Category Archives: Transhuman News

Space station commander Sunita Williams and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide returned to the Quest airlock module and began repressurizing the compartment at 3:07 p.m. EDT (GMT-4), officially ending a successful six-hour 38-minute spacewalk to bypass a suspect solar array radiator.

This was the 166th spacewalk devoted to station assembly and maintenance since construction began in 1998 and the fifth this year. One hundred and nine astronauts, cosmonauts and international partners have now logged 1,049 hours and one minute of space station EVA time, or 43.7 days.

With today's spacewalk, Williams, a former Navy helicopter pilot, moves up to No. 5 on the list of most experienced spacewalkers with 50 hours and 40 minutes of EVA time during seven excursions. Hoshide now has 21 hours and 23 minutes of spacewalk time during three EVAs.

Williams and Hoshide successfully reconfigured ammonia coolant lines to bypass a presumed leak in a radiator used to cool electrical components in one of the space station's solar array modules. A spare radiator then was successfully deployed to take over cooling.

Flight controllers plan to monitor the system for several weeks to determine if the leak is still present. If there are no signs of a leak, they will know the problem was, in fact, in the bypassed radiator. In that case, managers could elect to simply use the spare radiator indefinitely. If the leak is still there, engineers will know it's somewhere else in the system. In that case, another spacewalk likely will be required at some point to replace a pump module.

But switching to the spare radiator effectively tapped an additional reservoir of ammonia and even with a leak, the coolant system should be able to operate for nearly a year, giving engineers time to come up with a solution.

Continued here:
Space walk successful on space station

A robotic Russian cargo vessel blasted off today (Oct. 31), carrying nearly 3 tons of supplies on a Halloween delivery mission to the International Space Station.

The unmanned Progress 49 spacecraft launched from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome at 3:41 a.m. EDT (0741 GMT) today and is slated to arrive at the orbiting lab six hours later. You can watch the rendezvous and docking activities live here on NASA TV, beginning at 9 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT).

Progress 49 is toting 2.9 tons of supplies, including 2,050 pounds (930 kilograms) of propellant, 926 pounds (420 kg) of water, 62 pounds (28 kg) of oxygen and 2,738 pounds (1,242 kg) of spare parts, NASA officials said. There's no word yet on whether any candy corn or miniature chocolate bars made it onboard to help the space station's six astronauts celebrate the season.

Life on orbit is always busy, but this week is particularly jam-packed for station crew.

For example, today's launch comes just three days after SpaceX's unmanned Dragon capsule left the station, wrapping up the first-ever commercial cargo mission to the $100 billion orbiting complex. Dragon splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the Baja California coast on Sunday afternoon (Oct. 28).

Dragon will make at least 11 more flights to the station under a $1.6 billion contract that California-based SpaceX signed with NASA. Its next launch is currently scheduled for January, agency officials have said.

Dragon is unique in its ability to ferry hardware, supplies and scientific experiments both to and from the space station. All other cargo craft currently operating including Russia's Progress ships carry supplies to the orbiting lab but burn up upon re-entering Earth's atmosphere.

Shortly after welcoming Progress 49 to the station, crewmembers will turn their attention to another task. NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, commander of the orbiting complex's current Expedition 33 mission, and Japanese colleague Akihiko Hoshide will perform a spacewalk Thursday morning (Nov. 1).

Beginning at 8:15 a.m. EDT (1215 GMT) Thursday, Williams and Hoshide will venture to the port side of the station's backbone-like truss to repair an ammonia leak in a radiator. The spacewalk should take about 6 1/2 hours, NASA officials said.

Follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall or SPACE.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook andGoogle+.

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Russian Cargo Ship Launches on Halloween Mission to Space Station

This story was updated at 9:40 a.m. EDT.

A robotic Russian cargo spacecraft made a Halloween delivery today (Oct. 31) to the International Space Station.

The unmanned Progress 49 spacecraft blasted off from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome at 3:41 a.m. EDT (0741 GMT) today, carrying nearly 3 tons of supplies for the orbiting laboratory. It arrived roughly six hours later, docking at 9:33 a.m. EDT (1333 GMT), as the two vehicles were roughly 250 miles (400 km) above Bogota, Columbia.

Progress 49 is toting 2.9 tons of supplies, including 2,050 pounds (930 kilograms) of propellant, 926 pounds (420 kg) of water, 62 pounds (28 kg) of oxygen and 2,738 pounds (1,242 kg) of spare parts, NASA officials said. There's no word yet on whether any candy corn or miniature chocolate bars made it onboard to help the space station's six astronauts celebrate the season.

Life on orbit is always busy, but this week is particularly jam-packed for station crew.

For example, today's launch comes just three days after SpaceX's unmanned Dragon capsule left the station, wrapping up the first-ever commercial cargo mission to the $100 billion orbiting complex. Dragon splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the Baja California coast on Sunday afternoon (Oct. 28).

Dragon will make at least 11 more flights to the station under a $1.6 billion contract that California-based SpaceX signed with NASA. Its next launch is currently scheduled for January, agency officials have said.

Dragon is unique in its ability to ferry hardware, supplies and scientific experiments both to and from the space station. All other cargo craft currently operating including Russia's Progress ships carry supplies to the orbiting lab but burn up upon re-entering Earth's atmosphere.

Shortly after welcoming Progress 49 to the station, crewmembers will turn their attention to another task. NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, commander of the orbiting complex's current Expedition 33 mission, and Japanese colleague Akihiko Hoshide will perform a spacewalk Thursday morning (Nov. 1).

Beginning at 8:15 a.m. EDT (1215 GMT) Thursday, Williams and Hoshide will venture to the port side of the station's backbone-like truss to repair an ammonia leak in a radiator. The spacewalk should take about 6 1/2 hours, NASA officials said.

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Russian Spacecraft Makes Halloween Cargo Delivery to Space Station

This story was updated at 8:40 a.m. EDT.

Two astronauts are floating outside the International Space Station today (Nov. 1) in an effort to isolate and repair an ammonia leak in part of the orbiting lab's cooling system.

NASA astronaut Sunita Williams and Japanese spaceflyer Akihiko Hoshide officially begun the spacewalk also known as an extra-vehicular activity, or EVA this morning at 8:29 a.m. EDT (1229 GMT). They're expected to stay outside for about 6 1/2 hours, NASA officials said. You can watch live coverage of the spacewalk here on NASA TV.

"Aki, come on in. The water is warm," Williams called to Hoshide as he floated outside the space station's airlock.

Each of the orbiting lab's eight huge solar arrays has its own associated power system, and circulating ammonia helps cool this gear down. The spacewalk's first objective is to find the source of the leak, which could affect one of these power channels if it's not addressed soon.

"We don't know exactly where the leak is," space station manager Mike Suffredini of NASA told reporters during a teleconference last Friday (Oct. 26). "It's possible the leak is in the PVR itself, the [photo-voltaic] radiator itself. It could be in the pump system, or it could be in any one of the [coolant] lines." [Gallery: Building the International Space Station]

On Thursday's EVA, Williams commander of the station's current Expedition 33 mission and Hoshide will make their way over to the port side of the station's backbone-like truss. They'll reconfigure some lines in the affected coolant system and install a spare radiator to see if that stops the leak.

"We're real suspicious of the radiator," said spacewalk flight director Mike Lammers, of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "It kind of stretches out there and is susceptible to micrometeorite impacts."

Because the leak is so slow, it will likely take several weeks before it's known if the fix works, officials said.

If ammonia continues to escape, the station's operators will eventually have to try something else. For example, they may direct astronauts to swap out some of the coolant system's pump gear on another spacewalk. But there likely won't be an urgent need for a new fix, since the spare radiator should provide enough ammonia to keep the coolant system operating until next October or so, officials said.

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Astronauts Begin Spacewalk to Fix Space Station Cooling System

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) An unmanned Dragon freighter carrying a stash of precious medical samples from the International Space Station parachuted into the Pacific Ocean on Sunday, completing the first official shipment under a billion-dollar contract with NASA.

The California-based SpaceX company successfully guided the Dragon down from orbit to a splashdown a few hundred miles off the Baja California coast.

This historic mission signifies the restoration of Americas ability to deliver and return critical space station cargo, Elon Musk, the billionaire founder and head of SpaceX, said in a statement.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden praised the American ingenuity that made the endeavor possible.

Several hours earlier, astronauts aboard the International Space Station used a giant robot arm to release the commercial cargo ship 255 miles up. SpaceX provided updates of the journey back to Earth via Twitter.

The supply ship brought back nearly 2,000 pounds of science experiments and old station equipment. Perhaps the most eagerly awaited cargo is nearly 500 frozen samples of blood and urine collected by station astronauts over the past year.

The Dragon is the only delivery ship capable of returning items, now that NASAs shuttles are retired to museums. Atlantis made the last shuttle haul to and from the station in July 2011.

SpaceX more formally Space Exploration Technologies Corp. launched the capsule three weeks ago from Cape Canaveral, full of groceries, clothes and other station supplies. Ice cream as well as fresh apples were especially appreciated by the station residents, now back up to a full crew of six.

Its the second Dragon to return from the orbiting lab; the first mission in May was a flight demo. This flight is the first of 12 deliveries under a $1.6 billion contract with NASA.

It was nice while she was on board, space station commander Sunita Williams said as the Dragon backed away. We tamed her, took her home and, literally and figuratively, theres a piece of us on that spacecraft going home to Earth.

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Dragon ship back on Earth after space station trip

Two spacewalking astronauts troubleshot an ammonia leak in the International Space Station's cooling system today (Nov. 1), accomplishing the chief objective of their marathon excursion outside the orbiting lab.

NASA astronaut Sunita Williams and Japanese spaceflyer Akihiko Hoshide ventured outside the space station at 8:29 a.m. EDT (1229 GMT) today. A little more than five hours later, they had reconfigured some coolant lines and deployed a spare radiator, isolating the leak.

"Suni and Aki, heartfelt congratulations to you," NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, who helped walk the astronauts through their tasks from mission control at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston, said at 1:41 p.m. EDT (1741 GMT). "We accomplished just about everything we set out to do today."

"A big, huge congratulations to you guys on the ground for putting this together," Williams responded. [Gallery: Building the International Space Station]

Today's spacewalk was slated to last about 6 1/2 hours, and it proceeded pretty much on schedule. By 2:58 p.m. EDT (1958 GMT), both astronauts had re-entered the space station through its airlock, and the spacewalk was officially over nine minutes later.

Finding the leak

Each of the space station's eight huge solar panels has its own associated power system, and circulating ammonia helps cool this gear down. The leak, which NASA and its space station partners first noticed in 2007, has the potential to affect one of these power channels if it's not fixed.

Today's spacewalk, or extra-vehicular activity (EVA), is a crucial step in that process.

At the start of the spacewalk, Williams commander of the station's current Expedition 33 and Hoshide made their way over to the port side of the station's backbone-like truss. They rejiggered some lines in the affected coolant system and installed a spare radiator.

NASA officials hope this stops the leak, which they suspect may be coming from the old (swapped-out) radiator.

Excerpt from:
Spacewalking Astronauts Isolate Leak in Space Station Cooling System

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A pair of spacewalking astronauts floated outside the International Space Station on Thursday to bypass a leak in one of the outpost's cooling systems.

Engineers suspect a micrometeoroid or tiny piece of space debris may have punched a hole no bigger than the width of a hair into one of the station's radiators.

The devices dissipate heat from batteries and other equipment aboard the solar-powered station, a $100 billion laboratory for biological, fluid physics and other science experiments now flying about 255 miles above Earth.

Station commander Sunita Williams and flight engineer Akihiko Hoshide left the station's Quest airlock around 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT) and returned 6.5 hours later after reconfiguring some ammonia coolant lines and hooking up a spare radiator.

"Suni and Aki, our heartfelt congratulations to you and the entire team," astronaut Mike Fincke radioed to the spacewalkers from Mission Control in Houston. "We've accomplished just about everything we set out to do today."

The leak is small so it will take several weeks to determine if the radiator was the source, said space station program manager Mike Suffredini.

If routing ammonia through the spare radiator does not stem the leak, another spacewalk to replace a pump or other equipment in the system may be needed.

Unless it is fixed, the leak would eventually trigger the cooling system to shut down, leaving the station without a backup system for a section of the station's solar arrays.

The cooling system holds about 50 pounds (22.7 kg) of ammonia. It would automatically shut down if the ammonia level drops to 40 pounds (18 kg), said flight director Mike Lammers.

As ground control teams prepared for the spacewalk on Wednesday, the station had to maneuver to avoid another piece of debris, part of the wreckage from the 2009 collision of an Iridium communications satellite and a Russian satellite.

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Spacewalkers tackle coolant leak on space station