Every month on Earth Matters, we offer a puzzling satellite image. The March 2015 puzzler is above. Your challenge is to use the comments section to tell us what part of the world we are looking at, when the image was acquired, what the image shows, and why the scene is interesting. How to answer. Your answer can be a few […]
Module Relocation Work on Station as New Crew Preps for Launch
The three-person Expedition 43 crew with Commander Terry Virts and Flight Engineers Samantha Cristoforetti and Anton Shkaplerov are the sole occupants of the International Space Station right now. They are getting ready for upcoming module relocation work and preparing for upcoming science work. Virts installed a connector cap and a power cable to get the …
ISS Daily Summary Report 03/13/15
Japanese Experiment Module Airlock (JEMAL) Activation: Virts pressurized and then perform a leak check of the JEMAL. These tasks were performed in advance of operations on March 25 to remove the NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer (NRCSD) and Multi-Purpose Experiment Platform (MPEP)/Small Fine Arm Attachment Mechanism (SAM) from the slide table. Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer …
Expedition 43 Trio Rests After Sending Crewmates Home With Science
Expedition 43 Commander Terry Virts and Flight Engineers Samantha Cristoforetti and Anton Shkaplerov are resting today after sending their Expedition 42 crewmates back to Earth last night. Expedition 42 Commander Barry Wilmore handed the controls of the International Space Station to Virts in a Change of Command Ceremony Tuesday morning. Wilmore, Soyuz Commander Alexander Samokutyaev …
Expedition 42 Returns Home After 167 Days in Space
Expedition 42 Commander Barry Wilmore of NASA, and Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova of the Russian Federal Space Agency landed their Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft in Kazakhstan at approximately 10:07 p.m. EDT. Russian recovery teams are helping the crew exit the Soyuz vehicle and adjust to gravity after their stay in space. The trio arrived at …
Expedition 42 Trio Undocks for Voyage Home
After spending 167 days aboard the International Space Station, Barry Wilmore, Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova undocked from the station at 6:44 p.m. EDT to begin their voyage home. Samokutyaev, the Soyuz commander, is at the controls of the Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft. They will perform a separation burn to increase the distance from the station …
Fireball Reported in Colorado Early this Morning
A fireball occurred over southern Wyoming/northern Colorado at 6:01 AM Mountain Daylight Time. The available eyewitness and video information indicates that the meteor moved from East to West at about 45,000 miles per hour and weighed a few pounds (2 to 4 pounds are the preliminary estimates). The fireball belongs to a class of meteors called …
Expedition 42 Trio Enters Soyuz and Closes Hatches
At 3:34 p.m. EDT, the Soyuz hatch closed between the International Space Station and the TMA-14M spacecraft. Expedition 42 crew members Barry Wilmore of NASA and Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova of Roscosmos are preparing to undock at 6:44 p.m. NASA Television will air live coverage of undocking beginning at 6:15 p.m. The deorbit burn …
Hexapod is installed on Instrument Payload
The Hexapod Pointing System, which will help keep the SAGE instrument pointing in the right direction, was installed with the instrument. The team is working hard to get SAGE ready for environmental testing and then launch.