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An ammonia leak in the system that cools the International Space Station may be more severe than initially thought, say officials familiar with the situation. Ground crews are working overtime to try and determine the cause of the leak, and emergency spacewalks  that will let astronauts on board diagnose -- and ideally fix -- the problem are being scheduled  for the coming days.

It looks like if Canada has just decided if they have anything interesting to announce, they're just going to let Chris Hadfield do it from space. I'm prepared to say this is the right call, because let's face it -- dude kills. Case in point: Yesterday saw Hadfield introduce the world to the new Canadian five dollar bill, a piece of currency notable for featuring the first ever image of a space robot to grace cold hard cash.

We don't have very many details at the moment, but International Space Station Commander and Canadian superhero Chris Hadfield just tweeted this image from space. It shows a small hole in the ISS solar array from what Hadfield called "a small stone." He said he was glad it missed the hull. For the record, we're glad it missed the hull too.

SpaceX's Grasshopper is a great example of a simple idea with awesome execution. The Vertical Takeoff Vertical Landing (VTVL) craft goes up, and it goes down. That's about all it does, but when you consider the fact that it goes up over 800 feet in the air, hangs out for a little while, and then gently sets itself back down on the landing pad like nothing ever happened...well, we're pretty impressed, anyway.

We're big Chris Hadfield fans here, and we've recently become huge fans of the ISS Commander's latest series of videos, in which he explains how things are different in space to Canadian grade school students, a fact the implications of which we're fairly comfortable ignoring for the time being. In his latest message back to Earth, Hadfield explains that 'Yes, Virginia, people throw up in space.' Like, kind of all the time, apparently.

It's Easter Sunday here on Earth, but International Space Station Commander Chris Hadfield wanted to bring the celebration to his crew, so he hid some Easter eggs on the ISS. I don't know why we even bother doing stuff that's not in space anymore.

Tonight is the seventh annual Earth Hour, an event that encourages people to power down for an hour as a symbolic gesture to promote awareness about climate change. The event kicks off at 8:30 p.m. and to make sure everyone knows about it, International Space Station Commander Chris Hadfield is tweeting pictures of cities lit up at night.

The International Space Station's Expedition 34 came to a successful end on Saturday when three members of the crew safely touched down near the town of Arkalyk in Kazakhstan. Shortly after landing, the crew was greeted at Kustanay Airport by women who appear to be cosplaying as pretty obscure Kazakh folk characters.

"From high above the world to the Irish everywhere, Happy St. Patrick's Day," said Commander Chris Hadfield at the start of his recording of "Danny Boy" released today on Soundcloud. It's the first time the song has been recorded in space, and the latest in a long line of remarkable things Hadfield's done during his time in space. I don't even like the song "Danny Boy" and I can't stop listening to this. Give the song a listen, and hear Hadfield explain the challenges of playing a guitar in space after the jump.

In what is quickly turning into a verifiable "thing," the astronauts living aboard the International Space Station (ISS) will be answering another round of your questions in a Google Hangout in just one hour. The Hangout, which will see Chris Hadfield, Kevin Ford, and Tom Marshburn field your inquiries about their life and work on the ISS, will run from 10:30 to 11:30 EST, because seriously, you didn't expect them to spend all day fielding questions, did you? These guys have jobs, you know. Like keeping the space station in orbit, just as a for example. If you think you could do that, too, though, by all means, watch with us this morning and find out if you've got what it takes to be an astronaut.

NASA had what we can only imagine was a very tense hour or so earlier this morning, as a computer malfunction cut off communication between the International Space Station and Mission Control in Houston as of 9:45 EST. The glitch appears to have been a pretty benign and easily fixed one, and the ISS crew was back on the air by 11:00 EST. We're all left thanking our lucky stars that the dropped call from space seems well in hand, and that it didn't interfere with any of the crew's important tasks. This could have happened in the middle of a Google Hangout, for God's sake!

Without you my heart is a lonely iceberg. #ValentineFromSpace twitter.com/Cmdr_Hadfield/… — Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) February 14, 2013

People, can we acknowledge for a moment that Canadian astronaut and ISS Commander Chris Hadfield is absolutely blowing up right now? In the last couple of weeks, dude has hosted a Google Hangout explaining life on the ISS, chatted with Captain Kirk, and rocked out with Barenaked Ladies. This morning, though, found Hadfield getting all poetical, tweeting a Valentine photo of a free-floating iceberg taken from the ISS with the message "Without you my heart is a lonely iceberg." (And since we're all wondering it, sorry, folks, he's spoken for.) People are of course eating it up, because it's totally sweet and from space and... shut up you guys, there's something in my eye! Since Valentine's Day is all about sharing the love, Hadfield wants to hear your space-themed Valentines all day. He'll even be retweeting the best -- or cheesiest -- ones, which is pretty great, but also makes us suspect that running the ISS might be a little easier than we've been led to believe. There seems to be a lot of free time for hanging out on the Internet involved, at least. Get @Cmdr_Hadfield with your best #ValentineFromSpace today, and when it gets retweeted, you can tell your special guy or lady it was all about them -- even if you were getting a little swoony over Hadfield when you sent it, because who doesn't love a man in a space suit? We're not made of stone! You can see some of our favorite #ValentineFromSpace below, and we'll be updating all day, so be sure to check back regularly so you'll have something nice to say to your Valentine tonight, even if you did steal it from the Internet.

Yesterday, we listened to William Shatner talk about life on the International Space Station (ISS) with astronaut Chris Hadfield, and it was pretty great. Why should Kirk have all the fun, though? Chances are you've got some things you'd like to know about what it's like to be an astronaut, too. Well, now is your chance to pick the brains of people whose lives are more awesome than yours, because they live in space, because later this month, NASA will be hosting a Google Hangout live from the ISS, and they'll be answering your questions while they do. So if you've ever wanted to know what flavor of astronaut ice cream is always left over after a mission or who the worst snorer in Earth orbit is, this is your time.

If the world breaks open or shudders to a halt today, the folks on the International Space Station will be the first to know about it. Or, you know, the second. The first to know about it will be the folks who are suddenly swallowed whole by a raging Earth or thrown from the planet's surface into the frigid, uncaring void of space, but they're probably not going to be much for reporting back on what's happening, what with all the screaming and crying and begging for mercy. Sissies. Anyway, if you find yourself needing reassurance that the world is not in fact ending, look no further than the ISS's eye in the sky live stream, embedded below for your convenience. The feed will give you an astronaut's eye view of all life on Earth... moving on uninterrupted in pretty much the way it does every day. Hey, don't look at us -- we said it was reassuring, not exciting.

Next year, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will send astronaut Koichi Wakata to the International Space Station (ISS). That's not all the nation will be sending to the ISS, though -- in February, Japanese roboticists plan to send a 13-inch-tall humanoid robot to the space station. Equipped with facial recognition technology, the hope is that the no doubt adorable automaton will be useful in helping to carry out experiments on the station, assisting in the mixing of liquids and other simple steps. It will also, of course, be an excellent mascot for the ISS, because seriously, how are there not robots hanging out up there already? Is it a space station or not?