The International Space Station (ISS) is a habitable artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. It follows the Salyut, Almaz, Skylab and Mir stations as the ninth space station to be inhabited. The ISS is a modular structure whose first component was launched in 1998. Like many artificial satellites, the station can be seen from Earth with the naked eye.[8][9] The ISS consists of pressurised modules, external trusses, solar arrays and other components. ISS components have been launched by American Space Shuttles as well as Russian Proton and Soyuz rockets.[10] Budget constraints led to the merger of three space station projects with the Japanese Kibō module and Canadian robotics. In 1993 the Soviet/Russian Mir-2, the American Freedom, and the European Columbus merged into a single multinational programme.[10] The Russian Federal Space Agency plans to separate some of its modules from the Russian segment to form the OPSEK facility before the remainder of the station is deorbited.
Since the space shuttle program was cancelled last year, NASA has been looking for various alternatives to sending manned crews in space, particularly the International Space Station. A number of private space companies have jumped on the bandwagon since then, spearheaded by SpaceX, which is slated to make its first flight to the International Space [...]
It seems we’ve been privileged with yet another time-lapse video showing our marvelous blue marble planet in all its splendor as seen daily by astronauts stationed at the International Space Station. This time, the whole video was shut from the ISS cupola, a dome-shaped structure fitted with seven specially developed windows, which astronauts use for observations, amplifying the sense of [...]
This Friday, ground mission control ordered the current stationed astronaut crew at the International Space Station to head for the escape capsules as a safety precaution in light of a threatening space junk flyby. This is the third time in 12 years an ISS crew had to take this extreme measure. The space debris in [...]
We’ve got quite a thing for time-lapse videos, and this one is definitely one of the best we’ve come across so far. This is no fancy computer simulation or anything like this, it’s just how looking through the window looks like on the ISS. The Stars as Viewed from the International Space Station. from AJRCLIPS [...]
It’s been quite a week for space exploration and some truly remarkable pictures were taken, here’s the best ones. The solar flare in 3D Earth was struck by a major solar flare, the biggest one in years, and this fantastic 3D image shows sunspots and “wonderful active regions in exquisite detail,” according to NASA’s Solar [...]
So we heard you like the International Space Station, so we made an ISS inside the ISS. Humor aside, I was pleasantly surprised this morning to read that Lego teamed up with NASA to assemble a scale model of the International Space Station in space. Flight engineer Satoshi Furukawa, which we featured earlier on ZME [...]
There are currently an estimated 19,000 individual space debris swirling around Earth’s orbit at 17,000 miles/hour, posing great threat to current active satellites, telescopes, future launches in orbit, the International Space Station and even astronauts out on space walks. It’s very clear that something must be done, before the Earth gets one of its own [...]
The Robonaut 2, an autonomous NASA robot commissioned to ease the lives of astronauts on board the International Space Station by taking over some complex tasks and, also, cure boredom, has finally been booted to move a limb, although he’s been on the station since February 2011 – a whole year. The Robonaut recently went [...]
Night is quick to sound the alarm for most of us that it’s time to hit he sack. While you’re peacefully sleeping and dreaming away, up stairs things are a bit different. For the brave men and women stationed at the International Space Station there is no night or day, and considering the station orbits [...]
One might think embroidery and physics experiments don’t really have much in common, however astronaut Dr. Don Pettit, currently on mission onboard the International Space Station, would think otherwise. Using an statically charged knitting needle made out of teflon (polytetrafluoroethylene), Pettit fired tiny droplets of water through a syringe towards the needle after which a marvelous [...]
Thu, May 10, 2012
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