Traffic at the International Space Station

This has been a busy weekend on the International Space Station (ISS), where the amazing has become mundane. 

First, a Russian Soyuz spacecraft delivered three new crew members to the station - US astronaut Robert Shane and Russian cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov and Andrei Borisenko.  One could even argue a fourth crew member accompanied them - the relics of Saint Seraphim of Sarov.  

Second, Orbital ATK's Cygnus cargo ship also arrived at the ISS.  Orbital ATK knows these missions are not mundane having lost a rocket and Cygnus cargo ship two years ago.

Someday we may see such traffic heading to the Moon and Mars as well.  However, the Orbital ATK mishap, SpaceX rocket explosions, and recent ExoMars lander failure shows that the space industry is still facing enormous risks. Fortunately, all of the missions just named did not involve human passengers. That adds a whole new level of risk and related risk management. 

Image Credit:  The photo at the top from NASA shows the new six-member Expedition 49 crew gathers in the Zvezda service module. The three newest arrivals (front row from left) Andrey Borisenko, Sergey Ryzhikov and Shane Kimbrough talk to family members and mission officials back on Earth. In the back row from left are, Kate Rubins, Anatoly Ivanishin and Takuya Onishi. The bottom photo shows the Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo ship arriving at the ISS and is also from NASA.

Chinese Space Station Open for Business

"The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) have agreed to work together to develop the space capabilities of United Nations Member States via opportunities on-board China’s future space station...Under the agreements, UNOOSA and CMSA will work together to enable United Nations Member States, particularly developing countries, to conduct space experiments on-board China’s space station, as well as to provide flight opportunities for astronauts and payload engineers."

--Press statement by UNOOSA posted June 16, 2016. This will become more relevant as the United States and its partners start to wind down the International Space Station and end the program by 2024.

Fire Prevention in Space

This week NASA has set fire to a Cygnus space capsule after it departed from the International Space Station as part of its SAFFIRE mission (or Spacecraft Fire Experiment). The space agency hopes to learn more about fire safety in space.

Yes, 4,000 pounds of dirty laundry are burning in space. Okay, it's not the whole craft since more experiments will be conducted with the same spacecraft.

Speaking of the mission, David Urban, SAFFIRE’s principal investigator, stared:

In spacecraft, we’ve never had the opportunity to burn anything larger than approximately an index card…We really don’t know what the fate of a fire is. So our building of future spacecraft is based on one-G understanding and extrapolation of very small, short-duration experiments.

Better now as an experiment than later as an event.

Boarding the BEAM

Bigelow has posted a number of photos of its Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), including an astronaut's entry of the module on the International Space Station last week. Take a look.

Picture Quote:  "NASA astronaut Jeff Williams successfully entered the BEAM, the first human rated expandable structure in space."

Early Report: BEAM Not Inflating

This week NASA started to inflate the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) while attached to the International Space Station. It should have looked like the image above, but early reports indicate the pressurization has not gone well.

NASA has a press conference at noon ET today to discuss the status of BEAM.  We shall learn more, yet I am not surprised with a few glitches at the start of a new approach to space habitation. Overall, I expect Bigelow's habitat will be a solid addition to the space program. 

Update:  Per NASA:

NASA and Bigelow Aerospace will make a second attempt at 9 a.m. EDT Saturday, May 28, to expand the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), currently attached to the International Space Station. NASA Television coverage will begin at 8:45 a.m.

Second Update:  All is well. Yesterday the BEAM successfully inflated (as shows below).  Engineers believe the 15 months of storage may have made the pressurization process more difficult. 

Great Image: Double Transit of the Sun

The transit of Mercury across the sun was interesting to watch last week, as is the transit of the International Space Station. In fact, both transits are shown in the image above. 

Here is the full story from APOD:

This sharp video frame composite was taken from a well-chosen location in Philadelphia, USA. It follows the space station, moving from upper right to lower left, as it crossed the Sun's disk in 0.6 seconds. Mercury too is included as the small, round, almost stationary silhouette just below center. In apparent size, the International Space Station looms larger from low Earth orbit, about 450 kilometers from Philadelphia. Mercury was about 84 million kilometers away.

Image Credit & Copyright: Thierry Legault

Amazing Views of Planet Earth

It is worth looking back down once in awhile on this big blue marble called Earth. We are searching the heavens to find what we already have - an amazing planet that can meet all of our needs if we can learn how to live within its limits.

This NASA video taken from the International Space Station shows a surface that is stunningly beautiful. As Carl Sagan has said, 

The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way those atoms are put together.

The arrangement of atoms on our home planet never fails to cause awe and wonder. 

For other great space station clips go to this NASA YouTube site. 

SpaceX: Success!

SpaceX has done it!  Earlier today the space company's Falcon 9 rocket successfully landed on a drone platform off the coast of Florida following a successful launch of a Dragon cargo ship towards the International Space Station. Long-awaited good news for all. 

President Obama was also impressed, tweeting:

Congrats SpaceX on landing a rocket at sea. It's because of innovators like you & NASA that America continues to lead in space exploration.

— President Obama (@POTUS) April 8, 2016

Update:  The Dragon cargo ship safely arrived at the International Space Station yesterday (April 10th).  One of the items delivered is BEAM, or the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, which will serve as inflatable space habitat attached to the station.

International Space Station Traffic Jam

Things are getting busy up there in low Earth orbit.  The other week Orbital ATK sent up a Cygnus cargoship.  And then Russian resupply ship Progress 63 (animation shown above) was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on March 31st.  Progress 61 had to undock and depart to make way for Progress 63. 

And now SpaceX is preparing for another Dragon resupply run on April 8th with a crew of mice to see how their little bodies handle space.  The mice will later be dissected and sent back to Earth for further study.  Scott Kelly did a little better than that with his mission. 

It is nice to see this complex interchange becoming so routine with the private sector playing a growing role.  A good sign for future cooperation and space projects. 

Scott Kelly: He Was Lucky

I thought this was a fun article on a year in space from Matt Novak at Paleofuture called Everything That Happened On Earth While These Guys Spent aYear in Space.  He highlights a few things that Scott Kelly missed out on, including Scott Walker, Donald Trump, Chipolte, the Apple Watch, and hover boards. I expect Mr. Kelly was well informed while on the International Space Station, yet also pretty busy and with little time to keep up on such important news.  That said, now that he is back, I would not be surprised if he chooses a quiet cabin in the woods to escape this silliness one more time.

Planned Disaster

International Space Station (ISS) replenishment work continued with yesterday's launch of the Orbital ATK Cygnus cargoship. Everything went as planned.

Now the question is whether a planned disaster will also go well.  In May, the ISS will release the Cygnus cargoship so it can be set afire in space. This controlled burn will help NASA understand and prepare for such potential disasters in the future.

It is all very interesting. SpaceX is trying to safely retrieve all of its equipment whereas Orbital ATK, which doesn't even have its own rockets, is intentionally destroying its only asset.

Update:  The Cygnus cargoship arrived safely at the ISS on March 26th.  Here is a video of the capture of the ship.

New Crew Arrives at the Space Station

A new crew of one American and two Russians safely arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) over the weekend after launching from Kazakhstan.  The American astronaut, Jeff Williams, is preparing to break Scott Kelly's record for the amount of time on the ISS.  So much for long term laurels. 

What is interesting is that Mr. Williams is 58 years old still going for the record, while Mr. Kelly is retiring from the program at the age of 52.  Mr. Williams will be the oldest NASA astronaut ever serving on an ISS mission.  Back in 2000 he was on an Atlantis shuttle mission helping to construct the ISS. 

You can follow Mr. Williams blog here. 

Astronaut Kelly Returns to Earth

Tomorrow astronaut Scott Kelly will land in Kazakstan, completing almost a year aboard the International Space Station. He has broken the U.S. record for time in space and is ready to be back home, but he should expect plenty of poking and prodding to learn more about the impact of space on his body and mind.

I expect the coverage of Super Tuesday will drown out much of the news of his return, yet I also expect NASA will leak out test results for months and play up the mission. Competing with Trump is hard, but we need stories about real heroes doing the real work to keep America strong and in the forefront of space travel. 

It is possible that after one look at the newspapers Mr. Kelly will ask for a seat on the next mission. Will NASA have room for millions more Americans? The idea of a Martian colony never sounded so nice.

Scott Kelly and Stephen Colbert

I am impressed that Stephen Colbert is bringing astronauts and scientists onto his Late Show program.  Most of the other talk shows seem interested in celebrities only and ignore all the other happenings in the world - and off world.  His long-distant interview with astronaut Scott Kelly, who was aboard the International Space Station, was entertaining yet also instructive.  In addition to discussion frequent flier miles, the talk covered potential bone loss due to the lack of gravity.  No, the science was not very deep, but at last NASA had a place on late night television.  Bravo to Colbert!

Great Image: Mars or Lake Chad

We could be looking at Mars except for the marshes and that blue atmosphere in the background.  Maybe this is what a terraformed Mars may look like someday.  Instead, you are looking at Lake Chad and a dust plume as captured by the International Space Station (ISS).  NASA explains:

This east-looking image, taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station, shows landscapes of the arid Sahara (image left) and the darker vegetation of the wetter semi-arid tropical woodland known as the Sahel (image right). The dark green marshes of Lake Chad stand out in the foreground of this view. Even though it is more than 200 km long, Lake Chad is the small remnant of a vast lake that has repeatedly occupied most of the region in this view in the recent geological past. This lake basin have stretches from the foreground almost 1000 km to the foot of the Tibesti Mountains (image top left). The lowest slopes of the Tibesti show the remnants of great deltas.

The image also captures an active dust plume—partly obscured by the so-called Canada Arm of the Space Station. The dust rises from the white mud flats of the ancient lake bed (image top left). Lofted into the atmosphere by northeasterly winds, dust from this basin often reaches the Atlantic Ocean, thousands of km to the west. Occasionally this dust is even carried by weather systems as far as the Americas.

Check out this photo and 15 others listed among the best ISS Earth images of 2015. 

Orbital ATK Back in the Station Business

Orbital ATK is back after a rough year. The successful Sunday launch of the Cygnus capsule aboard an Atlas V rocket put the company back in rotation for International Space Station (ISS) resupply missions, even if it has yet to field its own rocket. This is also the maiden voyage of an Atlas V rocket in an ISS mission.

The Cygnus spacecraft will arrive at the space station tomorrow morning.  The payload includes items lost in recent mission failures (three in a little over a year). 

Update:  The Cygnus space capsule (pictured below) safely arrived at the ISS Wednesday morning.  According to NASA, Cygnus has a diverse payload:

Science payloads will support science and research investigations that will occur during the space station’s Expeditions 45 and 46, including experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science -- research that impacts life on Earth. Investigations will offer a new life science facility that will support studies on cell cultures, bacteria and other microorganisms, a microsatellite deployer and the first microsatellite that will be deployed from the space station, and experiments that will study the behavior of gases and liquids and clarify the thermo-physical properties of molten steel and evaluations of flame-resistant textiles

In its press release announcing the successful mission, Orbital ATK stated it hopes to begin using its own Antares rocket by next year:

Under the CRS contract with NASA, Orbital ATK will deliver approximately 62,000 pounds (28,000 kilograms) of cargo to the ISS over 10 missions through 2018. To date, the company has delivered more than seven tons of essential supplies to the ISS since the first mission conducted in early 2014, with three additional CRS missions scheduled for 2016. Another Cygnus mission will be launched on an Atlas V in March, after which Orbital ATK’s Antares rocket will launch at least two ISS resupply missions in the second and fourth quarters of 2016.

ISS: 15 Years and Counting

Time flies when you are in Earth orbit, or so it seems. This week (November 2nd) marks the 15th year humans have continuously occupied  the International Space Station (ISS). 

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden recently stated:

Over the weekend, I called NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, who is currently halfway through his one-year mission aboard the International Space Station, to congratulate him on setting the American records for both cumulative and continuous days in space. 

I also took the opportunity to congratulate Commander Kelly -- and the rest of the space station crew -- for being part of a remarkable moment 5,478 days in the making: the 15th anniversary of continuous human presence aboard the space station.

ISS funding is expected can to continue through 2024, though Congress is a fickle institution so you never really know. But the ISS lasted this long, showing some decisions can still be made and financed. 

Another Success ISS Mission

The supplies keep rolling in and things are returning to normal on the International Space Station (ISS).  Russia's Progress M-29M/61P supply ship docked with the ISS on Thursday, arriving a little over 6 hours after launch. While pressures increase on the ground between the U.S. and Russia, this time in Syria, it is good to see space cooperation is still strong. 

Image Credit:  Progress 61 from NASA TV

This is Your Body in Space

This drawing from NASA walks you through the effects of space on the human body, as well as the effects of the human body on space. It focuses on what is happening to astronaut Scott Kelly during his one year on the International Space Station. Between his drinking of recycled urine to his creation of unique shooting stars, it sounds like quite an adventure.

Space Station Traffic Picking Up

The crew of the International Space Station (ISS) just went to nine yesterday as the Russian Soyuz spacecraft (TMA-18M) docked at the station and Sergey Volkov of Roscosmos, Andreas Mogensen of the European Space Agency, and Aidyn Aimbetov of the Kazakh Space Agency stepped aboard. We are already a long way from earlier this year when we were worried about even getting supplies to the station after numerous rocket explosions.  Since then, a Russian Soyuz resupplied the station and just last week a Japanese mission added more emergency supplies. 

The NASA image above shows the ISS configuration with all of the attached capsules. The Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft is docked to the Poisk mini-research module. The Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft is docked to the Zvezda service module. The ISS Progress 60 spacecraft is docked to the Pirs docking compartment. The Soyuz TMA-17M spacecraft is docked to the Rassvet mini-research module. Japan’s “Kounotori” HTV-5 is berthed to the Harmony module.