Alexander Gerst’s Earth Timelapses

Watch Earth roll by through the perspective of ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst in this six-minute timelapse video from space. Combining 12 500 images taken by Alexander during his six-month Blue Dot mission on the International Space Station this Ultra High Definition video shows the best our beautiful planet has to offer.

Marvel at the auroras, sunrises, clouds, stars, oceans, the Milky Way, the International Space Station, lightning, cities at night, spacecraft and the thin band of atmosphere that protects us from space.

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Latest Crew Blasts Off For International Space Station

Three new crew members are on their way to the International Space Station. NASA Flight Engineer Sunita Williams, Russian Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Flight Engineer Akihiko Hoshide blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 10:40 p.m. EDT Saturday, July 14 (8:40 a.m. Baikonur time July 15).
Williams, Malenchenko and Hoshide are scheduled to dock their Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft to the Rassvet module of the station at 12:52 a.m. EDT Tuesday, July 17. They will join Expedition 32 Commander Gennady Padalka of the Russian Federal Space Agency and Flight Engineers Joe Acaba of NASA and Sergei Revin of Russia, who have been aboard the orbiting laboratory since May 17.
The six crew members will work together for about two months. Acaba, Padalka and Revin are scheduled to return to Earth Sept. 17. Before they depart, Padalka will hand over command of the station and Expedition 33 to Williams. She, Malenchenko and Hoshide will return home in mid-November.

Full Story: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/jul/HQ-12-230_Exp_32-33_Launch.html

Coverage Set For Next International Space Station Crew Launch

NASA Television will provide extensive coverage of prelaunch, launch and docking activities of the next trio of crew members who will fly to the International Space Station.

NASA TV coverage of the Soyuz TMA-05M launch begins at 8:30 p.m. CDT, Saturday, July 14. NASA Flight Engineer Sunita Williams, veteran Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency and Flight Engineer Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will launch to the station at 9:40 p.m. (8:40 a.m., July 15 Baikonur time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Full Story: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/jul/HQ_M12-127_Expedition_32-33_TV_Coverage.html

Virginia Students To Speak Live With Space Station Resident

More than 200 students will meet at the Science Museum of Virginia in Richmond, Va., to speak with Expedition 32 flight engineer Joe Acaba aboard the International Space Station at 8:55 a.m. EDT, Thursday, July 5. Media representatives are invited to attend.

The question-and-answer discussion, coordinated by NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., and the museum, will be broadcast live on NASA Television and include video of Acaba. The students, most of whom are Hispanic, will ask questions about life, work and research on the space station. Several of the questions will be asked and answered in Spanish.

Full Story: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/jul/HQ_M12-122_ISS_Educ_Downlink_VA.html

Trio From International Space Station Lands Safely In Kazakhstan

Three members of the Expedition 31 crew undocked from the International Space Station and returned safely to Earth Sunday, July 1, wrapping up a mission that lasted six-and-a-half months.

Russian Commander Oleg Kononenko, NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit and European Space Agency Flight Engineer Andre Kuipers landed their Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft in Kazakhstan at 3:14 a.m. CDT (2:14 p.m. local time) after undocking from the space station’s Rassvet module at 11:47 p.m. June 30. The trio, which arrived at the station Dec. 23, 2011, spent a total of 193 days in space, 191 of which were aboard the station.

During their expedition, the crew supported more than 200 scientific investigations involving more than 400 researchers around the world. The studies ranged from integrated investigations of the human cardiovascular and immune systems to fluid, flame and robotic research.

Full Story: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/jul/HQ_12-222_Soyuz_Landing.html

NASA Offers Web, Mobile Links to Follow Space Station and Mission Control

NASA is using the Internet and smartphones to provide the public with a new inside look at what happens aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and in the Mission Control Center at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Log onto the agency’s Space Station Live! web page or download the companion ISSLive! mobile application to get up-to-the-minute information.
Groundbreaking research and technology development work is going on every day in the microgravity environment of space, and Space Station Live! allows users to see what the expedition astronauts do minute by minute. Streaming data from the space station lets the public see the latest information on temperatures, communications and power generation. Students and teachers can use the data to solve classroom problems in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or to tour the space station and mission control operator consoles through virtual 3-D view models.
Space Station Live! includes a web experience and free mobile ISSLive! app for smart phones and tablet computers accessible on NASA’s website. The app also is available through the Google Play and iTunes app stores.

Full Story: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/jun/HQ_12-210_ISS_Live_Web_and_App.html

ISS Transit of Venus

High above Earth, astronaut Don Pettit is preparing to photograph the June 5th Transit of Venus from space itself.
“I’ve been planning this for a while,” says Pettit, who serves as Flight Engineer onboard the International Space Station. “I knew the Transit of Venus would occur during my rotation, so I brought a solar filter with me when my expedition left for the ISS in December 2011.”
Because transits of Venus come in pairs that occur once every 100 years or so, humans have rarely had the chance to photograph the apparition from Earth, much less from Earth orbit.

“The Expedition 31 crew will be the first people in history to see a Venus transit from space, and Pettit will be the first to photograph one,” says Mario Runco, Jr. of the Johnson Space Center (JSC). Runco, an astronaut himself who flew aboard three shuttle missions, is an expert in the optics of spacecraft windows. Along with his wife Susan Runco, who is the coordinator for astronaut photography at JSC, Mario is helping Pettit gather the best possible images of the transit.

Full Story: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/ISS-VenusTransit.html

NASA Commercial Crew Partner Boeing Meets Software Milestone

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The Boeing Company has successfully completed a new milestone in the development of software that will operate its Crew Space Transportation (CST) spacecraft. The company is one of NASA’s partners developing commercial crew transportation capabilities to ferry U.S. astronauts to and from low Earth orbit and the International Space Station.

With the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) of its software on May 18, the company now has completed more than 40 milestones under partnerships supporting NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP).

Full Story: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/may/HQ_12-170_Boeing_CCP_Software_Milestone.html

SpaceX Dragon Transports Student Experiments to Space Station

The SpaceX Dragon capsule, which on Tuesday became the first commercially developed and built spacecraft to launch to the International Space Station, is carrying among its cargo a suite of 15 science experiments designed by students.
Known collectively as Aquarius, the experiments will assess the effects of microgravity on physical, chemical and biological systems. The students have been immersed in every facet of research, from definition of the investigation to experiment design, proposal writing and a formal NASA proposal review for selection of flight experiments.
“This unique student activity adds a new dimension to the International Space Station and its role as America’s only orbiting national laboratory,” said Leland Melvin, NASA’s associate administrator for Education. “It also clearly demonstrates that students still can actively participate in NASA microgravity opportunities in the post-shuttle era.”

Full Story: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/may/HQ_12-160_SpaceX_Student_Experiments.html

Expedition 31 Trio Blasts Off for International Space Station

The Soyuz spacecraft launched at 10:01 p.m. CDT.

NASA Television will provide live docking coverage beginning at 11 p.m. on May 16. Hatch opening and welcoming ceremonies will occur about three hours later on May 17.

Full Story: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/may/12-156_Exp31-32_Launch.html