Space X Makes Historic Launch

In a historic first, Space X successfully launched a refurbished Dragon cargo craft atop a Falcon 9 rocket, which returned to the launch pad a few minutes later.

SpaceX Liftoff

Falcon 9 return

NASA TV to Air U.S. Spacewalk

On Sept. 1, two NASA astronauts will spacewalk outside the International Space Station for the second time in less than two weeks.

NASA Television will provide complete coverage beginning at 6:30 a.m. EDT, with the six-and-a-half hour spacewalk scheduled to begin about 8 a.m.

Working on the port side  truss, Expedition 48 Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Kate Rubins will retract a thermal radiator that is part of the station’s cooling system. The radiator is a backup that had been deployed previously as part of an effort to fix an ammonia coolant leak. They’ll also tighten struts on a solar array joint, and install the first of several enhanced high-definition television cameras that will be used to monitor activities outside the station, including the comings and goings of visiting cargo and crew vehicles.

This will be the 195th spacewalk in support of space station assembly and maintenance, the fifth of Williams’ career and the second for Rubins. As was the case for their first spacewalk together Aug. 19, Williams will be designated as extravehicular crew member 1 (EV1), wearing a spacesuit with a red stripe, while Rubins will be EV2, wearing a suit with no stripes.

Another Canadian heading to the International Space Station - in a Russian spacecraft

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA), announced that Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques has been assigned to a six-month mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS), aka Mission 58/59

This is Saint-Jacques' first mission. He'll launch aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket in November 2018 to join an international crew. This marks the 17th space flight for the Canadian Astronaut Corps.

Before joining the Canadian Space Program, Saint-Jacques was a medical doctor and Co-chief of Medicine at Inuulitsivik Health Centre in Puvirnituq, Nunavik, an Inuit community on Hudson Bay. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Family Medicine at McGill University

The Quebec native will bring his expertise in medicine, engineering and astrophysics to the Expedition 58/59 crew. In anticipation of this first assignment, he'll begin mission training in Russia, Japan, the United States and Canada starting this Summer.

SpaceX Dragon Prepared to be Unloaded

Remember that SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft
which splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at

2:51 p.m. EDT Wednesday, May 11, about 261

 miles southwest of Long Beach, California  

Seems the Dragon brought back a heafty load.

3,700 pounds of NASA cargo, science and technology demonstration samples from the International Space Station.

The first destination for the Dragon will be taken by ship to Long Beach where some cargo will be removed and returned to NASA.Then prepared for shipment to SpaceX's test facility in McGregor, Texas, for processing.

Click the LINK

for complete article  information

A recent resupply mission to the iss has been deemed a total loss.

Russian flight controllers have given up attempting to salvage a Progress cargo ship loaded with 3 tons of supplies and equipment intended for the International Space Station.

 

The Progress M-27M/59P spacecraft lifted from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:09 a.m. EDT Tuesday and continued to operate normally. however soon after booster separation from the booster’s upper stage and deployment of the craft’s two solar panels, communications and control of the craft ceased. Rendezvous antennas deployment or propulsion system pressurization could not be confirmed. It was at this time that rendezvous was canceled with a decision to let the supply craft fall back into the atmosphere.

 NASA is hoping that Russian controllers will be able to regain enough control to bring the craft in for a water impact as to not endanger people and structures on land.

Beam Me Up Episode 436 is Now Online

 
This week in Beam Me Up episode 436 is the beginning of MIMSY WERE THE BOROGOVES by Lewis Padgett and read by (we were so lucky to have her) CrystalWizard.

But before part one of Mimsy were the Borogoves, I take a trip to the podcast.

An alarm aboard the ISS forces evacuation....

An asteroid is due to make a close pass....

Kepler Space Telescope had found a record breaking earthlike planets

I post a film of a static test of the RS-25 rocket engine that will be the main engine for the sls heavy lift system.

Eight people who need an idiot sign.  I mean REALLY need a sign...

2015 is the year that Back to the Future and Marty's Hoverboard.  Here  are 6 reasons why you would hate one!

And finally CrystalWizard reads Mimsy were the Borogoves.

Listen to BMU HERE

Alarm on ISS Forces Crew to Abandon NASA Side of Station

Early Wednesday (1-14-15) an alarm aboard the International Space Station sounded, forcing the

complete crew into the Russian side of the station.  

From the C/Net article:

• Flight controllers in Mission Control at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston saw an increase in pressure in the station's water loop for thermal control system B then later saw a cabin pressure increase that could be indicative of an ammonia leak in the worst case scenario...

Complete C/Net ISS article HERE

NASA OKs SpaceX's Latest Milestone for ISS Crew Transfers

NASA has approved SpaceX's first push towards launching crews to the International Space Station.  This under the auspices of NASA's  Commercial Crew Transportation Capability  contract.

The ISS Has a Moment of "Gravity"

 In a moment reminiscent of Hollywood's 'Gravity', the ISS instead avoided being struck by space

debris. 

In late October, the ESA reported that the ISS lab was threatened with a collision by space junk.  The usual procedure is to have a docked Progress supply ship push the multi-toned craft out of harms way, which in this instance was a hand sized piece of metal from an earlier collision between a defunct Russian and an operational US satellite, traveling at 17000 mph.

The problem was however that there were none of the regular craft on station to pull duty until quick thinking controllers at the ESA ATV Control Center in Toulouse, France remembered that the ISS currently had the  Automated Transfer Vehicle Georges Lemaître, which ferries supplies to the station from Earth. The unmanned ship,  is controllable from Earth. Which meant that a team of engineers  at the ATV control center were able to use the supply craft to  move the ISS.

The Georges Lemaître, was instructed to fire its engine for 4 minutes which moved the ISS' orbit by one mile.

Complete Atlantic article HERE

Chris Hadfield's Space Oddity Back on YouTube!

Earlier this year Chris Hadfield (a Canadian astronaut)  posted a wonderful rendition of David Bowie's Space Oddity to YouTube (while he was doing an extended mission aboard the ISS) — It was later removed because of a lack of permissions. Now, David Bowie has given the go ahead for it to be online once more.  As a side note, YouTube shows the views as well over 23 million!

BMU #422 Isaac Asimov - Michael Juby - quantum computers - closest supernova in ages - Killer Robots

This week's episode (422) of Beam Me Up, my opening comments contain information on odd happenings with cube sat launches as well as near passes of a just discovered asteroid.

I end the the opening section with the opening theme music from the anime series Durarara!!

The first story of the afternoon is Phillippe and His Rather Boring  Time Travel (pt1) by Michael Juby.

This week from the Beam Me Up - 

Google wants to create sentient robots and to that end are working on quantum computer chips.
Chandra observes one of the closest 1a supernovas in decades. 
Spitzer space telescope has observed a large asteroid collision.
Will Robots of the future be mercy killers?

The final story this week is part two (ch 2+3) of Isaac Asimov's The Last Question.

NASA Testing Super Black Material

Imagine something so black, so devoid of any reflected light that it is impossible to see when it is folded! This new material absorbs 99.5% of all visible light that hits it and 99.8% of all infrared. This is seriously dark material!

Scientist, astronomers and engineers alike hope that this material, that they hope to coat devices like components going on to space telescopes (or even land based scopes). This would drastically cut down on the light reflected into the optics and optical sensors.

NASA sent a little round of the coating to the International Space Station, aboard a recent resupply flight. This delivery also contained experimental robotic systems for fixing satellites in orbit.  It is NASA's plan that the coating module will stay on an unpressurized platform, on the outside of the ISS, exposing it to the rigors of space, for a year, before being sent back to Earth for analysis.

Read the rest of the Popular Science article HERE

Soccer in Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaace....

Ok here we go.  Less than a minute of soccer weirdness aboard the ISS between US and Germany astronauts.





From the ARTICLE :
NASA's Steve Swanson and Reid Wiseman and European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst, who hails from Germany, showed off their moves in a soccer exhibition aboard the orbiting lab recently.

No More American Astronauts on the ISS?!!!

Yep you read that correctly.  I first started hearing about this from my science guy.  He stated that he had heard that the Russians were threatening to ban American astronauts from the International Space Station due to our reaction to their annexation of the Ukraine’s Crimea. 

This sounded so very bizarre that I had to Google it to see what the skinny was and there it was on Extreme Tech's web site:

• Russia is threatening to ban the US from using the International Space Station. Furthermore, and perhaps more significantly in the short term, Russia will ban the US from buying the Russian RD-180 rocket engines that are currently used by the ULA’s Atlas V launcher to put the US military’s satellites into space.   

Now here is where it gets a bit confusing for me.  Sure they can stop the U.S. from getting RD-180s and certainly refuse passengers after 2020, but how can they physically or legally prevent U.S. astronauts from entering the ISS?

Right now, since the retirement of the Shuttle fleet,  we do no have the ability to ferry personnel to the station.  However, after 2020, I can not imagine that the man rated version of Space X's Dragon capsule will not be be in service, by that time.  

To that end, Elton Musk of Space X presented Dragon V2 that will be able to carry seven astronauts for several days, visit the ISS and land where-ever needs to under its own power.   Check it out HERE

Dextre "hand" replaces malfunctioning camera on the Canadarm2

The Canadian Space Agency demonstrated the "Destre" system or the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, by  replacing a malfunctioning camera on the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm.

Dextre,  is a two armed  telemanipulator, which is part of the Mobile Servicing System on the International Space Station.   One of it's main functions is to replace some activities otherwise requiring spacewalks.

In a thrilling demonstration of space robotics, today the Dextre "hand" replaced a malfunctioning camera on the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm. And the Canadian Space Agency gleefully tweeted every step of the way

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-05-space-robot-selfie-funny-livetweet.html#jCp

 

Check the Phys.org article HERE 

or the Wiki HERE

SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft Returns Home

SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft returned home this past weekend loaded with  more than 3,500 pounds of NASA cargo and science samples from the International Space Station.

The Dragon cargo craft splashed down at 3:05 p.m. EDT Sunday, in the Pacific Ocean, approximately 300 miles west of Baja California.

Some of the experiments and data that were part of Dragon's cargo were science samples that are critical to improving our knowledge of how space affects humans who live and work there for long durations,  data that could aid in better understanding the decreased effectiveness of antibiotics during spaceflight while also improving antibiotic development on Earth.  Plus many others.

For more information, check out the NASA.GOV sight HERE

Below is an earlier water landing of the Dragon cargo module.

Russia to Abandon the ISS by 2020

According to an article on the CNN U.S. blog site   Russia has said that it does not plan to use the ISS past 2020.  This move puts into doubt whether or not NASA will be able to make an argument for extending the life of the laboratory to 2024 or longer.  

Officials in Russia have stated that Russia will redirect it's efforts in different directions and on to other projects after 2020.  

From the article:

• NASA released a statement saying that the U.S. space agency "has not received any official notification from the Government of Russia on any changes in our space cooperation at this point."

Since NASA retired the shuttles the only way to reach the ISS has been aboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. 

Read the full article HERE

 

NASA is Seeking Ideas for use of the ISS and L.E.O. for commercial endevours

NASA is seriously trying to open low-Earth orbit to commercial space opportunities One of the things they are willing to put on the table is the International Space Station. NASA is looking for ideas, as this NASA article here reads

• on ways it can help create greater access to and use of the International Space Station for research and commercial activities. 

Yep, I read that as commercial use of the station....hummm

Of course further on, it becomes a bit clearer what the motivation are...

• NASA is soliciting ideas from companies interested in using the space station and the low-Earth orbit environment in innovative ways that will develop a strong commercial market and assist the agency in achieving its exploration goals.

I suspect the rent is going to be a bit pricey.

Check out the complete article HERE

Next Space X Dragon Mission

SpaceX's next cargo mission launch to the International Space Station from Cape Canaveral in Florida, will be at 10:50 p.m. EDT, Sunday, March 30.  This according to the NASA site HERE

This will be SpaceXs third mission of the Dragon module to the ISS.

NASA TV  launch coverage begins at 9:45 p.m.

From the article:

• A March 30 launch would result in SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft arriving at the station on Wednesday, April 2 at approximately 7 a.m. NASA TV coverage of rendezvous and berthing will begin at 5:45 a.m. for a 7 a.m. capture. Coverage of Dragon's installation will begin at 9:30 a.m.

The complete NASA article HERE

Daily Life of an Astronaut

Hey I know a lot of this material is kind of redundant, however it is just enough fun to make it diverting. I thought it was fun.