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TOPIC: International Space Station
Blobrana


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ISS spacewalk
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For the second time in four days, two residents of the International Space Station stepped outside for a spacewalk to complete connecting cooling loops from a temporary to a permanent system. This time the excursion lasted just over seven hours.

Wearing U.S. spacesuits, Expedition 14 Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Suni Williams began their spacewalk at 7:38 a.m. CST, a few minutes ahead of schedule. After setting up tools and tethers outside the Quest airlock, they moved to the area that connects the Z1 truss to the S0 truss at the middle of the station’s large girder-like truss system. This area is known as the "rats' nest."
In these tight quarters, they rerouted a series of two electrical cables and four fluid quick disconnect lines from the soon-to-be defunct Early External Active Thermal Control System to a permanent cooling system in the Destiny Laboratory. The cooling loop reconfigured Sunday, known as the Moderate Temperature Loop (Loop B), removes heat from the station’s avionics systems and payload racks through a heat exchanger system in the Destiny Laboratory. On Jan. 31, Lopez-Alegria and Williams reconfigured a Low Temperature Loop (Loop A) that rejects heat from the station’s environmental systems.
On Sunday, the spacewalkers also assisted in the retraction of the aft heat-rejecting radiator on the P6 truss. The radiator had been used since 2000 to keep station systems at the correct temperature through the temporary cooling system. They helped tie the radiator down with a series of cinches. Unlike the starboard radiator, which was retracted Jan. 31, the aft radiator did not require the installation of a protective thermal shroud due to the station's orientation to the sun. During this summer's STS-118 shuttle mission, a third radiator will be retracted, the only radiator on the P6 truss that will be redeployed after the truss is relocated to the far port side of the truss.

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Blobrana


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RE: ISS
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Two astronauts left the International Space Station on Sunday to finish hooking up a new cooling system that will pave the way for installation of European and Japanese modules beginning this year.
Station commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and flight engineer Sunita Williams left the station's Quest airlock at 8:38 a.m. EST (1338 GMT) for the planned 6-1/2 hour spacewalk.
It was the second of three planned spacewalks over nine days, the most ambitious station assembly work ever attempted without a U.S. space shuttle crew present.
The third spacewalk is set for Thursday, marking the first time three spacewalks will have been conducted in such a short time at the space station without a space shuttle docked to it. Lopez-Alegria planned to conduct a fourth spacewalk with Russian flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin on Feb. 22.
If the schedule stays in place, both U.S. astronauts would hold spacewalking records by the end of the month. Williams will hold the record for the most by a woman, and Lopez-Alegria will be the U.S. champion, surpassed only by Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Solovyov for the all-time record.
The current crew of the world's sole orbital station comprises U.S. astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, who arrived at the station on September 20, and U.S. astronaut Sunita Williams, who replaced the European Space Agency's German astronaut Thomas Reiter in December 2006, and who will remain on the ISS for another several months.

Source Novosti

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Blobrana


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Transformational Space Corp.
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Transformational Space Corp. (t/Space) today announced it has signed a Space Act agreement with NASA to facilitate the company's development of affordable transportation of passengers and cargo to and from Earth orbit.
Under the agreement, NASA will provide information about the agency's projected commercial demand for crew and cargo services to the International Space Station (ISS), as well as technical know-how regarding how commercial vehicles can rendezvous and dock with the ISS. The agency also will monitor t/Space's development program via quarterly meetings.

"We applaud NASA for its innovative thinking on how to foster relationships with businesses that are committed to expanding the human frontier into space. We are moving forward with our development plans and the Space Act Agreement allows us to share our progress with NASA" - Charles Duelfer, t/Space Chief Executive Officer.

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Blobrana


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RE: ISS
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Indian American astronaut Sunita Williams and International Space Station commander Mike Lopez-Alegria went on a seven-hour, 55-minute space walk in the first of an unprecedented three outings in nine days.
The duo returned to their home in space through the Quest airlock at 4:39 a.m. IST Thursday after working on the reconfiguration of the station's power and cooling systems, US space agency NASA said. They are scheduled to take their second space walk Feb 4 and the third Feb 8.

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Blobrana


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Two U.S. astronauts aboard the International Space Station have successfully completed the spacewalk on Wednesday.

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Blobrana


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RE: International Space Station
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 Already spanning an acre in orbit, the International Space Station this year will grow faster in size, power, volume and mass than ever before, significantly expanding its capabilities and setting new records for humans in orbit.

"This will be a challenging but rewarding year for the station program. The station's operations will grow both in orbit and on Earth. As we launch new international components this year, we also will begin new flight control operations from facilities around the world" - Kirk Shireman, deputy program manager for the International Space Station.

In addition to control centers in the United States, Russia and Canada, control centers for the station also will be activated in France, Germany and Japan, allowing NASA's partners to oversee their contributions to the station.
In 2007, NASA and Russia plan to conduct as many as 24 spacewalks, more than has ever been done in a single year. The first spacewalk began at 9:14 a.m. CST Wednesday, Jan. 31 on NASA TV and features Mike Lopez-Alegria, the commander of the current space station mission, known as Expedition 14.
By the end of Expedition 14 in April, Lopez-Alegria should lead all astronauts in the number of spacewalks and the amount of time spent spacewalking. After returning to Earth in July, Expedition 14 and Expedition 15 Flight Engineer Sunita Williams will hold the NASA astronaut record for longest time in space. Lopez-Alegria will have set that record just months earlier. Williams also will have completed the most spacewalks by a woman by the end of February.
Also this year, the electricity generated and used on the station will more than double. By the end of 2007, the station's solar panels will extend to almost three-quarters of an acre of surface area. The extra power and cooling will allow the station's living and working space to expand by more than one-third. The complex will grow from its current size of a two-bedroom apartment to the size of a four-bedroom house by year's end.

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Blobrana


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RE: ISS spacewalks
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Astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria and Sunita Williams started the first of three spacewalks over nine days outside the international space station today.
U.S. astronauts have never attempted three spacewalks in such a short time without a space shuttle docked at the station.

"We'll see you in a couple of hours," Williams told Russian crew mate Mikhail Tyurin who remained inside the space station as the spacewalk began at 9:14 a.m. CST.

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Blobrana


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RE: ISS
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According to NASA, the crew aboard the International Space Station are preparing for a record four spacewalks during the next month. National Aeronautics and Space Administration astronauts Mike Lopez-Alegria and Suni Williams were scheduled to begin a 6 1/2-hour spacewalk on  January 31.

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Blobrana


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NASA and Woods Hole Linkup Connects Space and Sea Explorers
Two extreme explorers will connect in a unique call Friday, Jan. 26, linking the depths of the ocean with the heights of Earth orbit. NASA and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Mass., will host the ultra-long distance call between International Space Station astronaut Sunita “Suni” Williams and marine biologist Tim Shank in the Alvin research submersible.
The call will take place at 1:45 p.m. CST, and will be broadcast tape-delayed on NASA Television between 2 p.m. to 2:45 p.m., immediately following the conclusion of a station status media briefing from NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston. Williams, orbiting 220 miles overhead, and Shank, conducting research two miles undersea in the Alvin submersible, will compare notes on science and exploration. Additionally, they will field questions submitted by students and educators.

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Blobrana


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NASA Sets Briefing to Preview Series of Space Station Spacewalks

HOUSTON - NASA will preview an unprecedented series of four spacewalks to be conducted from the International Space Station during the next month in a media briefing scheduled for Friday, Jan. 26. The briefing will air live on NASA Television and streamed on the Internet at http://www.nasa.gov.

The 1 p.m. CST briefing will originate from NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, and will include questions from media representatives at participating NASA locations. Reporters are asked to call their preferred field center before the briefing and spacewalks to confirm its availability.
Expedition 14 Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Suni Williams will begin the series of spacewalks with a six and a half hour excursion on Jan. 31 and subsequent spacewalks scheduled on Feb. 4 and Feb. 8. Those three spacewalks will be conducted using U.S. spacesuits and will each start from the station's Quest airlock. The fourth spacewalk, scheduled for later in February, will be conducted by Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin using Russian spacesuits from the station's Pirs airlock.

Participants in the Friday, Jan. 26, press briefing will include:

-- Kirk Shireman, deputy International Space Station program manager
-- Derek Hassmann, International Space Station spacewalk flight director
-- Glenda Laws, lead spacewalk officer for Expedition 14
-- Julie Robinson, International Space Station acting program scientist

The U.S. spacewalks will bring on line new portions of the station's cooling system, expanded with components that were activated during a space shuttle mission in December. Lopez-Alegria and Williams also will assist in the retraction of heat-rejecting radiators on the station's P6 truss, install some external devices to stow cargo and install cabling for a new power transfer system for future shuttle flights, among other tasks. On the fourth spacewalk, Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin will remove a stuck antenna from the Russian ISS Progress 23 cargo spacecraft docked to the aft end of the station. Removing the antenna will ensure it can safely undock in early April.

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