and European Union teams. In the United States, the winning team included students from Montclair High School in New Jersey and the Evergreen School District in Washington State. In the EU, the top prize went to a team of students from the Enrico Fermi School in Italy and Herder-Gymnasium in Germany.

This story was provided by TechNewsDaily, sister site to SPACE.com. Follow TechNewsDaily on Twitter @TechNewsDaily, or on Facebook.

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Space Station Contest Lets Students Program Satellites