Category Archives: Space Travel

NASA is looking for a Planetary Protection Officer to protect the planet from potential alien contamination. The U.S. governments official employment site posted the job advert, open to U.S. citizens and nationals for applications until August 14.

The job comes with a six figure salary$124,406 to $187,000 per yearand security clearance is listed as "secret." The role involves stopping astronauts and robots from getting contaminated with any organic and biological material during space travel.

NASA maintains policies for planetary protection applicable to all space flight missions that may intentionally or unintentionally carry Earth organisms and organic constituents to the planets or other solar system bodies, and any mission employing spacecraft, which are intended to return to Earth and its biosphere with samples from extraterrestrial targets of exploration the job advert reads. This policy is based on federal requirements and international treaties and agreements.

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The job, initially, is a three-year contract thatmay be extended for a further two years. During this time, NASA will be planning several missions, including one to Jupiters icy moon Europa, where it will search for signs of alien life.

The Planetary Protection Officer (PPO) is responsible for the leadership of NASA's planetary protection capability, maintenance of planetary protection policies, and oversight of their implementation by NASA's space flight missions, the job spec says. The successful candidate will have to work with several different branches of NASA and external organizations that are involved in planetary protection.

According to the job listing, the main responsibilities are:

Leads planning and coordination of activities related to NASA mission planetary protection needs. Leads independent evaluation of, and provides advice regarding, compliance by robotic and human spaceflight missions with NASA planetary protection policies, statutory requirements and international obligations.

Advises the Chief, SMA and other officials regarding the merit and implications of programmatic decisions involving risks to planetary protection objectives.

In coordination with relevant offices, leads interactions with COSPAR, National Academies, and advisory committees on planetary protection matters.

Recommends and leads the preparation of new or revised NASA standards and directives in accordance with established processes and guidelines.

Candidates must have broad engineering expertise, and should be an expert in planetary protection: This includes demonstrated technical expertise to independently form technically sound judgments and evaluations in considerably complex situations. Candidates should also have a degree in physical science, engineering or mathematics.

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Nasa Is Hiring a Planetary Protection Officer to Save Earth from Aliens - Newsweek

Those images of a robust Star Trek Captain James T. Kirk beaming around the solar system at maximum warp, or an irreverent Han Solo with his sidekick Chewbacca bustling through space on a quest to save Princess Leia, are sadly, an illusion.

The truth of the matter is that humans or any other living thing be it a plant or a fruit fly from planet Earth are not meant for space travel. Traveling in space is very hard on creatures, producing physiological effects similar to premature aging.

Thats one of the reasons the Stein Institute on Aging at UC San Diego brought NASA affiliate Brinda K. Rana, Ph.D., to speak to a packed audience of mostly older adults at the Garren Auditorium of the UCSD School of Medicine, last week.

Rana, who has been the Principle Investigator (PI) on three NASA studies, spoke at length about the effects of space travel on all aspects of the human body everything from vision to genetics.

Everything I say has to be approved by NASA. I have to be very careful about the data I reveal, Rana wryly explained. Her chief NASA project was a comprehensive medical study of twin brother astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly who spent different lengths of time in space.

Since the brothers are genetically identical, researchers thought they could ferret out the effects of time in space on their bodies. Mark had 54 days in space, while Scott spent 365 days living on the space station.

Rana headed up a team of scientists from UCSD, one of 10 university-based teams from around the world chosen by NASA to study the astronauts. It was a difficult assignment requiring a great deal of cooperation. For instance, all 10 teams had to share just one vial of blood among themselves from each of the two astronauts.

Rana explained that space travel impairs blood and lymph circulation, especially to the lower parts of the body: Your face gets puffy and your legs get weak. Space travel is like hanging upside down for a long time! she said.

Thats why astronauts have to be helped out of their space capsule when they return to Earth. They cant stand up on their own because their legs are so weak due to poor circulation.

NASA knows that space travel, specifically spending time in zero gravity, is hard. But since the plan is to send men and women up to Mars, which is a six-month flight one way, it is trying hard to develop ways to counteract the debilitating aspects of space travel so the astronauts can function when they get to the red planet. Luckily, the gravity on Mars is less than it is on Earth, so they should be able to stand up and carry out their activities.

Space travel also produces bodily changes you cannot see, affecting the chemistry and physiology of the body. It also affects DNA and RNA. Rana found that while in space, astronaut Scott Kelly had 200,000 differences or mutations in RNA actions, which returned to normal when he came back to Earth. This just shows that genes are not static, but very sensitive to the environment around us, Rana said.

Space travel also changes the intestinal flora or probiotics in the gut, which aid digestion. There are also cardiovascular changes, muscular atrophy, arteriosclerosis, glaucoma and bone loss. It looks just like the signs of aging!

Space travelers also experience increased cranial pressure. There are changes to the eyes and vision problems develop. This syndrome is known as VIIP or Visual Impaired Intracranial Pressure syndrome.

Rana is an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UCSD and has a lab at the Stein Institute of Aging. She is an alumna of UCSD with a B.A. in math from Revelle College. She also has an M.S. in math from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas in molecular genetics. At the Stein Institute, her chief duty is to look for the genes that seem to keep some older adults from getting age-related disorders.

Ranas NASA studies are relevant because the results have an application to understanding aging on Earth and in helping people in similar situations to space travel, like those who are bedridden for long periods of time. In one experiment, Ranas lab studied people who were confined to bed with their body inclined downward toward the head at a 15-degree angle, mimicking the effects of space flight.

Karen Ocorr, Ph.D., was at the lecture because she is also working with NASA. Ocorr is a professor in the Development, Aging and Regeneration Program at the Sanford Burham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute on North Torrey Pines Road.

Ocorr studies the ion channels responsible for the relaxation of the human heart, which she says is similar in fruit flies. She just got back a batch of fruit flies that were flown to the space station on the SpaceX CRS-11 mission. She is looking at the effects of zero gravity on their heart function, which can provide models to help understand the human heart. The fruit flies arent doing too well after their space flight, she confided.

Einstein once predicted that if we start to travel faster in space and get closer to the speed of light, which is about as fast as we could ever go, time will slow down. Thus we would age slower (happy thought!) in terms of chronology. But if we are in zero gravity at light-speed our bodies will age faster (unhappy thought!). Professor Rana says not to worry. NASA will figure it out!

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Astronaut twins study shows space travel causes premature aging - La Jolla Light

In BriefBased on a schedule released by NASA, both SpaceX and Boeingare on track to launch astronauts into space by the end of 2018 aspart of the agency's Commercial Crew Program. This collaborationwith NASA is just one example of the many ways commercial spacecompanies are fueling the future of space travel. Dragon 2 vs. Starliner

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) retired the space shuttle in 2011, but that doesnt mean they arent getting ready to send astronauts into space. On July 20, the space agency published the latest sharable 2018 scheduleof their Commercial Crew Program. The program is designed to enable the agency to launch crewed craft from U.S. soil viaSpaceXs Crew Dragon (Dragon 2) and Boeings CST-100 Starliner. The two companies say their efforts remain on track for test flights that may be less than a year away.

Both companies were awarded Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contracts by NASA in September 2014. Under those terms, they each must fly uncrewed test flights of their spacecraft, followed by crewed flights.

SpaceXs most recent schedule reveals an uncrewed test flight in February 2018 and a crewed test flight in June 2018. Boeing is right on SpaceXs heels, with uncrewed and crewed flights set for June and August 2018, respectively.

Originally, both companies planned to be certified for crewed missions to the International Space Station (ISS) by the close of 2017. However, each has suffered various technical setbacks, such as the Dragon 2s need to move away from powered landings, resulting in changes to the schedules.

NASAs ISS program manager, Kirk Shireman, isconfident that the companies will be ableto send astronauts into space. Commercial crew is making great progress, he asserted during a speech at the ISS Research and Development Conference, and both SpaceX and Boeing also appear sure oftheir abilities to stick to the revised schedules that are now in place.

The importance of this commercial space race cant be overstated, as companies like SpaceX and Boeing are poised to change the face of everything from research to commercial travel as they propel the human race off-world.

Private companies can dramaticallylower the costof space exploration for agencies. Boeing is designing and building DARPAs XS-1 experimental space plane, set to be in the air by 2020, and if that project goes as expected, it will lower launch costs and makethe dream of launch-on-demand a reality.

Meanwhile, SpaceX formally called for the government to implement a public-private collaboration for deep space missions soon after NASA announcedthat it couldnt afford to get us to Mars if implemented, such a plan could enable NASA to get us there after all.

Soon, these lowered costs could make space travel a reality for private citizens as well as trained astronauts. As of May, Virgin Galactic was looking forward to launching their first commercial spaceflights before the end of 2018. With Blue Origin, SpaceX, and others joining them, the global space tourism market could be worth more than $34 billion by 2021.

Commercial agencies are proving capable of far more than their government counterparts. SpaceXs COO announced at the end of June that the company would produce 20 rockets this year something unheard of for NASA. Other private companies are working to develop new technologies for use in the space race, such as the proposed electric space tug that could make Moon flights far more economical.

Beyond bringing more people and scientific research into space, commercial companies are hoping to movemanufacturing off-world. Axiom Space plans to make the first commercial space station a manufacturing hub, which will help the station pay for itself and make it easier to supply new missions.

Clearly, the entry of multiple private companies into the space race has yielded some major dividends already, and this is just the beginning.

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Both SpaceX and Boeing Are on Track to Launch Astronauts Into Space in 2018 - Futurism

Space travel is no longer the distant fantasy it once was. A new book explores how we might one day - technology depending - be able to spend time on the other planets in our solar system.

Destination: The Moon Travel time: three days Distance from Earth: 222,000 to 253,000 miles Good for:A quick getaway

To get the full Moon experience, be sure to stay a full lunar day. Its longer than it soundsa day on the Moon lasts almost 30 Earth days. That will give you plenty of time to explore both the near and far sides.

Be sure to request an Earth-view room when you check into your hotel. Because the same side of the Moon always faces Earth, the planet will never move out of your window.

History buffs will enjoy the six Apollo landing sites, particularly the place where Apollo 11 landed in the Sea of Tranquility. Be sure to visit the perfectly preserved first footprints on the Moon, left in 1969 by astronaut Neil Armstrong.

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The science behind holidays in space - Travel - The Telegraph - Telegraph.co.uk

Tacoma revolves around an imaginable near future of space travel and advanced AI. Photograph: Fullbright Productions

It seems unavoidable to compare Tacoma to Gone Home, the previous game by developer Fullbright Productons. Along with Dear Esther, it is often credited with popularising a certain type of linear narrative-focused game, often pejoratively labelled walking simulators. As soon as Tacoma was announced, people starting calling it Gone Home in Space. Again, you play as a woman exploring an abandoned environment, and again youre piecing together what happened to the people who used to be there.

But here the focus has shifted from the recent past to the not-so-distant future. Where Gone Home is set in a spooky house in 90s Oregon and intentionally plays on horror tropes, Tacoma takes the traditional science-fiction setting of a space station the titular Tacoma. The futuristic placement allows for changes both narrative and mechanical. Whereas the charm of Gone Home, for many, was the familiarity of the 90s setting, the plot of Tacoma in 2088 revolves around an imaginable near future of space travel and advanced AI.

An augmented-reality (AR) system has replaced smartphones, and allows the player to witness audiovisual recordings of the crew as colour-coded 3D figures superimposed on the world. This is the players main way to experience story moments, a logical next step on the path from the audio diaries of Gone Home through the light shows of Everybodys Gone to the Rapture. The voice acting is inconsistent (though some is excellent), but the animation is convincing; you cant see the crew members faces, but you can see them brace themselves on a hand rail or pace around a room.

Interestingly, while the players role in Gone Home as a member of the disappeared family encouraged emotional investment in the stories they left behind, in Tacoma your character isnt supposed to be watching these recordings. You are Amy Ferrier, subcontractor to the Venturis Corporation that owns the station and all data recorded onboard, and youve been sent just to retrieve the stations AI, called ODIN.

But Amy is a quiet protagonist for the bulk of the game, reminding the player of her presence only when an arm reaches out to open an airlock door or a neat conceit to log on to something in AR by gesturing in American sign language. And she does have an excuse for being nosy about the crew records. Her task will take her through three areas of the station, and in each she must plug in a device that uploads ODIN, slowly. A loading bar shows that progress does tick along at a rate of 1% every few seconds, but it jumps up every time you retrieve an AR recording. Its a great way to encourage players to take their time without worrying about the pressure of their main goal.

In the first section Amy explores, you witness the crew gathering to celebrate Obsolescence Day, a holiday meant to mark the successful prevention of plans to fully automate stations like Tacoma. As theyre about to cut the cake theres a crash, which is all the more disconcerting because all you can see in the recording is the crew reaction superimposed on the present environment already in disarray. From that point on, each section has a couple of these group recordings in roughly chronological order that show you and Amy what happened next, as well as a handful of recordings of smaller groups of crew members from earlier in their year of service that provide context on the characters and their relationships, as well as the state of this future world.

The group recordings are by their nature more interesting, not only because they advance the mystery element of the plot but because they involve all members of the crew (and if youre observant the station cat Margaret Atwood). Tacomas new-ish take on this kind of story delivery is that you can rewind the recordings, and replay contemporaneous moments featuring different people in different rooms.

To encourage this, each recording features points along the timeline at which you can retrieve additional data from a particular crew member, marked by their colour and symbol (for example the botanist, Andrew, is green and represented by leaves). Once youve tracked that crew member down at the right moment, youll see their AR desktop open in front of them; click on it and you can see what apps they had open at that time: an email from a loved one back home on Earth, an instant messaging conversation with another crew member or with ODIN, a page in a book, and so on.

Here is where Tacoma shines as an interactive narrative. The story is entirely linear and unaffected by the players actions, but no other medium could so effectively engender this feeling of investigation. Sure, the narrative content is clearly marked both in these AR recordings and in visibly meaningful objects in the environment, but you still have to go looking for it, occasionally even using a hidden code or physical key to open the way.

The station is a perfectly manageable size, divided as it is into these three sections each with a handful of rooms. But each area has been carefully crafted to convey character, whether through directly informative written notes or indirectly through good old environmental storytelling. It can feel formulaic at times (several crew members have a box in their room in which you will find something sentimental) but it works. Tacoma feels lived in.

And the people who lived here feel real too, no doubt in part because theyre deliberately designed to avoid stereotypes: more women than men; of a variety of races, sexualities and body types. Its satisfying to gradually learn more about them by putting together the pieces you find, perhaps witnessing the posh British man call station administrator EV mon capitan and matching it up with something he was reading on his AR about how to banter in the workplace. Even ODIN has a personality that develops through the game. If theres anything missing, its evidence of occasionally insinuated tension between some crew members, though perhaps that would have detracted from the tightness of the narrative.

Over the course of about three hours, your investigative journey through Tacoma has you rooting for these characters by the time their story concludes. A space station powered by an advanced AI might not be a particularly original setting, but the team at Fullbright has taken these familiar pieces and used them to tell a different and engaging tale. Its what youd expect from the people who made Gone Home, but thats no bad thing.

Fullbright; PC (version tested)/Xbox One; 14.99; Pegi rating: 12+

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Tacoma review narrative space game is engaging and convincing ... - The Guardian

On July 20, 1969, man was on the moon.

"The eagle has landed." "You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again. Thanks a lot." The world breathed a sigh of relief and celebrated maybe no group more so than the people inside the Apollo mission control room inside Building 30 of the Johnson Space Center, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann.

Johnson Space Center

The room is sacred to Gene Kranz, now 83, who was NASA's flight director during the Gemini and Apollo missions. "We won the battle for space in this room and we captured the high ground and we did not surrender it during our tour," Kranz said.

It was Kranz who was in charge when an explosion aboard Apollo 13 nearly cost the lives of its three astronauts. That high drama was featured in the movie "Apollo 13."

NASA used the mission control room with its monochrome computer monitors and rotary dial telephones starting in 1965. It went dark in 1992, well into the shuttle program.

CBS News

Since then, the room has been designated a national historic landmark, but you'd never know from the looks of it. Houston, we have a problem: decay from years of neglect and souvenir-seekers who walked off with pieces of space history.

When he sees the room, Kranz said he feels "a combination of frustration, anger, resentment."

CBS News

"This is not appropriate. This is where our generation made history. This is where Apollo fulfilled the challenge issued by President Kennedy," Kranz said.

It's an insult to everyone who worked in the room to make history, he said. With NASA's slashed budget, the agency's priority is the future of space travel, not preserving its past. Space Center Houston, the non-profit that runs the visitors center here, has launched a $5 million fundraising campaign to restore this room to its 1960s glory. Space Center Houston CEO William Harris detailed for us how this iconic part of NASA's past will have a brighter future. "All the consoles have to be removed, restored, buttons replaced The screens will need to be redone," Harris said. "All of this is really old. But our commitment is to restore it back to the way it was." Kranz wants to experience one more thrill in this room to see it restored and he's bringing his legendary can-do spirit to the project. "This is a room that will now represent the best American had to offer," Kranz said. "Failure is not an option."

It's not an option, and there is a deadline. Organizers have until late summer to raise the $5 million to get the restoration work done in time for the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing in 2019.

2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Campaign launched to restore NASA's historic mission control room - CBS News

Kenneth Smith named to Forbes' '30 Under 30' list By BOB GAETJENS Staff Writer Published: August 1, 2017 4:00 AM

When Streetsboro native Kenneth Smith left college early to help his family out, he was a biochemistry major. Now he has dreams of going into space.

Named earlier this year to Forbes Magazine's "30 Under 30" list, Smith became enamored of space travel while volunteering at the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland during his break from college and has since been pursuing his dream of becoming an astronaut.

"I went from thinking I was going to cure cancer to being like, 'I want to go to space,'" said the 27-year-old, who's now stationed at NASA's Langley Research Center.

Smith said he was "very surprised" to be named to the "30 Under 30" list and is unsure who nominated him.

A structural dynamics engineer at Langley, Smith said he's spent parts of the past four years, on and off, working for NASA in different capacities. He worked at Langley for three semesters during his undergraduate career, spent the summer of 2015 at Kennedy Space Center, spent the 2015-16 academic year at Glenn Research Center and is now at Langley.

He also worked for Space X, Elon Musk's commercial company aimed at sending citizens to space.

"I wanted to go to grad school, and they weren't really looking for someone to go to grad school," said Smith of Space X. "My end goal is to be an astronaut. With the competition out there, you at least need a master's."

While at Space X, he said he worked on one of the company's spacecrafts.

"When I was at Space X, I was working specifically on the analysis and development of the Dragon Version 2 crew capsule," he said.

The Dragon capsule is designed to transport humans into space and was the first commercial effort to transport cargo safely to and from the International Space Station. The company announced earlier this year that there are plans to fly two private citizens around the moon in late 2018 in a Dragon capsule.

Smith said he thinks he's about 18 months away from completing his preparation to become an astronaut. At that point, he said he should at least be eligible to be chosen for a flight.

"I'm working on a few things," he said. "To become an astronaut is tricky. People so randomly get chosen."

He said his strategy is to gain as much relevant experience as he can to strengthen his astronaut resume. He's seeking his pilot's license, SCUBA license and more. Having experience in extreme conditions, such as the antarctic, is another key to being chosen. Although he hasn't made a trip up north, Smith said he's hoping his expertise with the equipment will help.

He's also participating in a botany program at Virginia Tech to prepare him for heading into space.

"If we're going to create a civilization on Mars, you're going to have to have some botany skills," he said.

Founding the Akronauts

While working toward his undergraduate degree in aerospace systems engineering with minors in math and physics at the University of Akron, Smith founded the Akronauts, a club aimed at furthering aerospace technology while providing students a lab for honing their skills.

Though Smith left college early, he was able to return and earn his degree.

Smith said the club's goals mirror those of the space program. Each year, the club participates in the Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition, in which students fly rockets into suborbital space and recover them afterwards.

Smith said teams were judged on whether the components of the rocket were "fried."

"They're really big right now into making things reusable," he explained.

In his current job, Smith said he works for NASA analyzing its spacecraft produced by Boeing and Space X. He said he's a member of an analyst team that inspects crafts for safety. Space X and Boeing also have analyst teams, and the teams combine their data to make spacecraft as safe as possible.

"We have our different analyst pools," he said. "The commercial companies are sending up our astronauts; they're NASA astronauts."

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Streetsboro native dreams of space - Ravenna Record Courier

James Smith McDonnell, founder of Aircraft Corporation, speculated in May 1957 that humans would orbit the Earth by 1990 and attempt to land on the moon by 2010.

He apparently was unaware of the Soviet Unions secret space program. Five months later, the Soviets launched the first orbiting satellite, Sputnik, which stunned the world and rocketed the U.S. into a race for space. The U.S. responded with Explorer 1 in January 1958

Then, a few years later, after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the Earth, the U.S. responded May 5, 1961, with a suborbital flight, Mercury Freedom 7, piloted by Alan Sheppard.

Not having accomplished two big firsts, President John F. Kennedy in a May 25, 1961, speech rallied the nation to aim for the moon literally and be the first to land astronauts there and safely return them home.

The U.S. responded enthusiastically. Throughout the 1960s, Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs would be in direct competition with the Soviets Vostok, Voshkod and Soyuz programs.

The U.S., now on a path to reach the moon, would on July 21, 1961, launch a second suborbital Mercury flight, Liberty Bell 7, piloted by Virgil I. Gus Grissom.

Grissom was a standout among the initial class of seven astronauts chosen for Mercury. But his early years were nondescript, his high school principal remembering him as average and unmotivated.

A series of unrewarding jobs motivated Grissom to enlist in the Air Force to pursue his interest as a test pilot. His distinguished military service and reputation for thoroughness earned him a shot at becoming an astronaut, and on April 13, 1959, he received word he was chosen to begin training.

Fiercely competitive, he hoped to pilot Freedom 7 but that prize went to Sheppard, and Grissom was picked to pilot the Liberty Bell 7 capsule on the MR-4 mission.

Although the Redstone rocket was the identical to the one used in the preceding mission, the capsule Grissom flew in was different. It had a larger window, modified instrument panel, and a side hatch that could be opened by an explosive charge.

The spacecraft reached and altitude of 118 miles and a 5-minute weightlessness period. The mission was successful, but after splashdown the hatch blew open prematurely and Grissom almost drowned. The capsule took too much water for the Marine helicopter to hold it and forced its release into the ocean 90 miles northeast of Grand Bahamas.

There was speculation that Grissom had triggered the explosive that prematurely opened the hatch. He acknowledged modifying the exit procedure, saying, I felt that I was in good condition at this point and started to prepare ... for egress. But he denied depressing the plunger designed to activate an explosive to open the hatch.

An independent technical review in late 1961 cast doubts on any theory that Grissom caused the explosion and noted that he showed no bruising from the plungers recoil. The controversy had no effect on his place in the astronaut flight rotation.

But tragically, Grissoms career would be cut short Jan. 27, 1967, when he and two other astronauts, Ed White and Roger Chaffee, died in fire during prelaunch testing for the Apollo 1.

On July 20, 1999, a Discovery Channel-funded search mission recovered Grissoms sunken Liberty Bell 7 from the Atlantic Ocean at depth greater than 15,000 feet. The hatch was never recovered, but inspection of the capsule found no special markings indicative of an explosion and noted the contents and condition consistent with long-term exposure to salt water and high pressures at the bottom of the sea.

In a separate evaluation, restoration experts for the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center discovered a buckled strip of titanium next to the hole where the hatch had been. The sill was also bowed by half an inch, the result of a great force, and there were no burn marks which would have been present had an explosive triggered opening the hatch.

The cause for the premature opening of the hatch remains a mystery, but evidence seems to support Grissoms claims.

Terry P. Bolt, call sign Woodsy, lives in Richmond, Va. She is a helicopter pilot, space travel enthusiast and holds a masters of science degree in information systems from Virginia Commonwealth University. She and former Walla Wallan Craig Dreher write the Space Tourists columns for the Union-Bulletin. Comments to them are welcome at spacewwub@gmail.com.

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Grissom flight successful; splashdown shrouded in mystery - Walla Walla Union-Bulletin

This is the first time in 25 years the remaining astronauts have been under the same roof. (NBC RAW)

NBC , WXIA 5:59 PM. EDT July 29, 2017

NBC

Astronauts from most of the Apollo missions that put the first humans on the moon got together for a reunion in Wisconsin.

They gathered at the EAA Air Venture Show in Wisconsin Friday night to celebrate the 50th anniversary of NASAs Apollo space program.

This is the first time in 25 years that this many astronauts have been under the same roof.

"I would like to know how many people in the audience would like to spend 14 days in a volume the size of a front seat of a Volkswagen Beetle with a sailor," asked Frank Borman.

"I suspect that the space program will eventually go back to the Moon, said Jim Lovell. I think in my mind to go to Mars we should get very comfortable making lunar voyages, building up the infrastructure and the architecture to be comfortable landing on the moon, exploring the moon, then using that architecture to expand to eventually to going to Mars."

2017 NBCNEWS.COM

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Apollo astronauts talk space travel in reunion - WXIA-TV

July 29, 2017 U.S. astronaut Randy Bresnik, right, Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy, centre, Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli, members of the main crew of the expedition to the International Space Station (ISS), walk prior the launch of Soyuz MS-05 space ship at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Friday, July 28, 2017. (AP Photo/Shamil Zhumatov, Pool)

A three-man space crew from Italy, Russia and the United States on Friday arrived at the International Space Station for a five-month mission Friday.

Footage broadcast by Russia's space agency Roscosmos showed the Soyuz craft carrying NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryazansky and Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency take off into the dusky sky from Kazhakstan's Baikonur cosmodrome.

Six hours later, after orbiting Earth four times, the Soyuz docked with the space station. The hatches between them were to open later, after pressurization and leak checks are carried out, according to the US space agency NASA.

The arrival of the three astronauts boosted the ISS back up to its full capacity of six for the first time since April, after Russia decided to cut the number of its cosmonauts to two.

NASA has responded to Russia's reduction by boosting the number of astronauts that will operate in its half of the ISS.

In total, four astronautsPeggy Whitson, Jack Fischer, Bresnik and Nespoliwill now conduct experiments in the NASA-run segment, with Ryazansky joining Fyodor Yurchikhin to man the Russian section.

'Ton of science'

Bresnik said at a pre-launch press conference on Thursday that the extra member would help the crew conduct experiments and carry out repairs.

"There is a ton of science to do," he said ahead of the flight.

Bresnikwho is on his second flightalso praised the work of Whitson, Fischer and Yurchikhin, already aboard the orbital lab.

"They've really got their groove on. They are working very, very well. They have good technique and tempo," he said.

Ryazansky, 42, who is embarking on his third stint aboard the ISS said at the press conference that he would be taking a small gnome into space in tribute to a song beloved by his family.

Live footage broadcast on Roscosmos's website showed the toy gnome hanging inside the capsule as the trio prepared for takeoff.

At 60 years old and with 174 days logged in space, Nespoli is the most experienced of the three fliers, but the Italian made it clear his love for space travel hasn't faded over time with a tweet showing him pulling his space suit on Friday.

"Beam me up S...oyuz! Hitching another ride soon to the @Space_Station," he wrote.

Nespoli became the oldest astronaut onboard, edging Fyodor Yurchikhin, 59 and Whitson, 57.

But Whitson is the oldest female astronaut in the history of space exploration and has broken other records during her latest mission at the ISS.

In April, Whitson became the NASA astronaut with the most cumulative time spent in space, having already broken the record for spacewalks by a woman the month before.

Whitson was expected to return home in June with Russian Oleg Novitsky and Frenchman Thomas Pesquet, but had her mission extended into September by NASA in a decision connected to the Roscosmos crew reduction.

Roscosmos has said its two-man crew format will help it save costs while the ISS waits on the arrival of a long-delayed Multipurpose Laboratory Module that will generate enough work on board to justify a third cosmonaut on board.

The $100 billion ISS space laboratory has been orbiting Earth at about 28,000 kilometres (17,000 miles) per hour since 1998.

Space is one of the few areas of international cooperation between Russia and the US that has not been wrecked by tensions over Ukraine and Syria.

Explore further: Space capsule with 3 astronauts blasts off to orbiting lab

2017 AFP

A Soyuz space capsule successfully blasted off for the International Space Station on Friday, carrying an American astronaut, a Russian cosmonaut and an Italian astronaut.

A Soyuz space capsule blasted off Thursday for the International Space Station, carrying an American astronaut making his first space flight and a veteran Russian cosmonaut.

A Soyuz space capsule on Thursday safely delivered an American astronaut making his first space flight and a veteran Russian cosmonaut to the International Space Station.

The Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft that will carry ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli, NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik and Roscosmos commander Sergey Ryazansky to the International Space Station is now on the launch pad in Kazakhstan.

Two Russian cosmonauts and a US astronaut touched down safely in central Kazakhstan Monday following a 173-day mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

The world's oldest and most experienced spacewoman is getting three extra months in orbit.

A three-man space crew from Italy, Russia and the United States on Friday arrived at the International Space Station for a five-month mission Friday.

August 21st will bring a history-making opportunity for the entire United States. On that day, every person in the country, including Hawaii and Alaska, will have an opportunity to witness at least a partial solar eclipse ...

Carnegie's Benjamin Shappee is part of a team of scientists, including an Australian amateur astronomer, which discovered a new comet last week.

(Phys.org)A team led by David Kipping of Columbia University has spotted what might be the first evidence of an exomoon. They have written a paper describing their findings and have uploaded it to the arXiv preprint server.

NASA scientists have definitively detected the chemical acrylonitrile in the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan, a place that has long intrigued scientists investigating the chemical precursors of life.

For many years astronomers have struggled to get good-quality 3-D data of galaxies. Although this technique is very powerful as it allows researchers to "dissect" objects, this was a slow process as each galaxy had to be ...

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Three-man crew reaches International Space Station - Phys.Org