Three veteran space travelers from three different countries are gearing up to launch toward the International Space Station Saturday night to begin a months-long mission to the orbiting laboratory.

NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency spaceflyer Akihiko Hoshide will lift off on the Russian Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft at 10:40 p.m. EDT (0240 July 15 GMT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The three-person team will become part of the space station's Expedition 32 mission, and is due to stay for about four months.

More space news from msnbc.com

Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: The pawprint of a cosmic cat comes into sharper focus in this week's featured picture from the European Southern Observatory.

"We're really excited to be getting closer and closer to our launch in July," Williams said during a press conference in March. "It's going to be a great mission, really exciting, lots of things to do. We're sort of like a family and we've got a couple other great crew members up onboard."

Williams and her crewmates will join the three spaceflyers already living on the space station: commander Gennady Padalka of Russia, his cosmonaut colleague Sergei Revin, and NASA astronaut Joe Acaba, who have all been in space since May.

In a cosmic coincidence, the Soyuz TMA-05M rocket carrying the new Expedition 32 crew will launch on July 15 local time at Baikonur Cosmodrome, marking the 37th anniversary of the world's first international crewed space mission in 1975: the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. That historic mission marked the first space docking between a Soviet and U.S. spacecraft, paving the way for the international cooperation needed to build the International Space Station. [ Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in Pictures ]

Today, the $100 billion space station is the product of five space agencies and 15 different countries working together to build the orbiting lab piece-by-piece since the first component launched in 1998.

Like the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the Soyuz TMA-05 mission will take two days to arrive at its destination, with docking at the station planned for early July 17. The Expedition 32 crew will divide its time between space station maintenance and a hefty allocation of science research.

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Veteran space station crew to launch into orbit

Three veteran space travelers from three different countries are gearing up to launch toward the International Space Station tonight (July 14) to begin a months-long mission to the orbiting laboratory.

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Veteran Space Station Crew to Launch Into Orbit Tonight

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Sunita Williams set for her second space visit

An all-veteran crew is making final preparations for launch this weekend to the International Space Station, kicking off a busy six weeks highlighted by multiple dockings, undockings, and a pair of spacewalks.

Engineers are making final preparations for launch of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft this weekend to ferry an all-veteran U.S.-Russian-Japanese crew to the International Space Station to boost the lab's crew complement back to six. The launch will kick off a "fantastically busy" timeline, with nine space station "visiting vehicle" operations and two spacewalks over the next six weeks.

"The mission is going to be action packed," Soyuz flight engineer and eventual space station commander Sunita Williams told CBS News. "I think we're really up for the pace, we're up for the challenge, we're ready to go."

The Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft was hauled to the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Thursday, setting the stage for launch Saturday evening U.S. time.

Her ride -- the Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft -- is scheduled for liftoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 10:40:03 p.m. EDT Saturday (GMT-4; 8:40 a.m. Sunday local time), the 37th anniversary of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project that opened the door to U.S.-Russian space cooperation.

"They've got a fantastically busy mission ahead of them, they are looking toward nine visiting vehicles during the time they're up on board the space station, which is really a lot of coming and going," said NASA chief astronaut Peggy Whitson, a veteran space station commander. "It's going to take a lot of choreography by the ground teams and the crews on orbit to make this all happen. It'll be a very challenging and exciting time for them."

At the controls in the cramped Soyuz command module's center seat will be Soyuz commander Yuri Malenchenko, veteran of a stay aboard the Mir space station, two long-duration expeditions aboard the International Space Station and a space shuttle station assembly flight. He has logged a combined total of 515 days in space.

Williams, strapped in to Malenchenko's left, spent 195 days in space during a space station expedition in 2006 and 2007, riding to and from the lab complex aboard a space shuttle. Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, who helped activate the station's Japanese research module during a 14-day 2008 shuttle flight, will be seated in the Soyuz command module's right seat.

The huge exhaust duct below the Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft on the launch pad at Baikonur.

If all goes well, Malenchenko will oversee an automated approach to the space station, docking at the Earth-facing Rassvet module around 12:52 a.m. EDT Tuesday. Standing by to welcome them aboard will be Expedition 32 commander Gennady Padalka, cosmonaut Sergei Revin and NASA astronaut Joseph Acaba, who were launched to the lab on May 15.

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Russian Soyuz ferry craft prepped for station flight

A Russian state commission on Friday gave the final approval for the main and backup crews of a new expedition to the International Space Station (ISS) ahead of their launch on July 15.

The new crew comprises Russian cosmonaut Yury Malenchenko, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams and Japans Space Agency (JASA) astronaut Akihito Hoshide.

The backup crew includes Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield and NASA astronaut Thomas Marshburn.

The crews have trained in Russia, as Russian Soyuz-family spacecraft remain the only means of transportation for crew members to and from the orbital station until at least 2015, and successfully passed all of the exams.

Russia's Soyuz-FG rocket with Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft carrying the new crew has been scheduled to lift off at 6.40 a.m. Moscow time (02:40 GMT) on Sunday from the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan.

The Soyuz TMA-05M is expected to dock with the orbital station on July 17.

For Malenchenko, it will be his fifth long-duration spaceflight. Williams and Hoshide visited the ISS once each traveling on board a U.S. space shuttle. It will be their first flight experience with the Soyuz spacecraft.

The new crew members will join the current ISS crew, which includes Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin and NASA astronaut Joe Acaba, who have been in orbit since mid-May.

Vitaly Lopota, the head of the Russian space corporation Energia, told the commission on Friday that the spacecraft and ground control services were ready to carry out the launch.

All systems are in good shapewe are ready for launch, Lopota said.

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Russian Commission Approves New Space Station Crew

July 12, 2012

John Neumann for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

When European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Andr Kuipers first went to space in 2004 to the International Space Station (ISS), he took with him some microscopic Caenorhabditis elegans worms. A team of scientists from the U.S., Japan, France and Canada were interested in seeing how C. elegans reacted to living in weightlessness.

You may not need to stay awake at night worrying about space worms invading the planet but this species at least seemed to come back better for the trip.

Researchers found the worms came back with fewer toxic proteins in their muscles than if they had stayed on Earth, according to results published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports recently. Further investigation revealed that seven genes were less active in space.

Living on the ISS prevented certain genes from functioning normally and surprisingly, the worms seemed to function better without them.

Turning off these genes in a laboratory, researchers found that worms raised without the seven genes also lived longer and healthier. Nathaniel Szewczyk, a scientist from the project, explains: Muscle tends to shrink in space. The results from this study suggest that muscles are adapting rather than reacting involuntarily to space conditions.

Counterintuitively, muscles in space may age better than on Earth. It may also be that spaceflight slows the process of ageing.

Humans share around 55 percent of genes with C. elegans so the next step is to probe human muscle response to spaceflight.

After Andr finished his second mission to the ISS earlier this month, the astronaut himself was investigated as well.

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Worms Thrive Better Than Humans In Weightless Space

Interest in the Skylab space station remains strong with visitors to the Esperance Museum even though the historic event, which captured the attention of the world, occurred 33 years ago today.

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Port celebrates its piece of space history

A year ago today, the Space Shuttle Orbiter Atlantis was docked with the International Space Station (ISS). On 21 July 2011, it deorbited and landed back on Earth, ending 30 years of Space Shuttle flights. The decision to end the Shuttle Program after ISS completion was taken by President George W. Bush in 2004. The Space Shuttles successor, the Orion capsule, was not ready when Atlantis returned to Earth. Fortunately, the 20-year cooperative relationship with the Russian space program ensured that American astronauts could continue to live and work on board the ISS.

Although the fact is mostly forgotten today, NASA launched plans to replace the Space Shuttle even before the first Space Shuttle mission in April 1981. In 1985,President Ronald Reagan formalized these by signing a directive ordering the U.S. civilian space agency to develop a Space Shuttle successor. Notably, this occurred before the January 1986 Challenger accident laid bare the Space Shuttles frailties. NASA has attempted to develop a Space Shuttle successor ever since, but for a wide range of reasons it has not succeeded.

One of the early proposed Shuttle successors was called Shuttle II. The lions-share of Shuttle II design work took place at NASAs Langley Research Center (LaRC) in Hampton, Virginia. Shuttle II first achieved prominence in 1986in the high-level National Commission On Space report. LaRCs Shuttle II design evolved for a time it was to have been a single-stage-to-orbit vehicle although typically it included a winged manned Orbiter and awinged unmanned Booster, both of which would have landed on runways and been entirely reusable. The Shuttle II Orbiters fuselage would have been crammed full of propellant tanks, so it would have toted cargo in a sizable hump on its back.

NASA LaRCs Shuttle II. Image: NASA.

Shuttle II was intended mainly as a crew transport complementing a mixed fleet of launchers that would have included unmanned heavy-lift rockets capable of placing from 50 to 100 tons into space. It would have transported a small amount of cargo perhaps 10 tons and a large number of astronauts between 10 and as many as 25 to an established, mature Space Station. Only a handful of astronauts perhaps three would have been Shuttle II crewmembers; the remainder would have been considered passengers. Upon reaching space on board Shuttle II, they would have eitherserved aboard the Space Station or transferred to spacecraft bound for the moon or Mars.

Although a good case can be made for calling LaRCs Shuttle II theShuttle II, it was in fact notthe only proposed Shuttle II design. The Advanced Programs Office at NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas, put forward the sleek Shuttle II design depicted in the images that follow. The LaRC design was favored by NASA Headquarters and is relatively well documented. Neither can be said for JSCs design. These images NASA photos of a model constitute a rare glimpse at a spaceship that never was.

NASA JSCs Evolved Shuttle. Image: NASA.

Engineers in Houston envisioned that their Shuttle II might develop from an Evolved Space Shuttle. In the Evolved Shuttle, Liquid Replacement Boosters would have stood in for the Space Shuttles Solid Rocket Boosters, though the Evolved Shuttle would have retained the Space Shuttles expendable External Tank and, with minor modifications, the Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs). Winglets on the tips of the Evolved Shuttles modified delta wings would have replaced the Space Shuttles single vertical tail fin. Redesigned Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) engines based on the venerable RL-10 engine would have drawn liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen propellants from tanks in the wings.

The most dramatic change, however, wasreserved for the crew compartment. It would have been completely redesigned so that it could separate from the rest of the Evolved Shuttle in the event of a catastrophic failure and operate as an independent small piloted spacecraft. This feature, along with the wing configuration, would carry over to JSCs Shuttle II design.

NASA JSC engineers gave no indication of when they expected the transition from Space Shuttle to Evolved Shuttle would occur. If one assumes, however, that JSCs Shuttle II would have become operational in the first years of the 21st century like LaRCs Shuttle II then the Evolved Shuttle would probably have flown during the 1990s.

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NASA Johnson Space Center's Shuttle II (1988)

As western wildfires continue to make headlines, a fascinating new image from space has emerged of one of those fires.

An astronaut onboard the International Space Station took a picture of smoke from a wildfire at night along the Texas and Mexico border.

According the web site ouramazingplanet.com, the smoke likely comes from the Whitewater-Baldy fire, which is the largest in New Mexico's history. The U.S. Forest Service believes the 465 square mile fire was ignited by lightning back in May. The fire is now 87 percent contained.

Winds have carried haze from the Whitewater-Baldy fire and other wildfire smoke as far as the east coast.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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Wildfire view from space

Expedition 32 Crew

Pictured from the left are Flight Engineers Akihiko Hoshide, Yuri Malenchenko, Sunita Williams and Joe Acaba, Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Sergei Revin.

NASA astronaut Sunita Williams (right), Expedition 32 flight engineer and Expedition 33 commander; along with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide (left) and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, both Expedition 32/33 flight engineers, attired in Russian Sokol launch and entry suits, take a break from training in Star City, Russia to pose for a portrait. This image was released on Feb. 22, 2012.

Expedition 31/32/33 crew members pose for a group photo in an International Space Station mock-up/trainer in the Space Vehicle Mock-up Facility at NASA's Johnson Space Center. This image was released on Jan. 17, 2012.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, Expedition 32/33 flight engineer; and NASA astronaut Sunita Williams (mostly obscured), Expedition 32 flight engineer and Expedition 33 commander, attired in training versions of their Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) spacesuits, are submerged in the waters of the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) near NASA's Johnson Space Center. This image was released on March 15, 2012.

Flight Crew participate in a space station EVA planning and preparation session in an International Space Station mock-up/trainer in the Space Vehicle Mock-up Facility at NASA's Johnson Space Center. This image was taken March 13, 2012.

The prime and backup crew members for Expedition 32 attend ceremonies outside their Cosmonaut Hotel in Baikonur, Kazakhstan July 4, 2012 following the raising of U.S., Russian, Japanese and Kazakh flags outside their crew quarters as part of the prelaunch activities leading up to the launch of the next crew to the International Space Station. This image was released on July 4, 2012.

At the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Expedition 32 Flight Engineer Sunita Williams (left) of NASA, Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko (center) and Flight Engineer Aki Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency take a moment to pose for photos July 3, 2012 in front of their Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft during a suited "fit check" of the vehicle.

NASA astronaut Joe Acaba, Expedition 31/32 flight engineer, poses for a photo with Robonaut 2 humanoid robot in the Destiny laboratory of the International Space Station in June 2012.

A Soyuz rocket launches on May 15, 2012, carrying Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka (spacecraft commander) and Sergei Revin (spacecraft flight engineer) and US astronaut Joseph Acaba (flight engineer-2 of the spacecraft) on the Expedition 31/32 mission.

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Photos: Space Station's Expedition 32 Mission

The 1st Annual International Space Station Research and Development Conference provided updates on science and technology accomplishments, offering potential users information and avenues for sending their investigations to the space station. The conference took place June 26-28, 2012 in Denver, Colo.

Roughly 400 scientists, engineers, students, industry leaders and business representatives gathered last week to participate in the 1st Annual International Space Station Research and Development Conference, organized by the American Astronautical Society and the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space Inc., or CASIS, in cooperation with NASA.

The event took place June 26-28 in Denver, Colo., showcasing the full breadth of research and technology development on the space station; past, present and future. Because most scientific conferences focus on one discipline, this was a highly anticipated opportunity for attendees to hear results from multidisciplinary space station studies in the areas of physical sciences, life sciences, Earth and space sciences, and spacecraft technology.

Space station crew members Don Pettit and Joe Acaba kicked off the conference with a video message from on orbit, describing the unique microgravity environment and research capabilities of this remarkable laboratory.

Opening remarks and keynote speakers included NASA Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations William Gerstenmaier, NASA Chief Scientist Waleed Abdalati, and International Space Station Program Manager Michael Suffredini. Their presentations echoed the three major themes of new knowledge resulting from space station research. Those themes include benefits to life on Earth, benefits to future space exploration, and basic discovery.

Throughout the conference, 19 parallel technical sessions provided investigators an opportunity to share the results of their space station experiments and update attendees on significant accomplishments in their field to date. These sessions kept the community informed on findings, while also providing inspiration for future areas of research.

International Space Station Program Scientist Julie Robinson moderated a discussion panel that highlighted some of the top research and technology results from the assembly and early utilization phases of the station. Varied topics discussed included protein crystallography that has led to potential drug therapies for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, mechanisms and treatments of infectious diseases such as salmonella, hyperspectral remote sensing of Earth, spacecraft fluid management via capillary flow and recent developments in astronaut vision health.

Astronaut Mike Fincke and cosmonaut Sergey Adveev entertained attendees with their first-hand accounts of living and working in space. Fincke concluded with an inspiring message for the audience, "Do something amazing!" A little over a year ago, Fincke helped to install the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) on the outside of the space station during the STS-134 space shuttle mission. One of the featured speakers at the conference presented a status on results from the first 18 billion cosmic rays that have been detected by AMS.

In a panel discussion entitled: "Enabling Exploration Beyond Earth Orbit," moderated by International Space Station Technology Demonstration Manager George Nelson, presenters described exploration technologies in development and testing on space station, such as the Robotic Refueling Mission, which is paving the way for robotic refueling and repair of satellites and vehicles. Other presentations included spacecraft life support technologies and testing of new modes of communication between Earth and space station using lasers.

Panels also discussed upcoming space station research opportunities through both NASA and CASIS U.S. National Laboratory research programs that will enable researchers from all over the world to put their talents to work on innovative experiments that could not be done anywhere else.

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First Annual International Space Station Research and Development Conference in Review

A microscopic worm used in experiments on the space station not only seems to enjoy living in a microgravity environment, it also appears to get a lifespan boost.

This intriguing discovery was made by University of Nottingham scientists who have flown experiments carrying thousands of tiny Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) to low-Earth orbit over the years. But why are these little worms so special?

NEWS: Pets in Space? It's Possible

C. elegans may be microscopic, but they were the first multi-cellular organism to have their genetic structure completely mapped. These little guys possess 20,000 genes that perform similar functions as equivalent genes in humans. Of particular interest are the 2,000 genes that have a role in promoting muscle function. As any long-duration astronaut can attest, one of the biggest challenges facing mankind's future in space is muscle atrophy.

Understanding how C. elegans function in space is therefore of huge scientific value not only for tiny worm enthusiasts, but for the manned exploration -- and colonization -- of space.

In 2011, Discovery News reported on some results to come from the C. elegans experiments. Nathaniel Szewczyk, of the Division of Clinical Physiology at the University of Nottingham, discussed the worms' microgravity reproduction habits and, as it turns out, C. elegans prospered just fine. Over three months, Szewczyk's team were able to observe the space worms flourish over twelve generations.

ANALYSIS: Legacy Space Worms Flying on Shuttle

And now, in results published on July 5 in the online journal Scientific Reports, it appears that C. elegans not only adapted to microgravity conditions, their lifespans also received a boost when compared with their terrestrial counterparts.

"We identified seven genes, which were down-regulated in space and whose inactivation extended lifespan under laboratory conditions," Szewczyk said in a press release. This basically means that seven C. elegans genes usually associated with muscle aging were suppressed when the worms were exposed to a microgravity environment. Also, it appears spaceflight suppresses the accumulation of toxic proteins that normally gets stored inside aging muscle.

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Space Worms Live Long and Prosper

A camera headed for the International Space Station has the resolution to spot objects as small as cows down below — but it's using that power to take pictures of floods, landslides, forest fires and similar disasters on Earth.

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Space Station 'Disaster Cam' Will Watch Out for Earth

6 July 2012 Last updated at 07:02 ET

Spacefaring worms undergo genetic changes associated with longer lives in their Earth-bound cousins, research has shown.

A number of Caenorhabditis elegans worms were carried aboard a mission to the International Space Station (ISS) and brought back for study.

Researchers found reduced activity of five genes in the worms that, when suppressed in the species on Earth, lead to longer lifetimes.

The work appears in Scientific Reports.

The nematode C. elegans is among the world's most-studied animals.

They have been routinely taken as cargo on space missions to study in a simple organism the biological changes that future human spacefarers may face; the worms even survived the space shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003.

More recently, the prospects for a self-contained and self-sustaining colony of the worms were described in a 2011 paper in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.

But it was also the first multi-celled organism to have its entire genome sequenced, and researchers are now getting to the bottom of what changes space travel wreaks on the worms' genomes.

Space age

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Worm lifetime 'longer in space'

Stephanie Wilson

She is in Dunedin for the New Zealand International Science Festival and shared her journey with an audience of about 500 in a sold-out event at St David St lecture theatre.

They learned about astronaut training at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas, including the "vomit comet" which had a tendency to make people sick on its flight path set to create 20-second bursts of microgravity.

Ms Wilson also shared a video of a mission to the International Space Station in April 2010.

Along with footage of take-off and docking, the audience saw how astronauts moved around, both inside and outside the station and shuttle, transferring equipment.

"We use our hands to get around, rather than our feet," she said.

An exercise session, complete with aerobics and resistance training; an evening meal in which an M&M was put into a floating sphere of water; measuring of astronauts, because spines expand with no gravity; and shots of astronauts tucking up into their sleeping bags at night were also included.

Ms Wilson enjoyed sharing images of lightning storms and the Southern lights and described the space station, an "orbiting laboratory", as "just a phenomenon".

She will speak again at TedxDunedin's function at The Apartment tonight. The science festival ends on Sunday.

- ellie.constantine@odt.co.nz

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Astronaut outlines life in space

Tue, Jul 03, 2012

Three members of the Expedition 31 crew undocked from the International Space Station and returned safely to Earth Sunday, July 1, wrapping up a mission that lasted six-and-a-half months.

Russian Commander Oleg Kononenko, NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit and European Space Agency Flight Engineer Andre Kuipers landed their Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft in Kazakhstan at 3:14 a.m. CDT (2:14 p.m. local time) after undocking from the space station's Rassvet module at 11:47 p.m. June 30. The trio, which arrived at the station Dec. 23, 2011, spent a total of 193 days in space, 191 of which were aboard the station.

During their expedition, the crew supported more than 200 scientific investigations involving more than 400 researchers around the world. The studies ranged from integrated investigations of the human cardiovascular and immune systems to fluid, flame and robotic research.

Before leaving the station, Kononenko handed over command of Expedition 32 to the Russian Federal Space Agency's Gennady Padalka, who remains aboard the station with NASA astronaut Joe Acaba and Russian cosmonaut Sergei Revin. NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Akihiko Hoshide will join them July 17. Williams, Malenchenko and Hoshide are scheduled to launch July 14 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

On June 25, Pettit celebrated achieving one cumulative year in space, combining his time in orbit on Expedition 6, Expedition 30/31 and the STS-126 space shuttle Endeavour flight to the station in November 2008. Pettit now has 370 days in space, placing him fourth among U.S. space fliers for the longest time in space.

During Expedition 31, Pettit also used household objects aboard the station to perform a variety of unusual physics experiments for the video series "Science Off the Sphere." Through these demonstrations, Pettit showed more than a million Internet viewers how space affects scientific principles.

(NASA file image Soyuz landing in Kazakhstan)

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Trio From International Space Station Lands Safely In Kazakhstan

View of Commercial Biomedical Test Module, or CBTM-2, investigation aboard the shuttle Endeavour as part of the STS-118 mission to the International Space Station. (NASA)

When it comes to the International Space Station, recycling is a great way to get the most from limited resources. This is especially true regarding the research done on the orbiting laboratory, due to flight opportunity and supply constraints. Cooperative agreements help to give researchers the chance to make use of rare samples, such as biological tissue exposed to microgravity. This gives the specimens an extended life in other scientific studies.

NASA's Biospecimen Sharing Program, or BSP, offers the research community the ability to maximize results by taking full advantage of limited samples. Researchers can request specimens to conduct secondary studies that go beyond the original experiment goals, looking into areas such as metabolism, immune function and bone health.

Michael Pecaut, Ph.D., at Loma Linda University and Medical Center in Loma Linda, Calif., is an investigator using previously flown space tissue in his research. He shared his findings in a poster, titled Effects of Spaceflight Environment on Immune Parameters, at last year's American Society for Gravitational and Space Biology, or ASGSB, conference in San Jose, Calif.

"The pros to this type of tissue sharing program are obviously access to tissues that we would otherwise not have," said Pecaut. "The collaborative effort of these flights have made it possible to complete a significant amount of work at a comparatively low cost. In addition, collaboration among groups with expertise in different research areas can sometimes result in synergistic outcomes."

Pecaut's findings were the result of a ground investigation using tissue that flew aboard the space shuttle Atlantis as part of the STS-135 mission to the space station. By teaming up with BioServe at the University of Colorado, Pecaut's lab was able to study the body systems and immune functions of specimens exposed to space radiation.

"As part of a medical university that uses radiotherapy to treat cancer, much of our ground-based work focuses exclusively on radiation-induced changes in immune function," said Pecaut. "However, by comparing our radiation studies with results from STS-135, we can begin to tease out different aspects of the spaceflight environment. This will, in turn, allow us to develop models that help us to better understand human health and ways to address immune function disorders."

This was the third collaboration for Pecaut, building on a previous study that used tissue flown on Endeavour's STS-118 mission in 2007. The earlier investigation suggested increased oxidative stress -- which impairs a cell's ability to repair itself -- due to spaceflight. The team aimed to confirm this using STS-135 samples and to learn more about the combined effect of the space environment on immune function.

Findings from Pecaut's study have ties to the human aging process, since living aboard the space station for long periods brings on similar conditions to those seen in humans as they grow old on Earth. This is because exposure to the spaceflight environment causes immune cell population distributions to change and alters the expression of certain cytokines, which are proteins that regulate numerous body systems.

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Tissue Sharing For the International Space Station Program

ScienceDaily (July 3, 2012) NASA completed another successful round of Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM) operations on the International Space Station with the Canadian Dextre robot and RRM tools, leaving the RRM module poised for the highly-anticipated refueling demonstration scheduled for late summer 2012.

A joint effort between NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), RRM is an external station experiment designed to demonstrate the technologies, tools, and techniques needed to robotically repair and refuel satellites in orbit, especially those not built with servicing in mind. RRM results and lessons learned are reducing the risks associated with satellite servicing and bolstering the foundation for future robotic servicing missions.

"Now that these tasks are complete, our eyes are now set on the RRM refueling demonstration and the eventual benefits that it will bring to the aerospace industry," says Benjamin Reed, deputy project manager of the Satellite Servicing Capabilities Office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

"Every year, functional satellites providing weather, communications, and other essential services are retired because they have reached the end of their fuel supply," continued Reed. "We envision a future where refueling services extend the lifespan of these satellites and increase capacity for users and consumers. RRM is designed to prove this robotic refueling technology, and we are looking forward to practicing this task in late summer 2012."

Satellite-servicing capabilities function like a reliable toolkit to help humans build, repair, and maintain critical space assets. Repair and refueling technologies similar to the ones demonstrated by RRM could be used to extend the lifespan of existent satellites, support the assembly of large structures on orbit, and mitigate orbital debris, among other benefits. In turn, these advances could make spaceflight more efficient, sustainable, and cost effective.

The RRM Gas Fittings Removal task that occurred June 19-22, represents the second on-orbit use of the RRM tools developed at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. During the task, robot operators at NASA's Johnson Space Center remotely controlled Dextre to retrieve the RRM Multifunction Tool. They executed the tasks required to remove representative fittings found on many spacecraft to fill various fluids and gases prior to launch.

"The International Space Station (ISS) has been an excellent test bed for demonstrating satellite-servicing technology," says Reed. "We are extremely grateful to the space station and to our essential partners, the Canadian Space Agency, for their support."

"Accurately simulating space on the ground is very costly and fraught with compromises. So to be able to develop our satellite servicing strategies in space, with all the essential services (power, command, telemetry, robotics) provided, makes for better technology development for fewer dollars. Sign me up as a charter member of the ISS Fan Club."

Dextre, the space station's twin-armed robotic "handyman," was developed by the CSA to perform delicate assembly and maintenance tasks on the station's exterior as an extension of its 57-foot-long (17.6 meter) robotic arm, Canadarm2. CSA wrote the software to control Dextre during RRM operations.

RRM operations are monitored and remotely controlled by flight controllers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Johnson Space Center, Marshall Space Flight Center, and the Canadian Space Agency's control center in St. Hubert, Quebec.

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One step closer to robotic refueling demonstrations on space station

Houston, July 2 : Three members of the Expedition 31 crew undocked from the International Space Station and returned safely to Earth on Sunday wrapping up a mission that lasted six-and-a-half months.

Russian Commander Oleg Kononenko, NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit and European Space Agency Flight Engineer Andre Kuipers landed their Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft in Kazakhstan at 3:14 a.m. CDT (2:14 p.m. local time) after undocking from the space station's Rassvet module at 11:47 p.m. June 30.

The trio, which arrived at the station Dec. 23, 2011, spent a total of 193 days in space, 191 of which were aboard the station.

During their expedition, the crew supported more than 200 scientific investigations involving more than 400 researchers around the world. The studies ranged from integrated investigations of the human cardiovascular and immune systems to fluid, flame and robotic research.

Before leaving the station, Kononenko handed over command of Expedition 32 to the Russian Federal Space Agency's Gennady Padalka, who remains aboard the station with NASA astronaut Joe Acaba and Russian cosmonaut Sergei Revin.

NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Akihiko Hoshide will join them July 17. Williams, Malenchenko and Hoshide are scheduled to launch July 14 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

On June 25, Pettit celebrated achieving one cumulative year in space, combining his time in orbit on Expedition 6, Expedition 30/31 and the STS-126 space shuttle Endeavour flight to the station in November 2008.

Pettit now has 370 days in space, placing him fourth among U.S. space fliers for the longest time in space.

During Expedition 31, Pettit also used household objects aboard the station to perform a variety of unusual physics experiments for the video series "Science Off the Sphere."

Through these demonstrations, Pettit showed more than a million Internet viewers how space affects scientific principles. (IBNS)

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Space Station trio lands safely in Kazakhstan

01-07-2012 01:21 The manned Russian Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station today, July 1st 2012, at 04:48 UTC as they prepare to return to Earth. Expedition 31 crew members Oleg Kononenko, Andre Kuipers and Don Pettit having spent 194 days in Space are returning home today with their de-orbit burn to slow them down and exit Earth's orbit set for 07:19 UTC and their landing in Kazachstan at 08:14 UTC. Expedition 32, the next increment of crewed operations on the Space Station officially began when this Soyuz TMA-03M undocked.

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[ISS] Manned Soyuz TMA-03M Departs Space Station - Video