(Space.com) The United States' spy satellite agency is giving NASA two spare space telescopes free of charge, each potentially more powerful than the Hubble Space Telescope, NASA officials announced today (June 4).

The two spy satellite telescopes were originally built to fly space-based surveillance missions for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), but will be repurposed by NASA for astronomical research instead. Their donation to NASA was revealed in a surprise announcement.

Both NRO space telescopes have a main mirror nearly 8 feet wide (2.4 meters), rivaling the Hubble Space Telescope, and also carry a secondary mirror to enhance image sharpness, according to press reports. NASA's Hubble telescope is a space icon that has been beaming stunning photos to Earth for 22 years.

NASA and NRO officials did not elaborate on the original design or mission for the reconnaissance telescopes, though officials told the Washington Post that the earliest either of the instruments could be recycled into a new space telescope and launched into orbit would be 2020. Finding the funding necessary to refit and launch the telescopes is a major hurdle, officials said.

NASA hopes to use one of the new space telescopes to hunt for mysterious dark energy, an invisible force that scientists think is responsible for the accelerating expansion of the universe.

During a media teleconference today, NASA officials said the two telescopes have an appearance similar to the Hubble telescope: They are cylindrical in shape and covered in shiny reflective insulation. The two telescopes do not currently have names, they added.

The Hubble space telescope, which launched in 1990, is the size of a school bus and has become an astronomical icon. But Hubble is also aging. Since its launch, Hubble has been repaired or upgraded five separate times, most recently in 2009 when NASA astronauts paid the last-ever service call on the venerable instrument.

Eventually, Hubble will be decommissioned and then intentionally destroyed by plunging into Earth's atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.

Currently, NASA has no plans to replace Hubble, which is primarily an optical observatory, with a similar instrument. The space agency's next big orbital observatory is the James Webb Space Telescope, an infrared-only telescope designed to peer deep into the universe's 13.7 billion-year history.

You can follow SPACE.com Managing Editor Tariq Malik on Twitter @tariqjmalik. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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NASA gets 2 telescopes from spy satellite agency

NASA will mark the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts of America by hosting a Girl Scouts Rock@NASA event from 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. June 8 in the James E. Webb Memorial Auditorium located at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver and two former astronauts, Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and Pam Melroy, will participate. Media are invited to attend.

NASA and the Girl Scouts share a common goal to encourage and educate young girls about science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in exciting and innovative ways. The Girl Scouts began in 1912 with only 18 girls. Today, there are 3.2 million girls and adults who are members. In 100 years, the organization has graduated more than 59 million women in the United States.

The Girl Scouts Rock@NASA program will cover aeronautics, science and exploration. Attendees will learn about NASA's missions and careers from scientists and other invited guests and have opportunities to experience hands-on, interactive displays.

NASA will host two sessions based on the age of the attendees.

In the morning session, Stefanyshyn-Piper will speak to younger explorers about some of NASA's missions and discoveries. Attendees will be able to take a picture of themselves on Mars and learn about solar sails and NASA technology in everyday life.

The afternoon session, targeted to Girl Scout cadettes, seniors, and ambassadors, will feature Garver and Melroy. Attendees also will be able to use interactive activities to learn more about NASA and STEM.

Media wanting to attend the event must send an email to Sonja Alexander, at sonja.r.alexander@nasa.gov by 4 p.m. Thursday, June 7.

Attendance is limited to pre-registered Girl Scout troops. To register, visit: http://women.nasa.gov/events

For more information on the Girl Scouts and the 100-Year Anniversary Rock the National Mall event, visit: http://www.girlscouts.org/yearofthegirl/event_rock_the_mall.asp

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NASA Joins Girl Scouts Celebrating 100 Years of Inspiration and Empowerment

This artist concept features NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover along with an illustrated "tweet" bird. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

PASADENA, Calif., June 5 (UPI) -- NASA says 25 lucky followers of the space agency will be invited to attend a NASA event to coincide with the upcoming landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars.

The NASA Social event will offer people who engage with NASA through Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and other social networks the opportunity to tour the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., meet scientists and engineers, participate in news conferences and, if all goes as planned, be at the media site when the first signal of the rover's landing is detected by JPL mission control, a NASA release said Tuesday.

The Curiosity rover will land at Mars' Gale Crater Aug. 6 at approximately 1:31 a.m. EDT for a two-year mission to investigate whether the selected area of Mars offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life or if evidence of it existed.

Registration for the NASA Social event will open at noon EDT Wednesday, June 6, and close at noon EDT Friday, June 8.

NASA said it will randomly select 25 participants from online registrations.

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NASA to hold Mars landing 'social' event

NASA will host a 3-day NASA Social for 25 of its social media followers Aug. 3-5 at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The NASA Social is scheduled to culminate in the landing of the Mars Science Laboratory's Curiosity rover at Mars' Gale crater. The landing is anticipated at approximately 10:31 p.m. PDT Aug. 5 (1:31 a.m. EDT Aug. 6).

The event will offer people who engage with NASA through Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and other social networks the opportunity to tour JPL, speak with scientists and engineers, participate in news conferences and, if all goes as planned, be at the media site when the first signal of the rover's landing is detected by JPL mission control. The event also will provide participants the opportunity to interact with fellow tweeps, space enthusiasts and members of NASA's social media team.

During the two-year prime mission, Curiosity will investigate whether the selected area of Mars offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life or if evidence of it existed.

JPL has 23 spacecraft and 10 instruments conducting active missions of exploration of Earth, the solar system and the universe beyond. These ventures, including Voyager, Cassini and the Opportunity Mars rover, are enabled by NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN). Managed by JPL, the DSN is an international network of antenna complexes for communications between spacecraft and Earth-based teams that guide them. NASA Social guests will meet team members from some of these missions and tour DSN mission control.

NASA Social registration opens at 9 a.m. PDT (noon EDT) Wednesday, June 6, and closes at 9 a.m. PDT (noon EDT Friday, June 8). NASA will randomly select 25 participants from online registrations.

For more information and rules pertaining to NASA Social registration, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/social

For information about connecting and collaborating with NASA, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/connect

For more information about JPL, visit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

To follow the Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity mission via Facebook and Twitter, visit: http://www.facebook.com/MarsCuriosity http://www.twitter.com/MarsCuriosity

Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.

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NASA Invites Social Media Fans to Mars Landing Event

WASHINGTON NASA has received a gift from an unexpected source the nation's satellite spy agency.

The space agency confirmed Monday that it received a pair of giant identical telescopes from the National Reconnaissance Office, which oversees the country's constellation of spy satellites. NASA says the spy agency built them and then decided it didn't need them. The transfer last summer was only recently declassified.

Even with this windfall, NASA has no money to launch the telescopes anytime soon.

The telescopes have mirrors similar in size to the famed Hubble Space Telescope, but they lack cameras and instruments essential for astronomy research. The telescopes are currently in upstate New York.

Scientists hope NASA will repurpose one of the telescopes to study mysterious dark energy.

The Associated Press

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Federal satellite spy agency gives NASA two telescopes

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NASA PHOTO: New Mexico Wildfire Over Gila National Forest Spotted By Satellite

The space agency's original prototype orbiter, Enterprise is scheduled to arrive at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum on the west side of Manhattan on Tuesday.

By Robert Z. Pearlman,SPACE.com / June 4, 2012

NASA's space shuttle Enterprise launched on a voyage Sunday (June 3), going where no space shuttle has gone before: New Jersey.

The space agency's original prototype orbiter, Enterprise is scheduled to arrive at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum on the west side of Manhattan on Tuesday (June 5). Leaving Sunday from New York's John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport where it was delivered atop a jumbo jet in late April, theshuttle was barged to Bayonne, N.J., as a layover on its way up the Hudson River.

Enterprise, having firstarrived in the Big Apple by airand setting sail Sunday by sea, is only missing the experience of traveling through space to complete the Intrepid's three modal themes. The first of NASA's space shuttles, Enterprise did not fly in orbit but instead was used for a series of approach and landing tests in the late 1970s. [Gallery: Enterprise Sails to New Jersey]

Enterprise embarks

On Saturday, a large crane was used to load the 57,000 pound (26,000 kilogram) prototype shuttle onto the open air flat bed barge, which, towed by tugboat, made the trip to the Garden State the next day. Spectators in Queens, Staten Island and Brooklyn, including at Coney Island, lined the shores to watch as Enterprise floated by.

Along the way, thespace shuttle Enterprisepassed under several crossings, its vertical stabilizer, or tail, clearing the Verrazano Bridge, for example, by a good margin. At others, including the Gil Hodges Memorial, the bridges needed to be raised to allow the shuttle to pass.

The shuttle will stay in Bayonne through Tuesday. On Monday, it'll be hoisted off its barge onto one equipped with a crane.

Enterprise arrives

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NASA space shuttle embarks on voyage to New Jersey

NASA has received a gift from an unexpected source: the U.S. satellite spy agency.

The space agency confirmed Monday that it has received a pair of giant identical telescopes from the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), an agency within the Department of Defense that oversees the U.S.'s constellation of spy satellites.

The telescopes have mirrors similar in size to the famed Hubble Space Telescope, and the Washington Post reported that they also have a moveable secondary mirror for more focused images.

NASA says the intelligence agency built them and then decided it no longer needed them, a stark contrast to NASA, which is still struggling to build and finance its own next-generation telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope.

The transfer of the instruments from the NRO to NASA occurred last summer but was only recently declassified.

Even with this windfall, the cash-strapped space agency, which was forced to end its 30-year-shuttle program last year and has run over budget on the Webb telescope, has no money to launch the telescopes anytime soon.

NASA officials said on Monday they likely won't be in use until 2020 at the earliest, two years after the Webb telescope is scheduled to be launched.

For now, the gifted telescopes are of no use to NASA as they lack the cameras and instruments necessary for astronomy research.

The telescopes are currently in upstate New York.

Scientists hope NASA will repurpose one of the telescopes to study mysterious dark energy.

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NASA gets 2 Hubble-size telescopes from spy agency

Its been a rough year for NASAs science program, with a major pullback in its Mars exploration program and continuing threats to cancel the James Webb Space Telescope.

Now comes news today that NASA has acquired two Hubble-like telescopes from the National Reconnaissance Office, the U.S. Government agency in charge of designing, building, launching, and maintaining Americas intelligence satellites.

These telescopes, which are identical, were built eight years after Hubble so they have greater capabilities, such as being able to image a field of view 100 times larger than Hubble. They are space-ready but were never used.

The newly acquired telescopes are a shorter, stubbier version of the Hubble shown above. (NASA)

This is a great opportunity for NASA, and Ill get to that in a moment, but stop and think about this for a moment. The Department of Defense has the kind of funding needed hundred of millions to billions of dollars, presumably to build not one, but two, Hubble-like optical telescopes and then never use them.

Also unanswered is what the telescopes might have been used for by the NRO, but one guesses it wasnt for probing the complexities of dark energy.

But thats what NASA wants them for. The telescopes fit the nature of the kind of instrument NASA needs to conduct its Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope mission, ranked as the top priority among large science mission in the countrys most recent survey of astronomy and astrophysics projects.

The telescopes are space-ready, but far from being a ready to launch project. They still need a spacecraft that includes power, communications, control and thermal protection systems, in addition to a launch vehicle and a means to control them from the ground.

Nevertheless the telescopes could provide a critical impetus to getting the WFIRST project moving forward.

It could be a real game changer for a project that was having trouble getting a lot of traction, said Alan Dressler, a Carnegie Institute astronomer who has studied the telescopes for astronomical use.

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NASA gets 2 Hubble-like telescopes

An image of the proposed WFIRST design, which may be changed radically thanks to a gift from a spy agency.

Today, news broke that the National Reconnaissance Office, which handles satellite-based surveillance, had agreed to transfer two space-capable telescope lens systems to NASA. At a press call held today, NASA administrators said that while most of the remaining structure for a space-based telescope would still have to be built, the gift could jump-start a planned infrared survey telescope called WFIRST. That is, if Congress allocates money to take advantage of the gift. But at best, the hardware won't be in orbit until the start of the next decade.

The NRO apparently decided that some of the hardware it designed and built for use in spy satellites (but did not place in orbit) would be superfluous for its current needs. Back in January of 2011, the agency got in touch with NASA and offered to transfer the hardware (along with the design and test data from its construction). Since then, NASA has been paying about $100,000 a year to store the two telescopes in Rochester, New York while it decides if and how it can use them.

The primary lenses of the system are 2.4 meters, the same size as the lens in Hubble. Paul Hertz, the director of NASA's Astrophysics Division, described the lenses as being a different shape, "more like a bowl than a shallow disk." They're also much lighter, having benefitted from decades of technology advances. The difference in shape makes these suitable for survey missions, as opposed to high-resolution images. Compared to the Hubble, they would give you "about [a] 100 times bigger area that you can image well."

After NASA's internal analysis, a good match was found between these capabilities and an existing project, the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope, or WFIRST. WFIRST is planned to achieve three different goals. Its general survey of the infrared sky should identify objects of interest that could then be examined by the James Webb Space Telescope, which would have a much higher resolving power. The second goal would be to track the distribution of early galaxies and supernovae, which would let us get a better grip on the properties of dark energy accelerating the expansion of the Universe.

The final focus of WFIRST is to provide an independent measure of the frequency and properties of exoplanets. As exoplanets travel between the Earth and distant galaxies, they can act as small gravitational lenses, distorting space in a way that causes a temporary brightening of the background galaxy. Since the degree of change in the incoming light depends on gravitational effects, it provides some information about the mass of the planet doing the lensing.

WFIRST is already in the planning stages, but documents from last year's interim report indicate that the team behind it was considering a 1.3m primary mirror. This means the NRO hardware would provide a significant boost. According to the people on the press call, designing the optical system for a space-based telescope is also the most complex and expensive portion of the development process, and the NRO hardware could save hundreds of millions of dollars.

That said, NASA would still have its work cut out for it. The optical system would need power, communications hardware, pointing systems, insulation, a camera, and many other pieces before it could provide usable data. Then it would need a launch vehicle, which, based on the size of the optical system, would need to be at least an Atlas-class launcher. Of course, the space launch market is changing rapidlya future version of SpaceX's Falcon was raised as a possible optionso this seems to be the least of NASA's worries. As someone on the call put it, there's an office that will take the specifications and "find us an appropriate ride."

Developing all the additional hardware, however, won't come cheap, and even if money were to become plentiful, NASA doesn't think WFIRST could be put in space before 2020. Under "plausible" budgets, 2024 is more likely. But NASA administrators would have to specifically ask for it, and Congress would have to allocate the money. All that NASA will say for now is that the appropriate committee staff members have been briefed.

In the meantime, the agency has to work within some limits imposed by the telescopes' history. It won't be able, for example, to release any pictures until after the lenses are covered by all that additional hardware. USA Today'sDan Vergano was given an image of the telescope that was used at a recent meeting of the National Research Council. The level of redaction indicates that there will be some significant limits on any NASA design teams.

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NASA gets two unneeded Hubble-sized spy telescopes

A NASA Earth-observing satellite has snapped a photo of the huge wildfire chewing up vast swathes of southwestern New Mexico.

Excerpt from:

Huge New Mexico Wildfire Spotted by NASA Satellite

NASA has received a gift from an unexpected source — the nation's satellite spy agency.

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US satellite spy agency donates telescopes to NASA

The National Reconnaissance Office is giving NASA two spare space telescopes free of charge, each potentially more powerful than the Hubble Space Telescope.

The United States' spy satellite agency is giving NASA two spare space telescopes free of charge, each potentially more powerful than the Hubble Space Telescope, NASA officials announced today (June 4).

The twospy satellite telescopeswere originally built to fly space-based surveillance missions for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), but will be repurposed by NASA for astronomical research instead. Their donation to NASA was revealed in a surprise announcement.

Both NRO space telescopes have a main mirror nearly 8 feet wide (2.4 meters), rivaling theHubble Space Telescope, and also carry a secondary mirror to enhance image sharpness, according to press reports. NASA's Hubble telescope is a space icon that has been beaming stunning photos to Earth for 22 years.

NASA and NRO officials did not elaborate on the original design or mission for the reconnaissance telescopes, though officialstold the Washington Postthat the earliest either of the instruments could be recycled into a new space telescope and launched into orbit would be 2020. Finding the funding necessary to refit and launch the telescopes is a major hurdle, officials said.

NASA hopes to use one of the new space telescopes to hunt for mysterious dark energy, an invisible force that scientists think is responsible for the accelerating expansion of the universe.

During a media teleconference today, NASA officials said the two telescopes have an appearance similar to the Hubble telescope: They are cylindrical in shape and covered in shiny reflective insulation. The two telescopes do not currently have names, they added.

The Hubble space telescope, which launched in 1990, is the size of a school bus and has become an astronomical icon. But Hubble is also aging. Since its launch, Hubble has been repaired or upgraded five separate times, most recently in 2009 when NASA astronauts paid the last-ever service call on the venerable instrument.

Eventually, Hubble will be decommissioned and then intentionally destroyed by plunging into Earth's atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.

Currently, NASA has no plans to replace Hubble, which is primarily an optical observatory, with a similar instrument. The space agency's next big orbital observatory is the James Webb Space Telescope, an infrared-only telescope designed to peer deep into the universe's 13.7 billion-year history.

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Spy agency bequeaths two satellites to NASA, free of charge

The United States' spy satellite agency is giving NASA two spare space telescopes free of charge, each potentially more powerful than the Hubble Space Telescope, NASA officials announced today (June 4).

Excerpt from:

U.S. Spy Satellite Agency Gives NASA 2 Space Telescopes

Washington, June 3 (ANI): NASA will be sending unmanned aircrafts dubbed "severe storm sentinels" above stormy skies, beginning this summer and over the next several years, to help researchers and forecasters uncover information about hurricane formation and intensity changes.

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Unmanned NASA aircraft to study hurricanes in 2012

SpaceX?s Dragon capsule is now safely down from the ISS, showing that private enterprise can do at least some of this space stuff at vastly lower cost than a creaking governmental bureaucracy like NASA. Bloomberg then makes the entirely incredible argument that this means that NASA should aim to think big and bump up its ...

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SpaceX's Success Should Lead to NASA Being Cut to the Bone

SINGAPORE : Nasa has asked the Thai government and army for permission to use U-Tapao airport in Rayong as a base to conduct atmospheric studies, a military source says.

The source said Nasa aims to begin its studies at the airport next month.

"Nasa will work in an open and transparent way and will welcome Thai officers to join them in their studies and to transfer knowledge to local scientists. This involves Nasa and is unrelated to military or security concerns," the source said.

US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta lays out the new US Asia-Pacific strategy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) 11th Asia Security Summit in Singapore on Saturday. (Reuters photo)

Defence Minister Sukumpol Suwanatat added that the US was also interested in setting up a regional humanitarian and disaster relief centre at the airport.

He said he agreed with the idea of the centre on humanitarian grounds.

But the decision would be made by the Thai government, ACM Sukumpol said during his trip to Singapore to attend the Shangri-La Dialogue, an intergovernmental security forum, which will conclude today.

ACM Sukumpol also met US Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta at the event.

"Do not fear that the US will set up a military base in U-Tapao," ACM Sukumpol said after a 15-minute talk with the US secretary of defence on Friday.

"It has not been like that in the past. As we are friends, we need to support each other," he said. "The US can under normal circumstances use U-Tapao in accordance with our agreement."

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Nasa sets sights on U-tapao for study base

The top NASA manager in charge of the agency's commercial cargo transportation program hailed SpaceX's demonstration flight to the International Space Station as a success and indicated approval for continued resupply missions under a $1.6 billion contract would be a mere formality.

Dragon spent six days at the International Space Station. Credit: NASA The Dragon spacecraft made an on-target splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on Thursday, ending a nine-day mission that set out to prove the capsule's ability to safely reach the space station, deliver supplies, and return equipment to Earth.

The SpaceX-owned spacecraft will be the only vehicle in the space station's fleet of resupply freighters able to return to Earth intact with cargo. Other robotic cargo spacecraft built in Russia, Europe and Japan dispose of trash and burn up in the atmosphere.

Alan Lindenmoyer, manager of NASA's commercial cargo development program, said the flight looked to be 100 percent successful.

"We'll get a quick-look report from SpaceX next week, and then we'll await a final post-flight report several weeks later," Lindenmoyer said.

NASA invested $396 million into SpaceX under a public-private partnership agreement signed in 2006. The space agency released payments to the California-based company as it met design, testing and flight milestones.

Following the announcement of the space shuttle's retirement, NASA started investigating new ways to transport critical spare parts, food, experiments, and other geat to the space station. But no companies had the ability to do the job, and NASA wished to set its sights on more ambitious expeditions into the solar system.

After surveying the market, NASA established the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program to help fund private development of rockets and spacecraft to resupply the space station.

"You have turned those hopes into a reality today," Lindenmoyer said to Elon Musk, SpaceX's CEO and chief designer, following Thursday's splashdown.

SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp. won agreements with the COTS program. Orbital's first flight to the space station could launch as soon as October.

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NASA expects quick start to SpaceX cargo contract

ISS On-Orbit Status 06/02/12

All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except those noted previously or below. Saturday - Crew off duty.

After wakeup, CDR Kononenko performed the routine inspection of the SM (Service Module) PSS Caution & Warning panel as part of regular Daily Morning Inspection.

The six Exp-31 crewmembers joined in conducting the regular weekly three-hour task of thorough cleaning of their home, including COL (Columbus Orbital Laboratory) and Kibo JPM (JEM Pressurized Module). ["Uborka", usually done on Saturdays, includes removal of food waste products, cleaning of compartments with vacuum cleaner, damp cleaning of the SM dining table, other frequently touched surfaces and surfaces where trash is collected, as well as the sleep stations with a standard cleaning solution; also, fan screens and grilles are cleaned to avoid temperature rises. Special cleaning is also done every 90 days on the HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) bacteria filters in the Lab.]

As part of Uborka house cleaning, Oleg, Gennady & Sergei completed regular weekly maintenance inspection & cleaning of fan screens in the FGB (TsV2), Group E fan grilles in the SM (VPkhO, FS5, FS6, VP), and the weekly checkup on the Russian POTOK-150MK (150 micron) air filter unit of the SM's & FGB's SOGS air revitalization subsystem.

FE-2 Revin also handled the routine daily servicing of the SOZh system (Environment Control & Life Support System, ECLSS) in the SM. [Regular daily SOZh maintenance consists, among else, of checking the ASU toilet facilities, replacement of the KTO & KBO solid waste containers, replacement of EDV-SV waste water and EDV-U urine containers and filling EDV-SV, KOV (for Elektron), EDV-ZV & EDV on RP flow regulator.]

FE-6 Pettit conducted the regular (~weekly) inspection & maintenance, as required, of the CGBA-4 (Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus 4) and CGBA-5 payloads in their ERs (EXPRESS Racks) at Lab O2 & O1, focusing on cleaning the muffler air intakes.

Kononenko, with Padalka attending for "knowledge handover", completed the periodic maintenance of the active Russian BMP (Harmful Impurities Removal System) by starting the "bake-out" cycle to vacuum on absorbent bed #1 of the regenerable dual-channel filtration system. The process will be terminated at ~4:55pm EDT. Bed #2 regeneration will be done tomorrow. [Regeneration of each of the two cartridges takes about 12 hours and is conducted only during crew awake periods. The BMP's regeneration cycle, normally done every 20 days, is currently performed four times more frequently (last time: 5/14 & 5/15).]

FE-3 Acaba sequentially initiated and monitored charging of four Makita batteries for use with the Cardiopres blood pressure device during the next 24-hr ESA ICV (Integrated Cardiovascular) Ambulatory Monitoring session.

Don Pettit closed the protective shutters of the JAXA Kibo laboratory window to avoid its heating during the upcoming high Beta angle regime. [Shutter closure should be verified 12 hrs (as a margin) before the Betas reach more than +60 deg.]

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NASA ISS On-Orbit Status 02 June 2012

31-05-2012 12:25 After its successful stay at the ISS, the world's first commercial spacecraft to journey to the orbiting complex returns to Earth with a safe splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.

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SpaceX Dragon Splashes Down - Video