A video camera aboard the international space station captured this image of Hurricane Wilma on Wednesday morning. Credit: NASA TV

Station keeps eye on Wilma

Aboard the space station, Commander Bill McArthur KC5ACR and Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev are quickly getting used to their new home in space, conducting experiments and performing routine maintenance.

Scheduled activities this week for the crew include renal stone experiment data collection and the replacement of a trajectory control system unit panel in the Pirs Docking Compartment.

Mission Control in Houston took advantage of the station's cameras Wednesday to capture video of Hurricane Wilma as it churns through the Caribbean. The National Hurricane Center warns that Wilma is a potentially "catastrophic" category five hurricane.

On Tuesday, flight controllers initiated the first of two 11-minute, 40-second engine firings from a docked Progress spacecraft to increase the station's altitude by about 8 statute miles.

Less than two minutes after the first firing began, the reboost was aborted due to a problem with the Progress' thrusters. The second burn was not attempted. Russian flight controllers are investigating the situation, and the aborted reboost will have no impacts on station operations

Other recent stories..

Other News Stories

• Get our news headlines for your website - click here
• Submit your news story - click here