Tag: International Space Station

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Scott Kelly: I could do another year in space

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NASA astronaut Scott Kelly answers questions from the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA)

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly is getting ready to come home after spending a longer stretch in orbit than any other American in history, but he says he could stay in space for double that time.

“I could go another 100 days. I could go another year if I had to. It would just depend on what I was doing and if it made sense, although I do look forward to getting home here next week,” he told journalists today during a space-to-ground news conference.

The next few days will cap off a 340-day tour of duty on the International Space Station, which is aimed at studying how long-duration spaceflight could affect astronauts during even longer trips to Mars and back.

Kelly and his fellow year-in-spacer, Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, are due to come back to Earth in a Soyuz capsule along with Russian crewmate Sergey Volkov on March 1.

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Astronaut goes ape on the space station

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NASA’s Scott Kelly floats through the International Space Station in a gorilla suit. (Credit: NASA)

Leave it to Scott Kelly, NASA’s record-holder for longest continuous time spent in space, to go big and go home: While winding down nearly a year in orbit, he donned an ape suit to terrorize a crewmate on the International Space Station.

At least British astronaut Tim Peake looks terrorized: It’s hard to believe he wasn’t in on the joke.

The prank started with the arrival of the gorilla suit – a gag gift from Kelly’s twin brother, Mark, that was sent up on a resupply flight. Scott Kelly climbed into the suit, and then climbed into a soft-sided storage container. NASA video shows Peake strapping down the container in the station’s Destiny lab as commentator Rob Navias narrates the scene.

The next shot shows the suit-wearing Kelly climbing out of the storage container, floating into the module next door, then chasing Peake in zero-G like a batty ape out of hell. Hilarity ensues.

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Astronaut pokes fun at Windows during training

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French astronaut Thomas Pesquet undergoes training in a Soyuz spacecraft simulator in 2014 at Russia’s Star City cosmonaut training center. (Credit: ESA)

Moscow, we have a problem: Russia’s cosmonaut training center in Star City might need to upgrade its Soyuz spacecraft simulators to Windows 10.

Based on some snapshots tweeted by French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, it looks as if Russia’s space agency has been getting by with Microsoft Windows XP. And that became the source of a little levity when Pesquet encountered a simulated spaceflight alarm.

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Leaky helmet forces early end to spacewalk

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NASA’s Tim Kopra works outside the International Space Station. Kopra and British crewmate Tim Peake had to end their spacewalk early due to water in Kopra’s helmet. (Credit: NASA TV)

Friday’s spacewalk at the International Space Station was called off early when NASA astronaut Tim Kopra reported a small bubble of water inside his spacesuit helmet.

NASA commentator Rob Navias said the crew “was never in any danger at all.” Kopra and his fellow spacewalker, Britain’s Tim Peake, got back inside the station safely. Nevertheless, the incident echoed a scary episode in 2013 when Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano nearly drowned inside his spacesuit. That forced a months-long investigation as well as the addition of absorbent pads and snorkels inside the U.S.-made suits.

The earlier water leak was traced to contamination that blocked up a water separator in the suit’s air-circulation system. A pool of water crept up into the helmet in zero-G and began to cover Parmitano’s face.

Things never got that far in Friday’s incident. As soon as Kopra reported moisture in the helmet, NASA went into a procedure to stop work, bring the astronauts back inside and get their suits off.

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Dream Chaser will join NASA’s space cargo fleet

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An artist’s conception shows Sierra Nevada’s uncrewed version of the Dream Chaser space glider in orbit with a cargo module attached at the back. (Credit: Sierra Nevada Corp.)

NASA says it will add Sierra Nevada Corp.’s Dream Chaser space glider to its cargo-carrying lineup of robotic spaceships as early as 2019. It’s likely to be the first winged vehicle to fly in orbit for NASA since the space shuttle fleet’s retirement in 2011.

“Within a few short years, the world will once again see a United States winged vehicle launch and return from space to a runway landing,” Mark Sirangelo, corporate vice president of Sierra Nevada Corp. Space Systems, said in a statement about the Dream Chaser’s selection.

During a televised briefing today, NASA officials said it also will continue to use SpaceX’s Dragon and Orbital ATK’s Cygnus capsules to resupply the International Space Station in the 2019-2024 time frame. By that time, the Dragon could well be capable of touching down on land.

The upgrades in SpaceX’s robotic Dragon, along with the addition of the Dream Chaser, are expected to bring new capabilities to NASA’s orbital delivery system.

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‘Martian’ spin-off video tackles sleep in space

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Do sleeping astronauts have to worry about being tied down in zero-G? (Credit: Fox / Armed Mind)

How do you get your Z’s in zero-G? Sleeping in space is one of the subjects tackled in a new video series from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment that capitalizes on the buzz generated by “The Martian.”

Fox’s “Life in Space” series is aimed at stirring up interest in today’s release of “The Martian” on DVD and Blu-ray. And speaking of “stirring,” one of the key issues on the International Space Station has to do with getting sufficient shut-eye without floating into your crewmate’s bunk.

NASA astronaut Drew Feustel, a veteran of two space shuttle flights, handles the question in a 46-second clip. It turns out that the accommodations are cozier than you might think.

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Spacewalkers free up station’s stuck rail car

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NASA astronaut Tim Kopra conducts a spacewalk at the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA TV)

Two NASA spacewalkers executed a quick fix at the International Space Station today, moving a stuck rail car to clear the path for a robotic Russian cargo ship that was launched just hours before.

The 3-hour, 16-minute spacewalk was put on the schedule just last week, when mission controllers discovered that the robotic rail car on the station’s main truss was jammed on the track, 4 inches (10 centimeters) out of position.

Astronauts Scott Kelly and Tim Kopra had to release the brake handles on the crew equipment carts on each side of the rail car to move it to its storage spot. NASA wanted the car locked down properly as a precaution in advance of Wednesday’s scheduled arrival of a Russian Progress cargo craft.

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Good news for Boeing’s space taxi – and SpaceX

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An artist’s conception shows Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner at the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA)

NASA has ordered a second space taxi from the Boeing Co. to carry astronauts to the International Space Station a couple of years from now.

Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner capsule and an upgraded version of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft won’t go into service until 2017 at the earliest, but NASA has to put in its orders well in advance to get the ball rolling. NASA has been providing billions of dollars to support the commercial spaceship development effort.

“Once certified by NASA, the Boeing CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX Crew Dragon each will be capable of two crew launches to the station per year,” Kathy Lueders, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said today in a news release. “Placing orders for those missions now really sets us up for a sustainable future aboard the International Space Station.”

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Space station gets its first ‘official’ Briton

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British astronaut Tim Peake gets a space station welcome from NASA’s Scott Kelly. (Credit: ESA)

Today the International Space Station’s crew welcomed aboard its first “official” British astronaut, Tim Peake, just hours after he blasted off in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft alongside U.S. and Russian spacefliers.

Peake, NASA astronaut Tim Kopra and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko were lofted into orbit from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 5:03 a.m. local time (3:03 a.m. PT). They made a brisk 6.5-hour trip to the station and were greeted by three crewmates: NASA’s Scott Kelly and Russia’s Mikhail Kornienko and Sergei Volkov. Kelly and Kornienko are more than halfway through a yearlong tour of duty.

After a round of hugs and handshakes, the crew exchanged additional greetings with family members and VIPs via a video link. “I hope you enjoyed the show,” Peake told David Parker, chief executive of the U.K. Space Agency.

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Space station trio comes home for the holidays

Image: Kjell Lindgren
NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren makes his first call home after descending to Kazakhstan in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft today. (Credit: NASA TV)

It took some doing, but three crew members from the International Space Station returned to Earth today and are on their way home in time for Christmas.

NASA’s Kjell Lindgren, Russia’s Oleg Kononenko and Japan’s Kimiya Yui touched down on the steppes of Kazakhstan in a Russian Soyuz capsule at 7:12 p.m. local time (5:12 a.m. PT), marking the first time since 2012 that a space station crew came down after dark. It’s the sixth night landing for the Soyuz in the 15 years since astronauts started living on the station.

The shift to an after-dark landing was made to accommodate the Dec. 21 launch of an upgraded Progress supply ship.

The winter weather in Kazakhstan brought further complications.

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