Russia in contact with shuttle
December 18, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under Technology
Russia said it was in full contact with the international space station and its Soyuz shuttle after a brief loss of contact with the craft that will soon become the mainstay of the international space program.
Russia’s mission control had lost communication with the Soyuz craft for several hours, Interfax news agency reported, quoting an unnamed source in the space industry.
The Soyuz spaceship blasted off on Wednesday carrying a U.S., Russian and Italian astronaut to the International Space Station, where it was expected to dock on Friday at 23:12 Moscow time (2012 GMT).
Russian-US space crew lands in Kazakhstan
September 25, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
KOROLYOV: A Soyuz capsule carrying two Russian cosmonauts and a US astronaut back to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) landed safely in Kazakhstan on Saturday, an announcer at Mission Control said.
“The TMA module has landed,” the announcer said to applause. The descent took place a day after an initial attempt to return was aborted after latches holding the Soyuz TMA-18 craft to the orbital station failed to open. AGENCIES
Shuttle Atlantis undocks from space station
May 24, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
CAPE CANAVERAL: After a week of flying together, shuttle Atlantis undocked from a larger and virtually completed International Space Station on Sunday and headed for home on its final voyage.
“Have a safe trip back and godspeed to you,” radioed the space station”s skipper, Oleg Kotov.
Atlantis isn”t due to land until Wednesday. On Monday, the six crewmen will conduct one last safety inspection of their ship.
“We”ll see you all on the surface of planet Earth again soon,” Atlantis” commander, Kenneth Ham, called out.
The two spacecraft parted company 220 miles above the Indian Ocean. Before the hatches closed between them, the commanding officers shook hands twice and laughed, then embraced. Their crewmates — representing the United States, Russia and Japan — followed suit.
Earlier in the day, Ham told reporters that both crews had fun. All 12 space fliers bonded through hard work and performed as a single team, he said. Mission Control reveled in the camaraderie as well, and lead flight director Emily Nelson relayed her appreciation as Atlantis sailed away from the orbiting outpost.
The space station is bigger and packs more power, thanks to Atlantis and its crewmen. They left behind a new Russian compartment packed with supplies, as well as six fresh batteries and other equipment that was hooked up during a series of spacewalks.
Its total mass exceeds 816,000 pounds, and it”s 98 percent complete in terms of living space.
“This place is now a palace. It”s huge, and I”ve had great fun exploring it,” said shuttle astronaut Piers Sellers. “We”re seeing station in pretty much its final form, and it”s really magnificent.”
Two shuttle missions remain to wrap up NASA”s share of construction. Discovery is scheduled to fly in September, followed by Endeavour in November.
As it currently stands, once Atlantis lands, it will never fly in space again.
NASA and some politicians are pushing hard for another mission, however, so Atlantis can haul up a final load of supplies in June 2011. The White House — which wants NASA concentrated on getting astronauts to asteroids and Mars in the coming decades — would need to approve any extra flights.
Already, NASA is going through the list of museums interested in Atlantis and Endeavour. Discovery is promised to the Smithsonian Institution.
During a news conference Sunday morning, the Atlantis astronauts were asked where they would like to see their ship wind up. Pilot, Dominic “Tony” Antonelli pointed out that none of them gets to decide. But if he got to pick, Atlantis would retire to his backyard in Houston.
“I get plenty of letters from my home owners” association about leaving my garbage can out and not keeping my grass trimmed, but if I got Atlantis parked in my back yard, that would make all those letters just kind of disappear,” Antonelli said with a smile.
As for Atlantis” more immediate future, the astronauts still need to survey its wings and nose in search of any damage. They”ll perform the job Monday using the newly repaired inspection boom. A spacewalking crewman untangled a cable on the boom last week, allowing the TV camera on the end to tilt properly.
Over at the space station, meanwhile, three of the six residents soon will be checking out. Russia”s Kotov, NASA”s Timothy (TJ) Creamer and Japan”s Soichi Noguchi will depart June 2 in a Soyuz capsule and aim for Kazakhstan.
After more than five months in orbit, Creamer said Sunday he can”t wait to drink something without sipping through a straw and to eat food that stays on the plate. Noguchi yearns for a hot springs bath.
Shuttle closing
May 16, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Space shuttle Atlantis drew closer to the International Space Station for a Sunday morning linkup, as the astronauts — all 12 of them — excitedly awaited the 215-mile-high reunion.
“We’re chasing you down,” shuttle commander Kenneth Ham radioed from several miles out.
“Yee-haw!” replied the space station’s Soichi Noguchi. “Can’t wait to see you guys,” Tracy Caldwell Dyson added from the station.
Ham told the six space station residents that their home was “brilliantly glowing.”
“It’s an absolutely stunning view,” he noted.
Docking was to take place at 10:27 a.m. EDT over the South Pacific.
Atlantis and its crew of six will spend a week at the orbiting science complex, installing a new Russian compartment and fresh batteries. They also will try to free a snagged cable during one of three planned spacewalks, which get under way Monday.
A cable on the shuttle’s 100-foot inspection boom is caught in a camera. The problem prevented the astronauts from doing a proper survey of their ship Saturday to check for launch damage.
NASA managers said the astronauts can finish the inspection after they arrive at the space station.
Flight controllers, meanwhile, said there was no threat from a piece of space junk that they’ve been monitoring for the past few days.
The unidentified debris is in an extreme egg-shaped orbit that takes it thousands of miles above the space station to just below it. The closest approach was to occur about an hour after docking, bringing the junk within an estimated six miles of the two spacecraft. Experts determined Saturday night there was no need for the station to move out of the way.
During Atlantis’ final approach, the space station crew was going to snap hundreds of pictures of the somersaulting shuttle, then ship the images to Mission Control so engineers could hunt for signs of launch damage. The photos are especially valuable this time, given Saturday’s condensed survey of the ship’s heat shield.
source:AP
Russian spacecraft lands in Kazakhstan
March 19, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under Technology
A Soyuz TMA-16 spaceship carrying two astronauts from the International Space Station (ISS) has successfully landed in Kazakhstan, the Russian space agency’s mission control center outside Moscow said Thursday.
After more than three hours of automatic flight, the spacecraft’s reentry vehicle landed as scheduled at around 2:25pm Moscow time (1125 GMT) near the Kazak town of Arkalyk.
The spaceship undocked from the station at 11:03 Moscow time (0803 GMT), with Russian cosmonaut Maxim Surayev and US astronaut Jeff Williams on aboard.
Surayev and Williams parachuted to the designated landing site in the reentry vehicle, said the NAST website. After preliminary medical examinations, they are to fly to Moscow to meet coworkers and families.
It was the first time in almost ten years for a landing capsule to bring back only two astronauts rather than three. The third vacancy seat has taken some additional cargoes from the ISS.
The two astronauts, who have been on a space mission for about 169 days, received two U.S. space shuttles and two Russian cargo spaceships. Surayev also performed one space walk together with his Russian colleagues.
Russian Oleg Kotov, Japanese Soichi Noguchi and American Timothy Creamer will continue to work in orbit, until a Soyuz TMA-18 spacecraft delivers three more astronauts to the ISS on April 2.
Russian spacecraft lands in Kazakhstan was first posted on March 19, 2010 at 11:43 am.
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