On April 3, NASA announced the first results from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS). The instrument detects cosmic ray passage and other particle events; it was installed on the exterior of the International Space Station in 2011 and is operated out of CERN. In this interview, astronaut Mike Fincke talks about his mission to install the unit. Staff WritersMore Posts
Post Tagged with: “International Space Station”
Secret Colors of the ISS
Most pictures of the International Space Station don’t show much color, we generally see metallic and white elements. The inactive golden colored side of the solar panels – the opposite side of the solar cells – appears to show most of the color over the entire ISS. The active side of the solar panels, where the solar cells are mounted, is actually colorless, [...]
Dragon Returns to Earth
SpaceX’s Dragon cargo vessel successfully splashed down in the Pacific Ocean just under six hours after departing the International Space Station. The trip was entirely nominal. As usual, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk kept followers up to date via Twitter: “Recovery ship has secured Dragon. Powering down all secondary systems. Cargo looks A ok.” The capsule now travels to Los Angeles [...]
Cosmonauts Prove Mars Travelers Can Land
You might have thought that cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Yevgeny Tarelkin had completed their mission when they returned to Earth on March 16 following 143 days aboard the International Space Station. But the duo still had one important job left: landing on Mars. The Russian Space Training Center announced on March 17 that the day they landed, Novitsky and Tarelkin [...]
ISS to Host Earth Observation Equipment
Observing Earth has always been intrinsic to International Space Station operations, but like crew photography, it did not begin as a formal or scientific exercise. Now ISS crews are requested to take images of certain locations at certain times out of ISS’ window and since 2007 have particularly monitored the polar regions. Other protocols for Earth observation exercises followed. Soon, the atmosphere may be [...]
Why Satellites Fail
Why do satellites fail? Although it may seem like a simple question, the answer is sometimes elusive. When a spacecraft like the European Space Agency’s Olympus communication satellite in 1993 or the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Midori II in 2002 just stops working, it has not always been possible to determine exactly what went wrong. Micrometeoroid impacts, space debris collisions, and radiation-induced electronics [...]
Another ‘Successful Failure’ for SpaceX
By Rand Simberg On its last trip to the International Space Station (ISS), the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lost an engine in ascent, losing a little performance but achieving orbit anyway. On Friday’s flight, the Falcon seems to have performed flawlessly in delivering the Dragon capsule to orbit. This time, it was the Dragon itself that failed, at least initially. Normally, [...]
Orbital Delivery: Complete Guide to Unmanned Cargo Spacecraft
The International Space Station gets it supplies from an ever-growing array of unmanned cargo ships, including the Japanese HTV, the European ATV, the Russian Progress, and the commercial Dragon that just rendezvoused with ISS after a brief thruster scare. There are yet more on the way, with the next ship to launch being Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus demonstration mission, now that [...]
Dragon Glitch Delays ISS Delivery
Promptly at 10:10 a.m. local time, a Falcon 9 rocket carrying SpaceX’s Dragon cargo vessel made a picture perfect launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida. There was no sign of the anomaly that had disabled one of the Falcon’s nine engines on the previous mission and separation proceeded nominally. After Dragon separated, however, a new problem cropped up. The first sign [...]
NASA to Investigate Blurred Vision in Space
This spring NASA will start an investigation into a range of vision issues that are suffered by some humans during long-duration space flights. Approximately 20 percent of astronauts serving aboard the International Space Station have reported blurry vision during their expedition length mission. During the post-mission physical rehabilitation back on Earth, the vision problems typically disappear. “This was a process [...]
