Monthly Archives: April 2017

New York Times

Trump Calls @AstroPeggy at the International Space Station New York Times President Trump called the International Space Station from the Oval Office, congratulated Dr. Whitson and urged NASA to go further, even saying perhaps jokingly that he would like to send an American to Mars during my first term or at worst ... Trump congratulates record-breaking astronaut on International Space StationCNBC [ April 24, 2017 ] President Trump calls International Space Station Mission ReportsSpaceflight Now Space station astronauts science their way into record bookCNET USA TODAY -TIME -Tech Times -NASA Blogs all 338 news articles »

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Trump Calls @AstroPeggy at the International Space Station - New York Times

The International Space Station (ISS) orbits the Earth some 220 miles above its surface at incredible speeds of 7.6 km/s (17,134 mph).

Circling the planet roughly every 90 minutes, the largest man-made satellite in space can be tracked live over the internet.

Every 24 hours it completes about 15 trips around the planet, passing from day to night every 45 minutes.

According to NASA, lucky observers can catch a glimpse of the ISS "[once] a month to several [times] a week", when it is dusk or dawn. Chances are however it will look nothing more than a white speck dashing across the sky.

Astronomy enthusiasts who want to find out when their next sighting is, can find a full list here.

The ISS also offers a 24 hour live stream of the fascinating views of the planet underneath it. You can watch the stream below:

GETTYISS TRACKER

Every 45 minutes the stream cuts out as it enters the dark of the night and is replaced by pre-recorded footage of Earth.

The station was first launched into space in 1988 as a joint-international scientific research station.

After several parts being added to the station, it received its first human crew on November 2, 2000, and finally saw completion in 2011.

On the inside it is roughly the size of a house with five bedrooms and contains two bathrooms and even a gym. Six people are able to live in it at once.

REUTERS

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Soyuz MS-04 spacecraft carrying crew of US' Fischer and Yurchikhin of Russia blasts off to the ISS from launchpad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome

It weighs in at roughly 10 million pounds, and is filled with science labs from the US, Russia, Japan and Europe.

Space looks like a carpet of countless tiny perfect unblinking lights in endless velvet

Chris Hadfield, Astronaut

The ISS is home away from home to the astronauts from across the planet who fly to space to carry out tests not possible to conduct on Earth.

It is an invaluable part of NASAs plans to send humans into deep space, and provides research on what happens to people who live in orbit.

The space station came into public awareness thanks toastronaut Chris Hadfieldwhose rendition of David Bowies Space Oddity went viral on the internet.

GETTY

Mr Hadfield rode the wave of his popularity by continuing to create and share entertaining and educational videos on board the ISS.

In a public Reddit chat he described the views he had from space: Australia looks coolest - the colours and textures of the Outback are severly artistic.

The most beautiful to me are the Bahamas, the vast glowing reefs of every shade of blue that exists.

He added: [Space] looks like a carpet of countless tiny perfect unblinking lights in endless velvet, with the Milky Way as a glowing area of paler texture.

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Where is the International Space Station? ISS live tracker - Express.co.uk

China has marked a major step towards its goal of establishing a permanently-manned space station by 2022, after the country's first cargo craft docked in space.

President Xi Jinping has prioritised advancing China's space programme to strengthen national security.

China's first cargo spacecraft docked successfully with the Tiangong-2 space lab on Saturday, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The Tianzhou-1 cargo resupply spacecraft made the automated docking process with the orbiting space lab after it had taken off on Thursday evening from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Centre in the southern island province of Hainan.

The Tiangong-2 space laboratory, or "Heavenly Palace 2", was home to two astronauts for a month last October in China's longest ever manned space mission.

The cargo spacecraft mission provides an "important technological basis" to build a Chinese space station, state media have said.

It can reportedly carry six tonnes of goods, two tonnes of fuel and can fly unmanned for three months.

Despite the advances in China's space programme for military, commercial and scientific purposes, China still lags behind the United States and Russia.

In late 2013, China's Jade Rabbit rover landed on the Moon to great national fanfare, but ran into severe technical difficulties.

The US Defense Department has highlighted China's increasing space capabilities, saying it was pursuing activities aimed at preventing other nations from using space-based assets in a crisis.

China insists it has only peaceful ambitions in space, but has tested anti-satellite missiles.

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China announces major step forward to establishing permanently-manned space station by 2022 - Mirror.co.uk

Chinas April 20 launch of the first in its new line of spacecraft marks the first step in its goal of constructing its own version of the International Space Station (ISS).

The 10.6-meter long cargo Tainzhou-1 cargo vehicle will spend the next two months conducting three separate docking attempts at the Tiangong-2, a small prototype space station already in orbit.

Each docking attempt will be done from a different direction in relation to the small space station. Following the dockings, Tainzhou-1 will detach from the station altogether and conduct its own science experiments.

When those are concluded, the spacecraft will be sent to burn up in Earths atmosphere.

Tainzhou-1 is capable of carrying as much as six tons of supplies, approximately twice as much as the cargo vessels that resupply the ISS, such as Russias Soyuz, Japans HTV, and the USs Dragon and Cygnus capsules.

Without being part of an international partnership, China will have to resupply its space station on its own.

Current plans aim at putting the first crew in orbit in 2022 and keeping the station continuously crewed for about 10 years.

Taking a page from the ISS and its predecessor, the Russian Mir, China envisions its space station as being constructed of various modules, including housing areas, science laboratories and places to store equipment. All the modules will be assembled in Earth orbit.

The space station is only one part of a much more ambitious Chinese space program that includes sending both robotic and crewed missions to the Moon.

Engineers are working on building a heavy-lift rocket, known as the Long March-9, that is similar to the Saturn V rockets used in the USs Apollo program.

Expected to be operational in about 15 years, the Long March-9 will be capable of carrying 130 metric tons into orbit. China envisions it transporting taikonauts to the Moon by 2030.

Laurel Kornfeld is a freelance writer and amateur astronomer from Highland Park, NJ, who enjoys writing about astronomy and planetary science. She studied journalism at Douglass College, Rutgers University, and earned a Graduate Certificate of Science in astronomy from Swinburne Universitys Astronomy Online program.

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China begins work on its own large space station - The Space Reporter

The Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo ship S.S. John Glenn arrives near the International Space Station on April 22, 2017 to deliver tons of supplies for the orbiting lab's crew. The robotic spacecraft is named in honor of the famed Mercury astronaut John Glenn, who died in December.

John Glenn has arrived on the space station.

The S.S. John Glenn,Orbital ATK's seventh Cygnus cargo ship to deliver supplies and science for the crew on board the International Space Station, completed a four-day rendezvous to the orbiting laboratory on Saturday morning (April 21). The robotic freighter was namedin honor of the late Mercury astronaut and U.S. Senator.

Expedition 51 flight engineer Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency (ESA), working with commander Peggy Whitson of NASA, captured the John Glenn using the space station's Canadarm2 robotic arm at 6:05 a.m. EDT (1005 GMT). [The Cygnus S.S. John Glenn Launch in Pictures]

"We are very proud to welcome on board the S.S. John Glenn," Pesquet said.

With the Cygnus in grasp, flight controllers at NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston will take over from Pesquet and Whitson and to guide the spacecraft to a berthing on the Earth-facing port of the space stations Unity module, where it will remain attached for the next 85 days.

Launched atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas 5 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Tuesday (April 18), the S.S. John Glenn could have arrived at the space station earlier, but held off its approach (referred to by NASA as "station-keeping")to allow Russias Soyuz MS-04 spacecraft to dock with crewmembers Jack Fischer of NASA and Fyodor Yurchikhin of the Russian federal space corporation Roscosmos on Thursday.

With the arrival of the Cygnus came the delivery of more than 7,600 lbs. (3,500 kilograms) of cargo, including the research materials to support dozens of new and ongoing science investigations. The delivery will enable studies on cancer-fighting drugs and crystal growth.

Also aboard the S.S. John Glenn is equipment to be installed outside the space station during a spacewalk scheduled for May 12, 38 CubeSats (many built by university students from around the world) to be deployed from the stations Japanese airlock (or from the Cygnus itself) and a new advanced plant growth habitat.

"A big difference in this system, compared to [the plant growth chamber]Veggie, is that it requires minimal crew involvement to install the science, add water and perform other maintenance activities," said Bryan Onate, the habitat's project manager, in a NASA interview. "We are learning how plants grow in space and what levels of commodities, such as light and water, are required so we can maximize our growth with the least resources.

Once emptied of its deliveries, the space station's crew will refill the S.S. John Glenn with spent equipment and other refuse to be destroyed during the spacecraft's destructive re-entry into Earth's atmosphere in July. Prior to that plunge but after the Cygnus departs from the space station the cargo freighter will support the third in a series of experiments intohow fire burns in microgravity.

The spacecrafts namesake,John Glenn, died on Dec. 8, 2016, at the age of 95 and was interred at Arlington National Cemetery on April 6. A Marine Corps Colonel and four-term U.S. Senator from Ohio, Glenn was the last of NASA's Mercury astronauts to die. In addition to being the first American to orbit Earth,Glenn became the oldest astronaut to fly in space at age 77 on space shuttle Discovery in 1998 (a record he still holds).

Robert Pearlman is a contributing writer and the editor of collectSPACE.com, a Space.compartner site and the leading space history news publication. Follow collectSPACEon Facebookand on Twitter at @collectSPACE. Follow us @Spacedotcom,FacebookandGoogle+. Original article onSpace.com.

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Cygnus Cargo Ship SS John Glenn Arrives at Space Station - Space.com

When a satellite returns from Mars with what appears to be an alien lifeform, the celebratory mood at the International Space Station turns to horror as each of the astronauts become hunted prey with very few places to hide. Life, directed by Daniel Espinosa (Child 44), stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, Ryan Reynolds, Hiroyuki Sanada, Ariyon Bakare and Olga Dihovichnaya, with visual effects supervised by John Moffatt (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince). ILM was hired to orchestrate the introduction of the ISS orbiting Earth and the different crew members working within spacecrafts tight confines -- ILM San Francisco handled the 1,000 frame opening shot that establishes the exterior presence of the ISS while ILM London was responsible for a seven-minute long interior ISS sequence that consisted of 10,000 frames and required the stitching together of 17 plates.

There was an extensive amount of previs and techvis done to start the whole process off so we had a good idea of where we were trying to join shots together and what were the key story points, explains ILMs London-based VFX supervisor Mark Bakowski. Then we worked with John Moffatt to put together a rough version. There was not much in the way of concept art as the ISS and Earth were reasonably realistic builds.

Though Bakowskis team had considerable previs at hand, framing and composition of the shots were not entirely predetermined. He notes, We had joins that involved a character on-screen taken over by a digital double and transitioned to the B plate of a different character. Those joins involved CG environments or at least a reprojection of the plate environment. We had a fair degree of freedom to play with that. Daniel Espinosa was keen to have those as naturalistic as possible. If you were shooting this for real and were following someone down the tight confines of the tunnels in the ISS then space was needed for the cameraman to back up and turn around. We werent framed up perfectly with our characters as they go through so there was some dead time and space as we went back to find our hero character again.

Unlike on Gravity, extensive sets were built for Life. Three quarters of the ISS tunnels were built practically with the roof removed so that the wire rigs could go down and have access to the actors, remarks Bakowski. The interior of the ISS is spartan and feels like a laboratory. We did little touches of dust motes being caught in the light and had glints outside the window. Anytime we could stick a lens flare in we would stick a lens flare in. Some interior lights we gave flares and glints to bring the shot to life. Then there were natural patches of darkness and highlights for range and variety so we werent constantly in a florescent light lit office space world.

The characters movements helped the creation of seamless transitions from one plate to another keeping things interesting was the utilization of a poor mans motion-control. Says Bakowski, There were a couple of key moments where we had an in-camera drift with so much parallax that it would have been hard and expensive to rebuild and takeover the camera so we used floating props to justify the movement of the camera.

Digital human augmentation was required to simulate zero gravity. We certainly had to repose parts of the body when you could see that the actor was wearing a hip swivel harness, explains Bakowski. Their waist would sag so we had to do a bit of warping. There were creases in the clothes, sections where the clothes would ride up and times that the wires went in front of peoples faces. Its not spectacular work but is still challenging. Another of our challenges was having characters coexisting in the same zero-g environment and making sure there was consistency in the lighting and their momentum. Youll have characters who would just keep on going until an object forced them to stop, such as an existing bulkhead or a CG version.

Additionally, user interfaces had to be produced for the visible ISS computer monitors. For story point purposes, we needed to make it clear that Jake Gyllenhaals character was controlling the Canadarm, which catches the satellite. We replaced a few on-set monitors and added some CCTV style exterior views of the Canadarm. We also added a red dot on an exterior map to show where Gyllenhaal was relative to the approaching satellite.

We went back and forth [with Moffatt] about how much in the way of stars we would see and how much in the way of artefacts, like lens dirt and glow, states Bakowski. Hero images were selected where you could see how the sun bled through the sections of the solar panels while others reflected and refracted light. We cheated the amount of sun moving across the solar panels to make sure that the whole thing came to life rather than looked like a static still frame. Embellishments were also made to Earth by putting glints onto rivers. Bukowski continues, Our view of Earth was based on reference photography and time lapse footage from the ISS. We were careful that the sun was behind something such as a solar panel or crane so you would never be looking at it and Earth at the same time; that would have given us an exposure nightmare.

Along with traditional matte paintings, Terragen was used by Bakowski for the first time to block the lighting positions of Earth. We did a fair bit of motion vector dynamism to get rid of the worst of the fireflies because when youre dealing with high contrast space material it can get quite noisy with the light bouncing around. We held our render power back, then kicked out a large render, put that through various compositing processes, and did reprojection here and there to patch it up as required.

Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer best known for composing in-depth filmmaker and movie profiles for sites such as the CGSociety, 3DTotal, Live for Films and 3D World Magazine.

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ILM Brings International Space Station Reality to 'Life' - Animation World Network (press release) (registration) (blog)

Happy birthday, Canadarm2! A Canadian-made robotic arm affixed outside the International Space Station turns 16 years old today (April 24).

Canadarm2, also known as the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS), arrived at the orbital outpost with mission STS-100 aboard the space shuttle Endeavour on April 19, 2001. Five days and two spacewalks later, Canadarm2's installation was complete.

Canadarm2, a robotic arm outside the International Space Station, turns 16 years old this week! Its installation was completed on April 24, 2001. In this photo, NASA astronaut Stephen Robinson rides Canadarm2 during the STS-114 mission in 2005

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfieldand NASA astronaut Scott Parazynskispent nearly 15 hours installing Canadarm2 during STS-100. Since then, the arm has been moving around the outside of the space station, handling heavy payloads and occasionally assisting astronauts with about 100 spacewalks, all in the name of space station assembly and maintenance.

Astronauts at the space station now use Canadarm2 to grab and dock incoming spacecraft like Orbital ATK's cargo-resupply ship SS John Glenn, which arrived at the space station on Saturday (April 22).

Sometimes, flight controllers on the ground in Houston will operate Canadarm2 remotely, like when the arm was used to relocate a docking adapterin between two spacewalks last month.

The 58-foot-long (18 meters) arm is one of three robotic components that now make up the space station's Mobile Servicing System, along with a robotic "hand" known as Dextre and a base platform known as the Mobile Remote Servicer Base System (MBS). The MBS allows Canadarm2 and Dextre to move around the outside of the space station's main truss structure "by sliding along a track system mounted along the entire width of the station," theCanadian Space Agencywrote in a description.

"Sometimes, when looking out the window, the best view is not on Earth but on the International Space Station itself," European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet wrote when he tweeted this photo. "The robotic arm casts a shadow on the solar array, while the rest of our home space is shrouded in darkness."

Canadarm2 may be orbiting roughly 250 miles (400 km) overhead, but you can get firsthand experience with the teenage robot via the Canadian Space Agency's cool Canadarm2 Simulator, an online gamein which you control the robotic arm during a mock mission at the space station.

Email Hanneke Weitering at hweitering@space.com or follow her @hannekescience. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebookand Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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Happy Birthday, Canadarm2! Spacecraft-Grabbing Robotic Arm Turns 16 - Space.com

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan A Soyuz space capsule on Thursday safely delivered an American astronaut making his first space flight and a veteran Russian cosmonaut to the International Space Station.

NASAs Jack Fischer and Russias Fyodor Yurchikhin lifted off from the Russia-leased launch facility in Kazakhstan at Thursday afternoon. They reached orbit about nine minutes later, a moment illustrated when a stuffed white dog toy hanging from a string in the capsule began to float.

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About six hours later, they docked at the orbiting outpost.

NASAs Peggy Whitson, the crews commander, Russias Oleg Novitskiy, and Frances Thomas Pesquet greeted Fischer and Yurchikhin with cheers and hugs. They floated into the station two hours after the docking.

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Yurchikhin, making his fifth space flight, and Fischer, who is there for the first time, talked to family and friends at the Baikonur facility who were watching the launch there.

Fischers wife thanked him for what she said was the most unexpected bouquet of flowers that she received as he was launching into space. Fischer told his wife she had veteran cosmonaut Yurchikhin to thank for that.

The two American astronauts are scheduled to speak with President Trump on Monday.

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On that day, Wilson, who on a previous mission became the first woman to command the International Space Station, will break the US astronaut record for the most cumulative time in space. Jeffrey Williams currently holds the 534-day record.

At 57, Whitson also is the oldest woman to have been in space. She is scheduled to return to Earth in September.

Fischer and Yurchikhin will spend more than four months aboard the orbiting space station before also returning to Earth in September.

Associated Press

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American, Russian cheered as they reach space station - The Boston Globe