international

Cargo ship attached to station after smooth rendezvous

After recovering from thruster problems and flying a near-perfect rendezvous, a SpaceX cargo ship pulled up to the International Space Station early today and stood by while commander Kevin Ford, wielding the lab's robot arm, locked onto a grapple fixture to secure the spacecraft for berthing.

Operating the Canadian-built arm from a robotics work station in the multi-window Cupola compartment, Ford grappled the Dragon cargo ship at 5:31 a.m. EST, an hour earlier than expected, as the two spacecraft passed 253 miles above northern Ukraine.

Flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston congratulated the crew … Read more

SpaceX cargo ship cleared for Sunday station capture

With its propulsion system working flawlessly, a SpaceX cargo ship loaded with supplies and equipment bound for the International Space Station was cleared by NASA on Saturday to press ahead for a day-late capture by the lab complex early Sunday.

NASA space station managers and their SpaceX counterparts met Saturday to assess the Dragon capsule's performance following launch Friday and concluded all systems were "go" for a replanned rendezvous and capture by the station's robot arm Sunday at 3:31 a.m. PT.

"The station's Mission Management Team unanimously agreed that Dragon's propulsion … Read more

SpaceX overcomes thruster problems with cargo ship

A SpaceX cargo ship loaded with more than a ton of spare parts, science equipment, and crew supplies bound for the International Space Station thundered safely into orbit today. But vexing trouble with the capsule's rocket thrusters quickly turned the $133 million flight into a high-tech cliff hanger.

Six-and-a-half hours after launch, follwoing extensive troubleshooting and analysis, it appeared company engineers had resolved the problem, bringing all four sets of thrusters on line and setting the stage for a delayed rendezvous with the space station.

But it was touch and go in the early stages of a high-stakes drama … Read more

Inside the SpaceX Dragon capsule (panorama)

Get a feel for what it's like inside the Dragon capsule by panning around the panorama image below.

SpaceX CRS-2, loaded with more than 1,200 pounds of supplies, including science equipment and spare parts en route to the International Space Station, lifted off this morning aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 40 in Florida.

Just after the carrier rocket delivered the Dragon capsule into its target orbit, however, a problem arose. As the Solar Array was set to be deployed, which is necessary to provide enough energy to reach the ISS, a problem was … Read more

SpaceX scrambles to fix glitches with cargo ship

A SpaceX cargo ship loaded with more than a ton of spare parts, science equipment and crew supplies bound for the International Space Station thundered into orbit Friday, but trouble with the capsule's thrusters forced flight controllers to delay solar array deployment and replan an already complex rendezvous.

"It appears that although it achieved Earth orbit, Dragon is experiencing some kind of problem right now," John Insprucker, SpaceX's Falcon 9 product manager, said during a company webcast. "We'll have to learn about the nature of what happened. According to procedure, we expect a press … Read more

SpaceX supply ship prepped for Friday launch to station

SpaceX engineers readied a Falcon 9 rocket for a launch tomorrow on the company's second operational space station resupply mission, a commercial flight to deliver more than 2,300 pounds of science gear, station equipment, spare parts, and crew supplies to the international lab complex.

If all goes well, the unmanned Dragon cargo ship will return to Earth on March 25 loaded with some 3,000 pounds of no-longer-needed hardware, broken components, and experiment samples bound for laboratory analysis.

"Quite a bit of work has been done to get to this point, by the SpaceX team, by the … Read more

Supreme Court throws out NSA surveillance case

In a narrow, 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit challenging a secretive National Security Agency surveillance program.

A majority of the justices ruled (PDF) that the lawsuit, brought by human rights advocates and journalists who believed their electronic communications sent abroad would be intercepted, was "too speculative" to proceed based on fears of "hypothetical future harm."

The plaintiffs, which included Amnesty International and The Nation magazine, had argued that the 2008 amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act -- giving the government virtually unregulated authority to perform bulk surveillance on the international … Read more

Watch: How to make a peanut butter sandwich in space

Everything is more interesting in space. Even the lowly peanut butter sandwich becomes fascinating when the person making it is an astronaut and the "kitchen" is the International Space Station.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield takes you on a culinary tour of the cosmos in this simple and entertaining video.… Read more

McLaren P1 supercar to debut as plug-in hybrid

When McLaren showed off its P1 supercar as a concept at last year's Paris Motor Show, I predicted it would have a similar engine to McLaren's other car, the MP4-12C. Turns out I was half right.

McLaren announced that the P1, which receives its production debut at the International Motor Show in Geneva the first week of March, will host not only a twin-turbo 3.8-liter V-8, but an electric drive motor as well.

The P1 will be a plug-in hybrid, joining other production cars such as the Toyota Prius Plug-in and the Ford C-Max Energi. Crazy, right?… Read more