Earth's Moon

Photographed by the Expedition 28 crew aboard the International Space Station, this image shows the moon, the Earth's only natural satellite, at center with the limb of Earth near the bottom transitioning into the orange-colored troposphere, the lowest and most dense portion of the Earth's atmosphere. The troposphere ends abruptly at the tropopause, which appears in the image as the sharp boundary between the orange- and blue-colored atmosphere. The silvery-blue noctilucent clouds extend far above the Earth's troposphere.

Image Credit: NASA

Expedition 28 Lands

The Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 28 Commander Andrey Borisenko, and Flight Engineers Ron Garan, and Alexander Samokutyaev in a remote area outside of the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, on Friday, Sept. 16, 2011. NASA Astronaut Garan, Russian Cosmonauts Borisenko and Samokutyaev are returning from more than five months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 27 and 28 crews. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Seattle Students Chat With Space Station Astronauts On Monday

Ann Marie Trotta

Headquarters, Washington

 

Rachel Kraft

Johnson Space Center, Houston

WASHINGTON -- Students gathered at the Museum of Flight in Seattle will make a long distance call to astronauts aboard the International Space Station at approximately 1:35 p.m. EDT on Monday, Aug. 29.

Students from Aviation High School, Puyallup High School, Civil Air Patrol and Liberty High School will ask Expedition 28 Flight Engineers Ron Garan, Mike Fossum and Satoshi Furukawa questions about life, work and research in space. The event will include a video link with the three astronauts and will be broadcast live on NASA Television.

To attend the event, reporters must contact Mike Bush at the museum at mbush@museumofflight.org 253-307-3225.

The museum offers a variety of education activities that explore science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and the space program. It also hosts the Washington Aerospace Scholars program, a hands-on, STEM-focused initiative for high school juniors based on NASA's Texas Aerospace Scholars program.

This in-flight education downlink is one in a series with educational organizations in the United States and abroad to improve STEM teaching and learning. It is an integral component of NASA's Teaching From Space education program, which promotes learning opportunities and builds partnerships with the education community using the unique environment of space and NASA's human spaceflight program.

The exact time of the downlink could change. For the latest NASA TV schedule, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

For information about NASA's education programs, visit http://www.nasa.gov/education.

For information about the International Space Station, visit http://www.nasa.gov/station.

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Cosmonauts Conduct Spacewalk

Cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Alexander Samokutyaev (out of frame), attired in Russian Orlan spacesuits, conducted a spacewalk on Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2011, on the Russian segment of the International Space Station. During the six-hour, 23-minute spacewalk, the Expedition 28 flight engineers moved a cargo boom from one airlock to another, installed a prototype laser communications system and deployed an amateur radio micro-satellite.

Image Credit: NASA

Minnesota Scouts Call Space Station Astronauts

Katherine Trinidad

Headquarters, Washington

 

Rachel Kraft

Johnson Space Center, Houston

WASHINGTON -- Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and other students in St. Paul, Minn., will make a special call to the International Space Station on Tuesday, Aug. 9 at 12:55 p.m. EDT.

The event includes a video link with Expedition 28 Flight Engineers Mike Fossum and Ron Garan, which will be broadcast live on NASA Television. Fossum is scoutmaster of a Boy Scout troop in Texas.

Scouts and students ages 7 to 13 can ask questions about how living and working in space helps increase human understanding of the Earth, science, and the universe. The children also will participate in science and space-related activities before and after the question-and-answer session.

The event will take place at Base Camp, Northern Star Council, Boy Scouts of America's urban program center located at 201 Bloomington Road at Fort Snelling, Minn. To attend, journalists must contact Kent York at 612-760-8430.

The in-flight education downlink is part of a series with educational organizations in the U.S. and abroad to improve teaching and learning in science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects. It is an integral component of Teaching From Space, an agency education program that promotes learning opportunities and builds partnerships with the education community using the unique environment of space and NASA's human spaceflight program.

For NASA TV information and schedules, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

For information about NASA's education programs, visit http://www.nasa.gov/education.

For more information about the International Space Station, visit http://www.nasa.gov/station.

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Hatches Closed Between Station and Shuttle for Final Time

Following a poignant farewell ceremony by the crews of Atlantis and Expedition 28, hatches between the International Space Station and a space shuttle were closed for the final time at 10:28 a.m. EDT.

The hatches between the spacecraft were open for seven days, 21 hours and 41 minutes.

Atlantis' crew will spend the remainder of today preparing for Tuesday's early morning undocking. The station crew goes to sleep at 1:29 p.m. and the shuttle crew follows at 1:59 p.m.

Atlantis Crew Awakened by R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe

Today’s wakeup song was ‘Man on the Moon,” by celebrity Michael Stipe of R.E.M., played at 1:29 a.m. EDT, which included a special message from Stipe: “Good morning, Atlantis. This is Michael Stipe from R.E.M. We wish you much success on your mission and thank all the women and men at NASA who have worked on the shuttle for three decades. From Earth, a very good morning to you.”

Stipe provided the following information:

I recorded 'Man On The Moon' for NASA in Venice, Italy, where Galileo first presented to the Venician government his eight-power telescope, and in 1610 wrote 'The Starry Messenger'(Sidereus Nuncius), an account of his early astronomical discoveries that altered forever our view of our place in the universe.

--Michael Stipe, July 2011

Atlantis and Expedition 28 crews are about halfway done transferring equipment and supplies from the shuttle middeck and the Raffaello multi-purpose module to the International Space Station. They will continue that work today, field questions from reporters, and enjoy some well deserved time off.

Spacewalk Begins

At 9:22 a.m. EDT, Expedition 28 spacewalkers Mike Fossum and Ron Garan switched their suits to battery power, signifying the start of today's six-hour, 30-minute excursion.

This is Fossum's seventh spacewalk and Garan's fourth. Fossum and Garan collaborated on three spacewalks during the STS-124 space shuttle mission in June 2008.

Fossum, EV-1, is the lead spacewalker and is wearing a suit with red stripes, while Garan, EV-2, wears an all-white spacesuit. Fossum's helmet camera displays the number 20 and Garan's the number 18.

Atlantis Mission Specialist Rex Walheim is at the rear flight deck of Atlantis, choreographing the activities and coordinating communications between the spacewalkers and Mission Control in Houston. Shuttle Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialist Sandy Magnus will operate the station's 58-foot-long robotic arm to maneuver the spacewalkers around during the spacewalk.

Once outside, the spacewalkers will retrieve a pump module (PM) from an external stowage platform and store it in Atlantis' cargo bay for return to Earth. Garan will climb aboard the station's robotic arm and grab the pump module while Fossum releases a bolt that holds the PM in place. Grasping the 1400-pound module, Garan then will ride the arm from the stowage platform near the Quest airlock to a carrier in Atlantis' cargo bay. He will place the PM into the carrier and Fossum will bolt it in place. The pump module failed in 2010, shutting down half of the space station's cooling system. Engineers will evaluate the PM to determine the cause of the failure and plan to refurbish it for use as a spare.

Next, Fossum will trade places with Garan and climb onto the station arm. He will grab the Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM) experiment from the shuttle bay and ride the arm to Dextre, the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator. The spacewalkers will dock the RRM to a platform on Dextre that is used to hold equipment for the robot to use. The RRM will demonstrate and test tools, technologies and techniques that could be used to robotically refuel and repair satellites in space. Data from the tests could help reduce the cost and risk of future robotic refueling missions.

Fossum and Garan will deploy the Optical Reflector Materials Experiment, a portion of the Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE) 8 that was installed on the External Logistics Carrier 2 during STS-134. They also will take photos of the material samples. MISSE 8 will be retrieved late next year.

Next, the pair will troubleshoot a protruding grounding wire on a Zarya module payload data grapple fixture that was installed on STS-134. The multi-layer insulation (MLI) grounding wire is stuck in a latch door, where power and data connectors mate with connectors behind the door. With the wire extending out, there is concern the door could interfere with the robotic arm. The spacewalkers will pull back the MLI, insert a hook into the latch door to free the wire, then pull it back to the outside of the grapple fixture where it belongs. They will tuck the wire under Velcro tabs and put the MLI back in place. Fossum and Garan will perform the same operation on a second latch door and check the remaining two latch doors.

The spacewalkers will install a cover on the end of pressurized mating adaptor 3, which receives a great deal of sun.

This is the 160th spacewalk supporting assembly and maintenance of the space station and the 249th excursion conducted by U.S. astronauts.

Docking Day Arrives for STS-135 Crew

The crew of space shuttle Atlantis awoke at 3:29 a.m. EDT to “Mr. Blue Sky” by the Electric Light Orchestra, played for Commander Chris Ferguson.

Today is docking day in space. The terminal initiation burn at 8:29 a.m. will put the shuttle on the final course to link up with the International Space Station at about 11:07 a.m.

Ferguson will fly Atlantis through an intricate approach for docking. After a series of jet firings to fine-tune the shuttle’s path, Atlantis will arrive at a point about 600 feet directly below the station at about 10:06 a.m. Ferguson then will perform the rendezvous pitch maneuver, a one-degree-per-second rotational “backflip” to enable Expedition 28 crew members to snap hundreds of high resolution photographs of the shuttle’s heat shield and other areas of potential interest. Imagery analysts will pore over the photos to determine the health of the shuttle’s thermal protection system.

Once the rotation is completed, Ferguson will fly Atlantis upward and in front of the station before slowly backing in for docking. At 1:19 p.m., hatches will be opened between the two spacecraft. Along with Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley, shuttle Mission Specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim will join the Expedition 28 crew: Commander Andrey Borisenko and Flight Engineers Alexander Samokutyaev and Sergei Volkov of Russian, Satoshi Furukawa from Japan, and NASA’s Ron Garan and Mike Fossum.

The combined crew of 10 will begin more than a week of docked operations, transferring supplies and equipment to the station from Atlantis’ middeck and the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module, which will be transferred from the cargo bay and installed on the station’s Harmony node early Monday. Once 8,000 pounds of cargo are unloaded from Raffaello, it will be packed with waste items from the station and placed back in the cargo bay for return to Earth.

New Space Station Crew Members Launch from Kazakhstan

Michael Curie

Headquarters, Washington                                        

 

Kelly Humphries

Johnson Space Center, Houston

HOUSTON -- NASA astronaut Mike Fossum, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov and Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa launched to the International Space Station at 3:12 p.m. CDT Tuesday (2:12 a.m. local time, Wednesday) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Fossum, Furukawa and Volkov - the Soyuz commander- are scheduled to dock their spacecraft with their new home at 4:22 p.m. Thursday, June 9. They will join Expedition 28 commander Andrey Borisenko and flight engineer Alexander Samokutyaev of the Russian space agency and Ron Garan of NASA. The trio has been aboard the station since April 6.

On Thursday, coverage of the Soyuz docking will begin on NASA Television at 3:30 p.m. NASA TV coverage of the hatches opening and the welcoming ceremony aboard the orbiting laboratory will begin at 8:30 p.m.

The six-person crew will continue the uninterrupted presence of humans on the station since Nov. 2, 2000, conducting expanded scientific research and station maintenance activities. The station residents also will welcome the crew of the last space shuttle flight, Atlantis' STS-135 mission, targeted to launch July 8. The shuttle will deliver critical supplies in the Italian-built Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module and support spacewalks by Fossum and Garan to retrieve a failed cooling system pump module, which Atlantis will return to Earth for analysis.

Garan, Borisenko and Samokutyaev, who launched to the station April 4, will return to Earth in September. Before departing, Borisenko will hand over command of the station to Fossum for Expedition 29, which begins when the Soyuz TMA-21 undocks.

NASA astronaut Dan Burbank and Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin will join Fossum, Volkov and Furukawa to complete the Expedition 29 crew in September.

Fossum will blog about his experiences while aboard the space station. His first blog entry will be posted later today at http://blogs.nasa.gov.

For NASA TV streaming video, schedule and downlink information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

For more information about Expedition 29 and the space station, visit http://www.nasa.gov/station.

To follow Twitter updates from Expedition 28-29 crew member Garan, visit http://twitter.com/Astro_Ron.

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Preparing for Launch

Launch pad engineers at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan are dwarfed by the gantry mechanisms at the base of the Soyuz TMA-02M rocket following its rollout to the pad on Sunday, June 5, 2011. The rocket is being prepared for launch June 8 to carry the crew of Expedition 28 to the International Space Station.

Image Credit: NASA/Carla Cioffi

Shuttle Crew Wrapping Up Work Aboard Station

Mission Specialist Mike Fincke is wrapping up work on the Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly while Mission Specialists Drew Feustel and Greg Chamitoff are organizing and stowing spacewalking tools.

Later in the crew day, Commander Mark Kelly will offer congratulatory words to the participants in the Space Shuttle Program’s “Face In Space” campaign for the STS-134 mission. Participants submitted 128,940 photos for uplink to Endeavour via the Mission Control Center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The images will return to Earth through a data transmission, and contributors will be able to print certificates verifying their photos flew aboard Endeavour.

At 6:56 a.m. EDT, the crew of Endeavour will say goodbye to the Expedition 28 crew members then close the hatches between the International Space Station and Endeavour for the last time as the shuttle crew prepares for undocking and return to Earth on Wednesday.

Expedition 28 Crew Departs Star City

Expedition 28 crew members--Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa, left, Soyuz commander Sergei Volkov, center, and Flight Engineer Mike Fossum--answer reporters' questions during a press conference held on the grounds of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, Wednesday, May 25, 2011 in Star City, Russia. The crew later departed for Baikonur, Kazakhstan, in preparation for their June launch to the International Space Station.

Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls