Better lay your millions on the table now and reserve your spot on the ISS now. Russia, NASA, and the rest of the ISS’ partners announced today that they are going to allow the ISS to crash into the atmosphere after it’s decommissioned in 2020. The reason? Space doesn’t need more junk.
The first ISS component launched in 1998 and has slowly grown into a large space station with 15 units. The original plan was to bring the ISS down in 2015 but the European Space Agency extended its life to 2020. But it can’t stay up there forever. → Read More
Astronaut Pro Tip: Shave your head before entering zero gravity environments. You’ll feel like Captain Picard (because you’re on a spaceship) combined with the nearly mind-over-body control of Professor Xavier. Plus, you won’t look like a fool on the annual Christmas card. → Read More
Isn’t she beautiful? The 25-year old Space Shuttle Atlantis is ready for her last mission. She has made the journey into space 31 times and this will hopefully be her last. After returning from delivering a mini research station to the Internation Space Station, she will be kept in a state of readiness in case there is an accident aboard the ISS. It’s a big day for NASA geeks. → Read More
Sit back, relax, and enjoy this extensive HD video tour of International Space Station. You better enjoy the ISS while you can. There’s a good chance it’s going to crash into Planet Earth within the next couple of years because of budget issues unless the ESA can save it. → Read More
Believe it or not, the current plan for the International Space Station is to abandon it in 2015 and let it crash into the atmosphere in 2016. Sad, right? But the ESA wants to keep it flying for a few more years to allow more scientist access to the zero-gravity labs. → Read More
Everyone. You can resume breathing normally as U.S. billionaire Charles Simonyi and the rest of the Russian-American space crew returned to earth from their space trip.We know you were worried about the space tourist after the original landing site was changed as it was deemed too swampy. → Read More
Apparently NASA needs help coming up with an appropriate moniker for an International Space Station module. No, they don’t want to name it after your dog. They want to follow the boring naming pattern already established by the two previous modules: Unity and Harmony. The unit will be an observation location and also the spot where the robotic arm will be controlled. Got any ideas? → Read More
In true Big Picture fashion, the wonderful photolog is celebrating the 10 years of the International Space Station. The whole story is chronicled through 32 spectacular photos that are well worth your time. Thankfully there isn’t any pics of the new urine to drinking water action shots. Gross. → Read More
I can just imagine Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper’s space helmet fogging up as she yelled “Nooo!!!!” while watching her bag of tools slowly but eternally float away from her. It wasn’t all her fault, though, as a grease gun apparently burst inside the tool bag while she was making repairs on the International Space Station. All of the greased-up tools must have been too much for her to corral and she lost her handle on the bag itself. The tools will be monitored for a while to make sure they don’t cause any damage to the ISS but once they’re far enough away that they won’t pose a threat, they’ll endlessly hurtle through space with a 14-inch putty knife, a bolt, a spring, and a washer, all accidentally lost on previous repair missions. → Read More
Remember that scene in Independence Day when Jeff Goldblum’s character suggests the U.S. upload a computer virus to the alien mothership in order to take it out? It’s one of Hollywood’s greatest moments, obviouslly. Well, it turns out that something along those lines has just happened, minus Will Smith, invading aliens, and exploding skyscrapers. There’s a computer virus, Gammima.AG, aboard the International Space Station! NASA confirms as much, and has said that it—it’s technically a worm—has been roaming around the station since August, 2007. The worm, in truly dumb fashion, attempts to steal login info for games including Rohan and R2 Reign of Revolution. These games are popular in the Far East, claims the BBC. It’s not known how the virus made it onboard the ISS in the first place, especially since all traffic between the ISS and Earth is sniffed. And no, no vital ISS operations are endangered because of the worm’s presence; it’s just annoying. → Read More
Whuh oh. Seems the only toilet on the ISS is busted and they can’t get a plumber out there until next week. Astronauts aboard the space station have been able to impose upon the nearby Russian Soyuz spacecraft, using its limited-capacity toilet in a pinch, and have now apparently rigged some sort of sack-like contraption to the toilet on the ISS. Sounds delightful. The good news is that the problems are only occurring when going number one. The astronauts can go number two just fine, Lord o’ Mercy. → Read More
In order to promote its Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), the European Space Agency held a contest last summer. The rules were simple; send in a playlist of ten songs to load onto an MP3 player that the un-manned ATV would fly up to astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Therese Miljeteig, a 14-year-old from Norway, won the competition with this playlist… → Read More
