Station Gains Unparalleled Views

Image above: An exhaust cloud builds at Launch Pad 39A as space shuttle Endeavour lifts off into the night sky. Image credit: NASA/Sandra, Joseph and Kevin O'Connell
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Image above: Astronaut Nicholas Patrick near the cupola module during the mission's final spacewalk. Image credit: NASA
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Image above: Combined shuttle and station crews: (front row) Jeffrey Williams, Nicholas Patrick, George Zamka, Robert Behnken, (middle row) Soichi Noguchi, Kathryn Hire, T.J. Creamer, (back row) Maxim Suraev, Oleg Kotov, Stephen Robinson and Terry Virts. Image credit: NASA
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Image above: Backdropped against vistas of Earth below, Mission Specialist Robert Behnken works inside the newly-installed cupola. Image credit: NASA
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Image above: With the newly-installed Tranquility node and cupola in the upper left, the space shuttle can be seen backing away after undocking with the station. Image credit: NASA
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Image above: Endeavour touches down in darkness at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida after 14 days in space. Image credit: NASA/Sandra Joseph and Kevin O'Connell
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The view from space has always had the "wow" factor. Now thanks to the bay window-like cupola attached to the new Tranquility node, the International Space Station has a panoramic view that takes the wow factor to the max.

The STS-130 astronauts delivered the two new space station pieces, the final components of the U.S. segment of the station, aboard space shuttle Endeavour during the first mission of the year.

After a one-day weather delay, the shuttle raced into space through Florida's pre-dawn darkness Feb. 8, 2010. The assembled crew consisted of Commander George Zamka, Pilot Terry Virts, and Mission Specialists Robert Behnken, Nicholas Patrick, Kathryn Hire and Stephen Robinson. All but Virts were veterans of previous spaceflights.

After the now-standard robotic inspection of the shuttle's exterior, the crew began to prepare for rendezvous and docking with the station as the mission's two spacewalkers, Patrick and Behnken, checked out their spacesuits. The pair conducted all three of the mission's spacewalks, overcoming several minor spacesuit glitches along the way.

At the same time, the five-member station crew also prepared for the upcoming nine days of docked operations. On board the orbiting laboratory were Expedition 22 Commander Jeff Williams, and Flight Engineers Max Suraev, Oleg Kotov, Soichi Noguchi and T.J. Creamer.

Shuttle Commander Zamka guided Endeavour to a point 600 feet directly below the station and put the shuttle into the backflip maneuver that allows the station crew to photograph the heat shield tiles on the underside to check for damage. With the inspection done, Zamka completed the docking as the two spacecraft were flying 215 miles above Earth.

After the hatches between the joined spacecraft were opened, the combined crew of 11 got down to business, preparing for the work both inside and outside the station.

During the first spacewalk, Patrick and Behnken prepared the Tranquility node for its move out of Endeavour's payload bay. From inside, Virts and Hire positioned Tranquility on the port side of the station's 10-year-old Unity node. It was secured by 16 remotely controlled bolts and the spacewalkers began the processing of connecting the new module to the station's systems. Patrick and Behnken used their second outing to do exterior work to further integrate Tranquility to the station and prepare for the relocation of the cupola.

The cupola was robotically relocated and secured to the Earth-facing port on Tranquility by Hire and Virts. With Behnken and Patrick inside this time operating the station's robotic arm, and Williams and Noguchi working the latches and bolts, a docking adapter was relocated from the Harmony module to the end of Tranquility, taking the spot where the cupola road to space. The newly located adapter will proved another docking point for visiting spacecraft.

During their final trip outside the station, spacewalkers Patrick and Behnken prepared cupola's window covers to be opened for the first time, and finished exterior work on Tranquility and the relocated docking port.

As he opened the window covers one by one, Virts became the first crew member to take in the breathtaking view that the cupola now provides, with Patrick and Behnken on the outside looking in. The observation dome’s seven windows facing Earth will greatly improve views for robotic and docking activities at the station, as well as provide scientific observations of Earth and celestial bodies. To that end, the robotic arm work station will be relocated from the Destiny lab to the cupola.

As part of cupola's dedication ceremony, a moon rock from the Apollo 11 mission was placed inside. The same rock was carried to the summit of Mount Everest by astronaut Scott Parazynski.

Station Commander Jeff Williams replaced parts on the station's water recovery system, a system that was then relocated to Tranquility along with other support systems during an extra day that was added to Endeavour’s flight. Throughout the mission, supplies and new equipment delivered by Endeavour were stowed, and work to outfit Tranquility and cupola was the focus of the combined crews. The new segments added 2,600 cubic feet to the station's interior.

The crew members took time to receive a congratulatory phone call from President Barack Obama near the end of Endeavour’s time docked to the station. The president was accompanied at the White House by a dozen middle school students from across the country who were in the nation's capital for an engineering competition.

With the mission's work completed, the hatches between the two spacecraft were closed, and Endeavour backed away from the expanded station that is now 98 percent complete by volume, 90 percent by mass. After a fly around of the station and final inspection of the shuttle, the STS-130 astronauts prepared for their return to Earth.

Despite not-so-favorable weather predictions, Endeavour landed Feb. 21, 2010, touching down on the Shuttle Landing Facility's Runway 15 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Completing a successful mission, the touchdown brought the shuttle and crew safely back to where their two-week, 5.7-million mile journey began.

› Learn more about the Tranquility node and cupola
› View the STS-130 image gallery

Cheryl L. Mansfield
NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center

Orbital Sciences — Gloms Onto General Dynamics Spacecraft Sub

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Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE: ORB) has reached a definitive agreement to acquire the spacecraft development and manufacturing business of General Dynamics Corporation's (NYSE: GD) subsidiary, GD Advanced Information Systems. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in approximately four weeks — Houlihan Lokey advised Orbital in conjunction with this transaction.

The acquisition will enhance Orbital's already-established position in the growing market for national security space systems, including spacecraft used in intelligence and surveillance, missile tracking, space situational awareness and other operational defense missions. The combination will also substantially strengthen the company's capabilities to design and manufacture Earth science, weather and climate monitoring, and space-based astronomy satellite systems. By adding advanced medium-class spacecraft platforms to Orbital's existing small-satellite product line, it is expected to significantly expand the company's opportunities to serve customers in the U.S. Department of Defense, intelligence community and civil government agencies such as NASA and NOAA.

OmniGlobe Is Not Sitting Still For Sale Of Sat-Comm

In a plan to consolidate its presence in European and Middle East markets OmniGlobe Networks EMEA announces that effective immediately, it has signed a Letter of Intent ("LOI") to acquire the entire issued share capital and assets of privately-held Sat-Comm Ltd for a combination of cash and ordinary shares in OmniGlobe Networks Inc.

Based in Mildenhall, Suffolk (UK), Sat-Comm provides a comprehensive range of mobile, portable and fixed satellite contribution systems. It has secured a position in the satellite broadcast industry with products deployed in over 60 countries across five continents.

Since its inception in 2000, the company now has a fully-equipped production and manufacturing facility in the UK and has a worldwide network of distributors to support its continued expansion in Europe and the Middle East. Its experienced team, which comprises technical sales, designers and project managers as well as a production staff, has an understanding of the broadcast market and a track record in designing and delivering high specification mobile broadcast solutions for many high profile customers including Canal +, the BBC and Arqiva.

The agreement between the two companies has come as a result of a two-year fruitful and productive business relationship and reinforces OmniGlobe’s determination to build on its growing success in the broadcast and news gathering market.

Following the acquisition, OmniGlobe intends on increasing its design and production capabilities and accelerating its product roadmap by bringing forward innovative new products and developments while streamlining the delivery of its systems and ensuring competitive pricing.

The proposed transaction, which is supported by both boards, is subject to the completion of a normal due diligence process and of a final purchase agreement between the two parties. It is expected to close by mid year.

Sat-Comm founder and controlling shareholder, Tim Williams, will become a minority shareholder in OmniGlobe Networks Inc. and retain his title and role of Managing Director of Sat-Comm Limited. Tim Williams will join the board of OmniGlobe EMEA. Sat-Comm will form part of OmniGlobe’s Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) business managed by David Harper.

Eutelsat — Capacity For ZON'ing In Angola

Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL) has signed a major contract with UPSTAR Comunicações for satellite capacity for the broadcasting of ZAP pay-TV platform, expected to launch shortly in Angola. UPSTAR Comunicações is a joint venture between ZON Multimedia, one of the leading Portuguese media groups, and the Angolan group SOCIP.

Eutelsat's W7 satellite

The five-year contract covers the lease of five Ku-band transponders on the Southern Africa beam of Eutelsat’s W7 satellite, which began operational service in January this year. ZAP will assemble a strong component of channels in Portuguese, and will drive innovation into content broadcast in high definition. It will include a “Max package” of 50 channels and a “Premium package” of 80 channels with a mix of channels featuring TV series, films, music, children’s programmes, news, sports and documentaries.

Content for ZAP will be uplinked to Eutelsat’s W7 satellite from UPSTAR’s teleports in Luanda and in Vendas Novas, Portugal. The high power of W7’s African beam will enable reception across Angola with small antennas. User equipment will include a 60-cm dish connected to decoders equipped with Nagravision encryption and a HD-DVR with 250 hours of storage capacity. To optimise bandwidth usage, channels will be broadcast in DVB-S2 with MPEG4 compression.

Telesat — Good News For Canadian SatOps

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Telesat expresses support for the Canadian government’s Throne Speech and Budget commitment to remove foreign ownership restrictions on Canadian satellite operators. By providing Canadian operators with access to new sources of capital as well as the ability to diversify their shareholder base, the policy will foster investment and innovation in this important industry. While Canada’s satellite communications market has been fully open to foreign operators for more than ten years, Canadian satellite companies remain subject to ownership restrictions. This places them at a substantial disadvantage to larger foreign competitors in today’s highly competitive global market.

Thales Alenia Space — A Stellar SatRescue

Thales Alenia Space was taking part in the World Space Risk Forum from March 1 to 3 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and was participating in the panel discussing technical developments in the space industry, showcasing as an example the rescue of the Palapa-D communications satellite. It was for this achievement that Thales Alenia Space received the “space rescue award” from the insurers.

The Palapa-D satellite, launched on August 31, 2009, had been placed into a lower than normal transfer orbit. As soon as contact was established with the satellite several hours later, it was determined to be in nominal condition. Along with the customer Indosat, and in partnership with Telespazio, the decision was quickly reached to deploy a rescue strategy. The satellite’s apogee was first raised using three perigee maneuvers, following which the normal orbital positioning sequence could be carried out. The remaining steps proceeded smoothly and the satellite passed its final in-orbit acceptance tests on October 28, 2009.

Several factors contributed to the success of this rescue operation, starting with the quick responsiveness and outstanding professionalism of Thales Alenia Space’s staff. Coupled with the high level of confidence expressed by the customer Indosat, this enabled making the quick decisions that were indispensable to the satellite’s survival. Another key factor was the organisational capability needed to quickly redefine a new mission and immediately deploy it, even though the situation wasn’t covered by standard strategies.

The exclusive design of the Spacebus 4000 platform played an essential role in rescuing the satellite, particularly its incorporation of star sensors, enabling the perigee maneuvers to be carried out securely and fuel-efficiently. More generally, the design of the avionics suite gives ground controllers an excellent vision of what was going on inside the satellite, thanks to the onboard software developed and tested in-house by Thales Alenia Space, and a powerful Failure Detection, Isolation and Recovery (FDIR) system. By quickly resolving these problems, Thales Alenia Space was able to deliver a satellite in operational condition, with a service life still exceeding 10.5 years. This achievement translated into concrete benefits for both the customer Indosat and the space insurance industry.

Here's Looking @ Earth — A Downright Dusty Dominion (NASA)

Dust continued blowing over the Middle East on March 4, 2010. The previous day, multiple dust plumes arose in Jordan and Syria, blowing toward the east-northeast. By the time the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this true-color image on March 4, a thick dust plume had formed over Kuwait and the northwestern tip of the Persian Gulf — some of this dust had likely remained aloft since the day before.

NASA image courtesy MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Michon Scott.

An opaque dust plume some 100 kilometers (60 miles) in width extends from Saudi Arabia across eastern Kuwait and into Iran, where the dust appears to mingle with clouds. Thick enough to completely obscure the satellite’s view of the planet’s surface, the dust plume hides part of the Persian Gulf. Both east and west of the dust plume, however, skies are largely clear. The cloudbank over Iran might be associated with the same weather pattern that stirred the dust. The region experienced a days-long pattern of unsettled weather in late February and early March 2010, according to news reports. Compared to summer months, Iraq and Kuwait experience relatively few dust storms in March, according to the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. Winds can stir dust, however, when storm fronts arise in the region.