The six astronauts living aboard the International Space Station are making time in their busy schedules to watch the 2012 Summer Olympics from space.

In a new letter to Earth, NASA astronaut Joe Acaba, an avid sports fan, describes being able to catch some of the exciting events while in orbit.

"Even with all the work we had to do, we found time to get together and watch the Olympics," Acaba wrote in a post to his blog "The Great Outer Space" on Aug. 7. "Of course everyone knows there is something special about the Olympics and that feeling is not lost in space."

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Acaba and his crewmates were even able to tune in for some of the history-making moments from the 2012 Summer Olympics, which are being held in London.

"We were able to see Michael Phelps become the most decorated Olympian and Gabby Douglas' nerves of steel as she won the individual Gymnastics gold medal," he said.

Space station's Olympic spirit Acaba added that his unique surroundings drove home the significance of the Olympics.

"To have two weeks to watch the best athletes of the world compete is a dream come true for any sports enthusiast," Acaba wrote. "To watch them while orbiting above the Earth makes them even more special for us (even though we often miss the end of a competition because we lose satellite coverage)." [ Summer Olympics Cities Seen From Space (Gallery)

Acaba drew parallels between the spirit of the Olympic games, and what the astronauts are trying to accomplish on the International Space Station.

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Astronauts watch Olympics from space

Published: Tuesday, August 7, 2012 at 2:10 p.m. Last Modified: Tuesday, August 7, 2012 at 2:10 p.m.

Zipping around the Earth at 17,500 mph, former Dunnellon Middle School teacher Joe Acaba became the first DJ in space last Friday by hosting "The Joe Show" from the International Space Station.

In this file photo, quarantined Expedition 31 Flight Engineer Joe Acaba answers reporters questions from behind glass during a prelaunch press conference held at the Cosmonaut Hotel on Monday, May 14, 2012 in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

BORN: Inglewood, Calif., in 1967.

EDUCATION: Esperanza High School, Anaheim, Calif., 1985; bachelor's degree, geology, University of California-Santa Barbara, 1990; master's degree, geology, University of Arizona, 1992.

EXPERIENCE: U.S. Marine Corps, Reserves; hydro-geologist in Los Angeles; Peace Corps; teacher, Melbourne High School, 1999; math and science teacher at Dunnellon Middle School, 2000 to 2004.

NASA EXPERIENCE: Selected as mission specialist by NASA in May 2004; completed training in 2006; two stints on International Space station, 2009 and 2012.

It wasn't just a quick sound bite to promote NASA. The astronaut actually spent two hours on "Third Rock Radio," an Internet rock station powered by NASA that can be heard at thirdrockradio.net.

After an announcer declared it was time for the first radio program from 250 miles up in space, the former math and science teacher sprung into action shortly after 4 p.m. Friday.

"Hello, I'm Joe Acaba ... your DJ on the International Space Station."

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Teacher hosts radio show in space

WASHINGTON - NASA picked three aerospace companies Friday to build small rocketships to take astronauts to the International Space Station.

This is the third phase of NASA's efforts to get private space companies to take over the job of the now-retired space shuttle. The companies will share more than $1.1 billion. Two of the ships are capsules like in the Apollo era and the third is closer in design to the space shuttle.

Once the spaceships are built, NASA plans to hire the private companies to taxi astronauts into space within five years. Until they are ready, NASA is paying Russia about $63 million per astronaut to do the job.

In a statement, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said the move "will help keep us on track to tend the outsourcing of human spaceflight."

NASA hopes that by having private firms ferry astronauts into low Earth orbit, it can focus on larger long-term goals, like sending crews to a nearby asteroid and eventually Mars. The private companies can also make money in tourism and other non-NASA business.

The three companies are the Boeing Co. of Houston, Space Exploration Technologies, called SpaceX, of Hawthorne and Sierra Nevada Corp. of Louisville, Colo.

They are quite different companies. Boeing is one of the oldest and largest space companies with a long history of building and launching rockets and working for NASA, going back to the Mercury days. One of its partners in the effort is Canoga

"We're confident our proven propulsion technology and engineering skills will help maintain U.S. leadership in space," Terry Lorier, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne's Commercial Crew program manager, said in a statement.

SpaceX is a relatively new company started by Elon Musk, who helped create PayPal and runs the electric car company Tesla Motors. Sierra Nevada has been in the space business for 25 years but mostly on a much smaller scale than Boeing.

NASA's commercial crew development program started with seven companies. The other companies that were not chosen can still build private rocketships and NASA still has the option to hire them to ferry astronauts at a later date, NASA spokesman Trent Perrotto said.

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NASA picks companies to build space taxis

Private companies, educational institutions, and other organizations who send experiments aboard the International Space Station face a challenge: Each experiment sent aboard the ISS requires extensive safety and security checks--and about 1,000 pages of documentation. In the past few years, a handful of companies worldwide have started handling all those details for space entrepreneurs. They're the FedExes and DHLs for posting packages beyond Earth.

NanoRacks, one of the first companies to enter the field, operates the first commercial laboratory in space aboard the ISS and a panel laboratory that's attached to the space station. For the price of $30,000 for educational institutions or $60,000 for commercial entities, Nanoracks handles all the logistics related to sending experiments into space. The small, for-profit company will handle the paperwork, find transportation among the many vehicles headed to the ISS, install the experiment, and take care of all governmental relations for would-be space experimenters. The standard Nanorack experiment stays in space for 30 days.

The company has delivered 41 payloads to the ISS so far and has another 80 under contract, Jeffrey Mamber, NanoRacks' managing director, tells Fast Company. Nanoracks formed in late 2009, and recognized that utilization of the Space Station could be used as a commercial pathway. If we could market commercial services for the International Space Station, we'd find a market. We signed a Space Act Agreement with NASA on September 9, 2009 and self-financed everything for the first two years, to show there is a market. We are the world's first private laboratory in space, and we created a pathway and infrastructure that didn't exist before.

Besides NanoRacks, several other companies also offer outer space logistics solutions for international clients. According to the managers of the United States' lab aboard the ISS, the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), organizations sending payloads to the space station have multiple logistics options (PDF). These companies, such as Astrium, Astrotech, Bionetics, and Thales Alenia Space, form part of a tightly knit ecosystem of space logistics experts. Employees at the firms help clients with the highly complicated space travel process, as well as navigating the byzantine bureaucracies of NASA and its worldwide counterparts.

According to Mamber, NanoRacks wants to be a concierge to the stars for its clients that streamlines the NASA integration process [...] It takes nine months from contract signing to launch. We take care of everything with NASAaccess to laboratory space, the launch vehicle, deployment, everything. NASA doesn't want to deal with consumer payloads, but we do.

The primary NanoRacks lab, one of two turnkey commercial labs on the ISS, consists of proprietary equipment based around a series of plug-and-play modules. The second lab is actually located on a small external platform attached to the ISS, which gives experimenters access to outer space itself. The company's clients have included a variety of American educational institutions (including many high schools recruited through the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program), the Israeli Air Force's Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies, plus numerous commercial clients. Although manifests are available online, Mamber said that many private clients are circumspect about making details of their experiments public--many involve trade secrets as well as sensitive information.

However, sometimes information about experiments is promoted to the public. Scotland's Ardbeg whisky distillery worked with NanoRacks to conduct space experiments on their signature product. Using NanoRacks' facility, the distillery tested the behavior of flavor-altering organic compounds called terpenes in zero gravity.

Most companies working in for-profit space travel coordinate their activities, Esther Dyson, an early investor in NanoRacks, tells Fast Company. "Almost all of us work together via the Commercial Space Federation on common issues, such as regulations, raising investor interest (though we compete when it comes to actually raising the money!), encouraging space ports and the like.

NanoRacks primarily sends clients' experiments into space via government space vehicles, but recently hitched a ride aboard the private SpaceX Dragon (where an error caused students' payloads to lose critical refrigeration during the transportation process.) Shipping space is booked via NASA and the company works extensively with the space agency's staff and various space centers. Next up for NanoRacks is an iPhone-based space research platform.

[Image: NanoRacks]

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NanoRacks Is The UPS Of Outer Space Shipping

By Scott Dance

10:34 a.m. EDT, August 6, 2012

Opportunities to watch the International Space Station fly over Maryland arise in the coming days.

Viewing opportunities only occur sporadically, based on the spacecrafts orbit route and its position relative to the sun and Earth. They often occur during daylight hours or when most of us are asleep, and the space station's appearance is often too faint to be seen.

When it is visible, the space station zips across the sky, appearing as a bright, steadily moving light.

Here are three viewing opportunities this week that fall during normal waking hours:

On board are some fresh crew members. Three crew members left, including NASA astronaut Jim Pettit, and three joined, including NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, who is an alumna of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.

Have a weather question? E-mail me at sdance@baltsun.com or tweet to @MdWeather.

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See the International Space Station in night sky this week

By Seth Borenstein

NASA picked three aerospace companies Friday to build small rocketships to take astronauts to the International Space Station.

This is the third phase of NASA's efforts to get private space companies to take over the job of the now-retired space shuttle. The companies will share more than US$1.1 billion. Two of the ships are capsules like in the Apollo era and the third is closer in design to the space shuttle.

Once the spaceships are built, NASA plans to hire the private companies to taxi astronauts into space within five years. Until they are ready, NASA is paying Russia about US$63 million per astronaut to do the job.

In a statement, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said the move "will help keep us on track to tend the outsourcing of human spaceflight."

NASA hopes that by having private firms ferry astronauts into low Earth orbit, it can focus on larger long-term goals, like sending crews to a nearby asteroid and eventually Mars. The private companies can also make money in tourism and other non-NASA business.

The three companies are the Boeing Co. of Houston, Space Exploration Technologies, called SpaceX, of Hawthorne, Calif., and Sierra Nevada Corp. of Louisville, Colorado

They are quite different companies. Boeing is one of the oldest and largest space companies with a long history of building and launching rockets and working for NASA, going back to the Mercury days. SpaceX is a relatively new company started by Elon Musk, who helped create PayPal and runs the electric car company Tesla Motors. Sierra Nevada has been in the space business for 25 years but mostly on a much smaller scale than Boeing.

NASA's commercial crew development program started with seven companies. The other companies that were not chosen can still build private rocketships and NASA still has the option to hire them to ferry astronauts at a later date, NASA spokesman Trent Perrotto said.

Boeing is slated to get the most money, US$460 million for its seven-person CST-100 capsule. It would launch on an Atlas rocket, with the first test flight 2016. The company won't say how much it would charge NASA per seat, but it will be "significantly lower" than the Russian price, said John Mulholland, Boeing vice president. He said Boeing's long experience in working with NASA on human flight gives it a "leg up" on its competitors.

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NASA picks space taxi manufacturers

Hundreds of people have watched the historic Mars landing at Canberra's Deep Space Station.

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Crowd gathers for modern-day space landing

August 3, 2012 3:29 PM ET

By SETH BORENSTEIN

WASHINGTON (AP) - NASA picked three aerospace companies Friday to build small rocketships to take astronauts to the International Space Station.

This is the third phase of NASA's efforts to get private space companies to take over the job of the now-retired space shuttle. The companies will share more than $1.1 billion. Two of the ships are capsules like in the Apollo era and the third is closer in design to the space shuttle.

Once the spaceships are built, NASA plans to hire the private companies to taxi astronauts into space within five years. Until they are ready, NASA is paying Russia about $63 million per astronaut to do the job.

In a statement, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said the move "will help keep us on track to tend the outsourcing of human spaceflight."

NASA hopes that by having private firms ferry astronauts into low Earth orbit, it can focus on larger long-term goals, like sending crews to a nearby asteroid and eventually Mars. The private companies can also make money in tourism and other non-NASA business.

The three companies are the Boeing Co. of Houston, Space Exploration Technologies, called SpaceX, of Hawthorne, Calif., and Sierra Nevada Corp. of Louisville, Colo.

They are quite different companies. Boeing is one of the oldest and largest space companies with a long history of building and launching rockets and working for NASA, going back to the Mercury days. SpaceX is a relatively new company started by Elon Musk, who helped create PayPal and runs the electric car company Tesla Motors. Sierra Nevada has been in the space business for 25 years but mostly on a much smaller scale than Boeing.

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NASA to develop space taxis

An unstaffed Russian spacecraft is reported to have docked with the International Space Station after making the trip from Earth in record time.

A new approach manoeuvre allowed the Progress M16-M vessel to reach the space station, 350 kilometres above the Earth, after fewer orbits, taking six hours instead of the usual two-plus days.

The cargo ship took off on board a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying 2.6 tonnes of supplies, fuel, scientific equipment and gifts for the space station's crew.

It docked successfully on Thursday after four orbits round the Earth, several reports in Russian media quoted mission control as saying.

After further testing, the new approach could be used for crewed Soyuz capsules, cutting time and expense.

'If you can get the crew to orbit in six hours and onboard the International Space Station, that could be a tremendous benefit over the two-plus days it takes today,' Dan Harman, NASA's space station manager of operations and integration, told reporters last week.

The station has crew from Russia, the US and Japan.

It is also hosting two other cargo vessels, Japan's H-II Transfer Vehicle-3 and Europe's Automated Transfer Vehicle-3, or Edoardo Amaldi.

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Russian space craft docks in record time

An unmanned Russian cargo ship docked with the International Space Station (ISS) in a record time, officials said Thursday, taking just under six hours from launch to complete the journey.

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Russia tests faster space docking route

An unmanned Russian cargo ship arrived at the International Space Station tonight (Aug. 1), less than six hours after it launched into orbit. The successful maneuver marked the first time a same-day docking has ever been accomplished at the massive orbiting outpost.

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Russian Cargo Ship Docks to Space Station Just Hours After Launch

An unmanned Russian cargo ship arrived at the International Space Station Wednesday, less than six hours after it launched into orbit. The successful maneuver marked the first time a same-day docking has ever been accomplished at the massive orbiting outpost.

The robotic Progress 48 cargo freighter automatically parked to the Pirs docking compartment on the Russian segment of the complex slightly ahead of schedule, at 9:19 p.m. EDT (0119 GMT Aug. 2), as both spacecraft flew over the Pacific Ocean. In addition to delivering fresh supplies to the space station, the spacecraft also tested the novel same-day rendezvous and docking procedure.

According to NASA officials, the docking test proceeded smoothly and the Progress vehicle's systems responded flawlessly throughout the shortened flight to the space station.

The Progress 48 launched into orbit atop a Soyuz rocket earlier today, at 3:35 p.m. EDT (1935 GMT), from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in central Asia. Roughly six hours later, the spacecraft arrived at the orbiting outpost.

- space station flight director Chris Edelen

Russia is aiming to eventually implement this same-day docking plan for future manned flights of Soyuz space capsules to the International Space Station.

"They're looking to eventually take this into the Soyuz phase," Dan Harman, NASA's space station manager of operations and integration, said in a news briefing last week. "If you can get the crew to orbit in six hours and onboard the International Space Station, that could be a tremendous benefit over the two-plus days it takes today." [Photos: Russia's 1st Same-Day Cargo Ship Flight to Space Station]

Shortening the orbital chase

Progress and Soyuz vehicles typically spend two days chasing the space station in orbit after launch. A quicker arrival to the orbiting complex could cut down the overall amount of consumables such as food, water and fuel needed for the onboard crew.

Docking to the station within hours of launch also minimizes the amount of time the astronauts spend inside the small Soyuz capsule, which could improve the comfort of the spaceflyers, said space station flight director Chris Edelen.

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Cargo spaceship makes superspeed trip to space station

A robotic Russian cargo ship launched toward the International Space Station Wednesday to deliver a fresh load of supplies and test a new same-day docking plan that, if successful, will make it the first spacecraft ever to arrive at the orbiting lab within hours of liftoff.

The unmanned Progress 48 cargo ship blasted off atop a Soyuz rocket at 3:35 p.m. EDT (1935 GMT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in central Asia. It was early Thursday morning local time at the site of the Russian spaceport. Since the spacecraft is attempting a novel same-day rendezvous and docking maneuver, it should arrive at the space station roughly six hours after liftoff, NASA officials said.

If everything goes according to plan, Progress 48 will arrive at the space station tonight at 9:24 p.m. EDT (0124 GMT Aug. 2). The robotic spacecraft will automatically park at the Pirs docking compartment on the Russian segment of the outpost.

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Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: Students create a high-altitude balloon experiment that's as notable for the way it fell as for the images and scientific data it captured during its rise.

Russia is aiming to eventually implement this same-day docking plan for future manned flights of Soyuz space capsules to the International Space Station.

"They're looking to eventually take this into the Soyuz phase," Dan Harman, NASA's space station manager of operations and integration, said in a news briefing last week. "If you can get the crew to orbit in six hours and onboard the International Space Station, that could be a tremendous benefit over the two-plus days it takes today." [ Photos: Russia's 1st Same-Day Cargo Ship Flight to Space Station ]

Shortening the orbital chase Progress and Soyuz vehicles typically spend two days chasing the space station in orbit after launch. A quicker arrival to the orbiting complex could cut down the overall amount of consumables such as food, water and fuel needed for the onboard crew.

Docking to the station within hours of launch also minimizes the amount of time the astronauts spend inside the small Soyuz capsule, which could improve the comfort of the spaceflyers, said space station flight director Chris Edelen.

"The quicker rendezvous that you have, the less consumables you would need for the first day, and the better crew comfort in a small capsule," he said.

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Russia launches ship on same-day trip to space station

A robotic Russian cargo ship launched toward the International Space Station today (Aug. 1) to deliver a fresh load of supplies and test a new same-day docking plan that, if successful, will make it the first spacecraft ever to arrive at the orbiting lab within hours of liftoff.

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Russian Supply Ship Launches on 1st Same-Day Trip to Space Station

The Progress M-15M unmanned cargo spacecraft. Credit: NASA TV

MOSCOW, July 31 (UPI) -- A Russian spacecraft has undocked from the International Space Station for a three-week scientific mission before it is buried in the Pacific, officials said.

The Progress M-15M unmanned cargo spacecraft undocked early Tuesday, RIA Novosti reported.

"The undocking was carried out at 01.16 Moscow time," Russia's Mission Control said. "The spacecraft will conduct a series of scientific experiments under the Radar-Progress project."

That project is intended to study the impact of space engines on the Earth's ionosphere.

"After the project is completed the space freighter will be de-orbited and sunk in the Pacific," Mission Control announced.

The freighter, which arrived at the ISS in April, undocked July 23 to test an upgraded Russian automated rendezvous system.

The first attempt to re-dock with the ISS using the Kurs-NA system resulted in failure, but the spacecraft successfully docked on a second attempt July 29 after Russian engineers had reprogrammed the system.

Russia is planning to launch its next space freighter, the Progress M-16M, from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on Aug. 1 to deliver some 2 tons of food, water and fuel supplies to the ISS, RIA Novosti reported.

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Space freighter undocks from space station

Japanese astronauts deliver an aquarium to the International Space Station to study the effects of microgravity on marine life.

By Jef Akst | July 31, 2012

Earlier this month (July 2), the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) sent an aquarium of Medaka fish, called the Aquatic Habitat (AQH), to the International Space Station, where scientists will collect data on how the low gravity, high radiation environment of space affects the small, transparent fish.

LED lights simulate day and night cycles in the the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) where the AQH will be stationed. Among the effects to be examined are bone degradation, muscle atrophy, and developmental biologyqualities of Medaka fish that are easier to study thanks to their transparency. We think studies on bone degradation mechanisms and muscle atrophy mechanisms are applicable to human health problems, especially for the aging society, Nobuyoshi Fujimoto, associate senior engineer at JAXAs Space Environment Unitization Center, told NASA. The fish have also had their genome fully sequenced, making them appropriate study subjects for examining genetic changes, such as mutations that result from the suns unfiltered radiation.

An additional benefit of the Medaka is that they breed rather quickly, and thanks to a high quality water circulation system, which includes bacteria to filter waste products out of the water, the fish will remain in space for up to 90 days, Fujimoto told Wired Science. This capability will make it possible for egg-to-egg breeding aboard station, which means up to three generations may be born in orbit, he said. This would be a first for fish in space.

By Cristina Luiggi

The body is a fascinating machine, says Sandra Shefelbine, a biomechanics expert at Imperial College, London, in this 3-minute educational

By Cristina Luiggi

Orbiting ultrasound machines are being used to diagnose and treat astronauts kidney stones.

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Space-bound Fish

A robotic Russian cargo ship made its final departure from the International Space Station Monday after spending several months attached to the orbiting outpost.

The unmanned Russian Progress 47 cargo ship undocked from the space station on Monday at 5:19 p.m. EDT, as both spacecraft flew over Kazakhstan, according to NASA officials. After backing a safe distance away from the complex, the cargo freighter will conduct several weeks of unrelated engineering tests, before it is deliberately sent to burn up in Earth's atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.

Russia's disposable Progress vehicles are used to ferry clothing, food and other supplies to the International Space Station. The cargo ships remain parked at the outpost for several months, and after the astronauts aboard the station unpack the cargo, the spacecraft are typically filled with trash and other unwanted items.

At the end of their mission, the Progress vehicles are undocked from the station and purposefully sent to a fiery demise as they fly back down through Earth's atmosphere. [ Infographic: How Russia's Progress Spaceships Work ]

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Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: Students create a high-altitude balloon experiment that's as notable for the way it fell as for the images and scientific data it captured during its rise.

Before leaving the space station, the Progress 47 spacecraft conducted a test of an upgraded docking system that Russia intends to use on future unmanned Progress and manned Soyuz vehicles. The Progress 47 successfully completed the docking test on its second try, after a first attempt on July 23 was prematurely aborted due to a technical glitch.

To conduct the test, the Progress 47 initially undocked from the space station on July 22. The cargo ship was expected to automatically park itself at the Pirs docking compartment on the Russian segment of the space station the following day, but the attempt failed and the maneuver was aborted.

Russian engineers traced the glitch to lower-than-expected temperatures on the docking system. After adjustments were made, the spacecraft successfully redocked to the space station on Saturday.

The successful test of the Kurs-NA docking system was a demonstration of an updated version of the Kurs system that has been integrated into Russian spacecraft for years. Several upgrades were made to the newer version, including better electronics that are expected to use less power and improve safety.

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Russian cargo ship leaves space station

A robotic Russian cargo ship made its final departure from the International Space Station yesterday (July 30), after spending several months attached to the orbiting outpost.

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Unmanned Russian Cargo Ship Departs Space Station

An unmanned Russian cargo ship parked itself at the International Space Station tonight (July 28), in a second attempt to test an updated space docking system, NASA says.

The robotic Russian Progress 47 spacecraft re-docked to the space station to test the new Kurs-NA docking system. The cargo ship safely approached the station and automatically attached itself to the Pirs docking compartment on the Russian segment of the massive orbiting laboratory at 9:01 p.m. ET (0101 GMT July 29). Russia intends to use the Kurs-NA docking system on future unmanned Progress spacecraft and manned Soyuz vehicles.

The Progress' safe docking followed a failed first attempt four days ago, on July 23, which was aborted after a technical glitch prevented the spacecraft from reaching the orbiting outpost. After that attempt, the Progress 47's onboard computers kept the craft a safe distance away from the station while Russian engineers analyzed the failure.

Today's successful maneuver was a key demonstration of the new Kurs-NA docking system, which is an updated version of the Kurs system that has been integrated into Russian spacecraft for years. Engineers made several upgrades to the newer version, including better electronics that are expected to use less power and improve safety.

As part of the test, the robotic Progress 47 spacecraft approached the station to within about 29 miles (46 kilometers). At this range, the Kurs-NA system was activated, and the cargo ship carefully attached itself to the space station. [Infographic: How Russia's Progress Spaceships Work]

The Progress 47 docking test occurred a day after a different unmanned cargo freighter arrived at the space station. The Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle-3, or HTV-3, was safely attached to the orbiting outpost Friday morning (July 27). The spacecraft is packed with fresh supplies, food and science experiments for the station.

Space news from NBCNews.com

Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: Students create a high-altitude balloon experiment that's as notable for the way it fell as for the images and scientific data it captured during its rise.

The Progress 47 arrived at the space station in April to deliver clothing, food and other supplies to the astronauts living aboard the space lab. The cargo ship had been attached to the Pirs docking compartment since it first reached the station and completed its prime mission, but was purposefully undocked on July 22 to prepare for the Kurs-NA trial run.

After unloading all the cargo inside the Progress 47, the station crew re-loaded the spacecraft with trash and other unwanted items. Russia's disposable Progress vehicles are intentionally sent to burn up during re-entry into Earth's atmosphere at the end of their missions.

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Russian cargo craft finally docks with space station

China tested a new rocket engine Sunday (July 29) for a more powerful, next-generation booster that will be used to help the country construct its first space station in orbit, and for future missions to explore the moon, according to news reports.

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China Tests Powerful Rocket Engine for New Booster