Monthly Archives: May 2017

By Tony Rice

The International Space Station (ISS) will be a little more visible through Saturday morning.

Several times each year, the ISS enters a high-beta period. The Beta Angle, measured between the sun and Earths orbit, reached a high of 72 degrees this morning.

Astronauts usually experience a sunrise and sunset on each 90-minute orbit of the Earth. During periods of high-beta angle, the space station is in constant sunlight as it orbits above the suns terminator, the line between night and day.

Think of it this way: Picture a track with a bright light in the middle. Now picture an object tied to the end of a rope being swung by a runner circling that track. The light is the sun, the runner is Earth, the track is the orbital plane of Earth, and the object orbiting the runner is the ISS. If the runner swings the rope horizontally, with the plane of track/Earths orbit, thats a low beta angle. The object sees some periods of darkness as it swings into the runners shadow. If the runner swings the rope vertically, perpendicular to the plane of track/Earths orbit, thats a high-beta angle. The object is always exposed to light.

Beta angle is an important part of ISS flight controllers planning. While all that sunlight is great for generating power with the stations massive solar arrays, it presents challenges in keeping the stations components cool. Controllers must keep the station oriented to provide its own shade on key segments.

Orbiting at just over 250 miles in altitude, ISS is visible to anyone on the ground within a 100-mile wide circle. The closer you are to the center of that circle, the higher in the sky the ISS will reach and the longer it will be visible in the sky. Central North Carolina is at the center of that circle Thursday just after 9 p.m.

Generally, the ISS is visible here on Earth only during the hour or two before or after sunset or sunrise. During high-beta periods, that constant sunlight extends its visibility, even overnight. That provides an unusual number of opportunities to see the station pass overhead as clouds move out later tonight.

The station will be visible:

Thursday

9:10 p.m. from the SW for over 6 minutes 10:50 p.m. from the NW for 3 minutes (very low pass)

Friday

3:43 a.m. from the NNW for nearly 6 minutes 5:17 a.m. from the WNW for 5 minutes 9:55 p.m. from the W for 5 minutes

Saturday

4:28 a.m. from the WSW for 3 minutes 9:03 p.m. from the WSW for 6 minutes 9:49 p.m. from the NW for 2 minutes

Tonights ground track of the station takes it west of Pinehurst and Carthage, directly over Jordan Lake, directly over the campuses of Cisco and Biogen in RTP, Falls Creek, until it leaves North Carolina directly over the state line at Lake Gaston.

The station will travel from the South Carolina border to the Virginia border in just 41 seconds.

Tony Rice is a volunteer in the NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador program and software engineer at Cisco Systems. You can follow him on Twitter @rtphokie.

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Look up: International Space Station more visible through Saturday - WRAL.com

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(CNN) -- Here's a look at the International Space Station (ISS), a spacecraft built by a partnership of 16 nations.

The 16 nations are the United States, Canada, Japan, Russia, Brazil, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Information on ISS crews and expeditions can be found here.

Statistics: The ISS includes three main modules connected by nodes: the US Laboratory Module Destiny, the European Research Laboratory Columbus, and the Japanese Experiment Module Kibo (Hope). Each was launched separately and connected in space by astronauts.

Mass: 925,335 pounds (419,725 kilograms)

Habitable Volume: 13,696 cubic feet (388 cubic meters)

Solar Array Length: 239.4 feet (73 meters)

As of May 2017, there have been 201 spacewalks conducted for station assembly and maintenance, totaling just over 1,250 hours.

As of May 2016, the space station has orbited the Earth 100,000 times.

Timeline: November 1998 - A Russian Proton rocket places the first piece, the Zarya module, in orbit.

December 1998 - The space shuttle Endeavour crew, on the STS-88 mission, attaches the Unity module to Zarya initiating the first ISS assembly sequence.

June 1999 - The space shuttle Discovery crew, on mission STS-96, supplies two modules with tools and cranes.

July 2000 - Zvezda, the fifth flight, docks with the ISS to become the third major component of the station.

November 2000 - The first permanent crew, Expedition One, arrives at the station.

November/December 2000 - The space shuttle Endeavour crew, on mission STS-97, installs the first set of U.S. solar arrays on the station and visits Expedition One.

February 2001 - Mission STS-98 delivers the US Destiny Laboratory Module.

March 2001 - STS-102 delivers Expedition Two to the station and brings Expedition One home. The crew also brings Leonardo, the first Multi-Purpose Logistics Module, to the station.

September 16, 2001 - The Russian Docking Compartment, Pirs, arrives at the ISS.

June 2002 - STS-111 delivers the Expedition Five crew and brings the Expedition Four crew home. The crew also brings the Mobile Base System to the orbital outpost.

December 2002 - STS-113 delivers the Expedition Six crew and the P1 Truss.

May 3, 2003 - Expedition Six crew return to Earth on Soyuz TMA-1. Crew members Bowersox and Pettit are the first American astronauts ever to land in a Soyuz spacecraft.

July 29, 2003 - Marks the 1,000th consecutive day of people living and working aboard the International Space Station (this is a record for the Space Station, but not for space).

August 10, 2003 - Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko marries his fiance Ekaterina Dmitriev from space. The bride and groom exchange vows over a hotline set up for the event. Dmitriev stands next to a life-sized picture of Malenchenko.

April 22, 2004 - The second of four gyroscopes that stabilize the orbiting outpost of the ISS fails. NASA officials say this does not pose an immediate threat to the crew. An extra spacewalk will have to be conducted to the fix the electrical component box thought to be at fault.

November 2, 2005 - Fifth anniversary of continuous human presence in space on the International Space Station.

February 3, 2006 - SuitSat-1, an unmanned space suit containing a radio transmitter, batteries, and internal sensors to monitor battery power and temperature, is deployed as a part of an International Space Station spacewalk. The suit is supposed to transmit recorded messages in six languages to school children and amateur radio operators for several days before re-entering Earth's atmosphere and burning up, but it goes silent shortly after its deployment.

March 31, 2006 - Arriving with the crew of Expedition Thirteen is Marcos Pontes, the first Brazilian astronaut. Staying eight days, Pontes conducts scientific experiments before returning to Earth with the crew of Expedition Twelve.

July 7, 2006 - The arrival of Thomas Reiter of Germany via the Space Shuttle Discovery returns the station's long-duration crew to three for the first time since May 2003 and the Columbia shuttle disaster. Reiter is the first non-US, and non-Russian long-duration station crewmember, and he remains onboard during the first part of Expedition Fourteen.

September 9, 2006 - Space Shuttle Atlantis docks with the International Space Station, delivering the P3/P4 truss and its solar wings before undocking September 21 and returning to Earth.

September 20, 2006 - Arriving with the crew of Expedition Fourteen is Anousheh Ansari, an American businesswoman. She spends about eight days conducting experiments and blogging about her experiences before returning to Earth with two of the three members of Expedition Thirteen.

December 2006 - Arrival of Flight Engineer Sunita Williams via space shuttle mission STS-116. Williams replaces Thomas Reiter, who returns to Earth with the crew of STS-116.

April 7, 2007 - Charles Simonyi becomes the fifth space tourist when he accompanies the Expedition Fifteen crew to the ISS. He spends 12 days aboard the space station before returning to Earth with the crew of Expedition Fourteen.

June 10, 2007 - Space Shuttle Atlantis docks with the ISS to install a new segment and solar panel on the space station and retrieve astronaut Sunita Williams, who has been at the space station since December. Williams is replaced by Flight Engineer Clayton Anderson, who will return to earth aboard Discovery on Mission STS-120.

June 15, 2007 - Four days after ISS's computers crash, two Russian cosmonauts bring them back online. The computers control the station's orientation as well as oxygen production. The crew used Atlantis' thrusters to help maintain the station's position while its computers were down.

October 25, 2007 - Space Shuttle Discovery docks with ISS. In the days while docked with the ISS, Discovery crew delivers and connects Harmony to the ISS, a living and working compartment that will also serve as the docking port for Japanese and European Union laboratories. Discovery and ISS crew also move an ISS solar array to prepare for future ISS expansion, planning a special spacewalk to repair damage to the solar array that occurred during its unfurling.

November 14, 2007 - ISS crew move the Harmony node from its temporary location on the Unity node to its permanent location attached to Destiny.

February 9, 2008 - Space Shuttle Atlantis arrives. Atlantis crew delivers the European-made Columbus laboratory, a 23-foot long module that will be home to a variety of science experiments. Atlantis remains docked with the ISS for just under nine days.

March 9, 2008 - "Jules Verne," the first of a series of European space vessels designed to deliver supplies to the International Space Station, launches from the Ariane Launch Complex in Kourou, French Guiana. The vessels, called Automated Transfer Vehicles (ATV), are propelled into space atop an Ariane 5 rocket, and are designed to dock with the ISS with no human assistance. The Jules Verne will wait to dock with the ISS until after Space Shuttle Endeavour's March mission is completed.

March 12, 2008 - Space Shuttle Endeavour docks with the ISS.

March 24, 2008 - Endeavour detaches from the ISS. While docked, crew members make five spacewalks to deliver and assemble the Dextre Robotics System, deliver and attach the Kibo logistics module, attach science experiments to the exterior of the ISS, and perform other inspection and maintenance tasks.

April 3, 2008 - The unmanned European cargo ship Jules Verne successfully docks with the ISS. Able to carry more than three times the volume of the Russian-built Progress resupply vehicles, the Jules Verne contains fuel, water, oxygen, and other supplies. The automated docking sequence is monitored by flight controllers at the European Space Agency in Toulouse, France, as well as at NASA's Mission Control in Houston, and Russia's control center near Moscow.

April 10, 2008 - Two members of Expedition 17 crew arrive at the ISS via a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Travelling with them is Yi So-yeon, a space flight participant and South Korea's first astronaut. Yi later returns to Earth aboard an older Soyuz spacecraft along with members of the Expedition 16 crew; while in space, she will conduct a number of experiments aboard the ISS.

June 2, 2008 - Space Shuttle Discovery docks with the ISS. Discovery is carrying Japan's Kibo lab, a replacement pump for the station's toilet, and astronaut Gregory Chamitoff, who is replacing Garrett Reisman as part of the station's crew.

June 11, 2008 - Discovery undocks with the ISS after its crew successfully delivers and installs the Japanese-built Kibo lab, delivers parts to repair the ISS's malfunctioning toilet, collects debris samples from the station's faulty solar power wing, and retrieves an inspection boom left behind during a previous shuttle mission. Station crewmember Garrett Reisman departs with Discovery; he is replaced on the station by Gregory Chamitoff.

October 12, 2008 - The Soyuz TMA-13 capsule carrying two Americans - flight commander Michael Fincke and American computer game millionaire Richard Garriott, and Russian flight engineer Yuri Lonchakov - lifts off from Kazakhstan. It docks with the ISS on October 14.

March 12, 2009 - Orbital debris from a prior space shuttle mission forces the crew of Expedition 18 to retreat to its Soyuz capsule temporarily.

August 24, 2011 - Russian emergency officials report that an unmanned Russian cargo craft, the Progress-M12M, that was to deliver 3.85 tons of food and supplies to the ISS crashed in a remote area of Siberia. Future missions could be delayed until an investigation pinpoints the cause of the crash involving a Soyuz rocket, the same kind of booster that powers the flights of crew members to the space station.

May 19, 2012 - SpaceX's launch of the Falcon 9 rocket, the first private spacecraft bound for the International Space Station, is aborted a half a second before liftoff. SpaceX engineers trace the problem to a faulty rocket engine valve.

May 22, 2012 - The unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches at 3:44 a.m. ET from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The rocket carries the Dragon spacecraft, which is filled with food, supplies and science experiments and bound for the International Space Station.

May 25, 2012 - The unmanned SpaceX Dragon spacecraft connects to the International Space Station, the first private spacecraft to successfully reach an orbiting space station.

October 7, 2012 - SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket with its Dragon capsule carrying 1,000 pounds of supplies bound for the International Space Station launches at 8:35 p.m. ET from Florida's Cape Canaveral. It is the first of a dozen NASA-contracted flights to resupply the International Space Station, at a total cost of $1.6 billion.

February 19, 2013 - NASA loses communication with the ISS during a software upgrade. Communication is restored several hours later.

May 9, 2013 - The crew discovers that the International Space Station is leaking ammonia. The crew performs a spacewalk and corrects the leak two days later.

November 9, 2013 - Russian cosmonauts perform the first ever spacewalk of the Olympic Torch ahead of the 2014 Sochi Winter Games.

December 11, 2013 - A pump on one of the station's two external cooling loops shuts down after hitting a temperature limit, according to NASA. The malfunctioning loop had been producing too much ammonia, possibly the result of a malfunctioning valve.

December 24, 2013 - Astronauts complete a repair job to replace the problematic pump. Their spacewalk lasts seven and a half hours, and is the second ever spacewalk on a Christmas Eve. The first was in 1999 for a Hubble Repair Mission.

March 10, 2014 - After five and a half months aboard the ISS, Expedition 38 astronauts return to earth aboard the Soyuz TMA-10M spacecraft.

September 16, 2014 - NASA announces that Boeing and Space X have been awarded contracts to build vehicles that will shuttle astronauts to and from the space station.

October 28, 2014 - An unmanned Orbital Sciences rocket contracted by NASA bursts into flames seconds after liftoff, destroying supplies meant for the International Space Station.

December 15, 2015 - Astronaut Tim Peake is the first British European Space Agency astronaut to arrive at the International Space Station.

March 2, 2016 - NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko land in the Kazakhstan desert at 10:26 a.m. local time after a nearly yearlong mission on the International Space Station.

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Excerpt from:
International Space Station Fast Facts - KTVQ Billings News

WASHINGTON, May 25, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA commercial cargo provider SpaceX is targeting its eleventh commercial resupply services mission to theInternational Space Stationfor 5:55 p.m. EDT Thursday, June 1. Launch coverage will begin on NASA Television and the agency's website at 5:15 p.m., followed by the post-launch news conference at 7:30 p.m.

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft will liftoff on the company's Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carryingalmost 6,000 pounds of science research, crew supplies and hardware to the orbiting laboratory in support of Expedition 52 and 53 crew members. The unpressurized trunk of the spacecraft also will transport solar panels, tools for Earth-observation and equipment to study neutron stars.

About 10 minutes after launch, Dragon will reach its preliminary orbit. It then will deploy its solar arrays and begin a carefully choreographed series of thruster firings to reach the space station. When it arrives to the space station, Expedition 52 Flight Engineers Jack Fischer and Peggy Whitson of NASA will grapple Dragon.

Live coverage of the rendezvous and capture will begin at 8:30 a.m. Sunday, June 4, on NASA TV, with installation coverage set to begin at 11:30 a.m. If the launch does not occur on June 1, the next launch opportunity is 5:07 p.m. Saturday, June 3, with NASA TV coverage starting at 4:30 p.m.

The Dragon spacecraft will remain at the space station until approximately July 2, when it will return to Earth with research and return cargo in a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Baja California.

Media at Kennedy will have the opportunity to participate in special tours and briefings May 31 and June 1, as well as view the launch. The deadline for media to apply for accreditation for this launch has passed, but for more information about media accreditation, contact Jennifer Horner at 321-867-6598 orjennifer.p.horner@nasa.gov.

This will be the 100th launch, and sixth SpaceX launch, from this pad. Previous launches include 11 Apollo flights, the launch of the unmanned Skylab in 1973, 82 shuttle flights and five SpaceX launches.

For an updated schedule of prelaunch briefings, events and NASA TV coverage, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/spacex-crs-11-briefings-and-events

Learn more about the SpaceX CRS-11 mission at:

https://www.nasa.gov/spacex

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nasa-to-air-launch-of-next-international-space-station-resupply-mission-300464350.html

SOURCE NASA

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NASA to Air Launch of Next International Space Station Resupply Mission - PR Newswire (press release)

Universe Today

2 US Astronauts Conduct Unplanned, Rapidly Executed Contingency Space Walk on Space Station Universe Today In the space of just 3 days, a pair of NASA astronauts conducted an unplanned and rapidly executed contingency space walk on the exterior of the space station on Tuesday, May 23 in order to replace a critical computer unit that failed over the weekend. NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 22 May 2017 - Astronauts Prepare for Contingency SpacewalkSpace Ref (press release) Cool Spacewalk, Right? Get Ready for MoreISS Will Need Fixin'WIRED Spacewalking astronauts pull off urgent station repairsIndex-Journal CDA News -The Space Reporter all 36 news articles »

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2 US Astronauts Conduct Unplanned, Rapidly Executed Contingency Space Walk on Space Station - Universe Today

Thursday Night: Look up to see Space Station

Humidity makes a big comeback Saturday and Sunday.

Updated: 8:35 PM CDT May 25, 2017

Look up to see the Space Station at 8:07 to 8:13 pm. Sunny skies forecast Friday. Highs upper 80s to near 90. Humidity makes a big comeback Saturday and Sunday. Heat index climbs into upper 90s. Slight rain chance Saturday and 20% chance Sunday. Rain chances go up Monday at Tuesday to a 50% chance. Keep an eye to the sky.

http://www.wdsu.com/weather

WEBVTT LIVE AT NOPD HEADQUARTERS,TRAVERS MACKEL, WDSU NEWS.MARGARET: WE ARE TALKING ABEAUTIFUL DAY TODAY.LOOK OUT AT THE LAKEFRONT.DEAR MEMBER YESTERDAY?-- DO YOU REMEMBER YESTERDAY?NORTHWES WIND, NOW WE HAVE ASOUTHWEST WIND.LOOK AT THIS GORGEOUS PICTUREFROM DAVID MOORE AND HE SAIDGOOD MORNING AND DO YOU KNOWWHAT A GOOD MORNING IT WAS.LOOK AT THESE LOW TEMPERATURES.WE HAD A LOWS IN THE MID-50'S.THE AVERAGE LOW IS ACTUALLY 70.WE HAVE A LOW AT THE AIRPORT OF57.BELOW THAT AVERAGE OF 87, ENJOYIT, TEMPERATURES ARE GOING UPTOMORROW.83, A WEST-SOUTHWEST WIND.IT IS FEELING NICE.LOOK AT THESE TEMPERATURES ALLACROSS THE AREA, LOW-80'S,HAMMOND AND BATON ROUGE AT 84DEGREES.IT IS PRETTY MUCH ASSUME -- MUCHWEST-SOUTHWEST.WE ARE WARMER THAN WE WEREYESTERDAY AT THIS TIME.6:00 HERE, 82 THE LOW-80'S.TONIGHT, YOU CAN GO OUT AGAINAND YOU CAN SEE THE SPACESTATION.CODY SENT THIS IN LAST NIGHTOVER IN BROOKHAVEN.IT IS GOING TO BE A LITTLE BITEARLIER, RIGHT THERE AT 8:07.YOU LOOK TO THE SOUTHWEST BUTTHEN RIGHT WHEN IT IS EAST OFNE ORLEANS, THAT IS WHEN IT ISGOING TO BE AT THE HIGHESTELEVATION SO 8:07 TO 8:13.LOOK OUTSIDE, IT IS REALLY ATREAT.SULA SAID SHE JUST SNEEZED.GRASS POLLEN IS HIGH.WE CAN CHECK OUT WHAT ISHAPPENING, HARDLY ANY CLOUDS.LIVE RIGHT HERE, THAT ISACTUALLY A LATE BREES -- LATEBREES BECAUSE -- LAKE BREEZE.NO RAIN FORECAST TONIGHT.NO RAIN FORECAST FOR YOURFRIDAY.AS YOU GO INTO SATURDAY, THEREIS A SLIGHT CHANCE OF RAIN ANDYOU WILL NOTICE A FEW MORECLOUDS.IN THE MORNING, LOW-60'S TO THEUPPER-60'S FOR YOUR LOWS.UPPER-80'S TO NEAR-90 AND IT ISBECAUSE OF THAT SOUTH WINDS.IT IS GOING TO BE PUMPING IN THEMOISTURE AS WELL.FOR GREEK FEST, FRIDAY,UPPER-80'S TO 90'S.LOOK AT TOMORROW, GORGEOUS.I CANNOT GO TO GREET FESTTOMORROW, I'M GOING TO GUESSSATURDAY OR SUNDAY.IF YOU GO ON SUNDAY AND WHEREYOUR TOGA, YOU GET ENTRY.-- WEAR YOUR TOGA, YOU GET IN

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Thursday Night: Look up too see Space Station - WDSU New Orleans