Category Archives: Space Station

Plans to move the International Space Station to a slightly different orbit were called off on Thursday after controllers determined that two pieces of orbital debris would not pose a collision risk, NASA said.

Mission controllers had been monitoring debris from an old Russian Cosmos satellite and a fragment from an Indian rocket, and said there was a chance that the debris could come close enough to require an adjustment in the station's orbit on Thursday.

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But NASA said additional tracking of the debris "resulted in a high degree of confidence that neither object would pose any possibility of a conjunction" with the station. As a result, Mission Control in Houston canceled the debris avoidance maneuver. Russian flight controllers endorsed the decision, NASA said.

Space junk moves so fast that it can puncture the station, so engineers try to give debris a wide berth whenever something comes close. Three spacefliers NASA's Sunita Williams, Russia's Yuri Malenchenko and Japan's Akihiko Hoshide are currently living aboard the station.

If the maneuver had been required, the engines of a European cargo ship docked to the station, the Edoardo Amaldi Automated Transfer Vehicle, would have been fired to make the move. A communications glitch kept the unmanned ATV from leaving the station earlier this week, as scheduled.

"Russian engineers told mission managers that they fully understand the nature of the error and are prepared to proceed to a second undocking attempt," NASA said in Thursday's update. The tentative plans for the debris avoidance maneuver meant the next attempt to undock the ATV had to be delayed until Friday at the earliest.

Once the craft is undocked, a pair of engine firings will send it down through the atmosphere to burn up over the Pacific Ocean.

This report includes information from NBC News and The Associated Press.

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Space station on alert

ScienceDaily (Sep. 27, 2012) Want to be a part of International Space Station research? Here's your chance. NASA is offering opportunities for academia, industry and government agencies to develop and carry out research and technology demonstrations on the space station using the newly installed Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Testbed.

These opportunities will allow researchers to develop new software according to the Space Telecommunications Radio Standard, or STRS, architecture for radios and reconfigure how radios communicate in space.

The SCaN Testbed is a communications, navigation and networking demonstration platform based on the STRS. The experimental platform began its initial checkout activities on the space station Aug. 13, and will operate for at least three years.

Experiment developers will provide software components to the STRS repository and enable future hardware platforms to use common reusable software modules.

The new testbed is composed of three STRS-compliant, software-defined radios to be operated in space, said Richard Reinhart, principal investigator of the SCaN Testbed at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. "This flexible testbed will allow researchers to develop new software according to the STRS architecture for the radios and reconfigure how the radios communicate on-orbit, to explore new concepts for future missions. Once proven, this new capability will enable greater science return from future NASA missions."

There are two opportunities (http://spaceflightsystems.grc.nasa.gov/SOPO/SCO/SCaNTestbed/Candidate/) to use the testbed on the station.

The SCaN Testbed Experiment Opportunity invites industry and government agencies to enter into Space Act Agreements with NASA to use the SCaN Testbed on space station. The SCaN Testbed Cooperative Agreement Notice invites academia to develop proposals to use the orbiting laboratory's SCaN Testbed research capabilities. NASA expects these first industry, government agency, and university demonstrations to take place by late 2013 or early 2014.

"These two announcements of opportunity provide industry, academia and government agency experimenters a unique service and facility to develop and field the latest communications, navigation and networking technologies not only in the laboratory, but also in the dynamic space environment," said David Irimies, deputy project manager of the SCaN Testbed at Glenn. "Investigators will gain valuable flight experience, raise the technology maturity level of their applications by operating within the space environment, and demonstrate future mission capabilities for a potentially key role in future NASA missions."

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NASA offers opportunity to use communications testbed on space station

Space officials are keeping a watchful eye on two different pieces of space junk that may force the International Space Station to steer away from potential impact threats.

Debris from the Russian COSMOS satellite and a fragment of a rocket from India may come close enough to the space station to require a debris avoidance maneuver. If needed, the maneuver would be done using the ESAs Automated Transfer Vehicle "Edoardo Amadi." The ATV was supposed to undock on Tuesday night, but a communications glitch forced engineers to postpone the departure.

Both pieces of debris are edging just inside the so-called "red zone" of miss distance to the station with a time of closest approach calculated to occur Thursday at 10:42 a.m. ET. It is not known how large the object is.

An approach of debris is considered close only when it enters an imaginary "pizza box" region around the station, measuring 1.5 by 50 by 50 kilometers (about a mile deep, by 30 miles across, by 30 miles long) with the vehicle in the center.

NASA says the three-person Expedition 33 crew is in no danger and continues its work on scientific research and routine maintenance. The current crew includes NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko.

If the maneuver is required and NASA said it could be called off any time it would occur at 8:12 a.m. ET Thursday, using the engines on the ATV, which remains docked to the aft port of the station's Zvezda service module. It usually takes about 30 hours to plan for and verify the need for an avoidance maneuver.

Debris avoidance maneuvers are conducted when the probability of collision is greater than 1 in 100,000, if the maneuver will not result in significant impact to mission objectives. If it is greater than 1 in 10,000, a maneuver will be conducted unless it results in additional risk to the crew.

If there's not enough time to conduct an avoidance maneuver, the space station's astronauts may be alerted to take shelter in their Soyuz vehicles. The last time that happened was on March 24, but the threatening object passed by without incident.

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Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: A fresh picture from NASA's Curiosity rover shows the Martian moon Phobos as a crescent shining over the Red Planet at dusk.

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Orbital debris sets off space station alert

The International Space Station is in danger of being hit by two pieces of debris from an old Russian satellite that had previously hit a US craft in 2009, a news report says.

The space station will encounter pieces of the Kosmos 2251 military spy orbiter in the next few days, the Interfax news agency quoted a source at Russian Mission Control as saying.

"Two fragments of the Kosmos 2251 craft may pose a danger to the station," the unnamed source was quoted as saying.

The source added that the station may now have to manoeuvre out of the path of the approaching debris in a special operation tentatively planned for Thursday.

The Kosmos 2251 satellite was launched by Russia in 1993 and decommissioned just two years later.

The satellite crashed into a US Iridium-33 satellite in February 2009 in the first such space accident of its kind. The collision created hundreds of smaller fragments that pose a danger to both the station and other satellites.

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Space station at risk of debris hit

An unmanned European cargo ship as large as a double-decker bus inside will have to wait a bit longer before leaving the International Space Station due to computer problems, NASA officials say.

The robotic Automated Transfer Vehicle 3 (ATV-3) spacecraft was slated to undock from the space station Tuesday evening, but a technical glitch with a laptop computer inside the station prevented to orbital departure. The two spacecraft were scheduled to part ways at 6:35 p.m. EDT (2235 GMT).

"We're not undocking today, that's been canceled," a flight controller in Mission Control told the station's three-person crew.

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The computer glitch apparently interrupted signals from a laptop computer inside the station that serves as a command panel for the departing ATV-3 spacecraft. The computer is inside the Russian-built Zvezda module, the rear-most module that serves as the docking port for ATV spacecraft and visiting Russian spacecraft. [ Photos: Europe's Robotic ATV Spaceships ]

Station commander Sunita Williams of NASA told Mission Control that commands sent from the laptop apparently were not reaching the ATV spacecraft. Engineers are expected to meet early Wednesday to discuss the malfunction and determine when the next undocking attempt can be made, NASA officials said.

The space station's current Expedition 34 crew includes Williams, Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko.

The ATV-3 spacecraft, which is also known as Edoardo Almadi in honor of the late Italian physicist of the same name, is the third unmanned cargo ship built by the European Space Agency to send food, water, science gear and other supplies to the International Space Station. The spacecraft launched to the station in late March and delivered 7.2 tons of food to the orbiting lab.

The cylindrical ATV spacecraft are 32 feet long (10 meters) and nearly 15 feet wide (4.5 m). They are disposable spacecraft designed to fly themselves to the space station, and then be jettisoned at mission's end to burn up in Earth's atmosphere somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. The European Space Agency commands the spacecraft from a mission control center in Toulouse, France.

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Computer glitch delays space station undocking

The Canadian Press - ONLINE EDITION

By: Peter Rakobowchuk, The Canadian Press

24/09/2012 5:42 PM | Comments: 0

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Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield speaks to reporters at a news conference Monday, September 24, 2012 in Saint-Hubert, Que. Hatfield blasts off for the International space station from Russia in December.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

LONGUEUIL, Que. - Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield plays coy when asked whether his upcoming six-month visit to the International Space Station will be his last trip into the cosmos.

"Never, say never," he said in an interview at the Canadian Space Agency on Monday.

The veteran astronaut is due to launch on a Russian spacecraft with NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko on Dec. 19 two weeks later than planned.

The three were originally scheduled to blast off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Dec. 5.

Hadfield says a Russian Soyuz will be visiting the space station in a couple of weeks and that trips by a couple of resupply ships are also planned.

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Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield launch to space station pushed back two weeks

ScienceDaily (Sep. 21, 2012) NASA managers, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) officials and international partner representatives Thursday announced Sunday, Oct. 7, as the target launch date for the first contracted cargo resupply flight to the International Space Station under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract.

International Space Station Program managers confirmed the status and readiness of the Falcon 9 rocket and its Dragon cargo spacecraft for the SpaceX CRS-1 mission, as well as the space station's readiness to receive Dragon.

Launch is scheduled for 8:34 p.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. A back up launch opportunity is available on Oct. 8.

The launch of the Dragon spacecraft will be the first of 12 contracted flights by SpaceX to resupply the space station and marks the second trip by a Dragon to the station, following a successful demonstration mission in May. SpaceX services under the CRS contract will restore an American capability to deliver and return significant amounts of cargo, including science experiments, to the orbiting laboratory -- a feat not achievable since the retirement of the space shuttle.

The Dragon will be filled with about 1,000 pounds of supplies. This includes critical materials to support the 166 investigations planned for the station's Expedition 33 crew, including 63 new investigations. The Dragon will return about 734 pounds of scientific materials, including results from human research, biotechnology, materials and educational experiments, as well as about 504 pounds of space station hardware.

Materials being launched on Dragon will support experiments in plant cell biology, human biotechnology and various materials technology demonstrations, among others. One experiment, called Micro 6, will examine the effects of microgravity on the opportunistic yeast Candida albicans, which is present on all humans. Another experiment, called Resist Tubule, will evaluate how microgravity affects the growth of cell walls in a plant called Arabidopsis. About 50 percent of the energy expended by terrestrial-bound plants is dedicated to structural support to overcome gravity. Understanding how the genes that control this energy expenditure operate in microgravity could have implications for future genetically modified plants and food supply. Both Micro 6 and Resist Tubule will return with the Dragon at the end of its mission.

Expedition 33 Commander Sunita Williams of NASA and Aki Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will use a robot arm to grapple the Dragon following its rendezvous with the station on Wednesday, Oct. 10. They will attach the Dragon to the Earth-facing port of the station's Harmony module for a few weeks while crew members unload cargo and load experiment samples for return to Earth.

Dragon is scheduled to return in late October for a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of southern California.

While NASA works with U.S. industry partners to develop commercial spaceflight capabilities, the agency also is developing the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System (SLS), a crew capsule and heavy-lift rocket to provide an entirely new capability for human exploration. Designed to be flexible for launching spacecraft for crew and cargo missions, SLS and Orion will expand human presence beyond low Earth orbit and enable new missions of exploration across the solar system.

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SpaceX, NASA target Oct. 7 launch for resupply mission to International Space Station

Published: Sept. 21, 2012 at 6:22 PM

HOUSTON, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- NASA says the first contracted cargo resupply flight to the International Space Station is targeted for early next month in Florida.

NASA and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. said the Falcon 9 rocket and its Dragon cargo spacecraft are ready for the SpaceX CRS-1 mission Oct. 7 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. A backup launch opportunity is available Oct. 8.

"The launch of the Dragon spacecraft will be the first of 12 contracted flights by SpaceX to resupply the space station and marks the second trip by a Dragon to the station, following a successful demonstration mission in May," NASA said Thursday in a release. "SpaceX services under the [Commercial Resupply Services] contract will restore an American capability to deliver and return significant amounts of cargo, including science experiments, to the orbiting laboratory -- a feat not achievable since the retirement of the space shuttle."

NASA said the Dragon will be filled with about 1,000 pounds of supplies and will return with about 734 pounds of scientific materials, as well as about 504 pounds of space station hardware.

Dragon is scheduled to return in late October for a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California.

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NASA: Dragon prepared for space flight

A private space capsule's first contracted cargo mission to the International Space Station is slated to launch Oct. 7, NASA officials announced Thursday.

SpaceX's robotic Dragon spacecraft is set to blast off atop the company's Falcon 9 rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 8:34 p.m. EDT on Oct. 7. A backup launch opportunity is available the following day, officials said.

The mission will kick off Dragon's first-ever bona fide supply run to the station. California-based SpaceX holds a $1.6 billion NASA contract to make 12 such unmanned flights.

When it leaves the pad, Dragon will be carrying about 1,000 pounds (454 kilograms) of supplies, officials said. Much of the gear will support the 166 different scientific investigations including experiments in plant cell biology, human biotechnology and materials demonstrations planned during the station's current Expedition 33.

If all goes according to plan, Dragon will rendezvous with the station on Oct. 10, at which point Expedition 33 commander Sunita Williams of NASA and Japanese astronaut Aki Hoshide will grapple it with the orbiting lab's robotic arm.

Dragon will stay attached to the Earth-facing port of the station's Harmony module for several weeks while the Expedition 33 crew unloads the capsule and then loads it back up again with cargo to return to Earth.

Dragon is scheduled to depart the station in late October. It will splash down in the Pacific Ocean, carrying 734 pounds (333 kg) of scientific materials and 504 pounds (229 kg) of space station hardware, officials said.

The Oct. 7 flight won't mark Dragon's maiden mission to the $100 billion orbiting complex.

In May, Dragon became the first private vehicle ever to visit the station during a historic demonstration mission that sought to gauge SpaceX's readiness to begin its contracted flights.

NASA also inked a $1.9 billion deal with Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp. to make eight unmanned supply runs to the station with its Cygnus spacecraft and Antares rocket.

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SpaceX launch to space station is Oct. 7

Handheld "tricorders" from "Star Trek" remain just a science fiction fantasy for astronauts who need advanced medical care in space. But a new version of full-body scanning technology has the right size and power requirements to possibly fit aboard the International Space Station.

The smaller, cheaper version of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine could provide "slice" images of astronauts' bodies to improve studies of human health in space issues such as bone and muscle loss in low-gravity environments or the effects of deep-space radiation. Space explorers living on moon bases or traveling to Mars could also benefit from having such medical technology available during missions lasting for months or years.

"I would like to build a facility-class, whole-body-sized MRI," said Gordon Sarty, acting chairman of the biomedical engineering division at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. "Such a project would require an agreement between the ISS space agencies."

The compact MRI could weigh less than a ton one-twentieth of a ton for a smaller version that scans arms and legs and would require far less power than traditional MRI. Costs for the full-body MRI could drop from $2 million to as low as $200,000.

Sarty presented his team's compact MRI technology at AIAA Space 2012, a conference organized by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, on Sept. 13. He hopes to win funding from the Canadian Space Agency to launch the machine to the space station around 2020.

MRI machines work by using radiofrequency coils to broadcast signals to the human body and receive return signals to build an image of the body's innards. Gradient coils control the machine's magnetic field to produce the precise "slice" images of certain parts of the body.

But MRI technology has limits that would make it both difficult and risky to operate on the space station. Typical MRI machines weigh about 11 tons or more because they rely upon heavy superconducting magnets cooled by liquid helium, and also create stray magnetic fields that could interfere with the space station's operations. Another problem comes from the MRI gradient coils' need to consume huge amounts of power in short bursts. [8 Surprising High-Tech Uses for Helium]

"These characteristics make it impractical and potentially dangerous to take a conventional MRI into space," Sarty told InnovationNewsDaily.

Compact MRI uses two different technologies to get around such problems. First, it uses a permanent Halbach magnet that is lighter than the superconducting magnet and does not create stray magnetic fields outside the magnet. Second, the compact MRI eliminates the power-hungry gradient coils by using Transmit Array Spatial Encoding (TRASE) that encodes images through the radiofrequency coil alone.

The smaller MRI technology has many uses far beyond space it could improve overall medical care on Earth by making the cheaper machines available around the world. Its smaller size could also lead to easier use of MRIs in battlefield hospitals or distant parts of the world with limited space and power.

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New, Compact Body Scanner Ready for Space Station