Working inside the ISS
Toilet on the Space Station
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Working inside the ISS Toilet on the Space StationISS On-Orbit Status Report - STS News - www.space.gs/iss - Space-astronautics.com - Photos
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» Lockheedmartin.com / 2
The space shuttle Endeavour docked with the International Space Station at 4:01 p.m. CST, carrying the Leonardo logistics module with over 14,000 pounds of cargo for the complex. Endeavour Commander Chris Ferguson guided the shuttle to a docking with the station as the two spacecraft flew 212 miles above the northern border of India, near China. Before closing the final 600 feet to the station, Ferguson flew the shuttle through a slow backflip, allowing the station’s Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke and Flight Engineer Greg Chamitoff to take photos that ground experts will review to assess the health of Endeavour’s heat shield.
The shuttle and station crews opened hatches and greeted one another at 6:16 p.m., beginning more than a week of joint operations between the two crews. The crews will collaborate on the delivery of the key life support and habitability systems that will enable long-term, self-sustaining station operations for a six-person resident crew. The crews also will conduct four spacewalks to service and lubricate the station’s two Solar Alpha Rotary Joints that allow its solar arrays to track the sun. Transfer of equipment and supplies between Endeavour’s middeck and the station began and the Leonardo cargo module will be installed on the station Monday so that its contents can be unloaded.
Endeavour also brought astronaut Sandra Magnus to the station, who will officially take over for Chamitoff as a member of the station crew tonight when her custom Soyuz seatliner is installed. Chamitoff – who will then formally be a mission specialist aboard the shuttle – will return home after 167 days as a station crew member. The crews used the station robotic arm to hand off the Orbiter Boom Sensor System to the shuttle robotic arm in case it is needed for further orbiter heat shield inspections. The crew is scheduled to go to bed at 12:25 a.m. Monday and be awakened at 8:25 a.m (more)
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The space suit of the astronaut is the world's smallest spacecraft
- February 26, 2008: Astronauts Robert S. (Shane) Kimbrough and Stephen G. Bowen (partially obscured), both STS-126 mission specialists, are about to be submerged in the waters of the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) near Johnson Space Center. Kimbrough and Bowen are attired in training versions of the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) spacesuit. SCUBA-equipped divers (out of frame) are in the water to assist the crewmembers in their rehearsal, intended to help prepare them for work on the exterior of the International Space Station. Credit: NASA
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» Slideshow: Space Shuttle
Space Shuttle News Update: www.nasawatch.com/shuttle_news - www.spaceref.com/news..
» Lockheedmartin.com / 2The space shuttle Endeavour docked with the International Space Station at 4:01 p.m. CST, carrying the Leonardo logistics module with over 14,000 pounds of cargo for the complex. Endeavour Commander Chris Ferguson guided the shuttle to a docking with the station as the two spacecraft flew 212 miles above the northern border of India, near China. Before closing the final 600 feet to the station, Ferguson flew the shuttle through a slow backflip, allowing the station’s Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke and Flight Engineer Greg Chamitoff to take photos that ground experts will review to assess the health of Endeavour’s heat shield.
The shuttle and station crews opened hatches and greeted one another at 6:16 p.m., beginning more than a week of joint operations between the two crews. The crews will collaborate on the delivery of the key life support and habitability systems that will enable long-term, self-sustaining station operations for a six-person resident crew. The crews also will conduct four spacewalks to service and lubricate the station’s two Solar Alpha Rotary Joints that allow its solar arrays to track the sun. Transfer of equipment and supplies between Endeavour’s middeck and the station began and the Leonardo cargo module will be installed on the station Monday so that its contents can be unloaded.
Endeavour also brought astronaut Sandra Magnus to the station, who will officially take over for Chamitoff as a member of the station crew tonight when her custom Soyuz seatliner is installed. Chamitoff – who will then formally be a mission specialist aboard the shuttle – will return home after 167 days as a station crew member. The crews used the station robotic arm to hand off the Orbiter Boom Sensor System to the shuttle robotic arm in case it is needed for further orbiter heat shield inspections. The crew is scheduled to go to bed at 12:25 a.m. Monday and be awakened at 8:25 a.m (more)
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The space suit of the astronaut is the world's smallest spacecraft- February 26, 2008: Astronauts Robert S. (Shane) Kimbrough and Stephen G. Bowen (partially obscured), both STS-126 mission specialists, are about to be submerged in the waters of the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) near Johnson Space Center. Kimbrough and Bowen are attired in training versions of the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) spacesuit. SCUBA-equipped divers (out of frame) are in the water to assist the crewmembers in their rehearsal, intended to help prepare them for work on the exterior of the International Space Station. Credit: NASA
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» Slideshow: Space ShuttleSpace Shuttle News Update: www.nasawatch.com/shuttle_news - www.spaceref.com/news..
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Canadian Space Summit: www.css.ca/summitThe 2008 Canadian Space Summit in Montreal Quebec, November 21-23, 2008 (more)
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Endeavour Commander Chris Ferguson guided the shuttle to a docking with the station as the 2 spacecraft flew 212 miles above the northern border of India. Credit: NASA
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Mission STS-126: Expedition 18 Welcomes Space Shuttle Endeavour Crew Aboard The Space Station.
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas, Nov. 16, 2008
» NASA TV: STS-122 Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver
» Youtube: NASA Moments
The space shuttle Endeavour docked with the International Space Station at 4:01 p.m. CST, carrying the Leonardo logistics module with over 14,000 pounds of cargo for the complex. Endeavour Commander Chris Ferguson guided the shuttle to a docking with the station as the two spacecraft flew 212 miles above the northern border of India, near China. Before closing the final 600 feet to the station, Ferguson flew the shuttle through a slow backflip, allowing the station's Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke and Flight Engineer Greg Chamitoff to take photos that ground experts will review to assess the health of Endeavour's heat shield.
The shuttle and station crews opened hatches and greeted one another at 6:16 p.m., beginning more than a week of joint operations between the two crews. The crews will collaborate on the delivery of the key life support and habitability systems that will enable long-term, self-sustaining station operations for a six-person resident crew. The crews also will conduct four spacewalks to service and lubricate the station's two Solar Alpha Rotary Joints that allow its solar arrays to track the Sun.
Transfer of equipment and supplies between Endeavour's middeck and the station began and the Leonardo cargo module will be installed on the station Monday so that its contents can be unloaded. Endeavour also brought astronaut Sandra Magnus to the station, who will officially take over for Chamitoff as a member of the station crew tonight when her custom Soyuz seatliner is installed. Chamitoff - who will then formally be a mission specialist aboard the shuttle - will return home after 167 days as a station crew member. The crews used the station robotic arm to hand off the Orbiter Boom Sensor System to the shuttle robotic arm in case it is needed for further orbiter heat shield inspections. The crew is scheduled to go to bed at 12:25 a.m. Monday and be awakened at 8:25 a.m.
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NASA: Astronomy Pictures of the Day » Video: NASA TV » 50 Years of NASA
Mission STS-126: Expedition 18 Welcomes Space Shuttle Endeavour Crew Aboard The Space Station.
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas, Nov. 16, 2008
» NASA TV: STS-122 Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver » Youtube: NASA MomentsThe space shuttle Endeavour docked with the International Space Station at 4:01 p.m. CST, carrying the Leonardo logistics module with over 14,000 pounds of cargo for the complex. Endeavour Commander Chris Ferguson guided the shuttle to a docking with the station as the two spacecraft flew 212 miles above the northern border of India, near China. Before closing the final 600 feet to the station, Ferguson flew the shuttle through a slow backflip, allowing the station's Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke and Flight Engineer Greg Chamitoff to take photos that ground experts will review to assess the health of Endeavour's heat shield.
The shuttle and station crews opened hatches and greeted one another at 6:16 p.m., beginning more than a week of joint operations between the two crews. The crews will collaborate on the delivery of the key life support and habitability systems that will enable long-term, self-sustaining station operations for a six-person resident crew. The crews also will conduct four spacewalks to service and lubricate the station's two Solar Alpha Rotary Joints that allow its solar arrays to track the Sun.
Transfer of equipment and supplies between Endeavour's middeck and the station began and the Leonardo cargo module will be installed on the station Monday so that its contents can be unloaded. Endeavour also brought astronaut Sandra Magnus to the station, who will officially take over for Chamitoff as a member of the station crew tonight when her custom Soyuz seatliner is installed. Chamitoff - who will then formally be a mission specialist aboard the shuttle - will return home after 167 days as a station crew member. The crews used the station robotic arm to hand off the Orbiter Boom Sensor System to the shuttle robotic arm in case it is needed for further orbiter heat shield inspections. The crew is scheduled to go to bed at 12:25 a.m. Monday and be awakened at 8:25 a.m.
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NASA: Astronomy Pictures of the Day » Video: NASA TV » 50 Years of NASA
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HR 8799: Discovery of a Multi-planet Star System
Astronomy Picture of the Day, 17.11.2008
» Photo: NASA
How common are planetary systems like our own Solar System? In the twelve years previous to 2008, over 300 candidate planetary systems have been found orbiting nearby stars.None, however, were directly imaged, few showed evidence for multiple planets, and many had a Jupiter-sized planet orbiting inside the orbit of Mercury.
Last week, however, together with recent images of Fomalhaut b, the above picture was released showing one of first confirmed images of planets orbiting a distant Sun-like star. HR 8799 has a mass about 1.5 times that of our own Sun, and lies about 130 light years from the Sun -- a distance similar to many stars easily visible in the night sky. Pictured above, a 10-meter Keck telescope in Hawaii captured in infrared light three planets orbiting an artificially obscured central star.
The 8-meter Gemini North telescope captured a similar image. Each planet likely contains several times the mass of Jupiter, but even the innermost planet, labelled d, orbits out near the orbit of Neptune. Although the HR 8799 planetary system has significant differences with our Solar System, it is a clear demonstration that complex planetary systems exists, systems that could conceivable contain an Earth-like planet. (more)
Credit: C. Marois et al., NRC Canada
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NASA Home: www.nasa.gov
Astronomy Picture of the Day Archive 2008 - 2009, APOD: www.antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov - TU Graz: NASA Apod
HR 8799: Discovery of a Multi-planet Star System
Astronomy Picture of the Day, 17.11.2008
» Photo: NASAHow common are planetary systems like our own Solar System? In the twelve years previous to 2008, over 300 candidate planetary systems have been found orbiting nearby stars.None, however, were directly imaged, few showed evidence for multiple planets, and many had a Jupiter-sized planet orbiting inside the orbit of Mercury.
Last week, however, together with recent images of Fomalhaut b, the above picture was released showing one of first confirmed images of planets orbiting a distant Sun-like star. HR 8799 has a mass about 1.5 times that of our own Sun, and lies about 130 light years from the Sun -- a distance similar to many stars easily visible in the night sky. Pictured above, a 10-meter Keck telescope in Hawaii captured in infrared light three planets orbiting an artificially obscured central star.
The 8-meter Gemini North telescope captured a similar image. Each planet likely contains several times the mass of Jupiter, but even the innermost planet, labelled d, orbits out near the orbit of Neptune. Although the HR 8799 planetary system has significant differences with our Solar System, it is a clear demonstration that complex planetary systems exists, systems that could conceivable contain an Earth-like planet. (more)
Credit: C. Marois et al., NRC Canada
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On the Net:
NASA Home: www.nasa.gov
Astronomy Picture of the Day Archive 2008 - 2009, APOD: www.antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov - TU Graz: NASA Apod
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Nations Around the World Mark 10th Anniversary of International Space Station
By NASA Staff, November 17, 2008
Houston, Texas -- Nations around the world will join together to mark a milestone in space exploration this week, celebrating the 10th birthday of a unique research laboratory, the International Space Station. Now the largest spacecraft ever built, the orbital assembly of the space station began with the launch from Kazakhstan of its first bus-sized component, Zarya, on Nov. 20, 1998. The launch began an international construction project of unprecedented complexity and sophistication.
The station is a venture of international cooperation among NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency, Canadian Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, and 11 members of the European Space Agency, or ESA: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. More than 100,000 people in space agencies and contractor facilities in 37 U.S. states and throughout the world are involved in this endeavor. "The station's capability and sheer size today are truly amazing," said International Space Station Program Manager Mike Suffredini.
"The tremendous technological achievement in orbit is matched only by the cooperation and perseverance of its partners on the ground. We have overcome differences in language, geography and engineering philosophies to succeed." Only a few weeks after the U.S.-funded, Russian-built, Zarya module was launched from Kazakhstan, the space shuttle carried aloft the Unity connector module in December 1998. Constructed on opposite sides of Earth, Unity and Zarya met for the first time in space and were joined to begin the orbital station's assembly and a decade of peaceful cooperation. Ten years later, the station's mass has expanded to more than 627,000 pounds, and its interior volume is more than 25,000 cubic feet, comparable to the size of a five-bedroom house.
Since Zarya's launch as the early command, control and power module, there have been 29 additional construction flights to the station: 27 aboard the space shuttle and two additional Russian launches. One hundred sixty seven individual representing 14 countries have visited the complex. Crews have eaten some 19,000 meals aboard the station since the first crew took up residence in 2000. Through the course of 114 spacewalks and unmatched robotic construction in space, the station's truss structure has grown to 291 feet long so far. Its solar arrays now span to 28,800 square feet, large enough to cover six basketball courts. Continued...
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History of the ISS: www.astronautix.com/intation
A virtual tour of the International Space Station: www.nasa.gov/station
Info on how to see the station at: www.spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings - Space Mission News: www.space.gs/index.html
Nations Around the World Mark 10th Anniversary of International Space Station
By NASA Staff, November 17, 2008
Houston, Texas -- Nations around the world will join together to mark a milestone in space exploration this week, celebrating the 10th birthday of a unique research laboratory, the International Space Station. Now the largest spacecraft ever built, the orbital assembly of the space station began with the launch from Kazakhstan of its first bus-sized component, Zarya, on Nov. 20, 1998. The launch began an international construction project of unprecedented complexity and sophistication.
The station is a venture of international cooperation among NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency, Canadian Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, and 11 members of the European Space Agency, or ESA: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. More than 100,000 people in space agencies and contractor facilities in 37 U.S. states and throughout the world are involved in this endeavor. "The station's capability and sheer size today are truly amazing," said International Space Station Program Manager Mike Suffredini.
"The tremendous technological achievement in orbit is matched only by the cooperation and perseverance of its partners on the ground. We have overcome differences in language, geography and engineering philosophies to succeed." Only a few weeks after the U.S.-funded, Russian-built, Zarya module was launched from Kazakhstan, the space shuttle carried aloft the Unity connector module in December 1998. Constructed on opposite sides of Earth, Unity and Zarya met for the first time in space and were joined to begin the orbital station's assembly and a decade of peaceful cooperation. Ten years later, the station's mass has expanded to more than 627,000 pounds, and its interior volume is more than 25,000 cubic feet, comparable to the size of a five-bedroom house.
Since Zarya's launch as the early command, control and power module, there have been 29 additional construction flights to the station: 27 aboard the space shuttle and two additional Russian launches. One hundred sixty seven individual representing 14 countries have visited the complex. Crews have eaten some 19,000 meals aboard the station since the first crew took up residence in 2000. Through the course of 114 spacewalks and unmatched robotic construction in space, the station's truss structure has grown to 291 feet long so far. Its solar arrays now span to 28,800 square feet, large enough to cover six basketball courts. Continued...
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History of the ISS: www.astronautix.com/intation
A virtual tour of the International Space Station: www.nasa.gov/station
Info on how to see the station at: www.spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings - Space Mission News: www.space.gs/index.html
