In what’s believed to be the most significant incident of its kind, a derelict Russian Kosmos 2251 military satellite has collided with a U.S. communications satellite that’s part of the Iridium satellite communication network. The collision occurred approximately 500 miles over Siberia, and has produced a cloud of debris containing at least 600 objects that are currently being tracked by NASA and other agencies. Although the debris doesn’t pose any immediate threat to the International Space Station (ISS) or the space shuttle launch planned for later this month, the debris cloud makes an already-complicated task of finding launch windows that much more difficult…and the debris could pose a risk to the Hubble Space Telescope.
Tag Archive: Space Station
Computer Virus In Space
A computer virus has made it into space. The space news site SpaceRef reports that Nasa has confirmed that laptops taken onto the International Space Station (ISS) last month were infected with the Gammima.AG virus but stress that nothing on board is in danger.
They’re now trying to figure just how the laptops – which were used for nutritional programs and to let astronauts send e-mail to earth and which reportedly carried no antivirus software – came to be infected. Nasa suspects the virus might have been on a USB drive an astronaut took into space.
NASA and Google to Collaborate
Internet giant Google and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Ames Research Center have entered into what they’re callng a “Space Act Agreement,” which amounts to plans to collaborate on a series of projects which will not only put NASA information on computer user’s desktops in new ways, but also help the agency deal with technical challenges in large scale data management, distributed computing, and computer interfaces. NASA’s Ames Research Center is located close to the Google campus in California’s Silicon Valley; the organizations have collaborated before, partnering to develop up to 1 million square feet of the center’s Moffet Field research park.
Yahoo Offers Live Shuttle Video Stream
Yahoo announced today it will provide free Windows Media format video streams of the 12-day space shuttle Discovery mission via Yahoo Web sites and the NASA home page. The video will be NASA’s official video coverage of the flight, and include lift-off, 24/7 coverage of the mission itself, and the return landing. The video will be promoted throughout Yahoo’s network of services.
Astronauts Get iPAQ’s At Space Station
From HP’s press release:
The iPAQ h5550 and accompanying accessories were launched on April 19, exactly four years after the introduction of the first iPAQ Pocket PC.
The iPAQs will be used as mobile productivity tools to record daily crew procedures, write personal memos and check e-mail and calendars. The space crew will also be able to listen to music, view photos from home and read e-books, allowing them to have some of the comforts of home on their journey. The devices will remain aboard the space station and be reconfigured for each new crew. For the next flight, two additional iPAQs are expected to launch to the station for a total of four iPAQs.


