The spaceport at Wallops Island, Maryland has unveiled its rocket assembly building to be used by Orbital Sciences in launching cargo to ISS.
The Russians have set the new date, April 5, for next manned Soyuz launch to ISS.
Three astronauts return safely to Earth in Soyuz capsule.
Problems going up and going down: Not only are there issues with the Soyuz capsule that is scheduled to return to Earth on Wednesday, a problem in the communications system of the next Soyuz capsule has caused the Russians to delay its launch by at least one week.
The 8.9 earthquake has shut down the Japanese space station mission control center, forcing NASA to take over monitoring Japanese ISS modules.
Putting ISS to use. Key quote:
Under consideration is using the entire station and its six-person crew as an analog for a deep-space human exploration vehicle en route to Mars. An internal team is studying the feasibility and value of such an exercise in the summer of 2012. “We might start with a small window, like a 30-day window, with actual time delays with what we’d expect with a Martian communications system,” Gerstenmaier says. “We may freeze our consumables on station, in the sense of saying that we’ve started our voyage to Mars, and see how well we do in our predictions.”
Discovery has undocked from ISS, for the last time.
The Leonardo cargo module was permanently installed on ISS yesterday.
The Soyuz fly-around of the space station to photograph it with the shuttle docked has been canceled.
The crash of the computer that runs the station’s robot arm stranded a spacewalking astronaut in space for about 20 minutes yesterday.
Take a gander at this spectacular image of the shuttle approaching ISS, taken by an amateur astronomer from the ground!
The beginning of the end: The shuttle Discovery docked successfully with the space station, its 13th and final visit to ISS.
More station news: The shuttle Discovery has lifted off on its last mission.
Europe’s Kepler cargo vehicle has docked with ISS.
The automatic docking of the European Kepler freighter to the space station is now set for 10:47 pm (Eastern) tonight.
The robot arm on ISS shifted the Japanese freighter docked there to a different port today to clear a path for the shuttle.
Meanwhile, up on ISS two Russians have successfully completed a five hour spacewalk, getting all their work done early.
Europe’s second ISS freighter, dubbed Johannes Kepler, launched successfully today.
The delay yesterday of the launch of the European cargo ship to ISS might also delay the next Shuttle launch.
The launch of Europe’s freighter to ISS was scrubbed today. They will try again tomorrow.
An extraordinary photo opportunity: Use the Soyuz to photograph ISS next month when the shuttle and the Japanese and European cargo ships are all docked to ISS.
Robots in action! The robot arm Dextre did its first work on ISS this week, unloading two payloads from the Japanese unmanned freighter that docked with the station last week.
Another freighter, this time from Russia, docks with ISS.
Another Japanese space success today: Its second robot cargo vehicle has successfully docked at ISS.
Private space marches on! NASA is in negotiations with Bigelow Aerospace to buy one of their inflatable space station modules and attach it to ISS.
How’s this for your evening television entertainment: Beginning 8 pm on Saturday, NASA TV will show the docking of the next Russian Progress freighter to ISS.
A new deal has been announced to fly tourists to ISS using Russian Soyuz capsules. According the arrangement between Space Adventures and the Federal Space Agency of the Russian Federation (FSA) and Rocket Space Corporation Energia (RSC Energia), three seats will be made available on Soyuz spacecraft bound for the International Space Station (ISS), beginning in 2013.
These seats will be made available through the increase of Soyuz production, from four to five spacecraft per year. Each flight will be short duration, approximately 10 days, and will contribute to the increase of launch capacity to the ISS.
December 14 has been set as the target date for the first test launch of Orbital Sciences’s commercial ferry to ISS. Key quote:
The flight is scheduled to include delivery of a token cargo load using Orbital’s first Cygnus visiting vehicle, a service module combined with a pressurized cargo module.
