ISS

It would be nearly impossible for anyone to not know this was an election year at this point. Between the presidential debates and all the political ads running on TV, the election is difficult to escape. NASA astronaut Kate Rubins is encouraging people to vote by pointing out that she voted from space. A picture was posted to the NASA Astronaut's Twitter feed, which can be seen below, with Rubens pointing to a small closet with a handmade sign that read "ISS voting booth."

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NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy has returned to Earth after the completion of his third space mission. Cassidy spent 196 days living and working aboard the International Space Station. He successfully returned to Earth along with two Russian cosmonauts, Ivan Vagner and Anatoly Ivanishin. The three crewmembers departed the ISS at 7:32 PM EDT on Wednesday.

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For months crewmembers aboard the International Space Station have been working to pinpoint the source of the leak that has been very annoying for the crew aboard the station and ground workers. Crewmembers have worked to figure out where exactly the leak is located and patch it. NASA has been clear that the crew members aboard the ISS were never in danger from the leak.

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At 1:45 AM EDT this morning, a Soyuz spacecraft lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan bound for the ISS. Aboard the spacecraft are NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov. The ISS journey lasted approximately three hours and marks the first time a Soyuz crew has taken the fast-track, two-orbit rendezvous path to the ISS.

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The crew aboard the International Space Station is continuing to work to try and find the source of a small leak. Late Monday night, NASA reports that the Expedition 63 crew was awakened by flight controllers to continue troubleshooting a small leak aboard the space station that appeared to grow in size. Ground analysis of the modules tested overnight has isolated the leak location to the Zvezda Service Module's main work area.

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Things we take for granted on Earth can be complicated in space. One example is going to the bathroom. The ISS has had a toilet on board since it was placed into orbit. Over the years, there have been problems with the space toilet. NASA is sending several pieces of equipment to the ISS this week aboard the Cygnus spacecraft scheduled to launch on September 29.

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The International Space Station had to perform an avoidance maneuver on Tuesday of this week to ensure the space station would clear a piece of space debris. NASA reported that the debris should pass within several miles of the station, but out of caution, the ISS trajectory was changed to move it further from the object. During the avoidance maneuver, the astronauts aboard the ISS, two Russians and an American, were relocated to their Soyuz spacecraft.

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People seem to be getting more interested in the International Space Station in recent months. There's talk of a new venture that would host a reality TV show. The winner of that reality TV show would be sent to the ISS in orbit above the earth. The television production company pushing the contest is called Space Hero LLC.

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One of the crew members currently aboard the International Space Station is Russian cosmonaut Ivan Vagner. Recently he was capturing video of the Earth from the International Space Station. What he intended to capture in his timelapse video was the beautiful auroras that you can see from the station.

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A Russian cosmonaut aboard the ISS has 3D printed human tissue for the first time in the microgravity of space. The cosmonaut used a magnetic levitation device created by Russian researchers to fabricate human cartilage from a few isolated cells. The scientists say that the work could lead to new techniques for regenerating tissues during long-term spaceflight.

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NASA has been conducting a prolonged campaign of upgrading batteries on the outside of the International Space Station (ISS), and the upgrade process is nearly complete. Recently two astronauts changed out critical solar array batteries marking the near completion of a battery revitalization project that will keep the space station powered through 2024. The two astronauts, Chris Cassidy and Bob Behnken, completed the spacewalk on Thursday.

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NASA has renewed its contract with Boeing to support the International Space Station, some good news for the beleaguered plane-maker amid increasingly unsettled times for the transportation industry. The extension will see Boeing continue working with NASA, Roscosmos, JAXA, ESA, and CSA through 2024, making sure the orbiting research platform continues to operate correctly.

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