Tag Archives: International Space Station

May 18 2012

SpaceX Dragon to Blast-Off to ISS

Classroom preperation for the student spaceflight experiments program SSEP

On Tuesday, May 22 at 07:44 UT SpaceX’s Dragon hopes to transport the student payload Aquarius on SSEP Mission 1 to the International Space Station (ISS).

The set of SSEP Mission 1 experiments, called Aquarius, was originally slated to fly aboard the Soyuz 30. But in an interesting twist of fate, the experiments were re-manifested on the maiden voyage of the SpaceX Dragon to the ISS. Aquarius not only becomes part of a historic first but also allows the space station to remain an out-of-this-world platform to engage students in STEM — science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The SpaceX Dragon launch will be broadcast live on the Internet details at
http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

NASA – Space Station — Here We Come!
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/station-here-we-come.html

May 10 2012

Three More Radio Hams Venture to ISS Next Week

ISS Expedition 31 Crew 640

The six radio hams comprising the ISS Expedition 31 crew. In the front row are Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko RN3DX (right), commander; and Gennady Padalka RN3DT, flight engineer. Pictured from the left (back row) are NASA astronaut Joe Acaba KE5DAR, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Revin RN3BS, European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers PI9ISS and NASA astronaut Don Pettit KD5MDT, all flight engineers. Photo credit: NASA

The ARRL report that NASA will televise the launch and docking of the next mission, carrying three radio amateurs to the International Space Station (ISS), scheduled for May 14.

NASA Flight Engineer Joseph Acaba, KE5DAR, and his two Russian crewmates, Soyuz Commander Gennady Padalka, RN3DT, and Flight Engineer Sergei Revin, RN3BS, are completing their training as they undergo Soyuz spacecraft fit.

Live NASA TV coverage of the Soyuz TMA-04M spacecraft launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan begins at 9 PM CDT on Monday, May 14 (0200 UTC May 15), with the launch scheduled for 10:01 PM CDT (0301 UTC).

The trio will arrive at the station May 16, joining Expedition 31 Commander Oleg Kononenko, RN3DX, of the Russian Federal Space Agency, Flight Engineer Don Pettit, KD5MDT, of NASA and Flight Engineer Andrei Kuipers, PI9ISS, of the European Space Agency, who have been aboard the ISS since December 2011. Padalka, Acaba and Revin will transition to the Expedition 32 crew in July and return to Earth in mid-September.

For NASA TV’s scheduled coverage see the full ARRL story at http://www.arrl.org/news/three-hams-venture-to-iss-next-week

You can watch NASA TV online at http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

Listening to the International Space Station http://www.uk.amsat.org/3491

Apr 25 2012

ISS: successful contact with Balaklava school

We are pleased to announce very successful contact of Balaklava school
(Sevastopol, Crimea, Ukraine) with International Space Station.
More than 100 children came to take part of the evening event on April
11, 2012 in Balaklava – very unique place with interesting history as well
as known as a place where Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov was born.
17 questions were asked and after the radio contact was finished we continued
communication via phone in combination with video stream available on http://spacestationlive.jsc.nasa.gov/timeline/index.html
Anton came to the place where web camera is located so we were able
not only to speak but also to see what he was doing on board of the station.
During the conversation Daniel Burbank joined giving greetings to all participants
on the ground.
Anton has answered 5 more questions and shown how Orlan space suit glovers
works, how to drink water in the space. Under storm of applause Anton presented
Balaklava’s school pennon which he has on board.
Space station

Space station

Event was organized by Ukrainian radio-amateurs Andrey Begunov – UT9UF and
Oleg Dmitrenko UR4UKV with support of Sevastopol’s radio-amateurs, space enthusiast
Vladimir Kovgan and Anton’s first teacher Irina Bogdanova.
Andrey
UT9UF
Apr 15 2012

ISS Amateur Radio contact with Scouts

Dan Burbank KC5ZSX - 640

Dan Burbank KC5ZSX

An International Space Station school contact took place between astronaut Dan Burbank KC5ZSX and Japanese Scouts on April 14, 2012.

The Scouts were from Troop 2nd & 3rd Iruma Group, Saitama Scout Council Scout Association Of Japan, Iruma and used the callsign 8N1BSI.

Radio amateur Dan Burbank KC5ZSX was using the callsign NA1SS from one of the two amateur radio stations that have been installed on the ISS.

Watch ARISS RadioScouting

ARISS ham radio contact with Japanese Scouts
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/april2012/ariss_event_1404.htm

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) http://ariss.rac.ca/

Mar 26 2012

Apex students talk with space station

On Wednesday, March 21, students at Salem Elementary in Apex came together in the school’s multipurpose room for a once-in-a-lifetime event.

WRAL TV news reports that fourteen students, six of them winners of the school’s science fair a few weeks earlier, made their way onto the stage for their turn to ask a question of astronaut Don Pettit KD5MDT 241 miles (388 km) up and on the other side of the Earth aboard the International Space Station. Tony Hutchison VK5ZAI provided the telebridge link to the ISS amateur radio station NA1SS.

At 10:07 am EDT, the station came over the horizon of Southern Australia and ham radio volunteer Tony Huchison VK5ZAI called out to callsign NA1SS. Everyone relaxed a little bit when Pettit KD5MDT responded and students lined up to ask their questions one after another.

Watch the WRAL video

Read the full WRAL news report at http://www.wral.com/weather/blogpost/10904028/

ARISS ham radio space contact with Salem Elementary School, Apex, NC http://www.southgatearc.org/news/march2012/ariss_event_2103.htm

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) http://www.rac.ca/ariss/

Mar 23 2012

O/OREOS Mission: “Cost effective” CubeSat science

 

Astrobiology magazine posts a piece on the success of NASA’s O/OREOS mission that points out that serious science can be accomplished by tiny spacecraft:

‘The full success of the O/OREOS mission demonstrates convincingly that cubesats can be cost-effective platforms for performing science research and conducting technology demonstrations,’ said Mary Voytek, senior scientist of NASA’s Astrobiology Program at NASA Headquarters, in a statement from NASA. ‘The capabilities of cubesats are growing steadily, making them good candidates to operate precursor experiments for missions on larger satellites, the International Space Station, lunar surface exposure facilities, and planetary exploration.’

O/OREOS monitored the effects of the space environment on microorganism growth and metabolism in a high-inclination, low-Earth orbit.

Wayne

Image credit: NASA Ames