I Feel Like I've Been Looking Down at Our Fragile Oasis for the Past 5 Months

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.

Expedition 35 Crew Lands Safely in Kazakhstan After 5 Months in Space

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.

Astronauts Marshburn and Cassidy Complete Emergency Spacewalk to Replace Ammonia-Leaking Pump

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.

More to follow...

Space Shuttle: The Greatest Flying Machine Ever Built?

On December 19th 1972, the Apollo 17 command module America carrying astronauts Eugene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt and Ron Evans splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, bringing an end to the Apollo Programme. However, before the Apollo days ever ended, NASA was already busy planning what shape the manned US space programme was going to take next. They set their sights for Low-Earth Orbit. In fact the announcement came while Apollo 16 astronauts John Young and Charlie Duke were walking on the Moon, to which Young replied "The people need that shuttle". The space shuttle was on its way.

First flight of the Wright Flyer, 1903

Now just before I get into the comparisons to other great flying machines, I just want to set everything straight. In this piece I will refer to anything used by human beings to successfully fly from one place to another as a flying machine. Seeing that human beings were the ones who built the machine, I won't really be crediting company names and things like that, just that that it was built by men and women. Understand? Right, I think we're ready to move on.

Lets's start at the very beginning and look at Orville and Wilbur Wright's very first flying machine. Although it is not even close to comparing to the worst of modern day aircraft, it showed us that man could get off the ground and fly like a bird, thus in my opinion, ranking up among the most important aircraft in history, but certainly not the greatest flying machine ever built. The same goes for things like the F-61 helicopter flown all those years ago. Then if you want to talk about airships, let's just say they're a bit too slow for me!

Let's take a look at some more..



The Bell X-1

The Bell X-1

The Bell X-1 will go down in history as the first aircraft flown by man to travel faster than the speed of sound. On October 14 1947, Air Force General Chuck Yeager flew the X-1 to a speed of 800mph(Mach 1.07) to become the first human to fly faster than the speed of sound. Just like many of the most famous aircraft ever built, it proved a point, showing us that we could now fly faster than the sound barrier, and since then, we have sought to fly harder and faster on every flight.

The X-15

In NASA's earliest days, before the nation's first astronauts were even selected, a group of twelve pilots found themselves soaring to previously unimaginable heights while flying the famous X-15 rocket plane. Neil Armstrong, the first man on the Moon, an X-15 pilot himself, and a man fascinated with flight since he was a little boy, was always fond of the X-15.  In the words of Armstrong; "Rockets were powering aircraft to higher and higher speeds. The X-15 had enough energy to zoom to altitudes above the atmosphere". It seems like this magical aircraft can get the first man on the Moon pretty excited. But that's the beauty of it! This particular flying machine was not your average plane. It couldn't even take off on a runway for crying out loud! It had to be taken up attached to the wing of a B-52 bomber and then simply dropped. Don't worry it didn't just glide back to Earth- here's the exciting part! Not long after being dropped from the B-52, the X-15's rocket engine would ignite and send both pilot and aircraft up to altitudes over 100km. If you have never seen the launch and landing of an X-15, I suggest you watch this. You can come to your own conclusions after watching it. I just think it was a magnificent flying machine and what I've written doesn't even come close to summing up how awesome the X-15 really was.


The Saturn V

At a height of 363 feet tall, the Saturn V is the largest and most powerful launch vehicle ever built. Everyone's familiar with the sight of the Saturn lifting off Pad 39-A during the Apollo 11 mission- just by looking at it in photos you can tell that this thing has a whole lot a muscle! Without the Saturn V, we may still live in a world where man hasn't walked on the Moon. This flying machine was flown on all the Apollo missions and will go down in history for this very reason. It is probably one of the most standout images that appears in people's minds when you mention space exploration. This may not be a good reason to award it the title of the greatest flying machine ever built, but without this amazing launch vehicle, you can't help but feel history books would be a lot different than they are today.

The Apollo Lunar Excursion Model(LEM)

The LEM in lunar orbit

Okay so you might think I'm focusing in on the Apollo days a but too much here right? But how can I leave out the LEM? It was of course the very machine that brought twelve men down to the lunar surface, and acted as a lifeboat during the perilous voyage of Apollo 13, saving the lives of three astronauts in the process. This spidery looking thing just looks really cool to me. With its four golden legs, the lunar module must have been one of the most difficult and scariest things to fly even for the most experienced pilot. You flew it standing up so that must have taken some getting used to! However, let's remember that it is a lunar module, and would be pretty useless and disastrous if it were to be flown here on Earth. What makes it unique is that it could only be flown off our planet. For me, it certainly ranks well up there seeing that it most certainly has to go down as the greatest flying machine to travel to the surface of the Moon. Now how many other flying machines can do that?


Concorde

Like most of the flying machines mentioned so far on this list, the Concorde is no longer in service. However, a lot of people(including myself) feel it should still be flying. Now I have never flown on the Concorde- I'm only 16 years old, but I can understand how beautiful and commercially important this supersonic aircraft really was. Concorde could fly from London to New York in three hours, travelling at twice the speed of sound. This means that a businessman from North London could finish a meeting in Manhattan at midday and be back at home in time for tea. But looking at the aircraft itself, I mean come on- it looks perfect! The wings accompanying the narrow fuselage give the Concorde such a slick finish, ultimately allowing it to fly at Mach 2. Concorde pretty much was your ideal commercial aircraft, What a dream it must have been to fly!

The Soyuz

"Flying the Soyuz is like driving a Ferrari in a circuit... it's an extremely capable vehicle because it's extremely fast, and it performs very well". These were the words of ESA Astronaut Paolo Nespoli when I asked him last November to compare flying the Soyuz and the Shuttle. The Soyuz spacecraft has been in operation since the late sixties and is still flying astronauts and cosmonauts to the International Space Station to this very day. It is one of, if not the most reliable spacecraft ever built and it is the workhorse for the Russian Space Programme. Many would say that the Soyuz would beat the Shuttle hands down in terms of mission effectiveness and reliability, but you have to remember that it can only hold three people, and it cannot be reused. However it is the only spacecraft on this list that still flies.

And finally...

The Space Shuttle

For NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz, "The space shuttle is the greatest flying machine that NASA has ever built". Now this is a man who has worked with the space agency since Project Mercury, and has no doubt witnessed some great air and spacecraft in his time, and he thinks that the space shuttle is the greatest flying machine man has ever built? I have to agree with him on this one.

Space Shuttle Discovery Launches on STS-120 from KSC.

Whenever I see videos and photos of the Space Shuttle, whether it be on its eight and a half minute journey to low-Earth orbit, or gliding its way back to the Kennedy Space Center with waving contrails flowing off the Delta wingtips, its one hell of a flying machine. First launched in 1981 on STS-1, the shuttle has flown 135 missions using five different orbiters; Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour. During its 30 year history, it has deployed satellites, repaired and serviced telescopes, and has allowed us to build the ISS- a true city in space and our castle in the sky. It has proved to us that the word impossible no longer exists,

Over the course of its 135 missions, two orbiters and their crews have been lost on the path of exploring space. However, we must go on. Now that that the shuttle fleet has been retired, I have to say I miss seeing it fly. In fact, watching Atlantis landing at KSC for the final time really is what got me so enthusiastic about spaceflight. Here I saw one of the greatest space programmes coming to an end, but I knew that a new one is right around the corner. Looking at those pictures of Atlantis on the runway made me sad I have to say(I can't imagine how the astronauts must feel), but not because people would no longer be launching from US soil. Astronauts will fly from the US in a couple of years, and I'm really excited about that. However the thing that really disappointed me was knowing that this beautiful spaceship and remarkable flying machine would never leave Earth again.

Never before has a craft been able to escape the surly bonds of our Earth, orbit the planet every ninety minutes or so, build and visit space stations, conduct science in a microgravity environment, and then make a pinpoint landing on a runway nearly three miles long. Is that cool or what? If you have not had the pleasure of watching a video of a space shuttle landing, I suggest you check this out!

The Space Shuttle in Orbit

This versatile flying machine will go down in history as the first re-usable spacecraft ever flown. I am sorry I could not provide you with the important facts and figures that are needed in order to answer this question a bit better than I did, but I think I gave it a good shot. Perhaps I am still in mourning of losing our finest ship, or should I wait a few years and try come up with a better answer? In the future we will fly faster, higher and further than the shuttle ever could, and I cannot wait for that day. But the Space Shuttle has allowed us to do all this- it has allowed us to dream!