ISS •

NASA astronauts take five-hour spacewalk, finish cable job outside ISS

Two NASA astronauts completed a spacewalk on Sunday outside the International Space Station (ISS) despite the appearance of water inside the helmet of one of them.

The American space agency announced the news of a successful spacewalk by its astronauts Terry Virts and Barry Wilmore on the micro-blogging site Twitter.

According to the space agency, the spacewalk outside the space station lasted five hours and 38 minutes.

“Crews have now spent a total of 1,171 hours and 29 minutes conducting space station assembly and maintenance during 187 spacewalks,” NASA said in a news release.

In a tweet, the space agency said Virts again witnessed water inside his helmet as he experienced during his previous spacewalk on Wednesday. The agency, however, allayed the fear of any known threat.

The NASA scientists had earlier said that the suit worn by Virts holds a “sublimator water carryover” history. Water present in the sublimator cooling component can begin condensing when the suit is repressurized following a spacewalk and can cause a little amount of water to push into helmet, NASA explained.

NASA, however, continued to impose trust on the suit, saying the managers at International Space Station had “a high degree of confidence”.

During the spacewalk, Wilmore and Virts installed antennas meant for providing data to the visiting vehicles and also deployed 400 feet of cable along the edge of the space station.

SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying communications satellites to launch on Sunday

By Leave a Comment

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket taking commercial communications satellites on board for two international customers is expected to be launched on the scheduled time on Sunday amid the favourable weather conditions.

The Falcon rocket will kick off at 10:50 pm ET on Sunday, with the opening of a window extending to 11:33 pm, from the Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The Falcon 9 rocket will be placing commercial communications satellites, one each for Eutelsat and Asia Broadcast Satellite, in the orbits that are over 22,000 miles above the equator.

According to the forecasts, there is a 70 percent chance of supportive weather conditions during the launch window.

“The primary weather concerns for launch Sunday evening are cumulus clouds associated with coastal showers and lingering thick clouds,” said the forecast released by the Air Force’s 45th Weather Squadron on Saturday.

If any unfavorable condition arises, the rocket would see another launch attempt late Monday.

In another development, two astronauts of US space agency NASA will be performing a spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday. This would be the third spacewalk outside ISS in just over a week.

NASA astronauts Terry Virts and Barry “Butch” Wilmore will begin their space excursion at 7:10 am on Sunday which will last for 6 1/2-hour.

The American space agency on Friday approved the proposed spacewalk, after it concluded that a small amount of water that got leaked into the helmet of Virts during his last spacewalk posed no danger.

NASA gears up to reassemble parts of ISS to end reliance on Russia

By Leave a Comment

US space agency NASA commenced its work this week on reassembling parts of the International Space Station (ISS) in order to create parking spots for its two space taxis that would be used in the commercial purposes.

With the recent dust-ups between Russia and the United States bringing the focus back on the ISS arrangements of the two nations.

NASA’s reconfiguration is the first major revamping of the International Space Station (ISS) that was completed in the year 2011 following over a decade of space shuttle-based assembly missions.

The reconfiguration of ISS is likely to be finished before the end of this year.

With space station construction work completed, the American space agency has retired a number of its space shuttles and has now turned to Russia for the crew ferry flights, a service costing the US over USD 70 million a person.

Kathy Lueders, NASA’s commercial crew program manager, said, “The agency is expecting to pay its American operators an average USD 58 million a person for the transportation purpose to and from the ISS.”

Hoping to end its reliance on Russia before 2017-end, NASA had awarded several contracts to and Space Exploration Technologies (Space X) and Boeing in order to develop, test and fly the space capsules that can take astronauts to and from the ISS, which is orbiting nearly 260 miles above the Earth.

Dragon cargo ship leaves ISS; SpaceX prepares for DSCOVR launch

By Leave a Comment

A SpaceX Dragon cargo ship was dispatched on Tuesday by the astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for splashdown in the Pacific Ocean amid the space company gearing up for its next rocket launch mission in Florida.

NASA mission commentator Kyle Herring said that the Dragon capsule was released by the ISA astronauts through a 58-foot (18-meter) robotic arm at 2:10 pm EST (1910 GMT) on Tuesday as the vehicles sailed 257 miles over Australia.

The Dragon cargo ship had arrived at the space station on January 12.

The gumdrop-shaped cargo space ship is carrying approximately 4,000 pounds of returning science equipments and experiments, which includes two defected components from spacesuits, back to the Earth.

The faulty spacesuit component will be closely analysed by the engineers before giving approval to the US astronauts for a trio of spacewalks later in February, according to the reports.

The parachute splashdown of SpaceX’s capsule in the largest Pacific Ocean is expected to take place at 4:44 pm PST (0044 GMT on Wednesday) at nearly 260 miles (418 km) southwest of Long Beach in California.

On the other front, Elon Musk’s SpaceX is preparing another launch in Florida. The company is going the blast off its next Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 6:05 pm EST (2305 GMT)

The rocket will be carrying a weather satellite of the US government that will keep a close watch at the sun and act as a weather buoy for providing about an hour’s warning of the solar storms that are potentially dangerous in nature as they can disrupt satellite signals, radio communications and power grids on the Earth.

The weather satellite, named the Deep Space Climate Observatory, or DSCOVR, will be placed in orbit around the sun by the Falcon rocket.

The satellite will also be monitoring the sun-lit side of the Earth in order to track the volcanic plumes, ozone depletion and also monitor natural calamities like droughts, fires and floods.

DSCOVR’s camera will be capturing pictures of the Earth in every two hours. The company said that these rare images will be sent back to the Earth via the Internet the next day.

NASA to begin first-ever yearlong biomedical study at ISS

By Leave a Comment

US space agency NASA has announced that two of its astronaut, namely Mark Kelly and his twin brother Scott Kelly, are tightening their sleeves for a medical study linked with the International Space Station (ISS).

This will mark the first-ever year-long study which will be carried by an astronaut staying at the space station for the complete study period.

According to the American space agency, Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will begin their ISS mission on March 27. The two astronauts will act as a test-subject for various experiments at ISS.

Mark Kelly, a retired NASA astronaut who has flown four space shuttle missions during his tenure, will also be part of scientific studies.

The space scientists are hopeful that the scientific data collected by NASA during the study period could assist in better understanding the impact of space atmosphere on an astronaut’s body and how does the body respond after being out of earth’s atmosphere for longer duration in space.

NASA has high expectation with the ISS mission as the space agency believes it could greatly help in the next generation of space exploration. According to the reports, the scientists will be comparing the medical data from the two astronauts at the ISS in order to comprehend the results gathered from extended mission of Scott.

NASA said that the two astronauts will spend nearly a year at the ISS.

ISS crew evacuates US segment after ‘false’ alarm of ammonia leak

By Leave a Comment

The astronauts from various countries, who are conducting several space researches at the International Space Station (ISS), were forced to evacuate a part of the space station on Wednesday after a computer glitch was detected.

The US space agency NASA said that astronauts in the US section of space station moved into the Russian side after an alarm raised concerns of an ammonia leak.

NASA, however, said that the preliminary inquiry suggested that it was a false alarm.

The crew of the space research laboratory was never in any danger, according to NASA.

Following probe, NASA mission commentator Rob Navias said that there was no sufficient data to indicate an ammonia leak.

“It’s becoming a stronger case that this is a false indication, which is great news,” astronaut Jim Kelly, at Mission Control in Houston, told the crew shortly before 8:30 am EST.

The precautionary move was done after ground control team found a rise in pressure in a water line in one of the two cooling loops at the station, which was a possible indicator of ammonia leakage into the line.

Butch Wilmore (NASA’s astronaut and the station commander), Terry Virts (NASA’s flight engineer) and Samantha Cristoforetti (a flight engineer with the European Space Agency) abandoned the American side of the space station after an alarm sounded around 4 am EST hinting of computer glitch.

The three astronauts joined other three Russian crewmates at the Russian side of ISS.

The USD 100 billion International Space Station, which is in orbit nearly 260 miles (418 km) above Earth, is jointly run by 15 countries and is overseen by Russia and the United States.

SpaceX Dragon successfully docks at ISS to deliver 5000 pounds supplies

By Leave a Comment

US space agency NASA’s unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying Dragon space capsule successfully docked at the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday morning, completing its latest resupply mission to the revolving space station.

The unmanned rocket arrived at 10:54 am at the ISS after US astronaut Barry Wilmore successfully captured the craft flying over the Mediterranean Sea with the robotic arm manned from inside the international space station.

“We’re excited to have it on board,” the station commander Wilmore concluded after the rocket successfully docked at ISS.

The Falcon 9 rocket was launched on Saturday carrying the SpaceX Dragon capsule that contained approximately 5,000 pounds of supplies including food and groceries, Christmas presents and several other materials for 256 science experiments in the space.

The supplies also included a special instrument that will be used by the scientists at the ISS for analyzing the tiny particles and clouds in the atmosphere of the Earth. Scientists said that the findings will assist in better comprehending the climate changes on our planet. Moreover, the resulting data will also aid in getting advanced weather forecast.

The SpaceX Dragon capsule also delivered supplies for various biological experiments that are designed for the microgravity environment not present on the Earth. Scientists say these experiments will further facilitate in the advancement of knowledge in the field of medicine.

According to NASA, the SpaceX Dragon will be linked to the space station for over a month. Following completion of its mission at the ISS, it will head towards home to a “parachute-assisted splashdown” off the California coast.

This marks the fifth successful delivery mission of the SpaceX Dragon to the ISS.

SpaceX has signed a USD 1.6-billion Commercial Resupply Services contract with the American space agency for the deliveries of a minimum of half a dozen cargo at the ISS.

SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying food, supplies to leave for ISS on Tuesday

By Leave a Comment

The Space Exploration Technologies, popularly known as SpaceX, is set to launch its Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket on Tuesday to deliver food, supplies and experiments to the International Space Station (ISS).

SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket will be blasted off from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40, in Florida, at 6:20 am on Tuesday.

An unmanned Dragon capsule loaded with nearly 5,000 pounds of food, supplies and scientific items for experiments will be carried atop a Falcon 9 rocket, which seeks to successfully conclude the fifth resupply mission of SpaceX under a USD 1.6 billion contract with the American space agency.

The resupply mission was earlier scheduled for late December but was called off after a test-firing of the nine Merlin 1D engines of Falcon 9 booster failed to go exactly as planned. Moreover, the unfavorable conditions near the International Space Station due to the excessive heating caused by the sun’s angle relative to the ISS also forced the postponement of the space mission.

Now, SpaceX has planned the launch of the space mission on Tuesday as there would be no launch opportunity until Friday morning.

The astronomers are expecting a 60 percent chance of acceptable weather conditions during the instantaneous window at the Launch Complex 40 of the Kennedy Space Center.

ESA astronaut turns 12500 rare space photos into six-min-time lapse video

By Leave a Comment

European Space Agency (ESA) has posted an incredible time-lapse video created from 12,500 spectacular photographs of the celestial bodies like the Earth, Milky Way, asteroids and some of the interesting shots of the astronauts working at the International Space Station (ISS).

Adding to the enthusiasm of the sky gazers, all the outstanding 12,500 images have been clicked by the same individual from the International Space Station.

Alexander Gerst, an ESA astronaut, has caught the awesome and rare images of the space and celestial objects while he was on the space expedition at the ISS.

He had spent six months aboard the space station between May and November this year.

“Seen from a distance, our planet is just a blue dot, a fragile spaceship for humankind. We need to understand the Universe we live in to protect our home,” Gerst said in a written statement.

During his stay at the ISS, Gerst clicked thousands of photographs of the Earth’s surface, Milky Way, meteors etc, as well as few interesting shots of the active ISS, using ultra-high definition cameras.

The pictures featuring ISS in action includes the robotic arm of ISS manipulating a SpaceX Dragon capsule, the active solar panels and lots more. Gerst also caught a rare view of the Milky Way galaxy from the ISS in his photos.

The ESA astronaut has developed all the photos into a six-minute-long time-lapse video.

Here is the full six-minute-long time lapse video:

3D-printer used for first time in space

Astronauts at the International Space Station (ISS) have carried the first ever 3D printing in the space.

The use of 3D printers in the space has paved a milestone in the celestial study as it has allowed creation of things in space despite of having to deliver them.

Speaking about the big experiment, Made In Space CEO Aaron Kremmer said, “This is the first object truly manufactured off of planet Earth. It marks a huge milestone, not only for us or NASA but also for the humanity as a whole.”

Project manager Niki Werkheiser said the 3D printing in space has opened new ways of learning about some of the celestial occurrences.

“Once the printed parts returns to Earth, we’ll be able to carry a more in-depth analysis of finding out how they compare to parts printed on Earth,” Werkheiser said.

Researchers also believe that this is the first step forward in direction of a truly unrestricted space travel.

Kemmer said the new development represents the idea that if anything trouble emerges at the space station or upcoming space stations then the NASA and the space crew can find a possible solution into the problem.

Categories