Spacewalk Likely Needed to Move Stalled Cart

Peake will be assisting Tim Kopra and Scott Kelly as they fix a broken part on the ISS, tentatively on Monday.

Back in October, the Planetary Society, the world’s largest space-science advocacy group, put together the best NASA budget it could imagine. While NASA did not describe how Kelly and Kopra would attempt to move or secure the MT, Todd said the focus would be on the Crew Equipment and Translation Aid cart, or CETA, which attaches to the MT. “We think that’s the source of the issue”, Todd said.

The space station’s Mobile Transporter is a rail-based platform that runs much of the length of the space station’s main truss, allowing the station’s robotic arm reach to most of the orbiting lab. Right now, the rail vehicle is just 4 inches (10 centimeters) from its intended latch point – near the center of the station’s main tuss – where it can be securely locked into place and powered ahead of the Progress cargo ship arrival.

It stalled while it was moving around the outside of the station, and experts believe it could be due to a stuck brake handle.

The Commercial Spaceflight Federation cheered the move, saying that the USA would achieve its own access to the International Space Station by 2017.

This year NASA is getting about 1.23 billion dollars more from the USA government than they did last year, which is good.

Next week, astronauts could be taking an unexpected spacewalk thanks to a broken railcar that became stuck on the outside of the International Space Station. Republican lawmakers were concerned – despite NASA’s denials – that money to replace the space shuttle was coming at the expense of their top priority: a deep-space rocket and capsule to take astronauts to Mars within two decades. Meanwhile, NASA is joining hands with SpaceX and Boeing to make space taxis and privatize space travel.

The company conducted a test-firing of its rocket at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Friday.

“This is a huge increase in funding that has nowhere to go, from a practical matter, except to Kennedy Space Center”, Grayson said in an interview.

The Falcon has been grounded since a launch failure in June that ruined a resupply mission to the International Space Station. However, the flight schedule – including who gets to go first – will be determined at a later date.

The measure also extends a ban on NASA cooperating with China on space technology or missions.

This test was a crucial step in SpaceX’s preparations for returning to flight and launching an array of 11 telecommunication satellites into orbit for Orbcomm.