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ARISS Featured On Australian TV Show

Fri, 9 May 2008 07:58:43 -0400

Amateur Radio recently got some good publicity when Tony Hutchison VK5ZAI appeared in an interview on the Australian Channel 7 Today Tonight show.

The show was broadcast on the 11th April and provided some great insights as to how Tony and others over the years have provided support to Nasa and how amateur radio helps to promote public awareness of the NASA space program through school contacts with the astronauts aboard the ISS.

Read the full story and view or download the video from the WIA website at http://www.wia.org.au/newsevents/news/2008/20080504-2/index.php

Source: http://w

NASA TV to Air Space Station Cargo Ship Arrival

Wed, 7 May 2008 14:29:05 -0400

HOUSTON -- The residents of the International Space Station will receive a new shipment of food, fuel and supplies next week, and NASA Television will broadcast its arrival live.

Expedition 17 Commander Sergei Volkov and Flight Engineers Oleg Kononenko and Garrett Reisman will be standing by as the unpiloted ISS Progress 29 resupply craft automatically docks to the Earth-facing port on the Zarya module at 4:37 p.m. CDT, Friday, May 16. NASA TV coverage of the new Progress' arrival will begin at 4 p.m. with commentary and available downlink television.

The cargo ship is carrying more than two tons of supplies for the three crew members. It will be launched at 3:22 p.m. Wednesday, May 14, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. NASA TV will not broadcast the launch.

Space Shuttle Discovery Arrives at Launch Pad, Countdown Test Set

Tue, 6 May 2008 14:09:31 -0400

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- After safely reaching its launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, space shuttle Discovery now awaits its next major milestone for the upcoming STS-124 mission. A launch dress rehearsal, known as the terminal countdown demonstration test, is scheduled to take place at Kennedy from May 6 to 9.

Discovery arrived at the pad at 4:25 a.m. EDT Saturday on top of a giant crawler-transporter. The crawler-transporter left Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building at 11:47 p.m. Friday, traveling less than 1 mph during the 3.4-mile journey. The shuttle was secured on the launch pad at 6:06 a.m. Saturday.

ESA Astronaut Visits ARISS Schools

Tue, 6 May 2008 14:06:34 -0400

ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli, IZØJPA, gave two presentations to Italian schools which had participated in ARISS contacts in October 2007. On Wednesday, April 23, Nespoli spoke to 565 students from Galileo Galilei High School of Civitavecchia, Guglielmo Marconi High School of Civitavecchia and Giosuè Carducci Secondary School in Santa Marinella. On April 24, he spoke with 400 students from Aula Magna of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of L'Aquila. ARISS member Francesco De Paolis, IKØWGF, gave a talk on the ARISS program and Nespoli gave a presentation on the Esperia mission which also highlighted the ARISS contacts. Television stations and newspapers covered the events and photographs have been posted to the ARISS-Europe Web site. See: http://www.ariss-eu.org/2008_04_27.htm

ARISS Status May 5, 2008

Mon, 5 May 2008 10:47:10 -0400

1. ARISS Space Day Contact Successful
On Saturday, May 3, the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) in Washington, D.C. participated in Space Day 2008, celebrating the 50th anniversary of NASA and NASA’s achievements through space exploration. Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) and Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) members manned an activity station during the event. A highlight of the event was an ARISS contact made possible through the assistance of telebridge station NN1SS in Greenbelt, Maryland. Thirty questions were put to Garrett Reisman, KE5HAE, live, by ten children as approximately 200 gathered in the gallery. The audio was fed into the EchoLink AMSAT (101 377) and JK1ZRW (277 208) Conference Room servers and received 25 connections. It was also fed into the IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010, receiving 4 connections from Canada and the U.S. Additionally, the event was taped by the NASM staff. Space Day draws crowds of thousands annually.

Japan's Space Station Laboratory Ready to Fly

Sat, 3 May 2008 17:22:52 -0400

HOUSTON - The International Space Station (ISS) is about to get bigger.

Seven astronauts are gearing up to launch aboard NASA's space shuttle Discovery to deliver the station's largest room: the Japanese Kibo laboratory. The 13-day mission is set to rocket spaceward with the tour bus-sized lab from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on May 31.

Discovery's mission was pushed back several days due to delays modifying its external fuel tank with post-Columbia accident improvements. The following shuttle flight - NASA's planned Aug. 28 mission aboard Atlantis to overhaul the Hubble Space Telescope - has also been delayed up to five weeks due to similar fuel tank challenges, said space shuttle program manager John Shannon. It will likely launch sometime in late September 2008, he said.

NASA Delays Shuttle Flight to Hubble Space Telescope

Sat, 3 May 2008 17:21:21 -0400

HOUSTON - NASA has pushed back the planned launch of the final flight to overhaul the Hubble Space Telescope by up to five weeks due to external fuel tank delays, mission managers said Thursday.

Space shuttle program manager John Shannon said that the additional time required to include post-Columbia safety improvements in two shuttle fuel tanks supporting the Hubble servicing mission have delayed the spaceflight to no earlier than late September. A seven-astronaut crew was slated to launch toward Hubble aboard NASA's shuttle Atlantis on Aug. 28.

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/08

Station's First Female Commander Confident of Soyuz Fix

Sat, 3 May 2008 17:20:00 -0400

HOUSTON — The first female commander of the International Space Station (ISS) said Friday that she is confident Russian engineers will find the source of a glitch that sent a Soyuz spacecraft off course during her April 19 landing with two crewmates.

U.S. astronaut Peggy Whitson, who commanded the station's six-month Expedition 16 mission, told reporters here at NASA's Johnson Space Center that Russia's Federal Space Agency and an independent group looking into her off-target landing and an earlier one from October should find the root cause.

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/08050

Ketchup Experiment Recovered from Columbia Crash

Sat, 3 May 2008 17:18:06 -0400

Using data recovered from a damaged computer hard-drive that was aboard the ill-fated Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003, scientists have recently learned more about why the act of shaking a material can quickly transform it into something completely different.

One of the best examples of this phenomenon is ordinary ketchup. Shake the bottle and the semi-solid paste becomes a runny liquid. Food scientists do the shaking in a controlled way by putting ketchup (and other processed foods) into a rheometer (rheo, meaning "flow") to see how its viscosity -- the scientific word for stickiness -- decreases when shaken.

National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC, USA, Saturday (May 03) at 16:10 UTC

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:12:27 -0400

An International Space Station Expedition 17 ARISS school contact has been planned with participants at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM), Washington, DC, USA on 03 May. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 16:10 UTC.

The contact will be a telebridge between stations NA1SS and NN1SS in Maryland. The contact should be audible over most of the Eastern USA. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The participants are expected to conduct the conversation in English. Audio from the QSO is planned to be fed into the EchoLink *AMSAT* (101 377) and *JK1ZRW* (277 208) servers and the IRLP 9010 reflector during the contact.

Home From Space, Iowa Astronaut Peggy Whitson Set for Interviews

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:37:17 -0400

NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson of Iowa, who returned to Earth April 19 after approximately six months on the International Space Station, will be available for satellite interviews from 6 to 8 a.m. CDT on Friday, May 2.

Whitson, the first female commander of the space station, has accumulated more time in orbit than any U.S. astronaut in history. She launched to the complex on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft Oct. 10, 2007, spending 192 days in space. Whitson previously spent 185 days in space after serving as a flight engineer on Expedition 5, which launched June 5, 2002, and returned to Earth Dec. 7. She conducted five spacewalks on her recent mission and one on her previous flight, totaling 39 hours and 46 minutes of spacewalking time, more than any other female.

ARISS Status April 28, 2008

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 11:04:39 -0400

1. Upcoming School Contacts
The National Air and Space Museum (NASM) in Washington, D.C. has been approved for an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Saturday, May 3 at 15:52 UTC via the telebridge station NN1SS in Greenbelt. This year Space Day will celebrate the 50th anniversary of NASA and NASA’s achievements through space exploration. Youth, ages 12 -18, will participate. The Washington Post, the NASM Web site and NASM e-news will report on the contact. The event is open to the public and thousands are expected to attend. The audio from this contact is expected to be fed into the EchoLink AMSAT (101 377) and JK1ZRW (277 208) Conference Room servers and the IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010.

European Cargo Ship Boosts Space Station's Orbit

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 22:45:07 -0400

Europe's first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) cargo supply ship has successfully raised the International Space Station into a higher orbit in the first of four re-boost maneuvers scheduled between now and August, its manufacturer and the European Space Agency (ESA) announced Friday.

Using two of its four main engines, the ATV Jules Verne pushed the 308-ton orbital complex for a period of 12.5 minutes, increasing its speed by just over 8 feet (2.65 meters) per second and raising its altitude by 2.8 miles (4.6 km). The ATV consumed 537 pounds (244 kg) of its fuel in performing the task.

Space Shuttle Discovery Moves Closer to Launch

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 22:43:30 -0400

The space shuttle Discovery moved a step closer to launch early Saturday as NASA engineers hauled the spacecraft into a massive hangar to join its fuel tank and twin rocket boosters.

Discovery made the short morning move from its processing building to the cavernous, 52-story Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., to prepare for its planned May 31 launch.

The shuttle's seven-astronaut crew, commanded by veteran spaceflyer Mark Kelly, will deliver Kibo - a massive Japanese laboratory the size of a tour bus - to the International Space Station during a planned 13-day mission.

Astronauts to Make Virtual Connection With Students

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 22:08:00 -0400

Astronauts flying on a space shuttle mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope for a final time will speak to middle school students across America simultaneously at 1:15 p.m. EDT, April 30, from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Through NASA's Digital Learning Network (DLN), students at five middle schools and an invited student audience at Goddard will talk to the shuttle crew. Topics of discussion will include details about the upcoming STS-125 mission to service Hubble. Astronauts also will discuss career diversity among the crew. Each has a doctorate degree in a science, technology, engineering and mathematics discipline.