European Association for Astronomy Education

Source: BestOfScience

Source: NASA Science Casts

Source: Space Apps Challenge

NASA, governments around the world and civil society organizations will co-host the International Space Apps Challenge on April 21-22 with events across seven continents and in space.

The apps competition will bring people together to exploit openly available data collected by space agencies around the world to create innovative solutions to longstanding global challenges. An initiative of the U.S. Open Government National Action Plan, the challenge will showcase the impact scientists and citizens can have by working together to solve challenging problems that affect every person on Earth. Events will take place in San Francisco (USA), Exeter (UK), Melbourne (Australia), São Paulo (Brasil), Nairobi (Kenya), Jakarta (Indonesia), Tokyo (Japan), McMurdo Station (Antarctica) and at the International Space Station.(learn more)

Source: NASA Science Casts

Lately, the International Space Station has been flying through geomagnetic storms, giving astronauts an close-up view of the aurora borealis just outside their windows.

Source: ESA You Tube

Paolo Nespoli spent 6 months on-board the International Space Station from Dec 2010 through to May 2011. In this video he shot using ESA's Erasmus Recording Binocular (ERB-2) stereoscopic camera during various phases of his MagISStra mission, he caught some moments that depict the work astronauts carry out on the ISS: from educational activities, to scientific experiments and physical training, also demonstrating the way astronauts move in weightlessness through the various modules. ERB-2 is the first camera to transmit 3D images live from space. (read more)

Source: NSBRI

A unique science project designed to sow the excitement of scientific discovery in students is sprouting this week aboard the International Space Station. The Plants in Space project will allow students and teachers to examine root growth in microgravity and compare the results with those from plants used in their own ground-based experiments.

The National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) is funding the project. It began Tuesday, Sept. 20, when space station astronauts planted Brassica rapa seeds during the first of four scheduled five-day trials. The project's primary scientific goal is to investigate the influence of light on root orientation. (learn more)

Source: NASA Press Release

The International Space Station with ATV-2 and Endeavour.
Image credits: ESA/NASA.

Three International Space Station crew members safely returned to Earth Friday, Sept. 16, wrapping up a six-month mission of research and exploration.

NASA's Ron Garan, Expedition 28 commander Andrey Borisenko and flight engineer Alexander Samokutyaev, both of the Russian Federal Space Agency, landed their Soyuz spacecraft in Kazakhstan at midnight EDT (10 a.m. in Kazakhstan). The trio, which arrived at the station on April 6, had been scheduled to land on Sept. 8, but that was postponed because of the Aug. 24 loss of the Progress 44 cargo ship.

Before leaving the station, Borisenko handed over command to NASA's Mike Fossum, who leads Expedition 29. He and Flight Engineers Satoshi Furukawa of Japan and Sergei Volkov of Russia are conducting research and maintenance aboard the station. The launch date for the remaining Expedition 29 crew members, NASA's Dan Burbank, and Russia's Anatoly Ivanishin and Anton Shkaplerov, is under review.

Fossum is blogging about his experiences aboard the space station at:

http://blogs.nasa.gov

Source: ESA

The International Space Station with ATV-2 and Endeavour.
Image credits: ESA/NASA.

For more than a decade, the International Space Station has been a busy orbiting research lab. But it could soon take on a new role as a testbed for ambitious missions deeper into space.

Future ventures could include Mars missions, lunar habitats or travelling to an asteroid – all needing new technologies and techniques that could be tested on the Station. Following yesterday's meeting of the orbital outpost's Multilateral Coordination Board, member agencies expect to begin identifying specific technology initiatives based on sample exploration missions.(read more)

Source: ESA and NASA

Space Shuttle Atlantis lifts off from Kennedy Space Center to the International Space Station.
Credits: NASA / KSC

Space Shuttle Atlantis was launched yesterday at 17:29 CEST (15:29 GMT) to the International Space Station on a mission that will end the multi-purpose spaceplane programme’s three-decade era of human spaceflight.(read more)

Source: ESA.

Reentry of a previous ATV. Image credit: ESA.

The Johannes Kepler ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle) has undocked from the International Space. The Johannes Kepler ATV was responsible for the International Space Station's biggest increase in altitude to date, significantly improving the 417-tonne Station's orbital mileage through the next decade of scientific research.

During three intensive reboost manoeuvres, ATV Johannes Kepler raised the ISS altitude from around 345 km to about 380 km, where it will use far less fuel to maintain its orbit and cutting the amount of fuel that must be sent up in the coming years by almost half.

The ATV will now  reenter Earth’s atmosphere on today ending its mission in fiery destruction.

Source: ESA/Flickr

Images of the International Space Station and the docked space shuttle Endeavour, flying at an altitude of approximately 220 miles, taken by Expedition 27 crew member Paolo Nespoli from the Soyuz TMA-20 following its undocking on May 24, 2011. The pictures are the first taken of a shuttle docked to the International Space Station from the perspective of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Onboard the Soyuz were Russian cosmonaut and Expedition 27 commander Dmitry Kondratyev; ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli; and NASA astronaut Cady Coleman. Coleman and Nespoli were both flight engineers. The three landed in Kazakhstan later that day, completing 159 days in space.(view images)

Source: ESA Portugal

The School EBI / JI of Montenegro, Faro established radio contact with the International Space Station on the afternoon of Monday, 23rd . The connection was organized under the program ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) that enables radio amateurs around the world come into contact with the station.

At 13h36, the appointed time for bonding, NASA astronaut Catherine Coleman, greeted the students, who waited, anxious and somewhat nervous, by contact, made ​​from the school auditorium. The twenty questions drawn up by many other students from the 7th to 9th grade, were put one by one, a call lasting 15 minutes.

NASA's Astronaut Cattherine Coleman.
Image credit: NASA.

"What is the biggest fright caught in space?","Do astronauts in orbit feel more homesick?"  or "What is the future of the station?", were some of the questions made by students from Algarve. Besides the students and teachers in the auditorium, the remaining school population could also assist communication, since this was broadcast on LiveStream.

"Students have a great fascination about Space matters  and are highly motivated for these activities, " says Professor of Physics and Chemistry, Patricia Raposo, a major local leader of the initiative.

Patricia Raposo had participated last June in a summer school for secondary school teachers, sponsored by the European Space Agency at its facilities in ESTEC, the Netherlands. This provided the idea to participate in ARISS. Almost a year after application, the call happened.

Amateurs prepare radio transmission.
Image credit: EBI-JI Montenegro.

This is the first time a school of Algarve participates in the program . This remarkable event was only possible thanks to the "extraordinary collaboration of the Network of Amateur Radio Transmitters and Portuguese Club of Loulé, ' says Patricia Raposo.

School Students EBI / JI of Montenegro ask questions of the astronaut Catherine Coleman.
Image credit: EBI-JI Montenegro.

Source: ESAPortal

AMS-02 instrument being installed to the ISS. Image credit: NASA.

The largest and most complex scientific instrument yet to be fitted to the International Space Station was installed today. Taken into space by the Space Shuttle, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer will sift ten thousand cosmic-ray hits every minute, looking for nature’s best-kept particle secrets. (read more)

Source: NASA News

NASA began testing a new multi-capability microscope this week on the International Space Station. It will help scientists study the effects of the space environment on physics and biology aboard the orbiting laboratory. The microscope is isolated from vibrations on the station, allowing it to obtain clear, high-resolution images. Using high-resolution magnification, scientists can examine microorganisms and individual cells of plants and animals, including humans.

The microscope will allow real-time study of the effects of the space environment without the need to return samples to Earth. Any living specimens returned to Earth must endure the effects of re-entry through the atmosphere. The ability to use the Light Microscopy Module (LMM) on station will enable scientists to study data unaffected by reentry.(read more)

Source: ESA

Leonardo being attached to the ISS. Image credit: NASA TV

After a flawless launch last Thursday and a textbook docking on Saturday, the Space Shuttle today delivered the European-built Leonardo Permanent Multipurpose Module to the International Space Station.(read more)

Source: NASA

Space shuttle Discovery docked to ISS.
Image credit: NASA TV.

Space shuttle Discovery docked to the International Space Station at 2:14 p.m. EST Saturday with its cargo of a new station module, equipment and supplies for the orbiting laboratory.

After a delay to let the relative motion between the two spacecraft, with a combined mass of 1.2 million pounds, dampen out, hatches separating crews were opened at 4:16 p.m. Shuttle astronauts, Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Eric Boe and Mission Specialists Alvin Drew, Steve Bowen, Michael Barratt and Nicole Stott moved into the station. (read more)