Tag

Space Station

All articles tagged with #space station

science1 month ago•5 min saved

Catch a Glint: How to Spot the International Space Station from Earth

The ISS can be seen from Earth as a bright, fast-moving point of light around sunrise or sunset, completing about 16 orbits per day at ~17,500 mph; you don't need binoculars, though they help, and you can use NASA's Spot the Station app or ESA's online tracker to know when it's passing overhead. The article notes seven astronauts aboard Expedition 75 and ongoing Crew-12/Crew-13 crew changes, including a delay to Crew-13's launch, meaning the next crew rotation is on hold for now, but the station will continue to be visible when skies are clear.

via USA Today|

#iss #nasa #science

space1 month ago•162 min saved

Tiangong to Illuminate the Night Sky Over the East Coast This Week

China’s Tiangong space station, with a three-astronaut crew, will be visible to the naked eye from parts of the U.S. East Coast this week as it zips around Earth in a roughly 90-minute orbit. Some passes can reach about magnitude -2 (bright, comparable to Jupiter, but not as bright as the ISS); best viewing is about an hour or two after sunset or before sunrise. The article lists the brightest passes over New York City from Sept. 2–9, with high elevations up to around 88 degrees. Tiangong should appear as a steady, bright point moving across the sky without flashing lights and may briefly disappear when it passes into Earth’s shadow. The station, meaning Heavenly Palace, is smaller than the ISS but remains a striking skywatching target for amateur observers.

via Space|

#astronomy #passes #skywatching

science1 month ago•3 min saved

NASA astronaut Jonny Kim returns to Navy for aviation training

Navy Lt. Cmdr. Jonny Kim, a former Navy SEAL, Harvard-trained doctor, and eight-month ISS veteran, is leaving NASA after nearly a decade to resume active duty in naval aviation training, with NASA praising his impact on future space missions and leadership.

via Task & Purpose|

#astronaut #jonny-kim #nasa

space-history1 month ago•16 min saved

From Brick Moon to the Habitation Wheel: The Dawn of Rotating Space Stations

From Edward Hale’s 1869 Brick Moon—an imagined 200‑foot brick satellite launched with people aboard—to Noordung’s 1929 Wohnrad and von Braun’s mid‑century wheel concept popularized by Collier’s and Disney, the article traces how early science fiction and theory shaped ideas for rotating habitats, the physics of artificial gravity (requiring large rings for Earth gravity and introducing Coriolis effects), and why real stations have not relied on spin for gravity.

via Hackaday|

#artificial-gravity #brick-moon #noordung

world2 months ago•192 min saved

Eight-month US-Russian ISS mission ends with safe Kazakhstan landing

NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev landed safely in Kazakhstan after a 241-day mission on the International Space Station, marking Williams’ and Mikaev’s first spaceflight and Kud-Sverchkov’s second as the US and Russia continue cooperative space exploration despite geopolitical tensions from the Ukraine conflict.

via CNN|

#iss #nasa #roscosmos

space2 months ago•12 min saved

Skylab ends a six-year orbit as debris in Western Australia becomes museums and a rain-catching keepsake

Skylab, NASA’s first space station, cost roughly $2.2 billion, hosted nine astronauts on three missions for a combined 171 days, and spent just over six years in orbit before re-entering in July 1979. Debris scattered over Western Australia, with pieces ending up in museums, private collections, and even a rain-catching trough made from an oxygen-tank lid. The project demonstrated long-duration spaceflight, orbital maintenance, and helped lay groundwork for later programs like Shuttle–Mir and the International Space Station.

via Space Daily|

#nasa #reentry #skylab

science2 months ago•7 min saved

Hand-Driven Lifeline: How Salyut 7 Was Revived in Orbit

In 1985, the Soviet space station Salyut 7 went silent after an electrical cascade killed power and froze its systems; four months later, cosmonauts Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Viktor Savinykh manually docked with the dead station, entered with gas masks and flashlights, and revived it with improvised wiring and a reoriented solar array, restoring power and life support within weeks—an enduring milestone in in-space repair.

via Space Daily|

#cosmonauts #in-space-repair #manual-docking

space-exploration3 months ago•96 min saved

China plans six-module Tiangong expansion with Xuntian space telescope

China aims to expand its Tiangong space station from three to six modules, adding a 20-ton multifunctional module and two new experiment modules to form a double-T shape, with the bus-sized Xuntian space observatory slated for 2027 to dock with Tiangong. The expansion addresses growing research needs and more frequent crew/cargo missions, while NASA plans to deorbit the ISS around 2030–2031, potentially leaving Tiangong as the largest permanent orbital outpost.

via Space|

#china #iss-deorbit #space-exploration

space4 months ago•14 min saved

ISS standoff: NASA-Roscosmos clash over a saw amid ongoing leak

Five astronauts shelter in the SpaceX Crew Dragon after a leak in the PrK transfer tunnel prompts an evacuation-safe haven order. NASA argued that a planned bracket-cutting to inspect a suspected leak was too aggressive for an active pressure boundary, and Roscosmos paused the work, allowing the crew to return to the ISS while the crack remains unsealed. The leak, ongoing since 2019, has fluctuated and approached about two pounds of air lost per day. The episode highlights ongoing differences in engineering culture and risk tolerance between NASA and Roscosmos as the aging ISS continues operation toward 2030–2031 with shared-module contingencies.

via Space Daily|

#iss #leak #nasa

space4 months ago•2 min saved

ISS Crew Goes on Evacuation Standby as Air Leaks Persist

NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station were ordered to shelter in their SpaceX Crew Dragon and be ready to evacuate after air leaks in the Russian segment doubled to about two pounds per day; Russian cosmonauts worked to diagnose and repair a leak in a service tunnel between the Zvezda module and a docking module, with airtight doors allowing the tunnel to be isolated. Although repairs enabled a return to normal operation, the crew remains at risk of losing breathable air while orbiting Earth.

via Jalopnik|

#air-leaks #evacuation #iss

space4 months ago•6 min saved

ISS Leak Forces Lifeboat Shelter as Russian Repairs Unfold

Five Crew-12 members took shelter in SpaceX's Crew Dragon while Russian cosmonauts worked on persistent air leaks in the PrK transfer tunnel of the International Space Station; Roscosmos sealed two potential leak sites and prepared further fixes, with NASA and Roscosmos pausing the repair to take measurements. After about 90 minutes, mission control allowed the crew to reopen hatches and return to the station, as officials stressed a collaborative effort to address the leaks and indicated no threat to crew safety.

via Ars Technica|

#air-leak #nasa #roscosmos

science4 months ago•35 min saved

China’s trio of astronauts return from record-long space mission

Three Chinese astronauts landed back on Earth after a nearly seven-month stay aboard the Tiangong space station, marking the longest crewed mission for China and a milestone in its ongoing space program.

via Yahoo|

#astronauts #china #science

sciencespace4 months ago•2 min saved

China Tests Stem-Cell Embryos in Orbit to Assess Space Reproduction Feasibility

China conducted an on-orbit study aboard the Tiangong station using artificial embryos made from human stem cells to examine early development in microgravity. The two embryo models (one simulating uterine attachment and another using a microfluidic chip to mimic tissue formation) were cultured for about five days on the Tianzhou-10 supply ship, then frozen and returned to Earth for analysis, with Earth-based controls for comparison. The goal is to understand potential risks to human reproduction during long-term space habitation, not to create real babies in space.

via Gizmodo|

#biology #china #reproduction

science4 months ago•5 min saved

ISS 2025 Highlights: Robotic Surgery, Bioprinted Bones, and Space-Ready Batteries

NASA's 2025 ISS Highlights show 750+ investigations advancing life in space, Earth benefits, and future Moon/Mars exploration, including a microgravity robotic surgery demo, magnetic-levitation bioprinted bone grafts, melanin-enhanced shielding materials, long-duration space battery tests with minimal degradation, and studies of post-flight piloting performance, reflecting global collaboration and thousands of publications.

via NASA (.gov)|

#batteries #bioprinting #materials-science

space4 months ago•5 min saved

ISS Faces Fresh Leak From Russian Module, Reigniting Talks on Its Future

NASA confirmed renewed atmospheric leakage from the Russian PrK transfer tunnel of the International Space Station, at about one pound per day, after a period of stability. There are no crew impacts, but the reoccurrence complicates plans for maintaining ISS operations into the 2030s (or beyond) and intensifies debate over extending the station’s life versus transitioning to private commercial platforms, with NASA and Roscosmos coordinating on next steps.

via Ars Technica|

#iss #leak #nasa