Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick. Credit: Paramount Pictures

NASA said Tuesday it is working with Tom Cruise to film a movie on the International Space Station, but details on the arrangements are scarce.

The news that Cruise was in talks with to shoot an action-adventure film on the space station was first reported Monday by Deadline, which said the actor is working with SpaceX on the project.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted Tuesday that the agency is excited to work Tom Cruise on a film aboard the space station.We need popular media to inspire a new generation of engineers and scientists to make NASAs ambitious plans a reality.

Cruise, the 57-year-oldstar of Top Gun and the Mission: Impossible film franchise, has performed daring stunts before. NASA did not confirm Tuesday whether Cruise would himself fly to the space station as part of the film.

SpaceX has not confirmed its role in the film project, but Cruise could fly to the space station on the companys Crew Dragon spaceship. The Crew Dragon is designed to carry up to four people to and from low Earth orbit, potentially room enough for Cruise, a small film crew and a professional astronaut in command.

Elon Musk, SpaceXs founder and CEO, tweeted Tuesday: Should be a lot of fun!

NASA last year said it would enable private astronauts to spend up to 30 days on the International Space Station. The paying passengers would fly to the station on SpaceXs Crew Dragon spacecraft or Boeings CST-100 Starliner crew capsule, the two human-rated spaceships developed by U.S. industry in partnership with NASA.

Private companies would pay for access to the orbiting research outpost, and the commercial companies would be responsible for funding the flights launch and trip to the space station.

Earlier this year, the space tourism company Space Adventures which arranged the flight of Garriott and other wealthy passengers to the station on Russian spacecraft announcedan agreement with SpaceX to fly paying passengers on a Crew Dragon spacecraft without going to the space station. Instead, the Crew Dragon contracted by Space Adventures will fly on its own in Earth orbit, reaching altitudes hundreds of miles above the space station to provide passengers a more expansive view of Earth.

Axiom Space said in March that itsigned a contract with SpaceX to ferry a professional astronaut and three paying passengers to the International Space Station as soon as next year.

Deadline reported Monday that the film project is real but in the early stages of development. No studio is attached yet to the film, Deadline reported.

Cruise narrated the 2002 IMAX documentary filmSpaceStation 3D, which was filmed by astronauts during the assembly of the International Space Station. A short science fiction film namedApogee of Fearwas filmed on the space station in 2008 by Richard Garriott, who paid for his trip to orbit on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

But celebrity spaceflights and past plans for filmmaking projects in orbit have faltered before reaching the launch pad.

Singer Lance Bass of NSYNC began training to fly on a Soyuz mission to the space station in 2002, but his sponsorships fell through. A Russian actor hoped to fly to the Russian space station Mir in 2000, but the project collapsed due to lack of funds.

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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.

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NASA working with Tom Cruise to film movie on the International Space Station - Spaceflight Now

By Chabeli Carrazana,Orlando Sentinel

Like Mission: Impossible, but without gravity. Or, no, no, like Top Gun, but with rockets instead.

Whatever the conversations in the writing room, it seems like Tom Cruise is in talks to take his action skills to the new frontier: Space. And not in the CGI sense.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted Tuesday that Cruise and NASA will be working on a film aboard the International Space Station.

We need popular media to inspire a new generation of engineers and scientists to make NASAs ambitious plans a reality, Bridenstine tweeted.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk chimed in later, tweeting, Should be a lot of fun!

SpaceX is three weeks away from launching humans from the U.S. to the ISS for the first time in nine years. If successful, the program, called Commercial Crew, would then evolve to run operational missions, as well as flights carrying private travelers, like Cruise.

SpaceX and NASA havent specified whether Cruise will fly on one of these missions, or if the three parties will collaborate on a film partially shot in space.

According to Deadline, which broke the news, the film wont be part of the Mission: Impossible franchise. Its still in its early stages, Deadline reported.

Last year, NASA said it was hoping to open the ISS to private astronauts _ at a cost of about $35,000 per day _ with the hopes of allowing commercial businesses access to parts of the station to make, market and promote products, train private astronauts and even use ISS resources for commercial activities, a dramatic change from its prior stance of limiting commercial activity on the station to only science experiments.

The shift is part of the long-term plan for the ISS. NASA plans to cede control of the station over to commercial companies sometime in the 2020s.

In the meantime, the agency is hoping to accommodate two missions a year carrying up to a dozen private astronauts for trips lasting as long as 30 days.

Can you film a movie in that time?

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Tom Cruise working with NASA, SpaceX to film a movie on International Space Station - Brownsville Herald

On February 6th, NASA astronaut Christina Koch returned back to Earth after making history during a nearly year-long stay on board the International Space Station. She had just broken the record for longest continuous spaceflight by a woman, and while she was up there, she performed the first all-female spacewalk in history with her friend and crewmate Jessica Meir. In fact, they did three total spacewalks together.

Now back on solid ground, Koch is experiencing another long-duration mission: social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic. But she says her turn aboard the ISS is helping her cope during this time, and she has some tips for others who may be struggling to stay positive throughout the crisis. Koch also says she has a better understanding of what its going to take to send people on years-long deep-space missions to Mars one day. The key? Combatting what she calls sensory underload.

In the meantime, shes continuing to train as much as she can from home while awaiting her next assignment to space. And for her, the next call from NASA could be a big one. The space agency is aiming to send the first woman to the Moon as early as 2024 as part of its Artemis mission. Its possible that woman could be Koch.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Your first flight to space was very eventful. What was it like when you first got your assignment?

It was a really exciting time, and I ended up being assigned at a time when there was a lot of flux in the flight schedule, so I had an accelerated training flow. Whereas the normal training flow is about two years, mine was about a year. I ended up studying to be in the copilot role in the Soyuz spacecraft. I spent almost all of 2018 living and training in Russia, which was an incredible experience.

Obviously, as a rookie, getting told that youre finally going to achieve your dream of going to the space station is just an incredible moment, similar to the moment you find out youre selected to be in the astronaut corps. Its hard to really believe its happening, but, like anything, NASA gives you plenty to keep you busy.

Your time on the space station was definitely longer than you anticipated. What was it like learning that youd be staying for nearly a year?

I did know in advance that it was a possibility. So for me, the real challenge and what I focused on was not getting too caught up in the sense of needing to know when I would go home. I became comfortable with the concept of launching and not necessarily knowing for sure when I would come back. So I developed a strategy for the longest-possible duration so that I could kind of sustain that tempo no matter what, if it was required.

We say in the industry that for a long-duration spaceflight, its a marathon, not a sprint. So I just told myself it was an ultra-marathon, not a marathon.

Lets talk about your spacewalks, which were such a big deal to everyone on the ground. First, you were assigned to go with Anne McClain, and that was going to be the first all-female spacewalk. Then it was postponed. What was that event like for you, hearing about the backlash that was associated with it?

Being in the moment was a different experience than maybe it was perceived to be from the outside. The spacewalk actually wasnt canceled; it happened. It was conducted by Nick Hague and myself. The decision to change the crew was actually recommended by Anne, based on her own preferences and the additional information she gained from her first spacewalk. And the fact that NASA 100 percent stood behind her decision and did not question it, I thought it was just an incredible example of trusting the crew, trusting the experts that are going to conduct the spacewalk, and trusting Anne to know what the best way to get the job done and to mitigate the risk would be. So I really commend both her and our leadership for going with that decision.

Jessica Meir (L) and Christina Koch (R) preparing for their spacewalk.Image: NASA

But then you also did get to make that history with your crewmate Jessica Meir just a few months later. What was that like, learning that you would actually get to do this all-female spacewalk that was so important to people.

It was just an awesome honor, as they all are. We were focused on the mission; we were excited to conduct the maintenance and upgrade to the space station. And I was just as happy to go out the door with Jessica as I had been with Nick and [NASA astronaut] Andrew [Morgan] on previous spacewalks.

Of course, there is something special that is being part of the first all-female spacewalk, and that was something that we kind of allowed ourselves to really take in and consider more afterward. Because the preparation leading up to that spacewalk, we were all business: focused on the technical aspects, on making sure that we could get the job done. Interestingly, that spacewalk was actually a contingency spacewalk, so it had never been planned to happen. It was because of some unexpected hardware signatures that they saw after the battery replacement. So it was an incredible thing to be a part of, from our perspective, really more because of the teamwork involved in coming up with this incredible spacewalk within the span of a week and executing it successfully. So after the fact, I think we had a little more time to reflect on the historical significance of what we were doing.

Koch taking a space selfie during her spacewalk with Meir.Image: NASA

Obviously, were incredibly grateful to those that paved the way for us to be there. It was a privilege to be there at the right place at the right time.

People are experiencing their own form of spaceflight right now: theyre being socially isolated at home. What kind of advice would you have for them, given your experience?

As we come into the second month of social distancing and staying at home, it reminds me a lot of the latter part of my mission where the biggest challenge was remaining vigilant. We know what we should be doing make a schedule, have a routine, take time for yourself, carve out space, set realistic goals but I think, as it wears on, we kind of lose the vigilance and the commitment to those things. If every day feels like Tuesday, you dont have the grit to make yourself do all of those things we know we should be doing.

So I would say recommit to the things that you know keep you healthy and sane during this time reaching out, supporting each other. Youre probably finding yourself thinking, When is this going to be over? more and more. And for me, the way that I got through times like that was to focus not on the things I was missing out on, but on the unique parts of the situation that I would never have again. So find something that you love about this current situation, and that may be difficult. Some of us are going through really tough times. But find something that makes it special and unique that you know youll miss one day. And if you focus on that, you may find that you arent constantly waiting for it to be over.

What about using your experience to go to the Moon or Mars? Do you feel like you have a better understanding of what its going to take to do these years-long missions into deep space?

Definitely. We talked a lot on board about just that. Something were all probably experiencing right now is what I call sensory underload. Youve seen the same thing for so long. You havent seen new people. You havent smelled new smells. You havent tasted new tastes. And there is a change, I think, in the brain that happens when we dont have new sensory inputs to process every day.

A lot of the things that I think would enhance our long-duration missions are in kind of that realm things like packing care packages for yourself to open throughout the mission, having virtual reality options for interacting in different environments and maybe even interacting with your family, coming up with unique ways to stay connected, using some of the same communication tools that we use on Earth, like, for example, texting.

So some of the answers are actually pretty simple. But I would say, right now, probably everyone in America has some pretty good advice as well on surviving long-duration space missions. Weve all had a little taste of it ourselves.

I feel like Im kind of trying to combat this sensory underload right now by trying to do new things, new activities, that make it seem like Im in a different place than where I am.

One of the things that I did on board is use things like music or even decorating for that. You know, painting a room in your apartment, rearranging the furniture, or listening to a playlist thats of a completely different genre in your house. Things that truly can provide a little bit of relief from sensory underload.

Now that youre back on solid ground, what have you been doing during this period of downtime? Are you still training? Does it weirdly mirror your time on the station?

On the station, our days are 12-hour workdays during the week, filled with maintenance, science, and exercise down to the five-minute increments. So even without social isolation and staying at home, it would have been a big decrease in the amount of regimentation to my schedule coming home.

Image: NASA

You know a lot of people joke: How can an astronaut work from home? And yes, you know, there are a lot of training aspects that we can do and currency aspects that we can do from home. Russian language is a great example of that. And then anyone whos mission essential is still doing their aspects of their job. So a lot of us support real-time space station work by being the CAPCOM in Mission Control. (Thats the person talking to the astronauts throughout the day.) So its a mix of essential work that we do go in for and then staying relevant on our training from home when we cant.

Meanwhile, weve got a lot of big things from NASA coming up at the end of the month. Two of your fellow astronauts will be launching from Florida on a SpaceX rocket. Whats that going to be like for you?

Im over the Moon for that mission. I am so excited to see [NASA astronauts] Doug [Hurley] and Bob [Behnken] launch from Cape Canaveral on an American rocket. I think it was an incredible decision to do business in the way that NASA has been, fostering this space economy by opening up the transportation of astronauts to and from the space station to private industry. To see it culminate and launch on May 27th is going to be incredible. Though we will all be separated, I think well all be experiencing it together as a country and as a world.

There are also a lot of big opportunities coming up with NASA and its Artemis program to send the first woman to the Moon, and the NASA administrator has said that astronaut is probably already in the astronaut corps. Would you want to be that person?

I am so excited about the Artemis mission. It is going to be an incredible opportunity to lead on a global scale, to apply technologies to go on even deeper space missions like going to Mars and answering some of the biggest philosophical questions I think of our time about are we alone? We are really on an awesome path of exploration and discovery right now, and its a really amazing time to be in the astronaut corps.

No one knows who those first couple of astronauts will be. My hope is that its the right person for the job. We have an incredible astronaut corps. Any single person would excel in that role, and I just cant wait to see who that person is. I know that they will carry the hopes and dreams of all humanity with them when they go, and truly, Im just excited to know that person. Whether or not its me, of course, any astronaut would accept with honor.

Read more:

Astronaut Christina Koch on making space history and how to survive isolation - News Info Park

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Tom Cruise is filming his next movie on the International Space Station - KCTV Kansas City

Scott Kelly is a retired NASA astronaut who has been to space four times, including a 340-day trip on the International Space Station. He is the author of the book "Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery"

Kelly spoke with Business Insider about his experience in space and shares lessons he learned that also apply to the isolation many are struggling with during the coronavirus pandemic. He also shares his thoughts on the future of space travel. Following is a transcript of the video.

Sara Silverstein: Before we get your tips, as a lot of us are dealing with being cooped up in our own homes after many, many weeks, I don't want to try to compare the two. So let's give a little bit of perspective and how much space did you have while you were living in space, and what limitations did you have as far as diet and water?

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly enjoys his first drink from the new ISSpresso machine aboard the International Space Station on May 3, 2016. NASA/Reuters Scott Kelly: Well, space-wise I actually had more space on the space station than I do in my apartment here in Houston. It's a big place. Now, having said that, it's filled with a lot of stuff, but you have more usable room when you can float above your head, use the space towards the ceiling. But there are a lot of similarities between this situation, being isolated, kind of being cut off a little bit from society, as what I experienced on the International Space Station. And one of them is the fact that we are all part of the same mission now. One thing that makes getting through your time in space easier is recognizing that you're there for a reason, an important reason, a purpose. And that's the same case in this situation. We are following the guidance, the guidelines as best. At least we should be doing that, because that's our job and it's our responsibility not only to ourselves, but to our family, but also to every other citizen of this planet.

Silverstein: And so talk us through some of the tricks you learned to pass the time while you were stuck in the space station.

Kelly: Yeah. So I flew a six month flight, nearly six months, before I flew for a year. And when I did that, as I was getting towards the end, I was feeling a little bit of anxiety, like the walls were closing and I was ready for it to be done. And then when I got home, I had the opportunity to fly in space again, but this time for twice as long. Initially it didn't appeal to me, but I thought about it some more. I wanted to find space again. I wanted it to be different and I wanted it to be more challenging. And I came to the conclusion that this was the flight for me. But I went into it with a lot of thought and consideration for how I could get to the end with as much energy and enthusiasm as I had in the beginning.

So I came up with a plan. And part of my plan was maintaining a very, very rigid, rigid schedule. Easy to do when you're working for NASA and they build your schedule, but taking that very seriously as a schedule that has a variety of activities on it during the week, from work to taking care of your environment, making sure it's clean. We have to do that now. In this situation, I kind of treat the front door of my house kind of like an airlock right now where the bad stuff stays outside, good stuff comes inside. Those two will not cross. So having this schedule that has time for rest, time for work, consistent sleep times, exercise. In this case, in this situation at least we can go outside and get some light and some fresh air, which is important. Couldn't do that in space. But the schedule was important. Having a weekend that's different from the weekends was critical because it gave something for me to look forward to at the end of the week.

I tried not to count the days I was there. I definitely didn't count down. And I think it's important we do that in this situation because this situation is ... Some people think this is over, this is not over. We will be living in this new reality in some form or the other for quite some time. So I look at this like this is my life. This is what I have to do because it's my job, which is following the guidance and the direction that we get. It will be over someday. Not sure when it is, but I am not going to count the days. I could not tell you how many weeks I've been doing this. I can't even tell you what month I started this, I don't think, because it's not the way I look at it, it's not the way I want to look at it.

Silverstein: And how do you differentiate the weekends from the weekdays in space?

Kelly: Well, in space, one of the days you devote to cleaning the place in space, virus and bacteria grow easily. You put your hands on a lot of things, your immune system is suppressed very much like this situation. When you're in isolation, anxiety, fatigue suppresses your immune system. Same thing in space. So on the weekends we clean all house and then we leave Sunday for just rest. So yeah, our weekend days are structured much differently. Now, I understand, I get it. Everyone's not in the same situation. I have advice and some people this advice is not important to because they're worried about when they're going to be able to get some money to feed their kids. I get it. So these are just the things that worked for me. And maybe some people could take some of this advice and have it help them through the situation. But I absolutely recognize that everyone's situation is different.

Silverstein: Absolutely. And you've mentioned before journaling was something that you did regularly while you were in space. Did that help you get through the time?

Kelly: Well, I did that mostly because I felt like I might want to write a book after it and I wanted the experience and the thoughts and ideas to be fresh. So I decided to write them in my free time on the space station. But I also found that it was kind of a cathartic thing. When you're dealing with a challenging situation, especially if you have no one to talk to about it, it's important, I think to admit that it's hard and you write that down. By writing it down, I think you're admitting to yourself that this is challenging because this is, this is a very challenging situation. And I'm sure a lot of people are scared, whether it's getting the virus or how am I going to pay my bills, what's going on with my job? If you have a job, will I lose my job? I mean, this is scary stuff. Understandable. Flying in space was scary. There were scary things about it.

What I've learned flying in space four times is the fear sometimes allows you to focus, but if you dwell on it, it will prevent you from making the right decision and doing the right thing. So I always to kind of tamp down the fear, I would focus on the things that I could control, which was the spacecraft, my job, what I was doing, ignoring the stuff I had no control over. Like is the thing going to Is the rocket going to blow up for no reason that I had any ability to prevent it from happening? So same situation here. I mean, there's stuff we can control and stuff we can't, knowing what that is.

I think also one thing NASA was good at was always thinking about what is the next worst possible failure? And I think people need to be considering that. What actions do I take if one of my family members get sick, who do I call? What do I do? If I lose my job if I can't pay my rent, where can I get relief? I mean, even if you don't need it, you need to be thinking about, well what if I do need it next week or the week after, so you're prepared.

Silverstein: And you were there for the entire time with your Russian counterpart, Mikhail, and it sounds like you two have a pretty good friendship. Did you ever have disagreements while you were out there together, and how did you deal with that?

Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko spent 340 days at the International Space Station together. NASA Kelly: Yeah, so over the course of the year I was there, Mikhail and I were there for the whole time, and we had 13 other people come and go. I have never had an argument with Mikhail ever about anything.

He is just like one of the nicest guys in the world. I can't see him getting into an argument with anybody. I have had disagreements with people in space and a lot of times those disagreements can be avoided if you bring up issues early. I think in this situation, we're living in maybe close quarters and just spending a long time in the same place with people that you generally don't spend that much time in a single place with. There can be opportunities for conflict, and one thing they teach us at NASA and that I've always practiced myself as much as I could is if there are things that are bothering you with your crew members or if something that I'm doing is bothering other people, you'll need to recognize it's better to talk about it early rather than it to develop into a bigger issue.

My wife was telling me, I guess the other day she kind of got a little bit frustrated with what I do with the dishes and I think I do the dishes. I certainly put them in the sink, I put them in the dishwasher sometimes, I take them out sometimes. But what I wasn't doing was following the approved system, which was her system, which is actually a really good system. The only thing is she never told me what the system was. So I did it a different way and it turns out it bothered her. But at least eventually she explained to me what it was. And I was like, "If I would've known that 10 years ago, it wouldn't have bothered you for the last 10 years because I would've just did it how you did it." Because it makes sense to me. It's just, it was never explained to me.

So I think it's important that people share their thoughts and feelings, understand we're all different. We all have different skills in this kind of situation. Help each other out. I always found that on the space station, the facility you're living in is a shared space. So you're all kind of responsible for keeping it clean and so I always felt like if I just did a tiny bit more than was expected of me, and if everyone always just did a little bit more of what's expected from them, that made everything run very smoothly. You don't want someone doing all the cleaning and the other person sitting on the couch, that's not good for anybody. Even the person sitting on a couch because it's not going to last. It'll create conflict. So I think always trying to contribute just a little bit more than you think you should is a good approach.

Silverstein: Well, I think that's very relatable to a lot of us right now. And I have to say, I'm listening to your book right now, "Endurance." And one of the things that struck me about it was that you were not a very good student early in your life and you became an astronaut. And right now it seems like a time that school is being rethought. Is there a way to make school more either rewarding or appealing to people like you that will one day turn out to be overachievers but are not recognized by the traditional school system?

Kelly: Yeah. So for me it was impossible to pay attention. I always had the best intentions to do well. The start of the school year, I'm like, "Okay, this is the year I'm going to get straight As." And three days into it, already three days behind on homework, wasn't able to pay attention in class, game over. Try again next year. And I was always smart enough that I could get by Cs without doing anything, without even paying attention in class. Or maybe it was just easier then. I think if I was in school today, I probably would have flunked out, but it seems harder now. But what I found was for me it was impossible to pay attention until I found something that I wanted to do so badly that I had to force myself to become a good student.

That was inspiration I had, I found in Tom Wolfe's book, "The Right Stuff." Inspired me to be a fighter pilot, a test pilot, and even an astronaut. And I guess my point is all kids are different. They all need inspiration and they learn in different ways. So I think it's kind of ... There's some good that can come out of this and, and one good thing maybe recognizing that education is going to look different and it could look different in a way that makes it better. And I don't know what that is. If it's going to school a few days for the social interaction, and then doing it at home online. Maybe that's good for some kids, maybe not for others, but trying to have it evolve, and cater to all different types of learners, because kids learn in different ways.

Silverstein: And what do you think about the commercialization of space travel? Do you think that it's a positive, it will get us further faster? And do you still think that astronauts should be overseen or regulated by the government?

Kelly: No, I think it was a positive thing. I think it's great when you have companies that are investing their own money in something that I feel is very important and, and strongly about. Yeah, I think it's a great thing. We need to do it with the appropriate amount of attention to detail and safety. There will be significant risk in the beginning, but as we get more experienced with it, it will become safer. Kind of like commercial aviation was in the early days of aviation. It was expensive and it was risky and that's what what space flight is going to be. But yeah, I'm all behind any commercial space flight. I think it's great. Flying in space is one of the greatest things I've ever done in my life and I wish everyone had the opportunity to do it. I'm not selfish. Let everyone go to space.

Silverstein: I would love to go to space. When do you think we'll get to Mars? Can you give me an estimate?

Former NASA astronauts Mark Kelly (left) and Scott Kelly (right) speak during the 2017 Breakthrough Prize at NASA Ames Research Center on December 4, 2016 in Mountain View, California. Kelly Sullivan/Getty Images Kelly: I've never been able to give that estimate. We can go to Mars. I'll quote my brother, give him a bone here, but he always He's got a good quote and he says, "Going to Mars is not rocket science. It's political science."

We have the technology to do that. We have to learn some other things a little bit. How to take care and protect the crew from radiation as an example, but it's more of an issue of investment and a desire, investment, money available. Before this pandemic and the resulting economic impacts we've had, I'd probably, if you would have pushed me on it, I probably could have given you a number that is probably not the same number I would give to you today.

But I still think it's important. I think we will one day get there. I hope I see it in my lifetime. I think it's going to be a great adventure for not only the people that are involved, but for the people that are watching on their couch. And I hope there's some kid out there today, probably not watching this show, but probably alive and wondering what they're going to do in their life, having no idea that it's going to be walking on Mars someday, and that's going to be a great moment.

Silverstein: And one of our viewers wants to know, do you think it's a good idea to have a space station on the moon?

Kelly: Yeah. The moon is an incredible place. It seems like it was built there just for us to experiment on. And I would love to see a lunar base, but again, I think it's a priority that would ... A financial investment that would be in competition with going to Mars. So we have to just make some tough choices. And if building a base on the moon would take away from being able to go to Mars someday, maybe it's not worth it. I don't know. It's a hard decision and I think a lot of people have to put a lot ... A lot of people that are smarter than me have to look into this and decide what the best thing to do is.

Silverstein: And I saw that Tom Cruise is planning to shoot a movie in the International Space Station. What do you think about that?

Kelly: I think Tom Cruise is a great actor. I've probably watched most of, if not all of his movies, and I'd watch that movie.

Silverstein: And before I let you go, I need to know, just based on the way that you write about your life and this quest for risk, what is the next adventure for your life?

Kelly: Hey, though about Tom cruise though, right? So I think what he really needs to realize is this is not a movie. I'm sure he realizes that. And it is really, I mean the highway to the danger zone because launching on a rocket is pretty risky. They sometimes blow up and kill people. So as long as everyone understands that, that that might happen, then I think it'll be great. It'll be interesting to see how he films a movie without his normal crew of probably 100.

Silverstein: Absolutely.

Kelly: But what was your last question?

Silverstein: And what is the next adventure for you?

Kelly: Right now I'm just navigating my way through this new reality. My primary job was as a motivational public speaker, so I would travel around the country and the world talking in person to large groups of people in small rooms. And that is going to happen again, I'm just not sure when. So I've been doing a lot of stuff like this. One thing we're really excited about is we're building a house and we're moving to Colorado. So building a house is normally ... I'm not building it with a hammer, I've got a contractor. And that's normally a tough job, but it's even tougher now because of this pandemic. So we're spending a lot of time doing that. And then once this whole situation is past us, and I think hopefully we can look back on it and it's going to be not a whole lot of good that's going to come out of it, but maybe we can look back on it and we learned some things and we're better for those things that we've learned. I'll find some other exciting things to do with my life.

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Astronaut on how to survive isolation, and the future of space travel - Business Insider - Business Insider

MDA reports it has received a contract worth CAD $190 million to support robotic operations on the International Space Station (ISS) from 2020 to 2024. MDA has provided Logistics and Sustaining Engineering (L&SE) services to the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and its international partners since the start of the ISS, which this year will celebrate 20 years of continuous habitation by humans.

"This contract further strengthens MDA's global leadership in operational mission-critical space robotics, and will provide an opportunity to advance robotic system capabilities and techniques using the ISS as a proving ground for future human exploration," said Mike Greenley, Chief Executive Officer of MDA.

"We value our role as prime contractor and partner to the Canadian Space Agency, and enjoy the opportunity to work closely with the ISS partners, in particular NASA and the ISS industrial team."

The contract provides for ongoing operations and maintenance of the Canadian contribution to the ISS, the Mobile Servicing System (MSS), which comprises Canadarm2, Dextre and the Mobile Base System (MBS) and will establish a solid base of business for the next four years for MDA's robotics teams based in Brampton (ON), St-Hubert (QC) and Houston (TX).

Areas of support include goods and services such as Mission Planning and Real-Time Operations Support, Software Engineering (upgrades), Systems Engineering, Hardware Engineering, Logistics Engineering (spares, support equipment, crown property management), Program Management, Product Assurance, and MSS Robotic Operations Training Support for astronauts and ground mission controllers. The contract includes the option for Canada to extend the term of the contract by up to four additional one-year periods under the same conditions.

Reliance on Canadarm2 and Dextre - the world's most sophisticated space robot - for International Space Station maintenance has been steadily increasing. MDA ensures the operational readiness of the MSS robotics, provides training to the robotic operators, and supports operations planning and real-time operations.

In addition, MDA continuously enhances the capability of the MSS to meet the evolving needs of the Canadian Space Station Program and International Space Station needs.

Canada's robotics capability is globally recognized for its exemplary performance in support of the ISS. The ISS continues to be an important laboratory that advances breakthrough technologies and extends scientific knowledge. Canada's contribution of robotics has enabled access to the ISS by Canadian astronauts as well as utilization of the ISS laboratory for Canadian science experiments.

Related LinksMDAAll about the robots on Earth and beyond!

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MDA receives contract to support robotic operations on the International Space Station - Space Daily

What was intended as a two-week test flight of SpaceXs new astronaut-carrying capsule will now be a mission planned to last more than a month to help a short-handed crew aboard the International Space Station.

The launch of SpaceXs Crew Dragon capsule, carrying two NASA astronauts, Douglas G. Hurley and Robert L. Behnken, is scheduled for May 27 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It would arrive at the space station the following day.

This is a high priority mission for the United States of America, Jim Bridenstine, the NASA administrator, said during a news conference on Friday.

That will end a drought of nearly nine years since the last time people headed to orbit from American soil. On July 8, 2011, the space shuttle Atlantis lifted off from Launchpad 39A; it returned to Earth 11 days later. Since then, NASA has relied on Russia and its Soyuz rockets for transportation to and from the space station.

Mr. Bridenstine noted that this would be only the fifth time NASA astronauts have flown on a new spacecraft for the first time. The previous ones were Mercury, Gemini and Apollo during the 1960s and the space shuttle in 1981.

We should not lose sight of the fact that this is a test flight, Mr. Bridenstine said. Were doing this to learn things. And its also true were taking it very, very seriously from a safety perspective.

Like the last shuttle mission, the launch will occur at 39A, but almost everything else will be different. Instead of designing and operating its own spaceship as it did for the space shuttles and earlier programs like the Apollo moon landings, NASA has turned to two private companies, SpaceX and Boeing.

For SpaceX, the May flight is the last step to certify that its spacecraft meets NASAs needs and requirements. As the Crew Dragon approaches the space station, for example, the astronauts will test flying the spacecraft by manual control before letting its automated system perform the docking.

The two astronauts will also get to use the bathroom facility in the capsule during the 19 hours from launch to docking at the space station. The toilet? Mr. Hurley said. Well let you know how it works out. They have one. Well try it out, and well let you know when we get back.

Currently there are only three astronauts aboard the International Space Station two Russians, Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner, and one NASA astronaut, Christopher J. Cassidy. The smaller station crew is preoccupied with maintenance tasks, and that limits the amount of scientific research that can be performed.

NASA officials decided to extend the stay of Mr. Hurley and Mr. Behnken at the space station so that they can help Mr. Cassidy. The SpaceX capsule is currently certified to remain 119 days in orbit. Over time, oxygen atoms in the upper atmosphere react with materials on the capsules solar arrays, reducing the amount of power they generate.

The length of the stay also depends on the status of the next Crew Dragon, the first operational mission which is designated Crew-1, which is to take four astronauts to the space station later this year. SpaceX and NASA need the demonstration Crew Dragon to return to Earth to certify that the spacecraft meets NASAs safety requirements and that it is ready to start routine missions.

It is a trade off, said Kirk A. Shireman, the program manager for the space station for NASA. What we would like to do, from a space perspective, is keep them on orbit as long as we can until that Crew-1 vehicle is just about ready to go.

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SpaceX to Bring Crew to Short-Staffed Space Station for Longer Stay - The New York Times

A Russian cargo spacecraft has arrived at the International Space Station (ISS), wrapping up a brief orbital chase.

The robotic Progress 75 vehicle docked with the orbiting lab at 1:12 a.m. EDT (0512 GMT) today (April 25), less than 3.5 hours after launching atop a Russian Soyuz rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The rendezvous occurred when both craft were flying about 260 miles (418 kilometers) over northwest China, NASA officials said.

Related: Russia's Progress spacecraft: ISS supply ship

Progress 75 is packed with nearly 3 tons (2.7 metric tons) of food, propellant and other supplies for the astronauts aboard the orbiting lab, who number just three at the moment: NASA's Chris Cassidy and cosmonauts Anatoli Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner.

But the ISS population will increase by two a month from now, if all goes according to plan. SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule is scheduled to launch on May 27, kicking off Demo-2, a test mission that will send NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the orbiting lab.

Demo-2 will be the first crewed orbital spaceflight to launch from the United States since NASA's space shuttle fleet retired in July 2011. If the test flight goes well, SpaceX will be cleared to start flying operational crewed missions to and from the ISS for NASA, which Elon Musk's company will do under a $2.6 billion deal signed with the space agency in 2014.

The Progress will be at the ISS for Demo-2; the Russian cargo craft won't depart the orbiting lab until December, NASA officials said. That departure will spell the end for Progress 75, which will burn up in Earth's atmosphere shortly thereafter.

Three other robotic spacecraft currently fly cargo missions to the ISS. Two of them are disposable like the Progress: Japan's H-II Transfer Vehicle and Cygnus, which is built by Virginia-based company Northrop Grumman. The lone reusable one is SpaceX's cargo Dragon, which ends its missions with parachute-assisted ocean splashdowns. (Both Northrop Grumman and SpaceX hold NASA ISS resupply contracts.)

Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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Russian freighter arrives at space station with nearly 3 tons of supplies - Space.com

A photo taken by an astronaut from the International Space Station on April 13, 2020.

NASA

An astronaut on the International Space Stationlast week captured a unique view of SpaceX's Starlink satellites photographing a group of the satellites in space, from space.

Starlink isSpaceX's plan to build a network of about 12,000 small satellites to provide high-speed internet to anywhere in the world.The company has launched 360 Starlink satellites in the past year and aims to begin offering early, limited service later in 2020.

The train of Starlink satellites that were photographed areSpaceX's fifth Starlink launch.

A cropped and edited photo shows the trail of Starlink satellites in this photo taken by an astronaut from the International Space Station on April 13, 2020.

NASA

Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, shared a data visualization of the locations of the Starlink satellites when the photo was taken.

The location of SpaceX's Starlink satellites (red) compared to the International Space Station (blue) on April 13, 2020.

Jonathan McDowell

Starlink is an ambitious project that will require billions in capital to succeed, given the costs of building the required ground infrastructure in addition to the hardware and operating costs of the satellites in space.SpaceX has said it expects it will cost about $10 billion or more to build the Starlink network.

Starlink will make the company the world's largest satellite operator by number of spacecraft.If SpaceX can overcome the technological challenges of building and distributing this service, the company is optimistic on its potential demand and revenue. SpaceX CEOElon Muskin May told reportersthat Starlink could bring in revenue of $30 billion a year or about 10 times the highest annual revenue it expects from its core rocket business.

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An astronaut spotted SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites from the International Space Station - CNBC

THERE are fresh fears of coronavirus onboard the International Space Station after a top official who was close to astronauts has deteriorated with Covid-19.

Virus-struck Evgeniy Mikrin - deputy head of Energia Rocket and Space Corporation - travelled with another top official who met with three astronauts, and who now appears to be self-isolating.

Head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, 56, formerly Putins deputy prime minister had met face to face with the two Russian cosmonauts and one US astronaut who flew to the ISS from Baikonur on 9 April.

He travelled to and from the lauch site with Evgeniy Mikrin - deputy head of Energia Rocket and Space Corporation - who is now seriously ill with coronavirus in Moscows top infectious diseases hospital after his condition deteriorated.

Rogozin shared a tweet today showing him attending a top meeting remotely, sparking fears he could be self-isolating with symptoms, although this hasn't been confirmed.

Russia today announced a record number of daily deaths - 60 - and 5,859 new cases, as the country also faced a threat from wildfires in nine regions with 70 houses destroyed in raging infernos.

Mikrin, 64, is known to have been in close contact with Rogozin on the Baikonur trip although unlike the Roscosmos chief, he was not face to face with the crew.

At the beginning of this week, his condition deteriorated and he was taken to hospital, reported Mosvoksky Komsomolets.

Mikrin flew to see the Soyuz-MS-16 cosmonauts off to the ISS on the same plane as the head of the state corporation Dmitry Rogozin who was then directly talking to cosmonauts and even gave them a traditional good luck kick right before they boarded the space ship.

After the launch it was announced Mikrin was self-isolating at home.

Rogozin yesterday announced that 71 Russian aerospace industry employees have been diagnosed with coronavirus - a figure that has doubled in six days.

The Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin hit back at claims that official figures for coronavirus did not tell the whole story.

And he claimed Russian big cities were doing better than in other countries where troops had been put on the streets.

"No one is hiding anything, this story is absolute nonsense, he said.

On the contrary, the more we know about those infected, the potentially infected, the easier it is to fight the infection.

He told Rossiya-24 television channel:"In our country, the situation is different. we test, we carry out as many tests as we have of them, regardless of whether someone has any clear symptoms, is seriously ill.

If they are in a risk group, we try to extend the testing to them.

He said: We have established an optimal self-isolation regime in Moscow which the residents - thank you very much - adhere to.

Most residents act very responsibly.

This allows us not to tighten the administrative measures.

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This regime is optimal for the situation in the city.

Elsewhere soft measures had proved inadequate and the authorities were forced to "deploy troops in the streets."

"We do not want this scenario," he said.

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Fresh fears of coronavirus on International Space Station as expert with link to astronauts deteriorates wit - The Sun

Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy captured this amazing, rather alarming photograph of the International Space Station transiting the sun yesterday.

Thirty year ago today, the space shuttle Discovery carried the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit, opening up a new vista on our place in the universe. In celebration of the anniversary, NASA released this astounding Hubble image of a region where stars are born in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the closest galaxies to []

In their upcoming study, so far published on the preprint server arXiv and submitted to Physical Review Letters, Linden and his colleagues examined a decades worth of data from NASAs Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope to better analyze the suns emission of gamma raysthe universes most energetic form of electromagnetic radiation.

Right after astronauts Apollo 11 astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Edwin E. Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1969, they were brought aboard the USS Hornet (CVS-12) and immediately entered a Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF) along with a NASA flight surgeon and recovery engineer. See below for a []

Considering the human races utter dependence on coffee, its no surprise that more than 40 percent of American homes have a single-cup coffee brewing system. Unfortunately, most of those machines take pods made from various plastic and aluminum materials that arent easily recyclable. And while 39,000 of those pods are made every minute worldwide, about []

While CBD is not a cure-all miracle drug, millions of users can be forgiven for feeling that way and singing its praises. CBDs direct medical impact still remains to be fully researched and documented, but those who have become believers in the non-psychoactive cannabis extract say the drug is a godsend, alleviating the symptoms of []

Were all getting pretty schooled in the fine art of DIY these days, even for stuff wed never have dreamed of doing ourselves just two months ago. There are services like housekeeping that we still hate. There are services like bartending that just work better in a group setting. Then there are beauty salons and []

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The International Space Station transits the sun - Boing Boing

The Swamp Thingwas and remains one of the weirdest characters in the DC Universe, having gone on some of the most bizarre adventures imaginable while fighting the scariest villains DC has to offer. However, things got really outlandish when writer Alan Moore began his legendary run on the character in the '80s -- the strangest of all taking place when he was unwillingly forced to impregnate a sentient space station.

Created by writer Len Wein and artist Bernie Wrightson during the mid-1970s, Swamp Thing debuted as a man named Alec Holland. After being set on fire an explosion and covered in chemicals, Holland was forced to run into a nearby swamp, transforming him into the vegetative creature Swamp Thing. However, during his run the '80s, writer Alan Moore retconned Swamp Things origin so that he was a creature who had copied both memories and personality of Alec Holland after dying in the swamp. This meant that in reality, Swamp Thing was a sentient organism made completely of plants and was connected to an elemental force called the Green. Through the Green, Swamp Thing has the unique ability to control and create new bodies out of any form of plant life on any planet.

Related: How Swamp Thing DEMOLISHED Batman (and Almost Destroyed Gotham)

After having his consciousness expelled from the Earth by a frequency scrambler created by Lex Luthor (a villain to more than just Superman), Swamp Thing accidentally makes contact with a sentient space station made of cybernetic plant life, named Technis. After creating a body out of the station's vegetation, Swamp Thing was horrified to find his new body was mostly made of machinery -- which instantly gained the attention of Technis consciousness. After realizing Swamp Thing was made out of the same material as the station, Technis jumped at the opportunity to use Swamp Things new body. Ripping and clawing apart his half-mechanical body, Technis extracted genetic material and copied Swamp Thing's memories to impregnate itself. After going through such a horrific experience, Swamp Thing left his mechanical body to let his conciseness drift among the cosmos.

What is specifically terrifying and off-putting about this story from Saga of the Swamp Thing #60story is that its told from Techniss point of view, who acts as if this situation is somewhat romantic. This is made even more horrible by the fact that Swamp Thing doesnt consent to any of it; if anything, hes completely unaware of whats happening and sees it simply as a form of torture. Though Swamp Thing is in pain throughout the whole story, Technis claims to be doing it from a place of love. With all this in mind, one must wonder what Moore was intending to say. Perhaps this was a form of commentary on the relationship between technology and nature.

Regardless of Alan Moores intent, it remainsone of the strangest stories everpublished by DC Comics. Body horror was a huge theme during Moores run; however, thisstory brings it to such a terrifyingly sexual level that its almost hard to read today. Though theethical nature of Swamp Thing#60 is certainly divisive, it is also so bizarre that its practicallyimpossible to forget after reading.

More: Swamp Thing Season 2 Video Reveals Detailed Look At Floronic Man Design

Marvel Turned IRON MAN's Movie Armor Into a Transformer

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That Time Swamp Thing Impregnated a Space-Station | Screen Rant - Screen Rant

The images were taken by a US astronaut from the International Space Station

Striking photos taken from space capture the Palm Jumeirah and the Dubai coastline.

Nasa astronaut Chris Cassidy shared the crystal clear images from the International Space Station showing the trunk and fronds of the distinctive UAE landmark.

Always an amazing view when you fly over #uae!! he posted on his Instagram account.

Mr Cassidy also wrote that it was inspiring to watch the first flight of Emirati astronaut Hazza Al Mansouri and acknowledged his colleagues at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre.

Spectacular images of #Dubai from space.

The images were shared by the Dubai Media Office.

Mr Al Mansouri made history as the first UAE citizen to complete a space mission when he was aboard the space station in September last year.

Mr Mansouri too had shared photos of the UAEs western coastline, images of Abu Dhabi city and his home town of Liwa.

"Despite being miles away, my heart longed for the warmth of this land," he had tweeted.

The six crew currently in the orbiting laboratory are scheduled to return to Earth in October and will conduct about 160 investigations in biology and technology development.

Updated: April 26, 2020 08:32 AM

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Striking view of Dubai's Palm Jumeirah from space - The National

CHARLOTTE, N.C. The WCNC Weather School is back in session with a free, educational science class about equipment used to observe the weather.

Friday's lesson is from forecaster Larry Sprinkle, who tells us all about the International Space Station. From how fast it orbits the earth to the station's importance on weather forecast, Larry will explain in great detail why the ISS is so valuable.

WCNC Charlotte's First Warn Storm Team is helping parents, students, and teachers learn from home with free atmospheric science lessons that can be seen each weekday on the streaming platforms of WCNC Charlotte.

The lessons, which will stream live starting at 1 p.m., will feature a variety of weather lessons and explainers hosted by the WCNC Charlotte weather team.

Join the conversation live to ask questions and be a part of the virtual class.

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Can't watch it live? The lessons will be available on-demand for playback at anytime.

WCNC Charlotte Weather School can be seen live on wcnc.com, the WCNC mobile news app, the WCNC Charlotte Facebook page, the WCNC Charlotte YouTube page, on Periscope and Twitter, and on ournew Twitch channel.

Like, follow, and subscribe on your favorite platform to be notified when each day's class begins.

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The International Space Station - WCNC.com

A three-man crew docked successfully at the International Space Station Thursday, leaving behind a planet overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Russian space agency Roscosmos said the Soyuz MS-16 capsule docked successfully in a statement on its website.

Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner of Roscosmos and NASA's Chris Cassidy reached the ISS at 1413 GMT, just over six hours after blasting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, where COVID-19 caused changes to pre-launch protocol.

Usually the departing crew faces questions from a large press pack before being waved off by family and friends.

Neither was possible this time round because of travel restrictions imposed over the virus, although the crew did respond to emailed questions from journalists in a Wednesday press conference.

Cassidy, 50, admitted the crew had been affected by their families not being unable to be in Baikonur, Russia's space hub in neighbouring Kazakhstan, for their blastoff to the ISS.

"But we understand that the whole world is also impacted by the same crisis," Cassidy said.

Astronauts routinely go into quarantine ahead of space missions and give a final press conference at Baikonur from behind a glass wall to protect them from infection.

That process began even earlier than usual last month as the trio and their reserve crew hunkered down in Russia's Star City training centre outside Moscow, eschewing traditional pre-launch rituals and visits to the capital.

The next crew to return to Earth from the ISS will be flying to their home countries on April 17 via Baikonur, rather than Karaganda in central Kazakhstan as usual, as part of new travel measures related to the pandemic.

The ISS typically carries up to six people at a time and has a livable space of 388 cubic metres (13,700 cubic feet) - larger than a six-bedroom house according to NASA.

Those dimensions will sound enviable to many residents of Earth, more than half of whom are on various forms of lockdown as governments respond to COVID-19 with drastic measures.

In recent weeks, astronauts and cosmonauts on the ISS and on Earth have been sharing tips on coping with self-isolation.

In a piece for the New York Times last month, NASA's Scott Kelly said his biggest miss during almost a year in space was nature - "the colour green, the smell of fresh dirt, and the feel of warm sun on my face".

During his time aboard the ISS he "binge-watched 'Game of Thrones' - twice" and enjoyed frequent movie nights with crewmates, he wrote.

Two-time cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy has become the face of a 10-week challenge that will see participants post videos of themselves completing physical exercises as part of a competition aimed at both youth and adults.

The initiative that Roscosmos is backing aims "to support people in a situation of isolation, instil a healthy lifestyle and thoughts through regular sports, without going out in public places", Ryazanskiy said in a video promoting the "Cosmos Training" challenge.

The launch of Ivanishin, Vagner and Cassidy marks the first time a manned mission has used a Soyuz-2.1a booster to reach orbit, after Roscosmos stopped using the Soyuz-FG rocket last year.

The newer boosters have been used in unmanned launches since 2004.

The upgraded rocket relies on a digital flight control system rather than the analogue equipment used in prior Soyuz models.

Russia and Baikonur have enjoyed a near decade-long monopoly on manned missions to the ISS since NASA wound up its Space Shuttle program in 2011.

But that may change as early as next month when Elon Musk's SpaceX could be ready to launch a two-man crew to the orbital lab, NASA said in March.

NASA said that the tech entrepreneur's company and the space agency are targeting "mid-to-late May" for a test launch that will transport NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the ISS in SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule.

The International Space Station - a rare example of cooperation between Russia and the West - has been orbiting Earth at about 28,000 kilometres per hour (17,000 miles per hour) since 1998.

Agence France-Presse

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Three Astronauts Just Docked With The Space Station, Leaving Behind an Uneasy Planet - ScienceAlert

April 9, 2020

Posted: April 9, 2020

Updated: 5:22 PM

KUSI Newsroom

SAN DIEGO (KUSI) UC San Diego and Space Tango receive NASA award to develop first dedicated stem cell research laboratory within the International Space Station.

UCSDs website reports, A three-year, nearly $5 million award from NASA will allow researchers at the Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center at UC San Diego Health, Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine and their partners at Space Tango to develop a new integrated space stem cell orbital research laboratory within the International Space Station (ISS) and launch three collaborative research projects within it.

Stem cells self-renew, generating more stem cells, and specialize into tissue-specific cells, such as blood, brain and liver cells, making them ideal for biological studies far from Earths resources. The goal of the new effort is to leverage microgravity and these unique properties of stem cells to better understand how space flight affects the human body. The studies will also inform how aging, degenerative diseases, cancers and other conditions develop in a setting with increased exposure to ionizing radiation and pro-inflammatory factors. The findings from these studies may speed the development of new therapeutics for a broad array of degenerative diseases on Earth.

Dr. Catriona Jamieson, the lead researcher on this NASA award story, visited KUSI News to tell us all about it.

For more information, click here.

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UC San Diego to advance stem cell therapies in new space station lab - - KUSI

Boeing plans to launch a second unpiloted test flight of its CST-100 Starliner crew ferry ship after software glitches last December prevented a rendezvous and docking with the International Space Station and briefly threatened the spacecraft's survival, company officials said Monday.

A review of the December flight pinpointed the causes of the problems and the steps required to correct them. No new issues were uncovered, but NASA managers said at the that time no decision had been made on whether a reflight might be required.

The Monday announcement said Boeing had "chosen to refly our Orbital Flight Test to demonstrate the quality of the Starliner system."

"Flying another uncrewed flight will allow us to complete all flight test objectives and evaluate the performance of the second Starliner vehicle at no cost to the taxpayer," the company statement said. "We will then proceed to the tremendous responsibility and privilege of flying astronauts to the International Space Station."

A Boeing spokewoman said the capsule originally intended for the first piloted Starliner test flight will be used for the unpiloted reflight. She said Boeing is "working with NASA to determine an agreeable schedule for the second OFT."

While details still need to be worked out, she said in an email, "we anticipate flying the mission in the Fall of 2020." That would appear to rule out a piloted Starliner flight in 2020, but no decisions have been announced on subsequent launch targets.

Boeing and SpaceX are both building piloted astronaut ferry ships for NASA under commercial contracts valued at up to $6.8 billion. The goal is to end the agency's sole reliance on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to carry U.S. crews to and from the International Space Station.

SpaceX carried out a successful unpiloted test flight of its Crew Dragon spacecraft last year and is gearing up for a second test flight, this one with two NASA astronauts on board, in the late May timeframe.

If that flight goes well, a second, operational Crew Dragon mission with four astronauts on board could be ready for takeoff by the end of July.

Boeing had hoped to launch a crew this year as well but during the December OFT mission, a major software error, coupled with communications dropouts, prevented a planned rendezvous and docking with the space station.

Another software oversight could have caused a catastrophic failure during the capsule's re-entry, had it not been caught in time.

Douglas Loverro, director of spaceflight at NASA Headquarters, told reporters in March the incidents had been classified as a "high-visibility close call," a formal designation that kicks off additional government review. At that time, he said it was too soon to say whether a second test flight would be needed.

Boeing told investors earlier that it was taking a $410 million charge against pre-tax earnings in large part to cover the possible cost of another test flight.

"For us, it's not that complicated," Jim Chilton, senior vice president at Boeing Space and Launch, said in March. "Boeing stands ready to repeat an OFT (if required). ... There's not any intent on our part to avoid it. We just want to make sure that whatever we fly next is aligned with NASA's preferences. And of course for all of us, crew safety is number one."

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Boeing intends to reattempt Starliner test flight to space station - CBS News

Stargazers across Michigan will have a few fun things to seek out Sunday night as they turn their eyes to the sky.

With clouds moving in on Monday, this might be your only night to view with nearly full Pink Supermoon. Its the third supermoon of the year, and some say its expected to be the largest yet. It wont be full until Tuesday, but it should look pretty good tonight.

Another treat for night sky lovers is the chance to see the ISS glide overhead for about 4 minutes.

Mostly clear skies tonight will give northern Michigan one last shot at seeing the International Space Station this weekend! National Weather Service meteorologists in Gaylord posted on their Facebook page today. To check viewing times for your city: https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/sightings/index.cfm

Look lower in the southwestern sky about 9:18 p.m.

Need some help finding the ISS? Download a free star-finder app like Sky View Lite on your phone, then hold your phone up to that section of the sky around that time. A little space station icon will show you where it is.

Night sky apps like that are also a great way to get kids involved in spotting constellations and planets.

A little note on this weeks Full Pink Supermoon: it wont actually look pink. Its name comes from the early pink-colored phlox flowers that tend to bloom in the eastern United States around this time in spring.

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Great stargazing night ahead, when to see the International Space Station pass over Michigan - MLive.com

Those looking for a diversion amid coronavirus-induced isolation can find it in the night sky Tuesday and Wednesday.

According to NASA's ISS tracker app, the International Space Station will be visible the next two nights.

It will be visible for 3 minutes Tuesday night, starting at 8:55 p.m., at 11 degrees above the WSW horizon. It will disappear at 10 degrees above the SSW horizon.

Wednesday, the station can be seen starting at 8:08 p.m. at 21 degrees above the WSW horizon. Three minutes later, it will disappear at 11 degrees above the south horizon.

According to NASA, no telescope is needed to see the space station pass overhead. It reflects the light of the sun, making it visible near dawn and dusk. It will look like an airplane or a very bright star moving across the sky.

Because the space station is moving at 17,500 mph, it will move across the sky much faster than an airplane.

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How to see the International Space Station in the Colorado Springs area on Tuesday and Wednesday - Colorado Springs Gazette

Jewish astronaut Jessica Meir has advice about how to stay mentally healthy while living in isolation, as the people on Earth she left behind last fall now are because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Meir spoke on Friday from the International Space Station, where she has lived since late September with a handful of other astronauts, in a clip posted on the Twitter feed of the United States Embassy in Jerusalem.

It is very strange and a bit surreal for us to see it all unfold when weve been up here for the entire duration of whats going on down on the ground and it seems that we will be completely going back to a different planet, Meir said.

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Meir recommended that people in isolation in their homes stay mentally and physically healthy by sticking to their regular routines, exercising and staying in regular contact with friends and family.

In March, Meir posted onTwittera photo of Tel Aviv that she took from space, in which the usually bustling Israeli city is seen looking desolate amid the spread of the coronavirus.

Gazing down at the city in which my father was raised, I take to heart one of his most uttered expressions, This too shall pass. Wise words to remember, in both good times and bad. Goodnight #TelAviv #Israel! #GoodnightFromSpace #TheJourney #EarthStrong, she tweeted at the time.

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Jewish astronaut offers isolation advice from the International Space Station - Jewish News