Astronaut Sunita Williams is stuck in space - at least temporarily. She flew up to the international space station last December planning to come home in early July after a seven-month stay. When she comes back now will be a bit later than she planned. The problem is that a hail storm that damaged the fuel tank of the space shuttle Atlantis has knocked NASA's flight schedule for the year out of whack. Her ticket home, space shuttle Endeavour, may get off the ground several weeks later than its originally scheduled June 28 launch.
Flaming space junk from a Russian satellite narrowly missed hitting a Chilean airliner as it flew over the South Pacific heading into New Zealand. The pilot of a LAN Chile Airbus A340 told air traffic controllers he had seen pieces of flaming space junk falling about eight kilometres from the plane.
The Progress 23P spacecraft was successfully undocked from the ISS at 16:31 GMT (2:11 p.m. EDT). The spacecraft will re-enter into the earth's atmosphere this evening and burn up over the Pacific.
JAXA Astronaut Selected for the Second Space Shuttle Mission for Transporting and Assembling the Japanese Experiment Module Kibo We are pleased to announce that the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) agreed the Japanese astronaut to fly aboard the second Space Shuttle flight for the transportation and assembly of the Japanese Experiment Module Kibo of the International Space Station (ISS) (STS-124/1J). Assigned Astronaut: Astronaut Akihiko Hoshide (Mission Specialist(MS)) Orbiter: Atlantis Planned Flight Schedule: Early 2008 Mission Duration: About two weeks Expected activities: Assemble the Pressurized Module (PM) to the ISS and activate it, and perform other activities. Specific tasks assigned to him are to be determined in the future. Planned schedule of the Astronaut: General training for being aboard the Space Shuttle and the ISS and specific training for Kibo assembly will be provided.
A wee piece of Scotland came back down to earth today when it arrived in the city after being rocketed into space. UK-born astronaut Nick Patrick returned to Edinburgh carrying a saltire flag that had previously flown over the Scottish Parliament.
Space Adventures, Ltd., the world's leading space experiences company, announced today that their orbital client, Charles Simonyi, Ph.D., will take a specially prepared gourmet meal to the International Space Station (ISS). Dr. Simonyi, who is set to become the world's fifth space tourist, is scheduled to launch on April 7 onboard a Soyuz TMA spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan en route to the ISS. As a personal gesture to his fellow crew members, and the astronauts and cosmonauts already aboard the ISS, Dr. Simonyi has chosen a special gourmet meal to be shared by the group during his mission. The menu for the meal, which was prepared by Alain Ducasse's consulting and training center, ADF, was selected by Dr. Simonyi's friend Martha Stewart.
A Russian Progress cargo craft has corrected the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) for its upcoming docking with a Soyuz spacecraft slated in April. During a 2-minute correction operation, the Progress M-58 raised the ISS by about five kilometres to the maximal altitude of about 327 kilometres.
"The ISS orbit was raised by several kilometres to ensure the best conditions for April's docking of Russia's Soyuz TMA-10 manned spaceship with the station and a Soyuz TMA-9 spaceship's landing in a designated area" - Nikolai Kryuchkov, spokesman for the centre.
The Soyuz spacecraft is scheduled to lift off on April 7th for the ISS, carrying a new space tourist, American billionaire Charles Simonyi. On March 27, Progress M-58 will be undocked from the ISS and dumped itself in the Pacific Ocean with garbage gathered from the ISS.
The international space station has been literally falling out of the sky, according to NASA tracking data obtained by MSNBC.com. Under the inexorable decay of air drag, its orbital path around Earth has slipped down to 332 kilometres, the lowest average altitude in the nine-year life of the project. A small rocket engine on a docked cargo ship is being fired this week to boost the orbit by a small amount. But since the orbit is continually dropping at about 90 meters per day, the boost will be eaten up by the effects of air drag within several weeks.
The International Space Station's orbit will be adjusted March 16 to prepare for the docking of a Russian Progress M-58 cargo ship.
"On Friday, March 16, the station's orbit is planned to be adjusted with the help of the docking and guidance system of a Progress M-58 cargo ship" - mission control's spokesman.
The manoeuvre is required to create optimal conditions for a Soyuz TMA-10 piloted spacecraft scheduled to be launched April 7 and provide for the landing of a Soyuz TMA-9 spaceship in the designated area planned for April 20. Source Novosti