Station Crew Prepares for Visiting Spacecraft, Conducts Research

The Expedition 27 crew members aboard the International Space Station made preparations for the arrivals of a new Russian cargo craft and space shuttle Endeavour and took part in a variety of scientific research Thursday.

The ISS Progress 42 cargo craft launched at 9:05 a.m. EDT Wednesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and is scheduled to dock to the Pirs docking compartment at 10:29 a.m. Friday.

NASA Television will provide live coverage of the Progress docking beginning at  [...]

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art25616/station-crew-prepares-for-visiting-spacecraft-conducts-research.html

NASA Resets Shuttle Endeavour's Launch For No Earlier Than May 2

WASHINGTON -- NASA managers met Friday to discuss the status of space shuttle Endeavour's launch to the International Space Station. The launch was postponed because of a heater issue associated with the shuttle's hydraulic power system. The next launch attempt will be no earlier than May 2.

The shuttle has three Auxiliary Power Units (APUs) that provide hydraulic power to steer the vehicle during ascent and entry. NASA launch commit criteria and flight rules require all three APUs to be full [...]

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art25619/nasa-resets-shuttle-endeavour-s-launch-for-no-earlier-than-may-2.html

Progress Docks to Station

Shuttle launch director Mike Leinbach stated that Endeavour?s launch will be no earlier than Monday at 2:33 p.m. EDT. Engineers need that time to troubleshoot an issue that resulted in today?s launch scrub.

During today?s countdown, engineers detected a failure in one of two heater circuits associated with Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) 1. Heaters are required to keep the APUs? hydrazine from freezing on orbit. Attempts to activate the heater were not successful and engineers now believe [...]

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art25622/progress-docks-to-station.html

Severe storms over U.S. seen from space

On April 27, 2011, huge storms spawned enormous tornadoes which swept across the southeastern U.S., doing severe damage and killing over 200 people. It was the worst natural disaster in the U.S. since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The NASA/NOAA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, or GOES, takes high-resolution images every few minutes. The animation below shows the southeast U.S. from GOES, and you can watch the storms erupt.

A warm, moist air mass from the south collided with a cold air mass over the States. This is how summer storms usually form, but this situation was amplified by the jet stream, which was blowing between them. This generated fierce local systems that spawned over 150 tornadoes in the course of a single day.

It’s unclear but unlikely this particular event was due to global warming, but many models indicate such storms will increase in number as the planet warms. Despite a lot of political noise, the overwhelming scientific consensus is that global warming is indeed real. We may see more storms like this in the future.

NOAA/NASA, GOES Project Science team. Original animation by Jesse Allen.

Related posts:

- Comic takedown of global warming denial

- ...

Full story at http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/04/30/severe-storms-over-u-s-seen-from-space/

Five Things About NASA's Voyager Mission

Here are five facts about NASA's twin Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft, the longest continuously-operating spacecraft in deep space. The Voyagers were built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., which continues to operate both spacecraft.

1. Long-Distance Space Runners
Voyager 2 launched on Aug. 20, 1977, and Voyager 1 launched about two weeks later, on Sept. 5. Since then, the spacecraft have been traveling along different flight paths and at different speeds. Now some 17.4 bi [...]

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art25609/five-things-about-nasa-s-voyager-mission.html

Cargo Craft Launches as Station Crew Prepares for Space Shuttle

The ISS Progress 42 resupply craft launched Wednesday morning to replenish the International Space Station. Launch was at 9:05 a.m. EDT (7:05 p.m. Kazakhstan time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The Russian cargo craft will dock to the Pirs docking compartment at 10:29 a.m. Friday.

The new cargo ship will dock to the same port vacated by the ISS Progress 41 cargo craft, which undocked last week and was deorbited Tuesday morning, disposing of station trash, after engineering tests. The new Pro [...]

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art25613/cargo-craft-launches-as-station-crew-prepares-for-space-shuttle.html

Station Crew Prepares for Visiting Spacecraft, Conducts Research

The Expedition 27 crew members aboard the International Space Station made preparations for the arrivals of a new Russian cargo craft and space shuttle Endeavour and took part in a variety of scientific research Thursday.

The ISS Progress 42 cargo craft launched at 9:05 a.m. EDT Wednesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and is scheduled to dock to the Pirs docking compartment at 10:29 a.m. Friday.

NASA Television will provide live coverage of the Progress docking beginning at  [...]

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art25616/station-crew-prepares-for-visiting-spacecraft-conducts-research.html

Fly me past the Moon

I’ve spent a lot of time — a lot — observing the Moon. I include using my naked eye, binoculars, and telescopes of all sizes (including Hubble, come to think of it) over many years, since I was a kid.

And in all that time, I’ve never had the good fortune to see something like this:

Tom Guilmette took this video at Fenway Park in 2010, and I’m not jealous of his good timing at all. Really. I’m not.

Dammit.

Tip o’ the oxygen mask to Ronnie Harris.

Related posts:

- When natural and artificial moons align

- Two solar ISS transits

- Claire de lune

- Squishy Moonrise seen from space

Full story at http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/04/29/fly-me-past-the-moon/

Arianespace to launch ABS-2 in 2013

Evry - Arianespace confirmed today the launch date for the ABS-2 satellite for Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS), one of the leading satellite operators in the Asia Pacific. ABS-2 will be launched by an Ariane 5 rocket from the Guiana Space Center, Europe?s Spaceport in French Guiana, in 2013.

The ABS-2 satellite, manufactured by Space Systems/Loral using an LS-1300 platform, will weigh more than 6,000 kg. at launch. It will be positioned in geostationary orbit at 75 degrees East where ABS-1, [...]

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art25606/arianespace-to-launch-abs-2-in-2013.html