Space and Space Travel News

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- (15 Nov. 2008) -- Space Shuttle Endeavour's Remote Manipulator System/Orbiter Boom Sensor System (RMS/OBSS) is featured in this image photographed by an STS-126 crewmember aboard the shuttle. Earth's horizon and the blackness of space provide the backdrop for the scene. » Photo Credit: NASA


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- (20 Nov. 2008) -- Astronaut Donald Pettit monitors data at the Canadarm2 workstation in the Destiny laboratory of the ISS while Space Shuttle Endeavour remains docked with the station.


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- (20 Nov. 2008) -- Astronaut Michael Fincke, Expedition 18 commander, works in the Destiny laboratory of the International Space Station while Space Shuttle Endeavour remains docked with the station. Photo Credit: NASA


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- (19 Nov. 2008) -- Astronaut Eric Boe, shuttle pilot, pictured during activities on the shuttle flight deck while docked with the ISS.


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- (19 Nov. 2008) -- Astronaut Steve Bowen uses a video camera on the middeck of the shuttle while docked with the Space Station.


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- (27 Nov. 2008) -- Having completed the current home improvement project with other members of the joint space shuttle-Space Station aggregation aboard the orbital outpost, astronaut Eric Boe turns to housekeeping chores aboard Endeavour. The pilot uses a vacuum cleaner to remove dust particles from the air filter system on the shuttle's middeck.




NASA: Astronauts hold cameras in the Zvezda Service Module on the International Space Station

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- (18 Nov. 2008) -- Solar array panels on the ISS are backdropped against Earth's horizon in this photo made by a crew member.


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- (24 Nov. 2008) -- Astronaut Shane Kimbrough participates in the mission's fourth and final scheduled spacewalk. During the six-hour, seven-minute spacewalk, they copleted the lubrication of the port Solar Alpha Rotary Joints (SARJ) as well as other station assembly tasks. Bowen also installed a video camera on the Port 1 truss and attached a Global Positioning System antenna on the Japanese Experiment Module Pressurized Section.[/i]




(20 Nov. 2008) -- Two astronauts participate in the mission's second spacewalk as construction and maintenance continue on the International Space Station. During the six-hour, 45-minute spacewalk they relocated two equipment carts and applied lubrication to the station's robotic Canadarm2. ISS: Photos


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- (26 Nov. 2008) -- The Canadian-built Orbiter Boom Sensor System, in its parked position, and part of the ISS are featured in this image, photographed over the Blue Ridge Mountains of West Virginia and Tennessee (USA) by one of Endeavour's crew members.

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- Clouds on Earth and part of the orbital outpost seen through an ISS window and a 50th Anniversary of NASA event poster.


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(21 Nov. 2008) -- Following a space-to-Earth press conference, members of the International Space Station and Space Shuttle Endeavour crews posed for a group portrait on the orbital outpost. - ISS: Photos




- (21 Nov. 2008) -- The members of the STS-126/ULF-2 ISS Orbit 2 flight control team pose for a group portrait in the space station flight control room in the Mission Control Center at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Flight director Ginger Kerrick (right) holds the STS-126 mission logo. More Shuttle Mission Imagery

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- (27 Nov. 2008) -- Astronaut Donald Pettit looks at the home planet from a window inside the Kibo laboratory of the ISS. One more day remains for the Space Shuttle Endeavour to be docked with the station


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- (27 Nov. 2008) -- One of Endeavour's crew members recorded this image of one of the trusses on the International Space Station as crewmembers of both the shuttle and orbital outpost prepared to go separate ways on the following day.

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- (28 Nov. 2008) -- Backdropped by a blue and white Earth and the blackness of space, Space Shuttle Endeavour (bottom, partially obscured); a docked Soyuz spacecraft; and Canadian-built Dextre (top left), also known as the Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator, are featured in this image photographed by an ISS crewmember after Endeavour undocked from the station.


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- (28 Nov. 2008) -- Backdropped by a cloud-covered part of Earth, Space Shuttle Endeavour is featured in this image photographed by an crewmember after the shuttle undocked from the Space Station. Undocking of the two spacecraft occurred at 8:47 a.m. (CST) on Nov. 28, 2008. » NASA: Shuttle Mission Imagery


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- (30 Nov. 2008) -- Endeavour landed at 1:25 p.m. (PST) in California completing its 16-day journey of over 6.6 million miles in space. The STS-126 mission was the 27th flight to the ISS, carrying equipment and supplies in the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Leonardo to prepare the space station to house six crewmembers for long-duration missions in the coming years.

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IAF Symposium: Celebrating Ten Years of the International Space Station


» IAF Videos: How it all started

The International Astronautical Federation (IAF) held a Symposium "Celebrating Ten Years of the International Space Station" at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France on Wednesday 9 July and Thursday 10 July 2008. The symposium focused on the history and significance of the cooperation and looked ahead to what can be achieved in the coming years. The meeting brought together the key leaders in the past and future of the International Space Station. MORE »

» ISS: Symposium Report (Pdf) » Video: Introduction lecture » 2
Scientific Experiments on the ISS: AMINO to probe the origins of life (more)

On the Net:
French Space Agency: http://www.cnes.fr - www.techno-science.net

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Atlantis undocks from the former Russian Space Station MIR. - Russian Fed. Space Agency: www.roscosmos.ru

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- Fish-eye view of the Space Shuttle Atlantis as seen from the Russian Mir space station. Photo: Grin.nasa.gov


Photo: Space

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Photos: Assembly of Soyuz capsule in Baikonur

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Wikip: Soyuz TMA

- Attired in a Russian Sokol launch and entry suit, astronaut Jeffrey N. Williams is photographed in the TMA-8 Soyuz spacecraft docked to the International Space Station. Photo: NASA

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Grin.hq.nasa.gov

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Rocket Motor Successfully Tested in Utah (USA)

• www.nasa.gov/news

Dec. 4, 2008 -- Fire and smoke billow from a space shuttle reusable solid rocket motor static test at a Utah test facility where a two-minute space shuttle rocket motor test was successfully conducted. The test provides important information for continued shuttle launches and for development of the Ares I rocket, a key component of NASA's Constellation Program that will launch the Orion crew exploration vehicle on missions to the moon. MORE »

• The Orion Service Module
• Constellation Program Introduction (more)

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Universe Today: Physicists and cosmologists consider possibility of time before the Big Bang


NASA: Timeline of the Universe


- What happened before the Big Bang? The conventional answer to that question is usually, "There is no such thing as 'before the Big Bang.'" That's the event that started it all. But the right answer, says physicist Sean Carroll, is, "We just don't know." Carroll, as well as many other physicists and cosmologists have begun to consider the possibility of time before the Big Bang, as well as alternative theories of how our universe came to be. Carroll discussed this type of "speculative research" during a talk at the American Astronomical Society Meeting last week in St. Louis, Missouri.

"This is an interesting time to be a cosmologist," Carroll said. "We are both blessed and cursed. It's a golden age, but the problem is that the model we have of the universe makes no sense." First, there's an inventory problem, where 95% of the universe is unaccounted for. Cosmologists seemingly have solved that problem by concocting dark matter and dark energy. But because we have "created" matter to fit the data doesn't mean we understand the nature of the universe. Another big surprise about our universe comes from actual data from the WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe) spacecraft which has been studying the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)“ the "echo" of the Big Bang. Continued...



Yahoo Slideshow: Planets surround moon in unusual night sky » Universe Today: Astronomy Photos


Science.qj.net: NASA has recently published a detailed timeline of the "Big Bang" and the events following over the course of over 13 billion years. This timeline, based on the most data received by NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), shows that, after the first micro-fraction of a second following the "Big Bang" (in which matter expanded at a speed faster than light, paradoxically enough), the universe expanded relatively slowly.

One of the most interesting findings was that matter began coalescing into stars early on - perhaps only 400 million years after the initial explosion. Since star formation leads to the appearance of planets and ultimately (though theoretically, at this point) life itself, and life on Earth covers less than half of the time, one might speculate how many ecosystems have risen and fallen, or may exist yet in our universe. MORE

• The Universe's Invisible Hand (Pdf) • Cosmology links
• Is the Universe Expanding? (more)
• Web Book: Standard Cosmology and other Possible Universes


• The Universe


• Einstein’s Static Universe: An Idea Whose Time HasCome Back?
• Big Bang Theory of the Universe and other articles: www.newuniverse.co.uk
• Latest scientific discoveries in Astrophysics: http://science.qj.net/Astrophysics/cid/1132