If I didn’t know better, I’d swear some of the images from the STS-129 shuttle mission to the International Space Station were CGI renderings taken from a science fiction novel. Take the above image, for example of astronaut Mike Foreman working on the exterior of the ISS during the second space walk of the mission. It looks almost surreal. But these are genuine images of real people working on an authentic, almost-completed space station. This images, and the other images below, leave me in awe of what we are accomplishing in space. Enjoy this gallery of amazing images from the fifth and last shuttle flight of 2009.
Robert Satcher on the Canadarm2 during the first space walk of STS-129. Credit: NASA
Here’s another awe-inspiring image. Anchored to a Canadarm2 mobile foot restraint, astronaut Robert Satcher Jr. works during the first space walk of the mission. Satcher and Mike Foreman (out of frame)installed antennas, cables, and other items to prepare for the Tranquility node that will be brought up to the station next year.
Starship Enterprise? No, just the space shuttle and space station. Credit: NASA
There was some chatter on Twitter that this image brought to mind visions of the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek. But this is a closeup of Atlantis’ docking ring backdropped by the ISS as the shuttle crew approached for docking with the station. Docking occurred at 10:51 a.m. (CST) on Nov. 18, 2009.
Another great shot: Sunrise in space. This scene shows from the Russian section of the ISS, as photographed by one of the STS-129 crew members.
Satcher works on the Z1 truss. Credit: NASA
I always love these images which demonstrate how HUGE the ISS is. Here, Robert Satcher works on the Z1 truss section during the first EVA of the mission.
ISS and docked spacecraft. Credit: NASA
Taking on the appearance of a busy spaceport, the Russian segment of the ISS has a docked Soyuz spacecraft (center) and a Progress resupply vehicle that is docked to the Pirs Docking Compartment.
Mike Foreman looks at his spacewalking partner Randy Bresnik. Credit: NASA
Every shuttle mission picture gallery isn’t complete without a picture of an astronaut with another astronaut visible in the helmet visor reflection. Here, Mike Foreman’s helmet reveals his crewmate, Randy Bresnik, capturing the image with an electronic still camera. The two were in the midst of the second scheduled space walk for the Atlantis crewmembers.
Upside down, or not? Credit: NASA
Who is upside down? Charlie Hobaugh (left), STS-129 commander and Robert Satcher , or the astronaut who took the picture? The two are pictured near a window in the Destiny laboratory.
Mealtime on the ISS. Credit: NASA
Eight of the 12 crew members of the joint ISS/shuttle crews pose for a photo at the galley in the Unity node. Pictured from the left are NASA astronauts Leland Melvin, Robert Satcher Jr., Charlie Hobaugh, Nicole Stott, cosmonauts Roman Romanenko, Maxim Suraev, and astronauts Jeff Williams, and Frank De Winne, commander of Expedition 21 from the ESA.
Launch of Atlantis on Nov. 16, 2009. Credit: NASA
A gorgeous shot of Atlantis’ launch on Nov. 16. Below is another launch picture, with the members of the NASA Tweetup watching by the famous countdown clock. Atlantis' launch with Twitterers. Photo credit:Jim Grossmann
The European Space Agency (ESA) formally transferred ownership of the Tranquility habitable manned module over to NASA at a commemorative handoff ceremony inside the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF) at the Kennedy Space Center on Friday, November 20. Tranquility is the last element of a barter agreement between ESA and NASA for station hardware. Included on the module is the “Cupola,” which will provide astronauts with a panoramic view from the largest window flown in space.
ESA contributed the module known as Node 3 in exchange for NASA’s delivery of ESA’s Columbus laboratory to the station in 2008. Thales Alenia Space in Turin (Torino), Italy, built the module in partnership with ESA and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and delivered it to KSC in May 2009 aboard an Airbus ‘Beluga’.
Official documents formalizing the ownership exchange were signed by Bernardo Patti, the space station manager for ESA and Michael Suffredini, the space station manager for NASA. A crowd of managers and technicians from NASA, ESA, Thales and Boeing involved in building and processing the node for flight witnessed the event. Media like myself were in attendance to document the transfer formalities. Bernardo Patti (left), the ESA space station manager for ESA and Michael Suffredini (right), the NASA space station manager sign Tranquility module ownership transfer documents inside the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF) on 20 November 2009. Credit: Ken Kremer
“We are very proud to accept this module”, said Suffredini. “In some ways it’s a bittersweet moment because it represents a tailing off of assembly and using the SSPF. But Tranquility was built to start human life beyond Earth as we put things together on-orbit. More than just the work, history will look back at the legacy of the partnership that was built here.
Patti responded saying, “Yes it’s sad that the room is getting empty, but we are very happy that Tranquility is going to the ISS which is a platform for an exploration program that we are privileged to have a future with”.
Attached to the end cone of Tranquility is the Cupola advanced observation module and robotics work station. Both segments are set to launch aboard the next shuttle flight, STS 130, presently scheduled for a 4 February 2010 blast off.
One of the major tasks of spacewalking astronauts aboard the current STS 129 flight of shuttle Atlantis is equipment work to prepare the way for the attachment of Tranquility and the Cupola to the port side hatch of the Unity Node on the ISS by the STS 130 crew of shuttle Endeavour. The astronauts have removed and repositioned external brackets, handrails, micrometeoroid shields, computer and electrical connections.
Tranquility is a complex pressurized interconnecting node that will provide increased living and scientific workspace for the resident ISS crews and house “many of the stations critical life support systems”, Suffredini said to me in an interview following the ceremony. Tranquility will be home to the racks for the advanced Environmental Control and Life Support Systems. This includes the equipment for revitalizing the station atmosphere and removing contaminants, generating oxygen and providing breathable air, carbon dioxide removal, recycling waste water into potable drinking water, the crew toilet and the Colbert Treadmill for crew exercise. Suffredini added, “The check out and activation period for Tranquility will occur during the shuttle mission. The racks are already aboard the ISS and just need to be moved and installed. Many of them are aboard the Destiny module. Their relocation will free up research space”.
The Cupola will function as a panoramic control tower through which operations outside the station can be observed and guided with command and control workstations inside. The circular top window is 80 cm in diameter, making it the largest window flown in space.
Side view of the Tranquility and Cupola modules which will be delivered to the ISS on the STS130 mission by shuttle Endeavour. The two modules combined weigh over 13.5 tons. Tranquility has six docking ports and is 7 meters (21 ft) in length and 4.5 meters (14.7 ft) in diameter with a pressurized volume of 75 cubic meters (2650 cubic ft). Credit: Ken Kremer
The unique 7 windowed Cupola module will afford astronauts a heretofore unparalleled 360 degree viewing spectrum of the Earth, the station and the cosmos, said KSC Director Bob Cabana. It will be used for earth observation and space science. Cabana commanded the space shuttle mission which delivered the first US space station component to space, the Unity node and docked it to the Russian Zarya control module to commence ISS assembly in 1998.
‘Tranquility’ is named in honor the Sea of Tranquility, the lunar landing site for Apollo 11 which was NASA’s first flight to land man on the moon in July 1969.
Lead image caption: Michael Suffredini, the ISS manager for NASA accepts ownership of the Node 3 Tranquility module from ESA at hand off ceremony inside the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF) at the Kennedy Space Center on 20 November 2009. Cupola observation module is attached at forward hatch in center and covered with thermal protection blankets. Note robotic arm grapple fixture at lower right. Credit: Ken Kremer
Rebecca Bresnik, the wife of STS-129 Mission Specialist Randy Bresnik, gave birth to their new daughter on Saturday night, making Randy the second astronaut ever to become a father while out in space. Bresnik reported this morning that his wife and new daughter, Abigail, are doing fine, and thanked the flight control team for their assistance.
Abigail was born in Houston on Saturday at 11:04 p.m. CST. The STS and ISS crews were awoken by the song “Butterfly Kisses” this morning, which was chosen by Rebecca for Randy, and contains the lyrics “There’s two things I know for sure/She was sent here from heaven and she’s daddy’s little girl.”
Becoming a new father is just a series of first for Bresnik on this mission: STS-129 is the first mission for Bresnik, and this was his first spacewalk. Bresnik installed antennas and other equipment on the ISS Saturday while awaiting the birth of his daughter. He will do another spacewalk Monday, before returning to Earth with the rest of the STS crew on Friday.
Bresnik and his wife adopted a Ukrainian orphan last year, who is now three years old, but this is the first child born to the couple. Mrs. Bresnik, who is an attorney that specializes in international law at Johnson Space Center, said in a pre-flight interview with NASA:
I’m a little disappointed that he won’t be able to be there but understanding that we don’t choose the timing and excited for him that he’s doing what he’s doing. He’s trained one year for this mission but really he’s been here five, almost six years, and I’m just real excited for him and excited for us and just to be gone basically a week beyond her being born. So, I’m excited for him to come home safely.
Bresnik is the second astronaut to become a father while in space. The first was astronaut Mike Fincke, whose wife gave birth while he was working at the International Space Station in 2004. If you would like to view the entire pre-flight interview with Rebecca and Randy, it’s available from NASA here.
Atlantis performed a belly flip prior to docking with ISS on 18 November 2009 while station astronauts snapped hundreds of digital images looking for any signs of damage to the heat shield crucial for a safe reentry. Credit: NASA TV
(Editor’s note:Ken Kremer is in Florida covering the STS-129 mission for Universe Today)
The astronaut crews for the International Space Station and Space Shuttle Atlantis united as one team in space on Wednesday when Atlantis successfully docked with the ISS at 11:51PM EST. Preluded by some of the most spectacular footage ever of the shuttle “belly flip” or the Rendezvous Pitch Manuaever (RPM), docking occurred in orbital darkness about 220 miles high above earth and directly between Australia and Tasmania. The shuttle astronauts were welcomed aboard the ISS and the jubilant crews exchanged bear hugs, handshakes and high fives inside the Harmony module.
Thursday morning at 9:24 a.m. EST, STS-129 spacewalkers Mike Foreman and Robert Satcher headed outside for the first spacewalk of the mission.
The shuttle docked at a port on Harmony, located on the US end of the station and parallel to the earth below. Russian Soyuz manned capsules dock at the opposite end of ISS on the Russian side of the station. The ISS currently weighs over 800,000 pounds.
After a series of leak checks, hatches between the two vehicles were at last opened at 1:28 PM EST, at 1 day and 23 hours mission elapsed time for Atlantis marking the start of joint operations. ISS Commander Frank DeWinne from Belgium performed a brief ceremony. With an overall crew of 12 people representing many ISS partners, Harmony was rather crowded. The shuttle astronauts received a safety briefing and tour.
Later in the day, Nicolle Stott’s tenure as an ISS crew member ended and she transitioned over to become an official member of the shuttle crew for her return to earth. She will be seated on a special recumbent seat brought aloft by Atlantis. Stott has spent 3 months aboard the station.
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Commander Charles “Scorch” Hobaugh piloted Atlantis for the final approach to the ISS from behind and below. After guiding the shuttle to a distance of 600 ft he initiated a spectacular back flip, known as the Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver (RPM), about 30 minutes prior to docking. Hobaugh began the now standard 360 degree back flip maneuver while flying in formation with the ISS at Mach 25 above the Amazon.
The purpose is to collect obtain high resolution imagery of the delicate heat shield tiles which protect the orbiter during the searing heat of reentry. The photos are carefully inspected to look for any signs of damage to the over 20,000 tiles before NASA commits the shuttle to landing back on earth.
Why is this photography important? Because any heat shield leak can be catastrophic for the vehicle and crew. That lesson was tragically learned during the reentry of Columbia.
Station astronauts Jeff Williams and Nicole Stott had about 90 seconds to photograph Atlantis’ belly while aiming 800 mm and 400 mm telephoto lenses respectively through portholes on the Russian Zvezda module. They snapped hundreds of digital photographs which were quickly down linked for analysis by teams waiting in Houston. The spectacular show was carried live on NASA TV. Atlantis cargo bay carrying spare parts for installation on the ISS with earth in the background. Credit: NASA
With Atlantis cargo bay pointing towards the ISS the RPM began with a dramatic pitch of the nose upwards and a stunningly beautiful view of earth in the background. Continuing on a full circular path, the shuttle spun around until the bright belly nearly filled the TV screen. Individual tiles and even the wheels wells were easily discernible as the spin progressed unabated. Momentarily the shuttle was again oriented perpendicularly as the tail faced the ISS with a fantastic view directly down into the shuttle’s three main engines and OMS pod. Finally the Atlantis shuttle returned to the same cargo bay orientation from which it started.
The RPM back flip is true spaceflight and looks like something straight out of a futuristic science fiction TV show or movie like my favorites, Star Trek and Babylon 5. But this is real and it’s happening today. And there is nothing routine about it. Make no mistake. Spaceflight is a highly risky business. And highly rewarding. Only a thin line separates life and death.
In the darkness of space, Hobaugh then closed in on the ISS at 0.2 ft per second. For the last 100 feet, Atlantis gradually slowed even further precisely aligning with the ISS until a flawless docking at 0.1 feet per second. Thrusters fired post contact to force the two docking ports together.
A spring loaded docking system damps out the relative motions of the ISS and shuttle over several minutes. The docking ring was then withdrawn to allow a hard mate between the two vehicles.
The astronauts wasted no time and their workload began right away today. Less than 90 minutes after hatch opening the first of two on board Express Logistics Carriers, dubbed ELC 1, was plucked out of the cargo bay by the shuttle arm. ELC 1 was then handed off to the station arm (Canadarm 2) which plugged it into an earth facing attach point on the ISS port side backbone truss at 4:27 PM. During the back flip and docking sequence approach, the shuttles robotic arm could be seen extending outwards from the cargo bay and attached to the 14,000 pound ELC 1.
The hugh ELC’s measuring 16 ft x 14 ft are designed to hold large space parts like the control moment gyroscopes (CMG’s) which provide orientation control for the station. The ELC’s are brand new equipment provided by NASA Goddard and flying for the first time on a shuttle. Also attached to ELC 1 are the ammonia and nitrogen tank assemblies and a battery charger discharge unit. There are some open attach sites to accommodate new spares brought up on future flights.
The first of three planned spacewalks, or EVA’s, is slated for Thursday at 9 AM and will last about 6½ hours. The astronauts quickly moved their space suits into the stations Quest airlock module to begin configuring all equipment needed. The two spacewalkers will spend the night “camped out” inside Quest to acclimate their bodies and purge nitrogen from their bloodstreams, preventing decompression sickness once they move out into the vacuum of space.
This mission will insure that the ISS has spare parts to sustain operations for several years to come. Having these spare components already on board will enormously simplify ISS planning. Of course, the unexpected can always happen. And that is the impending difficulty caused by the looming retirement of the shuttle.
Potentially the ISS could operate for another 10 years to 2020. Currently the ISS is only funded through 2015 and that’s another decision for President Obama on his packed plate. The other ISS partners, especially Russia, favor an ISS life extension as it just now finally reaches its full science capability.
Ken Kremer’s website
Read my earlier reports from KSC on the flight of Atlantis and Atlas launch attempt here:
In this video, International Space Station commander Frank De Winne explains what a typical day on board the ISS is like. Today, however, De Winne and his crew of Robert Thirsk, Roman Romanenko, Nicole Stott, Maxim Suraev and Jeffrey Williams are busy getting ready for the arrival of the STS-129 space shuttle crew. They need to set up to take pictures of the incoming shuttle to document the condition of the shuttle’s heat shield as it makes a “back flip” or a rendezvous pitch maneuver during its approach to the station. Plus, if the crew is anything like me, they probably have some last minute tidying to do before company arrives. Docking is scheduled for 11:53 a.m. EST. Watch it live on NASA TV.
The next space shuttle mission STS-129, slated to launch next Monday Nov. 16, is a “spare parts and stock-up” mission. And the needed extra parts and supplies delivered to the International Space Station by Atlantis will mean spare years on the station’s life once the space shuttle fleet is retired. The mission is a landmark of sorts — not sure if it is a good landmark or bad — but STS-129 is scheduled to be the last space shuttle crew rotation flight. From here on out, crew rotation will be done by the Soyuz and any future commercial vehicle that may come online. Besides the crew, a payload of spiders and butterfly larvae will be on board Atlantis for an experiment that will be monitored by thousands of K-12 students across US. Find out more about the flight with a video preview of the mission, below.
STS-129 will be commanded by Charlie Hobaugh and piloted by Barry Wilmore. Mission Specialists are Robert Satcher Jr., Mike Foreman, Randy Bresnik and Leland Melvin. Wilmore, Satcher and Bresnik will be making their first trips to space. The mission will return station crew member Nicole Stott to Earth.
The crew will deliver two control moment gyroscopes and other equipment, plus the EXPRESS Logistics Carrier 1 and 2 to the station. The mission will feature three spacewalks.
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A new module for the space station blasted off today from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan at 9:22 a.m. EST. The Poisk (which means “explore” in Russian) is a combination docking module/airlock/future research module. It will meet up with the ISS on Thursday at 10:44 am. Poisk is the first permanent pressurized module to be added since May of 2008, when the Japanese “JEM” research module became part of the ISS, and is the first major Russian addition to the station since the Pirs docking compartment was launched in 2001. The new module will be used as an additional docking port for Russian vehicles, as an airlock for Russian-based spacewalks and as a platform for external science experiments.
The new module is almost identical in size to Pirs, at 2.5 meters (8 feet wide) and about 4 meters (13 feet) long. Its first use will be as a docking port during the relocation of a Soyuz crew vehicle in January.
About 1,800 pounds of cargo is loaded into Poisk’s pressurized compartment for delivery to the space station.
A companion module, the Mini Research Module-1, will be carried to orbit on space shuttle Atlantis’ STS-132 mission, targeted to launch in May 2010. That module will be robotically attached to the station’s Zarya module.
Update #2, 5:30 pm: NASA has now said that after further analysis, the space debris they have been tracking no longer poses any concern or threat to the ISS. Everyone can rest easy tonight! The piece of debris was only 5 cm long, and will not pass within the “pizza box” zone around the station (0.75 x 25 x 25 kilometers) that calls for an alert.
A hard-to-track piece of space junk may come within a half a kilometer of the International Space Station later today, and NASA managers are considering asking the crew to board the docked Soyuz capsules as a precaution. The time of closest approach is at 10:48 p.m. EST, and the object was detected too late for the station to do an evasive maneuver. Depending on the outcome of additional tracking data analysis, the crew may be awakened later and directed to go into the Soyuz vehicles around 10:30 pm or given the option to sleep in Soyuz tonight. NASA says they don’t believe the crew is at risk, but precautions are prudent in dealing with space debris.
The crew was told about the debris, which ground stations have not been able to track consistently, said NASA spokesman Kyle Herring. Trajectory experts are continuing to verify information about the debris. “All this is a precaution, and we do not believe the crew is in any danger at this time or at the time of closest approach, but are making preparations in the unlikely event the approach would be closer than expected,” Herring said.
UPDATE: 2:30pm: As of now, NASA is planning for the crew to close all the hatches on the station and enter the Soyuz. “We have data that indicates we might be heading to a conjunction, however we do not have enough data to have any confidence in the outcomes we’re predicting at this point,” Capcom Ricky Arnold told the crew from mission control. “We’re hoping we’re going to be a lot smarter at 2200 (GMT), but right now we have to plan for an indication that we will have a conjunction.”
NASA will make a final decision on what course of action they will take at about 5 p.m.
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The International Space Station is taking on the look and feel of a busy space way station, with three Soyuz now docked and a current crew count of nine. Expedition 21 Flight Engineers Jeff Williams and Maxim Suraev along with spaceflight participant Guy Laliberté arrived at the ISS, docking their Soyuz TMA-16 to the aft end of the Zvezda service module at 4:35 a.m. EDT Friday. Williams and Suraev are relieving Expedition 20 Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Michael Barratt who will depart on Oct. 10 along with the Canadian visitor, Laliberté (the one with the clown nose, below). Watch the docking video below, along with another video of the hatch opening and the new crew members entering the station.
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It’s not quite like requesting “Tea, Earl Grey, hot” and having a steaming drink appear, but almost. The Electron Beam Freeform Fabrication, developed at NASA’s Langley Research Center, is an engineer’s version of the science fiction replicator on Star Trek. “You start with a drawing of the part you want to build, you push a button, and out comes the part,” said Karen Taminger, the technology lead for NASA’s Fundamental Aeronautics Program.
Electron beam freeform fabrication process. Image credit: NASA
Electron Beam Freeform Fabrication or EBF3150 creates parts for airplanes — not food and drink — and uses an environmentally-friendly construction process to manufacture layered metal objects. This technique could revolutionize the aviation industry and may have applications for the future spacecraft and the medical community as well. It can be used to make small, detailed parts or large structural pieces of airplanes.
EBF3150 works in a vacuum chamber, where an electron beam is focused on a constantly feeding source of metal, which is melted and then applied layer by layer on top of a rotating surface until the part is complete. A detailed 3-dimensional cross-sectional drawing of the part is fed into the device’s computer, providing information of how the the part should be built from the inside out. This guides the electron beam and and the inflow of metal to produce the object, building it up layer by layer.
Commercial applications for EBF3150 are already known and its potential already tested, Taminger said, noting it’s possible that, within a few years, some aircraft will be flying with parts made by this process.
The metals used must be compatible with the electron beam so that it can be heated by the stream of energy and briefly turned into liquid form. Aluminum is an ideal material to be used, but other metals can be used as well. In fact, the EBF3150 can handle two different sources of the feed stock metal at the same time, either by mixing them together into a unique alloy or embedding one material inside another, such as inserting a strand of fiber optic glass inside an aluminum part, enabling the placement of sensors in areas that were impossible before, Taminger said. structural metal part fabricated from EBF3. Image credit: NASA
While the EBF3 equipment tested on the ground is fairly large and heavy, a smaller version was created and successfully test flown on a NASA jet that is used to provide researchers with brief periods of weightlessness. The next step is to fly a demonstration of the hardware on the International Space Station, Taminger said.
Future lunar base crews could use EBF3 to manufacture spare parts as needed, rather than rely on a supply of parts launched from Earth. Astronauts might be able to mine feed stock from the lunar soil, or even recycle used landing craft stages by melting them.
But the immediate and greatest potential for the process is in the aviation industry where major structural segments of an airliner, or casings for a jet engine, could be manufactured for about $1,000 per pound less than conventional means, Taminger said.
The device is environmentally friendly because its unique manufacturing technique cuts down on the amount of waste. Normally an aircraft builder might start with a 6,000-pound block of titanium and machine it down to a 300-pound part, leaving 5,700 pounds of material that needs to be recycled and using several thousand gallons of cutting fluid used in the process.
“With EBF3 you can build up the same part using only 350 pounds of titanium and machine away just 50 pounds to get the part into its final configuration,” Taminger said. “And the EBF3 process uses much less electricity to create the same part.”
While initial parts for the aviation industry will be simple shapes, replacing parts already designed, future parts designed from scratch with the EBF3150 process in mind could lead to improvements in jet engine efficiency, fuel burn rate and component lifetime.
“There’s a lot of power in being able to build up your part layer by layer because you can get internal cavities and complexities that are not possible with machining from a solid block of material,” Taminger said.
