NASA ISS Image: Western Europe at Night

With hardware from the Earth-orbiting International Space Station appearing in the near foreground, a night time European panorama reveals city lights from Belgium and the Netherlands at bottom center.

The British Isles partially obscured by solar array panels at left, the North Sea at left center, and Scandinavia at right center beneath the end effector of the Space Station Remote Manipulator System or Canadarm2.

The image was taken by the station crew on Jan. 22, 2012.

Image Credit: NASA

NASA ISS EVA Images: Robotic Arm Malfunction during Astronauts' EVA

NASA astronauts Alvin Drew and Steve Bowen participate in the mission's first session of extravehicular activity.

A robotic arm breakdown left one of them stranded for almost 20 minutes.

"How much longer?" asked veteran astronaut Steve Bowen after the Robotic Work Station in the ISS's Cupola, the central command post for robotic operations, shut down two hours into the walk.

Bowen and Drew stayed calm and got plenty of work done after the robotic arm failure, ending the 6.5-hour excursion with a lighthearted experiment to bottle some outer space for Japan.

NASA played The Police song "Message in a Bottle" to serenade the two Americans floating outside the ISS as Drew opened and then recapped a metal cylinder that had been signed by many astronauts.

The space capsule will return to Earth to go on display, as part of a joint effort by NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA, to capture the vacuum of space.



Steve Bowen and Alvin Drew wave as they perform maintenance work on the International Space Station

Steve Bowen (L) and Alvin Drew carry out maintenance work on the International Space Station

Pictures: NASA

ESA European Robotic Arm (ERA)

Artist's impression of the European Robotic Arm (ERA). An important task for ERA will be to transport astronauts or cosmonauts like a cherry picker crane to the position where they are supposed to perform their work, or from one external location to another. This saves time and effort during spacewalk activities.

Credits: ESA - D.Ducros

European Robotic Arm spare unit, before covering under a thermal cover, attached to Russian Mini Research Module 1. MRM-1 will be launched to ISS aboard shuttle Atlantis on Friday 14 May 2010.

Credits: ESA

ERA will be used to service the Russian segment of the ISS and to transfer small payloads directly to space via MLM’s special airlock, liberating astronauts from time-consuming, fatiguing and potentially hazardous tasks outside the Station.

The Shuttle’s main cargo is Russia’s Mini Research Module 1 (MRM-1), with ERA’s spare mid-section attached. Hopefully, it will never be needed. Atlantis is also carrying the MLM airlock, a portable work platform and an MLM radiator.

ERA’s other spare parts can be delivered later on smaller, unmanned craft, if needed, but this long and bulky composite of two limbs and elbow joint needs the Shuttle’s help.