For space nuts in a hurry Question – what is the fire ahead of the tail? Flames from the tail are normal. The APU which powers the hydraulics vents excess energy after landing. The hydraulics system is what helps the crew to land since they have no engine thrusters at that point. The flames are [...]

Space Shuttle Endeavour orbits the International Space Station before returning to earth After undocking from the ISS, Endeavour performed a orbit of the ISS and flyby that produced stunning images of space. I stayed up late Friday night to capture this live. This is definitely for space nuts. The joint docked mission, STS 130, between [...]

The International Space Station got one day closer to the installation of 2,600 cubic feet of Italian style living space on Day 5 of STS 130 Astronauts Bob Behnken and Nick Patrick stepped outside the relative safety of the ISS to complete the physical installation of the new Italian built Tranquility Module. They spent the [...]

Endeavour and ISS Prep for Space Walk While the space walk is exciting, astronauts have to use the bathroom just like earth-bound folks. Water is hard to find up in space so they do the Green thing – astronauts recycle their own urine. The International Space Station has a water recovery system that recycles urine [...]