Category Archives: Transhuman News

Astronauts Return to Earth on Russian Soyuz Spaceship
MIAMI: Two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut returned to Earth aboard a Soyuz space capsule after spending six months at the International Space Station. Yelena Serova, Alexander...

By: 2015 BREAKINGNEWS

Excerpt from:
Astronauts Return to Earth on Russian Soyuz Spaceship - Video

Crew returns home from International Space Station
A NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts have landed near Kazakhstan, wrapping up nearly six months in orbit on the International Space Station. Report by Claire Lomas.

By: ODN

The rest is here:
Crew returns home from International Space Station - Video

Space Station 13 - Part 3 - 1/2
Watch live at http://www.twitch.tv/landongam3r.

By: chiptune-master

The rest is here:
Space Station 13 - Part 3 - 1/2 - Video

International Space Station Timelapse for Thu, 12th March 2015 UTC
This is a image taken from the live feed from the International Space Station.

By: dingo001

Read more:
International Space Station Timelapse for Thu, 12th March 2015 UTC - Video

Russia: Soprano Sarah Brightman wanted to perform in space most of her life
Sarah Brightman, the British soprano who is currently training in Moscow #39;s Star City to travel to the International Space Station (ISS), said that the journey has been a wish she has held "most...

By: RuptlyTV

The rest is here:
Russia: Soprano Sarah Brightman wanted to perform in space most of her life - Video

USA: Atlas V rocket blasts off from Cape with MMS mission
United Launch Alliance #39;s Atlas V rocket successfully launched NASA #39;s Magnetic Multiscale (MMS) mission from Cape Canaveral Air Force Space Station, Florida on Thursday at 22:44 local time (Friday.

By: RuptlyTV

Original post:
USA: Atlas V rocket blasts off from Cape with MMS mission - Video

NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. The International Space Station's next module looks like a hot tub wrapped up in bulletproof fabric, sitting on the floor of a Las Vegas warehouse but when the module goes into orbit later this year, NASA plans to unfold it into the outer-space equivalent of a rec room.

"This could be a very nice module potentially for the crews to go hang out in. ... It may become a very popular place," Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations, told journalists who gathered Thursday at Bigelow Aerospace's Las Vegas headquarters for the module's unveiling.

But that's just the start. If the experimental module works out the way NASA and Bigelow Aerospace hope it does, we could be seeing even bigger and better expandable spacecraft, including monster space blimps that have twice as much volume as the International Space Station.

"Expandable systems are the spacecraft of the future," said Robert Bigelow, the billionaire founder of Bigelow Aerospace.

Thursday's event marked the public debut of the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM, which Bigelow Aerospace built under the terms of a $17.8 million contract with NASA.

Within the next few months, the BEAM module is due to be trucked east to Florida for processing. It'll be launched as early as September from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, aboard a robotic SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule.

The Dragon will deliver BEAM to the space station in its folded-up, 5-by-7-foot (1.5-by-2-meter) configuration. Astronauts will use the station's robotic arm to attach the module to a docking port on the U.S.-built Tranquility node and then they'll fill it up with air.

As it's inflated, the module is designed to expand like an air mattress but with a many-layered, high-tech, bulletproof skin that Bigelow compares to the steel belts in a radial tire. When fully deployed, BEAM will provide as much volume as a 10-by-12-foot (3-by-4-meter) room.

This module - known as the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM - will serve as an extra room on the International Space Station and also a demonstration project for future Mars transport habitats. BEAM is about 5 feet high and 7 feet wide in its folded-up configuration, but can expand to provide as much volume as a 10-by-13-foot room in orbit.

NASA will conduct two years' worth of tests to determine how well the module holds pressure, how much protection it provides from space radiation and how resilient it is to impacts with tiny bits of orbital debris.

More here:
Bigelow Aerospace Shows Off Expandable Space Station

Lockheed Martin unveiled a new spacecraft Thursday evening that it says could not only ferry supplies to the International Space Station but also become a habitat for astronauts in deep space.

The nation's largest defense contractor is one of several high-profile companies competingfor the NASA contract, which also reflects how robust the commercial space industry has become. A few years ago, NASA decided to outsource the resupply mission by hiring two contractors -- Elon Musk's SpaceX and Orbital ATK -- to take groceries and experiments to the orbiting space laboratory.

As the second round of contracts, potentially worth billions, is expected to be awarded in June, the competition has become especially fierce. Lockheed and Boeing, neither of which bid last time, offered proposals. And they face stiff competition from other smaller space companies that have grown quickly and demonstrated the ability to serve space missions for NASA. In addition to the cargo launches, NASA last year awarded contracts to SpaceX and Boeing to take astronauts to the space station.

At the announcement Thursday evening, Lockheed executives said their offering to take cargo to space was markedly different from any of the other proposals. Its Jupiter system, which includes a cargo container called an Exoliner, would launch on an Atlas V rocket. Once in space, Jupiter would detach and fly to the space station. After delivering the cargo, and then filling up with trash from the station, Jupiter would disembark.

"And here's where things get different," said Jim Crocker, vice president and general manager of Lockheed's Space Systems International division, while explaining the chronology Thursday.

Instead of coming straight back to Earth, Jupiter would remain in orbit and carry out other missions, such as deploying commercial satellites.

Then, some months or weeks later on the next cargo mission, another Atlas V would launch with another Exoliner container filled with supplies. Once in space, the container would deploy on the rocket's second stage and meet up with the container filled with trash. And then the two containers would swap places using a robotic arm. The one filled with cargo would deploy from the second stage, connect with Jupiter and fly to the space station. The one filled with trash would connect with the second stage. Then it would fly back to Earth, ultimately crashing in the ocean.

But Jupiter has other capabilities as well, Lockheed says.

"This takes us beyond the space station," Crocker said.

The system could also carry humans, Lockheed says, and is big enough to hold big pieces of equipment that astronauts need for extended stays in space. It could hold treadmills, for example, which astronauts would need for exercise, as well as the systems needed to support life in space.

Go here to see the original:
This is Lockheed Martins new way to get supplies to the space station and beyond

Bigelow hopes to have habitats going to the moon in about a decade, providing structures for commercial mining operations or research. He's working with the Federal Aviation Administration to develop policies that will grant some sort of property rights to companies that risk lives and treasure to get to the moon.

Why the FAA? That agency issues launch licenses, and in the future, Bigelow said the FAA is planning to restrict licenses so that one American company is blocked from planning a trip to the exact spot on the moon where another U.S. venture has already set up shop. Whether other countries will respect such private commercial claims remains to be seen.

Read MoreSpaceX, Elon Musk and the reusable rocket dream

A lot still needs to be worked out. "The next step is probably, 'What is this boundary where you are sufficiently safe?'" Bigelow asked. "What is this standoff distance?'" He thinks a buffer zone on the moon between commercial neighbors may have to be greater than 100 miles. "I think it has to be a fair distance."

As for astronaut Zamka, it's been a change moving from NASA to a small private venture. But he's enjoying himself. "I was in the Marines, and one of the things I liked about being in the Marines is there's not that many of us, so when there's not that many of you, you get to do more things," he said.

While the private sector isn't currently giving him astronomical pay, he sees astronomical potential, and the chance to return to space, this time as a commercial astronaut. "We're doing tremendously interesting stuff," said Zamka, "and I get to be more directly involved with more parts of that."

Continue reading here:
Inflatable space houses get real