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Soyuz capsule successfully docks at International Space Station with Olympic torch on board – Video

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Soyuz capsule successfully docks at International Space Station with Olympic torch on board
A space capsule carrying two Russian cosmonauts, one US NASA astronaut, and the 2014 Olympic torch has successfully docked with the International Space Stati...

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Soyuz capsule successfully docks at International Space Station with Olympic torch on board - Video

China Invites Foreign Astronauts to Fly On Future Space Station

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Chinese space officials are rolling out a welcome mat to other nations eager to gain access to their future space station.

The Chinese government has designed a multiphase station program aimed at launching a Tiangong 2 space laboratory around 2015, an experimental space station in 2018, followed by a 60-ton multi-module space station in the 2020 time frame.

The invite to countries to participate in China's space station was one aspect of the United Nations/China Workshop on Human Space Technology, jointly hosted by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs and the China Manned Space Agency, held in Beijing on Sept. 16-19. [China's Vision for Space Exploration (Video)]

According to Chinese news reports, some 150 participants from more than 20 countries, regions and international organizations took part in the four-day event, exchanging views on space technology cooperation.

The workshop covered a wide swath of space topics, ranging from national, regional and international space programs to the role of Asia-Pacific space cooperation in advancing space technology. Other topics included microgravity science, space mineral resources, and the development of manned space science activitiesfor Chinese youth.

Human spaceflight players

Elliot Pulham, chief executive officer of the Space Foundation in Colorado Springs, Colo., took part in the workshop and branded the gathering as significant. He was the only U.S. citizen to make remarks at the ceremonies commemorating Chinas 10th anniversary of human spaceflight.

"There were many presentations from countries that we are accustomed to viewing as 'space applications' users, and not human spaceflight players," Pulham told SPACE.com. "And yet the degree to which space experts from the various nations have thought through all the benefits and applications of human spaceflight technology was striking," he said.

"It is clear that the many, many countries with space programs of varying complexity and maturity have all thought exhaustively about what makes human spaceflight special, and how we can all leverage it to change the world for the better," Pulham said.

'Missing links' of Russia and U.S.

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China Invites Foreign Astronauts to Fly On Future Space Station

Spacecraft with American, 2 Russians blasts off and docks with space station

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A Russian Soyuz rocket carrying two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut blasted off from Kazakhstan Wednesday, climbed smoothly into orbit and docked with the International Space Station after an abbreviated six-hour rendezvous, boosting the lab's crew back to six.

The mission kicks off an exceptionally busy few months aboard the space station, with the arrival and departure of multiple cargo ships, a visit by the Olympic torch for a spacewalk photo op in early November and an unusual interlude with an expanded crew of nine astronauts and cosmonauts.

The station has been staffed by a reduced crew of three -- Expedition 37 commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano and Karen Nyberg -- since mid September when two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut departed after a five-and-a-half-month stay in orbit.

But the Soyuz TMA-10M launch Wednesday boosted the lab crew back to six just a few days before the delayed arrival of an Orbital Sciences Corp. Cygnus cargo ship making its maiden flight.

Soyuz TMA-10M commander Oleg Kotov, a space station veteran, rookie flight engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy and first-time NASA flier Michael Hopkins lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:58:50 p.m. EDT Wednesday (GMT-4; 2:58 a.m. Thursday local time).

Trailing a brilliant plume of flame from its liquid-fueled engines, the Soyuz booster climbed away to the northeast, launching almost directly into the plane of the space station's orbit.

Hopkins is the first of his 14-member 2009 astronaut class to win a flight assignment. Raised on a farm in Missouri, captain of his University of Illinois football team and an Air Force flight test engineer, Hopkins made the climb to space strapped into the right seat of the cramped Soyuz command module.

Kotov, the veteran commander, monitored cockpit displays from the center seat with Ryazanskiy strapped in to his left.

The ascent appeared to go smoothly and live television from inside the cramped Soyuz command module showed all three crew members calmly monitoring their instruments amid routine calls to and from mission control near Moscow.

"Vibration, oscillations, within norms," Kotov reported at one point. "Nominal operation of the systems."

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Spacecraft with American, 2 Russians blasts off and docks with space station

China aims for space station by 2023

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26 September 2013 Last updated at 08:39 ET By Clive Simpson Beijing

China expects to complete its first orbiting space station within a decade.

The station, in low-Earth orbit, will be able to support six crew on short-term missions and three for long-term stays.

Its design consists of three capsules - a core module attached to two laboratories - with a cargo vessel to transport supplies.

The 2023 launch target was revealed at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Beijing.

According to the China Manned Space Agency, the space station will cover an area of 60 sq m.

Its core module (18.1m long) will weigh 20 to 22 metric tonnes and will be attached to two self-contained labs.

Once operational, astronauts would be able to make long-term missions in orbit and conduct technical tests and science experiments, said Wang Zhaoyao, the director of the space agency.

But before all this, China must first test technologies in renewable life support and in-orbit refuelling.

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China aims for space station by 2023

Russian rocket speeds to space station

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Three crew members arrived at the International Space Station, Wednesday evening. They join three others to bring the station's crew back to full-strength. During their time in space, one of the group's tasks will be to showcase the Olympic torch.

A Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday to deliver three new crew members to the International SpaceStation.

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The Soyuz rocket and capsule lifted off at 4:58 p.m. EDT (2058 GMT) on an express route to the station, which orbits about 250 miles (400 km) above Earth.

Less than six hours after liftoff, veteran Russian commander Oleg Kotov and rookies Sergey Ryazanskiy of Russia and Michael Hopkins of the United States reached the outpost, a $100 billion project of 15 nations. Only two other crews have made the journey as quickly. Previous Soyuz capsules took two days of orbital maneuvers to reach the station.

The arrival of Kotov, Ryazanskiy and Hopkins returns the station to its full, six-member live-aboard crew. Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg and European SpaceAgency astronaut Luca Parmitano have been running the station on their own since Sept. 10.

The skeleton crew was to have overseen the arrival of a commercial cargo ship on a test flight to the station this week.

But a software problem left the unmanned Cygnus freighter unable to receive navigation data properly from the station, delaying its arrival until no earlier than Saturday to avoid conflicting with the Soyuz's berthing. Typically, at least 48 hours are needed between spacecraft dockings.

The cargo ship, built and launched by Orbital Sciences with backing from NASA, blasted off aboard an Antares rocket on Sept. 18 from a new launch pad on the Virginia coast.

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Russian rocket speeds to space station


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