Raw Video: First 'Recycled' Water On ISS

Crew members aboard the International Space Station drank "recycled" water for the first time. A newly-inaugurated system captures water from the air and from urine.

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NASA to Announce New Space Station Module Name April 14

NASA's newest module for the International Space Station will get a new name on April 14.

The agency plans to make the announcement with the help of Expedition 14 and 15 astronaut Sunita "Suni" Williams on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report." The program will air at 11:30 p.m. EDT.

The name, which will not be publicly released until the program airs, was selected from thousands of unique suggestions submitted on NASA's Internet site, www.nasa.gov. The "Help Name Node 3" poll asked people to vote for the module's name either by choosing one of four NASA options or by offering their own suggestion. The poll closed on March 20.

"The node naming poll was organic and took on a life of its own," says Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Space Operations at NASA headquarters in Washington. "We received more than a million entries, in large part because social media Web sites and television programs, such as 'The Colbert Report,' took an interest. This spread overall awareness of the International Space Station."

NASA originally planned to announce the node's name on April 28 after it arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. However, the node's arrival at Kennedy is delayed until May, so the announcement moved to April 14.

The show's producers offered to host the name selection announcement after comedian and host Stephen Colbert took interest during the census and urged his followers to post the name "Colbert."

"I certainly hope NASA does the right thing," says Colbert. "Just kidding, I hope they name it after me."

Node 3 is a pressurized module that will provide room for many of the space station's life support systems. Attached to the node is the cupola, a one-of-a-kind work station with six windows around the sides and one on top. Node 3 is targeted for launch in late 2009.

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NASA Launches Streaming Video From International Space Station

Internet visitors can now see the Earth as never before -- live from the International Space Station via streaming video, seven days a week.

The streaming video views of Earth and the exterior structure of the station are from cameras mounted outside the laboratory complex, orbiting Earth at 17,500 miles an hour at an altitude of 220 miles. The video is transmitted to the ground -- and Web viewers -- primarily while the astronauts aboard the complex are asleep, usually from about 1 p.m. to 1 a.m. CDT. When live feeds are not available, a map showing the current location and path of the station will be streamed from NASA's Mission Control in Houston.

The streaming video will include audio of communications between Mission Control and the astronauts, when available. When the space shuttle is docked to the station, the stream will include video and audio of those activities.

The International Space Station is a unique partnership between the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada and Europe. Construction began in 1998 and will be completed in 2010. Eighteen crews have lived aboard the orbiting complex since 2000, including the current crew of three. Station residents have conducted important scientific experiments and gathered data to help assist future missions to the moon and Mars.

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Help NASA Name The Next Space Station Module

NASA is asking the public to help name the International Space Station's next module -- a control tower for robotics in space and the world's ultimate observation deck.

Eight refrigerator-sized racks in the Node 3 module will provide room for many of the station's life support systems. Attached to the node is the cupola, a one-of-a-kind work station with six windows around the sides and one on top. The cupola will offer astronauts a spectacular view of their home planet and their home in space. In addition to providing a perfect location to observe and photograph Earth, the cupola also will contain a robotics workstation from which astronauts will be able to control the station's 57-foot robotic arm.

Individuals can vote for the module's name online, choosing one of four NASA suggestions -- Earthrise, Legacy, Serenity or Venture -- or writing in a name. Submissions will be accepted Feb. 19 through March 20. The name should reflect the spirit of exploration and cooperation embodied by the space station and follow in the tradition set by Node 1, named "Unity," and Node 2, named "Harmony."

The winning name will be announced at the Node 3 unveiling April 28 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The node is scheduled to arrive at Kennedy April 20 and is targeted for launch in late 2009.

For more information, to submit a name and to view pictures of the node and cupola, click here.

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Video of the Day: Satellite Collision Worries Experts

Experts say the collision between U.S. and Russian communication satellites earlier this week has created speeding clouds of debris that threaten other unmanned spacecraft in nearby orbits.

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NASA Plans Test of 'Electronic Nose' on International Space Station

NASA astronauts on space shuttle Endeavour's STS-126 mission will install an instrument on the International Space Station that can "smell" dangerous chemicals in the air. Designed to help protect crew members' health and safety, the experimental "ENose" will monitor the space station's environment for harmful chemicals such as ammonia, mercury, methanol and formaldehyde.

The ENose fills the long-standing gap between onboard alarms and complex analytical instruments. Air-quality problems have occurred before on the International Space Station, space shuttle and Russian Space Station Mir. In most cases, the chemicals were identified only after the crew had been exposed to them, if at all. The ENose, which will run continuously and autonomously, is the first instrument on the station that will detect and quantify chemical leaks or spills as they happen.

"The ENose is a 'first-responder' that will alert crew members of possible contaminants in the air and also analyze and quantify targeted changes in the cabin environment," says Margaret Ryan, principal investigator of the ENose project at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, or JPL, in Pasadena, Calif. JPL built and manages the device.

Station crew members will unpack the ENose on Dec. 9 to begin the instrument's six-month demonstration in the crew cabin. If the experiment is successful, the ENose might be used in future space missions as part of an automated system to monitor and control astronauts' in-space environments.

"This ENose is a very capable instrument that will increase crew awareness of the state of their air quality," says Carl Walz, an astronaut and director of NASA's Advanced Capabilities Division, part of the Exploration System Mission Directorate, which funds the ENose. "Having experienced an air-quality issue during my Expedition 4 mission on the space station, I wish I had the information that this ENose will provide future crews. This technology demonstration will provide important information for environmental control and life-support system designers for the future lunar outpost."

Specifically, the shoebox-sized ENose contains an array of 32 sensors that can identify and quantify several organic and inorganic chemicals, including organic solvents and marker chemicals that signal the start of electrical fires. The ENose sensors are polymer films that change their electrical conductivity in response to different chemicals. The pattern of the sensor array's response depends on the particular chemical types present in the air.

The instrument can analyze volatile aerosols and vapors, help monitor cleanup of chemical spills or leaks, and enable more intensive chemical analysis by collecting raw data and streaming it to a computer at JPL's ENose laboratory. The instrument has a wide range of chemical sensitivity, from fractional parts per million to 10,000 parts per million. For all of its capabilities, the ENose weighs less than nine pounds and requires only 20 watts of power.

The ENose is now in its third generation. The first ENose was tested during a six-day demonstration on the STS-95 shuttle mission in 1998. That prototype could detect 10 compounds, but could not analyze data immediately. The second-generation ENose could detect, identify and quantify 21 different chemicals. It was extensively ground-tested. The third-generation ENose includes data-analysis software to identify and quantify the release of chemicals within 40 minutes of detection. While it will look for 10 chemical types in this six-month experiment, the new ENose can be trained to detect many others.

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Storm Closes Johnson Space Center

NASA's Johnson Space Center closed at 12 p.m. CDT Monday and will remain closed through Tuesday because of the threat of tropical storm Edouard. Plans call for the center to reopen Wednesday.

Edouard is predicted to cross the Texas coast early Tuesday.

Flight control of the International Space Station will continue from Houston, and the Space Station Mission Control Center at Johnson will remain open.

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New Water Reclamation System Headed for Duty on Space Station

International Space Station crews soon will have a new water reclamation system that will recycle wastewater, allowing up to six crew members to live aboard the orbiting laboratory.

The latest addition to the station's life support system departs today from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., to NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., for final flight preparations, NASA says.

The new Water Recovery System, or WRS, is the second part of a comprehensive life support system for the station. It is scheduled to fly aboard space shuttle Endeavour on STS-126 targeted for later this year. The first part of the system, the Oxygen Generation System, was launched on shuttle Discovery in July 2006. The two systems are part of NASA's Regenerative Environmental Control and Life Support System, or ECLSS, for the station.

"Recycling will be an essential part of daily life for future astronauts, whether on board the space station or living on the moon," says Mike Suffredini, the station program manager. "Delivering this hardware is an important step in achieving the station's full potential, allowing for additional crew members and more scientific research."

By recycling, the system reduces the dependence on Earth resupply by cutting the amount of water and consumables needed to be launched by about 15,000 pounds, or 6,800 kilograms, a year.

"As early as the late 1960's we knew sustaining life in space would require recycling water and oxygen," says Bob Bagdigian, ECLSS project manager. "A number of us have experienced the entire lifecycle of this technology, all the way from early ideas to implementation. Knowing that we will soon see this system completed, gives us great pride."

Through a series of chemical treatment processes and filters, the Water Recovery System creates water clean enough to drink. In fact, part of the same process has been used in Third World countries to produce drinkable water.

A distillation process is used to recover water from urine. The process occurs within a rotating distillation assembly that compensates for the absence of gravity, aiding in the separation of liquids and gases in space. Once distilled, the water from the urine processor is combined with other wastewaters and delivered to the water processor for treatment.

The water processor removes free gas and solid materials such as hair and lint, before the water goes through a series of filtration beds for further purification. Any remaining organic contaminants and microorganisms are removed by a high-temperature catalytic reaction. These rigorous treatment processes create water that meets stringent purity standards for
human consumption.

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1st Female Space Station Commander Returns To Earth

NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, the first female commander of the International Space Station, returned to Earth at approximately 4:30 a.m. EDT Saturday, ending a mission during which she conducted five spacewalks and set a new record in American spaceflight, according to NASA.

Whitson and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, members of the 16th crew to live and work aboard the station, safely landed their Soyuz spacecraft in the steppes of Kazakhstan. Spaceflight participant So-yeon Yi also returned to Earth aboard the Soyuz. The landing was approximately 295 miles from the expected landing site, delaying the recovery forces' arrival to the spacecraft by approximately 45 minutes.

Whitson, 48, has accumulated more time in space than any U.S. astronaut in history. She and Malenchenko, who launched to the station on Oct. 10, 2007, spent 192 days in space. This was Whitson's second flight to the station. She served almost 185 days as a flight engineer on the Expedition 5 crew, which launched June 5, 2002, and returned to Earth Dec. 7, 2002. Whitson has totaled 377 days in space during two missions. On April 16, she surpassed the 374-day record set by astronaut Mike Foale during his six flights.

Malenchenko, 46, a Russian Air Force colonel, completed his third long-duration spaceflight. He spent 126 days aboard the Russian space station Mir in 1994, and commanded Expedition 7, spending 185 days in space in 2006. He also was a member of the STS-106 crew of shuttle Atlantis on a 12-day mission to the station in 2000. He has accumulated 515 days in space
during his four flights. That is the ninth highest total of cumulative time.

The Expedition 16 crew worked with experiments across a wide variety of fields, including human life sciences, physical sciences and Earth observation. Many of the experiments are designed to gather information about the effects of long-duration spaceflight on the human body, which will help with planning future exploration missions to the moon and Mars.

The Expedition 16 crew members undocked their Soyuz spacecraft from the station at 1:06 a.m. The deorbit burn to slow the Soyuz and begin its descent toward the Earth began at 3:40 a.m.

Before undocking, Whitson and Malenchenko bid farewell to the new station crew, Expedition 17 Commander Sergei Volkov and Flight Engineers Oleg Kononenko and Garrett Reisman. Volkov and Konenko launched to the station April 8. They were accompanied by Yi who flew under a commercial contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency. Reisman came to the station aboard shuttle Endeavour on the STS-123 mission, which launched March 11.

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Astronaut Anderson Returns Home for the Holidays

Home for the holidays has awhole new meaning when home is the planet you returned to just last week. But that is what astronaut Clay Anderson has done, landing Nov. 7 after five months in orbit aboard the International Space Station, just in timefor a holiday season with his family.

"Seeing my family after several months aboard the station has taught me a new meaning of the word 'thanksgiving,'" Anderson says. "We had a tremendously successful expedition during my time aboard the station, andit is really heartwarming to be able to complete my mission, come back to Earth with a great crew and relax and enjoy the season with loved ones."

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First Woman Station Commander Arrives for Historic Spaceflight

NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson arrived at the International Space Station Friday to begin her tenure as the first woman to command a station mission.

Whitson, Soyuz Commander and Flight Engineer Yuri Malenchenko and Malaysian Spaceflight Participant Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor docked their Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft to the station at 10:50 a.m. ET. The crew launched on Wednesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Whitson officially will become the station commander after a ceremony Friday, Oct. 19, at approximately 3:15 p.m. ET. This change of command event will mark the formal handover of the station to Whitson and Malenchenko, just days before the Expedition 15 crew members and Shukor depart.

"I think it's special that I get the opportunity to play that role," Whitson says when asked about being the first woman station commander. "But I think it's also special to have an opportunity to demonstrate how many other women also work at NASA."

Another female astronaut, space shuttle Discovery Commander Pam Melroy, will reach another milestone in late October when she and her crew arrive at the station. It will mark the first time two women have led space missions at the same time.

To familiarize themselves with station systems and procedures, Expedition 16's Whitson and Malenchenko will conduct more than a week of handover activities with Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov and Expedition 15 and 16 Flight Engineer Clayton Anderson. Whitson and two other crew members will perform three spacewalks during Expedition 16 to prepare the station for the activation of the Harmony node. The Expedition 16 spacewalks also will prepare for the relocations of Harmony and Pressurized Mating Adapter-2, a docking port.

This is Whitson's second six-month rotation aboard the orbiting complex. She previously served as a flight engineer on Expedition 5 in 2002, when she became NASA's first station science officer, conducting 21 investigations in human and life sciences. During that mission, she also used the station's robotic arm to help add two truss segments to the station's backbone and performed a spacewalk to install debris shielding.

Whitson was born and raised in Iowa, where at an early age she was inspired by the men who walked on the moon. "I thought 'what a cool job!'"

She decided she wanted to fly in space after graduating from high school, which was the same year they picked the first set of female astronauts. Whitson knew she wanted to work for NASA, if not as an astronaut, then as a scientist.

Whitson received a Bachelor of Science degree in biology and chemistry from Iowa Wesleyan College in 1981 and a doctorate in biochemistry from Rice University in 1985. From 1989 to 1993, Whitson worked as a research biochemist in the Biomedical Operations and Research Branch at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. For the next several years, she held a number of senior positions within NASA until her selection as an astronaut
in 1996.

When Whitson returns home in April 2008, she will hold yet another distinction, that of having spent more time in space than any other woman.

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New NASA Software Monitors Space Station Gyroscopes

NASA has added a new computer program to help monitor the four gyroscopes that keep the International Space Station properly oriented without the use of rocket fuel. During a spacewalk on Monday, two astronauts from the space shuttle Endeavour removed and replaced a gyroscope that failed in late 2006.

Computer scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., designed the new software for the space station. The Inductive Monitoring System will be added to a group of existing tools to identify and track problems related to the gyroscopes.

"If the system does something unexpected, the software alerts ground controllers that something is different, an anomaly, and that allows them to analyze the situation and take preventive measures as necessary," says David Iverson, the computer scientist at Ames who spearheaded the five year-effort to develop the software.

During its development, researchers used the software to analyze several months of normal space station gyroscope data collected by the International Space Station Mission Control Center at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston. In these tests, problems with the gyroscopes were noticed long before the previous system flagged glitches. NASA started using the software earlier this year.

The software program also has been used in F-18 fighter planes and by the space shuttle's leading edge impact detection system, as well as for electric power plant and water quality monitoring.

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Orion Changes Add Years To Design Phase

NASA has modified its contract with Lockheed Martin Corp. of Littleton, Colo., to design, test and build the Orion crew exploration vehicle.

The updated contract contains three significant changes, NASA says. Two years have been added to the design phase. Two test flights of Orion's launch abort system have been added. And production of a pressurized cargo carrier for the International Space Station has been deleted from the initial design phase, the space agency says.

NASA says it continues work to ensure a smooth transition from the space shuttle program to the Constellation program. This is demonstrated in a fourth element of the contract modification that provides for use of surplus raw materials, such as aluminum-lithium ingots now used in the construction of space shuttle fuel tanks, for Orion, the agency says.

"NASA and Lockheed have been working together as a team during the past six months to iron out many critical design and schedule details," says Skip Hatfield, manager the Orion Project at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "This contract update will synchronize our spending plan with the rest of the Constellation Program."

NASA awarded the Orion prime contract to Lockheed Martin on Aug. 31, 2006. At that time, the development portion of the contract was valued at $3.9 billion with a period of performance through December 2011. This contract modification, in the amount of $385 million, brings the totalvalue to approximately $4.3 billion and adjusts the development period of performance through December 2013, the space agency says.

This update is the result of a NASA request for engineering change proposal issued on Dec. 15, 2006. Lockheed Martin's proposal was received on March 7. The contract modification was signed April 20, says NASA.

The modification reflects continuing progress on Orion's development, including program formulation and systems assessments addressing the rocket, ground infrastructure and all other elements necessary for a successful first launch. The period of performance now matches the evolving NASA budget landscape, the agency says.

"The Orion team has made some critical decisions that will maximize theperformance and flexibility of this spacecraft," says Jeff Hanley, manager of the Constellation program at Johnson. "This spacecraft will be a cornerstone of America's human exploration of the solar system by a new generation of explorers, and these changes and additional tests will ensure that it is robust enough to accomplish its missions."

Meanwhile, work progresses as planned on the contract. NASA and Lockheed Martin have completed Orion's systems requirements review and aremoving toward a systems design review scheduled in August, NASA says.

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Space Station Module From Japan Arrives at NASA

After traveling thousands of miles, a major component of the International Space Station is set to begin preparations for launch. The Experiment Logistics Module Pressurized Section for the Japanese Experiment Module arrived atNASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida early Monday, March 12.

The Japanese Experiment Module is composed of three segments and is known as Kibo, which means "hope" in Japanese.

Kibo is Japan's first human space facility and its primary contribution to the station. It will enhance the unique research capabilities of theorbiting complex by providing an additional environment in which astronauts can conduct science experiments. The Experiment Logistics ModulePressurized Section will serve as an on-orbit storage area for materials, tools and supplies. It can hold up to eight experiment racks and will attach to the top of another larger pressurized module.

The ship carrying the module departed Feb. 7 from Yokohama, Japan, for the United States. Kibo's various components will be assembled in space during the course of three shuttle missions. The first of those three missions, STS-123, will carry the Experiment Logistics Module Pressurized Section aboard the space shuttle Endeavour, targeted for launch in 2007.

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Companies Mark Achievements In Commercial Space Development

Two companies receiving NASA commercial orbital transportation services funds achieved significant milestones this month in their efforts to develop and demonstrate new space cargo launch and delivery systems, the space agency says.

Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) completed a preliminary design review for its first orbital demonstration mission, NASA says. Rocketplane Kistler completed a system requirements review for its cargo services system, it says. The two companies want to offer commercial delivery services for cargo, andpossibly crews, to the International Space Station in the future. In August 2006, NASA and the companies signed agreements that established a series of milestones and criteria for assessing progress toward their individual goals.

The goals of NASA's Commercial Crew and Cargo Program are to stimulate commercial enterprises in space; facilitate U.S. private industry development of reliable, cost-effective access to low-Earth orbit;and create a market environment in which commercial space transportation services are available to government and private customers.

Once industry has demonstrated safe and reliable capabilities, NASA may choose to purchase transportation services from commercial providers to support the International Space Station under a second phase of the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services Project.

"These milestones demonstrate genuine progress toward a new way of doing business for NASA and pave the way for the commercial purchase of transportation services needed to maintain the International Space Station," says Alan Lindenmoyer, manager of the Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston. "If these companies can continue this rapid pace, the first demonstration launches are right around the corner."

On Feb. 8 SpaceX, of El Segundo, Calif., received NASA approval of a preliminary design review for the first orbital demonstration of its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon reusable spacecraft. That flight, planned for September 2008, will be the first of three outlined in NASA's agreement with SpaceX. The company completed a project management review for the mission in September 2006 and a system requirements review in November 2006. SpaceX delivered its preliminary design review data to NASA Jan. 22. The critical design review is set for this summer.

On Feb. 6, Rocketplane Kistler of Oklahoma City established the requirements for interfaces between its two-stage K-1 reusable cargo transportation system and the International Space Station. The requirements review was the third of numerous milestones NASA will use to measure thecompany's progress toward a full demonstration of its launch capability. Both the first and second stages completed critical design reviews before Rocketplane Kistler joined the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services Project. Those vehicle components are being transported to NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to begin the assembly phase.

Rocketplane Kistler achieved its first two program milestones,completion of a program implementation plan and an initial round of privatefinancing, in September and November 2006, respectively. Preliminary andcritical design reviews of a new cargo module are planned later this year.

SpaceX and Rocketplane Kistler both won a 2006 competition to share upto $485 million in NASA funding to help finance their activities. Earlier in February, NASA signed unfunded agreements to work with two other companies with similar goals -- Transformational Space Corp. (t/Space) ofReston, Va., and PlanetSpace Inc. of Chicago.

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