Monthly Archives: April 2014

Space Station Live: Spacewalk to Replace a Failed Computer
Public Affairs Officer Amiko Kauderer and NASA Astronaut Chris Cassidy discussed upcoming EVA 26 to be conducted by Expedition 39 Flight Engineers Steve Swan...

By: ReelNASA

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Space Station Live: Spacewalk to Replace a Failed Computer - Video

USA: Astronauts search for source of space station leak
1. M/S Chris Hadfield and Pavel Vinogradov 2. M/S Station exterior 3. W/S Mission control monitors 4. W/S Mission operations section 5. M/S Astronauts suitin...

By: memo chan

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USA: Astronauts search for source of space station leak - Video

Geopolitics In Space: Will Russia Annex the International Space Station?
The International Space Station is home to Russian and American astronauts. Author and space analyst Rand Simburg breaks down the situation on the ISS. Could...

By: PJ Media

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Geopolitics In Space: Will Russia Annex the International Space Station? - Video

International Space Station shifts orbit to prevent collision with space debris
Originally published March 18, 2014 The International Space Station shifted its route to avoid colliding with an incoming piece of space junk, NASA officials...

By: TomoNews US

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International Space Station shifts orbit to prevent collision with space debris - Video

Space to Ground - 4/18/2014
NASA #39;s Space to Ground is your weekly update on what #39;s happening aboard the International Space Station. Got a question or comment? Use #spacetoground to tal...

By: Waspie_Dwarf

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Space to Ground - 4/18/2014 - Video

NASA Hosts SpaceX-3 Post Launch News Conference from Kennedy Space Center
A post-launch news conference was held on Friday, April 18 at NASA #39;s Kennedy Space Center in Florida following the launch of the SpaceX-3 mission that will d...

By: NASA

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NASA Hosts SpaceX-3 Post Launch News Conference from Kennedy Space Center - Video

Robonaut, the first out-of-this-world humanoid, is finally getting its space legs.

For three years, Robonaut has had to manage from the waist up. This new pair of legs means the experimental robot now stuck on a pedestal is going mobile at the International Space Station.

"Legs are going to really kind of open up the robot's horizons," said Robert Ambrose from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

It's the next big step in NASA's quest to develop robotic helpers for astronauts. With legs, the 8-foot Robonaut will be able to climb throughout the 260-mile-high outpost, performing mundane cleaning chores and fetching things for the human crew.

The robot's gangly, contortionist-bending legs are packed aboard a SpaceX supply ship that launched Friday, more than a month late. It was the private company's fourth shipment to the space station for NASA and is due to arrive Easter Sunday morning.

Robonaut 2 R2 for short has been counting down the days.

"Legs are on the way!" read a message Friday on its Twitter account, @AstroRobonaut. (OK, so it's actually a Johnson Space Center spokesman who's doing the tweeting.)

Space Exploration Technologies Corp.'s unmanned capsule, Dragon, holds about 2 tons of space station supplies and experiments, Robonaut's legs included.

Until a battery backpack arrives on another supply ship later this year, the multimillion-dollar robot will need a power extension cord to stretch its legs, limiting its testing area to the U.S. side of the space station. Testing should start in a few months.

Each leg 4 feet, 8 inches long has seven joints. Instead of feet, there are grippers, each with a light, camera and sensor for building 3-D maps.

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NASA's Space Station Robonaut Finally Getting Legs

On Easter Sunday, SpaceX will deliver a pair of legs to 'Robonaut.' This is the next big step in NASA's quest to develop robotic helpers for astronauts. With legs, the 8-foot Robonaut will be able to do chores for the human crew on the International Space Station.

Robonaut, the first out-of-this-world humanoid, is finally getting its space legs.

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For three years, Robonaut has had to manage from the waist up. This new pair of legs means the experimental robot now stuck on a pedestal is going mobile at the International Space Station.

"Legs are going to really kind of open up the robot's horizons," said Robert Ambrose from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

It's the next big step in NASA's quest to develop robotic helpers for astronauts. With legs, the 8-foot Robonaut will be able to climb throughout the 260-mile-high outpost, performing mundane cleaning chores and fetching things for the human crew.

The robot's gangly, contortionist-bending legs are packed aboard a SpaceX supply ship that launched Friday, more than a month late. It was the private company's fourth shipment to the space station for NASA and is due to arrive Easter Sunday morning.

Robonaut 2 R2 for short has been counting down the days.

"Legs are on the way!" read a message Friday on its Twitter account, @AstroRobonaut. (OK, so it's actually a Johnson Space Center spokesman who's doing the tweeting.)

The rest is here:
Robonaut: A robot assistant for space station astronauts

A Space X Falcon rocket lifted off Friday afternoon for the International Space Station (ISS) from the Cape Canaveral Air Station in Florida.

The mission is the third commercial resupply flight for Space X to the ISS and part of NASAs push to use private launch companies for routine space flight.

The Dragon cargo capsule that sat atop the Falcon rocket was successfully deployed into space about 10 minutes after the 3:25 p.m. Eastern time launch. It is scheduled to dock with the ISS on Sunday.

Dragon is carrying more than 2 tons of cargo and experiments including several cubesat micro satellites and a pair of legs for the Robonaut robot on the ISS. It will also carry four HD cameras that will be placed on the ISS for streaming live video of the Earth on the Internet.

One of the most interesting items of cargo is NASAs Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS) test bed, which will test the feasibility of using a laser to transmit data from space to Earth.

Data and video links from the ISS and other NASA spacecraft to Earth are currently carried over radio waves, but the use of a laser could mean much greater bandwidth. NASA says OPALS could realize speeds of around 50Mbps, about the same or faster than that available on many home broadband connections.

The OPALS unit will be robotically taken from the Space X Dragon capsule and mounted onto the exterior of the space station. Once in place, it will begin a three-month mission that will consist of a series of 100-second long tests.

Each will begin when a ground station fires a laser beam towards the OPALS module on the ISS. When that is detected, the unit will use it to lock onto the ground station and fire up its own laser to send back data modulated on the laser beam.

The eventual goal of the tests is a multi-gigabit per second data communications system.

Martyn Williams covers mobile telecoms, Silicon Valley and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. More by Martyn Williams

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Space X rocket en route to ISS with space laser cargo

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Friday and sped through a cloud-covered sky on its way to deliver supplies to the International Space Station for NASA.

The Hawthorne-based rocket manufacturer launched the cargo mission despite a computer glitch aboard the space station and bad weather that threatened to push the liftoff back a day.

Promptly at 12:25 p.m. PDT, the rocket fired up its nine engines and launched into orbit, carrying a capsule packed with 5,000 pounds of supplies for the two American, one Japanese and three Russian astronauts aboard the space station.

The capsule, named Dragon, is scheduled to rendezvous with the space station on Sunday.

In a post-launch news conference, SpaceX founder and Chief Executive Elon Musk said the flight was "perfect as far as we could tell."

"This is a happy day," he said. "I'm just glad we were able to do the job we were contracted for, at least thus far."

The blastoff from Space Launch Complex 40 occurred despite the failure of one of the space station's backup computers, which assists a space capsule as it docks with the station.

The launch also marked the first time that SpaceX attempted to recover the first stage of its rocket after separation. During the news conference, Musk said the effort to retrieve the part so far appeared unsuccessful and he "wouldn't give high odds that the rocket was able to splash down successfully" because of 25-foot waves and rough sea conditions.

More than 55,000 viewers tuned in to an online live stream hosted on SpaceX's website. As plumes of smoke began rising from the rocket seconds before liftoff, the chat room exploded with activity as viewers virtually cheered on the launch.

NASA kept its Twitter followers updated with images from the rocket's first minutes in flight, including the view from a SpaceX rocket camera with Earth in the background and a view of the Dragon spacecraft in orbit as it separated from the Falcon 9.

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SpaceX cargo mission blasts off to space station