Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Fwd: The Write Stuff---lost comm with ISS



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Begin forwarded message:

From: The Write Stuff - Orlando Sentinel <online@orlandosentinel.com>
Date: February 20, 2013 7:13:49 AM GMT-06:00
To: bobbygmartin1938@gmail.com
Subject: The Write Stuff

The Write Stuff

NASA fully restores communication with space station; contact was lost for much of the morning

Posted: 19 Feb 2013 10:57 AM PST

After losing contact with the International Space Station for most of the morning NASA reports that it has now fully restored communications with the $100 billion floating laboratory and its six-member crew.

NASA now is reporting that it restored communication at 12:34 p.m. eastern time today. The space agency lost contact with the station at about 9:45 a.m., except for a brief connection around 11 a.m. when the station flew over Russia and NASA was able to contact it through Russian stations.

During that 11 a.m. communication, ISS Commander Kevin Ford was able to assure NASA that the station was "flying straight" and everyone was OK, though there were numerous caution warnings going off. NASA instructed him how to reset systems on board.

Here is NASA's latest statement, released a few minutes ago: "Communications with the International Space Station were restored today at 12:34 p.m. EST. Earlier, at approximately 9:45 a.m. EST, the International Space Station had experienced a loss of communication with the ground. Flight controllers were in the process of updating the station's command and control software and were transitioning from the primary computer to the backup computer to complete the software load when the loss of communication occurred.

"Mission Control Houston was able to communicate with the crew as the space station flew over Russian ground stations before 11:00 a.m. EST and instructed the crew to connect another computer to begin the process of restoring communications. Expedition 34 Commander Kevin Ford reported that the station's status was fine and that the crew was doing well. All systems are back up and running as expected."

In an audio clip NASA released, ISS Commander Kevin Ford, a U.S. astronaut and retired U.S. Air Force colonel, told NASA after communicationswere restored that "OK, FYI, the station's still flying straight. Everyone's in good shape. Nothing unexpected other than lots of caution/warnings and we have no (communication) system in sight. We'll get back to you as soon as we can…. all the systems and power supplies look like they're doing just fine."

The crew includes Ford and and Russian flight engineers Oleg Novitiskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin, Canadian flight engineer Tom Marshburn, American medical doctor Chris Hadfield and Russian flight engineer Roman Romanenko.

Ford, Novitiskiy and Tarelkin  are set to return to Earth next month. The other three arrived in December.

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

NASA loses contact with International Space Station — all's well; Ford: "flying straight, everyone's in good shape"

Posted: 19 Feb 2013 09:08 AM PST

updated 1:30 p.m. eastern

NASA lost contact for more than an hour this morning with the six astronauts aboard the International Space Station but once partial communications were restored concluded that all is well onboard.

The communications went down at 9:44 a.m. eastern time. At about 11 a.m., as the station passed over Russia, NASA was able to temporarily reconnect through Russian ground stations.

However, the communications problem continues and NASA has instructed the astronauts how to reset systems on board to reconnect.

In an audio clip NASA released, ISS Commander Kevin Ford, a U.S. astronaut and retired U.S. Air Force colonel, told NASA after communications were restored that "OK, FYI, the station's still flying straight. Everyone's in good shape. Nothing unexpected other than lots of caution/warnings and we have no (communication) system in sight. We'll get back to you as soon as we can…. all the systems and power supplies look like they're doing just fine."

The crew includes Ford and and Russian Flight Engineers Oleg Novitiskiy Evgeny Tarelkin, Canadian Flight Engineer Tom Marshburn, American medical doctor Chris Hadfield and Russian Flight Engineer Roman Romanenko.

Ford, Novitiskiy and Tarelkin  are set to return to Earth next month. The other three arrived in December.

Here is the official report that NASA reported this morning:

Station Experiences Loss of Communications With Ground
02.19.13 

This morning, at approximately 9:45 a.m. EST, the International Space Station experienced a loss of communication with the ground. At that time, flight controllers in Houston were updating the software onboard the station's flight computers when one of the station's data relay systems malfunctioned. The primary computer that controls critical station functions defaulted to a backup computer, but was not allowing the station to communicate with NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellites. Mission Control Houston was able to communicate with the crew as the space station flew over Russian ground stations before 11:00 a.m. EST and instructed the crew to connect a backup computer to begin the process of restoring communications. Expedition 34 Commander Kevin Ford reported that the station's status was fine and that the crew was doing well. More details will follow as events warrant.

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

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