International Space Station (Updates)

4,811 · September 1, 2015

Right sexy ladies, those Soyuz-TMA Rockets. Just ... mmmm ... delicious. They're smart, attractive, and built to go.

And the females are great too. *bah-dum! crash!* :laugh:

6,181 · September 2, 2015

Looking forward to the "show" tonight...hope all goes well....fingers crossed.......

6,181 · September 2, 2015

Soyuz TMA-18M on it's way......great launch.....

http://www.russianspaceweb.com/

Launch video is 12:13 minutes...

Well done guys.........relief, always get a bit jumpy at launch time, fingers were crossed......went like clockwork....

//

From....

http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/09/01/exp44-mission-status-center-2/

0505 GMT (1:05 a.m. EDT)
Russian Soyuz commander Sergey Volkov, ESA flight engineer Andreas Mogensen and Kazakh cosmonaut Aidyn Aimbetov have arrived in orbit following a good launch aboard the Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
Both solar arrays have unfurled aboard the spacecraft to generate electricity, and the first major orbit-adjustment maneuver is planned for 4:12 a.m. EDT (0812 GMT) to begin raising the capsule's altitude to match that of the space station.

A second "delta velocity" burn is set for 4:52 a.m. EDT (0852 GMT), followed by several more firings over the next couple of days to set up for rendezvous and docking.

The 7.9-ton capsule's automated rendezvous sequence, guided by its Kurs radar system, will commence at 1:15 a.m. EDT (0515 GMT) Friday

The Soyuz should be in position to start a flyaround maneuver at range of about 400 meters, or 1,300 feet, at about 3:13 a.m. EDT (0713 GMT) to line up with the docking port on the space station's space-facing Poisk module. Soyuz commander Sergey will be standing by to take over manual flying of the spacecraft if required. Final approach will begin about 11 minutes before docking, which is scheduled for 3:42 a.m. EDT (0742 GMT).

The docking should occur 2 days, 3 hours and 5 minutes after liftoff.

0448 GMT (12:48 a.m. EDT)
NASA says the Soyuz spacecraft is completing a programmed sequence to deploy the power-generating solar arrays, as well as antennas for navigational and communication systems.

0446:43 GMT (12:46:43 a.m. EDT)
T+plus 9 minutes. CAPSULE SEPARATION! The Soyuz spacecraft is flying free after the upper stage finished its engine firing and then separated away. The capsule is in pursuit of the International Space Station for a planned docking at 3:42 a.m. EDT (0742 GMT) Friday.

0445:43 GMT (12:45:43 a.m. EDT)
T+plus 8 minutes. About a minute remains in the propulsion by the upper stage. The motor consumes kerosene and liquid oxygen just like the Soyuz rocket's other powerplants.

0444:43 GMT (12:44:43 a.m. EDT)
T+plus 7 minutes. The four-nozzle RD-0110 engine of the upper stage continues to burn to put the spacecraft into orbit.

0443:43 GMT (12:43:43 a.m. EDT)
T+plus 6 minutes. Soyuz's upper stage is firing to propel the spacecraft into a stable orbital perch around Earth on the two-day trek to catch the International Space Station.

0442:43 GMT (12:42:43 a.m. EDT)
T+plus 5 minutes. The core stage of the Soyuz rocket has shut down and separated at an altitude of approximately 105 miles, leaving the upper stage to complete the job of injecting the Soyuz capsule into orbit.

0441:43 GMT (12:41:43 a.m. EDT)
T+plus 4 minutes. The core RD-108A engine continues to fire on its propellant mixture of kerosene fuel and supercold liquid oxygen.

0440:43 GMT (12:40:43 a.m. EDT)
T+plus 3 minutes. The safety escape tower and launch shroud have been jettisoned from the atop the Soyuz capsule.

0439:53 GMT (12:39:53 a.m. EDT)
T+plus 2 minutes, 10 seconds. The four strap-on boosters clustered around the Soyuz rocket's main stage have burned out and separated. The core engine continues to fire as Soyuz streaks into space at more than 3,300 mph.

0438:43 GMT (12:38:43 pa.m. EDT)
T+plus 60 seconds. Good performance one minute into this ascent for the Soyuz rocket and its three-person crew from the Kazakh launch base.
ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen is strapped into the left-hand seat serving as co-pilot, veteran cosmonaut Sergey Volkov is in the center seat for his role as the Soyuz commander and Kazakh cosmonaut Aidyn Aimbetov is riding in the right-hand seat.

0438:13 GMT (12:38:13 a.m. EDT)
T+plus 30 seconds. Volkov is beginning a six-month expedition on the International Space Station. Mogensen and Aimbetov will be in space for 10 days.
The Soyuz rocket has maneuvered on course for a rendezvous with the space station six hours from now. The station currently is flying 250 miles over southern Russia.

0437:43 GMT (12:37:43 a.m. EDT)
LIFTOFF! Liftoff of the Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft with Sergey Volkov, Andreas Mogensen and Aidyn Aimbetov on a two-day pursuit of the International Space Station.

0437:03 GMT (12:37:03 a.m. EDT)
T-minus 40 seconds. The first umbilical arm has separated from Soyuz. The second will retract in the next few seconds.

0436:43 GMT (12:36:43 a.m. EDT)
T-minus 1 minute and counting. The Soyuz has been placed on internal power.

0435:43 GMT (12:35:43 a.m. EDT)
T-minus 2 minutes and counting. Rocket propellant tank pressurization is underway. The vehicle's onboard measurement system is activated. Oxidizer and fuel drain and safety valves of the launch vehicle have been closed.

Later....

Edited September 2, 2015 by Draggendrop
New data

6,181 · September 2, 2015

Russian Rocket Launches International Crew of 3 Toward Space Station

European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen (top) gives a thumb's up sign as he launched into space aboard a Russian Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft with cosmonaut Sergei Volkov (bottom) and Kazakh Space Agency cosmonaut Aidyn Aimbetov (out of frame) from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan on Sept. 2, 2015. The trio is headed for the International Space Station.
Credit: NASA TV

Three new crewmembers launched toward the International Space Station early Wednesday morning, embarking on a mission that will boost the orbiting lab's population to a level not seen in nearly two years.

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying cosmonaut Sergei Volkov, Andreas Mogensen from the European Space Agency and Kazakhstan's Aidyn Aimbetov blasted off atop a Soyuz rocket Wednesday (Sept. 2) from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12:37 a.m. EDT (0437 GMT). It was 10:37 a.m. local time in Baikonur at launch time. You can see a video of the flawless Soyuz launch here.

"We're doing great," Volkov radioed down to Mission Control in Russia after the successful liftoff. "Everything is in order on board."

If all goes according to plan, the trio will reach the station on Friday morning (Sept. 4). The arrival will bring the number of crewmembers aboard the $100 billion orbiting complex to nine, a number last reached in November 2013, NASA officials said.

But the abnormally dense population won't last long. Mogensen and Aimbetov will return to Earth on Sept. 12 along with cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, who has been living on the International Space Station (ISS) since March.

After that departure, six crewmembers will remain — Volkov and fellow cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Mikhail Kornienko, Japanese spaceflyer Kimiya Yui and NASA astronauts Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren.

Kelly and Kornienko are about halfway through the first-ever yearlong mission aboard the space station. Researchers are studying how they adapt physiologically and psychologically to long-duration spaceflight; the results should help pave the way for future human missions to Mars, NASA officials have said.

Kelly's identical twin brother Mark, who is a former NASA astronaut, is participating in the experiment from the ground, serving as a control against which to compare the data gathered about Scott.

Most crewmembers spend 5 to 6 months aboard the orbiting lab. Mogensen and Aimbetov are flying their brief 10-day mission because Soyuz spacecraft are certified to stay in space for just six months. So Kelly and Kornienko cannot return to Earth in the Soyuz that brought them up; instead, they will come down in the vehicle that is carrying Mogensen, Aimbetov and Volkov to the station.

Aimbetov was a late addition to this "taxi flight." His seat was supposed to be filled by English singer Sarah Brightman, who was reportedly set to pay about $50 milllion for her orbital experience. ButBrightman backed out in May, citing "personal family reasons."

http://www.space.com/30437-russian-rocket-launches-space-station-crew.html

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Three Soyuz Crew Members Launch for Two Day Trip to Station

The Soyuz TMA-18M launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station at 12:37 a.m. EDT Wednesday (10:37 a.m. in Baikonur). At launch, the station was flying 250 miles above south-central Kazakhstan, having passed over the Baikonur Cosmodrome less than a minute before liftoff. Sergey Volkov of Roscosmos, Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency) and Aidyn Aimbetov of the Kazakh Space Agency are now are safely in orbit.

NASA TV coverage continues at http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv.

They are on a two-day course to dock to the station at 3:42 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 4. NASA TV coverage of docking will begin at 3 a.m.

With the arrival of Volkov, Mogensen and Aimbetov, nine people will be aboard the orbiting laboratory for the first time since 2013. The three will join Expedition 44 Flight Engineers Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren of NASA, Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineers Oleg Kononenko and Mikhail Kornienko of Roscosmos, and Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

At 2:40 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 5, NASA TV will provide a live broadcast as Padalka hands over command of the space station to Kelly. Expedition 45 begins on Sept. 11 when Padalka, Mogensen and Aimbetov undock from the orbiting outpost in the Soyuz spacecraft designated TMA-16M and return to Earth. The Soyuz TMA-16M carried Padalka, Kelly, and Kornienko to space in March. Because each Soyuz remains in orbit for about six months, the spacecraft swap is necessary during the one-year mission.

Below is the timeline for the remainder of the crew’s trip to the orbiting laboratory.

Wednesday Sept. 2, 2015

EDT                 EVENT
4:12 am         DV-1 rendezvous burn (37 mph / 55 fps)
4:52 am         DV-2 burn (25 mph / 36 fps)
11:00 am      NASA TV:     “Space Station Live” (daily program)

Thursday      Sept. 3, 2015

EDT                 EVENT
1:39 am         DV-3 burn (4.4 mph / 6.5 fps)
11:00 am      NASA TV:     “Space Station Live” (daily program)

Friday Sept. 4, 2015

EDT                 EVENT
1:15 am         Automated Rendezvous & Docking (AR&D) start
1:35 am         US Motion Control Sys handover to Russian segment
1:35:08 am   AR&D Impulse 1 (65.5 mph / 96 fps)
1:40 am         Station maneuvers to docking attitude
1:58 am         AR&D Impulse 2 (2.9 mph / 4.2 fps)
2:01:05 am   Range 124 miles – establish Soyuz VHF-2 voice link
2:01:30 am   Soyuz Kurs-A (Active) activation
2:03:30 am   Service Module (Zvezda) Kurs-P (Passive) activation
2:20 am         AR&D Impulse 3 (91.8 mph / 134.7 fps)
2:27 am         Range 49.7 miles – Valid Kurs-P range data
2:48 am         Range 9.3 miles (49,212 ft) – Kurs-A & -P short test
2:56 am         Range 4.9 miles (26,247 ft) – Soyuz TV activation
2:58 am         SCAN & RapidScat inhibit–NLT (3.7 miles / 19,685 ft)
3:00 am         NASA TV:      DOCKING COVERAGE BEGINS
3:03 am         AR&D Impulse 4 (16 mph / 23 fps)
3:04 am         AR&D Ballistic Targeting Point
3:08 am         AR&D Impulse 5 (13 mph / 19 fps)
3:10 am         AR&D Impulse 6 (4.6 mph / 6.8 fps)
3:13 am         Sunrise
3:13 am         Fly-around mode start
3:23 am         Station keeping start
3:31 am         Final approach start
3:42 am         Docking to MRM2–“Poisk”

250 miles up & above eastern Kazakhstan

Station to free drift

3:55 am         Soyuz & Poisk hooks closed

Station maneuvers to LVLH attitude

4:13 am         Sunset
4:35 am         Russian to US Motion Control System handover
5:45 am         NASA TV: HATCH/WELCOME COVERAGE
6:15 am                     Hatch opening & welcome ceremony

Includes VIP & family calls from Baikonur

8:00 am         NASA TV: Docking, hatches & welcome highlights
11:00 am      NASA TV:     “Space Station Live” (daily program)

https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2015/09/02/three-soyuz-crew-members-launch-for-two-day-trip-to-station/

6,181 · September 2, 2015

Photos: Three-man crew launched from steppes of Kazakhstan

Three space fliers rocketed away from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, setting off in pursuit of the International Space Station to swap out Soyuz lifeboats for the research lab’s one-year crew.

The launch occurred at 0437 GMT (12:37 a.m. EDT; 10:37 a.m. Baikonur time).

Veteran cosmonaut Sergey Volkov sat in the center couch of the Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft, joined by European Space Agency flight engineer Andreas Mogensen and Kazakh fighter pilot turned cosmonaut Aidyn Aimbetov.

Tradition....You need this.........

Photo credit: ESA-S. Corvaja

to get this...........

Photo credit: Roscosmos

Photo credit: ESA-S. Corvaja

More photo's at the link....

http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/09/02/photos-three-man-crew-launched-from-steppes-of-kazakhstan/

Later.......

8,882 · September 2, 2015

Thats one hell of a fire cracker to give a good kick in the pants to the Astronauts

6,181 · September 2, 2015

Here is a neat article on the launch....

Soyuz rocket with three astronauts launches towards ISS

A Soyuz spacecraft with three astronauts successfully launched towards the International Space Station on Wednesday.The take off also marked the 500th launch from the Gagarin launchpad in Kazakhstan, named after the Soviet space pioneer.

The trio -- including the first Danish citizen ever to fly into space -- blasted off in the Soyuz TMA 18M rocket on schedule at 0437 GMT from the same launchpad that Yuri Gagarin used for his historic entry into the cosmos in 1961.

"The crew is doing well, everything is in order onboard," relayed mission control at Baikonur in Kazakhstan.

Veteran cosmonaut Sergei Volkov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos is leading a team that also includes first-time flyers Aidyn Aimbetov from Kazakhstan (Kazcosmos) and Andreas Mogensen from Denmark (European Space Agency).

They are expected to make the journey to the ISS in two days, docking on Friday at about 0742 GMT.

Volkov will stay on at the ISS, while both Aimbetov and Mogensen will return to Earth on Soyuz TMA-16M on September 12.

Mogensen is the first Dane to enter space while Aimbetov, who replaced British singer Sarah Brightman after the 54-year-old pulled out of the mission in June, is the third from his country to do so.

"It's a great honour for me to represent Denmark as an astronaut," Mogensen said in a Google hangout organised by ESA last month.

and the Volkov family....neat heritage

Lego and horse milk
Mogensen, 38, will be joined by 26 custom-made Lego models provided especially for the mission by the world-famous Danish toy manufacturer, as well as the writing of Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard.

Aimbetov, 43, took dried horse milk and several other national staples from the Central Asian country into space with him as well as a toy from his daughter, who said she hoped he would encounter alien life.

At a press conference ahead of the flight on Tuesday, Kazakhstan's Deputy Prime Minister Berdibek Saparbaev noted that Volkov's own cosmonaut father Alexander Volkov accompanied the first-ever Kazakh cosmonaut to enter space, Toktar Aubakirov, on a 1991 mission.

"Now you have continued this line by becoming the commander of the crew in which our Aidyn Aimbetov is flying."

later.....

6,181 · September 2, 2015

Thats one hell of a fire cracker to give a good kick in the pants to the Astronauts

In the launch video, you can tell the stage separations...like you said, a good kick, what a hoot that would be...... :woot:

8,882 · September 2, 2015

So Sarah Brightman missed it whats her chances of getting on the next mission or is it prebooked?

6,181 · September 2, 2015

So Sarah Brightman missed it whats her chances of getting on the next mission or is it prebooked?

The seats need to be booked and training completed....have not heard of a rebook......

However, on 13 May 2015, Spaceflight Participant Sarah Brightman, from the United Kingdom, announced that she was withdrawing from the TMA-18M mission.

With Brightman’s withdrawal, her backup, Satoshi Takamatsu, became the prime crewmember for TMA-18M.

However, in short order, Takamatsu also withdrew his participation in the TMA-18M flight because the art projects he specifically wanted to work on in space would not be ready for the September 2015 launch date of TMA-18M.

Things that make you go "Hmmmmmmmm"

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/09/soyuz-tma-18m-one-expedition-crewmember-iss/

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NASA International Space Station On-Orbit Status 1 September 2015

NASA International Space Station On-Orbit Status 1 September 2015. NASA

Sergey Volkov of Roscosmos, Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency) and Aidyn Aimbetov of the Kazakh Space Agency have boarded the Russian Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft that will carry them to the International Space Station.

All is on track for liftoff at 12:37 a.m. EDT Wednesday. NASA Television coverage of the launch will begin at 11:45 p.m. Watch on NASA TV or at: http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv.

The crew will make 34 orbits of Earth in two days en route to the station before arriving Friday, Sept. 4. The three will join Expedition 44 Flight Engineers Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren of NASA, Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineers Oleg Kononenko and Mikhail Kornienko of Roscosmos, and Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). It will be the first time since 2013 that nine people will be aboard the orbiting laboratory.

The trip enables Roscosmos to rotate a crew member and a Soyuz spacecraft. Volkov will remain aboard the station for the next six months, returning in March 2016 with one-year mission crew members Kelly and Kornienko in the Soyuz TMA-18M. Padalka, who launched in March with Kelly and Kornienko in the Soyuz TMA-16M, will return to Earth in that spacecraft on Sept. 11 with Mogensen and Aimbetov. Each Soyuz remains in orbit for about six months.

Multi-Purpose Small Payload Rack (MSPR)-2 Installation and Checkout: Lindgren completed the post-transfer reconfigurations of the MSPR-2 rack. He will be removing launch locks, installing and mating connections for power, water, and argon gas lines. Following the reconfiguration, Lindgren performed the checkout the Rack Power Switch, Fire Indication, and High Rate Data Multiplexer System (HRMS). MSPR-2 commissioning continues tomorrow.

Mobile Servicing System (MSS) Operations: Robotics Ground Controllers powered up the MSS and maneuvered the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) and Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM) Arm 2 to position Orbit Replaceable Unit (ORU) Tool Changeout Mechanism 2 (OTCM2) to grasp the Micro-Square Fixture (MSF) of Space Test Program - Houston 4 (STP-H4) and uninstall it from External Logistics Carrier (ELC) 1. After maneuvering into position, the SSRMS and SPDM then mated STP-H4 to the H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) External Platform (EP). SPDM release of STP-H4 was followed by a pre-disposal survey using SPDM and ISS cameras. SPDM was then configured for stow and maneuvered to the Mobile Base System (MBS) where it was stowed on Power and Data Grapple Fixture 2 (PDGF2). During the mating the SPDM LEE safed and lost calibration and mating was not reported complete although the umbilicals were connected. The Robotics Ground Controllers used manual latching to ensure the umbilicals were fully mated, then reset the SPDM LEE calibration and continued with the SPDM base change and release. Finally, the SSRMS was maneuvered to a Mobile Transporter (MT) translate configuration.

HTV Cargo Transfer Status: Lindgren completed 3.25 hours of HTV-5 Cargo transfer operations today. A total of 25 hours remain to complete HTV-5 cargo operations.

Ground Activities
All activities are on schedule unless otherwise noted.

Fluid Shifts support
Robotic Operations

Three-Day Look Ahead:
Wednesday, 09/02: Sprint VO2, MSPR2 power checkout, KUBIK 5 setup, JSL Playbook Checkout, CAPBEV test
Thursday, 09/03: CBEF Mouse Habitat Unit interface unit install, MSPR laptop setup and LAN, USB checkout, Body Measures, CAPBEV Test
Friday, 09/04: 44S dock and ingress, CBEF MHU removal, MSPR2 video recording unit checkout

QUICK ISS Status - Environmental Control Group:

Component - Status
Elektron - On
Vozdukh - Manual
[СКВ] 1 - SM Air Conditioner System ("SKV1") - Off
[СКВ] 2 - SM Air Conditioner System ("SKV2") - On
Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Lab - Standby
Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Node 3 - Operate
Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Lab - Shutdown
Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Node 3 - Operate
Oxygen Generation Assembly (OGA) - Process
Urine Processing Assembly (UPA) - Process
Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Lab - Off
Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Node 3 Full Up

http://spaceref.com/international-space-station/nasa-international-space-station-on-orbit-status-1-september-2015.html

----------------------------------------------------

Data........

Soyuz TMA-18M lifts off

A Soyuz-FG rocket carrying the Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft lifted off as scheduled on Sept. 2, 2015, at 07:37:43 Moscow Time (12:37 a.m. EDT) from Baikonur Cosmodrome's Site 1 in Kazakhstan. After a less than nine-minute ascent, the spacecraft separated from the third stage of the launch vehicle in a 200.34 by 248.67-kilometer orbit with an inclination 51.67 degrees toward the Equator, nearly matching all planned parameters.

During the two-day, 34-orbit chase of the station, the spacecraft is expected to conduct three orbit correction maneuvers during the 3rd, 4th orbit of the first day and during the 17th orbit on the second day of the flight.

The docking at the MIM2 Poisk module, a part of the Russian segment of the ISS is scheduled on Sept. 4, 2015, at 10:42 Moscow Time (3:42 a.m. EDT).

The hatches between the Soyuz and station will be opened at about 13:15 Moscow Time (6:15 a.m. EDT).

Soyuz TMA-17M crew (Expedition 45/46):

Primary crew Backup crew

Sergei Volkov, Soyuz commander, Roskosmos Oleg Skripochka, Soyuz commander, Roskosmos

Andreas Mogensen, Flight Engineer, ESA/Denmark Thomas Pesquet, Flight Engineer, ESA/France

Aidyn Aimbetov, Flight Engineer 2, Kazakhstan Sergei Prokopiev, Flight Engineer 2, Roskosmos

http://www.russianspaceweb.com/iss-soyuz-tma18m.html

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Three Space Station Crews to Answer Media Questions from Orbit

WASHINGTON, Sept. 2, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Nine International Space Station crew members will discuss their mission with reporters from around the world during a joint crew news conference to air live on NASA Television at 10:10 a.m. EDT Tuesday, Sept. 8.

This will be the first time since November 2013 that nine crew members are aboard the station simultaneously.

The nine crew members represent five different space agencies:

NASA's Scott Kelly, one-year crew member and Expedition 45 commander, and Kjell Lindgren, Expedition 44/45 flight engineer

Russian Federal Space Agency's (Roscosmos') Gennady Padalka, Expedition 44 commander; Mikhail Kornienko, one-year crew member; Oleg Kononenko, Expedition 44/45 flight engineer; and Sergey Volkov, Expedition 45/46 flight engineer

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kimiya Yui, Expedition 44/45 flight engineer

ESA's (European Space Agency) Andreas Mogensen, visiting crew member

Kazakh Space Agency's Aidyn Aimbetov, visiting crew member

The news conference, arranged in coordination with NASA's international partner agencies, will last 45 minutes and feature questions from U.S., Russian, European and Japanese media. Each partner agency will have 10 minutes for questions. Because of the limited time available, all U.S. media will be required to ask their questions in person at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston or NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. International media accreditation for this event is closed for participation from NASA's centers. Interested international media should contact partner agencies for more information.

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/prnewswire-space-news.html?doc=201509021239PR_NEWS_USPR_____DC92774&showRelease=1&dir=0&categories=AEROSPACE-AND-SPACE-EXPLORATION&andorquestion=OR&&passDir=0,1,2,3,4,5,6,15,17,34

Later.....

6,181 · September 4, 2015

NASA International Space Station On-Orbit Status 2 September 2015

Hurricane Jimena is a category 3 storm and is about 1,000 miles east of Hawaii, traveling at a rate of 10 mph in a west-northwest direction. This image was captured by the International Space Station on August 30, 2015. Credit: NASA

Three crew members are orbiting Earth getting ready to dock to the International Space Station early Friday in their Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft. Meanwhile, the six residents on the orbital laboratory are exploring human research and maintaining life support systems.

Long-term microgravity research is the station's primary mission as scientists and astronauts learn to live in space for extended periods. A pair of One-Year Crew members, Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko, studied how microgravity affects a crew member's ability to perform specific tasks as well as fatigue due to disruption of a normal sunrise/sunset schedule.

Multi-Purpose Small Payload Rack (MSPR)-2 Power Checkout: Yui completed a power supply checkout for Multi-purpose Small Payload Rack 2 (MSPR2) Work Volume, Small Experiment Area, Work Bench and DC/DC Converter Unit.

JSL Playbook Checkout: Kelly successfully tested access and functionality of the Playbook web application on both the SSC and iPad platforms. This application is scheduled to be used by Mogensen.

Waste and Hygiene Compartment (WHC) Status: Last night the crew reported a WHC Pre-Treat Bad Qual Light (PTBQL). The crew changed out the pre-treat tank which did not fix the problem and the crew was given a go to use the Russian [ACY]. Ground teams concluded that the likely issue was a failed dose pump. Kelly Removed & Replaced (R&R) the bad pump and the WHC is now operating nominally.

HTV5 Cargo Transfer Status: Lindgren and Yui completed 3 hours of HTV-5 Cargo transfer operations today.

Ground Activities
All activities are on schedule unless otherwise noted.
SPRINT ops

Three-Day Look Ahead:
Thursday, 09/03: CBEF Mouse Habitat Unit interface unit install, MSPR laptop setup and LAN, USB checkout, Body Measurements, NRCSD 6 imagery
Friday, 09/04: 44S dock, CBEF MHU removal, MSPR2 video recording unit checkout
Saturday, 09/05: Emergency roles & responsibilities review, Change of Command Ceremony

QUICK ISS Status - Environmental Control Group:

Component - Status
Elektron - On
Vozdukh - Manual
[СКВ] 1 - SM Air Conditioner System ("SKV1") - On
[СКВ] 2 - SM Air Conditioner System ("SKV2") - Off
Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Lab - Standby
Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Node 3 - Operate
Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Lab - Shutdown
Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Node 3 - Operate
Oxygen Generation Assembly (OGA) - Process
Urine Processing Assembly (UPA) - Process
Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Lab - Off
Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Node 3 - Full Up

http://spaceref.com/international-space-station/nasa-international-space-station-on-orbit-status-2-september-2015.html

video is 5:20...informative...

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Update....

Soyuz TMA-18M lifts off

A Soyuz-FG rocket carrying the Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft lifted off as scheduled on Sept. 2, 2015, at 07:37:43 Moscow Time (12:37 a.m. EDT) from Baikonur Cosmodrome's Site 1 in Kazakhstan. After a less than nine-minute ascent, the spacecraft separated from the third stage of the launch vehicle in a 200.34 by 248.67-kilometer orbit with an inclination 51.67 degrees toward the Equator, nearly matching all planned parameters.

During the two-day, 34-orbit chase of the station, the spacecraft is expected to conduct three orbit correction maneuvers during the 3rd, 4th orbit of the first day and during the 17th orbit on the second day of the flight.

All three maneuvers were conducted as planned with the final engine firing initiated on September 3, at 10:30 Moscow Time. However the resulting orbit took the spacecraft just four kilometers from a third stage of a Japanese launch vehicle, which delivered a satellite into orbit in 1989. The closest approach between Soyuz TMA-18M and a space junk took place between 11:30 and 11:40 Moscow Time, however tracking centers in Russia and the US had confirmed before the third orbital maneuver that the Soyuz would still be in a safe orbit, Roskosmos announced.

The docking at the MIM2 Poisk module, a part of the Russian segment of the ISS is scheduled on Sept. 4, 2015, at 10:42 Moscow Time (3:42 a.m. EDT).

The hatches between the Soyuz and station will be opened at about 13:15 Moscow Time (6:15 a.m. EDT).

Soyuz TMA-17M crew (Expedition 45/46):

Primary crew Backup crew

Sergei Volkov, Soyuz commander, Roskosmos Oleg Skripochka, Soyuz commander, Roskosmos

Andreas Mogensen, Flight Engineer, ESA/Denmark Thomas Pesquet, Flight Engineer, ESA/France

Aidyn Aimbetov, Flight Engineer 2, Kazakhstan Sergei Prokopiev, Flight Engineer 2, Roskosmos

http://www.russianspaceweb.com/iss-soyuz-tma18m.html

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Itinerary.....(EDT)

Friday Sept. 4, 2015

EDT EVENT
1:15 am Automated Rendezvous & Docking (AR&D) start
1:35 am US Motion Control Sys handover to Russian segment
1:35:08 am AR&D Impulse 1 (65.5 mph / 96 fps)
1:40 am Station maneuvers to docking attitude
1:58 am AR&D Impulse 2 (2.9 mph / 4.2 fps)
2:01:05 am Range 124 miles - establish Soyuz VHF-2 voice link
2:01:30 am Soyuz Kurs-A (Active) activation
2:03:30 am Service Module (Zvezda) Kurs-P (Passive) activation
2:20 am AR&D Impulse 3 (91.8 mph / 134.7 fps)
2:27 am Range 49.7 miles - Valid Kurs-P range data
2:48 am Range 9.3 miles (49,212 ft) - Kurs-A & -P short test
2:56 am Range 4.9 miles (26,247 ft) - Soyuz TV activation
2:58 am SCAN & RapidScat inhibit-NLT (3.7 miles / 19,685 ft)
3:00 am NASA TV: DOCKING COVERAGE BEGINS
3:03 am AR&D Impulse 4 (16 mph / 23 fps)
3:04 am AR&D Ballistic Targeting Point
3:08 am AR&D Impulse 5 (13 mph / 19 fps)
3:10 am AR&D Impulse 6 (4.6 mph / 6.8 fps)
3:13 am Sunrise
3:13 am Fly-around mode start
3:23 am Station keeping start
3:31 am Final approach start
3:42 am Docking to MRM2-"Poisk"
- 250 miles up & above eastern Kazakhstan
- Station to free drift
3:55 am Soyuz & Poisk hooks closed
- Station maneuvers to LVLH attitude
4:13 am Sunset
4:35 am Russian to US Motion Control System handover
5:45 am NASA TV: HATCH/WELCOME COVERAGE
6:15 am Hatch opening & welcome ceremony
- Includes VIP & family calls from Baikonur
8:00 am NASA TV: Docking, hatches & welcome highlights
11:00 am NASA TV: "Space Station Live" (daily program)

http://spaceref.com/international-space-station/soyuz-tma-18m-schedule-and-rendezvous-information-with-the-iss.html

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WATCH LIVE @ 3 a.m. ET Friday: New Crew Arrives at Space Station

Three new crewmembers will arrive at the International Space Station Friday morning (Sept. 4) at 3:42 a.m. ET (0742 GMT) aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Watch the docking live in the window below, courtesy of NASA TV, beginning at 3 a.m. ET (0700 GMT):

The hatches separating the Soyuz and the space station will open at 6:15 a.m. ET (1015 GMT) Friday. After that happens, the Soyuz travelers — Russia's Sergey Volkov, the European Space Agency's Andreas Mogensen and Kazakhstan's Aidyn Aimbetov— will board the $100 billion orbiting complex, boosting its population to nine crewmembers. You can watch the hatch opening live here as well; coverage begins at 5:45 a.m. (0945 GMT).

http://www.space.com/17933-nasa-television-webcasts-live-space-tv.html

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Soyuz Snaps Amazing View of Space Station Dock Switch | Time-Lapse Video video is 1:13 min

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RED AIRGLOW OVER CHILE:

On Sept. 1st, astrophotographer Yuri Beletsky hiked into the Atacama Desert of Chile for a deep exposure of the Milky Way. He got that and much more. "There was a stunning display of red airglow," he says. It surrounded the Milky Way like a celestial bulls-eye:

Airglow is aurora-like phenomenon caused by chemical reactions in the upper atmosphere. Human eyes seldom notice the faint glow, but It can be photographed on almost any clear dark night, anywhere in the world.

The curious thing about Beletsky's photo is not the presence of airglow, but ratherits color--red. Airglow is usually green, the color of light from oxygen atoms some 90 km to 100 km above Earth's surface. Where does the red come from? Instead of oxygen, OH can produce the required color. These neutral molecules (not to be confused with the OH- ion found in aqueous solutions) exist in a thin layer 85 km high where gravity waves impress the red glow with a dramatic rippling structure.

"It was a truly special night," says Beletsky. "Pure tranquility."

http://spaceweather.com/

Special note.....gravity waves are not gravitational waves, which, to date, have not been observed. In my opinion, I wish another term had been used to prevent confusion.....

Their use of the term "gravity wave" is...Atmospheric gravity wave, ...

Drop a stone into a pool of water. The spreading ripples are gravity waves. The waves occur between any stable layers of fluids of different density. When the fluid boundary is disturbed, buoyancy forces try to restore the equilibrium. The fluid returns to its original shape, overshoots and oscillations then set in which propagate as waves. Gravity or buoyancy is the restoring force hence the term - gravity waves.

These waves (internal gravity or buoyancy waves) abound in the stable density layering of the upper atmosphere. Their effects are visibly manifest in the curls of the stratosphere’s nacreous clouds, in the moving skein-like and billow patterns of the mesosphere’s noctilucent clouds and in the slowly shifting bands of the thermosphere’s airglow.

What triggers them? The ‘stones into the pond’ are disturbances far below in the troposphere, for example, windflow over mountain ranges and violent thunderstorms. Jet stream shear and solar radiation are other sources. An initial small amplitude at the tropopause increases with height until the waves break in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere. Their wavelengths can range up to thousands of kilometres. Their periods range from a few minutes to days.

They do more than give clouds interesting shapes. They are vital in their role of transferring energy, momentum and chemical species between the different atmospheric layers and in the subsequent influence on upper atmosphere winds, turbulence, temperature and chemistry.

http://www.atoptics.co.uk/highsky/hgrav.htm

http://spaceweather.com/

Later....

6,181 · September 4, 2015

I watched the docking last night, which included some great automated thruster use. The media is really running with this now, which is a good thing, for exposure of the ISS and co-operative missions.

Soyuz docks with space station, boosts crew to nine

The Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft approaches the International Space Station for docking Friday. Credit: NASA TV

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft docked at the International Space Station early Friday, boosting the lab’s crew to nine for the next week and providing a ride home next March for two station crew members who are only halfway through a nearly yearlong stay aboard the lab complex.

Launched Wednesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Soyuz TMA-18M ferry craft glided to a smooth docking at the station’s upper Poisk module at 3:39 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) to close out a trouble-free rendezvous. Moments later, hooks and latches engaged to pulled the Soyuz snugly into place.

Spacecraft commander Sergey Volkov, European Space Agency flight engineer Andreas Mogensen and Kazakh cosmonaut Aidyn Aimbetov then stood by for lengthy leak checks to verify a tight seal before opening hatches and floating into the space station at 6:15 a.m.

Welcoming them aboard with hugs and broad smiles were Expedition 44 commander Gennady Padalka and his two Soyuz TMA-16M crewmates, Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko, and Soyuz TMA-17 crew members Oleg Kononenko, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren.

Crowding into the Zvezda command module, Volkov and his crewmates briefly chatted with family members and senior space officials who were gathered in the Russian mission control center near Moscow.

“We’re doing well, everybody is doing well, we’re ready for work,” Volkov said.

The space station has a crew of nine for the first time since November 2013. Credit: NASA TV

A representative of Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency, closed out the video call by saying “in space, things are proceeding much better than on the ground.”

“If we were cooperating on the ground, on Earth, as well as you do on the station that would be just wonderful,” he said in translated remarks. “I think you’re setting an example how we should work, cooperate, on Earth.”

“We’ll continue trying to show a good example of working well together,” Volkov replied. “Thank you very much.”

http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/09/04/soyuz-docks-with-space-station-boosts-crew-to-nine/

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Visiting and Expedition 45 Crew Arrive at the International Space Station

After launching in their Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Sept. 2, Kazakh time, Expedition 45 Soyuz Commander Sergey Volkov of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and visiting crew members Andreas Mogensen of the European Space Agency and Aidyn Aimbetov of the Kazakh Space Agency (Kazcosmos) arrived at the International Space Station on Sept. 4 following a 34-orbit, two-day rendezvous.

They docked their craft to the Poisk module on the Russian segment of the complex. A few hours after docking, Volkov, Mogensen and Aimbetov opened hatches and were greeted by station Commander Gennady Padalka of Roscosmos, NASA Flight Engineers Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren, Flight Engineer Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Russian Flight Engineers Mikhail Kornienko and Oleg Kononenko. As the hatches were opened, the families of the newly arrived crew members and Russian, European and Kazakh officials viewed the activities from the Russian Mission Control Center in Korolev, outside Moscow.

http://spaceref.com/international-space-station/visiting-and-expedition-45-crew-arrive-at-the-international-space-station.html

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NASA International Space Station On-Orbit Status 3 September 2015

Cell Biology Experiment Facility (CBEF) Reconfiguration: Yui performed Day 4 of the CBEF reconfiguration, installing the Mouse Habitat Unit (MHU) into the CBEF. The JAXA operations team will now conduct functional checkout commanding.

Multi-Purpose Small Payload Rack-2 (MSPR-2): Yui continued with MSPR-2 setup and commissioning. Today's operations included connection and configuration of the Experiment Laptop Terminal (ELT), Local Area Network (LAN) checkout, and USB communication checkout.

NanoRack Cubesat Deployer (NRCSD) #6 Imaging: Kelly collected images of the NRCSD #6 delivered on HTV-5. Based on issues with previous NRCSDs, ground teams requested these images to capture the existing tolerances in the Secondary Release Mechanisms. Images were downlinked for ground analysis. NRCSD #6 is scheduled to be installed in the JEM Airlock (JEMAL) and deployed during Increment 45.

Area Passive Dosimeter for Life-Science Experiments in Space (PADLES) Removal: Yui removed the 17 Increment 43/44 PADLES from the JEM Pressurized Module (JPM) and Japanese Experiment Logistics Module - Pressurized Section (JLP) and provided them to Padalka for packing in the 42S for return. Area PADLES is an investigation that uses area dosimeters to continuously monitor the radiation dose aboard the ISS. Radiation exposure can have significant biological effects on living organisms including the biological investigations being done on ISS in the JEM/Kibo. By installing area dosimeters at 17 fixed locations inside the Kibo Module, continuous area radiation monitoring can be provided throughout the ISS Kibo program.

Capillary Effects of Drinking in the Microgravity Environment (Capillary Beverage): Kelly and Lindgren performed sessions of Capillary Beverage to observe fluid interface and critical wetting behavior during drinking and draining activities. Microgravity affects the way fluids behave, and as such, crew members must drink from special sealed bags instead of using straws or normal cups. Capillary Beverage studies the process of drinking from specially designed Space Cups that use fluid dynamics to mimic the effect of gravity.

Three-Day Look Ahead:

Friday, 09/04: 44S dock, CBEF MHU removal, Body Measures, MSPR2 video recording unit checkout
Saturday, 09/05: Emergency roles & responsibilities review, Change of Command Ceremony
Sunday, 09/06: OBT Soyuz drill, crew off duty

QUICK ISS Status - Environmental Control Group:

Component - Status
Elektron - On
Vozdukh - Manual
[СКВ] 1 - SM Air Conditioner System ("SKV1") - On
[СКВ] 2 - SM Air Conditioner System ("SKV2") - Off
Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Lab - Operate
Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Node 3 - Operate
Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Lab - Shutdown
Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Node 3 - Operate
Oxygen Generation Assembly (OGA) - Process
Urine Processing Assembly (UPA) - Process
Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Lab - Off
Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Node 3 - Full Up

http://spaceref.com/international-space-station/nasa-international-space-station-on-orbit-status-3-september-2015.html

video is 4:49 min

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NASA ISS Space to Ground Weekly Report - 4 September 2015

NASA ISS Space to Ground Weekly Report - 4 September 2015. NASA

NASA's Space to Ground is your weekly update on what's happening aboard the International Space Station.

http://spaceref.com/international-space-station/nasa-iss-space-to-ground-weekly-report---4-september-2015.html

video is 1:43 min

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Soyuz update

A Soyuz-FG rocket carrying the Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft lifted off as scheduled on Sept. 2, 2015, at 07:37:43 Moscow Time (12:37 a.m. EDT) from Baikonur Cosmodrome's Site 1 in Kazakhstan. After a less than nine-minute ascent, the spacecraft separated from the third stage of the launch vehicle in a 200.34 by 248.67-kilometer orbit with an inclination 51.67 degrees toward the Equator, nearly matching all planned parameters.

During the two-day, 34-orbit chase of the station, the spacecraft is expected to conduct three orbit correction maneuvers during the 3rd, 4th orbit of the first day and during the 17th orbit on the second day of the flight.

All three maneuvers were conducted as planned with the final engine firing initiated on September 3, at 10:30 Moscow Time. However the resulting orbit took the spacecraft just four kilometers from a third stage of a Japanese launch vehicle, which delivered a satellite into orbit in 1989. The closest approach between Soyuz TMA-18M and a space junk took place between 11:30 and 11:40 Moscow Time, however tracking centers in Russia and the US had confirmed before the third orbital maneuver that the Soyuz would still be in a safe orbit, Roskosmos announced.

The docking at the MIM2 Poisk module, a part of the Russian segment of the ISS was scheduled on Sept. 4, 2015, at 10:42 Moscow Time (3:42 a.m. EDT). The actual contact took place at 10:39 Moscow Time (3:39 a.m. EDT) as the two spacecraft were flying over Russian-Kazakh border.

The hatches between the Soyuz and station opened also as scheduled at 13:15 Moscow Time (6:15 a.m. EDT).

Soyuz TMA-17M crew (Expedition 45/46):

Primary crew Backup crew

Sergei Volkov, Soyuz commander, Roskosmos Oleg Skripochka, Soyuz commander, Roskosmos

Andreas Mogensen, Flight Engineer, ESA/Denmark Thomas Pesquet, Flight Engineer, ESA/France

Aidyn Aimbetov, Flight Engineer 2, Kazakhstan Sergei Prokopiev, Flight Engineer 2, Roskosmos

http://www.russianspaceweb.com/iss-soyuz-tma18m.html

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Crowded House! International Crew Arrives at Space Station

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying cosmonaut Sergey Volkov, the European Space Agency’s Andreas Mogensen and Aidyn Aimbetov of Kazakhstan approaches the International Space Station for docking on Sept. 4, 2015.
Credit: NASA TV

Three new crewmembers arrived at the International Space Station early Friday morning, boosting the orbiting lab's population to a level not seen since late 2013.

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying cosmonaut Sergey Volkov, the European Space Agency's Andreas Mogensen and Kazakhstan's Aidyn Aimbetov docked with the space station's Poisk module at 3:39 a.m. EDT (0739 GMT) Friday (Sept. 4), two days after blasting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The hatches separating the two spacecraft are scheduled to open at 6:15 a.m. ET (1015 GMT) Friday, NASA officials said. When that happens, the Soyuz travelers will float aboard the $100 billion orbiting complex, joining the six crewmembers already there — cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, Mikhail Kornienko and Gennady Padalka; NASA astronauts Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren; and Japanese spaceflyer Kimiya Yui.

That moment will mark the first time nine people have been on theInternational Space Station (ISS) since November 2013, NASA officials have said.

The abnormally dense population is a consequence of the yearlong missioninvolving Kelly and Kornienko that is currently taking place aboard the station. This unprecedented project, which kicked off in late March, is designed to help pave the way for long-duration crewed journeys to Mars.

Soyuz spacecraft are certified to stay in space for just six months, so the vehicle that brought Kelly and Kornienko up cannot take them down again in March 2016. The newly arrived Soyuz was launched primarily to do that job.

The space station will soon be down to its normal population of six crewmembers. Mogensen, Aimbetov and Padalka (who arrived this past March along with Kelly and Kornienko) are slated to depart on Sept. 12. (Volkov will stay aloft for the typical six-month stint, in contrast to the brief, 10-day mission of his launch companions.)

Aimbetov was a relatively late addition to the Soyuz's manifest. His seat was originally supposed to be filled by English singer Sarah Brightman, who was reportedly set to pay about $50 million for her short stay aboard the ISS. But Brightman backed out in May, citing personal reasons.

http://www.space.com/30463-astronauts-arrive-international-space-station.html

video is 2:13 min

video is 1:08 min

more stuff later......

Edited September 4, 2015 by Draggendrop
spelling

6,181 · September 4, 2015

/s on a lighter note.....

NASA Deploys Congressional Rover To Search For Funding

WASHINGTON—Calling the program “the most crucial in the agency’s history,” researchers at NASA announced Wednesday they have successfully deployed a Special Exploratory Rover to Congress as part of an open-ended mission to seek out any possible trace of funding on Capitol Hill.

The rover, named Hope, is a remotely operated, semi-autonomous vehicle outfitted with ultra-sensitive equipment that can detect even the smallest amounts of program-sustaining revenue, NASA scientists confirmed. The unmanned explorer will reportedly traverse the chambers of both the Senate and House of Representatives, continuing its search as long as necessary.

“The climate Hope will be navigating is incredibly hostile to this sort of research,” said project manager John L. Callas of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, explaining that the rover will collect any deposits of funds it can find, however miniscule. “But we have engineered this vehicle to withstand the most challenging fiscal landscape, having learned from previous missions that the harsh, unforgiving environment of Congress often makes it difficult to carry out scientific inquiry of any kind.”

“It of course goes without saying that we cannot send a human being on such a mission,” he added. “The conditions are far too punishing.”

According to Callas, Hope will first be directed toward areas of Congress that scientists believe are most likely to reveal previously undiscovered discretionary cash flows. In the weeks ahead, after investigating several dozen seats on the Senate floor, the vehicle will move on to explore a structure called Mikulski’s Chambers, and by the end of the fiscal year the rover will bring its alpha-particle X-ray spectrometer online, attempting to peer into the largely opaque phenomenon known as the appropriations process.

“Tomorrow morning, we have a narrow window in which we hope to be able to study a House Budget Committee hearing,” Callas said. “We should have Hope in place by evening, at which point we’ll shut it down for the night to save on battery power. That should leave us well positioned to examine the vast mountains of allocation proposals that occur there and look for any frozen capital that we can hopefully break free for future missions and experiments.”

NASA engineers said the rover has several instruments that have been specifically developed for the mission at hand, noting that the vehicle’s robotic arm can flip through thousands of pages of legislation per second, its ocular scanner can analyze budget proposals for any liquid assets, and its delicate sonic gear can periodically test the atmosphere for pro-science sentiments that may have been stirred up.

Hope isn’t the first NASA rover to climb the steps of the Capitol and assess whether conditions in the legislative branch might be favorable to funding. A previous vehicle,Possibility, was launched during the budget crisis of 2011, but scientists reportedly lost contact with it when it attempted to cross the aisle in the Senate and became mired in treacherous procedural maneuverings.

Callas told reporters the current rover’s expedition is “absolutely vital” to NASA’s long-term research goals.

“The clock is definitely ticking,” he said. “The fact of the matter is that this is the last real shot we have at discovering whether there is funding support to be found anywhere in Congress, or whether we are, in the end, truly alone out here.”

http://www.theonion.com/article/nasa-deploys-congressional-rover-search-funding-51231

:woot:

8,882 · September 4, 2015

Im sure it will find quite a few fossils with very little signs of life and scant natural resources in such an inhospitable arena

6,181 · September 4, 2015

Misc data and updates.....

Airless Space Weathering Duplicated in Lab Environment

Bodies in the Solar System that exhibit space weathering include the Moon, Mercury and asteroids.

Using laboratory instruments typically used to make semiconductor devices, space weathering of airless bodies in the Solar System has been simulated, allowing researchers to better determine the ages of their surfaces, states a new paper by Kimberly R. Kuhlman of the Planetary Science Institute.

"'Space weathering' is a catch-all term for what happens to surfaces exposed to the environment of space over time. This includes the micrometeorite impact damage and redeposition, effects of UV radiation, and the effects of implantation of solar wind particles," said Kuhlman, lead author of "Simulation of solar wind space weathering in orthopyroxene" that appeared in Planetary and Space Science. "More space weathered surfaces become redder and darker from the formation of nano-scale particles of iron."

Bodies in the Solar System that exhibit space weathering include the Moon, Mercury and asteroids.

Kuhlman shot hydrogen atoms at solar wind speeds into tiny, polished samples of the common Solar System mineral orthopyroxene that had been placed on top of a silicon wafer. She then examined the compositional changes in the outer 20 nanometers of the implanted orthopyroxene using a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM), and for the first time discovered the particles of iron beginning to form.

"This continuing work will allow us to estimate the rate at which these 'nanophase' iron particles form as a consequence of exposure to the solar wind. Linking this to the spectroscopic effects will allow scientists to infer the age of the body surfaces via remote sensing, which in turn will inform our understanding of a wide range of physical processes in the Solar System," Kuhlman said.

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Airless_Space_Weathering_Duplicated_in_Lab_Environment_999.html

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Draper Developing Automated Astronaut Assistance

Astronauts work outside the International Space Station. Photo: NASA

CHICAGO — On the International Space Station, a surprising amount of astronauts’ work is done manually, with little computerized assistance. Draper Laboratory and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute aim to change that with new software providing astronauts with automated alerts to guide their work.

“In many cases, the best way to do something in space is to combine automated systems with human supervisory input. This can work best if the astronaut has some feedback on how well the operation is going,” said Stephen Robinson, a former astronaut and current professor at the University of California, Davis.

With the “Methods and Metrics for Real-Time Task Performance Assessment” project, Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Draper Laboratory plans to provide useful feedback in the form of software providing real-time monitoring and assistance to astronauts. This assistance will include familiar mechanical guidance, similar to a car’s parking assistance function, as well as physiological stress alerts which will tell astronauts when they need to take a break or pass a job off to a colleague.

More data at...

http://spacenews.com/draper-develops-automated-astronaut-assistance/

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Russia Eyes Moon for Hi-Tech Lunar Base

File image.

More than four decades after humans last walked on the moon, Russian space agency Roscosmos is sending a robotic spacecraft to the moon to scope out potential locations for a planned lunar base.

The high-tech base would feature living quarters for cosmonauts, laboratories, a launching and landing port for spacecraft, and even an astronomy observatory, Tech Insider reported.

The reconnaissance spacecraft, called Luna 25, will land on the moon's south pole in 2024, Roscosmos announced.

Construction of Luna 25 is already underway, and once finished, the spacecraft will carry eight cameras to help it navigate and take pictures. It will also feature a drill tool capable of digging into the moon's surface, Tech Insider reported.

Luna 25 will be powered by a radioactive material called plutonium-238, which, as it decays, generates heat that is converted into electricity.

The craft's predecessor, Luna 24, soft-landed on the moon's surface in August 1976 and returned around six ounces of lunar samples to Earth.

Russia's not the only one looking to make arrangements for a long-term stay on the moon. The European Space Agency has also announced plans for its own moon colony.

In the United States, attention has turned to Mars - mistakenly, some experts say. They argue that NASA should first set up a lunar base, then learn from the process when the time comes to build a Martian base.

Others say a return to the moon would be a regression for NASA.

http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Russia_Eyes_Moon_for_Hi_Tech_Lunar_Base_999.html

------------------------------------------------------------------------

/s.......update for rover "Hope", just in.....

/s Preliminary telemetry has been received from Nasa's Deep Space Network, as well as ESA's Estrack, Russia's Deep

Space Network, Usuda Deep Space Center, India's DSN and even China has assisted with their DSN. Data has been

severely attenuated by GPN interference (Global Political Nonsense) and is being received at 2 politobits per

second.
//
So far preliminary investigations have shown no intelligent life and NASA has sent commands to deploy the rovers

transparent aluminium obfuscation filter to improve penetration through layers of side fumble. An RTG has been

used as a power source due to no sunlight ever present in this environment and the solar panels have been

converted to low level "pulse" detectors. The onboard drilling has commenced into the ridiculite covering of the

podium.
//
Nasa scientist Dr. Utonium, in a twitter feed stated "This is the first use of the Turbo Encabulator processor and

Crunchy software. We couldn't use Intel, since it would be an oxymoron, and Linux refused to work in the Chaos

Field. We called Windows and Android, both of which refused to return calls". It has been reported that the

onboard modern apps have been crashing on startup as well as the system reverting to continual bootloops but

appears to now be stable thanks to a forced update of 6.22 gigglebytes from Annonymous and Wikileaks.
//
The rovers wheels are 3D printed with an unobtanium additive to improve traction on slippery slopes with a

revolutionary tread pattern similar to the shape of "$".
//
Through the generous support of SETI, their technicians have analysed the signal that has been received so far and

have concluded that the signal matches one that would be radiated from a black hole.
A vigil has been organized at Times Square, where Statistics Canada reports that there may be 5 straglers or 2.1

million people present and the Weather Network reports that there may be weather present.The big screen portrays

the rover "Hope" in it's environment, while onlookers, intently, are waiting for the mission completion and the

daring rescue manoeuver to commence at missions end.
//
The rescue plan comprises of dropping a Cessna 172 from 200 feet on top of the building, deploying Super Dave and

Fuji who will jump to ground level with an LDSD chute. Once on the ground, the dynamic duo will meet with Dr Evil,

who will assist by over riding ISS commands and launching the Veggie experiment out of the Nano rack launcher

directly through a hole which will be created by a Wallops Island explosive device. Once through the hole, the

"matter" will cover those in non compliance and hopefuly allow a fair scientific vote. On completion, the stuffed

toy, R2D2, propelled by Draco thrusters, will travel into the void, attach itself to the probe via velcro, and

exit immediately. This plan was graciously donated by the Boeing Starliner development team with assistance by

ULA's intelligence division.
//
Fox News correspondent Ashley Madison, has offered to cover this event with the integrity expected from a reliable

news source.

Later.....

8,882 · September 5, 2015

Its not News without Fox Views :rolleyes:

Im surprised NASA has no plan to trial Mars habitats and equipment on the Moon as a proving ground nearer home.

4,811 · September 5, 2015

Makes ya wonder how much of this stalling and other nonsense is deliberate. We should have been back to the Moon and had all of this stuff going 15-25 years ago.

SpaceX wanted to have manned Dragon, Dragon 2 and Falcon Heavy flying by now .. stalled and otherwise delayed by events outside of their control, as we're all quite aware of.

I'm surprised that SpaceX and everyone else in NewSpace that isn't directly tied in with ULA (and yes, Orbital, I'm looking at you), hasn't abandoned the United States and set up shop elsewhere -- because what's happened is an effing disgrace.

6,181 · September 5, 2015

We have Russia and China who are going the lunar route. ESA will definitely be involved, probably with both ventures. Bigelow with SpaceX help, will be there as well. Many proponents for lunar settlements suggest it to be a better, local proving ground for Mars equipment, and I tend to agree. With the fore mentioned ventures, will be commercial infusion...then it's game over for the "old boys club". I actually don't care what these fools do any more, as SpaceX, Bigelow, Blue Origin, Ariane Space, Russia, Japan and China,and the involvement of many smaller space efforts such as India, in 10 years, will begin to define what gets done in space......Not the politicians or the "old boys club". Our time is coming....just a bit more patience. And to answer the question....we were delayed intentionally because of this inevitable outcome......You can't shut down visionaries....period.

6,181 · September 5, 2015

Present ISS Configuration

Sept. 4, 2015: International Space Station Configuration. The Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft is docked to the Poisk mini-research module. The Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft is docked to the Zvezda service module. The ISS Progress 60 spacecraft is docked to the Pirs docking compartment. The Soyuz TMA-17M spacecraft is docked to the Rassvet mini-research module. Japan’s “Kounotori” HTV-5 is berthed to the Harmony module.

The Soyuz TMA-18M vehicle docked to the International Space Station’s Poisk module at 3:39 a.m. EDT, above eastern Kazakhstan.

Aboard the space station, Expedition 44 Commander Gennady Padalka of Roscosmos, as well as Flight Engineers Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren of NASA, Flight Engineers Oleg Kononenko and Mikhail Kornienko of Roscosmos, and Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will welcome Soyuz crew members Sergey Volkov of Roscosmos, Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency) and Aidyn Aimbetov of the Kazakh Space Agency when the hatches between the two spacecraft are opened.

https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/

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West Virginia As Seen From Orbit

West Virginia NASA

The state of West Virginia was captured by cameras aboard the International Space Station.

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly tweeted it out with this comment: "Good morning #WestVirginia! It looks like if you were pounded flat you'd be bigger than Texas. #YearInSpace". ISS043E249636 (05/24/2015)

http://spaceref.com/onorbit/west-virginia-as-seen-from-orbit.html

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You Too Can Be On A NASA Advisory Committee That Is Ignored

"NASA announces its annual invitation for public nominations for service on NASA Federal advisory committees. U.S. citizens may submit self-nominations for consideration as potential members of NASA's Federal advisory committees. NASA's Federal advisory committees have member vacancies from time to time throughout the year, and NASA will consider self-nominations to fill such intermittent vacancies. NASA is committed to selecting members to serve on its Federal advisory committees based on their individual expertise, knowledge, experience, and current/past contributions to the relevant subject area."

http://nasawatch.com/archives/2015/09/you-too-can-be.html#comments

Press release....

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=47754

Later......

6,181 · September 6, 2015

An Orbital Sunrise

Orbital Sunrise NASA

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly of Expedition 44 aboard the International Space Station on July 30, 2015 captured this sunrise while in his "year in space" .

ISS044E025484 (07/30/2015)

http://spaceref.com/onorbit/an-orbital-sunrise.html

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Three Space Station Crews to Answer Media Questions from Orbit

Nine International Space Station crew members will discuss their mission with reporters from around the world during a joint crew news conference to air live on NASA Television at 10:10 a.m. EDT Tuesday, Sept. 8.

This will be the first time since November 2013 that nine crew members are aboard the station simultaneously.

The nine crew members represent five different space agencies:

NASA’s Scott Kelly, one-year crew member and Expedition 45 commander, and Kjell Lindgren, Expedition 44/45 flight engineer

Russian Federal Space Agency’s (Roscosmos’) Gennady Padalka, Expedition 44 commander; Mikhail Kornienko, one-year crew member; Oleg Kononenko, Expedition 44/45 Flight Engineer; and Sergey Volkov, Expedition 45/46 flight engineer

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Kimiya Yui, Expedition 44/45 flight engineer

ESA’s (European Space Agency) Andreas Mogensen, visiting crew member

Kazakh Space Agency’s Aidyn Aimbetov, visiting crew member

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/three-space-station-crews-to-answer-media-questions-from-orbit-0

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Kelly to Become First Two-Time US Space Station Commander

Expedition 44’s Scott Kelly juggles fresh fruit, delivered recently aboard the Progress M-28M resupply craft. Kelly is now almost halfway through his year-long mission. Photo Credit: NASA

Tomorrow (Saturday, 5 September), the first human in history to command as many as five long-duration missions to an Earth-circling space station will hand over the reins of the International Space Station (ISS) to the first American ever to helm the orbital outpost on two occasions. Russia’s Gennadi Padalka, who earlier this year surpassed fellow cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev as the world’s most seasoned spacefarer, with a cumulative 2.4 years of his life spent away from the Home Planet, has also already secured another record as the first person to command four discrete ISS expeditions. Shaking his hand in what is bound to be an emotional change-of-command ceremony will be the incoming Expedition 45 Commander, U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly. According to NASA, the ceremony is due to be broadcast on NASA TV at 2:40 p.m. EDT Saturday. In so doing, Kelly—who, together with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, is currently 160 days into a projected 340-day stay aboard the ISS—will command the station through the next two increments, with Expedition 45 due to transition into Expedition 46 in mid-December. In the meantime, three new crew members were due to arrive at the ISS today (Friday, 4 September), two of whom will fly through next weekend, before returning to Earth with Padalka early on 12 September, whilst the other joins Kornienko and Kelly for the remainder of their long voyage, which is due to end in March 2016.

Note.......

A second direct rotation of crew members will occur on 15 December, with the launch of Soyuz TMA-19M and Russia’s Yuri Malenchenko, U.S. astronaut Tim Kopra, and Britain’s Tim Peake to briefly expand Expedition 45 up to nine members. Another direct rotation for 2015 was not originally timetabled, but has been added in order to maximize the time spent in orbit by the Soyuz TMA-17M crew of Kononenko, Lindgren, and Yui, the beginning of whose six-month flight was postponed from May to July, and which is being correspondingly extended from 5 November until 22 December. In anticipation of the Soyuz TMA-19M arrival, Kononenko, Lindgren, and Yui will relocate their Soyuz TMA-17M spacecraft to Zvezda-aft, opening up Rassvet for the new arrivals. Soyuz TMA-17M will then return to Earth, marking the dawn of Expedition 46—also under Kelly’s command—which will run through the end of the One-Year Mission in early March 2016. Interestingly, this will make Kononenko, Lindgren, and Yui the only long-duration crew of the ISS era in which none of its members rotated to command the next increment.

http://www.americaspace.com/?p=85908

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Some Apollo Moon Samples 'Crumbling to Dust'

An Apollo moon rock sample in the Lunar Sample Laboratory at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Credit: Science/AAAS

Some of the moon soil collected by Apollo astronauts has deteriorated significantly during its four-plus decades on Earth, a new study reports.

Scientists found that the median particle size in a set of 20 different Apollosoil samples held in laboratories for research use has decreased by more than half since the samples were first measured 40 years ago.

"It might be accurate to state that the Apollo lunar soils are literally crumbling to dust," the scientists, led by Bonnie Cooper of Hanyang University in South Korea, wrote in the new study.

Between 1969 and 1972, Apollo astronauts brought 842 lbs. (382 kilograms) of lunar rocks and dirt back to Earth. Eighty-three percent of that material remains unexamined in nitrogen storage at NASA's Johnson Space Center(JSC) in Houston, Cooper told Space.com via email. The other 17 percent has been allocated to researchers for study in a number of different laboratories.

The differences between the two datasets are stark. For example, the median particle diameter has decreased from 78 microns (0.0031 inches) to 33 microns (0.0013 inches). And in the original sieve data, 44 percent of soil particles were between 90 and 1,000 microns (0.0035 to 0.039 inches) wide; today, just 17 percent of the particles are that large.

The most likely explanation for the degradation is damage caused by water vapor, the scientists say.

There is no known way to restore degraded samples to their previous state, she said, adding that off-Earth storage is likely required to keep extraterrestrial material 100 percent pristine.

http://www.space.com/30450-apollo-moon-soil-samples-disintegrating.html

Another space based business....Space warehousing and sample storage.......?

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Comet Hitchhiker Would Take Tour of Small Bodies

Comet Hitchhiker NASA

A concept called Comet Hitchhiker, developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, puts forth a new way to get into orbit and land on comets and asteroids, using the kinetic energy -- the energy of motion -- of these small bodies. Masahiro Ono, the principal investigator based at JPL, had "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" in mind when dreaming up the idea.

"Hitchhiking a celestial body is not as simple as sticking out your thumb, because it flies at an astronomical speed and it won't stop to pick you up. Instead of a thumb, our idea is to use a harpoon and a tether," Ono said. Ono is presenting results about the concept at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics SPACE conference on September 1.

A reusable tether system would replace the need for propellant for entering orbit and landing, so running out wouldn't be an issue, according to the concept design.

While closely flying by the target, a spacecraft would first cast an extendable tether toward the asteroid or comet and attach itself using a harpoon attached to the tether. Next, the spacecraft would reel out the tether while applying a brake that harvests energy while the spacecraft accelerates.

This technique is analogous to fishing on Earth. Imagine you're on a boat on a lake with a fishing pole, and want to catch a big fish. Once the fish bites, you would release more of the line with a moderate tension, rather than holding it tightly. With a long enough line, the boat will eventually catch up with the fish.

Once the spacecraft matches its velocity to the "fish" -- the comet or asteroid in this case -- it is ready to land by simply reeling in the tether and descending gently. When it's time to move on to another celestial target, the spacecraft would use the harvested energy to quickly retrieve the tether, which accelerates the spacecraft away from the body.

http://spaceref.com/nasa-hack-space/comet-hitchhiker-would-take-tour-of-small-bodies.html

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This Photo of Saturn's Moon Dione Crossing the Planet Is Simply Jaw-Dropping

Saturn's moon Dione crosses the face of the ringed planet in an image obtained on May 21, 2015.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

An icy moon of Saturn hangs against the face of its giant parent planet in a breathtaking new image captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

The photo, which Cassini took on May 21, shows the moon Dione crossing Saturn's disk. Careful study of such "transits" can help astronomers better understand the orbits of Dione and other moons in the solar system, NASA officials said.

Furthermore, NASA's Kepler space telescope and some other instruments hunt for exoplanets by looking for tiny dips in a star's brightness caused by transiting alien worlds. Studying the light coming from such extrasolar systems can also reveal details about the composition of these exoplanets' atmospheres.

At 696 miles (1,120 kilometers) in diameter, Dione is the fourth-largest ofSaturn's sixty-odd moons; only Titan, Rhea and Iapetus are bigger. Parts of Dione are heavily cratered, and the satellite's trailing side features mysterious ice cliffs and fractures that run for tens or hundreds of kilometers. Cassini has also detected a wispy oxygen atmosphere surrounding the frigid moon.

Cassini snapped the new photo, which was released today (Aug. 31), when the probe was about 1.4 million miles (2.3 million km) from Saturn. The image's resolution is 9 miles (14 km) per pixel.

more data....
http://www.space.com/30435-saturn-moon-dione-amazing-cassini-photo.html

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The World's Most Powerful Digital Camera

3.2-gigapixel digital camera SLAC

The Department of Energy has approved the start of construction for a 3.2-gigapixel digital camera the world's largest at the heart of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST).

Assembled at the DOE's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, the camera will be the eye of LSST, revealing unprecedented details of the universe and helping unravel some of its greatest mysteries.

The construction milestone, known as Critical Decision 3, is the last major approval decision before the acceptance of the finished camera, said LSST Director Steven Kahn: "Now we can go ahead and procure components and start building it."

Starting in 2022, LSST will take digital images of the entire visible southern sky every few nights from atop a mountain called Cerro Pachn in Chile. It will produce a wide, deep and fast survey of the night sky, cataloguing by far the largest number of stars and galaxies ever observed. During a 10-year time frame, LSST will detect tens of billions of objectsthe first time a telescope will observe more galaxies than there are people on Earth and will create movies of the sky with unprecedented details. Funding for the camera comes from the DOE, while financial support for the telescope and site facilities, the data management system, and the education and public outreach infrastructure of LSST comes primarily from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The telescope's camera the size of a small car and weighing more than three tons will capture full-sky images at such high resolution that it would take 1,500 high-definition television screens to display just one of them.

http://spaceref.com/nasa-hack-space/the-worlds-most-powerful-digital-camera.html

Later.......

6,181 · September 8, 2015

Lighting Strike Captured From Orbit

Lighting Strike NASA

As if the Milky Way in this photo wasn't enough, Astronaut Kjell Lindgren captured a lightning strike from space so bright that it lights up the space station's solar panels.

He posted this on Twitter and Instagram on Sept. 2 saying "Large lightning strike on Earth lights up or solar panels."

http://spaceref.com/onorbit/lighting-strike-captured-from-orbit.html

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Space Station Hosts Diverse Research Portfolio

Medaka fish studied on the ISS NASA

Flutter, slither, swim or crawl your way over to this month's International Space Station look at biological research.

We'll be highlighting the study of life and the technology that supports this science throughout September. Researchers examine biological systems in space to understand the basic and complex mechanisms of life on Earth and to determine the best methods for keeping astronauts healthy during spaceflight.

Fruit flies, roundworms, medaka fish and rodents are a few examples of animals studied aboard the station. Scientists investigate model organisms like these because they are easy to reproduce and study in a laboratory, and can provide insight into the basic cellular and molecular mechanisms of the human body.

Biological studies aboard the space station also include research of cells, plants, genetics, biochemistry and human physiology, to name a few. This month, we'll note the study of microbes, which can threaten crew health and jeopardize equipment aboard the space station. If scientists can understand how microbes behave in microgravity, the same techniques can be used to identify microbes in hospitals, pharmaceutical laboratories and other environments on Earth where microbe identification is crucial.

Labor Day in Space Has Full House, No Barbecue

One-year-mission crewmember NASA astronaut Scott Kelly corrals the supply of fresh fruit that arrived on the Kounotori 5 H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV-5) the day before, Aug. 24. Visiting cargo ships often carry a small cache of fresh food for crewmembers aboard the International Space Station.
Credit: NASA

That's a negative on the fire: There will be no barbecuing on the International Space Station this Labor Day. But the orbiting lab's American crew will get a free day to relax and exercise after the excitement of welcoming three new teammates on Friday (Sept. 4).

"The three USOS [U.S. Operating Segment] crewmembers [Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren of NASA, and Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency] will have the day off, with only their exercise on the schedule and some sample collection for Kelly for his Twins Study experiments," NASA spokesman Dan Huot told Space.com in an email. Kelly's identical twin Mark, also an astronaut, has remained on the ground so scientists can track the duo to investigate the effects of spending a year in space.

Huot added that the four cosmonauts aboard the station have a light day scheduled as well, focusing on maintenance and talking with media, and that the two visiting crewmembers — Andreas Mogensen of the European Space Agency and Aidyn Aimbetov of the Kazakh Space Agency — will be working on experiments. The visitors will only be spending a week in space, so every moment of research time counts

On Sept. 5, Cmdr. Gennady Padalka, of the Russian Space Agency, ceremonially transferred command to Kelly before Padalka's upcoming departure on the Soyuz craft. Fellow cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Mikhail Kornienko will stay onboard.

Even before the latest bunch arrived, more astronauts on the station meant a more varied mix of science and maintenance work: While the three cosmonauts went on a long spacewalk on Aug. 10, Kelly, Lindgren and Yui shared a bite of NASA's first space-grown produce. Now, with nine aboard, there's even more going on.

And the quarters will be bit tight — "a little more crowded than normal, but not anything we haven't had in the past," Huot said. "We had nine aboard back in 2013, when the Olympic torch was brought up to the station in advance of the Sochi Winter Olympics." It was an unlit torch, of course — fire not allowed.

http://www.space.com/30462-labor-day-in-space-full-house.html

Later........

6,181 · September 8, 2015

One small step for man as astronaut controls robot from space

Centaur robot during interact experiment. Credits: ESA

European experts have pulled off a major advance that might one day help build new worlds in space after an astronaut in the International Station Station remotely guided a robot on Earth by feel.

Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen performed the breath-taking experiment in which he placed a peg into a very tight hole on Monday under the careful control of the European Space Agency.

While orbiting some 400 kilometres (250 miles) above Earth, Mogensen took control of the Interact Centaur rover which has a pair of arms for delicate, high-precision work.

The blue-and-white fibreglass robot, which cost less than 200,000 euros ($224,000) to build, also has a camera on its head which allows the controller to directly see the task it is performing.

But sight is not the most important sense in this project. It is touch.

In real-time, thanks to super swift signals bouncing off a dedicated complex system of satellites working in synchronisation, the astronaut manoeuvered the robot into place.

He then very slowly lowered a metal pin held by the robot into a tight hole in a task board with less than a sixth of a millimetre of wriggle room.

- Using a joystick -

For the first time -- thanks to force-feedback technology -- when the pin was not aligned correctly Mogensen felt it hit the sides of the hole via the joystick he was operating on the space station.

Cheers erupted when after several long nail-biting minutes the rover -- which slightly resembles Disney's WALL.E cartoon character -- dropped the pin successfully into place.

Scientists and engineers believe applications of this kind of tactile technology are huge -- allowing humans to guide robots in delicate tasks by feeling their way.

The technology will allow people "to project a human-like presence into the robots, to do human-like tasks on the surface" of a planet, Andre Schiele, head of ESA's Telerobotics and Haptics Laboratory, told AFP.

With space engineers hoping at some point to fly people to Mars, "we have to bring them back" which means before they first step foot on the planet "you would have to build an entire launch-platform on the planet."

Robots like the Centaur -- also affectionately dubbed the "blue bug" by some of its designers -- could be put in place first to do the building.

"There's going to be a need for a set-up, some building before a human even sets foot on the planet and for that we could send down robots and control them from a space station," said industrial designer Emiel den Exter.

The 18-month project was a collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA)and students from Delft University of Technology.

"Even something like lacing your shoe is something you rely entirely on your tactile senses" for, Schiele told journalists gathered at the ESA headquarters in the Dutch town of Noordwijk.

http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/One_small_step_for_man_as_astronaut_controls_robot_from_space_999.html

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Space Systems/Loral To Study on-orbit Assembly for DARPA

DARPA is studying whether a communications satellite with a robotic arm can put an antenna in place. In this artist's rendering, the robotic arm is highlighted in green. Credit: SSL.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is studying technology that would enable the installation of antennas aboard satellites already on orbit, the latest of a series of exploratory efforts in satellite servicing and on-orbit assembly.

DARPA awarded satellite manufacturer Space Systems/Loral of Palo Alto, California, a five-month study contract valued at $250,000, said Jared Adams, an agency spokesman.

DARPA’s mission, generally speaking, is to pursue high-risk, high-payoff technology development projects for the Pentagon. The agency has spent over a decade developing on-orbit satellite-servicing and robotics technologies. Currently, DARPA has two such programs underway: Phoenix, ultimately aimed at salvaging useful components from old satellites, and the Robotic Servicing of Geostationary Satellites, intended to establish a robotics operation in geosynchronous orbit to perform servicing tasks.

SSL has long been one of DARPA’s Phoenix contractors, but Adams described the new effort, known as Dragonfly, as a separate stand-alone study of robotics in space.

Because of volume limitations inside rocket fairings, antennas aboard today’s telecommunications satellites typically must be launched in a stowed position, and on-orbit deployment of the hardware can be risky, said Steve Oldham, SSL’s vice president of strategic business development. Dragonfly technology is a potential way around those fairing limitations, he said.

“The Dragonfly program gives SSL the opportunity to demonstrate our advanced robotics capabilities with a mission that has the potential to transform the way satellites are built,” John Celli, president of SSL, said in the release.

SSL is known as a manufacturer of large commercial telecommunications satellites. But its parent company, MDA Corp. of Richmond, British Columbia, is a world leader in space robotics.

SSL officials said they believe Dragonfly technology could have military and commercial applications.

If DARPA were to pursue additional phases of the Dragonfly contract, an on-orbit demonstration could take place in the 2020s, Oldham said.

http://spacenews.com/space-systemsloral-to-study-on-orbit-assembly-for-darpa/

/s By the late 2020's, we'll have satellite "trucks", topping off fuel, putting on arrays, "squeegie the solar panels", hauling away derelicts and issuing "illegal parking" tickets...

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SOLAR WIND SPARKS BRIGHT AURORAS

For the second day in a row, a stream of solar wind is buffeting Earth's magnetic field. This has caused G2-class geomagnetic storms and bright auroras over parts of the USA and Europe. "Last night was epic," reports Ruslan Merzlyakov, who sends this picture from Nykøbing Mors, Denmark:

"These were the brightest auroras I have ever seen in my life," he says. "Thank you, spaceweather, for the alert!" (You're welcome.)

Elsewhere in Europe, colorful lights appeared over Sweden, Norway, Scotland, and Finland, while electrical currents surged through the soils of the Lofoten archipelago. Northern Lights were seen in the USA as far south as Maine,Massachusetts, Wisconsin, New York, and South Dakota.

More auroras may be in the offing. NOAA forecasters estimate a 55% of geomagnetic storms on Sept. 8th as the solar wind continues to blow.

http://spaceweather.com/

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Astronomy from the Moon - 20 Months with China's LUT: Further Establishing the New Frontier

KAMUELA, Hawai'i, Sept. 3, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA) is launching, supporting and collaborating with projects around the world to propel human civilization to the Moon for good, and for all.

ILOA is collaborating with the National Astronomical Observatories - Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC) Lunar Ultraviolet Telescope (LUT) at Mare Imbrium 44°N 20°W aboard the China Chang'e-3 Moon Lander, the first spacecraft to land on the Moon in almost 40 years and the only spacecraft operating on the lunar surface. Conducting science-driven and education-based Astronomy from the Moon via LUT is a foundational success of international cooperation on which the ILOA intends to build.

Pursuing a series of Moon-based observatory missions to complement Earth-based and Space-based astronomy, ILOA seeks to advance Galaxy Imaging for 21st century astronomy education with its ILO-1 primary mission 2-meter radio antenna to Malapert Mt. 86°S 2.7°E near the Moon's South Pole, with an ILO-X precursor mission aboard a GLXP lander, and with a Human Service Mission to the ILO-1 / robotic village new world frontier.

More than 40 years since the Far Ultraviolet Camera / Spectrograph operated on the Descartes Highlands by NASA Apollo 16 Commander and ILOA Board of Director Emeritus John Young in April 1972, ILOA is drawing together resources from across the planet to reclaim the cosmic revolution of Humanity as a Multi World Species.

ILOA is an interglobal enterprise incorporated in Hawai`i as a non-profit to expand human knowledge of the Cosmos through observation from the Moon and to participate in internationally cooperative lunar base build-out, with Aloha – the spirit of Hawai`i. It sponsors the Galaxy Forum program, a series of public events around the world to advance 21st century science and education and to identify and secure support for ILOA mission realization.

Galaxy Forum China 2015 – Astronomy From The Moon, on Wednesday 9 September 2015 at NAOC, with participation of Beijing's leading educators, features: Prof. Jianyan Wei LUT and SVOM Principal Investigator, NAOC; Steve Durst Founding Director of ILOA, Publisher and Editor of Space Age Publishing Co.; Dr. R. Pierre Martin Assistant Prof. of Astronomy, Univ. of Hawaii, ILOA Lunar Astronomy Team; Dr. Jing Wang Astronomer, LUT Scientist, NAOC.

The 7th Edition of ILOA's stellar "Galaxy Map" is now being distributed to high school teachers and other educators around the world, designed for use in every class with maps of the world and Solar System.

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/prnewswire-space-news.html?rkey=20150903DC93292&filter=1639

Later........

6,181 · September 9, 2015

Russian ISS Crew's Next Spacewalk Planned for February 2016

File photo

According to the first deputy general designer of Russia's RSC Energia spacecraft manufacturer, next spacewalk in the Russian ISS program is scheduled for February 2016.

The next spacewalk in the Russian ISS program is scheduled for February 2016, the first deputy general designer of Russia's RSC Energia spacecraft manufacturer said Friday.

"The next spacewalk in the Russian program is scheduled for February next year, the plan is now being developed," Vladimir Solovyev told reporters.

The spacewalks are an important part of the building and maintenance of the ISS.

The last ISS spacewalk was performed by Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Mikhail Kornienko on August 10. The duo installed gap spanners on the hull of the station to facilitate the movement of crew members on future spacewalks, cleaned the portholes of the Russian module Zvezda and installed antenna fasteners on the module.

The ISS was launched on November 20, 1998. Fifteen nations are currently involved in the project, including Russia, the United States, Canada, Japan and eleven members of the European Space Agency.

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Russian_ISS_Crews_Next_Spacewalk_Planned_for_February_2016_999.html

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ESA Telerobotic Demonstration From ISS Was A Success

Putting a round peg in a round hole is not hard for someone standing next to it. But ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen did this while orbiting 400 km up aboard the International Space Station, remotely operating a rover and its robotic arm on the ground.

Andreas used a force-feedback control system developed at ESA, letting him feel for himself whenever the rover's flexible arm met resistance.

These tactile sensations were essential for the success of the experiment, which involved placing a metal peg into a round hole in a 'task board' that offered less than a sixth of a millimetre of clearance. The peg needed to be inserted 4 cm to make an electrical connection.

"We are very happy with today's results," said Andr Schiele, leading the experiment and ESA's Telerobotics and Haptics Laboratory.

"Andreas managed two complete drive, approach, park and peg-in-hole insertions, demonstrating precision force-feedback from orbit for the very first time in the history of spaceflight.

"He had never operated the rover before but its controls turned out to be very intuitive. Andreas took 45 minutes to reach the task board and then insert the pin on his first attempt, and less than 10 minutes on his follow-up attempt, showing a very steep learning curve."

The experiment took place at ESA's ESTEC technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, watched by a contingent of media as well as eager telerobotics engineers and centre personnel.

http://spaceref.com/nasa-hack-space/esa-telerobotic-demonstration-from-iss-was-a-success.html

video is 3:18 min......

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KiboCUBE: United Nations/Japan Program on CubeSat Deployment from the ISS Kibo Module

Cubesat Deployment from ISS NASA/JAXA

The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) are pleased to announce the United Nations/Japan Cooperation Programme on CubeSat Deployment from the International Space Station (ISS) Japanese Experiment Module (Kibo) "KiboCUBE".

KiboCUBE is the dedicated collaboration between UNOOSA and JAXA in utilizing the ISS Kibo for the world. KiboCUBE aims to provide educational or research institutions from developing countries of United Nations membership with opportunities to deploy, from the ISS Kibo, cube satellites (CubeSats) which they develop and manufacture.

Currently, the only way to deploy CubeSats from the ISS is from Kibo. Kibo's unique capability is comprised of an airlock system and a robotic arm. The first orbital deployment of CubeSats from Kibo was successfully conducted in October 2012 through the Small Satellite Orbital Deployer developed by JAXA. Since then, nano-satellites and CubeSats from various countries around the world have been deployed from Kibo.

The deployment of CubeSats from ISS is easier than the direct deployment by a launch vehicle thanks to the lower vibration environment during launch. With this comparatively less demanding interface requirements, UNOOSA and JAXA believe that KiboCUBE will lower the threshold of space activities and will contribute to build national capacity in spacecraft engineering, design and construction.

UNOOSA and JAXA are looking forward to many applications!!

http://spaceref.com/nasa-hack-space/kibocube-united-nationsjapan-program-on-cubesat-deployment-from-the-iss-kibo-module.html

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Small Satellites Provide Big Payoffs

PlanetLab Smallsats NASA

"CubeSats are part of a growing technology that's transforming space exploration," said David Pierce, senior program executive for suborbital research at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "CubeSats are small platforms that enable the next generation of scientists and engineers to complete all phases of a complete space mission during their school career. While CubeSats have historically been used as teaching tools and technology demonstrations, today's CubeSats have the potential to conduct important space science investigations as well."

CubeSats are built to standard specifications of 1 unit (U), which is equal to 10x10x10 centimeters (about 4x4x4 inches). CubeSats can be 1U, 2U, 3U or 6U in size, weighing about 3 pounds per U. They often are launched into orbit as auxiliary payloads aboard rockets, significantly reducing costs.

Because of the smaller payload and lower price tag, CubeSat technology allows for experimentation. "There's an opportunity to embrace some risk," said Janice Buckner, program executive of NASA's Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration (SIMPLEx) program. "These mini experiments complement NASA's larger assets."

Another advantage of the "smaller is bigger" concept is it's more inclusive. The low cost and relatively short delivery time from concept to launch typically 2-3 years allows students and a growing community of citizen scientists and engineers to contribute to NASA's space exploration goals, part of the White House's Maker Initiative. By providing hands-on opportunities for students and teachers, NASA helps attract and retain students in science, technology, engineering and math disciplines, strengthening NASA's and the nation's future workforce.

This inclusiveness also applies to geography. In 2014 NASA announced the expansion of its CubeSat Launch Initiative, with the goal of launching 50 small satellites from 50 states within five years. To date NASA has selected CubeSats from 30 states, 17 of which have already been launched. Two more -- Alaska and Maryland -- are slated to go to space later this year, including the first ever CubeSat launched by an elementary school.

In April 2015 the SIMPLEx program requested proposals for interplanetary CubeSat investigations, with a panel of NASA and other scientists and engineers reviewing 22 submissions. Two were chosenone led by a postdoctoral research scientist and the other a university professor. NASA Headquarters, Planetary Science Division, also selected three technology developments for possible future planetary missions: one to expand NASA's ability to analyze Mars' atmosphere, one to investigate the hydrogen cycle at the moon and one to view a small near-Earth asteroid. Each selected team will receive one year of funding to bring their respective technologies to a higher level of readiness. To be considered for flight, teams must demonstrate progress in a future mission proposal competition.

The CubeSat investigations selected for a planetary science mission opportunity are:

Lunar Polar Hydrogen Mapper (LunaH-Map), a 6U-class CubeSat that will enter a polar orbit around the moon with a low altitude (3-7 miles) centered on the lunar south pole. LunaH-Map carries two neutron spectrometers that will produce maps of near-surface hydrogen. LunaH-Map will map hydrogen within craters and other permanently shadowed regions throughout the south pole. Postdoc Craig Hardgrove from Arizona State University (ASU), Tempe, Arizona, is the principal investigator. ASU will manage the project.

CubeSat Particle Aggregation and Collision Experiment (Q-PACE) is a 2U-class, thermos-sized, CubeSat that will explore the fundamental properties of low-velocity particle collision in a microgravity environment, in an effort to better understand the mechanics of early planet development. Josh Colwell from the University of Central Florida (UCF), Orlando, Florida, is the principal investigator, and UCF will manage the project. The proposals selected for further technology development are:

The Mars Micro Orbiter (MMO) mission, which uses a 6U-class Cubesat to measure the Martian atmosphere in visible and infrared wavelengths from Mars orbit. Michael Malin of Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, California, is the principal investigator. Hydrogen Albedo Lunar Orbiter (HALO) is a propulsion-driven 6U-class CubeSat that will answer critical questions about the lunar hydrogen cycle and the origin of water on the lunar surface by examining the reflected hydrogen in the moon's solar wind. The principal investigator is Michael Collier of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland.

Diminutive Asteroid Visitor using Ion Drive (DAVID) is a 6U-class CubeSat mission that will investigate an asteroid much smaller than any studied by previous spacecraft missions and will be the first NASA mission to investigate an Earth-crossing asteroid. Geoffrey Landis of NASA's Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio, is the principal investigator.

"These selections will enable the next generation of planetary scientists and engineers to use revolutionary new mission concepts that have the potential to return extraordinary science," said Buckner. "CubeSats are going to impact the future of planetary exploration."

http://spaceref.com/nasa-hack-space/small-satellites-provide-big-payoffs.html

Later.......

6,181 · September 9, 2015

Just had to post this great aurora video, from the ISS

Wow! Space Station Astronauts Awed by Dazzling Auroras (Video)

Earth's natural light show — the auroras — flared into high gear Monday (Sep. 7), creating a breathtaking display that astronaut Scott Kelly said was like no other aurora he'd ever seen.

Bright-green rivers of light and a deep-crimson haze decorated Earth's atmosphere during the Labor Day light show. From his vantage point on the International Space Station, Kelly caught several snapshots of the waving green lights, as well as a vivid time-lapse video.

"I would say yesterday was probably the second-most impressive thing I've ever seen," Kelly said in an interview broadcast today (Sep. 8) on NASA TV. "The first thing was when I saw Earth from space the first time."

Kelly posted several photos of the waving green lights on Twitter, and included a time-lapse video of the lights' movement, writing that it was a Labor Day gift to the United States.

In the interview, Kelly was joined by the other eight people currently living on the orbiting laboratory as he discussed the unbelievable natural fireworks.

"Yesterday, we had some incredible auroras outside, like none I've ever seen before with regards to how vivid it was," Kelly said during the interview. "We had heard a solar storm was on its way, and usually, we think it takes a couple of days from solar activity to an incredible show outside. But in this case, it was much faster, and the Earth responded much quicker."

Skywatchers at high northern latitudes of Earth were able to see the auroras as well. Sightings were reported from Alaska, parts of Canada, southern Norway and Sweden, and as far south as Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

http://www.space.com/30489-astronauts-space-station-auroras-video.html

video is 1:04 min....

Later.........

6,181 · September 9, 2015

NASA International Space Station On-Orbit Status 8 September 2015

ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen shared this photo on social media, commenting: "A big thank you to Thorsten Schmidt for a Danish space dinner for the complete #ISS crew with a Space Rock surprise!" Credit: NASA.

Cosmonaut Gennady Padalka handed command of the International Space Station to astronaut Scott Kelly Saturday. The following day a docked Russian resupply ship fired its engines raising the orbital laboratory's altitude to prepare for upcoming Soyuz and Progress missions.

Visiting crew members Andreas Mogensen and Aidyn Aimbetov joined Padalka for a Soyuz descent drill as they prepare for Friday evening's landing inside the Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft. When Padalka lands he will have accumulated 879 days in space over five missions, four on the space station and one on Russia's Mir, a world record. This is the first mission for Mogensen and Aimbetov.

Meanwhile, the international crew of nine has been conducting advanced microgravity science to benefit life on Earth and future crews. NASA astronauts Kelly and Kjell Lindgren tested the humanoid Robonaut. Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui checked out rodent research gear. New Flight Engineer Sergey Volkov worked with Mogensen on the Muscle Atrophy Research Exercise System.

NanoRack Cubesat Deployer (NRCSD) Removal: Kelly retracted the JEM Airlock (JEMAL) Slide Table (ST) into the module and removed the NRCSD #5 from the Multi-Purpose Experiment Platform (MPEP). The MPEP was left on the ST for tomorrow's installation of the Japanese Small Satellite Orbital Deployer #4 (J-SSOD #4).

Cell Biology Experiment Facility (CBEF) Mouse Habitat Unit (MHU) Checkout: Yui continues to perform installation and checkouts of the MHU delivered on HTV-5. Today, he installed the Glovebox and ancillary equipment, performed checkout steps followed by closeout steps.

On-Board Training (OBT) Soyuz Drill: The 44S crew participated in the descent training session to cover procedures and actions that the crew will perform during undock and landing operations on Friday 11-September.

Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI)-2: Overnight, MELFI-2 experienced a power anomaly. The crew was able to verify both Main and Auxiliary power were applied to the MELFI-2 Rack Interface Unit (RIU). However, the RIU was not supplying power to the Electronics Box. MELFI-2 has since been powered down and samples transferred to MELFI-1. Ground teams will be assessing troubleshooting further plans.

ISS Reboost: Over the weekend, the ISS performed a nominal reboost in preparation for 61P docking on October 1st.

Mobile Servicing System (MSS) Operations: The Mobile Transporter (MT) was moved from WS7 to WS5. The Robotic Flight Controllers will be walking the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) off from Mobile Remote Servicer (MRS) Base System (MBS) Power and Data Grapple Fixture (PDGF)-2 to the Node 2 PDGF.

Ground Activities
All activities were completed unless otherwise noted.

MT translation from WS7 to WS5
SSRMS Walkoff from MSS to N2 [On Schedule]

Three-Day Look Ahead:
Wednesday, 09/09: SSOD install/checkout part 1, MARES ankle config install, SPRINT, Robonaut maintenance
Thursday, 09/10: SPHERES SLOSH, MARES execution, IMAX interior scene, OBT crew health care drill
Friday, 09/11: 42S undock, PCG removal, SLAMMD setup control run, MSPR2 CO2 umbilical mate, Capillary Beverage

QUICK ISS Status - Environmental Control Group:

Component - Status
Elektro - On
Vozdukh - Manual
[СКВ] 1 - SM Air Conditioner System ("SKV1") - Off
[СКВ] 2 - SM Air Conditioner System ("SKV2") - On
Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Lab - Operate
Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Node 3 - Operate
Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Lab - Shutdown
Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Node 3 - Operate
Oxygen Generation Assembly (OGA) - Process
Urine Processing Assembly (UPA) - Norm
Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Lab - Off
Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Node 3 - Full Up

http://spaceref.com/international-space-station/nasa-international-space-station-on-orbit-status-8-september-2015.html

International Interview session....video is 37:35 min

--------------------------------------------------------------

Nine-Passenger Station Increases Altitude for Future Russian Vehicles

Cosmonaut Gennady Padalka handed command of the International Space Station to astronaut Scott Kelly Saturday. The following day a docked Russian resupply ship fired its engines raising the orbital laboratory’s altitude to prepare for upcoming Soyuz and Progress missions.

Visiting crew members Andreas Mogensen and Aidyn Aimbetov joined Padalka for a Soyuz descent drill as they prepare for Friday evening’s landing inside the Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft. When Padalka lands he will have accumulated 879 days in space over five missions, four on the space station and one on Russia’s Mir, a world record. This is the first mission for Mogensen and Aimbetov.

Meanwhile, the international crew of nine has been conducting advanced microgravity science to benefit life on Earth and future crews. NASA astronauts Kelly and Kjell Lindgren tested the humanoid Robonaut. Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui checked out rodent research gear. New Flight Engineer Sergey Volkov worked with Mogensen on the Muscle Atrophy Research Exercise System.

https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2015/09/08/nine-passenger-station-increases-altitude-for-future-russian-vehicles/

-------------------------------------------------

Russian space agency: Space debris may pose threat to Russia’s national security

MOSCOW, September 8. /TASS/. Pollution of near-earth space may create major hindrances to further space exploration in 50 years from now and even pose a threat to Russia’s national security, the head research center of Roscosmos (TsNIIMash — Central Research Engineering Institute) has warned.

"The problem of space debris is getting exceptionally acute. It can be formulated in rather harsh terms: if no transition is carried out within decades to fundamentally new space rocket technologies with the aim to prevent the emergence of space debris the level of pollution of near-earth space in 50-60 years’ time may considerably hinder further space activities, which, in turn, may have adverse effects on many aspects of state activities and even create a threat to Russia’s national security," TsNIIMash press-service has told TASS.

The institute warned that space junk already constituted a considerable threat to space activities.

"Over the past few years the operators of space vehicles have been getting ever more frequent warnings there was a risk operational space vehicles faced the threat of collision with catalogued space debris measuring more than ten centimeters in size," TsNIIMash said.

TsNIIMash explained that spacecraft’s collision with such items would at best result in full or partial loss of the satellite’s functions, and at worst, in a powerful explosion and the emergence of a large amount of debris. At the moment the sole way of avoiding such incidents is evasive action, which entails unforeseen fuel consumption, reduces the satellite’s life cycle or even disruption of the flight program altogether.

For protecting spacecraft from collision with fragments smaller than ten centimeters and micrometeorites special protective devices are used, TsNIIMash said.

http://tass.ru/en/science/819528

Later........

Primary crew	Backup crew
Sergei Volkov, Soyuz commander, Roskosmos	Oleg Skripochka, Soyuz commander, Roskosmos
Andreas Mogensen, Flight Engineer, ESA/Denmark	Thomas Pesquet, Flight Engineer, ESA/France
Aidyn Aimbetov, Flight Engineer 2, Kazakhstan	Sergei Prokopiev, Flight Engineer 2, Roskosmos

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