It looks like the International Space Station recently got a new delivery of solar panels from the space shuttle Atlantis. NASA released a new Astronomy Picture of the Day featuring the new configuration of the world's foremost space outpost in development. You can take a look at the new before and after pictures in the full article.

NASA's space shuttle Atlantis has reportedly undocked from the International Space Station, and should be touching down on terra firma by this Wednesday.

Going along on the shuttle's trip home is astronaut Daniel Tani, who had been on the ISS since last October. Details regarding this matter are in the full article.

It should be remembered that meteorologists have cautioned NASA a few days ago to postpone the scheduled launch of the space shuttle Atlantis due to unfavorable weather conditions. NASA, however, still gave its thumbs up for the flight.

Unfortunately, it seems that the weathermen are correct as we've just received word that Atlantis is currently suffering damages in space. The full story after the jump!

After a long delay, space shuttle Atlantis has finally received the go signal from NASA to liftoff this coming Thursday. The mission will deliver Europe's first permanent space laboratory to the International Space Station (ISS).

However, meteorologists are now saying that Thursday is not a good day for launch due to weather disturbances. The full story after the jump!

 

A panel on the solar power wings of NASA's International Space Station got ripped last Tuesday, compounding the other problems that the station has been experiencing and forcing Mike Suffredini, program manager for NASA's International Space Station project, to set aside plans to launch Europe's long-delayed Columbus lab.

In order to deal with this new complication, NASA locked the solar power rings in place to prevent them from automatically tracking energy from the sun while in a damaged state. The reason for this, Mr. Suffredini explained, was that he didn't want to do any additional damage to the array. Mr. Suffredini also said that he wanted to sort out the situation further before attending to the Columbus' launch.

The issue with the space station's wings is the latest in a series of delays to plague the International Space Station since the launch of the shuttle Atlantis. In spite of these setbacks, NASA is still doing its best to finish the space station by 2010.

 

Big news from the final frontier: NASA's space shuttle Atlantis has recently docked with the international space station orbiting some 200 miles away from Earth's surface. But their efforts to carry out their primary mission - to add a 35,000 pound segment to the ISS - were held back after the station's gyroscopes became overloaded.

The hour's delay had Atlantis aiding the station's orientation as the gyroscopes used to maintain the station's position had their problems resolved. But soon thereafter, James Reilly and Danny Olivas made their venture out into space to add the segment that will increase the station's power capabilities.

The six-and-a-half hour spacewalk ended in their removal of locks and restraints on the segment, giving way to attaching the segment to the station's backbone. On Wednesday, Reilly and Olivas will take another spacewalk to activate the solar arrays on the segment, providing the station with 14 kilowatts of power generation.

Just off the coast of Costa Rica, some 8,500 feet below the water surface, a "new undersea mineral chimney" was discovered by an expedition led by U.S. researchers. Aboard the WHOI research vessel Atlantis, the team found that this vent emitted hot, iron-darkened water that attracted "unusual" marine life.

The Medusa hydrothermal vent, as the expedition members called it, had bell-shaped pink jellyfish swimming near it. The team described the jellyfish as "really unusual."

Karen Von Damm, an earth sciences professor from the University of New Hampshire, said, "The ones we found may be of a different species because nobody has seen types of this color before." The species has yet to be expertly identified.

The discovery, however, was likened to that of "the serpent-haired Medusa of Greek myth" because of the image that the numerous spiky tubeworm casings around the vent gave. The expedition is a collection of experts from Duke University and the Universities of New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida.

There are no pictures as of this report to illustrate the discovery or the supposedly new species of jellyfish. The expedition is currently being funded by the National Science Foundation.

Helen Keller once said that "it's wonderful to climb the liquid mountains of the sky. Behind me and before me is God and I have no fears." Well it seems writer Warren Ellis had this in mind when he released these pictures of the Space Shuttle Atlantis as it launched back in September 9. What makes these photos special is they're not from our planet.

These snapshots were taken aboard the International Space Station while the Atlantis was mid-flight from its launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, from where it docked with the ISS, and landed back in September 21. This particular flight takes special note in being the very first shuttle flight after the Columbia accident.

Warren Ellis is a noted comic book writer, having worked on DC Marvel and DC comics in the past. Some of you might remember him for  the Transmetropolitan comic. Here are the breath-taking pictures:

If you stayed for 12 days at zero gravity and did three grueling spacewalks for some construction work on the International Space Station, it wouldn't be a surprise if you get disoriented once you get back here on Earth.

Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Pier, one of the space shuttle Atlantis astronauts, collapsed twice Friday during a welcome home ceremony. According to reports, Pier was fifth of the six astronauts to speak. During her speech, she suddenly appeared confused before her legs buckled from under her. Colleagues and NASA officials braced her and lowered her to the ground. "Boy, if that's not a little embarrassing," she said when she got up again, which the audience received with applause.

But it only took another half-minute or so before she again appeared confused and gripped the podium. Once more, the rest of the crew members aided her and set her down on the floor. Piper was brought out of the Ellington Field hangar through a side door, but was not taken to a hospital.

The Atlantis crew came back Thursday from the first construction work on the ISS since the Columbia disaster 3 1/2 years ago. Included in their mission was hooking up a 17 1/2-ton addition, along with a giant set of electricity-producing solar panels.

You will be very pleased to hear that Space Shuttle Atlantis and her crew have landed safely today at Kennedy Space Center at 6:21 a.m. EDT. The very latest NASA mission to the International Space Station lasted a total of 11 days 19 hours 6 minutes and 35 seconds (thats the precision of NASA for you!) and despite numerous delays before launch and delays to the landing date, the crew touched down without encountering major problems.

The huge part of Space Shuttle Atlantis' mission was the delivery and construction of a new Solar Panel upgrade for the station which it completed successfully on September 17th. It then took the crew a further 4 days before they could land instead of 3 due to an unidentified object outside the Space Shuttle. Despite the various precautions and delays that the Atlantis mission endured, NASA and the world have deemed the mission a huge success, with no Shuttle-based problems whilst in space and another construction mission completed. Hopefully this will pave the way for many more successful shuttle missions in the future until they are replaced by the in-development Orion Moonship.