Category Archives: Space Station

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield will make his third trip into space later this month, when he and his crew depart for a five-month journey to the International Space Station.

The retired military colonel has accomplished many feats during his decades-long career as an astronaut. He was the first Canadian to operate the Canadarm in space and the first to take a spacewalk. Hadfield will become the first Canadian commander of the International Space Station during his next mission, launching on Dec. 19.

Hadfield discussed with Yahoo! Canada News the challenges of command and his experiences in space during a telephone interview from Space City, Russia. This is a condensed version of that conversation.

Yahoo! Canada News: This will be your third trip to space. It's getting old hat for you, I'm sure. What do you go through leading up to a launch like you have on Dec. 19?

Chris Hadfield: There is nothing old hat about it. I have been an astronaut for 20 years and I have been in space for 20 days. It is an extremely rare human experience and an immensely rare and personal experience. It is huge.

For this particular flight I have been training for about four years and the initial few years are all theory. We train in Japan and Germany and the Ukraine, in various places in Europe, Canada and the U.S. We train on all the systems and experiments and we start to get focused in the year prior to the flight, getting into simulators, all to give you the background, depth and specific set of skills so we can climb into the Soyuz rocket ship and fly it and dock it and operate in space for six months.

Y! Canada: Space flight must be a remarkable experience, and you have set some milestones during your career. Can you talk about your past experiences? What moments stand out to you the most?

Hadfield: My first flight was on space shuttle Atlantis and we went and built part of the Russian space station MIR. The whole thing was a highlight. It was an amazing experience. I was on the flight deck of a space shuttle. I was the first Canadian to operate the Canadarm. I used it to build this big Russian docking module.

Y! Canada: And it was your second flight that you did a spacewalk outside the station, wasn't it?

Hadfield: Yeah, I was the first Canadian to do a spacewalk. The purpose was to connect Canadarm2 onto the International Space Station. It was just brand new. We unbolted it, unfolded it and brought it to life on the first spacewalk. We went out on the second spacewalk and got it working. We spent about 15 hours outside, 10 times around the world.

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Yahoo! exclusive: Astronaut Chris Hadfield calls space ‘an amazing place to be’

After years of leading his fellow astronauts in Christmas carols on the ground, Chris Hadfield will be playing holiday tunes this year on the International Space Station.

The Canadian astronaut will blast off toward the station Dec. 19 to join the Expedition 34 and 35 missions.

He will spend the next five months, including the festive season, in space, separated from his family. Hadfield will also be away from Max Q and Bandella, the two astronaut bands he belongs to that occasionally do gigs in Houston.

Luckily for Hadfield, he doesn't have to leave music on the ground completely. There is at least one musical souvenir from his country already onboard the orbiting laboratory: a Larrive Parlor acoustic guitar, which was shipped to NASA years ago from its company's headquarters in Vancouver, Canada. Hadfield, a veteran of two space shuttle flights, plans to play the guitar during his down time on the station. [Video: How to Play the Zero-G Guitar]

Christmas in orbit

At Christmastime, Hadfield and his crewmates will enjoy a festive dinner in space, likely with turkey and gravy for the main course and peach ambrosia for dessert.

"We will do the best to host a traditional Christmas kind of dinner," he said during a preflight press conference Tuesday (Dec. 11), telephoning from his quarantined room at Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome, where a Russian Soyuz rocket is being prepared to launch Hadfield and two crewmates next week.

He added that the diversity of nations represented on the space station never guarantees a holiday will be celebrated by all, due to the workload that needs to be accomplished.

But Christmas is recognized by most of the space station residents this time around; the Russian cosmonauts, who celebrate Orthodox Christmas in January, have agreed to join in on Dec. 25 as well.

Music psychology

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Canadian Astronaut Will Strum Christmas Carols in Space

South Park Season 1 Episode 9 - Pink Eye
http://www.southparkseries.com The first Halloween episode starts off with the failure of the Mir Space Station, which crashes right on Kenny. An ambulance comes and takes his body off to the morgue. The boys start to brag about their Halloween costumes. At the morgue, a freak accident involving a bottle of Worcestershire occurs, and next thing you know Kenny is a member of the undead. Kenny breaks free and wanders off into the night. South Park s01e09 South Park S1e9 s01e9 S1e9 1x9 Season 1 episode 9 tv shows S1 s01 se1 e9 ep9 1x9 4 S01 E9 HQ episodes serie series watch online complete full tv television hd hq part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4. Watch South Park Season 1 Episode 9 Pink Eye full free watch South Park Season 1 Episode 9 Pink Eye full episode online watch South Park Season 1 Episode 9 Pink Eye for free watch full South Park Season 1 Episode 9 Pink Eye watch South Park Season 1 Episode 9 Pink Eye free online watch South Park Season 1 Episode 9 Pink Eye watch online watch South Park Season 1 Episode 9 Pink Eye full episode.From:Ethel KingViews:0 0ratingsTime:09:26More inPeople Blogs

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South Park Season 1 Episode 9 - Pink Eye - Video

The motorcycle that doesn #39;t fall over
One of the most common accidents for motorcyclists is falling while turning a corner. But what if the bike could stand up by itself and would take "a baby elephant pushing it" to knock it over? Sumi Das examines how a bike using technology found on the International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope - gyroscopes - can not only work to reduce accidents but save energy along the way.From:BBCWORLDNEWS26Views:0 1ratingsTime:05:58More inNews Politics

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Space Station Speed in Orbit (Bengali)
Space Station Speed in Orbit http:--www.khanacademy.org-science-physics-mechanics-v-space-station-speed-in-orbitFrom:KhanAcademyBanglaViews:0 0ratingsTime:06:36More inEducation

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Space Station Speed in Orbit (Bengali) - Video

ISS Update - Dec. 11, 2012
The International Space Station video update for Dec. 11, 2012.From:ReelNASAViews:42 3ratingsTime:02:23More inScience Technology

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ISS Update - Dec. 11, 2012 - Video

Kerbal Space Program: How not to launch space station components.
GenJeFT fails at launching components. Lots of explosions.From:GenJeFTViews:5 0ratingsTime:39:10More inGaming

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Kerbal Space Program: How not to launch space station components. - Video

The Honorary Patronage of Mark Shuttleworth | University Philosophical Society
Mark Shuttleworth became an Honorary Patron of the Society on the 17th of December 2012 for his contribution to business and the open source software network. Mark is founder of Ubuntu, a popular free operating system for desktops and servers. In April 2002 he flew in space, as a cosmonaut member of the crew of Russian Soyuz mission TM34 to the International Space Station. He became the second self-funded space tourist and the first-ever African in space. After graduating from the University of Cape Town with a degree in finance and information technology, Mark founded Thawte, a company specialising in digital certificates and cryptography. When Thawte was acquired in 1999 by VeriSign, and he founded HBD, an investment company, and setup the Shuttleworth Foundation, which funds innovative change in society by supporting Fellows and investing in their projects. He moved to London in 2001, and began preparing for the First African in Space mission, training in Star City, Russia, and Khazakstan. After a tour of schools in South Africa promoting science and mathematics for aspiring astronauts he started work on Ubuntu. Today he lives on the lovely Isle of Man.From:TCDPhilViews:1 0ratingsTime:48:24More inEducation

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The Honorary Patronage of Mark Shuttleworth | University Philosophical Society - Video

Always On - The future of space travel
cnet.com Molly Wood visits Cape Canaveral, Fla., where SpaceX was gearing up for its first mission to the International Space Station. She witnesses her first rocket launch and looks at the future of space exploration.From:CNETTVViews:2064 80ratingsTime:04:21More inShows

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Plants Grow the Same in Space as They Do on Earth
Good news for future farmers in space: A new finding shows plants grow just fine without gravity. National Geographic reports that an experiment sent to the International Space Station in 2010 has shown that seeds sprouted in space much the same as they would back on Earth, "growing away from the seed to seek nutrients and water in exactly the same pattern observed with gravity." The flowers were grown on a nutrient-rich gel in clear Petri plates. The seedlings revealed that gravity plays little apparent role in plant growth, upending previous assumptions. No doubt astronauts sent to colonize space will be relieved they can enjoy something more than freeze-dried ice cream on their way to the stars.From:slatesterViews:745 18ratingsTime:00:45More inScience Technology

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Plants Grow the Same in Space as They Do on Earth - Video