ISS
Tonight’s spacewalk is still on even though space junk is headed right for them
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by Matt Burns on September 3, 2009

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I don’t care what you say. Astronauts have balls of steel. They strap themselves onto a rocket, shit in a vacuum, and are risking death by space junk tonight. Read More

NASA to bring down the ISS in 2016
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by Matt Burns on July 13, 2009

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Question: What do you do with a 654,000 pound space station with no budget past 2015? Read More

Star Trek was screened on the ISS
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by Matt Burns on May 16, 2009

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Lucky cosmonaut and astronauts. Not only do they get the best corner office view ever, but they also have a legit version of Star Trek downloaded. The three men currently on board the International Space Station received a special copy of the film via NASA and settled into a dark node of the station to enjoy the show yesterday.

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by Matt Burns on April 8, 2009

Everyone. You can resume breathing normally as U.S. billionaire Charles Simonyi and the rest of the Russian-American space crew returned to earth from their space trip.We know you were worried about the space tourist after the original landing site was changed as it was deemed too swampy.

by Matt Burns on February 21, 2009

Apparently NASA needs help coming up with an appropriate moniker for an International Space Station module. No, they don’t want to name it after your dog. They want to follow the boring naming pattern already established by the two previous modules: Unity and Harmony. The unit will be an observation location and also the spot where the robotic arm will be controlled. Got any ideas?

The ISS turns ten – Big Picture provides tantalizing photo history
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by Matt Burns on November 24, 2008

In true Big Picture fashion, the wonderful photolog is celebrating the 10 years of the International Space Station. The whole story is chronicled through 32 spectacular photos that are well worth your time. Thankfully there isn’t any pics of the new urine to drinking water action shots. Gross.

Space: Astronaut loses grip on tools, finds out it’s even worse than dropping your keys in a lake
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by Doug Aamoth on November 19, 2008

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I can just imagine Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper’s space helmet fogging up as she yelled “Nooo!!!!” while watching her bag of tools slowly but eternally float away from her. It wasn’t all her fault, though, as a grease gun apparently burst inside the tool bag while she was making repairs on the International Space Station.

All of the greased-up tools must have been too much for her to corral and she lost her handle on the bag itself. The tools will be monitored for a while to make sure they don’t cause any damage to the ISS but once they’re far enough away that they won’t pose a threat, they’ll endlessly hurtle through space with a 14-inch putty knife, a bolt, a spring, and a washer, all accidentally lost on previous repair missions.

Watch out, there’s a computer virus (well, worm) aboard the International Space Station
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by Nicholas Deleon on August 27, 2008

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Remember that scene in Independence Day when Jeff Goldblum’s character suggests the U.S. upload a computer virus to the alien mothership in order to take it out? It’s one of Hollywood’s greatest moments, obviouslly. Well, it turns out that something along those lines has just happened, minus Will Smith, invading aliens, and exploding skyscrapers.

There’s a computer virus, Gammima.AG, aboard the International Space Station! NASA confirms as much, and has said that it—it’s technically a worm—has been roaming around the station since August, 2007. The worm, in truly dumb fashion, attempts to steal login info for games including Rohan and R2 Reign of Revolution. These games are popular in the Far East, claims the BBC.

It’s not known how the virus made it onboard the ISS in the first place, especially since all traffic between the ISS and Earth is sniffed.

And no, no vital ISS operations are endangered because of the worm’s presence; it’s just annoying.

Toilet aboard International Space Station is broken
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by Doug Aamoth on May 28, 2008

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Whuh oh. Seems the only toilet on the ISS is busted and they can’t get a plumber out there until next week. Astronauts aboard the space station have been able to impose upon the nearby Russian Soyuz spacecraft, using its limited-capacity toilet in a pinch, and have now apparently rigged some sort of sack-like contraption to the toilet on the ISS. Sounds delightful.

The good news is that the problems are only occurring when going number one. The astronauts can go number two just fine, Lord o’ Mercy.

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Norwegian teen wins contest to send MP3s into space
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by Doug Aamoth on March 7, 2008

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In order to promote its Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), the European Space Agency held a contest last summer. The rules were simple; send in a playlist of ten songs to load onto an MP3 player that the un-manned ATV would fly up to astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

Therese Miljeteig, a 14-year-old from Norway, won the competition with this playlist…

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