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1. Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-129) high above Earth's rugged terrain, 25 November 2009 (4288 x 2846 pixels) 2. International Space Station over cloudy Earth, 25 November 2009 (4288 x 2846 pixels) 3. NASA's Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-129) high above the Mediterranean Sea, near the coast of Algeria, 25 November 2009 (4288 x 2846 pixels) Photos and Captions Taken From http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-200911.htm (#8, #9, #12) 

"DOUBLE FLYBY ALERT: Space shuttle Atlantis undocked from the International Space Station this morning at 4:53 am EST. The separation sets the stage for double flybys of North America on Wednesday evening, when Atlantis and the ISS will soar through the night sky side by side--a fantastic sight! Check the Simple Satellite Tracker for flybys." See SpaceWeather.com for Wednesday, Nov 25, 2009:http://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=25&month=11&year=2009 Simple Satellite Tracker (simply enter your zip code):http://www.spaceweather.com/flybys/?PHPSESSID=397dsdousovks7si6boot44dh5&PHPSESSID=stlakv4povvhbcfakao2nm7sp3 __________________________________________ For more detailed and precise International Space Station visible pass info, see Heavens-Above.com: (note that on HA.com, the International Space Station is abbreviated to "ISS"):http://heavens-above.com/ Also note that you...

German amateur astronomer Bernhard Christ was in the right place at the right time — due to very careful planning and foresight — and captured this astonishing scene: [Click to embiggen.]That’s the International Space Station crossing the face of the Moon, what astronomers call a transit (like an eclipse, but when something small goes in front of something big). This image is actually a composite of several images taken in a row, with some sharpening to make it cleaner looking. The transit only lasted for 0.4 seconds, so Christ had to be on the ball to capture this. He used...

The U.S. space agency says blogs and tweets will be part of the upcoming launch of space shuttle Atlantis and its mission to the International Space Station. The shuttle is to lift off Monday, Nov. 16, at 2:28 p.m. EST from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA said the STS-129 mission will be commanded by Charles Hobaugh and piloted by Barry Wilmore. Mission astronauts are Robert Satcher Jr., Mike Foreman, Randy Bresnik and Leland Melvin. Wilmore, Satcher and Bresnik will be making their first trips into space. Atlantis and its crew will deliver equipment to the International Space Station....

Russia's last cargo spaceship with an analogue control system plunged on Sunday into a "spaceship cemetery" in the southern Pacific, the Russian Mission Control said. "Fragments of the Progress M-67 space freighter with waste material from the International Space Station (ISS) drowned at about 14.20 Moscow time [10.20 GMT]...several thousand kilometers to the east of New Zealand," space officials said. Progress M-67, which arrived at the ISS on July 29 bringing 2.5 tons of supplies, including fuel, water and various equipment, undocked from the orbital station on September 21. During its automatic flight, the craft was used as a laboratory...

After 15 years of construction, narrow congressional votes, delays and, yes, cost overruns, the $100 billion international space station finally appears ready for prime time. The orbiting station, which in size and scope far exceeds anything humans have ever put into space, recently has been on quite a roll. In May the space station doubled its crew from three to six astronauts, and this summer two space shuttle missions delivered a new laboratory and critical scientific equipment.

The International Space Station may have to fire its thrusters to avoid a piece of space junk that is on course to pass within two miles of the orbiting complex and its 13 astronauts. Nasa is tracking debris from a portion of a European rocket, the Ariane 5, that was launched more than three years ago. The debris could pass close enough to require astronauts to fire thrusters to move the station and shuttle Discovery that is docked there out of the way, NASA officials said at a briefing. The debris posed no immediate danger to the station or the...

A team of six intrepid mice are going where no rodents have gone before: The International Space Station. The small rodents are part of an Italian study investigating the effects of bone loss in space, and researchers have set the mice up in orbital style. "Basically, it's a little hotel," said Joe Delai, Discovery's payload manager, of the cages holding the space mice. "They have a room and a place to eat and sleep." That creature comfort is key, he said. After all, the little mice will be living in space for at least three months before hitching a ride...

JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, Houston--Shuttle commander Frederick "C.J." Sturckow, forced by a leaky steering jet to use Discovery's big maneuvering thrusters instead of preferred fine-control vernier engines, deftly guided the spaceplane to a flawless docking with the International Space Station Sunday night to cap a two-day rendezvous.Approaching from directly in front of the laboratory complex as both spacecraft sailed 220 miles above the central Atlantic Ocean at 5 miles per second, the shuttle's payload bay docking port engaged its counterpart on the front end of the station's Harmony module at 7:54 p.m. CDT, about 10 minutes ahead of schedule.The shuttle Discovery,...

That's "Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill" to all of you "Colbert Nation" extremists out there.... Deal with it.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. -- After last-minute debate over external tank insulation, the shuttle Discovery is poised for launch early Tuesday on a three-spacewalk mission to deliver more than seven tons of supplies, experiment hardware and life-support gear to the International Space Station.

WASHINGTON -- NASA doesn't have nearly enough money to meet its goal of putting astronauts back on the moon by 2020 -- and it might be the wrong place to go, anyway. That's one of the harsh messages emerging from a sweeping review of NASA's human space flight program. The Human Space Flight Plans Committee, appointed by President Barack Obama and headed by retired aerospace executive Norman Augustine, has been trying to stitch together some kind of plausible strategy for America's manned space program. The panel has struggled to find options that stay under the current budget and include missions...

CROWDED on to the International Space Station (ISS) with as many as 12 colleagues, Koichi Wakata's laundry habits might not ordinarily have gone down well with his fellow astronauts. But thanks to the wonders of science, the Japanese spaceman's revelation that he had been wearing the same pair of underpants for the past month did not cause too much of a stink. After landing back at Florida's Kennedy Space Centre yesterday on board the shuttle Endeavour following 138 days in orbit, Mr Wakata told how an experiment designed to test the prototype pants held up well during the final stages...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida -- The bathroom lines just got a lot longer at the linked space shuttle and space station. One of the two toilets on the international space station malfunctioned Sunday morning. The pump separator apparently flooded. Mission Control advised the astronauts to hang an "out of service" sign on the toilet, until it can be fixed. In the meantime, the six space station residents will have to get in line to use their one good toilet. And Endeavour's seven astronauts will be restricted to the shuttle bathroom.

Canadian astronauts celebrate milestone Published Saturday July 18th, 2009 The Canadian Press LONGUEUIL, Que. - A bear hug in space between two Canadian astronauts marked a history-making moment as Julie Payette floated into the International Space Station and was greeted by fellow Canadian Bob Thirsk. It marked the first time two Canadian astronauts were in space together at the same time. Payette was a member of the seven-member crew of the space shuttle Endeavour who arrived at the space station Friday afternoon after five technical and weather-related delays. Thirsk was so excited about the Canadian rendezvous that he snapped pictures...

Since we have this great clear summer weather at night, this is a great chance to get out and see the docked International Space Station and Shuttle as they fly overhead. NASA has set up a website to help track these viewing opportunities and there is an "applet" to download to help you track the overhead time according to your Zip Code. http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/SSapplications/Post/JavaSSOP/JavaSSOP.html

I hope the weather is good....

TheInternational Space Station is making a series of flyovers over North America for the next week or so. Durations of sightings can be almost 15 minutes in some cases with magnitudes of up to -4 or so (which is easily visible during daylight)! If the clouds break here, I'll be looking tonight!

A chance recording by astronauts on the International Space Station has captured the moment a volcano explosively erupted, sending massive shockwaves through the atmosphere. Sarychev Peak, one of the most active volcanoes in the world, had been sitting quietly in the Kuril Island chain near Japan for 20 years, when it suddenly sprang to life on June 12. Fortuitously, the International Space Station was flying overhead at the time, and managed to capture this spectacular image of the ash-cloud tearing through the atmosphere, sending clouds scattering in its wake in a perfect circle.

NASA has signed a $306 million modification to the current International Space Station contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency for crew transportation and related services in 2012 and 2013. The firm-fixed price modification covers comprehensive Soyuz support, including all necessary training and preparation for launch, crew rescue, and landing of a long-duration mission for six individual station crew members. Space station crew members will launch on four Soyuz vehicles: two in spring 2012 and two in fall 2012. Their landings are scheduled for fall 2012 and spring 2013, respectively. The contract modification also provides for crew post-flight rehabilitation, medical...

Russia is making plans to detach and fly away its parts of the International Space Station when the time comes to de-orbit the rest of the outpost. Industry officials told BBC News of plans to keep the Russian ISS modules flying around a decade from now. ISS partners are optimistic they will be able to extend funding for the project beyond a current 2015 deadline. But most observers agree that most of the International Space Station will have to be scrapped around 2020. According to the plans, the remaining Russian modules will form the core of a new orbital outpost,...

WASHINGTON — The White House has ordered a complete outside review of NASA's manned space program, including plans to return astronauts to the moon. Officials want a report from an independent panel by August. White House science adviser John Holdren said Thursday that the new panel will look at the design of new spacecraft to replace the space shuttle and go to the moon, as well as consider possible alternatives to the current design. In a letter to NASA, Holdren wrote that because of the magnitude of the manned space program's ambitions and its expense, "it would be only prudent...

There will be a COLBERT on the International Space Station. Word has it that NASA, however, did not name Node 3 on the ISS after comedian Stephen Colbert, who won a NASA-sponsored naming contest for the next module that will be brought to the station. According to Robert Pearlman on CollectSPACE, NASA will announce on Comedy Central’s “Colbert Report” later tonight (Tuesday) that the module’s name will be “Tranquility” – in deference to Apollo 11’s landing site on the Moon (40th anniversary and all this year). But NASA did name a new treadmill after Colbert, kinda sorta. NASA created an...

The International Space Station has grown so big and bright, you can see it even when it is directly in front of the Moon. Oscar Martin Mesonero of Salamanca, Spain, took this picture on April 1st: Click on link below for a larger image (~750 KP) (BE SURE TO CLICK ON THE IMAGE ITSELF TO ENLARGE IT)http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2009/03apr09/Oscar-Martin-Mesonero1.jpg?PHPSESSID=ja5b01lq2khqagamnuk41qbik7 "I recorded the transit using my 8-inch Celestron telescope and a Canon EOS 50D," says Mesonero. "The ISS was much brighter than the lunar background." His snapshot caught the space station passing over the Sea of Nectar (Mare Nectaris). Just to the north...

RUSSIAN MISSION CONTROL (Moscow Region) March 28 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Soyuz TMA-14 spacecraft carrying the 19th Expedition and space tourist Charles Simonyi docked Saturday with the International Space Station (ISS), a RIA Novosti correspondent said. The crew were forced to switch over to manual regime during the last phase of the docking procedure following an engine malfunction, which meant the Soyuz docked with the orbital station some nine minutes ahead of schedule. The procedure, which presented no threat to the expedition, was successfully carried out by the crew's Russian commander Gennady Padalka. The head of Russia's ISS segment, Vladimir...

I don't know which is worse; listening to him read from the Teleprompter or listening to him try to make a joke.

March 20, 2009 — Spanning the length of a football field (including the end zones) and weighing approximately the same as a loaded space shuttle orbiter, the International Space Station's (ISS) integrated truss, or backbone, was completed in orbit this week after nine years of assembly. "We're the largest space structure in all of history and it is really amazing to be on-board," exclaimed ISS Expedition 18 commander Mike Fincke on the morning after the final piece of the truss was attached. The 356-foot, girder-like truss supports the station's living modules and laboratories, as well as eight 115-foot solar array...

If you're along the east coast up to about New York City, you **MAY** be able to see the Shuttle just after takeoff tonight. From NYC it should appear about 8 degrees above the south-west horizon and be visible for around 30-90 seconds (so I'm told). Eight degrees above the horizon is **very low** in the sky, so you will need a **clear, unobstructed view of the south-west horizon** (no trees or buildings in the way --very difficult for NYC). A fist held at arm's length represents about 10 degrees of sky, so try holding your fist out at arm's...

The international space station's three crew members climbed into their Soyuz lifeboat as a "precautionary measure" while a tiny piece of space junk passed by today, NASA said. The space agency said the debris from a spent satellite rocket motor zipped past, apparently without causing damage, and the crew was given the all-clear to return to the station and resume normal operations.

Per Fox News...Space debris on possible colision course with the ISS. Crew now in Soyuz capsule, moving away from the station.

STAR CITY (Moscow Region), March 5 (RIA Novosti) - A committee at Russia's space training center, Star City, announced the line up for the crew of the 19th Expedition to the International Space Station (ISS), a RIA Novosti correspondent said on Thursday. The ISS crew, comprising Russian Commander Gennady Padalka, U.S. Flight Engineer Michael Barratt, and American space tourist Charles Simonyi, one of the founders of Microsoft, will lift off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on board a Soyuz TMA-14 carrier rocket on March 26. This will be Hungarian-born Simonyi's second trip to the ISS as a space...

MOSCOW, February 5 (RIA Novosti) - Russia and its International Space Station partners have an oral agreement to continue using the orbiter until 2020, the president of leading Russian spacecraft maker RSC Energia said on Thursday. "The ISS partners have not yet signed any documents, but verbally we have already settled the initiative [to extend the station's use]," Vitaly Lopota said at a news conference in Moscow. Russia's partners in the International Space Station program are the United States, Canada, Japan, and the European Space Agency. Noting that in May the station's crew will be expanded from three to six...

Russian Flight Control Centre scheduled first ISS orbit raising for today’s 21.06 Moscow time. The maneuver will be performed by means of two vernier engines of the Russian module “Zvezda” (“Star”). Estimated time for operation start is 21.06 Moscow time, and intended corrective impulse is 3 meter per second. Mean orbit of the International space station is expected to gain 5.3 kilometers, resulting in 357.6 kilometers. Second orbit shift is scheduled for February 4, since ISS is waiting for the Russian “Progress” transport ship on February 10, and for American shuttle later on.

NASA Awards Space Station Commercial Resupply Services Contracts To SpaceX and Orbital WASHINGTON -- NASA has awarded two contracts -- one to Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., and one to Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, Calif. -- for commercial cargo resupply services to the International Space Station. At the time of award, NASA has ordered eight flights valued at about $1.9 billion from Orbital and 12 flights valued at about $1.6 billion from SpaceX. These fixed-price indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts will begin Jan. 1, 2009, and are effective through Dec. 31, 2016. The contracts each call...

Astronauts aboard the international space station hooked up their brand new space toilet this week, but it's missing one last touch: A simple door, for privacy.

The strange case of an Iraqi agent caught operating on American soil. His arrest may be the first of many. KHALED DUMEISI, a newspaper publisher in northern Illinois, was surprised when federal agents showed up at a modest condominium in suburban Chicago to arrest the man known to his colleagues in Iraqi intelligence as "Sirhan." He shouldn't have been shocked. First, the FBI, according to a complaint unsealed Wednesday in Illinois, had the goods on Sirhan. Among his offenses: supplying false press credentials for Iraqi intelligence agents; spying on Iraqi opposition leaders--at times, using a mini-camera implanted in the end...

A political stalemate that threatened to boot the United States off the International Space Station eased on Thursday after U.S. lawmakers passed an exemption allowing NASA to buy rides from the Russians, agency officials said. (snip) The Soyuz capsules are the only available vehicles capable of ferrying people to and from the station aside from the U.S. space shuttles, which are being retired in two years. Soyuz capsules also serve as the space station's lifeboats.

NEW YORK - Should this world ever cease to exist, Stephen Colbert will live on. "I am thrilled to have my DNA shot into space, as this brings me one step closer to my lifelong dream of being the baby at the end of 2001"

A computer virus is alive and well on the International Space Station (ISS). Nasa has confirmed that laptops carried to the ISS in July were infected with a virus known as Gammima.AG. The worm was first detected on Earth in August 2007 and lurks on infected machines waiting to steal login names for popular online games. Nasa said it was not the first time computer viruses had travelled into space and it was investigating how the machines were infected. Orbital outbreak Space news website SpaceRef broke the story about the virus on the laptops that astronauts took to the ISS....

Here's a scenario that might be going through the minds of NASA astronaut Greg Chamitoff and his two fellow Russian crew members on the International Space Station (ISS). Lawmakers warned this week that escalating tensions with Russia may leave the U.S. without ready transport to the ISS after NASA retires the space shuttle fleet in 2010. The space agency does not expect the shuttle's replacement, the Orion—an Apollo-like craft being developed as part of the Constellation program—to be ready to fly until 2015. NASA's plan was for the interim was to use Russian Soyuz craft (left) to send up crew...

Love is in the air: Amazing images of clouds from space By Daily Mail Reporter Last updated at 4:02 PM on 21st June 2008This is what earth looks like from above. And the spectacular pictures taken from 200 miles... Astronauts on the International Space Station took the snaps while travelling at 17,000 miles per hour during one of its 15 daily orbits.... Love is in the air over a Mexican islandThey show the complex meterological systems from an angle seen by a select few. Images include towering clouds, dust storms, lightening and a host of other meterological occurances. Astronauts are...

It was a good mission and I'm glad to see the ISS is taking shape. As for the object, not a big deal. My advice for everyone here, before going crazy over something minor or if something goes wrong, listen to NASA, not the media.

Mission controllers at NASA are discussing a possible problem with space shuttle Discovery on Friday. Astronauts said they noticed a shiny, rectangular-shaped object trailing the shuttle after a rocket was fired. NASA officials said they're analyzing video and photos to determine if the part came from the shuttle or cargo bay. They're hoping to determine if it could pose a problem for the crew during the re-entry and landing on Saturday morning.

I saw the ISS/Space Shuttle combo pass over Illinois tonight.

Two weeks after the only toilet broke aboard the international space station, Russian Mission Control has some welcome news for astronauts: You can "start using it." Wednesday's successful repair job came thanks to a 35-pound pump delivered by the space shuttle Discovery. A cosmonaut spent hours installing the device and was told to report later on how well the toilet works.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- Space shuttle Discovery performed a slow back flip and then docked at the international space station Monday, delivering a mammoth lab and two new occupants: a NASA astronaut and Buzz Lightyear. Commander Mark Kelly pulled up to the space station and parked as the two spacecraft soared 210 miles above the South Pacific. Discovery carried Japan's prized Kibo lab, a 37-foot-long, 16-ton scientific workshop. The seven shuttle astronauts and three station residents will combine forces to install the bus-size lab on Tuesday. The shuttle crew also brought a spare toilet pump for the orbiting outpost....

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - After being rushed in from Russia, a toilet pump was loaded into space shuttle Discovery on Thursday just in time for this weekend's liftoff to the international space station, where the lone commode is acting up. A NASA employee based in Moscow hand-carried the pump on a commercial flight that touched down Wednesday night. Within hours, the pump and related equipment were packed away aboard Discovery. Discovery is scheduled to blast off Saturday on a 14-day mission. The main delivery item is a 37-foot-long Japanese lab; it will be the biggest room once installed at the...

The international space station has a plumbing problem: the lone toilet is broken. So NASA may make an in-orbit plumbing service call when space shuttle Discovery visits next week.

Space shuttle Discovery will be loaded with spare parts to fix the main toilet in the Russian segment of the International Space Station; the vacuum-powered urine-collection device failed after repeated attempts to fix it last week. The three crew members on the station, a U.S. astronaut and two cosmonauts, are using the toilet in the Soyuz module. The situation could become problematic when Discovery arrives next week, and 10 people are required to share the toilet on the tiny Soyuz, which is a Russian capsule also designated to be used at an emergency escape lifeboat. The shuttle's toilet, however, could...

From spaceweather.com for Monday, May 19, 2008: The 2008 "ISS Marathon" gets underway this week when the International Space Station spends three days (May 21-23) in almost-constant sunlight. Sky watchers in Europe and North America can see the bright spaceship gliding overhead two to four times each night. Please try our new and improved Simple Satellite Tracker to find out when to look. The station is not only bright and easy to see with the naked eye, but also it makes a fine target for backyard telescopes: "I took these pictures during the early morning hours of May 12th using...