CWL

International Space Station Leaking Ammonia Coolant, NASA Says

The International Space Station has a radiator leak in its power system. The outpost’s commander calls the situation serious, but not life-threatening.

The six-member crew on Thursday noticed white flakes of ammonia leaking out of the station. Ammonia runs through multiple radiator loops to cool the station’s power system. NASA said the leak is increasing from one previously leaking loop that can be bypassed if needed. NASA spokesman Bob Jacobs said engineers are working on rerouting electronics just in case the loop shuts down. The Earth-orbiting station has backup systems.

Space station Commander Chris Hadfield of Canada tweeted that the problem, while serious, was stabilized. Officials will know more Friday.

The space station always has enough emergency escape ships for the crew, but there are no plans to use them.

International Space Station in Color

Copyright: Francesco di Biase - Italy - Private Observatory

I know I’m always saying this but it never gets old; Chris Hadfield is in there!

colchrishadfield:

Italy, heel and toe.

Hey remember that time an astronaut orbiting in a space station above Earth started posting on tumblr? Follow this guy.

Yuri’s Planet

On another April 12th, in 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alexseyevich Gagarin became the first human to see planet Earth from space.

Image Credit: ISS Expedition 30, NASA

Commenting on his view from orbit he reported, “The sky is very dark; the Earth is bluish. Everything is seen very clearly”. On yet another April 12th, in 1981 NASA launched the first space shuttle. To celebrate in 2013, consider this image from the orbiting International Space Station, a stunning view of the planet at night from low Earth orbit. Constellations of lights connecting the densely populated cities along the Atlantic east coast of the United States are framed by two Russian spacecraft docked at the space station.

Easy to recognize cities include New York City and Long Island at the right. From there, track toward the left for Philadelphia, Baltimore, and then Washington DC near picture center.

Trolling From Space: Google Plays Analytics April Fools via International Spacestation Control Room

Go into your google analytics pageviews only to find the implication that the international space station (ISS) where astronaut/ tumblr user Chris Hadfield is situated is among the locations of people visiting your page. Well played Google and ISS, you win.

Moon, Venus, Jupiter and ISS

“I planned to capture the conjunction of Moon and planets with the trail of the International Space Station. I drove my car to a nearby frozen fishpond, set my equipment up and waited for the ISS rising. As I took some images, clouds appeared but fortunately I had success to catch the ISS passing.” — Tamás Ábrahám

“Making the invisible visible” - the ISS Image Frontier

This is a tribute to the International Space Station Program as well as Dr. Don Pettit, NASA Astronaut and ISS Astrophotographer.

It can not be emphasized enough, how Dr. Pettits innovative photographic work and his passion has changed the way we see earth from space. Accompanied with great info on the challenges of astrophotography aboard the ISS by Dr. Pettit, the shortfilm features a great compilation of 4 timelapses (“intro”, “startrails”, “fisheye” and “aurorae”).

Now welcome aboard the ISS - enjoy stunning photography and timelapses from the Space Station! — Christoph Malin

Shuttle and Station

When the Space Shuttle Endeavor left the International Space Station (ISS) on its way back home, the separating pair appeared in the sky as bright moving points close together, making trails in this time exposure image from Hungary (ISS created the brighter trail). — Tamas Ladanyi

NASA’s Spot The Station

I just signed up for it! Have you?

Did you know you can see the International Space Station from your house? As the third brightest object in the sky, after the sun and moon, the space station is easy to see if you know where and when to look for it.

NASA’s Spot the Station service sends you an email or text message a few hours before the space station passes over your house. The space station looks like a fast-moving plane in the sky, though one with people living and working aboard it more than 200 miles above the ground. It is best viewed on clear nights. For more information on the International Space Station and its mission, visit the space station mission pages.

Spot the Station is available worldwide to anyone with an email account or SMS-enabled phone. Several times a week, Mission Control at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX, determines sighting opportunities for 4,600 locations worldwide. If your specific city or town isn’t listed, pick one that is fairly close to you. The space station is visible for a long distance around each of the listed locations.

This service will only notify you of “good” sighting opportunities - that is, sightings that are high enough in the sky (40 degrees or more) and last long enough to give you the best view of the orbiting laboratory. This will be anywhere from once or twice a week to once or twice a month, depending on the space station’s orbit. Don’t worry if there are big gaps in between sightings! A complete list of all possible space station sightings is available from Johnson Space Center.

Continue to Sign-up Page

Spotting The Station

A shot of the ISS flying through the constellation Canis Major with what looks like a faint meteor. I used the new NASA spot the station email alert and it worked great! I signed up for it on Monday and they emailed me on Tuesday with an alert. I set up to capture it pass overhead before dawn on the morning of 11/14/12 at 5:08am. EST — Scott Tully