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Showing posts from December, 2009

Science and Station Orientation for Crew

Image above: (From left to right) Flight Engineer Soichi Noguchi, Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer T.J. Creamer participate in an in-flight media interview aboard the International Space Station. Credit: NASA TV Orientation activities and science investigations continued Wednesday for the Expedition 22 crew aboard the International Space Station . The newest crew members, Flight Engineers Soichi Noguchi, T.J. Creamer and Oleg Kotov, who arrived at the station Dec. 22, continued orientation procedures scheduled for their first two weeks aboard the orbiting complex. Creamer also worked with the DEvice for the study of Critical LIquids and Crystallization (DECLIC) experiment that studies the material growth and the behavior of liquids. DECLIC may lead to spin-offs in the field of clean technologies for producing energy and treating household and nuclear waste. Noguchi also worked with the Bodies in the Space Environment (BISE) Experiment, which is evaluating how astronauts’ per

Off-Duty Day for New Expanded Crew

Image above: Wearing festive holiday hats , the Expedition 22 crew speaks with officials from Russia, Japan and the United States. In the front row are Flight Engineer Maxim Suraev (left) and Commander Jeff Williams. Behind them, left to right, are newly-arrived Flight Engineers Oleg Kotov, T.J. Creamer and Soichi Noguchi. Credit: NASA Following the arrival of the three new Expedition 22 crew members Tuesday, the crew aboard the International Space Station had an off-duty day Wednesday. The crew members spent most of the day sleeping due to the late finish of the docking activities. NASA astronaut T.J. Creamer, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi docked with their new home at 5:48 p.m. EST Tuesday. The trio launched aboard the Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft at 4:52 p.m. Sunday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. From inside the station, Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Maxim Suraev monitored the approach of the Russia

Gaza's Christians: gaze to tunnels for scant holiday cheer

GAZA CITY — This year Santa had to ditch his sleigh in Egypt and crawl through a smuggling tunnel to bring a little Christmas joy to the Gaza Strip. "Some of these gifts came from Egypt through the tunnels because the crossings were closed," Emad Barakat, a Gaza City gift shop owner said, pointing to rows of chocolate Santas. "They've been selling well." Israel and Egypt have imposed a strict blockade on Gaza since the Islamist Hamas movement seized power in June 2007, preventing all but vital goods from reaching the territory where the vast majority of people rely on foreign aid. That has meant that many of the decorations lining the Catholic Church of the Holy Family and its adjacent school and kindergarten -- where most students are Muslim -- were brought through tunnels from Egypt. Some 2,500 Christians, most of them Greek Orthodox, live in Gaza alongside 1.5 million Muslims. They generally have good relations with Hamas but have been targeted in the past by

“U.S. plane” overshoots Jamaica runway, dozens hurt

KINGSTON (Reuters) - An American Airlines Boeing 737 carrying more than 150 passengers and crew overshot the runway while landing in torrential rain in Jamaica late on Tuesday, cracking open its fuselage and halting just short of the Caribbean sea, authorities and eyewitnesses said. U.S. Jamaican Information Minister Daryl Vaz said none of the 145 passengers and six crew on board Flight AA 331 was killed, but 90 people were taken to local hospitals, where they were treated for broken bones, cuts and bruises, as well as shock. "The situation is pretty much under control, there have been no fatalities and the injured are being cared for," Vaz told reporters. "So far 90 persons have turned up at hospitals with broken bones, cuts and bruises," he added. An American Airlines spokeswoman, Andrea Huguely, said at least three people were kept at the hospitals for observation and treatment. Others were treated and released. "Upon impact, the aircraft hit an embankment w

Three New Expedition 22 Crew Members Welcomed "Aboard Station"

The Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft approaches the International Space Station . Credit: NASA Wearing festive holiday hats, the Expedition 22 crew speaks with officials from Russia, Japan and the United States. Credit: NASA TV NASA astronaut T.J. Creamer, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi docked with their new home at 5:48 p.m. EST Tuesday. The trio launched aboard the Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft at 4:52 p.m. Sunday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. From inside the station, Expedition 22 Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Maxim Suraev monitored the approach of the Russian spacecraft as it docked to the Earth-facing port of the Zarya module. After completion of leak checks, the hatches between the two vehicles were opened at 7:30 p.m. Williams and Suraev, who arrived at the station Oct. 2 aboard the Soyuz TMA-16, welcomed the new Expedition 22 flight engineers aboard their orbital home for the next five months. Cr

Endeavour set for Holidays

Space shuttle Endeavour's hatch has been closed and purging systems are set up to blow warm air into the shuttle and critical systems during the holiday break. Standing inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Endeavour has been bolted onto its external tank and twin solid rocket boosters. The temperature inside the shuttle will be kept at about 70 degrees with about 50 percent humidity. Warm air is circulated around the main engines and orbital maneuvering system thrusters to protect them from the colder temperatures. They will come on when the forecast calls for temperatures of 45 degrees or lower for four hours. Endeavour's next major milestone is scheduled for Jan. 6, 2010, when it is rolled out to Launch Pad 39A. Liftoff of the spacecraft on the STS-130 mission is targeted for Feb. 7 at 4:39 a.m. EST. Image above: Crew trainer Patrick Jones (right) briefs STS-130 crew members during a training session in the Space Vehicle Mock-up

AcrimSat Celebrates 10 Years of Measuring “the Sun's Energy”

Artist's concept of AcrimSat. Image credit: NASA/JPL › Larger image Launched Dec. 20, 1999, the Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor Satellite (AcrimSat) monitors the total amount of the sun's energy reaching Earth. It is this energy, called total solar irradiance, that creates the winds, heats the land and drives ocean currents. Some scientists theorize a significant fraction of Earth's warming may be solar in origin due to small increases in the sun's total energy output since the last century. By measuring incoming solar radiation, climatologists are using AcrimSat to improve their predictions of climate change and global warming over the next century. For more information on AcrimSat, see: http://acrim.jpl.nasa.gov/ .

Astronauts Test Glenn implements Harnesses

Imagine that you want to exercise on a treadmill. You step onto the machine and select your desired speed. As the belt starts moving, you start walking and eventually running. Your feet rhythmically hit the belt, and you get a nice workout. In space, it isn't that simple. Bob Thirsk (Canadian Space Agency) exercises with the Glenn Harness aboard the International Space Station during ISS Expedition 20/21. Image Credit: NASA For astronauts living in space, like those who reside on the International Space Station, getting a good workout is equally -- and in some ways even more important -- than for earthbound people. "Crew members exercise for a host of important reasons. There's a psychological benefit to exercise, and crew members work out to combat spaceflight deconditioning -- to help fend off the bone loss that they experience in microgravity and to help maintain muscle strength and cardiovascular endurance. All of these things are adversely affected by long-duration

Expedition 22 Keeps Busy While Awaiting Additional Crew Members

Image above: Expedition 22 Commander Jeff Williams works in the U.S. Destiny laboratory aboard the International Space Station. Credit: NASA TV High above the Earth, the International Space Station ’s Expedition 22 crew kept busy with science and maintenance Monday as they awaited Tuesday’s scheduled arrival of additional crew members. Commander Jeff Williams performed an inspection of an important piece of the crew’s exercise equipment, the Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED). Used as part of a daily workout routine, ARED helps the station inhabitants preserve muscle strength during their extended time in microgravity. Williams also recorded some video of the Advanced Plant EXperiments on Orbit - Cambium (APEX-Cambium) experiment. APEX-Cambium uses willow plants flown on the International Space Station to better understand the fundamental processes by which plants produce cellulose and lignin, the two main structural materials found in plant matter. Understanding the role of gr

"NASA" Astronauts and Managers to Discuss the First of Five Remaining Shuttle Flights

HOUSTON -- Space shuttle Endeavour will deliver the final module of the U.S. portion of the International Space Station on the STS-130 mission, now targeted to launch Feb. 7. NASA will preview this mission during a series of news briefings Friday, Jan. 15, at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA Television and the agency's Web site will broadcast the briefings live. Reporters may ask questions from participating NASA locations. Endeavour's flight will begin the final year of space shuttle operations. Five shuttle missions are planned in 2010, with the final flight currently targeted for launch in September. Endeavour's 13-day flight will include three spacewalks and the delivery of the Tranquility node, a connecting module that will increase the International Space Station's interior space. Tranquility will provide additional room for crew members and many of the space station's life support and environmental control systems. Attached to the node is a

New Releases Hollywood Movie: Avatar Movie Stills

Colliding Auroras Produce an Explosion of Light

This three frame animation of THEMIS/ASI images shows auroras colliding on Feb. 29, 2008. Credit: Toshi Nishimura/UCLA › Larger Image › View Animation A network of cameras deployed around the Arctic in support of NASA's THEMIS mission has made a startling discovery about the Northern Lights. Sometimes, vast curtains of aurora borealis collide, producing spectacular outbursts of light. Movies of the phenomenon were unveiled at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union today in San Francisco. "Our jaws dropped when we saw the movies for the first time," said space scientist Larry Lyons of the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA), a member of the team that made the discovery. "These outbursts are telling us something very fundamental about the nature of auroras." The collisions occur on such a vast scale that isolated observers on Earth -- with limited fields of view -- had never noticed them before. It took a network of sensitive cameras sprea

Quiet Sun Means Cooling of Earth's Upper Atmosphere

Data from the TIMED (Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics) mission are being used to understand the climate of the upper atmosphere. Credit: NASA Energy emitted by the upper atmosphere as infrared (IR) radiation in 2002 (top) and 2008 (bottom) -- In this SABER plot, Nitric Oxide (NO) is the IR emitter. Researchers are building a climate record of the thermosphere using this data. Credit: NASA Energy emitted by the upper atmosphere as infrared (IR) radiation in 2002 (top) and 2008 (bottom) -- In this SABER plot, Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is the IR emitter. Researchers are building a climate record of the thermosphere using this data. Credit: NASA New measurements from a NASA satellite show a dramatic cooling in the upper atmosphere that correlates with the declining phase of the current solar cycle. For the first time, researchers can show a timely link between the Sun and the climate of Earth’s thermosphere, the region above 100 km, an essential st

Khullam Khulla Pyaar Karenge Hum Dono “ Ranbir-Katrina”

The latest buzz in Bollywood claims that Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif are more than friends but neither of them is admitting to their relationship. It all started during the shooting of ‘Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahini’. Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif came closer and their growing fondness can be measured from text messages, constant phone calls. Among other news that has surfaced, it is being said that Katrina had also visited Ranbir’s residence and that Ranbir had gifted her heart-shaped pendant. Katrina has tried keeping it under wraps having told only a few close friends about it. A source close to the couple said that Ranbir and Katrina are are finding it extremely difficult to keep their growing fondness for each other under wraps and it is just a matter of time before they make it public. Ranbir isn't even trying to conceal his new-found love for Kaif. She too has moved on from Salman, and they are now "just friends" now they've decided that they have grown out o