DENVER A Cygnus cargo spacecraft that was scheduled to reenter in late February will instead remain in orbit for another month so a payload on the spacecraft can perform additional tests.

The Northrop Grumman NG-12 Cygnus spacecraft, called S.S. Alan Bean by the company, was unberthed from the International Space Station Jan. 31 after spending nearly four months attached to the station. The Cygnus deployed several smallsats after moving away from the station, and at the time the company said the spacecraft would end its mission with a destructive reentry at the end of February.

However, there was no notice of the spacecrafts reentry by early March, and the Space Track database of objects in orbit, maintained by the Defense Department, showed March 4 that the spacecraft remained in orbit.

In a March 4 statement to SpaceNews, Northrop Grumman said a customer with a payload on the Cygnus sought extra time in orbit, a request that required Northrop Grumman to seek an extension of a Federal Communications Commission license for spacecraft communications.

The extension of our license by the FCC allows Northrop Grumman to extend our NG-12 mission beyond our original completion date, enabling us to offer increased operational flexibility for our customers, Frank DeMauro, vice president and general manager of Tactical Space at Northrop Grumman, said in the statement. The NG-12 spacecraft remains in excellent health as we carry out a few more weeks of in-orbit operations.

Northrop Grumman didnt disclose the customer, but its request to amend the FCC license for the mission stated that it was for a payload from Lynk, a Virginia-based company working on technology for satellites to enable direct communications with mobile phones. The company, previously known as Ubiquilink, raised $12 million in a seed funding round in July 2019.

Charles Miller, chief executive of Lynk, said March 4 that the extension will allow for additional tests, which have been going well.

Lynk is producing great results from the space testing our third cell tower in space in many different countries around the world, he said. We asked Northrop Grumman to extend the Cygnus 12 mission because we wanted to get in more testing time on the payload and testing accomplished in additional countries.

Miller added that NASA graciously agreed to the Cygnus mission extension, and that both Northrop and SEOPS, the company that handed integration of the Lynk payload on the Cygnus, have bent over backwards to support testing of the payload.

Northrop demonstrated on the NG-11 Cygnus mission the ability for the spacecraft to remain in orbit for an extended period after departing the ISS. That spacecraft stayed in orbit for four months after leaving the station in August 2019. It successfully completed a series of tests, including showing that Northrop could operate two Cygnus spacecraft successfully once the NG-12 Cygnus launched in November 2019.

The NG-12 Cygnus mission will be extended through April 2, according the request, which the FCC approved March 3.

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Cygnus mission extended for tests of communications payload - SpaceNews

Voyager 2 has been traveling through space for 43 years, and is now 13 billion miles from Earth. But every so often, something goes wrong.

At the end of January, for instance, the robotic probe executed a routine somersault to beam scientific data back to Earth when an error triggered a shutdown of some of its functions.

Everybody was extremely worried about recovering the spacecraft, said Suzanne Dodd, who is the Voyager project manager at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

The missions managers on our planet know what to do when such a fault occurs. Although it takes about a day and a half to talk to Voyager 2 at its current distance, they sent commands to restore its normal operations.

But starting on Monday for the next 11 months, they wont be able to get word to the spry spacecraft in case something again goes wrong (although the probe can still stream data back to Earth). Upgrades and repairs are prompting NASA to take offline a key piece of space age equipment used to beam messages all around the solar system.

The downtime is necessary because of a flood of new missions to Mars scheduled to leave Earth this summer. But the temporary shutdown also highlights that the Deep Space Network, essential infrastructure relied upon by NASA and other space agencies, is aging and in need of expensive upgrades.

On any given day, NASA communicates with an armada of spacecraft in deep space. These long distance calls require the most powerful radio antennas in the world. Luckily NASA has its own switchboard, the Deep Space Network or DSN.

The DSN is one of space explorations most valuable assets. It comprises one station in the United States in Goldstone, Calif. and two overseas in Canberra, Australia and Madrid. It has been in operation nonstop for 57 years, and without it, spacecraft that traveled beyond the moon couldnt communicate with Earth. It is used not only by NASA, but also the European Space Agency and the space programs of Japan, India and soon even the United Arab Emirates.

This summer, four missions are scheduled to launch to Mars. When the spacecrafts arrive at the red planet next year, three of them will need additional bandwidth to speak to Earth (China will use its own dishes for its Mars mission).

Each station on Earth is outfitted with three 34-meter antennas and one 70-meter antenna. They switch back and forth depending on where a spacecraft is in relation to our planet, and you can see which spacecraft are talking to Earth in real time by visiting NASAs DSN Now website.

Because of Voyager 2s trajectory relative to Earth, it can talk to only one station and one antenna in the network: Canberras 70 meter dish, also known as DSS 43. And that dish will need to be improved for the new Mars missions, prompting a shutdown and temporary dismantlement.

Frankly, theres never a good time to take down an asset and never a good time to fix the potholes in the road, said Ms. Dodd, who is also director of the group that manages the Deep Space Network for NASA. But you know youre going to do the work at the airport, not during the Christmas rush. Youre going to do it when its less busy.

Because Voyager 2 is considered a geriatric spacecraft, losing contact with it for any length of time is risky. And for the next 11 months, Earths ability to communicate with the probe, now in whats considered interstellar space, will be limited.

There is risk in this business as there is in anything in spaceflight, said Glen Nagle, NASAs outreach and administration lead for the station in Australia. Its a major change and the longest downtime for the dish in the eighteen years Ive been here.

One of the biggest risks is keeping Voyager 2s communication antenna pointed at Earth. To do this, the probe fires its thrusters more than a dozen times a day to stay oriented. The missions managers have to trust that the automation on board will be executed relatively flawlessly for nearly a year.

Staying warm enough is another major concern. The Voyager team has been slowly shutting off instruments in order to use their heaters to keep the spacecrafts fuel lines at a balmy 32 degrees Fahrenheit.

Weve done the analysis to show that we can get through the downtime, with some margin for error, said Todd Barber, the propulsion engineer for the twin Voyager spacecraft. (Voyager 1 is able to communicate with other dishes.)

While the team wont be able to command Voyager 2, they will still be listening to the spacecraft. By combining the power of the other antennas in Canberra, they will be able to collect its scientific observations.

The Canberra site will still be getting data back from the spacecraft, Ms. Dodd said. The science data will still be coming down.

Being able to only listen could prompt some anxiety. While Voyager 2 will keep collecting and sending back science data, should something go wrong, members of the team will be powerless to help it, and will just have to watch with their hands tied.

Weve been planning on this for over a year, Ms. Dodd said. I think like any good planning, were prepared for it. And weve done our best, you know, weve done the best that we can.

And the operations to restore Voyager 2 during its recent troubles may highlight how much more life it could have in deepest space, Ms. Dodd said. Never before had all of the spacecrafts instruments been shut off in this manner. Much to the mission managers delight and surprise, they were all brought back to life.

They also came back on, which is actually pretty remarkable, she said.

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When Voyager 2 Calls Home, Earth Soon Wont Be Able to Answer - The New York Times

George Smith has been cooking since he was 5 years old. So when his teacher at Eastside High School in Gainesville introduced a competition to create a dish for NASA, he was all for it.

Youre getting a chance to send food to space, Smith, 18, said. Who wouldnt want to do that?

Taste. Appearance. Aroma. Texture. Those were the key judgment factors at a regional contest of the NASA HUNCH Culinary Challenge for high school students held recently at Eastside.

Smith and three other students from the Institute of Culinary Arts at Eastside competed against teams from the International Studies Preparatory Academy (ISPA) in Coral Gables and Nature Coast Technical High School in Brooksville, near Tampa.

The prize is one of 10 spots in a national competition at NASAs Johnson Space Center Food Lab in Houston in April. NASA will process the food from the winning team and then send it up to the International Space Station, orbiting 248 miles above Earth, for astronauts to enjoy.

Last May, Phoebus High School of Hampton, Virginia, won the national competition with their organic harvest hash with butternut squash entre.

Greetings from the International Space Station, a group of seven astronauts wrote in a thank you note to the Phoebus team. They eat the hash on Christmas day as part of a big brunch.

We loved it, they wrote. We were all speculating as to which herbs gave it the unique flavor and then found the ingredient list. Thank you and best wishes from orbit.

This years competition theme is ethnic dish. The Eastside students also including senior Connor Mayer, 18, and juniors Alani Cromwell, 17, and Cirius Brown, 16 initially chose the idea of Tacos in Space. However, that idea didnt last long.

After the research phase, we realized that wouldnt work, so were doing quesadillas in space, said Pam Bedford, the schools culinary arts teacher and the teams mentor. It doesnt have the nice ring that tacos in space did, but its what were working with.

For the record, Mayer said, the team discovered that tacos would break apart in space, while quesadillas are glued together with cheese.

The teams quesadillas consist of Mexican-based pork carnitas with refried beans, salsa verde and guacamole. Mayer said the sauce was not traditional: He condensed the sauce by heating it on the stovetop to make it thicker. That should keep the quesadilla from floating away in space.

The students from Nature Coast juniors Christian Delarosa, Collin Leonard and Angie Ortiz offered a couscous dish with onions, bacon, carrots and broccolini. The ISPA students freshmen Ana Paula, Dairon Hernandez and Victoria Vasquez, and sophomore Hector Pomar crafted their Big Boy Spinach, with potatoes, spinach, garlic, tomatoes and avocado oil.

The students from ISPA were the only participants who are not a part of a culinary program.

Were the only crazy ones here, said Marisol Restrepo, a biology teacher at the school.

The judges didnt reveal their final scores at the regional competition, but they expressed their confidence in all of the students dishes.

Theres no winner today, but I dont know how the rest of the contestants will be able to beat you guys, said one of them, Darin Nine, director of culinary instruction at the Department of Culinary Arts and Hospitality at Marion Technical College in Ocala.

Jacqui Bressinger, director of strategic partnerships for the American Culinary Federation, helped organize the contest.

We hope that one of the Florida teams will have the best dish in the galaxy, Bressinger said.

The judges scoresheets have been sent to NASA, where officials there were expected by this week to pick the 10 best dishes from high schools across the country. Bedford said she and the Eastside students have been trying to stay positive while waiting patiently for the results.

Make no mistake, though, thats not easy, the teacher said.

Thinking youre waiting for bad news will drive you crazy, so theyre choosing to wait for the good news, she said.

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'Best Dish in the Galaxy?': Eastside High Culinary Students Await Word From NASA - WUFT

LUMBERTON, Texas Two Lumberton High School students are set to make their mark on space travel with an experiment to test how concrete works in outer space.

Dr. Nick Brake at Lamar University helped the Lucas Mason and Austin Havard research and develop the idea. Brake is an associate professor of civil engineering.

"What we want to do is see if this ultra-high performance material, it works very well down here, can also work up there as well for the purpose of colonization or building structures in space," Dr. Nick Brake said.

Mason and Havard are participating in the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program, and the pair of young scientists beat out 375 middle school and high school students to be chosen.

"I honestly wasn't expecting it so it was a nice surprise," Mason said.

The teens are in eleventh grade. They'll see the science experiment loaded onto a rocket ship and sent to the International Space Station. Astronauts will replicate their earthly experiments in space.

Their science experiment is one of 34 from around the world that will be loaded onto the rocket ship.

"It was a great, great feeling," Havard said. "It is sort of strange because we've learned all the times, we've learned about all the different trips up there and knowing we had a part of it."

The rocket will launch in October 2020.

"It has been very, enlightening to see the process behind all this stuff. I didn't know how things like this worked before hand so I learned a lot," Mason said.

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Lumberton students' project will go to outer space on rocket, allow astronauts to test concrete material in space - 12newsnow.com KBMT-KJAC

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At last years G-20 Summit in Osaka, the government announced measures to promote Japans name in space innovation. Japan has leapt at the opportunity to commercialize technology in the new experimental market of space garbage removal.

Even as humans struggle to clean up the environmental mess on Earth, there is growing space pollution hurtling around Earth. Earths orbit is increasingly crowded by inactive and defunct spacecraft and satellite parts, ranging from the size of a bus to nuts and bolts and specks of paint.

When pieces of debris collide, it sparks a chain reaction where fragments continue to collide with each other, breaking up into smaller and smaller pieces. The magnitude of man-made space debris is staggering. NASA is currently tracking 500,000 pieces between 1 and 10 centimeters in diameter. But the latest figures show there are 900,000 pieces debris ranging from 1 cm and 10 cm and 128 million fragments between one millimeter and one cm. There are also 5,000 satellites orbiting Earth, of which only 3,000 are active.

Competition in the satellite industry is heating up as tech companies such as SpaceX, Amazon, and OneWeb race to provide global internet coverage through the mass launch of satellites. But as space junk continues to clog orbit, the growing satellite industry faces an unpredictable future unless a solution can be found to remove abandoned space clutter.

Space pollution poses the risk of accidents, which could damage active satellites as well as the International Space Station. Space collisions in orbit also put human life and infrastructure on Earth at risk.

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Japan hopes to cement itself as a space power and has developed a national space agenda showcasing three Japan-based private aerospace ventures. One of the selected space ventures is Astroscale, which specializes in space debris removal.

Japans Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has partnered with Astroscale to pull off the worlds first debris removal mission. JAXAs Commercial Removal of Debris Demonstration (CRD2) project is made up of two stages aiming to collect a large fuselage originally from a Japanese rocket. The first stage will launch an experimental satellite in 2022 to collect data and inspect the fuselage.

Astroscales portfolio also consists of the ELSA-d mission self-described as the worlds first commercial orbital debris removal. The two-part 180 kilogram chaser satellite and 16 kg target satellite feature a magnetic docking mechanism and will stimulate a series of separation and capture maneuvers. Astroscale aims to test launch a demonstration on a Soyuz mission in the first half of 2020, aiming for commercialization by fiscal year 2025.

Astroscale, which was founded by a former Finance Ministry bureaucrat Mitsunobu Okada, has raised $102 million dollars, with a portion of funding coming from the Japanese government-backed Innovation Network Corporation Japan (INCJ). Astroscale was also awarded a $4.5 million dollar grant from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to set the roadmap for commercializing space debris removal.

The concept of environmental sustainability has expanded to the realm of outer space, with the international community forging an approach to orbital sustainability. In February, Japan and the UN signed a joint statement pledging to raise awareness on space debris and to share research on removing space debris with the international community. Japans UN Ambassador Kimihiro Ishikane said its the first time Japan will participate in a formal treaty concerning space trash, which has become a big problem. He added, Japan will leverage its long history with space trash and looks forward to cooperating.

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Japan's Space Dream? Cleaning Up the Mess. - The Diplomat

The strange cone-shaped UFO following the ISS (YouTube/ET Data Base)

Cameras on board the International Space Station (ISS) have picked up a strange, cone-shaped object in orbit around Earth.

The unexplained object seemingly keeps pace with the space station as the cameras remain locked on it for over 20 minutes.

Naturally, the footage has been picked up and circulated around parts of the internet dedicated to discussing alien technology. Fanning the conspiracy flames even further, the camera zooms in on the object at one point suggesting that Nasa is aware of its presence.

For the bus-sized object to keep pace with the ISS, it would need to be travelling at around 7.8 kilometers-per-second.

The footage was picked up and shared on a YouTube channel called ET Data Base hosted by noted UFO-watcher Scott C. Waring

That is NASA zooming in on the UFO, not me, Waring notes of the footage. They are as baffled by it as I am. They dont know what it is or why it is there.

MORE: Earth now has a second moon (sort of)

During the feed, they mention coordinates, and that could be secret code as to the location of the object. They dont want to be too obvious.

Describing the footage, Waring added: It looks like its in a cone-shaped. Ive never seen a module in this shape.

It doesnt like any kind of object I have seen before. If it is military, then it is a top-secret US air force technology.

MORE: Antarctica is turning red near a former British research station

While its highly unlikely to be evidence of any kind of alien encounter, the idea of it being military technology isnt that far fetched.

The US Air Force has a small, autonomous plane called X-37B that conducts intelligence operations from orbit. Built by Boeing and flown remotely, the craft also known as Orbital Test Vehicle is on a mission the U.S. will only describe as classified.

It is able to stay aloft for months at a time and comes down infrequently for servicing.

In Britain, the RAF took the decision to wind up its UFO unit in 2009, after concluding that in more than 50 years, no received report had ever disclosed any evidence of a potential threat.

Previously, records from the unit were given to the National Archives, often initially classified before being released after a specific number of years. The most recent reports received by the RAF will be placed online following a Freedom of Information Act request.

But members of the public reporting alleged UFO sightings are now directed to their local police force.

Read more:

Nasa films mystery UFO following the ISS for 20 minutes - Metro.co.uk

The International Space Station will be visible in Louisville skies throughout the week.The space station will look like an airplane or very bright star moving across the sky, except it doesnt have flashing lights or change direction, according to NASA's website. It will also be moving considerably faster than a typical airplane.All sightings will occur within a few hours before or after sunrise or sunset. NASA officials said this is the optimum viewing period as the sun reflects off the space station and contrasts against the darker sky.The station will be visible in Louisville in short spurts through March 1. The station will make its appearance Sunday at 6:06 a.m. for 5 minutes, Monday at 5:21 a.m. for 1 minute, Monday at 6:55 a.m. for 5 minutes, and Tuesday at 6:09 a.m. for 4 minutes. For more information on when you can spot the station and its exact coordinates, visit spotthestation.nasa.gov.Two new exhibits are open at the Gheens Science Hall and Rauch Planetarium. The ISS-Above gives visitors a real time live stream look at earth from the International Space Station. The second exhibit teaches visitors about the Sloan Digital Sky survey, a 20-year project to map 300 million stars and galaxies.

The International Space Station will be visible in Louisville skies throughout the week.

The space station will look like an airplane or very bright star moving across the sky, except it doesnt have flashing lights or change direction, according to NASA's website. It will also be moving considerably faster than a typical airplane.

All sightings will occur within a few hours before or after sunrise or sunset. NASA officials said this is the optimum viewing period as the sun reflects off the space station and contrasts against the darker sky.

The station will be visible in Louisville in short spurts through March 1. The station will make its appearance Sunday at 6:06 a.m. for 5 minutes, Monday at 5:21 a.m. for 1 minute, Monday at 6:55 a.m. for 5 minutes, and Tuesday at 6:09 a.m. for 4 minutes.

For more information on when you can spot the station and its exact coordinates, visit spotthestation.nasa.gov.

Two new exhibits are open at the Gheens Science Hall and Rauch Planetarium. The ISS-Above gives visitors a real time live stream look at earth from the International Space Station. The second exhibit teaches visitors about the Sloan Digital Sky survey, a 20-year project to map 300 million stars and galaxies.

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Here's when the International Space Station will be visible in Louisville skies - WLKY Louisville

The Space Force has Elon Musk's seal of approval.

SpaceX's billionaire founder and CEO said he's onboard with the sixth branch of the U.S. military, which President Donald Trump officially established in December 2019.

"I think it's actually cool that the creation of the Space Force is happening," Musk said Friday (Feb. 28) during a "fireside chat" at the Air Force Association's Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Florida.

"It makes sense that there's a major branch for every domain," he told his interviewer at the event, Lt. Gen. John Thompson, commander of the Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base.

Related: What is the Space Force?

Though the Space Force's detailed duties remain fuzzy, it's safe to assume that the new branch's priorities will include protecting U.S. space assets from potential interference or aggression and helping the nation maintain its long-held dominance in the final frontier.

That dominance is now under serious threat, U.S. military officials have stressed over the past few years, citing Russia and China as the two chief competitors. In response, the U.S. Air Force has begun emphasizing adaptability, flexibility and speed of innovation in its space systems. The old way of doing business spending 15 years and a billion dollars or so to get a single (highly capable) satellite off the drawing board and into orbit just won't cut it in today's fast-moving space-tech environment, Air Force officials have said.

Musk sounded similar notes during Friday's fireside chat. He noted that China's economy will eventually grow to two or three times the size of the U.S. economy, giving the Asian nation a huge advantage in the space domain.

The United States can overcome that advantage, Musk said, but only by tapping one of the nation's greatest resources: its innovation engine.

"I have zero doubt that if the United States does not seek great innovations in space, it will be second in space, as sure as night follows day," Musk said. "So, it is a big deal."

The innovation with the greatest potential to transform the space domain, Musk added, is reusability. Completely reusable rockets and spacecraft are game changers, he stressed on Friday, as he has many times before.

SpaceX aims to develop such systems, of course, and has made a great deal of progress so far. The first stages of the California-based company's Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets are reusable, and SpaceX has successfully landed 49 of these boosters during orbital missions to date. Many of these rockets have flown again, often several times. And SpaceX routinely reflies its robotic Dragon cargo capsules on resupply missions to the International Space Station for NASA.

But SpaceX is aiming higher: Its Starship Mars-colonizing transportation system is designed to be fully reusable. That system consists of a big spaceship called Starship and a huge rocket known as Super Heavy, both of which are still in development.

Related: SpaceX's Starship and Super Heavy rocket in pictures

Indeed, Musk wants each Starship component eventually to fly many times, and on a fast turnaround. The billionaire entrepreneur has said he envisions 1,000 Starships heading off to Mars every 26 months, when Earth and the Red Planet align favorably for interplanetary flight.

This is the sort of radical innovation that would keep the United States on top in space, Musk implied Friday. And such tech could put the country on the path toward something even more ambitious, he added a truly sci-fi future.

"We gotta make Starfleet happen," Musk said, referring to the United Federation of Planets' space force in the "Star Trek" universe. "When the public hears 'Space Force,' that's what they think. It's like, 'OK, we're going to have some sweet spaceships and pretty good uniforms and stuff.'"

We all want these exciting developments to happen within our lifetimes and that does seem achievable, as long as we push for big innovations in spaceflight tech, Musk said.

"Warp drive and teleportation, probably not," he said. "But big spaceships that can go far places? Definitely. That can be done."

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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Elon Musk approves of the US Space Force, eyes 'Star Trek' potential - Space.com

Hordinsky was the flight surgeon (primary doctor) for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and his patients were American astronauts. He was with NASA from 1972 to 1981, the whole time that Skylab, the U.S. space station, was operational.

Skylab allowed the astronauts to be in space for prolonged periods of time, and this extended time living in a weightless environment affected their bodies in many ways. It altered the functioning of all the bodys organs, especially the heart, stomach and intestines, eyes and brain.

On Earth, gravity pulls bodily fluids toward the lower parts of the body, but in microgravity, fluids move from the lower parts toward the upper body, and this redistribution of fluids causes the heart to become enlarged, which affects the amount of oxygen that reaches the brain. This redistribution of fluids also takes place in the eyes, affecting vision.

In microgravity, there is also a noticeable amount of bone and muscle wasting. These were some of the new issues that Hordinsky needed to carefully monitor while the astronauts were in outer space.

Jerry Roman Hordinsky was born Aug. 3, 1942, to Bohdan and Irene (Tysowsky) Hordinsky, in Kalush, a small city in western Ukraine. Bohdan Hordinsky was a well-respected doctor in the Soviet-controlled republic of Ukraine and was reportedly Josef Stalins personal physician for a while.

Shortly before Jerrys birth, Kalush fell to the Nazi German Army and was occupied by the Third Reich, which systematically attempted to kill all of the Jews in the town. Since Hordinsky had many Jews as patients, and had continued to treat them after German occupation, he knew that he and his family were at risk and decided to flee the country.

The Hordinsky family fled to Vienna, Austria, and ended up settling in a small city in the Austrian Alps. When the war ended, they moved to Salzburg, Austria, where Hordinsky headed a United Nations hospital.

On Dec. 14, 1947, the family boarded a vessel headed to the U.S. and arrived in New York City on Christmas Day. Hordinsky practiced medicine at St. James Hospital in Newark, N.J., and, in 1949, moved to Bottineau, N.D., where he spent a year as an intern at the hospital. In 1951, the family relocated to Drake and Dr. Hordinsky established his practice there.

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At an early age, it became very evident that Jerry Hordinsky was gifted intellectually, and he was sent to St. Paul to attend the prestigious St. Thomas Military Academy for junior high and high school. After graduating, he attended the University of Minnesota, where he focused on an engineering and pre-medicine curriculum and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in applied mathematics.

On Sept. 16, 1963, Hordinsky began medical school at the University of North Dakota, which at that time was only a two-year program. For his final two years, he attended Northwestern University in Chicago, receiving his medical degree in 1967. Hordinsky interned in Chicagos Cook County Hospital, earning his license to practice medicine.

On Sept. 20, 1968, Hordinsky enlisted in the U.S. Army as a flight surgeon, with the anticipated opportunity to eventually work for NASA. He was sent to Boston where he earned a masters degree in industrial health from Harvard University in 1972, and then went to the University of Oklahoma where he became certified in both occupational and aerospace medicine.

Since Hordinsky was no longer obligated to serve in the Army due to being discharged on March 19, 1971, he was hired by NASA to be a flight surgeon. At the time Hordinsky was hired, NASA was nearing completion of the Apollo phase of its space program, and plans were well underway for launching a space station into orbit in the spring of 1973. On Dec. 11, 1972, the last Apollo flight took place, and on May 14, 1973, the rocket carrying the Skylab space station was launched into orbit.

Skylab was a 169,950-pound space station that contained a workshop and solar observatory for three crew members. On May 25, the first manned flight to the Skylab space station was launched with astronauts Charles Conrad, Paul Weitz and Joseph Kerwin aboard.

Besides the effects on the body already mentioned earlier, there were also other concerns. With a reduction of oxygen to the brain, the control of emotions was reduced, and because the three astronauts would be living and working in very cramped quarters, the chances of emotional flare-ups increased.

Another great concern was nausea in space. Space sickness, or space adaptation syndrome, is nausea experienced by as many as half of all space travelers during their adaptation to weightlessness once in orbit. Since a number of space walks were scheduled for the astronauts in Skylab, it could be fatal for them to vomit while in a space suit. The vomit could smear the inside of the helmet, blinding the astronaut, and because the helmet could not be removed, the vomit could be inhaled or clog the oxygen circulation system.

Hordinsky carefully examined all of the astronauts medical data transmitted from Skylab to the monitors at his medical facility, noting anything that veered from normal. Each night, he would hold a radio conference with the astronauts to elicit any of their concerns or anxieties and then make recommendations to address their concerns and correct the medical abnormalities.

The first manned Skylab (called Skylab 2) mission lasted 28 days, and the crew returned to Earth on June 22, 1973. Skylab 3 was launched on July 28, and the astronauts remained in space for 59.5 days. Skylab 4 was launched on Nov. 11, and the astronauts returned to Earth on Feb. 8, 1973, having been in space for 84 days.

Astronaut Owen K. Garriott, Skylab 3's science pilot, performs an extravehicular activity at the Apollo Telescope Mount of Skylab in 1973. Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons / Special to The Forum

Much of Hordinskys work occurred after the astronauts returned to Earth. He ran extensive tests for three days on each of the men, with a heavy emphasis on making certain that their minds and bodies were adapting properly to the gravitational environment back on Earth.

Because NASA realized that the more effective Space Shuttle program was moving forward, the scheduled launching of Skylab 5 was canceled. The mid-1970s was a period of dtente between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, and both countries agreed to do a joint space venture called the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP). On July 15, 1975, both the U.S. and Soviet Union launched separate spacecrafts that docked/joined together on July 17, and the teams did joint space ventures and experiments.

After 44 hours together, the spacecrafts separated and the teams returned to Earth. Upon splashdown, the U.S. crew was exposed to toxic fumes that were accidentally vented into the cabin of the aircraft, and the astronauts were hospitalized for two weeks. This was the only major health issue that Hordinsky was not able to avert during his time as flight surgeon, and it was totally out of his control.

With no more space flights scheduled until 1981, Hordinsky went to Germany and served as deputy flight surgeon for the European Space Agency. From 1982 to 1999, he worked for the Federal Aviation Administration as its clinical and research medical officer and then as manager of their Aeromedical Research Division. Much of his work involved writing reports about health and safety issues he observed and encountered while he was the primary flight surgeon for the astronauts involved in space travel.

Dr. Jerry Hordinsky died on Oct. 20, 2000.

Did You Know That is written by Curt Eriksmoen and edited by Jan Eriksmoen of Fargo. Send your comments, corrections, or suggestions for columns to the Eriksmoens at cjeriksmoen@cableone.net.

Curt Eriksmoen, Did You Know That? columnist

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Eriksmoen: Doctor who grew up in ND kept orbiting astronauts healthy - Grand Forks Herald

Private companies have every right to close off part of Denver Union Station to members of the public who dont buy stuff, according to a contract Denverite obtained through a Colorado Open Records Act request.

Taxpayers helped fund the $518 million revival of Union Station, and its owned by the Regional Transportation District, a public entity. But the transit agency signed away some of the general publics rights in 2012 when it agreed to terms with Union Station Alliance, a private group of companies that manages the stations day-to-day operations.

RTD explicitly empowered tenants Sage Hospitality Group and the guards they hire from Allied Universal Security to restrict access and regulate the behavior of all Persons in the Great Hall as long as transit riders have room to wait for and travel to their trains and buses, the lease agreement states.

The document makes clear who makes decisions about the publicly-owned building. Its not the public:

The Great Hall shall at all times be part of the Tenants Interest and nothing in this Lease shall constitute a dedication of the Great Hall to the public or otherwise grant to the general public any right or interest therein, states the document, signed by former RTD general manager Phillip Washington and Sage Hospitality CEO Walter Isenberg.

People and companies can also rent space inside the Great Hall for private events.

Union Station Alliance paid RTD $635,245 in 2019 to use the public building for private profit, according to the transit agency.

As long as bus and train riders arent impeded, RTD is fine with the change, said Pauletta Tonilas, RTDs assistant general manager of communications

While Union Station is a public place, its not managed as a public space, Tonilas said. There are many things that went into the planning of that space and that was the desire of the stakeholders who worked on this whole project for many, many years.

To turn people away from the lounge area, Sage Hospitality erected a sign alerting people that the once-open space was now reserved for people who spend money at Great Hall businesses. While a Sage Hospitality spokesperson told Denverite that RTD and Amtrak customers could sit in the lounge area, the sign did not list that exception. The sign has been removed but placards on tables remain.

In a statement, Sage Hospitality spokesperson Sarah Hendricks called the new restrictions for the general public a service extension for people who spend money at businesses and the Crawford Hotel. An overwhelming demand from people whove bought food and drinks sparked the change, Hendricks said.

In an interview with Denverite, Allied Universal Securitys local client manager Alan Banich called Union Station a private property building and said it is actually not owned by the public.RTD, a public agency, owns the building, Denvers real estate department confirmed.

Allied security guards enforce Sage Hospitalitys policy by observing people and will even ask for receipts, if necessary, Banich said, adding that theyll give people friendly reminders and point to the placards before asking them to leave.

People without homes use the station to warm up and charge their phones, while people who use drugs use the station to shoot up. After Denverite broke the story about the policy change, Twitter and Facebook erupted with comments claiming the move was a pretext for booting poor and homeless people from the tony station. Others said employees and the public are endangered by people who use drugs.

Its not arbitrary in any way, shape or form, Banich told Denverite about enforcing Sages policy. Were not just finding random people to select.

Banich would not say how many people are asked to leave, calling that information proprietary.

The Denver Police Department has made 36 arrests including for drug-related crimes and robbery at Union Station since Jan. 1, according to DPD data.

Sage Hospitality did not respond to multiple requests to discuss pressures faced by employees at the station.

We take public our middle name is public very seriously, said Rachel Fewell, the central library administrator. One of our primary values is (being) welcoming. And we take that very seriously as well. Every single person from every walk of life is welcome into the library.

The central branch employs 18 security guards with an estimated six working at any given time, Fewell said. None are armed. All are employees of the Denver Public Library, which she said is key because they believe in our values and are trained in what the library does and truly believe in and support our mission.

Denvers main library has seen half the arrests of Union Station since Jan. 1, according to DPD data. Fewell said things are peaceful 99 percent of the time.

I think its because people are respected here, she said. We talk to people and acknowledge people who are not acknowledged in regular society.

The library welcomes people who are cold in the winter and employees are trained to connect people with health services if they need them.

As we continue to restrict public spaces, as we continue to get into more public-private partnerships, that does continue to concentrate all the people that need public space into the very limited footprint of space that we have, Fewell said.

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You can't just sit anywhere at Denver's Union Station because this 2012 contract gave up control over some of its public space - Denverite

Next-generation rocket builder Relativity Space is moving to a new home.

Relativity Space, which aims to revolutionize spaceflight with its 3D-printed rockets, will soon be based out of a 120,000-square-foot (11,150 square meters) space in Long Beach, California, company representatives announced Friday (Feb. 28).

The new facility, which is close to Relativity Space's old Los Angeles headquarters, will house business operations and the autonomous factory that will churn out the company's Terran 1 rocket. That vehicle is scheduled to fly for the first time next year.

Video: Meet Relativity Space, home of 3D-printed rockets

Related: 3D-printed rocket engine launches new era of space exploration

"Relativity is disrupting nearly 60 years of prior aerospace technology by building a new manufacturing platform using robotics, 3D printing and AI," Relativity Space CEO and co-founder Tim Ellis said in a statement.

"With no fixed tooling, Relativity has enabled a massive part count and risk reduction, increased iteration speed, and created an entirely new value chain," Ellis added. "Im confident our autonomous factory will become the future technology stack for the entire aerospace industry."

Ellis once worked at Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos' spaceflight company. Fellow Relativity Space co-founder Jordan Noone is a former SpaceX employee. The duo formed Relativity Space in 2015 and brought it out of stealth mode a few years later.

The company aims to vastly increase access to space via 3D printing and intelligent automation. This approach leads to rockets that are much less complex, much more reliable and much faster to build than their traditional counterparts, Relativity Space representatives have said.

For example, the 95-foot-tall (29 m) Terran 1 has just 1% as many parts as "normal" rockets do, according to a description on the Relativity Space website. The two-stage rocket, which will be able to launch a maximum of 2,750 lbs. (1,250 kilograms) to low-Earth orbit on each $10 million mission, can be built from scratch in less than 60 days.

Terran 1's payload capacity, by the way, puts the vehicle in a niche between smallsat launchers such as Rocket Lab's Electron booster and bigger rockets like SpaceX's Falcon 9.

The new headquarters adds to Relativity Space's growing footprint around the country. The company already leases a 220,000-square-foot (20,440 square m) factory building at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, for example. Relativity Space also has an agreement to use two test facilities at Stennis, and the company has secured the right to launch Terran 1 rockets from Launch Complex-16 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Relativity Space's vision extends far beyond the United States' borders, however far beyond Earth orbit, in fact. The company wants to eventually help humanity colonize Mars.

"We believe in a more inspired future with people thriving on Earth and on Mars," the Relativity Space website reads. "In the early days of settlement, intelligent automation and lightweight, compact 3D printing are fundamental technologies needed to quickly establish a new society with scarce resources."

The design of the company's Aeon rocket engines can accommodate that Red Planet vision. The engines burn liquid oxygen and liquid methane, both of which could be produced on Mars, as SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has stressed. (SpaceX's new Raptor engine, which will power the company's Starship and Super Heavy Mars-colonizing transport system, also burn oxygen and methane.)

Though Relativity Space does not yet have any launches under its belt, investors have expressed considerable confidence in the company. Relativity Space snared $140 million in a funding round last fall, bringing the company's total investment haul to $185 million.

And customers are already starting to line up to ride Terran 1 to space. For example, Relativity Space recently announced contracts to launch payloads for Momentus, Telesat, Spaceflight and Thailand-based startup mu Space.

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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Relativity Space will 3D-print rockets at new autonomous factory in Long Beach, California - Space.com

Space Station 13 is a community developed, multiplayer round-based role playing game, where players assume the role of a crewmember on a space station. Together they must keep the station running smoothly, whilst dealing with antagonistic forces who threaten to sabotage the mission.

At the beginning of each round, players select a crew member role on the station. These range from high up positions like the captain and heads of staff, to engineers, scientists, medical doctors, security officers, all the way down to the lower responsibility roles such as the janitor and lowly assistant. At round start, one or more players will be given an antagonistic role at random, and a secret objective thats very likely to cause disruption to the mission at hand.

When the crew arent turning on each other through sheer paranoia, they will face various dangers depending on the round: Sleeper agents hell bent on sabotage, shape-shifting aliens, RPG toting syndicate operatives and more. Not to mention the occupational hazards of working in space, such as decompression, meteor showers, radiation storms, airlock mishaps, rogue AI and catastrophic engine failure.

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Space Station 13 - The official website for Space Station 13

A Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo ship arrived at the International Space Station Tuesday (Feb. 18) to make a special delivery of cheese, candy and science gear for NASA.

The uncrewed Cygnus NG-13 spacecraft was captured with a station robotic arm by NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan, one of three Expedition 62 crewmembers currently living aboard the orbiting lab. Northrop Grumman launched the Cygnus spacecraft into orbit on an Antares rocket on Saturday (Feb. 15) from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia.

"Cygnus capture complete," Morgan radioed NASA's Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston as he plucked the gleaming silver Cygnus from space at 4:05 a.m. EST (0905 GMT). The two spacecraft were sailing 265 miles (426 kilometers) above southeast Russia at the time.

Related: See amazing launch photos of Antares and Cygnus NG-13!More: Bacteria & bone: Here's the science launching on Cygnus NG-13

Northrop Grumman named the Cygnus NG-13 spacecraft the "S.S. Robert H. Lawrence" after the late Maj. Robert H. Lawrence, Jr., who made history in 1967 as the first African American ever selected to be an astronaut when he was picked to fly for the U.S. Air Force's Manned Orbiting Laboratory, a planned military space station. But Lawrence died in a training accident later that year and never had the chance to fly in space.

"As the first African-American to be selected as an astronaut by a national space program, Robert defined possible against the odds when he was selected for the U.S. Air Force's Manned Orbital Laboratory project in 1967," Morgan said after capturing the Cygnus. "Tragically,Major Lawrence died in an aircraft training accident that same year. But while Robert never launched into Earth orbit, he remains a valuable symbol of progress and inclusion in human spaceflight, and it's our honor to welcome the S.S. Robert H. Lawrence, Jr. aboard the ISS."

The Cygnus NG-13 spacecraft is carrying more than 7,500 lbs. (3,400 kilograms) of science experiments, supplies and other vital gear for the station's three-person Expediton 62 crew. In addition to Morgan, the crew includes NASA astronaut Jessica Meir and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka, who commands the mission.

Cygnus is delivering some novel science gear to the station, including 20 different experiments. Among them is Mochii, a small scanning electron microscope that is the first ever in space. It will help astronauts find out what materials are made of in orbit, rather than waiting months for an analysis on the ground. Other equipment will be used for bone loss studies and to test viruses that can target specific bacteria as a potential future medication.

Among the science experiments are some very special treats for the astronauts. There's fresh fruit and candy to satisfy the crew's sweet tooth.

And then there's the cheese.

For the first time, NASA's Food Lab at the Johnson Space Center was able to pack some hard cheeses in a cooler-like "cold bag" for the astronauts. The station crew has been requesting Parmesan and other hard cheeses since September as an alternative to the butter-like spread currently available. But finding a fresh hard cheese just before a launch, and then keeping it fresh for the days-long trip to the station was a challenge.

The Cygnus NG-13 cargo ship is connected to the International Space Station's Unity module on an Earth-facing port as a sunset begins in space on Feb. 18, 2020.

An uncrewed Northrop Grumman Cygnus NG-13 cargo ship is captured by a robotic arm at the International Space Station to deliver more than 7,500 lbs. (3,400 kilograms) of supplies to the orbiting laboratory on Feb. 18, 2020.

This NASA graphic shows the location of the Cygnus NG-13 cargo ship on the Unity module after its arrival at the International Space Station on Feb. 18, 202. Visiting Russian spacecraft are also shown.

Ryan Dowdy, food systems manager at the Food Lab, told Space.com his team was able to find Wisconsin sharp cheddar, Parmesan and Fontina cheeses (about two wedges each) from a local supermarket and develop a new process to add them as "late stowage" 24 hours before launch. They were packed in refrigerated cold bag just like the fruit (and some biological science gear) and launched to the station.

Dowdy said his team was not able to find Manchego cheese, a special crew request, as previously reported, but does hope it will give the astronauts a little reminder of home.

"The cheese that we do send normally in the standard menu is a shelf stable cheddar cheese spread," Dowdy said. "And that is worlds of away from a wedge of Parmesan cheese, as you can imagine. Sending this is a reminder of home."

Email Tariq Malik attmalik@space.comor follow him@tariqjmalik. Follow us@Spacedotcom, Facebook and Instagram.

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Cygnus cargo ship delivers cheese, candy and science gear to space station astronauts - Space.com

SpaceX just inked its first deal to launch space tourists into orbit on a Crew Dragon spacecraft.

The private spaceflight company founded by billionaire Elon Musk has signed an agreement with the U.S. space tourism company Space Adventures to launch up to four passengers on an orbital trip aboard a Crew Dragon space capsule.The mission would last up to five days and could launch as early as late 2021, Space Adventures representatives told Space.com.

"This historic mission will forge a path to making spaceflight possible for all people who dream of it, and we are pleased to work with the Space Adventures team on the mission," SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell said in a statement from Space Adventures.

Video: Space Adventures' SpaceX orbital spaceflight explainedIn photos: The world's first space tourists

Under the agreement, Space Adventures will use a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon vehicle to fly up to four passengers to Earth orbit. The trip will not visit the International Space Station. Instead, it will remain in orbit as a free-flying spacecraft.

"This will provide up to four individuals with the opportunity to break the world altitude record for private citizen spaceflight and see planet Earth the way no one has since the Gemini program," Space Adventures representatives said in the statement.For comparison, the space station orbits the Earth at an average altitude of about 250 miles (400 kilometers).

"Honoring our combined histories, this Dragon mission will be a special experience and a once in a lifetime opportunity capable of reaching twice the altitude of any prior civilian astronaut mission orspacestation visitor," said Eric Anderson, chairman of Space Adventures, said in the statement.

To date, Space Adventures has arranged eight orbital trips to the International Space Station for seven wealthy customers: Dennis Tito in 2001; South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth in 2002; American entrepreneurs Greg Olsen in 2005 and Anousheh Ansari in 2006; Microsoft co-founder Charles Simonyi (twice) in 2007 and 2009; computer game developer Richard Garriott in 2008; and Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte in 2009.

In photos: A behind-the-scenes look at SpaceX's Crew Dragon spaceship

Those spaceflights all cost tens of millions of dollars, with Laliberte's flight costing a reported $35 million for his 11-day trip. The passengers, called "spaceflight participants," flew to and from the station on Russian Soyuz space capsules under agreements between Space Adventures and Roscosmos, Russia's space agency.

SpaceX or Space Adventures did not announce exact pricing for the Crew Dragon tourist flight, but the cost per seat is expected to be in the same range of other commercial spaceflight opportunities.

As for timing, it's likely that the free-flying Crew Dragon flight will launch only after SpaceX begins flying NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station. Those trips are expected to begin later this year.

SpaceX (and rival Boeing) have multi-billion-dollar contracts to fly astronauts on round trips to and from the space station. In 2019, SpaceX performed a successful uncrewed test flight to the station with Crew Dragon, following it up with a launch abort test last month.

The Crew Dragon spacecraft is a reusable space capsule designed to carry up to seven people on trips to and from Earth orbit. SpaceX missions for NASA will launch the capsule on a Falcon 9 rocket, visit the International Space Station for months, then return to Earth for a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean.

In December, Boeing launched an uncrewed test flight of its own Starliner capsule, but it failed to reach the space station due to software and communications issues. Boeing and NASA are investigating that flight to determine if another uncrewed flight will be required.

Meanwhile, Space Adventures is also working with Roscosmos to fly two space tourists to the International Space Station on a dedicated Soyuz spacecraft in 2021. Roscosmos announced the agreement with Space Adventures last year.

"Creating unique and previously impossible opportunities for private citizens to experiencespaceis whySpaceAdventuresexists," Anderson said. "Since its maiden mission in 2010, no engineering achievement has consistently impressed the industry more than the Dragon/Falcon 9 reusable system."

Editor's note: This story, originally posted at 10 a.m. EST, has been updated to include mission duration, timing and cost details from Space Adventures.

Email Tariq Malik attmalik@space.comor follow him@tariqjmalik. Follow us@SpacedotcomandFacebook.

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SpaceX will fly space tourists on Crew Dragon for Space Adventures - Space.com

Kongsberg equipment is to enable broadband transmission for the International Space Station (ISS) - significantly improving communication between the ESA astronauts manning the station and earth. - This is a great benefit for the personnel onboard, and Kongsberg is proud to deliver technology to the project, says Ingelin Dropping, Executive Vice President of Kongsberg's Space and Surveillance division.

February 14th the ESA Columbus Ka-Band Terminal (COLKa) started its journey to the International Space Station (ISS) orbiting earth. Here, the terminal will be installed on the European Columbusmodule, a science laboratory which is part of the ISS. It will then enable continuous signaltransmission to the ground via the European Data Relay Satellite (EDRS) system.

"This will enable the European astronauts and scientists to exchange important information with ground stations in real time. They will benefit from higher bandwidth communications, faster delivery of scientific data and high definition video imagery, thanks to this terminal," says Ingelin Dropping, Executive Vice President of Kongsberg's Space and Surveillance division.

The terminal is to be delivered to the International Space Station as part of the Northrop Grumman's thirteenth contracted commercial resupply services mission. Northrop Grumman launched their Cygnus spacecraft aboard an Antares rocket from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, supplying will ISS with several tons of cargo.

International teamworkKongsberg has been part of the team developing the terminal, through its Space and Surveillance division's environment in Horten, Norway. The project has been headed by MDA Space and Robotics Limited, the UK division of MDA, the world leading Canadian space equipment manufacturer.

"Our Space Electronics team in Horten, formerly known as Norspace, has developed, manufactured and delivered frequency converters. They are critical parts of the Columbus Ka-band Inter-Satellite Link (ISL) terminal provided by MDA. The terminal itself offers the astronauts greater capacity and availability of broadband connection, as it is capable of speeds of up to 400mbps downlink and 50mbps uplink," says Ellen Tuset, Vice President Division Space in Kongsberg.

COLKa has been designed and integrated by MDA in the UK with both internal investment and funding provided by the UK Space Agency though the ESA Human Spaceflight program. Both Kongsberg and Antwerp Space have supported the project with significant investments in the development of key subsystems.

Related LinksKongsberg Space and Surveillance DivisionSatellite-based Internet technologies

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Kongsberg contributing to broadband connection for the International Space Station - Space Daily

To put things in perspective the only material tougher than the ceramic used in Vollebaks latest jacket is literally diamond.

Making the worlds most indestructible clothing does require constant reiteration, and Vollebaks constantly believed in pushing the boundaries of material science. Having made hoodies out of everything from Kevlar to carbon nanotubes, Vollebak now returns with a material so resistant to wear and tear, its used on the international space station. The ceramic hoodie comes with an aramid layer (Kevlar is an aramid) and is further coated with a layer comprising more than 60,000 matte-black ceramic particles that allow it to be theoretically destruction-proof, but still breathable and flexible. The hoodie builds on one of Vollebaks most popular items, the Ceramic T-Shirt, which was developed in 2017 and has, since then, been taken into jungles, warzones, and live volcanoes.

The Ceramic Hoodie is designed to be protective yet comfortable. The fabric is tough but breathable and comes with an inner fleece lining and waterproof zippers. Each hoodie is equipped with a layer of ceramic coating thats as thin as a human hair, and soft to the touch, but is abrasive-resistant enough to make it the toughest garment not just on earth, but arguably on the space station too!

Designer: Vollebak

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This damage-proof hoodie is made with the same ceramic technology used on the space station - Yanko Design

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA will host a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EST Thursday, Feb. 20, to discuss select science investigations launching on the next SpaceX commercial resupply flight to the International Space Station.

Audio of the teleconference will stream live online at:

https://www.nasa.gov/live

SpaceX is targeting 1:45 a.m. Monday,March 2, for the launch of its Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket fromSpace Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

To participate in the teleconference, media must contact Kathryn Hambleton at 202-358-1100 orkathryn.hambleton@nasa.govby 11 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 20, for dial-in information.

Participants in the briefing will be:

SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft also will carry crew supplies and hardware to the orbiting laboratory to support the Expedition 62 and 63 crew for the20th mission under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services contract.

The space station is a convergence of science, technology, and human innovation that demonstrates new technologies and enables research not possible on Earth. The orbiting laboratory has been occupied continuously since November 2000. In that time, 239 people, and a variety of international and commercial spacecraft, have visited the orbiting laboratory. The space station remains the springboard to NASA's next great leap in exploration, including future human missions to the Moon and eventually to Mars.

For launch countdown coverage, NASA's launch blog, and more information about the mission, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/spacex

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NASA Highlights Science on 20th SpaceX Resupply Mission to Space Station - PRNewswire

Learning can be fun, it turns out, as an Aerospace Engineering student has demonstrated with LEGO Ideas 21321 International Space Station.

Twitter user and Aerospace Engineering student Ian Benecken has used LEGO Ideas 21321 International Space Station to tell the real-life story of the International Space Station. Starting with the launch of the first modular, he explains the history of the technological marvel and reveals how it came to be in its current state.

On November 20th 1998 the first #ISS module #Zarya aka #FGB was launched from #Kazakhstan with a #ProtonK rocket. It was built in Russia but funded by @nasa but operated by @roscosmos. Its purpose is cargo storage, he begins.

Brick Fanatics reviews LEGO Ideas 21321 International Space Station

Then, two years on: On August the 6th 2000 the very first unmanned #Russian #Progress resupply capsule launched to the still unmanned #ISS #ProgressM1-3 2 days later on August 8th 2000 it docked to the aft end of #Zvesda. The #ISS looked like this from now on:

The full thread on Twitter is well worth perusing, illustrating how these detailed LEGO models provide an enjoyable creative pursuit, but also provide a tangible connection to real-world history.

Another three LEGO Ideas sets are on the way later this year the Playable Piano, Sesame Street and the Pirate Bay, with two more recently confirmed for production Winnie the Pooh and Medieval Blacksmith.

To continue to support the work of Brick Fanatics, please buy your LEGO sets from LEGO.com and Amazon using our affiliate links.

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Learning space exploration history with LEGO Ideas 21321 International Space Station - Brick Fanatics

As far as romantic nights out go, you can barely go past a night gazing at the stars.

Tonight, just in time for Valentines Day, West Australians will be treated to a spectacle in the night sky.

The International Space Station will fly over tonight and, according to the experts at the Perth Observatory it will be glow particularly bright for the most romantic night of the year.

It will be visible over WA between 8.37pm and 8.41pm.

Matt Woods said the space station flew over WA monthly but rarely is it so bright.

It happens to be that because its about 450km above Earth, its still receiving light from the sun and were in the right place at the right time to see it so bright, Mr Woods said.

Valentines Day night is proving to be popular for Perth stargazers, so much so, that loved-up couples had been put on to a waiting list for a special event at the observatory tonight.

I think even if theyre not thinking it all the time, people really are pretty amazed by whats in the universe, he said.

It also gets you massive brownie points.

If youll be too busy gazing into your lovers eyes to look at the stars tonight, the space station will also make two appearances at 7.50pm tomorrow and at 7.51pm on Monday.

But, stargazers will have to keep their fingers crossed for clear skies with stormy conditions and showers forecast tonight and partly cloudy conditions over the weekend. The clouds are forecast to clear in time for Monday.

Space enthusiasts will gather at Curtin University on February 29 for Astrofest, which is one of their biggest events of the year.

Excerpt from:

International Space Station flyover to light up Valentines sky over WA - The West Australian

It had been 1,106 days since a North American team won a major tournament in Rainbow Six Siege, and on Sunday night, it looked like that counter would tick up to 1,107.

In front of a hometown crowd at Place Bell in Montreal, the home of Siege game developer Ubisoft, a North American team was about to lose again. A few days early, that seemed impossible. A troika of NA squads -- Spacestation Gaming, Team SoloMid and DarkZero Esports -- were nestled in the upper bracket of the tournament, a fast pass to the final that appeared to be an almost assured all-American affair. Yet DarkZero was eliminated by Brazil's Ninjas in Pyjamas, who then went on to take down TSM in the semifinal.

Once the final began, everything began to unravel for North America's last hope. Their map choice, Villa, which the Ninjas had been shying away from and seemed to be a slam dunk victory for Spacestation, turned upside down almost immediately. Before the fans in the venue could even catch their breath, the first map of the grand final was over, the Brazilians tying up the best-of-five series with SSG getting an auto-win for having qualified from the upper bracket without losing a match.

The next map, Border, was more of the same. If you believe in momentum in sports, the Ninjas had all of it. SSG were ransacked in a second straight map with the stunned crowd not knowing how to react outside of the pockets of Brazil fans in the arena, screaming for Ninjas to bring its country their first Siege world title home. On the map that would have brought them the title, they once again jumped out of the gate, pushing themselves a couple of rounds from lifting The Hammer, the aptly named trophy given to each year's best Rainbow Six Siege team.

Up 5-3 and on the verge of pushing the series to a match point, it came down to a one-on-one duel. SSG's captain, Javier "Thinkingnade" DeAndre Escamilla, was chunked down to a single hit point, but he somehow pulled through, clutching from the depths of defeat and sparking the Montreal crowd to rise from their seats.

And once they were up, they didn't sit down. From that single play that could have gone to Ninjas on any other day in the year, SSG never looked back, the fans propelling them to a comeback victory to win the series in five games. The team's newest addition, Troy "Canadian" Jaroslawski, an icon in the Siege community who was part of the last North American team to win a major title in 2017 at the inaugural Six Invitational, was there to put a dagger into the streak of futility.

"It's f---ing amazing, there are no other words," Canadian told ESPN minutes following his second world championship victory. "I've been working for it for so long. Ever since I blew a lead at the 2018 [world championship], I've been working, putting everything I have into it to get back. This ... made it all worth it."

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For Canadian, the 1,000-plus day record without a North American championship has been a curse. Where other players have come in and out of the spotlight, as the de facto face of his region since he began playing, it's stuck with Canadian every step of the way. From social media posts to post-match interviews, every loss at a premier tournament has been followed up by questions of when would he, and North America, win again.

During the 2018 Six Invitational, Canadian's Evil Geniuses team were in an almost unbeatable position against rival European organization PENTA. Up two games in the five-match series, he was one win away from winning back-to-back world titles and cementing himself in the history of the fledgling game as its first legend. He would be called the greatest of all time. The best. Instead, EG were reverse-swept and PENTA, who later became G2 Esports, became the team that would win back-to-back world championships, while Canadian was labeled a choker.

Since then, Canadian's career became one of tragedy. Like Sisyphus, doomed to roll a giant boulder up a hill for eternity to only have it come crashing down on him, Canadian was in a forever loop of potential to only end in dismay. At the 2019 world championship, he was confident and ready to get revenge against the now-G2 Esports, a year removed from the reverse-sweep. Canadian didn't even make it to the semifinals, where he would have played G2, falling in the quarterfinals and having to answer once again what went wrong.

After bombing out at another major tournament, the Raleigh Major, Canadian needed a change. Spacestation Gaming, a team made up of talented and flexible players, needed an in-game leader. So he left Evil Geniuses, the core with which he won his first title and was built through friendship, a decision with only one goal on his mind -- lifting The Hammer in Montreal.

"[I've changed] my attitude and how I handle myself as a captain," Canadian said. "I think I've definitely caused some problems on my past team, EG, where I could be condescending and hard to work with. I don't think it was horrible or the guys on EG thought it was horrible either, but it definitely could have been better. Towards the later days of EG, I really tried to work on it, but once I joined SSG and got into the right environment I think, I really kinda shined through. I think I've become a whole new person and teammate, and I think it's for the best."

Along with the end of its three-year championship drought, the North American Siege scene had more good news during the weekend. In the developer's yearly panel before the grand final, where Ubisoft shares the changes to the game and esports leagues across the globe for the upcoming year, they announced that an offline domestic league for 10 North American professional teams would begin following its Proleague final this coming May in So Paulo, Brazil.

It's a new era for Canadian and North American Siege as a whole. While it wasn't an all-NA final like it could have been, the region was by far the strongest during the 2020 world championship, with three of its teams finishing in the top six and the only team that failed to make it out of the group stages, Team Reciprocity, was more unlucky than unskilled. With up-and-comers like eUnited, an old guard in Evil Geniuses and the four teams that impressed in Montreal, the newfound offline North American Proleague could become the new standard.

"I'd like to think that North America has always had the potential to rise to the top and that 2019 was just an outlier stumble for NA teams," Che Chou, the senior director of esports at Ubisoft, said to ESPN. "I don't know that anything we've done structurally in NA has affected the success of the NA teams here at SI, but what I do know is that the reason SSG, TSM and DarkZero have done so well through groups is because they're great organizations who invest in their players, all of whom are hungry to win."

North America, often ridiculed, has been redeemed. A bright future on the horizon, an offline league only enhancing the strength of the region as a whole.

Canadian, liberated from his past failures and now changing not only as a player but as a person, will now take his rightful place among the greats as a two-time winner and three-time finalist. One of, if not the best, in-game leader in Rainbow Six Siege history until someone steals the title from him.

It's Feb. 16, 2020, and it has been 0 days since a North American team won a major tournament in Rainbow Six Siege.

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Spacestation Gaming break the NA Rainbow Six Siege tourney drought - ESPN