Being an astronaut is a risky business, especially so in the pioneer days of Mercury through Apollo. With all the safety precautions space agencies take, there’s still no guarantee that an astronaut will return from any given mission. ”You’re about to embark on a mission that’s more dangerous than anything any human has ever done before,” Robert Pearlman, a space historian and collector [...]
Archive for August, 2012
Marathon Expedition 32 Spacewalk Complete
NASA Flight Engineer Sunita Williams and JAXA Flight Engineer Akihiko Hoshide, both members of Expedition 32 on the International Space Station, carried out a spacewalk which began on Thursday 30th at 12:16 GMT and ended at 20:33 GMT. This marked the second spacewalk of the Expedition and the third longest spacewalk ever. During the more than 8 hour extravehicular activity [...]
RBSP Launches
NASA’s Radiation Belt Storm Probe Mission was successfully launched today from Cape Canaveral. After a delay of several days caused by tropical storm Isaac, at at 4:05 EDT (8h05 GMT), the Atlas V rocket carrying the twin spacecraft lifted off from Launch Complex 41 at the cape. Approximately one hour and twenty minutes later, separation of the first spacecraft took [...]
Meteor Explodes Over Wales
On the evening of August 27, residents across south Wales and west England witnessed a streaking fireball accompanied by the sound of an explosion. Most reports are now attributing those events to a meteor. “There was an enormous boom – it sounded like a bomb going off,” said witness Steve Edwards according to the Telegraph. “The force of it shook [...]
ACE Heliospheric Satellite Turns 15
Source: NASA The Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) is Earth’s vanguard. Orbiting around a point 900,000 miles away between the Earth and our sun, this satellite is ever vigilant, recording the combination of radiation — from the sun, from the solar system, from the galaxy – that streams by. None of this radiation can harm humans on Earth, but the biggest [...]
Good Diet, Proper Exercise Help Protect Astronauts’ Bones
Source: NASA Eating right and exercising hard in space helps protect International Space Station astronauts’ bones, a finding that may help solve one of the key problems facing future explorers heading beyond low Earth orbit. A new study, published in the September 2012 issue of the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, looked at the mineral density of specific bones as well [...]
NASA Administrator Speaks on Armstrong’s Death
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden gave the speech that follows on August 27, two days after Neil Armstrong, the celebrated first man to put foot to the Moon, died of complications following cardiac bypass surgery. Armstrong was 82 years old. Staff WritersMore Posts
Singer Sarah Brightman May Be Next Space Tourist
British singer Sarah Brightman, 52, is rumored to become Russia’s next paying space tourist to the International Space Station (ISS), Reuters reported on the 22nd of August. So far, neither Brightman nor Russian authorities will confirm the rumor. Assuming the trip takes place, the singer would make the journey in 2015. “I think that if we do come to a [...]
Talking with Aki Hoshide Aboard ISS
On August 23, JAXA Flight Engineer Aki Hoshide gave an interview to Japanese television network TV Asahi from aboard ISS, where he feels like he’s “back home” on this return trip to the space station. Hoshide will remain aboard the station as part of Expedition 32 through November 2012. Watch an English translation of the interview below: Staff WritersMore [...]
Sri Lanka’s First Space Academy to be Created with Chinese Support
Taking advantage of Chinese technical assistance offered by Sino Satellite Communications Company Ltd (SinoSAT) and China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC), the Sri Lankan company Supreme Satellite Private Ltd (SupremeSAT) just signed a joint agreement for the establishment of a first ever Sri Lankan Space Academy. “I am very glad that this venture coincides with the vision of the President [...]
