NASA / Astronaut Ron Garan The International Space Station (ISS) is a space station, or a habitable artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ninth space station to be inhabited by crews, it follows the Soviet and later Russian Salyut, Almaz, and Mir stations, and Skylab from the U.S. The ISS is a modular structure whose first component was launched in 1998. Now the largest artificial body in orbit, it can often be seen at the appropriate time with the naked eye from Earth. The ISS consists of pressurised modules, external trusses, solar arrays and other components. ISS components have been launched by American Space Shuttles as well as Russian Proton and Soyuz rockets. Budget constraints led to the merger of three space station projects with the Japanese Kibō module and Canadian robotics. In 1993 the partially built components for a Soviet/Russian space station Mir-2, the proposed American Freedom, and the proposed European Columbus merged into a single multinational programme. The ISS is arguably the most expensive single item ever constructed. The ISS serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which crew members conduct experiments in biology,human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology and other fields. The station is suited for the testing of spacecraft systems and equipment required for missions to the Moon and Mars.
Daily Archives: November 28, 2013
NGC 1999: South of Orion

Image Data: Subaru Telescope (NAOJ), Hubble Space Telescope,
Additional Color Data and Processing: Robert Gendler
NASA APOD
The Sun Online and solar activity. November 27, 2013
Solar activity has been low, no C-class flares in past 24 hours. The activity levels are expected to increase while a recurring active region rotates over the eastern limb. There was a partial halo CME seen at 02:15 UT by LASCO-C2 after a data gap, apparently originating in a filament eruption over the western limb. Part of the material is backsided and the bulk of the CME is directed towards the south, so most likely the Earth
will not be affected.Solar wind speed is currently at 300 km/s with interplanetary magnetic field intensity at 6 nT. Geomagnetic conditions are quiet and expected to remain so.
INFO FROM SIDC
Equipment: Coronado 90 + SBIG 8300s + LX75
Processing: Photoshop
Date: 27/11/13
Time GMT: 19:00
Exposure 0.12 sec.
With SPONLI Space is getting closer!