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Tag: Astronaut

  • NASA Board to Investigate Spacewalk Malfunction

    NASA Board to Investigate Spacewalk Malfunction

    One week ago, ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy glided outside the International Space Station (ISS) to do routine maintenance and prepare rigging cables for the arrival of a new Russian laboratory module. Shortly into the spacewalk, Parmitano reported excessive water floating free inside his spacesuit helmet and the spacewalk, which was scheduled to last for over six hours, was cut short.

    Today, NASA announced that it has appointed a new board dedicated to investigate the incident. The board is chaired by Chris Hansen, the ISS chief engineer at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. The other members of the five-person board are astronaut Mike Foreman; Sudhakar Rajula, a human factors specialist at Johnson; Joe Pellicciotti, the chief engineer at NASA’s Engineering and Safety Center; and Richard Fullerton, NASA’s ISS safety and mission assurance lead.

    According to NASA’s announcement, the board will “gather relevant information, analyze facts, conduct any necessary tests, identify the cause or causes of the anomaly and any contributing factors, and make recommendations to the NASA administrator to prevent similar incidents from occurring during future spacewalks.” The board will also examine past spacewalks, as well as maintenance and quality assurance procedures.

    The board’s investigation will coincide with a NASA engineering analysis that will resolve any equipment malfunctions to enable spacewalks to resume. The engineering team is currently examining the spacesuit and life support equipment Parmitano used during the spacewalk.

  • Spacewalk Cut Short by Wardrobe Malfunction

    Spacewalk Cut Short by Wardrobe Malfunction

    Early this morning, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy exited the International Space Station to conduct assembly and maintenance on the spacecraft. The spacewalk was scheduled to last around 6.5 hours and was being streamed live by the space agencies. The mission was cut short, however, by a malfunction in one astronaut’s spacesuit.

    Shortly into the spacewalk Parmitano reported that there was water floating in his spacesuit helmet, and that the back of his head was wet. NASA’s flight director quickly called an end to the spacewalk, and Parmitano and Cassidy made their way back into the space station.

    The cancellation made today’s spacewalk the second shortest in the history of the International Space Station. Engineers are now searching for the cause of the suspected leak in Parmitano’s helmet. NASA has stated that Parmitano was never in any danger and that none of the tasks he and Cassidy were scheduled to complete were urgent or would put the crew of the station in danger. In addition to routine maintenance, the astronauts were rigging cables to prepare for the arrival of a new Russian laboratory module.

    The relevant NASA footage of the spacewalk can be seen below. Parmitano can be heard at around the 1:50 mark confirming that the liquid in his helmet is not sweat.

  • NASA Issues Contracts For Future Manned Spaceflights

    NASA Issues Contracts For Future Manned Spaceflights

    NASA today announced that it has awarded three different companies contracts to develop technology that will enable commercial manned spaceflight from U.S. soil.

    The Boeing Company, Sierra Nevada Corporation Space System, and Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) were all contracted for around $10 million. The companies will begin developing integrated crew transportation systems that will launch American astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). These programs will end NASA’s recent reliance on Russia for transportation to and from the ISS.

    “These contracts represent important progress in restoring human spaceflight capabilities to the United States,” said Phil McAlister, director of the Commercial Spaceflight Development Division at NASA Headquarters. “NASA and its industry partners are committed to the goal of safely and cost-effectively launching astronauts from home within the next five years.”

    Starting next year, the companies will work with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP) to develop spacecrafts, launch vehicles, and ground & mission operations that meet the agency’s safety and performance requirements. In mid-2014, the companies will begin competing with one another to test and verify their systems for crewed demonstration flights to the ISS.

    SpaceX could have a leg up on its competition. The company in October of this year completed the first privatized resupply of the ISS using its Dragon capsule. The capsule carried 882 pounds of supplies to the ISS and brought back 1,673 pounds of used material in a successful mission.

    (Image courtesy SpaceX)

  • Space Station Astronauts Safely Return To Earth

    Three members of the International Space Station’s (ISS) Expedition 33 crew safely touched down on the surface of Earth this weekend. They landed just north of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, in the first pre-dawn landing in darkness for an ISS crew since Expedition 12 returned in 2006.

    Expedition 33 Commander Sunita “Suni” Williams, Flight Engineer Akihiko Hoshide, and Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko spent more than three hours in the Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft while descending to Earth. They spent a total of 127 days in space, on a mission that lasted more than four months.

    NASA stated that Expedition 33 advanced research by testing radiation levels on the ISS, assessing how microgravity affects the spinal cord, and investigating melting glaciers, seasonal changes, and human impacts on the ecosystem of Earth. The crew members also participated in the Integrated Resistance and Aerobic Training Study-Sprint, a program designed to evaluate the use of high-intensity, low-volume exercise training to minimize the loss of muscle, bone, and cardiovascular functions while in microgravity. The first contracted commercial resupply mission by SpaceX was also overseen by the Expedition 33 crew.

    Hoshide and Williams performed three spacewalks during their mission to repair ISS equipment. Commander Williams now holds the record for cumulative spacewalk time for a female astronaut, with 50 hours, 40 minutes.

    Expedition 34 has now begun on the ISS, and NASA astronaut Kevin Ford has taken command of the space station. He and cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin will operate the ISS themselves for one month until the arrival of three new crew members.

    (Image courtesy NASA/Bill Ingalls)

  • NASA Takes Delivery Of Orion Space Capsule

    NASA’s plan for the immediate future is quite simple. Go to the Moon, go to an asteroid, go to Mars. Not in that specific order but that it what we are looking at as the essential missions in the next 30 years for the space agency. Since the retirement of the shuttle the question has continually been, how? Well that question was answered on the 28th when the Orion space capsule was delivered to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center by Lockheed Martin.

    “This starts a new, exciting chapter in this nation’s great space exploration story,” said Lori Garver, NASA deputy administrator. “Today we are lifting our spirits to new heights.”

    The first flight of the spacecraft will take place in 2014 and will be uncrewed. Called Exploration Flight Test-1 or EFT-1, it will be loaded with a wide variety of instruments to evaluate how the spacecraft behaves during launch, in space and the through the searing heat of reentry. This spacecraft will also be the most advanced space craft ever designed with features that include emergency abort capability, sustain astronauts during space travel, and provide safe re-entry from deep space.

    “Ladies and gentlemen, we’re going to Mars,” proclaimed U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., who joined Garver and other officials to welcome the Orion spacecraft. “We know the Orion capsule is a critical part of the system that’s going to take us there.”

    The capsule will be launched into orbit by the Space Launch System (SLS) and the launch is scheduled to take place in 2017. The SLS is not without controversy though. This is a rocket system that was neither asked for or wanted by NASA but was forced upon them by congress. The huge rocket is capable of lifting up to 130 metric tons to orbit. The current rocket, and the one that will be used for the test flight, the Delta IV-Heavy, is more than powerful enough to get the job done.

    “The systems on this spacecraft, it’s bigger than Apollo and it has to stay in space longer than Apollo, so it has to be better than Apollo,” said Bob Cabana, director of Kennedy and a former shuttle commander.

    For now, the focus for NASA and Lockheed Martin is preparing this capsule for space in 2014. During the EFT-1 mission, a Delta IV-Heavy rocket from United Launch Alliance will lift the spacecraft into orbit. Its second stage will remain attached to the capsule and will be fired to raise the Orion’s orbit to 3,600 miles, about 15 times higher than the International Space Station. The mission will last only a few hours, which is long enough to make two orbits before being sent back into the atmosphere to test it at deep-space reentry speeds.

  • NASA Astronauts Begin Training For Asteroid Mission

    NASA astronauts are getting ready to start to prepare for what could be one of the most challenging mission to date, a trip to an asteroid. Next month they will begin a training programme that will teach them how to operate vehicles, conduct spacewalks and gather samples on the surface of an asteroid. The work will be mainly scientific, but the data gleaned from the asteroid could one day be useful if there is ever one with a destiny for the surface of Earth. Major Tim Peake, a former British Army helicopter test pilot who is now the first official British astronaut with the European Space Agency, had this to say: “With enough warning we would probably send a robotic mission to deflect an asteroid, but if something is spotted late and is big enough we might come into Armageddon type scenarios where we may have to look at manned missions to deflect it.”

    The training will start next month when Major Peake will join 5 other people in an underwater training station off the coast of Florida. The capsule they will share is 43 feet long by 20 feet wide tube, is 65 feet under water, and will be their home for 12 days. The facility is called the Nasa Extreme Environment Mission Operation or NEEMO. “NEEMO is as close to the real thing as we can manage on Earth. We are in a confined space and living quarters are very tight,” said Peake, “We will need at least 12 hours of decompression before we can resurface safely so we are sort of trapped down there, and that makes it much more realistic.”

    The mission is hoping to use the Orion spacecraft that sits atop the Space Launch System. Once there, the astronauts would live in a Deep Space Habitat and traverse the landscape using a Space Exploration Vehicle (SEV).

    Picture courtesy the ESA.

  • Space: No Longer the Final Frontier for Foursquare

    It seems that Space is no longer the final frontier when talking about Foursquare check-ins. Douglas Wheelock, a NASA astronaut, has checked into the International Space Station using the location-based app. For this simple feat, Wheelock was "awarded" the very first NASA Explorer Badge. Bow before it Foursquare geeks.

    Foursquare NASA Explorer Badge

    Foursquare users: How bad do you want the NASA Explorer Badge? Let us know.

    I just unlocked the "NASA Explorer" badge on @foursquare! http://4sq.com/dseNyIless than a minute ago via foursquareDouglas H. Wheelock
    Astro_Wheels

    The check-in officially kicks off a partnership between NASA and Foursquare, NASA even has aFoursquare page offering venues where you can unlock the new NASA Explorer Badge. Users will get tips about the venues upon check-in with their smartphone or mobile device.

    Wheelock, @Astro_wheels as he’s known on Twitter, is the Commander of ISS Expedition 25, which is a team of cosmonauts and astronauts from both Russia and the United States. You can read his full bio here.

    It should be noted that earlier this year NASA coordinated the first tweet from outer space What will they have in store for us next? Let us know what you think.