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aamukherjee A Slice of Entropie -
alchymista Alchymista -
crownedrose Fading Like A Dead Star -
expose-the-light Quarks to Quasars -
kenobi-wan-obi CWL -
abluegirl A Blue Girl -
perscientiamlibertas A Matter of the Most Pleasant Fraternal Confidence
Backdropped by the blackness of space and the thin line of Earth’s atmosphere, the International Space Station is seen from Space Shuttle Discovery as the two spacecraft begin their relative separation. Earlier the STS-119 and Expedition 18 crews concluded 9 days, 20 hours and 10 minutes of cooperative work onboard the shuttle and station. Undocking of the two spacecraft occurred at 2:53 p.m. (CDT) on March 25, 2009.
kenobi-wan-obi
Space Station to Test Inflatable Habitat
Image: Using inflatable habitat concepts originally conceived by NASA, Bigelow Aerospace hopes to have a commercial alternative to space station technology. Credit: Bigelow Aerospace
It would be the company’s third orbital prototype, but the first to be tested as part of a crewed spacecraft. The demonstration not only is expected to help Bigelow lease space to paying customers aboard its planned free-flying Earth-orbiting outposts. NASA also is interested in the technology for future deep space missions, such as to an asteroid, the moon, or Mars.
“This partnership agreement … represents a step forward in cutting-edge technology that can allow humans to thrive in space safely and affordably,” NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver said in a statement.
Details of the project will be announced Wednesday at Bigelow’s headquarters in Las Vegas.
Inflatable module to be added to space station.
NASA has announced a US$17.8 million contract to Bigelow Aerospace to provide an expandable module to the International Space Station. NASA says the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module will demonstrate the benefits of this space habitat technology for future exploration and commercial space endeavors.
“The International Space Station is a unique laboratory that enables important discoveries that benefit humanity and vastly increase understanding of how humans can live and work in space for long periods,” NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver said. “This partnership agreement for the use of expandable habitats represents a step forward in cutting-edge technology that can allow humans to thrive in space safely and affordably, and heralds important progress in U.S. commercial space innovation.”Further details are due to be released at a conference this Wednesday.
(via 8bitfuture)
Sunita Williams after adding her patch to the ISS patch collection.
(via womeninspace)
When the Space Shuttle Endeavor left the International Space Station (ISS) on its way back home, the separating pair appeared in the sky as bright moving points close together, making trails in this time exposure image from Hungary (ISS created the brighter trail). — Tamas Ladanyi
A shot of the ISS flying through the constellation Canis Major with what looks like a faint meteor. I used the new NASA spot the station email alert and it worked great! I signed up for it on Monday and they emailed me on Tuesday with an alert. I set up to capture it pass overhead before dawn on the morning of 11/14/12 at 5:08am. EST — Scott Tully
I just signed up for it! Have you?
Did you know you can see the International Space Station from your house? As the third brightest object in the sky, after the sun and moon, the space station is easy to see if you know where and when to look for it.
NASA’s Spot the Station service sends you an email or text message a few hours before the space station passes over your house. The space station looks like a fast-moving plane in the sky, though one with people living and working aboard it more than 200 miles above the ground. It is best viewed on clear nights. For more information on the International Space Station and its mission, visit the space station mission pages.
Spot the Station is available worldwide to anyone with an email account or SMS-enabled phone. Several times a week, Mission Control at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX, determines sighting opportunities for 4,600 locations worldwide. If your specific city or town isn’t listed, pick one that is fairly close to you. The space station is visible for a long distance around each of the listed locations.
This service will only notify you of “good” sighting opportunities - that is, sightings that are high enough in the sky (40 degrees or more) and last long enough to give you the best view of the orbiting laboratory. This will be anywhere from once or twice a week to once or twice a month, depending on the space station’s orbit. Don’t worry if there are big gaps in between sightings! A complete list of all possible space station sightings is available from Johnson Space Center.
Do you remember 1982’s “TRON” movie? The plot: A computer programmer (epic: Jeff Bridges) is digitized inside the software world of a mainframe computer, where he interacts with various programs in his attempt to get back out. I loved the light cycle races and strange solar wind ships…
Back in the real word the ISS is in a way one of these solar ships, constantly rotating around us. A tiny white spot, as it can be seen racing over the sky from time to time, when illuminated by the sunset (and sunrise ;).
This Video was achived by “stacking” image sequences provided by NASA from the Crew at International Space Station (see also fragileoasis.org/blog/2012/3/on-the-trails-of-stars/). These “stacks” create the Star Trails, but furthermore make interesting patterns visible. For example lightning corridors within clouds, but they also show occasional satellite tracks (or Iridium Flashes) as well as meteors - patterns that interrupt the main Star Trails, and thus are immediately visible.
The many oversaturated hot pixels in some of the scenes are the inevitable result of ultrahigh ISO settings the Nikon D3s in ISS-use are pushed to for keeping exposure times short by all means (owed to the dramatic speed the ISS travels). As there are no dark frames or RAW data currently available, hot pixels are not easy to remove.
What does it feel like to fly over planet Earth?
A time lapse taken from the front of the International Space Station as it orbits our planet at night. Beginning over the Pacific Ocean and continuing over North and South America before entering daylight near Antarctica.
Visible cities, countries and landmarks include (in order) Vancouver Island, Victoria, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles. Phoenix. Multiple cities in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico. Mexico City, the Gulf of Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, El Salvador, Lightning in the Pacific Ocean, Guatemala, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Lake Titicaca, and the Amazon. Also visible is the Earth’s ionosphere (thin yellow line), a satellite and the stars of our galaxy.
(via kenobi-wan-obi)
![archiemcphee:
LEGOs are already awesome, but LEGOs in space are Super Awesome!
Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa built a Lego model of the International Space Station while he was actually ON the International Space Station. It’s the geekiest, most wonderful example of meta we’ve ever seen. CollectSPACE.com reports that the model was “part of an educational collaboration between the Danish toy company and NASA.” You can watch a brief time lapse video of the model coming together and read more about it over on CollectSPACE.com.
[via Craftzine]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m03439FGVJ1qzfsnio1_500.png)
LEGOs are already awesome, but LEGOs in space are Super Awesome!
Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa built a Lego model of the International Space Station while he was actually ON the International Space Station. It’s the geekiest, most wonderful example of meta we’ve ever seen. CollectSPACE.com reports that the model was “part of an educational collaboration between the Danish toy company and NASA.” You can watch a brief time lapse video of the model coming together and read more about it over on CollectSPACE.com.
[via Craftzine]
(via kenobi-wan-obi)
Gennady Padalka took some pictures of the Perseid meteor shower from the International Space Station.
(Source)
Stunning noctilucent clouds captured from the ISS
These ghostly wisps are called noctilucent clouds. They are perhaps the most rarely viewed cloud formation, only visible on Earth from higher latitudes after the Sun has dipped below the horizon, illuminating them from below. They are also the highest atmospheric clouds, at altitudes of nearly 50 miles above the Earth.
The origin of these “night-shining” clouds is debated, as they weren’t seen until after the Industrial Revolution. This jaw-dropping photo was captured from the International Space Station on June 13.
(via io9)
