WASHINGTON A Cygnus cargo spacecraft launched Feb. 15 carrying more than three tons of supplies and experiments for the International Space Station.

A Northrop Grumman Antares rocket lifted off from Pad 0-A the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at 3:21 p.m. Eastern, carrying a Cygnus spacecraft on a mission designated NG-13. The Cygnus, now in orbit, is scheduled to be captured by the stations robotic arm at about 4:05 a.m. Eastern Feb. 18.

The launch was scheduled for Feb. 9 but scrubbed minutes before liftoff because of off-nominal data from ground support equipment. NASA and Northrop Grumman postponed a second launch attempt Feb. 14 because of strong upper-level winds.

The Cygnus is named S.S. Robert Lawrence Jr. after the first African-American astronaut, who died in a 1967 aircraft crash. It is carrying 3,337 kilograms of cargo, including about 1,600 kilograms of vehicle hardware and nearly 1,000 kilograms of science payloads. Crew supplies and other equipment constitute the rest of the cargo on the spacecraft.

Among the payloads on the Cygnus are science experiments to study the effects of microgravity on bacteriophages, which are viruses that attack bacteria, as well as research on the growth of bone cells. The spacecraft is carrying the first scanning electron microscope for use in space, called Mochii and developed by Seattle-based company Voxa, to support station research.

Were really excited for a lot of the science that Cygnus is bringing up. Cygnus is a huge enabler of continuing the science on ISS, said Heidi Parris, assistant program scientist for the ISS program at NASA, during a Feb. 8 pre-launch briefing at the Wallops Flight Facility here.

The vehicle hardware on Cygnus includes a new communications system called ColKa for the Columbus module on the station that will provide increased bandwidth by communicating through the European Data Relay System satellites. A new external high-definition camera is on board that will replace a similar, failed camera during a spacewalk tentatively scheduled for the spring.

The Cygnus will remain at the station until May, departing with about 3,700 kilograms of trash for disposal. After departing from the station, Cygnus will carry out the latest in a series of combustion experiments, called Saffire-4, to test how materials burn in microgravity with varying amounts of oxygen before the spacecraft reenters.

This launch comes only three and a half months after the previous Cygnus cargo mission, NG-12, which launched Nov. 2. That is the shortest time between Cygnus missions, which in the last few years have been spaced, on average, about six months apart.

Thats a little more compressed than weve been doing, so weve been working hard, said Kurt Eberly, Antares vice president at Northrop Grumman, at the pre-launch briefing. He said the company tapped into other resources, such as technicians who work on other vehicles at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, to accelerate the preparations for this launch.

Were happy to be able to respond to whatever our customer has needed, said Frank DeMauro, vice president and general manager of tactical space systems at Northrop Grumman, who said that NASA had asked Northrop to move up the launch a couple of months.

The next Cygnus mission to the ISS is currently scheduled for October, but could change depending on the schedule of commercial crew missions. After April, the station will have only a three-person crew, including just one American astronaut, Chris Cassidy, until SpaceXs Crew Dragon or Boeings CST-100 Starliner starts flying astronauts to the station.

We are discussing the best cadence on which to launch the cargo missions, and one factor is when well have crewmembers on board, said Ven Feng, manager of NASAs ISS Transportation Integration Office. The schedule of commercial crew vehicles as well as plans to complete science investigations on the station are key factors in that planning.

Feng said that Northrop has done a tremendous job demonstrating its ability to fly earlier than planned for the NG-13 mission. We may pull on that again in the near future, he added.

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Cygnus launches to space station - SpaceNews

NASA has unambiguously confirmed that SpaceX with its Crew Dragon spacecraft will soon become the first private company in history to launch astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), both an unexpected twist from the usually tight-lipped space agency and a major upset for Boeing.

Shortly after revealing that the first astronaut-rated Crew Dragon capsule had been completed and shipped eastward, SpaceX and NASA confirmed that the historic spacecraft arrived at SpaceXs Florida processing facilities on Thursday, February 13th. With that milestone out of the way, its now believed that all the hardware needed for SpaceXs Demo-2 astronaut launch debut Falcon 9 booster B1058, a Falcon 9 upper stage, Crew Dragon capsule C206, and a Crew Dragon trunk is finished, acceptance-tested, and preparing for flight in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Extremely out of character for NASA given that Crew Dragon Demo-2 is expected to launch no earlier than two or three months from now, the space agencys public statement that SpaceX will launch astronauts first simultaneously implies bad news for Boeing and its Starliner spacecraft. Contracted under the Commercial Crew Program in 2014, Boeing awarded $5.1B and SpaceX awarded $3.1B have been working to build two separate crew launch vehicles (Starliner and Crew Dragon) with the intention of ferrying NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS). While both providers have had their own challenges, Boeing has been beset by numerous software failures born out during Starliners December 2019 orbital launch debut.

The Commercial Crew account has since deleted its tweet and NASAs accompanying blog post linked in said tweet was tweaked to reflect a slightly different interpretation, but the original text unequivocally stated that the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft [assigned to] the first crew launch from American soil since 2011 has arrived at the launch site. Given that both the tweet and blog post contained that exact same phrase, the fact that NASA retroactively censored and corrected itself strongly suggests that SpaceX will, in fact, become the first private company in history to launch astronauts into orbit.

NASA has a fairly notorious and years-long history of going well out of its way to avoid saying or implying anything that could be perceived as even slightly critical of Boeing. A prime contractor dating back to the first stage of the Saturn V rocket, Boeing has effectively secured billions of dollars of NASAs annual budget and possesses deep political sway thanks in large part to the revolving doors between industry and government and the hundreds of millions of dollars it has spent on lobbying over the last two decades.

More recently, Boeings Starliner spacecraft suffered several major software-related failures during its December 2019 Orbital Flight Test, narrowly avoiding a second catastrophic failure mode solely because a separate software failure 48 hours prior forced the company to reexamine its code. In simple terms, both software failures probably should and could have been caught and fixed before launch if even a semblance of routine digital simulations and integrated vehicle testing had been performed by Boeing.

Unsurprisingly, NASA at least after the fact is now extremely concerned by the lack of such a basic and commonsense level of quality control in Boeings Starliner software pipeline. Even NASA, arguably, could and should have been attentive enough to catch some of Boeings shortcomings before Starliners launch debut. Adding to the embarrassment, NASA performed a pretty invasive $5M review of SpaceXs safety practices and general engineering culture last year, triggered (not a joke) after CEO Elon Musk was seen very briefly smoking on a recorded interview. As part of regulations for the Commercial Crew Program, NASA was obligated to perform a similar review of Boeings safety culture, but the contractor demanded that NASA pay five times more $25M for the same thing.

NASA unsurprisingly balked at Boeings demands and wound up performing a more or less symbolic paper review that typically involves auditing paperwork supplied by the company itself. Despite the fact that Boeing would soon find itself mired in two fatal 737 Max crashes, killing 346 people as a result of shoddy software, an unreliable design, and bad internal communication, NASA still never pursued a similar safety review with Boeing. Now, only after a nearly-catastrophic in-space failure, NASA has finally decided that that safety review is necessary, while both NASA and Boeing will also have to extensively review all Starliner software and fix the flawed practices used to create and qualify it.

Perhaps most importantly, NASA and Boeing need to determine whether Starliners software failures were a one-off fluke or something symptomatic of deeper problems. Due to that uncertainty and the massive amount of work that will be required to answer those questions, its almost certain that Boeing will have to perform a second uncrewed Starliner test flight for NASA to verify that its problems have been rectified. A second OFT would almost certainly delay Boeings astronaut launch debut by 6-12 months. SpaceXs astronaut launch debut, for example, was delayed at least 9 months after a Crew Dragon capsule exploded during thruster testing after a flawless orbital launch and recovery.

As a result, even though SpaceXs Crew Dragon Demo-2 astronaut launch debut is likely more than two months away, even some part of NASA famous for incredibly neutral and conservative public statements appears to be all but certain that SpaceX will launch astronauts first. As of February 13th, 2020, all Demo-2 Falcon 9 and Dragon hardware is likely finished and awaiting integration in Florida. If things go as planned over the next several weeks, Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon could launch astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley as early as late-April or May 2020.

Check out Teslaratis newslettersfor prompt updates, on-the-ground perspectives, and unique glimpses of SpaceXs rocket launch and recovery processes.

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NASA confirms SpaceX will become the first private company to send astronauts to the space station - Teslarati

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - Two freshman students in Fayette County have been selected for a once in a lifetime opportunity.

They have designed a research project deemed worthy of being sent to the International Space Station.

It's a dream come true for any space enthusiast, but for Rosalie Huff, of Fredrick Douglass High School, and Kiera Fehr, of Henry Clay High School, they're over the moon after their research project was selected to launch to the International Space Station.

"It's so exciting to think that even being a freshman, I could still put something on the International Space Station that may make a difference," Fehr said.

Their project is just as exciting, they plan to send termites to space, which after researching, seems to be a first.

"They produce methane, which you know is a greenhouse gas, so we're trying to measure if microgravity affects the production of methane," Huff said.

They're also hoping to even relate the research back to the impacts it brings here on Earth.

"With the readings that we get, we may be able to apply it to our atmosphere and t could possibly give us insight on solutions or things like that," Fehr said.

To make sure Kiera and Rosalie's project is successful aboard the International Space Station, local company Space Tango is designing a cube lab, which will house everything needed for research inside of it.

"We have to take all of those components, all of the cameras, all of the imaging capabilities and condense that down to really miniaturized and automate the entire process," said Gentry Barnett, Tango Lab Program Manager at Space Tango.

While it will be about a six-month process before launch day, this opportunity is nevertheless a big step for these girls.

What's to come could launch these girls' dreams for the future.

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Project of Fayette County students being sent to International Space Station - WKYT

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 told PerthNow the space station flew over WA monthly but rarely is it so bright.

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NASA and the European Space Agency

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.

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International Space Station flyover to light up Valentines sky over WA - PerthNow

NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch are taking their third spacewalk outside the International Space Station today (Jan. 20) to replace the orbiting laboratories aging batteries and you can catch the epic action live online.

The spacewalk began at 6:35 a.m. EST (1335 GMT) today, marking the third time an all-woman team has worked together outside the station. You can watch the spacewalk live here and on Space.com's homepage, courtesy of NASA TV.

Meir and Koch are wrapping up work that began in October 2019, to upgrade the batteries that store power generated by the space station's solar array. Their first spacewalk (which was the first all-woman spacewalk ever) took place Oct. 18. A second spacewalk successfully wrapped up Jan. 15.

Related: The amazing spacewalks of Expedition 61 in photos

Astronauts use power in space for everything from lighting rooms to conducting experiments. The upgraded batteries are lithium-ion batteries, which are expected to last longer and to generate more power than the previous generation nickel-hydrogen batteries that were installed several years ago.

If Koch and Meir finish the last battery spacewalk as expected, there's another spacewalk by other astronauts coming shortly. NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan and Italian ISS commander Luca Parmitano are expected to exit the ISS Saturday (Jan. 25), but for a different task.

Parmitano and Morgan spent much of the end of 2019 working on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), which is an aging dark matter experiment on the ISS. The astronauts, in concert with teams on the ground, are doing a complex repair that NASA says is the toughest work the agency has done in space since the last Hubble Space Telescope upgrade in 2009.

The duo completed three of four planned AMS spacewalks in 2019. In December, NASA warned that the battery spacewalks (which are more urgent than the AMS spacewalks) and a busy schedule of visiting space vehicles could delay the last AMS spacewalk.

As of this week, however, NASA is projecting all spacewalks will be finished before half of the six-person Expedition 61 crew returns to Earth in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Three astronauts will remain in space as NASA works out the sequence of future missions, which is under discussion as final tests are being run for American commercial crew vehicles to fly astronauts. (Currently, all astronauts fly to the ISS using the Soyuz, but NASA is seeking to shift most of their astronauts to commercial crew vehicles.)

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Spacewalking astronauts are upgrading the space station today. Here's how to watch it live. - Space.com

Does this have anything to do with cars? Not at all, but we like Lego, space is cool, and what the heck, it's Sunday. Lego is celebrating 10 years since it launched Lego Ideas, a platform for fans to concoct new creations that otherwise didn't already exist. To mark the occasion, Lego took one of the community's ideas, a small-scale model of the International Space Station and turned it into a real, for-sale product. The design comes from Christophe Ruge, and it will be available to buy on February 1, 2020.

Lego already offers numerous space-themed kits and toys. There's a lunar space station, a deep space rocket with a launch control building, a NASA Apollo 11 lunar lander, a shuttle transporter, a Mars research shuttle, a space research and development people pack, and many more. This is the first time, however, a replica of the International Space Station will be available.

The new kit includes a 148-page instruction booklet that explains how to put together 864 pieces. When assembled, it measures 7 inches high, 12 inches long, and 19 inches wide. It sits on a black pedestal stand and also comes with its own space shuttle (unlike the real I.S.S.). Several detailed features make the kit as realistic as possible, including a dock for the space shuttle, a poseable Canadarm2, two rotating joints, and eight adjustable solar panels.

Technically, the idea is not new. Ruge, a 42-year-old Germany native, submitted the kit, along with several other space kits, roughly three years ago. It gained thousands of votes of support from the Lego Ideas family, but it never made it to home base.

"We decided to dive into the archives of Lego Ideas projects that had gathered 10,000 supporters but hadnt quite made it into production," the Lego Group Engagement Manager Hasan Jensen said in an online announcement. "We decided that one of these great ideas should have a second chance, so we thought we would turn the Lego Ideas process upside down. This time we started the internal review and came up with four exciting projects that we thought showed the greatest potential and then it was up to the Lego Ideas community to decide which of the four would be made into Lego Ideas set number 29."

The initial project was built on a larger scale and took Ruge, a computer engineer who works for a company that builds trains, more than three years to design. This time around, however, the kit was much smaller, so it only took him about four days to create (Read more about Ruge and his process at Lego Ideas).

The official kit will be available online and at Lego retailers on February 1 for $69.99, plus tax. Or, if technology, global collaboration, and the search for the meaning of the universe is of no interest to you, Lego is also selling a Flintstones kit with the Flintstones car for $59.99.

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A Lego International Space Station kit is on the way - Autoblog

Riding high but not that high the International Space Station will pass over and within sight of Central Virginians on Wednesday from 6:35 to 6:40 p.m. (It will do so again Thursday night, but the weather is likelier to be cloudy, so Wednesday is the night to get your view.) The space station will be 260 miles above Earth, traveling from southwest to northeast.

The ISS looks like a very bright star moving slowly across the sky, University of Virginia astronomy professor Ed Murphy said Friday in a newsletter to members of the Friends of the McCormick Observatory. It is visible when the sun has set for us on the ground, but the sun is still shining at the altitude of the ISS.

What viewers will see is sunlight reflecting off the solar panels of the space station.

Murphy said the space stations orbit is oriented in a way that makes it visible to Central Virginians every few months as the craft travels southwest to northeast, with six astronauts currently aboard. A few weeks later, it passes over again, traveling northwest to southeast. Those next passes will occur in early February.

Murphy recommends that space station-gazers go outside this evening a few minutes before the pass to allow time for their eyes to adjust to the darkness. Face the southwest. Then, a minute or two after 6:35, if the sky is reasonably clear of clouds, you will see the space station appear like a particularly bright star moving fairly slowly upward across the sky. After a few minutes, as it glides toward the northeast, it will pass into the shadow of the Earth and quickly fade from view. The craft is traveling at 17,100 miles per hour, but appears to move slowly because of its distance from Earth.

Aboard the space station are NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch, who on Monday Martin Luther King Jr. Day replaced some batteries on the craft, and thereby completed historys third-ever all-woman spacewalk. (They accomplished the first all-female spacewalk last October.)

This has really been an amazing experience, Meir is quoted by media as having said after Mondays expedition outside the ship. Today is also Martin Luther King Day, a personal hero for both me and Christina. I will borrow his wise words for this moment: We may have all come on different ships, but we are in the same boat now. When one has as spectacular a view as we had today looking down on our one common home, planet Earth, his words resonate loudly.

Tonight, Central Virginians have an opportunity to look up to the astronauts, as they sail overhead looking at us.

For more information about ISS tracking, click here. For information about the Friends of the McCormick Observatory, click here.

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International Space Station to Pass Within View Wednesday Evening - UVA Today

ESA and Airbus have signed a contract for the Bartolomeo platform on the International Space Station.

The Bartolomeo platform from Airbus opens new opportunities for research on the International Space Station (ISS). The European Space Agency ESA has now booked a payload slot for a Norwegian instrument to monitor plasma density in the Earths atmosphere.

The Bartolomeo platform named after Christopher Columbus younger brother is currently in the final stage of launch preparation at Airbus in Bremen, Germany, and is scheduled for launch to the ISS in March 2020. Bartolomeo is developed on a commercial basis by Airbus using its own investment funds and will be operated in cooperation with ESA.

The platform can accommodate up to 12 different experiment modules, supplying them with power and providing data transmission to Earth. Bartolomeo is suitable for many different experiments. Due to the unique position of the platform with a direct view of Earth from 400 kilometres, Earth observation including trace gas measurements or CO2 monitoring of the atmosphere are possible, with data useful for climate protection or for use by private data service providers.

The Multi-Needle Langmuir Probe (m-NLP) is an instrument from the University of Oslo and the Norwegian company Eidsvoll Electronics to measure ionospheric plasma densities. With its relatively low orbit, the ISS passes near the peak plasma density of the ionosphere. The m-NLP is currently the only instrument in the world capable of resolving ionospheric plasma density variations at spatial scales below one metre. It will gather valuable data from the equatorial and mid-latitude ionosphere, enabling study of the dynamic processes in this region in unprecedented detail. The Langmuir Probe will map plasma characteristics around the globe.

The mission is financed through the ESA PRODEX programme and supported by ESAs Directorate Human & Robotic Exploration. The payload is scheduled to launch on ISS resupply flight NG-14 in October 2020 and will be the first payload to be installed on the Bartolomeo Platform outside the European Columbus Module.

Together with UNOOSA (United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs), Airbus is currently inviting tenders for further research opportunities on the platform, in particular to enable research institutions from developing countries to participate in scientific space research.

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ESA, Airbus join forces on the Space Station - Spatial Source

SpaceX launched one of its Falcon 9 rockets on Sunday, only to watch it erupt in a ball of fire.

But the explosion was intentional and went exactly as planned. It was the final step in a long process of testing the company's Crew Dragon capsule a spaceship designed to carry astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

Boeing has designed a similar spacecraft, and the two companies are racing to fly NASA astronauts on US-made spacecraft for the first time in nearly a decade.

Since NASA ended its space-shuttle program in 2011, the agency has relied exclusively on Russia to ferry its astronauts to and from orbit in Soyuz spacecraft. But those seats have gotten increasingly expensive: A single round-trip seat now costs NASA about $85 million. So the space agency launched its Commercial Crew program to spur the development of new American-made spacecraft.

The program put private companies in competition for billions of dollars' worth of government contracts. SpaceX and Boeing came out on top.

SpaceX's latest test has teed Elon Musk's rocket company up to launch its first-ever human passengers this spring.

"This critical test puts us on the cusp of once again launching American astronauts on American rockets from American soil," Jim Bridenstine, NASA's administrator, tweeted shortly after the mission.

Here's how SpaceX and Boeing became NASA's best shot at resurrecting American spaceflight.

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How SpaceX and Boeing became NASA's best shot to revive US spaceflight - Business Insider

SpaceX is poised to launch its first astronauts into space this spring: Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley.

Their flight on the company's Crew Dragon spaceship will mark the first time an American spacecraft has carried NASA astronauts since the Space Shuttle program ended in 2011.

Behnken and Hurley's liftoff is expected to launch a new era of US spaceflight, since it will allow NASA to stop relying on Russian launch systems to get astronauts into space. It will probably also make the two astronauts the first to ever fly a commercial spacecraft.

"Bob and I were lucky enough to be selected together," Hurley told The Atlantic in September. "As we get closer to launch, things in the last year have actually been pretty hectic. We've been spending increasing amounts of time in California, because that's where most of the work is being done for Dragon."

In preparation, they've run through emergency procedures, undergone extensive training the Crew Dragon's mechanisms, worn their new spacesuits, and met with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

"People to a degree think it's pretty glamorous to be able to go into space, but it's actually like a messy camping trip," Hurley told Reuters in June.

Here's how the astronauts were selected and how they're preparing to fly Crew Dragon to the space station.

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NASA astronauts to fly SpaceX Crew Dragon in spring how they prepare - Business Insider

Cape Town-based Xinabox R&D, a developer of modular electronics and IoT kits for rapid prototyping and STEM education, is partnering with U.S-based Quest for Space to launch experiments to the International Space Station (ISS).

The XinaBox experiment alongside 17 other experiments affiliated with the Quest for Space Program will be launched to the ISS on 7 February 2020, onboard a Northrop Grumman NG-13 Launch Vehicle on a resupply mission from NASAs Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia. Fourteen of these experiment modules are being developed by Partner Schools as part of the Quest for Space Program, one by Texas A & M University, and two Quest Improved Design Qualification Units.

San Jose-based Valley Christian High School, started the Space Lab Program in 2009 to enable students to research, design and build unique science experiments that operate aboard the ISS for a minimum of 30 days. Quest for Space is a non-profit focused on making these and other programs available to schools globally.

In an email chat with Space in Africa, Dan Saldana, Director of ISS and Satellite Programs at Valley Christian Schools, notes that the Space Lab Program was developed to help students identify and enhance their passion by applying their technical and managerial skills in the development of their unique science experiment. The goal is for the students to develop, launch and perform a post-flight analysis on their experiment within the school year.

Since the first launch to the ISS in January 2010 onboard a Japanese HIV-3 ISS Service Vehicle carrying a student plant growth experiment, Quest for Space has expanded its program beyond the shores of the United States, to include partner schools from Finland, Singapore, Indonesia, and Australia. As of today, Quest for Space and its Partner Schools have launched a total of 138 student experiments to the ISS.

The launch in February will include the XinaBox experiment as a pilot to demonstrate cutting-edge technology of the XK92 xChips Xinaboxs latest kit developed for the ISS mission. Schools across the globe will be engaged to concurrently collect data, with their XK92 kit, for data analysis and interpretation on Earth. Student teams will compare their data with that recovered from the ISS XK92, upon its return to Earth on the SpaceX 20 mission.

While onboard the ISS, the XinaBox payload will collect various datasets ranging from temperature to humidity, pressure, volatile organic compounds, g-force and acceleration. The datasets will be stored on a SD card to be assessed once the experiments return to Earth after some weeks.

The XinaBox payload, just as other Quest for Space experiments, will independently carry out its research after it is unpacked, without requiring assistance from the astronauts on the ISS.

During the mission, schools and engineering clubs within the XinaBox ecosystem will develop and run mirror experiments using the XK92 xChips to collect and analyze data to be compared with the dataset on the SD card from the ISS.

Schools can record more data at the same time, which means that they are not only able to record their data and compare it with the data from the International Space Station, but they can also look at the data from other institutions that have conducted the experiment anywhere in the world, Bjarke Gotfredsen, the inventor and co-founder of XinaBox told Space in Africa.

The idea is to have students in a classroom mirror science experiments conducted on the International Space Station and experience the dream of collecting space data for scientific research, Judi Sandrock, co-founder of XinaBox, said, pointing out that they intend making available the ISS mission payload as a learning kit for schools to build upon.

We would like the students to come up with different ideas of what they could learn from the large selection of valuable data sets collected on the SD card while onboard the ISS. We are looking at the mission from a scientific inquiry perspective. This will spur students curiosity and enable schools to expand the outcomes of the research.

Commenting on how the mission aligns with the goals of the Quest for Space Program, Saldana said the program takes the student from the concept of their idea to the shipping of their final product through analyzing the experimental results upon its return. Students have hands-on experience specifying, designing, and building their one of a kind experiment by meeting defined milestones and presenting their design to NASA Safety for review.

Three things make the XinaBox xChips viable for many more schools around the world. One is that they dont need a lab to put it together. Two, the kit itself is not expensive compared to what people normally send to the International Space Station. Three, because it takes up so little space, it can be easily packaged together with the Quest for Space program. These three factors help to expand or open up space for many more schools, Gotfredsen said.

While the launch in February 2020 is a proof of concept for what Judi Sandrock believes is the first of many in the companys partnership with Quest for Space, it is important to point out that this is not XinaBoxs first orbit experience.

On 17 April 2019, the ThinSat Programme launched a constellation of 55 student picosatellites into space, using XinaBox as the payload to study weather conditions and carry out scientific experiments in Extreme Low Earth Orbits. XinaBox supplied the kits and content for building the picosatellites and supported sixteen schools in the Western Cape of South Africa that collectively developed one of the picosatellites.

Xinabox co-founders believe the new partnership between Quest for Space and XinaBox will broaden opportunities for schools in emerging regions, particularly in Africa, to send experiments to the ISS through the Quest for Space Program.

Judi said the Quest for Space Program is comparatively attractive to schools across the world, adding that the introduction of Xinabox will further lower the cost considerably because the XinaBox xChips take less space and energy.

We look forward to having Partner Schools from Africa and other parts of the world join our Quest for Space Programs, Saldana said.

All of the Quest for Space Lab Partner Schools are invited to attend and compete in the annual American Society for Gravitational and Space Research (ASGSR) Conference student poster competition. The students prepare and present a poster on their experiment to the NASA Research Scientists, and the winners get cash prizes and an opportunity to present to and network with NASAs top research scientists.

The Quest for Space Lab educational research flight opportunity was made available to Valley Christian High School of San Jose, California, via a partnership with the Quest Institute for Quality Education, and by Space Tango who provides both the payload architecture and in-flight operations on the International Space Station.

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XinaBox, Quest for Space To Send Experiments To The International Space Station - Space in Africa

EL PASO, Texas -- Biomedical research scientists from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso and The University of Texas at El Paso are partnering up to send "artificial mini-hearts" to the International Space Station to better understand how microgravity affects the function of the human heart.

The three-year project, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the space station's U.S. National Laboratory, brings together TTUHSC El Paso faculty scientist Munmun Chattopadhyay, Ph.D., and UTEP biomedical engineer Binata Joddar, Ph.D. The researchers will collaborate in their Earth-bound labs to create tiny (less than 1 millimeter thick) heart-tissue structures, known as cardiac organoids, using human stem cells and 3D bioprinting technology.

By exposing the organoids to the near-weightless environment of the orbiting space station, the researchers hope to gain a better understanding of a health condition known as cardiac atrophy, which is a reduction and weakening of heart tissue. Cardiac atrophy often affects astronauts who spend long periods of time in microgravity. A weakened heart muscle has difficulty pumping blood to the body, and can lead to problems such as fainting, irregular heartbeat, heart valve problems and even heart failure. Cardiac atrophy is also associated with chronic disease.

The first year of the project, which began in September, will focus on research design. During this phase, Dr. Joddar will use 3D printing to fabricate the cardiac organoids by coupling cardiac cells in physiological ratios to mimic heart tissue. The second year will be centered on preparing the organoid payload for a rocket launch and mission in space. The third and final year of the research will involve analyzing data from the experiment after the organoids are returned to Earth.

The project will also provide an educational opportunity for the El Paso community, with a workshop for K-12 students to learn about tissue engineering projects on the space station. It will also include a seminar for medical students, interns and residents about the benefits and challenges of transitioning research from Earth-based laboratories into space.

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El Paso scientists team up for heart research project at the International Space Station - KVIA El Paso

Fallout 76s upcoming Wastelanders expansion will add two new faction settlements: settlers and raiders. One of these looks like a Lincoln Log fort while the other is made out of a crashed space station. Can you guess which one players are already gravitating towards?

Yesterday, Bethesda shared some screenshots of the two new locations and more information about the people living there. The settlers, led by Paige (the former head of the D.C. Construction Workers Union), are a hard-working, salt of the earth lot who have taken up refuge in Spruce Knob toward the southeastern part of the map. The raiders, meanwhile, have come back to Appalachia to take back territory theyve claimed for themselves before it falls into the hands of the settlers.

Their leader, Meg, looks like shes seen some shit out in the wasteland and probably isnt one for negotiating mutually beneficial deals. The crashed space station she and her gang call home is up in the northern edge of the map, and frankly it looks way more fun. Most raider camps tend to look like if your friend of a friends screamo band played their basement show inside of a scrapyard barbeque pit, but Megs looks like a sci-fi arcade.

In Wastelanders Im going to check out the settlers, wrote one person on Reddit. If they are blowing glass, making electronic components, making their own ceramics...Ill stay. But if its an entire camp of Sturges hammering at the same section of wall for months I think I have to go raider.

Sturges was a synth repairman from Fallout 4 who never did jack shit. Understandably, some players are worried that the big NPC update many are expecting to finally make Fallout 76 good will only repeat some of the last games more uninspired moments. Nothing beats protecting the innocent, but I do envy the raiders and their space station town, wrote another player.

The new characters, dialogue trees, quests, and romance options coming in the Wastelanders update will all be based in one of the two new settlements, with Bethesda heavily implying that a players reputation with one will hurt their reputation with the other, forcing them to choose one over the other.

Based on their sense of style and interior design, Im gonna have to go raiders on this one, despite my deep-rooted commitment to labor solidarity.

See original here:

Which Fallout 76 Faction Is Cooler, The Crashed Space Station Or The Log Cabin? - Kotaku

Gaganyaan, the first Indian human space flight set for 2022, and a subsequent space station would pave the way for continuous Indian presence in space, K. Sivan, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman and Secretary, Department of Space, said here on Wednesday.

The crewed space mission would also help to build a framework for long-term global partnerships that benefit society in many ways, he said at the inaugural of a three-day international symposium on human space flight.

Gaganyaan was not just an ISRO project. It was a national endeavour that involved numerous agencies, laboratories, disciplines, industries and departments. It was expected that new science will emerge from Gaganyaan and enhance our science and technology capabilities, Dr..Sivan told an international gathering of space experts, decision-makers, associated industries, astronauts and students.

One ISS [International Space Station] put up by multiple countries may not be enough. Regional ecosystems will be needed and Gaganyaan will focus on regional needs: food, water and energy security, he said.

From employment to security [food, energy and so on], most countries have similar goals, and these partnerships can help meet those goals. Benefits from possible spin-offs are aplenty, he observed.

The target of realising Gaganyaan by August 2022, he admitted, was challenging. However, ISRO already has the GSLV-MarkIII as a working launch vehicle. It had proven systems for re-entry and recovery of the crew capsule, space-qualified parachutes for safe descent of crew and was working on a comprehensive emergency escape system for astronauts. The missing systems, namely human life science and support system, are being developed now, he stated.

ISRO is getting four candidate astronauts from the Air Force to train in Russia and taking French assistance for training in their health upkeep during space travel.

K. Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, referred to the challenges of climate change that warranted coordinated global efforts. Space collaborations, he said, had shown the world how to tackle such international issues.

As for the critical area of life sciences that is important in a human flight, he said that many more studies were needed for a full understanding in spite of numerous astronaut missions.

Key officials from eight space agencies and five astronauts from five countries are in Bengaluru for the event that focusses on the challenges and future trends of human flights.

The symposium is organised by ISRO, the International Astronautical Association (IAA) and the Aeronautical Society of India.

Among the key participants are Joel Montalbano from NASA's ISS Program Office, director of Russian ROSCOSMOS's department of manned spaceflight Alexander Bykov, IAA Secretary General Jean-Michel Contant, French agency CNES's head of the launch vehicle directorate Jean-Marc Astorg, European Space Agency's inter-agency Coordinator Thomas Reiter, Japan Exploration and Space Agency's Director-General of Space flight Technology Shizuo Yamamoto and Romanian Space Agency CEO Marius-Ioan Piso.

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Gaganyaan, space station will pave way for continuous Indian presence in space: ISRO chief - The Hindu

HOUSTON The second all-female spacewalk in history continued the work of the first, as the same two NASA astronauts upgraded batteries outside the International Space Station.

Jessica Meir and Christina Koch completed a 7-hour and 29-minute extravehicular activity (EVA, or spacewalk) on Wednesday (Jan. 15), replacing the batteries that store power for one pair of the space station's electricity-generating solar arrays. The excursion resumed the work that the two Expedition 61 flight engineers performed in October, which made headlines as the first spacewalk by two women.

"It was truly amazing for Christina and me to be back out here today," Meir said during a live broadcast of the spacewalk. "We have been talking about it a lot and it was really something we were looking forward to."

Related: The amazing spacewalks of Expedition 61 in photos

The spacewalk began at 6:35 a.m. EST (1135 GMT), when both Koch and Meir switched their spacesuits over to internal power.

"It's a beautiful view out here," said Meir, soon after exiting the Quest airlock.

The two spacewalkers removed three degraded nickel-hydrogen batteries and installed two more powerful lithium-ion batteries for the space station's port, or left side, outboard solar arrays. Meir and Koch stowed the older batteries, which had been in place for the past decade, on an external pallet for their later disposal and installed adapter plates to enable the new batteries to work with the orbiting laboratory's power system.

"Awesome job," radioed astronaut Stephanie Wilson from inside Mission Control at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, from where she was helping to guide Meir and Koch through the spacewalk's tasks. "We made great progress toward upgrading the batteries on the 4B side. You're both awesome, nice work!"

Each battery measures about half the size of a refrigerator, or 40 inches long by 37 inches wide by 19 inches high (101 by 94 by 48 centimeters). The old nickel-hydrogen batteries weigh 365 lbs. (165 kilograms) each. The lithium-ion replacements weigh 428 lbs. (194 kg).

The work contributed to a larger, ongoing effort to replace all 48 of the station's degraded nickel-hydrogen batteries with the more capable lithium-ion units. One lithium-ion battery and one adapter plate can replace two nickel-hydrogen batteries. The work began with a series of spacewalks in January 2017 and has continued as Japan's H-II Transfer Vehicles (HTVs) have delivered the new batteries to the station.

Meir and Koch's spacewalk on Wednesday proceeded mostly to plan, with the exception of a minor issue with Koch's spacesuit early in the EVA.

"Christina's helmet lights are not attached," radioed Meir to Mission Control, as the assembly normally attached to the top of Koch's spacesuit helmet dangled from its power cable. "The cable is still attached, of course, but the camera and the helmet lights have been detached from her helmet."

Meir attempted to reattach the light assembly, but it would not lock into place. The two lights are used as an aid when the space station passes into Earth's shadow and is not lit by the sun.

"We think with the light locks installed you are not going to be able to get the helmet light seated onto the grooves. So instead, we would like to de-mate the power cable and completely remove the assembly," Wilson told the two spacewalkers.

The spacewalk continued with Koch staying close to Meir so that she was aided by the lights still attached to Meir's helmet.

Wednesday's EVA, which ended at 2:04 p.m. EST (1904 GMT), marked Koch's fifth and Meir's second career spacewalks.

Meir, who served as EV1 (or lead spacewalker) and wore the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) spacesuit with red stripes, has logged a total of 14 hours and 46 minutes on her two EVAs. Koch, who as EV2 wore the suit with no identifiers, has a total of 35 hours and 17 minutes spanning her five spacewalks.

This was the 225th EVA devoted to the International Space Station since assembly of the orbiting outpost began in 1998.

Meir and Koch are scheduled to again venture outside together on Monday (Jan. 20) to complete the replacement of the batteries on the port P6 truss.

Robert Pearlman is a Space.com contributing writer and the editor of collectSPACE.com, a Space.com partner site and the leading space history news publication. Follow collectSPACE on Facebook and on Twitter at @collectSPACE. Follow us @Spacedotcom and Facebook.

See the original post here:

Astronauts upgrade space station batteries in second all-woman spacewalk - Space.com

The SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft that ferried musclebound mice to the International Space Station and back can be seen at the top of this picture taken from the station on Dec. 20, 2019. NASA hide caption

The SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft that ferried musclebound mice to the International Space Station and back can be seen at the top of this picture taken from the station on Dec. 20, 2019.

In early December at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, two anxious scientists were about to send 20 years of research into orbit.

"I feel like our heart and soul is going up in that thing," Dr. Emily Germain-Lee told her husband, Dr. Se-Jin Lee, as they waited arm-in-arm for a SpaceX rocket to launch.

A few seconds later the spacecraft took off, transporting some very unusual mice to the International Space Station, where they would spend more than a month in near zero gravity.

Ordinarily, that would cause the animals' bones to weaken and their muscles to atrophy. But Lee and Germain-Lee, a power couple in the research world, were hoping that wouldn't happen with these mice.

"It was worth waiting 20 years for," Lee said as the Falcon 9 rocket headed toward space. "And someday it may really help people," Germain-Lee added.

The couple hope that what they learn from these mice will lead to new treatments for millions of people with conditions that weaken muscles and bones. Among those who might eventually benefit: children with muscular dystrophy or brittle bone disease, cancer patients with muscle wasting, bedridden patients recovering from hip fractures, older people whose bones and muscles have become dangerously weak, and astronauts on long space voyages.

Dr. Emily Germain-Lee and Dr. Se-Jin Lee waited eagerly at Kennedy Space Center for a SpaceX rocket to launch their experimental mice into space in December. Courtesy of Jennifer Read hide caption

Dr. Emily Germain-Lee and Dr. Se-Jin Lee waited eagerly at Kennedy Space Center for a SpaceX rocket to launch their experimental mice into space in December.

For Lee and Germain-Lee, both professors at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, the launch represented a high point in a partnership that began in the late 1970s.

"We met when I was 18 and we were biochem majors in college together," Germain-Lee said.

The Harvard undergraduates clicked. And in those early years, Emily had a teenager's big dreams about what she and Se-Jin might accomplish.

"Wouldn't that be amazing if one day we worked on some project together that had incredible meaning and helped people," she recalled thinking. "All that stuff."

The couple went to medical school together at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore.

She went on to become a pediatric endocrinologist who treated children with rare bone disorders. He added a Ph.D. to his M.D. and started a lab that studied muscle growth.

Along the way, they got married and had a son. And in the late 1990s, Se-Jin Lee got kind of famous for helping to create some bulked-up rodents known as "mighty mice."

The mouse on the right has been engineered to have four times the muscle mass of a normal lab mouse.

Lee showed me one when I visited his lab in 2006. It had been genetically engineered to have about four times the muscle mass of a normal mouse.

Lee had altered the animal's genes so it wouldn't produce a protein called myostatin. Ordinarily, myostatin limits the growth of muscles. Without it, you get the mouse version of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"If you open up the mouse and actually look at the muscles it is really unbelievable," he told me. "These animals are almost getting to the point where they don't really look like mice." Lee thought his discovery might help people with diseases that weaken muscles. So he began looking for a drug that could block myostatin and duplicate the effects of genetic engineering.

Meanwhile, as Germain-Lee treated more and more children with bone diseases, she noticed that weak bones could lead to weak muscles.

"My bone patients don't escape muscle loss because they have long periods of time where they can't move or their whole lifetime where they're wheelchair bound," she said.

And because she also sees patients with diseases like muscular dystrophy, she realized it could work the other way. "Any muscle disease leads to weakness and any weakness leads to bone fragility eventually," Germain-Lee said.

At home, the couple spent many evenings discussing muscle, bone, her patients and his work on myostatin.

"Probably most people would think we're really odd," Germain-Lee said. "But it's given great meaning to our life."

Over the years, they realized that what many patients really needed was a way to simultaneously strengthen muscle and bone. And remarkably, they eventually identified a drug with the potential to do that.

It's a substance that affects not only myostatin, but also a protein called activin, which is involved in the growth of both muscle and bone. And it would bring together the parallel lines of research each scientist had been following for decades.

Germain-Lee wanted to test the drug on mice in her lab that developed a version of osteogenesis imperfecta, also known as brittle bone disease. "I said, oh my gosh I really have to try this, and Se-Jin said sure," she said. "And those were the first set of experiments we did together."

The experiments, published in 2015, were successful. The mice developed both stronger bones and bigger muscles. And the results helped inspire Lee to revive an idea he'd been pursuing for two decades. It involved astronauts.

"Astronauts in space have lots of health things that they need to be thinking about," he said, "but certainly at the top of that list would be muscle loss and bone loss.

Without gravity, astronauts can lose up to 20 percent of their muscle mass in less than two weeks, according to research by NASA. And as muscles atrophy, bones begin to weaken too.

So starting in the late 1990s, Lee had approached NASA about funding an experiment to see whether his mighty mice maintained their muscles in space. But his efforts to interest the agency in the project "failed miserably," he said.

That changed after the couple had moved to Hartford, where, in addition to their faculty posts at the University of Connecticut, Germain Lee holds an appointment at Connecticut Children's Medical Center and Lee works at The Jackson Laboratory.

And it was through The Jackson Laboratory that Lee got a chance to send his mighty mice to the International Space Station.

In late 2018, the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, which manages the International Space Station, contacted The Jackson Laboratory about potential science projects. And Lee's new employer suggested the mighty mice.

Lee and Germain-Lee quickly assembled an experiment that included not only the bulked up rodents, but normal mice that would receive the drug that (on earth) builds both muscle and bone.

The mice, which had gone into orbit in December, were brought back to earth in early January. And since then, Lee and Germain-Lee have been hard at work analyzing what happened to the animals' muscles and bones.

It will take months to know for sure whether any of the mice were able to defy the usual effects of weightlessness. Also scientists rarely discuss experiments before they're published.

But the couple says preliminary results look promising.

See the rest here:

Mighty Mice In Space May Help Disabled People On Earth : Shots - Health News - NPR

Following a ride home on a SpaceX Dragon capsule last week, the first food to be baked in space (a batch of cookies, of course) has landed back on Earth.

The space cookies began their journey as chocolate chip cookie dough that launched alongside the Zero G oven, the first oven designed to work in the microgravity environment aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The cookie dough and oven launched to the station in November on a Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft and returned Jan. 7 on the SpaceX Dragon.

Just in time for Christmas, the astronauts aboard the space station baked the pre-made dough (which was provided by the hotel chain DoubleTree) one cookie at a time in their Zero G oven, making five cookies total, a DoubleTree representative confirmed to Space.com in an email.

Related: Space Food Evolution: How Astronaut Chow Has Changed (Photos)

"I can confirm that five DoubleTree by Hilton chocolate chip cookies were baked in space and the cookies are set to come back down to Earth today via the SpaceX Dragon return," the representative said.

"We made space cookies and milk for Santa this year," NASA astronaut Christina Koch tweeted from the space station last month as she posed with one of the baked cookies, which was wrapped up.

Related: DoubleTree Offers Limited Edition 'Cookies in Space' Tin

Before the dough and the oven launched, people wondered if the space station would smell like fresh-baked cookies and what the pastries would look like. Would they be puffy, spherical even? (And did any of the astronauts sneak a bite?)

From the image Koch shared on twitter, it's tough to tell exactly what shape the dough took once it was baked in space, but it does seem to have a unique shape. More information about the cookies a look that will be explained after they are analyzed following their return to Earth.

"Once we have confirmed that the cookies have indeed arrived home, we'll share full details, as well as a video and photos of the cookies being baked on the ISS," the DoubleTree representative added.

Follow Chelsea Gohd on Twitter @chelsea_gohd. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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The first cookies baked in space are back on Earth! - Space.com

Astronauts are trained to handle dangerous situations and are prepared for emergencies that could occur in outer space.

"We're worried about fire. We're worried about toxic atmosphere," NASA astronaut Drew Morgan said in the latest instalment of Euronews' Ask Our Astronaut.

The astronaut was responding to one of your questions submitted on social media: "What is the biggest and most terrifying thing astronauts fear about being in space?"

Euronews space correspondent and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Luca Parmitano picked his favourite questions from more than 100 submitted online.

"There is always the possibility that we could depressurise or that a hole could be punctured by a micrometeoroid or something and we could leak our atmosphere overboard," Morgan said, adding that they train for that regularly. But he said astronauts don't think about that on a daily basis.

"We know that our line of work is dangerous and we train for that and we're prepared for that," he said.

Instead, Parmitano and Morgan said they're focused on making sure they don't embarrass their space agencies and countries. They just want to do their job effectively.

"The only fear that we have is the unknown," Parmitano added. "So the things that we are ready for, that we are prepared for, don't scare us."

Watch the full report from the International Space Station in the video player above.

Read more from the original source:

Ask our Astronaut | What do astronauts living at the International Space Station fear most? - Euronews

Image 1 of 34

Expedition 61 Cmdr. Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency assists NASA astronauts Andrew Morgan (left) and Christina Koch (right) in their U.S. spacesuits before a spacewalk on Oct. 6, 2019. During their spacewalk, Morgan and Koch replaced some old batteries on the space station's solar arrays.

NASA astronauts Andrew Morgan (left) and Christina Koch (right) are suited up inside the Quest airlock before beginning a 7 hour-long spacewalk on Oct. 6, 2019.

NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan works to replace old nickel-hydrogen batteries with new lithium-ion batteries during his second spacewalk with fellow NASA astronaut Christina Koch on Oct. 11, 2019. During that spacewalk, Morgan and Koch paid tribute to cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, the world's first spacewalker, who died that same day.

Christina Koch (left) and Andrew Morgan work while tethered on the Port 6 truss segment of the InternationalSpaceStation to replace older hydrogen-nickel batteries with newer, more powerful lithium-ion batteries during the six-hour and 45-minutespacewalk, on Oct. 11, 2019.

NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir prepare for their firstspacewalktogether on Oct. 18, 2019, to replace a failed power controller on the InternationalSpaceStation's P6 truss structure.

NASA astronauts Christina Koch (left) and Jessica Meir fist bump each other during a spacesuit fit check on Oct. 12, 2019.

NASA astronauts Jessica Meir (left) and Christina Koch pose together during a spacesuit fit check on Oct. 12, 2019, ahead of their historic first all-woman spacewalk.

NASA astronaut Jessica Meir waves at the camera during her historic spacewalk with fellow NASA astronaut Christina Koch (out of frame), on Oct. 18, 2019.

NASA astronaut Jessica Meir prepares to exit the crew lock portion of the Quest airlock to head out into the vacuum of space on Oct. 18, 2019.

NASA astronaut Jessica Meir is pictured during aspacewalkwith fellow NASA astronaut Christina Koch (out of frame), on Oct. 18, 2019.

NASA astronaut Christina Koch takes a "space-selfie" with the Earth behind her and reflecting in her helmet during her spacewalk together with fellow NASA astronaut Jessica Meir (out of frame), on Oct. 18, 2019.

NASA astronaut Christina Koch prepares to exit the crew lock portion of the Quest airlock and head out into the vacuum ofspace for her spacewalk together with NASA astronaut Jessica Meir (not pictured) on Oct. 18, 2019.

NASA astronaut Jessica Meir is pictured tethered to the outside of the InternationalSpaceStation during her spacewalk together with NASA astronaut Christina Koch (not pictured), on Oct. 18, 2019.

Look ma, no hands!NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan waves as he is photographed next to the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (lower left) during his spacewalk on Nov. 15, 2019.

European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano "stands" on the end of the International Space Station's Canadarm2 robotic arm duringthe first of four spacewalksto repair the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer experiment together with NASA astronaut Drew Morgan, on Nov. 15, 2019.

"My first #SpacewalkForAMS task: install a special handling aid before attempting the removal of the debris shield," ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano tweeted along with this photo, on Nov. 20, 2019.

The debris shield that once protected NASA's Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer from micrometeoroid impacts floats away from the International Space Station after two astronauts removed it and flung it into space during aspacewalkon Nov. 15, 2019.

European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano takes a "space-selfie" with his spacesuit's helmet visor down during the secondspacewalkto repair the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, on Nov. 22, 2019.

NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan is tethered to the Starboard-3 truss segment of the International Space Station during the secondspacewalkto repair the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, on Nov. 22, 2019.

NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan, whose spacesuit is outfitted with a variety of tools and cameras, holds on to a handrail during the secondspacewalkto repair the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, on Nov. 22, 2019.

NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan is tethered to the Starboard-3 truss segment of the International Space Station during the secondspacewalkto repair the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, on Nov. 22, 2019.

EuropeanSpaceAgency astronaut Luca Parmitano holds a camera during the secondspacewalkto repair the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, on Nov. 22, 2019.

European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano is attached to a portable foot restraint at the end of the Canadarm2 robotic arm during the secondspacewalkto repair the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, on Nov. 22, 2019.

NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan points his camera toward himself to take a "space-selfie" on Nov. 22, 2019.

NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan prepares to take a photograph with his special space camera, which is protected from the microgravity environment of space with special shielding, on Nov. 22, 2019.

European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano takes a photo while attached to a portable foot restraint at the end of the Canadarm2 robotic arm during a spacewalk on Nov. 22, 2019.

European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano takes a photograph during the secondspacewalkto repair the InternationalSpaceStation's cosmic particle detector, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, on Nov. 22, 2019.

NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan takes a "space-selfie" with his spacesuit's helmet visor down during the secondspacewalkto repair the InternationalSpaceStation's cosmic particle detector, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, on Nov. 22, 2019.

NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan (left) and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano suit up for their second spacewalk together on Nov. 22, 2019.

NASA astronaut and U.S. Army Colonel Andrew Morgan displays his Army pride ahead of the Army versus Navy football game on Dec. 12, 2019, during the third spacewalk together with ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano, on Dec. 2, 2019.

NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan is pictured outside the International Space Station on Dec. 2, 2019, during his third spacewalk to repair the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer with ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano (not pictured).

European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano carries the new thermal pump system that was installed on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer during the spacewalk on Dec. 2, 2019.

European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano snapped this shot of his feet inside of the foot restraint while "riding" the Canadarm2 robotic arm during a spacewalk on Dec. 2, 2019.

Continued here:

In photos: The amazing spacewalks of Expedition 61 - Space.com

Q&A: Rep. Pete Olson talks about Houstons space legacy and how Congress can help protect future missions from political upheaval.

Exclusive op-ed from retired Lt. Gen. Steve Kwast on why the Space Force must protect the American economy in space to counter China.

Story Continued Below

Tomorrow: SpaceX is expected to conduct its in-flight abort test of the Crew Dragon capsule the last major milestone before flying crew.

WELCOME TO POLITICO SPACE, our must-read briefing on the policies and personalities shaping the new space age in Washington and beyond. Email us at jklimas@politico.com, bbender@politico.com or dbrown@politico.com with tips, pitches and feedback, and find us on Twitter at @jacqklimas, @bryandbender and @dave_brown24. And dont forget to check out POLITICO's astropolitics page here for articles, Q&As, opinion and more.

SPACE CITY, USA. The Johnson Space Center is the control hub for the International Space Station and the training ground for NASA astronauts. Rep. Pete Olson, a Texas Republican who represents the Houston suburbs, is trying to ensure what was officially dubbed Space City in 1967 retains its place for future projects, including the Gateway, a space station orbiting the moon that is set to launch in 2022.

Every single human being who has gone up on the space station or on the space shuttle, whether foreign or American, have trained for a couple years at Johnson Space Center," Olson, a member of the House Science, Space and Technology Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, told us."Johnson Space Center has a neutral buoyancy lab, a big massive pool to do spacewalking prior to going to the space station. Thats irreplaceable.... Thats why we should always be the heart and soul of American human space flight.

Olson also said providing some stability to Trumps 2024 moon goal is one of his top priorities before retiring at the end of the year by pushing for multi-year appropriations for NASAs signature projects. The main goal is to get this program going to the moon and make it happen.

Rep. Pete Olson with the crew of STS-130, a 2010 mission to the International Space Station. | Courtesy of Rep. Pete Olson.

AN EXPANDED MISSION FOR THE SPACE FORCE. The new space branch, which got its first officer this week when Gen. John Raymond was sworn in as its leader, must extend its reach beyond protecting military assets orbiting the Earth to defending the broader space economy, retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Steve Kwast argues in a new POLITICO op-ed. For the Space Force to keep pace with China, it must separate from the Air Force and pursue new missions like establishing spacecraft fueling stations in orbit, protecting important travel corridors or lines of communication and deploying personnel to space.

The problem is that the Air Force is proposing a Space Force that will not protect the marketplace of space beyond Earths orbit. But China is, Kwast writes. China is building a navy in space, with the equivalent of battleships and destroyers that can move fast and kill. America's satellites will be helpless to win against the superior speed and firepower in Chinas force.

Defense officials met with President Donald Trump on Wednesday to lay out the path ahead for the Space Force, including the decisions that need to be made over the coming months. Those include administrative tasks like like assigning troops to the new service and paying them to figuring out which, if any, bases will be transferred to the new branch, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said Thursday.

Vice President Mike Pence told us after Raymond's swearing-in as the services first chief of space operations on Tuesday that It's going to be a very busy year. We think it's going to be a process over the next 12 to 18 months.

BUDGET WATCH. Space watchers are eagerly awaiting the release of the fiscal 2021 budget request, which will provide the first public look at the full cost of the Artemis moon program through the expected first launch in 2024. The president's budget request, which will be released Feb. 10, typically includes a five-year estimate. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has previously estimated the full price tag between $20 and $30 billion.

The budget request will show how serious the Trump administration is about the 2024 goal, says Casey Dreier, a senior space policy adviser at the Planetary Society. I dont know what the request will be, but for me personally to take it seriously, I expect to see at least $4 billion per year added on to support Artemis," he said.

Other items to looking for in the new budget request? A funding commitment for the Near-Earth Object Surveillance Mission and a program to bring a sample of Martian soil back to Earth, says Dreier. Hes also waiting to see if the administration will once again cancel a number of Earth science and STEM education programs cuts that Congress has reversed before. Weve seen Congress reject those three times in a row now. It would be great to see the administration and Congress aligned, he said.

EUROPEAN SPACE MOGULS STRUGGLE TO LAUNCH. Difficulty fundraising coupled with a sluggish pace of innovation at the European Space Agency are grounding European space entrepreneurs, our colleague Joshua Posaner reports for POLITICO Europe ahead of the two-day European Space Conference that begins Tuesday in Brussels. In one case, Robert Boehme, the founder of PT Scientists, which seeks to transport payloads up to 300 kilograms to the lunar surface, said his company was effectively killed by NASAs Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, which will pay companies for delivery services to the moon. "The moment they announced this, all the investment negotiations we had were basically dead in the water," said Boehme. Potential backers told him to pack up, take his best staff and set up shop in the U.S., Posaner writes.

European space tourism faces a similar uphill battle, in part because it is so difficult to gain political support for building spaceports, POLITICO Europes Charlie Duxbury writes. There have been too few politicians who can see the benefits from the many spinoff effects, such as local jobs, increased tourism and research possibilities, said Christer Fuglesang, Swedens first NASA astronaut, who now runs the Space Center at Stockholms Royal Institute of Technology.

TOP DOC: Balancing 5G and weather forecasting demands on spectrum. New 5G networks may offer better connectivity and faster download speeds, but the frequencys proximity to the bands of spectrum that satellites use to measure temperature and humidity could harm forecasters ability to predict the weather, according to a paper from the Center for Space Policy and Strategy published this week.

International and domestic regulators must issue regulations that provide adequate protection between weather forecasting data frequencies and other spectrum users in order to ensure forecasters access to the data, the paper says. This data is essential to delivery of trusted forecasts required for day-to-day use and protection of life and property from severe weather.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Congratulations to Benjamin Isaacoff at the State Department for being the first to correctly answer that there were six women in the eighth class of astronauts, the first to include females.

This weeks question: A class of astronauts graduated last week at the Johnson Space Center. Why was their class nickname the turtles? First person to email the answer to jklimas@politico.com gets bragging rights and a shoutout in next weeks newsletter!

How mice aboard the ISS can help improve healthcare on Earth.

Future Moon habitats could grow from fungus.

A critical test for NASAs SLS megarocket.

Sen. Ted Cruz on one new astronaut: He can kill you and then bring you back to life. And do it all in space.

The second all-female spacewalk happened this week with little fanfare.

NASA says 2019 was the second hottest year on record.

What should the Space Forces anthem be?

Why failure could be the best way for the space military industrial complex to profit.

Space companies raised a record $5.8 billion in private investment last year.

Space industry warms up to working with the government.

FCC may have broken environmental law in approving SpaceXs mega constellation.

SATURDAY: SpaceX is expected to conduct its in-flight abort test for the Crew Dragon capsule. A post-test news conference with NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine follows.

MONDAY: Two ISS astronauts are expected to conduct a spacewalk to replace batteries.

TUESDAY: The two-day European Space Conference begins in Brussels.

WEDNESDAY: The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation holds a hearing on the 5G workforce and obstacles to broadband deployment.

WEDNESDAY: The International Academy of Astronautics, Indian Space Research Organisation and Astronautical Society of India host a conference on human space exploration in Bangalore.

WEDNESDAY: The GPS Innovation Alliance, the Congressional Tech Staff Association and CompTIA Space Enterprise Council hold an event on Capitol Hill about the role of satellites in emerging technologies.

WEDNESDAY: The National Symphony Orchestra plays The Planets by Gustav Holst at The Anthem.

THURSDAY: The board of the Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center holds its second meeting in Washington.

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How to shield the space program from changing political winds - Politico