tagged w/ International Space Station
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Beijing -- China has revealed the purpose of its manned missions to the moon. The Chinese want to construct their next electronics assembly plant there as the first step toward using the moon as a manufacturing zone.
“It’s no secret that our country is running out of room and resources here on earth,” said Pon Singh, Director of the Chinese space agency Flaming Dragon In The Heavens.
“We have two choices: colonize the moon or invade America. We quickly realized that destroying our number one customer is not in our best interest. So it’s hello moon.”
The United States space agency NASA successfully launched a series of manned moon missions in the late 60s and early 70s, but has since abandoned its ability to put people into space. It acts now more as a travel agent, booking seats for its “astronauts” on Russian flights to the International Space Station.
“We got our last astronaut a tremendous package deal,” a NASA spokesman said. “Round-trip coach on a vintage 60s space capsule. All meals included. Free spacewalks. Instant weight loss program. Complimentary Wi-Fi. It’s like Club Med without the gravity.”
NASA’s lack of actual space knowledge did not stop it from offering advice to the Chinese. “They told us it gets cold up there, to bring an extra blanket,” Singh said.
The Chinese are outsourcing some aspects of its lunar program, which may give America a chance to become part of the mission. “We are considering using NASA to clean our spacesuits,” Singh said. “But they need to develop a foolproof ticketing system so our suits don’t get mixed up with the other laundry.”
China’s planned lunar base and industrial park will have a secondary function. “We plan to install some powerful telescopes up there so we can observe the Americans 24/7,” Singh said. “We need to keep an eye on how they’re spending our money.”Beijing -- China has revealed the purpose of its manned missions to the moon. The... more
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An unmanned freighter launched to the International Space Station (ISS) has been lost.
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Skymania News...
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Cargo ship crashes on way to ISS
Posted by Paul Sutherland on August 24th, 2011
An unmanned spacecraft carrying supplies for astronauts on the international space station crashed today after a disastrous launch.
PHOTO: A Progress spacecraft in orbit (NASA)
The Progress M-12M freighter plunged to Earth in eastern Russia after a rocket engine shut down too soon and its third stage failed to separate. It hit the ground and exploded, reportedly shaking windows 100 km away.
The craft was carrying three tons of food, water and other essentials for astronauts aboard the orbiting outpost. Russian officials called up the space station’s six crew to tell them of the failure.
NASA say the astronauts have enough food, water and oxygen to last them for several months. But the Progress – the 44th launched from Baikonur in Kazakhstan – would also have been used to lift the station in its orbit if necessary.
The failure, five minutes 20 seconds after lift-off, is the first in Russia’s many years of launching Progress since 1978. It highlights the risks that NASA faces now that it has retired the space shuttle and relies on Russia to launch missions into orbit.
The next US spacecraft, whether built by NASA or a private enterprise, will not be ready to launch on missions for many months at least, if not years. Astronauts going to the space station now have to be launched by Russian rocket but in a separate craft called a Soyuz.
One senior NASA space scientist told Skymania News: “Thank goodness this failed Russian rocket was launching an unmanned ship and not a Soyuz full of astronauts.”
NASA’s International Space Station manager Mike Suffredini told a news conference tonight that the Progress craft shut down an engine before the third stage was ignited due to an anomaly.
He warned that the accident might have implications for the next crewed Soyuz launch, scheduled for September 22 from Kazakhstan, as they share similar rocket booster designs.
Suffredini said the space station could go several months without a resupply vehicle if necessary. Another Progress that was due to launch in late October could be brought forward and a Soyuz “lifeboat” currently attached to the space station could bring three of the six astronauts home.
A European robotic supply ship, its third Automated Transfer Venicle (ATV) called Edoardo Amaldi, is not due to launch to the space station from Kourou, French Guiana, until March. But Suffredini said the station had supplies that could see astronauts through to then.
.Skymania News...
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Cargo ship crashes on way to ISS
Posted by Paul... more
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NASA astronaut Ron Garan has captured something remarkable. A shooting star. Not in his hand or with his telescope, but with a camera. Still not impressed? He did this while orbiting above the meteor!
It's one of the more impressive space-related photos I've seen in a while. Meteor showers are nothing remarkable for we earthbound folk, but rarely do we get the chance to see a meteor as it falls into the atmosphere.
"What a 'Shooting Star' looks like #FromSpace Taken yesterday during Perseids Meteor Shower..." Garan said yesterday while aboard the ISS. He made the update to his Twitter account, as he neared the end of a six-month stay.
http://gizmodo.com/5830774/this-perseid-meteor-was-photographed-from-a-very-special-placeNASA astronaut Ron Garan has captured something remarkable. A shooting star. Not in... more
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This mesmerizing tour of Earth narrated by a scientist from Johnson Space Center's Crew Earth Observations Office, offers an extraordinary view of the surface from the vantage point of an astronaut orbiting on the International Space Station.
You can notice the Missouri River overflowing its banks, the decreasing glaciers in places and some areas of drought. However, this is still a mesmerizing tour of our only home.
Puts it all into perspective.This mesmerizing tour of Earth narrated by a scientist from Johnson Space... more
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Los Angeles Times...
The space shuttle's Southland legacy
The space shuttle program helped carry Southern California's aerospace industry for four decades, bequeathing new aeronautical technology — and jobs — to the local economy.
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PART ONE...
By W.J. Hennigan, Los Angeles Times
July 5, 2011
Bob Kahl slips in through a side door of the vast, abandoned hangar and looks at what's left of the assembly plant where he worked for nearly 40 years.
He remembers the hum of power tools, the biting aroma of cutting oil, swarms of workers plugging away on a labyrinth of yellow scaffolding. All that's left is a few piles of broken concrete and a sea of colorless dust that coats a Palmdale factory floor the size of two football fields.
"Welcome to the birthplace of America's space shuttle fleet," said Kahl, 60, smiling. "I never really thought it could come to this."
Photos: The shuttle's legacy in Southern California
Amid the odes to a shuttle program that ends with the last mission of the last shuttle, Atlantis, scheduled for liftoff Friday, is an awareness that the space plane helped carry Southern California's aerospace industry for four decades. It staved off decline after the end of the moon landings, bequeathing new generations of aeronautical technology — and jobs — to the regional economy.
"Building the space shuttle fleet enabled a historic chapter in NASA's space program," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, a former shuttle commander. "Southern California has a strong place in shuttle history as a key site where the spacecraft were built and often landed."
Constructing the shuttle fleet was testament to how advanced Southern California's aerospace engineering and labor workforce had become by the 1970s — and assured that the vast assemblage of brainpower and engineering know-how would not be lost in the Southland.
The history of the shuttle program may be linked forever to the flights of Challenger and Columbia, its two deadly tragedies. But the shuttle era will also be remembered for advancing technology, including reusable rocket engines and computerized guidance systems, that changed manned flight.
The shuttle is considered the world's most advanced flying machine because it blasted into space like a rocket, behaved in orbit like a floating laboratory, buzzed to and from the International Space Station with astronauts and supplies, and landed back on a runway like an airplane.
Before the shuttle, astronauts reached space by squeezing into a small capsule launched atop a massive rocket. By the time the shuttle was in design, the space program was looking for ways to keep as many as seven astronauts in orbit for weeks at a time in relative comfort.
To do this, scientists and engineers had to rethink nearly every aspect of the endeavor, notably flight controls, rocket engines and protection from searing heat generated by reentry.
"The shuttle was unlike anything that preceded it, so there were always new questions to answer," said Dwight Woolhouse, a shuttle engineer from the beginning of the program to this day.
The shuttle — large and aerodynamically unstable — needed sophisticated computer controls to guide the flight. The system, known as "fly by wire," is common on today's aircraft, but it was a rarity in flying machines in the 1970s. Engineers in Downey developed the computer-aided autopilot flight controls similar to today's systems that allow mammoth Boeing 747 jumbo jets to almost fly themselves.
CONTINUED...
.Los Angeles Times...
The space shuttle's Southland legacy
The space... more
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The Mars Rovers, Opportunity and Spirit’s mission planning software contributed to the technologies which were developed for this mind-bogglingly ambitious building project, producing what may be the most sophisticated environmental control system on the planet.The Mars Rovers, Opportunity and Spirit’s mission planning software contributed... more
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Foursquare made the announcement this week that they exploded by 3,400% over the last year. That gigantic number means they made the leap from 175,000 to more that 6 million global users!Foursquare made the announcement this week that they exploded by 3,400% over the last... more
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This is a huge storm, but amazing to see from the space station.
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Recycling Node 3 from the ISS...
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Second space walk happening now...
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;_ylt=AqjxZPon3in9cac_8oM6i8qs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNyamhjdHFuBGFzc2V0A25tLzIwMTAwNzAyL3VzX3J1c3NpYV9zcGFjZV9zdGF0aW9uBGNjb2RlA21vc3Rwb3B1bGFyBGNwb3MDNwRwb3MDNARwdANob21lX2Nva2UEc2VjA3luX2hlYWRsaW5lX2xpc3QEc2xrA3JlcG9ydHJ1c3NpYQ--
An unmanned Russian cargo vessel experienced problems during a docking with the International Space Station on Friday, the Interfax news agency reported, citing the commander of the orbital station.
The Progress cargo ship "is moving away from us," Interfax quoted cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov as saying in a communication with Russian mission control outside Moscow. He was quoted as saying the cargo ship was "spinning uncontrollably" and later that it had disappeared from view.;_ylt=AqjxZPon3in9cac_8oM6i8qs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNyamhjdHFuBGFzc2V0A25tLzIwMTAwNzAyL3VzX3J... more
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"It looks very scary. It's not good. I really feel... not good about that." That's what the International Space Station Commander, cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, says about the Gulf's oil disaster. This is the last satellite image. Update: New image added.
Captured by NASA's Aqua satellite, the image shows only part of the oil surface, with the Sun shining over. I've exaggerated the image contrast so you can clearly see the extend of the damage:"It looks very scary. It's not good. I really feel... not good about... more
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The space shuttle Discovery is seen as it lands at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Tuesday, April 20, 2010. Discovery and the STS-131 mission crew--Commander Alan G. Poindexter, pilot James P. Dutton Jr. and mission specialists Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, Rick Mastracchio, Stephanie Wilson, Clayton Anderson and Japanese astronaut Naoko Yamazaki--returned from their mission to the International Space Station.
Image Credit: NASA/Bill IngallsThe space shuttle Discovery is seen as it lands at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape... more
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This amateur video is absolutely amazing: recording the precise moment when a rocket goes supersonic, which coincides with the moment it passes through a layer of ice crystals in the atmosphere, creating a rippled effect that is just astonishing to see.This amateur video is absolutely amazing: recording the precise moment when a rocket... more
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