Shoot wrong again he/PAO was busy supporting the HTV activity on ISS.
NASA TV:
· UNDERWAY – HTV-3 “berthing” to Harmony nadir coverage
(Grapple was at 7:23 Central; berthing at ~9:45 Central)
· 4 pm Central SATURDAY (5 EDT) – 47 Progress re-docking coverage (occurs at 8 pm CDT)
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT...
H-II Transfer Vehicle grapple and berthing operations from astronaut perspective
NASA astronaut Cady Coleman talks about on-orbit operations associated with grapple and berthing of a Japanese HTV – known as the “White Stork.”
NEWS NOTE: Distribution may be later each day through Aug 2 as I will be on West Coast time
Human Spaceflight News
Friday – July 27, 2012
Snapshot from NASA TV of HTV-3 before grapple Friday morning
HEADLINES AND LEADS
Japanese Unmanned Spacecraft Arrives at Space Station
Clara Moskowitz - Space.com
The third in a series of robotic Japanese spaceships has safely arrived at the International Space Station today, bearing a delivery of food, equipment and student science experiments for the orbital outpost. The unmanned, school bus-size H-2 Transfer Vehicle-3 (HTV-3), also called Kounotori 3 ("White Stork" in Japanese), flew to about 40 feet (12 meters) away from the ISS, where it was grabbed at 8:23 a.m. ET (1223 GMT) by the space station's 58-foot long (18 m) robotic arm, which was controlled from inside by astronauts Joe Acaba of NASA and Aki Hoshide of JAXA (the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency). Using the Canadarm2 robotic arm, Acaba and Hoshide will maneuver Kounotori 3 to the Earth-facing docking port on the space station's Harmony node at around 10:30 a.m. ET (1430 GMT).
Next Space Station Crew to Try 'Fishy' Science
Denise Chow - Space.com
When the next Russian-built Soyuz capsule launches to the International Space Station in October, it will deliver three new crewmembers to the orbiting outpost. But the trio of spaceflyers will be sharing their ride with some special cargo: 32 small fish for a science experiment at the space lab. NASA astronaut Kevin Ford and Russian cosmonauts Evgeny Tarelkin and Oleg Novitskiy are scheduled to launch to the International Space Station on Oct. 15 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Their Soyuz TMA-06M capsule will also be carrying 32 Medaka fish — a type of fish native to Southeast Asia — to the orbiting complex.
Fish in Space: Space Station Gets an Aquarium
Nancy Atkinson - Universe Today
How does microgravity impact marine life? One of the more unique experiments on board the Japanese HTV-3 supply ship, scheduled to be berthed to the International Space Station’s Harmony node at 12:00 UTC on July 27, 2012, is the Aquatic Habitat, or AQH. It is basically an aquarium designed to function in space, complete with fish called Medaka. While there are several experiments planned for the AQH, surely the astronauts will enjoy watching their newest “pets” on the ISS. Sponsored by the Japanese Space Agency, or JAXA, the AQH is a closed-water circulatory system, which provides a new facility option for station research. Scientists will use the habitat to study small, freshwater fish on orbit, the Medaka (Oryzias latipes).
Battling for Future Space Shuttle Program: Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico
Phil Keating - Fox News
Even space dreams are bigger in Texas.
"Keep in mind we're not just talking about a rail station or something like that,” says Texas Space Alliance’s Rick Tumlinson. “We're talking about a port to the solar system and eventually the stars." Tumlinson’s referring to an undeveloped, green space in Brownsville, Texas, right across the Mexican border from Matamoros. This, in the eyes of the Texas Space Alliance, Lone Star State business leaders and Governor Rick Perry’s office, is where the launch pads of the future could--and should--be built. Launch pads for the growing number of private, commercial “new space” companies like Space X, Blue Origin, Boeing and Sierra Nevada. And, for Texas, a launch pad for its high-tech economy, promising thousands of well-paying jobs.
Even a (Deliberate) Malfunction Didn't Ruin Orion's Latest Landing
Amy Teitel - AmericaSpace.org
For now, at least until retrorocket controlled landings become feasible, parachutes are a pretty pretty vital pieces of hardware for spacecraft. Particularly manned vehicles where the parachute is responsible for the astronauts’ safe return from a mission. Looking ahead to its next manned program, NASA successfully tested the Orion spacecraft’s parachute over the Arizonian desert last week. Like the Apollo spacecraft it so closely resembles, Orion will splashdown at the end of its missions. We’re actually only a couple of years away from seeing a real Orion parachute in action. The spacecraft is scheduled to make its first unmanned orbital flight sometime in 2014.
House committee to look at suborbital spaceflight and astronaut artifacts next week
SpacePolitics.com
Next week, just before the House is scheduled to recess until after the nominating conventions, the House Science Committee is planning to take up a couple of space-related issues. On Wednesday, August 1, the committee’s space subcommittee will hold a hearing on “The Emerging Commercial Suborbital Reusable Launch Vehicle Market”. The following day, the full committee will markup up legislation regarding ownership of astronaut artifacts. The bill, HR 4158, would confer onto astronauts of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs ownership of any “expendable item” used on those missions that are now in the possession of the astronauts, as well as “other expendable, disposable, or personal-use items” they used. (Lunar material is specifically excluded from the bill.)
Students quiz orbiting astronaut via live ham radio
Samieh Shalash - Hampton Roads Daily Press
As the clock struck 10:07 Thursday morning, students at the Virginia Air & Space Center began rattling off questions to an astronaut orbiting overhead. Through live ham radio, they had a direct connection to Sunita Williams, who blasted off mid-July for a four-month mission on the International Space Station. With static crackling and time ticking, Williams quickly answered questions during an 11-minute connection with the center's Amateur Satellite Station, KE4XZW.
Yardney to power new NASA spacecraft
Tom Verde - Westerly Sun (Rhode Island)
With the moon conquered, the planet Mars now beckons as one of the U.S. space program’s primary destinations. One day, in the not too distant future, humans will get there, thanks, in part, to several dozen factory workers in Pawcatuck. That was the message delivered by NASA astronaut Rex J. Walheim, who was in town Wednesday, along with fellow astronaut Lee J. Archambault, on a visit to Yardney Technical Products Inc. on Mechanic Street. The 68-year-old high density battery manufacturer is the exclusive supplier of lithium-ion batteries for NASA’s manned spacecraft, the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV).
Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer claims huge cosmic ray haul
Jason Palmer - BBC News
The largest-ever experiment in space has reported the collection of some 18 billion "cosmic ray" events that may help unravel the Universe's mysteries. The data haul is far greater than the total number of cosmic rays recorded in a full century of looking to date. Run from a centre at Cern, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) aims to spot dark matter and exotic antimatter. The astronauts who installed it on the space station in 2011 are in Geneva to see an update on how it is performing.
Futuristic Space Plane Concept Moves Closer to Reality
Rob Coppinger - Space.com
A giant space plane that doubles as a supersonic jet is closer than ever to becoming a reality. Skylon is a privately funded, single-stage-to-orbit vehicle designed to take off and land from a runway, delivering up to 33,000-pounds (15,000 kilograms) into orbit. That payload could be a satellite or crew module, its makers say. Under development by Abingdon, England-based aerospace company Reaction Engines Ltd., Skylon's progress has interested the European Space Agency, and the small U.K. firm has revealed to SPACE.com its latest progress. "We are now planning the next phase of development and raising the financing for it," Mark Hempsell, the company's future programs director, told SPACE.com.
Thoughts on future of manned spaceflight (from someone who’s been there)
Jeffrey Marlow - Wired.com
The fate of the American manned spaceflight program has inspired much debate about the utility of the program and the role of manned vs. robotic expeditions. A couple of months ago, I had the privilege of meeting one of the fortunate (and ridiculously qualified) few who has been there: astronaut Don Thomas. Thomas had a prolific career at NASA, flying on four missions in just three years and setting a shuttle-era record for most frequent flights in the process. He has since retired from NASA and is pursuing education-based projects at Towson University. We spoke at Baltimore’s Jemicy School about the state of manned spaceflight – I played the role of Devil’s advocate; Thomas that of former astronaut.
Another big piece of shuttle trainer arrives in WA
Associated Press
Another big piece of the Space Shuttle Trainer has arrived at Seattle's Museum of Flight. NASA's special Super Guppy plane delivered the aft portion of the payload bay to the museum on Thursday morning.
Salyut 1: The First Space Station
Nola Taylor Redd - Space.com
Despite an array of problems, the first space station, Salyut 1, made important progress toward living and working in space long-term and paved the way for future space stations. Launched by the Soviet Union in 1971, the port orbited the Earth almost 3,000 times during its 175 days in space before it was intentionally crashed into the Pacific Ocean. Shaped like a cylinder, Salyut 1 bore three pressurized compartments for astronauts and one unpressurized area containing the engines and control equipment. The station was about 65 feet (20 meters) long and 13 feet (4 meters) in diameter at its widest point. Two double sets of solar panels extended like wings on the exterior of the compartments at either end.
__________
COMPLETE STORIES
Japanese Unmanned Spacecraft Arrives at Space Station
Clara Moskowitz - Space.com
The third in a series of robotic Japanese spaceships has safely arrived at the International Space Station today, bearing a delivery of food, equipment and student science experiments for the orbital outpost.
The unmanned, school bus-size H-2 Transfer Vehicle-3 (HTV-3), also called Kounotori 3 ("White Stork" in Japanese), flew to about 40 feet (12 meters) away from the ISS, where it was grabbed at 8:23 a.m. ET (1223 GMT) by the space station's 58-foot long (18 m) robotic arm, which was controlled from inside by astronauts Joe Acaba of NASA and Aki Hoshide of JAXA (the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency).
Using the Canadarm2 robotic arm, Acaba and Hoshide will maneuver Kounotori 3 to the Earth-facing docking port on the space station's Harmony node at around 10:30 a.m. ET (1430 GMT).
"I think we couldn’t have had a better day and we're looking forward to a great HTV mission," Capcom Cady Coleman told the astronauts from Mission Control in Houston.
"You guys were great, thanks a lot for helping us out," Acaba replied. "Thanks a lot for all the food."
Today's arrival follows the failed docking attempt on Monday (July 23) of an unmanned Russian Progress spacecraft. The Progress 47 craft was testing a new rendezvous system, which apparently failed to work as planned. The vehicle, which had already been at the space station, had undocked in order to test the new system in a re-docking. Russia plans to try again on Sunday (July 29) to dock the Progress 47.
Kounotori launched atop a Japanese H-2B rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan on July 20. It is the third such vehicle launched from Japan, following the flights of HTVs 1 and 2 in September 2009 and January 2011, respectively.
The spaceship is loaded with 4 tons (3,600 kg) of cargo, including care packages with food, clothing and other items for the space station's crew. The vehicle, which is 33 feet (10 m) long and 13 feet (4 m) wide, is also carrying a camera called the ISERV (International Space Station SERVIR Environmental Research and Visualization System).
The camera is to be installed on the station, for use by ground-based scientists who can manipulate it via remote control. The system is intended for studies of natural disaster sites and environmental issues on Earth.
Two student-designed experiments are also packed aboard Kounotori 3. These projects won the YouTube Space Lab competition, which allowed students between the ages of 14 and 18 to envision space station experiments and describe them in videos submitted to YouTube. The winners were chosen by public voting.
Amr Mohamed, 18, of Alexandria, Egypt, and Dorothy Chen and Sara Ma, both 16, of Troy, Mich., came out on top, with experiments investigating how microgravity affects the hunting strategy of zebra spiders, and how different nutrients and compounds affect the growth and virulence of bacteria grown in space, respectively.
While Mohamed elected to experience cosmonaut training in Star City, Russia, for his prize, Chen and Ma chose to watch their projects launch aboard Kounotori 3 July 20 from the Tanegashima Space Center.
Six astronauts currently live aboard the $100 billion, football field-size space laboratory. They hail from the United States, Russia and Japan.
Kounotori 3 is just one of a fleet of unmanned cargo delivery spacecraft that carry supplies to the space station. Russia and Europe have each built and launched similar robotic vehicles, and a commercial U.S. spacecraft, Dragon from California company SpaceX, has recently entered the field with its first visit to the station in May.
Next Space Station Crew to Try 'Fishy' Science
Denise Chow - Space.com
When the next Russian-built Soyuz capsule launches to the International Space Station in October, it will deliver three new crewmembers to the orbiting outpost. But the trio of spaceflyers will be sharing their ride with some special cargo: 32 small fish for a science experiment at the space lab.
NASA astronaut Kevin Ford and Russian cosmonauts Evgeny Tarelkin and Oleg Novitskiy are scheduled to launch to the International Space Station on Oct. 15 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Their Soyuz TMA-06M capsule will also be carrying 32 Medaka fish — a type of fish native to Southeast Asia — to the orbiting complex.
"They'll be on our Soyuz with us — 32 fish, plus the three of us," Ford told reporters in a news briefing Thursday.
The Medakas will become part of an experiment carried out on the station to investigate the effects of microgravity on fish. The astronauts aboard the outpost will monitor changes in the fish as they live in orbit. [7 Everyday Things that Happen Strangely In Space]
"When we come onboard, one of the first items will be to get these fish transferred and into their habitat and get the experiment underway," Ford explained.
The fish will stay in a special aquatic habitat that is being delivered to the space station by a robotic Japanese cargo freighter. The Japanese unmanned H-2 Transfer Vehicle-3, or HTV-3, launched into orbit on July 20, and will arrive at the space station Friday.
Fish in Space: Space Station Gets an Aquarium
Nancy Atkinson - Universe Today
How does microgravity impact marine life? One of the more unique experiments on board the Japanese HTV-3 supply ship, scheduled to be berthed to the International Space Station’s Harmony node at 12:00 UTC on July 27, 2012, is the Aquatic Habitat, or AQH. It is basically an aquarium designed to function in space, complete with fish called Medaka. While there are several experiments planned for the AQH, surely the astronauts will enjoy watching their newest “pets” on the ISS.
Sponsored by the Japanese Space Agency, or JAXA, the AQH is a closed-water circulatory system, which provides a new facility option for station research. Scientists will use the habitat to study small, freshwater fish on orbit, the Medaka (Oryzias latipes).
This is not the first time fish have been part of a space mission. Versions of the AQH flew on space shuttle missions STS-47, STS-65, and STS-90. The current system’s design upgrades are based on lessons learned from these missions.
Scientists have multiple studies planned to look at the impacts of radiation, bone degradation, muscle atrophy, and developmental biology. The investigations could last up to 90 days and provide data that may lead to a better understanding of related human health concerns here on Earth.
“We think studies on bone degradation mechanisms and muscle atrophy mechanisms are applicable to human health problems, especially for the aging society,” said Nobuyoshi Fujimoto, associate senior engineer at JAXA’s Space Environment Unitization Center.
Fujimotoe said the Medaka fish are ideal specimens for many reasons. They are transparent, making it easy to view the inner workings of their organs. They also breed quickly and easily in microgravity environments, enabling multi-generation studies. Researchers can take advantage of a variety of genetic modifications to these fish, as well. Finally, scientists already have all of the Medaka genome identified, which makes it easier to recognize any alterations to the fishes’ genes, due to factors like space radiation.
The AQH will reside in the Japanese Experiment Module, or JEM, which is also known as Kibo, or “hope” in Japanese. It will attach to a multipurpose small payload rack for power and housing.
This habitat will provide automatic feeding for the fish, air-water interface, temperature control, and a specimen sampling mechanism. There will be two chambers for habitation, each sized at 15 by 7 by 7 cm, holding about 700 cc water and a stabilized area for oxygen that will enable fish to “peck” air. LED lights will simulate day and night cycles, while two video cameras record images of the fish to downlink to the ground, upon request.
This facility includes an improved water circulation system that monitors water conditions, removing waste while ensuring proper pressure and oxygen flow rates.
“In order to keep water quality in good condition for the health of the fish, we had to do many tests on the filtration system, especially the bacteria filter,” said Fujimoto. “The special bacteria filter purifies waste materials, such as ammonia, so that we can keep fish for up to 90 days. This capability will make it possible for egg-to-egg breeding aboard station, which means up to three generations may be born in orbit. This would be a first for fish in space.”
Hopefully the crew will enjoy viewing and monitoring the fish, and those of us on Earth look forward to some live views of the fish in microgravity.
Battling for Future Space Shuttle Program: Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico
Phil Keating - Fox News
Even space dreams are bigger in Texas.
"Keep in mind we're not just talking about a rail station or something like that,” says Texas Space Alliance’s Rick Tumlinson. “We're talking about a port to the solar system and eventually the stars."
Tumlinson’s referring to an undeveloped, green space in Brownsville, Texas, right across the Mexican border from Matamoros. This, in the eyes of the Texas Space Alliance, Lone Star State business leaders and Governor Rick Perry’s office, is where the launch pads of the future could--and should--be built. Launch pads for the growing number of private, commercial “new space” companies like Space X, Blue Origin, Boeing and Sierra Nevada. And, for Texas, a launch pad for its high-tech economy, promising thousands of well-paying jobs.
But Florida, the other state impacted the most by NASA’s retiring of the Space Shuttle fleet last summer, isn’t just sitting back and allowing alligators to take over the Kennedy Space Center. Space Florida is competing for the businesses and jobs, too.
“It IS a new space race,” says Space Florida’s Frank Debillo, accelerated by the historic success in May of Hawthorne, California-based Space X, becoming the first, non-governmental space craft to launch and dock with the International Space Station, deliver cargo and return to Earth with experiments, unneeded gear and a load of space garbage. With NASA contracts to deliver cargo—and possibly astronauts—multiple times over the next few years, combined with its own contracts to deliver satellites for others, Space X wants a 2nd launch facility.
Unlike the Cold War space race 50 years ago, this one’s between the 2 states—as well as Puerto Rico—vying to take part and the growing number of private aerospace companies that hope to fill the void the space shuttles. Companies like Blue Origin, Boeing and Sierra Nevada are direct competitors with Space X, each at varying stages behind it.
Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico are each offering millions of dollars-worth of incentives to attract Space X. Space Florida is even putting on the table world-famous launch pad 39A, from where the shuttles so often blasted off into space.
"Right now there is an abundance of infrastructure that is there,” says Frank DeBillo. “This is either excess or underutilized by either NASA or the Air Force."
With 5 decades of rocket launch history, Florida clearly is far ahead in space infrastructure and support.
But it IS busier than Texas’ Brownsville site.
With NASA and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station launches also happening, occasionally, Space X may have to wait to launch its Falcon rockets and their payloads. .
Texas also argues its proximity to the equator makes it a smarter choice. The Earth spins faster at the equator than the poles, thus a rocket launched closer to the equator leaves the pad already going faster, requiring less fuel (and cost) to get into orbit.
Space X isn’t hinting at where it may go, but with the growth of its “new space” competitors, there may end up being plenty of high-tech jobs and launch pads to go around.
Even a (Deliberate) Malfunction Didn't Ruin Orion's Latest Landing
Amy Teitel - AmericaSpace.org
For now, at least until retrorocket controlled landings become feasible, parachutes are a pretty pretty vital pieces of hardware for spacecraft. Particularly manned vehicles where the parachute is responsible for the astronauts’ safe return from a mission. Looking ahead to its next manned program, NASA successfully tested the Orion spacecraft’s parachute over the Arizonian desert last week.
Like the Apollo spacecraft it so closely resembles, Orion will splashdown at the end of its missions. We’re actually only a couple of years away from seeing a real Orion parachute in action. The spacecraft is scheduled to make its first unmanned orbital flight sometime in 2014.
Launching on a Delta IV rocket operated by United Launch Alliance, the unmanned Orion will reach a peak orbital altitude 3,600 miles above Earth’s surface – that’s 15 times farther than the International Space Station orbits. The main objective on this flight is to understand Orion’s heat shield performance at speeds associated with a return to Earth from deep space.
This is, all leading up to Orion’s ultimate mission – to send astronauts to the Moon, asteroids, and beyond. And, of course, bringing them home safely both after a mission and during an emergency abort. In either case, the parachute is a vital piece of technology to ensure a safe re-entry and landing.
Last week’s test was a drop test. A C-17 airplane carried a boilerplate Orion spacecraft – a dummy that mimics the shape, size, and weight of the real thing – over the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in southwestern Arizona. The plane then dropped the boilerplate spacecraft from an altitude of 25,000 feet.
Orion’s parachute has reefing lines, lines that are cut with pyrotechnics to slow the parachute’s inflation. This moderates the speed at which it inflates, controlling the amount of initial drag and force on the parachute. The drogue chutes that increase stability during descent deployed between 15,000 feet and 20,000 feet. These were followed by the pilot parachutes that deployed the main landing chutes.
Once everything was fully deployed and inflated, Orion fell at about 25 feet per second – well below its maximum designed touchdown speed to make a soft landing on the desert floor.
This is the latest in a long string of Orion parachute tests that began in 2007 with air and ground-based tests, as well as one successful pad abort test in 2010. All of the tests build an understanding of the chutes’ technical performance for eventual human-rated certification. The main objective of the latest drop test was to determine how the entire system would respond if one of the reefing lines was cut prematurely, causing the three main parachutes to inflate too quickly. With Orion’s soft touchdown, it seems one reefing line malfunction won’t ruin a while landing.
William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for the Human exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington pointed out how this test ties in with Orion’s overall progress. “Across the country, NASA and industry are moving forward on the most advanced spacecraft ever designed,” he said. The successful parachute test in Yuma “is an important reminder of the progress being made on Orion.”
Orion’s 2014 launch on a Delta won’t be the final configuration for the spacecraft. Because Delta wasn’t designed to launch Orion, engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, are building adapter hardware to connect the two.
This adapter hardware will eventually connect Orion to its intended launch vehicle, the Space Launch System (SLS). This heavy lifting vehicle, when built, will be the most powerful rocket ever constructed. SLS, which will be flexible to carry both manned Orion spacecraft and cargo payload on deep space missions, is scheduled to carry an unmanned Orion into lunar orbit in 2017. Of course, there’s no shortage of speculation over whether or not SLS will ever be realized. And what that might mean for Orion isn’t entirely clear just yet.
House committee to look at suborbital spaceflight and astronaut artifacts next week
SpacePolitics.com
Next week, just before the House is scheduled to recess until after the nominating conventions, the House Science Committee is planning to take up a couple of space-related issues. On Wednesday, August 1, the committee’s space subcommittee will hold a hearing on “The Emerging Commercial Suborbital Reusable Launch Vehicle Market”.
Representatives of three suborbital vehicles developers—Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, and XCOR Aerospace—and others will testify about the industry. It’s not clear if this is tied to any planned legislation or is instead more of a fact-funding hearing.
The following day, the full committee will markup up legislation regarding ownership of astronaut artifacts. The bill, HR 4158, would confer onto astronauts of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs ownership of any “expendable item” used on those missions that are now in the possession of the astronauts, as well as “other expendable, disposable, or personal-use items” they used. (Lunar material is specifically excluded from the bill.)
The chairman of the House Science Committee, Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX), introduced the legislation in March after a couple of incidents where former astronauts tried to sell such items but were stopped by NASA, which argued that those items were still federal property.
Students quiz orbiting astronaut via live ham radio
Samieh Shalash - Hampton Roads Daily Press
As the clock struck 10:07 Thursday morning, students at the Virginia Air & Space Center began rattling off questions to an astronaut orbiting overhead.
Through live ham radio, they had a direct connection to Sunita Williams, who blasted off mid-July for a four-month mission on the International Space Station.
With static crackling and time ticking, Williams quickly answered questions during an 11-minute connection with the center's Amateur Satellite Station, KE4XZW.
"Sometimes, of course," said Williams. "When you're on a rocket it takes a lot of fuel and fire to go up. Once you get into space, it's not so scary. You're just floating around. — Over."
It was take two for the live radio chat, which fizzled last month after lightning struck the museum's antenna and left participants with nothing but dead air.
This time, students who volunteer or attend camp at the center read questions on behalf of children ages 5 to 17 who missed out on the first try and couldn't make it to the second.
They wanted to know what Williams does in space, what the food is like and what she does when bored up there.
"We're hardly ever bored in space," Williams said. "We spend a lot of time looking out the window and flying around." The crew is also gearing up to watch the Olympics, she said.
As for the food, "some is good, some is not," she said. "There's not much bread up here — we eat tortillas so there's not as many crumbs."
Williams is a former Navy pilot and the woman with the most time in space, a record earned during a six-month mission that began in late 2006.
Space is simply beautiful, Williams told a teen who asked, "Is the look of space cool?"
As the space station orbits the planet 16 times a day, astronauts see a series of gorgeous sunrises and sunsets, she said.
"It is really cool when you look into the universe," she said.
Ammar Bayyan, a rising sophomore at Bethel High, was impressed. The 14-year-old said he once wanted to be an astronaut, and might look into it again after hearing Williams speak.
"I wanted to know why they want to go (to space)," he said. "It's dangerous, but also worth it — humans were made to explore. Without exploration, we wouldn't know anything we know today."
Yardney to power new NASA spacecraft
Tom Verde - Westerly Sun (Rhode Island)
With the moon conquered, the planet Mars now beckons as one of the U.S. space program’s primary destinations. One day, in the not too distant future, humans will get there, thanks, in part, to several dozen factory workers in Pawcatuck.
That was the message delivered by NASA astronaut Rex J. Walheim, who was in town Wednesday, along with fellow astronaut Lee J. Archambault, on a visit to Yardney Technical Products Inc. on Mechanic Street. The 68-year-old high density battery manufacturer is the exclusive supplier of lithium-ion batteries for NASA’s manned spacecraft, the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV). The Lockheed Martin spacecraft is replacing the space shuttle, retired in 2011 after 30 years of service, and will serve as the exploration craft that will carry crews into space and back.
“You guys are a big part of that, and we thank you,” said Walheim, addressing an audience of nearly all of Yardney’s 150 local employees.
Yardney President Vincent A. Yevoli Jr. presented Walheim and Archambault with individual, souvenir power cells from one of the Orion lithium-ion batteries, which weighs about 100 pounds and is roughly the size of a large shoebox (17 by 12 by 9 inches). These units will provide power when there is no sunlight for the vehicle’s solar panels, such as when the space vehicle is in the shadow or the Moon or Earth, as well as during return trips to Earth.
“The Orion is going to take us farther than any other space vehicle, be it to asteroids or to Mars, and the Yardney battery will provide the power. Power is everything. Without it, you can’t get back home,” said Walheim, a veteran of three space shuttle missions.
The Orion will be equipped with four Yardney rechargeable batteries. While their development and manufacture is, literally, rocket science, the technology behind them is not all that different from that used every day by the average earthbound consumer.
“It’s the same kind of chemistry that is in the batteries of your laptop, your cellphone, or your camcorder,” said Yardney’s director of engineering, Robert Gitzendanner. The challenge, he said, was making a product small enough to fit into the space available and durable enough to withstand the extreme temperatures as well as the shock and vibrations of takeoff and re-entry, which Walheim compared to being at the top of a tall building during an earthquake.
The NASA veteran and his colleague answered questions from Yardney employees and gave a presentation about what space travel is like. The talk clarified a few misconceptions — Walheim said he does not know a single astronaut who has reported seeing the Great Wall of China from space, but that, with the help of a telephoto lens, the pyramids are clearly visible — and included intriguing details, such as the way space smells: “Like fresh metal,” said Archambault.
The Orion battery is not the first Yardney product to make it into space. The company has made batteries for satellites, the U.S. Air Force’s B-2 Bomber and Global Hawk unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, as well as the Mars Exploratory Rover which, as of press time, has been up and running on the Martian surface for more than eight years (you can check the exact time with a web search for Yardney Lithion).
Walheim said the first flight test of the Orion will be in 2014, with another planned test three years later. The first manned flight will be in 2021, though its destination has yet to be determined. While plans for the colonization of Mars are getting closer to science fact than science fiction, Walheim says such missions are still a long way off.
“A mission to Mars would take possibly three years,” he speculated. “Nine months to get there, nine months back, and maybe a year on the surface..”
Such a journey, he said, would require more than a reliable cache of rechargeable batteries.
“At a point, just a few weeks from Earth, [our planet] is going to recede to a star, just a dot in the sky” he mused. “Some people say it’s going to redefine the meaning of the word loneliness. But in the same way we had explorers who left the Old World for the New World, there will be people who will want to do that, and will be willing to take that risk.”
Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer claims huge cosmic ray haul
Jason Palmer - BBC News
The largest-ever experiment in space has reported the collection of some 18 billion "cosmic ray" events that may help unravel the Universe's mysteries.
The data haul is far greater than the total number of cosmic rays recorded in a full century of looking to date.
Run from a centre at Cern, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) aims to spot dark matter and exotic antimatter.
The astronauts who installed it on the space station in 2011 are in Geneva to see an update on how it is performing.
Mission commander Mark Kelly told reporters that AMS was "the pinnacle of the science that the ISS will do".
The huge number of events seen by the experiment includes some of the highest-energy particles from the cosmos that we have ever seen.
Kelly's flight - the STS-134 mission - was the last for the shuttle Endeavour before it was retired from the Nasa fleet.
The crew visited the Payload and Operations Control Centre at Cern on Wednesday, where a shift of six scientists is watching what is whizzing through the AMS 24 hours a day.
Seven-tonne giant
AMS deputy spokesman Roberto Battiston told BBC News that seeing the astronauts back in town was "a great joy".
"We are really thankful of these astronauts because we should never forget they put their lives at stake to do something that for us is pure fun - that is our interest, our curiosity," he said.
"They have high expectations that the AMS will find something interesting, because they put a lot of effort into it. They feel part of the family."
At the heart of the seven-tonne, $2bn machine is a giant, specially designed magnet which bends the paths of extraordinarily high-energy charged particles called cosmic rays onto a series of detectors, giving hints of what the particles are.
A series of ever-larger particle accelerators built here on Earth aim to drive particles to ever-higher energies, smashing them into one another to simulate the same processes that create them elsewhere in the cosmos.
But no Earth-bound experiment can match nature's power as a particle accelerator - and Earth's atmosphere absorbs incoming cosmic rays - so the AMS will catch some of these high-energy particles "from the source", as a kind of complement to the likes of the Large Hadron Collider.
In scientific terms, the stakes could not be higher. The AMS should be able to spot the results of collisions of the mysterious dark matter that makes up most of the mass of our Universe, catch completely new forms of matter that include the aptly named "strange" quark, or resolve why the Universe we see is made mostly of matter rather than antimatter.
"It took more than 35 missions to build the International Space Station - very complicated space shuttle flights - to construct this incredible laboratory in space," said Captain Kelly.
"When we installed AMS, that was the last piece of the ISS, then the space station was complete. This is really the pinnacle of the science that ISS will do, in my opinion the most significant experiment we have on board."
In its 14 months of operation, the AMS has logged some 18 billion cosmic rays - more than collected in a century of looking before now.
But the AMS is a one-of-a-kind machine, so it has taken some time just to understand what it is seeing hundreds of times per second - and the team has only analysed a few percent of the data.
Nobel laureate Sam Ting of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has led the project since its inception some 17 years ago, through a number of setbacks and budget concerns that nearly saw the project shelved altogether - until an act of the US Congress and an unscheduled shuttle mission put it in space.
The team has already noted an excess of extremely high-energy positrons - the antimatter equivalent of electrons - and atomic nuclei at 9 teraelectronvolts (TeV) - higher even than the LHC can produce.
But Prof Ting is interested most of all in careful, methodical work, and is in no hurry to formally announce any findings.
"I have told my collaborators that in the next 40-50 years it is very unlikely people will be so foolish as to repeat this experiment, given the difficulty I ran into," Prof Ting told BBC News.
"Therefore it's extremely important when we publish a result, we publish it correctly, because otherwise you'll certainly mislead physics and there's no way to check us."
Looking for answers
Mission specialist on STS-134 Greg Chamitoff told BBC News that it was "great to be able to celebrate together" with the AMS team.
"If they discover an antimatter particle - even one - that'll be phenomenal, because they'll also know which direction it came from and they might be able to say 'that galaxy over there is an animtatter galaxy'," he said.
"What we learn from what it discovers could really transform our understanding of what's in the Universe."
The astronauts were accompanied by their wives, including STS-134 mission commander Mark Kelly's wife, Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. The trip to Cern is her first international journey since recovering from a gun attack in her home state just a few months before the mission.
Cern's director of research Sergio Bertolucci welcomed the visitors, saying "it is a clear sign that we'll not find our answers in only one place".
"The fact that AMS is addressing some of the same questions (as the LHC) is in my opinion a nice way in which we see that in this field we cannot get too specialised because probably the answer we're looking for... needs more, different inputs," he told BBC News.
"After all, we're trying to explain this small thing: why the Universe is like it is."
Prof Ting stubbornly refuses to be drawn on what he expects, or even hopes, to find as the team catches up with its glut of data.
Instead he imagines that perhaps we cannot conceive of what is to come.
"Look at particle physics in the last half century," he said.
"In the 60s, the largest accelerators were at Cern and Brookhaven, to study nuclear forces. At Cern, they discovered neutral currents; at Brookhaven they found two kinds of neutrinos, CP violation and the J particle. All three were given Nobel prizes.
"At Fermilab, the original purpose was to study neutrino physics, what was discovered was the fifth and sixth quarks.
"When you build something new, you ask the best expert what could be discovered, but what you discover with a precision instrument normally has nothing to do with the original purpose."
Futuristic Space Plane Concept Moves Closer to Reality
Rob Coppinger - Space.com
A giant space plane that doubles as a supersonic jet is closer than ever to becoming a reality.
Skylon is a privately funded, single-stage-to-orbit vehicle designed to take off and land from a runway, delivering up to 33,000-pounds (15,000 kilograms) into orbit. That payload could be a satellite or crew module, its makers say. Under development by Abingdon, England-based aerospace company Reaction Engines Ltd., Skylon's progress has interested the European Space Agency, and the small U.K. firm has revealed to SPACE.com its latest progress.
"We are now planning the next phase of development and raising the financing for it," Mark Hempsell, the company's future programs director, told SPACE.com.
Progress on the Skylon space plane's heat shield, superstructure, aerodynamics, avionics and critical rocket engine technologies is expected to help the European Space Agency compare the unpiloted reusable spacecraft's business case with expendable launch vehicles next year.
The next phase
Skylon is a space plane concept with a slender fuselage that has delta wings attached midway. On the wings' tips is the Synthetic Air Breathing Engine, or SABRE.
The "next phase" Hempsell refers to will involve building a SABRE engine and test-flying it. But building an engine will require a consortium, and Reaction Engines is now looking for partners. The firm has successfully tested a SABRE engine rocket nozzle, called Expansion/Deflection, to improve thrust, with the help of University of Bristol engineers. Its results have now been independently verified by the ESA.
Another key SABRE technology is the heat exchanger, which cools the incoming air to feed it to the engine that burns it with onboard hydrogen. In the thicker lower atmosphere the air entering the engine will be hotter than 1,830 degrees Fahrenheit (1,000 degrees Celsius). This air needs to be cooled or the engine overheats.
The air will be cooled to a cryogenic minus 238 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 150 degrees Celsius) in one one-hundredth of a second. However, once the space plane enters rocket mode above the useful atmosphere, the hydrogen will be burned with onboard liquid oxygen.
Future tests
Tested at Reaction Engine's B9 facility with a Viper jet engine from March to April this year, a flight-weight heat exchanger ran for the full ascent duration, six to eight minutes, cooling the viper's exhaust to around 14 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 10 degrees Celsius). The next tests, starting in August, will aim for the cryogenic temperatures.
For the exchanger work, the ESA and the U.K. government provided about 1 million Euros ($1.2 million) in 2009. Early work is also under way on the engine's circulators, to circulate the medium SABRE uses to transfer the incoming air's heat, which is helium.
As well as building the SABRE engine, the next phase will see the current Skylon design, called C1, progressed toward the D1 configuration. Flying the space plane in the atmosphere faster than five times the speed of sound requires good aerodynamics. The D1 design is expected to help solve outstanding issues such as how to trim Skylon in flight. Aircraft use trim, meaning flight control surface adjustment, to adapt to changes in aerodynamic lift that occur as the aircraft flies faster and higher.
To control this supersonic space plane in the atmosphere, Reaction Engine's avionics development has reached a stage where hardware standards are being identified. Strategies such as adopting military standards or converting qualified satellite or aviation hardware for the reusable space plane were all considered. But Spacewire, a European standard that originated at Scotland's University of Dundee, is now to be used for the Skylon flight computer databus.
Withstanding the heat
When re-entering, like the space shuttle, Skylon will experience extreme temperatures. However, its heat shield will not have to be developed from scratch; the material already exists. The heat-shield material is a fiber-reinforced ceramic that can withstand temperatures up to 2,060 degrees Fahrenheit (1,127 degrees Celsius). It has already been tested in a plasma chamber by Reaction Engines.
The challenge is that the company behind it is no longer in business. Reaction Engines plans to re-create the material, but also has the option of buying from a French company, which has a similar product.
Under the heat shield is the superstructure of the space plane, which is to be made of titanium-silicon struts. The technicalities of this alloy have been overcome and now the work is focusing on reducing the strut's manufacturing cost, officials say.
Titanium is known to be an expensive metal to process. Reaction Engines is also planning for a shaker table that would shake a scale-model of a portion of the superstructure and its struts, to demonstrate the vehicle can cope with the forces it will experience during the rapid ascent into orbit.
Making progress
Such progress is enough that Hempsell is expecting in a year's time "to give ESA Skylon as a comparable [vehicle], they will be able to do an apples-for-apples comparison, I hope," he said.
That apples-to-apples comparison with expendable launchers will be more than a technical comparison. On July 18, Reaction Engines had a meeting with the ESA's launcher directorate, which oversees European rocket development. Also present were the U.K. Space Agency and representatives from the ESA's European Space Research and Technology Centre.
"We showed them the [Skylon development] program," Hempsell said. "The launcher directorate was less concerned by the technical details, I think because ESTEC are already monitoring that. The launcher directorate felt they didn't need to do a technical job because ESTEC and Mark Ford's chemical propulsion department are already doing a technical job on us."
The launcher directorate's confidence in Skylon follows a technical assessment of the space plane by the agency that concluded in May 2011 that there were no issues that would prevent successful continued development of the space plane.
Instead, Hempsell explained, Reaction Engines' approach was "trying out a standard business model. We're treating them like our first customer, such as an airline's got a requirement, we might not have exactly what they have in mind, but we turn up with the product we've got."
Business model
The business model for Skylon is a plan to offer the vehicle as a transportation system like a railway, a shipping company or an airline. Those are similarly large-scale investments in the million- and billion-dollar range, with a return that is spread over many years.
These various technical assessments and oversights led ESA Director-General Jean-Jacques Dordain to speak of his agency's increasing interest in Skylon and the planned July 18 meeting at an impromptu media briefing a week before, on July 10 at the Farnborough International Airshow in Hampshire, England. "I think there is a genuine interest there in terms of what we can do for [ESA]," Hempsell said. "We mostly concentrated on what Skylon would look like in a European context. How it would be marketed and funded."
Another reason for Dordain's interest in Reaction Engines is its application to the launcher directorate's New European Launch Service (NELS) program.
Unsuccessful in its initial bid, Reaction Engines will continue to inform the directorate of its progress while two companies, Germany's OHB System and EADS Astrium, maker of ESA's workhorse rocket, Ariane 5, have been funded with up to 2 million euros ($2.5 million) for the one-year NELS program.
In Hempsell's view, the launcher directorate was surprised that Reaction Engines met NELS technical requirements but without the directorate's assumed model about how the requirements would be met.
On the same day Dordain spoke of his agency's interest in Skylon, Reaction Engines announced at its air show exhibit that its March and April heat exchanger tests had been successful. The U.K. government space minister, David Willetts MP, was present and endorsed the space plane. "The technology has been appraised by ESA and our [UK] space agency, and their assessments have always been very positive," Willetts said. "I've been very impressed with the technical assessments so far."
Willetts added that his government was considering how it can support Reaction Engines further. This could include resolving regulatory issues, because there are no European rules about operating reusable space planes. The ESA's head of chemical propulsion, Mark Ford, was also present and said, "We've been impressed with what has happened so far. ESA expects a successful outcome by the end of the year. For the heat exchangers there are spinoffs for aviation and other industries."
Thoughts on future of manned spaceflight (from someone who’s been there)
Jeffrey Marlow - Wired.com
The fate of the American manned spaceflight program has inspired much debate about the utility of the program and the role of manned vs. robotic expeditions. A couple of months ago, I had the privilege of meeting one of the fortunate (and ridiculously qualified) few who has been there: astronaut Don Thomas.
Thomas had a prolific career at NASA, flying on four missions in just three years and setting a shuttle-era record for most frequent flights in the process. He has since retired from NASA and is pursuing education-based projects at Towson University. We spoke at Baltimore’s Jemicy School about the state of manned spaceflight – I played the role of Devil’s advocate; Thomas that of former astronaut.
Wired: Why do you think a human presence in space is needed? Aren’t robots more efficient and cheaper?
Thomas: Yes, robots are much cheaper, but they simply cannot capture the human perspective and the excitement of a human presence. If you compare color pictures taken of the Moon’s surface from the unmanned Surveyor spacecraft that landed on the moon in 1967-68 to pictures of the surface of the moon that include the image of an astronaut like Buzz Aldrin on Apollo 11, the difference is incredibly striking. Robots can send back pictures but cannot convey the excitement in their voice and the awe of being there. Humans are uniquely suited for this. Humans are much better observers, can solve problems better, can make repairs of broken equipment, deal with the unexpected, and can typically cover more ground quicker than our robots have been able to do.
We send humans in submersibles to explore the ocean depths. We send humans into war zones and other disaster areas. Humans can uniquely “take other humans along with them” to share the experience of what it is like. Our Mars rovers have been extremely scientifically successful. When humans arrive on the surface of Mars in the future, I would imagine the entire planet Earth will stop what they are doing to watch and experience the moment as representatives from Earth begin their exploration. I don’t see the issue as humans vs. machines; a combination of both seems to make the most sense.
Wired: It seems like the biggest problem in developing a successor to the shuttle is sustained political will. Why do you think it’s so difficult to follow through on a program from one administration to the next?
Thomas: I don’t think the problem is so much political will as it is financial resources. During economic boom times, when governments have plenty of resources, they are more likely to spend money on space exploration, the arts, etc. During difficult financial times when resources are tight, it is much harder to spend vast amounts on space. This is true not just for the United States but also for Japan, Canada, Russia, and the European Union. The Shuttle program was started by Nixon in 1972 and survived an impressive 4 decades and many different administrations. It can be done.
Wired: What do you think it will take to jump-start the manned space program in the US again? Many people would argue that competition, particularly from China, is the only way to instigate more funding – do you think this is true?
Thomas: If the U.S. economy started booming once again I could see our country putting some major resources into exploration. I think serious competition from China will spur this on a bit, but only if resources are available.
Wired: How do you see private companies interfacing with NASA regarding manned space flight? Will private companies ever really move beyond low earth orbit flights into the realm of exploratory, cutting edge missions?
Thomas: Commercial companies will enter space when it is economically feasible. You cannot force this commercialization. It will happen on its own when the conditions are right, i.e., when it is economically feasible. If there is no profit to be made from manufacturing products in space or launching space tourists, it just won’t happen. So when either launch costs are significantly reduced or when there is high value added to products flown in space it will make economic sense.
Wired: What do you think accounts for the overall decline in interest in manned spaceflight over the decades from its peak in 1969 to today?
Thomas: I strongly disagree that there is any less interest in human space exploration today than 50 years ago. Space is still a fascinating place for young students and grown adults. Elementary school children are no less interested in space than my generation was 50 years ago. I base this on going out to 75 schools every year and speaking to thousands of students. Some people portray the Space Shuttle program as uninteresting compared to going to the moon, and while the destinations are quite different, both are exploring the unknowns of the Universe, and I have met very few people who have found watching a Space Shuttle launch or viewing an IMAX movie of the International Space Station or repair of the Hubble Space Telescope boring. Space universally captures the attention and interest of a wide audience.
Wired: If you were to guess a year, when do you think we’ll see humans on Mars?
Thomas: It’s hard to predict when a Mars landing will take place because it is so dependent on our economy and both national and international politics. It would be much easier to predict technologically when we could perform such a mission. I speak to thousands of young students every year and let me tell you, this generation is interested in going to Mars. In 10-20 years they will be a major voting group. Looking into my crystal ball considering all these factors, I will predict that humans will land on Mars in the next 30-40 years. It may be the United States doing this or it may be China, India, or some other emerging world power with an economy to support such an incredible adventure.
Another big piece of shuttle trainer arrives in WA
Associated Press
Another big piece of the Space Shuttle Trainer has arrived at Seattle's Museum of Flight.
NASA's special Super Guppy plane delivered the aft portion of the payload bay to the museum on Thursday morning.
Using Air Force moving equipment, the giant artifact was transferred from the plane to the museum's space gallery. All together, the payload bay is 61 feet long, 19 feet wide and 23.5 feet high. It is being transported from Houston to Seattle in pieces.
The Museum of Flight won the opportunity to display the full-scale mock-up of a space shuttle, which has been used to train every NASA astronaut in the space shuttle era.
The museum says visitors are welcome to visit the trainer as it is pieced back together. They will be able to walk through the whole artifact by October.
Salyut 1: The First Space Station
Nola Taylor Redd - Space.com
Despite an array of problems, the first space station, Salyut 1, made important progress toward living and working in space long-term and paved the way for future space stations. Launched by the Soviet Union in 1971, the port orbited the Earth almost 3,000 times during its 175 days in space before it was intentionally crashed into the Pacific Ocean.
Shaped like a cylinder, Salyut 1 bore three pressurized compartments for astronauts and one unpressurized area containing the engines and control equipment. The station was about 65 feet (20 meters) long and 13 feet (4 meters) in diameter at its widest point. Two double sets of solar panels extended like wings on the exterior of the compartments at either end.
Visiting the space station
Salyut 1 launched unmanned from the Soviet Union on April 19, 1971. Two days later, Soyuz 10 lifted off, carrying a crew of three toward the space station with the intention of remaining in space for 30 days. The cosmonauts attempted to dock with Salyut 1, but although they were able to lock onto the station, a problem with the hatch kept them from being able to enter it. They returned home early and unsuccessful. During the re-entry process, a problem rendered the air supply of Soyuz 10 toxic, and one of the cosmonauts slipped into unconsciousness. All three survived with no long-term effects.
On June 6, Soyuz 11 transported cosmonauts Georgi Dobrovolski, Vladislav Vokov, and Viktor Patsayev to Salyut 1, where after three hours, they successfully docked with the station. They remained on board for 383 orbits in the course of just over three weeks, setting a new space endurance record. On June 16, smoke from a control panel caused the crew to consider abandoning the station, but the unit was switched off and the problem averted.
On June 29, the crew transferred back to the Soyuz 11 and began the return to Earth. Disaster struck when a ventilation valve was jolted open during the re-entry, pressurizing the interior of the ship. Cosmonauts at the time did not wear suits while in flight, so all three men were tragically killed. As a result, several changes were made to the Soviet policy, but they could not be implemented while Salyut 1 remained in orbit. No further trips were made to the station.
On October 11, 1971, the engines on Salyut 1 fired for the last time, bringing the space station into a lower orbit that would result in its eventual plunge into the Pacific Ocean. But despite its early death, Salyut 1 set the stage for stations to come after. The Soviets continued to put short-term stations into space for several years until they felt they were ready for a long-term project.
Mir and the ISS
In 1986, the Soviet Union launched the first components of the space station Mir, which was assembled in orbit over the course of a decade. Considerably larger than Salyut 1, Mir was just over 60 feet (19 meters) long and 100 feet (31 meters) wide. It weighed in at 285,940 pounds (129,700 kilograms), more than seven times more massive than the world's first space station.
Mir orbited the Earth more than 86,000 times over the course of fifteen years, and was occupied more than 80 percent of its time in space. The space station had the capacity to support a crew of three, with occasional short-term visitors. Valeri Polyakov spent 437 days 18 hours aboard Mir, setting the record for the longest single human space flight. Mir returned to Earth on March 23, 2001, crashing into the South Pacific Ocean.
Pieces of the ninth inhabited space port, the International Space Station, or ISS, were first launched in 1998. A joint project between five space agencies — the United States, Japan, Canada, Russia, and the European Space Agency — the port has been visited by astronauts from more than 15 countries. At almost 240 feet (72.8 meters) long and 356 feet (108.5 meters) wide, the ISS weighs just under twice the mass of Mir. In 2010, it broke Mir's record of days in flight, and remains there today, serving as a laboratory and observatory in space.
Although the first space station in flight, Salyut 1, was marred by problems, it set the stage for larger and more permanent residencies that would provide greater opportunities to endure the rigors and challenges of life off-planet.
END
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