Space and Astronomy news daily - SpaceInfo.com.au » Shuttle / Station

Shooting star, seen from above

Jonathan Nally — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 05:41:33 +0000

The bright streak of a Perseid meteor as it flashes into Earth's upper atmosphere. The image was snapped by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station.

THIS ASTRONAUT PHOTOGRAPH, taken from the International Space Station (ISS) while over China (approximately 400 kilometres to the northwest of Beijing), provides the unusual perspective of looking down on a meteor as it passed through the atmosphere.

Many people have spent time outdoors under a dark sky, watching for “shooting stars” to streak across the firmament. In some cultures, this event is an occasion to make a wish; in others it is viewed as a herald of important events, such as the birth of a future ruler.

While not actual stars, “shooting stars” do come from outer space, in the form of meteoroids entering the Earth’s atmosphere.

Meteor or meteorite?

Meteoroids are small objects moving through the Solar System that are attracted to the Earth by its gravitational pull.

These small objects—typically fragments of asteroids or comets, though they can also originate from the Moon or Mars—begin to heat and burn up as they collide with air molecules in Earth’s atmosphere, creating a bright vapour trail or streak.

At this point, the object is known as a meteor. If any remnant of the object survives to impact the Earth’s surface, it becomes known as a meteorite.

While most meteorites are natural in origin, on occasion manmade space debris can re-enter the atmosphere and also become a meteor or even a meteorite!

Comes from a comet

The image was taken on August 13, 2011, during the Perseid Meteor Shower that occurs every August. The Perseid meteors are particles that originate from Comet Swift-Tuttle; the comet’s orbit is close enough for these particles to be swept up by the Earth’s gravitational field every year—leading to one of the most dependable meteor shower displays.

Green and yellow airglow appears in thin layers above the limb of the Earth, extending from image left to the upper right. Atoms and molecules above 50 kilometres in the atmosphere are excited by sunlight during the day, and then release this energy at night, producing primarily green light that is observable from orbit.

Part of a ISS solar panel is visible at upper right; behind the panel.

Astronaut photograph provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Centre. Text adapted from information issued by William L. Stefanov, Jacobs/ESCG at NASA-JSC.

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Tribute to the shuttle

Jonathan Nally — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 13:59:05 +0000

THE SPACE SHUTTLE IS PERHAPS the most complex technological system ever built. In 30 years, it has launched 135 times and helped humankind to dispatch and partially even return many satellites and deep-space probes, to build the International Space Station and to conduct out-of-this-world science. The shuttle has transported also 24 European astronauts to Earth orbit on 25 missions.

This short video highlights the flights that had a European flavour—from STS-9 in 1983 to STS-134 in May 2011.

Adapted from information issued by ESA.

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Shuttle is dead — long live the MPCV

Jonathan Nally — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 08:59:22 +0000

AS NASA CLOSES THE CHAPTER on the space shuttle programme, a new era of exploration vehicles is beginning to take off.

Testing began this month in the new Hydro Impact Basin at NASA’s Langley Research Centre, to certify the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) for water landings.

The Orion MPCV will carry astronauts into space, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during space travel and ensure safe re-entry and landing.

Engineers have dropped a 10-tonne MPCV mock-up into the basin. The test item is similar in size and shape to MPCV, but is more rigid so that it can withstand multiple drops.

Each test has a different drop velocity to represent the MPCV’s possible entry conditions during water landings.

The last of three drop tests to verify the new facility is scheduled for the end of this month.

Testing will resume in September with a slightly modified test article that is more representative of the actual MPCV.

The new Hydro Impact Basin is 35 metres long, 27 metres wide and 6 metres deep. It is located at the west end of Langley’s historic Landing and Impact Research Facility, or Gantry, where Apollo astronauts trained for moonwalks.

Here’s an overview video of the Orion MPCV programme:

Adapted from information issued by NASA.

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Space spiders coming home

Jonathan Nally — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 02:00:43 +0000

CARRIED ALOFT BY THE SPACE SHUTTLE Endeavour in May 2011, the Spiders in Space experiment saw two spiders—Gladys and Esmerelda—take up residence aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

The two golden orb spiders (Nephila clavipes) were kept in separate habitat chambers. Each chamber had a food supply of fruit flies, and was equipped with cameras and lighting systems. The lights were set to a 24-hour cycle that provided 12 hours of “daylight,” and 12 hours of “nighttime”. Night photographs were captured using infrared light.

One of the Earth-bound spiders

The video above shows Esmerelda catching a fly.

The educational experiment was designed for school students to get involved in science while having fun. Students were encouraged set up spider habitats in their classrooms, so that they could compare the behaviour of their Earth-based spiders with the spiders living in space.

Hourly images of the spiders have been streaming onto the BioEd Online web site, where they are available as downloadable PowerPoint files or video clips.

After their holiday in weightlessness, Gladys and Esmerelda will be returning to Earth this week aboard the space shuttle Atlantis.

Adapted from information issued by BioEd Online.

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Salute to the Space Shuttle

Jonathan Nally — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 14:01:24 +0000

FROM THE FIRST FLIGHT IN 1981 aboard shuttle Columbia, the world has marvelled and been inspired by NASA’s space shuttle program. For more than three decades NASA and its partners such as Lockheed Martin—and tens of thousands of dedicated men and women in industry, academia, science and engineering—have made every mission and new discovery possible on the ground and in space.

Adapted from information issued by Lockheed Martin.

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Atlantis – the final launch

Jonathan Nally — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 05:33:15 +0000

SPACE SHUTTLE ATLANTIS lifted off at 1:29am Sydney time, July 9, 2011 (11:29am US Eastern Time, July 8th) to begin the STS-135 mission, the last of the shuttle programme.

“With today’s final launch of the space shuttle we turn the page on a remarkable period in America’s history in space, while beginning the next chapter in our nation’s extraordinary story of exploration,” Administrator Charles Bolden said. “Tomorrow’s destinations will inspire new generations of explorers, and the shuttle pioneers have made the next chapter of human spaceflight possible.”

The STS-135 crew consists of Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley, Mission Specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim. They will deliver the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module filled with more than 4,000 kilograms of supplies and spare parts to sustain space station operations after the shuttles are retired.

“The shuttle’s always going to be a reflection to what a great nation can do when it dares to be bold and commits to follow through,” Ferguson said shortly before lift-off. “We’re not ending the journey today—we’re completing a chapter of a journey that will never end.”

The mission includes flying the Robotic Refuelling Mission, an experiment designed to demonstrate and test the tools, technologies and techniques needed for robotic refuelling of satellites in space, even satellites not designed for servicing. The crew also will return with an ammonia pump that recently failed on the station. Engineers want to understand why the pump failed and improve designs for future spacecraft.

Atlantis is on a 12-day mission and scheduled to dock to the station at 1:06am Sydney time on Monday, July 11 (11:06am on Sunday, July 10, US Eastern Time).

STS-135 is the 135th shuttle flight, the 33rd flight for Atlantis and the 37th shuttle mission dedicated to station assembly and maintenance.

Here are some more clips of the launch, from different angles and at different stages of the process:

Information and videos courtesy NASA.

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Space shuttle – Go for launch!

Jonathan Nally — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 18:00:25 +0000

WITH THE VERY LAST SPACE SHUTTLE flight upon us, it’s timely to take a look at just what happens during preparations for a launch. In this remarkable video made by a team of photographers from Air & Space Magazine, we see the shuttle Discovery being moved from the Orbiter Processing Facility to the giant Vehicle Assembly Building, where it is lifted upright and mated to its fuel tank and booster rockets. It is then moved to the launch pad and … we have lift-off!

This was Discovery‘s second-last flight, STS-131, in April 2010.

Please note that the video is silent until the moment of lift-off.

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Life aboard the Space Station

Jonathan Nally — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 10:58:56 +0000

TWO HIGH-PROFILE SPACE MISSIONS came to end in May and June. European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Paolo Nespoli returned to Earth on May24, after spending almost six months aboard the International Space Station on his MagISStra mission. Then in June his countryman, ESA Italian astronaut Roberto Vittori, participated in the penultimate Space Shuttle mission to the ISS, the Italian Space Agency’s DAMA mission. This video shows the highlights of these two missions with commentary by Paolo Nespoli.

Adapted from information issued by ESA.

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Spidernauts make a home in space!

Jonathan Nally — Sun, 22 May 2011 11:14:18 +0000

A PAIR OF SPIDERNAUTS are settling in to their new home aboard the International Space Station.

Carried into orbit during the current space shuttle Endeavour mission, the spiders are housed in separate enclosures, with a supply of fruit flies to keep them from getting hungry.

The video above shows a series of single exposures of one of the spider enclosures. The camera got bumped during launch; hopefully the astronauts will be able to refocus it.

The spiders are part of an educational experiment. School kids around the globe are taking part, comparing the antics of the spidernauts with spiders back on Earth.

Here’s a video that shows the spiders’ enclosures:

And let’s just hope they don’t receive a high dose of radiation and mutate into gigantic, horrible Earth-destroying monsters … like this one back in 2007!

Story by Jonathan Nally, SpaceInfo.com.au. Images and videos courtesy NASA / BioServe.

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Flying free in space

Jonathan Nally — Tue, 17 May 2011 02:59:08 +0000

THE CURRENT FLIGHT of Endeavour will see the final spacewalks done by astronauts using a space shuttle airlock. For the foreseeable future, all further spacewalks will be done by Space Station astronauts using the Station’s airlock. And all these spacewalks will see the astronauts/cosmonauts tethered to the shuttle/Station to keep them from floating away.

But back in 1984, a handful of astronauts did what no one had done before and very few have done since…they flew free, untethered, away from their space vehicle.

Using a Buck Rogers-style backpack called the Manned Manoeuvring Unit (MMU), the astronauts could control their movements using tiny gas jets, flying free from the space shuttle and performing tasks completely on their own.

NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless became first 'human satellite' in 1984.

Bruce McCandless—seen in the photo above—was the first to test the MMU. He made his historic flight on February 7, 1984 during mission STS 41-B, becoming the first human satellite.

The MMU wasn’t used after 1984. A smaller version called SAFER—the Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue—was developed and tested in untethered flight on missions STS-64 (1994) and STS-92 (2000). All subsequent spacewalking astronauts have used a backpack with SAFER built in, just in case they became untethered and needed to make a safe return to the shuttle’s/Station’s airlock.

Adapted from information issued by National Air and Space Museum / NASA.

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