Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

NASA, Roscosmos Choose First Crew for Year-Long ISS Mission

Back in October the partnering countries of the International Space Station announced an agreement to send two crew members to the International Space Station on a one-year mission designed to collect valuable scientific data needed to send humans to new destinations in the solar system. Today, NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) announced they have selected the first crew to be part of such a mission: NASA has selected Scott Kelly and Roscosmos has chosen Mikhail Kornienko.

Kelly and Kornienko begin their mission in the spring of 2015, launching on Russian Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in spring 2015 and will land in Kazakhstan in spring 2016. Kelly and Kornienko have trained together before, as Kelly was a backup crew member for the station’s Expedition 23/24 crews, where Kornienko served as a flight engineer.

“Congratulations to Scott and Mikhail on their selection for this important mission,” said William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Their skills and previous experience aboard the space station align with the mission’s requirements. The one-year increment will expand the bounds of how we live and work in space and will increase our knowledge regarding the effects of microgravity on humans as we prepare for future missions beyond low-Earth orbit.”

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly

Kelly is the twin brother of former astronaut Mark Kelly, who is married to Gabrielle Giffords, the former US Congresswoman who was shot by an assailant in January of 2011.

The goal of their yearlong expedition is to understand better how the human body reacts and adapts to the harsh environment of space. Data from the 12-month expedition will help inform current assessments of crew performance and health and will determine better and validate countermeasures to reduce the risks associated with future exploration as NASA plans for missions around the moon, an asteroid and ultimately Mars.

“Selection of the candidate for the one year mission was thorough and difficult due to the number of suitable candidates from the Cosmonaut corps,” said head of Russian Federal Space Agency, Vladimir Popovkin. “We have chosen the most responsible, skilled and enthusiastic crew members to expand space exploration, and we have full confidence in them.”

Kelly, a captain in the U.S. Navy, is from Orange, N.J. He has degrees from the State University of New York Maritime College and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He served as a pilot on space shuttle mission STS-103 in 1999, commander on STS-118 in 2007, flight engineer on the International Space Station Expedition 25 in 2010 and commander of Expedition 26 in 2011. Kelly has logged more than 180 days in space.

Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko

Kornienko is from the Syzran, Kuibyshev region of Russia. He is a former paratrooper officer and graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute as a specialist in airborne systems. He has worked in the space industry since 1986 when he worked at Rocket and Space Corporation-Energia as a spacewalk handbook specialist. He was selected as an Energia test cosmonaut candidate in 1998 and trained as an International Space Station Expedition 8 backup crew member. Kornienko served as a flight engineer on the station’s Expedition 23/24 crews in 2010 and has logged more than 176 days in space.

During the 12 years of permanent human presence aboard the International Space Station, scientists and researchers have gained valuable, and often surprising, data on the effects of microgravity on bone density, muscle mass, strength, vision and other aspects of human physiology. This yearlong stay will allow for greater analysis of these effects and trends.

Kelly and Kornienko will begin a two-year training program in the United States, Russia and other partner nations starting early next year.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Take a Guided Tour of the International Space Station

Before she left the International Space Station this weekend, former ISS commander Suni Williams recorded an extensive guided tour of the orbital laboratory. The tour includes scenes of each of the station’s modules and research facilities with a running narrative by Williams of the work that has taken place and which is ongoing aboard the orbital outpost.

Suni Williams, Expedition 33 commander, works in the Quest airlock of the International Space Station. Credit: NASA

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Surreal Images of Soyuz Landing in the Dark

The Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft is seen shortly after it landed on November 19, 2012 with the Expedition 33 crew. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls.

The Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft carrying Expedition 33 Commander Suni Williams and Flight Engineers Yuri Malenchenko and Aki Hoshide landed in the steppe of Kazakhstan, and even though it was 7:56 a.m. Kazakhstan time (01:56 UTC Nov. 19, 8:56 p.m. EST on Nov. 18), it was still dark near the remote northern latitude town of Arkalyk (50°14’53.16″N). This was the first pre-dawn landing in darkness for a station crew since April 9, 2006, when Expedition 12 crew members returned. The overhead pictures from the scene have a surreal feel to them.

A problem with the Soyuz’ parachute – it deployed about 5 seconds later than planned – caused the crew to land several miles away from the planned landing site, but a Russian recovery team and NASA personnel reached the landing site by helicopter shortly afterward to assist the crew in getting out of the spacecraft, which landed on its side. Frigid temperatures greeted the crew when the hatch was opened; it was about -12 C (12 F), said NASA TV commentator Rob Navias.

Another overhead view of the Soyuz. Note the soot on the snow from the landing. Credit: Ria Novosti//Maxim Shipenkov. See a slideshow of images here.

The return of Williams, Hoshide and Malenchenko wraps up 127 days in space for the three since their launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on July 15, including 125 days spent aboard the International Space Station.

Screenshot from NASA TV of the post-landing activities.

Earlier the crew bid farewell to their fellow crewmates, NASA astronaut Kevin Ford and Russian cosmonauts Evgeny Tarelkin and Oleg Novitskiy, and closed the hatches between the spacecraft at 2:15 p.m. When the Soyuz undocked from the station’s Rassvet module at 5:26 p.m. it marked the end of Expedition 33 and the beginning of Expedition 34 under the command of Ford.

The Expedition 33 crew sit in chairs outside the Soyuz Capsule just minutes after they landed in a remote area outside the town of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, on Monday, Nov. 19, 2012. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls.

Three additional Expedition 34 flight engineers — NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield, and Russian Federal Space Agency cosmonaut Roman Romanenko — are scheduled to launch from Baikonur Dec. 19 and dock to the station two days later for a five-month stay. Hadfield will become the first Canadian to command the station when Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin depart in March, marking the start of Expedition 35.

Here’s the video of the landing, although there is no actual footage of the Soyuz touching down, since it was dark and the spacecraft landed well away from the planned landing spot.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Change of Command on the Space Station

Before the crew of Expedition 32/33 comes home today, astronaut and commander Suni Williams handed over the reins of the International Space Station to Kevin Ford during the traditional change of command ceremony … which was not so traditional. Williams handed out gifts to the new crew, and at times seemed quite emotional. Last week Williams wrote in her blog that she really didn’t want to think about leaving the ISS. “Up to this point I haven’t, and sort of denied it,” she wrote. “And, I am still in denial, but I am going thru the motions because I don’t want to forget something when the hatch closes.”

Williams, Aki Hoshide of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko will return home after what seems like a short 125 days in space, arriving at the ISS on July 17.

They will leave the station today (Sunday, Nov 18), undocking at 22:26 UTC (5:26 p.m. EST) Sunday and land in Kazakhstan at 01:53 UTC on Monday (8:53 p.m EST Sunday). You can watch live coverage on NASA TV.

Remaining onboard the ISS to begin Expedition 34 are Ford, Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin. They will be joined by Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, and NASA’s Tom Marshburn on Dec. 21 to bring the ISS crew compliment back to six. As Ford notes in the video, the new crew are “newbies” with a combined in-space experience of about 3 months, while Williams and her crew have a combined time in space of about 3 years.

JAXA astronaut Aki Hoshide during an EVA on Nov. 1, 2012, where he and Suni Williams worked to troubleshoot problems with an ammonia leak outside the ISS. Credit: NASA

The time Williams, Hoshide and Malenchenko were on board saw the October arrival the first official commercial spacecraft, SpaceX’s Dragon. Williams and Hoshide also carried out two spacewalks, with Williams now holding the record for total spacewalk time by a female at 50 hours and 40 minutes over seven career spacewalks. Malenchenko is a space veteran with several Soyuz flights, a flight on the Space Shuttle and three stints on the ISS.

Here’s the scene as Williams, Hoshide and Malenchenko say goodbye and close the hatches between the ISS and Soyuz:

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Zoom Zoom! Progress Ship Goes from Launch to Docking in 6 Hours

The Progress 49 cargo craft ship went from zero to 28,000 km/h in about 8 minutes — as it usually does — but it then caught up and docked to the International Space Station in super-fast time, in less than six hours. This is the second Progress to take advantage of the abbreviated four-orbit rendezvous with the ISS which uses additional firings of the Progress engines early in its orbital flight to expedite the time required for a Russian vehicle to reach the station. Other flights take about 2 days to reach the ISS.

Launch of the Progress 49 cargo ship from Kazakhstan. Screenshot via NASA TV.

The launch took place at 7:41 UTC (3:41 a.m. EDT) from Kazakhstan and the docking occurred at 13:33 UTC (9:33 a.m. EDT) on Wednesday. The resupply ship is filled with 2,050 pounds of propellant, 62 pounds of oxygen, 42 pounds of air, 926 pounds of water and 2,738 pounds of spare parts, crew supplies and equipment. It will stay docked to the space station until April 2013.

Following the launch, ISS commander Suni Williams radioed to Mission Control, “Happy Halloween, and hopefully our little trick-or-treat vehicle is on its way. We just got to see it out the window and that’s pretty special.”

The space station crew is currently busy getting ready for a spacewalk on Thursday to try and determine the problem with a coolant leak in one of the solar arrays. (They may need to call in Georgi LaForge for reinforcements!)

Williams and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide will conduct the spacewalk and they hope to deploy a spare radiator and reconfigure coolant lines to close off a radiator that may have been hit by a meteoroid or piece of space debris. It is a very small leak, so it may take several weeks for flight controllers to find out if they have located the area of the leak. If this doesn’t solve the problem, the next plan of attack is to replace a pump.

The spacewalk is scheduled to begin around 12:15 UTC (8:15 a.m. EDT) on Thursday, November 1.

The fast-track flight to the ISS is being considered for the manned Soyuz vehicles in the future to improve crew comfort and extend the life of the Soyuz return vehicle. Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka has been quoted as saying it is every cosmonaut’s dream to only have a 6-hour flight in the cramped Soyuz!

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Video: Hurricane Sandy Seen by Space Station Astronauts

Here’s the view of Hurricane Sandy from an altitude of 254 statute miles from external cameras on the International Space Station. This video was shot as the ISS flew over the US’s eastern seaboard at 12:52 Eastern time October 29, 2012. Sandy has yet to officially make landfall, but the huge storm is already battering a region that makes up the most densely populated area of the US. The combination of three different storms has caused it to be dubbed as “Frankenstorm,” but it could turn into a “Blizzicane” as a winter storm merges with Sandy. The hurricane itself is strengthening as it barrels toward a landfall along the New Jersey coastline.

Below is video of the ISS pass at 11:16 a.m on Monday:

At the time of the flyover, Sandy was located 420 km (260 miles) south-southeast of New York City, moving north-northwest at 18 miles an hour with winds measured at 90 miles an hour as a Category 1 hurricane, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The huge slow moving combination of storms stretches about 1,600 km (1,000 miles) from north to south and significant impacts of storm surge and flooding are expected, with at least 7-10 inches of rain. This comes along with a snow advisory in some regions, creating a “Blizzicane” in the mountains of West Virgina, with 2-4 feet of snow predicted.

Forecasters are predicting this to be a multi-billion dollar storm disaster.

Here are some recent images of the storm:

Satellite View of Hurricane Sandy on Oct. 29 at 9:10 EDT by NOAA’s GOES-13 satellite.

Hurricane Sandy Viewed in the Dark of Night. Image acquired by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite around 2:42 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (06:42 Universal Time) on October 28, 2012.

For more images, see the Goddard Space Flight Center’s Flickr page.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

SpaceX’s Dragon Splashes Down Safely

The Dragon capsule after splashing down successfully on October 28, 2012. Credit: SpaceX

After leaving the International Space Station earlier on Sunday, SpaceX’s Dragon capsule returned to Earth from the International Space Station, safely splashing down in the Pacific Ocean about 400 kilometers (250 miles) off the coast of southern California. Inside the capsule are 758 kg (1,673 pounds) of return cargo including hardware, supplies, and a GLACIER freezer packed with scientific samples, including blood and urine samples of the astronauts on the space station, being returned for medical analysis. Currently, Dragon is the only craft capable of returning a significant amount of supplies to Earth, and this mission marks the first time since the retirement of the space shuttle that NASA has been able to return research samples for analysis.

Both NASA and SpaceX were thrilled with the success of the mission.

“This historic mission signifies the restoration of America’s ability to deliver and return critical space station cargo,” said SpaceX CEO and Chief Technical Officer Elon Musk. “The reliability of SpaceX’s technology and the strength of our partnership with NASA provide a strong foundation for future missions and achievements to come.”

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden added his congratulations to SpaceX: “Just a little over one year after we retired the Space Shuttle, we have completed the first cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station. Not with a government owned and operated system, but rather with one built by a private firm — an American company that is creating jobs and helping keep the U.S. the world leader in space as we transition to the next exciting chapter in exploration. Congratulations to SpaceX and the NASA team that supported them and made this historic mission possible.”

Raw video footage of the Dragon splashing down:

The SpaceX recovery team is now transporting Dragon by boat to a port near Los Angeles, where early cargo will be delivered to NASA. Dragon then will be transported to SpaceX’s facility in McGregor, Texas for processing. There, the remaining cargo will be delivered to NASA.

After a successful test flight in May of this year, this was the first “official” resupply mission for SpaceX to the ISS. The Dragon was launched on October 7 and reached the ISS three days later.

“It was nice while she was on board,” station commander Suni Williams radioed to back to Mission Control after the spacecraft was unberthed Sunday. “Literally and figuratively, there is a piece of us on that spacecraft going home to Earth.”

NASA Video of the Dragon capsule leaving the ISS:

The flight didn’t go with a hitch, however. An anomaly occurred with one of Falcon 9’s first-stage engines during the launch, and while it didn’t affect the mission to the ISS, a satellite that tagged along on the flight, the ORBCOMM OG2 prototype communications satellite, was delivered to the wrong orbit and ultimately fell back to Earth.

SpaceX and NASA are investigating the anomaly and analysis to date supports initial findings: the engine experienced a rapid loss of pressure and Falcon 9’s flight computer immediately commanded shutdown, as it is designed to do in such cases. SpaceX said they will continue to analyze all data in an effort to determine root cause and will apply those findings to future flights.

The next resupply mission for Dragon is tentatively scheduled for January 2013. Additionally, Orbital Sciences Corp, NASA’s second cargo hauler, plans to launch the first Cygnus capsule in February or March 2013.

Dragon floating down on parachutes. Credit: SpaceX

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Soyuz Docks to Space Station with New Crew and 32 Fish

Three new crew members — and 32 fish — are now at the International Space Station. Kevin Ford, Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin joined their Expedition 33 crewmates after docking the Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft to the Poisk module at 12:29 UTC (8:29 a.m. EDT) Thursday. They join Commander Suni Williams and Flight Engineers Aki Hoshide and Yuri Malenchenko who have been on board since July 17. Hatches between the International Space Station and the Soyuz will open later today after pressure and leak checks.


32 Asian medaka fish were also launched along with the crew on Tuesday from the from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. No word yet if all the fish survived the launch, but they will be placed in a new aquarium in the Japanese Kibo lab module for research on how the fish react to microgravity and space radiation. It should also be fun for the astronauts — and the public — to watch the fish swim about in the Aquatic Habitat.

The Aquatic Habitat, or AQH, is a Japanese Space Agency, or JAXA, facility that will enable the study of fish aboard the International Space Station. (JAXA)

You can read more about the Aquatic Habitat here.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Soyuz Launches New Crew to Space Station

The Soyuz rocket with three Expedition 33/34 crew members launched to the International Space Station on Tuesday, October 23, 2012, in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Three new crew members — and a stuffed hippo — are on their way to the International Space Station. Expedition 33/34 NASA Flight Engineer Kevin Ford, Soyuz Commander Oleg Novitskiy and Flight Engineer Evgeny Tarelkin launched aboard the Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft at 10:51 UTC (6:51 a.m. EDT, 5:51 p.m. Baikonur time) Tuesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. The trio is now safely in orbit, and on Thursday they will hook up with the ISS and join their Expedition 33 crewmates — Commander Suni Williams, ISS veteran Yuri Malenchenko, and Akihiko Hoshide — onboard the Space Station.

It was a beautiful daytime launch from the Site 31 launchpad, a different pad than usual. The pad that is normally used for human launches is undergoing renovations.

The stuffed hippo was given to the crew by Novitskiy’s daughter. Soyuz crews have had a history of having a mascot hanging in view of the cameras and when it starts floating is the visual confirmation of when the crew reaches orbit. The hippo isn’t the only animal on board. 32 medaka fish are stowed along for the ride, as they will be part of a new aquarium on the ISS called the Aquatic Habitat that will study how the fish adapt to microgravity.

Watch the video of the launch, below:

Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin will be on the ISS for about five months, until March 2013. Williams, Malenchenko and Hoshide, who have been on the station since July, will return to Earth Nov. 19.

The next launch to the ISS will be on Dec. 21 when cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield and NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn head to the Station on board the Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Go Inside the Dragon Capsule with New Interactive Panorama

Wish you could be on the International Space Station right now, helping to unload the SpaceX Dragon capsule that is berthed to the Harmony Node? A new interactive panorama from SpaceX allows the closest experience of being inside Dragon. Inside, you can see all the storage compartments, and the panorama lets you zoom around inside as if you were floating in Zero-G. If you watch out the window port, the view will change from seeing Earth, to having the protective shutters closed and then (sadly) you end up back on Earth inside the SpaceX Hanger at Cape Canaveral. The panorama is a fun Friday diversion, but make sure you share it with your favorite budding astronaut — kids will love it! Click on the image above to get to the panorama, or use this link.