Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News

December 20, 2012

Three astronauts blast off for ISS in Russian craft
Baikonur, Kazakhstan (AFP) Dec 19, 2012
A Soyuz spacecraft carrying Russian, American and Canadian astronauts blasted off on Wednesday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan bound for the International Space Station (ISS). The spacecraft took off on schedule at 1212 GMT carrying Russian Roman Romanenko, NASA astronaut Thomas Marshburn and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield, an AFP correspondent said. "The Soyuz TMA-O7M has separated from the third stage booster rocket and has been brought into the correct orbit," the R ... read more

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New Trio Launches to Join Expedition 34 Three new crew members are on their way to join their Expedition 34 crewmates aboard the International Space Station. They launched aboard the Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft at 7:12 a.m. EST (6:12 p.m. Ba ... more		Nearby star is good candidate for Earth-like planets Tau Ceti, one of our closest stars, is a good candidate for hosting an Earth-like planet, astronomers reported on Wednesday. ... more		Health Concerns Could Ground Citizen Astronauts A group of former NASA executives plans to offer excursions to the moon to anyone who can afford the $1.4-million-dollar-per-couple ticket price. Golden Spike Co. is the latest private company ... more
				From Cassini for the Holidays: A Splendor Seldom Seen Just in time for the holidays, NASA's Cassini spacecraft, in orbit around Saturn for more than eight years now, has delivered another glorious, backlit view of the planet Saturn and its rings. ... more		Curiosity Rover Explores 'Yellowknife Bay' The NASA Mars rover Curiosity this week is driving within a shallow depression called "Yellowknife Bay," providing information to help researchers choose a rock to drill. Using Curiosity's per ... more

CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

Sierra Nevada Corporation Selected by NASA to Receive Human Spaceflight Certification Products Contract Sierra Nevada Corporation's (SNC) Space Systems is pleased to announce that its Dream Chaser Space System Program has been selected by NASA's Commercial Crew Program to receive a Certification Produ ... more		Rocketdyne Reaches Milestone for J-2X powerpack Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne successfully completed the last hot-fire test on the J-2X powerpack - an important step toward development of America's next rocket engine designed for human spaceflight ... more		Zelensky says Russia must end war, after Trump pressures Ukraine Iranians struggle with GPS disruption after Israel war China slams Germany for 'hyping' regional tensions in Asia		TDRS-K Arrives at Kennedy for Launch Processing The first in a new class of Tracking and Data Relay Satellites arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Dec. 18 to begin the final phase of launch preparations ahead of a targeted liftof ... more
				Beating Heart of J-2X Engine Finishes Year of Testing NASA on Thursday took another step toward human exploration of new destinations in the solar system. At the agency's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, engineers conducted the final test-firing of ... more		CU-Boulder team develops swarm of pingpong ball-sized robots University of Colorado Boulder Assistant Professor Nikolaus Correll likes to think in multiples. If one robot can accomplish a singular task, think how much more could be accomplished if you had hun ... more

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Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

Venus transit and lunar mirror could help astronomers find worlds around other stars On 6 June 2012 Venus passed directly between the Earth and the Sun, in a so-called transit where the planet appears as a silhouette against the solar disk, something that will not happen again until ... more		Payload integration complete for final 2012 Ariane 5 mission The Skynet 5D satellite has joined its Mexsat Bicentenario co-passenger on Ariane 5, marking a new milestone in preparations for Arianespace's seventh and final heavy-lift flight of 2012 from the Sp ... more		Fossil discoveries in southern Africa reveal life before catastrophic Permian extinction Liverwort gene discovery reveals ancient mechanism behind plant reproductive growth Potato traces its ancient roots to tomato hybridization		Lights to combat astronaut insomnia NASA says it will use lighting technology to help astronauts on the International Space Station sleep better during their "nights" in orbit. ... more
				NASA probes crash into the moon Two NASA probes crashed into the moon on Monday after spending months gathering data by orbiting miles above the lunar surface, the US space agency said. ... more		Operation to "rescue" Yamal-402 a success Experts of the Thales Alenia Space company have completed a unique operation to "rescue" Yamal-402 satellite. On December 9 the Breeze-M upper stage of Russia's Proton heavy-lift rocket failed ... more

Payload integration complete for final 2012 Ariane 5 mission

Arctic town eyes future as Europe's gateway to space

ISRO planning 10 space missions in 2013

Curiosity Rover Explores 'Yellowknife Bay'

Charitum Montes: a cratered winter wonderland

Opportunity Continues Rock Studies

GRAIL Lunar Impact Site Named for Astronaut Sally Ride

NASA probes crash into the moon

Apollo's Lunar Dust Data Being Restored

Halfway Between Uranus and Neptune, New Horizons Cruises On

Dwarf planet Makemake lacks atmosphere

Keck Observations Bring Weather Of Uranus Into Sharp Focus

	GRAIL Lunar Impact Site Named for Astronaut Sally Ride NASA has named the site where twin agency spacecraft impacted the moon Monday in honor of the late astronaut Sally K. Ride, who was America's first woman in space and a member of the probes' mission ... more		Flexing fingers for micro-robotics: Berkeley Lab scientists create a powerful, microscale actuator Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California, Berkeley, have developed an elegant and powerful new mic ... more		Head-mounted cameras could help robots understand social interactions What is everyone looking at? It's a common question in social settings because the answer identifies something of interest, or helps delineate social groupings. Those insights someday will be essent ... more		Apollo's Lunar Dust Data Being Restored Forty years after the last Apollo spacecraft launched, the science from those missions continues to shape our view of the moon. In one of the latest developments, readings from the Apollo 14 and 15 ... more

Low carbon taxes often fail to target emissions reduction

Finding the shadows in a fusion system faster with AI

Macquarie licenses precision silver recovery tech for solar panel recycling

What happens to plant growth when you remove gravity?		Medical Ops, Fan Checks for Space Crew; New Trio Checks Soyuz		Charitum Montes: a cratered winter wonderland		Search for life extends to the stars		Opportunity Continues Rock Studies
Custom robots could do Fukushima cleanup		To reach final frontier, NASA can't go it alone: analysts		Station Crew Does Maintenance as Soyuz Rolls to Launch Pad		ISS Orbit Raised Ahead of Crew Arrival		Enabling ChemCam to Measure Key Isotopic Ratios on Mars and Other Planets

Fast20XX research project - ideas for travelling at hypersonic speed

Hat Trick for X-37B

BepiColombo Mercury Transfer Module Mass Properties Measurement

Thales Makes Second Attempt to Adjust Yamal Orbit

Arctic town eyes future as Europe's gateway to space

China Makes First Asteroid Fly By

Rocket Burn Sets Stage for Dynamic Moon Duos' Lunar Impact

Curious About Life: Interview with Darby Dyer

No plans of sending an Indian on moon

Asteroid Toutatis Slowly Tumbles by Earth

NASA Progressing Toward First Launch of Orion Spacecraft

New member of the exclusive space club

ASU researchers propose new way to look at the dawn of life

US sends futuristic plane back into space

ISRO planning 10 space missions in 2013

Opportunity Checking Out Some Rocks At Matijevic Hill

NASA Gravity Probes Prepare to Hit the Moon

NASA Awards Commercial Crew Certification Contracts

Research: Tiny robots may think as a group

Russia works to fix satellite's off-target orbit

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