05/20/08: NASA Honors Apollo 13 Astronaut Jack Swigert.

NASA will honor the late astronaut John ‘Jack’ L.
Swigert, Jr., with the presentation of an Ambassador of Exploration
Award for his involvement in the U.S. space program, during a
ceremony with Apollo 13 spacecraft commander James Lovell on Friday,
May 23. – NASA

05/20/08: International Space Station On-Orbit Status Report.

CDR Volkov performed [...]

05/15/08: Progress M-64/P29 Launches from Baikonur.

According to the flight program and Russian Party commitments under the International Space Station Project, Progress M-64 transport cargo vehicle was launched from Baikonur launch site at 00:22:56 Moscow time. – S P Korolev RSC Energia

05/14/08: International Space Station On-Orbit Status Report.

In the US Airlock (A/L), Garrett Reisman performed troubleshooting [...]

05/06/08: STS-124 Crew Arrives for Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test.

The STS-124 crew members arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida this afternoon for the terminal countdown demonstration test. Flying in T-38 training jets, the astronauts touched down on the Shuttle Landing Facility on a warm, clear Central Florida afternoon. During this three-day prelaunch training event, [...]

05/04/08: International Space Station On-Orbit Status Report.

CDR Volkov conducted his first recharging of the Motorola Iridium-9505A satellite phone brought up on Soyuz 16S, a monthly routine job. The satphone accompanies returning ISS crews on Soyuz reentry and landing for contingency communications with SAR (Search-and-Rescue) personnel after touchdown (e.g., after an ‘undershoot’ ballistic reentry, as [...]

04/27/08: Russian Easter in Space for Expedition 17.

At ~09:23 UT, Expedition 17 Commander Sergei Volkov and Flight Engineer 1 Oleg Kononenko conducted a teleconference via VHF with Patriarch Alexis II of the Russian Orthodox Church, who extended best wishes on the occasion of today’s Easter celebration. – NASA

04/26/08: STS-124: Discovery Rolls Over to Vehicle Assembly [...]

04/26/08: International Space Station On-Orbit Status Report.

The crew performed the regular weekly three-hour task of thorough station cleaning. Kononenko performed a session of the Russian ‘Uragan’ (hurricane) Earth-imaging program. Oleg conducted a KPT-3 session to make observations and take aerial KPT-3 photography of water contamination in the Kerch Strait for Russia’s Environmental Safety Agency (ECON). [...]

04/23/08: International Space Station On-Orbit Status Report.

At ~5:20am EDT, Oleg and Sergei powered up the SM’s amateur radio equipment (Kenwood VHF transceiver with manual frequency selection, headset, and power supply) and at 5:25am conducted a ham radio exchange with students at the P.I. Klimuk School No. 4 in Shchelkovo, Russia, with Cosmonaut Yurchikhin in attendance. [...]

04/22/08: International Space Station On-Orbit Status Report.

The three crewmembers had their standard PMC (Private Medical Conference) today. Sergei and Oleg had the regular 60 minutes for themselves for general orientation (station familiarization and acclimatization), as is standard daily rule for fresh crewmembers for the first two weeks after starting station residency. – NASA

04/21/08: International Space [...]

04/15/08: Giant Flare from Milky Way Black Hole 300 Years Ago.

A team of Japanese astronomers using ESA’s XMM-Newton, along with NASA and Japanese X-ray satellites, has discovered that our Galaxy’s central black hole let loose a powerful flare three centuries ago. The finding helps resolve a long-standing mystery: why is the Milky Way’s black hole [...]

03/24/08: STS-123: Space Shuttle Undocks from ISS.

The space shuttle Endeavour undocked from the International Space Station at 00:25 UT, completing 11 days, 20 hours and 36 minutes of docked operations. After saying their goodbyes, the two crews closed hatches between the two vehicles at 21:49 UT. Undocking was delayed about 30 minutes, due to a [...]