What’s Dextre doing?

Your daily gratuitous Dextre (from APoD):

What’s the world’s most complex space robot doing up there? Last week, Dextre was imaged moving atop the Destiny Laboratory Module of the International Space Station (ISS), completing tasks prior to the deployment of Japan’s Kibo pressurized science laboratory. Dextre, short for the Canadian-built Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator, has arms three meters in length and can attach power tools as fingers. Behind Dextre is the blackness of space, while Earth looms over Dextre’s head. The Kibo laboratory segment being deployed during space shuttle Discovery’s trip to the ISS can be pressurized and contains racks of scientific experiment that will be used to explore many things, including how plants brace themselves against gravity, and how water might be inhibited from freezing in cells under microgravity.

ISS gets a boost

Anything in orbit – especially big anythings – eventually fall back to Earth if nothing is done about it. Old satellites, even entire space stations, have succumbed to gravity and the drag from the very (very) thin atmosphere at 200 km above Earth’s surface.

If the International Space Station were left to its own devices, it too would eventually be dragged down.

But every once in a while, she gets a boost up. This time it was from the European Space Agency’s Jules Verne.

From the ESA site:

ESA’s Jules Verne ATV was used for the first time early this morning to raise the orbit of the International Space Station. A 740-second burn of the Automated Transfer Vehicle’s main engines successfully lifted the altitude of the 280-tonne Station by around 4.5 km to a height of 342 km above the Earth’s surface.

There’s a cool animation of the event, over there too.

Korea in space

The International Space Station is truly an international undertaking. Astronauts from 15 countries have visited and spent time there, and Canadians have been stationed there more than any other country except Russia and the U.S.

Now Korea has entered the club. Take a look at this video of the Russian launch, and try to make note of how different from the American launched these are

First Korean woman in space

Here she is, Yi So-Yeon.

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And Here’s the full story, courtesy of Space-Travel.com.

(h/t to Matt C.)