25 July 2012
Lack of Crew Time is Biggest Roadblock to Research on ISS, Astronaut Says
“Currently, I believe the great limiting resource for doing scientific research on station is the availability of crew time,” astronaut Donald Pettit said at a hearing of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation science and space subcommittee. “We have more scientific apparatus on space station, more equipment waiting to be used, more science experiments in the queue than we have crew time in the [U.S. segment] with three crew members that we can spend working on this.”
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24 July 2012
After failed docking test for Progress Freighter - Another Re-Docking Attempt Set for July 29
Another attempt to re-dock the Russian Progress M-15M space freighter to the International Space Station (ISS) will be made on Sunday, July 29, a spokesman for the Russian Mission Control Center said on Tuesday, after the spacecraft failed to re-dock with the ISS earlier in the day.
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24 July 2012
Russian space agency considers Jupiter mission
The European Space Agency (ESA) is starting preparations for a mission to Jupiter. The Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (JUICE) project, approved for implementation in 2022, is to explore the giant planet and its icy satellites: Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. Russian scientists are considering the possibility of participating in the mission, but the implementation of these plans depends on the previous planetary program.
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24 July 2012
GE Researchers to Study Link Between Microgravity and Vision Impairment in Astronauts
Scientists at GE Global Research will soon begin a three-year project to build and test a new ultrasound probe and measurement techniques that could eventually be used in space to monitor how the spaceflight environment affects the vision of astronauts. The new probe, to be developed as part of this study, is smaller than what is currently on the market.
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23 July 2012
Earth-observing Camera Launches to International Space Station
A remote-controlled Earth-observing camera system called ISERV was launched to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's third H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV-3) on July 20. Once installed, the system will be directed by researchers on the ground to acquire imagery of specific areas of the globe for disaster analysis and environmental studies.
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23 July 2012
Sally Ride, First U.S. Woman in Space, Succumbs to Cancer
Sally Ride, the first U.S. woman to fly in space, died July 23 after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer, according to a statement issued by her San Diego-based science curriculum company Sally Ride Science. She was 61.
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20 July 2012
FAA Commercial Space Office Navigates Legal Maze To Start Safety Dialog
When suborbital adventure line Virgin Galactic launches the world’s first commercial passenger-carrying spaceflight service next year, the U.S. government will still be barred from policing most of the company’s activities. But federal safety officials here, eager to learn more about the private space companies they will soon regulate, have decided to open talks with industry in August.
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19 July 2012
Opportunity Runs the First Martian Marathon
With all the fanfare about Mars rover Curiosity landing on the Red Planet in August 2012, it's easy to forget that there's already a rover on Mars-an older, smaller cousin set to accomplish a feat unprecedented in the history of Solar System exploration. Mars rover Opportunity is on track to complete the first extraterrestrial marathon.
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19 July 2012
Looking Forward to Shenzhou 10
So much progress was made with Shenzhou 9 that the mission to follow, Shenzhou 10, could be seen as a poor sequel to this historic flight. While China's next human spaceflight won't gain the same level of kudos as Shenzhou 9, the upcoming mission of Shenzhou 10 should still have plenty to offer.
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19 July 2012
NASA Conducts Mission Simulations In Hawaii
NASA is conducting a nine-day field test starting Tuesday outside Hilo, Hawaii, to evaluate new exploration techniques for the surface of the moon. These mission simulations, known as analog missions, are performed at extreme and often remote Earth locations to prepare for robotic and human missions to extraterrestrial destinations.
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18 July 2012
Russian Piloted Spaceship Delayed Two More Years
Russia's projected manned spacecraft capable of flights to the moon will not fly until 2018, the head of Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, Vladimir Popovkin, said on Wednesday, at least two years later than its previous projected flight date of 2015-16. "We are thinking of higher [compared to the International Space Station] orbits, and flights to the moon, and developing the technology to fly to Mars," he said. "So we are developing a future system, first of all of course the pressurized, launchable module," he said.
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18 July 2012
Russian Space Lab Launch Delayed Again
The launch of Russia's "Nauka" (Science) multirole laboratory module (MLM) for the International Space Station together with ERA - European Robotic Arm, attached to it has been set back from the end of this year to the end of next year due to technological and organizational problems at the Khrunichev Space Center, the head of Russia's Energia space corporation Vitaly Lopota said on Tuesday.
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18 July 2012
Inflatable Spacecraft Heat Shield Set to Launch
NASA technicians and engineers are putting the finishing touches on a unique experiment designed to demonstrate that an inflatable aeroshell/heat shield could be used to protect spacecraft when entering a planet's atmosphere or returning here to Earth.
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17 July 2012
Taikonauts in good shape after return
The three taikonauts who went on the country's first manned space-docking mission last month said on Friday that they are in good health as they recuperate from their 13-day stay in space. The trio made their first public appearance since returning to Earth on June 29. They have been under quarantine the last two weeks as they rested.
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17 July 2012
More smart Indians opting to be space scientists
More and more smart graduates and research scholars across India are opting for an exciting career in space science, as evident from thousands of applications the space agency gets every year, of late.
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16 July 2012
India likely to approve Mars mission
"India's much-awaited mission to Mars is in the final stage of approval," K. Radhakrishnan, head of the state-owned space agency, told The Times of India. "Many studies have been done relating to this mission."
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13 July 2012
ISS Experiment Blunder Blamed on Flawed Training
NanoRacks LLC said July 13 that an internal investigation determined that some student-designed experiments delivered to the international space station (ISS) in May and returned to Earth in early July were never activated on-orbit due to a flaw in NanoRack’s astronaut training procedures. Jeffrey Manber, managing director of the Houston-based company, said in an email that NanoRacks will pay to refly the affected experiments.
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13 July 2012
SpaceX Completes Design Review of Dragon
NASA partner Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has completed an important design review of the crewed version of its Dragon spacecraft. The concept baseline review presented NASA with the primary and secondary design elements of its Dragon capsule designed to carry astronauts into low Earth orbit, including the International Space Station.
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FOR FURTHER READING
23 July 2012
Confronting the universe in the 21st century
Why has humanity’s expansion into space gone so slowly, if it’s even going forward at all? Sylvia Engdahl argues that this slow pace may be a sign of unconscious trepidation by humanity about what might be out there in that unknown universe.
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23 July 2012
Commercialization or normalization?
The concept of commercial crew transportation has attracted a lot of attention, especially now as industry and others await NASA’s latest round of awards for this effort. Wayne Eleazer concludes that this “new” approach reflects a normalization towards how other kinds of launches have been, and should be, procured.
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23 July 2012
Telstar and the transparency of space success
Monday marks the 50th anniversary of a historic live television link between the US and Europe via the Telstar satellite, inaugurating a new era in satellite communications. Jeff Foust discusses how the biggest lesson of that milestone is that the most successful space technologies can often be the least visible and appreciated ones.
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23 July 2012
Review: Perigee
Spaceplanes offering high-speed point-to-point transportation may be many years, even decades, into the future, but can still make for entertaining fiction today. Jeff Foust reviews a novel about such a vehicle that ends up stranded in orbit.
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16 July 2012
The hour of the wolf
In the late 1960s, there was a battle between men and machines for the future of United States military reconnaissance. Dwayne Day examines newly-declassified documents that offer new insights into how unmanned spysats won out over the Manned Orbiting Laboratory.
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16 July 2012
Texas warms to NewSpace
Last week XCOR signed a deal with the city of Midland, Texas, to set up its headquarters and an R&D facility there. Jeff Foust reports on the specifics of the deal and how it may be the latest sign that Texas is showing a greater interest in attracting entrepreneurial space ventures.
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16 July 2012
Space code of conduct: the challenges ahead
A proposal for an international, but voluntary, code of conduct for space activities will be a topic of debate and negotiation later this year. Ajey Lele warns that the voluntary nature of the proposed code could strongly hinder its effectiveness.
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16 July 2012
Commercial crew providers aplenty (part 2)
A wide range of companies have shown an interest in NASA’s commercial crew program, offering a variety of technical approaches. Anthony Young looks at some of these concepts that could soon be selected by NASA for additional work.
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16 July 2012
Review: Extreme Cosmos
Astronomy often deals with superlatives, from supermassive black holes to galaxies over ten billion light-years away. Jeff Foust reviews a book by an astronomer that examines various extremes in the universe and puts them into perspective.
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