Archive for the ‘International Space Station’ Category

ISS UK Pass details for April 2013.

Long Exposure photo of a visible ISS pass Credit: Mark Humpage

The International Space Station (ISS) is back over UK skies with bright passes during April 2013.

The ISS is a large Space Station/ laboratory orbiting the Earth, it can be spotted with the naked eye at certain times as it orbits the planet at 17500mph at an altitude of roughly 200 miles.

Spotting the station is very easy and you don’t need any special equipment, only your eyes. Read the rest of this entry »

ISS UK Pass details for February 2013.

Long Exposure photo of a visible ISS pass Credit: Mark Humpage

The International Space Station (ISS) is back over UK skies with bright passes during February 2013.

The ISS is a large Space Station/ laboratory orbiting the Earth, it can be spotted with the naked eye at certain times as it orbits the planet at 17500mph at an altitude of roughly 200 miles.

Spotting the ISS is very easy and you don’t need any special equipment, only your eyes. Read the rest of this entry »

ISS UK Pass details for the 2012 Christmas period.

Long Exposure photo of a visible ISS pass Credit: Mark Humpage

The International Space Station (ISS) is back over UK skies with bright passes over the Christmas 2012 period.

The ISS is a large Space Station/ laboratory orbiting the Earth, it can be spotted with the naked eye at certain times as it orbits the planet at 17500mph at an altitude of roughly 200 miles.

Spotting the ISS is very easy and you don’t need any special equipment, only your eyes. Read the rest of this entry »

Long Exposure photo of a visible ISS pass Credit: Mark Humpage

Please see:

ISS (International Space Station) UK Pass details for Christmas 2012

It’s meteorwatch and as well as shooting stars from the Perseid meteor shower, we can see some excellent International Space Station (ISS) passes alongside the celestial fireworks. Read the rest of this entry »

Long Exposure Photograph of the ISS Credit: Mark Humpage

Photographing the International Space Station (ISS)

If you have seen the International Space Station (ISS) pass over a few times with your own eyes, (here’s a guide to seeing the ISS) you may want to have a go at photographing it.

Photographing the ISS is very worthwhile and gratifying. There are two basic methods; one being easy and the other being a little more difficult. Both methods are incredibly rewarding and good results can be obtained fairly quickly, once you have mastered the basics. Read the rest of this entry »

The International Space Station Credit: @VirtualAstro

The ISS is a huge space station orbiting Earth that serves as an orbital laboratory, factory, testing ground and home; crew members conduct experiments from biology to astronomy, including experiments for prolonged exposure to life in space for future missions to the Moon and beyond.

The ISS is major accomplishment for NASA (US), ESA (Europe), JAXA (Japan) CSA (Canada) and all the countries involved (16 in all). The space station is just over 72 m long by 108 m wide and 20 m high; it is maintained at an orbital altitude of between 330 km (205 mi) and 410 km (255 mi) and travels at an average speed of 27,724 kilometres (17,227 mi) per hour, completing 15.7 orbits per day.

One of the best things about the ISS is that you can see it with your own eyes from Earth! It’s very easy to watch the International Space Station pass over your own backyard! Read the rest of this entry »

The International Space Station

The international space station (ISS) is a habitable artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. It is the latest and largest in a line of previous space stations such as Skylab and Mir.

The ISS is a modular structure and the first module was launched in 1998 and many more modules, trusses, solar arrays and other elements have been added since.

The station is just over 72 m long by just over 108 m wide and 20 m high; it is maintained at an orbital altitude of between 330 km (205 mi) and 410 km (255 mi) it travels at an average speed of 27,724 kilometres (17,227 mi) per hour and completes 15.7 orbits per day. Read the rest of this entry »

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

Watch the first Soyuz launch from Guiana Space Center (CSG) in French Guiana

A new countdown for Soyuz’ first flight from the Spaceport

October 20, 2011 10:30:26 a.m. UT  – Soyuz Flight VS01

The countdown to Soyuz’ maiden flight from French Guiana will resume for a liftoff tomorrow morning after work on the launch pad resolved a ground support system anomaly that postponed the historic mission for 24 hours.

This anomaly was identified as a leak in a launch pad pneumatic system responsible for the programmed disconnection of Soyuz’ third stage fueling lines before the vehicle lifts off.

With the issue resolved, the liftoff is now set for October 21 at 7:30:26 a.m. local time in French Guiana – a precise moment that enables the payload of two Galileo satellites to be injected into their proper orbital plane.

Soyuz’ 3-hr. 49-min. flight from the Spaceport will inject the In-Orbit Validation (IOV) spacecraft for Europe’s Galileo satellite navigation system into a 23,222-km. circular medium-Earth orbit, inclined 54.7 degrees.

Weighing approximately 700 kg. each, these satellites – along with two others to be lofted by Soyuz in 2012 – will form the operational nucleus of Europe’s full 30-satellite Galileo navigation constellation, which is being developed in a collaborative program involving the European Space Agency and European Union

With the Soyuz launcher operating out of the Guiana Space Center (CSG) in French Guiana, Arianespace is the only launch services provider in the world capable of launching all types of payloads to all orbits.

The “Soyuz in French Guiana” project covers three main aspects:
- Construction of launch facilities, including a launch pad identical to those used in Kazakhstan and Russia.
- Launcher modifications needed for operation from the Guiana Space Center (CSG), primarily ensuring compliance with the range safety rules at CSG and adaptation to the requirements of the launcher tracking network.
- Verification of compatibility of the Soyuz launcher with the environmental conditions in French Guiana (in particular the weather and wind conditions).

The Soyuz at CSG launch system, combining the new launch pad with a launcher that has been slightly modified in relation to the version launched from Baikonur, will be validated during the inaugural flight :
- The final countdown and actual flight through the end of the mission will enable validating the operation of all ground and launcher systems and equipment.
- This flight will also enable identifying any improvements that may be needed for the commercial operation of this new launch system.

Soyuz at Guiana Space center – Timelapse from Arianespace on Vimeo.

A blog for us AMATEUR amateur astronomers. By @RadioVicky.

Bio:

I’m 33, I live in Bristol and I like astronomy.  However, I don’t have a telescope and even if you did give me one, I’d be uncertain where to put my eye. I write comedy and I’m a professional blogger. My favourite colours are beer and dark skies.

Telescopes scare me. Not in the way a stranger in my bedroom or a spider in my knickers would scare me, but they do fill me with a certain fear.

I mean, I absolutely love things that go *shine* in the night, and have since I was a little girl, but the prospect of going out and buying a scope – something I know NOTHING about — is fairly petrifying. It even makes me feel a bit of a fraud. How can I be in to astronomy when I don’t even know my azimuth from my elbow? And also, I’m not too hot on my constellations either – sure, I know the main ones they teach you at school, but ask me to point out Lyra? Pegasus? Lucky Jim’s Pirate Ship?

OK, I admit it, I’m an AMATEUR amateur astronomer, but so is 99.9999999999999999999999% (possibly more nines than that, I didn’t have time to conduct a survey) of the world’s population, so it’s a cool club to be in.

Before I got friendly with astronomers on Twitter, I always fancied one of those thin tubular ones they sell for £90 in Argos. Surely I would be able to see the storms on Jupiter, the arms of Andromeda, and the Bristol football team practicing from 10 miles away? Turns out I’d be better off peering through a toilet roll tube with some cling film on the end of it – I’ve been told that cheap telescopes merely turn unimpressive white dots into marginally less impressive WOBBLY white dots, so I’m saving the cash for a Virgin Galactic space holiday instead. I hear the weather’s quite exceptional on Mercury…

But something happened this weekend that made me feel better about scope envy. I’ve been getting friendly with our very own @virtualastro on Twitter, and when I discovered I had 900 free minutes to use before the end of the month, I thought it was nigh on time we spoke to each other.

So, I called him up, and we spent a total of FIVE HOURS on the phone over the course of Saturday and Sunday night. Rest assured Twitter, we have plotted and planned some very exciting things together which will be blazing your way like a comet made of ideas instead of muddy ice soon …but the best, most wonderful, amazing, magical thing we did was…GO STAR HOPPING TOGETHER. Without a freakin’ telescope!

Even though we are about 70 miles apart (I live in Bristol, he lives in Oxfordish somewhere) we were both able to look up at the same sky, see the same ISS passes, and the same meteors. It was remarkable to be on the phone to someone with such an incredible knowledge of the skies. I sat gob smacked, mouth and ears open, as he talked me through constellations, clusters, satellites and gory Greek myths. I had no idea Cassiopeia had been a naughty girl and was sentenced to dangle upside down on a chair for eternity. I’d never heard of the Cygnus Rift — an ominously dark patch of sky in our milky way. I couldn’t even pick out the summer triangle, but now I know where it lives I will undoubtedly point it out to people in the pub, spilling cider as I leap around, trying to remember which stars make it up.

The best part was a dazzling ISS pass with a Perseid meteor streaking past like an arrow through a love heart. @VirtualAstro even had to put the phone down to deal with the deluge of tweets, and it felt amazing to be part of something so communal, so magical, yet so fleeting.

He also reassured me I didn’t need a telescope to enjoy the skies – which is fabulous because I was getting a bit sick of wishing for one on every meteor I saw. He said ‘if you look up at the sky…then you’re already an astronomer,’ a line which neatly castrated the last traces of my scope envy.

As I lay back and looked at the star-flecked sky, with crickets singing in the hedge, and Adrian firing me up with a guided tour of our resplendent heavens, it dawned on me. This was better than any naughty phone chat line. He could quite easily wire up a premium-rate number to his phone and charge £1.50 a minute for the pleasure of his knowledge.

Yep, I had a great time star-gazing without a scope last night. To the point of rubbing my thighs and drooling a bit. And how was it for you, darling?

Vicky pretended she was having fun looking through the telescope, but the view was better with just her eyes.