OrbitalHub

NASA dixit:

“Orbital ATK’s vision for the next step toward human space missions to Mars employs our flight-proven Cygnus advanced maneuvering spacecraft as a human habitat in cislunar space, the region between the Moon and Earth. In the early 2020s we would launch the initial habitat on NASA’s SLS rocket. Featuring a modular design, the habitat would serve both as a destination for crewed missions and as an unmanned testbed to prove-out the technologies needed for long-duration human space missions. The habitat is also envisioned as a base for lunar missions by international partners or commercial ventures. With additional habitation and propulsion modules, the habitat could be outfitted for a Mars pathfinder mission.”

Credits Video: NASA

NASA dixit:

“The new Cold Atom Lab (CAL) facility could help answer some big questions in modern physics. CAL produces clouds of atoms that are ten billion times colder than deep space. The facility uses lasers and magnetic forces to freeze the atoms until they are almost motionless. In the microgravity environment on the space station, it’s possible to observe these ultra-cold atoms for much longer in than what’s possible on the ground. The research done using CAL could potentially lead to a number of improved technologies, including sensors, quantum computers and atomic clocks used in spacecraft navigation.”

Credits Video: NASA

NASA dixit:

“This time-lapse video packs 90 minutes from the SpaceX Dragon resupply ship’s rendezvous and capture maneuvers at the International Space Station on April 4, 2018 into just one minute. This is SpaceX’s 14th cargo mission to the space station under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract. Dragon is scheduled to depart the station in May, 2018 and return to Earth with more than 3,500 pounds of research, hardware and crew supplies.”

Video credit: NASA

NASA dixit:

“SpaceX CRS-14 begins with an on-time liftoff of the company’s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Launch occurred at 4:30 p.m. EDT. The Dragon is carrying equipment, science and supplies to the International Space Station on SpaceX’s 14th commercial cargo resupply mission.”

Video credit: NASA/SpaceX

NASA dixit:

“The Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft docked to Poisk module of the International Space Station on March 23, 2018, at 3:40 p.m. EDT while both spacecraft were flying over Serbia.

Following their two-day trip, NASA astronauts Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold and cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos docked to the International Space Station. Their arrival restores the station’s crew complement to six as they wait to join Scott Tingle of NASA, Expedition 55 Commander Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos and Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).”

Video credit: Roscosmos

NASA dixit:

“The first task for spacewalkers Mark Vande Hei and Norishige Kanai is to move a Latching End Effector (LEE), or hand, for the Canadian-built robotic arm, Canadarm2, from a payload attachment on the station’s Mobile Base System rail car to the Quest airlock. This LEE was replaced during an Expedition 53 spacewalk in October 2017 and will be returned to Earth to be refurbished and relaunched to the orbiting laboratory as a spare.

Once they have completed that activity, they will move an aging, but functional, LEE that was detached from the arm during a January 23 spacewalk and move it from its temporary storage outside the airlock to a long-term storage location on the Mobile Base System, which is used to move the arm and astronauts along the station’s truss structure.”

Video credit: NASA