Category Archives: Space Station

It took NASA and its partners nearly four dozen trips between 1998 and 2010 to haul the roughly 900,000 pounds worth of various modules into orbit that make up the $100 billion International Space Station. But come the end of this decade, more than 30 years after the first ISS component broke atmosphere, the ISS will reach the end of its venerable service life and be decommissioned in favor of a new, privately-operated cadre of orbital research stations.

NASA

The problem NASA faces is what to do with the ISS once its been officially shuttered, because its not like we can just leave it where it is. Without regular shipments of propellant reactant to keep the station on course, the ISS orbit would eventually degrade to the point where its forward momentum would be insufficient to overcome the effects of atmospheric drag, subsequently plummeting back to Earth. So, rather than wait for the ISS to de-orbit on its own, or leave it in place for the Russians to use as target practice, NASA will instead cast down the station from upon high like Vader did Palpatine.

NASA is no stranger to getting rid of refuse via atmospheric incineration. The space agency has long relied on it in order to dispose of trash, expended launch vehicles, and derelict satellites. Both Americas Skylab and Russias Mir space stations were decommissioned in this manner.

Skylab was Americas first space station, for the whole 24 weeks it was in use. When the final 3-astronaut crew departed in early 1974, the station was boosted one last time to 6.8 miles further out in a 289-mile graveyard orbit. It was expected to remain there until the 1980s when increased solar activity from the waxing 11-year solar cycle would eventually drag it down into a fiery reentry. However, astronomers miscalculated the relative strength of that solar event, which pushed up Skylabs demise to 1979.

In 1978, NASA toyed with the idea of using its soon-to-be-completed Space Shuttle to help boost Skylab into a higher orbit but abandoned the plan when it became clear that the Shuttle wouldnt be finished in time, given the accelerated reentry timetable. The agency also rejected a proposal to blow the station up with missiles while still in orbit. The station eventually came down on July 11th, 1979, though it didnt burn up in the atmosphere as quickly as NASA had predicted. This caused some rather large pieces of debris to overshoot the intended Indian Ocean target South-Southeast of South Africa and instead land in Perth, Australia. Despite NASAs calculations of a 1 in 152 chance that a piece of the lab could hit someone during its de-orbit, no injuries were reported.

Mir's deorbit went much more smoothly. After 15 years of service it was brought down on March 23rd, 2001, in three stages. First, its orbit was allowed to degrade to an altitude of 140 miles. Then, the Progress M1-5 spacecraft basically an attachable rocket designed specifically to help deorbit the station docked with the Mir. It subsequently lit its engine for a little over 22 minutes to precisely put the Mir down over a distant expanse of the Pacific Ocean, east of Fiji.

As for the ISS oncoming demise, NASA has a plan or at least a pretty good idea for whats going to happen. "We've done a lot of studies," Kirk Shireman, deputy manager of NASA's space station program, told Space.com in 2011. "We have found an orbit and a change in velocity that we believe is achievable, and it creates a debris footprint thats all in water in an unpopulated area."

According to NASA standards specifically NASA-STD-8719.14A, Process for Limiting Orbital Debris the risk of human casualty on the ground is limited to less than 1 in 10,000 (< 0.0001). However, a 1998 study conducted by the ISS Mission Integration Office discovered that an uncontrolled reentry would carry an unacceptable casualty probability of between .024 to .077 (2 in 100 to 8 in 100). A number of controllable decommissioning alternatives have been discussed over the decades, including boosting the ISS farther into orbit in the event of an unexpected evacuation of the stations crew.

"We've been working on plans and update the plans periodically," Shireman continued. "We dont want to ever be in a position where we couldnt safely deorbit the station. It's been a part of the program from the very beginning."

Beginning about a year before the planned decommissioning date, NASA will allow the ISS to begin degrading from its normal 240-mile high orbit and send up an uncrewed space vehicle (USV) to dock with the station and help propel it back Earthward. The ultimate crew from the ISS will evacuate just before the station hits an altitude of 115 miles, at which point the attached USV will fire its rockets in a series of deorbital burns to set the station into a capture trajectory over the Pacific Ocean.

NASA has not yet settled on which USV will be employed. A 2019 plan approved by NASAs safety council, ASAP, relied on Roscosmos to outfit and send up another Progress spacecraft to do what it did for the Mir. However, that vehicle might not actually be available when the ISS is set to come down because Russias commitment to the ISS program terminates in 2024. In April of last year, Russian state media began making noise that the country would abandon the station entirely by 2025, potentially stripping parts from this station to reuse in its upcoming national station and leaving the ISS without a reliable way to break orbit. The ESAs Automated Transfer Vehicle or NASA's Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, though still in development, are both potential alternatives to the Progress.

NASA is continuing to work with its international partners to ensure a safe deorbit plan of the station and is considering a number of options," spokeswoman Leah Cheshier told UPI via email in 2021, declining to elaborate on what those options might entail but adding that any deorbiting mission would be "shared by the ISS partnership and is negotiation-sensitive at this time."

The fall of the ISS is sure to be a spectacle on par with the international hubbub surrounding Skylabs demise, but is still nearly a decade away and there is plenty of science still left to do. According to the January 2022 International Space Station Transition report:

The ISS is now entering its third and most productive decade of utilization, including research advancement, commercial value, and global partnership. The first decade of ISS was dedicated to assembly, and the second was devoted to research and technology development and learning how to conduct these activities most effectively in space. The third decade is one in which NASA aims to verify exploration and human research technologies to support deep space exploration, continue to return medical and environmental benefits to humanity, continue to demonstrate U.S. leadership in LEO through international partnerships, and lay the groundwork for a commercial future in LEO.

More than half of the experiments performed aboard the ISS nowadays are for non-NASA users, according to the report including nearly two dozen commercial facilities hundreds of experiments from other government agencies, academia, and commercial users to return benefits to people and industry on the ground. This influx of orbital commercial activity is expected and being actively encouraged to further increase over the next few years until humanity can collectively realize Jeff Bezos dream of building a low Earth orbit mixed-use business park.

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How to incinerate the International Space Station - Engadget

A new Russian cargo ship will blast off today (Feb. 14) with tons of supplies and equipment for the Expedition 66 crew of the International Space Station. Here's how you can watch it live.

A Soyuz rocket from the Russian space agency Roscosmos is scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 11:25 p.m. EST Monday (0425 GMT or 9:25 a.m. local time on Tuesday, Feb. 15). Coverage will start running at 11 a.m. EST (0400 GMT) on NASA Television, the NASA app, NASA social media and here at Space.com.

The ship will take a relatively slow three-day journey to the International Space Station before docking on Thursday (Feb. 17), which will also be carried live. NASA TV's live coverage of the cargo ship's arrival should begin at 1:30 a.m. EST (0630 GMT) and the Progress should link up with the Russian Poisk docking compartment at 2:06 a.m. EST (0806 GMT).

Related: How Russia's Progress spaceships work (infographic)

NASA stated that the spacecraft will carry three tons of food, fuel and supplies to the International Space Station and that the departure date for Progress 80, as the spacecraft is called, will be determined by Roscosmos at a later date.

Roscosmos announced days ago it plans to shorten Progress deliveries to a single-orbit, two-hour journey to the orbiting lab. Should early testing go to plan, implementation is expected in 2023.

Starting in 2018, many Progress launches were able to get to the station in just two orbits or three hours. But the timing of the launches and space station arrivals is subject to many factors, such as the activities of other spacecraft docked to the space station.

Progress is the main spacecraft by which Russia delivers supplies to its crews on the International Space Station, following the work of previous Progress variants that supplied earlier stations such as Salyut 6 and Mir. Progress was first developed in the 1970s under the now-defunct Soviet Union.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter@howellspace. Follow us on Twitter@Spacedotcomor Facebook.

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Watch Russia launch a fresh cargo ship to the International Space Station today - Space.com

NASA and Northrop Grumman are eyeing a 12:40 p.m. ET launch on Feb. 19.

WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. Astronauts onboard the International Space Station are about to receive a special delivery.

NASA and Northrop Grumman are eyeing a 12:40 p.m. ET launch of the latest commercial resupply mission on Feb. 19 from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

Loaded up withmore than 8,300 pounds of crew supplies, hardware and research, the Cygnus cargo spacecraft will get a lift to space from an Antares rocket.

Among the cargo making the trek to the orbiting laboratory will be a study that examines the effects of a drug on breast cancer and prostate cancer cells, new hydrogen sensors to test the ISS's oxygen generation system and a new combustion facility.

Also tucked away in the thousands of pounds of cargo will be a Colgate-Palmolive investigation that will "leverage the acceleration of skin aging in microgravity."

The cargo is set to arrive at the ISS in the early hours of Feb. 21. NASA astronauts Raja Chari and Kayla Barron will participate in the capture of Cygnus.

The spacecraft will have a bit of a stay at the space station with a departure scheduled for May. NASA says Cygnus will dispose of several tons of trash during its "fiery" reentry into the Earth's atmosphere.

10 Tampa Bay will be streaming the launch live on Facebook, YouTubeand online. NASA will also be providing a live feed of the launch which can be found on its websiteor YouTubepage at 12:15 p.m. ET.

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Skin aging investigation among 8,300 pounds of cargo headed to space station - WTSP.com

Astronauts aboard the station can see a lot through the cupola, including large features, which are clearly visible. However, it's not possible to perceive individual people from roughly 250 miles up. Seeing the station with the naked eye is a lot easier.

As long as the sun isn't out, it's likely you'll be able to see the International Space Station in the sky. The station's exterior, mostly its solar panel arrays, reflects a significant portion of sunlight as it orbits across the sky.

The station is so bright, in fact, that it is the third most visible thing in the night sky, after the moon and Venus. Moreover, the station's orbital path takes it over roughly 90% of Earth's population centers, which means no matter where you live there's a good chance you'll have the opportunity to see it if you know when and where to look.

NASA's Spot the Station service, as well as a number of other websites and apps, tracks the station's movements through the sky and will even send you alerts when it's going to be visible in your area. Then, as long as it's clear skies, all you need to do is look up.

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13 Interesting Facts About The International Space Station - SlashGear

ISS or International Space Station astronauts have spotted an ancient heart-shaped oasis from Egypt.

(Photo : Photo credit should read STAN HONDA/AFP via Getty Images)The NASA logo on a protective box for a camera near the space shuttle Endeavour April 28, 2011 at Kennedy Space Center in Florida as preparations are under way for an April 29 launch of Endeavour, which will be its last flight. AFP PHOTO/Stan HONDA

Now, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA's Earth Observatory shared snaps of the heart-shaped sighting from space just in time for the Valentine's day celebration, as per a news story from Space.com.

The folks aboard the aging ISS, which NASA plans to crash into the ocean in 2031 as it retires, looked down on our home planet way back in May 2021, wherein they spotted an interesting sighting from the surface of the Earth.

While astronauts in the orbiting space station were looking at the sandy deserts of Egypt, they stumbled upon an oasis that appears to have formed a heart shape.

It turns out that the massive heart shape seen from space is an ancient oasis that goes by the name Faiyum Oasis, which reportedly extends to more than 450 square miles or 1,2000 square kilometers.

Space.com noted that its size could be compared to at least one and a half of the overall area of the five boroughs of New York City.

NASAstated that the heart-shaped Faiyum Oasis was created on top of the lakebed of Lake Moeris in ancient Egypt.

The United States space agency said that the heart-shaped oasis was once home to human settlement way back 8,000 years ago.

(Photo : Photo by Paolo Nespoli - ESA/NASA via Getty Images)In this handout image provided by the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA, the International Space Station and the docked space shuttle Endeavour orbit Earth during Endeavour's final sortie on May 23, 2011 in Space. Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli captured the first-ever images of an orbiter docked to the International Space Station from the viewpoint of a departing vessel as he returned to Earth in a Soyuz capsule.

It also provided these folks with various resources during ancient times, including fishes and birds. Not to mention that it also housed the now-endangered slender horned gazelle back then.

On top of that, the heart-shaped Oasis was also the place where marvelous engineering innovations thousands of years ago or in ancient history were showcased.

Read Also: NASA is Decommissioning the ISS by 2031-Extends Support from 2024 to 2030 But Will They Destroy It?

As per the geography department of the University College London, shortly known as UCL, the oasis is "one of the earliest massive national hydrological projects in the world."

The UCL went on to add that the "engineering kings" were behind the massive oasis project in ancient times, which is basically the 12th Dynasty kings.

That said, due to the "engineering kings" thousands of people have benefited from the life that the oasis sustains, which includes towns, villages, as well as orchards, and farms.

(Photo : from NASA Earth Observatory website )

Now, astronauts orbiting 250 miles from Earth have spotted this oasis of life as a heart-shaped gray patch in the middle of the sandy Egypt desert.

Related Article: New ISS Archaeological Project To Assist NASA in Creating Better Space Habitats for Mars Missions and MORE!

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ISS Astronauts Spot Heart-Shaped Oasis in Egypt | In Time for Valentines Day? - Tech Times

Pittsburgh,

11

February

2022

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15:16 PM

Europe/Amsterdam

On Dec. 21, 2021, a system of innovative new computers and sensors developed by the NSF Center for Space, High-performance, and Resilient Computing (SHREC) at the University of Pittsburgh, was packed aboard the SpaceX CRS-24 launch that was precisely and carefully flung toward the stars.

More specifically, the system, dubbed Configurable and Autonomous Sensor Processing Research (CASPR), is part of the U.S. Department of Defenses Space Test Program (STP), which provides an opportunity to perform cutting-edge technology research aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The successful launch, delivery and docking of CASPR aboard the ISS marks the pinnacle of a three-year process of development and integration.

STP-H7-AttachedIII

Attaching the CASPR system on the ISS. (Credit: NASA)

STP-H7-AttachedI

Attaching the CASPR system on the ISS. (Credit: NASA)

STP-H7-AttachedII

Attaching the CASPR system on the ISS. (Credit: NASA)

On Jan. 11, 2022, the experiment was installed, connected and powered on, marking this novel, reconfigurable space systems first successful use in space.

Most university technologies fail when deployed in space, noted Dr. Alan George, Mickle Chair Professor and Department Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), who leads both SHREC and the CASPR mission. So far, ours are working exactly as hoped.

To prepare for installation, the team had to bolt CASPR on a pallet baseplate (the STP Houston 7 pallet, to be exact), which included six total experiments. When the payload arrived at the ISS, a robotic arm reached into the trunk of the SpaceX Dragon capsule and grabbed the pallet. It then used guides and the Columbus External Payload Adapter (CEPA) to line up and install the pallet on the Columbus module.

As part of their recent delivery to NASA, the SHREC team added two new types of space sensors that will be used to get a better view of Earth and its surroundings.

The sensors include a high-resolution binocular telescopic imager, developed by SHREC collaborator Satlantis, and a neuromorphic event-based camera, developed by Prophesee and created by Dr. Ryad Benosman, professor of ophthalmology and ECE at Pitt.

This binocular telescope points to Earth, and its ground-resolved distance (GRD) enables us to see things like cars, roads, or trees from the ISS, said Seth Roffe, a doctoral student in ECE at Pitt who is project manager of STP-H7-CASPR. There are other telescopes with this level of GRD, but this one is small roughly the size of a toaster oven.

Unlike the binocular telescope, the neuromorphic sensor faces the horizon, in the direction that the ISS is moving. The device emulates the human retina and is used to track fast-moving objects in space and improve situational awareness.

Performing research on the ISS requires small yet robust tools that are equipped to handle spaces harsh environment. In addition to new sensors, the CASPR system also includes a pair of new high-performance and reconfigurable computers for space, each known as a SHREC Space Processor (SSP), which is built to withstand these challenging conditions and perform better than its predecessors from SHREC.

CASPR_system

CASPR, SHRECs third space system, features two new SSP space computers, two new space sensors, and a GPU. Credit: Theodore Schwarz.

CASPR_ondock_team

The CASPR delivery team. From top left: Noah Perryman and Antony Gillette. From bottom left: Seth Roffe and Theodore Schwarz. Credit: Paige Mcclung from STP.

SHREC is a national research center sponsored by the National Science Foundation and dedicated to assisting U.S. industrial partners, government agencies, and research organizations in mission-critical computing. The team hopes that the equipment will provide insights into both what these instruments can do and the potential applications of them.

Sometimes we forget that the three years of preparation and the celebration of a successful launch is just the beginning, said George. We are looking forward to doing and learning a lot more in the years to come.

In addition to Roffe, the project leads for the CASPR system include the following current and former graduate students:

STP-H7 on Columbus

The CASPR system docked on the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA)

Annotated STP-H7 on Columbus

(Credit: NASA)

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CASPR Finds its Home Aboard the ISS - UPJ Athletics

Image via Ubisoft

As quick as a flash, NAVI took the lead on Chalet.

Spacestation selected them, specifically, for a reason: but not necessarily a negative one. Their choices were between NAVI and two NA teams, and among those choices, they preferred the UK-majority squad. Matthew Hotancold Stevens and Dylan Bosco Bosco noted in a post-match press conference that they liked the way their map pools lined up as well.

Three rounds in, it was all NAVI on Chalet. I was just hiding at Heaven I knew in his mind he was thinking I wouldnt push, so I pushed, said Jack Doki Robertson, who nailed three heads in the span of eight seconds during round three to force a de facto tactical timeout by round timer from Spacestation. The American side rallied for three attacking rounds in a row to finish the half, but NAVI were just as surgical four straight attacking rounds for them put the game away.

The Scot was surgical in the moment and throughout the map, and NAVI rolled to a 7-3 victory on Chalet. They followed that up with a commanding 6-3 lead on Bank, and were pixels, seconds, a stiff sneeze away from taking the series and advancing to play Team Empire.

It wasnt to be. Spacestation rattled off five rounds in a row, three for the overtime push and two to take the extra round time. We just know were never out, said Hotancold. Weve been through many, many comebacks before.

Hotancold also detailed a specific, random meeting between them and Soniqs in the bathroom before map three both teams were down exactly 6-3 in round count at nearly the same time and they swapped a quick comeback story. Soniqs would also go on to win their map three, albeit in less dramatic fashion.

Statistically, the day was won by Nathanial Rampy Duvall, who turned in a stellar 38 kills over the course of three maps. No one else in the server cracked over 30 total, the next closest was Doki with 25.

Spacestation went down 5-1 on their Clubhouse attacking half, but the defensive half was completely and totally theirs. They won all six rounds in the half to take map three in regulation. Hotancold says the side switch was good for Spacestation. Comebacks are always on the table for us, he said. Everyone knows that in the back of their mind, were still playing to win.

Spacestation advance to face Team Empire later today. NAVI fall to the lower bracket, where theyll have a second crack at an NA team: DarkZero lies in wait for them.

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"Comebacks are always on the table for us": Composed Spacestation advance past NAVI - SiegeGG

Spacestation Gaming made a quiet exit from HCS Anaheim after losing 1-3 to Esports Arena Red in a best-of-five last night.

Spacestations hopes of a strong placing at HCS Anaheim were under threat from day one. Pool play saw them take tough losses to G1 and Fnatic in Pool B and left the embattled roster sitting at a 0-3 record. As the fourth-placed team in their pool, they received a ticket to the elimination bracket at the beginning of day two, missing out on the safety net of the winners bracket altogether.

Spacestations Halo roster has struggled to find its footing since losing FormaL days before the start of HCS Raleigh. FormaL moved to Sentinels as a substitute for Royal2, who was suspended at the time. They had similar struggles to other partnered teams Fnatic and G2 Esports during the online Pro Series after a top-eight finish at Raleigh. But while G2 and Fnatic began to improve, Spacestation stagnated, despite moments of brilliance every week.

That stagnation followed them into Pool B at the beginning of HCS Anaheim, losing 1-3 to open qualifiers team G1 at the start of Friday and faltering in a close 2-3 defeat to Fnatic. FaZe Clan, the top seed of their pool, offered little mercy as they swept Spacestation 3-0. Tylenul was the only player on Spacestation who held his own in each matchup, maintaining a K/D over 1.1 throughout the entirety of pool play. When paired with Flazins dominant 2.88 K/D in the set against G1, questions arise over where Spacestations struggles lie.

Narrow losses in Oddball and Capture The Flag would prove to be their downfall when they faced down EAR in the elimination bracket on day two. Despite finishing the 1-3 series defeat with near equivalent statistics to EAR across the board, according to data from ForerunnerGG, Spacestations inability to close out the tight maps in their favor seems to be at the heart of their Anaheim exit.

Finishing top 16 means Spacestation failed to automatically qualify for the next HCS Major in Kansas City at the end of April. However, with over two months until the next live event, Spacestation have a long window to reflect on the state of the roster and their performances. They will have to qualify through the open bracket hosted at the tournament, similarly to Sentinels run during HCS Raleigh.

The HCS Anaheim action continues through Sunday, and you can catch it live on the official Twitch channel.

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Spacestation eliminated from HCS Anaheim after finishing at top 16 - Dot Esports

The International Space Station will die, eventually. And now we know when and where it will crash.

Whats happening: NASA has described the end of days for the International Space Station, spelling out when the station will die and where it will land when it does, according to HuffPost.

Endgame: The ISS will be used until 2030, which is about 15 years past its life expectancy.

Crashpoint: NASA said the ISS doesnt have the power to de-orbit by itself and it will require additional spacecraft to make it happen.

What theyre saying: The private sector is technically and financially capable of developing and operating commercial low-Earth orbit destinations, with NASAs assistance. We look forward to sharing our lessons learned and operations experience with the private sector to help them develop safe, reliable, and cost-effective destinations in space, said Phil McAlister, director of commercial space at NASA Headquarters in a statement.

What to watch for: Most objects will burn up as they pass through Earths atmosphere, but some fragments can survive. With its location far away from any landmasses, the area is considered a relatively safe place for falling space debris, according to NBC News.

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Will the the International Space Station crash on Earth? - Deseret News

Roscosmos wants to speed up its deliveries to the International Space Station.

The Russian space agency released a proposal to allow its Progress cargo ships to arrive in a single orbit, which would mean stuff would arrive at the orbiting complex just two hours after launch, the agency said.

A statement on Roscosmos' website says the Rocket and Space Corporation Energia (a part of the space agency) received a patent Nov. 12 for a single-orbit cargo flight.

Related: How Russia's Progress spaceships work (infographic)

Testing of some elements began before the patent was issued, during the Progress MS-17 cargo flight in June and July 2021, Roscosmos stated, without providing further detail. More testing is expected in June 2022 during Progress MS-20.

"Single-orbit scheme Progress flight to the ISS is to be implemented from 2023," Roscosmos added. That timeline assumes that all testing goes to plan and that the new orbit is approved.

It's not the first time Roscosmos has tweaked orbital timings. Both Progress and the crewed Soyuz ships were allowed to fly to the International Space Station using a four-orbit (six-hour) flight plan starting in 2012 and 2013, respectively, Roscosmos said.

The shorter timespan was especially useful for crews, Roscosmos stated, as it "allowed cosmonauts to get used to the adverse factors of weightlessness in comfortable conditions on the ISS."

Then in 2018 and 2020, respectively, Progress and Soyuz vehicles were allowed to use a two-orbit flight plan that brought cargo and people to the space station in about three hours. The fastest crewed flight to date, according to Roscosmos, was the Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft that sent a crew to the ISS just three hours, three minutes and 37 seconds after launch in October 2020.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter@howellspace. Follow us on Twitter@Spacedotcomor onFacebook.

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Russia wants to speed up space station cargo deliveries with shorter, one-orbit flights - Space.com