WATCH: Zuckerberg streams live chat with men in space

SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg took the leading social network on a new journey Wednesday, with a live-streamed chat with astronauts on the International Space Station.

In a Facebook Live video broadcast shown at the NASA page of the social network, Zuckerberg praised the work going on at the station and launched a few questions, some submitted to him online.

Zuckerberg effused that while Facebook’s mission has long been to connect everyone in the world, “connecting folks who are out in space is about as extreme and cool as it gets.”

The conversation between earthbound Zuckerberg and three members of the ISS crew lasted approximately 20 minutes and ranged from types of experiments being done in space to what food tastes like to them and what they do for fun.

Experiments included effects of zero gravity on combustion, fluids, and even the human body.

Learning how to keep people and the station in top shape in space is an important step toward being able to further explore the cosmos, according to astronauts.

Insights shared included that being in space seemed to mess with the sense of taste, prompting astronauts at the station to spice up food, of which there is a variety.

ISS commander Timothy Kopra noted that treats sold in markets as astronaut ice cream are not that at all, but mentioned a Space X capsule some time back did drop off some real ice cream that was nearly gone.

When asked about Facebook in space, Kopra said that he has enjoyed sharing pictures and musings at the social network.

For fun, astronauts said, they stare out the window a lot and marvel at the beauty of Earth, and play with zero gravity. The trio somersaulted in unison to make the point.

“It would not have been a first Live to outer space without some astronauts flipping around in zero gravity,” Zuckerberg quipped.

“It is amazing this thing worked.”

source: technology.inquirer.net

NASA must take more care about rocket parts after accident, probers say

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida - Independent NASA accident investigators said the U.S. space agency should “perform a greater level of due diligence for major system components” in rockets that deliver cargo to the International Space Station following a 2014 explosion.

The recommendation came in the investigators' report on the explosion of Orbital ATK's Antares rocket that destroyed a load of cargo for the space station. It may spur calls for more oversight of NASA's use of commercial contracts to deliver cargo - and soon crew members - to the space station.

NASA shared development costs for those programs with its commercial partners, while earlier rockets were fully government-funded.

Separate accident investigations are underway to determine the cause of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket failure on June 28, 2015, which claimed another load of station cargo.

NASA hired both Orbital and privately held Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, to fly cargo to the station after the space shuttles were retired. The U.S. space agency is working on a similar program with SpaceX and Boeing to fly crew.

Orbital, in a report obtained by Reuters from the Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday, said the Oct. 28, 2014 Antares explosion was most likely caused by an engine manufacturing defect, while NASA said it could also have been caused by a design issue or debris in the engine.

Both investigations said a fire and explosion in the rocket engine’s liquid oxygen turbopump caused the booster to fail about 14 seconds after liftoff from Wallops Island, Virginia.

Orbital said the cause of the failure was most likely a manufacturing defect in a turbopump in one of the rocket’s two AJ-26 engines, a Soviet-era motor refurbished and resold by Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc.

Aerojet in September paid Orbital $50 million to settle the dispute.

Orbital plans to replace the AJ-26 engines with a new Russian-made engine manufactured by Russia's NPO Energomash. First flight of the refurbished Antares is expected in 2016.

The use of Russian engines is controversial – they have been banned from use in rockets carrying military payloads – but analyst Marco Caceres, with Teal Group, says NASA has no choice if they want competition. “We know the Russians build excellent engines, but we don’t know how the quality control is,” he said. “To a certain extent, it’s a moot point because NASA doesn’t have a lot of choices.” The NASA investigators said a manufacturing defect was possible in the Antares case, noting that a defect also was found in a separate AJ-26 engine that exploded during testing in May 2014. But they said it was not clear the defect alone could have caused the explosion.

The NASA probe found two other potential causes of the failure: an engine design that made the turbopump “vulnerable to oxygen fires and failures,” and silica and titanium debris found in the engine.

The probe said any one of the three potential causes, or a combination of them, could have triggered the explosion. Investigators also said Orbital and Aerojet did not have full insight into the design and operational record of the engines, which were manufactured 40 years ago for a Soviet moon program.  — Reuters

SpaceX cargo ship reaches International Space Station

 

SpaceX's unmanned Dragon cargo ship arrived Monday at the International Space Station, carrying 2.6 tons of food and supplies for the astronauts at the orbiting research laboratory.

 

"We have captured Dragon," NASA commentator Rob Navias said as the space station's robotic arm, operated by commander Barry "Butch" Wilmore, grappled the spacecraft at 5:54 am (1054 GMT), according to NASA's television broadcast.

 

Wilmore was assisted by European Space Agency flight engineer Samantha Cristoforetti as they used the station's 17.6-meter (57.7-foot) robotic arm to reach out and capture the Dragon spacecraft.

 

The rendezvous was "flawless," Navias said.

 

Dragon was bolted onto the station's Earth-facing Harmony node at 8:54 (1354 GMT).

 

The cargo ship launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Saturday. It marked the fifth of at least 12 planned official missions for SpaceX which has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to supply the space station.

 

The equipment on board includes a NASA-developed system known as the Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS) for measuring tiny particles called aerosols in the atmosphere.

 

Ready-made meals, science experiments, an IMAX camera and tools to help astronauts during spacewalks are also in the payload.

 

Astronauts may begin unloading the spacecraft as early as Monday afternoon.

 

Dragon will spend about a month there before returning to Earth with over 3,600 pounds (1,600 kilograms) of cargo that is no longer needed by the crew in space, as well as computer equipment and science experiments that need further analysis on Earth.

 

The spaceship is the only cargo vessel in the world that can return to Earth intact. Other supply ships burn up on re-entry to Earth's atmosphere.

 

It will head back to Earth for an ocean splashdown on February 10, NASA said. — Agence France-Presse

 

source: gmanetwork.com