Monthly Archives: April 2017

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., April 9 (Reuters) - NASA's Peggy Whitson, soon to become the most experienced U.S. astronaut in terms of time spent in space, assumed command of the International Space Station on Sunday as two Russian crew members and an American prepared to fly back to Earth.

For Whitson, 57, it was her second stint in charge of the $100 billion station, a multinational project overseen by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Russian space agency Roscosmos.

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On April 24, Whitson will have spent more time in space than any other American astronant, surpassing the current U.S. record of 534 days held by NASA's Jeff Williams, 59. She already held records for the most time spent in space by a woman and for the most time spent spacewalking by a woman.

"She will set another record at this moment," the departing U.S. commander, Shane Kimbrough, said during a Sunday change of command ceremony aired on NASA TV. "She becomes the first two-time female commander of the International Space Station."

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Peggy Whitson

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The International Space Station (ISS) crew member Peggy Whitson of the U.S., waves before a space suit check at the Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, November 17, 2016. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov

The International Space Station (ISS) crew member Peggy Whitson of the U.S., walks for space suit check at the Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, November 17, 2016. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov

The International Space Station (ISS) crew member, Peggy Whitson of the U.S. speaks prior to the launch of Soyuz MS-3 space ship at Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, November 17, 2016. REUTERS/Dmitri Lovetsky/ Pool

The International Space Station (ISS) crew member Peggy Whitson of the U.S. is pictured before boarding spacecraft at the Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan 17 November 2016. REUTERS/Kirill Kudryavtsev/ Pool

The International Space Station (ISS) crew members Peggy Whitson of the U.S., Oleg Novitskiy of Russia and Thomas Pesquet of France walk to board the Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft for the launch at the Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan 17 November 2016. REUTERS/Kirill Kudryavtsev/ Pool

The International Space Station (ISS) crew member Peggy Whitson of the U.S. tests a space suit during the pre-launch preparations at Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan 17 November 2016. REUTERS/Yuri Kochetov/ Pool

The International Space Station (ISS) crew members (L-R) Peggy Whitson of the U.S., Oleg Novitskiy of Russia and Thomas Pesquet of France walk from a hotel for a pre-launch preparation at the Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan November 17, 2016. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov

Crew members of the International Space Station (ISS) expedition 50/51 Thomas Pesquet (L) of France, Peggy Whitson (R) of the U.S. and Oleg Novitsky of Russia pose for a picture as they attend an examination training session in Star City outside Moscow, Russia, October 25, 2016. REUTERS/Maxim Zmeyev

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Kimbrough and Russian crewmates Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko were scheduled to wrap up a 173-day mission on Monday, with a parachute landing in Kazakhstan at 7:21 a.m. EDT (1121 GMT).

Their replacements, NASA's Jack Fischer and Fyodor Yurchikhin of Roscosmos, were due to arrive on April 20 at the station, which is in orbit about 250 miles (400 km) above Earth.

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IN SPACE - OCTOBER 7: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY) In this handout photo provided by the European Space Agency (ESA), German ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst takes a photo during his spacewalk, whilst aboard the International Space Station (ISS) on October 7, 2014 in Space. Gerst returned to earth on November 10, 2014 after spending six months on the International Space Station completing an extensive scientific programme, known as the 'Blue Dot' mission (after astronomer Carl Sagan's description of Earth, as seen on a photograph taken by the Voyager probe from six billion kilometres away). (Photo by Alexander Gerst / ESA via Getty Images)

ZHEZKAZGAN, KAZAKHSTAN - MARCH 12: (Alternate crop of #465931716) In this handout provided by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 42 commander Barry Wilmore of NASA, Alexander Samokutyaev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Elena Serova of Roscosmos March 12, 2015 near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. NASA astronaut Wilmore and Russian cosmonauts Samokutyaev and Serova are returning after nearly six months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 41 and 42 crews. (Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images)

STAR CITY, RUSSIA - MARCH 5: In this handout from the In this handout from National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA, (L to R) NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly is seen inside a Soyuz simulator at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC) March 5, 2015 in Star City, Russia. The three are preparing for launch to the International Space Station (ISS) in the Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on March 28, 2015. As the one-year crew, Kelly and Kornienko will return to Earth on Soyuz TMA-18M in March 2016. (Photo by /Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images)

WALLOPS ISLAND, VA - OCTOBER 28: In this handout provided by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), The Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket, with the Cygnus spacecraft onboard suffers a catastrophic anomaly moments after launch from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad 0A at NASA Wallops Flight Facility on October 28, 2014 on Wallops Island, Virginia. William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator of NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate and Michael Suffredini, NASA's International Space Station Program Manager also participated in the press conference via phone. Cygnus was on its way to rendezvous with the space station. The Antares rocket lifted off to start its third resupply mission to the International Space Station, but suffered a catastrophic anomaly shortly after lift off at 6:22 p.m. EDT. (Photo by Joel Kowsky/NASA via Getty Images)

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The U.S. and Russian space agencies last week agreed to extend Whitson's mission by three months to fill in as the new crew's third member.

Russia is reducing its station cadre from three to two members until its new science laboratory is launched next year, the head of Roscosmos said at the U.S. Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado, last week.

Whitson flew to the station in November with Russia's Oleg Novitskiy and France's Thomas Pesquet. The men were scheduled to fly back to Earth without Whitson on June 2.

She was due to return to Earth in September with Fischer and Yurchikhin, having amassed a career U.S. record of more than 665 days in orbit. Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, with 878 days in orbit, is the world's most experienced space flier. (Editing by Frank McGurty and Jonathan Oatis)

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NASA's Peggy Whitson takes command of space station - AOL

COLUMBUS (WCMH)Astronauts traveling in the International Space Station in late March captured a spectacular view of the Northern Lights (auroras) dancing across the polar sky. Auroras are caused when electrically charged solar particles sailing through space collide with oxygen and nitrogen gases in our atmosphere above the polar region.

The dazzling light show is normally confined to high latitudes, but occasionally is seen in the northern United States, and rarely in Ohio.

The view of these glowing auroras was captured by a crew member, who said it was hard to look away from the windows.

Perkins Observatory director Tom Burns, at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, said, We have an atmosphere to protect us. Occasionally, there is a coronal mass ejection of such magnitude that it makes it down as far as Ohio.

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VIDEO: Astronauts on Space Station capture beautiful view of ... - NBC4i.com

HAZARD, Ky. (WYMT) - Smiling for the International Space Station...

"I wanted to do something a little bit more than just wave at the camera," Bobby Quimpo who is a scientist said.

Quimpo, who is also a science teacher, contacted the Challenger Learning Center and drove six hours from Lafayette, Indiana to Hazard.

He made the drive in an attempt to get a set of mirrors to reflect back into the camera of the International Space Station.

"It's actually my fourth time, but maybe that's fourth times the charm," said Quimpo.

His first attempt was outside the school he teaches at in July 2016.

Quimpo said, "That was when it had sunny days, perfect, not a cloud in the sky and that was the time they turned off the camera for three hours and I missed the picture."

Another time he missed it because of cloudy skies.

"A lot of trial and error and don't mind trying again, I learn something each time," Quimpo said.

Which is important, as getting the calculations just right is crucial.

"It tells you where the Space Station's going to be, you look up where the sun's going to be and where those angles are you aim the mirror halfway between, you bisect the angle and then put the mirrors on the ground and hope it reflects in," said Quimpo.

Quimpo used ten mirrors to make the smiley face design.

"The largest mirror is two by five feet, most of the mirrors are something like eight inches to a side," Quimpo said.

At exactly 3:25 p.m. and seven seconds on Saturday, he conducted the experiment, but he will not know if it worked for a few days to a few weeks.

"I'll check the image number and see if it actually shows up," said Quimpo.

But he said the experiment is worth the wait.

Quimpo said he used the EarthCam website to conduct his experiment, which allows teachers and students to take pictures from the International Space Station.

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Scientist visits Hazard to "smile" at the International Space Station - WYMT News (press release)

The exterior of the International Space Station seeing during a spacewalk in September 2016. Credit: NASA

Top officials from NASA and Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, could decide soon to commit to keeping the International Space Station staffed and flying through at least 2028, four years after the research labs current retirement date.

The head of Roscosmos told reporters Tuesday that the Russian space agency is ready to discuss plans to keep operating the huge research complex another four years until 2028.

We think that we should continue working in low Earth orbit, said Roscosmos chief Igor Komarov in a press conference Tuesday at the 33rd Space Symposium in Colorado Springs.

Komarovs comments came after NASAs senior human spaceflight manger, Bill Gerstenmaier, said March 29 that a decision by Congress and the Trump administration whether to commit to continuing space station operations through 2028, one way or another, will create certainty for scientists, engineers and businesses working on the program.

Getting another decision about what we do beyond 2024 with station is really important, Gerstenmaier said in a presentation to the NASA Advisory Councils human exploration and operations committee .

With an eye toward construction of a deep space habitat around the moon in the mid-to-late 2020s, NASA intends to test out new life support systems on the space station that are not as prone to failure and do not require as much maintenance as the technologies currently on the outpost.

NASAs goal is to iron out the kinks of the next-generation life support system, and learn more about how humans respond to long-duration spaceflight, before abandoning the space station and turning attention to deep space exploration.

The life support system on the station today is not of the reliability or the low maintenance that is needed for a Mars-class mission, Gerstenmaier said March 30. We need to really step that up. A great place to test that, in fact the only place to really test that kind of stuff, is on-board the space station.

The Obama administration announced in early 2014 its intention to extend the U.S. commitment to the space station through 2024, a decision that Gerstenmaier lauded as allowing NASA to cement plans to deploy new technology and develop new experiments for the space station.

The decision also helped close the business case for commercial companies working on crew and cargo capsules flying to the space station, giving the service providers a steady stream of business until a potential commercial space station is built in Earth orbit.

If the White House and Congress wait too long extend the space station program, it really limits what the commercial companies are willing to experiment with on space station, Gerstenmaier said. It limits what we need to do with cargo resupply and crew resupply. It changes plans for what we test on station.

The sooner we know that, the better off we are, and waiting until just four years before end of station, I personally think is not as helpful as if we can decide a lot earlier, like soon, Gerstenmaier said.

He added that there is little margin in NASAs schedule to complete the biological and technological experiments needed for deep space missions by 2024.

It took three years for all of the space stations partners to endorse the last extension, with the European Space Agency last year becoming the final participant to lengthen its commitment from 2020 to 2024.

Russia announced in 2015 that it would keep up its support of the space station through 2024, and Komarov said Tuesday that the Russian government will maintain a complex in low Earth orbit throughout the 2020s, whether its the International Space Station or a Russian-led vehicle.

But he implied that Russias preference is to keep the International Space Station going.

As long as we have this instrument, the ISS, its logical to continue this work, Komarov said.

He said the Russian government, like the other space station partners, wants more experiments, more results and more efficiency from the space station.

Roscosmos has a contingency plan that could involve detaching some of its newer modules from the International Space Station, including a research lab set for launch next year, to form a standalone outpost.

It doesnt mean that we dont want to continue our cooperation, Komarov said. We just want to be on the safe side, and in any case, and in any decision, to continue our research in low Earth orbit.

Komarov echoed Gerstenmaiers concerns about using the International Space Station to evaluate astronaut and cosmonaut health and radiation shielding before launching a crewed mission to Mars.

NASA has spent about $67 billion on the space station to date, according to Gerstenmaier. With the contributions of international partners, the orbiting research labs total cost likely reaches above $100 billion.

We ought to be planning, from an policy standpoint, an approach that allows us to maximize the utility of our $67 billion investment in low Earth orbit, and not pick an arbitrary (retirement) date for some other concerns, Gerstenmaier said.

NASA spends more than $3 billion to operate the space station each year, and most of that cost goes toward crew and cargo transportation to and from the complex. The outposts sustaining operating budget is closer to $1 billion per year, Gerstenmaier said.

Engineers have concluded the space station is structurally sound to keep flying through 2028. Some repairs, such as replacement of the research labs oldest power-generating solar arrays, may be required if the program is extended longer than 2028, Gerstenmaier said.

Once officials opt to retire and decommission the station, a series of Russian Progress supply ships will dock with the outpost to gradually lower its orbit, eventually driving the complex to a destructive re-entry over the South Pacific Ocean.

Besides the scientific justification, Gerstenmaier floated two other considerations for U.S. government decision-makers.

Around 15 percent of the global orbital launch attempts in 2015 and 2016 targeted the space station.

Lets say we pick the end, and were now going to pull (15 percent) out of the global launch market. Do you think Im going to be allowed to do that? Probably not.

The other wild card is in 2023 potentially the Chinese will have their space station, Gerstenmaier said. What is the dynamic with the U.S. with a space station thats going away in 2024, with the Chinese having a government-operated space station in 2023? Is that the right time to cede and hand over national and global human spaceflight to another country? You should ponder some of these things.

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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.

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[ April 8, 2017 ] NASA, Roscosmos open to extending station operations to 2028 News - Spaceflight Now