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The International Space Station (ISS)

It's one giant leap for snowman-kind: Olaf, the goofy snowman from Disney's hit film "Frozen," is floating aboard the International Space Station, and we have the photos to prove it.

Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov brought the small, stuffed Olaf toy into space as his mission's "zero-g indicator" at the request of his 8-year-old daughter when he launched on a mission to the International Space Station. Shkaplerov and two crewmates blasted off aboard their Soyuz capsule on Nov. 24 and arrived at the orbiting outpost six hours later. On Tuesday (Dec. 9), Shkaplerov posted a photo on Twitter of Olaf floating serenely in the many-windowed observation deck of the station. ...

http://www.space.com/27967-olaf-frozen-toy-space-photos.html
 
Here's an article about "the first British ESA astronaut to visit the space station" (in November).

Countdown begins for Chichester’s astronaut

MOST of us will be setting ourselves goals for the year today but Tim Peake’s long-held dream of going to space is set to become a reality.
At the end of November he will begin a long-duration mission to the International Space Station. He will be the first British ESA astronaut to visit the space station where he says he will witness 16 sunrises and sunsets a day.

Before enjoying a well-earned Christmas break with his young family, he spoke to the Observer about his intensive training for the six-month trip and his joy at being selected.
“It is a dream come true,” said Tim, speaking from America.

etc...

http://www.chichester.co.uk/news/countdown-begins-for-chichester-s-astronaut-1-6495951

Special Interest for me - he went to the same school that I did! :) (But back then it was the Chichester High School for Boys - since then it has merged with the CHS for Girls.)

We always called the school Chi High - but soon a Chi High boy will really be flying high! ;)
 
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The ISS Tracker site is a real boon too when you need to figure out where you're looking at or how long it's all going to be black for.

I still think it's especially cracking to watch the live feed to Rossini's Sabat Mater

 
When astronauts describe what they used to assemble the International Space Station, they refer to docking ports, large metal bolts and miles of cabling.

All that artist Patrick Acton needed were 8 gallons of glue and about 280,000 matchsticks, believe it or not.

Acton's 11-foot-long by 15-foot-wide by 4.6 foot tall (3 by 4.5 by 2 meter) space station model may only be one-twenty-sixth (1/26) the size of the orbiting outpost, but is still a sight to behold. Now suspended overhead at Space Center Houston, the visitor complex for NASA's Johnson Space Center in Texas, the matchstick space station is part of the new exhibition "Amazing Universe: The Science of Ripley's Believe It or Not!" which opens on Saturday (Feb. 21). [Building the International Space Station (Photos)] ...

http://www.space.com/28619-space-station-matchstick-model.html
 
MAKE yourself at home. Two astronauts are set to get extra comfy on the International Space Station when they launch on Friday for the ISS's first ever year-long mission, double the length of the normal stay. The mission will help the US and Russia study the long-term effects of space flight, which is essential if humans are ever to fly to Mars.

NASA's Scott Kelly will join Mikhail Kornienko and Gennady Padalka, from Russia's space agency Roscosmos, on a Soyuz spacecraft due to launch on 28 March from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Kelly and Kornienko will spend a year on the station.

Serendipitously, Kelly has an identical twin brother, Mark, who is also an astronaut but will spend this year on the ground. NASA will compare data on the twins' health to try to distinguish the effects of space flight from those of genetics. ...

http://www.newscientist.com/article...y-on-the-iss-about-to-begin.html#.VRQo9fl3O3w
 
Russian spacecraft Progress M-27M 'hurtling towards Earth' - live
Follow latest developments as flight controllers are unable to receive data from unmanned Progress M-27M, which was scheduled to dock at International Space Station
By Raziye Akkoc
3:43PM BST 29 Apr 2015

The spacecraft is now considered a total loss
There is no risk of collision with the International Space Station

Cargo ship failed to stabilise by Russia's Mission Control
The spacecraft entered the wrong orbit after launch on Tuesday


Live Updating Page.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/sci...craft-spins-out-of-control-in-orbit-live.html

:eek:
 
This all happens shortly after the ISS astronauts had watched the movie Gravity on their new big screen. I bet that made them a bit nervous.
 
Five ways the Russian space ship drama could end
The unmanned Progress M-27M cargo ship is currently tumbling out of control around the Earth. What could happen next?
By Roland Oliphant
7:56PM BST 29 Apr 2015

A Russian spacecraft that is spinning out of control towards Earth after a malfunction during a £25 million resupply mission to the International Space Station has been abandoned.
Igor Komarov, the head of Russia's Roskosmos space agency, said engineers had struggled to regain control of the ship after it spun out of control soon after launch on Tuesday.
"Additional tests today revealed that further controlled flight and safe docking with the ISS is impossible," said Igor Komarov, the head of Roskosmos, the Russian space agency.
"We're abandoning the resupply mission and working on options for scuttling the ship," he added.

What could happen next?
  1. Russia’s top space officials say the craft will most likely burn up without trace over the Pacific sometime next week, inflicting a slight dent to Russian national pride and perhaps Roskosmos’ insurance company, but harming no one. An anti-climax, and thus exceedingly likely.
  2. It is shot out of the sky by a Pacific rim super power (or North Korea) with an itchy trigger finger and pretensions to Star Wars-like domination of space. China blew up one of its own defunct satellites in similar fashion in 2007, so there is a precedent.
  3. The runaway craft defies the laws of physics, breaks out of earth orbit, and spins away into space, never to be seen again. The people who do this for a living might not think that likely, but stranger things have happened.
  4. NASA sends Bruce Willis to pilot a space shuttle to the run-away spacecraft, leap aboard, and guide it safely to the International Space Station (or blow it up). Sadly, the shuttle program was retired in 2011, and at 60 Bruce Willis is also getting on a bit. Getting the astronauts on the ISS to do something similar has been ruled out because it would be suicidal.
  5. Like a medieval omen, the ship falls to earth on May 7 in a marginal constituency somewhere in the British isles. Polls say little about the impact of a Russian space-hardware intervention, but it would add some drama. :p
...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/sci...s-the-Russian-space-ship-drama-could-end.html
 
Rogue Russian spacecraft burns up in Earth's atmosphere
8 May 2015
The Russian space agency says that its out-of-control spacecraft has burnt up as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere.
Re-entry was over the Pacific, it said, and only a few fragments were expected to hit the sea.
The unmanned cargo ship was launched from Kazakhstan on 28 April, but control was lost soon afterwards.
The Progress M-27M was carrying more than three tonnes of supplies to the International Space Station.

Russian space agency Roscosmos said: "The Progress M-27M spacecraft ceased to exist at 05:04 Moscow time (02:04 GMT) on 8 May 2015. It entered the atmosphere... over the central part of the Pacific Ocean."

...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-32635037
 
.... and here's the first cooking video from the International Space Station .. how to cook in space ... the world's first cooking in space video :cool: (OK, there's no cooking on deck but still ..)

 
The ISS Tracker site is a real boon too when you need to figure out where you're looking at or how long it's all going to be black for.

I still think it's especially cracking to watch the live feed to Rossini's Sabat Mater


If I had the animating chops, it would be sooo tempting to have her blink every once in a while...
 
That video is quite Kubrickian. I'll sync the soundtrack to Ed White's first ever spacewalk on Gemini 4. Should go well.
 
Re docking the Soyuz TMA O9M at the I.S.S. ..

 
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Here's an article about "the first British ESA astronaut to visit the space station" (in November).
Countdown begins for Chichester’s astronaut

MOST of us will be setting ourselves goals for the year today but Tim Peake’s long-held dream of going to space is set to become a reality.
At the end of November he will begin a long-duration mission to the International Space Station. He will be the first British ESA astronaut to visit the space station where he says he will witness 16 sunrises and sunsets a day.
...

http://www.chichester.co.uk/news/countdown-begins-for-chichester-s-astronaut-1-6495951

Special Interest for me - he went to the same school that I did! :)
Tim Peake: How I became a British astronaut

[Tim's career and astronaut training, in his own words.]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/timelines/z2gxp39
 
Astronaut plays bagpipes on International Space Station
7 November 2015

A US astronaut has played a set of Scottish-made bagpipes on the International Space Station to pay tribute to a colleague who died.
Kjell Lindgren played Amazing Grace on the pipes after recording a message about research scientist Victor Hurst, who was involved in astronaut training.

It is thought to be the first time that bagpipes have been played in space.
They were made for Mr Lindgren by McCallum Bagpipes at the company's factory in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire.
Kenny Macleod, who works a McCallum Bagpipes, told BBC Scotland the 42-year-old astronaut had got in touch two years ago to say he was going to the space station and wanted to play the pipes while he was there.

"He wondered if it was feasible to play bagpipes," he said.
"They're made of plastic - they're just easier to keep clean and to make sure they're not contaminated. They're also lighter."
In the video, Mr Lindgren is seen to give the pipes a punch before he starts playing. Mr Macleod said it was normal for pipers to massage the bag to get the air flowing, "but not quite as vigorously as that".
"The thing about bagpipes is that they're very difficult to play at high altitude because the air is that bit thinner. They're quite hard to blow so he's done well," he added.

There are six astronauts currently in space on the 45th expedition to the International Space Centre.
In a video recorded in the last few days, Mr Lindgren said all of them had come into contact with Dr Hurst during their training and were "shocked and saddened" to hear about his death.
Dr Hurst worked for US engineering company Wyle Science as a research scientist and instructor. He died suddenly in October, aged 48. :(

Nasa flight engineer Mr Lindgren said: "He always had a quick smile, a kind word. I don't know if anyone was more enthusiastic and professional about being involved in human space flight."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-34757254
 
When I was at school, at Chi Hi in Sussex, the Cold War between the west and Russia reached a crisis in 1962 over the Cuban Missiles affair. Gradually the cold war tensions eased off, its end marked perhaps by the collapse of the Berlin Wall.

And next Tuesday another one-time pupil at Ch-Hi, Briton Tim Peake, will be blasted towards the International Space Station by a Russian rocket. Report here:

http://www.theguardian.com/science/...-astronaut-tim-peake-a-man-on-a-space-mission

The area cleared around the Soyuz rocket at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan extends for more than a mile before reaching the observation area where family and colleagues gather on launch day. To watch from afar has several advantages. It is easier on the neck, for one. The roar of the 26 million horsepower engines is bearable that far out, too. The main reason, though, is more sobering. At such distance, the crowd should be safe if the Soyuz, a machine that burns 270 tonnes of fuel and oxygen in nine minutes, explodes.
...
David Southwood, a senior researcher at Imperial College, and a member of the UK space agency steering board, has known Tim since he joined the European Space Agency in 2009. “It’s absolutely clear why he got selected against all the odds,” Southwood says. “They couldn’t let him go. He stands out. Most astronauts now are similar, but he is up there in the exceptional class.”

“I think that there was a cowboy element to the original astronauts. Not so with Tim. Tim is ever cool, calm and collected whilst always seeming more charming than macho. When you talk to him, that calmness comes through. It is just about possible to believe that he really enjoyed himself facing the challenge of exercises like escaping from a helicopter cockpit whilst suspended upside down in water. I’d say he is made not so much of the right stuff but rather “even better stuff,” he adds. :D


Peake has put an enormous effort into inspiring children, visiting and holding online video discussions with schools. On the space station, he will oversee a handful of projects that students have created. He is also expected to take part in the Royal Institution Christmas lectures from orbit. “I think that there are going to be an awful lot of young people going with him in spirit,” Southwood said.
...
Born: Timothy Nigel Peake on 7 April 1972 in Chichester, West Sussex.

Career: Graduated in 1992 from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst as an officer in the British Army Air Corps and was awarded his Army Flying Wings two years later. He became a helicopter flying instructor in 1998 and a helicopter test pilot in 2006. He was selected as an ESA astronaut in 2009.

What he says: “After a gap of 24 years since Helen Sharman flew to the Mir space station, the Union flag is going to be flown and worn in space once again. What that means is that there’s nothing to stop the schoolkids of Great Britain today from being amongst the first men and women to set foot on Mars in the future.” :)
 
TV Tonight:
8pm - 9pm
BBC Two (not Scotland)

Horizon: Tim Peake Special - How to Be an Astronaut

Ahead of British astronaut Tim Peake leaving Earth on Soyuz TMA-19M for the International Space Station, Horizon has access to his training video diary. He guides us around a series of low-key, hi-tech buildings in Moscow, Houston and elsewhere as he prepares, over the course of two years, to take his place on the space station – a job he landed after beating 8,000 other applicants, having previously worked as a helicopter test pilot.

Such a highly disciplined, obsessively focused professional also turning out to be a daring raconteur would be too much to hope for, but Peake talks us pleasantly through the pressures and challenges. Kids who dream of donning a spacesuit will find plenty to sigh at.

About this programme
A video diary filmed over two years by Tim Peake, who on 15 December will become the first British astronaut to board the International Space Station. His personal footage details some of the risks and pressures he faces, as well as the rigorous training required to go into space, including replicating spacewalks and training to deal with the physical dangers of weightlessness, undergoing exercises in the Soyuz capsule and space station mockups, and preparing to spend time away from his wife and two sons.

http://www.radiotimes.com/episode/dwdnvs/horizon--horizon-tim-peake-special---how-to-be-an-astronaut
 
I note that Tim Peake has a name badge that gives his name in Cyrillic; T.Пик
which is considerably shorter than the English version.

He's luckier than Harpo Marx, whose name came up as ХАРПО МАРКС when he toured Russia back in the thirties; Harpo pronounced this as 'Exapno Mapcase'.
 
Tim Peake: UK astronaut set for space milestone
By Paul Rincon Science editor, BBC News website, Baikonur

UK astronaut Tim Peake is ready to make his landmark flight to the International Space Station (ISS).
On Tuesday, the former helicopter pilot will launch on a Russian Soyuz rocket at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
He will be accompanied by crew members American Tim Kopra and Russian Yuri Malenchenko.

Once at the ISS, Mr Peake will begin a programme of experiments and educational activities designed to get young people interested in science.

Launch is set for 11:03 GMT from Site 1 at Baikonur, the pad where Yuri Gagarin made the first historic human spaceflight in 1961. The Soyuz space capsule is due to dock with the space station at 17:23 GMT.

Mr Peake is the first UK astronaut to fly under the banner of the European Space Agency (Esa).
Helen Sharman became the first British citizen to travel to space when she visited the space station Mir in 1991. Her mission came about through a co-operative venture between the Soviet government and British business.

Ms Sharman told BBC News: "Launch itself is a day that you want to get on with, because finally, you're getting to do what you've been trained to do for so long. I trained for 18 months, Tim Peake will have trained for six years by the time he flies."

The crew are placed in quarantine for two weeks before launch to ensure they do not become ill in space.
They woke up at 0200 GMT (0800 local time) for breakfast and after a farewell ceremony, they leave the cosmonaut hotel in Baikonur for medical tests.
After a break, they get into their white "Sokol" suits - which are worn during launch and re-entry - before saying final farewells to their families.
Then, at about 0800 GMT (1400 local time), the crew board a bus to the launch pad and ride the lift to the top of the Soyuz rocket. Mr Peake and his colleagues will then be strapped into their seats so that they can prepare for launch.
Ms Sharman explained. "You're part of a great big machine… by that stage, the team is so big - the doctors, the trainers - that you're not going to be able to go wrong."

At 11:03 GMT (17:03 local time), notwithstanding some unforeseen obstacle, the Soyuz launcher's five thruster units will ignite, blasting the astronauts into orbit for the six-hour journey to the ISS.

etc...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-34991335

Live on TV:
Stargazing Live
Blast Off Live: A Stargazing Special
10:30am - 11:15am BBC One

There’s a funny line in the billing information for this celebration of Tim Peake blasting off to the International Space Station, the first British astronaut to do so. Coming live from the Science Museum in London, Dara O Briain, Brian Cox and a bunch of schoolchildren are joined by “Chris Hadfield, the former commander of the ISS, and the man made famous for his rendition of Space Oddity.”

Read that again. This isn’t to insult Mr Hadfield’s skills on the guitar. His version of the classic David Bowie song – recorded while floating in a tin can far above the world – was a deserved viral sensation. But should this astronaut really be more famous for some light acoustic than, say, being an astronaut?

O Briain and his team will be doing their best to give some of the grandeur back to space travel, getting across the programme’s history of discovery, the unmatched international cooperation and the sheer spectacle of slipping the surly bonds of Earth etc.

At the launch itself from Kazahkstan, Peake will have a camera pointed at his face throughout the extreme G-forces. Perfect. It’s space travel for the selfie generation.

About this programme
Professor Brian Cox and Dara O Briain follow the launch of astronaut Tim Peake as he attempts to become the first Briton to serve on the International Space Station.

http://www.radiotimes.com/episode/dwgs6s/stargazing-live--blast-off-live-a-stargazing-special



 
Did anyone notice the 'Zero-G Indicator' during the launch? When they take off, they have a key-ring hanging from a cord that dangles down into the capsule. When they stop accelerating, the key-ring floats upwards, and that's when they know they are in freefall. Simple technology for an important indicator.
This mission, the keyring was a simple plastic tube; on other missions they've used little dolls, a cuddly hippo, an Angry Bird, and the snowman out of Frozen.
 
Major Tim has blasted off. I do hope he takes his protein pills. And puts his helmet on, etc.
 
I've been privileged to live through a good chunk of this space age. From the age of about eight I was already getting into astronomy, but the photos in books then were B&W and rather blurry. More stimulating were the attempts by artists to paint imagined scenes on other planets, and of course comic book cartoons.

So I was fairly well prepared when the Russians launched Sputnik 1 in 1957 - I was 12.
I was 15 when Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth in 1961.

Now the Americans were playing catch-up with their Project Mercury capsules. John Glenn managed one orbit in early 1962. Now the Space Race was on in earnest, but the Russians stayed ahead. The first woman to fly in space was Valentina Tereshkova, in June 1963, when I was 17.

But the Americans started to regain ground with the two-man Project Gemini capsules.
"Ten crews flew low Earth orbit (LEO) missions between 1965 and 1966. It put the United States in the lead during the Cold War Space Race with the Soviet Union."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Gemini

The last Gemini mission was in November 1966, when I was 21. And then came the Apollo missions, which culminated in the first successful moon landing of Apollo XI in June 1969, when I was 23.

From then on space became very much the arena for commercial endeavours such as communication satellites. Navigation satellites were initially military, but are now moving into the commercial sector. Scientific research has seen wonderful robotic probes sent to all parts of the solar system, but the main outlet for human spaceflight centred on space stations.

But it was not until May 1991, when I was 55, that a Brit went into space - Helen Sharman spent time on the Russian Mir space-station.

And now, when I'm 70, Tim Peake is heading for the I.S.S...

It's been a fascinating story.
 
I think we've only had 3 Brits in space. Not much happening with our space program, sadly.
But I'd rather that than nothing at all.
 
I think we've only had 3 Brits in space. Not much happening with our space program, sadly.
But I'd rather that than nothing at all.
"Piers Sellers, a Sussex-born scientist who moved to the US and flew three missions as a Nasa astronaut, said: “It’s wonderful to finally see an official UK astronaut go into space – something that all the rest of us have hoped for for years. I sure that Tim Peake will do a great job on station and that thousands of British kids will follow his adventure and be inspired by it. The Apollo programme did that for me.”"

http://www.theguardian.com/science/...sts-off-on-six-month-mission-to-space-station
 
Just for the hell of it, Tim's launch in Russian!

Корабль "Союз" с британским астронавтом состыкован с МКС

Российский корабль "Союз", на борту которого находится британец Тим Пик, благополучно состыковался с Международной космической станцией (МКС).

В состав экипажа корабля, кроме Пика, входят Юрий Маленченко и американец Тим Копра. Стыковка с МКС состоялась в 17:24 по Гринвичу (20:24 по Москве).

Тим Пик, в прошлом военный летчик, стал первым официальным британским астронавтом.

При старте с космодрома Байконур его провожали жена и два сына.

etc...

http://www.bbc.com/russian/uk/2015/12/151215_tim_peake_soyuz_launch
 
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