Since returning to Earth only a few months ago on Tuesday May 14, International Space Station Expedition 35 commander and social media sensation Chris Hadfield, or @Cmdr_Hadfield as he is known to his Twitter followers, has been getting used to life back on Earth, after spending nearly 5 months in space. Just two days after returning to Earth, I got the opportunity to ask Commander Hadfield about how much he feels the ISS has changed since his first visit in 2001.
"The Station was very much a work in progress when I visited back in 2001. The purpose of that flight was a shuttle assembly flight, and that's where I first had the opportunity to do spacewalks and build Canadarm2".Hadfield told me.
Hadfield during an EVA during his first visit to the ISS during STS-100
Hadfield, and his fellow Expedition 34/35 crew members Tom Marshburn and Roman Romanenko returned to Earth after spending several months aboard the largest and most expensive spacecraft ever built- but it wasn't always like that, as Hadfield went on to say:
"Station was barely functional when the second expedition was on board. We were Expedition 34/35 and at that time it was Expedition 2 and there was only one laboratory on board". Since then times have changed. Currently there are over 130 experiments that the crew conduct throughout their increment, constantly working with teams from all over the world on the research being done in the microgravity environment found aboard the orbiting laboratory.
The station commander took time to pay homage to the space station's robotic arm- Canadarm2, which was built in low-Earth orbit by Hadfield during his visit in 2001. It is still operating on the station's exterior today, and is now being used to capture and dock visiting vehicles, such as SpaceX's Dragon capsule, and Japan's HTV Transfer Vehicle.
The Canadarm2 in work
"All Canadians should recognise that Canada built Canadarm2, and Canadarm2 built the space station". Hadfield continued to mention that during his first visit to station during STS-100, the ISS was just a construction site, with smaller amounts of science being conducted compared to what can be achieved today. However, nowadays, the station is the size of a football field, and has living space similar in size to a five-bedroom house. It is fair to say that the International Space Station has certainly changed since it first became habitable, a change which is clearly visible to a man who got to call this place his home.
"It's sort of as if I was there when it was a construction site a decade ago, and now I got to go back and see the finished product, and it's great to be in a position to have seen both". Hadfield became the first Canadian to command the International Space Station earlier this year. He returned to Earth on Tuesday May 14 after landing in his Soyuz capsule at 3:31 a.m. GMT in the steppe of Kazakhstan. Hadfield is just after completing a worldwide tour promoting his new book "An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth", which is available in all good book stores now.
Back in December 2012, a trio of astronauts and cosmonauts launched from Kazakhstan bound for the International Space Station. They promised shots of our Earth from the vantage point of 250 miles above our heads. They didn't disappoint!
"The Moon, newly risen, perfect over a flowing blanket of cloud"
Credit: Chris Hadfield
Since arriving at the orbiting outpost almost five months ago, Canadian Space Agency Astronaut and Expedition 35 Commander Chris Hadfield, and Expedition 34/35 Flight Engineer Tom Marshburn of NASA, have sent social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+ into a frenzy, by posting around a dozen photos each day of completely random places scattered across on Earth. One minute Marshburn might post a picture of Mount Etna in Italy puffing out smoke and gas from its vent, and a couple minutes later Hadfield might give us all a look at what Niagara Falls looks like from the space station.
For me, I have never felt so up to date and involved in what is being done on station. Every morning before I went to school, the first thing I would do would be to check Commander Hadfield's Twitter feed and get a small digest of what work would be conducted for the day on the orbiting laboratory- all summed up in 140 characters. Marvelous! What more could you want when you're rushing out the door!
I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way. I mean when these photos make national headlines all over the world you know that there's something special going on. It has allowed people to imagine they are inside the International Space Station, looking down at our fragile oasis and have that unique orbital perspective of our blue planet.
"Leaving is bittersweet. It's been an unbelievable ride.
Can't wait to see what's next!". credit: Tom Marshburn/NASA
Personally, I have had people who have no or very little interest or knowledge about what is being done on the ISS, coming up to me asking did I see the photo Tom Marshburn took of airplane contrails over Cork the previous day. That's pretty cool for me. It shows no matter how much you know or care about the manned space programme, you can still be stunned and encapsulated by these beautiful images beamed down from the guys. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if some time in the future they renamed Flight Engineer to "Social Media Specialist" as an additional role for the astronauts at the rate it's going!
On a serious note, I think we all need to remember what an amazing achievement Expedition 35 really was scientifically. It's not like the guys have just been taking pictures since the moment they got up there. The departing crew set a record for the amount of experiments studied and completed in the entire 13 year history of the ISS-
"On a science side.. we set a record for utilisation, for the amount of time that was spent and the amount of research done during our tenure here aboard Expedition 35"said Hadfield as he handed over command of the International Space Station to Expedition 36 Commander Pavel Vinogradov.
However, the hard work didn't not stop there. With a little under 4 days until Hadfield, Marshburn and fellow crew member Roman Romanenko were to return to Earth, an ammonia leak was spotted in the station's P6 Truss, prompting an emergency spacewalk. With just 48 hours notice, the spacewalk by Marshburn and Expedition 35/36 Flight Engineer Chris Cassidy could not have gone any better, with initial reports indicating the leak had been fixed and there was no more leaking.
"For me it all really came together in the last 3 days... For me this is just the personification of what the International Space Station is, and what the people mean to it".
Spaceflight finale:
"To some this may look like a sunset. But it's a new dawn".
credit: Chris Hadfield/CSA
-Chris Hadfield
As the crew prepared to close the hatch between the ISS and the Soyuz, in typical Chris Hadfield style, the commander reflected on the future as he posted his last photo from space.
"To some this may look like a sunset. But it's a new dawn" -Chris Hadfield
Never before have us Earthlings been able to see and hear what it must be like to live aboard the International Space Station for nearly six months. We have been able to hear what it sounds like to run on the space station treadmill, float around from module to module inside this orbiting vessel, and what it sounds like when a Soyuz spacecraft docks, bringing three new crewmates to the station. We have never seen the crew answer questions from people all over the world quite like this, and I think they should be commended for this.
Keeping people up to date and sharing magnificent views is what makes people interested in space travel at the end of the day, and gives them that humble reminder with every photo that we all share this beautiful planet, and that we need to take care of it.
At 3:31 a.m. GMT the Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft landed safely in Kazakhstan, bringing Expedition 34/35 crew members Chris Hadfield, Tom Marshburn and Roman Romanenko home after spending 146 days in space.
After arriving at the International Space Station on December 21 2012, the trio joined the Expedition 34 crew and ended up setting a record for the amount of science conducted on the orbiting laboratory since astronauts and cosmonauts began living on the space station in 2000.
The hard work continued as part of Expedition 35, an increment which included two EVAs(one of which was unplanned to fix an ammonia leak)- one Russian and one American. After spending 145 days aboard the ISS, it was time for Soyuz Commander Romanenko, and Flight Engineers Marshburn and Hadfield to close the hatches and say goodbye to their home for the past five months.
Hadfield, Romanenko and Marshburn shortly after landing credit: NASA
Hatches between the ISS and the departing Soyuz were closed at 8:50 p.m. GMT. The crew then turned their attention to switching the Soyuz onto autonomous power and a series of leak checks were performed soon after.
The Soyuz then undocked from the International Space Station at 12:08 a.m. GMT, as the station flew 255 miles above eastern Mongolia. This officially marked the beginning of Expedition 36.
A series of deorbit burns were then performed at 2:37 a.m. GMT in order to set the Soyuz on course for a landing south-east of the Kazakh town of Dzhezkazgan. Landing itself occurred at 3:31 a.m. GMT in near perfect conditions.
The crew was then extracted one by one from the Soyuz capsule until all crew members sat on their individual recliner couches while being attended to by medical staff, before being carried away to the medical tent which had been set up for the landing process.
The station will remain a three man crew until the launch of the Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft carrying Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikin, NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg and ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano, which is scheduled for May 28.
A few months ago while conducting an interview from the space station with the ground, NASA Astronaut Tom Marshburn described the view of our Earth whizzing by, below his feet as he finished his third EVA during STS-127. Sounding slightly disappointed, Marshburn mentioned it is a view he probably wouldn't experience again any time soon. This all changed on Friday.
Spacewalkers Cassidy and Marshburn conducted a 5 and a half hour EVA
Late on Thursday the 9th of May, Expedition 35 crew members currently aboard the station noticed white flakes leaking from the station's P6 Truss. Upon noticing the problem, station commander Chris Hadfield notified Houston- as he reported seeing "A very steady stream of flakes". These flakes turned out to be ammonia, used to keep things like the station's solar arrays and trusses cool and at a suitable temperature. This leak originated from the same area that Expedition 33 spacewalkers Suni Williams and Aki Hoshide(Who was present in Mission Control to offer his assistance) conducted an EVA back in 2012, in order to try and fix the coolant pump that was also leaking ammonia, but not at as fast a rate as it was on Thursday. You can see the video of the ammonia leak by watching the video below. The ammonia leak caused one of the International Space Station's eight solar arrays to be shut down.
For Marshburn and Cassidy, this is their fourth EVA each, having both walked in space during STS-127 on space shuttle Endeavour back in July 2009. The pair do not lack experience walking in space, having conducted two EVAs with eachother, which included a visit to this P6 Truss, so this leak could not have happened at a better time.
Canadian Space Agency astronaut and Space Station Commander Chris Hadfield acted as today's Intra-Vehicular Crew Member, supporting Airlock Ops and choreographing the EVA from inside
The main aim of the EVA was for Marshburn and Cassidy to exit the space station's Quest Airlock
in their space suits to inspect and possibly replace the pump leaking the ammonia.The EVA began at 1:44 p.m. GMT as the station flew 255 miles over the Sahara Desert.
Marshburn and Cassidy quickly got to work, translating the 150 feet along the station's Port truss in order to reach today's work site. At first, the pair didn't spot anything out of the ordinary, and little or no sign of the ammonia leak. "I see nothing off nominal" said Cassidy. As is the case with pretty much every spacewalk, the crew ran into some minor problems with bolts early on, but this was quickly overcome. Like a pair of tourists, Marshburn and Cassidy constantly took photo after photo of the work site in order to assist teams on the ground on the the condition of the area, and will also aid teams when future EVAs are conducted on the P6 Truss.
The old PFCS box(yellow) was replaced by a new, clean box(red).
credit: NASA
After overcoming problems with the flash on his camera, Marshburn continued to work alongside Cassidy in unbolting and removing the PFCS box in order to identify the source of the leak. No ammonia flakes were spotted by either astronaut, after initial inspection, not exactly what you want to hear when looking for a leak. The decision was then taken to replace the suspect box with a spare one located nearby. If all this information is too much for you, look at this picture- it might help explain it a bit better.
After the spare box was installed, the system was turned on in order to allow ammonia to flow into the station's cooling lines. After this procedure was initiated, keen eyes from Mission Control watched closely to see how the new Subsystem was performing, and also to look out if any ammonia began to leak out of it. Shortly after instillation, the moment of truth arrived, as the ammonia from the pump began to flow, recharging the coolant system in the process, with no leak visible.
A little over three and a half hours after the beginning of the Extra-Vehicular Activity, Marshburn and Cassidy declared that they had completed all the tasks they set out to achieve. The pair then were ordered to stay outside in the vacuum of space for a little while longer,in a process known as "Bake-Out"- in which Cassidy and Marshburn got rid of any ammonia contamination that may have gotten onto their spacesuits while working out at the Station's P6 Truss structure.
Cassidy and Marshburn take a quick timeout to pose for a photo during the EVA
credit: Chris Hadfield/NASA
Today's activities outside were brought to a close when the hatch to the Quest Airlock was closed at 7:14 p.m. GMT. The astronauts spent a total of 5 hours and 30 minutes outside and all in all, the spacewalk and repair could not have gone any better, with Marshburn and Cassidy finishing their excursion one hour ahead of schedule. It is still unclear at this present time what originally caused the ammonia leak, but seeing that no leak or flakes were visible after the new PFCS was installed, the old pump seemed to be the cause of the problem. Official confirmation of the source of the leak may take days, if not weeks to figure out.
Now all attention turns to the return of the Soyuz-TMA 07M spacecraft to Earth, carrying Chris Hadfield, Roman Romanenko, and today's spacewalker and space plumber Tom Marshburn after nearly six months in space. They are expected to make a parachute assisted landing in Kazakhstan at 3:30 a.m. GMT on Monday May 13.
Another seven EVAs are scheduled for this year, two of which will involve today's spacewalker Chris Cassidy. He will be accompanied by Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano, who will launch to the station on May 28.
It's good to see our national holiday celebrated all over the world. Whether you are celebrating the occasion in Ireland like myself, wearing green in Beijing, dying your river green in Chicago- wherever! It's always nice to see the world going green for a day!
"Wearing the green - Happy St. Patrick's Day from the International Space Station!"
However, it now seems that Paddy's Day is now being celebrated both on and off this planet!
Every year we see things like the Empire State Building, The London Eye and the White House fountain going green for Ireland. The International Space Station is no different!
Expedition 35 commander Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency, and fellow astronaut Tom Marshburn have been taking to social media sites like Google+ and Twitter to share the view of our Emerald Isle from 250 miles above in Low-Earth Orbit.
Always nice to see home from space!!
Since their launch a in December, Hadfield and Marshburn have had their cameras pointed at Earth, tweeting photos of places like Mt Vesuvius, the Scottish Highlands, and now the lenses have focused in on us. One of the main reasons I was looking forward to our national holiday was because I knew the guys on the space station would more than likely snap a few photos of our island(something they had been doing in the days leading up to March 17th). Then the moment came when Hadfield tweeted:
"Maidin mhaith from the International Space Station! Happy Saint Patrick's Day to the Irish all around the globe. Good morning!"
This was followed by Hadfield showing the Irish within him as he broke out his green geansaí, complemented by a dickiebow. Then the photos came!
"Tralee, Ireland, nestled in the first green we see after soaring across the Atlantic"
First up from the station's windows was a glimpse of Tralee from the heavens above! His crew mate Marshburn of NASA, who had been snapping away at Ireland for the last few days also tweeted a snow covered Waterford.
To mark the occasion further, Hadfield, a man also noted for his music skills, recorded his version of Danny Boy- "Danny Boy strikes home with me, now more than ever. I've recorded a version for today in orbit. Hope you like it!" You can hear the commander's version of the song here: https://soundcloud.com/colchrishadfield/danny-boy.
"St. Patrick's Day Finale: Dublin, with her port standing out clearly to photographers in Earth orbit"
Hadfield finished up the day and decided to call it a day when he tweeted this picture of Dublin- the clouds must have gotten the better of him!
You can see all of Chris and Tom's photos of Ireland, and of course other photos of spaceship Earth by following them on Twitter: @Cmdr_Hadfield and @AstroMarshburn
Happy St Patrick's Day!
All photos credit to Chris Hadfield, Tom Marshburn, NASA
Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield has assumed command of the International Space Station, relieving Expedition 34 commander Kevin Ford of his position.
Hadfield, who has flown on two previous flights, including one stay aboard Russian space station Mir, was handed the keys to the orbiting laboratory- "Thank you very much for giving me the keys to the family car- we're gonna put some miles on it, but we'll bring it back in good shape".
Kevin Ford hands over command of the ISS to Chris Hadfield
The ceremony kicked off with Expedition 34 commander speaking about the remarkable work and record-breaking science that has been achieved during his time as commander. Then as a surprise to mark the special occasion of Hadfield becoming the first Canadian commander of the ISS, the Canadian national anthem was played, sparking a proud response from Hadfield- "Kevin thank you. You do me a tremendous honour by playing that song for me and my country".
However, Hadfield will officially take command of the ISS when Ford, Tarelkin and Novitskiy undock their Soyuz-TMA 06M space craft from the space station, marking the beginning of Expedition 35. Altogether, the departing trio will have spent 144 days in space since launching from Kazakhstan Oct. 23 2012.
Hadfield and his crewmates, NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, will tend to the station for two weeks until the arrival of three new crew members: NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin.
The International Space Station has captured a dragon.
Dragon launches aboard its Falcon 9 rocket on Friday March 1
Yes, I know. Sounds a bit strange right? But it's true. The Expedition 34 crew aboard the International Space Station have successfully grappled and docked the SpaceX Dragon capsule, carrying nearly 1300 pounds of cargo to support systems aboard the orbiting laboratory.
Dragon took off on top of a Falcon 9 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Friday, on only its second flight to resupply the station(excluding test flights) destined for docking this morning. Some of the cargo that will be unpacked by the astronauts include 17 different scientific experiments, that will be studied in the weightless environment aboard the station, as well as crew supplies like food and clothing.
Grapple and docking procedures were carried out using the station's robotic arm- Canadarm2, by NASA astronaut and Expedition 34 Commander Kevin Ford, and fellow NASA astronaut and Flight Engineer Tom Marshburn. Once grappled, Dragon was installed onto the Earth-facing port of the ISS by a team working in Mission Control in Houston. Dragon was then bolted into place through commands by Flight Engineer Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency.
Catching a Dragon by the Tail
The station's Canadarm2 plucked a dragon out of its 10 meter holding point, with official time of grappling occurring at 10.31am GMT. Dragon was then berthed to the space station's Harmony Module, with docking confirmed at 1:56pm GMT.
However, it is worth noting that the mission had to be delayed by one day due to a malfunction in the Dragon's solar arrays and thruster pods, shortly after launch on Friday, March 1st. This led to fears that SpaceX's Dragon mightn't be able to reach the 240 mile-high orbit of the ISS. Fortunately, these problems were eventually ironed out and teams on the ground gave the all-clear for a rendezvous with the station, followed by grapple and docking. The date for Dragon's unberthing, release and splashdown still remain planned for March 25.
Dragon docked to the station's Harmony Module
This mission to resupply the ISS is SpaceX's second of 12 planned flights. It is hoped that if everything goes according to plan, astronauts will once again be able to launch from US soil into space, no longer having to rely on the Russians. The date for Dragon's first manned flight is expected to launch sometime in 2015.
In the mean time, while these private companies are flying back and forth from the ISS, NASA is now able to focus on going beyond low-earth orbit, and flying humans farther into space than ever before. The agency is currently developing systems, designs and hardware for its Space Launch System(SLS), and in particular, the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, scheduled to make its first test flight in 2014.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
