The first International Space Station component, the Russian Zarya module, was launched 15 years ago today, on November 20, 1998. Since then, a consortium of 15 different nations have constructed a world-class orbiting laboratory, with a continual human presence onboard since 2000. Construction was considered officially complete in 2011, but new modules are still planned.
NASA is celebrating the milestone with an infographic showcasing some of the amazing and surprising facts about humanity’s home away from Earth. See below for the infographic, as well as two videos with highlights from the past 15 years of the ISS:
A view of rivers in Montana, USA, from the ISS. Credit: ESA/Luca Parmitano.
A Canadian camera system aiming to provide near-realtime video views of Earth is readying for a launch from Kazakhstan.
If all goes well, the UrtheCast dual camera system will blast off in a Progress supply ship on Nov. 25, 2013.
This will be the world’s first ever high definition, live-streaming video platform of planet Earth from the International Space Station.
“Imagine you have a nearly live Google Earth, but it isn’t four year old data – you have data that is being refreshed all the time, with videos coming down over interesting areas where interesting events are going on, showing you what is changing, what is going on,” said George Tyc, the Chief Technology Officer at UrtheCast, in an interview with Universe Today earlier this year. “What we really hope to pull off is to change the paradigm, get the everyday person interacting and seeing the data coming down from space to see the Earth and how it is evolving over time in a way that isn’t available right now.”
Last week at the Canadian Space Society Summit, UrtheCast co-founder Wade Larson explained the camera setup will take place in phases, with Phase 1 of the project having two cameras facing the ground, with one having a fixed gaze and the other one featuring maneuverability to points of interest. These should be installed on the station sometime in December 2013, Larson said, with data coming in the first quarter of 2014.
The company’s aim is to make Earth video data more accessible to individuals and schoolchildren, who would log in on UrtheCast’s website, as well as the traditional customers of government and private companies. Additionally, a recent partnership agreement with the UN will see them offer real-time information on dynamic situations such as floods and mass movements of people during humanitarian disasters. They will also be integrating the data with live social media feeds as well as opening up their API for app developers.
The UK covered in snow, as seen on Dec. 8, 2010. Credit: NASA’s Aqua satellite.
Current sponsors on the project from UrtheCast (pronunced “Earthcast”) include Roscosmos, MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates, the Discovery Channel, Energia, Unosat and RAL Space, Larson added.
The UrtheCast team is working in an exclusive relationship with the Russian Aerospace giant RSC Energia (NASA is not involved at all), and cosmonauts on board the ISS will install the cameras. The video data of the Earth will be down-linked to ground stations around the planet and then displayed in near real time on the UrtheCast web platform.
“We had to meet quite a strict set of requirements that the cameras are safe for cosmonauts and astronauts,” Tyc said, “as there can’t be any toxic substances because they will be inside the ISS before they are installed.”
Tyc added that it will take two spacewalks to do the full installation. The cameras are expected to last at least five years, and Tyc expects them to be up there even longer. “We’re looking at putting additional cameras up there for a second generation, and we expect to be up there for the life of the station, really,” he said.
Tyc said he thinks the social media aspect of UrtheCast will be a big part of the entire experience.
“For example, in a natural disaster or big event we’ll also incorporate videos from the ground of things going on, to experience an event in a far different way than you can now,” he said. “And it’s not being filtered through a media agency — it is what it is – and people can draw their own conclusions and add their own voice.”
Tyc said that if the concept takes off, they think this will be a shift in how people can interact with others around the world. “It could be a feeling of the Overview effect – people who go to space are have a completely changed perspective – we’re trying to bring a little bit of that to the ground,” he said.
The team said the name UrtheCast is a bit of a double entendre, as it is pronounced like “EarthCast” but also looks like “You Are the Cast” since it will be live views of planet Earth.
The Soyuz TMA09 on the ground in Kazakhstan after returning home on Nov 11, 2013. Via Twitter.
Expedition 37 crew members Karen Nyberg of NASA, Fyodor Yurchikhin of the Russian Federal Space Agency and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency have returned to Earth from the International Space Station, landing at 9:49 p.m. EST Sunday, Nov. 10 (02:49 UTC, 8:49 a.m. Kazakhstan time, Nov. 11), after spending 166 days in space.
The crew brought with them an Olympic torch which was launched to the station Nov. 6 and taken on a spacewalk Saturday as part of the torch relay. The torch was not lit in space, but will be used to light the Olympic flame at the Fisht Stadium in Sochi, Russia, at the start of the 2014 Winter Games in February.
Nyberg, Parmitano and Yurchikhin arrived at the station in May, and during their extended stay in space orbited Earth 2,656 times and traveled more than 112 million km (70 million miles). Parmitano conducted a spacewalk in July, becoming the first Italian to walk in space.
The crew will undergo post-landing medical evaluations and then return to their respective countries.
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The Soyuz TMA-11M rocket is launched with Expedition 38/39. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls.
Update: the crew has now arrived safely at the ISS. You can watch the arrival video below.
Three new crew members are on their way to the International Space Station. NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata and Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos launched on a Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 11:14 p.m. EST (04:14:00 UTC, 10:14 a.m. Thursday, Kazakh time). They’ll use the accelerated “fast-track” trajectory and arrive at the station in just a few hours, at 10:31 UTC (5:31 a.m. EST Thursday.)
You can watch the launch video below.
In an usual situation, when the new crew arrives, there will be nine crew members and three Soyuz vehicles at the ISS. The timing of crew exchange works to enable a complicated “relay race” of a special Olympic torch from the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia. The new crew is bringing the unlit torch along, then, over the weekend Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazanskiy, who are part of the space station’s current crew, will take the torch out on a spacewalk, with plans to take pictures and video (they’ll try to take pictures when the station flies over Russia and the southern resort of Sochi). The real reason for the spacewalk is to do some routine Russian maintenance outside the station.
The Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome with the crew of Expedition 38. Via NASA TV.
Then, on Sunday, three crew members will return home (Fyodor Yurchikhin, Luca Parmitano and Karen Nyberg) and they will bring the torch back home, with landing planned at about 9:50 p.m. EST on Nov 10 (02:50 UTC on Nov 11.) The torch then will be given back to Olympic officials and it will be used in the opening ceremonies of the February games.
After that crew departs, Expedition 38 will begin with Kotov as Commander.
Nine crew members together on the International Space Station. The Expedition 38 crew entered the ISS at 12:44 UTC (7:44 am EST). The crew of nine will work together till Sunday. Credit: NASA
There have not been nine crew members on the ISS since 2009. During the second half of the new crew’s Expedition, when it changes to Expedition 39, Wakata will make history by becoming the first Japanese commander of the International Space Station. You can read more about Wakata and Mastracchio and their upcoming mission in an interview they did with Elizabeth Howell during their training.
The new fast-track trajectory has the Soyuz rocket launching shortly after the ISS passes overhead. Then, additional firings of the vehicle’s thrusters early in its mission expedites the time required for a Russian vehicle to reach the Station, in about 6 hours or four orbits.
The current Expedition 37 crew took this picture inside the ATV-4 before undocking as a tribute to Albert Einstein. Credit: ESA/Luca Parmitano.
The Expedition 37 crew onboard the International Space Station closed the hatch and said goodbye to the ATV-4 “Albert Einstein” cargo ship early this morning, Oct. 28. Europe’s 4th Automated Transfer Vehicle undocked at 08:55 UTC (4:55 a.m. EDT). The cargo carrier was filled with trash and it will be deorbited on Nov. 2 for a destructive entry back into the Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean. ATV-4 has been at the ISS since June 15, delivering more than 7 tons of food, fuel and supplies. Its departure helps prepare for more action at the ISS: the current Soyuz spacecraft docked at the station will be moved to a different location so that a new Soyuz can dock with three new crew members. The Soyuz TMA-11M is scheduled to launch on Nov. 6, 2013 with the Expedition 38/39 crew of Rick Mastracchio, Koichi Wakata, Mikhail Tyurin.
Some images of the undocking, below:
This photo was taken from Japan shorty after the undocking:
Nefertiti, the "Johnson Jumper" spider hunting for flies inside her habitat on board the International Space Station (ISS). (NASA)
Astronauts have said adapting to weightlessness is much easier than readapting to gravity when they returned to Earth. Muscle weakness, wobbly legs, and feeling like the room is spinning is common after long duration spaceflight, not to mention the long-term issues like bone loss, diminished eyesight, and a heart that has to recondition itself to pump blood harder to overcome gravity. As Canadian Chris Hadfield said, “My body was quite happy in space without gravity.”
It turns out spiders have similar issues. This Phiddipus Johnsoni, or red-backed jumping spider named Nefertiti is shown walking and preying on flies in her habitat while in orbit on the International Space Station and then doing the same while readapting to gravity on Earth. While trying to capture its prey, it ends up flopping awkwardly onto its back. No more flying like SuperSpider.
Nefertiti was in space 100 days in 2012 as part of a student-initiated science experiment of YouTube’s Space Lab, an online video contest. After returning home, this spidernaut was sent to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. and was part of exhibition of the first jumping spider to survive the trip to space. Unfortunately Nefertiti died just a few days after being sent to the museum.
Artist rendering of Cygnus spacecraft approaching the International Space Station. Credit: Orbital Sciences Corp.
NASA and Orbital Sciences Corporation have announced a new date and time for the targeted arrival and berthing of the Cygnus spacecraft for its demonstration cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station. All the action will now take place on Sept. 29, a week later than originally planned, after a software glitch on the first rendezvous attempt, and a subsequent scheduling conflict due to the arrival of a Soyuz spacecraft with additional crew.
You can see the schedule of events below, as well as watch live on NASA TV’s UStream feed:
08:30 UTC (4:30 a.m. EDT: Cygnus rendezvous, grapple and berthing coverage begins on NASA Television.
11:15 UTC (7:15 a.m. EDT): Grapple of Cygnus by International Space Station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm
13:15 UTC (9:15 a.m. EDT): Cygnus berthing to Earth-facing port of Harmony node begins
17:00 UTC (1 p.m. EDT): Cygnus Post-Capture News Conference
ISS astronauts Karen Nyberg and Luca Parmitano are scheduled to grapple Cygnus with the station’s Canadian built robotic arm, working from the robotic work station in the Cupola module. They will install the cargo carrier at an Earth-facing docking port on the Harmony pressurized module.
Cygnus will deliver about 1,300 pounds (589 kilograms) of cargo, including student experiments, food and clothing, to the space station. Future Cygnus flights will ensure a robust national capability to deliver critical science research to orbit, significantly increasing NASA’s ability to conduct new science investigations to the only laboratory in microgravity.
While on the ISS, astronaut Karen Nyberg made this dinosaur for her son, created from reclaimed velcro-like fabric that lines the Russian food containers. Credit: Karen Nyberg via Pinterest.
Astronaut Karen Nyberg wins Pinterest. Not only has she made her 3-year old son a dinosaur toy, she created it while IN SPACE, and scored a super-coup by making it from the reclaimed velcro-like fabric that lines the Russian food containers on the International Space Station. Nyberg said the dinosaur is stuffed with scraps from a used t-shirt.
Upcycling in space … wow. She’s clearly now outdone every crafter both on and off the planet. As one commenter on Pinterest said, “How awesome to have someone promoting/demonstrating crafting, science and education and a mother’s love from the ISS!”
You can see more of Nyberg’s handiwork while she’s been in space, as well as pictures she’s taken of planet Earth, the science experiments she’s doing and more on her Pinterest page. She will be on the ISS until November 11.
