Space Forum / Space Station / October 2005

NASA JSC Solicitation: Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) Space
Flight Demonstrations
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=18511
Period 1

ESA signs contract with Dutch Space to prepare the European Robotic Arm for
its launch on Proton
27 October 2005
ESA PR 48-2005. On 27 October ESA's Director of Human Spaceflight,

Russians help Iran with missile threat to Europe
By Con Coughlin
(Filed: 16/10/2005)
Former members of the Russian military have been secretly helping Iran to

Two weeks ago -- a potentially alarming safety issue.
So far, not a single useful word of reply from anyone at NASA.
Questions remain -- more questions arise:
First question -- how did Phillips describe it during his

Station Keeps Eye on Wilma
Aboard the space station, Commander Bill McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery
Tokarev are quickly acclimating themselves to their new home in space,
conducting experiments and performing routine maintenance. Scheduled

Reboost Test Planned for Station
A test firing of four Progress spacecraft thrusters is scheduled for today
at 4:12 p.m. EDT. The 114-second firing will raise the station's altitude
about 400 meters. Russian flight controllers are using this firing as a test

Some time ago there was a discussion on whether cargo to the ISS could
be sent by expendable launchers. The argument against that was (if I
remember well) that they would need to include prox ops support. This
in turn would involve a lot of development and also reduce the payload

Has there been any toughts at NASA to convert 1 or 2 MPLMs into a
permament structure to be left at the ISS during the last few Shuttle
flights ?
Seems to me that they would have to start thinking about it now in order

October 21, 2005
Katherine Trinidad
Headquarters, Washington
(Phone: 202/358-4769)

I found this article, and especially the link to the NASA PDF
(CR_SSCN_009593A.pdf), very interesting.
NASA Set To Approve New Unpressurized Logistics Carrier for Space Shuttle
Fleet

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=2533144&PageNum=0
ISS orbit correction canceled after engine malfunction
19.10.2005, 02.07
MOSCOW, October 19 (Itar-Tass) --A cargo ship docked at the International

NASA today unveiled an ambitious blueprint for returning American
astronauts to the moon by 2018 using new rockets based on shuttle
propulsion technology and a new reusable crew vehicle Administrator
Mike Griffin described as "Apollo on steroids."

We're looknig for a first launch opportunity
for Nie Haisheng and Fei Junlong at about
01:30 GMT Wednesday October 12 --
Tuesday evening in the eastern USA.

A while ago, I was talking with a friend who is no space expert more of
layman when it comes to all things space related.
We where discussing the China's Shenzhou spacecraft  and how they could
build a very small station from a series of orbital modules.

JimO: What SORT of "fairly serious" pressurization problems,
and why are we hearing about it only now?
Russian Soyuz Landing Capsule Has Pressurization Problem During Descent
Moscow Agentstvo Voyennykh Novostey WWW-Text in English 1116 GMT 13 Oct 05