Category Archives: Space Station

Call it the ultimate absentee ballot. NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station have the option of voting in tomorrow's (Nov. 6) presidential election from orbit, hundreds of miles above their nearest polling location.

Astronauts residing on the orbiting lab receive a digital version of their ballot, which is beamed up by Mission Control at the agency's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston. Filled-out ballots find their way back down to Earth along the same path.

"They send it back to Mission Control," said NASA spokesman Jay Bolden of JSC. "It's a secure ballot that is then sent directly to the voting authorities."

This system was made possible by a 1997 bill passed by Texas legislators (nearly all NASA astronauts live in or around Houston). It was first used that same year by David Wolf, who happened to be aboard Russia's Mir space station at the time.

"You think about being in a foreign country and voting he was actually on a foreign space station," Bolden told SPACE.com.

Wolf participated in a local election in 1997. The first American to vote in a presidential election from space was Leroy Chiao, who did it while commanding the International Space Station's Expedition 10 mission in 2004. (The first crew arrived at the $100 billion orbiting lab in November 2000.)

The station's current Expedition 33 counts two Americans among its six-person crew commander Sunita Williams and flight engineer Kevin Ford. But both of them have already had their say in Tuesday's presidential election, voting from Earth just like the rest of us.

"They actually both did it while they were stationed in Russia, before they launched," Bolden said.

Williams and Ford both rode to orbit aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft, which launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Williams blasted off in mid-July, while Ford launched Oct. 23.

Williams is slated to return to Earth on Nov. 12. When she departs, Ford will become commander of the new Expedition 34 mission, which runs through March 2013.

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Extreme Voting: How Astronauts Cast Ballots from Space

Call it the ultimate absentee ballot. NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station have the option of voting in tomorrow's (Nov. 6) presidential election from orbit, hundreds of miles above their nearest polling location.

Astronauts residing on the orbiting lab receive a digital version of their ballot, which is beamed up by Mission Control at the agency's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston. Filled-out ballots find their way back down to Earth along the same path.

"They send it back to Mission Control," said NASA spokesman Jay Bolden of JSC. "It's a secure ballot that is then sent directly to the voting authorities."

PHOTOS: An Awe-Inspiring Space Station Odyssey

This system was made possible by a 1997 bill passed by Texas legislators (nearly all NASA astronauts live in or around Houston). It was first used that same year by David Wolf, who happened to be aboard Russia's Mir space station at the time.

"You think about being in a foreign country and voting -- he was actually on a foreign space station," Bolden told SPACE.com.

Wolf participated in a local election in 1997. The first American to vote in a presidential election from space was Leroy Chiao, who did it while commanding the International Space Station's Expedition 10 mission in 2004. (The first crew arrived at the $100 billion orbiting lab in November 2000.)

PHOTOS: Inside Atlantis' Final Space Station Mission

The station's current Expedition 33 counts two Americans among its six-person crew -- commander Sunita Williams and flight engineer Kevin Ford. But both of them have already had their say in Tuesday's presidential election, voting from Earth just like the rest of us.

"They actually both did it while they were stationed in Russia, before they launched," Bolden said.

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How Space Station Astronauts Can Vote from Orbit

International Space Station. Credit: NASA

Published: Nov. 5, 2012 at 7:42 PM

HOUSTON, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- NASA has announced a service that will send people an email or text message to help them catch sight of the International Space Station when is passes overhead.

The "Spot the Station" program was announced to mark the 12th anniversary of crews continuously living and working aboard the International Space Station, the space agency said.

When the station is visible, usually at dawn and dusk, it is the brightest object in the night sky, other than the moon, and can be seen as a fast moving point of light similar in size and brightness to the planet Venus, NASA officials said.

"It's really remarkable to see the space station fly overhead and to realize humans built an orbital complex that can be spotted from Earth by almost anyone looking up at just the right moment," said William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations.

People who sign up at spotthestation.nasa.gov can choose to receive alerts about morning sighting opportunities, evening sightings or both, NASA said.

The sighting information is calculated by NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston for more than 4,600 locations worldwide, all of which are available on "Spot the Station."

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NASA helps watchers spot space station

The International Space Station is photographed shortly after the space shuttle Atlantis undocked from it. (NASA / November 5, 2012)

November 5, 2012, 4:43 p.m.

You get sales alerts, Twitter alerts, sports alerts and Facebook alerts. Now you can also get an alert when the International Space Station is visible overhead thanks to NASA's new Web app Spot the Station.

The International Space Station's orbit 200 miles above Earth makes it visible to more than 90% of the Earth's population, NASA said. The trick is knowing when to look for it.

NASA's Johnson Space Center already calculates the sighting information several times a week for more than 4,600 locations worldwide. With its new Web app, it is just sharing that information with the space-obsessed public.

As long as you know where to look, the International Space Station is pretty easy to see, NASA said.It is the third-brightest object in the sky after the sun and the moon, and it looks like a fast moving point of light about the size and brightness of the planet Venus.

If you sign up for the newly released Web app, you'll get an alert via email or on your mobile device a few hours before the International Space Station will be visible from your neighborhood. NASA said it will only alert users of the app when conditions are ripe for good International Space Station viewing -- like when the ISS is more than 40 degrees high in the sky and when the viewing will last long enough that you'll be sure to catch it.

The Space Station is typically visible at dawn and dusk, and you can tell the alert system to tell you just about morning viewings or evening viewings. Or both.

The International Space Station just celebrated 12 years of manned orbit 200 miles above the Earth.

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It's a bird, it's a plane, no ... it's the space station

Beam me up an absentee ballot? It turns out there's no distance too far for absentee voting on Election Day. NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station have the option of voting from space, thanks to savvy technology and a 1997 bill passed by Texas lawmakers.

Astronauts working on the space station receive a digital version of their ballots in a secure email, which are beamed up to them from Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, and then sent back to Earth.

"They send a secure ballot to Mission Control," NASA spokesman Jay Bolden of the Johnson Space Center told ABCNews.com. "They'll send it up to our astronauts onboard, and they fill it out and send it back as a private email. astronauts do have privacy in the matter."

The ballot is then sent directly to voting authorities.

CLICK HERE for Election Day live updates

"The election folks count it and tabulate it just like any other vote," Bolden said. "The astronaut has voted and helped make democracy possible."

Astronauts can vote this way in any kind of U.S. election. Six astronauts have used the method to vote in presidential elections since it became law in 1997.

Current Station Cmdr. Sunita Williams, who is a captain in the U.S. Navy, voted from Russia using the same absentee ballot that troops abroad use before she departed for her duties as part of Expedition 32 on the International Space Station. The second American on the six-person crew currently at the lab is flight engineer Kevin Ford. He voted with a Texas absentee ballot while stationed in Russia before the launch, according to Bolden.

NASA astronauts Leroy Chiao, Edward Michael Fincke and Greg Chamitoff have all voted while aboard the International Space Station.

CLICK HERE to see photos of Americans voting around the U.S. today.

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How Astronauts Vote From Space

Seeing the International Space Station pass overhead is pretty cool. It glides soundlessly across the sky, getting brighter as it gets closer to you, whizzing by hundreds of kilometers above your head at 8 kilometers per second.

I usually go to Heavens-Above when I think of it to check when the next few passes will be. But wouldnt it be nice if you get a text or email letting you know that a pass is about to happen?

NASA has set up a service to do just that: Spot The Station. You can give it your email or phone number, your location, and whether youd like to see evening passes, morning ones, or both (because the station is lit by the Sun, you can only see it just after sunset or before sunrise).

Thats all there is to it. The next time the station is going to be visible from your location, NASA will send you a note. They also have a page describing what the message means, so you can go outside and figure out not just when to look, but where.

Ill note theres another service that does this as well: Twisst, which uses Twitter to let you know about good station passes at your location. It would be fun to compare them, actually. And useful, because they may have different criteria for what constitutes a good viewing opportunity. If you want to see the station, it might pay to hedge your bet.

And dont forget to try to take a picture! The shot above is one I took a few years ago with nothing more than an off-the-shelf point-and-shoot camera set up on a tripod in my back yard. There are two streaks because one (on the right) is the station, and the other is the Space Shuttle Atlantis! I can guarantee you cant get that shot again, but we do send other spacecraft to the station, so if you time it right you might get something like this. If you dont try, its a sure thing you never will, so give it a shot!

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- Watch the skies for the Shuttle and ISS - And I saw a star rising in the WEST? - SERIOUSLY jaw-dropping pictures of Endeavour and the ISS! - Ridiculously awesome pic of Discovery and the ISS taken from the ground!

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Wanna see the space station overhead? NASA will send you mail! | Bad Astronomy

ScienceDaily (Nov. 7, 2012) On the 12th anniversary of crews continuously living and working aboard the International Space Station, NASA announced Nov. 2 a new service to help people see the orbiting laboratory when it passes overhead. "Spot the Station" will send an email or text message to those who sign up for the service a few hours before they will be able to see the space station.

"It's really remarkable to see the space station fly overhead and to realize humans built an orbital complex that can be spotted from Earth by almost anyone looking up at just the right moment," said William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations. "We're accomplishing science on the space station that is helping to improve life on Earth and paving the way for future exploration of deep space."

When the space station is visible -- typically at dawn and dusk -- it is the brightest object in the night sky, other than the moon. On a clear night, the station is visible as a fast moving point of light, similar in size and brightness to the planet Venus. "Spot the Station" users will have the options to receive alerts about morning, evening or both types of sightings.

The International Space Station's trajectory passes over more than 90 percent of Earth's population. The service is designed to only notify users of passes that are high enough in the sky to be easily visible over trees, buildings and other objects on the horizon. NASA's Johnson Space Center calculates the sighting information several times a week for more than 4,600 locations worldwide, all of which are available on "Spot the Station."

Nov. 2 marks 12 years of continuous human habitation of the space station.

To sign up for "Spot the Station," visit: http://spotthestation.nasa.gov

For information about the International Space Station and a full list of sightings, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station

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Spot the space station over your backyard with new NASA service

Lia Mitchell - Superpowers and the Space Station
French science fiction is as old as the French language. Cyrano de Bergerac wrote about a trip to the moon that was published in 1657. So did Jules Verne in 1865, this time using hard scientific facts. Georges Mlis made the first movie showing a trip to the moon in 1902. In comics, Herg had Tintin walk on the moon in 1954, 15 years before Armstrong. Artist Jean-Claude Mzires work was clearly the inspiration for many of the aliens and spaceships in George Lucas #39; Star Wars saga. These are just a few of many unique French contributions to science fiction that rightly deserves to be better known. POW! features a dozen scholars from across Canada, the United States and France, discussing the role of science and fantasy in French science fiction, the influence of key authors in the genre #39;s history, as well as the impact of films and graphic novels on the public perception of the genre #39;s nature. The event will be highlighted by a public, keynote lecture by the preeminent science fiction author from Qubec, lisabeth Vonarburg, to be delivered on Friday November 2nd at the Language Institute Rotunda, LI216, at 8 pm Check out the poster for the conference here: http://www.nmsl.uregina.ca Intro animation by Gerald Saul. Camera/Edit Rob Hillstead Sound Jingyi Zhang Post-sound Ruben Rojas AlmendaresFrom:PowEyeMoonViews:14 2ratingsTime:00:54More inEducation

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Lia Mitchell - Superpowers and the Space Station - Video

Let #39;s Play: Maniac Mansion (NES) - Episode 3: Equal Opportunity Offender!
In this episode we discover the Edison family #39;s most important secret, so valuable that they have to keep it in a safe! Naturally that secret is none other than an Envelope... envelopes are expensive when you #39;re on a tight budget living up on a space station near the moon, you know. We also feed a hamster to a mutant plant, experience an awkward phone call with Nurse Edna, offend people of various ethniticities, and temporarily drain the coolant system / swimming pool.From:UltrapubViews:4 0ratingsTime:21:56More inGaming

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Let's Play: Maniac Mansion (NES) - Episode 3: Equal Opportunity Offender! - Video

Let #39;s Play Orbiter 09 - UCGO ISS Resupply part 2
Wherin we get ever closer to the International Space Station ... and completely miss.From:Onychoprion27Views:3 0ratingsTime:13:20More inEducation

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Let's Play Orbiter 09 - UCGO ISS Resupply part 2 - Video