US-Russian ISS Space Crew Returns to Earth Tonight

Russian cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov (center), Soyuz commander; NASA astronaut Steve Swanson (left), Expedition 40 commander; and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev, flight engineer, conduct a suit leak check in their Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft ahead of a return home from the International Space Station set for Sept. 10, 2014.

Credit: NASA

A trio of space travelers will return to Earth tonight (Sept. 10) to end a months-long expedition to the International Space Station, and you can watch the landing live online.

American astronaut Steve Swanson and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev are due to land their Russian-built Soyuz space capsule on the Central Asian steppes of Kazakhstan at 10:23 p.m. EDT (0243 Sept. 11 GMT), after more than five months in orbit.

You can watch the space crew's landing on Space.com in a live webcast provided by NASA. The webcast will include a series of broadcasts for each stage of the landing.

The landing webcast begins at 3:15 p.m. EDT (1915 GMT) with a farewell ceremony, then resumes at 6:45 p.m. EDT (2245 GMT) for live views of undocking. The landing coverage will begin at 9:15 p.m. EDT (0115 GMT).

Swanson and his crewmates launched to the International Space Station on March 25, with Swanson commanding the outpost's Expedition 40 mission. Three other station crewmembers — NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, cosmonaut Maxim Suarev and German astronaut Alexander Gerst — arrived at the station in late May.

"We've accomplished a lot. We've had a lot of fun," Swanson said Tuesday (Sept. 9) as he handed control of the space station over to Suarev. "This was a team effort. We got together and did it as a team.

During the Expedition 40 mission, the station astronauts and cosmonauts watched over a flurry of robotic cargo ship arrivals and departures by Russian, European and commercial American spacecraft. Skvortsov and Artemyev performed two spacewalks, and tossed a tiny Peruvian satellite into space on their second excursion.

Swanson made a bit of space history by becoming the first astronaut to post Instagram photos from space. And then there were the science experiments. Many, many experiments.

"We actually set the record for the number of hours of science in a week," Swanson said.

The return of Swanson, Skvortsov and Artemyev tonight will mark the official start of Expedition 41 on the International Space Station. Suarev will command that mission.

NASA OCO-2: Carbon Counter Reaches Final Orbit, Returns Data

NASA's OCO-2 spacecraft collected "first light” data Aug. 6 over New Guinea. OCO-2’s spectrometers recorded the bar code-like spectra, or chemical signatures, of molecular oxygen or carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. 

The backdrop is a simulation of carbon dioxide created from GEOS-5 model data.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/NASA GSFC

Just over a month after launch, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2), NASA’s first spacecraft dedicated to studying atmospheric carbon dioxide, has maneuvered into its final operating orbit and produced its first science data, confirming the health of its science instrument.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide is the leading human-produced greenhouse gas responsible for warming our world. It is a critical natural component of Earth’s carbon cycle.

OCO-2 will produce the most detailed picture to date of sources of carbon dioxide, as well as their natural “sinks”, places on Earth’s surface where carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere.

The observatory will study how these sources and sinks are distributed around the globe and how they change over time.

Artist's rendering of NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO)-2, one of five new NASA Earth science missions set to launch in 2014, and one of three managed by JPL.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Following launch from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base on July 2, OCO-2 underwent a series of steps to configure the observatory for in-flight operations.

Mission controllers established two-way communications with the observatory, stabilized its orientation in space and deployed its solar arrays to provide electrical power.

The OCO-2 team then performed a checkout of OCO-2’s systems to ensure they were functioning properly.

Through the month of July, a series of propulsive burns was executed to maneuver the observatory into its final 438-mile (705-kilometer), near-polar orbit at the head of the international Afternoon Constellation, or “A-Train,” of Earth-observing satellites.

It arrived there on Aug. 3. Operations are now being conducted with the observatory in an orbit that crosses the equator at 1:36 p.m. local time.

Splashdown! SpaceX's Dragon Returns from Space Station

SpaceX's Dragon robotic capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on May 18, 2014 after about one month in space.

Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX's Dragon robotic capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean today (May 18), bringing more than 1,000 lbs. of science cargo back to Earth from the International Space Station.

The unmanned spacecraft fell into the ocean off the coast of Baja California, where officials were able to recover it.

The spacecraft carried more than 3,500 lbs. (1,587 kg) of cargo to Earth from the orbiting laboratory. Splashdown occurred at 3:05 p.m. EDT (1905 GMT).

Dragon attached to the space station on April 20 after launching atop the private spaceflight company's Falcon 9 rocket on April 18 from Florida.

The capsule was released from the station today at 9:26 a.m. EDT (1325 GMT).

"Splashdown is confirmed!! Welcome home, Dragon," SpaceX officials wrote from the company's Twitter account (@SpaceX) shortly after splashdown.

SpaceX's Dragon carried about 1,600 lbs. (726 kg) of science cargo down from the space laboratory.

The 150 science experiments include biotechnology samples, biology studies, physical science investigations and human research, NASA officials said.

"While some of this data can be obtained by on orbit analysis, many analysis techniques have not been miniaturized or modified to allow them to be performed on orbit, which means sample return is the only way to obtain this data," Marybeth Edeen, space station research integration office deputy manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, said in a statement.

Edeen is author of 'Opportunities for Science on the ISS: A Unique Laboratory Environment' available from Amazon and all good book stores.

Soyuz Spacecraft Returns Expedition 38 Space Station Crew to Earth

The recovery team attends to NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins and cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy after the trio's Soyuz capsule touched down in frigid Kazakhstan on March 10, 2014.

Credit: NASA TV

An American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts made a snowy but safe landing on Earth late Monday (March 10), bringing their 5 1/2-month mission aboard the International Space Station to a successful close.

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy touched down on the snowy steppes of Kazakhstan at 11:24 p.m. EDT Monday (0324 March 11 GMT; 9:24 a.m. March 11 local time), about 3 1/2 hours after leaving the space station.

Temperatures hovered around 0 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 18 degrees Celsius) at the landing site, and strong winds whipped snow through the air.

"The crew will get a bit of a frigid welcome," a NASA commentator said as the Soyuz neared terra firma.

Because of the extreme conditions, recovery teams did not set up the standard medical tents for each crewmember.

Instead, Hopkins, Kotov and Ryazanskiy were to be taken immediately to a helicopter after being removed from the capsule.

The trio spent 166 days in orbit, and their mission was nearly extended by 24 hours.

Space station officials considered delaying the Soyuz' departure by a day because of bad weather on the ground in Kazakhstan but ultimately decided to go ahead with the original landing plan.

Hopkins, Kotov and Ryazanskiy launched toward the station on Sept. 26, initially joining the crew of the orbiting lab's Expedition 37.

In November, Expedition 37 transitioned to Expedition 38, which Kotov commanded.

Sky at Night returns to UK BBC4 following 40,000-signature petition

Over 40,000 fans signed a petition in support of the show, which was presented by Sir Patrick Moore until his death last December. 

Photograph: Roger Bamber/Rex Features

The sun will not set on the The Sky at Night after the BBC announced the long-running science show would move to a new slot on BBC4 following a petition signed by 40,000 viewers who feared it would be axed.

The astronomy show, first broadcast in 1957, will lose its slot on BBC1 but will be expanded from 20 to 30 minutes in its new monthly home on BBC4, with a repeat on BBC2.

The future of the series appeared to be in doubt last month after the corporation declined to confirm its future beyond the end of the year.

More than 40,000 fans signed an online petition in support of the show, which was presented by Sir Patrick Moore until his death last December, aged 89.

The programme will be off air in January, when the gap will be filled by BBC2's live astronomy series, Stargazing Live, presented by Professor Brian Cox and Dara O Briain, before returning in February.

Kim Shillinglaw, head of commissioning science and natural history, said: "Sir Patrick Moore inspired generations of astronomers and The Sky at Night will enthuse further generations about the wonder of the night sky."

Losing its BBC1 slot is likely to deprive the show of its biggest audiences. The show's last BBC1 outing, on 6 October, was watched by 655,000 viewers.

No decisions have been made about the presenter's role on the show which has been filled by a series of guest hosts following Moore's death.

Moore presented a total of 721 episodes, missing just one outing in the programme's history, when he was struck down by food poisoning.

SpaceX Dragon capsule returns from International Space Station

The SpaceX Dragon capsule is captured by the crew of the International Space Station using its robotic arm in this screen capture from NASA handout video released March 3, 2013. 

Credit REUTERS/NASA/Handout

A Space Exploration Technologies' Dragon cargo capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday, bringing back science experiments and gear from the International Space Station (ISS).

The spacecraft left the orbital outpost at 6:56 a.m. ET, and parachuted into the ocean about 225 miles west of Mexico's Baja California at 12:34 p.m. ET.

"Recovery ship just heard the sonic booms from Dragon re-entry and has data transmission lock," Elon Musk, founder and chief executive of the privately held company known as SpaceX, wrote on Twitter just before splashdown.

A minute later, recovery ship personnel reported seeing Dragon's parachutes, Musk said.

"Recovery ship has secured Dragon," Musk wrote. "Cargo looks A-OK."

The ship will take the capsule to the Port of Los Angeles, near the company's Hawthorne, California, headquarters, a journey expected to take about 30 hours.

Dragon's return began 252 miles above Earth when astronauts aboard the station used a robotic crane to pluck the capsule from its berthing port and set it into orbit.

SpaceX flight controllers then stepped in and remotely commanded Dragon to fire its steering thrusters and begin the 5.5-hour journey home.

Thomas Marshburn

"It looks beautiful from here," station flight engineer Thomas Marshburn radioed to Mission Control in Houston as the capsule flew away.

"Sad to see the Dragon go. Performed her job beautifully, heading back to her lair. Wish her all the best for the splashdown today," Marshburn said.

The Dragon cargo ship reached the station on March 3 with more than 2,300 pounds (1,043 kg) of science equipment, spare parts, food and supplies. It was the second of 12 planned cargo runs for NASA under a $1.6 billion contract.

A second freighter, built and operated by Orbital Sciences Corp, is expected to debut this year.

The U.S. space agency hired both firms to fill the gap left by the retirement of its space shuttle fleet in 2011.

Dragon's arrival was delayed a day while SpaceX engineers grappled with a thruster pod problem that had threatened to derail the mission.

"I don't want to go through that again. That was hard-core," Musk said during a keynote speech at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas, earlier this month.

PRECISION RENDEZVOUS
Engineers believe the glitch was caused by a blockage in a pressurisation line or a stuck valve. It was cleared and the capsule made a precision rendezvous with the station with no problems.

Dragon returned to Earth with 2,668 (1,210 kg) of cargo, including a freezer filled with biological samples from the crew for medical research.

While Russian (Progress), European (ATV) and Japanese (HTV) freighters also service the station, only the SpaceX vessel is designed to return cargo to Earth, a critical transportation link that had been lost with the retirement of the shuttles.

SpaceX is working to upgrade the Dragon capsule to fly people as well. A test flight with company astronauts is targeted for 2016.

German TanDEM-X satellite returns first 3D images

BBC News - German TanDEM-X satellite returns first images

Germany's new radar satellite, TanDEM-X, has returned its first images.

The spacecraft was launched from Kazakhstan on Monday on a mission to make the most precise 3D map of the Earth's surface.

The pictures demonstrate the platform is in excellent health and ready to team up with the TerraSAR-X satellite launched in 2007.

Together, the pair will trace the variation in height across the globe to a precision of better than two metres.

This digital elevation model (DEM) will support a multitude of applications, such as the programming of navigation computers in military jets to enable them to fly ultra low. The data will also be given to relief workers to show them where an earthquake has wrought most damage in a city.

Infoterra GmbH, the company with exclusive rights to commercialize the TanDEM information, says the market for radar products is steadily growing.

The new images depict a landscape in Ukraine, the north of Madagascar, and Moscow.

The pictures illustrate neatly the particular specialism of using radar to sense the planet's surface.

In the Madagascan data, for example, the choppiness of the waves in the open stretches of the Indian Ocean can be contrasted with the smooth reflection of the radar signal from the enclosed, clam waters of the Baie de Diego.

And in the image of Moscow-Sheremetyevo airport, the flat concrete surfaces of the runways appear as black lines because the radar beam has been very efficiently reflected away from the satellite.

The EU flag that Flew in Space returns home with Fugelsang

Mr Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Prime Minister of Sweden, which currently holds the presidency of the EU, was on Monday presented with a European flag that travelled 9 262 217 km in space aboard the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station.

When Swedish ESA astronaut Christer Fuglesang was launched into space on the Space Shuttle Discovery on 28 August, the crew carried a special item: an EU flag with the famous circle of golden stars on a blue background, representing solidarity and harmony between the peoples of Europe.
This flag was seen on the TV images sent from the ISS and is in the background of many of the photographs taken during Fuglesang’s mission. Having travelled 217 times around the globe, the flag returned to Earth with the STS-128 crew and is now back in Europe.

The flag was handed over to Mr Reinfeldt at a ceremony in the Rosenbad government palace in Stockholm on Monday afternoon in the presence of ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain.

“The ISS is a fantastic technological endeavour, which now will be utilised to its full potential for some 10 years,” said Mr Dordain at the ceremony. “However its most important feature is the international partnership, which has shaped, and which will be the foundation for, future space exploration.”

Discovery also carried into space the Multipurpose Logistics Module, containing a number of microgravity experiments, as the primary payload. During the mission, the crew made three spacewalks, during which Fuglesang replaced a materials processing experiment outside ESA's Columbus module and returned an empty ammonia tank assembly to the Shuttle payload bay.

Red-nosed circus billionaire returns to Earth

Red-nosed circus billionaire returns to Earth - MSN News UK

Canadian circus billionaire Guy Laliberte returned to Earth on Sunday wearing his trademark clown's red nose, landing as planned in Kazakhstan after a landmark space performance to highlight water scarcity.

A Russian Soyuz space capsule carrying Laliberte and a Russian-American crew touched down in the vast steppe near Arkalyk in northern Kazakhstan at 0831 Moscow time (5:31 a.m. British time).

"We have just received a report from the rescue and recovery team that the descent capsule has landed," said an announcer at Mission Control outside Moscow, to hearty applause from workers.
Laliberte, a former fire-breather and founder of the Montreal-based Cirque du Soleil, spent about two weeks in space.

A Reuters reporter at Mission Control, watching a live feed from the landing site, saw Laliberte seated on a chaise longue after leaving the craft. He smiled and gave a thumbs-up gesture.

He was draped in a coat with a blanket covering his legs and his blood pressure was being monitored by the rescue and recovery team. A Russian Orthodox priest also was present.

The 50-year-old, who is worth an estimated $2.5 billion (1.6 billion pounds) and was reported to have paid more than $35 million to become Earth's No. 7 space tourist, entertained the crew of the International Space Station (ISS) and hosted a show from the space outpost.


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