Daily Archives: February 19, 2015

Space Station Crew Discusses Life In Space With Fox News Television
Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 42 Commander Barry Wilmore and Flight Engineer Terry Virts of NASA discussed life and research on board th...

By: NASA

See the rest here:
Space Station Crew Discusses Life In Space With Fox News Television - Video

European Cargo Ship Departs The Space Station For The Final Time
The fifth and final European Space Agency Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) undocked from the Zvezda Service Module at the International Space Station Feb. 14...

By: NASA

Here is the original post:
European Cargo Ship Departs The Space Station For The Final Time - Video

Europe #39;s final cargo ship undocks from International Space Station
Europe #39;s fifth and last Automated Transfer Vehicle departs from the International Space Station. Rough Cut (no reporter narration). Subscribe: http://smartur...

By: Reuters

See original here:
Europe's final cargo ship undocks from International Space Station - Video

Russia Progress cargo mission ready for launch to space station

By: Being Desi

Read more:
Russia Progress cargo mission ready for launch to space station - Video

In the end, Europe's fifth and final space station freighter went out in more of a fiery blaze than with the "big bang" of its namesake.

The European Space Agency's (ESA) Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) 5, christened the "Georges Lematre" after the Belgian priest and astronomer whose work led to the Big Bang theory of the universe's origin, was intentionally destroyed as it plunged back into the Earth's atmosphere on Sunday (Feb. 15).

The unmanned spacecraft, the last of its type, came to its end at 1:11 p.m. EST (1811 GMT). [Europe's ATV-5 Space Cargo Ship Mission in Pictures]

The re-entry came a day after the ATV left the International Space Station (ISS), where it had been docked since last August. Launched on July 29, 2014, ATV-5 logged a total of 186 days in space.

Unpacked of its 7 tons of supplies and reloaded with 2.4 tons of trash, the "Georges Lematre" fulfilled its mission, including using its thrusters to readjust the altitude of the station to compensate for atmospheric drag, re-boosting to avoid debris and, in a first for an ATV last month, lowering the outpost's orbit in preparation for the arrival of the next cargo spacecraft.

Future visiting vehicles will not include the European ATV. Russian Progress vehicles, U.S. commercial Cygnus and Dragon freighters and Japan's H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) will resupply the space station going forward.

"The five ATVs have paid ESA's obligationsin the ISS program until 2017," Nico Dettmann, head of ESA's space transportation department, said in statement. "It has been decided to discontinue ATV, but to develop the MPCV-ESM (European Service Module) for NASA to compensate for ESA's ISS obligations until 2020."

The service module will provide propulsion and electrical power to NASA's Orion crew capsule on its missions into deep space. In return for developing the ESM, European astronauts will continue to live onboard the station to work on European experiments in ESA's Columbus lab through the end of the decade.

"This decision [offers] a European exploration perspective beyond low-Earth orbit, while building on ATV heritage," he said.

After the space shuttle, the 34-foot-long (10.3 meters) ATV was the largest spacecraft to resupply the space station, with enough volume to hold a double-decker bus. Powered by four solar panels in an "X-Wing" configuration, the ATV used a laser imaging system to autonomously dock to the orbiting outpost's Russian Zvezda service module.

Go here to see the original:
Europe's Last ATV Space Station Freighter Makes Fleet's ...

American astronauts Barry Wilmore and Terry Virts are preparing for their first space walk of Expedition 42 when the duo step outside the International Space Station on Friday.

How does an astronaut prepare for a space walk? Practice.

Terry Virts, who will be taking the first space walk of his career on Friday, tweeted a photo of himself trying out the suit he'll use when he and Wilmore embark on their six-and-a-half hour space walk. It will be Wilmore's second space walk.

The duo will be working on new docking ports for future spacecraft that will arrive at the station. Friday's space walk is one of three that are scheduled to complete assembly work outside of the station.

NASA said today the duo had inspected their rescue jet packs, which would be used in the unlikely event that either astronaut became untethered from the space station.

Virts, who is one of the most active tweeters at the International Space Station, also shared a snap of himself hooked up to various health monitors doing a routine health check-in before his big day.

See the article here:
How Astronauts Prepare for a Space Walk

21 hours ago Credit: Alex Spiller

Last Saturday, ESA's fifth and last Automated Transfer Vehicle, Georges Lematre, undocked from the International Space Station at 13:40 GMT. Less than 30 hours later the spacecraft burnt up harmlessly in a controlled reentry over the Pacific Ocean, marking the end of the programme.

This image was taken by amateur photographer Alex Spiller in Saxony, Germany, shortly after the spacecraft left the weightless research laboratory. Travelling from west to east at around 28 800 km/h, ATV-5 is visible as a faint stripe to the right of the brighter stripe the International Space Station.

This was one of the last images of the spacecraft before its fiery demise. Many people all over Europe went outside to bid the spacecraft a fond farewell it could be seen with the naked eye and captured on standard cameras. Their images have been collected on the ATV blog.

ATVs delivered more than 31 500 kg of supplies over the course of five missions. They boosted the Station to raise its orbit numerous times and similarly moved it out of the way of space debris.

The vehicles demonstrated European mastery of automated docking, a technology that is vital for further space exploration.

The knowledge gained by ESA and European industry from designing, building and operating the complex ATV missions is instrumental for ESA's participation in NASA's Orion spacecraft, which will fly astronauts to the Moon and beyond.

Explore further: ATV to bid farewell to space station for last time

ESA's last Automated Transfer Vehicle will leave the International Space Station on Saturday for its final solo voyage, setting course for a fiery demise that will mark the end of its mission and the programme.

Europe's last supply vessel to the International Space Station undocked on Saturday at the end of a six-month mission, the European Space Agency (ESA) said.

Follow this link:
Image: Final goodbye to ESA automated transfer vehicle Georges Lematre