Later this week, the astronauts will undock and redock the Shenzhou 9 from the space module, to verify their their systems are still functional.
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Well, what if we told you that Mission Repair has received spare parts (image posted after the break) that appear to show a space for a camera module in exactly the same spot.
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Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: NASA and the European Space Agency have signed an agreement calling for the Europeans to provide the service module for the Orion space capsule, the U.S. space agency's crew vehicle for exploration beyond Earth orbit.
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For RRM, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center designed a module simulating a satellite, as well as custom power tools for Dextre.
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UrtheCast will supply video data and imagery of Earth collected by two HD cameras on the Russian module of the Space Station.
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Following today's historic berthing of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft to the U.S. Harmony module of the International Space Station, John P.
Europe's Columbus space lab arrived last month, joining Nasa's own research base at the station, a module called Destiny that has been in space since 2001.
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On the other side of the world, China, the third country to put a human into orbit on its own rockets, will be launching Tiangong 1, the first module of its own space station, as soon as September.
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The spending package scraps a technically floundering prototype of a space station lifeboat and a planned habitation module that would have increased Alpha's occupancy from three to seven.
That was the ultimate purpose of the Space Station, and the arrival of this module will enable us to do that.
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Earlier Thursday, new Alpha commander Frank Culbertson and Russian flight engineers Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Tyurin beamed down a message marking the one-thousandth day in space for the first component of the space station, the Russian-built Zarya module.
The two space station crews, along with the four Discovery astronauts, continued unloading supplies from the Italian-built Leonardo cargo module, a shiny giant cylinder that the shuttle crew attached to the space station on Monday.
The biggest technological challenge will be transporting the collapsed module through the sub-zero temperatures of space without tearing or cracking any part of it, Miller said.
If the module proves durable during two years at the space station, it could open the door to habitats on the moon and missions to Mars, NASA engineer Glen Miller said.
Garver said Wednesday that sending a small inflatable tube into space will be dramatically cheaper than launching a full-sized module.
The two space station crews, along with the four Discovery astronauts, have finished unloading supplies from the Italian-built Leonardo cargo module, a shiny giant cylinder that the shuttle crew attached to the space station on Monday.
"This is the time when we have to say goodbye to our friends, our colleagues, the excellent crew of shuttle Atlantis that did an excellent job performing three EVAs, installing the new Russian module, having good fun, enjoying living on the station and working in space, " the ISS Expedition 23 commander Oleg Kotov told Ken Ham, who leads the Atlantis crew.
This includes a completely different propulsion system, larger solar panels, and also the orbital module (which is designed to function on its own, as a sort of space station, for six to eight months).
The weight of the lunar module, on top of the command and service module, was the main reason why the Saturn V rockets that shot Apollo astronauts into space needed to be the tallest, heaviest and most powerful ever flown, a record they still hold.
In addition, it is probable that the orbiting module will be followed up in the next few years by something that is more recognisably a space station, though this station is unlikely to be manned full-time.
Apollo 11 command module pilot Michael Collins served as a top official at the Smithsonian Institution and its National Air and Space Museum.
The astronauts are aiming to complete China's first manned docking with the Tiangong-1 module already in orbit, an important first step towards China's aim of creating a working space station by 2020.
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