Monthly Archives: February 2015

International Space Station Timelapse for Wed, 4th February 2015 UTC
This is a image taken from the live feed from the International Space Station.

By: dingo001

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International Space Station Timelapse for Wed, 4th February 2015 UTC - Video

Apple Motion 5: Space Station Tutorial Part 3
Third and final part of this epic tutorial that shows many different techniques for building a complex 3D environment in Motion. Project file here: http://to...

By: Simon Ubsdell

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Apple Motion 5: Space Station Tutorial Part 3 - Video

International Space Station Timelapse for Thu, 12th February 2015 UTC
This is a image taken from the live feed from the International Space Station.

By: dingo001

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International Space Station Timelapse for Thu, 12th February 2015 UTC - Video

Space Station 13 (No Commentary): Wizards, Smizards
Turn on your speaker. Asshats.

By: JarrettAK47

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Space Station 13 (No Commentary): Wizards, Smizards - Video

Northern Lights / Aurora: Night-time Time-lapse Video From the International Space Station / NASA
OVer 20000 individual photos taken by astronauts on board the ISS have created this night time time-lapse video Bringing you the BEST Space and Astronomy vi...

By: Amazing Space - Astounding Images and Videos

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Northern Lights / Aurora: Night-time Time-lapse Video From the International Space Station / NASA - Video

Expedition 42 commander Barry "Butch" Wilmore, wearing a green shirt, and Terry Virts chatted with reporters Thursday from the space station's Quest airlock module. NASA managers Friday cleared them for a third spacewalk Sunday to complete initial preparations for dockings by commercial crew capsules. NASA TV

International Space Station managers Friday cleared astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Terry Virts to proceed with a third spacewalk Sunday, as originally planned, after concluding a small amount of water in Virts' space helmet after an EVA Wednesday was an understood condition and not a threat to crew safety.

The six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk is scheduled to begin around 7:10 a.m. EST Sunday when the astronauts switch their spacesuits to battery power and exit the station's airlock. The spacewalkers plan to install four antennas, laser reflectors and cabling to permit communications with approaching and departing commercial crew capsules being built by Boeing and SpaceX.

"We're going to lay down over 400 feet of cable," Virts told a reporter Thursday. "These cables are going to attach to some antennas that are going to be used for the future American vehicles that are going to be docking, bringing crew to the space station starting in a few years.

"So we need to put these antennas and the cables there for them, and also some reflectors so their on-board navigation systems that use lasers (to) know where the station is and what orientation it's in and will be able to dock properly. There's a lot of moving from one end to the other on the station and a lot of equipment and hardware that we're going to be bringing out there."

During spacewalks last Saturday and Wednesday, Wilmore and Virts laid out some 340 feet of power and data lines needed by two new docking mechanisms what will be installed later this year and made preparations to relocate a storage module and a docking port extension. Virts also lubricated the grapple mechanisms on the end of the station's robot arm.

During airlock repressurization Wednesday, Virts noticed a small blob of water floating in his helmet and reported that a water absorption pad at the back of his helmet was damp, indicating seepage through the helmet's air duct.

During a spacewalk in July 2013, Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano endured a potentially catastrophic water leak that forced him to make a quick retreat to the safety of the airlock. That leak was blamed on a clogged filter inside the suit's water cooling system.

But in Virts' case, the water intrusion occurred after the spacesuit had been reconnected to a station umbilical and after airlock repressurization had begun. As it turns out that same spacesuit experienced similar incidents after seven previous spacewalks, the result of condensation in the suit's cooling system after airlock repressurization.

"When you connect to the umbilical, you have a lot of cold air that's going past the cooling system of the suit and this air will often condense," Alex Kanelakos, a NASA spacewalk officer, said Friday. "And as we repress, we have high-density gas that's flowing past this condensed water that can often move the water over the crew member's helmet."

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Space station astronauts cleared for third spacewalk

Astronauts on the International Space Station will make a spacewalk Sunday despite the appearance of water inside an astronaut's helmet after a spacewalk earlier this week, NASA reported Friday on its website.

NASA said the suit worn by NASA astronaut Terry Virts has a history of "sublimator water carryover." Water in the sublimator cooling component can condense when the suit is repressurized after a spacewalk, causing a small amount of water to push into the helmet, NASA said.

NASA said International Space Station managers had "a high degree of confidence" in the suit.

On the upcoming spacewalk, Virts and Barry Wilmore will install antennas to provide data to visiting vehicles and deploy 400 feet of cable along the edge of the station.

Virts said he first noticed traces of fluid and dampness in his helmet Wednesday while he was waiting for the crew lock cabin to repressurize in the International Space Station.

He and Wilmore had been outside the space station for nearly seven hours working on the station's robotic arm and performing some maintenance.

Virts immediately alerted fellow astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti about the water and she alerted Mission Control in Houston.

Cristoforetti helped Virts out of his helmet and examined it. She confirmed the presence of moisture, mostly in the helmet absorption pad, or HAP, describing it as "wet and cold."

At the request of Mission Control, Anton Shkaplerov used a syringe to draw as much water as he could from the top of the helmet. Water had collected in the white plastic at the top and around both ear cups. Shkaplerov estimated there was 15 milliliters of water in the helmet.

That's a far cry from the amount of water that accumulated in Luca Parmitano's suit during a spacewalk in July 2013. Between 1 and 1.5 liters of water backed up in the suit and helmet, prompting fears Parmitano could drown in his own helmet. The spacewalk was cut short and NASA implemented some changes to its suits, including the addition of absorbent padding in helmets.

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Astronauts to go ahead with spacewalk Sunday