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.

The ISS will eventually follow the path blazed by Skylab and MIR and fall to Earth. The intent is to have it crash harmlessly into the Pacific Ocean. However, as Australia will confess that, plans don’t always work out. See Skylab history.

Not all is lost in space, though. Discovery notes that Russia, like the US, are currently developing a new launch vehicle. The US retired the Space Shuttle earlier this month and Russia plans on doing the same to its Soyuz craft in 2015. Manned space exploration is seemingly still in the cards. Let’s just hope it doesn’t fall victim to politics.

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.

The launch is scheduled for 2:20 p.m. EDT today. As usual NASA TV has coverage all day today. This PDF gives the C-Band satellite info, but it’s also available online here. Follow the official news feed here.

Of course it’s just not one space agency’s call. The project has five partners, the US, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada, and each will have a say later this at a meeting in Japan. But I think we can all agree that it’s a damn big waste if the ISS is simply abandoned because the world is spending its money on research for seedless watermelons or developing more weapons to kill each other.

I don’t care what you say. Astronauts have balls of steel. They strap themselves onto a rocket, shit in a vacuum, and are risking death by space junk tonight.

Apparently a new external ammonia tank for the ISS is important enough to risk getting it by a part of an old European rocket. NASA says that the junk should be far enough away and I guess it doesn’t really matter. I mean, if the the old rocket is close enough to hit the astronaut spacewalking, then it’s close enough to hit the actual station and therefore killing everyone aboard in a Moonraker-fashion.

Question: What do you do with a 654,000 pound space station with no budget past 2015?

Let her crash and burn, which is just what the current plan is for the International Space Station. The short story here is that NASA will not have the budget to keep the huge space station in orbit. It seems like a shame to let the $100 billion ISS fail in such a glorious method. NASA doesn’t have the money and soon will not even have transportation with the Shuttle on the quick road to retirement.

There are of course folks in the government that want the ISS to survive a bit longer, but they can’t find the money. AIG executives apparently need a bonus so the space station needs to come down. Sorry, science and humanity, some playboy needs to make yacht payment. Sad.

Lucky cosmonaut and astronauts. Not only do they get the best corner office view ever, but they also have a legit version of Star Trek downloaded. The three men currently on board the International Space Station received a special copy of the film via NASA and settled into a dark node of the station to enjoy the show yesterday.

From the NYTimes,

Michael Barratt, the American astronaut, requested the film before boarding a space-bound shuttle in March, said Ms. Cloutier. He told NASA officials that he was a lifelong admirer of the TV series and did not want to miss this latest big-screen installment while off-planet. It was beamed up to them – really – after being reformatted by NASA technicians in a five-hour procedure Thursday night and beamed up Friday morning.

I’m mean, what more can you want out of life: rides on a Space Shuttle whenever, pissing in zero gravity, and a downloaded copy of Star Trek literally out of reach from the MPAA. Life must be good.

But thankfully God always watches over the ultra-rich and ensured a safe landing for the only space tourist to visit the ISS twice. After all, it would be a waste to see someone who paid 60 million for two space trips crash and burn.

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.

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.

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.

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.

“While one of the crew was using the Russian-made toilet last week, the toilet motor fan stopped working, according to NASA. Since then, the liquid waste gathering part of the toilet has been working on-and-off.

Fortunately, the solid waste collecting part is functioning normally.”

Space Shuttle Discovery is set to launch this Saturday and will meet up with the crew at the ISS on Monday. NASA is “considering having some parts flown to Cape Canaveral, Florida, and placed in the shuttle during its countdown,” which is apparently a bit dangerous. After everything else has already been weighed and balanced, any extra weight could throw off initial calculations.

Come on, though. You gotta fix the toilet, right? That, or hang a sign above it saying “If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down.”

UPDATE: The Associated Press is reporting that NASA will be sending a special pump up with Space Shuttle Discovery to fix the broken toilet. Flush away, boys. Flush away.

AP/CNN via Switched

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…

Here Comes The Sun – Beatles
Come Fly With Me – Frank Sinatra
Rocket Man – Elton John
Up Where We Belong – Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes
Imagine – John Lennon
Flashdance – What A Feeling – Irene Cara
Walk of Life – Dire Straits
Fly – Celine Dion
Rockin’ All Over The World – Status Quo
I Believe I Can Fly – R Kelly

…a playlist for which I will reserve comment, other than to say “Congratulations, little girl! You did it! Hooray for space! SK8 STR8! Stay in school and what-have-you!”

Her prize will be to travel to French Guiana this Sunday to watch the Jules Verne ATV vessel launch supplies, including the MP3 player, up to the space station.

Music heading ‘out of this world’ [ESA.int] via vnunet.com