US Section of ISS suffers Ammonia leak: Astronauts evacuated to Russian module

The Expedition 42 crew members of the International Space Station were forced to evacuate the U.S. section Wednesday after a chemical leak, the American and Russian space agencies said.

All crew were safe and had moved to the Russian side of the facility after the leak of “harmful substances,” the Russian Federal Space Agency said on its website.

The U.S. section of the I.S.S. had been sealed off, it said.

NASA confirmed to reporters that the leak was ammonia. The space agency said the crew were safe.

Flight controllers at Mission Control in Houston saw readings that could indicate an ammonia leak in a worst case scenario and acted conservatively to protect the crew.

It is not yet known whether the alarm was triggered by a leak, a faulty sensor or a computer problem, as indicated by a recent podcast.

Russian Soyuz Delivers Crew of 3 to International Space Station

A Russian Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft carrying three new members of the Expedition 42 crew approaches the International Space Station ahead of docking on Nov. 23, 2014.

Credit: NASA

Three new crewmembers arrived at the International Space Station late Sunday (Nov. 23), doubling the orbiting lab's population back up to its full six-person strength.

NASA astronaut Terry Virts, European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti and cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov blasted off atop a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:01 p.m. EST (2101 GMT, 3:01 a.m. local time in Baikonur).

The trio reached the space station about six hours later after a quick trip through space.

Virts, Cristoforetti and Shkaplerov's Soyuz spacecraft linked up with the space station at 9:48 p.m. EST (0248 GMT).

Virts is planning on sharing his experiences in space via social media websites like Twitter. The NASA astronaut is planning to take photos of his views of the planet to help people experience a little bit of what spaceflight is like.

"It's such a unique experience and such a small number of people ever get to leave Earth, so I'm going to be using Twitter and Instagram to share pictures," Virts told reporters before launch.

"@AstroTerry is the call-sign [Twitter handle]. And hopefully I can just share the adventure that I'm going on with as many people as possible around the world."

Russia's Soyuz spacecraft are currently the only spaceflight vehicle that can transport NASA astronauts to the space station.

Expedition 41 crew selfie portrait on the International Space Station

Expedition 41 crew portrait on the International Space Station. 

From left: ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst, Roscosmos cosmonauts Elena Serova, Maxim Suraev and Alexander Samokutyaev, and NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman and Barry Wilmore.

The rear astronauts are dressed in the Sokol suits they will wear in their Soyuz spacecraft that will take them back to Earth on 9 November. Alexander, Max and Reid were making sure their suits still fit and have no leaks after having been stored on arrival at the Station almost six months ago.

Yelena, Alexander Samokutyaev and Barry will continue working in the weightless research centre, but they will not feel lonely for long.

ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, NASA astronaut Terry Virts and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov will join their colleagues on 24 November.

Alexander Gerst commented on this image: “The International Space Station Expedition 41 crew. My favourite selfie in space!”

International Space Station: Astronauts continue with Business as Usual

Commander Maxim Suraev and Flight Engineer Alexander Gerst are pictured in the Tranquility node of the International Space Station.

Image Credit: NASA

The six-person Expedition 41 crew of the International Space Station tackled a range of biomedical research and cargo transfers Friday, capping off a week that included the second of two U.S. spacewalks and preparations for a Russian spacewalk on Oct. 22.

For Flight Engineers Reid Wiseman of NASA and Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency, most of the day’s science activity focused on a pair of protein crystal growth experiments, which utilize the station’s microgravity environment to grow protein crystals too fragile to form in Earth’s gravity.

Gerst used a reflective microscope to capture images of samples from the NanoRacks-Protein Crystal Growth-1 study, which uses commercial off-the shelf equipment to grow protein crystals on slides.

Later, Gerst joined Wiseman to deactivate and pack up the completed Commercial Protein Crystal Growth-HM experiment.

This investigation is expanding on an ongoing program into the complex realm of membrane proteins that help cells identify each other for immune responses and move molecules to and from a cell’s interior.

Pure crystals that yield information about the protein’s structure will open the way for a coherent, structure-based design of a broader range of medicines for treating diseases and disorders.

The Commercial Protein Crystal Growth-HM experiment, along with about 3,800 pounds of other cargo, is slated to return to Earth on Tuesday aboard the SpaceX Dragon cargo craft.

After the robotics team at Houston’s Mission Control Center uses the Canadarm2 robotic arm to detach Dragon from the Earth-facing port of the Harmony node, Wiseman, with assistance from Flight Engineer Barry Wilmore, will oversee the release of Dragon for its parachute-assisted splashdown off the coast of California.

International Space Station update: Astronauts' activity schedule

In this photo posted to Twitter by Flight Engineer Reid Wiseman, he and ESA Flight Engineer Alexander Gerst (right) pose for a picture with spacesuits in the International Space Station's Quest airlock.

Image Credit: NASA

Reid Wiseman and Alexander Gerst spent much of the afternoon in the Quest airlock to configure tools and equipment for a pair of U.S. spacewalks set for October.

Wiseman and Gerst are slated to suit up for the first Expedition 41 spacewalk on Oct. 7, while newly-arrived astronaut Barry Wilmore will join Wiseman for the Oct. 15 excursion.

Among the tasks scheduled for the spacewalks will be the transfer of a previously uninstalled pump module from its temporary stowage location to the External Stowage Platform-2 and the replacement of a failed sequential shunt unit designed to regulate current from one of the station’s solar arrays.

A Russian spacewalk on Oct. 21 is also on the schedule.

Throughout the day, Wiseman participated in the Pro K study, as nutritionists monitor how dietary changes may affect the loss of bone density that occurs during long-duration spaceflight.

Wiseman has been following a prescribed diet and testing his urine samples to provide data for the researchers.

On Sunday, Wiseman and Gerst will once again review the procedures for grappling Dragon and conduct a final Canadarm2 robotics training session with the Robotics Onboard Trainer.

Over the weekend, all three crew members also will take care of weekly housekeeping chores and continue their daily 2.5-hour exercise sessions to stay fit.

MIT SPHERES: Spin Algorithm tested aboard the International Space Station

MIT researchers tested an algorithm that gauges the rotation of objects in zero gravity aboard the International Space Station. 

This video shows a Zero-G flight where a tracked object is spinning on its major, minor, and intermediate axes.

Objects in space tend to spin, and spin in a way that's totally different from the way they spin on earth.

Understanding how objects are spinning, where their centers of mass are, and how their mass is distributed is crucial to any number of actual or potential space missions, from cleaning up debris in the geosynchronous orbit favoured by communications satellites to landing a demolition crew on a comet.

In a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Field Robotics, MIT researchers will describe a new algorithm for gauging the rotation of objects in zero gravity using only visual information, and at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems this month, they will report the results of a set of experiments in which they tested the algorithm aboard the International Space Station.

On all but one measure, their algorithm was very accurate, even when it ran in real time on the microprocessor of a single, volleyball-size experimental satellite.

On the remaining measure, which indicates the distribution of the object's mass, the algorithm didn't fare quite as well when running in real time, although its estimate may still be adequate for many purposes, but it was much more accurate when it had slightly longer to run on a more powerful computer.

Space trash

"There are satellites that are basically dead, that are in the 'geostationary graveyard,' a few hundred kilometers from the normal geostationary orbit," says Alvar Saenz-Otero, a principal research scientist in MIT's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

"With over 6,000 satellites operating in space right now, people are thinking about recycling. Can we get to that satellite, observe how it's spinning, and learn its dynamic behaviour so that we can dock to it?"

Moreover, "there's a lot of space trash these days," Saenz-Otero adds. "There are thousands of pieces of broken satellites in space."

"If you were to send a supermassive spacecraft up there, yes, you could collect all of those, but it would cost lots of money, but if you send a small spacecraft, and you try to dock to a small, tumbling thing, you also are going to start tumbling."

"So you need to observe that thing that you know nothing about so you can grab it and control it."

Joining Saenz-Otero on the paper are lead author Brent Tweddle, who was an MIT graduate student in aeronautics and astronautics when the work was done and is now at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory; his fellow grad student Tim Setterfield; AeroAstro Professor David Miller; and John Leonard, a professor of mechanical and ocean engineering.

The researchers tested their algorithm using two small satellites deployed to the space station through MIT's SPHERES project, which envisions that herds of coordinated satellites the size of volleyballs would assist human crews on future space missions.

One SPHERES satellite spun in place while another photographed it with a stereo camera.

Orbital Sciences' Cygnus 'Fireball' Re-Entry from Space Station - Video

Orbital Sciences' Cygnus spacecraft burned up in the atmosphere on August 17th, 2014. ISS crew member Alexander Gerst captured imagery to create a time-lapse of the fireworks.

See Photos of the Destruction

Russian cosmonauts have found sea plankton on outside of ISS

The International Space Station is featured in this image photographed by an STS-132 crew member on board the Space Shuttle Atlantis after the station and shuttle began their post-undocking relative separation. 

Credit: NASA/Crew of STS-132

The Russian news agency ITAR-TASS is claiming that Russian officials have confirmed that Russian cosmonauts have found sea plankton on the outside of the International Space Station.

The news agency reports that the cosmonauts have also found traces of other organisms on the outside of the station as well.

To date, no other news group has been able to confirm the report and thus far it appears no other agency, including NASA has been able to confirm the claims made by the Russians.

Finding sea plankton on the outside of the ISS would be remarkable, as the outside of the station is of course exposed to space, a hostile environment, to say the least.

NASA officials reported that they were aware that Russian cosmonauts were conducting experiments on the exterior of the space station (primarily on windows known as illuminators), but were unaware of what they entailed.

They note that cosmonauts have conducted such experiments as recently as this past week. The same officials report that they have not heard the results of any findings regarding the experiments from the Russian scientists directly, and thus, cannot comment on what the Russians are claiming.

One scientist with NASA, Lynn Rothschild, suggested that if the claims turn out to be true, the plankton likely made its way to the ISS aboard a space station module.

Reports of the sea plankton findings have come, ITAR-TASS reports, from Vladimir Solovyev, chief of the Russian ISS orbital mission, he's also reporting that the type of plankton found is not native to the parts of Russia where spacecraft are launched, he theorizes that air currents could have pushed the plankton to the station (plankton is known to make its way into the atmosphere).

The findings, he continues, confirm that organisms can live on the outer surface of the space station, something Russian scientists have apparently been studying for over a year, though he didn't actually come right out and say that the specimens found were still alive.

He also reports that the outside of the space station is covered with material from spacecraft engines that is emitted as they come and go. Of concern are the illuminators, which now need to be polished.

Orbital Sciences Cygnus cargo ship reaches International Space Station

This picture provided by NASA shows the Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket, with the Cygnus spacecraft onboard, at sunrise on July 12, 2014 on launch Pad-0A at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia

Orbital Sciences Corporation's unmanned cargo ship arrived Wednesday at the International Space Station carrying a load of food and equipment for the six-man crew at the research outpost.

The vessel called Cygnus was grabbed by the space station's robotic arm at 6:36 am (1036 GMT) and completed the berthing procedure that attached the spaceship to the ISS at 1253 GMT, NASA said.

"Cygnus is now hard-mated to the International Space Station's Harmony module," where it will stay for the next four weeks, a commentator said on NASA's live broadcast of the event.

The spacecraft, which is shaped like a giant beer keg, launched from Wallops Island, Virginia on Sunday atop an Antares rocket.

Astronauts are scheduled to open the hatch on Thursday, but they may do so as early as Wednesday if the work of bolting the cargo ship to the orbiting lab goes faster than planned.

The spacecraft is packed with 3,653 pounds (1,657 kilograms) of gear for the space station.

Much of the load is prepackaged food for the crew, but the cargo also contains Earth-imaging satellites, experiments for growing arugula in space and a pump for the Japanese module to replace one that failed.

The mission, known as Orb-2, is the second of eight that Orbital has contracted with NASA, and is the third journey by a Cygnus to the International Space Station after a successful demonstration trip last year.

Orbital Sciences and SpaceX are the two private US companies that have won major contracts with NASA for multiple missions to carry supplies to the International Space Station.

Orbital's deal is worth $1.9 billion and SpaceX's contract is for $1.6 billion.

International Space Station: Science and spacewalks

Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortzov and Oleg Artemyev spent over six hours working outside the International Space Station on 19 June 2014. 

This picture was taken by ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst from inside the orbital outpost. 

Credit: ESA/NASA

Three weeks into ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst's Blue Dot mission on the International Space Station and the new arrival is now spending more time on scientific research in the microgravity laboratory.

Alexander has worked on controlled fires in space and continuously monitored his sleep patterns, at the same time as making sure the orbital outpost is working at full capacity.

Apart from continuing the long-term studies on eyes and headaches in space, Alexander recorded his temperature and hormones over 36 hours to understand his sleep patterns.

Astronauts on the Station witness 16 sunrises and sunsets each day – whereas on Earth our bodies rely on sunlight to kick-start hormone production that make us sleepy or wake us up.

Researchers are interested to see how the unique 90-minute days influence sleep. Aside from making sure astronauts feel awake at critical moments, this research in space allows sleep specialists to test theories that they couldn't anywhere else.

Alexander acted as a weightless firestarter and firefighter this week when he ignited small samples of fuels safely contained in ESA's glovebox to see how they burn in space. He volunteered as a fireman before becoming an astronaut, so the experiment was in good hands.

ESA Columbus laboratory. 

Credit: ESA/NASA

This research will improve computer models for fire detectors and extinguishers, both in space and on Earth.

He explained the experiment via Twitter: "Burning things in space for better fire safety on Earth."

Elsewhere, Alexander took samples of his blood and saliva and collected data on his eyes, his skin and his body so researchers can understand how astronauts react to weightlessness.

Other notable experiments included the harvesting of space-grown salads – unfortunately for the astronauts, they are not allowed to eat them.

ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst running NASA’s Bass experiment in ESA’s microgravity glovebox on the International Space Station. 

Contained in this protected environment, small samples of fuel were ignited by Alexander to see how they burn in space. 

He volunteered as a fireman before becoming an astronaut, so the experiment was in good hands. 

Credit: ESA/NASA

Yesterday, cosmonauts Oleg Armetyev and Alexander Skvortsov spent over six hours working outside the Station to install an antenna, take samples and move experiments.

Meanwhile the four astronauts inside continued their science activities.

Earlier, Alexander thoroughly checked a newly arrived US spacesuit. Before being declared ready for use, he had to make sure it had survived its climb into space.

ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst thoroughly checking a newly arrived American spacesuit on the International Space Station. Credit: ESA/NASA 

Alexander even had time this week for educational activities for Earth Guardian, inspiring children to observe geographical features such as oceans, rivers, landscapes, mountains and forests in their areas during the summer holidays.

Banks Peninsula in New Zealand from the ISS

Credit: ESA

A view of Banks Peninsula in New Zealand photographed from the International Space Station by ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst. 

Alexander is currently a member of the resident ISS Expedition 40 crew after arriving with the Soyuz TMA-13M spacecraft on 29 May 2014. 

Follow Alexander's Blue Dot mission on www.esa.int/bluedot and on social media via alexandergerst.esa.int

ISS: Russia and US have resumed talks on new joint projects

Russia and the US have resumed talks on new joint projects regarding the International Space Station (ISS).

The statement comes from Oleg Orlov, First Deputy Director of the Institute for Medico-Biological Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Oleg Orlov said this refers to the conduct of joint research and joint use of the equipment installed in the Russian and American modules of the space station.

"Roscosmos (Federal Space Agency) has set a task of intensifying the scientific program being implemented aboard the ISS. We are ready for that."

"Specifically, together with the American partners, we discuss the possibility of consolidating the resources of the Russian and American segments of the ISS to render part of research a joint one.

"Scientists could use the technical resources available on board on our side and on the partners' one. It is possible to speak of more actively drawing the crew into the research program".

Russia's Vice-Premier Dmitry Rogozin stated in mid-May that the Russian Federation after 2020 would channel its resources into new, more promising space projects than the ISS.

Later, he added that Russia did not visualise a commercial sense in participating in the ISS project after 2020 because "this eats up more than one-third of Roscosmos budget".

"We do not pull out (of the ISS program) but it (the Station) was designed to operate until 2020 and until the target year we stick to our international commitments and also get contractual money for the delivery of American and European astronauts," he explained.

"We have great doubts about whether to extend or not to extend (the program) until 2024," Rogozin added.

Western Sahara taken from the International Space Station

Image Credit: NASA

On May 23, 2014, Expedition 40 Commander Steve Swanson posted this photograph -- taken from the International Space Station -- to Instagram. 

Swanson noted, “Western Sahara – the contrast between the sand and the water is spectacular from here.”

Swanson uploaded the first image from space to Instagram on April 7. 

Steve Swanson

He began posting imagery to the social media site during his pre-flight training.

The three Expedition 40 crew members aboard the International Space Station worked advanced science this week while awaiting a new trio, set to lift off on Wednesday, May 28.

Soyuz Commander and cosmonaut Maxim Suraev, NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman and European astronaut Alexander Gerst will launch aboard the Soyuz TMA-13M spacecraft at 3:57 p.m. EDT (1:57 a.m. May 29 Baikonur time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Preparations for Expedition 40/41 Launch to International Space Station

Image Credit: NASA

Three new Expedition 40/41 crew members are counting down to their May 28, 2014 (U.S. time) launch to the orbital laboratory.

The trio is in its crew quarters at the Cosmonaut Hotel in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, finalizing mission preparations.

Soyuz Commander and cosmonaut Maxim Suraev, NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman and European astronaut Alexander Gerst will launch aboard the Soyuz TMA-13M spacecraft at 3:57 p.m. EDT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Alexander Gerst

They are scheduled to dock to Rassvet after just four orbits at 9:48 p.m. returning the space station to its full complement of six crew members.

Pictured here, Wiseman gives the thumbs up during launch preparations on May 19 in Kazakhstan.

Climbing Legs for Robonaut 2 Headed to International Space Station

NASA has built and is sending a set of high-tech legs up to the International Space Station for Robonaut 2 (R2), the station's robotic crewmember. 

The new legs are scheduled to launch on the SpaceX-3 commercial cargo flight to the International Space Station, scheduled to launch Monday, April 14 at 4:58 p.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

These new legs, funded by NASA's Human Exploration and Operations and Space Technology mission directorates, will provide R2 the mobility it needs to help with regular and repetitive tasks inside and outside the space station. 


The goal is to free up the crew for more critical work, including scientific research.

Once the legs are attached to the R2 torso, the robot will have a fully extended leg span of nine feet, giving it great flexibility for movement around the space station.

Each leg has seven joints and a device on what would be the foot, called an "end effector," which allows the robot to take advantage of handrails and sockets inside and outside the station. 

A vision system for the end effectors also will be used to verify and eventually automate each limb's approach and grasp.

Image Credit: NASA

Lasercomm on International Space station to beam video via laser back to Earth

An artist's rendering shows the Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS). 

Credit: OPALS

What's more interesting than videos of cats chasing laser beams over the kitchen floor?

How about videos sent over laser beams from NASA's International Space Station back to Earth?

A team of about 20 working at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, Calif., through the lab's Phaeton early-career-hire program, led the development of the Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS) investigation, which is preparing for a March 16 launch to the International Space Station aboard the SpaceX-3 mission.

The goal is to provide NASA's first optical communication experiment on the orbital laboratory.

Scientific instruments used in space missions increasingly require higher communication rates to transmit gathered data back to Earth or to support high-data-rate applications, like high-definition video streams.

Matt Abrahamson

"Optical communications has the potential to be a game-changer," said mission manager Matt Abrahamson.

"Right now, many of our deep space missions communicate at 200 to 400 kilobits per second."

OPALS will demonstrate up to 50 megabits per second and future deep space optical communication systems will provide over one gigabits per second from Mars.

The Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS) instrument is hoisted onto a shipping pallet for transfer to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 

From there it will launch to the International Space Station. 

Credit: NASA

"It's like upgrading from dial-up to DSL," added project systems engineer Bogdan Oaida.

Bogdan Oaida

"Our ability to generate data has greatly outpaced our ability to downlink it. Imagine trying to download a movie at home over dial-up."

"It's essentially the same problem in space, whether we're talking about low-Earth orbit or deep space."

OPALS is scheduled to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, part of a cargo resupply mission to the space station. The payload will be inside the Dragon cargo spacecraft.

Once deployed, OPALS will be conducting transmission tests for a period of nearly three months, with the possibility of a longer mission.

After the Dragon capsule docks with the station, OPALS will be robotically extracted from the trunk of the Dragon, and then manipulated by a robotic arm for positioning on the station's exterior.

It is the first investigation developed at JPL to launch on SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Deployment of NanoRacks CubeSats from the International Space Station

A set of NanoRacks CubeSats is photographed by an Expedition 38 crew member after deployment by the NanoRacks Launcher attached to the end of the Japanese robotic arm. 

The CubeSats program contains a variety of experiments such as Earth observations and advanced electronics testing. 

International Space Station solar array panels are at left. 

Earth's horizon and the blackness of space provide the backdrop for the scene. 

Two sets of CubeSats were deployed late Wednesday, Feb. 26 and early Thursday, Feb. 27, leaving just two more launches to go of the 33 CubeSats that were delivered to the station in January by Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus cargo ship. 

The latest CubeSats were sent on their way at 8:50 p.m. EST Wednesday and 2:40 a.m. Thursday. 

CubeSats are a class of research spacecraft called nanosatellites and have small, standardized sizes to reduce costs. 

Two final batches of CubeSats are set for deployment at 11:20 p.m. Thursday and 2:30 a.m. Friday, but more are scheduled to be delivered to the station on the second Orbital commercial resupply mission in May. 

Image Credit: NASA

NASA CAL: Creating the Coldest Spot in Universe on the Space Station

The icy chill of empty space will soon be trumped by the temperatures aboard the International Space Station.

Using NASA's Cold Atom Lab (CAL), scientists plan to reach temperatures only a few degrees above absolute zero on the station, allowing them to study challenging aspects of quantum mechanics.

"We're going to study matter at temperatures far colder than are found naturally," JPL's Rob Thompson said in a statement.

Thompson is the Project Scientist for the Cold Atom Lab (CAL), an atomic 'refrigerator' planned to make the orbiting laboratory its new home in 2016.

He said, "We aim to push effective temperatures down to 100 pico-Kelvin"—one ten billionth of a degree above absolute zero.

NASA's Cold Atom Laboratory utilizes a magnetic trap that confines particles, allowing them to cool to temperatures just barely above absolute zero. Credit: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory

When atoms of rubidium and sodium reach temperatures near absolute zero, they, they behave as both particles and waves, merging into a single wave of matter.

Known as Bose-Einstein Condensates (BCEs), the new material was predicted by both Albert Einstein and Satyendra Bose in the early 20th century.

Mixing two BCEs isn't like blending ordinary gases — the condensates instead behave like waves, interfering with one another so that two atoms combined together can result in no atom at all.

"The Cold Atom Lab will allow us to study these objects at perhaps the lowest temperatures over," Thompson said.

Researchers will also be able to mix super-cool atomic gases on board the space station.

Atoms will float free of perturbations, which will allow for extremely sensitive measurements of the weak interactions that occur.

"This could lead to the discovery of interesting and novel quantum phenomena," Thompson said.

The International Space Station is a prime location to perform such experiments because of lack of interference from the pull of gravity.

A basic principle of thermodynamics is that gas cools as it expands. When gas is sprayed from a household aerosol can, the can cools because the remaining gas within it expands to fill the recently-vacated space.

Set of NanoRacks CubeSats Deployed From International Space Station

The Small Satellite Orbital Deployer (SSOD), in the grasp of the Kibo laboratory robotic arm, is photographed by an Expedition 38 crew member on the International Space Station as it deploys a set of NanoRacks CubeSats.

The CubeSats program contains a variety of experiments such as Earth observations and advanced electronics testing. 

Station solar array panels, Earth’s horizon and the blackness of space provide the backdrop for the scene.

Image Credit: NASA

33 'Cubesats' to Launch from Space Station This Month

Three small CubeSats float above the Earth after deployment from the International Space Station.

Astronaut Rick Mastracchio tweeted the photo from the station on Nov. 19, 2013.

Credit: Rick Mastracchio ‏(via Twitter as @AstroRM)

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are preparing for the deployment of nearly three dozen tiny satellites from the orbiting lab over the coming weeks.

The spaceflyers have been installing special equipment that will launch 33 "cubesats" from the space station this month, with the first round of ejections scheduled to take place on Thursday (Feb. 6).

Mike Johnson

"We believe this will be a world-record deployment, of the number of satellites in one deployment," Michael Johnson, chief technology officer of the space-hardware firm NanoRacks, said in a NASA video last week.



NanoRacks helps organize and integrate some research activites aboard the space station. The company built eight new deployers that will launch the 33 cubesats, which were delivered to the orbiting lab Jan. 12 on the first contracted cargo mission of Orbital Sciences' unmanned Cygnus resupply spacecraft.

Six cubesats will be launched from the station Thursday, NASA officials said. The rest will begin flying freely over the course of the following two weeks or so.

Twenty-eight of the 33 cubesats were built by the San Francisco-based company Planet Labs.

Together, these spacecraft make up "Flock 1," which Planet Labs says will be the world's biggest constellation of Earth-imaging satellites.