Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Double Spaceship Sighting Alert — and Last Chance to See Endeavour in Orbit

The ISS and space shuttle Endeavour as seen from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania at 4:50am EDT on May 30, 2011. Credit: Beth Katz

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UPDATE: And we have a sighting! Beth Katz from Pennsylvania in the US sent us this image,an 8 second exposure of the ISS and Endeavour taken early this morning. “We observed them seeming even further apart and then closer as they moved away from us,” Beth said via email.

Space shuttle Endeavour will undock from the ISS just before midnight EDT on Sunday night/Monday morning at 11:55 pm EDT (3:55 UTC) and depending where you live, you might have an opportunity to see the two spaceships flying in tandem. People in Europe might have the chance to see the two spaceships right after they separate in the early morning hours, and people in the US/Canada/Mexico might be able to see the two flying close to each other. This is an incredible sight, and will be the last opportunity to see Endeavour in orbit, as she will be retired after she lands and completes the STS-134 mission. The station and shuttle will appear in the night or early morning sky as a closely-spaced pair of bright lights. The ISS is bigger, so will appear as the brighter object trailing the smaller Discovery as they move across the sky.

On Monday night/Tuesday morning, there will be another chance to see the two ships, although they will be widely separated.

To find out if you’ll be able to see the two spaceships in your area, there are a few different sites to check out:


NASA has a Skywatch page where you can find your specific city to look for satellite sighting info.

Spaceweather.com, has a Satellite Tracker Tool. Just put in your zip code (good for the US and Canada) to find out what satellites will be flying over your house.

Heaven’s Above also has a city search, but also you can input your exact latitude and longitude for exact sighting information, helpful if you live out in the country.

Seeing the two spacecraft flying closely in tandem is a very unique and thrilling sight. Good luck! If you manage to capture any images, send them to Nancy.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Fuel Droplet Burning in Space is Psychedelic, Man

A droplet of fuel burning in space, in the absence of gravity. Credit: NASA

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Dude! This awesome image looks like a psychedelic 1970’s flashback. But is is actually a droplet of fuel burning in space, on board the International Space Station. NASA explains that because of the absence of gravity, fuels burning in space behave very differently than they do on Earth. The Flame Extinguishing Experiment on board the ISS is examining the combustion of such liquid fuel droplets, and in this image, a 3-millimeter diameter droplet of heptane fuel burns in microgravity, producing soot. When a bright, uniform backlight is placed behind the droplet and flame and recorded by a video camera, the soot appears as a dark cloud. Image processing techniques can then quantify the soot concentration at each point in the image.

NASA explains:

This colorized gray-scale image is a composite of the individual video frames of the backlit fuel droplet. The bright yellow structure in the middle is the path of the droplet, which becomes smaller as it burns. Initial soot structures (in green) tend to form near the liquid fuel. These come together into larger and larger particles which ultimately spiral out of the flame zone in long, twisting streamers.

Far out!

Source: NASA Image of the Day

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Soyuz Crew Lands Safely

The Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 27. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

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The Expedition 27 crew of Commander Dmitry Kondratyev and Flight Engineers Paolo Nespoli and Cady Coleman landed upright in a remote area southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, on Tuesday, May 24, 2011, after more than five months onboard the International Space Station. After undocking fromt he station, Nespoli took the first still images and video of a space shuttle docked to the station. In order to get the best view for the photo-op, the ISS had to rotate 130 degrees.

See a (shaky) video of the landing, below.

Russian recovery teams helped the crew exit the Soyuz and adjust to gravity. Kondratyev will return to the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, outside of Moscow, while NASA’s Coleman and Nespoli of the European Space Agency will fly directly to Houston.

They launched on a Soyuz back on Dec. 15, 2010, and spent 159 days in space. They worked on more than 150 microgravity experiments in human research; biology and biotechnology; physical and materials sciences; technology development; and Earth and space sciences.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Miles O’Brien Talks Live with Shuttle/Station Crew

Miles O’Brien, now with PBS NewHour did a live interview with a few members of the STS-134 crew, along with Ron Garan of the ISS crew this morning (Thursday). The webcast was part of a collaboration between Google/PBS/You Tube where the public has the chance to ask questions via video. Miles starts about 2 minutes into the video.

Transcript is available here.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

AMS Now Attached to the Space Station, Ready to Observe the Invisible Universe

The AMS sits near the center of this graphic, which shows where the experiment is located on the truss of the ISS. Credit: NASA

The long-awaited Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a particle physics detector that could unlock mysteries about dark matter and other cosmic radiation, has now been installed outside the International Space Station. It is the largest and most complex scientific instrument yet on board the orbiting laboratory, and will examine ten thousand cosmic-ray hits every minute, looking for nature’s best-kept particle secrets, searching for clues into the fundamental nature of matter.

“Thank you very much for the great ride and safe delivery of AMS to the station,” said Dr. Samuel Ting, speaking via radio to the crew on orbit who installed the AMS. Ting is the AMS Principal Investigator who has worked on the project for close to 20 years. “Your support and fantastic work have taken us one step closer to realizing the science potential of AMS. With your help, for the next 20 years, AMS on the station will provide us a better understanding of the origin of the universe.”

“Thank you, Sam,” Endeavour commander Mark Kelly radioed back, “I was just looking out the window of the orbiter and AMS looks absolutely fantastic on the truss. I know you guys are really excited and you’re probably getting data and looking at it already.”

By collecting and measuring vast numbers of cosmic rays and their energies, particle physicists hope to understand more about how and where they are born, since a long-standing mystery is where cosmic rays originate. They could be created in the magnetic fields of exploded stars, or perhaps in the hearts of active galaxies, or maybe in places as yet unseen by astronomers.

The AMS is actually AMS-02 – a prototype of the instrument, AMS-01, was launched on board the space shuttle in 1998, and showed great potential. But Ting and his collaborators from around the world knew that to make a significant contribution to particle science, they needed a detector that could be in space for a long period of time.

AMS-02 will operate on the ISS until at least 2020, and hopefully longer, depending on the life of the space station.

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The AMS will also search for antimatter within the cosmic rays, and attempt to determine whether the antimatter is formed from collisions between particles of dark matter, the mysterious substance that astronomers believe may make up about 22% of the Universe.

There is also the remote chance that AMS-02 will detect a particle of anti-helium, left over from the Big Bang itself.

“The most exciting objective of AMS is to probe the unknown; to search for phenomena which exist in nature that we have not yet imagined nor had the tools to discover,” said Ting.

For more information about the AMS, NASA has a detailed article.

Source: ESA, NASA TV

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Endeavour Docks at Space Station

Space Shuttle Endeavour and ESA's Columbus laboratory seen after the Shuttle docked with ISS on 18 May 2011. Credits: NASA

Space shuttle Endeavour docked for the final time at the International Space Station carrying six astronauts and the long-anticipated Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a physics experiment that will hunt for dark matter and antimatter. The docking occured at 1014 GMT, and the hatches between the two vehicles opened at 1138 GMT (7:38 am Eastern time), about an hour earlier than scheduled.

Above, watch as space shuttle Endeavour performs the Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver, or “backflip” so that the ISS crew can take high resolution pictures of the shuttle’s heat shield. Commander Mark Kelly rotated Endeavour to rotate 360 degrees backward.

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The combined crews total 12 now on the ISS, but only until May 23, when space station crew members Dmitry Kondratyev, Cady Coleman and Paolo Nespoli undock in a Soyuz and return home to Earth. Unlike most shuttle missions to the ISS, the two crews are working in staggered shifts instead of being on the same timeline. This is because of the two-week launch delay for Endeavour making the mission, unfortunately, causing the mission to overlap with the departure of the station crew members. The three leaving the ISS need to adjust their sleep cycle to synch up with the landing day timeline.

The shuttle will remain at the station until May 30, with landing scheduled currently for June 1.

The STS-134 mission includes four spacewalks, in part to install the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2, a two-billion-dollar, 15,000 pound (7,000 kilogram) particle detector that will hopefully operate for a decade and provide new details about the origins of the Universe.

The mission is commanded by astronaut Mark Kelly, the husband of US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords who is recovering after being shot in the head in January. Giffords reportedly will undergo intensive cranioplasty brain surgery in Houston this morning (May 18), just three days after attending the launch.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Mississippi River Flooding As Seen from the Space Station

Flood water from the Mississippi river near New Madrid, Missouri, as seen by Paolo Nespoli on board the International Space Station. Credit:ESA/NASA

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Big Muddy, as the Mississippi River is known, looks especially big and muddy these days with record flooding occurring along the largest river in the US. The Mississippi has risen to levels not seen in since the 1920’s and 30’s, fed by heavy spring rains and the spring thaw from heavy snows in the northern US this winter. Here are some new images taken by International Space Station astronaut Paolo Nespoli, which show surprising detail of how the river has spread across farmland and through cities and towns. The image above shows the area around New Madrid, Missouri, along the border of Kentucky.

Flooding near Ridgely, Tennessee. Credit: ESA/NASA

In this image, levees are visible which are containing the flood near Ridgely, Tennessee.

Here, flooded areas from the Mississippi is about 5 miles wide. Credit: ESA/NASA
Flooding near Caruthersville, Missouri. Farmland, roads and bridges are under water. Credit: ESA/NASA

Last week, the US Army Corps of Engineers opened floodways in Missouri to keep pressure off levees protecting the town of Cairo, Illinois, flooding thousands of acres of farmland. This week, the Corp is preparing to flood up to three million acres in southern Louisiana in hopes of protecting large cities along the Mississippi River such as Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana. More than 25,000 people are preparing to leave the region before the spillways would be opened.

See more images from Nespoli on his Flickr page.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Astronaut On Board ISS Gets Word of Mother’s Death

Paolo Nespoli with his mother in November 2010, shortly before he was launched to the International Space Station. Credits: ESA

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ISS astronaut Paolo Nespoli from Italy received some sad news while in orbit on the International Space Station: his mother, Maria Motta, has died following an illness. She was 78. This is the second time an ISS astronaut has lost a mother during a long duration mission. U.S. astronaut Daniel Tani’s mother was killed in an accident during the midst of Tani’s ISS expedition in 2007. Nespoli is not scheduled to return to Earth for another three weeks.

Nespoli knew his mother was ill. According to the Associated Press, Nespoli’s family members who live near Milan, Italy have been able to stay in touch with Nespoli with a video system set up in his mother’s home by the European Space Agency. A funeral service will be held on Wednesday, and officials at the European Space Agency said that in such an instance it might be possible to set up a satellite hookup so the absent astronaut could participate in the services.

Just before Nespoli launched on his first mission to space in 2007, his father passed away.

UPDATE: At 15:05 CEST on Wednesday, May 4, the ISS will fly over @Astro_Paolo’s hometown and the crew will observe 1 minute silence. ESA is asking anyone who wishes to participate on their own to please do so.

Anyone interested in expressing their condolences to Paolo can send cards to:

Paolo Nespoli
ESA – European Astronaut Centre
Linder Höhe
D-51147 Cologne
Germany

or on Twitter:
@Astro_Paolo

The STS-134 shuttle will bring Italian astronaut Roberto Vittori to the space station, and Italians were anticipating having two of their countrymen aboard the ISS at once, and plans were in place for Pope Benedict to call the two astronauts while they were in orbit. The technical problems with shuttle Endeavour has caused a delay in the launch, however, with NASA officials saying the shuttle won’t be able to launch any earlier than May 10. Italian officials are hopeful the shuttle won’t be delayed further so that the meetup in space will still be possible.

ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli works with an experiment on board the International Space Station. Credit: NASA
Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Gallery: 10 Years of Canadarm2, Construction Crane in Space

Canadarm2, the huge robotic arm on the International Space Station holds astronaut Stephen Robinson during the STS-114 mission. Credit: NASA

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On April 19, 2001, space shuttle Endeavour’s STS-100 mission launched to the space station, and in the payload bay was Canadarm2, a larger, more robust successor to the shuttle’s Canadarm. The Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) is a sophisticated “construction crane,” and is responsible for much of the successful building of the ISS — module by module — in space.

“She is without a doubt one of the most critical components on board station having participated in the construction of the spacecraft that is on orbit today,” said Mike Suffredini, Program Manager of the International Space Station. “Twenty-nine missions have been supported by Canadarm2, two of them capturing and berthing the HTV vehicle, and in all that time with absolutely flawless performance. Without her we couldn’t have gotten to where we are today.”

See a gallery of images of Canadarm2’s 10 years in the space construction business.


April 22, 2001 – History is made. Canadian Space Agency Astronaut Chris Hadfield, attached to Canadarm, installs the next-generation Canadarm2 to the International Space Station during Shuttle Mission STS-100. Credit: NASA

Canadarm2 was installed on the ISS by astronaut Chris Hadfield during the first spacewalk by a Canadian. Canadarm2 has unloaded hundreds of tons of equipment and supplies ferried by the shuttle and assisted almost 100 spacewalks. Endeavour’s last flight later this month will mark Canadarm2’s 28th Shuttle mission.

July 15, 2001 – Canadarm2 performs its first official task, attaching the Quest Airlock to the Unity module of the International Space Station during Shuttle Mission STS-104. Credit: NASA

The Canadian Space Agency says that Canadarm2’s role on the ISS will expand as the orbital lab nears completion: in addition to performing routine maintenance, the robotic arm will make more frequent “cosmic catches,” where it will capture, dock and later release visiting spacecraft, as it has done with the HTV. When the space shuttle retires, reusable commercial spacecraft, like SpaceX’s Dragon and Orbital’s Cygnus, will be used to bring supplies and equipment to the ISS. Canadarm2 will capture each of these visiting vehicles. In late 2011 and early 2012, Canadarm2 will capture a series of 6 commercial spacecraft in just 7 months, beginning with the Dragon spacecraft, currently scheduled to arrive in October 2011.

How the ISS looked back in 2001, with Canadarm2 showing prominently. Credit: NASA
June 15, 2007 – Shuttle Mission STS-117 continued assembly operations that featured more work on the Station’s solar arrays. In this image, NASA astronaut Jim Reilly, attached to Canadarm2, and NASA colleague John “Danny” Olivas, are folding up an older solar panel so that it can be stowed and moved to another location on a future shuttle mission. Credit: NASA
November 3, 2007 – Canadarm2 played a big role in helping astronauts fix a torn solar array. The arm’s reach was extended by the Orbiter Boom Sensor System, and here, allowing astronaut Scott Parazynski analyses the solar panel while anchored to the boom. Credit: NASA
February 12, 2008 – Here, Canadarm2 has a firm grip on the European Space Agency’s Columbus module, which it grappled and attached to the station. Credit: NASA

More info on the SSRMS and how it was built:

The Expedition 27 crew on board the ISS pay tribute to 10 years of the SSRMS:

See more images and info at CSA’s website.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

‘Gagarin’ Launches to Space Station

Expedition 27 Soyuz rollout. Credit (NASA/Carla Cioffi

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft launching from the very same launch pad used by Yuri Gagarin when he became the first human in space 50 years ago blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, just a week shy of the April 12th anniversary. The launch took place on time on April 5, 2011 4:18:20 a.m local time (6:18:20 p.m. EDT on April 4), sending two cosmonauts and one astronaut to the International Space Station: Soyuz commander Alexander Samokutyaev, flight engineer Andrey Borisenko and NASA astronaut Ron Garan. The rocket bore the image (see below) and name of Gagarin to celebrate his historic flight.

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The crew should reach the ISS on Wednesday.

Soyuz launch for Expedition 27. Credit: NASA/Carla Cioffi

Expedition 27 crew members from top, Russian Flight Engineer Andrey Borisenko, NASA Flight Engineer Ron Garan, and Soyuz Commander Alexander Samokutyaev wave farewell from the bottom of the Soyuz rocket prior to their launch to the International Space Station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on Tuesday, April 5, 2011. Photo Credit (NASA/Carla Cioffi)