NASA News: Unique 'Portrait' Of Shuttle And International Space Station Released

WASHINGTON -- Newly-released portraits show the International Space
Station together with the space shuttle, the vehicle that helped
build the complex during the last decade. The pictures are the first
taken of a shuttle docked to the station from the perspective of a
Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

On May 23, the Soyuz was carrying Russian cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev,
NASA astronaut Cady Coleman and European Space Agency astronaut Paolo
Nespoli back to Earth. Once their vehicle was about 600 feet from the
station, Mission Control Moscow, outside the Russian capital,
commanded the orbiting laboratory to rotate 130 degrees. This move
allowed Nespoli to capture digital photographs and high definition
video of shuttle Endeavour docked to the station.

The Soyuz landed in Kazakhstan and was taken to Moscow for routine
post-landing analysis. NASA and the Russian space agency, Roscosmos,
then processed the imagery as part of the standard disposition of
spacecraft cargo.

Additional images and high definition video are being processed and
will be posted on NASA's website. To view the still images, visit:

http://go.nasa.gov/stationportrait

For NASA TV streaming video, schedule and downlink information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For information about the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

---

Students Build Space Habitats at NASA's Johnson Space Center

HOUSTON -- University students are helping NASA develop potential
habitats for future space missions. Three teams from across the
country will visit NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston during June
to show off the inflatable space lofts they've designed and built for
the inaugural eXploration Habitat (X-Hab) Academic Innovation Challenge.

One of the habitats will be chosen to participate in NASA's annual
Desert Research and Technology Studies (Desert-RATS) field test in
September, where it will be tested as part of a simulated astronaut
mission to an asteroid. The winning team will receive $10,000 to
offset costs associated with its participation.

The three university teams will each spend one week in Houston setting
up their habitat for judging. News media representatives are invited
to see the student innovations from 2 to 4 p.m. CDT during the next
three Thursdays. The schedule is:
-- June 9: Oklahoma State University, Stillwater
-- June 16: University of Maryland, College Park
-- June 23: University of Wisconsin, Madison

To RSVP for any of these opportunities, reporters must contact
Lynnette Madison at lynnette.b.madison@nasa.gov by 5 p.m. on each
preceding Wednesday.

In June 2010, NASA invited university teams to submit inflatable loft
concepts for the X-Hab Challenge. Three competing universities were
chosen, and those teams received $48,000 of seed funding to assist
with their projects.

The competition is designed to engage and retain students in science,
technology, engineering and math disciplines, which in turn will help
develop the next generation of innovators and explorers. It could
also result in new concepts and solutions that NASA could apply to
later exploration habitats.

X-Hab is sponsored by NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate
and the Innovative Partnerships Office in the Office of the Chief
Technologist at agency headquarters in Washington. For more
information about the X-Hab competition, and for updates about the
designs of each school, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/analogs/xhab_challenge.html

For more information about D-RATS, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/desertrats

Updates about the activities will also be available via Twitter at:

https://twitter.com/DESERT_RATS

Source:

---