ISS Stuff

[Yazata]

If we can't watch Sn9 launch today, we can watch the space station astronauts do a maintenance spacewalk. They are replacing broken external cameras at the moment. Very good video including helmet cams.

https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/21X5lGlDOfg

[Yazata]

Crowded space station parking lot. In the foreground in the nasa photo is a US Cygnus supply capsule. Then a Russian Progress supply capsule. Finally a Russian Soyuz crew capsule.

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[Yazata]

The Space Station astronauts have been growing chili peppers in space (zero g) Plants usually grow upwards, and there's no 'up' there. So how do they know which way to go?  I guess the answer is that they also like to grow towards light.

https://twitter.com/Astro_Megan/status/1...5190907912

It looks like the pepper plants took to space very well and produced some respectable peppers.

[Image: FC35JADWUAQvi7e?format=jpg&name=small]

So what happened to the peppers? They found their way to Astro-Megan, Bob's (of Bob and Doug fame) astro-wife, who prepared space tacos for the other astronauts! One of the cosmic tacos is floating in the air in front of her in this photo. (They can just put down their stuff in the air! Though I guess that it does tend to drift with air currents if you don't keep an eye on it.)

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[stryder]

ISS seems to be a victim of the current crisis :/

[Yazata]

Kathy Lueders (Deputy NASA Director for Human Spaceflight Operations) says that so far ISS cooperation between NASA and Roscosmos is "nominal". But NASA is "monitoring the situation". So far they still plan for NASA ISS astronaut Mark Vander Hide to return to Earth on a Soyuz as originally planned.

https://twitter.com/SciGuySpace/status/1...4319890442

But former Shuttle Program Manager Wayne Hale told the NASA Advisory Committee that NASA should consider creating a "Tiger Team" to prepare contingency plans for the ISS.

Vander Hide losing his Russian ride wouldn't be a huge problem since an upcoming Crew Dragon could launch with an empty seat for him. It would require preparing a SpaceX spacesuit for him (since only SpaceX suits work on the Crew Dragons since the capsule supplies air, cooling, comms and stuff through an umbilical) and it would probably mean extending his time on the station for months due to the capsule rotation schedules.

If the Russians plan to disconnect their modules and leave in a huff, that might doom the station because each side of the station relies on services like power (provided by the American side) and life-support (provided by the Russian side).

https://twitter.com/cbs_spacenews/status...7850715141

NN

[Yazata]

We've heard about the US, Russia and China all making satellites to inspect other satellites. Well, here's just a hint of what might be possible. It's a photograph of the International Space Station taken by the commercial Maxar World-View-3 earth observation satellite on June 7 while it was passing 276 km away from the ISS. Both a Crew Dragon and the Boeing Starliner are visible docked to the station (at the near end). What might be a Progress and a Soyuz appear to be docked to the (far) Russian end.

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nsSN

[Yazata]

SpaceX is going to destroy the International Space Station! On purpose!

NASA has awarded SpaceX an $843 million contract to build a space vehicle to dock to the ISS and deorbit it in a controlled manner in a remote spot of ocean in 2030.

It will be sad to see the ISS go. But by 2030 hopefully Axiom, Orbital Reef and the other private low-earth-orbit space stations will be a reality. And more than that, hopefully Starship will be doing exciting things that will capture everyones imagination (lunar human spaceflights, the first probably-robotic Mars landing attempts, orbital propellant depots...)

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-s...t-vehicle/

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/06/na...e-station/

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[Yazata]

Here's a SpaceX render of the ISS deorbit vehicle

https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1813632705281818671

[Image: GStQi2NaAAA4RHZ?format=jpg&name=4096x4096]

[Yazata]

Yesterday NASA rolled out an ISS livestream cam

https://www.youtube.com/live/DfEr5XCFNWM

[stryder]

From my local rag EDP(has Ads), "Beccles pilot captures Russian rocket going to space station"

It has a picture of the rocket and it's effect on the sky as it travels almost horizontally. I would duplicate the image and post it, but I'm not sure how well that would be received.