Space Rules

The astronauts aboard the International Space Station said Tuesday that ground controllers are figuring out how best to leave the vast complex running — what lights to leave on, which vents to keep open — in case it needs to be temporarily abandoned.

A Russian rocket carrying space station supplies failed during liftoff two weeks ago and crashed into Siberia. It’s the same type of rocket used to launch people to the station. Until Russian engineers can figure out what went wrong, all Soyuz launches are on hold.

Astronauts have been living aboard the station, without interruption, for almost 11 years.

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—	The Associated Press: Space station crew not prepping for shutdown _ yet (via wreckandsalvage)

peteuplink:

Tribute to the Space Shuttle from the European astronauts (by ESA)

Space Shuttle is perhaps the most complex technological system ever built. In 30 years, it has flown 135 times and helped humankind to dispatch and partially even return many satellites and deep-space probes, to build the International Space Station and to conduct out-of-this-world science. The Shuttle has transported also 24 European astronauts to Earth orbit on 25 missions.
This video highlights these flights with European flavour - from STS-9 in 1983 to STS-134 in last May.

Credit: ESA

This European film and international cooperation in SPACE RULES.

poobah:

3141592:

The Atlantis Shuttle approaching the ISS in its last mission. On the background: the Sun. Photo took by Thierry Legault from central Spain.

Click for full picture, more beautiful photos and a 3D video.

Space Rules

4-d:

IIS & Atlantis passing the sun.

by Thierry Legault.

Space Rules

findlilyhere:

The Russian Soyuz TMA-18 spacecraft, carrying the International Space Station (ISS) crew of U.S. astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Kornienko, blasts off from its launchpad at Baikonur cosmodrome April 2, 2010.

Journeys to the International Space Station - The Big Picture - Boston.com

Space Rules

findlilyhere:

The Space Shuttle Discovery hurtles toward space after liftoff from Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:21 a.m. on April 5th, 2010. The seven-member is delivering the multi-purpose logistics module Leonardo, filled with supplies, a new crew sleeping quarters and science racks that will be transferred to the International Space Station’s laboratories. The crew also will switch out a gyroscope on the station’s truss, install a spare ammonia storage tank and retrieve a Japanese experiment from the station’s exterior.

Journeys to the International Space Station - The Big Picture - Boston.com

Space Rules

findlilyhere:

In this Tuesday image provided by NASA, astronaut Rick Mastracchio, works near the Quest airlock during the mission’s third and final session of extravehicular activity as construction and maintenance continue on the International Space Station. A pair of spacewalking astronauts finished installing a fresh storage tank outside the International Space Station on Tuesday, but a stuck valve was threatening to jeopardize half of the cooling system.

seattlepi.com

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beeriety:

Japanese Sapporo Brews World’s First Space Beer

The long awaited Space Barley, the beer made with barley grown in space, has finally arrived. The “space barley” used to make this beer is the fourth generation descendant of the Haruna Nijo malting barley that was developed by Sapporo Breweries and kept in space for five months during 2006 as part of our collaborative research with the Russian Academy of Sciences and Okayama University with the purpose of achieving self-sufficiency in food in the space environment.

Space beer Rules

johnzanussi:

Buzz Lightyear goes to space.

To infinity and beyond!

Shark Habitats From Space : Discovery Channel

Nantucket Island, MA where a 1970s ~~documentary~~ feature film about a tourist munching great white shark was filmed. This image was taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station.

Space Rules